Some notes from Buddha’s philosophy

Eight fold noble path of the middle way.

1 Right view
2 Right thought
3 Right speech
4 Right behaviour
5 Right livelihood
6 Right effort
7 Right mindfulness
8 Right concentration

Five evils in the world.

  1. Cruelty : Strong attack the weak and weak deceive the weak.
  2. Cheating
  3. Lust
  4. Disrespect the rights of others
  5. Negligence of duty

There is also a similar saying in Sikhism these are kaam (lust), krodh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (attachment) and ahankar (ego).

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List of volcanoes in Japan

There are more than 200 volcanoes in Japan. The zip file contains the list of volcanoes in google kml file, csv file and a shape file format. The data on elevation and the year of its last eruption is provided. It could be helpful to study geology.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eJdNalQhocOkjgZUunRJHtym2uCVKdI4/view?usp=sharing

Water legislation in Japan in perspective of hydropower development

Japan is rich in water resources. The average annual precipitation is about 650 billion m3, out of which 420 billion m3 is the theoretical maximum that can be utilized for various purposes including hydropower generation. In 1951, the electricity business of Japan was handed to 10 regional power utilities. In 1995, the independent power producer (IPP) were allowed to sell electricity. According to NEF, by 2010 there were 1754 small and medium power plants (less than 30 MW). The feed-in tariffs for various types of hydro electricity, set after Fukoshima disaster, are as follows. (Ref: https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2016/0318_03.html)

  • Under 200 kw->Yen 34/24 (new construction/using exiting canal)
  • 200-1000 kw-> Yen 29/21
  • 1000-30,000kw->Yen 24/14

The feed in tariffs are lucrative. However, the hydropower development in Japan is not straightforward due to fragmented government offices requiring permissions from multiple agencies.

River legislation and management

The new “River Law” started since 1964 to manage water resources in Japan. It has been revised multiple times.

The River Law classifies the rivers into two categories- A and B. Class A rivers are administered by the Minister of Construction (MLIT). There are 17798 rivers grouped into 109 river systems in this category totaling to about 87,150km. Class B rivers are administered by the prefectural government. There are 6,631 rivers grouped in 2,691 river systems in this category totaling to about 35,700 km. Some section of rivers (both A and B) may be administered by local cities or villages.

Once the water is extracted from the river, it is managed by other laws. A list of ministries and agencies handling the water resource are listed in table below:

MILITIt is responsible for over all water resource development
MOEDevelopment of guidelines, policy and planning for water conservation and setting of water quality standards.
Ministry of healthRegulation of domestic water supply facilities
METIRegulation of industrial water supply facilities
Ministry of agricultureRegulation of agricutural water and conservation of forest water resorces
Japan water agencyIt is responsible for the supply of safe, quality water at a reasonable price. It is engaged in the construction and refurbishment of major dams for water utilization (for domestic, industrial and agricultural use) and river management purposes (flood control, maintenance and environmental flow).
Inter-ministerial Liaison CouncilThis is responsible to study how procedures could be simplified fir water resource development

Base on:

  • Small and Micro-Scale Hydropower in Japan by Yveline Lecler

Cobweb plot

While conducting multi variable analysis, it may be useful to see how the output changes due to change in inputs. For example humidity, temperature and water-level may change the deflection of dam. Cobweb plot combined with normal distribution will help to visualize the risks easily. An example of such plot is shown below.

An octave (or matlab) code to generate such plot is given below. Basically, it requires to plot each entity separatly. The data should be normalized to set equal scale.

%shaded plot
clear all;clf; % clear figure (just in case something was there before)

