Planet ISKCON

Dear devotees,

I am amazed at the events of the past few days.

First: The Lord is so wonderful in his arrangements. We all, thru the grace of Dasanudas Prabhu, are able to communicate with each other with the group though we have literally been flung into the wind. Being separated by hundreds of miles and state lines and we are all still a community. SriSri Radha-RadhaKanta will pull us all back together again, of this I am sure.

Second: As Mata Sri mentioned their Lordships at Sankirtan Dham have rescued themselves, what else can explain the way the Dallas Devotees got thru all the military and police blockades to rescue the stricken devotees and the Dieties and bring them to Dallas. The devotees in Houston were talking about this today, it is truly one of the Lords Pastimes.

I am in Houston where the Devotees at the Houston Temple (it is a beautiful temple!) are pouring thier hearts out to us. I received so many wonderful blessings from them (plus the ecstatic Prasad). I have a nice place to stay near Rice University provided by my Brother, And I am OK.

I met a devotee here in Houston who expressed concern about Ajamila Prabhu. Does anyone know where he and his wife are? This Devotee is Sarvabauma Das and he can be contacted at sarva1@aol.com if anyone knows about Ajamila or is in touch with him please send Sarvabhauma an email.

I can't get in touch with Kapardini, she is in Alachua and very concerned about Kirtada and the children. I talked to her this morning when she called me here. I feel bad for her, I wish there was something I could do to help but I don't know what happened to Kirtada. If anyone is in contact with her tell her not to try to go back to Picayune yet looking for her daughter because the situation there is still bad. I have emailed her but got no response and can't call her. She should try the Red Cross or try contacting FEMA or the MS State Police to try to locate Kirtada. I have described to her the location she was at in Ozona, but there is no address available.
I am so glad to hear that so many of us are safe and sound. I was asked about Jogendra Prabhu also, Is he still at the farm? I know Dasanudas is (right?).

I have really been shaken to the core by this storm. I came very close to being killed by my own foolishness. I was in the carport, huddling between my car and the wall, when a tornado struck my neighbors house, tearing off his roof and throwing it towards me. The roof crashed in the field about 100 ft from me while the twister screamed past my house ripping up all the trees, It passed within about 30 ft from me (I was somewhat protected being in the carport). If I had been exposed to the wind I would not be here, if it had been 30 ft to the west I would have been "gone with the wind". I have never been so scared in my life, I was shaking very badly after that as I hunkered down in the center of my house on the floor, crying out "hare Krishna hare Krishna Krishna Krishna hare hare hare rama hare rama hare hare" convinced I was about to die. That was the eyewall that passed over. Then all of a sudden it all stopped and the eye passed over us. I felt The Lord had spared my useless life and I crawled out to see the devastation.

I will never be the same.

ys
Talavan das

(chapter from God and Science by Richard L. Thompson)

Some scientists attempt to unify science with religion. John A. O'Keefe of NASA, Owen Gingerich of the Harvard Smithsonian and Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Studies all have expressed various way in they believe divinity has a place in science. The most popular idea is that God started the big bang ("let there be light") and, from then on, everything unfolded according to the laws of science.

However, Darwinist scientists such as Stephen Hawkings disagree. There was no "creation". God is just an idea that comes about in human society by the natural process of evolution. Religious belief is just another thing to be studied and eventually fully explained by science. Darwinism totally rejects the idea of any spiritual being controlling nature in any way. God and Darwinism are wholly incompatible.

(chapter from God and Science by Richard L. Thompson)

Some scientists attempt to unify science with religion. John A. O'Keefe of NASA, Owen Gingerich of the Harvard Smithsonian and Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Studies all have expressed various way in they believe divinity has a place in science. The most popular idea is that God started the big bang ("let there be light") and, from then on, everything unfolded according to the laws of science.

However, Darwinist scientists such as Stephen Hawkings disagree. There was no "creation". God is just an idea that comes about in human society by the natural process of evolution. Religious belief is just another thing to be studied and eventually fully explained by science. Darwinism totally rejects the idea of any spiritual being controlling nature in any way. God and Darwinism are wholly incompatible.

Dear Devotees and Friends,

Hare Krsna! Thanks for the prayers, love and practical assistance.

As far as helping hungry people in the devastated Gulf Coast area, devotees from New Talavan and temples in Dallas, Houston, New Vrndavan (our farm community near Moundsville, West Virginia), Washington DC, and Alachua, Florida certainly beat President Bush to the punch. We are already sending teams to the stricken Gulf Coast towns of Waveland, Biloxi and Gulfport to distribute prasadam: sanctified vegetarian food offered to Krsna—God—with love and devotion. Needless to say, our small efforts have been received with gratitude by the storm-tossed residents.

However, after great emotional pleading from local area officials, the Federal government is beginning to make its presence felt in this area. It will take a long time for complete recovery, but the agencies are finally working.

As far as ISKCON in the local area, our book distribution may decrease for the time being, but prasadam distribution is certainly on the increase.

Signing off for now,

Yogindra das
Temple president,
ISKCON New Talavan

Dear Devotees and Friends,

Hare Krsna! Thanks for the prayers, love and practical assistance.

As far as helping hungry people in the devastated Gulf Coast area, devotees from New Talavan and temples in Dallas, Houston, New Vrndavan (our farm community near Moundsville, West Virginia), Washington DC, and Alachua, Florida certainly beat President Bush to the punch. We are already sending teams to the stricken Gulf Coast towns of Waveland, Biloxi and Gulfport to distribute prasadam: sanctified vegetarian food offered to Krsna—God—with love and devotion. Needless to say, our small efforts have been received with gratitude by the storm-tossed residents.

However, after great emotional pleading from local area officials, the Federal government is beginning to make its presence felt in this area. It will take a long time for complete recovery, but the agencies are finally working.

As far as ISKCON in the local area, our book distribution may decrease for the time being, but prasadam distribution is certainly on the increase.

Signing off for now,

Yogindra das
Temple president,
ISKCON New Talavan

(God and Science by Richard L. Thompson is a collection of essays and papers on those subjects. I??(TM)ll be summarizing each essay over the coming months. The book's website may be found here. Please buy the book if you want to full story and full theoretical background.)

