From this:
"This paper is poorly written and difficult to follow."
"In its present form, this paper does not provide a promising step towards publication."
to this:
"This is much improved. It addresses most of the problems I had with it earlier."
"This needs some work, but I like what you've done."
...man. I should have joined debating society when in school or college. Who knew one had to argue clearly for people to understand you?
I amuse myself here; Your amusement is intended but boundedly so
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
Punchline
I don't know if you've seen the documentary The Story of India, it's on PBS, and excellently made.
Well, anyway, one of the things I learned from this was that all non-Africans owe their heritage to some Indians who walked out of Africa presumably. Whoever does these things, has traced a gene found amongst all inhabitants in a village in Tamil Nadu that apparently the rest of the world - apart from Africa - shares, though in diluted form.
So at lunch, talking to Geret (in my year and who's American though of Dutch descent - 4th generation) I told him about this particular fact. Then the thought struck:
"So, my friend, you see, you're Indian.
Who's your daddy now, huh?"
ha ha ha ha ha
postscript: in North Carolina, Indians are treated as Caucasians. Fact!
Well, anyway, one of the things I learned from this was that all non-Africans owe their heritage to some Indians who walked out of Africa presumably. Whoever does these things, has traced a gene found amongst all inhabitants in a village in Tamil Nadu that apparently the rest of the world - apart from Africa - shares, though in diluted form.
So at lunch, talking to Geret (in my year and who's American though of Dutch descent - 4th generation) I told him about this particular fact. Then the thought struck:
"So, my friend, you see, you're Indian.
Who's your daddy now, huh?"
ha ha ha ha ha
postscript: in North Carolina, Indians are treated as Caucasians. Fact!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Sunday Morning
(Song: "Sunday Morning" by Velvet Underground)
After many months, a somewhat relaxed Sunday. Although in a strange twist of life/fate/whatever I hope to not have too many of these. This paradox apart, my thought for the day is:
Apparently you can get high on a good breakfast followed by one of my by-now signature excellent masala chai's. Who knew?
To make omelette that make you high:
Chop tomatoes, onions. Make about half a katori (or cup as white people call it) of chopped onion and tomato if making for one. Amount of tomato, onion monotonically increases with amount of people intended to eat at a ratio of 1-1. You will also need to enlarge the skillet/pan being used if no. of people>5 (say).
Take two eggs break em up. Take cheese (half katori again), and tomato (leave a bit of the tomato behind) and dhania/cilantro leaves and mix with the eggs. Add salt an pepper also. Mix well. Let stand now.
Move on to onions. Take pan, add butter and wait for it to foam all the while humming Velvet Underground. Once foam starts, add onions. Keep heat medium. Add the leftover tomato. (This will give the onions water + butter to cook in as the flesh of the tomato dissolves. Plus it makes a bit tastier. Don't ask me why). Wait until onions start to brown a bit. My theory is that the water of the tomato cooks the onion - as opposed to frying it straight - then when the water evaporates, the cooked onion gets fried, imparting flavour to the butter in which the egg will cook.
Now dump in egg mixture. The flavour of the dhania, cheese and tomato should have mixed with the egg. Cook this, and if you're an expert once the egg is done you may flip one side of the omelette over the other. Preferably at some point of time you have the presence of mind to toast bread.
Eat bread and omelette, reading newspapers and blogs. It will be 11am. And all you have done is make breakfast.
After many months, a somewhat relaxed Sunday. Although in a strange twist of life/fate/whatever I hope to not have too many of these. This paradox apart, my thought for the day is:
Apparently you can get high on a good breakfast followed by one of my by-now signature excellent masala chai's. Who knew?
To make omelette that make you high:
Chop tomatoes, onions. Make about half a katori (or cup as white people call it) of chopped onion and tomato if making for one. Amount of tomato, onion monotonically increases with amount of people intended to eat at a ratio of 1-1. You will also need to enlarge the skillet/pan being used if no. of people>5 (say).
Take two eggs break em up. Take cheese (half katori again), and tomato (leave a bit of the tomato behind) and dhania/cilantro leaves and mix with the eggs. Add salt an pepper also. Mix well. Let stand now.
Move on to onions. Take pan, add butter and wait for it to foam all the while humming Velvet Underground. Once foam starts, add onions. Keep heat medium. Add the leftover tomato. (This will give the onions water + butter to cook in as the flesh of the tomato dissolves. Plus it makes a bit tastier. Don't ask me why). Wait until onions start to brown a bit. My theory is that the water of the tomato cooks the onion - as opposed to frying it straight - then when the water evaporates, the cooked onion gets fried, imparting flavour to the butter in which the egg will cook.
