Oh, beautiful butterfly!
Would you help me release you
From your caterpillar heart
Into an angel of the flowers
Fluttering carefree
With mysterious powers
O'er lush fields and bowers
Into my skies so very blue...
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
gin-soaked boy
i'm the nippy in the warm
i'm the calm before the storm
i'm the maverick in the norm
i'm the anarchist in the swarm
i'm the info in misinform
i'm the geometry in free form
i'm the rigid in transform
i'm the outlier in conform
inspired by the gin-soaked boy
i'm the calm before the storm
i'm the maverick in the norm
i'm the anarchist in the swarm
i'm the info in misinform
i'm the geometry in free form
i'm the rigid in transform
i'm the outlier in conform
inspired by the gin-soaked boy
Thursday, December 16, 2004
run asimo, run
Honda Motor's humanoid robot has been around: He's rung the famed bell at the New York Stock Exchange, met Spain's king and even traveled with Japan's prime minister to Prague as a goodwill ambassador. Now, the Japanese automaker wants to prepare the 4-year-old Asimo for some real work. Office work.
Asimo, they're gonna make you work your plastic butt off.
Run Asimo, Run!
watch video , read article
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
corporate communism
Communism is a form of Socialism that abolishes private ownership and favors collectivism in a classless society. The scheme equalizes the social conditions of life and specifically abolishes the inequalities in the possession of property, by distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.
Modern Communism, in the conventional sense, refers to a political movement based on the theories of Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the 19th century. Marx envisioned the inevitable fall of industrial capitalism through the force of a powerful proletariat.
The basic tenets of communism are:
* Complete and lasting negation of the exploitation of the human being by the human being
* Collective ownership of property to the advantage of all society
* Equitable distribution of wealth irrespective of roles and responsibilities
For almost forty-five years, the communist system dominated Eastern European politics, but every known experiment in communism has failed. It is an accepted fact that communism could not be successfully implemented because of a basic conflict with the human need for individual gain and glory. The longest experiment lasted 80 years in Soviet Russia before the walls crumbled. Researchers have spent years studying and analyzing the demise of this utopian system. Here are some of the universally acknowledged reasons attributed to the demise of communism:
1. Communism abolished free markets so that officials had no market prices to guide them in planning production.
2. Communism failed in respecting its citizens as individuals, and by not satisfying their very basic and diverse individual needs on a political or economic level. By not ensuring the happiness of the common man, all other communist achievements were already being constructed on a rotten base.
3. Communism died from within as the hearts of its people gave out, love struck by the apparent superiority of Capitalist living. People living in Eastern block countries could see from time to time how much farther the standard of living had advanced in the Western Democracies as opposed to their own nations. They could see the superiority of Western products, the bounty of Western goods, the apparent ease and happiness of Western lifestyle. Over time the Communist system simply could not match this sort of advancement, and attempted to cover up this fact through propaganda, repression, and terror tactics against its citizens.
4. The dissolution of the USSR shortly after the abortive coup of August, 1991, was a kind of consensual state suicide in which the various republics agreed to sever the ties which had bound them for so long. This moment might not have come with such swiftness and finality if not for the Chernobyl disaster's political repercussions in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, and other republics. All complex, high-energy systems fail eventually; the failures are embedded in social structures, which also fail in the wake of disaster. It was the arrogance of the operators of Chernobyl on the night of the explosion that led to the failure of four levels of safety systems. It was the centralization of the political power to make decisions about dangerous technologies that Soviet citizens attacked after Chernobyl.
5. Last but not the least, if there is one reason that greatly accelerated the fall of this system of government, the answer would be simply because Communism became something Marx would never want it to become. Communism became a religion. It had its own Dogma, its own Creed, its own pantheon of Gods, Saints and its own devils and heretics. Is it any accident that after his death Lenin was encased in a glass tomb? People lined up to see him as they would a holy sight. A visit to the Kremlin was like a visit to Lourdes. Communists read Marx like the Bible. They refuted arguments with chapter and verse. Marx was a scientist. He loved science and hated dogma. He would have hated Soviet Communism.
Corporate America is a classic example of a system that conveniently and selectively adopts Communism to meet it's Capitalistic objectives. At the highest levels are the executives who make out like bandits in an gold mine. The mid levels and the lower levels are saturated with the drudgery of white collars laboring through a system that is designed to sap the very life of its workers, and yet leave them right where they began.
The basic tenets of corporate (America) are:
* Individual glory is taboo, it is all about the corporation
* Tow the company line, do not question, never ever complain
* Maintain absolute secrecy about compensation and promotions
* Work more, expect less
* Integrity, honesty and loyalty stabilize the foundations at the lowest level, while widespread abuse at the upper levels maintains the overall equilibrium
And the outcome is:
* Executives have turned into bling-flashing demigods
* People get promoted to the highest levels of their inefficiency
* Creativity and initiative are seldom rewarded
* Insubordination is absolutely punished
* Layoffs are rampant and seldom justifiable
This system will crumble. It is just a matter of time.....
Modern Communism, in the conventional sense, refers to a political movement based on the theories of Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the 19th century. Marx envisioned the inevitable fall of industrial capitalism through the force of a powerful proletariat.
