From shadows to the stars

Once every few years, India is a victim to a terrorist bombing. Sadly, my city was the focal point of this attack last month. There was a bombing in a crowded area and it left many lives broken. In a measure to bulk up the safety and security, our policemen have come up with flawless and fail proof strategies. 1) They stop and check cars and other vehicles ONLY at the night.  I'm sure all the bad guys are thinking "Why should I transport whatever illegal stuff I have in the safety of daylight? I think it's too dangerous. I will travel at night, when the cops check the cars". 2) Among two wheelers, they stop ONLY the people who tie a hanky or a scarf across their face. First of all, these people are tying the scarves to protect themselves from all the dust on the roads (and this might also help with the heat). Secondly, how do the policemen expect to succeed with such shallow and obvious schemes? Agreed, a few people might be cowed/ dissuad...

(I don't know what the exact terminology of what I am going to describe is. I have searched "collective intelligence" and "collective intellect", but neither are what I intend to discuss.) Humans are probably the only species that rely on information that is passed down to them from their elders. They constantly observe and learn. This is a continual process. For example, a present day 4 year old would have no problem handling an iPhone or a touch screen phone. But if you were to give it to a present day 80 year old, it is most likely that he finds it difficult to operate this device. This is because the 4 year old kid has grown up with iPhone's and has seen people operate it and it is easy for him to operate it. But the 80 year old probably grew up in an agricultural village and watched his elders cultivate crops, not operate iPhones. It is safe to also assume that the 80 year old man would know his way better in an agricultural landscape than the ...

Recently, I came across an interesting piece of research work. The results of this research work showed that fans of "Lil Wayne" and his music record lower test scores than fans of Ludwig van Beethoven, whose fans have some of the highest test scores. Lil Vain? This hardly came as a surprise to me. In fact, I had suspected something like this all along. So in truth, the research had only confirmed what i thought would be true. What interests me about the result is another aspect. This begs two questions. 1) Do people with lesser intellect listen to Lil Wayne? or 2) Do people who listen to Lil Wayne's music become stupid? I think it works both ways. Someone do a research and please tell me which is the case.

The statement "all life is equally valuable" has become a favourite amongst the pseudo peace lovers and the quasi purists. they believe that all life - animals, rapists, murderers and regular people - is equally important and valuable. I do not agree with this statement. I would be absolutely disgusted and depressed at the very thought that mu life is only as valuable as a rapist's life. No, sir, all life is not equally valuable. There are some interesting conundrums that can arise from the statement "all life is worth saving". I'll discuss one presently. Let us imagine that you have a pet dog. Obviously, you love this dog very much - it's a member of you family. After many years of happiness and cherished memories together, your poor dog has a fatal disease (do dogs get cancer?). Now, if you knew this, you would not want your dog to suffer any (further) pain. You would want to put your dog out of its misery and put it to rest "humanely...