We have matured a lot as a Nation, ready to set examples for others to follow.
A Sudden Outburst of Common-sense
My belief in the Indian Judiciary is bolstered further. Though it took 8 years of litigation, in one swish of the hammer a repulsive and utterly ridiculous law(section 377 of IPC) has been read down. India has further reclaimed its original flavor, a Land of true equality, a Land of true freedom. India has shaken cleaner of years of domination by the narrow values of foreign culture.
Secularism of India
Existence of secularism in the fabric of a country's constitution is always indicative of an advanced culture and a logical coherence in the definition of a nation. India had adopted (forced!) a brand of secularism when her constitution was drafted 60 years back. But, the Indian brand of secularism is rather peculiar. It does not seek an equality by removing 'religion' as a factor while dealing with constitutional matters, rather it gives all religions equal opportunities. Though it sounds like a liberal idea, it is fraught with loopholes.
An absence of religion imparts more robustness to a constitution than an amalgamation. It leads to too many opposing opinions, most significantly on aspects that fundamentally differ among religions as they are practised and/or interpreted, as well as between religions and modern social culture. Every religion as practised possesses backdated, illogical and barbaric ideas. As a civilization progresses it is important to identify those malignant points and get rid of them. Unfortunately, there are a vast majority of practitioners or, as it is often put, "theists" who believe in the immutability of instructions, so much so that many of them rather indulge in practising a form of the religion that can even be as much as a few millennia old. Given the social impact of religions, this is rather devastating. It voids the progress human knowledge has made over this period of time. Failing to encompass the evolution of a mass conscience that has been achieved through rational reasoning and practical experience, is a serious folly of any set of social guidelines. Denial of truth is self-defeating.
The Indian constitution, through its penchant for 'equality', theoretically empowers such out-dated opinions with equal significance as the most modern sociological ones.
Revolution of the Mass
This fragment of engagement of my thoughts stemmed about two and a half years back. I got my new desktop at home, and rented Gharey Bairey, a Bengalee movie, directed by Satyajit Ray, based on Rabindranath Tagore's 1915 work that goes by the same name. It is set against the backdrop of the Swadeshi Movement, it posed a very novel question : Is a 'nation' ready for a revolution, even if it meant to be for/of the mass?
I had traditionally held the belief that Gandhi's methods were targeted towards the 'mass' and always had a broader appeal than the more aggressive alternative that existed for the junta. This was a reason, I, in all my naivety, thought of Gandhi as a public manipulator, who welded the public will for his own political agenda. Well this is another story that I reserve for a future occasion. But, this movie, drove an important point home : Could Gandhi truly rope in the broader 'Indian' public?
It leaves little doubt that he could do it more than all other leaders of India. But, there always remained a chunk whose feeble livelihood was in serious jeopardy by such "Bourgeois" ideas. There were people who found it easier to live off Manchester than native (cottage) industrial production. The primary point of dissent was the issue of taking down a fence without the provisions of a substitution. This was Tagore's most important criticism against such mass movements. In any case, Gandhi pressed on with his ideas, and he did have non-trivial impact on the psyche of both his countrymen as well as the Englishmen. But, at no instance did any of his movements become a complete success, nor did post 1947 India adopt his ideas of industry and economy.
I had traditionally held the belief that Gandhi's methods were targeted towards the 'mass' and always had a broader appeal than the more aggressive alternative that existed for the junta. This was a reason, I, in all my naivety, thought of Gandhi as a public manipulator, who welded the public will for his own political agenda. Well this is another story that I reserve for a future occasion. But, this movie, drove an important point home : Could Gandhi truly rope in the broader 'Indian' public?
It leaves little doubt that he could do it more than all other leaders of India. But, there always remained a chunk whose feeble livelihood was in serious jeopardy by such "Bourgeois" ideas. There were people who found it easier to live off Manchester than native (cottage) industrial production. The primary point of dissent was the issue of taking down a fence without the provisions of a substitution. This was Tagore's most important criticism against such mass movements. In any case, Gandhi pressed on with his ideas, and he did have non-trivial impact on the psyche of both his countrymen as well as the Englishmen. But, at no instance did any of his movements become a complete success, nor did post 1947 India adopt his ideas of industry and economy.
