Devender

Google had closed the invitation to Google +. Inviting via "adding in circle" is not working also (My friends were unable to invite me via this method). So, here is another method which will lead to invite: Step 1: simply create a status update (on homepage of Google+ find dialog box like "Share what's new"), e.g. “inviting people” and then pasting the Gmail addresses of friends you want to invite into the “add people” box (Next to +1 and Comment links). Step 2: They should then go to the url of google + home page via: https://plus.google.com which will ask them to join. Note: invitees may not receive email so go to url instead. In case you need one, send me your email id on dev@devender.co.cc Also note that, google+ may not work very well in Mozilla so use chrome especially if you are not able to go beyond join page.

  Yesterday, Diesel and LPG's prices were hiked again. This encouraged me to do an analysis for self-satisfaction on whether these price hikes were necessary (rates have been increased 10 times in last one year) or just result of bad administration on PSUs. Now after talking to some friends who are working in oil industries and internet search. a) I found that following is processing cost for oil companies:       74% - Cost of the crude oil       11% - Taxes Please note: This has been reduced yesterday significantly! (Ref: Link1 and Link2 )       10% - Refining costs       5% - Distribution and marketing (Ref: Link3 ) b) Current crude oil cost: Around USD 100/barrel (Ref: Link4 )           So, total cost of processing is: USD 135/barrel (from (a) and (b))           1 oil barrel= 42 gallon and hence 159 litres (approx)         ...

    I have been studying human body and its various components a lot in past couple of months. Recently, while studying components I again came across the question about, “origin of consciousness” which I discussed here . Well, in tha t post I was more of questioning and trying to draw parallels but now after studying basics of functionality of neurons I believe, I am convinced that consciousness is not really independent or some divine gift.     Neurons are nerve cells and form an important part of our nervous system. Neurons are connected to each other and communicate with electrical signals generated through transfer of ions. These connections effectively act as channels for sensing and determining our behavior like response to any situation. Neurons also store memory (?) and use this memory for taking decisions. If you are familiar with neural logics than you can imagine why they have been named so.     Memory stored in our brain inf...

I so wanted to write on this issue of Maoists and finally I am trying to pen down my thoughts on this issue. Our perception to many things is due to media. It is the news, debates, pictures shown to us etc, make our perception towards any subject. Maoists are termed as greatest concern for India’s security by our PM Manmohan Singh. Very often, in a week or so, we come across some news of violence in which CRPF Jawans killed, trains derailed and many horrifying pictures. When ‘Maoist’ term come to our mind; we kind of picture terrorists and violence. I shall quote here some facts about Maoists and their activities: 1. They are spread across 8 states with estimated 2 lakh supporter and 10,000 armed men. They are confined to the tribal belt. This graph shows Maoists affected areas: map1 and this graph shows India’s mineral belt: map2 2. India doesn’t even have a full-scale survey on its mining resources. Illegal mining in India is wide-spread as concluded by Lokayukta reports. Th...

Once again I was forced into a debate. Debate superficially was on the language ‘haryanvi’ but I believe it was more on mentality and perception of people which make them take decision rather than rational thinking. A group of my 'friends' were discussing something on ‘khap panchayat’ and while passing by, I too tried to crack a joke on that. But suddenly someone criticized people of Haryana for their use of ‘haryanvi’(?). It really pushed me into the discussion and I was surprised at their comments, which were way too offending. I shall start with the comments and later will try to look into a bigger picture behind this. Someone started with an incident referring to the rudeness of the language by giving an example of conductor, who misbehaved with him. I too believe that this dialect is aggressive but can this be used to criticize someone? I mean that guy, who mentioned the incident, could have been born in some village of Haryana and would have been using this same way of...

I am working on bio-materials and have been learning some very cool things. I am not really working on genetic engineering but I got interested after reading about a new discovery in which a group of scientists have mapped the artificially synthesized genes on a natural bacteria. Artificial genes overtook natural genes and replicated to make new cells. I am not writing this post to explain this discovery but about the ‘questions’ that have been erupted by this discovery within me. Let me first make a background first before raising my questions. We all know there are well-defined and finite number of elements (some may not have been discovered yet) but to our knowledge everything has been made by these elements or their combination. Our body, obviously, must have been made from these elements too. I have been working on making materials and know few techniques to make materials. But anything that has been made by any of the materials, that human has synthesized, can not have his own ...

I am writing this post after a heated argument with some of my friends on existence of ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharta’. I did some research and so writing this post based on conclusion derived from my readings. I will be happy to accept any mistakes or unsupported arguments. It’s just my perception made after reading and can be changed if you can furnish some facts and logics. I will be largely writing on Mahabharta as text on internet could be found on that only. Note: My take here is that I ‘doubt’ the existence of ‘Mahabharta’ and so furnishing some text on that. I believe, all these epics have been imagined, or an exaggerated version of some battle (as both Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharta’ are built around battle), written by great scholars to influence the forthcoming generations. Please do not debate on irrelevant topics by giving absurd examples, but if you do have a fact then do share it. 1. Battle of ten kings: There was a mention about a battle of ten kings from different tribes ...