Whiskey and Trekking: back from the mountains with stories to tell

Yeah, me back from ze mountains of Virginia. a place called Whitetop.. so bloody remote that it lies within the 3% of US soil not covered by cellphone service. And, no, they do not have internet up there...it was a pretty awesome time... and let6 me just tell you two things and wrap up for now... :

1. do not drive a Chevy Trail Blazer: that is an SUV which handles like a cow (although in all fairness, this is the only SUV I have driven.. perhaps all SUVs handle badly).
2. if you drink copious amounts of whiskey at night and dance, and then climb mountains the next morning.. the whiskey will seep through every pore in your body.

The nature of physical theory.

So, the question being asked here is whether physics and the laws of nature are just tidy bookkeeping in nature, or are they here for some other, perhaps higher reason. Paul Davies, from the Arizona State University speculates about the nature of physical theory, and complains that at the core of rationality, as exemplified by science, lies a firm belief that the Universe is ordered and comprehensible. Such a belief is not too far removed, perhaps, from believing that the Universe was coughed up by a huge fish, or that the world sits on top of a huge turtle, or perhaps even that it was made by a nice old white man with a huge beard (think a Caucasian Rabindranath Tagore) who rested on the 7th 24 hr cycle.

The problem is again one of the chicken and the egg, what was it that breathed fire into equations, to borrow someone's very picturesque phrase? This discussion carries a lot of weight, including amongst others, opinions by Weinburg and Hawking. Well, I don't know what to think.... personally, I feel a mechanistic view of the Universe is all we can achieve... any further beyond that, and we begin questioning the whole reason for existing anyway, and that leads to ruinously long coffee hour discussions.

Magic Bus?!?!?!?!!?

The University runs a free bus service. Good.
The free bus service runs at all odd hours, long after the city bus service has packed up and gone home. Better.
The University operates a service called 'magic-bus', whereby GPS systems on buses locate them on a map/line and the webpage tells you when the next bus at any given stop will arrive. Awesome!
This service is down on a Saturday night with a snowstorm on its way, I have to finish this experiment and get home, and the city service has packed up hours ago. Yeah, bad.

My oh my, its almost Christmas week!!

And here I am in the lab at 9 on Sat night... (this is a recurring theme in my liff, and hence, my blog). Anyhow, I decided to give Tom Clancy a chance.. normally I am very leery of technothrillers.. and war fiction, in general... but hey, the man is popular.. must be for some reason. Quite well written, but still, regretfully, merely a technothriller. The greatest war novel of the last half century, and perhaps of all time is probably 'Bomber', by Len Deighton. This is a book that I had dissected with immense care (both literally and figuratively) about 17 years ago. I would like to find and read it again.. and see what I think, two decades later. Anyways, we are done with teaching for the semester (well.. the sem itself is almost finished).. so that is a load lessened. The building is to be evacuated at midnight for some major overhaul of the ventilation system. I guess there can't be more than ten people in the whole building.. (there are usually a thousand).... yeah.. Sat night.......

How can we save the world?

I found out recently that Honda has released the Civic GX which runs on compressed natural gas (CNG). CNG is mostly methane (CH4), which has the highest calorific value amongst all hydrocarbon fuels. That means, gram for gram, CNG delivers more punch than petrol or diesel. CNG technology has been around for a while now... Several third world countries have started moving towards CNG technology because it is cheaper than petrol/diesel, and also because it is a cleaner fuel.

This might require some explanation... unlike petroleum, which is mostly available from oilfields in the Mid East, natural gas is more widespread. It does not take very advanced technology to convert regular Otto cycle (petrol) engines to CNG engines. It is clean, because it is chemically very simple: it burns to give out water and carbon-dioxide. Fossil fuels burn to give these, and a whole array of complex hydrocarbons including some pretty toxic ketones. Leading to pollution. Then, we have "antiknock". This is something that helps engines to run smoother. It can be just alcohol, or tetraethyl lead. Of course, it wasn't alcohol for the better part of a century, because anyone with some potatoes and a still in his backyard can make alcohol.. and hence antiknock. That would go against commercial interests, and forget about lead pollution in the air. It took legislation(and the fact that catalytic converters sort of curl up and die in the presence of lead) to enforce the use of unleaded fuel. CNG has none of these problems, and neither is it as volatile as, say hydrogen. But CNG is a politically bad fuel.. one that would reduce the world economy's shackled down relationship with oil companies. Hence, the First World has never seen it fit to experiment in this technology. Except that now... there is Al Gore and his Nobel Prize... times are a-changing, and trust the innovative Japanese to come up with clean technology.

I remember the hullaballoo when the Indian Government decided to start using CNG in cars and buses. It took a Supreme Court verdict against various transport unions to enforce CNG usage... but the turnaround has started, and the results are already visible in New Delhi. The other metro cities are catching up, and this is one field in which India (and Pakistan, and Bangladesh, too) are leading the world. Surprised?

Superhero journal - techsupport

The daily work of a superhero is difficult, I kid you not. Well, just yesterday, my computer got hacked. I mean, seriously, would you take a superhero seriously if his PC got hacked? (Ok, I used two 'seriously's' in a sentence, sue me, I went to superhero school, and I did not major in language.) So, anyway, I find myself on the pheun with Superhero Techteam, and that conversation did NOT go well....
Me: Hey.
Superhero Techteam Bitch (hereafter referred to as techbitch, or TB): ei.
Me: I have a small problem here.
TB: yesh shar?
Me: WTF?
TB: yesh shar?

brief interlude while I curse the God of outsourcing...

Me: Here's the thing.. everytime I try to check my Superhero Network Evildoer Update, the browser goes to this weird blue screen and I get this message "stick your head up the penguin's arse". Any ideas?
TB: Ish your computer turned on, shar?
Me: WTF? Are you listening to me?
TB: Yesh shar, what O-esh are you running?
Me: O-what?
TB: O-esh.
Me: DO you mean OS?
TB: oh yesh.
Me: Panorama X (dumb broad.. but said sotto voce)
TB: yesh shar, Panorama eksh has thish problem, but we can fiksh it. Eashily. There is a pyanch you have to download, let me gibhe you the link.
Me: I have to download a. .. what?
TB: A pyanch shar.. it ish a short of shoftware update.
Me: You mean a patch? (screwball.. also muttered)
TB: yesh shar, you are right.. a pyanch also means a shcrew, but there ish no ball!
Me: ...! Ok, so I need the patch.... and then?
TB: that ish all shar, the pyanch will cover the shecurity hole... ash they shay, a shtich in time shaves nine.

Dear me.

The point of view problem in any relationship.

I love theorizing about all kinds of shite. No, actually, I do not... I might if I ran a pathology clinic or had something to do with natural fertilizer.. but I suppose you get my point. I frequently talk (usually at length) about optics, economics, politics, random flicks and many other things ending with 'icks'. Ok, that was what.. two bullshite jokes in 3 lines? Sometimes I exceed myself..... Ok, getting there.... anyway, I have here, for your perusal, two opinions on relationships, one clearly written by a slightly damaged bloke, and the other from a bird. I am personally not taking a stand.. no I am... and it is as follows:

WTF!!!!!!!!!!

1st post:

"What Happened to All the Nice Guys?"

---

Date: 2007-11-19, 3:52AM PST


I see this question posted with some regularity in the personals section, so I thought I'd take a minute to explain things to the ladies out there that haven't figured it out.

What happened to all the nice guys?

The answer is simple: you did.

