tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-135106732024-02-04T00:11:45.514+05:30OPINIONMy take on Life, Policies, Superstitions and SupernaturalismsFelix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.comBlogger50125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-79169670371336367052022-06-09T20:47:00.000+05:302022-06-09T20:47:00.631+05:30Paris needs to improve its public transportation!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFEYdamBhmhPvaA1Nm1iZSgykzWFj6IADSE1q_F83R0nsqneDuZUu8nh31WUCRGQUOcLiNkQDA8AYJYVsWB-zMDxKwmjzVZPZiYPtUgGdPYiET8sNfIha1Outgf2qaDaqqPx47aNG8VAJYPB3NpQm9YfJK393RKMjmWAhl2ap3iFKsnu7Msg/s3000/1654785595456.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="3000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYFEYdamBhmhPvaA1Nm1iZSgykzWFj6IADSE1q_F83R0nsqneDuZUu8nh31WUCRGQUOcLiNkQDA8AYJYVsWB-zMDxKwmjzVZPZiYPtUgGdPYiET8sNfIha1Outgf2qaDaqqPx47aNG8VAJYPB3NpQm9YfJK393RKMjmWAhl2ap3iFKsnu7Msg/s320/1654785595456.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Having just got back after a two weeks business trip to Paris, here are some of my rants against its public transportation system, especially the metro.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f745">I reached CDG on a Sunday evening. I went to the RER-B kiosk (Metro to the city), to discover the metro don’t run at that time. Did I hear it right? Metros don’t run on Sundays in Paris, at least on this airport line. There were some boards displayed that informed me that I needed to take “Roissybus”, presumably the name of a bus company, to the city. I needed to get the ticket first and I didn’t find any counter for this Roissybus.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5387">I then went to an information desk and they said the RER-B metro ticket would also work on the bus. At the RER-B counter, I chose the option “From CDG to Anywhere in Paris City” and got the ticket for 10.5 Euros. I then walked to the Roissybus stop.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="1e6f">A bus came to Opera and I tried to validate the ticket. The machine won't accept my ticket! I was flabbergasted. After all, 10.5 Euros isn’t cheap. If RER-B tickets won't work in Roissybus, then why RER-B is selling these tickets even when the metro isn’t working? I had to get off the bus, to buy another ticket from the Roissybus counter, after shelling out another 13 Euros. I missed the bus and waited for another 1 hour to take the next bus to Paris Opera. Public transportation sucks in Paris, I thought then.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7a05">Within Paris Zone 1, the ticket cost just 1.8 Euros. But to and from CDG-the main airport, tickets cost 10.5 Euros, which is nothing but a deceptive tactic to screw the tourists. Tickets to stations just beyond the airport (despite more distance from the city) cost substantially less than this amount.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="16ee">Fast forward two weeks. I was travelling back from Lisbon to Paris and landed at Paris Orly airport. I was wishing and hoping my earlier CDG predicament should not happen. I bought a metro ticket (13 Euros)to Paris valid in Orlyval and other metros. The route that I wanted to take is from Orly to Villejeuf Lois Aragon by T7 and then by M7 metro to my destination (Le Kremlin Bicentre).</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b96f">And guess what, the ticket is again NOT valid in T7! I decided to travel ticketless; after all, I have a valid ticket and nowhere did I read the instruction that the ticket is invalid in T7. Luckily no one came to check the tickets and I reached Villegeuf.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e027">At the Villegeuf, the metro wicket refused to validate my ticket. By the time I have started guessing this is what is going to happen. Paris Metro! I walked to metro service centre and explained the issue to the person. He politely suggested I walk through a manual wicket that he opened for me.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b0ff">On my return, I knew something like this is going to happen. I reached Porte d’Italie metro and bought a ticket to CDG, 10.5 Euros. And guess what, the metro wicket won't open with my valid ticket. I can't get into the platform to take the train! At this point, I felt really pissed off by the metro system in Paris. Google maps informed me I should take T3a to Cite Universitet, then RER-B to CDG. I got out of the metro station and at the T3a stop, I tried to buy a t+ additional ticket. The machine takes only cash, and I was travelling with just cards. I got in the tram once again with a valid RER-B ticket. As expected, the ticket couldn’t get validated in the tram. Luckily I reached Cite Universitet. At the metro, again as expected, the ticket couldn’t get validated and the wickets couldn’t get opened (as my ticket is from Porte d’Italie to CDG, not from Cite Universitet to CDG). This is super ridiculous. I again went to the customer service, and the lady officer suggested I take the elevator to the platform to bypass the wickets.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ff5e">At CDG another problem was waiting for me. I was with 30 KG load; a loaded backpack plus two handbags. The wicket was way too narrow for me to get through with my luggage. The way I managed this predicament was to leave a bag and get out of the wicket (this time the ticket did work), and request a stranger to bring that bag to me.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="077f">In a nutshell, Paris needs to improve the way ticketing works in its metros and public transportation systems. The existing system is dysfunctional and is a punishment to its visitors, both French and overseas.</p>Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-27593523816451172552017-08-17T11:11:00.001+05:302022-06-09T20:58:55.630+05:30Science as a Candle in the Dark<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-IN"><br /></span> <span lang="EN-IN">I grew up in rural Kerala reading each morning ‘Mathrubhumi’-a Malayalam newspaper. Over those years, I remember seeing small box advertisements on top-corners of the front page; every day I would see different incarnations of similar ads. The ads would read like “scientifically prepared magic amulets to ward off evil spirits” and so on. Even after two full decades, similar ads can still be found in Mathrubhumi and other newspapers of Kerala (and presumably other states as well). The question here is straight forward, what is science?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Simply put, science is an evidence-based pursuit of knowledge discovery. Let us consider the example of the previous advertisement, the amulet. The question is how effective the amulet is to ward off evil spirits. Before answering this issue, one has to ascertain the validity of a thing called ‘evil spirit’. Of course, this question evades a fundamental principle in science known as ‘falsifiability’, put forth first by the British philosopher of science Karl Popper. To deem something to be inside the field of science, statements have to be testable, claims ‘independently verifiable’ and falsifiable. According to Popper, science progress by the process of falsification; earlier hypothesis sequentially is falsified, and this process leads to the advancement of science. For example, the hypothesis that earth was flat was falsified by Pythagoras who hypothesized earth was spherical, and the heavenly bodies revolve around the earth. The concept of geocentric world was falsified by Copernicus who hypothesized the sun is the centre of the solar system. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Suppose our earlier advertisement read the following: “scientifically prepared magic amulets to make you rich.” Now, this statement is at least testable; are the amulets effective in making someone rich? One can test this by doing a simple experiment; wearing it for a month and not wearing for a month to see whether the person gets significantly richer. Now the question is what does ‘significantly’ here means; if your overall monthly wealth increases by 1%, is it significant or not? To decide in such situations, smart statisticians have come up with various statistical hypothesis tests, which are beyond the scope of this article. At the end of the experiment and further statistical analysis, you might infer that the amulet does significantly increase the overall wealth, and you conclude that the amulets are effective. This is the scientific method in a nutshell. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">However, what if you got rich due to some other reasons while you were wearing the amulets? For example, for the simple reason that you know you are wearing the amulet subconsciously altered your work habits to work harder and earn higher (this is technically called '<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/absolutely-maybe/the-hawthorne-effect-an-old-scientistse28099-tale-lingering-e2809cin-the-gunsmoke-of-academic-sniperse2809d/">Hawthorn effect</a>"). It could also be because the Indian economy was progressing at a higher rate. An unknown, outside variable causing the effect in our experiment like Indian Economy in this example is known as ‘confounding’ in statistics. A 1995 study concluded higher prevalence of breast cancer in wealthy countries comparing with elsewhere in the world. Many quickly blamed it on the sedentary lifestyle of rich; fast-food culture, obesity, substance abuse and so on. The actual reason that became apparent later was that the mandatory breast cancer screening (mammography) in those countries because the government can afford it there. When you hear stories like "there are four times more motorcycle accidents than the car accidents in India, and therefore motorcycles are inherently dangerous," you should critically evaluate the claim. When you realize that the number of motorcycles on Indian roads are more than six times that of the cars, you will conclude that motorcycles are in fact less dangerous than cars. A pithy aphorism in statistics is ‘correlation does not imply causation’. To prove our earlier hypothesis of amulets, we can do the same experiment repeatedly, either on the same person at various periods (longitudinal experiment) or on different persons at the same time (cross-sectional experiment). Various ingenious scientists with the help from statisticians have tested and retested the efficacy of such amulets, and now the conclusion from all those experiments is that amulets do not work. If it does not work, how can someone claim that these were prepared ‘scientifically’ to confuse the laymen and students? Claiming something to be scientific and factual in the absence of evidence is known as pseudoscience. This pseudoscience is exactly what scientists and science popularizers like Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Prof. Yash Pal, PM Bhargawa, and so on were against, the ignorance that comes in a white-lab coat of an experimental scientist and masquerades the public as ambassadors of real science while evading Popper’s falsifiability and appealing the public through emotion and anecdotes. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">How about claims such as magic, astrology, palmistry and so on? Fortunately, we have a full list of pseudoscience systems that are proved beyond any doubt to be ineffective so that we don’t have to test the efficacy of each item individually. A subset of these pseudoscience systems popular in India include the following: astrology, palmistry, scientology (though seemingly a religion for scientists, scientology is indeed a pseudoscience) tarot card reading, Yeti, Bigfoot, UFOs, homeopathy, ayurveda-including panchgavya and gau mutra therapy, siddha, yunani, reiki, acupuncture, acupressure, magnetotherapy, reflexology, aromatherapy, vastu, naturopathy, detox, ‘organic’ foods (numerous studies have concluded that organic food has identical or lower nutrient levels than genetically modified foods; ‘organics’ is nothing but an advertisement tagline), polygraph (lie detecting machines, these are ineffective and pseudoscientific, but Judiciary have faith in them), miracles, Extra Sensory Perception, Astral Projection, clairvoyance, numerology, faith-healing, transcendental meditation, prayer (no, praying to god doesn’t work)…The list is exhaustive and is swiftly expanding (for example, anti-vaccine campaign budding out at many places in the world is a form of textbook pseudoscience, or climate change denialism). As explained, most of these pseudosciences masquerade as the real science and usually have the word ‘science’ or ‘medicine’ with them. For example, the degree: Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine, Ayurvedic Science, “scientifically prepared amulets” and so on. Most of the modern scientific disciplines have an alternate, counterfeit pseudoscience version as well, like ying-yang or god vs. devil. For example, Astronomy (science) Vs. Astrology (pseudoscience). Chemistry vs. Alchemy, Psychiatry Vs. Parapsychology, Physics Vs. Perpetual Motion Machines, Modern Medicine Vs. all other alternative medicines, etc. Also, the public must know that even today there are millions of people who refuse to accept many scientifically validated concepts as facts; for example Darwin’s theory of evolution (instead of pseudoscientific Intelligent Design), spherical earth (instead of erroneous Flat Earth) and so on.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Pseudoscience approaches you through emotion (such as mysteries and miracles) and anecdotes, not through reason and evidence. Most of the pseudoscience practices, especially alternative medicine, makes use of placebo effect that results from the belief that one has been treated rather than having experienced actual changes due to physical, physiological, and chemical activities of treatment. Anecdotes are unreliable accounts and hearsays. For example, someone tells you that the person knows a very ‘effective’ alternate medicine practitioner in a particular city who has cured cancer through a miracle cure. The veracity of the claim set aside, a patient might have got cured there, but we should also understand that a number of diseases go away on its own without doing any treatments. Of course, cancer too goes away, but chances are very less, one in fifty lakhs. Only one in fifty lakh persons win a particular lottery that means chances of winning is so very low (therefore you should not purchase), but one in fifty lakhs indeed wins it ("someone's gotta win" is a famous lottery slogan). Alternative medicine works like prayers; since ancient times people from various cultures around the world have prayed for rain during drought periods. Some days it rains, some other days it doesn’t. Does pray cause rain to come? Not at all; rain comes on its own. When someone tells you about such anecdotes, ask them what the evidence are. Out of one hundred cancer patients, how many got cured? Otherwise, trust the science, stay away from obvious pseudoscience systems (and motivate others to do the same). Unfortunately, India ranks top among the countries regarding the prevalence of pseudoscience; in India, even the government sponsor the pseudoscience. Consider, for example, homoeopathy. Inductive logic has falsified homoeopathy, and the consensus is that it is a pseudoscience. Central concept of Homoeopathy is that you can treat a disease using a substance that cause similar symptoms so long as you reverse the substance’s effects by diluting it. Through dilutions, its ‘mystical healing vibrations’ gets amplified miraculously. Consider coffee, the stimulant that wakes you up. Mix one part of coffee in a million part of water, to make the homeopathic remedy called “Coffea Cruda” that can be used as ‘sleep aid’. Onions cause runny eyes and runny noses. Use the infinitesimally diluted onion extract to treat the eye diseases, runny nose and common cold! Of course, this theory- that came before we knew that microorganisms cause infectious diseases or substances are made up of molecules- is utterly flawed. At such an extreme level of dilution, chances of finding one molecule of the active substance is far lesser than winning a major lottery, and these medicines are virtually plain water (or other ‘vehicles’, like sugar or 40-proof alcohol). To evade falsification, homeopaths do not talk about molecules, but ‘mystical healing vibrations’ that, of course, cannot be testable. When the Nobel laureate Venkataraman Ramakrishnan referred Homeopathy as ‘<a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/homeopathy-astrology-are-bogus-says-nobel-laureate-venkatraman-ramakrishna/story-oNNzWBnosMFiLnrnmfkdxI.html">bogus, harmful and pseudoscience</a>’, the furore against it was mostly from India, not from Germany- homoeopathy's birthplace. The reason is simple, homeopathy-due to the very fact that it is a pseudoscience- is essentially non-existent in Germany, except in isolated patches around cities like Frankfurt where significant Indian migrants can be found. I lived for several years in Japan-a country where you can’t find any alternative medicines (including Ayurveda and homoeopathy), yet their standard of living, life expectancy and human development index is among the top in the world. Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland) tops in all development indices, as well as health indices and they have no homoeopathy or Ayurveda. What are they missing out? UK’s NHS has recently decided to stop funding for Homoeopathy for the ‘gross misuse of resources’. Ask do homoeopathy or ayurveda practitioners ever get their children vaccinated, or give them antibiotics when sick (or even measure their blood pressures) why do they do this if their own alternative medicine is effective? Precisely because alternative medicines do not work. In India, we have government-run homoeopathic and ayurveda clinics in every district. What will happen if the government decide to close and divert the budget (in my modest estimates, the budget for the mere maintenance of AYUSH in the country is more than 30,000 crore rupees per annum) to improve public health, education and sanitation instead? I argue that this policy decision would instantly make our country developed.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Pseudoscience proponents are indeed liars. The public should avoid their propaganda by understanding a basic psychological trap liars create to cheat the gullible; it is called ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect">illusion of truth</a>.’ Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels once famously shared his tactics post-holocaust: “repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes truth’. In philosophy, this is called logical fallacy of <i>argumentum ad nauseam</i>- the appeal to repetition. Uneducated laity often falls for small lies interspersed between truths here and there, that turns itself into a monster lie, propaganda. And if government and media backs these damn lies and suppress the truth? These lies become self-propagating forms like viruses, perpetuate and turn into hard self-convictions engraved deep into our mindset. Another of their strategy makes use of a trap known as ‘philosophical burden of proof’ (also known as ‘Russel’s Teapot’). Bertrand Russel once famously wrote about one such a claim that he invented; there is a lone teapot that orbits the sun between earth and mars. Can anyone disprove this assertion? Proponents of pseudoscience make such unverifiable, unfalsifiable claims, and ask the sceptics to prove otherwise (which is impossible to disprove). Another of their strategy is known as <i>argumentum ad populum</i>-the appeal to widespread beliefs. For example, ‘ghosts are real because millions believe in them’. We should be aware that belief being so widespread (for example, “food becomes poison during eclipse,” “peahen gets pregnant by drinking the tears of peacock”, “the only animal that inhale and exhale oxygen is cow”, “drenching in the rain causes fever” or 'cold weather causes common cold') does not make it true. A logical fallacy called <i>dicto simpliciter</i> (generalization) is also related to this. For example, ‘logging (cutting down the trees) is anti-environmental’ is a popular generalization that has no scientific basis. Logging is indeed necessary for the healthy management of planted forests. Another related logical fallacy is <i>argumentum ad antiquitatem</i>-the appeal to tradition. For example, Ayurveda and Astrology are true because these has been practised for thousands of years and these are our tradition. Similarly, many practitioners use the word ‘naturally’ to appeal the public, but the public should know that simply being natural does not mean it to be effective or safe. More than 70 percent of all medicines used in science is obtained from plants, but that does not mean crude plant extracts are either effective or safe. Another often-used propaganda of pseudoscience is the connotation that the word ‘chemical’ means toxin, which is false. By the way is there anything that can be called ‘chemical free’? Even the purest Antarctic water is made up of chemicals. Martian rocks too. The public should be wary of these advertisement gimmicks.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">There is a widespread myth in India, surprisingly believed to be true even among the highly educated, that ayurveda works “slow and steady” while modern medicine is “fast and furious”; ayurveda has, unlike medicine, no “side effects”; “only homeopathy can cure allergies,” “homeopathy is effective for children ailments” and so on, all damn lies. A number of scientific studies have confirmed that ayurvedic formulations contain harmful levels of heavy metals including lead, mercury, and arsenic. These rudimentary formulations were invented many centuries ago much before the age of antibiotics; at that time prevailing treatment scenario around the world had been drugs with heavy metals. In philosophy, there is a logical fallacy by the name <i>Ignoratio elenchi</i>- missing the point. Perpetrators of alternative medicine formulations often claim that their remedies are ‘government certified’. On close inspection, you will understand that these government certifications are what is known as GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices). If any commercial item manufactured in hygienic surroundings with proper quality controls, government issues these GMP certifications. What is being missed here is, however, this certificate has nothing to do with the efficacy of the remedy. The certification is not an attestation that the drug ‘works’ (i.e., ‘evidence-based’). Even if the government market such products, no one can take for granted that these remedies are efficient; if it is efficient, it is then scientific of course. Another logical fallacy often employed by the pseudoscience quacks is <i>argumentum ad verecundiam</i>– the appeal to authority. “Do you know world famous American scientist Dr. Deepak Chopra? He has confirmed the efficacy of ayurveda, yoga and meditation through quantum physics” etcetera. Just because the twenty-three times Olympic gold medallist Michael Phelps tried Chinese pseudoscience practice called ‘cupping’ does not validate it as a science. Another form of the same trick is pointing the reference to a book. Just because something has been printed on a good-looking book (for example, the ‘bible’ of homeopaths Materia Medica often comes as gold-bound, with golden backbone, and Victorian-looking fonts) does not mean what is claimed is a fact. In science, there is no authority. Science is open to criticism and improvement; anyone can falsify anyone else through evidence-based rigorous methodology (unlike religion and alternative medicine where criticisms are not tolerated, and there is no scope for falsification. Seen cartoons in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten? Or, M.F. Hussain’s painting Saraswati?). Thomas Henry Huxley once said: The deepest sin against the human mind if to believe things without evidence.” By the way, who is this Deepak Chopra? Richard Dawkins referred him as “an arrogantly obstinate quack who uses quantum jargon as plausible-sounding hocus-pocus.” Yes, that is a well-known stratagem to fool the gullible, ignorant masses; use a lot of technical jargons to sound yourself as an authority, and defraud them plainly. People with ‘simple thinking,’ those simpletons amongst us who are too indolent to read what is happening in the world, are the most gullible, and the prime target of charlatans like Deepak Chopra, Sri Sri Ravishankar, Baba Ramdev and so on, unfortunately.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN"> For tens of generations, humanity tried to eradicate one of the biggest challenges it had ever faced in history, smallpox, through prayers. During those ages, religion ruled the world, and religious people suppressed the science and freethought- those "dark ages." Prayers of all sorts of all faiths of the world… but failed miserably. Then came careful scientific studies by Edward Jenner, and in next one-generation smallpox is eradicated from the world through vaccines-a “miracle” by all means, but in science, it is just another method. For the last 4000 years, religion has promised us a second life; all these years pseudoscience continued to swindle the gullible, while in just the last 100 years alone, science has doubled our life. Religion makes promises, pseudoscience beguiles, while science delivers!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Only through inductive experimentation backed by rigorous statistical hypothesis testing, that one could differentiate between what are objective scientific practices and what are anecdote-based pseudoscience. The rigorous scientific methodology developed from the critical writings of Francis Bacon, Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and beyond, is filled with technical jargon entirely incomprehensible to the non-technically trained public, and perhaps that is the cause for the prevalence of pseudoscience in countries with low socioeconomic status. This is the exact reason why practitioners of pseudoscience can easily deceive simple plebeians with their miracle cures. Scientists are like ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubting_Thomas">Doubting Thomas</a>’, sceptic to the core and incredulous to any claims without evidence. Many scientific insights often overlooked today as common everyday knowledge, like ‘smoking causes cancer’ or ‘trans-fat and lack of exercise causes coronary artery diseases’ are inferences of decades-long longitudinal epidemiological studies backed with rigorous statistics; for instance the famous “<a href="http://framingham%20heart%20study/">Framingham Heart Study</a>”, which began in 1948 and is still ongoing. We should realise that the technology we had been using and taken for granted like a computer, or electricity, or a car, or a mobile phone, or a vaccine, is the product of decades-long rigorous scientific research.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Another hallmark of science is that there are no authorities in science and an uneducated youth, for example, can directly and validly question the veracity of a scientific conclusion, which is not possible in case of religion and other pseudoscientific ‘belief’ systems. In science there is no belief system; nobody believes in science, but they only acknowledge the efficacy. Science has a built-in correcting mechanism through which the science advances every single day, while pseudoscience is forever caught up in the medieval periods with no such correction systems. Pseudoscience practitioners like religious stalwarts, read just one book ‘holy scripture’ again and again and consider it the ultimate truth. However, scientists read thousands of books in their lifetime but still consider themselves to be a mere ‘pebble in the vast ocean’ (Newton’s statement). Scientific books keep on coming with new versions once in every few years, while pseudoscience is forever closed and locked-up in the world of ignorance and mysticism. Does that mean science can answer all our questions? Of course not. Science does not know everything, but at the same time, pseudoscience knows nothing at all. Einstein famously stated, “all of our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike- and yet it is the most precious thing that we have.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Non-science, erroneous science and scientific misconduct are three unrelated concepts, and these are not related to pseudoscience as well. Non-scientific disciplines like history, sociology, art, literature and so on are of course not pseudoscientific or erroneous science. I am a scientist, and I also work on linguistics and evolutionary socio-politics, I have authored an English fiction book, and I enjoy reading good literature and poetry. Non-science disciplines are, like science, imaginative, disciplined, and open for criticism, unlike pseudoscience. Erroneous science results from the poorly designed scientific methodology and is mostly unintentional. For example, using molten iron balls Lord Kelvin of England calculated in 1890s that earth is 20 million years old; now we know that the conclusion was erroneous because he assumed that earth’s core is simply a molten iron that is gradually cooling (we now know that earth’s core is undergoing radioactive decay, which is far slower). On the other hand, scientific misconduct is deliberate practices of skewing scientific methodology or inferences for one’s benefit. For example, a student asks his friend to write an article on his behalf (known as ‘ghost writing’), or she copy the contents of another paper from the internet and paste it in her article (known as plagiarism). Even if you acknowledge from where the matter is copied from and cite the source, still this is considered textual plagiarism, unless the matter is enclosed within quotes. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">A common misconception about science in India is that the science is Western, or Nehruvian (or “congressi”) which is false. The country has produced a number of renowned scientists from time immemorial well before the origins of modern scientific methodology; from Charaka, Baudhayana, Pingala, Susruta, Brahmagupta, Aryabhatta, Madhava, Nilakanta, PC Ray, CV Raman, S. Ramanujan, HJ Bhabha, JC Bose, Birbal Sahni, all the way to CNR Rao, Goverdhan Mehta, and K VijayRaghavan- the current secretary of Department of Biotechnology- are all first-rate internationally acclaimed scientists. Science is of course, international; not merely belong to any particular country or ideology.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-IN">Another misconception about science is that good science need to be beneficial to the humanity. The central fallacy of this argument stems from a cognitive bias called ‘confirmation bias’. Why did pre-Copernican era people think earth was the centre of the universe? Because we live on planet earth-our only home and we need to bolster-confirm-its importance. Likewise, we are humans, and we want to confirm our superiority over other animals, plants and non-living matter by embracing anthropocentrism- argument that the whole universe is made just for the utilisation of human beings. Of course, science is not about utility for humankind, for nothing special about human beings. We are merely an animal species amongst around 10 million animal species, occupying our position in vast, interlinked, and complex ecological niche. Scientific disciplines including palaeontology, astronomy, behavioural sciences, quantum physics and so on might not be of immediate usefulness to humanity, but reveal several interesting facts about how nature works. Scientific research is indeed curiosity-driven, not utility-driven (see Abraham Flexner’s famous essay entitled “<a href="https://library.ias.edu/files/UsefulnessHarpers.pdf">usefulness of useless knowledge</a>’).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IN">Finally, I would like to recommend the following books for the young readers to arm themselves with the power of scientific knowledge and to discern pseudoscience for staying away from it: Carl Sagan’s “<a href="http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/The%20Demon-Haunted%20World.pdf">The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark</a>”, Richard Dawkin’s “<a href="https://archive.org/download/pdfy-nmqlMcOu-icCFhIe/The%20God%20Delusion.pdf">The God delusion</a>”, Michael Shermer’s “<a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/Self-Development/Skepticism-101-How-to-Think-like-a-Scientist-Audiobook/B00DJETEEM">Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist</a>” (audiobook). My suggestion to parents and teachers is to teach the pupil how to think, not what to think, as the age we are living is for knowing, not for believing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-82052449736323280882017-08-10T14:44:00.000+05:302017-08-17T12:12:47.201+05:30What construes pseudoscience?<div id="fb-root"></div>