Probably none of the mass revolutions in the history of the world bear any resemblance to Tagore's ideas, which naturally implies the impracticability of the Utopian ideals of a poet. But, then why do we still dream of a day when the oppressed shall rise against the oppressor and beget a revolution of the mass? Can there really be a phenomenon that is true to the phrase?
to be continued...
Weapons of Future?
Einstein had once remarked that "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
I had often wondered about the nature of a third world war. Gedanken experiments, given the constraints of world politics, is an interesting activity. Over the years it has been becoming increasingly clear, that conventional warfare, such that we have known so far, has a good chance of becoming obsolete. The nuclear proliferation and illegal nuclear dealings, have made it increasingly difficult to bully economically younger nations. After the fiasco of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it has also become evident that, no nation can afford to take nuclear threats lightly.
Given the recent spat of nuclear armaments, it'll remain a complicated matter to pull in a bunch of nations to fight each other, without invoking nuclear threats. Also, I would expect, the collective wisdom will prevent such a situation from developing. Thus we can safely assume, discounting absolute lunacy, that soon the world will experience a rather uncomfortable stalemate.
But, it doesn't imply that humanity has reached a perfect Nash equilibrium. Over the past decade, in quite a benign form, another form of warfare has been coming of age, slowly maturing into deadlier form. Its innocuous demeanor has attracted little attention from policy makers, but it holds considerable promise of being the prominent weapon of the next big war, if not a World War.
Sophistication invites loopholes. They are intimately married. With each sunrise, technological progress is driving mankind towards a more comfortable, but increasingly dependent life. In the West, Canada for example, the overwhelming dependence on electricity has worried me since the day I set foot here. Though I must concede to the fact that this submission has made life extremely comfortable by world standards, it poses a dangerous threat. Likewise, at a more global scale, there has been a escalating growth of computerization. It is a term that loosely implies some kind of automation and (not necessarily) efficiency achieved through the usage of computers as nodes in a network. One major example is the internet. It is a fact that internet has seeped much deeper into the daily life of every man than we will find comfortable to accept. It is entwined in a range of direct and indirect ways with every step, most of us take. Therefore, it is apt to invest significant thoughts and resources to analyze its (intended) impact and how it can be exploited.
I had often wondered about the nature of a third world war. Gedanken experiments, given the constraints of world politics, is an interesting activity. Over the years it has been becoming increasingly clear, that conventional warfare, such that we have known so far, has a good chance of becoming obsolete. The nuclear proliferation and illegal nuclear dealings, have made it increasingly difficult to bully economically younger nations. After the fiasco of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it has also become evident that, no nation can afford to take nuclear threats lightly.
Given the recent spat of nuclear armaments, it'll remain a complicated matter to pull in a bunch of nations to fight each other, without invoking nuclear threats. Also, I would expect, the collective wisdom will prevent such a situation from developing. Thus we can safely assume, discounting absolute lunacy, that soon the world will experience a rather uncomfortable stalemate.
But, it doesn't imply that humanity has reached a perfect Nash equilibrium. Over the past decade, in quite a benign form, another form of warfare has been coming of age, slowly maturing into deadlier form. Its innocuous demeanor has attracted little attention from policy makers, but it holds considerable promise of being the prominent weapon of the next big war, if not a World War.
Sophistication invites loopholes. They are intimately married. With each sunrise, technological progress is driving mankind towards a more comfortable, but increasingly dependent life. In the West, Canada for example, the overwhelming dependence on electricity has worried me since the day I set foot here. Though I must concede to the fact that this submission has made life extremely comfortable by world standards, it poses a dangerous threat. Likewise, at a more global scale, there has been a escalating growth of computerization. It is a term that loosely implies some kind of automation and (not necessarily) efficiency achieved through the usage of computers as nodes in a network. One major example is the internet. It is a fact that internet has seeped much deeper into the daily life of every man than we will find comfortable to accept. It is entwined in a range of direct and indirect ways with every step, most of us take. Therefore, it is apt to invest significant thoughts and resources to analyze its (intended) impact and how it can be exploited.
