Everyone likes tomatoes

Tomatoes are the easiest to grow in the backyard. And the fresh, ripe tomatoes tend to be very sweet and delicious. Everyone loves them.

Including this baby frog, that I noticed one late evening ! It's so tiny that it could comfortably sit on a tomato.

I had to move aside the branches using one hand (carefully so as to not disturb the frog) and take the photo using other hand.

Outliers

Book Review : Outliers - The Story Of Success

Author : Malcom Gladwell
My Rating : 3 out of 5 stars

I have been planning on reading "Tipping Point" written by Malcom Gladwell, but when his new book "Outliers" came out, I decided to try it out before reading his earlier books.

First, this book is not about how to be successful. It is also not about what to learn from what successful people have done to become so. And is it not about examination of what all factors are needed to become successful.

The book's main focus is about what external factors (other than personal talent) were involved in achieving success. The author argues that, our cultural legacy, family upbringings, period in history is as important as innate talent, and may be more important.

The books starts with an interesting observation about the birth dates of professional sportsmen. It seems that being born in the 1st quarter of the year is crucial to being a Canadian hockey player. The same observation is true for many sports in many other countries. Why being born in January is better than being born in December ? Because of cut-off dates. So when a group of kids is being evaluated at a very young age, someone born in January is almost a year older than someone born in December of that same year. In early elementary years, this is a huge physical advantage. Hence in the very early stages of being filtering, the kids born in 1st quarter of the year get chosen and receive more focus, attention and training. The others are simply weeded out. In a well established system that takes kids from minor league to eventual major league, this virtually guarantees that future sports stars will have a birth date between Jan and April !

This should be enough to tell you what argument the author is trying to make in the whole book. You will hear about what advantages Bill Gates and Bill Joy had to become the titans of the computer industry. You will also learn why famous corporate lawyers are Jewish, why Korean Air had a miserable accident record and what they had to unlearn to become safer, why Asian kids are better at Math and much more.

The book is as easy and fun to read as it any book can be. Gladwell keeps things very interesting, includes lots of anecdotes, personal stories and interesting insights. It is enough to make this a "very good book", but not much more.

There are some problems. One is originality. How much of the research is author's own ? It doesn't always have to be. But then at least there has to be some great original insights that are obtained by tying research of seemingly disparate sources. That is absent. And why would there be any ? What the author is arguing against is a strawman. We already know that it takes a lot more than inborn talent.

It's interesting to know about the advantages of being born at the right period in history. But the phrase, "Being at the right place at the right time", is not new. It's great to put a number - 10000 hours - on the amount of practice needed. But we have been saying - "There is no substitute for hard work". And "It's not what you know, but whom you know that matters", and so on.

At the same time, it's also true that there is no substitute for talent either. In school I was quite good at math. But I had no illusion about being the next Isaac Newton. Not because I wasn't willing to put in 10000 hours. Being good at math also gave me an idea about exactly how good I wasn't. Same is true for chess. All grandmasters at the top level study hard. But their mind works in a very different way. Mere mortals like me, have no hope of ever being a super GM, even if I had started learning chess at age 2. You don't "become" Einstein. You have to be born as Einstein, work hard to remain an Einstein and then have the luck to finally become an Einstein.

The author - to be sure - is not arguing that talent does not matter. He is focusing on a different part of the story. That's fine. But precisely because of that, this is only a partial story of success.

The author offers some points to ponder. The advantages of which month you were born into and such are easy to nullify and will greatly benefit all societies. We all cannot become great, but by opening up opportunities to as many people as possible, we can all succeed at being good.

Overall, I can definitely recommend this book. It’s short, fun, very enjoyable and thought provoking.

Being Cyrus

Movie Review : Being Cyrus
Genre : Black Comedy
Release : 2005
Language : English
Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Boman Irani, Dimple Kapadia, Simone Singh
My Rating : 7 out of 10

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started watching the movie. Or maybe I should say, I had the wrong idea ! The photo on the DVD cover clearly indicated - or so I thought - that this was a lighthearted comedy. And sure enough, the movie began like one. But in the end, the photo turned out to be as misleading as the name of the movie !

