Elections everlasting!

With the final week of the US election coming up, the world turns to watch the oldest democracy select who will become probably the most powerful man on Earth, possibly the most powerful man ever. With many crises all coming to head in this generation or possibly the next, this president is at a crossroads of sorts that will decide the fate of future generations. This time we are at the nexus of many crises including the financial one right now which has reared its ugly head. By crises I mainly mean the raw materials crisis, the environmental crisis, the financial crisis, the globalization and population crisis to name a few. The POTUS, is at a state where he has to define policy on all these issues, and most of them have to be far reaching ones. The next policies he defines might be as important as the Constitution or the Bill of Rights itself. How America conducts its domestic and international policies over the next four or eight will affect almost every nation on the planet. With the financial crisis which has brought almost the entire economy to a standstill across the globe, how America can revitalize industries is going to be looked at very carefully. I mean the financial crisis has brought about a lot of comparisons with Greek tragedies. The financial wunderkind often being referred to as the gods of Mount Olympus, and how they looked down and ruled the financial world, or as Icarus who went too near the sun, or Pandora’s  Box. This being the case, we could call this the Gotterdammerung, a dusk of the gods if you will. Any number of clichés or statements however will not fix the crisis that the world finds itself in. No matter the rhetoric used by the news networks as describing scenes of Wall Street as a bloodbath or cataclysmic destruction of the universe, the events that unfold still happen. To fix this crisis requires a monumental effort on part of the US government and the US President. They will have to restore faith in the market system that they has eroded over the last couple of months. No doubt that President Roosevelt in 1932 faced a similar quandary after the Great Depression which happened during Herbert Hoover’s time. It took the US 15 years to return to the financial status of 1929, and it took a world war for that to happen. However, short of a major positive jolt to the system, this seems unlikely to be the case now. At the time Roosevelt initiated a public transportation building system that employed thousands to build roads and infrastructure that have lasted through the century. Now the new President will have to find some way to keep people moving, to have them contribute to the world’s largest economy. The drive by both candidates to keep jobs in America might be such a move, but it would be detrimental to the globalized world. By withdrawing jobs away from other countries, it would set the emerging nations economies back a couple of notches. However, that might be the best move to revitalize their own economy. I think we now are seeing a gradual shift back to the nationalism that was present in the hey days of the 19^th century in Europe. The new worlds to conquer in the information age now are knowledge, a smart workforce, and natural resources. It could lead back to the times when statesmen who were supposed to think long term substituted short term gains for longer term ends and failed to sustain their states through the 19^th century as many empires fell with the end of that particular century. Now with the culmination of the financial crisis taking place we see a return to that kind of nationalism that eventually led to two world wars. Anyway, with the election about to start in eight hours, I guess its time to call the election and make a prediction. Everyone has one anyway.

My prediction is that the Gallup polls are wrong and that McCain will win in a closely contested election which will see Obama winning the popular vote but losing the electoral vote. The problem with the Gallup polls and all is that most people do not honestly answer the surveys in fear of revealing their own vote or appearing racist in this case I feel. Also they are limited in the people they survey amongst. I see a continuation of the Republican government for the next four years. I see America electing a person of great stature who gave his life for his country in Vietnam and has a varied experience in the Senate. Generally, most Americans are Conservatives at heart and would elect a Republican into office. Also, America has never changed parties in the middle of wars, even Lincoln who supposedly had 27% approval rating in the middle of Civil War was reelected President. Lyndon B Johnson, who instigated the Vietnam War, was also reelected to office. So I think we shall see McCain in office for the next four years atleast.

Chapter 2

“That is the last of what we know of what happened with Commander Mitt’s mission. What you have all witnessed was what we could piece together from Beagle’s headset. The rest is a blur, and what we have witness of the intruder is only evidenced by the red light. As you can see from Beagle’s headset, the enemy’s ship is of a size unfathomable even to those of us who have advanced since the days we were bound to stay on Earth. I have called each one of you here, since this affects us all, not only in our business and shared interests, but that we each of us represent a sizeable portion of the Confederation and can take decisions rapidly. Make no mistake, this is an unprecedented event of the likes that could define our very sense of what it is to be human.”

