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Do you know what is Pangaea? Or Panthalassa?

How about Vaalbara!?

It is a SUPER fact!

It is an old story!

Super old in fact!

Now if you are a little knowledgeable you may know Pangea!

Pangaea means “all earth” in ancient Greek!

It was a super continent!

Ages ago, all of Earth’s continents were connected into one giant supercontinent called Pangaea about 300 million years ago!

It was fully formed around 300 to 299 million years ago and began to break apart about 200 million years ago!

Now if the land or earth was one then even the ocean must be one!

This huge global ocean called Panthalassa surrounded this massive landmass.

Then slowly the heat from inside the Earth moved giant pieces of the crust (called tectonic plates). These plates slowly pulled apart, forming the separate continents we see today!

We know this because the edges of continents like South America and Africa look like puzzle pieces that fit together!

Also we do have matching fossils found several thousand Kms apart! Scientists find identical ancient plant and animal fossils on opposite sides of vast oceans, proving those lands were once joined!

Then again you also must know that Pangaea is just the most recent supercontinent. 

The fact is that Earth’s plates cycle and merge into a supercontinent every 300 to 500 million years!

There are in fact many Past Supercontinents!

One of them are the Vaalbara & Kenorland which were the Ancient supercontinents that formed billions of years ago in Earth’s early history. 

Then you have the Columbia or Nuna which was formed about 1.8 to 1.4 billion years ago!

Don’t worry only two more to go!

Rodinia and Pannotia, the former of which were Assembled around 1.1 billion years ago and later broke apart leading to an ice age while the latter formed roughly 650 million years ago before splitting up!

Then finally you get your Pangaea which is the most famous and recent supercontinent, which formed about 320 million years ago and later split into Laurasia and Gondwana!

So ages back you could have taken your car and driven all the way to the US from Bharat; stopping for some OIL and food breaks of course just like movie breaks!

Speaking of which reminds me of Petla “Puri” Jagannadh! Still feel his movie Pokkiri was an absolute entertainer!

Now before your brain thinks about continental drift; you can drift to sleep instead!

Shubh ratri!

This clever Businessman turned a normally occuring phenomenon into a habit loop!

What’s the first thing most people do when they get up!?

Let’s not talk about checking the phone for now!

But it’s usually brushing your teeth!

You know in 1900s, no one used to brush their teeth so routinely or daily! Lets not even talk about taking bath daily!

Most would simply take some water and rinse around and spit! Brushing was over! This is about the west of course!

We in EAST had our barks and twigs and well actually a better sense of hygiene!

But the modern habit of regular, daily teeth brushing was largely created by a legendary advertising campaign for Pepsodent toothpaste in the 1910s and 1920s!

In fact the fact of the matter is that before this campaign, oral hygiene was practically non-existent in the West!


In fact only about 7% of Americans even owned a tube of toothpaste!

Pepsodent’s massive marketing push single-handedly triggered a behavioral shift that skyrocketed that number to 65% within a decade!

This transformation is studied as one of history’s greatest examples of psychological habit-engineering!


In 1915, an executive from Pepsodent approached Claude C. Hopkins, a pioneer of modern advertising, to design a nationwide campaign for their new minty toothpaste.

He discovered reference to mucin plaques—the naturally occurring layer of protein and bacteria that forms on teeth.

Hopkins repackaged this scientific concept into a simple, dramatic buzzword: “The Film”.

Then he went on to engineer the “Habit Loop”

Hopkins built the Pepsodent campaign around what psychologists now call the “Habit Loop,” which relies on a distinct cue, a routine, and a reward.

Stage one of this is the CUE or the Trigger!
Ads instructed readers: “Run your tongue across your teeth. You’ll feel a film.” This gave people a universal, immediate physical trigger they could notice anytime!

Then add the routine! Brushing daily with Pepsodent Toothpaste to specifically clear away that film!

Finally the Reward! A beautiful, whiter, and radiating “Pepsodent Smile” that promised attractive social status.


All while it has been found that historically, the “film” on your teeth is a completely natural membrane that reappears even if you brush perfectly, and it can be wiped away by a finger or a quick water rinse!

But Hopkins successfully tied that everyday sensation directly to a craving for beauty and cleanlines!

So any habit once developed remains! So make sure you develop good ones! Like reading and writing blogs!