The impact is relatively easy to find out. The exploitation is what escapes the eye. Over the last five years there has been an increasingly high number of incidents where bugs in the security of networks has been exploited and unsuspecting users and benefactors have been presented with rather malicious codes. They are popularly known as viruses or, worms. While most of them do not have catastrophic effects, some do. But, this is not what I'm most worried about.
There has been a rather different kind of exploitation that has been regularly practiced, but has often passed public eye, because these are more organized attempts and they are not concerned with 'infecting' personal computers. One such incident occurred when a retaliation was in order, after an US spy plane allegedly shot down a Chinese aircraft, killing its pilot. Apparently certain group of hackers, based in PRC, attacked US government websites, squeezing in misleading information and impregnating outgoing emails with viruses. Reports such as these are plenty, but confirmations are rare. There has also been menacing incidents where servers of the Pentagon has been loaded with terabytes of junk, just to slow them down or, to outright crash them. There has been arrests made when these same servers, on another occasion, was used to store pirated movies and softwares that ran into terabytes.
The concern here is not these pranks or, mudslingings. There is a graver issue at hand, when political discords had been avenged by ruthless cyber attacks on both civilian as well as military network infrastructures. Incidents such has these have become more numerous in the last five years and they are growing both in number and impact. Serious concerns exist over the security of networks that has been spared thus far, but there are known issues of a large number of foreign bots existing in servers native to the concerned networks. These bots are not viruses or, malicious codes per se, but they might have been coded to take up arms against the networks they are gestating in, when triggered by their masters. Such a scenario is not remote, least of all being science fiction.
Its not difficult to imagine a situation when such bots, coupled with active attacks can throw a whole nation in disarray, including its satellites and dangerous weapons. Virtually, it is possible to make two unsuspecting nations go to war, for no fault of their own. It is possible to exterminate a nation from within, with its own devices of development and defense. And, it is possible to assimilate a powerful offensive even without stockpiling thousands of nuclear warheads.
There is an urgent need to enfold network security into the cusps of national and territorial security. Though its a vastly different world and it is difficult to man these 'virtual' territories, there is always an option of developing a powerful defense mechanism: harboring and fostering homegrown hackers.
In the present context its imperative that the monopoly of the Spartan value of individuals to national defense is over. This is an age where couch-loving, rodent like, unhealthy coders are as important to national defense as are the herculean gentlemen in the battlefield. We as a people should get over the age old notion of Defense that comprises of nuclear warheads, missiles, battleships, guns and diplomacy and start to envision Defense as a two pronged fork comprised of the traditional, rather 'real' part and a 'virtual' cyber part. The Defense of a modern nation is complete only when it has gained equal efficiency and potency in both these components.
Bill Gates
Though my substantial computer education has been through strong doses of open source and Richard Stallman, I feel indebted to Mr. William Gates III.
3 days after he quit his legendary Microsoft.
Mr. Gates through his Microsoft gave us humans a lot to feel happy and indebted. Whatever may be his motive, he's a visionary, who has contributed laudably to the human society at large and is still doing with his charity foundation.
Its difficult to imagine a life without my laptop right now and without all those (cheap) desktops all around the place. Such large scale usage of personal computers have substantially been made possible by his maiden attempt at an universal language for comp hardwares independent of the vendor, starting right from his enthusiastic dabbling with DOS back in the 80's.
If its difficult to grasp, just imagine a life with an Apple market monopoly... its gruesome.
One fact is that, the opensource guys would have found it difficult to exist if it wouldn't be for the company they loathe so much. What good Linux would have been without affordable comps?
Though I always prefer a Linux over any other OS, I still feel that the way Microsoft, Windows and Gates have been able to revolutionize our way of life is sincerely commendable.