See, if you think back, really hard, you might vaguely remember a Platonic guy pal who always seemed to want to spend time with you. He'd tag along with you when you went shopping, stop by your place for a movie when you were lonely but didn't feel like going out, or even sit there and hold you while you sobbed and told him about how horribly the (other) guy that you were fucking treated you.

At the time, you probably joked with your girlfriends about how he was a little puppy dog, always following you around, trying to do things to get you to pay attention to him. They probably teased you because they thought he had a crush on you. Given that his behavior was, admittedly, a little pathetic, you vehemently denied having any romantic feelings for him, and buttressed your position by claiming that you were "just friends." Besides, he totally wasn't your type. I mean, he was a little too short, or too bald, or too fat, or too poor, or didn't know how to dress himself, or basically be or do any of the things that your tall, good-looking, fit, rich, stylish boyfriend at the time pulled off with such ease.

Eventually, your Platonic buddy drifted away, as your relationship with the boyfriend got more serious and spending time with this other guy was, admittedly, a little weird, if you werent dating him. More time passed, and the boyfriend eventually cheated on you, or became boring, or you realized that the things that attracted you to him weren't the kinds of things that make for a good, long-term relationship. So, now, you're single again, and after having tried the bar scene for several months having only encountered players and douche bags, you wonder, "What happened to all the nice guys?"

Well, once again, you did.

You ignored the nice guy. You used him for emotional intimacy without reciprocating, in kind, with physical intimacy. You laughed at his consideration and resented his devotion. You valued the aloof boyfriend more than the attentive "just-a-" friend. Eventually, he took the hint and moved on with his life. He probably came to realize, one day, that women aren't really attracted to guys who hold doors open; or make dinners just because; or buy you a Christmas gift that you mentioned, in passing, that you really wanted five months ago; or listen when you're upset; or hold you when you cry. He came to realize that, if he wanted a woman like you, he'd have to act more like the boyfriend that you had. He probably cleaned up his look, started making some money, and generally acted like more of an asshole than he ever wanted to be.

Fact is, now, he's probably getting laid, and in a way, your ultimate rejection of him is to thank for that. And I'm sorry that it took the complete absence of "nice guys" in your life for you to realize that you missed them and wanted them. Most women will only have a handful of nice guys stumble into their lives, if that.

So, if you're looking for a nice guy, here's what you do:

1.) Build a time machine.
2.) Go back a few years and pull your head out of your ass.
3.) Take a look at what's right in front of you and grab ahold of it.

I suppose the other possibility is that you STILL don't really want a nice guy, but you feel the social pressure to at least appear to have matured beyond your infantile taste in men. In which case, you might be in luck, because the nice guy you claim to want has, in reality, shed his nice guy mantle and is out there looking to unleash his cynicism and resentment onto someone just like you.

If you were five years younger.

So, please: either stop misrepresenting what you want, or own up to the fact that you've fucked yourself over. You're getting older, after all. It's time to excise the bullshit and deal with reality. You didn't want a nice guy then, and he certainly doesn't fucking want you, now.

Sincerely,

A Recovering Nice Guy


2nd Post.

Why "Nice Guys" are often such LOSERS

You hear it all the time: "He was such a NICE Guy, and she's such a Heartless Bitch for dumping him."

I get letters from self-professed Nice Guys, complaining that women must WANT to be treated like shit, because THEY, the "Nice Guy" have failed repeatedly in relationships. This is akin to the false logic that "Whales are mammals. Whales live in the sea. Therefore, all mammals live in the sea."

If you have one bad relationship after another, the only common denominator is YOU. Think about it.

What's wrong with Nice Guys? The biggest problem is that most Nice Guys (tm) are hideously insecure. They are so anxious to be liked and loved that they do things for other people to gain acceptance and attention, rather than for the simply pleasure of giving. You never know if a Nice Guy really likes you for who you are, or if he has glommed onto you out of desperation because you actually paid some kind of attention to him.

Nice Guys exude insecurity -- a big red target for the predators of the world. There are women out there who are "users" -- just looking for a sucker to take advantage of. Users home-in on "Nice Guys", stroke their egos, take them for a ride, add a notch to their belts, and move on. It's no wonder so many Nice Guys complain about women being horrible, when the so often the kind of woman that gets attracted to them is the lowest form of life...

Self-confident, caring, decent-hearted women find "Nice Guys" to be too clingy, self-abasing, and insecure.

Nice Guys go overboard. They bring roses to a "lets get together for coffee" date. They try to buy her affections with presents and fancy things. They think they know about romance, but their timing is all wrong, and they either come-on too strong, too hard and too fast, OR, they are so shy and unassertive, that they hang around pretending to be "friends", in the hope that somehow, someway, they will get the courage up to ask her out for a "date".

They are so desperate to please that they put aside their own needs, and place the object of their desire on a pedestal. Instead of appreciating her, they worship her. We are only human, and pedestals are narrow, confining places to be -- not to mention the fact that we tend to fall off of them.

They cling to her, and want to be "one" with her for fear that if she is out of sight, she may disappear or become attracted to someone else. A Nice Guy often has trouble with emotional intimacy, because he believes that if she learns about the REAL person inside, she will no longer love him.

Nice Guys are always asking HER to make the decisions. They think it's being equitable, but it puts an unfair burden of responsibility on her, and gives him the opportunity to blame her if the decision was an unwise one.

Nice Guys rarely speak up when something bothers them, and rarely state clearly what it is they want, need and expect. They fear that any kind of conflict might spell the end of the relationship. Instead of comprimising and negotiating, they repeatedly "give in". When she doesn't appreciate their sacrifice, they will complain that, "Everything I did, I did for her.", as if this somehow elevates them to the status of martyrs. A woman doesn't want a martyr. She wants an equal, caring, adult partner.

Nice Guys think that they will never meet anyone as special as she is. They use their adoration as a foundation for claiming that "no one will ever love her as much as I do." Instead of being a profound statement of their devotion, this is a subtle, but nasty insult. It is akin to saying to her: "You are a difficult person, and only *I* can ever truly love you, so be thankful I'm here."

The nice guy -needs- to believe that he is the best person for the object of his desires, because otherwise his insecurities will overrun him with jealousies and fear. The truth of the matter is that there are many people out there who can be a good match for her. We rarely stop loving people we truly care about. Even if we no longer continue the relationship, the feelings will continue... But love isn't mutually exclusive. We can (and do) love many people in our lives, and romantic love is really no different. Though he may love her immensely, there will likely be other people who have loved her just as much in her past, and will love her just as much in the future. The irony of it all is: "Who would want to go out with someone who was inherintly unlovable anyways?"

More than loving the woman in his life, a Nice Guy NEEDS her. "She is my Life, my only source of happiness..." YECH! What kind of a burden is that to place on her? That SHE has to be responsible for YOUR happiness? Get a grip!

Another mistake Nice Guys make is to go after "hard luck" cases. They deliberately pick women with neuroses, problems, and personality disorders, because Nice Guys are "helpers". A Nice Guy thinks that by "helping" this woman, it will make him a better, more lovable person. He thinks it will give him a sense of accomplishment, and that she will appreciate and love him more, for all his efforts and sacrifice. He is usually disappointed by the results.

This ultimately boils down to the fact that Nice Guys don't like themselves. Is it any wonder women don't like them? In order to truly love someone else, you must first love yourself. Too often Nice Guys mistake obsession for "love".

Get this Guys: INSECURITY ISN'T SEXY. IT'S A TURNOFF.

