News Item in the Island paper of 26th Oct 2007
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Rape and killing of six-year-old child Monk,teacher arrested
by Neminda Samarajeewa
A monk and a womanteacher of a day care centre in Naiwala in Minuwangoda were arrested over the suspected rape and killing of a six year old girl. Following complaints by the mother of the child that she suspected foul play, Attanagalle Magistrate ordered the body be exhumed.
The body of the child was brought to the Ragama Hospital yesterday and a team of medical specialist's are expected to perform a post-mortem on the body today (26), Ragama Hospital sources said.
It was earlier said that the child fell ill and died and was buried at the Vigada cemetery.
The boy's grave at the Vigada cemetery was kept under police guard until the exhumation.
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The headline can be interpreted as a "Child monk", I though so at first
Then it says the child was a girl,
Finally it says the child was a boy?
WTF how do these things miss the Editors eyes, is he/she doing the job properly? Just irresponsible like the article by an impostor of B.Raman (which was a blog post of a LTTE supporter, not from a reliable source) making news on the Island paper of the 25th Oct. Talk about "responsible" journalism and media freedom...! These fellows need a good "Ass Whopping"!
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ideas. Show all posts
Friday, 26 October 2007
Rubbish on the "Island"
Felt like breaking the long silence of not blogging, even though I am really busy. I thought I just needed to speak out my mind, to let them know. I was probably the first in the world to read the online version of the Island news paper today (25th Oct - but it's still 24th here). I respected the Island paper, so I even went and payed US$ 10 to read the paper online. Well any! way I just read the article with the heading "Ex-Indian Addl. Cabinet Secy details attack on air base - (supposedly) by B.Raman" and remembered that I read this article on kottu yesterday. I knew it was a posting by "someone" with a sympathetic eye for the terrorist, and the wording and the respect shown to the LTTE barbarians and the amount of misinformation published was so obvious that I knew it was some S-o-B impersonating B.Raman. I thought of letting the editor of the Island newspaper know, that he had published something with no truth and not from and authentic source and baring the name of a "reputed" intelligence expert from India. So I filled this form for opinion and clicked send, but it gave me an error. So I thought I'll put it out like this;
To the Editor Island Newspaper: Your article with heading "Ex-Indian Addl. Cabinet Secy details attack on air base" is not an authentic article by B.Raman. It is a blog post (intellibriefs.blogspot.com) by some LTTE supporter and impersonator of the "reputed" intelligence expert from India. We the truth loving people would appreciate that next time you publish something, you look at your sources and facts and verify their authenticity. I have bought subscription to the Island and don't expect to read rubbish like this and see irresponsible information on your paper. Please act more responsibly and apologize to my Sri Lanka and the armed forces for publishing this rubbish. As an Editor; can't you read between the lines and see this is an attempt by an LTTE supporter not B.Raman to mislead the world community and the Sri Lankan public to puff up the LTTE terrorist's image?
I would say if Island does not correct their mistake and apologize they should refund my US$ 10, cause I have no intention of paying to read rubbish on "Yellow Media".
To the Editor Island Newspaper: Your article with heading "Ex-Indian Addl. Cabinet Secy details attack on air base" is not an authentic article by B.Raman. It is a blog post (intellibriefs.blogspot.com) by some LTTE supporter and impersonator of the "reputed" intelligence expert from India. We the truth loving people would appreciate that next time you publish something, you look at your sources and facts and verify their authenticity. I have bought subscription to the Island and don't expect to read rubbish like this and see irresponsible information on your paper. Please act more responsibly and apologize to my Sri Lanka and the armed forces for publishing this rubbish. As an Editor; can't you read between the lines and see this is an attempt by an LTTE supporter not B.Raman to mislead the world community and the Sri Lankan public to puff up the LTTE terrorist's image?
I would say if Island does not correct their mistake and apologize they should refund my US$ 10, cause I have no intention of paying to read rubbish on "Yellow Media".
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
My friend's wife's revealing photo on the net...!
