Appeal to plagiarist

(Warning: Spoilers)

Dear Sanjay Gupta,

You are a movie director. You are bereft of any creativity, or neurons for that matter. I have no problem with that. Unable to conceive of something original, you lift foreign movies, again I approve of this subversion of capitalism.

However you have this rather annoying habit of poor judgement at getting inspired. You simply pick the wrong movie/copy the wrong part


Examples

1. You copied Reservoir Dogs. Now Reservoir Dogs has not much of story to speak. Its strength or USP is non linear narrative (typical of Quentin Tarantino), and dialogues. But being idiot you copy its story ! Result Kaante, Hey Bhagwan !

2. You lifted Oldboy. While it is highly stylized and full of violence (sort of heroic bloodshed), it is in no way its USP, which is its story which pushes the social norms.
Yet you copy the style and decaffeinate the story, of course it was nearly impossible to use the original story in a Indian film.

But still the punch of the story was

"Your gravest mistake wasn't failing to find the answer. You can't find the right answer if you ask the wrong questions. " [*].

Result Zinda, Hey Bhagwan, again !

A sad news

Ingmar Bergman is dead. For your information, he was the man behind berger paints and Iceberg lettuce. My prayers with his family.

PS. Many people think that he was the one who invented Burger. This is wrong. Burger was invented by Ingrid Bergman.

Two things..

The trivial one: Rationalism, atheism, morality. Pick any two.

The important one: I absolutely hate excessive use of emoticons. When I am benevolent dictator, I will ration the use of emoticon. The usage will depend on the relevance, and my discretion.

Power behind the throne

The question, "Is gentle Doctor a disgrace", is embarrassingly simple. Of course he is, and of course in an ideal world he would have been booted out. However his dismissal is not the point.

Truth (and blindingly obvious at that) is he is a political nobody. Which means he isn't threat to influence of Gandhi dynasty , which is one of the reason he is occupying the top post. The other reason is that behind his garb of respectability, Sonia Gandhi is attempting to lift her family to the "commanding heights" of her mother-in-law era.

It is cynical, but not out of character of Gandhi family. But the most important question is how is Sonia Gandhi, and her stooge of PM getting away with mockery of India and her people ?

The answer is, complicity of liberal establishment. Liberal media and intellectual have been more than charitable to the disgraceful duo.
It is the Shekhar Guptas and Rajdeep Sardesais who have consistently evaded holding either Gandhi or PM to account for their incompetence and subversion of institutions under their watch.
It is them who have done everything possible to avoid reporting on utter moral bankruptcy of UPA government, also to deflect public attention from innumerable failures.
It is them who tried to disgenuouly suggeted that divesting post of PM of any authority was actually a good thing.

In other words, it is they who are responsible for this travesty of republic.
And the reason behid their action is not unscrutable either. Their priority is not national interest, their allegiance is not to this nation, they do not love India, they are at best indifferent and at worst contemptous for the motherland. They covet power and for that they want to retain their monopoly on the intellectual space of the country. From this monopoly they can control institutions, adjudge the value systems and control the dissemination of information.

What we have is army of Tooheys.*

And we are witnessing is battle for soul of India. Liberal establishment must be destroyed.

* Citing Ayn Rand. What has become of me.

Boots in Hogwarts

OMG, what happened to Hermione !

Obama, Obama !

Update: I have changed my mind. I heart Obama. Reason.

Related posts [1],[2]

This one is too good to pass. It seems black jesus is getting spanked.

Exhibit [A] oops
Exhibit [B] ouch
Exhibit [C] oooouch

1. Now I will admit this first point does have some merit. American government is obliged to protect only American citizens and her national interest.It is, no way, obliged to save world, especially if one considers that no matter what America does, it ends up as the default excuse for each and every misfortune that any random dude may suffer. As much as one can wish, and I wish it as much as the next man, to be humanitarian, matter of fact is , there are too few resources and too many conflicts of interest, to enforce order all over the world. You may call it "dog eat dog" world, or "might is right" world, but that is the way it is. However this policy, essentially isolationism is based only upon the partial picture. True America is not obliged to maintain world order, but being the only super power and having a globalized economy, it is in American self interest to promote "peace" (as opposed to democracy).

2. This sex education bidness is the one of the most dear of liberal hobbies. Now I have no idea what sex education exactly means, wiki is vague. But I find it unbelievable that some one thinks it is possible to teach kinder-garden kids about sex. On a related note, one of the arguments for sex education is to prevent sex abuse. I know it may sound hard but it is very difficult to effectively prevent child abuse. Best measure is family, worst, as is usually the case, government.

3. This diplamcy argument is the silliest one can find. Diplomatic negotiations is a complicated business, and its success depend on far too many things to reduce it to soundbites. Unfortunately that is what happening.