epdata=[-0.0008959	-0.00059726	-0.0013775	-0.00080342	-0.002345	-0.0012454	-0.0014801	-0.00097711	-0.00096319	-0.00030882	-0.0015608	-0.00099932	-0.00082923	-0.00105	-0.0013915	-0.00021562	-0.0011739	-0.0015718	-0.00087249	-0.0016794	-0.00036352	-0.00059309	-0.0011483	-0.0010326	-0.00034531	-0.0020304	-0.0014554	-0.00092798	-0.0012557	-0.0016694	-0.0010306	-0.001245	-0.0013191	-0.0016508	-0.0010848	-0.0018287	-0.0010912	-0.0014441	-0.0012839	-0.00089405	-0.0024034	-0.0015758	-0.00026981	-0.0014717	-0.0023293	-0.0020914	-0.00076314	-0.00056843	-0.0014572	-0.00083516	-0.0012168	-0.0013884	-0.0012994	-0.0010078	-0.00045422	-0.0015285	-0.00061293	-0.00091066	-0.0014499	-0.0010975	-0.001501	-0.0012706	-0.0019573	-0.0019029	-0.0013711	-0.0019286	-0.00099036	-0.0016533	-0.001049	-0.0015944	-0.0016858	-0.0014946	0.000314	-0.0016982	-0.0012176	-0.0016377	-0.0012109	-0.0015727	-0.001435	-0.0010661	-0.0012172	-0.0020125]
tcdata=[31.007	17.279	71.559	42.942	30.757	64.937	56.682	34.429	48.118	51.053	46.382	70.517	49.346	56.116	38.708	39.931	61.857	52.765	58.071	55.669	34.416	38.345	36.623	42.745	66.059	83.693	40.504	62.218	64.917	20.47	65.233	37.162	69.894	27.246	3.5394	65.416	65.68	43.018	95.189	59.176	59.944	56.573	53.296	38.949	41.054	39.729	28.056	43.599	59.708	46.291	49.449	48.566	57.104	51.747	68.345	48.032	63.941	41.263	26.673	48.541	31.849	56.63	39.846	49.557	80.801	37.334	37.459	36.248	57.355	39.958	32.182	24.017	75.422	61.597	43.402	11.902	58.988	42.176	17.418	44.48	56.916	41.854]
tldata=[61.235	77.001	86.213	75.22	43.764	67.211	76.459	52.866	77.028	54.373	34.241	90.087	80.787	60.298	75.159	107.12	84.327	39.385	104.76	66.38	62.929	42.629	88.112	83.559	59.862	85.192	50.859	55.306	66.787	56.848	82.743	95.426	112.39	44.012	70.265	54.671	76.631	76.642	88.841	39.25	56.877	60.893	104.51	59.836	63.706	71.222	63.624	32.153	70.074	79.584	72.205	72.182	73.233	67.998	80.533	40.931	63.258	42.223	79.662	81.851	52.266	80.383	83.354	57.363	93.174	64.228	87.165	93.264	79.508	67.241	98.564	86.5	37.035	59.61	64.813	68.867	72.937	81.84	61.348	92.968	57.552	64.609]
dpdata=[-0.016616	0.0012712	-0.018897	-0.01016	-0.092141	-0.024361	-0.023951	-0.026684	-0.013089	-0.0056231	-0.065296	-0.011672	-0.0096546	-0.023527	-0.018468	0.0022514	-0.015527	-0.056125	-0.0052227	-0.0348	-0.0046483	-0.020469	-0.0072833	-0.010084	-0.0052599	-0.030438	-0.044018	-0.022032	-0.024795	-0.031457	-0.014002	-0.0055563	-0.0096733	-0.063971	0.003394	-0.046408	-0.017231	-0.019991	-0.016868	-0.028567	-0.061399	-0.036514	0.00094998	-0.034091	-0.050397	-0.03461	-0.011083	-0.023391	-0.027504	-0.0096521	-0.020398	-0.023604	-0.022343	-0.018593	-0.0046534	-0.055475	-0.011241	-0.03279	-0.0084095	-0.013231	-0.043265	-0.018161	-0.020591	-0.04901	-0.016887	-0.038989	-0.0064535	-0.0089957	-0.014825	-0.029465	-0.0045653	-0.0031735	0.013363	-0.040035	-0.024299	-0.00078227	-0.020854	-0.018003	-0.015243	-0.0074379	-0.02939	-0.042169]
% normalize
ep=epdata/min(epdata);
tc=tcdata/max(tcdata);
tl=tldata/max(tldata);
dp=dpdata/min(dpdata);
x=[0 1 2 3.5]*7;
x1=ones(1,length(ep))*x(1);
x2=ones(1,length(ep))*x(2);
x3=ones(1,length(ep))*x(3);
x4=ones(1,length(ep))*x(4);

%calculate mean
m_ep=mean(ep);
m_tc=mean(tc);
m_tl=mean(tl);
m_dp=mean(dp);
%standard deviation
sd_ep=std(ep);
sd_tc=std(tc);
sd_tl=std(tl);
sd_dp=std(dp);

