The Codicil

Agora – Movie Review

2011-11-08T16:24:00.001+05:30

Agora - The actors & the acting

The movie (AGORA) left me cold mainly because there was an unidentifiable element (for me) missing. In spite of the lavish mounting, great photography and huge sets, the acting left me untouched.

For instance, Rachel Weisz, who played the protagonist Hypatia, was distracting. Not only did she appear a Julia Roberts clone, she also emoted like her. In fact, her body language appeared incongruent with the period (Alexandria, Egypt. 391 A.D.) of the movie.

If I might take it further-every actor in Agora appeared to be play-acting and was very unconvincing. To me it appeared the Director (Alejandro Amenábar) of Agora-he also wrote the script-seemed to have lavished his attention on the sets and the photography.

Having said that the photography was phenomenal and the aerial shots well conceived. I believe the number of aerial shots also contributed to my lack of involvement with the story and the film. It gave me a sense of detachment from the happenings visualized by the filmmaker.

The only actor who shone was Sami Samir who played Cyril. His portrayal of Cyril a man using his crowd inciting capabilities to eliminate all the powerful people in Alexandria and finally becoming the undisputed leader using the Word of God was perfect. You can almost feel the inevitability of his machinations and his portrayal was just perfect and ensured that the character did not turn out to be malicious and evil.

Agora-The Storyline

Agora revolves around philosopher and astronomer Hypatia who lived in Alexandria in 391 A.D. The story is set in time when Christianity was gaining ascendancy and powerful enough to overturn the existing world order.

In this churning milieu, Hypatia continues to teach, research and advice the prefect of Alexandria, Orestes who was once her student and a suitor.

The city's Christians led by Cyril, slowly but surely gain control over the other religions. However, Cyril understands that in order for the Christians to have unquestionable power, he has to destroy Hypatia's hold over the minds of ruling class and cunningly using the scriptures denounces her as a witch and has her arrested and stoned to death.

Agora is also about Hypatia's quest to understand the universe. The movie ends when she discovers that the earth moves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. For her pains, she is denounced as a witch and killed.

Agora- The minuses

The movie starts promisingly enough but gets side tracked into trying to establish Hypatia as an extra ordinary woman committed to understanding the universe. It goes to great length to establish her as a liberal-the scene where her slave Davus molests her-but she remains quiet and sets him free from slavery is a case in point. Similarly, the scene where she presents Orestes with her menstrual blood stained kerchief is irrelevant and the reason unfathomable (unless it is to establish her as bold-then it is unnecessary) to understand.

Agora -My recommendation: Watch Agora if you have nothing better to do.

Stereotyping causes minds to wander and leads to performance impairment

2011-09-21T18:22:00.001+05:30

A team of researchers has demonstrated a relationship between negative stereotyping, mind-wandering and impaired performance in an individual's performance. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the University of British Columbia have established that threat of stereotyping impairs performance because it leads to thoughts unrelated to the task.

According to Jason Chin, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, this is how stereotyping threat impairs performance.He states that a stereotyped group is over-anxious about the bias against them, and as a result underperforms.

This finding will help to identify the circumstances and the individuals susceptible to this threat.

Chance meeting-A poem

2011-08-26T11:07:00.001+05:30

Rush hour

I detrained

To see you see me.

Seconds slowed

I froze

To see you turn away.

Minute's race

I wait

To see you see me.

Affinity Credit Cards

2011-05-03T18:45:00.000+05:30

Affinity cards are credit cards issued by charitable organizations, educational institutions, and non-profit groups for promoting an organization's brand and imagery.

Members or supporters who share an affinity for an organization or a cause are the users of affinity credit cards. Each time a cardholder uses an affinity card; he is not only advertising his affinity to an organization or a cause but also helps them generate funds.

For instance, an affinity credit card program will pay the brand owning organization a bonus for each new account and a percentage of every transaction charged to the card.

