Thursday, March 26, 2020

Hold On for a Minute


Hold On for a Minute

I am going to be blunt in expressing my views here some based on empirical, some scientific and some gut feelings.

There is a lot we do not know about this pandemic and the herd immunity is well below the potential for containment and my guess work is that once it enters, India and Africa, just like AIDS it becomes a global phenomenon which the W.H.O. won’t be able to predict its final outcome (in developing countries in particular) in the near future.

What we Know
1. Its size is 120 nanometers.

2. Its a RNA dependent RNA polymerase.

3. It behaves like an enteric virus (that is why the delay of 10 days as opposed to 3 to 5 days of Flu virus).

4. It is a large protein with a protective coat hijacked from the host cells.

5. The primary host cell is unknown and my guess is the hepatocyte or perhaps macrophage (provided the macrophage has a receptor protein to engulf it).
 
6. It hijacks the ribosomal protein factory of the host cell (most likely the hepatocyte where most of body proteins are manufactured).

7. It can mutate on its own will.
Why?
It does not need DNA mechanism of the host cell.
8. It can mimic (mimicry) the host cell’s proteins for its own survival and may bypass the host immune reaction to its own advantage and perhaps may even cause autoimmunity problem in some individuals.
9. It has its own protease enzyme to dissect the host protein and may even use the host cell protease for its own advantage.
10. Viral pneumonia is a process when antigen excess over antibody may cause an excess of inflammatory response (macrophage pushed to second place -leukocte response is enhanced- to clear the debries) and an alarming exudate into the lung alveoli.
This is where the ventilators come handy to push the negative pressure created (usually higher pressure created by the surfactant in the alveoli lining mitigates the exudation of fluids) in the alveoli back to manageable proportion by artificial means and allow macrophages to clean up the mess in the lung.
The premature babies lacks the surfactant and adults with chronic cardio-pulmonary disease have more devastating outcome.


What can be done?
1. Treat it like an enerovirus with vigorous hand washing and no touch technique (do not touch possible contaminated surfaces in public places).
2. Self discipline and home isolation over long period of time and physical distancing.
3. Social interaction with a land phone.
4. Cellphone (do not share) is a carrier and there are now UV light disinfectant cases already in the market.
5. Stop all contact sports (close gymnasiums) and use not towels but disposable paper towels.
6. Avoid all unnecessary travel especially by airlines.
7. Wearing a mask is optional (to hand washing) for normal uninfected but mandatory for sick individuals and health care personnel (save the masks for them).
8. Home gardening including vegetables is an option we have neglected (why visit the market for ginger and turmeric).
9. Coriander, Perumkayam and Khohoma are vital local remedies.
10. Hang a Khohomba (an old tradition) leave branch on the front and the back door if someone incubating the disease is domesticated.


Reproduction from New England Journal of Medicine

At the beginning of the epidemic, the estimated basic reproductive number (R0) was 2.38 and the percentage of undocumented infections was 86.0%. Undocumented infections were estimated to cause 86.2% of all infections. Later in the epidemic and with augmented testing, the proportion of undocumented infections fell to 35%, and the R0 dropped to 1.36 and then to 0.99 as restrictions on geographic movement tightened.

Comment

To end an epidemic, R0 must be kept below 1.0 in a sustained fashion. Mathematical modeling of epidemics is fraught with uncertainty given its reliance on numerous assumptions that sometimes turn out to be faulty. However, this study's rigorous modeling data underscore that drastic, prolonged geographic mobility restrictions are needed to contain the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Many countries are currently paying this high societal cost while awaiting the advent of an effective vaccine.

Flip Side of Coronovirus Pandemic


Flip Side of Coronovirus Pandemic

There are lot of positive signs for Ceylonese barring the difficulties for the people who are on hand to mouth existence.
They call the private and public transport, the Eda-Wela Tours.

This applies to Three Wheeler drivers who resist using a meter for the miles traveled before charging.
Most of these three wheeler drivers are government’s spoke-persons on wheels.

They haven’t got anything substantial for ages but do work as slaves to the government machinery in faith but not in conviction.

1. Number one point is no election round the corner.

What a saving?

2. There are currently no parliamentary members or provincial council members causing huge sum to be saved by the treasury.

What a saving?
3. Health ministry can perform admirably to take a lead without ministers and state ministers looking over their shoulders.

If a elected government was in power with so many meetings in every street corner of the country the virus that is in the coastal belt now would have come to the center of the country.

We are relatively free in the center of the country including Kandy since the railways are not running.

Railways would have carried the virus to the Estate Sector where our vital Tea Economy rests.

4. We do not have to listen to the warped politics of Vasu, Dinesh, Bandula and Werawansa for a considerable length of time.

