from:"Srini RamaKrishnan"

On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 6:42 PM, Caitlin Marinelli
caitlin.marine...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Tue, February 4, 2014 5:26 pm, Adrianna Tan wrote:
 Hi all,
 In Chennai 9 - 12 Feb.
 Happy to meet one and all on 10 or 11 Feb.
 Takers?

 Monday or Tuesday evening works for me in Chennai. Would love to meet
 the Chennai silklisters.

+1

[silk] The march of technology

Bayer CEO: We made medicine for people who can afford it, not Indians

I don't think vilification serves any purpose.

On the one hand, Bayer makes life saving drugs, very good; but on the
other hand it intends to only sell it only to the rich; not so good.

Historically speaking this has been something of a pattern, not just
with Bayer but most corporations.

Bayer as IG Farben made the gas Zyklon-B used in the gas chambers of
Auschwitz. Then the world learned its lesson and Bayer instead used
the same skills to make sprays that kill bugs. Crop protection in
other words.

So has Bayer saved more people than it has killed? Is Bayer any
different from the world of profit and self interest it lives in?

Does all the technology we have today save more lives than it kills?
Interesting point of contemplation.

A look at population numbers would say yes. But then quality of life
indicators - and not just material quality, but indicators that take
into account mental illness, loneliness, depression and so on give a
very mixed reading.

We are certainly successful at keeping human beings alive; but we are
not yet successful at making them happy in my opinion.

http://keionline.org/node/1910
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1vyyww/we_did_not_develop_this_medicine_for_indianswe/
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-21/merck-to-bristol-myers-face-more-threats-on-india-drug-patents

Re: [silk] The march of technology

I must clarify that the intent here is not to criticize.

CEOs and politicians are intelligent people making difficult choices -
they are speaking the minds of the people they represent. I think in
the long run the morality of corporations or nations or any collective
tends to represent the average morality of the people who make it up.

Any examination of such matters needs to look at the larger morality,
and understand why our leaders time and again get sucked into narrow
views of self interest.

On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 8:54 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:
Bayer CEO: We made medicine for people who can afford it, not Indians

I don't think vilification serves any purpose.

On the one hand, Bayer makes life saving drugs, very good; but on the
other hand it intends to only sell it only to the rich; not so good.

Historically speaking this has been something of a pattern, not just
with Bayer but most corporations.

Bayer as IG Farben made the gas Zyklon-B used in the gas chambers of
Auschwitz. Then the world learned its lesson and Bayer instead used
the same skills to make sprays that kill bugs. Crop protection in
other words.

So has Bayer saved more people than it has killed? Is Bayer any
different from the world of profit and self interest it lives in?

Does all the technology we have today save more lives than it kills?
Interesting point of contemplation.

A look at population numbers would say yes. But then quality of life
indicators - and not just material quality, but indicators that take
into account mental illness, loneliness, depression and so on give a
very mixed reading.

We are certainly successful at keeping human beings alive; but we are
not yet successful at making them happy in my opinion.

http://keionline.org/node/1910
http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1vyyww/we_did_not_develop_this_medicine_for_indianswe/
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-01-21/merck-to-bristol-myers-face-more-threats-on-india-drug-patents

Re: [silk] The march of technology

On Feb 5, 2014 3:09 AM, Charles Haynes charles.hay...@gmail.com wrote:

 A look at population numbers would say yes. But then quality of life
 indicators - and not just material quality, but indicators that take
 into account mental illness, loneliness, depression and so on give a
 very mixed reading.

 By most metrics, hunter-gatherers are the happiest.

 So I blame farmers for all the troubles of the world.

I know of a few anthropology professors who say the same. My speculation is
that's not true.

If they were truly happy they would not have sought to mix up their lot
with farming. It was all good to be a hg if you were fit and young. Too
bad if you broke your leg or worse. It had no security for the weak.

Besides, I think all culture - viz music, cave paintings, religion
initially developed as contributions by the physically weaker lot to the
welfare of the tribe.

If they couldn't use their muscles they used their brain, ergo farming.

Now while this is all interesting speculation, it's also at some level all
meaningless rubbish.

The truth is we are here, and we are unhappy. Chasing more money, power and
material isn't going to fix it. So humanity is very much in need of a deep
look inside their inner self to see what's missing.

This can only be done by most in a culture that promotes looking deeply
inside. Not in a culture that lives on entertainment and distraction.

If you believed the sci-fi of the past, by 2014 we should have had access
to endless idle time for contemplation with machines doing all the work.

It could have been true, but we were too greedy. We indulge in sense
pleasures way more than fifty or hundred years ago. We aren't all wearing
the same drab uniform or toga like in the sci-fi novels, we want fashion.
We want entertainment. We want huge mansions and fancy cars.

This then is why we don't have the endless leisure to look deep inside. We
keep shifting the goal posts.

Most educated people today earn enough by 35 to live simple but comfortable
rural lives for the rest of their lives. Not a lifestyle unlike what their
ancestors lived three generations ago.

I think people should grow the habit of taking years off from professions
to explore their inner selves. Most can afford it.

So simple, yet not so easy.

Re: [silk] (self-promotion) Startlingly Important Kickstarter

2013-09-19 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 9:24 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 At least one silklister has taken the request to heart:

 http://boingboing.net/2013/09/18/give-jeremy-bornstein-15037.html

Well it's not uncommon among humans to pay ridiculous sums of money to
watch other humans make contact with a ball that is passed back and
forth for no apparent reason. Humans must be crazy.

Re: [silk] [intro] Hello people of silklist!

2013-09-07 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sat, Sep 7, 2013 at 9:38 AM, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 specifically
 demonstrate that the 1910 book reference is a one-off anomaly


Any Indian author of a printed book in those years would have been
forced to submit their ideas to British egos. Severe censorship laws
had placed the written word under strict supervision. Assuming the
writing didn't offend the British one still had to come up with a
considerable sum of money, and the support of friends in high places
to actually produce a book.

The work of a historian is a lot of field work, and a lot less of
theorizing. No Indian or Indian organization in 1910 had the money or
power to perform serious archaeology, so instead they put out a lot of
arm chair analysis.

See PT Srinivasa Iyengar's History of the Tamils, from the earliest
times to 600AD. Published in 1929, it offers inspired reasoning to
make the case that Tamils conquered the Mesopotamian valley and
started the Sumerian civilization.

Until the discovery of the Indus Valley civilization (circa 1920) most
Indians believed the 200 year old British hypothesis about the
inferiority of their civilization. In Indian writing on history one
can see this epochal effect. Pre-valley Indian authors rarely make
bold claims about Indian ancestry.  Post-valley there's a rash of
over-compensation, and for the next 20 years or so the claims grow
bold and ridiculous, but always in the non-threatening and
non-verifiable ancient past.

There's a reason most Indian epics don't carry an author's name. They
thought it was egotistic to imagine the work belongs to the author
when the author is animated by the Bramhan. Indians have never been
very strong on recording egotistic history. What's the point when it's
a cycle of endless lives reanimated?

Re: [silk] [intro] Hello people of silklist!

2013-09-06 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Kingsley Jegan Joseph k...@kingsley2.comwrote:

 You know, sometimes I think that Mr. Mahadevan may be as
 over-enthusiastic in finding dravidian connections for Indus script as
 some of the right-leaners are about finding Sanskrit connections.


Oh say, did you know the Pallavas were the Pahlevis of Iran. ;-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Parthian_Kingdom
http://iranian.com/History/2003/May/Pallava/
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/03/31/stories/2008033150300500.htm

I think there's a line in the humanities (history, philosophy, the arts)
that gets crossed often, even by the best minds. When the thinker gets
carried away by the utter brilliance of the idea without pausing to
consider if it can be substantiated in fact, or whether it has useful
outcomes.

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

2013-09-02 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Yes, see you at amethyst.
On Sep 2, 2013 3:43 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net wrote:

 On 02-Sep-2013, at 15:25, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:

  But if Amethyst is on, I can make it anytime after 6 - my office is
 nearby. Shall we say 630pm Amethyst?
 
  Is this on for this evening? Around 630pm?
 

 As far as I am concerned, it is on.  See you there.

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

2013-08-30 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Suresh do you have a preference? Chandroo, will you be able to make it?

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:

 Not in the same area at all, but anyone for Amethyst?

 Unless I'm mistaken Amethyst is the one near the big mall  Satyam?
 That place is a mighty commute considering the time of day, but yes
 I'd be up for that too.


 Yes, that's it. Whites Road, Royapettah.

 I can come to Adyar too, it will just take me longer especially if I have to 
 leave work a bit early.

 But I will go with wherever the majority indicates..

 Badri

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

Does Monday night, 2nd Sep work for everyone?
On Aug 27, 2013 3:44 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:
  Maybe early next week? Weeknight?

 Anytime before the 2nd works for me.

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

6 pm somewhere in South/Central Madras?

I'm not current on places, so can someone help?
On Aug 29, 2013 12:04 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian sur...@hserus.net
wrote:

 On 29-Aug-2013, at 11:52, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
 chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:

  On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 11:32 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
 wrote:
  Does Monday night, 2nd Sep work for everyone?
  I'm in.

 ok but early

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 1:40 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.net wrote:
 liu's waldorf = cheap indian chinese, near the IIT campus

 you don't need to be current on places, its been around for donkey's years

The last time I was at Liu's I had the pleasing company of a lizard on
the wall and a cockroach beneath my feet to make up for  the waiters
appearing lost and indifferent.

I don't mind coffee and a sandwich at the Coffee Day on the
Theosophical society road towards Rajaji Bhavan.

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 3:37 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:


 I don't mind coffee and a sandwich at the Coffee Day on the
 Theosophical society road towards Rajaji Bhavan.


 Yeah Monday evening works for me but 6pm could be challenging especially if I 
 have to get to Adyar.

 Will try to come 630ish - and yes, preferably not Liu's Waldorf.

 Not in the same area at all, but anyone for Amethyst?

Unless I'm mistaken Amethyst is the one near the big mall  Satyam?
That place is a mighty commute considering the time of day, but yes
I'd be up for that too.

Re: [silk] Do our brains pay a price for GPS?

On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 9:55 PM, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:
 For an article that starts with an example of cognitive bias, it is far
 faar too long.

The husk around the kernel of truth is rather mighty, I agree.

Technological progress has a history of promoting a dulling of the
mind and body. When entire civilizations have been built around the
automobile and the elevator it's perhaps difficult to insist on
walking. Spending hours in the gym because my day is spent sitting
behind a desk is unhealthy, but society has proceeded into this
madness so far without questioning it seriously.

The dulling of the mind is a still more alarming development. The most
dangerous of this class of development are those at the mind-body
junction: heart rate monitors, sleep monitors, mood monitors,
menstrual trackers, pedometers...

They are the lure of the world of devices to embrace the anomaly even deeper.

The mind-body connection is integral to being human, we need to know
our own body before we know what the markets are doing that day.
Relying on devices to inform us dulls the brain to the body
surprisingly quickly. We lose grasp of what it means to be human, and
depression, anxiety and all manner of mental illnesses follow. The
mind is stable when it is aware of the body, and this inner awareness
is at a level beyond the intellect. No measuring device can reach this
space yet.

