Few of my old artwork

Here are the links to a few of my old artwork which have been scanned and put up.
These can also be found at my web page link (Old page at 8m.net)

Apollo : http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/apollo.html
Falcon Trainer: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/falcon.html
War General: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/general.html
Purandara Dasa: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/dasa.html
Dragon Slayer: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/dragon.html
Wuthering Heights: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/height.html
Francis Xavier's Church: http://www.geocities.com/anand_rao1/church.html

Note: All these are pencil sketches of photographs and other sketches done by me while learning the art.

Allow Foreign Direct Investment in Retail.

With the bad showing of the Union government’s party and its coalition partners in the recently concluded Bihar state elections, serious rifts which are evident among many members of the coalition who fought against each other is likely to aggravate during the oncoming winter session of parliament. Amongst the many topics which will test the strength of the coalition, with the Congress party and the Left Front taking opposing view points would be on the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in Retail industry. The government’s indication that it would be in favor of opening up the Indian retail sector to foreign investment has been as expected met with the left’s threats to withdraw support to the UPA government. In the 90’s during the early days of the globalization, with Dr. Manmohan Singh as the union finance minister, the retail trade industry had been opened up for FDI, but later was repealed under pressure from the left by P. Chidambaram during the days of the third front government. It seems that by some funny twist of fate the same two people in similar capacities again have to face the left front on this issue now.

FDI has been opened up in other sector of industry and the number of government approvals has been on the increase steadily. During the 1^st seven months of 2004, there has been a net inflow of Rs. 9503 crores which is approximately 80% of total FDI inflow 2003. 2005 has also seen a lot of reform in this sector. With reforms like the increase of FDI cap in aviation from 40% to 49% the overall growth rate in 2005 has also been on similar lines. Press note 18-the restrictive regulation which required a foreign partner in an Indian joint venture to get the Indian partner’s no objection to start a new venture in the same field, has been abolished. In the retail industry however, the picture is not very rosy. According to an A.T. Kearney report, the market in India is estimated at around $225 billion out of which only a dismal 2% or $4.5 billion amounts for organized retailing. With the demography of India indicating a young population and an overall booming economy the spending power of the populace has increased. The need for new shopping environs and increased spending is bound to fillip the growth in this sector by 15% to 20% in the coming two to three years. Retail in India is amongst the largest industries accounting for 10% of GDP and around 8% of employment.

With India on the global map for foreign investors around the world, there is a large amount of foreign capital waiting to pour in. India is listed 5^th in the UNCTAD survey of favorable investment locations. In the retail scene, global conglomerates like Wal-Mart from US, Shoprite from South Africa have been eyeing the Indian market keenly. METRO GmbH, the German retail bigwig has opened shop in Bangalore. Although fraught with regulatory restrictions, the METRO group with their “Cash & Carry” format has started business selling for resale and corporate purchases. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board of FIPB allows foreign investors to enter the market under the banner of test marketing products for a period of two years. Under these norms the FDI is allowed in wholesale cash & carry but not under the retail trade. With the similarities in the test marketing route to actual retail trading the commerce ministry is hoping to scrap this test marketing route to plug FDI in retail trading.

The entry of METRO GmbH had sparked of protests from the left wing. The company has been accused of starting retail trading directly at their outlets in the name of wholesale. The propaganda machine has been blaming the government of looking the other way by allowing the company to continue operations even when there have been reports of METRO selling products not essentially meant for resale which is stipulated under norms. The Indian retail industries share a large market, which is mainly unorganized. The entry of these large foreign conglomerates is set to usher in an era of large scale organization in this market with modern strategies and newer technology. The left parties are willing to downplay these constructive features by mooting concerns over the so called predatory pricing regimes followed by such companies sounding a death knell to the smaller Indian retail companies.

Predatory pricing practices have been a common feature in arguments against large retail chains around the world like Wal-Mart. Although companies like Wal-Mart have in the past engaged in such practices, it is a case in point to note that such practices have failed and been the bane of these companies. To further allay such misconceptions it might be worthwhile to look into the rates of inflation which are a key index to the struggle in pricing. In fact trying to decrease rates of inflation by practices like monetary infusion, or increase in the stock of country’s money can prove counterproductive. There has been a debate over this issue in economic circles recently with Ben Bernake, the successor to Alan Greenspan as the chairman of US Federal Reserve being in support of such a policy of monetary infusion. The capitalist frame of thought on this issue propounded by none other than Ludwig Von Mises, the famous economist of yesteryear is that trying to increase the stock of money when the inflation rises above a certain level and decreasing it when there is deflation at a certain level, in other words, inflation targeting, cannot be achieved without misleading economy with an illusory boom. This would in simple common sense mean that, practices like predatory pricing will not be successfully possible if there is no indulgence of the Reserve bank of India in socialist practices like monetary infusion.

