Strangling Freedom of Speech and Expression

The UK is on the fast track to becoming a closed society in its hurry to emulate Saudi Arabia. Last week, it denied entry to Geert Wilders of the Netherlands. “Dutch populist politician and controversial anti-Islam campaigner Geert Wilders has been refused entry to the United Kingdom despite being invited to visit by a member of the House of Lords, the British parliament’s upper chamber. . . Geert Wilders, perhaps best known outside the Netherlands for having made the video Fitna, in which the religion Islam and its holy book the Koran are attacked as providing a basis for terrorist attacks and for the undermining of western democracy and values, had been invited to London for a showing of this film to members of the British parliament.”

Thankfully, Fitna is available on the web and this idiotic attempt to shoot the messenger will only make the message more compelling.
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India

US Innovates

It is fairly widely acknowledged that there is a very strong connection between the US’s economic success and the entrepreneurial character of its people which generates innovations. It can be plausibly argued that economic success and entrepreneur-driven innovations are bi-directionally causally linked: each gives a boost to the other in ever widening upward spirals of mutually reinforcing, positive feedback. It is perhaps difficult figure out which came first: the economic success or the entrepreneurial character of the people.
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Darwin and The Daily Show

Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show ranks among my most favorite shows. It’s intelligent and funny, and does not shrink from calling a spade a commonly used gardening equipment with a wooden handle and a metal working surface. Here’s one hilarious segment on evolution.

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http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:124491

You will find a collection of evolution related segments here.

In honor of Charles Darwin turning 200 years young today (you don’t look a day over 139, Chuck!), I’ve assembled some of the finest evolution-related clips from The Daily Show’s history. I have to say though, I have some misgivings about this, because I don’t believe I descended from some damn monkeys. No, I believe we all descended from space-pandas, like it says in The Bible.

Lincoln and Darwin: Who was the more important?

If you have 15 minutes to spare today, you have to read this Malcolm Jones article, “Who was more important: Lincoln or Darwin,” in the Newsweek issue of July 2008. (Let’s also take a moment to reflect on our great fortune that we live in an age when it is possible for us to have access to so much great stuff to read without having to visit a physical library.) I quote a few bits from that article for the record but I entreat you to find the time to read the whole thing.
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Darwin Quotes

darwin_cutout

Darwin wrote:

“To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.”

“My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding laws out of large collection of facts.”

Quotes from the Jan 2009 special issue of Scientific American on the Most Powerful Idea in Science issue.
[Image source]

Here’s what Gary Stix’s article, “Darwin’s Living Legacy”, in that issue begins with: Continue reading “Darwin Quotes”

A bit of piano music

This six-year old, Ethan Bortnick, is pretty astounding.

The world has 6+ billion people. Even six-sigmas away from the mean, you are likely to find a pretty huge number of extremely extraordinary people. Makes you wonder how many don’t have access to what it takes for their various talents to flourish. This kid is not just talented — he is lucky. As Stephen Jay Gould had said, “I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”

Slowly wise and meanly just

The Vatican has decided that Charles Darwin was not really wrong. In a remarkable display of mealy-mouthed post-hoc rationalization, it claims that Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is not inconsistent with the idea of a biblical creation of life. Vatican Buries the Hatchet with Charles Darwin, says TimesOnLine.
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Happy Darwin Day

lincoln

darwin

Feb 12, 1809 must have been an extraordinary day.

It is special for me because two of my heroes were born on that day. Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on this day 200 years ago. This year, 2009, is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s book, On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

So I will dedicate the next couple of posts on Darwin and Lincoln.

Happy Birthday, Mr Lincoln and Happy Birthday Mr Darwin. The world is a better place for your having been here.

The Risk of Gas Pipelines

Energy security is not something that a country that is not energy independent can ever completely achieve.

India has to import energy — whether it is oil, or natural gas, or even nuclear fuel — and therefore it can never in the conceivable future be anything but be at the mercy of suppliers. Which necessarily means that India has to think really hard about how to mitigate the risks of disruption of its energy supplies from abroad.
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Where’s Waldo Now?

wheres-waldo-now

Good news!

“Where’s Waldo Now” has been reissued. Worth having around the house. Kids of all ages would love it.

I have copied bits from one of the reviews at Amazon below the fold.

(If you are considering a gift for me, I strongly recommend “Where’s Waldo: The Complete Collection.”)

🙂

OK, so where am I now? I am in Mumbai on my way to Hyderabad this afternoon for a meeting at the Indian School of Business. I’ll be back.
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