Category: Random Draws

I just can’t bring myself to trust the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is clearly wrong. Any ranking which puts UC Berkeley below that junior university is obviously suspect, in my considered o-pee-nee-awhn.
Continue reading “The World University Rankings 2010”

For the last few days I have been busy writing. Which is the reason why I have not been writing for the blog. Actually, whenever I have any serious writing to do, I find that I have a whole lot of important pieces on the web that urgently need reading. Or videos that need watching. They’re so important that I think you should also read them or watch them, as the case may be.
Continue reading “A Couple of Funny Videos”

I had read the story of Daniel Everette’s experience among the Piraha tribe years ago in an article by him. This morning, Hemley Gonzalez‘s tweet about Everette, brought that back to mind. I watched the short BBC 4 video that Hemley linked to (embedded below.) I urge you to take the 10 minutes to watch it. It is deeply moving. (On a personal note, I am off to Washington DC for a few days. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.)
Continue reading “Must Watch Video of Daniel Everette’s Deconversion”

The editor in chief of India Today, Mr Aroon Purie, provides us with an excellent example of illogic that would delight anyone with a keen sense of the absurd. Here’s what he writes at the start of his editorial of Aug 27th: Continue reading “Of Cars and Roads”

The brutal murder of two boys in Sialkot is actually not the fault of the killers and has nothing to do with Muslims, least of all Islam. The fault, dear momin, lies with the kaffirs. The Hindus are at fault. Confused?
Continue reading “Actually, it’s the fault of Hindus”

If you show up the people in government in a way that threatens their very existence in government, then you can be assured that those people in government will waste no time in fixing you real good. Hari Prasad and his colleagues showed that electronic voting machines are not tamper-proof. This should come as no surprise. Nothing in the universe is tamper-proof (including the universe according to those who insist that their On True God™ frequently fixes the universe to suit their moods.) So what’s all the fuss about?
Continue reading “Hang the Spoil-sport Hari Prasad”

A piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, “America’s Insurgent Pollster: Understanding the tea party is essential to predicting what the country’s political scene will look like,” prompted thought on some differences between the US and India in the context of the oft repeated fact that both are democracies. The article is of interest to me since I want to know how governance in India can be improved. So here’s what I take away from the article, and one other matter.
Continue reading “Distinguishing American and Indian Democracy”

India suffers severely from PCD — personality cult disorder. I mentioned that in a post soon after moving to Mumbai from Berkeley in 2003. I believe that the disease under the Italian Sonia Gandhi has intensified. Here are my thoughts from way back when.
Continue reading “Personality Cult Disorder”