Me a reader in Science and Technology.
I cannot find four partners to play Bridge now but I play Bridge using a cellphone.
I try to improve my game.
Bottom line is boys love playing video games but only a few girls play video games.
The Coronavirus has made girls to join the Band Wagon of video games.
That is a good thing but ignore their comments about Steam Deck and Dock.
Mind you, these guys come from Windows and Apple background and does not know what is Linux.
The current Linux 15 Kernel can handle many graphic cards, if the
O.E.M. guys volunteer their specifications to the Linux developers.
Equally they have some game boxes from childhood that they have
Pathological Attachment (term pathology has disease connotation here) to
those devices.They are all biased in their opinions and they are not
comparative or balanced.
I see Steam Deck 2 coming in the future since old guys like me have visual problems to counter and I prefer a very BIG Display.
Coronavirus has added lot of grannies and grand dads playing Steam Games.
The joystick and touch pads will improve coordination problems,
especially after mild form of stroke and if, I am one of the directors
of the hospital, I would order some Steam Deck and Dock items for both
children and geriatric patients.
So if you are philanthropist please keep my above observation as a reference point.
Steam should focus the global nature of games.
If we can cut down on the pills and if Steam contributes to that
goal, even a little childhood fancy game played by a sick adult is a
bonus to recovery.
It is very big thing!
Back to home for recuperation.
It has a relatively big display screen which is touch sensitive.
This display is not BIG enough for my age.
It has both touch pad and two joysticks.
It has SD card ports to upgrade capacity but playing with SD card is not an option.
SD card slows the system.
It has Linux OS (Steam OS 3) and probably latest KDE plasma, I guess.
Mind you it is coming in December and book now.
There is no crowd sourcing and it has got capital from Steam Machine sales in the years gone by.
Steam Valve is the operating company.
It is a standalone PC for a work desk.
Since it is a PC one can install
1. Windows 10 or 11 with Steam running on top of Windows.
2. It can run on any Linux distribution that supports Steam
(since Steam is Linux almost all Linux distributions support it but one
has to purchase Steam games).
3. Why not run on its own Steam OS 3 and enjoy 50,000 games you will never finish in a life time?
It has Photon which is modified Wine that runs Windows games on Linux box.
It is a Three In One Game Box.
It has AMD CPU Zen and AMD RDNA GPU.
What a nice combination to beat Intel architecture owned by Lenova in China.
It beats, IBM based of Lenova in China by a big margin.
It has ports in the dock for all the connectivity and WiFi connection off the dock.
No need of PS5 of Sony and XBox of Microsoft.
Linux is the winner after all.
The best buy in the market today.
I have a Console of a Cheap Chinese made Copycat in which I could not not play a single game. I paid a big sum in Rupees.
It's keyboard could not type my 18 digit alpha numeric password for WiFi connectivity to download new games.
I tried even in French Keyboard but failed.
So do not buy cheap Chinese stuff.
Chinese alphabet is a graphic design not alphanumeric like the English Keyboard.
Luckily the computer software and hardware are based on the English keyboard for instructions.
It can be hacked but not easily duplicated in China.
That is why they are developing Kline OP in China.
The Chinese are very bad in typing English and Linux Code.
If not for American's base in Taiwan and British in Honk Kong
Chinese ambition to go to Mars bypassing the Van Allen Belt is only a
daydream.
They are number one Copycats on this planet.
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Me a reader in Science and Technology.
Cellphone, Technology, Linux, Cryptocurrency, Politics and Global Warming
17.07.2021
Cellphone, Technology, Linux, Cryptocurrency, Politics and Global Warming
One might not see the connections, if one does not understand the basic physics.
If you do not understand how physics works in real world, do not read this beyond this point.
This is a scientific exegesis not a bizarre meditation session with delusion and illusion revisited.
First of all thanks to Donald Trump and his extreme Ultra Right Wing for using Freedom OS which is a derivative of Lineage OS.
I supported the Lineage OS, Linux Magazine and Linux Voice but stopped subscribing to the Magazine (reading scientific stuff is in my genes) due to poor supply of Dollars from abroad.
To dispense with money matters and currency first, I hate single currency of EU for a very good reason.
It comes from a small city called (Equivalent of Singapore in Europe ) Belgium where the King plundered West Africa for centuries and was helpful in spreading AIDS (equivalent of bat fever or Coronavirus of mainland China) globally.
