Robots Working for less Economist.com: "since 1990 the average price of robots has plunged by as much as 75% in comparison with labour compensation."
Friday, June 20, 2008
Circumcision, monogamy, and America
According to Christopher Wilson, a neurobiologist at Cornell University, and as reported in Circumcision Cutting the competition Economist.com: "Some 48% of the highly polygynous ones practised a form of male-genital mutilation, and the number rose to 63% when co-wives kept separate households. By contrast, only 14% of monogamous societies practised mutilation. Moreover, and also as predicted, the mutilations were almost always carried out in public, often as part of a coming-of-age ceremony at puberty, with strong stigma attached to unmutilated men."
So, given that traditionally non-Muslim males in India never went through circumcision, does it mean that monogamy saved the foreskin? All right, more power to monogamy then :-)
The article further reports that "most of the Western world has already largely abandoned routine neonatal circumcision, which is seen as an outdated and unfortunate medical fad.
The exceptions are America, where more than half of newborn boys are still circumcised, and Africa, where circumcision helps to stop the transmission of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus. "
America's exceptional status even in something like this. As Yakov Smirnoff says, America: what a country!"
So, given that traditionally non-Muslim males in India never went through circumcision, does it mean that monogamy saved the foreskin? All right, more power to monogamy then :-)
The article further reports that "most of the Western world has already largely abandoned routine neonatal circumcision, which is seen as an outdated and unfortunate medical fad.
The exceptions are America, where more than half of newborn boys are still circumcised, and Africa, where circumcision helps to stop the transmission of HIV, the AIDS-causing virus. "
America's exceptional status even in something like this. As Yakov Smirnoff says, America: what a country!"
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Paintings on the move
Indians top US spelling contests
BBC NEWS South Asia Indians top US spelling contests: "Over the years many children of South Asian origin have left their mark at the spelling event, but why do they dominate it?"
The Spelling Bee is a curiously American phenom. I have always suspected that the modern popularity of the event is because of immigrants who place a high value on learning, as opposed to, say, arts and sports. So, while some kids might show off their ballet moves, here are a few competing with words. Spellbound followed one such case, remember?
This is what Tunku Varadarajan suggested, back in 2005: "Success at letters is the sweetest sort of success, the achievement nonpareil.
For millennia, India was a land where the poorest scholar was held in higher esteem than the richest businessman. This approach to life proved disastrous for modern India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister and a Brahmin to his manicured fingertips, had such contempt for business (and for profits) that his economic policies condemned his people to two generations of stagnation.
But Nehru would have approved of spelling bees. Indian pedagogy relies heavily on rote memorization--the result of a fusion of Victorian teaching methods imposed by the British and ancient Hindu practice, in which the guru (or teacher) imparted his learning to pupils via an oral tradition. (The Victorians, for their part, regarded correct spelling almost as a moral virtue, and certainly as a caste "signifier," to use a clumsy anthropological term.)
For millennia, India was a land where the poorest scholar was held in higher esteem than the richest businessman. This approach to life proved disastrous for modern India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister and a Brahmin to his manicured fingertips, had such contempt for business (and for profits) that his economic policies condemned his people to two generations of stagnation.
But Nehru would have approved of spelling bees. Indian pedagogy relies heavily on rote memorization--the result of a fusion of Victorian teaching methods imposed by the British and ancient Hindu practice, in which the guru (or teacher) imparted his learning to pupils via an oral tradition. (The Victorians, for their part, regarded correct spelling almost as a moral virtue, and certainly as a caste "signifier," to use a clumsy anthropological term.)
Monday, June 16, 2008
Mukesh Ambani--India’s Richest Man
Meet Mukesh Ambani: "In the last century, Mohandas K. Gandhi was India’s most famous and powerful private citizen. Today, Mr. Ambani is widely regarded as playing that role, though in a very different way. Like Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Ambani belongs to a merchant caste known as the modh banias, is a vegetarian and a teetotaler and is a revolutionary thinker with bold ideas for what India ought to become.
Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and, some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the richest person on earth before long."
I don't understand the comparison with MK Gandhi. I mean, why would anybody want to compare, say Bill Gates with George Washington? Very strange ....
But otherwise an informative article.
