Ram Bhakt

Originally posted by basha khan:
Quote Ram Bhakt

Well, as simple as this logic sounds, it is equally useless. It is nobody's responsibility to 'educate' you on anything.


I don�t give that responsibility to anyone. If somebody believes in astrology can or willing to tell why they believe in astrology simply, and if that convince me, then it�s enough to educate me.

So if you think it is useless, that's fine. If you think it has some logic, that is fine too. Nobody cares. Only way to find out is to make effort yourself, read the books, talk to people who practice it or any other mechanism.

Cool. That's exactly what I am doing by posting this topic here. If I have to buy books to find out the basics, I may do it also. But why cant u guys who believe in it explain it according to your beliefs, with the replies so far, I am not convinced on astrology.

Whether it is only psychological, or real, who knows.

Sometimes God maybe knowing. Or not.

Most of the 'professional' astrologers that I have met are quacks. They thrive on FUD (fear, uncertainity, and doubt). Many people who go to them, go at a stage when they are in some kind of a trouble and are too weak to overcome the fear that these quacks instill in them.

So I would suggest you to either read a good book on it or talk to a person who does this for the satisfaction and not for money. Someone with whome you can have an intellectual discussion with an open mind. Some books are (they are in Hindi):

Brihatparashar Horashastra and Jatak Parijat.
Neither of these can be found on railway station book stalls. They are too deep with lots of mathematics involved. They include the mathematical calculations for location of the stars, their positions, their cycles, their relative separation. It is not trivial.

These books are published by Chaukhamba Prakashan in Varanasi and don't cost much ... about 200Rs.

Originally posted by Dave Lenton:
However, if I lived in a country where people in power were making decisions based upon astrology (or some other similar thing), particularly decisions detrimental to the country, I would be quite upset..

Unfortunately, this happens is EVERY place humans exist. We take decisions based on intuition, dreams, God's help, astrology, or luck. If the decision turns out to be good, the guy is termed a genious, otherwise, a loser. I have never met a guy who has never ever in his life has said, "Oh God, help me out". So I am not surprised if a leader of country does that too. This is human nature.

This happens because we do not know the future and we try to "know" it through any means so that we can take better decisions.

Originally posted by fred rosenberger:
<clarifying a point, not arguing further>

"Not sure what you mean by that."

what i mean by that is the following...

a common dilution for homeopathic remedies is 30C. 1C means to dilute the original substance to 1:100. 2C means to dilute it to 1:100, then take THAT and dilute it again to 1:100. each increase in the C number dilutes the original substance by a factor of 100.

so, a 30C dilution means you dilute it to 1 part in 10^60.

there are only something like 10^51 atoms in the earth. your medicine is diluted a billion times more than that, and you're only drinking - let's be generous, a cup of the homeopathic remedy. odds are pretty slim there would be even 1 molecule of the substance in there.

my point is that you are not consuming ANY of the substance that is supposedly in there.

So didn't I say the same thing, "active ingredients are practically non-existant"???
BTW, the example that you gave may or may not apply for ALL homeopatic prescriptions. I am not a doctor and I can't say whether it is correct or not. All I can say is that it did work in my mother's case. It was something that regular doctors could not cure for 3 yrs. I can choose to rely on the fact that there is no scientific evidence that it works, or on my experience. I choose my experience.

Originally posted by fred rosenberger:

and don't get me started on homeopathic medicine. "the active ingredients... are practically non-existant"??? are you SERIOUS?

i recently saw a homeopathic remedy that, according to the box itself, would require you to consume a glob of water the size of the solar system, and then drink about 9,999 more globs the same size, to consume exactly ONE MOLECULE of the active ingredient.

Not sure what you mean by that. The point is that homeopathic medicines contain very little amount of active ingredients as compared to allopathic medicines. So some people say that it give only placebo effect.

Regarding whether it works or not. I can tell you first hand information that it works. My mother was suffering from some serious skin disorder and was being treated by regular doctor for almost 3 yrs. Finally, they said it cannot be cured. Only after that, we learnt from someone about a professor in a renown engineering institute who also practices homeopathy. He treated her in 6 months. This happened 15 yrs ago. My mother, by God's grace, has been well ever since. I am not talking about any intangible disease like depression. It was a very visible skin condition which can be easily verfied. Can placebo fix it? May be. Could it be just luck/timing? May be. But I would rather believe that it works.


There are somethings that can be verified whether they work for you or not. So it doesn't matter if majority believes in it or not. It doesn't matter whether it is scientific or not. If it works for you, it works.

