Electronics, Best Fits and Tutions

Second year has begun and the first few weeks have revolved around few very important things... 

1. Electronics. The society in college has a new president and with him, a renewed vigor. Things are looking up and a lot of people signed up for the orientation. I'd rather wait and watch (and of course, work) where the society is headed. The decay had been gradual but steady and the society is at the bottom of the well now, nowhere to go now but up. :) My personal goal is, and i'm serious, to make lots of toys, maybe sell a few on the way. So much for electronics. Hope it picks up in college. Fingers crossed.

2. Best Fits. I realized the importance of someone teaching you something when I sat down to write down a program to fit a given set of points to a line. If you read about the method of least squares, sat down with a book about it, thought you understood it nicely, and never bothered to check whether what you did works for real or not, I'd suggest you do it now. I've been at it for a week now. The report is due next Tuesday. More than the worry about the due date, what worries me is the fact that I USED to think I know the method of least squares. The that the question's settled and i know where I stand, I've been working on the lines. :o

3. Tutions. Destiny has started teaching kids now and gets a salary, which is pretty cool. For all I know, she's a brilliant teacher and has been coping better with her tendency to give up quickly. Only that she's stressed out but her schedule keeps her busy and away from depressing thoughts. And her art is definitely getting better, not that I know much about it, but because she's been working a lot lately and i get to see her latest work almost everyday now. Hope she gets an art student quickly as well. 

And so the weeks have gone by, and so have the months. This semester's really boring and the one subject that never got me excited - Thermodynamics - is back and its doing its job of keeping me bored very well. Namaste.

Disillusioned and Dazed...

Its been more than an year of Physics and I can say with all certainity that I'm totally dazed by all that I've come to know. To be honest, its been a repeat of most of what was done in school, but in the new perspective to it all has left me stumped. I went to Mumbai (HBSCE) for the summer as part of the NIUS program for undergraduate first years, and I got to learn a lot more than what I'd thought I'd gather. Unfortunately I didn't get selected for the two-year program and I'm very sad about it. I'm writing all of his down to make it clear to you that whatever is going to follow isn't because of the regret letter from HBSCE, but more because of what I've seen and come to know after an year.

Here's the deal - I don't think I'll be able to contribute to Physics as I would have loved to. My dream (dream... sigh) of being the Gauss of Physics is going to be just that...a dream. At my age, Gauss was busy writing a book, creating the foundations of new branches of mathematics. What am I doing? Hm...
Even if I say that I can contribute a lot, without actually  matching up to Gauss, that isn't much of a consolation because I don't want to be one among the many million (able) people working to advance science. I want to be the best. Again, there's a question of personal satisfaction - satisfaction that comes with knowing how the world works. But then for me, knowing it and probably teaching it to others wouldn't quite satisfy me unless I can contribute in meaningful way. Which brings me to my second paragraph.

I would rather be serving my country and creating a base for science so that the right talent for the development of Science comes up, and research as an option picks up to attract the best minds of the country. I'd devote my life to getting the brilliant people of the country into labs rather than selling soap, as my teachers would say. And so i'll drop it finally - I think I'll prepare for the Civil Services. I find myself better suited to a life that I can see a clear purpose of. Of course, I could complete my B.Sc, then M.Sc, then PhD and then teach. But I want to reach out to a much bigger audience. And there is this path that seems ideal for this. The thought has been nibbling my mind since the end of the summers. Since I saw how comfortable the life of scientists is (even mediocre ones') but how little they contribute on a larger scale. I'd like to define larger scale as I'd see it - either make a momentous discovery that changes the course of science, or make a momentous effort that changes the course of the people, city, state, country, or/and the world.

I have no qualms in saying that i've become disillusioned about what I can do with the Physics I'm learning. Can't work in a cubicle, ever. Can't sit and teach. What's left? Maybe work for the people. Starting preparations from the 20th. (I'm moving to a new place on the 20th, living alone). Wish me luck and do comment. Thanks. Namaste.

PS : Physics is a lot of fun in college. :) I love Physics.

Only if everyone knew how to...

No. Won't do. One more person I know died. Only if...

A lot of people die every year because when in fatal trouble, the people next to them don't know how to react. The willingness to react is also a major problem ( more on that later ). Clueless faces waiting for an ambulance, not doing anything that may actually improve life's chances. In a country where (I'm sorry to use this line here but then...) pizza gets to you faster than an ambulance, it should be mandatory for people to know how to react. Improving ambulance travel times is a good idea but till then WHAT? Here's what I think should be done (*sigh* "Should" be done? Tired of this...) .

People should be taught first aid from a very young age. Of course they do that, you'd say. But then how many of them even remember that there is a first aid kit they can reach out to in case of an emergency? Bah ! How many even have a first aid kit at hand ? Hmmm... let me count... NEXT TO NOTHING, considering the no.of people we have. Ok. So, coming back, students need to be taught and taught seriously about this. The sheer terror that grips me when I think that maybe I'll be needing C.P.R and all I'll be having next to me are a bunch of morons, who're looking at me choking to death, is terrific. Hope you get the feeling too and agree to what I'm proposing. So, coming back again, students should know basic stuff like the back of their hands. Stuff like C.P.R , the Heimlich Maneuver, how to stop bleeding temporarily, blah, blah,... general stuff. (Note to self – no more using the word Stuff). And they should be able to administer these at a moments notice. Which brings me to the next point... Willingness.

