Friday, May 31, 2019
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Aditya Chakrabortty on Britain
Britain is in the grip of an existential crisis that reaches far beyond Brexit
“If you leave the EU, you do so to become something else. But you don’t appear to know what you want to become.”
“If you leave the EU, you do so to become something else. But you don’t appear to know what you want to become.”
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Perepa P.C.Joshi RIP.
He passed away this morning at 8:30 am IST. He was a classmate from 1960-62 and roommate during 1961-62 and we have been in touch since then though we lived in different places.
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
DK Pattammal following Saigal
“Anyway, coming back to the old Devdas, the songs are all great. But one of the reasons why Balam Aye is stuck in my head is because its tune was copied faithfully for the Kalki Krishnamurthy song Poonkuil Koovum Pooncholaiyil Oru Naal! You can hear DK Pattammal sing it in this youtube clip where SS Mani plays the gramophone disc with the song. I wonder when Kalki composed it, though I am quite certain that his song followed the Hindi original. After all, Pattammal began recording only in 1938 or thereabouts.” says the author in Musings on some film songs-1. Another similar story From Thandi Hawayen to Konjum Purave.
Mothers and sons
Bonobo moms play an active role in helping their sons find a mate
“Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving any help from their mothers."”
“Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. "In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay," Surbeck says. "And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don't have many examples of, we don't see them receiving any help from their mothers."”
Madhukar’s Shukla on scale in social projects
The "Jetty Project": Is "Scale" necessary for "Social Change"? “Many such small, yet transformational changes, happen because the local social entrepreneurs (as we would call them) are uniquely positioned to do make them happen - they leverage the highly contextual, and often tacit, local knowledge to identify critical social problems, mobilize local resources and develop a solution which is relevant and viable in the local context.”
Bilkis Bano case
Gujarat riots gang-rape survivor receives justice after 17 years “Legal experts and activists say Bano's case is unique, marking a rare instance of justice for a victim of sexual violence during communal riots.”
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Nehru’s last interview?
Namit Arora who posted this on Facebook says in one of the comments:
“A general comment. Nehru really has a great deal going for him, and I don’t wish to dwell on his flaws here, especially given the monstrosity that currently occupies that office (who is attacking Nehru for all the wrong reasons!). Nehru was a brilliant and reflective statesman, and it's astounding how far we have fallen today.
But, with that caveat, I’d note that Nehru, for all his talk of land reform, including in this interview, did very little on that front. He had regressive views on reservations, had defensive upper-caste attitudes towards the caste system, and did little to annihilate it in his 15 years in office. In the fight between Ambedkar and Gandhi, Nehru remained oddly silent, and didn't stand with Ambedkar. For a socialist country, he didn’t grant universal primary education the urgency it deserved – as did China. He also created the deadly AFSPA, which his great grandson is now trying to dismantle as a campaign promise. He mishandled Kashmir and led the country into a disastrous war with China. Scholars now also attribute some responsibility for Partition to him. Additional aspects of his legacy have been critiqued by later liberals, some of which I covered in the essay ‘No Saints or Miracles’ in my book.”
Friday, May 17, 2019
Bob Hawke RIP
Popular forever: the intellectual larrikin that was Bob Hawke by his press secretary Barrie Cassidy
Bob Hawke rise was predicted by an Indian soothsayer Ramakrishna Sarathy Future Perfect ( Sarathy said that he was correct about 70 percent of the time and hoping reach 90 percent).
Madhukar Shukla on scaling
https://m.facebook.com/notes/madhukar-shukla/scaling-social-entrepreneurs-dream-and-conundrum/10156575314256795/
Check also An industrial policy for good jobs by Dani Rodrik and Charles Sabel
Significant innovations in India (civil society)
India's most significant innovations have roots in civil society
And a ‘foreigner’ played a significant role in many of them:
A champion of India’s poor: Sonia Gandhi’s most valuable, and least acknowledged, contribution
And a ‘foreigner’ played a significant role in many of them:
A champion of India’s poor: Sonia Gandhi’s most valuable, and least acknowledged, contribution
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Book review by Noah Smith
Book Review: The Revolt of the Public, by Martin Gurri “If you do not read "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium," by Martin Gurri, you will not be sufficiently prepared for the world to come.
Well, you probably won't be anyway. No one will! But this book brings together a startling number of important threads of contemporary politics, geopolitics, public affairs, and media, and weaves them into a coherent, comprehensible, and very plausible narrative. And it does so far better than any other book, blog post, or Twitter thread that I have seen attempt to deal with these issues (including my own modest foray). So buy this book and read it.”
I just bought it.
Books and lectures
Why books don’t work by Andy Matuschak. Well not completely anyway. We know some parts work for some people some of the time. But overall comprehension of how and why they work is lacking. It is important for education to know some more and research seems much needed.
