An interesting game

See the excerpt below (via Antanu Dey)

An economics professor said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied only a little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied less than what they had. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great; but when government takes all the reward away; no one will try or want to succeed.

Don't have to say anything more!

Seriously?

Is this guy serious? The fear mongering among the Americans takes immensely ridiculous proportions sometimes.
I mean if Venezuela were building something like that won't the US Intelligence find that out. Moreover, Iran is no USSR. For such Americans why is it always everybody is out to get us! You screwed up Iran enough and let the population forget the monarchy and other clandestine operations US lead. Only then they will you can feel safe!

Why?

isn't anybody held responsible for the anti-Sikh violence!
Well, if Congress orchestrates a violent attack based on a religious profile its not a big deal. It still remains a secular party. Does anybody even care to check what secular means!

Wars?

How useful are they? I don't know!
But reading some books and some articles somehow leaves me despondent feeling that they wont work!See a piece here

Also weird is how people respond to army, the people who put down their lives for some politicians decisions! See this article
This part of the text particularly strikes me as sad!

Late at night, when it was no longer Monday and not yet Tuesday, as I landed at an airport, I saw men in uniform again—this time they were Indian soldiers, wearing the blue United Nations caps, returning to New Delhi after a tour of duty as peacekeepers in Sudan. I went up to them, shook hands with them and thanked them, and said: “Welcome back.” They smiled, genuinely surprised.

Nobody else seemed to care. They had gone to maintain peace far away

Well!

Haha

I might not fully agree with the view expressed here
But I sure can laugh at some of the jokes!

There is a reason the extended family feels nervous about the war on Naxals - after the first war, West Bengal completely switched over to the communists. This is also the reason they feel nervous about Roy. So, don't they care about the violence? Let's just say the set we have been talking about do not bring work to the cocktail parties.

Don't you?

Do you

believe in the American President unconditionally?
May be you ought to read this!

See this

This does stress the secular credentials of the Congress party! (Link via barbarindians)
I am appalled!

Disgraceful

to say the least! Bombay Dosti has a piece on how a local news media acts as a goon in the name of journalism! God knows what we can do against such media!

Cancer

A chilling account of what Cancer patients have to go through! The hospital discussed is the MD Anderson Cancer center in Houston.

A fantastic

article on why India should not take a backward step in climate negotiations here
Particularly facsinating details include:

It is revealing, to see why India is already pursuing a low-carbon path in comparison to both the US and China:

• Renewable energy's share of total electric capacity is more than twice that of the US, and India is among the top five countries in renewable capacity.

• India's carbon and energy use per unit of GDP are both already below that of the US and China, and seem to be on a decreasing trend.

• India had about 12 vehicles per 1000 people in 2007 compared to over 800 in the US. Bus, rail and non-motorized modes of transportation continue to have the largest share of passenger travel, unlike the US, where substantially more carbon-intensive modes such as private automobiles are dominant.

• Industrial electricity tariffs are the highest in the world, on average. Gasoline and diesel prices are higher than those in the US and China, even in market exchange terms.

• Indians consume only 1/11th of the meat eaten by an average Chinese and 1/25th of that eaten by an American, implying correspondingly lower greenhouse gas emissions associated with the sector

Umpires

Cricket is such a wonderful game that attracts different personalities to different roles. See Daryl Harper's interview here! Simply awesome!
Some excerpts

What's the best compliment you have got from a player? 

I do feature in the opening chapter in Adam Gilchrist's autobiography, where he recorded a comment I made to him about the manner in which he played the game. I was standing in his final Test, and I said, "When you see your parents next, tell them they got it right, they shouldn't have done anything different." In other words, that he turned out to be an outstanding person. He used that in his book.

On another occasion, in an ODI at home, I called a wide down leg side and Gilly protested the decision momentarily, as he thought the ball had deflected off the pads. Then he looked up at the replay and as he passed me at the end of the over, he said, "Sorry about that. I guess that's why you are a world-class umpire and I'm a player.

