India – We, the imperialists May 31, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in geo-politics, india.2 comments
Imagine your neighborhood shop telling you -
“Well, I know you want X and are willing to pay for it. However, I can only give you Y. Others may be willing to give you X, but you shall not have it because I am your neigbour.”
Now, replace ’shop’ with Indian ‘Government’ and you being the Sri Lankan Government.
India’s National Security Adviser may require a gentle reminder that when he is talking about Sri Lanka, he is talking about a sovereign country. How else do we interpret these statements :
He said after meeting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi that ‘we are a big power in the region. We don’t want the Sri Lankan government to go to Pakistan or China. Whatever may be their requirement, the Sri Lankan government should come to us’. However, he said, “India will not provide weapons with offensive capablities to Sri Lanka.”
What pretensions then about criticizing others countries for their imperialist intentions/policies and the like ! Okay, okay, I know its all pandering to the DMK and other pro-LTTE factions within Tamil Nadu. But then, the language !! How about tomorrow’s papers having statements like – “I was misquoted by the press”/”My comments were taken out of their context”.
Assorted links today May 28, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in assorted, geo-politics, science, weird.2 comments
An interesting article about how circumstances and quirks of history endow some of us with unique legacies :
Whenever Russian and American relations look discouraging, which is very often lately, I think about my infant daughter’s late great-grandfathers. In the second World War, one great-grandfather on her American side was a scout for an armored division that raced across France into the heart of Germany, while on the other side of Europe, one of her Russian great-grandfathers was an artilleryman in the Red Army, plodding west against the same enemy. They never met each other, but the cause they fought for is worth remembering this Memorial Day, as both sides again gin up another predictable cycle of tension and suspicion.
Think about how interesting that infant daughter would sound when she relates her legacy. Not that someone should get any credit for that, but such happenstances make some of life’s stories more interesting (to some of us) than others.
The rest of the article is interesting to those interested in 20th century history.
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How to lose some pounds ? Remove half of your brain, apparently it does not affect much else 
The operation known as hemispherectomy—where half the brain is removed—sounds too radical to ever consider, much less perform. In the last century, however, surgeons have performed it hundreds of times for disorders uncontrollable in any other way. Unbelievably, the surgery has no apparent effect on personality or memory.
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Ants build roads. Another example of incredible diversity and brilliance of the natural world.
Army ants tired of potholes take one for the team, throwing their bodies into rough spots to make a smoother road for their sisters, British researchers reported on Sunday. They found that army ants of Central and South America match their own bodies to the size of the hole they want to plug. Several may plunge together to fill in bigger holes, they report in the journal Animal Behaviour. …”When it comes to rapid road repairs, the ants have their own do-it-yourself highways agency,” Franks said in a statement.”
Ofcourse, don’t tell the Bangalore Municipal corporation folks.
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And finally, how crackpot are you ?
Wanted May 27, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in media, rant, science.5 comments
1. A website where I can enter the names of any two species ( plant/animal ) and get the ‘evolutionary distance’ between them. I am not sure ( given my unfortunate historic dislike of biology), how you choose to measure that – overlap in genetic sequence or something else.
Inspiration : I was eating a strawberry and found its rather too similar to pineapple in terms of the soury-sweet taste, texture of the skin and the little bit of leaf-like growth at the top. So maybe they are closer to reach other than say apples and grapes.
Or maybe I am entirely wrong and using this blog to make a fool of myself.
~~~
2. The Shashi Tharoor column replaced by another that deals with, at least once every 2 columns, fresh ideas rather than those that have been beaten to death by other columnists or that which is public knowledge. I can hardly recall one time that his article made me think real hard or think new thoughts. As an example of an columnist who does, Ramachandra Guha who writes during the same week in the same paper is a great example.
( Ofcourse, Deepak seeks to remind his readers that I don’t take to Mr. Tharoor’s columns too well. That’s why. )
Costs of public ignorance May 27, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in economics, intellectual, politics, science.add a comment
Steve Pinker on the costs of scientific ignorance :
The costs of an ignorance of science are not just practical ones like misbegotten policies, forgone cures and a unilateral disarmament in national competitiveness. There is a moral cost as well. It is an astonishing fact about our species that we understand so much about the history of the universe, the forces that make it tick, the stuff it’s made of, the origin of living things and the machinery of life. A failure to nurture this knowledge shows a philistine indifference to the magnificent achievements humanity is capable of, like allowing a great work of art to molder in a warehouse.
