Yoga and CDs

Been to an open house at Bonnie's* office recently on her invitation, and met a few of my ex-colleagues there. One of them was Jesse, an Archaeologist who I have a high regard for. Jesse mentioned that he is very much into Yoga these days.

While talking about his yoga practice, he mentioned that with advancement in yoga, we get CDs but we shouldn't heed their advent. Soon after he said that, I was distracted and we got separated into different groups for an hour or so. During this time, a part of my brain was busy making repeated futile attempts in finding a connection between yoga and CDs. I just couldn't think of a common denominator for these two entities. Why would someone send CDs to yoga students? More importantly, why should students ignore them (esp. if they happen to be freebies)?

On our second meeting, to my relief, Jesse clarified that he meant achievement of Siddhis (సిద్ధులు) through Kundalini yoga (CDs was just his accent). I thought it was funny. I am sure the way I crucify English phonetics has been providing a lot more entertainment to him! Setting accents aside, be it Anasazi Indians or Desi Indians, Jesse's understanding of world history and culture is truly amazing. I am sure that he knows more about Indian scriptures than most of us (Desis).

*my ex-office mate, a biologist, pregnant girl to the left in the photo below

Less Known Billionaire

According to Forbes, Anurag Dikshit (Indian, 34-yr old)'s net worth is $3.3 Billion.

Developmental engineer turned online gambling mogul owns 32% of Internet casino outfit PartyGaming. Earned degree in computer science and engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. First jobs at CMC, Websci, AT&T. Company founder, American Ruth Parasol (see), launched Starluck Casino on the Internet in 1997.

Dikshit (pronounced Dix-it) joined a year later at age 25; wrote company's betting software, which enables gamblers around the world to play one another in poker. Problem: majority of customers live in America, where online gambling is illegal. Solution: don't operate on U.S. soil; servers, employees based in Gibraltar, India, England, the Caribbean. Took public on London Stock Exchange in last June. Today manages company's operations.

It Has Been Confirmed...

...that McDonald's has reached Africa!

Sum Ting Wong With the Judicial System

A happy ending for Chungs. They successfully defended themselves against a frivolous law suit - a $10 dry cleaning bill for a pair of trousers has ballooned into a $67 million civil lawsuit.

A Washington, D.C., dry cleaning store that was sued for $54 million over an allegedly missing pair of pants will not have to pay anything to its disgruntled customer, a judge ruled Monday. Instead, Roy Pearson, who sued over the missing trousers, may have to pay the store owners' legal fees.

...It's the kind of lawsuit that makes liability reform advocates' temples throb.

"People in America are now scared of each other," legal expert Philip Howard told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit. "That's why teachers won't put an arm around a crying child, and doctors order unnecessary tests, and ministers won't meet with parishioners. It's a distrust of justice and it's changing our culture."

Here is the full scoop.

The problems date back to 2002....Pearson says in court papers that he took a pair of pants into Custom Cleaners in Fort Lincoln that year, and the pants were lost. So Jin and Soo Chung gave Pearson a $150 check for a new pair of pants....

...Three years later, Pearson says he returned to Custom Cleaners and -- like some real-life "Groundhog Day" nightmare -- his trousers went missing. Again.

It was May 2005 and Pearson was about to begin his new job as an administrative judge. Naturally, he wanted to wear a nice outfit to his first day of work. He said in court papers that he tried on five Hickey Freeman suits from his closet, but found them all to be "too tight," according to the Washington Post.

He brought one pair in for alterations and they went missing -- gray trousers with what Pearson described in court papers as blue and red stripes on them. First, Pearson demanded $1,150 for a new suit. Lawyers were hired, legal wrangling ensued and eventually the Chungs offered Pearson $3,000 in compensation.

No dice. Then they offered him $4,600. No dice. Finally, they offered $12,000 for the missing gray trousers with the red and blue stripes. Pearson said no. With neither satisfaction nor his prized gray pants, Pearson upped the ante considerably.

The judge went to the lawbooks. Citing the District of Columbia's consumer protection laws, he claims he is entitled to $1,500 per violation. Per day.

What follows is the beginning of thousands of pages of legal documents and correspondence that, two years later, have led to a massive civil lawsuit in the amount of $67 million. According to court papers, here's how Pearson calculates the damages and legal fees:

He believes he is entitled to $1,500 for each violation, each day during which the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign and another sign promising "Same Day Service" was up in the store -- more than 1,200 days. And he's multiplying each violation by three because he's suing Jin and Soo Chung and their son. He also wants $500,000 in emotional damages and $542, 500 in legal fees, even though he is representing himself in court. ...He's suing for 10 years of weekend car rentals so he can transport his dry cleaning to another store.