You don't have to be an ego-inflated, arrogant jerk. You just have to LIKE yourself. You have to know what you want out of life, and go after it. Only then will you be attractive to the kind of woman with whom a long-term relationship is possible.

Oh, by the way, I personally think that every relationship requires any combination of the items mentioned below:
1. Point of view gun: when fired at someone immediately causes that person to understand your point of view.
2. Total Perspective Vortex: (pronounce the capital letters please) a device which really makes you see and understand your place in the Universe. Powered by a piece of fairy cake.
3. A linux terminal with a really high quality keyboard. And tetris. Any arguments running above 5 hours will be decided by highest score on tetris.

Nice guys?

I think this is what a lot of wimmen need to hear.

XKCD rules!!

Thanks XKCD

Big bro is here

look at what is cooking for the 2008 Olympics...

Sci Fi List link

here..

Reviews of science fiction stories...

A few things to start off with... in the purest form, science fiction is philosophy, and has very little to do with stories which involve the blowing up of spaceships. The object of pure SF is to contemplate the changes that continued scientific innovation will bring upon us, and the role of humanity in particular and the Earth in general in a possible larger milieu. 'Hard' SF is usually written by people of a scientific bent, and concerns itself with the immediate changes due to radically new science emerging within a few lifetimes from now. Hard SF dovetails into sociological commentary where we see speculation into how humanity might be fundamentally changed, not just in observable technological ways, but in the far more subtle ways of thought. Indeed, at one point, one asks in such works if humanity remains recognizable as humanity any more. Asimov, Clarke have pioneered the field of hard SF. The masterworks in this field are 'The End of Eternity'. by Asimov and Clarke's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Rendezvous with Rama'. Then we have purely social commentary.. where the future is used merely as a backdrop for making statements about the nature of socio-political-military environment and which direction it might evolve in. The best known among such works is Orwell's '1984'. Other very influential works (and sometimes nastily reviled) are Bradbury's 'Farenheit 451', and Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers'. Then we come to the subcategory of 'disaster SF'- this is quite self explanatory. The best representative of such works is Wyndham's 'The day of the Triffids'. People will find echoes of Triffids in many well received films like '28 Days Later'. Brian Aldiss had described Wyndham's work as 'cosy catastrophes'.. a very unfair judgment, in my opinion. And finally, we bring ourselves to the last category under examination: 'immediate' SF: which deals with changes within a perfectly recognizable society, but still much more advanced than ours.... one of the best here is 'Doomsday Book', by Connie Willis.. interestingly the only authoress mentioned here. I should say that her works display a degree of scientific understanding equalled by the giants.. Asimov and Clarke, but a degree of compassion which hard SF tends to avoid. The greatest of SF writers is the one who worked across such genres, in fact, before such genres were even created.. HG Wells. 'The Time Machine' is the first, and still one of the greatest speculative works ever.

Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time', Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' are not SF. Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' is also a political commentary beyond parallel. But to understand the extent of Huxley's genius, one must read his last work 'Pala'.

And, to complete this little review... the single greatest work of science fiction ever written is 'Nightfall', a short story written by Asimov when he was 22.

Henry Fonda not at his best.

For some people, the greatest filmmaker ever has been Sergio Leone... yeah, yeah there are the greats like Satyajit Ray, Kurosawa, Fellini.. yadda, yadda, but the one who worked with style and flair beyond comparison was the man who gave us the Dollars trilogy. And, one would argue that his greatest film ever was 'Once upon a time in America'... which had Henry Fonda in a role people could scarcely imagine him doing... a cold blooded, brutal killer. So, the point of this entire para is to talk about the great Henry Fonda... and how I was disappointed in seeing 'The Long Night', a shallow melodrama, at best and a cheap tearjerker at the worst. The only redeeming thing about the movie... which revolves around a man who has taken another man's life.. yeah, quite obviously, for louvv is a partially redeeming performance by Vincent Price. Avoid.

Ebooks....

I don't like reading books on a computer screen.. apart from the eye strain involved.. I simply love the luxury of sitting back with a well thumbed old paperback. There is that absolute joy of reading which I associate with everything that comes with reading. Back in the old days, this used to be an afternoon trip to Gariahat, or a day trip to College street (or more usually, bunking some classes while at Presi) and rummaging through second hand bookstores. The world's best second hand bookstores are at College Street, Calcutta, especially that amazing stretch, between the College Street Market at one end, and the Ashutosh Prangan of Calcutta University at the other end. For me, that has been my Kabah, and my Benares. That was a holy pilgrimage which I made every day for three glorious years, and I hope to go back to at some point in my life. But these days, it is merely an occasional trip to the District Library, or more normally, an online search on the amazing library at the University which does the job. I must say, for all the convenience, the zero cost, there is something missing.

Amazon plans to offer digital books... a sort of hybrid laptop like device which will mimic a real book, except that the content will be electronic, stored in a disk and displayed on a screen. And this device will communicate with e-resources, and 'update automatically'. Very convenient. But also somewhat scary.

Now, any vision of an Orwellian future scares me as much as anyone else. The fact is that the ubiquitous nature of mass electronic media has made the world a much smaller place, but also a much easier place to police. In this context, I would like to think that the battle between the forces of stability (governments of every description) and the dissenting folks should always be a finely balanced one... if it tilts too far in the direction of anarchy, then we have a breakdown of that which seems to stifle.. and if it falls too far in the other direction, then, why, we have 1984.. all over again. It is in this fine balance that society can live, breathe and even move its arms and legs a little. It is against the overall matrix of homogeneity that the radicals can think of themselves as such.. for if the radicals take the day: they will, in their own time become the same sated bourgeoisie they despise so much.

Hence, while I think that the juggernaut of technical innovation cannot be stopped, it should be met by equal counter-innovation which prevents any form of control over content from becoming absolute. Hence, I raise a toast to the makers of the iPhone, OS X, Vista and other beautiful innovations. and also to the people who spend their time hacking the guts out of them. Finally, here is what some people have to say about this new 'book'.

Snow, grading blues, work and other things

have come together to make me feel a leetil bit under the weather.. pun fully intended. But, I fully intend to bounce back with astute observations about the economy. and words of wisdom for the governments of the day (which, somehow, they always seem to ignore). But in the meantime, here are a few thoughts.. I caught a bit of the Republican CNN Youtube debate... and while Rudy Giuliani comes across as the most reasonable man amongst the GOP lineup, one wonders whether he is the man for the job. On the other hand, my impression of the Democrat race is that Obama might be the right person (observe the use of the gender free term), but compared to Clinton, he is a lightweight. But, back to the GOP, some people just plain scared me... I understand that abortion is a sensitive issue, and it would be nice if people never came to the point where they had to extinguish life. Having said, I think it is important to repair the social fabric which makes teen pregnancies, broken families all too common... but in the short term, abortion should be accessible to whoever needs it, It appears that many doctors in this country do not prescribe birth control medication on request.. because it goes against their faith. This, in my book, is a violation of professional ethics. Anyway, abortion, taxes, illegal immigrants and an unnecessary war. For the most powerful nation in the world, it is a luxury to have 'problems' of this nature, as opposed to the more real problems of widespread HIV, malnutrition and continued war in many other parts of the globe.

Now I have a reason for feeling happy....

Common points between Narendra Modi's Gujrat and Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's Bengal?

THE COMMUTWITS’ TRIUMPH - Nandigram is supposed to have taught the reactionaries a lesson

Writing on the Wall - Ashok V. Desai From the Telegraph of 20th Nov, 2007. Apologies for copying your article.