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This comment is in response to “<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-march-from-yesterday/article19459043.ece">The march from yesterdays</a>” by Sundar Sarukkai, published on 10<sup>th</sup> August 2017. I am surprised to read a comment from a philosopher colleague that suffer from the logical fallacy of <i>ad ignorantiam</i> in its entirety, that too in the same newspaper issue with an excellent politics article full of profound scientific insights from a non-scientist colleague (<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/when-the-paradigm-shifts/article19460584.ece">When the Paradigm Shifts</a>, Happymon Jacob). The ignorance stems in part from the author’s poor understanding of what construes the science and how it is different from non-science, erroneous science and pseudoscience- three totally unrelated concepts. Non-scientific disciplines like history, sociology, art, literature and so on are of course not pseudoscientific or erroneous science, and the author’s such a claim suffers from a logical fallacy known universally as ‘false dichotomy’. I am a scientist, and I also work on linguistics and evolutionary socio-politics, I have authored an English fiction book, and I enjoy reading good literature and poetry. Non-science disciplines are, like science, imaginative, disciplined, and open for criticism, unlike pseudoscience. The March for Science has nothing to do with these non-science subjects. The March is also not against erroneous science or scientific misconduct- both are indeed genuine issues. Erroneous science simply results from poorly designed scientific methodology and are mostly unintentional. Scientific misconduct is deliberate practices of skewing scientific methodology or inferences for one’s benefit. The March, instead, is targeted towards pseudoscience and diminishing funds for the actual science-two of the key issues plaguing the science in our country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To understand the pseudoscience, one should understand what is science, and the scientific methodology. Only through inductive experimentation backed by rigorous statistical hypothesis testing that one can differentiate between what are objective scientific practices and what are anecdote-based pseudoscience. The rigorous scientific methodology developed from the critical writings of Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Francis Bacon and beyond, is filled with technical jargon entirely incomprehensible to the non-technically trained public, and perhaps that is the root cause for the prevalence of pseudoscience in countries with low socio-economic status. This is the exact reason why practitioners of pseudoscience can easily deceive simple plebeians with their miracle cures. Scientists are like ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubting_Thomas">Doubting Thomas</a>’, sceptic to the core and incredulous to any claims without evidence. Many scientific insights often overlooked today as common everyday knowledge, like ‘smoking causes cancer’ or ‘trans-fat and lack of exercise causes coronary artery diseases’ are inferences of decades-long longitudinal epidemiological studies backed with rigorous statistics; for instance the famous “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framingham_Heart_Study">Framingham Heart Study</a>”, which began in 1948 and is still ongoing. A common misconception about science in India is that the science is considered as Western, or Nehruvian (or “congressi”) which is false. The country has produced a number of renowned scientists from time immemorial well before the origins of modern scientific methodology; from Charaka, Baudhayana, Pingala, Susruta, Brahmagupta, Aryabhatta, Madhava, Nilakanta, PC Ray, CV Raman, S. Ramanujan, HJ Bhabha, JC Bose, Birbal Sahni, all the way to CNR Rao, Goverdhan Mehta, and K VijayRaghavan- the current secretary of Department of Biotechnology- are all first-rate internationally acclaimed scientists. Science is of course, international; not merely belong to any particular country or ideology.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I am surprised to read the author’s assumption that the scientists are propagating ignorance and more surprised to find a place for such a comment in the national newspaper like the Hindu. Does Sundar Sarukkai realise that the technology he had been using and taken for granted like a computer, or electricity, or a car, or a mobile phone, or a vaccine, is the product of decades-long rigorous scientific research? Of course, over the years the science has tremendously improved the human life. He should carefully read Carl Sagan’s “<a href="http://www.metaphysicspirit.com/books/The%20Demon-Haunted%20World.pdf">The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark” before alleging scientists as ‘propagating ignorance</a>.’ While asking for an increase in the funding for science, scientists did not make a ‘scientific claim’; it is a demand or proposition. Calling the demand as a ‘scientific claim’ proves author’s ignorance in two domains; communicative English and scientific methodology. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Of course, science in India is indeed in a dire situation (which is not a mere rhetoric), with a government that is constantly increasing funding for pseudoscience practices <a href="https://thewire.in/136259/panchgavya-svarop-iit-csir-cow-urine/">like cow urine therapy and pachagavya</a>, while asking the<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/govt-tells-labs-fund-research-by-yourself/article7811265.ece"> scientific laboratories to find funds for themselves</a>. The public should avoid this incognito propaganda by understanding a basic psychological trap liars create to cheat the gullible; it’s called ‘<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_truth_effect">illusion of truth</a>.’ Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels once famously shared his tactics post-holocaust: “repeat a lie often enough, and it becomes truth’. Uneducated laity often falls for small lies interspersed between truths here and there, that turns itself into a monster lie, propaganda. And if government and media backs these damn lies and suppress the truth? These lies become self-propagating forms like viruses, perpetuate and turn into hard self-convictions engraved deep into our mindset. For tens of generations, humanity tried to eradicate one of the biggest challenges it had ever faced in history, smallpox, through prayers. During those ages, religion ruled the world, and religious people suppressed the science and freethought- those "dark ages." Prayers of all sorts of all religions of the world… but failed miserably. Then came scrupulous scientific studies by Edward Jenner, and in next one generation smallpox is eradicated from the world through vaccines-a “miracle” by all means, but in science, it is just another method. For the last 4000 years, religion has promised us a second life; all these years pseudoscience continued to swindle the gullible, while in just the last 100 years alone, science has doubled our life. Religion makes promises, pseudoscience beguiles, while science delivers!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Universities, CSIR labs and other scientific institutes in the country are at present severely affected with lack of funding. The basic scientific research-which is not directed towards its usefulness to the humanity- is the hardest-hit area. Ironically, the basic scientific research had been the forte of ancient Indian scientific pursuit; for example astronomy, mathematics, logics and so on. Scientific disciplines including palaeontology, astronomy, behavioural sciences, quantum physics and so on might not be of immediate usefulness to humanity, but the research in these disciplines will cause Kuhn’s “paradigm-shift” in the long run (see Abraham Flexner’s renowned essay entitled “<a href="https://library.ias.edu/files/UsefulnessHarpers.pdf">usefulness of useless knowledge</a>’). Of course, science is not about anthropocentrism or speciesism; human beings are merely an animal in nature and considering the whole universe is made just for the utilisation of human beings suffers from a cognitive bias called ‘confirmation bias’. The government-backed gold rush for utilitarianism lead marketing of bogus pseudoscientific products like <a href="https://freethoughtblogs.com/arun/2016/10/03/a-government-that-fools-its-citizens-by-peddling-in-pseudo-science/">BGR-34</a> by reputed CSIR labs, which came as the biggest surprise in post-independent scientific pursuit in India. What scientists and science popularizers like Prof. Yash Pal were against is pseudoscience, the ignorance that wears the white-lab coat of an experimental scientist and masquerades the public as ambassadors of real science while evading Popper’s falsifiability and appealing the public through emotion and anecdotes. A countless number of pseudoscience practices are prevalent in India, and India ranks, perhaps, world number one in pseudoscience. Pseudoscience include atrology, palmistry, tarot card reading, numerology, yeti, UFOs, Bigfoot, homeopathy, Ayurveda-including panchgavya and gau mutra therapy, siddha, yunani, reiki, acupuncture, acupressure, magnetotherapy, reflexology, aromatherapy, vastu, naturopathy, detox, ‘organic’ foods (numerous studies have concluded that organic food has identical or lower nutrient levels than genetically modified foods; ‘organics’ is nothing but an advertisement tagline), polygraph, miracles, ESP, clairvoyance, faith-healing, transcendental meditation, prayer (no, praying to god doesn’t work)…The list is exhaustive and is swiftly expanding (for example, anti-vaccine campaign budding out at many places in the world is a form of textbook pseudoscience, or climate change denialism). Consider, for example, homoeopathy. Inductive logic has clearly falsified homoeopathy, and the consensus is that it is a pseudoscience. When the Nobel laureate Venkataraman Ramakrishnan referred <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india/homeopathy-astrology-are-bogus-says-nobel-laureate-venkatraman-ramakrishna/story-oNNzWBnosMFiLnrnmfkdxI.html">Homeopathy as ‘bogus, harmful and pseudoscience’</a>, the furore against it was mostly from India, not from Germany- homoeopathy's birthplace. The reason is simple, homeopathy-due to the very fact that it is a pseudoscience- is essentially non-existent in Germany, except in isolated patches around cities like Frankfurt where significant Indian migrants can be found. I lived for several years in Japan-a country where you can’t find any alternative medicines, yet their standard of living and human development index is among the top in the world. Scandinavia tops in all development indices, as well as health indices and they have no homoeopathy or Ayurveda. What are they missing out? UK’s NHS too has recently decided <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/21/nhs-ban-homeopathy-herbal-medicine-misuse-resources/">to stop funding for Homoeopathy for the ‘gross misuse of resources’</a>. Ask do homoeopathy or ayurveda practitioners ever get their children vaccinated, or give them antibiotics when sick; why do they do this if their own alternative medicine is effective? Precisely because alternative medicines do not work. In India, we have government-run homoeopathic and ayurveda clinics in every district. What will happen if the government decide to close and divert the budget (in my modest estimates, the budget for mere maintenance of AYUSH in the country is more than 30,000 crore rupees per annum) to improve public health, education and sanitation instead? I argue that this policy decision would instantly make our country developed.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Author’s purported neutral stance is indeed a ludicrous proposition. It is now proved beyond doubt that Darwin’s theory of evolution is correct, and for the sake of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view">NPOV</a> (Neutral Point of View, made famous by Wikipedia), how senseless it would be to teach the ignorance called ‘intelligent design’ to the schoolchildren! It is like arguing for teaching Ptolemaic geocentric universe, or ‘flat earth’ hypothesis, or spontaneous generation of life from non-living matter, for the sake of providing alternative choices. Author’s claim that “everything they claim can easily be disproved by referring to the extensive work in the fields of history, philosophy and sociology of science” plainly suffer from the logical fallacy of “<i>Ad verecundiam</i>,” appeal to authority. What the author missed out is that in science there are no authorities and an uneducated youth, for example, can directly and validly question the veracity of a scientific conclusion, which is not possible in case of religion and other belief systems. Science has a built-in correcting mechanism through which the science advances every single day, while pseudoscience is forever caught up in the medieval periods with no such correction systems. The author referred ‘beliefs about science’ throughout the article, but he fails to understand the basic premise that in science there are no beliefs. We should teach our posterity how to think, not what to think, as the age we are living is for knowing, not for believing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-14399070110366020282017-08-09T16:46:00.000+05:302017-08-09T17:51:05.095+05:30The frog in a well: Why it is unwise to be a party affiliate?