Youtube as an educational and entertainment channel ..

Some exciting Youtube statistics I collected (as of July 2017) :

1. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube daily.  

2. 1.3 billion population on planet earth (of the 7.44 billion-2016) use Youtube 

3. On an average there are 1 billion mobile Youtube views every day ..

No doubt Youtube and videos are getting to be the most widely used entertainment and information tools of the future. Even all the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) use videos for teaching their students. Most of the Universities use a mix of videos and quizzes to help students learn. I use videos heavily in my E-learning courses at elearning.alliance.edu.in . 

While it is easy to convey ideas at the school level, one of the greatest doubts higher education Professors have is, can videos based teaching help in higher education. The author believes that if used creatively, with a blend of white board and videos, even higher education can benefit a lot. 

It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words, similarly a video speaks a thousand pictures. Visual systems is an interesting lean manufacturing philosophy (Japanese) where by whatever actions, commands, situations, environments , choices, decisions, information etc are displayed by means of pictures. 

Videos take this information a step further and gives a three dimension view of the situation and the ecosystem around it. It is very comforting for the viewer to observe and imbibe what is good and what is bad from it.  Videos should always be used as an extension to the classroom lectures and not a s a substitute for it. If used carefully, it can be the best teaching mode to be used in a classroom. Used in the blended mode with a bit of oral teaching combined with occasional videos, also called blended teaching, learning can be made really interesting and fun. 

Here is a BBC note on how videos can be integrated into classroom teaching and made effective ..

Worldover, Youtube videos are used more for entertainment than as a learning resource. But as a teaching professional, even the entertainment videos I watch on Facebook or Whatsapp social media, I find there is always a learning component to it. It is for us to discern the good from the bad and absorb the positive aspect. 

The research is to find whether there is a still better medium or mix of media that can help in effective learning .. The immersion experience of taking students to different places around the world for a better understanding of the situation, the environment and the eco system surrounding any event is a better way to understand a situation. 

Can every student of the world be able to do it around the world ?  It is definitely possible in one's near surroundings and nearby places. That is the reason why educational tours and industry visits need to be made mandatory along with industry internship in a student's educational life, whatever stream the student is pursuing, be it engineering, medical, law, arts, commerce, pure sciences etc..

ge..

Why organisations need to move from strategic planning to innovation planning ?

We are living in a world full of disruptions and uncertainties. It is difficult in the present world to plan strategically for a unchanging future. All planning needs to factor in the element of variability, uncertainty and disruption.

I was reading this Greg Satel article on how businesses will get disrupted in the future.. This article has some of his points while others have been added, especially the reference to Tata Sons. 

1. Having a very clear mission - Google's mission is to organise all the world's information. It could not be anymore clearer than that. Walmart's mission is to offer goods at the lowest price everyday. Similarly South West Airline believes in offering the lowest priced flights for the people of US. Getting great clarity in one's mission helps one to achieve the results much faster and effectively. Clear mission helps get stability in the business and prevents it from overspinning out of control. Tata Sons in India believes in serving the society ethically as much as in making profits as their mission. Click here for their core values and the philosophy of giving back to society .... How many of the global corporates we come across believe in giving back to society ?

2. Leveraging on the core competencies - SouthWest Airlines remained true to its mission by having only limited variety in its fleet. Sam Walton concentrated on organising the best logistics and supply chain operations to deliver items at the lowest cost to customers. Tata Sons ensures they have the right people and the rights sets of values imbibed in them to help reach their goal of being fair to its customers, society and other stake holders in the business. By ensuring they have the right team of suppliers and efficient supply chains, Tata Sons are able to serve the customers well.

3. Driving profitability - Once you have a clear mission and core competencies in place, getting one's products through to the customers at the lowest cost ensures profitability. Satisfied customers talk to other customers and help more products to be sold, driving profitability. Tata Sons has great core competencies that support their mission. Unless it succeeds in converting this core competency into profits, Tata Sons will find it difficult to survive in the long run. High customer value ensures customer loyalty, repeat purchases, and this brings in the needed profits in the long run. It is in this area that Tata Sons needs to concentrate to ensure it is able to survive in a cut-throat market focusing only at short term gains than long term goals.

4. Shift focus from strategic planning to Innovative planning - Walmart's planning is focused on the uncertainty and changes that can affects its operations on a daily basis. Tata Sons in its planning does focus on certainties as much as it does on innovative disruptions. By keeping its employees properly motivated and energised, it ensures that its employees are able to sense changes happening in the ecosystem and adapt to the new environment as fast as possible. 

