But there was a recent event, that has completely made me depressed and lifeless, which you could compare against the above in terms of the anxiety. I (my house) got robbed over the weekend. They took my laptop, an external drive and some other random things. They left the TV. I would whole-heartedly exchange my TV, my bike, my books, my microwave and a few other things just to get my laptop back. Not for the laptop itself but for what it contains. It was my companion on so many days/nights, it helped me through some tough times at work, and it holds the key to most of what I’ve done in the past two years. It is heart breaking to know that it is all gone and the horrors return.

It would have been a consolation to at least have the external disk around, which contains all the back-ups of my work. But that is gone too. When you can’t even save anything in your own home for safe keeping, what can you depend on ? And being as attached to the work as I am, it only intensifies the pain. I am 3 months away from renewing my position and now I am behind on my schedule to finish 2 more papers. This might not have a happy ending.

At the end of the day, losing a laptop just hurts so much more than losing a phone. And that is relativity for the un-initiated. The beauty of physics is that the most purest of the theories are great philosophies too. And there I shall end this post. Still moping…

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It’s only on the brink that people find the will to change; only on the precipice that we evolve. This is our moment – don’t take it from us.
– The day the earth stood still

Another one of those things that is so right on the point. Its cliched to say ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ but putting it in different words as above lends new meaning and purpose.

I’ve learnt that all best thoughts have already been said before. And that’s why I am proud to do my re-search. And it is why I thrive on great quotes. Kudos to the great minds before and after me.

Without that final edge, how mundanely bleak an occurrence this would be. And with or without an external change, it really is about time to rethink the possibilities…

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Colbert Report – January 5, 2010

If you are interested in getting to what I’ve got to say here, just move to 3.0 mins in to the video for “Night of terror: The crapification of American pant-scape”. Five minutes of that segment parodies on the recent reactions to the terror attack and what newscasters suggest we do to prevent further attacks.

Given that everyone here is scared even more because of the recent incident, the outcome of it in the news is just plainly retarded. I’ve watched enough segments lately about it but ‘Racial profiling’, ‘Religious targeting’ and plain disregard for rights in a country that hails itself as the greatest democratic nation seems much, to achieve what is necessary. My comments primarily stems from the fact that for 9 years since 9/11, Americans have been able to suppress any attack from bearing fruition and if anything, the recent incident is just a reminder that it took the terrorists this long to come back with a decent plan to break through the defenses.

The job is always easier for the attacker, whatever the cause, immaterial of the perspective since there is only one motive he needs to achieve. The preparation and tactics necessary to stop them is immense and it is important to keep the focus on what’s relevant and not to start waging wars on random nations again. Starting wars only makes America more of a pariah even if they can come up with thousand reasons to back it up. I abhor Gandhi’s non-violence movement and would have really liked to have given the British what they deserved for terrorizing the Indians with hundreds of years of oppression but my vision is clouded and for reasons I cannot understand, Ahimsa did work. May be a different approach might serve this nation better in the future. Of course, no one gives a shit about my opinion but this is just one man’s thought on a world in chaos.

I think it is apt to end my thought with a quote:

“Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that people remember is the one that gets past you.”
- Paul Wilkinson

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Why you ask ? Because we are humans. And unlearning physics that is a simple extension of a much more helpful application, i.e., the generation of power from reactors, is quite hard. In fact to quote from the article,

Chinese President Hu Jintao made clear that Beijing had no plans to scrap its nuclear arsenal.

“We will continue to keep our nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security, and make efforts to advance the international disarmament process,” Hu said.

If every country that already has nukes takes a similar stance, and by suggesting arbitrarily that “we will keep our nuclear capabilities at the minimum level required for national security”, there is still reason for countries that want to get in to building nukes to get a nuclear status and respect from fear. And yes, I’m talking about North Korea, Iran and may be Brazil specifically.

But we strive, and that is probably a good thing. At least, we are heading in the right direction…

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[Malik] When did you come to believe that now you had the weapons-grade uranium?

[Khan] In Kahuta, we achieved 60 percent result in our enrichment program; it was a
very difficult task though. We faced a lot of challenges in the ensuing stages but
successfully managed to overcome them, and we had achieved 90 percent result in the
//enrichment// program by the early 1983.

[Malik] So when was the bomb ready?

[Khan] It was ready by 1984. I wrote a letter to Gen Zia on 10 December 1984, telling
him that the weapon was ready and that we could detonate it on a notice of one week.

[Malik] Why did you not decide to test that device as soon as it was ready?

[Khan] We were allying with the United States in the Afghan war. The aid was coming.
We asked Gen Zia and his team to go ahead with the test, but they said they could not
conduct the test as it would have serious repercussions. They argued that, since the
United States had to overlook our nuclear program due to our support in the Afghan
war, it was an opportunity for us to further develop the program. They said the tests
could be conducted any time later.

Even though there is no value in pointing fingers at anybody, it is horrifying that repercussions of the US involvement in the Afghan region is still coming back to bite everyone, US included, in diabolical ways. Read the rest of the transcript to get a better perspective on things.

Link to the transcript in PDF via Secrecy News.

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I especially like Bob’s extrapolation on the current state of affairs:

The folks at TMI did not really know how to manage the technology of a nuclear power plant, and that led to a huge mess. The same thing has now happened to our economy. Congress changed the banking and mortgage lending rules without regard to their purpose. Many firms bought derivative securities without the slightest thought to the math behind them or the risk they were incurring. Nuclear power plants run on a chain reaction process of atomic decay. Our government and investment community created a chain reaction of economic decay.

Anyway, since it is the 30th anniversary of TMI, I figured that it would be wise to educate the one or two readers following my site. So here, read up.

Three Mile Island Memories.