And Bryan Caplan on economic ignorance :
But Caplan argues that in the real world, voters make systematic mistakes about economic policy — and probably other policy issues too. Caplan’s own evidence for the systematic folly of voters comes from a 1996 survey comparing the views of Ph.D. economists and the general public. To the exasperation of the libertarian-minded Caplan, most Americans do not think like economists. They are biased against free markets and against trade with foreigners. Absurdly, they think that the American economy is being hurt by too much spending on foreign aid; they also exaggerate the potential economic harms of immigration. In a similar vein, Scott L. Althaus, a University of Illinois political scientist, finds that if the public were better informed, it would overcome its ingrained biases and make different political decisions.
And why are biased against trade with foreigners ? Well, some guys ( Sadiq, for instance 
) don’t like evolutionary biology/psychology motivated explanations of human follies, but they sure do exist.
On adoption May 26, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, contemplation.add a comment
Long overdue post I have been sitting on, but never quite found <your favorite excuse> to write about.
Adoption is an interesting phenomenon – how it changes general family and society dynamics in addition to, of course, affecting the life of the individual concerned – is something I was thinking about as I read this article from Steve Levitt.
Almost seven years have passed since I shared breakfast with that New Jersey couple, yet I think about them often, and when I do, my eyes always fill with tears. I think about the little girl, now ten, living in a Chinese orphanage never knowing the life she missed. Should a three-year-old be punished for being attached to her caretakers in the orphanage? What if the New Jersey couple had just held out a little longer? Mostly, though, I think about how the second child learned those words in the cab, and how different her life is now because that first child put up such a fight.
For all the arguments about shaping our destinie and with due respect and credit to all those made it inspite of great odds, the great birth lottery is something that just cannot be wished away. It may not entirely be like algorithms that converge to different results depending on the initial conditions, but where you start with, the country/region/family we are born in sets up so much for the rest of our lives. A simple decision such as the school your parents thought you should go, the neighbourhood you choose to live in etc. can have a large bearing on one’s life.
Ofcourse, I don’t even hold the other extreme position – that in the ‘zero-sum game’ of life, people who made it must take responsibility for those that did not. Such a position gave us the horrors of income scarcity poverty redistribution of Mao and Stalin. Let us not forget that humanity for more than 99% of its history has lived in extreme poverty. In fact I am reminded of Milton Friedman’s statements that the race of life should be ‘designed’ such that we all start at the same line, not finish at the same line. And of all such distortionary effects, adoption is probably one of those big ones.
Here is another such story that Levitt links to.
The comments section to Levitt’s post carries several responses from parents of adoptive children/children with special needs etc. I am quite amazed – for a blog that has a limited audience from a likely narrow and niche socio-economic strata, there were quite a few comments. Maybe then Americans are more likely to adopt babies than several other societies. Partly of course because they can afford to, then because its easier to do so in heterogeneous societies and also perhaps because a large number of them are aware of the lottery that birth is and wish to share it with those that got a raw deal from the lottery of birth.
Now reading – Secret thoughts of an adoptive mother.
Kids will be kids, but …. May 26, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, india.2 comments
Vir Sanghvi does it again – hitting the nail on the head. He talks of the extremely ill-mannered species called the Indian kids.
I am as patriotic as the next man and as unwilling to believe that Indians are worse than foreigners in any respect. But on this score, I’m quite willing to lower the tricolour and put up the white flag of surrender. There’s no doubt that we allow our kids to get away with much more than foreigners do. We are much less concerned when they inconvenience other people. And we take the line that their age exempts them from all norms of socially acceptable behaviour.More to the point, this is true of most Indian children, no matter where they are resident. If you are on a flight back from the US, the NRI kids will be the ones throwing orange juice at other passengers while the American children sit peacefully.
He then adds how their parents could not care less.
A friend of mine was enjoying a quiet dinner with her boyfriend at a Delhi pizza place when the children from the next table began invading their space and wrecking their dinner. Politely but firmly, she asked the mother if she could possibly keep her kids from hassling her table. Rather than offer any apology, the mother turned viciously on her. “I am sure you are the kind of woman who has no children of your own,” she snarled. “That’s why you are complaining.”
What do these kids do when they grow up ? Well, exactly what a bunch of Indian graduate students were doing during the convocation ceremony last week. One of them was engaged in giving a running commentary of the events to relatives in distant India, so loudly as to annoy atleast 2 rows in their vicinity. This person was completely oblivious to a public nuisance he was. Later during the function when the American national anthem was being played, they were engaged in an argument in their native language, roughly about whether both men and women were to supposed to take off their caps or if it was just the men.
Now, for these graduate students from top-notch universities in their convocation ceremonies, surely it can’t be the lack of education ? Infact, as Vir Sanghvi says, those who lack education are in fact more aware of their unfortunate shortcomings and try to follow the average behavior – when in doubt, they are likely to restrain themselves and imitate the crowd (which believe me, mostly works !). It is we, the schooled elite whose schooling has been thoroughly disconnected from education.
Scroll down the article to read Vir Sanghvi’s suggestions ! Can’t agree more.
