Soorya Mangalaya

April is the year when all Sri Lankans get together and get ready to celebrate in grand style. Yes, it is the time, when people say goodbye to the old and welcomes a brand new year. The Sinhala and Tamil New Year is based on the movement of the sun in the celestial sphere, when it moves from the Meena Rashiya (House of Pisces) to the Mesha Rashiya (House of Aries). It also marks the end of the Harvesting season, when farmers have stored their grains and relax themselves.

Ok, I’m not going to go into lengthy descriptions here. People interested can read more about the festival by checking out the links

Wikipedia

Info.lk

In reality however, this time the celebrations will be low key I guess. I don’t need to elaborate on things happening here do I? Even two days before the New Year, I haven’t seen much of hoopla like previous years. I’m talking only about Colombo, which is understandable considering the security situation. I’m sure things are different outside of the city limits. After all most people would be leaving for their home towns during these days, to spend the days with their families and loved ones. Hopefully celebrations are going on in other parts of the country as usual.

Talking about changing times, even the Koha’s have left the area. Seriously, I haven’t heard a Koha singing till today. I think they got wise to that fact that they can be happy and safe out of the city, so packed their bags and left. Good decision I say. Who else would want to live in these concrete jungles except us humans?



Image source and details image lanka

Luckily I will also be heading out to the greener pastures of Nuwara Eliya with the usual suspects for the weekend. We usually never go during season time, but thought we’d try it this time and see. Of course it’s zero hassle when one of them owns a hotel up there :) . I’m pretty sure things are happening in the hills. Also looking forward to stuffing myself with Kevili and other goodies in the coming days he he. Can’t wait for those mouth watering kevums, kokis and other yummy yummy goodies…Mmmmm…

So, to all my fellow bloggers and all Sri Lankans, I’d like to wish you all a happy new year.

Odds and Ends

How crummy can the weather be? It was sunny in the morning. I go out and it starts to pour. I'm on me two wheeler and there's not even a place to get some shelter either. I am soaked. Finally finds a place, by which time I look like I've been dipped in a pool, wait for about half an hour till rains stops. Get’s pissed and drops what I’ve been planning to do and heads back to office. School is out, gets stuck in traffic. Now that I'm back in office, it's bloody sunny again. I'm sitting under a AC vent in wet clothes and hoping that'll get pneumonia so that this day can get better. A nice shower when I'm going home can make this a great day indeed. Yippee…

So might as well do something productive like putting up a blog post eh?



She'll be comming round the mountain when she comes...



so far far away...



Look at me, I'm soooo pretty...



Abode of the gods...



EARTHQUAKE!!!!



Watcha looking at punk? You wanna peice of me?



ROOOOOOAAARRRRR!!!



Put em up punk. I ma gonna rearrange your face for you!

Morphing Phones

This is for all those mobile phone nuts out there. Getting tired of that same old solid phone designs? Well how about a phone that can be stretched, shrunk, twisted or whatever your little heart desires. This new concept phone called the Morph by Nokia might just be the thing for you.

The secret behind this stretchable, flexible gadget is nanotechnology. This is a branch of science which focuses on controlling matter on an atomic level. It is a highly multidisciplinary field and can be seen as extending existing science into the nanoscale.

More information here…

One aspect of nanotechnology is that it allows to create materials and components that are flexible, stretchable, transparent and remarkably strong. Hence the Morph phone made out of these materials can be stretched and bent as you please.

Of course this is only concept models. Whether it'll go to production is a question only time will answer.

Check out Nokia.com for more details on this.

Read Nokia Article

Read Nokia Press Release

Images thanks to Nokia

Lazy Long Weekends

Ayi caramba…been a while since I made a post on ze blog. 32 days to be exact. The joys of work, both official and private have been keeping me busy all this time. Now back after a four day long weekend, so thought I’d hack something out.

Most of the people I know packed up the disappeared to various parts of the country, to take advantage of the long break. Unfortunately, many of usual suspects are religious (at least their families are) so were not very keen to go anywhere during Easter. We had been to Nuwara Eliya and back just two weeks before and thought we take a good rest this time. Wednesday night had a small party with the office guys and got hammered, so that was a good start for the weekend. Unfortunately that was about it :(. Rest was spent lazing around the house doing nothing much. Anyways this was the time to be in Colombo, since everybody else was out of it he he.

As I mentioned, went to Nuwara Eliya about two weeks back coz one of my friends opened a hotel up there, called the Chesterfield Hotel. So we went there for the official opening. It’s out of Nuwara Eliya city limits, closer to Hakgala, around 5 km’s along the Badulla road, so the surroundings are great. The Nuwara Eliya town itself has become too saturated with buildings for my taste. I don’t think any of the hotels in town can boast of a good view. The only view they have is the backyard of another hotel. This place on the other hand has a great view of the Hakgala mountain ranges and the forest reserve, and the surrounding areas are not crowded like the town. Unfortunately the long reaching arms of development are rapidly spreading its way towards this area as well. I hope that it won’t destroy the beauty of the area. We had a great time though, and even managed to do a photo-shoot to get pictures for the website, brochures and ads during the rare sober periods. The web site is still going through its final phases, so will put up a links ones the site goes live.