5. I think five ministers in total including Prime Minister is enough to run the country in peace time and war time (Coronavirus).

6. The Coronovirus has shown that though, it is small in nanometers but very powerful in impact.

7. A small government could be more efficient (does not mean a military dictatorship is the alternative. Our military is huge and expensive to run in peace time and using them to packet dry ration is damning. I have no grouse they are helping -directing rather than slaves- the police for proper distribution without pilfering).

8. I think total shutdown of the parliament until the virus spread is under full control is mandatory (saving made by shutdown should be delivered to the health care sector).
The parliamentary members may become a vehicle of spread in no time.

It has happened in Senate and Congress (members) in USA.

9. Of course The election Commissioner and his panel can go into sleep gear for some time.

10. Shutting down TV (they have only Coronavirus news) and leaving the Radio Stations to function is more meaningful (in all three languages).

11. Last but not least canceling the New Year Celebrations would damp down the spread of the virus.
It is the Chinese New Year craze that made it become a pandemic from a tiny epidemic.

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Health Must Be a Centralized Service


Health Must Be a Centralized Service

How America is failing to come to term with coronavirus spread is the focal point in this little brief but how Ceylon is taking giant steps on its own accord with little help from W.H.O. is the result of the Ministry of Health's capacity to rise up to the challenge.

I have worked both in public and private sector and the private sector can never take a lead in public health (private sector thrives on failure of the Ministry of Health) sphere at all.

I see President Trump who comes from private sector tries to overcome the bureaucratic system and take a lead by stopping the flights from China, Italy and Europe and stopping the spread in flight by airlines including Singapore airline was a bold step; while the European commission (IMF included) with its bureaucratic leading from Brussels become a laughing stock of the world (Italy becoming the melting pot of coronavirus with its own mishandling) and make its sphere of activity in Europe the epicenter of coronavirus.

This is not how things should have been managed.

I am not sure of our doctors’ union who was bum sucking a government of late could take any credit but they should take a lead to protect its own force including nurses and health care workers by providing protective gear including masks and gowns.
A raw monk leading a nurses union is the other side of the coin, who are hell bent on striking with a drop of a hat.

Having said that help ministry established by the British was well organized with Malaria Campaign our first success of eradicating Malaria in 1968 (still a threat from imported cases from India) and later controlling cholera, infectious hepatitis, amoebic dysentery and shigella and salmonella (typhoid) epidemics are our success stories of the Ministry of Health.

Small pox vaccine and polio were a success story when I was a kid.

Having said that AIDS and venereal diseases are not a success story at all!

Our immunization strategy is not bad at all but there is room for improvement.

I have seen even diphtheria and tetanus in this country and was a vocal advocate of immunization scheme and introduced Mumps, Measles and Rubella (M.M.R) in the private sector and then the late Ranasinghe Premadasa was annoyed that all foreign guys/girls were coming to Kandy to get their children vaccinated by me.

To his credit he introduced M.M.R in public sector before his demise.

I was failure as regard to chicken pox and I got chicken pox in my second working year and herpes zoster when 55 years old.

However, I was able to successfully introduce Acyclovir for chickenpox meningitis in UK. 
Failing to stop bleeding in thrombocytopenic haemorrhage I tried using hyperimmune serum successfully in few cases.
I give credit to British system (NHS) and their free training of medical graduates and I am against guys (in Ceylon) in the private sector opening medical schools for their kith and kin with money.

Coming back to coronavirus America not having enough ventilators for their patients is shocking.

America was a pioneer in ventilators.

How come they become defunct?

U.K. did not have ventilators in 1980s and imported Bell Ventilators from America.

I was one who was lucky then to use a Baby Belling ventilator in U.K. (mastered its use starting first with CPAP) and big ventilators in New Zealand.

Now this field is taken up by the fully qualified anaesthetists.

In passing I must tell that I applied for a job where a semi-government hospital who acquired a ventilator (late professor Carlo Fonseka was in the interview board and a guy much junior to me representing Health Ministry) wanted to select a candidate and offered the job to a female candidate with no experience.

I took my turn to blast the interview board for wasting my valuable time (I was working in private sector, then).

The bottom line is that Health Ministry should be centralized.

I do not believe in Provincial Councils and decentralized health sector with no coordination.

This applies to Police Force, too and they are doing a wonderful job at a trying time as a centralized force.

For me Army should always be in barracks except when war is declared!

Using them to beautify the city demean their uniform their discipline and status and politicizes them indirectly in the process.

Finance should be centralized and we haven’t had a civil servant in this post over 50 years after late Ronnie De Mel.

Chandika, Mahinda, even D.B. Wijetunge and Ranil and Ravi were failures of big time.

Less I talk about NM Pereara is better.

We are in a debt TRAP now!

