Attack of the Advanced Self-propelled Screwdrivers
BBC News reports that, “In one of the recent attacks in Melbourne, a student was critically injured by a screwdriver.” Wonders of this modern world, don’t you know. Automatic self-willed screwdrivers on a rampage. The student was injured by a screwdriver, and not “A student was attacked by someone with a screwdriver.”
Continue reading “BBC and the Attack of the ASSes”
Today I installed a new commenting system — IntenseDebate. Therefore now you really don’t have to register to comment; you can just comment as “guest.” Also it allows you to get email updates of followup comments to the post or even the entire blog. But there are some things that need to be ironed out. For instance, I notice that some genuine comments are ending up in the spam queue even though before they would have gotten through. In any case, do give me feedback on this change. Also, if you comment and you see that the comment is not showing up, please drop me a note atanudey at gmail. Cheers!
Update: (1 PM IST)
There were problems with the intensedebate commenting. Some comments were not getting through. So for now we are back to square one and the commenting system will be as before. Sorry for the inconvenience.
There are some topics that make me see red. In that state, I cannot even think rationally, leave alone write coherently. I am so angry that this is not going to read well for sure. But this has to be said. Those who are ultimately responsible for the violence against the Indian students in Australia should not be lynched. Lynching would be too good for them. I am not talking about the red-necks and skinheads (or whatever their Australian equivalents are) who attack foreign students. I am talking of the Indian politicians and bureaucrats that have brought about the conditions that force Indians to go abroad looking for a decent education to places where they are viciously and mercilessly attacked.
Continue reading “Lynching is too good for them”
So much great stuff on the web, so little time. Here’s a handy little reader which I found on in the US Internet Archive. I checked out H L Menken’s “A Little Book in C Major“. See below for an embedded flipbook reader.
Continue reading “The Flipbook Reader (test)”
Here’s a collection of links for the weekend of May 30th.
Continue reading “Weekend Readings: Ideas and Aid”
Rajeev Mantri, executive director of Navam Capital, a Kolkata-based venture capital firm, writes in his piece in today’s Wall Street Journal on “Harnessing India’s Technological Potential” that “VCs typically consider India to be just a technology deployment market. That view is too narrow: India has not just the entrepreneurial competence but also the scientific talent to invent and lead in science-driven innovation.”
Continue reading “Rajeev Mantri on India’s Technological Potential”
Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal has an article today, “Missing Milton: Who Will Speak for Free Markets“, which makes me despair for India. Milton Friedman was arguably one of the greatest proponents of freedom, and naturally therefore, an advocate of free markets. Trading is a uniquely human activity and humans engage in trade spontaneously and therefore human freedom must necessarily imply the freedom to trade. Human freedom without free markets is a fairly vacuous and meaningless idea. Prohibiting free markets is a necessary and often sufficient for guaranteeing poverty. That’s what all oppressors do — whether they are colonial powers or homegrown communists or socialists.
Continue reading “Missing Friedman, Missing Markets”
In yesterday’s Washington Times, Diana West has a review of Moothy Muthuswamy’s book, “Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War.”
A few bits of the review below the fold.
Continue reading ““Defeating Political Islam””
Much of the benefits of modern life we enjoy and take for granted arises from scale economies in manufacturing — the larger the quantity manufactured by a firm, the lower the average cost. But there is a countervailing effect. Up to a certain size, the overheads of managing a firm goes down as the size increases. Beyond that point, the costs of managing go up with size. That limits how large firms can get. The market weeds out firms that grow too big because the inefficiencies show up in higher cost of production. That process is not unlike Darwinian natural selection in the biological world. There are creatures of all sorts of sizes but there are natural limits to how large even the largest can become. Become too large and you get sorted out.
Continue reading “On Massive Education Interventions”
I am not really anti-social and neither am I a misanthrope. I love humanity in the abstract but I admit that I find most not worth the bother, and consider a significant number pretty intolerable. Upon reflection, I concluded that the behavior that most bothers me is herding. Herding is alright for sheep and their ilk but when humans do it, it is pitiable.
Continue reading “Antipathy to Social Networks”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 