I get food stamps, and I’m not ashamed — I’m angry

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!! Kids I have talked to you about being poor before. Its soul destroying and removes all kinds of dignity from human-kind. I have seen your grandfather cry because we didnt have enough money for mangoes which Pia was asking for. He didnt think anybody saw but I did. I have seen my mother cry because she was asking for a loan. Or when we had to go hungry or didnt have what we wanted to eat. Believe you me son, it is not fun and it is not good at all. Hate it. It puts you in the mercy of others, who may or may not help you. That's why I am paranoid about you learning to earn well and save enough. Truly so. You both are smart and intelligent and dont waste money and save so that's a great thing. But then after that, you need to help others. That's why I am happy to pay my taxes and also help out on the charitable front. People are poor and they need help. We see this day in and day out in our Home Start Charity. At Mayhew we see pets being starved or fed rubbish food because they dont have any money for proper food. So dont despise people on benefits kids, they are there for a reason. Yes, some people do take advantage but not all. That's the mark of a civilised society where you help others live decently, specially the children. This article is an eye - opener, kids, read and think about not just yourself but others who are living in western rich countries but need help just to feed themselves. Love Baba. Vox - All I get food stamps, and I’m not ashamed — I’m angry Sep 16th 2015, 12:20, by Christine Gilbert My name is Christine, and I get food stamps. I've had to apply off and on over the past 16 years in order to make sure my family was fed. I don't feel the least bit ashamed of myself for this, but apparently some people think I should. http://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8845881/food-stamps

Jot101: Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar

The rudra veena is one of the most ferociously difficult instruments to play, kids. But one thing which you should know is how to approach God through music. 

It's a strange thing music. And even stranger when it's coming from me, the tone deaf noisy dad of yours. But if you get a chance, listen to bhajans and devotional music kids. Doesn't matter which devotion. Or religion. Could be gregorian chants. Could be Sufi chants. Could be Sufi drumming. Could be dhols of Durga pujo. Anything. The fact that it's faith makes these songs and music a cut different from normal songs. 

Quite amazing. I've seen people sitting and listening to recitals and have tears streaming down their eyes in bhopal. I'll take you to Bharat bhavan, a performing arts place which oversees the lake. Some of the evening concerts are magical with the sun setting over the lake. Totally mind blowing. 

How I wish I could describe it better kids. 

Love

Baba

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Blogtrottr" <busybee@blogtrottr.com>
Date: 14 September 2015 02:00:19 BST
To: gumtree.gumshoe@gmail.com
Subject: Jot101: Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar

Jot101

Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar Sep 13th 2015, 23:06, by Soren Wagner Found among the papers of Leslie Shepard this article on the Indian holy man and musician Dattatreya Rama Rao Parvatikar (1916 - 1990). Shepard refers to him as Sri Ramdatta Parvatikar. The article appears not to have been published. For more on Shepard follow this link to an earlier piece of his on Charles Fort.

What a Year of Job Rejections Taught Me About Pitching Myself

Son

I've talked to you about failure before. At this moment you're a young lion. You can and will conquer the world. But failures are part of life. Look at me, I'm a failure. I've failed in all things that I have done. When you measure yourself against the best, you know how far you have to go. I posted a clip of a drummer. He's brilliant. I used to be a drummer in the school band. Compared to him I'm a failure. But I'm a lifelong devotee of percussion instruments. You guys got me a cd last birthday about the drums of India. Failure teaches you son. I've been made redundant twice. It's not fun. It wasn't even my fault but the companies were downsizing. So I was let go. And those were hugely beneficial. I've failed exams. I've failed activities. I've failed to reach 200 miles per day on the bike. I've failed to climb mountains. I've failed to spend more time with you. I've failed to reduce weight. But they all provide education son. Makes me know my limits. And whenever I found one element that was limiting, I found other way to challenge me. 

Hope for the best but if you ever are in a situation where you're looking for a job, you don't look at yourself as an applicant. You look for how you can make your boss successful son. That's the key thing. How to make your customer successful. How to make your company successful. These elements will help you get your next job. 

Anyway it was fascinating to read this. But there's one thing which the author doesn't mention. And that's the element of luck. Son, people create their own luck. By jumping at opportunities. Constantly being on the lookout for opportunities. Checking what's happening and what might happen. And take risks. If you can't take risks then you decay. 

Anyway. Fun times. Keep applying for the internships son. You should have applied to at least 5-10 by end of the week. Let me know if you need any help. 

Love

Baba

What a Year of Job Rejections Taught Me About Pitching Myself
https://hbr.org/2015/09/what-i-learned-from-a-year-of-job-rejections
(via Instapaper)

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The Brain vs Deep Learning Part I: Computational Complexity — Or Why the Singularity Is Nowhere Near

Kannu

This was shared by a friend of mine. 

I read articles all the time but usually they don't blow my mind as this one did. I studied neuroscience in 1995 and 20 years hence the field has grown hugely. This may be too technical for you but if you can struggle through it, it will blow your mind. It talks about biology, mathematics, statistics, chemistry, logic, biology, computational science, nlp and and and. Brilliant article son. I loved it. I'm in awe of our own brains. So much to learn. 

Just one small point son. Sleep! Sleep well. That will help you learn! And eat well. You need to feed that brain hugely. 

Love

Baba

The Brain vs Deep Learning Part I: Computational Complexity — Or Why the Singularity Is Nowhere Near
https://timdettmers.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/brain-vs-deep-learning-singularity/
(via Instapaper)

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In this blog post I will delve into the brain and explain its basic information processing machinery and compare it to deep learning. I do this by moving step-by-step along with the brains electrochemical and biological information processing pipeline and relating it directly to the architecture of convolutional nets. Thereby we will see that a neuron and a convolutional net are very similar information processing machines. While performing this comparison, I will also discuss the computational complexity of these processes and thus derive an estimate for the brains overall computational power. I will use these estimates, along with knowledge from high performance computing, to show that it is unlikely that there will be a technological singularity in this century.