Parallel Spirals

Standing on the shores of space-time…

Blog

  • IHY/IPY

    And so, I enter another adventure. I have decided to help  Kirk with the SEDS IHY/IPY blog humourously (according to me) called Frozen Sun. I have just sent out a mail to the SEDS-Earth and SG Talk list with respect to this. So, thought I should post a snippet of it here too:

    hi all,

    We have started a blog called Frozen Sun to celebrate the International
    Heliophysical and Polar Years. You can find the blog here -
    http://blogs.seds.org/frozensun/

    We'd like people working in fields related to these fields to share
    they're work with students like me so that we know more about what you do.
    We don't want exact technical details of your project. We'd like to know
    how you spend your time there, how's the pay and maybe a sketch of what
    you're doing there technically. You're free to write in proportions of
    what you do in the way you like.

    You can do this using plain old text, images or even videos.

    Oh! and just so that you know what you're getting into, you won't be let
    off the hook after you post. Students will read your post, ask you
    questions and we would be greatful if you could answer them.

    expecting a good response,
    Pradeep

    Help in anyway is appreciated.

    

    


    , , 
    


    


    


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    Ghost inside Machines
    


    

    A seemingly recurring theme. There is an obscure link to this in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. There is a direct reference to it in Issac Asimov’s “I, Robot”. There is also an anime flick called Ghost in the Shell, but I don’t know if it relates to this concept.
    

    




    


    


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    Re-designing Science
    


    

    Over the past six-months I have been reading articles of creating new architectures of the Internet to make it better, safer and more accessible to people around the world. These seemed to have been running around at the back of my head. Reading the second part of Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence sort of brought it back into the realms of thinking.
    




    So, I ask this question, if a network as vast as the Internet can be changed, why not Science. Heck, why not Philosophy?
    




    And, in the next second that sounds odd if you don’t follow it through a series of thought-process. Think: What’s the problem with science? and end at “If its not right..why not change it?”
    

    




    


    


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    Unniyarcha – Why the post on Unniyarcha?
    


    

    I posted a snippet on Unniyarcha yesterday. That’s because Asianet ( the first malayalam private cable channel – am i right? ) is beaming a programme related to her. She’s been made famous before in a movie staring Mammooty called Oru Vadakan Veeragatha (A Northern Story of Bravery) but there the focus was lateral not direct.
    




    Mammooty plays the role of Chandu who is blamed for the death of Unniyarcha’s husband. The plot runs deeper because Unniyarcha was destined to be married to Chandu but was married to the man who Chandu allegedly killed.
    




    Unniyarcha prepares her children to kill Chandu. He beats them in a straight fight. However they refuse to give up until they or Chandu die. At this point, Chandu commits suicide with the last words that Unniyarcha’s children should never loose. The story is actually more romantic action.
    




    All of this is supposedly the next set of tales after the story of Unniyarcha herself.
    




    If I got the story wrong, feel free to correct it! If you have an online snippet of the story feel free to post it!
    

    




    


    


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    Going into Text mode again
    


    

    I don’t really understand this, but I am going again and again to text. I seem not so good with images and making things interesting. And I’ve switched from the in-your-face Cutline to the sublime-and-mystic Tarski. Love that theme. But, there is some problems on how it shows comments on the individual posts. Nothing I can do about it though – so scroll down to read the comments on a post if there are any!
    

    




    


    


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    Space Weblog
    


    

    I’ve decided to not post my space posts here. Half of the reason is because I am lazy and the second reason is so as not  to confuse people.
    




    You can find all my space posts here.
    

    




    


    


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    I know you’ve seen this hundreds of times…but I just love this
    


    

    Yea, I’m on twitter too… http://twitter.com/pradx is where you can find me. And here’s the 404 message on Twitter.
    

    




    


    


  • 


    


    Why pradx?
    


    

    If you’ve seen the url properly you will see the words pradx.
    




    This is not supposed to be some sort of an odd gen-x thing. I am using x as a variable as used in algebra and stuff in pure mathematics.
    




    All my ids have only one constant thing – prad. The rest of the id changes. eg. it’s prad2609 on Yahoo!, it’s pradeepnair on YouTube…etc. etc.
    

    




    


    


  • 


    


    Digital Library of India
    


    

    Some of the premier Indian institutions are working together along with IGNOU (that’s Indira Gandhi National Open University) to make their books available for free online. It’s an ongoing process and so you might find new resources tomorrow that you did not find today.
    




    The website is here.
    

    




    


    


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    Unniarcha
    


    

    Legendary warrior figure, sister of Aromal Chekayar, mother Aromalunny. The songs and chronicles to this day kept the legend alive. She was born in the Puthooram Veedu family. The famous warriors, Aromal Chevakar and Unnikannan were her brothers. Like her brothers, Unniyarcha was also trained in the arts of war. She is praised in Vadakanpattu. She is considered as a heroine and symbol of female ability.
    




    [source]