Future of Mankind: Interesting Excerpt from BBC

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells, an expert has said.

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The human race would peak in the year 3000, he said - before a decline due to dependence on technology.

People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species, he added.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

Race 'ironed out'

But in the nearer future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall, he predicts, while life-spans will have extended to 120 years, Dr Curry claims.

Physical appearance, driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility, will improve, he says, while men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises.

Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features, he adds. Racial differences will be ironed out by interbreeding, producing a uniform race of coffee-coloured people.

However, Dr Curry warns, in 10,000 years time humans may have paid a genetic price for relying on technology.

Spoiled by gadgets designed to meet their every need, they could come to resemble domesticated animals.

Receding chins

Social skills, such as communicating and interacting with others, could be lost, along with emotions such as love, sympathy, trust and respect. People would become less able to care for others, or perform in teams.

Physically, they would start to appear more juvenile. Chins would recede, as a result of having to chew less on processed food.

There could also be health problems caused by reliance on medicine, resulting in weak immune systems. Preventing deaths would also help to preserve the genetic defects that cause cancer.

Further into the future, sexual selection - being choosy about one's partner - was likely to create more and more genetic inequality, said Dr Curry.

The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.

"While science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance on technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease, or our evolved ability to get along with each other, said Dr Curry.

Coincidence or Fate or am I Superstitious?!

I have not been keeping well for the past few days and was feeling better Saturday, however I was not keen on getting back to work. Mom woke me up and said someone was coming over to the house and my dad had gone to pick him up. I was up and asked her who’s coming.

I was told that the person is a disciple of guru and that he was really good in telling your past and help you with the future. I have to admit here that I am not all that superstitious but I do believe in fate and I know it doesn’t make sense, that’s me a lil bit of this and lil bit of that.

My parents have met him earlier on one occasion and he gave details based on a series of numbers that my dad gave and he gave a clear picture of the entire family. All the more for no monetary benefit, this distinguishes him from those who in the name of many things take us for a ride. Most of us would have come across such an individual in some point of our existence in this society.

To the real part, it was around 10 when they reached home, immediately he flicked through my birth chart and asked a couple of questions (rather statements) to which I agreed and nodded in acknowledgement. This went on for some more time and he reaffirmed everything he had told about me earlier and today with more insight into actual shastra and left couple hours later.

I was blown away by the things he said it’s not the things rather how he put it in plain words for me to understand, this individual is no astrologer he is a driver in the state transport corporation. He did this for no benefit of his own.

I believe in a lot of supernatural phenomenon was this one such occurrence? Could this be pure chance? One more thing, this person was supposed to meet my parents sometime back but could not. Why today? Why on a Saturday when I was to go to work? Why did I choose not to go? Was this all mere chance or was it fate? Such questions do not have scientific or logical reasoning.

In this scientifically advanced period, we still believe in a lot on the supernatural phenomenon. Will science answer all our queries? I doubt it. I try to reason out for any such event; however at one point answer is simply not there but the result is right in front of me. That’s when you (at least me) stop questioning accepting it as a sign of a superior power existing amongst us. Everyone have their own ways of addressing the power to me its GOD.

ATM- Who Invented it

I was going through BBC website when i came across this piece of information.

Everyone today (almost everyone) uses cash machines or ATM's. For those who do use it, you step into the room and immediately fiddle around with the card and punch in the four digit pin. Any idea who invented it and why is that we have four digit pin no and what is its significance.
Don't damage your brain thinking about it because the inventors wife could remember only 4 digits!!! No kidding dead serious.
John Shepherd-Barron is the inventor of the cash machine. For more details chk this link out
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6230194.stm

For those lazy bums here is the article

The man who invented the cash machine

By Brian Milligan Business reporter, BBC News

"They're clever scoundrels," fumes John Shepherd-Barron at his remote farmhouse in northern Scotland. He is referring to the seals which are raiding his salmon farm and stealing fish.

John Shepherd-Barron's cash machine first appeared in 1967

"I invented a device to scare them off by playing the sound of killer whales, but it's ended up only attracting them more."

But failure with this device is in contrast to the success of his first and greatest invention: the cash machine.

The world's first ATM was installed in a branch of Barclays in Enfield, north London, 40 years ago this week.

Reg Varney, from the television series On the Buses, was the first to withdraw cash.

Inspiration had struck Mr Shepherd-Barron, now 82, while he was in the bath.

"It struck me there must be a way I could get my own money, anywhere in the world or the UK. I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash."

Barclays was convinced immediately. Over a pink gin, the then chief executive signed a hurried contract with Mr Shepherd-Barron, who at the time worked for the printing firm De La Rue.

Teething troubles

Plastic cards had not been invented, so Mr Shepherd-Barron's machine used cheques that were impregnated with carbon 14, a mildly radioactive substance.

The machine detected it, then matched the cheque against a Pin number.

