Category Archives: Science and Technology

Indian tech boom leaves cops sucking jeep fumes

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Wired says that after a long day of shaking down motorists for C notes and beating on random street kids, the average Indian cop still doesn’t make enough to buy his own computer:

In July 2001, Mumbai’s Cyber Crime Investigation Cell launched its website, and a few days later it was hacked… police squads were known to confiscate evidence… returning with monitors and leaving computers behind…. cops in Mumbai seized pirated software floppies and stapled them together as though they were documents…

Last month, a Mumbai tabloid… asked a constable to use his ATM card and photographed his every step. He did not know how to use the card and the machine swallowed it… “The cop who checks your car license does not own a car… The passport official who checks your passport does not go abroad. The cop to whom you go to register a credit card misuse does not own a credit card… how can he fight cybercrime?”

As the Net roars by in a bright shirt and dark shades on a brand-new Hero Honda, the government’s business babus are left with bags of mooli and karela in hand, abusing a slow-moving rickshaw-walla with a bad attitude:

When he wanted to register a firm called Pinstorm Online last year, the Registrar of Companies “refused to grant me the name because the government officials out there did not comprehend the word ‘online,’ ” Murthy said…. “I had to change the word ‘internet’ to ‘computer network’ because the officials did not think (the) internet was a credible medium for business.”

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Frictionless commerce

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Bharat Bhushan, a MechE prof at Ohio State, is studying lotus leaves to fashion better technology. Biomimetic, how poetic — the Sanskrit gurus would approve.

The project was inspired by lotus leaves’ deceiving looks. Although they appear waxy and smooth to the naked eye, the leaves are actually covered with a series of microscopic bumps that prevent water drops from touching their surface… The idea is to use surfaces to eliminate friction between moving parts that can’t be oiled… In a few years, the development could lead to far cheaper [DLP] wide-screen televisions, [microfluidic] chips that can analyze blood samples or windshields that clean themselves…

Follow the Benjamins

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I’m putting out a call to desi college students in the Philly area: come up with a list of companies that advertise on Power 99’s Star and Buc Wild show.

Why? Well, let’s take a little tour through social science, an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.

First stop: Anthropology

Anthropology directs our attention to the use of discourse in the construction of meaning. Huh? In simpler language, Anthropology teaches us to listen closely, not just to what somebody is saying but to how they say it.

Everybody? Get out your Turbanhead.coms, we’re going to do a close reading:

Community-affairs director Loraine Ballard Morrill, is quoted as saying “Essentially [we’re] apologizing for things on our Web site that were racially inflammatory and insensitive, saying, ‘We took it off our Web site and it won’t happen again.’ ” She said the more serious matter was posting the clip on the Web site. “That probably made it a much more – just a worse situation. Then people could click on it and hear it. That was not cool… . He made a big ol’ mistake in judgment.” [snip] Secondly, the Inquirer story tries to diminish the scope of the problem by taking Morrill’s word that “Most of the e-mails came from people who do not listen to Power 99, whose audience is mainly African American. What does the demographics or geographic location of the offended have to do with this offending clip?

Let’s try to answer Turbanhead here. Why is Power99 apologizing for putting the clip on the web rather than for having recorded it in the first place? Why do they keep mentionining that the people complaining are not their listeners?

I think their language reveals their notion of “fairness.” In their world, a company’s job is to make its audience laugh. In their minds, there would have been nothing wrong if the skit had simply aired as planned, heard mainly by their on air listeners. The mistake was putting the clip on the web, and exposing it to a broader audience who might be offended by it. That is, they’re not sorry they did it, they’re sorry we’re offended. They’re trying to be gracious.