Education both secondary and university should be centralized but our education system is in ruins without direction with so many ministers and state ministers.

Current Coronovirus Control and our Malaria Success give us time to reflect on our Centralized Health Ministry which is doing a salutary job.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Update on Coronavirus


Update on Coronavirus

This is in response to a few of my friends.
In other words if one takes a vegetarian diet at least in old age without beef is actually the best way of healthy living.
1. This virus originated in China and those incubating the disease landed in Singapore and entered Europe most likely by Singapore Airline or its subsidiary Airline.
2. Airline pilots and cabin crews, incubating this disease had been traveling all over world before the travel restriction, including USA.
3. It is very difficult to quarantine a patient in a plane in pressurized atmosphere and it is very common to catch a flu on a long haul flight.
4. Few airlines going bust due to credit crisis is welcome and most of the charter flights, the quality of service plummeted but the their income went up exponentially.
5. My last flight by Singapore airline was hopeless and I could not get a extra glass of water from the cabin crew.
It was the young passenger who was seated next to me who came to my rescue and offered me a glass of water.
6. China for its own part tried to suppress the information and one of its doctors who tried to exposed the secrecy succumbed to the virus.
7. Now 7 doctors in USA had died and another 20 infected due to poor coordination of public health information of and its potential danger.
8. Now even Africa is affected (most likely India, too) due to lack of testing agents.
9. In Ceylon they allowed the Chinese travelers free entry and they are allowed (not Ceylonese passport officers) to process their own passports- (nowhere in the world, there is a scheme like this) and only quarantines plane load of our students.
10, Our health officers are not divulging the true facts (bungling by the present governments) about “how late in handling’ the quarantine issue.
11.Closing the schools and universities came too late and I bet our election commissioner will hold elections in spite of the risks involved to the voter and public who would not bother voting.
12. Most of our sports facilities (schools,too) do not have proper washrooms and toilets and the sharing the towel and water bottle, habit of J.V.P. camaraderie is a high risk in this country.
13. In my opinion a face mask is a big risk both of collecting a viral load and disposing (burning) after use DUE to relatively big size of the virus which is 120 nm. 
A high quality face masks are not available even in our surgical theaters, not allowing 15 to 20 nm (that is the size of the small branches of the bronchial tree) particles that penetrate the virtual lung barrier.
14. Most optimistic preventive measure is by washing of hands up to the elbow with soap and water. (The mounting and standing bars of buses and staircase elevators are never cleaned)
14. Not to share cutlery and utensils even at home (how many can afford).
15. Stay at home with early signs of any infection (it is too late in most infections, disease is spread during the incubation period which is six weeks in infective hepatitis).
16. Take Vitamin C (cheaper than fruits) as a habit.
17. No western medicine available but there are lot of Aurvedic remedies.
18. Coriander seeds as a drink and coriander leaves as a curry.
19. Garlic, Ginger, Lime, Lemon, Tumeric (not Wada Kaha) and Vinegar.
20. If you can find Perumkayam!

21. In other words if one takes a vegetarian diet at least in old age without beef is actually the best way of healthy living.

22. Egg is allowed as a default vitamin store.

Below is a reproduction from Wikipedia and I want to make few comments even though, I am not a virologist.

There are roughly three types of viruses, DNA, RNA and Retrovirus (AIDS is an example).

Coronavirus is a RNA virus that hijacks the cell protein production factory the Ribosomes with its own RNA dependent RNA polymerase.

1. It hijacks cell protein factory the ribosome
2. Its receptor is cells own protein component.
3. CD (Cell Definition) classification is yet not well defined.
4. What cells have this CD specificity is unknown.
5. It uses a poly-protein of its own creation and a protease to dissect its own protein components. That leads to relative protein deficiency for cells that are affected.
6.We do not know the homology of the viral protein with the normal cell proteins.
7. If the homology is great the body won’t mount an active antibody production to avoid autoimmunity.
8. Whether it causes protein deficiency and autoimmunity needs to be worked out.
9. My belief is that it is an animal virus that causes no problem for in the animal kingdom but once it enters the humans population it can create havoc.
10. If it originated from a bird avoid eating chicken (starve the virus of its base protein hijacking ability) similarly if it originated from pigs (bigger animal) avoid eating pork and beef (to starve the virus of is base protein hijacking ability).
11. If it originated from bats (most likely), I do not have any worthwhile suggestion to contribute.
12. It is better to revert to vegetable protein like ToFu (amino acid composition is different to animal protein) instead of animal proteins.
13. My prediction is because this virus has a RNA dependent RNA polymerase which can mutate at its own will the epidemic will last at least a decade until the herd immunity takes its toll but by then another virus more potent than this will emerge from a viral laboratory that do do not have rigid protocols and closely not monitored by a regulatory authority.
14. I believe all developed countries and China may be developing biological weapons secretly and science (biological) may be killed by its own science initiative.
Regulation is mandatory!

