Earthling, R1895

Alien

Although the flying saucer seemed like it was the silent type, it made a lot of noise while landing. At first, I thought it was an earthquake but no, it was an otherworldly being. The Size of the saucer was quite small, it looked as if it couldn’t fit more than two people. I was intrigued, I stepped away from the window and cautiously walked outside the house towards the saucer. Just when I was about to reach the spaceship, I turned back and started running towards the house, that’s when I felt something pulling back, then I fell unconscious.

It referred to me as its human life form, R1895. The proportions of its features made it difficult to assess the age of the alien but its pointy ears and nose were quite pleasant to look at. From the spine to the end of the purple tail, it had strange markings all over. “We are all connected”, it said. Even though we were connected, it behaved nothing like me. What I found so fascinating was its scaly exterior of course, but above all, it was simply the fact of its existence. Apparently, the pandemic had caused destruction in both the human and alien world. It said that it needed my help to bring everyone back.

It explained that humans and aliens are connected through a vestigial organ. This means that this alien life form and I are connected through the appendix. The organ that we humans generally refer to as non-functional and non-vital holds the essence of our alien life forms. The sharp, unbearable pain caused due to the appendix is the result of an accident or an emotional turmoil faced by the aliens in their lives. It said, once my people started falling ill and disintegrating, we realized that this was due to the death of their earthlings. With the hope of saving my planet, our elders had ordered my people to immerse themselves in water before they could completely turn to ashes.

I wondered, how would this help re-populate the earth?

“Water Memory”, it said. Water can retain memories of compounds or substances previously dissolved in it. For this to be successful, the alien needed “human essence”, which was present in my DNA. It said, “While my DNA can help bring everyone back –- intact, Your DNA will be required to restore their human connections”. Once the aliens are back from the dead, they can restore their respective humans. But no one will remember the pandemic or how they came back to life. They will just realize it as a bad dream and go on about their lives normally.

And so I did. I gave my DNA to save the world! I didn’t know if this would work. But, I’ve got nothing left to lose. I think to myself maybe this is what I was destined for. It looked at me quite sadly, before expressing that it would be erasing my memories of this day. I was quite disheartened because the only useful thing that I ever did in my life would end up being a deleted memory. The alien offered me a liquid solution that was meant to make me forget, and so I gulped it down and fell unconscious.

Next day, I woke up covered in sweat, to the sounds of my mother’s voice — yelling at the maid from the kitchen and realized that I had “one hell of a dream” last night!

Calathea Musaica

Calathea Musaica ‘Network’

Well, this little silent breather may not be one of “Gaudi’s mosaics”, but it sure is Mother Nature’s sorcery at its best!

Gaudi’s Mosaic (Antoni Gaudi is a Spanish architect who favoured the trencadis technique of mosaic art to decorate Barcelona)

Calathea Musaica (Goeppertia kegeljanii), highly coveted for its unusual, yet an attractive network of patterning is an ornamental house plant noted for its interesting foliage. Native to Brazilian tropical jungles, this brightly patterned plant belongs to the calathea family, which are generally known for being fussy and difficult to grow. But unlike its cousins, calathea musaica is much easier to care for.

The real eye-catcher is the oval-shaped leaves, which are covered in tiny green and yellow grids making a unique mosaic structure, hence the name Calathea Musaica Network. The intricate pattern on the leaves makes you wonder if the plant is even real. There are about 300 different varieties of calathea plants, some of which are hybrids created by tissue culture. These plants thrive indoors and can only grow up to 60cms tall. Exposing calatheas to direct sunlight can damage their leaves, hence it is preferred to provide them with medium to bright indirect sunlight. Placing them under a canopy of leaves would allow them to benefit from dappled light. Calathea networks progress well in soil that holds moisture but are susceptible to rot in wet soil; hence check the soil before watering. If the surface has dried out, it’s time to water the plant. They require frequent watering during summer and spring but less frequent during autumn and winter. Due to their high sensitivity to water, providing them with anything other than filtered, distilled or rainwater can result in the browning of leaves at the tips.

Understanding the origin of a plant can help provide insights in creating routine care for the plant. Since calathea musaica is native to central and South America, it is technically a rainforest plant. It requires moderate to high humidity and a stable temperature of 18 – 26 C, which makes it a convenient indoor plant. There are a few things you can do to keep the air around the plant humid:

• Place a humidifier next to the plant.
• Spraying the plant with water occasionally.
• Place the potted plant in a tray filled with water and pebbles.

