A different prespective to Life

I love talking about astronomy. It is fascinating and raps up science, history, mythology, mathematics and culture into one brilliant container. StarTalk is a podcast by Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson and some other hosts.  The episode I came across today that tickled my fancy is about how the planets and moons in our solar system got their names, the exceptions to the rule, and the reasons why. The episode was with Mr Chuck Nice, a comedian who asked questions that we non-professional astronomists would love to ask and would make it funny and understandable to the common man in the street. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has been the body responsible for naming astronomical bodies since its inception in 1919. They followed a rule when it came to naming the planets. Since these have been known to us since antiquity, they use their Latin names as done in other fields like Medicine, Chemistry,  etc. The Romans knew of seven bright objects in the sky: the Sun, the Moon, and th...

"The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialisation. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation's spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure or by any industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand." Aleksandr Solzhenistytn When in university, I had a friend about 35 years ago who was what we would describe as a Leftist now. On any issue, be it education, politics, finance, health, etc., he would go entirely Left and tell me how Communism was far better than Capitalism in dealing with it. During that time, world ideologies were separated into the West and East of Churchill's Iron Curtain. The West was the USA and its allies, and the East was the USSR and its allies. My friend, who is a Professor now, would go on for hours on how Communi...

"Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first call promising." Cyril Connolly This is a beautiful book, and it is all about power, greed, broken promises and money. It is also a story of the statement that when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true. This book is about biotechnology and the future of the medical industry. The book takes you through a journey with entrepreneur, businesswoman and CEO of Theranos ,  Elizabeth Holmes . It shows how she was determined by her fear of needles. She felt she could develop a small mobile device for various biomedical tests that could result in a medical diagnosis with minimal pain, affect millions of lives, and change the world. The book's writer John Carreyrou gives us the impression that Elizabeth Holmes could suffer from a narcissistic personality disorder . Still, her fears and desires were genuine; she wanted to make a real difference and improve things. Elizabeth, at the time she was working, was driven a...

  I finally watched the film "The Woman King" on Now, a streaming service. It is a good story, and the actors seem convincing. We have  Viola Davis as Nanisca (the leader of the Dahomey Amazons). Then was Lashana Lynch (Black female 007), who played Izogie, and we also have John Boyega as King Ghezo.  However, since I belong to the Yoruba tribe, which was part of the Oyo Empire, looking at the film, some parts shocked me. The Oyo Empire were the bad guys in the film. The Oyo Empire bad guys had beards, appeared vicious and muscular, rode horses, and had headscarves like Arabs, spoke with loud voices, with ludicrous hairstyles and ugly scars. There was a part in the film where the whole Oyo Empire and their allies, including the Igbo, got together to destroy the "independent freedom-loving" Dahomey. I almost fell, laughing because the concept was so comical. It did seem ridiculous and full of so many falsities at numerous levels. Anyone who has read West African H...

  Chimp Empire is a documentary on Netflix  about Chimpanzees living in Ngogo Reserve in Uganda, Africa. Scientists have been studying them for decades and have revealed that Chimpanzees are not the benevolent, kind, altruistic, and considerate animals we were told of in stories and books. But they could be cold, cunning, calculating, scheming, deceitful, cruel and murderous. This series comprises four episodes - captioned as Paradise, Others, War and Reckoning. The first rule for those filming the "Chimp Empire" is that humans do not get into chimps' business or interfere in any way. It is said that their world is similar to ours in some ways and different in others. It tells a story that we can never imagine. And the film's producers deliberately attempted to avoid interference with the Chimp's activity. Chimps are among the great apes sharing about 98.8% of our DNA. The narration was done beautifully by actor Mahershala Ali, and the documentary follows the grou...

"不管黑猫白猫，捉到老鼠就是好猫" (No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.) Deng Xiaoping       The story of how China became very rich in a relatively short period is that of good leadership and a committed population. China went through what it described as a long history of stagnation and humiliation for more than 200 years. "How China Got Rich" is an excellent documentary on Amazon Prime Video streaming video service presented by Micheal Wood, one of its directors. This documentary came out in 2019.  Deng Xiaoping China had been a leading world power till the 15th Century with international voyages to Africa and beyond. Then China decided to close its doors during the Ming dynasty to the outside world due to an internal conflict for power . The story of self-isolation has also occurred in other countries, like Japan, Bhutan, Cambodia and Korea, usually due to internal struggles where the leaders want to consolidate the...