Chatter

Commerce clause, the 14th amendment and quite some over-reach… Podcast: More Perfect - One Nation, Under Money An unassuming string of 16 words tucked into the Constitution grants Congress extensive power to make laws that impact the entire nation. The Commerce Clause has allowed Congress to intervene in all kinds of situations — from penalizing one man for growing too much wheat on his farm, to enforcing the end of racial segregation nationwide. That is, if the federal government can make an economic case for it. This seemingly all-powerful tool has the potential to unite the 50 states into one nation and protect the civil liberties of all. But it also challenges us to consider: when we make everything about money, what does it cost us? ...

During times when we’re so focused on building walls and closing ourselves out, It doesn’t take much to bring all hell down. Even Unknowingly! Oh, Humans! Adding Eric Schlosser’s Command and Control to my reading list. Podcast: Human Error in Volatile Situations In 1980, deep in a nuclear missile silo in Arkansas, a simple human error nearly caused the destruction of a giant portion of the Midwest… Srikanth Perinkulam

Miss Me’s first puzzle of 2018. She finished it in about 10 hours staying awake till about 3 am! The colors and not to mention the underlying theme totally drew me to it. Looking forward to what we make out of 2018! Srikanth Perinkulam

Can’t wait to get this into the water! Ever since our poconos rafting trip in July last year I’ve had my eyes on getting a kayak for myself. One of my relatives thoroughly surprised me with this as a birthday gift last December. Later when we met, he mentioned that he swapped the single carrier kayak that he bought initially, for this dual person version to make sure the Mrs. gets me back safe on shore If I decide to go astray in my often impromptu escapades. A bit unsure how I should read that statement, However I’m absolutely floored and immensely thankful! ...

Miss Me gifted me a months rock climbing pass for my birthday. Been at it for a few weeks now and we’re thoroughly loving it! Something that we’ve been wanting to do for a while now and I’m psyched we got to start it on my birthday. We try and make it to the gym almost every day. After a long day at work it’s amazing how just entering that space helps clear your mind altogether! An hour in and though you’re physically tired, you walk out with so much more energy. Goes without saying, it also aligns with one of my resolutions this year to work on my upper body strength. ...

Close to three months since I was introduced to Uttitha Hastha Padangusthasana and I still find this asana pretty challenging. This Wednesday’s practice was tremendously draining. Spent close to five minutes just trying to focus and balance, but it just didn’t flow through. Back home that night, I sought Miss Me to figure out why I was failing miserably at this particular asana. She walked over and watched me struggling to balance and in her zen mode suggested, I just look straight ahead (without paying any attention to the leg or the toe) and lift the leg by the toe till my hamstrings allowed and then firm up the other leg to balance. That worked right in the first attempt!! ...

Back in India, about eight years ago a colleague of mine sent out out an e-mail blast to the company bulletin board checking to see if anyone was a marrow donor. His son needed a transplant and the odd’s weren’t in his favor. I had no clue what that entailed and read up a bit on it. Later that evening as I tried registering on to the Be the match portal, I realized they didn’t have the support framework to sign-on users outside the U.S. It didn’t take a minute for me to close the tab and get back to what I was doing. A couple weeks later I learnt the kid died and somewhere deep in my heart I regretted not trying harder to sign-up or figure a way around. But again with all things good and bad, that moment passed and I moved on. ...

Hiked up Albion falls in Hamilton, Toronto earlier in the day and drove over to this Bad axe-throwing place later in the evening. Srikanth Perinkulam

Grey sky, howling winds and low 40s. Perfect weather for a good long run by the agitated waters. David organized a fun run and food drive for the Pebble street food pantry. Decided to head to the 0730 Ashtanga led class since we’d missed most of last week and then head to Portland later after breakfast. Was a bit of a drive from Boston but was absolutely worth it. There’s something just so mystical about these waters ...

Racing 750miles from Washington to Alaska … on a paddle board! Podcast: Over the Line “It’s like the Iditarod with a chance of drowning,” says Jake Beatty, one of the organizers of the Race to Alaska. The course traces 750-miles of Alaska’s Inside Passage through complicated currents, busy shipping channels and bear-ridden coastlines. Srikanth Perinkulam

Mystical blue waters allured us to this spot as we were driving into the peninsula. Terrific gusts of freezing wind literally consuming us in whole. We were struggling to hold our footing. The ranger mentioned what we were witnessing was a labrador cold front from Canada and this was supposed to subside by the evening. Beyond doubt the strongest gale forces I’ve ever experienced so far. We were so close to NOT coming over to the peninsula. So glad we decided otherwise! ...