The movie does begin with Cyrus - the lead character played by Saif Ali Khan - narrating about his life in foster homes. Quickly he starts narrating about his visit to Dinshaw (Naseeruddin Shah) and his wife Katy (Dimple Kapadia) - leaving in a remote estate in Panchgani. Dinshaw is a retired pottery artist, well past his prime, leaving on inheritance. Katy is bored housewife. As a Parsi couple, they have their eccentricities and set the tone of the movie - light and humorous.

Dinshaw's father is a rich landlord. But the other son Farokh (Boman Irani) keeps complete control of all the affairs and forces the rich dad to live a poor, jailed life. Even Farokhs's wife Tina (Simone Singh) is scared of him. In spite of this, the tone of the movie still remains humorous.

Katy convinces Cyrus to visit her father in law and sends some money, chocolate candies for the old man. And slowly the movie starts getting darker. It never loses the comedy part completely, but by the end, it becomes quite twisted. I won't give away any more details. Just be prepared for something more than simple comedic relief.

It's a very well acted film. In spite of the name, the movie is not just about Cyrus. Other characters get significant share of the screen time and everyone is effortless. The direction by Homi Adajania is up to the task.

I am unsure how many viewers would enjoy the mix of comedy with the criminal intentions of the characters. I think it depends on the expectations. I wanted to watch a nice comedy and wasn't really looking for twists and turns. I still enjoyed the movie, and can definitely recommend it. Make sure you don't watch it in front of kids.

Longest word without a vowel

Here is a useless trivia question.
In English, what is the longest word which does not have a vowel letter in its spelling ?

Obviously, this has to have a 'Y', so there is a of course a vowel sound in it. But this word does not have any of the 5 main vowel letters (a-e-i-o-u).

See comments for the answer.

Lions For Lambs

Movie Review : Lions for Lambs
Genre : Drama
Release : 2007
Rated : R
Cast: Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford
Director : Robert Redford
My rating : 7 out of 10

This movie has not generated any glowing reviews. I understand the complaints about being "wordy" or "not breaking any new grounds" etc. And while I do not think this is a great movie, I very much enjoyed it.

The movie has 3 streams. In one, an ambitious Republican senetor Jasper Irwing (Tom Cruise) is explaining a bold new strategy to win the war in Afghanistan to a famous veteran reporter Janine Roth (Meryl Streep). In second, 2 soldires who are in action based on this same strategy are fighting a dying battle in some snow capped mountains in Afghanistan. While in 3rd, a California professor of political science Malley (Robert Redford) is trying to convince a talented by cynical student Todd Hayes to not waste his potential.

All 3 streams are happening simultaneously and are interleaved in the presentation. Of course all 3 are connected and although there is no suspense as to how, I won't give away that part.

Let's start with the bad news. The stream that deals with the battle in Afghanistan is not very convincing. The action sequences are definitely not a strong point for director Robert Redford. The choice for the patriotic protagonists willing to die for their country and also for each other is ... yes, people from 2 different minority backgrounds. Hmmm, this kind of playing it safe really diminishes the sincerity of the movie's message. Especially, for a movie that does not shy away from expressing its strong political bias.

Now the good news. The 2 other streams are very well written and extremely well acted. The casting is near perfect. The main strength is definitely in the dialogues. Candid, hard hitting and quite able to define the characters for us. The battle of wits between the professor and the student, is as close to a philosophical debate in the Greek tradition as you can get in a main stream movie. On the other hand the discussion between the senator and the journalist is often indirect, manipulative and is more about reading between the lines. The not-so-subtle hints, the euphemisms and the spin is quite contemporary and easy to relate to. These 2 interactions made the movie worth seeing for me.

The movie has strong political bias, and a viewer's opinion of the movie will very likely be influenced by his or her political affiliations.

I am hesitant to recommend this movie wholeheartedly to anyone. Unless you enjoy debates, and if you do, then you can definitely give this a try.

Great Performances from SRGM LilChanps 2009 - 1

Kids never stop to amaze me with their talent.

This is a perfect rendition of a famous song from Roja. I do not use these words lightly - this is better than the original. I am willing to go out on a limb and say that this girl - Shreyasi Bhattacharya - will become a famous playback singer. The voice is crystal clear and "sur" is absolutely on the mark. The expression is the icing on the cake.