Originally posted by fred rosenberger:
the beauty of the JREF million dollar challenge is that the Astrologer says what "works" means, and how accurate. THEY define the test parameters. the JREF just makes sure that it is a properly done, double blind study.

it bothers me when leaders of governments use Astrologers to help them decide what is the correct policy decision. call me crazy.

and don't get me started on homeopathic medicine. "the active ingredients... are practically non-existant"??? are you SERIOUS?

i recently saw a homeopathic remedy that, according to the box itself, would require you to consume a glob of water the size of the solar system, and then drink about 9,999 more globs the same size, to consume exactly ONE MOLECULE of the active ingredient.

and it's disgusting to me when somebody STOPS legitimate, proven medical treatments because some woo-woo "doctor" tells them that "alternative medicine" has been practice for thousands of years.

people believed the world was flat for thousands of years, too. that doesn't mean it's right. reality is not a question of public opinion and majority rules.

the truth is that none of this has EVER been shown to be anything more than luck, subjective memory, or a placebo effect.

That's the reason it is not a 'science' as defined by science. I put it in the same league as religion, intelligent design, UFOs, and what not.

But then again, just because it is not 'science' doesn't mean it is useless. People take 'guidance', if you will, from secondary sources everywhere. Prez Bush has said on record that God(or did he say Jesus) guided him when making a decision on Iraq. Do you think that has more rationale than another prez looking at a horoscope to make policy decisions?
I believe both are equally ridiculous or equally smart, depending on whome you ask.

You are right that "reality is not a question of public opinion and majority rules", but the problem is what you call reality is not the ultimate because it is really nothing but a your perception. By your definition, something may not 'work', but it might 'work' by another definition.
By the same definition, no existance of God has ever been proven. But people throng to religious places...some for cure, some for satisfaction, some for salvation. So obviously, it 'works' by their definition.

Originally posted by basha khan:
[QB
The logic is simple, I'll believe in Astrology if,

1) If i get a cool reply to educate me the basic of astrology. which is about the connection of stars and humen (i posted detailed questien in my previous post).

If 1 and 2 is OK, (AND condition, not OR) , then i'll concider astrolgy.[/QB]

Well, as simple as this logic sounds, it is equally useless. It is nobody's responsibility to 'educate' you on anything. Astrology is not a religion and there are no prophets or missionaries who want to propagate their God/Religion.

So if you think it is useless, that's fine. If you think it has some logic, that is fine too. Nobody cares. Only way to find out is to make effort yourself, read the books, talk to people who practice it or any other mechanism.

Whether it works 10% or 90% of the time, is highly dependent on the astrologer and the subject. How do you define 'works'? There are some astrologers who make huge amount of money so for the people who pay these astrologers, it 'works' most of the time. That's why they pay. Whether it is only psychological, or real, who knows.

People even question homeopathy because the active ingredients in the medicine are practically non-existant. Western medicine pretty much trashes it. But it is big in India and Europe. So obviously, it 'works' at some level. If you have a disease and if nobody is able to cure it, you can try out homeopathy and see if it works. If you don't try it out, you *may be* the loser. But nobody is going to come and educate you about it.


If your definition of 'works' implies it should predict lottery numbers then that is even more ridiculous. It can only prove whether the astrologer 'works' or not. It does not prove or disprove whether astrology has the ability to predict or not. It is same as saying medical science doesn't work just because your doctor fails to cure you.

Originally posted by Ajay Mathew:


Now Now what you have sneaked in is ancient names with present-day names and translated their direct meaning.
All the above names are attached and revolve around one thing and that is Victory. thats why Ajay is a derived from it.
guess then Ajit as per your translation would be �without win�?
Amol would be �without value�
I would suggest to use my best friend Google as a starting point on things you are uncertain about (like Ajay + meaning)

:roll:

I so knew someone named Ajay was going reply

You are right about the current popular belief of the meaning of word Ajay. However, how much ever it might hurt you, the fact is that it is wrong and the correct word for "the one who cannot be won" is Ajeya. Ajay means just the opposite. If a thousand people believe something to be true doesn't necessarily make it true. Therefore, Google cannot prove or disprove any thing. It will only tell you how many people believe in what. If you are really interested in knowing, you can talk to any Hindi professor and he can enlighten you. Or you can live all your life in blissful ignorance.

Again, the prefix 'a' does not always work the same way for all the words, so your logic that Amol means without value is wrong. Even in English you have words like invaluable and invisible, where 'in' provides opposite meaning.