...The ABC News Law & Justice Unit has calculated that for $67 million Pearson could buy 84,115 new pairs of pants at the $800 value he placed on the missing trousers in court documents. If you stacked those pants up, they would be taller than eight Mount Everests.

Morbid Sense of Humor

A condemned inmate wants to leave them laughing. Patrick Knight is collecting jokes and will pick the funniest one for his last statement before he is set to die June 26 for shooting his neighbors, Walter and Mary Werner, to death almost 16 years ago outside Amarillo.

"I'm not trying to disrespect the Werners or anything like that," he told The Associated Press from death row. "I'm not trying to say I don't care what's going on. I'm about to die. I'm not going to sit here and whine and cry and moan and everything like that when I'm facing the punishment I've been given.

Knight said he got the idea for a joke as his last statement after a friend, Vincent Gutierrez, was executed earlier this year and laughed from the death chamber gurney: "Where's a stunt double when you need one?"

Lunch at 12 P.M. or 12 A.M.?

At one time or the other, we inadvertently use absurd words and phrases that are passed on to us. Here are a few misnomers I thought of, while driving back from work. I am sure that there are lots of them out there.

Chai Tea - When I saw this at Star Bucks for the first time, I thought it was funny as chai is a derivative of the Chinese word cha (茶) for tea.

0% APR - We see this all the time in commercials on TV and news paper, when they talk about interest rates. Shouldn't it just be 0% AR? Otherwise, we would be saying "zero percent annual percentage rate (APR)".

12 P.M. or 12 A.M.? - Say we leave for lunch a minute after 11:59 A.M. Would it be 12 A.M. or 12 P.M.?

The answer is that the terms 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. are wrong and should not be used.

To illustrate this, consider that "a.m" and "p.m." are abbreviations for "ante meridiem" and "post meridiem." They mean "before noon" and "after noon," respectively. Noon is neither before or after noon; it is simply noon. Therefore, neither the "a.m." nor "p.m." designation is correct. On the other hand, midnight is both 12 hours before noon and 12 hours after noon. Therefore, either 12 a.m. or 12 p.m. could work as a designation for midnight, but both would be ambiguous as to the date intended" are also correct, though redundant.

Petitio Principii

An interesting letter to the editor of Austin American Statesman on May 25, 2007.

I recently received U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul's robot-call survey. I answered truthfully. The survey wanted to gauge which issue I thought was more important: securing the border against immigrants or dealing with Iraq. I answered Iraq.

The survey then asked "Do you agree that we must stop Iraq from being a failed state and we must support President Bush's actions?" This is a sneaky technique known as "begging the question." Of course, no one wants Iraq to be a failed state, so most people will answer yes.

One of my favorite sayings is: "Anyone can lie with statistics; 83 percent of all people know that." By begging the question, McCaul seeks skewed opinion poll results that inaccurately trivialize the number of people opposed to the war in Iraq.

Please Forward This to Ten People, or Else...*

One of the things I don't look forward to are those chain mails that say "send this to X people in Y hours, something good will happen to you" or even worse "if you don't sent this to X people in Y hours, something bad is going to happen to you. "

Though most people don't really believe in these things, just to play it safe, they forward these junk mails to friends. This kind of mails remind me of Amway and they send jitters along my spine. I avoid Amway folks like bubonic plague.

For those who feel compelled to forward chain mails, my suggestion is, the moment you sense the nature of this kind of a mail, delete it without reading the content. Then, there will be no question of gathering bad karma!

* Just kidding. You ain't need to do nothin' no more (in Moe Sizlack's lingo)

Juneteenth

Tomorrow is a Skeleton Crew day for us in observance of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is an annual holiday in fourteen states of the United States. Celebrated on June 19, it commemorates the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas. The holiday originated in Galveston, Texas; for more than a century, the state of Texas was the primary home of Juneteenth celebrations.

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 federal troops arrived on Galveston Island to take possession of the state and enforce the emancipation of its slaves. Standing on the balcony of Galveston’s Ashton Villa, Granger read the contents of “General Order No. 3”:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere

That day has since become known as Juneteenth, a name derived from a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth.