AIDS came from a tiny tree monkey in Africa whom they used for animal experimentation.
We have not discovered a treatment for AIDS or for that matter Malaria from which millions of Children still die every year in Africa.
The simple reason for objecting to single currency is:
It would dilute the stupidity of all our Finance Ministers after independence.
Mind you, British left us surplus of money in our coffers and the Air Ceylon to fly (for the politicians to plunder later).
This even Victor Ivan understands.
Mind you, I have a chapter on Victor in my book "Politics Revisited at Amazon" for young ones to read how we plundered money and freedom and we have now geared for a military government which is failing by the day.
I prudently, stopped writing my Political Vision dead at 2010.
This vision, Ma Ra and Si Ra combination erased from our history.
Any opportunity for recovery in a sensible redirection was lost.
I think, "The Third Force" can emerge from the proverbial ashes of Phoenix.
A victory path from the prison.
Mr. Ranjan Ramanayake should steer it from the prison cell provided a bright guy writes a book on his behalf and in his name (one should get ideas from him and put in legible Sinhala and not in Amu Sinhala or Kunu Harupa).
All good revolutions started from long incarceration, in the history of mankind.
Longer he stays in prison better for him because more and more blunders will accumulate like the way Coronavirus spreads, in spite of so called robust vaccination programs.
Mandela is a good example but White South Africans by covert design muted it.
Coming to Linux and cryptocurrency.
The Alt Right is based in Austria where cryptocurrency has one of it's bases where illegal money is invested globally, with robust farm of computers.
These computers need graphic cards, the reason I do not understand but guess they use PDF photo-proof for blockchain transactions which are invisible to the banking systems.
These computers consume large amounts of electricity which even Nuclear Energy cannot cope with.
Electricity does not come cheap.
All digital gadgets needs electricity and the rechargeable batteries need electricity for recharging.
They need compact circuits and every circuit including your cellphone contributes to the Global Warming which is the bottom line.
That is my bone of contention.
So only way to mitigate is to stop using Internet, me posting here (soon be terminated, could not keep that promise but would be soon) a blog post included and every email adds to the global warming and there is no end in sight.
You switching to CFL Lights and LED won't mitigate it.
The game box or the cellphone off the hook running on batteries may not contribute to much heat but the uploading, downloading and playing games over the Internet, Yes the Internet is driving the World to Global Warming.
With 3G and 4G upgraded to 5G every living soul (including grannies and grand dads) playing video games, video conferencing and video on demand or virtual class rooms popping up everywhere (due to Coronavirus) may encourage global warming as the final end product.
The photosynthesis converts only 1 to 3% of light energy to biological energy.
The plants leaves by transpiration cools the planet (this is kids science which the current president does not understand).
The trees contribute to cloud formation and rain.
The the Tank, the Dagaba (where the soil was mounted and there is no religious connotation here) and the Forest were our ancient concepts of self preservation and not done by borrowed money from China.
China has to learn lot more from our history than us learning from them and they are the leaders in pollution and global warming.
India only comes second in contribution to global.warming, population dynamics and emerging economics of the world today.
We importing cheap cellphones and even rice in 1952 are classic examples of our impotence in real politics.
Coming to chip production I think Taiwan comes first not the mainland China.
1. Taiwan
2. Korea
3. Japan for old American and the new Apple type industry.
4. China fourth
India nowhere and Ceylon with (rubber industry in doldrums) all the rare metals and pure sand available, which China is mining secretly (in the camouflage hotel industry operation concept) in the East and in the West Coast of Ceylon.
We cannot make a simple chip or circuit here but import large discarded computers from the West which need Water Cooling Systems to run them in a 24/7 cycle.
We become suckers to Communist China and they started with only erecting a massive Auditorium in Colombo to utter empty rhetoric which "Nelum Pokuna" can never match in spite of its height or the elevation.
Our aspirations have vanished to thin air.
But our debt is mounting.
What a paradox?
We do not have even Nalum Ala (the rhizome) with poisons in them to eat, now.
I will finish this with the Steam OS.
Now all game boxes including Steam OS contribute directly and indirectly to Global Warming.
Linux was way behind the XBox of Microsoft in games.
Microsoft killed the innovations by enticing young with imaginary games in the trend of Star Wars and Visual Basics and no line of Code for creative work, while Linux has grown into 128 million lines in Code in current Linux 15 Kernel.
