Beating Corruption -
Technology perhaps provides the tool to bring down corruption, if not eliminate it. The best example being the online application for getting the encumbrance certificate and duplicate copies of land documents. Go directly, you will be charged Rs.200 and you will get it the same day; but this amount is a bribe. Applying online will take 1-2 weeks but you are charged only Rs.50 - the prescribed amount. More advancement in e-governance will certainly bring the required change.
Railway tickets through tatkal is another good example of bringing revenue to the government from those of you who do things at the last moment but want results are are ready to pay even double the amount to jump queue. This practice can be adopted by all government offices so that revenue will rise and middlemen will be eliminated.
Sound associated with stuff -
I saw a hilarious take by bbc on modern technology... apple, blackberry, and the like... the actor "boots" (i.e. kicks) an "apple" (the fruit and not a Steve Job's product) and it "crashes" (the window pane and not the bootup). Now in this video they hadn't shown the glass pane break but only the sound associated with it. It is amazing how the human mind can associate a noise to stuff, just like I did the noise with the glass window pane breaking. Mimicry probably uses this fact to entertain audiences.
3 months to complete a court case in China -
In China it takes a maximum of 3 months for getting an accused tried for an offence, convicted and sent to jail. Civil or commercial disputes are either settled or decided within 6 months. This is made possible due to the well connected computer network. The entire judiciary, from the lowest court to the highest court, is well connected through a computer network with each judge having every information in front of him/her. The court hall looks like a corporate office with state-of-the-art technology put in place in its day-to-day functioning. The case management system with well-knit archives is so scientific that all information is displayed on the screen for the benefit of litigants and judges, the moment a case is taken up for hearing.
PM's entourage -
A person died on his way to the hospital as the ambulance he was travelling in was blocked by PM's retinue in New Delhi. Will the PM take sole responsibility for his death?
Price Rise -
The spurt in prices is not only because of crop damage but also due to the fact that for 6 days (from Dec 17) the movement of all heavy goods vehicles on the Outer Ring Road here was banned during the Congress plenary at Burari, hitting hard the supply of vegetables and fruits. Trucks were not even allowed to park on this busy route, resulting in congestion and a squeeze on supplies. The Gujjar agitation in Rajasthan, blocking road and rail traffic, also impacted supply.
TAPI - Silk Road project connecting Central Asia to the West -
TAPI (Turkmenistan - Afghanistan - Pakistan - India) gas pipeline project was agreed to on Dec 11 in Ashgabat. IPI (Iran - Pakistan - India) pipeline project was brought under heavy pressure by the US. New Delhi and Islamabad buckled under American pressure. It actually provides the US to keep its forces deployed in this region under the cover of providing security to the pipeline. India in its zest to secure "global commons" with the US is needlessly getting drawn into the "new great game".
Computers that trade on news -
Math-loving traders are using powerful computers to speed-read news reports, editorials, company websites, blog posts and even Twitter messages - and then letting the machines decide what it all means for the market. Computers are actually parsing writter's works, sentence structure, even the odd emoticon. A wink and a smile - ;) - for instance, just might mean things are looking up for the markets. Then, often without human intervention, the programmes are interpreting that news and trading on it.
Technological revolution - The latest economic figures, news and social media buzz - "unstructured data", as it is known - can shift the mood from exuberance to despondency.
Words and sentiments - Feel-good words include obvious ones like "ingenuity", "strength" and "winner". Feel-bad ones include "litigious", "colludes" and "risk".
Reactions - People are trading news at very high frequency. It is the next wave of trading.
$2 trillion debt crisis threatens 100 US cities -
More than 100 US cities could go bust next year as the debt crisis that has taken down banks and countries threatens next to spark an urban catastrophe. Meredith Whitney, the US research analyst who correctly predicted the global credit crunch, described local and state debt as the biggest problem facing the US economy and one that could derail its recovery.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Cricket, Musings
As always I was watching sports channels on my television today. I saw the whole of Daniel Vettori's test hundred against Pakistan. Later that night I saw India beat Sri Lanka in the second T20 match. Earlier in South Africa, England became the third country to win an ODI series in South Africa, its victory's architect being Paul Collingwood.