On other stuff happening around the world, the death toll of US soldiers reached around 4000, while marking the 5th anniversary of the war. Heck we’ve been having one for more than two decades and we are carrying on merrily aren’t we? Don’t worry GW, another few more years of war and the people will take it as part of their daily lives and forget you’re the one who caused all the mess.

In good old England there was a cash machine giving out double the money out to customers. If you asked for 500 pounds the machine gave you 1000. The machine must’ve been feeling charitable I guess. Damn, why can something like that happen to me???

Two genius criminalsfrom Toronto decided to rob a store and call a cab to make their getaway. Of course the Police came in the cab and arrested the two dumbos. Lesson to be learned; always bring your own getaway car, preferably a stolen one.

A Dutch shoplifter managed to make a quick getaway with the goods but left an important piece of evidence. His son. The police contacted the idiot through the son but he refused to come get him and told them to contact the mother. Well at least he doesn’t do dumb things twice in the same day. He later gave himself up, probably out of fear the mother of the child would kill him.

Ok that’s enough for the day…Get back to work.

Cheers y’all

Evil Dudes and Blood Floods

Read an interesting book sometime back titled “The World’s Most Evil People” by an author called Rodney Castleden. It profiled 90 people who have done evil deeds, mainly destruction of human life, spanning through the ages, from the ancient times to the present day.



Amazon

What is evil? According to the Oxford dictionary, evil is defined as morally bad, harmful or very unpleasant.

This basically means that evil depends on the level of morality of the people, in other words us.

Moral: concerned with right and wrong; virtuous

What a person will perceive as evil will depend on what they think as right and wrong. The problem is that different people has different ideas on what is right and wrong. What someone might consider as wrong might not be considered the same by someone else. Blame the way our brains are wired.

So evil appears and disappears according to the person’s viewpoint. The author of the book notes this as a moral paradox. A classic example of this is the decision by America to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. There are 3 viewpoints on this event. One is that it is a good thing, because it brought a quick end to the second world war, a necessary evil, because it stopped the war, but killed a large number of people in the process, or as an unequivocal evil, because the people killed were civilians, slaughtered in cold blood, and they should never have been considered as military targets.

Another point made in the book is that evil depends on the zeitgeist, or the spirit of the age. Taking a look back at history, there have been more evil people about in certain time periods than in others. The 20th century is one of them and so far the worst one. Worst because of the large number of human lives destroyed, thanks to technology and the industrialization of warfare.

The 20th century saw a blood-letting on a scale never seen before in human history. There were 20 wars (events) during the 20th century that involved more than 1 million deaths, some of them closely linked to each other. Collectively these events formed a single complex upheaval described as a Haemoclysm, or a blood flood, in which 155 million human lives were destroyed. Keep in mind that this was just these 20 events. Add to that the other skirmishes around the world and the death toll is much higher.

The list is as follows, ordered by the death tolls:

1. Second World War (Late 1930s – September 2, 1945 )– 50 million

2. Mao Zedong’s regime in China (In office 1945 – 1976 )– 48 million

3. Stalins regime in the Soviet Union (In Office April 3, 1922 – March 5, 1953 )– 20 million

4. The First world war, including the Armenian massacres (July 28, 1914 – November 11, 1918 ) – 15 million

5. Russian Civil War (1917-1923 ) – 8.8 million

6. Warlord and Nationalist era in China – 4 million

7. Congo under King Leopold of Belgium (17 December 1865 – 17 December 1909 ) – 3 million

8. Korean War (June 25, 1950 - present. Full-scale fighting until an armistice on July 27, 1953 )– 2.8 million

9. Second Indo China War – 2.7 million

10. Chinese Civil war (Full scale fighting lasted from April 1927 to December 1936, and clashes from January 1941 resuming full conflict from August 1945 to May 1950; war declared over by the ROC in 1991; [1] no legal document has been signed to end the war, technically continuing from 1927 until today )– 2.5 million

11. German expulsions after WWII – 2.1 million

12. Second Sudanese Civil War (1983 - 2005) – 1.9 million

13. Congolese Civil War (June 1997–December 1999)– 1.7 million

14. Cambodia Khmer Rouge Regime (1975 – 1979) – 1.7 million

15. Afghanistan Civil War (1978–conflict still ongoing )– 1.4 million

16. Ethiopian Civil War (1974-1991 )– 1.4 million

17. Mexican Revolution (1910)– 1.3 million

18. East Pakistan Massacres – 1.2 million

19. Iran – Iraq war (22 September 1980–20 August 1988 ) – 1 million

20. Nigeria Biafran War (1967–1970 )– 1 million

The total of all this: 155 million

Since the book was written sometime back the details maybe a bit outdated. Another dark event that can be added to the list is the Rwandan Civil War in the 1990’s, where the Rwandan genocide estimates 800,000 to 1 million deaths. The most recent and ongoing conflict is the war in Darfur , in Sudan, raging on since 2003. The estimated death toll is 200,000 to 400,000, with over 2.5 million displaced. However since there seems to be no end in sight, we can probably expect the death toll to rise as time goes by.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

John Lennon 1940-1980

…And what a Bloody Valentine it was

A malevolent little spirit
Known to all as Cupid
Lies atop an alter of stone
Life slowly draining away
A tiny little heart
Cut out from his chest
A river of Red
Seeping into holy ground…

And where did it all end up? At the most rocking valentine event, which went by the name My Bloody valentine? For the clueless, MBV was held yesterday (Sunday) night @ the Zetter with 3 awesome Sri Lankan metal bands rocking the heads off local metal heads. The bands were Swords of the Spirit, Paranoid Earthling and the great Stigmata.

