Three of the best

Here are some links for today:

1. None of us here are communists, if I know what you are. But that should not preclude us from taking note of sensible things that people we disagree with say. Here is something about Lenin by Zizek (on freedom):

"This is what Lenin's obsessive tirades against "formal" freedom are about, and therein resides their "rational kernel" worth saving today: when he underlines that there is no "pure" democracy, that we should always ask whom does a freedom under consideration serve and where is its role in the class struggle, his point is precisely to maintain the possibility of the true radical choice. This is what the distinction between "formal" and "actual" freedom ultimately amounts to: "formal" freedom is the freedom of choice within the coordinates of the existing power relations, while "actual" freedom designates the site of an intervention which undermines these very coordinates. In short, Lenin's point is not to limit freedom of choice, but to maintain the fundamental Choice - when Lenin asks about the role of a freedom within the class struggle, what he is asking is precisely: "Does this freedom contribute to or constrain the fundamental revolutionary Choice?""

- Slavoj Zizek-Bibliography/What is to be done (with Lenin)?

2. I enjoyed reading this:

"While we are still among the most religious nations in the Western world, the Parade Magazine poll shows barely half of respondents practice the religion with which they grew up. Americans, it seems, have a tendency to customize belief.

Randall Balmer, a professor of American religious history at Barnard College in New York City, and an Episcopal priest, described a composite character he had in mind: "A good, say, Presbyterian, and yet does tai chi in the park on Sunday Morning, consults the astrological tables in the newspaper and does yoga when she comes home from work at night, and sees no sense of contradiction among these various sorts of activities.

"You have all these religious options out there, and we Americans are good consumers," Balmer laughed. "And the criterion seems to be, what can this do for me? How can this make me a better person? How can this make me happier?"

If that all sounds very "New Age-y," consider this: the term "New Age," in fact, was used in the mid-1800s by followers of a Swedish mystic named Emanuel Swedenborg. To this day, there's a Swedenborgian Christian church in New York City.

"And the first minister at this church, upon the building's completion, was a Swedenborgian and spiritualist named George Bush," said Mitch Horowitz. "

- God, Mystics, Yoga: What Americans Believe - CBS Sunday Morning - CBS News


3. And then I enjoyed reading this too: delighted, to tell you the truth. It is written so very well- it almost reads like a story, but no, this is for real:

I'm drawn to girls with nice tasting names - it was part of the attraction. If the name tastes nice, then it's a plus, but it has got me into trouble a few times.

Some girls have had lovely names but disgusting temperaments. It's my synaesthesia choosing wrongly for me.

I could never go out with someone called Helen - the mucus flavour is overpowering. Barbara, on the other hand, tastes of rhubarb, and Jemma of melted sweets.

My partner is called Jeanette, which is nice, as she's a mild bacon flavour. I'd rather she was called Genna or Gemma or Hanna or something sweet like that, but such is life.

At least she's not called Jane, which has a dusty taste.

- The man who can 'taste' words: 'Gordon Brown tastes revolting, while Tony Blair tastes of desiccated'

Good day.

Wish you great many things!

A Story- The Love of the Common People...

(Warning: contains strong and violent language. Sorry)

There was a sensational double-murder here at Chennai, seems they have found the killer. The dead were a middle-aged woman and her nine-year old son. It happened right in the heart of a populated area, at noon-time, in an apartment.

From the only photo of the dead we could see that the dead woman was a Brahmin, orthodox at that, with some  charm. And the son, eight or nine, looked bright the way that children who don't need to know anything look. It all looked horrible- this mother and son, photo taken at his upanayanam, both killed- the woman stabbed repeated with a scissors on the neck and the son killed in their kitchen. Probably the murdered had cornered him there.

The newspapers today claim that the suspect had surrendered. According to their version, the two were lovers- and the man stabbed the woman when she refused to hand him money that would have rescued from debt. The murder of the child seems to be an episode of collateral damage- he did not want to leave any witness behind.


What troubles me in this affair is the nature of their love. I understand extramarital affairs. The mere fact that you are married does not shut down the heart that capers after a chance smile, a rogue stroke, or a brash double entendre. You know what I mean- you are open to all kinds of temptations, no matter what your age is, and you can't help it, not always.

But, I don't see why the lady would not give him the money he wanted. Or, why the man, having pushed her down, seeing the limp body with blood streaming from the bashed head, would take a scissors and plunge it into her ragged-doll throat- again and again, twenty times, I think. He left his bloodied fingerprint all over the place.


