Weekend Flea Market 20-Oct-2007

An assortment of stuff I came across in cyberspace, offered second hand, for anyone who may be interested.

• Despite veto threats from the Bush administration, the House of Representatives approved the Free Flow of Information Act that would shield journalists - and some bloggers - from being forced to reveal confidential sources in federal cases. See Are Blogging Journalists Shielded? for background information. Not everyone is happy, however, since only bloggers who derive substantial portion of their income through their writing are shielded.
• Are Indian IT professionals among the worst paid globally? A study by HR consultancy Mercer finds India to be the fourth worst IT paymaster.
• Flickr plans to expand from photo sharing to photo editing through a deal with start-up Picnik. Picnik lets users perform a variety of basic editing tasks - crop and resize photos; change exposure, saturation, color temperature; sharpen edges; remove red-eye; and rotate pictures by 90-degrees or finer increments.
• Genetics pioneer Craig Venter took the stage at the Web 2.0 Summit. Venter’s own DNA was sequenced at a cost of about $70 million. Today it costs only $300,000 to sequence a person’s DNA, and the $100,000 benchmark is in sight. It’s an information processing problem. In other words, Moore’s Law and genetics are tightly tied. It won’t be long before your genome - and your likelihood to get various diseases, live long, be athletic, etc. - will be available in a standard medical test. Read The Information Week report here.
• AP had reported that China is increasing efforts at Internet censorship ahead of the Communist Party Congress. However, an interesting article by Dan Sullivan at SearchEngineLand says that China is upset with the US over the award it granted to the Dalai Lama. It is retaliating by hurting US-based search engines by redirecting Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft search traffic to the China-owned Baidu.
• Expedia and Travelocity are readying India operations, reports LiveMint.
• About 16% of men and 8% of women who have access to the Internet at work acknowledged having seen porn while on the job, according to a survey cited in USA Today’s article: Technology makes porn easier to access at work.
• Photos: Scott Wolf disassembles an iRobot Roomba, to see what’s inside and remarkably, puts it back together as well. You can see how the Roomba works with collision detection, how it has a customization software interface, and much more. How I wish I had this toy in India!
• I do not use Firefox, but if you do, remember that it’s not safe out of the box. Here are five security/privacy extensions you must have.
• Astronomers may be on brink of finding habitable ’second Earth’, reports The Guardian. Earlier this year, scientists reported finding the most Earth-like planet ever, just 20 light years away.
• The co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA, James ‘Black People Are Stupid’ Watson, has again disgraced himself. The Telegraph analyzes what it calls the Nobel Syndrome, Scientific American has its take, and Wired Science has its strong rejoinder.
• Webyantra profiles Indian food-related sites on the web - online delivery, recipes, restaurant reviews, etc.

Visit the earlier weekend’s flea market here. Have a great weekend!

Weekend Flea Market 13-Oct-07

The Friday Flea Market is now open all weekend! An assortment of stuff I came across in cyberspace, offered second hand, for anyone who may be interested.

• Wired Magazine has a very interesting article on how racial profiling can be used in forensics with great success. The Inconvenient Science of Racial DNA Profiling also explains how this controversial technology raises uncomfortable ethical questions.
• Dr. Deb talks about a controversial ad in Italy that aims to increase awareness of Anorexia, while clarifying that Anorexia has a higher mortality rate than depression.
• Finally, three years after the devastating tsunami disaster, India’s tsunami warning system takes shape.
• The Iconoclast asks a very pertinent question about whether telecom companies like AT&T should be held responsible for cooperating with the National Security Agency (NSA).
• While you’ve been caught up reading on the Nobel awards, don’t miss this year’s igNoble awards!
• Photomicrography: Fine art photography though a microscope. For over 30 years, Nikon has rewarded the world’s best photomicrographers who make critically important scientific contributions to life sciences, bio-research and materials science. See the stunning winners of the 2007 competition here.
• Finally, Microsoft Research is coming to India! Microsoft has tied up with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to collaborate on research.
• A new Google Earth layer lets you view geo-tagged videos on YouTube. Just imagine how travelogues are going to take this to elevate themselves to the next level.
• Wikipedia’s middle-age crisis: Sad news. Activity on Wikipedia seems to be slowing down, reports TechCrunch.
• The Economist has a fascinating article on how lap dancers earn more tips when they’re most fertile in their menstrual cycle.

