Evolution And Parthiban Kanavu

Parthiban Kanavu is a novel about the dream of the Chola king Parthiban. 

From link above:  "The novel mentions that King Parthiban's dream of a great Chola dynasty was passed on from father to son every generation and finally came true three hundred years after Parthiban's time when Raja Raja Chola became king."

Now it's my belief that somewhere in our body - maybe in every cell or some Gene, our needs and severity of need are stored. When we replicate, when we pass on the genes to our next generation, information about the need with severity is passed on. This info in our cell or Gene causes the necessary change in our body - whatever needs to be taller sharper fatter becomes so and whatever doesn't becomes reduced in that trait.

Over a period of a few minutes to some Generations, the info is passed on and evolution finally happens addressing the need - a Parthivan Kanavu realized..

To the extent I understand evolution, the need being stored and passed on to successive generations is against the grain of Natural Selection. 

It's fun. 

Now I have another question on evolution.
Does evolution happen in real time within one lifetime? 

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/history_of_the_earth: Lovely article showing various species across time. Also this http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-family-tree, https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-humans-will-evolve-over-the-next-million-years-499252774, https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/09/12/what-will-humans-look-like-100000-years-from-now/, https://www.quora.com/If-a-modern-day-human-was-placed-back-millions-of-years-ago-how-would-a-caveman-react-to-them, https://www.quora.com/What-did-humans-look-like-60-000-years-ago, http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20140905-meet-the-ancestors-of-all-plants-and-animals, https://www.quora.com/Dinosaurs-lived-around-100-million-years-ago-Humans-appeared-around-2-million-years-ago-What-happened-in-between, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution
2. http://discovermagazine.com/2015/march/19-life-in-the-fast-lane
3. https://www.businessinsider.in/12-examples-of-evolution-happening-right-now/Stray-dogs-that-have-left-human-care-are-evolving-more-wolf-life-traits-/slideshow/46519938.cms
4. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150803-how-do-we-know-evolution-is-real: A conversation thread:
   After reading this (article) I feel that nothing stops us from evolution, we are still evolving. Adapt ( so called fittest) and evolve, to reach where? What we are now is only one destination, all these changes on the planet would either bring a different destination or would end soon! My response:  Evolving is about constantly using one's resources for one's survival and ensuring one's progeny (children) and their survival. I have been thinking that while evolution happens over many Generations and hundreds of years, some human beings "evolve" throughout their own lives. Every action is for their survival... Nothing else matters.. They are evolving (surviving better even within their own lifetime - focusing only on those activities which are useful and eliminating all those that are useless). And such people are the ones whose life's raison d'etre is completely in sync with what Darwin said about species. They are the most successful because every action is tuned towards personal survival..I have, unfortunately, only a hatred for such people. Naturally i don't evolve.
5. http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/05/humans-are-still-evolving-and-we-can-watch-it-happen
6. Why useless traits are still retained? https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/35532/why-do-some-bad-traits-evolve-and-good-ones-dont
7. https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/59/9/800/248702
8. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13620-evolution-24-myths-and-misconceptions/
9. https://biologos.org/blogs/jim-stump-faith-and-science-seeking-understanding/10-misconceptions-about-evolution
10. https://biologos.org/blogs/jim-stump-faith-and-science-seeking-understanding/10-misconceptions-about-evolution
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_genetics; Quote  "Each unique form of a single gene is called an allele; different forms are collectively called polymorphisms. As an example, one allele for the gene for hair color and skin cell pigmentation could instruct the body to produce black pigment, producing black hair and pigmented skin; while a different allele of the same gene in a different individual could give garbled instructions that would result in a failure to produce any pigment, giving white hair and no pigmented skin: albinism. Mutations are random changes in genes creating new alleles, which in turn produce new traits, which could help, harm, or have no new effect on the individual's likelihood of survival; thus, mutations are the basis for evolution."
12. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_selection:  "Early naturalists even believed the females to be a separate species" 
13. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_genetics "Genes are pieces of DNA that contain information for synthesis of ribonucleic acids (RNAs) or polypeptides. Genes are inherited as units, with two parents dividing out copies of their genes to their offspring. This process can be compared with mixing two hands of cards, shuffling them, and then dealing them out again. Humans have two copies of each of their genes, and make copies that are found in eggs or sperm—but they only include one copy of each type of gene. An egg and sperm join to form a complete set of genes. The eventually resulting offspring has the same number of genes as their parents, but for any gene one of their two copies comes from their father, and one from their mother.^[1]
    The effects of this mixing depend on the types (the alleles) of the gene. If the father has two copies of an allele for red hair, and the mother has two copies for brown hair, all their children get the two alleles that give different instructions, one for red hair and one for brown. The hair color of these children depends on how these alleles work together. If one allele dominates the instructions from another, it is called the dominant allele, and the allele that is overridden is called the recessive allele. In the case of a daughter with alleles for both red and brown hair, brown is dominant and she ends up with brown hair.^[2]
    Although the red color allele is still there in this brown-haired girl, it doesn't show. This is a difference between what you see on the surface (the traits of an organism, called its phenotype) and the genes within the organism (its genotype). In this example you can call the allele for brown "B" and the allele for red "b". (It is normal to write dominant alleles with capital letters and recessive ones with lower-case letters.) The brown hair daughter has the "brown hair phenotype" but her genotype is Bb, with one copy of the B allele, and one of the b allele."
14. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_genetics "The process of genetic drift can be illustrated using 20 marbles in a jar to represent 20 organisms in a population.^[7] Consider this jar of marbles as the starting population. Half of the marbles in the jar are red and half blue, and both colours correspond to two different alleles of one gene in the population. In each new generation the organisms reproduce at random. To represent this reproduction, randomly select a marble from the original jar and deposit a new marble with the same colour as its "offspring" into a new jar. (The selected marble remains in the original jar.) Repeat this process until there are 20 new marbles in the second jar. The second jar then contains a second generation of "offspring," consisting of 20 marbles of various colours. Unless the second jar contains exactly 10 red marbles and 10 blue marbles, a random shift occurred in the allele frequencies.
    
