Everything Connected: A trivia geek reads the news

US Whaling Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Japan and Australia are fighting a diplomatic blame game over Japanese whaling in the Antarctic waters. While Australia views whales as irreplaceable giants of the sea whose vitality reflects the health of the oceans, many Japanese consider the large mammals as simply a source of food and a continuation of tradition. Australia is accusing Japan of carrying out commercial whaling in the guise of scientific research.

While there is evidence of Japan's involvement in whaling since the 12th century, it is only in early 1900s that it became a modern whaling superpower.

Norway, Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany were the largest whaling nations prior to World War II and they pursued the killing without regard to conservation. The 1930's was the greatest decade of whale slaughter in history. In 1931, 37,438 blue whales were massacred in the Southern Oceans. Japan sent its first ships to Antarctica in 1935. The sale of whale oil helped to finance the invasion of Manchuria and China. In 1937 alone, more than 55,000 whales were slaughtered yielding 3 million tons of animals.

Proceeds from the whale oil sale helped Japan to finance the invasion of Manchuria and China in the 1930s. However Japanese whaling operation was almost wiped out during World War II when most of its fleet was destroyed.

And here comes the American connection. In 1946 the American Shogun of Japan, General Douglas MacArthur was responsible for reviving the Japanese whaling industry. He proposed the creation of a Japanese whaling fleet to secure protein for the conquered Japanese people. He did so in order to cut down on the United States' costs of transporting food to post war Japan. The deal was that Japan would get the meat and the oil would be turned over to the United States. The United States provided $800,000 in fuel for the whaling ships and received over 4 million dollars in whale oil in return.

I do not think General MacArthur could foresee the impact of $3.2 million profit.

Was Jane Fonda a reason for Nuclear Scientist's Heart Attack?

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:16:00 +0000

President Obama showed his support to nuclear power when he guaranteed government loans for a nuclear project, a first in last 30 years.

Nuclear power became unpopular in the US in 1979 when there was an accident at the nuclear reactor on the Three Mile Island near Harriburg, PA. It is the most significant accident in the history of the American commercial nuclear power generating industry as yet. There was a cessation of new nuclear plant construction in the US after the incident due to a strong public reaction to the event which made nuclear power plants politically unfeasible until now.

Interestingly, the key reason of the strong public reaction was a movie starring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas. Released 12 days before the Three Mile Island accident and called The China Syndrome, it was about a nuclear accident due to poor safety practices of the power plant. The movie struck a chord with the audience and Jane Fonda became one of the prominent anti-nuclear power spokesperson after the event. The Jane Fonda influence was so significant that government's science advisor, Edward Teller (father of hydorgen bomb) had to counter her and lobbied in favor of nuclear power. Long working hours to neutralize Jane Fonda's advocacy at and old age took its toll and Edward Teller suffered a heart attack. which he blamed on Jane Fonda in a Wall Street advertisement. It said:

"You might say that I was the only one whose health was affected by that reactor near Harrisburg. No, that would be wrong. It was not the reactor. It was Jane Fonda. Reactors are not dangerous."

Photo credit: Marshall Astor

Daytona 500 and Bootlegging

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:29:00 +0000

Jamie McMurray won the Dayton 500 earlier today.

Dayton 500 is a 500 mile long NASCAR race. National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) is unique as it is a family operations sports venture and is the largest sanctioning body of stock car racing in the United States.

Stock car racing has very interesting history in the US much before it became a sport. It has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in the Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads. The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business, but by then Southerners had developed a taste for moonshine, and a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine," this time evading the "revenuers" who were attempting to tax their operations. The cars continued to improve, and by the late 1940s, races featuring these cars were being run for pride and profit.

Photo credit: Nick Traveller

Alabama Shooting and Non-Euclidean Geometry

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 22:35:00 +0000

The unfortunate shooting at the University of Alabama happened because a professor was denied tenure and decided to show her anger by shooting her fellow professors. The accused professor Amy Anderson has been at the University on a tenure track since 2003.

It started with Robert Moore.

Robert Moore, one of the most famous American mathematicians created a splash in early 1900s when he proved that one of that one of Hilbert's axioms was redundant. David Hilbert was one of the most influential mathematicians of the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries and Moore was a a undergraduate student at the University of Texas. He proved redundancy while answering an assignment problem of another famous mathematician, George Halsted (who introduced Non-Euclidean geometry to the United States). Halsted was impressed by Moore and wanted to have him as an assitant. He recommended to the University to hire Moore as an instructor. However, those days the university board of trustees were powerful and frequently interfered in hiring and firing decisions. The University ended up hiring another well connected local candidate for the post, which infuriated Halsted and he started publishing several articles that criticized the university. In response, the University decided to fire Halsted even though he had been a faculty for 19 years and an expert in his field.

