The noisy opiate of the masses

Every morning I listen to "Forum" on KQED San Francisco, our local NPR station. Today's show was about translating the Bible, with some Bible experts talking about the difficulties of translating old texts. It got me thinking about the ridiculous extent some people take their religious beliefs to.

Concern 1 - Militant Attitudes unsuitable for the times

Violence, however wrong I may consider it, sometimes appears justified. Say a religion was born in a violent time, it is likely that the religious fathers educate their followers about the righteousness of battle in the face of injustice. However such attitudes will tend to outlive the violent period in history and cause similar violence in a protracted manner. Few people who believe in such books could magnify some small misunderstandings out of proportion and apply the same violent principles for an era which doesnt require it.

Concern 2 - Bad Signal to Noise Ratio

Language can be a challenge too. If the words of a messiah come from a time without written records, we now rely on a third person arguably fourth person's opinion of the founder's teachings.

Second there is the problem of translation. Since Aramaic is obviously not something anyone speaks these days, we rely on a translator to tell us what Jesus's apostle told some other person what Jesus said. Quite likely there will be inaccuracies in the translation because some concepts don't carry forth too well. Also metaphorical references are likely to be wrongly interpreted. Shades of Aramaic or Hebrew words from one timezone to another and one region to another may vary widely too.

In purely, EE terms, the signal to noise ratio of the final version of the religious book is rather low. The preacher's message may not even be clearly present anymore, given the number of sources of noise.

Concern 3 - Unscientific teachings

When religion starts encroaching on science things go awry even faster. A flat earth, geo-centric universe, demons and dragons.... the scientific inaccuracies in religion are too numerous. Do you really want to believe so strongly in the words of a person who lived more than 2000 years ago, who didn't even know Newton's Laws or the existence of planets beyond Jupiter or nuclear weapons ?

Concern 4 - Bribing with a Road to Heaven

"Spread my words to 10 people and you will assure yourself a place in heaven." Any religion which preaches that instantaneously loses it's divine touch for me. Seems like a very earthly quality, this desire for propagation...

Concern 5 - My Chosen People

Mrs Samant, a teacher at Loyola once said to us, "Neither heaven nor hell exists. You get it all right here..." Judgements are passed everyday and you face the consequences of your actions in this lifetime itself, rewards and punishments.
"You were born in this high caste, because you did something great in your previous lifetime." Complete BS!! The truth is you just got lucky you were born into a family whose forefathers won some wars. And now you can claim to be superior, inspite of being stupid enough to actually believe in that crap.

My final thoughts on religion... God probably exists beause we can probably never explain everything. But believing literally in the words of someone who lived in a very different time and region and preached in another language has humongous drawbacks. Don't do it!! Unfortunately the vast majority of people live their lives by such codes and are open to be manipulated by them. Our world today would be a much better place, if people used their own sense of right and wrong instead.

Animal Farm - The Genius of George Orwell

Today I read what was without a doubt the best book I have ever read. Animal Farm, is truly the work of a genius and I am glad I spent Thanksgiving weekend reading this amazing book. What got me started was this list by TIME magazine of the 100 best novels since 1923. (Why such an arbitrary date? I am guessing they want to help increase the sales of books that still have an active copyright. If you have a different guess, please post a comment.) So once again I got reminded of the fact that I need to read a lot more. I have only read 7 of the 100:

- Animal Farm
- 1984
- Catch 22
- The Catcher in the Rye
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- The Great Gatsby
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (half-way through so far)

To the uninitiated Animal Farm is a satirical novel based on Communist Russia. The animals at a farm throw out the human owners of the farm and start managing it themselves, only to find a little later that pigs replace the humans as tyrannical dictators. It exemplifies how "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The parallels between Soviet Russia and actual events related to the Russian Revolution don't just end there. Each of the characters and events in the novel are based on Soviet history and are easy to identify. The Wikipedia article linked here gives the other connections to Soviet History.