Also, if you feel like reading more in-depth, check out the TMI fact-sheet at the NRC website TMI Fact sheet

Note to self: Got to watch ‘The China Syndrome’ soon. I keep reading about it over and over to the extent that it is annoying the hell out of me…

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There are also several more designs apparently being planned for construction in China, in the near future. An excerpt from World-Nuclear-News:

The AP1000 is to be one of two designs built en-masse in China. The other is the CPR-1000, itself derived from French reactors imported for the Daya Bay nuclear power plant in the 1980s. China has a range of power reactors including Candu-6s from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and VVER-1000s from AtomStroyExport. Two Areva EPRs are planned, as are two more VVER-1000s.

China Fires up Construction of the First of Many AP1000 nuclear reactors.

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Here are more details from TheLongNow blog.

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One of the first questions that is answered is “Why do we do it ?”

Excerpt from the article:

Whatever else is going on when we kiss, our evolutionary history is embedded within this tender, tempestuous act. In the 1960s British zoologist and author Desmond Morris first proposed that kissing might have evolved from the practice in which primate mothers chewed food for their young and then fed them mouth-to-mouth, lips puckered. Chimpanzees feed in this manner, so our hominid ancestors probably did, too. Pressing outturned lips against lips may have then later developed as a way to comfort hungry children when food was scarce and, in time, to express love and affection in general. The human species might eventually have taken these proto-parental kisses down other roads until we came up with the more passionate varieties we have today.

Well, that makes a lot of sense. I believe that a lot of the actions we perform are deeply influenced by what animals did out of survival which later became acts of luxuries and a part of social behavior itself. So I’ll leave this at that.

Another interesting quote from he article is as follows:

“Kissing,” said evolutionary psychologist Gordon G. Gallup of the University at Albany, State University of New York, “involves a very complicated exchange of information—olfactory information, tactile information and postural types of adjustments that may tap into underlying evolved and unconscious mechanisms that enable people to make determinations … about the degree to which they are genetically incompatible.” Kissing may even reveal the extent to which a partner is willing to commit to raising children, a central issue in long-term relationships and crucial to the survival of our species.

There are few other interesting tidbits of information about how human sensory organs behave and the reactions of the brain during a kiss. Useless, but fascinating nonetheless.

Well anyway, at the end of the day, it really does not matter what these studies come up with for results. Since perceptions are averaged over thousands of people and there is a high probability that me or you do not perceive like any of them or the person you kiss, all you can do is read it and move on

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A blog called Next Energy News leaks a story about Toshiba building a “Micro Nuclear Reactor” that would be nothing short of a miracle.

The 200 kilowatt Toshiba designed reactor is engineered to be fail-safe and totally automatic and will not overheat. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new revolutionary technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years, producing electricity for only 5 cents per kilowatt hour, about half the cost of grid energy.

via Gadgets-Weblog

Sad that this news was a hoax but in reality, if such a design were to be made in a feasible manner, this could be wonderful in lieu of the growing concerns on global warming and move towards greener energy. Well, it still would create new problems in the nuclear non-proliferation regime but lets deal with this one step at a time.

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Anyway, without diverging further, let me give you an excerpt from an article on the new Russian test. From CNN

The Russian military has successfully tested what it described as the world’s most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb, Russia’s state television reported Tuesday.

The bomb’s detonation is shown in this image taken from videotape.

It was the latest show of Russia’s military muscle amid chilly relations with the United States.

Channel One television said the new weapon, nicknamed the “dad of all bombs” is four times more powerful than the U.S. “mother of all bombs.”

“The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability,” said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, said in televised remarks. Video Watch Russian bomb test »

Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn’t hurt the environment, he added.

Read more …

<sarcasm>YESSS ! It doesn’t hurt the environment ! That should keep the global warming fanatics quiet. You showed them Russia. Way to go.</sarcasm>
Retards.

Btw, also found a nice video of the test, an official release from the Russian government. I should say, the mushroom clouds get me all tingly every time I see it on video. Let’s hope I’ll never have to see that in person during my life !!

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Some might argue that when somebody has 40b $ as assets, it should be easy to give away 32b $. But in my opinion, that is one of the best philanthropic action i’ve seen in my short life till now. I personally respect Gates for the huge effort and involvement in the foundation and all the support he has provided to eradicate diseases in the different third world countries. I am glad to see that someone is willing to spend time, money and effort to accomplish this when even the respective governments are having a hard time to stay afloat.

Kudos to Buffet for the thought and i pray that the Gates foundation will make an impact and improve the overall human lifestyle, all over the world !

Here’s an excerpt from one of the articles i’ve read on the news. Read on.

Warren Buffett, 75, known as the Oracle of Omaha for his stock-picking ability, is a quintessential capitalist and the world’s second-richest man. He’s also no fan of greed, or of inherited wealth.

Rather than pass on his $44 billion fortune to his adult children, whom he notes are already quite well-off, Buffett announced Sunday that he is giving away the bulk of his assets to a foundation run by his friends, Bill and Melinda Gates. This will double the $1.5 billion that the world’s richest foundation spends annually — mostly on health and education programs.

The gift is notable in several ways.

First, its sheer size. The donation makes industrialist benefactors such as John Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie look almost stingy and is rivaled only by the Gateses’ own gifts of $25.9 billion. Calculating the impact that money might have is impossible, but neither Buffett nor the Gateses think small. “There’s no reason we can’t cure the world’s 20 deadliest illnesses,” Bill Gates said Monday.

They might.

The gift also underscores a little-noticed trend: a renaissance in philanthropy. In 2004, the latest year for which data exist, the USA had 70,000 foundations — double the number a decade earlier. They gave away $33 billion.

But perhaps most striking is the way Buffett’s decision stands out in this greed-is-good era, in which, to cite one example of gross excess, the average pay for top hedge-fund managers last year exceeded $360 million.

To a large degree, of course, wealth-building — if not outright greed — is good. Before they gave away a dime, Buffett and Gates created jobs and raised people’s living standards by building spectacularly successful companies. But when should the wealth-building stop?

