Venus, Australia, Moon and Earth

An article titled "Did Venus Give Earth the Moon? Wild New Theory on Lunar History" has been published recently at http://www.space.com/22966-earths-moon-from-venus.html.  Earth's moon is suggested to be a present from Venus.

My thoughts on the theory.

By some ancient accounts, the Moon was positioned between Rohini and Revathy constellations.  It was always 'full moon', bright and shining, probably a planet whose orbit was between Earth and Venus.

About 40,000 years ago, massive volcanoes must have erupt on Venus in the Ishtar Terra region, blowing a mass the size of Australia into space. Let us call this mass as 'Australia' - it impacts Moon driving it closer to Earth, as a result of which the Moon is captured by Earth's gravity.

'Australia' also orbits around Earth for some time and then crashes into Earth, east of Japan around the equator. 'Australia' settles down as Australia covering Earth with dust and debris for at least 1000 years.

Entry impact from north ...

skids and settles down

This catastrophic chain of events is very well recorded in Indian puranas and texts.

The Shiva Purana portion dealing with Daksha Yagam narrates how the Moon was wedded to Revathy and Rohini, and then later 'cursed' to spend equal time with other wives, the 28 constellations, and also to wax and wane as a punishment. For a brief spell, Moon turned completely dark and later settled down in its present orbit around the Sun, along with Earth.

'Australia', orbiting Earth, is probably described as 'Tripura' – the third.

It may also be the 'Kurma' - the boar shaped one that emerged anew on the face of Earth after the great deluge.

The debris from Venus impacted several parts of Earth. The bits which fell in India are sanctified and preserved intact as 'Shakthi Peetams' till date.

Venus is recorded to have a 'beard' or 'horn' that is not observable today. The Venusian horn must have made its way to Earth – as a gift to admirers here, knocking Moon into its present orbit on its way!

References:

[1] http://explanet.info/Chapter07.htm has images of Ishtar Terra and details of volcanic activity on Venus. Ishtar Terra appears quite flat and resembles Australia.

[2] “Why are Things the way they are”, G. Venkataraman, 'Height of Mountains' pp. 62-67

[3] http://www.redicecreations.com/specialreports/2005/10oct/venuscomet.html on the flaming beard of Venus.

[4] http://www.space.com/22966-earths-moon-from-venus.html

[5] The Chronicle of Mangadu Temples, Dr. P.S. Somasundaram

[6]  http://io9.com/is-the-moon-a-planet-1064356920

Bay of Bengal - A pristine water resource

Ian Morris, in “Why the West Rules – For Now” predicts that South India is likely to face serious water shortages by 2025. It is not too wrong to say the shortage has already arrived in 2013 itself – starting with Tamil Nadu. Three suggestions to improve availability of potable water in India.

View of Bay of Bengal from Chennai

[1] Make Bay of Bengal a fresh water storage body:

The Bay of Bengal is the largest bay in the world. This bay occupies an area of 2,172,000 KM². A number of large rivers – the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri flow into the Bay of Bengal. It is estimated that the annual run from the rivers into the bay is about 8,000 KM³. The average depth of the bay is 2.5 KM. Then, the total volume of water is around 2172000 x 2.5 = 5,430,000 KM³. If there is no salt water incursion into the bay, it would be the largest fresh water bay in the world as well.

A few studies have revealed that a saline 'pump' near Sri Lanka adds saltiness to the water by circulating waters from the Arabian Sea into the bay. If the 'pump' is managed, then in due course, the bay will turn into a natural fresh water resource.

As such, the salinity peaks 50m below the surface. Even if 10m of the fresh water floating on the bay surface is utilizable, 217200 KM³ of fresh water would be available. It is the fresh water floating on the bay that promotes the monsoons. Salinity in the bay should be carefully measured and monitored to convert the bay into a pristine water resource.

[2] Pipe river water from North to South:

Since there is very sizable runoff into the bay, it would do no harm to distribute water from the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Godavari, Mahanadi and Krishna to the South. I doubt it is practical to “network” and “link” the rivers in any fashion. The only practical approach may be to carry water in closed pipe lines like the Veeranam line supplying 180 million litres of water daily to Chennai. The pumping lines could be laid parallel to railway tracks for easy construction, networking and maintenance.

Chennai Metrowater sells per load of 10M³ of water at Rs. 670/- A load of divine Ganges water drawn straight from Haridwar might fetch premium prices in the south.

[3] Prevent Pollution:

This is easier said than done.  Pollutants are often let into water bodies, as there is no other drain into which it could be let into. An extensive drainage system should be built so that the pollutants can be streamed into it, processed and recycled. The drainage stream ought not to be allowed to run into rivers, canals, bay or the oceans.

The shortest river that empties into the bay, is River Cooum – about 64 KM long with its estuary near the Chennai harbour.  Until 1960s, this was a fresh water river. This river is now virtually used as a drain. No river should be used to drain wastes. The real test to check if pollution control measures are working correctly is to find potable water in the Cooum.

References:

[1] 'Why the West Rules – For Now', Ian Morris

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Bengal

[3]http://www-pord.ucsd.edu/~ltalley/papers/2000s/wiley_talley_salinitypatterns.pdf

[4]http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/a-pump-keeps-bay-of-bengal-saline/article4530102.ece

[5] http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/1493/7/07_chapter%202.pdf

[6] http://www.lme.noaa.gov/lmeweb/LME_Report/lme_34.pdf

[7] In re Networking of Rivers, http://indiankanoon.org/doc/41857247/

Celebrating 125 years of Nikola Tesla's Electro Magnetic Motor and Alternating Current System

On May 1, 1888, Nikola Tesla Patented his following inventions:
No. 382,279 ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTOR
No. 382,280 ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF POWER
No. 382,281 ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF POWER
No. 382,282 METHOD OF CONVERTING AND DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
In the SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 382,280, dated May 1, 1888, on the file of the United States Patent Office, Nikola Tesla claimed as follows:

“What I claim is- The method herein described of electrically transmitting power, which consists in producing a continuously progressive shifting of the polarities of either or both elements (the armature or field magnet or magnets) of a motor by developing alternating currents in independent circuits, including magnetizing coils of either or both elements, as herein set forth.”