This case became notorious in the academic institutions of the country and accelerated the adoption of the tenure concept, to provide professors right to academic freedom and protect when they dissent from prevailing opinion. Later, the American Association of University Professors formally laid down the principles of academic freedom and tenure which was adopted by most of the universities. One of the recommendations was that the academic tenure probationary period be seven years.

This was Amy Anderson's seventh year at the university.

Why Bill Clinton should thank Marcroni Grill and a British Dentist

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:32:00 +0000

What connects a chain of Italian restaurants and a British dentist with Bill Clinton?

The answer is coronory stents, two of which President Clinton got yesterday.

In the nineteenth century the principal dental impression materials were bees wax and plaster of paris, and neither was easy nor appropriate for the task. Bees wax distorted very quickly and plaster of paris was unwieldy to use. Subsquently gutta percha a form of rubber was used, which was an improvement over the current technology but not perfect, as gutta percha distorted quickly and shrank on cooling. Enter Charles Stent, a London dentist who added several materials to gutta purcha and improved its plasticity and stability. It was a huge success in the dental world and Charles Stent patented his compound and began selling it as 'Stent's impression compound' to other dentists.

Stent's compound stayed in the domain of dentists till the first world war when the trench warfare was introduced. Soldiers in the trenches were fairly well protected so long as they stayed below ground level. In order to fire their rifles, however, they had to raise themselves above the edge of the trench, and thus were very susceptible to facial wounds. The number of these disfiguring wounds was staggering, and surgeons had little experience in handling them. One Dutch physician, J. F. Esser, who was Special Surgeon for Plastic operations figured out that he could use the Stent's compound to fix in place the skin grafts for his surgeries. From there on , stenting became the word of choice for any medical procedure where a man-made object is used in natural passage/conduit in the body to prevent, or counteract, a disease-induced, localized flow constriction.

Some 70 years later at a lecture in New Orleans, Julio Palmaz got the idea of using the similar concept for coronory arteries. His early solution was inspired by a metal lathe with a structure of staggered openings that a mason had left in his garage. He developed the coronaryw stent prototype by cutting holes in metal tubing to create a collapsible structure that would remain rigid once expanded. His prototype was successful with animals and Palmaz shopped the idea around to medical companies without much success. He was finally able to secure funding for the venture from Phil Romano, the founder of restaurant chain Macroni Grill and Fuddruckers. He went against his lawyers and accountants advice to invest $250,000 of his money in the idea. Finally in early nineties, J&J bought the idea from Palmaz and his partners and became a leader in the field.

A million people in the US are implanted with coronary stents each year and President Clinton become one of them last week.

Photo credit: Creativity+ Timothy K Hamilton

Could Charlie have done it?

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:54:00 +0000

Charlie Wilson, the flamboyant congressman died yesterday. He is well known for influencing the US support of the Afghan Mujahindeen during the Soviet Afghan war in the 80s. When Pakistan's President Zia was asked by 60 min as how the powerful Soviets had been defeated, his simple answer was "All I can say is, Charlie did it".

The story could have been different.

His ability to get weapons in hands of Afghans would have been jeopardized had he had been convicted in the ethical investigation into his supposed drug use at a Las Vegas hot tub. He was accused of using cocaine at the Caeasars Palace hotel while he was in a hot tub with two strippers in 1980. The investigation was dropped due to lack of evidence and Charlie never confirmed the story either way.

Even more interesting is the justice department attorney who was leading the investigation against Charlie. A young man named Rudy Giuliani.

Why Conan O'Brien does not like Sony and MPEGs

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:15:00 +0000

If there is one word to describe why Conan had lower ratings..? Timeshifting

Conan O'Brien's departure from NBC Universal was very widely reported. This might be one of the last TV schedule wars of our times. While low ratings were the chief reason behind the NBC decision to offer Conan a later slot (which was unacceptable to him), there was a bigger dynamic at play. Younger audience who are the core audience of Conan are far more comfortable at time shifting, or put simply, they record the shows in DVR and watch it later. This effect is not captured effectively in the TV ratings. NBC executives were not expecting this time shifting phenomenon to be significant when they replaced Jay Leno with Conan last year.

Timeshifting is something that folks at Universal understand very well. They had sued Sony in 1970s when it came out with their version of video tape recording format, Betamax, which was arguably the first time-shifting device. After a bitter court fight, the Supreme court ruled 5-4 in the favor of Sony. A landmark decision which gave legality to record a show and watch it later for the consumer.