In Godhra, some people detached a bogie of a train in February 2002, locked in the passengers and burnt them. The perpetrators were never conclusively identified. The Hindutwits claimed that the murderers were Muslims, and called for retribution. It started the next day. Hindu mobs killed thousands of Muslims, looted and destroyed Muslim businesses, and in three days, turned Muslims into the new scheduled caste of Gujarat — poor, deprived and maligned. In Nandigram, some people forced local supporters of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to leave, destroyed bridges, dug up roads, and isolated Nandigram from the rest of West Bengal. No one knows who they were. It is widely believed that they were local villagers. The CPI(M) said they were members of the Trinamul Congress, Naxalites, or both, and called for retribution. Armed commutwit mobs invaded Nandigram, killed and wounded hundreds, destroyed their homes, and turned them into the new scheduled caste of West Bengal. This is not a coincidence; it is transfer of the technology of violence. In the Eighties, the BJP was exasperated; however hard it tried, it just could not get itself elected in any numbers, let alone come to power. And there, in the east, was CPI(M), an equally committed, ideologically-focused party, which simply could not be driven out of power. How did they do it? The Hindutwits diligently studied the secret of communist hegemony. They worked out that the secret lay in the creation of a captive mob. Till the Sixties, West Bengal used to be India’s most industrialized state. It was the home of the jute industry, India’s largest industry next only to textiles. It was a leader in engineering; in those days of import substitution, anyone who could not get a machine or a part headed for Calcutta, where workshops could reproduce the most complicated engineering goods. Then arrived bulk handling and cheap plastics. Pourable goods such as cereals began to be transported in containers in the United States of America. Railways acquired new wagons to transport containers; the first container ship was built in the US in 1956, if I remember right. Soon, bulk transportation spread across all the oceans, and increasingly along railway lines. And if small quantities of pourable goods had to be stored, plastic bags were more sturdy than gunny bags, and gave better protection. So over the Sixties and Seventies, life slowly seeped out of Calcutta’s jute industry. And the slump of 1965 hit its engineering industry hard. That was when the CPI(M) found a niche amongst the embattled industrial workers. Citu started organizing them; it developed the technology of bringing them out in processions and paralysing Calcutta. It taught workers to abuse and attack managers. In a pyrrhic victory, it drove industry out of West Bengal, but captured the unemployed workers — and young men who never had any jobs. They became the CPI(M)’s foot-soldiers. They developed a rough-and-ready social insurance system: they intimidated and collected money from whoever was making a living — shopkeepers, hawkers, farmers, whoever wanted a peaceful life and could pay for it. If the victims belonged to the Congress, so much the better. Within ten years, the musclemen taught West Bengal that it was unprofitable to belong to the Congress — and that supporting CPI(M) minimized costs. This is how the commutwit monopoly of power was created in West Bengal. Having learnt this technology, the Hindutwits reproduced it in Gujarat. In every village, every community, they collected musclemen and set up branches. But in one respect, they had it easier than the commutwits. Gujarat is more commercialized and industrialized than West Bengal; there were many more rich men to tap, and, correspondingly, the tribute to be collected from each was smaller — so small that many of them would not mind paying. Besides, many of these rich men could be asked to give jobs to the faithful, in which case those believers did not have to be paid a dole at all. But how were those moneybags to be persuaded that Muslims were their enemies? Right into the Nineties, 600 tons — 600,000,000 grams — of gold used to be smuggled into India. So was most of synthetic cloth. So were thousands of watches. All these goods used to be loaded into fast boats in Dubai, carried across the sea, and land on Gujarat’s coast. They were a source of great convenience for consumers fed up with the rigours of the socialist state, and a source of prosperity for those involved in smuggling and selling the goods; most of whom were Muslims. Once in a while some smugglers were caught; their names were predominantly Muslim. Sometimes the smugglers fought and murdered one another; those caught were again Muslims. Thus there arose an impression in Gujarat that Muslims were smugglers and thieves. So when the Hindutwits offered to sanitize Gujarat of the Muslim criminals, they found ready clients. When they removed Muslim competitors from business, their services were all the more appreciated by Hindu shopkeepers. When the commutwits sanitized West Bengal, they created an economic desert. When the Hindutwits sanitized Gujarat, some flowers went missing, but business continued to bloom. This is where the difference lies. Year after year, Gujarat grows faster than West Bengal. West Bengal, once one of the richest states, has fallen behind until it is just about average today; Gujarat, once average, has advanced upwards. No ruler of West Bengal who attends meetings in the South and North Blocks of Delhi, who can read figures, can ignore West Bengal’s decline. That is why the commutwits are in a hurry. But they cannot bring back the capitalists whom they scared away in the Sixties. Nor can they tolerate the emergence of thousands of small industrialists, for whom trade unions would be anathema. What would be compatible with Citu’s prosperity? Obviously, industries that pay workers well. So the commutwits’ first answer was information technology. They laid out the red carpet for IT moguls. Some came, but on the whole they preferred the South; it has a huge output of graduates with good English, and they do not mind people from other states coming in. So today, West Bengal’s IT employment is still in thousands — no higher than that of Gujarat. Now the commutwits have thought of big industries like steel and car-making. These require large tracts of land, and the commutwits are determined to clear land of obstructive human beings, however much blood they have to shed. The Hindutwits think that the post-Godhra riots taught Muslims a lesson; the commutwits think that Nandigram has taught the reactionaries a lesson. And if it has not, they will teach it again, in battlegrounds galore. Mamata, take guard! Each lesson will reduce the number of industrialists that would be prepared to invest in West Bengal; Buddhadeb will have to travel ever farther to find an investor. But it is a quest in the right direction — for making West Bengal India’s richest state. It may take some time, and many lives, but so what? Revolutions cannot be made without bloodshed. In the meanwhile, the prime minister will continue to monitor the situation closely — from Moscow, Washington, Cape Town, from his eyrie on Race Course Road.

Look, now they define who is a Hindu!

From today's Statesman..

London school defines a Hindu

Indo-Asian News Service
LONDON, Nov. 20: Britain's first state-funded Hindu school has come up with a unique definition of “practising Hindus” as part of its admissions policy ~ those who pray daily, do voluntary work at temples, follow a vegetarian diet and don't get intoxicated.
The school, named Krishna-Avanti Primary School, is located in the London borough of Harrow, which has the highest concentration of Hindus in any council in Britain: 40,000. The school is promoted by a charity organisation called the I-Foundation.
The admission process has started for the intake of the first batch of students in September 2008. Places are limited to 30 and are expected to be heavily over-subscribed. The official faith advisor to the school is Iskcon UK, which will advise on aspects of how the Hindu faith can be integrated and taught within the school. According to the admissions policy, among the criteria to be used while considering applications are: “Looked after children from Hindu families, 10 nominations by Bhaktivedanta Manor of practising Hindu families, children from practising Hindu families, children from Hindu families who are broadly following the tenets of Hinduism."
According to the policy, "broadly following" the tenets of Hinduism is defined as: at least monthly visits to the temple, attendance of key festival programmes (Diwali, Janmashtami and Ramnavami) at a local temple, following a vegetarian diet and avoidance of intoxication.
Asked if children of Hindu families who preferred non-vegetarian food or may not be ritualistic Hindus or who followed traditions within Hinduism that went against the school’s definition of practising Hindus would be ineligible for admission, a spokesman of the I-Foundation told IANS: "The rules do not exclude anyone who does not qualify under the criteria. The policy is not meant to exclude people... Under the rules of funding of faith schools, the school is obliged to have a set of criteria for admission that is relevant to the faith.”