Now the most important question is how does Obama lover feel ? Does it hurt to be paddled by Hillary Auntie ?

A tribute to the fallen

Related posts [1],[2],[3]

I have a problem. The problem is getting around, or getting a hook upon this absolute insistence or obsession of otherwise sensible and intelligent people to commemorate anniversaries of terror attacks as period of mourning.

What exactly is this going to accomplish ? And if the idea is to grieve over terror attacks, why stop at one attack. Let us also grieve for Varanasi, Delhi, Malegaon, Ayodhya, Jama Masjid, Akshardham, Ghatakopar, Mulund, Hyderabad, not to mention too many to enumerate, butchering of Kashmiris. It doesn't end here. Should we not grieve for Naxal attacks. What about Godhra? What about Bhagalpur? What is the thresh hold beyond which a terror attack is upgraded from plain vanilla flavour to occasion for breast beating?

Am I being a callous bastard by pointing this out? That is a possibility. But as I said earlier in related context, it is impossible for humans to sincerely grieve for long without losing sanity. Life is tough shit, and we get over it, it is a defence mechanism of mind.

Wouldn't our time be better utilized and our endeavour result in better returns, if we were to direct our efforts to identify cause(s) responsible for breakdown of law and order, and resulting strife in country.

That this exercise of seeking solution for terror attacks is hardly a priority either of polity or public, is due to the fact that while we may elect a government on basis of universal adult franchise, we are far from being republic. Result is a mind boggling admixture of feudalism, socialism, and outright anarchy.

We have consistently refused to consider questions relating to foundations of republic. We have neglected political philosophy as a subject worth attention, instead opting for rhetoric and grandstanding.Our flawed policies and institutions have so grievously fractured our society that for all purposes it is dysfunctional.Even worse instead of formulating a coherent world view we have installed grandstanding and banal for our moral compass. Which is why our first reaction is to commemorate Muharram.

I believe that this inability to form a strong republic goes beyond our inability to create functional institutions, or even a world view. Rohit in a recent post argued that in west governments place (or probably used to place) a high premium on safety and life of their citizens.But that is because citizens themselves place a very high premium on life of fellow citizens.

It is this regard for the life of compatriot which is paramount in a republic, and supersedes over any other political or social disagreement, howsoever vehement it may be. Injury to a citizen, and violation of law and order is the most grievous offence in a republic, and if the perpetrator is outside agency unarguably a causus belli.

It is this arguably very basic alliance of people which precedes any political theory as basis for republic.

In this it differs from present India, which at best is tyranny of innumerable vested interests with liberal fantasy and rhetoric serving as hollowed foundation.

If India has to survive as a nation, let alone prosper,we should learn to place an enormous premium on life of Indian citizen, if even one Indian dead is one too many. To our foes, we should pay back in Mosaic way and then some.

That, and only that, could be real tribute to those who have perished over the years as a result of terror attacks.

Losing sleep

The reason our gentle PM lost sleep over detention of Haneef has nothing to do with accused's innocence or heavy handed, (and admittedly suspicious) approach of Australian authorities towards investigation.

As is obvious, he was pandering to Muslims. In a nation as diverse as ours, batting for specific interest groups, reaps electoral dividends. The subsequent fracture in polity is to be expected, and which is what occurring in India today, with sectarian groups demanding their pound of flesh. Survival of India depends on our ability to salvage whatever order remains, and willingness to start afresh, Republic 2.0 in other words.

It is such a pity that "Indians", by definition, can not be an interest group.

A question of enforcement

A long, long time back I had started writing a post about racial profiling. As always I looked up wiki for some background, I got a very vague description about the context. Unable to proceed I forgot all about it.

In the meantime Rohit wrote a post about racial profiling, which was rejoinder to some other dude's post. I am surprised, to say the least.
I think racial profiling (inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics) can only be understood in the context, so before starting posturing it is good idea to get the contexts clear.

The relevant context in this case is that profiling, racial or any other, should only be resorted to, in case of insufficient evidence or leads for investigation after event or intelligence gathering in order to prevent occurrence of event.

To give a rough and ready example, if (heavens forbid) some terror attack were to occur in Spain, it does make sense to pursue Basque, Islamic or possibly Catalan angles more rigorously, in case of insufficient evidence for purpose of investigation. However it would be ludicrous to climb every tree which is visible.

Security presents a complex picture. The issue which raises most hackles is intrusive searching at airports. Now as annoying or despicable it may seem, the matter of fact is the guards are responsible for security and safety, and if they are suspicious of someone they have full right to search, in fact I will expect them to search. And it is understandable if the guards "concentrate" on "browns", as at present all of the bombers have been of same skin, in future if white skin or black skin start blowing up planes and sky scrapers, then the perception will change.