But apart from legal angle, there was another unintended consequence introduced by Time Warner Cable. TWC was a pioneer in digital interactive televsion.and wanted to integrate something like a DVR with the TV. They experimented and invested millions on their Full Service Network initiative. The FSN initiative was aimed at creating a on demand TV ecosystem and pioneered by TWC in their Florida market in mid 1990s. However, the initiative was stymied as a lot of the underlying technologies to make the vision real had not been standardized. The chief among them was a mechanism to convert analog voice and video signals to digital, which solved during the late 1990s with MPEG2 standard. By that time it was too late for the FSN initiative and it was shut down. They were too early into the market. However, it was just in time for two of the executives Mike Ramsey and Jim Barton who met while working at FSN. Well versed with the technical challenges, they saw the DVR opportunity and started a company which they called TiVO. TiVO was launched in the US in 2000 and now an approximate 30% of US household use the DVRs. It fundamentally changed the younger audience's interaction with television. The time shifting phenomenon that is taking place,is something Universal foresaw in 1970s when they sued Sony.

Had the Supreme court had ruled in favor of Universal or MPEG2 standardization has been agreed upon a couple of years earlier, Conan might still be hosting the Tonight show.

Haiti helped to double the size of United States

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:35:00 +0000

The tragic earthquake in Haiti and the suffering it has caused is heart wrenching. Americans are responding to the calls for help. And there is a good reason that they should.

Haiti or more specifically Haitian slaves were the reason that in 1803 the United States was able to double its size through the Louisiana purchase.

Haiti, which was a French colony since early 1700s, was a cash cow of the French new world. The French brought in African slaves into the country for sugar, tobacco and indigo cultivation and amassed large profits. However the slaves which outnumbered their white masters were brutally treated. Haiti was a poster child of a brutal efficient slave colony. All that changed in 1791, when the slaves inspired by the success of French revolution, launched an armed rebellion against their masters which eventually led to Haitian freedom in 1803.

Around the same time Thomas Jefferson had reached out to French to buy New Orleans, to secure and control the Mississippi trade route through its port. With its profitable new world colony gone and wars with the British imminent, Napolean lost interest in pursing the French colonization agenda in the new world. So when Americas went with a proposal to buy New Orleans, the French in turn suggested that they are interested in selling the entire Lousiana, which comprised of all or part of 14 current U.S. states and two Canadian provinces and doubled the size of the country that time.

The United States finally bought the Louisiana territory from the French for $15M or $213M in current day terms.

License to drink

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 15:37:00 +0000

Fortune magazine recently released the America's most admired list of companies which are recognized by their peers for social responsibility. Starbucks coffee chain made on the list for

breaking the mold in the fast-food industry by offering health-care benefits and stock (called "bean stock") even to part-time workers.

Starbucks was founded in 1971 in Seattle and bought by Howard Schultz in 1987 and since then he has expanded the chain to more than 10,000 stores in 30 countries. Starbucks has become an integral part of the American pop culture. So much so, that in the movie Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me, Number 2 suggested to Dr. Evil about investing in Starbucks. All this while they were having a meeting in the Space needle.

The Austin Powers movie series is a classic spoof on the 1960s spy movies and in particular James Bond movies.

Mike Myers who conceived the idea of the movie has stated in interviews that the idea for Austin Powers came to him one night as he was driving home from hockey practice. His car radio was on, and as he was listening the song The Look of Love by Burt Bacharch began to play. As he heard the music the question "Where have all the swingers gone?" came to his mind, and he began to conceive the character who would become Austin Powers.

Austin Powers very effectively parodies a lot of James Bond movies which as franchise is currently the second all-time highest grossing film franchise in history, after Star Wars. To date 5 actors have been cast as James Bond , and a sixth (Daniel Craig) is soon to make his appearance . The last actor to play, James Bond, Pierce Brosnon has revived the fortunes of the movie series. He played James Bond in four movies Goldeneye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The world is not enough and Die another day.

Brosnon in his private life is a big supporter of research on endangered whales. He is the honorary spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) global whale campaign and also served as chairman of the capital fundraising campaign.

One of the most famous bookings on whaling is Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

Moby Dick is a white sperm whale follows the hardy crew of the Pequod , led by Captain Ahab, on a whaling expedition that takes them around the world. The expedition soon degenerates into a monomaniacal hunt for the legendary "White Whale", as Ahab seeks revenge on the animal that cost him his leg.

The only person among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness and blasphemy to desire revenge on an animal that lacks the capacity to understand such human concepts, is the ship's faithful first mate Starbuck. And of course, he is also the character which serves as inspiration for the name Starbucks for the coffee chain

Starbucks - Austin Powers - James Bond - Pierce Brosnon - Whaling - Moby Dick - Starbucks....Everything is connected

Sweet Genes

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 22:45:00 +0000

Scientists from an Icelandic company deCODE genetics, have discovered a variant gene that leads to a sizable extra risk of Type 2 diabetes and is carried by more than a third of the American population. This is very important to develop a diagnostic test to identify people who carry that variant gene - so that they have an extra incentive to control diet and stay thin ! Now you may argue, that in our McDonald's dominated world that ain't happening.