Steam OS probably has used this kernel for Steam Deck and Dock outsmarting Microsoft (would not win the never ending battle of Wits and Wisdom or even a rematch).
It is cheap and under $400/=.
ASUS Tablet with more punch is $3000/=
ACER is little below $1500/=
Mind you, this is a Standalone PC with a Game Pack.
Incredible price and I hope the RDNA GPU supplies come good by December, if not the ZEN CPU.
I would recommend you to buy the next level of $500/= odd version for connectivity to NVMe external drives instead of SATA, SSD and eMMC disks.
SATA stands for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment which is relatively slow.
All serial as opposed to parallel devices are slow by nature and draw power from the computer (no power jack is necessary).
All my external devices which I paid a fortune including to Imation needed separate power supply.
Companies that produce them are:
1. Western Digital
2. Seagate
3. Samsung
4. Toshiba
5. Adata
6. Sandisk
7. Imation (gone bust I believe)
8. Hitachi
All my hard disks are working (having used many a times, to boot Linux and for Data and erased many a times in that process using Gparted of Linux) except one portable Sandisk which I paid a lot. Sandisk's internal connection to USB 3 broke. There was bad metal connection inside it (with all my portable data Lost), that connects to the USB 3 connection wire (and then to the PC).
I do not recommend it.
SSD stands for Solid Sate Device with no moving parts for flash memory.
NVMe stands for Non Volatile Memory Express only for PC with PCIe slot in the mother board.
I think MMe means multimedia multiplexing environment and not a hard disk type.
This slot in the motherboard is used in earlier designs of computers for graphic cards to support faster data transfer but now is used by NVMe.
In old computers the RAM was limited to 1 GB RAM (32 bit computers) and graphic was dedicated to a graphic cards to save RAM memory and did not heat up when running.
Please do not accept a 32 bit computer even, if it is given free.
They are Energy Vultures and consume lot of electricity.
GPU means Graphic Processing Unit.
In old computers only the CPU was running hot and needed a heat sink and fans running, all the time to cool the computer.
When I was running 13 computers (32 bit) in our home network, three of them caught fire when the temperature was hovering around 85 to 90 Fahrenheit.
Of course few of the Cathode Ray Tubes of TVs caught fire,too.
When these things happened, I started using thermometers for my pet fish tanks outside and they die at 84 Fahrenheit.
I stopped keeping fish in fish tanks altogether.
Wild fires in Canada and Australia are natural outcomes which Oil Ministers all over the globe ignored for over 70 years.
The new CPUs and GPUs are all integrated in thin wafer circuits all into one motherboard and they consume more energy than old PCs and without heat sinking measures, they are too hot to handle.
In cold countries with heating bills going up playing a game in a box is a quick way to go to sleep with warmth (heat) to cushion you.
My PC has only PCI slots.
eMMC means embedded Multi Media Card and the controller system.
All the gadgets in this world contribute to global warming from production line to the user base at home.
Blaming only cars and vehicles is barking at the wrong tree.
The vehicles at least deliver goods.
What is the contribution of computers to the alleviation of hunger and poverty in the Globe (that Coronavirus has exposed us)?
Coming to Steam Deck and Dock.
I have to make a few early observations to counteract, mostly negative remarks.
I played my first game with kids with Atari.
Coming from a generation where children's toys were baby dolls and motorized cars with hard to manipulate remote controllers, DOS video games were master stroke in history of children games.
I must say I and my adult friends played them more than the kids.
For kids the games were passing stage of their childhood development.
But Disney Game on Lion King had a lasting impact.
Lion king was a classic film for kids and adults.
Playing golf was painful in.Atari.
Myself a good snooker and billiard player playing a billiard game on cellphone is very painful to say the least.
One needs applied mathematics brain to workout the game strategy and lot of skill and practice to go with it, to pot a billiard ball (not pools).
I used to beat British guys in UK and they see this little guy from Ceylon humble them in billiards and snooker (mind you I did not play with professional guys or in clubs).
Actually I win my post (out of 60 odd candidates) in a selection interview by asking the interview board, is there a snooker table in the hospital.
If they ask why, my ready made answer is I could practice playing snooker while I wait for a patient to arrive from a distance or kill my time practising alone till midnight.
