Saturday, April 28, 2007

Information is a form of energy!


The other day I was reading about entropy. Most people would know that it is a term that studied in thermodynamics and describes the randomness associated with system/surrounding. Second law of thermodynamics states that spontaneous processes tend to move in a direction that takes them to a state of greater randomness.

We also study in biochemistry that living systems maintain an ordered state (less entropy) in their bodies by increasing the randomness of their surrounding.
Here’s the interesting part that I wasn’t very familiar with; “information” is a form of energy! This has been wonderfully and succinctly explained in the text book of Lehninger Biochemistry and I suggest you read it. If I take all the letters used in this passage and throw them into a state of randomness, they’ll make no sense at all. To make sense of it all, I need to place them in a particular order so that the reader understands the idea I’m trying to get across.

Quote from Lehninger Biochemistry:
“In fact the branch of mathematics called information theory, which is basic to the programming logic of computers, is closely related to thermodynamic theory.”

Wow! That lights up another bulb in our heads, doesn’t it?
Like I said in a previous post “it’s about perspectives, of vision and thoughts.”
Another nerve pathway formed corresponding to a fresh perspective…further decrease in entropy!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Insomnia-the sequel

23April2007
2:50am

Who in the world can feel jet lag without even travelling between any two given timezones; it me, it me...who else! Its 4:00am and I'm almost awake; I never went to sleep i.e. I went to bed at 2:00am convincing myself that I was very drowsy but after half an hour of staring at the "glow in the dark" moon, stars and planets on my ceiling, I was convinced that either I was awake or having an out-of-body experience. Though the latter would've been an exciting experience, the possibility of not being able to get back into my body made me think twice about it. Then I counted to three and sprang out of the bed to check if I was semi awake (in which case I would crash) or wide awake...it was a perfect landing...yes batman doesn't sleep at night...he writes posts for his blogs!

Sometimes I feel like I've been cursed; Chandigarh's dust thou art and to Chandigarh's dust shalt thou return. This city makes me claustrophobic and emetic. I have reasons to dislike Chandigarh; because of the average citizen of this city. Chandigarhian apathy is as sickening as its charlatanism and its paradoxes.

They wanna cut pollution but the MC employed staff are on a wild spree of burning dry leaves every morning. The traffic cops challan scooterists while the smoky truckers/autorickshaws ply fearlessly (circumstantial evidence...if they really were so hell bent on cutting pollution, they'd be tackling the latter more seriously).

They want less accidents but they allow wine shops to spring up every half a kilometer...if you have contacts, you needn't worry about anything except for killing your ownself...others?...you couldn't care less!

They want health but they can't stop stuffing their face with fast food...then they spend money on gymnasiums and "slimming centres"...where else do they throw the money afterall, there has to be some way!

They want to be educated but don't realise that most of their schools are nothing more than breeding grounds for dunces. Creativity is predominant...in the negative sense.

They "appear" to be cultured but the reality shows up every now and then.

They want to be blessed so they throng religious places (and turn into saints for that much time) but when they return they get back to their repugnant ogre selves.

They generously throw alms to the satiated/professional beggars in a hope to improve their own Karma and in the process permanently deny a few people the right to know the fruits of labor. Ask most tip-top Chandigarhians to spend some time with orphan kids and they'll be too worried to get their expensive clothes dirty...or have a party to attend anyway.

In this part of the country the mantra is "Do what you want...but don't get caught." ...of course a few months before a girl is about to be "fixed up" by her parents (for an arranged marriage), they abrupty give up everything and turn into pious nuns (after all the grooms family will get the girls background checked because they all want chaste virgins for their virtuous sons).

I want to go to better place than this freaking city of uncouthed zombies. The flora here is all manicured and non-native...that's why some idiots planned to plant deciduous trees around the whole city...so that they shed leaves twice a year and a big army of men can then be hired to sweep the roads and burn the leaves...afterall not till you have ample of problems can you demand money from the Centre...so they thought it was a good idea to create some.
But then maybe I need to look in to my own self before pointing fingers!
Hey I needn't be so upset...afterall it is the CITY BEAUTIFUL of our country.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A time to connect

18th april 2007

Yesterday’s evening was particularly a restless one for me. Two of the elder boys of the children’s home were beaten up and verbally abused by some rowdy boys of the area. They narrated the incidence to Riti n me. I was thrown back into the past and felt an adrenalin rush; I remembered the time when I was young and faced similar situations. Many forgotten old wounds were opened as I listened to how the other kids treat the kids of the children’s home. They’ve been beaten, made fun of and called names (“anaath” “orphan”) by the more previliged kids. I've been discriminated against as a kid; now if I see it happening in-front of me, it gives me murderous impulses.

