Too often I see this quoted. “Per laws of aerodynamics, the “bumble bee” cannot fly. Its body weight is not the right proportion to its wingspan. Ignoring these laws of science, the bee flies anyway.” It is one of those… Read More ›
Month: June 2009
Hans Rosling: 200 Years that Changed the World
I am pretty convinced that one can learn practically all subjects from easily accessible content available for free on the web. This summer I am teaching a development economics course at University of California at Berkeley, Econ171. I will use… Read More ›
Minsky on Words
Marvin Minsky of MIT is a cognitive scientist and an artificial intelligence pioneer. I recently came acros his 1981 paper on “Music, Mind, and Meaning” which I found informative and profoundly thought provoking. Here’s an extended quote from it, for… Read More ›
Weekend links: Stuff worth a look
A couple of links. One video lecture by David Weinberger. One excellent article by James Fallows.
The US Empire in Decline
R Vaidyanathan has an interesting piece in expressbuzz cryptically titled “The Lost Horizon of the Emperors.” He takes a very big picture view of what’s happening around the world. Big picture painted rather randomly. He starts off with USA’s decline… Read More ›
A Letter to Aalisha
My friend Salil Naik asked me to write a letter to his daughter on her birthday. Hence you can say that this is a commissioned post. So in the style of “A Letter to Abhishek“, I offer this letter to… Read More ›
False bottom suitcases and $134 billion
It is hard to believe that anyone can be caught with $134 billion worth of bonds in a false-bottomed suitcase. I did a search for “134 billion” and even Google couldn’t believe it.
Babysitting the US economy
Krugman is always good for a nice read. His June 14th NT Times op-ed, “Stay the Course“, does not disappoint. He writes, “For this is the third time in history that a major economy has found itself in a liquidity… Read More ›
Rajan Parrikar’s Photo Blog
My friend Rajan Parrikar has a photo blog which you must visit. Rajan’s photography site has breathtaking pictures of Goa, India, and California. Awesome. I particularly like his Death Valley National Park pictures.
A Fantastic work of Art and Horology
As a comment on YouTube puts it, “What a fantastic work of art and horology.”