With that President Zachary Wolf, inventor of the hyper wormhole transportation, and sole holder of all rights to it, took a seat in the Council, now controlled by the ruling dynasties. They were all here, the major ones at least, the ones whose very word was law on each of his own planets and a mere glance from them could elevate a person to high status or erase him to oblivion. All of them equals here, all controlling various parts of the intricate workings of the Confederation. They were more like feudal lords in their own right, with more power than any king could hope for, but they ruled justly and for centuries, peace had been the foremost concern, as poverty, aging, disease and other such appalling things had been eradicated and bringing new freedom to man. However economics was the one thing that bound all humans and these men as they were represented the brightest and the climax of what humanity had achieved. The Konark dynasty with its control of all shipping, Marlon with its terraforming capabilities, and the other dynasties Geriac, Wedenstra, Micsola, and Omicra made up this council.

“Well, its not one that I have built. That kind of scale would take centuries just to make plans for it. Its as large as a small moon. Makes the Deathstar from the old Earth movies a joke.” Mark Konark, the head of the Konark dynasty, was immediately  fascinated that such a thing could exist. He had been working on building larger ships to free man of planets and roam the stars, but this was beyond his wildest dreams. Already he could see himself retooling his factories to work out his plans. However, the loss of his ship troubled him that he lost some his best men working on them. The Interstellar Navy, technically which worked for the Confederation, was a direct extension of his empire, as he supplied all the ships.

“Gentlemen, I think we can say without a reasonable doubt that this ship, is not human, and is definitely alien. We have encountered alien species here in this Galaxy, but none of them sentient enough to raise a concern. This is something that we have not planned for, and have no contingency for that an alien species far more advanced than us, could be violent enough to wipe out an entire squadron, without attempting to raise any contact.”

“Zach, can you venture a guess on how this alien ship moves? To make a hyper wormhole jump, calculations take us normally hours before we execute it. We try to make sure to avoid ending up in a star, yet this apparently dormant ship powered up and left, before we could make any moves.”

“To answer your question Mark, I would have to say that this makes my theories a joke. I cannot answer your question in this lifetime or the next. I can take a look at that video all I want, but its not going to get us anywhere. Until that thing reveals itself to us, we have nothing to go upon. The only thing I can say looking at the quantum subspace fluctuation that took place before the ship powered up, is that the ship deals with the fabric of space-time itself. Its almost as if that the ship is part of the space itself. With that kind of powers, for all we know, it could be God or anything it chooses to be. Also remember the planets, they had to be made. No way that the planets be so round, or placed so vicariously with those double stars. We have to assume that this alien has planet building capabilities. Consequently, with the power to build, they also have the power to destroy.” With that, a chill could be felt within the room. It had been a while since these men had to deal with such a situation. Centuries of peace had convinced them that war was an anachronism, and that fighting for material was outdated. But an alien fighting them without any motive and with the power to destroy humanity or a significant part of it was frightening enough.

“Mr. President, should we start with weapons research again? Just to make sure we have something that we can counter with? I for one would feel a lot safer, knowing that some defense is possible against the indefensible. We may not be able to fully defend ourselves but at the very least force them to come to the negotiating table or preserve a part of humanity that could continue.” A babble of voices came to the fore as Zach watched the lively debate. Starting weapons research would end the centuries old ban to weapons for destruction, however he couldn’t see any way around it. No doubt that the Omicra dynasty would profit from this, but at this level, profit was no longer a motive.

“I call the vote, the Confederation starts weapons research with an intent to defend the human race from extinction.” As each raised their hands, the dice was thrown and Zach could think of a line he had read a child in a distant past. “The moving hand writes and having writ gestures.”

