Abstraction, root of all evil

     The word abstraction conjures up so much complexities that many people do not want to use it in their vocabulary. This was particularly highlighted recently when a write-up was made to my superior. The written content was then edited over a long time to ensure that the remains of this word does not exist. So much pain was taken to ensure this. It was assumed that somehow the next reader would know that this word was used in the first draft. The resultant content was so much watered down that I could not stand near that content even for a micro second. Now, what happened here? What happened was that my writing was further abstracted without the superior understanding it. He did not reduce the abstraction but increased it. This is the un-becoming of many of the organizations today. 

     This applies particularly to traditional organizations who have made it to the present age based on the money amassed during their prime. Organizations should facilitate whistle blowing and suggestion system and incorporate them into the main fabric of the organization. This will remove the levels of abstraction between the lowest execution levels and the highest vision level. This will in turn bring out the shortcomings at both the levels and all the other levels between. 

    The entire world works on abstraction at the highest level. People feel comfortable at the highest level of abstraction. Truth comprehended by humans is already abstracted. As it flows down the communication chain, it is further abstracted. Once it reaches the target human, the target human again adds a level of abstraction based on his capabilities/influences and will try to influence others with this level of abstraction so on and so forth. The human language is made for this level of abstraction. In fact one of the most important programming paradigm the Object Oriented Programming has abstraction at its core. This paradigm is simply the human ability and least resistance path approach to understand any aspect in the most easiest way a human can understand, which in turn leaks out a major portion of the reality. People always tell they want the "real" information, the truth. This is far from what any human wants. 

All humans want an abstracted view which will make them comfortable or un-comfortable in the most comfortable way. There are many occasions wherein a certain group of people with a certain ideology wanting to prove that their idea is the best one. To do this what is the need of killing people who are no way connected to this level of abstraction and are abstracted in a much different way. Why cant this be told in the best possible abstraction, that is human language. Why should certain unrelated people die to get your point across. Why? Tell what you want to tell straight. Keep on telling it. When somebody wants to tell a strong point, it is always better to be at the lowest level of abstraction. 

    The governments take the opposite approach. They undermine the capability of understanding of its people and present the facts at the highest level of abstraction. The amount of effort required to peel of these layers of abstraction requires huge resources. This will be done by only a few. If these are identified and re-programmed then whatever data available to the common public is the one presented to them at the highest level of abstraction which is very easy to digest. 

    The assimilation of highly abstracted and 0 level abstracted data requires the same level of effort and is the absolute minimal. Humans should never forget the art of questioning/prodding/peeling off levels of abstraction and search for the absolute truth. Ideologies requiring abstraction requiring laying down of human lives are cowardly and would require further abstractions to stay in vogue and in this race, the resultant situation would at some point go out of control leading to chaos. It is not that chaos is bad, but to reach that many lives might be lost.

The USA withdrew from Afghanistan.

    One single line with global ramifications. It altered the visions of many. It has made all the countries to rethink global strategies. Lots of question presented with few answers themselves leading to further questions. Why all of a sudden? Why has USA been bogged down by 80K soldiers.? and many more.

    Being one of the major arms supplier to the entire world, what is it that they are expecting. With majority of killings in-house every other day with automatics owned by majority of the American population. The arms industry is one of the strongest including the pharma industry which exert lot of clout in the administering of the country. The country has not taken any steps to stop the killings within the country. No law maker is even talking of a solution to this menace which is resulting in innocent lives being lost to individual maniacs who have understood and experienced the work "freedom" in its most negative form. The historical freedom of allowing individuals by weapons and retain them was to ensure sufficient capability with the common man so that they could fight for their country if required, since the armed forces at that time in USA were still very small. 

    How that turned into a large industry is a very good case study for any Business grad. Let us say that the US brings in a law, which would require all individuals to surrender their weapons, just imagine, Because I am not seeing it happen, However, let us imagine in our wildest dreams it is going to happen. Good, very good. Congrats USA. Now let us go to the next area where the US arms industry is selling its weapons, the world. Just wait, I am not telling that they should have that Tony stark moment and decide to stop weapons immediately, which is again, not going to happen. It employs a lot of people and is a very big revenue generator for the government. 

    What can the US do to make some improvement here? Well, for starters, it can sell only to the governments, elected governments. But then there are lot of governments across the world that once elected start enacting laws to increase the dictatorial power within the gambit of democracy. So, how will the seller know that the governments to whom he is selling the arms will be used to uphold democracy. Democracy and freedom cannot be upheld with armed struggles. Armed struggles will result in factions which will be detrimental to the common man. Because these factions think they know better than the common man, what the common man wants. 

    By leaving Afghanistan, USA made another statement. Destroying a country and having contractors rebuild the country is passe, old strategy. The strategies of going to war in another country by its physical presence is very costly and dangerous. They just looked at how China is doing the same thing in a different manner. The economical war. Get countries to sign contracts which will be honored by international law. Cripple the country economically, get your businesses in. give the citizens no option but to do business with the Chinese companies or totally exit from the deal, which in turn hands over the entire investment in foreign soil to the Chinese companies, which are in fact representing the chinese government. So beatiful. No arms, No war, No bloodshed. Just pure business. 

    There is one more dimension to this exit. Are there any friends to any county beyond economical dependencies. If any country is with war with another, will friends come and join them. Will this result in world war 3. With this exit, all these doubts are laid to rest. If any country with war with another, this is normally the case with nations sharing borders, they will be left to fight and whoever wins, business deals will be made. It will be very economical. The winner and the enitre global business will exploit the spoils. 

    If we observe the present war situations. Governments are fighting against groups who want to run the government and once they win there will be another group which is ready to do the same. With this exit, it is clear that all military coalitions are in reality, business deals, economic understandings. These are not be understood in the classic sense wherein we expect the allies to come and fight side by side. 

     It is a good development. Wars are nonsense. Diplomacy and economic strategies are the way to go.

A study in scarlet, Again

     Yes, I have read all the short stories and the novels involving Sherlock Holmes. But, every time I take up the study in scarlet, I am hooked on again. A contrast between introduction of Sherlock and Watson is what always grabs my attention. Everything about Watson is told to the reader. It is like, know the narrator first. Normally a narrator is given a one dimensional character.

    The narrator cannot change for anything. He will be true to his introductions. He does not want any share of the success but will be there for all the difficulties the main character undergoes. I saw the same pattern in "The Great Gatsby" and also "Brideshead revisited". The study in scarlet is different here. Watson is always with Sherlock. There are very rare situations where they are not together. There is one more difference. We dont know much about Sherlock Holmes. We are told what Watson sees. So, we, the reader, know as much as Watson wants us to know. 

    The character of Sherlock Holmes is not fully exposed to the reader. Whereas in other books, I state, the main character is more well etched than the narrator. There will be more dimensions to the main character. Sherlock Holmes is as unknown to me as he was known to me before reading all the stories he is involved in. I know a lot of Watson's character. However, he is not multi-dimensioned. His history is told as though it is a bored life. 

    Whatever life he now leads with Sherlock is what is important and significant. We also see that Sherlock himself does not like the way Watson writes his escapades though he is happy that he is doing it, since, Holmes himself would not have done it since it is too boring. Should we thank the single dimensional life of Watson or the multi-dimensional un-explored life of Sherlock. 

    This is exactly the reason there have been plenty of takes on this detective than any other ones. Dalgelish and Poirot are etched so beautifully to the last strand of hair on their face, it is very difficult to bring them out of their comfort zone. But, Sherlock does not have to be comfortable. He enjoys the un-comfortable. He cherishes it. To this day, I have not figured out Sherlock as much as the hardy boys, Nancy drew, Poirot or Dalgelish. But, I am happy that these people exist. They have drawn me out of many depths and have partnered me in re-energizing me on various occasions. Thanks to one and all. However, Sherlock.......

Vaccines for the SARS Cov 2

Disclaimer: I am not a virologist, a biologist or a doctor. I hated biology at school and that is the very reason that I am an Engineer.

    The amount of write-ups on SCV2 on the public network is un-imaginable. I have also written a couple of posts on the same. In this post I would like to write more about how the vaccines work. This is for people who dont want to combine the information available on the public network. If readers are ready to go that extra mile, they can piece all this information together. Let us start

About SCV2(Sars CoV 2):

    SCV2 is a RNA based virus. That is, the re-production information is stored as RNA. The RNA strand is safely encased in a protein shell with additional proteins, now known infamously as the spike proteins(S protein). The RNA is the blue print which will be understood by the material which makes up the cytoplasm of a cell. On the most simplest side,  a cell is made up of a nucleus, surrounded by cytoplasm held together by a membrane. The nucleus contains the DNA which is converted to RNA, which in turn enters the cytoplasm. The code in the RNA is understood in this area. Normally, the information in the RNA is to make proteins. 