Absolutely loved this episode from the hidden brain. I’ve detested checklists for a while now knowing very well how important they are. This podcast totally drove home the point on not only why they’re important but also how it’s effective use is essential for productive and bug free task execution. Podcast: Check Yourself The simple “to-do” list may be one of humanity’s oldest tools for keeping organized. But checklists are also proving essential in many modern-day workplaces, from operating rooms to the cockpits of jumbo jets. ...

If you haven’t yet, you should read Scott Carney’s book on environmental conditioning. I think it’s called ‘What Doesn’t kill us’ and is a beautiful dive in to Wim Hoff’s breathing methods to manipulate the immune system. in reply to: On adjusting to the cold and dark After suffering from SAD for half my life, I’ve had it pretty good the past few years. Last year in particular was actually great—it was like I was a regular person. This year has not gotten off to a good start, with gloom pressing in on me before we’d even reached Halloween. ...

Syncthing looks pretty interesting. I’ll probably give it a shot for another project of mine. Thanks for the pointer. For the pi3 setup, one USB port supports both the keyboard and mouse, while another serves the hard disk, leaving two more ports free. I use an hdmi adapter for the screen. Once I get a better hang of using the raw power of the Ubuntu core, I’ll probably be able to put the pi3 to better use! ...

Finally got around procuring a pi3 and setup the Nextcloud Box! Getting this up and running was super fun and pretty straight forward. The OS Image that was delivered with the box was built for the pi2. So I had to format the drive with Gparted and flashed the pi3 image with Etcher (One nifty piece of software!). Once the hardware was fired up, it just took care of itself. The web install was a 1-click setup. ...

Having heard about it way back in 2015 during a serendipitous visit to the campus, we were pretty excited to be here. With autumn just kicking in and absolutely no traffic, the drive up north from Boston should have been a cue to what the night had in store for us. As dusk set in and the temperatures dropped, the lamps already laid out on the Dartmouth Greens were lit. The National Anthem from the bell tower was a pleasant surprise. Darkness, fire, light and celebrations. Today was just so magical! ...

Liked: What will you do with your surplus? Seth Godin on his blog: If you have a safe place to sleep, reasonable health and food in the fridge, you’re probably living with surplus. You have enough breathing room to devote an hour to watching TV, or having an argument you don’t need to have, or simply messing around online. Srikanth Perinkulam

@ Kanyakumari, India A glimpse of sunrise at the tip of the Indian subcontinent, where the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal meet the Indian Ocean. Tourists throng to this overlook, right behind the Bagvathi Amman temple at the break of dawn (and the onset of dusk). The Vivekananda memorial continues to be one of those few locations to be maintained sparking clean. Nothing much seems to have changed since my last visit to this place seven years ago. The shrouded Thiruvalluvar statue that’s to the far right talks volumes of the current political situation in the state. The ferry no longer stops at the statue. ...

First order of business.

All set for the India Trip! Bringing down the ‘golu’.

#Biocontrols Podcast: Dispatches Ep 14. The Fine Art of Weaponizing Critters Killer frogs! Forest-destroying moths! Bird-eating mongooses! Srikanth Perinkulam

That day when we’re able to distinguish that line, I’d wish we’d figured this all out way back in 2000. It still bothers me that we weren’t able to figure out what was going on in that mind and if at all there was a communication happening… Bookmark: Is There Awareness Behind Vegetative States? Imagine that a loved one, let’s say your brother, has suffered a serious brain injury. After languishing in a coma, he finally “emerges”—that is, he cycles between sleep and wakefulness, yanks his hand away when it’s pricked, is startled by loud noises, and so on. ...

#CSE Just read: How an Environmental Activist Became a Pioneer for Climate Justice in India Sunita Narain, 56, is perhaps India’s most well-known environmental activist. The director of a small but influential Delhi-based NGO called the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), she has been included on Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People; last year, Leonardo DiCaprio chose to interview her for his climate change-themed documentary Before the Flood. Srikanth Perinkulam ...

This guys is such an inspiration! [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6xz_dN16so[/embed] Srikanth Perinkulam

Early on friday morning on the way to the T station, it suddenly struck us that we could actually hike overnight to catch sunrise on the ridge. With the full moon just starting to wane out, it was going to be a beautiful bright night. I was psyched, Miss Me was almost convinced, and now all that was left to alter the plan was to check with Keshav and Chaitra. A few hours later the weather report predicts thunderstorms and with that our overnight hike plans go kaput. We decide to stick with the original plan to head out of Boston at 0400 the next day morning. Chaitra decides to take a rain-check on the hike, so Miss Me and I head over to Keshav’s place late that night. ...