With India targeting a GDP growth rate of 8% there is definitely a need for more capital investment in retail, it being among the largest industries of the country. The influx of new technology like RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tags) in the retail industry which is bound to follow any FDI in retail will make businesses more efficient. Also the organization which this capital is bound to bring will actually play in favor of the Indian retail scene. A survey by FICCI indicated that there also needs to be a reform in the FDI policy guidelines set up by FIPB. A whopping majority of surveyed foreign investors have indicated that one of the most obvious deterrents for investing in India is the unstable nature of these policy guidelines. It has to be acknowledged that FIPB has put up online a manual which allays the fears of foreign investors by clearly indicating the guidelines and restrictions to foreign investment in India. But a rethink on increasing the cap of investments is required. Economic policy under socialist pretexts tends to be perfunctory in terms of dealing with illusory booms which lead to recessions by calling for more government control, thereby threatening the ideal of a free economy. The caprice by successive Indian governments with regard to reform in FDI policy is a case of a lack of will to weed out communist influence from economic polity. With countries like China being ranked higher than India in the UNCTAD survey of profitable investment locations one is bound to see that there is definitely a trend in favor of a capitalist economy around the world. Ludwig Von Mises, the noted economist strongly voiced his support for lassiez-faire capitalism as the most advanced economic theory; whether India can move, albeit slowly, towards such a system would in part depend on how it deals with this contentious issue of allowing private capital to flow into one of India’s largest industries.

References:

1. Investing in India: Foreign Direct Investment-Policy & Procedures, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

2. Retail Trading- Why FDI should be allowed: Jayanthi Iyengar in the Hindu Business Line

3. FDI in Retail must be allowed- Dr. Subramainan Swamy, Rediff Business portal.

4. Mises Institute: Why money supply matters- Thorsten Polliet www.mises.org

5. Mises Institute: What does inflation targeting mean- Roger Garrison www.mises.org

6. People’s Democracy, December 14, 2003: FDI threatens 3 crore Indian retailers- weekly organ of CPI(M)

On the Volcker Committee Report

For anyone interested in the turbid world of international power brokers, the report by the “Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For Food Program”, known as the Volcker Report is a fascinating piece of material. This report recently submitted by the Independent Inquiry Committee chaired by the Paul A. Volcker, Professor Emeritus of the International Economic Policy at Princeton University and former United States Federal Reserve Chairman (position currently held by Mr. Alan Greenspan) is a probe into the illicit activities that transpired under the banner of the United Nations Oil-For Food Program in Iraq. Although, I have not read through the entirety of the report, which is freely available on the internet, the basic intent of the report is to serve as a description of the investigation and draw certain conclusions and recommendations. The conclusions, amongst other things also relates to listing the names of individuals and entities against whom the investigation by the committee has found certain damaging evidence. It mentions incriminatingly, the names of people who fare in the who’s-who list of international politics and diplomacy, like Mr. Kojo Annan, the son of the current Secretary General of the United Nations Mr. Kofi Annan, and Mr. Joseph Stephanides, a former Director of the Security Council Affairs Division in the United Nations Department of Political Affairs (DPA), amongst others. The reason this report has kicked up a political storm in India is the mention of K. Natwar Singh, the current Minister of External Affairs in the Government of India and the Congress Party as “Non-Contractual Beneficiaries”.

To understand the implications one needs to make a brief background study about the United Nations Oil-For Food Program and the circumstances in which this report has been prepared. After the Gulf War in the early 1990’s, economic sanctions were imposed on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. In the aftermath of these comprehensive sanctions which stifled the Iraqi economy, the United Nations Security council instituted the Oil-For Food Program to aid in the humanitarian recovery of the Iraqi people. This was done after the sanction regime came under serious criticism and was instituted under a Security Council which was deeply divided over the issue. Maybe because of the division of interest amongst the members of the Security Council over this issue, certain NGO’s were “enlisted” to monitor the transactions of Iraqi oil exports and oversee activities of the United Nations Oil-For Food Program. After the recent war in Iraq, the Independent Inquiry Committee was set up to look into the alleged illicit payments which were made to the Saddam Hussein regime by individuals and companies in exchange for oil, under the pretext of the United Nations Oil-For Food Program.

Now, coming back to the India connection, all in all there has been a mention of India in four locations in the “Summary of Oil sales by Non-Contractual Beneficiary” referenced in the report as “Committee Oil Beneficiary Table”. The table is in alphabetical order and the following is a brief description of the four entries.

1. Appearing in page 25 of 60, under beneficiary, is India- Congress Party. The total number of barrels allocated is mentioned as 4,000,000 and barrels lifted as 1,001,000. There is also a mention of a contracting company, Masefield AG whose mission country is stated as Switzerland.