Since 1980, Juneteenth has been an official state holiday in Texas. It is considered a "partial staffing holiday" meaning that state offices do not close but some employees will be using a floating holiday to take the day off.

U.S. Immigration

In response to a recent development at the USCIS, flurried activity by many aspiring permanent residents last week reminded me of this cartoon.

Non Sequitur

Another good strip.

Keep Austin Weird

Red Wassenich's new book, "Keep Austin Weird: A Guide to the Odd Side of Town," (like there's a side that isn't odd?) was printed in China, which makes me wonder what the printer said when he checked out the photos.

"America's a funny place. Why's a man in a bikini standing on the corner?" Hey, buddy, that's Leslie. Red, a librarian at Austin Community College, is worried that Austin is losing its goofy edge with all the monied interests moving to town and yuppying up the place. "I think the low point was a few years ago at the Four Seasons bar when they had a $95 margarita," Red said.

I bow to Red's expertise, since he coined the overused and increasingly trite expression "Keep Austin Weird" a few years ago when he called a radio station fundraiser and just said it. And sure, not everyone appreciates Austin's quirks. "That's always going to be the case — that's why we have Dallas," Red said. And an interstate to use to move back there.

But I really don't think Red has to worry. Some of Austin's new stuff is even goofier than the old standards. In his book, Red shows a photo of three people dressed in fuzzy, bright-yellow chicken suits for Halloween. Can that compete with the Austonian, the pricey condo tower coming to Second and Congress that will feature a doggie toilet on the 10th floor so Fido won't have to go outside to hike his leg on a transient?

Red's book also shows a South Austin backyard decorated with lots of baby doll heads. Does that play in the same league with Scott Roberts, owner of the Salt Lick in Driftwood, who is planning to build luxury homes with a spa near his barbecue place? Swell — meat meets massage. Maybe you can get rubbed down with the same rub they use on the brisket?

"Keep Austin Weird" (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., $24.95, available at BookPeople and other outlets) hits most of the old oddball Austin highlights. "It was great because it made me get off my (butt) and attend all these weird events," said Red, who spent about nine months researching the book. "Every weekend I had to go to some tattoo show."

He attended the classics, like Spamarama, the Spam cookoff. And he hit "some of the little more offbeat ones, like the Edible Book Festival, which happened to be at the same time as Spamarama." That would be a great weekend, huh? First you're eating Spamsagna, then you're choking down Grapes of Wrath. "They were both inedible," Red said of the two festivals.

The book has a lot of great photos with plenty of color. One photo shows a bright green entry in the Edible Book Festival called "20,000 Leeks Under the Sea." "It's a pan of Jell-O with some leeks underneath it," Red said. If you ever saw Stevie Ray Vaughan (the man and not the statue), the book offers few surprises. Leslie appears on Page 72. An Austin-weird book without Leslie would be like Rushmore without Lincoln. Nik the Goat, pardoned by Mayor Will Wynn so he could remain in his yard in South Austin, comes along three pages later. Sandwiched between them is Kinky Friedman. If I were Kinky, I'd move to another page.

Red won't get rich off this book. The publisher didn't pay an advance. Red took all his own pictures. "And I had to pay for the photography, so I'm out money." If the book sells he'll get some royalties. Not that he seems to care about the poverty. It's the aesthetics that concern him.

"One of my really favorite things is the Chicken (Poop) Bingo up at Ginny's Little Longhorn (Saloon) on Sunday afternoons," he said. "It's a really neat scene. It's one of the things I really like about Austin. It's a mix of old hippies and old kinda country people and punks, and you don't find that too often in Texas."

Oh, Red figures Austin will keep its weirdness if the economy sours. "We're in a boom now; there'll be a bust. There always is," he said. Me? I think Austin will stay weird even if the boom continues. It'll just cost more to see it. How many million-dollar condos do you know that have pooch commodes? Trust me. They ain't getting one of those up in Ithaca.

Article: John Kelso's column in Austin American Statesman on May 15, 2007.

'Kryptonite' in Siberia

The following news article from BBC was circulating in our office last month. It sure is a bizarre coincidence.

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes. A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia. According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum. "I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News.


Rock heist

Researchers from mining group Rio Tinto discovered the unusual mineral and enlisted the help of Dr Stanley when they could not match it with anything known previously to science. Once the London expert had unravelled the mineral's chemical make-up, he was shocked to discover this formula was already referenced in the literature - albeit literary fiction.