    Why should we know this minimal amount of a human cell composition. Without this premise, we will not know how SCV2 multiplies in the human body. The SCV2, to begin with mainly affects the upper respiratory system. You will now ask me why does it not affect other cells. Well, these respiratory cells have a receptor to which the spike protein attaches itself easily. It is like the spike protein knows the language of the receptor on these cells and it does not understand the language of receptors on other cells. 

    The SCV2 attaches itself on to this receptor and by biological magic, the RNA inside the protein casing is released into the cytoplasm in the affected cell. Now, the RNA which enters the cytoplasm is executed by the constituents of the cytoplasm(It is like running a binary compiled program). The main result of the execution is to create one more copy of the SCV2. This then gets out of the cytoplasm and locks with the receptor of the next cell and so on and so forth. What damages this replication does is known to all. Let us not dwell on this. We have discussed issues which might be helpful for us in understanding how the vaccines hope to work against this virus.

About Adenovirus:

    Adenovirus is a DNA based virus. That is, the re-production information is stored as a DNA safely encased in a protein shell. These viruses are known to be harmless on humans, if affected would result in a cold only. Of course, as with other viruses there have been several mutations.

mRNA based vaccines:

    There are two popular vaccines based on this methodology and they are from pfizer and moderna. As we have discussed earlier, the spike protein with the which the SCV2 starts its journey into the human cell, is a very important identifier. This protein is found to be unique. This uniqueness of the protein lends itself to identify the virus. mRNA vaccines work by delivering the mRNA to the cytoplasm of the muscle cells. This mRNA is a compiled program executed by the constituents in the cytoplasm of the cell. The result of the execution is the production of spike proteins. 

    To elicit an immune response, enough cells should be invaded and the mRNA has to be delivered to the cytoplasm. The mRNA is pure chemistry and can be very well understood by people in that field. The chemical formula is a copy of the chemical formula of the spike protein found in the SCV2. The immune response peaks in about 2 weeks time based on the present dosage. Increasing the dosage would improve the response times, but would also result in such a great immune response that it would start attacking the healthy cells also. This is the reason that the second dose is given after a gap of a month or so. The second jab also helps in creating memory cells which stay in the body for a long time, maybe enough for a lifetime. 

    The optimum dosage has been finalized based on the 3 phases of vaccine development. The medium through which the mRNA is delivered to the cell is though lipid solution which bonds easily with the cell membrane and allows the entry of the mRNA into the cytoplasm. Here we can have issues. One is the allergy of the individual to the lipid solution used to deliver the mRNA. If the person is allergic then the boding does not happen between the lipid solution and the cell membrane which stops the mRNA to enter the cytoplasm. Since the mRNA enters the cytoplasm and does not have to deal with the nucleus it is clear that it does not alter the host DNA contained in the nucleus of the cell.

Adenovirus based vaccine:

    The most known ones are the Astrazeneca and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Trillions of adenovrirus are cultivated in a controlled lab environment. The DNA of this virus is altered to result in the following

a. The DNA part which allows it to duplicate is edited out.
b. The chemically formulated compiled code for producing the spike protein in the form of a DNA is added to the original adenovirus DNA strand.
c. Its infecting capability is intact.

    The viruses are then transferred to an injection medium. In summary, live viruses are injected into the human body through the vaccine jab, but crippled as mentioned above. So, if 25 billion viruses are injected, then they stay 25 billion and cannot replicate. Once injected, the adenovirus clings on to a muscle cell and transfers the DNA into the nucleus of the host cell. The vaccine makers are telling that though the DNA enters the host cell it does not interact with the host DNA. Once inside the DNA is converted to mRNA and then moves out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm. From here the procedure of making the spike proteins and generation of immune response is the same. 

    There are some issues here. When the live attenuated adenovirus is injected, there are chances that the human body produces immune response for the virus itself. This will kill the virus before it delivers the DNA payload. This is the exact reason why the astrazeneca vaccine did not work for people in South Africa and all the doses were returned back. This is because, the people in this country are already exposed to this variant of adenovirus and already have antibodies developed which will kill the virus once they are injected. This vaccine works only if the virus is unknown to the human body. There have also been instances of blood clots and other related issues in some countries while in some countries the issues are minimal in this regard.

De-activated SCV2 vaccine:

    This is the most simple and the most straightforward type of vaccine considering the fact that the methodology is used for various classic vaccines like the small pox. So, you cultivate SCV2 in the lab. Totally de-activate them. Put them in an injection solution. Inject this into the muscle cells. The body will produce immune response to various facets of the virus composition. So, this seems to be the best possible solution. 

    Yes. However, there are some issues. It is costly to manufacture. It cannot be manufactured quickly in large scale. The quality constraints are very high. Every jab should be free of any live virus, otherwise the result can be catastrophic. The quality procedure should have a testing procedure to ensure that all the batches of the vaccine, every drop of it, does not have any live virus. The most well known is the Covaxin. There are others being used and I am afraid of even naming them since I dont trust them, the trust is lesser than the size of the virus.

Chemically fabricated spike proteins:

    This method of preparing the vaccine is the cheapest. The most important one is the one from Biological E(Named Corbevax). Here the spike proteins are fabricated in a lab. These proteins in an injection medium is delivered to the muscle cell. The body develops immune response to the spike proteins. Instead of the human body producing the spike proteins and then expecting an immune response, here we are doing the job of making the spike protein in the lab.

    The purpose of the vaccines are to produce immune response to the UID of the virus and to ensure that enough memory cells are created which remember this UID and be ready with the necessary immunity response when dealing with a real SCV2.

    Thanks to all the virologists and all the hard working health professionals for developing a vaccine in such a short time. Condolences to all the people succumbing to this virus. Everybody alive, kindly wear your masks properly and try to learn the "mask etiquette" properly. Get your vaccine shots. Dont forget that all the vaccines require a minimum of 2 weeks to create an immune response. The first three days of taking a vaccine shot are crucial. The immune system will be at its most crippled. Kindly stay at home for these three to four days. You might have a light fever. Stat away from alcohol and smoking for a minimum of two months from your second jab.

The same post on the fediverse:   https://qua.name/zbqmle9wsf

PS: An example for a virus which alters the host DNA is the HIV

Are indivduals in any part of the world, Free

     The world celebrated an anniversary of the end of fight for freedom, which happened in one of the largest country, not valuing, you guessed it, Freedom. Has it got to be celebrated, Yes. Period. Is it alright to just celebrate it and then go ahead with our daily routine, no? So, what are we supposed to? Well, dont ask me. I am out of answer as much as you are. 

     The human race has reached a situation where some portion of the people fight for the majority portion of the freedom of people. This fight for freedom is not what was warranted when, humans developed their brains and formed societies. The problem started brewing once societies started being formed. Along the formation, of societies morals were being framed. Rights and wrongs were being hardwired. Some societies thought they were better than the others...Ah, what was I talking about... What am I talking about now? Are they related?

    The thing is should we remember only major ones. Should we not find out and celebrate smaller struggles by individuals across the globe. The news agencies and the entire societies have started to incorporate a very bad idea that one person talking anything about issues believed right by a majority is wrong. This is the most deemed to be free countries, which again is confused with democracies. Democracy is not freedom. Freedom is not the same as democracy. 

    Freedom is not given by anybody to anybody. It is just there. If it has to be given and it has to be taken, then both sides are flawed. So, if a democratic setup tells that you a free to do that and this and then that and then IFTTT.... it is not freedom. It is bondage. Wherein your are given a certain degrees of freedom. 

    There are democracies with varying number of degrees of freedom. So, the country with the highest degrees of freedom is the ultimate? No. Freedom is and should be a given. Isn't it wrong then, that a free(er) parts of the world are not doing anything to improve the degrees of freedom of countries with a lesser number of freedoms. Yes, it is. But, are you allowed to express the same and are you capable of doing something on this issue. Are you given this freedom. Can a theoretically free individual free the group of people who are not having the same? It is impossible.

    Let us take the next scenario. Let us assume that the entire world of people are really free. Now let us assume a certain group of people want to create a society with lesser degree of freedom. Now, the world can act against it and make sure that they are again free. Good. Now, do these people really want to be free. Many people dont know the meaning of freedom. 

    The rich countries have sowed seeds in the minds of the people that Democracy is freedom. So, instead of fighting for freedom, people are fighting for democracy. So, what is freedom? How do people feel freedom? Is the lack of knowledge of freedom, freedom? Isn't the same be applicable to people who are slaves upto their last cell? Is anarchy the best form of freedom. Does anarchy give the individual that theoretical freedom? But, then again, you are branding individuals to a set of rules and conditions which fist spells out anarchy and then the individual has to figure out freedom.

Are you, the individual, Free?

