MS-DOS History

In 1980, when IBM was building its new personal computer code-named "Acorn", they needed an operating system and a computer language.
At the time one of the most successful computer languages for microcomputers was Altair BASIC, written by Microsoft, and the dominant operating system CP/M, a product of Gary Kildall's Digital Research.
In 1980, IBM approached Bill Gates to write BASIC for their new computer and approached Gary Kildall for the operating system.
Microsoft was only too happy to comply. They had already created a version of BASIC for the 8086, which had been displayed by Seattle Computer Products, a computer hardware company, at the 1979 National Computer Conference.
Legend has it, that when IBM first approached Digital Research, Kildall was out of the office flying one of his planes, and never met them. This was not strictly true - although he was out flying, he showed up for the meeting, a little late. He had a discussion with the IBM representatives on a flight back to their office in Florida. They never reached a deal. Kildall wanted more than the $200,000 IBM was willing to pay, to get a royalty-free license in perpetuity.
So IBM went to back to Bill Gates, and asked whether Microsoft could do the operating system as well.
At the time, Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had written an operating system called "QDOS," an acronym for "quick and dirty operating system, for the 16-bit, Intel 8086 (according to Byte Magazine it was “thrown together in two man-months”). QDOS was in every important respect a clone of CP/M rewritten for the 8086.
Microsoft purchased the rights to QDOS from SCP for $50,000, and tweaked it so that it could run on the 8088. (The 8088 chip was a subset of the 8086 family and could run on the same software with minor alterations).
Gates sold DOS to IBM for $50,000 and persuaded them that he should retain the rights to license the system to other computer manufacturers.
The rest as they say is history. The ‘other computer manufacturers’ made the millions of PC clones, and had to buy a copy of MS-DOS from Microsoft for every PC they sold.
Kildall was furious. He claimed that DOS was a copy of all the best features of CP/M, but unfortunately software copyright law was not mature at the time, and there was precious little he could do about it.
****
In 1981, Tim Paterson quit Seattle Computer Products and found employment at Microsoft.
In 1994, Gary Kildall, by now an embittered man struggling with alcohol, died in a Monterey bar from injuries sustained to his head. An inquest called the death "suspicious," but no one was charged.
An Inside Look at MS-DOS
The Dross of the DOS
The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates
***

Response to LIB$DAY error report

They don't answer user complaints like they used to. The following is a response dated 13-Oct-1983 by Stanley Rabinowitz at DEC.
----------------------------------------------------------
SPR PROBLEM ABSTRACT:
User claims year 2000 should not be a leap year.

SPR ANSWER FORM
SPR NO. 11-60903
SYSTEM VERSION PRODUCT VERSION COMPONENT
SOFTWARE: VAX/VMS V3.2 VAX/VMS V3.2 Run-Time Library

PROBLEM:
The LIB$DAY Run-Time Library service "incorrectly" assumes the year 2000 is a leap year.

RESPONSE:
Thank you for your forward-looking SPR.
Various system services, such as SYS$ASCTIM assume that the year 2000 will be a leap year. Although one can never be sure of what will happen at some future time, there is strong historical precedent for presuming that the present Gregorian calendar will still be in affect by the year 2000. Since we also hope that VMS will still be around by then, we have chosen to adhere to these precedents.
The purpose of a calendar is to reckon time in advance, to show how many days have to elapse until a certain event takes place in the future, such as the harvest or the release of VMS V4. The earliest vcalendars, naturally, were crude and tended to be based upon the seasons or the lunar cycle.
The calendar of the Assyrians, for example, was based upon the phases of the moon. They knew that a lunation (the time from one full moon to the next) was 29 1/2 days long, so their lunar year had a duration of 364 days. This fell short of the solar year by about 11 days. (The exact time for the solar year is approximately 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.) After 3 years, such a lunar calendar would be off by a whole month, so the Assyrians added an extra month from time to time to keep their calendar in synchronization with the seasons.
The best approximation that was possible in antiquity was a 19-year period, with 7 of these 19 years having 13 months (leap months). This scheme was adopted as the basis for the religious calendar used by the Jews. (The Arabs also used this calendar until Mohammed forbade shifting from 12 months to 13 months.)
When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which had 28 days. Every second year, the Roman calendar included an extra month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days to keep up with the solar year.
Even this algorithm was very poor, so that in 45 BC, Caesar, advised by the astronomer Sosigenes, ordered a sweeping reform. By imperial decree, one year was made 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The new calendar, similar to the one we now use was called the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar). It's months were 30 or 31 days in length and every fourth year was made a leap year (having 366 days). Caesar also decreed that the year would start with the first of January, not the vernal equinox in late March.
Caesar's year was 11 1/2 minutes short of the calculations recommended by Sosigenes and eventually the date of the vernal equinox began to drift. Roger Bacon became alarmed and sent a note to Pope Clement IV, who apparently was not impressed. Pope Sixtus IV later became convinced that another reform was needed and called the German astronomer, Regiomontanus, to Rome to advise him. Unfortunately, Regiomontanus died of the plague shortly thereafter and the plans died as well.
In 1545, the Council of Trent authorized Pope Gregory XIII to reform the calendar once more. Most of the mathematical work was done by Father Christopher Clavius, S.J. The immediate correction that was adopted was that Thursday, October 4, 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, with the date of October 15. For long range accuracy, a formula suggested by the Vatican librarian Aloysius Giglio was adopted. It said that every fourth year is a leap year except for century years that are not divisible by 400.
Thus 1700, 1800 and 1900 would not be leap years, but 2000 would be a leap year since 2000 is divisible by 400. This rule eliminates 3 leap years every 4 centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for most ordinary purposes. This calendar is known as the Gregorian calendar and is the one that we now use today. (It is interesting to note that in 1582, all the Protestant princes ignored the papal decree and so many countries continued to use the Julian calendar until either 1698 or 1752. In Russia, it needed the revolution to introduce the Gregorian calendar in 1918.)
This explains why VMS chooses to treat the year 2000 as a leap year.
Despite the great accuracy of the Gregorian calendar, it still falls behind very slightly every few years. If you are very concerned about this problem, we suggest that you tune in short wave radio station WWV, which broadcasts official time signals for use in the United States. About once every 3 years, they declare a leap second at which time you should be careful to adjust your system clock. If you have trouble picking up their signals, we suggest you purchase an atomic clock (not manufactured by Digital and not a VAX option at this time).

