Soma Purana

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.

Watched on DVD. This is a beautiful movie on hard, honest life in inner Mongolia. Nan Yu has acted wonderfully. It is a bittersweet story of heart. 

My interest in wealth building and investing, in general, has peaked. I have read in later 2017 several books on Finance and Investing. Appreciated some critical theories of investing economics such as efficient frontier, modern portfolio theory, risk estimation measures. I now have learned the names of big theorists in this field such as Markowitz, French, Fama, Malkiel. Several of these are Nobel prize winners. I am also fond of using a part of money for quick trades - in and out, not necessarily like day trading but buy-sell in weeks. I like this basically because it keeps me engaged and so far I have made appreciable money with this technique. However, I do not think this is a way to build huge wealth or any thing like that, but primarily keeps you engaged. At one point one will reach a stage when 100% equity portfolio is OK. My own risk profile and financial networth allows me to take this approach. However, I do have a small portfolio of about 5% in bonds primarily as a so...

I signed up through 23AndMe. https://www.generationprogram.com/#Main

Vidya Sinha or Durga Rani Singh? Interesting story and very good performance by lead actors.

"If you think you can, you are right." May be this is originally by Henry Ford.

Several years ago Srinivas (Samhita and Anagha's father) told me he traded in options. I don't know what type of options he did because I had very little knowledge about options. I had heard of calls and puts but I had no clue what they meant. Fast forward several years, I am fascinated by options trading. I just began education and investing in options in a very conservative manner. I applied for and got only Level 1 options trading which limits me to essentially write covered calls. This is fine with me since this is (1) conservative, and (2) allows me to build knowledge. Writing calls seems like an excellent way to add regular income. So far I have only sold four calls but have begun serious homework to extend to most of my individual stock holdings and ETFs. This is exciting. I admire Srinivas's keen financial acumen to figure out how he could use his time to trade options to increase his income.

Watched "Killa." What a beautiful movie! It is in Marathi. The acting is superb. The story is I think common and easy to relate to. The sights and scenery are superb. I wish I could see this place!

Leo Eisenstein, my Bikram yoga teacher, says so many profound statements when delivering his dialog. One I heard this morning "if you will change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change." It is difficult to remember all his sayings. When I remember I will post.

My own take on yoga at Bikram yoga is there is plenty of yoga, no need to hurry. Be very slow and controlled as you move into the posture and as you come out of the posture.  You must be conscious of your body as you move through the posture. There is no need to please anyone while doing yoga, not your teacher, not the others doing yoga with you, not even yourself.  The last part means don't have any expectations. Do less. Less is more. But go to yoga more often. If you can do only half as many sets, do half as many. If you cannot stay too long in a pose, don't stay too long. Yoga should not be painful, it is not a punishment.  Yoga requires patience. Perhaps yoga teaches patience. Don't shoot for improvement in days or weeks or months or not even in years. If it takes ten years to improve i a posture let it.

Especially, in a bull market! Watching net worth grow several times higher than the yearly salary is exhilarating. I have been watching my numbers every week (at least once a week). This year, through November 31, the returns are like 20%. This is astronomical in US market particularly, since, the inflation is pretty much non-existent and interest rates are very low. I just observed the returns in 2016 was ~7%, 2015 was 0.7%, and 2014 was 8%. 2016 and 2014 were kind of normal but 2015 was abysmal. But I don't remember such poor returns showing up week after week. I guess memory is short.

Saw "Wonder" a heartwarming movie in theater. Saw at home two very interesting movies. A Bulgarian movie "Glory" A movie about Alzheimer disease "Away from Her." This is the best Alzheimer movie I have seen so far ("Separation"is a very good movie but other themes as well).