So?

Have you ever felt embarrassed about something when put into a social situation where you feel like all eyes are on you and whatever you say or do will be the talk of the night and many nights onward? Like for example, dancing, I admit I have 2 left feet and usually feel quite reserved when in a club or bar to shake what my mama gave me, at the fear of other looking at me strangely and pointing and laughing or at least thinking, wow this guy is a total loser. However when you are at home or alone and you hear something on your radio or your music player that is catchy you find the need to dance, so you do without any inhibitions. Well then my friend I think we suffer from the "spotlight effect", which is very well describe in this article on CNN. And at the end of the article the author gives the readers one thought to keep in mind, or rather one question to keep in mind, a question that was once told to the author by a friend when talking on a cellphone in a taxi cab and wondering if the taxi driver was listening. That one question is "So?". And it's quite a powerful question to think about in any situation if you feel embarrassed... So?, if you think people will laugh at you, So?... Because it seems that we tend to over estimate how great the effect of letting go of our inhibitions may actually be, most things you do will only be remembered 50% less then what you feel others will remember. And for the most part letting go of inhibition, is probably a better way to put yourself forward and who knows others may follow suit. So the next time you feel hesitant at trying something at the fear of being ridiculed by everyone, just think to yourself, So?....

change: You either adapt to it, or you get left behind....

Why is it that we are scared of change, why is it that we hesitate at the thought of something different that we are not used to, why is it that we feel skeptical at taking a step into something that we believe will change how we live, how we think, how we feel... But change is something that we just can't avoid, it's one of those things that we need to find a way to accept, as a human species we have evolved and become smarter, become more articulate, but with all that change we are still afraid of taking a step that can change our lives, we hesitate at making a big purchase, we hesitate at the thought of knowing that someone that you deeply care about expresses the same feelings and wants to form a lifelong bond. Why is it that we feel that way? Would we be more accepting if the change happened and we had no say in the change, but unfortunately being human means we have the ability to choose, we have the power to choose our choices, that is what makes us human and it's the transition towards accepting change that makes us even stronger. We change as we grow up and growing up is painful, we undergo lots of emotions, we feel overwhelmed with the thought of what's to come as we continue to grow. And we find change which comes with growing to be something that we are afraid of stepping into and sometimes accepting change can be the greatest thing you do because it just changes you to a better person and to experience new things, so I say accept change, I say grow and love change and not take things too seriously or you may just get left behind, in a sea of uncertainty of what could have been if you had decided to accept the change.

Just can't resist looking at beautiful people...

So I was reading the livescience site and came across and article titled, "Eyes Can't Resist Beautiful People", which gives a synopsis of a study done by Jon Maner from Florida State University in which he discovers that as humans we are instinctly prone to looking at beautiful people, whether we are looking for a potential partner or if we are in a relationship. What's interesting is if we are in a relationship the study stated that we will usually draw our attention to attractive individuals of the same sex, according to the article the reason is because we feel insecure and we want to check out our competition, and deep down we have feeling of infidelity that has been wired in us through evolution. We have instinctly learned to check out our competition, well ok so this is mostly for people who are prone to jealousy because if some individuals who feel insecure and get jealous very quickly then they tend to be on the lookout for just as or even more attractive people then themselves because they know that their partner will do the same, or feel that way atleast. Of course their attention doesn't seem to focus on average people, or perhaps average people aren't really that jealous :). Well I guess I might have to talk about the lek paradox if we are talking about average people, but perhaps that should be another post...

Bottled Oxygen

So I was watching "The Big Idea" with Donnie Deutsch, and at the end of tonights segment they showed a product that made me think wow, and that's a wow with a tone of sarcasm, not a wow of amazement, the product was Bottled Oxygen, yes that's right Bottled Air, even though the idea might sound a bit absurd... during the showcase for this ad they said if they can bottle water then they can bottle oxygen, and I guess it's true, we live in a free market economy and if I wanted to bottle air, by god I will bottle air!, and if I wanted to bottle the scent of fresh spring air, then I will do that too, oh wait, they've already done it, shoot... there goes my big idea. Anyway, just thought I'd say a thing or two about this, I think I've tired myself out writing this entry, I need oxygen, darn I wish I had a bottle of oxygen to re-energize me right now.