I have an idea about rivalries between groups that start very early on in life and might turn into a sort of gang rivalry with serious repercussions as the guys reach adolescence and beyond. “My gang” no longer exists, they’ve all dispersed far and wide…how I wish it was like the old days and “we” would take these guys down happily…besides, I’m too grown up to be thinking of living a life I lived 11 years back. The evening was spent in trying to convince myself that if I retaliate with violence, I’ll actually set a bad example for the kids at the children’s home and who knows the situation might go out of hand. The better plan seemed like talking to the parents of these unruly juveniles; but then, had they had good parents, they wouldn’t really be beating up bunch of poor kids. Restless and writhing in the hurt from the past, I just sat and tried to empty my head of those dirty moments. Only recently had I resolved to not let it affect me anymore, right now I’m just sitting and making a list of the people I have to get even with. Aren’t we just animals inside…there must be something more to a man than this!

The other day, Sister Annie was appreciating our spending time with the kids and I wondered what the big deal was. Today I realized why she felt that way; there are many children, adults and all in between that abhor giving a touch of love or extending a hand of friendship to these “apparent” orphans. 22 of these buds go to school, do their homework, bathe and wash their clothes, do gardening, watch TV, eat whatever is given to them everyday with thanksgiving in their hearts (they’re all very well aware that they’re living on charity). In many ways they have a better schedule than most children with busy/undisciplined parents, yet when they step out of their shelter, they’re made to feel unwanted and are ostracized. I hope it doesn’t backfire on this apathetic society; I hope Guddu, Ankit, Rinku, Suraj, John and others don’t grow up and decide to pay back those villains in kind. I hope they grow up, are well educated and responsible citizens and leave the bad memories behind….This sounds so rhetorical! We all must do our bit to ensure that this world becomes a better place.

Of men and mice

16th April 2007

Going through a book on ecology, I found something interesting that I’d like to share with you. I’m writing a succinct account of the actual text.

A lab experiment was designed by Calhoun et al (1962) to study the effect of overcrowding on population of rats. 32 rats (16males and 16 females) were kept in a specially designed enclosure (designed for 50 rats) keeping all conditions conducive. At the end of one year, the population reached and was maintained at 80 rats by removing newborns after being weaned.

There were some dominant males that maintained a harem of 5 females each who proved to be successful mothers. The newborns of other females had a survival rate of only 20%, because they lived in stuffy regions, failed to build proper nests and abandoned their young ones early. There was increased fighting amongst some males while others showed total inactivity, oblivious to the presence of other rats. Some rats showed homosexual and hypersexual behaviour and cannibalized the young ones. Abundant food was being provided to sustain all the 80 rats, still they developed ulcers and became immune compromised. Overcrowding completely broke down the rat’s normal social behavior.

Can we extrapolate these results to human society?
Perhaps we’d be tempted to say “yes” and not so without good reason. Industrialization is leading to the mad competitive “rat race” amongst humans; heart attacks and ulcers have become as abundant as the population of human beings. No matter how much we have, we always have less! On the flipside, unemployment may lead to overtly aggressive behavior or complete inactivity.

This however is just too simplistic a conjecture.
After all who can live in “frugality” when the other person has that little bit extra? After all most of us in today’s world strongly believe that a human is not complete without a car (the better one), cell phone (the better one), clothes (better ones), partner (the better one…the search never ends while people keep hopping from one to another…unsatisfied forever).

Let’s look inside ourselves and try to remove the “filth”…hey I’m trying…its working! All the best for your endeavors…because if we’re gonna have to live in this throng, let’s hope we get to bump into pleasant people.

