Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Myths and Conspiracies in Human History
Myths I can excuse but conspiracies I cannot.
It looks like the entire history of mankind is either filled with myth or conspiracies.
No matter, whether it is philosophy, religion, war, power politics or democracy, there is subtle hint that for success or failure, conspiracy had a bigger role to play.
It turned events in history for better or worse.
But when there is a conspiracy in science and medicine, it is outrageous and deplorable.
I have seen that happening in my entire adult career.
The story is the cholesterol and the saga is coconut oil or saturated oil.
They promoted polyunsaturated oil and peanut oil as a remedy.
It was a comedy.
Highly reactive bonds with reactive chemicals were introduced.
From heart attacks to degenerative disease to cancer to dementia ensued.
Who benefited.
Drug companies and doctors.
American Heart Association was instrumental in the grand conspiracy.
Why I am writing this?
In another 100 years, when our descendants analyze the history, they will look at as jokers in history.
This piece for redemption only.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Nihalsingha is No More
Nihalsingha is No More
But he has left landmarks and milestones in our cinematic history.One of Sri Lanka’s foremost filmmakers, D. B. Nihalsingha passed away yesterday afternoon after a brief illness. He was 77. Nihalsingha was the only Sri Lankan to be honoured with the title, ‘Professor in Cinema and Television’
Having made several award winning movies including Welikathara, Maldeniye Simion, Ridee Nimnaya and Kelimadala Nihalsingha made the country’s first tele serial ‘Dimuthu Muthu’ and followed it up with ‘Rekha.’ The cinema veteran was the founding CEO and General Manager of the National Film Corporation from 1972 to 1978.
Nihalsingha’s parents were veteran journalist D.B. Dhanapala and the late Rathi Dhanapala.
His brother was veteran photo-journalist D.B. Suranimala.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Why Worship with Flower?
This April I had five exotic flowers.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
The NASA Clean Air Study
The NASA Clean Air Study
The NASA Clean Air Study has been led by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in association with the Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA). Its results suggest that certain common indoor plants may provide a natural way of removing toxic agents such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene from the air, helping neutralize the effects of sick building syndrome.
The first list of air-filtering plants was compiled by NASA as part of a clean air study published in 1989, which researched ways to clean air in space stations.
As well as absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, as all plants do, these plants also eliminate significant amounts of benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene.
NASA researchers suggest efficient air cleaning is accomplished with at least one plant per 100 square feet of home or office space.
Other research has shown that micro-organisms in the potting mix (soil) of a potted plant remove benzene from the air, and that some plant species also contribute to removing benzene.
Thursday, April 14, 2016
New Year One Liners
You may add, delete or modify!
No copyright attached
1. No Hair on Konda Kavum
2. No (coconut) Coir in Pol Pani
3. Dead ants (on full tommy) on Kithul Treacle
4. Tooth stuck on a Krispy Kokis
5. New Rupee coin stuck in a Mung Kavum
6. Politician fallen sleep in a Kotta Pora
7. Prime Minister Oiling a Grease Tree
8. President singing Nelum Kavi dressed in loin cloth
9. Astrologer stolen Maru (or Sankramana) Grahaya
10. Pickpocket picking an empty pocket in Nona Gathaya
Monday, April 11, 2016
Blind Fish
I volunteered to look after a batch of blind and partially blind fish.
After nearly 20 months only three are left.
One has total visually capacity now.
One is blind in one eye.
The other is totally blind.
It amazes me how it survived.
It more amazing how it detects me.
The moment I sit next to the tank it comes near to the side my chair is kept.
The blind fish knows I am there.
I do not touch anything.
Probably it detects my foot steps and pulling the chair (gently).
I do not feed that tank (to confuse the blind fish in a way) first as a routine but feed the fish in the main big tank.
Moment I start putting the pellets that sink to the bottom, the two clown fish make a mess of the bottom sediment, and then the blind fish hits at the bottom or the floor in a random fashion and finds its food.
That's how it survived.
I believe the other fish, especially the clown fish (scavenger) gives a subsonic message to the blind fish.
They are all in one community.
Firearm Free Society
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Knoppix 7.7-Magazine Edition
Knoppix Linux 7.7 is fabulous.