2. Appearing in page 40 of 60, under beneficiary, is Reliance Petroleum Limited. The total number of barrels allocated is mentioned as 19,000,000 and barrels lifted as 15,760,000. The contracting company in this case is mentioned as Alcon Petroleum whose mission country is mentioned as Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

3. Appearing in page 49 of 60, under beneficiary, is Mr. Bhim Singh. The total number of barrels allocated is mentioned as 7,300,000. There is no mention of the number of barrels lifted or any contracting company.

4. The next entry on page 49 of 60, under beneficiary, is Mr. K. Natwar Singh. The total number of barrels allocated is mentioned as 4,000,000 and total barrels lifted as 1,035,000. The contracting company mentioned in this case is again Masefield AG. It is also mentioned here the person is a Member of Indian Congress Party.

There are other details also mentioned alongside each entry in the table. To understand better the meaning of the entries, the meaning of the term “Beneficiary” is described as names of individuals or entities other than the contracting companies, which were mentioned in the Iraqi Ministry of Oil records of the Saddam Hussein government, as the intended beneficiary of the oil allocation. The appendix of the “Report on Program Manipulation” states the sources of information for these tables as mainly from the Records of the Government of Iraq, primarily from the Ministry of Oil and State Oil Marketing Organization.

Thus the groundwork has been laid for a diplomatic tussle which has pitched the Indian Government against the septuagenarian chairman of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For Food Program, Mr. Paul Volcker. Amongst the main areas of contention is the evidence based on which the allegations have been purported. The Ministry of Oil and State Oil Marketing Organization records listed as one of the source has also been mentioned by Mr. Volcker in a recent press conference as the main source of data for the tables. This list is supposed to be authentic and is said to include ledgers of oil surcharge payments made by companies and individuals around the world, which is illegal under the international laws. Refuting the authenticity of these documents may prove to be a tricky task for the Indian Foreign Office, mainly because these documents are a remnant of the Iraqi Regime with which India had maintained friendly diplomatic ties. Mr. Natwar Singh and his son are also linked with the Baathist party of Saddam Hussein in friendly terms. It may also prove tricky to completely disparage these report tables as another interesting entry which is mentioned in the reports is as follows.

1. Appearing in page 37 of 60, as beneficiary, is the Government of Pakistan. The total number of barrels allocated is mentioned as 4,000,000. There is no mention of the number of barrels lifted or any contracting company.

Clearly, refuting a report which implicates the Government of Pakistan as a beneficiary which paid oil surcharges and illegally funded the Saddam Hussein’s government may not prove to be very beneficial for the current Indian stand in international diplomatic circles.

Another point raised by Mr. Natwar Singh as to the indignation of the Indian government towards the report is in regard to the lack of prior notification to those implicated, by the Volcker committee about the names to be mentioned in the report, providing opportunity for those mentioned to produce evidence to thwart such claims. The report does include long letters sent by people who had been mentioned in the first interim report refuting claims by the committee about their involvement. Many letters are also included where many of the implicated persons reputations and intentions have been upheld by certain other peers and members of the United Nations so as to refute claims of their involvement in the scandal. It might be interesting to note that these letters sent to the committee are reproduced verbatim as Photostat copies of the original documents. Most of these letters sent as emails also have the preamble of the email addresses of noted diplomats and subjects mentioned by them in their original form. It is worthwhile to mention the many letters repudiating any involvement of Mr. Joseph Stephanides in the allocation of certain oil contracts as a personal favor to Lloyd Register, a British company, as claimed by the Volcker report. Even certain legal notices served by Mr. Stephanides’ counsel are also included as a part of the report. Although, Mr. Volcker and the report have claimed that they have sent notifications to “addresses in the UN databases” of all those mentioned in the report, providing opportunities for them to refute any allegations, no response from any Indian entity is included in the report.

The report by the Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For Food Program has ruffled quite a few feathers in India and around the world. The serious implications, against the son of the Secretary General of the United Nations are sufficient proof of the seriousness and reach of the report. Nevertheless, irrespective of the dubious political implications in India and around the world, the Volcker report is an eye opener into the dealings of power hungry politicians of the world who even stoop to acts illegally financing militant regimes in pursuit of power. With inclusions of actual transcripts of the investigation and candid appeals by international diplomats it makes for interesting reading too!

Reference:

1. The report by the “Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil-For Food Program”- Mr. Paul Adolph Volcker, Chairman.

http://www.iic-offp.org/documents

2. News reports, www.ndtv.com

Birdfluenza!

