Links. Nov. 29, 2012

R.S. Jennings of United Stated Institute of Peace on Democratic Breakthroughs: The Ingredients of Successful Revolts via Duncan Green who has a summary.There is a coming seminar at CT  on 'The Priority of Democracy' and other books.

Orgtheory.net invites further thoughts on grassroots activism.

Links to two articles on Bal Thackeray in 'Law and Other Things'. I am looking forward to a study of the different trajectories of DMK progeny, Shiv Sena and Telangana state movement.

Discussions why Asians overwhelmingly voted for Obama and Andrew Gelman by Richard Posner. From the second article "According to exit polls in the Nov. 6 election, Asian American voters favored Obama over Romney by a ratio of more than 3-to-1 (76 percent versus 23 percent). This has puzzled a number of Republicans. Asian Americans, more than any other group, including white suburbanites, who are a backbone of Republican support, have demographic characteristics that would seem to make them support low taxes, fiscal austerity, conventional family values, and hostility to affirmative action (especially in higher education)—all policies strongly associated with today’s Republican Party." The profile is similar in Australia and from my limited knowledge of the Indian community, more of them seem to vote the conservative party called the Liberals than the Labour party. 

And a final thought on the persistence of 'traditions' and 'family values'. Recently, we arranged a micro loan for a Dalit christian lady to start a small  business in time for Christmas sales. When we asked her whether she started purchases, she responded that it was magalavaram, not an auspicious day to start. A reasonably well-off Indian friend in Australia says that his brother in India did not make enough money as a banker since he was afraid of displaying disproportionate assets and if only he had sent the money to him, he could have made a fortune for both of them by investing in real estate.

Ela Bhatt's favourite quote

From a profile of Ela Bhatt:
Then she told of her favorite. Freedom, one woman said, was “looking a policeman in the eye.”

NY Times on deep-learning programs

From Scientists See Promise in Deep-Learning Programs:
"Deep learning was given a particularly audacious display at a conference last month in Tianjin, China, when Richard F. Rashid, Microsoft’s top scientist, gave a lecture in a cavernous auditorium while a computer program recognized his words and simultaneously displayed them in English on a large screen above his head.

Then, in a demonstration that led to stunned applause, he paused after each sentence and the words were translated into Mandarin Chinese characters, accompanied by a simulation of his own voice in that language, which Dr. Rashid has never spoken.

.......

One of the most striking aspects of the research led by Dr. Hinton is that it has taken place largely without the patent restrictions and bitter infighting over intellectual property that characterize high-technology fields.

“We decided early on not to make money out of this, but just to sort of spread it to infect everybody,” he said. “These companies are terribly pleased with this.”"

via MindHacks post Advances in Artificial Intelligence: Deep Learning which has more learning.

Self-filling bottle prototype

Ed Yong links to several interesting reports, among them this one:"The Namib Desert beetle lives in an area that only gets half an inch of rainfall per year, and so it draws 12 percent of its weight in water from the air to quench its thirst. NBD Nano co-founder Deckard Sorensen was inspired by the beetle to the point that he conceptualized a self-filling water bottle, which he hopes to bring to the market by 2014.

Every morning, the beetle climbs to the top of a sand dune, faces away from the wind, and ensures that water condenses in hydrophilic areas of its back. The water then flows to a storage area in the beetle.

To mimic nature, Sorenson layered a surface with hydrophilic and hydrophobic coatings, used a fan to pass air over the surface, and managed to get water to condense. This eventually led to the design of a conceptual self-filling water bottle."

Profile of Nadia

in the Open Magazine, Along the way, there is a surprising statement that Jamshed Wadia was inspired by  M.N.Roy and 'his political orientation had a profound effect on his work'. Somje of Nadia films are reviewed in memasabstory, the latest review is here.

Kaushiki Chakrabarty

In a commentpost on 'yaad piya ki aaye', Richard Singer mentioned a version of it by Kaushiki Chakraborty. Here is a different version from a concert in Amsterdam with various links and the continuation. The same thumri by her father Ajoy Chakraba(o)rty. A brief profile at Tehelka.

Many trees a sip away from dehydratiobn

says a report in ScienceNews "In plumbing systems, trees have to make tradeoffs. Capturing carbon dioxide in the air for growth and metabolism is a risky business. A tree sacrifices 400 molecules of water to evaporation to snag one molecule of carbon. The new study, Choat says, reveals that trees are maximizing their carbon capture for food even though it strains the plumbing."

My favourite Kamala dance

via A Clear Copy of Kamala's Tandava Dance in Sivagangai Seemai

Minai, following Randor Guy, gives 1957 as the year when the film was released. From discussions in Tamil blogs I get the impression that it was released in 1959 soon after Shivaji Ganeshsan;s 'Veerapandya Kattabomman' and lost out to the later film in box office.