Now dump in egg mixture. The flavour of the dhania, cheese and tomato should have mixed with the egg. Cook this, and if you're an expert once the egg is done you may flip one side of the omelette over the other. Preferably at some point of time you have the presence of mind to toast bread.
Eat bread and omelette, reading newspapers and blogs. It will be 11am. And all you have done is make breakfast.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
This is my Rifle, This is my Gun
Nearing the end of two years in the neighbourhood of the political powerhouse of the world, I feel still virtually the same way I did when I first came. Although I can probably handle myself a little better now. (Speaking of handling I made a superb aloo curry and dal today. My flatmates' are all out Saturday-nighting over DC, and I have the kitchen to myself. I went a little rich with the aloo curry and put some sour cream in the end which made it a 11 on a 10 scale.)
What better to state all of this than in the words of Dan Hamermesh, perhaps the coolest economist I've seen:
In his presentation - which incidentally is pretty interesting to most non-economists I would believe; it's about what drives reputation in the economics world - someone brought up the point that some economists may not necessarily publish a great deal but still could be working with government/multi-lateral organizations/etc which would contribute to their salaries but may not enhance reputation.
Hamermesh was using salary as one measure of reputation - just one, so don't get all hot and bothered about this - which prompted the question. The idea being, I suppose, that salary is a noisy proxy for reputation.
Hamermesh's response: "I suppose that is true. Probably departments closer to cities will have more of such people. But then you also have to consider the "pull" factor - people choose to work in departments where they can get access to such institutions. "
(Now remember this is the University of Maryland, which is right next door to DC. You could see where he was going with this, but his punchline was beyond anything I'd expect.)
"It's probably true for most of you guys, isn't it? (Smiles) Spending your career sucking at the trough, as it were."
(Room breaks into laughter and scattered applause. It's fun to see academics behave like little children, because that's really what they are. Most of them anyway.)
Well, that pretty much sums it up. No more accurate description of existence here is needed.
Post Script: some other person brought up the idea that just being very active - going to seminars, writing a bunch of papers - could make you look like a productive economist, but may not necessarily improve reputation. So, using paper count as an explanatory variable for reputation doesn't really work then. Hamermesh responded with this little beauty:
"I suppose you could say if you wiggle your butt hard enough, someone will pinch it. Yes that's true."
(Roaring laughter).
What better to state all of this than in the words of Dan Hamermesh, perhaps the coolest economist I've seen:
In his presentation - which incidentally is pretty interesting to most non-economists I would believe; it's about what drives reputation in the economics world - someone brought up the point that some economists may not necessarily publish a great deal but still could be working with government/multi-lateral organizations/etc which would contribute to their salaries but may not enhance reputation.
Hamermesh was using salary as one measure of reputation - just one, so don't get all hot and bothered about this - which prompted the question. The idea being, I suppose, that salary is a noisy proxy for reputation.
Hamermesh's response: "I suppose that is true. Probably departments closer to cities will have more of such people. But then you also have to consider the "pull" factor - people choose to work in departments where they can get access to such institutions. "
(Now remember this is the University of Maryland, which is right next door to DC. You could see where he was going with this, but his punchline was beyond anything I'd expect.)
"It's probably true for most of you guys, isn't it? (Smiles) Spending your career sucking at the trough, as it were."
(Room breaks into laughter and scattered applause. It's fun to see academics behave like little children, because that's really what they are. Most of them anyway.)
Well, that pretty much sums it up. No more accurate description of existence here is needed.
Post Script: some other person brought up the idea that just being very active - going to seminars, writing a bunch of papers - could make you look like a productive economist, but may not necessarily improve reputation. So, using paper count as an explanatory variable for reputation doesn't really work then. Hamermesh responded with this little beauty:
"I suppose you could say if you wiggle your butt hard enough, someone will pinch it. Yes that's true."
(Roaring laughter).
Saturday, May 16, 2009
yeh dil maange more
Gulal is Anurag Kashyap's new film; like everything else its pretentious, engaging and interesting.
I've only heard the songs and seen some of the film, so i will leave off about the film.
But the songs!
I recommend them. Bollywood is finally waking up to Indian folk music and the results are there for you to judge (Oye Lucky, now Gulaal). And in what may be a first for Hindi cinema, there's a 7.48 long song called "Sheher" which is one of the most truly frightening songs I've heard. Listening to it, you can feel the terror of whichever poor fool happened to inspire the following lyrics:
" Sunsaan galli ke nukaad pe jo koi kutta,
Cheekh cheekh kar rota hai,
Jab lamp post ki gandli pilli, ghup roshni,
Mein kuch kuch sa hota hai,
Jab koi saaya khud ko thoda bacha bacha kar,
Gum saayo mein khota hai,
Jab pool ke khambho ko gaadi ka garm ujaala,
Dheeme dheeme dhota hai,
Tab sheher hamara sota hai.."