To be very honest, I started to write this piece with intentions of heaping adulation on a vegetarian diet, since I was of the opinion that the new disease in town, the Bird Flu was going to affect only poultry eaters. Although there has been a lot of news coverage on this recently both in the international media and the Indian press, I had ignored it as something not very relevant to a hardcore vegan. What caught my attention to it was a news piece about the settlement in the Lipitor battle between Pfizer and Ranbaxy. The article about the high profile global lawsuit about interpretation of patent laws also carried an interesting side note about the dire consequences of a draconian patent regime in case of a bird flu pandemic where the pharmaceutical company licensed to produce a anti viral drug used for treatment, could not match up to the global demand.

This obviously caught my attention and I did a little research about this new disease on the internet and found that there definitely is a cause for concern in case of world wide out break of Bird Flu. Not going into very detailed description of the genetics of the issue, which I certainly am not qualified to explain, here is a gist of the biology behind this disease, which I have been able to understand. Bird flu or H5N1 as it is called in scientific terminology is one amongst the many strains of influenza virus found in migratory birds. These birds carry these and many other strains of the virus in there intestines and they have no harmful effect on the birds which do not fall sick or die as a result of such infections. The different strains of the virus have varied reactions on different species of animals and H5N1 seems to have a fatal effect on poultry birds like ducks, turkeys and particularly chicken, and when these migratory birds come in contact with these poultry birds the virus jumps from one species to another and here begin all the problems. The disease spreads when the infected bird’s saliva or feces comes in contact with other animals. I am not sure of the symptoms of the disease in these birds which may involve cough and fever, but the crux of the issue is the highly contagious nature, among these birds of the H5N1 virus.

Before going any further, for those interested in the terminology of H5N1 let us examine in slightly more detail what this stands for. As we all know there are vaccines available for influenza and treatment for cases of flu is common in human medicine. But why then do people need to take flu shots ever so frequently and why do doctors prescribe different medicines at different times? This is because the influenza virus can mutate and these leads to different strains of the virus and the same vaccination can not work for all strains. Also, some of these mutations develop into drug resistant strains and hence there is a need for constant upheaval of the drugs which can counter these new strains. Now, a virus is a genetic material encapsulated in a protective coating material. When this entity attaches itself to the cells of the host that’s when a virus “attack” takes place. The surface of the virus has spike like extensions which are mainly protein components, and these receptor binding proteins, as they are called are responsible for the process of attaching the virus to the host cell. The influenza virus has around 500 such spikes and they are made up of two types of viral proteins called Hemagglutinin (HA) and Neuraminidase (NA). Different combinations of these proteins are denoted with different HN terminology like H5N1, H3N2 etc. If the host cell tissue, the upper respiratory tract in case of influenza virus, is not conducive for a particular combination of the viral proteins then the virus cannot attach itself and hence is harmless to the particular species having that tissue.

This strain is still a predominant threat only among poultry birds and there still is very little evidence of it making successful jump to humans. What is worrying the medical fraternity is that among the 100 or so reported cases of humans being infected with H5N1, there has been a 60% mortality rate. The first case of a human being infected with this strain was reported in 1997 in Hong Kong and since then there have been around 100 odd cases reported, around 60 of them since 2003. Although these statistics may not be very indicative of a major epidemic, the worry is about the hitherto un-reported cases of this virus. The people directly in contact with infected birds like the poor poultry farmers in South East Asia are the people mainly affected by the disease. It has been spotted extensively in countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and China. The concern in the international community seems to be about countries like China not disclosing the extent of the cases of bird flu, as a safeguard against trade restrictions on poultry products. Another cause for concern is the impending mutation of the virus which may make it easier for the disease to be transmitted to humans from these poultry.

Research has intensified for developing the drug and vaccines for this strain and although a vaccine is not available as yet, Glaxo SmithKline has indicated that they are on the verge of developing a H5N1 vaccine. Currently the disease is being treated using two drugs, Tamiflu, available in capsule form from the Swiss drug maker Roche and Relenza, available as in to be inhaled, powder form GSK. Going by the estimates of past flu pandemics, where the people affected world wide being around 50 million, and at a rate of 40 tablets per person, it is not difficult to fathom the large market for drugs like Tamiflu should the disease breakout among humans. It is also believed that the extent of pandemic may be worse than before affecting well over a 100 million people world wide. All these indications and the pressure from governments has made drug companies including Roche, who own rights to Tamiflu to declare that in the event of a global pandemic outbreak, they would be willing to share the rights to manufacture of these drugs to other companies. Such schemes of patent sharing does not always lead to the desired social good which they start out to achieve, as drug quality is the first to be hit in such cases where there is a substantial demand for a new drug to be manufactured by those companies who have not done so before. Nevertheless, it is imperative that a better solution to deal with the capacity shortages in companies like Roche be addressed at the earliest. In such situations, it might be worthwhile to track the stocks of these companies in the near future!

