The hard part of life - to Introduce oneself

Have always found it very very very difficult to introduce myself; hence my kind of people are assigned to the world of introverts. And the worst happened; as is always expected. i was asked (to give a try) to talk on CREATIVITY and much before that to send my PROFILE.  There is a common saying that "shot twice in the same place".

I was lost. Did not know what to do? May be refuse the offer or oblige and take on the opportunity. As a first response, sort of made things up by sending a few lines.

A couple of days down the line, a train of thought suddenly flooded through the "white box" on top. here it goes; mostly in the same order. Heard people say this. Just before the advent of death, we will experience a quick flashback of our life in a matter of milliseconds. more or less i felt like that.

Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. Can human beings create something?

God as creator, designer, scientist. Here goes the hypothetical sequence of events. Starting with creation of plants. by scientific terms, inventing a plant is a huge leap. However, Plants seem to have a problem. By design they have to stay in the same place and take food from the surroundings. How to reproduce and spread. An incremental innovation is to invent birds and birds can eat the fruits and spread the seeds. The next logical invention is the human kind, that can move, fetch and reproduce all by itself. Just that all of them do not look the same (that would would be tough), use the art of genetic mutation.

A dialog from Beautiful Mind movie. Prof John nash saying "accomplished or recognized"

The words from an aged priest on top of Vellingiri Hills, when a few devotees wanted to know the background of the priest - "I am not supposed to say anything about myself. Lord Shiva would be displeased if i did that"

Escher's art which is a combination of art and mathematics
          

Bach's Fugue. Recursive loops. Music and Mathematics

Coming to myself and where do i fit into the scheme of things?
I was asked (ordered) to make a presentation on the meaning of SMART. I ended up with a blank slide and said my topic is "NOTHING". So, this how it goes. I know nothing, gonna talk about nothing, the audience at the end of day understood nothing and on and on and on... that is experiential education on smart.

There was a day when we discussed on the future of software delivery. We discussed about power supply, blah, blah, blah and ended up with a patent on Cloud Computing.

There are lot more ideas that was born. few patented, few of them in the prototype stage. They are still ideas. we cant call it as innovation. Since innovation means - converting ideas to reality; being bought (rather sold in todays context) and more importantly; USED.

We have discussed about ideas and innovation. Now what is creativity?

Let us preserve it for a collective experience. (Creativity has to do something with redundancy).

Hope i have introduced myself. As a closing remark, i had my guru tell me (rather warn)  "Please don't talk. The moment you start talking, You are making yourself explicit to the audience as a fool".

Some quotes for the closing
"If people don't laugh at your goals, your goal may be too small"
                                                                         - Azim Premji

"Great people talk about ideas
Common People talk about events
Fools talk about others"
                            - Anonymous

Innovation is a result of comprehension
Comprehension is a result of understanding
Understanding is a result of guiding principle
                                                     -  me
To understand the above quote, try to decipher from this clue. "So many people saw chandeliers in the church. Only Galileo found the pendulum in it. why?"

Innovation has no age bar

Plantain leaf preservation for 3 years

Happened to read an article in kungumam tamil magazine 02/June/2014 edition about a 12th student from virudhunagar who had invented a method to preserve plantain leaf for 3 years.

It has taken 5 years for him to find the methods and has already won international acclaim.

Tremendous inspiration indeed.

Here is another trendsetter. publishing a book at the age of 13; to promote science and research. Master Vigneshwar.

Never say no in science

• Could not add any more value. Just listing the face book conversation
• 
  
• Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  sir, one small help...... laser cutting is used in industries right? i want to know its mechanism,and finally,i want to know if a beam of light, even if it isa laser, can it be used for cooling?

  
  

  it may sound a bit idiotic, but is it possible to cool an object by passing a beam of light over it?
• 

  4/28, 9:20pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  light is nothing but a packet of energy in the form of electro magnetic radiation

  
  

  this energy is absorbed by the electrons

  
  

  so i do not see a way of cooling something by adding energy

  
  

  and heating or cooling is about motion of molecules or atoms as a whole
• 

  4/28, 9:21pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  you mean vibrations?

  
  

  of molecules?
• 

  4/28, 9:22pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  in case of solids you can say vibration. in case of solids and liquids they move from one place to another

  
  

  sorry da. in case of liquids and gases
• 

  4/28, 9:23pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  mmm get it...so hw is the heating happening in case of laser cutting?
• 

  4/28, 9:25pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  laser has so much energy beyond the melting temperature of the material. so they get vapourised

  
  

  just check if lasers work on ceramics
• 

  4/28, 9:26pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  i doubt it sir..

  
  

  so, does the beam carry the heat?
• 

  4/28, 9:28pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  as we stated earlier, heat is the total kinetic energy of the molecules in solid, liquid or gas.

  
  

  but light can travel through vaccum.

  
  

  no medium

  
  

  hence it wont be proper to say that laser carries heat

  
  

  it is more appropriate to say it carries energy
• 

  4/28, 9:30pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  then, how does it cut the metals sir?
• 

  4/28, 9:31pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  the energy when it is reaches the solid it is transferred to the atoms and molecules. they are set in motion and hence we call it heat

  
  

  ok got your question.
• 

  4/28, 9:32pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  ryt.................. i got it......

  
  

  so only te transfer ofenergy take s place,.
• 

  4/28, 9:33pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  absolutely
• 

  4/28, 9:33pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  mmmmm
• 

  4/28, 9:34pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  the packets of energy are absorbed electrons. they jump to the next energy level and comes back to its original level.

