King Cobra-Naja Naja

 

King Cobra-Naja Naja

Posted on April 30, 2011 | Comments Off on King Cobra-Naja Naja

This is not something to alarm you but to point out how man has neglected the use of cobra venom for therapeutic use.

In addition there is a paucity of knowledge how venom evolved in animals and how some animals are resistant the smaller doses of venom.
I teach that it is the venom that is produced in our body after the bite that kills us not the cobra venom (to illustrate the fact that cytotoxins have multitude of actions).
For example bradykinin that causes pain is the product of our own tissues.

Snake venom is a modified saliva and we really do not know whether these are produced in evolution for digestion of the prey or to immobilize or anesthetize (humane to the dying prey). None of the points I have raised have been addressed conclusively and potential for the use of the modified venom molecule for treatment of leukaemia or cancer cells or as antithrombotic activity have not been discussed in scientific journal adequately..
Why?
The answer is simple.
Once they discovered that antivenom as a cure, everybody forgot about the biological role and what system they act and why, when where and how they modify the homoeostatic mechanisms.
Moment the commercial activity of preparation of antivenom starts the scientific investigation of biological nature takes a back stage.
That is very unfortunate.
There lot we can learn from these cytotoxins.

Coming back to cobra (baby cobra-are as poisonous as the adult), I killed a young cobra with a ruler when I was as young as the tiny cobra who was under my bed.

When that little fellow made his hood and kissed the death I fell heroic and also very sad.
Then in another incident when I jumped over huge cobra in a big compound and looked around to see he was as frighted as I was and showed his hood with a warning and quietly slipped away to his safety, I wondered why fear an animal who is on his routine search of his food or prey.

I still say the jumped I made that day worth an Olympic record if somebody made an accurate measure on that day. Unfortunately I missed an Olympic record since officials were not there to record it. That would have changed my life completely but the day that completely changed my mind was another ordinary day.
I was walking along a stream with the intention of catching guppies and I had a stone in my hand (we used to play marbles those days unlike today’s kids) and I saw a water snake (harmless creature) quickly swimming across in fear.

I took an aim in a moment of irresponsible stroke of mind of ill will and thought, threw the stone at the poor creature and it landed right on his neck.

It was like a bulls eye shot but the agony of the creature who succumbed in a long drawn out 5 minutes of death dance made an impact in my mind never to hurt (reflecting my killing in fear of the young cobra) an animal in either fear or sport.

Then on one night (2 am in the morning) in darkness a Ceylon krait landed on my right shoulder and I brushed it with my left hand gently and put the light in a flash to see creature landing on cement flow with a thud and my dog charging at it, I was man thinking of three lives my dog, myself and the poor creature who ventured at night.
Mind you Ceylon krait is the deadliest of Sri-Lankan venomous snakes.

I watched the creature and it quickly disappeared into crevice wide open due to rotten timber of the bathroom door.

I did not have any cement to seal and went to the kitchen an took some American flour (who says American flour has no place in this country) and sealed the hole with the dough hastily made since the price of flour was very cheap (cheaper than the cement) then.

Suffice is to say I flushed the hole with water before I did that and slept on the settee fearing few more in my bedroom.

After three days it emerged (none elsewhere) from the kitchen floor cracked and we caught it and released it to safety.

Of course I had to cement both holes in the bathroom end and the kitchen end.

The key point here is that animals fear us more than we fear them in this modern world where are we are encroaching on their habitat with blatant disregard to biodiversity.

Brain Myths, the Malady of Democracy

Reproduction

Brain Myths, the Malady of Democracy

There are a lot of myths spread by Psychologists.

This is an attempt to bring some sense and reality into day to day life.

I may dispute many a myths but my attempts are also not infallible in each and every situation, one may encounter.

Making right or correct decision at a given moment is a knack which many of us lack.

If we delay acting on a given (it may be right or it may be wrong) problem even for a fraction of a second, the most destructive procrastination sets in.

