Don't ever say we didn't see this coming!

In a Thanksgiving post/column in 2014, I wrote:

While we in the US might feel sheltered from such an listing—however incomplete it is—of less than pleasant developments around the planet, the Ebola virus was a nasty reminder that we live in an interconnected world and that what happens in a remote part of West Africa will not necessarily stay in West Africa. The military conflicts around the world will force the US to act—a burden that comes with being the sole global superpower. Economic slowdown in Europe will affect us, given the highly interdependent economic web that links us to countries that we might not even be able to identify on a world map.
An old idea that is often mentioned, especially in academia, is that “war is God's way of teaching Americans geography.” We need to update that for the contemporary contexts. Now, any crisis is apparently how we Americans learn geography. Thus, thanks to Boko Haram, we were forced to look up Nigeria on a map. With Ebola in the news, there is a good chance that a few Americans were suddenly thrust with narratives about the historical connection between Liberia and slavery in the US. But then, if history provides any guidance, we perhaps passed on all the chances to learn geography.

That was in 2014.

In a post in 2015, I wrote:

In the NY Times, Gates had authored an op-ed:

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed more than 10,000 people. If anything good can come from this continuing tragedy, it is that Ebola can awaken the world to a sobering fact: We are simply not prepared to deal with a global epidemic.

More than 10,000 dead.  From a disease. Caused by a virus. Yet, we--in the US and the rest of the world as well--pretty much don't care.  Which is all the more why Gates reminds us even if we care not about the 10,000 dead, and the epidemic that continues to infect people, well, perhaps we will at least take notice if we think that we too might get affected by some global epidemic.

Of all the things that could kill more than 10 million people around the world in the coming years, by far the most likely is an epidemic. But it almost certainly won’t be Ebola. As awful as it is, Ebola spreads only through physical contact, and by the time patients can infect other people, they are already showing symptoms of the disease, which makes them relatively easy to identify.
Other diseases — flu, for example — spread through the air, and people can be infectious before they feel sick, which means that one person can infect many strangers just by going to a public place.

Are you listening now?

I believe that we can solve this problem, just as we’ve solved many others — with ingenuity and innovation.

As committed as he is to the cause, it requires more than well-funded nonprofit organizations and foundations.

That was in 2015.

The global pandemic has arrived now in the form of COVID-19.

If even I from a small town in a valley far away from the places of power and fortune could have been worried about a strange disease that can quickly spread all over the world and, therefore, contemplated about the urgency for a global structure to deal with it when it arrives ... well, shame on the US for being so under-prepared for this Coronavirus!

One more thing that 63 million Americans need to be think about for having elected as their Dear Leader a sociopath who is nothing but a narcissist with an orange face paint! 

Elections have consequences

It does not really surprise nor shock me that neither my adopted country nor the old country is really doing anything about climate change.  Both are DINOs--democracies in name only.  But, at least they are DINOs and not anything worse!

I have no say in what India does or does not do; that's up to Indians to worry.  I am pissed off at the US that apparently cannot be bothered about climate change.

Bill and Melinda Gates write about the challenge of climate change in their annual letter.  And they refer to a summary by IPCC:

Source

I am not a big fan of all this "philanthropy" work that rich people do.  They hire an army of accountants and lawyers to figure out how to avoid paying taxes.  They also hire lobbyists to advocate to lower taxes for the filthy rich.  These taxes are what society needs in order to address our collective problems--from homelessness to higher education to ... yes, climate change too.

After such immoral but legal tax avoidance, these rich dudes then prioritize whatever they want to prioritize--over which society has no influence whatsoever.  I mean, for instance, when was the last time you heard about billionaires donating big money to struggling public universities that serve the underprivileged, and how many times have you heard about billionaires donating to elite universities that serve the privileged? On the other hand, had they paid their fair share of taxes, public universities and colleges won't be in such shit streets.  The tragic irony is that after subjecting public universities to such a financial crunch, they point their fingers at those same public institutions as failures!

I digressed.  At least I got that out of my system!

Now that there is Democratic control over the people's chamber of the Congress, there is at least a little of reason, logic, science, and evidence, that is being brought into climate change discussions.

The Science Committee hosted its first climate hearing of 2019 on Wednesday, after two other House committees had already held theirs. In sharp contrast to recent past Science Committee climate hearings, there was bipartisan agreement that climate change is real, human-caused, and harmful. The hearing brought up a number of possible policies to help America reduce and prepare for global warming, and participants aired their differences regarding the best way forward.