END OF SPR RESPONSE

History of SQL

In June, 1970 Dr. Edgar F. Codd published a seminal paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks". Codd's model became widely accepted as the definitive model for relational database management systems (RDBMS). After Codd published this paper, two projects were started to test its viability: Ingress at UC Berkeley in 1970, and later SystemR at IBM's San Jose research center in 1974-75. Ingress (INteractive Graphics REtrieval System) used QUEL (QUEry Language) as a query language and SystemR used SEQUEL.
The term SEQUEL was originally coined as a pun on QUEL (since it came after QUEL it was named sequel). In 1977, Revised SEQUEL/2 was defined. This was later renamed to SQL due to a trademark dispute (the word 'SEQUEL' was held as a trademark by the Hawker-Siddeley aircraft company of the UK). Although these query languages were greatly influenced by Codd's work, they were not designed by Codd himself; the QUEL language design was due to Michael Stonebraker at UC Berkeley, and the SEQUEL language design was due to Donald Chamberlin and Raymond Boyce at IBM. IBM published their concepts to increase interest in SEQUEL (later SQL).

Milestones in RDBMS development
1970 Dr. E. F. Codd publishes his first paper on the relational model
UC Berkeley INGRES prototype work begins
1974 IBM SEQUEL language and prototype developed
IBM System R Prototype work begins
1977 Relational Software Inc. (RSI) founded
Revised SEQUEL/2 (subsequently renamed SQL) defined
1979 Teradata Corporation formed
Britton-Lee, Inc. (later renamed ShareBase)formed
Oracle released by RSI (now Oracle Corporation)
1981 SQL/DS for VSE announced by IBM
INGRES for VAX/VMS announced by Oracle Corporation
1983 DB2 for MVS announced by IBM
1984 First DBC/1012 database machine shipped by Teradata
1985 Teradata acquired Britton-Lee
1986 First version of SQL standard released
Sybase Inc. formed
1987 NonStop SQL announced by Tandem
1988 Microsoft, Sybase and Ashton-Tate develop Sybase for OS/2
1992 AT&T purchases NCR and Teradata
1993 Microsoft and Sybase end partnership
Microsoft rebrands Sybase as SQL Server and releases Windows version
1995 Computer Associates acquires INGRES as a part of its Ask Group purchase
1997 NCR becomes independent company
1998 In-database OLAP and data mining appear in RDBMSs
2000 RDBMSs continue to add OO capabilities and support for complex data
2001 Native XML support is provided for the first time in an RDBMS
2003 W3C enhances XQuery, the XML query language
2004 SQL:2003 standard is published

Out of Africa and into India?

A recent study (February 2006) published in The American Journal of Human Genetics suggests that the origins of Indians are largely indigenous, dating back to the Palaeolithic period. According to the study, the genetic influence of the Indo-European-speakers who established the caste system was small.
Their conclusion is that while some lineages did move in from the outside, many of the major ones are likely to have arisen within India. Specifically, five major haplogroups (C5-M356, F*-M89, H-M69, L1-M76 and R2-M124) were likely to have originated within the subcontinent. The origins of one common haplogroup (R1a1-M17) could not be determined.
(- Polarity and Temporality of High-Resolution Y-Chromosome Distributions in India Identify Both Indigenous and Exogenous Expansions and Reveal Minor Genetic Influence of Central Asian Pastoralists, S. Sengupta, et al.)