“I don’t believe in dynastic wealth,” Buffett has said, likening inherited wealth to choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold medal winners in the 2000 Olympics. That’s why he opposes efforts to repeal the estate tax, saying that without it, America would have an aristocracy based on inherited wealth instead of a meritocracy that rewards ability and drive.

As Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism, said in 1759 of generous capitalists, Buffett feels it’s in his self-interest to help others “though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.” Here’s hoping others heed the message.

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Our most clicked story of 2005. The placebo effect, cold fusion, dark energy, the “wow” signal and bizarre homeopathy results – these were just a few of the mysteries that fascinated you.

2. Pentagon reveals rejected chemical weapons

The chemical “sex-bomb” designed to make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other, thus destroying an enemy’s morale.

3. 11 steps to a better brain

Like a personal trainer for the brain, without the strain. We expect the IQ of our readers to be much greater now than at the start of 2005.

4. US military sets laser PHASRs to stun

The PHASR is an impressive looking beast, larger than Captain Kirk’s trusted phaser, but the risk of blinding innocent bystanders shrouded this prototype weapon in controversy.

5. Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed

The US military raised temperatures further in 2005 by trying their new microwave weapons on a test crowd – with mixed results.

6. Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age

In a year dominated by climate-change fear and greenhouse gas emissions targets, the news of a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream sounded a loud note of alarm.

7. Antarctic ice sheet is an ‘awakened giant’

A slumbering giant, the massive west Antarctic ice sheet, previously assumed to be stable, started to collapse noticeably in 2005, adding extra heat to the climate debate.

8. Bionic suit offers wearers super-strength

Many kids dream of growing into a bionic adult, able to perform superhuman deeds. This dream moved one mechanical step closer to reality this year.

9. Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions

Sex and romantic entanglements among astronauts could derail missions to Mars, said a top-level panel of US researchers. Their recommendation for NASA – more study of the issue.

10. Centrifugal weapon could deliver stealth firepower

Another weapon, this time a gun that spits out ball bearings after spinning them to extreme speeds – and there’s a video of the beast in action.

– My 2 cents : Do not miss to read each of the stories. All of them are very interesting. After all, they did make it to the top 10 stories of the year !

Link

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When Linda Cerniglia went back to school, it took her almost seven years to get through all the prerequisites, the labs, the research. And it took a thief just moments to grab her purse, with the only copy of her master’s thesis stored on a tiny jump drive inside.

If i were her, i’ve got no idea what mental state i would have reached. Either i would have become zen or gone crazy. Both are quite a possibility. hmm.

There’s just one more sentence in the article that caught my eye, that even hit me like a bullet, in the face. The sheer truth, as experienced by a fellow thesis writer :

“It was so painful,” she said. “I would rather go outside and dig a hole all day long than write.”

Hopefully, i would not end up in a situation like this. As of now, i have 6 different copies of different versions all over the place – from my home comp to work comp, my usb to a backup in my site. Unless, all the electronics fail together, i wouldn’t have to rewrite my thesis from scratch again. This is a lesson i wont forget.

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Bird flu has overshadowed the year 2005. The abominable virus claimed many bird lives in South East Asia before heading across Europe to Russia and Ukraine. However, the more scientists and officials talk about the deadly threat, the less credible it looks to people. Some people believe there is no such thing as bird flu. They think the whole story stemmed from the fights over the world market between the poultry producers. Others blame the pharmaceutical companies that are keen to spread panic and therefore make us buy more medicines. Which story should we believe in? Does the bird flu really exist? Does it pose a threat to humans? Did other threats of the worldwide proportions materialize?

It did not take long to tackle the problem; doctors found a pathogen and a vector – coronovirus and a palm cat, a viverrine animal normally used for food in China. However, the urgent measures could not stop another myth from spreading far and wide. The myth said that the SARS problem was made up to lower China’s economic growth and disrupt the exceedingly profitable tourist industry in South East Asia.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Sandakhchiyev:

“Discovering a new more dangerous type of previously unknown coronavirus in the patients was direct evidence of a real threat. The ‘spinning’ of that epidemic stressed the importance of international cooperation. Many people did realize that humankind was destined to face new or recurrent infectious diseases. Therefore, a system of global and domestic monitoring is highly required.”

Spent nuclear fuel

Following a heated debate in 2001, the Russian president signed into law the bill on storage and reutilization of spent nuclear fuel from foreign nuclear power spent nuclear fuelplants. Specialists were unanimous while explaining to their opponents that spent nuclear fuel was not just the waste material from the nuclear industry. According to them, it is a high-tech product that can be used for extracting raw materials and energy. Despite potentially huge profits Russia could make (one ton of spent nuclear fuel costs $1 million; total estimated amount of spent nuclear fuel is 200 thousand tons), environmentalists have been relentless in their opposition to the new law.

Nikolai Shingarev, Director of the Information Center of the Federal Agency on Nuclear Energy:

“No spent nuclear fuel is being brought into Russia despite the law. We will probably sign the first contract under the new legislation for a small consignment of spent nuclear fuel from a research reactor in Uzbekistan. Today Russia is receiving nuclear waste from the nuclear plants built in the Soviet era in Ukraine ($370 thousand per 1 ton) and Bulgaria ($600 thousand per one ton). Reutilization waste materials will be stored in Russia only if the governments OKs the storage and only if fuel had been originally produced in Russia. 75% of revenues will be allocated for environmental programs and the remaining 25% will make part of local budgets.”

10 myths of the past, which never materialized

Steam-driven locomotive: serious scientists were asserting that cows would stop bearing offspring and produce milk at the sight of a locomotive. They also clamed that air would be squeezed out of train carriages at 20 km per hour and passengers will suffocate as a result.

Robot: intelligent machines will shake off dependence and take command of the world; humans would submit to the power of the machines.