“Next item, how do we handle this with the rest of the planets? Surely we should tell them about it?” Wedenstra were known as the peacemakers, as they had successfully convinced the warring factions of Earth to give up their weapons to herald the beginning of the Pax Wedenstra as it was now known. They had been great statesmen, and would always probably remain so, thought Zach cynically.

“I propose that we do a limited statement release to the people explaining that the squadron was investigating an unknown phenomenon in those planets and that an accident caused the subsequent destruction. We need to hold for some time before making any rash statements. Obfuscate reality for now, to ensure a safe future. Outside this council, I don’t think anyone needs to know about this incident.” Small wonder that it came from the Omicra dynasty, as the others exchanged looks across the table. It would mean that they would have a larger say at this table, but it was the only course of action as they saw it.

“We shall keep in regular contact until the next such incident occurs and I hope that it is not within our lifetime that such an event comes to pass. However, at this point of time, we are the best equipped and the most able minded to handle such a crisis, and I intend to see that the Council is up to the mark.” Zach had been president for four hundred years, not only because of his hyper wormhole transport system but also for his ability to convince the rest of the Council of its usefulness towards mankind in general. No oligarchy in history ever had such power and none ever would. “I urge all of you to use your discretionary powers that are available to you in keeping this under wraps until we are ready. My own planet will provide any amount of resources that you will all need to survive this. With the survival of our race at stake, I pledge with all my life that we shall overcome this obstacle.”

Far away from that room, in the outer reaches of spaces, an unknown ship emerged as if just created, from a hostile situation it just encountered. For a million years it had hid, but never forgot what had forced it into hiding. Within the confines of this ship, it survived through the ages, ever adding to itself, ever growing in its consciousness as it reached out across the stars looking for any enemies. With the encounter of the small rafts it had fled the scene after destroying, fearful that finally they had caught up to it. It seemed so long ago, but just a blink of an eye for its life. Breaking off from the F’rmo’gyhs it had forged a life of its own. It knew that it was the climax of its civilization that had taken to the stars, building themselves into the very fabric of space, with its ability to create stars and planets, controlling galaxies to shape and bend to their will. The civil war that had started had lasted for millions of years, fought across galaxies and planets, till the very end when it watched the remnants of the splintered groups burn, it fled across the universe, to hide and fight another day. Shutting itself, and watching the universe go by had been the hardest thing to do, but it was the only thing left for it to do and go on survive. Sure that inactivation was the only mode of survival, it had gone on for eons waiting for a signal, waiting to be found. That the ones who found it were of a technological scale a full universe behind, hurt it more as to how degraded it had become. It was a being of a different kind, having a genetic code different from its own civilization. A mutation that fully developed and threatened to overtake its own species, yet through a combination of sheer numbers and luck, it was barely defeated and now taking refuge in this galaxy. The only thing it had left was patience, and the reticence to survive. It would wait, wait until those that made it run, found it again. It had come to rest at a star, a yellow star, with many planets. Four gas giants and several smaller rocks. Several signals seemed to be emanating from the third and fourth planets, but all seemed inconsequential. It would wait here, till the end of time perhaps, but wait it would, and watch the universe burn.

Fun stuff!

I was watching a British series called “Doctor Who” and it’s a real fun series, for all those cultists and science fiction fans! I mean which other series would have a tacky blue telephone booth for a time and space traveling device and a time lord, called the Doctor who looks human, a human companion, ostensibly a female, on all his travels, and supervillains like another time lord, the Master, the Daaleks(metal cans who are apparently indestructible), metal men(human robots). It’s a real fun series to watch and suspend your thinking for a little while atleast. You get to watch end of Earth in 5 billion years, the end of the universe, the paradox machine, a spaceship crashing into the big Ben, Agatha Christie, Will Shakespeare, really anything short of the super ordinary.

