Friday, December 31, 2021

Cancer or Cardiovascular diesease?

 Cardiovascular diseases were the most common cause of death among low-income countries (death from cardiovascular was 3X times that from Cancer) that I hail from. It was found to be common even in middle-income countries. However, in high-income countries, Cancer was the winner. It was in fact twice that of people dying from cardiovascular diseases.

Given that cardiovascular diseases are preventable gives us the hope that if only we are intelligent, then it should not be a problem. Knowing a problem is about getting to a 90% solution. 

The stuff that can and should be controlled are:

High blood pressure

Tobacco-related indiscipline

Lack of educational resources

Pollution

It goes without saying that handling all of this is a reasonable way to save lots of lives. If we value science, value data and statistics should we not be proactive?

Cancer is yet another story. Do we need to boost our immunity, hook, or crook? It has been the cause of death in high-income societies (Lata Palaniappan - Stanford University Medical Center). While few of the controllable items were listed for cardiovascular diseases, a similar list for cancer control perhaps does not exist and even if it does it will be extensive and long.

That brings me back to my motivation in writing this. My friend Mr. Narasimhan who lives in the UK wrote to me that he will walk his walk to raise funds for research. This is extremely laudable except that I won't be able to participate as I was getting treated for tendonitis of the foot yesterday.

I wish my friend Narasimhan a happy walk for this cause. 

He is brave doing this in his senior years (80 and 2 summers). We have not met in 50 odd years, but we correspond regularly.

This is an old reference and I bet you can find a recent one in Lancet.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/leading-cause-of-death-cancer-heart-disease-study/index.html


Thursday, December 30, 2021

Fusion energy is not in the near future

 It is so unfortunate that the scientists could not pull off this one. Many brilliant minds from all over the world have to concede after many, many years, that this is only for the future.

Many of us who dreamt that this may come true in our lifetime feel disappointed and dejected. However, it is not a totally hopeless situation.

After all the spending in various countries, you just feel that this was after all elusive. 

Living near Princeton's Plasma Physics Laboratory with many friends working there and with my company interacting with the laboratory, it was but natural to feel a certain positivity about Nuclear Fusion. I was not involved but many of my colleagues worked not on the experiments but on simulations (the next best thing). 

However, we have the next best thing. We can produce energy by burning hydrogen that can be created using Sunlight, light that is produced by the celestial fusion reactor. Let us be humble and hope we see better times for Nuclear Fusion.




Another fusion concept in Germany pursued from 1980s

https://www.ipp.mpg.de/4555488/op_1_2


Picture from Max Planck Institute site


Sunday, December 05, 2021

Vaccination before and during the Colonial rule in India

People refusing to get vaccinated is not new and in fact, it is widespread. There are cultural reasons some based on religion and some based on superstitions and beliefs. Often accidental curatives are attributed to divine intervention. However, there indeed was the concept of curing Small Pox using a weakened version of the same.

Small Pox was responsible for many political changes during the Colonial Rule in India. At least one royal family lost their base when the ruling kind died of smallpox. Naturally, his widow took upon herself to change the heart of those who refused by getting herself inoculated. 

Read this fascinating account here:

https://www.theheritagelab.in/portrait-of-three-princesses-mysore/

"In his book ‘An Account of the manner of inoculating for smallpox in the East Indies‘ written in 1767, Dr. J.Z Holwell claimed that smallpox inoculation was practiced in India by Brahmins (variolation)."  It is not clear from the above whether they had an indigenous source of vaccination.

However, it appears there was indeed an Ayurvedic system-based Smallpox vaccination in India during those times.

More here: https://www.sanskritimagazine.com/vedic_science/how-ayurveda-pioneered-smallpox-inoculation/


Here is an illuminating piece depicting the vaccination procedure:

"They inoculate indifferently on any part, but if left to their choice, they prefer the outside of the arm midway between the wrist and the elbow, for the males; and the same between the elbow and the shoulder for the females. Previous to the operation the Operator takes a piece of cloth in his hand, (which becomes his prerequisite if the family is opulent) and with it gives dry friction upon the part intended for inoculation, for the space of eight or ten minutes, then with a small instrument he wounds, by many slight touches, about the compass of a silver groat, just making the smallest appearance of blood, then opening a linen double rag (which he always keeps in a cloth around his waist) takes from thence a small pledget of cotton charged with the variolous [smallpox] matter, which he moistens with two or three drops of the Ganges water, and applies it on the wound, fixing it on with a slight bandage, and ordering it to remain on for six hours without being moves, then the bandage to be taken off, and the pledget to remain until it falls off itself…The cotton which he preserves in a double calico rag is saturated with matter from the inoculated pustules of the preceding year, for they never inoculate with fresh matter, nor with matter from the disease caught in the natural way, however distinct and mild the species."

