Bliss.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Lingual Lou.
Mon dernier message a été tapé à la hâte, sans aucun doute. Mère et Divya vont à Chennai pour les vacances. Divya ne peux pas supporter le bruit et l'odeur des pétards. Pinki et je n'ai pas rencontré depuis un certain temps. Qui sera réglé sous peu. Alors qu'Obama est président nouveau. Et il obtient 'One Direction' à la Maison Blanche. Hmm
The same sentences sound different in various languages. Some languages are inherently beautiful.
She stood gazing at the reflection of the setting sun in the pristine waters. The mountains seem to glow with radiance due to the fiery red of the sun. A pleasant breeze mellowed her mood.
Dutch
Ze staarde naar de reflectie van de ondergaande zon in de ongerepte wateren. De bergen lijken te gloeien met glans door de vurige rood van de zon. Een aangenaam briesje milder haar stemming.
German
Sie starrte auf die Reflexion der untergehenden Sonne in den unberührten Gewässern. Die Berge scheinen zu glühen mit dem feurigen roten Schein der Sonne. Eine angenehme Brise gemildert ihre Stimmung.
Hindi:
वह शुद्ध पानी में डूबते सूर्य के प्रतिबिंब पर देखें. पहाड़ों सूरज की आग से लाल चमक के साथ चमक के लिए लग रहे हैं. एक सुखद हवा उसकी मनोदशा नरम.
Vaha śud'dha pānī mēṁ ḍūbatē sūrya kē pratibimba para dēkhēṁ. Pahāṛōṁ sūraja kī āga sē lāla camaka kē sātha camaka kē li'ē laga rahē haiṁ. Ēka sukhada havā usakī manōdaśā narama.
Spanish
Racuvantittu espejo sol son acuático. Cuando la luz roja del sol, la vista del fuego. Viento flojo en el estado de ánimo
Latin
Racuvantittu speculum solem sunt aquatica. Cum rutilo splendore solis, visus montibus ardent. Lumen ventus in mood
Kannada
ಅವರು ಶುದ್ಧ ನೀರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಳುಗುವ ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಪ್ರತಿಫಲನ ರಾಚುವಂತಿತ್ತು. ಸೂರ್ಯನ ಉರಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಕೆಂಪು ಗ್ಲೋ ನೊಂದಿಗೆ, ಪರ್ವತಗಳು ಗ್ಲೋ ತೋರುತ್ತದೆ. ಆಹ್ಲಾದಕರ ಗಾಳಿ ತನ್ನ ಚಿತ್ತ
English
Racuvantittu sun mirror are aquatic. When the red light of the sun, the light of the fire. Light wind in the mood
lost in translation.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Mimosa Pudica
So I might go out of station. Term exam HELLO?
I've had a painful day. To say the least.
And the urge to swear is overwhelming.
I have/ had Several close friends.
When they're really close to me, I'm there for them.
I do the best i can to help them.
And they don't know the trouble i took just for them.
And to the same people who don't want to even keep in contact:
SCREW YOU ASSHOLES.
I talk. No its wrong.
I don't talk. No something's wrong.
Let me be.
I need music. No wait. It's a distraction. I should be doing diffraction.
Damn this freaking mess. It's shocking how people lie SO BLOODY BLATANTLY.
So I'm learning lessons that will stand in good stead? Why didn't you learn them at my age?
You were studying right?
Bye.
No point continuing this.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Contra-Addition
Dear God.
On the bright side: teeth okay! :-) And... I'm going to college tomorrow. Might play baddie?
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Olfacto-Auditory connections.
http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gnm/op/sc701N-e5o42uj41C1_S3Xg/view.m?id=15&gid=science/2012/oct/22/sound-and-smell-create-harmony&cat=most-read
A few years ago, on work experience at Oxford University's psychology department, I found myself roped in to participate in an experiment by a research team led by Professor Charles Spence. Sitting in a tiny room in the warren of labs and offices, I was shown a rack of bottles of scent and a simple computer program that let me play the sound of musical instruments at different pitches. My task was to sniff each of the scents, and pick the sound that fitted best with each smell.Puzzled, I inhaled my first sample – sweet and slightly sickly, like bubble gum. Deep blaring brass seemed instinctively wrong, so I tried out higher and purer sounds and eventually settled on a high piano note. An hour later, I left not much the wiser about what was going on. Only later did I find out that the team was covering new ground in a field known as crossmodal perception.