Yet Mr. Gandhi was a scrawny ascetic, a champion of the village, a skeptic of modernity and a man focused on spiritual purity. Mr. Ambani is a fleshy oligarch, a champion of the city, a burier of the past and a man who deftly — and, some critics say, ruthlessly — wields financial power. He is the richest person in India, with a fortune estimated in the tens of billions of dollars, and many people here expect that he will be the richest person on earth before long."
I don't understand the comparison with MK Gandhi. I mean, why would anybody want to compare, say Bill Gates with George Washington? Very strange ....
But otherwise an informative article.
Orygun, E-rock, and Guangzhou
When I moved to Oregon almost six years ago, I was initially puzzled to see the “Orygun” bumper stickers. Since then, I have travelled east of the Mississippi as a naturalized Oregonian, and I now understand the need for such a sticker to highlight the correct way to pronounce the name of our state.
I was recently in Boston for the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. It turned out that the Boston Marathon was to be held the Monday after the meeting ended, and the geographers’ venue was right by the finish line.
No wonder that on three occasions, strangers at cafes asked me whether I was in the city to compete in the marathon. Their question was absolutely flattering, particularly because the last time I ran for more than a block was many years ago — after I got mugged as I was heading out of the Amtrak station in downtown Los Angeles!
Their follow-up question was to ask where I was visiting from. When I told them “Oregon,” it was not at all flattering when they repeated the same word as “Oregone.”
I wished I had a few of those “Orygun” bumper stickers to slap on to their foreheads right then and there. It was more awful when even academics at the conference said “Western Oregone University.”
I guess we feel slighted when people mispronounce Oregon. We then feel a deep emotion to intentionally mess up their names in return, or worse.
My students think so, too, when I bring this to their attention — which is when I make it a point to remind them that Iraq is not pronounced as “eye-rack” and Iran is not “eye-ran.” I do not mean to suggest that correctly pronouncing the names of these or other countries is all that matters. But correctly pronouncing their names will be a significant first step toward understanding them— particularly when we are the people determining the fate of Iraq, and when we are far from being a beloved country in the Middle East.
Correctly pronouncing Iraq or Iran, or any other country for that matter, is important also because of contrasting effort we put into pronouncing European names. I can’t remember the last time a newscaster pronounced the French city of Lyons as if it were “lions.”
In fact, just to drive home this point, last term I wrote “Lyons” on the board and asked my class to pronounce it. Immediately came the correct response — ironically, from the same student who earlier had said “eye-rack.”
Of course, with a name that is not quite the typical Western name, I have heard it (mis)pronounced in a number of strange ways. The most memorable of them all was when I worked as a transportation planner in Bakersfield, Calif.
A colleague at another agency, with whom I worked on several projects, always called me “Sirhan.” Initially I tried correcting her, and then even joked with her that I am not related to Sirhan Sirhan — Robert Kennedy’s assassin. Despite my best efforts, I was only Sirhan to her.
In times such as this, I am reminded of a Tamil saying that translates: You cannot straighten a dog’s curved tail, because it will revert to the same old position.
Another colleague jokingly suggested that I change my name to Sam Murphy, to get around such problems. Well, there is a good chance I might have become Sam Murphy if I had immigrated in the 1800s, when many names were changed at Ellis Island, often against the wishes of the immigrants themselves.
We had better start getting used to correctly pronouncing names that may not look or sound familiar, even if only out of our own self-interest. One reason is, of course, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our standing in the world.
Another reason: In a rapidly globalizing environment, it is China, India, and many non-Western countries where we anticipate lots of changes — economically, culturally, militarily — and these are countries where the names of people and places are often vastly different from what we are used to.
So, here is lesson one: pronounce “Guangzhou”!
Copyright © 2008 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA
I was recently in Boston for the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers. It turned out that the Boston Marathon was to be held the Monday after the meeting ended, and the geographers’ venue was right by the finish line.
No wonder that on three occasions, strangers at cafes asked me whether I was in the city to compete in the marathon. Their question was absolutely flattering, particularly because the last time I ran for more than a block was many years ago — after I got mugged as I was heading out of the Amtrak station in downtown Los Angeles!
Their follow-up question was to ask where I was visiting from. When I told them “Oregon,” it was not at all flattering when they repeated the same word as “Oregone.”
I wished I had a few of those “Orygun” bumper stickers to slap on to their foreheads right then and there. It was more awful when even academics at the conference said “Western Oregone University.”
I guess we feel slighted when people mispronounce Oregon. We then feel a deep emotion to intentionally mess up their names in return, or worse.