A poor soil choice can result in curling of leaves, hence it is essential to have a mixture of well-draining soil which can help trap the right amount of moisture. You can mix regular soil with either coco peat or pertile. Although musaica is not a heavy feeder, you can provide it with houseplant fertilizer by diluting it to half strength. It is important to note that fertilizing dry soil can burn the roots, hence always remember to saturate the soil in water before fertilizing. Organic fertilizer is also recommended for healthy growth.

Calatheas require repotting only once every two years during spring. Frequent repotting can be a stressful process for the plant and the calatheas don’t mind being a little root-bound. Look for signs like roots popping out from the bottom of the pot, this means it’s time to repot. Also, get rid of rotting roots or stems by cutting them out carefully while repotting.

Hope this care guide has provided you with all the information you need to nurture your prettiest house plant.

Convertible Notes, What Are They?

Initially, Startup Companies depend upon private investors, high net worth investors, friends and relatives or other angel groups as a source for funding their business plans. Just as making great pitches and recognizing viable markets are pivotal for raising funds, it’s also essential to find the right form of financing because it affects the company’s valuation at large. Especially, if the company is on the lookout for venture funding. But a company’s valuation is a complex issue because enough data points are not available to evaluate its worth. As a result, the Founders use convertible notes when engaging with investors. 

So, what is a convertible note?

Convertible note belongs to the category of short term debt financing. They are structured loans that convert to equity or preferred stock during the series A round of financing. Simply put, when an investor loans money to a startup, he is repaid in the form of shares or preferred stock instead of principal with interest. The advantage here is that the company gets the initial investments done quickly with cheaper legal fees while ensuring the investors a stake in the startup.

Why go for convertible notes?

To take part in the typical funding round, it is difficult to come up with a valuation for the startup. So, the key advantage of issuing a convertible note is that it allows you to push the valuation issue to a later time when more data points like sales, customers and growth numbers are available. When there is no valuation, problems relating to option pricing, taxes and dilution do not take rise.

There are a few provisions to keep in mind about the convertible notes, they are as follows:

Valuation Cap: It denotes the price at which the noteholder’s loan converts into equity. A lower valuation cap will prove to be an advantage to the investor because they will reap equity when the value of the company improves.

Interest Rate: Convertible notes usually carry low-interest rates. Just like other debt investments, the invested funds earn a rate of interest. Since the interest is not paid in cash, it accrues. Increasing the value owed to the investors which will improve over time.

Discount Rate: To honour the risk borne by the investors during initial investments, they are credited with a discount on their share price. 25% is the standard discount rate for early investors.

Maturity Date: This denotes the due date of the convertible notes. Which means the company needs to repay its investors for their loan.

Pros and cons of convertible notes

Pros: Speed and simplicity are the major benefits of using a convertible note. By issuing a simple promissory note the convertible note round can be completed in a day or two. It also avoids the investors from gaining control rights. Another upside is that it eliminates the startup from having to make regular payments which would impact the company’s daily cash flow.

Cons: The downside of opting for a convertible note is that when the due date appears, the startups will have to give up some control to the investors. For a business that is not keen on sharing its ownership, this may not be the right form of financing. Another disadvantage is that the investors must wait until the due date to start reaping capital gains. Also, there are other standardized forms which allow the priced round of preferred stocks to occur just as fast as issuing the convertible notes.

Conclusion

This form of financing is advisable only for startups who have a clear path for quickly growing towards the priced round before reaching the maturity stage. Also, before choosing to opt for convertible notes, the company needs to visualize the potential ramifications or repercussions that could occur. It’s best to seek advice from the experts who can help you cautiously approach your fundraising requirements.

“Monday” is not blue, but Ruby Red!

The frog outside Cataleya’s window always croaked purple. Even Dex, her adorable fuzzy hamster squeaked bright yellow. Cataleya was not only able to see the sounds she heard in the form of colours but she almost always got confused with Saturday and Sunday because they were both the same shade of pink. But the letter ‘C’ was the most beautiful pink she had ever seen, different from that of Saturday and Sunday of course. Additionally, the 7-year-old always complained that blueberries were spicy; contrary to what her mother had described.

