Tax cuts and how the media talks about them

I am not an economist. Neither am I a journalist. However, I understand that the perceptions of people are moulded by media. This much, I imagine you will agree with. So when you read an article like this one, you wonder why the coverage appears to be so biased.

Consider this section: "While about three-fourths of Democrats favor raising taxes on the rich, about half of independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose the idea. Support for cutting everyone's taxes exceeds four in 10 people in every region of the U.S. except the Midwest, where one-third back the proposal. Even among people earning under $50,000 a year — mainstays of the Democratic Party — 43 percent want to continue the tax cuts for all."

Would that not have been better written as
"While about three-fourths of Democrats favor raising taxes on the rich, about half of independents and nearly two-thirds of Republicans oppose the idea. 6 in 10 people in every region of the U.S. favour ending the Bush tax breaks. In the Midwest; 7 in 10 people favour ending them. Among people earning under $50,000 a year — mainstays of the Democratic Party — a majority of 57 percent want to end the Bush tax breaks."

Just a thought.

Visa blues

OPT - visa

quite a quagmire of paperwork and timings. Officialdom (sigh)

The best of Science Fiction

The best of Science Fiction. This is a tall order. Who defines the best? In a field as subjective as literature, who draws arbit margins and delineates the awesome from stuff like Twilight? The answer is, I do. As do you, my dear reader. Anyone has the right of judgment. Of course, I will then judge what you have judged, and probably laugh at your choices, especially in hard SF.

But enough proselytizing.
The Hugo and Nebula awards are considered the two most prestigious awards in SF writing. They are the Nobel prizes of true geekdom. There is a small and very exclusive list of books which have been graced with both awards. Check it out. I am making my way through this list. And being rather impressed with what I am reading here.

The Rain

There was a brief sotto voce rumbling of distant thunder. I looked up to realize that the rains have arrived. Our lab has huge windows, which are usually covered up by these industrial grade pulldown curtains which I have come to loathe. Sometimes, however, in the early evenings you can see the sun go down somewhere just over the horizon; and the sky turns every hue of crimson and red as if the setting sun had told had come up with a particularly risqué joke.

The rain means something special to those people who live or lived between the tropics. For most of us it signifies relief from the killing heat of summer. On a more prosaic note, it means the difference between a good crop and penury for all too many of my countrymen.

But, I do not wish this to turn into a political diatribe. There are enough people spewing vitriol (and oil) at the moment without me having to add to them (I am looking at you Joel Stein).

Rain, as I was saying is special to me. I always view (or have viewed) rain as cha-pakoda-adda weather. Perhaps, I should explain that. Cha is tea. Not the refined milkless-sugarless tea that I usually drink. Cha is a milky, sweet concoction served best in tiny earthenware pots called “bhanrs”. A “pakoda” is a deep fried mixture of onions, chillis and sometimes giant peppers coated in chickpea flour (besan). It tastes of heaven. Adda is what we Bengalis are perhaps forgetting to indulge in (there has to be a correlation between the decline of adda and the rise of heart attack rates and divorces). Ok, adda is a strange mishmash of discussion, mixed with a dash of debate, flavoured with old fashioned gossip and rounded off with some very tall story telling. It is a very Bengali thing. Most other Indian ethnicities are waaaay more hard working than us, and have never discovered the joys of adda. I have been told that apparently there is something approximating adda in the coffee shops hidden away in the bazaars of Istanbul and Cairo. If I ever get to visit these great cities, I will let you know if people there, do indulge in adda.

Our man Nandi refers to this kind of rain as ‘suicide weather’. Hmmmm.

I finished watching this wunnerful fillum called ‘Wake Up Sid’. It has Konkona Sensharma who is, in my humble opinion, one classy lady. Up there with the always delectable Nandita Das. Beautiful performances flesh out this fillum, even from the actors with bit parts. In fact, especially from them. And, of course, the fillum revolves around the rain.

Which brings me to the fact that I am going out to enjoy some of the rain. Bye.