Modern humans can be traced back to a group of people who lived in Africa around 100,000 years ago. We know this by analyzing genetic markers in the Y-chromosome and mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) structure of contemporary populations and projecting them back in time. People with similar sets of genetic markers are grouped into haplogroups and links are established between the members of a haplogroup and the marker's first appearance in the group's most recent common ancestor (MRCA).
Determining the origination of a genetic lineage and its subsequent spread is a science fraught with uncertainty. In its simplest form current high frequency and high diversity may mark the origin of a lineage. But there are other ways by which these can arise – high frequency by genetic drift, and high diversity by admixture. And of course there is the fact that people move. There is high frequency and high diversity of genetic markers in Australia. Yet there is no origination in Australia theory.
The time is generally calculated by imputing mutation rates. There are a variety of different techniques, so molecular dates tend to be less certain than archaeological ones.
Notwithstanding the dangers, there is growing genetic evidence that the subcontinent of India has been a major corridor for the migration of people between Africa and the rest of the world.

Studies of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA are revealing the excursion choices of our earliest ancestors. In their Perspective, Forster and Matsumura discuss two new studies of the mitochondrial DNA of the indigenous peoples of Malaysia and the Andaman islands (Macaulay et al., Thangaraj et al.). These studies suggest that the earliest humans took a southern route along the coastline of the Indian Ocean before fanning out over the rest of the world. - Forster P and Matsumura S. 2005. Did early humans go north or south? Science 308:965-966. Science Online

Out of Africa

There is evidence that all modern extant human Y chromosomes trace their ancestry to Africa and that the descendants of the derived lineage left Africa and eventually completely replaced previous archaic human Y-chromosome lineages.
Over 400 binary polymorphisms currently describe the Y-chromosome tree. Several mutually reinforcing binary mutations divide the Y-chromosome haplotype phylogeny into two distinctive components, haplogroup A and the remainder of all other haplogroups, specifically B through R.
A and B lineages are restricted to African populations. These lineages are diverse and suggest a deeper genealogical heritage than other haplotypes. Representatives of these lineages are distributed across Africa, but generally at low frequencies.
At least three mutations lie at the root of all the remaining Y-chromosome haplotypes that compose the majority of African and non-African lineages, namely haplogroups C through R (Underhill et al. 2001b).
The mutations that define this node deep within the interior of the Y tree reflect descendants of males who successfully left Africa and formed the scaffold on which all other Y-chromosome diversification with geography has accumulated.
The geographical distribution of this diversification allows us to try to understand some of the major movements that occurred after anatomically modern humans left Africa. The original founders diversified into important lineages that display an irregular geographic distribution.
The majority of Y lineages in the world are composed of a tripartite assemblage consisting of (1) haplogroup C, (2) haplogroups D and E, and (3) overarching
haplogroup F that defines the internal node of all remaining haplogroups G through R. These geographic patterns of genetic affinity and diversification provide insights into the population dynamics associated with migration, population subdivision, fluctuations in population size, and more recent gene flow episodes.
The third major and most peripatetic subcluster of M168 lineages is characterized by at least three mutations (one of which is M89) that define the root of haplogroup F from which all other haplogroups (G through R) deploy.
This F subcluster is suggested to have evolved outside Africa early in the diversification and migration of modern humans. Early Upper Paleolithic peoples throughout Eurasia provide sources from which later populations derive. The differentiation of haplogroup F within Eurasia helps to begin understanding this complex period of the peopling of the world.
The early diversification of a haplogroup F population in Eurasia between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago would have given rise to at least six Y-chromosome populations. Thus, there were multiple independent formations and fragmentations of populations carrying F-related lineages throughout most of Asia, displacing the earlier haplogroup C and D lineages toward the margins.

- Inferring Human History: Clues from Y-Chromosome Haplotypes, P.A. Underhill

Tracking the Y-Chromosome

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are binary markers that can be identified in the DNA of the Y chromosome; they occur very rarely, so that two men sharing a particular SNP state in their DNA almost definitely inherited this from a shared ancestor, who may have lived many thousands of years ago. Setts of SNPs are typed, and used to define Y chromosome types called haplogroups, which in turn can be arranged into a 'family tree', or phylogeny. If two men belong to different haplogroups, this excludes them from sharing a recent common ancestor. An example of a SNP is shown in the diagram below.

Short Tandem Repeats (STRs)
Another type of marker on the Y chromosome consists of short units of DNA (typically 3 or 4 bases long) that are repeated in tandem several times (see diagram above). These are called microsatellites, or short tandem repeats (STRs); variation in these markers occurs much more frequently than at SNPs. Different Y chromosomes can carry varying numbers of repeats at a set of specific STRs, called a Y-STR haplotype. Haplotypes can be compared to identify differences between men within the same haplogroup. Related men will show the same or very similar patterns in terms of the numbers of repeats seen at a set of markers, while unrelated men will tend not to.
- Surnames, Genes and the History of Britain

The Ultimate Alpha Male?