I remember an incident I saw in a bus. The two were obviously lovers- the boy hit his girl with his elbows and then with the back of his fist. Not violently, but an angry slap. They both were in tears, he was mumbling in anger, she was silent, stoic, angry, looking away. It was obvious that he was asking something of her, and she would not give. Because when he did not hit, he tried to turn her to meet his eyes- clutching at her arms, forcing her shoulders, pulling her head, always touching.

The girl did not look like anyone you could love. She was squat, with no neck, dressed in faded overworn Salwar that flowed down over a shapeless lump of chest. Her lower lip was broken and blood seeped out of it in a thin line.

She was silent, even as the the boy got more weepier and violent, hitting her and clasping her, riding reckless on the feverish impulse of helpless love.

None of us in the bus said anything or did anything. They both, ugly and unkempt, looked out of place in the crowded bus. We made some space around them, and watched this drama with disgust and curiosity. And then when the bus reached the terminus, we all got down and went to our separate hells.


You might think this is some kind of outlandish postmodernist nonsense- but it seems to me, rage and violence are themselves a form of love- flailing recoil of a frustrated lunge that had found no welcoming arms.

Criminal Justice

I don't know whether any of you are following the Roman Polanski affair, it is too sickening to talk about, but here I found some great writing at Brittania Blog, and pass it on to you:

"More evidence: A number of Hollywood figures spoke up in defense of confessed and convicted child rapist Roman Polanski. (I believe he has worked in some capacity in what these folks invariably call “the industry.”) Whoopi Goldberg took the high intellectual ground in pointing out that different cultures have different standards. As for her own standards, she reassured us: “Would I want my 14-year-old having sex with somebody? Not necessarily.” I can’t think how it might come to be a matter of necessity, but it is comforting – though perhaps not to that particular 14-year-old – that Ms. Goldberg can at least conceive of circumstances in which she would not want her child to have sex. Being drugged beforehand by a middle-aged gargoyle might qualify, but I don’t know.

Joining Ms. Goldberg in support of sex with minors was Woody Allen. You don’t often find a joke where the set-up and the punch line are the same sentence."

Three of the best

1. New York Times has a great piece, "Understanding the Anxious Mind"- we are born anxious, and we live anxious, but it is possible to learn to manage it.

" Kagan often talks about the three ways to identify an emotion: the physiological brain state, the way an individual describes the feeling and the behavior the feeling leads to. Not every brain state sparks the same subjective experience; one person might describe a hyperaroused brain in a negative way, as feeling anxious or tense, while another might enjoy the sensation and instead uses a positive word like “alert.” Nor does every brain state spark the same behavior: some might repress the bad feelings and act normally; others might withdraw. But while the behavior and the subjective experience associated with an emotion like anxiety might be in a person’s conscious control, physiology usually is not. This is what Kagan calls “the long shadow of temperament.” The oldest high-reactive subjects in Kagan’s and Fox’s studies, like Baby 19, are in their 20s now, and for many of them, no matter how much they manage to avoid looking anxious to an outsider, fears still rattle in their skulls at 3 o’clock in the morning. They remain anxious just below the surface, their subconscious brains still twitchy, still hypervigilant, still unable to shift attention away from perceived threats that aren’t really there."

2. Man is a social animal, we all have heard of that. Not just man, every one of us. Booster Shots at Los Angeles Times has this piece: "Rodent of the week: Social isolation worsens cancer":

"People have long wondered if one's social environment affects disease survival rates. Studies of cancer patients who participate support groups have had mixed results. The new study used mice predisposed to develop breast cancer to study the phenomenon. The mice were raised in one of two environments: isolation or in a group. In the isolated mice, the breast cancer tumors were larger, and those mice also had a disrupted stress hormone response."

3. An article by David Frawley is here: "Sanity of “Shiva Linga”" at Folks.co.in. It tacks the issue of sexuality and spirituality head on, taking the symbolism of Siva Linga as its fulcrum:

"The Shiva linga is often portrayed in an upright conical form much like the male sexual organ. Indeed, some Shiva lingas are quite phallic in their appearance, but there are many other types of lingas which are not. The linga is the symbol of the universal power, the cosmic masculine force or the Shiva principle. It has many forms in nature.

