How to save the world

What's more important to the people of this world than basic health care, better water and sanitation, more schools and better nutrition for children? Saving the world, of course! That is, if you believe all the cassandras warning us abt the impending end of the world in ..... a million years! It would be really amusing if not for the opportunity cost of this obsession with "environmental issues" - we are diverting precious funds, attention and resources from the basic needs of more than half of humanity. As I have written before in Civilisation protects us from Nature!, Michael Crichton makes pretty much the same point in his book State of Fear. Here is more evidence from the United Nations itself, courtesy the Economist magazine.

Don't postpone reading the Economist article. It will be premium content soon!

Soccer moves

Okay. Any time is football (alright, soccer) time. But World Cup time is special. Whether you are a football fan or not, take a minute and 49 secs to watch this fascinating collection of deft moves, dribbles and the triumph of football art over football science. It is often said that a really good player provokes his opponents into fouling him by irritating them with his sheer nonchalance in executing his moves. While this is NOT an acceptable reason for foul play, watching this video clip tells us why there is some logic in that line of reasoning!

Freedom of the Seas - the world's largest cruise ship

I have always had this question about cruise "ships" that provide you an experience similar to a holiday in Vegas - why board a cruise ship if you can simply visit Vegas or Atlantic City or whatever directly? Only the ship "cruises", those on board seem to be reliving their landlocked lives! Notwithstanding, this slideshow about the amazing Freedom of the Seas is worth viewing. For the cost of a few mts, you will most likely earn a longing to be part of the experience. Don't miss it.

Passing the courtesy test

In a recent survey, Readers Digest has ranked New Yorkers the most courteous, compared to residents of 35 other world cities - much to the surprise of many including New Yorkers! This was an unscientific survey based on certain tasks that RD's secret surveyors requested of all unwitting participants.

Here is the part that surprised me - Mumbai citizens are ranked the rudest. Now, you can call Mumbai and its residents a number of things - dirty, in a hurry, no sense of private space, etc. But rudest should not be one them. Though not exactly sweet, Mumbaikars (okay, Bombayites) are usually helpful in spite of their busy lives.

So it looks to me like there is a cultural issue here. What is considered an obvious form of politeness or rudeness in one country may not be so in another country. Holding the door open is the norm in most western countries, but it does not reflect your upbringing in a place like Mumbai. Similarly, expressly saying "thank you" or "please" is a norm in the west. As far as I know, these are often expressed in India by the intonation used in regular conversation. This does not mean rudeness.

why you'll love a Mac....

....but most likely will not buy one. Here is a series of tv ads released by Apple, comparing a Mac with a PC. Almost everyone, including IT-illiterates like me, knows that Macs are better than PCs - in a technical sense. But most of us would rather buy a PC / laptop than a Mac though we the dumb majority should prefer the idiot-proof Mac.

Since this post is abt the ads and not a comparison of Macs with regular PCs, I will spare you any further techie comments. Go ahead and enjoy the ads...

168 hours of uninterrupted sunlight

What a great example of first-person travel reportage. If you don't have time to read the full article, find a few mts for the multimedia presentation on Iceland. A country the size of the state of Virginia packs everything from a glacier to a geyser (most electricity in Iceland is generated geothermally), making it a great travel destination. And to facilitate an easy trip, there is an 830-mile ring road that can be completed in a couple of weeks. Enjoy....

Your city might be underprepared in an emergency

As with everything else, people and institutions (such as govts) are more prepared to deal with regular events and less with irregular / less likely events. Thus, govts in India that have the mechanisms to deal with yearly floods and droughts were found inadequate in dealing with the tsunami. Pre-Katrina, most reports that warned of a disaster in the making were dismissed as fanciful (i.e., low probability).

Once an event happens, people (and institutions) place a very high probability on a repeat.
Though a tsunami is very unlikely, funds-starved state govts in India discussed a reallocation of funds from basic anti-poverty programmes to plans to build a (ridiculous) wall between the sea and the land. Similarly, every US city is preparing to meet a 911 type of attack though the risk of "regular" terrorism (such as bombs in crowded places) seems much higher - simply because these cowardly acts are easier to execute than the cowardly act of ramming a plane into a building.

Shouldn't emergency planning be more rigorous and practical than this?

Who got game? Not us.

The view from the top is certainly different. Americans bemoan the fact they no longer really dominate any sport - not even basketball or baseball! They are also tripping on other traditional strengths such as tennis and track & field. On the other hand, witness how the US is one of the world's leading football (the version played with feet on the ball) teams, better than many other countries football is a passion / national pastime. The real issue seems to be that Americans are no longer the world's best force in "their" sports!

Software and the wine syndrome

Is it true that countries that produce and export wine are thought of as manufacturers of high-quality goods? That anything associated with their countries is considered to be of good quality? Vir Sanghvi draws an interesting parallel between French wine and Indian software. Courtesy the achievements of the Indian software sector and the ubiquitous IIT-ians, being associated with India is suddenly a good thing!

Actually, this shows in a number of ways. Speaking English with an Indian accent is okay nowadays and even lends some authenticity! Almost every one of my colleagues frequents a good Indian restaurant regularly. A trip to India creates tremendous interest in colleagues who want personal accounts of the progress in day-to-day life of the common Indian. And so on....

300 years from now, when our descendants look back at slaughterhouses the way we look back at slavery

Using the idea of "cognitive dissonance" to devastating effect, William Saletan, the science correspondent of Slate magazine writes on how stem cell technology could help grow meat. He thinks it could help avoid bird flu, mad cow disease, etc., but I see a more important benefit - that of producing meat without actually putting animals through hell. It is easy for vegetarians like me to dismiss meat-eating as a practice to avoid, but is unfortunately a reality of life. So, this alternative to the traditional way of growing meat should be explored and encouraged.

The author has wasted a precious paragraph on the abilities of crows, pigeons, rats and dolphins. This space could have been better used to write more about the technology that is being developed. Notwithstanding, the idea being presented is an important one. Read on.....

Include Big Mac in your diet, but do not supersize it!

Arguably a better indicator of the relative financial strength of countries, the Big Mac Index scores over traditional exchange rate predictors in some important ways - it has withstood the test of time, it accounts for localised factors better, is less subject to day-to-day fluctuations and, most importantly, it is so simple to use that even I can understand it!

Recently, the Index celebrated its twentieth anniversary. The Economist has tried to introduce other indices based on Coca Cola and Starbucks latte, but nothing has succeeded like the Big Mac Index has. It has reiterated the usual warnings though - the Index predicts long-term trends better than short-term movements. Don't substitute it for traditional exchange rate theory. Use it, as the pun goes, to make the theory more digestible!

Bollywood's become big ad space for countries seeking tourism

Another case of the tail wagging the dog. Earlier, Indian film producers thought it a privilege to shoot their movies in foreign locales and Indian audiences felt happy to get an interesting bite of a foreign country. Nowadays, foreign countries are indulging in "reverse marketing" - enticing Indian film producers with tax breaks and logisitical support, not for the revenues the film shooting generates but for the advertisement value. The Outlook article mentions KNPH as an example of promoting NZ and other countries seem interested too. But let us not forget that Indians have been enamoured of NZ for many years because the Indian cricket team plays regularly there. Same goes for the Caribbean islands. Will this hold for Korea? Or for Eastern Europe? Only time will tell....