2016 was a mixed year, hope for better in 2017

End of the year is in sight.

It was a mixed year. Started off OK with my usual Basic SQL Course at PCATT with some 10 students that went off well.

I underwent a cataract surgery that left with an unpleasant condition called Dysphotopsia. This condition has left me with an elliptical frame ahead of me only through which I have the normal vision.

This was a year in which Hodentek took interest in posting about Political Events in the USA. Being unable to sit on the sidelines, I began to post hoping for the best.  It looked as if time was rife for more than two parties. However it was soon evident that USA can at most have one of two parties ruling at a given time. Donald Trump really achieved that no one has done before. Let us look forward to USA being made great again.

More total posts were made in 2016 than any other year.
Hodentek.blogspot.com 109 posts
Hodentekhelp.blogspot.com  133 posts
HodentekMSSS.blogspot.com  103 posts
HodentekMobile.blogspot.com 83 posts
HodentekPlus.blogspot.com 108 posts

Year 2016 took me to travelling in Europe and I hope to complete the travelogue I began here  with 8 more posts covering Prague, and Saltzburg.

Looks like there is still some interest in my Basic SQL and SQL Server Reporting Services courses. Hope to interact with the students one more time.

I look forward to great things happening in my country of birth and the country that I adopted. Ending corruption is no small feat and I wish great success to Prime Minister Modi and likewise I wish President to be Donald Trump great success on the issues he won.

I wish you all, my readers, a great and eventful 2017.

Feel so lonely here..

Loneliness can wreck havocs not only for human beings but also for animals.

How much more lonely can it get. The picture tells the sad plight.

Picture from this site:

Giraffe populations in Africa have declined. Urbanization, poaching, deforestation, etc are the main causes. Looks like only 60% of what there was in 1985 are left. It will be so sad to see them go away into oblivion.

Watch this video from Iniosante Studios from 3 years of documenting.

Microosoft Delivers this message for PEACE

Peace and harmony are paramount. If we share same values the country is never divided. There are larger issues to address.

Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 5

Vienna

 

Here is the slideshow:

If you cannot see this slideshow try this link.

Day 8 is out here:
http://hodentekplus.blogspot.com/2017/01/tour-of-munich-budapest-vienna-prague.html

Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 4

Sightseeing Vienna

This is the part the whole group attended.

We did a lot of sightseeing today in Vienna. We started early around 8:00 AM after a reasonable breakfast at Courtyard.  It was a very functional breakfast room and the service was reasonable although they could do with a few more serving staff as there were other groups besides ours.

We visited the Rococo style Schönbrunn Palace (UN Heritage Site) and its environs, the huge plaza with the fountain followed by the bus tours of downtown Vienna. We made a tour of Ringstrasse and had a break at the Goudi styled Hundertwasser haus. It  was very nice and something out of the ordinary. The similarly styled Hundertwasser shopping area  was also attractive and we had a very good guide.

We wanted to see the short opera pieces they arrange for tourists but we could not find the correct performance schedule. It was a pity. We wanted to see a Klimt at Leopold Museum but we were dog tired. We ate at a buffet place(Rosenberg) suggested by our tour director, sauntered a while near the Opera and decided to see the ‘Monet and Picasso’ at Albertina Museum. It was expensive and there were very few themed paintings. We had seen lot more in our earlier travels and in New York. Well Klimt is to Vienna as Mozart is to Salzberg. Klimt branded stuff is everywhere, shirts, blouses, drapery, over wear, underwear, chocolates and you name it.

There was also an optional event in the evening today, the Viennese traditional Heurigen dinner. We skipped. Being a vegetarian I would have been an inconsonant participant.

This is by far the best Thanksgiving tradition...

President Obama pardoned two of the turkeys, tater and tot (how many unfortunate ones) from being rendering their service.

I think this is the best of traditions and should  include not just two but all of them. Probably I wish the next President abolish the turkey killing all together.

My readers may click out of this post, but there it is. Sorry, this is how I feel. I value all life equally.

Very happy News...

I am very happy to hear this news.

