Arsenal vs. Manchester United - Preview

I am sure that over the last three years, there has not been an Arsenal - Man Utd. tie that the Gooners have not dreaded going into. There was an aura of invincibility surrounding the Man Utd. side since they defeated us 2-0, bringing to an end a 49 match unbeaten run. After that the results were evidence of the struggle that Arsenal faced against the Devils. 4-2, 0-0, 2-0 are hardly convincing results. Other than the FA Cup Final of 2005, when Arsenal won on penalties, there was not a match that Arsenal won against Man Utd. since the morale sapping 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford.

In the last season, Arsenal did the double over Man Utd. and they were quite convincing performances. Although the team ended the season 21 points adrift of the Champions, somewhere, there was a blemish on the trophy that made its way to Old Trafford. SAF would have definitely loved to have both won the league and have wins over Arsenal. That was not to be and worse still, his side were defeated quite comprehensively in both the games. And those defeats have not been forgotten...

According to many critics, the Gunners team this season has had to face minnows, and most of them at home. And according to them, the demolition of any team in a home game does not count for much. However, what they forget is that the same team has won away games at Tottenham Hotspurs and has defeated Sevilla in the CL. And then, there was the fight back from being a goal down to secure a draw at Anfield, the so called fortress of Liverpool. A game that the team could have won.

All this has not got unnoticed and the current form of the Gunners is sending signals to the top four that the kids are not to be fooled around with. And that is exactly what SAF confirmed by being present at the Arsenal - Liverpool game. He was not there without a reason. He wanted to see for himself and assess for himself the team that the critics had written off at the start of the season and the team which is now proudly at the top of the table, with a game in hand over his team. He was there to try and find out deficiencies in the side, to try and find the weak links. And I am sure, to a large extent, he was disappointed.

The team showed great spirit and resolve in coming back from being a goal down. There was a lot of enthusiasm and lack of fear on the part of the youngsters to secure a draw at Anfield. And if they can continue the same run of form at the home game against Man Utd., we are sure to be in for a treat of a match. Man Utd. are not going to give in easily and since the match is against their arch rivals, they are going to throw everything at the Arsenal defence, including the kitchen sink. And I am sure the "kids" are ready for that and are prepared with their own washing machines and household utilities for throwing at the Devils.

Till Saturday, then...

/Radgovin

The Human Brain

I chanced upon this article in the National Geographic which explains how human beings form memories, how they retain memories and why some people are blessed with eidetic memories while others have to scramble around in their respective neocortexes, looking for information which was allegedly stored there! What was this article going to be about? :)

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/memory/foer-text.html?fs=canyon

Anyway, the above article makes for good reading and here is my take on the human brain.

I have to yet come across as convoluted a thing as the human brain. It is a myriad jigsaw and the amount of material that is packed inside such a small volume (average of 1300cc) would raise envious eyebrows from any packaging industry. It is essentially a miracle of sorts, because housed inside this 1300cc "engine" are a hundred billion neurons, with each one of them being capable of forming  5 to 10 thousand synaptic connections with neurons around them. It is in this synaptic connections that information is retained. The hippocamus is responsible for making sure that the memories stick.

What intrigues and excites me is the formation of a memory from a visual, an auditory stimulus, or something as simple as the brushing of a feather across the skin. The complex procedure of conversion of something that we can "feel" into electrical signals which can be stored, is something even the most accomplished savants of neurology fret over. Computer memory is much simpler, in the sense that all information is stored as 1s and 0s. But how does one figure out how the human brain has simplified the storage of infinitely large amounts of information?

Human beings have accomplished many things, some of the more prominent ones being the conquering of the final frontier: space, the ability to reach places on this planet hitherto unthought of and the ability to communicate. What are all these if not the manifestation of the capabilities of the human brain? However, we are yet to discover the way in which our brain works. It is simply because of this reason that I am against all experiments related to cloning and the human genome. Figure out what you are made of before trying to duplicate yourself, is my advice to all scientists involved in this macabre initiative.

We all know what happens when we jump into a new project with full enthusiasm and half knowledge. The outcome is inevitably a disaster. Ergo, the duplication of human beings without a sincere study and understanding of the human brain is like making a duplicate computer, but messing up the processor in the process. We do not know how synaptic connections are formed; how can we then be sure that the duplication process may not destroy these connections? Or worse, what happens if new bridges are formed where they were none? What would be the implications of new synaptic bondages? Do we know the answers to these questions?

I am not claiming that I am the final authority on the brain. I am the most ignorant of fellows where the issue of the human body is concerned. The questions I have raised may already have been answered. But till such a time as this knowledge becomes public, it is hazardous to fiddle around with the human brain, or even the DNA for that matter. Agencies working for the "progress" of scientific knowledge in these areas zealously guard their research through IPR. I fail to understand how anyone can have a patent over a certain part of the genome or some part of the DNA. That is equivalent to each and every person claiming rights of ownership to some portion of air in the atmosphere as his/her own. In short, the idea is blatantly ridiculous! Instead of copyrighting, all the information about the human brain and even the human body should be made publicly available.

