Local regulations

Himalayan Viagra fuels caterpillar fungus gold rush "Despite dire predictions, research by Childs and Choedup suggests that local communities are rising to the challenge. Their study documents how the residents of Tsum and Nubri have built on existing religious and cultural traditions to devise incredibly cooperative and creative systems to self-manage and regulate the community’s annual fungus harvest.

The communities’ harvest protocols, they argue, represent an indigenous form of regulatory management, one that may prove sustainable and equitable over the long-term. "

Related What Elinor Ostrom taught: Democratic control is not only possible, it is normal

Modi's recent pronouncements on ancient Indian science

From The Hindu op-ed:
"Speaking at the inauguration of the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre last Saturday, he said: “Mahabharat ka kehna hai ki Karn maa ki godh se paida nahi hua tha. Iska matlab yeh hai ki us samaye genetic science mojud tha … Hum Ganeshji ki puja kiya karte hain, koi to plastic surgeon hoga us zamane main, jisne manushye ke sharir par haathi ka sar rakh kar ke plastic surgery ka prarambh kiya hoga.” [It is said in the Mahabharata that Karna was not born from his mother’s womb. This means in the times in which the epic was written genetic science was very much present. We all worship Lord Ganesha; for sure there must have been some plastic surgeon at that time, to fit an elephant’s head on the body of a human being.] "
There was the famous Sushruta in the indeterminate past who is supposed to have done plastic surery but not feats of the above order. The Hindu goes on to wonder "Nor, to my astonishment, has any Indian scientist refuted the Prime Minister’s claims. Their silence is perplexing"
A.K.Ramanujam had a shot at the answer long ago. From the article "The twin-lobed brahmin";

"The problem was posed for me personally at the age of 20 in the image of my father I My father's clothes represented his inner life very well. He was a south Indian brahmin gentleman. He wore neat white turbans, a Sri Vaishnava caste mark (in his earlier pictures, a diamond earring), yet wore Tootal ties, Kromentz buttons and collar studs, and donned English serge jackets over his muslin dhotis which he wore draped in traditional brahmin style I "He was a mathematician, an astronomer. But he was also a Sanskrit scholar, an expert astrologer I had just been converted by Russell to the 'scientific attitude'. I (and my generation) was troubled by his holding together in one brain both astronomy and astrology; I looked for consistency in him, a constituency he didn't seem to care about, or even think about. When I asked him what the discovery of Pluto and Neptune did to his archaic nine-planet astrology, he said, 'You make the necessary corrections, that's all'. Or, in answer to how he could read the Gita religiously, having bathed and painted on his forehead the red and white feet of Vishnu, and later talk appreciatively about Bertrand Russell and even Ingersoll, he said, 'The Gita is part of one's hygiene. Besides, don't you know, the brain has two lobes?'"

And more in the article.

P.S. According to The Hindu article 

"Under Article 51 A (h) of the Constitution it’s the fundamental duty of every citizen to develop a scientific temper."

P.P.S. There is an exchange on Facebook with my friend Rao Nagisetty, where I posted the above links.
Rao: I am afraid these articles are confusing. It is common in India to have such idiots. Don't need to be educated to talk like that.
Me: I think that Ramanujan's point is that they compartmentalize different parts of life. The problem is when the separation is not clear cut, particularly if it is a leader like Modi. You seem to be getting into the habit of calling people idiots who do not share your ideas and opinions . I do not agree with you on many things. But I do not mind being called an idiot by you. But others may.
Rao: Very diplomatic. Thanks. Yes I should not use that word because it is offensive. Compartmentalization seems to occur naturally. Otherwise either I become a zombie or go mad. The mind with which I grasp this world is always jumping around sometimes with a purpose and most of the time it is a crazy dance. So I have to put away the goblins in separate prisons to function in this world. Science tells me that many species have become extinct over time and predict that human species will too. If that is the case what is the point of all this discussion? Sorry to bother you with my idiotic questions.
Me: I think that the world is too complex and we (at least I) cannot really understand it and trying make sense of it is a sort of disease for which various religions have developed as a response. Possibly we are also limited by our own childhood. We can take some clues from diverse writers and also empirical studies of how people actually coped in different situations. This seems to be missing from religion or big theories of every thing. But there are some empirical studies by Michael Mann, Elinor Ostrom, Emmanuel Todd and others. I find those who start with a theoretical frame work, even people like K.Balagopal whom I admire, problematic. But the big questions about the future, to me or to the world, do not seem to bother me very much. It is more of what is happening to people now and how it can be alleviated that occupy me (these also give some indications for the future). For example, I am waiting to see how Russia will cope with the sanctions. That may show show us some ways of coping with globalization which Keynes already warned in 1933. Similarly Ocalan's ideas interest me and how they are able to manage a bit in spite of tremendous odds....
Rao: That is quite a good analysis of your own philosophy. Thanks for sharing. That tells me where you are coming from. I am simple and the world is simple. That is that.