The same post on the federated web  https://qua.name/wrrfhlepep

Blog freely

     Blogging is one of my favorite past time. However, my blogs are not thought out, laid out and thoroughly researched. Majority of them are thoughts/rants which make me "write". I think I have been blogging since the year 2010. As you can see, there is no specific time and routine with which the posts are written. They vary from technical to note taking to local issues upto the restaurant at the end of the universe. So, what keeps me blogging. Well, to start with, my basic drive is the fantastic world of FLOSS developers, users and maintainers. What passion do these people have!. When the whole world believe that the end point of all actions of human beings is money, these people think different. For them, money is the means to satisfy their passions, their will, their tastes, their thinking of general well being, their thought that the fantastic food, the human race is enjoying today is because of the FLOSS philosophy of all the people associated in studying and preparing food.

    I had always wanted to blog from my favorite editor, emacs. By, the way, I also love vi. However, I will stop here on this topic. I dont want to add to the plethora of information available on the public network. The war of words is so great that our future generations, when we become the cave people will be astonished at this war of words and will forget all about the wars which bought the ending of human race and concentrate on this. There you go again, you have dragged me into it. I knew you would do it. I hate you for that. Or do I love you for that!!. Argh!!!.

    Coming back to my first line in the second paragraph, I came across a project called write.freely. I liked it. I liked that it federates beautifully. But, then somehow, it just went out of focus. Maybe because I was not blogging much at that moment. I do have longer lean periods than periods of flourish. However, I am active on mastodon(@srinicame). Again, as active as my blogging habits in posting. But, I am an avid reader and try to consume posts from my favorited individuals. During one such session, I came across a post from Marcel on the Mastodon fediverse offering invites to his write.freely instance. Thank you Marcel, for allowing me to create an account on your instance. Once this was done, I was in the FLOSS market for plugins so that I could publish my blogs directly from emacs. And lo and behold, there is exactly one here https://github.com/dangom/writefreely.el

    Followed the configuration on the github page(Did not work for me), and I am now ready to post a blog from emacs. Downloaded the command line tool from https://github.com/writeas/writeas-cli/blob/master/cmd/wf/GUIDE.md. This is now my first post on a federated blog. Congratulations to me. Thanks to all the devs and users of the write.freely fediverse.

This is the link to this post(This same post) on the federated blog https://qua.name/bknf7v9835

xargs - The generic tool for arguments

    xargs is one of the most versatile tool used by command line warriors. There is a sort of aura around this command. Numerous videos are out there explaining the usage of this tool. The discussions below are to be taken as one for the entry level command line users. Kindly refer to the man pages for further advanced usage. In particular more information and its usage can be better appreciated from books and articles on shell programming, where a discussion on this is a mainstay.

    I will be using music files and c source files as examples wherever appropriate according to the easiness with which the underlying usage of xargs is more clear.

In the present directory as we start this discussion, we have the following files

music1.mp3
music2.mp3
music 3.mp3(notice the space in between music and 3)
music 4.mp3
big_program1.c
big_program2.c
big_program3.c

ls *.mp3 | xargs -t

echo music1.mp3 music2.mp3 music 3.mp3 music 4.mp3
music1.mp3 music2.mp3 music 3.mp3 music 4.mp3

    The output above is a little cryptic. Let us clear it first. If there is no other command to which xargs passes the arguments, the by default xargs pipes it to echo. The -t option is same as --verbose option with GNU extensions(by the way, I like GNU extensions for any program, they are more verbose and use the long form to extend  and explain what that particular option would do). By specifying the -t option, we are telling xargs to be more verbose in its activities. The result was that the xargs command took the output of ls and piped it to echo. We can see that exact executed by xargs in the first line of the output. The total result of the command is the output in the second line. All the arguments were passed on at once to the echo command.

    Now, let us change the above command such that the echo command is run on every argument. For that,

ls *.mp3 | xargs -t -n 1

echo music1.mp3
music1.mp3
echo music2.mp3
music2.mp3
echo music
music
echo 3.mp3
3.mp3
echo music
music
echo 4.mp3
4.mp3

    If we see the output, we met our task, partially. echo command is run on every argument. However, the file names with spaces in them have created a problem. By default, the delimiter for xargs is the space/blank character. To ensure that the above command works properly, we have to include the information of the delimiter in the xargs command, like so.


ls *.mp3 | xargs -t -n 1 -d'\n'

echo music1.mp3
music1.mp3
echo music2.mp3
music2.mp3
echo 'music 3.mp3'
music 3.mp3
echo 'music 4.mp3'
music 4.mp3

    Now, we see that the xargs command met our requirements. Now we are pretty confident that we can now pass on these xargs to other programs and are confident of them working properly. Let us now play the mp3s.


ls *.mp3 | xargs -t -n 1 -d'\n' mpg123

    This will now play all the mp3 files in alphanumeric order as listed by the default ls command, one after the another.

    Let us now take up the next key strength of xargs. xargs has the capability to spawn multiple processes so that arguments can be passed on to multiple instances of the program. For eg,

ls *.mp3 | xargs -t -n 1 -d'\n' -P 8 mpg123

    That was indeed funny, right. Seriously, that is a very wrong example to illustrate the parallel processing achieved by the above command. The above command starts multiple instances of mpg123, with all the instance playing an argument supplied. You can increase the argument for -P based on the number of files piped into the final command. Here you have all the four songs playing in parallel. The sound output might be interesting for music producers. For us listeners, nothing.

    Let us now consider a proper, practical example for this spawning of multiple processes,

ls *.c | xargs -t -n 1 -P 8 gcc

    The above command will run multiple instances of gcc at the same time and the compilation will happen in parallel on all the 3 files in the present directory. To do this kindly ensure that your programs can be compiled so and are stand alone and not dependent on each other being compiled already. Here we do not have the problem of file name containing spaces. If you are comfortable with

make -j 8

    For compiling your linux kernel, you know exactly what is happening here. The linux kernel is one of the greatest and practical examples for compiling sources in parallel. What a great feat. Kudos to all the kernel devs.

    With this, we come to the end of this gentle introduction to one of the most important tools for shell programming. The knowledge of xargs is a must for all shell programming aficionados.

    The standard thanks and regards to all the FLOSS users and devs. You people are great. Thanks again.

Profiteering from vaccines funded by tax payers money

    Majority of the governments funded the research and development of the vaccines which have yielded positive results. The first thing to talk here is that the governments money is the tax payers money. Whatif the investments made by the government did not yield results? Well, the funding from for the various companies would have evaporated. All the infrastructure developed as a consequence would have been wasted. However, majority of the vaccines funded have been succesful. Lucky taxpayers, Ha. Let us now see what is happening after this success. Now, the corporations want to make profit out of it. 

    Either the governments are naive or are in bed with these corporations. When the government agreed to bear all the risks of failure, cant the government add another clause for success? The clause for success would be to produce and sell the vaccines on cost of production and distribution only. The distribution, can again be taken up by the government, if the corporations feel that it is not strong point. So, the cost of production of the vaccine should be the selling price of the vaccine.

    However, the corporations and governments have different ideas. The corporations, particularly pharmaceuticals are seeing a cash cow. Majority of the vaccines are based on some information of the crown of the virus. As the virus updates the constituents of the crown, the information provided by the vaccine into the body becomes outdated. So, for every major mutation wherein the chemical formula of the crown changes in a major way, the human body cannot identify it as a virus, so the corporations are free to now produce an updated vaccine with this updated chemical structure. This can be an ifinite loop. This money source will become something like water, which is abundantly available and available whenever you are thirsty. 

    Why am I now talking corporations and governments, Well, that is the correct way. In fact you can combine both these terms and you will not find any difference at all. Let me give you an example. One vaccine vendor states the cost of vaccine in a particular country. When there is a backlash from the public, what does the government do? Well it decided to absorb certain portion of the price stated by the corporation. This decision was taken in split second. Why, elections are under way and it can have an adverse effect on the results. No communication happened between the government and the corporation. No discussions held. Well, is the public happy. Yes, why not? But, this is not as easy as it appears. You see, the government does not receive money from the gods. Whatever, the government has decided to absorb is the money from the tax payers. It is as good as paying what the corporation was asking.

Now, what is the point of investing and supporting the entire excersize of design and development of the vaccine with public money and the same is sold to the public on profit. It is not wrong, if you have developed a comfort product. In this case you have produced a vaccine. This particular vaccine should be out of the profit strategy. You first ensure that you have enough people on the planet. Corporations and goverments dont exist in vaccum. They are agian people. But as the famous phrase goes "..Some people are more equal..". 

    The reason for profit has been touted as the inputs for increasing the outputs further. Instead of the profit margin, the government can decide whether this increase in production is justifiable. Instead, the government can support other manufacturers who already have the majority of the capabilities for producing such a vaccine by giving them just enough support to produce the vaccine. This will result in investment in that corporation and bring it upto a standard wherein it can be competitive. And, competition is always better.

Profiteering from a vaccine funded by the taxpayers money for the survival of the taxpayer is murder and nothing else.

