Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Trolley Problem

The trolley problem and the doctrine of double effect

This one caught my attention. It is a conundrum and has to do with choices we may have to make. At the end of it you realize that everything, including morality, is relative.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

My Life Song

Emily Bronte put it beautifully and the poem has always echoed in my heart...

"Often rebuked, yet always back returning
    To those first feelings that were born with me,
And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning
    For idle dreams of things which cannot be:

To-day, I will seek not the shadowy region;
    Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear;
And visions rising, legion after legion,
    Bring the unreal world too strangely near.

I’ll walk, but not in old heroic traces,
    And not in paths of high morality,
And not among the half-distinguished faces,
    The clouded forms of long-past history.

I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading:
    It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
    Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
    More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
    Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell."
Emily Bronte

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Memorable Speeches. Indian Parliament

The Indian Parliament rarely witnesses speeches and communication that makes its voter's proud. Here are a collection of those rare moments.


Memorable Speeches. Indian Parliament.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Innovation in Action. Ravi Shankar and his intelligent wheel chair.


Read more about this young engineer from Coimbatore, India, who designed possibly one of the most useful devices for those who are physically challenged and have to use a wheel chair. He seems to have an appetite for innovation and projects he works on are all relevant and have huge social benefits. These include projects to reduce transportation losses incurred in marketing of fruits and vegetables, monitoring gas, water and electricity consumption at homes online and making payments vide the same medium,security applications at homes and industries...the list goes on
Where does this appetite come from ? He says, "The most important thing is to understand the pain of others and take it up as your own. Believe that every problem has a solution."
He sums up his approach thus, "Spend some time thinking of the possible ways to solve it. Analyze the merits and demerits. The scope of any innovation revolves around cost, performance and utility. The solution’s simplicity is its essence.”
Innovation in Action. Ravi Shankar and his intelligent wheelchair