Academania

Thursday, February 14, 2008

nO fOOling arOund...

You can fool all the people some of the time;
You can even fool some of the people all the time:
but you can never fool all the people all the time!
(Sourced-out; not mine)

Monday, February 04, 2008

qUANTUM mECHANICS

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts;
But if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties
— Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

decide upon granting opportunity(ies?)

It is sometimes maintained that racial mixture is biologically undesirable. There is no evidence whatever for this view. Nor is there, apparently, any reason to think that Negroes are congenitally less intelligent than white people, but as to that it will be difficult to judge until they have equal scope and equally good social conditions.

– Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World (London: Allen & Unwin, 1951, p. 108) (I picked this from Wikipedia on Feb. 3, 2008)

The world was created 5 minutes ago, agree?

"There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that 'remembered' a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago."

– Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind, 1921, pp. 159–60; cf. Philosophy, Norton, 1927, pp 7. (I picked this from Wikipedia on Feb. 3, 2008)

on liberty and equality...

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost
- Aristotle

(BTW, equality, at best, is relative, so don't expect it too often. It's a cruel world out there..more cruel in here..:-)

educated mind...

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
- Aristotle

Sunday, January 27, 2008

price of freedom..

If the price I must pay for my freedom is to acknowledge that the government was granted the power to infringe on them, then I am not free
- Pol Anderson

on liberty and safety...

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety
-Benjamin Franklin

truth is...

Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.
- MK Gandhi

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

crystal clear!

shot just before touring the bay of Moody Gardens, Galveston TX....(1/20/08)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

nature's getting ready.....

...towards winter and the end of the James Bond year (2-007),

rays of hope....

..is always there to be seen. (Pix taken from my apartment in Bryan, TX)

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Green-e-scape

(Pix taken at the Botanical Garden, Austin TX) (C)

Ok man, cool it down!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Nothing left in human rights...ponder!

I may disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it -Voltaire

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Art-effect...just a show!!

...photo taken @ Ripley's Believe It or Not, San Antonio, TX. (Nov.10.07)

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Academania: Demolished is my hope, brother!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Demolished is my hope, brother!

MBSA - Why?

Something that a good democracy could have avoided. But since we're citizens with the infamous 3rd world mentality and led by organizations of such ideologies, apa pun boleh LAH!

BTW, all places of worship are equally good or bad, if you think deeply enough.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtf3SosPEyc
2. http://picasaweb.google.com/malaysianindian1/DestructionOfHinduTemplesInMalaysia
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8o12E7ejlY

Monday, October 29, 2007

Why people fail? Why others pass? No answer.

Does passing or failing matters? Just the mere articulation of these two nouns immediately flashes the word “EXAM” in an average mind (not brain, mind you!). Did yours? Never mind. Forget it. But exam is not the only passing or failing issue. Any form of personal evaluation by others, say job interviews and car driving test are also those events which results in pass or fail. So now, what is it all about passing or failing? Keep reading, don’t fail to do that.

In academic departments, people still choose to use failure as the key quality indicator in statistics. The mathematical connotation is that passing rate is too branded to be used. Colleges rank themselves according to who failed out more students as a measure of superiority. Passing rates are also considered but only on occasions when failure rates are beyond imaginable threshold. The trepidation of failing is instilled due to fear of exclusion. But is apprehension the worst pit one can expect out of failure? People want to be in the mainstream and remain relevant to their surroundings. Personally, failure seldom helps this revered ambition. There are hundreds of journals and even PhD dissertations that study the attributions for failure and success of a person. Why people fail to pass?

And now, that was a very delicate question which requires personalized answer. A thorough self-examination may provide the answer, but to many people self-analysis is difficult and probably religious. Self-analysis is a painful exercise because we think we are more than 100% right and others always wrong. Blame-Caster, as they called it. As a passing remark, we have never collected data about ourselves to facilitate the analysis. The bottom line is one should be able to accept failure as part of the game. The result of the game itself does not end the game. When you don’t like the result, go for a replay. If that doesn’t work, change the sport. Don’t bother about what the spectators have to say. Referees have a job to do. So don’t blame them too. Everyone fails at some point in time in their lives. Accept failure and dare to fail. If you fail, just sit back and relax. Then play it harder but safer the next time. After all, as they say, success is merely the absence of failure.

Valliyappan David Natarajan© 2007