Brown Motion

As a kid learning math I am trying to remember when I first encountered the concept of a million.  Seems like many moons ago.  I must have been in middle school when a friend of the family knowing my proclivity for math handed me a book written by some Russian professors (translated to English). It was a book of curious math problems and explained concepts like large numbers in some detail.  I think that may have been my introduction to appreciating a number like a million.  One followed by six zeroes. As in the distance between earth and our moon is a quarter of that.  In miles.  A million heart beats is a lifetime of 9 days since a human heart beats at around 115,000 of them each day. But this number pales when you start discussing capitalism. Recently in the news... 1. Elon Musk, the famous entrepreneur was fined $20M for blabbing about taking Tesla private when in fact it was not so. 2.  Facebook was hacked.  50M accounts were compr...

Growing up in India the only Peru I knew of was a tropical fruit (Guava for those whose lingua is English).   Not until high school did I discover that it was also a country in the South American continent. So it was this early April week that we decided to hit up Peru - the land of the once glorious Inca people that lived 500 years ago.  Today Peru is the third largest country on that continent with a diverse geography that stretches from the drier Pacific coast plains to the high mountains of the Andes and the Amazon river valley to its east. Our trip was primarily a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the last remaining, lost (now found and documented), large scale, mostly undamaged, city of the Inca nobility, called Machu Picchu (MP).  The Inca were great architects and builders.  MP is a UNESCO world heritage site affording it high visibility to the tourism trade and therefore crowded year round.  Our timing was not quite high season allowing us...

Might be a good name for a butler..but I have to give that some thought - whether I will need butling. More importanty I observed a not so knotty phenomenon that perhaps the readership did too. While people in ties abound the universe these days - what from the newscasters and weathermen to all consultants and politicos and the local bank teller wearing one, there is also a renewed resurgence of Jeans. Every major tech company CEO now favors Jeans over the suit and tie. Major product launches and testimonials are shared with and by the chief-in-jeans. Jobs to Cook to Ballmer to Bookface to Bezos to Brin - everyone has one besides their grin. What I am waiting to hear is Marissa Mayer (who herself not in jeans) announcing a free 'Jeans of your choice' employee benefit to all Yahoos after recently bestowing them with an Apple smartphone earlier this year. Perhaps this Christmas? I say this is good news for slobs like me - while I have not launched anything remotely (or i...