There are fewer items in the flea market this weekend, because of the increased readership, interesting comments, and enlightened discussions on my earlier posts. In short, my blog has kept me busy… Have a good weekend!

Weekend Flea Market 5-Oct-07

An assortment of stuff I came across in cyberspace, offered second hand, for anyone who may be interested.

• If you haven’t read it already, Thomas Friedman’s penultimate op-ed 9/11 Is Over, is a must-read.
• China has now started blocking all RSS feeds as well.
• A woman has been sentenced to death by stoning in Iran for committing adultery. Kamangir and a group of Iranian bloggers are trying to stop that from happening.
• Microsoft launches HealthVault, an online repository where consumers can store medical information for free in an encrypted database. For once, Microsoft beats Google to something!
• Ashok talked about “Collective Intelligence” in the comments discussion on my post “Runaway Train“. Techcrunch reveals that a new site, CrowdChess, has launched. You log on and sign up for a game. Each side is made up of teams of dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people. Anyone on a team can suggest the next move, and the move that gets the most votes is the one that is played out. Like Erick, I too wonder if any number of amateurs can ever beat a grandmaster in this scenario! What do you think?
• MMP has his own insightful analysis of why he blogs. He has developed an interesting universal model that shows how we all live in blogging CAVES. Check it out.
• Check out Ashok’s take on the various categories of Indian bloggers to have a healthy laugh at The Blogosphere Zoopedia.
• A US Senate Judiciary Committee has passed the Free Flow of Information Act. There is still a long way to go and final outcome seems uncertain at this stage. See Are Blogging Journalists Shielded? for background information.
• The Economist paints a sordid and bleak picture of the challenges involved in revamping Mumbai. A must-read if you care about Mumbai.
• Financial Times puts Rahul Gandhi’s first populist action after ascending to the Congress secretaryship as the backdrop to describe how political short-termism is hampering retail reforms.
• I had pondered on a few questions regarding cricket’s status in India in my 10 Thoughts on T20 World Cup Win post. Social psychologist Ashis Nandy has some interesting answers in his interview with Outlook magazine. He says there are only three areas of our life—cricket, cinema (Bollywood) and crime that recognize capability wholeheartedly and unconditionally.
• I have written about the contempt of court ruling regarding Justice Sabharwal. Vinod Mehta brings greater clarity to the issue and wisely cautions that if the media and the judiciary engage in a war, the only winners will be the politicians.
• To bring this potpourri full circle back to the US, Rajinder Puri takes on a lot of controversial issues in his take on the decline of the US. Some of his comments resonate with Shefaly’s comments in the discussion on Right To Free Speech: What does it mean?.

10 Thoughts on T20 World Cup Win

I have never written about cricket before. Why? I’m not sure - sometimes I think enough is being written all around, and I can’t add any value. At other times, I don’t think it has any real “post-substance”, so I let it pass by. Well, such an opportunity doesn’t come very often, so let me take this 20-20 World Cup win to break this abstinence!

Here are random thoughts about the win in no particular order:

1. I think Dhoni is the future of Indian cricket captaincy. Don’t you just love his repartees? He gave it back to the press when they had earlier asked if Yuvraj was taken as a bowler in the team. He gave it back to Ravi Shastri over an article on Cricinfo after defeating the Aussies. He gave it back in front of the mammoth Mumbai crowd when he answered back in Hindi, after being questioned in Marathi and English.
2. I wonder if being a wicket-keeper captain has inherent advantages? To start with, he is able to be as close to the action on the pitch as possible. He can observe the bowling performances, the batsmen’s mood/discomforts/etc. and take decisions regarding bowling changes or advise bowlers accordingly. Being centrally located, he is in better visible and audible contact with as many fielders as possible. Observe how many captains, from Gavaskar to Ponting, have taken slip fielding positions whenever possible…
3. If you ask me what is the single most important difference (physical not psychological) in this team - it is the fielding. I saw a completely different vigor and enthusiasm in the fielding. Never before have I seen two direct-hit run-outs by India within a tournament at critical stages.
4. I think the people who destroyed Dhoni’s upcoming house brick-by-brick after the WC debacle should now apologize to him and rebuild it brick-by-brick themselves.
5. It is amazing how cricket unites our country. We may not be a truly secular country, but cricket is the most secular aspect of our culture. It unites us (whether in despair or in triumph) across religions, castes, economic status, education levels, geographic region, language, etc.
6. On another note, I know that there are political compulsions in player selections for tournaments. But these are up to the level of states. Given that, does Indian cricket exemplify “equal opportunity” in terms of there being no discrimination based on education/caste/status/economic level? Seeing today’s heroes hailing from impoverished backgrounds, illiterate parents - does this “dream come true” hold any meaning for the common Indian?
7. A lot of hue and cry is being made about the comment by the losing Pakistani captain apologizing to all muslims of the world for losing. Many Indian muslims have come out and expressed that their patriotism was offended by that remark. Others are cautioning not to bring religion into cricket in the Asian sub-continent, where cricket is a religion. I believe this hue and cry was given birth to and fueled by CNN-IBN who started flashing it as a ’stir’ based on a couple of comments on their site. Folks, let’s learn to be gracious winners. The poor guy had just frustratingly lost the world cup final when it was almost in their grasp. Called on the world stage, he tried his best to apologize. If you notice how the Pakistani players never fail to mention Inshallah in every other sentence, you might be convinced that it is best to overlook his shortsightedness at such a humiliating moment.
8. When the city-that-never-sleeps came to a standstill when welcoming the heroes, it was simply acting on behalf of the entire nation. It was disgusting to watch the spectacle marred by specimens of the politicus patheticus species, whose dinosaur sized posters lined up the roads and whose best representatives tried to hog (pun intended) the limelight. The NCP government of Maharashtra, not to be outdone by myopic Shiv Sena gave a trophy to the team that had a map of Maharashtra and not India!
9. The Asia-Cup winning hockey players are understandably upset and contemplating a hunger strike. This leads to several interesting questions. Hockey is our national game because for many decades we were undisputed champions in field hockey. What should be the criteria to decide a national game? Dominance, popularity? Can a national game be changed? On the other hand, why is cricket more popular than hockey ever was?
10. We must remember that the 20-20 game format is such that luck and chance play a greater role than in other formats. This is certainly not to undermine or undercut the team’s terrific achievement. It is simply to note that we should not have unrealistic expectations of the Indian team from the coming series against Australia and in future.

WikiScanning India

In the privacy-cherishing geek Internet populace, a monitoring tool for tracing changes to Wikipedia entries is gaining notorious popularity. WikiScanner, a tool created a few weeks back, maps millions of Wikipedia edits to the IP address of the computer used to make those edits. By referencing public databases that map sets of IP addresses to the organizations owning them, WikiScanner is able to tell you which organization’s computer was used to make a certain edit.

There have been innumerable number of interesting discoveries so far. They range from the religious (Vatican, The Church of Scientology) and media (BBC, New York Times), to companies (Walmart, Sony) and governments (Australia, Canada). Wired magazine, which first broke the story, runs an updated list of salacious edits.

So, I decided to run WikiScanner on a few Indian organizations. As would be expected, there did not appear to be any serious objectionable edits, since the awareness of Wikipedia in our one-billion plus country is negligible enough to deter any unwarranted changes. Scans of educational institutes showed the educated elite’s fondness of the different branches of mathematics and computer science. Searches for edits from the top Indian IT companies revealed massive number of edits. They showed the passion of our software professionals for Bollywood (with one from Cognizant insisting via multiple edits that Celina Jaitley has ‘big ones’), Cricket (World Cup 2007 being one of the most edited entry), and of course, IT.