There is a famous Sri Lankan saying "වඳුරා ට දැලි-පිහිය ලැබුනා වගේ", (like a monkey got hold of a razor knife), indiscriminate chopping and slashing with no care about what its doing or who gets hurt, or whether it hurts itself.
With the age of Information and Communication Technology dawning in Sri Lanka it seems that, now we have to modify this old Sri Lankan saying as "වඳුරට ICT ලැබුනා වගේ" .
Let me take a few examples;
My first example refers to kottu. I am a frequent to kottu.org, and it simply amazes me how "monkeys" (thank god that the majority of the kottu bloggers are NOT "monkeys") (mis)use this freedom of expression to the extreme. Probably anyone with a little bit of brains who sees theses blogs can clearly identify that some of these blogs are written by "monkeys" and are intended for the sole purpose of slinging mud, spreading disinformation and sledging any one or any thing that they simply don't like or don't agree with. No productive or creative initiative but a simple destructive one. Sometime I find it ironic that I have to scroll right down to read the good blogs, because the top of the kottu page is full of "monkey poop". (Wonder whether kottu can come up with a blog ranking? hmm but may be the monkeys might rig that as well).
My next example is the abuse of "Anonymous". I have seen a lot of posts and comments about it on kottu. To me it does not matter if a comment is Anonymous as long as it is productive (why bother logging in, when only your productive opinion or ideas matter). If it is not productive and is simply used to abuse, well then there again you have to replace the "Anonymous" with "monkey" and discard the post.
Another example is; I have seen a pic of my friend's wife on the net (no! not naked, but somewhat revealing). Well I know that she did not put in there, nor did he, but some "monkey" who got hold of it has put it up on a forum or somewhere and it's spread like a wild fire! The funny thing about this is a "monkey" who usually sends me 'OWC' emails, sends me an email saying "see what you can do to take our friend's wife's photo off the net". (It's good for him to spread it about, but when it happens to his friend. Ahhh! now he's worried). I am not concerned about this issue just because it's my friend's wife, but who knows, where the next time someone manages to take a photo it might be my wife or my sister or may be someday my daughter (I still don't have a daughter, and neither my wife nor sisters wears reveling dresses). But who knows whether there are peeping Toms, who could be peeping through the windows of your home, the changing room of the dress boutique or the ceiling of the ladies wash room (no I'm not paranoid yet). Hmm, think of your own self and family.
My last example has to do with camera phones. The newest headache, specially for girls these days are "monkeys" carrying a phone with a camera. It has become so risky for girls to just let their guard down (my wife always complains that she has to always frown and growl at monkeys who try taking photos). I remember about six months back I was traveling on the Intercity train from Kandy to Colombo. The frequent travelers usually knew each other and were pretty much friends. On this particular day there was this girl who walked up to me and said that the lady next to her had told her that the "monkey" in front of her had taken her photo. I went up to this guy and asked him weather he took her photo or not, he politely but nervously replied "no" (just like a gutless "monkey" - no spine to admit or take responsibility), I asked for the phone and since he did not give it I grabbed it off his hand and looked through and there is was, I deleted the photos and had to give him a warning (well I'm no macho man, but nowadays very few people stand up against injustice).
My opinion about "monkeys" is that they are people who have not a single cell in their body that has a gene called "civic responsibility" and also that they are the type that does not have even a single vertebra.
Finally I have no idea how to finish this post....! So I anyone who stumbled upon this can reflect on the fact of how to deal with ICT in the hands of "monkeys". Personally when it comes to kottu, I have earmarked blogs of "monkeys" NOT to be visited (why increase their hit rates?).
PS: I knew that, this heading was going to get your attention (my initial heading was "Monkeys and ICT").
Disclaimer : No insult to the to Platyrrhini and Catarrhini (the type that usually have tails at the rear end).
With the age of Information and Communication Technology dawning in Sri Lanka it seems that, now we have to modify this old Sri Lankan saying as "වඳුරට ICT ලැබුනා වගේ" .