In most cases, an organisation will enter a revenue and profit-sharing venture with a credit card issuing bank or credit card issuers such as MasterCard or VISA. The venture generates funds for the organization by way of fees, charges and credit lent to affinity cardholders.

Most commercial and non-commercial organizations that have a huge database, sensing an opportunity have also started issuing affinity credit cards. In fact, retailers, shopping malls, airlines, colleges, associations, teams, and professional bodies depend on them for generating additional income. They are also used by commercial organizations to up-sell to customers and for cross marketing purposes. They offer affinity credit card users incentives to use the card.

Since the 1980’s, affinity credit cards have helped raise millions of dollars for charitable organizations. So much so, if there is cause an affinity card goes along with it. However, they are not the only ones for the charity-minded. Many general-purpose and rewards credit cards offer the option of donating earned points or cash rewards to a number of charities.

However, there is one major draw back in using affinity cards particularly for donating funds to charity. The income tax law does not provide the option of year-end tax deduction for gifts made through an affinity card. There is also no way to ensure that the amount earmarked for the charity goes to the program and not to overhead or administrative fees.

It is important to keep in mind that an affinity credit card is no different from a straightforward credit card. It charges the same high interest rates and fees. Therefore, a cardholder is better off by paying the balance in full every month.

Popular Female Internet Erotica

2011-05-01T16:07:00.000+05:30

Do women find depiction of explicit sexual acts or character-based romantic stories erotic?

Judging by the fact that women account for 9 out of 10 purchases of romantic novels online; it is obvious that for women, romantic novels are the most popular form of online erotica.

Ogas, a computational neuroscientist, and co-author of the new book, "A Billion Wicked Thoughts: What the World's Largest Experiment Reveals About Human Desire” concludes that this obsession with romantic stories accounts for the popularity of erotic sites like FanFiction.net.

Ogas’s conclusion echoes these postings in an online forum. However, this does not account for the popularity of books written by women erotic writers such as, “Best Women's Erotica 2011” by Violet Blue.

What is consciousness?

2010-12-06T19:09:00.000+05:30

Scientists and philosophers have suggested everything from quantum effects to information integration to brain-wave patterns. Some deny that consciousness exists at all; others argue that consciousness couldn't possibly be the result of just the brain. The scientific organizers of one of the principal consciousness conferences, in fact, deliberately let in woo-woo stuff about altered states and past lives on the principle that we have no idea where the answer might come from.

How Weird Is Consciousness?

Why take Food Supplements?

2010-07-09T08:11:00.000+05:30

There have been a lot of claims and counterclaims regarding the value of food supplements.

A very vocal set of nutritionists insist that there is no need to take food supplements if one has a balanced diet. However, in the same breath they admit that very few of us eat a balanced diet.

Then how will the children have healthy eyes, bones and joints? How will the elderly enjoy the same quality of life they enjoyed in their youth?

Unfortunately, the vehement critics of food supplements are at a loss for an answer.

Fortunately, the American Medical Association has cleared this confusion by recommending that all adults take a daily vitamin. Sadly, most of us do not take a good multivitamin everyday.

That is because we look at the multi-vitamin tablets as medicines and subconsciously avoid taking them in the belief that medicines are for the sick and elderly.

This is where a good food supplement steps in. The primary function of a food supplement is to fill the gaps in our diet.Nevertheless, we should be very careful in choosing the right one.

Therefore, before rushing off it is advisable to consult a doctor or an expert in food supplements and find out how much intake you need.

Qualified nutritional experts invariably recommend supplements made from plants are much more effective than others.

As most of these food supplements made from plants are water-soluble, it is easily digestible. Importantly these plant based food supplements have no side effects as the surplus is excreted through urine.

Finally, it is important to remember that there is no substitute to healthy eating and food supplements are in no way a replacement for a well-balanced diet.

Understand that a food supplement takes care of your unmet nutritional needs and use them as such.

