Invasion by sound.

The pleasure of reading, I find, is in the fact that you can travel to places and times using just the visual sense. The fact that the sense of hearing and touch are not involved in the experience is something I am beginning to enjoy more. I don't know if there can be utilitarian value to this disposition. This reason, why I like to read is something I never articulated (like a gazillion other things I never articulate or am not capable of articulating).
At this point I am a bit averse to my inside being invaded by sound. The thought of sound is bringing on a sense of violation.

Is this a sense of aging and growing ? or is it just a temporal glitch in the state of mind ?
I think this has a longer life than a glitch. I can relate to the impulse of the young mind to be constantly accompanied by some background sounds. Has that been placated by a sense of self assurance or rather resignation to "Other Influential Variables" ? It could also be the same mechanism that ignores the "cry of wolf", that works to make the crutch of "reassuring sounds" superfluous to the mind.

Segue question : Is it more likely that immigrant communities have a  higher tendency to have "reassuring sounds" play constantly in the background ? This being a over-riding need than the appreciation of the musicality of the sound.

Right now, I am trying to read Norman Mailer's "Prisoner of Sex". Maybe because I don't have a good grip on the English language. But I think all his fancy prose is taking up so much real estate that it is taking away from any point that he is trying to make. Is literature evaluated on the trickery of words and metaphors or on its ability to evoke the ideas, concepts, thoughts and actions in as many people as possible ? I for now am able to use only the latter metric.

Beyond the Male "Pill" | Popular Science

This is sooo weird. Imagine some guy doing this. Idea of using a key-fob as a contraceptive sounds contraceptive by itself :)
Hahaha imagine designing circuits for this application. How the hell are wireless companies going to test it in their labs.

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/gallery/2008-05/beyond-male-pill --- How it works A doctor inserts a thin piece of silicon embedded with circuits into the vas deferens. The circuits convert radio signals from the fob to acoustic waves, which cause the material to expand and block sperm. Advantages A second click of the fob contracts the material to unblock the sperm. Removing the device would require just a quick visit to the doctor's office. Status Australian scientists have recently completed the design of the circuits. Tests in animals could begin in two years. Uh-oh factor Could listening to the radio wreck your fertility? Not quite. Using ultrahigh radio frequencies and signal coding eliminates the chance of accidental activation.

Incredible pictures of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes firing bows and arrows | Mail Online

Wow I didnt know there even existed uncontacted tribes.

[via reddit]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022822/Incredible-pictures-Earths-uncontacted-tribes-firing-bows-arrows.html --- Skin painted bright red, heads partially shaved, arrows drawn back in the longbows and aimed square at the aircraft buzzing overhead. The gesture is unmistakable: Stay Away. Behind the two men stands another figure, possibly a woman, her stance also seemingly defiant. Her skin painted dark, nearly black. The apparent aggression shown by these people is quite understandable. For they are members of one of Earth's last uncontacted tribes, who live in the Envira region in the thick rainforest along the Brazilian-Peruvian frontier.

   

Making Cell Phone Games a Public Spectacle

I am really thrilled by this idea. Its like modern kite flying :)

wired --- Next time you're in Times Square, put on your game face. You may be able to challenge the weirdos around you to a videogame on MTV's big-screen billboard. The controller? Your cell phone.

China’s Class Divide - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/opinion/21bell.html --- I've been teaching political theory at Tsinghua University here since 2004 and I've found that almost all of my students are driven to do good for society. So I wasn't surprised when, as word of the disaster came out, hundreds of Tsinghua students lined up overnight at a Red Cross station to donate blood and supplies. Others went to the earthquake zone, more than 1,000 miles away, to distribute aid. Now I'm hoping events can dispel another false impression: that young Chinese are xenophobic nationalists who cheer for their country, good or bad.