When we think about how our senses work, we imagine them operating individually: you sniff a flower, and the smell is delivered uninterrupted from nose to brain. However, it is more complicated than that. Our senses mingle more often than we realise, collaborating to help us make sense of the world more easily. For example, we call dull thuds "heavy" and associate them with large objects, even though the sound itself has no size or weight. This would have helped our ancestors decide whether to run away from predators based on how big they sounded, without stopping to look them over. Most evidence for crossmodal perception comes from studies into sound and vision, which isn't surprising considering how often we use them together. But research that shows other senses crossing over is emerging all the time, and it seems that even sound and smell sometimes form an unlikely pairing.
Two New York researchers, Daniel Wesson and Donald Wilson, were confronted with this fact when they began investigating an "enigmatic" area of the brain known as the olfactory tubercle. Originally, they only intended to measure how olfactory tubercle cells in mice responded to smell. But during testing, Wesson noticed that every time he clunked his coffee mug down next to the experiment, the mouse cells jumped in activity. In fact, the olfactory tubercle is physiologically well-placed to receive both smell and sound information from the outside world; and so Wesson and Wilson broadened their investigation.They found that among individual cells, most responded to odour but a significant number were also active when a tone was played. Some cells even behaved differently when smell and sound were presented together, by either increasing or suppressing their activity. As Wesson and Wilson point out, there may be some evolutionary sense behind the phenomenon – the sound of movement accompanied by an unfamiliar smell could alert you to the presence of a predator.Of course, mice are not people, and a handful of firing cells don't always add up to a conscious experience. But Charles Spence and Anne-Sylvie Crisinel have been carrying out experiments such as the one in which I participated at Oxford University, which seem to show that sounds and smells cross over in human perception, too. Recently, they delved into the world of wine-tasting, using a kit designed to help novices learn about the basic smells found in wine. Participants in their experiment were asked to sniff different samples, and then match them to an appropriate musical instrument and pitch. There were interesting consistencies in the smells people picked. Piano was often paired with fruity scents and with smells that participants said were less complex.
Musky and unpleasant smells, meanwhile, sounded like brass.Further research found that listening to different sounds can alter your perceptions. Studying taste this time, the team ordered some cinder toffee made by Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant and put together "soundscapes" corresponding to bitterness and sweetness. Participants tasted identical pieces of toffee while listening to each soundscape, and found the toffee more bitter or sweeter, depending on which soundtrack they were listening to.
Studies like this are helping psychologists redefine our understanding of the senses, and how the brain integrates them to its advantage. And just imagine the possible creative collaborations between musicians and chefs: sound-enhanced wining and dining could be imminent. You might one day be routinely ordering a coffee with a soundtrack to bring out your favourite aromas. Best not to mention all this to Starbucks.
• This article is a winner of the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize2012.
A few years ago, on work experience at Oxford University's psychology department, I found myself roped in to participate in an experiment by a research team led by Professor Charles Spence. Sitting in a tiny room in the warren of labs and offices, I was shown a rack of bottles of scent and a simple computer program that let me play the sound of musical instruments at different pitches. My task was to sniff each of the scents, and pick the sound that fitted best with each smell.Puzzled, I inhaled my first sample – sweet and slightly sickly, like bubble gum. Deep blaring brass seemed instinctively wrong, so I tried out higher and purer sounds and eventually settled on a high piano note. An hour later, I left not much the wiser about what was going on. Only later did I find out that the team was covering new ground in a field known as crossmodal perception.
When we think about how our senses work, we imagine them operating individually: you sniff a flower, and the smell is delivered uninterrupted from nose to brain. However, it is more complicated than that. Our senses mingle more often than we realise, collaborating to help us make sense of the world more easily. For example, we call dull thuds "heavy" and associate them with large objects, even though the sound itself has no size or weight. This would have helped our ancestors decide whether to run away from predators based on how big they sounded, without stopping to look them over. Most evidence for crossmodal perception comes from studies into sound and vision, which isn't surprising considering how often we use them together. But research that shows other senses crossing over is emerging all the time, and it seems that even sound and smell sometimes form an unlikely pairing.