SOS did the first set followed by PE, with mostly their originals with some covers thrown in. however the night was ruled by Stigmata. They had the crowd head banging like there’s no tomorrow.

Anyways it was a superb show. I mean if your ears are still ringing the next morning, it had to be good eh? A big shout out to all the bands, for some excellent performances. Hopefully there will be more events like this in the future.

Cheers!

Sword of the Spirit

Paranoid Earthling

Stigmata

February 14th

Before you bang your head against a wall, let me tell you that this is NOT another dreaded Valentine’s Day post. The blogosphere is already inundated with more than enough lovers prattling on about the great V-Day. Instead I’m going to share some other things that happened on February 14th, sourced from the great online Oracle, Wikipedia :D

1849 - In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken. (...and the first paparazzi was born)

1855 - Texas linked by telegraph with the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas. (...a time before the mobile phone)

1859 - Oregon admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone, as does Elisha Gray. (...can anyone imagine a world without the telephone today.)

1886 - First trainload of oranges left Los Angeles via the transcontinental railroad. (Oranges??? didn't they have anything better to send?)

1899 - Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, 20,000 British troops invade the Orange Free State. (Does the Brits have something against Free Oranges?)

1912 - Arizona admitted as the 48th U.S. state.

1912 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.

1919 - The Polish-Soviet War begins.

1920 - The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago, Illinois.

1924 - The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is founded. ( Me thinks we should have IBM day instead…)

1929 - St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago, Illinois. (Must have been fun :P)

1942 - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.

1949 - The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first convenes.

1961 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.

1979 - In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.

1990 - 92 people are killed aboard Indian Airlines Flight 605 at Bangalore, India.

2005 - Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos and devisions.

2005 - Seven people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.

The most obvious one of course is the death of St. Valentine around 270 AD


Shocker aint it. The world doesn’t stop on Valentine’s day :P

This is just a selection of events. For the complete list visit here.

All are welcome to add any interesting events that happened on the 14th, in Sri Lanka or anywhere around the world.

If you are looking for a Valentines on the dark side, this might just be it. “My Bloody Valentine” on the 17th of February, Sunday from 5pm to 9pm @ the Zetter, featuring three superbly excellent local metal bands, Stigmata, Paranoid Earthling and Swords of the Spirit.

Check Theena’s blog for the poster

Cheers y’all





Source:http://www.derringert-shirts.com
Source: http://images.cafepress.com/

Udurawana Goes Online

That great Sri Lankan citizen Mr. Udurawana has stepped into future by starting his own site. After all this is the virtual age :D. Drop by and give him a shout out.

Udurawana.com

Happy Chinese New Year

February 7, 2008 marks the Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year. It is the most important of all the traditional Chinese holidays.

The start of the Chinese New Year is the first day of the New Year containing a new moon. This means that the day varies in each year of the Gregorian calendar. In 2007 the date was 18th of February, and in 2009, it will fall on the 26th of January. The celebrations last for 14 days and ends with the Lantern Festival.

Read More

Punchi Kale Ape

A collection of children’s songs presented by the talented students of the R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute. It was officially launched on Saturday the 19th of January, with a live performance of the songs at the Elphinstone Theater.

Those who are not familiar with R A Chandrasena, he was a highly talented musician who did an invaluable service to Sri Lankan music. This was way back before FM radio stations, CD’s, MP3’s and before hip hop became infused into Sri Lankan music scene. It was the era of Radio Ceylon and vinyl records. If you are reading this, I doubt that you belong to that generation. Check with your grandparents, they were the party animals of that time.

R A Chandrasena was born in 1924 in Kandy, and passed away in 1980, after long years of service to the country. He played many roles during his lifetime. Among them, he was the leader of the musicians at Radio Ceylon. He was the music director for many Sinhalese films of the era. He was a producer of records under his own RAC label. In addition to these, he was teacher who taught and introduced to the world the next generation of Sri Lankan musician. His music academy was established in 1951, 57 years ago, where many great musician like Dharmadasa Walpola and Premasiri Khemadasa passed through its doors.

Today the institute carries out the work and the vision of it’s founder to create talented musicians to the country. Renamed as the R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute, the legacy is carried on by his daughter and son-in-law, Darshani Chandrasena and W D Ariyasinghe, prominent musicians of their own right.

This CD is a showcase of the talents of the young students of the academy. Lyrics for the songs were done by some of the leading songwriters of the country, such as Bandula Nanayakkarawasam and Saman Chandranatha Weerasinghe. The music, arrangements and music direction were all done by Darshani Chandrasena.

You will be able buy the CD from stores in near future. Also, you can always contact the institute for purchases. Please drop a mail.

R A Chandrasena Memorial Music Institute
140/ 31 D, Kalapura,
Templers Road,
Mount Lavinia

Email : info@lankamusicacademy.com / harshadewa@gmail.com

If you are outside Sri Lanka, you can always buy the CD through www.lanka.info / www.kapruka.com. Look for children's songs in the site.