In any case, diabetes has a very interesting history. Untill 11th century, diabetes was diagnosed by what they used to call 'water tasters' - you guessed it - who used to taste urine of those suspected having the disease and found it sweet tasting - thus the word 'mellitus' (Latin for honey) was added to its name. (Modern scientists have also discovered another variation called diabetes insipidus - but that is another story). And so such a diagnostic strategy continued till 1870's when during the seize of Paris in 1870 in the Franco-Prussian war, a French doctor Apollinaire Boucharrdat notices the disappearance of glycosuria in his diabetes patients due to the rationing of food and formulated the idea of individualized diets for his diabetes patients (and indirectly gave birth to the nutritionist's profession)

In its illustrious history, Paris has been attacked by and seized multiple times. Perhaps, the most important one being in 885 A.D by the Vikings, which resulted in the formation of France as a kingdom. Around the same time in history (known as the Viking Age), the Vikings crews from western Norway started to drop in on Ireland, capture an allotment of young Celtic women and sail off northwest to a remote island beyond the reach of retribution. The Island was Iceland and over time due to its remote geographical location and natural calamities, an almost unique homogeneous race developed.

Dr. Kari Stefansson saw this feature of Iceland as an unique opportunity while he was teaching at Harvard and raised private capital to start deCODE genetics to catalog the deviant genes that cause the most common human diseases. And thus the Type 2 diabetes variant gene was discovered !

Diabetes gene - water tasters - Franco Prussian War - Seize of Paris - Vikings Age - Iceland genealogy - Diabetes gene

The Italian Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 17:47:00 +0000

For last couple of decades, every so often in Indian politics we hear about the Italian connection in the Bofors scandal. It is that time again. However, I am more interested in the wonderful interlinks of the events and personalities.

Bofors is a famous Swedish arms company which was taken over by SAAB in 1999 and has some interesting history

Bofors Defence AB was an iron works, cannon maker, and defence contractor located in Karlskoga, Sweden. The company was founded in 1873 but it originates from the hammer mill "Boofors" founded 1646.

Undoubtedly, Bofors' most famous owner was none other than Alfred Nobel, who owned it for the last two years of his life. Though Nobel prizes and dynamite have always been associated with Alfred Nobel, his literary accomplishments and Shelly's influence on his work are less known.

His only play (Nemesis, a prose tragedy in four acts about Beatrice Cenci, partly inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley's blank verse tragedy in five acts The Cenci), was printed when he was dying, and the whole stock except for three copies was destroyed immediately after his death, being regarded as scandalous and blasphemous.

Percy Shelly led a very interesting life, which was cut short at the age of 30 when his boat Don Juan sank. Shelly's most prolific literary stint was from 1818 to 1822 during his Italian travels. He wrote Prometheus Unbound, The Masque of Anarchy and Adonais (an elegy for Keats) during this time. It was Shelly's Italian connection which revolutionized English literature.

The Italian connection - Bofors - Alfred Nobel - Cenci - Shelly - The Italian connection.....everything is connected

Phone Taps & Oil Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 11:41:00 +0000

In the American media, the main news seems to be Vice President Cheney's brief visit to the hospital !!

This reminds me of the joke by Conan O' Brien on the Late Night show: "Scientist announced a device that can be placed in a pacemaker and will call your doctor whenever you are having heart trouble. When told about it, Dick Cheney said, "I can't afford those kind of phone bills."

Speaking about phones - the biggest political story in Indian media now-a-days is the phone tapping allegation by various leaders (Amar Singh, Advani, Chandrababu Naidu etc.) of the opposition. What can be a better topic for this round of everything connected.

Phone tapping and politics have had a long history. A far more serious political scandal (compared to the current Indian one) developed in Lithuania in 2004 when its President Rolandsas Paksas was sacked by the country's parliament after secret service phone taps on the President revealed his alleged connections with a member of the Russian mafia. Such a strong step was taken by the parliament to possibly demonstrate its adherence to democratic principles as it was around this time that Lithuania was joining the NATO and EU, a transition crucial for the country's economic health.

Earlier, in 1991, when Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, it had undergone an economic upheaval for a brief period when it was trying to introduce its new currency Litas to replace the ruble. Even prior to the transition problems, Lithuania had trouble setting up a stabilization fund of USD $200 million to back up the new currency. During the time of crisis, the IMF had stepped in with a loan to save the day.

