Sex and the Olympics?

Over the last couple of days, I noticed that many of the twitter and webzine and blog sources that I regularly check had something to say about how the Olympics is, well, increasingly sexy.  Like this tweet from Salon, for instance:

Sexiest Olympics ever? Our lust for athletes goes back to “wealthy Roman girls running off with gladiators”

I don't know about the "our" lust--I don't remember the last time that I sat down to watch anything.  No opening ceremony. No closing. Nothing in between.  I merely read up the news later on.  But, the news has always reported enough for me to, including photos of attractive men and women Olympians.  

Anyway, Salon has a photo collection, of which this struck me the most (hey, I am no stuck-up prude!):

Andrew Sullivan cites a study in which the authors report that

[N]early three-quarters of the women’s coverage was devoted to gymnastics, swimming, diving and beach volleyball. Notice anything they have in common? The researchers did. "It is now customary for the participants in all of these events … to wear the equivalent of a bathing suit," they note in their analysis, which appears in the journal Electronic News.
Track and field, where the clothing is almost as minimal, made up another 13 percent of the women’s prime-time coverage.

What percentage of the men and women watching the eye candy events might have a comment comparable to the old one about buying Playboy for the articles? :)

The video that Sullivan has embedded there is funny, too:



A MSNBC report quoted this:

ALL of a sudden, the Olympics have got sexy. Really sexy.
The pin-up babes of the US Olympic football team arrived for their first training session in Glasgow yesterday.

 I preferred the straightforward approach here, in the usage of "pin-up babes."  No euphemisms.

And then, of course, that "sexy" athletes would get rid of the "y" from the word and get on with it :)  As this USA Today report put it:

the mayor of the Olympic Village is presiding over Sodom and its neighboring suburb of Gomorrah.

Hey, what happens in the Village, stays in the Village!

Of course, all these aren't new by any means.  All the way from high school through life, athletic people seemed to have always lived up the sexual reputations.  I mean, when was the last time you ever heard of the chess team being all sexy? Bobby Fischer was no pin-up babe! :)

Meanwhile, Slate wonders what's up with a lesbian kissing scene that was apparently shown in the opening ceremony ("apparently" because, remember, I rarely ever watch these events, whether or not the people are sexy!)

[The] question that dominated my Twitter feed was whether NBC had censored the transmission of Britain’s first lesbian kiss. This came in the odd pre-parade section, “Frankie and June Say … Thanks, Tim,” a celebration of digital Britain. As young Londoners Frankie and June enjoyed their first kiss, the big screen showed famous film and TV smackeroos, involving Hugh Grant, Shrek, Lady and the Tramp, and various other megastars. Immediately after the canine-spaghetti-eating make-out scene, two young women were shown locking lips. This scene lasted just half a second, but according to a few overheated news reports, since the ceremonies were aired around the world, this was the first same-sex kiss shown in some Middle Eastern nations.

Oh well, another day in the dull, boring, and uneventful life of Sriram's :)

This land is my land ... this land is (not) your land?

Remember this from 2004?



Well, perhaps it never was our land, and it was all an ideal?

a

And the Peter/Paul/Mary version, which, about two decades ago, was my intro to this song

The Cheetah Girls and ... Gotye?

Yes, I know it is a strange juxtaposition; but, there is a method to my madness :)

Remembrance of things past: Waheeda Rehman

The Hindu interviews Waheeda Rehman.  The songs and movies she refers to are all my favorites, with "Piya Tose Naina Lage Re" the best of 'em all--not the first time I write about in this blog :)



Rehman refers to the influence Guru Dutt had on her, and about the movie Pyaasa.  One of my favorite songs from that movie is this one:



I wonder why Rehman didn't say anything about Kaagaz Ke Phool ...perhaps because of the tales from the past?

If you disagree, shut up! Academe today :(

Rarely anymore are serious intellectual debates allowed on college campuses, it seems like  I have blogged plenty about this.  Like when I was told to shut up.  What is college for, if not to critique and, thereby, improve our understanding, right?

Joseph Stiglitz on inequality in the US

I wish John Stewart didn't talk that much, and left it to Joseph Stiglitz.  But then, well, it is after all Stewart's show, eh!

