Hashemian Blog
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Monday, July 31, 2006
The Leaning Tower Of Pisa
When I was a student in high school (not sure which grade), I learned about an alleged gravity experiment performed by the famous Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei who lived in the 16th and 17th centuries. As the story goes, Galileo was trying to prove that earth's gravity exerts the same acceleration on all masses regardless of their weight and size. His experiment consisted of dropping a large and a small canon balls from the top of the leaning tower of Pisa and observing that they reached ground at the same time. A few centuries later in 1971, commander David Scott of Apollo 15 performed a similar experiment on the moon by dropping a hammer and a feather and observing that both items reached the moon's surface simultaneously.
Fat chance I'll ever be walking on the moon, but I always wanted to see the leaning tower of Pisa in person. Last week I got that chance and it was everything I expected. It had me completely spellbound. To see a structure of that size leaning is something that's hard to imagine. But there I was, a few feet away from the tower and it was a sight to behold. The town of Pisa has done a marvelous job of preserving the tower and the other two structures on the same grounds.
Walking about this historical oddity, I got a feeling that the tower was going to topple any minute. It was not unlike a toy tower built by a child that would invariably collapse. Only that this tower has been standing - well, leaning - for centuries. The town has been proactive in preserving this treasure making it the centerpiece of all the history it has to offer the visitors.
If you ever find yourself in Italy, I highly recommend visiting Pisa. The sight of the leaning tower could thrill you as much it did me. It was an unforgettable experience and I am thankful for having the opportunity to see it in person.
leaning tower of pisa,pisa,italy,galilei,galileo,gravity <The Leaning Tower Of Pisa>
// posted by rh
Friday, July 21, 2006
Versatile Grape
One of my strange traits is to sometimes take note of seemingly trivial, unimportant things about stuff. Like the other day I was having grapes and it occurred to me that this fruit is one the most versatile foods that I can think of.
Let's see:
By themselves, grapes make a great snack. They are nutritious, rife with vitamins and fiber.Unripe grapes are used in many cultures as a souring agent to enhance the flavor of various dishes.Raisins (dried grapes) can be enjoyed by themselves or added to various foods and desserts. Did you know A1 stake sauce counts raisins as of its ingredients?Grapes are fermented into wine.In turn wine becomes vinegar.Grape juice is yet another product extracted from grapes.Grape jelly is also another product that comes from grapes.Grape seeds are used to produce grape seed oil.Grape leaves are used to make various wraps.Those are just a few items that I can think of quickly. I'm sure I left out a whole bunch of other usages. Let me know what other products are derived from grapes. Is there another fruit more versatile than grape? I can't think of any, but if you do, let's hear it. Meanwhile I am grateful (or I should say, grapeful) for having this fruit and thankful to all the farmers and food companies that produce the versatile grape and all of its byproducts. Photo courtesy PDPhoto.org. grapes, wine, vinegar, raisins, fruits < Versatile Grape>
// posted by rh
Monday, July 17, 2006
Jogging in the heat wave
The entire U.S. is baking in the summer heat. Add oppressive humidity to that for the Northeast and you have a recipe for heat stroke and other heat-related issues. So how can I not heed the challenge and not go out for a jog?
That’s exactly what I did this evening. Admittedly it wasn't at the height of the heat, nor was I the only one out there defying nature. There were a few other crazy souls out pounding the pavement. But if there was any pounding, the runners were taking the brunt of it. I will not debate the wisdom of running in this kind of weather, especially without any water. Suffice it to say, it's unwise. By the time I was done, my body temperature was dangerously high and I was soaked from head to running shoes.
Thankfully the end of my route was right by the local grocery store and I immediately went inside. The cool air inside the store could only be characterized as life-giving. As I walked the isles to pick up a few things, I was confronted with the stares of the strangers who no doubt were sizing me up discreetly with disgust, making sure not to get too close to the sweaty guy. I don't blame them, I could barely tolerate myself in that state.
I am finally home. After taking a cold shower and drinking a ton of iced seltzer (my favorite drink), I am almost back to normal now. I couldn't help but compare this to my jogs in the dead of winter and how the steam rising from my body would form ice crystals under my wind breaker. I guess all of this is par for the course for a jogging addict. As long as this body can take the abuse, I have little to complain about. If only my organs could talk.
jogging,running,heat wave <Jogging in the heat wave>
// posted by rh
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Danger, Trees
Live in the woods long enough and it's bound to happen. Trees are generally peaceful beings. They give us shade and oxygen and prevent soil erosion. They are home to numerous insects and animals, and they are nice to look at.
For us, the shade has actually been a money saver. Having a canopy of trees protecting the roof from direct sunlight has certainly contributed to lower cooling costs, and has preserved the shingles longer - much longer - that they were rated for. All those benefits came to a crashing reality when a few weeks ago I received a frantic call from my wife. One of the trees had decided to jettison a big limb (itself the size of a respectable tree) dropping it a few good feet right on top of our roof.
After causing a good measure of damage to the roof (a couple of nice holes punched), it had rolled down to the deck destroying the gutters and a part of the deck, finally coming to rest on the deck with its other end near the base of the bereaved tree. Luckily there were no injuries, including our poor pet rabbit who was out playing on the deck. It had taken shelter in its cage trembling with fear. It must've been a loud bang.
I suppose this was an added insult to a recent injury. A few months ago another limb (from a different tree) had landed on my car destroying its trunk. While stressing over dealing with the insurance company, the property owner where the tree is located, and the reconstruction company, it occurred to me that we were actually pretty lucky.
