Ruminating Out Loud

Here is another top 10 list via Wired, according to which the “Top 10 Scientific Breakthroughs of 2008″ are the following. This information is included here not necessarily as an endorsement of the weight given to these breakthroughs in comparison to others, but to provide an insight into what some of the milestones are that were reached, during the year 2008, in the continued human endeavor to uncover the hidden beauties and mysteries of our universe.

1. Finding ice on Mars

2. Growing a new organ from a patient’s own stem cells

3. Finding another building block of life in our galaxy

4. Curing HIV in Germany

5. Breaking the petaflop barrier

6. Sequencing entire genome of a cancer patient, including tumor

7. Building loudspeakers from carbon nanotubes

8. Marking greenhouse gas levels — 800,000-year high

9. Turning water into fuel

10. Troubleshooting stem cell therapy

I am usually not fond of accepting any proclamation of a Top X, you name the number, of anything at face value. There is  subjectivity in the evaluation of the aesthetics and usefulness of a given item. For what it is worth, a top X listing is usually a reflection of the limit of knowledge and exposure to a body of information of the individual/group announcing it. I feel that there is certain level of pomposity in proclaiming something is a top pick in any category given the vastness of information there is in the Null Information and the limited nature of our familiarity with it. In that sense, such lists have some value in projecting what is considered to be valuable and relevant by the individual or the group. With that said, below are listings of “Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos,” “Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos,”and “Top 10 Amazing Biology Videos”via Wired.

Top 10 Amazing Physics Videos

Top 10 Amazing Chemistry Videos

Top 10 Amazing Biology Videos

The drastic losses incurred in the financial markets is one of the prime examples of a major collective human experience during the past year. This particular decline in the stock market value amounting to $7,000,000,000,000, which I would call the big debacle, is discussed in a NY Times article. Excerpt from the article:

…In a mere 12 months, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 4,488.43 points, or 33.8 percent, its most punishing loss since 1931. Blue chips like Bank of America, Citigroup and Alcoa lost more than 65 percent of their value. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index sank 39.5 percent, almost exactly matching its decline in 1937.

All told, about $7 trillion of shareholders’ wealth — the gains of the last six years — was wiped out in a year of violent market swings.

But what is striking is not just the magnitude of the declines, staggering as they are, but also their breadth. All but two of the 30 Dow industrials, Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, fell by more than 10 percent. Almost no industry was spared as the crisis that first emerged in the subprime mortgage market metastasized and the economy sank into what could be a long recession…

The markets have become incredibly volatile, especially since Lehman Brothers sank into bankruptcy in September. Since then, the S.& P. has moved more than 5 percent in either direction on 18 days. There were only 17 such days in the previous 53 years, according to calculations by Howard Silverblatt, an index analyst at S.& P.”

The Boston Globe has a breathtaking display of photographs portraying the vastitudes of joy and pain, love and hate, calm and calamities, and peace and terror in the human experience during the year 2008.

2008 has been an eventful year to say the least – it is difficult to sum up the thousands of stories in just a handful of photographs. That said, I will try to do what I’ve done with other photo narratives here, and tell a story of 2008 in photographs. It’s not thestory of 2008, it’s certainly not all stories, but as a collection it does show a good portion of what life has been like over the past 12 months. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days.”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the 2004 Tsuinami of the Indian ocean, which caused a tremendous amount of destruction, took the lives of more than 200,000 people, and caused the displacement of many others. It was a moment that shall remain transfixed in the collective imagination of all the people. In a previous post, we have covered how social media facilitated the transfer of information from the affected regions to the different corners of the globe. While commemorating this anniversary, one can not help but feel saddened and depressed about the continuing silent tsunamis taking and causing havoc in the lives of many more across the globe. Almost always, these tsunamis are occurring in the forgotten corners of the world, where no media attention is paid and the socioeconomic condition is poor that the affected have little power by way of plugging into the sphere of the social interaction. When I speak of these people, I am thinking of the millions that are brutalized and affected by the continuing unrest in Congo, the hundreds of thousands in Darfur, the millions living in a lawless land that is Somalia, the thousands that are having to suffer from among the most avoidable illnesses such as Cholera in Zimbabwe, billions in the world living on less than three meals a day, the millions that die from treatable diseases such as malaria, the millions more that die of starvation and malnourishment, and millions more living in the dilapidated of circumstances devoid of any hope for a better future. The silent tsunamis are everywhere and are quietly destroying the lives of significantly more people than those affected by the one we remember today looking back at the horrific images of destruction that were brought into the attention of the world.

These people are helpless. They are unsafe fearing from attack of not just the ill-intentioned, but also those that are charged to protect them. They are terrorized to live another day. They are voiceless in the global discourse. They are desperate and hungry. The world needs to remember past disasters and check to see if the necessary learnings about prevention and preparedness have been taken. But, let us not forget also those that are living through the silent tsunamis now. They need an outlet of voice; a helping hand. In the moment of despair and anguish, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a gem hidden deep in President-elect Obama’s speech on November 4, 2008. He said:

…And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.”  

