Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Data manipulation and alternate history!

Like some movies having alternate endings, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Center for Advanced Virtuality created an alternate ending to the Apollo 11 moon landing this week. 

The video created had President Nixon's speech telling people in the news that the Apollo 11 mission was a failure. The technology available like deep-learning and artificial intelligence tools have enabled creation of such a perfect video. Of course this is not President Nixon speaking, but a voice actor, but it will be very hard for anyone to know the difference!  

It is quite scary to imagine the possibilities that such technologies provide for disruption of peace at so many levels. Highlights the need to never fully believe every news article or video and to always do a full research on any subject before conclusions. 

An old Tamil proverb "Kannal kaanbadum poi, kaadhaal ketpadhum poi; theera visaripadhe mei" (meaning - what you see is false, what you hear is untruths, what is the truth is well researched information only) is truer than ever today.

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Nationality for Gods!

Now this in news:

Thank goodness Gods and their avatars are no longer gracing the Earth with their presence. They might need passports and visas :D


Thursday, July 9, 2020

Little Sisters of the poor? I don't think so!

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Today's US news had my blood boiling. The US Supreme court decided that companies, which find that it is against their religious beliefs, can deny their female employees the right to preventive healthcare! The most amazing thing is that this has been brought about by the case of Little Sisters of the poor against the State of Pennsylvania! It is precisely the poor who need such healthcare measures more than anyone else.

With all due respect to each individual's religious beliefs, a woman's decision to get pregnant, abort or have a child is none else's but her own, as it should be. You don't believe in it? Fine - don't do it, but imposing this on millions of women who might not feel the same is not religious freedom. Quite the opposite!

First and foremost, let's break this down. Preventive healthcare - what does this mean? Prevent something before it happens - including contraceptive pills and morning after pills, which stop pregnancy from happening. Isn't this a win-win situation for everyone? This is valuing life enough that you don't unnecessarily create it if you can't cope with the responsibilities. So do the sisters prefer that we bring in more lives to suffer in this world with overpopulation, no resources, more orphans and much more suffering? 

Abortion - maybe this is ending life, but again the earlier the abortion is done, the more chances that the foetus's heart has not even started beating yet. Then it is not technically a life that has started yet. But forcing women to keep the child will cause undue suffering to the mother and the child. In today's cut-throat competition, I think the kid will thank you for not bringing him/her into a world with no resources! Again slashing funding and giving the option to employers to not provide this as part of healthcare will affect the poorest of the poor the most. 

Now that the Supreme court has given a choice, employers who did not care or have a moral stand on this issue might find it profitable to suddenly become Catholic! let's hope the lower courts have better sense and common sense and justice will prevail in each state. 

If you want to read more, please find below good links:


Fox news is just a propaganda for the Republicans and has been hailing this as a personal victory.

In my opinion, no uterus, no opinion! So men, your opinion does not matter, as simple as that. Nuns fall in this category for me. No children, no opinion too please, as you do not know what it takes. Little sisters of the poor care for elderly. I am not sure why this was made their mandate!