5. Leadership : Any implementation of progressive thoughts and ideas need to be fully supported by the top management. The top down culture of promoting an environment of thinking innovatively needs to come from the leader.  Were it not for the great leadership by Sam Walton or Steve Jobs or Jamshedji Tata of Tata Sons pursuing excellence, innovation and a value based leadership, some of these great organisations on planet earth would not have existed.

6. Promoting a culture of innovation - understanding that the future is very dynamic, if an organisation needs to be in the forefront in any industry globally, it has to continually innovate, evolve and adapt to the changing technology, customer needs and dynamic economic, business, social, cultural and political environment across the world.

The best way to foster innovation is not to focus on ideas or solutions, but on problems. According to me, problems drive innovative thinking, innovative thinking drives changes in mindset, changes in mindset drive changes in the ecosystem and changes in ecosystem drive value, changes in value drive benefits. Tata  Sons tries its level best to be as close to the customer as possible. In addition to be innovative it should also understand that the problems of the present day Indian society is fast urban development, generation of waste and alarming rate of consumption of water and lowering of the water table across the country. Let these be the new problems that are going to drive the next set of innovations in India. 

No business model is fixed. In this fast changing world, the models are very dynamic. Innovative planning and innovative thinking are the drivers for organisations to turn out successful and profitable in the long run. Tata Sons founded by a group of Parsis who landed on the Gujarat coast from Northern Iran around the beginning of the nineteenth century, over one hundred and eighty years back around 1830s have over this time built a global organisation known for its values and customer loyalty.  Planning for innovation aimed at better serving the society has helped Tata Sons to establish itself in the growing markets of India and Europe.

george..

Supreme Court verdict, let there be peace finally ..

St. Thomas

Why can't both the Orthodox and Jacobite facti
ons of the Indian Orthodox church be together ? We want peace to return to the Orthodox church in India. Is it pointing to some other malaise affecting the church ? Is there anything more than belief and traditions ?

Any person who goes the legal way to court can seek judicial wisdom at three or four levels in the country, is also bound to accept its verdict at the end. If he/she is not satisfied with the verdict at any stage, he/she can appeal at the next higher level, from Munsiff Court to District Court, then to High Court and finally the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court whatever be the verdict, he/she is bound to follow it by letter and spirit and oblige to the law of the land and the infinite judicial wisdom. 

In the case of the dispute between the Malankara Orthodox faction and Jacobite Syrian faction in Kerala, the Supreme Court through its partial verdicts of 1958, 1995 and finally through the complete verdict of July 2017 completely sealed the case of the ownership of churches and properties in India totally in favour of the Malankara Orthodox Church, the only truly indigenous church with native beliefs, customs and a Syrian liturgy, thanks to the papal overlordship of fifty years which ended around 1653 AD, and settled as per the church Constitution of 1934.

How Christianity spread in India.. For 1500
years we were all one church ..

Now after all legal  processes are completed, with the Supreme Court verdict asking all churches and believers to strictly follow the 1934 church Constitution, is it fair and correct on the part of one faction to act like cry babies and try to block the implementation of the court verdict ? If they believe in the Indian Constitution and wish to abide by it, it is time for them to gracefully accept the verdict, if not, they should openly challenge the courts and their legal validity.

Trying to incite violence in the troubled churches to give an impression of their believers' dissatisfaction of the court verdict and try to spread violence and indiscipline is violating the sovereignty of the Indian state and acting against the spirit and substance of the Supreme Court verdict in the case. 

The mother church like in the earlier situations has been acting peacefully, being magnanimous, showing great restraint and extending loving open arms to all brethren in a spirit of love, respect, accommodation, understanding and tolerance. Unfortunately, this is not being adequately and appropriately reciprocated by the other faction.

Malankara Orthodox Church HQ and spiritual head ..

Though a majority of the Jacobite faction would want peace, tranquility, accommodation, understanding to return and would not mind following the 1934 Constitution in word and spirit, a miniscule minority among them want to disturb peace, challenge the law of the land and take to violence to prolong the feud for their private petty, selfish gains and to satisfy their bloated selfish egos. 

Can this be permitted in a vast country like India with the oldest and greatest civilization and presently home to 1250 million Indians, the largest and greatest democracy of the world ?

It is our humble request to everyone, kindly rethink the strategy of confrontation and defiance of law, accept the verdict, obey the law of the land and act unitedly for the growth of the greatest civilization and culture of India.

Jacobite Syrian Church HQ and Spiritual head ..

As the Malankara Catholicos Baselios Marthoma Paulose II has been exhorting,  let us be one in the true Christian spirit of love with perfect understanding and accommodation of each and every believer. There should be no feeling of lost hope, of deception or being sidelined by the Supreme Court of India. We need to understand that we are all followers of that famous carpenter from Nazareth. We are not in search of wealth or prosperity or material well being, we are in search of our traditional roots, our traditional beliefs and culture with the oldest Christian beliefs starting from 52 AD all encased within the great Indian civilization - the oldest and most tolerant civilization of the world.

