ramadocblog

“The eldest is the apple of the eye!

The youngest is a cutie pie!

The ones in the middle are for fun!

So many choices but the parent can’t select one!”

Anyone who has more than one kid knows the Balancing act it takes to be a ‘fair’ parent!

Imagine Earth having to do the same now!

Yes! It is official! The Earth has two moons now!

read on!

The first child and the last child syndrome is well known! Even the middle child syndrome!

The first child is usually the one with all the focus and hopes and inspirations of the parent! Like someone told in a stand up; the first is the prototype!

You give the most care and always have some amount of concern for the first child! The issue with the first child would always be that till the day the second was born, he or she was the center of attention and focus of his or her parents! Now suddenly the focus gets divided!

To suddenly share everything including parents love is a big challenge! Of course the modern day parents usually train the child and most of the time the transition is smooth! 

Every child would many times think the parent loves the other kids more than him or her! But Parental love is not a limited quantity or a private company!

The second child is usually less stressed since by this time the parents know stuff! They would accept reality and would not pressure much into the this time around!

Till the parents have a third kid and the second kid becomes the middle child! Then the same complex patterns start! The middle child syndrome!

The books on children psychology states how the oldest children, for example, tend to be more reliable and conscientious. They might have Type A personalities and lean towards perfectionist tendencies—probably because first-time parents act extremely “by the book” and devote undivided attention to them as mentioned above!

While parents are more relaxed and experienced with youngest siblings, so last-borns tend to have different personality traits such as being more likely to seek out fun experiences! However, since younger siblings may try to live up to older siblings, they may also be more self-centered and attention-seeking! They may take things more lightly and do not get stressed! This is of course till the first child is not an overachiever! Then the achievements of the first has a risk of hanging over his or her head!

The middle child however is probably not praised like their older sibling or coddled like their younger one! 

In our Itihasas also there was an incident when the Pandavas were in Hiding and in the house of the people they were staying there was a middle child who was ‘selected’ to be sent to the big ‘asura’ as a sacrifice! The poor middle child would tell how the eldest is the favourite of the father while the youngest was dear to mother! While he was the favourite of none! 

Bheem, a middle child himself would intervene and set things right!

Practically though, no parent can and must be tortured to select his or her ‘favourite’ child since that cannot happen! 

Then again all these problems are solved when the child realise that his or her parents are also Humans! 

After the third child though, if the parents have more children, there is usually no time or place for any other ‘syndrome!’ 

For all the zillion discussion and a million books on the family child dynamics though, the fact of the matter remains; every family is different! 

So the discussion about children and the earth is being done now since the Earth just had a second child! I meant the moon!

Now before you start raising your eyebrows lemme tell you some theories on how the moon was formed and how the prevalent theory is that it is ‘created’ from the earth!

There used to be a number of theories about how the Moon was made and it was one of the aims of the Apollo program to figure out how we got to have our Moon. 

Prior to the Apollo mission research there were three theories about how the Moon formed.

Capture theory suggests that the Moon was a wandering body (like an asteroid) that formed elsewhere in the solar system and was captured by Earth’s gravity as it passed nearby- hold on to this thought!

The accretion hypothesis proposes that the Moon was created along with Earth at its formation.

The fission theory suggests Earth had been spinning so fast that some material broke away and began to orbit the planet.

The giant-impact theory is most widely accepted today. This proposes that the Moon formed during a collision between the Earth and another small planet, about the size of the planet Mars. The debris from this impact collected in an orbit around Earth to form the Moon! This is because the Apollo missions brought back over a third of a tonne of rock and soil from the Moon. This provided some clues on how the Moon may have formed. The Apollo rocks showed that the Earth and the Moon have some remarkable chemical and isotopic similarities, suggesting that they have a linked history!

So our Moon is the proverbial first child of the Earth! And it will stay with us for over a billion more years till the ‘parental’ Earth pull stays! Once that reduces, the Moon may drift away! 

Now the Moon will have First child syndrome since for some time now, Earth has recently adopted another ‘child!’

It has been reported that the Earth has a new, temporary companion in space: a “mini moon” named Asteroid 2024 PT5. This small space rock, about the size of a bus, was caught by Earth’s gravity on Sunday. 

But we cannot see it in the night sky unless we have advanced telescopes.

It takes about 27 days for the moon to make one complete orbit around the earth. The asteroid that will also orbit with the moon and travel with us for nearly 57 days, completing almost one full orbit of Earth!

Sadly though the ‘second’ kid or the moon is only here with 

After that, the rock will break free from our gravitational grasp on November 25, returning to its path around the Sun.

This might sound extraordinary to get a second moon, but according to NASA it’s quite common for asteroids and other space rock to enter the gravitational pull of the earth!

Mini-moons have occurred before. The 2022 NX1 asteroid joined Earth’s orbit in 1981 and 2022!

So for another month or so our Moon may get the ‘first child’ syndrome! So if there are more number of high tides, then you can know the cause! Its is just plain old Sibling rivalry! Talking about sibling reminds me of the singing siblings which had the birthday celebrity Shantanu Mukherjee aka Shaan and his sister Sagarika! Their song Aisa Hota Hai from the album was an big hit among siblings! Of course Shaan was meant to shine which he did and how!

