Impressions from the Big Debate - Bill Nye vs Ken Ham

[If you are offended easily, please ignore this post.]

Does no one find it odd that the only person Ken Ham had the guts to go up against is a mechanical engineer who has been away from serious academics for a long time?

If Ken Ham was ever so confident, should not he have done battle with a biologist, a botanist or a zoologist?

Despite his obvious lack of qualification, Bill Nye presented a surprisingly cogent case in favour of evolution. His lack of debating skills were overcome in part due to his familiarity in presenting basic scientific theories on television and talk shows. His peculiar stories though did not do him any favours. Maybe he should have stopped being the decent person in the debate and called out his opponent on his outright lies.

Ken Ham on the other hand was almost boorish by comparison. He simply does not understand how the radiometric dating of minerals is done and hence believes them to be inaccurate. Furthermore, he lacks understanding of the formation of sedimentary rock structures. The Grand Canyon example that he presented clearly displayed his ignorance. Shale layers contain uranium, thorium and potassium and a study of their radioactive decay can quite accurately furnish the age of a rock.

Further, Ken Ham ignores that the modern study of evolution no longer relies on the shape of finch beaks, rather a study of gene sequences. Ken Ham stresses on how all life arose from different 'kinds'. This theory falls flat when presented with the fact that humans and reptiles share certain gene sequences. According to the philosophy of Ken Ham, this should not be so, yet it has been proven without a shadow doubt.

Ken Ham continued his close - minded spiel by saying that genetic mutation of microscopic organisms over a long line of generations did not constitute evolution even when it allowed the microorganism in question to harness a new food source. This was observable evidence that he discounted in the debate without even giving a reason as to why he was doing so. It is simple, he was uncomfortable, and so he chose to ignore it.

Ken Ham also implies that secular world - views are lacking in morality. His casual remark that a secular person would euthanize older generations to make way for younger ones was truly sickening to behold. If I remember correctly, scientific theories never asked a parent for the sacrifice of their children. Ken Ham may not believe that elder people can contribute creatively to the world, but most academics value experience quite a lot.

Last but not least, let us all examine the quality of the evidence. Bill Nye based his case on peer-reviewed material backed up by years of research by thousands of scientists each questioning one another until they arrived at a point where they were confident that all the evidence lined up and pointed to a particular answer being true. Ken Ham on the other hand based his arguments on a self - contradictory document created by a handful of ancient religious figures without any accountability or testing using modern equipment. This same document, which he holds so dear, would have us believe that the world is flat and that the sun rotates around it.

Science is not about faith; it is about the truth. Nothing is admitted as a theory without rigourous testing and continuous refinement. Science simply does not allow for the arrogance that religion has. It does not try to monopolize truth and morality. It simply observes, infers, understands and unravels the mysteries that all religions have guarded with their ignorance to remain in a position of power.

I conclude by saying that Richard Dawkins is right not to debate creationists as it only gives their theories an air of validity that they haven't earned and do not deserve. In the end, all religions must be brushed aside if the human civilization is to survive over the long term. As the popular saying goes, "Don't argue with idiots, they will bring you down to their level and then defeat you with experience". Ken Ham is an extremely experienced person (and Bill Nye learned 'something' from him).

A Very Serious 'Mata'

The one thing that is at the forefront of every Chelsea supporter's mind is "why-oh-why is Juan Mata being sold and that too to rivals?". I've been of the same mind, but with events elsewhere falling into place, things have started to get just a little bit clearer. The answer lies in Switzerland of all places. While many people are holding onto the remote hope that Mata will choose to turn down the transfer, speaking rationally, I can say that the transfer is already done in the minds of all parties involved and there is nothing that will stop it from going through. So, what is the master plan behind all the smoke and mirrors? Has Jose Mourinho, the most cunning manager in the football world finally lost it? Not at all. If all goes well, Chelsea will be stronger than ever before. In order to properly explain the transfer, a bit of background is required.