If only we are united can we continue to serve the world and be a helping hand to the suffering people of the world and realise the meaning of our existence on planet earth.

Thanking you for your time and understanding. 🙏🙏

George..

Aditya - world's first solar mass transport boat ..

It's great and proud to see all solar based innovations coming out of God's own country, Kerala, be it the world's first and only 100% energy-neutral solar energy airport or partially insolated Mass Rapid Transport Systems  (Metro with Platinum certified green building stations..) or the world's first solar powered Mass transport boat service, Aditya  .. 👍👍👌👌🙏

Sandit Thandassery, the IIT Chennai BTech graduate is the brain behind the world's first solar boat initiative - Aditya ..

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-meet-the-iit-madras-graduate-who-has-built-india-s-first-solar-boat-ferry-2167266

Kerala blessed with abundant waterways will benefit from this solar technology in a big way in the coming days. 

Watch the youtube video in malayalam

George ..

Simple queueing systems ..

Simple Queueing theory terma and explanation..

Arrival rate / inter-arrival time / Markovian arrival 

Service rate / service time / Markovian departure

Kendalls notation - a/b/c  d/e/f - arrival / service / servers  service discipline / waiting space / calling population

Balking, reneging and jockeying phenomenon

Single server and multiple server queues

Finite waiting and infinite waiting

Finite calling population and infinite calling population

Service discipline - First Come First Served

TED talk - How to grow fresh air indoors ?

Money plant that release abundant oxygen can be easily grown indoors .

How to grow fresh air indoors ?? What are the challenges offered by urban living as opposed to rural living. We find that we are living in more congested and constricted places indoors for more than 12 hours a day, forget about the sleeping time. 

This is an exciting TEDx talk (app. 4.5 min) on how some plants can help in aiding healthy indoor living. As more and more citizens move to densely populated cities, we need more of indoor plants giving out abundant oxygen, which is going to be an essential  requirement for healthy urban living in the coming centuries ..

Click here for the TED video on how to grow fresh air indoors ??

Here is a youtube video on how to grow money plant indoors ..

george..

Sitting is the new smoking !!

Sitting for prolonged hours is dangerous ..

(Fro the internet, very useful message ..)

You may have heard the statement "Sitting is the New Smoking!" When I first heard this saying, I thought it was crazy. Sitting is NOT like smoking.

But recently, I looked more into it, and it completely changed my outlook on one aspect of health that most people neglect.

Here's the problem: we sit an average of 9 to 10 hours a day. So we sit more than we sleep. We sit more than we stand or do any activity. 

We sit in our cars. We sit to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We sit to work. We sit to watch TV. We sit at the movie theater. We sit at the dentist's office. We sit everywhere.


What's the problem with so much sitting?

You'll be surprised to hear that it's not really "back pain" or any such thing (although, that can happen too!). The problem with so much sitting is that our bodies were not meant for it. For millions of years, we were in constant movement for 10-12 hours a day. 

Switch that to sitting for 10 hours, and there's no amount of exercise you can do that can undo the damage. Even if, after your day at the office, you went to the gym for two hours, it wouldn't negate the damage done by sitting. 

That's what led Dr. James Levine to coin the phrase "Sitting is the New Smoking!" 

When you stand, your body works very differently than when you sit. Sitting for hours a day causes the following damage ...

1. Because blood flow slows down, you increase your risk of heart disease. 

2. Your insulin is negatively affected by just one day of sitting 10 hours a day. 

3. Sitting increases your risk of cancer, for reasons we're still speculating about 

4. Perhaps it's the antioxidant processes that are engaged when we are in movement. 

5. Sitting compresses your body, slowing down digesting, leading to cramps, heartburn, constipation and bloating.  

6. Brain function slows down when we sit  

7. Your brain gets less blood and oxygen. 

8. Because of the above, mood worsens.  

9. Posture gets worse, leading to strained neck and shoulders. 

10. Your entire body degenerates when you sit 10 hours a day  

11. Standing requires tensing of the abdominal muscles.  

12. Sitting leads to weak abs, leading to mobility issues. 

13. Varicose veins develop. 

14. Your bones get weaker.

One study found that you can increase your lifespan by two years by sitting down three hours or less a day.  Another study found that each hour spent watching TV after 25 reduces your life expectancy by 22 minutes.

On the other hand, each cigarette reduces your life expectancy by 11 minutes.

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Hence… sitting is the new smoking! It kills you much faster than smoking !! Get moving your buttocks quick and fast !!