"Right to repair" has to come with "Ease of repair"

     I normally dont post links in my blog. They die over time and it is very difficult to link it again, if a reader wants the link again. However, these two links have to be mentioned and I am privileged to post the link. If any individual/company has any issues with me posting the link here. Kindly comment and appropriate action will be taken.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=nvVafMi0l68
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=-F-Wxj-v9-g

    The first link talks about "right to repair". The video is from Linus. One of the most prolific tech video producer I have come across. In this video, he talks about an initiative started by Louis, a crowd funded effort to argue "right to repair". The second video is a "Thank you" video from Louis. Between these two videos, the viewer will have a clear understanding of this "right". This right should be in the list of fundamental rights in any democratic nation. In this age of consumerism, right to repair, is what is going to save the customer and the planet. Many people dont know the real meaning of a "right". Let us first understand that. Let us talk about "Right to freedom of speech". What does this tell. Well, it just tells that you are free to talk your mind. So, what if you dont want to talk your mind. Well, this right has got you covered. You have the right to not talk your mind. The right tells that, if you want to talk, you can, if you dont want, then you are free not to talk. Let us put this explanation and draw parallel for the "right to repair".

    Let us assume that one consumer thinks that, any tech should not be repaired by the customer or on behalf of the customer by a third party. This action is part of "right to repair". If any other customer wants to carry out repairs, then he is also in this right. He is free to do so. If anybody thinks that no customer should be allowed to repair a gadget, the right to repair, applies to him also. He has the right to not get his gadget repaired. If anybody wants to carry out repairs, then this individual can. If this is clear, then as a consumer, you need not worry. If you are a rich person and instead of repairs, you would like a shiny new one, go ahead. If any others want to repair, then we are not damaging your chances of not repairing it. You are still free to pay huge money for a new one.

    I still remember my 1st pc, purchased in the year 2001. Every specific component was hand picked based on the money available. Any issue with the computer, I used to open up the complete chasis and try changing all the components and then one change would make the pc working again. Ring to 2021, Majority of the computers have soldered components. There were enterprising indivduals, who understood the complete schematics of the computer and started to de-solder the individual components and replace with newer ones. Yes, it is a niche market, but, it is still doable. 

    Now, what should the bigger companies do now. Well, bring it all within the processor die. What are we going to do about it, Well, I am blank as of now. The components on the die has provided the fastest bus for communication between the components, which was not achievable if the components are laid out on a Motherboard. But, this is a nightmare for the repair aficionados. Since all the major components of a computer are now in the processor die, you cannot upgrade your pc. If one component on the processor die, dies, the whole computer is as good as junk. For the re-soldering industry the only option is to remover the processor die and replace with a new one. But, this replacement will be exorbitantly high. How will the customer bear these costs. These costs might motivate the customer to just buy a new black box.

    Right to repair is one thing, capability to repair is one more thing. The big corporations are now on a path wherein, even if we do win the right to repair, it will be difficult for individuals and hobbyists to carry out repairs. The new products from Apple only have speakers and thermals outside the processor die. With right to repair, we should start a revolution for ease of repair also. Without ease of repair, there is no use of having right to repair. Let us wish that other technologically competitive individuals take up this aspect of "ease of repair" also. Otherwise the fight for "right to repair" will be laid waste.

Please, with sugar on top, Wear a Mask

     Since the beginning of the pandemic I wanted to write about the way people go about wearing their mask. I came across a post on mastodon where a hotelier put out an ad with the heading "You are free to wear the mask or not at our establishment". To start with majority of we humans, have lost the art of empathetic thought. We either are in our own theoretical world or are so practical that we forgot the fellow human beings are also humans. The other humans just dwindle out from our thought. We have forgotten to value the other people's ideals. We have become self-centric. Now, the problem with this selfish attitude is it is not boding well in the present pandemic. In fact this facet is exposed to the highest.

    We have nay-Sayers for each and every issue in the world. Thought the ISS is beaming pictures of the earth 24 hours a day, we have nay-Sayers saying that the earth is flat. This number is not negligible and this number is highest in the richer nations with better education and information availability. Let us start with the farmer. Everything starts from the energy source, so let us start from here. The farmer is doing things which is natural and suddenly decides he is going to harvest his crop, pluck the fruit. He will not wash his hands. why? why not? He is free to do it. He thinks that all the micro organisms are good for the living beings. For him harmful and beneficial germs are the same. He does not know of any damage to anybody eating his food. Come on, How many have died of this? He would say that he did not eat it the proper way(You are not holding the iphone properly). It next goes to the storage. Here again, few operators are very particular about cleaning, while others are not and consider that this level of cleanliness is not required. They dont clean the containers, they dont wash their hands at all. Why, why not, they are free to do so arent they? You cannot find out whether all the operators of the stores are germ free while handling. This boils down to the operators only. And definitely in that crowd there will be nay-Sayers. 

    Now, the product goes to the processing industry, they have not cleaned their machinery since they started the facility. Why? They are bribing the testing crew. So what, they can clean the facility based on logic. Yes, they can, but they have their own logic. They see that nobody has reported sick because of their facility. If at all some die, what does it matter, it is a very small count. Now, let us come to the restaurant. Here again, the cleaners decide that they will clean, when they think that the containers have to be cleaned. Not before every time a dish is prepared. Why, why not? Let us come to the last level in this journey. 

    The customer. He walks in. He has not cleaned his hands, his shoes are dirty. He comes in and digs in all the while assuming that the entire chain of people responsible for him to have that meal have maintained utmost cleanliness. Why did he come to this particular place. He thought they are clean. Later he may fall sick. But he will not be able to attribute it to the food he had in the restaurant. Why, because he is not thinking about cleanliness and he is thinking that others will take care of it. He is thinking that the human hands have got magical cells which kill all the bad agents. So, what he does is crosses his hands on his shirt and thinks that they are clean. He thinks that food is clean by default. He thinks he fell ill, because for him falling ill is like sun rising and setting. routine.

    This pandemic is different. It has taken this nay-saying to a new level. There are theories stating that the virus beating capability is embedded in humans. Yes sir. It may be. But the capability of this immune system is varying from person to person. So, by experience if you have decided that you are the one blessed with such an immune system, We the weaker ones request you to please allow us a chance to survive this pandemic. Please, with sugar on top, wear a mask. You are saving many lives including yours. 

    There are no studies which prove that wearing a mask will reduce the oxygen intake. The human body knows how to increase the oxygen intake. It will make you breathe harder and breathe in longer. It will make you yawn. Wear a mask. For any infection to occur, the payload of the attacking micro-organism is a very important factor. Wear a mask to ensure that the payload of viruses you are breathing out is muted by the mask. This will give the lesser mortals an opportunity to survive that contact. You are a nay-Sayer and dont want to take a vaccine. All right, as we have discussed you are free to do so, until you are free to to do that. 

    But, no, you have to wear a mask. No, not any mask, a proper one. It should mute the amount of virus emanating from your breath. You never know, it might also limit the amount of virus payload you breathe in and might keep it just below the threshold limit of your immune system. It is a win-win situation. Use re-usable masks. Our planet is already full of these masks. Let us reduce the burden on our planet. Let us live to clean this planet and bring it back to its good old days. Let us give our children what we cherished. Let us not just talk about the good old days. Let us survive and re-create the same for our children.

Let us all, live. Wear a Mask, A proper one.

Agrarian Business

    What a perfectly bad time to be alive? A time at which we cannot adjudge the probability of any living being be alive. A time at which we have the most powerful computers which try to churn out weather data, but are unable to do the same to for the last mile of the living beings on earth. We are in the midst of a pandemic. We exactly know where it started. We exactly know how it was spread. We exactly know how the people who had the initial information stay quite and plan for the future to make use of this scenario. We are seeing a different world structure. The "diplomacy" word has become so complicated. The world, is in shambles.

    On one side we have the government of a country go and attack the agriculture industry which is the bread and butter of the majority of its residents. Instead of modernizing the agrarian sector, the government is hell bent on bringing corporate to the sector. Am I an economist, am I an agriculturist, am I a diplomat? No, None of these. I am a living being and I require food to be alive. So, yes, I should be interested what is happening in this sector. I should be interested in as much as the issues regarding the shortage of computer chips which has bought many of the industries to a stand still. Do the corporate have the agrarian experience which this big country which once was one of biggest economic power, which induced many emperors to come here and collect back the gold which they had paid for the artistic and the agrarian produce this country has produced. 

    Our agrarian industry is in shambles. Modernization has not reached this industry. Modernization tried to teach them shortcuts instead of the best practices. Modernization has destroyed the top soil in such a way that no crop can be grown without any chemicals/fertilizers. Modernization has failed to incorporate the experience of our hardworking farmers of yester years. There are only a handful of farmers who are striving by continuing with the practices laid out by their forefathers. There have been instances of educated people from cities going back to their agrarian roots and try to bring back the practices by our farmers from previous generations combining them with modern replacements ensuring that the chemicals used are minimal and every crop taken out is sustainable. 