Two New York researchers, Daniel Wesson and Donald Wilson, were confronted with this fact when they began investigating an "enigmatic" area of the brain known as the olfactory tubercle. Originally, they only intended to measure how olfactory tubercle cells in mice responded to smell. But during testing, Wesson noticed that every time he clunked his coffee mug down next to the experiment, the mouse cells jumped in activity. In fact, the olfactory tubercle is physiologically well-placed to receive both smell and sound information from the outside world; and so Wesson and Wilson broadened their investigation.They found that among individual cells, most responded to odour but a significant number were also active when a tone was played. Some cells even behaved differently when smell and sound were presented together, by either increasing or suppressing their activity. As Wesson and Wilson point out, there may be some evolutionary sense behind the phenomenon – the sound of movement accompanied by an unfamiliar smell could alert you to the presence of a predator.Of course, mice are not people, and a handful of firing cells don't always add up to a conscious experience. But Charles Spence and Anne-Sylvie Crisinel have been carrying out experiments such as the one in which I participated at Oxford University, which seem to show that sounds and smells cross over in human perception, too. Recently, they delved into the world of wine-tasting, using a kit designed to help novices learn about the basic smells found in wine. Participants in their experiment were asked to sniff different samples, and then match them to an appropriate musical instrument and pitch. There were interesting consistencies in the smells people picked. Piano was often paired with fruity scents and with smells that participants said were less complex.
Musky and unpleasant smells, meanwhile, sounded like brass.Further research found that listening to different sounds can alter your perceptions. Studying taste this time, the team ordered some cinder toffee made by Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant and put together "soundscapes" corresponding to bitterness and sweetness. Participants tasted identical pieces of toffee while listening to each soundscape, and found the toffee more bitter or sweeter, depending on which soundtrack they were listening to.
Studies like this are helping psychologists redefine our understanding of the senses, and how the brain integrates them to its advantage. And just imagine the possible creative collaborations between musicians and chefs: sound-enhanced wining and dining could be imminent. You might one day be routinely ordering a coffee with a soundtrack to bring out your favourite aromas. Best not to mention all this to Starbucks.
• This article is a winner of the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize2012.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Oh Yeah, I Have a Blog.
So I went to HMUN 2012 after all.
After all that happened.
And I know it's one of those memories I'll cherish forever.
Where I learnt a lot. Including about myself. Where I learnt to be more independent? Where I learnt to have fun (but not do anything I'd regret? :)
No, But I mean it. I met people from all over India and also from across the border. I had great company for most part. I had the opportunity of competing against veteran MUNers, honing my own skills and gaining a wider perspective.
Of course I'd love to give a blow by blow account of all that happened, but given my time constraint, that is highly unlikely.
But I wouldn't like to bore you with bullet points either.
They train journey was fun. The boys were mostly good. And a lot of fun :)
The hotel was nice. The breakfasts were YUMMMMMMMMM.
The conference was great. Our director, Divya Seth, was really nice. :)
Lunch and Dinner at Novotel were great fun too. :D
And the social events were once again, an amazing experience. :)
Shilparamam
Sorry
Rabbit
Gun
We found Love
Apologize
Slimshady
The Sprite Face
Pseudo-Drunk?
The Madagascar knife
Penguin- PMPD, Antarctica, Happy Feet
Muffins
Puddings
Nestle
Oreo
Squelchy Mess
I could go on. And on...
Ok I doubt I'll churn out anything sensible.
Tis a pity. When I want to blog, no comp at hand, and when there's one, I don't seem to be able to verbalize.
Life is certainly not perfect. Not even close. Maybe that's why there's the thrill to achieve it?
Maybe I'll do some Bio. Bioenergetics?
After all that happened.
And I know it's one of those memories I'll cherish forever.