Re: [silk] Do our brains pay a price for GPS?

http://io9.com/5987567/brain+to+brain-interfaces-have-arrived-and-they-are-absolutely-mindblowing

Humans are the rats in a global experiment called progress with an unclear
target outcome.

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

2013-08-28 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 9:46 PM, Charles Haynes
charles.hay...@gmail.com wrote:
 Which is to say, you may not be able to hack your way to happiness.

I have personal experience that is very much to the contrary but I'm
just a data point and not a representative sample size.

Re: [silk] Chennai meet up

2013-08-27 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Aug 27, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:
 Maybe early next week? Weeknight?

Anytime before the 2nd works for me.

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

2013-08-27 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 12:37 PM, Kiran K Karthikeyan
kiran.karthike...@gmail.com wrote:
 Perhaps I've just met the wrong demographic among those who read self-help
 books, but most of those who have pushed such books at me were fairly
 successful - and I wasn't aware of any failure that prompted them to read
 such books.

I can't speak to your experience of course, but it's my experience
that everyone was a stumbling beginner once upon a time.

It might be impossible to believe that a good cook was ever a novice,
but maybe they just learned that they could use help pretty early. Of
course, some stubbornly learn only from burning their way through
every pan in the kitchen, but to each his own. There's nothing wrong
or shameful in turning to a recipe book as long as they follow
instructions properly.

Getting others to cook the meal is something else - good while it
lasts but ensures starvation when the cooks leave.

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

2013-08-27 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 8:45 AM, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:
 This can happen even without mollycoddling/spoiling (the autopilot). A
 child can simply do well in school and college because his interests and
 ability happen to coincide with the direction his parents want him, and
 encourage him, to take - so he cruises through early life until he hits
 the first roadblock.

Fate may arrange a smooth ride for some, but when the bumps start you
better have your seat belts on.

I am bemused that high schools in India teach Abraham Maslow's
Heirarchy of needs and other clinical models of self actualization.
This is ironical in the extreme since every spiritual text in India is
actually about getting the reader to self actualization and not merely
observing that there are such people.

I wish modern education would focus less on facts that can be tested
in an exam and more on useful life skills. Schools should teach kids
personal responsibility - that is taking charge of personal finance,
personal relationships, physical health, and emotions.

I suspect the problem is that the teachers themselves may need to take
those lessons first.

[silk] Chennai meet up

2013-08-26 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Because it's been a while, and I feel like meeting Silk people.

Any interest?

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

2013-08-24 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

I agree parenting support and the money cushions rich kids  from life's
problems. I used those three as examples of grown up problems that hit
successful people in their thirties these days.

The college admission, the career, the marriage all happen more or less on
auto pilot if you merely turn up for life and don't mess up bad. A good
school gets a good college which gets a good career etc.

In the traditional affluent Indian family of fifty-hundred years ago the
support system would have extended all the way through life. Through
raising the kids, through getting them married, through retirement and
death.

But then adult life these days involves leaving the family and living alone
or as a couple in strange new towns and countries.

That's usually when they find themselves in the rain with no umbrella.
On Aug 24, 2013 8:57 AM, SS cybers...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Fri, 2013-08-23 at 23:23 +0530, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote:
  Privileged kids don't usually face serious hardship that shatters
  their confidence until their start-up fails, their marriage tanks or
  their addictive habits get the better of them.

 While I agree with the general point you make about self help books, the
 above assertion is inaccurate to the extent that privileged kids have
 far faaar many more opportunities to have their confidence shattered
 than those three reasons. It's just that parents of privileged kids can
 provide the buffer required in terms of money and time to help their
 kids recover.

 shiv

[silk] Climate Panel Cites Near Certainty on Warming - NYTimes.com

2013-08-24 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

The old saying is you can wake someone who's asleep but not one who
pretends to be asleep.

Acknowledging climate change means to drill less for oil, and that's a
civilizational challenge for the rich people in the here and now rather
than fifty years from now. The poor people will die first meanwhile, and
that's ok because they don't call the shots.

The really terrible thing is that the gas being burned by an SUV today is
going to mean less oil for fertilizers and essential ingredients tomorrow.
I see more expensive food and famines in India's future.

We can't feed a billion people without oil. We can't make the pesticides
and fertilizers that agriculture depends on, and we can't transport the
food to the people.

Crude Oil was $30 a decade ago, $110 now and likely $250 in a decade. India
doesn't have the extraction capability, the military or economic might or
the underground reserves to satisfy its population by a very long shot.
China has more of everything and it's unlikely that even China will emerge
with all its population intact.

I saw a forgettable doomsday movie from Hollywood where they rush the Mona
Lisa aboard an ark; I can hardly imagine the 1500+ year old living
tradition of Indian temples being rushed onto a ship. The underlying
message was the Western culture of the last few hundred years is the only
thing worth preserving. That's going to be how the world reacts when India
loses about a third of its people, temples, towns and more to famine and
weather in the next fifty to a hundred years. They'll blink, nothing will
register and they will move on. When Mao destroyed China and the Taliban
Afghanistan the world looked on, remember.

Indians are indeed planning by moving abroad, but India isn't planning at
all because to not plan is the plan.

India is largely a non-operative player for the rest of the world. Modern
economics is about the efficient use of people, resources and money. To
have relevance in this world you need to control one of these three. India
has plenty of the first and little of the rest, yet India gives away its
best brains to the world quite freely, so there's little reason to engage
with or protect India as a nation. (This operative logic has implications
for the current economic pickle too)

Small countries have a vivid collective memory of what it means to fight
for their lives.

Unlike the US, or other new civilizations, India has for long taken its
civilization for granted. This is easy to do when you've survived as long.
India possesses a kind of macabre immortality in the belief that it won't
run out of people or culture to seed the civilization, it never has. This
has caused India to often sacrifice a good number of its people to
avoidable causes through history, and this has never been seriously
questioned.

India is a damn good one-trick pony in the survival game. I fear this time
that trick won't be good enough.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/science/earth/extremely-likely-that-human-activity-is-driving-climate-change-panel-finds.html

Re: [silk] On self-improvement

2013-08-23 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Aug 23, 2013 at 9:05 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
 I began to wonder if hipster life hacking was different from self-help.
 Maybe the difference between the two is socio-economic?

Are you saying being socio-economically backward might help in
preventing the development of a large ego? An ego that doesn't refuse
help when offered at cut rate prices?

I think confidence stemming from a good education, early success, good
looks or brains comes with the following baggage:
a) I am perfect as I am, no self help guru is going to help me improve
b) My self image would be hurt if a self help book could teach me
something, my success is all my own
c) The trash that the commoners read couldn't possibly be also
applicable to me, I'll need something written to my level of elegance
d) I'm supposed to know all this, so I'll assume I do

Everyone reaches out for help in self development at some point in
their lives. It can be via expensive therapists, religion, a soul
mate, friends, mentors, hobbies, adventures or self help books. The
age at which they reach for help usually depends on their lack of
failure until then.

Privileged kids don't usually face serious hardship that shatters
their confidence until their start-up fails, their marriage tanks or
their addictive habits get the better of them. That's when their
ability to persist gets truly tested. When you are closer to the bread
line this test comes very early and self help books are affordable and
accessible. Self help books are are written to help and not to win the
Pulitzer. I think they rather deliberately don't use big words or
scary terms - it would go against the idea of extending genuine help.
Plus, the advice is still as good if it comes off the sidewalk hawker
in pirated print.

I am glad self help gurus and their books exist for the unwashed
masses who can't afford personal sessions with Sri Sris and SSRIs.

[silk] LEDs cause blindness?

2013-08-10 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

I'm waiting for research some day to start screaming that staring at
computer screens (and not to mention social networks) causes
depression and loneliness.


http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4419340/Do-LEDs-cause-blindness

Do LEDs cause blindness?
Carolyn Mathas - August 6, 2013


According to a study led by Dr. Celia Sánchez-Ramos, of Complutense
University in Madrid, light from LEDs comes from the short wave,
high-energy blue and violet end of the visible light spectrum. She
indicated that prolonged and continuous exposure to LED light might be
sufficient to damage the retina. In a recent interview, she indicated
that the problem would worsen as people live longer and children use
electronic devices at a young age, particularly for schoolwork.

Her study, published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology in
2012 found that LED radiation caused significant damage to human
retinal pigment epithelial cells in vitro. She states that humans are
exposed to artificial light for the majority of the approximately 6000
hours annually their eyes are open.
LEDs have also been blamed for bleaching the paint on such
masterpieces as Van Gogh and Cézanne in art galleries. The professor
of the University College of Optics at the Complutense says LED lights
are made up of rainbow longitude waves, but it’s the blue part that
causes the problem.
Offering up some possible aid, she indicates that using good
sunglasses with UV filter rays, and a healthy and varied diet rich in
Vitamin A – which comes from spinach and peppers – will protect the
eyes. It seems to me that most LED lighting is indoors where people
seldom use sunglasses.

As far as the food goes, she indicates that Vitamin A has a high
concentration of visual pigments, known as maculars, which are
responsible for absorbing the harmful elements of light such as
short-wave blue and violet rays. However, human being's ability to
store these pigments reduces with age.

The MAPFRE Foundation, the charitable arm of the Spanish insurance
company MAPFRE, financed the professor’s investigation into eye damage
caused by LEDs.

Re: [silk] LEDs cause blindness?

2013-08-10 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

A better written article,
http://www.livescience.com/31949-led-lights-eye-damage.html

And the original research,
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10./j.1751-1097.2012.01237.x/abstract

And the researcher,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_S%C3%A1nchez-Ramos


On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 12:00 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com wrote:
 I'm waiting for research some day to start screaming that staring at
 computer screens (and not to mention social networks) causes
 depression and loneliness.


 http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/led-zone/4419340/Do-LEDs-cause-blindness

 Do LEDs cause blindness?
 Carolyn Mathas - August 6, 2013


 According to a study led by Dr. Celia Sánchez-Ramos, of Complutense
 University in Madrid, light from LEDs comes from the short wave,
 high-energy blue and violet end of the visible light spectrum. She
 indicated that prolonged and continuous exposure to LED light might be
 sufficient to damage the retina. In a recent interview, she indicated
 that the problem would worsen as people live longer and children use
 electronic devices at a young age, particularly for schoolwork.

 Her study, published in the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology in
 2012 found that LED radiation caused significant damage to human
 retinal pigment epithelial cells in vitro. She states that humans are
 exposed to artificial light for the majority of the approximately 6000
 hours annually their eyes are open.
 LEDs have also been blamed for bleaching the paint on such
 masterpieces as Van Gogh and Cézanne in art galleries. The professor
 of the University College of Optics at the Complutense says LED lights
 are made up of rainbow longitude waves, but it’s the blue part that
 causes the problem.
 Offering up some possible aid, she indicates that using good
 sunglasses with UV filter rays, and a healthy and varied diet rich in
 Vitamin A – which comes from spinach and peppers – will protect the
 eyes. It seems to me that most LED lighting is indoors where people
 seldom use sunglasses.

 As far as the food goes, she indicates that Vitamin A has a high
 concentration of visual pigments, known as maculars, which are
 responsible for absorbing the harmful elements of light such as
 short-wave blue and violet rays. However, human being's ability to
 store these pigments reduces with age.