A sensible article

urging abandoning the usage of the post of governor for political mileage!

Health Care

I am no expert on the health care situation in the US. But there is one thing I surely believe. Government intervention, in the magnitudes suggested by Obama team, will only worsen the situation. Its not because I don't want the changes to happen. Thats how things are. Any analyst forecasting costs will ensure s/he can arrive at numbers that will allow the bill to be passed (esp. if the president wants the bill to go through). So, the benefits will be over estimated and simultaneously the losses will be under-estimated. Overall we have a rosy picture of future costs. At the end all this will fail and we have a larger deficit in the budget than expected. Of course, we can implement it and see the result the hard way or take a glance at the numbers from the past. (See some figures here)
Some excerpts

In 1965, Congressional budgeters said that it would cost $12 billion in 1990. Its actual cost that year was $90 billion. Whoops. The hospitalization program alone was supposed to cost $9 billion but wound up costing $67 billion. These aren't small forecasting errors. The rate of increase in Medicare spending has outpaced overall inflation in nearly every year (up 9.8% in 2009), so a program that began at $4 billion now costs $428 billion.

The Medicare program for renal disease was originally estimated in 1973 to cover 11,000 participants. Today it covers 395,000, at a cost of $22 billion. The 1988 Medicare home-care benefit was supposed to cost $4 billion by 1993, but the actual cost was $10 billion, because many more people participated than expected.

The b***a*d is at it again

Kapil Sibal wont stop screwing up IITs.
See this (full article here)

Teachers are the best judges of academic requirements. If they decide on a certain cut-off point in marks required to compete for an entrance examination, there are good reasons for that. Politicians are not equipped to make such decisions. Yet that is what Union human resource development minister Kapil Sibal wants to do.

He wants to increase the percentage of marks secured by students in class XII for them to be eligible to compete in the joint entrance examination (JEE) conducted by the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). His argument: students spend more time preparing for the IIT entrance test than studying for the board exams.

Why the hell cant this a**h**e mind is business and let them be on their own!
My guess for why he is messing up with IITs is that he could not get into IITs when he was a student. So, now he is trying his al mighty best to screw the system that he could not get into!

May be

I was too generous regarding governments plans to promote reform! See the article here that identifies their motives
An excerpt (emphasis mine)

The proceeds (from disinvestment) will be deposited in the National Investment Fund (NIF), which was created in 2005. Seventy-five per cent of the income of NIF is to be used to promote education, health and employment, while the remaining 25% is to be used for meeting the capital investment requirements of profitable and “revivable” public sector units. That is where the problem lies.

This is the surest way to fritter away precious money. Given its current priorities, the Union government is likely to use the money to bridge its ballooning fiscal deficit or pump it into schemes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). While there are many reasons for India’s huge fiscal deficit, which is estimated at 6.8% of the gross domestic product for 2009-10, financially reckless schemes such as NREGS are a major contributor to the mess in India’s public finances. Keeping that in mind, even if this money is used for plugging the fiscal deficit, it will be implicitly funding NREGS.

Last week, India signed loan agreements to the tune of $4.2 billion with the World Bank. Of this amount, $2.2 billion is meant for infrastructure financing and power development. Why can’t disinvestment money be used to fund these ventures? Why must it be frittered away in NREGS and other forms of consumption? Social sector spending has powerful advocates and if the government feels that such expenditure is essential, then it must find alternative sources of funding. Selling of stakes in public sector units that were created by taxpayers’ hard-earned money should not be a source of funding for political projects.

God knows how we can change this mess!

Finally some reforms

in the public sector! Lets wait and see how these are implemented.