There has been precious little said or done about this situation in India. I for one have not seen in the press much talk about preemptive action to counter a threat of H5N1. Although the bird flu as of now seems to be still confined in the South East Asian countries, the poor hygienic conditions of the poultry markets in India and the seasonal interaction of poultry with the migratory birds are all very conducive for a widespread outbreak. In spite of the belief in the medical circles that consumption of poultry products may not lead to spread of the disease, more than 100 million poor chickens have slaughtered as preemptive action in South East Asian countries. It is yet to be seen if such barbaric yet required preemptive action is being considered in India. The congested and populated environment in India may actually prove to be a deadly breeding ground in case of a mass outbreak.

There may not be a case for an alarmist reaction to the situation but the general consensus amongst the medical fraternity is that caution has to be exercised. Indications are that there might be an effective vaccine ready by the time the virus mutates into a form which can affect humans more easily. With reports of the flu spotted in places like Turkey, Kazakhstan, Romania and few other parts of Europe, there is indication that the flu is spreading along with the migratory patterns of birds. As it is not possible to exterminate these infected species of birds as can be done with infected domesticated chicken, containment of the spread may not be possible. Effective quarantine measures are being initiated in these countries and around Europe and America. This vaguely reminds of the book Kalki by Gore Vidal, where a meglomaniac in the effort to start a new superior race of humans, hires a pilot to fly all around the world dropping leaflets loaded with a deadly poison which kills anyone who comes in contact with it. But one can be sure that there will be no one demented whacko behind a flu pandemic, but a whole bunch of unhygienic communities!

According to my understanding, it is the quarantine method that needs to be adopted in India. With the extremely deplorable conditions of the poultry breeding infrastructure in the country, the chances of the presence of bird flu is very likely. The best solution would be to study and quarantine the infected lots at the earliest. Also hygiene awareness should be improved and the deplorable conditions in which poultry and livestock are reared should be changed for the better. Of course being a vegetarian reduces a person’s direct contact with poultry products, it is nevertheless worthwhile to maintain strict levels of cleanliness in the fruits and vegetables we eat. As being a vegetarian does not also reduce one’s chances of being “bombed” by a bird, it may not be sensible, in the future to treat it as a lucky charm as some people do so today!

References:

1. Website of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/
2. Science Explained: http://www.synapses.co.uk/science/fluvirus.html
3. CNN’s report “Bird Flu: Preventing a Pandemic”

Technological Pure Science

Certain proverbs have a characteristic of nagging at one’s understanding of them ever so frequently. Take for instance the old adage “Necessity is the mother of all invention”. The validity of the word Necessity has inspired quite a few arguments. Some people, ignoring the subtle difference in the meaning between the words, are of the opinion that Need would be a better substitute to Necessity. Some others argue that neither qualifies to be the cause of anything and that Chance provides the best alternative. This theory argues that so much is invented based on results, corollary to those being researched, that it is these chance discoveries which are the essence of creation. And finally one more interesting view point that I have come across is that Lethargy, or lack of motive purpose is the mother of invention. Even if one does not associate rather harshly the meaning of lethargy, as lack of motive purpose, one is led to believe by this assertion that laziness is the pinnacle of human pleasure, and the aspiration to attain this leads us to invent things.

The above argument is mostly an extension of an older philosophical debate. An unbiased, narrative article I recently read described two different sides of a similar argument: between merits of pure science and those of technology. It described the two different view points, that of the purists claiming that pursuing scientific truth is necessary and valuable in its own right without regard to its application, and that of the technologists discrediting the exalted view of science being guided from within and propounding a more democratic framework, with a need of collective good promoting scientific inquiry. Trying to correlate these into the existing philosophical structures I referred to the Britannica Junior Encyclopedia’s essay on Philosophy. The above argument is a direct consequence of the contrasting views that exist on the theory of human knowledge and opinion, to that of the methodology of gaining knowledge.

A philosophically equivalent parallel to this argument can be found in the debate between the Rationalists and Empiricist schools of thought. Both these theories deal with the theory and the sources of knowledge, but the basic dichotomy of the two again depends on the contrasting views of the ways to gain this knowledge. The rationalist source of knowledge and subsequently of reality would be through deduction of concepts formed in the mind. This theory relegates the need of appeal to the senses for gaining knowledge and highlights apparently, the priority of perception of reality rather than reality itself. This is in a way similar to the theory of Maya in one of our Indian theologies, expounded by Shankaracharya. The empiricist source of knowledge would be by means of direct perception of immediate facts only through sense observations and experiments. Here too the concept of identity and existence are deemed unimportant and non-conceptualized sensory data is considered as valid forms of knowledge.