stardust & Immortality

So I just watched the movie "Stardust", and it's a fantastic grownup fairy tale that has all the elements of a cliched love story with a mix of fantasy and adventure. But as I was watching the movie I began to think about what it would be like to have immortality... many people search for it and it's the makes for tales of legends and epics, Ponce De Leon of Spain went on a search for the fountain of youth and led him to Florida, and kind of ironic that it's the top state for many people to retire, perhaps the mystery of the fountain of youth is what draws people towards that state, the idea that by being closer to the myth they can discover their youth in the last few years of their life, whatever it is, I think it's meaningless without having someone to share it with and it's the same view that was expressed in the movie. I'm also hesitant at bringing up a movie called, "The Fountain", because it was a very strange visual drama that just had me confused and in a trance for the couple of hours I spent trying to figure out what was happening... regardless, in that movie, the female lead, Izzi tells her husband the story of the golden nebula describing it as Xibalba, or the Mayan underworld. And it is this nebula that they must reach to find their immortality in death. But in this movie Tommy also searches for the fountain of youth, but without Izzi immortality is meaningless. Ok, so enough of my horrible description or tragic interpretation of the movie, I think immortality is meaningless unless you find something that you can love and enjoy and cherish when you live forever, for people who seek immortality for power so that they can destroy others I think it's a waste, why take other lives and be selfish because your cannot be taken. Immortality should be about life, it means eternal life, and death is something that should not be known whether it's your own or another's. So I would think immortality is wonderful if you can find something that you can love during your eternal life.

Non-Linear evolution?

So I'm sure many of you out there have probably read the news story being written about in almost any well known science journal regarding the newly discovered set of fossils that were unearthed in northern Kenya. Well if you haven't here is a short description of what the whole story is about, so recently scientists from the Leakey team, which I haven't just started to read about and from wikipedia, Richard Leakey is a well known paleontologist/archaeologist/conservationist born and currently residing in Kenya. Ok back to the article, so the 2 new fossils that have been discovered seem to be that of a Homo Habilis and of Homo Erectus, 2 species that according to evolutionary theory are supposed to be descendent's, Homo Erectus, the direct ancestors of Homo Sapiens, being the descendant of Homo Habilis. According to the article, when some dating was done on the 2 fossils it turns out that both seemed to have inhabited earth at the same time, during the same time period, which would contradict the claim that H. Erectus is a descendant of H. Habilis, and according to the article, puts a spur in the linear graph of evolution that we known of today, and makes the graph look much more branched. On yahoo, the article says that if the 2 species did live during the same time period then there must have been very little interaction between the 2, going further to state that H. Habilis and H. Erectus may have had different nutritional lifestyles, H. Habilis of course being vegetarians and H. Erectus being meat eaters, so now that is a point I found interesting, does that mean that vegetarians such as myself are part of a completely different species, I didn't need a set of fossils to tell me this, but still an interesting conjecture :). Also all you creationists out there, you know who you are... you are probably all reeling in joy at this news because it's another bit of arsenal to add to your attack on evolution, but there was a nice quote from the article that I thought I'd share: "This is not questioning the idea at all of evolution; it is refining some of the specific points," Anton said. "This is a great example of what science does and religion doesn't do. It's a continuous self-testing process."... Another revision of course I'm sure you're all aware of that was made much earlier was that the original theory that H. Sapiens descended from Neanderthals was proven false because they lived during the same time period and of course there is the question of whether the 2 species mated, cause I know a few people who may be classified as Neanderthals :).

First things...

So why did I finally start a blog after many many years of being not very outspoken about thoughts and ideas and just interesting tidbits that I may have picked up along my path of knowledge and daily life. Well I guess I was just a very introspective person, which may seem hypocritical, being introspective perhaps conveys the idea that you can express thoughts on anything you think about, but it's one thing to be introspective and another to be able to express what you've learned about from introspecting, ok I think I've used the word introspective to the point of no return. So anyway, well to start off with, I was born in India, raised by very loving parents who wanted the best life for their kids, and because of that, we decided to pack up and come to the US many many years go, it's hard looking back at what it was like making the transition from a culture that was still quite conservative and not as westernized as it is today to a society where people are much more liberal and far more outspoken.
I remember being very shy my first day of class. But perhaps that shyness came from not knowing what to expect when you talked to someone and you had a different accent or perhaps the shyness came from my fear of being in a new place with many many new faces unbeknownst to me. But I think I eventually assimilated into the class and began making friends and began my path towards becoming an IBCD (Indian Born Confused Desi).