 The MAPFRE Foundation, the charitable arm of the Spanish insurance
 company MAPFRE, financed the professor’s investigation into eye damage
 caused by LEDs.

[silk] Bollywood's Big-Screen Love Affair With Switzerland Fades To Black

2013-07-22 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Dev Anand was a futuristic film maker in Indian cinema in many ways -
which includes beating Yash Chopra to Switzerland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONDviMDa3Hc

Prem Pujari - 1970 Grimsel Pass, is actually quite a historic location
in Swiss history, but not the easiest to get to - and so by Bollywod
standards a non-obvious choice. It's a cliched mountain and train
scene - but it's a good mountain to pick.


Bollywood's Big-Screen Love Affair With Switzerland Fades To Black
22.07.13 03:46:54- APIN

(FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 7/22/13)

   By John Letzing

  ZURICH -- Last year, film producer Aashish Singh was planning overseas
 shooting for his Mumbai studio's latest epic, the tale of an amnesiac bomb
 disposal expert and the sweetheart he can't quite remember.

  In one scene, the lovers soar into the clouds and croon in each other's arms,
 a Bollywood motif commonly dubbed the Cut to Switzerland because so many
 montages have been staged in the country's picturesque mountains. Mr. Singh's
 crew, however, opted for London rooftops rather than Alpine glaciers.

  Audiences today like films a bit more real, says Mr. Singh, who works at
 Yash Raj Films. He says in this instance, money wasn't a factor -- though
 Bollywood filmmakers have generally been put off by the increasing price of
 filming in Switzerland. Everybody likes to save money, he said.

  For reasons both artistic and financial, there has been a plot twist in a
 relationship as enduring as those at the heart of Bollywood romances.
 Switzerland has been Indian cinema's A-list destination for movie interludes
 since the 1980s, when over-the-top duets set in the Bernese Alps were featured
 in genre hits like Chandni. Since then, hundreds of Indian film crews have
 slipped on parkas and made the 5,000-mile trek from packed Mumbai to
 Switzerland's snow pack.

  Now, other locales are driving a wedge between Switzerland and Indian
 production crews as they try to capitalize on Bollywood demand for saccharine
 serenades. Some destinations, like the U.K., offer incentives such as cash
 rebates. Others, like the Himalayas of Kashmir, are simply closer.

  The interlopers are getting help from the changing tastes of Indian
 moviegoers, who continue to value starry-eyed interludes but want to see them
 better meshed with a realistic story line or staged in new places. Some
 producers say they are scouting for new foreign locations because Switzerland's
 snowy peaks and lush valleys have been featured in Bollywood love stories so
 often they are now cliches.

  Romantic dance numbers are more likely to be on Trafalgar Square than on a
 glacier, says Urs Eberhard, a Switzerland Tourism executive, who has worked
 with Indian film producers in the past. Bollywood film shoots in Switzerland
 have dwindled to about two or three per year compared with more than a dozen
 annually during the 1980s and '90s, Mr. Eberhard says.

  The late director Yash Chopra introduced his audiences to Switzerland in 1985,
 shooting chunks of Faasle, a story of forbidden love, in the Alps. A later
 movie, 1989's Chandni, established Switzerland's mountains as the go-to
 location for Indian cinema as the movie chronicled the ordeal faced by a
 helicopter accident survivor and his beloved, who sing and dance their way
 through snow-capped mountains and verdant valleys.

  Akin to a dream sequence, a typical Cut to Switzerland abruptly whisks the
 protagonists of a movie away from its story line to frolic in a vivid setting.
 Many montages feature elaborate dance routines and costume changes that put the
 most ambitious music videos to shame. Eventually, the sequences became so
 popular, Bollywood producers considered them de rigueur.

  If you had a good budget, you did it, said Rachel Dwyer, a professor of
 Indian cultures and cinema at SOAS, University of London. She calls a scene in
 Mr. Chopra's 1993 film Darr that involves a couple dancing out the door of a
 home in India and emerging in a Swiss meadow as the sort of classic case.

  Before Switzerland won its place, Bollywood filmmakers set similar scenes in
 Kashmir. But military tension in the region between India and Pakistan pushed
 film crews to look elsewhere for snowy peaks. Switzerland became the upgraded,
 offshore version of Kashmir, said Bollywood director Imtiaz Ali.

  Switzerland's success with Bollywood didn't go unnoticed by other locations,
 many of which eagerly rolled out the red carpet to entice Indian producers.

  About seven years ago, Film London, the agency that supports shoots in the
 city, journeyed to India on a trade mission and made a concerted bid to lure
 Bollywood filmmakers, according to spokeswoman Colette Geraghty. Now up to a
 dozen Bollywood productions shoot in the city every year.

  Few locales have tried to woo Bollywood more than the Tirol region in Austria,
 which plies Indian producers with financial incentives and can also pitch the
 same mountains and lakes as neighboring

Re: [silk] [ZS] Unconference: Catalytic Converter, Cambridge, MA

2013-07-12 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
 A few large discoveries in the Americas notwithstanding, it isn't like

 The discoveries are not large, and mostly nonrecoverable. According
 to recent graphs the Bakken story looks already over -- further data will
 tell. We'll read about it somewhere, but not on TOD. The king is
 dead, long live the king.


http://www.psmag.com/environment/the-new-bronze-age-entering-the-era-of-tough-ore-60868/

Re: [silk] [ZS] Unconference: Catalytic Converter, Cambridge, MA

2013-07-09 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:

 Now if anyone would have a decent peak resource/energy mailing list
 (especially now than the The Oil Drum is shutting down), that'd be
 just great.


The Oil Drum is the biggest - but lots of Peak Oil websites have
crashed and burned in the past few years.

What in your opinion has sucked out the public interest from Peak Oil?
A few large discoveries in the Americas notwithstanding, it isn't like
Oil is a renewable resource.

Re: [silk] The weirdest languages

2013-07-05 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 5:49 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 Much more, including the full spreadsheet with all 21 'weirdness
 features' for all the languages, at the URL below.

 Also, it amuses me that this list says the most 'normal' language is
 Hindi. :-)

It depresses me a little to say this, but market share matters more
than features in the end. The way we are headed in a hundred years or
less we will all speak the same language out of practicality for the
most part.

It won't be the most technically efficient language, but the one
geopolitics elects as the winner. English and Mandarin are the only
two real contestants in this world view, and their present hegemony is
thanks mainly to a violent imperial past, and has nothing to do with
technical brilliance.

Re: [silk] we don't need no steenkin PRISM

2013-06-25 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Jun 25, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Alaric Snell-Pym
ala...@snell-pym.org.uk wrote:
 On 06/20/2013 04:23 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote:

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/security/India-sets-up-nationwide-snooping-programme-to-tap-your-emails-phones/articleshow/20678562.cms

http://chaosradio.ccc.de/media/ds/ds089.pdf

Starts on Page 4

We lost the war. Welcome to the world of tomorrow. by Frank

Re: [silk] Old book smell

2013-06-21 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 11:54 AM, Indrajit Gupta bonoba...@yahoo.co.in
 wrote:

  Just say neigh, you think?
 

 A night mare race to find the worst pun?


 I wanted to jump in, but I was afraid of making an ass of myself.

This galloping thread is giving me a long face, please rein it in, or
I'll be forced to dismount.

Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface

2013-06-21 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 7:18 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
 Speaking about a wipeout, how probable would you see a nuclear
 conflict arising between failing states? I see huge problems
 in the Pakistan/India/China corner. The climate shift will
 probably hit Pakistan much harder than it already is.

Sure, we have to keep our eyes on the nukes, but I don't think they
will be used by state actors. It's another matter if non-state actors
get their hands on them.

Big wars involving nukes are not possible anymore for many reasons -
fraying patriotism; growing loyalty to regional causes; and disruption
of propaganda by new media.

Some may yet wish to start one in the hope of distracting the
populace, but anyone can see it won't have the same success as in the
past.

So I am not worried about nukes, but I am worried about the unrest
being caused by three things, often interconnected.

First is climate change, the second, weak political representation and
control, and third, the cold war between US  China happening in the
subcontinent.

Here is the start of a rather lengthy list:
- Bangladeshi migration into India  Nepal;
- riparian conflicts between all states;
- civil wars with naxalites, baloch rebels, Islamists and disgruntled
local actors;
- failing local governments - JK, Karachi, Balochistan, NWFP, Maoist belts
- power and water riots in India, PK, Bangladesh
- The Chinese string of Pearls - Gwadar, oil pipelines in Burma, etc.

It's clear Pakistan is becoming another Afghanistan, but the nukes
aren't going to save it.

p.s. I'm not entirely sure though that only states have nukes. States
like Georgia have been selling nukes for more than ten years, I'd be
surprised if some billionaires in the region or elsewhere haven't
considered picking one up as insurance.

Re: [silk] Any pet-hate subjects? ...why is Mathematics so frequently hated?

2013-06-21 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 10:10 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:
 I wrote this some time agosomeone else referred to it on FB recently
 (yes...a woman.)  What makes us detest certain subjects at school, and why
 is Maths (or Math) frequently at the top of the list? It can't always be
 bad teachers

 http://deponti.livejournal.com/902082.html

It becomes very simple if we see it all as energy conservation.

Evolution optimized us to be lazy - not absolutely of course, but
relative to our comfort zone. There are no exceptions, everyone is
lazy. Regardless of whether it is a physical, emotional or mental
activity; anything that uses up energy is executed with meticulous
planning by our body keeping in mind the available energy budget.

Comfort zones or in other words, the limit of the energy budget varies
from person to person. A fat and out of shape man might find a couple
of floors of stairs daunting and might wait 10-15 minutes for the
elevator.

A literary critic might read several books a day, while most people
will barely finish one book a year.

Some can share their feelings or display love and affection quite
easily, and others can be reserved and reticent emotionally.

Our comfort zone is a result of our environment and training.

We all hit our energy budget somewhere, but those with the right
intentional training or the right environmental training know how to
keep going.

Climbing a mountain is nothing for one who lives in the hills, reading
books is nothing for someone surrounded by them from an early age and
speaking about their emotions is easier for those who weren't lonely
children.

When unaided by the environment, going beyond the energy budget for
the first time requires motivation.

Your motivation may vary. For those with a strong self improvement
desire - like Thaths, seeing the logical connection with applications
might be the key to expending mental energy. For others it could be
desire to succeed, or please a parent or teacher, or something else.

So we see people who do ridiculous things all the time with the right
motivation and training.

Maths is hated because it is like running, it uses ridiculous amounts
of energy.

Expert meditators can produce deep compassion and happiness that
eludes most humans due to their training of their emotions.

So emotional, mental and physical factors are all trainable with the
right motivation.

Of course, all are not equal, some are genetically gifted or blighted.

The role of all teachers, parents and leaders is to motivate, train
and lead. Loving parents produce children who can love, and be kind;
inspiring teachers produce great students, and leaders who place their
followers and the cause ahead of themselves produce great loyalty.

Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface

2013-06-20 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 4:00 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
[...snip links...]
 Notice that most of it is very predictable, several days
 in advance.

You are right up to the point that global climate change bites. And
even without a climate apocalypse, I thought the margin of error with
all such predictions was rather hefty - 15-20%?

 The problem with gas peak plants is that they run just a few
 weeks per year, and are not economic without subsidies.
 The reason coal hasn't gone the way of the dodo (and the
 nuke) is political. It does increasingly look there will
 be a premature exit from coal.