Waking up from sleep to answer a call is very annoying and miserable thing.
But I was good at cat naps.
Watching TV or sipping beer was not my way and I never sip a drink when on call and absolute concentration is necessary in critical care.
With that background playing games with PlayStation with only two games with the first buy was sucking dollars and pounds from poor parents.
My son stop playing PlayStation in less than two months.
My daughter loved reading and that also fiction.
Me a reader in Science and Technology.
I cannot find four partners to play Bridge now but I play Bridge using a cellphone.
I try to improve my game.
Bottom line is boys love playing video games but only a few girls play video games.
The Coronavirus has made girls to join the Band Wagon of video games.
That is a good thing but ignore their comments about Steam Deck and Dock.
Mind you, these guys come from Windows and Apple background and does not know what is Linux.
The current Linux 15 Kernel can handle many graphic cards, if the O.E.M. guys volunteer their specifications to the Linux developers.
Equally they have some game boxes from childhood that they have Pathological Attachment (term pathology has disease connotation here) to those devices.They are all biased in their opinions and they are not comparative or balanced.
I see Steam Deck 2 coming in the future since old guys like me have visual problems to counter and I prefer a very BIG Display.
Coronavirus has added lot of grannies and grand dads playing Steam Games.
The joystick and touch pads will improve coordination problems, especially after mild form of stroke and if, I am one of the directors of the hospital, I would order some Steam Deck and Dock items for both children and geriatric patients.
So if you are philanthropist please keep my above observation as a reference point.
Steam should focus the global nature of games.
If we can cut down on the pills and if Steam contributes to that goal, even a little childhood fancy game played by a sick adult is a bonus to recovery.
It is very big thing!
Back to home for recuperation.
It has a relatively big display screen which is touch sensitive.
This display is not BIG enough for my age.
It has both touch pad and two joysticks.
It has SD card ports to upgrade capacity but playing with SD card is not an option.
SD card slows the system.
It has Linux OS (Steam OS 3) and probably latest KDE plasma, I guess.
Mind you it is coming in December and book now.
There is no crowd sourcing and it has got capital from Steam Machine sales in the years gone by.
Steam Valve is the operating company.
It is a standalone PC for a work desk.
Since it is a PC one can install
1. Windows 10 or 11 with Steam running on top of Windows.
2. It can run on any Linux distribution that supports Steam (since Steam is Linux almost all Linux distributions support it but one has to purchase Steam games).
3. Why not run on its own Steam OS 3 and enjoy 50,000 games you will never finish in a life time?
It has Photon which is modified Wine that runs Windows games on Linux box.
It is a Three In One Game Box.
It has AMD CPU Zen and AMD RDNA GPU.
What a nice combination to beat Intel architecture owned by Lenova in China.
It beats, IBM based of Lenova in China by a big margin.
It has ports in the dock for all the connectivity and WiFi connection off the dock.
No need of PS5 of Sony and XBox of Microsoft.
Linux is the winner after all.
The best buy in the market today.
I have a Console of a Cheap Chinese made Copycat in which I could not not play a single game. I paid a big sum in Rupees.
It's keyboard could not type my 18 digit alpha numeric password for WiFi connectivity to download new games.
I tried even in French Keyboard but failed.
So do not buy cheap Chinese stuff.
Chinese alphabet is a graphic design not alphanumeric like the English Keyboard.
Luckily the computer software and hardware are based on the English keyboard for instructions.
It can be hacked but not easily duplicated in China.
That is why they are developing Kline OP in China.
The Chinese are very bad in typing English and Linux Code.
If not for American's base in Taiwan and British in Honk Kong Chinese ambition to go to Mars bypassing the Van Allen Belt is only a daydream.
They are number one Copycats on this planet.
Puppy Linux
Puppy Linux
There are 3 brand new "Puppy Linux derivatives" available at www.distrowatch.com.
They are actually Linux distributions based on Debian Stable.
1. Bear dog
2. Lilidog Trixie
3. Waydog Trixie
4. Trixie Pup64 Wayland
I have not tested them or tried to install them.
Garuda Linux
I managed to download the Gnome Edition but everything in it is KDE.
It specializes on Games.
Linux games is not my arena and I would never try Steam OS
Why?
It promised a desktop edition but never delivered that promise.
Valve shows how greedy American Linux guys and girls.