Amit Varma’s take :
It’s happened in a restaurant, where kids from a neighbouring table have done unspeakable things to my plate, and on my complaining their mother has said to me, ”Arrey, bacchay hai, karne do na?” My reply that they are her bacchay and not my bachhay made her furious, as if I was a heartless monster for not allowing her children to wreck my evening.
MMS and the PDS May 25, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, economics, india, politics.add a comment
Okay, so Mr. MMS has something to lecture the corporates about – conspicuous consumption, CEO pay and the like. How about starting by putting your own house in order, Prime Minister ? Here is an example :
The Planning Commission study shows that less than half (42 per cent) of subsidised food grains issued from the central pool reaches the poor. The leakage through ration shops constitutes the bulk of the leakage. In Bihar, while the intended subsidy was Rs 4.52 per kg, if we take into account the total subsidy to what actually reached the poor, the subsidy ended up being Rs 50.98 per kg due to leakages and diversions. In Punjab, while the intended subsidy was Rs 4.22 per kg, it ended up being Rs 40.15 per kg of foodgrain.
So Prime Minister, when you are already robbing the middle-class and the rich, why go after them all over again. Instead. clean up the political system first and then the corporates will have an example to follow.
Its a classic case of violating the PCB theory I linked to. In the Public distribution system :
Payer : Tax-payer ( middle-class+upper class)
Chooser : Government Bureaucrats
Beneficiary : The poor, presumably
A solution as suggested by Ila Patnaik in the same article :
If the government decides that it wants the poor to consume dal and oil at subsidised rates then it needs to find more efficient ways of targeting and delivering the subsidy. One proposal is to provide them with smart cards with the required amount of money credited to them and which can be used at certain retail outlets who will get reimbursement from the government. The expenditure will be limited largely to Rs 10 per kg or litre of the dal and oil actually bought by BPL households instead of more than double of that amount lining the pockets of traders on the way. No procurement for the PDS or supply chains will have to be set up as would need to be done for delivery of the PDS.
More comments on this.
Ofcourse, why should stupidity be the monopoly of the Indian Government alone, how can the Americans be far behind. Okay, without reading the previous link, a response sent by a GMU economics professor says it all. It about an act that “requires Federal employees and their dependents, consultants, contractors, grantees, and others performing United States Government financed foreign air travel to travel by U.S. flag air carriers.”
Update: My previous post on CEO pay and wage differentials.
Whistling and preparations for warfare May 25, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, humor, weird.add a comment
Its something I always wanted to be able to do. Now that I have found this, practice makes men, (and women and children and senior citizens ( even animals actually) ) perfect. 
By the way, that website is really weird, the kind of things you find there. Its the wikipedia model where you can go ahead write just about anything. Here is an example. Look at the method no. 5 and no. 6. Of course, they have a warning there too.
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How training procedures have changed at West Point, the United States Military Academy :
The war in Iraq has hovered over the class of 2007, perhaps more than any class before. The 1,000-plus cadets who will graduate on Saturday were the first to enter West Point after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Most arrived on campus in June of that year.
Today, role-playing sessions regularly descend into chaos. “I never did this when I was here in ’85,” he said. “We did road marches. We prepared the defense for defense operations. We were confident the enemy wouldn’t hit us for 24 hours. That was our scenario.”
Today’s West Point cadets are taught how to react to surprise uprisings, often while accompanied by someone acting as an embedded television reporter. “We have a road march, and a crowd of people come in the middle of the road,” Colonel Jones said. “There’s a vehicle on the side. There’s a camera, there’s a kid with a bat, there’s a pregnant woman.”
The best graduation (goof-up) pics ever !! May 22, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in CMU, humor, image, weird.15 comments
Lot of water has flown under the bridge ( my most hated cliche ) since my graduation/convocation ceremony. Uuh….well its actually been just 3 days, but trust me even in 3 days, lot of water does flow especially given that there are 800 bridges over 3 rivers in Pittsburgh
Now 3 days later I realized that the best ever pictures from the ceremony were emailed to me today by my good colleague Joy. It turns I was a part of a little goof-up on stage. And I am so glad this was captured by Joy’s camera. He had the camera with the right position, he himself was in the right position and his presence of mind and some luck ensured that these set of pictures will go down as among the best set in my collection !!
For now, I will let you guys fill the dots and interpret what really happened.
Or let me just tell you – I forgot to shake hands with my department head Jamie Carbonell. I went straight from taking the degree from Bob and was on my way to shake hands with Dean Randy Bryant, while I just realized what I was doing ! I then paused, took a step back and shook hands with Jamie. In the background Tom Mitchell looks on. The crowd sent a laughter track down as they saw what I was upto !