The IMF was set up following the Bretton Woods conference in 1944 and was responsible for making US dollar the principal 'reserve currency' in the world by setting the value of one ounce of gold at $35 (and making USD convertible to gold)

..this meant that other countries would peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, and—once convertibility was restored—would buy and sell U.S. dollars to keep market exchange rates within 1 percent, plus or minus, of parity. Thus, the U.S. dollar took over the role that gold had played under the gold standard in the international financial system.

This worked well till the 1970s when the U.S balance of payment deficits (due to financing loans, foreign aid, cold war) became too much to bear and eventually the US decided to end the system of gold convertibility and usher in the era of floating currencies. The person who played a pivotal role in those decisions was then the under secretary of the Treasury for international monetary affairs, Paul Volcker.

Volcker went on to become the Chairman for the Federal Reserve and was succeeded by Alan Greenspan. More recently, the UN assigned him to research possible corruption in Iraqi Oil for Food program, the outcome of which was the Volcker report which had a prominent Indian link. And it was during those controversial times in Indian politics, that the leaders of the opposition are accusing that their phone lines were tapped by the government.

Politician phone tapping - Lithuanian president sacking - IMF bailout for currency launching - floating currency system starting - Volcker reporting - Politician phone tapping .... everything is connected

New Orleans

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:10:00 +0000

NYT has an interesting article about the challenges in rebuilding New Orleans faced by the state and federal government regarding which neighborhoods to develop

a study by the Rand Corporation estimated that in three years the city would have a population of no more than 275,000, down more than 40 percent from its pre-hurricane population of 465,000

As the article identified, the questions around rebuilding are certainly more complex than just a demographic and geographical study.

This has not deterred RAND which has set up a new institute to study the long term solutions for gulf coast's recovery. RAND corporation, which was setup in 1946 to provide research and analysis to the U.S military has come a long way from its initial mission. However, it has not always received praise as has been blamed for being too theoretical and academic. Critics have quipped that RAND meant Research And No Development.

RAND was also parodied in Stanely Kubrick's classic spoof on cold war, Dr. Strangelove, where it was referred to as the BLAND corporation. The 1964 movie has many interesting trivia associated with it, including the fact that the Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb himself was the model for the character of Dr. Strangelove. This fact has been widely denied by the makers of the movie, but what is more certain is that Major Kong's plane's primary target, Jonathan Swift, the ICBM complex at Laputa, is inspired by the Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's travels.

Laptua in Gulliver's travels is a flying island with educated people who are fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology but fail to make practical use of their knowledge (RAND !!). Gulliver's travels has been an inspiration and basis of other artistic ventures including the Walt Disney released, Japanese anime called the Castle in the Sky. In that movie, Laputa is a flying fortress propelling itself through the sky concealed within the swirling clouds of a violent hurricane.

And it was the impact of such a violent hurricane which made the rebuilding of New Orleans a news story to start with.

New Orleans - RAND - Dr. Strangelove - Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels - Laputa - Castle in the Sky - Hurricane - New Orelans... everything is connected

Ford on the Edge

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 05:23:00 +0000

Ford like all American car companies is struggling for its survival and talks of federal bailout are in the air. Just last week Standard and Poor's cut Ford's credit rating by additional two notches deeper into the junk status. Ford is desperately trying to reverse this free fall towards bankruptcy by introducing a new wave of vehicles aimed at recapturing some of its lost sales. They include:

MKX, a replacement for the Lincoln Aviator sport utility, an eye-catching concept car, the Ford Reflex and a crossover vehicle called The Edge

The Edge of course is also the name of U2's dreamy guitarist (born as David Evans).

Many theories exist concerning how Edge came to get that name. Some say that it was due to his 'edgy' style of playing guitar, while others say it was because he rarely became fully involved in things, preferring instead to remain 'on the edge'.

Edge was also responsible for U2's experimental album Achtung Baby, an album name inspired by Mel Brooks' Producers. This movie and the hugely popular Broadway show is about a producer and a CPA.

When the two meet, their combined expertise points them toward the ultimate scam: Raise more money than you need for a SURE Flop Broadway Show. No one will expect anything back and you can pocket the difference. They need the ultimate bad play to do this. They find it in the Musical Springtime for Hitler.

While Producers was a spoof on Hitler and Nazism, one American who took Hitler and Nazism seriously was Henry Ford himself. He is rumored to have directly funded Hitler when he was starting out in politics (an allegation which has not been proven). Henry Ford had repeatedly voiced his overt approval of Hitler's theories and was also was the first American to be awarded Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle, Nazi Germany's highest honorary award for foreigners.

Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903. By 1928 almost half the world's total car population comprised of Ford's. But during the WW2, Ford saw hard times and was losing $10 million a month and President Roosevelt was considering a federal bailout for Ford so that wartime production can continue.