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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So, is the beginning of the implosion of candidate Romney?

Nothing like the live political theatre that I can watch from my living room :)

London Mayor Calls Out Mitt Romney Over Olympics Criticism

Romney is spectacularly failing the Coriolanus test that campaigns essentially are in a democracy!

John Stewart had a wonderful observation about this condescending attitude of his:

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Rock of Ages is a reminder that the 1980s music was not bad!

"$1.25" the young woman at the box office said, as she lifted her head from the book that she was reading when I asked for one ticket to Rock of Ages.

I thought I misheard her.  It can't be $1.25!  "Say that again"

"$1.25" she said in a rather bored and tired voice while her jaws worked the chewing gum.

Hey, the greenback is still worth something, after all!

It was more than twenty minutes to movie time when I entered the theater.  There was nobody else.  I mean, nobody.  I consciously chose a seat from where I had a good view of the door--so that I could run for my life in case any nutcase walked in.  And, of course, the cellphone was ready in my hands.

Ten minutes later, two older women walked in.  I eased into my seat and relaxed.  The cellphone went into my pocket.

One of the women looked like she was in her late sixties, or even early seventies.  And she was here for a movie about music from the 1980s?

A few more people came in, and soon it was show time.

Watching the movie was like watching MTV back in the 1980s--it was pretty much a collection of music videos, but I had no complaints.  Though, I would have preferred a little bit more of a story line than what was there--at least to the extent that Mamma Mia attempted, while channeling Abba.



As much as I like "Don't stop believin'," which is a central piece to the movie, even better is the optimistic one from Fleetwood Mac, which is not in the film--after all, the Fleetwood Mac song is not from the 1980s.



This particular version is especially awesome because of the Trojan marching band playing with the group, but then I could be biased :)

The two "don't stop" songs are reminder of music without autotune and the industrial and robotic music manufactured these days.  Whenever there is a "live performance" on TV, most of the contemporary pop artists fall so flat in their abilities to sing, without all that autotuning.  One of the few things that I hate with the technological advancements, I suppose.

But, hey, don't stop believin' ...

China's various shades of red

I have often expressed in this blog my disapproval of the "communist" party rule in China.  When I evaluate the different systems all around the world, I often think about whether I would want to live there.  The bottom-line regarding China is an easy one for me: a definite no. 

However, it is up the citizens of China to develop whatever social contract they want, as long as they don't force me to live under their norms.  To some extent, this is also what many other countries tell the US, right--that we should stop forcing everybody on the planet to use the US Constitution?

In my graduate school days, every once in a while I engaged my fellow-students from China on their social contract.  They were all not unhappy about it.  Some of them recognized the flaws, and yet seemed to prefer that over the structure here in the US, for instance, or what India has.  In a postmodernist world in which I intellectually understand that paradigms do not easily lend themselves to comparisons, I simply had to think in my mind that I couldn't live there, even if hundreds of millions are ok with that system.

Ramesh, who is no stranger to this blog, lived in China for three-plus years.  An ardent fan of capitalism, as even the title of his blog suggests, he writes, with perhaps a few more to come, that China and its politics are way more complex than the simplistic ways in which most of the rest of the world thinks about them: 

Mention the words Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the popular impression is that of an evil organisation, suppressing its people with an iron hand and bent on tyranny. The Party, like every other organisation in the world, has the good, the bad and the ugly. The bad and the ugly gets a lot of coverage and is well known. There is lot that is awful, even bordering on evil—like when it comes to Tibet and Xinjiang— and these have been well documented by the media all around the world . But, there is also the good that is seldom known.

The CCP is for large parts, a meritocracy resembling a corporate culture, more than a political party. It recruits the best talent, does careful career planning, imparts a lot of training—including at foreign universities—promotes the best talent, rotates them across different responsibilities and lets the best rise. It probably has the largest HR department in the world. Sure there is dirty politics of lobbying and incompetence, as with any corporate outfit. There are clear goals, objectives, targets and their performance appraisal system would shame even a well run company. By and large merit works. How many political parties can say that (ask Sonia Gandhi!)