I later met Jamie and sort of sheepishly told him that was not my intention. He said that there was always something like this every year – last year someone forgot to receive the degree and just walked past the stage and the year before another person stumbled over his graduation gown. So, I did not do too bad then. Someone even told me that was funny and cute 
.
The actual pictures are 10 MP resolution and one can zoom in to see the exact facial expressions on several faces in those 5 seconds on stage !
[ To Rajaram : man, best trivia ever ! ]
Honey, you stole my idea :-( May 21, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in blogging, life, technology.3 comments
( This post thanks to reader Achala who sent me the link below )
About 5 months ago, I had asked of this possibility.
When prospective alliances are sought, why do people exchange photographs, why not (even in addition to photographs), audio recordings ?
And now I am pointed to this link -
Now Bharat Matrimony, a leading Web portal, has added technology to make this possible. In addition to posting text, pictures or videos, candidates can record a brief statement about themselves and upload it using a mobile phone. One can also listen to the expectations of a prospective partner and if one decides to proceed further, can even exchange voice messages for a better understanding.
Ofcourse, I don’t make any claims to the originality of the idea – its no big deal and only a mere extension of current methods used. But its kinda cool anyway.
Incredible lifestyles May 21, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, india, life, weird.5 comments
Ram Charan, one of those incredible people I had never heard of.
Consider the itinerary he sketched at dinner one night a few months ago in New York. He had just agreed – for the first time in his career -to let a journalist travel with him and watch him work. “I should tell you where I’ve been the last few weeks,” he began in heavily accented English. “I go to India on the Friday of the week before Thanksgiving. I am Sunday morning in Bombay. Monday morning I am in Delhi. Wednesday I’m in Bombay. Thursday I’m in Bangalore. Saturday I’m in Trivandrum. Wednesday I’m in Johannesburg. Friday morning, at seven, I am in New York. I have a two-hour meeting with a CEO who has flown in to see me. I have two more meetings and I fly out that night to Dubai. I am in Dubai on Sunday and Monday, then I come back here. On Thursday night I fly out to Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Then I come back here. Tuesday morning I have a whole-day schedule in New York. Tuesday night I go to Milwaukee. I came from Milwaukee last night. They diverted my plane so I had to stay in Pittsburgh. I had a meeting this morning in Philadelphia. I had three meetings here in the afternoon. And I’m here tomorrow, with GE. Then an hour-and-a-half phone call. Then I’m going out tomorrow night to West Palm Beach. Monday morning I have a breakfast meeting in New York. And then I’m flying out to Perth, Australia.” At least he flies first-class.
Do read the entire article about other aspects of his life style ( he does not have a house/permanent address for example ).
Do I aspire for that kind of a lifestyle ? Will I enjoy that kind of a lifestyle ? Ofcourse, the answers both questions better be the same (both yes or both no), and in my case, that will be no. But yes, I certainly greatly admire special people like him. Our planet is such an interesting place.
And now for some pictures.. May 21, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in CMU, image.9 comments
Some pictures from the Carnegie Mellon University commencement ceremony on the 20th day of May, 2007, at Pittsburgh, PA.
Several other pictures here, which you may watch if you have time to brutally squander, pillage and kill since they contain no captions and several are minor variations over the above slide show.
Cosby’s Graduating Comedy May 20, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, CMU, humor.add a comment
So apparently I am done with my masters and will have the graduation ceremony later today. Also as things would have it, the Carnegie Mellon commencement ceremony is going to be webcast live. Here is more information if you have time to kill.
Given that this is the formal ceremony where only doctorate degrees are awarded, the probability of finding me in the webcast, though non-zero, is nearly zero.
Commencement speaker : Comedian Bill Cosby, ( who is kinda like America’s Johny Walker, except that there is no alcoholic ( or otherwise ) drink named after him. )
P.S : By the way, I have never been able to find out ( simply because it did not bother me that much so far ) why the last act of a degree conferring is called ‘commencement’. Commencing what ? Will find out and post the answer tomorrow.
P.P.S : Found some cool pictures of the CMU campus here.
Why generalization is a necessary non-evil May 19, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in America, india, rant.2 comments
..its only the degree that is negotiable.
Of course, if you are a machine learning/AI student, this is rather obvious. But I am talking of generalizing in a broader context of interpreting socio-cultural/economic phenomenon, though the spirit is the same.
Imagine you are a native of London and a friend who just returned from Paris tells you that Paris is a romantic city. You then ask him not to generalize and tell him that the last time you visited, a drainage pipe had broken and entire Paris neighborhood was stinking. The question now is who after all is generalizing ?
Okay I agree, that was a rather straw man argument, but sufficient to get the message across.