The flaw, according to me, in these theories would be firstly the sacrifice of reality and secondly as a consequence of non conceptual sensory observation, the belittling of the mind. The argument for pure science trivializes the application of scientific knowledge and limits it to theorizing about phenomena. On the other hand the argument for technology belittles the need for such conceptualization and emphasizes on the needs of the sensory reality. This leads us to the reason why there seems to be a debate over which concept of knowledge fits the meaning of the proverb best. Is the need for technology, the source of scientific inquiry into knowledge, or is technology a chance byproduct in the grand scale of purist scientific outlook.

It probably augurs well now to look for a synthesis between the source and output. Consider these examples; the explanation of the theory behind semi-conduction has led to the understanding and development of electronics and the electronics industry. But it has been the growing requirements of memory and processing power that has fuelled the scientific inquiry into conceptualizing better explanations of conductivity and subsequently the research into better semi-conducting material. The mapping of the human genome may be a purely scientific undertaking based on the need to understand and explain the evolution of mankind but it is driven in part also by the lucrative insights it can provide in tackling genetic disorders among humans. Just as sensory data is just data without the application of a man’s intellectual process and notion of conception is just a notion without man’s sensory inputs, so are pure science and technology interlinked.

Etymology dissects the word Philosophy as Philien and Sophy, Greek words for Love and Wisdom respectively. Hence Philosophy is the love of wisdom and wisdom would suggest that in the above debate we need to go further than just testing knowledge by its practical consequence or vice versa and develop an integrated synthesis of knowledge and application. Now, if an etymologist can provide a single word for an ‘Integrated Synthesis of Knowledge and Application’, then I believe we have an apt word for our favorite proverb!

References:

Britannica Junior Encyclopedia, William Benton, 1972 edition.

Kant Vs Sullivan, Ayn Rand, 1970

En Garde! It is a Dual-Core Duel!

Let’s face it, being an electronics engineer does no good to your hopes of a life filled with James Bond like adventures. Sure, all the movies show these suave heroes and heroines hacking into computers networks of casinos, defusing electronically controlled bombs and plugging in a new chip in a socket and automatically redirecting a speeding ballistic missile in mid air. But the role of “electronic engineer” is always portrayed in plural with one Chinese and one Indian guy moving around with laptops with amazing graphic interfaces where the software readily asks for the longitudinal coordinates of the missile to be redirected, at a push of a button. The worst hit to the ego of an electronics engineer comes when these hunky heroes who are in the midst of saving the lives of millions from the threat of a bomb or a damsel about to be vaporized by a laser, seem to figure out the electronics in less than two minutes, while we have to pore over stuff like linear integrated circuits and feedback equalizers for about a decade before understanding the relation between current and voltage. “Isolate the power source here with a toothpick stuck in the negative terminal, couple the output with the input using chewing gum” will no longer vaporize the girl but genetically enhance her beauty! and voila!, the laser

But now, after all these years of denial of adventure for the electronics engineer something has come up which has made our entire community chivalrous. Unfortunately, it does not involve any damsel about to be vaporized, but nevertheless electronics engineers are not backing down from this real life adventure. It is time for the duel between the electronic giants Intel and AMD over the Dual Core Processor! But before I proceed further on describing about the duel, I think I should make my loyalties clear for the benefit of the reader. I have seen four generations of computers in my family. Great grandpa computer, an IBM286 machine, was born in my house in early 1992. Those were the dark ages where one did not worry too much about processor speeds and he spent his days running programs like GW-Basic and games like Dig-Dug. But come 1998, grandpa computer was born, and the generation gap was significant. He was an AMD K6 266Mhz computer who was at his time so advanced that poor old great grandpa was equivalent to a pocket calculator in front of him. Times had changed and considerable thought went into the selection of the processor with due considerations to the speed. But soon he too was obsolete and as the workload increased he was unable to cope with it. Soon a relatively simple brain transplant was carried out and old pa computer was born in late 2003. Now this guy was advanced! He had the same body as the old guy but he has an AMD Athalon XP 2400+ processor and to this day a good workhorse. Meanwhile, early 2005 saw the fourth generation computer, a young lady with a mobile AMD Sempron 2800+ was born and being a notebook, she is upwardly mobile as all of the younger generation today. Now that it must be clear to most of you that I am an out and out AMD guy, I think we can go ahead and explore the news about the duel more closely.

Back in 2003, when old pa computer was born, a geeky electronics engineer classmate of mine marveling at the capabilities of the highly advanced AMD Athalon XP 2400+ processor went into a tizzy. After using my computer for one evening he looked liked this was what he had been waiting for all those years of his life for. He was also an AMD aficionado and excitedly declared that if an AMD processor and an Intel processor were made to run a race, AMD would win. He wanted a world wide public contest between the two giants to prove that the cheaper AMD worked faster and better than the brand heavy Intel. I was impressed. The electronic engineers at AMD also seem to have the same idea; they have recently issued a challenge to Intel for a public duel between their new Dual Core Opteron 800 series and the corresponding Intel x86 server processors.

