Futuristic Dream and the Provident Fund

Futuristic Dream and the Provident Fund

This dream as far as I am concerned was futuristic. The reasons I would give below.

It goes on like this.

We had a long drawn out industrial action. This time students were on strike,        just like in 1988-1989.

I was getting bored and decided to quit the university for good, which I did. After,    six(6) months of struggling, I managed to get part of the Provident Fund and I wanted to buy a car for my retirement, now that even walking a few paces was a struggle. Incidentally,             for administrative reasons,  part of the entitlement is frozen as intellectual assets.    What often happens is the salary is such low,  the individuals takes loans from the university against the Provident Fund.

Generally, the maximum loan amount is up to 75% of your Provident Fund balance, according to Commission Circular No: 433.   The 75% limit is re-calculated to account for all other loans you may have previously taken and are still repaying.

The bottom line is, the university authorities did not wish to part with the balance thinking, if I die before the release of the funds, it is gross University Saving. They wished,         I would be dead by natural causes.

This is all about Government Duty Free Car allowed. I went with somebody which          I cannot remember probably an in law to drive me home. We cleared everything and all of them got into the car and left leaving me behind with a heavy suitcase.

I thought now that I had signed the papers, they went for a test drive.

I could not leave my heavy luggage for safe keeping and after few minutes of waiting,    I decided to stroll down the alley way.           The luggage was so heavy and after a few minutes I sat down under a tree panting and cursing myself, had I some money I would have hired a three wheeler to reach home.

Then after about half an hour they realized, I wasn't in and came in search of me. By that time, I had gone bananas and with that commotion, I was woken up.

I must tell you why I was happy.

My present Provident Fund saving is not enough to buy even a three wheeler. I was visibly annoyed with myself for not waking up lest, I had gone to Anuradhapura in a pilgrimage in this new car with total happiness. I would have attained even Sovan.

That is the long and short of my dream but I was intrigued by the heavy luggage.

I sent an email to Maha Brahama and this time there was a long silence before his chat appearance. I was not least pleased with his attitude to my latest dream.

I asked him was he busy to which he gave a negative response.

Then again he was dragging his feet and asked me, how the industrial action was taking shape.

I told him we are having deliberations in the courts and I am not allowed to divulge anything.

Then he summoned his courage and said that this dream is not futuristic and dull and no point of discussing or interpreting.

I felt something fishy and asked him, this dream is about me, isn't it?

He paused and said how did you guess?

Do you really need some interpretation?

Why not, we earthling are going from pillar to post looking for godforsaken astrologers who take us for a ride.

We love to hear of our future, even if it is our funeral and specially the things like salary increment we are going to get.

This one is little bad.

You mean to say we won't get any increment?

No fool it is your final farewell?

Farewell for leaving the University?

No fool your ultimate farewell from this planet.

Or, I see!

You were waiting for the people to come and dump you and push the electric button and they were late and you were watching from above.

Heaven, I believe.

Can't tell you that.

In that case can you tell me what was that heavy stuff in the suitcase.

That was your Kusal-Akusala Kamma Load.

Which is more?

Can't tell that, too.

Can you tell me at least the Ahosi Kammas.

You have finished all your Ahosi Kamma by blogging and all in the suitcase were viable Kammas.

That means no Sovan for me.

Isn't it?

Can't tell you that, too.

You must stop all blogging and stop doing any Kusala or Akulsala Kamma.

Why?

You are then in Kriya Mode and then only you get to dream good futuristic dreams, not event related to your mundane life.

Or, I see.

Less Kusala and less Akusala in your suitcase and more I get to hear good futuristic dreams, from you.

For how long?

That is left to you.

In that case, I have to go on indefinite industrial action.

You won't have any problem with that since the case is in Sri-Lankan courts!

Happy dreaming.

See you soon.

Six level of Alcohol Actions

Six level of Alcohol Actions

 

There are roughly six level of alcohol actions.

One does not have the insight into its progression from the first sip of alcohol ingested and that is the tragedy of alcohol .

Level six is death.

Level five is total loss of self control.
Motor vehicle and industrial accidents are the end points.

Level four is temporary euphoria which is transient and the need for frequent Top Us.