The birth of the commutator free electromagnetic induction motor and the alternating current system born conjoint with it, from the fertile mind of Tesla, 124 years ago, deserves grand commemoration on its Quasquicentennial falling on May 1, 2013. Though Tesla's inventions have enriched human life on a grand scale, we have not given him the honour and remembrance he deserves. This should be amended for the sake of Nikola Tesla who spent every hour of his magnificent life improving living conditions of mankind by his new and improved inventions shaped by sharp observation and deep analysis honed by his desire to offer only clean solutions all the time.
Through his patents, Tesla talks to us directly even today. The specifications for his inventions make delightful reading and the figures that accompany are works of art. We can easily imagine what he envisioned and the collection of Tesla patents on the file of the United States Patent Office is probably the most outstanding gift to mankind from a single individual in history. The inventions highlight the importance of making practical use of knowledge gained and the flow of the patents stress the need to refine and improve to the point of elegance beyond which no man can improve.
The innovations sparked by Tesla are numerous and the general direction went thus:
No. 390,413 SYSTEM OF ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION Patented Oct. 2, 1888
No. 390,820 REGULATOR FOR ALTERNATE CURRENT MOTORS Patented Oct. 9, 1888
No. 396,121 THERMO MAGNETIC MOTOR Patented Jan. 15, 1889
No. 401,420 METHOD OF OPERATING ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTORS Patented Apr. 16, 1889
No. 405,858 ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTOR Patented June 25, 1889
No. 405,859 METHOD OF ELECTRICAL POWER TRANSMISSION Patented June 25, 1889
No. 413,353 METHOD OF OBTAINING DIRECT FROM ALTERNATING CURRENTS Patented Oct. 22, 1889
No. 416,191 ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTOR Patented Dec. 3, 1889
No. 416,194 ELECTRIC MOTOR Patented Dec. 3, 1889
No. 416,195 ELECTRO MAGNETIC MOTOR Patented Dec. 3, 1889
In Patent No. 416,195, Tesla introduced poly phase current system thus:

“What I claim is - 1. In an alternating-current motor, the combination, with an armature wound with closed coils, of main and supplemental field magnets or poles, one set of which is adapted to exhibit their maximum magnetic effect simultaneously with that set up in the armature by the action of the other, as set forth. 2. In an electro-magnetic motor, the combination, with an armature, of a plurality of field or energizing coils included, respectively, in main circuits adapted to produce a given difference of phase and supplemental or secondary circuits adapted to produce an intermediate difference of phase, as set forth.”

More refinements, measuring tools and gadgets followed:
No. 447,921 ALTERNATING ELECTRIC CURRENT GENERATOR Patented Mar. 10, 1891
No. 455,068 ELECTRICAL METER Patented June 30, 1891
No. 462,418 METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR ELECTRICAL CONVERSION AND DISTRIBUTION Patented Nov. 3, 1891
No. 511,559 ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF POWER Patented Dec. 26, 1893
No. 512,340 COIL FOR ELECTRO MAGNETS Patented Jan. 9, 1894
No. 514,167 ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR Patented Feb 6, 1894
No. 1,119,732 APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING ELECTRICAL ENERGY Patented Dec 1, 1914
The last one, wireless transmission of energy, is yet to be realized on a grand scale, but would be the ultimate goal for mankind.
The patents have a straightforward pattern: a problem is stated and the solution found is described including scientific explanations of why and how the invention works. Tesla had clean habits and this cleanliness pervaded his work. Clean engineering is the hallmark of Tesla evident from his electro-magnetic motor designs and the alternating current systems. Every little defect is attempted to be corrected in subsequent inventions to bring about perfection. His daring spirit to build the hydroelectric power generator across the Niagara when the whole world doubted its feasibility is an example of the kind of attitude required to achieve arduous goals. The world truly misses this great scientist and engineer whose love for humanity and progress knew no bounds.
Every school and institution should make an effort to teach the life and work of Tesla to inspire and create the progressive, prosperous and peaceful world he envisioned. In India, Tesla is not taught the way it ought to be done. When I was at school, we had SUPW (short for Socially Useful Productive Work) class from 5th to 10th standard. For boys, it was Electrical Gadgets [EG], and for girls -  it was Tailoring. Of course, either could opt for the other class. Mr. Subramani, who ran an electrical gadgets store, was the part time teacher for EG. Many parents were agitated about EG and the teacher used to be extra cautious in explaining the dangers of electricity while teaching its properties and uses. The notes of every class would fit exactly one page, with just five or six points which could be remembered for life. He started the first class with the lesson on bar magnets - the points went: magnets have two poles, north and south; like poles attract, unlike poles repel, they have imaginary lines of force, and the next lesson would elaborate on the lines of force, and after a few classes there would be a project. He taught EG with so much enthusiasm and passion, making sure he did justice to his job. I would rank him one of the best teachers at school. He introduced magnets, batteries, DC, AC, copper coils, 28G wire, batteries, transformers, and a host of other electrical concepts without which I would hardly be able to appreciate Tesla. I do not remember my teacher having elaborated on 3-phase/poly-phase AC or the induction motor design which could have been easily assimilated into the EG classes. For all I know, SUPW no longer seems to be part of the CBSE curriculum and with it EG has gone too. SUPW classes should be brought back to schools. Working models of the Tesla patents should be demonstrated to students at the appropriate levels. Every school leaving child should have a working knowledge of electricity.
High level research is possible into every statement Tesla made. For example, he saw connections between earthquakes and charges passing through the earth. Every little observation is magnified and attempted to be converted into a force that could be controlled purposefully. Resonance with nature carried Tesla far into the future. Tesla patented his gainful research in his youth but as he aged, he appears to have lost faith in the system, and many findings might have died with him without disclosure. Compulsory minimum guaranteed royalties for the life time of the patent, say fixed at minimum 1.5% of the product cost, should promote the cause of inventions.
India also has special reasons to celebrate the works of Tesla, who was deeply inspired by Swami Vivekananda and Jagadis Chandra Bose. Tesla used “Akash” and other vedic sanskrit words to explain his visions. Tesla was a bridge between the earth, working with his hands and feet firmly grounded to building practical tools that worked well, and the cosmos, envisioning grand goals with his mind piercing through its every kosha - layers. The present day world needs to pay an appropriate tribute to this genius and the best that can be bestowed is by working just as hard and wise as Tesla.
One of Tesla's unpublished addresses which he himself quoted in a letter to the editor of New York Times, April 19, 1908, was as follows:

According to an adopted theory, every ponderable atom is differentiated from a tenuous fluid, filling all space merely by spinning motion, as a whirl of water in a calm lake. By being set in movement this fluid, the ether, becomes gross matter. Its movement arrested, the primary substance reverts to its normal state. It appears, then, possible for man through harnessed energy of the medium and suitable agencies for starting and stopping ether whirls to cause matter to form and disappear. At his command, almost without effort on his part, old worlds would vanish and new ones would spring into being. He could alter the size of this planet, control its seasons, adjust its distance from the sun, guide it on its eternal journey along any path he might choose, through the depths of the universe. He could make planets collide and produce his suns and stars, his heat and light; he could originate life in all its infinite forms. To cause at will the birth and death of matter would be man's grandest deed, which would give him the mastery of physical creation, make him fulfill his ultimate destiny.