The basic tenets of communism are:
* Complete and lasting negation of the exploitation of the human being by the human being
* Collective ownership of property to the advantage of all society
* Equitable distribution of wealth irrespective of roles and responsibilities
For almost forty-five years, the communist system dominated Eastern European politics, but every known experiment in communism has failed. It is an accepted fact that communism could not be successfully implemented because of a basic conflict with the human need for individual gain and glory. The longest experiment lasted 80 years in Soviet Russia before the walls crumbled. Researchers have spent years studying and analyzing the demise of this utopian system. Here are some of the universally acknowledged reasons attributed to the demise of communism:
1. Communism abolished free markets so that officials had no market prices to guide them in planning production.
2. Communism failed in respecting its citizens as individuals, and by not satisfying their very basic and diverse individual needs on a political or economic level. By not ensuring the happiness of the common man, all other communist achievements were already being constructed on a rotten base.
3. Communism died from within as the hearts of its people gave out, love struck by the apparent superiority of Capitalist living. People living in Eastern block countries could see from time to time how much farther the standard of living had advanced in the Western Democracies as opposed to their own nations. They could see the superiority of Western products, the bounty of Western goods, the apparent ease and happiness of Western lifestyle. Over time the Communist system simply could not match this sort of advancement, and attempted to cover up this fact through propaganda, repression, and terror tactics against its citizens.
4. The dissolution of the USSR shortly after the abortive coup of August, 1991, was a kind of consensual state suicide in which the various republics agreed to sever the ties which had bound them for so long. This moment might not have come with such swiftness and finality if not for the Chernobyl disaster's political repercussions in Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, and other republics. All complex, high-energy systems fail eventually; the failures are embedded in social structures, which also fail in the wake of disaster. It was the arrogance of the operators of Chernobyl on the night of the explosion that led to the failure of four levels of safety systems. It was the centralization of the political power to make decisions about dangerous technologies that Soviet citizens attacked after Chernobyl.
5. Last but not the least, if there is one reason that greatly accelerated the fall of this system of government, the answer would be simply because Communism became something Marx would never want it to become. Communism became a religion. It had its own Dogma, its own Creed, its own pantheon of Gods, Saints and its own devils and heretics. Is it any accident that after his death Lenin was encased in a glass tomb? People lined up to see him as they would a holy sight. A visit to the Kremlin was like a visit to Lourdes. Communists read Marx like the Bible. They refuted arguments with chapter and verse. Marx was a scientist. He loved science and hated dogma. He would have hated Soviet Communism.
Corporate America is a classic example of a system that conveniently and selectively adopts Communism to meet it's Capitalistic objectives. At the highest levels are the executives who make out like bandits in an gold mine. The mid levels and the lower levels are saturated with the drudgery of white collars laboring through a system that is designed to sap the very life of its workers, and yet leave them right where they began.
The basic tenets of corporate (America) are:
* Individual glory is taboo, it is all about the corporation
* Tow the company line, do not question, never ever complain
* Maintain absolute secrecy about compensation and promotions
* Work more, expect less
* Integrity, honesty and loyalty stabilize the foundations at the lowest level, while widespread abuse at the upper levels maintains the overall equilibrium
And the outcome is:
* Executives have turned into bling-flashing demigods
* People get promoted to the highest levels of their inefficiency
* Creativity and initiative are seldom rewarded
* Insubordination is absolutely punished
* Layoffs are rampant and seldom justifiable
This system will crumble. It is just a matter of time.....
Thursday, December 09, 2004
the second coming ?
Sixteen years after Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli were involved in a world-record unbroken partnership of 664 runs, a Mumbai (formerly Bombay) school team has revived fond memories.
On Wednesday, Anjuman-I-Islam Fort English School ran up a massive total of 989-6 declared in the Harris Shield Under-17 competition. With the addition of 132 penalty runs as their opponents, Baptist School (Thane), bowled 11 overs short, the total reached an astronomical 1,121. Top scorer, with 318, was Shishir Tiwari, who was born on 8 November 1989, exactly a week before Tendulkar's Test bow. He added 531 for the fifth wicket with Sufian Shaikh, who hit 202 not out. In all, Tiwari hit 40 fours and four sixes. The partnership came in just 270 minutes. The other substantial score came from opener Salim Ansari with 287. Tendulkar scored 329 and Kambli 349 (both not out) in the same tournament back in February 1988
complete article
On Wednesday, Anjuman-I-Islam Fort English School ran up a massive total of 989-6 declared in the Harris Shield Under-17 competition. With the addition of 132 penalty runs as their opponents, Baptist School (Thane), bowled 11 overs short, the total reached an astronomical 1,121. Top scorer, with 318, was Shishir Tiwari, who was born on 8 November 1989, exactly a week before Tendulkar's Test bow. He added 531 for the fifth wicket with Sufian Shaikh, who hit 202 not out. In all, Tiwari hit 40 fours and four sixes. The partnership came in just 270 minutes. The other substantial score came from opener Salim Ansari with 287. Tendulkar scored 329 and Kambli 349 (both not out) in the same tournament back in February 1988
complete article
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
the softest pillow
Asked what he thinks is the key to sound sleep, Nandan Nilekani, president and CEO of Indian IT services behemoth Infosys Technologies, has a ready answer. "The softest pillow is a clear conscience," he says..... complete article
Sunday, December 05, 2004
one day at a time
i dreamt a dream with youthful zest
fresh grad from the mecca of the west
i drew my plans, set high goals
hit the gas and savored the steamroll
i aced 'em all, missed but a few
yet enjoyed the pursuit all through
i am 29 now, doing just fine
and intend to take it one day at a time
fresh grad from the mecca of the west
i drew my plans, set high goals
hit the gas and savored the steamroll
i aced 'em all, missed but a few
yet enjoyed the pursuit all through
i am 29 now, doing just fine
and intend to take it one day at a time
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