Here I admit that it is a possibility that some guards can harass out of bigotry, but there is almost no less chance of preventing it. What is one going to say, "stop searching" or "for every brown person search an old white lady". Most absurd is of course giving sensitivity training to adults.

But the important point here is that intrusive search at public places, however severe they may be, are no guarantee against attacks for obvious reasons. In order that any strategy has any chance of succeeding in containing the threat, it should concentrate on the source rather than the target, and it is here I fully support profiling. Since it is mosques and madrases where jihadi ideology is indoctrinated, it is they who must be put under surveillance, and not some church or synagogue, since it is Muslim ghettos which are a breeding ground for "foot soldiers" for caliphate, I find nothing wrong, if effort of intelligence agencies is focused there. Denial as they say is not a river in Egypt.

Best ofcourse is prevention.

Freedom of choice

(A secular post)

I believe that the dictum that every one should have the freedom to decide his moral code is commendable and worth emulating as a nation.

Hence I support Islamic law for Indian Muslims, in its fullest extent, with the understanding that "Kaffir", at not point will be under its jurisdiction, as long as India is Dar-al-kufr.

They want it. They got it.

PS Apparently Egyptian's Grand Mufti has declared that Muslim are free to change their religion.

Does it change my position ? Not really. Problem is not with a particular interpretation of the holy book. Problem is with this "Word of God" philosophy. As in the present case, there have always been flexible interpretation of the book which were results of interactions or circumstances. Unfortunately the interactions and circumstances can influence either way and one is sure to encounter "inconvenient" interpretations frequently. The difference of course being affinity of untamed passion to wreck havoc is much stronger than to peace and status quo.

Dogma is bad in itself, but Abrahmic Dogma is like being subjected to Mallika Sherawat or Rakhi Sawant.

Honorary mention

Yossarian, prominent blogger of National Interest, finds mention in Sudheendra Kulkarni's latest article. More power to him.

The root cause

Update: It turns out that the the line about misinterpretation were not useless guy's word, but quoted from some other person's comment. Hence this post is not relevant anymore. In order that this mistake doesn't happen in future, I am ready to instruct the above mentioned useless guy in the science of using quotation marks for quotes. I will be doing this for free.


As you can easily see, my dear Watson is misinterpretation of the holy book, by the bad guys.

That is the root cause, so what we the good guys, got to do is to interpret the Quran in the "right way", which will provide theological basis for things like freedom, democracy and nation-state. The believers will of course realize their folly, this "correct" interpretation will be endorsed enthusiastically by all. And they will of course not reject this interpretation as apostasy.

Elementary, as I always hold, in fact it is so elementary that it can be solved without having any familiarity with the holy book in question or Islamic history for that matter.

Off-topic

Dear readers (if any),

Although this is a serious blog (as attested countless times by, well me), however this doesn't mean you can not post off topic comments. In fact you are encouraged to post off topic comments. Being serious this blog doesn't really need to pretend to be serious unlike some people.

Islam...

(Another communal post)

To understand Islam, one has to understand its origins. Islam is a faith of desert. Its deity, Allah, is conjured from shifting sands of Arabia. A religion characterized by a barren landscape.
Since it demands nothing more than submission it holds appeal to tribal and nomads, mostly piety suffices. Contemplation is not required, uncertainty has no place in believer's mind. The submission gives rise to assurance in justness of cause and firmness in belief. From this comes the fervour, which at its peak is capable of subsuming civilizations.
But this fervour at its core is nihilist, it can absorb the vanquished and give false impression of creation, but that spark of creation is soon annihilated by urge to pay obseince to a a God which reside solely in mind, and who leaves no impression on the physical world, indeed he is not allowed to leave any impressions, becaue the it is certainity which believer covets not imagination.
Hence this infertile faith and the civilization this faith gives birth to has a reverse Midas touch. Anything it comes in contact is recreated in images of Arabia. Barren, shiftless, without dreams.

A Christian India

I believe that as ESS in context of evolution, Christianity is better than Islam which is better than Hinduism. in context of survival*, Christianity is a better strategy than Islam which is a better strategy than Hinduism.
Therefore I believe India will be a christian nation before the end of 22nd century. **
Or rather the accurate term is geographical region currently represented by Republic of India, because I believe that before this century ends, India as a republic and as a nation-state will cease to exist.

* Here by survival I mean just the sheer number, leave other artifacts out of it.

** This assumes that after oil Ummah will not have any trump card, as far as material resources are concerned, if it does have that trump card, India will belong to the believers.

PS: I also think by the end of this millennium almost whole world will be christian, at least in nominal terms.

Intervention

Read on fatigue. The causes behind fatigue seem insignificant and hence are ignored. But the effect is spectacular [1],[2],[3].

After that may be resonance will interest you.