I don't think that Hinduism is a doctrine driven faith which needs to be regulated like many others are. As a Hindu who does not mind the occasional tipple, I object most strongly to a bunch of Iskon people to tell me whether I am a 'suitable' Hindu or not. This is straight an easy route to giving imperfect people, untrained in logic, dialectic and philosophy the power to pass judgment over their peers. Hindu priests have long been a revered group, who guide in matters of the spirit (pun totally unintentionally). This will make them no different from their Christian and Muslim brethren. That is regrettable.

The sky is falling!! Privatisation woes.

Our national carrier is suffering from the blues. There is competition at all levels: the premium segment of the market has been captured by Mallya's Kingfisher Air and the discount ticket business is dominated by Air Deccan. Amidst this looming crisis, Air India, already losing money each day indulges VIPs and other fluff. This is part of the reason why they are bleeding so much money. I include here, two Statesman reports:

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=176956

and

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=1&theme=&usrsess=1&id=176957

I have the following suggestions:
1. Make VIPs pay. Stop giving perks to MPs, MLAs, their cousins, mistresses and Board Members of the airline.
2. Start a rationalised fare structure with complete internet booking facilities. Cut out the middlemen.
3. Reduce turnaround time at airports. This reduces terminal fees. If people cannot turn up in time to catch their flights, screw them.
4. If you want to run a premium segment, then do so. But brand that differently, make sure that if people are paying four times what the discount fares cost, they should get their money's worth.
5. Stop treating company Directors like gods. They can pay for their own rented cars: stop proving limo services.

Lastly, this is the most radical solution: allow all longterm employees to buy into Air India stock via pension funds/provident funds. If one is literally invested in where one works, one will work a little better. And steal less.

And if Air India cannot make a difference in, say a year... let Laloo Prasad Yadav take over. He did it for the Railways, he can do it for Air India as well.

Zap!!! The EMP Strikes Back (and featuring the return of the Shelby GT500)

So... here is the deal, cops might try to use a contraption which delivers a powerful electromagnetic pulse that disables the electronic systems running in a criminal's car and (hopefully) brings said criminal from 200 mph to a coasting, slightly impotent halt. So... apart from the immediate problem.. what if the EMP zaps the electronic steering and not the engine... then you have a car chase turning into a Michael Bay production on the I94...... well, what about shielding?

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19699/?a=f

The skin depth for microwave radiation is about 0.8 um for Aluminium. That means that an EM pulse at 10GHz will decrease to 1/e of its original amplitude within 0.8 micrometers of an Al sheet. So, painting the interior of the car, or just the housing for the CPU with a 4 um think Al coating will do the trick. Incidentally, this was seen during Broken Arrow where a powerful EM Pulse generated by exploding a nuke underground zaps a helo out of the sky. Radical.

Concert pictures.

I have already posted some of these pictures.. but it is time to post the whole lot of them...
concert pictures are not the easiest to do: the lighting is either too dim or harsh and unflattering. For danseuses, motion is what is the essence of beauty in the narrative form of dance. Motion is also the bane of a photographer working under dim light. But then again, it can also be used to great effect, when motion blur is used as an artistic tool. But I can go on about technicalities for ever. Let me just finish by putting up the links to the three concerts and performances over the last couple of weeks.

Swaranjali 2007, an ICMD show.

Rhythms of Hope - an Asha Ann Arbor concert featuring Odissi exponent Ms. Sreyashi Dey and a Sitar performance by Mr. Rajan Sachdeva accompanied on the Tabla by Mr. Amol Khanapurkar.

Vatsa Vaani: a concert by the Indian Classical Music and Dance(ICMD) Group at UM for the benefit of PACE, a group which raises funds to provide education and community empowerment amongst the underprivileged in India.







Many thanks to...
1. Asha Ann Arbor
2. PACE and Inner PACE
3. ICMD, UM
4. Ms. Sreyashi Dey
5. Mr Rajan Sachdeva
6. Mr Amol Khanapurkar

Waay too much work..

Oh dear me, this has been a very hectic time... all around fun, teaching, several birthdays, photographing concerts and other fun. Also a certain amount of protein spectroscopy and a fairly huge amount of grading. But the most fun part was watching Tarantino's 'Deathproof' and Rodriguez's 'Planet Terror'. Go see them if you haven't.

Submarine movies.

I have not seen Das Boot. I have heard that it is Wolfgang Peterson's best film, and possibly the greatest submarine film ever. Having said this.... my personal favourite so far is probably Crimson Tide.

But this has much to do with my personal admiration for Mr. Washington as an excellent actor (although somewhat stereotyped.... Training Day was such a refreshing change..), and the fairly decent support by Gene Hackman. The music accompanying was good enough to sometimes distract from the palpable tension.

My second favourite.. with a certain amount of thought is Hostile Waters. This was a made for TV movie (HBO films, which has made other very watchable movies like the 'Tuskegee Airmen'). With a surprisingly good cast.. Martin Sheen as a USN commander and Rutger Hauer as an anguished SSBN captain who is forced to make decisions which will certainly kill his men, but avert a potentially greater disaster.. this movie hits very hard. It is worth thinking about the Kursk disaster in 2000 when the pride of Russia's submarine fleet, an Oscar II class ballistic missile nuclear submarine went down with all hands in the Barent's Sea. Hostile Waters brings to your mind the horrific claustrophobia and the ever present feeling of being entombed with the carriers of death.

Why this discussion? Because I am going to watch 'The Hunt for Red October' tonight, frequently called the best Hollywood sub movie.

Of parties, pictures and movies, of looking at cars and thinking about binary search as a tool for finding a girlfriend.

This has been a totally crazy weekend, with an equally crazy week before it... last week I bummed out after running close on to one and a half days of experiments with a crummy lock on ze spektrometer. Needless to say, I was suitably morose. Anyway, the experiments have been run, this time, properly (I hope).. so the advancement of science has not been delayed too much!! The weekend before last, I was taking pictures for the ICMD concert.. and the link is here.

The 30th evening saw my friends Rachna and Pradeep drop in at 11.45 and demand to be entertained until midnight, at which point I was to cut a birthday cake and celebrate. It had been a horrific day with labwork and teaching, and I am sure it was not a leisurely day for my friends either. Moral- I have great, wonderful, precious friends.

The 31st saw my roomie Young Saumen having organized another cake party with a whole bunch of youngsters... yes, at this point its worth mentioning that I turned 26 last week. Not a happy event... apart from the failed experiments.. there is the overwhelming realisation of a life mostly filled with pedestrian achievements... to wit, Asimov had published his greatest work, 'Nightfall' when he was .. what 21? Lawrence Bragg was a joint winner of the Nobel prize at the age of 25 for his work on XRD. Alexander started his conquest of most of the known world when he was hardly into his twenties. Chandragupta Maurya defeated this exact same Macedonian Empire and created the first unified Indian Empire when he was 20. I am in graduate school, for what looks like a large fraction of eternity. There is something relativistic about this.. my friends in the real world have jobs, usually on their second jobs by now. Well, apropos the previous statement.. I have good friends. There are nice things.

Anyway, we had a fairly large potluck with all these friends on Friday night.. which went on into the wee hours of Saturday. The food was pretty uniformly excellent... as was the 'surapaan'. Saturday was devoted to looking at cars and Nandi discoursing upon the use of binary search to look for girlfriends. But much more on that later..

