Quote for the day

"Fate it seems isn't without a sense of irony". What you do with your best intentions at heart can come back to bite you in your arse !

Suicidal Instincts

Before i scare the bejesus out of my near and dear, once and for all, lemme make it clear that this is not about me. Might have been one of the most erratic people ever with an unsatiable appetite for speed thrills, but i am a long way from going the kamikaze way... That apart, the eternal optimist in me will never say "die" and the opportunist that i am, will never have to say "die"....

The point i want to touch here is the change in psychological behavior behind suicidal instincts... Suicidal behavior was earlier explained as "psychological pain and mental illness causing irrational thoughts, which are treatable and temporary". Suicide is no longer an irrational decison. Suicide is no longer just for the "losers" who dont have it in them to face hardship, or for selfcentered people who think of nothing else but for the discontent SELF. Heartbreaks and random neural patterns are no longer solely responsible for suicides... Economists have openly claimed that economic theory has been able to explain the "phenomenon"...

It is as simple as valuing life in terms of the amount of happiness the rest of your life has in store, discount that amount by the cost of achieving that happiness and your share of expected sorrow and "if the net present joie de vivre is less than zero, suicide is a viable option". So, do you need more reason to thank the economists for having made suicide a viable option ??? Well..., they gave me more and so i'm just going to pass it on ...

Here is more apriori data for rational thinking... Roughly, only 1 in 20 suicides are successful... and about 2.9 % of U.S population has attempted suicide... Researchers add that people attempting suicide do not choose between life and death... They choose between 3 options...

1. death
2. The life of blues
3. Significantly improved life having survived unscathed.

Suicides happen because of depression and loneliness. All the sudden attention, and publicity in terms of media and tabloid often counter the suicidal instincts of one time attempters. The possibility of options 1 and 3 in terms of percentages out hustle option 2 making suicide a rational decision.

A study found that after people attempt suicide and fail, their incomes increase by an average of 20.6 percent compared to peers who seriously contemplate suicide but never make an attempt. In fact, the more serious the attempt, the larger the boost—"hard-suicide" attempts, in which luck is the only reason the attempts fail, are associated with a 36.3 percent increase in income. Explain that ???

The best example my search revealed was that of Kirk Jones, the guy who jumped the Niagara... He happened to enjoy the thrill of dropping 180 vertical feet without any safety gear, in the company of gushing water flowing at 150,000 gallons per second !!! Jones' parents pinpointed his being jobless as the reason, while a suicide expert pointed out the appeal of dramatic farewell... But then Jones had confided in a friend saying, "If I go over and I live, I am going to make some money," and then it was time to call in the economists. I wonder how much dope he made out of it !!! Here is the link on his story.

Kirk Jones

I get the impression that people who failed with their suicidal attempts realise it takes more guts to end a life than to live on... So just LIVE ON !!!

Any comments ???

Just to say...

I luv you.

People walk in and walk out of my life like i am a theme park. A certain few enjoy the experience but leave me behind, and if i happen to be fortunate enough, i reserve a place in their memories. More than a couple vowed never to cross my path again. Few others want to re-live the moments but are compelled to do otherwise... But, my very best of friends are those chosen souls who enjoy the ride, appreciate the thrill, spread the joy with their infectious cackle, and have never had "enough of me".


Few and far in between, friends like you are a priced possession, i can never let go off... Mighty few have ever tried to unravel the mystiqe and hardly anyone has ever shared the bond we share. However, I cant but be a bum. It ain't even my second nature, its my principle nature and the only way i know to live. To pick a fight and spoil your moments is all i know for now ... and i'm looking forward to a lot more of it :)

sagacity sans sanity .... (cont.)

Seems like the very first post wins the readers choice award... at least thats the way it seems from all the reviews pouring in !!! a long way from being a monograph i understand but then the increasing attention and discussion obligates me to rename the post sanity-insanity 101 :). In the same breath, this post happens to be sanity-insanity 201 :).