I found many parts of the book hilarious. One of my favourites was where the animals design a green flag with a hoof similar to the red flag with a sickle and hammer. Also the way the commandments keep changing with the final commandment reading "All Animals are Equal. But some animals are more equal than others." The hypocrisy and greed of the pigs is noteworthy, not unlike that of politicians the world over. The lies remain the same whether they are about Windmills or WMDs.

Food for thought

Bip was a precocious 12 year old. Kids in the Pericone house had to take on responsibilities very early on in their lives. Child labor might be illegal in the state of New York, but at the Ambrosia restaurant run by the Pericones, it was all okay. Any other talents that their 4 kids might have were meaningless, if they couldn't be put to use at the restaurant. Bip, was mathematically gifted and at school he used to sit on the last bench in class learning algebra, while the rest of the students were struggling with fractions. Bip's dad didn't care. As long as Bip knew enough arithmetic to add and subtract the checks at Ambrosia, dad wasn't concerned.

Dan Pericone himself spent time crafting some interesting new recipes for the menu. Ambrosia had a strong reputation to live up to and Dan's training at one of the top culinary schools in Tuscany held him in good stead. Being voted the best Italian restaurant 4 years in a row was a matter of distinct pride for him. Bip was fascinated by his dad's experiment kitchen, but being the bumbling child he was, his dad had made this private kitchen a no-zone for Bip. "You've broken too many things in there already. Don't you ever dare step into that room." "But Dad can't I help you create some new recipes myself?... I have some ideas I wanna share with you." "Son, I want you to help your brothers in the kitchen. They are out there cooking all day and they could use a helping hand. Someday you'll get to create some masterpieces of your own in there, when you grow up."

Bip's three elder brothers were hard at work at the restaurant. Evenings were very hectic and chaotic times there. Bip wanted to help with the cooking but no one would let him touch anything. Bip's mum would tell him, "Sweetie, why don't you just go home and study? You're too young to do anything here." "Mum, why dont I cook some pasta... I'll do it just like it says in the recipe." Mama Pericone smiles and looks up at Bip while she's stirring some soup. "There are going to be some judges from Zagat here today. Maybe some other time. Why don't you just watch Mike cook and check that he doesnt miss anything in the recipe? Can you do that for me please?" Relucatantly Bip heads towards Mike and watches him cook. He hates having to just check other people's cooking.

Stop Global Warming

If you haven't joined the Virtual March already, please do so at http://stopglobalwarming.org.

I strongly believe in the cause myself and I am planning to make some changes in my lifestyle to be more environment-friendly. I hope all my friends here will also do the same.

For a start:
- Switch off lamps whenever you're not in the room.
- Use paper bags at the grocery store.

Cause you are the rocket scientist

So for what you've all been waiting for. My take on the Kentucky Fried Chicken Advert and probably some of the other TV commercials. I am going to make some huge generalizations, so you don't have to read this unless you want to. Also this is just my opinion... don't sue me if you work for KFC. :-)

Why does KFC produce such dumb sounding commercials?

Theory 1: Target Audience
In these times of diet-conscious well-informed people, the task of selling unhealthy food such as KFC is doubly hard. As a generalisation people with lower IQs are poor and they are also less health conscious. Any health-conscious person who has seen how greasy the General's chicken is won't step into a KFC, unless he is driving in a desert on a hungry stomach for many hours or he is being told to eat it at gunpoint or in Fear Factor. So obviously smart people aren't KFC's target audience, which explains the dumbness of the commercial.

On a sidenote, I read this somewhere, carbs are the cheapest food category. Fats are next. Proteins are the most expensive per pound. To further the classification, some cuts of beef are probably very cheap. (Cheeseburgers are much cheaper than Steaks.) The point of this was that if you are poor, you tend to eat more carbs because they are cheaper. Poor people tend to be fatter for the same reason.