In the CCP in its current format, another dictator like Mao is unlikely to arise. Senior leaders have a retirement age (India, US, are you listening?) There is no hereditary politics—Mao’s children and Deng’s children are political nobodies. In fact there is a generational change in leadership coming this autumn. Peaceful handover of power, which was hitherto the preserve of mature democracies, is now a fact in China.

The Party actually listens to the people. It may not be well known, but there are about 500 protests that happen in China every day. Not every protestor is jailed and beaten (although some are.) While there is brutal censorship of news, public opinion triggers action. The milk scandal, discontent over rising prices, house prices bubble, etc., have all seen responses that would actually make a democracy proud. As in most other countries, there is cover up (easier because there is no free press), but when the issue comes out, action is usually swift. The way the CCP listens to people and reacts is very different from democracies, but there is no denying that strong public opinion elicits a response.

There are no inter‐state disputes (again, are you listening, India?) Polarisation, which we increasingly see in democracies, is not a factor in China.

The ultimate test of any political party is this: can it win public support in an election. In this, the CCP comes out with flying colours. If there was a completely free and fair election in China today, the CCP will probably win a 90% majority. Almost nobody who knows China will dispute that.

As with all things in life, things are not black and white. There are only shades of grey—well, shades of red, in China!

The economy hits youth worst as they lose the generational war

The Wall Street Journal provides an interesting commentary on how the persistently high unemployment and underemployment among the youth compares with the stagflation the baby-boomers experienced.  In 1982, unemployment rate for the youth was a high 17%.  But,

the situation quickly improved. By the end of 1983, the unemployment rate for 18-24 year-olds had dropped below 14%, and it didn’t get back above that mark until the latest recession. This time around, joblessness among young people remains over 15% three years after the recovery began. ...
Many of today’s 20-somethings, therefore, are stuck on the sidelines for what should be — and what was for their parents — their most important years for wage growth and career development. The effects are likely to be long-lasting. A study by Yale economist Lisa Kahn found that “the labor market consequences of graduating from college in a bad economy are large, negative and persistent.”

From my reading of the situation, it is not getting better, and does not seem like it will get better any time soon.  It is awful!

On top of everything else, most of these youth are also graduating with debts from their years at colleges and universities, which then seems more and more the case that we are looking at a horrible prospect of, what Matt Yglesias referred to as, the indentured servant generation :(

Yet, we refuse to talk about one of the significant ways in which the youth are losing because the game is rigged against them: the enormous diversion of precious resources to the much older generations.

Social Security and Medicare were created in a very different America as a response to very different circumstances. The old-age entitlements were designed to alleviate problems related to an economy still in transition from rural agriculture to urban manufacturing and post-industrial services. Private pensions and retirement savings were relative rarities, and the communitarian dream of multiple generations living under the same roof—invoked as an ideal by some of the very people, such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, who champion old-age entitlements as a means of “independence” for seniors—was a routine necessity.
That’s no longer the case in a country where most retirees are wealthier than the younger people paying for their benefits. According to 2010 data (the latest available) from the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Consumer Expenditure Data, the typical American 65 or older had a pretax income of about $41,000 and annual expenses of about $37,000, including $4,800 for all medical care costs they bear under the current regime (insurance, prescription drugs, doctor’s visits, etc.). Those who can pay for their needs out of their own pockets should do so

Perhaps only James Bond can help; can he?

China's economy takes to the friendly skies

A couple of years ago, in a blog post that became an an op-ed on the bailout for American auto manufacturers, I noted my reservations against bailouts.  In that, I asked what we might do if China gets serious about its aircraft building business; well, hey, good to know that I wasn't off-base!  But, wait, is my being correct good news or bad news? :)

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So, how is China really doing? I wish I had learned more about China, and traveled to that country--well, at least one of those two things!  But, hey, maybe this guy might have more to say about China, its economy, and its peoples, eh!  After all, he lived and worked there for three years, and might even know how to correctly pronounce Guangzhou :)

BTW, I can relate to Fallows commenting to Colbert about the Chinese passengers rushing to the aircraft doors even before the plane reaches the gate--same story in India, too :(

Don't watch television until Thanksgiving!