Tiger named Laziz was saved from a zoo in Gaza and taken to a South African Zoo. This is great news and details here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3754949/Free-Loneliest-Bengal-tiger-living-hellhole-Gaza-zoo-mummified-animals-remains-FINALLY-future-miracle-rescue.html

The picture of rescued animal from the above link here:

According to the news,

"Animal welfare charity, Four Paws, managed to rescue the nine-year-old from his hell-hole cage along with 13 other tigers"

Consider supporting Four Paws by making a donation.
http://greatnonprofits.org/org/four-paws-international-inc

"FOUR PAWS is an international animal welfare organization that has, for more than two decades, consistently and successfully focused on one goal: to help animals who have been abused for entertainment, economic, scientific or other reasons. FOUR PAWS strives for improvements in animal welfare through sustainable campaigns, our sanctuaries and projects around the world. "
http://greatnonprofits.org/org/four-paws-international-inc

Taking Bollywood to the next level..

There are lots and lots of theme parks and Dubai has the very first Bollywood theme park. I am sure it is going to be a hit because of nearness to Mumbai, the center of Bollywood.

The Indian movies are very popular in many countries besides India and even enjoyed in Russia not to mention Middle Eastern countries.

If you are visiting Dubai may be you want to pop-in and check it out.
Visit the site to learn more:
https://www.bollywoodparksdubai.com/
Here are some site screen shots:

Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 3

June 20, 2016

Today we are on the move to Vienna from Budapest and we will visit a place called Szentendre which not really on our route to Vienna. However it not too far from Budapest either.

Szentendre has become a popular tourist spot because of its historical significance with  so many nationalities having lived there in the past and the tourist shops, museums and the church.

President elect Donald Trump will take no vacations and just $1 salary

This is very generous. Were there any Presidents who did not take a salary? I was quite surprised to hear this on a recent 60 Minutes showing. There is more here as well (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/us-elections-2016/Donald-Trump-says-will-take-1-as-salary-with-no-vacations/articleshow/55409658.cms). Actually he did pretty well in the 60 Minutes interview.

I often see or hear Presidents going off for 'Golf' or vacations as though it is the one of their most important things on their agenda. President elect Trump saying that he is not going to take a vacation appears to be sincere and serious.

I hope this is going to happen and he will become a role model for future Presidents.

Wrong, wrong, the polls were terribly wrong

Big data,
small data,
analytics!

Oh! They seemed to have extracted nothing from the data they had, mountains of data. Most polls proved wrong by a mile or more.

Of course, Bing made big bad predictions, I don't know about Google or Siri.

 November 11, 2016

November 6, 2016

 November 3, 2016

Vini, Vici, Vidi - Trump vanquishes Hillary to win the race

The victory was decisive. Trump won the Presidency with a huge margin. He won fair and square.

This result is all the more significant as he fought against the entrenched forces; massive advertisement spending from the other side; a ganged-up media; spending a percentage of what the other side spent; against a massive support by the sitting President and the First Lady; and a list too long to dwell upon not to speak of party insiders who wanted him to lose, lose badly.

Now with a clear mandate, he should have an open road towards fulfilling election promises so that those who were hurting for a longtime get some relief. Jobs, jobs and more jobs.

Long live democracy and hope we will have a multi-party government in the future years where there will be possibility of more checks. 

My election vote from Hawaii

I went down to the school nearby to cast my vote. There was no electronic machine, but two sheets of paper vote, one of which was mostly to do with 2016 Charter Amendments on two sides of the sheet.

There was some crowd but not a whole lot, not the crowds I used to see in Plainsboro, New Jersey.

Of course I had made up mind about the candidates and my interest in Democratic party had faded after Bernie got out of the race. I really need to see new faces; hear new sounds and hear new (rhetoric).

I am looking at the TV screen and Hillary seems to be lagging... Tomorrow morning we will hear the complete story.

Here are some pictures of the election locale:

If I stand for an election I would like to hire this person

Well, I am not standing for any election but if I did..

I am highly impressed with this lady. She is cool; speaks very reasonably and super confident. She knows a lot about women.

I really would have very balanced lady on my team - Kellyanne Convey

Ham and turkey sandwich anyone? Not after you see the video

Cruelty to animals even in isolated cases is nauseating and animal cruelty on an  industrial scale is simply abhorrent. Have mercy on these poor creatures.