24 Shades of Cataleya Corrine

No, this is not a fictional story and neither is Cataleya a malfunctioning robot made of synthetic materials or chemicals. Cataleya is a Synesthetes. Even though she doesn’t know it yet, she is a gifted child with a neurological condition called synesthesia.

So, what is Synesthesia?

Synesthesia is a condition wherein which two senses of an individual are being simulated involuntarily for processing a given information. So when they are listening to something, could be anything, like music, speech, or random words they see colours or sometimes taste and smell them. At times they can even feel them. In Greek synesthesia means combined perception, which is how this phenomenon derived its name. For synesthetes, it’s fairly easy to recall names and phone numbers because their neurological pathways always associate information with colours or flavours. Based on the five senses i.e. Sight, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Taste there can be various synesthetes in combination. Some can smell or hear in colour, taste in the form of shapes and see numerals or mathematical equations in 3-dimensional forms. This kind of sensory perception is usually inherited genetically and runs in the family. But no two synesthetes share the same graphic perceptions even if they share the same DNA. For example, one could taste jalapenos and another could taste raspberries when they hear the word hairdryer. Some notable people with synesthesia are:

Michael Watson, from the book – “The Man Who Tasted Shapes“ by Richard Cytowic. Cytowic explains that he had attended a party where the host Michael Watson said that the chicken he had meant to serve the guests hadn’t been cooked well enough to be prickly and pointy but had turned out round. Vasya Kandinsky an abstract painter from Russia. In her book “The Noisy Paintbox” Barb Rosenstock explains that when Vasya mixed different colours of his paintbox he had heard strange noises. As he twirled them around in his palette they tuned into beautiful symphonies. Pharrell Williams singer, songwriter of “Happy”, a soundtrack from the movie Despicable Me 2. He experiences chromesthesia, wherein he can identify if a piece of music is in key by identifying if it matches with the colour that his brain always associates it with.

Now you may wonder how the synesthetes are different from someone who is hallucinating on LSD? A synesthetes’ graphic perception is always consistent and true and it never interferes with what they see visually. Although their abilities might seem like a gift there are downsides to having synesthesia. Imagine having to taste kale every time you heard the name Sawyer or experiencing bad odours or having been looked at weirdly for experiencing perceptions that aren’t mainstream. Earlier, an individual’s subjective experience could not be verified due to which the academic researchers and scientists labelled synesthetes of having an overactive imagination and dismissed them. It’s not a very popular concept known to all. A lot of synesthetes go about their life believing that experiencing coloured letters is quite normal for everyone. And often, when they realize that not everyone can see brown 4’s and blue 6’s they never talk about it due to the fear of being ridiculed.

Sins of Social Media

According to Macmillan dictionary, social media refers to a set of applications and websites, which allows users to interact with one another through their hand held devices. Mobile applications like Snapchat and Instagram are some of the most popular watering holes on the web. During medieval times, when the crowned heads ruled our lands, their messengers came in the form of mortal beings. In the 21st century, websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have completely disrupted the traditional information sharing methods.

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Centre, about 69% of U.S adults use at least one social media site. Amongst these users, millennials were ranked to be the highest in number due to their compulsive behavior of checking their phones constantly for news updates and latest trends. Businesses can use media platforms to achieve top of mind awareness in a customer’s mind and boost sales by spreading awareness about their brands. They can use information online, which are in the form of reviews and feedback to cater customer’s needs. Nowadays, private sector banks like ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have launched applications that allows its users to open new accounts using their Facebook log-in ids or to carry out financial transactions using social networking sites. Apart from carrying out financial transactions, users can use applications like Smule karaoke and YouTube videos to enhance and showcase their creative abilities on the web. The recent floods, which occurred in Kerala resulted in the loss of more than 300 lives. However, with the help of social media, information about the floods spread like wild fire. The citizens of the country were able to join hands from distant locations to provide support to community.

Correspondence of social media platforms against the seven deadly sins.

According to Statista, an average person spends nearly 2 hours a day on social media, which is equivalent to the amount of time taken to cook a turkey crown recipe or boil 11 eggs. This reflects the volume of media that the users are exposed to. Networking sites like Facebook and Google store user’s psycho-graphic information by collecting data provided on their profiles or through their web browsing habits. The same information is sold to advertising companies, who in return earn millions of dollars. These advertising companies gain information and display advertisements specifically targeted to each user based on their browsing habits and demographics. Sites that ask for personal information like name, address and phone number may promise to protect our information, but a skilled hacker can easily break through these security walls and misuse personal information.