When Jose Mourinho first arrived at Chelsea, he put Joe Cole through the gauntlet and turned him from a good player to a great player. Before he could do that, he destroyed the player that he used to be. Joe Cole listened to what Jose Mourinho had to say and went on to the best years of his careers. In the second coming of Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge, he isolated Juan Mata from his position, instead choosing to play him out on the right wing. Mata was initially bought by Chelsea as a winger and moved in to the centre out of desperation. With those desperate times behind us and a packed group of central attacking midfielders, it made sense to move Juan Mata back out to the wings. However, as Mata had grown into his new position, the transition back to his old one was met with resistance.

Furthermore, while Mata's touch on the ball remains one of the best in the world, he lacks pace. This might invite skepticism from most as Juan Mata is as fast as most premier league players in his movement in attack, however, Chelsea have always had a slightly above average team in terms of sheer speed. With Oscar or Eden Hazard spearheading quick attacks, Juan Mata has been left behind a couple times this season. This was not readily apparent as Mata's ability to set up excellent through balls and play perfect passes kept him very much in the game.

Finally, this brings us to the biggest point of contention. Juan Mata does not pay as much attention as he should to his defensive duties. This is a nagging fact that no Chelsea fan can ignore. I've seen Fernando Torres more involved in defence at times than Juan Mata. Also, with Oscar stepping up his standards this season has done Juan Mata no favours.

So, Jose Mourinho turns to Andre Schhurle, a constant long range goal threat, and the possibility of signing Mohamed Saleh from Basel (here lies the Switzerland connection!) as his new right wingers. With Saleh all set to join Chelsea, we will have an incredibly fast attacking front capable of stunning counter-attacks. Saleh will play on the right wing with Oscar down the centre and Eden Hazard on the left wing. Andre Schhurle will have to content himself with appearances either in cups or in the league as a central midfielder with a lot more defensive duties than what he is used to playing up front. The skill of the front line will also have Willian at its disposal further deepening the attacking options. This team will not only have the good counter-attacking qualities of the Mourinho teams of old, but will also have a lot more skill at playing in tight spaces. This second part is apparent in the signings of Nemanja Matic, the encouragement given to Marco Van Ginkel and the refusal to sell Oriol Romeu. All three central defensive midfielders are as good as the attacking front when it comes to playing against packed midfields. Ramires will remain the constant as far as I can see, though he might be rested a bit more during cup games (such as the F.A cup and the Capital One Cup).

Selling Juan Mata to Manchester United just might be the boldest thing "The Special One" has ever done in his illustrious career. There are many theories circulating as to why a transfer to a rival has been sanctioned. The one that seems to make the most sense is that as Chelsea will not play against Manchester United again this season, Juan Mata will not be able to harm their bid for the title. Instead, he will be able to harm Arsenal's march on the title as Manchester United will play Arsenal a little down the road. This just may be the only way Chelsea can clinch the title this season. This reasoning is however flawed as it is incredibly short - sighted as Jose Mourinho is here to stay and will definitely be thinking about the next season even now. So, other than winning the league, what other reason might Chelsea have for selling Juan Mata? One thing that comes to mind are the Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. With Manchester United panicking, Chelsea have the luxury of selling Juan Mata at the highest possible price. As a Chelsea fan, I personally cannot think of any sum great enough to consider selling Juan Mata, however, Jose Mourinho is not a Chelsea fan, he's the manager. Going into the next season without violating the FFP rules will give Chelsea more room to dictate other teams to follow the same rules and keep it in good standing with UEFA. Barcelona (for signing Neymar) and Bayern Munich (for signing a number of Borussia Dortmund players) have been spending wantonly on a plethora of players, but their team - strengthening might yet be their downfall as the FFP rules just might disqualify them from the Champions League. This leaves Chelsea as the prime title contender among other smaller, albeit highly skilled teams.

Considering that the Chelsea official website has already announced the signing of Mohamed Salah (pending personal terms and a medical), it's safe to say the Juan Mata is as good as gone. We shall remember him for the joy he brought to all of us Chelsea fans throughout his years at the bridge, but from here on out, he will be the single Manchester United player I will not denigrate given the opportunity.

