Soma Purana

From latest to oldest Burning Issues and Bright Concepts: Some Aspects in Combustion Chemistry Research BREAKING DOWN BACTERIAL CELL WALLS TO UNDERSTAND INFLAMMATION Evolutionary genomics of flightlessness in birds Opening Windows into the Cell: Bringing Structure to Cell Biology with Cryo- Electron Tomography The Geopolitics of Cross-border Social Media: Promoting Democracy or Subverting Governance? Social Butterflies: Simple cues & rules, complex behavior and life-history consequences Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: The Tales of Bacterial Effectors Journalism as Public Service: Truth-Seeking in a Hyper-partisan Age by Indira Laxmanan Dancing With Robots: Expressivity in Natural and Artificial Systems "How does cognition influence belief formation?' All Smart Contracts Are Ambiguous (about blockchains)

I retired on 10/20/18 and now it is the end of November. I have been so busy, can't get time to update my blog. My routine is more or less constant. WEEKDAYS: I get up at 4 AM every day. Read my mail and record the change in my finance portfolios. Spend about an hour cooking breakfast, preparing ginger water, getting ready for morning yoga, packing lunch for Pari. Go to 6 AM to 7:30 AM yoga. Take shower at yoga, and back to home by 8AM. Watch 30 minutes to one hour of late night comedy recorded. Take an hour nap. Wake up, trade stocks and options for about an hour. Go to Princeton University campus, park in visitor lot, walk in the campus, attend a lecture and return home by about 2 PM. Trade stocks/options for about 30 minutes. Take a bath, read newspaper. Prepare for Calculus teaching on Mon and Wed.  Go to MCCC for teaching at 5:30 PM and return at 9:30 PM. Watch vedanta lectures on other weekdays for about an hour. On Friday, usually do groceries. Watch TV...

10/29 and 10/30 - attended lectures in Peyton Hall in astrophysics. 10/31 - attended a fascinating lecture on Protein folding on Ribosomes in Thomas Lab. 11/1 - attended all-day Kurt Mislow memorial symposium. Attended three Nobel lectures. Spoke to Roald Hoffman, 1981 Nobel Winner. 11/2 - attended all-day conference at Steven's on Reimagining Math Education. This was a busy week.

I retired from my full time job at AT&T on Friday 19th Oct. 2018. I still have my adjunct teaching position at Mercer County Community College. October 22-2018 I wanted to record what my feelings were on the first work day after retirement. That was yesterday. You don't know what you feel until you are in that situation. I was, so I know what they were. I felt NOTHING! No sadness, no elation, no boredom, no nothing to do... In the evening Parvathi asked about how I felt during the day. What did I do? I got the passenger side view mirror fixed in my car. Mohammad came home and fixed it ($55). I went to Lenscrafters to get the eye exam ($69 - they always have some optional items that the insurance doesn't pay and I always go for them). I took a couple of naps during the day. I trimmed a couple of plants in planters that were outside and then brought them inside (they won't survive outside in winter). I practiced a little music (piano); the first time after lik...

This article which appeared in 2014 in the Atlantic and written by Ezekiel Emanuel is a guiding light for me. I have read and reread this article many times before. Here are things Emanuel says he will stop at 75 and beyond. At 75 and beyond, I will need a good reason to even visit the doctor and take any medical test or treatment, no matter how routine and painless.  [(Soma) I am not so sure about discontinuing yearly checkups. May be I will reduce it to once in two years.] I will accept only palliative—not curative—treatments if I am suffering pain or other disability. At 65 will be my last colonoscopy.  [(Soma) I am 66 now, I haven't had colonoscopy in about 7 years, my last one would be in three years when I am 69-70.] No screening for prostate cancer at any age. After 75, if I develop cancer, I will refuse treatment.  Similarly, no cardiac stress test. No pacemaker and certainly no implantable defibrillator. No heart-valve replacement or bypass surg...

I get messages once in a while from 23 and me informing me of the discovery of my newfound relatives. I have like 120 of them now. As more and more people get tested, my relatives also grow. I only recognize two people in this big list - my son Raghu and Navaneetha's son Ashok. I contacted a few people through email and relationship is quite possible, for instance, the person is from Bobburkamme community, etc. But it is difficult to figure out the exact relationship unless you have really old people from families together. This has been a source of learning, however. I saw the following estimated DNA sharing on 23 and me. Relationship Average % DNA Shared Range Identical Twin 100% N/A Parent / Child Full Sibling 50% Varies by specific relationship   Grandparent / Grandchild Aunt / Uncle Niece / Nephew Half Sibling 25% Varies by specific relationship 1st Cousin 12.5% 7.31% - 13.8% 1st Cousin once removed 6.25% 3.3% - 8.51% 2nd Cousin 3.13% 2.85% - 5.04% 2nd Co...

