Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

Last updated on 27th Sep. 2021 This post has some quotations of An Wang from his book, "Lessons: An Autobiography", written with Eugene Linden, https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Lessons.html?id=CSTxxSaJPGQC&redir_esc=y , that are general in nature and may not fit in, in the post I have been putting up about An Wang and Wang Laboratories. However, there may be some quotes of his which are mentioned here as well as in the above mentioned other posts of mine. I will be adding to this post as I continue reading his book. From "Introduction" chapter: "But if there is anything that compelled me to write this book, it is to show that success is more a function of consistent common sense than of genius". "Progress does not follow a straight line; the future is not a mere projection of trends in the present. Rather, it is revolutionary (which is why we speak of the computer revolution). It overturns the conventional wisdom of the present, which often...

Readers may want to view my recent post on another blog of mine: My Google Knowledge Panel now gives more importance to my limited Google Scholar profile and ignores my current main role of blogger/social media writer,  https://ravisiyer.blogspot.com/2021/06/my-google-knowledge-panel-now-gives.html . 

Last updated on 23rd June 2021 First an extract from a previous post: Chinese-American computer pioneer An Wang (1920-1990) and Wang Laboratories founded by him: some aspects of their history of interest to me - Part 1 , https://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2021/04/chinese-american-computer-pioneer-wang.html  , 1st April 2021 : An Wang's wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Wang , is interesting. But the IEEE Computers bio (referred to as 'IEEE bio' later in this post) is more detailed: https://history.computer.org/pioneers/wang.html . Note that the IEEE Computers bio states, "This material is drawn largely from Wang's 1986 didactic autobiography (Wang 1986)". This refers to the book Lessons by An Wang (with Eugene Linden),  https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Lessons.html?id=CSTxxSaJPGQC&redir_esc=y .  I could not locate a PDF version of the book or an Indian printer-seller of the book. There are sellers on amazon.in who import used/new hardcov...

Here is 'The Lancet' letter published on 19th February 2020 with the title, "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19", along with the names of all the 27 scientist-authors: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30418-9/fulltext . The relevant paragraph text from it is as follows: The rapid, open, and transparent sharing of data on this outbreak is now being threatened by rumours and misinformation around its origins. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. Scientists from multiple countries have published and analysed genomes of the causative agent, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),[1] and they overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, [2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10] as have so many other emerging path...

Given below are my recent (I think all are from June 2021 posts) Facebook and Twitter posts related  to origin of COVID (SARS-CoV-2) virus. In response to Dr. Rahalkar's tweet:   https://twitter.com/MonaRahalkar/status/1401373129700560899 , I wrote: "Dear Dr. Rahalkar and Dr. Bahulikar, as a fellow resident and citizen of India (and a former Mumbaikar & Dombivlikar), you have my support in this courageous and brilliant investigative & scientific research work that you are doing, without any financial profit motive. ..", ".. Fair criticism of your work should be welcome as that may help improve the knowledge we have of origins of COVID 19. But do not get discouraged by biased criticisms that are aimed at stopping you folks from doing this vital work.",   https://twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer/status/1401401784690614273  , 6th June 2021. In response to Dr. Rahalkar's tweet:   https://twitter.com/MonaRahalkar/status/1400403351687340035 , I wr...

Last updated on 1st June 2021 Today I got my 1st dose COVID vaccination (Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine branded as COVISHIELD) at Primary Health Centre (PHC), Yenumulapalli, Puttaparthi. Please see below pic (some sensitive data is blanked). [To open pic in larger resolution, right-click on pic followed by open link (NOT image) in new tab/window. In new tab/window you may have to click on pic to zoom in.] The vaccination was done in an orderly way with good organization and good social distancing. PHC was not crowded today. I did not have to wait long. I think the process of registration followed by vaccination took around half an hour to an hour. Dr. Nagaraju Naik, who I believe is the key medical officer for the PHC and for Puttaparthi mandal, was very helpful in resolving a small issue I had during registration where some code was needed from a prior registration I had made. This was due to me having tried to schedule a vaccination appointment in end April using CoWIN web portal, https:...

Last updated on 7th June 2021 When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ==========================================    Awesome to see UK democracy in action as it investigates via public hearings, the COVID response of UK government. Dominic Cummings testimony about plans and missteps in UK's response to COVID pandemic in early 2020, gives us one insider view of the matter. Note that some of his testimony has been disputed by UK government, and so some of Cummings account/ views may be wrong. Cummings Covid criticism: Who’s telling the truth? - BBC Newsnight, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s59EjBljaqc , 21 min. 25 secs., published by BBC News on 28th May 2021. Dominic Cummings tells MPs Johnson ‘unfit’ ...