New Look

Just changed the look of the blog, the old one was ..well old. Needed a fresh look, a minimalistic design which isn't too dark or in your face and here it is.

Caffeine and Memory

Just read a very interesting paper on caffeine and how it affects our memory. Specially interesting since a number of us consume caffeine the night before an exam to mug things up or in other such instances when you have to be up all night. You probably already know too much of this stuff will make you nervy and will be no good but is it even fine to take in moderation. The answer suggested by this paper would be yes and no.

Effects of caffeine is influenced by more factors than you can think of including the time of the day, your personality, what kind of information you want to process and you gender for example. Might seem contrary but in general caffeine is better for long term memory tasks than the short term ones. Authors of this paper carried out a survey and experiment and the results show that while moderate amount of caffeine facilitated short term memory in females, contrary to popular perception it actually impaired the short term memory in males. However a higher dose of caffeine is good for both sexes.

Confused? Let's just say the paper suggests, either take no caffeine or if you have to take it take lot of it but then again not so much so as to make you restless and nervous.

Reference: The Effects of Caffeine, Impulsivity, and Sex on Memory for Word Lists, by Mary Ellen Arnold et al.

It's a New Year Folks

Didn't realize it was a new year until the first day was over and somebody called me up. Well for the first time I did celebrate the new year and during the celebrations forgot why we were doing it. Unlike last few years haven't retrospected and made any list ....maybe sometime later ... haven't got any alone time yet.

One thing I wish though is that Sachin starts this year with a century again also that I finish my PhD. At least one of them is possible.

Well Hapy New Year

The Rediscovery

This is one of those rare days when I feel like writing something .... anything .. and I want to write about my rediscovery of geology. I love geology and with every rock I hold in my hands, every mountain i see, every stretch of barren or fertile land, flowing or still water, melting snow it seems to grow. I wish I could be a geologist. That doesn't mean I don't love being a Computer Scientist, especially now that I am learning to like math and learning to see how beautiful it can be, but the earth fascinates me.

Just finished the book "Earth in 100 Groundbreaking discoveries" and it was captivating. The way our earth has come into existence, the way it functions is just mesmerizing. The most fiercest natural powers, the volcanoes the plate tectonics, the ice, the ocean which have terrorized people over all the history are in fact the powers which sustain life. The vast time scale makes us so insignificant in the grand scheme of things but more on that some other time.  Last few days have been entertaining and enlightening in this aspect, so much so that after hiking illegally on protected islands, swimming in the ocean and getting bitten by poisonous fishes, the next thing I want to see is the lava lakes of Kilauea in Hawaii and Erta Ale in Ethiopia.

On a different note Lucky Ali's Aap Per Arz Hai is well just beautiful.

History repeats itself

Once again I am waiting for the results of all those engineering entrance exams as eagerly if not more as I was waiting for them 9 years ago. The same goosebumps, butterflies in the stomach, fingers crossed. Reliving every moment of that anxiety and uncertainty.

Stories from the road - 1

Woke up to the sound of waves of the bay hitting the rocks and sun peeping from distant mountains. We had breakfast and saw that the west wind was slowly dying. Finally time to go out and do something. We decided to hike up to the Angelitas. Wow! the hike up to the mountain didn’t look too much of a problem from the ground but boy was it difficult. Even more so with the scorching sun and no shade. We made it to the top after about 90 minutes of hiking. The view of bahia from the top was breathtaking, those last 90 minutes of sweat and exhaustion totally worth it. Once on the top we decided to dig out a geocache. It was a difficult one but after half an hour of hunt we finally found it. Had food and water and came down. Coming down was much easier. Once we were back we decided to find another geocache, this was an easier one, hidden in a boat and only took 10 minutes.

                The next thing we did was set up a network between two of Dylan's neighbors. This was fun and we used walkie talkies to communicate between the sites :D. One of the neighbors offered us Sting ray burritos, my first experience of unusual food. It was a little different but totally edible :P.

               For dinner we went to a taqueria and I had the best tacos of my life yet. Came back played the game of life watched Indiana Jones and went to sleep to wake up another beautiful day.

Rambling

Rambling: A long meandering talk with no specific topic or direction.

If I write a blog entry everytime I think about writing one, I would average about 30 per month. Right now it's less than 1 per month.

I am making good progress on my research. All I need now is magic.

There is a tiny wild flower in front of my house. Its the harbinger of spring, grows at the same place at about the same time every year ( or at least the two years I have seen it there)

Euphoria's The Road is awesome.

Euphoria's Kaise bhoolegi mera naam is awesomer. At one point of time, the song constantly kept playing in my mind for 4 days non stop. Even while I was sleeping.

Indian bowling is not as weak as it is made out to be. Still very capable of loosing the world cup.

My randomness is very carefully planned.

Interference must die.