Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Readers may want to read my recent post on another blog of mine: Very relieved to see NY state and USA federal lawmakers, and NY AG speak up in support of attacked Hindu priest in Queens, New York City, and in support of Hindu community there,  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/07/very-relieved-to-see-ny-state-and-usa.html .

https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2549253681957860 , 22nd July 2019 Great to know that the lift off proceeded well. Prayers and best wishes for the rest of the mission including the vital part of landing an unmanned rover on the moon. [Shared article: India Launches Chandrayaan-2 Moon Mission on Second Try, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/world/asia/chandrayaan-india-moon-launch.html , 22nd July 2019] ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2549263165290245 , 22nd July 2019 Nice overview of Chandrayaan 2 mission: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XUZ-ZN21pI , 6 min. 24 secs, published by DW News. ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2549265871956641 , 22nd July 2019 An around 2 min video of Chandrayaan 2 launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNNUuB21W44 , published by NDTV. ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2549331548616740 , 22nd July 2019 Hats off to ISRO for working so hard to fix the technical snag and then get...

https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2547816175434944 , 20th July 2019 The moon landing at 50: Neil Armstrong in his own words, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvmFeJu4maU , around 14 mins. published by 60 minutes on 14th July 2019. I thoroughly enjoyed this 2005 interview of Neil Armstrong. ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2547828465433715 , 21st July 2019 Fascinating account of moon landing by Buzz Aldrin in 2016: Hear Buzz Aldrin tell the story of the first moon landing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvG6ZlpLrI , 10 min 10 secs, published by Science Museum on 18th July 2019 ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2547836955432866 , 21st July 2019 Enjoyed this Michael Collins interview: What Apollo 11 pilot Michael Collins feared most during critical NASA mission, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ5rangYxng , around 10 mins published by PBS NewsHour on 18th July 2019 ---- https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/254783817543...

Given below are my recent Facebook posts and my comments on it, related to USA president Trump's tweets about "go back" and the "send her back" chants at his rally. This is followed by my post wondering whether I should stop writing publicly on Mr. Trump's statements & policies related to USA, followed by my decision to do so (stop writing publicly). https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2542529242630304 on 14th July 2019 (slightly edited) Am making an exception in my policy of not commenting publicly about USA politics. I think there is some truth to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's view of this matter as expressed in this tweet response of hers to USA President Donald Trump's tweet: "When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to “Make America Great Again” has always been about making America white again. Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.", h...

http://cochinroyalhistory.org/profile.php has an interesting account of life of Cochin Royal Family member, Dr.Kocha Varma (Kochanujan Thampuran Rama Varma), who was born in 1937. His early life was in Tripunithura, Kerala. He studied medicine in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Karnataka. He later went to USA in end 1965 to become a medical intern in a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He became a urologist and set up his own practice in USA. He moved back to Kerala, India in 1993 but moved back to USA a year later. He got interested in Cochin Royal Family history and Kerala history. He invested a lot of time and effort for amateur historical research like visiting the British library in London, a historian in Netherlands and tracking down family history of General John Munro of Scotland, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Munro,_9th_of_Teaninich . [Munro, 1778-1858 was a Scottish soldier and was "Resident and Diwan of the States of Travancore and Cochin between 1810 and 1819...

Readers may want to see my recent post on another blog here: Indian self-publishing platform companies like Pothi and Notion Press are doing great service to the nation through their very affordable book publication services, https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2019/07/indian-self-publishing-platform.html .

Last updated on 8th July 2019 Readers who do not like to read about boxing may please skip reading the rest of this post. Mike Tyson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Tyson , rose to fame, I think, in the second half of the 1980s. During my USA stints in that period, I saw a lot of Mike Tyson on TV. Heavyweight boxing was not something that I felt was a nice sport in any way, but the raw violence and brutality of the fight in the ring was a reality that was heavily telecast on USA TV channels. So I did see fair bit of those fights and recognized that such brutal contests of raw physical and violent power had a significant following in the USA. Mike Tyson was the brutal king of heavyweight boxing then. I don't think I have seen (on TV) any contemporary person who was more intimidating than Mike Tyson in the boxing ring. Before I share some videos of his ferocious attacks in the ring, I have to mention that Mike Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and released on parole aft...

Some extracts of USA President Trump's remarks on 4th July 2019, from https://www.c-span.org/video/?462091-1/president-trump-speaks-4th-july-celebration , which have been edited for accurate transcription of President Trump's words (the link above has an automatically created transcript): [Around 00:07:10] ON THIS DAY 243 YEARS AGO, OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PLEDGED THEIR LIVES, THEIR FORTUNES, AND THEIR SACRED HONOR TO DECLARE INDEPENDENCE AND DEFEND OUR GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS. [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 00:07:25 THOMAS JEFFERSON WROTE THE WORDS THAT FOREVER CHANGED THE COURSE OF HUMANITY. "WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT, THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, THAT THEY ARE ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR WITH CERTAIN UNALIENABLE RIGHTS, THAT AMONG THESE ARE LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS." [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 00:07:51 WITH A SINGLE SHEET OF PARCHMENT AND 56 SIGNATURES, AMERICA BEGAN THE GREATEST POLITICAL JOURNEY IN HUMAN HISTORY. BUT ON THAT DAY, THE PATRIOTS W...