Firearms Suicides The Second Amendment and the Law of Unintended Consequences

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which reads: "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" is widely regarded by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the pro-gun lobby as the permitting unrestricted right to private ownership of guns by citizens. About 80 million Americans, or more than one-half of US homes [1], own about 223 million guns (see Deborah White, click here). Figure 1 illustrates a tragic recent consequence of this hallowed right to bear arms.
20,000

Firearms Suicides, y

19,500 19,000 18,500 18,000 17,500 17,000

Total Firearms Suicides 228,202 (1999-2011)

16,500
16,000 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012

Time t [Calendar year]

Figure 1: The hockey stick pattern of rising firearms-suicides in the US (1992011), starting 2007, similar to that found in climate change studies. In 2011, the latest year for which data is available, there were 19,796 preventable deaths
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due to firearms-suicides. The total lives lost from 1999 to 2011 equals 228, 202, or nearly a quarter million. Data source: The original research articles are also cited http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states
a) Hoyert, Donna L. and Jiaquan Xu.2012.Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2011 - Selected Causes. National Vital Statistics Reports (NVSS).Hyattsville, MD:US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control Prevention, Division of Vital Statistics,10 October. (Q6492)Full Citation b) WISQARS.2009.Injury Mortality Reports 1999 and Onwards (USA). Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System / WISQARS.Atlanta:National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / CDC,9 December. (Q1377)Full Citation c) Jackson, Thomas.2005.Global Gun Deaths. NISAT Firearm Mortality Database 2005.Oslo:Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers,1 January. (Q12)Full Citation d) Curfman, Gregory D, Stephen Morrissey and Jeffrey M Drazen.2008.Handgun Violence, Public Health, and the Law. New England Journal of Medicine.Massachusetts:Massachusetts Medical Society,3 April. (Q1975)Full Citation

This is NOT what the second Amendment was meant to be. This is NOT what gun ownership was meant to be. The following is a brief summary based on some of my recent articles listed in the references. With increasing gun ownerships [2] and ready access to guns in most homes, more and more Americans have been killing themselves, not killing each other, especially since the economic down turn of 2007 (see also the articles by Roger Kay [3] and Sean McElwee [4]. The flat portion of the graph of Figure 1 (with small fluctuations in the number of firearm-suicide deaths) is like the curved portion of a hockey stick. The sharp almost linear rise in firearms-suicides, the straight line portion of the graph, is like the handle of a hockey stick, hence the name hockey stick pattern, which was first used by climate change scientists to illustrate the alarming rise in global average temperature in recent years relative to historical trends. We see a similar alarming rise in the firearms suicides which started with 2007, the beginning of the economic downturn and the full blown financial crisis in the US, just before the Presidential election in November 2008.
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From My Facebook Page

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Vj Laxmanan When the adverse side effects of a drug are discovered, it is often banned and taken off the market. The same goes with guns and I have presented convincing data here, from all the 50 US states, to show what has been going on during the recent economic downturn. Sad, indeed! There, but for the grace of God, go I. Heard that before? a few seconds ago Edited Like https://www.facebook.com/vj.laxmanan (You can always send me a friend request or a message).

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Table 1: The Suicides/Homicides Ratio Reveals Americans are Killing Themselves, Not Each Other
State Suicides to Homicides Ratio (S/H)
CA TX NY FL IL PA OH MI GA NC NJ VA WA MA IN AZ TN MO MD WI MN CO AL SC LA 1.11 1.86 0.87 1.90 0.77 1.52 1.83 1.37 1.62 1.88 0.72 2.13 4.07 1.10 2.04 2.29 2.00 1.46 0.73 3.57 4.31 4.40 1.60 1.71 0.89