To ignore Tesla is to invite peril. Due appreciation will help mankind flourish.
Tesla resources:
http://www.tfcbooks.com
http://www.teslasociety.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_13/7.html
http://archive.org/details/CompletePatentsOfNikolaTesla
http://arizonaenergy.org/CommunityEnergy/INFLUENCE%20OF%20VEDIC%20ON%20TESLA%27S%20UNDERSTANDING%20OF%20FREE%20ENERGY.htm
http://archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.29943
http://archive.org/details/gov.dod.dimoc.39947
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoY_7mbm5ng

Pie Maths Galaxy ...

I came across "Galaxy of Mathematicians", Volume-1, published by the Pie Mathematics Association, Chennai. The book gives the brief life histories of Euclid, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, Leibniz, Fermat, Gauss, Euler and Erdos along some of their important works. The life of Leibniz speaks of the 'Calculus Wars', his study of binary numbers, arrays/matrices leading to 'stepped reckoner (calculator)',and why he deserves the title, "Father of Applied Sciences". This is a good introduction to the original works of the authors mentioned.

The back cover text on the book says the publisher association is for removing mathphobia. Surely we need more such groups to grow and nurture mathematics!

Richard M Stallman: Code Guru Mahatma

The Mahatma was always part of life and the CD below, produced by Dr. Natesan of Krea was of great interest when it was released in the 1990s:

Walnut Creek CDROM published it. I first came to know of 'Linux' from the title card of this CD:

The CD on the Mahatma provided the first step in connecting to another rare modern Mahatma, Richard M Stallman, better known as 'RMS'. I would know about RMS and his work much later, but this was the start. The 'Gandhi' CDROM title card advertised 'Linux Slackware 96' as "Internet's favourite. Full PC UNIX", that left me curious about this UNIX for the PC.

The Internet was not ubiquitous a decade ago and CDROM was the main source for obtaining software. The first book I could lay my hands on the subject was Sam's "Learn Linux in 24 Hours". A free CD came with it:

The CD simply did not work. The book was interesting though. I very much wanted to see what the running 'Linux' OS screen looked like. The first opportunity to do that came at the Bangalore IT.COM fair, in 2000:

There was this large pavilion full of software systems, people, distros, shops and events - all busy at the same time. There was even a cluster running at a corner from a dozen mini-frames. Some stressed they were free and open. At the GT enterprises stall I got myself a couple of distros to try at home:

The pavilion filled my hands with pamphlets like this:

I tried installing Mandrake Linux and the screen came alive with the installation instructions. I never quite finished installing as there was some problem at the final step - I think I did not have a supported graphics card. I decided to shop for more distros, until I had a working system. After some time I visited Bangalore again, and had these options:

I decided I would give the SuSE 7.0 Professional edition a try. I carefully got a graphics card that was supported this time. YaST did a fine job installing the operating system, x server, applications and all - in about three hours time! I finally had a free operating system!

With free software, so many options and tools were available, and I spent most of my free time trying them out. Finally, after a month or so, I settled for the Apache Web Server with PHP for web scripting and PostgreSQL for data storage. The StarOffice package fulfilled all my word processing needs. There was a lot of excitement with graphics tools like GIMP and the load of games that came. It was initially tedious to work on the console most of the time but after getting a hang of it, it was clearly the way to do things. Man[ual] pages of many commands declared:

This is free software: you are free  to  change  and  redistribute  it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Author names like Paul Rubin, David MacKenzie, Richard Stallman, and Jim Meyaering came up on the console window. The SuSE 7.0 Handbook included a copy of the GNU General Public License in Appendix F:

The SuSE 7.0 box included this Oracle phamplet:

Oracle has done a lot for the free software movement in the past decade showing deep interest in Java, MySQL, OpenOffice etc. I also tried other distros that came my way. Charles Fisher wrote "Red Hat Linux 6.0 Administration Tools" and the book came with 2 CDs:

The book taught many installation procedures in a straight forward way.
Meanwhile, I had registered the 'Gandhi' CD with Walnut Creek CDROM, and they sent me their catalog:

I tried FreeBSD too, but the availability of applications on BSD was restricted by your ability to install and configure it correctly. I gave up even trying it after a while.

The Linux For You magazine was launched sometime in 2002 or so, and I came to know of ilugc from its lug listing and subscribed to the ilugc mailing list. I mostly lurked there, and sometime asked questions - and often got responses that helped a lot. I came to know of the fsf-friends mailing list through ilugc and joined there. RMS used to post occasionally to the fsf-friends mailing list, and soon I got involved in fsf-india activities. There was always one freedom issue or the other that was interesting. Communicating with RMS over email is one of the intellectual pleasures life had to offer, and to say the least, it was very useful and productive. I wrote to him about a JavaScript code I wrote, to calculate fair rent in accordance with the local rules here, as an example of the kind of coding I was doing to port law to computers. He was kind in replying as follows:

If this includes implementation of human-style common-sense
reasoning, you may have tackled a problem that the Artificial
Intelligence field has been struggling with for 35 years.

AI was the last on my mind then and it encouraged me to study about the struggle there. Soon, it took me to Lisp, AI by Winston, and the problem remained on my back-burner. The greatest advantage I derived from communicating with RMS was this innocuous line on AI that got me hooked to programming like never before. Incidentally, ancient Indian philosophical works started to appear very modern and relevant from the AI angle.

RMS had planned to come down to Chennai in Feb, 2005. It was my pleasure to plan some of the events for him here - mainly, the talk on 'Software Patents' here in Chennai. Bharati, AB, myself and other friends received RMS at the Chennai Airport. The flight was delayed by half an hour, and that gave Bharati and myself, time to go up to Pammal to get a couple of garlands for the code guru. We were delighted to meet him in person - he enjoyed the fragrance of the champangi garland! After the perfunctory introductions, RMS quickly got to opening his laptop and started working.