    Repeat this process a number of times, randomly reproducing each generation of marbles to form the next. The numbers of red and blue marbles picked each generation fluctuates; sometimes more red and sometimes more blue. This fluctuation is analogous to genetic drift – a change in the population's allele frequency resulting from a random variation in the distribution of alleles from one generation to the next.
    It is even possible that in any one generation no marbles of a particular colour are chosen, meaning they have no offspring. In this example, if no red marbles are selected, the jar representing the new generation contains only blue offspring. If this happens, the red allele has been lost permanently in the population, while the remaining blue allele has become fixed: all future generations are entirely blue. In small populations, fixation can occur in just a few generations."
15. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/35532/why-do-some-bad-traits-evolve-and-good-ones-dont:  "Another example is sexual selection, some traits help you in find or attract mates but are detrimental to your survival, but reproduction is a bigger advantage in evolution than survival. Evolution simply cannot favor genes if they never make it into the next generation consistently. So you end with peacock tails that get the males killed but are the only way to find mates. A male without the huge tail will not mate and the male offspring of a female without the desire for big tails will suffer the same problem ( because they female keeps ending up with unattractive males) so it is basically impossible for peacocks males to stop growing huge tails and it is unlikely peacock females will stop preferring bigger and bigger tails."
    
16. http://utahscience.oremjr.alpine.k12.ut.us/sciber01/7th/cells/html/inhvsacq.htm
17. http://utahscience.oremjr.alpine.k12.ut.us/sciber01/7th/cells/html/inhvsacq.htm
18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acquired_characteristic
19. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexy_son_hypothesis "Female mating preferences are widely recognized as being responsible for the rapid and divergent evolution of male secondary sex characteristics.^[3] In 1976, prior to Weatherhead and Robertson's paper,^[4]Richard Dawkins had written in his book The Selfish Gene:

    In a society where males compete with each other to be chosen as he-men by females, one of the best things a mother can do for her genes is to make a son who will turn out in his turn to be an attractive he-man. If she can ensure that her son is one of the fortunate few males who wins most of the copulations in the society when he grows up, she will have an enormous number of grandchildren. The result of this is that one of the most desirable qualities a male can have in the eyes of a female is, quite simply, sexual attractiveness itself...The sexy son hypothesis has also been put forward as the origin of some aspects of human sexual activity. In particular, research on the ovulatory shift hypothesis has shown that during the most fertile times of their menstrual cycles, human females are more attracted to more physically attractive men, and to men whose physical features are indicative of a higher exposure to testosterone during key developmental periods.^[18] They are also more attracted to men with relatively feminine faces during the remainder of the cycle. However, the methodology of these claims is disputed.