Suicides Homicides State Suicides to Table 5 of Table 4 of Homicides GPP GPP study Ratio study (S/H)
1492 1702 459 1454 442 762 724 601 718 707 187 576 464 138 455 620 585 489 222 378 280 427 454 392 385 1342 913 527 767 577 501 396 440 443 376 260 271 114 126 223 271 293 335 306 106 65 97 283 229 432 KY OR OK CT IA MS AR KS UT NV NM WV NE ID HI ME NH RI MT DL SD AK ND VT WY 3.23 6.27 2.87 1.12 5.21 1.25 2.02 3.09 10.19 3.21 2.68 4.47 2.59 15.17 7.31 1.76 8.29 0.96 3.57

Suicides Homicides Table 5 Table 4 of of GPP GPP study study

404 376 376 110 177 256 266 210 275 289 204 210 106 182 37 95 102 30 141 43 65 107 56 66 83 125 60 131 98 34 205 132 68 27 90 76 47 41 12 13 17 17 45 30

Data Source: America Under the Gun, Ref. [6], by Arkadi Gerney, Chelsea Parsons, and Charles Posner (Click here). The US Postal abbreviation for each state is used. Only 6 of 44 states for which data is available have S/H < 1.

Pardon my Texan (not my French); these idiots are just blowing their own brains off, not each other. The total for 2010 was 19,379 firearms-suicides deaths.
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In Table 1, I have compiled the suicides and the homicides for all 50 states and highlighted the rather high value for the Suicide/Homicides (S/H) ratio across 38 of 44 states for which data is available for these two gun violence indicators, as we see from the yellow highlights. The Suicides/Homicides (S/H) ratio varies from 1.10 for Massachusetts (MA) to as high as 15.17 for Idaho (ID). Only six states, Delaware (DL), Louisiana (LA), New York (NY), Illinois (IL), Maryland (MD), and New Jersey (NJ) have a S/H ratio of less than 1. Even in these states the S/H ratio varies from a low of 0.72 for NJ to a high of 0.96 for DL. No information (on homicides) is available for six of the remaining states (HI, NH, SD, ND, VT and WY) to determine the S/H ratio. The national firearms suicide rate is 6.28 per 100,000 people (see Table 5, in America Under the Gun [6]), or 18,840 preventable deaths in a nation of 300 million. The total in 2010 was 19,379 deaths due to firearms-suicides. Thats 19,379 deaths too many. This is consistent with the data compiled (for 2010) by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (click here). Take a look again at the numbers for 2010. There were 1492 firearms suicides in California, 1454 in Florida, 1702 in Texas, and 459 in New York (which exceeds 419, the number of homicides in NYC in 2012). These are all preventable deaths, aided in large measure by the ready access to firearms.

Would you try to take a gun away from someone threatening to commit suicide?
If the answer is YES, then we must pass a National Gun Safety Act in 2013, or by 2014, at the latest, with the focus being on the SILENT epidemic of firearms-suicides that is sweeping across all 50 states. There is an unmistakable correlation between the number of firearms suicides in a state and the states gun ownership percent; see Figure 2 at the end of the article and the supporting data in Table 2.

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Table 2: Correlation between Gun Ownership in Various States and the Number of Firearms Suicides
State Suicide rate Per 100 K Population in 100 K Gun Ownership % Percent Actual Gun Owners in 100K Table 5 GPP Suicides (Firearms)