We have yet to decipher a lot about ourselves. Yet, there is an undying curiosity in human beings to look without rather than within. If we can understand the source of this curiosity, maybe all of us would be better human beings.

Amen to that!

/Radgovin

P. S. The very fact that my thoughts have strayed while writing this article stands testimony to the magical processes occurring in my brain. Who knows how many synaptic connections were formed, destroyed, strengthened or weakened during the fifteen minutes that I spent writing this article? Does somebody have an answer?

Registration at FeedBurner

Since I have registered my blog at FeedBurner.com, I realize that there is a need for me to update my blog more regularly. Hence, this article.

Update

/Radgovin

Support Firefox!

Use the following to advertise Firefox, the better browser!

<a href="http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?q=affiliates&amp;id=0&amp;t=217"><img border="0" alt="Firefox 2" title="Firefox 2" src="http://sfx-images.mozilla.org/affiliates/Buttons/firefox2/468x60FF2b_Orange.png"/></a>

/Radgovin

P. S. I am doing this as a public service message! :)

Thought for the Day

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in this life has purpose.

There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.

- - -

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

The Morning After

This post was originally on Random musings... Thanks to Dr. Shivanand for making the suggestion to have it over here. I dwelled on this thought for a while and the following post is the result of my serious musings.

Post every match that India wins closely, and I am of course referring to the country's unofficial national sport, cricket, the people of the world's largest democracy go into a state of delirium; a dreamlike state where God is in his heaven and everything is fine on earth. It's unbelievable; the effect a single win has on the minds of the simple folk that populate this country. No matter that the win has come after consecutive losses, some of which were downright humiliating. All is forgiven, let bygones be bygones.

I have been blessed with a good memory and more often than not, this has worked to my disadvantage rather than advantage. There have been instances when I have desperately wanted to wipe some incident of my memory. I wanted to ensure that the diaphanous veneer of a thought that was casting a vibrant shadow on the innards of my mind was decimated, destroyed, decapitated. Yet, there it was. Many a thought continue to bother me till date. And that is where the apathy of the nation towards the past bothers me so. I will elucidate by citing some examples:

1. The defeat to Zimbabwe in the 1999 cricket World Cup, when only two runs were required to win, and that oaf of a person, Venkatesh had gotten himself out lbw to some obscure Zimbabwean bowler

2. The 1996 World Cup match against Australia at Wankhede where we were chasing a big total and Sachin was playing well. He was stumped off the bowling of Mark Waugh. He was out on 89 runs... We lost the match

I could go on, but the point I want to emphasize here is this: like the rest of the country, I am more concerned with how India fares in cricket than any other sport. And unlike most of the rest of the country, I remember every single instance when we have come agonizingly close to victory, but have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I remember the accolades that our sportspersons in other fields have achieved: Paes-Bhupathi winning the Wimbledon doubles, Karnam Malleshwari and her Bronze Medal, Herr Rathore and his Olympic Medal and of late, GM Anand becoming the World Champion.

Yet, none affects me as much as a loss in a cricket match...

Anyway, coming to the point at hand: why is it that in a country with a population in excess of a 1000 crores, we are able to find only a single Yuvraj Singh, a single Sania Mirza, a single Vishy? And worse, whenever that person wins for the country, all of us take credit for that win, glorifying the nation for a small period of time, forgetting all the humiliation that this country has to face in sports, simply because the "system" is not good. And even worse than that, we also look to Indian born or second generation sportspersons/celebrities/famous people for glory. Case in hand: Sunita Williams, whose recent visit to India was the worst publicity stunt that I have ever witnessed. Worse than Mani Ratnam asking a certain politician to see his film before the release to quell his concerns. I am of course speaking about Bombay, and the politician is well known. I have nothing against that politician; in fact some part of me respects him. Yet, there are many from his clan who are out to destroy whatever sporting talent exists in this nation.

The T20 winning team was forced to sit behind a line of politicians who were seeking political mileage, piggy backing on the brilliance of the cricketers. India has the highest ratio of staff to sportsperson at every Olympics. I believe that we touched the 4 bureaucrats per athlete at the 2004 Olympics, a feat which deserved a gold medal. I am sure that given the meagre pay that the athletes get, most of them are very tempted by drugs for glory, and even more are tempted to seek other more rewarding avenues. Such as a well paying job in an MNC, once some recognition has been achieved. Given this background, I don't really blame any of the country's sportspersons for putting personal glory ahead of the nation's pride. Why not? You and I would have done the same thing.

I wonder when we will start displaying consistency, both as a nation and as a cricketing team. Or any team representing India in any sport.

Thought for the Day

No matter which direction you cycle, the wind is always against you.

Corollary: Changing your direction to change the direction of wind doesn' work!

There is no such thing as a good phase in life...

There are little less worse bad phases! :)

/Govindraj

Indoor air pollution and cigarette smoke

These days, we hear a lot about indoor air pollution and its effect on human health. But what exactly is indoor air pollution? What are the sources of indoor air pollution? Why does it occur in the first place? Well, this article will try to provide some insights on that.