Coal will always be needed - if not in Europe, then in China or India.
We are not going to stop digging as long as there's profit.

 renewable energy aplenty. This is a problem that won't be solved until
 we can figure out how to store and normalize the energy or cheaply

 MWh scale battery storage is making very good advance, and EV
 battery storage does it at well. You need about an EV scale battery
 for night cycling.

Nanobatteries are a possibility - ten - twenty years away.

 Germany's natural gas grid can currently buffer 3 months.
 We know natural gas lines can tolerate 5-15% of hydrogen without
 refitting, so hydrogen from water electrolysis and synmethane
 (via Sabatier) are likely ways to absorb surplus of renewables
 (which already happens regularly, and will become a permanent
 fixture rather soon).

Pipelines are not close to renewable sources - the Nord Stream runs
subsea for example - and the transport infrastructure to integrate
renewables like you say is expensive - this is why they are just ideas
with marginal implementations waiting for something big to change.

Pipelines, even subsea pipelines are vulnerable to political unrest -
and the world is going to be frothing with unrest for the next decade
or two. You can protect an off shore oil platform with a near shore
airbase, but a pipeline requires a network of spies and client states.
That's hard to build and maintain without cold war mentality. In any
case the investments in protecting this sort of thing are huge - and
wipe out potential savings.


 It's interesting that France import electricity during winter
 from nonuclear Germany -- for electric heating -- and in the
 summer -- because during heat spells they have to shut down
 the reactors.

Yeah, but the peak production capacity is more than France can handle
or distribute effectively, so it's not as if they are lacking the
capacity to produce significant amounts of power - nearly 30% of EU's
power is French.

France lags behind in wind power and other renewable sources: 0.1% of production

Re: [silk] Energy: 100% of global power from solar using 1% of total land surface

2013-06-19 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 1:39 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
 in rich countries. In the end, though, they too will change as the
 alternatives become normal, and what was once normal becomes quaintly
 old-fashioned.

 It has been quaintly old-fashioned for many years now where I sit.

Renewables don't work when the sun doesn't shine, the wind doesn't
blow or the water doesn't flow - so most of Europe keeps its thermal
capacity critically active (40-50% fuel load) even when there's
renewable energy aplenty. This is a problem that won't be solved until
we can figure out how to store and normalize the energy or cheaply
distribute it.

France does something interesting with spare nuclear power - they pump
water up into mountain dams in Switzerland, and gain back the power on
demand via hydroelectric turbines.

Re: [silk] PFRDA and Security

2013-06-18 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Jun 18, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Chetan Nagendra che...@nagster.org wrote:
 I wonder if the PFRDA cannot even secure their website, how will they manage 
 billions in public funds?

Your optimism is remarkable. Pension deductions are a form of taxation
any way you look at it, either directly on the income if it is never
redeemed, as some 30-40% of pensions are, or on the time of the
pensionee in getting it back.

Re: [silk] Ingress

2013-06-15 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 2:11 PM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
s...@venkatmangudi.com wrote:
 Anyone?


Time sink, but then most games are. Not for me.

Re: [silk] Atul Chitnis

2013-06-03 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Jun 3, 2013 12:59 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 12:55 PM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com
wrote:

  He was not universally liked but I guess even those that didn't like him
  would be saddened by the news.

 I agree, on both counts. RIP, Atul.

It was too early to go.

Cheeni

Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?

2013-05-26 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 2:32 PM, Charles Haynes
charles.hay...@gmail.com wrote:
 Saravana Bhavan


In the spirit of Silk, I register here my personal opinion that
Saravana Bhavan is the combined nutritional and ethical equivalent of
McDonalds  Monsanto.

Re: [silk] In singapore for a few months, anyone up for a meetup?

2013-05-26 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 8:25 PM, mark seiden m...@seiden.com wrote:
 but i must ask:
[...]
 why is that your opinion?  (i have only been to the sunnyvale branch, rarely).
 (perhaps do they now serve Bhopal-style McDosas?)

Ethical: Their business practices in their early years were very rough
- killing those who wouldn't move off prime land, and the founder has
been formally convicted of bludgeoning someone to death. This is
India, where usually the conviction of someone rich and powerful
occurs on the corpses of a dozen other murders committed but
disappeared from view.

Nutritional like McD, Central kitchens, ingredients pre-frozen with
additives - and unhealthy doses of oil.

I find the ethical shortcomings more problematic - the food I eat
literally becomes me. It used to be unthinkable that someone would
sell food in ancient cultures, including India. Food was always
donated or shared freely, and the karmic imbalance of eating food that
was sold would work its way into your system eventually. If you take
the really long view this isn't so woo woo.


 and then what brand is about -- why people are willing to pay 10x or more 
 for something that does not
 cost 10x or more to make.

A mental illness manifesting itself.

[silk] Electricity riots

2013-05-24 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Ever since much the same happened in Pakistan about five years ago I've
been wondering when India would follow. My regret is that they didn't go
torch a politician's bungalow, at least that would have yielded results.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/05/24/world/asia/india-power-failures-set-off-protests.html

India: Power Failures Set Off Protests

A blistering heat wave has swept across most parts of north and western
India, causing widespread electricity cuts and leading residents to protest
and even attack power company officials and property. In the northern state
of Uttar Pradesh, enraged citizens in Bahraich set fire to a power station,
and in Gorakhpur residents held power employees captive for more than 18
hours. The police said Thursday that at least 21 people had been arrested
in the violence. Uttar Pradesh, home to 190 million people, is India’s most
populous state and one of its poorest. Its inadequate energy infrastructure
has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity as
temperatures have peaked above 116 degrees in recent days. The state’s
chief minister said that the government was trying its best to provide
enough power.

Re: [silk] Electricity riots

2013-05-24 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On May 24, 2013 2:25 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:
(...)
 What's the current PV deployment situation in India? Any signs for
 a ramp-up?

The power grid and sub stations need more investment than power generation,
we are losing 100 - 800 MW of wind energy daily in Tamil Nadu alone.

Power generation privatization has brought capacity improvements, but the
government owned and operated grid and distribution systems are unable to
keep up with the increase in capacity.

Re: [silk] Electricity riots

2013-05-24 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Not transmission loss, the wind farms aren't able to inject power into the
grid at peak output and are dumping the power on generation. They are
unhappy because they don't get paid for the dumped power.

As it is, most state electricity companies are operating at a loss of
hundreds of millions of dollars, since electricity subsidies are hidden
under their PL to keep the government's budget deficit from looking too
scary. Consequently the contract defaults in this sector are terribly
common.
On May 24, 2013 5:58 PM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:

 On Fri, May 24, 2013 at 5:29 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  The power grid and sub stations need more investment than power
 generation,
  we are losing 100 - 800 MW of wind energy daily in Tamil Nadu alone.

 Transmission loss is more theft than inefficiency, in my
 understanding. One only has to look at the various farmhouses in Delhi
 (that do not have any official electricity connection) to understand
 that.

 Udhay
 --
 ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

[silk] After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks

2013-05-21 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Parts of this, especially about the decrepitness of the railway system
and the corruption rings true for Indian railways too. Incidentally,
Declan Walsh was recently thrown out of Pakistan for attempting to
cover the elections.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/world/asia/pakistans-railroads-sum-up-nations-woes.html?pagewanted=all

After Decades of Neglect, Pakistan Rusts in Its Tracks
In a Journey on a Crumbling Railway, a Picture of a Nation’s Troubles

RUK, Pakistan — Resplendent in his gleaming white uniform and peaked
cap, jacket buttons tugging his plump girth, the stationmaster stood
at the platform, waiting for a train that would never come.
“Cutbacks,” Nisar Ahmed Abro said with a resigned shrug.

[...]

[silk] A book for fussy foodistas

2013-05-14 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

The gourmands on the list (I'm thinking Charles and Gautam chiefly,
but also several others) will probably be interested in Steven Poole's
new book, You aren't what you eat (2012)
http://stevenpoole.net/you-arent-what-you-eat/

Guardian's review:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/21/what-eat-steven-poole-review

quote
The chef Anthony Bourdain writes of the chef Thomas Keller: You
haven't seen how he handles fish, gently laying it down on the board
and caressing it, approaching it warily, respectfully, as if
communicating with an old friend. The old friend, should we not have
noticed, is dead. Are we to suppose that Keller is a medium? Or is he
a necrophiliac fish-fiddler, a Jimmy Savile of the deep?
/

The blurb:

Why is everyone so obsessed with food? How did chefs come to be the
gurus of the age? And what’s with serving chips in a beaker and
slivers of vegetable on hot stones? This polemic against “foodies” and
their oral fixation pits Jamie Oliver against Jacques Derrida, and
sees the author eating a nitro-frozen bolus of olive oil, marvelling
at food fashion, and descending into the ninth circle of foodist hell
at MasterChef Live.


Interview: (53 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G1DcoLxQpY

Re: [silk] Fwd: Wine tasting is bullshit. Here's why.

2013-05-09 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

The upshot: screw the experts.

This is generally good advise for anything. Religion, investing,
philosophy, exercise, diet, don't adopt anything without verifying for
yourself.

It's silly how many people have respect for authority.

I was lucky to be genetically disposed towards rebellion. Granted, it made
early life pretty miserable, because everyone expects a child to listen,
but it served me well in the majority of my life.

Observe meticulously, and disregard most things heard or read until after
verification.

Re: [silk] [enquiry] Do any of you know about Ab Initio?

2013-05-09 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Zombie phone mode was active, sorry
On May 9, 2013 6:49 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 6:12 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  Zzz d'sa zzz a Ss z
 

 Masterfully argued, Cheeni.

 Thaths
 --
 Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
 Carl:  Nuthin'.
 Homer: D'oh!
 Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
 Homer: Woo-hoo!

Re: [silk] Chennai and Bangalore Beer-ups

2013-05-06 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

It's possible I may be able to attend (Chennai), pick a date and I'll try
to drop in.
On May 6, 2013 9:10 AM, Divya S divyasamp...@yahoo.com wrote:

 I'm happy to meet in Chennai on any date from 6th to 10th.

 Cheers
 Divya



 Sent from my iPad

 On 03-May-2013, at 5:31 PM, Adrianna Tan skinnyla...@gmail.com wrote:

  Am in Chennai 6-10 May, and Bangalore 13-15 May.
 
  With the exception of the night of 10 May in Chennai, all other nights
 are good.
 
  Anyone wants a beer?

Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com

2013-04-26 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Nikhil Mehra nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com wrote:
 This should liven up the debate a bit:
 http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-why-iceland-ban-pornography?fb_ref=activity

Iceland with 322,000 people is the size of an Indian village.

Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com

2013-04-26 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM, Deepak Shenoy deepakshe...@gmail.com wrote:
 Speaking purely economically - it's cheaper when they ban the darn
 thing. If they make it legal, they'll charge a bloody license fee and
 have auctions for licenses and some random minister will fraud the
 taxpayers and all that. I'd have put in a smiley but I think it's
 real!

Peer to peer cell phones will be a reality within a decade, and
governments are not going to like it, not just for the lost revenue,
but because they give up control.