Aphorism: Pizza

If you are educated beyond a certain limit, there is a good chance that you will mistake topping for base, form for content and snark for substance.
[Exhibit A]

We are not worthy

Following wisdom from Pune Times

One possible reason is that when you immerse yourself in the novel or the film, you start believing that Alfred Dumbledore might have the stature of the economist Adam Smith in a planet where Harry lives.

What can I say. I mean TOI is pretty good at being bad, but this surely is unparalleled in "disconnectedness".

Intervention

Gurucharan DasGupta writes on something that I have long pondered upon.

"We are aware of the missed opportunities and the economic loss from Nehru's decision to place the State at the 'commanding heights' of the economy. We don't realise how much damage Nehruvian socialism has done to our moral character. Our reforms are rightly shrinking government's role in business, but it will take much longer to rebuild character. Are people honest only because of the fear of punishment ? Without checks would people behave like Duryodhana in the Mahabharata? Modern social scientists assume that people are only motivated by 'self-interest'. But is that true? If a child is in danger, don't we have a natural desire to rush and save it?"

"Institutions have to depend both on the 'good' and 'bad' in human beings. If one is cautious and re-designs government only on selfish motives, you might erode whatever public spirit that exists. But ours was the opposite mistake — we relied on too much public spirit. To restore accountability now you don't need new solutions. Just adopt the accountability systems of high performing governments like Canada and Australia. Even better, follow the recommendations of our own administrative reforms commissions. "

[TOI]

My tentative hypothesis is that humans act on their instincts, self-interest which is just economicspeak for selfishness is one such instinct, altruism is another. Which instinct predominated is decided by social conditioning. I guess, among all animals, human is the most suggestible.
The real problem is in deciding our value system. Should it be independent of empirical observations? If yes then how do we judge one system is better than other ?
As far as I am concerned, value systems can only be reasoned and therefore judged, when it is assumed that our data or observations have some relevance. Which, to me, means that life and evolution has a meaning beyond bio-chemistry.

On demand post

This is my 750th post and I dedicate this to my good friend.

Dear ape Rohit,

Except for the lack of personal hygiene and hallucinations which is part and parcel of liberalism, you are a decent and intelligent person.

You have a blog which is though provoking and insightful, you have another blog which is crappy. You rue over the fact that your crap is more popular than your serious blog, I could have suggested that you have a natural flair for writing non sense. Being your friend, I would like you to assure the only reason that people place your mojo wonkness below Mr Pai or Mr Dey, is that people are idiots and have no judgement whatsoever. Which will explain Indian Idol. And Indian democracy.

But if you were to work as my loyal minion, when I am dictator , I will designate your both the blogs as ubercool hyperstud blogs by royal decree. I think this should help you in making your decisions.

, And Hindu

(This is a communal post)

Destiny of India is inseparable from destiny of Hinduism. The very notion of India is grown from Hinduism. When Hinduism is on ascendant India rises, when it declines India rots. The bond between Dharma and this land can only be severed if one wishes to extinguish both of them.
And this is what our intellect are hell bent on doing. Because they are so disconnected that they will distort and mutilate history to agree with their narrative. Only history is too potent a force, when it unleashes itself this land and its people will be carried away in its torrent.

India,

One thing is clear. World will progress, with or without India.

I am fairly optimistic about capability of humanity to survive and flourish.

Also future religion will be in harmony with Indian experience, the details may vary, even if all that is Indian were to vanish, loss of knowledge is not permanent.

Evolution being convergent as well as recurrent.

At most there will be a setback of millennium, give or take some hundred year, which is insignificant on the scale of human evolution much less cosmological time frame.

World can survive without India.

The concern is not world, it is India. I want India to succeed, to be leader in that future world.

And there is nothing rational about, it is what one might term genetic affinity or tribalism. May be Indian civilization is beyond redemption, may be USA is the promised land, but we will never know unless we have tried and failed.

For a lame weekend

In exceedingly fine city of pune there is an exceedingly fine location whose name can also refer to well used state of particular part pf female anatomy. I guess that conservation about that locality can turn suitably existential. For example

A : Where do you come from ?

B: I come from ******

A: Well everyone comes from there, I meant the place.

B: I told you it is ******

A: Apparently you refuse to be held captive to society imposed nomenclatures, I appreciate your induhvidualism.


Consider a well educated Marathi Manus, he is suffering from Jaundice. Name his favourite author.

PILA Deshpande.

Have a nice weekend.

Holes

There are no foxes in atheistholes. Trust me. I checked 'em all.

Aphorism: Neverland Kingdom

The belief that Democracy is the ultimate ideal, a panacea to all the sufferings and deprivations of human kind, and that it is "rationally" feasible, is not very different from the Christian thought where Wolf and Lamb drink water from the same spring in Kingdom of God.