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Of course, I am not apolitical; I do not have, however, a lifelong allegiance to a particular political party. I also refuse to be someone like the one author Elbert Hubbard satirically idolises: “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” I have been vocal about various policy-related decisions of successive governments at different levels in India, mostly through social media. Among the things that I appreciated include good governance by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, effective managerial skills of PM Modi and his decision to replace flowers for books as souvenirs, austere way of life of Tripura CM Manik Sarkar, Yogi Adityanath’s decision to distribute backpacks with Akhilesh Yadav’s images, social welfare decisions of Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, and so on. While I love the personal freedom, free economy and other libertarian policies of advanced capitalism, I also love pro-multicultural, pro-science and egalitarian policies of socialism. In a way, the apolitical appreciation of good governance and criticism of bad governance is like descriptivism in linguistics; descriptivists merely describe the integral features of languages without being judgmental, while prescriptivists prescribe and promote one language over the others.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Over the years, I noticed an emerging pattern that I must confess did not come as a big surprise after all. The majority of my contacts identify themselves with a particular political party. They ‘like’ the posts appreciative of their party politicians, while they do not ‘like’ if the posts are critical of them. Only a few of my contacts act as if they have no political allegiance. Why, what is wrong if you swear your allegiance with a party, you may ask?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Stereotyping is the major issue with this approach. I had been twice to London’s British Museum as well as Victoria and Albert’s Museum-the treasure house of all the looted things from the third world! These museums are indeed very well curated with clearly demarcated sections based on the genre. Look for the central section, art. You will see French, Gothic, Renaissance…where are the sculptures and paintings from India? Those are not stereotypic art as per the British, but anthropological artefacts! In this imperious mentality, third world art and literary works are indeed of inferior quality than the western. This exactly is what is called stereotyping, or judgmentalism. Like those British curators who considers every artistic form of the third world as inherently inferior to that from the West, if you identify yourself with a particular party (or worse, you become an official member of a party), you subconsciously consider all the other members of that party as your friends, and invariably you will have an emotional attachment to them. Just like other life instances, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix_Bast/publication/303833469_Left-Right_Political_Spectrum_and_the_Human_Gene_Pool/links/5774e87a08ae4645d60b6817/Left-Right-Political-Spectrum-and-the-Human-Gene-Pool.pdf">your emotion, rather than the reason, dictate things to you</a>. You will fight for the ideology that you are part of, and even kill the opponents as well. The co-discoverer of DNA, Francis Crick, once famously said, “The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea because then he'll fight and die for it.” Of course, you will end up justifying all the wrongdoings your party has committed, you refuse to acknowledge the problems of your party, and refuse to read or listen what the opponent writes or says. ‘Frog in a well’ is a famous Chinese idiom in use since time immemorial; it represents someone unbeknownst of the outside world, and perfectly captures the essence of issues of identifying oneself with a particular party politics. There is a name for this in cognitive psychology, confirmation bias. Suppose you identify as a rightist BJP party person. You will look for articles and media that affirms your affiliation, your allegiance. You will read only ‘Organizer’-the official RSS print media- or other rightists, or right-leaning sources (such as Republic TV channel), as each news item in those, endorses your preconceived mental constructs and expectations. In a way those stories and eulogies bolster your fantasy, which you fail to reason as the figment of the imagination. You are happy, of course like a frog in a well. Reading or watching apolitical media such as The Hindu, The Indian Express or NDTV makes you consider these centrists are not at all apolitical, but agents of the opposite political spectrum, the leftists. How about reading the real left-wing paper like “The People’s Democracy” that diametrically contradict your worldview? You are infuriated and call them anti-national and criminals! Now, if you were a self-proclaimed leftist, those exact ‘centrist’ media might seem to you right leaning. Like the famous ‘Checker's shadow’ or other countless numbers of optical illusions, the pivotal issue here is that there are several cognitive biases subconsciously tweaking each decision that we make in our daily life, and the way we perceive our world. James Randi, the famous American magician, once famously said “No amount of belief makes something a fact.’ This is known in philosophy as ‘objectivism’ (Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is a well-known work of objectivistic philosophy) the central premise of which is the consideration that the reality exists independent of our consciousness. The reality, or the objective knowledge, can only be obtained through inductive logic, i.e., scientific method.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Recently Bihar CM Nitish Kumar took an overnight decision to quit the grand alliance, and take the support of his opponent BJP to form the new ruling alliance in Bihar. This has sent shockwaves across India, indeed, and his opponents have called him someone who lacks integrity, and a political chameleon. What people do not realise is that human beings are dynamic individuals. A vast majority of the cells of our body gets replaced with new cells, and within a decade we all have an entirely new body. Look at your old photographs taken ten years or more ago. Those are not ‘you’ in a sense. Our beliefs too, as new pieces of evidence accumulate, a rational person keeps on modifying what he/she believes in, conceptually homologous with <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ejxrt3l1at0jqg8/Probability.pptx">statistical method of Bayesian Inference</a>. In a way, party ideologies and religious dogma are similar; both are not open for criticism and feedback-refinement. While scholarly scientific books keep on refining with new editions publishing once in every few years, ever wondered why there are no refinements for religious scriptures (such as Bhagavatgeeta, for Hindus) or foundational texts of political parties (such as Das Capital, for Marxists)? If we do not modify our prior beliefs with new evidence or information, we are not dynamic living organisms then, but a mere dogmatic sycophant slave who cannot even think freely with his own mind, or a frog in a well. These frogs love the comfort of their fantasy world; they invent clever news stories-the fake news- to support their propaganda. In the case of linguistics, puritanical linguists resist any changes in the language; but as we know, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix_Bast/publication/282664011_Time_Calibration_of_Linguistic_Phylograms_A_Molecular_Clock_for_Historical_Linguistics/links/5617523f08ae839f3c7d8435.pdf?origin=publication_detail&ev=pub_int_prw_xdl&msrp=jZ7aYyRatOHI-4gwAYn3IG6WAe507QLU2X95h18YIRVYdPoC1IYnG3yq9rIApbOiWqdkRDKIkB79xZgK4BseQA.-zsX2vhAbDeD5I5th_j57VhJJZILwznA8GU2dFRe5vEsvZIayTCe0J45lDZ2pp9OyBs2bIzVoawiwj1vqSQO1g.L5_0QBJWZK4xCvhOQPzEEATH_JEvJs1s-6RMCTN8hKv_CQ1LhE0vTqoiJ7dIIJSjWInqr5V0iRuJ4KCKeaWDTA">all languages evolve</a> and opposing changes like the use of the word ‘literally’ <a href="http://lifehacker.com/go-ahead-and-use-literally-figuratively-1797636385">in the figurative sense is futile</a>. Then there is yet another type of persons who, no matter the politics, support whichever party is in power. They are the ultimate hypocritical sycophants who just want to get things done by whatever means.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As an apolitical person, am I against party politics and voting? Of course not. I do vote in the elections. Do I vote for individuals rather than parties? Seemingly an excellent strategy, however, might not be the wisest in participatory democracies like in India. The key NOTA (None Of The Above) makes no sense to me; in situations like two leading candidates with both of them being corrupt/criminals, I will vote for the third. If all are corrupt/criminals-which is highly unlikely, making NOTA win also makes no sense, as in such situations the person who got second highest votes will be declared a winner. Nevertheless, can I consciously vote for a person whom I consider as a corrupt person, for the sake for his or her party to win the election? I will not, but these choices come under the purview of ethics, which indeed is highly subjective, relativistic and even a myth. Shakespeare wisely stated in Hamlet: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” Even though you vote for a ‘virtuous’ person, ultimately, a party or an alliance win and they will take all the policy-related decisions. With a dynamic party-alliance that often transforms its ideology from one spectrum to another without consulting the voters, there is no way of ‘rationally’ choosing the right candidate in the elections. However, I do vote for the right ideology as deemed appropriate at each time of my life, but I refuse to be a steadfast party-politics supporter. My political philosophy is clear: be appreciative of the good work, and be critical of the bad works. Softly leaning on a party might be okay too, but being critical of wrongdoings in that party is important. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-41218542912286026842017-08-08T15:38:00.000+05:302017-08-08T18:03:29.404+05:30Lenovo HW01 Full Review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img alt="Lenovo HW01 Smart Band" height="320" src="https://rukminim1.flixcart.com/image/832/832/j30gvbk0-1/smart-band-tag/b/z/f/hw01-lenovo-original-imaeu8phbqhq7exh.jpeg?q=70" width="222" /><br />
With a good brand value of Lenovo (I am a satisfied customer of their smartphone and tablet) and budget price tag (approx Rs. 1799 through phonepe-<a href="https://www.flipkart.com/lenovo-hw01-smart-band/p/itmeswvgw3rdwd4k">Flipkart</a> offer) with one-year warranty I decided to give it a try (it looks way beautiful than Mi bands too, yet another reason). It came with heart rate sensor too, nifty! This is what happened:<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>This band (and most of the other smartbands) support no biking; so if you are planning to do some biking as part of your overall fitness schedule, this band is of no use.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>HW01 lasts for a day with its heart rate continuous sensor (continuous doesn't mean full time, but one reading every 15 minutes). <span style="background-color: yellow;">PLUS, it works on bluetooth, so it drains out phone's battery quite fast. That would mean you are caught up with a dying phone and a dying smartband most of the days</span>. If you disable HR function of the band, it lasts for 2 days. (Compare this with Mi Band 2, which last for a week or so, but again, read the whole story; smartbands are inherently a bad buy, because it do not follow 'Occam's Razor' philosophy!)</li>
<li>HW01 boasts IP65 water resistant rating, which is actually a lie. Well, IP65 itself is only 'splash' resistance, you can't immerse or take a shower with it (but hey, I have been using my Casio G-shock for last 12 years, wearing during showers, swimming, and even at Antarctica. Nothing happened. So in 12 years, the technology went backwards? Unbelievable!) . What if you cant even use it? That exactly what has happened in my case. I used it for running and naturally, the band got some of my sweat droplets, but this band not simply stayed there, but <span style="background-color: yellow;">it IMBIBED all my sweat!</span> After each subsequent run, the problem aggravated till its touch controls got failed and randomly it started cycling through its options without even touching. It will not connect to my phone, forcing me to contact the company.</li>
<li>I called a Ghaziabad number that the box contained to register the complaint and to inquire about the details of the service centres. A lady picked up and said her father looks after the matter and gave me another number. This second number, a mobile number, when dialled, a person <span style="background-color: yellow;">claiming to be a Chartered Accountant answered and said he know neither HW01 nor smart-band and has nothing to do with the whole issue. CHEATED!</span></li>
<li>I contacted the Flipkart and insisted for a refund immediately, which flipkart denied citing their policy of 10-days window, which had already been elapsed in my situation.</li>
<li>I contacted Lenovo India and the reply I received is:. </li>
<br /><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="color: black; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr height="14px"><td width="143"><img alt="Gmail" class="logo" height="59" src="https://www.gmail.com/mail/help/images/logonew.gif" style="border: 0px; left: -7px; position: relative;" width="143" /></td><td align="right"><span style="color: #777777;"><b>Felix Bast <felix .bast="" gmail.com=""></felix></b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<hr style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" />
<div class="maincontent" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="font-size: 13px;"><b>Urgent: about lenovo smartband</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<hr />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="message" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="font-size: 13px;"><b>Lencare </b><lencare lenovo.com=""></lencare></td><td align="right" style="font-size: 13px;">Fri, Jul 28, 2017 at 7:08 PM</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="recipient">To: Felix Bast <felix .bast="" gmail.com=""></felix></span></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="2" style="font-size: 13px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="12" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%px;"><tbody>
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<br />
<div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="m_5986052721743494788WordSection1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Dear Customer,<u></u><u></u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">We don’t have support for smart band. Lenovo has no such product called HW01 smart band the the product is an obvious counterfeit item. I suggest you to report the matter to the police. We also have no authorized service centre at "</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: small;">FF 13, Mark Mall Sector 4B, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad UP" </span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Kindly contact your seller.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>___________________<u></u><u></u></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Thanks & Regards,</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Lenovo India</span></b></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
<li>Flipkart somehow arranged a conference call with the seller, and myself. Finally, the flipkart agreed to refund the product after the return, which is now completed and I got the full refund.</li>
<li>Beware of this HW01. The product is a duplicate, of course not of genuine Lenovo; a fraudulent sub standard stuff that drinks your sweat. Beware of <span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="font-size: large;">Lenovo Service Centre, FF 13, Mark Mall Sector 4B, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad UP 201012 Mobile 09990851230 </span></span>which is not a Lenovo service centre at all!</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div>
