Linux Rocks

Linux Rocks
I am still getting questions on Linux.

How I describe it in few words.

It rocks in the computer world.
It is rock solid and secure.
It is modular.
It is portable.
It is flexible.
It is FREE!
 
It can pipe, filter, script and debug.

Few of its commands like cat, sed, ps, ls, pwd are lightening fast commands on a terminal piping or filtering in seconds if not nano seconds. 

Algorithm can crack your password

BBC failed to highlight this fact.

A good program should have both positive and negative comments.

Bum sucking is a political game!

Algorithm can crack your password

I am not a truth seeker or truth hunter but a believer in truth.

The truth is the Internet is filled with untruth and it spies on you every second for no logical reason but for profit for giant corporations as big as Google, Facebook and Twitter.

I did not include Amazon by mistake.

If you look at all are Americans but China is entering with hacker mentality.

KGB did that in the past unfortunately Russian Mafiosi (East Europeans, too) is doing that now.

I came from the Linux fraternity with ethical hacking as a necessity for cooperative endeavour devoid of profit only mentality.

But if one is good in Linux one can use the tools in Linux like, piping, filtering, scripting and debugging the code to save you from somebody using an algorithm to crack your password of your email (may be your paranoid spouse suspecting you).

That is about the PC but your cellphone is the worst enemy of you letting others know every bit of you are thinking or planning for future to exploit you in mid air.

I was paranoid once. An Indian guy snoozed on my computer on behalf of Microsoft and traced him back to his loose Internet connection and warned him.

I never saw him again in daylight or night since I used a Linux script to follow his whereabouts.

That is the only time I had a misgiving with a short password.

My password now is 18 characters long and any algorithm that cracks it, I will give he or she the Nobel Prize in Hacking (Utility).

None of my private stuff is not out in the web.

They belong to me and nobody can violate it.

I used to say if I was born in America due to my inborn antagonism to authority including teachers would have killed me by 20 years.

If I did not rise again the nasty teacher, I had, I wouldn't have progressed, in life and academic cycles.

I am immune to cellphone.

It can even cause tumours in the brain in young girls and I do not mind our politicians getting brain cancers.

I use it for playing light games, only three of them in all.

It cannot play Pingue and Bubble game my favourite games.

The cellphone is your earthwhile enemy, if you are doing some critical work.

Debian Collection

Timely Reproduction

Debian Collection

Posted on July 15, 2011

I am afraid you are not going to hear, I relate, any good dreams for a while and I was under the weather, this time not due to verbal diarrhea of a political variety but really runny bottoms which virtually dehydrated me and the forced starvation had caused even hypoglyaemia to the extent, I have a slight headache even interfering my prolonged sleep on a Poya Day.

What usually happen is I have a good invigorating dream on Pre-poya day and I go straight to the computer and an email to Maha Brhma who virtually responds instantaneously to my dreams.

You may remember, we had an agreement unless the dream content has some humour, both ways my actual dreaming of it and its interpretation by Maha which makes the earthling practically starving of a good laugh, keep amused away from our boring politicians.

Suffice is to say I had some little fragmented dreams of no significance but a good one is long due.

Probably our cricket team’s poor performance and Sanga’s muted Revelations of Sri-Lankan Cricket would get no Sri-Lankan into a good mood awake or in dreams.

I have to agree with Sanga that Cricket was not something alienated with power politics or racial overtones whether it is South, North, East, West of in the Central Hills in the past but it seems under the present regime it has become alienated to extent one who is a Buddhist and coming from deep south only will get a chance to play for Sri-Lankan team as a newcomer and  s/he should be in the ruling party as a member of the parliament or avid supporter to get some contracts to fatten his or her foreign exchange illegally. Corruption is ripe and only difference is unlike Indians our officers are cushioned by political maneuvers.

This is what Sanga could not state (not the 9 O’clock News item) but his resignation at a time when we had not groomed a viable successor, is an indication of his disgust how cricket is managed here in Sri-Lanka.

  Well done Sanga, you come from the hill capital was the only one like our  Late Kadhiragarman who value principles of good governance.  I suppose you should  now concentrate on law rather than cricket. 
 