Our consciousness is non-material, a supreme consciousness exists, which also non-material and matter exists, which is a very complex machine. We are conscious living beings with free will, but are seated as in a rollercoaster ride in our material bodies. We experience our lives, but cannot directly influence events in the material world. We may think we can lift our arm when we desire to, but actually we cannot do anything.

However, we do have the capacity to desire. This is where the supreme consciousness comes in. It acts as a link between the physical world and our spiritual consciousness. This super-conscious living being is aware of all our desires and arranges for them to be fulfilled as best possible, taking into account other people??(TM)s desires, the laws of physics, subtle laws, such as the reactions to our past activities (karma) and his own universal plan.

Well known experiments show how people can influence a random number generator simply by trying to ??oewill it?? in a certain direction. This phenomenon can easily be explained in the above model of reality. The supreme consciousness, to a certain extent, fulfills the living beings??(TM) desires for the random number generator to produce a certain output. Quantum mechanical uncertainty is the result of God making micro-adjustments in the physical world to fulfill everyone??(TM)s desire.

(God and Science by Richard L. Thompson is a collection of essays and papers on those subjects. I??(TM)ll be summarizing each essay over the coming months. The book's website may be found here. Please buy the book if you want to full story and full theoretical background.)

Our consciousness is non-material, a supreme consciousness exists, which also non-material and matter exists, which is a very complex machine. We are conscious living beings with free will, but are seated as in a rollercoaster ride in our material bodies. We experience our lives, but cannot directly influence events in the material world. We may think we can lift our arm when we desire to, but actually we cannot do anything.

However, we do have the capacity to desire. This is where the supreme consciousness comes in. It acts as a link between the physical world and our spiritual consciousness. This super-conscious living being is aware of all our desires and arranges for them to be fulfilled as best possible, taking into account other people??(TM)s desires, the laws of physics, subtle laws, such as the reactions to our past activities (karma) and his own universal plan.

Well known experiments show how people can influence a random number generator simply by trying to ??oewill it?? in a certain direction. This phenomenon can easily be explained in the above model of reality. The supreme consciousness, to a certain extent, fulfills the living beings??(TM) desires for the random number generator to produce a certain output. Quantum mechanical uncertainty is the result of God making micro-adjustments in the physical world to fulfill everyone??(TM)s desire.

17|1Last week I was in Swansea, Wales for Krishna's birthday (Janmastami). On this day, roughly 5000 years ago Krishna appeared on Earth. He stayed for a total of 125 years and then disappeared from our vision to some other pastime on some other planet, just like the sun sets in one part of the world, but remains visible in another.

It was really nice. Since the celebration fell on a weekday, the festival was quite small. A nice family atmosphere. The day after, Srila Prabhupada's birthday, was just as nice. Hearing about Prabhupada all day long was very inspiring.

Realization: I can be perfectly satisfied simply making garlands all day for Krishna. There is no need for all kinds of extravagant entertainment and technology. A simple life of bliss and knowledge is such much better than the rat-race of modern society. But then again, happiness in Krishna consciousness does not depend on external conditions. One can be happy in any situation, if you follows the Krishna conscious process. I'm beginning to see and experience that more and more.

Enjoy the photos (I didn't take very many this time).

17|1Last week I was in Swansea, Wales for Krishna's birthday (Janmastami). On this day, roughly 5000 years ago Krishna appeared on Earth. He stayed for a total of 125 years and then disappeared from our vision to some other pastime on some other planet, just like the sun sets in one part of the world, but remains visible in another.

It was really nice. Since the celebration fell on a weekday, the festival was quite small. A nice family atmosphere. The day after, Srila Prabhupada's birthday, was just as nice. Hearing about Prabhupada all day long was very inspiring.

Realization: I can be perfectly satisfied simply making garlands all day for Krishna. There is no need for all kinds of extravagant entertainment and technology. A simple life of bliss and knowledge is such much better than the rat-race of modern society. But then again, happiness in Krishna consciousness does not depend on external conditions. One can be happy in any situation, if you follows the Krishna conscious process. I'm beginning to see and experience that more and more.

Enjoy the photos (I didn't take very many this time).

Gopal Guru has published a very insightful post about the recent disaster hurricane Katrina. It's much better than anything I could have written. Read it here.

Gopal Guru has published a very insightful post about the recent disaster hurricane Katrina. It's much better than anything I could have written. Read it here.

I'm reading The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky at the moment. It contains some interesting essays. I'll be summarizing some of them as I read more of the book.

The Pitfalls of Outsourcing Programmers by Michael Bean talks about how companies (especially American ones) go outsourcing-mad and outsource software development to foreign countries (especially India). This is bad since these companies thereby throw away their capacity to innovate. The people driving the core business assets should be kept as physically close together as possible. Their unique set of skills are what differentiates an organization from the competition. A company is otherwise just a generic aggregation of commodity services. There is no added value in that.

Question: is the practice of certain temples that, in-effect, outsource their deity worship (by importing devotees from other countries to do the service) also confusing the box with the milk sweet?

I'm reading The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky at the moment. It contains some interesting essays. I'll be summarizing some of them as I read more of the book.

The Pitfalls of Outsourcing Programmers by Michael Bean talks about how companies (especially American ones) go outsourcing-mad and outsource software development to foreign countries (especially India). This is bad since these companies thereby throw away their capacity to innovate. The people driving the core business assets should be kept as physically close together as possible. Their unique set of skills are what differentiates an organization from the competition. A company is otherwise just a generic aggregation of commodity services. There is no added value in that.

Question: is the practice of certain temples that, in-effect, outsource their deity worship (by importing devotees from other countries to do the service) also confusing the box with the milk sweet?

My first peer-reviewed academic research paper just got accepted. I'll be presenting my work at a conference workshop in Banff, Canada in early October. You can read the paper in the new publications section of my website.

My first peer-reviewed academic research paper just got accepted. I'll be presenting my work at a conference workshop in Banff, Canada in early October. You can read the paper in the new publications section of my website.

Thank you Srila Prabhupada for all your transcendental literature. When I was first leaning about Krishna consciousness someone sold me a Krishna Book at the London Rathayatra (2001). I had previously tried to read your Bhagavad-Gita, but was too proud and contaminated with impersonalism and atheism to understand even a word of it. Then however, upon reading your so expertly composed Krishna Book my skeptic mentality was defeated.