The first thing I noticed was his mastery over the keyboard. His hands just played over the laptop - I have never seen anyone else so proficient on the keyboard. The control, alt, function and every single key is naturally used so well in emacs. No time is wasted while coding. RMS is known for being the original author of the great 2Gs in the software spectrum: GCC and GPL. The road from Chennai to Vellore was under construction, and the journey was naturally tedious. It was not easy to stop by the road side for a tea break. RMS took all these little discomforts in his stride and stayed focused on work at hand punctuated by mail transfers. He spoke on software freedom at VIT and did his 'St. Ignucious-I bless your computer, my child' bit at the end of the the speech. He also played his recorder (pocket sized flute like pipe) both at VIT during dinner and at MIT after his short talk. RMS spoke on the dangers of 'Software Patents' at the IIT-M. The auditoriums were packed with students everywhere he went! A few pics from the events at VIT, IIT and MIT:

At the OLT, IIT-M:

At MIT, Chrompet:

He would have liked to listen to a carnatic recital that Chennai is so famous for - I hope that is part of the program the next time he visits Chennai. As he left, he gave me a firm hand shake and wished "Happy hacking".

In the Indian context, it is useful to distinguish between free and non-free systems:

Non-free Software Adharma:
● Non-free software system is
– unethical
– anti-social
– simply wrong
● Works by keeping users divided
● A co-operating community is forbidden
● Users are not allowed to change or share the software they use

Free Software Dharma
● Freedom to use the program for any purpose
● Freedom to study and modify its source code
● Freedom to redistribute copies to others
● Freedom to distribute modified versions to others

"Dharma" has no exact equivalent word in English (say, "Aram" அறம் in Tamil). It encompasses virtue , morality, good works according to right or rule, rightly, justly, according to the nature of anything. Adharma is unrighteousness, injustice, wickedness. Mahatma Gandhi said, "When adharma spreads, some men undertake tapascharya (penance) and through their tapascharya, generate dharma in the world". Free Software is a response to the non-free software adharma, and it very naturally explains work of the free software community to others. The free software movement has been led by the code guru very successfully and the burning desire for freedom inheres code development.

Over the past decade, free software systems have grown phenomenally from strength to strength. After the new version of the GPL came in 2007, I lost interest in fsf activities. The future programs are more likely to lie centered around stack based ones like forth in the public domain. Postscript and its derivatives like PDF are living proof for that. Given the massive parallel GPUs and CPUs rapidly moving towards exascale machines capable of 10¹⁸ calculations per second, it is very likely that simple stack based applications get priority because they are small, fast, secure, open and free. Maybe they would be hard too but other programs and tools should make the task of maintaining them easy.

The road to freedom is a hard one. I had the opportunity to travel along with RMS - the code guru mahatma - on the road to freedom for a short while, and I hope it would lead to solving the AI problem and end the long struggle.

Law and Science Choreography

Dr. C.V. Raman's lecture on 'Why the sky is blue' delivered at Community Science Centre in Amhedabad, in December 1968, is documented by Chandralekha, the dancer, so beautifully, along with the black and white pictures of the scientist by Dashrath Patel. ¹ She heard the Nobel laureate declare: "The best way to answer a question is to ask another... One thing leads to another. That is the essence of science. You must go where it leads you."² The choreographer took the message to heart. The book informs that Chandralekha, who made those notes, studied law in Mumbai, before moving to dance in Chennai. Even a mere still from her dances could enthrall and liberate - the inspiring book, meant for the young, is probably her best work! There could be no doubt that Raman's talk infused new blood into choreography that she pursued with the passion of a scientist. ³

The man who gave Raman the opportunity to make science a full-time career was Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee - who was a lawyer and then became a judge of the Calcutta High Court. The other scientists promoted by the learned judge include Satyendranath Bose and Saha. All this was possible because of the judge's keen interest in science and mathematics. Dr. G. Venkatraman credits the judge with contributing to science by encouraging at a crucial juncture, three of the best physicists the country had produced then: Bose, Saha and Raman.⁴

Bhagaban Chandur Bose, was Deputy Magistrate of Faridpur and in charge of the law and order in several villages. His son, SC Bose, the most illustrious scientist India has ever seen, grew up drawing endless inspiration from his father. The basic qualities shine as a scientist were imbibed from his father who kept his curiosities alive and well nourished.

'I saw so-and-so to-day : why was that ?'-was a standard type of question, and always patiently answered when possible; yet often-perhaps most important and educative of all for the future investigator-with a candid confession of ignorance, and never any of the evasion, or pretence of knowledge beyond a child's, which is so common a discouragement to children from parents less frank and wise. 'I don't know, my son : we cannot tell; we know so little about nature!' was thus a frequent reply : but instead of lowering the child's respect, as foolish parents and teachers fear, this only aroused further wonder, and kept curiosity and observation alive. In such ways it is that the questioning child later becomes the scientific man : and what scientific man worth the name in history is more than such a child of larger growth? The 'advancement of Science' is no such easy matters as founders of its schools and departments suppose. It requires a corresponding supply of men of science; these again are not the mere products of specialist training. Scientific training can only be of real service to the few survivors amidst the too common home and family indifference to knowledge. That is only advanced by those who, when children, were encouraged to observe and question, and were not silenced and dulled for life, like their elders before them, with 'Don't ask silly questions!' or evaded with 'I have no time!'⁵

The choreography between law and science should be fostered more than ever before now.


¹ Chandralekha and Dashrath Patel, "Why the sky is blue: Dr. C.V. Raman talks about science", Tulika, December, 1968.
² ibid.
³ Chandralekha quotes Dr. C.V. Raman, word for word from her notes in this UK TV interview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR2Um0sljkw. The Guardian (at http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2007/feb/09/guardianobituaries.india noted that "Chandralekha became a crusader for equality, human rights, women's rights, secularism, pluralism and the environment", and as this was through her dances, she took choreography to new levels.
⁴ Dr. G. Venkatraman, "Bose and his statistics", 1992, Sangam Books.
⁵ Patrick Geddes, "The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C. Bose", available online at http://books.google.co.in/books?id=W41WqmzoGQ8C

Talk slides ...