Theory 2: Mnemonic Value
These days people don't watch commercials much. They just switch channels in the commercial breaks. What's more with the constant bombardment of advertisements people have become insensitive to them. For a commercial to stand out and be remembered they have to do something special. Lacking logic and jarring the viewer's mind is one method. That I am blogging about the KFC commercial is a testament to the advertizing company's genius. It has achieved it's purpose in a sense because the advertisement has been remembered unlike many others which don't get remembered.

Adding two more friends to my blogroll. Ajit Oke, engineer extrordinaire, topper of IISC and yet a thoroughly nice guy. Also a friend from Loyola Aditya Kelkar, who trained for a marathon and probably is going to run one this week. I hope to draw some inspiration from him and try the same feat this year. Wish me luck!

Return of the COEP-ians

Sorry my next post isn't about the KFC ad but about COEP. I am just happy about the news that PIET will now turn back into COEP.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=157559

What's more is that the article talks about some interesting industry linked MTech courses as well. Telco will be sponsoring an MTech course in Automobile engineering with teachers from Telco as well. Seems like a sea-change from my time at COEP.

Awaaz kunacha? SEE-O-EE-PEE cha!:-)

Bad Advertisements - Is there a pattern?

KFC Ad

Scene at what looks like NASA offices

Bald Fat Nerd> "What are you having?"
Blonde> "KFC. It's just 4 dollars for the meal."
Bald Fat Nerd> "What?? I just paid double that amount at a casual dining place!!"
Blonde> "Hahahahhaha (stupid theatrical laugh)"
Bald Fat Nerd> "Why are you laughing??"
Blonde> "Cause you're the rocket scientist"

Would you call this ad lame or genius? Analysis on my next post.

Jarhead

Movie Review
Rating 3/5 (Average)

"The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war"
- Desiderius Erasmus

Jarhead recounts the experiences of a US Marine Anthony Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) in the First Gulf War against Iraq. It goes through his time in training and the days of the war. I have to admire the realistic nature of the whole movie. Jamie Foxx fits the role of the staff sergeant like a nice pair of jeans. So as far as the acting and direction is concerned I didn't have any complaints. The story keeps you engrossed, so you won't get bored either. For a movie that was probably shot in the deserts of Arizona, it looks really accurate. The burning oil fields and oil-rain are a horrific sight.

My major gripe with the movie is about it's timing and about some other facts in the story. It seems like an effort made by the Bush government to improve recruitment in the military given the sharp drop in the number of new recruits. So Swoff doesnt kill a single person in the movie and neither does anyone in his whole platoon. Also no one dies in this group in action. So it just smells of propaganda that way. Now I might be wrong because the first Gulf War got over too soon and so the depiction might be fairly accurate. I wonder though if there are some kids in the Deep South that take this movie as a model of what Iraq is like today and join the army. Well maybe no one is that dumb.

U2 Vertigo Tour in Oakland

I have one ticket for the U2 Concert in Oakland.
Date: Tuesday 11/07/2005
Venue: Oakland Arena
Time: 7.30 pm
Section: 215
Row: 14
Face Value: $105
Asking Price: $105 OBO

Pick up ticket from work or home. Call me on 408-533-5349.
Payment in Cash.

Sameer's new blog

This is my friend Sameer's new blog. He sketches brilliantly and you can see a few samples on this blog here.

On vacation

Just so the frequent visitors to my blog know, I am on vacation currently. My parents are visiting and I am trying to show them a good time in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Diego. We've already been to "the City of Angels" (although I wonder which Angel would want to live there) and "the City of Lights", and now will be spending two days in San Diego. So after Disnyeland and Universal Studios in Los Angeles, we will be going to Legoland today. It's been my lifelong dream to visit one of these. My dad got me a few Lego sets back when I was a kid... three BASICs and one Technic. I was so totally envious of other kids who had many more.

Anyways will post some proper posts soon.