Or making someone laugh like Cheyur Krishna Rao Nageswaran aka Nagesh!

Another good habit is to sleep on time!

Shub ratri…

Audiobook of a very famous travel memoir!

It is a long haul! Over 5 hours or more of bill!

For the uninitiated the Appalachian Trail or the AT is the world’s longest hiking only trail!

And bill Bryson is  not so fit author who is not even a sportsman! Then you have his friend called KATZ (which I heard as cats!) who used to provide the comic relief! But Katz is even more non sports like than Bill!

Which is when the question always used to linger in my mind whether they would cover the same! It is of course a non fiction so there is no suspense there! They would hike and hike and fall and get lost and even nearly die so many times but unfortunately they do not cover the whole trail!

It actually takes a full hiker at least 6-7 months to even hike it in one go!

In between Bill gives the amazing history of the trail and of the various shelters and the interesting people he meet on the way!

He also mentions the bear attacks and the death toll telling us in each step that it is not a simple task!


The book details Bryson’s humorous and often grueling attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT)—a footpath stretching over 2,100 miles across 14 U.S. states from Georgia to Maine!


After living in the United Kingdom for two decades, Bryson returned to the United States and settled in New Hampshire. Wanting to reconnect with the American wilderness, he impulsively decided to hike the trail despite being drastically out of shape and having virtually no backpacking experience!

To avoid tackling it alone, he recruited his estranged old friend Stephen Katz (a pseudonym for Matt Angerer). Katz proved to be a hilariously mismatched partner: overweight, a recovering alcoholic, and deeply averse to physical exertion. Their journey is marked by immediate comical ineptitude, heavy backpacks, freezing weather, and fear of bear attacks!

The best thing is when KATZ throws most of the content of his backpack since either they were heavy or not necessary! Including in the end, a water bottle!


Written in a laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating style, the book contrasts the grand romantic myth of the American wilderness with the harsh, grueling reality of blistered feet, bad trail food, and eccentric fellow hikers!

Interspersed between their misadventures are deeply researched, accessible chapters on the history of the trail, forest conservation, the impact of pollution, and the sociology of the backwood towns they pass through!

I loved the part where they meet an annoying know it all gal who constantly used to hike with them and tent with them but always cribbing! The way they got RID of her is so funny!

Then KATZ adventures with gals, beer and bear! In that order!

The best part of the novel though was the ending!


While they do not successfully complete the entire thru-hike, the narrative centers on their personal boundaries, their renewed friendship, and the realization of how precious yet threatened America’s remaining wilderness is!

In the end there is a incident which would wake you up and take notice! Katz is missing! I was on the edge of my seat while driving and I had to know what happened to him! Don’t worry this is non fiction so I will tell you that he is ok! But till the time Bill could locate him it was nerves and anxiety in big amount! When he finally finds him all broken and injured but still resting on a rock (typical KATZ!) we all sighed a big relief! Which is when after all these Bill goes to him and asks him, “Shall we go back home!” Which is what they did!

The most realistic ending of a hike travel diary! They had enough incidents to write a book or two but more importantly they have their life and health and they actually have no reason to be hiking along in the wild!

A beatiful walk indeed!

The Novel A Short history of nearly everything tells us a great deal about this office clerk!

Lets call him sam!

No fun in getting to the point so soon anyway!

So apparently Sam hated wearing socks and could not drive! He later on won a Nobel Prize in physics but actually could not drive a car!

He had some of the highest IQ scores in the world but could not even remember names, dates or even phone numbers!

He was so quirky and loved playing the violin so much so that he named his violin LINA and never forgot that name!

His theories and postulations are groundbreaking and even now difficult to understand but apparently he did not even learn to speak until he was four years old and reportedly repeated sentences to himself until he was seven!

Finally when he did not get any job anywhere even as a junior teacher since apparently he was not knowledgeable enough!

While working as a patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, he secretly developed his groundbreaking 1905 physics papers, calling the office his “worldly cloister”!

Sam did not win his Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity, but rather for his work on the photoelectric effect! Though it was the former for which he is most famous!

You got who Sam is now I hope! Of course Einstein!

But (the return of the but!); the whole deal about him not being good in studies is actually a myth!

As a child and young student in Germany, Einstein consistently earned high marks and was at the top of his class in math and science. By age 15, he had already mastered calculus!