Now, without going into too much details, what is special about the dual core processor is this. As every electronic engineer knows, Moore’s law means two times more transistor on a chip every other 18 months. What they probably also know is that this means proportional increase in heat dissipated. That’s not all; higher clock speed to span these newly added transistors means that further power consumption and heat problems. This is where the dual core makes its entry. The solution to the above problem is what is called as thread-level parallelism. By keeping clock speeds down and putting multiple CPU cores on a chip, processor performance can rise as transistor counts do. One of the advantage of this for instance would be that OS can now run on its own separate processor core and leave the other processor core on the same chip for other peripheral activities. Now, AMD want to be the first to manufacture and deliver these beasts for workstations and servers. And hence the battle lines are drawn, which was made public with advertisements about AMD issuing an open challenge to Intel for a Dual Core Duel.

This new battle between the giants has brought the electronics community to battle hungry frenzy. Just as AMD’s advertisement beckons Intel to accept the challenge the electronics engineers are eagerly waiting for the fencing match to begin! Touché Intel?

More about this duel is can be read at the following URL:

http://www.amd.com/us-en/0,,3715_13368_13369,00.html?redir=CPSW51

References:

http://www.techreport.com/

http://www.extremetech.com/

http://www.amd.com/

Copyright act is not expendable!

On Sundays it has been a habit in our home for some time now to get an additional newspaper. On weekdays we subscribe to the Deccan Herald and on Sundays the addition would be the Asian Age. The Asian Age is a sort of pseudo tabloid in the Indian market. Not that it can compete with its illustrious overseas partners like The Sun or even domestic TV channels like Star News in tabloid-ness, there is a distinctly tabloid like feel to the content it carries. Nevertheless, the main advantage of the Asian Age on Sundays is the international content it has. They seem to have collaborations with many good international papers like The Spectator, the Washington Post etc, whose articles they carry in their sheets. They also carry cartoons from these international newspapers and this makes for interesting reading.

Yesterday, there was an article originally from the International Herald Tribune questioning the need for copyrights in today’s world. It started of by lamenting about how the copyrights act, originally stipulated to protect the creators rights was now a tool for big business conglomerates to extort money from customers and control the markets. The article also questioned the European and American legislatures which allows these conglomerates the rights to an authors work for “no less than 70 years after the passing of the original author” and how this was a hindrance to “democratic right to freedom of cultural and artistic exchange”. As I read through the article I found that the authors were there seemed to be some contradictions which I could not understand. Clearly, this came from a very communist school of thought and the language and tone were in likeness to the blatant rhetoric which the bad guys in Ayn Rand’s

Some points made were downright appalling. The authors cited the examples of people exchanging music over the internet, which by the way is considered piracy in most cases, as a fascinating development of people no longer accepting big businesses ownership of music and melodies. What was funny was that they went on to recognize all artistic initiators as entrepreneurs (which at first glance looked highly contradictory of the old communist dogma) who take risks by creating their work and that copyrights were used by these creators to limit those risks. It took me sometime to understand, but I understood that this was just the same old communist thought packaged a little differently. According to them they were firstly downgrading artists by calling them entrepreneurs and than as usual going on to say that as they were business men they should not make money or protect there business risks with mechanisms like copyrights.

The pinnacle of the articles thought was stored for the end. Their proposal was to do away with “protective layers that copyrights ensure” and “make this fatal blow” work. According to the concluding paragraphs of the passage, “If the protective layer that copyright has to offer no longer exists, we can freely exploit all existing artistic expressions and adapt them to our own insights”. Apparently ‘to exploit’ no longer has the negative connotation it had before. And by such exploitation the article further exuded that domination of cultural monopolies could be overcome and new perspective from new artists would emerge and they would be able to make a living of their work. Unfortunately it did not seem to consider the plight of the original artist whose work was exploited and adapted to suit others insights, unable to make a living as a result of such exploitation.

I had discarded the newspaper yesterday finding these above views as radically against mine, but today I was surprised to find the same article printed by arrangement with the International Herald Tribune in the Deccan Herald’s Monday edition! On similar lines was an article I read about how it should be made mandatory for everybody to adopt the tribal way of eating food and how it was all inclusive and by forcing people to not choose the food they eat, the world’s hunger problems could be solved. Well I am surely not looking forward to a world where lack of copyrights mean that cheap remix songs are what one aspires to hear and a hungry stomach would be forcefully filled by insects, worms and raw meat.

References:
Asian Age, Deccan Herald.
International Herald Tribune:"Kill Copyright, let cultures remix again" Joost Smiers and Marieke van Schijndel novels generally dish out.