Recent news and views.

So, I ended up watching Nick Cage in 'Lord of War'. Now there is nothing remarkable about Cage's performance.. in fact this role was remarkably reminiscent of his role in 'Weatherman'. He is competent and does a first person narrator role quite well. But nothing great. The script was pretty nice, however. Some really nice cinematography, or rather good editing. Pretty face Ethan Hawke has brought nothing new to his Interpol agent character.. there are shades of Precinct 13 as well as Training Day in his acting. The real star of the movie is Jared Leto, who plays Cage's troubled and cocaine addled brother; the only person with something resembling a decent character, which he brings a lot of life to. See this movie: quite an eye opener about the worldwide gun running business.

Stage photography, more cribs.

I love my Olympus. It is an excellent camera, and it works fast and smooth... having had it for almost a year, I can work almost intuitively, without looking at a menu option ever. And, of course, the battery lasts forever. I was at the Indian Classical Music and Dance group concert yesterday at the Michigan League. These guys are a really talented bunch of performers.

The setting: the Hussey room, of the League was also pretty nice. This room seats about a hundred (packed, as I noticed);
and has a very somber walnut wood paneling. Now with two curtains open, I had enough ambient light to shoot at halfway decent shutter speeds... like 1/80 sec.
Remember that I use a 40-150 mm lens for close shots.

Hence.. tripod. But then, they decided to close the curtains... ambient light helps me... but distracts the performers.. and then you can see the results: noise!!!!! Shooting at anything like ISO 800 and above is going to fill you up with noise. A leetil bit of despeckling helps, but that is of limited use.

Leopard.. alomost here.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article2671384.ece

512 MB RAM is way too little.

And let me tell you why. First things first: I run a MacBook with Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz, a 55GB HD and 512 RAM. Pretty decent. Except that Tiger, or Mac OS X.4.something is a fairly heavy load OS to run. Native OS X applications are totally stable. Stuff that runs on top of the X11 layer, such as Sparky and GIMP 2.2 are also stable, if sometimes a leetil slow. The problem is Firefox. Someone told me that Firefox has an undocumented memory leak which makes it further unstable the longer it stays active. Now Firefox stays on ALL the time. Consequence, my whole system is slowed down. And when I try running something like MS Office, everything comes to a standstill. I tried doing things to trim the basic load, like reducing my dock to a bare minimum of 7 items. I never use iPhoto, or any heavy load graphics package (I have Illustrator CS2). I have most of the dashboard widgets disabled. I even have the funneling effect disabled (less graphics: less CPU). I don't run Eudora or Thunderbird... I use Pine to check mail. Most of my work is at the command prompt. Still slow. This week, my sys-ad was nice enough to do a limited reinstall, without scrubbing the HD. Home directory intact. Not too much help. I need 2 GB of RAM.

The 'best' spy novels in the world and what I think about some of them.

Here is the Link:

And here is my opinion, along with the individual rankings:

Top 15 Spy Novels

Publishers Weekly prints a list of 15 top spy novels (Best spy novels? It doesn't really say.), compiled by Peter Cannon.

1. THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by John le Carre (1963)

This is a high work of art. There are few authors writing in any field who have the capacity to delve into method and character to the exact depth of detail required to allow the reader to complete the picture himself. That makes Le Carre one of the best writers around. This particular book is the foremost of those novels which brought very close to mind the bleakness of the Cold War and all that it stood for. In the end, the spies on both sides had more in common with each other than with their political masters.

2. THE BOURNE IDENTITY by Robert Ludlum (1980)

This is a piece of sh**.

3. THE DAY OF THE JACKAL by Frederick Forsyth (1971)

An amazing work by the master of method. To be honest, this is hardly a spy novel: this novel deals with a political assassination. But I like it for its precise attention to detail. Hercule Poirot would have approved of Mr. Forsyth. Too bad he turned into a raving right-winger in his latter years.

4. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME by Ian Fleming (1962)

Wha? Mr. Fleming wrote action thrillers. These are not spy novels. Puhr-lease!

5. THE QUIET AMERICAN by Graham Greene (1955)

Haven't read.

6. THE IPCRESS FILE by Len Deighton (1962)

Another classic. Harry Palmer (our unnamed protagonist) cannot pass through an East European town without stashing cash, a couple of passports and a Browning at a railway station locker. And with good reason too: a fairly large number of people want to do him in. Dawlish, his boss and the head of the WOOC(P) isn't much help. The 'P' in WOOC(P) stands for 'provisional', which the Army hates. The Army hates most things professional.

7. THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett (1978)

I tried to read this. Ken Follet writes absolute cr**. Avoid this.

8. MASQUERADE by Gayle Lynds (1996)

Haven't read.

9. THE MOSCOW CLUB by Joseph Finder (1991)

Haven't read.

10. ABOVE SUSPICION by Helen MacInnes (1939)

Haven't read. Now again, Helen MacInnes was really a romantic novelist who should have never ventured into espionage. Try reading 'Friends and Lovers'.

11. THE 39 STEPS by John Buchan (1915)

Haven't read.

12. HARLOT'S GHOST by Norman Mailer (1991)

Haven't read.

13. THE UNLIKELY SPY by Daniel Silva (1996)

Haven't read.

14. THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS by Erskine Childers (1903)

Haven't read.

15. MORNING SPY, EVENING SPY by Colin MacKinnon (2006)

Haven't read.

So, here we are.. at the end of the list, with a bunch of recent novels of dubious worth, some pieces of undiluted poison and quite a few worthy contenders missing. The list needs to be remade. That, I will do, when I have some more time.

Desi's Coming Home.

Having spent a couple of years in the US of A, I suppose I can say that I have grown somewhat accustomed to a high speed internet line, continuous power, etc, etc. But having said that, a graduate student lifestyle, or rather, a frugal, careful graduate student lifestyle is barely a few notches from what one would describe as 'poverty' in this country. But then again, I do believe that it is to a huge extent, merely a matter of perception: this country does something strange to you.. it turns you into a recluse. Backhome, waking up to the doodhwalla, the paperwalla, and the garbage collector doing the rounds was normal. hearing your neighbour yell at her delinquent kid for not doing his homework was also normal, as was listening to them turn the volume up on yet another Sonu Nigam hosted singing talent show. These are the sounds of India, and after a while, they are no longer intrusive, but merely an ever-present backdrop which you are only aware of by its absence. These are the sounds of home.

Cut to the West. Empty streets, silence and more silence. The only sounds are the noisy cheers of some frat boys on Saturday. Rich Americans, where possible have chosen to live in walled, secluded places where the cares of the world do not reach them. This country, where there are supposed to be no barriers, has chosen to erect impassible walls and create a new social class system.. or perhaps they have taken the oldest class system in the world and merely given it new shape.

For what it is worth, if you are wealthy and have the right skin colour, and presumably the right associations, you too, can live in their country clubs and wake up to the sounds of birds chirping. The inner cities are slowly cycling into ruin, fuelled by guns and drugs. The urban disenfranchised have nowehere to go, for they have been discarded as a bum job. They will never wake up to birdsongs, or walk on neatly manicured lawns. The leaders of the world have promised people freedom, and this is what it looks like. Scratch the surface of wealth and prosperity and you will feel seething veins of anger running deep.

