SANJAY HEGDE

An Arab scholar in 1011 was placed under house arrest in Cairo for 10 years. He used the time to invent the scientific method, prove how vision actually works, and write a 7-volume book that Newton studied 600 years later. I read about him last night and could not stop thinking about it. His name was Ibn al-Haytham. The book is called the "Book of Optics." The textbook story names Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes as the founders of modern science. All three of them came 600 years after Ibn al-Haytham. All three of them studied his work directly or through Latin translations. The man who actually invented the scientific method was working alone in a single room in Cairo while Europe was still in the Dark Ages. Here is the story almost nobody tells you. He was born in Basra around 965 CE. By his 40s he had a reputation across the Arab world as one of the most original minds alive. Then he made the mistake that almost killed him. He claimed publicly that he could regulate the flooding of the Nile. The mad caliph al-Hakim of Cairo summoned him to Egypt to do it. Ibn al-Haytham took one look at the river and realized the project was impossible with the technology of his era. The caliph had executed dozens of scholars for less. So he faked madness. The caliph believed him and put him under house arrest in his own home in Cairo for the next 10 years. Most people would have lost their actual mind. He used the time to invent science. Before him, knowledge worked one way. You quoted authority. If Aristotle had said it, it was true. If Galen had written it, it was correct. The role of a scholar was to memorize and defend the ancient Greeks. I Ibn al-Haytham broke this completely. He wrote a sentence in the Book of Optics that quietly destroyed 1,400 years of intellectual culture. "The seeker after truth," he said, "is not the one who follows his natural disposition to trust the writings of the ancients. The seeker after truth is the one who suspects them, questions them, and submits only to argument and experiment." That single sentence is the foundation of modern science. He wrote it 600 years before the European Renaissance. The second thing he did was build the actual machinery of experimentation. He insisted that no claim about the physical world was acceptable until it had been verified by an experiment anyone could repeat. He gave detailed instructions for every experiment in his book. He told his readers, in writing, not to take his word for any of it. Build the equipment. Run the tests yourself. Verify or destroy my claims with your own eyes. The third thing he did was use the method to overturn one of the most settled questions in physics. The Greeks had taught for centuries that vision worked because the eye emitted invisible rays. Ibn al-Haytham proved them wrong with a darkened room, a small hole, and a wall. The first camera obscura. He showed that light from the outside world enters the eye, the exact opposite of what every Greek thinker had taught. Two hundred years later his book was translated into Latin in Spain. Roger Bacon cited him. Kepler cited him. Galileo's work on the telescope was built on his optics. Newton's foundational work on light rested on his framework. Walk into any physics department today. Ask who founded the scientific method. Almost nobody will say Ibn al-Haytham. The man who invented the way humanity actually knows things did the work under house arrest, with no funding, no laboratory, and a paranoid caliph next door waiting for an excuse to kill him. He did it anyway. Most of the world is still pretending it was someone else's idea.

Beauty of Democracy - The entire Lottery Martin family wins as a pack across parties! The whole Martin family joined different parties so that, in case of emergency, they can help each other and also get help from all parties. Below is the impressive electoral performance of the Martin family: Leema Rose (wife of Senior Martin) - won as an ADMK candidate. Jose Charles Martin (son of Senior Martin) - won as an LJK candidate. Aadhav Arjuna (son-in-law of Senior Martin) - won as a TVK candidate. Hello democracy, are you kiddin me?

Everyone is talking about whether it will be good for the people of West Bengal if the BJP wins the election. I think it will be beneficial. Let’s take the example of my state, Haryana. Before the BJP, there was nothing in our state, and now see, Haryana is like Switzerland, with world-class healthcare, education, and infrastructure. And don’t tell me about recent incidents, like a sportsman being killed due to poor infrastructure, that’s fake, according to the BJP. Because we have the best roads. And don’t mention roads getting flooded after rain, that’s also propaganda from the opposition, or maybe even China, according to the BJP. And we all know our capital, the heart of India, Delhi. Before the BJP, there was so much pollution; now there is none, and we are living happily… yeah, we are. Okay then, I have a doctor’s appointment to check my lungs I think I didn’t breathe. And yes, the BJP will totally change West Bengal. Thank me later. Bye.