When I saw Dr. Iturbides on Aug 9, 2018 for annual checkup, he prescribed two vaccines - a Flu shot and a Pneumonia vaccine. I took them on Aug 29 at CVS, Plainsboro. The pharmacist said the pneumonia vaccine will hurt a little bit and the pain may last 24 hrs. It was hurting for 2 days. The flu shot was high dosage (prescribed after age 65) and that hurt too but not as much. I was reading an AARP article on vaccines one would need after 50. Here is the list. Influenza vaccine every year Pneumococcal vaccine (pneumonia)  for healthy adults 65 and older. Don’t get them at the same time. You should receive a dose of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13), then a dose of pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23) one year later.  Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccine and/or the Td (tetanus, diphtheria) booster After 50,  You get Tdap only once, and after that, you still need the Td booster every 10 years. Otherwise, your prote...

Watched delightful The Edge of Seventeen, a teen movie that you cannot just dismiss. Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslett is a very popular story in New Zealand of a murder in mid 1950s. 

Saw "Crazy Rich Asians" movie in theater. The seats and Doby was very good. Liked the movie. Watched several movies on DVD from the library. Just Charlie is a wonderful and powerful movie with transgender theme. Excellent acting by Harry Gilby playing Charlie. You feel as if Charlie is your child. Life's a Breeze is a memorable movie where the family members clean out their mother's house and send to trash a mattress in which the mother had stashed her life savings of a million Euros. The relationship and bonding between the Nan and her granddaughter is lovely. Basmati Blues is a musical with a white woman an inventor of a rice variety called Rice 9 is trying to impress Indian farmers to grow. It is entertaining. Some may consider it is a little patronizing.

Leo asked us in yoga aware of being aware. Being aware is simple but we don't do it. Aware of breathing. Aware of listening. Aware of talking. Aware of thinking. Aware of doing stuff. Also aware of being aware. This can be like infinite mirrors. But I could only be aware of being aware. Be aware not just while doing yoga, but outside of yoga, especially.

I just thought life is just making a list of "to do", doing them, checking them off the list. Day in and day out. You may not be making the list literally.

In the previous post I alluded to a major benefit of covered calls that sometimes forces you to get rid of a stock for a capital gain. " Investors are always trying to time the market. They want to get in at the lows and get out at the highs. While this simplistic goal sounds easy, it is almost impossible to achieve." It definitely has been very difficult for me to achieve. The major problem in achieving this goal is we don't know and can't decide "how low" and "how high." With my covered calls strategy, I don't much worry about how low when buying a stock. I only consider the quality, dividend yield, and potential to grow. Then immediately I sell a weekly call on it with a higher strike price (at least 1% higher). I earn a premium. If the call is assigned then I have sold the stock at a gain, may be the stock will move even further up in the days  following assignment, it does not matter. I have sold the stock at a gain. Buy low, sell h...

I have been trading options (primarily selling covered calls) for about six months now. I have made almost 300 trades in this time. Some observations I have made are as follows: If there is more bullish sentiment out there, you can sell more covered calls. Therefore trading is not uniform every week or every month. Options trading requires enormous patience and effort.  If I enter 10 covered calls, sometimes three or four get sold, sometimes none get sold. This whole experience is very similar to what I had observed back in my village when I was a child. One of the Annayyappa's (the younger one) had a general store which his father tended. His father spent his entire life sitting and selling items in that store. He died at over 100 years of age in that store. The son went every week to Chinthamani to buy items in bulk and stocked the store. The father decided the prices more or less at the time of sale. They hoped they are selling at higher than the purchase price at least m...

I and Pari took Mary Jarvis's masterclass yesterday morning (5-5-18). She made a statement "present moment has no pain, no fear." Is this just a cute statement or does it have some heft? I have been pondering and haven't yet found an answer. The statement implies the pain we feel really belongs to a past moment or it is not really not there at all. There is always a very short time lag between a pain-causing event and perceiving pain. If the statement is reflecting just this fact, it is serving no meaningful purpose. 

Watched on 4-23-18. A very nice movie, natural acting, very relatable.

My  maternal haplogroup is M5a2a. Maternal haplogroups are determined by sets of genetic  variants  in a tiny, unusual loop of  DNA  called  mitochondrial  DNA (mtDNA). M5a2a is relatively uncommon among 23andMe customers (1 in 5300). M5a2a, traces back to a woman who lived approximately 11,500 years ago. That's nearly 460 generations ago! My paternal haplogroup is H-M69. H-M69 is relatively uncommon among 23andMe customers (1 in 1500). My paternal line stems from a branch of haplogroup H called H-M69. This lineage originated near to or within India between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago. It remains common there today, especially in the southeastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. It is almost unknown outside of India. Males receive a copy of father's Y chromosome along with a  gene  known as SRY (short for  sex-determining region Y ) that is important for male sexual development. 