<b>Bottomline:</b> <span style="color: red;">I will never trust Flipkart henceforth, and never try yet another smartband. </span>Smartbands, or activity sensors or smart watches...it all works with blue tooth and invariably drains your phone cell DRASTICALLY. It doesn't track your biking (cycling), so if you bike as part of the overall fitness programme, these bands are not for you. I have been using free app on my android Google Fit to track everything (it silently detect body movement and decide am I walking, running or biking!), and I will stick with Google Fit as of now :-) I am following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor">Occam's, Razor principle</a>. Why go for complicated solutions for the problem, if a simple solution exists? </div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-2333096044481048182016-04-05T15:59:00.000+05:302016-04-05T15:59:31.037+05:30How to fix Philips GoGear MIX 4GB "Memory is full! Connect to PC and delete some content" issue? SOLVED<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
1. Install Philips GoGear Device Manager (Which is available inside your GoGear drive, use explorer to locate and then install)<br />
<br />
In case the device manager do not open, try other, older computer (I had this issue)<br />
<br />
2. Second tab of device manager, repair, has all instructions. In summary, connect or re-connect GoGear in OFF position, while pressing and holding volume up key. It says + key, while no such key can be found, it is just volume up key .<br />
<br />
3. The MIX will now start recovering/firmware updation<br />
<br />
4. You may need to reformat the drive before you can use it; reformat it from windows explorer like how you reformat USB pen drives.<br />
<br />
Now try syncing!</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-76398197797655850402015-03-20T09:37:00.000+05:302015-03-20T09:39:41.635+05:30Scientists discover European microbe behind “blood rain”<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A group of scientists from India and Austria have discovered that the red colored “blood” rain phenomenon sporadically happened at various locations across South India and Sri Lanka was due to the spores of terrestrial microscopic green alga, <i>Trentepohlia annulata</i>. Spells of weird red colored rain –the so-called “blood rain”- across South India had been reported since 1896; the latest one happened in Kerala during December, 2013. Rain droplets were so red that the sun-dried white laundry turns dark-red after drenching in the rain. Since then a number of purported causes for this mysterious phenomenon have been circulating, including divine spell and alien involvement. For example, an American newspaper <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/alien-rain-unexplained-files_n_3982523.html?ir=India">The Huffington Post</a> reported in 2012 that this was caused by extraterrestrial life (aliens). The present study compared microscopic morphology and DNA sequence data of locally abundant microalgae of the area where the red rain phenomenon happened and confirmed that it was a European species of green microalgae, <i>T. annulata</i>- that was reported previously only from Austria-a Central European country. The study sought a scientific explanation for this seemingly extraordinary phenomenon and confirmed that the blood rain is nothing but a mechanism employed by this alga to disperse its spores (similar to plant seeds) to a very large area at once, so that algae can quickly colonize a large area. The study revealed that DNA sequence of this species from Kerala and that from Austria had very little differences -that in turn suggest that the alga got introduced from Europe not very long ago. “The research confirmed the likelihood that the introduction happened through clouds over ocean- a phenomenon of intercontinental species dispersal previously reported for bacteria and fungi, but first time for alga” said the lead author, Dr. Felix Bast who works at the Central University of Punjab. Clouds over ocean dispersal is analogous to the intercontinental flights that we take; spores of this alga from Europe gets transported to India <i>via</i> clouds that drift across the Arabian Sea. He added that this microalga is absolutely harmless, and the “blood” rainwater is perfectly potable (suitable for human consumption) even for vegetarians. The present study resulted in an international collaborative effort involving researchers from India and Austria, supported in part by INSPIRE Faculty Award from Department of Science and Technology, and published in the journal “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Felix_Bast/publication/273124757_European_Species_of_Subaerial_Green_Alga_Trentepohlia_annulata_%28Trentepohliales_Ulvophyceae%29_Caused_Blood_Rain_in_Kerala_India/links/54f7dce80cf2ccffe9dbed0f.pdf?ev=pub_int_doc_dl&origin=publication_detail&inViewer=true" target="_blank">Phylogenetics and Evolutionary Biology</a>.” On a related note, this is the first report of the molecular assessment of terrestrial algae from India, thereby highlighting dire necessity to catalogue the biodiversity of this important plant lineage.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeW3BV-qU7KLL3PyI-K3Svfd_KDPfpRlqUtf_vx6vfr6PyIal6zrO6hwMw2xEMyPFPlvxZzatofdx5fU8aTuiSJ1joa7oQLeEuM_PEYXrAQ7QmtJOy-gyTZBPd8hBecDeMhxqE5Q/s1600/Trente.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeW3BV-qU7KLL3PyI-K3Svfd_KDPfpRlqUtf_vx6vfr6PyIal6zrO6hwMw2xEMyPFPlvxZzatofdx5fU8aTuiSJ1joa7oQLeEuM_PEYXrAQ7QmtJOy-gyTZBPd8hBecDeMhxqE5Q/s1600/Trente.JPG" height="147" width="320" /></a></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0Kerala, India10.8505159 76.2710832999999876.8573059 71.10750929999999 14.843725899999999 81.434657299999984tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-44929601816316325412015-02-06T17:09:00.000+05:302015-02-06T17:09:11.075+05:30Removing single entries from the index in MS Word [Solved]<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you are a writer like me, you might have made the horrendous mistake of marking a common short word as an "index entry" and struggled for hours deleting them. Common words like YOU or LIFE makes no sense in a fiction work; or SEA/OCEAN in a marine biology science textbook. The only way to delete these entries is to go individual entries and delete them, including the braces, as per <a href="https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Create-or-edit-an-index-2070156c-648a-4a9f-aa4d-85265f9cf52f" target="_blank">MS Office support</a>. Here let me share a work around.<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Make sure all marks are shown (Ctrl+*) in the word. </li>
<li>Bring "Find & Replace" dialogue (Ctrl+H)</li>
<li>in the Find What? box, add the term with ^d XE prefix. For example, the term you want to remove is "sea", find term would be ^d XE "sea". </li>
<li>Leave "Replace with" box as it is.</li>
<li>Click "Replace All" radio button, and hurray, you are done!</li>
</ol>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ocQ27wWC64dwQfTjFlapgZv3ZZZVjoPF7Ek21jNE7-WzAq5bxLvb0-UiYY_jTs5M8OOYHwfjdwrZOi9mxpfzx9DtnEQEl7xQFZuzzjOfPSJ-V_MWlb76VbP17ZsaxPlPNLlx1A/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ocQ27wWC64dwQfTjFlapgZv3ZZZVjoPF7Ek21jNE7-WzAq5bxLvb0-UiYY_jTs5M8OOYHwfjdwrZOi9mxpfzx9DtnEQEl7xQFZuzzjOfPSJ-V_MWlb76VbP17ZsaxPlPNLlx1A/s1600/Capture.JPG" height="134" width="320" /></a></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-28248744848904620232014-11-13T13:17:00.003+05:302014-11-13T15:42:48.452+05:30Central University Researchers Discover A New Species of Seaweed<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Researchers from Centre for Biosciences, Central University
of Punjab, have discovered a new bloom-forming species of a large endemic green
seaweed off the West Coast of India. New species was named as <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulva_paschima" target="_blank">Ulva paschima</a></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulva_paschima" target="_blank"> Bast</a>, specific epithet in Sanskrit means “West”-indicating unique pattern in its distribution. Article, authored by Dr. Felix Bast, an Assistant Professor at Centre for Biosciences and two M.Phil. students working with him, Mr. Aijaz Ahmad John and Mr. Satej Bhushan, have been published in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/metrics/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0109295" target="_blank">October 2014 issue of PLoS ONE</a>, a major international journal. Researchers collected tubular <i>Ulva</i> species from various locations in West Coast from Goa, Karnataka and Kerala over a stretch of 600 km, and used morphometry and DNA sequence data to compare evolutionary legacy of this seaweed with other seaweeds in the world, and concluded that this is a new species. Bloom-forming algae like this newly discovered species are hot candidates for “Carbon Capture and Sequestration”, as it can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and therefore reduce global warming. Bloom-forming seaweeds are also important for biofuel production, as these seaweeds can be easily cultivated in Open Ocean (therefore, agricultural land usage are not affected) with no fertilizers or pesticides. Algae fix atmospheric carbon dioxide using seawater and sunlight, a natural process. Based on the importance and potential impact of this study, the journal waived off publication fee, which is around Rs. 31,000. This study was supported by INSPIRE Faculty Award from Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, awarded to Dr. Felix Bast.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDS7LUYK9Q1cQ5WScV0RLFf-d8IkpScC1CkgkehQP-l4vXzGc9cNLIgFZUTUDDSqwqGhnFShvENZ39yYGatFQb6vkdFajz5YJbNigPFA1IUQfrvRuTF59HkmCpQczb_RYiuW6XQ/s1600/Fig+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXDS7LUYK9Q1cQ5WScV0RLFf-d8IkpScC1CkgkehQP-l4vXzGc9cNLIgFZUTUDDSqwqGhnFShvENZ39yYGatFQb6vkdFajz5YJbNigPFA1IUQfrvRuTF59HkmCpQczb_RYiuW6XQ/s400/Fig+1.jpg" width="358" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This story appeared in <a href="http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20141112/battrib.htm#2" target="_blank">The Tribune, Newspaper</a> on 11/11/2014</span></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-77036956301299602242013-07-18T17:18:00.000+05:302013-07-18T19:37:56.813+05:30Applying Simple Arithmetic and Pobability for Everyday Train Journeys!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120119/btrib1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120119/btrib1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week during my journey back from New Delhi to Bathinda
in my favorite “Punjab Mail” I was eavesdropping conversation between a family
and one lonely traveler. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family want
to exchange a seat of theirs, which is 5 compartments away, with this person so
that they can all sit together. The lonely traveler is ready to help out, but
with a condition that he don’t mind any berths <u>other than Upper or Side Upper
or Side Lower</u>. Seat number the family want to exchange is “42” and they
have no clue which berth this is. All were totally clueless to my utter
surprise! I had been routinely confronted with this birth allocation problem, especially when tickets in “RAC” gets confirmed while
checking the “PNR status”. I could help them out almost instantaneously (which
is middle berth!) with a very simple solution.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the berth allocation for Seat # 1 to #8</div>
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<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.85pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
1 L</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
5 M</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.85pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
2 M</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
6 U</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.85pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
3 U</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
7 SL</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.85pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
4 L</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
0 SU</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: yellow;">Whatever your seat number, divide it with 8 and look-up the
remainder in the above table to get the answer.</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Examples: </div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Let's take seat# 42, 42/8= 5 with
remainder 2, and 2 is M. </li>
<li>Let’s take seat# 76, 76/8 = 9 with 4 as remainder, 4 is L.</li>
<li>Let’s take seat# 71, 71/8=9 with 0 as remainder, 0 is SU</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
This always works for SL (Sleeper Class) and 3AC (AC 3 Tier)
classes, as Indian Railway have uniformity in (at least) numbering of the
seats. For 2AC, refer the following table:</div>
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<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
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1 L</div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
4 U</div>
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<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
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2 U</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
5 SL</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.85pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
3 L</div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 116.9pt;" valign="top" width="156"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
0 SU</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And for this, <span style="background-color: yellow;">you should divide by 6 (instead of 8) and look
up the remainder the above table</span>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Examples: </div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Let's take seat# 53; 53/6 = 8 with remainder 5, 5 is SL</li>
<li>Let's take seat# 54; 54/6 = 9 with remainder 0, 0 is SU</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simple, isn’t it? But the problem is that most of us do not
apply these simple mathematical logic in our lives! I’m sure there are
engineers and even math teachers who is new to this trick!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdQQPHtWrATnF2WjpTfck4Sl9O7fYxwP3bWdoHlSbt2CUJLBTx4Pn1Gn83__XdeelcVKrsc_4r_BnfJpTqFwe-njAhY8CuPiriltadw3UJBR8eX5ey87b9c5jIKwjmLfK8igCMQ/s1600/Probability+Shortcuts+Material+for+Bank+Exams.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdQQPHtWrATnF2WjpTfck4Sl9O7fYxwP3bWdoHlSbt2CUJLBTx4Pn1Gn83__XdeelcVKrsc_4r_BnfJpTqFwe-njAhY8CuPiriltadw3UJBR8eX5ey87b9c5jIKwjmLfK8igCMQ/s320/Probability+Shortcuts+Material+for+Bank+Exams.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a related note, what is <b>the probability</b> for getting a
preferred seat (in Sleeper Class or 3AC) for the person described in the
beginning? We all know berth allocation during ticket reservation is
quite random even if we request for a specific seat. And we know that If there
are ‘n’ likely outcomes of an experiment of which one is called a success ‘s’,
then</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: large;">the probability of success P(A)= s/n </span></span><br />
<br />
(s=Number of ways (A) can occur; n=Total number of possible outcome)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Probability of getting any long
births (side births are shorter and many tall persons don’t prefer)= 6/8 = 0.75.
