Fallen

The leaves rustled. A dog barked.
The buzzing of the crickets and the broken shrieks of the wounded lemur.

The forest was alive tonight.

Ruan was alive tonight!

The torn carcass was lying before him, evil red poison pouring from its veins. He had done what he wanted. His nemesis, lying before him in a puddle of his own piss and blood. But why wasn't he satisfied? Why had the burning desire to kill not been dowsed? The rage that had pursued him for days (oh! the torture). It was still there, lying in wait for the body to catch up with itself. Soon it would return, this hunger for human flesh. Soon, the very thought of the ripe chubby flesh falling off the bones of a helpless manling would be enough to send him into a frenzy of rage!

But he wasn't like this, you know. Ruan remembered days, now seemingly in the distant past, where he was merely another wolf, sharing the world with the tasty homo-sapiens, but where the anger and delirium had been missing. And then he remembered ...

Coming home that night after a leisurely stroll through the bog, the smell of his cave had been different. He thought nothing of that, though - just a stray rat, he said to himself. But then he saw them, oh the pain!

They were his cubs! His little cubs, you spineless bastards! You waited till I was gone because you knew I was too strong! Oh you swine ...

And then the madness took over again. Diving through the thicket, Ruan plunged towards the only place he knew he could find fresh human flesh.

In the distance, the eastern sun rose over Beijing.

Void

There's a place
In the darkness of your soul
In the depths of your mind

What will you do?
When the world begins to search
When they begin to find?

How do you explain?
The seeds of lust in your heart
The words of rage in your mind

What will you do?
When you begin to search
And you begin to find?

Philanthropy and Bill Gates

As is common knowledge, after 30 years of heading one of the most power-hungry corporations in the world, Bill Gates has decided to (at least superficially) throw his energies into bettering the lives of the down-trodden peoples of the 3rd world.

The two articles linked to below are the latest in a series of debates on the hypocrisy of it all, and also on the possible good things that might come of his new-found altruism. The difference between these and any other article on the subject is that these tend to focus less on Mr. Gates' abilities/inabilities and more on those of the entire free market economy - as they point out, philanthropy is becoming a much more marketable word now than it used to be, so the question is : "How are the large corporates going to incorporate that thinking into their business strategies?"

Making Capitalism More Creative - TIME

Creative capitalism isn't some big new economic theory. And it isn't a knock on capitalism itself. It is a way to answer a vital question: How can we most effectively spread the benefits of capitalism and the huge improvements in quality of life it can provide to people who have been left out?

The Audacity of Bill Gates - TIME

There is something deeply wrong with a system that allows extremes of inequality, these people believe, and creative capitalism is just a way for the corporate élite to put off making the necessary changes.

Swamp Thing

Just began reading Alan Moore's rendition of "The Swamp Thing" - a horror-fantasy comic about a creature that is a traumatized plant-like monster that spends its life trying to understand itself and its past.

The original story arc revolved around the usual super-hero mythos - something along the lines of The Hulk - the creature was born in a lab experiment gone bad, where an explosion results in the mingling of the scientist's mind with the boggy marsh surrounding the laboratory. When everyone thinks he's dead, he arises phoenix-like, and begins to hunt down those responsible for the explosion and for his wife's death (obviously, she was conveniently disposed off by the bad guy's henchmen).

But Alan Moore takes the original script and gives it a twist - in #21, "The Anatomy Lesson", the reader finds that the Swamp Thing has been located and shot down by the Military Special Corps and now a doctor who moonlights as a half-plant mutant himself is performing the autopsy. In a beautiful interplay between the panelling and the story line, Alan Moore bores into the tortured anatomy of the Swamp Thing, revealing that it is not really a man who has been turned into a plant, but merely a sentient plant, that believes itself to be a human!!

This outstanding revelation now leads into the creatures deepest darkest nightmares, and reveals it as a desperately pathetic animal looking for salvation. Wonderfully illustrated, Alan Moore made his mark with this series, and it certainly is a brilliant read.

There is a wonderful line in one of the comics at a point where the Swamp Thing has visions of running from the plant world into the Human plane of existence while being advised by his humanity. It says : "This is the Human Race, You have to keep going, or you will get disqualified"

Work? Surely you jest!

Well, I've been getting progressively more and more excited about work over the last few weeks - It all began sometime 2 weeks ago, when I started reading Dixmier's book on continuous fields of C* algebras. Something about the cohesiveness of that theory excited me - especially the facts about the ideal structure being recoverable from the fibers. Reading Nilsen's paper seemed to fix those ideas, and then getting to Dadarlat's paper was just like seeing daylight again! So beautiful, this idea of asymptotic morphisms, and the way they tie up with continuous fields!