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) is a major cholesterol carrier that supports lipid transport and injury repair in the brain.  APOE  polymorphic alleles are the main genetic determinants of Alzheimer disease (AD) risk: individuals carrying the ε4 allele are at increased risk of AD compared with those carrying the more common ε3 allele, whereas the ε2 allele decreases risk. Presence of the  APOE  ε4 allele is also associated with increased risk for cerebral amyloid angiopathy and age-related cognitive decline during normal ageing.  APOE gene is on chromosome 19.  The APOE gene consists of four  exons  and three  introns , totaling 3597  base pairs .  Three alleles - E2, E3, and E4. E4 is an ancient allele. E3 increased in frequency in the last 200,000 years. Estimated Percentages of the U.S. Population with the Six Possible e2, e3 and e4 Pairs of the Apolipoprotein E (APOE) Gene The human  APOE  gene exists as thr...

Ref. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/alzheimers-in-the-family?utm_source=delivra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GB20180228-Alzheimers&utm_id=830338&dlv-ga-memberid=11071083&mid=11071083&ml=830338 "Studies of family history say that if you have a close relative who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease—the most common form of dementia in older adults—your risk increases by about 30%. This is a relative risk increase, meaning a 30% hike in your existing risk." What does this mean? "If you are age 65, the risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's is 2% per year, although this also means a 98% chance per year of not developing Alzheimer's. In absolute numbers, a 2% annual risk means that two out of 100 65-year-olds will develop dementia every year. Family history raises the 2% annual risk by about 30%, to 2.6% per year. That means going from 20 cases in a group of 1,000 to 26 in 1,000, or six additional cases i...

Advice you get on internet sometimes is pretty unsettling. I read on https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-24830/5-healthy-foods-that-contribute-to-inflammation.html the following advice which I need to research further for its validity. Advice 1:  Try going grain-free. Your body doesn’t need grains, which is why there’s no daily requirement for them. If you’re not ready to give up all grains, at least avoid those with gluten, which is  inflammatory . Advice 2:  you've probably heard over and over again that soy is good for you. But in reality, it’s bad news when it comes to inflammation.   Advice 3:  Research points to artificial sweeteners as culprits in  glucose intolerance , which packs on belly fat—and belly fat cranks out inflammatory chemicals. I used to use diet sodas which I have given up now but enjoyed diet lemonade and diet tea which also contain artificial sweeteners.  I believe this advice is good and I will try to avoid thes...

I heard this vernacular on Wegman's podcast #1 at https://soundcloud.com/wegmans These days I look for information on trusted sources on the internet. A good source on this subject is Harvard Medical School, https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/foods-that-fight-inflammation " Your immune system becomes activated when your body recognizes anything that is foreign—such as an invading microbe, plant pollen, or chemical. This often triggers a process called inflammation. Intermittent bouts of inflammation directed at truly threatening invaders protect your health. However, sometimes inflammation persists, day in and day out, even when you are not threatened by a foreign invader. That's when inflammation can become your enemy. Many major diseases that plague us—including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, and Alzheimer's—have been linked to chronic inflammation." "...one of the best ways to quell inflammation lies not in the...

I saw a port in FB by https://www.facebook.com/victoria.mohren?hc_ref=ARSIqUQtCz4-eqd9nvMUf3oYOMMm9EHf28WDpwM6aEHYwnVmGiwuj12vtPIE41QHJnM&fref=nf It is a short report but a little bit technical and I haven't understood it completely. But I was impressed with this simple definition. " Fasting is withholding food &/or nutriments from the organism when it does not require any. Starving is the withholding of food &/or nutriments from the organism when it requires them." My understanding is we should never starve. Also we have to be careful when we can fast.

Sometimes, what I get from the library are real disappointments, but this week I lucked out and had several really good movies. 1. 2016 "Allied": Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard acted well - in the first half Cotillard was superb and Pitt in the second half I thought. A good review is http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/allied-review-brad-pitt-marion-cotillard-1201918954/ though I don't necessary agree about the review of the ending. I thought the ending was moving, may be somewhat enigmatic. Direction was absolutely fantastic. 2. Miss Sloane: I watched only about the first half and was feeling sleepy and went bed. Pari watched it completely and said it was a good movie starring Jessica Chastain who has acted superbly. The movie is about politics, gun-lobbying... 3. Passengers, a sci-fi starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt doesn't necessarily get rave reviews. But I found it quite entertaining. Lawrence has acted beautifully.