The case of Radhika Tanwar is a glaring example. The hospital (hospitals actually, India's best included) was only 10 minutes away and it took awfully more than that to get  there. Asking for first aid would be asking to much, I guess. Why is our country like this? Where is the willingness, love for your fellow human ? If the fear of red tape and the “jhanjat” has grown more than the value of human life, then, God save us.

C.P.R

Heimlich Maneuver

So, apart from a learning how to do it, students need to be taught to DO it for real. The solution that springs to my mind is that they should be put through such situations so often (mock drills, of course) that instead of thinking about it, they do it instinctively. But then again, I have this voice inside me saying - “You're asking to much of this country”. I hope I move out of this phase. It scare the shit out of me. But a bigger question then looms – is ignorance better ? Namaste.

PS - Please do look up first aid , C.P.R and Heimlich Maneuver after reading the article. If not for the countrymen, then at least for your own loved ones. 

V for Vendetta (Book Review)

Ok. I'm floored. Totally. It was so good, that I lay for a long time, holding my head, thinking of what had just passed through my retina and imprinted permanently in my brain. I'd suggest that you read it, even before I tell you about it. Ok. So much for drooling. :-P

V for Vendetta is a graphic novel/comic, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The graphics are truly one of the best I've seen and the story line plays out brilliantly. It plays on your mind for a long time after you've gone through it once (and are bound to go through it once more at least). Placed in a fascist England, devastated by the effects of nuclear war, the book shows how bad the situation can get and how resilient humans are. It portrays how one man rises against the totalitarian state and gives the people a wiff of how true freedom tastes like. The novel shows how ingrained the need for order has become that we're ready to give up our freedom for the same.

Though the thought of anarchism and the process to get to it (through chaos) does scare me, these things are exactly what V (the protagonist/antagonist) tries to convince us of - our blessed ignorant state which we're scared to give up. V proposes take-what-you-want-land and -do-what -you-please-land (both courtesy Enid Blyton) which are exactly what they are as they mean. Now, the story puts forward a time when there's order without leadership - anarchy. How that is supposed to happen I don't know and I have(had?) serious doubts about whether people left to themselves will become orderly on their own (as the book says). What about the psychopaths and the power freaks? What about all the people who'll be jobless and the problems resulting from that?

Well, one thing I can say for sure - though the ideas are a little doubtful to me, the book has more or less convinced me that its possible. One word - WOW! Please do read it. Namaste.

Patterns, simulations and bird poo

You can find patterns everywhere, in your hand, in the tiles on the footpath, on your darling's face, and every perceptible and imperceptible object, events and everything in between. That's what the past week or so has been all about. A huge number of tests (four<<huge but then four>>>toil) and a lot of practicals. The tests have been generally bad, but i shan't whine. Its the practicals. Its the discussions in the practicals. I love to write 'em. Period. But then I've been rushing to complete the practicals themselves and pages lie blank in my file, begging for a discussion worth writing. And so the last few nights have been wasted trying to find a pattern in all this. Let me explain. To write a discussion, you need to have 1)performed the experiment (i mean it with a capital P) 2) you need to have thought about it as well . Now, I'll be honest and say that I've not followed both tenets at the same instant in a few practicals (not my fault) .

So to write a discussion, I've been imagining myself doing the experiment and what not. And thats where the patterns come in. So here's what I'm imagining the pattern to be :
1) You've read about the experiment and are thoroughly convinced of its utility. Easy to do at home. Done.
2) You start with the experiment itself and follow the steps diligently. Hmmm...(imagine)... Done.
3) Take the results to a teacher who sends you back because there's an efficient method to do the same thing and tells you about it. (You know this has to happen, so you should set out to discover the method yourself right around this time).
4) You go back to the teacher, who asks you something really interesting(sic) and then sends you back. (Again, the onus to find the interesting bit is on your imagination).
5) you write a discussion about the interesting bit.

Most of these steps (not necessarily in the same order) happen again and again, time after time, experiment after experiment. So a pattern worth remembering. (Such enlightening thoughts you have only when you're lying down and wondering what to do looking at the ceiling).

Now the simulation. Been fine tuning the simulation of the N-coupled oscillator. Putting in some color now. Almost done. Had decided to talk about it the most but now, after having written so much about the patterns, not so excited about this anymore. Ok. Its cool. Period. It even plots phase space diagrams (just velocity vs position plots) and they are fractals! So, as I said, its cool. Period2.

Last but not the least, bird poo. The week has been extremely generous on me regarding the number of times I've been ordained with bird excreta. I've lost count as well as any disgust. So, here's to hoping that the next week settles a few chores (practicals, tests?) and unsettles the birds targeting me. Namaste