Monday, November 16, 2009
Courage to think
(From Richard Hamming: "You and your research") One of the characteristics of successful scientists is having courage. Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can. If you think you can't, almost surely you are not going to. Courage is one of the things that Shannon had supremely. You have only to think of his major theorem. He wants to create a method of coding, but he doesn't know what to do so he makes a random code. Then he is stuck. And then he asks the impossible question, ``What would the average random code do?'' He then proves that the average code is arbitrarily good, and that therefore there must be at least one good code. Who but a man of infinite courage could have dared to think those thoughts? That is the characteristic of great scientists; they have courage. They will go forward under incredible circumstances; they think and continue to think.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Laugh
A Funny Story that I came across:
Once PVR (PV Narasimha Rao), L.K.Advani and Laloo Prasad Yadav were travelling in an autorickshaw. They met with an accident and all three of them died.
Yama was waiting for this moment at the doorstep of death.
He asks PVR and Advani to go to HEAVEN.
But, for Laloo, Yama had already decided that he should be sent to HELL.
Laloo is not at all happy with this decision. He asks Yama as to why this discrimination is being made. All the three of them being politicians, had served the public; all took bribes, all misused public positions, etc.
Laloo felt that there should be a formal test or an objective evaluation before a decision is made; and should not be just based on opinion or pre-conceived notions.
Yama agrees to this and asks all the three of them to appear for an English test.
PVR is asked to spell ” INDIA ” and he does it correctly. Advani is asked to spell ” ENGLAND ” and he too passes. It is Laloo’s turn and he is asked to spell ” CZECHOSLOVAKIA“.
Laloo protests that he doesn’t know English.
Having been a student of history (which the other two weren’t),he now requested for all the 3 to be subjected to a test in history.Yama says OK but this would be the last chance and that he would not take any more tests.
PVR is asked: “When did India get Independence?” He replied “1947″ and passed. Advani is asked “How many people died during the independence struggle?”. He gets nervous. Yama asked him to choose from 3 options: 1 or 200,000 or 3. Advani catches it and says 200,000 and passes.
It’s Laloo’s turn now.
‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
Yama asks him to give the Name and Address of each of the 200,000 who died in the struggle.
Laloo accepts defeat and agrees to go to HELL.
Moral of the story:
IF YOUR MANAGEMENT HAS DECIDED TO SCREW YOU, THERE IS NO ESCAPE….. …
Once PVR (PV Narasimha Rao), L.K.Advani and Laloo Prasad Yadav were travelling in an autorickshaw. They met with an accident and all three of them died.
Yama was waiting for this moment at the doorstep of death.
He asks PVR and Advani to go to HEAVEN.
But, for Laloo, Yama had already decided that he should be sent to HELL.
Laloo is not at all happy with this decision. He asks Yama as to why this discrimination is being made. All the three of them being politicians, had served the public; all took bribes, all misused public positions, etc.
Laloo felt that there should be a formal test or an objective evaluation before a decision is made; and should not be just based on opinion or pre-conceived notions.
Yama agrees to this and asks all the three of them to appear for an English test.
PVR is asked to spell ” INDIA ” and he does it correctly. Advani is asked to spell ” ENGLAND ” and he too passes. It is Laloo’s turn and he is asked to spell ” CZECHOSLOVAKIA“.
Laloo protests that he doesn’t know English.
Having been a student of history (which the other two weren’t),he now requested for all the 3 to be subjected to a test in history.Yama says OK but this would be the last chance and that he would not take any more tests.
PVR is asked: “When did India get Independence?” He replied “1947″ and passed. Advani is asked “How many people died during the independence struggle?”. He gets nervous. Yama asked him to choose from 3 options: 1 or 200,000 or 3. Advani catches it and says 200,000 and passes.
It’s Laloo’s turn now.
‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
‘
Yama asks him to give the Name and Address of each of the 200,000 who died in the struggle.
Laloo accepts defeat and agrees to go to HELL.
Moral of the story:
IF YOUR MANAGEMENT HAS DECIDED TO SCREW YOU, THERE IS NO ESCAPE….. …
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