Sands of time!

Saturday saw us at Sandy Hook – one of the beaches on the coast of New Jersey. This one was very different from all the beaches I have visited in the US – Manzanita and Cannon of Oregon, La Jolla at San Diego and Wildwoods near Cape May Point. This one was closer to home, very much like my own Marina beach - the sands and shells; the grime and gravel – daily evenings from my childhood was coming back at Sandy Hook. Of course I missed the molaga bajji, the TV tower, the clock tower, the light house and the deep dug sandy caves. However the coarse sand, the expanse of the beach, the waves that dashed against and the warm water transported me to the warmth of my own Triplicane beaches.
Definitely one of my better weekends and I did total justice by getting damp and dirty!

As usual a late read!

Well, if you have not read Da Vinci Code and you plan to read it, don’t scroll any further!

It was a book of incredible controversies woven into a gripping story. The idea of unearthing startling facts via an absorbing story is definitely appreciated. Whether you believe or not, is really out of the question, yet the narration riddled with codes, and conundrums really kept me tied to the book. I am not a voracious reader and I can’t read anything unless it keeps me rapt and this one definitely did. The unexpected twists and turns towards the end – the unbecoming of the Knight, the unpretentious talk of Fache with Sofia (in London) which was totally misconstrued, the depiction of Teacher-Remy relationship – each of these tightened the rivet the book had on the reader.

Robert Langdon the obvious hero did not impress me – Fache did especially because of the twists that later unraveled and revealed him. For such a nice storytelling, I really wished there was a more concrete finish. However the fact that it was left to your imagination, I think made the story linger longer and trouble you longer. It just won’t go away.

Angels & Demons – the first of the to-be-trilogy is on my table, however my friends suggested that reading them back-to-back is not a good idea, because they are so similar ones. Let me see!

There has been a lot of research in the measurement of intelligence amongst people of different races and backgrounds. As with any global research, we have conflicting reports, but there is something that everyone agrees on. The two big influences of a child’s success in later life are: biological parents’ intelligence and upbringing factors. First of all, what is intelligence? It could be the IQ score as measured by the famous 77 year old IQ test; it could be the academic grades; it could be mean income when you are 30; it is some combination of these. Many independent researches conclude that a minimum of 40% influence is attributed to intelligence in the heredity. The maximum genetic influence is 80%. Especially the language controls, reading ability and verbal power moves through generations. That is why; siblings reared apart though may have significant difference in success / general IQ always correlate well with each other in their language prowess. In general it is known, that Jews as a race score atleast 12-15 points more than the Asians who score atleast 5 points more than Whites who score atleast 10 more than the Africans. But the reason for these differences though genetic for most part and social and economic in part actually is exhibited differently across groups. i.e., the reason for higher performance of Jews over Asians is not the same as the reason for higher performance of Asians over Whites. Also child-rearing has a big influence on its success when it grows up. The biggest part of this influence is during the developmental years and hence the saying “Woman is behind a man’s success” necessarily refers to the mother rather than the wife :). It is the parents’ attitude towards the child’s performance that shapes the child’s future. When parents set high bars, children typically attain it than when they set low bars. Indians typically set higher standards for achievement (of course there are exceptions) than Americans and that is partly the reason for Indians’ better performance. Hence, a White child when raised in an Indian home that sets high standards for the child will outperform his white peers:). When parents set softer limits and encourage laziness in children (especially true with rich European families) the children perform worse as adults. Lack of breast-fed milk and premature delivery are also reasons that negatively impact performance. Undernourishment and being a witness to negative actions like riots, shooting, and parents’ fighting (including adopted parents) between the ages of 5 and 14 are big factors for low self-confidence and self-assurance as adults. Occupational success of parents, the feel-good factor that they emanate and the socio-economic status of a growing child play a key role. Inferiority complex developed as a child does not go away until he is able to prove to the world that he is also capable. They grow up to either being spend-thrifts in general or spend-thrifts in friends’ presence. The constant worry about what others might think gives them in to peer-pressure and negatively impacts performance.

Moral of the story: You thought I was going to say – blame your parents!
Nope!
If you think the upcoming generation will definitely marry a person of lower IQ caste, you are encouraged to adopt such children and benefit them so that as a race, they get better :)
p.s. If I sound like a racial person, I am not one!

We have always thought of US as a cold country.
Of course it is.. Now is this news?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5214370.stm
Sounds like our own .. India? ;-)

I have heard of donations of whole blood, plasma, Aphaeresis etc. I have not heard of donating the umbilical cord blood of a new born baby! Although once considered medical waste and thrown away, scientists now know that cord blood is rich in stem cells. Stem cells are very important because they make many different types of cells in the body including blood cells that carry oxygen, fight disease and help stop bleeding. The collection takes place after the baby is born and hence there is no change in the delivery procedure whatsoever. The storage period of whole blood is roughly 50 days I guess before which it must be used on a patient, but the umbilical cord blood is frozen and good for 10 years. Though the need for this kind of blood is not much today, it is especially used in research that will shape the tomorrow. Isn’t this just amazing!?

Decide before you are 34 weeks pregnant if you want to start your baby’s life with a punya karma :-)

Quote Costanza

"The worst thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes a lot of your time and what do you get at the end? DEATH? whats that, a bonus?. I think the life cycle is all backwards. First we should die and get it out of the way. Then we should go to a old age home, get kicked out cause we are too young and healthy. Then we should collect our pension and on the first day of work get a gold watch. Then work for 40 years until we are young enough to enjoy our retirement, go to college, party all night, then go to high school, then to primary school, play around all the time with no responsibilities. Then we should spend the last months of our lives floating around in luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on a tap and finish off as an orgasm. Amen" -- George Costanza