Adventure racing on auto-rickshaw ...


Teams from around the world have begun racing across the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu in three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.

The 1,000km (590-mile) race, which kicked off in Madras (Chennai), will end in Kanyakumari, the southern-most tip of India, on 27 August. Participants come from as far as the UK, US, Hungary, Armenia and Russia. The Indian Auto-rickshaw Challenge is strictly fun, without any prize at the end of the race, the organisers say.

Colourfully named teams like Tamil Devils and Curry in a Hurry will get a first-hand experience of Indian roads. The Indian Auto-rickshaw Challenge is strictly fun, without any prize at the end of the race, the organisers say.

... Whitney (and her hubby) might need a bodyguard afterall!

Read more here.
Al-Qaeda chief and the world’s most dreaded terrorist, Osama bin Laden had a crush on singer-cum-actress Whitney Houston and wanted to make her his wife after killing her husband Bobby Brown.

Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof (37), who claims to have once been Osama's sex slave, writes this in her autobiography - Diary of a Lost Girl.

“He told me Whitney Houston was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He would say how beautiful she is, what a nice smile she has, how truly Islamic she is but is just brainwashed by American culture and by her husband - Bobby Brown,” Page Six quoted her as saying.

Maybe he mis-interpreted her crooning of I'm every woman by taking them literally ;)

Whatever you want
Whatever you need
Anything you want done baby
I´ll do it naturally
Cause I´m every woman
It´s all in me
It´s all in me

I´m every woman
It´s all in me
Anything you want done baby
I do it naturally

American Masters is a great show, playing various episodes on WGBH & other PBS stations recently. I had seen a little bit of the show on James Dean last weekend...but today saw the entire hour of Albert Einstein: How I See the World .

More about the show at the link above, but here is a preview: Expelled from high school, unable to find a teaching job, and stuck working at a government patent office, Albert Einstein (1879–1955) went on to become one of the greatest scientific thinkers of all time. He used his free time at the Swiss Patent Office to develop his groundbreaking theories on the nature of time and space. He won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921 for his theory that light is made of waves as well as particles. Although his early theories paved the way for the atomic bomb, Einstein later became a peace activist, saying, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." By the time he died, Einstein was considered not only the most important scientist but the smartest man of his time.

Exhausting & Awesome - Two contrasting Bollywood movies

Rediff review - KANK is an exhausting watch:
I feel older. A showing of Karan Johar's mammoth 22-reel Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna has left me unbelievably exhausted. I walk out of the hall feeling my cheeks for stubble, wondering if my clothes are suddenly dated and my hair's grey. For this is no ordinary 3.5-hour film. It is a saga that stretches on and on -- imagine, if you will, a Balaji Telefilms soap running for several seasons, time leaps and all. Yes, I've lost a sizeable chunk of my life, and you will too.

and ends...

"Damn, it still hurts. Think it'll take a couple more viewings of another film with a limping leading man to soothe the pain."

The film that blew (the reviewer's) mind being Omkara (official site), based on Othello, a great movie directed by Vishal Bharadwaj, director of Maqbool (which I have not seen but was based on Macbeth, it seems)...

Amit Varma blogs about the movie and refers us to a good review of Omkara by Baradwaj Rangan and also Jai Arjun Singh's raving blog post praising the movie, although apparently Falstaff is most unimpressed with Omkara.

Also, read an interview with the director, Vishal Bharadwaj, who started in Hindi movies as a music composer but after seeing the great acclaimed Polish director & Master of Cinema, Krysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog was inspired into making films.

Poet's New Work Chronicles a Couple's Love
On PBS's Newshour poetry series, Arizon'a poet lauerate, Alberto Rios reads from his latest book of poetry "The Theater of Night" which follows a couple in a U.S.-Mexico border town through their youth, marriage and thoughtful old age. Rios was recently a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award for his last book of poems.

“Let us create a future we would want to speak in any language.”—Alberto Rios interviewed on NewsHour.