"This is so amazing, it must be true, no one could have made something like this up", I though, reading pastime after pastime.

I would also like to thank you for all the amazing devotees you have cultivated, both directly and indirectly. Your power to transform people is extraordinary. You have taught by your personal example how to be a pure devotee of Krishna and have also empowered others to become acharyas in the same way. We are all eternally indebted to you for this. The only way to repay part of this unlimited debt is to pass it on to others.

I can see how my own spiritual master, your disciple Devamrita Swami, extends so much personal care and attention to me, just as you undoubtedly cared so much for him. I wish that I may also one day be able to help others in the same way. I have so much to learn about this Krishna conscious process. Please give me shelter at your lotus feet.

Your servant,
Candidasa dasa

Thank you Srila Prabhupada for all your transcendental literature. When I was first leaning about Krishna consciousness someone sold me a Krishna Book at the London Rathayatra (2001). I had previously tried to read your Bhagavad-Gita, but was too proud and contaminated with impersonalism and atheism to understand even a word of it. Then however, upon reading your so expertly composed Krishna Book my skeptic mentality was defeated.

"This is so amazing, it must be true, no one could have made something like this up", I though, reading pastime after pastime.

I would also like to thank you for all the amazing devotees you have cultivated, both directly and indirectly. Your power to transform people is extraordinary. You have taught by your personal example how to be a pure devotee of Krishna and have also empowered others to become acharyas in the same way. We are all eternally indebted to you for this. The only way to repay part of this unlimited debt is to pass it on to others.

I can see how my own spiritual master, your disciple Devamrita Swami, extends so much personal care and attention to me, just as you undoubtedly cared so much for him. I wish that I may also one day be able to help others in the same way. I have so much to learn about this Krishna conscious process. Please give me shelter at your lotus feet.

Your servant,
Candidasa dasa

DS: The body is meant for aching, might as well ache for Krishna.

DS: Herbs from the Amazon that will help your sore back.
BKD: Where do you get all this stuff, Gurudeva?
DS: Secrets of the Swamis.

DS: Yes, the famous Manchester rut. It's like a something that fossilizes you. A weight that pushes everyone down so they are unable to get up and free themselves. The mode of ignorance.

Cooked:

Day 1:
Cherry-Tomato lettuce salad
Kumara and Broccoli with Arrowroot
Green beans, peas and carrot subji
Split mung dal
Turmeric basmati rice with wild rice

Day 2:
Sak
Asparagus subji
Sweet potato pie
Radish, carrot and lettuce salad
Corn on cob
Brown basmati rice with wild rice

DS: The body is meant for aching, might as well ache for Krishna.

DS: Herbs from the Amazon that will help your sore back.
BKD: Where do you get all this stuff, Gurudeva?
DS: Secrets of the Swamis.

DS: Yes, the famous Manchester rut. It's like a something that fossilizes you. A weight that pushes everyone down so they are unable to get up and free themselves. The mode of ignorance.

Cooked:

Day 1:
Cherry-Tomato lettuce salad
Kumara and Broccoli with Arrowroot
Green beans, peas and carrot subji
Split mung dal
Turmeric basmati rice with wild rice

Day 2:
Sak
Asparagus subji
Sweet potato pie
Radish, carrot and lettuce salad
Corn on cob
Brown basmati rice with wild rice

16|1Yesterday was really, really fun. I attended the Rathayatra in Cardiff, Wales.

There was a huge procession with hundreds of people through the streets of downtown Cardiff ending up in a peaceful park surrounded by an old castle wall. The kirtan (chanting) lasted for over three hours, non-stop. Maha-Visnu Swami was running around like-mad with his accordion (as usual). Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami gave a brilliant introductory talk. I met lots of old friends from all over the UK.

The whole event was well planned and organized. The heavens smiled upon the whole affair by supplying beaming sunshine throughout. All in all, a most excellent Krishna conscious experience.

Krishna consciousness is so nice. The festival made everyone super-happy. See the pictures, though be warned, I took many.

16|1Yesterday was really, really fun. I attended the Rathayatra in Cardiff, Wales.

There was a huge procession with hundreds of people through the streets of downtown Cardiff ending up in a peaceful park surrounded by an old castle wall. The kirtan (chanting) lasted for over three hours, non-stop. Maha-Visnu Swami was running around like-mad with his accordion (as usual). Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami gave a brilliant introductory talk. I met lots of old friends from all over the UK.

The whole event was well planned and organized. The heavens smiled upon the whole affair by supplying beaming sunshine throughout. All in all, a most excellent Krishna conscious experience.

Krishna consciousness is so nice. The festival made everyone super-happy. See the pictures, though be warned, I took many.

After analyzing my personality I thought I would think a bit about Krishna's personality. To better understand it, I'll try to characterize it in terms of its similarity to several popular personalities from Star Wars and Star Trek. I'm no expert, so please correct me if and when I am wrong.

The Nectar of Devotion, Second Wave, Chapter 23 describes Krishna's personality. It characterizes him as simultaneously having four opposing personalities. This is not contradictory. I would, in fact, expect nothing less from him. This is God: far from being an impersonal oneness, he has the most variegated and interesting personality in existence. Moreover, it??(TM)s all described, in detail, in the Vedic literature.

Dh?«rod?tta

A dh?«rod?tta is a person who is naturally very grave, gentle, forgiving, merciful, determined, humble, highly qualified, chivalrous and physically attractive. Krishna exhibited this mood when he lifted Govardhana Hill. The NOD also gives the example of Lord R?macandra as a dh?«rod?tta personality.

To me like this sounds like an introverted, task oriented/thinking personality. That would make Krishna similar to the personalities of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Boba Fett and Yoda from Star Wars.

"Things are only impossible until they're not." - Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: TNG)

Dh?«ra-lalita

A person is called dh?«ra-lalita if he is naturally very funny, always in full youthfulness, expert in joking and free from all anxieties. Krishna shows this personality when he teases and embarrasses R?dh?r?n?£?«. Cupid is also described as a dh?«ra-lalita.