In other words one is addicted.

Level three is loss of control of one's spoken language.
Inhibitions are suppressed and this should not be interpreted as stimulation.

The gift of the gab manifestation.

Level two is sense of transient happiness which should not be interpreted as Euphoria.

Euphoria is a type of self delusion which meditators get addicted.
 
The best example is the state one feels with Ayahuaska inhalations. One feels Godly or Spiritually aroused.

Level one is that the Alcohol has No Effects.

What it means a certain amount of alcohol has to be ingested for one to show effects of alcohol above level one.

So one has to know only 4 levels.

I want a mathematical guy to take the Gompertz Curve and draw a graph to show effects of alcohol, in the middle portion of the curve.

Flat bottom, ascending middle and flat top.

 

Teaching Science-01

 Teaching Science-01

by S.B.Asoka Dissanayake Visit www,writeclique.net

There is a bizarre (somewhat insane) discussion going on local English Papers. This is something I penned down many moons ago. Reproduced here for any sane person's perusal.

Approach to teaching science is changing in the West. It is realized that in spite of the rapid advances in science (in the past century) the
benefit of science has not filtered down to the masses, specially to the young (in and out of school). When out of school the young adult has
no way of furthering his or her basic learning in science for ones own benefit functionally and socially. The school should be a place to make young people learn in a constructive way (not irrelevant factual knowledge) and apply that knowledge with common sense and with a scientific approach. There are inherent
religious, ethnic and educational prejudices that one has to circumvent to achieve these goals without upsetting the social sensitivities. Young children are brought up in various ways according to the way of life they are born to. Some are enriched and others are deprived of valuable opportunity due to many factors beyond the control of the child. The school should be the ideal place that can change this social disadvantage and teaching science with a new and scientific way is desirable and is found to be wanting.

The art of teaching science has to change form what it is now in our schools.

The top down approach and the the assumption that the teacher as a sage knows all what the students should know has failed in this country and elsewhere whether it is the East or the West.

In the West however, there is a changing attitude to teaching science (in a more pragmatic way). My attempt here is to look at this problem in a child's perspective rather than the teachers perspective. It is not possible for a teacher to know (for that matter even a doctor to know all the aspects of medicine) all the aspects of science.

A mixture of integrative approach and pooling of resources rather than training pure science teachers is what is intended. Instead of a purely scientific and academic exercise it should be broad based taking the child's development stage and the social background.

The medium of instruction and the command in whatever the language that is utilized to teach is also important. Bombarding factual knowledge to young is not what is required.

What should be tested or trained is not the memory and factual contents but the way of thinking based on scientific reasoning.
It is the thinking capacity that should be developed not the retention capacity.


Even though I attempt this at the university level the outcome is not as it is expected by me in general.

What is required is to make students ready for acquiring concepts appropriate for their psychological development. Children vary in their stage of development not only in the capacity but also at what level they achieve certain milestones of conceptual development.

Brief description of the psychological development is necessary before discussing the outcome based teaching (OBE). One should not expect the children to grow developmentally in a rigid programmed pattern. Even though they follow a general pattern some are slow and some are fast in acquiring conceptual skills. It is a normal behaviour of conceptual development and it is not that a particular child is stupid or very smart. It is the way they are born with and teachers task is for the whole class to achieve a certain level of competence (achievement) in thinking science.

To cover a particular syllabus forced on them by the hierarchy in the education department who do not have a good understanding (but just follow what was prescribed for the past 40 years without any revision) of the current trends and thinking in education. Changing requirements of the higher education should be balanced by the new way of thinking and approach in teaching science.

From concrete operational (direct experience) thinking to formal (acceptable to science) operational thinking is a very big step in psychological development. This change occur around 5 to 7 years of age and go on until 16 years of age. What is amazing is that children (and many adults too) do not shed their direct experience (and their thinking with it) when the conceptual development is progressing in their development (which has inherent variability).

This is a handicap (in a way blessing in disguise) the children from the age of 8 to 16 years undergo and overcome. Bombarding with factual knowledge at this stage of development is a serious problem from the point of view of the child. It is believed that conceptual development occurs at around the age of 16 and many do not develop this even up to 30 years of age and even then the conceptual development function at a very rudimentary level.