But the eventual fate of this country does not concern this author. I am an passerby, an interested observer, at the most. My own beautiful India has suddenly woken up from several decades of socialist somnolence and wants a share of the pie. The middle class has decided that it is time to be upper class, and the upper class has decided that it is time to stop merely visiting the West; the West should now be brought here. So, we have CrossRoads, an exclusive shopping malll in Bombay which rather inadvisedly decided to only allow people with cellphones or credit cards to enter. This was in 2001, remember, a time when both items were not common amongst the 'riffraff'. The resulting outrage was interesting to watch.

And these days we have gated communities in our own cities, where the rich can sit back and soak in India, sans the stink coming from the nearby slums. To be at the centre of a potentially violent social transformation is quite edifying: resources are being diverted to these palaces which municipalties can ill afford to squander. But who's listening to reason? We all want in, and we want in now! Add to this the dilution of the meritocracy by the rather stupid decision of the Central Government to introduce large scale reservations at all levels of work and study; and we have a rather potent combination.

This was a rather long winded article which I started writing because I read this article:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2156352,00.html#article_conti%3E%20nue

Immigrants create a better England?

An excerpt from the Statesman today.

Migrants Score Over Natives

Nigel Morris

LONDON, Oct. 17: Migrant workers contributed (pounds sterling) 6 billion to the country’s economic growth last year and earned higher wages than their British counterparts, Home Office figures revealed yesterday. The study concluded that new arrivals were harder-working, brought sought-after skills and paid more in tax than they used in public services. The population rose by 189,000 last year, with 574,000 migrants arriving and 385,000 people leaving. The government figures suggested migration was throwing a life-line to an economy suffering skills shortages and struggling to support a growing bill for pensions.
It was calculated that new migration accounted for about one-sixth of Britain’s economic growth. The home office said the newcomers had “high levels of skills than the average UK natives” and that employers found migrant workers “reliable and hard-working”. It reported that migrants earned on an average (pounds sterling) 424 per week last year, and as a result paid more per head in tax and VAT than Britons.
~ The Independent

Tibetan woes.

Tibet is under Chinese rule... has been since since (I think 1959). That was when a combination of military force and some nasty diplomatic arm twisting forced the spiritual and political leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama into exile in Dharmasala in North India. These events where followed shortly by the Sino-Indian way of 1962 in which we had our noses thoroughly ground into the dust by our Chinese brethren. Those five years, I tend to think were the defining years of the decline of the Indian polity. Pandit Nehru, for all his wisdom and charisma was at heart a wide eyed romantic and he was thoroughly taken in by the Chinese cant of 'Hindu Chini bhai bhai'.. which translates to 'Hindus and Chinese are brothers'..... of course backing that up with a lot of firepower. Nehru died a disillusioned and heartbroken man. The Tibetans, the unhappy buffers between two local superpowers have lived in exile in India. The Indian government turns a blind eye to Dharmasala and does not negotiate with the Tibetan government in exile.

Bush has recently decided to honour the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Medal of Honour. This is almost two decades after the Nobel Committee decided to give the man the Nobel Prize. And quite predictably, the Chinese are very unhappy- to the extent that they have told the Prez to his face that he must not award the Dalai Lama.

Now let us do a bit of analysis: firstly, the Tibetans are in exactly the same dispossessed position as millions of refugees after partition: their homes have been taken away and they were made almost destitute. They have not assimilated with India, their host nation. They have, for the most part viewed India as a waystation and nothing more. They have contributed little, if anything to the national polity, economy and culture. One can argue that had these Tibetans ended up somewhere in the Western hemisphere, they might show greater alacrity in joining the mainstream.

Secondly, it is not in India's economic interest to piss China off. We can ill afford a confrontation with the PLA. If a few Tibetans have to live in India, they just have to suck it up. Having said that, the Arunachal is a highly disputed territory.. it would not be bad for an Indian protectorate to buffer the North East from PLA aggression.

Thirdly, this immediate event is indicative that the US has cards which it is not showing: the Chinese have been very aggressive at any talks of Taiwanese or Tibetan autonomy. It won't hurt to think about the appalling trade deficit that the US has with China.. money which flows largely into PLA coffers, thanks to slave labour factories. This trade deficit ties these two nations together in many different ways.... right now the Indian response should be to wait and watch.

Back in town.

I was at Cambridge, MA over the weekend and had a lot of work. Went on a whale watching cruise in the Boston Harbour area.... the pics should be up here and on Flickr shortly. Right now I have a bunch of spectra to process and look at.

Clarice loves Lector!

Yes, this was a conclusion long known to people who have read Thomas Harris, but it is only recently that someone put a recut trailer of Silence of the Lambs where it appears as a louvv story on Youtube. Find it here.

Also did Maverick finally get together with his instructor, Charlotte... ? or was he actually falling for Iceman (played by Val Kilmer)? See this recut Top Gun trailor here.

The Shining was a metaphor for the malaise gripping the American nation, and how redemption comes from love and basic family values. People who thought that it was a horror story should see this.

And finally.... Taxi Driver as a romantic comedy.. think Robert de Niro trying to make like Matthew McConaughey.

Apocrap-lypto.

One fine day Mel Gibson woke up and decided its time to remake the Terminator. Except that instead of Linda Hamilton playing the terrified woman, we have a random bloke playing Jaguar Paw, and he is running. Yes, this is the greater part of the film, if it can be called as such. And instead of an implacable Arnold chasing him, we have a bunch of bad arse Mayans. And that ridiculous 'this is my jungle, so now I am going to kill ya on me own ground' reminded me more of the kid in Home Alone 3 swearing revenge on North Korean spies, than anything else. Which makes me think, why didn't this man put in North Korean spies in this movie, I mean they are everyone's favourite bad arses right now. And Mel, I know, that you are one sadomasochistic git. Stop trying to remake Caligula with each film. Someone put this in the top 10 films of 2007. Yes, if you watched 300 nine times and have an IQ of 300/9.

The Dogs of .. WHAT?!?!?!??!?!!!!!!!??????

So I just started watching the 1981 production of Freddy Forsyth's best novel (open to argument, but I will argue fiercely for this one): The Dogs of War. The plot in the novel is simple: Wealthy mining company discovers high concentrations on platinum ore in a remote African banana republic, enlists a British mercenary to initially reconnoitre, and then plan what is politely called a 'regime change' by today's Great Powers. The mercenary recruits his old buddies in arms and pulls off the operation, at some cost. Then he pulls a kicker. Turns out that he knew about the platinum angle all along (yeah, he slept with the mining boss's nubile and rather naive daughter). So he hands over the keys of the country, so to speak, to this other bloke who represents a wandering tribe in Africa.. the 'Jews of Africa'. These nice people now have the job of rebuilding a nation from scratch.. their Palestine. Of course, with the help of platinum mining revenue... but lets not go into that. So now, maybe 22 minutes into the fillum, just on a lark, I looked at the IMDB review. And it said what is below.. which made my head spin.

Author: Bogey Man from Finland

John Irvin directed this film, starring Christopher Walken as war veteran mercenary who gets a job by government to travel to Africa and inform the situation that is pretty hot in there. He does it, and sees the violence that takes place there, and when he returns to US and tells about the evil dictator that dominates there, the new job for him is to travel there again and wipe out the incarnation of evil..

This film isn't any action film as many seem to have expected - me included - but this is pretty sophisticated, but still also little slow moving (dir. cut. 15mins longer than the US version) portrait about the state of some countries in the world, and what these dictators can do to people and country. I'm mostly fascinated by the film's atmosphere and calmness as there isn't stupid gunplay or other usual flaws often found in these films. Walken acts greatly in his role of retired war veteran who takes the job only because of money offered to him. At the end, a twist in plot is coming and all the greediness and betrayal in the film gets a new face.