You see something similar when they protest that we aren’t their regular listeners. They don’t think it’s fair that we, who are not their core audience, are getting upset. They’ve done their job, namely entertaining their audience. We shouldn’t be butting in. The fact that they butted into our realm by calling India, using lewd language and threats is not really of importance to them. They can call India, but we can’t call Philly, home of M.Knight himself. Continue reading →

The life [(or lives) saved by] aquatic [vegetation]

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There’s the high tech approach to minimizing tsunami deaths — a global alert system that tries to predict tsunamis — and then there’s the low tech approach — mangrove swamps. This should not be a surprise – wetlands are very effective at combatting flooding, for example, far more so than levees and dams. And while it is anthropomorphic to say that “the wetlands are nature’s method of protecting people,” it is useful to observe that wetlands have preserved many lands and try to cultivate them for that purpose. The Christian Science Monitor reports [snippets only]:

Mr. Selvum says that 172 families were saved from the tsunami in the fishing village of Thirunal Thoppu in India’s Tamil Nadu state only because the mangroves are thriving and dense there. He also mentions three other Tamil Nadu villages where damage had been minimized by the aquatic trees. “Every village has more than 100 families, so just think of the number of lives saved,” he says. “Even though the mechanical impact of a tsunami is enormous, and is bound to destroy the first line of mangroves, the water suddenly slows down as it moves farther in,” Selvum says.

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Cue the X-files music

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UFObase.jpg

Just days ago I mentioned that a bunch of wacky conspiracy stories have emerged recently in order to explain the origin of the tsunami. Although this one has nothing to do with the tsunami, it was just too good to pass up. From India Daily:

Kongka La is the low ridge pass in the Himalayas (the blue oval in the map). It is in the disputed India-China border area in Ladakh. In the map the red zone is the disputed area still under Chinese control in the Aksai Chin area. The Chinese held northeastern part is known as Aksai Chin and Indian South West is known as Ladakh. This was where Indian and Chinese army fought major war in 1962. The area is one of the least accessed area in the world and by agreement the two countries do not patrol that part of the border. According to many tourists, Buddhist monks and the local people of Ladakh, Indian Army and Chinese Military maintain the line of control. But there is something much more serious happening in this area.

According to the few locals people on the Indian and Chinese side, this is where the UFOs are seen coming out of the ground, According to many, the UFO underground bases are in this region and both the Indian and Chinese Government know this very well.

Now please keep in mind that UFO stands for “Unidentified Flying Object” and so it doesn’t necessarily equate to aliens, but what else might it be?

Recently, some Hindu pilgrims on their way to Mount Kailash from the Western pass, came across strange lights in the sky. …The pilgrims at that stage started quizzing the Indian border petrol personnel. According to them, the security personnel told them that they are ordered not to allow any one near the area of interest and it is true that strange objects come out from under the ground with amplified and modulated lights. IndiaÂ’s Special Forces and possible visit the area by intelligence agencies.

But why in this area? Is it due to the remoteness, or something else? Continue reading →

Small city Indians want (surprise!) western goods

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Wealth, in India, is spreading from the big cities into the smaller ones. And with it comes an expansion of demand for Western goods, stoked by advertisements. Now desis in smaller cities want KFC, blue jeans, Fords (huh?) and (of course) premium alcohol. I wonder how many of star’s advertisers are making big bank in India? Maybe we should spread a list of their names to the Indian press — that would get their attention fast! Nobody wants to stumble in an emerging market. [Anybody have that list yet?] Read the whole article on the NYT (no permalink avail, unfortunately), snippets provided below:

KFC’s parent, Yum Brands, now has 100 KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in India, 30 opened in 2004, and a goal of 1,000 by 2014. To realize such growth, the chains have begun a seemingly inexorable march into the country’s smaller boomtowns, cities like Coimbatore and Cochin in the south, and Jaipur and Meerut in the north, where middle-class Indians – who increasingly crave localized Western foods, regional flavors and ingredients infused into the pizza, pasta or poultry – have hailed their arrival. As India’s galloping economy has extended to its smaller cities, a younger population with expendable income is finding many Western and upmarket domestic products, brands and services increasingly accessible. Nearly 35 Indian cities have a population exceeding a million, and proliferating shopping malls cater to the rapidly growing consumer class.

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The hardest working pshrynk in the world

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You might think the hardest working shrink in the world would be in LA or NYC, dealing with rich neurotics. Or, perhaps this person is working with the armed forces, helping soldiers deal with the tragedies of war.