Ford motor company struggling - The Edge - U2- Achtung baby - Producers - Hitler and Nazism - Henry Ford - Ford motor company struggling .....everything is connected

Tribute to Asimov

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 02 Jan 2006 19:30:00 +0000

Isaac Asimov (whose birthday is today) was the most prolific 'connector' of all times. Once he explained how he came to write 'Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'

It began, he said, with a book called 'Words of Science.' ' 'Science' led to 'Words on the Map,' ' he remarked, 'which took me to 'The Greeks,' which led me to 'The Roman Republic,' 'The Roman Empire,' 'The Egyptians,' 'The Near East,' 'The Dark Ages,' 'The Shaping of England' and then 'Words From History.' It was an easy jump to 'Words in Genesis,' which brought on 'Words From the Exodus.' That led me to 'Asimov's Guide to the Old Testament,' and then 'The New Testament.' So what was left except Shakespeare?'

Nothing could capture the spirit this blog better.

Asimov and Arthur Clark both used to be asked by a lot of journalists to name the best science or science fiction writer of all times. One day when they were sharing a cab in Manhattan they decided to settle the issue once for an all, in what was called the Treaty of Park Avenue
Asimov was required to insist that Arthur C. Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Isaac Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second best for himself).

Arthur Clark, whose story Sentinel became the inspiration for the 2001: A Space Oddessy, has been a resident of Sri Lanka since 1956 where he used to run a diving school in Hikkaduwa. He lost his school during the tragic 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (whose first anniversary was last week). Even more tragic was the fact that so many Sri Lankan's lost their lives due to lack of tsunami education in the country who were not aware that the during a tsunami water recedes a great distance, like an enormous low tide, and then the wave comes in like a colossal high tide.

1,500 people were killed on the train at Hikkaduwa. One factor in so many deaths was that adults and small children ran to the train for safety, rather than ascending to upper floors and roofs of homes.

The American Society of Civil Engineers's study mentions that The Colombo Daily News ran an article, about the importance of educating young readers about tsunamis. The article focused on a 1972 Isaac Asimov short story. Asimov's book, 'More Science Words', which included a short essay on tsunamis which described the tsunami phenomenon very eloquently to the layman. According to the article, if the Sri Lankans had read or been educated about the tsunami phenomemon in such clear and consice terms, much of the casualties could have been avoided.

Arthur Clark will testify to it.

Intel's Leap Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 23:02:00 +0000

Intel's CEO Paul Otellini is currently trying to transform the technology giant as we know it

Instead of remaining focused on PCs, he's pushing Intel to play a key technological role in a half-dozen fields, including consumer electronics, wireless communications, and health care. And rather than just microprocessors, he wants Intel to create all kinds of chips, as well as software, and then meld them together into what he calls "platforms." The idea is to power innovation from the living room to the emergency room. The Intel Inside logo will disappear, replaced by an updated Intel logo with a swirl around it to signify movement. For the first time since the early 1990s, the company will add a tag line: "Leap ahead."

Intel's transformation and new strategy is going to announced in next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas and the glitz for the event will be provided by the hip-hop band Black Eyed Peas with their hit song 'Let's Get It Started'.

It is an interesting choice of band for Intel as Black Eyed Peas themselves represent the transformation within hip-hop.

Positive messages and breakdancing are integral parts of hip-hop culture, but by 1990 those elements had been temporarily eclipsed by the tough gangsta image and bleak but compelling lyrics of West Coast groups like N.W.A. However, despite sharing a zip code, Black Eyed Peas' vision goes beyond the cracked-sidewalk vignettes and sampled gunfire of Los Angeles' gangsta style.

Co-incidentally cooking black eyed peas is perhaps the best known American tradition for the New Year's holiday.

Consuming black-eyed peas is the best known U.S. tradition during the New Year's holiday. The tradition, which began in the South, is said to bring good fortune and prosperity.

The stars seem to have been aligned for Intel in this coming year !

Bengals and Tigers

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 03:08:00 +0000

I am not by any means a fan of American football but I like the colorful names they give to their teams. One team whose name always intrigued me was the Cincinnati Bengals. That is a very unusual name for an American team and today they had a story on signing their quarterback Carson Palmer till 2014.

Now Cincinnati's zoo is very famous in the country. In fact it is the second oldest zoo in the US. During 1960's when the team was formed the zoo was famous for having the rare Bengal tiger in captivity which was very uncommon in the United States during that time. Thus the actual Bengal tiger was the inspiration behind the team's name.

Recently, there has been a lot of press about the Bengal tigers in India especially after the tiger poaching incidents in Sariska where it was found from the recent census of the national sanctuary that the entire tiger population was wiped out by poachers. This has led the other famous tiger sanctuaries in India to turn to technology to make their tiger census as accurate as possible. This news item from today's Indian Express talks about the latest pugmark analysis computer program and GPS technology developed by Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) to conduct the tiger census in the Sundarbans reserve early next year.