It comes in 32 bits and 64 bits.
I had few problems of booting (my fault) it but once running, it was very smooth.
Immediately prepared a Flash Disk with over lay.
You need at least 8 GIB Flash Disk.
I listened to a rare interview with Linus Torvalds yesterday.
He is a genius but very reserved, whereas, Klaus Knopper is both affable as well as genius.
In the May Edition of the Linux Magazine Ask Klaus was missing.
I missed it but he deserves a holiday.
Remember Klaus is the one who introduced the Live CD/DVD and popularized Linux.
I started my Linux with Knoppix.
It is a great DVD.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Comets and Planet Nine
Beginning around 250 to 500 Million years
In this context, evolution of the frogs/toads is very important.
They have gone through all the comet impacts but survived for 300 million years.
Assuming comet impacts were local in nature and the toads did survive in not affected areas, is a simple logic.
But there few unexplained facts.
Amoeba dubia
670,000,000,000
Amoeba proteus 290,000,000,000
Bufo bufo (Frog)
6,900,000,000
Homo sapiens (Man)
2,900,000,000
One of the largest genomes belongs to a very small creature, Amoeba dubia.
This protozoan genome has 670 billion units of DNA, or base pairs.
The genome of a cousin, Amoeba proteus, has a mere 290 billion base pairs, making it 100 times larger than the human genome.
Frogs have much larger DNA.
They accumulated all the genomic features to overcome the adversity is one of my hypothesis.
The second is the ability to hibernate.
Third is the ability to live both in water and land.
The ability to metamorphosis is probably made them survive with mutations.
After tuna fish they stand alone in the evolutionary history of this planet.
There is a little toad in us; at least the five fingers in humans (including writers) have an evolutionary link.
Additionally if they disappear in our nature it is a sure sign of pollution and our soil and water is not healthy for drinking and cultivation.
They are our main bio-indicators.
I suppose Victor Ivan read this at leisure.
When I hear frogs croaking in my neighborhood, I know they are coming to roost and breed on my FREE water tanks.
It is rare to see a tree frog now.
They are the cleanest (compared to rats) to dissect and we used to do without gloves.
Don’t tell the Chinese and Koreans who come here to visit that we have frogs.
In a decade we will exterminate the frog population.
Dogs (Victor is worried about stray dogs) flesh and toads are their delicacies.
Every Kilo of beef we spend 8 to16 kilos of grain which is enough to supplement protein deficiency in our children.
During Sirima's time we designed the Thriposha.
I know one company in this country has taken the lead and produce healthy and nutritious snacks from grains.
We don’t need to kill or for that mater rear goose or chicken.
Chicken is the most unhealthy meat of all stuffed with hormones that cause breast cancer in young females.
Latest
11 Million Years ago
38 Million years
66 Million years
Next
In 16 million years
In my book Ceylon and its Origin, I have used the above information to formulate, the formation of two or three plateaus (peneplains) and the hill country, as a hypothesis.
But I am more interested in our prehistory which our ancient Buddhist monks have deliberately erased (probably by the instruction of the Kings and Queens) by vandalizing and turning the caves into ashen remains or temples.
We have few remains of our prehistoric man.
I believe they were decimated by design of by natural disasters (small pox or even measles brought in by the invaders).
I believe the former since the lack of remains explains the erasing of the ancient history by design.
The ancient man never evolved here (not enough time) but have come by sea.
There was no link to Indian subcontinent then.
From where did they come from?
That is my question to the anthropologists.
In this period we did not have comets to explain extinction.
Comets
Whitmire already showed back in 1985 — when he first started looking into the possibility of Planet Nine-related comet barrages — that the pattern held for at least the last 250 million years. Newer research suggests that these barrages may actually have been happening for as much as 500 million years, and quite possibly longer.
The latest comet shower is thought to have occurred around 11 or so million years ago, around the time of the Middle Miocene mass extinction.
Before that, similar events were thought to have occurred around 38 and 66 million years ago, the latter thought to be the comets that killed off the dinosaurs.