PBS's Profile: Alberto Rios
Rios' Web site at Arizona State University

Some other books by Rios include:
Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses: Poems
Five Indiscretions
Petalos; Poemas, Biligual Edition with Richard D. Mahoney
Lime Orchard Woman
The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body
The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart
Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir
Whispering to Fool the Wind
The Curtain of Trees: Stories

The longlist for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006 is as follows:

Carey, Peter Theft: A Love Story (Faber & Faber)
Desai, Kiran The Inheritance of Loss (Hamish Hamilton)
Edric, Robert Gathering the Water (Doubleday)
Gordimer, Nadine Get a Life (Bloomsbury)
Grenville, Kate The Secret River (Canongate)
Hyland, M.J. Carry Me Down (Canongate)
Jacobson, Howard Kalooki Nights (Jonathan Cape)
Lasdun, James Seven Lies (Jonathan Cape)
Lawson, Mary The Other Side of the Bridge (Chatto & Windus)
McGregor, Jon So Many Ways to Begin (Bloomsbury)
Matar, Hisham In the Country of Men (Viking)
Messud, Claire The Emperor’s Children (Picador)
Mitchell, David Black Swan Green (Sceptre)
Murr, Naeem The Perfect Man (William Heinemann)
O’Hagan, Andrew Be Near Me (Faber & Faber)
Robertson, James The Testament of Gideon Mack (Hamish Hamilton)
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk (Picador)
Unsworth, Barry The Ruby in her Navel (Hamish Hamilton)
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch (Virago)

Update: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai is the surprise winner!

No wonder we get so much spam - apparently spammers (the good ones) can make up to 600,000$ per month!! Enough that AOL seriously believes this guy was loaded with gold and platinum, huh? :) And even funnier that AOL really wants to actually dig and get the Au and Pt allegedly hidden in the spammer's parents backyard as compensation for the court case they won against the spammer.

AOL in treasure hunt to settle spam case

Incredulous stuff..sounds like its from the Onion or something! ;)

THE book is out.

A book I'll probably never read, even though being from Bombay myself and having read and enjoyed an excerpt from this book in Amit Chaudhuri's compilation, Vintage Book of Modern Indian Literature, I am sure I'll enjoy the book but who has the time and the patience for reading big 1200-page tomes like this. Despite liking Vikram Seth's writing, I never really ever seriously contemplated reading Suitable Boy and am afraid Sacred Games is going to be the same way...although I do plan to read his well-received book of short stories, Love and Longing in Bombay sometime soon.

Anyways, read a review by Nilanjana Roy, who blogs as Hurreebabu at Kitabkhana, a great literary blog. Also read another review by Jai Arjun Singh, also a journalist from Delhi, who, unlike yours truly, writes a great blog titled Jabberwock that lots of people read.. the title of the blog is based on a poem from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll. Just learned that Jabberwocky has begun to mean

1. A manifestation of the deepest level of fear in the human psyche.
2. All of the things that one is afraid of that one can put no proper name to.
3. The name of Lewis Carroll's monster in The poem "Jabberwocky"; it appears only when Alice is afraid and once confronted, never appears again.

---------- A few month's back.. ----------

The barbarians shrug, knock down your walls with their amazingly powerful weapons and put a parking lot over your sacred grounds. "
- Vikram Chandra on the pointlessness of resisting technology

---------- Earlier this year... ----------

The book to look forward to apparently in 2006 is Vikram Chandra's (of Love and Longing in Bombay fame) big epic (1200 pages!!) book, Sacred Games. First there was lots of press about the huge advance the author got for the book, and in January the publicity machine in India was abuzz with interviews and profiles in almost every paper.

For example, read these interviews and profiles in various Indian newspapers:
The Hindu
The Indian Express
DNA - including an interview
Economic Times
Mid-Day

And this article listed the book as one of the 36 reasons to wake up to 2006 !!! Wow..now thats hype!! :)

Read a fascinating article in the BBC last week...