If the above video does not load you can watch it directly by going to zeetv.com - but you may have to use Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Another amazing performance was given by Priyanka Maliya. The "throw" in her voice is as wonderful as the unique tone.

Fermat's Enigma

Book Review : Fermat's Enigma 

Author : Simon Singh
My Rating : 5 out of 5 stars

Books explaining difficult concepts in physics have been around for a long time. But in recent years, a number of books have attempted to make famous (but esoteric) math concepts accessible to layman. This is a remarkably difficult task. And it is even more remarkable that some books succeed in it. After reading Prime Obsession, I started looking for more such books and found this book. And I am happy that it turned out to be as much fun.

Fermat's Last Theorem doesn't need any introduction. It is perhaps THE most famous problem ever. Mathematicians have tried to prove (or disprove) the theorem for centuries. That struggle is definitely one reason that makes it so famous. But for a layman, the reason perhaps is that, the problem is extremely simple to understand. But not so with the proof, which apparently is out of reach for even mathematicians.

Author Simon Singh does not make the proof accessible to us. That is not the point of the book. As he calls it, the book is about "The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem". And that's perfect. Because even the outline of the proof is heavy enough. Simon Singh does the impossible - he not only makes the reader understand the rough outline, but at the same time he manages to convey the complexity of the math involved.

The book is way more than that outline. It presents the incredible story of Andrew Wiles and his phenomenal determination. But it's more than that as well. It presents the history of the attempted solutions and story of mathematicians who participated in this "epic quest". Obviously it starts with Pythagoras. But along the way many other mathematicians have made immense contributions and their stories are equally engaging. I had vaguely heard about Galois and Sophie German, but didn't know about their fascinating lives. And I had no idea who Taniyara and Shimoka were and how their conjecture is related to Fermat's theorem.

Simon Singh weaves the thread through these and many more brilliant mathematicians. The drama of their lives, the key breakthroughs, the triumphs and tragedies. It's a brilliantly written book. This is as close as I will ever come to understanding the proof. For that I cannot thank the author enough.

Roberto Carlos

Every sports fan has some moments etched into his memory. In my soccer loving mind, there are many unforgettable goals. But none is as jaw dropping as this one by Roberto Carlos.

Roberto Carlos is perhaps the best wing-back ever. With great defensive skills he also displayed amazingly explosive strikes. One moment he is defending near his goal post and next he is speeding the ball along the left edge all the way to the opposite goal.

But he is best known for his free kicks. Something no soccer fan will ever forget is the way this curved - seemingly defying the laws of physics.



The same kick from another angle ...


I cannot resist adding another impossible angle. People do this as penalty corner kicks, but Roberto Carlos has much shorter distance and has to do this while running at full speed.

Jon Stewart vs CNBC

If this was a soccer game, Jon Stewart won it 12-0.

Journalism usually :-) means bringing the truth out ! And the truth is CNBC is bad for your financial health. It is a reasonable source for news, but when it comes to thoughtful analysis, it is arguably one of the worst. The evils of CNBC have been argued on many sites. But the best critique is offered in "The Dily Show".

It all started with Rick Santelli did not show up for an interview. It is clear from the following video that one should not mess with Jon Stewart. It exposes CNBC for what it is.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CNBC Financial Advice
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

Then to patch things up, Jim Cramer tried to argue the case for CNBC, and he was eaten alive.

Here is part 1 - just an introduction of things to come.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Here is part 2 where the real meat is. It's very gratifying to see Cramer the Clown having that tortured look on his face. It's also pathetic that Jon Stewart the comedian seems so much more knowledgeable about Finance that the idiots on CNBC.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

The massacre thankfully is over for Cramer in part 3. Cramer needed to be told a fundamental aspect of journalism - "Do not take their word at face value, do your own investigation" !

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jim Cramer Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Now that's what I call journalism.

Filling the budget holes with blueberries

The state of California is in a state of perpetual budget deficits. But our great legislatures have far more pressing things as mentioned in this news article.

As California faces what one official this week called a complete meltdown of state government, some lawmakers have their minds on other matters.