But you would be wrong. The clear winner for the hardest working shrink in the world goes to … [tabla roll please] ….

Ganesan, the “only psychiatrist for 1.3 million of the world’s most traumatized people. His roving practice along this island nation’s eastern shore stretches over 150 miles, all of it devastated by last week’s tsunami.”

Huh? These people don’t need to be asked about their mothers, they need somebody to patch up their bodies! Well, that’s what he thinks too:

“To talk about psychological needs when you’ve got thousands of people using one toilet in a refugee camp — it’s absurd,” says Ganesan, who goes by one name as is common here, talking above the din in the office where he is coordinating medical supplies for refugees. “It’s not what a doctor should do.” In these traumatic days, Ganesan has tossed dozens of corpses into the back of his pickup, distributed medicine to children, coordinated efforts of hundreds of foreign aid workers from dozens of countries, buried a friend and, just for a moment yesterday, had a quiet session with a violently psychotic young man crippled by delusions and drug addiction.

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Call Center Operators Get Some Loooooooove

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We recently reported about some idiot DJ who threatened and insulted a call center operator, to boost his ratings. [I’m waiting for Indian DJs to reciprocate] But the life of a call center operator is varied, and also includes moments like this one, from Conan’s show. It turns out that lonely, horny Americans are coming to the same conclusions that our parents want us to come to – that Brown Lovin’ is good Lovin’ [Either that or they’re to cheap to pay for phone sex]:

Nineteen-year-old Kajal aka Jessica Taylor could not help smiling when her admirer on the line questioned “Do you look like the Indian beauty Aishwarya ?. [sic]Come with me for a hot date tonight.” At 6 in the morning, Kunal aka Oliver Stone was just wrapping up for the day, when his last call earned him a kiss and a passionate dinner invitation.

Note – these are outbound rather than inbound call center operators, and since they are “breaking the bubble” of the person being called, the recipient may feel better about taking liberties.

Whole article posted below b/c it is only available as a cached copy and will probably soon disappear: Continue reading →

DIDN’T donate to the Tsunami recovery? Blame genetics.

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This one seems hard to believe but I am sure it will elicit several comments from those gnxp’ers:

Genes may account for more than 40% of such charitable behavior as the massive outpouring of donations following the recent South Asian tsunamis.

A study comparing the social responsibility of identical and non-identical twins showed that genes account for 42% of individual differences in attitudes while common environment accounts for 23% and other factors account for the remainder.

Conducted by Canadian researcher J. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario, the study also found that genes have a stronger influence on males than females (50% to 40%) while home upbringing has a stronger influence on females (40% to 0%), suggesting that parents may more closely watch the behavior of daughters than of sons.

Will the U.S. participate in an Indian Moon mission?

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The 92nd session of the Indian Science Congress is taking place right now in Ahmedabad and the U.S. is hinting at closer cooperation with India in space exploration as reported by IndiaExpress.com:

“India is working on a mission to moon. We are looking at collaborations with India in this,” Dr Lee Morin, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science at the US Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environment and Scientific Affairs and a NASA astronaut, told reporters in Ahmedabad at the 92nd session of the Indian Science Congress.

“US is also looking at collaboration in the area of telemedicine,” he said.

One of Bush’s main legacy projects will be an ambitious space agenda, including the first steps in a return to the Moon and preparations for a manned mission to Mars (although both will occur long after he has left office and would be subject to the whims of future administrations). The International Space Station was created with the help of 16 countries, of which India was not one. Baby steps like this could pave the way for India to be an active partner in such ambitious undertakings allowing Indian nationalism to be inspired by something other than nuclear weapons. Let us hope though that scientists such as this guy at the SAROUL (Scientific Advance Research of Universe and Life) conference in New Delhi don’t get to participate in space exploration:

When water was there in Mars, there was a definite life; small insects, reptiles and fishes were the natural life, fishes used to live in small, medium and big lakes.

There were no seas or oceans on Mars, only lakes were available, where the river used to end their journey by dropping water, particularly in the big lakes.” Dr. Baldev said.

Ummm. No. That statement is absurdly false on so many levels, and the worst part is that some of the press won’t know any better.