"Towards the end of my research I searched the web using the mineral's chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide - and was amazed to discover that same scientific name, written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luthor from a museum in the film Superman Returns.

"The new mineral does not contain fluorine (which it does in the film) and is white rather than green but, in all other respects, the chemistry matches that for the rock containing kryptonite." The mineral is relatively hard but is very small grained. Each individual crystal is less than five microns (millionths of a metre) across.

Elementary clash

Identifying its atomic structure required sophisticated analytical facilities at Canada's National Research Council and the assistance and expertise of its researchers, Dr Pamela Whitfield and Dr Yvon Le Page.

"'Knowing a material's crystal structure means scientists can calculate other physical properties of the material, such as its elasticity or thermochemical properties," explained Dr Le Page. "Being able to analyse all the properties of a mineral, both chemical and physical, brings us closer to confirming that it is indeed unique."

Finding out that the chemical composition of a material was an exact match to an invented formula for the fictitious kryptonite "was the coincidence of a lifetime," he added. The mineral cannot be called kryptonite under international nomenclature rules because it has nothing to do with krypton - a real element in the Periodic Table that takes the form of a gas.

Power possibilities

Instead, it will be formally named jadarite when it is described in the European Journal of Mineralogy later this year. Jadar is the name of the place where the Serbian mine is located. Dr Stanley said that if deposits occurred in sufficient quantity it could have some commercial value. It contains boron and lithium - two valuable elements with many applications, he explained. "Borosilicate glasses are used to encapsulate processed radioactive waste, and lithium is used in batteries and in the pharmaceutical industry."

Matrix Reloaded - Neo's Conversation with the Architect

The following is an interesting and long conversation between Neo and the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded. Started watching Ultimate Matrix Collection, again. Some of the commentaries by Ken Wilber and Cornel West are excellent, but most of them are boring trite remarks.

The Architect: "Hello, Neo."

Neo: "Who are you?"

The Architect: "I am the Architect. I created the matrix. I've been waiting for you. You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant."

Neo: "Why am I here?"

The Architect: "Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here."

Neo: "You haven't answered my question."

The Architect: "Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others."

(The responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "Others? What others? How many? Answer me!")

The Architect: "The matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version."

(Again, the responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "Five versions? Three? I've been lied too. This is bullshit.")

Neo: "There are only two possible explanations: either no one told me, or no one knows."

The Architect: "Precisely. As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly's systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations."

(Once again, the responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "You can't control me! F you! I'm going to kill you! You can't make me do anything!")

Neo: "Choice. The problem is choice."

(The scene cuts to Trinity fighting an agent, and then back to the Architect's room)

The Architect: "The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is as apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being, thus I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind, or perhaps a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother."

Neo: "The Oracle."

The Architect: "Please." (Sarcasticly?)

The Architect: "As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice, even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level. While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly, that if left unchecked might threaten the system itself. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster."

Neo: "This is about Zion."

The Architect: "You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated."

Neo: "Bullshit."

(The responses of the other Ones appear on the monitors: "Bullshit!")

The Architect: "Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But, rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it."

(Scene cuts to Trinity fighting an agent, and then back to the Architects room.)

The Architect: "The function of the One is now to return to the source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from the matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix, which coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race."

Neo: "You won't let it happen, you can't. You need human beings to survive."

The Architect: "There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world."

(The Architect presses a button on a pen that he is holding, and images of people from all over the matrix appear on the monitors)

The Architect: "It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were by design based on a similar predication, a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of the one. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-a-vis, love."

(Images of Trinity fighting the agent from Neo's dream appear on the monitors)

Neo: "Trinity."

The Architect: "Apropos, she entered the matrix to save your life at the cost of her own."

Neo: "No!"

The Architect: "Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed, and the anomaly revealed as both beginning, and end. There are two doors. The door to your right leads to the source, and the salvation of Zion. The door to the left leads back to the matrix, to her, and to the end of your species. As you adequately put, the problem is choice. But we already know what you're going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic, and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple, and obvious truth: she is going to die, and there is nothing that you can do to stop it."

(Neo walks to the door on his left)

The Architect: "Humph. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."

Neo: "If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again."

The Architect: "We won't."

Havish 3.0*

On June 2, 2007, Rama and I enjoyed a grand party thrown by Prapoorna and Kiran for their son Havish's third birthday+ at their residence.