There is another barrier that is associated with psychological development. It is the language barrier itself. The language and grammatical structure did not evolve in parallel with science and its development. Language development and acquisition pre-dated the development of science by more than 2000 years. It is only in the last hundred years that the Language of Science started integrating with the standard languages of the West. Scientific terms that emerged in the West were not kind to Eastern languages and if not for the Pali Language (specially Abhidhamma terminology) teaching science in Sinhala would have been much more difficult. Unfortunately the people who started translating scientific terminology went in tangents to the tenant of Pali which was meant for a different purpose. By doing this they not only destroyed Sinhala but also the teaching of science by distorted interpretation of an ancient language.


The end result is that we are producing poor quality scientific thinkers and educators. I am one who believe that science should be taught in English very early in children's education. Not only this will help improve the English that the children would learn to use and would be an advantage in grasping difficult concepts in later life (especially when they proceed to higher studies).

Having seen students struggling to understand simple concepts in their first year at the university and the introduction English language learning before commencing their academic career has not improved or remedied the problem as it is today my impressions are somewhat biased and the reader should excuse me for that.

Having said that English is not an difficult language to learn and English is a very good supplement even if one wants to learn purely in ones own mother tongue.


Conceptual Development

Modeling is an acceptable way of expressing situations which we cannot observe directly. Models help us to understand what we observe and predict what will happen in situations that we cannot observe. Modeling a scientific concept is an acceptable scientific tool in advancing a concept or an idea. Eventually we may become so convinced of the reliability of the model or the security of the model image. Then we tend to accept it as total reality without any objection or question. The distinction between the model and the reality disappears in our teaching of science and this in turn inhibits the acceptance of new ideas. The atomic model is a good example and everybody accepts it as a good model and almost certain reality but few thinkers deviated from this mode of thinking and went into talk about quarks and antiparticles and the like.

Our educationists in science have gone into hibernation after the atomic model and canceling the practicals at the university entrance for the advance level examination (due to inherent inability to hold examinations full proof so that some elements can doctor the results) compounded the already deteriorating approach to teaching science in schools. This is one example of the examples of skewed (squint) eye view of the teaching and education in general. We have let this phenomenon (science teaching without experiment and investigation at least at a rudimentary level) progress for nearly 40 years without a review.

It is high time at least from "middle school age" the children are brought up looking for both knowledge and wisdom with open mind rather than "programed minds"of the education department. Restricting them to free books published by the education department which are probably 30 years outdated is not the panacea for a long term problem of "learning on the go" especially in science.

Australian teachers researching in science teaching are introducing many models of art of teaching science and I would like to jot down some thoughts about one of them in some detail with my own adaptation of that model. It is called the 5E Model (I am quite at ease with the Japanese 5S model of Quality Training) and worth some elaboration. Students acquire a certain level of conceptual development on a scientific phenomenon that is discussed based on 5E Model. The focus is on a observable topic or phenomenon.

Engage
Students express their views and grasp of a particular phenomenon (or a topic) and study any connection with what they already seem to know at a particular age of their development. The teacher generate the new idea or the concept without any factual information.

Explore
Students explore the phenomenon and use their own language to express and discuss the phenomenon in their own understanding and experience without any hindrance from the teacher who act as a facilitator rather than a disseminator (discriminator) of knowledge. Students generate new ideas based on hands on activities.

Explain
They explain the phenomenon in scientific terms and teacher help to develop new ides and concepts and terminology.

Elaborate
The teacher introduces new challenging situation and students apply what they have learnt to a new situation and modify their concepts accordingly. This is the application of the newly acquired knowledge to a given problem. Problem oriented but evidenced base learning is gradually introduced and facilitated.

Evaluation
The students reflect on the preconceived views (ideas) to the post conceptual development of the new scientific theme and teacher allows ongoing development of the theme as and when the experience of the class improves with new situations and problems (the class encounter). Building on a sound base of conceptualization children learn and understand more complex phenomena.