Peru link to Indian archaeological find?
Geologists have discovered a striking archaeological feature on a hillock in the Kutch district of the western Indian state of Gujarat. This feature is shaped like the Roman numeral VI. Each arm of this feature is a trench that is about two metres wide, two metres deep and more than 100 metres long. The feature has evoked the curiosity of archaeologists because such signs have mostly been observed so far in Peru. .... The Kutch region is host to several archaeological findings belonging to the Harappan civilisation (3000-1500 BC). This has led to the speculation that this feature could be related to the Harappan civilisation.

Other links to similar fascinating archeological stories covered by BBC in years past include:

Tsunami throws up India relics
11 Feb 05 | South Asia

Lost city found off Indian coast
11 Apr 02 | South Asia

Lost city 'could rewrite history'
19 Jan 02 | South Asia

Indian seabed hides ancient remains
22 May 01 | South Asia

Archaeologists probe legendary city
19 Oct 00 | Europe

Digital Planet - Fifteen years after the arrival of the web, users explain how it has transformed their lives - while children tell us what it is like to be part of the technology-literate generation.

Speaking of planets..

Definition of a planet creates a world of controversy
A committee has proposed a new definition of the word "planet" that would expand the family of planets from 9 to 12.

And a few days later...

It looks like there are 2 factions and they just keep fighting back and forth over definitions. they are back at degrading Pluto back from being a main planet! Pluto faces being sent to minor leagues

And then...the final word - It’s official. Planet Pluto is no more…

I am tired of reading about the Fall of Pluto.. and scientists behaving like kids (and naming dwarf planets) and kids thinking they are scientists (school kids vote: keep pluto a planet!) and of people in general getting their planetary panties in a bunch over how they need to modify the various mnemonics, including my favorite (only because it is the most logical one*) one: "My very excellent mother just showed us nine planets"

* I never needed mnemonics to remember stuff like this or for anything else for that matter.. though, with age, who knows, some day, I may need memory improvement tools like these... though I am glad to read that there is "mounting evidence suggests that diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia can be prevented (by diet & lifestyle choices) and are not the natural result of the ageing process," and that the answers to graceful aging are not all in the genes. Though ofcourse, if you believ this guy, we'll all live healthy untill we turn 5000 years old... (we'll all destroy the planet much before that but thats a whole other philosophical argument for another day...)

Related Link:
Interview with the International Astronomical Union (IAU)'s new President, Catherine Cesarsky (previously ESO Director-General) on Pluto's demotion. (also read the Inaugural address from the new IAU President.)

And finally a kind of related news snippet about geologists getting their arhaic panties in a bunch over the new 'Pluton' definition. The article mentions an unbelievable story of the outgoing IAU President, Owen Gingerich, saying that he thought 'pluton' wasn't a real word because Miscrosoft Word dictionary didn't have it!! Kinda unbelievable ... didn't know Gates had such a stronghold on our common sense too!

Starting another new thread.. 12 interesting scientific (including social sciences) studies in the news..

Based on my reading of your blog, I think you might find these dozen studies interesting..

1. Our perceptions of body image is primarily predicted by biopsychosocial influences.

2.Race, class, and Hurricane Katrina: Social differences in human responses to disaster

3. Girl or Boy: Chance, choice and control: Lay debate on prenatal social sex selection

4.Do dogs harbour risk factors for human breast cancer?

5.Cat parasite may affect cultural traits in human populations

6. Mice learn tasks that may help treat human psychiatric disorders
(from 4, 5, and 6 above, I conclude that dogs and cats are bad for humans but rats are good. No report yet about cows (no..not this very useful COW!) other than reports about some madness in cows that affects human but humor aside, whatever be the alleged negative effects of cows, I do not think I can convert Amit Varma- his confidence may be stirred, but not shaken! ;) In any case, keep eating that curry cause apparently, chemicals in curry and onions may help prevent colon cancer)

7. Patterns of usage of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
Use of CAM is relatively common, with younger, Caucasian patients with malignancies being the most common users. However, there seems to be no difference in perceived postoperative problems, nor actual postoperative complications between CAM and non-CAM users.

8. Living Larger and Longer The human animal is taller, heavier, healthier and longer-lived than in the past. Whatever the reasons, maintaining health should not necessarily be to extend life but to enjoy life.

