Gedanken experiment

A question

if mass can be converted into mass then energy can be converted into energy. Therefore light is a source of energy what is the mass of light

An answer

It is indeed a good question. Even though light has no rest mass it does have an effective mass which has all the properties one expects from MASS -- in particular, it has weight in a gravitational field and exerts a gravitational attraction of its own on other masses. The classic Gedanken experiment on this topic is one in which the net mass of a closed box with mirrored sides increases if it is filled with light bouncing back and forth off the mirrors. Further, you can refer through a good search engine or from a good physics text book on light.

This seems like a routine physics question and a routine answer with nothing special.

Of course not, when you realise that the answer is given by the President of India at http://specials.rediff.com/getahead/2005/nov/16sld2.htm Aren't we proud to have a president who takes his time to explain Physics to a school kid.

Doctor's Blog

This is an interesting Blog I came across

http://doctorandpatient.blogspot.com/

Compound Wall

Rashmi Bansal at http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/2005/12/iisc-attack-sad-day-for-science.html
asks

How hard would it be to enter IIT Bombay tomorrow and open fire at the crowd gathered for LiveWire?? Even if everyone is frisked and cars searched at the point of entry, the low boundary wall makes it easy for anyone to enter.

I could not avoid thinking about my college, Tirunelveli Medical College. There is NO compund wall at all, even till today for the college as well as the hostel.

Divisions in India !!!

Thennavan, in his post Vadakku Vaazhgiradhu, Therkku Theigiradhu writes

I am going to highlight this bias against the South, particularly Tamilnadu, time and again. Divisions don't occur in India on their own. They are created when one set of people assume that another major set of people don't exist.

emphasis mine

More quotes on this topic

http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/99/0402.html

While the voices of freedom are thus choked off, the Indian government (controlled and dominated by Hindi politicians irrespective of which party is in power and who the Prime Minister is) uses all its power and resources to tell the people that India is an ancient country with an ancient culture and heritage. Schools books, movies, television, radio and every public forum is used to brainwash the public with this idea. Having thus constantly exposed to the government propaganda, and with the voices of freedom for Tamil Nadu choked off, the majority of Tamil public have bought the Indian government propaganda of "India is an ancient country! We are Indians!" The fact is, as we explained earlier, India was never a country before the British consolidated their conquests in the subcontinent into a single administrative unit called India.

Most Tamils know that they are culturally dominated by Hindians through television and radio. Virtually all Tamils resent and hate Hindi imposition. Some Tamils (not too many) know that Tamil Nadu is economically discriminated in favor of the Hindi heartland. Yet many Tamils do not yet think in terms of an independent Tamil Nadu because the constant Indian government propaganda has embedded in their minds that India is an ancient country; a totally false notion!

http://www.geocities.com/tamiltribune/02/0702.html

Tens of thousands of Tamil people from Tamil Nadu went to work in Burma during the British colonial rule. (Burma was renamed Myanmar in 1990 and is currently known by that name.) Their children, children's children and succeeding generations continued to live there. There were also Telugu and Hindi speaking workers who migrated to Burma from British India.

Burmese Tamils (Myanmar Tamils) had their own Tamil language magazines for local and Tamil Nadu news, schools for teaching Tamil, and movie theaters for screening Tamil movies imported from India. Telugu and Hindi speakers also had similar institutions and facilities.

Things were going smoothly for these people even after the British left and independence dawned on Burma in 1948. Then there was a military coup in 1962. The "immigrant population", although many had been living there for generations and have integrated with the Burmese society, became a target for discrimination and oppression by the new government.

The then Myanmar Government (Burmese Government) closed down the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi magazines. Tamil, Telugu and Hindi schools were also closed except for some that were operated from temples and houses. Movie theaters showing Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies were not closed but the Myanmar Government placed a restriction that movies in only one language could be imported from India, be it Tamil, Telugu, Hindi or whatever. The Myanmar Government asked the Indian Government to choose the language. Since the Tamil population in Myanmar was larger, Tamil movies were being imported in larger numbers than Telugu or Hindi movies, and Tamil movies were shown in more theaters and attracted more audience than Telugu and Hindi movies, people thought that the Indian Government would decide to export Tamil movies. That would have been the rational, unbiased decision. But that did not happen. Hindians who dominate and control the Indian Government chose to export only Hindi movies to Burma (Myanmar). It was a great blow to the large Tamil population there. The Indian Government betrayed the Tamils. It stabbed the Burmese Tamils in the back.