It is unfortunate that Colonial rulers took it upon themselves to encourage Allopathy and did great harm to the indigenous medicine in India. The Siddha system of medicine said to have been handed down from the sages did have a significant amount of information on the maladies that humans undergo. We hardly hear about the system. 

Friday, November 19, 2021

The blood moon that I saw in Honolulu

I was not going to miss this major event. I went out to look for the moon Thursday night around 11:00 PM. I had to literally lie on the ground to photograph the moon with my Samsung 21+ as it was directly above my head. It looked more pinkish than red. Well, colors are difficult to define.












For a better picture go here: Blood moon over Honolulu 


Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Van Mahotsav, celebrating the trees and forests

  


India is not new to climate related concerns. During those early years when carbob-di-oxide was not the concers but the effects of denuding the forest was deeply felt.

Photo by: https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/coconut-trees-reflection-at-backwaters-of-kerala-india-sheela-ajith.jpg

There may be many big wigs from 200 or more countries talking about climate and greening of our plant now, but it has been a perrenial theme in India from the day our nation was born. The British devastated our country taking away everything on the ground and the ground beneath and laid the country bare and barren. Our national leaders at that time realized the sad look of the barren land and conceived the idea of greening the country, in fits and starts.

This is what our national leader Nehru spoke some 60 years ago, "...It was a matter of surprise to him that so far no interest had been taken in tree plantation. Large tracts of the country had become deserts owing to the negligence of the people who cut trees without realizing their great value...." There should be a law that no one should cut a tree unless he had first planted a new one in its place."[wikipedia]. Nehru, Lady Mountabatten planted trees in Delhi.

The Gujarathi activist K. M. Munshi who held many positions including the ministry of agriculture and food took it to the next step and made it a traiditon to plant trees in July every year and renamed it the 'Van Mahotsav'. That was in 1950s. "Van Mahotsav" in Sanskrit roughly translates to Forest Festival or Celebration of the Forest.

https://science.thewire.in/environment/van-mahotsav-green-india-mission-climate-change/

https://traveltriangle.com/blog/rain-forests-in-india/

https://youtu.be/vnELd0Y7R1g

Indian indigenous vaccine gets WHO's EULA

 Better late than never


https://www.bharatbiotech.com/covaxin.html

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211103-who-grants-india-s-covaxin-jab-emergency-approval

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/03/world/asia/covaxin-covid-vaccine-who.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58800168

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-03/criticized-indian-vaccine-already-in-use-found-81-effective?

Monday, October 11, 2021

Android Mobile Simualtor for Microsoft Edge

 You have built a web application on your PC or laptop.  Now,  you want to see how it appears on a mobile device. This is the use case for a mobile simulator, an extension that displays how your site would appear on a handheld. It is a responsive testing tool.

It is available on Google Chrome Webstore. It can simulate 5 models of Android smartphones and 11 models of Apple smartphones.


Deatils here: Mobile Simulator


From the above site you can add it to Microsoft Edge where it will show as one of the extensions as shown.


How do you test it?

Just bring up a web page (any) as shown here:

Now click on this icon and see the simulator getting displayed as shown:


There is another web site here with some operational buttons on the right.

Tuesday, October 05, 2021

Locating the .apk file in the Android Studio Snow Cat

 The Android Studio has been changing (https://android-studio.en.uptodown.com/windows/versions). 

The version  I am using is the latest. The location of the APK file is found in the 'output' folder. In the Snow Cat version of the Android Studio the location of the APK (app-debug.apk) file is shown in this figure.

I copied the file and I installed it on an Android Phone where .apk files can be installed.

Sunday, October 03, 2021

Android app error net::ERR_CACHE_MISS and a fix

 I am a Windows Phone developer trying to get into Android App development.

I have been working with Android app development for the past couple of days with the latest Android Studio. 

I finally got an app that can display an URL . I had an important line missing in my Manifest file and when I corrected this it worked. It has to do with the browser permissions.