The slides I have used in support of my talks last year, are available at the following links:


https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/legal_codes_2010.pdf

legal_codes_2010.pdf - 1.2 MB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/ml_ipr_cnc_uom_2010.pdf
ml_ipr_cnc_uom_2010.pdf - 497 KB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/legal_remedies_for_esi_and_pf_issues.pdf
legal_remedies_for_esi_and_pf_issues.pdf - 404 KB

The first two were under the auspices of the Department of Legal Studies, University of Madras, and the last was at DOMS, Anna University. The most significant constitutional challenge of the times is about having more open societies, where the citizens actively participate in governance. This theme is also elaborated at http://ramanraj.blogspot.com/2010/01/csx-v-sebi.html Various computer programs and codes help in achieving this, and the first talk takes a look at how legal codes have evolved historically. The other talks take a look at coding from various perspectives.

Older talks:

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/calpp_ai_at_kec.pdf
calpp_ai_at_kec.pdf - 267.1 KB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/calpp_ai_sjce.pdf
calpp_ai_sjce.pdf - 472.7 KB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/calpp_nlsiu.pdf
calpp_nlsiu.pdf - 286.0 KB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/foss_licenses.pdf
foss_licenses.pdf - 274.8 KB

https://calpp.org/ramanraj/talks/tml_unicode.pdf
tml_unicode.pdf - 634.2 KB

Research papers of Dr. G.N. Ramachandran

The University of Madras [UoM] has contributed two Nobel laureates to the world: Dr. Sir C.V. Raman and Dr Subramaniam Chandrasekar. Raman's disciple Dr. G.N. Ramachandran, was invited to establish the Department of Physics at the UoM in 1950. The research work by Dr. GNR, as he was called, is most remarkable. He proposed the triple helix structure of collagen, the 'ramachandran plot' to *validate* protein structures, 3D tomography using convolution method - the basic algorithm that made CT-Scans possible, by 1970s. Thereafter, he wrote a number of papers on Syad Nyaya - may be theory - that now passes as "fuzzy logic". He died in 2001, and most obituaries lamented that the Nobel missed this master.

His most outstanding research paper would be on "Three-dimensional Reconstruction from Radiographs and Electron Micrographs: Application of Convolutions instead of Fourier Transforms" now also available at http://www.pnas.org/content/68/9/2236.full.pdf This work with A.V. Lakshminarayanan was the starting point for the development of CAT scan technique in radiography and later, magnetic resonance imaging.

He helped to lay foundations for bio-physics, and this branch of science has grown leaps and bounds ever since, in the recent decades.

The last leg of his career was devoted to writing the papers on what passes as fuzzy logic today. The links to the GNR paper on BA-2 are from http://www.ias.ac.in/jarch/currsci/51/00000685.pdf to *693.pdf He profoundly realised the role of computing in science, and he is the greatest computer scientist India has given to the world, in recent times.

We have not made optimum use of the research by this great scientist. As a first step, all the research papers published by him need to be collated and published online.

References:

[1] http://bioinfo.ernet.in/library/gnr/Gnrmain.htm
[2] http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in/scientists/gnramachandran%20.htm
[3] http://www.ias.ac.in/j_archive/currsci/52/7/292-302/viewpage.html
[4] http://bioinfo.ernet.in/library/gnr/mat.html
[5] http://www.currentscience.ac.in/php/auth.php?authid=11647&author=Ramachandran,%20G.%20N.

An analysis of 5000 PDF files

To be exact, 4949 PDF files were used for the analysis.

Methodology:
To collect information about the PDF/pdf files available on my system, the following command was run:

# find / -name "*.[pP][dD][fF]" -type f -exec ./test.sh {} \;

test.sh script:

echo " " >> index.dat
echo $1 >> index.dat
pdfinfo $1 >> index.dat

index.dat so generated was parsed into a postgresql database table with columns for title, author, creator, producer, keywords, subject, bytes, pages, creation_date, mod_date, page_size, pdf_version, encrypted, optimized and tagged field values returned by pdfinfo program for each PDF file.

PDF Version:
More than 3500 files were using version 1.3 or 1.4, introduced a decade ago. The file counts for all major versions were as follows:

PDF Version (with year   File 
of its introduction):    count:
    1.0 (1993)              3
    1.1 (1994)            196
    1.2 (1996)            720
    1.3 (1999)           1622
    1.4 (2001)           1912
    1.5 (2003)            260
    1.6 (2005)            187
    1.7 (2006)             49

The PDF file format has now been published as an open standard in 2008, and Version 2.0 is in the offing. It may safely be predicted that Version 2.0, or one of the subsequent 2.* stable releases, would stabilize by 2020.
For those wondering about the three files old files on my system using version 1.0, one of them is a copy of the "Hacker's Diet", by John Walker, that can still be downloaded from: http://fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/hdpdf.zip The pdfinfo for this file is as follows:

Author:         John Walker
Creator:        LaTeX
CreationDate:   Monday, December 20, 1993 at 22:57
Tagged:         no
Pages:          338
Encrypted:      no
Page size:      342 x 476 pts
File size:      2007166 bytes
Optimized:      no
PDF version:    1.0

Pages:
The 4949 PDF files have a total page count of 2,80,777. More than half of the PDF files have just a couple of pages. File counts for those with less than 10 pages:

Number of    File
pages:       count:
        1    893
        2    473
        3    332
        4    227
        5    192
        6    167
        7    146
        8    130
        9     78

About 1/3rd of the total have less than 101 pages. The average page count was 33 for files with page count between and 10 and 100. The page range statistics:

Number of         File 
pages between:    count: 
  1-10            2722
  10-100          1579
  100-1000         632
  1000+             16

Page size:
A4 is the standard, followed by letter size. Due to the minor difference in the points scale used, no summary is given here.

