Installing Firefox5 on RHEL5

I found these instructions Godsend after a lot of blind alleys.

CentOS 5.x FireFox 5 working install

Standard model looks ugly...

I was reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subatomic_particle

Elementary particles of the Standard Model include:[2]
Six "flavors" of quarks: up, down, bottom, top, strange, and charm;
Six types of leptons: electron, electron neutrino, muon, muon neutrino, tau, tau neutrino;
Thirteen gauge bosons (force carriers): the graviton of gravity, the photon of electromagnetism, the three W and Z bosons of the weak force, and the eight gluons of the strong force.

and was thinking to myself, holy crap - standard model for sure looks ugly. It looked more like intelligent design theory of physics rather than theory of evolution - that is every particle [species] was created independently instead of being essentially variation on the same thing .

So I looked in the net and even Great Stephen hawking seems to feel that way!

If we understand the universe, then we control it, in a sense. The standard model is clearly unsatisfactory in this respect. First of all, it is ugly and ad hoc. The particles are grouped in an apparently arbitrary way, and the standard model depends on 24 numbers whose values can not be deduced from first principles, but which have to be chosen to fit the observations. What understanding is there in that?

Clearly something needs to be done, and it is not complicating life more by introducing multiple universes [To me all the universes comprise to become one true universe - which is what I would call THE universe. No universes] - It is inaccessible to us is irrelevant. Even in our universe, observable part is not the whole universe - It is only what is called 'observable universe'.

Thomas Nagel's interesting papers!

I came across these two papers from Philosopher Thomas Nagel by accident.

Sexual perversion

and

What it is like to be bat?

Both are amazingly well reasoned arguments and for the first one I was happy someone tried to scientifically define 'perversion' and second one is better known for his arguments for taking human mentality seriously quite independent of its physical reduction.

Both are nice read!

My meaning of life!

I have finally finalized [and approved by a committee of 1] my "meaning of life".

1. My wife and kids [upto 18] - live and let them live happy life. No explanation here.
2. Physics/Mathematics - This probably gave me the most happiness in my life. First time when I understood that light is just electro magnetic wave, first time when I could calculate a complicated figure's area with calculus I was simply blown away.

When I read Euclid's abstract geometry it really looked like absolute heaven - no uncertainities, just beautiful theorems, using elegant arguments.

Or when I realized first time, that real numbers are not real after all!

Or when I understood geometry of our space [space-time actually] is not Euclidean [In hindsight even geometry of our earth is not Euclidean]. Or there is nothing like an absolute simultaneity.

Or the weird quantum world which I never could understand so far. Being not a professional in physics, I am never happy with it giving accurate results. It needs to explain, which always bothers me. I learn physics to understand the universe, not to make money or not even for its enormous applications from Satellite TV to nuclear power.

To those who do not know mathematics it is difficult to get across a real feeling as to the beauty, the deepest beauty, of nature ...
-Feynman

3. Biology - Since I am a biological organism and biology really cured me of things like Islam, superstition, God etc. Always I want to understand about this biological marvel called Brain, which can hold a model of the universe inside! Amazing!

Particularly Selfish Gene of Dr. Dawkins really changed my outlook on life and cured me of all superstitions. When I was in 11th/12th in 1995/96 I tried hard to not look at evidence for evolution - Digits of all Mammals, embryos of humans and fish and an overarching one - We all share the fundamental alphabets of genetic information. But only a blind [in thinking that is ]
man can hold out for too long, particularly after reading book like 'Selfish Gene'.

4. Computer science - of course I love my professional field. But here both for its practical applications as well as theorems like Godel's or Turing's.

5. Travel the world with my wife and baby - Travelling is real rejuventor - Whether to Los Angeles or to Goa. That really clears my mind and almost gives me a fresh start!

I don't believe in sugar coated goals like:
1. help others [then what their life is for?] - That doesn't mean I won't help anyone
2. change the world - most of the change the world impacts of individuals are bad - Muhammed, Hitler, Genghis khan, Alexander etc. In the context of whole universe I living in a fleeting moment [1/50000000 of the life of the earth, if I were to live for 100 years ] am too insignificant an event for the universe. In any case as Richard Feynman said 'it is not my responsibility to change the world'

[John] von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: that you don't have to be responsible for the world that you're in. So I have developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility as a result of von Neumann's advice. It's made me a very happy man ever since. But it was von Neumann who put the seed in that grew into my active irresponsibility!

3. Live up to others expectations!

You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be.

Again to quote Feynman!