Rajinder Puri on India's internal security problem

From today's Statesman:

Special Article

10 April 2010

The enemy strikes
Invisible War Becomes Visible

By Rajinder Puri

DURING the last half decade this scribe wrote almost two dozen articles related to terrorism. One article in January 2007 was titled “India’s Invisible War”. It started by stating: “India is in the midst of an invisible war. It is an unrecognized war.” Well, the war has become very visible now. Over 70 policemen killed in one Maoist ambush compelled even our media, besotted with sports weddings and Bollywood brand ambassadors, to take note of the attack. Newspaper headlines blared: “This is war!” Stirring words! But is terrorism being recognized for what it really is ~ undeclared war against the Indian state? Do people who lightly toss around the word realize the implications of fighting a war? Wars are fought for conquest or for survival. India is fighting for survival. To triumph it must be prepared to pay whatever price required. For an effective war against terror there are six aspects that should command attention.
First, the government must recognize the enemy. The enemy is not Maoism or jihad or separatism. There is authentic evidence of terrorist groups with avowedly different aims assisting each other. That suggests all groups are branches of the same trunk. One Congress leader reportedly said: “While terrorists are basically sponsored by foreign powers… Naxalites are our own misguided indigenous people.” This is the kind of nonsense to be discarded. ULFA leaders, Kashmiri separatists and Maoists are all indigenous. Both ULFA and Maoist leaders get sanctuary in China. Both are aided by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Now even foreign-funded Hurriyat leaders, acting as the voice of Kashmiri terrorists, are openly seeking China’s help. The Pakistan army is nothing but a clone of the PLA. It has discarded the army culture it shared with the Indian army bequeathed by the British. Pakistan army generals are into big business. They have access to independent funds like their mentors in the PLA. Like the PLA they control politicians, not the other way around. The government does not have to state that China’s PLA is the mastermind directing all wings of terrorism in India. It has merely to recognize this truth. It should ask itself why Chinese hackers accessed secret Indian government documents dealing with Maoists and North-east insurgencies.
Second, there must be law and order reform. Insurgencies in India may propagate different grievances. They all have the same aim. They serve their foreign master by destabilizing India. There may be sincere dupes committed to a cause serving these outfits. They are manipulated by their commanders who serve the PLA. When the enemy has a unified command, can India afford to have split command structures? Parliament and government must immediately establish a central federal agency empowered to fight insurgencies throughout India. This agency must have its own independent intelligence network in all states.
Third, there must be economic reform. Human rights activists mistakenly assume that Maoists fight for economic justice. If the grievances of tribals were removed the Maoists would seek another issue. However legitimate the grievance ~ whether related to identity, language or economic deprivation ~ the insurgency is predetermined. Grievances are not the cause of insurgency, but the excuse. That is why the government must remove all legitimate grievances regardless of insurgency to decrease the nation’s vulnerability. Economic disparity and lack of governance in India are horrendous. Out of 602 districts, 165 are affected by Maoist violence. This is not surprising. The World Bank’s poverty line for India is set at Rs 1400 a month. If this is accepted there are 700 million Indians below the poverty line. There are also 700 million below 35 years of age. The unemployed number 300 million. At present a mere 5 million new jobs are created every year. Over 70 per cent of the population is rural. Less than 30 per cent is urban. The publicized benefits of economic reforms are limited in the main to the English-speaking class in urban India. With or without insurgency, are such conditions tenable? A massive stimulus package for rural employment and infrastructure from resources acquired through disinvestment in cooperation with trade unions is imperative.
Fourth, there must be governance reform. Political parties collude with terrorist outfits in order to garner votes. Terrorist penetration of the government makes nonsense of secrecy in intelligence. In Andhra huge consignments of rockets manufactured in Tamil Nadu were seized. These were meant for Maoists spread across five states. In Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra police stumbled on huge catchments of crude RDX bombs meant for nationwide distribution. Can such factories operate without some official connivance? Can government owned State Bank branches continue to distribute fake currency that facilitates terrorism without official complicity? Can such lax governance fight terrorism? To stem this rot one is led to the fifth aspect.
Fifth, there must be systemic reform. Two basic reforms are vital. The Constitution must be followed as written to allow the President who is above partisanship, who represents Parliament and all assemblies, to exercise due authority assisted by a full-fledged secretariat. The proposed federal agency to fight terrorism, along with various other bodies, should be made accountable to the President. That will eliminate collusion between vote-seeking politicians and terrorist outfits. This will not violate the Constitution but implement it. At the same time genuine Panchayati Raj as directed by the Constitution must be established. To achieve it, a new primary police tier accountable to the assembly of the urban or rural panchayat must be created. Basic law and order and security entrusted to the primary local body will ensure effective monitoring of suspicious activity in each locality. This primary police force could become an invaluable intelligence source for the anti-terrorist federal agency utilizing cyber connectivity.
Sixth, there is need for foreign policy reform. The government must follow the law of reciprocity while dealing with all nations. It must talk bluntly with America, China and Pakistan. This week a hotline was established between New Delhi and Beijing. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao emit positive vibes. That is not enough. Neither of them ever served in China’s army. Are their intentions translated on the ground by the PLA? Are they more effective in dealing with their army than President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani are in dealing with Pakistan’s army? India does not need words but deeds.
The enemy does not aim for revolution in India. Revolutions strengthen nations. The enemy seeks to balkanize India. It is the people of India who should seek revolution as suggested by these reforms. It is not enough to defeat the Dantewada Maoists. The goal must be to secure India against all subversive terrorism fomented from abroad.