Be a chip of the old block.

Time will tell who with the political backing will get the baton but who ever who comes with political baton will be sure to fail, since cricket is the only game where power politics has no place.

England has shown us how it is done with transparency and I won’t be surprised if England will lift the Cup next time around if they persevere with combination of youth with talent and senors with grit.

Just for record the criticism of of Trot was unwarranted and he is the one who helped to lift the cup and silenced English armchair critics.

Well done Trot you have more to offer as a Senior Player, if Sanath can play at 41 plus you should be playing at 38 plus if you keep your fitness, technique and solid temperament to win the game for your country right, in the shorter version of the game.

But if you are not up to it don’t wait like Peterson but follow the Thescovic example and play for your county till 40 plus and enjoy the gentleman game.

I hope you will be in the team which lift the next world cup and I will be following you very closely if not the others in your team and if you need a push I will certainly give it, far away from your home from the East.

Make sure you beat Indians this time round in summer like what you did in Australia.

Indian money and politicians are ruining the game and only English can save the game from disgrace, IPL included. 

We should never allow Bolliwood to fashion the game!

Please do not follow Chandimal and Mathews methods and they have learned these very, very bad habits from our politicians who have nothing but using fallen soldiers for their grandiose acts posthumously.

I am far off the target from Linux and Debian in particular.

Reason for diversion is nothing but I am waiting for the download of the last two DVDs in 386 version (I have 64 bit version) which is pretty fast due to so many seeders.

Now I have array of CDs/DVDs to promote Sinhala Linux and devoting my time for Debian during our industrial action which has given me ample time to sit in front of the computer.

Debian has produced bug fixes and I have downloaded them too.

I am gland they have followed my advice to break the distributions into Bonobo to Gorilla versions and Light Weight Chimp Versions of 500 MiB is the one that is going to rule the world for next 20 years with “Cloud Computing” on the horizon and Tabloids invading the market with very very cheap hardware.

I think Deann fork should follow Unity experience while maintaining Linux Mint under Debian fold.

Next 10 years should be the Linux Penetration Decade (LPD) of the masses which is only 1% currently. 
 If Linux can make it to 10%, it is going to be a market force and the other 90% should be the “Cloud Servers” which will dominate the next 20 years until another innovation hits the web.

Freedom, Friendship and Sinhala Capability of Linux

Freedom, Friendship and Sinhala Capability of Linux

Posted on February 7, 2011

I am happy to report that Debian 6 is available with Sinhala graphical installer.

Well. well I am happy to tell you that I downloaded KDE version (currently downloading Gnome version) of Debian 6 and it can be installed in Sinhala but I prefer installing it in English and then using Sinhala capability by changing the language after installation. 

It is install only but not a live CD.

Now I can update you to say that Live DVD is available which is Live as well as install. 

It comes in both 32 bit and 64 bit with Sinhala Capability.

I am going to make them available locally in Kandy and you are free to copy it, install it and send me a comment below if there are any difficulties in using it in Sinhala.

The Sinhala terminology in there was like Greek to me but when I have the free time I will install it in one of my spare computers in my office and see its virtues.

In the mean time, I get a few of my university students who are versed in Linux to try it and give me feedback.

It is advised that one downloads it as K-Torrent and not as normal web browser download (point to point).

Thanks you Guys and Girls at Debian for doing the honours for Sinhala Language.

I have to thank Anuradha (who comes from Kandy) profusely for his initiation. 

 

Please do not worry him he is a busy person and doing some other important work. 

It is time for you to make local Linux Groups and spread the message of wisdom in Sinhala.

It was long time waiting for me but I am now at a different level and carry Linux in a Pendrive and enjoying it as  pastime. and promoting Live CDs.

Visit my blog at http://www.wordpress.org  (Linux for Computing and updates at asokaplus).  

There over 200 hundred versions but many of them are not in Sinhala and many do not have multi-language capability.

I am now more interested in promoting Linux globally and activating K-torrent Groups who are posting and seeding Linux distributions globally for every nation on this planet to use without copyright laws.

