Saturday, April 27, 2024

Australia’s oldest pottery

https://humanities.org.au/power-of-the-humanities/co-design-research-with-traditional-owners-jiigurru-lizard-island/

Student protests in USA

Will they make a difference. Times are different and the leaders in the west do not seem to care much for the interests of the people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qaq3FghN7t4

David Shulman writes about Palestine

Many of them behind paywall https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/david-shulman/ https://nikhiletc.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/music-culture-history-a-conversation-with-david-shulman/

An interesting book.

“In the world of measurement, this blackboxing of the kilogram’s definition might seem retrograde, shutting ordinary women and men out of a field that affects their lives. It’s the sort of alienation that motivates anti-metric campaigners and the exact opposite of the medieval pietre di paragone that let anyone verify units of measure with their own hands and eyes. But increasing precision in measurement and the subsequent increase in obscurity is a direct result of the fusion of science and industry; a precursor to and product of the benefits of the contemporary world. And this is the bargain we have made for our current comforts. Who cares how units of measurement are defined, as long as the benefits remain? Perhaps one fair way to judge the situation is with Peirce’s philosophy of pragmatism, which he once suggested was only a restating of Jesus’s wisdom: ‘Ye shall know them by their fruits.’45 In this case, the fruits of modern 307measurement are the fruits of the modern world, for better or for worse.” Excerpt from Beyond Measure: The Hidden History of Measurement James Vincent

Friday, April 26, 2024

Monday, April 22, 2024

Switching off

Inam slowly switching off from Ukraine and Israel conflicts. It seems to me that they will continue for some more months if not years. even though they seem to be momentous changes, they will be slow i think. Ine telling fact is that US has not been able to subdue Yemen so far. May be that is an indication of things to come.

Sunday, April 21, 2024

Fake reality

'Baerbock reportedly recommended that Israel stop circulating the photos of life supposedly returning to normal in the Palestinian enclave “as they don’t portray the real situation in Gaza. There is hunger in Gaza.” At this point, Netanyahu is said to have raised his voice and insisted, “It’s real. It’s reality. It’s not like what the Nazis staged, we’re not like the Nazis who produced fake images of a manufactured reality.” From https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/were-not-like-the-nazis-netanyahu-reportedly-bickered-with-german-fm-over-famine-in-gaza/

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Dr, Koneru Satya Prasad

Here is a brief account of the founder Dr. Koneru Satya Prasad. He came through NHS. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few times and visited Heal Paradise School in Thotapalli. Also taught a bit of mathematics. It is amazing what one man can do. Unfortunately manyof the videos are in Telugu. He sort of shuns publicity. I am visiting his videos again to get a bit of inspiration When I am loosing enthusiasm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Education_for_All

A happy day

A happy day for me. I was working off and on with Aruna Tella who was in charge of Swadh Greh in Ongole looking after distressed women for several years. About six years ago we had one more of those cases ( about 1500 such women passed through the centre in Ongole) of women in trouble with her husband who came with two children. I knew about Heal Paradise school through my cousin Gadde Babu Rajendra Prasad who used to contribute 90 percent of his pension to the school and went there a few times to teach mathematics. We suggested sending the children to that school and they were accepted. Then a bureaucrat in charge for A.P government intervened saying that only children from Krishna District were eligible for entry in the school though the school was meant for all Indians. Then Aruna intervened and urged the people in charge of the school to fight. The authorities gave in. Today in a video call Aruna showed me the children. They are in classes 9 and 10 now. The mother has a job, earning twenty thousand rupees a month. They all looked healthy and happy. Meanwhile, the school has become a college and they can finish their degrees from there. Kudos to Aruna and Heal Paradise. https://healcharity.org/what-we-do/heal-projects/heal-paradise