Monday, May 13, 2019
Samir Shukla on some Indian academics
Worried Indian scientists and my friend’s sons
“As the story of my friend is obviously unique and one of a kind, I hope that it is not linked by my readers with my scientist friends I mentioned in the opening paragraph in any manner.
“As the story of my friend is obviously unique and one of a kind, I hope that it is not linked by my readers with my scientist friends I mentioned in the opening paragraph in any manner.
We all know that most of the academic community toiling in Indian institutes have been constantly engaged in pushing science and technology ahead for benefits of the nation and the result is evident.
The state of the nation clearly proves that our academic researchers exactly know what are the areas of research that the nation needs them to work on and hence no one should dare ask them what to do, or rather no one should dare ask them what they are doing at all.
It is nothing but sheer misfortune that with so many hard-working researchers toiling in India, we remain the only large sovereign nation not to have won even one Nobel Prize for science. So, let us not start making false assumptions on that irrelevant trivia.
It is also just some dirty trick of fate that, with all these scientists diligently working and solving the problems of the nation for all these decades, we still have billions living below poverty line and enduring a hell of a life, as there is no doubt that scientists have no role to play in the prosperity of a nation.”
My comment: I did not read all the comments but I see this sort of things by some approximate Anna Karenina principles: “All large groups are similar” and “The larger the group, the closer it is to the general populace around”. I think that our views of academics were formed when the group was small with few shining lights highlighted by texts of an earlier period.
Anya Parampil on Ricardo Hausmann and Venezuela
“While unknown to most Venezuelans, Hausmann remains a key player in his country’s tumultuous politics. During a talk at the World Affairs Council of Greater Houston in November 2018, he eerily predicted Guaidó’s self-proclaimed presidency, telling the crowd “the international community is now focused on the idea that… January 10th is the end of the presidential period of Nicolás Maduro.”
“On January 11th, Nicolás Maduro will not be recognized as… the legitimate president of Venezuela,” Hausmann anticipated. “I think that’s an important date.”
On January 11th, when Juan Guaidó declared his preparedness to become president of Venezuela, the Harvard professor’s prophecy was fulfilled.
Almost two months later, Guaidó appointed Hausmann to serve as his representative at the Inter-American Development Bank. ” from Ricardo Hausmann’s 'Morning After' for Venezuela: The Neoliberal Brain Behind Juan Guaido’s Economic Agenda
Ricardo Hausmann seems to be a respected economist with a number of interesting ideas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Hausmann
Ricardo Hausmann seems to be a respected economist with a number of interesting ideas https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Hausmann
An excerpt from a book by Aatish Taseer
The emperor of destiny
“A search in Benares for Brahmins, the twice-born, leads to an encounter with a young member of the aristocracy of the mind”
“A search in Benares for Brahmins, the twice-born, leads to an encounter with a young member of the aristocracy of the mind”
The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges | Aatish Taseer
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Natural sequence farming
How weeds help fight climate change
“Natural sequence farming has four main elements. First, restore fertility to improve the soil; second, increase groundwater; third, re-establish vegetation, including with weeds if necessary; fourth, understand the unique needs of a particular landscape.”
“Natural sequence farming has four main elements. First, restore fertility to improve the soil; second, increase groundwater; third, re-establish vegetation, including with weeds if necessary; fourth, understand the unique needs of a particular landscape.”
Saturday, May 11, 2019
Flightlessness of a bird evolved twice
Birds on an island in the Indian Ocean evolved flightlessness twice “The flightless rail is descendent from a species of flying bird known as the white-throated rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri).
In the layers of rock immediately after the last inundation event, Julian found some more fossil bones. 'We found the leg bone of a rail in these deposits,' he says. 'But from that one bone we can see that it is already becoming more robust when compared to the flying rail, showing that the bird is getting heavier and so losing its ability to fly.'
This suggests that once the sea levels dropped again and Aldabra reappeared, the white-throated rail once again recolonised the islands and became flightless, giving rise to the modern birds we see today.
'There is no other case that I can find of this happening,' explains Julian, 'where you have a record of the same species of bird becoming flightless twice. It wasn't as if it were two different species colonising and becoming flightless. This was the very same ancestral bird.'”
Gudavalli
Just noticed the Wikipedia entry on Gudavalli. It has the picture of the library named after my mother Gadde Lalitha Devi. It is in the precinct named after Yalavarthi Nayudamma organised by Koduri brothers and the funds for the building were provided by my brother Gadde Kamalakar. In the days we lived in Gudavalli (1943-50 approximately) my mother used to get lot of books from the public library. Women did not go to the library those days I think. My cousin Gadde Babu Rajendra Prasad (Baburao) used to bring the books for her. It seems appropriate that her name is still associated with books in Gudavalli. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudavalli,_Guntur_district
Friday, May 10, 2019
About ‘Intercept’ of Pierre Omidyar
Whom Not To Trust - U.S. Government Indicts Another Intercept Source Lots of comments about Glenn Greenwald’s role.