"In the Sanskrit language, the word linga refers to a ‘chief mark’ or ‘characteristic’ of something. As a term, it is not per se a synonym for the male sexual organ, as some would believe. Linga indicates what is outstanding and determinative. In this regard, the male sexual organ can be said to be the distinguishing characteristic or linga of a man at a physical level, but linga in other contexts can have quite a different meaning.

"In Yoga philosophy, the term linga refers to the subtle body, which is the dominant principle in our nature over the physical body. The Shiva linga is also the subtle body and can indicate the upper region from the heart to the head. The linga is a place where energy is held, generated and sustained."

If you are interested to learn about the significance of Siva Linga and its Tantric worship, symbolism and all- this article is a very good place to start.

Good day.

Reason, Religion and Immunization

The most sensational news for me yesterday was that Ahmedanijad, the Iranian President is a Jew. Or at least he was one before his parents converted to Islam. His original name is Sabourjian, Telegraph.co.uk reports.

This might seem impossible, given that he has been denying the holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel, but may be not necessarily so.

At Less Wrong, is this post- "Reason as memetic immune disorder", which could be of use in making sense of this.

The author poses this question:

"I remember many times growing up when missionaries described the crazy things their new converts in remote areas did on reading the Bible for the first time - they refused to be taught by female missionaries; they insisted on following Old Testament commandments; they decided that everyone in the village had to confess all of their sins against everyone else in the village; they prayed to God and assumed He would do what they asked; they believed the Christian God would cure their diseases. We would always laugh a little at the naivete of these new converts; I could barely hear the tiny voice in my head saying but they're just believing that the Bible means what it says...

"How do we explain the blindness of people to a religion they grew up with?"

And answers it-

"The history of religions sometimes resembles the history of viruses. Judaism and Islam were both highly virulent when they first broke out, driving the first generations of their people to conquer (Islam) or just slaughter (Judaism) everyone around them for the sin of not being them. They both grew more sedate over time. (Christianity was pacifist at the start, as it arose in a conquered people. When the Romans adopted it, it didn't make them any more militaristic than they already were.)

"The mechanism isn't the same as for diseases, which can't be too virulent or they kill their hosts. Religions don't generally kill their hosts. I suspect that, over time, individual selection favors those who are less zealous. The point is that a culture develops antibodies for the particular religions it co-exists with - attitudes and practices that make them less virulent."

I think the post is a most important one, and open a field- may be religious epidemiology or something like that.

Quite impressive, to tell you the truth.

Three of the best

Think I will revert back to being a links blog again, nothing seems to get done here.

Just the best three of the stories I read yesterday:

1. A Modular Robot That Puts Itself Back Together Again – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com

This is an amazing graphic that makes you want to scream, "Transformers are HERE!"

2. How U.S. Removed Half a Ton of Uranium From Kazakhstan – washingtonpost.com

When you read a best-seller next year, or see a super-hit Hollywood film a year after that, remember this- you found it here before anyone else did:


On a snowy day in December 1993, just months after Andy Weber began his diplomatic job at the U.S. Embassy in Almaty, Kazakhstan, he met with a tall, bullet-headed man he knew only as Col. Korbator.


"Andy, let's take a walk," the colonel said. As they strolled through a dim apartment courtyard, Korbator handed Weber a piece of paper. Weber unfolded it. On the paper was written:


U235


90 percent


600 kilos


Weber did the calculation: 1,322 pounds of highly enriched uranium, enough to make about 24 nuclear bombs. He closed the note, put it in his pocket and thanked the colonel. After several months of patient cultivation of his contacts, Weber finally had the answer he had been seeking.


The piece of paper was a glimpse into what had become the most urgent proliferation crisis to follow the collapse of the Soviet Union: the discovery of tons of nuclear materials left behind by the Cold War arms race, much of it unguarded and unaccounted for.


This is the story of Project Sapphire, the code name for an early pioneering mission to secure a portion of those nuclear materials before they could fall into the wrong hands.

A gripping read.

3. Ardipithecus: We Meet At Last | The Loom | Discover Magazine

This is serious stuff, but it wouldn't hurt you. The story of a fossil that pushed back our ancestry by more than a million years- also, Chimpanzees are not our parents.

That's a relief, right?

population map

Suppose you draw a map of India, based not on land mass, but population, how would it look?

via http://www.worldmapper.org/countrycartograms/carto_ind.htm

DISCLAIMER: This is not an actual map of India, nor does it resemble anything like it.