Equilibrium could refer to mental or emotional poise (sanity) and thus disequilibrium encompasses everything otherwise. Looking at a broader picture however, equilibrium is a state of balanced influences (counter or otherwise). Assuming that the world is in a state of equilibrium (valid assumption i think) w/ respect to the forces defined previously, I will now make a metaphoric projection of my 3 defined influences, namely sanity, insantiy and cuspy (LOL) onto the better understood vector spaces.

Starting with 3D space, every pt obviously has 3 coordinates (s,i,c). A vector (0,0,0) -> (s,0,0) is a sane vector, a vector (0,0,0) -> (0,i,0) is an insane vecotor, and a vector (0,0,0) -> (0,0,c) is a cuspy vector. Typically, this space will consist of as many vectors as the population in the world, and vectors classified according to the definitions. Generalizing, assuming any arbit shift or rotation of the axes, a plain containing all the cuspy vectors will always be orthogonal to the plane containing all other vectors... Since orthogonal forces on non-rotational systems have no effect, we now take a look at the eigen space projection, rejecting the cuspy vectors.

Continuing with the eigen analysis, i expect to see the eigen values of the cuspy eigen vectors to be insignificant as compared to the eigen values corresponding to the sane eigen vectors and the insane eigen vectors. Ignoring the vectors with lower eigen values, projecting the rest on to eigen space, i expect to see diagonally opposite lobes cancel each other.

Basic Math

Dr. Michael Marcellin, one of the masterminds behind JPEG 2000, the prof who impressed me most during my masters degree once said in class that

0.99999... = 1

is an exact equality and not an approximation. I blinked, and here is the proof he presented,

0.33333.... = 1/3
=> 0.99999... = 1

My stupefied gaze ended in a second blink !!! Definitely a humbling experience... Couldn't have felt any more stupid than i was feeling at that point of time. Taught me to look out for subtle distinctions !!!

he (switch) she - l

Okey ....... this chunk of crap has been inspired by all the languages in the world which don't differentiate between gender... perhaps, setting an example for a good social norm, u think ??? my foot !! c'mon, u got to know the diff between him/her and he/she etc... just my opinion !! and what is my opinion worth ?? well, "my opinion and a dollar could get u coffee at the corner store".

Here is a true instance... I happen to call my friend at this research lab, and his colleague answers the call,

Me: Could i speak to _____ please ?
Chap : SHE is not there.
Me: err... I am calling for ______ .
Chap: Yes, _____. SHE left.

I mean no offense to my friends from C****, nor am i making any derogatory remarks... Every language has its own share of idiosyncrasy. For instance, my own national language, Hindi, has a contrasting peculiarity... Why in the name of God, am i supposed to categorize bicycles, buses, cars, bullock-carts etc... as male or female forms ??? Even worse, how am i supposed to remember that a bus is a female form and a truck is a male form... Agreed, that Indian roads can give them the orgasmic shivers but then it's not like they will ever reproduce... aah thats a nice thought... imagine going to a motor breeding farm instead of a ford dealer to buy a mustang !!! hmm... Motor ranches eh !!!

To be cont...

sagacity sans sanity = insanity

A wise mans crack : "sane and insane can easily switch places with shifting majority"... Assuming a cataclysmic switch of percentages, or a mere case of improper census logging, theoretically, the sane are now insane and vice-versa.

In an effort to be in sync with the existing nomenclature, and not disturbing the sleep of etymologists around the world, i continue to refer to the sane as sane and insane as insane respectively, despite the assumed catastrophe...

Now, spare a thought for those on the cusp ! The ones, who aren't welcome among the sane and who do not identify with the insane... folks fighting insanity only to buy a ticket to (hopefully) everlasting sanity !!! what'd they do... afterall being sane (as in insane after the "switch") will be the thing to do ... Well from what i foresee, the new identity crisis will sooner or later take toll, and drive these guys insane, as in sane in the new world... So, why don't they just declare insanity (as if it were as easy as declaring bankruptcy), force a shift in majority and make the simpler transition :) ???...But then, the insane wouldnt know how to take advantage and if these other guys could think straight, wouldnt they be sane ???? hmmm ......

More when sanity prevails... Hey, i'm thinking u see...