Brett McKay has a podcast, Podcast #479: Becoming a Digital Minimalist on The Art of Manliness with Cal Newport on digital minimalism. The concept surrounds the idea of not having social media in walled gardens like Facebook, Google etc. These are only trying to rob our attention and make money from them. These have an adverse impact on us just like fast food, cigarettes etc.
I am dealing with my own smartphone addiction and might get the book in the last week of this month on Audible.
Alexandra Witze writes for Nature about a decision relating to NASA and ISRO joint mission called NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) decision to point at the Antarctic rather than the Arctic.
The decision is based on the fact that the Europe’s Sentinel satellite is covering the Arctic region. Also, SAR satellites are built such that they point either to the North or the South pole. Hence a call was taken on which Pole the NISAR would be facing.
The Wire has a nice write-up about Khagol Mandal.
I grew up in Mumbai and had heard of Khagol Mandal on my visits to Nehru Planetarium but never had the courage to ask my Dad to go for one of their all night camp until I was in college. I attended a few of their talks and Wednesday meetings.
However, given that the Internet was full of American websites I too felt the need for splitting the clubs along the science and engineering line. Since, I was more interested in the science vs engineering divide, I started SEDS India in 2004.
Reading the article, I wonder how different life would have been had I started a Rocketry Hub in Khagol Mandal rather than wasting precious time setting up SEDS India.
From the text: “Counter intuitive as it may sound high taxes, generous welfare states and strong unions make it a better environment for people who wants to earn huge amounts of money than free markets, low taxes and minimal government”
Sharing this talk since it is a contrary position to what I have experienced in my life.
We decided to spend a two day holiday at Aurangabad. Aurangabad is close to 150 km from our current base at Lonar. We had a pleasant three day stay in Aurangabad. We went mostly for buying stuff for our home. Pictures are from our stay in the hotel.
Aurangabad reminded us so much of Mumbai because it has one of the only nearby malls. We also drove rather leisurely and enjoyed the ride with music. We didn’t want to rush back to Lonar and stayed on for another day.
I’m writing this at the Waiting Room at the Jalna Railway Station. After four months, I finally got my leave sanctioned for one week.
We’re going now to Mumbai on 17618 Tapovan Express. Then, we catch a train to Kolkata where we are going to attend my cousin Vishy’s engagement. Then, we fly to Hyderabad where we stay with my grand uncle before taking the train back to Jalna and go by car to Lonar.
It was our first Diwali in Lonar in a rental house. Dhanya wanted to celebrate by lighting a lot of lamps.
She had bought a dozen lamps in one of her trips to Akola. On another visit she managed to purchase a handsome hanging lantern and a larger lamp.
On Diwali, she lit all the lamps and we managed to take a lot of pics that we shared via our feed on Instagram. Above we have a video tour of all the lamps mentioned in this post. The hanging lantern was one of the most commented and asked about in the collection.
My father wanted us to buy crackers to show Rithika. He asked us to atleast light sparklers. We ended up lighting up none, this Diwali.
Imran Khan has directed a short movie on the Mars Orbiter Mission and is now available on YouTube (trailer).
The video helped me relive September 24, 2014 again. On that day, I watched Mars Orbit Insertion from Mumbai while my fiance (and now my wife) watched with her sister in Kerala. On that day, she didn’t understand the importance of the crucial Mars Orbit Mission maneuver. But, she got it only today after watching the video with me today.
Must watch whether you follow space and definitely if you have a partner with whom you want to communicate the enthusiasm for space exploration.
It’s September. I’ve moved to Lonar and moved my family here for work. It has a hypervelocity crater and the work doesn’t give me too much time to spend there.
Parallel Spirals 