To me this seems to be an extroverted, people oriented/feeling personality. This personality is similar to Anakin Skywalker, Jar-Jar Binks and Captain Kirk.

"We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job." ??" Captain Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager)

Dh?«ra-pra?>?nta

A person who is very peaceful, forbearing, considerate and obliging is called dh?«ra-pra?>?nta. Krishna, when serving the P?n?£d?£ava brothers, is an example of this aspect of his personality. Some scholars also characterize King Yudhis?£t?£hira in this way.

This sounds very much like an introverted, people oriented/feeling personality. Film characters who share this trait with Krishna include Princess Padm?© Amidala, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker and C3PO.

"Why don't we look at this from a mosquito's point of view?" ??" Dr. Beverly Crusher (Star Trek: TNG)

Dh?«roddhata

A person who is very envious, proud, easily angered, restless and complacent is called dh?«roddhata by learned scholars. Such qualities were visible in the character of Lord Kr?£s?£n?£a, because when He was writing a letter to K?layavana, Kr?£s?£n?£a addressed him as a sinful frog. Sometimes Bh?«ma, the second brother of the P?n?£d?£avas, is also described as dh?«roddhata.

An extroverted, task oriented/thinking personality-type fits this description. Characters like R2-D2, Han Solo and Jabba the Hut also have this personality.

"No one gets the best of me in my kitchen!" ??" Neelix (Star Trek: Voyager)

After analyzing my personality I thought I would think a bit about Krishna's personality. To better understand it, I'll try to characterize it in terms of its similarity to several popular personalities from Star Wars and Star Trek. I'm no expert, so please correct me if and when I am wrong.

The Nectar of Devotion, Second Wave, Chapter 23 describes Krishna's personality. It characterizes him as simultaneously having four opposing personalities. This is not contradictory. I would, in fact, expect nothing less from him. This is God: far from being an impersonal oneness, he has the most variegated and interesting personality in existence. Moreover, it??(TM)s all described, in detail, in the Vedic literature.

Dh?«rod?tta

A dh?«rod?tta is a person who is naturally very grave, gentle, forgiving, merciful, determined, humble, highly qualified, chivalrous and physically attractive. Krishna exhibited this mood when he lifted Govardhana Hill. The NOD also gives the example of Lord R?macandra as a dh?«rod?tta personality.

To me like this sounds like an introverted, task oriented/thinking personality. That would make Krishna similar to the personalities of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Boba Fett and Yoda from Star Wars.

"Things are only impossible until they're not." - Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek: TNG)

Dh?«ra-lalita

A person is called dh?«ra-lalita if he is naturally very funny, always in full youthfulness, expert in joking and free from all anxieties. Krishna shows this personality when he teases and embarrasses R?dh?r?n?£?«. Cupid is also described as a dh?«ra-lalita.

To me this seems to be an extroverted, people oriented/feeling personality. This personality is similar to Anakin Skywalker, Jar-Jar Binks and Captain Kirk.

"We're Starfleet officers. Weird is part of the job." ??" Captain Janeway (Star Trek: Voyager)

Dh?«ra-pra?>?nta

A person who is very peaceful, forbearing, considerate and obliging is called dh?«ra-pra?>?nta. Krishna, when serving the P?n?£d?£ava brothers, is an example of this aspect of his personality. Some scholars also characterize King Yudhis?£t?£hira in this way.

This sounds very much like an introverted, people oriented/feeling personality. Film characters who share this trait with Krishna include Princess Padm?© Amidala, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker and C3PO.

"Why don't we look at this from a mosquito's point of view?" ??" Dr. Beverly Crusher (Star Trek: TNG)

Dh?«roddhata

A person who is very envious, proud, easily angered, restless and complacent is called dh?«roddhata by learned scholars. Such qualities were visible in the character of Lord Kr?£s?£n?£a, because when He was writing a letter to K?layavana, Kr?£s?£n?£a addressed him as a sinful frog. Sometimes Bh?«ma, the second brother of the P?n?£d?£avas, is also described as dh?«roddhata.

An extroverted, task oriented/thinking personality-type fits this description. Characters like R2-D2, Han Solo and Jabba the Hut also have this personality.

"No one gets the best of me in my kitchen!" ??" Neelix (Star Trek: Voyager)

15|1
I've uploaded the photos I took last week at the IJCAI conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh International Conference Center is certainly an impressive building. It also is probably the most expensive conference venue in the UK.

Anyway, enjoy.

15|1
I've uploaded the photos I took last week at the IJCAI conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh International Conference Center is certainly an impressive building. It also is probably the most expensive conference venue in the UK.

Anyway, enjoy.

Guardian Inspector (ISTJ: Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging)

Overview:

• Extremely thorough, responsible, and dependable.
• Serious and quiet, interested in security and peaceful living.
• Well-developed powers of concentration.
• Usually interested in supporting and promoting traditions and establishments.
• Well-organized and hard working, they work steadily towards identified goals.
• They can usually accomplish any task once they have set their mind to it.

Frequency: 6%

Star Trek type: Spock and Chief Miles O'Brien

Star Wars type: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin (this site also has links to some very good practical tips for the various different personalities)

Values:

• Productivity
• Conformity, Tradition, Duty and Service
• Reliability, Etiquette, Protocols
• Structure, Order, Attention to Detail

Leadership style:

• Traditionalist, Stabilizer, Consolidator
• Strategy Management, Logistics
• Processes, Routines, Policies, Rules and Regulations

More about my personality:

• Keirsey type (I'm like Queen Elizabeth II)
• Jedi Girl community (a nice colorful site, also has a list of good carriers by type)
• Joe Butt's Type Logic site (find personality relationship analysis software here)
• Myers-Briggs type (some excellent tips here)

Personality testing and evaluation:

• Socionics has an excellent personality self-test and tool to evaluate how two different personalities relate with one another.

(Thanks to Sitapati and Tri-Yuga for the initial info)

Guardian Inspector (ISTJ: Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judging)

Overview:

• Extremely thorough, responsible, and dependable.
• Serious and quiet, interested in security and peaceful living.
• Well-developed powers of concentration.
• Usually interested in supporting and promoting traditions and establishments.
• Well-organized and hard working, they work steadily towards identified goals.
• They can usually accomplish any task once they have set their mind to it.

