Festivals

"We indians are lucky". these are the exact words of my friend. He was referring to the fact that in india we get to celebrate so many different festivals all around the year. Here in the western world the holiday season is mainly confined to the months of november and december with only two festivals, thanksgiving and christmas. With thanksgiving having a history of about 150 years, christmas is the only main festival that also has a religious background. It is no surprise then, that everything comes to a standstill during that time. In India, almost everyone celebrates Diwali, Dussehra, Janmashtami, Sivaratri and depending upon the place one lives, you celebrate Holi, Rakshabandhan, Pongal, Ganesh Chaturthi, Bihu, Chaat....It is truly amazing. This is probably another reason why life is drab here. There are no social events where you can get together with family and friends and enjoy. May be they should adopt some Indian festivals, just like the pagan and celtic festivals and traditions that they adopted centuries ago.

Ether

Long back everyone believed that all matter floated in a substance called the ether. The Michelson Morley experiment disproved the theory and led to believe that it did not exist. Many new theories have come up since and lots of new matter with different flavors, colours spins etc. have also been discovered. None of these new theories have been able to unify the theories of relativity and quantum. A scientist at the university of Pittsburgh (Sternglass) has an interesting theory where he has been able to prove all the different phenomena using his ether theory. It is amazing how old ideas that are said to be obsolete and are chucked away might still lead to the right solution.

http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/News/sternglass.html