Monday, February 28, 2005
This really makes me mad...
Well, not really mad, but a little annoyed. I'm home for the week and it turns out there's a snowstorm in Philadelphia. I'm missing half a "snow day" and that sucks.
Dear Students,
Due to the inclement weather, classes for Monday evening, February 28, have been cancelled.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
The "ideal" boy
Below, is a poster for the "ideal boy". I wanted to make some comments:
- the ideal boy is wearing lipstick
- he's a big time water waster
- his class is composed of clones
- the worst thing about this poster... the "ideal" boy joins the "NCC". NCC stands for National Cadet Corps. This poster is definitely part of a larger scheme to brainwash Indian youth into wanting to join the NCC. Those conniving losers!
- the ideal boy is wearing lipstick
- he's a big time water waster
- his class is composed of clones
- the worst thing about this poster... the "ideal" boy joins the "NCC". NCC stands for National Cadet Corps. This poster is definitely part of a larger scheme to brainwash Indian youth into wanting to join the NCC. Those conniving losers!
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Reasons for being Vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the fastest growing trend in the developed world. Here are some reasons why you should think about turning green too.
'Meat' can include the tail, head, feet, rectum and spinal cord of an animal.
A sausage can contain ground up intestines. How can anyone be sure that the intestines are empty when they are ground up? Do you really want to eat the content of a pig's intestines?
Every day, tens of millions of one-day-old male chicks are killed because they will not be able to lay eggs. There are no rules about how this mass slaughter takes place. Some are crushed or suffocated to death. Many are used for fertiliser or fed to other animals.
Lifelong vegetarians visit hospital 22% less often than meat eaters and for shorter stays. Vegetarians have a 20% lower blood cholestrol level than meat eaters and this reduces heart attack and cancer risks considerably.
Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. How would you like to spend your last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animal and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Anyone who eats meat condones and supports the way animals are treated.
Friday, February 18, 2005
How to make people think you're smart: #5
5. Get this shirt:
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
What, not the most popular name?!?!!?
This site is probably just not working properly.
"The name Pavandeep is not among the top 1,000 names for years 1990-2003."
"The name Pavandeep is not among the top 1,000 names for years 1990-2003."
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Best Security EVER!!!
The arrow is pointing to a security tower at school. In it, sits a guard who "protects" us from behind the bulletproof glass.
If you ever wanted a tail...
Click here to see how you can construct your very own tail. In terms of instructions it's a little too detailed; one question remains to be answered... WHY?!?!?
"This is a description of how to build a tail to wear in daily life. It is a light construction, easy to wear and to take off when you need it, and sufficiently robust. The construction consists of a skeleton made of plastic ribbon held together by rivets, and a hull made of plush fur, closed by a velcro strip. A thread ensures that the tail is slightly curled up at the end. To avoid a too complicated construction, this does not include active movement of the tail.
When going downstairs, the tail will slide on the stairs. This is usually not a problem, unless the stairs are very dirty, or someone unaware of the tail is walking directly behind you. In this case you will have to carry the tail in your hand, also on escalators where it might be caught in the mechanics."
I've never seen a squirrel carry his tail in his hand.
"When riding your bicycle, you best put a basket on your carrier, and curl up your tail in it, so it doesn't get caught in the spokes."
"This is a description of how to build a tail to wear in daily life. It is a light construction, easy to wear and to take off when you need it, and sufficiently robust. The construction consists of a skeleton made of plastic ribbon held together by rivets, and a hull made of plush fur, closed by a velcro strip. A thread ensures that the tail is slightly curled up at the end. To avoid a too complicated construction, this does not include active movement of the tail.
When going downstairs, the tail will slide on the stairs. This is usually not a problem, unless the stairs are very dirty, or someone unaware of the tail is walking directly behind you. In this case you will have to carry the tail in your hand, also on escalators where it might be caught in the mechanics."
I've never seen a squirrel carry his tail in his hand.
"When riding your bicycle, you best put a basket on your carrier, and curl up your tail in it, so it doesn't get caught in the spokes."
Sunday, February 13, 2005
How to make people think you're smart: #4
4. Remind people of awards you've won. If no such awards exist just make one up! Remember to go back far enough in time so that no one will care to find out if you really had the "Second Best Notes on Exploring Space".