"bipartisan agreement that climate change is real, human-caused, and harmful."  "participants aired their differences regarding the best way forward."

Elections have consequences.

The 63 million who voted for climate change denialism--after all, this is a hoax, according to their deal leader--are unhappy with Democrats, especially the young and the fearless women, going after these pressing problems, I guess.  I wish we could make them even more unhappy, and real soon.

ps: More than six hours later, I read this commentary by Joseph Stiglitz, in which he writes:

Apple, Google, Starbucks, and companies like them all claim to be socially responsible, but the first element of social responsibility should be paying your fair share of tax. If everyone avoided and evaded taxes like these companies, society could not function, much less make the public investments that led to the Internet, on which Apple and Google depend.

Amen!

And then there were three ...

Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are neighbors. Why Nigeria, which is far away?

One word puts them in a special group: Polio.

“We are closer than we have ever been before to wiping out this virus. The next few months will tell us if we may be able to finish the job this year as this is the time when the virus is circulating"

Many of us here in the US and elsewhere suffer from the craziness that trump and his minions have been.   We have a president who openly questions whether vaccines are good!  Bill Gates says that the idiot-in-chief asked him about it--"he asked me if vaccines weren’t a bad thing because he was considering a commission to look into ill-effects of vaccines."  And what was Gates' response?  Gates said he told Trump, “that’s a dead end, that would be a bad thing, don’t do that.”  Had trump been the president back in the day, the US government might not have done anything regarding polio, small pox, ...

Thankfully, trump has come about during the end stage of the fight against polio.  Pakistan is inching towards zero.  One of those instances in real life when we begin to appreciate the mathematical idea of "tends to zero" but not yet zero. Perhaps the country might have wiped out the virus if the US had not recruited a Pakistani doctor to help find Osama bin Laden by having him carry out a fake vaccination campaign.

As we get closer and closer to eradicating polio, we need to pause and think about one of the most remarkable aspects of the vaccine: Jonas Salk did not patent the polio vaccine that he created.  He chose not to patent it.

Actually is is only two--Pakistan and Afghanistan. Because, Nigeria has not recorded a case of polio for 20 months since 2016.

If the country can make it to three years, plus a few extra months as an epidemiological cushion, it will be certified polio-free, which will also mean that the entire continent of Africa is clear of the disease. 

Imagine that; the African continent could be officially polio free in a year.  The entire continent.

Against such a backdrop, we have our eyes set on the November elections.  But, 2018 will be far more historic than a Democratic takeover of Congress if there are no new polio cases in 2019.  A big fucking deal, as Joe Biden once remarked!

My obsession with shit!

Regular readers, I mean "regular" readers, know all too well that I talk shit. I mean, about "shit."  From wishing you "Bristol #4" to an arty bathroom.  I tell ya, this is one stinking blog! ;)

And then there is that other shit that I am passionate about.  You know about that too--the lack of sanitation infrastructure for hundreds of millions in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.  "If only we can develop less expensive ways of processing shit."  Aha, now you remember.

Do you recall the challenge from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to reinvent the toilet?



In a recent entry at his blog, Bill Gates writes:

I watched the piles of feces go up the conveyer belt and drop into a large bin. They made their way through the machine, getting boiled and treated. A few minutes later I took a long taste of the end result: a glass of delicious drinking water.

Yes, things are happening, even if only slowly.   It is "part of the Gates Foundation’s effort to improve sanitation in poor countries."

Because a shocking number of people, at least 2 billion, use latrines that aren’t properly drained. Others simply defecate out in the open. The waste contaminates drinking water for millions of people, with horrific consequences: Diseases caused by poor sanitation kill some 700,000 children every year, and they prevent many more from fully developing mentally and physically.
If we can develop safe, affordable ways to get rid of human waste, we can prevent many of those deaths and help more children grow up healthy.

The system that we have in this country, or many other countries, is expensive.  It requires sewer lines, sewage treatment plants, qualified personnel, and--to get the system running--electricity, which itself is in serious shortage.

So, if only a re-invented toilet will extract the water from shit and make it potable, and use the carbon in the shit to generate electricity.  My, won't that be multiple birds with one stone?