Now do not try to see the Moon number two! Just know it is there and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The phone numbers with the code at the start!
If you remember then you are a stalwart!
Or you can simply use the address book!
Pick the name and have a look!”

Remember when you did not have mobile phones?

It is a wonder how we used to remember phone numbers!

without our knowledge we actually used to use a technique even which the grandmasters of chess use!

Intrigued!?

read on!

One fine day when I was in my hostel at Calicut and it was saturday night was the day when panic started!

Those days (I used to cringe when people used to start their stories with ‘Those days!’; now I hope no one else gets that feeling when I start my stories with those days!)

Weekend in the night when many of us hostel kids used to calll home! The walk to the STD booth was an event in itself!

Those days (sorry! But it was more than twenty five years back!); the STD rates used to be reduced in the night and that is when we used to call home!

Mom would eagerly wait for my call and my brother would have called a little earlier and then I would do the same.

That day, as it used to happen so often, the lines were jammed or busy or some issue. When this used to happen, the tone would beep beep for some time and not connect!

Luckily unless it gets connected, you would not be charged! So many times we would go on trying and if lucky you would get it.
In fact I am sure my father and older generation would have similar stories with the trunk calls and maybe the telegram! Then again that is a blog for another day!

That day or night rather, the beep just kept on going but it did not get connected. It was frustrating and a little sad since those day (sorry again!); many of us used to call our homes only once a week! The few minutes of speaking to mom would keep us connected to home and keep the home sickness on hold!

The gals of the class would tell stories of how they would call home and speak for hours! We could only imagine that! It was ten minutes or so which itself was more since all we had to report would get completed in that time!

That day since I was not able to connect to Bangalore, I thought of calling my mother’s sister in Madras (yes that was the name!) and luckily I remembered her number!

This was because mom used to have a night time chat session with her sister almost every other day! The major part of our landline bill were the STD itemised calls to Madras! In fact even my aunt’s address was something which we all memorised!

Many times mom would not get her spectacles and tell me to dial the number! We used to love doing that!

Of course the big address book would have all the details which mom and dad use to treasure!
This big diary would be always near the phone!

Which may be the reason why I remembered her number!
If remembering numbers was the game, my mom was an champ! She used to tell numbers of so many folks just like that!

The method she used was to divide the number into smaller sections or ‘Chunks’! And then remember the whole number!

So anyway I also remembered the number and conveyed the message to my aunt and called mother the next day!

Now this method of remembering the number or anything by dividing is called Chunking!

So chunking, involves organizing information into smaller, more manageable groups, and this enhances understanding and recall.
Take, for instance, how we typically remember long numbers. We break them into smaller segments, like we do with phone numbers: 987-651-4321, rather than trying to recall 9876514321 as a whole!

So in chess and computer chess, chunking is about to recognize relevant patterns of a chess position!

A chunk is a group of pieces, in some sense a semantic unit, a meaningful pattern that is recognized at a glance by a chess master. Reasoning about a position in terms of such chunks as atomic units, instead of individual pieces, reduces the complexity of a position from, say, 30 units to about 7 units, assuming that each chunk consists of 4 or 5 pieces.

This hypothesis known as the Chunking Hypothesis was researched in various cognitive experiments by researcher Adriaan de Groot and others, where chess masters were able to reconstruct a chess position from a albeit unknown chess game almost perfectly after viewing it for only 5 sec, while players below the master level had sharp drop off in this ability!

However, this result could not be attributed to the masters’ generally superior memory ability, since masters had almost the same difficulty to reconstruct the positions constructed by placing the same numbers of pieces randomly on the board!

This means that only a proper move or a recognisable move on a Chess Board was recalled by the expert level players or Grandmasters! If the move is not possible or incorrect or random then these experts remember just as many pieces as ‘normal’ people like you and me!

If you want to know that whether you are a good player of chess or not then you can try the Chunking Hypothesis! Then again it is not a hard and fast rule by the way! Mentioning rule and follower of rule reminds me of Birthday celebrity who played the rule follower Katappa or Satyaraj!

Now chunk those garbage in the dustbin and sleep!
Shubh ratri!

“The slimy feel sends shiver down the spine!
Feels so yuck it must be a crime!
They crawl and they run!
Having the fear of bugs is no fun!”

In the novel specially written for children by Yuval called, The unstoppable us; he talks about fear!

He says how we need time to develop fear! That concept is another blog!

Now the moment we see a spider, we jump and panic while we do not have the same reaction on seeing a car! When in fact the average car or Motor Vehicle actually harms and kills more people than a poor spider!

But even spider is not the top of the list! That is another animal which gives chills to the average human on mere detection! In fact there is a theory which supports this!

read on!

There was this experiment in which a group of average normal individuals were given a series of images of animals. The initial images were blurred and subsequent ones were of varying degrees of increasing clarity!

The animal which most humans recognised at the earliest levels was consistent!

This animal is not only unique but also scary! It is exclusively carnivorous and has no mercy!

The cold blooded killer does not even have legs and actually swims on land!

Yes! The snake!

