The Problem with Atheism

And now for something entirely different.

Well, not really. I mean that in the Monty Pythonesque sense. If you are familiar with Monty Python, you know upon hearing that line that what was going to follow was more of the same absurd insanely humorous ridiculous nonsense that considers nothing sacred. Perhaps nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition but you’d be crazy to expect something entirely different from Monty Python. In much the same way, despite my claim above, you are not likely to find anything entirely different from the usual fare on my blog. Every topic that I touch upon ultimately converges upon the questions of what is development, why is India not developed, and what can be done to make India developed.

[This is a rather long post — consider yourself warned.]
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The AN-WWTSD-MFGTT

Why is the US so Cheap? – Part 2

This is a response to the comments on the last post “Why is the US so Cheap?” I had argued that the US is more efficient in producing stuff compared to India. The people in the US are more productive because they don’t face as many hurdles – they have bigger and better machines, they use more energy, they have more economic freedom, and so on.

Economic freedom is a matter of policy. Policy is made by people who are entrusted to do so. Determining who the policymakers are in an economy is part of the political process. The political system evolved as a historical process from a set of initial conditions which are to a large extent a random draw. Smart people figured out the set of rules that the economy would play under. It is my belief that differences in the performances of economies arise from the differing set of rules that economies adopt. One set of rules may allow greater economic freedom to the people relative to the government; another set may allow the government control over most of what an individual is allowed to do. I believe that the US is successful (to the extent that it is) primarily because it got the rules worked out better (not perfectly, though) than the others.
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One Snowmobile Per Child

Here’s another guy who is not all that thrilled with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The Strange Case of One Laptop Per Child is made by Eric Posner, a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School. Money quote:

It takes little insight to see that laptops would be low on the list of priorities of the developing-country poor. One Laptop per Child makes as much sense as One iPod per Child or One Snowmobile per Child.

🙂

Vedas and the Speed of Light

My friend Suhit wrote to me pointing out a site by a guy called Gurudev. One of the posts is titled “Speed of Light explained in Rig Veda“. Suhit wondered what I thought of the explanation and so I dutifully went and read that post and replied to Suhit.

First, I think Gurudev and I differ in our understanding of the word ‘explained.’ To explain something means “to account for something, to give reasons for something.” To explain is not the same as baldly stating something. I can simply state that “A is B.” However, to explain “A is B” I have to through a series of statements, state reasons, provide evidence, make arguments why A happens to be B and so on. In the post, Gurudev tells us that the Vedas (indirectly) state — not explain — the speed of light to be something and that something is pretty darn close to the speed of light as known to modern science.

I don’t know what the point of the whole post was. Perhaps it was to argue that the Vedas are scientific. I don’t buy that. Here’s why.
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Does the NREGS Cause Inflation?

It makes sense to know a bit of economics, just as it is good to know how to do arithmetic. You don’t need to get yourself a PhD in mathematics in some area like topology or Lie groups. You just need to know basic arithmetic so that you can do your everyday figuring by yourself, so you know whether someone short-changed you or not. Thus spoke Joan Robinson: “The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.”
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Was Nehru a Dictator?

There’s an interesting discussion going on at The Acorn which got started following an article by Vir Sanghvi in the Hindustan Times. The Acorn says:

Just as it is wrong to blame the United States for Pakistan’s failure, it is wrong to credit Nehru with India’s relative success. Assessing Nehru’s role in India’s development requires the space of several books. But one would think it reasonable to credit several hundred million ordinary people of India for doing little things right that contributed to their country being where it is. It is also reasonable to blame a small number of people for doing big things wrong that left India much behind what it could have been.

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Why is the US so Cheap?

A Simple Question

A friend of mine in California asked me one of those questions which seem simple on the surface yet is anything but. One of the “top women in storage” as a leading business publication had rated her, she had gone home to Ireland for the Christmas holidays. In an email detailing how everyone was and what happened in Ireland, she concluded by asking, “So, Mr Economist, tell me why is the US so cheap?” The context of her question included the price-levels of various places she is familiar with such as the US, Western European countries, NZ, and Australia. My own comparison of Indian and US prices adds further validity to that question since I find that the US is cheap relative to India. Why is it so?
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There Must be Violence Against Women

Despite such [Quranic] instructions, beating is considered a type of violence, according to human rights organizations, which urge women to complain to the police. I just wonder what kind of families our societies would have if Muslim women started doing this regarding their husbands.

Relationships between fathers and daughters or sisters and brothers also provoke argument from human rights organizations, which propose the suggested solutions for all relationships. Personally, I don’t think fathers or brothers would undertake such behavior unless there was a reason for it.

The above quote is from here.

There are always good reasons for violence against women. Take for example, the case of 16-year old Aqsa Parvez in Canada, strangled by her father last month because she refused to wear the hijab. Or the case of the Egyptian taxi-driver in Texas who shot and killed his two teenage daughters on Jan 1st because they were seeing non-Muslim guys.

Human rights? Oh come on, human rights have nothing to do with it as women are sub-humans anyway. OK, subhuman rights activists could get into it but human rights activists have no business in these matters.

Related to the above:

A 57-year-old Oak Forest man set a fire that killed his pregnant daughter, her husband and the couple’s 3-year-old son because he was angry that the son-in-law came from a “lower caste system” and had not asked for the daughter’s hand in marriage, prosecutors said Tuesday.

In a hearing at the Markham courthouse Tuesday morning, Subhash Chander was ordered held without bond by Cook County Judge Martin McDonough in connection with the arson and murder of Chander’s pregnant daughter Monika Rani, 22; her husband Rajesh Kumar, 30; and their son Vansh. [Source.]

Intel waves goodbye to OLPC

Barely six months after joining the OLPC project, Intel announced that it is leaving. The OLPC people wanted Intel to stop work on any products that are likely to compete with the OLPC. Which basically means that contrary to what the OLPC people were claiming–that it was not about the laptop but rather about education–is clearly not so. If indeed it was about education, wouldn’t they have welcomed more and varied efforts by others in the same game?

AtanuDey on MyToday

If you had been wondering when I will get with the new technology, wonder no more. I have created an SMS channel on MyToday.com and so you can keep abreast of announcements related to this blog and yours truly.

It’s simple. If you are in India, send an SMS saying “Start AtanuDey” (case insensitive, and without the quotes) to 575758 or to 098453 98453.

You will start receiving messages that I publish, starting with an acknowledgment message from “ATANUDEY”. What will it cost you? Nothing except whatever it costs to send that single “start” message. Anytime you wish to stop receiving messages from “ATANUDEY”, send an SMS saying “Stop AtanuDey” to 575758 or 098453 98453.

This is what is called the “pub sub”–publish subscribe–paradigm. Basically you are in control and so don’t have to suffer spam.

I intend to use the channel sparingly. Once in a while I will high-light some post of special significance. For instance, I may say, “Go read my opinion piece in today’s Mint”, or “Catch me on BBC World TV at 8 PM.”

I would also publish “Where in the world is Atanu today?” type of SMS. For instance, I am in New Delhi on the 9th and 10th. So I will send an SMS saying “Visiting N Delhi 9th and 10th. Meeting Esther Dyson for a chat about education and technology.”

Catch you on SMS.

By the by, you too can create any channel you want and keep in touch with your friends, family and colleagues. Just go to MyToday.com and get started. It’s the coolest thing to hit the mobile scene since sliced bread.