The project is called the Omniprocessor, and it was designed and built by Janicki Bioenergy, an engineering firm based north of Seattle. ...
Through the ingenious use of a steam engine, it produces more than enough energy to burn the next batch of waste. In other words, it powers itself, with electricity to spare.

 If it were not for Gates Foundation providing the seed money, such efforts to reinvent the toilet might not have even begun?  Isn't that a depressing thought?  To me, this is an example of how we misdirect our talents and capabilities.  We spend enormous amounts on wars.  We develop technologies to send humans to the moon and bring them back. We spend gazillions on sports stadiums that consume more electricity than entire countries in sub-Saharan Africa do.  All these mean that we have the know-how and the resources.  But, we merely choose to spend on things than what are really, really important for humans.

The next step is the pilot project; later this year, Janicki will set up an Omniprocessor in Dakar, Senegal, where they’ll study everything from how you connect with the local community (the team is already working with leaders there) to how you pick the most convenient location. They will also test one of the coolest things I saw on my tour: a system of sensors and webcams that will let Janicki’s engineers control the processor remotely and communicate with the team in Dakar so they can diagnose any problems that come up.

When we talk about the "internet of things" we are only fascinated with examples like how our refrigerators can keep track of the inventory and how an automated drone can deliver milk that a robot will load up in the fridge.  Because, all we do is gaze at our own navels!  What a contrast the Dakar project is--the connectivity that the internet offers is put to such a constructive use.

I will leave it to Bill Gates to wrap this up:

It might be many years before the processor is being used widely. But I was really impressed with Janicki’s engineering. And I’m excited about the business model. The processor wouldn’t just keep human waste out of the drinking water; it would turn waste into a commodity with real value in the marketplace.

Here's the video of the project and Gates drinking the potable water that was once a part of shit.  Give this man a Nobel Peace Prize already!

Microsoft Ebola

I know, after reading the subject line, you are thinking that I have indeed gone completely insane.  But, there is a method to my madness, if you pardon the atrocious pun here ;)

Recall the names of the dudes who founded Microsoft?

Source

Sure, you know that guy on the right as Bill Gates.  The co-founder?  Ok, ok, you know it is Paul Allen.  (Do you know the names of the two dudes who started Google?  Aha, I got you there!)

So, what about Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Ebola?  I told you that there is always a method to my madness.

In the NY Times, Gates had authored an op-ed:

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has killed more than 10,000 people. If anything good can come from this continuing tragedy, it is that Ebola can awaken the world to a sobering fact: We are simply not prepared to deal with a global epidemic.

More than 10,000 dead.  From a disease. Caused by a virus. Yet, we--in the US and the rest of the world as well--pretty much don't care.  Which is all the more why Gates reminds us even if we care not about the 10,000 dead, and the epidemic that continues to infect people, well, perhaps we will at least take notice if we think that we too might get affected by some global epidemic.

Of all the things that could kill more than 10 million people around the world in the coming years, by far the most likely is an epidemic. But it almost certainly won’t be Ebola. As awful as it is, Ebola spreads only through physical contact, and by the time patients can infect other people, they are already showing symptoms of the disease, which makes them relatively easy to identify.
Other diseases — flu, for example — spread through the air, and people can be infectious before they feel sick, which means that one person can infect many strangers just by going to a public place.

Are you listening now?

I believe that we can solve this problem, just as we’ve solved many others — with ingenuity and innovation.

As committed as he is to the cause, it requires more than well-funded nonprofit organizations and foundations.

Meanwhile, the other co-founder, Allen, has been spending on Ebola, according to this piece that the friend passed along to me:

Paul Allen reportedly began tracking the current Ebola outbreak before a lot of governments saw it as a serious threat because of his work on wildlife conservation in Africa. As well, Allen’s philanthropic focus has been shifting and expanding over the last few years to include new issues, which makes sense for a guy who has $17 billion, has signed the Giving Pledge, and isn't getting any younger. So, all in all, it wasn't so bizarre that Allen jumped into the Ebola crisis with a boatload of cash for frontline work to contain epidemic. 

Yep, the same Paul Allen who makes the road-tripping sports maniac all pumped up ;)

By late October, Allen had upped his commitment to $100 million, making it the largest private contribution to combat the Ebola crisis. Allen’s big give was surprising and a bit shocking because his previous philanthropy had never touched humanitarian or global health issues before.

