Top 10 Songs Of Last Week

I am sick of all the Top 10 lists, especially "of all time" kind. How can anyone be so sure about that? One must listen to all the songs ever composed to come up with such a list. It is just not possible. I like to keep things simple, so I have come up with Top 10 Songs Of Last Week. Simply put, the songs that I listened to a lot last week. Here it goes (no ranking involved - shuffle is on):

1. Fade to black - Metallica
2. When the levee breaks - Led Zeppelin
3. Hate me now - Nas
4. Thunderstruck - AC/DC
5. Pull me under - Dream Theater
6. California love - Tupac/Dre
7. In the end - Linkin Park
8. N.I.B - Black Sabbath
9. Say it ain't so - Weezer
10. Afraid to shoot strangers - Iron Maiden

Attention: This list may change without notice next week. Any damage caused by such action is not my responsibility.

Scientists Have Faith Too: It's called Assumption

Do scientists have faith? I'm not taking about the religious kind; they may have it or they may not. But, what I'm alluding to is the general kind; the one which cannot be proved yet but they believe in it anyway, hoping someday they will prove it right.

Academics call it an assumption or a premise. It is yet another way to simplify things. They can create a whole theory based on an assumption. One such assumption is that of "Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy". We cannot explain why the universe is the way it is without these two. However, nobody has seen, experienced or detected them (hence "Dark"). This is what I call Scientific Faith. The whole field of Astrophysics is based upon it. Now to be sure, there are alternatives; Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) is one for example. But, only DM and DE have been able to explain the astronomical observations elegantly. Over 95% of our universe is this unexplained stuff. On top of that add the fact that we know very little about the remaining 4% of the observable universe, no wonder scientists need faith too.

At least they are trying diligently to prove their faith right logically, unlike some other people with faith I know.

Pi: Not so Simple

Pi is not so simple to comprehend. According to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi - since most of you will go there anyway): Pi or π is one of the most important mathematical constants, approximately equal to 3.14159. It represents the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, which is the same as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius.

For me, that “approximately” creates problems in understanding this simple constant. The circle is real, you can hold a wheel in your hands, play with it, put a cabin and engine on top of four such circles and go places…real places. But still the constant associated with this very real object is not so real. Infact it is irrational, and arguing about something irrational, by definition mind you, doesn’t take you anywhere. On top of that, it is transcendental. Now I associate anything transcendental to abstract, not very definable or comprehendible.

So there you go, Pi is not simple to comprehend. Why this is so is beyond me. How can this be, what is the mystery? What if we devise a number system and geometry such that Pi becomes real (the way it should be)? Will it give us any new revelation into how universe works? The sphere, to which shape most cosmological entities like to end up, is entangled with Pi? Will this new mathematico-physical system unravel the mysteries? Who knows?

I’m moving away from simple stuff, which is where my online alter-ego is not comfortable. So, I’ll stop pondering.

Capitalism's Fuel is Consumerism: Use this Power Democratically to Keep Corporations in Check

I like to simplify things. Many folks, including myself, complain non-stop about “those big deep-pocket corporations out to get every penny we have”. Well, the other day I had a simple idea. I don’t know whether it is original (only to the extent that I haven’t heard about it from anyone else), but here it is anyway.

Why not all consumers of a particular corporation give a memorandum that if some demand (e.g. better consumer service, lower prices etc. ) are not met , they will cancel their subscriptions (loyalties, accounts, memberships, etc.) on a chosen day, all at the same time. This will work like a magic if most of the consumers participate (even 25% will be a huge dent in their revenue). And the internet will make it organized and transparent to all. It will be something like an online democratic process; only instead of money/power hungry politicians deciding our fate, people will be in charge directly. It will be a beautiful consolidation of both Capitalism and Democracy. People will list their demands, choose the final demands according to a majority vote, and put the memorandum and the deadline on a website. And then wait for the corporations to scramble to meet the demands.

Initially it may not work; especially if the corporation thinks this is just another online fad, but if the consumers do responsibly cancel their memberships on the chosen day and not re-subscribe until the demands are met, well…