Jul 3, 2007

Global CogniMaps aka Links-shower 07jun25-July01

This Global CogniMap aka Links-shower is prefaced by some of my thoughts, in the English language - Roman script, QWERTY keyboard - on Outsourcing Memory.

A devilish brew for the mind, ERQ certainly does not make an agreeable combination for me and I never cease to be mystified why it dominates global discourse.

If I were an Indian Harry S Truman, I'd have no hesitation in ordering that ERQ be nuked to save the English speaking people from their own language habits.

Can anyone tell me how Capitalism and market forces shot down the Dvorak keyboard?...

Okay, tune-up's done. I now dive into OM.

Words, said the late R Buckminster Fuller, are memorials to past victories of mutual understandings.

Fine. correct. And I like to play with these memorials; rearrange them, push them around, break them up and join them in a new configuration.

All of this is affordable to anyone who can't even make a dollar-a-day because these invaluable memorials cost nothing and they don't need batteries. Except for a very few - a few thousands, maybe - many are found to be unpatentable.

I take the word 'word', and, slowly, carefully, I slide in the letter 'l' in between the 'r' and the 'd' and... hey presto! - in one L(eap) I go from 'word' to 'world'

Makes you want to go back and ask God, "Did you do it that way, too?"

In the beginning was the word and it was with God, says the Bible, then it skips the crucial line 'And He inserted L in the Word - L as in Lionel, or, if you prefer, 'Light' - and then all the rest of the 'tiresome' stuff got created...

I call it 'tiresome' because many people who shouldn't, think living a life in the world is a frustrating ordeal, Hindoos not excepted.

Others can't get off the gorge-consume-waste-devastate treadmill even when everyone can clearly see they endanger the Spaceship on which they are 'doing their thing' and believe it's kool. Nero playing his harp while Rome was burning is not a strong enough example.

Amongst the Indic cultures which spread across most of Asia, and once influenced those in the so-inappropriately-called 'Middle East', there's this classic, many-versioned story of the monk/sadhu teaching a lesson to a greedy hedonistic king.

Carrying a human skull for a begging bowl, he presents himself to the avaracious hedon.

The King says, "With so many holes in your begging bowl, I can never fill it up for you."

The monk says, "I am glad you noticed the holes."

The Sanskrit aphorist says, "Our desires do not grow old, but we do."

Coming back to the word/world memorial game, it doesn't really matter whether the L got inserted or not. God might have done it more cleverly because He had more words to play with than those merely in the English language.

I recall reading somewhere that there were five ways you could tag a word in Sanskrit; Latin could do so three ways. These word-tags are apart, of course, from the general prefixing and suffixing that we tack on them.

I have been told that the need to invent this tagging method arose when they had to figure out a way to not merely communicate orally, but to be able to do so accurately.

The way to ensure this was to arrange words in a lyrical way. When the heard sound was memorized any errors in the process would show up in recitation because the meter would break.

This communicational method came to be known as Avadhänam and those who practice and become adept at it, they are able to demonstrate amazing feats of memory.

A few years ago, a language lab in the U S found that, at birth, every normal healthy human baby has the potential to become fluent in eight languages. This is supportive of the minimal 8-way Açtävadhänam - or, "paying attention to, or, thinking in eight domains at the same time."

That thousands of years later, so much has come down to us verbatim in Sanskrit with very little error makes me use USAianSpeak and say, "Never before was so much accomplished with so little". Perhaps, never has yet been, not withstanding the amazing wonders of the Cyber Age.

What the word-tagging did was to allow you to move and sequence it any you wanted within the sentence. The idea was to create and propagate those that could kind of bootstrap themselves into human memory and could be poetically recited in rhyme and meter.

That is what manŧras are all about. Many of them are beautiful paeans (sŧûŧi) to Life, its intoxicating existential experience and its ever expanding wisdom and understanding, often coded as walking conversations with the gods*.