Then any given solution is the base for next round of further procrastination.

But if we keep an open mind and believe in what we intend to do, given a difficult problem or a preposition, solution for the problem may come naturally.

This is not easy, though.

Lot of training actually hinder this ability.

That is what we call common sense.

Lot of experience also may be a hindrance.

Basically we have several approaches to a given problem.

Just think of a Game (Video Game)

One’s approach may be (not comprehensive here)

1. Offensive

2. Defensive

3. Neutral

4. Random or Calculated Response 

5. Cool (not procrastination)

The best approach is the last which has all the above components assessed in a fraction of a second. 

Only a few has that cool talent.

They are ones who become successful.

The COOL people are actually very observant.

But many of us use the useless procrastination approach (usual approach of the politician).

What it does is to kill the attempt at solving a given problem from the very beginning.

Unfortunately many of us use this method since we do not believe that some problems can be addressed, if we care to divert from the common approach.

This is what Professor De Bono calls Lateral Thinking.

It is not vertical or analytical or direct thinking.

Side track a bit,

Focus on the problem,

Leave behind the past experiences for a moment,

Give attention to the present moment of time

Then in a FLASH,

A new found solution springs up.

Then if we have few others with equal interest and talent get involved in the same problem, we get endless stream of solutions which we have never thought of because of the redundant past experiences.

We call it brain storming and it really works.

If one does not use common sense what I say here is superfluous.

We use our past experience to solve a given problem.

Sometime past experience is useful.

Sometimes past experience is a hindrance.

Past experience sometimes is the most destructive hindrance to creative and pragmatic solutions.

Good example can be taken from politicians.

When somebody is opposition for a long period of time and then come to power, he / she makes many mistakes due to past misfortunes.

They have lost the ability for creative thinking.

Unfortunately this happens when one is power too, and they do not realize what a wonderful thing to be in opposition.

The people in the opposition see the problem realistically but they do not have the muscle to power the solution through.

It is the malady of the democracy.

Did you ever thought of, who would come to your funeral (Party)?

 Posted on November 14, 2011

Did you ever thought of ,who would come to your funeral (Party)?

I have never given thought to this question but a reason observation have made me to sharpen my observation.

I will come to that later.

But rest assured all the following will be there at your funeral.

1. Almost all your enemies without any exception since they are happy to see you are out of sight. 

They of course like to see your loved one in distress.

This is similar to the God Father Story and one of its funerals and how the rivalry is taken up by the next of kins.

2. All your creditors (you have not settled your debts) will be there to see who are the next of kins to get back the money.

In this context your banker including the Central Bank representative will be there for sure.

3.  A monk, a priest, a rabbi, mullah even if you a  robber baron.

This is the only sure thing in this world.

4. All your neighbors come even though you have been there in the locality only during the last few months of your worldly stay. 

This is to make sure that any one of their kith and kin bid farewell at least the quorum (in numbers) is satisfied in the next funeral.

5. Your local politician will come but because now there are no local representation the number has diminished.

In any case, you are dead now there is no more of your vote left.

Why the hell one should attend?

The 6 and 10 of the list are your supposed to be friends (but many of them will find an excuse not to come).

Real Story

Now to the story which I should bare free now that the 3 months Dhana Ceremony was over.

This was the funeral of a don who had passed away.

He was one of my teachers.

I had close association with him when alive.

There was no official representative from the university, even though like a fool he left his village and come to live near the academic environment.
This was a pity.

What was shocking was none of his children came who were supposed to be professional.

It is no point having  doctorate or PhD, if simple ethics are forgotten for good.

The bottom line is if there are many in one’s funeral most of them are one’s worthwhile enemies and please don’t look down from heaven and count the numbers.

Ten (10) Plus points about Linux Distributions when in USE

 Reproduction

Sunday, February 20, 2011

 Ten (10) Plus points about Linux Distributions when in Use

It is time I should write some important things about Linux that you may not read in books but only experience with regular use.