Spacecraft: spacecraft were making holes in the atmosphere during the takeoff; the earth’s protective anti-radiation layer of the atmosphere will be eventually destroyed and thus the earth will be exposed to dangerous space particles.

Microwave oven: fried sausages can irradiate in the dark; radiation from food cooked in the oven will pile up in the human body and cause cancer.

Cell phone: radiation emitted by a cell phone receiver can affect the brain by liquefying it. Paradoxically, a cell phone phobia could not stop the massive spread of cellular communications all over the world.

Vaccination: the danger of vaccination is one of the longstanding fears in the world; the first objectors appeared shortly after the first vaccination campaign launched by Dr. Edward Jenner in 1796; many objected to vaccination in Russia at the end of the 1990s.

Environmental pollution: some people feared that the civilization would come to end by 2020 due to sky-high levels of industrial and communal pollution which should result in a lack of oxygen and poisonous evaporation.

Asbestos: Micro particles of asbestos cause lung cancer. Asbestos was produced in Canada and the USSR. Canadian asbestos companies went bankrupt following an anti-asbestos propaganda campaign instigated by the competitors. Russia’s asbestos makers have survived the bad times. The incidence rate of cancer in the town of Asbest does not exceed an average national incidence rate of cancer.

Global warming: industrial emissions of carbon dioxide cause the greenhouse effect that leads to overheating of the earth’s surface. Consequently, polar ice will melt away causing the global ocean level rise by one meter.

Ozone holes: Freon used in refrigerators and deodorants will destroy the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which protects Earth against the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation. As a result, the number of cancer and other deadly diseases will grow.

via PRAVDA

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The topic : “Terrorist Has No Idea What To Do With All This Plutonium”.

Yaquub Akhtar, the leader of an eight-man cell linked to a terrorist organization known as the Army Of Martyrs, admitted Tuesday that he “doesn’t have the slightest clue” what to do with the quarter-kilogram of plutonium he recently acquired.

“We had just given thanks to Allah for this glorious means to destroy the Great Satan once and for all, when [sub-lieutenant] Mahmoud [Ghassan] asked, ‘So, what’s the next step?’” Akhtar said. “I was at a loss.”

The 28-year-old fanatic said he and his associates had initially assumed that at least one member of their group had the physics and engineering background necessary to construct a thermonuclear device.

“Many eyes were upon me,” said Basim Aljawad, whose knowledge of physics did not extend to the principles of nuclear fission. “I make nail bombs. That’s it.”

My 2 cents of opinion on it : It is bloody funny and terribly scary. Funny because i can’t believe that someone had the means to get a raw material for a potential weapon and still do not have a clue on what to do with it. Scary because, obtaining plutonium, for motivated terrorists seems easy.

“I still believe in taking the lives of American civilians as revenge for the atrocities committed on our brothers, our wives, and our daughters,” Akhtar said. “I’m just not entirely sure it’s worth a headache this big.”

It is really sad to see such intense hatred against any nation, whoever it might be. On top of that, when such people also have the means to fulfill their wishes, the world doesn’t seem that safe anymore.

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I got intrigued and set about to analyze the effects of such a sleep starvation on the mind, health and found puzzling pieces of facts. Here i present to you, my review article on “Sleep deprivation and its ill-effects”.

Disclaimer : This is a review post about the different articles i found with information, facts from those sites on hacking sleep, sleep cycles, problems that sleep deprivation can induce and my thoughts to manage a balance between lesser sleep and better health. Read on if you want to learn all about ‘Sleep’. Or so i lure you !

Sleep

Until the 1950s, most people thought of sleep as a passive, dormant part of our daily lives. We now know that our brains are very active during sleep. Moreover, sleep affects our daily functioning and our physical and mental health in many ways that we are just beginning to understand.

During sleep, we usually pass through five phases of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress in a cycle from stage 1 to REM sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage 1 (see figure 1). We spend almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages. Infants, by contrast, spend about half of their sleep time in REM sleep.

The amount of sleep each person needs depends on many factors, including age. Infants generally require about 16 hours a day, while teenagers need about 9 hours on average. For most adults, 7 to 8 hours a night appears to be the best amount of sleep, although some people may need as few as 5 hours or as many as 10 hours of sleep each day. Women in the first 3 months of pregnancy often need several more hours of sleep than usual. The amount of sleep a person needs also increases if he or she has been deprived of sleep in previous days. Getting too little sleep creates a “sleep debt,” which is much like being overdrawn at a bank. Eventually, your body will demand that the debt be repaid. We don’t seem to adapt to getting less sleep than we need; while we may get used to a sleep-depriving schedule, our judgment, reaction time, and other functions are still impaired.

Although scientists are still trying to learn exactly why people need sleep, animal studies show that sleep is necessary for survival. Sleep appears necessary for our nervous systems to work properly. Too little sleep leaves us drowsy and unable to concentrate the next day. It also leads to impaired memory and physical performance and reduced ability to carry out math calculations. If sleep deprivation continues, hallucinations and mood swings may develop. Some experts believe sleep gives neurons used while we are awake a chance to shut down and repair themselves. Without sleep, neurons may become so depleted in energy or so polluted with byproducts of normal cellular activities that they begin to malfunction. Sleep also may give the brain a chance to exercise important neuronal connections that might otherwise deteriorate from lack of activity.

With this brief introduction into the physics of Sleep, let us see what some of the recent articles and posts have to say about ‘Polyphasic sleep’, ‘Hacking Sleep’ and their effects.

Polyphasic sleep

Polyphasic sleep is a sleep pattern specification intended to reduce sleep time to 2–5 hours daily. This is achieved by spreading out sleep into short naps of around 20–45 minutes throughout the day. This is supposed to allow for more waking hours with relatively high alertness.