Some S.D. Burman songs

From The Outlook and Songs of Yore. Several more S.D. Burman posts in Songs of Yore. The story of one of my favourite Hindi film songs here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W6QhcYAN98

Interesting book by Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd

Just finished first reading Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd book on "A convergence of civilizations: The transformation of Muslim societies around the world".
 From one of the reviews "—make an important point. Birth rates in many Muslim-majority societies are indeed higher than in many Western countries, but they are not static and the authors suggest a significant convergence is in the making. ..... the other significant theme of the book is the role played by religion in bringing about either high or low birth rates. Here too their conclusion is clear: “emphasis on Islam as a causative factor is primarily a symptom of intellectual myopia.Literacy, patrilinealism, reactions of minority groups, and oil wealth all reduce the idea of Muslim demographic specificity to the level of a residual variable”"
Other reviews here and here.

The way of all flesh

Patrick Cockburn in  LRB Whose side is Turkey on?  "Syria and Iraq are full of armies and militias that don’t fight anybody who can shoot back, but the PKK and its Syrian affiliates, the PYD and YPG, are different. Often criticised by other Kurds as Stalinist and undemocratic, they at least have the capacity to fight for their own communities....The Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga – literally ‘those who confront death’ – aren’t immensely effective either. They are often regarded as better soldiers than the soldiers in the Iraqi army, but their reputation was won thirty years ago when they were fighting Saddam; they have not done much fighting since, except in the Kurdish civil wars."
 It seems that there is some PKK presence in Iraq "Ethnically Kurdish but with their own non-Islamic religion, the Yazidis had fled their towns and cities to escape massacre and enslavement by Isis. The US soldiers arrived by helicopter and were efficiently guarded and shown around by uniformed Kurdish militiamen. But soon afterwards the Yazidis – who had been hoping to be rescued or at least helped by the Americans – were horrified to see the US soldiers hurriedly climb back into their helicopter and fly away. The reason for their swift departure, it was revealed later in Washington, was that the officer in charge of the US detachment had spoken to his Kurdish guards and discovered that they weren’t the US-friendly peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government but PKK fighters – still listed as ‘terrorists’ by the US, despite the central role they have played in helping the Yazidis and driving back Isis. It was only when Kobani was on the verge of falling that Washington accepted it had no choice but to co-operate with the PYD: it was, after all, practically the only effective force still fighting Isis on the ground."
It is not clear whether the Iraqi Peshmarga going to Kobani will be of great help except for the equipment. Patrick Cockburn concludes "Whatever happens at Kobani, Isis is not going to implode. Foreign intervention will only increase the level of violence and the Sunni-Shia civil war will gather force, with no end in sight."
Dexter Filkes has more about Iraqi Kurdistan and its relations with Turkey in NewYorker article 'The fight of their lives'. He also describes the current corruption "A wealthy Kurdish businessman with ties to both parties [K.D.P. of Barzani and P.U.K of  Talabani] explained that they began as guerrilla armies and changed gradually into giant family businesses, gathering power and wealth and shunning anyone who tried to change the system. In private conversation, tales of bribery and retribution abound. “All these buildings you see around you,” the businessman told me, gesturing to the high-rises that punctuate Erbil’s skyline. “They are owned by a hundred people. Those hundred people work for ten people. The ten people work for three.”"
P.S.