Allen and Gates understand all too well that to fight Ebola means more than merely fighting the virus alone.  So,

Paul Allen is not going to pocket the unspent Ebola money now that people aren't dying anymore and move on to something else. On the contrary, he may dive deeper into the troubled healthcare systems of West Africa, spending even more money. 

Aren't you now happy that these two nerds founded a small little company called Microsoft?

If only the local business billionaire, who has more money than Allen, funded worthwhile causes like this instead of this!

If only the Central American immigrant children knew programming!

A few days ago, when I read this op-ed by a powerful trio--Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Sheldon Adelson--this insignificant commentator was so tempted to blog about it.  But, recognizing the limits to how much I can put up with the Rodney Dangerfield-like "I don't get no respect," I let that pass.  What was my problem with it?  In that op-ed, they argue:

Most Americans believe that our country has a clear and present interest in enacting immigration legislation that is both humane to immigrants living here and a contribution to the well-being of our citizens. Reaching these goals is possible. Our present policy, however, fails badly on both counts.
We believe it borders on insanity to train intelligent and motivated people in our universities — often subsidizing their education — and then to deport them when they graduate. Many of these people, of course, want to return to their home country — and that’s fine. But for those who wish to stay and work in computer science or technology, fields badly in need of their services, let’s roll out the welcome mat.

In the first place, this immigration op-ed seemed like the authors were making use of the big time immigration crisis at the border in order to promote their own immigration agenda.  The latest border crisis is not about engineers and computer scientists, but is about children who are rushing to the US for whatever the reasons might be.  The debate on the undocumented immigrants has nothing to do with the engineers and computer scientists and investors.  Thus, "Most Americans believe that our country has a clear and present interest in enacting immigration legislation" is nothing but a sleight-of-hand approach.

And then came this news:

In his first major organizational move since becoming Microsoft CEO in February, Satya Nadella announced Thursday that, over the next year, the company will cut 18,000 jobs — about 14 percent of its workforce. That represents the largest layoff in Microsoft’s history and a more aggressive cut than many had expected.

The global presence of Microsoft means that there is a good chance that many of the layoffs will be outside the US.  But, given that offshoring is to take advantage of the cost differentials, I would assume that a majority of the layoffs will be within the high-cost US.

Even as I was contemplating writing about this interesting juxtaposition of news stories, a politician beat me to it.
A Senator.
A Republican Senator.
A Republican Senator from the Deep South!

On the floor of U.S. Senate Thursday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) delivered a scalding and sarcastic attack on the use of highly skilled foreign workers by U.S. corporations that was heavily aimed at Microsoft, a chief supporter of the practice.
Sessions' speech began as a rebuttal to a recent New York Times op-ed column by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, investor Warren Buffett and Sheldon Adelson, a casino owner that has chastised Congress for failing to take action on immigration reform.
But the senator's attack on "three of our greatest masters of the universe," and "super billionaires," was clearly primed by Microsoft's announcement, also on Thursday, that it was laying off18,000 employees.
"What did we see in the newspaper today?" said Sessions, "News from Microsoft. Was it that they are having to raise wages to try to get enough good, quality engineers to do the work? Are they expanding or are they hiring? No, that is not what the news was, unfortunately. Not at all."

My reaction to reading what Sessions said was:

Senator Sessions blasts #Microsoft's H-1B push as it lays off 18,000 workers I, gasp, agree with him on this http://t.co/uFJlZud9at
— sriram khe (@congoboy) July 19, 2014

The senator said:

Sessions' points were broad and didn't get into the mechanics of visa granting, but were clearly, though indirectly, aimed both at the H-1B visa and automatic green cards for foreign workers with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, or STEM, degrees.

H-1B and STEM are not what "most Americans" have in mind when they think about immigration and the need to reform it, right?  But, that is what Gates & Co's op-ed is about when they write "Most Americans believe that our country has a clear and present interest in enacting immigration legislation."

Even this STEM is way overblown.  As I noted in this blog-post, less than a year ago, which became an op-ed later:

I was glancing through the September 2013 issue of IEEE’s magazine, Spectrum, and was drawn to a lengthy essay because of its title--”The STEM Crisis Is a Myth.”  I wonder how the STEM proponents will respond to the IEEE publication featuring an essay with a tagline of “Forget the dire predictions of a looming shortfall of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians.”
The essay notes this--“What’s perhaps most perplexing about the claim of a STEM worker shortage is that many studies have directly contradicted it, including reports from Duke University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Rand Corp. A 2004 Rand study, for example, stated that there was no evidence “that such shortages have existed at least since 1990, nor that they are on the horizon.”