Lets get to the point. My friend Sanjika pointed to this WSJ cartoon which I found incredibly funny. As curiosity had it, I looked up to see what others thought. (To generalize), it turns out both Sanjika and I have a pathetic sense of humor. The argument ( here and here ) there is partly about it being not funny ( okay, understandable ) but there are still a bunch of folks talking of how this is just stereotyping etc. etc. Well, caste system is an Indian reality. To say that you have 3 friends from 3 different cases and a neighbor lower caste does not mitigate the larger truth, in fact that is generalizing !
Besides, what is that one statement that you can make of India ( or for that matter any country ) that is true of every Indian and piece of land in India ? I think even people say that we are warm people who invite strangers to our houses and treat them to sub-continental hospitality, they are stereotyping Indians ! “How dare you call me a nice person !!”
Don’t we realize that most of the advertisement is indeed stereotyping. When a beauty store advertisement has a lady wearing pink reading a home decoration related magazine with a soft toy in her lap, they are technically stereotyping and to sound like a political liberal that I am not, “manipulating the minds of women”.
On a related note, even if something is mildly offensive/sad, the humor aspect stands out. Maybe there are different regions in our brains that process these things – something can be offensive/sad and humorous at the same time. The Germans have a word for it – Schadenfreude.
The P-C-B theory and intolerance May 19, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in economics, littlerockers, videos.add a comment
On whats common to Richard Gere and Mahmoud Ahmadinajad – both got into trouble thanks to a kiss ( or abundantly more of those ). Read some detail here.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinajad is being slammed by Iranian newspapers and Islamic groups after he kissed his teacher’s hand during a celebration, on the occasion of Iranian teacher’s day.
I was on the phone the night before last, talking to a lady teacher from school (BJ for those know LittleRock) in a conversation that lasted over 2 hours. In another country, the conversation may not have happened or one or both of us would have paid heavily for it. A related article, see that at least for that really lovely picture there.
And yeah, when it comes to intolerance, this is rather hard to ‘better’ ‘worse’. By the way, how many such instances should take place before you are asked ‘not to generalize and that these are just rare occurrences involving fringe elements.” How broad is the fringe in this case, dear people ?
Update : Vir Sanghvi is tired with the topic as well.
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P-C-B. Not the Physics-Chemistry-Biology ( as I would said 9 years back ) or Printed Circuit board ( 5 years back ). True to the economist in us, its more like Payer/Chooser/Beneficiary.
Incentives are greatly aligned when the Beneficiary is also the Payer and the Chooser of a product. The greater the social distance between the three entities of the P-C-B, the weaker is the alignment of incentives to have effective markets. The best case is that of private spending for a car where the P-C-B entities are vested in one. The worst case is that of public spending where the entities are extremely disparate.
The pseudo-self-centric message is – Want something only if you can pay for it and choose. Pay for something only when you get to choose and when its for yourself. And (choose to) choose something only if you are paying and if you want it . And let everyone know this ‘change in your behavior’ as well.
Maybe it doesn’t apply to the ‘kids’ economy’ where the mom (dad) chooses the dress her/his son/daughter wears and the dad (mom) pays for it.
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For non-atheists and atheists alike.
Non-atheists may learn how to converse with atheists and atheists shall learn how to converse with non-atheists.
Assorted links today May 19, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in assorted, humor, india, sport.add a comment
Apathy at Bangalore, nothing unofficial about it.
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Same guests at 42 weddings. Nothing marital and certainly nothing blissful about it.
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I would be curious to see how American/European governments ( with their humanrights focus as well as sporting infrastructure ) would handle situations like this. Something prodigious about it.
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Read this and answer the question : What specific event is being talked about ?
To me, there is in this incident — and in the entire hoopla surrounding the Indian team’s preparation for the World Cup — the prescription for a disaster in the making. You’ve got to be in India to understand the frightening dimensions of this thing, really. Turn on the television, and every Coke, Pepsi and Brittania are running ads that seem to indicate that the results of the tournament is a foregone conclusion. Switch to a music channel, and we are flooded with songs and videos supposedly meant to cheer on the team.
In combination, what is being created is a form of hysteria that reached a crescendo this Sunday with that tamasha at the Wankhede (and there is a World Cup concert lined up as well, courtesy Pepsi, for the 22nd). I can’t conceive of a sight more ridiculous than to see the Indian World Cup squad lined up on stage, while a stream of industrialists, having paid for the privilege by way of sponsorship bucks, garlanded them and applied tilak to their foreheads.
There were so many industrialists — not forgetting a certain Amitabh Bachchan — queueing up for their share of the spotlight that pretty soon, the players ran out of space on their foreheads for the next tilak-applier in the queue.
And the crowds went wild. Singing and dancing with Abhijeet to the tune of the cheerleading song. Celebrating as though the result of the tournament was a foregone conclusion.