Kurdish decumentry film Kulajo My Heart is Darkened Witness Al Jazeera English YouTube

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilUnyJxuCPY

Modern police

Man charged with breaking a trooper's fist with his face
Small town sends armored vehicle, 24 officers to collect debt from 75-year-old

Two on life and death

"“When I got here”, he explained to them, “I was thermodynamically unstable but now I think I’m in a state of quasi-stability. It looks like I have achieved thermal equilibrium but actually I’m steadily losing energy.”

“I’m not sure”, I said afterwards, “that explaining your health in terms of thermodynamics is exactly what they’re after.”

“They’ll have to learn,” he said, “you can’t beat entropy.”" from MindHacks

“Every living thing is a complex thermodynamic pocket of reduced entropy through which matter and energy flow continuously.”  

 say recent Nobel prize winner Eric Betzig and colleaues via New Microscope Puts the  Life Back in Biology by Virinia Hughes

Kothapalli Baburao RIP

Kothapalli Babu Rao from Repalle, a relative, childhood friend and a benefactor to our family passed away on Tuesday in Maryland, USA. It is a second generation friendship. His father Dr. Krishnamurthy was from Nagayatippa in Krishna District and went to school in Avanigadda with my father. We visited them requently during my childhood. Baburao did a Ph.D in Chemical enineering, went to USA on a post-doctoral fellowship and lated shifted to business.

In 1970, I was in USA on a short teaching assignment. My brother suddenly landed in USA after getting admission to some crappy college but without any scholarship or funds. I was due to leave in a few weeks and managed to get him admission in a better institution but I never saved any money and did not have funds for his stay. I tried to raise funds with some close friends saying that I would come back if necessary to return the loans if my brother could not manage it. But I failed. I did not ask Baburao since he was known to be frugal. But he himself came forward and funded my brother's education. He must have helped many more. Because he was shy, self effacing and frugal, his good deeds are probably not known. My brother went on to follow his example and helped many with their education. I am sure that Baburao will be remembered by many.

Taleb and others on Precautionary Principle and GM organisms

Genetically modified organisms risk global ruin from Physics ArXive Blog. The full paper The Precautionary Principle (with applications to genetically modified organisms)
"We present a non-naive version of the Precautionary (PP) that allows us to avoid paranoia and paralysis by confining precaution to specific domains and problems. PP is intended to deal with uncertainty and risk in cases where the absence of evidence and the incompleteness of scientific knowledge carries profound implications and in the presence of risks of "black swans", unforeseen and unforeseable events of extreme consequence. We formalize PP, placing it within the statistical and probabilistic structure of ruin problems, in which a system is at risk of total failure, and in place of risk we use a formal fragility based approach. We make a central distinction between 1) thin and fat tails, 2) Local and systemic risks and place PP in the joint Fat Tails and systemic cases. We discuss the implications for GMOs (compared to Nuclear energy) and show that GMOs represent a public risk of global harm (while harm from nuclear energy is comparatively limited and better characterized). PP should be used to prescribe severe limits on GMOs."
Another summary here.
There will be lots of discussions on the paper. One here already.

Links

Two and half centimeters of rain and Melbourne trains fail
The sort of infrastructure projects that the local government is interested in Vic East West Link contract signed:
"The $5.3 billion contract for the first stage of Melbourne's controversial East West Link project has been signed, but the deal could be torn up in just two months.

The Victorian government and the East West Connect consortium signed the contract immediately after a resident failed to get a High Court injunction to stop the deal on Monday.

Premier Denis Napthine refused to say how much Victorian taxpayers would contribute to the 25-year deal, a public private partnership the consortium said was worth $5.3 billion.

He would also not reveal if there was a penalty clause in the deal - reportedly $500 million - if Labor won the November 29 election and tore up the contract."

And another deal :

"Napthine signed away his right to make laws that tackled gambling and smoking in an extraordinary deal waved through Parliament days before the election campaign. The law not only restricts the actions of the Napthine government should it get back, but the actions of every future Victorian government for the next 36 years.