Saturday, February 12, 2005
Loch Ness Monster
"Last week, Japanese scientists explaced... placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness to blow Nessie out of the water. Sir Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally."
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
What's a liger?
"It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic."
The liger hybrid is more common than the tigon because the mating process is easier. The liger has both stripes and spots. The stripes are inherited from its tiger parent and the spots from the lion parent. Ligers are usually orangish/golden in color. However, there have been white tigers bred with lions to produce a very light golden coat on the offspring. If the hybrid offspring is a male, it will have a leonine mane, but it will not be as large and defined as a normal lion's mane. The liger gets most of its strength and size from both of its parents; this makes the liger possibly the largest cat in the world! On their hind legs, ligers stand approximately 12 feet tall. At most, ligers may weigh up to 1,000 pounds. Ligers make the sound of both a lion and a tiger, although their roar tends to sound more like a lion's roar.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
The Best of Indian Cinematography
The Indian Superman
(1987) movie
Directed by: B. Gupta
Genre: Action
Plot Summary: In this Indian take on the classic superhero story, a young baby from the doomed planet Krypton is sent to Earth, where he is adopted by an elderly couple in India who name him Shekhar. After growing to an adult and learning about his origins and powers, he goes to the city in search of his school sweetheart, Gita, who has become a newpaper reporter. At the same time, Verma, Shekhar's rival for Gita's affection in their school days, has gone on to become a crime lord and general super-villain. Verma has hatched at plan to become rich by devastating part of India with natural disasters, then buying up all of the abandoned land. Will Superman/Shekhar be able to put a stop to Verma's evil plan? Will he win Gita's heart? Will he keep his double identity a secret?
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Scriptio continua
I haven’t written anything for a while because I was busy studying for a really big exam. It wasn’t that I didn’t have time… I just couldn’t come up with something I wanted to write about.
I noticed that I can study for something for many days and even weeks before an exam without really absorbing anything. It’s only the last few days of studying that seem to matter. It’s then that I study “actively”. My mind seems to be a lot more focussed and things makes sense a lot quicker when there are only a few hours of study time left.
Most of the time that I do Nitnem, I’m not doing it “actively”. My mind wanders, but isn’t Guru Ji great? To help their Sikhs stay focussed Bani was written in a continuous script. This way we would have to use our minds to read Gurbani and doing it in a casual, unenlightened way becomes almost impossible.
I wish no one had ever altered the way Gurbani was originally written: with no spaces. I’m sure that person meant well, but who was he to make his version the “official” version? He (or they) robbed us of so much. A lot of people who are Sikh probably don’t know that larreedaar script exists or ever existed. That’s unfortunate.
It’s also noteworthy that Gurbani doesn’t have commas, semicolons, and other types of punctuation. We’re expected to figure it out so that we gain something from reading Bani… so that the “glorification of God” comes with each line.
Last month I was reading a book called Eats Shoots & Leaves (Lynne Truss). The book is about grammar and is actually quite interesting:
…Perhaps the key thing that one needs to realize about the early history of punctuation is that, in a literary culture based entirely on the slavish copying of venerated texts, it would be highly presumptuous of a mere scribe to insert helpful marks where he thought they ought to go. Punctuation developed slowly and cautiously not because it wasn’t considered important, but, on the contrary, because it was such intensely powerful ju-ju. Pause in the wrong place and the sense of a religious text can alter in significant ways. For example, as Cecil Hartley pointed out in his 1818 Principles of Punctuation: or, The Art of Pointing, consider the difference between the following:
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
and
“Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
Now, huge doctrinal differences hang on the placing of this comma. The first version, which is how Protestants interpret the passage (Luke, xxiii, 43), lightly skips over the whole unpleasant business of Purgatory and takes the crucified thief straight to heaven with Our Lord. The second promises Paradise at some later date (to be confirmed, as it were) and leaves Purgatory nicely in the picture for Catholics, who believe in it. Similarly, it is argued that the Authorized Version of the Bible (and by extension Handel’s Messiah) misleads on the true interpretations of Isaiah xl, 3. Again, consider the difference:
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
and
“The voice of him that crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
Also:
“Comfort ye my people”
(please go out and comfort my people)
and
“Comfort ye, my people”
(just cheer up, you lot; it might never happen)
Of course, if Hebrew or any of the other ancient languages had included punctuation (in the case of Hebrew, a few vowels might have been nice as well), two thousand years of scriptural exegesis need never have occurred, and a lot of clever, dandruffy people could definitely have spent more time in the fresh air. But there was no punctuation in those ancient texts and that’s all there is to it. For a considerable period in Latin transcriptions there were no gaps between words either, if you can credit such madness. Texts from that benighted classical period – just capital letters in big square blocks – look to modern eyes like those word-search puzzles that you stare at for twenty minutes or so, and then (with a delighted cry) suddenly spot the word “PAPERNAPKIN” spelled diagonally and backwards. However the scriptio continua system (as it was called) had its defenders at the time. One fifth-century recluse called Cassian argued that if a text was slow to offer up its meaning, this encouraged not only healthy meditation but the glorification of God- the heart lifting in praise, obviously, at the moment when the word “PAPERNAPKIN” suddenly floated to the surface, like a synaptic miracle.”