Introspection

I was discussing introspection with a friend. The definition from Google is "the examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes." 

I define it a little more narrowly. It is the examination of one's own mind in order to find what you are deficient in, what mistake you made in and that too in an area which matters to you. Introspection leads you to a better understanding of a negative aspect of yourself - an aspect that pains you.

It's my belief that not everyone is capable of such introspection that leads to a better understanding of something negative in oneself which is painful to digest. A strong Venus and perhaps a good self esteem prevent us from introspecting.

Introspection to determine unfairness in one's behavior needs a focus on fairness. Venus's focus on pain and need primarily prevents dwelling on fairness

See All Cells

A friend sent me this puzzle.

The question is: Whether "No inmate should see the corpse more than once" means that no cell should be traversed more than once. For example, assume some cells have no inmates then the corpse could pass through the cell twice and still not violate the give constraint. To make the puzzle more interesting we will take my interpretation in bold above as the right one.

Now solve.

I think I know the answer.

L'Affaire Clandestine Le Muslims

We all know how angry Muslims were with USA and how that triggered the 9/11 incident. And then after US marines took out Osama Bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan, the fury of Muslims has known no bounds. This time the big guns in Saudi and ISIS decided to use some finesse, the Russian way. They decided to ruin USA in an entirely non-violent, if not legal, way. (Some juicy stuff here: Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election https://nyti.ms/2IV6EpU.

Just about this time came the US presidential election. So they (Muslims) found the best way to ruin America. They hired some Russians and impersonated few Russians and made it seem as though it was the Russians that fiddled with the US elections. The Muslims ensured that they made Russians the fall guys and they also ruined America. 

That leads us to the 63.9 million dollar question: How exactly did the Muslims ruin the US? 

Muslims made a cartoon character the President of the USA. Here is an article about the cartoon's response to the finding that Russians were definitely involved with messing with the elections (though the Americans are yet to find about the Muslims program managing the whole affair): Trump’s Evolution From Relief to Fury Over the Russia Indictment 

It isn't long before the Muslim dream comes true. With Trump at the helm,  USA will be on its knees soon. 

I am predicting that US will create a 10 billion dollar fund and offer it to any country who will accept a certain immigrant (an ex president) as its full time resident citizen and who will also not provide him with a passport. 

Perhaps a better president might be the incumbent's namesake, a famous name created by Disney. 

Additional reading:

1. President Trump seems to be saying more and more things that aren’t true
3. The four times Trump signed tax returns for his foundation that contained incorrect information - https://wapo.st/2yG8szg
4. When investigators threatened his power, he declared himself dictator: https://wapo.st/2M77CgB
5. Mueller and Trump: Born to wealth, raised to lead. Then, sharply different choices. http://wapo.st/2CBPCG5
6. How Trump made up with Australia’s prime minister after a ‘most unpleasant call’Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’
7. Justice official alerted White House to ongoing issues in Kushner’s security clearance
8. Bizarre legal brawl intensifies at Trump hotel in Panama
9. Kushner’s Business Got Loans From Companies After White House Meetings: It will be interesting to ask the father in law (FIL) and SIL what their definition of conflict of interest is.
10. Questions linger about how Melania Trump, a Slovenian model, scored ‘the Einstein visa’
11. Jared Kushner Flames Out
12. Trump Lawyer’s Payment to Porn Star
13. Tillerson Is Out as Secretary of State; Trump Taps Pompeo
14. Trump’s Stormy History: The Seven-Year Battle Between the President and the Porn Star
15. Wooing Saudi Business, Tabloid Mogul Had a Powerful Friend: Trump - what would Ayn Rand say of this deal making?
16. https://wapo.st/2FjFCXD: "Keeping opponents offbalance is the key to negatiation"

Constipation And Overweight

This is a remedy I heard on the radio today.

Honey + lemon juice plus + warm water

Note:

1. Do not drink tea / coffee for about an hour after drinking honey lemon.

2. Pure honey does not mix / dissolve in water. It will settle to the bottom..if honey dissolves it's not pure.

3. This is good for constipation also.

From Spice - Pune.

Numbers Across Generations

I came across a family of grandfather (GF), father (F), son (S) and sometime in future a grandchild (GS). 

An interesting observation was that the grandfather's last salary was about 1.5 times the father's starting salary. The father's last salary was about 1.5 times the son's starting salary.

Next Observation:

The grandfather's last salary was about 60 times his own starting salary. The father's last salary was about 60 times his own starting salary.

