Ha...Aliens

I am currently reading Stephen Hawking's book Brief History of Time recommended to me by my school time friend who is a scientist herself - thank you.

While surfing around, I got to know there is a reader poll that is being conducted by SmartBrief. I participated and I have voted for the top two colors. See below the screenshot...makes for interesting reading.

I wrote in relation to this subject in the year 2007 - click Psychobabble. I strongly believe, science exists purely to push the boundaries of imagination and capabilities of human beings and the pursuit of searching other life forms should go on....no matter what the risk.

Nomenclature

Whats is in a name? Heck of a lot. I say that because our name is the important thing we are attached with in our life ....Why just life, even in death our obituary column has it. But when we are named, we have absolutely no control over it. Oh My GAWD!

Sample some real names below:

Wuttipong Tanteraponchai - Thai name....and there are some more bizarre ones out there like "Sraithong Boomburaphong"

Hubertus Jacobus Cornelis Ransijn - Dutch name, its like four individuals can be named with this single name :-D

Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Abdullah Al Lawati Al Tanji Ibn Battuta - This dude was a prolific traveller around 1300 AD

Manuel Casanova - Joke went around for this guy...do you have a brother? Is he named "Automatic" Casanova?

Silky - I am curious to know what went through her parents head when they were naming their daughter?

Honey Hotchandani - Given the ridiculousness of the previous name, I made this one up! First, the chick is "Honey" and then she is "Hot"....who cares about "chandani" here?

And then comes the usual names in Delhi/India.

Neha, Pooja, Preeti, Deepti, Priyanka, Divya, Megha

Rahul, Saurabh, Ajay, Sanjay, Amit

Education!

Haven't blogged in a while. Reason, I do not know.

Maybe I am lazy, maybe I was busy writing essays and statements of purpose for my masters. Alternatively, I was studying the impact of compound interest on an excel sheet – yes compound interest over a period of 30-40 years can make for very interesting study! Happy to share.

I started working full time when I was a month short of 20 years of age. It was neither circumstances nor family pressure...maybe it was a fallout of going to the hotel school and the resultant peer pressure. For the last four years, I have a constant feeling of not having my fill of formal education. This period coincides with media’s love for salary-package-laced-headlines on the front-page. What if education is there just to satiate ones curiosity? Why should education be treated as a precursor to a fat salary? We are in the knowledge age and knowledge is coming to us...why do we want to duck under it by linking it with money?

How about studying perfumery or wine making or shoe designing or public policy or cultural affairs or economics or language or population studies or mythology or attempting to be a vedic scholar......Is one life time enough to know even 1% of all there is know? Wikipedia - here I come.