Frequency: 6%

Star Trek type: Spock and Chief Miles O'Brien

Star Wars type: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin (this site also has links to some very good practical tips for the various different personalities)

Values:

• Productivity
• Conformity, Tradition, Duty and Service
• Reliability, Etiquette, Protocols
• Structure, Order, Attention to Detail

Leadership style:

• Traditionalist, Stabilizer, Consolidator
• Strategy Management, Logistics
• Processes, Routines, Policies, Rules and Regulations

More about my personality:

• Keirsey type (I'm like Queen Elizabeth II)
• Jedi Girl community (a nice colorful site, also has a list of good carriers by type)
• Joe Butt's Type Logic site (find personality relationship analysis software here)
• Myers-Briggs type (some excellent tips here)

Personality testing and evaluation:

• Socionics has an excellent personality self-test and tool to evaluate how two different personalities relate with one another.

(Thanks to Sitapati and Tri-Yuga for the initial info)

Today: I finished reading the Srimad Bhagavatam for the second time. I can't wait to get into the Caitanya Caritamrita again. They are both so very amazing to read.

Today: I finished reading the Srimad Bhagavatam for the second time. I can't wait to get into the Caitanya Caritamrita again. They are both so very amazing to read.

"We are not against the advancement of modern technology although it's suicidal."
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (the way only he could say it)

"We are not against the advancement of modern technology although it's suicidal."
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (the way only he could say it)

The UK government has decided to change the way university fees work. They claim this change is to help the poorest students to be able to afford an education. It's fairly complicated with different amounts of loans, bursaries, grants and fees. However, cutting through all the fluff, it turns out that, on-average, students starting university this September will end up paying about double the amount of money for their education (tuition fees have tripled, but do not need to be paid until after gradation).

Average student debt (from Natwest Student Money Matters Survey):
2002: ?£2,489
2003: ?£8,125

Estimated average student debt at graduation (from annual Barclays Student Survey):
2004: ?£12,069
2006: ?£17,561
2010: ?£33,708

According to the NatWest survey the average monthly expense of a student breaks down as follows (figures for 2004):

Rent:	?£289.60
Food shopping:	?£78.73
Alcohol:	?£74.14
Going out:	?£62.40
Cigarettes:	?£70.00
Clothes:	?£53.56
Eating out:	?£53.47
Utilities:	?£58.76
Transport:	?£54.56
Phone:	?£44.29
Books:	?£38.13
Monthly total:	?£877.64

The UK government isn't stupid. They have as a target: "to have 50% of young people enter higher education by 2010". Why do they want nearly everyone in the country to have the equivalent of NZ$ 100k debt? Is this some conspiracy to control the people?

Guru's answer: "It's the new version of the old serfdom.
University students now equal the peasantry."

The UK government has decided to change the way university fees work. They claim this change is to help the poorest students to be able to afford an education. It's fairly complicated with different amounts of loans, bursaries, grants and fees. However, cutting through all the fluff, it turns out that, on-average, students starting university this September will end up paying about double the amount of money for their education (tuition fees have tripled, but do not need to be paid until after gradation).

Average student debt (from Natwest Student Money Matters Survey):
2002: ?£2,489
2003: ?£8,125

Estimated average student debt at graduation (from annual Barclays Student Survey):
2004: ?£12,069
2006: ?£17,561
2010: ?£33,708

According to the NatWest survey the average monthly expense of a student breaks down as follows (figures for 2004):

Rent:	?£289.60
Food shopping:	?£78.73
Alcohol:	?£74.14
Going out:	?£62.40
Cigarettes:	?£70.00
Clothes:	?£53.56
Eating out:	?£53.47
Utilities:	?£58.76
Transport:	?£54.56
Phone:	?£44.29
Books:	?£38.13
Monthly total:	?£877.64

The UK government isn't stupid. They have as a target: "to have 50% of young people enter higher education by 2010". Why do they want nearly everyone in the country to have the equivalent of NZ$ 100k debt? Is this some conspiracy to control the people?

Guru's answer: "It's the new version of the old serfdom.
University students now equal the peasantry."

The conference is over. Over 300 papers were presented. Over 1000 people attended.

The last day started with an interesting keynote from a researcher from Sarcos Corp. Sarcos make robots. For example (in chronological order from the late '80s until today):

• Utah artificial arm: a realistic looking replacement arm for amputees which picks up the small electrical current on the limb stump and uses it to control a motorized elbow and finger-grabbing action. Not as good as a real arm, but much better than no arm at all. Bionic man is coming.
• Dexterous undersea arm with gravity compensation: a huge half-a-ton arm for undersea operation that can be remote controlled from an arm-glove-like device. It can, at one moment, pick up a raw egg without breaking the shell and the next pick up and throw a 150 kg anvil.
• Disney theme park humanoid robots: fast moving robots that, for example, sword-fight each other.
• Jurassic Park theme park dinosaurs: for example, a huge 40000 kg moving T-Rex for a water ride. They had to slow-down the movement of the robot, because it caused the entire building to shake.
• Las Vegas Bellagio Robotic Fountains: 224 robotic super-high-pressure water shooters that can be programmed to quickly rotate in any direction while shooting water and thereby deliver artistic flowing water displays (price: $37000 each)
• Micro surgery tube and video camera: a flexible robotic tube that can be feed through an artery from the hip all the way up into the brain to repair critical damage and stop internal bleeding
• Exoskeleton XOS-1: an exoskeleton which makes carrying 100 kg on ones back feel like 5 kg and enables the wearer to otherwise move as he or should would normally. Developed for the US military for use in a variety of combat conditions.

Statistical Machine translation is getting good. Google has created a corpus of 200 millions words of multi-language-aligned training data and made it available for researchers. RAM is becoming cheap enough to make complex phrase based translation algorithms feasible. The results in translating the world's most spoken languages (in this order: Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, French) into each other are getting really good. Sentience structure is a bit weird, but the translations are fully understandable.

Oh yes, Peter Patel Schneider thinks that the semantic web is doomed. The RDF foundation on which the semantic web is based can't be extended to support First-Order Logic without introducing paradoxes. One could, for example, use FOL RDF to say: "this sentence is false". The RDF triple syntax is not expressive enough to prevent these kinds of illogical statements. Tragic, isn't it?