To start with, let me get to pollution in general. Contrary to popular belief, a pollutant is defined as a substance present in excess of its normal concentration in the environment. That means, any substance on this earth has a the potential to be a pollutant, if it is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Air pollution is a serious issue because unlike water and land pollution, physical boundaries are not sufficient to contain it. Pollution, in that sense, is a unifying factor across national and international boundaries! Consider the case in point: rapid industrialization in Germany and France led to Sweden's lakes turning acidic due to acid rain! Now, that is what they mean when they say that the world is getting closer.

Another myth is that CO2 is a pollutant. CO2 is a green house gas and is not a pollutant. CO2 will be called a pollutant if it is present in amounts exceeding 5000ppm and since there are a lot many sinks to this particular gas, there is scant possibility of this gas making it to that high a concentration. Anyway, coming back to the point at hand, we all know what ambient air pollution is. There are standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board [CPCB] which are known as National Ambient Air Quality Standards [NAAQS]. More information can be sought at the website: www.cpcb.nic.in

However, there are no standards prescribed for the indoor environment. Why is this so? Consider the fact that there are at least a million registered and un-registered architects all over the world and each one has her / his own way of designing buildings. Each one gives different weightage to lighting and ventilation factors. Ergo, it becomes difficult to gauge how much air is going into an indoor environment and how much is leaking to the atmosphere from it. Also, the definition of the indoor environment is such that it becomes difficult to make a standard. An indoor environment is any place / location where one is not exposed to the ambient air directly. That means every place, right from schools to cars to trains and aeroplanes fall in this category. That makes a difficult job, that of specifying standards, impossible.

What then, are the sources of indoor air pollution? There are many, and a partial list can be found here: http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/airindoorairpollution.html [The website of the United States Environmental Protection Agency] You will find among the many listed sources a source called Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS). Note the use of the word Environmental. Cigarette smoke has not been referred to directly, because cigarette smoke itself is a part of ETS. ETS is constiituted by cigarette smoke as well as the smoke that the smoker exhales. Overall, ETS is more harmful than cigarette smoke by itself is.

The cigarette burns at a very high temperature when the smoker inhales and the tip of the cigarette can be at as high a temperature as 900 C. Which probably explains why cigarette burns take so long to heal! Nicotine, the habit forming chemical present in tobacco, does not lead to the production of harmful gases / particulate matter. It is the "tar" present in the tobacco which leads to production of carbon monoxide and carcinogens and poly aromatic hydrocarbos like phenanthrene, flouranthene, etc. Carbon monoxide reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of human blood because it forms an irreversible bond with haemoglobin. Particulate matter settles in the lungs, and cigarette smoke has such small particles that they can deposit in the alveoli, which are the places where gas transfer takes place in the lungs i.e. oxygen is swapped for CO2.

The smoke that a smoker exhales has more of these smaller particles than he / she has himself / herself inhaled, because they are too small to get deposited in the smoker's lungs. However, in the time that elapses between a smoker exhaling and a passive smoker inhaling, these condense on other particles and grow sufficiently in size to get deposited in the passive smoker's lungs. Which is what makes passive smoking such a threat to humans! There are of course many other sources of indoor air pollution and I haven't even scratched the surface of this topic. However, I do believe that I will have generated sufficient interest in this topic by this small article for all of you to do some reading on your own. Based on the popularity of this post, I will decide whether to part with some more interesting information! Till then, adieu! :)

/R [My signature!]

Some links for reading up on indoor air pollution
1. http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/airindoorairpollution.html
2. http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/airindoorenvironmentaltobaccosmoke.html
3. http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/
4.http://www- wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&theSitePK=523679&entityID=000090341_20070606150339&searchMenuPK=64187283&theSitePK=523679

Au revoir, Thierry!

I have not been my usual chirpy self lately and M/s Henry and company at Arsenal Football Club are not helping my cause. I mean, if you want a trasnfer to another club that desperately, go get it man! Why are you moving around in the shadows, forcing people to hope against hope that you will remain a Gunner like you promised last year? If you want to renege on your promise, sever the ties in one single slash of the trasnfer sword. Don’t use the slow and painful poison on your own club, which made you a star. The club doesn’t deserve this from its own prodigal son. The problem with prodigal sons is that they soon tire of the doting parents because familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe Henry shouldn’t have been given the special treatment that he got from the club. True, he gave his heart and soul on the pitch in Arsenal colours, but when the time to say Au revoir arose, he chose to do it in such a disgraceful manner. He could have chosen the path that Bergkamp took. He could have gone to another club as quietly as Campbell did. But no, the price of being a star is that you have to have the media present with you 24×7.

And even after all the news that Henry is indeed moving to Spain, there is still that glimmer of hope somewhere in my mind that he may just stay back at The Emirates. I haven’t given up hope of that. Even if he stays, I will always hate him for what he has done over the last month.

Au revoir, Thierry. And if you do want out, please get out as soon as possible. Please don’t jeopardize the club’s and the team’s morale any more.