9a. What You See Is What You Eat
9b. Genetic glitch could keep some people from feeling full
9c. Scientists Successfully Test New Anti-Obesity Vaccine

10. Sorry monkey, apes are smarter (also see this 'Monkey' video link by Ernest Cline) but remember: Predators prefer to hunt small-brained prey

11. Researchers convert farm waste to energy source I think rural communities in India , Africa and probably elsewhere have known this for centuries... so what if it is not non-smelly, dry-to-touch s*** ;)

And finally...blame all your bad habits on those damn jeans..er..genes

12. A family study of pathological gambling

No...not them, though I hear they are back too after all many years with an album worthing listening to, called Nice talking to me. I used to hear their song,' Little Miss can't be wrong' (hear a snippet) from their debut album on the radio a lot in 1992-93 with Pocket Full of Kryptonite but never heard about them since; though just learnt that they apparently released a few albums in between - Can't Be Wrong and Here Comes the Bride, and a collection put together titled, Just Go Ahead Now: A Retrospective!

I'm talking here about these scientific geniuses who made something from nothing. Even Seinfeld would be proud :) (Btw, had perused through a book, Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing some years back. To think that the show inspired a book on philosophy! Ofcourse, to the existentialist philosopher (also read the Existentialism Blog), nothingness is a very important concept and many tomes have been written on the subject, including the most famous of all - Sartre's Being & Nothingness (Exhaustive class notes on the book here. Also: A Commentary on Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness by Joseph S. Catalano). However, in my mind, nothingness in the context of Seinfeld is not really the same thing! As Isabella Adjnani has apparently said, ' Nothingness not being nothing, nothingness being emptiness'. However, just read the argument being made that Charlie Brown (from Peanuts) is an existentialist, and that I can agree with!

Anyways.. pardon the multiple digressions..! Here is the article I originally intended to link to..

Spin Doctors make something from nothing

Electronic devices are always shrinking in size but it's hard to imagine anything beating what researchers at the University of New South Wales have created: a tiny wire that doesn't even use electrons to carry a current.
Known as a hole quantum wire, it exploits gaps – or holes - between electrons. The relationship between electrons and holes is like that between electrons and anti-electrons, or matter and anti-matter.
The holes can be thought of as real quantum particles that have an electrical charge and a spin. They exhibit remarkable quantum properties and could lead to a new world of super-fast, low-powered transistors and powerful quantum computers.

P.S. Speaking of holes, scientists on a quest to find the esoteric black holes have found surprisingly few.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it. - Woody Allen
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. - Paul Valery

NY Times dismisses the myth that Latin America is rapidly moving to the left or center-left, at best - ignited by Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

If you're looking for happiness, go and live in Denmark.

It is the happiest country in the world while Burundi in Africa is the most unhappy, according to a report by a British scientist released Friday.

So, what does happiness mean to you? Undoubtedly, being happy and measuring happiness (rtf file) is not that easy.

"Happiness is determined more by one's state of mind than by external events. Success may result in a temporary feeling of elation, or tragedy may send us into a period of depression, but sooner or later our overall level of happiness tends to migrate back to a certain baseline." - The Art of Happiness by the 14th Dalai Lama

"Happiness is not a simple thing. There are many levels. In Buddhism, for instance, there is a reference to the four factors of fulfillment, or happiness: wealth, worldly satisfaction, spirituality, and enlightenment. Together they embrace the totality of an individual's quest for happiness." - ibid

The Dalai Lama has also written a book - Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment

--

"If it makes you happy... it can't be that bad" crooned Sheryl Crow.

In an increasing trend, men lead meaningful lives with no jobs or ambition

Instead of heading to work, Beggerow, 53, fills his days with diversions: playing the piano, reading histories and biographies, writing unpublished Western potboilers in the Louis L'Amour style - all activities once relegated to spare time. He often stays up late and sleeps until 11 a.m.....

Read more at the article.. no, its not from The Onion!

The legendary guitarist from Mali, Ali Farka Toure, lauded as the King of the African Blues, the Godfather of Desert Blues, and the King of Sahara, passed away earlier this year. (Obituaries from BBC, NYT, Guardian, NPR, and various bloggers and online sites & forums remember him fondly.)