Approximately 8% of the chromosomes sampled from a large region of Central Asia (a remarkable ~0.5% of the world total) belong to a closely-related cluster of lineages in haplogroup C with a time to most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) of 1,000 years (95% confidence interval: 700–1,300 years)
Although it is not uncommon for a lineage to drift to predominance in a single small population, this cluster was found in 16 different populations including the Han Chinese, who are the largest ethnic group in the world, and could not have risen to such a high frequency in such a short time by drift alone.
The cluster seemed to have originated in Mongolia, and on the basis of its time and place of origin, its geographical distribution (which matched the former Mongol Empire) and its presence in putative male-line descendants of Genghis Khan (circa 1162–1227), the authors suggested that this leader, his male relatives and the dynasty that he founded, were responsible for its spread. The alternative explanation would be that, despite the 20,000 descendants of Genghis Khan reported in 1260, just a century after his birth100, no trace of his Y chromosome can now be recognized, but that of another man living at the same time in the same place has spread in this unprecedented fashion.
The human Y-chromosome: an evolutionary marker comes of age, Mark A. Jobling* and Chris Tyler-Smith‡; www.nature.com/reviews/genetics

Modern communication Theory

Fourier Series
A series proposed by the French mathematician Fourier about the year 1807. The series involves the sines and cosines of whole multiples of a varying angle and is usually written in the following form: y = Ho + A1 sin x + A2 sin 2x + A3 sin 3x + ... B1 cos x + B2 cos 2x + B3 cos 3x + ... By taking a sufficient number of terms the series may be made to represent any periodic function of x
A periodic function is one that repeats itself over time. Fourier proved that any "reasonably behaved" periodic function could be written as a sum of sine and cosine functions. This is important because sine and cosine are easily represented and recreated. The Fourier series allows periodic signals to be sent over a wire

Shannon’s Theorem
The Shannon theorem states that given a noisy channel with information capacity C and information transmitted at a rate R, then if R <> C, an arbitrarily small probability of error is not achievable. So, information cannot be guaranteed to be transmitted reliably across a channel at rates beyond the channel capacity. The theorem does not address the rare situation in which rate and capacity are equal.
Simple schemes such as "send the message 3 times and use at best 2 out of 3 voting scheme if the copies differ" are inefficient error-correction methods, unable to asymptotically guarantee that a block of data can be communicated free of error. Advanced techniques such as Reed-Solomon codes and, more recently, Turbo codes come much closer to reaching the theoretical Shannon limit, but at a cost of high computational complexity. With Turbo codes and the computing power in today's digital signal processors, it is now possible to reach within 1/10 of one decibel of the Shannon limit

Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem
A signal that is bandlimited is constrained in terms of how fast it can change and therefore how much detail it can convey in between discrete moments of time. The sampling theorem means that the discrete samples are a complete representation of the signal if the bandwidth is less than half the sampling rate, which is referred to as the Nyquist frequency. Frequency components that are at or above the Nyquist frequency are subject to a phenomenon called aliasing, which is undesirable in most applications. The severity of the problem depends on the relative strength of the aliased components.

Saraswats - Migration to Goa

The Saraswats were a people who lived on the banks of the river Saraswati about 5000 years ago. The take their name from the river, or possibly from the sage Saraswat Muni who lived by the Saraswati.
During the times of the Puranas, brahmins were divided into two groups based on their geographical origin. Verses in the Skanda Purana, Uttaradha, refer to brahmins living to the north of the Vindhyas as Panch Gaudas, and those residing to the south as Pancha Dravida. These two Puranic divisions of brahmins were then further divided into five subdivisions each. From the five subdivisions of the Gaud Brahmins, the ones which lived to the west of the Saraswati River were referred to as the Saraswat Brahmins.
The drying up of the river Saraswati, circa 1900 BC, led to the migration of the Saraswats. In all probability, the Saraswats migrated southwards along the west coast, following trade routes that existed from North India to ports on the western seaboard, and settled in Goa. Even in ancient times, Goa was a major port of trade. The Mahabharata refers to Gomant (Goa) as a trade port. Goa was known to the ancient Greeks as Tyndis, to the Arabs and Persians as Sindabur.
There is no historical evidence that traces the migration of the Saraswats from North India. However, the Skanda Purana states that Parashuram brought ten munis, or bramanans, who were residents of Trihotra in Pancha Gauda and established them at Gomachala (Goa). In fact the Saraswats still categorize their lineages under ten main stocks or Gotras. (Saraswat Families, S.S. Talmaki, P.N.Nadkarnim, 1997)
A Gothra – (Go=Cow, thral=Shed in sanskrit) literally means Cowpen or Cowshed in archaic rigvedic Sanskrit. It is used to indicate lineage stemming from a rishi or satguru and bearing his name. It was originally described as several (joint) families sharing a common cowshed.

At the time of the early Saraswat migrations, Goa was populated by many communities including the Daivadnyas, Bhandaris, Kunbis, Karhadas and the Chitpavans. The Kunbi tribals, exist as a distinct community to this day. They are a sturdy people mostly settled in Salcette, who though converted to Christianity, still retain their ancient folk traditions. Their unique social and non-religious songs and dances can still be seen in Goa.
The first wave of Saraswat migrants landed along the Konkan coast, around 1000 BC. According to one version, “A group of ninety-six families, known today as Gaud Saraswats, settled in what is now the state of Goa. Of these, sixty-six families took up residence in the southern half in today's Salcette (Sasasthi) taluka which derives its name from the Sanskrit word "Sassast" meaning the number 66. The other thirty families settled in the northern area in today's Tiswadi taluka which derives its name from the Sanskrit word for the number 30.”

