Crackergate

The world is going to hell in a handbasket. That’s what you’d think if you consider all the bad news coming at you from all quarters — inflation, the rising price of food and fuel, the commies taking their ball and going home (you wish), the possibility of a disappointing monsoons, sundry acts of terrorism, and so on. Comic relief is what one sorely needs to lighten the doom and gloom.

So here’s some news of the weird that fits the bill. It comes from the University of Central Florida. (You have to take what you get — even if that is half-way around the world in some godforsaken state.)

‘Body Of Christ’ Snatched From Church, Held Hostage By UCF Student, reads the headlines.
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India’s Energy Challenge

I have a piece in today’s livemint.com on India’s Energy Challenge. The money quote is this:

The advanced industrialized economies were lucky to have had their development fuelled by cheap fossil energy. Today’s developing economies have a much tougher challenge. It was a very short window of opportunity which opened just about 150 years ago and is likely to close in the next 40 years, by when the known reserves will be depleted at current levels of consumption.

All told, 200 years is a very brief interlude considering thousands of years of human civilization and hopefully hundreds of thousands of years yet to come. At some time in the distant future, they will look back and remark that the age of fossil fuel was a short inflection point, a point at which humanity passed through the bottleneck of dependency on oil from the ground. Before that point, humanity’s primary source of energy was the sun, and so it will be after that point.

The full article is below the fold. Continue reading “India’s Energy Challenge”

Guest Post: Reservations on Reservation in Indian Education

India is a country that’s renowned for its diversity – the country is a potpourri of different languages, religions, castes and cultures. While this variety makes the nation more interesting and intriguing, it’s kicking up a storm in the sphere of education. The country’s government-aided institutions all allow a certain quota of seats to be reserved for educationally and socially backward classes and for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
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Hi from Delhi

Ok, this is a personal post of the type what I had for breakfast yesterday. So if you aren’t interested in my personal life, consider yourself warned and don’t read any further.
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The National Rural Corruption Guarantee Scheme — Revisited

The National Rural Corruption Guarantee Scheme (NRCGS) was the title of a post from Nov 2007, one of a series of posts dealing with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, starting with one in Nov 2004 on “Sir, won’t you buy this bridge and the Employment Guarantee Act?”
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Leaving on a jet plane

Today I make my way to Delhi for some days. And then on to Chennai. So I will be reporting from the capital of this great country. I have not been in Delhi for many many moons and I am looking forward to a very exciting visit.

Old Soldiers Never Die

Old soldiers never die,
Never die, never die,
Old soldiers never die
They just fade away.

Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji “Sam Bahadur” Jamshedji Manekshaw MC (April 3, 1914 – June 27, 2008)

Here’s a warm farewell to Sam Manekshaw from a little boy. And from a soldier to Sam Bahadur.

Godwin’s Law: An example

Having grown up in the age of the USENET, I am intimately familiar with Godwin’s Law. “As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” The corollary to which has always been that whoever equates his opponent in a debate to Hitler or the Nazi, he has admitted that he has lost the argument. The thread or discussion has to be considered closed.
Continue reading “Godwin’s Law: An example”