Admirable painting!

I dont have much to say except to say, I hate modern paintings. Reason, I dont get it. Here, I said it. Well, I want to say I love and admire the classic painting (I hope that is what it is called. I meant opposite of modern painting).  The reason for this blog (outburst) is because I came across this  bunch of paintings by an artist called

Ilayaraja.

I end up admiring these paintings and get arrested in its details, every time I look at them. I felt the same when looking at Ravi Varma paintings,  some paintings in Louvre, some temples in south India to name a few.  Check these paintings. I highly recommend. Thanks to Gomu for his link thro’ facebook.

 

Overheard! Vijay TV Super Singer

In Vijay TV, It was funny to hear host Divya of Airtel Super Singer say to the guest Nikhil Mathew an exact translation of  “Please take your seat” in Tamil

“ப்ளீஸ் உங்க சீட்ட எடுத்துக்குங்க!”

 

 

Another ugly side of Pharmaceutical research!

Check this report by David Ng reported in BoingBoing on a research report by Donald W. Light , stanford university and Rebecca Warburton titled  “Demythologizing the high costs of pharmaceutical research“

on ugly side of pharma research and its misrepresentations to the public. I will urge you to read the main article  or the concise version from BoingBoing and will leave you with quoting a glaring point which David terms as “profits foregone” while paraphrasing an issue  in Light and Warburton article  about stand point of the pharma industry on R &D costs transfer to end users.

3. About 50% of this $802 million figure is actually due to “profits foregone.” In other words, as Light and Warburton succinctly describe, this equates to a ‘You owe us for all our R&D costs, plus what we would have made had we not undertaken the project in the first place.’ Although this is obviously a factor for businesses to take into account, the authors ask whether this is really an appropriate way to calculate figures used to lobby for government protected pricing? Nevermind the fact, that one could argue that R&D costs are a necessity when innovation is key element for an industry.

This report basically is a criticism of  the study in 2003 by Joseph DiMasi, Ronald Hansen, and Henry Grabowski at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD)  in Boston, Massachusetts on the cost of new drug development. Here you can read a rebuttal by the CSDD in their website.

I am not clear on the details of the war and will post more as I read more about it.

But something noticeable in the CSDD website is their claim of being non-profit organization but   40% of their funding comes from pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Beats me!

 

Music tapped from trees!

What a way to play music?

Linked from Boing Boing of composer Diego Stocco’s strange source of music.

Check this video of music tapped from trees (literally!!)

I was reminded of a standard line from tamil movies with sort of a music leaning where an elderly ‘betal leaf chewing’  Mama (a Music guru typically in abject poverty’)   tells his sishyakoti’s (‘student/crores of students!!’) at the beginning of the music lesson “You know, music is everywhere and all around us. It it is just that you need the ears and patience to sense it”. This willl be followed by scenes with sounds from clanking of a sombu (an important untensil in tamil household and movie industry about which a post will soon follow), Mami (Guru’s Wife) winnowing the rice, Pati (Guru’s even more elderly mom)  punching the pestle into the mortar to grind the betal nut, Milkman ringing his bicycle’s bell, a far away train honking, A blacksmith beating the metal,  A breeze wafting thro’ the field ….

I thought this scene was cheesy which tamil movies couldn’t live without.

But this video is amazing.

 

Pi Day!

Some info on the Pi Day from wiki, which was yesterday (14th March or 3.14)

Celebrate by making a Pi(e)!

Along the same lines there is also Pi approximation day which is 22nd July (22/7) . Read about it!

 

National Birds

Does national bird status mean something for the bird protection. If somebody knows please enlighten me.

Meanwhile, check out this nature article on national birds

http://www.itsnature.org/what-on-earth/national-birds-of-the-world/

 

Enthiran (Robot) – A giant movie from a giant.

If you are surprised what made me wake up from the spell under which I was not updating my blog, it is the jolt I got from watching superstar Rajni in his new movie

Enthiran (Robot).

Thalava, Kalakitta! DOT

Nobody but Rajini could have pulled it off so well.

Yesterday, after a long time, I moved my lazy rear out of the house to see a movie in theatre, to see Enthiran and what a way to re-energise your sunday afternoon and kick start the week.

My wife put it aptly as a coming of age film for Shankar and I cant agree more. If you had enjoyed Rajini’s role as villain in the early part of his career, I think you are in for a treat in this movie. I cant give you much more of the story, since I want you to go and get a few first hand experiences of thalaivar’s bliss yourself.

Cheers to Shankar for his phenomenal imagination and creativity. I always thought he had just an art of showing opulence but imagination was restricted to silly scenes like  sticking a crow to hairdo of the heroine (Anniyan), Pots dancing (Mudalvan) and painting Rajini faces on hundreds of well-bred paunches (Sivaji). But, with this film, he broke all my opinions of him. The guy still has few tricks up his sleeve. I am looking forward to his next creation. Shankar if you are hearing me, may be a STARWARS kind of movie. If he has his way, he might convince the director to shoot on the moon.

Kalanidhi maran surely has business in his blood. Knew, exactly what to get behind, giving Shankar the free reign and now he is reaping the benefit.

The movie was constructed around Rajini and only Rajini with a huge belief (almost  borderlining on something like a religious faith) expecting a miracle and the man delivered it like a god would.

Almost everybody in the movie like Danny Denzongpa, Santhanam, Karunas etc were few (one) scene wonders but looks like were too happy to show their faces in this magnum opus. Aishwarya Rai too didn’t have much of a role to talk about besides being an arm candy but I think she should gracefully retire now before she makes a joke of herself when hi-res camera can zoom on her real age.

At this point, I am reminded of the time when as a group we went for a Rajini movie from IISC Bangalore and the comment we heard from a fan when coming out of the movie. “Ticket vasool airichu. Thalaivar step ku rendu rooba tharalam” meaning “I got my ticket money back. Every step of Rajini is worth two rupees” I would say for this movie, Rajini’s step is worth much more.

Enthiran: A perfect Rajini movie in every sense and an wholesome entertainer. I have only one wish to put forth to Rajini.

“Give me more”

or in his style

“Thalaiva RRRepeatu”

DOT

 

Interesting google quotes!

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
– John Adams

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
– John Ciardi

 

Poor grad students!

Not sure it is true but appears quite probable!

courtesy:what is new?  phdcomics

It’s official – Times are tough. Actual excerpt from the Dean’s newsletter, Stanford University: “The new policy suspends provision of food and beverages from School funds for meetings and other events… Some events will be rescheduled, where feasible, so that they don’t coincide with meal times.”
And this is from the School of Medicine. Yikes!

Poor grad students!

Reminds me of my good ol’grad school days. How many talks just to get a shot of coffee board coffee and gooday cookies!!

 

After a long Hiatus!

Been quite a while since I dropped my two cents worth here. But this seems like a good start!

Saw this quote attributed to Feynman (May or May not be true) but does pack a punch

Physics is to math what sex is to masturbation.

Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988

Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that’s not why we do it.

Richard Feynman  1918 – 1988