Inheritance

What would happen to the society if there was a strict law against inheriting wealth from family/friends/parents, grand parents, grand uncles et al.... ?

Bubble Boy

Once again - this is about a program on Australian TV.

Its about a child born with no immunity whatsoever and from the time of his birth he is kept in a bubble. He grows inside the bubble and the doctors create a space suit kind of stuff for him, so that he will have some mobility and see the world around him. It was so heart wrenching to see him inside the suit watching the other kids cycle and play. For some reason he is scared of the suit and refuses to get into it. They just expans the bubble and he gets his school lessons etc inside it with a psychologist working with him from outside. One doctor suggests that he comes out of the bubble and cope with life. They try a treatment which fails and just before he dies, the mother gets to touch him.

The medical ethics of this case was discussed. Apparently, this boy's case provided very useful insights to the medical field.

As I am typing this, I have tears in my eyes picturing the boy walk inside the bubble touching the walls of his confinement.

What a debate - Intelligent design and evolution

Australian TV telecast a program on a school that introduced "Intelligent Design" as part of their curriculum to teach biology. The court scene and the debate on whether it should be included, was so good .... I have never enjoyed anything on TV so much.
To cut a long story short (I strongly recommend that everyone watches the two part episode), one question to the Intelligent Design proponent - was - whether it is a science, since science is empirical in nature. He said yes it is and he asked them to observe the bacteria flagellum for 10,000 generations to see if it mutates and evolves since one of its feature according to him was intelligent design. When the Darwin proponent said that is not a good answer, this gentleman said has anyone tested the evolution process .. voila ...

I am not propagating Intelligent Design, but the way the debate progressed was so good ...........and it was a great learning for me

If you have it flaunt it

When I was young it was very common to hear this word alpam.... it meant people who are greedy and will not spend on others.
I was reading an article by Kanchi Sankaracharya that there is a sin known as alpitham. It means showing off your wealth and worldly possessions in an inappropriate manner. He further went on to say that flaunting your wealth is a sin, since it equals to eating food in front of someone starved/famished.
I am wondering if the word alpam stems from alpitham?
Does alpitham have a place in our 'if you have it flaunt it' world?

Desensitization

NDTV debate on WWE and its impact on children, triggered this blog.

Desensitization as a behavior modification technique in Psychology is used to treat phobias and anxieties, in addition to a host of other neurotic problems. In this process, the person is vicariously exposed to the anxiety provoking stimuli through visual imagery and the anxiety level is brought down.

Experts talk about children being able to distinguish between real and imaginary visuals. I have seen adults watching the video showing the beheading of a journalist , twin towers crumbling down and a boy in Bihar being tied to a bike and drawn without any feelings whatsoever.

It appeared to me that adults could not distinguish between reel and real since they are desensitized to violence by watching hollywood, tollywood, bollywood - movies.

Mind, has unique capabilities and somehow we seem to simplify things taking only the conscious mind into consideration. Even the psychiatrist on the show did not bring up the point on subconsicous and unconscious minds and how they interact with the conscious brain... these shows are turning more into entertainment rather than a platform for meaningful debates.