The triangle of control has always been between power, money and
technology, and they are always engaged in a tug of war. It holds true
in the telecom space as anywhere else; (viz. regulatory pressure (aka
power), consumer demand (aka money) and technological innovation)

We live in interesting times when technology is very often an
alternative to a lot of thorny political problems. Power and money
recedes from the equation when you can innovate the problem away.

No doubt, this is a minor act, an aberration in the script; in a
decade or so the technology landscape will be sufficiently fiscalized
- so you will need power and money once more to affect the equation at
scale because the innovators have been co-opted.

[silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com

2013-04-25 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will love
it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political downside
to it because of the taboo. The only thing this will really do is destroy
Indian democracy some more by strengthening intrusive laws, and help set up
a censorship apparatus that aids the bad and corrupt to subvert it to their
needs. Banning Bollywood would work better and help productivity and the
intellect. Moral decay is real, banning porn isn't going to help. Education
and investment in policing is the answer that no one wants to hear.

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/india-considers-banning-pornography-as-reported-sexual-assault-rises/

Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com

2013-04-25 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 
sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote:
 On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
wrote:
 The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will
love
 it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political
downside
 to it because of the taboo.

 It would take a remarkable politician to bet him/herself against the
 (s)he opposed the anti-porn bill and betrayed our women tirade. Our
 current crop of elected representatives are not made of that stuff.

Only an ardent believer in democracy who possesses immense faith in the
Indian public to listen to reason will risk political capital to object to
this. I'm not holding my breath.

More realistically, I believe we have a few well meaning politicians who
will speak up politely if the civil society objects loudly.

This is hard to stop - even if the Congress so much as sniffles the BJP
will use it to political advantage. With election season coming that can be
ill afforded. Much better for the Congress to one-up the BJP, and win a few
points with the conservative vote bank by quickly embracing the ban,
trashing a few shops and websites and returning to status quo in a while by
under funding the mandate.

Re: [silk] India Considers Banning Pornography as Reported Sexual Assault Rises - NYTimes.com

2013-04-25 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Thanks Nikhil, that gives hope, now to pray the 24x7 news channels won't
catch wind of it. The thought of heated debates and many hours of
programming will be hard to resist.
On Apr 25, 2013 3:17 PM, Nikhil Mehra nikhil.mehra...@gmail.com wrote:

 On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 2:58 PM, Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay 
 sankarshan.mukhopadh...@gmail.com wrote:

  On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 1:59 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan che...@gmail.com
  wrote:
   The conservatives will obviously welcome this and the politicians will
  love
   it because it's a meaningless but decisive move; with no political
  downside
   to it because of the taboo.
 
  It would take a remarkable politician to bet him/herself against the
  (s)he opposed the anti-porn bill and betrayed our women tirade. Our
  current crop of elected representatives are not made of that stuff.
 
  This is in the form of a petition before the Supreme Court right now.
 Since issues before the SC aren't necessarily brought into the media with
 the same intensity and detail that day-to-day politics receives, I don't
 think the gumption or calibre of our politicians will necessarily be
 tested. The principal ground of the petition is that pornography is
 directly linked to the rise in heinous sexual offences against women. While
 it is much harder for a politician to raise a general defense of
 pornography, it is much easier to oppose the proposition stated by the
 petition. And in doing so, they wouldn't even be doing anything new. The
 viewing of pornography has always been legal in India. Theres a judgment of
 the Bombay High Court to that effect. So I think that the stance of
 politicians on this issue isn't necessarily fait accompli.

 Regards,
 Nikhil Mehra

 Advocate, Supreme Court of India
 Tel: (+91) 9810776904
 Res: C-I/10, AIIMS Campus,
 Ansari Nagar (East)
 New Delhi - 110029.

Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts

2013-04-23 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:06 PM, Caitlin Marinelli
caitlin.marine...@gmail.com wrote:
 Do they need micro insurance?

India is generally very passive-aggressive towards insurance isn't it?
Most insurance products sold here are halfway between investment and
insurance, with the insurance pay out generally being dismal, and so
also the investment return, but nevertheless popular. The status quo
is a self reinforcing cycle since no one in India really trusts
insurance companies to pay up yet no we are a risk averse lot.

Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts

2013-04-23 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.net wrote:
 While sophisticated investors might not want to mix insurance and investment, 
 it still remains an option - in several cases - for less sophisticated 
 investors, as long as they find a honest advisor who doesn't missell to them.

It isn't just that - insurance premium is tax deductible I thought, or
something like that. At any rate the tax laws were a driver IIRC.

Re: [silk] Migrant workers and bank accounts

2013-04-23 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.net wrote:
 While sophisticated investors might not want to mix insurance and investment, 
 it still remains an option - in several cases - for less sophisticated 
 investors, as long as they find a honest advisor who doesn't missell to them.

It's a case of buying insurance because you are risk averse, but also
hedging it with investment options because you are, duh, risk
averse!

You know this might hold a good meme there for
http://www.quickmeme.com/Scumbag-Brain/

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

2013-04-19 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Biju Chacko biju.cha...@gmail.com wrote:
[...]
 It is easy for one who has voted with his feet to condemn those who can't.

No sense going after the arguer, please do attack the argument.

 Without some sensitivity a lot of very valid concerns sound like, You must
 deny yourself the consumerist comforts that I enjoy to improve my quality
 of life.

 Or in this case, Walk to work so that I have something pretty to look at.

While I have genuine sympathies for your plight, I am not entirely
sure nothing can be done. To say so, would be to subscribe to that
awful Bangalore phrase sandwich of defeatism, escapism and fatalism,
We are like this only, adjust maadi.

If the only options on the table are either to sigh in resignation, or
to bristle with discontent, I choose the latter in the hope it musters
up change.

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

I am yet to see a calamity that will force Indians to evacuate. If
Indians were the kind that would quit unhealthy environments, then
prices of land in Bangalore should be falling right now.

Bhopal never skipped a beat even when its citizens were falling dead
from poisonous gas, and it's dusty roads are even today filling up
with malls when the monuments to the disaster are forgotten all too
willingly.

One can only grow angry or sad that this isn't going to end nicely. In
an ideal world no one would pay half a million dollars for an
apartment built on a toxic waste dump, like you can see in any large
Indian city, but it happens here.

When things hit a new low Indians shockingly grow dumb to its ills and
persist. It's almost as if Indians have been actively engaged in
finding ways to lose the ability to see what's good for them.

An ugly public building comes up right next to a 1500 year old temple.
A monument to incompetence and corruption built in the backyard of a
millennial legacy of elegance and brilliance, and no one bats an
eyelid.

Life couldn't rub their noses in the dirty reality any harder, and yet
they are either by choice, or otherwise, blind to the irony.


On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 4:29 PM, freeman murray free...@jaaga.in wrote:
 “The Government of Karnataka will have to evacuate half of Bangalore in the
 next ten years, due to water scarcity, contamination of water and diseases.”

 http://www.firstpost.com/india/will-bangalore-have-to-be-evacuated-by-2023-697649.html

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

If there's any innovation in Jugaad, it is in talking a tall tale.

There is no ethnic flavor to innovation, not Indian, Chinese or
African. Sure when you take away the resources and / or laws, then
new solutions with trade-offs become possible. Like the Chinese mobile
phone clones or Indian drug clones that don't respect IP or clean room
norms to discount the price.




On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:26 PM, Caitlin Marinelli
caitlin.marine...@gmail.com wrote:
 Srini - I totally agree. I see it as the 'over-glorification of Jugaad.'

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:48 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote:
 An ugly public building comes up right next to a 1500 year old temple. A
 monument to incompetence and corruption built in the backyard of
 a millennial legacy of elegance and brilliance, and no one bats an eyelid.


 I refuse to accept that any building constructed several hundreds of years
 ago is brilliant or elegant purely by being there for that long. I find a
 number of temples in India to be festering eyesores, and while I'd balk at
 calling modern structures beautiful, they're not ugly just because they're
 new, either. I'm drifting from the topic at hand, but unless you're
 referring to something specific, I'm going to call bullshit on this sort of
 generalization.

Oh I had a specific example in mind, from my neighborhood.

The MRTS in Thiruvanmiyur - this -
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Thiruvanmiyur_MRTS_station.JPG

Versus this, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marundeeswarar_Temple which
has a poem dedicated to it in the Thevaram as a towering glory that
blocks out the moon on a bright moon's night, when the sound of the
temple bells silence the buzz of the bees of the forest and the roars
of the waves.

I am waiting for some contemporary poet to write something similar
about the MRTS station. I am sure I won't be disappointed now.

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:02 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:
 Much as I like the marundeeswarar and much as I don't like the MRTS
 station, your comparison doesn't hold true. Temple poetry is more about
 exaggeration of the attributes of the diety and less of architectural
 critique.


I can see poetry in imagining a time when this place was covered with
forest, and the imprint of man was vanishingly small - and out of it
arose a tower like no other, made brilliant by lines of oil lamps -
built with muscle and sinew - a paean to faith - towering over the
trees of the forest and adding its brass timbre to the chorus of the
birds. Man's voice as a challenge to nature.

The MRTS evokes only the poetic character of yesterday's putrefying vomit.

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:28 PM, Mahesh Murthy mahesh.mur...@gmail.com wrote:
 I can see the MRTS evoking some Marxist / North Korean poetry.


You mean of the fascist joy through suffering variety, indeed. We
should let Hitler know.

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 7:48 PM, Sumant Srivathsan suma...@gmail.com wrote:

 This is quite true of most places in India. A combination of dust, smoke,
 concrete and other assorted particulate matter have made most
 urban/semi-urban habitats next to impossible to live in without some
 version of respiratory disease.

Respiratory infections kill the most in India.

http://www.healthmetricsandevaluation.org/gbd/visualizations/gbd-2010-leading-causes-and-risks-region-heat-map

Re: [silk] coming calamity in Bangalore

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 8:55 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 The MRTS monstrosity is poetic in its own way. The MRTS stations are an
 Ozymandian reminder of the early 90's and corruption.


Vomit is a reminder of yesterday's folly too.

Re: [silk] Thread Drift: Origins of temples/churches/mosques: Was coming calamity in Bangalore

Temples weren't invented here or only here obviously, though this
became the land of temples. They go afaik much further back than
proto-Abrahamic - hard to find any standing so it's all debatable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistoric_religion

Fire temples are evidenced in Aryan history - there was always a
special room to keep a fire alight. These were temporary as they moved
from place to place, but the idea of a fire that never dies was born
pretty early and a protective structure to ensure it could be said to
be a temple.

Though by about 1000AD the temple building was on like crazy in this
part of the world, and the act of building one became worship in
itself. They passed this on to the new converts as gospel who did it
with much gusto.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

(from memory, so the dates are possibly off)

Maybe 2600ish BC till 1200+ years later: Indus Valley city plans
reveal temple and / or priest chambers (hard to tell) and platforms
for rituals. That is pretty good vintage for this part of the world.

The name Israel doesn't appear in any sources until 1200BC, so
Abrahamic temples are all preceded by subcontinental forays into this
sphere.

Early Abrahamic era temples were like the present day Ka'aba, just a
tent but with a variety of shrines - quite like modern food courts
with places for most pagan and Abrahamic faiths. The operators made
profit from all foot fall and from offerings and sale of water, food,
hay and lodging. The tent was likely erected around to ensure you paid
when you entered, and didn't genuflect from a distance and scurry
away. All of this is conjecture since these were temporary structures,
and the people who ran the show weren't very literate or organized.