We have been primed to detect snake as early as possible which is maybe due to the fact that our ancestors have understood that it is a dangerous creature!

They have been programmed to avoid the snake at all costs! In fact they have been trying to keep a safe distance to the point of reverence! This is because they have an incredible rodent control capacity!

They would have realised that snakes are an important part of the ecosystem which is why there have been stories about snake and even their ‘magical’ skills!

I still remember when Sridevi’s Nagina came and that was one of the few movies with a sequel! There of course the snake is a celestial animal who had to change shape! We used to call it Icchadhari naag! There was even a superhero dedicated to snakes!

Who could also forget the two snake movies with multiple super stars both old and new who had a snake in the central storyline! One had Sunil Dutt in the lead while the other had Akshay Kumar!

Of course Shiv Ji is always shown with a snake so many used to worship them!

All said and done, the very first response to snakes is fear and if you do not fear snakes then we will fear you!

Once in school there was a program where a group of people who used to work with snakes came to our school with a group of them! Python, Cobras and so many! They spent couple of hours making us touch and hold some of the non venomous ones and telling how the venomous ones only bite when they are scared!

It really did not help when a snake bit one of the people from the group and then he had to be rushed to the hospital! Later we heard that he was in the ICU for several days and he did recover but I guess our (especially mine!) fear just got more strong!


So this theory called the snake detection theory also sometimes called the snake detection hypothesis, suggests that snakes have contributed to the evolution of primates’ visual system. According to the theory, predatory pressure from snakes has selected individuals who are better able to recognize them, improving their survival chances and therefore transferring such skill to their offspring.

From this point of view, snakes were responsible for the modification and expansion of primate visual systems which made vision the most developed sensory interface with the external environment for modern primates!

Surviving the peril of snakes for millions of years required selective pressure favoring primates’ specialized visual systems. Compared to that of other mammals, the pulvinar region of the brain – which helps to visually detect relevant objects – is disproportionately large and effective in the brains of primates (including humans).

Ophidiophobia (phobia of snakes) is one of the most common and intense phobias among the general population. It has also been reported that around 50% of people experience dreams about snakes! After reading this, the percentage may be more! I had a snake dream just this morning which resulted in this blog!

Snakes images have been experimentally demonstrated to be detected more rapidly compared to other fear-relevant stimuli: empirical evidences have shown that snakes are more rapidly detected compared to spiders; according to the snake detection theory this is because the arachnids were, historically, a less relevant threat to primates. Enhanced snake detection has also been found in young children!

Non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have found an enhanced visual brain activity in response to images of snakes in humans! So it is better to keep your safe distance with snakes! Stick to your own Line of control or Border perhaps! Which of course reminds me of the birthday celebrity who directed these movies Jyoti Prakash Dutta! Border was one of the few movies which I went to see in the theatre in spite of a big exam the next day! The stress was too much and all we needed was a big dose of patriotism!

Now look out for Monsters under the bed and spiders on the roof and try not to dream about snakes and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!

Master your Emotions by Thebaut Meurisse

Narrated by Joshua

Audiobook

Self Help book from the author of the novel Dopamine Detox!

If you have finished Dopamine detox, then this is a step two of the same though in apple book it is a part of some other series!

In any case it is a self help book which tells you to take control of your emotions in a crisp narration!

The language is simple and straight and to the point!

The authors guides us how we must not hold things of the past! How the only thing we are doing by feeling sad or depressed by thinking about past is not moving past it!

If a friend did not call you for a party or did some other thing then your thinking about it is not going to solve anything! Either talk to him or her or simply forgive and forget and move on!

The one thing he says which is so correct it that the most important person in the world for you is…drumrolls please; YOU!

Yes! And that is the deal with everyone! The person about whom you are thinking about and feeling bad is actually treating himself as the most important so why are you wasting your time!

If there is something you can do about a problem by thinking about it and not sleeping or procrastinating then there is no use!

Of course at times the book seems preachy and after reading so many self help books I have found a similar theme!

Even this book takes examples from many other famous self help books!

The novel follows a similar path as the Dopamine detox in that there is a downloadable workbook which you are supposed to fill!

And no, I was not able to do that!

The whole text is to uplift your emotions! If you are depressed or if you ever feel that you have not achieved anything then this section makes you get up and notice yourself!

The author states how even small victories like getting up going is a victory!

One of the best things which I liked about the novel is that the author states that only you think you are a failure while no one else in the world even thinks about you!

So in nonchalant words he tells to stop thinking about others, use your own emotions to grow and stop worrying about other people!

Of course the flow is to make you stop procrastinating and do your work!

This is of course for people who are stuck in a trance or a loop!
Like most self help book, it is up to you how you take it!

It has been said that most millionaires read at least one fiction a week! This is because of the many ideas or inspirations which they constantly get, just one is enough to take them to the top!

So surround yourself with positivity and self help books and you will succeed!

But whatever you do, first control your emotions and then learn to use them to be productive!

The unstoppable US by Yuval Noah harari and illustrator, Ricard Zaplana Rui

E book
Non fiction book mainly for kids!

There is also an audiobook available but this is like a comic book version of the Novel Homo Sapiens and like a good summary of that for Children!