The corporates have good reason for climbing on the Cup bandwagon, and pumping in millions by way of advertising money to cash in on the publicity value — after all, an event like this comes along only once in four years (okay, three in this case). But the net result is that enormous expectation is being built up within this country. In the prevailing climate, nothing will do for the public short of winning the tournament. Realistically, this team would have done wonderfully well if it gets into the semifinals — but after all this hype, even that kind of a performance is not going to be enough.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Group polarization and Adverse selection May 14, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in economics, ideas, intellectual.5 comments
Two of these appear to be as being similar. I had heard about adverse selection in the context of “used cars” and insurance policies before. It is infact one of the commonly cited market failures. But Gresham’s law, or rather a variant of Gresham’s law ( law of group polarization) is something I came across now, and it seems rather true in general experience. So here goes :
The term adverse selection was originally used in insurance. It describes a situation where, as a result of private information, the insured are more likely to suffer a loss than the uninsured. For example, suppose that there are two groups among the population, smokers and non-smokers. An insurer selling life policies can’t tell which is which, so they each pay the same premiums.
Non-smokers are likely to die older than average, while smokers are likely to die younger than average. So the life policy is a better buy for the smokers’ beneficiaries. The insurance company anticipates or learns that the mortality rate of the combined policy holders exceeds that of the general population, and sets the premiums accordingly. The result is that non smokers tend to go uninsured though if they could buy a policy on terms that are actually fair given their characteristics, they would do so. So market failure is involved.
A related idea is the law of group polarization. ( though adverse selection happens for a different reason – lack of information )
In a striking empirical regularity, deliberation tends to move groups, and the individuals who compose them, toward a more extreme point in the direction indicated by their own predeliberation judgments. For example, people who are opposed to the minimum wage are likely, after talking to each other, to be still more opposed; people who tend to support gun control are likely, after discussion, to support gun control with considerable enthusiasm; people who believe that global warming is a serious problem are likely, after discussion, to insist on severe measures to prevent global warming. This general phenomenon — group polarization — has many implications for economic, political, and legal institutions. It helps to explain extremism, “radicalization,” cultural shifts, and the behavior of political parties and religious organizations; it is closely connected to current concerns about the consequences of the Internet; it also helps account for feuds, ethnic antagonism, and tribalism.
And as Mark Lieberman says here, the other dynamic is that “people with a taste for the rational evaluation of evidence are likely to withdraw from a forum whose participants are so obviously uninterested in the facts of the matter. As a result, as the group opinion becomes more extreme, the standards of evidence get worse and worse…”. Read Mark’s complete post to get a good idea.
The original Grisham’s Law which talks of money itself might explain how a college lowers academic standards, goes lax on hooliganism etc. which scares off academically inclined students and attracts hooliganism inclined types.
Frontiers in biology May 13, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in science, videos.add a comment
Two of the most interesting videos in recent times.
Unbelievable stuff on the Bonobos here. A decade ago I remember seeing documentaries where several scientists ( mostly Western/Japanese) spent years working with animals/plants(!) in the jungles of Africa/South America. Its really worth it, people. Just watch this video.
Another one – this time on biology. Explains why when I was giving a talk to the Class XI/XII in Jan 2006 I said that if my children study science, they won’t do computer science/electronics. Go Biology – the answers to some of the greatest questions will be found within us. ( Some of the ancient Greek/Indian philosophers were right afterall ! )
Once you have had enough of the above, there is always a light-weight moment- to see “if your ass is too small”. ( HT : IndiaUncut)
The “First Thought Right” way, modeling life. May 13, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in contemplation, weird.add a comment
Thought will cross-post from here.
When people talk of science taking on religion and vice versa, they are talking of two ways of approaching life’s problems. They are 2 different ways, so different that they often give completely contradictory descriptions and prescriptions. One of them is always verifiable as either right or wrong. The other cannot be verified as certainly wrong, but often can be verified as deviating from practical experience.
Let me now invent a 3rd way of thinking which says – “The answer to any question is the first hypothesis you think of”. This does not rely on any book – holy or unholy. It gives all the power to the man himself – the first ever possibility you think of is correct. Period.
I call this third way as FTR (First thought Rightism). You will dismiss me as a quack, get me driven out of my house and maybe have me killed. However, I ( or rather my handful of FTR ‘disciples’) then manage ( by preaching/war/deceitful PR campaigns etc. ) over a few 100 years to attract 10 million people to agree to this FTRism by claiming that afterall it goes give ‘answers’ to questions like : Who am I? What happens after death? What’s the purpose of it all? etc.
Infact, the way FTRism works it gives an answer to any question you ask ! When you point out that it does not explain electromagnetism FTR followers tell you that its not fair to compare science/religion/FTRism. They are 3 different ways of looking at life and that each have a role to play and are not at loggerheads.