CA 4 373.00 21.3 79.45 1492 TX 6.77 251.40 35.9 90.25 1702 NY 2.37 193.67 18 34.86 459 FL 7.73 188.10 24.5 46.08 1454 IL 3.44 128.49 20.2 25.95 442 PA 6 127.00 34.7 44.07 762 OH 6.28 115.29 32.4 37.35 724 MI 6.08 98.85 38.4 37.96 601 GA 7.41 96.90 40.3 39.05 718 NC 7.41 95.41 41.3 39.40 707 NJ 2.13 87.79 12.3 10.80 187 VA 7.2 80.00 35.1 28.08 576 WA 6.9 67.25 33.1 22.26 464 MA 2.11 65.40 12.6 8.24 138 IN 7.02 64.81 39.1 25.34 455 AZ 9.7 63.92 31.1 19.88 620 TN 9.22 63.45 43.9 27.85 585 MO 8.17 59.85 41.7 24.96 489 MD 3.85 57.66 21.3 12.28 222 WI 6.65 56.84 44.4 25.24 378 MN 5.28 53.03 41.7 22.11 280 CO 8.49 50.29 34.7 17.45 427 Data Source: The number of suicides and the suicide rates (for 2010) are from Table 5 of America Under the Gun, Ref. [11], by Arkadi Gerney, Chelsea Parsons, and Charles Posner, GPP study (Click here). The US Postal abbreviation for each state is used. The percent gun ownership is from Gun Owners as a Percentage of Each States Population by Deborah White (click here). Note that all rates and percents are converted into actual gun owners and actual suicides in last columns and then plotted in Figure 2.
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Table 2 (Contd): Correlation between Gun Ownership in Various States and the Number of Firearms Suicides
State Suicide rate Per 100 K Population in 100 K Gun Ownership % Percent 51.7 42.3 44.1 47.7 39.8 42.9 16.7 42.9 55.3 55.3 42.1 43.9 33.8 34.8 55.4 38.6 55.3 6.7 40.5 30 12.8 57.7 25.5 56.6 57.8 50.7 42 59.7 Actual No. of Gun Owners in 100K 24.71 19.55 20.00 20.70 15.25 16.10 5.96 13.07 16.40 16.13 12.01 12.13 9.13 7.16 10.27 7.05 8.67 0.91 5.38 3.95 1.35 5.71 2.29 4.61 4.10 3.41 2.63 3.36 Table 5 GPP Suicides (Firearms) 454 392 385 404 376 376 110 177 256 266 210 275 289 204 210 106 182 37 95 102 30 141 43 65 107 56 66 83

AL 9.5 47.79 SC 8.48 46.23 LA 8.49 45.35 KY 9.31 43.39 OR 9.81 38.33 OK 10.02 37.52 CT 3.08 35.71 IO 5.81 30.46 MS 8.63 29.66 AR 9.12 29.17 KS 7.36 28.53 UT 9.95 27.64 NV 10.7 27.01 NM 9.91 20.59 WV 11.33 18.53 NE 5.8 18.28 ID 11.61 15.68 HI 2.72 13.60 ME 7.15 13.29 NH 7.75 13.16 RI 2.85 10.53 MT 14.25 9.89 DL 4.79 8.98 SD 7.98 8.15 AK 15.07 7.10 ND 8.33 6.72 VT 10.55 6.26 WY 14.73 5.63 Data Sources: As noted already.

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Firearms-Suicides (in 2010), y

2000

1500

FL CA

TX

1000

VA AZ

OH

GA PA Y MI

500

0 0.00

MN N
20.00

NY

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

Gun Owners, x [in 100,000]

Figure 2: The actual number of firearms-related suicides (in 2010) is plotted here against the actual number of gun owners (based on population and gun ownership percent for each state). Without regards to the legislative strengths of the gun laws in the state (Weak or Strong gun laws as classified by the Brady Campaign and the Law Center to Prevent Violence) we see a simple linear relationship between the number of suicides and the number of gun owners. The conclusion is unmistakable: reducing the access to firearms in individual homes will reduce the epidemic of firearms suicides. Note that no rates or percentage are used. This is a straight correlation based on the actual numbers. The root source for the firearms-suicides data is the CDC and Deborah Whites compilation is used for gun owners. The straight line illustrating the general trend is the ray passing through the Texas data point. Texas with the highest number of gun owners (9.025 million, or 90.25 in units of 100K) also has the highest number of suicides (1702). Florida with 1454 suicides falls above this line, which means that after accounting for the difference in the population (and thus gun owners) there are more suicides in Florida than in any other state of the union. The specific situation with Florida is highlighted in Appendix 1.
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80 2046 2594 2914 4092