Coronavirus Morphology

Coronaviruses are large pleomorphic spherical particles with bulbous surface projections.
The diameter of the virus particles is around 120 nm.
The envelope of the virus in electron micrographs appears as a distinct pair of electron dense shells.
The viral envelope consists of a lipid bilayer where the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.
A subset of coronaviruses (specifically the members of Betacoronavirus subgroup A) also have a shorter spike-like surface protein called hemagglutinin esterase (HE).
Inside the envelope, there is the nucleocapsid, which is formed from multiple copies of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, which are bound to the positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome in a continuous beads-on-a-string type conformation.The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases.
The lipid bilayer envelope, membrane proteins, and nucleocapsid protect the virus when it is outside the host cell.

Coronavirus Replication

Infection begins when the virus enters the host organism and the spike protein attaches to its complementary host cell receptor. After attachment, a protease of the host cell cleaves and activates the receptor-attached spike protein. Depending on the host cell protease available, cleavage and activation allows cell entry through endocytosis or direct fusion of the viral envelop with the host membrane.
On entry into the host cell, the virus particle is uncoated, and its genome enters the cell cytoplasm.[
The coronavirus RNA genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail, which allows the RNA to attach to the host cell's ribosome for translation.
The host ribosome translates the initial overlapping open reading frame of the virus genome and forms a long polyprotein.
The polyprotein has its own proteases which cleave the polyprotein into multiple nonstructural proteins.
A number of the nonstructural proteins coalesce to form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC).
The main replicase-transcriptase protein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp).
It is directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins in the complex assist in the replication and transcription process. The exoribonuclease non-structural protein for instance provides extra fidelity to replication by providing a proofreading function which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase lacks.
One of the main functions of the complex is to replicate the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense genomic RNA from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the replication of positive-sense genomic RNA from the negative-sense genomic RNA.
The other important function of the complex is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules to their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs.
The replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses.
The mRNAs are gene transcripts of the last third of the virus genome after the initial overlapping reading frame. These mRNAs are translated by the host's ribosomes into the structural proteins and a number of accessory proteins.
RNA translation occurs inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E, and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid.
Progeny viruses are then released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.


Sunday, March 15, 2020

Coronavirus


Below is a reproduction from Wikipedia and I want to make few comments even though, I am not a virologist.

There are roughly three types of viruses, DNA, RNA and Retrovirus (AIDS is an example).

Coronavirus is a RNA virus that hijacks the cell protein production factory the Ribosomes with its own RNA dependent RNA polymerase.

1. It hijacks cell protein factory the ribosome
2. Its receptor is cells own protein component.
3. CD (Cell Definition) classification is yet not well defined.
4. What cells have this CD specificity is unknown.
5. It uses a poly-protein of its own creation and a protease to dissect its own protein components. That leads to relative protein deficiency for cells that are affected.
6.We do not know the homology of the viral protein with the normal cell proteins.
7. If the homology is great the body won’t mount an active antibody production to avoid autoimmunity.
8. Whether it causes protein deficiency and autoimmunity needs to be worked out.
9. My belief is that it is an animal virus that causes no problem for in the animal kingdom but once it enters the humans population it can create havoc.
10. If it originated from a bird avoid eating chicken (starve the virus of its base protein hijacking ability) similarly if it originated from pigs (bigger animal) avoid eating pork and beef (to starve the virus of is base protein hijacking ability).
11. If it originated from bats (most likely), I do not have any worthwhile suggestion to contribute.
12. It is better to revert to vegetable protein like ToFu (amino acid composition is different to animal protein) instead of animal proteins.
13. My prediction is because this virus has a RNA dependent RNA polymerase which can mutate at its own will the epidemic will last at least a decade until the herd immunity takes its toll but by then another virus more potent than this will emerge from a viral laboratory that do do not have rigid protocols and closely not monitored by a regulatory authority.
14. I believe all developed countries and China may be developing biological weapons secretly and science (biological) may be killed by its own science initiative.
Regulation is mandatory!

Coronavirus Morphology

Coronaviruses are large pleomorphic spherical particles with bulbous surface projections.
The diameter of the virus particles is around 120 nm.
The envelope of the virus in electron micrographs appears as a distinct pair of electron dense shells.
The viral envelope consists of a lipid bilayer where the membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S) structural proteins are anchored.
A subset of coronaviruses (specifically the members of Betacoronavirus subgroup A) also have a shorter spike-like surface protein called hemagglutinin esterase (HE).
Inside the envelope, there is the nucleocapsid, which is formed from multiple copies of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, which are bound to the positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome in a continuous beads-on-a-string type conformation.The genome size for coronaviruses ranges from approximately 27 to 34 kilobases.
The lipid bilayer envelope, membrane proteins, and nucleocapsid protect the virus when it is outside the host cell.