It has been said that if you cannot explain what you are trying to explain to a kid then you actually do not know it yourself!

Taking a note of this metaphor is what Yuval has tried!

The book flows almost like a comic book so it is better to read it using either a Tab or Ipad. Kindle may not do justice since many of the pages are in colour!

Though the text is the main content, the images do make it lively and easy to remember!

The language is as simple as it can be!

The author uses a third person narrative to directly interact with the reader and makes them understand the nuances of evolution!

He talks about the different discoveries and belief system!

He points out how the humans interacted with other humans

How they had some relation to the neanderthals

How almost all the part of the earth was inhabited by humans slowly and steadily but how the moment humans set foot on an island, the biggest creatures of that place face extinction very soon!

How this happened in Australia, America and in most part of the world!

How the children of the future can stop this or control this!

He indicates how the character of Humans to cooperate with one another and to tell stories or create ‘stories’ is what makes them much superior to all the other animals in spite of not having any natural skill!

How our ancestors lived in the early days and how the some same skill sets are still there! Like our fear of spiders and snakes and how many animals did not fear humans which is why they did get extinct!

How we have a sugar rush when we see something sweet which is also a Primal instinct! Since we do not have stuff to store, we simply ate it since we do not know when we could get such sweet stuff again!

Many such events and anecdotes are written in a simple manner with simple illustrations which makes it pleasant for the kids and adults alike!

If you have already read Sapiens and Homo Deus, this is a breeze and an apt summary of even those books!

Read and give it to your kids! They may like it!

It is non fiction and more informative and important than Harry Potter!

Keep your spears down human!

The coming wave by Michael Bhaskar and Mustafa Suleyman

E book

non fiction! Which is why it is so scary!

The intro is the best! A prediction of the future of AI was written so well and the dangers of AI having control over our life and future! The scary thing was that the intro was written by an AI!

Suleyman is the founder of a company called the Deep Mind which was the leader in AI till it was acquired by Google for a staggering 400 million USD! Then after different roles he is now the part of the AI team of Microsoft!

He tells even in 2010, the AI wave is actually a tsunami!

Anyone and everyone has access to knowledge on the know how! How to create DNA strands using an assembled machine with a DYI instruction freely available online if you are willing to watch an ad! With that a single person has the capability to kill a billion people!

Pessimism aversion is the emotional response an ingrained gut refusal to accept the possibility of seriously destabilising outcomes!

In a satirical way the author starts the first part with a development of technology and names this as Homo Technologicus!

Development of automobiles with an amazing history of Benz and Ford!

Then about Nuclear proliferation and the first atomic bomb developed 12 years after the eminent Physicist told in full confidence about the impossibility of a bomb! He categorically told that anyone who is saying that they can develop atomic bomb is actually taking moonshine! For the teetotalers like me, Moonshine is a whisky!

Now the warhead developed in the early years were maintained by obsolete hardware chips! A single error would actually mean the end of the world! Plus the fact that it has been told that the United States has ‘Lost’ at least ‘three’ nuclear weapons! Now that is a scary fact!

How even now itself many computer techs use ChatGPT for writing codes and then only supervise! Very soon writing codes will be relegated to them completely!

The human genome project started in 1988 and completed in 2003 after completing over 92 percent!

The cost of genetic testing fell from a Billion dollars to less than a 1000!
So in the future you can have a gene testing or modifying lab in your garage!

CRISPr edits DNA and sequences it! Here he tells about the progress in Genetic engineering along with the example of two illegally produced genetically engineered babies!

The quantum computer by google was a tech marvel! Now you have many!

The sputnik influence on US arms race is like the influence of AI on China which has not emerged leader in AI

Even the AlphaGo was like the sputnik influence on China which has made them move at an amazing speed!

Huge amount of data is public like GitHub has 190 million repositories of code!

Research is the key! The worldwide research spending is 700 billion annually! Amazon’s R and D budget itself is around 78 billion dollars!
Amazon already has a auto bot which does amazing work!

The chief aim of the book is to warn about the dangers of AI from the expert in AI and also some suggestions on how to contain or control the AI

How being a part of Google he was responsible for the legal team which did not happen though!

Then about the containment issue of AI and data! This was a scary section! Luckily he also gives some solutions!

About how a rogue person with an example to boot can actually use AI for nefarious purposes! With an example which was quite recent and scary!

How we know have amazing nuclear weapons, bioweapons and data weapons!

We can do genetic engineering!

The example of Lulu and Nana, the first genetically illegally modified babies are perfect examples of the same!

The best part of the novel according to me was his opinion of India! Now while Yuval had positives and negatives; Suleiman was all positive and I loved it!

I am reproducing a section verbatim for Indians!

This is after he spoke of the superpowers US, China and EU;

India is an obvious fourth pillar to a new global order of giants, alongside the United States, China, and the EU. Its population is young and entrepreneurial, increasingly urbanized, and ever more connected and tech savvy.
By 2030 its economy will have passed those of countries like the U.K., Germany, and Japan to be the third largest in the world; by 2050, it will be worth $30 trillion!
Its government is determined to make Indian tech a reality. Through its Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-Reliant India) program, India’s government is working to ensure the world’s most populous country achieves ownership of core technology systems competitive with the United States and China. Under it, India established partnerships with, for example, Japan on Al and robotics, as well as Israel for drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. Prepare for an Indian wave!