For me this as an achievement of a few dedicated Sinhala (not the race but the Language) loving IT Guys and Girls who had devoted their free time to make Sinhala available in Linux.

It was our own Anuradha who tried to Make Sinhala Linux.

Unfortunately he was drawn into Presidential Forces after tsunami and he could not persevere with this project due to his workload and lack of support of dedicated Linux guys.

Our own Rev. Mettavihari (foreign) of course added Pali and Sinhala font and the Unicode version of Sinhala some years ago but nobody took active interest in prompting Sinhala Linux.

Please note http://www.worpress.org has Sinhala capability and it is open source and I have seen a few using it in Sinhala.  

One reason (now there are many) I felt out Microsoft is when it introduced XP there was NO Sinhala in its 40 odd languages.

Please note the note below.  

Due to the lack of translation updates two languages were dropped in this release: Wolof and Welsh.

If we do not persevere it will (Sinhala) be dropped from Linux like Welsh.

Asturian, Estonian, Icelandic, Kazakh and Persian have been added to the graphical and text-based installer.

Kannada, Lao, Sinhala and Telugu have been added to the graphical installer.

 

Spread the message of Linux in Sinhala and Tamil.

Who Developed Sinhala Unicode?

Who Developed Sinhala Unicode?

I really do not know who really developed the Sinhala Unicode for Linux.

I know Anuradha was involved in it before he was pulled out by Chansrika after the tsunami since she did (MR, too) not have an email to communicate with foreign agencies.

I believe she did not know what is an email address.

Malwatta and Asgiriya temples did not have web pages.

My belief is it was Metta Vihari from Narada center who started it.

He also made web connection available for both of the above temples.

He was a foreign (? European not British) monk.

I knew this Thera because from him I got a copy of the Fedora 3 Linux CDs, four in number.

Fedora started the base work for Sinhala and Debian with Anuraha’s help started install instructions in Sinhala.

I too wanted Sinhala font at that time and what purpose I cannot remember.

Typing was painful and could not get a Sinhala B in my initials.

I gave up.

Then there was a guy from my time from Science Faculty, Peradeniya who started a company to sell computers in Colombo well before Windows (DOS age) and I told him I won’t buy a computer from him, unless he gives me Sinhala font.

He started developing Sinhala font and his company went bust and I never saw him again.

I saw to my eyes Metta Vihari (if my memory for the name is correct) sit in his chair with an old computer and getting Pali letters into shape.

He left the country some time ago and he never came back.

I never typed a Single Sinhala letter and even requested Amazon to get involved (they never did).

Of course Google jump started it without typing.

A novelty idea from Google.

You type a Sinhala word, in English key board and select the appropriate word or phrase.

A guy who bought a camera and a English type writer (I still have it in working order) from the first salary in UK would not fiddle with this type of gimmicks but would prefer to type, by the Ko Ko Method.

Above Google method was a lousy creation.

Digital Algorithm

Digital Algorithm

 

We live in an artificial digital algorithm created by Google, Facebook and Twitter.

 

As I have stated elsewhere, it is a dangerous world for two reasons.

 

One it is dominated by America.

 

Two all the information is fed into either CIA or KGB headquarters for manipulation.

Secret service is snoozing on you every second.

 

One can be framed from a simple expression of opinion without intention for committing to that idea.

 

Church and Vatican is also in the game plan.

 

It has fake news embedded in it.

 

Simple example is god is great.

 

Politics is fair.

 

Democracy rules.

 

Equality for women (not a single female candidate for our election of presidency).

 

There is liberty, equality, fraternity (better word is brotherhood but the word has a sex connotation) in theory but not in practice.

 

All these are non functional data gathering for commercialization and persecution virtually and in reality.

 

This is why I say, one opens an email one loses his or her identity and privacy.

 

There is no privacy in the Internet.

 

Only way to avoid is to not to visit it at all.

 

Having said that I have joke.

 

In future babies will be born with cellphones in their hands.

 

I was an early advocate of FREE INTERNET because of its educational potential but I have now many doubts and misgivings.