Stunning event from the past

What can I say?
Congress and their MPs have manage to do it all the time. See this report on "A historic non-impeachment" from 1993. There are infinite number of instances where Congress has managed to support their people. Yet Congress is the party to vote for in India. Its utter nonsense. The Congress party is successful in India because their motives once they come to power are very very clear.
"Ensure we stay in power"
Simple. They will undertake policies that will strengthen their financial/political clout even if they are bad for the country or the economy. Even with a cabinet of eminent educated people Congress manages to do that. Oh I forgot these eminently educated people do not have the balls to stand up for what is right.
After reading this article I might physically harm "Kapil Sibal" if he ever talks about IITs and other stuff. The bastard who supported a corrupt Judge is one of the most respected cabinet ministers today. Oh yes, he was smart to suck up to congress and guess what sucking up to congress pays you very very well. Thats the irony in the India of today. Its the bloody truth.

See this

and respond to the damage you have caused Mamata banarjee! Talk about exploiting people for political mileage. This is just ridiculous and proves that for people are not why Political parties act on their issues!
Lets see what the future holds for these people.

Will

anybody listen? Even if they do will they ever act?
I don't see much hope on the either front!
But still I hope! I know its stupid.
May be optimism is a stupid thing!

What motivates Taliban?

Here you go! The article identifies what are the issues with US handling of their war on terrorism. Pretty good read.

NREGA

can only get worse now!
See this piece that documents how Congress will now ensure that NREGA will be run by its henchmen.
God knows what else will they do now!

If free speech

is so difficult in a developed country like Britain, what hope is there for other developing countries. Read the full story here!
An excerpt

In August 2006, Trafigura dumped a shipload of toxic waste on Africa's Ivory Coast. Some 100,000 Ivorians sought medical help for breathing problems, vomiting and skin eruptions; according to a UN report, 15 people died. Trafigura maintained repeatedly that the material discharged was harmless. A few months later a British lawyer started legal proceedings on behalf of the victims; the oil company paid £100 million to the Ivorian government to pay for removing the waste but continued to deny liability. The legal case dragged on.

Fast forward to 2009, when reporters from the BBC and theGuardian newspaper assembled evidence pointing to a company cover-up. Carter-Ruck launched a libel suit against the BBC, and obtained a super-injunction preventing the Guardian from mentioning an expert report commissioned by Trafigura in September 2006. Now here's the part that was "secret" until yesterday: The report confirmed the "likely" presence of compounds "capable of causing severe health effects," including "headaches, breathing difficulties...unconsciousness and death," in the caustic tank washings dumped around Abidjan. In other words, Trafigura's own scientific consultants had clearly suggested that the "slops" were potentially dangerous--but the company continued to insist that they were not. The document, known as the Minton report, has been available for some time on the internet from the open government and anti-corruption group Wikileaks and on the website of Greenpeace in the Netherlands, which is pursuing legal action against Trafigura for manslaughter and grievous bodily harm. But until yesterday no description of its contents could be published in Britain

What can we do!

A sad episode for

Trescothick. But his effort needs to be applauded as Andrew Miller writes here.

More on

Indo-China relationship issues documented here by B. Raman
He brings up very relevant issues that Indian government needs to address! Lets see

Every cricket fan

begins in this way. In company of esteemed gentlemen (who have very little idea of cricket technicalities) talking as if they know everything. In an innocent way of course. That makes it so much fun at that time and even later when you know that all they were talking wasn't true yet wonderful in a special way!

This attitude is best summarized here

A misfield would result in, "Amarnath should be sacked immediately", causing my young mind to conjure up pictures of BCCI officials hurriedly running on to the field to convey the bad news to Jimmy, who would then sadly trot off and play no further part in the match. A good catch would result in, "He is the only fellow who is playing for the team. Sack everyone else and make him the captain", a suggestion that essentially meant that the athletic fielder would be skipper of a team that had no other players. I can only hope that my uncle's management style at work did not reflect his cricket team selection views - it would have resulted in a number of junior managers at TVS losing their jobs because they had forgotten to bring their pens or neglected to berate the peon over his shoddy footwear.