They are waiting for the new dawn of leadership to rescue them. They are waiting for miracles.

… than the delivery system.” That is according to a publisher discusing about the transformation that is taking place in the way books are being read. Gregory Cowles, who blogs about books for NY Times, states that “2008 may be remembered as the year that e-books finally caught on.” The argument is based on his observation of the prevalent use of the Kindle among the public and the publishing community. There is also another good article here on this topic. Below is an excerpt from the post:

I think I would have a hard time adapting to that — I live too much in my head already, and enjoy the solid physicality of ink on paper — but then, I’m the kind of guy who would have complained about the end of parchment or chiseled stone too. There’s no stopping the future. “When you get right down to it,” a publisher told me, “the story you’re delivering is always more important than the delivery system you use.”  

The transformation from print to electronic media in the modes of information dissemination is an inevitable one. We are making incremental steps in that direction. The convenience and cost factors will gradually dictate as to which delivery technology will win. It is, however, clear that the convergence of functionalities is proving to be a winning combination allowing for having all the information that is relevant on the go or easily accessible from the same device. The following comment by Fanisa on Cowel’s post gives an apt description of all the benefits of flexibility and convenience afforded by such devices like Kindle.

I have a Kindle, and I love it. I find that I’m reading more because of it.

Yes, you can make annotations anywhere you want. You can judge just about how far along you are in the book by a series of dots along the bottom of the screen.

It’s easier to hold than most books, easier to turn the pages, and the screen doesn’t hurt your eyes because it is not backlit.

I’ve got tons of free public domain books on it–including most of ancient, English, American and Continental literature, and with my 8-gig memory card, I’m only using about one-tenth of the available memory. It even holds audiobooks and music. It has a dictionary that you just click on from the page you’re reading whenever you want to look up a word.

One of the major problems in my life is that I have too many books. They’ve taken over my house. This way I can carry around my entire library (once everything’s been switched over to e-books) in my bag. If you lose the Kindle, you’ve still got your whole library backed up either on your own home computer (I always keep the copies of the free books I download) or on Amazon to download as many times as you wish.

I read “John Adams” on it, and stopped to read Tom Paine’s pamphlets, and the whole Declaration of Independence, because I had them right there on the Kindle. If I’d been reading the (heavy) physical book, I wouldn’t have done that. Now I’m reading some Ken Follett and having just as much fun as if it were a physical book.

It’ll be awhile before the photos on the Kindle are of better quality and before color, but that’ll come. This thing is the future.”

I would not dare add my words next to those of the seminal speeches of Barack Obama shown below in condensed word cloud representation with the exclusion of common words in the English language. It is very striking to note that each of these speeches have a particular and unmistakable message and theme as exemplified in the most frequently used words in the respective speeches (In the case of the word cloud representation, those words are the ones that are seen to be of the largest font size in the cloud). I think this goes to show Obama’s ability to communicate effectively, a topic that was discussed in a previous post. Here, I will attempt to decipher the  key themes of each of these speeches based on just a few words that are prominently displayed in each cloud.

• Iraq speech: opposed, fight, war: There is no mistaking that he wanted to get across the point that he opposed the war. He had multiple parts of the speech where he asks “You want a fight, President Bush?” and goes on to describe worthwhile fights. In so doing, he is able to effectively communicate, as he put it, “I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.” A passage from that section is shown below:

I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.

 So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the president today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s finish the fight with Bin Ladenand al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.

 You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let’s fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn’t simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed, poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not — we will not — travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.”

• Democratic Convention speech (2004):- America, hope, states, country: If we ignore the references to John Kerry, which was inevitable as the occasion called for it, these words are central to the unifying theme that he was speaking to. He was calling the people to the sense of country, hope and unity in spite of the presumed divisions that exist between people of different states. Below is a passage that exemplifies this:

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or ”blessed,” believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success. They imagined — They imagined me going to the best schools in the land, even though they weren’t rich, because in a generous America you don’t has to be rich to achieve your potential.

They’re both passed away now. And yet, I know that on this night they look down on me with great pride.

They stand here — And I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my two precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible.

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our Nation — not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That is the true genius of America, a faith — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles; that we can tuck in our children at night and know that they are fed and clothed and safe from harm; that we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door; that we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe; that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted — at least most of the time.

…

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an “awesome God” in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.”

•  Iowa speech:- Hope, America, moment, change: The victory Obama had in Iowa and this speech, which he gave in the aftermath, are the two factors that transformed him into a credible and viable candidate for the presidency. The grand theme of hope tied to a message of all things being possible in America and a coming of change make this speech one of the most memorable ones. Below is a passage from it:

…They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. but on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do. You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days. You have done what America can do in this new year, 2008. in lines that stretched around schools and churches in, small towns and in big cities, you came together as Democrats, Republicans, and Independents to stand up and say that we are one nation. We are one people. and our time for change has come! you said the time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that’s consumed Washington. To end the political strategy that’s been all about division and instead, make it about addition, to build a coalition for change that stretches through red states and blue states. because that’s how we’ll win in November, and that’s how we’ll finally meet the challenges that we face as a nation. We are choosing hope over fear. we’re choosing unity over division and sending a powerful message that change is coming to America.”