I was searching for Thesaurus and Cellular Interleukins.

 

Except Wikipedia there was no proper entry point.

 

In any case, I had written about Thesaurus (I have a collection of mini and large sized Thesaurus books, which I treasure) in my private web suite not accessible unless, specifically search for.

 

This web site was built on a www.wordpress.com for free.

In fact, I have over 2000 books and some of them I am burning now (wrong information overload, not worth giving to a third party).

I am one who believes in cooperative mentality that is only seen in the Linux community.

Linux has penetrated every household equipment from talking doll to microwave to NASA space crafts.

 

Google is Linux based but private, by the way!

 

Microsoft can never achieve Linux Feats and now it has joined the Linux bandwagon.

Thesaurus and Thieves

This is just to highlight how Kandy Police works. 

Brought day light a woman's hand back was stolen (9.30 AM) RECENTLY by a known criminal near Heerassagala Junction (near the railway station).

Police did not take action.

People say his records with photographs are with police.

Police protect the criminal not the victim.

Thesaurus and Thieves

Posted on December 3, 2011

16^th of January, 2009

Thesaurus

This is a reproduction which I penned down, soon after medical hooligans (this is in one occasion I was ashamed of my M.B.B.S (Ceylon) certificate) when they came in numbers and assaulted the Dental Students in the middle of the night, gate crashing a function held in the Dental Faculty. None of the culprits were given proper sentences and some are now practicing physicians. By strange coincidence I was invited to a wedding where a Medical graduate was married to a Dental graduate. I did not see any Medicos invited except perhaps few seniors in academic sphere. I must thank my mother in law who passed away 3 days prior to this function and on her account I excused myself from any celebratory functions till three months Dhana was over. Suffice is to say that I have not attended any student function from that day to now and I will keep that vow till I retire. I am getting some devilish ideas and some quotes from Peter Mark Roget M.D., F.R.S would be appropriate before giving the reasons for my devilish inclinations. First of all Mark’s (I am entitled to address him by his second name simply because I am in my geriatric age and he is a medical colleague without any honours from the Royal Family) birthday falls on the 18th of January and he would have been 233 years old. He recorded his outrage for Napoleon and his petty Officers (His father was a French Pastor),

The Tigers of Africa less to be dreaded, are less ferocious than these….. Demons are milder…….be treated than they……

My devilish ideas originated from hearing a tuition teacher killing one of his colleagues and seeing that there is a devilish trend to advertise their illegal trade on billboards around the country.

I get a quiet satisfaction when I see the polling masters pasting their posters over the tuition masters and this battle is raged in the night and my dog does not sleep accordingly. Even though my dog sleeps well in the daytime and I have to come to work and I cannot catch my lost or broken sleep is my problem. The real reason for my devilish inclination is this frequently interrupted sleep. I have noticed my dog now sleeps under my bed (not unless he is angry or frightened). Poor fellow I believe is frightened.

Coming back to Roget why he was not honoured by the Royal Family intrigued me, perhaps he was Swiss and had French Connection. When I think of the the French and how much they contributed to English Language is a common knowledge, he is now remembered not for his Medical Achievements but for his contribution to English Language as a whole. I sometime think that English is versatile today because of its foreign connections. Few quotes are in order but I would not say from where I got them, simply because these local pseudo-English teachers should do some soul searching before teaching English as a second language. They should do some digging themselves instead of copying what I pen down here for leisure.

Every workman in the exercise of his art should be provided with proper implements.

Actor with wardrobe of costumes………

Painter …………..every hue and tints.

An amount of labour very much greater than anticipated…….

A few words for my own consumption are in order.

Added on 22-09-2019

Voter with a broomstick or a Kithul Polla

Politician with a bribe and offshore account

Wife with a coconut handle (not spoon)

Husband with empty spirits

MS with a Baton Polla (he has taken it from police, so police excluded by default)

RW with Pin Saluwa (saffron cloth)

MR with a Bulath Kole (betel leaves)

Deal Dasa with Grease Kole (Greeze paper)

SP with Pin Kate (till)

Lawyer with a Pirith Nula (sacred thread)

Judge with a Wine Bottle before delivery of Justice

The term “pulmonary consumption” for tuberculosis from which disease his father probably died when he was five.