Like creating a blueberry commission. Or standing up for pomegranate juice. And, in what passes for health reform in the nation's most populous state, ensuring that the name tags of medical workers are in 18-point font.

Those are among the hundreds of bills being debated in the California Legislature as the state faces a $24.3 billion deficit and the prospect of running out of cash by late July.

...

Among the more eyebrow-raising bills pending in the state Legislature are ones that would:

• Ensure that juice sold as "pomegranate" is 100 percent pomegranate.

• Instruct 9th and 10th graders about the value of organ donation.

• Ban toy cigarette lighters.

• Require day cares to serve only healthy food to children.

...

I am not against the blueberry farmers. They themselves are skeptical about this.

Even some blueberry growers were skeptical of a commission, whose duties would include marketing and promotion.

"My blueberries promote themselves," said Suzanne Hasenplug of Patrick's Mountain Grown Fresh Berry Farm in Camino.

She doesn't oppose such a commission, but said the state faces more serious issues.

Remember all this when you go to vote the next time. This may seem comic, but that's not why we vote for them. Watch "The Daily Show" for laughs. Expect more from the congress.

McWay Falls

McWay Falls is situated about 20 miles south of Big Sur in Julia Burns state park. After parking, it's a very short (quarter mile) walk to the observation point.


This is one of most breathtaking sights. The waterfall lands on a beach - which is not accessible. I wish I could have gone right up to the fall - but if people could visit it, it wouldn't be such a pristine view.

This is a great spot for taking pictures.





On the route, there are many nice spots : like this famous Rainbow Bridge and many rock formations.





On that day, one particular type of bird was very gracious to pose for many shots(at different locations). Even without a decent zoom, I could take a couple of nice pictures.

Five Equations That Changed The World

Book Review : Five Equations That Changed The World
Author : Michael Guillen
My Rating : 3 out of 5 stars

The complete title for this book is "Five Equations That Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics".

Whenever there is a list of top N things that did this - be it the movies, songs, inventions, whatever - there can be little agreement about the choices. So let's not spend time arguing about the merits of the list chosen by the author Michael Guillen here. He has chosen Newton's law of gravitational attraction, Bernoulli's law of hydrodynamic pressure, Faraday's discovery of electromagnetism, Clausius and the second law of thermodynamics and finally of course Einstein's theory of special relativity. This list is as good as any other.

The first problem is these are actually discoveries of physics. These are not the most important mathematical equations !! The title is very misleading. But it's also more than that. Faraday was a brilliant physicist - but not really a mathematician. He was an extraordinary experimentalist - but knew little of higher mathematics like other contemporary physicists. Maxwell's equations would have been consistent with the title.

Besides that, how do the individual chapters fare? It depends on what expectations you have. If you really want to understand say the special theory of relativity, then there are many other books to choose from. Brian Greene is one name to start with. This book does not make much attempt to go much deeper into scientific explanation of the concepts involved. It only scratches the surface and leaves you for wanting more.

Then what is the book really about ? Is it about the drama surrounding the discoveries ? Yes and no. It's more about the main characters of individual chapters, and dramatic events in their life. Once again, the equation is chosen only as an excuse to talk about how Newton felt that his mother neglected him, or how the Beronoulli clan fought amongst themselves or how much Clasius loved his wife. Yes, these can be interesting topics, and yes, the author writes very well - but that's not what the title says !

I knew about the lives of Newton. Faraday and Einstein before I opened the book. On the other hand I knew very little about the Bernoulli clan and almost nothing about Clausius, hence I liked those chapters as short biographies. But that's all the book really has to offer. Overly dramatic account of the lives of five great scientists. And how accurate is that ? Who knows ? I mean how can we know what Clausius really was thinking about when his wife was dying ? By trying to make this book very accessible the author almost makes it Hollywoodish.

To be fair, the author expands the topic from the scientist in question to the work of other scientists that were also instrumental in laying the groundwork. For example, the chapter on Faraday explains the contributions of Ampere, Voltas et al.

Maybe I am not the right audience for this book. I think teenagers who have some interest in math and physics would like the book. The writing style very engaging and there are nice anecdotes.

I can recommend neither for nor against reading this book. If you decide to read this, set your expectations correctly.