What did you do when you turned 15!? Drive a car!?

Then again the rumor that he failed school likely started because the grading system in Switzerland (where he later went to school) reversed its scale!

A top grade changed from a 6 to a 1, and people mistakenly thought his high marks were failing grades!

Now, when he was 16, he did fail the general entrance exam for the Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.

However, he passed the math and physics portions easily. He failed the non-science sections, like botany, zoology, and languages, because he was two years younger than the other applicants. He returned a year later after studying those subjects and passed!

So he may be simple and ordinary in some aspects but he was actually brilliant with a T!

Also did you know that after his death in 1955, his brain was removed without his family’s initial permission by pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey so scientists could study the physical anatomy behind his genius!

Also in 1952, he was offered the role of the second President of his home country, but he politely declined, stating he lacked the natural aptitude and experience for dealing with people!

So what did you learn!? Do not wear socks and do not drive a car may win you a NOBEL!? I hope not!

Of course some legends are natural! Like Madhavan Nair aka Madhu!

Shub ratri…

His contribution to astronomy is astronomical!

In fact the only reason why he did not get a Nobel prize is that Astronomy was not part of physics and at the time there was no prize for astronomy!

In fact the telescope named after him has made so many contributions to the study of space!

Edwin’s contribution was immense!

In the early 1920s, humanity believed the Milky Way was the entire universe. Edwin dismantled this idea through two monumental breakthroughs!

The first was to prove the Existence of Other Galaxies! This he did By observing Cepheid variable stars in the Andromeda “nebula,” Edwin proved it was actually a distinct galaxy sitting hundreds of thousands of light-years outside our own. This established the field of extragalactic astronomy!

Then he discovered the Expansion of the Universe! In 1929, he formulated a law named after him! By observing that the light from distant galaxies shifts toward the red end of the spectrum (redshift), he proved that galaxies are moving away from us and that the universe is actively expanding. This provided the foundational observational proof for the Big Bang theory!

He created the “Tuning Fork” system to classify galaxies based on their shapes (elliptical, spiral, barred spiral)!

In spite of all this he did not get the Nobel because of a technicality!

Then again some legends do not need a prize to make them legendary!

Did you get the scientist’s name? You would have anwyay heard the name of his telescope or the scope named after him! Frankly that is the only telescope many would even know by name!

His full name was Edwin Powell Hubble!

Yes!

The very Hubble after whom the Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble)  is named after!

The legend who could not get a Nobel though he deserved at least two! Another legend was Soorya Krishnamoorthy who promoted art and artists!

He will be missed…

Shub ratri…

In allergy we have the two stimulus phenomenon! The first exposure may not produce that much of a reaction but the second one would! The first one was just the initial stimulus while the second is the actual reaction! You can very well say that the first stimulus is the Primer!

When this happens in human behaviour it is called Priming!

Priming in psychology is a phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences how you react to a subsequent stimulus, usually without your conscious awareness!

One is classically a Semantic or word Priming!

The set up here is that you read or hear the word “yellow”! And then the test is that you are are asked to quickly identify a new word flashed on a screen!

The result of Priming is that you recognize the word “banana” much faster than you would recognize an unrelated word like “television”!

This apparently happens because the word or thought or action activates related concepts in your memory network, making the second related concept easier to process!

One more example is that if you see or hear the word “doctor,” you are much faster at filling in the blanks to complete a partial word puzzle like D _ C T _ R!

Daniel Kahneman popularized priming in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow as a prime example of System 1 thinking—the brain’s fast, automatic, and emotional operating system.

Kahneman described the influence of an idea on an action as the ideomotor effect (e.g., words related to old age subtly causing people to walk more slowly down a hallway)!

Your associative network connects related ideas automatically. A cue like money can subconsciously trigger independent or selfish behavior patterns!

Then again these are only subltle changes and indications! It has been shown that in larger studies or in more common and consistent situations, priming plays only a small role!

When it is time for an important decision, your whole BRAIN takes part in the process! Then again it does make sense to PRIME yourself before any major decision!

Like how the Indian board made Mohinder Amarnath Bhardwaj the vice captain in the pivotal 1983 cup!

Now your body is naturally primed to sleep in the night! Let’s not disturb that!

Shub ratri!

Do you know who discovered oxygen? A philosophical person’s answer may be GOD!