We Should Celebrate Rising Divorce Rates - The India Uncut Blog - India Uncut

Amit has written an interesting article here. But somehow I don't want to completely agree with his thesis. Increasing divorce rates maybe a  good indicator of the empowerment of women, but it could also be an indicator of the fall in value that we associate with "familly".  Are we as a society becoming less tolerant of lapses in character? to the point of not giving one's partner a second chance. I know its very difficult to identify where tolerance stops and where abuse begins. I am just trying to say that this trend should be looked at with measured positiveness. 
Amit says "In America, divorce rates climbed back down after the surge of the 1970s, mainly because young people took greater care in getting married, and premarital relationships were not considered sinful". Why cant Indian society evolve to have  more  premarital relationships  instead of going through  steep rise in divorce numbers. This would be a far better indicator of the maturity of people in our societies.

http://indiauncut.com/iublog/article/we-should-celebrate-rising-divorce-rates/ --- Divorce rates are going up across India. The figures that exist for our cities and towns show a sharp increase in the last decade or so. Many commentators bemoan this trend, speaking of the breakdown of families, the loss of family values and the influence of the West. But to me, the rising rate of divorces is a trend to celebrate. It is the single best statistical indicator we have of the empowerment of women.

Thakre and Thackeray- Hindustan Times

We need more of the intelligent maharashtrians to come out and speak against this nonsense.

[article by Vir Sanghvi @ HT]--- It would be a tragedy if the people or the politicians of the city of Bombay allowed this rivalry between uncle and nephew to change the traditions and heritage of this great metropolis. The only way to handle the Thackeray campaign is to hold firm and to tell the old boy to sort out his family disputes in the privacy of his own home. We are certainly not changing any more names only because he can't handle his nephew.

The Rise of the Rest | Newsweek.com

Interesting article by Fareed Zakaria.
However I am not very sure if the world is making as much progress as he seems to be claiming it is. In India I perceive a very rapidly expanding divide between the rich and the poor. So even though the GDP is growing at fast clip, the 7.5% inflation is something that can cause poor parents (about 50% of the population) to pull kids out of schools. In an information economy countries like India cannot milk the "we speak english" advantage for multiple generations. When this growing young population will see a ceiling to the progress it could morph into an explosive situation. What about the riots in France and recently in South Africa. Also when new powers rise, wouldn't there be more friction? Mr.Zakaria seems to be making a lot of simplistic assumptions.

In his video he makes an interesting point, that the biggest strength of US is its immigration policy and the strength of its educational institutions. I couldn't agree more. Here I think both India and China are at a big disadvantage. China can build top notch schools but its roadblock will be free thinking people. Can they encourage this in schools and still have a censored media. In India its amazing how, the media, the politicians and the citizen journalists aren't even talking about our decrepit higher educational system.

PS: I like the term the "Rise of the Rest".

[article] --- Americans—particularly the American government—have not really understood the rise of the rest. This is one of the most thrilling stories in history. Billions of people are escaping from abject poverty. The world will be enriched and ennobled as they become consumers, producers, inventors, thinkers, dreamers, and doers. This is all happening because of American ideas and actions. For 60 years, the United States has pushed countries to open their markets, free up their politics, and embrace trade and technology. American diplomats, businessmen, and intellectuals have urged people in distant lands to be unafraid of change, to join the advanced world, to learn the secrets of our success. Yet just as they are beginning to do so, we are losing faith in such ideas. We have become suspicious of trade, openness, immigration, and investment because now it's not Americans going abroad but foreigners coming to America. Just as the world is opening up, we are closing down.

Food crisis meets chaos in Horn of Africa - International Herald Tribune

Bad rains, internal wars, US wrath, Corrupt politicians. At times we think "Is the situation in India hopeless ?". I wonder if history shows us that such societies can get back to normalcy.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/17/africa/17somalia.php?page=2 --- Beyond the warlord and clan fighting, there is now a budding conflict with Western aid workers. The Bush administration has said that Al Qaeda terrorists are hiding in Somalia, sheltered by local Islamists, and gone after them with American air strikes. But a recent American attack on an Islamist leader in Dhusamareb, a town in the center of the drought zone, has spawned a wave of revenge threats against Western aid workers. The United Nations and private aid organizations say it's now too dangerous to expand their life-saving work in Dhusamareb.

World Science Festival 2008

Five Day Science Festival In New York City Featuring Nobel Laureates Co-Founded by Brian Greene
If you are lucky to be around NYC :)

chennai superstars

The Atlantic Cosby Crusade

India and Food

NYT --- Mr. Mehta said that if Americans slimmed down to the weight of middle-class Indians, "many hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa would find food on their plates." He added, archly, that the money spent in the United States on liposuction to get rid of fat from excess consumption could be funneled to feed famine victims.

Contrast the above NYT article with the BBC front-page news about under-nourished kids in India.