The author is a veteran journalist and cartoonist

Union Square pillow fight + veselka + yakitori = awesomeness

I will only use lolspeak from now. So I hope out of the metro at union square, and there is this epic pillow fight going on on saturday. So i wade into the crowde.

With my SLR held high ovah muh head

clickety clickety all the way... i get bopped on the noodle many times with pillows

someone rips their pillow open and suddenly da air is full of fine cotton

oh fuck, mah allergies jus went inna overdrive/

oh noes!

den i sees a bloke with a rolleiflex

epicness

and this bloke rips his shirte off and gets into a bare kunckle fight with people with pillows

imagine bringing your fists to a pillow fight. musta been irish.

den somehow i am smack in da middle of the da fight and i get effin chakravyuhed by a bunch of screamin chicks. with pillows.

i somehow struggle out of there with my glasses askew, but camera intact. my lungs coated with a fine deposit of cotton fibres. And then went into a random bookstore and found a cheap copy of the complete Yes Minister. New York rocks.

Trolled by the cryoscopic effect

Refers to the depression of the freezing point of a solution due to the presence of some solute, or impurity. This does not depend on the nature of the impurity, just on its relative amount w.r.t the solvent. So, this means that the equivalent amount of potassium chloride and sodium chloride will lead to the same depression of the freezing point of water. Which is, of course why the put some salt in the water pipes in North East India, where it is cold. Also why they put ethanol/glycerol as antifreeze in car radiators.

Here is the Wikipedia page. Observe that the cryoscopic constant of water is K=1.86 C/M. Assuming a van't Hoff factor of i=1 for glycerol, for a 20% mass/vol solution, that comes to a comcentration of 2M. So, the maximum freezing point depression should be about 4 C. Which means that the cell stock should have thawed at -4C. And when I grabbed the cells from the -80 C freezer, I should have scraped some off and stuck them back in pronto. Not left them on the benchtop (on ice) for five minutes where they thawed out. I tried blaming the croscopic effect, but the calculation shows that without the depression of freezing point, the stock would have thawed out at 0 C, as such, it did at -4 C. And they should have not thawed out more than, say -70 C.

95% personal stupidity
5% being trolled by the cryoscopic effect.

Where did the 12 Monkeys come from?

I was recently made aware that Terry Guillam's 12 Monkeys is derived from an older work. Of course, the theme of time travel from a post apocalyptic world into the past is not new.. it has been explored in the literature rather extensively. But 12 Monkeys was a rather nice piece of work. Bruce Willis pulls off one of those confused roles which he seems to fit so well in, and Madeline Stowe is quite delectable as the psychotherapist trying to help him. But the cake goes to Brad Pitt, around whom the entire film revolves.. aarrr.. go see it yourself.

So.... 12 Monkeys was inspired by, and gathers a certain part of its compositional aesthetic from an older film, called La Jetée, a 1962 B/W film which was composed almost entirely out of still shots! Some of those shots were undoubtedly painstakingly staged, some others, I am not so sure. But the film is something worth watching. Reminds me of another experiment in cinema which I have spoken about earlier here.

Which camera

Sometime this year, I will be flipping a lot of cash (presumably enough to buy a couple of kidneys on the black market) over for a camera and some associated paraphernalia. I have a few choices. But before that, let me talk about what the dream-wishlist.