This was reassuring in a certain way, especially if you see how Western businesses are tainting their competitors’ edits and censoring true criticism of themselves. After spending a couple of hours or so, I could find only one objectionable entry, made by The Times of India, Chandigarh. Someone at The Times of India, decided to try and act smart:

They wrote in the Indian Express entry: “Long considered probably the most intrepid newspaper, it is also regarded as a perfect launching pad for young journalists, especially reporters, for the sheer independence they are offered by the organization. Of late, however, marketing forces combined with some poor editors at some editions have undermined the very values like unearthing the skeletons hidden in the cupboard of the powerful the paper stood for. Instead, sensationalism seems to overshadow investigation at times, its critics say.”

Technorati Tags: wikiscanner, india, media, wikipedia

Share this post :

Fork Spoon Puzzle Solution

Here’s the solution to the Fork Spoon Puzzle.

1. Hook the fork and spoon together, such that the outer prongs are on the outside of the spoon, while the inner prongs are on the inside. Make sure the interlocking is firm. They should now be like a single, boomerang shaped object.

2. Insert the matchstick from the center of the fork prongs. Position it so that it also touches the spoon’s edge.

3. Balance the fork-spoon object by placing the matchstick on the edge of the glass.

4. If you’re showing this off to your friends, you can also burn the ends of the matchstick for added effect!

Here’s the YouTube video:

Technorati Tags: science, puzzles, fun, riddles, children

Fork Spoon Puzzle Update

Almost a month back, I’d posted the Fork Spoon Puzzle. As far as I know, only Rambodoc attempted a solution. He sent me a solution I had also come up with, that didn’t satisfy the real rules, so it again proved that we’re one of a kind!

That post wasn’t meant to be a popular post that would get the highest number of hits, and appear on the WordPress ‘Top Posts’ list. Why? Because nobody these days is interested in science, in teaching rationality to their children, or learning about basic science stuff all over again! “Oh my god, we went through this in school already, not again!”

But aren’t bloggers different from this public? The puzzle doesn’t require any sophisticated equipment, just basic kitchen stuff. It is not in any kind of specialized domain like music or finance, where you need some background knowledge. You apply scientific principles when you load your luggage onto the airport cart. Put the heavier and bigger bags first, and towards the handle, then heavy bags next to it farther than the handle, then the lighter bags on top of them. We do it, because we need to carry our luggage; who needs to solve a puzzle?!

But think about the scientists who go on experimenting and experimenting. How many years did Descartes spend experimenting with light? How many years did Nash struggle with mathematics and play games to come up with Nash equilibria? How many years did our beloved Kalam spend trying to figure out missile trajectories that are now used by ISRO to send satellites in space?

We ordinary folks spend hours reading books about such great folks. We spend time writing about our love of them. The blogosphere is teeming with its love and praise for Kalam. Why can’t we spend a few minutes trying to practice what he and others preached?

This is not experimentation where you don’t even know if the solution exists (which was what these pioneers were mostly faced with). It is a simple puzzle, with a known solution.

Why I write so passionately about this is because I believe that only if we instill the scientific spirit in ourselves, can we pass it on to the next generation. We’re becoming a populace who abhors any kind of mental effort, reveling in popular music, popular customs, popular cinema, popular beliefs, and so on. What about classical stuff, that requires some effort? Isn’t it rewarding? But I digress.

As I said in the puzzle post, you can choose to cheat and find the solution quickly using the Internet. You would then be missing the whole point. Try to spend time and a little bit of effort. You’ll appreciate the results much more! Let us teach our children and the next generation how to go about applying the unquiet mind.

I will reveal the solution to the puzzle in the coming week, depending on the response to this post. Do use the comments section to vent out your frustrations, your questions, your criticisms. They’re all welcome!

Technorati Tags: science, fun, puzzles, riddles, children

Share this post :

The Hottest Stuff in the World

In September 2000, a military laboratory in the garrison town of Tezpur in northeastern India announced that it had identified the hottest chili in the world. After some disputing claims and questions of authenticity, it was scientifically proven by New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute, where spiciness is a religion. The Guinness Book of World Records also heralded the discovery.

The Hottest Chili

The chili is known as “Bhut Jolokia” (translated as “Ghost Chili”), or “Naga Jolakia”, after the Naga warriors from Nagaland in northeastern India. The hotness of chili is measured using the Scoville scale. For a list of Scoville ratings of different chilies and sauces, see this. For a quick summary: Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units. Your basic jalapeno pepper measures anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. The previous record holder, the Red Savina habanero, was tested at up to 580,000 Scovilles.