This section was bliss for me!

He concludes how when the machine looms were being built there were a group of people who formed an army and used to regularly destroy such machines! In spite of huge destructions though, the machines finally won!
In fact it actually lead to an improvement of the quality of life of the worker’s children and grandkids!

The author concludes that any modern tech will definitely come and we cannot stop it for long! He just hopes that the tech will be safe!

The whole book if is hundred percent then over 30 percent is just the references! That will tell you of the amount of research which has gone in this book!

Unlike Yuval though who is actually not an expert in tech; the authors here are leaders in AI! But the text is bland and slow and very very dull!

This whole novel actually reads like a textbook and feels like one! Full of facts and boring data!

We like reading Yuval’s books because he made history interesting! It was like gossip! This novel may be having more facts and is much more accurate but the flow will make you sleep!

But wake up! The AI wave is coming!

“It goes on and on like a clock
If it stops then that’s a big shock
Then again it sometimes get’s speed hikes
When the eyes see what it likes!”

Did you know that the heart does not lie!

Many times you wonder how a certain feed in your social media comes in accordance to your taste which you have not mentioned anywhere or to anyone!

There may be many reasons and one of them is your amazing new smart watch!

read on!

There is this amazing series called the Sherlock in BBC starring Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch in which Irene almost traps him and his brother and her phone lock is the key!

You had to complete the line I am —-locked!
They had tried different combination but it did not work!

That is when he, like the modern AI tells about this amazing analysis he does!

He had gone near her and gently touched her hand. She thought he was comforting her, but in fact he was measuring her heart rate!

There was a transient raise in the rate with which Sherlock got to know that Irene has feelings towards him! The password was I am SHERlocked!

Monitor heart rate and response and then data! This is one of the ways how AI gets you! The crime of being a human!

Now, modern smartwatches use a flashing green light to measure your heart rate from your wrist. Spectroscopy tells us that blood absorbs green light because red and green are opposite each other on the colour wheel.
The rear of the smartwatch contains an optical sensor to detect the reflected light. The main difference from spectrometers is that the light source and detector are positioned on the same side in smartwatches, while they are opposite each other in spectrometers.

Measuring heart rate using light is called photoplethysmography. The device measures the change in concentration of red blood cells as the blood vessels expand and contract – ie expanded blood vessels absorb more green light, contracted blood vessels absorb less green light. The detector measures the reflected light and a software algorithm converts the changes in light intensity into your pulse rate!

The newest devices and software use advanced algorithms to monitor pulse rate data and detect issues such as atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat)!

The accuracy and reliability of the algorithms for regular health monitoring is still not a hundred percent accurate data (no data is!) mainly due to variations that could be caused by different skin pigmentations but it has been found that more than a third of participants who were notified of an irregular pulse by their smartwatch had atrial fibrillation!

Of course your smart watch manufacturer does not only have your health as his or her focus!
The focus point is the change in heart rate!
When you see a thing or video or even a photo you like, there is a change in your heart rate and beat and this is caught by the watch and the associated app! You of course give full permission to everything and then the market knows what you like!

The use of heart rate variability recordings can improve two major constraints of traditional marketing methodologies by providing: (1) ease of continuous measurement for unconscious level processing of stimuli in a naturalistic setting; and (2) quantitative and robust physiological measurements related to consumers!

Of course this was mentioned in the novel Nexus by Yuval but if you think this is new! Well read this article which came more than nine years ago!

So Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer came head-to-head at the Wimbledon men’s final. While the match between the world’s No 1 and No 2 players lacked the sharp-edged suspense of their 2012 Wimbledon semi-final showdown, it was nonetheless a display of stunning, exhilarating, heart-pumping tennis!

The match’s most suspenseful moment was the second-set tiebreak, in which Federer won 10-8, tying the game at one set all. But Djokovic went on to easily cinch the next two sets, winning the match!

As Djokovic cruised toward the Wimbledon title, his fans’ heart rates remained regular!
This wasn’t just speculation; a whole team was recording for Jaguar and analyzing the heart rate variability, localized audio, motion and skin temperature of 20 fans in the crowd, via sensor-equipped cuffs!
The goal was to create an interactive display of the crowd’s fluctuating emotions at the match, which Jaguar could then use living ad!

While the cuff could not say if a person felt tense, surprised or excited, analyzing the data points within the context of a tennis match provided a solid window into interpreting emotion!
Apparently a change in heart rate variability is a good signal that there has been a shift!
During tense moments, people moved less, while heart rates tended to quicken when a person’s favorite player was in trouble, like after a botched serve or before a match point. When players were in control, heart rates remained regular!

From the data, analysts could infer a spectator’s emotional response to each point, and from there, infer his or her chosen player!

Another company investigating the effect of heart rate on people launched a similar program at Cannes, in which it gave 100 Apple watches to attendees!
Imagine getting an Apple watch just to attend Cannes! But nothing in life is free! The app and the watch collected their biometric data over the course of three days, analyzed it, and created an engagement map of the festival!

