I will likely never go to the poles...but I remember getting so engrossed and feeling like I had been taken away to the frigid poles when back in 2005 I read the book (later saw the documentary also) about Shackleton's famous failed (or successful, depending on how you see it - #Fail for not reaching the South Pole; #WIN for surviving the Antarctic winter for that long and the entire team - more or less, if memory serves me right - coming back alive) expedition.

So, I am familiar with the Amundsen-Scott rivalry and Amundsen's successful conquest of the South Pole but there seems to be high adventure and intrigue about the conquest of the North Pole too.

Fascinating story this, from this month's Smithsonian magazine.

Who Discovered the North Pole?
A century ago, explorer Robert Peary earned fame for discovering the North Pole, but did Frederick Cook get there first?

On September 7, 1909, readers of the New York Times awakened to a stunning front-page headline: "Peary Discovers the North Pole After Eight Trials in 23 Years." The North Pole was one of the last remaining laurels of earthly exploration, a prize for which countless explorers from many nations had suffered and died for 300 years. And here was the American explorer Robert E. Peary sending word from Indian Harbour, Labrador, that he had reached the pole in April 1909, one hundred years ago this month. The Times story alone would have been astounding. But it wasn't alone.

A week earlier, the New York Herald had printed its own front-page headline: "The North Pole is Discovered by Dr. Frederick A. Cook." Cook, an American explorer who had seemingly returned from the dead after more than a year in the Arctic, claimed to have reached the pole in April 1908—a full year before Peary.

Frederick Cook and Robert Peary both claimed they discovered the North Pole.
© North Wind Picture Archives / The Granger Collection, New York

Anyone who read the two headlines would know that the North Pole could be "discovered" only once. The question then was: Who had done it? In classrooms and textbooks, Peary was long anointed the discoverer of the North Pole—until 1988, when a re-examination of his records commissioned by the National Geographic Society, a major sponsor of his expeditions, concluded that Peary's evidence never proved his claim and suggested that he knew he might have fallen short. Cook's claim, meanwhile, has come to rest in a sort of polar twilight, neither proved nor disproved, although his descriptions of the Arctic region—made public before Peary's—were verified by later explorers. Today, on the centennial of Peary's claimed arrival, the bigger question isn't so much who as how: How did Peary's claim to the North Pole trump Cook's?

I think some day I should go read another such book - this one perhaps, The Story of Polar Conquest by Logan Marshall. (Indeed - no physical activity for this geek -- reading about such adventures is all I can indulge in! ;) But hey... at least I don't drive an Explorer ;) I remember this from Paul Reiser's book, Babyhood:

“Suddenly you understand those behemoth station wagons your parents had.  But because we [baby boomers] are, as a group, so very much more clever, we now surround ourselves instead in hulking tanks - uglier by far than anything we sat in the back of when we were 5.  But this time they have much cooler names.  Names reeking of adventure: Explorer, Expedition, Outback, Range Rover, Land Cruiser, Four Runner, Trooper, Pathfinder... Where do we think we’re going?  We’re picking up diapers and dropping off a video.  We’re not bagging a cheetah and lugging it across Kenya.”  

I love those lines and always remember them - especially the "We’re picking up diapers and dropping off a video" part! :)

P.S. In similar vein, I will never go mountain climbing but back in 2003 or so, I got so immersed in reading Eiger Dreams, a book of essays by Jon Krakauer about climbing various mountains, incl. the Eiger in the Alps. I have not read his more famous book - Into Thin Air - which I think, if I remember right, Sumit, you own and were reading at one time when I was visiting you. Did you ever finish reading that book?

And so, for more vicarious living, I share with you these two videos of high-adrenaline rush activities.

Youtube - Ski-Gliding the Eiger

YouTube - Speed-Riding Down The Eiger

P.P.S. Yikes.. reading the wiki entry for Eiger, note that 2 people died on that mountain just last week!

24 March, 2009: Two Swiss climbers froze to death near the summit after successfully climbing the North face.

And so it goes...

What a beautiful picture!

Walk on Water
© Hayden Carlyon (Fort Collins, CO)
Photographed January 2008, Uyuni, Bolivia 

That's one of many amazing pictures submitted to the Smithsonian Magazine's 6th annual Readers Choice Photo Contest. You can go and see the pictures and vote here.

A smart chip, indeed!

An international team of scientists in Europe has created a silicon chip designed to function like a human brain. With 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections, the chip is able to mimic the brain's ability to learn more closely than any other machine.  Although the chip has a fraction of the number of neurons or connections found in a brain, its design allows it to be scaled up, says Karlheinz Meier, a physicist at Heidelberg University, in Germany, who has coordinated the Fast Analog Computing with Emergent Transient States project, or FACETS.  The hope is that recreating the structure of the brain in computer form may help to further our understanding   of how to develop massively parallel, powerful new computers, says Meier. 