The Bhut Jolokia crushed those contenders, testing at 1,001,304 Scoville units.

Eating Bhut Jolokia

The news is few months old, but was revived recently by an Associated Press reporter who dared to eat one full bhut jolokia (read the full experience, it would be unjust to read just a snippet). Incidentally, another news broke out last month of a 17-month old toddler, who happily devours a handful of them at a time, without batting an eyelid - since he also smears his eyes with them. Fortunately, his illiterate parents do not wish to send him to make world records, unlike some other highly literate ones.

While all this has been making the news rounds, my interest in this story came from multiple angles.

North-Eastern Region of India

For a change, there is some good news from and for North-Eastern India. For complex reasons, the people from this region are not treated at par with others in the rest of India. The world record status has given them a sense of pride.

The economy of the region is precarious, with tea-making on a steady decline. There are some hopes that the exports of this hot chili will help - not in a revolutionary way, but any help is good news for now.

Globalization

What? Aren’t we talking about chilies? Yes, we are. Remember, LIFE Magazine included the discovery of the potato in the 100 Most Important Events of the past 1000 Years. Similarly, some interesting facts from a nice article in Time:

• The remarkable spread of the chili is a piquant chapter in the story of globalization. Few other foods have been taken up by so many people in so many places so quickly.
• In terms of keeping billions of people fed, the chili can hardly compare to rice or corn or even potatoes, of course. But by adding spice to such staples, by making even the poorest food rich in flavor, the chili has become one of the most important ingredients in the world. For hundreds of millions of poor, chilies are the one luxury they can afford every day, a small burst of flavor in the slums of Asia or the parched grazing land of West Africa.
• Chilies are native to South America, where people have been cultivating and trading them for at least 6,000 years. (Six thousand years?!)
• In 2001 UK’s then Foreign Minister Robin Cook called chicken tikka masala the country’s national dish.
• In the US, Mexican food is ever more popular; salsas and chili sauces have outsold tomato-based ketchup since the early 1990s.

Science

Why do we like chili?

The heat in chilies turn on the pain receptors in our mouth and on our tongue. It’s essentially a defense mechanism designed to stop (us) animals devouring the (chili) pod. Our body reacts as if it’s a poison.

At a very low level, our body’s nervous system releases endorphins, a type of mild natural opiate, to ease the sting. It’s that mix of pleasure and pain that makes eating chilies such a wonderful experience.

No, eating chilies cannot become an addiction. And if you still have questions, here’s a Chili FAQ.

Photo Credits: Manish Swarup, AP

Technorati Tags: chili, bhut jolakia, india, assam, food

Share this post :

You wouldn’t want this Oscar

Satyajit Ray received his Lifetime Achievement Oscar on his deathbed. The only Oscar most of us can probably get on ours is this feline fatale:

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means the patient has less than four hours to live.

Note that the above is a CNN story. I Can Has CNN, can’t I?

Wait, what about a scientific explanation? Well, at present, there’s none:

No one’s certain if Oscar’s behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa’s article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it’s also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Not surprisingly, this research was first published in the New England Journal of Medicine. For more information on the various research methodologies and statistical techniques used in the papers of this journal, read an enlightened surgeon’s lucid explanation.

No wonder then that the number of students enrolling for medical schools in the US is increasing, while the numbers for computer science is decreasing. Scholarly students are attracted by the complex challenges involved in studying cat behavior and such distinguished journals, rather than wasting time in trivial things like solving computer programming puzzles.

Technorati Tags: death, cats, paranormal, medicine

Bug with WordPress’s Akismet Stats Reporting

On your blog stats page, you have the Spam section with a remark:

“Akismet has protected your site from XYZ spam comments.”

Now, if you check your spam comments, find an authentic comment and de-spam it, this XYZ count should reduce, right? I mean, I’m telling WordPress/Akismet that the comment should not be counted as spam!

I just found out - the count doesn’t change. Bug?