You come up with funny coincidences when you are allowed to play with words in this manner. For instance, sŧûŧi + manŧra = Sŧûŧimanŧra; and then you slur to get 'Statement', or, when similarly slurred, you get 'Government' from gûrûmanŧra = gûrû + manŧra

I'll take one more slurred example before the lexicographers jump on me. When I recently heard a recording in which the phrase "A system has to minimally have six components" occurred, my Sanskrit went into overdrive and I found that a word I shall spell - shashta - for convenience because 's' sound at both places is glottal and it is written with a tailed C, like Ç.

Shashta or Çaçta means 'six' and you tag it with an 'm' sound - Çaçtam - and it means the 'sixth', or a grouping of six.

So, now how long will it take anyone to slur from Çaçtam to 'System'? Knowing Sanskrit, the word 'System' ceases to be a bogey and you can move on without having to explain that it is minimally six-componented.

Of the 16 such 'systems' that, when synergistically interconnected, constitute, per a Sanskrit mantra, human intelligence - or, bûđđhi (a word with many derivatives including 'Bûđđha' and 'Bôđh' as in 'Bôđhi Tree') - only one is memory; the English word goes and becomes 'memorial' as in "memorials to past victories of mutual understandings".

I'll take up the other fifteen systems that constitute human intelligence later because all of this is my way of introducing the link shower below.

While Jesus may be carrying the burden of our sins, we humans, I believe, have had to carry through the ages the ever-increasing burden of memories ever since we became aware. This burden grew and grew with each passing moment to the point where someone observed that of the sixty seconds in a minute most humans spent 59 in the past, i.e. remembering, and the remaining one in the future. Rarely were they 'here', in the present.

Luckily, humans have lately - thanks to improved data encryption, storage, retrieval, transmission and accessing technologies - become somewhat more efficient in 'outsourcing' their memories.

But someone once missed a lunch appointment because his cellphone didn't remind him. He had access to a radio program to tell the world about it. The program invites listener-feedback and I sent mine. They then called and recorded it in my own voice and let the world listen to that.

As many have moved away from listening to radios, or even listening to them online, this icon will get you to a 44-sec audio capsule of my opinion on 'outsourcing memory'.

The links below do not require you to either access the content or, by memorizing them, store them in your mind. You are allowed to be 'forgetful'. Half the letters of a word and a click on [Find] will get you the location and clicking on it will get you the content on demand.

*The link will reach you to the website of a performing duo of two young sisters from Sparks, Nevada, Andrea Devi Forman & Sara Anjuli Forman who mysteriously began chanting Sanskrit at age 7 and 9 and, in their twenties now, haven't stopped doing so on stage or, off it.