A layer of conceptual (idea) development is formed on top of the already existing concrete operational thinking which each student inherit differently without upsetting their own previous preconceived ideas and thinking capacities. There is no label attached to the previous conceived idea as either right or wrong but a modified version of the previous concept is laid on top the previous experience which each student inherited with their own experience or lack of it. The thinking capacity is developed instead of retaining capacity. Unfortunately there is tremendous variation of memory capacity of children. The top or the surface (outermost) layer is kept open ended for further ongoing improvement and development of new ideas and concepts. The approach is not rigid as it is in the book oriented learning expectation of the department of education.

In effect there are there layers of conceptual development.
Layer 1 Students already perceived thinking and ides
Layer 2 The new concepts developed with exploration and explanation
Layer 3 Open end for further facilitation with new experience and understanding

The third layer is kept open in true scientific spirits that what is understood is kept for further development and refinement. With this level of understanding and maturity students could enter what ever the type of further education they wish in their life. It should not be a static and should not end up abruptly at advanced level examination. The concept of continuous learning should be ingrained in the minds of school leavers who are encouraged to learn in their own pace and time rather than regimented time scale as prescribed by the education department.
Before elaborating with some examples that can be used in the class room

I should introduce few of my own 5ES to make the grand total ten.


1)Evidence based
2)Expansion of the
3)Experience of the individual to
4) Encourage true
5) Emancipation of knowledge leading to right thinking and wisdom.

Whatever the field of study one is free to apply this framework of exploration.

My intentions are to promote open discussion.

Butterfly Effect

 12, June 2015
Butterfly Effect
I am one who vent an air
Of protest that
When a few butterflies
Flutter their wings
On my side of the world
Would ignite a chain reaction
On the other side of the world
In the far corners of the globe
In the Arctic or the Antarctic

Come what it may be
In philosophical sense
With a scientific slant
And in an investigative mind
But not to stir up
The potential political undertones
But when I ask myself the question
How clean the clean air?

And when I get the answer
That there are 1000 minute particles
Of dust in every cubic metre density
On this planet
But not in the clear looking Iceland
Or the Antarctic
Gets the credit for
Such an accolade
In this contemporary world
When somebody asks me
Are asking the right question?
Lest you get the wrong answer
Of some sort
By the Coal Power Merchants
Of the modern world
Who continue to discover
The latest technology
To clean my air and breath
Sans how to dispose
The vast amount of ashes and sediment
That get deposited
On this tiny Island Paradise

One who was brought up
With the tradition of zero tolerance
In life and matters of discordance
And purity par excellence
Having forced to go
From macro to micro to nano-tolerance
Of the 21st century macroeconomics
Driving me mad
To go to the outer space
For the safety limits of tolerance
In the Dead Space of my lung
But not the Vital Capacity
Which is fast receding
With time and age

But when I think
Of the virulent fungi
That grow endlessly
In the closed tubes
Of the artificial respiratory tracts
Of the Space Station
I wonder
I could be born again
In another Planet
Outside this Solar System
As an alien being of some sort
Bringing the alien wisdom
To this Island Paradise
 
Is it a wishful thinking of mine? 

Iran May Go All The Way

Yes, Iran may go all the way

Iran knows Donald Trump is planning his weekend escapade.

 

Iran probably is ready to counter attack.

Lebanize are hitting them hard.

Iraq resistance is hitting them hard.

Three frontal attack from the ground.

Only seabed is available for Israel.

It is do or die situation for both parties.

Yes, ground invasion by American forces on a strategic location is a real possibility.

But they may become not cannon fodder but Missile (fodder) Mode with muliple war head barrage over 120.

This war is not won on sea or air.

That equation is old.

One who can last and one who has more missiles would win.

There is no stalemate.

Nuclear Antic by America is a real possibility.

I do not believe Douglas Macgregor's prediction that Donald Trump won't use a Tactical Nuclear missile.

Donald Trump is a desperate man with volatile personalty.

As a medical man I see his brutal composure like an aggressive beaver.

When the sedative he is given wanes off he becomes erratic and uncontrollable.

That is the ground situation.

In that scenario Russian won't sit by since they have won the UKRAINE War.

This is going to be Uresnik Moment or Buresnic Moment in history.

I am not a military man but a scientist.

Above is a plausible evolving scenario.

I wish I am proven wrong.