Picture © Karlheinz Meier 

But well nigh impossible (yet) to make something that functions like a human brain, I think... but this is an interesting small step towards that sci-fi-ish goal!

Found here; via here.

As if in a subliminal note being sent to me, have run into wwo articles in the last 2 days that emphasize the importance of social interaction and human company in life. The second is specifically talking about friendship between women and though I'm not one, the learnings about the need for friendships in getting through troubled times apply as much to men as to women, I think. The flight-and-fight vs. tend-and-befriend responses to stress need not be independent of each other.

1) This piece by Dr. Atul Gawande in this month's New Yorker is more about solitary confinement & torture but it begins with a good introduction about the human need for social interaction.

Human beings are social creatures. We are social not just in the trivial sense that we like company, and not just in the obvious sense that we each depend on others. We are social in a more elemental way: simply to exist as a normal human being requires interaction with other people.

Children provide the clearest demonstration of this fact, although it was slow to be accepted. Well into the nineteen-fifties, psychologists were encouraging parents to give children less attention and affection, in order to encourage independence. Then Harry Harlow, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, produced a series of influential studies involving baby rhesus monkeys.

He happened upon the findings in the mid-fifties, when he decided to save money for his primate-research laboratory by breeding his own lab monkeys instead of importing them from India. Because he didn’t know how to raise infant monkeys, he cared for them the way hospitals of the era cared for human infants—in nurseries, with plenty of food, warm blankets, some toys, and in isolation from other infants to prevent the spread of infection. The monkeys grew up sturdy, disease-free, and larger than those from the wild. Yet they were also profoundly disturbed, given to staring blankly and rocking in place for long periods, circling their cages repetitively, and mutilating themselves.

At first, Harlow and his graduate students couldn’t figure out what the problem was. They considered factors such as diet, patterns of light exposure, even the antibiotics they used. Then, as Deborah Blum recounts in a fascinating biography of Harlow, “Love at Goon Park,” one of his researchers noticed how tightly the monkeys clung to their soft blankets. Harlow wondered whether what the monkeys were missing in their Isolettes was a mother. So, in an odd experiment, he gave them an artificial one.

In the studies, one artificial mother was a doll made of terry cloth; the other was made of wire. He placed a warming device inside the dolls to make them seem more comforting. The babies, Harlow discovered, largely ignored the wire mother. But they became deeply attached to the cloth mother. They caressed it. They slept curled up on it. They ran to it when frightened. They refused replacements: they wanted only “their” mother. If sharp spikes were made to randomly thrust out of the mother’s body when the rhesus babies held it, they waited patiently for the spikes to recede and returned to clutching it. No matter how tightly they clung to the surrogate mothers, however, the monkeys remained psychologically abnormal.

In a later study on the effect of total isolation from birth, the researchers found that the test monkeys, upon being released into a group of ordinary monkeys, “usually go into a state of emotional shock, characterized by . . . autistic self-clutching and rocking.” Harlow noted, “One of six monkeys isolated for three months refused to eat after release and died five days later.” After several weeks in the company of other monkeys, most of them adjusted—but not those who had been isolated for longer periods. “Twelve months of isolation almost obliterated the animals socially,” Harlow wrote. They became permanently withdrawn, and they lived as outcasts—regularly set upon, as if inviting abuse.

The research made Harlow famous (and infamous, too—revulsion at his work helped spur the animal-rights movement). Other psychologists produced evidence of similarly deep and sustained damage in neglected and orphaned children. Hospitals were made to open up their nurseries to parents. And it became widely accepted that children require nurturing human beings not just for food and protection but also for the normal functioning of their brains.

We have been hesitant to apply these lessons to adults. Adults, after all, are fully formed, independent beings, with internal strengths and knowledge to draw upon. We wouldn’t have anything like a child’s dependence on other people, right? Yet it seems that we do. We don’t have a lot of monkey experiments to call upon here. But mankind has produced tens of thousands of human ones, including in our prison system. And the picture that has emerged is profoundly unsettling.

Among our most benign experiments are those with people who voluntarily isolate themselves for extended periods. Long-distance solo sailors, for instance, commit themselves to months at sea. They face all manner of physical terrors: thrashing storms, fifty-foot waves, leaks, illness. Yet, for many, the single most overwhelming difficulty they report is the “soul-destroying loneliness,” as one sailor called it. Astronauts have to be screened for their ability to tolerate long stretches in tightly confined isolation, and they come to depend on radio and video communications for social contact.

The problem of isolation goes beyond ordinary loneliness, however.

2) UCLA study on friendship among women - Tend and Befriend vs. Fight or Flight response to stress 

 

Of course, this is nothing new. Some would argue it is stating the obvious. Afterall, Alfred Adler wrote in the early 20th century..