Given the natural and man-made calamities that seem to be gripping the world, this doesn't even register as a blip. Tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, terrorism, and war are all around us. Countless people have lost their lives, their loved ones, and everything they worked for, never to get those back. I can't even begin to imagine what it must feel like to lose it all. I wish all devastations were of the same caliber as mine. A mere fallen tree limb on a house, or a car, or both.
trees,disasters,home insurance <Danger, Trees>
// posted by rh
Sunday, July 09, 2006
whois and private registration
During the archaic times (measured in Internet years) there was but one registrar, Internic. If you wanted to register a domain name, you would browse to the Internic's site, plug in the domain name and some contact info, and the domain was yours, free of charge. I still remember those days, and sure wish I had the foresight to register a few good domain names to sell for a couple millions only a few years later. Times have changed. Internic became Network Solutions (and then snapped up by Verisign), ICANN was formed to assume the oversight of registrars and IP address registrations, and competition prompted the creation of numerous domain name registrars on the Internet.
Without competition, registering a domain name might have been very costly today. No wonder Network Solutions never liked having its monopoly status taken away. While the price of a domain name isn't free any longer, the cost of registering one is trivial, in the order of $6-$7 per year with the inexpensive registrars.
Many registrars claim that they barely break even selling domain names alone. That's why many of them offer ancillary services to their customers. From Web hosting, to DNS management, to Web design services, people have to navigate a maze of offers before they can make a simple domain purchase.
One of these fee-based services is private whois registration. If you own a domain name, surely you receive periodic emails reminding you to keep your whois information up-to-date. Whois is a database of contact information for the domain owners and it’s a treasure trove for spammers. According to ICANN rules, registrars must make best effort to have their respective whois databases updated with accurate information. The contact information generally consists of a domain owner's name, address, email, phone and fax numbers. The database can be queried using the whois protocol. You generally supply a domain name, and the query returns the contact information for that particular domain. Just about all registrars also offer web-based whois search, which, behind the scenes, runs a whois query and returns the result on a web page.
Spammers quickly discovered that they can unleash bots on whois registries and harvest millions of email addresses to spam to. In order to thwart them, registrars have implemented technologies to sniff out and block robots (generally marked by queries arriving at rapid succession), distinguish between human and robot activity (via CAPTCHAs), and finally offering private whois registrations.
For a fee, the registrar substitutes its own contact information for that of the actual domain owner, in effect protecting the privacy of the domain owner. Some could charge as much as $10 per year for this service alone. To me, that's a racket and it hurts the people who can least afford it. Think about it, most companies would never opt for a service like that. Why would they? It's free publicity for their company and it's another avenue for the public to find their contact information. Private citizens, however, may not want their home addresses and phone numbers revealed, but they have to pay to keep that information private. It doesn't make sense, except that the registrars crunched the numbers and figured out they can make more money this way. If most people were interested in publicizing their private data, you can bet that the registrars would have masked out that information, and then would have charged for keeping it open.
I am all in favor of requiring domain owners to keep their whois information up-to-date, but registrars should not use that as a tool to scare people into paying for private registrations. That choice should be left to the domain owners and it should be free of charge either way.
whois,registrar,domain,dns,internic,domain registration,private registration, <whois and private registration>
// posted by rh
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Nursing home and aging
July 4th marks America's birthday and depending on which day if falls on it could form a long weekend holiday to rest, party, and visit family. For me it is generally the time of year that I set out for my annual pilgrimage to visit my grandmother who resides in a nursing home in Northern Virginia. As luck had it a number of other family members also made the trek this year and it became a reunion of sorts that made her real happy. My grandmother always loved life, she was one of those types that could never part with youth. Even in her advanced age, she would color her hair jet black, wore youthful garments and avoided any talk of aging. Then about eight years ago, she had a stroke, became half paralyzed, and lost her speech coordination. Thankfully her cognitive and reasoning abilities remained intact. She still recognizes everyone and her memory is as sharp as ever. But gone are her black hair, her fashionably young clothes, and her independence. After all these years, it is still a sad to see her in this condition, although we're still thankful that she's around.
If you have ever been in a nursing home, you know that it has a strange effect on the visitors. Amidst the odor of antiseptics and other geriatric medicines, there are people that you know are just mere shells of what they used to be. Some are more mobile, others are completely helpless, but you can't help but think that this is their last stop on the way to the other side. So many lives, adventures, and ambitions culminated in their frail conditions, just waiting for their turns to make their final trips.
As we were waiting outside her room, my aunt's husband and I engaged in a conversation about aging. As we discussed our own ages (him being 60 and me, almost 40), he turned to me, while pointing to his heart, and said: "age is just the number. What counts is how old your heart feels". Out of respect I nodded my head in agreement. I've certainly heard that phrase before and I've tried to find a way to see its wisdom, but somehow I keep missing it. Perhaps there is no wisdom there, just wishful thinking.
If aging were just an unimportant number, why do so many of us strive to stay as young as possible, as long as possible? Why do we spend time and money to defy aging. The truth perhaps, in plain terms, is that aging sucks. True that with age comes a certain amount of wisdom and experience, but I would trade those off in a second for youth. I know most people would disagree with that brutally honest statement, but ask that of any 90-year old suffering the throes of senility, and I'm sure he or she would agree.
As we grow older we lose our physical and mental agility, we lose our resilience, we lose our dreams, and we lose the time to achieve those lofty goals in our bags of aspirations. I sometimes look at my kids and envy them for having their whole lives ahead of them. They could be anything they want to be. Can a 90-year-old say that?
In case you're wondering, I have no complaints with my life. I love my career, have a great family, and I feel just fine, mentally and physically. I have already done many things that I wanted to do in my life, and there's still time to check off a few more items on the list. In the end the debate on aging is a moot subject. All we can do is to make the best of any stage of life. Perhaps that's the most appropriate interpretation of that phrase.
nursing home,aging,youth,senility,stroke <Nursing home and aging>
// posted by rh
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