Age-group 10 to 14
15 to 14

25 to 34
35 to 44 45 to 54 55 to 64 65+ Total

19,392

3387 4276

Figure 3: Pie chart illustrating the breakdown of the U.S. Firearms-Suicides in 2010, by age group. Data Source: 10 Leading Causes of Injury Deaths by Age Group, Highlighting Violence-Related Injury Death, US 2010, by CDC. http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/10LCID_Violence_Related_Injury_Deat hs_2010-a.pdf . Firearms-suicides is the 4th leading cause of death for all agegroups, except the 10 to 14 age group for which it is the 5th leading cause. (The total of 19,379 is based on values reported in Table 5 of America Under the Gun).

******************************************************
We must reduce the ready access to firearms. This is the URGENT need of the hour, not the misguided focus on gun control to eradicate mass murder rampages. This is another sad example of the law of unintended consequences at work (click here and here and here and here). And, there is no one willing to talk about this.

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Suicides are extremely impulsive acts. According to Bryjak [10], Professor of Sociology, there are almost nine unsuccessful suicide attempts for every suicide fatality. This is explained by the method used to end ones life. Data shows that 85% of gun-related suicides resulted in death (compared to 69% for suffocation, 31% for falls/jumps, 2% for poisoning/overdose, and 1% for cutting/piercing attempts. Also, the impulse to commit suicide is often due to a short term crisis acute depression - and the availability of firearms given no chance for the person reconsider their actions, unlike other non-firearm methods (click here for more details); see article in Forbes by Roger Kay (click here). The trend as illustrated in Figure 2 is unmistakable. Texas with the highest number of gun owners also has the highest number of firearms-suicides in the whole nation. It also appears to me that a large number of senior citizens in Florida are committing suicides. The Florida data point falls well above the trend line suggested by the straight line with the equation y = mx, passing through the origin (0, 0) and the Texas data point. It is also amazing to see the near PERFECT scaling of the lower suicides for CA with TX which, it is now clear, is related to the number of gun owners. Although CA has a higher population, the gun ownership percent and so the number of gun owners is lower and this translates to the lower number of firearms-suicides. It is also interest to note the near PERFECT scaling of the firearms suicides and gun ownership for many other states like OH, PA, VA, MI, IN, GA (battleground states in Presidential elections). The data for all these states (and many others) line up nicely along the line through the Texas point. This suggests nearly perfect homogeneity of factors (social, cultural, emotional, and legal) that lead to the observed firearms-suicides. Legal professional will, I am sure, see the connection now with the weak or strong gun control laws enacted by each state. NY, among the largest states, has a significantly lower gun ownership and therefore also significantly lower firearms-suicides. Firearms-suicides are preventable deaths and needs our URGENT attention. Even the pro-gun lobby and the NRA, it seems to me, should pause and think about this and end their knee-jerk commitment to the right to gun ownership
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and the Second Amendment. The NSA surveillance programs, now engaging worldwide attention (with the flight of E. J. Snowden), have already exposed how little freedom We The People actually have and/or what we are willing to forego in the name of national security. We are talking about here actual lives may be your grandparent, or parent (look at the data for 65+ year olds), retired and living in Florida. There were 80 firearms-suicides among the 10 to 14 year olds. How did this happen? This is not the 18th century where the idea of an armed militia ready to overthrow an oppressive government was supported by the founding fathers. No armed militia is going to march into Washington D.C. in the 21st century and overthrow the U. S. government. All freedoms that we cherish have to be balanced against other over-riding societal concerns (as argued by the President to justify the NSA Surveillance Programs). At this point, the general opinion seems to be that E. J. Snowden should be charged with the crimes and extradited to the US to stand trial. It is the circus surrounding his extradition that is now engaging attention, not whether he is a hero or a traitor. Congress has not called (at least not yet) for any public hearings on the wholesale spying of US citizens by the Executive branch of the government.