"Man is a social being. Expressed differently: The human being and all his capabilities and forms of expression are inseparably linked to the existence of others, just as he is linked to cosmic facts and to the demands of this earth." - Critical Considerations on the Meaning of Life, IZIP, Vol.III, 1924

 

And since true happiness is inseparable from the feeling of giving, it is clear that a social person is much closer to happiness than the isolated person striving for superiority. Individual Psychology has very clearly pointed out that everyone who is deeply unhappy, the neurotic and the desolate person stem from among those who were deprived in their younger years of being able to develop the feeling of community, the courage, the optimism, and the self-confidence that comes directly from the sense of belonging. This sense of belonging that cannot be denied anyone, against which there are no arguments, can only be won by being involved, by cooperating, and experiencing, and by being useful to others. Out of this emerges a lasting, genuine feeling of worthiness. " - Individual Psychology, Einführung in die neuere Psychologie, 1926

Even Mahatma Gandhi is said to have said:

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

And also Rochefoucaul:

What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love. 

And so it goes....

A heartrending and yet inspirational story! (I could hardly bear to read it at times for fear of tearing up!) I would not do justice even if I tried to summarize what this article is about. Go read it in its entirety.

Anyone who is in love is living a charmed life, especially if you’ve been in love for many years, through good times and bad.

Quotable quote these lines that end this article.

We are two, but we are one. And I love those numbers.

More power to Layng Martine and his wife as they take on life - with all its uncertainties, challenges, and unforeseen indignities.

P.S. Another well written and moving article that I saw yesterday in the LA Times. This one is about a simpler matter - a blood stained $100 bill. But how nicely the story has been developed and written about!

A Note of Suffering

Nobody wants blood money. Nations spend billions of dollars to wage war, but a $100 bill smudged with a man's blood makes the superstitious queasy.

Some days I feel like this - like I'm that man walking with life's ominous uncertainties creeping up on me...



Maybe I'll try to inspire myself with some quotes (A quote is like "bread for the famished", the Talmud says!)

“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” - John Allen Paulos



“Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.”   - R. I. Fitzhenry 

“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.” - Ursula K. LeGuin 

“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.”   - Erich Fromm 


“Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing, through the overtaking and possessing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase.”  - William Congreve


“Certainty is the mother of quiet and repose, and uncertainty the cause of variance and contentions”   - Edward Coke


“Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process.”  - Harold S. Geneen

And so it goes...

This is a must see!

This talk was the buzz at TED Talks this year -- Game-changing wearable tech

Related article in Wired: MIT students develop a wearable computing system that turns any surface into an interactive display screen.  

"The wearer can summon virtual gadgets and internet data at will, then dispel them like smoke when done."

My first thought was that this was like the movie Minority Report! Actually, this is quite different. I googled to remind myself of what Tom Cruise did in Minority Report and I think that was something like this "intuitive, interface-free, touch-driven screen".... also presented at TED Talks earlier.
 

In a recent TED talk, Dan Ariely, author of the recent book, Predictably Irrational (which I partly read in December 2008) explores the hidden reasons behind why humans think it's OK to cheat or steal only a "little" -- It's all about feeling good about oneself and our impressions about ourselves.



He also explains some of the decisions that went into the "cheating" in the stock market that has led us to the current mess. You can read more about his studies on how our intuitions are wrong in an interview with him at this Wired blog post and also this article at the Harvard business blog. Also this review of Dan's book.

P.S. Line from the talk that elicited the most laughs from the audience: "MITdoesn't have an honor code." :-)

I am not an avid listener of Indian classical music but do enjoy the occasional Hindustani and Carnatic music (mostly instrumental; rarely vocal).

So, 3 videos today from Carnatic music instrumentalists who I have enjoyed in the recent past.

First up, U. Shrinivas on what is not a traditional Indian musical instrument - the mandolin.



Next a performance by Lalgudi Jayaraman on the violin, which also is not innately an Indian instrument but has been adopted by Carnatic musicians for quite a long time now.






and last but not least, a mridgangam solo -- shout out to my childhood friend, Rama, who used to play this instrument quite well.



A post with some of my favorite Hindustani instrumentalists next week...

"In the end, you'll remember only good things. Don't waste time with nonsense, there's plenty of it. And go and find what makes you happy while you can, since time slips away very quickly."

From this Coca Cola Ad



On that note, I better stop this blogging "nonsense" and go find what will make me happy.....or at least do something more constructive and useful!

