Science News

[jayakris]

People used to write off about lot of suspicions as conspiracy theories until wikileaks kept lot of those conversations and evidence in public domain. I will also leave it at that!

You mean, in relation to Modi?? What, specifically? (I have not followed what wiki leaks had on India matters much. The Israel spy software stuff?)

[srini]

^^ No, nothing specific to Modi, Wikileaks peak revelations came long before Modi became PM.
By the way all seems to be fine, with clear indications coming from PMO that Modi will be watching it virtually. May be i was thinking too much and in the process became the forum's resident conspiracy theorist but anyway I am relieved...just have a hunch the chances of mission success will increase in his absence.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... s?from=mdr

[Atithee]

I was looking at the moon last night and thinking that we will be landing there shortly. It has happened. This is possibly the greatest feat by the nation in its history. Congrats to all the scientists.

[prasen9]

Anyway, India landing an aircraft on the moon, is Engineering news. Not Science news.

But, hey, congratulations to all the engineers, okay maybe a few scientists, administrators, politicians who made this possible.

[srini]

Big sigh of relief! Congrats to Team ISRO for a landing that is supposedly hostile and avoided by other nations for same reason, but most important from pov of science. Fantastic stuff...this should have a multiplier effect in the form of investments in the space eco system of space startups of the country.

[jayakris]

I have to admit that Modi's speech irritated me, as it came on so soon after the landing, and it was a bit too long and unexciting. Borrowing from a friend of mine, I don't understand Hindi, and could hardly understand his English at the end either... Anyway, they should have given 2 or 3 minutes for celebration before putting him on.

But a fantastic achievement. Especially for doing it with so little money expense. Only three countries have soft-landed on the moon in 47 years. Actually only three countries may know how to do it anymore, too!

[srini]

Anyway, India landing an aircraft on the moon, is Engineering news. Not Science news.

But, hey, congratulations to all the engineers, okay maybe a few scientists, administrators, politicians who made this possible.

Science news from the experiments conducted in next 14 days can only follow the engineering news . Let's wait to hear pleasant(ananda) science news from Pragyaan(ananda)

[prasen9]

Hey, I was kidding. In order to get this mission worked with low budget, a lot of scientists (and engineers) had to work together along with administrators. A thank you to NASA, who helped out but a bit on the side, of course, the core of the mission was all our own.

[SaniaFan]

What exactly was NASAs help? I read somewhere that we used NASAs playbook. What does that mean?

[srini]

I have to admit that Modi's speech irritated me, as it came on so soon after the landing, and it was a bit too long and unexciting. Borrowing from a friend of mine, I don't understand Hindi, and could hardly understand his English at the end either... Anyway, they should have given 2 or 3 minutes for celebration before putting him on.

But a fantastic achievement. Especially for doing it with so little money expense. Only three countries have soft-landed on the moon in 47 years. Actually only three countries may know how to do it anymore, too!

Problem with his speech writers (may be no one went with him to SA . He tries to over simplify everything and when he does that to as complex as space obviously the effect would be bad.

BTW, i thought most of Malayalees embrace Hindi and know it well enough, how did it happen to you? I am from north coastal Andra and learned Hindi as 3rd language only for couple of years but can barely speak inspite of living in Hyderabad for a while now. Actually Telugu has lot of sanskrit words and my 1st language was Telugu in school so that proficiency helps me catch up with hindi others speak.

[arjun2761]

I fully understand. What I am not is a didactic conspiracy theorist. I’ll just leave it at that. All I want is the mission to be successful this time. It’s an incredible feat for the nation. We all know where the credit lies. I’m not naive to not understand how the Indian politics work.

Incredible feat by the nation! From politicians with the vision to the scientists and engineers (and even the bureaucrats who didn't sabotage it) who effectuated it.

BTW, most conspiracy theorists are on the idealogical left or right. The ones on the right typically are lower on the IQ scale while the ones on the left are typically averse to doing productive work. Neither of those extremes contribute to a healthy and productive society.

For the rest, people having selfish motivations for productive work and achievements is considered pretty normal. It is the essence of capitalism. Those people are also generally the drivers of most productive societies.

[jayakris]

BTW, i thought most of Malayalees embrace Hindi and know it well enough, how did it happen to you?

Well, embracing it, and speaking it are entirely different. Malayalees had no anti-Hindi attitude but nobody used Hindi in Kerala 4-5 decades ago even if they had all studied it in school for a minimum 5 years. I grew up in Kerala for 17 years without ever hearing anybody speak Hindi (or two people having a Hindi conversation). This is pre-1985 when I left for Chennai for UG studies. Before TV broguht Hindi to everybody in S.India (there was no TV in Kerala pre-1983).