From American football to ISI's pugmark analysis computer program - this world is indeed strangely connected.

Kerry Packer's Cricket

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Wed, 28 Dec 2005 00:44:00 +0000

Kerry Packer died yesterday. Apart from being a media mogul in Australia, Packer also owns the famous Crown casino in Melbourne and the Ellerston polo club, supposed to be one of the best Polo clubs in the world.

I found an interesting story about the origins of the Packer business empire.

His grandfather is said to have found a 10 shilling note in a Tasmanian street at the turn of the century and decided to put it all on a horse. It won and he bought himself the boat fare to the mainland where he got a job as a journalist and started to build the family's media empire

However, Packer's will always be remembered foremost as the man responsible for redefining modern cricket.

In 1977, frustrated at the Australian Cricket Board's refusal to accept a AUS$1.5 million bid for the television rights to screen Australian Test matches and Sheffield Shield Cricket, he signed more than 50 cricketers to play in his own tournament. For a while, the game was split between the establishment - the International Cricket Conference- and Packer's World Series Cricket.

The root of this controversy was the fact that players were unhappy with their salaries and were treated as amateurs. The World Series Cricket corrected that and introduced day and night matches, colored uniforms for players and white cricket ball. But as I learn from Michael Jenning's blog all of it was an accident

The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is owned by the state government of New South Wales. This government had no wish to upset the most powerful media mogul in the country, and so the government gave permission for WSC matches to be played at the SCG. However, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) actually belongs to the Melbourne Cricket Club, which would not give Packer permission to play his games there. Therefore, another venue had to be found, and the games were played at VFL park, a ground which was built for Australian Rules Football. Football matches were often played at night. As the lights were already there, WSC decided to experiment with night cricket, and scheduled one day games starting in the middle of the afternoon, and concluding just after 10pm. (This was also excellent for prime time television). The traditional red ball did not show up well against artificial light, and a white ball was substituted. This white ball did not show up well against the white clothing traditionally worn by cricketers, and therefore coloured uniforms were substituted.

Of course in the end, the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) surrendered to Packer and the modern cricket was born. It is somewhat ironic that the Indian cricket team last week became the world's most expensive sporting team beating Juventus football club. I bet Kerry Packer himself had no idea how much influence could his clash with the ACB will have on Indian cricket.

Auguosto Pinochet

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 20:08:00 +0000

As we are preparing for our trip to Chile early in next year, it was interesting to read the article in BBC about its former dictator.

Chile's top court has ruled that former military ruler Gen Augusto Pinochet is fit to stand trial over the 1975 disappearance of political opponents.

The case that is referred to here was codenamed 'Operation Colombo' which was undertaken by the Chilean secret police DINA.

General Pinochet came to power in a coup d'état on September 11, 1973, in which the rebelling Chilean Air Force bombed the Presidential Palace while it was being stormed by Army troops. The previous President Salvador Allende was a marxist and communist with close ties to Fidel Castro. He had nationalized a lot of foreign company assets especially US Copper mines - the main reason for the regime's unpopularity in the western world. Allende is supposed to have committed suicide with a machine gun which bore a golden plate engraved " To my good friend Salvador Allende from Fidel Castro"

Chile was infact the only latin-american country to have sided with the UK during the Falkland Island confrontration.

What I find interesting is that unlike most countries Chile had a long tradition of parliamentary democracy but still a dictator could come into power through a coup.

Fuzzy Logic

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 01:59:00 +0000

Telegraph had an article on the fog problem of Delhi. Fog has been a major transportation problem in Delhi especially for air travel in recent years. The situation is aggravated by lack of any reliable advance fog forecasting system.

Scientists at the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation in Bangalore have teamed up with a software company to produce fog forecasts 12 to 24 hours in advance... using fuzzy logic - a mathematical technique to handle imprecise concepts.

Fuzzy logic is an extension of Boolean logic dealing with the concept of partial truth.

It is a controversial despite wide acceptance as many statisticians argue that probability is the only mathematical description of uncertainity. Fuzzy logic introduces the concept of possibility theory as an alternative or even as a superset of probability theory. Prof. Lofti Zadeh from Berkeley proposed the fuzzy set theory in 1965.

Plato laid the foundation of fuzzy logic when he indicated that there was a third region beyond true and false

And finally for those into psychedelic rock - the group Super Furry Animals' debut album was also called Fuzzy logic

Uncle Tom's Cabin

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 18:14:00 +0000

NYT reports that the orginial Uncle Tom's Cabin was part of the 3 bedroom house and an acre of land went on sale and were bought by the Montgomery County for ~ $1M.