The method uses natural human sleep mechanisms to maximize alertness when sleep time needs to be minimized. However, it requires a rigid schedule which makes it unfeasible for most people. It can work well for those engaged in activities which do not permit lengthy periods of sleep (e.g. sailors).

Again, several articles have been written recently about Polyphasic sleep and the attention it has gathered, forces me to look into the subject in detail. But first, let us look at the Sleep cycles and understand the different phases involved during a normal sleep routine before trying to attempt Polyphasic sleep.

To start off, let us look at a great article which has detailed analysis on the sleep cycles, phases, physiological effects, the natural rythm and factors that can affect a normal sleep. The article is very formal in nature and looks more like a technical paper, but we have to note that it thoroughly analyzes the different components that induce sleep, namely

1) The circadian component and
2) The homeostatic component

The author then talks about some of the habits that are misconceptualized in society about sleep and talks about some of the myths and discusses the implications of each. I definitely did learn a lot in this part. I am sure you will too !

Here’s a detailed look at the sleep cycles, the average duration of each cycle and which cycle is important to feel refreshed and to avoid the uneasy feeling even after 8 hours of sleep.

In the course of the night, we alternately enter two phases of sleep :

• NREM sleep (named for non-Rapid Eye Movement) – Scientists believe that NREM is the critical moment of memory consolidation in which the hippocampus(central memory switchboard of the brain) works as the neural trainer for the neocortex in which long-term memories will be stored. Those long-term memories cannot be formed without entering appropriates stages of the sleep cycle! You cannot learn effectively if your sleep gets cut short in the morning. Or if it gets interrupted during the night. Even if you try to sleep 15 hours per day in short pieces of interrupted sleep, your learning results will be dismal! Long story short, No NREM -> Not a solid long term memory.
• REM sleep (named for Rapid Eye Movement) – The brain in REM sleep is a hard-working brain that has little to do with the notion of energy-conservation and rest in sleep.

To learn more on sleep cycles, read the above article and The power of the Sleep Cycle. There are some interesting quotes in the article about ways to improve the alertness, fitness and health even with lesser sleep if proportioned rightly. This is very interesting.

Another article which created quite a buzz on ‘Polyphasic sleep’ is the ‘Uberman’s sleeping schedule‘. The recent article over at Kuro5hin talks about the Uberman’s sleeping schedule or Polyphasic sleep where the author manages to get just 3 hours of sleep everyday and freeing more time to work with 5-6 20-30 min short naps.

The idea behind this is to maximize the REM(rapid eye movement) sleep when your brain is still mostly active, conjuring dreams that we see. Interesting concept again but not quite workable if you don’t have the luxury to control your working time. Also, the effects mentioned in the article are only short term and the author has no clue about the long term effects of such a Uberman schedule. Definitely a risky bet IMO.

After reading the previous article, i was searching to find the effects of such a polyphasic sleeping schedule and stumbled upon another article which quotes and mentions the effects of polyphasic sleep from journal articles. Let us quote from ‘Ubersleep? Hacking Sleep? Stupid!‘

Like i guessed, there are some serious side effects to such polyphasic sleep. Here’s a small list of the long term effects that you need to be aware of before trying any of this.

• Your health will suffer
• Less sleep equals more fat
• People who sleep normally, live longer
• You increase your chances of having a car wreck

Some of it, i could have guessed by intuition but some of it has factual data to support it.

Based on the previous article, i suspected that maybe obesity is somehow related to sleep deprivation. Reason : I have been eating very less over the past few days combined with lesser sleep but i have still managed to gain over 3lbs in weight in the past month.

This article argues that ‘lack of sleep’ is a factor for obesity. The author also mentions couple of good stories and research attempts to discern the effects of the polyphasic sleep.

But oh well, no one is stopping anyone from trying polyphasic sleep but IMHO, dont try it, without researching the full effects of what it will do to you !

Moving on, i did find more scientific articles that have made observations on ‘What Losing Sleep Does to a Body‘.

While many aspects of sleep remain a mystery — including exactly why we sleep — the picture that appears to be emerging is that not sleeping enough or being awake in the wee hours runs counter to the body’s internal clock, throwing a host of basic bodily functions out of sync.

“Lack of sleep disrupts every physiologic function in the body,” said Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago. “We have nothing in our biology that allows us to adapt to this behavior.”

The amount of necessary sleep varies from person to person, with some breezing through their days on just a few hours’ slumber and others barely functioning without a full 10 hours, experts say. But most people apparently need between about seven and nine hours, with studies indicating that an increased risk for disease starts to kick in when people get less than six or seven, experts say.

–Holy crap. If what they say is true, then i might have actually reduced my life span by atleast 10 yrs now for sleep starving myself over the past 6-7 years. Read this article too to learn some of the recent research activities being done to find out exactly the detrimental effects of inadequate sleep.

Another scientific article i found was ‘Down for the Count‘ which observes the sleeping habits of mammals in general.

“People who don’t have REM sleep are remarkably normal,” Dr. Siegel said. “There’s no evidence for any intellectual or emotional problems.”

So why do mammals and birds have REM sleep at all? “The best answer I can come up with is that it’s there to prepare you for waking,” Dr. Siegel said. “When the important work of sleep is done, REM sleep just makes you as alert as you can be while you’re asleep.”

–Well that rules out REM maximizing Ubersleep for me. Goodbye polyphasic sleep.

Now a few other articles suggest that “Deep Sleep May Be Genetic”. Eventhough the argument sounds appealing, i am very skeptical about the validity of such a thing. I think that deep sleep is directly related to a person’s stress level and ability to calm his mind. Hence, to get a deep sleep, I think that the psyche of a person matters and not the genes he derived from his parent. Well, i could be way off or closer than you think, but let further research prove me wrong.

In the light of learning scientifically about sleep, i feel obliged to link to another article that is based on sleep research. The article ‘Deep sleep short-circuits brain’s grid of connectivity‘ discusses how the brain functions during deep sleep. Here’s a quote from the article.