AP STYLEBOOK Vs SEO: SEO WINS

2010-04-23T18:57:00.001+05:30

In a recent update the AP Stylebook, decreed that journalists should write "website" instead of "web site". Robert Niles, of the Online Journalism Review, chipped in to the debate by saying that it is more important for student journalists to learn search engine optimization (SEO) techniques than AP style.

Predictably, this has set off a chain reaction with everybody chipping in and adding his or her point of view to it. You can expect the debate to get personal and encompass whole lot things about writing online.

However, the point of this blog post about writing style is that personally, I find that the blog posts written in the style recommended by the likes of Robert Niles draws more readers than those written in the conventional style recommended by the AP Stylebook.

This to me renders the very discussion moot, because I write so that I have the pleasure of knowing a larger audience will read it. Therefore, if search engine optimization techniques get me more readers then it is superior to the AP Style and everyone having pretensions of being a writer should follow it.

Android Karenina: Anna Karenina Remixed

2010-01-13T09:26:00.001+05:30

Cover of Anna Karenina (Oxford World's Classics)

Quirk Classics have come out what they call an enhanced edition of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

As the name Android Karenina suggests, Leo Tolstoy’s classic love story is extrapolated to an anti-utopian world of robots, cyborgs and interstellar travel.

As in the original novel, the story follows the tragic adulterous love affair of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky and the more hopeful marriage of Nikolai Levin and Princess Kitty Shcherbatskaya.

The difference is these characters live “in a steam punk-inspired world of robotic butlers, clumsy automatons, and rudimentary mechanical devices. However, when these copper-plated machines begin to revolt against their human masters, the characters fight back using state-of-the-art 19th-century technology—and a sleek new model of ultra-human cyborgs like nothing the world has ever seen".

Publishers role in ebook versions

2010-01-12T19:50:00.000+05:30

I found this fascinating quote today:

There is an essay making the rounds of the Twitterverse by the distinguished editor Jonathan Galassi; it appears on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, no stranger to good editors. The title is “There’s More to Publishing than Meets the Screen,” and that “more” is all the work a publisher does to bring a book into the world. The occasion of the piece is the recent announcement that the estate of William Styron was seeking to publish ebook versions of some of Styron’s works, and Styron’s original publisher, Random House, would play no role in it. How could this be? Galassi wonders. Random House helped to make Styron successful and thus deserves a place in the arrangement. The specifics of “place” are not spelled out, but we can assume that it means money or outright control of the management of the digital rights to Styron’s works.Joseph Esposito under, The Scholarly Kitchen, Jan 2010

You should read the whole article.

Get ready for a cashless society.

2010-01-12T19:30:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Are we ready for a cashless society?

Visa, the payments company, believes that if not the world at least U.K. is primed and ready for cashless transactions.

Visa believes that the cost of cash to society is unnecessary and cites numerous independent papers by consultants and national governments, to construct a compelling case.

For example, “The EC estimates that cash accounts for more than two-thirds of the total cost. McKinsey, the consultants, have estimated that "society spends about €200 (£180) a year per person to cover the cost of cash" and the "real" cost of cash to a retailer is 1.3pc of the purchase price – no less than the transaction fee on a card. The Dutch central bank has published a similar study, estimating the annual cost of cash at €300 per family.

Because cards are less risky (the associated cost is estimated at 0.02pc-0.1pc per transaction on cards compared with 0.1pc-0.2pc with cash) and encourage spending, they are more efficient and better value, Visa argues. Furthermore, card transaction fees are expected to fall, with some countries in Europe such as Denmark already offering free debit card services to retailers”.

2010-01-10T08:02:00.001+05:30

Damage, power outages reported after 6.5-magnitude earthquake off the coast of northern California.

Police: Indifference

2010-01-08T18:21:00.001+05:30

One is used to hearing about police brutality and bureaucratic indifference to the woes of a common man.
But what we see here is a video of a dying policeman, who lies bleeding and the onlookers, which includes ministers, bureaucrats and police men look on indifferently.