I noticed that I can study for something for many days and even weeks before an exam without really absorbing anything. It’s only the last few days of studying that seem to matter. It’s then that I study “actively”. My mind seems to be a lot more focussed and things makes sense a lot quicker when there are only a few hours of study time left.
Most of the time that I do Nitnem, I’m not doing it “actively”. My mind wanders, but isn’t Guru Ji great? To help their Sikhs stay focussed Bani was written in a continuous script. This way we would have to use our minds to read Gurbani and doing it in a casual, unenlightened way becomes almost impossible.
I wish no one had ever altered the way Gurbani was originally written: with no spaces. I’m sure that person meant well, but who was he to make his version the “official” version? He (or they) robbed us of so much. A lot of people who are Sikh probably don’t know that larreedaar script exists or ever existed. That’s unfortunate.
It’s also noteworthy that Gurbani doesn’t have commas, semicolons, and other types of punctuation. We’re expected to figure it out so that we gain something from reading Bani… so that the “glorification of God” comes with each line.
Last month I was reading a book called Eats Shoots & Leaves (Lynne Truss). The book is about grammar and is actually quite interesting:
…Perhaps the key thing that one needs to realize about the early history of punctuation is that, in a literary culture based entirely on the slavish copying of venerated texts, it would be highly presumptuous of a mere scribe to insert helpful marks where he thought they ought to go. Punctuation developed slowly and cautiously not because it wasn’t considered important, but, on the contrary, because it was such intensely powerful ju-ju. Pause in the wrong place and the sense of a religious text can alter in significant ways. For example, as Cecil Hartley pointed out in his 1818 Principles of Punctuation: or, The Art of Pointing, consider the difference between the following:
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
and
“Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
Now, huge doctrinal differences hang on the placing of this comma. The first version, which is how Protestants interpret the passage (Luke, xxiii, 43), lightly skips over the whole unpleasant business of Purgatory and takes the crucified thief straight to heaven with Our Lord. The second promises Paradise at some later date (to be confirmed, as it were) and leaves Purgatory nicely in the picture for Catholics, who believe in it. Similarly, it is argued that the Authorized Version of the Bible (and by extension Handel’s Messiah) misleads on the true interpretations of Isaiah xl, 3. Again, consider the difference:
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
and
“The voice of him that crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
Also:
“Comfort ye my people”
(please go out and comfort my people)
and
“Comfort ye, my people”
(just cheer up, you lot; it might never happen)
Of course, if Hebrew or any of the other ancient languages had included punctuation (in the case of Hebrew, a few vowels might have been nice as well), two thousand years of scriptural exegesis need never have occurred, and a lot of clever, dandruffy people could definitely have spent more time in the fresh air. But there was no punctuation in those ancient texts and that’s all there is to it. For a considerable period in Latin transcriptions there were no gaps between words either, if you can credit such madness. Texts from that benighted classical period – just capital letters in big square blocks – look to modern eyes like those word-search puzzles that you stare at for twenty minutes or so, and then (with a delighted cry) suddenly spot the word “PAPERNAPKIN” spelled diagonally and backwards. However the scriptio continua system (as it was called) had its defenders at the time. One fifth-century recluse called Cassian argued that if a text was slow to offer up its meaning, this encouraged not only healthy meditation but the glorification of God- the heart lifting in praise, obviously, at the moment when the word “PAPERNAPKIN” suddenly floated to the surface, like a synaptic miracle.”