Therefore, as this man leaves behind a legacy, hard to re-produce or, excel by an individual, he deserves admiration and respect from everyone, even from his adversaries.
3 days after he quit his legendary Microsoft.
Mr. Gates through his Microsoft gave us humans a lot to feel happy and indebted. Whatever may be his motive, he's a visionary, who has contributed laudably to the human society at large and is still doing with his charity foundation.
Its difficult to imagine a life without my laptop right now and without all those (cheap) desktops all around the place. Such large scale usage of personal computers have substantially been made possible by his maiden attempt at an universal language for comp hardwares independent of the vendor, starting right from his enthusiastic dabbling with DOS back in the 80's.
If its difficult to grasp, just imagine a life with an Apple market monopoly... its gruesome.
One fact is that, the opensource guys would have found it difficult to exist if it wouldn't be for the company they loathe so much. What good Linux would have been without affordable comps?
Though I always prefer a Linux over any other OS, I still feel that the way Microsoft, Windows and Gates have been able to revolutionize our way of life is sincerely commendable.
Therefore, as this man leaves behind a legacy, hard to re-produce or, excel by an individual, he deserves admiration and respect from everyone, even from his adversaries.
Puzzling Forbes List
I was having a look at the Forbes list of world billionaires, and to my great surprise discovered 4 Indians sitting tight in the top 10 list!
What is this world coming to? If one goes by numbers, there are only 2 U.S. guys, Buffet and Gates (as usual), Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecom magnate, followed by a train of the 4 Indians: Mittal, the Ambani brothers and KP Singh, then comes a giant each from Sweden, Russia and Germany.
What is this world coming to? If one goes by numbers, there are only 2 U.S. guys, Buffet and Gates (as usual), Carlos Slim, a Mexican telecom magnate, followed by a train of the 4 Indians: Mittal, the Ambani brothers and KP Singh, then comes a giant each from Sweden, Russia and Germany.
The cumulative wealth of the Ambani brothers happens to be well over $80 bil, and add to that the fact that these two had achieved the largest growth in the past year, worldover.
As an Indian I loved it, but then there is a fact that bothers me : whereas Gates and Buffet have set aside a handsome share of their personal wealth for charity, the Indian guys out there seems to be less sensitive to such issues, although these are the people who being from the subcontinent and living there (except Mr. Mittal) should actually be more sensitive. To embellish this bewildering numbness towards such burning issues in their own society, Mr. Mukesh Ambani happens to be on his way to construct a 27 storey home!
Well maybe its their (comparative) young age or, simply because they are Indians.
Anyways, a question remains : What happened to Mrs. Gandhi's (weird) attempt at Indian socialism?
remote x-server
I just came across something entirely new today.
the university server supports x-serv on remote-host.
its kinda cool.
i could see the pics and the pdf's approximately properly. then i went a step ahead... i tried to run audio files and then the video ones. and !!! it works. though quite patchy cramped up, but it works :)
cool stuff ...
the university server supports x-serv on remote-host.
its kinda cool.
i could see the pics and the pdf's approximately properly. then i went a step ahead... i tried to run audio files and then the video ones. and !!! it works. though quite patchy cramped up, but it works :)
cool stuff ...
A Great Day ...
Today is a great day in my life ... I got core dumped ... my dream ...
here's a screenshot ...
mario
since everything comes with a bit of shit, neglect the stupid links below and enjoy the game :)
The Indian Civ in AOE III
This one is special, very special to me. The Asian Dynasties expansion marks the entry of a serious Indian component in RTS games. My personal opinion is that its awesome, all RTS lovers and specially the AOE freaks should try this. Microsoft has done an excellent job this time.
So what are the key points of the Indian civ?
- First and most importantly look out for a rush. This civ is extremely prone to early attacks i.e. during the Discovery and Colonial ages.
- Once the civ is in Industrial, its pretty much unstoppable. It will typically have a boom coupled with some mighty units, composed of the large variety of elephants. These units are costly, but they are worth it. A combination of the elephant units, along with the Gurkhas, Rajputs and the camel units can be deadly...