In sum, social media has impacted our lives, businesses, culture & economy. It has helped us connect to various parts of the world & spread information. Nonetheless, it has also destroyed human connection. At the end of the day, people can use social media to lead a better life or use it to destroy one another.

Exploring Leadership

Leadership. Such a simple word but it has managed to baffle the minds of many great minds.

What is leadership?

It has nothing to do with one’s title or hierarchy in a company, nor does it define someone with great physical strength. It simply means someone with followers.

Let’s imagine a terrorist is aiming a gun at your head. Is this leadership? Does it simply mean that possessing power in itself is leadership?

Let’s understand how a live orchestra works.

For an orchestra to function it requires various musicians and instruments. The conductor guides his group to play harmony. He has a clear vision for each piece of music, road map of what each musician should be doing at any given moment and has a vision of how the performance should proceed. These musicians are given the role of playing a specific instrument which results in each of them contributing a melody to the symphony. The musicians are coached to play quieter, louder, slower, and faster accordingly to get the best out of each individual. A conductor doesn’t care how silly he looks waving his arms about in the air, he aims to provide steady up and down beats for his musicians to follow the tempo and play together. If either one of them fails to follow or plays one wrong note the whole experience is ruined for the audiences as well as the musicians.

Leadership is about how well you coach and manage talent, inspire people, and achieve excellence. Leadership is a set of skills, attitudes and behaviors that need to be practiced, honed and mastered. Just like the musicians practicing to master their art.

Music & The Grey Matter

Do you get muscular or punchy when you listen to the soundtrack from the movie Avengers?

Does the sound effects from the movie Annabelle or Child’s play creep you out and send shivers down your spine? And is Joker’s laugh from Batman evilly delighting and contagious to your brain?

Have you ever wondered how a couple of melodies, beat and rhythm provoke you to involuntarily tap your feet and bob your head?

If your answer was yes, then it’s because music triggers several parts of the brain, which in turn provokes you to respond emotionally. In this article, we will dive into the human brain and understand how our grey substance reacts to music.

Auditory areas of the brain alone are not responsible while listening to music but pretty much the whole brain is involved.

The frontal lobe is used to think, plan and make decisions. As compared to other animal species, human beings have a big frontal lobe. Listening to music can help enhance its functions. Researchers believe that the kind of music an individual listens to will evoke the frontal lobe to respond either with logic or emotions.

The temporal lobe, one on each side of the brain is responsible in processing the language and the sounds we hear. Right hemisphere mainly interprets sounds and music. It helps us distinguish tempo, rhythm, melody, volume, pitch etc.

Broca’s Area is responsible for the production of speech. Learning to play an instrument enhances the ability to communicate.

Wernicke’s area is involved in comprehending written and spoken language. It is used to analyse music.

The occipital lobe is responsible for transmitting visual information. Research shows that professional musicians might visualise musical notations when they listen to music.

The cerebellum is responsible for muscle coordination & the coordination of eye movements. Simple tasks like running, jumping on a trampoline, throwing a ball and typing can be accomplished due to this part of the brain. Cerebellum helps musicians in plucking strings and pushing the right keys to create the sound they need.

Nucleus accumbens releases dopamine, which provides an immediate pleasure effect. It plays a role in motivation, reward & addiction. Music also acts on the same part of the brain similar to cocaine which causes an increase in dopamine.

Amygdala is responsible for processing emotions, mainly fear. Listening to music releases dopamine which increases pleasure and helps control fear.

Hippocampus is involved in processing and storing of long-term memories. It also controls our emotional responses. Music can help generate new neurons and improve memory in Alzheimer’s patients.

Hypothalamus is responsible for releasing hormones which regulate body temperature, sleep, thirst, mode, hunger, heart rate. Music can help reduce stress and bring down blood pressure.

Corpus callosum allows the left side (Logic and reasoning) and right side (Creativity and imagination) of the brain to communicate with each other. Playing an instrument can help increase the size of the corpus callosum, especially keyboard which requires hand coordination and fine motor skills.

Putamen processes the physical movement of the body. A good song sometimes regulates the body to move to the rhythm. Music can help Parkinson’s patients to perform simple tasks like walking, getting up and sitting.

Music creates a great impact on people regardless of their age & mental health. It can help enhance your brain and its functions which impacts your lifestyle positively.