Aphorism: Freedom

Freedom enables, doesn't necessarily ennoble.

Dear morons...

Stop saying Web 2.0, it is a buzzword, more or less like Y2K.

Yours etc.

Where does the buck stop

??

Proof....

that 99.9% of blogs are manure*.

Someone writes, "People who challenge global warming, also support creationism"**.

Then it is linked by DP.

I hereby solemnly promise that I will do my utmost to pollute mother Gaia. This will be my contribution towards extinction of humanity.The first step will be buying bullet.

* To be frank, there is no basis for quoting 99.9% except that it appears impressive and exudes authority, further since Sharanji (SBUH) has retired from blogging, who is there to stop me from abusing statistics! I feel sooo evil.

** My objection is not that it is misrepresentation of your opponent's view. Indeed misrepresentation is mandatory in power struggle. My objection is that it is done unintentionally, in a Pavlovian fashion.

Update: My helpful suggestion. Stop. Exhaling. Yes I know, old one but relevant nevertheless.

Intervention

Pratap BhanuMehta on menace of Jihadism,

A thought provoking perspective, albeit a liberal one, which means hampered by liberal bias.

Dissection at convenience

I have got mail

From HR....

It starts with "Dear resource".....

Why feminism sucks

(By the by I have managed to screw the template in way I don't understand, undoing may take time)

[Exhibit A]
[Exhibit B]
Alyque Padamsee
WOMYN !!!

Entropy & Philosophy

In a shocking incidence my wisdom has been questioned by some punk. The only suitable punishment for this sort of impudence is an intimate evening with eminent blogger, but considering the severity of punishment, the aforementioned punk deserves an explanation, which shall now be provided.

For purpose of analogy I consider the much abused philosophical explanation of entropy, which is disorder.

Essentially disorder (or entropy) shows "overall" net increase in a closed system.

Now this doesn't mean that it has to an increase everywhere, indeed it is possible that in some locality disorder (or entropy) might be decreasing, but this decrease is offset by a greater increase in disorder in parts of the system which are outside that locality.

I think it is fair enough to represent civilization as order with its evolution as increase in magnitude of order.

The question then arises, what kind of phenomenon civilization is ?

Earlier I would have contended that formation of civilization is always an endergonic reaction which would have implied that it always require an agent, which I assumed, would be transcendental in nature, and its occurrence a random, inexplicable event.

This was essentially pessimistic view because it implied that absent outside agent, which is not guaranteed anyway, very nature of civilization is against nature, and hence demise is an imminent.

Now I am not sure, the best analogy that I can give is that at the beginning at least, the formation of civilization is spontaneous with a negative entropy (hence increase in order) for the reaction.

The next question then arises is what is the nature of civilization after it has crossed initial phase?

To this I can think of either two answers,as civilization climbs Maslow pyramid either the process becomes endergonic in nature, the other that even though it might remain spontaneous
the activation energy increases.

The first answer will lead to my earlier conclusion, that is, eventual demise.

"Disorder will eventually catch up with order".

Here it must be noted that except for India and China, all the ancient civilizations are dead. Of the two, I think China has a better chance of survival than India for more than one reasons.
While one can argue that Europe is descendant of Hellenic civilization, it is not necessarily accurate. Europe draws from Greek as well as Judeo- Christian traditions.

However, if second answer is correct it means that civilization can be resurrected, provided it is not irredeemably lost, with enough activation energy, in a way restarting the engine of civilization. The spark, to continue with analogy, in all probability will be of spiritual nature.

Now what answer I opt for depends on whether I feel pessimistic or optimistic.

PS. Series on civilization.

PPS. Yes this is self-plugging. If you hate it, please do the plugging for me.

You know you have a dirty mind when....

What is the length of Voldemort's wand?

&

"Last heard, Gaurav and Amit were furiously discussing over e-mail" *


make you smirk.

Update: Why our hardware is going soft?", Hmmm.

More: Ready to play hockey with Shah Rukh Khan? Noooooooooooo

&

As the world gets its wands ready for the seventh and final installment*. Hmmmmm

Hazaar flavours of Islam

Frankly speaking I am feeling very lazy to write anything on "let's export Indian Islam".

For the moment I think that at best, this idea is naive, at worst delusion of Nehruvian proportion.

But just one point, Indian Islam is not tolerant because of some enlightenment it is like this because of compulsion to compromise with Hindu "kaffirs" with Hindu living as dhimmis. A strategy to live in Dar-al-Harb.

Outside India, this version will be at best jeered as freak show, at worst declared heresy by Arabs, Afghans or Turks.

We saw example of how to convert into Dar-al-Kufr into Dar-al-Islam in 1947. That too was accomplished courtesy this "Indian Islam". A significant number of muslim intellectuals was horrified by the idea that in India Republic they will have to share power with idolaters.