    Vast tracts of land have lost the capability to grow anything. These vast expanse of land is waiting for the adjacent cities to grow so that it encapsulates this area. With this, agricultural land becomes residential land. But, until then the farmer can till the land, yes? No. The youngsters in the are are impressed by others going to the city to earn every day money or monthly money which is absent in the agrarian setup which they have been accustomed to. They go and do menial job which does not require any brain processing. If the youngster is at his agricultural land, he has to study the soil, he should study the weather, he should study the market, he should be smart. And then after all this, he wants that daily/monthly money which he knows cannot happen now. But, if he strives it might happen in an year or two. But by that time he would have earned that money now. Why wait for a couple of years. He dont know the disadvantage of working under others. It will be too late for him to recognize the freedom he had if he had continued with his agrarian plans. 

    The new crop of farmers want their crop to just grow. If there are issues put more fertilizers, more issues, more pesticides. If that dont work, the run towards the cities and do menial jobs. Ethics have been lost on the producer and the consumer. The consumer wants to alienate himself from the hardship of the producer. The producer dont care about the ill effects of his practises until his produce gets sold.

    On one side we have one country making the industry fertile for corporations, on the other side, there are countries which have already done this. Even these countries are not left alone. The bigger corporations are ready to take it to the next level. There have been examples of big corporations buying large tracts of agricultural land in the midst of a pandemic. This shows that these bigger ones know something which the present corporations dont know. In the midst of a pandemic a medical speech recognition company is bought for 20 billions USD. A person who dont know the first letter in the medical field, talks about the next pandemic. A philanthropist, through his non profit arm, ensures that the not for profit vaccine is smoothly transitioned to a money making machine. 

    Combine all this with the lack of interest shown by farmers. You have corporations which will then sell us doctored food. Food grown and altered as per the region and the class it is being sold. Time will come where food also will be assumed to be made like electronic gadgets. People dont know the issues associated with mining the minerals necessary for their gadgets until they have their shiny gadgets every spring. It will be the same for food. The time is not far away, where there will be presentations made about super food v1. We will all eat it. And then in the next presentation we will be told about the problems in the v1 food and we will be told that super food v2 will resolve all the issues v1 created in your body and then some improvements(In fact the issues to be resolved in v3) and so on.

    The pandemic on hand is awesome. It is affecting only the 99.99% of the population. The 0.01% is not bothered. They are going about their business while all the business of the 99.99% have tanked. Deaths have become mere numbers. Rules and regulations have been played with like it is childs play. The 99.99% dont know to believe the pandemic or not. The thing is if they believe, they have to stay indoors, which again, they cant. They will not be able to survive for long. If they dont believe, they will be be-littled by the believers and will be blamed for anything happening to the believers. No deaths are being questioned. No deaths have been subjected to further analysis. Even if it is subjected to further analysis by another doctor, what is the guarantee that the other doctor will be doing an ethical job of it. Hospitals are running out of beds. They are running out of oxygen. Let us not talk about ventillators. When the entire government machinery is busy chalking out the strategy to win an election, instead of the pandemic on hand, we know something is wrong the world is being run. Those who are near and dear to any human being only will be able to tell the damage, the pandemic has done. Those who have struggled to breathe will only tell the pain the pandemic has inflicted on an individual.

    So, the pandemic originates somewhere and spreads miraculously without anybody's knowledge. In the times of human wanting to go to the moon/Mars, without understanding the planet which they have inhabited for their entire lifetime, is a joke. The human kind is at crossroads. There is talk of universal basic income for every human being on the planet for workers and people who want to just while away their life. If it is all about printing money and sending it to every individual on the planet, it is very easy. However, all these people are to be fed. So, universal income depends on food available in plenty. We want to device methods of farming with minimum amount of water, so that potable water left on the planet can be used for human consumption. All these ideas boil down to one fact. 

    The "agrarian" industry is the most crucial one for the continued existence of man kind. It has to be kept out of multinationals and be kept as a family run enterprise and should be free for any individual to take up. It should be one industry which does not need any approvals. Water and air also were supposed to be kept out of reach of multinationals. However, we have lost it. The strategy used by multinationals to reach this situation is dangerous. Spoil all the pristine and natural sources of water and air. Now sell the same polluted water and air by commercializing the process of cleaning the damage which they themselves are responsible. The "agrarian" industry is taking the same path. Pollute the soil, pollute the minds of the farmer. The consumer's mind is already spoilt, We can ignore him here. Now, buy off all the land(water and air already owned) and then you have the complete planet under your control. First remove all the ingredients from the food and then add what is required based on the geographical location/caste/creed/class. We are nearly there.

    Coming back, the covid tests are a joke. There have been no improvements in the testing procedure. There have been no advancements in the treatments. Everybody is behind the vaccine. Mars missions and moon missions have been planned and executed. I dont feel the world wants to know the problem on hand. It just wants to go about its regular duties as though there is no pandemic. We surely can do away with the Mars/Moon missions. They can wait. They can perfect their mathematics.

    What has all this got to do with agriculture? Well, every living being has to eat. Food has to be grown. All the packed food needs the output from a farmer. The time is closer wherein, the super store racks will not have any packaged foods. The raw material for any edible item has to come mother earth. All governments, please leave the agrarian economy as is. Compile the experiences of yester year farmers. Combine it with just enough tech to ensure that the procedure is 100% sustainable. Not any lesser percentage. It can be done. There have been instances wherein individuals incorporating these older procedures have succeeded. Identify them and empower them. Now.

    When governments huddle together and discuss how to efficiently increase the capacity of mortuaries so that people who are dead will have a speedy ritual, there is something wrong. In all this where does a farmer stand? Is he important? In fact, is food important? Should we eat to survive?  It is high time the government supports innovation in this field. It is high time, the individual farmers start planning. It is high time the young farmers who have understood this concept educate the others than to get highlighted and stay so at the expense of other failures.

Gluten cannot be digested by human stomach

Disclaimer: I am no doctor. This is not dietary advice. This is not a treatment schedule.

    Modern foods are made to appease and fool the human processing system. So, instead of using a tried and tested eating habits which has trickled down over humanities existence, the food shelves of these days are a far cry from the shelves of the yester years. The human digestive system is being fooled as the brain is being fooled. It is what the facebooks and googles are doing for the brain. Give more of what it wants. Every human brain is unique. 

     There will be preferences. But, then for the overall development of the human being there should be variety. Instead, these companies feed on the nature's most important rule, the rule of least resistance. Feed the least resistance path. So, what do you gain. Well, you get the attention of the brain. If you get the attention of the brain, you have the individual hook, line and sinker. The foods are going the same way. It is well understood that opioids are addicting more people than the addiction which the governments across the world are worried of. Just because opioids come in nice packages, with good printing and excellent colors, dont mean that they are doing any good. But designing food to do the same as these is criminal. Food is quintessential part of the life of a living being.

    It was shocking for me to know that we are not growing wheat as we used to in the good old days. ie, we have tampered with the "natural" variety of wheat which our previous generations have eaten. Instead we have edited out and added information in genome sequence which will yield wheat having more of the properties multinational business houses want. Not what humans want. It is very difficult to fathom the profit making prospects of these big businesses, or for that matter smaller businesses. By harming the health of the consumer, when profits are made, then it is a vicious cycle. The thing is these decisions are not made by one single business.

    The treatment business and the problem origination businesses are hand in hand. The treatment business can always come out against the food producing businesses highlighting the issues with such vociferous volume that the businesses will have to rethink their strategies. Alas, that is not happening. Both are running their own businesses. Both know they are feeding of each other and both in turn feed of the individuals. The most shocking truth about wheat is the gluten. The wheat originally grown by our past generations did not have this element in large quantities as of now. The genetic blue print of wheat is changed and edited by multinationals to include more gluten in the produce, in turn making "soft" "chewy" bread. Why did they do so? Why didnt the consumers worry about questioning this practice. Well, one answer is in the farmer producing it. He is now not worried about the storage of it. The multinationals have found huge markets for all his produce. They are resistant to insects. They can be stored for a longer time. 

    So, if there are any issues arising out of this gene editing, the treatment industry will take care of it and will survive. This methodology of doing business is the same as how cancer cells do business. These cells dont produce energy the "correct" and "efficient" way. They do it the wrong way. They suck in lot of inputs and produce very little amount of energy. This makes them sick in turn. As an extension many will die. But these dead cells stay there. They disrupt already wrongly made up blood cells. There it is you have the perfect example of a tumor. So, what does the present medical profession do about it? Well, they dont know. They keep trying all sorts of modern gimmickry. They try to go the way, the genetically modified food is produced. They think that they can start manipulating the cancer cells to start working like healthy cells by trying to edit the genetic material of cells which make up the cancer cells.