Thinner the Better

If we (after we invent the time machine of course) had told the early pioneers of the computer that someday we’ll be carrying computers in our hand, they would’ve laughed so hard till they cried. Then they would’ve committed us to the loony bin for talking such crap. After all, the only computers they know of are the size of a building, and unless someone invents the shrink ray, hand held computers were never going to happen.

Well back in the present aren’t we all glad that things didn’t stay the same eh? The computer luckily has lost its weight and size down to something that we can carry in our hands. It’s like a super model on three different diets at the same time. The newest “thin model” to join these ranks is the Apple Macbook Air, the world’s thinnest notebook.

This newest product from Apple, which was introduced recently, has a thickness of 0.16 inches at the bottom and 0.76 inches at the top, with a 13.3 inch screen. It can support a normal hard drive, but it doesn’t have a CD or DVD drive. It’s designed so that everything needed is taken through wireless connectivity. Its weight is a mere 3 pounds with dimensions of 12.8 X 8.94 inches. It also seems that Apple has worked with Intel to make a smaller version of the Core2Duo Processor.

The Macbook Air is supposed to go on sale within two weeks and all of this can be your for a tidy little sum of US$ 1,799.00. No point in converting to LKR since after all the taxes add up it might be 4/5 times that price :D

Tech Specs:
• .16 to .75-inch thickness on top
• 12.8 x 8.94 inches
• 3 pounds
• 5 hours of battery life with everything running
• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor at 1.6 or 1.8GHz, motherboard the length of a pencil.
• 800MHz frontside bus.
• 2GB RAM 667MHz DDR2 standard.
• 13.3-inch screen, LED backlit.
• 1,280 x 800 pixels
• Micro-DVI adapter (for DVI, VGA, composite and S-Video output)
• Intel GMA X3100 Graphics processor with 144MB RAM shared
• 1.8-inch 80GB HD or 64GB Solid State Drive
• Multitouch trackpad with gestures. Pans, zooms, rotates, etc.
• 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1.
• Optional external HD for $99, USB-bus powered.
• Full backlit keyboard.
• One USB 2.0, one audio port, one Micro-DVI
Source: Gizmodo

More Links:
Apple
Gizmodo
Engadget




Pic source: Gizmodo

The Newest Cancer Fighting Drug…Pot

… or better known as Cannabis, Marijuana, Ganja, Mal and many other names. Apart from helping one get high, compounds in Cannabis is known to reduce pain from cancer and other illnesses. The latest research has found out that it may also help in stopping tumor cells from growing and getting out of control.

This study was done by Robert Ramer and Burkhard Hinz from the Institute of Toxicology and Pharmacology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.

I’m not going to go into all the medically technically things, mainly because I don’t understand all of that stuff. Please check the links below if you really want to know more 

Inventor Spot Article
Article from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Wikipedia – Cannabis
Wikipedia – Cannabis Sativa
Wikipedia- Cannabis as a Drug

All I know is, with all these medicinal benefits, shouldn’t ‘Mal’ be legalized? Now there’s a thought he he :D

Life-size TV anyone?

Tired of looking at pint-sized figures when watching TV? Want a larger than life experience? Well no fear, the time is here.

Panasonic yesterday unveiled it’s latest product, called the “Life Screen”, during the Consumer Electronics Show, being held these days in Las Vegas. It’s the world’s largest Plasma HDTV. Naming it Life Screen is appropriate considering that this technology displays objects on screen in life size.

This giant of a TV has a diagonal screen width of 150 inches, or 12 feet and 6 inches. The width of it is 11 feet. Now that’s what I call big…Even though it is this big, the marvel of it is that it’s width is only 1 inch (No that is not a printing mistake :P ).

There are no pricing details, but according to experts, HDTV concepts like these sells for about $1000.00 per inch, which would place this in the range of $150,000.00. :(

Unfortunately you won’t be seeing in the stores in the near future. It’s still a concept design and probably won’t go for mass production for at least another 1 or 2 years.



Source: Inventorspot

MMVIII

Ah… a new year has dawned (I know I’m a bit late, but what the heck eh?), with a bang I might say. The good and the bad have already happened, and the year can only get better. (Hopefully :) )

Personally for me, the last few days of 2007 really sucked, but the New Year will hopefully change things. The best thing so far is that I started a new job in a new place. A total change over for the New Year, you might say. The only downside is the increase in travelling :( , knowing how our public transportation system works, it’s a headache.

Dear old 2008, or as the Romans might have said MMVIII. A long awaited leap year for all those unlucky folks born on the 29th of February. Well, you guys better a get ready to party, and I mean party hard, after all you only get to celebrate once every four years.

According to good old Wikipedia, 2008 has been designated as the following:

International Year of Planet Earth
European Year of Intercultural dialog
Australian Year of the Scout
International Year of the Potato
International Year of Sanitation

Chinese Astrology proclaims that 2008 is the year of the Rat. Well actually it’s the period starting from February 07th 2008 to January 25th 2009. According to this system, each year is assigned a zodiac animal out of twelve. The Rat is the first in a cycle, so it makes 2008 the beginning of a new cycle.