 
Page size:                File 
                          count:
595 x 842 pts (A4)        1348
612 x 792 pts (letter)    1315
595.276 x 841.89 pts (A4)  510
468 x 648 pts               92
595.28 x 841.89 pts (A4)    89
595.22 x 842 pts (A4)       44
612 x 1008 pts              31
595 x 964 pts               30

Author:
The Author field was blank in half of the PDF files. The good news is that the Author names are given even consistently across the files in the remaining half. A few example names found:

Author (File count):
Benjamin Franklin (2)
D.S.KOTHARI (1)
David Carlisle, carlisle@cs.man.ac.uk (5)
Doyle, Arthur Conan (2)
Intel Corporation (2)
Lawrence Lessig (1)
The Unicode Consortium (5)

Title:
Some good title descriptions found:

Title (File count):
ACHARYA JAGADIS CHUNDER BOSE - HIS LIFE AND WORK (1858-1937) (1)
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1)
APOLLO 8 MISSION REPORT FEB 1969 (1)
ARBITRATION LAW IN INDIA (1)
Free Culture (1)
Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF Product Guide (1)
The Articles of Confederation (1)

Many files had numbers with "Chapter", "Form", "Annexure", "Volume" or other prefixes that do not help to identify the file. A title like "Animal Farm by George Orwell" duplicates the Author field. As an example of good style, I could cite the five PDF books authored by David Carlisle, carlisle@cs.man.ac.uk available on the system. The Author name is written consistently across the PDF files, and the titles accurately describe the content:

The afterpage package
The delarray package
The hhline package
The indentfirst package
The xr package

Subject:
In most files (4564 to be precise), this field was left blank. PDF files from http://www.feedbooks.com/ give the subject, making it easy to index thus:

 Subject (File count):
 Non-Fiction (2)
 Non-Fiction, Essay (1)
 Non-Fiction, Essay, Collections (2)
 Non-Fiction, Essay, Politics (2)
 Non-Fiction, History, Essay, Politics (1)
 Non-Fiction, Philosophy (4)
 Novels, Adventure (6)
 Novels, History, Biography (1)
 Novels, History, Romance, Adventure (1)
 Novels, History, War (1)
 Novels, Horror, Fantasy (1)
 Novels, Philosophy, Science Fiction, Politics (1)
 Short Fiction (1)
 Short Fiction, Crime/Mystery, Collections (1)
 Short Fiction, Horror (1)
 Short Fiction, Science Fiction (8)
 Short Fiction, Science Fiction, Collections (1)
 Short Fiction, Young Readers, Fantasy, Collections (3)

Keywords:
4850 files did not give any keywords. The few that give, help a lot in classifying the files. Some example keywords found listed:

[Org   ] Keywords (File count):
[nVIDIA] GeForce 6, Video Processing Technology (1)
[ilugc ] FOSS, Free, Open, BSD, Linux, Software (1)
[pakin ] attachments; annotations; PDF; LaTeX; package; automatic; files (1)
[us-con] constitution independence hall philadelphia (1)
[bnhs  ] wader, india, point calimere, india, bird, waterfowl, russia, monitoring, wetlands, india, cranes, important areas, waterbirds around the world (1)

Document Restrictions:
The vast majority of PDF files imposed no restrictions. The details:

Document restriction parameters:                File
                                                count:
no                                              4292 
yes (print:no copy:no change:no addNotes:no)     570
yes (print:yes copy:no change:no addNotes:no)     53
yes (print:yes copy:no change:no addNotes:yes)     4
yes (print:yes copy:yes change:no addNotes:no)    20
yes (print:yes copy:yes change:no addNotes:yes)    2
yes (print:yes copy:yes change:yes addNotes:yes)   8

Information relating to copyright is mostly part of the content - it should ideally form part of the file metadata too. Many of the document restrictions cease to apply after lapse of statutory period of copyright, and it would help to have particulars about the owner of the copyright, licensing terms and conditions, along with full details about the source of publication.

Optimization:
PDF files are either linear (optimized) or non-linear (not optimized). Linear files are basically optimized for the web, so that the pages can be viewed without waiting for the whole file to download as is the case with non-linear files. The statistics for optimization were:

Optimization (File count):
false (2934)
true  (2015)

Content:
Of course, pdfinfo doesn't help here - one has to read the file to judge content. 500+ files were from www.arvindguptatoys.com and 100+ were from www.gandhiserve.org - I recommend both sites for useful reading :)

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
http://www.adobe.com

A black billed magpie's song

[Sighted at Chennai in April, 2010]

CSX v. SEBI

Universal Law Publishing Co has published the Third Edition of M.V. Pylee's "Constitutional Amendments in India", in 2010, with full text of all Acts, Statement of Objects and Reasons and legislative history. The Constitution of India has so far witnessed Ninety-Four Amendments in its 60 years of operation.

Worldwide, the most significant constitutional reform we hear about is about having more open societies, where the citizens actively participate in governance. George Soros spoke elaborately about the need for open societies, and a transcript of his lecture is at http://www.soros.org/resources/multimedia/sorosceu_20091112/capitalism_transcript The core problem is summarised by Soros in these words:

According to the modern concept of sovereignty, the natural resources of a country belong to the people of that country, but governments, which are supposed to be agents of the people, put their own interests ahead of the interests of the people whom they are supposed to represent and engage in all sorts of corrupt practices. On the opposite side, the managements of the international oil and mining companies represent the interests of the companies all too well. They used to go so far as to bribe governments in order to obtain concessions. Willing takers and givers of bribes are the root cause of the resource curse.

Once I became aware of the agency problem, I discovered it everywhere.

Communism failed because of the agency problem. Karl Marx's proposition-from everybody according to their ability and to everybody according to their needs-was a very attractive idea, but the communist rulers put their own interests ahead of the interests of the people.

The agency problem is also the bane of representative democracy: the elected representatives use their powers for their own interests to the detriment of the common interest.

The Internet, mobile phones and other electronic networks widely available today could make direct democracy possible. However, direct participation in policy and law making sans inter meddlers and representatives needs to be tried and tested, before it could be realised through constitutional changes.

The most veritable testing grounds for direct participation of people is readily available at most stock exchanges. It is no accident that the stock markets and legislative assemblies have advanced forward in parallel replacing older forms of trade and governance.

The Bombay Stock Exchange originated as "The Native Share & Stock Brokers' Association" in 1875, making it the oldest stock exchange in Asia, continuously existing for more than 135 years. It was established soon after the East India Company, was dissolved and liquidated in 1874 by passing of the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act, after the Government of India Act, 1858 closed the company rule.

The Coimbatore Stock Exchange came up very recently. CSX developed in the light of floor based trading but after electronic terminals became common place after 2000, the floors collapsed. Terminal based trading changed the future for CSX. [Ref: http://www.sebi.gov.in/courtorders/madras.html etc.] The next big development in terminal based trading might be when the brokers feel the heat and terminate.

The future of grass root democracy is nascent in the air. The success of terminal based trading should encourage terminal based voting and law making. Constitutional history could be in the making again.

Pups: Not found wanting ...

The puppy litter made their home under a staircase, that's dark most of the time. My visit to their nook woke them up. The seven snuggled together making themselves warm and comfortable. They dozed off quickly sensing no harm from me.