But, the human genome is not a joke. People dont know the repercussion of editing one portion of the gene and replacing it with a different chemical formula. The same applies to gene editing of wheat. Gene editing might have given us wheat which has more gluten. But, we dont know how this is going to affect in the "synergistic" point of view of the entire gene. Now, getting back to gluten, it is clear that the human stomach cannot digest gluten. So, it is passed on to the intestines. There starts the complications. If the complications are so clear, why should we continue eating it. I dont see any reason whatsoever. This should be a prime reason to reduce this protein. Let the chapatis crumble. Let the bread be a little hard. Let the bread by a different color than white. 

 

     The gluten free group is a bigger fad. They take up the same wheat produced with the maximum possible gluten in them and chemically try to remove the gluten in it. Now, nobody is telling exactly what all nutrients get removed by carrying out this process of removal of gluten. Like we exactly dont  know the total effects of editing the wheat gene to produce more gluton, we exactly dont know what this de-glutenising process results in. So, suit yourself

    What is this obsession of human beings with white. The obsession is that white is associated with purity. With this, you can pass the most impure substance on earth, until it is white. Why are we not eating food as we were eating just 20 - 30 years ago. It is not late. The human race has to make a decision. All farmers dont farm with good intentions in their mind. Majority of the farmers have gotten used to just putting the seeds and seeing them grow. They just want the yield. It is like earth is a machine. No, sir, it is not. So, how do we make the farmers understand this. Well, start supporting farmers who are doing the right thing. Farmers are very susceptible to success stories. Make a success story of one farmer with ethical practices, you will see that others will follow.

    I for one dont think that stopping eating wheat, is going to do any major issues with the human body. Consult your dietician and spell out your wish and definitely there will be a positive answer. What about ones who cannot afford a dietician. What about people who cannot afford anything other than wheat. This is a very tricky situation. The problem here is the person cannot afford the treatment for the issues in his food. He will consume what he can afford, not what is healthier for him. So, whom do you turn in these situations. God, or the government which does the job of God on its behalf. Ensure that the food is produced in the most traditional manner. Ensure that research happens to store food in its most pristine form instead of converting it to some non-nonsensical chemical formula. It is not that the human should be modified to eat this modified food. Ensure that the food is at its pristine level. Forget about making it look pleasing. Whoever wants to have such food, can create a demand and many producers will answer. Let us keep the poor people away from this since they dont have options. As for people with options, it is left to them to choose what is better for them.

Save democracy with "Participative democracy"

    Many models have been designed to ensure that the elected representatives of the people in democracy represent the complete mix of the people they represent. Yes, that sentence was a mouthful. But, so is the word democracy just, by itself. Of late I have been intrigue by how the residents of huge apartments are running their own country. The apartment is a perfect example of a democratic crowd. The crowd can be extended to include secular based on its geographic location. It has all the problems of a small country. In a country like India, few of the apartment can house approx 150 families. That is a definitely a small district in few other countries. These apartments are managed by a participative democratic system which existed in ancient Greece. Which was the point of contention between Socrates and the state of Greece. This case of Socrates v/s the state of Greece is one of the most interesting court cases. Oh, I am getting carried away. This is the result of not planning your writing. However, let us continue with apartments.

    A lottery system is utilized to select representatives to head activities related to the upkeep and maintaining the day to day activities of the apartment. Nobody can escape from this participative democratic system of governing the apartment. For once, everybody is equal. For once all the citizens are to participate and help the elected representative in carrying out its duties. So, though, you are not the elected leader for a specific task, if you are supposed to help, then you have to. You are participating as a leader as well as a supporter. You are always "in" the daily polity of the apartment. You are participating in one way or the other. For once, it is everybodys damn responsibility to ensure the smooth functioning of the apartment. I am not going to go through the nitty/gritty of running an apartment. It is no less than running a small country.

    What I am suggesting is the implementation of this methodology in grass root governing in a democratic system. In a democratic system, the non participants are huge. Nearly 99.99% of the population. This makes this major population, alien to the working of the governing mechanism. This makes the governing mechanism take total undue advantage of the major population. This is the other sharp edge of the democratic system. This makes the majority population not participate in the day to day running of the country. So we have three classes in this majority. One which likes the present governors, one which hates it, one which doesnt care. There is another group which is part of the corruption or tries to take advantage of this system, though they know that what they do is hurting the majority of the population. These are pretty complicated. These mostly end up in the governing seat. So, the vicious circle repeats.

    It is time to repair democracy, instead of looking at other models. There are no other forms of governance which have the word freedom mentioned as  much as in a democratic system. The majority rule is a recent development. In the ancient greek times when, democracy was at its peak, "participative"  was the buzzword and citizens not participating were labelled "useless". Everybody has to know how to govern. Everybody knows how to govern. Everybody governs themselves. The apartments are running this model, even without knowing they are doing so. The term of the representatives is the same, approx, an year. However, there is one problem. Poor people were not involved, However, now we can include everybody. The grass level can be divided into smaller divisions particularly based on the population. This ensures that the representatives are not overwhelmed. This will be the case for the first few. Once everybody understands the concept, it will become common place. The representatives must have lived in that environment for a certain number of years, so that they represent the population better and understand the job at hand.

    There will always be people who are waiting for their turn. Everybody believes they will better the previous fellow. The present fellow does things, which he believes nobody can better. The representative has to be careful in all his decisions, since he will land up as a commoner after his term is over.

    This should work. I am excited. Whenever we had discussions regarding alternate forms of democracy among friends, the discussions shifted to other forms, except democracy. People go back in time to compare the good old times. When it comes to governing, I dont know why the present crop forgot the fantastic "participative" democracy from ancient Greece. So, you are asking me to develop it further. I will tell you, this is not a theoretical concept that is being put forth. This is a time tested and an in execution methodology. It has just to be implemented. So, what are we waiting for?

    The most important of all in any governance system is the ownership of the responsibilities. This has been so rare in the present majority system, wherein the elected candidate does not consider the vast minority whom he believes have not voted for him. But, in this case, the ownership comes from within, without anybody coercing. Though somebody is not in that chair, all the others who are not in that chair know that one day or the other they will land up in that chair. They will be compassionate with the present representative, which they hope to receive when they sit in that chair. This synergy between the leader and the team being led is so strong and fantastic, you have to be a part of that system to understand it. In the present majority setup, there is a certain dis-connect between the elected individual and the electors, which happens once in 5 years. With the present advancement in technology, 5 years is a very long time. Leadership change should happen every year, at the least. This keeps the leadership above the grassroots on their toes. 

    Every change in the grassroots brings with it, an aura of the elected individual, who has been seeing all things happening around him. Since he is a part of the receipience of the older system, he knows what things were done right and what were done wrong. He will first attack and try to resolve what he believes are being done wrong. It is like, the system is in sync with the rapid changes happening in the technological, political and the economical setup. With the present connectivity, the grassroots are connected, in, real time. It is very easy to borrow the "best practices" in one area and try to implement it in full or modify it to meet the particular place.  and a sense of commitment. 

  One more important aspect is the information on the candidate. In these closed circles, the particular individual will be know because of his past deeds. Or a new person can go about familiarizing the electorate since the size of the group is not as large as it is today. This makes the electorate more knowledgeable about the candidate. They will remember his every move. The duration is short and the electorate can correct their mistake at the earliest. Consider the situation now. Majority of the voters dont know the candidate. They vote for the political party. Now, once the candidate wins, he might land up in the opposite party. Now, the majority voted for the party to which the individual belonged. Now, the candidate has defected. He will now have to act according to the whims of the new party. Now, the voters have to wait for the next election to correct their mistake. By that time, people would have forgotten the past and would associate the candidate with the latest party he has joined. This is horse shit.

    The concept of making a quick buck and running away dont work because his family is a part of the system and all wrong decisions are going to affect him all the same. The election system should borrow from Estonia, since the electoral territory is now very small. This is perfect for both villages and cities. In this inter-connected world, it is difficult for anybody to be aloof. In fact, the aim of the system is not leave anybody aloof. It is to try and make everybody responsible for themselves and their surrounding environment. This is unlike a system, wherein decisions are taken in huge buildings and taken by the majority wins, not one with the representatives who really represent the grassroots. 

    Enough of everybody talking politics and staying away from it, thinking that it is a dirty job and has to be done by dirty people. It is like, everybody is thinking that the other fellow will do it. This is to bring everybody on the execution roll. Everybody is responsible. If something is wrong, a person who stays quite should face as much problem as he is vociferous about it. Yes, we cant wait for "the" person who knows how to do the "job". There is nobody who is "the" person to do the job. And Yes, Socrates, you are wrong.
 

The revolution, can start.