YouTube _______ iTunes

TECHNOLOGY
Net growth prompts privacy update
Apple's iPhone makes it to stores
Two-tiered net could be coming
'Violent' game ad condemned
Cultural past of the digital age
Piracy police raid Honeywell site
Private detective agency that snooped for wealthy clients
What the IT industry providers need to do - B V Jagadeesh
Job advertising - Second Life to Shpping Center sculptures
An intelligent dummy that helps
Wi-Fi, Wi-Max - Or MILTON?
How mobiles could beat queues in Rome
Milton who? MILTON What?
Yahoo's Bradley Horowitz imagines the 'internet of things'
Are non Euro-USAians getting a bill of connectivity goods?
Is MILTON best for affordable Wi-Fi conectivity in rural areas?
Some Koreans become famous for their gaming skills
Brain game pulled over offensive language
Google has added a PowerPoint viewer to Gmail
2nd & 3rd-tier offshore cos threat to India - ForresterR VP
Bangalore generates 6-8,000 tons of e-waste annually
India's IT and BPO could fall 30 per cent in four years
TCS, Infosys, Wipro etc hiring aggressively in the U S
DH CyberPage 07jun27 E News CYBER STOP
E utilities Page for more info on the following freeware
DL Xenu's Link Sleuth to find broken links(404 Error)
DL 6.26 MB Opera, v. 9.21, for Windows
DL Synergy & use one mouse & keyboard on multi-PCs
DL JetAudio Basic's new version
DL "After Work" & erase online and offline history
Mac tips and tricks TT KnwHow Page 07 June 25
TT-KnowHow's following MacDownloads info Page
DL iSquint free iPod encoder for Mac
DL standard modem scripts for Mac
DL Apple's Safari browser for Windows
Mark Shuttleworth explains Ubuntu
Ubuntu "Fiesty Fawn" praised by Bill Thompson
Chilean village hypes Wi-Fi but has problems
Heart transplant joy for baby Zoe
'Silent' brittle bone genes found
Egypt forbids female circumcision
Dementia patients can make safe drivers
Autism symptoms reversed in lab Japanese business confidence firm
Hong Kong's wealth has soared since the handover
Is the petroleum ministry favouring Mukesh Ambani's RIL?
Iran-India-Pak accord on fee for carrying gas
Tata Steel to set up titanium dioxide project in Tuticorin
Venezuela oil loss put at $4.5bn
Ryanair's Air Lingus bid blocked
Two Indian cos raise over $4 b in NYSE
Saudi Tele picks 25% in Maxis
HP mulls new GPS phones
Dell launches new notebooks
CIT joins hands with MindTree
Israeli firm floats arm in Blore
Mahindra-Renault launches 2 variants of Logan
State Bank of India expansion needs Rs 50,000 crore
Indian banks are finding it hard to find people to lend
Profits, global pressures - India Inc adopts cleaner technology
India can be an easy target for bio-terrorism
Government/industry nexus gives leeway to Union Carbide
Koreans protest over trade pact
Foreign tobacco firms target China's 350 million smokers
Link to Economics Journalist Daniel Altman's website
Texting 'NEWS BUSINESS to 81010' gets biz news on phone
David Altman on Globalization

David Altman on US-China-India
Climate-Environment-Development
Greek forest fire close to Athens
Cyprus fights huge blaze
Tracking plan for rare India croc
Australia farmers' drought strain
China farmers battle the elements
World Bank loan for India farmers
Climate fight needs chemical engineers, not carbon credits
Bald eagle soars again India refineries told to clean up
Uganda tackles the blight of plastic bags with legislation
Miners digging for gems in Madagascar - AudoSlideshow
India can be an easy target for bio-terrorism
The Double Edge Of Globalization
Kashmir's Dal Lake is at the last gasp
Bhagirathi to be tamed for power
Desertification 'threat to millions'
UN issues desertification warning
Wilderness almost non-existent on the planet, says study
Link to Life synthesizer - Venter institute Listen Link Below
Link to Brazil Climate Congress organizers - LLB
Link to Oxford Zoology for New Stem Cells LLB
Link to Cambridge SurgeryDept & MedResearchInstt LLB
SyntheticLifeBrazilClimateCongressNewStemcellsCatsFriday
Learn all about the invention of batteries until Wednesday
Report Uganda plastic bags nuisance until Thursday


Lifestyle-Features-Cultre-Arts-Literature
Gold shoes and combat gear at the Paris menswear show
India's highest paid star steers its most expensive film
Living Goddesses of Nepal await rule on their future
Shetty to star in London musical
Irish unfazed by smoke-free pubs
Journalist's beating focuses on 1990s Hungarian oil scandal
'Neighbours effect' tried on Japan
In the U S melting pot, English only please
Rio favela fashion wows catwalks
Charged Nasa woman 'had no nappy'
'Bullet-headache' man's wife held BBC's experiment in journalism's future
Headlines From The Heartland—Reinventing The Hindi Public Sphere - by Ram Sharan Joshi Book Review by Sevanti Ninan
The Self, Out There -Indian photography in distant shores

New-age realities make urban Indians settle for one kid only
Three handy books that let you master cooking overnight
Kathakali, is slowly losing its original identity