Gretchen Rubin at Slate has this series of articles:

• Happiness Myth No. 5: A “Treat” Will Cheer You Up
• Happiness Myth No. 4: You’ll Be Happier if You Insist on "The Best"
• Happiness Myth No. 3: Venting Anger Relieves It
• Happiness Myth No. 2: Nothing Changes a Person's Happiness Level Much
• Happiness Myth No. 1: Happy People Are Annoying and Stupid

Gretchen is actually working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT, which will hit the shelves in late 2009. On her blog, she recounts some of her adventures and insights as she grapple with the challenge of being happier. According to the above link, her upcoming book is a "memoir about the year she spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study she could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t."

I only briefly perused through a book about happiness myself recently --  The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky. This one is not by someone who test-drove theories herself but by a psychologist involved for many years in scientific studies of what factors contribute to human happiness. I found it quite useful though I did not read more than 40-50 pages and hope to get back to it sometime this year.

The book was one of 5 that was reviewed in the New York Review of Books last year.

• The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want by Sonja Lyubomirsky 
• Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment by Tal Ben-Shahar 
• Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert 
• Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy by Eric G. Wilson 
• What Is Emotion?: History, Measures, and Meanings by Jerome Kagan
  

Given the general state of the world, it is not surprising that there are so many books about happiness. Lots of people, like me, wonder about what it takes to be happy in life, I suppose!

Previous posts about happiness: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Microsoft should buy this building!

A new office block being built in China is believed to have the most windows of any building of its size in the world.

The nine-storey building, designed by Japanese architect Sako Keiichiro, has close to a 1,000 windows. None of the rooms in the building are completely square or rectangular, corridors wind around and between rooms, and each floor features a mini garden. "It's like a maze inside," said one construction worker, who added that it was the most difficult and time-consuming project he had ever worked on.

P.S. I wondered what labels to give this post. Oddball, I thought. Then, I figured this kind of architecture is in fact art! :)

Heard somewhere that 'the problem with being best man at a wedding is that you never get a chance to prove it' (that you are the best). So, you go and do something like this! :)



This is one wedding everyone - esp the bride & the best man - will remember!   
-
“Gravity is a contributing factor in nearly 73 percent of all accidents involving falling objects.”

Rare footage of a young Vikku Vinayakram and Zakir Hussain .. must-see!



and this live performance from 1974 in Copenhagan featuring the group, Shakti, featuring John McLaughlin on guitar, L. Shankar on violin, Vikku Vinayakram on the ghatam, and Zakir Hussein on the tabla.


And one last video of Shakti from 1974..



















 
Thank you, Youtube and all those who upload these wonderful treasures for free viewing online!

Slumdog Millionaire and the Oscars for AR Rahman seem to have sparked an interest for Indian music in the West again!

This post at Boing-Boing informs us that last week Putumayo has released a compilation of music by various Indian musicians ...

Putumayo Presents India compilation

... And while it does feature two tracks from Bollywood star composer AR Rahman (Slumdog's Oscar-winning musical director), the collection also includes lounge music, folk, classical, and of course high-energy Indian indie pop.

Btw, the video at the link above features Kiran Ahluwalia, who is one of the singers featured in this album. I have not heard of Kiran Ahluwalia before. (In fact, I am kinda surprised she's the face of this India music compilation ad (video at the link below). It just may be that she's the most easily accessible artist for the ad, being based in Canada.)

Anyways, this seems like a collection worth buying! Has an interesting array ofmusics:

Track Listings

1. Zara Zara - Bombay Jayshree
2. Khwaab - Niraj Chag featuring Swati Natekar
3. Naino Sey - Sanjay Divecha featuring Kailash Kher
4. Shiva Panchakshara Stotram/Shiva Shadakshara Stotram - Uma Mohan
5. Homeward Journey - Satish Vyas
6. Tere Bina - A.R. Rahman & Chinmayee
7. Nagumomo - Susheela Raman
8. Ganesha - Deepak Ram
9. Vo Kuch - Kiran Ahluwalia
10. Maavan Te Tiyan - Rajeshwari Sachdev

Btw, I have heard Susheela Raman before ... the first time being on PRI's The World on NPR some years back. I thought she was pretty good....that dusky voice somehow haunting and alluring, despite the Western accented lyrics in some pieces distracting from the music itself. For example, hear this song - Salt Rain 'Maya':



Lots of other videos on youtube, including this one with Cheb Mami... one of my favorite raï singers.



You may recall Cheb Mami from his haunting voice in Sting's Desert Rose... but the stuff from Cheb Mami that I like includes: Neli Neli, Le Rai Cest Chic, etc. [I have a tape somewhere of his music that I used to listen to all the time in the 1998-2002 period.]

btw, just FYI... in case you are not familiar with him or his music - his name is not Cheb! Singers of raï are called cheb (shabb, young) as opposed to sheikh (shaykh, old). In fact, Khaled (who had become quite famous in India in the 90s with his song Didi is also actually called Cheb Khalid.