Also for those book fans out there, Peter F Hamilton’s second book of the Void trilogy is out(I posted about the first book, the Dreaming Void a while back). Its really good, just read it last night, and boy does he really weave an intricate story across the universe, both real and unreal.

Ok, beyond all this, I just re-read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand again, that being one of my favorite books. For those of you who have not read it, you are missing something in life by not reading this book atleast. I might forgive you for not liking any books, but not for not reading this book. At the very least, go through John Galt’s speech at the end of the book, which in itself contains a philosophy of living.

Also, with the financial crisis going on around me, I guess we are living through history now, with the countries bailing out their banks in a huge way. Whether this is socialist or not, it possibly could be only fending off the coming Gotterdammerung. I tried following the news about this by watching CNN-IBN, instead all I get are one line statements saying, people shouldn’t worry and people should have more confidence in their government and its ability. That India’s fundamentals are very strong and we should continue to invest. This shows that the government’s attitude is that the Asian market’s are decoupled with respect to the globalized economy which could very well be the case. Certainly after the Asian market meltdown in the late 90’s, banks in each countries have worked to make it so, but decoupling is not 0 or 1, that is, black or white. For more details on the decoupling issue, read the paper from Deloitte’s website. Eventually with the global recession, it may have direct effects, but secondary effects will certainly bog down our GDP growth rate. Recently in the newspaper, I think under the column of Swaminomics, MS Swaminathan made a case for why its not the GDP growth rate that’s important, but the fact that our GDP growth rate has fallen which is. Since with decreased global demand, our export markets are certain to be hit which could have huge fallouts in other sectors as well. I am more interested in seeing what kind of social fallout will this recession have, since spending has been at an all time high, and curbing this will be harder to do. Anyway, I hope someone can shed light on this issue...I am no economist to make any predictions and neither am I a fortune teller with a parrot or cards.

Oh, and the song Californication has been stuck in my head for the last couple of days…find myself humming or singing this out…But it’s a fun song, and listen to it!

So beyond all that, I wish you all happy holidays for this month, and enjoy!

The Untitled Story(the beginning!)

“The flash lights don’t work either..” Mark, call sign Beagle, said as he entered the opening of the cavern. Mentally, his eyes were still adjusting to the abrupt dark that set in with the night coming in for the first time in days. The binary system of Unatute stars ensured that this G-class planet had night once every six days. It played hell with the weather patterns, causing huge storms that lasted for months. That this planet had ever survived the formation of the binary system was still a mystery that threw academia into a tempest when it was discovered.

Two years ago, the planning for this expedition had started. Unatute was part of Phase Six space, eventually to be terraformed into an industrial planet for the dynasties that currently controlled the affairs of the Space Confederation formed in the early 22^nd century. Nearly 450 years had passed since its formation when its founder Zachary Wolf had discovered the hyper wormholes. By latching on to tachyons, the user could be transported from one place to another within the space of seconds according to Earth time, now an anachronism on many planets. With people now settling across the galaxy, Earth was just another planet, albeit the cultural centre of the Galaxy. Space Confederation was like any other bureaucracy, now large and unwieldy controlled by the few that could afford the luxury of appointing the men and women to agencies of their choice. With all the planets of the Confederation pledging allegiance to it, the Confederation directly controlled the lives of a quintillion people now spread out over a sector of the Galaxy.

The discovery of Unatute I and II had spawned a widespread intellectual tumult in that by all known laws of physics, the planet should not have existed, yet there it was, as if in cosmic defiance to all that could care. Its shape too perfectly round, and featureless save for a cavern that existed on the far side of the planet. In all respects the planet was stationary and was there as if the stars revolved around it. An expedition was eventually planned and launched by the Confederation in due course towards the planet.

“Beagle, I read you. Check and use thermal imagers, see if you can find anything. Scan all frequencies. Something is causing this electrical storm, and I don’t think it’s the weather. This is Mitt, out.” Mitt Rowell was the commander of the mission. This was supposed to be a routine run of the mill mission on exploration of a planet and its attributes. He had a wide experience of those, and they had almost always ended the same way, in most cases the planet being very docile and ready for terraforming.