The unfortunate thing is the consumers are totally shielded from these horrors by the colorful and clever packaging. I am sure some of you will be moved by what you see. Don't you think it is totally unacceptable?

The turkeys you see are slaughtered in the most merciless way you can imagine. Imagine yourself to be one of those turkeys.




It looks like  no law was transgressed .

Change the law if it is supporting cruelty to animals.

Whale killing should stop...

Please sign the petition to all governments at the International Whaling Commission that you find here. https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/stop_the_whales_slaughter_loc/?slideshow.

Whatever the reason, this killing should stop, especially calling it for 'Scientific Purposes'. They should study the whales without the need to kill wholesale. I am all for the starting of a sanctuary for the whales.

It is true that people like meat, fish, poultry and in some places even dogs and horses. But all killing should stop. Animals have a right although they have no power to secure.

Kids, what I am going to say you may not like...

Every year, come Halloween people buy sweets; lots of it, in fact in large packets. This year thinking about the future I came to the conclusion, that this should stop.

In order to fight diabetes and obesity, it is imperative we draw a line when it comes to bringing poison (it literally is) to our children.

I am skipping this practice and I am still the best friend of children as I have their best interest always.

 

La Bohème at Honolulu Opera Theatre

Puccini's La Bohème was performed at the Blaisdel Concert Hall by the Honolulu Opera Theatre on October 14th, 16th, 18th of 2016. We attended the event on 16th and the Opera played to a packed house. I am sure it was the same the other days as well. There was a Opera Ball as well at Sheraton, Waikiki which we skipped.

Puccini's La Bohème is set in Paris of 1830's. It is a tragic love story of Mimi played by Elizabeth Caballero and Rodolfo played by Mackenzie Whitney in the present rendition.

This was second of Puccini's Opera for me. Here are some details from the handout at Blaisdel.

Principal Cast

If you are using Windows 10 desktop consider using File History

File History saves copies of your files and in case anything is lost or damaged, you can get them back. File History keeps copies of files from Libraries, Desktop, Contacts and Favorites.

How do you save files?

You will find File History in Control Panel's System and Security node as shown.

When you click on File History the following window opens.

 Filehistory2.png

You need to have an external storage media. In the above, I have 2 TB (Western Digital) hard drive connected to the USB drive.

If the drive has been removed for some time, I can always run and get the latest on to my external hard disc. I could also turn off. In the case of lost items I could go back to Control Panel and restore.

True democracy requires participation of multiple political parties

The election is barely a little more than two weeks away. There are lots of undecided voters. Even those who might have decided earlier may be vacillating. It is really a predicament. I have not decided but definitely it will not be the front runners.

I think it is time for a break up in the parties, both Democratic and Republican. The followers of Trump could form a splintered Republican party with a more appropriate name. The followers of Bernie Sanders, although Bernie himself gave up the dream, should make another party that believes in some of the causes that Bernie Sanders espoused, a splinter from the existing Democratic party.

I hope this year we will move away from this two party monopoly of American Politics.

Long live multi-party democracy, the only true form.

Noble Prize 2016 for Literature winner is Bob Dylan

The Swedish Academy awarded the 2016 Noble Prize for literature to the famous Bob Dylan, a Minnesota resident.

The award was given, "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"

Here is the video that you may want to review straight from the Swedish academy on You Tube:

Interview with permanent secretary of the Academy:


Read his biographical information on the Sweden's Noble Prize site:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/bio-bibl.html

Here is a sampling of Bob Dylan's works on YouTube:

He was a prolific creator. Just look at the list of his Albums:
Bob Dylan (1962)
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
The Times They Are A-Changin' (1964)
Another Side Of Bob Dylan (1964)
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Blonde On Blonde (1966)
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967)
John Wesley Harding (1968)
Nashville Skyline (1969)
Self Portrait (1970)
New Morning (1970)
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1971)
Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (1973)
Dylan (1973)
Planet Waves (1974)
Before The Flood (1974)
Blood On The Tracks (1975)
The Basement Tapes (1975)
Desire (1976)
Hard Rain (1976)
Street Legal (1978)
Bob Dylan At Budokan (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot Of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Real Live (1984)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Biograph (1985)
Knocked Out Loaded (1986)
Down In The Groove (1988)
Dylan & The Dead (1989)
Oh Mercy (1989)
Under The Red Sky (1990)
The Bootleg Series Vols. 1-3: Rare And Unreleased 1961-1991 (1991)
Good As I Been to You (1992)
World Gone Wrong (1993)
Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (1994)
MTV Unplugged (1995)
The Best Of Bob Dylan (1997)
The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers: A Tribute (1997)
Time Out Of Mind (1997)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966: The ’Royal Albert Hall’ Concert (1998)
The Essential Bob Dylan (2000)
”Love And Theft” (2001)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 5: Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue (2002)
Masked And Anonymous: The Soundtrack (2003)
Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan (2003)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: Live 1964: Concert At Philharmonic Hall (2004)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack (2005)
Live At The Gaslight 1962 (2005)
Live At Carnegie Hall 1963 (2005)
Modern Times (2006)
The Traveling Wilburys Collection (2007)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased, 1989-2006 (2008)
Together Through Life (2009)
Christmas In The Heart (2009)
The Original Mono Recordings (2010)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (2010)
Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy Of Sun (2011)
Timeless (2011)
Tempest (2012)
The Lost Notebooks Of Hank Williams (2011)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (2013)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete (2014)
The Bootleg Series, Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965-1966 (2015)
Shadows In The Night (2015)
Fallen Angels (2016)

The last day of Dussehra (AKA Dasara) in Mysore

The splendid city of Mysore in India got its name from the main deity of Mysore, who decimated the evil demon Mahishasura and gained the name Mahishasura Mardini (the goddess Durga who killed the demon). The evil demon was destroyed during a fight that lasted 10 days.

The festival is 10 days long and the city gets illuminated. In the past, only the Mysore Palace and certain of the palaces on the Chamundi Hills were illuminated by thousands and thousands of incandescent bulbs on the surface of the palace and its environs. Things have changed now and the recent pictures of the illuminated city may steal the name 'City of Lights' from Paris.

The burning of the 5-6 storey tall effigy of Ravana (of Ramayana) on the last day of Dussehra or Dasara (as it is called in Mysore) has left an indelible visual in my memory. It used to take place year after year on a street right behind my high school (D.Banumiah's High School) and not too far from where we lived at the time, Krishna Vilas Aghrahar (the quarter of the city where mostly followers of Ramanuja the great philosopher lived).

Things have changed and more demons to be burned are added to the list. See this lavish burning of Ravana and his henchman in Bengaluru organized by ISKON. ISKON somehow gives Hindu rituals an 'Holloywoodian' touch.

In the somewhat chilly nights of October the warmth of the burning had a very welcome & comforting feeling.

Folks in India and Nepal (Hinduism is the major religion) celebrate the festival, all ten days of it.

The last day of Dasara was also when the Maharaja went out in great style, sitting on the golden howdah on the royal elephant to pay his respects to the family Gods at Banni Mantap. 

Oliver Hart and Bengst Holmström share the 2016 Noble Prize for economics

Oliver Hart (born in London, UK 1948) of Harvard University and Bengst Holmström (born in Helsinki, Finland 1948) of MIT shared the 2016 Noble Prize, 'for thier contributions to contract theory'

All businesses and stake holders are bound by contracts and the theory developed by Hart and Holmström provides the framework for analysing the complicated contract design that can deliver:

Performance-based pay for top executives
Deductibles and co-pays in insurance
Privitization of public-sector activities

Video of announcement:


Announcement of the 2016 Prize in Economic Sciences by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Secretary General of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on 10 October 2016.


The source for this post came from:

More info here:
 http://kva.se and http://nobelprize.org

What you see depends on who you are...

I often watch the FujiSankei channel on the TV. I always watch a segment called Wanko (dog); a daily feature of dogs from Japan. Fuji Sankei has a nice format and many serious items are also discussed.

I recently saw this item which was very interesting. I beleive the originals were from France. The discussion was about what you see depends very much on what you are. Especially children see things differently from adults.

OK. I have already given out the hint. What do you see pictured on the bottle here?

 Fujisankei10_10_2016_1

Take your time and watch this video (also from the TV) as to what primary school students will see.

Here is another one for you to figure out.