Oh well ... at least this post has provided me with a cathartic outlet.  The problem is now yours, given the mistake you made of reading this post ;)

Trig plus bridge equals critical thinking

I have to consciously hold back my frustrations when I hear students remark that they hate math, especially trig.  If it were left to my instinct, I would slap the back of their heads for that remark.  But, I know I will lose my job and end up in prison if I were to do that.  Instead, I focus on the content.

"Trig is not merely about Sine and Cosine" I typically tell them.  "It is about developing your logical thinking.  It is about sequential reasoning, building up your argument in order to reach the conclusion.  That is the same skill we need in oral arguments. In writing papers."

But, of course, I don't think even one student has paid attention to that.  I never learn from these interactions; I am confident that the next time a student disses trig, I will say the same things all over again, and the student will roll his/her eyes way up!

Maybe people talk illogically, and have beliefs that are no logical at all, because they didn't take trig seriously.  Maybe the math teachers don't convey enough the idea to students that trig helps build important life skills.

I bet these students will also roll their eyes if I were to tell them that playing bridge will also help develop the thinking skills.

From the moment I landed in this country, I continue to be shocked at the prevailing misconception that bridge is played by single old ladies who are waiting for the Grim Reaper's knocks on their doors.  I have no idea why such an American interpretation exists.

I learnt trig in school, and my parents taught us to play bridge and chess.  Well, it was later in life that I realized that father had twisted the rules of the game a bit and I had to unlearn those bad habits. But, the unlearning was not difficult.

Unlike with poker, where a player needs to have a poker-face in order to bluff well, there is no need to bluff in bridge. In fact, bluffing can lead to losses and that is a sure way to end up with no partner at all!

The bidding in bridge and the execution of the contract require, once again, logical thinking.  If a player bids X, and another bids Y, it will soon become obvious whether or not they add up well.  The game is also a wonderful way to learn to construct a composite story based only on the smallest pieces of data that we can get.

Logical thinking, working with the data while making sure that the data is accurate, and leading to a conclusion is also what critical thinking is about.  There is no leap of faith in critical thinking.  No bluffing.  No arguments that cannot be supported with evidence.

Schools are not ready to adopt bridge:

Bridge is a challenging game even for adults, requiring strategy and the memorization of complex rules. Yet evidence of its academic benefits is still largely anecdotal. A 2005 study by Christopher C. Shaw, a retired business professor and bridge player, found that a group of bridge-playing fifth-grade students in Carlinville, Ill., made larger gains on standardized tests than their classmates, but academic scholars have called these findings limited and preliminary. Mr. Shaw is conducting a similar bridge study with students in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
“My intuition says bridge is a really good tool to develop critical thinking and inferential reasoning, plus it gives them a lifetime recreational skill,” Dr. Shaw said.

Hey, even the richest bridge nuts--Bill Gates and Warren Buffett--couldn't get enough people and schools excited about this, despite them offering their own money to fund bridge in schools.  Students and teachers do see the benefits:

“It kind of teaches us math, but I like it better than math,” said Jack Schwerner, 10, who ranked bridge ahead of video games, but behind football.
Patricia McIlvenny, the principal, said the lessons in teamwork and cooperation learned around the bridge table were as important as the academic ones. “You can’t text your partner your strategy,” she said.
“You actually have to put down your cellphone and interact around a table. It’s reintroducing a lot of social skills that have been lost.”

No trig. No bridge. What is this world coming to!!!

The fight against polio turns deadly. Literally. For the workers

Throughout my childhood years, running a fever was a constant event in my life.  One moment I would be playing like any other kid, and the next I would be down with a scalding temperature.

(My parents and I worried that I wouldn't be able to sit for the Class X exams, when I came down with one such fever.  For one exam, father escorted me to the hall and sat outside ready--in case he had to rush me to the hospital.)

One of the questions I was always asked was whether I experienced any pain in my legs.  And the worried look on my parents' faces if ever I said yes to that.

It was all because of a fear of polio.

I was fortunate, and so were millions of my cohort and later on.  In 2012, India registered its first year of no polio cases at all.  A Himalayan feat, indeed!