Now I'll have to spend some time detoxing from all the materialism I've been absorbed in for the past week.

(Update: check out some Sarcos Robot videos here)

The conference is over. Over 300 papers were presented. Over 1000 people attended.

The last day started with an interesting keynote from a researcher from Sarcos Corp. Sarcos make robots. For example (in chronological order from the late '80s until today):

• Utah artificial arm: a realistic looking replacement arm for amputees which picks up the small electrical current on the limb stump and uses it to control a motorized elbow and finger-grabbing action. Not as good as a real arm, but much better than no arm at all. Bionic man is coming.
• Dexterous undersea arm with gravity compensation: a huge half-a-ton arm for undersea operation that can be remote controlled from an arm-glove-like device. It can, at one moment, pick up a raw egg without breaking the shell and the next pick up and throw a 150 kg anvil.
• Disney theme park humanoid robots: fast moving robots that, for example, sword-fight each other.
• Jurassic Park theme park dinosaurs: for example, a huge 40000 kg moving T-Rex for a water ride. They had to slow-down the movement of the robot, because it caused the entire building to shake.
• Las Vegas Bellagio Robotic Fountains: 224 robotic super-high-pressure water shooters that can be programmed to quickly rotate in any direction while shooting water and thereby deliver artistic flowing water displays (price: $37000 each)
• Micro surgery tube and video camera: a flexible robotic tube that can be feed through an artery from the hip all the way up into the brain to repair critical damage and stop internal bleeding
• Exoskeleton XOS-1: an exoskeleton which makes carrying 100 kg on ones back feel like 5 kg and enables the wearer to otherwise move as he or should would normally. Developed for the US military for use in a variety of combat conditions.

Statistical Machine translation is getting good. Google has created a corpus of 200 millions words of multi-language-aligned training data and made it available for researchers. RAM is becoming cheap enough to make complex phrase based translation algorithms feasible. The results in translating the world's most spoken languages (in this order: Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Malay, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, French) into each other are getting really good. Sentience structure is a bit weird, but the translations are fully understandable.

Oh yes, Peter Patel Schneider thinks that the semantic web is doomed. The RDF foundation on which the semantic web is based can't be extended to support First-Order Logic without introducing paradoxes. One could, for example, use FOL RDF to say: "this sentence is false". The RDF triple syntax is not expressive enough to prevent these kinds of illogical statements. Tragic, isn't it?

Now I'll have to spend some time detoxing from all the materialism I've been absorbed in for the past week.

(Update: check out some Sarcos Robot videos here)

Lots of stuff I didn't understand today at the IJCAI conference. I'll not talk too much about that. However, there were also some very interesting biology related results. Read on:

The day started off with a keynote by a neuroscientist talking about the brain and what underlying AI models it uses internally. His religious belief was that the only reason we have a brain is to drive our motor system.

Trees don't have brains, because they don't have to move. Sea squids have small brains to help them swim around the ocean. However, in their lifecycle they eventually attach themselves permanently to a rock. Once attached, the first thing they do is digest their own brain for food. No more movement = no more need for brain = yum.

He went through a whole load of clever experiments he conducted to determine how the human brain learns to do various tasks. It turns out that legs are optimized for efficiency and arms use special probability distributions for controlling their movement, minimizing noise error and optimum feedback for maximum smoothness and accuracy. Eyes are also accuracy optimized and share some of the same processing framework as the legs. Since the brain's processing power is limited, it reuses thinking circuitry wherever appropriate. Sounds like a very well designed robot to me.

Some researchers where (still) working on the traveling salesman problem. They found some minor optimizations. Ho-hum.

One guy used Apple's Keynote presentation software to give a presentation on "Temporal difference networks with history" (no, I didn't understand it either). However, his presentation looked so much more refined, smooth and professional than all the other previous Powerpoint presentations. I was shocked at how much better everything looked. If I ever get accepted to give a talk at one of these important international conferences I'll definitely get a Mac and present using Keynote.

An Israeli guy presented a clever partial database lookup algorithm variation on the A* algorithm. He developed a very quickly way to solve Tile puzzles, Rubik's Cubes and Top Spin games. He can now solve any 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in 1/50th of a second where previous brute-force computing methods took 2 days.

An Australian researcher named J. P. Bekmann presented an "Improved Knowledge Acquisition System for High-Performance Heuristic Search". This system used an array of Ripple-Down Rules (RDR) to automatically wire-up a complex two-layer circuit array. He built the system in such a way that it would simulate building thousands of wiring connections thousands of times and use a genetic algorithm to "breed" the most effective rules. By the principles of natural selection only the most beneficial rules survive in the RDR-set and an optimal circuit layout is built.

However, it turns out that the system gets stuck quite quickly. It will run for some time improving itself, but then bottom-out very soon, running for thousands of generations without making any significant progress. A human expert has to intervene and introduce new rule-seeds. The genetic algorithm then either integrates these into the rule-set, or, if they are ineffective, they slowly let them "die-off".

It took the researchers and some circuit wiring experts a week of working interactively with the tool to produce an optimal rule-set of about 200 rules that could create a circuit design as good as one previously built by experts in half a year.

The result, while impressive from a computer science point-of-view, is also very interesting from a Krishna conscious point-of-view. Even simulated evolution only works on very simple problems. The evolving computer program requires periodic intelligent intervention as soon as a slightly more complex task needs to be solved. Complex new features can and do not appear by accident.

Lots of stuff I didn't understand today at the IJCAI conference. I'll not talk too much about that. However, there were also some very interesting biology related results. Read on:

The day started off with a keynote by a neuroscientist talking about the brain and what underlying AI models it uses internally. His religious belief was that the only reason we have a brain is to drive our motor system.

Trees don't have brains, because they don't have to move. Sea squids have small brains to help them swim around the ocean. However, in their lifecycle they eventually attach themselves permanently to a rock. Once attached, the first thing they do is digest their own brain for food. No more movement = no more need for brain = yum.