Thanks to BBC's World Music Audio Archive, listen to a great tribute show here (real player download)

Following the death of the mighty Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, Lucy Duran and Andy Kershaw presented a special tribute to their friend. The programme includes some of the desert bluesman's essential tracks, as well as material from the BBC's own archive, and contributions from Ali's friend and producer Nick Gold.

You can isten to a number of clips featuring Ali Farka Toure's music on NPR's All Songs Considered, including an interview (real player download) with his long-time producer, Nick Gold (also the man who bought us the Buena Vista Social Club). Nick describes his journey to Nikafune near Timbaktu to record the album, Niafunké.

Apparently...

...forsaking fame in Europe and the US, which came aplenty, Ali Farka Toure retired in the 1990s from all travel and music recitals abroad, instead developing and spending the remainder of his life developing his farm in Nikafune. He refused to travel to he US to even produce albums and apparently even did not travel to the US to get his Grammy, famously saying..."I don't know what a Grammy means but if someone has something for me, they can come and give it to me here in Niafunke, where I was singing when nobody knew me.")

Ali Farka Toure enjoyed his life in Niafune.

"Africa is my source of inspiration, my home base, my joy".
Contrary to many African artists, Ali Farka Touré was never tempted to exile himself in the West, during the seventies and eighties when the expansion of World Music drew many of them to Europe. Quite the contrary. This musician, whose musical culture is impressive, respected and revered throughout the world, is truly closer than any other to his own land, Mali. To such a degree that today, after winning over the international music scene with his sensitive, inspired blues, he now spends most of his time farming.

Markus James visited Ali Farka Toure in Mali in January 2006, a few weeks before Ali's passing, and shares his thoughts about his long-time friend and inspiration.

Reviewing his album, Savane, released posthumously earlier this month, Robin Desenlow of the Guardian, writes:

There may be other recordings of his that have yet to be released (including sessions with the world's finest kora player, Toumani Diabaté, recorded at the time of their memorable concert together at the Barbican last year), but this is the last solo album by the best-known and best-loved guitarist in Africa, and it's simply outstanding. He described it as "my best album evera" and he was absolutely right. Even compared to the much-praised earlier work by Mali's "godfather of the desert blues", this is a set that's remarkable for its sheer variety and passion, along with the expected but still thrilling guitar work, and some less predictably fine vocals.

And Charlie Gillett reviewing the album, Savane, in the Observer wrote:

The great bluesman's posthumous album is the finest of his career. Remember him this way.

Farka Toure won his second Grammy earlier this year for Heart of the Moon, BBC's Album of the Year* (hear Hawa Dolo from this album) and his collaboration with Toumani Diabaté, the great African kora player, having won one for Talking Timbaktu, a collaboration with American guitarist, Ry Cooder, in 1994.

*The BBC review had this to say about the album: "It sounds like an established partnership made in heaven"..

Earlier Reviews in The Guardian
02.07.2005: Ali Farka Touré/Toumani Diabaté, Barbican, London
24.06.2005: CD: Ali Farka Touré commit; Diabaté, In the Heart of the Moon
12.11.2004: CD: Ali Farka Toure, Red & Green

Other links of interest:

Ali Farka Toure- Live In Niafunke
Afropop makes the pilgrimage to visit Grammy Award winner Ali Farka Toure in his beloved hometown of Niafunke on the banks of the Niger River in northern Mali. In this sublime set, Ali plays acoustic with musical mates on the njarka (one string violin), and the gurkel (two string instrument w/metal piece for buzz) and calabash (gourd used for percussion). Ali talks about what family and his community in Niafunke mean to him. Listen to the selection of his songs at the above link or via podcast.net.

Read an interview with Ali Farka Toure

And last but not least, see these videos via YouTube:

Ali Farka Toure with Corey Harris
Ali Farka Toure part 1
Ali Farka Toure part 2
Ali Farka Toure part 3
Ali Farka Toure part 4
Ali Farka Toure part 5
Ali Farka Toure part 6