I wish him good luck and sincerely hope he gets to the finals of the World Cup 2014!

[P.S : The Germans will crush the Spanish in what should be one amazing match!]

Tingling Tastebuds

Taste, the timeless temptress,
Tantalizing recipes born of a tempestuous mind,
Created on this very earth
And yet so utterly divine.


Every great chef is first a born epicure, however, every epicure is not necessarily born a great chef. And that is where my problem begins. Unfortunately, as you may have guessed, I fall into the latter rather than the former and I stare with wide - eyed jealousy at all those with 'the touch' who effortlessly create mouth-watering pieces of culinary art. Despite my obvious shortcomings in this field and blatant lack of experience, I decided to test the very limit of my cooking proficiency.

It was a wednesday like any other. The stale stench of despair hung heavy in the air as the week was far from done, yet everyone was tired from the exertions already undergone. In this sordid atmosphere I took up my shopping list and set out on a quest to track down everything that I needed. While mentally repeating Tolkien's "The Road goes ever on and on, Down from the door where it began....." I journeyed through aisle after aisle of food stocked high. In the narrow moria-esque cavernous tunnels of the supermarket Fred Meyers, I gathered all that would be required to create an epic feast which would be forever remembered as Legen-wait for it-dary!

The kitchen was crowded as it often is when 8 storeys worth of people come to a single place seeking sustenance but I refused to be denied. I would play the waiting game and wait I would till most of the people had cleared out before setting my plan in motion. So, setting my purchases within the communal fridge, I retired to my room biding my time. At the stroke of midnight, (actually it was 10 p.m in Alaska but that doesn't sound nearly as dramatic; I'm sure it was midnight somewhere else in the world though) I made my way down to kitchen and began what would culminate in the pinnacle of my cooking achievements. Never before had I cooked three things simultaneously (and after this experience, probably never again) but I made it look effortfull because effortlessness comes only to great chefs. In any case, at the end of the night I had before me enough rice to feed a hundred hundredths of me, Rajma (kidney beans) cooked in an onion rich gravy and Fish (Cod fillet) cooked in a light tomato gravy. Thankfully, this veritable feast went unnoticed by my Indian compatriots otherwise I am sure I would have tasted none of it! After gorging on it myself, I am now ready to share my culinary creations with all those who wish to consume it.

I may have a long way to go, but I'm definitely on the right track when it comes to cooking up a storm!

Mastering a Science

It's been a while. A long time in time and much longer as far as life - changing events are concerned.

Around four months ago, I was in the thick of things in the management entrance exam scene and even managed a decent score (93.8 percentile is something I find acceptable at least), preparing for interviews when suddenly all that was turned on its head! I finally got a call accepting me into the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in their "Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering" graduate degree programme. At long last, a school I could afford to attend and I was only to happy to accept.

My perceptions of Alaska at that time was a wintery wasteland blanketed perennially in snow quite like the planet 'Hoth' from Star Wars. Truth be told, when I first stepped out of the Fairbanks airport, there was nothing in view to dispel that notion. The next few days only served to reinforce it. The sudden change from 40 degrees centigrade above zero to 40 degrees below combined with extreme jet lag meant that I was unavoidably sick. However, work was at hand and a ton of paperwork awaited me. Thankfully, modern medicine can work wonders. That along with Japanese thermal clothing technology gave me the edge to survive.

Bit by bit, my negative image of Alaska started to thaw as I came in contact with the people of the university. Unfailingly polite and abundantly cheerful, it was easier than I thought to adjust to the new environment. Course work piled on, work loads waxed and waned and exams rolled by.

It's been an odd few months. I went from being desperate to get into the right graduate degree programme to having multiple universities calling on me. I went from extreme heat to extreme cold and more importantly, I got used to it. But what stands out over everything else is the huge amounts left for me to learn in Petroleum Engineering. Learning new things, relearning and updating the old. It's a long journey on this road to mastering a science.

Slaying Demons

"So, how do we kill the monsters that plague our lives?

We don't, we fight them every day and keep fighting them and hope never to lose."