UNESCO renames Auschwitz Alarm: Iraqi heritage in danger
India's Red Fort on World Heritage list
Seven Rules for Making a (Science) Movie
Why did Mohsin Hamid write The Reluctant Fundamentalist?
A 20th century classic remembered (didn't reveal which one)
Whitewash mocks Indian middle class pretensions
Blurb Info Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea
Eyecatch Black with Equal Collaborators ATouch of Brightness
The Children of Turin mythologizes the self
"Bangalore didn't suddenly become "silicon Valley"

Bangalore city in three-quarter profile
New Testament recycled A book on Naxalite violence
Three books that provide a fresh look into the events of 1857
Harry Potter for adults Salma Ahmed's autobiography
Wonderful world of children From the page to the stage
Gommateshwara statue - a testimony to Jain devotion
Australia's Great Ocean Road winds through a kaleidoscope
Myth, meaning and modernity Highbrow column

Reluctant writer who disapoint after initial promise
"Nabokov's Butterfly" 'peccadilloes' etymology
Paulo Coelho's fanmail is fanatic but he is not
"I will never apologise for deserting the U S army.."
Czech composer Jaroslav Jezek -Biography + other info
Czech Music Musem: Blue Room (in Czech)
Mughal India, warts and all Nehru revisited
Voices from the neighbourhood Goa - one unending fiesta
"I owe.. one apology only.. to the people of Iraq"
"I deserted an injustice..." Joshua Key AWOL
Gandhi-son relationship now on celluloid
Indian male singer in burqa row
Learning while working and earning
Studying Abroad Studying in India Reviews Books Movies Art
Supplements: Avenues Education Open Sesame Living
Fine Art / Culture Articulations Spectrum She
Godavari - A tale of two rivers
A A mamboodiri's life & poetry inseparable
Shiela Kumar's post card has "A fruitfuil affair" in Singapore
Shashi Tharor is "Imagining India"
R Guha speaks of "A philosopher, witty and wise"
Sevanti Ninan is "Changing worth ethics" in media
Concern for a sick child' led to bettering the community's lot
For the Indian publishing world romance is in the air
In"The Mighty Heart "Danny has a cameo in his own murder" "Salman Rushdie transformed into a weak-voiced celebrity"
Monster spouses ruining Indian immigrant women's lives
"How To Placate An Angry Naga" by Leena Nandan and Jiwesh Nandan reviewed by Bhaskar Ghose
Namdeo Dhasal—"Poet Of The Underworld", Poems 1972-2006 Selection, introduction, translation by Dilip Chitre Photographs by Henning Stegmuller Review Shanta Gokhale
Seven Rules for Making a (Science) Movie
Link to BBC Glastonbury Festival site Link to "Live Earth"
Link to first JFOC smokers' pod in the UK
Link to skin-eating fish beauty treatment
Link to R & G UK singer NY's website
Outsourcing memory - an opinion
An introductory interview with the Icelandic group Amiina
Amiina the 146-instrument icelandic group live on KEXP
Let your player loop this soothing Glass Harp segment
Report on Islamic Calvinism until Sunday
Sacked for public-hug: Female Pak minister until Friday
P Goodson on Jaroslav Jezek's blues obsess until Friday
Rich and varied life of Britain's faith communities1-3 "

Glastonbury+CameroonRapper+R&G'sNyLive until Thurs
Schindler's Ark authorThomas Keneally takes queries Tues


World News
Denmark-Germany bridge agreed
Cyprus fights huge blaze
French jobless at 25-year low
Europe readies huge space truck
Irish unfazed by smoke-free pubs

INDIA
This handwritten letter by Mohandas Gandhi is pictured at Christies Auction House in central London on Tuesday. The letter is a part of the 'Albin Schram Collection of Handwritten Manuscripts' that are to be auctioned at Christies in London on July 3. AFP

1 comment:

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