Thursday, May 09, 2019
Tongue twisters from South Indian languages
Some hope for treating antibiotic resistance
Teenager recovers from near death in world-first GM virus treatment
“Finding the right phages for each patient is a big challenge. In the future, scientists hope it may be possible to conduct automated searches of phage libraries to identify personalised treatments. Some infections, such as the hospital superbug Staphylococcus aureus, are known to be genetically homogeneous enough that a few phages could treat almost all strains of the infection, raising the prospect of phage therapy becoming routine.
“Finding the right phages for each patient is a big challenge. In the future, scientists hope it may be possible to conduct automated searches of phage libraries to identify personalised treatments. Some infections, such as the hospital superbug Staphylococcus aureus, are known to be genetically homogeneous enough that a few phages could treat almost all strains of the infection, raising the prospect of phage therapy becoming routine.
“We’re sort of in uncharted territory,” Hatfull said.”
Tuesday, May 07, 2019
Branko Milanovic on democracy
Democracy or dictatorship, which works better? A key quote is Oscar Wilde’s quip that “the trouble with socialism is that it takes up too many evenings”.
Trying to understand
What does one do when one does not understand? Keep staring at it so that it is in the front of your mind most of the time. In due course, after few days or months or years, one gets some feeling of familiarity and understanding. “His peculiar gift was the power of holding continuously in his mind a purely mental problem until he had seen straight through it. “ That was Keynes on Newton. Well, one may not be able to see through it like Newton, but it seems to help. I was reminded of this when a collaborator used some material of whose basics I did not well and stared it for about six days before convincing myself. There were times when it took months or years. Here is a link to the Keynes article Newton, the Man.
Sunday, May 05, 2019
Oil again
“The US’s inherited mastery of the Gulf has given it a degree of leverage over both rivals and allies probably unparalleled in the history of empire. Washington has established a highly conservative regional order through alliances with successive military dictatorships in Egypt and an ethno-nationalist Israel. Its overwhelming military control of the region ensures that Japan, South Korea, India and even China must deal with the US in the knowledge that it could, if it wished, cut them off from their main source of energy. It is difficult to overstate the role of the Gulf in the way the world is currently run. In recent years, under both Obama and Trump, there has been talk of plans for a US withdrawal from the Middle East and a ‘pivot’ to Asia. If there are indeed such plans, it would suggest that recent US administrations are ignorant of the way the system over which they preside works.” from What are we there for?, a review of AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain by David Wearing by Tom Stevenson.
Check also Venezuela and binary choice by Craig Murray.
Check also Venezuela and binary choice by Craig Murray.
Thursday, May 02, 2019
Sri Sri again
There seem to be quite few posts reminding us of Sr Sri and a video which I have not seen before is making rounds. A classmate says that he has never seen or heard Sri Sri and was touched by that video (See the previous post).
Thinking about the persisting appeal of Sri Sri, I am reminded of these words “We don’t need an answer to the question of life’s meaning, just as we don’t need a theory of everything. What we need are multifarious descriptions of many things, further descriptions of phenomena that change the aspect under which they are seen, that light them up and let us see them anew. “ of Simon Critchley writing about his philosophy teacher Frank Cioffi. And “They allow us to momentarily clarify and focus the bewilderment that is often what passes for our “inner life” and give us an overview on things. We might feel refreshed and illuminated, even slightly transformed, but it doesn’t mean we are going to stop scratching that itch. “ More literary people may look for nuanced thinking and find some cliches in his writings. But for me who finds many ‘faults in the texture of our existence’ Sri Sri has lighted up many corners more often than many other writers.
Thinking about the persisting appeal of Sri Sri, I am reminded of these words “We don’t need an answer to the question of life’s meaning, just as we don’t need a theory of everything. What we need are multifarious descriptions of many things, further descriptions of phenomena that change the aspect under which they are seen, that light them up and let us see them anew. “ of Simon Critchley writing about his philosophy teacher Frank Cioffi. And “They allow us to momentarily clarify and focus the bewilderment that is often what passes for our “inner life” and give us an overview on things. We might feel refreshed and illuminated, even slightly transformed, but it doesn’t mean we are going to stop scratching that itch. “ More literary people may look for nuanced thinking and find some cliches in his writings. But for me who finds many ‘faults in the texture of our existence’ Sri Sri has lighted up many corners more often than many other writers.
Wednesday, May 01, 2019
Manna Dey
Would have been hundred today. An earlier portrait from Upperstall. Some favourite songs
From Parineeta 1953. The next from Boot Polish 1954
And the next from Devdas 1955,a duet with Greta Roy Dutt:
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