People worship skill, I do too but it is the grind-out-types that I hold in greater respect. Collingwood, not the most talented cricketer, but always gives his whole to the game and that is much better than a highly skilled one who doesn't put in all his efforts. Ditto with Vettori's batting. They might be clumsy and dirty to watch but the effort they put in is amazing. The never-die attitude, the will to keep fighting, the gutsiness, the strength. That is what makes them the Mr.Dependable in their respective sides. The thing with people who rely on skill and talent is that there is a chance they might forget or lose their touch/quality. Such situations cannot arise for the gutsy ones since that is in their nature and what they are. Its not something that they have learnt or cultivated that could possibly be lost some day.
Now coming to the T20 game. Lets forget the poor standards of fielding and outfield cricket of the sides. I was concentrating on the chasing Indian batsmen. Everyone says that T20 is a batsmen's game, and we need to spare a thought for the poor bowlers who toil hard without equivalent return. But picture this - a bowler gets whacked at a rate of 9 runs per over. Now that is a decent return for the bowler in sub-continent pitches where runs are scored in buckets. But a batsman gets out for a naught. I am sure the selectors will persist with the bowler and ditch the batsman. All that I am trying to put forward is that it's the batsmen who are under pressure to perform in a T20 game as it's a forgone conclusion that T20 is a batsmen's game. The stakes are high for a batsman than for a bowler. So even if a bowler has a bad outing, it's ok but a batsman cannot and should not falter.
Graeme Swann's batting average after 13 tests and 15 innings stood above 40. That is more than what regular English batsmen or regular batsmen from any part of the world muster. And mind you those tests were against good oppositions including India, Australia, South Africa.
Today we had Baghban movie playing on one of the channels. It's a movie about family relationships, parent-kid interaction and all. Mostly interesting elderly people. And guess what commercials were played - use X's oil for cooking since it has less cholesterol, how many people will be affected by heart diseases by Y year... Interesting pattern...
People worship skill, I do too but it is the grind-out-types that I hold in greater respect. Collingwood, not the most talented cricketer, but always gives his whole to the game and that is much better than a highly skilled one who doesn't put in all his efforts. Ditto with Vettori's batting. They might be clumsy and dirty to watch but the effort they put in is amazing. The never-die attitude, the will to keep fighting, the gutsiness, the strength. That is what makes them the Mr.Dependable in their respective sides. The thing with people who rely on skill and talent is that there is a chance they might forget or lose their touch/quality. Such situations cannot arise for the gutsy ones since that is in their nature and what they are. Its not something that they have learnt or cultivated that could possibly be lost some day.
Now coming to the T20 game. Lets forget the poor standards of fielding and outfield cricket of the sides. I was concentrating on the chasing Indian batsmen. Everyone says that T20 is a batsmen's game, and we need to spare a thought for the poor bowlers who toil hard without equivalent return. But picture this - a bowler gets whacked at a rate of 9 runs per over. Now that is a decent return for the bowler in sub-continent pitches where runs are scored in buckets. But a batsman gets out for a naught. I am sure the selectors will persist with the bowler and ditch the batsman. All that I am trying to put forward is that it's the batsmen who are under pressure to perform in a T20 game as it's a forgone conclusion that T20 is a batsmen's game. The stakes are high for a batsman than for a bowler. So even if a bowler has a bad outing, it's ok but a batsman cannot and should not falter.
Graeme Swann's batting average after 13 tests and 15 innings stood above 40. That is more than what regular English batsmen or regular batsmen from any part of the world muster. And mind you those tests were against good oppositions including India, Australia, South Africa.
Today we had Baghban movie playing on one of the channels. It's a movie about family relationships, parent-kid interaction and all. Mostly interesting elderly people. And guess what commercials were played - use X's oil for cooking since it has less cholesterol, how many people will be affected by heart diseases by Y year... Interesting pattern...
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