Month: September 2009

A Posthumous Apology to Alan Turing

On Sept 10th, Alan Turing received an apology from the British government 55 years after his death. Following a petition to 10 Downing St signed by 30,000 people, Gordon Brown formally apologized to the man who was so persecuted for being a homosexual that he committed suicide.
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Sept 11th: Turning Six today

Sept 11th is this blog’s birthday. The blog was born this day six years ago. What I wrote last year, Five years of Opinions and Perspectives, still holds true. Continue reading “Sept 11th: Turning Six today”

999 The Beautiful Number

Today’s the 9th of September, 2009. How cool is that? 9-9-9! Looks cool for no reason.

For your consideration, here’s a post on cognitive dissonance for no particular reason.

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex

In connection with the previous post on the US leading in weapons sales, I thought it would be nice to see a short excerpt from President Eisenhower’s farewell speech of 1961 warning Americans of the dangers of the military-industrial complex.
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The US Leads in Weapons Sale

“U.S. leads world in foreign weapons sales” reports Reuters. Sure that is as surprising as being told that Indian politicians are crooked. But the item helpfully reports figures.
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Sabharwal: Education’s Five Fault Lines

Manish Sabharwal, chairman of TeamLease, has an excellent op-ed in today’s Economic Times. Worth pondering over. I have some thoughts that I will put down on the piece in a bit. (Link thanks to Salil.)

Change is Digital, not Analog

“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place?” ask Clay Shirkey in a blog post “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.” (March 2009). The full implications of technological change is impossible to foresee even by those who are responsible for the change.
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As in Life, So also in Death

The Christian bible’s book of Matthew is the source of the saying, “live by the sword, die by the sword.” YSR Reddy, the late CM of Andhra Pradesh died a violent death. Not uncommon in the annals of powerful Indian politicians.
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Congress, Nepotism and Corruption

Congress, Nepotism and Corruption: The Eternal Rotten Braid

The three — corruption, nepotism and the Congress party — form India’s most enduring triumvirate. It is hard to think of one without thinking of the others because they characterize India’s politics and political landscape like nothing else conceivably can. The Congress party is the fiefdom of one family — being part of that confers the inalienable right to be the boss. Nepotism gains a whole new meaning in the hands of the Congress. Chronic, acute and pervasive corruption at the highest levels of governance India could only have been engineered by the political party which has held the reins of power for practically all of India’s existence since 1947. So it was with incredulous wonder that I read two news items yesterday.
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