  
  

  it releases the energy and the process goes on
• 

  4/28, 9:34pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  and hence they release energy while the transition occurs........
• 

  4/28, 9:35pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  yep
• 

  4/28, 9:35pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  ok.. so it cant be reversed as i asked...
• 

  4/28, 9:36pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  it is very difficult to say a no in science
• 

  4/28, 9:37pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  
• 

  4/28, 9:37pm
  

  Balathandapani K Ramasamy
  

  
  

  
  

  we have a think a little more and see. there might be some loop hole
• 

  4/28, 9:38pm
  

  Krishna Kumar
  

  
  

  
  

  well, i hav bin thinkin abt dis for de past week and i ended up in dopler cooling and some other stuff in wikipedia , which obiouslyi din understand..

  
  

  it was full of equations..

with this conversation, krishnakumar sent me a link 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppler_cooling

Lesson learnt. Never say no in science

Ignorance is bliss

Every one is talking (at least) about how to learn and gain knowledge. Then how can ignorance be bliss?

Radio mirchi senthil came up with a very good example (06th May 2014) and here it goes.

"Most of the music/tune for Tamil songs are borrowed from other states, languages and countries. if we are a music enthusiast and have listened to lot of these songs, we cannot enjoy the alter ego Tamil songs. As the songs are played we will start thinking about who is the original author etc and will not be able to enjoy the music as such"

nice take

Face S(h)aving

Every day morning, shaving the face (leave alone face saving) is a difficult exercise; at least for me. But almost every man does or is forced to do so and shaving and shaving every day has nevertheless become a parameter for assessing the quality of a person (An irregular routine of shaving represents an inconsistent person or person of indiscipline).

So what it takes to make a clean shave?. A liter of water at the minimum, Brush, Foaming Cream, Razor, Blade and after shave. For the blade again there is a choice of age old single blades, twin edge, triple edge and so on. One day suddenly it dawned that why don't we make a twin blade by using normal blades ( the blades used in barber shop) so as to make it economical and also to be free from a single brand.

Before going ahead and designing one, just thought of checking it out if some one has already made one; It happens mostly and we are not alone. The facts were revealing, surprising and at the same time intriguing.

Shaving Facts
==============
"Alexander the Great strongly promoted shaving during his reign in the 4th century BCE to avoid "dangerous beard-grabbing in combat", and because he believed it looked tidier"

1820 - The first razor seems to have been made in 1820
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor

1928 - The first electric shaver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaving

1971 - Emergence of twin blades
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_razor

1983 - The twin blade system does not seem to have the advantage as claimed
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/174/are-twin-blade-razors-better-than-single-blade-ones
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8074882/

Innovations
===========
1. The safety razor was invented to reduce cuts on the face
2. Auto-loader was invented to prevent cuts on fingers
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-load-injector-razor-155422/
3. The electric shaver was invented to reduce/eliminate water consumption
4. 2,3,4 & 5 blade cartridges were invented to ------ (i don't want to say :-) )

Like it or not, better start enjoying what we do (do we have a choice ?).

Innovation is the key. May be the next possible question would be "First of all, Why allow hair to grow?".

Its good to be Kiddish

Does it really matter if a person is a Businessman, Entrepreneur or a blue/white collar worker. Is there some thing great or not so great about a certain means of earning. After all either of them is a means of survival.

To get to the roots, lets us begin at the beginning. Lets reverse the clock by some 26000 years. I consider 26000 years, coz that is the time the tilt of earths axis takes to come back to initial position and within this time, our earth would have seen the extreme cold and extreme heat rendering life impossible on earth.

From then, that is the beginning, let us start with just two human beings. lets us not argue whether these two evolved over a period of time or just got created in a specific point in time. Let us leave it to the philosophers and intellectuals.

Now the whole earth is for the asking; only for those two chosen ones. No competition. No technology. No nothing. Now a new born baby then, would have been pampered for hardly a year or two. The kids lived and learned what their parents did. Sure, they must have been on their own by the age of 6.

As population multiplied, competition intensified and war was inevitable. Now the children, who could afford where sent for training. Mainly on the survival skills, say to hunt, to fight etc.

Not too sure but should be after Ptolemy in 2 AD; of course influenced by Aristotle, the school-men era started. Probably, kids where supposed to learn what their ancestors had learned and the best was who could repeat what their forefathers said or did. Probably up to the age of sixteen. Literally spending the prime 16 years in memorizing and following. Originality was not expected. The life of Copernicus and Galileo are a few documented instances that we know off. There must have been a lot more.

Now, if we look at the past 2 or 3 centuries, initially kids went to study till the age of 18 (+2). Subsequently another 3 more years where added (Degree). The kid has already crossed 22 by now. As though this is not enough, add another 2 years for a masters degree.

Why stop here? Add another 5 more years for a Phd. The kid is 27. Mind you, we are making 27 year old kids. Through out these years, the kid is being taken care of by the parents. Most parents see it as an investment for their old age. If we try to extrapolate this phenomenon, we may end up with 50 or even 75 year old kids in the near future.

As a passing note, it is said that, in India at least, only 15 percent of graduating engineers are employable. Maybe remaining are more suitable for business and entrepreneurship?

Finally, How does this relate to survival and business and all that. I leave it for you to guess (it right). Let me give a clue. What if a worker thinks that the office space, telephone, transportation etc are part of his pay package? The whole salary now becomes a profit.

So enjoy being kiddish. That is what is expected out of us.

Let me leave with this thought, for the moment

If you deserve
you will get.
To deserve
you got to make an effort.
To make an effort
now is the time.