The uncles' favourite players were also expected to be granted immunity from being dismissed leg-before. If my father's opinion of every single lbw decision given against Sachin Tendulkar is to be taken seriously, his (Sachin's, not my father's) Test average would be 66.87. Include close run-out calls, dodgy caught-behinds, and catches close to the ground, and it inches closer to 75. If my dad could figure out a way to somehow introduce an element of doubt to the times Tendulkar has been out clean bowled, his average would probably be around 3269.53. Well above that pesky Bradman, who only played against mediocre attacks anyway.

Those days were fun!

BCCI and Transparency

Well, I know that the two words should not be even in the same sentence forget being next to each other. The selectors brought in Dravid for the Champions trophy and now have dropped him. I mean this is ridiculous. The selectors are not allowed to discuss why this is the case because there is a gag order on them by BCCI. See here for more.

Then the BCCI terminates the contracts of Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad. Thats not my issue. My issue is they had to learn of thier dismissal through the media. This is a huge problem with how BCCI operates. Prem Pannikker expans on the issue here.

Indo-China relationships

Over the last 3-4 weeks there has been intense conflict over the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. There have been numerous articles written in this connection. I found a very interesting piece connecting the psychology of both countries based on historical context here and here
An excerpt from the second piece

From the earliest times, India lacked interest in the balance of power outside its own national frontiers. While China was continuously watchful of developments across its land frontiers and had developed a very efficient system of diplomatic relationship on a continental basis, the Indian idea of diplomacy was confined to states within the geographical limits of India. Within this area, at different times, India developed a system of international relations and diplomatic usage. But so far as areas outside the physical boundaries of India were concerned, we were content to live with the attitude of complacent ignorance.

Now about China (excerpt from first piece)

China, on the other hand, sees the world divided between the civilised world centred around itself, the Middle Kingdom, on the one hand and the world of uncivilised barbarians on the other. At the periphery of the Middle Kingdom (and still within the civilised world) lay the states who paid tribute to the Chinese emperor and professed to be in awe of its great civilisation. What this meant in practice was that the Han Chinese Middle Kingdom expected its neighbours to be tributaries—the concept of a sovereign equal simply didn’t exist.

Views of a commander on the situation

“Common sense” according to Admiral Sureesh Mehta, “that cooperation with China would be preferable to competition or conflict, as it would be foolhardy to compare India and China as equals. China’s GDP is more than thrice that of ours and its per capita GDP is 2.2 times our own.”

It is very interesting to see how the knowledge of past history and attitudes might have important implications for today's geo-political equation.

More material on similar topics here, and here.

Is this paranoia or genuine protectionism?

You decide for yourself based on this article on NYT regarding a kid suspended from school because he took to school a fork that can be used as a knife too.

An interesting article

on Obama's Nobel on Wall Street Journal.
It is different from the many articles criticisizing Obama's Nobel because it is constructive and makes a statement at Peace Nobel itself. I necessarily do not seem to agree with everything there but its an interesting perspective!

Indian Cricket

Finally people have started taking notice of some issues I have been cribbing about Dhoni's captaincy. See Jagadish here

Sources within the BCCI are extremely pissed off that this attitude hides India's actual on-field performances, including some bizarre captaincy against Pakistan where the skipper MS Dhoni hid himself at #5 during a chase of 300+. In Yuvraj's absence, Dhoni was clearly the side's best batsman. So why he sent Kohli ahead of himself and Raina was difficult to understand.

This wasn't the first time he showed a lack of leadership though. During the T20 World Cup, he batted at 4 against Bangladesh & Ireland, and went in at #6 against England.