At a time when the Tamil people were being oppressed by the then Burmese Government, Hindians who control the Indian Government took the opportunity to impose Hindi on them. It was a clear attempt to destroy the identity and culture of Burmese Tamils, and Hinidianize them.

At 11:00 PM, Venkat said…

Read this blog http://oppressed-brahmins.blogspot.com/

Ayutha Eluthu

There are few points in the movie Ayutha Eluthu....

The sequences and songs involving Madavan was filmed with red background and red dresses

The sequences and songs involving Surya was filmed with green background and green dresses

The sequences and songs involving Siddharth was filmed with blue background and Blue dresses

Madavan - low class
Surya - Middle Class
Sidharth - Upper Class (IAS Father)

The costumes of heroines too were made like that

Meera Jasmine - Saree
Isha - Salwar
Trisha - T shirt

Library Days

I read an interesting blog by Dr.Tarun Jacob at http://tarunjacob.blogspot.com/

What caught me was the following lines from the post http://tarunjacob.blogspot.com/

study for ten minutes then excuse myself to go eat breakfast! Hopeless!! God knows how I made I through Med school.

Exactly like what I was in my college days. I was one who used Library for reference. I used to study in a lot of places - my room, upstairs, friend's room, St.Anne's Church, Krishnapuram temple, Puliyampatti Church, College Corridors and what not - but Library always eluded me.

I invariably ended up reading a bigggg book in the library (usually Masters and Johnson !!!) than Park or Dutta.

That is why I used library for reference and other places for "deep reading"

Manager or Damager

Kennedy Gopalan write about MBA gfraduates here at http://www.askenni.com/archives/2005/12/the_mbas_and_th.html

With reference to the line

MBA degrees make you more of a ‘damager’ than a ‘manager’)

In my opinion, IIM or for that matter, no school or college can teach you to become a professional if you don't have the basic aptitude. The educational institutions are for "polishing the diamond" "pattai titta"..... The out put of the "polish" depends on what was originally polished..... Do can't blame the craftsman after giving him a glass instead of diamond and tell that he is poor.....

The truth is if you are a good manager, you will become a better manager after MBA

If you are a damager, you will never become a manager... you will continue to be the same

if you want to hire an artist, say to add few images to your site, you will decide his pay based on his work, (after perhaps asking him to draw few things).... You will not immediately fix his pay just because he came from a art school... Even I am send to the best schools of art and taught by Hussain, I cannot draw a good potrait.. i should not blame the school because of that

The same holds true for MBA also....... An asshole who enter IIM will come out as an asshole...

At 2:35 AM, Tarun Jacob said…

I don't completely agree with you Bruno. I feel that there still are places with teachers that shape or polish coal to diamonds. True there are people who are sometimes so fixed with their heads into the ground that change is resisted. I've seen it through my school and College life - where careful time and love invested well have changed damagers into mangers.

At 2:01 PM, Doctor Bruno said…

I did not mean that teachers cannot "shape" students. What I was trying to tell was that the teachers or the school should not be blamed for those "who are so fixed with their heads"

Travails of oursourcing

Rediff says that http://rediff.com/money/2005/dec/19msg.htm

Pratibha Srikanth Murthy, an employee of the business process outsourcing arm of Hewlett Packard in Bangalore, was raped and murdered by the driver of the company-commissioned cab she was travelling in on her way to work in the wee hours of Tuesday.
This has sent shivers down the spine of BPO workers, their kin, and the Indian IT industry.

The bottom line has been missed in this episode.....

The employee was killed by the cab driver who said that he was commissioned to pick her up.

Such a condition could happen only when there is no cab or cab drivers for the organisation.

If the BPO had its own transport department, company buses and vans (with the company logo prominently) and regaular drivers, this could have been avoided.

Drivers and cabs are not to be outsourced..... When you do that you are compromising on the security front

Comments about Illayaraja

I chanced to see few comments about Illayaraja at www.askenni.com by S. Maheshkumar

This is what he says

The list of Thiru Ilaiyaraja’s Blunders:

‘Thiru / Thirumathi to be prefixed at appropriate proper names’.

1. Vali (Ever Steady) against Vairamuthu (Rejuvenated).

2. ‘Malaysia’ Vasudevan against T. M. Soundararajan (Fuming/Lamenting).

