hocus pocus

Kurt Vonnegut is very pessimistic about human nature. In the book, main character killed 82 people and slept with 82 women. Liked the idea of placcid fatalism. But, that only works if you are in army(soldier following orders) or a writer ( whose job is to debate about free will). Regular people always make choices - they may be easy or not so great- but choices they have to make. I guess they have to live and hope for the best for their future. It is fear and hope that guides us. Kurt seems to argue that hope/fear doesn't exist or even if they do - we can be easy about it. Fatalism is good after the fact for consolation, but it cant be guide for living.
Unless you are rich and accomplished without trying hard, between these two - hopes and despairs - people live their lives.

Sin Nombre

Bad things that were done to both the main characters - her father and El castor - and girl was left alone.
In spanish movies, often kids are shown to be capable of horrible murders. Am surprised that military doesn't get rid of the gangs though.

Kluge - Gary Marcus

Main points of Kluge

1. Insight into Evolutionary History
2. Improve ourselves by knowing ourselves ( our strength and weaknesses )

Chapters

• People
1. William Shakespeare
2. Richard Lederer
3. Ed Smylie
4. Jackson Granholm
5. Aristotle, John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith (Rational Man)
6. John Tooby & Leda Cosmides (Evolutionary psychology)
7. Martin Daly & Margo Wilson (Infanticide)
8. Martie Haselton & David Buss (Over interpret sexual intention)
9. Richard Dawkins
10. Herb Simon (Satisficing)
11. Francois Jacob
12. John Allman (Neuroscientist: Progressive overlay of Technologies)
13. Jerome Groopman: How doctors think
14. Barbara Touchman: The march of Folly
15. Leslie Orgel: Mother Nature is smarter than you are.
16. Dan Dennett: Philosopher
17. Stephen Jay Gould: Imperfections( the useless, the odd, the peculiar & the incongruous )
18. Peter Gollwitzer: Contingency Plans (If then Else )
19. Timothy Wilson
• Remnants of History
• Memory
• Belief
• Choice
• Language
• Pleasure
• Things Fall Apart
• True Wisdom

1. Whenever possible, consider alternative hypotheses.
2. Refrane the question.
3. always remember that correlation does not entail causation.
4. Never forget the size of your sample.
5. Anticipate your own impulsivity and pre-commit.
6. Don’t just set goals. Make contingency plans.
7. Whenever possible, don’t make important decisions when you are tired or have other things on your mind.
8. Always benefits against costs.
9. Imagine that your decisions may be spot-checked.
10. Distance yourself.
11. Beware the vivid, the personal and the anecdotal.
12. Pick your spots.
13. Try to be rational.

Main Point

• Emotional outburst
• Mediocre Memory
• Vulnerable to prejudice
• Nature: If something works, it spreads. Adequacy is the name of the game.
• Evolutionary Inertia
• Human Brain
• HindBrain (1/2 billion yrs old ): Respiration, Balance, Alertness
• Mid Brain : Auditory & visual reflexes
• Forebrain : Language and Decision making
• Relative Recent Evolution
• Bacteria : 3 Billion Years
• Mammals : 300 million years
• Human Beings : Couple of hundred thousand years
• Language, Complex Culture and Capacity for deliberate thought : 50,000 years
• Creatures who didn’t have language, didn’t have culture and didn’t reason deliberately. Originally adapted for very different purpose.
• Genome

Counter Point

• Optimization is inevitable outcome of Evolution.

Rajani and Hinduism

RajaniKanth is megastar( wait...Giga Star...hmm....No not a star, Super Nova...not really...perhaps Galactic Star....yes that sounds right)...Rajanikanth is a Galactic Star.
He embodies an ouevre of work which spans two decades. When he comes on screen to those who are familiar of his work, he represents all his work. .Why?
Kind of respect he commands while alive,coaxed me to think that maybe, it was from here, Aryans learnt the bulk of Hinduism, mainly idolatry. And in my belief, it allowed Hinduism to survive islamic onslaught when Islam routed every other older civilization.