Anyway, I could wax eloquent about this for hours - but the point is that I find myself actually doing some minimal "research" for the first time. I am reading papers and books interchangeably, and wondering about the grander perspective so that I don't get lost in the trees and miss the forest.

Trouble is, and this just might be me torturing myself for no rhyme or reason, I find it hard to communicate this to others. Maybe I am not trying hard enough, but it seems like everytime I start talking about this people shut off and go all bleary-eyed on me. This, of course, led me to consider the value of such communication - it seems like one of the most important aspects of research : to be able to exchange ideas freely and to get excited about what other people are working on. Maybe I am an idealist, but I feel like I should put more effort into this.

Add to this: the rather disturbing conversation I had with my advisor today - about misdealings and dishonesty in the profession. He's a nice guy, and the events we discussed obviously left him feeling very annoyed and offended, and I could totally see it from his point of view. So the question is: at what point do you stop this idealistic free exchange of thoughts, and begin to work towards publishing your own papers without running the risk of someone stealing your ideas?!

I am in two minds about this, and it will require some careful thought - but in the meantime - onwards with semi-projectivity! :)

Vagabond

Discovered a new Manga this week - called Vagabond - written by a gentleman named Takehiko Inoue, and I must say, I am really enjoying it! It tells the tale of a self-obsessed Ronin, who spends half his life fretting about the fact that he is not the world's greatest Samurai, and the other (concurrent) half challenging the greatest Samurai to duels. He goes from being a total wuss to being something of a deified legend - and meets some really cool people along the way.

The nicest part about this is the art work - Inoue sets a rapid pace for the book, but contrastingly, likes to pause every once in a while and reflect on what has just happened. For instance, this page is preceded by a long and tough battle between our hero and some soldiers from the Imperial Army who are out to kill him. He has just spent the last 15-odd pages massacring them - an impaled neck here, gouged eyeball there - the usual excitement - but now the author takes this page to pause. The middle panel is that of a mercenary who was killed when a rock was hurled on his head, and that is framed by the moon on either side - it obviously is meant to have many interpretations - but there is a certain serenity and a foreboding about this page that has me all a-twitter!

Real nice comic - I've just started so I hope it stays this way.

The Omniscient One

God : I think I'll get rid of Norway.
Satan : Why, O Gracious One?
God : Never did like the fjords. What the fuck is a fjord anyway? I gave that one to Slartibartfast, and look what he did. Amateurs!
Satan : Hey! I like those little things! You can't get rid of dem phyordz! (Aside: Hey Azazel, what's a phyordz?)
Azazel : It's a prehistoric turd, boss.
Satan (to God): Hey! I like toids! I fuckin' protest!
God : Ok, that's it. I'm done with you (Kicks him into hell). I decree that you will now be known as the Fallen Angel!

(Now really mad, Satan rises rubbing a bruised rump, while Azazel is laughing heartily and kicking around a piece of meat).
Satan : Hey Azazel, what's the bald piece of flesh you're playing with?
Azazel : It's one of His rejects, boss. He calls it a homo-erectus! (chuckles).
Satan (rubbing his chin) : Reject, huh? Well, no longer! Let's mess with Him - throw that critter in Africa and give it hair only on its head and its crotch! This'll be fun. Oh, and just for fun, teach it to play with rocks like you do, will ya? Maybe one day it'll throw rocks at Him!

(This was the not-so-coherent thought that popped into my head while reading this)

Snowblind

In other news .. I just found the link I've posted below, and loved it! The cover for Snowblind is frickin' unbelievable - it seems to capture the original song, and at the same time reflect the fact that it is being sung by this dude.

The Covers Project » Black Sabbath

This is fucked up ...

I had a feeling this might happen someday, but this is happening during a time when India is doing well as an economy, and just when people like me (and many others) might start considering coming back to India because the standard of living is now comparable to the west - Why in fuck's name does the government do shit like this? This is preposterous, and my complete impotence in this matter is the worst part!


HRD orders faculty quota, IIT directors livid-India-The Times of India

The lecturer’s post in the IITs is a contractual one and the basic salary is Rs 10,000 per month. Usually, fresh PhD candidates are taken in at this level.

If their services are found satisfactory, they are promoted to assistant professor and get onto the permanent rolls of the IITs. But now, almost half the posts - 49.5% to be precise - will be reserved at both these levels.

Comic delights

So, I've been reading this blog for a while now, and find her very very amusing. But this was frickin' awesome - laughed me ass off.