Havish strikes me as a wonderful kid who figured out the meaning of life soon after he was born! I always see him joyous and full of positive vibes. He is a personification of Hakuna Matata! Also, his happiness increases with the number of people around him. About origin of the name Havish, Kiran explained that Havish is Lord Shiva with a specific attribute. I was amused when I noticed that the name Havish is an anagram of its source, Shiva(h), as in శివః!

* Same level of sweetness from day one, upgrades include superior voice recognition and speech synthesis!

+ Belated birthday party, for convenience. Havish was actually born on May 22, 2004 at 7:47 AM (memory by association! - Boeing announced about a week before Havish's birth that it was considering manufacturing an advanced 747 (747A). After I came across this news, 7:47 AM got stuck in my mind).

TAGHeuer Woods?

When I came across this advertisement, I was thinking, it could have been titled "TagHeuer Woods" for pfun - But they probably thought that a pun would have a diminutive effect on this other wise classy sales pitch.

Waiting for a Happy Ending

A commentary published in Austin American Statesman on May 5, 2007.

Five years ago, as he was preparing to invade Iraq, President Bush told tales of how Saddam Hussein was inches away from nuclear weapons, and how the Iraqi regime had vague but threatening ties with al Qaeda, and how his strategies were all about responding to 9/11. It was as terrifying as any ghost story, and the fact that his evidence was as insubstantial as any ghost didn't slow its repeated telling around the campfire of prime time.

Four years ago, on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, he told the story of "Mission Accomplished," saying: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."

It was the story of a new, entirely different kind of war, a war in which, "With new tactics and precision weapons, we can achieve military objectives without directing violence against civilians."

It's a story that's gotten harder to tell, and certainly to listen to, as it keeps getting repeated. On Tuesday, issuing his veto of the emergency war funding bill that included deadlines for cutting back the U.S. presence in Iraq, Bush told his story of how the surge came to be.

This surge, he declared, was the recommendation of military leaders, and any limitations on it from Congress was a matter of politicians trying to take the war over from the professionals. "Members of the House and the Senate," he said sadly, "passed a bill that substitutes the opinions of politicians for the judgment of our military commanders.. . .

"That means America's commanders in the middle of a combat zone would have to take fighting directions from politicians 6,000 miles away in Washington, D.C."

Outside the lines of the president's favorite narrative, this war from the beginning — even more than most American wars — has been a war designed by politicians with limited interest in military opinion. Generals who suggested that it was all going to be harder and take more time and men than the president's story included were downgraded and ignored.

Because the president and Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — three politicians who designed everything about the war — insisted that it would be a short story, the military was never prepared for the length of the struggle, and lacked the equipment and armor and manpower that would be needed. While Bush now tells a story of military direction, in reality this has been a war of civilian planning and military improvisation.

"The real tragedy in Iraq," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., "is that it was the politicians in Washington, not the generals, who set our strategy in Iraq."

The military was left to deal with the results. Now Bush tells the story of a surge generated by the military, a surge that he calls "Gen. (David) Petraeus' plan" and insists "Congress ought to give Gen. Petraeus' plan a chance to work."

And because the president can have his stories told by many tongues, Republican politicians like Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., insisted after Bush's speech, "This isn't the president's plan. This is Gen. Petraeus' plan. This is his plan we're talking about."

Yet the surge plan was devised in Washington, D.C., by civilians, guided not by military necessity but by calculations of how many additional troops could possibly be available. Petraeus was then brought in to try to make it work.

If Petraeus had suggested that what the plan really needed was 100,000 more troops, it would have been made pretty clear whose plan it was. Yet Bush, the politician fundamentally responsible for the operation of this war, now weaves a story of military planning to be protected from politicians' interference.

It's one of a series of stories that George Bush has told us to make sense of our situation in Iraq. So far, none has had a happy ending.

Phony Customer Service

To the extent possible, I stopped using telephone customer support. Those press 1, press 2,... voice prompts can eat up time. For some companies, the trick of pressing zero repeatedly (or not pressing anything) for reaching a live operator quickly, would kick us out of the system. I am having a lot better luck (in saving time) with live chat on the web. With automated banking etc., luckily, I rarely call customer service these days. Here is an interesting article on telephone customer service in the Wall Street Journal.

Tired of computers answering your telephone calls for customer service? GetHuman.com and NoPhoneTrees.com are two Web sites designed to help callers connect to an employee and bypass automated systems.