Tharoor’s tweet attracts controversy

2009-12-29T02:33:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Shashi Tharoor finds himself once again defending his use of Twitter, a microblogging site, to criticise his government's move to tighten rules for long-term tourist visas.

Shashi Tharoor questioned the logic behind the tougher rules, saying the "Issue is not security vs tourism, but whether visa restrictions protect our security. 26/11 killers had no visas."

This however, has not gone down well with the Foreign Minister S.M Krishna. Krishna in fact chided Tharoor for discussing such sensitive foreign policy issues on the Internet.

Shashi Tharoor in turn defended himself by saying that he was attempting to draw attention to debate on security.

The former UN undersecretary general is yet to learn that the Indian politician despises transparency and debate on national issues.

Nature reclaims Motor City.

2009-12-25T09:17:00.000+05:30

We usually apply the word “feral,” which means “reverting to a wild state,” to domesticated animals that are abandoned and must survive on their own. But in rapidly shrinking Detroit, where tens of thousands of structures have sat empty for years, people are starting to describe houses and neighborhoods as feral—that is, as places where human activity ceased so long ago that nature has reclaimed them.

More here.

Some myths debunked

2009-12-23T11:19:00.005+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Some health related myths have been finally found untrue.

Actually some of them like men think of sex every 7 seconds, shaving makes hair thicker, men with big feet are better endowed should not have lasted so long. However, it is a wonder that these myths lasted so long.

Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children)

Coming to the myths,most men will be unconcerned by the debunking of the myths about the hair and the feet, but they will certainly resent debunking of the sex every 7-seconds myth. :)

More here.

Rap Video Explains CERNS Large Hadron Collider

2009-12-23T09:38:00.000+05:30

This rap video explains, the inner workings of what Andersen called “a $9 billion cathedral of science (CERNS Large Hadron Collider) that is in any practical sense quite useless.”

Hat Tip: Vanity Fair

Do you have metabolic syndrome?

2009-12-23T06:58:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors linked to overweight and obesity that increase your chance for heart disease and other health problems such as diabetes and stroke.

How can you tell if you have metabolic syndrome?

The five conditions listed below are metabolic risk factors for heart disease. A person can develop any one of these risk factors by itself, but they tend to occur together. Metabolic syndrome is diagnosed when a person has at least three of these heart disease risk factors:

A large waistline: This is also called abdominal obesity or “having an apple shape.” Excess fat in the abdominal area is a greater risk factor for heart disease than excess fat in other parts of the body, such as on the hips.
A higher than normal triglyceride level in the blood (or you’re on medicine to treat high triglycerides). Triglycerides are a type of fat found in the blood.
A lower than normal level of HDL cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) in the blood (or you’re on medicine to treat low HDL). HDL is considered “good” cholesterol because it lowers your chances of heart disease. Low levels of HDL increase your chances of heart disease.
Higher than normal blood pressure (or you’re on medicine to treat high blood pressure). Blood pressure is recorded as two numbers, usually written one on top of or before the other, such as 120/80. The top or first number, called the systolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in the bloodstream when your heart beats. The bottom or second number, called the diastolic blood pressure, measures the pressure in your bloodstream between heartbeats when the heart is relaxed.
Higher than normal fasting blood sugar (glucose) (or you’re on medicine to treat high blood sugar). Mildly high blood sugar can be an early warning sign of diabetes.

Guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Programs website.

The God Debate

2009-12-22T21:26:00.001+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

On the other hand, what leap of faith matches the breathtaking courage, to say nothing of the oxymoronic splendor, of the so-called atheistic humanist? To believe not only that millions of human beings have been deluded for thousands of years (and about a point of some consequence) but also that such specimens of humanity as Bach, Montaigne, Gandhi, John Coltrane, and Martin Luther King Jr. have been supremely deluded, and then to offer as a saving alternative to this delusional nonsense—drumroll, please, if only to drown out the irreverent guffaws—humanism! What is a virgin birth to that? Credibile est, quia ineptum est, “It is believable because it is ridiculous,” said fiery old Tertullian. No atheist and no humanist either, he had what it takes to be both.

