Category: Uncategorized

A man of extraordinary genius, the late great Freeman Dyson is one of my favorite people. I have listened to recording of his talks, presentations and interviews for hours on end. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, practically everyone has the opportunity to learn from his wisdom and enjoy his delightful sense of humor. I realize of course that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, especially those who are wedded to conventional idiotic ideas (global warming, for example) and long divorced from free inquiry.

Here’s one that I watched this morning. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to watch this conversation with Dyson at the University of Oregon (which I assume was recorded in 2016) and share with us in the comments section what you found to be the most interesting, or insightful, or surprising, or amusing. To avoid spoilers, I will reserve my answer(s) until Monday. Continue reading “Freeman Dyson”

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in February 1817 or 1818 in Cordova, Maryland, United States.

“Douglass lived twenty years as a slave and nearly nine years as a fugitive slave subject to recapture. From the 1840s to his death in 1895 he attained international fame as an abolitionist, editor, orator of almost unparalleled stature, and the author of three autobiographies that are classics of the genre. As a public man he began his abolitionist career two decades before America would divide and fight a civil war over slavery that he openly welcomed. Douglass was born in a backwater of the slave society of the South just as steamboats appeared in bays and on American rivers, and before the telegraph, the railroad, and the rotary press changed human mobility and consciousness. He died after the emergence of electric lights, the telephone, and the invention of the phonograph. The renowned orator and traveler loved and used most of these elements of modernity and technology.” Continue reading “Self-Made Men”

 Question: Why do more economists lean towards the right wing?

Answer: Economists lean right because they understand economics.

Assuming that “right wing” means an ideological position that favors free enterprise, private property and individual rights, then it is easy to see why economists are generally right-wingers. Continue reading “Economists”

On the matter of the war in Ukraine, one of my favorite historians, Stephen Kotkin, is my go-to person. Here’s Peter Robinson of the Hoover Institution in conversation with Kotkin.

This is from March 4th, when the Russian invasion was just eight days old. Kotkins places it in its historical context. Although 80 minutes long, it is worth every minute and more. Continue reading “Stephen Kotkin on Ukraine”

Should the US intervene? No. Here’s why.

People are sometimes surprisingly good. This is heartwarming. Rescue of ducklings from a storm water drain.

I am off to the old country on Friday night (Eastern time), arriving at Bangalore on Sunday morning.

(I have the picture above as my desktop background. Click on image to embiggen.)

“The voting public cannot understand foreign policy, so the electorate cannot hold the government accountable in any meaningful way. That being the situation, what are the incentives for a democratically elected government to conduct a foreign policy beneficial for the nation? Who should hold the government accountable in matters of foreign policy? And how?”

This post is in response to the above and other comments to the previous AMA post. In Prabhu Desai‘s response, he noted that government is an abstraction and not a real entity which has goals and incentives. In reality what we call the government is just a bunch of people, and people have various goals and motivations. The people who constitute the government can be broadly classified as politicians (who are periodically elected) and bureaucrats (who are unelected and enjoy lengthy tenures.) Continue reading “Government”

“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.”[1] It’s common for most predictions not to age well. Consider the one made by one Mr Clifford Stoll exactly 27 years ago in Feb 1995. He was not bullish about the web.

He wrote: Continue reading “AMA – the Predictions edition”

Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father of the United States of America, wrote in 1807, “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” Continue reading “Misinformation”

I have always loved high speed rail, ever since I first traveled on the French TGV about 30 years ago. Here’s an interesting video that I came across today. Maybe one day India too would have high speed rail but I am not sure when that may be.

One major concern is that high speed rail is expensive — both in capital and operating costs. If India continues to be a very poor country, people won’t be able to afford the high cost tickets. India’s advancement is dependent on it becoming rich — which means that the government will have to let go of its stranglehold over the economy. I doubt that that would happen. Continue reading “High Speed Rail in India”