And please the fact that million of Muslims decided to stay behind India proves nothing. A significant number of Muslim league members also decided to stay behind, despite the fact that it was they who were asking for Pakistan in first place!

The individualist

(On his 100th birth anniversary)

Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988)

He is one individualist whom one can afford to like because he recognized the limit of reason itself. His libertarianism was based on faith on humanity, that way why he could deal with religion and nationalism. In other words one who admitted the possibility of transcendent.

What is more even though he changed his orientation from a socialist/communist to individualist/libertarian, he always compelled to think, pushing the envelope in his stories.

Both he and Asimov categorized their body of works as social science fiction. This in my view is a mistake. While their works have commentary and speculation on future of human society, their treatments are vastly different.

For Asimov social conditions propelled the story forward, guiding the action of actors, but the commentary was always in background with the emphasis upon the actors, it was only in the climax that social conditions were dwelt upon usually by the protagonist.
Examples are The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun etc.

In contrast, Heinlein stories had social commentary were the very part of narrative. Indeed in most of his famous works contain monologues by protoganists (acting as his proxy) which delineate his views on philosophy, society and role of freedom. His commentary were more often than not device to further the narrative in a much more direct way.

What a man !

Pragmatics of patriotism speech

Price of liberty monologue by Dubois in Statship Troopers

My posts on Heinlein

Read his defining novels

1. StarShip Troopers *
2. Stranger in a Strange Land*
3. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress*

(Unintended) Comic relief

Glasgow attack: suspect's 'global warming' project

A man arrested in connection with attempted bomb attacks in Britain in which he suffered serious burns told his Indian family that he was working on a "large-scale confidential project," a press report said today.
The Times of India said Indian national Kafeel Ahmed, an aeronautical engineer with a doctorate from Britain, was one of the men detained after driving a blazing car into Glasgow airport. He is currently being treated for serious burns.
"I am involved in a large-scale confidential project. It is about global warming. I cannot reveal the details," he told his family in Bangalore, southern India, before leaving for Britain in May, the paper reported.[The Sydney Morning Herald]

Religion of perpetual rage meets religion of perpetual gloom. (via Tim Blair)

Glad that I am uneducated.....

I will confess that I am proud of my little quiz, I think it is bit clever.

Then yesterday I was told that my answer was wrong because,

"XXX: it would have made sense if deep blue was self build but it is run and designed by human hands
me: ???
XXX: krishna taking on t gods was not guided by gods".

Setting aside the question whether free will exists and what are the philosophical implications of absence of free will, here is the thing, analogies are pretty elastic but there is something called overstretching your case, when it simply snaps.

So since the theme was about creation overcoming creator, free will is as relevant to the fact that Deep blue is made of VLIC and King was made of protein.

Here is the moral of the story,

Majority of people treat education same way as a monkey treats a hammer.

Let this be known Gaurav's law on education.

Questions , Questions

You know, I would really like to know whether newspapers, agencies, channels world over have a single vendor for spell checkers. It is because they behave in a eerily similar way.

For instance,

"A man of Pakistani origin arrested for terror attack", becomes, "A man of South Asian origin arrested for terror attack"

BUT

"A man of Indian origin arrested for terror attack", remains ,"A man of Indian origin arrested for terror attack".

Yeh kya ho raha hai !!

Question

Is this satire, or reality ?

PS. Question was rhetorical, it is reality.

Moment of truth

When I was young and innocent, I had this surreal feeling as if I am in dream you know sort of like I am in Matrix.

Now having grown older, I have come to realize the I am in something, but it is definitely not Matrix.

Consider,

"Prince in the well"

And,

"Bart in the well"


So, this is The Simpsons after all !

This piece of wisdom brought to you by kripa of Jagadguru.

Irony

*

PS. Or chutzpah, I guess.

Aphorism:Slopes

In logic slippery slope may be fallacy, in real life though, it is inevitability.

Not meeting celebrity

Dear readers,

I am glad to report that today I did not meet either Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, or Neha Dhupia.

On popular demand (of one), I am also glad to report that I did not meet Tanushree Dutta, well not very glad, if you know what I mean.

Intervention

I never thought there would come a day where I will be linking to Tavleen Singh, but today is the day. Good reads.

A dark, distorted Hinduism and Our Sunita complex

Aphorism: Dystopia

Dystopia is Utopia in action, no matter what one might say.

On answer

There was something interesting in the last post. I invite Frogji and Sharanji to answer.

Hint: It is not necessarily based on accurate translation. The clue is in name. Think deep.

Update: I was too vague, to be specific the theme of the post was inspired by which real event ?

Another Update: Since Frogji has not been able to answer so far, and Sharanji (shame be upon him) has not even attempted, anyone who can answer it ?