=========

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

    package="com.example.mywview">

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

    <application

        android:allowBackup="true"

        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"

        android:label="@string/app_name"

        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"

        android:supportsRtl="true"

        android:theme="@style/Theme.MyWView">

        <activity

            android:name=".MainActivity"

            android:exported="true">

            <intent-filter>

                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />


                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />

            </intent-filter>

        </activity>

    </application>


</manifest>

============

Without this element highlighted in the above in the XML I was getting this error:


After adding this line to the Manifest I could get it working:

The app was deployed to the Galaxy S21+5G.


Saturday, September 25, 2021

Installing Android Studio on Windows 10 (x64)

 Android apps are becoming very popular. How do you build one on a Windows 10 computer/laptop? I am used to developing Windows Mobile (Microsoft gave up on this) using Visual Studio of various versions, but I wanted to try an Android app.

It is easy to get a link (Download Android Studio and SDK tools  |  Android Developers) to the download page for the latest version of Windows (x64). 



The problem was, after downloading the executable and running it was hampered by the Ransomeware protection of Windows 10.

I finally resolved it, as shown here.

Installing Android Studio

Here are some screenshots of the install process:






Hello, Arctic Fox, be good to me!

Setting up the development environment

Android studio setup is driven by a wizard and is very easy. Just follow the screenshots. It shows the variety of devices you can develop the apps.


Just click next or finish as the case may be.

Android starts other components needed for development as shown.


Well, there was a hiccup here.


I think this is needed for emulation and probably the problem is related to installing anything past the 'Ransomware' wall that Microsoft has constructed around the OS.

I did check all the requirements for HAXM installation. Not one less requirement but could not install.

Here are the details of my computer I checked.


I followed these instructions found on the Internet to manually install HAXM:

Downloading Manually Intel HAXM

  1. Go to http://software.intel.com/en-us/android.
  2. Choose the Intel HAXM installer package for your platform.
  3. Extract the installer and follow installation instructions for your platform.

The installed screen is as shown:


Again, I faced the same problem of installing. I would have succeeded had I tried, but I read that HAXM is not absolutely necessary for developing app or testing. I have a number of Android devices to run tests.

Maybe, I will come back and try to install HAXM. Right now I am eager to build and test.

Adios!



Friday, September 24, 2021

Windows 10 latest version

 You can find it in Settings/System. Go to the very bottom of this page and look up About.

There are issues in everything, and here is a link to resolved issues for the above version:

Dynamic Locking in Windows 10(x64)

 It is a security feature that locks up your computer/laptop when you are away (out of the Bluetooth range) from the computer. You can use this feature with your Bluetooth-enabled SmartPhone, Bluetooth headset, etc.

It is possible to lock the computer with Windows Key+L but the dynamic key can be useful when you forget to log out or go to sleep.

The "Dynamic Locking" feature is by default inactivated but you need to activate it.

Here are some screens that may be useful to you. I have paired my Samsung smartphone with my laptop.





Saturday, September 18, 2021

Ransomware protection on Windows 10 and its collateral effects

 In two years it has kept all ransomware from my computers, but it has its downsides. It prevents some straightforward tasks from being implemented. One of them is installing new software.

 This is quite a frequent error ["Error writing to temporary file. Make sure your temp folder is valid"] many folks are confronted with while installing some new software.  I encountered this problem trying to install Android Studio on my Windows 10 (x64).

What is Windows 10 controlled folder access?

Controlled folder access is an anti-ransomware feature in Windows 10 that helps protect your file system on your computer from modification by suspicious or malicious apps (especially ransomware). You should find this in "System Protection"

Controlled folder access in Windows Security reviews the apps that can make changes to files in protected folders and blocks unauthorized or unsafe apps from accessing or changing files in those folders.

Access the relevant feature page in the Control Panel as follows:

Select Start  > Settings  > Update & Security  > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection.

In Virus & threat protection settings, select Manage settings.

Under Controlled folder access, select Manage Controlled folder access.

Although I could have looked through other options for managing, I wanted something which was quick to test my hunch but it cannot be a permanent solution.

I chose to switch off the access to OFF temporarily. I then initiated the install process for the Android Studio and when it was installed, I switched the protection ON. 

I did not get any more notifications and the software was installed successfully.

What folders are protected?