(Probability is always expressed
in decimals; 0.75 means "75% chance" in our everyday language) That means quite a good probability!</li>
<li>Probability of getting long-lower
berth (long-lower births are lower births excluding side lower) = 2/8 (only two
seats out of 8 possible allocations!) = 0.25.</li>
<li>Probability of getting Side berths
(well, probably introverts prefer side births; no one will disturb!) = 2/8=
0.25</li>
<li>Probability of getting any berths <u>other
than Upper or Side Upper or Side Lower</u>= 4/8 = 0.5 (as we say, “50-50 chance”)</li>
</ul>
Hope you'll start applying these simple arithmetic and probabilities next time when you are confronted with similar situations!<br />
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Author disclosure: I'm a ferroequinophile and married to a ferroequinoengineer :-) </span></i><br />
<div>
</div>
</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-35993626972615999112013-06-05T11:23:00.002+05:302013-06-05T11:23:54.877+05:30Online-Only Direct Banks in India, are we ready yet?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Direct banks (online banks) are very popular almost everywhere except in India. Of course you will see online banking aka e/internet banking versions of traditional banks here, but I haven't come across not a single online-only bank. Are we that much traditional not to trust anything which is online?<br />
<br />
There are indeed a number of <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5977999/are-online-banks-worth-the-sacrifices" target="_blank">benefits online banks offer</a> over the traditional, biggest among them is low cost of maintenance, with minimal physical presence and absolutely no branches. A big chunk of interest rates that you get from traditional banks are eaten by their advertisements and operational costs across hundreds of their branches. Offline banks also have advantages, like depositing physical cash etc. Of course safety is a major concern but e-banking of traditional banks have been thriving in the subcontinent for the last decade and I haven't came across a single case where net banking got hacked leading to loss of money.<br />
<br />
Of the traditional internet banks, my preference is small-sector banks that are often owned by local co-op society which offer high interest for savings/fixed account. Albeit extremely poor service with their internet banking that oftentimes fails in IRCTC payment gateway, Punjab National Bank is offering perhaps the best return for teachers. Their "<a href="http://www.pnbindia.in%2Fen%2Fui%2Fpnb-shikshak-sweep-scheme.aspx%26ei%3Dq9cuucjocsemrqfzjyggdg%26usg%3Dafqjcnhhbtjuixcztlalezwshqlgzuoqaw%26sig2%3Dmg4uei6cf5nh03llrnbn0w%26bvm%3Dbv.47380653%2Cd.bmk/" target="_blank">Shikshak Sweep</a>" scheme available for permanent teachers is the best sweep-in scheme offered by any banks in India.<br />
<br />
In summary I would love to see some online-only banks coming up in India that offers a sweep-in sweep-out facility to guarantee highest returns at the same time having the lowest operational costs. Shoot your opinion in the comments.</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-38210581478268845522013-05-30T12:05:00.000+05:302013-05-30T12:05:37.448+05:30Offline Google Calender and Google Maps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">Dear World,</span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
There are a number of apps available for android that syncs two-way with Google calender (gcal) for offline use, but I could never get this thing done for PC. For example, neither Windows 8 calendar app, nor Outlook calender, will sync with G Cal. Is there any workaround? I'm using a PC-Tablet running Windows 8 and I want to see and create schedules offline that should sync with Gcal when ever I come online.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
Again, situation is same for maps. During the time of Microsoft Encarta, offline, installable maps were such an easy task, but not anymore. I used to use Gmap Catcher ultil recently when Google API changed such that catcher can not take maps offline. Is there a work around? I want high resolution maps (tiled) of selected cities (for e.g., places I'm intending to travel soon) for offline use in my Windows 8 PC.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
Thanks and love,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16.363636016845703px;">
Felix</div>
</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-63934264839672810092013-04-04T17:35:00.000+05:302013-04-04T17:47:02.299+05:30My experience with IndusInd Platinum Select Credit Card<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">A few months ago I visited local branch of IndusInd (Bathinda) for a
credit card and the manager explained that it cost Rs. 3500 as a joining fee
and nothing else; so I applied on the same day (primarily as an online payment
mechanism for forthcoming overseas trip). Manager said it comes with complimentary Jet
Airways ticket, but as I presumed, the so called "ticket" is a
voucher code for Rs 1500 discount on the base fare. Base fare is normally Rs. 1
for domestic airlines in India (fuel surcharge comes almost 95% of the total
fare); so in order to get that Rs. 1500, you gotta purchase 1500 airtickets! Sites like
www.yatra.com have been offering this sort of deceptive tactics for such a long
time!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I received the kit with credit
card in couple of months and I spent sometime to read "Most important
terms and conditions" booklet (I am always alert with this sort of
nondescript documents, easy to spot with its low font size, like EULA/Terms and
Conditions of Mutual Funds, Life Insurance, Mortgages etc). It says<span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;"> credit card
fee is Rs. 1499 so straightforwardly busted 3.5K joining fee</span>. I started
repeatedly complaining this matter with IndusInd customer care and bank, but
all in vein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I approached the manager in person and he said Rs. 3500 joining
fee is for the offer with JetAirways ticket, and I could have opted-out this
offer. Obviously when I visited him first for credit card he convinced me that the Jet Airways ticket comes as a
complimentary to the credit card and never mentioned that opting out this
freebie could save me Rs. 2000. He said that if I opted for a card without
JetAirways offer, Rs. 1499 would be “Annual Fee” (as opposed to Rs. 3500 as
one-time joining fee). Oh man, how deceiving this person really is! He then
tried convincing me how I badly needed their Aviva life insurance policy, I
gave it a shit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">It is interesting to note that
the bank have not disclosed fee info on any of their credit cards at their
site. However curious readers can still access the "Most important terms
and Conditions" document in their website, which is tactically hidden in
their webserver! </span><a href="http://www.indusind.com/indusind/wcms/en/home/personal-banking/creditcards/importantdocumentsnforms/MITC.PDF">http://www.indusind.com/indusind/wcms/en/home/personal-banking/creditcards/importantdocumentsnforms/MITC.PDF</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhA44TpVdV6KgxqhxVR1lPbnShe34tGoQpeSjBQA4C-lPgtOrcdex-0C60e86uzcSHjnBMOKCkPST-c9ksmLFTNpsI3iKLwCLwMoiQYczaWDPcNvZRL1cngBf0m74crvMkq-1Nw/s1600/IndusInd.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhA44TpVdV6KgxqhxVR1lPbnShe34tGoQpeSjBQA4C-lPgtOrcdex-0C60e86uzcSHjnBMOKCkPST-c9ksmLFTNpsI3iKLwCLwMoiQYczaWDPcNvZRL1cngBf0m74crvMkq-1Nw/s1600/IndusInd.PNG" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.18181800842285px;"><i>Update: They have increased their joining fee from Rs 1499 to Rs. 5000 in a matter of 2 weeks! I think my case might have influenced them for this decision, who knows! Original document scan is here:</i></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXguQlI8JbXyexKPdtEwuUFmTiIUEJF9D4nqTj-9AcpkQ-slaCaI-d8euUjfWkZc1EIbWGDuEv3_64o_i4IE7OuDQn0XSO_AFiZm789QH-Be8T479939lxLaxbp40Z2QTgFhhBw/s1600/IndusInd1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKXguQlI8JbXyexKPdtEwuUFmTiIUEJF9D4nqTj-9AcpkQ-slaCaI-d8euUjfWkZc1EIbWGDuEv3_64o_i4IE7OuDQn0XSO_AFiZm789QH-Be8T479939lxLaxbp40Z2QTgFhhBw/s640/IndusInd1.PNG" width="588" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 18.18181800842285px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The fee schedule clearly indicate that there are no annual fee for Premium Select card, so <span style="color: red;"><b>the bank manager is again busted with plain lie, <i>again</i></b></span>. After repeated emails and a petition through BCSBI and
Banking Ombudsman, the manager wrote me the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dear
Dr. Bast</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We sincerely
appreciate your patience and co-operation in this regard.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to our
records, we confirm we have reversed the joining fee of INR 2001.00 and the
credit towards the same will reflect in the next month’s credit card statement.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Please view this lapse
as only an aberration. We will give our best service always. You are our
privileged customer and we value your relationship with us.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your relationship is
important to us and we look forward to building further on this association.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For any further
queries, please call <b><a href="tel:1860%20267%207777" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">1860 267 7777</span></a></b> or write to us at</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="mailto:premium.care@indusind.com" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">premium.care@</span></b><b><span style="background: #FFFFCC; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">indusind</span></b><b><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">.com</span></b></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Assuring you of our
best services.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "MS Sans Serif","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sincerely,</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Nitin
Mistry </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Customer Care Officer
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Premium Care Team
</span><span style="background: #FFFFCC; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">IndusInd</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Bank Limited</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So my judicial proceeding is taking its on course and I hope
no one else reading this post will have similar experience, so this post! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Beware of IndusInd!</span></b><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-89829904658950269142013-04-01T17:04:00.000+05:302013-04-02T09:21:25.103+05:30My Daily Schdule<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggyx_ORsaQRjTPhp1IU86qeHw-gX1r4iGUtDe5ufTq0r1GCVe_yT8n431rca0SZzMXxdizrU380jti_KvVp39PdrWNwQU2Wpmk5DTXcT_mHdcZRm-bfRAVOZjLxTdO8VtQykda6g/s1600/Daily+schedule.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggyx_ORsaQRjTPhp1IU86qeHw-gX1r4iGUtDe5ufTq0r1GCVe_yT8n431rca0SZzMXxdizrU380jti_KvVp39PdrWNwQU2Wpmk5DTXcT_mHdcZRm-bfRAVOZjLxTdO8VtQykda6g/s400/Daily+schedule.jpg" width="277" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-46690345842384682282012-12-21T11:40:00.003+05:302012-12-21T16:58:31.011+05:30Tips for Field Expeditions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Over the years I came across many tips that I have been using quite often in my algal field expeditions around the coasts. Here is a summary:<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Always plan the trip with an expedition pack-list</h3>
<br />
Have a plain-text master pack-list with appropriate sections (Before Travel/Hotel Stay/General Items/Cloths/Research/Electronics/Footwear/Documents) and fine-tune with some serious brain-storming at least 5 days before you leave! Websites like <a href="http://www.dontforgetyourtoothbrush.com/" target="_blank">Don't forget your toothbrush</a> might help you to get started.This is a section on "Research Expedition" in my pack-list:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Binoculars (Carl Zeiss Inc Victory)<br />
Point-and-Shoot GPS Camera (<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cyber-shot-DSC-HX20V-Digital-3-0-inch/dp/B006K551WQ">DSC-HX20V</a>)</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ziplock bags<br />
Permanent Marker<br />
Gum boots<br />
Combination carabiner<br />
Garmin eTrex 30<br />
Swiss army knife-Victorinox<br />
Documents with appropriate permissions<br />
Ice box with freeze packs<br />
Hat<br />
Sun glass with case<br />
Water resistant notebook<br />
Pencil</blockquote>
PS: I do not carry my powerful Canon DSLR (EOS 60D) for two reasons;<br />
<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Camera with lens pack/tripod are indeed bulky and eats space and time from my valuable expedition. </li>
<li>I normally go to field trip alone with some <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5357929/top-10-tactics-for-protecting-your-stuff">tricks to deter thieves</a> so carrying an expensive and bulky camera will surely give a "steal me" signal!</li>
</ol>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Start the day with a cuppa!</h3>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Cup of tea, in addition to all the refreshment and taste, work as a basic barometer and <a href="http://www.instructables.com/id/Predict-weather-with-a-cup-of-coffee/">help you forecast the weather</a>!<br />
<blockquote>
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
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" 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src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" /></a></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><i>"If the bubbles move to the edge of the cup rather quickly, that's a good sign. Expect clear skies for the next 12 hours. </i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><i>If the bubbles hang around in the center of the cup, get out your rain gear. You can expect rain in 12 hours. </i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><i>If the bubbles slowly move to the edge of the cup, you may get a bit of weather, but it should be clearing in a few hours. </i></span></blockquote>
<br />