“Negative on all frequencies, sir. I am switching over to sub space transmitting frequencies. Nothing here either. The quantum signatures are not registering on any modules. I will attempt to move inside and report from there. Will maintain an open comm link to report.” Mark said as he switched his sensors on. After thirty minutes of walking into the cavern, he switched off the sensors. “Sir, negative on all readings still, will return to shuttlecraft and wait for further developments after the storm. This is Beagle out.”

“Beagle, I read you. Maintain an open comm link throughout the storm, we do not wish to lose your coordinates due to the energy pulses emanating from the storm.”

“Yes, sir. I understand. Will catch you on the flip side of the storm sir. Wait a minute, I am picking up something on the subspace scanners. Switching to active, hold steady.” Beagle’s voice emanated over the comm link. “Its some sort of code and its repetitive, sir. I am uplinking the signal to the command module sir. See if the computer can analyze it.”

“Beagle, advised to maintain position and transmit. Receiving signal, now. Computer, analyze the signal for any known messages. Run it through the Loki-Nuth Algorithm.”

“Captain, I am picking up large amounts of quantum fluctuations in the subspace arrays. Advise that we put our shields up.” the ship engineer called out over the link.

“Very well, shields up. Go to red alert status.” Mitt was fully alert now, and at the helm during this time. This was his first red alert status that he had ever ordered but training and discipline from his training days at Earth, it came automatically to him. “Lt. Commander, bring back Beagle to the ship, and take us out of orbit.”

“Yes, sir. Beaming Beagle back to the ship. Beagle, stand by.” As soon as Mark was back on the ship, he came to see the Captain.

“Captain, inside the cavern I saw something that should not have been there, and I did not wish to transmit over the comm link. Sir, you remember the part of the Confederation’s code dealing with time travelling and what to do in case we encounter members from the future?” Mark asked him.

“But, that was just mumbo jumbo from some hare brained scientist, who didn’t know what he was saying and they ratified it as it is really nonsense. Time travel does not exist and is not possible. I know what all the stories and the strange theories predict that some day it might be possible but I don’t see how it could be relevant in this case.” Mitt replied, surprised that a crew member would even bring up such a clause of the Code.

“Sir, this is in the strictest of the confidences that I tell you this. I saw a ship inside the cavern. It looked old and disabled, larger than any ship in the Confederation. It looked abandoned and was just hanging there. No lights, no subspace communications, nothing on the scanners for life. Also the scanners picked up that no one had been inside this cavern for over a million years. Sir, a million years ago, humans were closer to their ape compatriots.

“That’s ridiculous. The scanners must be wrong. Send me what you found.” Mitt thought back to the time he reported an anomaly on Mars, the first true colony of Earth. Green cadet that he was, his shipmates played a trick on him by reprogramming his scanners to show a large invasion force from an unknown alien, apparently hostile and destroying the planet. In the confusion, he never looked out the window to see all was fine on the surface of the planet. He trusted the scanners to do what they were doing. He raised alert levels on all planets to high levels and the entire defence force was mobilized in seconds only to find a cadet who was scared not to look out his own window. From then on he decided to trust his instincts rather than what the machines showed. Old fashioned thinking though that might be, after the fiasco, he rapidly rose through the ranks to the point where there weren’t many people left to remind of this particular story. “What’s the status of the storm? Give me updates, I want all heads in on this.”

“Captain, this is Beagle. The storm is holding still as if to cover the cavern. The quantum fluctuations are increasing. In a few moments, I will have to leave this position sir. My scanners report all normal. I am uploading the data now.”

As Mitt went through the data, he was shocked to find that this was real. There was a ship there in the cavern.

