Brown Motion

There was a time when an audience rapt with a presentation, a speech, a piece of music or an unusual but poignant anecdote would spontaneously erupt with the phrase 'hear hear'.  It was an agreement to what was said or appreciation of it. In today's climate of fake news and what not it is challenging to see where you would hear that said.  Here, there or anywhere? But there is one phrase that I hear on the idiot box more than others and it is 'there there'.  So  I decided to do some digging into these 'there'.  Turns out what might sound like a Yogi Berra aphorism (former NY Yankee baseball player credited with some) - there was just no there there  - is actually attributed to Gertrude Stein, author and former Oakland, CA native many moons ago. That comment was more a nostalgic remembrance of a once familiar Oakland now lost in its excess.  Today the media and political bigwigs including the director of the FBI, investigating our POTUS's outrage...

One leg at a time.  This is the oft heard man made modern cliche.  At conferences and in self help guides some yuppie is always making a reference to this apparently common trait for males and in some cases females. Hey that Sheryl Sandberg may be rich and famous but she too puts on her pants - one leg at a time. Well I think it is pure nonsense. For starters some of the best minds in this universe never put on pants.  Think Aryabhatta or Ramanujan.  Not sure what Aryabhatta wore but historic texts on Ramanujan had him in a wrap around cloth below his waist most of the time.  When he went to England he was fooled into wearing the above mentioned pants but it was not his primary choice. Ancient Greek philosophers from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle wore tunics.  Even the first marathon runner Pheidippides ran it with a simple flowing garb on. Great warriors from Alexander to Genghis too wore skirts from all the pictures I have seen.  How t...

It was a couple weeks of parallel processing.  As in consuming some new literary finds at the local libraries.  Here are the titles and synopses in no particular order - Eight Flavors - untold story of American Cuisine - by Sarah Lohman - a fun read if you like it spicy and hot.  Well not literally.  But Sarah does a good job of narrating the history of some of the most common spices on the American dining table and also explains through use of experiments the human ability to distinguish what the palate likes and does not.   Black Pepper is the most popular of spices in American cuisine today and held its own for couple hundred years.  Sriracha is gaining popularity in the last couple decades made right here in sunny California.  Another sauce Korean Gochujang is a 'hot' contender. Calculating the Cosmos - by Ian Stewart - a British math professor who explains a bunch of complex physics and math using language that is enjoyably easy.  For...

No its not gas.   But one could argue that it is the genie that got out.  I mean this title is not just a new made up one hit pop number.  It is in fact not Pop but the law of large numbers.  Very large.  And I mean with no gas.  As in drinking water bottles topped the ones that had the fizz.  Until recently. In the past year Americans drank more bottled water than its bubbly counterpart aka soda or pop or soft drinks.  Think 12 billion gallons of it.  That is a lot of water.   I had a part to play.  About 500 gallons worth.  I mean I like the convenience of it.  Again my friends in the green earth movement argued that it is no safer or cleaner than tap water. Well, I would not agree entirely.  First if you were in Flint, Michigan you might be dead.  If you were in many other parts of the US the tap water would taste downright putrid or foul.  For consistency anywhere I vote bottled water.  I am no...

At some point in life one should figure out this equation.  In fact figuring it out is a sign of said wisdom. As our daughter participates in variety of extra curricular activities that supposedly bolster her resume I realized that it really is about the strongest kid winning.   Strong mentally and physically.   Their cohort tends to go to tournaments for speech but is asked to gather at the school many hours ahead for roll call.  It's a meaningless activity that sucks up time and could be automated. That time could be wisely spent resting for few more hours, giving those very kids an advantage over their competitors, who hopefully did wake earlier and got tired sooner. Of course those that can withstand all that time abuse and still perform are considered spectacular. That is a genetic gift to a large part.  Some of those gifted do turn into the Einstein or Ramanujan or Salk and benefit society at large but like the uber Pareto equation most are just par...

A term as old as the United States itself is to me hilarious and insensitive all at the same time.  In today's age where the anxiety around your origins is palpable not being 'colorless' is a handicap. I mean if Indians and African American and Arabs and Mexicans were to be bucketed as the 'people of color', you should not be penalized to think that the 'white folk' who invented the disparaging phrase be considered 'colorless'.  After all white is a color is it not? What are they then?  Transparent?  Far from it.  Those that cling to that ideology without saying it or those that say it without realizing it are essentially dense.  That through which light also does not pass.  Opaque is more like it. A stereotype is a natural instinct of the human mind to categorize without allocating serious consideration and all of us including yours truly is guilty.  An Udipi joint in my neighborhood gets very little tipping from me because I go in not exp...