Coronavirus Replication

Infection begins when the virus enters the host organism and the spike protein attaches to its complementary host cell receptor. After attachment, a protease of the host cell cleaves and activates the receptor-attached spike protein. Depending on the host cell protease available, cleavage and activation allows cell entry through endocytosis or direct fusion of the viral envelop with the host membrane.
On entry into the host cell, the virus particle is uncoated, and its genome enters the cell cytoplasm.[
The coronavirus RNA genome has a 5′ methylated cap and a 3′ polyadenylated tail, which allows the RNA to attach to the host cell's ribosome for translation.
The host ribosome translates the initial overlapping open reading frame of the virus genome and forms a long polyprotein.
The polyprotein has its own proteases which cleave the polyprotein into multiple nonstructural proteins.
A number of the nonstructural proteins coalesce to form a multi-protein replicase-transcriptase complex (RTC).
The main replicase-transcriptase protein is the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp).
It is directly involved in the replication and transcription of RNA from an RNA strand. The other nonstructural proteins in the complex assist in the replication and transcription process. The exoribonuclease non-structural protein for instance provides extra fidelity to replication by providing a proofreading function which the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase lacks.
One of the main functions of the complex is to replicate the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense genomic RNA from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the replication of positive-sense genomic RNA from the negative-sense genomic RNA.
The other important function of the complex is to transcribe the viral genome. RdRp directly mediates the synthesis of negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules from the positive-sense genomic RNA. This is followed by the transcription of these negative-sense subgenomic RNA molecules to their corresponding positive-sense mRNAs.
The replicated positive-sense genomic RNA becomes the genome of the progeny viruses.
The mRNAs are gene transcripts of the last third of the virus genome after the initial overlapping reading frame. These mRNAs are translated by the host's ribosomes into the structural proteins and a number of accessory proteins.
RNA translation occurs inside the endoplasmic reticulum. The viral structural proteins S, E, and M move along the secretory pathway into the Golgi intermediate compartment. There, the M proteins direct most protein-protein interactions required for assembly of viruses following its binding to the nucleocapsid.
Progeny viruses are then released from the host cell by exocytosis through secretory vesicles.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

Executioner Parity (Gahalaya Party) of Ceylon-S.L.P.P.


Executioner Parity (Gahalaya Party) of Ceylon-S.L.P.P.

I predict the S.L.P.P will become the grand executioner party (Gahalaya) of its predecessor the S.L.F.P that tried to become the executioner party of the Grand Old U.N.P.
Its (S.L.F.P.) decimations befits its original CRIME of disrupting a party that united all races and religions.
Of course U.N.P. is destroying itself by the son of its predecessor executioner Ranasinghe Premadasa (according to L.T.T.E running without direction-President) who has ambitions but no direction or democracy in mind.
His son epitomizes the his fathers genetic political trade (eliminate rivals).

It is again D.M.O’Crazy if S.L.P.P. comes into power with or without two third majority.
S.L.P.P wants to emulate worse of J.R.J.
History repeats itself, “they say”.
J.R.J. and Ravi J are dead and gone but this ruling family wants to own our democracy by might but not right.
D.M.O’ Crazy and Myanmar type of military government is in the offing.
That is the biggest threat for Ceylon's democratic traditions and it will be reinvigorating militancy (and military by reciprocal gut reaction) both in the North and South.

Are we ready for one party and one religion country?


