"Watson", Not the Sherlock Holmes' Assistant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(artificial_intelligence_software)

I am a fan of Jeopardy Game show, which is relayed on TV every afternoon between 3:30pm and 4:00pm Chicago time. It is a question and answer game show. Host is Alex Trebek, a Canadian American. Three contestants participate. Each question is associated with an amount of money. Whoever collects the most money at the end of the show is a winner and s/he gets to come again next day. There have been contestants who have won millions of dollars. They have also played the game for years.

Rules are; the questions are to be asked in answer form and answers have to be given in the question form. Topics can be anything under the sky; anything at all.

It is a generally held belief that the contestants are; one, highly  intelligent and  two, they are well read.  True. You have to be. But, if you watch the show carefully, many times the clue is built somewhere in the question itself. So, if one is good at spotting such clues, one can easily answer the questions. Even I have been able to anwer few questions.  Believe that!

Now, International Business Machine, IBM, has been working on a computer software, which they have named "WATSON" after their first CEO. This computer was to first participate in this Jeopardy games, so that its viability in other fields can be ascertained.  It was pitted against the past winners of the most money, which meant very intelligent contestants.

I watched this show. "WATSON" won. It was intelligent, yet only as intelligent as the data it was fed. Now IBM will sort out the kinks spotted during the show.  Eventually IBM wants to employ "WATSON" in many  industries including medical field.   

This week's Time magazine has a question- answer segment on "WATSON".  Few questions seem to impute human elements to "WATSON" which answerer has denied..........

Computers will do many things better than humans can but they will never be humans.....

A father's wisdom

Bapa and Ba-Left and right from center

 Following is an excerpt from a diary that my Bapa (father-in-law) gave to my husband when my husband first sailed for USA in 1964. The diary contained a parting father's fear, hope, concerns and advice for a son who was leaving the familiar shores of his land for the first time, and perhaps for ever.

He says:



"જમાનો કુદકે અને ભૂસકે આગળ વધતો જાય છે એ જમાનામાં તમારે રેહવું છે, દોડવું છે. રેહવું જોવેજ. નહીતર પાછા પડી જવાય. અને અમે તમારી સાથે દોડી શકતા ના હોઈએ એટલે કે જમાના સાથે દોડી શકતા ના હોઈએ તે માટે અમારી અને  તમારી વચ્ચેનું ઘર્ષણ સર્જાય. પાછલા  જમાનાવાળાને થોડુંક્જ જીવવાનું બાકી રહ્યું હોય તેમાં આવતા જમાનાવાળાને પોતાની સાથે ઘસડી લેવાનો કોઈ અર્થ નથી કે જેને આવતા જમાનામાં રહેવાનું અને જીવવાનું છે. પણ આ સત્યતો માવતરને સમજવાનું થયું. એનો અર્થ એ નથી કે સંતાનોને ના સમજવાનું લાયસન્સ કાઢી આપી શકાય."

 
He said:

"Times are changing by leaps and bounds. You have to, and you must, run with the changing times. If you don't you will be left behind. We, the old generation who have lesser time (to live), on the other hand, cannot keep up with these changes. This may lead to conflicts between the generations, old and new. But onus is on us, the old, to understand the truth that we must let you go and not drag you with us. This, in no way be construed that you have license not to understand this truth."

I read this diary several times. For the time, place and generation that my Bapa came from, and to have this understanding is "a generation before his time".

Clean humor

A friend sent this and I find it to be clean and clever....

1.  My first job was working in an Orange Juice factory, but I got canned. Couldn't  concentrate .

 

2.  Then I worked in the woods as a Lumberjack, but just couldn't hack it,  so they gave me the axe.

3.  After that, I tried being a Tailor, but wasn't suited for it--mainly  because it was a sew-sew job.  

4. Next, I tried working in a Muffler Factory, but that  was too exhausting.  

5.  Then, tried being a Chef-figured it would add a little spice to my life, but just didn't have the thyme.  

6.  Next, I attempted being a Deli Worker, but any way I sliced it... couldn't cut the mustard.  

 7.  My best job was a Musician, but eventually found  I wasn't noteworthy.

8.  I studied a long time to become a Doctor, but didn't have any patience.  

9.  Next, was a job in a Shoe Factory. Tried hard but just didn't fit in.  

10.I became a Professional Fisherman, but discovered I couldn't live on my net income.  

11.  Managed to get a good job working for a Pool Maintenance Company, but the work was just too draining.  

12. So then I got a job in a Workout Center, but they said I wasn't fit for the job.  

 13.  After many years of trying to find steady work , I finally got  a job as a Historian - until I realized there was no future in it.