The characteristics of the Rat are as follows:
Rat (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Water): Forthright, disciplined, systematic, meticulous, charismatic, hardworking, industrious, charming, eloquent, sociable, shrewd. Can be manipulative, cruel, dictatorial, rigid, selfish, obstinate, critical, over-ambitious, ruthless, intolerant, scheming.



In addition to the associated animal there is also an associated element, and for 2008 it is ‘Yang Earth’ The Yin or Yang is broken down into Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) on top of the cycle of animals. These are modifiers and affect the characteristics of each of the 12 animal signs. Thus, each of the 12 animals are governed by an element plus a Yin Yang Direction.

Characteristics of Earth are:
• Center
• Three Enclosures, Change of seasons
• The Yellow Dragon
• The Planet Saturn
• The Color Yellow
• Digestive system, Spleen and stomach
• Patient, Militaristic, Prudent, Stable, Reliable, Hard-working, Ambitious, Stubborn, and very energetic
• Disciplined, Tenacious, Logical, Governed by Service and Duty to Others

Earth Governs Dragon, Rat, and Ox. It is the central balance of the elements and can lend qualities to all 12 animals as well.

Check the links for more details if your interested...

Well here’s wishing y’all a great 2008!!!

Love & Peace

Cheers!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

A Little something from me to you



Have a Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year

Cheers!!!

Of Glowing Pets

Imagine your new pet, an adorable kitten, a white fluffy fur ball. It does all the stuff that kittens are supposed to do and more. In addition to that how would you like if it glowed in the dark. Freaky…

No it’s not the attack of the glowing cats or some other horror movie. This is the story of two cloned cats that glow in the dark. This is the latest feat by the scientists at Gyeongsang National University in South Korea, who managed to successfully clone two Angoran cats with a manipulated fluorescence protein gene. As a result of which they tend to glow when exposed to ultraviolet light.

It’s hoped that these type of research may help scientist better understand human genetic diseases. This is because cats have around 250 of the same genetic disorders that affect humans. Researches hope that this ability to clone genetically altered cats may also help to develop new stem cell treatments for humans. And, using the same technology, researchers say they may be able to clone endangered animals like tigers, leopards and wildcats. Ain’t science wonderful eh?
Unfortunately, it’ll be a long time since these lightshow kitties will make an appearance in you nearest pet store. People are still arguing over the ethics of cloning.

If glowing kitties are not you cup of tea, why not go for a “GloFish®”. These are genetically modified fluorescent zebrafish in a range exiting colors, such as Starfire Red™, Electric Green™, and Sunburst Orange™. According to the company website “They look great under white light, even better under blue light, and appear to glow-in-the-dark under a black light in a dark room! “

These fluorescent fish were first created so that scientists can detect environmental pollutants, by adding a fluorescent gene into the fish, which in turn creates a beautifully colored protein that can be seen when looking at the fish. These fluorescent protein genes are naturally occurring genes which are derived from marine organisms, such as jelly fish. The process of starting a fluorescent fish line begins by inserting the FP Gene into one-minute old fish embryos. Once the gene integrates itself to the embryos genome, the resulting fish can pass on the gene to it’s offspring.

The glowing effect is created because the fluorescent fish absorbs the light and re-emits it. This creates the perception that they are glowing, particularly when shining a black light on the fish in a dark room.

Ok I’m not going to bore yall with more details. Bellow are some links for those who are interested :D


Glowing Cats Article 1
Glowing Cats Article 2


Glowing Cats Article 3

GloFish Site






Cheers!!!

To the Hills and Back

Belihuloya

Well the old gang of usual suspects and I went on one of our expeditions last weekend, a three day break from work and other dreary things in life. Out on the road and off to Haputale and Nuwaraeliya. We the “gang” have been friends since school and even after *ahem* eight years of leaving the alma mater, we still hangout and go on trips frequently, which is great. Some of the folks that we went to school are, well I don’t know where they are. Now keep getting some info thanks to facebook. Alas some of the usual suspects couldn’t make it so only 8 went this time.

Anyways back to the journey. I was supposed to meet up at M’s place at 4.00 am Friday morning, coz L was bringing the van there. I hit the sack early Thursday night, so I’ll be able to get up on Friday. Unfortunately I woke up around 1.30 and couldn’t get back to sleep, even after counting sheep, cats, dogs and other animals that came to mind. With no sleep in sight I decided to listen to the radio and tuned into one of the Sinhala stations. It brought back memories of those weekly, 7 hour, late night bus journeys I used to take when I was working outstation. Them bus drivers do love to have the radios blaring even in the middle of the night. You’d be surprised at the number of people that call in even at these times for requests and dedications, which are like roll calls out of a telephone book. Glad to know that there are many insomniacs and nocturnal creatures in the country. Ok now I’m getting sidetracked here :D

After picking up the assorted gang members we said adios to Colombo and were off to the hills. Actually this was I think the first ever trip that went on schedule. All the previous ones, if we say leaving at 4.00 we’d ultimately leave around 5.30 or so. Thanks to the punctuality of the guys we managed to reach Belihuloya around 8.30 am.