The consumption coagulopathy,

I teach are the by products of this man’s ingenious but hard work.

The compiler of the Thesaurus started his work after retirement in 1840 when he was 61 years of age. In 12 years he (he probably started this in 1805 as a hobby to complement his academic talents) managed to produce the first edition. 28 editions were published during the remaining 17 years of his life. His son John Lewis Roget revised the last edition he was working at the age of 90. His grandson Samuel Romelly Roger revised and publish an edition in 1925.

The paperback edition came in 1953.

He was a chess master and his slide ruler and the knight’s movement over the chessboard without returning to the same square twice were the showpiece and mastery of his mathematical talents.

What have the University and the Education Department done to uplift their spiritual talents except thuggery. When I see this I am less inclined to blame the politicians in spite of my devilish dreams.

16^th of January, 2009

Emmabuntus-Debian Edition

Emmabuntus-Debian Edition
This to say big thank you to Debian Team. 
I get about 5 to 10 questions a day on Linux, which I have stopped answering due to political (boycotting it) reasoning with election heat on in Ceylon.
Emmabantus Deabian edition on live sessions has a pdf booklet (which I downloaded) for beginners of Linux.
It is pretty good better than my book on Introduction to Linux.
So go to torrent (www.linuxtracker.com) and ask for  a copy and download it.
Enjoy a live session.
In fact I have duel boot Emmabantus with Deabian 10 in my laptop.
I have erased the Windows the laptop came with.

Sinhala Linux-Who started it and where it is now?

Sinhala Linux-Who started it and where it is now?

Posted on April 11, 2011 |

I can categorically say one thing for certain, it was our own Anuradha from Kandy who started Sinhala Linux, way back in late nineties and early this century but it went into hibernation after tsunami in 2004 but now it has emerged in 3 or 4 Linux versions I have tested.

They are as follows

1. Fedora 13 2. Debian 6.0.0 3. Sabayon 5.5 4. Hanthana Linux 5. Fedora 15 Alpha ( believe-downloading 15 KDE alpha currently)

My profuse apologies to FEDORA Team for jumping the gun and giving the credit to Debian as the first distribution supporting Sinhala Linux.

I was wrong and apologies are with this little update on Sinhala Linux.
I have dissociated with Fedora from Core 3 but did not use it for 10 versions (3 to 13) for many reasons but it is not the purpose of this writing.

First thing first, it was Fedora 3 that allowed the Sinhala font to be used, and I am proud to say I used it with open office a decade ago when nobody was interested in Linux.

Then Mandrake (not Mandriva) allowed the Sinhala font installation but I was never expecting the Sinhala capability of Linux until now with Anuradha drawn into other work by accident.

I have changed myself a lot and given up all and gone to PCLinux which is only in English and 32 bits version.

Reason being the introduction of Live CDs which it was pioneer from Big Daddy stage.

It has FullMonty and there is a version of it named (not by them, texstar tells me) as apartheid (it means what it says) which has brought bad taste to Linux community (only for white people-Mr.Shuttleworth of Ubuntu must take action now to wean the bad eggs in Linux community even if they are not under his fold).

There is Linux dedicated to Bible and I see no problem with it but Obama in high office this propaganda is something not for the current century.

What I am getting at is, all Linux Distributions including PCLinux should have multi-language capability and I give lot of credit and marks for that. It is now happening in, French, German, Spanish and Russian.

Linux is global and for everybody unlike Microsoft or Apple Mac and multi-language capability is a must.

Coming back to Fedora when I realized that it has Sinhala capability and it is changing fast I decided to download all 5 CDs of Fedora 13 and DVD. I downloaded all the versions of Fedora 14 and I was not impressed and did not check Sinhala capability since Fedora 15 was round the corner.

After nearly 3 days of downloading I managed to have a DVD in my hand and tried it and found the Sinhala capability (I now invariably check for that ability now) in installation. So my ignorance was exposed and I have to correct that right away.