In the human brain, cells talk to one another through the routine exchange of electrical signals. But when people fall into a deep sleep, the higher regions of the brain – regions that during waking hours are a bustling grid of neural dialogue – apparently lose their ability to communicate effectively, causing consciousness to fade.

After reading so much about the different kinds of sleep cycles, methods to optimize sleep, i definitely felt that there is one other thing all the previous authors missed out. Meditation.

Meditation builds up the brain

What effect meditating has on the structure of the brain has also been a matter of some debate. Now Sara Lazar at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, US, and colleagues have used MRI to compare 15 meditators, with experience ranging from 1 to 30 years, and 15 non-meditators.

They found that meditating actually increases the thickness of the cortex in areas involved in attention and sensory processing, such as the prefrontal cortex and the right anterior insula.

“You are exercising it while you meditate, and it gets bigger,” she says. The finding is in line with studies showing that accomplished musicians, athletes and linguists all have thickening in relevant areas of the cortex. It is further evidence, says Lazar, that yogis “aren’t just sitting there doing nothing”.

The growth of the cortex is not due to the growth of new neurons, she points out, but results from wider blood vessels, more supporting structures such as glia and astrocytes, and increased branching and connections.

-The research reinstates what we already know about the oriental methodologies involving meditation and the benefits of it. Theories apart, i have been practising meditation for well over 2 years although not very regularly and from my personal experience i can say for sure that if you do it right, it can compensate for hours of sleep deprivation. At the end of the meditative session, i usually feel alert, more conscious, and more alive. The symptoms of drowsiness and lethargy vanish and i am ready to do more work. It is important to understand the process of meditation to get the maximum benefit. The vital component is the ‘breathing’, which will determine how peaceful a feeling you are going to reach and the steadiness of your breathing will quicken the process. I am no where near an expert on this and i suggest that if you are interested, read up more or ask a professional.

Anyway, IMHO, meditation can definitely help me more than any theory on polyphasic sleep. But hey, no one is stopping you to try something different. And if it works, i’d be happy to know.

Diverging from the topic a little bit, on the topic of Alarm clocks, here’s another interesting article : ‘Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better‘.

If you are one of those persons who relies heavily on alarm clocks to wake up in the morning, like i do, then you already know how irritating the sound of the alarm can be. But is there an easier way to wake us up with an alarm, without abruptly disrupting the sleep but to slowly ease in to getting up, and to avoid that groggy feeling after sleep ? Yes. The article provides an innovative method that aims to do that albeit expensive. In the end, another cool idea and a nice theory !

Here’s another scary finding ! An article that took sleep deprived doctors as test subjects has recently concluded that the attention, vigilance, driving skills suffer as much from long work hours & overnight shifts as from blood alcohol level of 0.04%.

Read more about ‘Lack of sleep affects young doctors just like alcohol‘.

In the end, there seems only one way to beat the time crunch. A ‘28 hour day schedule‘. I have thought about such an idea before but never realized that someone else would be interested on similar lines. Here’s the crux of the idea.

We know that there are 24 hours & 7 days in a week, a total of 168 hours. Instead, if we have 28 hours/day with a 6 day week period, we could have longer hours in a day, more time to work and more time to sleep. Voila ! But us humans, err, me i am sure, will still manage to work for 22 hours and get only 6 hours of sleep. Now i wonder how that would be like !

Conclusion :

Sleep well. Eat well. Life is probably(?!) not worth screwing around. My advice : Screw polyphasic sleep. Embrace meditation.

You only have one life to live. Enjoy it while it lasts.

References :

1) Polyphasic sleep – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2) The power of the Sleep Cycle
3) Good sleep, good learning, good life
4) Uberman’s sleeping schedule
5) Ubersleep? Hacking Sleep? Stupid!
6) Sleep Well or Die. Part II
7) Optimal sleep Scientists Finding Out What Losing Sleep Does to a Body
9) Down for the Count
10) Deep sleep may be in your genes
11) Deep Sleep May Be Genetic
12) Deep sleep short-circuits brain’s grid of connectivity
13) Meditation builds up the brain
14) Alarm clocks are bad. How to wake up and feel better
15) Lack of sleep affects young doctors just like alcohol
16) A 28 hour day schedule
17) More links on Sleep, its importance, effects of deprivation

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A potential problem with the emergency reactor core cooling system at the nation’s largest nuclear power plant went undetected from 1986, when it began producing power, until last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission(NRC) and the plant operator confirmed Thursday.

The issue was identified when engineers at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station did an analysis after NRC inspectors raised questions at a detailed inspection early last week. The NRC was following up to see if earlier cooling system problems had been fixed.

The review showed the emergency cooling system may not operate as expected to provide water to reactor cores after a small leak in the reactor cooling lines, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said.

Practically, for this flaw to lead to any kind of disatrous results, lots of redundant safety systems need to fail together. Well, i am not refuting the fact that such an incident could have happened anytime in the past 19 years of its operation but chances for a complete failure and a meltdown are slim. Nevertheless, this is definitely a serious issue and hopefully, the NRC will bring in a stricter system to check all the flaws in all operating reactors.

God, i dont even want to begin to imagine what the media fuss will be, on all this.

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The area along India’s northern border in disputed Kashmir is by far the hottest spot in that country, said A.K. Shukla, director of India’s Earthquake Risk Evaluation Center. He said the latest quake, unfortunately, will not be the last and may not be the largest to come.”It’s not a question of surprise, because that area is a highly seismic one,” he said. “It’s not surprising at all.”

Saturday’s quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir. At least 22 aftershocks followed within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.

In 1935, a magnitude-7.5 earthquake was recorded in Quetta, India, killing 50,000. In 1974, just north of the recent quake’s epicenter, a magnitude-6.2 earthquake occurred, generating 5,800 casualties.

