DesiReflections

After internet or more specifically social media become a part of your life, a real duality has emerged in the personality. Now there is a real you and another algorithmic “you.” Online, you live in a realm functionally distinct from the world you thought you knew: one where your data assigns you a gender different from your own, or a citizenship unlike the one in your passport. In some cases, it’s easy to check out the algorithmic you. For example, there is a plug-in Citizen-Ex developed by UK artist James Bridle uses your browser’s metadata to calculate your algorithmic citizenship—and the answer might surprise you. National citizenship is normally seen as binary: You either are, or are not, a citizen of a country. But Bridle’s plug-in assigns you a percentage-based citizenship where for example you can be 44.8% Indian, 43.7% American, 10% British,1.49% Pakistani, and even 0.01% Bangladeshi, as I currently am. I say “currently” because our algorithmic selves alte...

हिमालय में आग             -प्रदीप गुप्ता  कथ्य  इससे पहले कि आप आगे के पृष्ठों को पढ़ना प्रारम्भ करें, मैं यह स्पष्ट करना चाहूंगा कि यह पूरा घटना-क्रम, पात्र और  स्थल पूरी तरह से  कल्पित है. यदि अतीत में घटी  किसी घटना से साम्यता लगे तो इसे महज संयोग माना जाए  ।                                                                           प्रारम्भ   मैं काल भैरव हूँ।   लोग   मुझे   काठमांडू   नगर  के  संरक्षक देवता के रूप में जानते हैं।  मैं  सदियों से यहाँ पर होने वाली घटनाओं का चश्मदीद गवाह रहा हूँ. आज मैं  आप को एक ऐसी कहानी सुनाने जा रहा हूँ जिसने मेरे नगर और  देश की दिशा और दशा दोनों बदल कर रख दी...

I was traveling to Bozeman last fortnight, while waiting to board I saw latest issue of Newsweek magazine. The lead story was about how the big data tilted  results in recent  elections held in many democracy. It is very difficult for a layman to understand or believe it but it is possible. Not only elections, it is possible to predict and answer some of the questions like : which paint color  is most likely to tell you that a used car is in good shape, how can officials identify the most dangerous Mumbai City manholes before they explode, how google searches predict the spread of H1N1 out break.  First, let us understand Big Data,  it refers to our newfound ability to crunch the vast quantity of information , analyze it instantly and draw conclusions which on many times astonishing one. this is a revolution on par with the printing press and internet. Big data is going to change the way we think about business, health, politics, education, and innova...

History of alcohol is as old as civilization. The wine was created almost 8 thousand years ago managed to infuse itself into many religions and customs over the world. But the whiskey managed to became synonym of a Scottish history and one of the most popular modern alcoholic beverages. It is the national drink of the Scots and probably their first love. It gained worldwide popularity after 15th century. The first records of that process of making alcohol via distillation was found in the archeological digs of millennia BC Babylon and Mesopotamia. Initially used for creation of perfumes and aromas, distillation slowly spread across the ancient civilizations where it received numerous adaptations and improvements, finally finding its home behind the walls of the European Christian monasteries. Stability of their order and the need to produce several types of alcoholic beverages that were used is several of their religious ceremonies preserved the process of fermentation and distillatio...