The second wave of migrants, sometimes referred to as Shenvis and Trivargas, settled in two villages of Salcette named Kushasthali (Cortollim) and Keloshi (Quelessam), and came to be known as Kushasthalikars and Keloshikars.

Gödel's Theorem

In 1931, the Czech-born mathematician Kurt Gödel demonstrated that within any given branch of mathematics, there would always be some propositions that couldn't be proven either true or false using the rules and axioms ... of that mathematical branch itself. You might be able to prove every conceivable statement about numbers within a system by going outside the system in order to come up with new rules an axioms, but by doing so you'll only create a larger system with its own unprovable statements. The implication is that all logical system of any complexity are, by definition, incomplete; each of them contains, at any given time, more true statements than it can possibly prove according to its own defining set of rules.
Gödel's Theorem has been used to argue that a computer can never be as smart as a human being because the extent of its knowledge is limited by a fixed set of axioms, whereas people can discover unexpected truths ... It plays a part in modern linguistic theories, which emphasize the power of language to come up with new ways to express ideas. And it has been taken to imply that you'll never entirely understand yourself, since your mind, like any other closed system, can only be sure of what it knows about itself by relying on what it knows about itself.
- Jones and Wilson, An Incomplete Education

The proof of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem is so simple, and so sneaky, that it is almost embarassing to relate. His basic procedure is as follows:
Someone introduces Gödel to a UTM, a machine that is supposed to be a Universal Truth Machine, capable of correctly answering any question at all.
Gödel asks for the program and the circuit design of the UTM. The program may be complicated, but it can only be finitely long. Call the program P(UTM) for Program of the Universal Truth Machine.
Smiling a little, Gödel writes out the following sentence: "The machine constructed on the basis of the program P(UTM) will never say that this sentence is true." Call this sentence G for Gödel. Note that G is equivalent to: "UTM will never say G is true."
Now Gödel laughs his high laugh and asks UTM whether G is true or not.
If UTM says G is true, then "UTM will never say G is true" is false. If "UTM will never say G is true" is false, then G is false (since G = "UTM will never say G is true"). So if UTM says G is true, then G is in fact false, and UTM has made a false statement. So UTM will never say that G is true, since UTM makes only true statements.
We have established that UTM will never say G is true. So "UTM will never say G is true" is in fact a true statement. So G is true (since G = "UTM will never say G is true").
"I know a truth that UTM can never utter," Gödel says. "I know that G is true. UTM is not truly universal."
With his great mathematical and logical genius, Gödel was able to find a way (for any given P(UTM)) actually to write down a complicated polynomial equation that has a solution if and only if G is true. So G is not at all some vague or non-mathematical sentence. G is a specific mathematical problem that we know the answer to, even though UTM does not! So UTM does not, and cannot, embody a best and final theory of mathematics ...
Although this theorem can be stated and proved in a rigorously mathematical way, what it seems to say is that rational thought can never penetrate to the final ultimate truth ... But, paradoxically, to understand Gödel's proof is to find a sort of liberation. For many logic students, the final breakthrough to full understanding of the Incompleteness Theorem is practically a conversion experience. This is partly a by-product of the potent mystique Gödel's name carries. But, more profoundly, to understand the essentially labyrinthine nature of the castle is, somehow, to be free of it.
Rucker, Infinity and the Mind

In other words:
“All mathematicians are liars.” A mathematician cannot state that this statement is true.
If he is not lying then the statement is true. If the statement is true then he's lying and the statement is false.

World Cannabis Capital?

According to the United Nations the Rif region of Morocco exports 1,000 tonnes of cannabis a year, providing 80% of European hash-smokers' needs and nearly one-third of the world's.
A liberal weekly, Tel Quel, published in French in Casablanca, is campaigning to legalise hash. Its editor, Ahmed Ben Chemsi, calculates from official figures on the sale of loose tobacco and rolling paper that Moroccans, who number 33m, smoke a good 1.1 billion joints a year—ie, about 60 joints a year for every adult. Legalising it, he says, would fill state coffers, bring tourists to the neglected region and reduce corruption. “How can it be illegal when so many people do it?” he says. “You can't criminalise such a large part of society.” (from The Economist)

Amchi Quirks

From an article on Community Quirks by Vithal C. Nadkarni in The Sunday Times of India, Pune, of 12 August 2001