Saddam Hussain: Iraki Leader

Just watched "House of Saddam - HBO series". Looking at Iraki society, it seems so plausible why he could be a legitimate leader. His legitimacy is valid in the sense that there is no mechanism in place to replace him rather than having another dictator.
I have an Iraki-American friend and often get to know the arab version of the world. In his version, he seemed to be the best of the worst leaders they could have had. The rift between Shia and Sunni has been playing in Irak since prophet's nephew was murdered and broke that idolator Iranian heart. After all, Iranians gave us our religion, at least the nature worshipping part, and also the part where we worship the kings, perfect men e.g. Rama and Krishna. Thus, I could understand their point why caliphate should have stayed with the Prophet's blood line. Prophet's family is the perfect family and spilling the holy blood 1000s years ago made Arabs barbarian in Shia's eyes.
Given this background, saddam was secular in pursuit of his power and was paranoid( as needed, ask Andy Grove ), brutal( what is detractors did to him ) and had western political goals ( education, political party, military ) rather than religious absolute goal which blindsides a person to every other concern( I know it personally. Brahmins often thought that world is maya and just this idea made India slightly unconcerned with earthly concerns. They even influenced Kings, both Hindu and Muslim, Dara Sikoh...It kind of makes you zone out and all earthly concern seem pitiful).
In short, he was not a psycho. His weaknesses were like of Bush and other powerful family's in democratic society where loyalty is rewarded. If he were surrounded by more democratic ambience, he would have been a decent forceful leader.

Dawn and its opinion page writers

Dawn is a venerated newspaper in Pakistan, started by Father of Pakistan, Jinna himself. I often read the newspaper to get an idea of how pakistani literate class is thinking about pakistan( as if that matters. I should be reading what newspaper Military Establishment is reading to get an idea of power center's thoughts).
In anycase, I often read the opinion page by various writers. Here is what I think of them.
Javed naqvi:
Mr. Naqvi seems to think that social/political goals can be achieved through nihilistic violence. He suggests that Mumbai terror is due to Muslim Alienation because they have not been part of recent Indian Economic growth. He doesn't realize that most of India is not participant in the recent Economic growth.
In Maharashtra itself, we have farmers committing suicide( the so called most developed state ). In Gujarat we had massacre based on religion which was not even contained, but rather infalmed. In Bihar and UP, where there is significant muslim population, Laloo and Mulayam Yadav have worst governance record. Only place I could think which have done well so far is Southern States. In this malaise, everyone's lot in India is precarious unless you are an old royalty or big business house scion. To suggest that these terror attacks, given the pervasive poverty, were results of economic depravation is malicious and it hurts Muslim economic and political cause.
I do agree with his point that Muslims in India do not have to put their patriotism on the lapel. They are as Indian as any one else, and perhaps more so. Most of our leaders are Hindus and see what they have done for us.

CowasJee:
He seems to talk about persians in India/Pakistan most of the times. He, more often than not, dwells in past. And thinks that India in 1933 was a great place when we are fighting for our freedom with our lives, and Bhagat Singh was dying for the nation. It is possible that He finds present day India/Pakistan worse that what he was living in British India. This shows that nations are never homogeneous entity and there are always people who are at top, comfortably ensconced and not aware of the problems masses were facing.
What I find fascinating is his enmity towards President Zardari and support for General Musharraf. He doesn't get it that Zardari is an elected president and always points out his foibles. He fails to see that he is a legitimate leader. In fact, that may be the fundamental difference between India and Pakistan. We get the lousiest leaders in the world, but those bastards have the rights to rule us since they won a fair election. If you think otherwise, please go organize and vote. Pass a legislation to put criteria for leaders. But once elected, dont smear their legitimacy, just because PM Bhutto arrested him long time ago.

Kamran Shafi:
He is a retired Military General, I believe. He never deals with real issues, but talks about what fun time he had in jaipur or whereever he went. And what great sort of people he knew. And how in India Military doesn't get royal treatment....He should see our politicians....thugs....

Security in India

After ~200 people dead and ~500 injured, Home Minister offered to resign.  GOI is planning to create a CIA in India and plans to modernize the police force.  When we are attempting to achieve something of this scale, our goal should be simple and informed of common sense:

• We must have National ID card.  This will allow us to identify people.  This will cost money and is very hard to implement.  
• In short term, we must have a legislation like POTA which allows criminals which have terrorist affiliation, should be detained without judicial requirement of normal justice.
• We must eliminate Black Money economy by making sure that GOI collects taxes.  Presently, Black Economy is of the size of White money economy and it creates enormous drain on government resources.  Without money, I dont see how GOI can spend on non-developmental endeavour in such a big way.
• Police must be paid better.  If they are not paid well, security cannot be achieved.  It is hard to demand honesty and integrity from average policemen, if we pay them peanuts.
• We should implement on central database in which all information about 1 Billion people is kept centralized.  It should be accessible from every police car.
• We should finerprint all miscreants.  We should monitor movement out of the country via biometric search.
• Lastly, we must keep the nation clean.  If the city looks like garbage, it automatically creates a feeling of apathy in all its citizens.