However, Mr Shepherd-Barron denies there were any health concerns: "I later worked out you would have to eat 136,000 such cheques for it to have any effect on you."

The machine paid out a maximum of £10 a time.

"But that was regarded then as quite enough for a wild weekend," he says.

To start with, not everything went smoothly. The first machines were vandalised, and one that was installed in Zurich in Switzerland began to malfunction mysteriously.

It was later discovered that the wires from two intersecting tramlines nearby were sparking and interfering with the mechanism.

One by-product of inventing the first cash machine was the concept of the Pin number.

Mr Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his six-figure army number. But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline.

"Over the kitchen table, she said she could only remember four figures, so because of her, four figures became the world standard," he laughs.

End of cash?

Customers using the cash machine at Barclays in Enfield High Street are mostly unaware of its historical significance.

A small plaque was placed there on the 25th anniversary, but few people notice it. Given that there are now more than 1.6 million cash machines worldwide, it is a classic case of British understatement.

Mr Shepherd-Barron says he and his wife realised the importance of his invention only when they visited Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

They watched a farmer arriving on a bullock cart, who removed his wide-brimmed hat to use the cash machine.

"It was the first evidence to me that we'd changed the world," he says.

But even though he invented the machine, Mr Shepherd-Barron believes its use in future will be very different. He predicts that our society will no longer be using cash within a few years.

"Money costs money to transport. I am therefore predicting the demise of cash within three to five years."

He believes fervently that we will soon be swiping our mobile phones at till points, even for small transactions.

At 82, Mr Shepherd-Barron is very much alive to new ideas and inventions. Even though his device that plays killer whale noises still needs a little bit of tinkering.

Friends

Differences between Real and Fake Friends! :: One of my friend forwarded this to me

FAKE FRIENDS: Never ask for food.
REAL FRIENDS: are the reason you have no food.

FAKE FRIENDS: Call your parents Mr/Mrs
REAL FRIENDS: Call your parents DAD/MOM

FAKE FRIENDS: bail you out of jail and tell you what you did was
wrong.
REAL FRIENDS: Would sit next to you sayin "Damn ... we fucked up ...
but that shit was fun!"

FAKE FRIENDS: never seen you cry.
REAL FRIENDS: cry with you

FAKE FRIENDS: Borrow your stuff for a few days then give it back.
REAL FRIENDS: keep your shit so long they forget its yours.

FAKE FRIENDS: know a few things about you.
REAL FRIENDS: Could write a book about you with direct quotes from you.

FAKE FRIENDS: Will leave you behind if that is what the crowd is
doing.
REAL FRIENDS: Will kick the whole crowds ass that left you.

FAKE FRIENDS: Would knock on your front door.
REAL FRIENDS: Walk right in and say "I'M HOME!"

FAKE FRIENDS: Are for awhile.
REAL FRIENDS: Are for life.

FAKE FRIENDS: Will take your drink away when they think you've had
enough.
REAL FRIENDS: Will look at you stumbling all over the place and say
"Hey drink the rest of that you know we don't waste."

Troubled Soul

I sit here squeezing my brains hard to put the thoughts running through my mind In words. Lost for words!! I suppose not rather lost in thoughts. Yeah thoughts that makes no sense whatsoever. Trying hard to come out of it alas failing miserably only to be sucked deep into murky waters.

I see people all around me carrying on whatever they are doing. I for one can’t focus on things at hand.

So now that i have more important things to attend too………………..will try to work on it

Some Random Quotes

Nice Forward Worth Sharing
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A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you. -Francoise Sagan

I once heard two ladies going on and on about the pains of childbirth and how men don't seem to know what real pain is? I asked if either of them ever got themselves caught in a zipper. -Emo Philips

I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was, 'the man goes on top and the woman underneath'. For three years my husband and I slept on bunk beds. -Joan Rivers

My girlfriend told me that she was seeing another man. I told her to rub her eyes.
-Emo Philips

To succeed with the opposite sex, tell her you're impotent. She can't wait to disprove it. -Cary Grant

The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting. - Gloria Leonard

Graze on my lips, and if those hills are dry, Stray lower where the pleasant
fountains lie. -William Shakespeare

A girl's legs are her best friends...but even the best of friends must part.-Redd Foxx

When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity. -Albert Einstein

I was told that when you hit forty men stop looking at you. It's true, until you slip on a mini-skirt. - Mariella Frostrup

A good sermon should be like a woman's skirt: short enough to arouse interest but long enough to cover the essentials. -Ronald Knox

Girls have an unfair advantage over men: if they can't get what they want by being smart, they can get it by being dumb. -Yul Brynner

It's the good girls who keep the diaries; the bad girls never have the time.
- Tallulah Bankhead

A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is a man who
hopes they are. - Chauncey Mitchell Depew

It is only rarely that one can see in a little boy the promise of a man, but one can almost always see in a little girl the threat of a woman. - Alexandre Dumas

The best contraceptive is the word no - repeated frequently. - Margaret Smith

Flies spread disease - keep yours zipped.