Let me take a few examples;
My first example refers to kottu. I am a frequent to kottu.org, and it simply amazes me how "monkeys" (thank god that the majority of the kottu bloggers are NOT "monkeys") (mis)use this freedom of expression to the extreme. Probably anyone with a little bit of brains who sees theses blogs can clearly identify that some of these blogs are written by "monkeys" and are intended for the sole purpose of slinging mud, spreading disinformation and sledging any one or any thing that they simply don't like or don't agree with. No productive or creative initiative but a simple destructive one. Sometime I find it ironic that I have to scroll right down to read the good blogs, because the top of the kottu page is full of "monkey poop". (Wonder whether kottu can come up with a blog ranking? hmm but may be the monkeys might rig that as well).
My next example is the abuse of "Anonymous". I have seen a lot of posts and comments about it on kottu. To me it does not matter if a comment is Anonymous as long as it is productive (why bother logging in, when only your productive opinion or ideas matter). If it is not productive and is simply used to abuse, well then there again you have to replace the "Anonymous" with "monkey" and discard the post.
Another example is; I have seen a pic of my friend's wife on the net (no! not naked, but somewhat revealing). Well I know that she did not put in there, nor did he, but some "monkey" who got hold of it has put it up on a forum or somewhere and it's spread like a wild fire! The funny thing about this is a "monkey" who usually sends me 'OWC' emails, sends me an email saying "see what you can do to take our friend's wife's photo off the net". (It's good for him to spread it about, but when it happens to his friend. Ahhh! now he's worried). I am not concerned about this issue just because it's my friend's wife, but who knows, where the next time someone manages to take a photo it might be my wife or my sister or may be someday my daughter (I still don't have a daughter, and neither my wife nor sisters wears reveling dresses). But who knows whether there are peeping Toms, who could be peeping through the windows of your home, the changing room of the dress boutique or the ceiling of the ladies wash room (no I'm not paranoid yet). Hmm, think of your own self and family.
My last example has to do with camera phones. The newest headache, specially for girls these days are "monkeys" carrying a phone with a camera. It has become so risky for girls to just let their guard down (my wife always complains that she has to always frown and growl at monkeys who try taking photos). I remember about six months back I was traveling on the Intercity train from Kandy to Colombo. The frequent travelers usually knew each other and were pretty much friends. On this particular day there was this girl who walked up to me and said that the lady next to her had told her that the "monkey" in front of her had taken her photo. I went up to this guy and asked him weather he took her photo or not, he politely but nervously replied "no" (just like a gutless "monkey" - no spine to admit or take responsibility), I asked for the phone and since he did not give it I grabbed it off his hand and looked through and there is was, I deleted the photos and had to give him a warning (well I'm no macho man, but nowadays very few people stand up against injustice).
My opinion about "monkeys" is that they are people who have not a single cell in their body that has a gene called "civic responsibility" and also that they are the type that does not have even a single vertebra.
Finally I have no idea how to finish this post....! So I anyone who stumbled upon this can reflect on the fact of how to deal with ICT in the hands of "monkeys". Personally when it comes to kottu, I have earmarked blogs of "monkeys" NOT to be visited (why increase their hit rates?).
PS: I knew that, this heading was going to get your attention (my initial heading was "Monkeys and ICT").
Disclaimer : No insult to the to Platyrrhini and Catarrhini (the type that usually have tails at the rear end).
Friday, 18 May 2007
Research vs. Ego
Research which is supposed to lead to new discoveries, new knowledge and a better world, comes to conflict with the researchers ego.
Why I am writing this? May seem of no relevance to anyone, but to me it has a great deal of importance. When I'm old and gray up there (already a few) and my memory tends to fail me (it already does) it would be nice to refer to what I went through before I give advice to someone else. We human being tend to forget what we faced when we went through some process. Once you complete something it seems sooooo easy. Achievement and good memories tend to drown the hardships and the bad. A roller-coaster ride probably illustrates this fact really well; you are not sure whether you wanna get on it, but then you make yourself, it's still scary but now it's too late you're already strapped in (still you can make a big fuss and get off), then it starts off (now you have no options left), the ride is windy with a lot of ups and downs and sometime it stops and next minute your life is turned upside down, it does not seem to end, and finally when you come to the end of it all, you tell everybody who asks you "Maaan! (excuse me womaaan!)... you have to get on it, it was fun... (what a lie)".
