The Economist!!

We have found root cause of all problems in Indian Economy. It seems we have been wasting time so many years formulating economic theories etc.


What: Here is a report in Hindustan Times. A Vaastu expert claims that the slide in the value of Rupee (with respect to USD), is caused by bad design of the new Rupee symbol (₹). He claims the second horizontal line symbolizes "slit throat" and is inauspicious for the rupee. Thanks Antariksh Bothale (writer of wonderful Linguistrix blog) for pointing this news item.


Why its here: Seriously! We should wind down all uesless things like economic advisory committee of GoI or institutes fretting over economic policy and simply appoint Vaastu or Feng Shui or Numerology or Astrology or "whatever is the latest stupid fad" experts to predict which direction our economy would go.

Everyone is a Maoist

Didi makes it here for third time.

What: Below is a weblink of a talk show on CNN-IBN news channel. Didi was asked some uncomfortable questions by the audience. Her response was to label all of them as CPM cadres and Maoists and walk off the show.

Mamta's new antics on CNN-IBN

Why its here: Do I have to really say it?

(Un)safe Garden

What: I happened to take my son to Kamla Nehru Park on Malabar Hill in Mumbai yesterday. Following video was captured there.

*There is no audio to this video.

Why its here: Clearly the ride is broken. The municipality has neither got time to fix it nor to barricade it. Children are still playing with it and it is clearly being used way above its prescribed capacity. There are parents standing nearby but they are not even bothered by this clearly unsafe ride.

Another Cartoon row

What is it with Indian political parties and cartoons? We have second cartoon row in a month.

What: This cartoon was first published by legendary cartoonist Shankar in 1949. It depicts newly independent India's impatience with drafting of constitution. Two identifiable figures in the cartoon are Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, noted legal expert and chair of constitution drafting committee and Pandit Nehru India's first prime minister. This cartoon was one of the many cartoons introduced in federal government prescribed high school political science textbooks. This was part of wider effort to make social sciences appear less boring to students. This week some political parties demanded that this cartoon should be removed from textbooks as it insults Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who is elevated to nearly demigod status by his followers. HRD minister Kapil Sibbal promptly agreed with this claim, appologised to parliament and ordered withdrawal of the cartoon. Here is a story in The Hindu about the controversy.

Why its here: First of all, the textbook writers say (and I tend to agree) that in this cartoon the joke is on Nehru rather than Ambedkar. It shows that Ambedkar is making valient effort of jockeying the snail that the constitution drafting committee was turing out to be and at the same time keeping parliamentarians (who are agitated by the snail's pace) at bay. But still there no stopping for Nehru, who was known for impatience. How this cartoon derides Ambedkar is beyond me. Secondly, the cartoon has been part of the textbooks since 2005. Why this sudden flare up? Even more importantly, the cartoon was originally published in 1949, when both Nehru and Ambedkar were alive and very influencial. There is no record of either of them objecting to this cartoon either in public or in private. Both had great belief in freedom of expression and at least Nehru (I am not sure about Ambedkar) was a fan of Shankar's cartoons.

Cloud Computing

This is an one year old video of Mr. Deshbandu Gupta. This Mr. Gupta is some retired government officer and self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusader. In this video he is talking about "cloud" computing.

What: He basically says cloud computing is not safe as nobody knows what will happen to information stored in the cloud if there is heavy rain.

Why its here: It is the best nonsense I have heard in long long time.

Pseudo-Scientific Spirituality

On 3rd May Times of India published an article by some spiritual guru on its editorial page. Here is link to the full article. I am just reproducing some extracts which are quiet hilarious. After reading it I can understand why some of my friends have started calling it 'TOI'let paper. Thanks to Sreekrishna Varma Raja P. C. for bringing this to my notice.

What: Another aspect is, on poornima, the planet is in a certain position in relation to the moon. The vibration and feel of the moon is very different when it is full. And its magnetic pull is also different at that time. It is working upon the surface of the planet which is exposed to the moon. When there is such a natural pull, since your spine is vertical, there is a tendency for your energies to move upward. That means, blood and prana, the fundamental life energies, flow in a different way. Just as tides rise higher on that night because of the moon’s gravitational pull, your blood is also being pulled up and the circulation of blood increases in your brain.

This upsurge of energy enhances your qualities, whatever they may be. If you are mentally imbalanced, it will make you even more imbalanced.

Why its here: From Physics point of view, the entire first para is nonsense. There is nothing special about full moon position. It is same as any other phase of the moon. Secondly, the moon's magnetic field is practically zero as compared the earth. Thirdly, tidal forces on a human body are again negligible as compared to the gravitation field.

The analogy I like to give against all these pseudo-scientific arguments goes something like this: There is an elephant pushing a car from one side and an ant pushing the same car in exactly the opposite direction. So if you ask me "is there some force exerted by the ant?", I must answer "Yes". But more relevant question here would be "Does it matter?"

The second para is another medical myth which was common 30-40 years back but has been statistically disproven. Don't these people learn anything when they were in school?