Garuda Linux
- OS Type: Linux
- Based on: Arch
- Origin: Germany
- Architecture: x86_64
- Desktop: Cinnamon, GNOME, Hyprland, i3, KDE Plasma, Mokka, Sway, Wayfire, Xfce
- Category: Desktop, Live Medium
- Status: Active
- Popularity: 25 (461 hits per day)
High Spirits
High Spirits
Alcohol Consumption
Regarding alcohol, what I find interesting is the minimum even in Bangladesh, the country with lowest intake is one litre of pure alcohol per person.
Which is a colossal amount when multiplied by the total population.
I find it interesting Iranians drink as much as Russians. It is said Belorussians drink the most but their officials figures are scaled down. Maldivians drink more simply due to lack of pure water.
Come to Ceylonese they drink about 15 times as as Bangladeshis and only about 5 times less as Russians. I expected the Africans to drink more but it is true of only a few countries like Zambia, Nigeria and South Africa. Myanmar tops India and Indians drink, far less amount than Ceylonese.
My gut feeling was that people of rich and relatively happy countries consume more but they are less than all the Muslim countries put together.
Malaysia is an exception.
I guessed Singaporean drinks more but I was proven wrong. The reason, they have no time to drink.
Except New Zealand most of the Western counties drink an average more than Asians.
The Australians are heavy drinkers but it is coming down unlike in UK and USA. My analysis is where there are dictators running the country, the alcohol consumption is high. Myanmar is a classic example and some Latin American countries with dictators running the affairs are close allies of alcohol.
A point what our Buddhist monks have failed to grasp is when there is a dictator running, the alcohol consumption goes up significantly and rapidly. So, if we want to drop alcohol consumption democracy should go hand in hand and not other way round. If our alcohol consumption goes up by the next election do not blame the drinker but the rulers. The corollary is, for a dictator to succeed the country should streamline and jack up alcohol production and sell alcohol at an affordable price. The variety does not matter but the production rate does.
I gather Americans are drinking much more after the previous election with enthusiasm and steam. This will increase if, President Biden approves and let the furloughing, to go through. President Biden has to make sure that the alcohol production goes unhampered during his term of office and he will be remembered for life, if he cuts down taxes on alcohol in spite of medical advice. It does not matter he fails to keep 90% of his promises. That also make Republicans to drink more and lose track of the elections. For his successor to have a smooth riding, he also should not follow the doctors advice on alcohol and should not let through, the numerous medical legislatures brought in front of him for approval. Just pretend that the president (President Trump) is absorbing the advice in good spirit. Now that the war in the Middle East is escalating one should not let the alcohol price go up but let only the oil and the gas prices, go up.
Still on alcohol, I tried to find a Clinical Pharmacology book by Lawrence et all, from which I absorbed the basic knowledge and clinical effects of alcohol but could not find a single copy available (published in late nineteen sixties). Then I found a book on Clinical Chemistry by Calbreath and that gave a real scientific introduction, including its manufacture and adulteration.
I gave up drinking local alcohol due to its adulteration since independence and went for only imported alcohol and very lately to wine. I never enjoyed beer but local Gin and Tonic was my favourite before a billiard or snooker game. I never realized, I was getting addicted, perhaps in small doses, including alcohol inside chocolates.
I have weaned myself off, after a decade of trial and effort. I never had the insight, I am becoming addicted and the that was the first critical faculty, I lost. I have never been able to cure any person from alcohol addiction and since I am writing this as a non medical person, I took the liberty to use the the title "Alcohol and its Charms" not to entice a guy or girl who has never tried alcohol but to make it readable like a novel and I in return get my royalties as a bonus.
I was heavy smoker and I could stop it abruptly, since it affected my physical performance and activities in sports. That effort made me to realise one day, I can stop my addiction clinically not obvious to even my close ones.
Simply, I was a nice guy after alcohol.
I would not have realized the bad habits, I have acquired as an adult including violent temper, if not for the reason of enjoying a bit of alcohol. I do not believe that alcohol brings worse in anybody, it only exposes one's hidden genetic tendencies.
Please do not blame alcohol.
It is the second discovery of man in evolution, after honey. The fundamental biological agent, the yeast was the starter for the bread industry but it branched much bigger to alcohol industry.
Even Buddhist monks consume it, in Dasa Mula (ten root causes) Aristaya and the Fifth Precept in Buddhism is Mujja Pama Dhattna.