Filmmaker Arun Khopkar once introduced yours truly as someone who belongs to 'hang-palai'. Now 'hang-palai' isn't something like a palav hanging gracefully from a limp, fair wrist. Alas, 'hang-palai' only means 'look here' in konkani. Not in any old konkani, but in the musical dialect known only to Chitrapur Saraswats. Linguist finesse and a polyglot flair for the languages are probably this music-loving community's most noticeable quirks.
While we are on the subject, don't listen to whatever the Bongs tell you. Of course, Bonglese can be chweet. But 'Amchi Konkani' is so much more expressive and refined, particularly when well-brought-up women speak it. As in so many of life's great pleasures, nuance and timing is everything. Insiders know it as aalavaonu-ullounchey - stretching words and vowels almost to breaking point without staining the prim little mouth.
Indeed, strange things happen when a true-blooded Chitrapur Saraswat woman says "Hanga-palounche-wain?" (the same thing which Mr. Khopkar, alas, managed to mangle so completely). Grown men have been known to break out in goose bumps and bellow like maddened moose in the moonlight.
What's quirkier is that the same lovely tongue can also be used to hand out the most outrageous put downs and most salacious gossip. Therefore, the second-most important quirk of these bon vivants is 'zanki'.
Loosely translated as 'ribaldry', 'zanki' is really a state of mind, like Milan Kundera's unbearable lightness of being, which covers all things risqué and roue, which can be twisted into a double entendre. No prizes for actual examples. Suffice it to say, puns, inversions, spoonerisms, allusions and rambunctious riffs are all in order when the Saraswat swain gets into the flow.
Non-Chitrapurs often accuse these genteel worshipers of Saraswati of being hostage to a certain sort of clannishness. Come on, give us a break. I like to think of the Anand Ashrams and the Talmaki-wadis and other Saraswat colonies that scattered over Mumbapuri as monuments to the spirit of co-operation and community building. In this respect, the Chitrapurs are akin to Parsis, another highly evolved and literate but religion-or-ritual-loving community.
For all their rootedness, however, the Chitrapurs also display a remarkable restlessness, may be due to their gypsy genes. Like the Sindhis, they too have successfully spread all over the world. What's more, they often speak of an exodus from their chosen land - from Sharada or Kashmir to Chitrapur, a small village in Karnataka which also houses their Math or the seat of their pontiff at Shirali.
Non-Saraswats, however, tend to be skeptical about these claims. In vain have I tried to convince my sniggering colleagues about the real secret of one's 'Greek-like' profile. But you can't win them all. So what if Frank Conlon*, an American researcher from Seattle, has meticulously chartered the territorial adventures of the Saraswats from the Saraswati Valley in a scholarly tome (printed by a Saraswat Publisher)?
Networking is another Chitrapur Saraswat strength. This stems from the Great Bhanap Law ("Bhanap" is one of the terms of endearment for this community): when you get two or more Amchies together, they will work out their Bhanap Family Tree connections faster than you can say, "Wali Ambat!" or "Vallo Bhairasu!" (Wali ambat is lentil-and-spinach Saraswat specialty and vallo bhairasu is a 'wet towel' that may not necessarily work as a Wet Blanket.)
Contrary to popular belief, all Saraswats aren't necessarily born with a silver fish in their mouth. The original cuisine of the Chitrapurs is fiercely vegetarian. But there's no shortage of renegades. To be fair, however, these omnivores swear by the principles of three elemental exclusions: they don't eat submarines from water, aeroplanes from air and man - I am not sure if the taboo holds for 'woman' - on land.
* Frank Conlon, "Caste in a Changing World: The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans 1700-1935"

The Saraswati

The Hindu Vedas mention a river named Sarasvatī. In Sanskrit saras means a lake or water body, and vatī (from vntī, with the zero-grade form of the -vant suffix) means a female associated with it. Sarasvati was the biggest and most important of the seven holy rivers of the Rig Veda. In the Rig Veda the Sarasvati River is mentioned fifty times (e.g. Rig Veda II.41.16; VI.61.8-13; I.3.12.), and there are several references to the "seven rivers" (e. g. RV 2.12; RV 4.28; RV 8.24). In the Rig Veda (7:95:2) it is said that the Sarasvati surpasses in majesty and might all other rivers, and Rig Veda 7:36:6 calls it the mother of rivers. The hymn - ambitame, naditame, devitame (the best mother, the best river and the best goddess) symbolises the importance and reverence of hindus of vedic period for the Sarasvati river.
The river has been identified with various present-day or historical rivers, particularly the Ghaggar-Hakra river in India and Pakistan; this course continues into the Raini Nala riverbed. Other suggestions include the Helmand River in Afghanistan, which historically bore the name Harahvaiti, which is the Avestan form for "Sarasvati". However, this Afghan river flows into a small lake in the Iranian plateau, which does not match the Rig Vedic description of a "sea going" river. There is also a river in Iran which has been given this name. Sometimes it also means the heavenly 'river' - i.e. the milky way - and it is also personified as a goddess. The goddess Sarasvati was originally a personification of this river, and later developed an identity and meaning independently from the river. There is also a present-day Saraswati River in India which appears to be one of the branches of the ancient river.

Satellite photography has shown that there was indeed a large river in the northwest of India, that dried up between ca. 2500 to 2000 B.C. The river bed was three to ten kilometers wide. The Sarasvati once drained the Sutlej and Yamuna Rivers. The Sutlej and Yamuna Rivers have changed their courses over the time
Paleobotanical information documents the aridity that developed after the drying up of the river. (Gadgil and Thapar 1990 and references therein). The disappearance of the river may have been caused by earthquakes. It may have been one of the causes for the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization. The largest concentration of Indus Valley sites appears to be east of the Indus, at and near the region where once the ancient Sarasvati River flowed.