Yet another update: Rabin, you bastard, since it was you who introduced me to Asimov, why dont you try ? Or is it that you are scared, huh huh ;-)

One more update: Ritwik had the right answer, which I deleted so that others can attempt. This kid is smart, he is also very ronery, usko ek teddy bear diya.

Final update: Yes, answer is Deep Blue, and yes it is for defeating a Grand Master in chess for the first time. For Dhruv one chota teddy bear, Shadows on the hand has proven that he is the real makaho, makhao (subject form of verb makhana ). I mean he almost got the damn answer. He gets kela.

Sigh why do you mortals keep on disappointing me !

Obama !

If you are a Dilbert aficionado, you must be familiar with weasel maneuvers. One of the more famous maneuvers is to dismiss any argument with a irrelevant sarcastic quip.

Consider following exchange in a team meeting,

A, "You know, there is some serious flaw in the architecture, may be we should rethink our approach".
B, "Hey, stop being a whiner, OK! Oh, and get laid.

No one can offer a comeback to this, because it is irrelevant.

This can explain this post and also this, I am of course discounting the possibility that in order to get student visa Indians have to go through the same procedure that mummies underwent in
ancient Egypt. Even accounting for Obama crush, the way posts manage to miss the point in its entirety is simply awesome.

The point is not that what Obama said was offensive or not. I, for one, think it was lame. But now I am going to tell you something which is very very confidential. You see, Obama is not just a guy next door, or some blogger, or contrary to what Republican may imply, even some love child of Osama Bin Laden.

He is, hold your breath, "freaking presidential candidate".

Which means if you are concerned about USA or even remotely interested in American politics, statements made by candidates seeking party nominations or by campaign will have importance or you, as reflecting their position as well as their sincerity, and therefore what he or his campaign is saying or disseminating deserves greater scrutiny.

Now if one does "bother" to scrutinize the document which raised the heckles, I am sure he(or she) would find pretty much to denounce and object.

But first I should clarify what is not objectionable. Use of D-Punjab for Hillary Clinton is not a problem, since she herself used it as a joke, neither is raising concern about outsourcing, sure I find protectionism stupid, but there is nothing wrong with taking stupid policy stands. Also there is nothing wrong with pointing out opponent's connection with unsavoury characters.

What is deplorable is his attempt to stoke paranoia and to cast India, and Indian-Americans in a negative light, in other words crass nativism, a cynical ploy coming from someone whose campaign promise is a break from "politics as usual".

From the document,

"HILLARY CLINTON (D-PUNJAB)’S PERSONAL FINANCIAL AND POLITICAL TIES TO INDIA"

Now why exactly are Clinton's ties, as long as they are above board, such a problem, for example would Obama and his campaign care if it were Britain or Australia instead of India. I have a suspicion that Obama is aiming for Rising Sun treatment.

"The Clintons have reaped significant financial rewards from their relationship with the Indian community, both in their personal finances and Hillary’s campaign fundraising"

Clintons are indicted for relations with whole Indian community not just one or two individual with questionable background, and the criticism is just for having good relations, not for any act of omission or commission. Imagine some candidate saying this about Jewish community and see how quickly the campaigns dies a sudden death.

Clinton has invested tens of thousands of dollars in an Indian bill payment company, while Hillary Clinton has taken tens of thousands from companies that outsource jobs to India."

The document neglects to mention that the company Bill Clinton invested in, has nothing to do with outsourcing ! Of course since most of the american companies from Wall Mart to MicroSoft have outsourcing as a serious component of their business plan, therefore if accepting contributions from companies which outsource to India is any criteria, then guess what! It will make most of the Fortune 500 companies Haraam. This is both anti-business and anti-India at one stroke!

"Bill Clinton Collected $300,000 From Cisco In 2006. Hillary’s personal financial disclosure norms indicate that Bill Clinton gave two speeches to Cisco Systems."

"Hillary Clinton Accepted Almost $60,000 In Contributions From Employees of Cisco Systems, Which Laid Off American Workers to Hire Indian “Techies.” Clinton’s Presidential Exploratory Committee took $39,450 from Cisco employees during the first quarter of 2007. Cisco employees have also donated $18,900 to Clinton’s Senate committee between 1999 and 2006. Forbes reported, in a feature called “A Tale of Two Cities” that Cisco was laying off $60,000-a-year “techies,” while hiring new employees in Bangalore, India. “Cisco used only a few Infosys workers in Bangalore six years ago [in 1998]; [by 2004, it used] almost 300 contract staff, plus 550 full-fledged employees in its own Bangalore office.” In 2006, Newsweek reported that “for Cisco, India is the new frontier, where it’s investing $1.2 billion to build a gleaming R&D campus that will employ 3,000 people.” [FEC filings; Forbes, /12/04; Newsweek, 3/6/06]"

This must be the most absurd assertion, I mean accusing Clintons of hanky panky with Indians because they had perfectly legal dealing with "Cisco", an american IT giant! Hey Bhagwan, Obama should really quit smoking weed.