Annular solar eclipse over Chennai on 2010-01-15

A javascript eclipse calculator is available at http://www.chris.obyrne.com/Eclipses/calculator.html

The metrics for the partial annular eclipse for Chennai (13° 04' N, 80° 17' E. Time Zone 5:45 E) were:
Start of eclipse: 11:40:26.8
Mid eclipse: 13:45:36.1
End of partial eclipse: 15:30:10.8
Magnitude at mid eclipse: 0.89257
Ratio of size of moon/sun: 0.917

TOP500 v. Gartner (just another opinion)

Top500's 2nd list for 2009 was released on 17th of November, 2009. The Cray Jaguar beat IBM Roadrunner to the top first rank. Jaguar was upgraded to AMD x86_64 Opteron Six Core 2600 MHz (10.4 GFlops) processors for the feat. It runs the Linux kernel. Eka, a machine from India, has gradually dropped to #26 now, from its June 2007 rank of #4. The list is closely followed, and is one of the most critical analyzers of computer hardware and operating system software. The Top500 is being published twice a year since 1993 and the data accumulated over the years reveals many patterns and points to future trends as well. "An Overview of High Performance and Challenges for the Future" talk by Dr. Jack Dongarra, one of the maintainers of the Top500 list, is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTIKUxO9kf4. The interesting talk concludes with an indictment of the software development process in vogue:

• For the last decade or more, the research investment strategy has been overwhelmingly in favour of hardware
  
• This strategy needs to be rebalanced - barrier to progress are increasingly on the software side
  
• Moreover, the return on investment is more favourable to software
  
  • Hardware has a half-life measured in years while software has a half-life measured in decades
  
  
• High Performance Ecosystem out of balance
  
  • Hardware, OS, Compilers, Software, Algorithms, Applications
    
  • No Moore's Law for software, algorithms and applications
    
  
  

Current software is woefully unable to utilize the hardware developed and available. Software has failed to keep pace with hardware growth and progress.

Why is the software domain lagging behind?

The answers most probably lie in ZL v. Gartner, and more specifically in Gartner. It is not easy to believe that a single corporation could hold a tight grip over a domain as large as the software industry, but it seems to be the most important reason why the field of software has lagged behind while hardware has progressed in predictable ways.

A number of blogs list articles on how Gartner has been feeding news and opinions promoting fud about potential products. A lengthy list is available at http://boycottnovell.com/wiki/index.php/Gartner_Group Apparently, no serious challenge to the nonchalant and frivolous views of Gartner appear to have been made so far, and ZL v. Gartner might come to save the whole software industry from collapse, shame and disgust.

It is hard to dismiss the complaint made by Dr. Jack Dongarra. Dual core 64 bit machines will turn into multi core multi bit machines in future. Large scale parallelizations are suddenly feasible and economical in terms of power consumption. The disruptive and fast emerging processor technology throws serious challenges to software developers. Whole kernels and applications would have to be re-written, if the new features of the processors are to be utilized. If Gartner is continued to be taken seriously, much of the revenues would only get piped into useless products and would only ultimately leave the field barren and lagging woefully behind the gaint strides in hardware.

Ideally, software should be ready 14 months before the hardware becomes available, based on emerging trends in hardware development. But thanks to Gartner and its chums, software is always at least one decade behind hardware on a regular basis now. This ought to change, and I hope the American legal system takes ZL v. Gartner to its logical end, and saves the software industry from further doom.

The motion to dismiss ZL's plaint also raises some interesting questions with regard to the US Constitution as well. Under the VII Amendment to the US Constitution:

"In suits at common law, where the value in conrtoversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

Long before the US Constitution and the VII Amendment, the right to trial by jury was well known and recognized:

In Holmes v. Walton (1780), New Jersy employed six man juries in cases of small amounts (six pounds) and twelve man juries in all other cases. Because the property involved had substantial value, Holmes was entitled to a trial by a jury of twlve; but the trial judge, for reasons unknown, allowed him only a six man jury. He contended that he was denied a right to trial by a twelve-member jury. The high court upheld his claim. (The case is best remembered for another reason though. The constitutionality of the State's trading-with-the-enemy Act which provided for trial by a six-man jury was not at issue, but the disaffected citizens of the locality alleged in a petition to the state assembly that the states' supreme court had held the seizure act void. The legislature supported the court, by enacting a new measure providing that in any suit exceeding six pounds, trial by jury meant a trial by a jury of twelve.

In the interesting case of Trevett v. Weeden (1786), John Weeden, a Rhode Island butcher, refused to accept paper bills rather than gold or silver for the meat sold in his market. Under a recent Rhode Island law, the penalty for such refusal was harsh: anyone accused of the cime was given only three days to prepare for trial, no jury was allowed, no appeal from conviction was allowed, and the fine was fixed steeply at 100 pounds. As Weeden's lawyer could not reasonably deny that Weeden had refused the paper scrip, he confronted the law itself. The law under which Weeden stood accused, he argued, was unconstitutional; in enacting it the legislature had overreached its legitimate powers and violated the recognized principle of trial by jury and hence the Superior Court of Rhode Island should nullify it. The judges held that the case was "not congnizable" before them and dismissed the complaint filed by Trevett. Weeden was freed and suffered no penalty despite the fact that he had openly disregarded Rhode Island's paper money law. The legislature summoned the high court judges, as if they were offenders, and demanded an explanation of their reasons for hold an act "unconstitutional", and "unprecedented" judgement that tended to "abolish the legislative authority". Judge David Howell defended judicial review and judicial independence before the legislature, and insisted that the legislature had confused the argument with the judgment. The legislature initiated a motion to remove the judges, but ultimately did not succeed in doing so.

The Ten Pound Act Cases (1787) of that era again point to the vigour with which the right to trial by jury was affirmed. The Ten Pound Act of 1785 allowed justices of peace to try minor civil cases, involving sums less than ten pounds, without juries. The state constutitional guarantee of trial by jury extended to all civil cases except those which juries customarily did not try. New Hampshire practice had previously allowed a justice of the peace to try a case without a jury if the sum amounted to less than two pounds. After the court ruled that the act conflicted with the right to trial by jury, petitions to the state legislature demanded impeachment of the judges. The house, by a 3-1 majority, voted that the act was constitutional, but the judges courageously stood by their initial decision and reaffirmed it in another case. Following the failure of a motion to impeach the judges, the house capitulated and repealed the Ten Pound Act.