Then we have,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Temple

The first Mosque in India was built by Cheraman Perumal in the
tradition of a wooden Kerala temple, without the minarets and such.
Minarets were added to it only in the last century. Cheraman Perumal
converted during the life of the Prophet if you believe such accounts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheraman_Juma_Masjid

Re: [silk] Is South India Really Richer? | This is Ashok.

2013-04-16 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Satellite images of light pollution in India show the most uniformly
polluted sky of any developing country. In contrast, China is mostly only
polluted with light haze along the coast.

The few dark regions of India are the most revealing: Dantewada (maoists
who tear down the few electricity poles that the establishment installs),
Arunachal Pradesh (mountains and state policy of burnt earth economics on
sensitive borders), Ladakh (ditto), and pockets of Rajasthan.

That's it. Every other area of India is lit up.

http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/328/3/689.full.pdf
On Apr 17, 2013 9:19 AM, Naresh nar...@vagroup.com wrote:

 The final census data is out anytime now.time
 For a hackathon?silklisters arise!!

 Naresh Narasimhan
 Sent from my Phone


 
  http://ashokarao.com/2013/04/15/is-south-india-really-richer/
 
  Is South India Really Richer? | This is Ashok.
 
  That South India is more developed than the Hindi-speaking North is a
 common refrain. Literacy rates and per capita income generally bear this
 out. Indeed, we worry of the barren villages in Bihar, not fertile
 landscapes across Tamil Nadu. As per the Human Development Indices across
 India, the South is just over 25% ahead of the All-India average.
 
  And yet, the story is false. Or so is my conclusion after running into a
 few “Data Stories” of India (looks like Tyler Cowen is interested, too).
 While the maps give breathtaking life to the real depth of poverty across
 India, there are fairly rigorous analytics to vindicate my point. While the
 commonly-used GINI measure of inequality is very intuitive, it’s handcuffed
 by its inability to decompose the inequality with certain subgroups. A more
 appropriate measure is the Theil Index, which I talk about in a recent blog
 post:
 
  The math behind the measure (between 0 and 1) requires a fair
 understanding of information theory but the idea is lower index implies a
 higher economic “entropy”.
 
  Your physics teacher might tell you that this is a bad thing but,
 economically, it’s a little more complex. As Boltzmann showed, entropy
 increases as predictability of an event decreases. This means the entropy
 of a fair coin is higher than a biased one. Similarly, in a very equal
 economy it is very difficult to distinguish between two earners based only
 on their income. Indeed in a perfectly equal society this is impossible.
 However, as society stratifies itself, knowledge of ones income conveys far
 more information (redundancy), thereby decreasing entropy.
 
  Within a system, Theil makes it easy for econometricians to understand
 the amount of total inequality due to within-group inequality and
 across-group inequality. If this is a little hard to grasp, think about it
 this way. If the total differences in economic output remained constant
 between countries (that is, India is still poor and Norway rich) but income
 was equally distributed within each country the residual inequality would
 be the “across-country” inequality. The residual from the converse, where
 all countries remain as unequal as they were, but world economic output is
 distributed equally to countries (not people), represents the
 “within-country” inequality.
 
  And the same reasoning can be scaled-down to consider inequality within
 and across Indian states. And this is just what a few researchers from the
 University of Texas did. Before we discuss this, it’s worth considering
 what high” decomposed, across-state inequality is. A good benchmark is
 definitely America. While the Northeast and California are generally
 considered to be richer than the rest, the real turmoil of inequality – at
 least the public’s eye – is definitely between individuals and not states.
 Further, the economic relationship between various American regions has
 been highly volatile, with some sign that growth is picking up most rapidly
 (in no small part due to extractive oil and gas industries) across “middle
 America”. Here is a decomposed map of inequality in the United States:
 
 
 
  A few accounting points notes here – while the overall measure can never
 be negative (greyish or black, in the above figure) individual agents can.
 A below-zero value here indicates that the given county is actually
 decreasing overall inequality of the country as a whole. The signal, here,
 is that American states are, broadly, equal. The real inequality stems from
 the difference between the rich and poor in Manhattan, not between the New
 Yorker and Iowan.
 
  So back to Galbraith, Chowdhury, and Shrivastava at Texas, we find that
 across-State inequality in India is pretty low:
 
 
 
  The dynamics of this graph are fascinating. For one, the purple line
 (within state inequality) is far more cyclical with overall inequality than
 the green line (between state inequality). While both do a fair job
 signalling inflections, the former represents approximately 90% of the
 change. Indeed, the contribution of between state inequality has been in

Re: [silk] Intro

2013-04-03 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Welcome, Silk can be worse than miscmarket. You are warned.


On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 8:24 PM, frozencemetery rharw...@club.cc.cmu.eduwrote:

 I've been told it's good form to post an introduction, so: hello!

 I'm a computer scientist and security researcher currently at Carnegie
 Mellon University.  I'm also a free speech, animal rights, and political
 activist, and am part of the Civic Counsel group (a not for profit that,
 when established, will promote free information, institutional
 transparency, personal privacy, and civic engagement through code,
 education, advocacy, and research.).  I think the Debian project is
 wonderful, though currently I am a Red Hat employee (and I neither speak
 for nor represent either organization).

 If this introduction's presentation seems weak, that's because it is;
 Tomasz created too hard of an act to follow.

 Cheers,
 --frozencemetery

Re: [silk] Novartis denied cancer drug patent in landmark Indian case

2013-04-02 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

There's a long (paid column inches I am sure) rant in almost all Indian
newspapers today by the chief of Novartis lamenting the death of
innovation. I couldn't be bothered to read it.

The front page headlines that weren't paid for ran with the conventional
wisdom that the ruling was good for the people.


On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Eugen Leitl eu...@leitl.org wrote:



 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/01/novartis-denied-cancer-drug-patent-india

 Novartis denied cancer drug patent in landmark Indian case

 Supreme court ruling paves way for generic companies to make cheap copies
 of
 Glivec in the developing world

 Sarah Boseley, health editor

 The Guardian, Monday 1 April 2013 14.10 BST

 Healthcare activists say the ruling against Novartis ensures poor people
 will
 be able to access to cheap versions of cancer medicines. Photograph: Rajesh
 Kumar Singh/AP

 The Indian supreme court has refused to allow one of the world's leading
 pharmaceutical companies to patent a new version of a cancer drug, a
 decision
 campaigners hailed as a major step forward in enabling poor people to
 access
 medicines in the developing world.

 Novartis lost a six-year legal battle after the court ruled that small
 changes and improvements to the drug Glivec did not amount to innovation
 deserving of a patent. The ruling opens the way for generic companies in
 India to manufacture and sell cheap copies of the drug in the developing
 world and has implications for HIV and other modern drugs too.

 Campaigners were jubilant. A ruling in Novartis's favour would have reduced
 poor people's access to the drug, said Jennifer Cohn, of Médecins Sans
 Frontières (MSF). The fact that India says patents are to reward
 innovation
 as opposed to small changes does stay true to the concept of what a patent
 should be.

 But Novartis said the decision discourages future innovation in India.
 Ranjit Shahani, the firm's vice-chairman and managing director in India,
 said
 the ruling was a setback for patients that will hinder medical progress
 for
 diseases without effective treatment options.

 He said the Swiss company will be cautious about investing in India,
 especially over introducing new drugs, and seek patent protection before
 launching any new products. It will continue to refrain from research and
 development activities in the country. The intellectual property ecosystem
 in India is not very encouraging, Shahani told reporters in Mumbai after
 the
 ruling.

 Glivec is an important drug in the treatment of myeloid leukaemia and has
 transformed prospects for patients in rich countries. It is a targeted,
 biological therapy that blocks cancer growth in patients with a particular
 gene mutation. But like all targeted therapies, it is very expensive,
 costing
 more than £1,700 a month.

 Historically India only had limited patent protection on drugs and generic
 companies in the country made versions of many medicines. It was only when
 Indian firms began to make cheap copies of HIV drugs that it became
 possible
 more than a decade ago to contemplate the treatment of millions of people
 in
 impoverished countries of Africa, where the Aids epidemic was at its worst.

 But in 2005, India became compliant with World Trade Organisation rules on
 intellectual property and now grants patents on innovative new drugs.
 Patents
 usually run for 20 years or more from the date they are taken out.

 Glivec was already on the market, however, so Novartis decided to seek a
 patent on a slightly altered version, potentially giving it a longer period
 of market exclusivity. The supreme court has thrown out the application,
 saying the new drug is not significantly different from the old version,
 and
 ordered Novartis to pay costs.

 At stake in the legal battle was not just the right of generic companies to
 make cheap drugs for India once original patents expire but also access to
 newer drugs for poorer countries in much of Africa and Asia. India has long
 been known as the pharmacy of the developing world.

 Dr Unni Karunakara, the president of MSF, said: The supreme court's
 decision
 now makes patents on the medicines that we desperately need less likely.
 This
 marks the strongest possible signal to Novartis and other multinational
 pharmaceutical companies that they should stop seeking to attack the Indian
 patent law.

 In a statement, the Cancer Patients Aid Association in India (CPAA), which
 had opposed the patent application, said: We are very happy that the court
 has recognised the right of patients to access affordable medicines over
 profits for big pharmaceutical companies through patents. Our access to
 affordable treatment will not be possible if the medicines are patented. It
 is a huge victory for human rights.

 The case hinged on the interpretation of section 3(d) of the Indian Patents
 Act, which does not allow patents of new versions of known drug molecules,
 unless they make the medicine significantly

Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town

2013-02-20 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

A preview of my real life action adventure game for tourists - live life
like a Madras teenager:

- A visit to the TASMAC store to pick up cheap liquid courage
-- For bonus points: this is done at around 6PM on a Friday or October 1st
- A spicy chicken Biryani made of genuine 100% crow
-- For bonus points one visits a political rally where one can accomplish
the above two tasks for free
-- Boss level: you don't get into a fight and return with all your teeth

- An auto ride, with haggling and cheating included of course but where the
auto driver is glad to be rid of you rather than the other way round

- Watching the first day first show of a popular Tamil movie but _so_
not-optional, standing in line to buy the tickets on current booking
-- bonus points: you dance in the aisles during the item number
-- boss level: the police get called in because of you

- Riding a city bus at peak hour on the foot board
-- bonus points: you wait until the bus has picked up speed before
attempting to board

- A visit to some of the nicer sections of city, where one can witness
fantastic entrepreneurial spirit in the sale of liberated auto parts

- A visit to Ritchie street or seedy DVD shops in Parsn complex to pick up
pirated DVDs
-- for bonus points you demand to see their secret collection of porn




On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 An American friend of mine is going to be in Madras soon. He is interested
 in a walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town. I'm thinking of taking
 him around myself.

 What are some of the stops in a walk around Mylapore and George Town that I
 should not miss?