He went through a whole load of clever experiments he conducted to determine how the human brain learns to do various tasks. It turns out that legs are optimized for efficiency and arms use special probability distributions for controlling their movement, minimizing noise error and optimum feedback for maximum smoothness and accuracy. Eyes are also accuracy optimized and share some of the same processing framework as the legs. Since the brain's processing power is limited, it reuses thinking circuitry wherever appropriate. Sounds like a very well designed robot to me.

Some researchers where (still) working on the traveling salesman problem. They found some minor optimizations. Ho-hum.

One guy used Apple's Keynote presentation software to give a presentation on "Temporal difference networks with history" (no, I didn't understand it either). However, his presentation looked so much more refined, smooth and professional than all the other previous Powerpoint presentations. I was shocked at how much better everything looked. If I ever get accepted to give a talk at one of these important international conferences I'll definitely get a Mac and present using Keynote.

An Israeli guy presented a clever partial database lookup algorithm variation on the A* algorithm. He developed a very quickly way to solve Tile puzzles, Rubik's Cubes and Top Spin games. He can now solve any 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in 1/50th of a second where previous brute-force computing methods took 2 days.

An Australian researcher named J. P. Bekmann presented an "Improved Knowledge Acquisition System for High-Performance Heuristic Search". This system used an array of Ripple-Down Rules (RDR) to automatically wire-up a complex two-layer circuit array. He built the system in such a way that it would simulate building thousands of wiring connections thousands of times and use a genetic algorithm to "breed" the most effective rules. By the principles of natural selection only the most beneficial rules survive in the RDR-set and an optimal circuit layout is built.

However, it turns out that the system gets stuck quite quickly. It will run for some time improving itself, but then bottom-out very soon, running for thousands of generations without making any significant progress. A human expert has to intervene and introduce new rule-seeds. The genetic algorithm then either integrates these into the rule-set, or, if they are ineffective, they slowly let them "die-off".

It took the researchers and some circuit wiring experts a week of working interactively with the tool to produce an optimal rule-set of about 200 rules that could create a circuit design as good as one previously built by experts in half a year.

The result, while impressive from a computer science point-of-view, is also very interesting from a Krishna conscious point-of-view. Even simulated evolution only works on very simple problems. The evolving computer program requires periodic intelligent intervention as soon as a slightly more complex task needs to be solved. Complex new features can and do not appear by accident.

Today was all about my field: description logics and ontologies.

Realization: most AI research is very simple, but the researchers disguise the triviality of their solutions by including loads of complicated looking math equations into their presentations (which no one, even if they are experts in the field, can hope to understand in the few seconds they appear on the slide) and using the technical jargon secret language so that those that don't know what the codewords translate into can't get a grasp on what is actually going on. Since I actual knew a bit about what the researchers presented today (I'm an insider in the DL-cult), I could see through some of the attempts to make research look more complicated than it actually was.

Franz Baader presented a paper on a polynomial time fragment of OWL-DL (SHOIN). His research focused on providing a description logic for use in medical ontologies which are often relatively simple, but quite large. His proposed logic EL+ includes conjunction, subsumption, nominals, GCIs, disjoint axioms, but does not include negation, inverse roles, disjunction, or number/cardinality restrictions.

Dmirty plans to build this quick algorithm into FaCT++ at some point. This would result in a kind of hybrid reasoner that is really fast for the easy stuff and can bring in the full power of the tableaux algorithm to solve the more difficult classification talks. Obviously the holy grail is to also link in first-order logic reasoning to be able to reason over almost any construct.

Speaking of Dmitry, he also presented a paper on various optimization in his FaCT++ reasoner. He has implemented a system of TODO list-like reorderable queues that allow the reasoner to dynamically order rule execution. Existential restrictions can be evaluated last and non-deterministic disjunction expansion can be ordered in an intelligent fashion. These reshuffling rules can also be varied depending on the type of ontology. GALEN, for example, requires very different rule-ordering to achieve maximum classification performance than other ontologies.

Heiner Stuckenschmidt talked about various means of mapping multiple ontologies together. His conclusion: use the e-connections technique invented by Jim Hendler's Mindswap research group in Maryland. It captures the more different connection semantics than any other methodology.

I learned yet more about bucket elimination, constrains processing and local search. Adnan Darwiche, a very fast talking Spanish/Mexican professor, gave the afternoon keynote address. I'll need some time to think about this.

Ian Horrocks gave the best talk of the day. He talked about a new decision procedure for SHOIQ that he and Ulrike Sattler came up with. What made his talk so good was that he didn't make it complicated. He explained the process of reasoning over expressive ontologies abstractly and intuitively. SHOIQ reasoning turned out to be more difficult than anyone would have thought. But now, finally, a reasoner can be built than can classify OWL-DL with all its feature, bells and whistles.

Thomas Bittner gave a (confusing) talk on parthood, componenthood and containment. He didn't really say much in 25 minutes. His conclusion: use his new, so called, L-language to expressive transitive role propagation and some other stuff in a kind-of pseudo first-order logic layer over OWL. Yet another rules language. Yawn.

Luciano Serafini introduced DRAGO (Distributed Reasoning Algorithm for a Galaxy of Ontologies). It is a peer-to-peer reasoning system for distributed ontologies. It uses PELLET as each node in the network of reasoners. He also described some (confusing) concept of "holes" that allow inconsistent ontologies to be ignored by the reasoner. It seems kind of obvious, but maybe there is more to it than that.

Sony QRIO finished off the day. Sony's much hyped world-touring robot prototype. Their very life-like 2-foot tall humanoid robot gave a number of demos. The QRIO could dance in techno and salsa-style. He could also speak (in Japanese), navigate an obstacle course full of stuffed animal toys, crawl under a table, climb a small set of stairs and kick a ball around. He did all this by using his stereo vision camera eyes (which could change color in a very cool locking effect) to evaluate his surroundings. He also did some facial recognition. Finally, he had the ability to respond to sounds, detecting and moving towards the clapping of hands behind him.

All this was running inside the cute, tiny robot on 3 separate 400 MHz RISC CPUs running what looked like RedHat Linux. The QRIO could operate fully autonomously, though the Sony engineers could also control him wirelessly from their laptops. Very impressive overall. Scarily human-like walking motion, gestures (and dancing). No doubt we'll be seeing a production model QRIO soon. Young and old kids around the world will so want one.