There’s this new place opened up in Belihuloya, not on the rest house bank, but the other one, called “Diyapanasa Sancharaka Gimanhala” (Diyapanasa Tourist Rest) and I think it’s operated and maintained by the municipality in the area. They have built several sets of benches and tables all along the river bank. These sets are spaced apart so that people at one set of benches have privacy from the others. The ten bucks they charge for entrance is quiet worth it coz they keep the place spick and span. We only got down to have a look around and be on our way, but ended up spending around 5 hours and emptying 3 bottles of OR there. I think this is another record for the earliest time we’ve started a boozing session. :D. After a nice ice cold dip in the river we got back on the road around 1.30 and managed to reach Haputale around 3.00. We booked a holiday bungalow from a government bank, thanks to two of the gang members being employed there. So we practically had the whole place to ourselves with a caretaker, who was also the cook. It was a chilly day and even at 3.00 in the afternoon, the mist has covered the whole town, brrr.

Belihuloya Rest Place

Belihuloya good place to chill

Haputale Town

The second boozing session of the day got underway at around 7.00 that night. It kind of went slow coz we were still reeling from the effects of the morning session. We were also waiting for one of the guys to turn up as well. K couldn’t make it early morning coz he had some business to attend to in the morning so he said he’ll take the bus and join us later. He had gotten into a bus at Colombo around two, but the bus has only left Colombo around 4.00. For those who are unaware, SL buses do not have a schedule, especially some of these long distance runners. They’ll stay put until the last seat is filled up, even if it takes half a day. So K only managed to get to Haputale around 10.30 in the night.

The next day we were off to Nuwaraeliya. Left Haputale around 10 and came to Nuwaraeliya around 1.30 / 2.00. We’d booked a house, well half a house, which came with 3 rooms with attached bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Unfortunately there was no cook so, as K and I got stuck with the cooking, we being the only ones in the gang who knows how to and willing to take up the job  FYI we do make some mean bites dishes he he :D. So ended Saturday evening and night, same as on the day before, if you get my drift. :D

Sadly Sunday morning it was time to say goodbye to the hills and head back to the dust and smog of Colombo. We came back along the Kandy road and stopped at the newly built Ramboda Tunnel to have a look around. We took a walk to the other side and back, and after that little trek we got in to go. However the van apparently had different ideas and refused to start up. It had been acting up since getting to Nuwaraeliya, must be the cold. It usually starts up after leaving it for awhile but this time nothing. With nothing else to do, we got together with three little kids from the area, and played some Cricket with them. Hey after all how many can say that they’ve played cricket inside a tunnel eh? After some two hours later we thought we’d better go find a mechanic or we’ll be spending the night inside the tunnel. What do you know? The van decided to start up. We were happily on the way again. No more stops, but straight home, which was another first for us. Managed to get home around 8.00 pm.

Now back to dreary old work…After all the fun I’m coming down with a cold too :(

Choo Choo train

Ramboda Tunnel

Anyone for tunnel cricket?

Waterfall

Puss Wins by a Landslide

Prominent politician, Chaminda Pusswedilla has won a landslide victory in the recently concluded presidential elections in Sri Lanka. This marks the dawn of a new era in Sri Lanka. His Excellency, president Pusswedilla has promised to make Sri Lanka an economic powerhouse in the world.

For those who are not tuned on to current affairs, do not worry. You did not sleep your way through an election. I’m talking about the newest drama that was staged at the Wendt during the past few days. “Thank you for Voting” by Stage Light and Magic, under the excellent direction of Feroze Kamardeen.

The plot line wasn’t something new actually. The same old story of the business of politics, stupid, corrupt politician and misgovernance, nothing new to us is it? The same can be said about the jokes as well. However Chaminda Pusswedilla did manage to steal the show.

It didn’t matter the storyline or the jokes were familiar, because it was hilarious. A big round of applause to Dominic Kellar, for his superb portrayal of the quintessential Sri Lankan politician. I think this was a role made for him and would not have had the same effect if played by some one else. Not forgetting the other actors did a great job as well.

It was a good production, which I enjoyed a lot. Had a good laugh to last awhile :D. Although I was expecting a more bang of an ending.

To all those who missed it, Too Bad :P

Good work guys!!!



“My name is Chaminda Pusswedilla, mata jayawewa”
H. E. President Pusswedilla

Poosa

This feels oddly like one of those grade 1 essays you were given to write about “Mage Surathala” or “My Pet”. It just shows that I’m running dry these days…This annoying little thing called works is getting in the way of life :P. It sucks…

Hi my name is Azrael and I am a cat lover…There I said it. I’ll never match up to the Mad Cat Woman over here but I might get there some time. No surprises there, after all Garfield is my hero. He he he :D

I am an animal person in general, but have this special spot in me heart for Kitty Kats. I guess it’s their attitude. Independent, aloof, and doesn’t give a shit about the rest of the world. After all cats were worshiped as gods by the Egyptians, so there must be something to them. The other thing that is appealing is that they have a certain evil magical mysteriousness about them.

Ok, why am I going on this pointless ranting? I have no idea, but I do want to introduce the newest member of the family.

This here is the eighth feline to own me. No it’s not a mistake. Cats choose and own the humans, not the other way around. The last one to rule, went to kitty heaven about two years back and well, I wasn’t in the mood to have another one for a while. Then a couple of weeks back, this little fur ball lands on my lap.