Perhaps “the God debate” is an oxymoron, too. Simone Weil, working in the tradition of the theologia negativa, which holds that God is better defined by an is not than an is, suggested that atheists and theists were merely affirming different aspects of the same ineffable truth.

More on the God Debate here.

What is your signature scent?

2009-12-22T18:58:00.000+05:30

Image via Wikipedia

Nearly all men simply wear a perfume given to them as a gift or bought hastily from a cute sales girl offering tote bags and beach towels at a department store.

This results in many men wearing copious amounts of tobacco- and coriander-laced colognes that fail to combine well with their pheromones.

To find your signature scent, you will have to do a little research, but the results usually pay off in spades when you find the right fragrance.

More on finding your signature scent here.

When we smile, does the whole world smile back at us?

2009-12-20T11:39:00.000+05:30

Image by Martin_Heigan via Flickr

Undoubtedly, the whole world smiles back when we smile and here is the clincher:

Kaiser remembers photographing a smiley created by soda she'd spilled on the sidewalk. As Kaiser stood hunched over, trying to take a picture of what looked like nothing, a man stopped and asked what she was doing. She pointed out the smiley; the man smiled and walked away. A few minutes later, he was back, eager for Kaiser to photograph a smiley he'd spotted.
"As he was walking along, instead of living inside of his head, he was walking through life and paying attention," Kaiser says. "Often the spontaneous smiley is more of a metaphor. It's not that you have to look for smiley faces 24/7. It's about paying attention to your life and the environment around you."

Why do lions band together?

2009-12-19T19:02:00.002+05:30

Image by Arno & Louise via Flickr

Scientists used to believe that prides—groups of a few to more than a dozen related females typically guarded by two or more males—were organized for hunting. Other aspects of the communal lifestyle—the animals’ affinity for napping in giant piles and even nursing each others’ young—were idealized as poignant examples of animal-kingdom altruism. But Packer and his collaborators have found that a pride isn’t formed primarily for catching dinner or sharing parenting chores or cuddling. The lions’ natural world—their behavior, their complex communities, their evolution—is shaped by one brutal, overarching force, what Packer calls “the dreadful enemy.”

Other lions.

What does 'Celebrity' mean?

2009-12-19T18:25:00.000+05:30

“The word ‘Celebrity,’ in our present ‘Celebrity Society’ covers a multitude of sins,” Mr. Amory wrote in a prefatory note. “It does not mean, for example, accomplishment in the sense of true or lasting worth — rather it often means simply accomplishment in the sense of popular, or highly publicized, temporary success.”

Thus, Mortimer Adler, the Great Books impresario, shared a page with Polly Adler, the Prohibition era’s most prominent madam. The entry on Senator John W. Bricker, an ultra-conservative Republican, faced a column on Harry Bridges, the left-wing San Francisco union organizer. Two short paragraphs on the TV comedian Dagmar preceded three scarcely longer ones on the Dalai Lama.

From here.

Guardian: The Decades Best Unread Books

2009-12-19T08:33:00.001+05:30

While people are busy ranking the hit books of the last 10 years, many a publishing insider is quietly mourning a volume that unaccountably never made the 'best of' or bestseller lists, but should have.

The Guardian gets publishers, agents and translators speak up for the ones that really shouldn't have got away.

More here.

Best Sex Writing 2009

Do uniforms spur achievements?

2009-11-30T11:27:00.000+05:30

According to this study, "the results do not suggest any significant association between school uniform policies and achievement."

One of the most common proposals put forth for reform of the American system of education is to require school uniforms. Proponents argue that uniforms can make schools safer and also improve school attendance and increase student achievement. Opponents contend that uniforms have not been proven to work and may be an infringement on the freedom of speech of young people.