Make no mistake Dhoni is a genuinely smart captain. In the initial stages he ensured that he used it to for the team. Of late, since he established himself beyond criticism he seems to be using the smarts to ensure his record becomes better. Can you believe that he has the best batting record in the last year when India has repeatedly failed throughout the year. We have seen this exploitation of captaincy for personal benefit in the fag end of his career in Ganguly. But, Ganguly did it after leading India for 6-7 years not a small 1-2 year period. I hope Dhoni can get back to his old team ways and not try to exploit the situation for his benefit. In addition to the above instances I can recollect a number of other instances where Raina was sent ahead of Dhoni when the situation demanded quick runs. However, if we were batting first Dhoni routinely walks in at three. I always disagreed with this strategy to hold himself back when its crunch situation and come out to bat when there is an option of free runs especially when youngsters would have been better off with such easy run opportunities!

Now with the setting up of the Delhi clique it will not be a cake walk for Dhoni. It is no secret that Sehwag and Dhoni are not on good terms. Sehwag, in a smart move, has abdicated his interests for captaincy and started promoting Gambhir for the captaincy role. Viru gets along with Gautam. In fact they are best buddies. So, he has no issues with Gauti being captain in place of Dhoni. Moreover, the Delhi group is growing in size with Ishant, Amit Mishra, and Muaf Patel.

Lets see what the future holds for Viru and Dhoni!

Congress and The PSU

A very nice piece on how Congress is working for its personal profit by resisting privatization of the PSU's by Sauvik.

Today

seems to be the day of amazing WTF. Here is another one

You have got be kidding

I thought it was some kind of a joke. But well it isn't. Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Seriously? You know for what?

for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples

Is it some kind of a joke or what. I mean I agree he is a great orator and his speeches are awesome but how is that effort to strengthen diplomacy. I am not sure! Anyway

Muslim Demographic Map

Pew research center's forum has come up with a new Muslim Demographic map (link here)

A celebration of the human spirit

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
William Kamkwamba
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

A nice

article on the preparation for the cricket match by Aakash Chopra here

A chemistry Nobel

for an Indian (or more accurately should I say a man born in India)

Books

I have started reading a number of non-fiction books over the last 2-3 years. Some of them do make a lasting impact on how you perceive things regarding different countries, cultures and lifestyles. For example, I read "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and created a mental image of how Iran exists with so many of the women under pressure and so on. Then today I started "Iran: A People Interrupted" and the author introduces the book saying how he wants to counter the argument made by neocons (or America appeasers) regarding Iran. The first book he wants to contest is the "Reading Lolita in Tehran" one. Well, this puts me in a bind. I mean I am no expert. The only way I learn is from reading books that are critically acclaimed. However, critically acclaimed is so subjective you read books based on what you want to believe in at that time of your life. So, now how do you really know if you ever get a real picture of history? I mean I read a Nehru fan's version of history and Patel fan's version of Indian history it is surely bound to paint a different picture. Is there a way to understand what is the true version? Are we really seeking the true version? Do you really want to get the true version? Is it at all possible for anybody to get a true version of history uncolored/unaffected by the author's life and experience? How many accounts of the same history does one have to read to remove these biases? These are some of the questions that are bombarding me currently. Well, all I can do is read whatever I come across and learn not be judgmental about it. There is always another side to the story. There always is! This is unnerving for a person like me who believed life can be viewed as "right" or "wrong". Lets try to open our eyes wider to accept the possibility of being somewhere in the middle. Somebody does not have to be wrong! The sooner the world (that includes me) accept this the sooner the world will be a better place!

Well, where did I start and where did I end!

Cool thing to

read regarding Viru here
An excerpt

Both of us have come a long away and it is a great honour that Tendulkar thinks I come close to resembling him as a batsman. It is a great honour, like a dream come true. If I die tomorrow I'll be the happiest man because I played this game because of Tendulkar, and Tendulkar himself saying that I resemble him - there is no bigger compliment than that.

Appaling

is all I can say after reading this article

To imagine this happens in the US, the land of free speech, is downright scary!