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Appendix 1: Suicides data for Flordia from FSPC

The following data was obtained from Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition (FSPC). Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in Florida (in 2012) and was 10th leading cause in the USA (in 2012), and 24th worldwide. The following data on firearms-suicides demographic (for 2012) was obtained from the annual report (click here, page 57 of 100).

Suicides (firearms discharge) in 2012

Total Suicides 2922 Firearms Suicides 1532

350 301 300 250 213 200 150 146 186 163 296

100
52 50 2 0

82

89

Age group
Data Source: Florida Vital Statistics Annual Reports (2012) Deaths, page 57 of 100, http://www.flpublichealth.com/VSBOOK/pdf/2012/Deaths.pdf. Total suicides in 2012 equaled 2922 with firearms suicides being 1532 (52% of total). The ready access to guns is obvious from the two suicides in the 10 to 14 age group.
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Heres Another Way to Look at the Three Types of Homicides

I Mass Murder Rampages
(Newtown elementary school, Colorado movie theater, Virginia Tech massacre, Gifford shooting) 19,796 in 2011

IV

Firearms Suicides
II Gang Violence
(Chicago, NYC) Self-directed Violence

SYG Killings
Type I General Rage & Violence Directed at Society Killing of innocent bystanders

Type II Targeted (Rage) Violence Directed at Strangers

III Family & Acquaintance killings

(e.g. Staten Island)

CDC figure for 2010 is 19,392 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/suicide.htm

Type III Rage & Violence Directed at Family and Acquaintances

Three types of homicides and one SILENT Killer! Would you try to take a gun away from someone threatening to commit suicide? See Ref. [13].
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We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted or deluded by such fake arguments about car deaths and gun deaths and continue to dig our heels in. The epidemic of Firearms-Suicides that I am calling attention to here is a real one that is affecting your loved ones, a family member, or a

dear friend, regardless of which side of the gun

debate you are on. Please think about it. And, ask Congress to enact a National Gun Safety Act, akin to the National Traffic Safety Act.

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Reference List
1. Pros and Cons of Gun Ownership and Use Laws for Individuals, by Deborah White,
http://usliberals.about.com/od/patriotactcivilrights/i/ProConGunLaws.htm

2. Gun Owners As a Percentage of Each States Population, by Deborah White, http://newsle.com/article/0/26390102/ 3. Who Knew? The Leading Cause of Gun Deaths is Suicides, by Roger Kay, Jan 22, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerkay/2013/01/22/whoknew-the-leading-cause-of-gun-death-is-suicide/ 4. Gun Control Debate 2013: Guns and Gun Violence go hand in hand, by Sean McElwee, http://www.policymic.com/articles/41033/gun-controldebate-2013-guns-and-gun-violence-go-hand-in-hand/658699 5. Earth warmest in thousands of years: Controversy over new hockey stick, by Jason Samenow, April 2, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weathergang/wp/2013/04/02/earth-warmest-in-thousands-of-yearscontroversy-over-new-hockey-stick-claims/ 6. American Under the Gun, http://www.americanprogress.org/wpcontent/uploads/2013/03/AmericaUnderTheGun.pdf Full report here. 7. A 50 State Analysis of Gun Violence and its Link to Weak State Gun Laws, by Arkadi Gerney, Chelsea Parsons, and Charles Posner, April 4, 2013, Center for American Progress Report, Brief discussion here, http://truth-out.org/news/item/15524 8. Searching for Hard Data on Guns and Violence, by Matthew Herper, Forbes, December 16, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/12/16/searchingfor-hard-data-on-guns-and-violence/ 9. Obamcare: The Law of Unintended Consequences, by Keith Speights, May 16, 2013, http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/16/obamacare-thelaw-of-unintended-consequences.aspx

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10. Guns and Suicide, by George J. Bryjak, December 12, 2012, https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/page/content.detail/id/534 468/Guns-and-suicide.html?nav=5041 11. Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition (FSPC), http://www.floridasuicideprevention.org/the_facts.htm