Five Star Democracy and its grading

First a reminder to our Chief Election Commissioner, that he should ban all public display of posters and overhead hangers littering the country side for over three months from now.
He should advise them to deliver hand bill personally by the candidates (not by stooges).
For his part President of the Country should as the Chief Litter Collector, because he believes in beautifying the country by his own will.
The street painters of the new vogue should stop vandalizing the street walls of the country (wasting valuable learning time (English in particular) of the kids who have artistic talents).
If they want to to do any arts, they should avoid all political colours in their public paintings.
I saw an elephant painted in blue.
They are brown to lighter black are never green or blue.
I had a suggestion that Election Commissioner should ban using animal as political symbols including cocks and cockerels.
Let me begin with the star grading of hospitality trade (hotels) and hospitals.
I can dispense with hospital with one line, “There are no hospitals with any star grade both in private and public arena on empathy and sympathy”.
I sympathize with the few new entrants who start with some stars but become structured in five years and become rigid and frigid, the entire life with money as the only motive.
Now my star system has No Stars as the base line and they go from 1 to 5 with six gradings.
1.Let me start with buses.
Most of the public buses go into no grading with no leg space or room to breath, just like domestic and international airplanes in economy class.
Only five star buses are for the tourists.
2. Come to political parties, most of them hold no stars for over 70 years and they love to display their lack of stars.
Only a few will get one star or two.
No five star parties and we never will.
3. Telecoms industry Lanka Bell (4 stars) and Dialog (3 stars) get few stars and Mobitel none.
4. Water Board and Electricity board gets no stars.
5. Public sector including Education gets no stars.
6. Immigration and Emigration get one star.
7. All candidates from major parties (Not attended schools is a basic qualification) including supposed to be intellectual over 55 who are retired from public service (if they hold stars they should be serving the Universities abroad. There is a dearth of intellectuals in universities) get no stars or one.
8. Most of the politically appointed ambassadors also get no stars.
9. I missed Three Wheeler Drivers (operated by local mafia) spearheaded by S.L.P.P gets NO Stars.
Mind you traveling by a Taxi is much safer and quicker!

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Five Star Democracy and its grading


Five Star Democracy and its grading

First a reminder to our Chief Election Commissioner, that he should ban all public display of posters and overhead hangers littering the country side for over three months from now.
He should advise them to deliver hand bill personally by the candidates (not by stooges).
For his part President of the Country should as the Chief Litter Collector, because he believes in beautifying the country by his own will.
The street painters of the new vogue should stop vandalizing the street walls of the country (wasting valuable learning time (English in particular) of the kids who have artistic talents).
If they want to to do any arts, they should avoid all political colours in their public paintings.
I saw an elephant painted in blue.
They are brown to lighter black are never green or blue.
I had a suggestion that Election Commissioner should ban using animal as political symbols including cocks and cockerels.
Let me begin with the star grading of hospitality trade (hotels) and hospitals.
I can dispense with hospital with one line, “There are no hospitals with any star grade both in private and public arena on empathy and sympathy”.
I sympathize with the few new entrants who start with some stars but become structured in five years and become rigid and frigid, the entire life with money as the only motive.
Now my star system has No Stars as the base line and they go from 1 to 5 with six gradings.

1.Let me start with buses.
Most of the public buses go into no grading with no leg space or room to breath, just like domestic and international airplanes in economy class.
Only five star buses are for the tourists.

2. Come to political parties, most of them hold no stars for over 70 years and they love to display their lack of stars.
Only a few will get one star or two.
No five star parties and we never will.

3. Telecoms industry Lanka Bell (4 stars) and Dialog (3 stars) get few stars and Mobitel none.

4. Water Board and Electricity board gets no stars.

5. Public sector including Education gets no stars.

6. Immigration and Emigration get one star.

7. All candidates from major parties (Not attended schools is a basic qualification) including supposed to be intellectual over 55 who are retired from public service (if they hold stars they should be serving the Universities abroad. There is a dearth of intellectuals in universities) get no stars or one.

8. Most of the politically appointed ambassadors also get no stars.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Wise Sayings

Reproduction from my friends
Wise Sayings

Wife to her Accountant husband
*what is inflation?
Husband: 
Earlier you were *36-24-36.* 
But now you are
*48-40-48.* 
Though you have everything bigger than before, your value has become less than before. 
This is *INFLATION*

*Economics is not that difficult if we have the right examples.*
Interviewer: What is Recession? 
Candidate: When *"Wine & Women" get replaced by "Water & Wife", 
that critical phase of life is called Recession!!*

*Accountancy fact:*
What is the *difference between Liability & Asset?*
A drunk friend is liability.
But, A drunk Girlfriend is an Asset.

*An Economist beautifully explained two reasons for having 2 wives.*
A- Monopoly should be broken.
B- Competition improves the quality of service.
If u have 1 wife, She fights with u!
If u have 2 wives, They will fight for you!!

Wonders before and after marriage.
* When you are in love, Wonders happen.
But once you get married, You wonder, what happened.

Philosophy of marriage* :
At the beginning,
every wife treats her husband as *GOD*..
Later, somehow don't know why..
alphabets get *reversed*.

*Secret formula for married couples...*
*"Love One Another"*
And if it doesn't work, bring the last word in the middle.!!!!

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Going Wireless

Going Wireless
Let me state first that "Going Wireless" is an option freely promoted but never achieved or maintained in this country due to the divisive nature of our politics and interference from India and China.
The range of wireless coverage is poor and not inclusive, in spite of being a island nation.
We should have made satellite communication a goal but India and China are interested due to our strategic nature of our Geo-Position or location.
Quiet accidentally in nineteen eighties, I happen to be protecting a satellite due to be launched by organization spearheaded by 42 countries in the name of I.M.M.I (later became IWMA).
It was sabotaged by India using D.J.V (in the South) as proxy, just like it sabotaged Tamil community (in the North) in this country using L.T.T.E.
I advise President Donald Trump not to believe Indian politicians just like he does not believe in Chinese politicians.