The identification of the 'original' Saraswati river has become embroiled in debates about the age of the Vedas and of the relation between Aryan culture and the Indus Valley civilization (IVC). In the enumeration of the rivers in Rigveda 10.75.05, the order is Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Shutudri (= Sutlej). Hence it is quite clear that one of the rivers given the name 'Sarasvati' flowed through Haryana and Rajasthan. The question is whether this is the primal 'Sarasvati'. The Rigveda says that this Sarasvati rises in the mountains and ends up in the sea (e.g. RV VII.95.2); it describes a man sailing up the Sarasvati from the sea to the mountains. The Brahmanas, which are later texts than the Rig Veda, mention that the Sarasvati flowed through a desert; the Mahabharata, which was written still later, says that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert, possibly the Thar Desert. Recent finding suggest the Ghaggar-Hakra river did once flow in great strength, and was of major importance to the Indus Valley Civilization, but that it dried up due to the redirection of its tributaries, and loss of rainfall in much of its catchment area due to deforestation and overgrazing in what is now Pakistan, at the latest in 1900 BC, but perhaps much earlier.

Clearly this is of great importance in establishing the date of the Rigveda. If the Ghaggar-Hakra river is the original Sarasvati of the Vedas, it implies that the Vedic Aryans were resident in the Indus at the height of the IVC.
If it was the Afghan Helmand river, it may support the so-called Aryan invasion theory, as well as other scenarios.(According to National Geographic maps Saraswati river flew through the Indus valley. National Geographic Vol.197, No.6, Page114)

Along the course of the Ghaggar-Hakra river are many archaeological sites of the Indus Valley Civilization; but not further south than the middle of Bahawalpur district. It could be that the permanent Sarasvati ended there, and its water only reached the sea in very wet rainy seasons. It may also have been affected by much of its water being taken for irrigation.

In the Manu Samhita (II.17-18), the sage Manu, escaping from a flood, founded the Vedic culture between the Sarasvati and Drishadvati rivers. In the Shatapatha Brahmana there is a description of the God Agni burning out rivers, which may be a reference to the drying up of rivers. Indra was the river deity of the Sarasvati river, the disappearance of the Sarasvati river may have been one of the causes for the diminishing popularity of Indra in Vedic culture. Indra may have been "replaced" by the similar deity Shiva, who is the river deity of the Ganges.
http://www.reference.com

Saraswats, Goans and Parsis

Three groups of Saraswat Brahmans in Western India and a group of Goan Catholics ethnologically related to Saraswats were studied for various genetic markers. Saraswats have higher A than B with an Rh(D)-negative incidence ranging from 10 to 17%. All the groups have low incidence of G-6-PD deficiency (up to 1%). Incidence of thalassaemia trait ranges from 1 to 6%. Gm(1) was present in 85-87%. Intergroup differences suggest genetic closeness between the various groups with genetic distance ranging from 0.8 to 1.5. Genetic relationship between Goan Catholics and Chitrapur Saraswats confirms the ethnological and historical evidence of relationship between the two groups.
Genetic studies among endogamous groups of Saraswats in Western India.
Hum Hered. 1976;26(6):458-67.

Rh, or rhesus factor, is a blood group antigen possessed by Rh-positive people; if an Rh-negative person receives a blood transfusion from an Rh-positive person it can result in hemolysis and anemia.The incidence of Rh-negative amongst Indians is approximately 5%. Though it varies from community to community, e.g. the incidence of Rh-negative as high as 15-17% is found in Parsis, Chitrapur Saraswats and Goan Brahmin Catholics.

Murdeshwar

Murdeshwar, is a village in Karanataka. It stands on the banks of the Arabian Sea and is considered the abode of Lord Shiva. Surrounded on three sides by the Arabian Sea, the famous Murdeshwar temple attracts people from far and wide. Nature has bestowed Murdeshwar with lush greenery. It is breathtaking to watch the waves lash the shore. Fishing is a common occupation and sea food is a delicacy in the region.
The temple looks similar to the one at the Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari. The carvings on the temple are marvelous. The scene depicting Ravana bringing the Atmalinga of Lord Shiva from Kailasha is a masterpiece. A tower in the temple premises has the story carved on it. The foundation stone, towers and pillars have dimensions in multiples of six. The glory of Murdeshwar exists in the story that Ravana, King of Lanka, after his penance at Kailasha asked Lord Shiva for a boon.
Lord Shiva told Ravana to make a wish and Ravana asked for the ‘Atmalinga’. In order to keep his promise, Lord Shiva had to grant Ravana his wish. However he put the condition that the Atmalinga was not to be kept on the ground at any cost. Fearful that Ravana would misuse the boon, all the Gods sought Lord Ganapathi’s help. Disguised as a shepherd Lord Ganapathi appeared before Ravana, who requested him to hold the Shivalinga till he (Ravana) returned after paying obeisance to God. Lord Ganapathi waited patiently for a while and then placed the linga on the ground at Gokarna.
Furious over this, Ravana tried to move the linga with al his might but in vain. He threw the cloth and thread of the linga in frustration. The sacred cloth fell over the Kanduka Hill and assumed the form of the Mrideshwar Linga.
Mrideshwar is an island. When Lord Maheshwara reached Murdeshwar he saw his own self in the linga. Since the linga stood without a pedestal, Lord Shiva summoned all the Gods and made Vishwakarma build a pedestal for it.
The trampling of the sacred cloth by Ravana is called ‘Mrida’. This was transformed into a linga. Thus the Shivalinga is called ‘Mrideshwara’. Mrida also means ‘happiness’. Shiva thus blessed this abode and it has ever since been known as a place of happiness. Mrideshwara is now known as Murdeshwar.