It is not China's or India's problem that we outsource

The sudden populism over outsourcing reminds me of a Chinese saying that I recently came across: "If we don't change the direction in which we are headed, we will end up where we are going."

Twelve years ago, when I taught at California State University, Bakersfield, I assigned a class of about thirty‐five students the task of figuring out, through rough calculations, whether Bakersfield could compete against Bangalore, in India, when it came to call‐centers that the local leaders were pursuing as a growth strategy. At that time, outsourcing hadn’t entered the everyday political and cultural vocabulary, and Bangalore was unknown to most in the United States—after all, Thomas Friedman had yet to publicize these through his bestseller, “The World is Flat.”

Working in teams, the students independently arrived at the same conclusion—Bangalore will beat Bakersfield any day! My hope was that most of the class would have understood through this exercise how their economic futures could become increasingly dependent on developments in other parts of the world.

Well, we have now almost ended up where we were going—economic activities that might have generated many middle‐income jobs in the past have migrated to other countries that are equally, or more, interested in their development. Therefore, unemployment rates in the United States do not seem to be coming down despite all our attempts. And, yes, “outsourcing” is now a part of our lexicon and for which politicians have suddenly developed a fondness.

Yet, we seem to be talking about outsourcing not in any constructive manner. Outsourcing is being used to portray China or India as some kind of bad actors, when, in reality, they are far from any real competition to us. The average Indian earns barely five percent of the per capita income here in the US. The average Chinese is in a much better position than the average Indian, but the per capita income there is only a tenth of the American per capita income. India and China are not our competitors, but are much poorer countries where people are eager to improve their economic conditions.

Outsourcing economic activities to India or China or any number of countries has made possible goods and services at remarkably low prices. From t‐shirts to smart phones to customer support, we would have to pay a lot more than we currently do if there were no outsourcing at all.  It is not China’s or India’s problem that we failed to change our own direction over the years when we enjoyed the abundance of goods and services at affordable prices. Obsessed by the internet bubble, the events of 9/11 and then the wars, and then the housing bubble, we continued to keep going without even attempting to alter our course, seemingly oblivious to how the economic structures all around the world were rapidly changing. Should we then be surprised that it has become extremely difficult to generate gainful employment that will keep alive the American Dream for the middle class?

Outsourcing blips only when it conveniently fits into political calculations. Senators John Kerry and John Edwards angled for votes by referring to outsourcing and offshoring when they were on the Democratic ticket for the White House in 2004. Now, both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are talking about it, but for all the wrong reasons that don’t seem to reflect in any way the much valued Harvard credentials they both have. Obama beats up on outsourcing in order to imply that the Chinese and Indians are taking away “our” jobs, which is a highly screwed up interpretation. And Romney doesn’t seem to recognize that outsourcing and the globalization of the economy have not translated to real economic betterment for the middle class.

If at all, since the Great Recession, I have increased the intensity with which I try to make students understand that any job that can be sent to a different country will be sent, and that any job that can be automated will be automated. Unfortunately, a captive audience does not always mean an attentive audience.

I suppose we seem to be hell bent on making sure we will end up where we are going.

Historians ding Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"

Remember that memorable scene in Good Will Hunting, when Jason Bourne Matt Damon goes all preachy at the shrink's and tells him to read Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States?

I suppose Damon would be happy that it is not the least credible book after all--it was edged out by another book, by nine votes!

However, the most intense discussion -- on HNN's boards, at least -- centered on the runner-up, Zinn's A People's History, with some commenters on one end condemning the book as "cheap propaganda" and "the historians equivalent of medical malpractice"; others took a more moderate line, criticizing the book as partly "caricature" and an "exercise in tortured reasoning," but praising the book for "[reminding] us of some facts about our history that make for discomfort."

Is history dictated not from the top, but from the bottom?

David Kaiser, a professor of military history at the Naval War College, charged “A People’s History” — which has sold more than two million copies since its initial publication in 1980 — with damaging the country, “By convincing several generations of Americans that leadership does not matter and that all beneficial change comes from the bottom,” he wrote, “it has played a significant role in the destruction of American liberalism.” 