In defense of Fedora, I have all the versions of Redhat from 7 to 9 and Fedora Core from 1 to 3 and now Fedora 13 and above.

Suffice is to say, the most number of books and CDs I have are from Redhat and Fedora even though I did not use it for my work recently. My entry into checking 100 Live CDs was a harbinger and the Rediscovery of Linux Potential and for two years I have been downloading and testing Linux and I am in the final (stage) lap of honours to all Linux Distributions and Communities, especially with multi-language capability.

Not only that I found a Fedora Bible (the book) with Fedora 6 version CD / DVD and bought it to add to my collection and for reference purpose and I am gong to support Fedora with all my heart from now onwards in spite of forgivable misgiving with Redhat Team, sometime ago.

My only concern is that Redhat is introducing so many changes in so little time, will it be possible to have a stable edition like Debian (with many derivatives) for me to use.

I might even consider dropping PCLinux if they are resistant to other languages other than English.

It is time for other distributions to take the lead from Debian and Fedora and take Linux to new heights with muli-language capability.

Sorry for me being political here.

I hate politics of all types whether, it is economic, power, race or language.

Update on Fedora 15 Alpha KDE I have now downloaded and tested the pre-release alpha version and it has no Sinhlaa capability in installation. In addition it has some difficulty in detecting hardware. It appears sleek and my genuine fears already compounded by its rapid change in many areas including file system and program selection make me feel hesitant to recommend for a newbie, especially in Sri-Lanka.

Best bet is to use Fedora 13 and see how it works but download DVD version, (or 5 CD version) and not live CDs (see how it works for you).

This is the same reservation I have for Hanthana Linux which is based on Fedora 15.  

I have not been able to download it beyond 700 MiB but I will keep trying.

Fedroa 13 took almost 3 days with one or two seeds. Debian multi arch is taking about 7 days with one seed. It is painfully slow even with K-Torrent if seeds are not there.

In the mean time I have downloaded many others including CTKarchlive, Trisequel, Astrumi and Puppy and many other small utilities, including sound drivers for Microsoft.

I am also happy to report I managed to download Taylor Swift Swift Linux after about 40 (forty odd) attempts. That was something based on Debian and AntiX (Mepis) and plays a Taylor Swifts song at boot time which was very pleasing. It is meant for low RAM of 256 or so and old computers. Download and try it please if your Internet is fast enough!

Lotus bud that should never blossom

Reproduction

Lotus bud that should never blossom=Trickery

The Tower of Guilt unveiled

September 20, 2019, 8:29 pm






















SLFP’s Secretary Dayasiri Jayasekera will have to give up on his calls for the SLPP and the Gotabaya Rajapaksa team to have a common symbol if contesting the polls in an alliance between the two parties.

President Maithripala Sirisena has now sent the symbol of Gotabaya and the SLPP into celestial heights with the opening of the Nelum Kuluna – the Lotus Tower of political display and pain of expenses.

The Lotus Bud at the peak of the Nelum Kuluna stands out in both day and night, giving a big boost to the symbol of the political forces that support the candidature of Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the presidency, and the hopes of Mahinda Rajapaksa to be the next prime minister.

The same Lotus Bud also reminds one of corruption that was the core feature of the Rajapaksa regime, the failure of the yahapalana successors to curb such corruption, and promote more of such massive frauds in governance.

The biggest farce of the Nelum Kuluna is the absence of the special features and facilities for radio, TV, and digital communications that were the supposed key services of this tower. It is a travesty of governance that saw a ceremonial opening of a building, whatever its height, which did not have any of the key features it was built for. This is a continuance of the Sirisena farce in national leadership.

This tower gives Sri Lanka another cause for pride, having the tallest tower in all of South Asia. This is very much the height of foolery. Modern communication facilities do not need such heights, and the planners of this tall farce in communications must take delight in the height of fantasy that the Sri Lankan people have been led to, in an age of Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Digital Communications.

How proud should we Sri Lankans be at having more of modern ballroom facilities, high class restaurants, one more big auditorium, a museum, and other showpieces of elegance in construction?