Condoms aren't completely safe. A friend of mine was wearing one and got hit by a bus. - Bob Rubin

We all worry about the population explosion, but we don't worry about it at the right time. - Arthur Hoppe

There are two types of people in this world: good and bad. The good sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more. - Woody Allen

I am skilled at the art of love. I just wish I had a bigger paintbrush. - Scott E. Roeben

Moral Policing:: Article in The Hindu

Shhh…you’re being watched!

Moral policing comes in many forms, says GEETA PADMANABHANtalking to a cross-section of people

FUN AND FREEDOM Youngsters don’t like to live life by rules

It is a tragic-comic narrative. “I don’t know what my engineering degree is worth, but I’m certainly qualified to talk about moral policing,” said Chandrika Venkatraman, an MBA student. “For four years I was in a college whose printed rule book read: Rule 1: Gurl-boy no talk. Rule 2: Senior-junior no talk (senior boy get name of gurl in the class and finding address and visitng her). Rule 6: No change the bus route (he can be able to follow gurl and then do the galatta). Couldn’t they at least do this in proper English?”

She couldn’t even laff, oops, laugh with spies all over the campus. A flying squad would swoop “into the class to check if the girls were dressed ‘properly’. I had to walk out of the class for not pinning my starched dupatta. They were obsessed about guys and girls talking.” Hauled up for talking to a boy, Chandrika asked authorities why they didn’t have separate colleges. Her parents were told she needed serious counselling.

Freedom of expression

Moral Policing (MP) comes in many forms. Youngsters cuddling in an Anna Nagar park are “accused” of intimacy and all two-seater benches are broken up. Keepers of morality protest Valentine’s Day, and vandalise shops. Cops harass BPO workers stepping out of claustrophobic offices for an early morning cup of tea. Hotels with dancing floors (when did dancing become an offence?) are raided. The latest in the series is the case of Chandramohan, an award-winning art student at the MS University in Vadodra. He was arrested for “obscenity” and the faculty dean was suspended for refusing to shut down the exhibition displaying student submissions. Funnily, the magistrate who granted bail to Chandramohan saw nothing offensive in his work. The question raised was: How come the artist was asked to defend his work while the vandals who stormed the premises went scot-free?

“It’s symptomatic of the growing intolerance in our society,” said Janaki Viswanathan, filmmaker. “Religious sentiments are fine, but that should not descend to fundamentalism. My ‘Kanavu Maypada Vendum’ emphasises the right to make a choice.” She is quick to admit that rights have limitations, but holds that artistic expression should be based on self-censorship. “An artist expresses a viewpoint and this academic exercise should not be taken out of context.”

Targeting women

Earlier in the year, speaking at the Prakriti Foundation workshop on “Women and Sexuality”, lawyer Geeta Ramaseshan wondered about the disconnect between law and the legal system. “Obscenity in the form of expression is an offence, but we know it’s a contentious issue. Abuse of law is rampant in the policing of parks and hotels. Policemen take positions and slap cases under ‘law and order’. They use community standards rather than the law itself. Young people who defy family strictures become criminals.” Lawyers argue on “expected” behaviour rather than uphold fundamental rights. And there is this astonishing dichotomy of what is allowed in movies and what is allowed in real life.

Several speakers insisted MP targets women. Subtle regulation started by the family – “you can’t do this, you are a girl” is picked up by the village, caste, community and then the state, depriving her of individual space, they said. Economic independence does not bring social freedom for women. Silence over men’s off-marriage dalliances, domestic violence and reasons for female foeticide are all examples of this. Sadly, most women’s organisations stay mum rather than go to court or stage massive protests.

“Whatever quarter it comes from – mob, judiciary, police or parents – moral policing is unacceptable,” said Mangai, teacher and playwright. “We allow girls to work in virtual time and we question their “westernised” attitudes. Instead of indulging in double standards, shouldn’t we be extending sexual awareness?” She would like to see readiness to educate young people on a sense of selfhood and sexual freedom. “Let’s promote peer debates on dressing rules and talk about sexual matters in a sensible way. Are parents and the medical profession ready for it?”

She denounces MP as a colonial legacy. Intolerance, she says, masquerades as policing. “The society permitted space for varieties of social behaviour. It is amazing that those who claim to be followers of ‘tradition’ should repress women in the name of culture.” We’ve switched into a patriarchal, judgmental society that cannot stand two people having fun.

Fair enough. But parents support MP. Aren’t their fears justified? “Rightfully so,” said Mangai. “Only they take the easy option, instead of extending generational understanding.” Career-pursuing opportunistic parents cannot honestly impose restrictions on kids. “Our kids don’t need agencies for enforcement. Let’s be less dramatic and initiate public discussions on sexuality.”