Beyond this point it may be boring.. but read on if you please.
It's not long; just 2 1/2 months since I started my doctoral studies. I had this clear idea what I wanted to do when I came over here. My first meeting was with my supervisor was 2 weeks after I arrived in a cold cold frozen land in the northern part of Sweden (just 500 km south of the arctic circle). I had a research plan .. this this this.. is what I wanted to do, but then suddenly there were flaws in it. My research is based on two totally different science and now there was this conflict brewing between the two. Any way it was realized that I needed to make this transition from this "IF-THEN-ELSE positivist" person to a more "INTERPRETIVE" person. Well with 20+ years of "positivist" way of thinking it was like picking me up by my legs, turning me up side down and shaking me till all the loose change in my pockets fell out. But since I knew my goals it was not too hard (but in no way easy) for me to get over the shock. In fact I had to call my wife, and three or four friend to get over it.
Well anyway did manage that, and after weeks of reading and brushing up came up with this nice research plan which my supervisor and of course myself agreed upon and also was very happy with.
Research is a lot about reading and coming up with ideas (and sometimes just tucking your head under the pillow and trying to sleep, hoping your mind would stop thinking) and seeing how they fit into the bigger picture. I think this is where the researchers ego come into play;
Why I am writing this? May seem of no relevance to anyone, but to me it has a great deal of importance. When I'm old and gray up there (already a few) and my memory tends to fail me (it already does) it would be nice to refer to what I went through before I give advice to someone else. We human being tend to forget what we faced when we went through some process. Once you complete something it seems sooooo easy. Achievement and good memories tend to drown the hardships and the bad. A roller-coaster ride probably illustrates this fact really well; you are not sure whether you wanna get on it, but then you make yourself, it's still scary but now it's too late you're already strapped in (still you can make a big fuss and get off), then it starts off (now you have no options left), the ride is windy with a lot of ups and downs and sometime it stops and next minute your life is turned upside down, it does not seem to end, and finally when you come to the end of it all, you tell everybody who asks you "Maaan! (excuse me womaaan!)... you have to get on it, it was fun... (what a lie)".
Beyond this point it may be boring.. but read on if you please.
It's not long; just 2 1/2 months since I started my doctoral studies. I had this clear idea what I wanted to do when I came over here. My first meeting was with my supervisor was 2 weeks after I arrived in a cold cold frozen land in the northern part of Sweden (just 500 km south of the arctic circle). I had a research plan .. this this this.. is what I wanted to do, but then suddenly there were flaws in it. My research is based on two totally different science and now there was this conflict brewing between the two. Any way it was realized that I needed to make this transition from this "IF-THEN-ELSE positivist" person to a more "INTERPRETIVE" person. Well with 20+ years of "positivist" way of thinking it was like picking me up by my legs, turning me up side down and shaking me till all the loose change in my pockets fell out. But since I knew my goals it was not too hard (but in no way easy) for me to get over the shock. In fact I had to call my wife, and three or four friend to get over it.
Well anyway did manage that, and after weeks of reading and brushing up came up with this nice research plan which my supervisor and of course myself agreed upon and also was very happy with.
Research is a lot about reading and coming up with ideas (and sometimes just tucking your head under the pillow and trying to sleep, hoping your mind would stop thinking) and seeing how they fit into the bigger picture. I think this is where the researchers ego come into play;
- Sometimes there were parts of my research already being investigated by someone else. That is not very fun, since I was feeling that someone was stealing my research away from me. And trust me male ego (I don't know to comment about female ego - and I usually keep far far away form gender issues) does not like that very much. I was wanting that research to go away, disappear, but then reality strikes and ok! "so it is not going to go away, so live with it".