Will you buy this ? Will you buy this even if you are told that on a yet undiscovered densely populated island in the Southern Pacific, there are 200 million FTRs ? Will you buy this if the number of FTRs increased to 1 billion in the next century ?
On a related note, somebody here is asking the question I have always wanted to.
Two Questions, fashion and Bollywood May 13, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in humor, movies, weird.add a comment
Question 1
With permission from Tyler Cowen, what is special about this piece of writing. ( either really easy given how I framed the question or too damn hard ) :
What about supply and purchasing? In my location — you can just call this city “Dar” — many Arabs add to urban culinary options. Spicy Sichuan food is also around, and Indian food is common. Why not? D falls downward to a rightward slant. Spicy food in Dar costs not so much. Transport of a spicy stuff or two costs virtually nothing. Call it proximity, or is “spatial” a good word too? “Marginal cost” also has not this bad sign, which again I must avoid in this blog post. So, marginal cost is low for this spicy stuff. Now, S can fly rightwards in an upward slant, almost flat, but low low low.
Answer here or even better HERE. There is a word for stuff like this.
~~~
Question 2
On whats special about the words – scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed ? Answer here.
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I don’t get fashion either
Once every while you come across an article you read in a newspaper that reads like you wrote it ! And once in a while I also come across an angry/disgruntled columnist writing about his/her disagreement with any subject/person. This time around, both these conditions are true of the same article.
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How times change
From a book on Bollywood.
The book recalls how Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke,the pioneer of Indian cinema had to struggle to find women actors for his first film and how even prostitutes he approached refused. The breakthrough came when Phalke discovered a young man by the name of Salunkhe, working as a cook in a restaurant who was to achieve an extraordinary feat of playing both male and female leads-Lord Rama and Sita in his movie. Salunkhe joined Phalke for a princely sum of Rs15 per month. Phalke was to make him India’s first super star, the book says.
An example of how in a matter of decades things change and cultural taboos fall by the wayside.
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I was walking around in the local library today when it struck me that at least some of the books in the “religion” sub-section should be moved out of the non-fiction area to the fiction area Meanwhile, over to some exchanges last week on this ‘religion/god stuff’ over at Aswin’s blog.
Caste and Indian politics May 12, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in history, india, media, politics.2 comments
How ironic that on the very same day in two of India’s leading newspapers, two of India’s distinguished journalists of roughly very similar political persuasions ( slightly left of centre or liberal in the American sense) have almost diametrically things to say on the same topic !
Here is Vir Sanghvi of the Hindustan Times lamenting why we have almost never got our Presidents for the right reasons, that even when we got the ‘right’ people ( Kalam/KRN ), we got them entirely for the wrong reasons.
My concern, however, is that when it comes to the crunch, political parties will ignore the merit of individual candidates. Once again, we will look for vote-banks. We will dredge up backward and minority candidates from the mists of time. And as soon as the regional parties get involved, negotiation and wheeling and dealing will take over — specially now that Mayawati has emerged victorious in UP. In the process, the world’s largest democracy will end up with some politically correct monument to caste and communal tokenism at Rashtrapati Bhavan. And we will once again not have a President we can be proud of.
And then there is Shekhar Gupta of the Express about why caste is slowly ceasing to matter in Indian politics.
All three missed a central point, the pivot around which the new politics of India is being built. That the days of narrow, vote-bank politics are now over. You can no longer secure 25-27 per cent vote in a fractured polity and rule a state. You now need to broaden your agenda, invite, entice, and include others too. Because it is logical that a fast-developing, fast-urbanising society should also evolve a more cosmopolitan outlook. It is tired of divisive agendas, of being taken for granted.
Well, are we generalizing from very few cases here. Do people think in sync ? I don’t understand elections because I have never voted. While I can think of arguments now, I haven’t really had an opportunity to follow an election as a voter, weighing candidates and parties and issues. Its just been as an observer and an interested citizen. So maybe I am not never the right person to speak on this issue.
But when I see things being written, I am skeptical. When BJP lost in 2004, it was reasoned that their arrogance and ‘divise’ agendas lead to their loss. But then they came back in Punjab/Himachal, it was attributed to anti-incumbency rather than a vote for Hindutva. When non-congress, non-BJP parties lost in the states, it was explained as people being fed up of smaller parties with unclear agendas. When BSP and SP dominated the UP results, it is explained that India’s federal structure makes it harder to parties and leaders with national appeal. ( I wish I could provide references for these allegations I make, but if you have followed Indian politics and commentators, you know what I am talking about. )
In a country as diverse as India, it might require something dramatic ( war, emergency etc. ) to get voters to think in sync, to vote on the basis of limited set of issues. Just think of the past few general elections and ask yourself what the issues were. Its always something vague, anti-incumbent rhetoric, secular/communal bullshit or its about personalities. Its not about specific economic policies or foreign policy and even a larger vision for the country.