Will the same type of collision that created the Himalayas millions of years ago be the demise of beautiful Asia and my beautiful sub-continent ? I pray for that not to happen.

Update : Death Toll at 35,000 in Pakistan Quake

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I spent more years than I would care to admit writing about the Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire. The Seabrook story was exhausting, but it taught me a valuable lesson: When it comes to energy, especially the price of energy, the future is very hard to see.

Seabrook was conceived in the late 1960s, a time of great optimism about nuclear power. Nuclear plants, the utilities promised, would produce electricity that was ”too cheap to meter.” When oil prices shot up in the 1970s, eventually reaching the unheard of price of $30 a barrel, Seabrook had another selling point: it would reduce New England’s dependence on costly foreign oil.

Things turned out differently. Like many of the nuclear plants in that era, Seabrook ran into engineering and political problems. Construction advanced at a snail’s pace. Every year, the plant’s estimated cost got higher and its completion date got pushed further into the future. When Seabrook finally went on line in 1990, its price tag had reached $6 billion.

The owners had to eat some of that money, because regulators refused to pass the costs along to consumers. Changes in the price of oil made Seabrook’s economics even worse. By 1990 oil was selling for less than $23 a barrel and the price fell even lower in the years that followed.

The verdict was clear: Nuclear power was a financial disaster; oil was a bargain.

Fast-forward to today. In case you hadn’t noticed, the price of oil has gone up a lot — to about $64 a barrel. The price of natural gas — the most popular fuel source in New England’s power plants — has gone up even more sharply. Utilities that venture out to buy electricity in the spot market are paying three times as much for power as they did a year ago. Consumers could pay about 20 percent more for electricity this winter, largely because of higher oil and gas prices.

And those ”white elephant” nuclear plants like Seabrook? It turns out they are sitting in the catbird seat. Their steep initial costs have been written off over time. Their cost of fuel is minuscule, according to Steven Taub, an executive at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm. Even with all other costs thrown in, nuclear plants today produce power at less than half the cost of plants that burn natural gas or oil.

Like the Saudi Arabians, the owners of nuclear plants have plenty of cheap power that they can sell at high prices in deregulated energy markets, earning big profits in the process. Many of the plants, Seabrook included, were purchased by new owners in recent years who paid relatively little for the assets. In 2002, FPL Energy, a Florida company, bought a controlling interest in Seabrook for $836 million. ”In today’s market, many of those plants are worth significantly more,” Taub said.

The verdict is clear: Nuclear power is a bargain; oil and gas are a financial disaster.

There are plenty of specialists around who are firmly convinced that high oil and gas prices are here to stay. Richard Lester suggests we should be wary about such pronouncements. “Smart people don’t get this right,” said Lester, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of nuclear science and engineering. In 2003, Lester and some colleagues wrote a report on the future of nuclear power. They assumed natural gas prices — the main competition — would stay in a range of $3 to $6 per million BTUs. Last week natural gas was selling for more than $12 per million BTUs.

The solution here is obvious: We need to be diversified. Investors spread their bets around because they don’t know which stocks will do well and which will do poorly. We need to do the same with sources of energy because, in truth, we don’t have a clue what will happen to their prices in the future. The cheap may become expensive and the expensive cheap.

When it comes to the energy future, a little humility goes a long way.

– Right on the head.

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Watch this picture, of the eye of the Hurricane Rita.

Let me quote some specifics about a Category Five hurricane. Here you go.

Winds greater than 155 mph (greater than 135 kt or 249 km/hr). Barometric Pressure Below 920 mb (Below 27.17 in) Storm surge generally greater than 18 ft above normal. Complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings. Some complete building failures with small utility buildings blown over or away. All shrubs, trees, and signs blown down. Complete destruction of mobile homes. Severe and extensive window and door damage. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Major damage to lower floors of all structures located less than 15 ft above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline. Massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5-10 miles (8-16 km) of the shoreline may be required.

And that my friend, is intensity. That is nature’s sheer sneeze. Nature’s way of reacting to the cruelty being done to her by burning more and more fossil fuels, destroying the natural cycles, industrialization, population explosion, forest invasion, disrupting eco-balance and more things which we unknowingly affect her in different ways.

I wish we could realize the effects and reduce the usage of such methods. It probably is a futile effort to pursue anything right now at this stage because the earth would not even begin to react the change for another 50 years or so. But better late than never. Right !

Anyway, out of the context, the insane mind in me wishes that i could see such a hurricane in action at its full intensity. I might chicken out if i do see it but hey, how will i know that until i witness it ?!

You can track the advance of Hurricane Rita here. Also there is a nice animation showing the path of the hurricane.

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An excerpt from the article.

As usual, environmentalists are assuring everyone it can be done with renewables like wind, solar, and other alternative energies.
But there is no myth more damaging in diverting the nation’s attention from its energy problems. The universe has been pretty well explored by now there aren’t any alternative energies sitting around waiting to be discovered. We know all about solar radiation, about the winds that are driven by its heat (in conjunction with the earth’s rotation), about rivers and streams and how they can be harnessed to produce electricity. We also know about the chemical energy that is stored in the electrons at the periphery of the atom and can be tapped by burning organic compounds. And we know about the much more powerful energies that lie at the nucleus of the atom.

Well said my man ! The author nailed it right on the head. When will the people realize that it is already late and we need to start making changes today, if we desire to bring the Earth back from its brink of disaster. Wake up people. Wake up.

Solar power, Hydro-electricity and Wind power are not very dependable sources of energy and for any country, developed or developing, with a hunger for lots of electricity and power, there is no other feasible way than to tap into Nuclear Power which promises safe, clean and almost limitless power.

Go Nuclear. Save earth.

PS : If you liked the above article, then you might also like another article i linked to recently which is on the same lines with more arguments. Read it.