Don’t ring the alarm bells though for the next bombardment. Humankind will likely be dramatically evolved (if hopefully not long gone) by the time Planet Nine passes through the Kuiper Belt again. “Modern man doesn’t have worry about the next comet shower for 16 million years,” Whitman quipped.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Renaissance
After reading Victor Ivan’s article I felt like reproducing a piece of a chapter called Plant Watching (written for for elder statesmen).
Since Victor also fall into elder statesman category it is worth for his reading too.
I got interested in water lillies over the past three years and found it extremely difficult to make them flower.
After two years of waiting time, just yesterday, I noticed that there were two of them about to flower.
Mind you I look at them daily when I feed the fish.
The flowering is timed by a weather cycle (including ambient temperature) exacting to nano seconds, is my gut feeling.
They have over 20 odd sensing mechanism,even modern scientists have failed to work out.
We have only five.
Evolution has made us upright but without three mirrors we cannot drive a bus or a lorry.
We can run forward but we cannot run backwards. or turn sidewards abruptly.
I think even elephants so big can turn sidewards if they wanted.
If we believe god had created (which is totally untrue) us he has made lot of mistakes including not being able to understand plant senses.
Without plants this world cannot exist.
They were the first to evolve.
We had over 2000 rice varieties to suit any weather (including probably global warming) in this country.
Because of our wrong agriculture policy we have lost all but 50.
America killed the Philippines Rice Industry and now the farmers (two were killed recently in riots) are fighting for a meal.
Before they killed the rice industry they took away all the genetic material and stored them in super-coolers.
Plant Sense
Plants, unlike animals, do not have ears, eyes, or tongues to help them feel and acquire information from their environment. But they do sense their environment in other ways and respond accordingly. Scientists have shown that plants can detect various wavelengths and use colors to tell them what the environment is like. When a plant grows in the shadow of another, it will send a shoot straight up towards the light source. It has also been shown that plants know when it is day and when it is night. Leaf pores on plants open up to allow photosynthesis during the daytime and close at night to reduce water loss. Plants also respond to ultraviolet light by producing a substance that is essentially a sunscreen so that they do not get sunburned.
Plants can sense weather changes and temperatures as well.
Plants have specific regulators, plant hormones, minerals and ions that are involved in cell signaling and are important in environmental sensing. In fact, without these, the plants will not grow properly.
Here are some examples of plant signaling.
1. Plant shoots grow up and roots grow down because they are responding opposite to the force of gravity. Shoots grow in the opposite direction of gravity (up) while roots grow towards gravity (down). The root cap senses force of gravity, transforms that information into a signal regulated by hormones and ions that the growing region of the root can understand.
Scientists still do not know exactly what the signal is.
This signaling results in one side of the root growing faster than the other, so the root curves downward.
2. Plants also respond to wind or touch.
If plants are in a windy spot they build thicker and tougher wind resistant stems. They can also sense when insects are on them. This can cause them to produce a chemical defense system.
The six authors—among them Eric D. Brenner, an American plant molecular biologist; Stefano Mancuso, an Italian plant physiologist; FrantiÅ¡ek BaluÅ¡ka, a Slovak cell biologist; and Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh, an American plant biologist—argued that the sophisticated behaviors observed in plants cannot at present be completely explained by familiar genetic and biochemical mechanisms. Plants are able to sense and optimally respond to so many environmental variables—light, water, gravity, temperature, soil structure, nutrients, toxins, microbes, herbivores, chemical signals from other plants—that there may exist some brain like information processing system to integrate the data and coordinate the plant’s behavioral response.
The authors pointed out that electrical and chemical signaling systems have been identified in plants which are homologous to those found in the nervous systems of animals. They also noted that neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate have been found in plants, though their role remains unclear.
Indeed, many of the most impressive capabilities of plants can be traced to their unique existential predicament as beings rooted to the ground and therefore unable to pick up and move when they need something or when conditions turn unfavorable.
The “sessile life style,” as plant biologists term it, calls for an extensive and nuanced understanding of one’s immediate environment, since the plant has to find everything it needs, and has to defend itself, while remaining fixed in place.
A highly developed sensory apparatus is required to locate food and identify threats.
Plants have evolved between fifteen and twenty distinct senses, including analogues of our five:
Smell and taste (they sense and respond to chemicals in the air or on their bodies);
Sight (they react differently to various wavelengths of light as well as to shadow);
Touch (a vine or a root “knows” when it encounters a solid object);
It has been discovered, even sound.