This is a display of the farce of building carried out with plenty of Chinese loan facilities, engineering and construction that this country was led into the Rajapaksa-Chinese march to disastrous expenditure. Many of this is seen down South in the Hambantota District, with the Sooriyawewa Cricket Stadium, the Mattala Airport, the Hambantota Port (at the time of its ceremonial opening), and also the Colombo Port City Complex. These great showpieces of the Rajapaksa Regime remain the huge cost exercises for the country, and certainly great profit for the Chinese funding facilities.

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa was quick to issue a statement about the absence of any fraud in the Nelum Kuluna exercise. The subsequent news items show that President Sirisena has not done a proper search of the Nelum Kuluna cost realities. This may be one escape route for the Rajapaksa Regime, but it certainly does not erase the record of corruption that is part of that regime, where Maithripala Sirisena was a Cabinet Minister and Gotabaya Rajapaksa was a key mover and administrator.

There is not much time left to probe all the corruption of the Rajapaksa Regime. Such probes will certainly blend with the huge frauds such as the Treasury bond scam, the bizarrely costly premises rented for the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the continuing rise of Samurdhi expenditure, some of the big dirt of the Yahapalana regime.

The Nelum Kuluna will stand out and rise as the tallest symbol of the corruption that has been the operational principle of governance in this country in the past three decades or more. It is a straight tower of crooked politics and administration – with the lotus bud at its peak having petals that stand out for fraud, corruption and thievery that have been and remains the feature of governance whether by the Greens or Blues.

It is a Tower of Guilt that displays the political trickery and fraud that have become the ‘values of governance’ by supposedly competing political forces. The forces that suddenly think of abolishing the Executive Presidency – after the latest election has been announced, while doing nothing about the related Bill that was in parliament for more than one year!

It is time for the social forces, lining up against the corrupt politics in the coming presidential and general elections, to use this tower as the symbol of crooked politics – as displayed by the competing candidates from the main Green and Purple political teams of today. This will remain a lasting and tall symbol of fraud that prevails in our politics and governance.

The Nelum Kuluna must be used as a ‘Pivithuru Kuluna’ – a Tower of the Clean – that the country needs amidst all these corrupt parties and candidates – especially of Green and Purple hues, in the current presidential poll campaign.

 

Difference between a Physicist (me) and a Priest (you)

Difference between a Physicist (me) and a Priest (you)

I love physics.

A physicist is one who enjoys in abstract thinking of matter (the 5% of the universe we can see) and non matter (Dark Matter is special entity for me) and agrees with a another physicist who has abstract thinking similar to but another (me) or similar physicist.

If another physicist has different abstract thinking to me physicist, we engage in conflict of interest in abstract thinking but I do not destroy his abstracts but I live because of his alternative views that rejuvenate new wave of abstracts.

Neither he nor me be any nearer to the reality, the world we imagine live in but that does not matter because we let the free inquiry takes its precedence.

In the case of a priest, he also lives in an abstract world created by his or her god but he does not let another priest of another imaginary god lives with harmony (very few) or without harmony (majority).

So all those priests live in conflict of abstracts and they die with conflicts.

Whereas a physicist will die in total peace even if he has not solved all his abstract thinking puzzles knowing very well another physicist will take a cue from his or her abstracts.

I have ten or more mysteries to solve or engage in and makes my ripe old age worth living in abstracts but with total Somanassa Citta but not in a deplorable Domnassa Citta that politicians bring to this world with empty promises.

Decimating our (Ceylon) Hill Mynah and Parrots

Decimating our (Ceylon)  Hill Mynah and Parrots

 I did a survey in Kandy and found that in AKURANA and GAMPOLA, Muslim Traders are illegally trading our birds including Hill Mynah and Parrots, at free will.

Gramsewakas, Samurdhi Niyamakas (Ma Ra's appointees) and police solicit bribes and look the other way.

They do not care for wild life.

Their only interest is MONEY and BRIBES.

Some of them are political stooges.