A knowledgeable one will say Joseph Priestley (Since PRIEST is in the name so may be the philosophical person was partially true!)


Then do you know who discovered Chlorine? Again a knowledgeable person may say it is Sir Humphry Davy! In GK competitions even I have jumped and uttered all these!

Trust Bill Bryson to come and break this bubble!

We were  wrong! Not only oxygen or Chlorine, even elements like nitrogen and multiple other elements were actually DISCOVERED by one scientist who was brilliant but most unfortunate and many may not even have heard his name!

That was Carl Wilhelm Scheele!

He was a brilliant German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist whose extraordinary knack for isolating chemical elements earned him a reputation as one of history’s most prolific—yet unluckiest—scientists!

Despite discovering oxygen, chlorine, nitrogen, and multiple other elements, he frequently lost historical credit to others because of publishing delays and his adherence to outdated scientific theories!

Scheele didn’t just discover oxygen; his experimental skills allowed him to isolate or identify an astonishing array of elements and compounds!

He discovered Oxygen which he called the called “fire air”!, then Chlorine (which he thought was a compound), Molybdenum, Tungsten, Barium, and Nitrogen!

The list does not end here!

He also discovered and created and in some cases isolated for the first time; Tartaric acid, oxalic, uric, lactic, and citric acids, alongside highly toxic hydrofluoric, hydrocyanic (cyanide), and arsenic acids!

Scheele’s Green is actually copper arsenite which is a vibrant pigment widely used in Victorian wallpapers and fabrics before its extreme arsenic toxicity was fully understood!

So he did discover or isolate these compounds but then why don’t we know about him! Or why he does not get credit for the same!?

Well It is because of two reasons!

First was the Publishing Curse! He routinely discovered elements years before anyone else, only to have his work sit on a publisher’s desk. Because of this, Joseph Priestley gets credit for oxygen, and Sir Humphry Davy gets credit for chlorine!

Then his pretty scary habit which leads to his Death by His Own Discoveries!
In the 18th century, chemists routinely smelled and tasted new compounds!

Scheele worked closely with heavy metals and lethal chemicals like arsenic and cyanide! He died at just 43 years old, in the middle of his lab sorrounded by a range of toxic chemicals any of which could have killed him!

Moral of the story!?

Document your findings; well, document everything! And DO NOT smell or taste a new compound!

Also try to have a clear mind! You can use a Kumar Sanu song to clear it!

Do read about Scheele though….he deserves some credit…

Shubh ratri…

What will you say if I tell you that years ago they found the greatest find in archaeology but then lost it!

It was not even a small thing but a big piece of bone!

This is the story of the first DINOSAUR bone ever found way back in 1677 and which was promptly lost soon after!

As far as history goes, its hysterical!

In the amazing Novel called a short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson; he narrates this dark comedy! Now I had finished reading or listening to the book couple of years back which was around 5 hours or so! Then Bill updates the book to make it double the size! Not fair!

Interesting though!

Now coming back to the bone!

In 1677; workers unearthed the large lower end of a fossilized femur (thighbone) in a limestone quarry in Cornwell, near Chipping Norton, England.

The fossil was given to Robert Plot, the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and professor at Oxford University!

Long before the word “dinosaur” existed, Plot published an illustration of the bone in his 1677 book The Natural History of Oxfordshire. He concluded it belonged to a massive human giant (like those mentioned in biblical history) or perhaps a large elephant brought over by the Romans!

After Plot documented and illustrated the specimen, the physical bone was misplaced or discarded. It vanished from the historical record!

Today, the only evidence that the bone ever existed is Plot’s detailed description and the copperplate engraving printed in his 1677 book!

Paleontologists later realized from Plot’s precise drawing that the bone actually belonged to a Megalosaurus, a large carnivorous dinosaur.

But since because the original specimen is lost and the creature was not yet understood, humanity had to wait until the 1820s for Megalosaurus to be officially named and recognized as an extinct giant reptile!

So that’s humanity for you! A human can even lose a giant dinosaur bone!

The next time you lose your remote, don’t worry too much! Historically some have lost a huge dinosaur bone!

Historical though were the songs sung by
Prathivadhi Bhayankara Sreenivas!

Now stop searching for that lost pair of sock and sleep!