In a recent experiment, Heidi Appel, a chemical ecologist at the University of Missouri, found that, when she played a recording of a caterpillar chomping a leaf for a plant that hadn’t been touched, the sound primed the plant’s genetic machinery to produce defense chemicals. Another experiment, done in Mancuso’s laboratory and not yet published, found that plant roots would seek out a buried pipe through which water was flowing even if the exterior of the pipe was dry, which suggested that plants somehow “hear” the sound of flowing water.
At least it can sense the vibration.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Why I have stopped writing about Linux?
09-04-2016
I have stopped writing about Linux (this site is named Linux 100) mainly because of the popularity of the smartphones.
Smartphone is a minicomputer and is slowly outstripping the PC Market.
Reason for listing the history is to show how Linux contributed to IT industry and how Microsoft tried to kill Linux by various alliances (Novel included).
1. Android is Linux based (has taken over the place of Apple iPhone).
Microsoft is NOW struggling to enter the phone market.
2. Unlike Apple and Microsoft, Linux has many desktops from minimal to heavy (KDE).
I love Gnome but now Xfce4 is almost becoming the standard due to its low usage (fast) of resources.
3. Server market is dominated by Linux.
4. The cloud can be easily managed by Linux.
5. The story is when one cannot kill, one has to embrace it.
Microsoft is lately doing it to survive in the Cloud Market.
The bottom line is if you have money buy the elegant iPhone.
If you are low in budget or want a second smartphone by an Android and not a Microsoft (you have to pay for every little thing you download).
Of course you have Samsung (again Linux derivative) as an attractive design.
In the meantime F-Droid free software version of Android is building up its repertoire of software.
Linux is all over the place and Microsoft cannot monopolize.
I am one of those guys who used Linux exclusively and pity the guys who pay for a product which is out of date.
History of Linux
Reproduction
1991:
The Linux kernel is publicly announced on 25 August by the 21-year-old Finnish student Linus Benedict Torvalds.
1992:
The Linux kernel is relicensed under the GNU GPL. The first Linux distributions are created.
1993:
Over 100 developers work on the Linux kernel. With their assistance the kernel is adapted to the GNU environment, which creates a large spectrum of application types for Linux. The oldest currently (as of 2015) existing Linux distribution,
Slackware, is released for the first time. Later in the same year, the Debian project is established. Today it is the largest community distribution.
1994:
Torvalds judges all components of the kernel to be fully matured: he releases version 1.0 of Linux. The XFree86 project contributes a graphical user interface (GUI).
Commercial Linux distribution makers Red Hat and SUSE publish version 1.0 of their Linux distributions.
1995:
Linux is ported to the DEC Alpha and to the Sun SPARC. Over the following years it is ported to an ever greater number of platforms.
1996:
Version 2.0 of the Linux kernel is released. The kernel can now serve several processors at the same time using symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), and thereby becomes a serious alternative for many companies.
1998:
Many major companies such as IBM, Compaq and Oracle announce their support for Linux.
The Cathedral and the Bazaar is first published as an essay (later as a book), resulting in Netscape publicly releasing the source code to its Netscape Communicator web browser suite.
Netscape's actions and crediting of the essay brings Linux's open source development model to the attention of the popular technical press.
In addition a group of programmers begins developing the graphical user interface KDE.
1999:
A group of developers begin work on the graphical environment GNOME, destined to become a free replacement for KDE, which at the time, depends on the, then proprietary, Qt toolkit.
During the year IBM announces an extensive project for the support of Linux.
2000:
Dell announces that it is now the No. 2 provider of Linux-based systems worldwide and the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line.
2002:
The media reports that "Microsoft killed Dell Linux"
2004:
The XFree86 team splits up and joins with the existing X standards body to form the X.Org Foundation, which results in a substantially faster development of the X server for Linux.
2005:
The project openSUSE begins a free distribution from Novell's community.
Also the project OpenOffice.org introduces version 2.0 that then started supporting OASIS OpenDocument standards.
2006:
Oracle releases its own distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Novell and Microsoft announce cooperation for a better interoperability and mutual patent protection.