• New Hampshire speech:- Yes, new, America, something, happening: This was a concession speech unlike any other, and one of my favorites. The themes sounded in this one speak to the re-energizing of the campaign effort, the relaunching into a new and drawn-out competition for the nomination, the stirring of a “yes we can” mentality, and the articulation of the coming together of forces to re-align the political landscape. In the face of defeat, this was as solid and motivational a speech as one could ask for. A passage from this speech:

For most of this campaign, we were far behind. We always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out, and you spoke up for change.

And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport, in Lebanon and Concord, come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.

There is something happening. There’s something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit, who’ve never participated in politics before, turn out in numbers we have never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different.

There’s something happening when people vote not just for party that they belong to, but the hopes that they hold in common.

And whether we are rich or poor, black or white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction.

That’s what’s happening in America right now; change is what’s happening in America.

…

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. And they will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks and months to come.

We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

For when we have faced down impossible odds, when we’ve been told we’re not ready or that we shouldn’t try or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness: Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier, and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and equality.

Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity. Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.”

• Race speech:- white, black: this speech is a substantive one. These two words say it all. Below is an extended passage from this speech that met the challenge of the day facing Obama’s campaign and served to give a historical lesson about the arc of progress being made in race relations from the original sin of slavery to this day.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs – to the larger aspirations of all Americans — the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old — is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know — what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination – and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past – are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.”

• Acceptance speech:- Promise, America, McCain: This speech marks the culmination of a long nomination fight and a transition to the new phase of the campaign in which Obama squarely put the choices facing the American people in the plainest of ways. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this was an aggressive speech that was directly aimed at contrasting with McCain/Bush, and hence the prominance of the word in the cloud. While doing that, he still maintains the unifying theme of focusing on and proclaiming the promise of America and its people. Below is a passage from it:

…Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story – of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren’t well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.

It is that promise that has always set this country apart – that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.

That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.

…

This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that’s not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that’s not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that’s not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit – that American promise – that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

That promise is our greatest inheritance. It’s a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours – a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.

And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.

The men and women who gathered there could’ve heard many things. They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.

But what the people heard instead – people of every creed and color, from every walk of life – is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.

“We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”

America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.”

• Victory speech: America, tonight, new, people: Only in America can this indeed happen, only in America! Obama election is a historical marker that shall be used to demarcate the degree of transformation the country is making towards becoming a more perfect union. His speech amplifies these themes (America, tonight, new) where, on that particular night, the coming together of a broad coalition of people has elevated him to the highest office in the land and charted a new course in history. Below is a passage from it:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

…

Its the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

Its been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

…

For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

…

This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we cant, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.“

Here is a list of Time’s choice for pictures of the year. The following two I find telling about the current state of affairs of the world.

Caption from Time: "John McCain gets patted down before boarding a plane in March, after a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas. (Christopher Morris / VII for TIME)"

Here is a candidate of a major party for the presidency of the U.S. having to be patted down before boarding a plane. I find it amazing to think that a person of such stature could not be trusted to have the best interest of the country and the people at heart. While it is admirable to see that all are being treated equal in this regard, not even a thousand words, as the saying goes, can describe the times we find ourselves in as presciently as this one image.

Caption from Time: "In pursuit of his seventh gold medal, US Swimmer Michael Phelps (left) races Serbian Milorad Cavic in the 100M Butterfly. Phelps would push past his opponent in the final meter of the race, miraculously beating him by .01 second. (Heinz Kluetmeier / Sports Illustrated)"

What an epic demonstration of the meaning of time. Thanks to this race, 0.01 seconds now has a whole different meaning.

The “Person of the Year” has been chosen to be Barack Obama. Given the unprecedented nature of his accomplishment and the far-reaching consequence of his election to become the 44th president of the U.S., this decision did not surprise me all that much. The runners-up were Henry Paulson, Nicolas Sarkozy, Sarah Palin, and Zhang Yimou. They also have a list of “People Who Mattered.”

The Google Zeitgeist 2008 has some revealing insights into the collective conscious and state of being of the world population, or at least those that use Google search, at this slice of time. The most interesting insights to me are the how to searches. The top ten apparently are:

1. how to draw
2. how to kiss
3. how to write
4. how to cook
5. how to tie
6. how to hack
7. how to run
8. how to cite
9. how to paint
10. how to spell

At the most basic level, what this shows is that there is a keen interest in developing expressive and artistic (draw, write, paint) talents and abilities. The rest seem to be showing a yearning for improving functional skills. One that is most surprising is that there is also a need for finding out how run. Now that is interesting. I was of the opinion that all animals are born with instinctive physical and hormonal gifts to escape our of danger, which usually manifests itself in the form of running, and running fast and furious at that.

The 8th Annual Year in Ideas at NY Times Magazine is out. You can check it out here.