Oration

As I have mentioned, the art of writing prose poses many challenges. It requires a great degree of clarity in thought, good command over the language and a kind of sublime understanding in making the audience on the other side of the paper grasp the spark of thought that the author wishes conveyed. Oration on the other hand demands of the speaker a gumption which is not easily gained. The writer has the advantage of time that his readers can spend with his writing to understand it; the orator is stretched for time in the sense that generally there is an inverse proportion between the length of the speech and the audience’s understanding of it. There is a substantial difference even between the actual speech and the speaker’s written version, which he may refer to. This is because the speaker while preparing his speech in written form allows his mind the latitude of time to form his thoughts, but even this practiced speech is not granted the same latitude by a listening audience.

Thus oration requires above all, alacrity in speaker understanding the subject. A beautiful example of such a quality can be found in one of the short World War I biographies written by Sir Winston Churchill about the erstwhile French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. He writes in the note on Clemenceau in the book Great Contemporaries, which by itself is an exquisite piece of superlative writing, about the latter’s oratory skill as follows

“I also heard Clemenceau’s reply in the Chamber. It is very difficult for a foreigner with only a superficial knowledge of the language and only an indirect sensing of the atmosphere, to judge such oratorical performances. Certainly Clemenceau reproduced more than any other French Parliamentarian I have heard, the debating methods of the House of Commons. The essence and foundation of the House of Commons debating is formal conversation. The set speech, the harangue addressed to constituents, or to the wider public out of doors, has never succeeded much in our small wisely-built chamber. To do any good you have got to get down to grips with the subject and in human touch with the audience. Certainly Clemenceau seemed to do this; he ranged from one side of the tribune to the other, without a note or book of reference or scrap of paper, barking out sharp staccato sentences as the thought broke upon his mind. He looked like a wild animal pacing to and fro behind bars, growling and glaring; and all around him was an assembly which would have done anything to avoid having him there, but having put him there, felt they must obey. Indeed it was not a matter of words or reasoning. Elemental passions congealed by suffering, dire perils close and drawing nearer, awful lassitude, and deep forebodings, disciplined the audience. The last desperate stake had to be played. France had resolved to unbar the cage and let her tiger loose upon all foes, beyond the trenches or in her midst. Language, eloquence, arguments were not needed to express the situation. With snarls and growls, the ferocious, aged, dauntless beast of prey went into action.”

Apart from the superlative prose of the author, we are treated also to details of M. Clemenceau’s oratory skills. His ability to hold lethargically hostile audiences, with extempore oration, to rapt attention enough to make them obey him, is definitely a quality to be admired. Writing presupposes a great ability to convey to the reader the authors flow of thought and as a medium of communication is no less difficult when compared to oration, but the “method” required of speech is far greater in terms of proficiency of thought. Taken out of context, the above excerpt may suggest that M. Clemenceau’s oratory prowess may have been restricted to fierce rhetoric, but the following excerpt, again from the same source as above clarifies that his capabilities were much more. More, since the secret behind his exceptional oratory skills was his inherent ability to write.

“Excluded from the chamber, his voice could no longer be heard. Never mind! He had another weapon. He had a pen. His biographer says that Clemenceau’s journalistic output could not be contained in a hundred substantial volumes. He wrote for bread and life: for life and honour! And far and wide what he wrote was read. Thus he survived. He survived not to recover only, but to assault: not to assault, but to conquer.”

References:

Great Contemporaries by Winston S. Churchill, Fontana Books, 1937

My first serious blog!

My intention for indulging in this Blog is my need to improve my writing skills. Most people have a lot of thoughts and ideas in their minds. Some are able to communicate their thoughts and ideas effectively by speech and oration. This requires good diction and good presence of mind (which generally falters at the sight of an audience). But once this is overcome, speech making becomes easy. Few others express their thoughts by prose. Now this requires a whole other set of skills. In this medium one may not be directly in front of one’s audience to experience any kind of stage fright but has the inherent disadvantage of not being able to communicate visually.
The idea in a person’s mind is conceived as whole but like any channel of transmission the whole is affected by “noise” and all one hears is a group of sounds or reads a set of written symbols. Speech gives us many opportunities to convey tone and emphasis by both visual physical expressions and nuances of the speaker’s voice. Written prose has a tougher task of trying to capture these phonetic cues through articulate use of words and flow of thought. Educational research shows that ability to articulate one’s thought through written form requires a high degree of competence not only with language, grammar and vocabulary but also a great deal of understanding and knowledge of psychology.
My intentions though are not to enhance my psychoanalytical skills but to gain the ability to convey thought and intention in written form lucidly and in a more general sense, to be able to express my view point effectively!