http://picks.yahoo.com/picks/potw/20070808.html

'Daddy, I don't know what I would do without you'

Life is so sad and unfair sometimes..... cannot get myself to read this heart-breaking letter from a 12 year old daughter to her father, who lay dieing after being beaten up by hooligans! He later died. My heart goes out to this very brave but unfortunate 12 year old, Amy Love of the UK.

(I read this at a post at India Uncut.)

Love vs. the cosy notions of our insular lives

I tried to read the short novel, Marisa by Peter Cowlam, over the weekend. I had picked it up at the library since I found the gist on the book flap intriguing but I found the writing style to be difficult and gave up, perhaps prematurely. This review at amazon.com (by Jennifer Armstrong of Perth, Australia) is really well written and makes me want to attempt another read.

The book..

…explores a broad range of intellectual themes, such as the psychological dynamic of left-wing and right-wing politics and their relation to art, male and female conceptions of love, our intuitive conceptions of time and the tragic nature of humour.

…the social mores we take for granted every day' might give us less than the full serve demanded of our human desires in this world. This intoxication is not to be imbibed in the form of seemingly lowbrow student confections, however. Form is not only as important as function - it is the fundamental key for Bruce, aiding him to determine his class function on the basis of certain straightforward and external social signs. Therefore, it must be via his own elitist social circle where he receives the artistic message which can reach him, the one whereby the `whole cosy notion of what civilisation is, is undermined.'

One small video...

.. but one big step for music lovers in Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia produces first music video

Maybe not -- considering the first clip to be fully produced in Saudi Arabia sounds like a propoganda video made by religious leaders to try to reign in their youth. But music is music - so what if the message (“You can be cool and devout") is different than music videos you and I watch and does not feature any "sexy performers in revealing clothes crooning about love."

Al-Khatib, 37, who heads an advertising agency, has previously produced music videos, but this is the first that is an all-Saudi work. It was filmed along Jiddah's boardwalk on the Red Sea, a popular hangout for youths. He said he wanted to give Saudi youths an alternative to music videos produced abroad but popular on satellite TV. "The problem is not the music. It's how you utilize it. We wanted to talk to them in their own language.Instead of saying, 'Don't listen to music,' we're saying, 'Listen to music that's good for you," he said.

Viva music.... once you give them a taste of music, they'll want more and that can only be good. (Of course, the reality of this is that people probably enjoy good music from around the world anyways through "illegal" means... this big show-n-tell by the government just makes for fluffy news as the "first ever" music video! Ok...the cynic in me has to come out. Back to reality!)

Speaking of first-ever music videos, August 1^st was the 26th anniversary of MTV, which launched in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles. Like Freakanomics Blog pointed out -- "Appropriately enough, during the 2006 MTV Video Awards the Raconteurs performed a parody of that song, called “Internet Killed the Video Star.”

Indeed… I could blame the internet for preventing me from reading good books, seeing good movies, and getting some exercise.* But in the end, it is my own lack of discipline and will-power, isn’t it? Didn’t you just read – “It isn’t the internet…it’s how you utilize it.”

* Here is a good cartoon that captures my life very well. Sorry.. I saved this online some time back and do not know the source. If someone does, let me know and I will give due credit.

Freedom, not Independence

A couple days ahead of India's 60th Independence day, please read this article (and if possible, the many linked articles within)... and feel free to send it to other Indians. Its better than sending around those silly jokes, urban legends, and inane chain letters.

The Republic of Apathy by Amit Varma

This was also published this week in the Mint newspaper in an article titled "These Songs of Freedom".

For those interested, there are quite a few good related articles linked in two previous posts.

Note: To readers that may think I am only taking the negative view, here is an interesting plot that shows that once India put Indira Gandhi's retrograde policies behind, it has made some progress in terms of per capita GDP. I am, however, not talking about economic and materialistic gains. I think the wise men in ancient India (and many today in the Western world) are realizing that money and materialism itself do not relate directly to happiness or lives well lead. However, freedoms enjoyed do.

Flickr Photosets

Narcisstic perhaps... but an interesting photoset - 365 days of me..me...me! (some of the pictures may be NSFW - Not Safe For Work. Please do not click on the link if you are at work.)

Amazing pictures from Alaska - the link also includes some great photoshots from Zion, Yosemite winter, Canyonlands, etc. My own picture sets from some of the same places pale into insignificance compared to the photography here!

If you were a terrorist..

.. how would you attack, asks Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame. Why? Because he presume...

"...that a lot more folks who oppose and fight terror read (t)his blog than actual terrorists. So by getting these ideas out in the open, it gives terror fighters a chance to consider and plan for these scenarios before they occur."

John Lott, who has a recent book called Freedomnomics, which counters many of the claims made in Freakonomics, protests in a Fox News article.

I dare say Lott seems unduly obsessed (jealous?) with Levitt and his fame! His blog seems to be one continuous tirade against Levitt and he also has a defamation case (which he seems to be losing) filed against Levitt over things the latter wrote in Freakanomics about Lott's published studies about crime & its correlation with gun-control.