The Hateful Eight :- "The" movie experience

     Film making is an art. Watching more so. But, watching as an art is the result of watching what is on offer. Is watching an art? How so? Well, It is the immersion of one's conscience for a certain amount of time in the film maker's conscience. Film makers cannot put constraints on the audience to come with a certain frame of mind. The film should mold the watchers mind from inception of the movie and kick start that exact frame of mind. Many film makers do this by adapting a style of film making. So, when an audience who knows the style of making, there is already a certain frame of mind ready for the make to start with. It is like the make has created a small world which the audience is already familiar with. This makes the job of the maker much simpler. This allows the maker to take certain things as known. This allows the audience who knows a little about the universe to jump right in. So, should a maker continue to weaver stories in that universe? Maybe, until the universe is the same, the pacing, the style stays, the maker can still make plenty of stories in that universe or a time frame in that universe. He can expand the universe and travel in time in that universe as per the story he wants to tell.

    Well, what do I know about film making, nothing. Watching, yes, a little bit. Let me be clear as to my kind of films. Let me start with what kind I am not. I dont like the Tree of life. I liked the Thin Red line. There you have it. Now, you know where we are headed. Would I have liked the maker of the Thin red line to continue in the same line. No, what if he had made the thin red line and then stayed in that universe. I might have loved it. But, what if the maker only that much. He didnt want to prod that universe further. No mistake of his. But, I did not like the Tree of life, which wanted to encompass "everything", which is impossible. There is not theory of everything, not yet. Now, what I am telling is I did not like the Tree of life. I did not tell that it is bad. Let us not get into good and bad.

    I like film makers who dont make this distinction between good and bad. The film maker should tell a story. The characters can make their own reasons for all their actions. But, the film maker should stay clear of offering judgement regarding good and bad. This makes for an independent view for the viewer. Re-Watching The Hateful eight after watching it when it was released, is the reason this post is created. The characters, the music score, the premise, the execution transformed me to wyoming, again. This is a grand success for a film maker. Transforming the viewer, again, to the same place is a major win. I take a bow to the maker, Quentin Tarantino. Here is a maker who has been consistent in his style, but still making stories in varied setups. 

    But did I like Once upon a time in Hollywood, No, Please. I want to forget that I did watch this movie. It is not in the Tarantino universe, which he has built painstakingly and has been digested by the viewers, effortlessly. So should the viewers complain when shown a complex plot. Should we put on our Science and Mathematics cap before we watch a movie. Hell, No. That will not be a movie, but a glorified documentary. It is better to watch a documentary which explains the concepts well, than an attempt by the filmmaker to take a part of the concept and pour plenty of fiction to cook the movie up. How about shooting a movie linearly and then editing the film non-linearly. It can be entertaining with the awe factor. But, still the non-linearity should be simple enough so that you still have the audience with you.

    The Hateful eight has all the ingredients to be played out as a play, live, in a theater. I would love to watch one, if anybody tried it. Maybe Quentin might try it after he finishes the films which he wants to make. The lines are well written. The non-linearity comes in the dialogues. Very interesting. The viewer is frequently taken back in time on occassions and also made to extrapolate in time just by the characters talking. All the characters talk their linog, their thoughts, their limitations. No character is God like. No character is an all-know. Every characters stays that very character. This give the viewer a consistent interface. This does not cheat the viewer. The heightening of tension, the hallmark of Quentin's writings is intact. 

    The drama is heightened by the music score. There are very rare occasions, wherein the music score elevates the movie experience. Satya, a Hindi movie, comes to the mind. The camera work is not jarring. The film is laid back in its execution, but makes the audience blood to race, an unusual combination. The pace of the movie and the blood rate surge have been equal, on very rare times, like watching the Matrix. The artists are at home. Their attire, their accent, is consistent. Every character has the mix of survival and ego, going together, while situationally, only one of them comes on top. It is a text book movie for film-making. It is a text book movie, for movie watchers. With movie makers creating huge structures for making one, this movie gives a complex to all those elaborate setups.

    The Hateful eight is one more example of the cohesiveness which can be achieved when the story creator and the executor are the same. There is that tight grip on characters and what they speak, how they re-act. All these things cannot be written by the writer and fully transferred to the director. Such well written characters can only be justified if the director also is the same person. The hateful eight is a movie, which made me think, "what a time to be alive".

    Once upon a time in Hollywood is the movie made by the same director, but, which has been passed on to this dimension of the universe from a parallel one, which does not have the tag line "what a time to be alive"

Why are people obsessed or made to obsess about culture

Of all the chains around the present humans, no chain is stronger than the chain of culture. Culture has grown to such a level that it "is" the way of life. It is the "benchmark" with which you compare all your actions and thoughts. Benchmarking your actions is ... but benchmarking your thoughts which in turn would result in your actions is the dangerous thing. The narrowing of ones thoughts by culture is stifling. 

     The freedom from the chains of culture can be best expressed by a person who lives his country and settles in another country. The initial freedom experienced by the individual, cannot be expressed. He love it, he relishes it, he compares it. he sees that the culture in that country is so different. He is forced to compare it. If the foreign culture even give a little leeway to the existing tight cultural chains around the individual, the individual feels euphoria. What if there is a place with pure anarchy and the individual lands up in this planet. What would be the result on the individual is an interesting case study, and we have to wait until we accidentally step into such a planet. So until then ......... 

     Why should an individual and the society behave in set ways for any action from any constituent of the society? Why should all the actions and activities be so strictly established. Why does culture change across groups of people in one single society? Why is there no common culture among all the humans? Why do individuals who go from an older culture be "relieved" when he lands in a country with a recent culture or a country in which the culture has not been made "dogmatic"? The feeling when an individual transforms to a culture on the other way round, all that relief will reverse to stifling. We have seen the evolution of right and wrong over the years. We have seen human sacrifice justified and the entire society feeling that is right. We have seen that slavery was also justified and in certain cultures it was found to be right. Right and wrong have also evolved, but there is no right and wrong freely available for an individual. Should the individual not have his own morals, his ethics, his behaviors?

    Cultures are giving birth to robots. But the thing is there are certain individuals who have a feel that this is happening but somehow have a different explanation for following the culture. This group of individuals are more dangerous. Because these people have reasons for why the culture is so, and that reason is never upgraded. But continues to get more "dogmatic". If there are people who want to question, they will be termed impure and alienated. Once this is done the idea and the questions which arose in that individual dies with him. So, we have to wait several generations for another individual to come up with the same sets of questions and may be solutions. 

    The change in culture over the years have been brought about by bright individuals who had the grit and the knowledge of changing the perception of the entire race, while many more tried their best to hold on to the classic culture. However, the present days with un-paralleled information flow we have barriers which have not been seen over the entire human past, that is the number who want status quo has increased and have become vociferous because people can now read and write. This reading and writing ability has been turned on its heads by powerful people and have started to use this ability in controlling people. 

    Culture is the bottom line of all the changes over the history of a particular group. However, the changes, ideas have been weighted with the more weighty ones overruling the lessor weighed ideas, though they may be better. The same strategy is being used now. The more weighted idea is weighed by the reach it has. The more the reach the more the weight. So, do i suggest that all individuals with similar ideals be grouped together. I would say yes here, but we are talking about the most intelligent animal on the planet. 

    The individual is not the same tomorrow. Tomorrow his thought process might change something in his belief dictionary which does not warrant his stay with the present group. This does not stop any other individual with the thought process of this group join this as on date. However, ......... Well, you are spoiling the joy of anarchy. No, I am stressing anarchy in its purest form. You cannot tell that anarchy has to follow rules. If you follow that you will end up with another America. If we follow pure anarchy will we end up as our pre-historic society? Is that good? Is that the best? Will that save this planet from extinction? 

 

My rants on the sars-cov-2 pandemic

Disclaimer: The words below are "my" rants. I am not a Doctor, chemist or a  Biologist. I am an Engineer. So, there may be mistakes. Do your homework like I have done mine. I dont vouch for authenticity of the matter in the links provided.

     Plenty has been written about the birth and spread of Covid 19. Plenty more than any other pandemic the earth has ever seen. There are already books on the origins and the spread of the virus. They also speak of the spineless governments of the world. The pandemic has had its share of false news and conspiracy theories ranging from 

1. The virus was already existing 

2. It is the same as the normal cold virus 

3. Pharma companies along with the governments have blown it out of proportion

4. Pharma companies wanted to move the people away from usual way of administering medicines to RNA/DNA medicines 

5. Some other businessmen wanted to reduce the population of the world 

6. Pharma industry was not getting enough grants from the governments of the world to shift medicines to RNA/DNA based and ....... 

https://www.livescience.com/common-cold-coronaviruses-t-cells-covid-19-immunity.html 

    The above link tries to explain why the sars-cov-2 virus does not impact certain people. It also talks about our immune system and how it gets trained by one variant of a similar virus and can produce the necessary actions required to nullify the effects of the virus. So, what about a human who has not contacted any related virus. Well, as per the link, that particular person is at risk. If that is so, Americans normally had a vaccine every year for the influenza virus and yet they are one of the most affected countries in terms of percentage of death and infections. First thing is the influenza and the covid virus are of a different class. The antibodies developed for the influenza virus will not(may not) help in fighting the covid 19 variant. 

https://www.britannica.com/story/what-is-the-difference-between-influenza-and-covid-19u 

There, lets us stop the discussion regarding the similarities between them. What about the class of corona virus, were they already existing? Yes. As per the link below 

https://www.healthline.com/health/coronavirus-types

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2021/01/covid-19-will-likely-be-with-us-forever-heres-how-well-live-with-it/

     There have been two well known and documented class of "corona" virus. When we talk about corona virus, we are talking about a class of virus, with a spiked protein cover around the viral payload. These two instances have been contained by isolation and quarantine. These were not spread by asymptomatic humans. If we already know about the corona virus and we contained the previous two, how did we end up in a global pandemic. 