The end is little stupid as it tries to imitate Apocalypse Now a little, by depicting Walken's face and "the horror" as Francis Ford Coppola did, and the gun fights at the end are also little unnecessary, especially when the film managed to be without them for so long. Still the result is satisfying, yet little too long and occasionally may make the viewer feel little tired, but this film isn't meant to be watched when tired. The US distributor cut the original version by over ten minutes, and I saw the original director's cut which includes many important bits of dialogue and things that add to the film. So I recommend the director's cut of the film as it is the directors original version.

Dogs of War is pretty intelligent and interesting depiction of power and dictatorship, and also very nostalgic in its atmosphere and scenery. The gun battle at the end of the film is great looking and also gripping, but as mentioned, also little unnecessary and too traditional finale. 7/10

Was the above comment useful to you?


Nope. This comment made me think that you missed the whole point!

Anti-Science.

I just love this kind of writing! There are people out there who can't solve a linear equation to save their lives, and make up for this in myriad ways. One of these is to write stupid critiques of works of Science Fiction masters, such as 2001, A Space Odyssey, and to pepper it with preposterous judgments on why 'science as tool of human progress is bound to fail as it is bereft of wisdom'. Wisdom, of course is something that only the mathematically challenged amongst us can aspire to: the slightest predisposition to understanding and explaining the empirical nature of the world is 'knowledge, not wisdom', and dooms us to an incomplete existence. Aah, these fools, with the wisdom to discuss Plato and Thoreau but without the skills to add up their grocery bills! Anyway, read on and rejoice, for such idiots will pass into the world with their fancy degrees and perpetuate their hatred and fear of science, and replace it with something that can they cannot even begin to define. And such people will influence public policy and public spending.

Corruption at the core: the seamy side of a resurgant India.

From today's Statesman editorial.

Canker at the core
How Corruption Permeates The Critical Sectors

By YP Gupta

Corruption has been spreading at all levels of society. It has permeated academic institutions, public personalities, high-ranking officials, doctors, scientists, engineers, and academics. Transparency International’s global corruption report (2007) has revealed that bribes amounting to Rs 2,630 crore are being paid every year to officials of the lower Indian judiciary. Its earlier report had described India as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, with a dubious distinction of ranking among the top 55 nations in terms of corruption.
The unethical practices and the decline in moral values have corrupted a greed-based society. A number of IAS, IPS, MCD, DDA and bank officials have been arrested on charges of corruption. Also, illegal gratification by some judges has had a damaging effect on the judiciary.
The Central Information Commission recently came across a case of forgery, impersonation and falsification of documents against the holder of a fake MBBS degree from Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati. He had managed to obtain the MD degree in paediatrics from AIIMS by submitting false documents. He also duped the University of Maryland Medicine Centre (USA) and the American Board of Paediatrics. This alleged doctor was exposed when he was experimenting with viagra on children, resulting in some deaths.

Medical admission

A medical admission racket through a coaching centre has been recently unearthed in Kolkata. Earlier, a verdict by a Delhi court convicted an individual of selling fake “medical degrees”. It was detected that around 40,000 such fake degrees were issued by him across the country. The Indian Medical Association had described such doctors as quacks. A principal of a public school was arrested for selling fake CBSE marksheets to failed students in connivance with board officials.
There is a fool-proof racket in the leakage of questions. It operates like a professionally-run business with a nationwide criminal network. The leakage of an MCA question paper of IGNOU, that of the AIIMS entrance examination paper and that of the pre-medical paper of the central board form only the tip of the iceberg. The leakage of question papers for the Common Admission Test (CAT) for the premier management institutes has undermined the credibility of our centres of excellence.
A chairman of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission along with former UPSC members and the controller of examinations were arrested and chargesheeted for taking bribes and replacing the answer papers of unsuccessful examinees. A chairman of the Orissa Public Service Commission was once suspended for irregularities. And the Bihar State University Service Commission’s office was sealed because of irregularities in the selection of lecturers. Also, a former president of the Medical Council of India was held guilty of corruption by Delhi High Court.
A former vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh University was arrested for corruption. A former vice-chancellor of Utkal University was indicted for financial irregularities. The former Kerala chief secretary and ex-vice-chancellor of Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit was sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment on corruption charges. A senior computer programmer of Delhi University along with her husband and the candidate’s father were held guilty of criminal conspiracy and forgery by a Delhi court for increasing the candidate’s marks in the MBBS entrance test.
A former vice-chancellor and registrar of Visva-Bharati University were arrested in a fake marksheet case. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) had sought a probe into the omissions and commissions in respect of financial irregularities by the ayurvedic colleges in Bihar. The CBI had chargesheeted a former Meerut University vice-chancellor, his daughter and two officials for forging certificates to get her a job.
Bihar universities have the dubious distinction of issuing fake degrees. BR Ambedkar Bihar University (Muzaffarpur) is notorious. Many of its degrees, including medical, have been found to be fake. The two vice-chancellors of BN Mandal and LNM Mithila Universities (Bihar) were arrested in the fake BEd degree racket. The BN Mandal University is reported to have been selling post-graduate degrees in science for Rs 50,000 each even to those who were not admitted to any of the colleges. The vigilance department has estimated that more than 10,000 persons from Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh obtained such post-graduate degrees.
Professional ethics are brazenly violated in certain institutions of learning. There are serious allegations of corruption and financial bungling against the vice-chancellors of UP universities, and that of Rajasthan and Pondicherry universities. Marks or admissions are often manipulated. The credibility of Delhi University’s examination system has been under a cloud because three senior professors were removed from service for grave misconduct. One of them was indicted for manipulating the admission of his son to the MBA course.
An inquiry into admissions to the post-graduate medical courses in the seven state-run medical colleges of UP exposed a huge racket. Indeed, the examination system has become defective and is open to manipulation.
At least 30,000 quacks are thriving in Delhi. They claim to be practitioners of alternative medicine, and have been prescribing spurious drugs as indigenous medicines. The Delhi government is contemplating suitable action and an anti-quackery bill is on the anvil. The Medical Council of India has revoked the licences of 12 fake doctors with forged certificates. The Karnataka government has initiated action to prosecute quacks who claim miraculous cures for chronic illnesses.

Armed forces

The armed forces have also lost credibility owing to widespread corruption in their ranks. Twelve senior defence officers have been chargesheeted for corruption, going by a reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha. There has been an erosion of values and conduct within the defence services.
It is unfortunate that there is hardly any deterrent effect on corrupt officials as the process of conviction is slow, and has not made an impact. Consequently, corruption has been flourishing with more and more instances coming to light. It is difficult to visualise a corruption-free society because those who profess probity in public life and proclaim to curb corruption are not serious in introducing reforms.
Drastic changes and reforms are imperative to weed out unethical professional and corrupt practices from our academic and public institutions. The process of conviction needs to be speeded up. Apart from recommending legislation to protect whistle-blowers, the Administrative Reforms Commission has suggested a new piece of legislation ~ Corrupt Public Servants (forfeiture of a property) Bill, to curb corruption. The recent landmark ruling by the Supreme Court that public servants can be prosecuted without mandatory government sanction should have a deterrent effect on corrupt officials and politicians. There is need for transparency and accountability in our academic and public institutions, including the judiciary.

(The writer is ex-Principal Scientist, IARI, New Delhi)