Principle is simple; time taken for the bubbles to move towards the edge is directly proportional to the atmospheric pressure; lower the pressure (=chances of storm), slower the bubbles move to the edge and burst.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Sock trick</h3>
<br />
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSO7bj2WLTv963j-Lb30vwwGeRoQH3QR7l4c-cjaQXnQZlK7dPW" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSO7bj2WLTv963j-Lb30vwwGeRoQH3QR7l4c-cjaQXnQZlK7dPW" /></a>Who says you can't wear sock over the shoes! That is exactly I have been doing while criss-crossing over slippery intertidal rocks. Socks provide excellent friction that the best anti-skid shoes never give. After a tip from National Geographic many years ago. Also see news <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/mar/09/improbable-research-icy-socks-over-shoes">from New Zealand</a> where this is used for walking on ice.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Be a "four legged animal" with cotton glove. </h3>
<img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqswxtXQiu1PenVwMgcNicYfG8jZdKrUax-6ZlP8h6fFXiY4tQPQ" />Tip from Charley on FHL Field Course 2007. If you are an intertidal ecologist, you better be "a four legged animal" (with cotton gloves) on the slippery rocks.<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Using condoms as underwater camera housing</h3>
<img alt="under water camera housing 00" src="http://www.diyphotography.net/files/images/under_water_housing_intro.jpg" /><br />
If you have a point-and-shoot camera and want to do some (ameteur) underwater snaps on the go or just to use on "splashy zone", a tip from <a href="http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_the_cheap_yet_shamefull_underwater_housing">DIY Photography</a> might help, putting a pair of condoms over the camera, sealing and there you go! Make sure to cover lens hood with a PVC pipe little over the zoom range if you are using a super-zoom camera (mine is 20X optical zoom, and PVC is 1.5" 10 cm). In my experience photos look a bit hazy, but worth to have some serious money savings! Housing can cost double the camera price.<br />
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Estimating directions looking at satellite dish</h3>
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<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" />If your sampling points are near some residential area, satellite dish can be of great help in guessing directions on overcast days. Here in India almost all dishes point towards east (I've checked in Tata Sky, AirTel, Dish TV and Reliance DTH). Comment here if you know any exceptions. I heard that in US it points towards South. Check out the pattern in your country!<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Resurrecting wet gardgets using a bag of rice.</h3>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<img alt="Testimonial: Rice Resurrects Even the Most Soaked of Gadgets" src="http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2011/11/medium_2a569dd1cf4936c22dd4fc6da474fc73.jpg" />It happened to me so many times in past that some of the
gadget I carry accidently slipped to the water/drenched in rain/intertidal
splash; now how to resurrect them? A<a href="http://lifehacker.com/5435480/testimonial-rice-resurrects-even-the-most-soaked-of-gadgets"> bag of rice helps the best</a>, a tip from one of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker. It really
works, I have checked this tip on my smartphone that has taken the entire
cycle in washing machine due to my sheer negligence! Rice is an excellant dehydrating agent. Or try silica if you are back in the lab from field trip!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />Estimating time till sunset using hand</h3>
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<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMQ6Y2GaDRl80r1nme7NVdDWTXVeTB9Sz-Bal1wwS3OZGwpvA8RH9BYppL5XadokAYrv3ZoJFy0RY1zwgPmzcnClpfVuQOYAK6M6_oKq0lXAlq64XkoeLd_7dDxeGyBFrLuqr8/s1600/groovymatterremainingdaylight.jpg" /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.groovymatter.com/2012/08/remaining-daylight-on-your-fingers.html">Tip from Groovy Matter</a>, it is quite possible to estimate minutes till sunset pointing your hand towards horizon.</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Liberation Serif', serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">All you need to do is extend your arm fully and count the number of finger widths between the sun and the horizon. Each finger is about 15 minutes, which means each hand width should be about an hour. Remember that this is just an estimate, so if you want to be conservative, make sure to give yourself a bit more time than you measure if you want to get home before dark.</span></blockquote>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Use clothes hanger with a ziplock bag/PET bottle as a weighing balance</h3>
<img alt="Approximate the Weight of Any Item Using a Clothes Hanger" src="http://cache.lifehacker.com/assets/images/17/2012/02/f7fa62f53a9b55f5f507c036ef232804.jpg" /><br />
A "genius little tip" from <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5883540/approximate-the-weight-of-any-item-using-a-clothes-hanger">Lifehacker</a>; if you are working on algal biomass or just to dispatch some of your samples over express courier, use clothes hanger and other supplies available in your hotel room to estimate the weight. Hang the hanger, tie one side with the weight standard ( specific gravity of water being close to 1, equate this with volume of water, measured using easily available PET bottles!) and the other side with sample, both in similar zip-lock bags.<br />
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Any other helpful tricks that you know? Disclose them in the comments!</div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-66419441236096863922012-12-18T14:47:00.000+05:302012-12-18T14:52:50.762+05:30Promotion Quota Bill: the iFlex Take<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Yesterday Indian parliament lower house (Rajya Sabha) passed 117th constitutional amendment for reservation in promotions for SC/ STs, (aka Promotion Quota Bill) with overwhelming majority despite stiff opposition from the Samajwadi Party (SP). My take on this issue is straightforward, do we need to jeopardize quality for the sake of equality?<br />
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_Nd4G6bkKkoP3N0TJL-pAMJT8iOxMh6H7homhp8ckQHWn1yy-Jg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT_Nd4G6bkKkoP3N0TJL-pAMJT8iOxMh6H7homhp8ckQHWn1yy-Jg" style="background-color: transparent;" /></a>I always consider that academic institutions, medical firms, governments and business have their main obligation to promote quality, not equality. Here in India, we have quotas for nearly everything; religion, caste, financial status and so on, a strategy promoted by corrupt politicians in an attempt to fish votes and ruining the quality. Many bright students lose out to getting admissions in good universities because of reservations, many bright candidates do not get jobs because of reservations.. it is just getting sick day by day.<br />
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We Indians call ours the largest democracy in the world. I wonder how you can call it democracy <b><i>and yet dictate the kinds of people who should get selected and promoted</i></b>? In a democracy, what's the point of a quota for gender, or religion, or race? It gives someone an unfair leg up when votes count the most. Unfortunately like a beauty queen contest, democracy and popular vote do not always settle on the most qualified people - and prejudice can keep under-represented from representation. I don't understand why people or legislative members do not realize that by increasing this segregation of the society they are promoting inequality and not equality that it is supposed to promote. One caste gets reservation, the other one says it's neglected and starts hate mongering. This has been going on for too long now, and not going to stop any time soon either. It will not be long before there will be a billion and a half quotas of reservation in India, everyone claiming that they are disadvantaged because they have been neglected in the other quota.<br />
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I foresee that the bill makes absolutely no difference in empowering backward classes; it will, their masters instead; corrupt politicians who drive India into a bureaucratic mess.<br />
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This is a ridiculous law and should be consigned to the scrap heap. <b>You don't achieve democracy or equality with quotas.</b><br />
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-21863118373976323092012-12-18T10:49:00.003+05:302012-12-18T13:58:05.574+05:30Indian Railways, Scrap Western Out, Please!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQIkQsyhXIxceeV0FOcWslQXAKa6Ekug9pmRDE9u5_KWMJ5zAI5hw" /></div>
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Everyone in India knows it, experienced it, that the western toilets in trains are virtually useless. Western toilets are for "dry" type, to be used with tissue papers; while a vast majority of Indians prefer water over tissue . Indian/Asian toilets are built for just that; to clean with water. Western toilets with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washlet">washlet</a> are on rise in Punjab (you turn a knob to spray water underneath, a miniature version of <a href="http://www.totousa.com/Products/Toilets.aspx">TOTO</a>); it works fine as well. But all western toilets comes with a big catch; it obviously <b>not good for public toilets</b> comparing with Asian toilets; know why? Contact Transfer! Skin contact is the "silk route" for microbes to transmit contagious diseases and avoiding surfaces that are exposed to skin contact is the best practice for public hygiene- the very reason why infra-red based automatic water faucets were invented.<br />
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Coming to Indian Railways-<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17362837">world's biggest open toilet</a>, everyone knows toilets are dirty and emanates ammonia stink such that spending a few minutes is sufficient for your cloths to absorb the stink. This is especially true for toilets in long haul trains that are approaching the destination without proper water supply. Look Udyan Abha Toofan express or Avadh Assam express, I have travelled more than 30 times in both of these trains in Sleeper class and never saw leaver for flush or got it working. What about western toilets? <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1793009">No one uses them</a>; these are safe havens for smokers. Obviously Railways won't provide papers. Even if they do, western toilet seats are extremely soiled, wet, and you will spend good one hour just to clean it. Another reason why seats get soiled is that most of the male travellers just pee on to the toilet without lifting the seat (why to blame them, who dare to touch the seats!) With a million travellers daily, toilets in Indian trains are so much used and even in a perfect case scenario with properly clean and dry western toilets with alcohol sanitizing sprays/wipes, these under performs microbiologically comparing with Indian counterpart.<br />
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So come Railways, lets get rid of these nasty western toilets and convert them to Indian for the sake of public convenience and above all personal hygiene! Half of us in India<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17362837"> have mobile phones but no toilets</a>; let us use some common-sense to make existing toilets at least usable! </div>
Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-18515751375671553172012-11-27T12:23:00.000+05:302012-12-18T13:38:07.487+05:30Logical reasoning questions in UGC NET: Urgently Needs Improvement!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a 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" 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" /></a><a href="http://oldwebsite.ugc.ac.in/inside/syllabus.html">U</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><a href="http://oldwebsite.ugc.ac.in/inside/syllabus.html">GC-NET syllabus</a> for General paper Logical Reasoning is quite vast (Verbal analogies for e.g.) and ambiguous (Applied analogy). Evaluating logical validity of statements and arguments can be attempted and can be solved using Venn Diagrams and rule of elimination. Questions on Venn diagrams itself is very elementary and is a sure give away, so go and attempt it. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;"><br /><br />Questions asking for definition or true/false of statements can get very tricky and ambiguous. For e.g. the statement "A cogent argument must be inductively strong." asked in 2012 UGC-NET is in fact true, while the answer key identifies it as false. Questions from this section are seemingly being prepared by a group who refer some unheard of books -presumably authored in-house and flimsy. Compare with <a href="http://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about">Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections of GRE</a>; no-nonsense straightforward and non-ambiguous;it's high time for UGC question setters to remove ambiguity from the test.<br /><br /><br /><u>Bottom line</u>: Attempt questions that you are very sure of. Questions based on Venn diagrams are very elementary and candidates should definitely attempt those. Never attempt tricky questions asking for definition/declare "true or false" of some definitions etc.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14px;">See <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/felixbast/ugc-net">on-line course contents</a> of my UGC-NET training class</span></div>
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Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-38997929025857329252010-03-10T11:53:00.000+05:302010-03-10T11:53:35.184+05:30Women's Bill: Quality Vs Equality<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:YceaHE_Ho4EWnM:http://theviewspaper.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/women-and-pol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:YceaHE_Ho4EWnM:http://theviewspaper.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/women-and-pol.jpg" /></a></div>Yesterday Indian parliament has passed a bill enabling 30% reservation for women in the national parliament and state legislators, with overwhelming majority. My take on this issue is straightforward, do we need to jeopardize quality for the sake of equality?<br />