It took many hundreds of Sony engineers and many decades of worldwide academic research work in order to produce this robot that can just about mimic a few basic human/animal functions. And yet, scientists say that super-complex machine of the human body must have come about completely by chance. No intelligent design whatsoever was involved.

Today was all about my field: description logics and ontologies.

Realization: most AI research is very simple, but the researchers disguise the triviality of their solutions by including loads of complicated looking math equations into their presentations (which no one, even if they are experts in the field, can hope to understand in the few seconds they appear on the slide) and using the technical jargon secret language so that those that don't know what the codewords translate into can't get a grasp on what is actually going on. Since I actual knew a bit about what the researchers presented today (I'm an insider in the DL-cult), I could see through some of the attempts to make research look more complicated than it actually was.

Franz Baader presented a paper on a polynomial time fragment of OWL-DL (SHOIN). His research focused on providing a description logic for use in medical ontologies which are often relatively simple, but quite large. His proposed logic EL+ includes conjunction, subsumption, nominals, GCIs, disjoint axioms, but does not include negation, inverse roles, disjunction, or number/cardinality restrictions.

Dmirty plans to build this quick algorithm into FaCT++ at some point. This would result in a kind of hybrid reasoner that is really fast for the easy stuff and can bring in the full power of the tableaux algorithm to solve the more difficult classification talks. Obviously the holy grail is to also link in first-order logic reasoning to be able to reason over almost any construct.

Speaking of Dmitry, he also presented a paper on various optimization in his FaCT++ reasoner. He has implemented a system of TODO list-like reorderable queues that allow the reasoner to dynamically order rule execution. Existential restrictions can be evaluated last and non-deterministic disjunction expansion can be ordered in an intelligent fashion. These reshuffling rules can also be varied depending on the type of ontology. GALEN, for example, requires very different rule-ordering to achieve maximum classification performance than other ontologies.

Heiner Stuckenschmidt talked about various means of mapping multiple ontologies together. His conclusion: use the e-connections technique invented by Jim Hendler's Mindswap research group in Maryland. It captures the more different connection semantics than any other methodology.

I learned yet more about bucket elimination, constrains processing and local search. Adnan Darwiche, a very fast talking Spanish/Mexican professor, gave the afternoon keynote address. I'll need some time to think about this.

Ian Horrocks gave the best talk of the day. He talked about a new decision procedure for SHOIQ that he and Ulrike Sattler came up with. What made his talk so good was that he didn't make it complicated. He explained the process of reasoning over expressive ontologies abstractly and intuitively. SHOIQ reasoning turned out to be more difficult than anyone would have thought. But now, finally, a reasoner can be built than can classify OWL-DL with all its feature, bells and whistles.

Thomas Bittner gave a (confusing) talk on parthood, componenthood and containment. He didn't really say much in 25 minutes. His conclusion: use his new, so called, L-language to expressive transitive role propagation and some other stuff in a kind-of pseudo first-order logic layer over OWL. Yet another rules language. Yawn.

Luciano Serafini introduced DRAGO (Distributed Reasoning Algorithm for a Galaxy of Ontologies). It is a peer-to-peer reasoning system for distributed ontologies. It uses PELLET as each node in the network of reasoners. He also described some (confusing) concept of "holes" that allow inconsistent ontologies to be ignored by the reasoner. It seems kind of obvious, but maybe there is more to it than that.

Sony QRIO finished off the day. Sony's much hyped world-touring robot prototype. Their very life-like 2-foot tall humanoid robot gave a number of demos. The QRIO could dance in techno and salsa-style. He could also speak (in Japanese), navigate an obstacle course full of stuffed animal toys, crawl under a table, climb a small set of stairs and kick a ball around. He did all this by using his stereo vision camera eyes (which could change color in a very cool locking effect) to evaluate his surroundings. He also did some facial recognition. Finally, he had the ability to respond to sounds, detecting and moving towards the clapping of hands behind him.

All this was running inside the cute, tiny robot on 3 separate 400 MHz RISC CPUs running what looked like RedHat Linux. The QRIO could operate fully autonomously, though the Sony engineers could also control him wirelessly from their laptops. Very impressive overall. Scarily human-like walking motion, gestures (and dancing). No doubt we'll be seeing a production model QRIO soon. Young and old kids around the world will so want one.

It took many hundreds of Sony engineers and many decades of worldwide academic research work in order to produce this robot that can just about mimic a few basic human/animal functions. And yet, scientists say that super-complex machine of the human body must have come about completely by chance. No intelligent design whatsoever was involved.

Tutorials are over. No more play time. The actual conference started today.

It kicked off with a keynote from Alison Gopnik. Author of "Scientist in the Crib", a book about how young children learn and experiment very effectively. Grown ups can't generally come up with novel ways of approaching a problem, whereas children will do all kinds of crazy things when trying to figure something out. Playfulness is important. Interestingly, kids as young as 3 years olds can probabilistic causal inference almost as well as grown-ups. Most people are only good for producing things and management when they get older. The young are the innovators.

An interesting talk on temporal reasoning added temporal markup to a corpus of newspaper articles. Their system used a first-order logic reasoner (OTTER) to allow users to make free-text temporal queries on the data set. E.g. "who were the prime-ministers of France from 1962 - 1998?"

When it came time for question I asked how much the temporal reasoning slowed down their query processing. Their answer: while a normal search takes 0.1 seconds to answer, turning on temporal inference increases the query time to 4 - 10 minutes (depending on the number of transitive chains that need to be evaluated). Uh-huh. Next. First-order logic reasoning is too slow.

Carsten Lutz gave a survey of description logic work. Many ontology reasoning systems are EXPTime in the worst case, but do quite well in the average case. This makes them quite usable in practice. However, more tools and systems integration is now required.

I found out what "hypergraph decomposition" is. A research from Vienna was presenting a poster on the subject. Hypergraphs are graphs where each arc/edge can connect more than two nodes together. They are good at capturing several NP-complete problems graphically. An algorithm to perfectly decompose hypergraphs is, of course, unsolvable in the worst case. A graph with as little as 100 nodes can require days of processing to solve. However, a quick-and-dirty algorithm called "bucket elimination" does very well.

This conference is turning out to be quite useful. My body actually functioned reasonably well today, too.