14.  My last job was working in Starbucks, but had to quit because it was the same old grind.  

15 . SO, I TRIED RETIREMENT AND I FOUND I'M PERFECT FOR THE JOB!  

 

 



Faith

Fluer





There is no cure for faith in faith
So
There is no cure for faith






"Google_Baby"

Last night we watched a documentary "Google_Baby" first aired in 2009, directed by Zippi Frank, an Israelite.

It is about couples who cannot have babies but would do anything to have them. First Israeli couple, (husband Doron whose wife was not an active participant in filming, it seemed) had their In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Insemination done in USA. They are now proud parents of a bouncing little girl but the procedure cost them something like $140,000; a sum not within easy reach for many such infertile Israeli couples.  

Doron hooked up with an Indian Surrogacy center, located in Anand, Gujarat, India (and later in Mumbai, India); run by a doctor named, Naina Patel. The doctor finds women in need of money for their children's education and/or for a new house.  The women are paid in vicinity of 2-4 lakhs of rupees by the infertile couples. It was not mentioned how much the doctor gets. She inseminates these women with fertilized eggs donated by only caucasian women and fertilized also only by caucasian men; in many cases fathers to be. Couples will have only and only caucasian children. The surrogate mothers are supported by the doctor in her center until delivery time. They are fed, sheltered and medically looked after for nine months. These women's husbands, inspite of their considering them "Brainless" , are more than willing bystanders. Easy money!

Fathers-to-be pick and choose the donors on the basis of color of eyes, hair, looks etc.  Procedure, from start to finish is conducted in Israel, USA and India.

This takes out-sourcing to a new level...........

It would seem a win-win situation all around, but I am shaking my head; something does not sit right with me and I cannot put a finger on it.........

Blackhole-Work in progress



Blackhole-Work in progress



Devdasis-God's maid servants- शिवनिर्माल्य- Vestal Virgins

A friend sent me a link to Guardian article on Devdasi of Southern India. The young girls and women are sold or given away to please men sexually, under the guise of religiosity. These women's fate is permanently sealed with either ostracism, mutilation, diseases, begging or all. When one gives them a lofty name of Devdasis (Gods' maid-servants), one need suffer no guilt.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/21/devadasi-india-sex-work-religion?intcmp=239

This reminds me of the similar custom of olden Gujarat province in India. During the reigns of Bhimdev I and Siddhraj Solanki, the beautiful young virgins, who were trained dancers, were donated by the parents to Shiva temples to dance exclusively for lord Shiva. They were called "Shivnirmalya" शिवनिर्माल्य. No mortal man including kings could touch or marry her. However, one such girl Chauladevi, historically, did marry king Bhimdev I. Perhaps, an act of defiance and perhaps, a life riddled with guilt.

One need not wonder why lord Shiva if one knew the idolic representation of this god.

This tradition was not very different from the system of Vestal virgins of ancient Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_virgins


Depiction of Vestal Virgin

I wonder how strict was the adherance in either system.

Black Swan

We saw Black Swan last night. Natalie Portman clinched the well deserved Golden Globe award, again last night.

It is a movie that lets you in the dark recesses of the obssessed, possesed mind of a Ballet artist; obsessed to achieve perfection and possessed by paranoia which ultimately becomes ballerina's  undoing.

Natalie's performance as a good, sensitive unworldly ballerina is beyond reproach. She projected fear, anger, pain, care and resolve as and when appropriate. Barbara Hershey as a mother who lives through the daughter's dream has acted well. Mila Kunis as a faux rival and Vincente Cassel as the choreogrpher are less convincing; perhaps because they were parts of heroine's  "paranoia". 

First half hour and some intermittant footages seem to have been shot by hand-held cameras which made you almost dizzy. Shooting with hand-held camera, I have found to be common in many movies of last few years; it was blatant in Constant Gardner.

The costume for the Black Swan was beautiful as well as realistic; make-up of Portman throughout the movie supported the mood of the scene.

Movie is worth watching once.

Welcome-तशरीफ़ लाइए



Welcome-तशरीफ़ लाइए



Shadows- साया

Shadows  -  साया

बूज गए दिल-ओ-दरके चिराग

घबराके थाम लेते सायोंका दामन

रोशनिका  होता कहीं

जो नाम-ओ-निशान

                        

Heart and hearth are so dark 
 Even shadows would comfort
Had there been a sliver of ray