- Villagers cost wood.
The ideal strategy to have would be, (thats what I do ...) :
- Collect wood like crazy, pump in villagers. Since, they wont cost food, the player can invest all food on age upgrading. By the time one fotresses he should have 800+1200 food and 1000 gold. And thats a minimum... You need to build your armies you know.
- There's a new segment to age upgrading : Wonders. Using the Karni Mata from Discovery to Colonial and Agra Fort from Colonial to Industrial seems ideal to me. But, one can also use Taj Mahal for the second one. Ceasefire is a good defense strategy too.
- Once in Industrial the Indian player need not worry much. Just pump in military units at regular intervals and micromanage the villagers a bit and that would see you through.
5 more things on the passing :
- The funniest thing is that the Monastery won't give you monks. It'll give you the monk improvements and a horde of Outlaws ;P.
Note however that the only healing units are your priests. You get couple of them when you begin. They serve as both monks and explorer. - Age upgrading does not happen at the Town centre. Your villagers will have the option to construct a Wonder and age upgrade.
- You might not need the Embassy. These Indian units are too awesome if you can Industrial fast :) ...
- Your units will actually respond in Hindi :) ... and
- Watch out for the Ottomans.
Equations in Blog
Of late I had been searching for ways I could include equations in the blog, to make it more scientifically relevant for such future uses. The following is what I found :
1. One can convert the expression into a typical picture ( png/jpg/tif etc ). You can find it here.
2. You can go here. This one is more direct in the way that you can actually type in the LaTeX code in your blogger editor. ( works in firefox only )
Note : Before running the javascript install the greasemonkey plugin.
Example :
So long, happy blogging ...
Alternative methods:
An external website may be used to render LaTeX which then should be included in the html as an image:
----------- Update (Best Method) --------------
Mathjax is a robust option. Look here for usage in Blogger.
Including this in the html version of the blog: 1. One can convert the expression into a typical picture ( png/jpg/tif etc ). You can find it here.
2. You can go here. This one is more direct in the way that you can actually type in the LaTeX code in your blogger editor. ( works in firefox only )
Note : Before running the javascript install the greasemonkey plugin.
Example :
So long, happy blogging ...
Alternative methods:
An external website may be used to render LaTeX which then should be included in the html as an image:
<img alt="" src="http://latex.codecogs.com/gif.latex?%5Cint%20%5COmega%28x%29" style="vertical-align: -2pt;" title="" />which renders:
----------- Update (Best Method) --------------
Mathjax is a robust option. Look here for usage in Blogger.
<script type="text/x-mathjax-config"> MathJax.Hub.Config({tex2jax: {inlineMath: [['$','$'], ['\\(','\\)']]}}); </script> <script src="http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML" type="text/javascript"> </script>activates LaTeX in your HTML code. Any LaTeX code following this will be rendered as desired. For example
\[\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 = \begin{vmatrix}
\mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0
\end{vmatrix} \]
generates,\[\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 = \begin{vmatrix} \mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\ \frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\ \frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0 \end{vmatrix} \]
Bose Founder Discusses Audio Perfection and Digital Music
By Karen Jones
Amar G. Bose
Photo: Courtesy of Bose Corporation
Photo: Courtesy of Bose Corporation
Amar G. Bose is a man with a mission: to replicate, as clearly as possible, the sound of live music through technology.
Playing the violin as a child tuned his ear to live music. Dismayed at the poor quality of the average audio speaker during the "hi-fi" era of the 1950s and 1960s, Bose dove into the study of psychoacoustics, or how humans perceive sound. Then, armed with a doctorate in electrical engineering from MIT and a passion for classical music, he formed the Bose Corporation in 1964.
Bose's first speaker, the 901 Direct/Reflecting system, hit the market in 1968. His patented technologies are now found in high-end speakers, headphones, automotive sound systems, large and small home systems and, most recently, computer speakers such as the Bose Computer MusicMonitor. Today, Bose is a privately held company with annual sales of $2 billion.