NYC and Staten Island Homicides Related Articles and Some Examples of the Types of Homicides
12. Mayor Bloombergs Comparison of the Homicide Rates in Chicago, Detroit, and New York is Re-examined, Published June 15, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/147960590/MayorBloomberg%E2%80%99s-Comparison-of-the-Homicide-Rates-in-ChicagoDetroit-and-New-York-Is-Re-examined 13. Can Staten Island Become Murder Free? Yes. Thats what the Generalized Idea of Einsteins Work Function Teaches Us, Published June 20, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/148989688/Can-StatenIsland-Be-Murder-Free-Yes-That-s-What-the-Generalized-Idea-of-Einsteins-Work-Function-Teaches-us 14. Three Types of Homicides and the Need for a National Gun Safety Act, Published June 26, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/150134853/ThreeTypes-of-Gun-Violence-and-the-Need-for-National-Gun-Safety-Act

References to Related Articles on Various Topics

The two Bibliography lists include detailed links to articles on various related topics with only a few being listed here. Gun violence related articles are listed first. 1. Bibliography - I, Articles on Extension of Plancks Ideas and Einsteins Ideas beyond physics, Compiled on April 16, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/136492067/Bibliography-Articles-on-thePage | 16

Extension-of-Planck-s-Ideas-and-Einstein-s-Ideas-on-Energy-Quantum-totopics-Outside-Physics-by-V-Laxmanan 2. Bibliography - II, Articles on Extension of Plancks Ideas and Einsteins Ideas beyond physics, Compiled on June 14, 2013, Published on June 15, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/147955814/Bibliography-II-of-V-LaxmananArticles-on-the-Extension-of-Planck%E2%80%99s-and-Einstein%E2%80%99s-IdeasBeyond-Physics-with-Examples-from-the-Observations-on-Finan

1. Gun Violence and Firearms-related Deaths

3. Alert!!! Gun Violence in America: The Suicides/Homicides Ratio Reveals that Americans are Killing Themselves Not Each Other Across States, Published May 14, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/141451669/Gun-Violence-in-AmericaAmericans-Are-Killing-Themselves-NOT-Each-Other-Across-States 4. Michigan Firearms Related Suicides: The Linear Suicides-Population Law, Published May 14, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/141334599/Michigan-Firearms-RelatedSuicides-The-Suicides-County-Population-Law 5. Brady Campaign State Rankings and the Firearms-related Death Rates: Einsteins Work Function Reappears, Published May 13, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/141292101/The-Brady-Campaign-StateRanking-and-the-Firearms-Death-Rates-Einstein-s-Work-FunctionReappears 6. Comparison of the Strong and Weak Gun Law States and the Ten States with Highest Level of Gun Violence: Least Squares Analysis of the Data, Published May 10, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/140536622/Comparison-of-the-Strong-andWeak-Gun-law-States-and-the-Ten-States-With-Highest-Levels-of-GunViolence-Least-Squares-Analysis-of-the-Data 7. Gun Deaths Statistics, The Method of Least Squares and the Overlooked Property of a Straight Line, Published May 8, 2013, http://www.scribd.com/doc/140152581/Gun-Death-Statistics-and-theMethod-of-Least-Squares-and-the-Forgotten-Property-of-a-Straight-line
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About the author V. Laxmanan, Sc. D.