Elementary my dear Watson (actually, he never said that in any book)

29 March 2007 2:00am-3:00am

Half an hour ago, I heard a loud crash from outside. I was studying and half asleep. The sound was so uncanny that I thought it was worthwhile to investigate. Wearing short on my lower and a bunch of mosquitoes on my upper body, I went and stood in the balcony. I saw the mongrel “Lucy” barking at a large branch of a tree that had fallen on Dr. Sachdeva’s car. The dog’s braking was relentless; in fact there was another dog that was barking from the opposite side. I noticed some movement in the fallen branch. I’m quite sure of that because it was a weird sight, there air was still and there was no breeze at all, so why was the branch moving. Why were the dogs barking? There was somebody/something in there for sure. After staring at the branch some more and having noticed it shake a little more than twice, I thought about taking an appropriate action. Whatever was in there probably must’ve seen me looking towards it from my balcony as I was appropriately illuminated by the streetlight next to our home. Lucy saw me and wagged her tail and continued barking at the branch. I looked around but couldn’t see a single watchman. It was cool outside and not a single soul in sight. I rushed in and called Ricky from my dad’s cell phone, surprisingly he picked the phone immediately. He had heard the crashing sound (the scene being much nearer to his home) and called Dr. Sachdeva to inform him about the fallen branch. Then I told him to come to the balcony, I saw Amar (Dr Sachdeva’s son) standing a little distance away from the branch with a hockey stick wondering what to do next. The next minute, Ricky, his dad and I reached the spot with iron rods. We tried lifting the branch, it was very heavy and I noticed that it had broken from the base. That was odd; why would a branch snap like that from the base…unless it gave way under a heavy weight. While we conjectured about the possibilities, one fact was evident; no watchman had arrived at the scene as yet. Considering that I heard the sound sitting in my room with the doors and windows shut, it was a loud sound; why the heck hadn’t any watchman reached the spot yet…there are a good 4-5 of them that take rounds…it was not possible that none of them heard the sound. Finally a watchman arrived, appearing quite oblivious to what had happened and not even showing any surprise as to why 4 men armed with rods were gathered at the corner of the road; I found this conduct to suspicious. I didn’t join in the conversation, I just observed. The watchman went and sat at the iron grill in front and kept trying to assure everyone that there was nothing suspicious. I noticed Lucy and the other mongrel, their focus had now shifted towards the ground in the direction that led towards the road…a dark unlit area and the only possible safe getaway route…both the dogs were barking in that direction…and Lucy intermittently stopped, looked towards us, then looked in that direction and started braking again. I felt that the animal was trying to communicate with us. Finally, I quipped into the conversation and said “the dogs raised the alarm initially and are now braking in a particular direction now”…the watchman quickly interrupted “no no they’re just trying to locate other dogs.” (which I thought was not impossible but these dogs had been barking relentless at the branch when I first came to the balcony and when we all came down, they were with us and were almost pointing, looking back at us, then looking in that direction again and barking…looking back…barking…same pattern). And for some reason, the watchman’s behavior was odd. I didn’t say much to anyone (YES!! I’ve finally learnt to keep my mouth shut and keep my feelings and hunches to myself). Rick’s dad seemed apprehensive about someone being on that branch so he finally said that it just happened on its own…”I don’t think to uncle” I said with confidence. I wanted to go ahead and let the dogs lead me but it wasn’t a great idea considering that no one was interested in pursuing the trail with me.

OH! Why do I feel so titillated by this commotion?
Why do I so desperately want to nab the creature behind all this? Why do I want to solve this mystery?

I think I know! I’ve been watching a lot of Sherlock Holmes on the History Channel lately…Jeremy Brett I love you (no no I’m not gay).

I want play that part. I want to investigate and romance with reasons. I want to prove how timid you are in drawing conclusions, chide you for your silly reasoning (as Holmes does to Dr. Watson).
I want to observe everything, meet the leading ladies and not have any interest in them apart from their statement (even intimidating them by being skeptical about their part of the story…on the outside that is!! While the real deal is kept to myself till the end).
I want to be loud, fearless in speech, I’ll appear to be lost in a myriad of thoughts but all this while I’ll be observing everyone around me.
Yes my friend there could be a million reasons for strange things that happened around us but let me enlighten you about how the villains did it…and let me leave your jaw hanging.
Oh!! I surely am the alter-ego of Sherlock Holmes!! It’s gonna pay off someday…all I need to do is keep distance from women, they blunt down my keen reasoning while they’re around (well! Actually I’ve only found one or two to be that interesting…but dear God, thank you for saving me…I would’ve destroyed my own self)…at least I need to keep away till the time I can let them not affect me at all…
….BINGO…!!
I’m ready!!
Lucy, you’re the only female I like in this world…alas! You too do what females do best…BARK! BARK!! BARK!!!