Basically Hindi was a foreign language to me, and it still remains so. It is deeply sanskrit-based but unlike Malayalam/Kannada/Telugu that borrowed Sanskrit words, Hindi words of Sanskrit origin are different from their root words and they do not have any Sanskrit feel (to me). When I hear "oopar" it does not feel like "above" to me because I don't automatically feel that it is from "upari" in Sanskrit, that is. I hear "vishakha pattanam" and I feel it is Indian and a certain imagery comes to mind (a sanskrit and a thamizh word mix, pretty much in the original forms). "Kishangarh" does not give me an automatic feeling of "Krishna Grham", for a contrast. For me, Sanskrit and Tamizh words feel Indian. Hindi just feels like a language that came from abroad. I have no natural cognition of it, and I have no love for it. I have no opposition to Hindi either. Just don't feel it. So, a Modiji Hindi speech does not evoke the same emotional response in me, as it would for most Indians.

Here is a funny experience that shocked me recently, after the fact. I was in a Korean Airlines flight sometime ago and decided to watch Bahubali. After a while I turned on Korean subtitles for it, because I felt more at ease with Korean than Hindi (the English subtitles were atrocious and I had turned it off). A few minutes later I realized what I was doing, and was shocked. It is weird, and I cannot put my finger on it properly, why I just cannot feel much of an "I get this language" emotion on hearing Hindi. I can hear it, and can understand it to a fair extent too. But I just cannot feel anything. Thamizh, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, or even Bengali feels different. Hindi is sort of singular in giving me this non-Indian-language feeling. It is just not historically correct or rational, I know. But that is what it is. May be I am too much of a Dravidian at heart.

[Tailpiece: Ultimately, I think it is just that I have never lived more than 5 days in any place where I have had to speak Hindi almost exclusively. If I stay for a month somewhere in the Hindi belt, I am sure Hindi will become part of me. That is probably all there is to it]

[Omkara]

Anyway, India landing an aircraft on the moon, is Engineering news. Not Science news.

But, hey, congratulations to all the engineers, okay maybe a few scientists, administrators, politicians who made this possible.

Reminded me of arguments between Sheldon and Howard

[srini]

^^Thanks for explaining the background Jay,i guess its similar to my hindi illeteracy(for lack of a word to say not able to speak but able to read and write as all hindi alphabets are written different but same sounds "a" "Aa", "e" "Ee" we learnt for Telugu). I also grewup in andhra for 22 years and the next 10 years in US. So when i returned to Hyderabad in early 30s, language was the last issue on my mind. After all, i thought Hyderabad is the capital of Andhra and i could easily gel and assimilate with its crowd. Oh boy, that wasn't so easy At most of the places people started conversing with me in Hindi 1st...At banks, hospitals, hotels and restaurants one would start with Hindi until they saw the blank expression on my face. I had to gently pause them to tell that i know very little hindi and then every one would switch to English or Telugu. I guess i lost all my new language learning ability already by 30s. Having resided here more than a decade i am able to cope now with some rookie hindi. I still can't understand most of what PM Modi says...as he seems to use a hindi which is of higher order..."Aaanevaali Peedio" etc which means upcoming generations i realized, the imagery that i feel for "Peedi" is related to "peedith in telugu/sanskrit- meaning sufferer".In essence i also feel like a "Dravidavasi" but mistaken by appearance from others as "Aryavarta vasi"

[srini]

BTW, most conspiracy theorists are on the idealogical left or right.

Well you already have your rare find of a resident SI-forum conspiracy theorist who bashes left liberals and right wingers like Modi equally. What's your take on center leaning conspiracy theorists? I am not some one like a doomsdayer kind of Con theorist but i can sometimes feel a connection/hunch between two un related events that others can't make any connection to and i hope i am living in a free society where i can voice those. One can always counter my theories with rational logic and explanations and i would accept it if they have sound rationale. Its just that my psych doesn't allow me to silently watch when a hypocrisy plays out like PM hugging and consoling ISRO director stuff. I never like politicians trying to take some credit by having screen time when any country takes some strides or its people achieve some great things. I don't know what Manmohan singh would have done if Chandrayan-3 happened during his tenure. Chandrayan-1,,Mom-1 etc were all orbital missions where no live coverage was done. So no prior precedence here on what PM should be doing, i personally would have liked a PM who chooses to congratulate ISRO from twitter rather than in Live coverage.