A malnourished child in Delhi

[BBC] More than 1.5m children in India are at risk of becoming malnourished because of rising global food prices, the UN children's charity, Unicef, says. It warns that food inflation could be devastating for vulnerable women and children right across South Asia.The region already has the largest number of malnourished children in the world and levels could get even worse.

Also very sad statement by P Sainath on where India is today. [article]
No minister came forward to calm the nation when India hit 94th rank in the Global Hunger Index. That's out of 118 countries. The daily, DNA, though, did capture the essence of the story with its report: Ethiopians manage hunger better than us. For indeed, they do these days. At least in their score on the GHI Progress Indicator of the International Food Policy Research Institute. Ethiopia worked better at reducing hunger than we did even though worse off in overall ranking. Zimbabwe, facing hyperinflation and worse, still ranks ahead of us at slot 93 in the GHI itself. Gabon, Honduras and Bolivia are also all ahead of us in that list. Pakistan too, is ahead of us in the GHI, at 88. China logs in at 47. All our south asian neighbours do better than us on this index, except Bangladesh. And who knows when they'll overtake us? Even Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia, outranks us. None of them boasts an economy growing at 9 per cent a year.

V. Raghunathan: 'Indians Are Privately Smart and Publicly Dumb' - India Knowledge@Wharton

Knowledge at Wharton --- In Shanghai, in four years they built out the magnetic levitation train that connects the airport to the city. Or consider a simpler example. When I was in Shanghai, I saw a newspaper ad that addressed the citizens and said, "If you want to be residents of a world-class city, you must behave accordingly and not hang your laundry out to dry on your balcony." When I drove around the city, I did not see a single Chinese home with washed clothes hanging on the balcony. In India, it is unthinkable that you could even make such an appeal. So it is true that nowhere in the world are people immune to the prisoner's dilemma. But the incidence of defection in almost every walk of life seems to be unique to India. This may seem to be a caricature, but if I am exaggerating certain features, it is because I want to draw attention to them.

[via youth curry]

The Hindu : Front Page : Amid drama, Women’s Bill tabled in the Rajya Sabha

This is the kind of democracy the India Shining Inc. is capable of even today. Dont you think this is representative of us as Indians. I dont think this is just a bunch of politicians. Its our culture. Will we ever be a more mature people. Can we expect to be a prosperous country with this kind of behavior from our leaders and elected representatives? If we have to provide voice and opportunity to the underprivileged then can such behavior ever allow that.

From the Hindu --- As soon as Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj rose to introduce the Bill, SP member Abu Azim Azmi, who was protesting with his party colleagues in the well of the House, moved towards the Minister in what appeared a bid to snatch the Bill — a possible repeat of the 1998 incident in which the Bill was torn up in the Lok Sabha after its introduction. Anticipating such a situation, Congress members had formed a cordon around Mr. Bhardwaj. When Mr. Azmi continued with his attempts, Ministers Renuka Choudhury and Panabaka Lakshmi physically held him back, even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders watched.

More from rediff.

India Together: Oh! What a lovely waiver - 11 March 2008

1. Its only bank loans and not money lender loans
2. 2 hectare limit not in line with the land acreage held in Vidarbha
3. one-time settlement" of their bank loans. In this case, if they repay 75 per cent of the loan, they will be given a rebate of 25 per cent.
4. The cut-off date of March 31, 2007 works against even the small group of Vidarbha farmers who do benefit. Loans in the cotton regions are taken between April and June. In the cane growing regions, they are taken between January and March. This means the Vidarbha farmer has one less year of loans waived than the others.

http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/mar/psa-waiver.htm --- While gasping at the size of the "write-off" it's worth asking why the loan waiver comes up now. Why not in 2005, when the demand was already being made? Or in 2006 when the Prime Minister visited Vidarbha and was shaken by the widespread distress. Mr. Pawar has outsmarted his rivals. Had the step been taken then, the credit would have gone entirely to the Congress. No prizes for guessing who opposed it then (when it would have cost much less). For three years, while the misery and suicides mounted in Vidarbha, there was not even the admission that a loan waiver was possible. Indeed, it was shot down by those now taking out full page ads claiming credit for it. As they complain in Vidarbha, this is not about karza maafi. It is about seeking voter maafi (voters' forgiveness) in election year.

Also see Sainath's article on the bear stearns bailout.