More than two million copies!  We have proved Barnum two million times?

I wonder how many of the two million owners were like me: many years ago, I purchased a copy of Zinn's book.  But, lost interest in it after a mere few pages.  It has been on my shelf forever.  Initially at home, and then in my office at campus.  In my initial years, I thought displaying that would give me some cred if and when the comrades peeped in!  Now, it is there because, well, there are no takers; it is practically never opened, so let me know :)

That the book is not unbiased is not anything new though, like it was noted in this obituary in the NY Times:

“What Zinn did was bring history writing out of the academy, and he undid much of the frankly biased and prejudiced views that came before it,” said Sean Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton University. “But he’s a popularizer, and his view of history is topsy-turvy, turning old villains into heroes, and after a while the glow gets unreal.”
That criticism barely raised a hair on Mr. Zinn’s neck. “It’s not an unbiased account; so what?” he said in the Times interview. “If you look at history from the perspective of the slaughtered and mutilated, it’s a different story.”

 "So what?" becomes critical because, unlike Colbert's "truthiness," academics are expected to be as unbiased as they can. 

Oh, but there is a wonderful scene from Good Will Hunting that makes me smile every time I watch it:



Yes, "wicked smaht" :)

The legend of the rice cooker

Quite a bit of my experiments with cooking involve the rice cooker.

The craziest thing this is: I bought it a couple of years ago, almost immediately--well, perhaps within a few days--after reading this piece by the movie critic, Roger Ebert.  Yes, the movie critic, and not some fancy-shmancy food critic.  Read that and you too might end up buying one.  And will never regret the decision.

After a quick search of the options I had, I bought the one pictured on the right, because the idea of steaming vegetables appealed to me.

Then, I found out that I could steam chicken too, which is now one of my favorite approaches because it feels so healthy and clean.

I poke holes in the chicken breast before I cut them up into cubes and marinate it in any of the different concoctions, and after a few hours--sometimes overnight--they go into the hallowed steamer.

All the water in the chamber below, which also ends up collecting the drips from the chicken above?  They go into the making of the rice dish!

It simply amazes me how technologists and entrepreneurs come up with better and easier and inexpensive gadgets like this "digital" rice cooker, which, in addition to making everyday living a lot less complicated, make life that much more exciting.

As a kid, when we went to spend summers with the grandmothers, their kitchens had wood-fired stoves, and rice was cooked the traditional way. The kitchen was not a fun place to hang out, with all the smoke and heat and sweat; yet, my grandmothers worked their magic and produced out of nowhere mouthwatering dishes and sweets.

Then came the pressure cooker for rice and daal and vegetables.  Even my grandmother started using a pressure cooker. 

The gas stove was a phenomenally progressive step forward.  Gone was the smoke and grime and ash from the kitchen.  During the college years, and later when I was loafing around before coming to the US, whenever I visited with my grandmother and the great-aunt, it was a pleasure to simply hang out in the kitchen because I didn't have to fight the wood or charcoal smoke anymore.  And, chat with those wonderful women.  After lunch, we have many times played தாய கட்டம் in the adjacent room with shiny red-oxide flooring.

I suppose throughout my life I have never been a stranger in the kitchen, and I ought to thank my mother and grandmothers and aunts for graciously including me--a male in a traditional society---in their territories.

When I started cooking, I mean real cooking, I thought I needed recipes from my mother.  And she did write a few down, all the while complaining that it felt unnatural to her--she cooked only by adding this and adding that, without formal measurements.  The process of carefully measuring ingredients did not apply to everyday cooking.

But, soon, as with my own education, I ditched the structured approaches and started doing whatever appealed to me.  Scanning the shelves, I might decide to add to the dish whatever ingredient that I thought might work.  Which is how I ended up once adding dried cranberries to the rice dish, and it was simply awesome :)

In such a short time frame that my life has been thus far, I have gone from witnessing wood-fired stoves and traditional cooking, to using cranberries while cooking with a "digital" rice cooker.  I wonder what is out there in the future; can't wait!

At the end of his piece, Ebert had embedded a charming high school video production, and there is nothing better as a homage to the rice cooker :)