It is a phenomenal achievement that even within my life time, this dangerous disease is now close to being wiped out.  Very close, with only three countries remaining.

One of the final battles against this virus is being fought in Nigeria.  Two days ago, that medical battle turned lethal for nine polio vaccinators, not because of the virus but because of humans:

In the first attack in Kano the polio vaccinators were shot dead by gunmen who drove up on a motor tricycle.
Thirty minutes later gunmen targeted a clinic outside Kano city as the vaccinators prepared to start work.

How awful!  Simply insane.

Why did this happen?

On Thursday, a controversial Islamic cleric spoke out against the polio vaccination campaign, telling people that new cases of polio were caused by contaminated medicine.
Such opposition is a major reason why Nigeria is one of just three countries where polio is still endemic.
But this is believed to be the first time polio vaccinators have been attacked in the country.

Let us hope this will be the last instance too.

How and why do those vaccinators work in those areas of Nigeria?  Bill Gates, whose foundation--along with his wife Melinda, and Warren Buffett--has been working on this ever since he turned his attention to philanthropy, writes in his annual letter:

One huge problem the polio program found was that many small settlements in the region were missing from vaccinators' hand-drawn maps and lists documenting the location of villages and numbers of children. As a result, children weren't getting vaccinated. Often villages on the border between two maps weren't assigned to any team. To make matters worse, the estimated distance between villages was sometimes off by miles, making it impossible for some vaccinators to do the job they were assigned.
To fix this, the polio workers walked through all high-risk areas in the northern part of the country. Step by step, they explored these areas and spoke with people, adding 3,000 communities to the immunization campaigns. 

It was nine of such public health workers who were killed.  Those bastards responsible for the killings don't deserve anything but the harshest punishment.

Of course, polio is only one of the health challenges that humans, especially children, face.  If only we could spend more on global health issues, instead of wasting the money on the militaries of the world, particularly here in the US!

BTW, here is Bill Gates admitting to his geeky nature on the Colbert Report, in the context of his annual letter.

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Doonesbury explains what college is for. Hint: not for learning!

My students know all too well that I emphasize understanding and analysis in my classes, and none of the assignments or exams is a test of their ability to memorize facts.  And, thus, they know how much I hate the bubbling-in-answers scantron approach to education, particularly at the undergraduate level.  I even allow them to use laptops and smartphones in the class--I try my best to push them beyond a simple and simplistic access to information, and get them to think about the information.

Towards the end of the last term, one student, "K," raised her her hand as we regrouped after a ten-minute break.

"Do all professors teach the way you do, or did we luck out taking your class?"

I gave her a dull boring answer because I had to ensure that I did not use the class time to critique colleagues, not only at my college but in higher education, who, even in this new world of Google and iPhone apps, think that undergraduate education is all about access to facts and testing students about those facts.

What I would have liked to tell "K" and the rest of the class, with a big grin on my face: "thanks for the compliments."

In this cartoon here, Trudeau conveys the same idea, and also the explanation that Bill Gates gave some time ago on why we have colleges anymore:

'Place-based colleges' are good for parties, but are becoming less crucial for learning thanks to the Internet

Steve Jobs' Software Dating Game. Flashback to 1983

Grabbed the following video that was embedded at this discussion on liberal education and/versus professional focus.

In the video it is neat to watch a very young Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and their excitement for what they do is obvious.



I was left with a nagging thought on those two other guys who share the stage with Bill Gates: Mitch Kapor (of Lotus) and Fred Gibbons.  Gibbons?  Who the heck was that?  Turns out that one of the products that his company delivered was Harvard Graphics.  I remember using it, though the details are fuzzy.

Also, as you watch the clip from 1983, don't you think that Ashton Kutcher in "That 70s Show" looks so much like the early Steve Jobs?  :)

Dirty rotten food prices--they are up, again

For a couple of days last December, when I was in India, the headline news was only about onion prices--they had gone way up.  So much so that the federal government had to impose an export freeze.
As those prices started coming down, tomato prices started shooting up.

These are alarming news in India for two reasons: one, food prices affect the poor, who spend a significant percentage of their incomes on food.  And, second, governments--particularly coalition governments like the one in place in India now--can easily get thrown out of power because of food prices.

In the new year, there seems to have been a further escalation in food prices.  According to The Hindu:

food inflation surged further to 17.05 per cent for the week ended January 22 from 15.57 per cent in the previous week as prices of vegetables, fruits, milk and protein-based items continued to soar.