    This can be attributed to the carelessness of the governments of the world. The governments governed by the corporations decided that the aviation industry cannot be stopped. They decided that, the best way to cover this up is to remain silent. May be in many other cases, it might have worked. However, it did not work out in this case. When all the nationalist/jingoist mindsets have been satisfied, the news was allowed into the open. 

    By now SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes covid 19 was taken everywhere across the globe. The main attribute for this wide spread is that the asymptomatic people were the major spreaders. This aspect of this variant, is what makes it stand apart in the corona series. The damage by the viral load are very similar and attack the respiratory system, the most, with other aspects being discovered as we move ahead in time. If the virus spread was isolated at origin, like the previous two cases, we could have stopped the spread and this blog post wouldn't have existed. 

    Time is a *^%^h. This would be one more instance of a corona virus isolated in a particular geographic place and affect a few 100 people. It is very difficult to gauge the importance of an individual in this business minded planet. It is like this planet has been outsourced and business has to run at any cost, even if the last human is erased. It is like the next batch of humans are toiling somewhere else in a similar manner and all the business will shift to the next planet after the end of the last human on this planet. 

    The lockdowns, or worldwide isolation and quarantine appeared like an eye wash and half hearted, last resort plan. People were moving and the virus was already taken to all the countries across the globe. This isolation and quarantine works only if applied on a scale taken up on the previous known variants of the corona virus. Lockdowns are "face savers" for the politicians and the businessmen. There is no scientific/economical backing for a global lockdown except a political/business perspective. 

    Now, let us come to the treatment. I dont know why the medical companies gave up on treatment and focused only on a vaccine. I dont know the logic/economical aspect of this decision and we dont have a treatment as of date. But, vaccines have been cleared and have been administered to lakhs based on studies on thousands in a very short time. Majority of the vaccines are like proof of concept and highly advanced science of gene editing and precise chemistry of RNA. Reading about the RNA/DNA vaccines, is like reading a fantasy book. It reads like science fiction. If we can do this much for producing a vaccine, how difficult is to use the same technology to do something bad. Dont get me started by denying this. We are not far away, wherein, DNA/RNA jabs with blueprints of all the known viruses will be injected into the human body. It is like an attack dictionary on Missile warning systems. The approach for these vaccines is to generate antibodies for the spike protein. Now, this approach can fail once there is a change in this, in a drastic way. Yes the virus can mutate in many ways. What if, the spike mutates?

    The medical industry took this route by telling that the traditional way of making a vaccine by killing the virus and then injecting this into the human body is time consuming. This is totally %#^*^t. We already have vaccines made from this method and also cleared for use. The major advantage with this approach is we are giving a hint to our immune system about nearly all the properties of this virus. So, this would generate antibodies for many of the chemical combinations present in the virus. 

    The RNA/DNA methodology of making medicines is a great method for big pharma for getting a tight grip on the medicines. This will nearly kill the generics industry. Two recently cleared DNA/RNA vaccines make a statement that the DNA/RNA in the human cells are not touched. Can a normal human, know whether this is true? If DNA/RNA is the methodology of administering medicines, then, governments need to wakeup and ensure that enough competition is fostered and all the developments are available in public domain. It is not wrong, even if the governments start investing in state owned research facilities and upgrade them to the same capabilities as big pharma. In this way we can ensure that there is a lot of testing and availability of these advances are available to the common man. 

    The most interesting take from this pandemic is the polarization of people across the world. The main reason is that big pharma is not good at explaining the cause and the effect. It is like explaining light to the last animal in evolution which had not felt light around it. Our belief systems, our blind beliefs, our limited education, our limited brain usage, our limitation as a human being, has showcased beautifully. It is very interesting to listen to all the conclusions and the reason for these conclusions regarding the pandemic. No two individuals in the same home share the same idea about the pandemic. Many people are convinced that Europeans and Americans are dying of Covid 19 because their immune system is not as strong as their Asian counterpart. This class is forgetting that it originated in Asia and the highest number of deaths happened in Asia. This would have made Russel peters so angry that he would have to change the portion of his standup comedy where he talks about an instance of him landing at Mumbai Airport for the first time and welcomed with smell of shit. 

    We have politicians feeling for the dead, at the least. No corporation has stopped working or repented for any death of their workers. The politicians feel for the dead but are not ready to consider universal healthcare as an option. What is the use of feeling for the dead, when you did not feel for the living? This is the same in all businesses. The plentiful Human resource at its disposal make the business not at all concerned about the people dead with a known reason. People die every minute for a plenty of reasons, but when they die for a reason which the whole world knows may happen is what makes the death more sick. In fact majority of the work available in the world is broken to such an extent that you just have to plugin a new human to do that job. This is what is making the corporations not to take any serious thought towards the pandemic. 

    The medical profession is also at its most liberal best. Any complication can be labelled a "covid 19" case. Stop, dont draw your daggers, this statement was for medical practitioners who have done it or on planning to do it. How am I making this statement so confidently. Well, nobody is allowed to see or touch the patient. He is packed completely and burnt without any second opinion. So, what I am telling is it is very much possible, has been done and can be done. 

    There is one more issue regarding non believers. They are so pissed off by the care taken by the people who believe that there is a virus. Like the non believers who throw the caution to the wind, there is a population who believe that yes, we have a pandemic at hand. Of course there is another population which is exactly in between. They wear their mask below the chin. Never was their hands. These people will wear the mask when they hear some bad news regarding people whom they knew. It will be momentary, maybe for a few days. These people are not bothered about the complete believers or complete non-believers. The problem is with the non-believers. They will make fun of the middlemen and the complete believers alike. The believers will not make fun of the non-believers but are worried that this group will get them affected. They believers are angry on the other two groups. 

    The reason for the hue and cry created by the spread of sars-cov-2 is that, the human body might not detect it as a virus and fight it with enough fervor similar to a virus database it maintains. As time passed we got to know that a major portion of humanity had this virus in their immune database. However, one more issue which caused such widespread attention and lockdown is the fact that asymptomatic people were spreading it. And the virus once in the air, lived a very long time. All this information led to the situation we are today. 

    The good news is that, contrary to initial belief, the human body did fight the virus and many people did develop immunity. Now, the vaccines are here to help people with lesser immunity by adding the info of this virus into their database. This is the reason, I am of the opinion that recipients of the vaccine should be checked for antibodies and the situation of the immune system for this virus before vaccinating them. If they have already developed sufficient amount of immunity, it is of no use to vaccinate them. And we dont know what would be the result of such an action. But, nowhere this is being tested. In fact, every person to be vaccinated should be checked thoroughly for his medical history and compare it with the side effects of the vaccine. Based on satisfactory study and heuristics, the person should be suggested for vaccination. 

 

    Proteins are made of amino acids. And the "some" amino acids on the spike of sars-cov-2 virus are similar to the ones found on the placenta. In fact "some" of these amino acids can be found in other proteins in the human body. A vaccine based on this protein might induce antibodies against the protein with "some" similar amino acids. There is no proof for this. Hence there is no proof to stat that a similarly designed vaccine will induce antibodies attacking the placenta and in turn render woman infertile. There is no proof for this. 

    The human genome is made of DNA. The mRNA vaccine is not supposed to enter the nucleous of the cell. The DNA based vaccines which put the DNA of the spike protein into the cell are not supposed to interfere with the Human DNA. The chances of the vaccine altering the DNA is nearly nil. We dont know what will be the result of that small chance and we dont have any proof if it might happen at all. 

     Whatever be the truth, The wearing of re-usable masks have man advantages. During your commute you are going to filter out at least some of the dust. It will protect your face from the cold breeze. And of course, you are going to be protected from other viruses floating in the air. The other aspect we are practicing is what is difficult to maintain and that is physical distancing. But it is also has many advantages. This will avoid crowded meetings and only the required personnel will be called. This will require plenty of advance planning and to the point discussions. And please kindly use re-usable masks. The planet is already strained to the max with the plastic piling up.