 BBC Reproduction

Bird populations in US and Canada down 3bn in 50 years

By Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News
Image copyright Gary Mueller, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of O Image caption North America has lost more than a quarter of its birds since 1970
Bird populations in Asia and the US are "in crisis", according to two major studies.
The first concludes there are three billion fewer birds in the US and Canada today compared to 1970 - a loss of 29% of North America's birds.
The second outlines a tipping point in "the Asian songbird crisis": on the island of Java, Indonesia, more birds may now live in cages than in the wild.
Scientists hope the findings will serve as a wake-up call.
The two studies are published in the journals Science and Biological Conservation.
Image copyright Gabby Salazar Image caption The caged bird trade could be worth tens of millions of dollars to the Indonesian economy

How have three billion birds disappeared?

Image copyright Brian Sullivan, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab o Image caption Birds are declining in every type of habitat, from grasslands to deserts
The North America study revealed how many birds were being lost across every type of habitat - from grasslands to coasts to deserts. While it did not directly assess what was driving this, the scientists concluded that, among multiple causes, the major factor was habitat loss driven by human activity.
This study, explained lead researcher Dr Ken Rosenberg from the Cornell lab of Ornithology and the American Bird Conservancy, was the first to "run the numbers" on bird populations.
"We knew some species were declining," he told BBC News, "but we thought that, while rare birds were disappearing, the more generalist birds - and those better adapted to human landscapes - would be filling in the gaps."
The team's calculations were based on bringing together all the bird monitoring in North America for the past 50 years - every major survey carried out across the continent since 1970.
"What we saw was this pervasive net loss," Dr Rosenberg said. "And we were pretty startled to see that the more common birds, the everyday backyard birds and generalist species, are suffering some of the biggest losses."
That same pattern, he added, is likely to be mirrored in other parts of the world. And the situation in Asia, as the other study has shown, is a particularly striking case of a human-driven extinction crisis.

What is the songbird trade?

Image copyright Bernd Marcordes Image caption Bird singing competitions are hugely popular in Indonesia
The buying and selling of songbirds - many of which are caught from the wild - is huge business in parts of Asia, particularly on the island of Java in Indonesia.
Back in 2017, we investigated how the trade pushed more than a dozen species to the brink of extinction.
Around 75 million birds are kept as pets on Java. Many are sought after for bird singing competitions - often referred to as "Kicau-mania". At these events, caged birds' songs are judged on melody, duration and volume. Top prizes for the best singers can earn owners as much as £40,000 in the biggest contests.
This culture, however, drives the capture of birds from the wild to satisfy demand. And that, researchers say, threatens the survival of numerous species.
Harry Marshall, lead researcher on this study, explained: "The trade is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars to the Indonesian economy, so it is no surprise that it is a key regional source of both supply and demand for songbirds, with hundreds of markets running across the archipelago, selling more than 200 different species."
Image copyright Gabby Salazar Image caption Lovebirds are popular in the Asian songbird trade
Mr Marshall, who is a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University and Chester Zoo, led a survey of 3,000 households across Java, which is Indonesia's most densely populated island. From this, he and his colleagues were able to estimate that there were as many as 75 million caged birds living in Javanese households.
There may now be more songbirds living in cages on the island than there are now living in the wild.

What can be done to reverse these declines?

Image copyright Tom Johnson, Macaulay Library at Cornell Lab of Or Image caption Conservationists hope these results will be a wake-up call for those who want to protect birds
Both teams of scientists were keen to highlight the optimism among the obvious "doom and gloom" in these new findings.
Prof Stuart Marsden, from Manchester Metropolitan University - an authority on the Asian songbird trade - pointed out that the national obsession with keeping caged birds in Indonesia was driven by a love of birds.
"I think that passion can be channeled into conservation," he said.
Dr Rosenberg pointed to a striking example of bird conservation success as a reason for what he called his "weirdly optimistic" view about the dramatic decline in North America's bird population.
"In US and Canada, it was the duck hunters who noticed a decline in waterfowl and did some thing about it. Millions of dollars have been put into wetland protection and restoration - in order to have healthy populations for duck hunters.
"That's a model - if we can replicate it for birds that are not hunted and birds that people love in other habitats, we know that bird populations can be resilient and will come back."