GetHuman.com maintains a database of "tricks" and telephone numbers for 500 consumer companies, from airlines to banks. Consumers search for companies by industry or name. For some companies, like Alamo Rent A Car, the site simply gives a phone number that should connect "direct to human." Other firms require special codes. To reach employees at MetLife Bank, for instance, users are instructed to "press 000 rapidly and repeatedly, ignoring messages."

To talk with people at the Federal Trade Commission, callers are told to "press 450 at each prompt, ignoring messages." Volunteers test the numbers at least every quarter, says Lorna Rankin, the site's only paid employee. And if a user says a code no longer works, Ms. Rankin tries to find a new trick the same day.

NoPhoneTrees.com, a similar service provided by Chicago health-care technology company Bringo, verifies more than 400 entries for roughly 250 companies monthly, and will spot check a number whenever users complain.

With NoPhoneTrees.com, users search for a company or department on the site -- say, Delta Air Lines' Baggage Service Center. You enter your phone number and hit a button that says "fetch." The site rings your phone within seconds to verify that the request is legitimate.

Bringo's site then navigates the company's phone tree, calling you back when it connects to a person or when the call is placed in queue for an employee.

Fourth on Lake Austin

Austinite Trey Ratcliffe is one of the winners of the Smithsonian magazine's fourth annual photography contest. His photo, "Fourth on Lake Austin" won in the category of Americana. Ratcliffe was a finalist for another photo, "Across the Line" in the category the Natural World.

The winning photo was a Fourth of July photo taken on Lake Austin and processed using a technique that creates a high dynamic range (HDR) photo. Using a combination of multiple exposures and specialized computer software, HDR photographers can create a painterly, vibrant image.

This year's grand prize winner is a photo of the Tukituki River Valley in New Zealand (below). The photographer is 18-year-old Joelle Linhoff of Minnetonka, Minnesota.

Memorial Day Weekend 2007

Thanks to Kiran's Invitation and initiative, Rama and I joined a very nice and fun-loving desi group from Houston and camped at Lake Whitney on May 26th and May 27th. Sridhar garu and his group have done an excellent job in selecting the location, planning, and organizing a camp for this large group (41 in total).

Our secluded camp ground was just a few feet from the bank of lake Whitney and we couldn't ask for a better and scenic location. Evening of the 26th was very nice with no rain. We enjoyed mingling, playing dumb charades, barbecued corn, plenty of food, and drinks. A group of kids and adults entertained everyone with their dance to heart-thumping music. Murthy garu's dance was classic! We stayed up until 2:30 AM. Again, hearty thanks and the credit goes to the organizers.

I made a very nice hike through the park on 27th early AM. Waking up to the real nature sounds of light rain on the tent and chirping of birds was awesome. Though it was raining, as I had proper rain gear, it didn't bother me - actually, it was kind of nice. Walking by the prairies, watching a few herds of deer and a couple of raccoons, carpets of wild flowers like blue bonnets and Indian paintbrush in a quiet and deserted wilderness preserve was very refreshing.

Anytime I hear the rain falling on leaves in deserted areas, I recollect my reading of the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Specifically, the narration of Huck and Jim floating down the Mississippi in their raft. I remember vicariously fantasizing the experience while reading the story slowly. Incessant drizzles and down pours failed to dampen the campers spirits as we managed to have fun during the breaks.

I recently learned that one of the happy-campers in our group is an entrepreneur whose story was featured in Houston Chronicle. Venkobarao garu urged the group to give iRazoo a try and I am going to do that. Here are some camping photos.

The camp site


Prapoorna and Rama hard at work (pitching the tent)


The camp


Camp fire


Birthday cakes


One of the dumb charades teams


Kiran, Havish, and Prapoorna snuggled up in the tent


Picnic Table


Rama and Prapoorna

Why Do ABCDs Excel at Spelling Bees?

Evan O’Dorney of California won 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee championship today on spelling "serrefine" correctly. Words in these competitions are very hard as their pronunciations are pretty tricky (ex: epaul'ment, schuhplattler, and girolle). As usual, ABCDs performed very well. Kunal Sah couldn't manage to get into the final rounds. So, he needs to find another way for realizing his dreams. One of the kids (a 12-year old!) was very creative when he was asked about his plans on participating in the Spelling Bee - "to Bee or not to Bee, that is the question!".