Gold was about Rs10/gm when grandfather started working. It was about Rs300/gm when father started working. It was about Rs3000/gm when son started working. Seems gold price is rising slowly now.

Finally: When grandfather started working one USD was about Rs 5, at the time father started working it was about Rs17, when son started working it was about Rs65 increasing 3.5 to 4 times each generation.

Assuming the same trend continues, one can predict the son's last salary at about 60 times his current salary. And three decades later the starting salary of the grandchild maybe about 60/1.5=40 times son's starting salary. These numbers sound astronomical. Maybe gold will be about Rs15,000/gm then. And one $ will fetch about Rs 250 at that time.

And how India be then? What will be the latest fad?

T Raped By F's

T(hinker) and F(eeler) as in MBTI, differ in one interesting respect. 

For an F, need gives a right. It is often expressed as "who else can i ask?" - meaning I have a need and I don't have anyone else to ask. The fact that the person being asked isn't obligated to give doesn't matter. That he is the only one who can be asked is all that matters to the person who is asking. 

For a T,  a positive evaluation and reward is based on who has delivered or achieved. For an F, a reward (or support) is given to whoever hasn't achieved. F recognizes need as the currency for transactions. 

T recognizes performance as currency.

Since F asks based on need and not an performance, there is an inherent pride-less transaction. A "T" caught in the middle of many F's feels shocked. If the T also happens to be in a position to provide or shell out he is automatically expected to provide since he is surrounded by needy people and he doesn't normally express any need. This is legitimate gang rape. 

Estrous Or No?

I have a doubt: The desire to get pregnant - whether it's a formal learned desire or an intuitive drive. While I read many articles that indicate that the desire to have a baby is a S2 (consciously thought out) desire and not a S1 (subconscious) desire.

My question is :

Why do animals have babies (or have sex)? Because they have seen others of their species having sex (they don't have bedrooms to hide in so they do it in public) and they want to try it out too? 

What about the estrous cycle (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle) when females are in heat meaning they are driven to have sex and get pregnant? During ovulation phase women's sexual needs are much higher than during other days. Is this learnt? No this is S1 too as is the sexual desire / being in heat for other mammalian females. 

Another question i have is: is the drive in humans and other animals primarily to enjoy sex or primarily to have a baby? 

If the act is not enjoyable then it is to have a baby or for other social reasons like security. 

Vikram Or Vetaal?

A friend of mine was telling me about her cousin (C, settled in the USA) - about the way C took care of her (C's) ailing father in India.  Till recently my friend had been taking care of her aunt and uncle but of late it was beyond her. 

There being no other person to take care of the elderly parents, one of whom - the father, about 90 years old, was in his last stages, C had rushed down from the US and took charge of the situation. And how. They are wealthy and had employed 3 nurses / attendants, C herself oversaw everything. She slept next to her father holding his hands, talking to him, feeding him, massaging his hands. The elderly gentleman, while confined to the bed, was conscious of things around him. 

My friend herself is very caring and comes from a family of very warm people. But she was stunned by the extent of warmth and attention shown by her cousin to her uncle (C's father). My friend wistfully told me that she could learn a lot from C. Her uncle eventually died last month - he had a good end - surrounded by family and taken care of every minute in the last 4 months. 

My friend told me about another cousin of hers (D) who was taking care of her (D's) father, a gentleman now about 80. D has no family of her own, she stays largely home to take care of her father. They have a daytime nurse who looks after her father. She, D, would always hang around close to home should there be an emergency. D had been taking care of her father for the last few years, since there wasn't anyone else. She is an introvert and because of her father's needs, has little other activity outside of what the home and the father needed. 
D is different from C, very different. While C was warm and affectionate and fun to be with,  D wasn't. D is an academic type with little interest in the world or people around her. 
What D did for her father had little warmth, she did it because she took taking care of her father as her duty. Her father needed affection but he didn't get any from his daughter unfortunately. 

My friend thought that D was stupid because D put her own life on hold, doing little for herself. And that D was a loser, while my friend thought highly of C who came down to India from US for 4 months and did a great job with her father. And now presumably C has gone back. Incidentally both C and D have a sibling each who have not participated in the care of their respective fathers. 

Having mentioned two real life stories, the question I have is this: how come my friend thinks poorly of one cousin D and highly of another, C? 

It sounds like a Vikram Vetaal question. 