These were baby steps in the marketing analysis but if the market can know your sweat and pulse and additional information, they can predict: are you feeling happy, sad, excited! Add location data and browsing history, and they know where you are, and how you are feeling!

The iPhone has the location turned on always and most android phones also follow the same!

Now advertisers have long worked to determine consumer mindset, and in recent years, the available techniques have grown more sophisticated. There is an emotion measurement startup which uses face-reading software to analyze micro expressions, working with marketers and brands to expose consumers’ unfiltered sentiment! To date, the company’s software algorithm has analyzed more than 2.7 million faces. Clients have included Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mars, Kellogg and CBS. Its bread and butter is market research!

Their technology records individuals’ facial expressions as they watch an ad! They can then see frame-by-frame, moment by moment, what these facial expressions reveal, measure them and provide analytics!

Meanwhile, advertisers are able to access and mine a trove of information, compiling data points – such as consumers’ location, browsing history, purchase history, and the time of day – to build a sophisticated user profile!

Meanwhile apps such as Facebook and other social media apps that require a login and are linked to consumers’ IDs allow third-party mobile ad networks to target users outside the app, using their app data!
It’s why Facebook can be effective and charge a premium, because it can help you target the right people! That is how FB gets its moolah! You are the product!

Nothing is free!

So if you do not want them to get your information then use the LCD watch, use a face mask, gloves, and maybe a helmet next time you browse the reels feed! Or just forget it and go where the heart goes! Of course when it comes to heart and soul; few can come close to the acting powerhouse which is the birthday celebrity Krishna Kumar “Kay Kay” Menon!
Just the other day saw the movie The Gazi attack and my heart rate was up!

Now try to turn off the listeners and watchers and heart rate measurers and sleep! all the best!

Shubh ratri!

“It doesn’t let you sleep you move! 

It’s not music to make you groove!

It will make you get up and fight! 

Cause that’s what makes the dream and day unite!”

This is one thing which only humans can do!

Well; there are a lots of things which only humans can do! Like tell a lie or make an imaginative story for example! But this is the only thing which only humans can do when they are sleeping!

or is it?

read on!

Of course the first question is very self explanatory! The dream! 

It has often been said that dream is not what you have when you sleep but the one that does not allow you to sleep!

That of course it the metaphorical dream!

The actual dream is a phenomenon which happens at specific time or stage of your sleep! On average, most people dream for around two hours per night. Dreaming can happen during any stage of sleep, but dreams are the most prolific and intense during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage.

During the REM sleep stage, brain activity increases considerably compared to the non-REM stages, which helps explain the distinct types of dreaming 

during these stages. Dreams during REM sleep are typically more vivid, fantastical, bizarre even though they may involve elements of waking life. 

By contrast, non-REM dreams tend to involve more coherent content that involves thoughts or memories grounded to a specific time and place.

REM sleep is not distributed evenly through the night. The majority of REM sleep happens during the second half of a normal sleep period, which means that dreaming tends to be concentrated in the hours before waking up!

Which is why you do remember the dream in the morning but over a period of  time you tend to forget them! Short-term memory areas are active during REM sleep, but those only hang on to memories for about 30 seconds. 

You would also remember dream depending on a host of factors including lifestyle factors, sleep hygiene practices, and differences in brain physiology!

You can also remember a dream if the theme of the dream in recurrent or the incidents are similar. What you read or see before you sleep has a great influence on the content of your dream!

If you recall and write your dream immediately after you get up then you would remember your dream more. Dreams are also dependent on your imagination and state of mind! But why we do dream when we sleep when there is actually no point is still not known!

The most prominent theory is that dreams help us to process and consolidate information from the previous day. However, other theories have suggested that dreams are critical for emotional processing, creativity, and self-knowledge!

Of course when you have such vague theories then you know that no one is sure!

Another aspect of dream in the paralysis! You see that scary looking person coming towards you and you try to move or scream but you can’t! No voice comes and your body just freezes over! Then you suddenly get up to realise that it was a dream! 

And what you felt is sleep paralysis! Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking. 

Another shocking aspect of dream is the fall! How you fall from a building or a high place with a thud and you ‘feel’ that thud in the sleep! 

Or when you hit someone or get hit by someone! Like Neo in Matrix; you do feel the pain at that moment! 

You sometimes even try to fight back if you could overcome the sleep paralysis! Once I even punched my brother in sleep! (At least that is the official story since I could never punch him otherwise!)!

So just when you thought that only you can dream, comes the spider! not spiderman! 

So researchers noted how some young jumping spiders dangle by a thread through the night, in a box, in a laboratory. Every so often, their legs curl and their spinnerets twitch. The retinas of their eyes, visible through their translucent exoskeletons, shift back and forth!

What these spiders were doing seems to be resembling – very closely – REM sleep! The sleeping animal’s eyes dart about unpredictably, among other features is a feature of REM sleep!

REM is when most dreaming happens, particularly the most vivid dreams. Now this may mean that if spiders have REM sleep, might dreams also unfold in their little-seed-size brains!?