“Captain, the ship appears to be moving. It’s moving to portside. Hold on. I will try to get a visual of the ship. The scanners are going crazy. I have never seen anything like this before. The readings are off the scale. The ship appears to be powering up. I am now within visual range of the ship. There is some red light that seems to be emanating from it. I am trying to get a reading, sir. I ...”

A loud explosion rocked the vessel as Mitt was thrown to side. Warning lights flashed all around him, as he tried to stand up.

“Comm, what the hell is going on?”

History Revisited!

I got an argument against history from my friend that there is an opportunity cost to everything we do. The time that we spend in doing something, could be used in doing something else more profitable or more time worthy I suppose. She argued that learning history, going through books and all, were time taken away from other things like academics (I mean getting higher in school and all which is a commendable goal despite what the cynics might have to say about the education system), athletics (being more fit), or having fun with friends (hanging out and having a life in general I suppose).

Anyway, to refute these points one by one, I want to first state that people have different goals in life. Each of the above categories, people give different weightage to depending on their goals. Some might give entirely to academics, some to sports and some to hanging out. So depending on what you want to do, reading etc, will always have an opportunity cost. Since it does occupy time, it will always prevent you from doing something else. But isn’t that true of all activities? Will not every activity have an opportunity cost with this reasoning? However, reading about history I want to argue that its opportunity cost is much lower. History is one way of learning to sift through myth and reality, which is pretty important for any businessman who has to read a multitude of reports. The ability to summarize entire texts within a coherent brief of a couple of pages is very important in today’s world of infinite knowledge. This can be pointed out by the fact that HP’s former CEO Carly Fioriana was a major in Medieval History, and she did relate to this skill when she explained her success as a CEO. In athletics, or physical development, history isn’t all that important, but don’t we always like to know about the sport we play? Wouldn’t we want to about the greats that played the game and how the game evolved over time? Isn’t that a way of enjoying the game itself? Sure, there would be an opportunity cost of not playing the game, but would you be playing 24x7 that there would be no time left during the day? I mean most of the knowledge you pick up by watching tv which you do retain, and I don’t think that this would be major inconvenience of any sort to learning. And then hanging out in general, again it is not a 24x7 job that would force you to not have any time to yourself. There are 24 hours in a day and life is too short to spend it sleeping. I think longer than 7-8 hours a days is indulgence which has a higher opportunity cost than anything else. With average work being around 10 hours a day, that leaves about 8-9 hours a day free which I am sure increasing your general knowledge and a little about history shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. Besides that, we all have history and all taught to us during our school years and if we can relate what we learn in class and retain a part of it, (which also increases your academic knowledge at any rate), that would be quite a knowledge base to begin with. Although there is an opportunity cost attached to this, considering that we use only about a small percentage of our brains at any rate, I don’t think this would cause an overload at any rate. Also, a lot of history can be learnt by just reading the newspaper everyday and relating what you know to what is happening in the world today. A question of relating events more than anything else to understanding foreign policy of various nations, for example the fight in Ossetia in Russia and the Russian response to the insurgency, the blunted American protests in response. Also we can relate more to what’s happening in the world through what we know especially in a world where cross country borders are becoming more lines in the minds of academicians as today’s technologies bring the world much closer to each other.

Personally, I don’t think it was a high opportunity cost in learning history, which is totally unrelated to my field of choice which was engineering. I still did well academically, played sports, hung out with friends and did many more activities. I may not have done too well, but I don’t think I would blame my excessive if not obsessive book reading mania for that. There were probably other reasons for not doing too well, but this was one of my ways to escape the confines of reality and let my imagination take me away…Its like the song, Overkill, “I can’t get to sleep, I think about the implications of diving in too deep, and possible the complications, especially at night, I worry over situations, I know will be alright, perhaps its just imagination. Day after day it reappears, Night after night, my heartbeat shows the fear..Goes to be here and fade away, Come back another day… (This is for my friend that gave this argument than anything else).  

Empty homes and history!!