My solution is satellite communication (mind you space is supposed to be non politicized) not wired communication with few heavy duty wireless towers.

Coming to wireless suppliers we have two good local commercial institutes, namely Dialog and Lanka Bell.
I must say I hate Telecoms and Mobitel which was ruined by M.S. and his brother D.S.
They could not provide us rice without contamination of five or more  varieties of chemical poisons.
So how come they advance solid trusted technology service?

Lanka Bell started with CDMA and it provides a good service for the needy. 
It also has a new broadband and mobile router with a rechargeable battery.
The Mobile routers is only Rs.2000/= higher (if you consider the inflation it is cheaper) less than my first solid wireless router I used as a battery charger for my phones with a Ethernet card jacked in with an appropriate (I collected these items when I go to Singapore. They are piled up like our limes and lemons in the market place) plug in jack.

Dialog has a big broadband which is pretty good but do not have a battery and needs to be plugged in to an electricity socket (no wireless connection when electricity is down).
In need 24/7 service and in that sense Lanka Bell tops the list of mobility and 24/7 service.
Peo TV costs four times the Dialog bottom line service.
Lanka Bell is even cheaper and one pays for the data one uses without "Time Constriction" which all prepaid services charge you.
I use a Mobitel SIM ( I was one of its original customers, until Sira came in to ruin it) to link with my bank both by wired and wireless connection.
In fact, I lost my bank card lately, and that day I could not ring the services in Colombo (later found that the telephone wire was savaged by the local road developers and Telecoms failed to repair it in spite of informing disconnection) to deactivate my accounts.
The Mobitel router is a cheap Chinese duplicate with Ethernet wires get glued to the set and difficult to dislodge.

Now I will wind up saying that I upgraded my tablet and Android game console using Dialog broad band and Wingle wireless services.
I will use Lanka Bell on the move.
We do not need Indian or Chines or Middle East suppliers in this country if we support Lanka Bell and Dialog from resources wasted by Telecoms and Mobitel.
Hang Telecoms and Mobitel which are political institutions.

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Free Inquiry at a time of faked(lies) news

Nealy 90 (ninety) years ago, Moncure D Conway, the author of "My pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East", I visited Colombo.
He was a friend of Sir Ponnambalam Ramachandra (then Solicitor General of Ceylon) and together with him Conway went to Vidyodaya Pirivena (destroyed by converting to a university) to learn something of the Buddha's teachings from Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Nayaka Thero, the founder of the institution.
The Nayaka There explained to them the principles contained in the Kalama Sutta and at the end of the conversation Ramachandra whispered to Conway " Is it not strange that you and I who come from different religions and regions, should together listen to a sermon from the Buddha in favour of free thought, that independence of traditional and fashionable doctrines, which is still the vital principle of Human Development?
Conway;
" Yes and we with (Kalama) princes the doctrine of goodwill"!

Free Inquiry at a time of faked(lies) news

Nealy 90 (ninety) years ago, Moncure D Conway, the author of "My pilgrimage to the Wise Men of the East", I visited Colombo.
He was a friend of Sir Ponnambalam Ramachandra (then Solicitor General of Ceylon) and together with him Conway went to Vidyodaya Pirivena(destroyed by converting to a university) to learn something of the Buddha's teachings from Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Nayaka There, the founder of the institution.
The Nayaka There explained to them the principles contained in the Kalama Sutta and at the end of the conversation Ramachandra whispered to Conway " Is it not strange that you and I who come from different religion
s and regions, should together listen to a sermon from the Buddha in favour of free thought, that independence of traditional and fashionable doctrines, which is still the vital principle of Human Development?
Conway;
" Yes and we with (Kalama) princes the doctrine of goodwill"!

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Pencil Sketch of Twitter Nest


It is hard to reproduce nature!

Update on Linux


Reproduction
Update on Linux
SparkyLinux 2020.02

The SparkyLinux team has published a new snapshot of the distribution's rolling release platform. The new media is based on Debian's Testing branch and features several key package updates. "Sparky 2020.02 'Po Tolo' of the (semi-)rolling line is out. It is based on the testing branch of Debian 'Bullseye'. Changes: system upgraded from Debian Testing 'Bullseye' repos as of February 9, 2020. Calamares installer 3.2.18. Linux kernel 5.4.13 as default (5.5.2 & 5.6-rc1 in Sparky unstable repos). Firefox 72.0.2. Thunderbird 68.4.2. LibreOffice 6.4.0. VLC 3.0.8. Exaile 4.0.2. Added the new Sparky public key." The release announcement warns that the distribution's Calamares installer may fail in some situations: " Calamares installer fails if you install Sparky in full auto mode with full disk encryption and a swap partiton; it works fine without a swap partition."