Shub ratri…

 

Imagine a  WALK which is so long that it takes an average thru-hiker about five to seven months (roughly six months) to complete the entire trek in one go!

Imagine walking for 6-7 months when walking for 6-7 minutes is a big deal for many!

Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America is a novel by Bill Bryson

Here he tells about his experience about a FOOTPATH!

Yeah!

But do not take the footpath lightly!

This is the story of the longest FOOTPATH in the world!

Not the actual longest FOOTPATH in the world which is In Canada!

The real longest FOOTPATH in the world is the Trans Canada trail! This trail extends for over 28,000 km (17,000 mi) from coast to coast!

Proposed in 1992 by Bill Pratt and Pierre Camu the trail has three major “endpoints”, those being at Cape Spear in Newfoundland, Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories, and Vancouver in British Columbia!

But the Appalachian Trail is the longest hiking-only footpath in the world, stretching roughly 2,198 miles across 14 U.S. states!

The story of ‘Walk in the Woods’ is the story of the Appalachian Trail!

Interesting how a FOOTPATH has become a matter of discussion! In my city footpath was not for people but for two wheelers!

The story reminded me of our walk which we took en route to this amazing temple in a remote part of kerala! The path was not clearly marked and it was raining! The issue was not even the rain but the fact that it would make the blood sucking leeches drop on us from all directions!

The first couple of them were shocking but then we got used to them in a way which is surprising  even now! After some time we would stop and I would REMOVE the leech one by one from everyone using my trusty old knife! We were told to apply some salt over it which would have been a better idea but then some intelligent bloke (ME!) forgot to take the big packet of salt from the bus!

We were told to follow a dog who will show us the way and we were so happy so meet one! But our happiness was short lived when it ran way the moment it started raining!
But we were young and well naive so we simply marched on bravely like the house surgeon who is allowed to do a tonsil surgery and does not know any comlication!

We did reach the temple and a beautiful guest house with a small hut and the lady kindly gave us some of the best tasting food in the world! The journey was tough but it was fun! Plus we got a story!

That is my footpath story!
There was one person who did not like either the footpath or the walk! That was my mother! She used to tell us that she has walked and worked enough when she was young and now she does not want to do it!

Give her some hot vada and some devotional song by jagjit Singh or even the visual of Ganga Arrthi and it was heaven for her!

Missing and wishing her on her birthday with a sketch of her favourite…did not have the mind set to make a sketch of her…

Shub ratri…

So now you know the Goldilocks rule in general!

If not you can go through yesterday’s blog

https://ramadocblog.com/2026/09/19/the-goldilocks-rule-rocks/

Now the rule was used in many areas of business and well as a personal life! You may use it to select a job or even a game to play!

Then in the age of AI you have the Goldilocks rule of AI!

The Goldilocks Rule of AI means finding the balanced “just right” middle ground between two harmful extremes!

Depending on the context, this principle applies to expectations, business strategy, or machine learning design.

The first is the Expectation Balance  which is in short Optimism vs. Pessimism!

The Papa bear version is being too optimistic in which you may believe that AI will instantly create a utopian society or solve all human problems!

The Pessimistic  or Too Cold or Mama bear version is that you may fear that superintelligent or sentient AI will lead to human extinction or completely rejecting the technology!

Finally you get the baby bear Just right version in which you recognize that AI is a powerful, specialized tool with real limitations that requires responsible oversight and practical application!

You can have the same options and feeling for a Business Strategy Balance which involves Hype vs. Fear!

The Hype Trap or the Papa bear version is rushing to install complex AI tools everywhere before knowing if they actually help employees, which burns money and loses focus!

Then you have mama bear version or the Fear Trap which involves trying an AI tool once, getting a high token bill or weak results, and abandoning AI completely!

Which finally leads to the baby bear just RIGHT attitude! Which is by starting small with one repetitive, measurable business problem (like summarizing calls or classifying support tickets) and scaling only after proving success!

Finally you have the Technical Balance which is basically a balance between Underfitting vs. Overfitting and finally reaching the baby bear!

In this case the right balance is to properly tune model complexity, training duration, and data diversity so the AI can generalize accurately! Then the baby bear bed is just RIGHT to sleep off!

In short; a balanced approach is the only way you can have a good food and sleep!

A balanced approach to acting was also the hallmark of actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao!

Now for proper balance sleep at the Right baby bear time!

Shub ratri!