 Here is a tentative plan I have in mind:

 1. Mylapore
 Start at the San Thome bascilica
 A walk around the temple tank
 Inside Kapali Temple and explaining the hierarchy of Hindu gods and the
 rituals
 See the (scaffolded) temple chariot and explain the 63 Nayanmar festival
 Rasi Silks
 Giri Traders
 Walk around Mada streets and see the market
 Stop at Ambika Stores and Grand Sweets for an introduction to Indian
 pickling (Ambika) and snacking (Grad Sweets) traditions
 Perhaps a stop at R.K. Mutt
 Dinner or tiffin at Karpagambal Mess or Simply South (next to RK Mutt) (or,
 last choice Saravana Bhavan)

 2. George Town
 Start with some talk about the architecture of colonial buildings on drive
 to George Town (point to Ripon Building, Central Station, Southern Railways
 Building, etc. along the way)
 An aside about the glories of Moore Market that used to exist
 Start with a walk around the High Court. Emden bombing, indo sarcenic
 architecture
 Broadway and show the buildings where some law firms operate nearby
 Parry's corner, Burma Bazaar, GPO
 Walk around some of the side streets where businesses cluster together
 Lunch or snack at Rambhavan or Ramakrishna Tiffin Home (or Agarwal Sweets)

 What are other places I could take him to?

 Thaths
 --
 Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
 Carl:  Nuthin'.
 Homer: D'oh!
 Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
 Homer: Woo-hoo!
 Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders

Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town

2013-02-20 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Would you happen to know of the tasty lassi and samosa shop in the lane
behind Devi theater? I remember it being way too successful to have closed
down by now, so I still hope.


On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan 
chandrachoo...@gmail.com wrote:

 That place no longer does a refill. And isn't half as good as I think my
 2005-self thinks it is.

Re: [silk] Stops on a DIY walking tour of Mylapore and/or George Town

2013-02-20 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 4:50 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:

 1. Mylapore


A more serious contribution to your list:

- Rayar's Café and Maami Kadai -
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/metroplus/article2295935.ece
- Dabba Chetti Kadai - traditional Indian medicines and things your
grandmom would want aka nattu marundu kadai
-  Srividya Upasaka Nilayam of Srividya Kumkumam fame
- Gaudiya Math in Royapettah

I am surprised you are missing Triplicane - the mosque, stadium, Ratna Cafe
and Perumal koil.

Some other gourmand spots:
The Adyar Grand Sweets, and I've confirmed it exists, the Bombay Lassi
stall (in Madras lingo directions are - Devi (Theatre) back entrance
opposite)

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

2013-01-29 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 3:56 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian
sur...@hserus.netwrote:

 You mentioned asking the guy whether he does a chocolate dosa


That ranks a close second to asking for cold milk with tea, and as such
rates as due grounds for deportation. We don't want these types here, I
have to now go to sleep with this rattling around in my head. I'm
contemplating war crimes.

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

2013-01-29 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 4:38 PM, Andy Deemer andydee...@gmail.com wrote:

Hey -- I was just going off the Deccan Herald's 99 Dosa recc's...
 http://www.deccanherald.com/content/217211/content/217419/F


Yes we are a billion people, so I think we've earned our right to produce a
few idiots, and some of them or all of them even work in newspapers.


But it did sound so damn tasty!  In fact, next time I head to
 Vidyarthi Bhavan, maybe I'll take a jar of nutella with me.  ;P


That's right, a thousand year old culinary tradition handed down from
father to son, cultivator to cultivator, gourmand to gourmand, and wood
fire to wood fire to deliver the best of the farm on to the plate needs
help from an industrial manufacturing process designed for maximum shelf
life and taste that polls well among eight year olds.

Re: [silk] Andy Deemer Does Bangalore Breakfast Joints

2013-01-29 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote:

 I would welcome that. We're having a definite quality control problem here.
 Fox has been aiming at a 3 year old mentality (mine! all mine!) but the
 rest of the media isn't as coherent.  And.. to prevent too much thread
 drift - our Congress could definitely use an upgrade. Remember - these are
 the culinary daredevils that wanted to rename French Fries to Freedom
 Fries. Nutella would be pretty radical in their book. Perhaps if we made
 the food on Capitol Hill spicier all these people would leave and their
 replacements would be more interesting.


There's an old expression, 'Quando dio, vuole castigarci ci manda, quello
che desideriamo.' When the Gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice

2013-01-16 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Naresh xxx...@yahoo.com wrote:



 http://www.flipkart.com/sandisk-cruzer-blade-16-gb-pen-drive/p/itmczc2ndmuqrmt7?pid=ACCCWPADYYFEJ7ZGref=8938e4a9-ba8c-47a3-abef-349c1379cbe3


 Second that one. Decent drive, decent price. If you want speed, ask for USB
 3 support. More expensive.



 Thanks , but does USB 3.o make any sense..i have Mac desktop 3 yrs old
 ...Does USB 3.0 work on that? cant tell...Is the port differently
 shaped/coloured?

USB 3.0 wasn't commercially available before 2010. It could possibly
look blue in color but it isn't mandatory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_3.0

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 5:02 AM, Sean Doyle sdo...@gmail.com wrote:
 I agree. Bragg is often surprised at what his guests say (e.g., that Malory
 of Le Morte Darthur was a thug) - he obviously prepares for his podcast
 but he doesn't try to script/control his guests too much (except in in the
 interest of time). The variety of topics is wonderful. I wish that the
 science/math ones went deeper but almost all of the presentations on history
 or literature are new to me.


Bragg's genuine interest in Philosophy and History shows through,
though he does lean a tad heavily on British history, after all it is
a BBC4 show.

Bragg's general bewilderment at science and maths is typical of a life
human-scientific [0]. When discussing Galen or Avicenna his love for
history can be seen guiding a principally scientific discussion on
medicine, into all sorts of interesting nooks. On the topic of
galaxies and milky ways he turns mute as a toad and lets his guests
ramble on - I have learned not to bother listening to them unless I'm
out of listening material.

[0] humantific ought to be a word, but it's now a trademarked
brand-name - leading separately to the question of what happens to the
brand-name when say the Oxford English Dictionary decides to make it a
word.

Re: [silk] Chennai Silk meet this week?

On Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 10:39 PM, Badri Natarajan asi...@vsnl.com wrote:
 Karpagambal Mess - been around for several decades at least.

With a side order of a cast iron stomach? It's improved of late, still
the sight of giant cockroaches lingers in my memory.

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

On Tue, Jan 15, 2013 at 7:45 PM, Sidin Vadukut sidin.vadu...@gmail.com wrote:
 Ahem. (Sheepish grin.) I forgot to recommend a podcast I wished existed.

 1. A factually accurate, detailed podcast telling the history of India's
 military conflicts since independence. Both internal and external.

Almost sure to get the producer into legal hot water in Inda. Generals
on all sides of the border dislike the truth, since the wars have
never really ended. We live in the middle of a very long cease fire.
In war, truth is the first casualty, etc.

Neither India (includes Pakistan) nor China have written histories
that are any more than hagiographies of kings. Sima Qian's
non-existent progeny should know this more than anyone else [0].

[0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19835484

Re: [silk] yelp!! USB drive advice

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Naresh xxx...@yahoo.com wrote:

 I need some advice on which USB flash drive to buy..the parameters are


 1.No separate cap but the retracting mechanism must be solidly built

The retraction mechanism makes no sense since the port is still left
open for dust to enter.

 2.am unclear as to price performance vs optimum capacity..(i used it mainly 
 for moving movies and large presentation files back and forth)

Buy something from a reasonably reputed manufacturer for the cheapest
price - they all source from the same few Taiwanese memory makers, and
the price point depends on who struck the better forward contract for
the season and is willing to pass on the price differential.


 3.reasonably robust
 4.easily available in Bangalore

I see. I wouldn't spend too much time agonizing over this, these
things will always fail. Never keep your only copy of something on a
USB stick. Actually never keep only one copy of anything important.

http://www.flipkart.com/sandisk-cruzer-blade-16-gb-pen-drive/p/itmczc2ndmuqrmt7?pid=ACCCWPADYYFEJ7ZGref=8938e4a9-ba8c-47a3-abef-349c1379cbe3

Re: [silk] Two history podcasts to top them all

2013-01-12 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

1. historyofoil.typepad.com  the history of rome (the LSE lectures
though not only about history do have some excellent history talks)

2. Too many to list and at the same time nothing to list.

On Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 4:05 PM, Thaths tha...@gmail.com wrote:
 At today's Chennai silk list meetup the topic of history podcasts came up. I
 offered to post to silk list asking everyone for recommendations.

 1. What are two (history or other) podcasts that are the best in your
 opinion?

 2. What is a podcast that you wish existed but does not?

 I'll kick this off with my list:

 1. The history of the English language podcast
 (http://www.historyofenglishpodcast.com) and Backstory with the American
 History Guys (backstoryradio.org)

 2. A podcast about the history of Indian emigration and the Indian Diaspora.


 Thaths

 --
 Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
 Carl:  Nuthin'.
 Homer: D'oh!
 Carl:  Unless you're crooked.
 Homer: Woo-hoo!
 Sudhakar ChandraSlacker Without Borders

Re: [silk] Where do I buy wines from Indian vineyards in Chennai?

2013-01-07 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 2:04 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:
 Someone who lives in California, wants to buy wine in Chennai..such is
 life...Thaths, how come you didn't get your 2.5 litres at the
 duty-free when you came in?

si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sicut ibi

I find something perverse in the mind that hankers for Idlis and
murukku in California and Grape wine in India.

Re: [silk] great piece on Bal Thackeray after all the other crap that's out there

2012-11-19 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

http://m.economictimes.com/news/politics/nation/two-persons-arrested-for-facebook-post-on-mumbai-shutdown-after-bal-thackerays-death/articleshow/17277705.cms

Is a disturbing trend in India.
On Nov 19, 2012 7:29 AM, Shoba Narayan sh...@shobanarayan.com wrote:

 First time I am reading this writer.  Hope he writes more.

 http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fear-and-loathing-in-mumbai/1032891/0***
 *

[silk] Symposium: Mating Games

2012-11-05 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

Throwing shurikens while blind folded, isn't that the term Udhay?


http://www.springerlink.com/content/vg7322727mgl1875/fulltext.html?MUD=MP

Society
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
10.1007/s12115-012-9596-y
Symposium: Mating Games

Sexual Economics, Culture, Men, and Modern Sexual Trends
Roy F. Baumeister1, 3  and Kathleen D. Vohs2

(1) The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
(2) Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN,
USA
(3) Department of Psychology, 1107 W. Call St, Tallahassee, FL 32306-4301,
USA

Roy F. Baumeister
Email: baumeis...@psy.fsu.edu
Published online: 18 October 2012

Without Abstract
Roy F. Baumeister
is Social Psychology Area Director and Francis Eppes Eminent Scholar at The
Florida State University.
Kathleen D. Vohs
is Associate Professor , Carlson School of Management and Land O’Lakes
Professor of Excellence in Marketing at the University of Minnesota.



Across the late 20th century, ideas about sex came from two main sources.
One was evolutionary theory, based on the field of biology. The other was
feminist and social constructionist theory, based in the field of political
science. Though important insights have come from both sources, there was a
growing body of evidence that did not easily fit either of those. We
therefore turned to another field to develop a new theory. The field was
economics, and we labeled our theory “sexual economics” (Baumeister and
Vohs 2004). At first, our theory was constructed to fit what was already
known, making it an exercise in hindsight. It is therefore highly revealing
to see how the theory has fared in Regnerus and Uecker’s (2011) pioneering
studies of the recent, ongoing shifts in sexual behavior in American
society.