Etched in a wall outside Bose's large but not ostentatious office in Framingham, Massachusetts, is an engraved quote from Maurice Maeterlinck, who won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Literature: "At every crossroad on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past."
Wired News recently sat down with Bose to discuss hi-fi, MP3s and the Boston Symphony.
Wired News: You are passionate about music or you would not have devoted your career to it. Your parents made you study the violin, initially against your wishes, correct?
Amar Bose: (laughs) Yes, if it hadn't been for the violin, I would not be involved in this today. All the way through MIT I never took a course in acoustics. I later taught it many times because I got involved in this research.
WN: Buying your first audio speaker from RadioShack in the 1950s set you on your present course?
AB: Yes. I bought a violin record to play on it and said, "Oh my gosh, that is nothing like the way real music sounds."
WN: Your quest has been to recreate, as closely as possible, live music. Are you there yet?
AB: Oh no. It's a journey to which I am not sure there is an end. We are nearer than when we started, but there is a lot of work to be done.
WN: There was a time when all music was live, while today so much is removed from the in-person experience and repackaged. Will we always have live music and an appreciation of the classics?
AB: I sure hope so. Sometimes I get depressed about the fact that all of the big record stores have removed classical music because all they are looking at is the sales per square foot of display on the floor, and classical is at the bottom. It's hard to get (classical music) anywhere but the internet. It's so beautiful that I can't think we will be without it and live performances.
WN: Bose Corporation formed in 1964. What has surprised you most about technology in these past 40-plus years?
AB: The rapid rise of digital technology, which enables so many more things to be done. You can compress bandwidth in a way that we had no concept of in 1964. My first excitement about the digital age was that we could apply algorithms, which are mathematical formulas, in the digital domain that we could never dream about in the analog days.
WN: What are some of the minuses of the digital age?
AB: When any industry gets started, everybody jumps in and most people don't even have any technology background. The computer industry is in that phase today.
WN: Explain a bit more, please.
AB: Sadly, there's a heck of a lot of emphasis on people developing gadgets to get to market quickly, which have incredible troubles interconnecting to other gadgets. You are in the stage that hi-fi audio was in the 1950s, with so many systems that the consumer is confounded by the complexity and doesn't care to know. They care to use the thing, not to know how in the heck to connect it to this and that. However, I do believe that will pass, as it did with hi-fi.
WN: You talked about compression and today people are downloading their music. Do you find it disturbing that MP3 is not a high-quality audio format?
AB: No. It will evolve. MP3 has already evolved. That will be the way.
WN: What about the battle for control of the home entertainment systems? Do you think it will be the PC or TV?
AB: If I were to guess, and I'm not sure my guess is any better then anyone else's, the TV will be in control of most of what we are looking at. I don't see the computer controlling it.
WN: Does classical music remain your favorite type of music?
AB: I have a bias for music composed before 1900. I've enjoyed popular music but the real pleasure is in classical. I have not developed what it takes to become attached to modern classical, which sounds like discord to me. I used to go regularly to the Boston Symphony until they got onto modern classical.
WN: Your favorite composers?
AB: The moving music of Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert. I love it.
WN: What's ahead in technology?
AB: (long, reflective pause) I don't think I am able to answer that.
role of media in civil/political unrest
Recently I came across the case of a certain Kashmir Singh, who was recently released from a Pakistan prison. He's an Indian who was detained for suspected espionage. Well that is not clear though, the crux is that he spent long years in Pakistan prison, which is believed to be tormenting experience for Indians.
Apparently this guy claimed in a press conference that he was working for the Indian government and that he was sent across the border as a spy. Now this is a deadly statement to make, keeping in mind other Indians locked up in Pakistani prisons and also the liability on the Pakistan Human Rights minister Ansar Barney who played a key role for his release.
Later learning of the grievous mistake he committed Mr. Singh withdrew his statement and denies being a spy.
