You see.. the coefficient of the linear..

My friend Virdee's blog has these lyrics from the delightful 1977 hindi pfillum 'Amar Akbar Anthony' where Amitabh Bachchan tries to appear sophisticated by spouting (meaningless) impressive sounding english sentences in the middle of a song. Sample this hilarious piece:

"Wait Wait Wait……… You see the whole country of this system is just a position by the hemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are a sophistication retroration intoxicated by the exuberance of your own babocity"

I've always been interested in knowing what exactly he said in the song, but I could never really decipher it well enough. For those who are interested, the rest of the lines are in Virdee's blog entry.

Everyone is special.. so no one is

That's a recurring theme that runs through 'The Incredibles'. And the American educational system. After being in grad school in the US for two odd years, I'm still surprised to see that there are almost no Americans in engineering grad school. Even in lower division classes, ( I have no statistics here) there seem to be more international students than Americans. If this is not just a temporary anomaly, what does it mean for America over the next few years?

1. Countries such as China and India (with an enormous educated populace) are embracing technology like a long lost sibling. While it is true that most large companies are still based in the US, will there be a significant advantage in being in the US when there are equally large markets elsewhere?

2. One of the primary reasons for successfull startups in the US is the economic and academic climate. There is plenty of money and there are plenty of brains in the Universities. While the money is still there, the brains are steadily becoming scarce. Two reasons: 1. Students are increasingly reluctant to come to the US to study and instead preferring alternative destinations like Australia/Canada/UK due to visa issues and the hassles of finding a job. 2. Not enough American students who are willing to go to grad school. There are jobs which require the expertise that you obtain in grad school. Such as the research and development jobs (which are the ones that create the next-best-things)

3. How about the next generation of Americans? The 'Leave no child behind' policy encourages education to be dumbed down to the level of the average kid. From personal experience, I can claim that competition is good. Peer pressure is what drives kids to excel - no amount of books/teachers can achieve what some good ol' peer pressure can. A school where no one is driven to excel will (probably) produce average kids consistently. While a school where students *are* driven to excel will produce kids who want to become the innovators of tomorrow. (Of course, excellence is not just in technology - it could be in the Arts and Humanities too, but my whole argument is about the decreasing species called the American Engineer) Please, letting kids breeze through classes until they are in high school is such a waste of the human mind!

IMHO it is such a shame to have such wonderful facilities in a country and let them all go to waste because of complacence.

Cooking for Engineers

I swear this is how cooking should be described! Very analytically and with no room for confusion. How can you ever go wrong if you are following an algorithm for cooking! Enjoy cooking for engineers (thanks Supriya!)

"Only the dead have seen the end of the war."
- Plato

A death is a death. Even if it is in a faraway land. No amount of political doublespeak can make it otherwise.

From the Annals of Improbable Events..

Did you know that there actually is a World Toilet Organization? Or that Beijing is hosting the 2004 World Toilet Summit this November? Probably not. But toilets are always fascinating and dependable, whether you need a good laugh, or a good photograph. [all links are worksafe]

The God Gene

Turns out that God was within us all the time.. or something like that. The God Gene, a book by Dean Hamer claims that the spiritual tendency among humans all over the world is really due to a gene VMAT2.

Fuck this! (oops!)

The FCC has taken its big daddy role quite seriously this year by fining radio stations and television networks for airing, what it considers obscenity and profanity. ABC aired 'Saving Private Ryan' on Veteran's day, but around 20 ABC stations decided not to broadcast it since they were afraid of being fined by the FCC for the f-words in the movie. Let me play the Devil's advocate here - I was always under the impression that the f-word was so omnipresent in our society and conversations that it was not a swear word anymore. Even if it is a terrible swear word, is there anyone around who has never heard it? or will be irrevocably corrupted if he/she hears it again?

The good guys at Mathworld (Eric Weisstein & Co.) have published their own solutions to the cryptic Google recruitment ad, and the Google Labs Aptitude Test (GLAT). The solutions almost invariably use Mathematica, but they serve as a great launchboard to other interesting mathematical stuff. Particularly interesting is their choice of favourite mathematical equations. (Also checkout the favourite equation list on Slashdot).

Reality television moves up a notch.

Just as reality TV was going into Jerry Springer-ish mode (loud, vulgar, addictive and something that only 'others' watch), NBC came up with 'The Apprentice'. Finally here was a reality show which made you want to watch it for the intellectual stuff that the contestants had, and their real world abilities to hustle in the corporate world. Of course, the most memorable characters from the show was not the sweet-and-boring Bill, but the conniving and repulsive villaness Omarosa (NBC made quite some capital out of her, including an advert which simply said "Oma. Rosa."

The prize for the apprentice was a $250,000 job with the Trump empire under the tutelage of The Donald. (I'm not sure how much the self-made Bill enjoys working for such a (seemingly) pretentious and condescending Trump, but that's another story. Fox has come out with a wannabe Apprentice-killer named 'The Rebel Billionaire'. Instead of the staid Donald, they have the brash and adventurous Sir Richard Branson - president of the Virgin Empire (which will be sending tourists to space soon). The prize this time - president of the Virgin Empire itself! (I don't know how that works out - there must be some catch there, right?). Salon has a great story into how the casting directors actually choose the contestants, looking for sparks and the potential to create conflicts which will make great television.

Meanwhile, on Fox, there is another reality show which is an out and out parody of 'The Apprentice'. Named 'My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss', the show mimics the format of the popular NBC show, save for one fact - the Boss, and everything on the show is fake, save for the contestants who do not know that they are being taken for a ride. In the first episode, the Ivy Leaguer contestants were made to panhandle in the streets of chicago (which the girls won easily by using the hit combination of T+A (Tits and Ass). Even though the show intends to generate a laugh by making a fool of the contestants (and does so quite successfully), the show sparkles with some real business wisdom with a lot less pretence than the Apprentice. When the leader of the losing team is asked to choose two people who would be on the firing line along with him, the boss gives the leader immunity from being fired since in a real world 'a boss would always have someone around him to be the fall guy'. How true!

Touchscreen anywhere!

A new project from IBM Research aims to create virtual touchscreen displays on any surface without actually wiring anything. An LCD projector projects an image that is reflected from a mirror onto any surface, while a camera tracks a person's movements to respond the way a real touch screen would. Pretty cool idea with some interesting possibilities for advertising. Think in terms of mega touch screen displays.. [source]

Campaign for Real(?) Beauty..

After years of featuring beautiful models with creamy soft skins, Dove has turned over a new leaf. The Campaign for Real Beauty shows models who are wrinkled/freckled/overweight/flat-chested in an attempt to show that beauty can be beyond the conventional concepts dictated by society and mass media. While the intentions are certainly honorable, it does sound a little too pretentious for a cosmetics company that has made its fortune by selling the dream of unattainable beauty. It sounds too much like an attempt to win over women who do not think they are beautiful by conventional standards, and loathe the media/industry for creating such a concept of beauty.

Finally, a good use for Coca-Cola!

The Guardian reports that Indian farmers have found a cheap and effective way to keep their crops free of bugs - Coca-Cola. Hundreds of farmers have been spraying their cotton and chilli fields with Coke and it seems to be working for them! The real clincher is the fact that while pesticides cost around Rs. 10,000 ($225) per liter, a 1.5 liter coke bottle can be had for as little as Rs. 30(<$1). Go figure out the economics! (thanks Vijay!)

Halloween.. here we go again

Let's finish off the halloween weekend with a nice bloody video.. I give you.. the great Klaus Forklift video!