It means little bit is OK and I have not fathomed how little is little bit.
Now that foreign liqueur is totally banned, if I do not list ten or more of the wonders of alcohol, it is an insult to the the mankind ability to discover from prehistoric times.
1. It is the man’s first discovery that alcohol elevate mood and euphoria. The other method of delivering euphoria is intense time consuming meditation. Both are human addictions and lasts only momentarily.
2. Alcohol removes inhibitions.
3. Alcohol in moderation makes one to speaks fluently on matters of no significance.
The politician are adept at it.
President Trump impeachment is a living example. Both Republicans and Democrats speak with no end in sight on flimsy points.
4. In my case alcohol makes me to settle my nerves and play a good game of snooker or billiards.
5. It makes me to tolerate unwelcome guests in a party, wedding and funerals especially where even the enemies come to celebrate.
Mind you now avoid all these by gut reaction.
6. It makes me to discover new ideas to ponder over the table “Wonders of Alcohol” is one out of many.
7. It made me to discover that it destroys all the normal functions of the liver by default, of the actions of some feel good hormones released by a good piece of chocolates.
8. It make me to forget all the promises given but never acted upon by the party in power.
9. It makes me to forget all important part payment, I own.
10. It gives me happiness on one side and cancer on the other.
A truly double edged sword to stab an enemy.
Strangely in this country nobody offers a drink to an enemy on the other side of the aisle.
11. Why did you give up alcohol?
If somebody asks me this question, I have two ready made answers and a few more thought provoking ones.
It effects my memory and my sleep.
I had a fantastic memory as a kid and I did not have to take notes. Unfortunately,many of my friendly fellow beings did not have that capacity. Equally, I only took short notes in strips of paper not A 4 size but which fitted in my front shirt pocket. That is also things or an idea I heard for the first time. However, I did not believe in them, first hand. For example evolution.
I loved my sleep.
The reasons outside those two are many.
The recent tax imposition which was draconian by all means, to all the liberals.
I only prefer to drink alcohol not taxes.
12. The effect of alcohol on liver, especially on feel good factors (hormones) of chocolates is an important discovery for me. Fact that, alcohol hijacks the important biochemical pathways in the liver and depletes micro-elements is another reason.
Alcohol turns non carcinogens to carcinogen and the vise versa.
It is a double edge sword.
My current intention is to highlight the good things about alcohol.
Cirrhosis and depletion of glycogen are few others.
Sugar metabolism and early morning hypoglycemia can be mortal in ones sleep mode, especially for the elderly over 60.
One does not have to be a diabetic.
13. It effects driving skills and a common cause of accidents.
14. It is a universal cell poison, including brain cells.
Two points I missed and not mentioned in the description of alcohol side effects in web pages and sites are;
15. Compulsive gambling and legal problems related to money matters.
Like politicians, the new breed can become compulsive liars to buy the next drink or the basic needs.
16. Lying is a human survival trait.
17. This is where domestic problems arise, including violence.
18. The debts increase and responsibility decreases.
There are many more to fill a book of decent size.
Bangladesh=1
India =5
Ceylon=15
Russia=50
Russia 14 Liters per year
Australia 13 Liters per year
United Kingdom 12 Liters per year
While Australia's alcohol consumption is relatively high, it is lower than both Russia and the UK. Russia has a higher overall consumption and a greater proportion of spirits in its consumption, while the UK's higher consumption is reflected in the larger standard drink size and the recommended 14 units per week.
Australia: 12.6 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.
Standard drink: 10 grams of alcohol.
Australian guidelines: recommend that adults consume no more than 10 standard drinks per week and no more than 4 standard drinks on any one day, with lower recommended consumption for women.
In Australia, two standard drinks would be 25ml of pure alcohol, or 250ml of a typical 40% ABV spirit. For other types of drinks, two standard drinks would be 200ml of wine or 570ml of full strength beer.
Spirits: A standard drink of spirits (40% ABV) is 30ml (1 nip). Therefore, two standard drinks would be 60ml (2 nips).
Wine: A standard drink of wine is 100ml. Two standard drinks would be 200ml.
Beer: A standard drink of full strength beer (around 4.8% ABV) is 285ml. Two standard drinks would be 570ml (285ml x 2).
A standard drink contains 12.5ml of pure alcohol. Therefore, two standard drinks would be 25ml
Russia: 14.5 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.