Researchers have reported on the retina-swivelling spiders and training cameras on 34 spiders, they found that the creatures had brief REM-like spells about every 17 minutes. The eye-darting behaviour was specific to these bouts: it didn’t happen at times in the night when the jumping spiders stirred, stretched, readjusted their silk lines or cleaned themselves with a brush of a leg!

Today, scientists are finding signs of REM sleep in a broader array of animals than ever before: in spiders, lizards, cuttlefish, zebrafish! Like evolution; dreams also has begun in the sea! Watch out! 

Then again it was ages back when the Greek philosopher Aristotle said that almost all other animals are clearly observed to partake in sleep, whether they are aquatic, aerial, or terrestrial!

He added that it would appear that not only do men dream, but horses also, and dogs, and oxen; aye, and sheep, and goats, and all viviparous quadrupeds; and dogs show their dreaming by barking in their sleep!

So maybe the difference is that only Humans may remember what they dream!? Let us hope so! If a dog dreamt that he was flying and remembered it then it may not bode well into the tech of things!

Of course some things do make us unique! Like even if it sings like a dream, a bird cannot compose and make music like the legend Sachin Dev Burman! By the way did you know that he was Royalty? His father was a king and his mother, a queen! Of course he can be called as the king amongts musicians for ever! 

Now see something nice or read something knowledgeable like a blog perhaps (wink wink!) and sleep!

Shubh ratri!

“So many things we can’t explain
We can try and cry but all in vain!
Did evolution really miss the bus!?
Are there aliens living among us!?”

In a Novel called Humans are not from Earth; Dr Ellis Silver gave an extensive ‘scientific’ account on how Humans are not from Earth! How they have so many characters which actually makes them ‘alien’!

In fact in the novel he casually mentioned how he has met two ‘aliens’ during his research in a ‘secret’ facility!

Now that is an open discussion! But did you know there is a being on earth which can almost be called an alien?

This being has three hearts and blue blood!

And no! It is not science fiction! But fact!

read on!

Of course you cannot see this being or creature so commonly since it is found only in the sea!

But there is one member of this family who not only is unique but also a grand predictor! Yes! He could tell the future!

This slimy creature does not have a backbone so there has been records where in spite of its huge size, it simply disappeared into a small hole never to be seen again!

Depending on the species, they come in various sizes, from one inch to 30ft long!

In some stories, they have been shown as huge monsters who can gobble up a ship! Whether they are inspired by real ‘aliens’ or not is anyone’s guess!

We humans and most other ‘earth’ dwellers have blood which is iron based which is why it is red! But these ‘aliens’ have blue blood because their blood is copper based!

By the way they are also very intelligent which is not surprising since they have not one but nine brains! a central brain between their eyes and a mini one in each arm. This brain tissue is notoriously fuel intensive! Talk about a brainiac!

They have been known to use these brains to use tools, open jars, complete mazes, and even recognise individual human faces!

And by the way they can also change colours!
Their skin contains thousands of specialized cells that allow them to change color. Changing color helps them to camouflage into their surroundings to avoid danger. These cells are called chromatophores, and each chromatophore has a sac at the center which is filled with pigments of red, yellow, black, or brown. They can change color in less than 30milliseconds!

In case you are wondering if that is all then they also have in built shooters!

Alright then enough suspense!

The super ‘alien’ creature is the octopus!

These super amazing creatures have arms which are lined with hundreds of suckers. They use these suckers to grab and hold things. The suckers are incredibly strong; The suckers on a Giant Pacific octopus for example can hold 35lbs each!

Also a bored octopuses will often eat their own arms. This is called autophagy! And their arms do grow back without any loss of function in case you are wondering why you do not see bored octopuses with no or less number of arms!

An octopus will release a dark colored ink to protect itself when it feels in danger. The cloud of ink confuses predators and hides the octopus while it makes a quick getaway!

Also during reproduction the male is known to have an extra long and usually keeps a distance like an alien! Now this is not sexist! It is an adaptation that has occurred due to females often killing and eating the males during or after mating!

Octopuses not only have the ability to change color, they can also change their skin’s texture, too. Using papillae, which contract and draw soft tissue to the surface, the octopus can blend in better with corals and rocks! So if you see a moving rock or a coral, it may not always be magic! It may be alien!

Finally lets talk about Paul the Octopus who who predicted the results of international association football matches. Accurate predictions in the 2010 World Cup brought him worldwide attention as an animal oracle!

During divinations, Paul’s keepers would present him with two food-containing boxes decorated with the flags of the teams in an upcoming match. Whichever box Paul ate from first was considered his prediction for which team would win the match!

IN FIFA2010 his prediction was 9 correct out of 9! Maybe some alien tech!? Of course there may be some explanation! It is not Harry Potter you see! Which reminds me of the celebrity of the day Dame Margaret Natalie Smith!

The dame was witty and quick and a very lovable character in Harry! Even otherwise her witty dialogue delivery was quirky and funny!

She will be missed!

Oh by the way the monster in the famous novel twenty thousand leagues under the sea by Jules Verne was NOT an octopus but a squid!
More on that other alien some other day!

Shubh Ratri!

“The end is the same no matter which way you take
There can be only one answer, no mistake!
That’s the beauty of a mathematical equation!
In every way all you can see is perfection!”