They really said it ! [2]

One of the frequently sought after CEOs during the real estate bubble was Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial. When one mortgage company after another started closing down, it became obvious that boom is turning into a bust.

But in their quarterly report announcement, Countrywide had the audacity to say the following.

The company also said it expects to be profitable in 2008.

'Countrywide's results for the third quarter of 2007 reflect the impact of unprecedented disruptions in the U.S. mortgage market and the global capital markets, as well as continued weakening in the housing market,' said Angelo Mozilo, the company's chairman and CEO.

He continued: 'However, during the period we also laid the foundation for a return to profitability in the fourth quarter. Countrywide has responded decisively and taken the steps we believe are necessary to address the current challenging market environment.'

What happened afterward was not a "return to profitability" by any stretch if imagination. This was not just an optimistic CEO. His front row seat at the then slowly unfolding drama of the mortgage crisis was also near the exit. As can be seen in reports like this, in the months preceding this announcement, he was unloading shares of his own company.

Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $138 million in stock options over the last year, switching his trading plans as the mortgage company went into a tailspin, it was reported Saturday.
...
Mozilo unloaded 4.9 million Countrywide shares, most of which he bought through exercising options.
...
Mozilo adopted a new trading plan, added a second one and then revised it while the housing and mortgage industry slumped, the Times reported, citing regulatory findings. The changes allowed him to sell hundreds of thousands of additional shares before Countrywide stock plunged.

The report also mentioned the following, which is very much keeping in line with Enronisque business traditions that are no longer rare.

Calabasas-based Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender in terms of volume, faces a lawsuit claiming it failed to warn employees about the depth of its financial troubles, resulting in heavy stock losses in their 401k retirement accounts.

The company recently said it will eliminate as many as 12,000 jobs in the coming months. Its stock, meanwhile, is off more than 50 percent from its $45.03 high on Feb. 2.

Angelo Mozilo is still not in jail. Could it because of so many of our honorable elected officials were parts of "Friends of Mozilo" program mentioned in this NY Times article ?

Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and a leader in the effort to help homeowners caught in the mortgage crisis, denied on Friday that he received preferential treatment for his two Countrywide loans.
...
But Portfolio.com, the Web site of the business magazine Portfolio, cited internal documents indicating that Countrywide had reduced the rate on the mortgage of Mr. Dodd’s Washington town house by three-eighths of a point, saving him $2,000 a year in interest payments, and reduced the rate on a Connecticut house by a quarter point, saving $17,000 over the life of the loan.
...
Portfolio.com reported that Alphonso Jackson, the former secretary of housing and urban development under President Bush; Donna E. Shalala, the secretary of health and human services under President Bill Clinton; and the former United Nations ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke also were part of the Countrywide V.I.P. program.

Just another case of the fox watching the hen house.

Phelphs : From drugs to philanthropy

Well, not everything was wrong about Phelps doing that dope thingy.

At least someone benefited from this.

The celebrated marijuana controversy surrounding Olympic superstar swimmer Michael Phelps has turned out to benefit the San Francisco Food Bank.

Soon after a British newspaper published a photo of what appeared to be Phelps smoking marijuana, Kellogg's announced it would not renew the swimmer's endorsement contract - never mind the eight gold medals he won at the Beijing Olympics.

Apparently, that left only one problem: what to do with the boxes of Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes bearing Phelps' toothy grin. The answer seemed pretty clear two weeks ago when the local Food Bank took delivery of nearly 2 tons of the cereal.
...

The Food Bank, of course, is delighted. With the downturn in the economy, donations of packaged foods are down. It is also important, Ash says, that the cereal company donated to the hungry rather than simply throwing the product away.

Bailout Nation : "Stay the course"

This is what I wrote to our Congressman - Jerry McNerny - in Oct 2008.

Honorable Sir,

I am writing to express my tremendous disappointment at your decision to vote in favor of the current bill being touted as economic recovery plan.

The bill has been pushed by scaring the American people - exactly the same way the bill related to Iraq war was pushed. Most economists are against the bill and still there were no alternatives discussed. Without interviewing prominent economists why have we decided to trust a proposal by a former Wall Street banker ? Just because we have tagged on a few provisions ?