The author obtained his Bachelors degree (B. E.) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Poona and his Masters degree (M. E.), also in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, followed by a Masters (S. M.) and Doctoral (Sc. D.) degrees in Materials Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. He then spent his entire professional career at leading US research institutions (MIT, Allied Chemical Corporate R & D, now part of Honeywell, NASA, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), and General Motors Research and Development Center in Warren, MI). He holds four patents in materials processing, has co-authored two books and published several scientific papers in leading peer-reviewed international journals. His expertise includes developing simple mathematical models to explain the behavior of complex systems. While at NASA and CWRU, he was responsible for developing material processing experiments to be performed aboard the space shuttle and developed a simple mathematical model to explain the growth Christmas-tree, or snowflake, like structures (called dendrites) widely observed in many types of liquid-to-solid phase transformations (e.g., freezing of all commercial metals and alloys, freezing of water, and, yes, production of snowflakes!). This led to a simple model to explain the growth of dendritic structures in both the groundbased experiments and in the space shuttle experiments. More recently, he has been interested in the analysis of the large volumes of data from financial and economic systems and has developed what may be called the Quantum Business Model (QBM). This extends (to financial and economic systems) the mathematical arguments used by Max Planck to develop quantum physics using the analogy Energy = Money, i.e., energy in physics is like money in economics. Einstein applied Plancks ideas to describe the photoelectric effect (by treating light as being composed of particles called photons, each with the
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fixed quantum of energy conceived by Planck). The mathematical law deduced by Planck, referred to here as the generalized power-exponential law, might actually have many applications far beyond blackbody radiation studies where it was first conceived. Einsteins photoelectric law is a simple linear law and was deduced from Plancks non-linear law for describing blackbody radiation. It appears that financial and economic systems can be modeled using a similar approach. Finance, business, economics and management sciences now essentially seem to operate like astronomy and physics before the advent of Kepler and Newton. Finally, during my professional career, I also twice had the opportunity and great honor to make presentations to two Nobel laureates: first at NASA to Prof. Robert Schrieffer (1972 Physics Nobel Prize), who was the Chairman of the Schrieffer Committee appointed to review NASAs space flight experiments (following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986) and second at GM Research Labs to Prof. Robert Solow (1987 Nobel Prize in economics), who was Chairman of Corporate Research Review Committee, appointed by GM corporate management.

Cover page of AirTran 2000 Annual Report

Can you see that plane flying above the tall tree tops that make a nearly perfect circle? It requires a great deal of imagination to see and to photograph it.

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The Immortal Words: How to Live in this World?

The following immortal verses of the Bhagavad Gita (which has captured the attention of the worlds greatest philosophers, scientists, social and political leaders) come to mind when I think of the three types of homicides that have been discussed here. In the threefold classification described on page 16, it is rage that has been suggested as the root cause for the violence directed at society, strangers, family and acquaintances. When one is overcome by anger (krodha) or rage (the extreme and uncontrollable form of anger), one becomes completely deluded (summoha). When one is deluded one loses the power of discrimination and all the moral codes that have been learned (smruti vibhrama). When one has lost this power of discrimination, the intellect (buddhi) itself is completely destroyed (naasha). With the destruction of the intellect comes the destruction of the self (pranashyati, the religious implication being untold suffering in hell). When I read about the Staten Island murders, I could not help remember these verses. Heres the link to the original verses with commentaries by prominent spiritual leaders. What is the root cause anger (or rage) that leads to all of the above? Our deeply held desires, which turn into lust, greed, and avarice, when unfulfilled, or obstructed from being fulfilled by others. This instills the rage that is unleashed as violence upon all those mentioned above. http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Gita/verse-02-61.html The verses dealing with rage and its effects are verses 62 to 64 of chapter 2, click on link for discussion. Verse 64 tells us that conquering all the attachments (desires) and curbing our hatred will ultimately lead to lasting blissful peace. http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/Articles/xtra.html Extraordinary personalities reflect upon the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Albert Einstein When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this universe everything else seems so superfluous.
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http://www.asitis.com/2/62.html Translation and commentary by ISKCON founder and spiritual leader Srila Prabhupada http://www.sankaracharya.org/gita_bhashya_2.php#1 Translation of the commentary by Adi Sankara, the modern founder of Advaita philosophy. http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bgita/bgita_04.html Commentary here skips the verses 62 to 64 completely but provides a good summary of the entire teaching on How to Live in this World.

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