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I always consider that academic institutions, medical firms, governments and business have their main obligation to promote quality, not equality.Here in India, we have quotas for nearly everything; religion, caste, financial status and so on, a strategy promoted by corrupt politicians in an attempt to fish votes and ruining the quality. Many bright students lose out to getting admissions in good universities because of reservations, many bright candidates do not get jobs because of reservations.. it is just getting sick day by day.<br />
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We Indians call ours the largest democracy in the world. I wonder how you can call it democracy and yet dictate the kinds of people who should get elected? In a democracy, what's the point of a quota for gender, or religion, or race? It gives someone an unfair leg up when votes count the most. Unfortunately like a beauty queen contest, democracy and popular vote do not always settle on the most qualified people - and prejudice can keep women from representation. I don't understand why people or legislative members do not realize that by increasing this segregation of the society they are promoting inequality and not equality that it is supposed to promote. One caste gets reservation, the other one says it's neglected and starts hate mongering. This has been going on for too long now, and not going to stop anytime soon either. It will not be long before there will be a billion and a half quotas of reservation in India, everyone claiming that they are disadvantaged because they have been neglected in the other quota.<br />
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Let's not forget the instance that Lalu Yadav, a stringent opponent of the bill and one of the most corrupt politicians in India, made his illiterate wife Rabri Devi, Chief Minister of the state Bihar while he was incarcerated. Sonia Gandhi, secretary of the ruling congress party selected Ms. Pratibha Patel for the post of Indian President, a congress party member and otherwise unknown person, for the sake that she can easily be lured into a sycophant of the party-how she has always been. I foresee that the bill makes absolutely no difference in empowering the women; it will, their masters instead; corrupt politicians who drive India into a bureaucratic mess.<br />
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This is a ridiculous law and should be consigned to the scrap heap. You don't achieve democracy or equality with quotas.Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-61906719963363951832010-01-08T09:32:00.005+05:302010-01-08T15:16:52.523+05:30Physiotherapy, "Foot reflexology" and Ayurveda: Lots of Juju but Mostly Chicanery<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> Today New York Times<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/health/nutrition/07best.html?pagewanted=1&ref=nutrition"> published</a> an interesting note on how increasing evidences argue that physical therapies do not work and more to it, it can actually aggravate injuries; such as "taping an ankle to immobilize it". Massages, including that uses ice and heat, ultrasound etc., are deemed utterly as waste of time and money by the evidence-based modern medicine. One of the largest study so far conducted for assessing efficacy of physiotherapy-as it also known as, researchers concluded that there are no convincing evidences that support this form of topical, alternative therapy relieves common <a href="http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/symptoms/heel-pain/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier">heel pain</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/80/Tractionmassage.JPG/180px-Tractionmassage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/80/Tractionmassage.JPG/180px-Tractionmassage.JPG" style="max-width: 800px;" /></a><br />
Known as marma-therapy, physical therapy are an integral part of Ayurveda and that are, like any forms of massages in general and elsewhere, absurdly expensive. Here in India, Ayurveda is highly subsidized business with some 100 government ayurvedic medical colleges around India; every municipalities having one government Ayurvedic hospital. In the light of increasing evidences that rubbishes its very practice, what we need is a critical analysis, do we really need this kind of alternative therapy a.k.a., state-sponsored charlatans? <br />
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Instead of encouraging the practice of Ayurveda-something totally unfounded by modern science, Indian government should channel billions of dollars worth spending to something more worth spending, say on family planning or fighting child malnutrition. Sure, we will loose few millions earned from Ayurveda-oriented tourism, but given its big picture-a big white elephant in modern, economically aspiring India, banning Ayurveda, like any pseudoscience for that matter, makes perfect sense to me.<br />
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<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="310" src="http://cribb.in/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/foot-massage-airport-delhi.jpg" style="max-width: 800px;" width="316" /><br />
</div>And on a related note, last time when I was at Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi I find it real funny seeing these electric leg massage installations. They have a fancy name for those little machines, <a href="http://www.newdelhiairport.in/media-con.asp%3Fid%3D698&ei=qKlGS8CfAc6TkAXq55zyAg&sa=X&oi=nshc&resnum=1&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAoQzgQoAA&usg=AFQjCNHswjThgXUXcGb4qjOw5hlTsylhJw">"foot reflexology"</a>. Right, these are free for passengers and definitely misconstrue them have an image of how an "ultra modern" country India is...oh come on, why fooling them? Everyone knows ours is a country with more than half a billion utterly destitute citizens, child mortality rates some of the highest in the world, poorer than around 150 countries in the word...why then shameless show-ff to conceal rotting, cancerous internal problems-for sure are fueled by corrupt politicians and illiteracy? And why would India burn carbon for this absolutely insane leg spa, and that too for the benefit of transit passengers-a major portion of them are foreigners whom we don't tax? Let me make this point clearer; not these fancy electric foot-massage machines or pseudoscience named Ayurveda we need, but development at grass-root; education and eradication of poverty has to be our priority number one; let's not imitate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle_Airport">CDG</a> (I haven't seen any free foot massage machines there anyway), but lets follow footsteps of Costa Rica, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/opinion/07kristof.html?em">world's most content country</a>!<br />
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</div></div>Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-88272285379577923942010-01-02T15:25:00.006+05:302010-01-03T08:58:50.492+05:30Freedom of expression<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47020000/jpg/_47020595_008485471-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 170px;" src="http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47020000/jpg/_47020595_008485471-1.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />How much of it we really need?<div><br /></div><div>Kurt Westergaard, the Danish illustrator widely regarded (in West at least) as a defender of free expression, is again in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/8437433.stm">news</a>; some religious fundamentalists have managed to broke into his heavily fortified house. For centuries, critics have been expressing their thoughts freely on the matters concerning arts in general. People <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/8436959.stm">start making</a> political caricatures even in Russia-a country where very life is seemingly under the control of beaurocracy. Yet religion remains something so sensitive to millions of dogmatic followers.What makes it immune to any forms of criticism and scrutiny? </div><div><br /></div><div>Years of living in India-a country that boasts as secular with national holidays reserved for almost all religions in earth (Christianity, Hinduism, Islamism, Sikh, Buddism, Parsi...and so on), and in Japan where majority have no religious affiliations and has no national holidays reserved for religious holy-days; I honestly believe that religion is the stupidest invention mankind has ever made and it is for the bunch of ignorant idiots who cant think with integrity. Would you need the fallacy of i-am-right-others-are-wrong sorta preaching to denigrate the society morally? Let me quote from the founders of two major religions of our time and you will know what is meant:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p><strong></strong></p></span></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><p><strong>Jesus Christ</strong>, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.</p><p><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><strong>Muhammad</strong>, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.</span></strong></p></span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>Just consider how many murders, riots and terror bouts we can avoid just by turning into irreligious? How efficiently, industriously and creatively we can harness our mental and physical resources (yeah, go to Japan and see how efficient a society they really are) if there were no such thing called religion? Religions have no ears to listen to, no room for self improvement and that is their biggest problem. </div><div><br /></div><div>I discovered it way back in 2004 that a religious faith, with a name having a religious tag is the first thing I should trash if my purpose of living is to be a good individual at the same time, have a deep sense of humility. Happily irreligious, I am a profound libertarian and I'll always be.</div>Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-71236329984928854742008-04-18T13:58:00.003+05:302008-04-18T14:02:23.262+05:30Back to Blogosphere, with a Gold medal!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJqlhL1kmlHLPO7TCqLkTL-29RwnKfsMe9ExBz_XZJLJasCs_IE4pf5-zqQ4rJiDIhFYs-u_f43zHTx4oFoJmxi2qvsPtOArOPgzh0HZ3RY6JBDX6uHCajvNab7eJI_0noqhBLlw/s1600-h/bbc1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJqlhL1kmlHLPO7TCqLkTL-29RwnKfsMe9ExBz_XZJLJasCs_IE4pf5-zqQ4rJiDIhFYs-u_f43zHTx4oFoJmxi2qvsPtOArOPgzh0HZ3RY6JBDX6uHCajvNab7eJI_0noqhBLlw/s400/bbc1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5190500315695224274" /></a><br /><br />Hi friends,<br /><br />I'm happy to announce that I got purr-fect 7 O' 7 in BBC weekly quiz just taken today! As it's once in a lifetime event for mediocre news readers like me, you know, I'm jumping out of pure narcissism!Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-54587518422272141422007-06-25T07:28:00.000+05:302007-06-25T07:37:32.000+05:30My iGoogle featured in lifestyle blog: "Lifehacker"Eh hey,<br /><br />My iGoogle <a href="http://lifehacker.com/photogallery/Show-Us-Your-iGoogle/2053813">is voted as one of the geekiest</a> at famous GTD blog: www.lifehacker.com<br /><br />This is a screenshot of my iGoogle, let me see yours!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flexy/617371928/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1266/617371928_20a2d76a6e_o.jpg" width="812" height="612" alt="My iGoogle" /></a>Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-12091097275970082652007-04-23T16:36:00.000+05:302007-05-03T19:13:19.963+05:30Spring 2007 Picasaweb set<style type="text/css"><!--<br />.dtop,.dbottom{display:block;background-color:#ffffff /* change the color of the corners here */}<br />.dtop b,.dbottom b{display:block;height:1px;overflow:hidden;background:#000}<br />.d1{margin:0 5px}.d2{margin:0 3px}.d3{margin:0 2px}.dtop .d4,.dbottom b.d4{margin:0 1px;height:2px}<br />--></style><br /><div style="text-align:center"><div style="background:#000;width:550px"><br /><b class="dtop"><b class="d1"></b><b class="d2"></b><b class="d3"></b><b class="d4"></b></b><br /><iframe style="margin-top:10px" src=http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.bast/Spring2007/photo#s5060313515298314498 frameBorder=0 width=500 height=500 scrolling=no></iframe><br /><br /><a style="font-size:10px;text-decoration:none;color:#555"<br /><b class="dbottom"><b class="d4"></b><b class="d3"></b><b class="d2"></b><b class="d1"></b></b><br /></div></div><br /><br /><table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(http://picasaweb.google.com/f/img/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.bast/KingdomByTheCats"><img src="http://lh4.google.com/image/felix.bast/Rjnaddt22bE/AAAAAAAAAFQ/tNEoWg5p2jo/s160-c/KingdomByTheCats.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/felix.bast/KingdomByTheCats" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Kingdom by The Cats</a></td></tr></table>Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13510673.post-87548868903219778672007-04-03T19:27:00.000+05:302007-05-03T17:57:24.635+05:30Who want Joost invitations?<a href="http://www.joost.com">Joost</a> have caught my attention lately, a Video Streaming Software (or call it as Broadband TV) I came to know through <a href="http://lifehacker.com/software/joost/screenshot-tour-watch-tv-over-the-internet-with-joost-253455.php">Lifehacker</a>. If you are looking for a software that lets you watch lots of entertaining indie English channels, this is for you.<br /><br />I previously reviewed <a href="http://flexyble.blogspot.com/2006/10/tuv-streaming-broadband-to-commercial.html">TVU player in this blog</a> and recently I came across yet another copycat called Sopcast that eventually allowed me to watch ICC worldcup through Banglasmash live streams. Joost is based on altogether new concept, not merely relaying TV recorded streams through P2P. Over the time TVU and Sopcast has became so slow and flooded with Chinese. And yeah, as in real TV you will see lots of commercials with the programs, but not in Joost. <br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flexy/482560864/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/199/482560864_6359a1025b_o.jpg" width="501" height="400" alt="Joost" /></a><br />I came to know about a lot of good indie productions through Joost. Joost is more like a TiVo in a sense that you will be able to choose the exact program not merely Channels, and you can rewind or forward when you watch.<br /><br />Currently Joost is By Invitation-Only download, if someone want invitation, contact me I would be happy to share :)Felix Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06299851116844157777noreply@blogger.com3