The idea of buying distressed assets from risk taking banks is fundamentally wrong. It is doomed to fail and put financial security of future generations at unfathomable risk.

If we have to do something, then why not spend these 700B dollars on building alternative energy plants ? It will create jobs and will help the housing crisis. The economy needs to create new jobs, not throw good money at bad. And the alternative energy investment will actually show some return in future. If not that idea, then any idea that invests in infrastructure will do.

In any case, I must express my regret and I will do so when I vote. I will not vote for you or any other person who supports this bill. Ever again. I will never be able to forget this erroneous decision that puts my kids' future at permanent risk.

Your's truly.

- Abhay Avachat.

I still stand by that. We were told that this bailout needs to be done to save the economy ? What has happened ? We are still giving money to failed institutions, their stocks are still almost worthless - actually many have ceased to exist, jobs are still being lost at an alarming rate, stock market keeps making historic lows and ... you get the picture.

So what was the point in giving OUR money to all these banks ??

The Obama administration is doing more of the same. That's not the mandate on which he was elected. The first 100 days are important - and till now have been very disappointing. It just feels that there is simply no will to take hard decisions. What a mess.

Prime Obsession

Book Review : Prime Obsession
Author : John Derbyshire
My rating : 5 out of 5 stars

Don't get deceived by the shortened title - this is not a B-grade movie. The complete title of the book is "Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics".

The Riemann Hypothesis is one of the most famous unsolved problems in mathematics. It was one of the problems in Hilbert's list and today carries a prize of one million dollars for proving it. Now that Fermat's Last Theorem has been proved, maybe this is the greatest unsolved problems in math as the title says. But the problem (NOT the solution) posed by Fermat's last theorem is very simple to understand. The Riemann Hypothesis is quite another story.

I am no mathematician. So I do not even understand what it means when I read "All non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one-half." Much less the deep relationship about the distribution of primes. That's where John Derbyshire's book comes in. It does a fabulous job of explaining what the heck that means and why is it even related to the prime numbers.

There is a lot more to like in this book than just that. It may seem impossible, but this book about math reads like a gripping mystery novel and is as much a page turner as any fiction I have read. I simply could not put it down. I found myself reading this late into night and getting up early the next morning, looking forward to continue reading. For a book to do that - especially when it is about an intricate mathematical conjecture - is truly amazing.

The book is presented in an interesting format. It is as much about the actual mathematics around the hypothesis as it is about the history, story and lives of the mathematicians who have worked on the Prime Number Theorem. So Derbyshire neatly divides the math and history in alternate chapters. Anyone who does not have enough inclination to go through the mathematical material can simply skip alternate chapters and still enjoy the book. But I would not advice doing that even though the math is quite involved. You need some math background and willingness to work on it. But Derbyshire starts from very basic concepts in algebra. Even if you have forgotten some simple stuff like logarithms, he walks you through it. Taking one step at a time. For anyone who used to love math, the efforts will be handsomely rewarded. And believe me - it is this series of mathematical chapters that reads like a hard-to-put-down novel.

The historical chapters are amazing as well. The book introduces the reader about the lives and times of Euler, Gauss, Hardy, Hilbert and many other mathematicians including of course Riemann. This series of chapters is very moving because the author's obvious affection for the great mathematicians and passion for explaining their achievements.

I highly recommend this book. There are a lot of good books that explain high level physics to a layman. Math is completely abstract. Hence more difficult to explain. Derbyshire took on a very ambitious project. It's one thing to talk about the number pi - but making Riemann Hypothesis accessible to a layman is a great achievement. It deserves a place on any list of "must read" books.

They really said it ! [1]

Some quotes are unforgettable.

In 2005, I remember reading this with complete shock. I know it's easy to say this now, but these types of claims are so shockingly anti-common sense that it's easy to call them BS on the spot.

Let me direct you straight to the paragraph (free registration required.)