Best soccer goals

After the recent Ibrahimovic goal, the contest is on again about the best soccer goal ever. One of my favourites is this goal by George Best

I remember at least one more equally impressive goal scored by Best in 1968 County games; may be it was not recorded for posterity. 

Contesting the "Nature" of Conformity

Contesting the "Nature" of Conformity: What Milgram and Zimbardo Studies Really Show by A.Haslam and S.D. Reicher
Abstract:
"Understanding of the psychology of tyranny is dominated by classic studies from the 1960s and 1970s: Milgram's research on obedience to authority and Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. Supporting popular notions of the banality of evil, this research has been taken to show that people conform passively and unthinkingly to both the instructions and the roles that authorities provide, however malevolent these may be. Recently, though, this consensus has been challenged by empirical work informed by social identity theorizing. This suggests that individuals' willingness to follow authorities is conditional on identification with the authority in question and an associated belief that the authority is right."
Discussion at ScienceDaily: Human Obedience: The Myth of Blind Conformity

Discussion of a related paper and further links in psychologicalscience blog post:
Not Obedience But Felloship

A fascinating article by Anand Vaidya

A subtle Alignment (via 3quarksdaily) which among other things explains the rise of Shiv Sena. Excerpts:
" It’s easy for progressives to forget that collectives exist on both the left and the right, and that the decline of left-wing collectives doesn’t necessarily result in the absence of collectives more generally. History in Mumbai and elsewhere has shown that it doesn’t take long for empty space to be occupied by other groups, often from the political right.
....
The Sena, which has explicitly invoked European fascist movements from the outset, describes itself in its founding documents as a “volunteer organization” rather than a political party or union; it was created to defend a Marathi claim to Maharashtra and to Mumbai. This claim was initially defended at the expense of South Indians and Communists. Later, as an ideology of Hindu nationalism became ascendant in national politics, the Marathi claim to Maharashtra and Mumbai was made at the expense of Muslim inhabitants. The Sena spread through the city’s neighborhoods, establishing shakhas(neighborhood organizations) in zopadpattis and chawls. For the Marathi-speaking people they represented, the shakhas succeeded in obtaining services from local officials that the state had never before provided: water connections, electricity, even employment. For non-Marathi speakers, the Sena was at best exclusionary; at worst, it boycotted their stores, harassed them on the street, and smashed their windows.
....
The failure of the 1982 strike killed both the mills and the unions, leaving the city with an even larger unemployed population and base for Thackeray’s Sena. As Mumbai’s economy shifted from manufacturing to real estate, and as mills and slums were cleared for redevelopment, the Shiv Sena emerged as the party with the strongest local organization, the one most able to both represent neighborhoods under threat and profit from their clearance."
Much more in the article, which is supposed to be on Katherine Boo's book  'Behind the Beautiful Forevers'http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Beautiful-Forevers-Mumbai-Undercity/dp/1400067553

Links, November 19, 2012

Scientific American article More than child's play: Ability to think scientifically declines as kids grow up "One reason for our failure to capitalize on this scientific intuition we display as toddlers may be that we are pretty good, as children and adults, at reasoning out puzzles that have something to do with real life but flounder when the puzzle is abstract, Goodman suggests—and it is abstract puzzles that educators tend to use when testing the ability to think scientifically. In addition, as we learn more about the world, our knowledge and beliefs trump our powers of scientific reasoning. The message for educators would seem to be to build on the intuition that children bring to science while doing a better job of making the connection between abstract concepts and real-world puzzles. "
Responses linked in Children Are Not "Natural" Scientists  ( via Ed Yong). Actually, I think (from my limited experience)that children also have powers of abstraction, but may be as they start doing many more things, certain aspects of their ability are not developed for many of them.
Mark Changizi: in The colossal pile of jibbersh behind discovery and its implications to science finding (via Ed Yong): "... where we see the everyday-ness of our science minds is in the discovery process itself, that is, in the efforts to find the new idea (hypothesis, theory, whatever) in the first place. Discoveries can be dressed up well, but the way we go about finding our ideas is almost always an embarrassing display of buffoonery."
Ten top myths about Israeli attack on Gaza by Juan Cole
Chapati Mystery discusses Bal Thacheray's 'legacies' See also Wall Street Journal article and Naipaul reference (possibly a reference to his descrption of Shiv Sena work at the grass roots level in 'A million mutinies now').
3quarksdaily's policy on comments, at least the expression of the policy, is causing concern to some respected commentors like Omar

university of the future

an Australian study. From the introduction:
"Our primary hypothesis is that the dominant university model in Australia — a broad-based teaching and research institution, supported by a large asset base and a large, predominantly in-house back office — will prove unviable in all but a few cases over the next 10-15 years. At a minimum,incumbent universities will need to significantly streamline their operations and asset base, at the same time as incorporating new teaching and learning delivery mechanisms, a diffusion of channels to market, and stakeholder expectations for increased impact. At its extreme, private universities and possibly some incumbent public universities will create new products and markets that merge parts of the education sector with other sectors, such as media, technology, innovation, and venture capital. Exciting times are ahead — and challenges too.
We have summarised the drivers of change of this brave new world into five key trends:

1.Democratisation of knowledge and access — The massive increase in the availability of‘knowledge’ online and the mass expansion of access to university education in developed and developing markets means a fundamental change in the role of universities as originators and keepers of knowledge.
2.Contestability of markets and funding — Competition for students, in Australia and abroad, is reaching new levels of intensity, at the same time as governments globally face tight budgetary environments. Universities will need to compete for students and government funds as never before.

3.Digital technologies — Digital technologies have transformed media, retail, entertainment and many other industries — higher education is next. Campuses will remain, but digital technologies will transform the way education is delivered and accessed, and the way ‘value’ is created by higher
education providers, public and private alike.
4.Global mobility — Global mobility will grow for students, academics, and university brands. This will not only intensify competition, but also create opportunities for much deeper global partnerships and broader access to student and academic talent.
5.Integration with industry — Universities will need to build significantly deeper relationships with industry in the decade ahead — to differentiate teaching and learning programs, support the funding and application of research, and reinforce the role of universities as drivers of innovation
and growth."
According to Timothy Taylor many of the insights of this study apply around the world.
More about online education links here.

'yaad piya ki aaye' by two masters

Bhimsen Joshi and Manna Dey in 'Basant Bahar'

Bhimsen Joshi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh9Fxwmy1xg

Telugu idioms and phrases

Padabhhamdha Parijatamu (పదబంధ పారిజాతము), a 1959 publication is available online at
http://archive.org/details/padabhamdhaparij021997mbp
via a message in Telugupadam
 https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/telugupadam/7NC3WSmXUEc
P.S. I have been informed that a second volume is also available at DLI under the title "padaban'dha paarijaatamu" and both will be included in the dictionary search of http://www.andhrabharati.com/

Happy Deepavali

Ashutosh Jogalekar reviews Mandelbrot's autobiography

I used to think that Mandelbrot was doing some kind of flaky science. It is only recently I found that he made many interesting discoveries.After seeing Jogalekar's review, I promptly bought the book and so far read the parts about Mandelbrot's year at Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. It reminded of my wasted year there where the only thing that I did was to learn driving and gave lifts to Michael Freedman.

About identities in Bangladesh

by Prashanta Tripura in Himal. The article partly reviews Richard Eaton's 'The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier,1204-1760' available online. More online books at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

Some science links, November 9th

Ed Yong on secret passwords of birds " fairy-wrens have a way of telling their chicks apart from cuckoos. Diane Colombelli-Negrelfrom Flinders University in Australia has shown that mothers sing a special tune to their eggs before they’ve hatched. This “incubation call” contains a special note that acts like a familial password. The embryonic chicks learn it, and when they hatch, they incorporate it into their begging calls. Horsfield’s bronze-cuckoos lay their eggs too late in the breeding cycle for their chicks to pick up the same notes. They can’t learn the password in time, and their identities can be rumbled."

Parrot in captivity manufactures tools, something not seen in the wild

From ScienceNews Trunk in cheek, elephant mimics korean

From ScienceNews An ancient civilization's wet ascent and dry demise

Tom Stafford on Zeigarnik effect and other things: "There’s a textbook psychological phenomenon called the Zeigarnik Effect, named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. In the 1930s, Zeigarnik was in a busy cafe and heard that the waiters had fantastic memories for orders – but only up until the orders had been delivered. They could remember the requests of a party of 12, but once the food and drink had hit the table they forgot about it instantly, and were unable to recall what had been so solid moments before. Zeigarnik gave her name to the whole class of problems where incomplete tasks stick in memory......A plausible explanation for the existence of the Effect is that the mind is designed to reorganise around the pursuit of goals. If those goals are met, then the mind turns to something else."

From ScienceDaily Antibiotics disrupt gut bacteria in infants, According to one of the authors "This research suggests that the merits of administering broad spectrum antibiotics -- those that kill many bacterial species -- in infants should be reassessed, to examine the potential to use more targeted, narrow-spectrum antibiotics, for the shortest period possible".