Among the farm's slaves was Josiah Henson, the man Harriet Beecher Stowe used as a model for the Uncle Tom character in her 1852 novel on slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin."

This novel did much to galvanize northern public opinion against slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly began as a ten-month serial in the National Era, an abolitionist newspaper, on June 5, 1851. Abraham Lincoln is said to have called her the "little lady who made this big war." (Answers.com)

A highlight of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I (1951) is a ballet, "Small House of Uncle Thomas" based on the novel.

I also remember reading that Gandhi was inspired by the novel's non-violent theme.

Lamborghini

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 16:34:00 +0000

Lamborghini is about to launch its famous model 'Gallardo' in India

Lamborghini Gallardo could be tagged anything between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.5 crore. Gallardo would be the latest in the series of crore-plus cars to hit the Indian roads after the likes of Maybach, Rolls Royce Phantom and Bentley Arnage in the recent past

However, there is some interesting background information on how the Lamborghini model was named

Ferruccio Lamborghini - born under the zodiac sign of Taurus - when he founded the famous super car company, that since then bears his name, gave to it the symbol of the fighting bull. Later, when the Miura was introduced, he named the car after a famous bull's race, and this practice became a tradition for the House of the Bull. Honouring this tradition, the Management of Automobili Lamborghini have decided to baptize their latest model with the name of a fighting bull's breed: the Gallardo (pron.: ga:yàrdo)

Frequent Flier Miles

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 15:52:00 +0000

Its nice to be at home and not traveling during the holiday season and planning our next trip to South America, ofcourse using all the frequent flier miles :-)

The Economist just had an article on frequent flier miles which are about to celebrate their 25th birthday.

THE mania began in 1981, when American Airlines launched AAdvantage, the world's first mileage-based frequent-flyer programme, to encourage customer loyalty. Today more than 130 airlines issue miles

However I was not aware that

The biggest collectors of miles today are not frequent flyers but frequent buyers. More than half of all miles are earned on the ground, notably on credit cards linked to airlines' programmes or on telephone calls.

As for myself, I still earn the FF miles, the good old way. By logging air miles. Frequent flier miles mean much more than free tickets for vacations. Its the feeling of superiority everytime you are at the airport, take the shorter line through security and can potentially avoid the middle seats on the flights!!

Blackberry

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 19:48:00 +0000

Amid all the litigation news and fears of suspension of blackberry service in the US, today RIM announced their earnings. I have considered buying their stocks earlier but have never taken the dip. RIM or Research in motion is a very interesting company with a killer product ‘Blackberry’ which is so addictive that users have called it ‘crackberry’ and Andy Grove of Intel once said "It should be reported to the DEA -- it's an addictive thing,"

Mike Lazaridis from the University of Waterloo and Douglas Fregein from University of Winsdor after graduating decided to hire a few of his buddies and start a small company that would engineer products and devices for big companies. He named it Research In Motion. The first contract was to make a data display system for an assembly line at a General Motors factory. Later they also made wireless data modems, including one of the first mass-market ones for US Robotics. All that was before they created the blackberry which has became the killer product for mobile email

Amitabh Bachchan

noreply@blogger.com (Amaresh Tripathy) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 02:37:00 +0000

Amitabh Bachchan was released from the hospital yesterday. A few days back when I read the news to my wife that he has been hospitalized, she warned me that she will cry if anything were to happen to him. Thankfully, he has recovered and hopefully he will continue to entertain millions of Indians as he has been for past 30 years. I bought a book containing random facts about the Big B (as he is called by the media) when I was regular in quizzing and it was always fun to read. A web search led to some more interesting tidbits about him.

- How would it have sounded if Amitabh was called 'Inquilab' which his father Harivanshrai was contemplating to call him?
- Did voiceover for Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj ke Khiladi'
- 'Agneepath' won him his only Best Actor award
- In the beginning of his career All India Radio rejected him when he auditioned for an announcer position becasuse 'he did not have a good enough voice'!!
-Shatrughan Sinha was initially cast to play the role of Jai in Sholay
- Launched a music album (Aby Baby) with a lead song 'Ek rahein iir' which was influenced from one of his dialogues from the movie Adaalat

And here are some of his immortal dialogues:
"Hum jaha pe khade ho jaate hein, line wahin se shuru hoti hai." - Kalia
"Rishte me to hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shahenshah." -Shahenshah
"Jiske seene mein dil hi nahin, usse dil ka daura kya padega?" - Coolie
"Hamare desh mein kaam dhoondna bhi ek kaam hai."-Shakti
"Jo mard hota hai, usey dard nahi hota."-Mard
"Tumhara naam kya hai, Basanti?"- Sholay
"Daaru peene se liver kharab ho jaata hai."-Satte pe Satta