Fujisankei10_10_2016_2

Noble Prize for Chemistry 2016 goes to Nano machine makers

Jean-Pierre Sauvage of University of Strasbourg, Sir J.Fraser Stoddart of Northwestern University and Bernard L.Feringa of University of Groningen, The Netherlands share the 2016 Noble Prize for Chemistry.

The citation reads, "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"

They developed machines of molecular dimensions that can perform.

Jean-Pierre Sauvage  1983 linked two ring shaped molecules with the help of a copper ion to form a chain called Catnane. This was a mechanical bond unlike a molecular bond.

Sir J.Fraser Stoddart was able to develop a rotaxane in 1991. He created an axle and a ring that can rotate around the axle. He demonstrated a molecular lift, a molecular muscle and a computer chip using molecules.

Bernard L.Feringa was the first to develop and demonstrate a fully functional molecular-motor in 1999. He also designed a nanocar.

Read the full story here:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2016/press.html

Machines that you cannot see..(from Nobleprize.org):



Download and read this pdf and read the incredible details:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2016/popular-chemistryprize2016.pdf

https://twitter.com/ScienceLinX/status/783940703340662784
Feringa's molecular motor:

Noble Prize for Physics is shared by three: David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and John Kosterlitz

The Prize was awarded for their work:

"Theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter"

NoblePrizePhysics2016.png

These pictures of the people who shared the prize came from this source.

This You Tube video of the award is also from the above link:

Yoshinori Ohsumi gets the 2016 Noble Prize for Medicine

Japanese Cell biologist from Fukuoka working at the Tokyo Institute of Technology the Noble Prize for his work on cell recycling.

The prize was for his 1990's ground breaking brilliant experiments on cell 'autophagy', a process by which damaged cells are eaten up to provide the necessary elements for cell renewal.

Here is the You Tube Video:


More Noble Prizes to be announced:

Physics 10/4 2016
Chemistry 10/5/2016
Peace 10/6/2016
Literature 10/29/2016

Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 2

The breakfast was good at the Radisson Beke hotel.

We left around 8:00 AM for the city tour and we had a good city guide. Our main more detailed tour consisted of visiting the Castle District; the Fisherman's Bastion; the Matthias Church and the Parliament. After this some of opted to visit the City Market and have lunch their and take our bus back to the hotel.

The rest of what we saw was from inside the bus. We could have spent some time near the Hero's square.






Tour guide explaining details about the church

Day 1:
Tour of Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Prague and Salzburg - 1

Most notable of India related Global Citizen Campaign

It is most notable that Kerala is again at the fore front of Social Development. Water and Sanitation are crucial to our existence. Anything to improve Sanitation must get the greatest support. The Global Citizen India has a great campaign, if it is what I think it is. It looks like Kerala has made great progress. It is now 99% Open Defecation Free India (ODF India).

Here is what I found on Global India Site:
"
Kerala is now 99% ODF. The remaining 1% is comprised largely of Kerala’s migrant labourer population, because these workers often lack access to adequate facilities. We as global citizens would now like to urge them to push forward and ensure safe and sustainable sanitation facilities to these migrant laborers. The movement to make India ODF must be inclusive and equitable to everyone.
"

Global Citizen has noteworthy causes as seen here:

 

If you are near by get the tickets by earning free tickets to the star studded gala event. 

I still do not see Wealth Inequality. Is there someone addressing this?

Toyota's next Supra car coming in 2018

Toyota had a popular car called Supra and the 1988 model looks like this taken out of a used car site here.
https://www.carsforsale.com/1988-toyota-supra-for-sale-C111466




Toyota's Supra model was quite popular. Supra1988 Specs from the above used car site is shown here.

Toyota produced Supra model info, available from 1979-1998(Toyota Supra Forum here http://www.toyota.com/owners/toyota-forum/supra).

Toyota will be coming out with a new version of Supra in 2018. This is a joint development between Toyota and BMW. Each will see their own named versions of essentially the same car.

The rendering of the image of Supra 2018 shown here came from this site where you can find more details. It will be quite pricey, over $50K.

Supra 2018 features, aluminum and carbon fiber used for chassis; has dimensions-
117 inches long, 72 inches wide and 52 inches tall with
6 Cylinder Hybrid with Toyota's electric  motor and HPs between 335 to 473.

The same car with some modifications may come on sale as BMW Z4