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I see that our PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh has made nuclear energy one of his prime priorities. Check out an excerpt from the article.

Keeping global energy requirements in mind and the necessity to combat global warming, India and France recognize the need to strengthen energy security and promote the development of stable, sustainable, efficient and affordable energy sources in order to meet their growing energy requirements. Both sides also recognize that nuclear energy provides a safe, environmental friendly and sustainable source of energy and the need to further develop international co-operation in promoting the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

France acknowledges the need for full international civilian nuclear co-operation with India and will work towards this objective by working with other countries and the NSG and by deepening bilateral co-operation.

France appreciated India’s strong commitment to preventing WMD proliferation and the ongoing steps it is taking in this regard. In this context, both countries will also work towards conclusion of a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement.

After the recent trip to Washington in July, this new collaboration is definitely going to take India, up a notch in terms of nuclear power. The potential opening of nuclear power business between India and US has allowed other Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) members like France to start active negotiations with India on supplying nuclear technology, and perhaps fuel as well. I would not be surprised if the next stop for Dr. Singh is Moscow. While I think that these are positive developments, I remain skeptical about how much the cooperation from both these nations is going to be extended keeping in mind the security aspect of the whole thing.

Well, only time will tell us the future scope of these collaborations. Let us see.

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India to produce 40,000 MW nuclear power in 10 yrs

Terming India’s nuclear energy agreement with the United States as a major success, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the country could generate 40,000 MW nuclear power in the next ten years following removal of constraints in the atomic energy programme.

“In my visit to the United States, we have managed to reduce some of the constraints which have been hampering the growth of our nuclear energy programme and in the next 10 years, in addition to the 1,50,000 MW of capacity being added in the thermal and hydro sectors, another 40,000 MW could be generated through nuclear energy,” he said.

The Prime Minister was speaking after unfurling the national flag at the Red Fort on the Independence Day here.

While stressing the importance of improving and creating more infrastructure for the country’s economic development, Dr Singh said shortage of electricity was a major inconvenience and there was need to ensure rapid power generaton.

Apart from the ambitious plan to boost power generation, the government has also drawn up an elaborate plan to modernise Railways, “so that our Railways become one of the best in the world,” he said.

Mr Singh said a dedicated freight corridor was being developed between Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore. Besides, the development of the national highways was progressing at a rapid pace. The work on an additional 30,000 km of highways has begun and soon six-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral will start, said the Prime Minister.

There has also been tremendous progress in civil aviation, and world class airports were being constructed in many cities. Besides ports are being modernised and many new ones are under construction, he said.

The Prime Minister stressed the need for balanced regional development while creating more infrstructure.

“In this new phase of development, we are acutely aware that all regions of the country should develop at the same pace. It is unacceptable for us to see any region of the country left behind other regions in this quest for development,” he said, adding that “we will also focus on the development of our border areas. We will ensure that these regions are provided basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and telephone connectivity in the next three to four years.”

– My 2 cents on the article. This is great news owing to the fact that India is becoming better and more modernized in many of the aspects that i had a grudge on !

For example, after seeing the roads over here in US, i had always wished that such roads and road-sense were common place in India. Now, the Golden Quadrilateral seems to be one step in that direction. The next step would be to enforce strict laws with speed limits, better road signs and to educate people about driving more responsibly. Probably stricter rules with get us there but it might take quite some time to enforce with all the corruption that goes on. Also, the improvement of the infrastructure in the coastal regions is a good move after all the damage that the recent Tsunami and the floods have caused. We need to be better prepared to face such brutalities of nature because she ain’t getting softer and we are still slowly killing it, as i write.

Lastly, as the title states, the most critical and important information in the article is the improvement in the energy production. I did read that the Dr. Manmohan Singh’s talks with President Bush did go on well but was not entirely sure about the results. It is clearer from the article that US will be supporting India further in terms of technology and to help build more reactors to support the country’s energy needs. Personally, i couldn’t be more happier ! More the reactors, better the oppurtunities for research and more available jobs. Yeah i know. I am a self centered selfish bastard

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• A neat site with lots of links and lots of junk news and trivia. Nice site to spend some time.
• Live, Jobs Tells Stanford Grads – I’ve seen a similar talk of his before but this one makes me think that he’s going nuts. Well but thats just me !
• Jackie and the Brain – A neat story about the evolution of an AI being !
• Who Will Google Buy Next? – If you are one of those people who love Google and are interested in what they are going to do next, then check this story. Nevertheless, it gives you lots of links to many other interesting services, free and paid which could be very helpful.
• ScienceMatters@Berkeley, June issue - Not much but if you are scientifically motivated, then watch the issues regularly. The boys at the Big school do post some nice research material here.
• The Simnuke project – Sheer craziness if you ask me but oh well, who isn’t ???
• Why We Need Friendly AI – Nice site with all the Asimov laws. Frankly, i’ve got to confess that i was blown away by the book(I Robot) and there are some other interesting perspectives in this site which are weirdly cool !
• Toll Free 800 Directory provides information about 1-800 numbers, reverse lookup and tracing 1 800 numbers – Well if you are stuck in the US, like I am, this could be a handy reference at times you never expect !
• Cool Fractals @ freaky-fractals.com – Its all about Fractals. I’ve always loved the idea behind them. Nice site.

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The prediction was for a quake about 7-7.5 in magnitude but this one was a whopper and really beats most quakes hands down in its power (8.7) … Reports say that as of now, 2000 are feared dead and search is still underway. There has been no Tsunamis like the last one but the tumbling buildings have claimed enough lives …

I wanted to post about my trip to South padre but i guess i’ll do it later. Don’t want to write something like that right after this post.

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It is cruel but atleast we now have a forecast to take measures to prevent the damage and hopefully we won’t end up losing as many people as the previous time.

My life still moves without any incidents. Adios !

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