The value of an economic perspective is abundantly clear in Regnerus’s
work. Not only does he analyze behavior in terms of markets. In a political
democracy, majority rules, and such political principles have often
operated in human behavior. But not in sex. In fact, Regnerus shows over
and over that when it comes to sex, the minority rules. This is what
happens in economics, especially in the dynamics of supply and demand. When
supply outnumbers demand, the suppliers (the majority) are in a weak
position and must yield ground, such as by reducing their price. In
contrast, when demand outnumbers supply, the suppliers (now the minority)
have the advantage and can dictate the terms to their liking, such as by
raising the price.

In simple terms, we proposed that in sex, women are the suppliers and men
constitute the demand (Baumeister and Vohs 2004). Hence the
anti-democratic, seemingly paradoxical sex ratio findings that Regnerus
describes. When women are in the minority, the sexual marketplace conforms
to their preferences: committed relationships, widespread virginity,
faithful partners, and early marriage. For example, American colleges in
the 1950s conformed to that pattern. In our analysis, women benefit in such
circumstances because the demand for their sexuality exceeds the supply. In
contrast, when women are the majority, such as on today’s campuses as well
as in some ethnic minority communities, things shift toward what men
prefer: Plenty of sex without commitment, delayed marriage, extradyadic
copulations, and the like.

It is fashionable to describe all gender relations as reflecting the
oppression and victimization of women. When women were a minority of
students, this was interpreted as indicating that women were victims of
oppressive discrimination. Now that women are a majority, they are victims
because of not being able to dictate the terms of romantic and sexual
behavior. Much of Regnerus’s discussion respects this dominant tradition.
We also respect that fashion, but as social scientists interested in both
genders, we shall use this brief comment to redress the standard imbalance
by discussing some implications for men (cf. Baumeister and Vohs 2004).

Sexual marketplaces take the shape they do because nature has biologically
built a disadvantage into men: a huge desire for sex that makes men
dependent on women. Men’s greater desire puts them at a disadvantage, just
as when two parties are negotiating a possible sale or deal, the one who is
more eager to make the deal is in a weaker position than the one who is
willing to walk away without the deal. Women certainly desire sex too — but
as long as most women desire it less than most men, women have a collective
advantage, and social roles and interactions will follow scripts that give
women greater power than men (Baumeister et al. 2001). We have even
concluded that the cultural suppression of female sexuality throughout much
of history and across many different cultures has largely had its roots in
the quest for marketplace advantage (see Baumeister and Twenge 2002). Women
have often sustained their advantage over men by putting pressure on each
other to restrict the supply of sex available to men. As with

Re: [silk] New Gods and new dispensations

2012-08-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Aug 10, 2012 2:45 AM, Landon Hurley ljrhur...@gmail.com wrote:
[...]
 Looks like the author stumbled across something written by Joseph
Campbell.

Don't think he needed any help, Harvey Cox is a noted theologian,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_Cox

[silk] New Gods and new dispensations

2012-08-09 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/03/the-market-as-god/6397/?single_page=true

The Market as God
Living in the new dispensation

By HARVEY COX
A few years ago a friend advised me that if I wanted to know what was
going on in the real world, I should read the business pages. Although
my lifelong interest has been in the study of religion, I am always
willing to expand my horizons; so I took the advice, vaguely fearful
that I would have to cope with a new and baffling vocabulary. Instead
I was surprised to discover that most of the concepts I ran across
were quite familiar.

Expecting a terra incognita, I found myself instead in the land of
déjà vu. The lexicon of The Wall Street Journal and the business
sections of Time and Newsweek turned out to bear a striking
resemblance to Genesis, the Epistle to the Romans, and Saint
Augustine's City of God. Behind descriptions of market reforms,
monetary policy, and the convolutions of the Dow, I gradually made out
the pieces of a grand narrative about the inner meaning of human
history, why things had gone wrong, and how to put them right.
Theologians call these myths of origin, legends of the fall, and
doctrines of sin and redemption. But here they were again, and in only
thin disguise: chronicles about the creation of wealth, the seductive
temptations of statism, captivity to faceless economic cycles, and,
ultimately, salvation through the advent of free markets, with a small
dose of ascetic belt tightening along the way, especially for the East
Asian economies.

The East Asians' troubles, votaries argue, derive from their heretical
deviation from free-market orthodoxy—they were practitioners of crony
capitalism, of ethnocapitalism, of statist capitalism, not of the
one true faith. The East Asian financial panics, the Russian debt
repudiations, the Brazilian economic turmoil, and the U.S. stock
market's $1.5 trillion correction momentarily shook belief in the
new dispensation. But faith is strengthened by adversity, and the
Market God is emerging renewed from its trial by financial
contagion. Since the argument from design no longer proves its
existence, it is fast becoming a postmodern deity—believed in despite
the evidence. Alan Greenspan vindicated this tempered faith in
testimony before Congress last October. A leading hedge fund had just
lost billions of dollars, shaking market confidence and precipitating
calls for new federal regulation. Greenspan, usually Delphic in his
comments, was decisive. He believed that regulation would only impede
these markets, and that they should continue to be self-regulated.
True faith, Saint Paul tells us, is the evidence of things unseen.

Soon I began to marvel at just how comprehensive the business theology
is. There were even sacraments to convey salvific power to the lost, a
calendar of entrepreneurial saints, and what theologians call an
eschatology—a teaching about the end of history. My curiosity was
piqued. I began cataloguing these strangely familiar doctrines, and I
saw that in fact there lies embedded in the business pages an entire
theology, which is comparable in scope if not in profundity to that of
Thomas Aquinas or Karl Barth. It needed only to be systematized for a
whole new Summa to take shape.

At the apex of any theological system, of course, is its doctrine of
God. In the new theology this celestial pinnacle is occupied by The
Market, which I capitalize to signify both the mystery that enshrouds
it and the reverence it inspires in business folk. Different faiths
have, of course, different views of the divine attributes. In
Christianity, God has sometimes been defined as omnipotent (possessing
all power), omniscient (having all knowledge), and omnipresent
(existing everywhere). Most Christian theologies, it is true, hedge a
bit. They teach that these qualities of the divinity are indeed there,
but are hidden from human eyes both by human sin and by the
transcendence of the divine itself. In light inaccessible they are,
as the old hymn puts it, hid from our eyes. Likewise, although The
Market, we are assured, possesses these divine attributes, they are
not always completely evident to mortals but must be trusted and
affirmed by faith. Further along, as another old gospel song says,
we'll understand why.

As I tried to follow the arguments and explanations of the
economist-theologians who justify The Market's ways to men, I spotted
the same dialectics I have grown fond of in the many years I have
pondered the Thomists, the Calvinists, and the various schools of
modern religious thought. In particular, the econologians' rhetoric
resembles what is sometimes called process theology, a relatively
contemporary trend influenced by the philosophy of Alfred North
Whitehead. In this school although God wills to possess the classic
attributes, He does not yet possess them in full, but is definitely
moving in that direction. This conjecture is of immense help to
theologians for obvious reasons. It

Re: [silk] [CCM-L] Shortage of medicines and control of regulatory?authorities.

2012-08-08 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Deepak Shenoy deepakshe...@gmail.com wrote:
 If the medicines are so much in demand and so ridiculously cheap in
 India, isn't there already a flourishing black market in Pakistan for
 them?

Your favorite gods of the market are to blame here too, you know. If
one can smuggle only one box of something across wouldn't it rather be
opium or kalashnikovs?

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52008

Re: [silk] RIP - Sriram Bala

2012-07-28 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 10:32 PM, Ashwin Kumar ashwi...@gmail.com wrote:
 Isn't this him Thaths - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sriram/ ?

Yes, this is him

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sriram/4331864625/in/photostream

Re: [silk] RIP - Sriram Bala

2012-07-27 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan

This is tragic, he was so young.

I got to know him fairly well in the couple of years that our lives
crossed paths in Bangalore. He was a charming, caring, generous and
intelligent friend. I missed him when he started to shun public
contact a few years ago, I had no idea it had to do with a kidney
transplant, that's a heavy burden to bear.

There's a lot I can speak of his spontaneity and generosity. Once,
during an idle chat I remember mentioning only in passing about my
favorite coffee shop in Pittsburgh. Some months later he happened to
be traveling through Pittsburgh and got me a bag of my favorite coffee
beans - I was amazed he remembered and bothered enough to lug coffee
halfway across the world, we weren't even very close friends then.

I will miss his company and grace, I know his family will miss him more.



On Fri, Jul 27, 2012 at 10:07 AM, Venkat Mangudi - Silk
s...@venkatmangudi.com wrote:
 Saw his obituary in Deccan Herald today. He was a close friend and my
 classmate at St Joseph's. He became reclusive after a kidney transplant. I
 last met him in 2006 just before I returnned to India.

 He was a lurker on Silk, in line with his reclusive behaviour. We called
 Cobs - short for COBOL which was one of his favorite programming language.
 He told us during college that he would go to the US and none of us believed
 him. After all, BSc in India is only a three year course and you needed 4
 yrs after K-12 to get there. He did go there right after BSc proving all of
 us wrong. I know I'm ranting. So I'll stop now. I miss him.

 --Venkat

Re: [silk] Chennaimadras silkmeet Jul 28?

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Udhay Shankar N ud...@pobox.com wrote:
 On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Shivakumar Narayanan shi...@gmail.com 
 wrote:

 Another choice in KNK Road - 3 Kingdom - has beer too.

 OK, let us close on this then. We will meet at 3 Kingdoms on Khader
 Nawaz Khan road at 12 noonish on Saturday.

 http://chennai.burrp.com/listing/3-kingdoms_khader-nawaz-khan-road_chennai_restaurants/17132496138

Is triloka bhavan High Class Pyoor Vegetarian?

I notice the link says Moderately priced and lists
Average Meal for Two: Rs.800

I'm not complaining, but genuinely wondering if that is really what
passes for moderate in Madras these days?

Re: [silk] Chennaimadras silkmeet Jul 28?

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Aanjhan Ranganathan aanj...@gmail.com wrote:
 Haha. I was shocked as well. These days 200 INR per person is cheap
 food in Madras. 300-500 passes off as moderate. What shocked me was
 not the cost itself, but the sudden increase. I am pretty sure, 8
 months back when I visited India, it was not so.

As much as food inflation has been galloping that cannot alone account
for this steed going hell-bent for leather.

Re: [silk] Chennaimadras silkmeet Jul 28?

On Jul 25, 2012 3:43 PM, Deepa Mohan mohande...@gmail.com wrote:

 I can still get a good saappaadu at Balaji Bhavan for Rs.50.  The minute
you start calling it INR the rate goes up steeply.mthen you have to go to
an authentic restaurant to get the real experience...inverted commas
push up prices.

Indeed, don't you feel proud of the immense economic progress achieved in
India, we've rendered the udipi bhavan food unpalatable, unhygienic and low
class.

Gone are the days when there was enough peace and quiet and clean air
freely available to all to enjoy over a reasonably priced cup of coffee.

Today the clean water comes out of  plastic bottles leeching chemicals,
the clean air from polluting dirty air conditioners and the peace and quiet
by pricing out the under classes.

Re: [silk] Chennaimadras silkmeet Jul 28?