Earlier (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/vikram-vetaal-and-some-friends.html) I had mentioned about another friend who rated surviving and winning as more important. Here my friend with her 2 cousins was thinking the same way. 

While all the characters in the stories (except for the fathers) are women who generally go all gooey about sacrifices, here we see that women find winning and doing something (taking care) with elegance and with minimal cost to oneself as being more important. 

Not just more important but critical because if you don't take care nicely (that is not warmly) and if you don't take care of yourself then you are termed a loser. My friend's feelings resonate with what another friend of mine told me decades back - that it's not adequate to do good,  it's more important to be seen as doing good. C followed this dictum exactly. D didn't. Even D's father doesn't think much of D and what she has done for him. Nor does her cousin, my friend. My friend sees C as a person to emulate,  but doesn't see D that way. 

4 months of passionate care trumps 4 years of dull care, even if such dull care is done at a good cost to oneself. 

I am reminded of Francesca and Zubeida (http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2012/05/bridges-of-madison-county-book-by.html). Why am I drawn towards Francesca and D but not to Zubeida and C? 

Additional reading

1. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/when-parents-come-full-circle/article23467589.ece
2. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/07/men-in-tears.html - Another heart story from my archives
3. http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2009/10/lost-puppy.html

Interesting Eating Places In Chennai

• Amehyst's Branch: Chamiers Park (Opp Adyar Gate: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
• Le Manche at Chamiers Road: https://www.zomato.com/chennai/lamandier-ra-puram
• https://www.zomato.com/chennai/10-downing-street-t-nagar: Beer and Punjabi food
• Una Mas: Not high priced but not good food either
• Best Dosa places: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/india/articles/where-to-find-the-best-dosas-in-chennai/
• Nice places for eating out:
  http://www.polkacafe.com/best-vegetarian-restaurants-in-chennai-1634.html
  Anti Cafe Society in Gandhi Nagar, Adyar - This provides unlimited wifi and coffee.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Additional reading:
  
  
  Amethyst on Chamiers:
  1. https://chamiers.wordpress.com/2014/05/05/breakfast-at-cafe-chamiers-a-review/
  2. https://www.zomato.com/chennai/chamiers-cafe-ra-puram
  3. http://chamiershop.com

Maintaining A Zero Balance

I have a habit of remembering what I owe anyone (be it money or something intangible) and I make it a point to pay it back. I hate being indebted. 

A few years back I was having lunch with a friend when this topic came up. I explained my take to him. He replied that he didn't agree with maintaining a zero balance (zero debt actually) with each individual person. He explained that in life we help some people, we take he elp from some people and sometimes we are left owing some people and have some people owing us. And that largely they cancel each other out. And that endeavoring to maintain a zero balance was a waste of time and effort.

I was not convinced by what he said. I believed that we should maintain a zero balance with each person and not just hope it's zero at the aggregate level. 

Yesterday I saw a lady,  hunchbacked, - she stopped me and asked me something. I thought she was asking for money. She pointed to the cup of coffee I was holding and asked me where the coffee shop was. I told her where it was and continued on my walk. 

That's when it struck me. How many times have I asked people for directions. And got it. Did I repay each of those people? Obviously no. And I don't feel bad about it either. I have given directions to many people. And I don't keep accounts of those either. 

I think they cancel each other out. Now in the case of giving directions I consider it too trivial and hence don't intend to maintain zero debt with EACH person who helped me. 

Maybe for my friend, even other help (of a larger kind) is same as giving directions. He just writes it off and not maintain balances. 

The difference between me and others, then, is WHAT maximum amount each of us chooses to write off. That's all. 

So what's the takeaway from all this? 
That there are 2 kinds of people - some who maintain balances for small things (type 1) and ones who don't maintain individual balances (type 2) largely. Type 1 people should exercise restraint while helping type 2 people since the latter largely don't maintain balances. 

Acceptance

Some people do not accept facts staring that at the face. Acceptance of facts is issue kinda similar to cognitive dissonance (CD)  - one refuses to accept what is obvious because it interferes with the prebuilt opinion and the opinion is more sacrosanct than the correctness of it. 

F and J (as in MBTI) are more susceptible to CD because both the J and the F interfere with thinking (=S2). S1 is the king in F and J.

Getting through logically to F and J is a pain in the a**.

Additional reading:

http://vbala99.blogspot.com/2017/10/lord-ganesh-munna-bhai-kabhi-haan-kabhi.html