By now you must have understood at least from my blogs and sketches that no one is perfect! All are mortals are imperfect and imperfection is the key!

But (perfect prediction that a but was coming!); there are some number which are called perfect numbers!

But (this but was unexpected!); there exist a problem in mathematics among many other problems which has not been solved for the past 2000 years or so!

read on!

When we were young (er!); and we used to study in the night for examinations, the one trick I used to do when I used to feel sleepy was to start working on some mathematical problems!

I used to love mathematics (still do!) and solving them used to really make me awake and active!

Mathematics was also one of the few subjects where there was only one right answer and many ways to get it! It was like religion! So many ways to get the same destination!

Another cool thing was if you have done the mathematics examination well then that was one of the very few subjects where you can score full marks which in KV was a cool thing to do!

Many times even if you do not get the final solution, even if you write the steps properly you can still score marks!

So late night when you feel sleepy and then solve a couple of mathematical problems even if you know them already; the sight of the final correct answer used to give me a amazing pleasure and sense of achievement!

It was one of the few work or job in the world which we could confidently and actually complete! A feeling of closure given by an amazing subject!

Though I have changed multiple schools, in all of them my favourite subjects and teachers have most of the times been my mathematics teacher and I was lucky to have been their favourite student once in a while!

The only issue was when you solve a problem and know that you have solved it wrong almost immediately! The feeling that is real! There is only one right answer to any mathematics problem!

Sometimes you would have done the problems properly in the rough and not noted it same to same in the final draft! Every symbol and every number has a perfect place and there is only one way to represent the answer!

Mathematics was perfect in every sense!

Now did you know that there are some numbers in Mathematics which are called perfect numbers!?

A number is perfect if it is a positive integer, n, whose divisors add up to exactly twice the number itself, 2n. Or if you do not count the number itself then all its divisors except the number itself add up to the number!
The first and simplest example is 6, since its divisors — 1, 2, 3 and 6 — add up to 12, or 2 times 6. Or if you only include the divisor and not the number; 1, 2 and 3 when added give 6!

You would think that these numbers are very common! Well they are not! In fact in the first ten thousand numbers there are only 4 perfect numbers! Two of them are less than 100!

Then comes 28, whose divisors of 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28 add up to 56. Or if you use only the divisors then 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 add up to 28!

If you are free you can try to find out more! But let me tell you that the next
examples are 496 and 8,128!

There are apparently several formulas to find the perfect number and Euclid devised a formula for generating even perfect numbers long back!

Before that you must know about Mersenne prime!

Mersenne prime is a prime number that is one less than a power of two.
That is, it is a prime number of the form Mn = 2n − 1 for some integer n.
They are named after Marin Mersenne, a French Minim friar, who studied them in the early 17th century. If n is a composite number then so is 2n − 1. Therefore, an equivalent definition of the Mersenne primes is that they are the prime numbers of the form Mp = 2p − 1 for some prime p.

Mersenne primes are 2, 3, 5, 7, 13, 17, 19, 31! You can see that these are not the perfect numbers! But there is a theorem which relates them!

The Euclid–Euler theorem is a theorem in number theory that relates perfect numbers to Mersenne primes. It states that an even number is perfect if and only if it has the form 2p−1(2p − 1), where 2p − 1 is a prime number.

So if p and 2p − 1 are prime numbers (whose only divisors are 1 and themselves), then 2p−1(2p − 1) is a perfect number.

Do not get confused (like me!) now see this example;

The text here does not allow p to be on the upper part of 2!

Please read the formula as 2 (raised to the power of p-1) multiplied by (2 raised to the power of p and the product is subtracted by 1!)

If p is 2, the formula gives you 21 × (22 − 1) or 6, and if p is 3, you get 22 × (23 − 1) or 28 — the first two perfect numbers.

Euler proved 2,000 years later that this formula actually generates every even perfect number, though it is still unknown whether the set of even perfect numbers is finite or infinite!

A Japanese publishing house Nanairosha’s offered a strange book that had become surprisingly popular!

In just four days, some 1,500 copies of the book were sold !
The book, “The Biggest Prime Number in 2017”, contains just one thing — a newly discovered prime number that has broken the record for the largest ever found, coming in at a whopping 23,249,425 digits that covers the 791 pages in the book! In fine print by the way!

As far as the largest known prime number is concerned; as of now the largest known prime number is 282,589,933 − 1, a number which has 24,862,048 digits when written in base 10. It was found via a computer volunteered by Patrick Laroche of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search!

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search has also helped in finding more and more prime and perfect numbers!

But! (The final but for now!); the issue or the problem which is not solved for ages now is the question whether there is a number which is perfect which is an odd number! So are there any odd perfect numbers?
It is unknown whether any odd perfect numbers exist!

Let us hope that the 2000 year old problem can be solved soon!
The world of mathematics is divided into two camps; one who believe it exists or can be solved and can be found while the other does not!
Now that does some odd! It’s not Odd though but perfect fact that the birthday celebrity Darshan Jariwala is a great actor! Just his expressions make me laugh!

Now be a perfect person and try to sleep on time!
Shubh ratri!