Bombay Burgernomics

Purchasing-Power-Parity (PPP) is based on the idea that a US dollar should buy the same amount in all countries. In other words the exchange rate between two countries should be the rate that equalises the prices of an identical basket of goods and services in each country.
The Big Mac PPP, an index by the Economist, is the exchange rate that would mean hamburgers cost the same in America as abroad. Dividing the actual exchange rate by the PPP would give the number of times the currency is overvalued.
A Big Mac costs Rs 100 at Colaba. It costs US$ 3.10 in New York. In other words Rs 100 buys me US$ 3.1 worth of goods. Hence US$ 1 would buy me Rs 80/3.1 or Rs 25.81 worth of goods. Hence the PPP would be Rs 25.81 to 1 US$. And ideally this should be the Rs-US$ exchange rate.

Differences

Some of the differences between the ways that men's and women's brains work must have evolved over time. Some of these differences appear to be the result of a division of labour between men and women going back to our hunter-gatherer past.
For example, men are better at spatial-navigational skills such as map reading and judging distances and at targeting skills (dart throwing for instance).
These skills probably developed through hunting. Women have a better memory for words and objects, and are better at fine motor skills. These abilities probably developed through food gathering near the home and through making clothes and preparing food.

Women are more articulate about feelings…
The two sides of the brain, connected by the corpus callosum, have a larger number of connections in women. This means that more information is being exchanged between the left and right sides of the female brain. And the latest research has shown that the more connections people have between the left and right hemispheres, the more articulate and fluent they are. This finding provides a further explanation for women's verbval dexterity.

Women are more easily distracted by superfluous information....
What makes all of us better at one thing or another seems to be the degree to which a particular area of the brain is specifically devoted to a particular activity - whether it is focused or diffused. Men and women are better at the skills that are controlled by specific areas of the brain -but different areas of their brains are focused for different things. This means that the male and female pattern of brain organisation has advantages and disadvantages for both sexes. The male pattern, with more brain functions specifically organised, means that men are not so easily distracted by superfluous information.

It is easier for men to multi-task….
Men find it easier to talk and read a map at the same time. In a man each activity is controlled by a different side of the brain. In a woman the same activities are controlled by areas on both sides of the brain. The two activities can interfere with each other and she will not be as good at talking and map reading at the same time

Women are better at verbal skills…
The superiority of women in verbal tests can also be explained by the difference in brain organisation. The language skills related to grammar, spelling and writing are all more specifically located in the left-hand side of the brain in a woman. In a man they are spread in the front and back of the brain, and so he will have to work harder than a woman to achieve these skills.

Men find it more difficult to express their emotions….
Some scientists suggest that the difference in emotional response in men
and women can be explained by the difference in the structure and
organisation of the brain. Man keeps his emotions in their place; and that place is on the right side of his brain, while the power to express his feelings in speech lies
over on the other side. Because the two halves of the brain are connected by a smaller number of fibres than a woman's, the flow of information between one side of the brain and the other is more restricted. It is then often more difficult for a man to express his emotions because the information is flowing less easily to the verbal, left side of his brain.

Women are less able to separate emotion from reason…
The female brain has emotional capacities on both sides of the brain, plus there is more information exchanged between the two sides of the brain. The emotional side is more integrated with the verbal side of the brain. A woman can express her emotions in words because what she feels has been transmitted more effectively to the verbal side of the brain.

From "Brain Sex; The Real Differences Between Men and Women"; by Anne Moir phd. and David Jessel.

Language Ability

“Once language ability started to be selected for to promote coalition building, other selective pressures probably began to operate. One of these was probably runaway sexual selection. In runaway sexual selection the females would come to select males on the basis of their language ability. Language ability, because of its interfacing nature, allows one individual to readily make some assessment of certain cognitive abilities in the other. Through this mechanism, females cannot only select for mates with good language abilities, but also those who have somewhat higher intelligence. Males, in turn, with good language skills could use these abilities to exploit tendencies of females to be enamoured of males with high language abilities. With the advent of language, linguistic deception, or lying, was almost certainly soon to follow. Males could conceivably promise commitment and resources and not necessarily follow through with these. This would have set up an arms race in which females would have had to develop better and better detection skills for spotting male deception. This, no doubt, set up a runaway arms race for even greater language abilities and for even greater mental abilities.”