I asked Toll what our children - my kids are both under 8, I told him - would be paying when they're ready to buy. "They're going to live with us until they're 40," Toll said matter-of-factly. "And when they have their second kid, then we'll finally kick them out and make them pay for the house that we paid for. And that house will cost them 45 to 50 percent of their income."
...
I grew alarmed. Was he kidding? He assured me he was not. "It's all just logic," Toll said. "In Britain you pay seven times your annual income for a home; in the U.S. you pay three and a half." The British get 330 square feet, per person, in their homes; in the U.S., we get 750 square feet. Not only does Toll say he believes the next generation of buyers will be paying twice as much of their annual incomes; in terms of space, he also seems to think they're going to get only half as much. "And that average, million-dollar insane home in the burbs? It's going to be $4 million."

The reason that this is not a case of 20/20 hindsight is also found in the same article.

The slackening demand for homes in autumn would drop more drastically if the larger economy were to slip into a recession. Or it could drop, as the Yale economist Robert Shiller has pointed out, if investors lose their "irrationally exuberant" conviction (unjustified by historical data, in his view) that their homes will undoubtedly appreciate for the foreseeable future.

The arguments for the existence of housing bubble and its enormous destructive impact were argued far more logically than the claims based on wishful thinking. Shiller, Calculated Risk, Mish, Bill Fleckenstein, Jim Grant and countless others had been cautioning about the coming storm. Like it happened in all other bubbles in human history, the nay-sayers were ignored.

As is always said and always ignored - those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

But I won't complain - I am willing to sell my house to Mr Robert Toll for 4 million now ;-) I am sure he has some cash lying around. As he had sold a huge bunch of his company's stock when he was making such claims.

Michael Phelps : Still a role model

Now that Michael Phelps has shown himself to be yet another idiot celebrity athlete, he is winning some great supporters.

Their argument ?

"Kellogg's had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone," said Rob Kampia, the group's executive director. "To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that's safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people."

Yeah, right. The better message for young people - according to this argument - is "stop drinking beer, relax with marijuana instead". How about teaching them that both alcohol and drugs should be avoided ? Of course that would be so old fashioned.

I am not at all surprised that a celebrity is smoking pot. But putting himself in this situation - after a drunk driving conviction - is still perplexing, in spite of being typical.

At least Phelps should be relieved. Not everyone is dissing him - he is still a role model for some !

Gandhi Dynasty : Weird Conspiracy

This has been circulating as email - I received it from 2 sources. It is also presented on sites such as this site proclaiming to be a about Sikhism.

The claims and speculations in that article are preposterous. Ironically, almost all the zealously religious sites - regardless of the religion they represent - have a completely different idea about what "truth" is. This seems to be of no exception. Here are some randomly picked gems

1. Sanjay Gandhi's real father was a Mohammed Yunus.
2. Feroze Gandhi's father was also a Muslim.
3. Mahatma Gandhi was against Indira marrying Feroze.
4. Feroze Gandhi used to blackmail Nehru for money.
5. Nehru had produced an illegal son - but no one knows where he is, even the son doesn't know the truth. (But the author of this claim knows that this has happened !)
   

Oh well.

I am no fan of the Gandhi dynasty. I have always maintained that Indira Gandhi was net-net a big negative for India. In particular the negatives like complete disregard for democracy and culture of corruption that started in her "regime" outweighs any positives by a wide margin. And that's without even considering the "Emergency Rule".

It's hard to find what is the worst speculation in that article. Not everything is false, mind you. But for most claims, there is no evidence or any proof offered. Just wild baseless speculations.

I do want to point out that Feroze Gandhi was quite respected in his time. As a member of parliament, he had the courage to speak against his father-in-law and expose corruption within the cabinet. He was so unlike the Gandhi dynasty that got it's name from him !

Internet is an interesting source of information !

A new sweepstakes scam

This is a new scam that I have come across. I received this letter via USPS.

Along with the letter was a check

Their idea seems like this. When you deposit the check for amount 4987.85, it won't be honored by the "US Federal Credit Union". There really seems to be a bank with that name. Maybe the scammers get your account information - as part of returned check. I don't know.

But the main scam might be the "tax money" that needs to be paid. As the letter says, you have to pay the tax to the "tax agent" via Western Union or Moneygram. You can kiss that money good bye if you actually fall for this.

I have not called them to see if the number or the name of the person is genuine. I do not know if the addresses on the letter are genuine or fake.

The scam seems to simple to fool anyone. Well, you cannot blame the scammers for not trying ;-)