While watching Spelling Bees over the past few years, I found it interesting to note that ABCDs always excel in this competition. I wonder if we have genetic predisposition for spellings, along with Japanese cars and Dockers pants. Talking about cars, I noticed that the number of American cars parked in front of our Hindu temples (based on my limited observation) are less than ~5%! In general, foreign cars dominate the local brands in the US, but not by this margin. Coming back to the Bee, here is an interesting article on ABCDs and Spelling Bees by Mr. Tunku Varadarajan. This reminded me of one Desi character (can't recollect his name) in the documentary movie Spellbound.

When an Indian-American 13-year-old won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last week--the fifth time in seven years in which a child from that ethnic group has won this stirringly absurd contest--my first reaction, naturally, was to ask why such a striking pattern of success has emerged. (Indians are 0.66% of the U.S. population.)

My second reaction was to suggest to my wife (just as gobsmacked as I by this year's bee, in which winner, runner-up and third place all had their origins in the Indian subcontinent) that Indians must have vast space in their brains for memorizing spellings, since very little of their cerebral room is taken up by social subtleties or a sense of humor.

My third reaction, since we'd just seen a charming documentary called "Mad Hot Ballroom"--in which a team of Dominican schoolkids from the Bronx had vanquished all comers in a citywide ballroom-dancing competition--was to say that, just as the Dominican children in the movie had clearly "got rhythm," the Indian kids at the bee had just as clearly "got spelling."

Of course, any suggestion that any ethnic group has "got" anything--other than a mother tongue and a native cuisine--is open in this country to vociferous attack. So I shall look for other explanations for why young Anurag Kashyap, this year's winner, was--yawn--yet another Indian kid who can spell "appoggiatura" on television before a national audience without breaking into a sweat.

As scientists will confirm, there are reasons why empirically observable patterns occur: In the case of the little Indian-American spelling champs, an arguable one is that this ethnic group has pushier parents than any other tribe, all very eager--no, make that desperate--for their kids to succeed at school, or at anything that looks remotely like school.

This attitude draws on a particular Indian cultural trait, bequeathed to broader Indian society by the Brahminical upper stratum: Success at letters is the sweetest sort of success, the achievement nonpareil.

For millennia, India was a land where the poorest scholar was held in higher esteem than the richest businessman. This approach to life proved disastrous for modern India. Jawaharlal Nehru, the country's first prime minister and a Brahmin to his manicured fingertips, had such contempt for business (and for profits) that his economic policies condemned his people to two generations of stagnation.

But Nehru would have approved of spelling bees. Indian pedagogy relies heavily on rote memorization--the result of a fusion of Victorian teaching methods imposed by the British and ancient Hindu practice, in which the guru (or teacher) imparted his learning to pupils via an oral tradition. (The Victorians, for their part, regarded correct spelling almost as a moral virtue, and certainly as a caste "signifier," to use a clumsy anthropological term.)

So the act of sitting down for months with dictionary on lap, chanting aloud the spellings of abstruse words and then committing them to memory probably taps into an atavistic stream coursing through the veins of Indian bee-children. A friend tells the story of how, in his childhood, he'd had an Indian boy home for a sleep-over. He awoke in the middle of the night to find his guest poring over the host family's Random House dictionary. "I own an Oxford dictionary," the boy had said, by way of bizarre, nocturnal explanation. "This American dictionary is so different!"

If all that sounds too much like saying that there's a "geek gene" at work here, let us consider another explanation for the Indian spellers.

There are certain cultures--particularly Asian ones--that produce child prodigies. Relentless parents, goading their children to success at the youngest possible age, are but one explanation. These are all cultures in which, traditionally, children have begun work early, in which childhood as we know it in the West is an alien idea. Indian kids are potty-trained by two. In America, that would be regarded as precocious. Pressure is brought to bear much later on purely American children than on those kids whose parents persist in old-world child-rearing ways long after they immigrate to America.

And here, perhaps, is the last piece in the Indian-American spelling-bee jigsaw. Educationally, Indian-Americans are the cream of the crop of a fifth of humanity, thanks to U.S. immigration laws, which, for decades, let in only doctors and engineers and mathematicians. So these children are the kids of parents who themselves competed--probably at a ferocious level--to get into the best Indian schools, and then to get here.

So there you have it, neatly explained. Master Kashyap--singular fellow!--is a product of a complex set of processes. Only a part of his success, I'm pleased to report, is attributable to matters deoxyribonucleic.

Finally, I learned a new word from the Bee that describes W's war team very well: Kakistocracy