United Kingdom: 11.4 litres of pure alcohol per person per year.
Standard drink: 8 grams of alcohol.
UK guidelines: recommend that adults consume no more than 14 units per week, with lower recommendations for women.
Cook and Doctors
Cook and Doctors
The Man, the Devil, the God
All beings whether man, devil or god need something for survival.
The cook has the onerous task of preparing the food for all of them in addition to his own food requirements for his survival.
We Ceylonese are known for satisfying the needs of all three of them be
that may be a devil with dola pidheni after a devil dance, a god with
puda pooja before an election and a man (with position) with panduru
pakkudam for a favour.
What I am going to describe are three
doctors all of middle age with whom I had the opportunity to live in the
same cottage in Colombo.
One
doctor, I called the Deviya was a doctor who came from a very religious
sect where alcohol is a taboo but started drinking with some personal
reasons.
The other is a doctor whom I called the Yakksaya who came from a habitual toddy drinking coastal town of the Western Coast, Negamboo.
The
third was a doctor whom I called the Manussaya who came from the hill
country who had the penchant for this miracle drink for no obvious
reason.
The first one I called the Deviya for the simple reason
that he would religiously attend to his prayers every day in spite of
his drinking problem.
I believed the god had being with him all the time in spite of his drinking.
With drinks he became godlier of course.
The
second one I called the Yakksaya had a deep and rough voice and even
before he had high enough to call high enough would make a big racket in
the garden and everybody in the neighbourhood knew that there was a
drinking spree in our garden.
The
third one I called the Manussaya was the one who would leave his car in
the garage (which was open 24 hours) and the key in an easily
accessible place so that anybody who had a driving license could drive
the car away without any formal permission.
Those were the days that
petrol price was high and our salary was poor enough to have a juice
full tank.
A tankful was a luxury and a bellyful was a chicken feed those days.
The
missing link was the cook and his driving force.
When I was in charge of the chummery and took in charge of the menu, I realized that the food prepared was ordinary on most of the days but come the days the three men in their devil or god or manly incarnation, the food was of a reasonable good taste and standard.
The secret was the miracle drink.
The
three of them used to give him a liberal share (the taste was paid
separately) and when he was high the cooking standard went up
exponentially.
So the common denominator or the virtual link was Pol Arrakku.
Finally,
I decided to give him a quarter bottle worth of money as a spare for
marketing for two reasons.
One reason was the food and menu was kept
excellent.
The second reason was that he would not steal money from the food menu.
This worked well and our monthly bill was the lowest for sometime and I did not have any complaints from my colleagues.
However,
I did not disclose my secret pact with him to my colleagues.
I of course gave him enough money as extras. But not surprisingly he never went home even for a holiday. He was really hooked to alcohol surprisingly enough he never got cirrhosis.
We of course had the liberty of visiting all the food joints in Colombo including Union Place, Fountain Cafe and especially The Seafood Restaurant facing the Galle Face.
The
food was nice and not heavy on the purse but when I visit Colombo now I
have second thoughts even having a glass of mineral water.
Is this the price we pay for open economy, I wonder?
Coming
back to the three men in various incarnations be that may be godly,
manly or devilish, alcohol brings out best and worst of all beings.
Blaming alcohol is a lame excuse for lapses in man's own nature.
That is something I never buy or accept.
All of us left the shores within year and strangely enough I never met them thereafter.
They
were in the land of liquor (UK) with so many varieties available they
probably would have found better companions than Pol Arrakku.
When I returned some years later, I went looking for the cook and I was told that he suddenly disappeared and never returned.
I am sure that he must be in the company of one of the three above, since he did no have any savings for his alcohol spree.
This I call a form of discrimination on the ground of the brand name of alcohol one drinks and enjoys.
Kassippu or Whiskey and the Five Star democracy.
The voter drinks the adulterated stuff and the winner and the champions drinks the champagne.
13th of March 2006.
Good, Bad and the Ugly
Whie browsing my old piece I garheted all the places we vited in Colombo
1. Green Cabin
My introduction to Colombo
No more
The best place for Dun Tel Bath or grilled fried rice
2. Union Grill and Bar at Union Place
No more
3. Fountain Cafe
Elephant House
No more
4. Seafood Restaurant
Galle Face
No more
5. Majestic City
Assortment of restaurants
No more
Deviya, Yakshaya and Manussaya
Good, Bad and the Ugly
It is time for me to record, my stay in Violet Cottage, General Hospital in Colombo, during the time of Sirimavao and N.M. Parera.