Its unfortunate but true – for a young democracy with a large illiterate socially, economically disempowered electorate in a land that is still trying define its identity as a nation, it might be decades before such a thing as caste ceases to matter in elections. Let us not forget that caste has been around much longer than India did, it ain’t going away any soon.
And if Bryan Caplan is right about such a thing as the rational voter myth, we might never get there. And those we think have gotten there, haven’t either.
P.S: But having said that I will any day live with this system than go down the way of some of our sub-continental neighbors.
The nation and the national festivals May 12, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in history, india, politics.5 comments
Ram Guha talks about his latest book :
If there is a defining feature it is this: that Indian democracy, the Indian state, has gone from crisis to crisis and somehow we have been able to contain these crises. Since the 1950s there’s a kind of insurgency in Kashmir and then it stops. Then you have the whole linguistic movement, which is contained through the creation of linguistic states. Then you have the Dravidian movement but then the Tamils decide that they want to be a part of India. There is Naxalism, which gets contained. And then there is Punjab. It is a nation that lurches from crisis to crisis, but unlike any other nation in the Asian, African or ex-colonial world, it is not enough to (destroy) the democratic fabric of society except for that brief period of Emergency.
So, a sick man who refuses to die or an warrior who is always at war and each time just manages to scrape through ? But the British in 1947 must have thought ( like Bush does now ( and rightly so perhaps )) that if they leave the sub-continent, India will break up in pieces. Well, we did and we didn’t. Mostly latter. I wrote about this before.
Post-independence history hence is indeed interesting. I recently bought a book “Nehru” by Vincent Sheehan, an American journalist who knew Nehru personally. The first chapter of the book is ironically mostly about Gandhi. (Vincent was covering Gandhi’s prayer function when he ( Gandhi ) was assassinated.) If I get to the second chapter which I often don’t these days, I will write more.
Meanwhile, the Indian Express has something compelling on a related topic.
Without a doubt, 1857 is an important milestone in the evolution of modern India. But the lacklustre character of the celebrations surrounding the one hundred and fiftieth year of India’s First War of Independence raises some profound questions about the relationship between the nation and the important events that made it. The first is the striking contrast we still see between India’s religious celebrations and its civic ones. The former are colourful, spontaneous, diversely imagined and organised by the people. The latter remain for the most part dull, solemn, doled out in standardised formats and manufactured by state.
The question is: why aren’t citizens taking charge of their own history, commemorating them in their own way? The reasons are complex. Part of it has to do with the state constructing 1857 as an icon, rather than lively history. 1857 is also a touchy subject, because there many competing narratives about these events. And for all our talk about unity in diversity, these competing narratives can expose our faultlines. There is also something to the claim that the character of our patriotism may be changing: rousing narratives of sacrifice do not move us in the same way they used to.
True, isn’t it. I can through arguments perhaps talk about how 1857 meant a big deal, but I am not sure that would be too sincere in terms of what I feel. As for state sponsored celebrations like the Oct 2/Jan 26, somehow it feels distant compared to say, Holi.
Curtains no more May 12, 2007
Posted by Sharath Rao in CMU, blogging.1 comment so far
Although its very tempting to insist that I had been away to give a chance to those hapless readers ( Vineeta Rao, for example) who admittedly found it hard (as per their admissions) to keep pace with the postings here, such temptations shall be ( and as you see, have been ) resisted. I won’t even insist that I had been busy wrapping up the last official semester of my current program here at Carnegie Mellon. Which I was, in spite of my vow/brag ( as per the previous sentence) to not tell you about it.
And now a certain silence prevails as I try to collect my thoughts as to how its been, these 2 years. Given that I have only just finished, I would venture to just say that its been an exciting, rich and mind-altering, albeit an exhausting 2 years. Of course, when I was asked recently about how it felt I didn’t exactly chose those words. I thought one must wait a few days, maybe months, even years maybe to really make pronouncements on one’s own present, during which one might successfully exploit the benefit of hindsight ( and the concomitant bias ) and additional perspective that the past provides.
Almost an year to the day and having completely the 2nd semester, I promised to be ‘more prolific’ in my postings, a promise I have kept. I shall make no promises this time though. Afterall, the only joy that is greater than what comes out of keeping a promise is that which comes out of more than keeping it.
Except that, that kind of joy is generally elusive.
Apparently Nobel Laureate Rudiger Dornbusch who taught economics at MIT had the “habit of writing down graphs without labeling the axes”. (In order to quell criticisms of comparisons with a Nobel Laureate,) I thought I would do that with just one of the axes. With the label on the y-axis considered self-evident, this blog appears headed into intensive care.