Mao and China

An article by a Chinese citizen who escaped the communist regime

Pragati

I am very impressed with the current issue of Pragati. Do read it here

NREGA

I am not a big fan of NREGA, the UPA governments flagship project. In a nice piece Prashanth discusses why NREGA will not work and provides mechanisms to implement it.
I will let him do the talking

It might be politically expedient to increase the size of the scheme in the mistaken notion that it directly translates into votes, considering the forthcoming assembly elections in many Indian states, but it will be economically suicidal for the country. The opportunity cost of gargantuan spending in social safety schemes for the entire economy–which will not be visible in the immediate and short term–will be very high in the long term, especially due to the large borrowing by the government.

So succinctly put!

Global Climate Change

I have discussed regarding Global Climate Change with some of my friends in the past and I have to admit I am not a huge proponent of Al Gore kind of scare tactics for getting the world to pursue measures to reduce CO2 emissions. The science behind it is not adequate enough to substantiate their claims. I am not arguing emitting CO2 at the current levels is good. All I am saying is there are more important problems, especially for developing countries, to address. I strongly believe tackling issues of inadequate infrastructure for drinking water, roads and public facilities in India is surely more important that addressing how much CO2 India is emitting. We can try to generate efficient industries and policies that ensure there is no wasteful emissions but not at the cost of policies targeted towards infrastructure. I mean still US and developed world emits lot more CO2 than India and other developing countries. Rather than asking us to reduce emissions if the developed works on those issues the earth will benefit much more! I am all for being socially responsible and all but please do not make Global Climate Change the most important issue on earth. There are more important problems that I can think of in a space of a second. Also, don't even try to say all the floods and the awry seasons are due to global warming. You don't have any idea of how the earth worked for millions of years and how irregular the seasons and other natural events were!
I got thinking about this after reading this nice article. A good read!

Floods in AP

The heavy rains in AP, Karnataka and Maharashtra have led to huge inflows into the rivers in AP. Add to that the unpreparedness of the entire government system we have a huge disaster! The losses will amount to crores of rupees. Not to the mention the lives lost and the number of people displaced for God knows how long. Even a power project is under threat. Somehow it reeks of improper planning. Well, with congress at the helm and the unlimited focus of the government on who should be the CM what else did you expect!
Lets see if AP ever learns!

Politics

Its weird in the US. I am a person who will support Democrats in their religious attitudes and Republicans in their economic attitudes. Don't know how confused most people here are with these ideas. For example, I do not have issues with gay marriage. I think it should be permitted (something republicans will never do!) and then I am for capitalism with required regulation (do you see a republican there). I would have a hard time voting if I were a citizen here. Surprisingly, the situation is not very different in India. BJP is the party I will support for their economic policies but hate them for their religious tendencies. Then we have the Congress who seem to make stupid economic decisions (oh sure they are good vote winning policies!) but they are supposedly more secular (which i think is crap and the reason i hate them. I would rather be open and non-secular than conveniently secular). Interesting similarity! And guess what it does not stop there. For whatever reasons both republicans in the US and BJP in India are in the dumps with no future ahead at least for some years. I find the similarities strange!

Effect of

too much government involvement? I think so! Just because you are trying to improve the minimum wage it does not mean you are helping the poor. As the article points out you most probably are hurting them!Anyway!

Gandhi

Well, today is his 140th birthday. So people make a huge deal of it as usual. People who know me know pretty well that I am not a big fan of him.
I mean he was a great personality and did some really wonderful things. But there were decisions that were made by him that were incorrect. So, when you review him please do not forget those things. His idea was of self-sufficiency and protectionism. That did India a lot of good for 50 years. If we still followed everything he said in terms of economy we would still have been with a percapita income of 100$ (we currenlty have 1000$). Anyway.

As if the praising and all that isn't enough, People complain about a pen that is valued at 14 lakhs. Some company made a pen for 14 lakhs based on Gandhi's walk. So? Big deal. If there are fools who are willing to pay 14 lakhs for a pen let them do that. It has nothing to do with our national heritage for sure! Why do you waste our time and resources for that?

What can I say?

One of those really great days! Simply awesome!