(Gujarat? What? No this isn't about Gujarat, not at all...)
Sunsaan galli ke nukaad pe jo koi kutta,
Cheekh cheekh kar rota hai
My god.
I've only heard the songs and seen some of the film, so i will leave off about the film.
But the songs!
I recommend them. Bollywood is finally waking up to Indian folk music and the results are there for you to judge (Oye Lucky, now Gulaal). And in what may be a first for Hindi cinema, there's a 7.48 long song called "Sheher" which is one of the most truly frightening songs I've heard. Listening to it, you can feel the terror of whichever poor fool happened to inspire the following lyrics:
" Sunsaan galli ke nukaad pe jo koi kutta,
Cheekh cheekh kar rota hai,
Jab lamp post ki gandli pilli, ghup roshni,
Mein kuch kuch sa hota hai,
Jab koi saaya khud ko thoda bacha bacha kar,
Gum saayo mein khota hai,
Jab pool ke khambho ko gaadi ka garm ujaala,
Dheeme dheeme dhota hai,
Tab sheher hamara sota hai.."
(Gujarat? What? No this isn't about Gujarat, not at all...)
Sunsaan galli ke nukaad pe jo koi kutta,
Cheekh cheekh kar rota hai
My god.
Monday, March 30, 2009
take deep breethe..
the hour of judgment is at hand, the clock strikes one, the mouse is on the run.
okay to save this from complete mind blowing arbitrariness:
there's a hilarious metal parody band called Dethlok, look them up, they have a song called "Murmaids" about murdering mermaids because "deep under water, there are no fingerprints"...better yet, in "Thunderhorse", the only lyrics are:
"Thunderhorse! Thunderhorse! Revenge! Revenge!"
Actually, not to be pedantic, but apparently ancient Iceland (I got this off a Journal of Economic History article) did not have a formal court system for 300 years (1100 to about 1400 BC). Instead they relied on a method of enforcement by which anyone who committed a wrongdoing was supposed to announce this at the house of the victim; if he/she failed to do so then the victim had every right to kill (yes, kill) the originator of the crime. This killing could be stopped if the criminal paid the victim's household compensation. However, if the compensation was thought not enough, someone from the victim's household (including the victim if no murder had taken place) could challenge the criminal to a duel...which the criminal could cancel by paying up more.
I swear I'm not making this up...one of the quotes I remember was the author saying "this was a system apparently designed by some mad economist completely devoted to the market"
Viewed in this way, "Thunderhorse" can be viewed as a brief summary of the case study cited.
Vikings I tell you...
okay to save this from complete mind blowing arbitrariness:
there's a hilarious metal parody band called Dethlok, look them up, they have a song called "Murmaids" about murdering mermaids because "deep under water, there are no fingerprints"...better yet, in "Thunderhorse", the only lyrics are:
"Thunderhorse! Thunderhorse! Revenge! Revenge!"
Actually, not to be pedantic, but apparently ancient Iceland (I got this off a Journal of Economic History article) did not have a formal court system for 300 years (1100 to about 1400 BC). Instead they relied on a method of enforcement by which anyone who committed a wrongdoing was supposed to announce this at the house of the victim; if he/she failed to do so then the victim had every right to kill (yes, kill) the originator of the crime. This killing could be stopped if the criminal paid the victim's household compensation. However, if the compensation was thought not enough, someone from the victim's household (including the victim if no murder had taken place) could challenge the criminal to a duel...which the criminal could cancel by paying up more.
I swear I'm not making this up...one of the quotes I remember was the author saying "this was a system apparently designed by some mad economist completely devoted to the market"
Viewed in this way, "Thunderhorse" can be viewed as a brief summary of the case study cited.
Vikings I tell you...
Friday, March 27, 2009
reverse causality
Critics of glam rock:
For a genre derided in part for its largely misogynistic attitude toward women, glam rock also spawned the greatest number of female guitar players: Girlschool, Vixen. Note these are actual musicians, not some pretty face.
Probably this is true for other genres as well, I don't know. But good lord they can play, they look great too, an it's odd how guitar players evoke this feeling of slavish adoration: I want you to rock me oh yes!
For a genre derided in part for its largely misogynistic attitude toward women, glam rock also spawned the greatest number of female guitar players: Girlschool, Vixen. Note these are actual musicians, not some pretty face.
Probably this is true for other genres as well, I don't know. But good lord they can play, they look great too, an it's odd how guitar players evoke this feeling of slavish adoration: I want you to rock me oh yes!
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