Now, after the Constitution of the United States of America came into being and the VII Amendment, the right to trial by jury in cases where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, shall be preserved. In my humble opinion, the right to trial by jury was hard won, and enshrined in the Constitution by no accident. A motion to dismiss could invariably lie only if a light view of the VII Amendment is allowed to prevail.

Dr. Jack Dongarra predicted the arrival of petaflop supercomputers by about 2010, way back in 1999, on the basis of benchmarking of the top500 since 1993. His concerns regarding the serious crisis in software development is to be taken quite seriously, and the first most valuable opportunity to bring in corrections may start with ZL v. Gartner.

I am happy about ZL v. Gartner for another reason too. My interest in computers could be traced to Dr. Arvind Srinivasan, who is now CTO of ZL Technologies. He was sitting to my left in high school. Maths became fun simply because of Arvind's contagious enthusiasm for it. Solving a problem was important but doing it with speed was often more significant and that also brought in an element of race and fun into equations. Speed defines elegance. He was the fastest in our maths class. I am least surprised that ZL took Gartner to court and would not be surprised if the American legal system, as I learnt about it acts fairly, reasonably and justly either. That should pave way for a more exciting decade down 2010 when software releases are ahead of hardware in the making.

Bretts Road, Salem

Philip Mason finished his book, "The Men Who Ruled India", with these words:

"When all has been said, one simple point remains. It was put clearly by Lord Wavell in an informal speech made after he left India. The English would be remembered, he believed, not by this institution or that, but by the ideal they left behind of what a district officer should be. At the other end of the long line, Warren Hastings had expressed a similar thought. 'It is on the virtue,' he had said, 'not the ability, of their servants that the Company must rely.' And if today the Indian peasant looks to the new district officer of his own race with expectation of receiving justice and sympathy, that is the memorial of the English."¹

"Bretts Road, Salem" is one such memorial. Harry Augustus Bretts, was the collector of Salem district, between 1853 and 1862 (called Baramahal then). His achievements:

He was a great administrator who brought in sweeping reforms in land taxes.
He levied less tax for poor yielding lands under ‘Less Fertile’ classification.
It was he who abolished the sukavasi inam (free lands for living), a free distribution of lands to Brahmins and Muslims in the district and instead introduced samathuvapuram concept by making all people live in all places amicably.
Bretts was also responsible for bringing out the first government gazette.
He brought out The Salem Gazette in 1859. Historian Le Fanu called Bretts a man of impeccable character and straight forward in administration and deliverance of justice and architect of many people welfare schemes.²

The Government of Tamil Nadu would like to rename "Bretts Road" as "Central Library Road". The proposal serves no useful purpose other than erasing the memorial to Harry Augustus Bretts, who ably served Salem as its Collector. Philip Mason did not live to hear of this tragic move.³ However, the Indian Civil Service has undergone radical changes after the British left India, and the move to rename is perhaps only the last nail on the notion of virtuous service.

Baramahal then included Salem, Dharmapuri and Namakkal, and was one of the earliest districts to come under British rule in India:⁴

Alexander Read, was appointed by Lord Cornwallis, as the first head of the district in 1791. Thomas Munro was appointed one of his assistants. Salem was completely surveyed in seven years time. Munro never forgot Salem and remembered it as a model unit of administration. Bretts served decades later, building on the foundation laid by Read and Munro.

Mason's book is replete with anecdotes on administration of revenue, justice, building roads, canals, bridges, railroads and nurturing institutions.
The rule of "Audi alterem partem" was taught this way:

To a Bhil tribesman who, after a long tale of woe, begged him for justice at once, here and now, on an oppressor who had not been heard in answer, Malcom asked:
'Why do you suppose God gave me two ears?'
That would be enough; it would carry instant conviction where half an hour's explanation would have produced only a sullen bewilderment. It was an answer which ought to have been taught to every young man entering the Company's service.⁵

Even today, the role of the Collector remains much the same. He takes charge of the district. He is duty bound to remove public nuisances and maintain public order.⁶ During the British rule, more than 3000 thugs were convicted between 1831 and 1837, after Lord William Bentinck appointed Sleeman to capture and bring the thugs to justice. Thugs those days killed for gain, and it was not unusual for them to have targets of killing one thousand pilgrims and travelers. Clearing India of thugs was no easy task but the evil was tamed.⁷

"Bretts Road" stands in glorious remembrance of the difficult services of not only Henry Augusts Bretts, but scores of others like him who diligently served India. The greatest criticism against the civil service of the British era was that they were not accountable to the people. Mahatma Gandhi started the non-cooperation movement in 1919, when Indians were cooperating with the administration in every way. After Independence, the anomaly stands corrected and the rulers are held accountable to the people through elected representatives. The Collector is a pillar of strength in our democratic set up. As a native of Salem, a wish: The road to virtuous service is a hard one and "Bretts Road" ought to remain on the map of India, as a guide to every sincere traveler.

---

¹ Philip Mason, The Men Who Ruled India, Rupa & Co, 1985, p. 346
² R. Ilangovan, We want Bretts Road, The Hindu, 28th November, 2009, http://www.hindu.com/2009/11/28/stories/2009112852490300.htm accessed on 29th November, 2009.
³ Philip Mason passed away in 1999. A clip from the "Daily Telegraph (London), Obituaries, Friday, January 29, 1999" is available at
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/1999-01/0917632468, accessed on 29th November, 2009.
⁴ Mason, op. cit., p. 86
⁵ Ibid., p. 88
⁶ AIR 2009 SC 1868, Suhelkhan Khudyarkhan & another v. Sate of Maharashtra and others also available online at http://www.ebc-india.com/practicallawyer/index2.php?option=com_content&itemid=99999999&do_pdf=1&id=13137
⁷ Mason, op. cit., p. 115

Bentley's Second Phrase

The "Bentley's Code Phrases" [ http://www.archive.org/details/bentleyscomplete00bentuoft ] first published in 1906 continued to be commonly used till the end of 1960's. That and other codes were widely used by commercial establishments - "coding" seems to have been popular then at grass root levels. If the 5 letter codes were well understood, popular and used widely, there are no reasons why the present coding done with computer languages based on 8 bit letters can't be used with the same ease by the general public. Coding languages need to start circulating widely among the public the way Bentley's Code ruled from 1906 to the 1960s.

Solar eclipse on 22nd July, 2009, over Chennai