Now comes the funny part... the media. They have been splashing all these all over the place. Apparently they seem to know the consequence that statement can have, yet they don't seem to appreciate the golden gift of silence. There was this particular statement by a CNN IBN journalist covering this development. This lad goes up to Mr. Singh's place, interviews him on his "dangerous" statement, and also his current stance, the like Sir Oracle gives his verdict that Kashmir Singh is caught in a dilemma, whether to give away his "real" identity and jeopardize his fellow countrymen still locked up in some dark corner and also the noble minister, or stay silent.
Why does this smart-ass needs to show his great judicious abilities? Doesn't he understand that his statements/assessments can have far reaching consequence? Isn't he screwing up the already delicate situation? Why does the media need to report each and everything in the world?
Shouldn't these guys be a bit more human than mere robots hunting down information and trying to earn laurels and cash for themselves and their employer?
The current state of media with all the hullabaloo and mindless baring of facts and informations is a matter of concern, both to the society and also to the very essence of journalism.
Apparently this guy claimed in a press conference that he was working for the Indian government and that he was sent across the border as a spy. Now this is a deadly statement to make, keeping in mind other Indians locked up in Pakistani prisons and also the liability on the Pakistan Human Rights minister Ansar Barney who played a key role for his release.
Later learning of the grievous mistake he committed Mr. Singh withdrew his statement and denies being a spy.
Now comes the funny part... the media. They have been splashing all these all over the place. Apparently they seem to know the consequence that statement can have, yet they don't seem to appreciate the golden gift of silence. There was this particular statement by a CNN IBN journalist covering this development. This lad goes up to Mr. Singh's place, interviews him on his "dangerous" statement, and also his current stance, the like Sir Oracle gives his verdict that Kashmir Singh is caught in a dilemma, whether to give away his "real" identity and jeopardize his fellow countrymen still locked up in some dark corner and also the noble minister, or stay silent.
Why does this smart-ass needs to show his great judicious abilities? Doesn't he understand that his statements/assessments can have far reaching consequence? Isn't he screwing up the already delicate situation? Why does the media need to report each and everything in the world?
Shouldn't these guys be a bit more human than mere robots hunting down information and trying to earn laurels and cash for themselves and their employer?
The current state of media with all the hullabaloo and mindless baring of facts and informations is a matter of concern, both to the society and also to the very essence of journalism.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear. Except a
creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely
a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea!--incomparably the
bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.
Whether you are asleep or awake he will attack you, caring nothing for the fact
that in bulk and strength you are to him as are the massed armies of the earth
to a sucking child; he lives both day and night and all days and nights in the
very lap of peril and the immediate presence of death, and yet is no more
afraid than is the man who walks the streets of a city that was threatened by
an earthquake ten centuries before. When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam
as men who "didn't know what fear was," we ought always to add the flea--and
put him at the head of the procession.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely
a loose misapplication of the word. Consider the flea!--incomparably the
bravest of all the creatures of God, if ignorance of fear were courage.
Whether you are asleep or awake he will attack you, caring nothing for the fact
that in bulk and strength you are to him as are the massed armies of the earth
to a sucking child; he lives both day and night and all days and nights in the
very lap of peril and the immediate presence of death, and yet is no more
afraid than is the man who walks the streets of a city that was threatened by
an earthquake ten centuries before. When we speak of Clive, Nelson, and Putnam
as men who "didn't know what fear was," we ought always to add the flea--and
put him at the head of the procession.
-- Mark Twain, "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"
The Process of adopting
I came across this piece somewhere on the web.
In this experiment they put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the
room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the
ceiling. Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are
sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.
Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the
other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.
Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in
the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the
other monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins
to climb the ladder. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him
silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the
ladder.
A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again
attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out
of him. This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not
on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the
other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the
new monkey.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced, eight new monkeys are
now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of
them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up
any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.
In this experiment they put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the
room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the
ceiling. Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are
sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.
Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the
other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.
Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in
the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the
other monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins
to climb the ladder. All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him
silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the
ladder.
A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again
attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out
of him. This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not
on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the
other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the
new monkey.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced, eight new monkeys are
now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of
them attempt to climb the ladder. All of them will enthusiastically beat up
any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.
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