"Clinton Donor, Sant Singh Chatwal, Cited Clinton’s India Caucus Work Vowed To Raise $5 Million. In March 2007, the Economic Times wrote, “[Clinton] has roped in New York-based hotelier Sant Chatwal as co-chair of her recently formed presidential exploratory committee to run for the 2008 White House race. […] He is also creating an organization called Indian Americans for Hillary 2008.” In April 2007, Mangalorean reported that Indian Americans for Hillary 2008 (IAFH) had already raised $1 million and “aimed to raise at least five million dollars.” A major fund raiser on June 24 hosted by Chatwal, the founder of IAFH; steel baron, Lakshmi Mittal, and businessman SP Hindujas, was expected to pull more than 1,000 guests. In June 2007, The New York Times reported that “two Indo-American receptions have a total of $450,000 in commitments.” In the picture right), Sen. Clinton speaks at a reception hosted to push forward the US-India nuclear deal (Emphasis mine) while Sant Singh Chatwal listens carefully. [New York Times, 6/7/07; Economic Times of India, 3/18/07; mangalorean.com, 4/14/07, accessed 4/18/07; picture, Tribune India, 9/14/06]"

Yes Indian-Americans are pushing for Nuclear deal and better Indo-American ties, and yes Clintons are pushing for it, as are many other Lawmakers of bipartisan basis. What is so sinister about it. It is not as if India is ruled by Obama, oops I mean Osama or Kim Jong. I mean keeping international trends in mind strong Indo-American ties are a no brainer ! Of course I doubt that Obama has any grasp on International affairs.

"Clinton Co-Founded The Senate India Caucus, A Project Of The U.S. India Political Action Committee. In 2004, Clinton co-founded and became the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus which was coordinated by the U.S. India Political Action Committee (USINPAC). Roll Call reported, “The goals of the caucus, which already has 31 members, include increasing trade with India and improving security against global terrorism.” Sen. Clinton said, “It is imperative that the Unites States do everything possible to reach out to India. This Caucus is dedicated to expanding areas of agreement with India and engaging in a candid dialogue of differences.” [link to photo at USINPAC website, accessed 4/17/07; Roll Call, 4/28/04; PR Newswire, 4/29/04]"

Sorry I take it back, this IS the most absurd assertion. Listen Obama lovers, there is nothing evil or treasonous about advocating strong ties with India. In fact it is for good of both countries. If you think that you can project India as some sort of brown peril, then you are out of touch with reality. Stop listening to Lou Dobbs.

Obama has not acted like a fool for the first time though. His statement after Virgina tech massacre was, hold your breath,

"There's also another kind of violence that we're going to have to think about. It's not necessarily the physical violence, but the violence that we perpetrate on each other in other ways," he said, and goes on to catalogue other forms of violence."There's the "verbal violence" of Imus.There's "the violence of men and women who have worked all their lives and suddenly have the rug pulled out from under them because their job is moved to another country.(Emphasis mine)"There's "the violence of children whose voices are not heard in communities that are ignored,""*

At this point I do have to wonder again, What the hell is he smoking ! Wait, it doesn't end here.

He has blamed his staff three times for some or other miscues. Either he is someone who can not accept his mistake, or he doesn't have the judgement to select the right kind of people.

Of course appealing for sanity or reason is futile when one is besotted with Obama. Listen, both of you, as much as you would wish, you can never be Obama girl. And no, having man boobs or fat behind doesn't count.

As an aside, what exactly is going to be the ticket. Now I think that Republicans are more or less doomed. Unlike useless scholars, I am not going to pretend that I have any knowledge about American politics, but I thought the ticket could be Hillary/Obama (Obama as VP).

Even taking into account that dictum that politics make for strange bedfellows and all, with the present love fest between two, I am not so sure about the possibility.

May be it would be Edwards/Obama, but the question that Americans need to ask themselves is, can they entrust the Republic under command of two good looking guys? I believe that every society should ensure a minimum level of ugliness at the top level, it protects the society.

Root of all evil

25.806975801127880315188420605149

People with no taste.

From confidential sources I have come to know that some lady lifted one passage from this post of bastard "person of unknown parentage" scholar. Now it is entirely possible that both the parties concerned have similar taste which means that their writing is marked by similar turn of phrase, and utter lack of imagination. However if this is indeed a case of copy-paste job, what appalls me most is, of all possible candidates, why him ? I think this is one more testimony to shocking lack of taste and discernment. I mean, if you want to copy, why not copy me? Because you have to admit this is one kick ass post.