In the above image, you can click on Protected folders to review them. Here is a partial list.



Thursday, September 16, 2021

Visiting South Indian Temples and Places of Interest - Tanjore Temples October 16, 2019

 Visiting South Indian Temples and Places of Interest

Our trip routes

Fly to Madurai and drive to Rameshwaram stay there for the night. Drive back to Madurai and stay in Madurai. Drive to Kumbakonam and Flyback from Tiruchirappalli to Bengaluru.




October 16, 2019

10/16

Our main objectives today are to visit the Brihadeeswarar temple in Tanjavur (Anglicized as Tanjore) and the Ganapati Rock temple. In the remaining time, we would explore other places.

The Big Temple or the Brihadeeswarar Temple

Brihadeeswarar (Brihadeshwara temple, the Big Temple) is the most representative of Tamil architecture in Tanjavur on the Southbank of the Kaveri river. Tanjavur is located some 350 km southwest of Chennai). It was built by the Tamil king Raja Raja Chola 1 (Brihadisvara Temple, Thanjavur - Wikipedia) during 1003-1010 A.D. After the Cholas, it came under the rule of Marathas for a while. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site part of the “Great Living Chola Temples”.  It is an engineering marvel considering the effort it must have taken to build the Shiva temple out of the granite of immense proportions.

The Big temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Monument

Brihadeshwara temple is a Shaivite temple dedicated to God Shiva. The fortified walls around the temple precinct were added in the 16th Century. Built from granite, the tower is one of the tallest in South India. It is just not one temple but a temple complex. There are separate shrines for other deities (Ganapati, Kartikeya, Parvati, Nandi, and others). It is a small wonder that it is the destination of many tourists.

The temple architecture evolved from the Chalukya era (5th and 9th Century), followed by the Pallava era superseded by the Chola period (850 to 1280 C.E). It may therefore be deemed as the culmination of the South Indian architectural style. The onslaught of the raids and wars by the Muslims from the North was controlled to some extent by the Chola kings. However, the inevitable damage was not completely contained.

We begin our story from here on.

We had a nice breakfast at Poppy's. It really was a great breakfast with idly, dosa, poori, kichadi, etc.  This is a good start.


We leave at 8:57 a.m. It was drizzling with an overcast sky. We take some umbrellas. 

People waiting for one of the inter-city buses in Madurai, TN, on a rainy morning

At 9:20 we follow the Tanjavur (Tanjore) road and visit Brihadeshwara temple.

Tamilnadu Tourism: Brihadeeswarar Temple – Murals/Frescos (tamilnadu-favtourism.blogspot.com)

We arrive at the Tanjore big temple at 9:59 a.m. We engaged a local guide, an excellent one. He could speak English quite well and sometimes spoke in Tamil as well. He was a very nice, friendly guy and he is one of the registered ones. It is best to avoid ad-hoc guides who are adept at exaggerating. He also took some pictures of our group.

Ramparts of the fort which, our guide said was built after the main temple was built.

Our group getting ready to go in

The first Gopuram at the entrance

There are stone inscriptions at various locations in the complex. It was the wisest choice made by the Cholas that has enabled these to survive despite the Mussulman invasions.

Nandi Mandapam

As soon as you enter through the gateway of the entrance you will see the imposing Nandi Mandapam. This is the structure that houses the sacred bull, Nandi. Nandi is the bull that is always associated with Shiva. The bull directly faces the Shiva statue in the main temple. 

Here are some pictures of this structure as well as the frescos painting in the ceiling of this structure.



Wide view of complex with Nandi Mandapam


Our group in front of the Mandapam.



Frescoes on the ceiling


The group with Nandi in the background




The smaller Nandi Mandapam that was built during the later Hoysala period

If you proceed past the Nandi Mandapam towards the main temple you will see the Nandi Kamba, a pillar of stone with brass covering. This structure is part of any Hindu temple. The pillar in front of Vaishnava deities is called the Garuda Kamba (Garudagamba)



Here is a detailed view of the base of this pillar.


Main Temple 

Just before you enter the main temple after climbing a few steps you encounter the 'Dwara Palakas' [Nandi and Mahakala] on either side of the entrance. These are immense monolithic structures carved in stone.

Dwara Palakas are literally the guardians of the temple deity. 
It is expected to take their
 permission to enter the inner sanctum

The outer surfaces of most Hindu temples are extensively carved with mythological stories as well as the depiction of scenes, animals, festivals related to those times. 