I once saw a movie with that dialogue worked into it and I cannot help but discover the relations that can be drawn between the idea behind the movie and the experience of giving management entrance tests. Of course, the movie had a much deeper concept of fighting the ill tendencies that crop up in our minds and behaving like decent, civilized human beings while really wanting to kill most of the people we meet every day, but it also rings a bell when describing how MBA entrance tests never seem to stop. The workload itself is pretty low. Close to 8 hours a day and you're good, considering the B.Tech. degree to my belt, that's peanuts, but what really gets you is the way it is dragged out from one month to the next. CMAT in one month, CAT in the next, IIFT and NMAT in another month altogether not to mention SNAP and XAT with their own unique schedules. At this rate, I'd rather have another go at the GRE. Now there was an exam. Easy in, get it over with and get out! If you have to retake the exam, the syllabus and the preparation remains the same, but in the case of management entrance exams, some exams have GK sections, some have more time, most have negative marking though not all. As a result, each tests demands not just a different strategy, but a completely different mindset or approach to prepare for them.

Well, now that my complaining is done, I'm off to slay demons once again.

The Big Cat !

Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, Panthers, Pumas, Cheetas, Lynxes and all the other creatures from the 'Big Cat' family pale in comparison to the one I'll be going up against day after tomorrow. At this point, a jaunt through the den of any one of the aforementioned beasts seems much more favourable.

The cat I'm talking about is The CAT, the "Common Admission Test". The natural habitat of course is not the African Savannah, the CAT preys on unwary students in air conditioned halls full of computers.

In every horror movie there is a moment when someone is being stalked by some malignant entity (take your pick, though Jaws and Freddie Kruger would be good choices) and there is a sort of 'predator' music going on in the background. Well, I guess if my life is ever to be put into celluloid, this would probably the time for all the creepy background tracks you can think of.

Well, wish me luck ! :)



P.S : Cinema fanatics, I am well aware of the digital videography revolution and that no one uses celluloid anymore. Don't give me grief over it as I used it merely as an expression.

The True Opressed Classes of India

I am a member of the most oppressed caste in India - The 'General' Category !


Dr. Ambedakar, the foremost champion of protection of the backward classes, decreed that reservations would be required for a maximum of ten years to bring about balance in the Indian society. Maybe his calculations were right, but his assumptions were most definitely at fault. He expected the national administrators to be upstanding citizens of impeccable character and erudition. Instead, our country has bred a generation of vote - bank politicians. It is with increasing alarm that I note how rapidly we are moving away from forming a Meritocracy. There are reservations for admissions into colleges, discounts in prices for competitive exams, reservations for placements and now reservation for promotion. So, all you 99%ilers can keep your resumes in your bag, because it lacks the single most important element to succeed in India and that is the Scheduled Caste/Tribe tag !

The reservation system is now trying not only to make sure that less deserving candidates get ahead but also that they stay ahead.Many people from scheduled castes and tribes instantly cry foul whenever they see someone from the general category move into a position ahead of them. The first thought that goes through their minds is "they were born privileged, I deserve just as much as them", what they fail to think is "they're better than me". It doesn't matter where you were born, those who deserve to get ahead, should be promoted.

Reservations are creating a rot right from the bottom to the top of the Indian social strata. This decay is harming not only the general category, but also the categories with reservations. Now, if you were to meet a genuinely talented person who belongs to one of the reserved classes, all one can think is that they are where they are not because of their own abilities, but due to the advantages (i.e. reservations) that they got.

Not only is the amount of reservations going up (just check reserved seats in government colleges), but the number of classes eligible for reservation is also increasing. If the oppressed are truly to be aided, there can be subsidies made for the poor, but nothing else. If we are to improve as a nation, the strongest MUST survive and the weakest MUST die out. It is the only way we can move forward. The very Theory of Evolution demands it.

Unfortunately, I am but one general category, male engineer trying his best to make some headway in Management Entrance Tests, and as far as the IIMs are concerned, I'm at the bottom of the pecking order (damn the diversity requirements !).......