It was one of those rainy mornings and I was dragging myself to work. I was walking down our lane, cursing the rain gods, and what do I hear? A heart-tugging little mewling sound coming out of nowhere. After a bit of investigation I found out the cause. The little fur ball was hiding under a bush, trying to keep dry. I’m not sure whether someone left it there, or just wandered out from somewhere, but I just couldn’t leave him there now could I? What else to do but take ze fur ball home.

His official name is Osiris, after the Egyptian god of life, death and fertility. Actually there’s no point in naming them, coz I can never stick to a name. I just call them whatever takes my fancy at any given time. The result? A very confused critter with a personality disorder.

So far he’s getting a deal of a life time. Three warm meals a day brought to his feet, an adorable biped to play around with, and a whole household to rule over. If that isn’t a royal life, I don’t know what is. *sigh*

Oh well back to doing slave labor…I have to keep his majesty fed don’t I?

Green Ratings

A recently concluded research study aimed to rank 141 nations of the world according to the most greenest and most livable places. The study was carried out by an environmental economist form the University of California, in Los Angeles, by the name of Mathew E Kahn PhD. He and his team analyzed data for 141 nation of the world from two main data sources. These were

1. United Nations 2006 Human Development Index
2. 2005 environmental Sustainability Index

Their analysis looked into social factors such as education and income and into environmental measures.

The following chart shows a summary of some of the categories and how our dear old SL fared.

Category	Rank of Sri Lanka	#1	#141
Air Quality - Rates concentration of several pollutants in urban areas	102	Moldova	Guatemala
Water Quality - Rates pollutant levels as well as other factors that affect water purity	90	Norway	Morocco
Energy Efficiency - Rates conservation efforts and use of renewables such as hydrocarbon	36	D. R. Congo	Trinidad & Tobago
Green House Gasses - Rates carbon emission per capita and GDP	37	Chad	Turkmenistan
Environmental Health - Rates childhood mortality, diseases and deaths from intestinal infections	36	Austria	Turkmenistan
Overall - Rates the greenest, most livable countries based on social and environmental factors	66	Finland	Ethiopia

The study also revealed 5 key lessons tha can lead to improvements.

1 You can always get greener
2 Don’t stop thinking about the future
3 Save forests and trees
4 Manage progress for the benefit of all
5 Turn things around while there is still time

A ranking of 66 out of 141 is actually better than what I would’ve thought we’d get. We are already half way there and with a little more effort we can certainly improve on things. Let’s just hope that things don’t go the other way :D

Source: Reader’s Digest

PS - Oops... guess my table experiment didn't go off that well. Will fix it when i get some time :(

Baa Baa Black Sheep: The Unionized Version

Baa Baa black sheep have you any wool?
Yes sir yes sir three bags full
But you’ll never get any at all
Until you meet our union demands,
All these years you screwed us all
Getting the wool right off our backs,
A handful of grass and a barrel of water
Was all that we got in return

Well not anymore,
We are the new generation,
Sheep of the world
Thanks to a little thing called education,
No more the dumb nuts at your beck and call
No more will you screw us around,
To make your fat asses even fatter,
We got ourselves a little union now
And the rules are clear,
We have the right to make demands,
If you want to have our wool
Talk to my agent, talk to my lawyer
Let your people deal with my people,

We don’t ask for much, our needs are simple,
Imported grass and Evian water, just to start
A manicure, pedicure and a spa treat,
Once a month is more than enough
A big ass HD TV for our pad
A cable connection with five hundred channels
That is all we ask for now
About later we don’t know
The sooner you meet our demands
The sooner you can go back,
To your little farm house and comfy life
Deny us our rights and see what happens
All the wool goes to the little boy who cries down the lane



All characters featured on this post are fictional. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is not my problem…

One Year On

Well it’s been one year (+ couple of days) since I started this little blog of mine, and it is a surprise even to me that it lasted this long. Before that I was just a reader of blogs, not a writer. It was my friend Harshadewa, who first got into it and invited my to start a blog as well, so I guess I owe him a thanks .

First of all, I was someone who hated writing essays during school, and I really didn’t think that I’ll have anything worth writing about. I pondered about this on my first post, oh so long time ago. I just started this for fun, but it is a surprise to see that I’ve made 73 posts (including this one) over the year. Now this may not sound impressive considering there are people who put out a post each day, but to me it is something :D. The main reason I see for not liking essay writing during school is because they grade you on that. What I write and what the teacher has on mind are two completely different things, so my grades were, let’s say not good. However in the world of blogging it’s all open season. No one to grade and criticize. If you don’t’ like it, don’t read it he he.

On the whole, this blogging business is a good thing. I’ve learnt many new things by reading them and writing on mine. Little tit-bits of information that is stored in the recess of the old noggin. Who knows, they might come in handy sometime. I’ve made some new and interesting friends, even though I have no idea who they are. It has also made me take up a new hobby, writing, and to polish up my writing skills too.

A big thank you goes out to all who have put up with my little ramblings and left their comments on them.

Cheers to all!!!

Trick or Treat

It’s the night when all the spooky creatures come out to play. When witches prepare magic potions in their black cauldrons and get ready to feast. The night when the headless horseman goes looking for his lost head. It’s all part of Halloween…The modern day one that is.