What is particularly hurting the common man is the fact that the current inflationary bout is not just a statistical anomaly of low ‘base effect'. The price rise is for real in that the high food inflation at over 17 per cent, as per the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data, is over and above the 20.56 per cent surge witnessed during the like week a year ago.

But, even more worrisome is the fact that it is not merely in India:

The FAO Food Price Index, which measures the wholesale price of basic foods within a basket, averaged 231 points last month - its highest level since records began in 1990.
It was up 3.4% from December, the seventh monthly rise for the index.
"These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come," FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian said.
The index is now higher than June 2008 when the cost of food sparked violent protests in countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt.

Yes, it is catching people's attention:

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has asked global leaders to "put food first" and tackle the problem of price volatility.
"We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," he said.

Unfortunately, for many years now, the developed world has pretty much taken its eyes off the food issue.  I am not sure how pathetic this indifference would be if it were not for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation forcing the world's attention on this--even a few years ago.  At the World Food Symposium, Prabhu Pingali observed this when talking about the Green Revolution:

Smallholders in the Indian Punjab, with average farm sizes of one hectare, went from producing a single crop of rice or wheat with average yields of little over a ton to producing two crops per year, a rice crop followed by a wheat crop, each with average yields of 4-5 tons. Many even managed a third crop of vegetables or fodder in between. In China, farm sizes were even smaller, Chinese farm households were allocated one mu per person. What’s a mu? It’s one fifteenth of a hectare, or one sixth of an acre. For American Football fans, (we are in Iowa State Cyclones country here) one mu is equivalent to the area between the 0 and 12 yards, just a little larger than “the end zone”. The Chinese agriculture transformation took place because farmers extracted the most out of their mu. 

But, the last two decades haven't seen any great push to advance the science, technology, and practice of agriculture in Asia and Africa.

“Investing in small farmers is an incredibly effective way to combat hunger and extreme poverty—history has proved it many times,” said Gates, whose foundation has committed $1.5 billion to date to agricultural development. “The launch of this fund is an important step forward, but only a first step. Other countries meeting at the European, G8 and G20 summits in June, and at the U.N. Summit in September should join the four founding partners and make good on their pledges. If we all sustain focus until the job is done, hundreds of millions of people will lead better lives.”
According to the World Bank, about three-quarters of the 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty depend on agriculture for a living.

The Mumbai McMansion: The Ambani Attila, er, Antilia

So, India's richest man builds the world's most expensive "home"

Mukesh Ambani is having a few friends round to celebrate moving into his new Mumbai pad. But as the home has 27 storeys, soars to 173 metres and is worth an estimated £630m, it will be a housewarming like no other.
The building – named Antilia, after a mythical island – will be home to Ambani, the richest man in India and the fourth richest in the world, plus his wife and their three children. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one swimming pool, a ballroom, guestrooms, a variety of lounges and a 50-seater cinema.

Good for him--he and his brother, Anil, have not squandered away the wealth they inherited, but have gone on to multiply it many times over.

But, somewhere along the road, I hope the Ambanis will remember a golden rule from India: the "dharma" of a rich person is to create a lot of wealth, and to donate wealth to charity.  The old Indian wisdom recognized that creating wealth is not only ok, but is the duty for some.  But, what comes after that wealth .... something like the "noblesse oblige" in the Western contexts.  Here is one:

संपदो जलतरंगविलोल
   यौवनं त्रिचतुराणि दिनानि ।
शारदाभ्रपरिपेलवमायुः
   किं धनैः परहितानि कुरुध्वम् ॥

- सुभाषितसुधानिधि

Wealth is as temporary as a wave on still water. Youth is just a matter of few years. Our life it self is as uncertain as a cloud of Sharat month (where clouds could get formed and dispersed in a matter of minutes. No rain.) What is the use of all the wealth that you accumulate? Spend them in a way that is helpful to others.

A friend emailed me the link to this commentary, where the author notes:

What I would like to see Ambani do now is emulate Gates on another front: philanthropy.
Gates (and his wife), who have said their children will not inherit their wealth, have proceeded to give it away and also managed to successfully convince several other people like them to follow suit.
Given Ambani’s considerable wealth and influence, a similar move by him could kick-start the all-but-non-existent corporate philanthropy scene here.