I remember we had a similar discussion once while in college. There was a guy who used the word 'shady' very often (as in, "Last night I went to a shady bar"). Finally, someone corrected him by telling him that the right word is 'seedy' and not 'shady' but he wouldn't believe. Now, 'shady' is used often by many Indians, but that doesn't change the fact that it is wrong

[
And nonIndian names like Adam would be something about A Dam?

This tells me that you are not really interested in any intellectual discussion.

Originally posted by Ajay Mathew:


Ajatshatru is nowadays shortened to Ajay

They are different. Former means "the one whose enemy hasn't been born", the later means "without win". There is a similar word: Aparajit (female form Aparajita is quite common) meaning "the one who has never been defeated".

Actually, the word for "the one who cannot be won", is Ajeya (like Ameya).
Ajay is a wrong spelling for that word and is pronounced as A - j - y (all single 'A's as in Amar), which means "Without Win", which is probably not what the parents meant while naming their kid

John,

Home finances in India and US are drastically different. While in US, it is very common for people to have lot of credit card debt, in India, it is very rare. In fact, one of the gripes of the creditors in India is that Indians don't use credit card for credit but only for convenience.
The thing is that debt, consumer debt especially, is frowned upon in Indian society. People will skip a meal but avoid debt. Unless it is a properly structured loan for housing or occupation, in which case it is an investment really. Nobody I even remotely know carries any credit card balance forward.

This is changing a bit now due to consumerism but still I would be surprised to know if anybody has credit card debt and is thinking about investing

Originally posted by Arjunkumar Shastry:

This happens because "ta" in Chetan can be pronounced similar to "ta" in Tata.But its not correct.It must be pronounced as "ta" in Tara.Hence to differentiate,Chetan is written as Chethan.Similarly Jayalalitha and not Jayalalita!!

But then how do you differentiate between th as in Theater and th as in Chethan?

The problem is again the same...insufficiant codes in one language to encode sounds of another language. English and Tamil are particulary deficiant in that respect. In north, Chetan is the convention for the t (as in Tare (stars) ) sound and in south Chathan is the convention for the same. So both are correct or incorrect !!!

After eating in Mexican restaurants, I have realized that spicy food is not same as hot (or chilli laced) food i.e. although spices contain hot ingredients including chilies but spices != chillies.

One of my gujju (read vegan) friends often eats Veggie burrito from BurritoVille in Manhattan. I had the misfortune of eating it once. That thing was so freakishly hot that it actually burnt (as in chemical burn) my tongue so severly that for 4 months I couldn't eat anything crusty and anything with even a hint of chilli. I consulted 4 doctors and had several medications including allergy medications. Nothing worked. One doctor even suggested that I might have diabetes and had me do blood sugar test. The condition cleared up after 4 months on its own. For all that time I was on a sweet or bland diet.

Mind you that I am used to eating very hot (as in spicy) foods. While in Bangalore, I was a a fan of "Andhra style" (read HOT!!!) restaurants and never had any problem.

While doing some reading on the the chillies that they use, I found out that there are about 10 levels of hotness in chillis. Habanero chilli is the hottest one and Jalopeno (the one you see on pizza) is among the milder ones. I can tell you that Habanero is a killer. If you rub it on your hand a little bit, you will get a blister. That's how hot it is.

The problem here in US is that when they say spicy they mean levels of chilli which is basically just one spice. So you can pretty much say that there are no "spicy" foods in american restaurants, only chilli foods. Their repertoir of spices is basically 3 things: pepper, cinnamon, and chillies. They don't even know what spices really are.

Oh yes, the chinese takes out have one additional "spice" in their repeortoir of spices: Monosodium Glutamate (aka ajinomoto)
[ March 31, 2006: Message edited by: Ram Bhakt ]

10101010, Pilani.

On T-shirts worn by students of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani.

My rule of thumb: If you have to pay for anyting such as VISA, ticket, lodging out of your pocket, it is not worth it.

Originally posted by narayana Vishnu:
Hi Rambhakth,
My case is also same as ashwit,but my company(not consultancy) asked me to pay $2750 and they told me that they will provide free accommadation and free boarding till selecting in client interview.Is it better to go ahead with them or not?

company name is www.ustechsolutions.com

Cheers,
LakshmiNarayana

No, I wouldn't recommend it. If you have to pay for anything then that is a problem. As long as nothing goes out of your pocket, you have a upper hand. I would advise you to look for a company that does not ask for money. It is ok if they don't pay you much until you find a project.