- Then there were time I needed to change my approach since someone else found that the approach I was using was not the best. Well to be honest I don't know weather this is what I felt, the first time I had a discussion with my supervisor. Hmmm! I think so, but then there were so many emotions and stuff going through my mind, and a total change to my approach and way of thinking; I can't be certain. Any way when it comes form your supervisor it is not so hard to take, but when in it comes form someone you do not know 5000 miles away, you do not want that person to exists and you wish and try to find ways to prove them wrong. But if you fail it strikes you again. Ok! "so it is not going to go away, so live with it"
- Next there is this battle, which I don't think I have still faced. I just thought about this and found that there may be a possibility that I may need to change or at least deviate from my initial deliverables since someone proved they were not the best or there were better ones already. Probably this happens when you have a pet project or something you are bias towards and requires change or needs to be gotten rid of. Thank god I still did not have to, and I hope I never have to :-).
- Finally the most nagging issue is when I needed to change my goals and approaches, when my own reflections and thoughts were proving that my goals were wrong or not the best (notice the "not the best" - see my point? my ego does not give up easily). This is the worst case scenario. Here is were my uphill battle is the hardest. My ego does not fight someone else, but it fights me. This is when I can catch a syndrome called "excuscitis" (no don't look it up, it's not in any medical journal, it is decease that make people give excuses). I try to give excuses to keep my research plan unchanged and alive. I think I'm going through this phase, so will sort myself out and keep you posted.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
Reflection in the window
Have you ever tried to look out the window while traveling to enjoy the scenery but always found the reflection in the window a distraction? Have you noticed that the more you try to ignore it the more prominent it becomes? Isn't it that the more effort you put into focusing your vision away from it the harder it is for your eyes to look beyond it? But when you look away and let your mind forget about the reflection and suddenly you look through the window your eyes can easily focus on the scenery outside, and to your eyes there does not exist a reflection.
I think this is true to many aspects of life, specially things that tend you bother you and take all your attention and focus it narrowly on this one tiny issue. The more you try to ignore it the more you tend to get rapped up inti. Some people look to the bottle, some take up other things. But no matter what you do if you do it with the intension of getting rid of this nagging issue, it is always with you.
I think that one should just let the issue be and create a distance for this nagging issue (some might say it's easier said that done - yep it is easier said than done - trust me I've tried and failed, but now I am better at it). One should just do what ever comes in to head (no not killing some one or committing suicide or driving your car into a wall.. nothing destructive pls). Get to doing something that you enjoy, preferably something that makes you body tired (preferably makes you body ache). Something that will make your body too tired to keep awake to think of anything and will make you sleep like a baby (basically give you REM sleep). REM sleep lets your mind sleep too. And probably when you wake up the next day you should be at least a few thoughts away from that nagging issue (at least it won't be the first thought on your mind), and if you keep on doing this, in no time you will be far away from the issue and you will be able to focus beyond this nagging problem. Once again it is easier said than done, but try it if it works out; say a prayer for me, if it does not try something else :-).
Friday, 20 April 2007
How not to Fly
I thought I should share this story with the world (or at least someone who would by mistake step into my blog instead of the other 100million+ blogs out there).
It was a workshop in Shellefteå about a two hour bus ride form Umeå, Sweden. It was the session after evening fika (coffee break). Ah.. so it was a speaker form US, Wayne Hodgins, a gray haired person on this big screen. Ok, so it will be a video conference, or rather video talk. The talk was on Web 2.0. Gosh! another repetition of Web 2.0? "This is going to be boring!" and "How can it be fun to watch someone yap yap yap.. on a big-screen" were the thoughts rumbling in my head.
Well YES it was another talk about Web 2.0, the exact topic "Wassup with Web 2.0" and YES it was a a gray haired someone yapping on a big-screen. But 2 minutes into the talk, whoosh! like magic the boredom ended. No more was this someone on a big-screen and yapping about "this is what make up Web 2.0...", he was among us and tweaking our brain cells. Yes it was true that he was still in US and we were in Sweden, but he had made contact and the barrier was broken. Wow! can a speaker be this good, I thought to myself? It was so so so GOOD!
He was talking about concepts behind Web 2.0 and not how Web 2.0 could be used for education, which everybody talks about. In fact most of his examples were related to business and entertainment. It was these concepts that made it so interesting. It was a lot of concepts to be exact but each of them made sense and each of them were an eye opener.