BTW, Antilia? ... Seriously! 
I think "Attila" might be more appropriate :)
No wonder then there is this news item:

The house which has become the talk of the town — Mukesh Ambani's new high rise at Mumbai's posh Altamount Road, may soon sport a new name. Apparently, the quaint Antilia, according to insiders, doesn't have as much positive energy as the traditional occupants would like. However, nobody is quite sure yet as to what the new name of the 27-floor apartment would be, which is said to be the world's costliest address. The name is likely to be announced at a traditional function, followed by a high society gathering in the evening of November 28, at Ambani's new abode.

Quote of the day on global poverty

[Schools] have a better record of fighting terrorism than missiles do and that wobbly governments can be buttressed not just with helicopter gunships but also with school lunch programs (at 25 cents per kid per day).

International security is where the money is, but fighting poverty is where the success is.

That is from Nicholas Kristof's column in the NY Times today, in the context of the UN's Millennium Development Goals.  The last few columns from Kristof have been of a flavor that is markedly different from many of previous ones.  I like this version of Kristof much better--and way less depressing!

Sometimes, I wonder if the UN is being slowly replaced by other efforts--the politics, and the bureaucracy, at the UN means that things can happen only very slowly, if they happen. Thus, now, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation appears to be a better catalyst for global health issues than the WHO.  The Clinton Global Initiative seems to deliver a lot on various fronts ...

The end of colleges round the corner, says Bill Gates

For quite a while, I even maintained a separate blog that was about online teaching and learning--because I was./am confident that it is only a matter of time before technology completely overthrows the teaching and learning that is severely constrained by time and space.  Even in that blog, I have referred to Bill Gates' remarks.  In the YouTube clip here, via the Chronicle, Gates says:

'Place-based colleges' are good for parties, but are becoming less crucial for learning thanks to the Internet

More on education, and the need for reforms

Two in a row doesn't make a trend :)  While the previous post was about higher education, the following comment--about K-12--is equally applicable to higher ed:

unfortunately, society does not generally invest enough in innovation—especially in areas where it would help the poor (who aren't an attractive market) and where there isn't an agreed-upon measure of excellence. In the U.S., that means we have not invested nearly what we should in innovation for education. Our education system has been fundamental to our success as a nation, but the way we prepare students has barely changed in 100 years.

So, in case you think it was some nutcase blogger (ahem, present company excluded) who said this, well, think again.  That comment was by Bill Gates, in Newsweek, who goes on to note:

Another crucial innovation in education involves using interactive technology to deliver high-quality materials for teachers and students. Now that watching videos is a standard part of the Internet experience, we can put great lectures online so that everyone can benefit from the best teachers. (Personally, I like the online physics and chemistry courses from MIT.) Alternatively, software can also be used to tailor lessons to individual students, so kids can stop spending time on the things they already know and focus on the areas they are confused about. While it won't replace face-to-face teaching, it could make remedial courses far more effective—helping students move on to the next phase of their education instead of discouraging them into dropping out. That's the kind of innovation that can lead to a brighter future for everyone.

Hmmm .... but does he know about the resistance from higher education faculty to distance and online education?  Yes, I too love those online and video materials from MIT and other places that are all active members of the OperCourseWare Consortium, and use those materials in my classes too.  Oh, yes, not to forget the fantastic lectures through TED.com .... well, I wonder when higher education will change, for the better!

Cartoon of the day

Greenback Emissions

Unchecked carbon emissions will likely cause icebergs to melt. Unchecked greenback emissions will certainly cause the purchasing power of currency to melt. The dollar’s destiny lies with Congress.

Warren Buffett in the NY Times

Other than the fact that this is Warren Buffett, well, there is nothing new in this op-ed. Not well written either--way too many metaphors, and not consistent metaphorical descriptions either. He starts with greenback emissions, then sprinkles the rest of the essay with many more ....

To a large extent though, I prefer the Bill Gates approach--he does not write op-eds nor does he appear to want to pontificate. I mean, the more these guys do the talking and opinion writing, hey, even fewer would then want to know what we talkers/writers have to say :-)

Creative Capitalism

Came across this one thanks to Greg Mankiw's blog ....
Michael Kinsley is off to yet another intriguing, interesting project, which is essentially a follow-up to the speech that Bill Gates gave at the Dovos forum.
The list of contributors there is pretty impressive