Even though most of the proprietary guys do not provide the necessary drivers for Linux or support Linux, the modules that are used in new kernels are robust and reliable and never fail. 

They look after the hardware without breaking them down, even if you use the system 24 /7 schedule unlike Microsoft counterparts.

Linux kernel is made to run 24 / 7 schedule without braking down (except normal maintenance). 

The maintenance jobs are done in the early hours of the day (they are called CRON Jobs) when system is not in use but when idling with power on. 

One of the biggest mistakes Linux newbies do is to switch off the computer in the night. 

Unfortunately running 24 hours is not practiced in our university setup since by evening and over weekends servers are switched off and junk that should have been removed automatically get collected, overnight and over the weekend.

1. One is able to run your computer 24 / 7 schedule is its strongest point and its strength.  

No need for restarts every time a minor configuration change is made unlike in windows. These changes are done in real time and no delay is contemplated, the moment a command is activated.

2. Linux look after the time scheduling to nanoseconds. 

For example if one is using K-torrents for downloading several files, it shares time allotment with the files. Faster files get a bigger share and slower files get a smaller share and the full band width is used. One can limit the upload and download speeds if the computer is used in a network.

3. Looks after the hardware and the processor well and if there are problems they are reported at boot time (one should be able to read these messages at boot time which are displayed for a fraction of a second). 

Once a major problem is detected the Linux has the canny habit of switching off instantaneously.

Once after a lightening and power outage (it ran through even the UPS battery) one of my computers had some electrical burns. The system never ran more than few seconds after this power outage, not even for me to read the boot menu. 

Only, after three days, I realized the problem but it had been telling me that the cooling had gone wrong on the first few seconds which I was not able to read fast enough. This problem was solved with the help of a young guy but I was all the time thinking of a boot virus since I fixed a second hand SATA hard disk 3 days before to up the capacity. 

Linux boot and grub file have a good warning systems, if one is careful to read them at boot time.

Not only that Linux is a work horse it looks after minor injuries to the horse.

4. What I really like about Linux is it looks after CD ROMs and CD/DVD writers well. It usually run on default setup but at write time it tests both the CD/DVD and uses the best and safe formula and writes in incremental or decremental speed. 

It does not start writing even if there is a minor fault in the CD or DVD.       

It does not do any job blindly, it assesses the processes and resources even to mini seconds.

5. It is really a multitasking Operating System unlike Windows and work with other computers in a network and synchronize work.

6. It is multi-user operating system.

Ubuntu lacks this due to changes to the desktop system and that is one of my reasons not favouring it in spite of the wider user experience. It is always runs on root and never lets one to use a user account.

I do not use Ubuntu at all except testing its new versions. 

 

I won't waste my time testing its 12.10 version.12.10 in fact is hopeless.

7. It records (keeps a history) and everything is measured to nanoseconds.

8. It uses RAM efficiently and when things are not favorable uses SWAP partition (not swap file as in Windows) to swap files and data. 

This is why it is much efficient than Windows.

One has to allocate a SWAP partition when installing. I have at least two.

9. It is secure from attack if the firewall is properly configured and it is almost free of viruses.

10. It keeps everything in a designated place and file structure is stable even though rigid and your data is in (need to be partitioned accordingly) a /home partition. I can upgrade or reinstall the system without any changes to the /home (data) partition. 

That was one reason I really liked it when I was testing many distributions in the early days of my Linux adventure.

I have never lost a file for 10 years. Would you believe it. Only problem is now I am short of short term memory and I forget with what name I have named a file. 

I have downloaded over two (200) hundred images and made mistakes in only 3 out of the fist 100 and nothing after that. It is almost zero after I started using K-torrent. 

I used PCLinux in my early days including Big Daddy.

I currently use Transmission of (Gnome) Debian.

If you want a work horse to do your jobs. 

It is always Linux.