3. Janaki (Rediscovered) against Susheela (Everlasting).

4. Mano against S. P. Balasubrahmaniam (Relief from overwork).

5. Chitra against Sailaja/Jency(Not So!).

6. His Western Classical Masala Mix against Thiruvasagam’s Original (traditional) ‘PANN’ or Tune (epitome of his blunders!).

7. His “Oththa Ruba Tharaen” against Shankar-Ganesh’s former “Ennadi Muniamma” of the same popular tune.

8. Yogi Ram Surath Kumar against Bhagavan Ramanar.

9. High-tech Swamihood against the Simplest Real.

10. His Perfect (?) Music-Notation Script (He boasts in interviews) against that of Beethoven’s.

11. Former under-estimation of M. S. Viswanathan (That he took 3 months to compose “Muththukkalo Kanngal” Song in “Nenjirukkum Varai” as against his setting to tunes instantly, in one of his erstwhile interviews to Doordarshan, Chennai.) against his present shift in stand (that his Music was the Eschewed Saliva of MSV/Ramamurthy).

12. His intoxicating & dominating “Marma Isai” i.e. Mysterious Music, against Inducing the Curiously Provoked to learn the Art (e.g. K. Bhagyaraj et al) to rid him.

13. Suppression of his younger brother’s name in the list of those he was grateful to for his climbing to success (in his book on the subject) against the Lakshmana-like deeds of Gangai Amaran.

14. His Present Fall (due to his uncontrolled egoism) against his Past Achievement (due to his erstwhile alter person who is now evaporated!).

15. His over-praised vulnerable Thiruvasakam in Symphonic Oratorio in retort against the applauded A. R. Rahman’s Vandemataram (the reason being in Rahman’s work the lyrics had been understandable whereas in Raja’s work, most of the verses were in classical tamil, hard to comprehend by the ordinary layman).

16. His copy-righted & patented Thiruvasakam in Symphonic Oratorio against Sri Manickavachakar’s unpatented Divine Thiruvasakam (which yielded Raja to corrupt and contaminate the Bone-Melting devotional Thiruvasakam and thus to have begotten the divine curse of darkness and ignorance,etc.)

… So on.

Let us Salute the Maestro for his greatest contribution to Modern Music and Pray the Musical God Sri Saptha Swareswara Nadha Brahmam to Shield Our treasure i.e. Isai Gnani Thiru Ilaiyaraja from the Clutches of his Self-Ruining, Ruthless Ego and Bestow Peace upon him so as to carry on with his Musical Mission in Life!

Chennai on the Rise

Thennavan writes about the

complete black-out of a city belonging to a state that is the second largest IT exporter in the country, next only to the "much ballyhooed" Bangalore,

here at
http://chennaicentral.blogspot.com/2005/12/there-is-no-city-called-chennai-in.html

More information can be seen at
http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/nov/12guest2.htm
and
http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/nov/14spec3.htm

Trial by fire

Do you Still believe that Agni bagavan has the power to differentiate truth and lies.....

Read this http://rediff.com/news/2005/dec/03punish.htm to know more

Brutal punishment: 7 school kids' palms burnt

A Ganesh Nadar in Tuticorin | December 03, 2005 18:58 IST

In a shocking incident, seven students of a government school in Kayalpattinam, in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu, suffered burn injuries due to the brutal punishment handed out to them by the school principal.

The incident occurred when 35 students of standard V were forced to keep their palms on a burning candle after they were suspected of having stolen money.

On Thursday, Usha Parvathy, a teacher at the school, complained that Rs 200 had been stolen from her purse while she had left in the classroom to visit the toilet. She alleged that one of students had pilfered the money.

When the matter was brought to the notice of the principal, Vasantha, she decided to punish the entire class to find the 'thief' and recover the money.

She made all the students in the classroom keep their hands on a burning candle and promise that they had not taken the money. In the process, seven of the 10-year-olds burnt their palms.

When nothing was recovered from the children, a search was conducted in the school's premises and the money was found near the toilet.

Later that day, the students informed their parents about the inhuman punishment and a complaint was registered at the Armugneri police station the following day against the principal, who is now absconding.

District Superintendent of Police Mahesh Kumar Agarwal and District Collector Chandrasekhar have promised severe action against the culprit.

Meanwhile, the education department has swung into action and suspended the principal.

Not long ago, for similar reasons, a headmaster asked the students to hold ice in palm and the kids had injuries.......