My students think so, too, when I bring this to their attention — which is when I make it a point to remind them that Iraq is not pronounced as “eye-rack” and Iran is not “eye-ran.” I do not mean to suggest that correctly pronouncing the names of these or other countries is all that matters. But correctly pronouncing their names will be a significant first step toward understanding them— particularly when we are the people determining the fate of Iraq, and when we are far from being a beloved country in the Middle East.
Correctly pronouncing Iraq or Iran, or any other country for that matter, is important also because of contrasting effort we put into pronouncing European names. I can’t remember the last time a newscaster pronounced the French city of Lyons as if it were “lions.”
In fact, just to drive home this point, last term I wrote “Lyons” on the board and asked my class to pronounce it. Immediately came the correct response — ironically, from the same student who earlier had said “eye-rack.”
Of course, with a name that is not quite the typical Western name, I have heard it (mis)pronounced in a number of strange ways. The most memorable of them all was when I worked as a transportation planner in Bakersfield, Calif.
A colleague at another agency, with whom I worked on several projects, always called me “Sirhan.” Initially I tried correcting her, and then even joked with her that I am not related to Sirhan Sirhan — Robert Kennedy’s assassin. Despite my best efforts, I was only Sirhan to her.
In times such as this, I am reminded of a Tamil saying that translates: You cannot straighten a dog’s curved tail, because it will revert to the same old position.
Another colleague jokingly suggested that I change my name to Sam Murphy, to get around such problems. Well, there is a good chance I might have become Sam Murphy if I had immigrated in the 1800s, when many names were changed at Ellis Island, often against the wishes of the immigrants themselves.
We had better start getting used to correctly pronouncing names that may not look or sound familiar, even if only out of our own self-interest. One reason is, of course, the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our standing in the world.
Another reason: In a rapidly globalizing environment, it is China, India, and many non-Western countries where we anticipate lots of changes — economically, culturally, militarily — and these are countries where the names of people and places are often vastly different from what we are used to.
So, here is lesson one: pronounce “Guangzhou”!
Copyright © 2008 — The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Plants talk to each other?
A long time ago, when I was in graduate school, a friend who was working on his doctorate in weeds--the garden ones, not the ones that are smoked!--had a simple response to my question on how to make sure my houseplants don't die: "keep them together or close by, because they like company" is what he said. Or something to that effect. We laughed.
Now, I wonder if he knew something more than that punchline.
The NY Times reports: "“Plants,” Dr. Dudley said, “have a secret social life.”
Since the research on sea rockets was published in August in Biology Letters, a journal of the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, Dr. Dudley and colleagues have found evidence that three other plant species can also recognize relatives."
Interesting that this botanical communication is also a key aspect of the plot in Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening. Read this interview with Shyamalan in the Scientific American.
Now, I wonder if he knew something more than that punchline.
The NY Times reports: "“Plants,” Dr. Dudley said, “have a secret social life.”
Since the research on sea rockets was published in August in Biology Letters, a journal of the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, Dr. Dudley and colleagues have found evidence that three other plant species can also recognize relatives."
Interesting that this botanical communication is also a key aspect of the plot in Shyamalan's latest movie, The Happening. Read this interview with Shyamalan in the Scientific American.
Iraq, the sovereign colony?
I don't think I will be as harsh in my assessment of the Iraqi situation as is this editorial in The Hindu: "The regime of Nouri al-Maliki apparently has no qualms about plumbing new depths of ignominy."
But, the editorial is certainly an example of the views of quite a few millions (billions?) out there who see the US/Maliki relationship as not being helpful to Iraq.
Meanwhile this editorial in the Boston Globe has a title that says it all: Iraq, the sovereign colony? And the lead sentence in the editorial is absolutely unequivocal: "President Bush has been treating Iraq less as an ally than a vassal."
I wonder how this nightmare will end! Certainly not via Iran, I hope.
But, the editorial is certainly an example of the views of quite a few millions (billions?) out there who see the US/Maliki relationship as not being helpful to Iraq.
Meanwhile this editorial in the Boston Globe has a title that says it all: Iraq, the sovereign colony? And the lead sentence in the editorial is absolutely unequivocal: "President Bush has been treating Iraq less as an ally than a vassal."
I wonder how this nightmare will end! Certainly not via Iran, I hope.
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