Barnes Place Quarters was not in existence. We had to share what ever, the available rooms, sometimes three in a room.
I was the youngest and the senior most guys had the lion’s share.
There were three guys who were rank alcoholics.
Alcohol was damn cheap and we could manage the entire food bill of the month for Rs.100/=.
My salary was Rs.414/= or something near.
The highest salary would have been Rs.500/= I never bothered to find but our industrial action was to get an increase of Rs.1000/=.
We achieved that target in six months.
I was more involved "Work to Rule" and coordination of the strike.
Nobody knew who I was especially the government guys.
It was easy for me get organized since I did not hold a post in the G.M.O.A.
I was too, young to hold an official post.
The three three senior guys were named.
Yakka
Deviya
Manussaya.
These qualities comes only after heavy drinking.
Yakkshaya was the darkest and the loudest guy, I think he came from Ragama. I am not sure whether he came by a motorcycle or walked in from his ward.
We only had a Morris Minor and that belonged to the senior most guy who was called the Manussaya since he allowed anybody to take the car away, provided the guy puts the juice.
The Deviya was Muslim guy. He certainly had a domestic problem most likely related to his drinking habits. He becomes godly after the drink which is natural and get into mantis mode or praying mode or sometimes almost into flat mode.
Martin was our cook.
I did a study on him when I was managing the meals for the month and found he has the highest capacity to drink. He used to steal money and buy a quarter bottle which would have been Rs.2/=.
I gave him Rs.5/= daily for his alcohol.
The food quality improved tremendously during my tenure.
All the senior guys left for UK, one by one and I never met any of them afterwards.
We were transferred to Barnes Place Quarters which I think belonged to Bank of Ceylon which was probably rented to the Department of Health.
I left for UK immediately after.
Martin can drink only after finishing the cooking.
I never, even took a sip of Arrack during working hours.
I used to have a beer at Hotel Samudura at Galle Face once a week on Saturday with a good meal with one of my class mates.
He is no more.
It costs only Rs.10/= for both of us and beer was Rs.1.80/=.
We did not drink Arrack and it would have cost Rs.7.5 to 8 /= per bottle.
The Monk, Kuda Pola Hamuduruwo
The Man, the God and the Devil
The Man, the God and the Devil
Yakka, Deviya and Manussaya
These qualities came only after a heavy booze.
Yakkshaya was the darkest and the loudest guy, I think he came from Ragama. I am not sure whether he came by a motorcycle or walked in after work.
We only had a Morris Minor car and that belonged to the senior most guy who was called the Manussaya, since he allowed anybody to take the car away, provided, the guy puts the juice. The key of the car was placed in an accessible place. Mind you, petrol was very expensive compared to our base salary and only a few could afford a car.
The Deviya was Muslim guy. He certainly had a domestic problem most likely related to his drinking habits. He becomes Godly after the drink which is natural and get into Mantis Mode or Praying Mode or sometimes almost into flat mode.
Martin was our cook.
I did a study on him when I was managing the meals for the month and found that he had the highest capacity to drink. He used to steal money and buy a quarter bottle which would have been around Rs.2/= to 2,50/=.
I gave him Rs.5/= daily as a bonus for his alcohol.
The food quality improved tremendously during my tenure.
Martin could drink only after he has finished his cooking.
All the senior guys left for UK, one by one and I never met any of them afterwards.
I left for UK immediately after.
We were transferred to Barnes Place Quarters after our agitations.
I think it belonged to the Bank of Ceylon and it was rented to the Department of Health to satisfy the residential doctors’ needs.
I never, even took a sip of Arrack during working hours.
I used to have a beer at Hotel Samudura at Galle Face, once a week on Saturday with a good meal with one of my class mates.
Sadly he is no more.
The cost was only Rs.10/= for both of us and beer was only Rs.1.80/= a bottle.
We did not drink Arrack and it would have cost Rs.7.50= to 8 /= per bottle.
Over the next two decades I became a V.S.O.A drinker which was about Rs.9.50/=.
Gin and Tonic before a billiard game was late development in the University Faculty Club.
Currently V.S.O.A. is Rs.4,400/=.