I am convinced that freedom is an acquired taste, somewhat like dietary preferences. People brought up in a vegetarian households are likely to prefer vegetarian food. People brought up free tend to prefer freedom, and those brought up under command structures, prefer that. Muslims apparently prefer the stifling, humanity-denying strictures of Islam that non-Muslims generally find horrifying. Continue reading “Freedom”
It’s time to muse about music. The words muse and music are related, as one can guess from the spelling. The big dictionary says that Muse refers to “any of the nine sister goddesses in Greek mythology presiding over song and poetry and the arts and sciences.” That suits me since who wouldn’t be in favor of songs, poetry and science, I ask you.
In my formative years, I was exposed to a healthy dose of music and poetry in various languages. English and Hindi language poetry predominated as did English and Hindi language songs. I took special delight in the songs of The Moody Blues and The Beatles. Their songs particularly resonated with me because those two bands were heavily influenced by Indian philosophy. I’m still crazy about them after all these years. (Did you get the reference to another band in that last bit?[1]) Continue reading “Across the Universe”
In my list of favorite Christian preachers who turned atheist is Seth Andrews. Preachers have to have the gift of the gab since that’s the tool of their trade; Seth has that in spades. He is a delight to listen to — like listening to a virtuoso violinist. Years of preaching the Good Book does make one into a maestro in that business. A sample video coming up.
Another favorite is Dan Barker. He preached for 19 years. He was no ordinary preacher; he was the kind of preacher that you’d not want to sit next to on a bus (Richard Dawkins’ description of Dan in the preface to Dan’s book Godless.) He has even appeared on Oprah, talking about his de-conversion. A sample video of him in an Oxford Union debate will be up next. One of the people on the opposing side was Peter Hitchens, a devote Christian. That’s ironic considering that his brother, the late great Christopher Hitchens, was the world’s most celebrated atheist. Continue reading “Atheist Preachers”
I’ve refrained from posting because I heed George Eliot’s caution that “Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.” I have nothing to say.
Although in conversation I am never at a loss for words, it is not easy for me to write something meaningful without a prompt. I feel that if I write something unprovoked, it had better be worth reading. This is not one of those instances. This time I write just to see if I can still write. You’ve been cautioned.
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I had the worst flight of my life a couple of days ago. The flight time was nearly 18 hours, non-stop from SFO to BLR. Of the hundreds of international flights (most of them between the US and India) and hundreds of domestic flights I have taken, I would rate this one as the worst I have endured. For the record, Finnair, which I took between Dallas TX and Mumbai the previous visit to India in November 2022, was the second worst. Continue reading “Last time”
In a July 18th post, I had shared a video of two kids offering to shovel someone’s driveway for $20. Go there to get the context of this post.
As I wrote in the post, I would be happy to point out why [the video] delighted me. A reader obliged and asked what was so special about it. Therefore here is why that brief video warmed my cold, economist’s heart. It’s a mix of enterprise, innocence, trust, and division of labor — all things that go into the creation of wealth in a society. Continue reading “Trust”
The fake battle between the Democrats and Republicans is getting started for the Nov 2024 US presidential elections. This time on the Republican side we have a surprise candidate: a 38-year old, superbly educated, very successful, wealthy entrepreneur named Vivek Ramaswamy. Vivek2024.com.
Going by his name, I guess he’s a Tam Bram (Tamilian Brahmin).
I think Vivek is brilliant. He’s probably the sharpest, most ambitious, most capable, most deserving of high political office that I have ever come across. If he gets to be the president of the US, it will make the world better off. The man’s incredible. Continue reading “Vivek Ramaswamy”
Image description: A dense spherical cluster of stars. The stars merge into a bright core in the center, and spread out to the edges gradually, giving way to an empty, dark background. Most of the stars are small points of light. A few stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes appear larger, and stand out in front.
The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects. The image above (click on image to embiggen) is the globular cluster NGC 6652. A bit more about that from the European Space Agency: Continue reading “APOD”
The atomic bomb and the Trinity Test is much in the news due to the release of the movie Oppenheimer last week on July 21st. I hope to watch the movie one of these days on an IMAX GT screen. There are a few in the US (sadly none in India.)
The popular press bombards us with sensational headlines (what else is new?) without really helping comprehension. Oftentimes, it ends up misinforming the public about important issues. A glaring example of that is “climate change.” Fortunately for us the social media, never celebrated as bastions guarding the public interest, has exceptionally great explainers who advance the public understanding of important matters.
The movie motivated a lot of excellent YouTube channels to explore the science, technology, engineering and history related to the project. Continue reading “The Bomb”
In a comment to a recent post “Book Titles” a reader wanted recommendations on books that explain the principles, philosophy and policy prescriptions of economics. In this post you will find a few titles for a start and I will update this post as I think of more books to add.
For a basic primer, I recommend Per Bylund’s book, “How to Think about the Economy – A Primer.” Simple, short and well-written. I like re-reading the fundamentals of any subject. By clearly understanding the fundamentals of any subject, one can work out the rest without much trouble.
Click on the book cover for downloading a free pdf copy of the book. Here’s a bit from the preface of the book: Continue reading “Economics Books”
The Climate Change Apocalypse has been postponed — once again.
As they say in the investment business, past performance is no guarantee of future profits. Just because the climatistas consistently got it woefully wrong in the past does not mean that this time around they aren’t right. They could be right this time. There may be a wolf for real this time.
But here’s the thing. They got it wrong in the past for a particular set of reasons. Those same reasons continue to apply in the present case too. Therefore, past performance guarantees the present performance to be precisely the same. Continue reading “Climate”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 