2007:
Dell starts distributing laptops with Ubuntu pre-installed on them.
2009:
RedHat's market capitalization equals Sun's, interpreted as a symbolic moment for the "Linux-based economy".
2011:
Version 3.0 of the Linux kernel is released.
2012:
The aggregate Linux server market revenue exceeds that of the rest of the Unix market.
2013:
Google's Linux-based Android claims 75% of the smartphone market share, in terms of the number of phones shipped.
2014:
Ubuntu claims 22,000,000 users.
2015:
Version 4.0 of the Linux kernel is released.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Happy People
Happy People
I just got into a happy mood and decided to do a survey of happy jobs.
I have listed two of them and two unspecified jobs.
In my life, I have gone through many jobs mentioned here but none of them made me really happy.
I became happy by leaving an unhappy job and finally became totally happy when I retired.
So one way to be happy is to leave an unhappy job.
You cannot do that if you have kids.
To be single as long as one can manage is another way to be happy.
So when you get married do not expect to get happiness as a bonus.
One thing good about marriage is one can share unhappiness with similarly unhappy partner.
It is actually a good therapeutic to know there are other unhappy people.
Let me give an example when India loses in cricket we become happy knowing there are 2 billion unhappy Indians.
It does not work other way round, since there are only 20 millions unhappy people on this side of the Palk Straight, when we lose.
Small is beautiful in one way or the other.
Come back to my analysis there are no lawyers, judges or bankers in the happy list.
I will leave you to work out why they are unhappy.
One clue is they make happy people unhappy.
1. Judge gives a judgment against you.
2. Lawyer takers the money and make you lose the case.
3. Bankers give you an unwieldy loan, the first time you meet them which cannot be paid in your life time.
If you are in a happy job make sure that you never meet the above three in your life.
Come to think about it, I feel animals are much happier than humans.
1. In my opinion happiness is a relative concept.
2. I prefer the neutral perspective (neither happy nor unhappy).
3. It is a spontaneous reaction of well being related to some volition (action) that makes the mind recharges itself but unfortunately, one wants more and more of it (food, alcohol, nicotine, cigarettes).
4. This urge for more brings in a cycle of unhappiness.
That is why I say happiness is relative concept.
5. There are rearrangements of happy and unhappy networks and chemicals in one's brain.
6. Feeling down is part of the cycle (one should not change with drugs-unless insight is lost) some have long happy periods and short unhappy cyccles.
It is like day and night.
7. Sleep (not induced by alcohol or drugs) is the one that interrupts this cycle and rejuvenate the brain neurotransmitter activity.
8. First five minutes after waking up in the morning, is the most important period, we generally mess it up by going for coffee or tea (some alcohol) or opening up an argument.
9. One should use this five minutes, even while brewing the tea, for moment meditation (react with the water that is cold, boils and makes a fine cuppa) or Metta meditation.
10. If one cultivates the above, on a regular basis, creativity returns to your life.
Every day becomes a happy day at least for five minutes.
That is the beginning.
BUT if you can be neither happy nor unhappy, that is the GOLD Standard.
I think I should list the people who are not in the lists below first.
Not in the List
1. Sportsmen and Women
2. Comedians
3. Cartoonists
4. Satirists
5. Bankers
6. Lawyers
7. Judges
9. Politicians
10. Priests
Happy Jobs
1. Engineer
2. Hairdresser/Barber
3. Teacher
4. Nurse
5. Marketers and PR People
6. Medical Practitioner
7. Gardener
8. Scientist
9. Plumber
10. Personal Assistant
No. 1 Principal
No. 2 Executive Chef
No. 3 Loan Officer
No. 4 Automation Engineer
No. 5 Research Assistant
No. 6 Oracle Database Administrator
No. 7 Website Developer
No. 8 Business Development Executive
No. 9 Senior Software Engineer
No. 10 Systems Developer
Construction worker
Personal assistant
Unhappy Jobs
No. 1 Security Guard
No. 2 Merchandiser
No. 3 Salesperson
No. 4 Dispatcher
No. 5 Clerk
No. 6 Research Analyst
No. 7 Legal Assistant
No. 8 Technical Support Agent
No. 9 Truck Driver
No. 10. Customer Service Specialist