Blog@GraceJunction

Ten thousand years ago the agricultural revolution launched a slow wave of change. The industrial revolution, starting roughly 350 years ago, triggered a second – faster – wave of change. In the mid-1950s the United States started on the path to a completely new kind of economy – one based on knowledge rather than muscle power. This is part of a gigantic wave of technological, social and cultural change. What we’re living through now is history’s third great wave of change – one that is arriving at hyper-speed and is global in extent.

This new way of life – it’s really a new civilization or, for that matter, a “super-civilization” – is spreading out from the United States and has cells in many other parts of the world, from Japan and Singapore and China to India and Brazil.

The first phase of this current upheaval is the digital revolution and its social and cultural effects. The next phase is the fusion of the digital revolution with the genetic and biological revolution. (more…)

Every morning I approach the news papers with the fear of getting de-sensitized. Today for instance, The Times of India, Ahmedabad Edition carried news about an act of unnatural proportions – Man having sex with a calf! The matter was brought in to light due to the animal protection activists you may read the entire article here.

Thank God, there are at least some people in the society (People for Animal) who think that there is something called as evil / wrong and the matter was brought to light. A voiceless animal found some one who could fight for its cause; unfortunately our big mouthed society has none! (more…)

Usain Bolt is “too” tall to be a world class sprinter, Mike Friedman “too” fat to be an elite world class cyclist, Stefan Holm is “too” short to be a champion high jumper, and Erin Donohue is “too” short and stocky to be a star middle-distance runner. Yet all of them are Olympians, athletic anomlies, bucking conventional wisdom and somehow rising to the same arenas as Michael Phelps and Dara Torres.

Its amazing, how much man relies on statistics to make decisions, be it the vital or the numerical kind. But these wonderful people have attained that which has made experts revolve in their chairs and just confess, “It’s a mystery“!! (more…)

The credit cards and easily available loans made almost everything available to the common man. When the generation of the 50s-70s worked a good 25 plus years to buy a decent house with minimum facilties and bought a car after the age of 40, the new generation is buying a much costlier and better equipped (loaded) or rather luxurious house at a much earlier age (early 30s) and this generation is also buying a car much earlier too. Of course the myriad professional options have resulted in greater opportunities for earning, but the thrust has mainly come in from easier funding - credit. However, there are still things out there that even credit will not allow many of the big dreamers to acquire.

Satiated at a much earlier age, it takes much more to now challenge and satisfy these young turks. High ticket paraphrenalia, available at the malls and exclusive shops, or even in the high-end shops don’t catch their attention at all. They are aiming much higher, at things not even in the luxury list of the average citizen (muggles!). The boundaries have been pushed much higher (monetarily). Now, what’s enabling these proponents of “dare-to-dream” to fulfil their dreams and desires has nothing to do with wizarding, but its the age old business of ‘Hiring’ and ‘Renting’! (more…)

16.07.2008, 11:00 am …
(RAW head quarters, New Delhi)

Hey, long time no see! I am Deoxy Ribose, friends call me DNA. Whose DNA? Well I am the DNA of about whom the former U.N. Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar said: “She is the United Nations. She is peace in the world!” Though hardly people know her by her maiden name, she is renowned and revered and respected and loved as ‘Mother Teresa’. I am being taken in to a high security zone, where I am being accompanied by DNA’s of some other influential people of India. Why, well only time will tell……

16.07.2015, 4:30 am …
(Specialized Forensic Research Labs, Bangalore)

Hi, do you remember me? I met you many years back. I think it’s time to come out. What happened? Only thing I know is that the Indian Govt. due to poor monsoons and declining stocks of food has declared a famine. All over the country, in various places, there is a look of hopelessness as the number of people dying of hunger has swelled. (more…)

In 1957, a Fort Lee, (New Jersey) drive-in theater flashed the words ‘DRINK COLA COLA’ and ‘EAT POPCORN’ for 1/3000th of a second every 5 seconds throughout the movie during a 6-week run of the film Picnic. This was the brainchild of NY market researcher, James Vicary, who boasted that Coke sales in the lobby increased 58% and that popcorn sales rose 18%!

An avalanche of criticism from outraged citizens and congressmen produced more research on the subject. Known as “Subliminal Messaging“, conflicting results have come out on this and it has been argued ever since. (more…)

Konrad Steffen, climatologist who settled in Greenland’s icesheet in 1990, was only hoping to gather more insights into the processes that drive-and are effected by-changes on ice bodies of Greenland, that hold roughly 8% of world’s freshwater supply!

Today his Swiss Camp serves as eyes and ears for climate scientists worldwide. ‘Koni’ as he is called by his friends, personally customised and deployed much of the instruments that tell the scientific world, hour by hour and year by year about these ice sheets.

Greenland’s icesheets are very crucial, and kind of a barometer for the rest of the world because of its sensitivity to climatic changes and because of the tremendous influence it has on the ecological cycles in the Northern Hemisphere. (more…)

A recent survey done in Britain found that two thirds of adults believe that the moral values of young people have declined considerably since the time when they were young. According to most of them, the rise of the celebrity culture and weakening family bonds are undermining traditional moral values among young people! Who is to blame? Are these adults listening to their own conclusions? Or its everybody else that is wrong!

We cannot do much about the celebrity culture, can we? But weakening family bonds? But it seems, the society is not too eager to do much on that front either! Bonding with kids means investment. Investing time and also infusing values.

It’s a very bad world out there. It’s pretty much difficult to barely survive! When do we find time and opportunity to care about values, much less, pass it on to the kids! Who has time to intervene in the kids’ lives and help them navigate the challenges of modern day life? They will find their way. (more…)

Few men sat together and played with the LIBOR rates in the wake of the US funds crisis and this has allowed in artificial interest rates into the world economy which could have serious ramifications very soon. LIBOR rates are used as benchmark for over 300 trillion USD worth of transactions worldwide!

Few men sit together at the OPEC and decide how much you and I will pay for our petrol or diesel. They decide the production limits of its constituent countries and this gives them large control over the prices of crude. The crude cost per barrel is estimated to be around 15 USD per barrel, that however is now selling at 130 USD per barrel or even more. (more…)

The human appendix (vermiform appendix), located at the junction of the small and the large intestine in all humans, is considered a vestigial (useful once upon a time but now degenerate and ill formed) organ. It is taught about in schools as a reminder of what used to be an useful organ some time in history in some remote ancestors of the human race.

Some say that the appendix used to be useful in the digestion of leaves and others say it used to be useful in the digestion of raw red meat and when our remote ancestors stopped consuming both these items, the appendix shrunk and has assumed in current shape and size! However both these views are questionable because very few mammals have an appendix at all and in those that do, it bears little ressemblance to the human appendix!

Everyone lives happily with it until it becomes painfully inflamed, when the only treatment is to remove it surgically. Then everyone lives happily without it! So why is it there in the first place? (more…)