Rajeev’s Almanack

See also Part 1 Part 3

A couple of thoughtful comments by Biswajit and Miuw on my last post have provoked me to write a follow up. Several points were raised and I will try to give my response to each.

Is Global Warming for Real? I have not made up my own mind mind about this, because I find the Earth’s atmosphere such a daunting physical system that I don’t know any one can make accurate predictions. However, people who know much more about it are doing so confidently so I have to concede that Global Warming must be for real. It is even harder to predict (more…)

The debate on global warming caused by human consumption of hydrocarbons appears to be over. We are told that the polar ice cap will melt. Bangladesh will get inundated. Hurricanes will increase in intensity. Crops will fail. Riots will break out. Anecdotal evidence of the coming catastrophe mounds day by day. A glacier in the Antarctic is shrinking. The NorthWest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (that many generations of explorers looked for in vain) has almost opened up- only 60 miles of ice floes remain unmelted in the summer. The Sacred Phallus of Siva that forms every year from ice almost didn’t appear this year: the Himalayas must be getting too warm. Stranded polar bears have been spotted drowning as the ice floes they are standing on melt. Sea turtles are said to be dying off because the ocean is too warm for their eggs to hatch. (more…)

American businesses compete with each other trying to please the customer. Every employee is constantly reminded that the customer is right, no matter what. So one gets used to being greeted with a smile as you enter, have questions answered courteously and promises kept.

In the part of India I am from, Kerala, things are definitely different. (more…)

NASA claims that at The International Space Station (ISS) , “astronauts are working to improve life on Earth”. Originally supposed to cost under $10B, it has cost at least 30 billion of our tax dollars so far; maybe even $100B. It was given the go ahead even as the Superconduting SuperCollider (SSC) was shut down as too expensive. (more…)

The Politics

Read First Part I: The Theology
For some one outside of the two ancient faiths, the power game between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church is interesting as a case-study in politics: the longest continuing political struggle in human history. (more…)

The Theology

His All-Holiness Bartholomew I is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the city now called Istanbul. He is considered the equivalent of the Pope for the 300 million Orthodox Christians in the world. He is the `first among equals’ of the four Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem who are successors to the Apostles. (Several Patriarchates have been added more recently to reflect the growth of the Church in Eastern Europe, such as those Serbia, Moscow and Bulgaria). (more…)

I need to hurry up and launch my own brand of yoga before the inevitable yoga backlash sets in. It must be distinctive, eye-catching and easily patented. More than a set of exercises. A whole way of life, which will require many accessories. (more…)

Yoga means `union’ in Sanskrit. It could be your union with the universe. Or it can simply mean a meeting, as in a political or cultural gathering. In mathematical texts, yoga means sum. It is a rather common word in all Indian languages descended from Sanskrit.

But in America, Yoga has come to mean a system of physical exercise. It is a mystical and esoteric word. It is also a multi-billion dollar industry, a lifestyle, even a religion in all but name. Twenty million people practice it in the US alone. Like wine for France and pasta for Italy, yoga has become India’s defining export, its brand identity. (more…)

It is difficult to know when it is time to drop what you are doing and start something new. Jerry Seinfeld, the comedian was an exception. At the height of his fame he was willing to walk away from a deal worth a million dollars an episode, because he knew his show had lost its originality. But so few in the political world seem to know when it is time to quit. Some linger on, braving daily insults and votes of no confidence, in the mistaken belief that it shows strength of character.
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I must confess I never quite got what the phrase `compassionate conservatism’ means. So it was interesting to listen to a three hour long `In Depth’ interview on C-SPAN with a Marvin Olasky. He is the inventor of the idea.
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Tammany Hall was the nickname given to the Executive Committee of the Democratic party that controlled New York throughout the nineteenth century. Although it suffered a few setbacks, Tammany remained a force until the middle of the twentieth century. The base of its strength were the new immigrants, for a time mostly Irish, that flocked to the United States through Ellis Island during this time. The tough unemployed youth were the enforcers of party discipline. More established immigrants contributed money and votes. The bosses had much patronage to hand out as rewards to the faithful. If you do a good job all your life as a precinct captain, maybe your nephew would get a plum job as a bridge inspector. That is, if he agreed to pass along part of his income to the party.
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The Jaataka tales are a collection of parables about the 500 lives of the Buddha until he achieved Nirvana, salvation. After that there are no more re-incarnations. The stories proceed from simple morality tales in which the Bodhisatva ( the soul of the Budha) was alive in the body of a lower life-form: a rabbit, an elephant and so on. Until he attains human form and the stories get more sophisticated. Various versions of these stories have been told and retold over many generations all over the Eastern World.
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Most of what we know of the Spartans is from their arch-rivals, the Athenians. So we have to be a little skeptical of what we hear. Still, we know that they were a city state that was dominated by a small tribe of warriors. They had an underclass of agricultural workers,the helots. These were descendants of the messenians whom they had subjugated in earlier wars. The young men and women of Sparta were separated early on. The men received military training. Women received education as well, unusual in ancient societies. Spartan way of life was austere, based on a system of honor that emphasized valor above all else. They are most famous for the battle of Thermopylae, in which a small band of Spartan braves fought off the invading Persian army.
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Living in Rochester, one hears a lot about how science is done at Xerox and Kodak. Xerox was a little better at it, but their experience was still rather painful. It looks like the company has recovered from some of its stumbles and has posted a reasonable record in recent years.
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Mira Nair’s movie `Namesake’ is about a man with an odd name
(Gogol) for an Indian. I have my own situation to deal with.
My name is usually written as Sarada G. Rajeev.
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Vedaanta is the end of all knowledge. End as in goal, or as in the ultimate kind of knowledge. It is a theory of what knowledge itself is. What practical use could it be? Volumes have been written on how to translate the abstract concepts of Vedanta to every day life. The ultimate authority in `modern times’ (only about a few hundred years ago) is Sankara Acharya. His Vivekachoodaamani and Bhajagovindam are attempts to explain this most abstruse of all branches of classical Indian philosophy to the masses; or at least to laymen.
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