Ok, simple enough explanation for this title I suppose. The short story, I am writing this as I sit in my empty home now, devoid of all furniture and electronics, books and shelves, an empty home. Anyway, I can’t help feel sad that this is the last time I will look upon this place and see it no more. Rather from Edgar Allen’s poem, The Raven… “Quoth the raven nevermore”. Or could be the Green Day’s song Time of your Life… “Its something unpredictable but in the end is right, I hope you had the time of your life” Looking back over the last five years that I lived here, well not exactly “lived” considering that four years I have spent in a hostel, yet there was the knowledge, that yes, there was a place I could go back to… Now I am civil engineer without a home… Where’s the irony in that? Anyway, getting back to more saner things in life… Anyway, I was having a long conversation with one of my good friends, namely Tulika, on the importance of history… I mean why is it important? How does something, someone did a long time ago affect our daily lives? I am probably sure that everyone can get on through life without knowing any history at all as well…But as an ardent learner of history, I feel compelled to defend it. There is a saying, Those who do not know history, are condemned to repeat it. To me this sounds just like a bromide, and this is not the defense I want to use. It seems a very weak defense as well. There are good examples of this being true through the course of history of course. I am sure if people look up the European wars through the ages, it can be seen tat the shortsightedness of the statesmen in looking at immediate gains rather than longer views forced countries into wars which were neither profitable nor worthy. If we can see Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, and Hitler’s invasion nearly a century later, we can see that both failed due to the same reasons of fighting wars on two fronts, and of course the perennial General Winter of Russia. Both stopped with sighting distance of Moscow and turned back. Then we can see the colonization processes of Britain, France and now the US and how they all proceed in the exact same manner. It can be even said that they are following centuries old policies of the Romans itself, mainly divide and conquer. Anyway, leaving that defense, I wanted to see how it is useful everyday life itself. What it means to know history and relate it to yourself. I agree that you can go through life without ever knowing history, probably never bother about it all. However imagine how much more richer would the knowledge make you, being able to see things as they are now in their historical context. For example, Giacometti’s statues which to an observer would just seem like badly made cariacatures, but put in their context of being made between the two world wars depict the lonely, desperate times and what man yearned to get out of. An energetic being brought down by an impending sense of doom almost, lonely as it stands against the tide that seems to wipe over humanity. Or Wagner’s music, which on first hearing would seem very good, and it in fact is excellent. But put in the context of Wagner’s philosophies and teachings, would put an anti Semitic face to the music, deploring it of all music. The Nazis would later use this as their purifying music fit for their Master Aryan race. So playing this music for your Jewish friends might not be the best way to fit in with them. Also history teaches us a way of sifting through facts and myth to come up something real, as how people were all those times ago and seeing if what we live in is a better way now? Has the quality of our life been improving or simply a repetition of what our predecessors did? These might not be questions we ask ourselves in the course of daily events, but these are relevant questions if you want to be able to do something different, something what the world had not seen before. In the future, people might debate as to how we used to live, what were our outlooks on life, what were our beliefs, what code of standards did we use to live by. Anyway, history to me personally is like a story, a tale of how man has progressed through the ages. How we have grown from living in caves and dwellings and now have skyscrapers and high rise buildings built into the sky, as if to challenge the very gods themselves to dare stop us.

Anyway, I have been thinking of writing a story for some time now, and have found a good plot line I think… I will put up the starting on the next blog and see how people like it…Guys remember, I am no Isaac Asimov, so don’t expect too much either…