Ubuntu 18.04.4

The Ubuntu team has published updated media for the distribution's 18.04 LTS series. Version 18.04.4 of the distribution, along with its Community Editions, provide optional updated hardware support and security updates for supported
packages. "The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support. Like previous LTS series, 18.04.4 includes hardware enablement stacks for use on newer hardware. This support is offered on all architectures and is installed by default when using one of the desktop images. Ubuntu Server defaults to installing the GA kernel; however you may select the HWE kernel from the installer bootloader.Kubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, Ubuntu Budgie 18.04.4 LTS, Ubuntu MATE 18.04.4 LTS, Lubuntu 18.04.4 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 18.04.4 LTS, and Xubuntu 18.04.4 LTS are also now available." Further information can be found in the release announcement and in the release notes.





Project Trident 20.02

Project Trident has completed its initial move from being based on TrueOS to adopting the Void Linux distribution as its foundation. The Project Trident team have published their first stable version, 20.02: "Project Trident is pleased to announce the first official release image based on Void Linux, available on the Project Trident download page. Please note the Project Trident installer supports four different installation levels: Void: Only the base-system from Void Linux and ZFS-related bootloader packages are installed. Server: A CLI-based system with additional services and utilities installed from Project Trident (firewall, cron, autofs, wireguard, additional shells) Lite Desktop: Everything needed for a graphical desktop install using Lumina. No extra fluff. Full Desktop: The Lite install with quite a few additional end-user utilities (office suite, Telegram, multimedia apps). Note: These installation levels provide pre-defined lists of packages to install for user convenience. The installed system can be easily be changed afterwards using the built-in package system." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.

NetBSD 9.0

The developers of NetBSD, a highly portable operating system that runs across over two dozen CPU architectures, have published a new release. The new version, NetBSD 9.0, improves support for 64-bit ARM processors, introduces kernel ASLR, and improves ZFS support. "Sixth months after the start of the release engineering process, NetBSD 9.0 is now available. Since the start of the release process a lot of improvements went into the branch - over 700 pullups were processed! This includes usbnet (a common framework for USB Ethernet drivers), aarch64 stability enhancements and lots of new hardware support, installer/sysinst fixes and changes to the NVMM (hardware virtualization) interface. We hope this will lead to the best NetBSD release ever (only to be topped by NetBSD 10 - hopefully later this year). Here are a few highlights of the new release: Support for Arm AArch64 (64-bit Armv8-A) machines, including "Arm ServerReady" compliant machines (SBBR+SBSA). Enhanced hardware support for Armv7-A. Updated GPU drivers (e.g. support for Intel Kabylake). Enhanced virtualization support." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.



MX Linux 19.1

MX Linux, an increasingly popular desktop Linux distribution based on Debian and antiX, has been updated to version 19.1. Besides standard bug fixes and package updates, this version features a special build designed for current hardware: "MX Linux 19.1 now available. MX Linux 19.1 is a refresh of our MX 19 release, consisting of bug fixes and application updates since our original release of MX 19. If you are already running MX 19, there is no need to reinstall. Packages are all available thru the regular update channel. Due to the increasing presence of users with newer hardware (particularly newer AMD or Intel hardware), with this release, in addition to the standard 32-bit and 64-bit ISO images with 4.19 LTS kernels, we have produced a third ISO image that we call 'Advanced Hardware Support' or AHS (pronounced Oz) for short. AHS is 64-bit and ships with a Debian 5.4 kernel, MESA 19.2 as well as newer X.Org drivers and various recompiled applications that will use the newer graphics stack." Read the rest of the release announcement for further details.


Tails 4.3

A new version of Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) has been released. This Debian-based distribution strives to help users communicate securely and browse the web anonymously. The project's latest release, Tails 4.3, includes several key package upgrades along with fixes to the upgrade process interface. "Tails 4.3 is out. This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible. New features: we included the trezor package, which provides a command line tool to use a Trezor hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies. Changes and updates: update Tor Browser to 9.0.5; update Thunderbird to 68.4.1; update Linux kernel to 5.4.13 - this should improve the support for newer hardware (graphics, Wi-Fi); update Tor to 0.4.2.6; update VirtualBox Guest Additions to 6.1.2. Fixed problems: fix the progress bar and prevent closing the window while an upgrade is being applied. Known issues: None specific to this release. Automatic upgrades are available from 4.2 and 4.2.2 to 4.3. Tails 4.4 is scheduled for March 10." Additional details can be found in the distribution's release annou
ncement.