To Rini

Dear Rini, It is unfortunate that you could not get any snaps. But anyway a good description with photos. When you are using a short quote, use the blockquote tags. Please, you seemed to have copy-pasted the short poem, it appears in bright yellow color, which is not nice at all with the white backgrounds. So I have changed it into a blockquote. Check the source code or click on edit within blogger to see how to put up blockquotes. Regarding semiotics, I am preparing a rough guide on semiotics. Here is a short culling from my notes.

Semiotics can be roughly defined as the study of signs. Semiotics comes from the Greek word, semeîon, meaning 'sign'.
Semiotics involves the study not only of what we refer to as 'signs' in everyday speech, but of anything which 'stands for' something else. In a semiotic sense, signs take the form of words, images, sounds, gestures and objects. Semiotics is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign.

In simple terms... For example, the word, 'Open' , when you encounter it on a shop entrance, you come to know that the shop is open and you can go inside to purchase something. The same word, when seen on a button within a lift, lets you know that the lift will open when you press the button. You may also see the word on a cardboard box top, specifying the direction in which the box is to be opened. What did you do now? You encountered a single word, yet the same word prompted you to perform different actions. The study of how a sign, in this case the word 'Open', could take on different meanings to different situations is called semiotics. It is the study of how signs take on thier meaning with respect to their context and surroundings. I could probably give lots of similar examples on how images or sounds, even gestures and objects could have different meanings in different contexts. You might have remembered a similar examples in our Marketing class about cultural differences or linguistical differences a brand can have. On Eco, I don't think that he is too hard to understand. In the excerpt that I had given, the third para speaks about simple maths and the value of pi. Remember no one has still understood how all circular objects are united by this seemingly simple, but complex number. The fourth para speaks on physics and the properties of the pendulum. The fifth one is really a tough one. It contains references to both mythology and geography. I had to read the para more than a couple of times to understand it. One interesting coincidence was that I had thought that Novaya Zemlaya was a mythological place, since I had never heard about it. The next day, I had gone to client's place. At the GM's office, I saw a huge map of the world. While waiting for the client to complete a call, I was looking at the map. I was trying to see if I could locate the places I had read the previous day. And to my surprise, I located Novaya Zemlaya. It is in Russia, very near to the North Pole. Back at the office, I searched for about it to see why it was mentioned. Amazing facts surfaced. For people to go to the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean (Europe was located in the northern postion of the Atlantic Ocean) entitled a long and dangerous journey around South America, if you can recall our high school geography. So seamen tried to find ways (north-east and north-west). The North Western passage would go through the North west Atlantic ocean and join the Pacific Ocean at the Bering Straits between Siberian Russia and Alaska. The North Eastern passage passed through the island of Novaya Zemlaya. While a few were successful in finding a path through the Northwest passage, many lost thier lives navigating the northeast passage. This was before aeroplanes came into existence and the railways were in thier infancy. Later on, the railroads across America paved the way for the country to become an advanced industrial nation it is today. Interesting to know how just a small passage can help you understand geography and history a lot. That is one thing I liked about his book. Each page and paragraph was so full of information that Antony Burgess, another great writer, said that."This book needs an index." Interestingly, Avalon mentioned in the excerpt is a mythological place in British myths. Microsoft has chosen the name as a codename for thier user interface in thier upcoming Windows OS Longhorn. Rini, the first page of the book starts with this quote.

Only for you, children of doctrine and learning, have we written this work. Examine this book, ponder the meaning we have dispersed in various places and gathered again; what we have concealed in one place we have disclosed in another, that it may be understood by your wisdom - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia, 3, 65

In case you are interested in reading this book, I have an electronic version of the book as a text file. If required, I can send it to you. It comes around 1 MB. That's all for today,