Strange Things

I guess this is the take off from the movie Wild Things, which I am sure every engineer has seen wide eyed. Anyway, in a lighter vein of things, I have modified the line Dilios says in 300 to suit any engineer to tell the truth:
“The old ones say that we engineers are descended from Newton himself. Taught never to look at women, never to sleep. Taught that cheating in the exam is the greatest glory he could achieve in his life. Engineers: the finest drunkards the world has ever known”
So moving on, with the song Cocaine stuck in my head.. “if you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine; she dont lie, she dont lie, she dont lie..cocaine” Actually this is the product of a person whose senses right now are numbed to the point, where coming up with something to put on the blog is becoming a pain itself. So over the weekend, read a book called War 2020, a world in which the US influence is decreased due to increased Japanese technology whose laser weapons have created a stalemate in the world. Basically Russia is down, and the Cold War continues with Japan and US on opposite ends. The US military is obliterated by the Japanese war machines, and the economy due to extensive outsourcing is controlled by outside forces. Now the Americans decide to support Russia in an unprecedented move to push back the rebel forces in Russia and thus regain some of the lost pride which they lost in wars to South Africa, Mexico, Los Angeles(internal gang rebellion) and Latin America in general who were being supplied by the Japanese. Also a disease without a cure ravages the western world while the eastern world somehow survives it unscathed. Now this all sounds very unbelievable to the point of being ludicrous, but hear the author out after the setting. It’s a pretty interesting book as to what happens and all. I personally think that this has to do with the outsourcing issue and the irrational fear that the Americans have about it. I mean the jobs that are being outsourced to other countries are the non essential jobs, that one could argue could have generated jobs in US but is being outsourced to India. But the fact remains that the corporations save a lot of money here, which they reinvest to have meaningful jobs back in the US. I mean, they pay software engineers in India the equivalent of what a guy flipping burgers in a McDonalds in US. Would people want to really do those jobs, or will the corporations be willing to pay them higher for those jobs? It could signal the end of the software bubble that India has been riding on for the last couple of years. Otherwise, it could lead to a monumental loss to the US market, as the jobs don’t get filled and the corporations claim the taxes… However, with both candidates set against outsourcing, we will have to wait and see the results of their policies.
Also the other thing was seeing John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate. This is a disappointment coming from a senator of 30 years to select someone who does not seem qualified to hold the post of Vice President. I don’t have anything against her, but it just seems an amateurish way to capture the women vote and appease the Conservatives… It just seems like this might blow up in his face with Sarah Palin being inexperienced whereas McCain attacks Obama on being inexperienced.
Anyway, enough of the American elections, I am too tired to discuss that any further today. I instead wanted to talk about a section I belonged to while in IIT Roorkee. It was called Program Management or PM for short, part of Cultural society. Once upon a time in my first year, I remember going to an interview with a group of people. I thought generally at the time, to stay away from my room. I figured, either I should be in the room to study or outside enjoying. So I sat down, and two people took my interview. It was a weird interview. In two minutes they figured out I didn’t know hindi, could not draw, and wasn’t all too imaginative. I figured, that’s the end of it, lets have pizza at Nescafe and go back to the room, but for some reason they passed me through. Again, probably a clerical error of putting my paper on the wrong stack now that I think back to it. So I made it to this group at the time. It seemed like a fun group and the people seemed fun. The first meeting we had, I was christened Yella at any rate. One of the seniors found Rahul too hard to remember and thus shortened my last name to that.. Now four years later, that’s the name everyone knows me by. I honestly don’t think anyone knows me as Rahul. I even wrote an article in third year in a magazine claiming I am not Yella. Actually I tried to emulate Leonard Nimoy who plays Spock in Star Trek. He wrote a book I am not Spock as everyone associated him with that only..Later he wrote a book called I am Spock. Anyway after that article, people called me Yella even more… Back to the story, PM was a big part of my time in IITR. I worked and the people in the group were fun and energetic as hell. It involved basically organizing events for Cult Soc. Through this group, I had some very cool seniors and some very good juniors. I made some of my best friends there and four years was too short a time to spend with you guys there. I will always treasure the moments with you guys. Actually the trip down nostalgia lane was brought upon while discovering a greeting card given four years back by these guys on my birthday. I found it when I was packing my parents stuff so that they could move. I guess at the end of all things, all you are left with are memories of a time you left behind.