1. The Leica M9. Just released. An astonishing 18 MPixels in a full frame 24X36 mm sensor. The legendary Leica M series construction. And of course, the ability to use any number of prime lenses from the Leica Summilux/Summicron/Elmarit series. All the way to the ultrabright 0.95 Noctilux 50 mm lens which goes for a cool 10 thou... This belongs to a type of camera called a rangefinder. The principle of operation is very different from an SLR. No swinging mirrors or anything like that. This leads to a much quieter machine which is discreet. Something that a master of street photography like Cartier Bresson apparently loved. Here is some of his work. One of his most famous photos, the man jumping over a puddle was taken with an M3. But the point remains that Leica's are quite insanely expensive. Not for me.
   

.. to be continued

Office suites

I feel the need to express my disappointment at MS Office. The version on the lab iMac is the Office for Macs 2008. The Powerpoint package is somewhat unstable and crashes easily. This has happened to me before, but I was usually running multiple things and Office is something of a resource hog. But this iMac was running almost nothing else, just a Safari window. Strange? Yes.

But that can be dealt with. Coming from the Linux world of OpenOffice, which is nowhere near as snazzy as Office (but gets the work done), I am used to hitting Ctrl-S or Cmd-S every ten seconds. (Back in the day, OO used to crash ALL the effin time). HOWEVER, and this is a huge lifesaver, OO has a file recovery system which kicks in when you restart the suite, and should recover your files from the last autosave. Does MSO not have it? Am I missing something here?

Movies lately

So, I ended up seeing "My Name is Khan" with a couple of labmates a week ago. Our man Kaushik told me that this movie "sucks arse". Not true. It is not horrid, just ambitous, but does not really make it. It was a treat to see Kajol again after a while... she has aged rather well, methinks. Shahrukh Khan is stuck doing his "Kikikikikiki Kiran" act again. I mean, this bloke finished optimizing his acting skills in the mid 90's with Darr and has been putting the same shite out for the public ever since. (sorry Rachna). And for some unknown reason, the Indian movie going audience laps it up and comes back for more. Also, Karan Johar believes in force feeding emotions down your gagging throat, so there is also more of that. But for all its tackiness, this fillum does challenge several important questions today... such as the perception of Muslims in the West, and tries to do a good job of it. But there was too much of Forrest Gump meets the 40 Year Old Virgin there for my liking.

3 Idiots was quite nice. Aamir Khan doing his usual awesome act. This guy is so versatile that all our desi actors should take lessons from him. Mahadevan and Sharman somethingortheother bloke were pretty cool too. But the cake goes to Bomman Irani for another absolutely wunnerful role as the college principal. And the Chamatkar speech is something to enjoi.

For what leetil it is worth

Happy New Year ya'all. 2009 has been an' gone. What do I have to show for it? Well, for one thing, several of my friends moved out of towne. That felt awful. Perhaps that is what happens to everyone. Does it? Tell me, what is worse... missing friends, or not really having any and not knowing the difference? They say that some things you only start appreciating after they aren't there any more. That category certainly includes people.

My last few days in Michigan went by in a blurry. (This is a made up word which is "blur"+"a flurry"). Please cite me whenever you use it. Pradeep babu came by to defend his thesis on the 7th of December. He stayed at my place over the weekend and totally wowed me with his awesome presentation. Here is a picture of both of us not workin'

The day after Pradeep's defense, my boss wanted me to talk to this guest speaker.. who just happens to be one of the world leaders in the field I work in. That was scary. Then it was time for my own defense. Our man Nandi made the following poster... note that he should have been prepping for his own predefense research proposal, which was scheduled for the very next day....

Sara made a FB event for my own shindig. Complete with Nandi's awesome poster. Milan came down from NY to participate in the general fun. Pradeep, of course had stayed back for a couple of days to effect his thesis revisions and chuck rotten tomatoes at me. And then, before I knew it, the big day was upon me. I started out by trying to iron a shirt with the heater set too high and almost set the place on fire. After this early disaster and minor hiccups such as retrieving my committee evaluations from the graduate school half an hour before he scheduled time, and so on.. we were finally there. The talk went (I think) rather well, although I was pretty much in a state of terminal panic just before. I puked all over this bloke taking a shite in the men's room and said 'muh bad'. No, I didn't, I was just channeling 8 Mile. Our man Smith attended in a Three Wolf Moon shirt.

Anyhoo, a whole lotta phrends came down to cheer and much fun was had by all. Thanks. Really. Then the closed doors session began, and the gloves came off. That was effin' brutal, I don't mind tellin' ya'all. But they passed me with minor revisions ( I think the only person who did not get those "minor revisions" was Robert Oppenheimer). And then much merry making happened.


More updates later...