This image was one of my favorites of all the concepts he talked about. "Many of man's first attempts of flight, failed miserably and most of the time in broken bones or worse in death. The pioneers tried imitating the birds and other flying animals. So what does it have to do with web 2.0. Exactly! I could not figure it out. Anyway if we look at what the Wright brother did right, they did not try to imitate birds, dragonflies, bees and the gang, but they thought different. They looked beyond, and they succeeded. Simply take our own usage of software, if we used version 1.0 of software X and now we use version 10.0 of software X, is there a lot of difference in what we do except for may be a few new features and some new fancy icons and cool new looks. Can't we still do what we do with version 10.0 with version 1.0? Probably I think at least 90% of us will answer in the affirmative. The concept Wayne talks about here is "learning to un-learn". The Wright brothers knew how animals flew, but they simply thought beyond that an decided to fix an engine and come up with the concept of lift by moving wings... wow! I and many other would call it "Thinking out of the Box", but "learning to unlearn" has a little bit more complicated concept, which I find difficult to explain so I would advice you to listen to Wayne's PodCasts.
I am not going to repeat all what Wayne said word to word, since probably he does it much better. Wayne conveyed his ideas to me through a noisy channel and there was data loss, and for me to convey those ideas to a third person would be through even a more noisier channel.. so more data loss and probably data corruption :-).
So I'll just list a few more concepts you might want to lookup if you visit Wayne's blog.
It was a workshop in Shellefteå about a two hour bus ride form Umeå, Sweden. It was the session after evening fika (coffee break). Ah.. so it was a speaker form US, Wayne Hodgins, a gray haired person on this big screen. Ok, so it will be a video conference, or rather video talk. The talk was on Web 2.0. Gosh! another repetition of Web 2.0? "This is going to be boring!" and "How can it be fun to watch someone yap yap yap.. on a big-screen" were the thoughts rumbling in my head.
Well YES it was another talk about Web 2.0, the exact topic "Wassup with Web 2.0" and YES it was a a gray haired someone yapping on a big-screen. But 2 minutes into the talk, whoosh! like magic the boredom ended. No more was this someone on a big-screen and yapping about "this is what make up Web 2.0...", he was among us and tweaking our brain cells. Yes it was true that he was still in US and we were in Sweden, but he had made contact and the barrier was broken. Wow! can a speaker be this good, I thought to myself? It was so so so GOOD!
He was talking about concepts behind Web 2.0 and not how Web 2.0 could be used for education, which everybody talks about. In fact most of his examples were related to business and entertainment. It was these concepts that made it so interesting. It was a lot of concepts to be exact but each of them made sense and each of them were an eye opener.
 |
This image was one of my favorites of all the concepts he talked about. "Many of man's first attempts of flight, failed miserably and most of the time in broken bones or worse in death. The pioneers tried imitating the birds and other flying animals. So what does it have to do with web 2.0. Exactly! I could not figure it out. Anyway if we look at what the Wright brother did right, they did not try to imitate birds, dragonflies, bees and the gang, but they thought different. They looked beyond, and they succeeded. Simply take our own usage of software, if we used version 1.0 of software X and now we use version 10.0 of software X, is there a lot of difference in what we do except for may be a few new features and some new fancy icons and cool new looks. Can't we still do what we do with version 10.0 with version 1.0? Probably I think at least 90% of us will answer in the affirmative. The concept Wayne talks about here is "learning to un-learn". The Wright brothers knew how animals flew, but they simply thought beyond that an decided to fix an engine and come up with the concept of lift by moving wings... wow! I and many other would call it "Thinking out of the Box", but "learning to unlearn" has a little bit more complicated concept, which I find difficult to explain so I would advice you to listen to Wayne's PodCasts.
I am not going to repeat all what Wayne said word to word, since probably he does it much better. Wayne conveyed his ideas to me through a noisy channel and there was data loss, and for me to convey those ideas to a third person would be through even a more noisier channel.. so more data loss and probably data corruption :-).
So I'll just list a few more concepts you might want to lookup if you visit Wayne's blog.
- Perfecting the irrelevant
- Long tail
- Mashup
- The snowflakes effect
- and of course my favorite learning to un-learn
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