Pandora, Bollywood station

Indeed, the Bollywood station on Pandora feels like the radio that I grew up listening to. A good collection of songs, old and new, mixed well.

Go Pandora!

Do blog posts (their frequency) follow a power-law distribution? Why?

Writing is known to be a streamlined channel for peoples' thoughts; blogging (micro-blogging too, of late) provides a platform where people can share their thoughts with the general public.

Time and again, the pattern shows up. The pattern where people blog very often for a short duration of time, and hibernate for a relatively long time. I feel the time-between-two-posts follows a power-law distribution. It would be nicer if one could validate the same; the knowledge would definitely help blog service providers in efficiently using their resources.

However, my interest lies in understanding why people go through these cycles of activity and no-activity. Is it because people have their own reasons to blog, and those reasons surface only from time-to-time. If that is the case, wouldn't it be amazing to conduct a survey on why people blog in the first place? Do people even know their prime motivation for blogging? I definitely don't. This reminds me of a conversation with a friend who studies communication. 

Apparently, in communication classes, the students are taught that each blog is supposed to have a theme/purpose. Though the merit of such an argument is questionable, how many of us actually set out with a purpose in mind?

Water

Let be a river, a lake, or the ocean, water bodies are known to be wonderful stress-busters. The best thing I have done in recent times is renting this place that overlooks the Wabash river. Here, I find myself sitting in the warmth of my room on a cloudy Saturday morning sipping the morning dose of hot badam milk. For a brain that is constantly running (unproductive most of the time, nevertheless running), I find myself blank and completely relaxed. Only if I could manage a massage here.

For those of you who argue on still vs moving waters, here is my two cents. Water is just amazing, it calms you irrespective of whether it is calm or rapid.

Graph from "I hate luv storys"

Change is indeed the only thing constant!

Ganesh Chathurdhi time again; and as always, I am reminded of the last year's celebrations. Though the celebrations and the people I celebrate with are mostly same, hardly anything else in life is the same.
Life (professional and personal) completely changed. Goals and aims, the way I perceive people around me and the way they perceive me, have all changed. Interestingly, I like everything about it - life then, life now, and the journey through (happy and not-so-happy).

Of course, I do not completely understand the course of life. Not that it needs to make sense. From time to time, certain things make sense. Life might feel complete if everything makes sense, well, eventually.

What is our favorite sense?

[... from a discussion with a friend]

While at the Monterey bay aquarium, we came across the hammer head shark. Wikipedia says - the hammer head shape is due to the nostrils at the end of the hammer head, and the nostrils (wide apart) assist the shark in attributing a specific direction to a smell. Quite interesting, right!

Among the sensory organs in humans and most animals, ears are widest apart followed by eyes, nostrils and tongue. Does it imply that we need to determine the direction of sound more than the direction of light or smell?

Interestingly, technological innovations in the entertainment world also follow similar trends -- radios, tape recorders, etc.; TVs, movies, videos etc.; and recently devices to emit a particular smell.

Coincidence? May be, but doesn't look like it.

PS: Entertainment here doesn't include recreational activities! :P

How about different education for men and women?

From the title of the post, I definitely sound like a sexist. May be I am. Here though, I am not arguing in favor of any sex.

This article suggests women's brains are more complex and apparently do a lot of thinking. If it were true, by giving both men and women the same education (training to think and act on a variety of issues), aren't we under-utilizing women's brains. It could very well be the reason why women have all the time in the world to think about not-so-important issues.

How about having different education systems for men and women (not disturbing their interaction), and let women teach women how to harness their lateral thinking abilities in a meaningful way.