Where I learnt a lot. Including about myself. Where I learnt to be more independent? Where I learnt to have fun (but not do anything I'd regret? :)
No, But I mean it. I met people from all over India and also from across the border. I had great company for most part. I had the opportunity of competing against veteran MUNers, honing my own skills and gaining a wider perspective.
Of course I'd love to give a blow by blow account of all that happened, but given my time constraint, that is highly unlikely.
But I wouldn't like to bore you with bullet points either.
They train journey was fun. The boys were mostly good. And a lot of fun :)
The hotel was nice. The breakfasts were YUMMMMMMMMM.
The conference was great. Our director, Divya Seth, was really nice. :)
Lunch and Dinner at Novotel were great fun too. :D
And the social events were once again, an amazing experience. :)
Shilparamam
Sorry
Rabbit
Gun
We found Love
Apologize
Slimshady
The Sprite Face
Pseudo-Drunk?
The Madagascar knife
Penguin- PMPD, Antarctica, Happy Feet
Muffins
Puddings
Nestle
Oreo
Squelchy Mess
I could go on. And on...
 |
| L-R: Kirthan Pai, Manas Sharma, Anirudh R, Akhilesh A, Sanjana and Me. At HICC, Hyderabad. August 19th 2012 |
Ok I doubt I'll churn out anything sensible.
Tis a pity. When I want to blog, no comp at hand, and when there's one, I don't seem to be able to verbalize.
Life is certainly not perfect. Not even close. Maybe that's why there's the thrill to achieve it?
Maybe I'll do some Bio. Bioenergetics?
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Love and Hate.
I'm living a lie.
But the other option is that I resign myself to a future of misery.
When is the solution to all this?
What do I do?
Sanjana and Medha came home today. I felt so happy that the got along well with Di. We spent quite some time in the house and then went out (Di included!) dress-hunting, had lunch, fed Di idlis and then finally made it back home intact :)
I consider this a momentous occasion given the entropy within Di. Nuff said.
It is also a moment to reflect and ponder.
Pa got hurt yesterday. I have no joy in narrating how. Yes, you're hunch is probably right.
And even objectively, It was not anything trivial. He was bleeding. And this happened like inches away from his eye.
And today I woke up, spent the ENTIRE FRICKING morning trying to sort out things, but NO USE.
Nobody wants to change. So now they're at the PS. Why? For What Joy?
I feel exhausted.
Di will wake up very soon.
I'll take her to the park.
Everybody deserves a life of dignity and freedom.
Nobody can deny this birthright to anyone.
But here's a case where it is not so.
What to do?
But the other option is that I resign myself to a future of misery.
When is the solution to all this?
What do I do?
Sanjana and Medha came home today. I felt so happy that the got along well with Di. We spent quite some time in the house and then went out (Di included!) dress-hunting, had lunch, fed Di idlis and then finally made it back home intact :)
I consider this a momentous occasion given the entropy within Di. Nuff said.
It is also a moment to reflect and ponder.
Pa got hurt yesterday. I have no joy in narrating how. Yes, you're hunch is probably right.
And even objectively, It was not anything trivial. He was bleeding. And this happened like inches away from his eye.
And today I woke up, spent the ENTIRE FRICKING morning trying to sort out things, but NO USE.
Nobody wants to change. So now they're at the PS. Why? For What Joy?
I feel exhausted.
Di will wake up very soon.
I'll take her to the park.
Everybody deserves a life of dignity and freedom.
Nobody can deny this birthright to anyone.
But here's a case where it is not so.
What to do?
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
MUNmunMUNmmmmm
Hello Peebal (I know no one's around, but anyway)
MUN in a WEEK.
Position Papers TOMORROW.
Here's a list of the people who make my day: (In NO order)
Murgi
Soni
Sanjana
Raksha
Priyanka
Medha
Nirupama
Raji
Varsha
Vaishnavi
and so on.
Gah! I'm on a time limit. Bye
MUN in a WEEK.
Position Papers TOMORROW.
Here's a list of the people who make my day: (In NO order)
Murgi
Soni
Sanjana
Raksha
Priyanka
Medha
Nirupama
Raji
Varsha
Vaishnavi
and so on.
Gah! I'm on a time limit. Bye
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