The group in front of the main temple

In addition to the Main Temple, there are a number of shrines for various related deities including one for an architect associated (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karuvurar) with the Brihadeshwara temple whose lineage dates back to the celestial architect Vishwakarma himself.

Amman Temple 

Brihannayaki temple, also known as Amman temple, is dedicated to the divine consort. We did not enter the temple for want of time. However, there are fine sculptures and frescoes from the Maratta period.





Subramanya Temple

Another of the related shrines is that of the God Subramanya, the first son of Shiva.  The Subramanya shrine was built during the Nayaka period. The inside of the temple has the main deity with his two consorts and is very rich in detailed exquisite sculptures. Again, we had to skip going inside. We really had half a day.

Here is a picture of the temple in our photo collection.


There was a considerable foreign presence during those times in addition to the invading Islamic invaders as seen in the above picture. There is a foreigner wearing a hat in the circled area.

An official description of the temple from the Archeological Survey of India is here:


In various locations in the temple complex, there are frescoes and the frescoes at the Nandi Mandapam were shown earlier.

Brihadeshwara Temple Frescoes

If you walk around the stone corridor in the outer periphery of the complex, you can see many more frescoes that were painted during various periods and sometimes painted over the earlier ones. The frescoes were painted during the times the land was ruled by the

  • Cholas (11th Century), 
  • the Nayakas (17th Century) of Vijayanagar Kingdom
  • and the Marathas (18th to 19th Century).  

Here are some samples:








This YouTube video shows them with some introduction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gp7_vmVIwo

We visited the gift shop at the entrance there was a huge crowd. Two of the shops displayed the highlights of the Tanjore style paintings with gilt as one of the chief components and the exquisite metalwork handed down for generations to the metal-smiths of this town. 

The rain had not let up and it was wet everywhere. We finished our Big Temple visit around 11:28 and immediately left.

Metalwork demo

After the visit, not too far from the Big Temple on Raja Raja Street, we visited a small business run by some 5 artists dealing with the famous Tanjore paintings and brass/metal figurines castings. Madurai is known from antiquity for its metal craft and is famous all over India. 

In Madurai, they made the finest steel for swords with its distinct metallurgy (https://www.thebetterindia.com/158830/tamil-nadu-research-facts-damascus-steel/) in antiquity. 

The business supplied metal castings of figurines from various Tamil dynasties. The guy we visited was having a little foundry in his backyard and demonstrated to us the lost-wax process of making the brass figurines. We also visited his gallery of paintings which included paintings of Indian deities with gilt and local colors. These are famous all over India.



Lunch qt A2B Restaurant

After the demo and the visit, we had lunch at the A2B restaurant. It happened to be World Food Day. I did see people ordering more than they can eat and leaving behind the food. This was a one-stop restaurant where you can get food from various regions of India. Food was surprisingly good for such a generic eatery.



Our group's member Rama was interested in a specific  Ganpati temple that was supposed to be close by. We might have found it, had we searched, but temples open only after 4 p.m. and we could not wait that long. We went back to the hotel to take some rest.

Ucchi Pillayar Temple (Rock Fort Temple)

We left the hotel again at 4:00 p.m. as most temples open around that time. We arrived at the 7th Century Ucchi Pillayar temple at 5:00 PM. This temple of God Ganesh was finished during the Vijayanagar kingdom and is also called Rock Fort temple as it is on a rock. To reach the temple you need to climb 407 steep steps. About 1/2 way is Shiva and Parvati temple. Michiko (a member of our group) was stopped at the halfway point because she was a foreigner, but an Indian lady visiting the temple strongly pleaded with the gatekeepers and got her in to visit the Shiva, Parvati temple. The temple official who stopped her later apologized profusely as the no-nonsense lady who pleaded made the official known her strong connections in New Delhi. We later met with the lady, and she wanted a picture with us.

Here is a stunning view of Madurai midway from the hilltop.


The river Cauvery flows quietly in the distance. This picture is from a rest area before reaching the final stop at the top.


Here is another view of the landscape below.


View of the Ganesha temple at the hilltop from the rest area.


We returned to the hotel after having dinner at the same restaurant in Madurai. Tomorrow good bye to Trichy, auf Wiedersehn!







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