%coords to plot normal distribution
nd_x_ep=[m_ep-4*sd_ep:sd_ep/20:m_ep+4*sd_ep]
nd_y_ep=1/sd_ep/(2*pi())^0.5*exp((nd_x_ep-m_ep).^2/-2/sd_ep^2)

nd_x_tc=[m_tc-4*sd_tc:sd_tc/20:m_tc+4*sd_tc]
nd_y_tc=1/sd_tc/(2*pi())^0.5*exp((nd_x_tc-m_tc).^2/-2/sd_tc^2)

nd_x_tl=[m_tl-4*sd_tl:sd_tl/20:m_tl+4*sd_tl]
nd_y_tl=1/sd_tl/(2*pi())^0.5*exp((nd_x_tl-m_tl).^2/-2/sd_tl^2)

nd_x_dp=[m_dp-4*sd_dp:sd_dp/20:m_dp+4*sd_dp]
nd_y_dp=1/sd_dp/(2*pi())^0.5*exp((nd_x_dp-m_dp).^2/-2/sd_dp^2)

figure 1
% plot vertical lines
hold on;
plot (x1,ep,"o"); 
plot (x2,tc,"o"); 
plot (x3,tl,"o"); 
plot (x4,dp,"o"); 
%plot connecting lines
p=[ep; tc; tl; dp ];
plot (x, p, "color",[.8 .8 .8] );

%plot the normal disribution
patch(nd_y_ep*2+x(1),nd_x_ep,'facecolor',[1 1 0.8],'edgecolor',[1 0 0], 'facealpha',0.3)
patch(nd_y_tc*2+x(2),nd_x_tc,'facecolor',[1 1 0.8],'edgecolor',[1 0 0], 'facealpha',0.3)
patch(nd_y_tl*2+x(3),nd_x_tl,'facecolor',[1 1 0.8],'edgecolor',[1 0 0], 'facealpha',0.3)
patch(-nd_y_dp*2+x(4),nd_x_dp,'facecolor',[1 1 0.8],'edgecolor',[0 0 1], 'facealpha',0.3,"linewidth", 3)

%yaxis lines
ymin=-0.5;ymax=1.5;
plot ([x(1) x(1)],[ymin ymax],"color",[0 0 0] );
plot ([x(2) x(2)],[ymin ymax],"color",[0 0 0] );
plot ([x(3) x(3)],[ymin ymax],"color",[0 0 0] );
plot ([x(4) x(4)],[ymin ymax],"color",[0 0 0] );
%other properties
ylim([ymin ymax])
axis off;
set(gca, "linewidth", 2, "fontsize", 12);
%labels
%xlabels
text(x(1)+0.3,ymin,"Strain","color","black","fontsize", 18)
text(x(2)+0.3,ymin,"TC","color","black","fontsize", 18)
text(x(3)+0.3,ymin,"TL","color","black","fontsize", 18)
text(x(4)-3.5,ymin,"Max. Deflection","color","black","fontsize", 18)
%informations
text(x(1)+0.3,ymax-.2,["Mean=" num2str(-0.0012, "%5.2e") char(10) "SD=" num2str(0.005, "%5.2e")],"color","black","fontsize", 15)
text(x(2)+0.3,ymax-.2,["Mean=" num2str(50, "%5.0f") char(10) "SD=" num2str(15, "%5.0f") " years"],"color","black","fontsize", 15)
text(x(3)+0.3,ymax-.2,["Mean=" num2str(70, "%5.0f") char(10) "SD=" num2str(20, "%5.0f") " years"],"color","black","fontsize", 15)
text(x(4)-3.5,ymax-.2,["Mean=" num2str(mean(dpdata), "%5.2e") char(10) "SD=" num2str(std(dpdata), "%5.2e") " m"],"color","black","fontsize", 15)

hold off;
print -dpng figure1.png

Evolution and entropy

Some salt required.

Once born we slowly evolve physically by gaining tissues and bones. The food we eat is transformed into the machinaries of body. This indicates that the entropy or randomness decreases over time to create a useful thing. But once we cross certain age decay starts and the biological machinaries starts to disfunction. It seems decay and dissolution is the final destiny. And in long term degeneration is imenent.

If so how about the evolution theory? Why should a simple being evolve to a complex one? More natural way would be a complex being degenerate into simple ones. Because this is the way we observe, its easy to break things than to create one. May be we human too are degenerated form of more complex superhumans, not the complex form of monkeys.