Should a future government decide to impose a $1 betting limit on poker machines (as recommended by the Productivity Commission); should it decide to enforce the use of precommitment technology on poker machines; or should it require automatic teller machines to be further away from poker machines, it'll be up for a $200 million payment to Crown. The size of the penalty will climb with inflation. By the time the provision expires in 2050 the penalty will be $480 million."

In USA America crying for public investment  by Paul Krugman

Today's Britain: where the poor are forces to steal or beg from food banks

and Occupy Democracy and media by David Graeber "We need to ask ourselves what it means that police suppression of democratic assemblies is no longer considered news."

From Al Jazeera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acV0EmL1hWs
"Al Jazeera English was awarded the prize for news teams in developing countries and Indian Sainath Palagummi from The Hindu won the award for news professionals in developing countries." from http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2014-10/27/content_33887393.htm

From 'Boot Polish' 1954

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm-fnYIqP1M

A new universal law

At the far ends of a new universal law (via 3quraksdaily). The evolution of the law starts with a seemingly simple study published in 1972:
"Imagine an archipelago where each island hosts a single tortoise species and all the islands are connected — say by rafts of flotsam. As the tortoises interact by dipping into one another’s food supplies, their populations fluctuate.
In 1972, the biologist Robert May devised a simple mathematical model that worked much like the archipelago. He wanted to figure out whether a complex ecosystem can ever be stable or whether interactions between species inevitably lead some to wipe out others. By indexing chance interactions between species as random numbers in a matrix, he calculated the critical “interaction strength” — a measure of the number of flotsam rafts, for example — needed to destabilize the ecosystem. Below this critical point, all species maintained steady populations. Above it, the populations shot toward zero or infinity.
Little did May know, the tipping point he discovered was one of the first glimpses of a curiously pervasive statistical law.
The law appeared in full form two decades later, when the mathematiciansCraig Tracy and Harold Widom proved that the critical point in the kind of model May used was the peak of a statistical distribution."

Keynes  said in 1933 "Ideas, knowledge, science, hospitality, travel – these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible, and, above all, let finance be primarily national."
I wonder whether the above sort of models can be developed to give some idea of how much globalization is too much.

Boogergate

(via Doug Henwood) where Ken Silverstein explains the background to the following photographs:

Ken Silverstein says "For the sake of historical accuracy, the pix appeared on the front page of Jornal do Brasil, a Rio daily, on November 13, 1992 with this caption: "Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1973, the ex-all powerful secretary of state Henry Kissinger said yesterday that Brazil will be able to enter the NAFTA agreement only in two to three years. At the invitation of the Getulio Vargas Foundation, he participated yesterday in a meeting on Latin America and the new world order at the Sheraton Hotel and later lunched at Saint Honore restaurant in the Meridien Hotel." I lived in Rio at the time and distinctly remember picking up Jornal do Brasil at a newsstand in front of my apartment on my way to get coffee and almost throwing up on the street after seeing those awful images. Kissinger later threatened to sue Jornal do Brasil, and us, but neither of us caved. I also remember well that the Washington Post's Reliable Source column picked up on the CounterPunch story and did an item about it. It was co-authored by two reporters relatively new to the column and within a week they ran a very flattering item about Kissinger. Clearly someone at the paper had informed them that they had gone way too far and better atone for their mistake. So there you have it, the full story of Boogergate."

Some Emmanuel Todd links

Once in 2006 and again a few days ago, I linked to Emmanuel Todd. Recently I found some introductory material about his ideas which seem to complement more abstract theories. From On anthropological roots of modern conflicts, (Message 391, third from the top)  "We are in the habit of thinking of the various contemporary conflicts in ideological, economic or linguistic terms. According to historian Emmanuel Todd there is also an anthropological aspect to the problem.
His book, The Explanation of Ideology came out in the late eighties and discusses, in an amazing way, the anthropological base, or bases, of culture. The author, like, anthropologists in general, is interested in (or focused on) the 3 categories, (perhaps it is better to say 3 sets of rules) that generate the several possible human families and how these families underlay our sophisticated ideologies......
In this book Todd was trying to argue that ideological formations are (partially?) determined by family structure—not (only?) economics or linguistics So, for instance, by looking at the Authoritarian family we see people that are not easily assimilated because they have no sense of equality thanks to the favoring of the chosen son and inegalitarian inheritance rules. Therefore they do not become (fanatical) devotees of universal movements like communism and resist assimilation into other groups."
A longer introduction, including biographical details, in America, England, Europe-Why do we differ via Brian Micklethwait.
Brian Micklethwait has several posts on Emmanuel Todd. In this post. he links to some of his introductory posts about Todd:

Emmanuel Todd (1): Anthropology explains ideology
Emmanuel Todd (2): The eight family systems
Emmanuel Todd (3): Quotes from The Explanation of Ideology
Emmanuel Todd (4): From ideology to economic progress

Check also Craig Willy: Emmanuel Todd’s L’invention de l’Europe: A critical summary
Many other links in Brian Micklethwait's blog.
A recent interview relating to Ukraine.
All seem worth looking.

Cli   

Retirement

Putin's advisor and experts discuss economy,sanctions & central bank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CH4Pcgoi3eE
via a comment by 'stevifinn' in http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/10/links-102414.html
The comment: "If you can spend 1hr & 20 minutes watching this video it might help to explain things. It features 3 top Putin economic advisers – it gave me the impression of me being on the outside looking in. They talk about how Russia should protect itself from financial warfare – sanctions etc, & how to stop the leakage of tax revenues offshore. It appears that their central bank needs to be reformed & that they are still suffering from the Neoliberal policies & privatisations from the 90′s.
In terms of Europe they believe that the US has them by the balls due to the former’s reliance on the petrodollar system, from which it would be almost impossible for them to extricate themselves. They also state that the West’s financial system is terminally broke & that this is known by those in charge & is leading to US efforts to loot the rest of the planet with the trade agreements being a big part of this effort. They also believe that TTIP will de-industialise Europe & in my opinion they are being ably assisted by a European elite, particularly the un-elected Brussels grandees.
Perhaps it’s just me. but when they talk about the difficult measures they need to take in order to extricate themselves from the petrodollar system – they seem to be planning in a common sense sort of way which contrasts favourably with the members of our current Western economist priesthood.They also hint that internal political problems could prevent a successful conclusion to the fulfillment of their ideas."

Links, 25th October 2014

Youssef Courbage on 'Religion, Dermography and conflicts in Muslim countries". Seems to be a summary of 'A convergence of civilizations: Transformation of Muslim societies around the world' by Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd, 2011. Interesting article but the book, which is translated, reads better (I just started on the book) may be because of the author's French background. A review of the book http://orientsoccidents.hypotheses.org/28

Chris Blattman on Julian Assange's recent article on google The dangers of google idealism " It is interesting reading, if only to hear a skeptical outsider’s perspective of the web of Washington intrigue." Aside:Julian Assange took some mathematics courses from me and we got along well. Once I gave him about 5 out of 10 in an assignment in 'Complex Analysis'. He came to discuss the assignment and the mistakes but did not argue for more points and that continued through out the course.

Discussion in Economist's View Paul Krugman: Plutocrats against democracy

The National Interest on Putin Peace Plan

From Why the Putin Peace Plan is Working :
"Finally, there is the obvious reluctance of many in the West to countenance a peace that “rewards Putin.” Influential media outlets such as The Economist, Maclean’s, Financial Times, Washington Post and theNew York Times routinely highlight the danger of allowing Putin any semblance of “victory.” To paraphrase British journalist Angus Roxburgh, they see that Putin is part of the problem, but “refuse to concede that he might also be part of the solution.”

But just because some elements of the current peace plan are indeed Putin’s initiative, we should not make the mistake of failing to consider whether it is also in Ukraine’s best interests. If, in the final analysis, the Minsk accords lead to stronger and more respected government institutions, won’t this help to stabilize and unify Ukraine? Is such an outcome not as much in the interests of Ukraine and Europe as it is of Russia?"

Two Meena Kapoor songs from Pardesi 1957

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw2WCHwM3kc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--QlEWiDfVY
and  my favourite Padmini dance
( there are some translations of Balraj Sahni words in the comments section) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3drXukfiH4o&list=PLodbCBiVOx-cUpwz0w_7cAP3E5zRvCHXw&index=7