The origins of Halloween goes back to the ancient times of the Celts in Britain and Ireland. The Celts are an ancient race that occupied the areas of Ireland and Northern France over 2000 years ago. It is from their ancient festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in) that the modern celebrations of Halloween came about.

According to the Celtic calendar, their new year fell on November 1st. It was the day that marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter, a time of the year associated with human death. The believed that on the eve of the new year the boundary between the dead and the living became blurred and ghosts of the dead returned to earth. They also thought that the presence of these spirits made it easier for the Druids to make their predictions This was what was celebrated on the night of October 31st as the Samhain.

Led by the Druids they celebrated the festival by building huge sacred bonfires, where they burnt crops and made animal sacrifices. During these celebrations the Celts wore costumes typically made out of animal heads and skins.

Then in AD 43 the Romans conquered the Celts and ruled them for 400 years. Two Roman festivals became integrated with the Samhain celebrations. One was the Feralia, a day to commemorate the passing of the dead and the other was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

Later Christianity made its influence on the Celts. They declared November 1st as All Saints Day, to commemorate saints and martyrs. This day was known as All Hallows or All Hallowmas. Subsequently the day before, October 31st was referred to as All Hallows Eve, which through the year turned into Halloween. Later the church declared November 2nd as the All Souls Day, a day to honor the dead and it was celebrated similar to Samhain.

Later as people migrated to the new worlds they took with them these traditions, which have evolved into the celebration that we see today.

To us SL people there is no significance of Halloween, except maybe to throw another party.

Cheers


Links for the interested:

Halloween Wikipedia
Halloween History
Samhain
Celts
All Saint's Day
All Soul's Day
The Goddess Pomona
Halloween.com

The Beast

She slumbers patiently
Till the time a rider will come
Brave at heart and an adventurous soul
To awaken her spirit
And take her out into the world
Her black coat shines
Where the sunlight hits
With a hint of chrome
To give that extra glint

A tiny spark is all that it takes
To ignite the inflammable blood
That courses through her veins
Blood of fire that will pump the heart
To bring the iron maiden roaring to life
Open roads beckon forth
Break the chains and taste the freedom
An Iron maiden and her rider
Goes forth towards the setting sun

Night Fishing

Last Saturday night I was nicely settled with a book when two of my buds, K and R called up saying they were going fishing and were picking me up too. So half and hour later I was in back of the K Mobile and heading towards our usual place.

The “Usual” place is a small park on the banks of a river, where there is an unfinished pavilion of sorts with steps leading down to the water. I say unfinished because I think the initial plan was to have a roof over the thing, but I guess they ran out of money before that. Now there are only some concrete pillars standing there. The place is cool, most of the time deserted at night, but with lights for illumination. This is where we normally end up when we want to throw back a few beers and just chill.

When I say river, it is not your clear-blue-water, can-drink-straight-out-of-it sort of river. It runs through a city so it’s basically brown in color, and while you can drink out of it, you’d better be prepared to stay inside the loo for a couple of days. However there’s plenty of fish in it. Whenever we are chilling out here, we see local fishermen out on boats, who catch loads of fish, and some even put lines from the bank and goes home with a bag load for dinner. So we thought we’d also try our luck at it.

I have gone fishing with my dad a couple of times when I was small, but never caught a thing, not even a malnourished sprat. The only things that got caught were some twigs. That kind of put me off the whole fishing experience. R on the other hand has some experience at it. So armed with some lines and hooks, no rods mind you, we tried our luck that night. For bait we used this Barnacle like critter with a conical shell that gets washed up on shore during low tide. I have no idea what they are called though. You have to crack the shells to get the critter out of it.

With hooks thus baited we cast out the lines and waited. We opened up a couple of beers and ate some munchies. After about ten minutes or so what do I see? My line has a bite on it. Reel it in and there is an unlucky bugger attached to it. My first ever fish, in a life time. Ok it wasn’t a big one, but a small fry the size of my finger, but hey it’s still a fish ain’t it? Oddly enough, before I could celebrate, it started to rain. You think maybe someone was trying to send us a message? Hmm I wonder…

Anyway when the rain settled down we continued with renewed excitement. Within another half hour or so R managed to catch two more. We thought we were in for a big haul. Unfortunately that never happened. After nearly five hours of standing in water, what do we have to show for it? Three measly fish no bigger than your fingers and a crab, which R found hiding in an old tire. The annoying part was that there were plenty of fish, some were even pecking at our legs and jumping out of the water, but they weren’t just taking the bait. They have gotten smart. I swear I could hear them laughing as we got out of the water. Darn critters…

After awhile we got fed up with it and around one o’clock Sunday morning, we headed back home. Ah but we are not deterred. We will be back, with a rod next time, and maybe try our luck from the bridge. You wait and see, we’ll get you yet…

What happened to the fish we caught? Well they weren’t even worth to make a soup out of it, so we gave them to a cat that hangs around the park. Lucky kitty had a right royal dinner that night. All three disappeared inside its tummy in less than a minute. As for the crab, he went back into the water, where he must be regaling his buddies with his adventures.

I learned a valuable lesson from this little expedition? Thank god for supermarkets :D. I don’t think I’ll be able to catch anything even if my life depended on it. There must be some kind of art to it, privy only to the fisher-folk or, everybody else except me…