Why do we need Newspapers?

I just finished seeing an awesome documentary by the name Page One:Inside the New York Times. I am not going to write a review or something but talk about one of the key points this documentary tries to make- Print media should not go out of business.

Consider it somewhat ironic that someone is saying this on a blog, the number one source of headache to major and established newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post, the Guardian and even the Times of India. But yes I do believe that the newspapers should not go out of business. And here's why.

The main motive of anyone having a site or even some small online presence is driven by the motive of getting the highest number of hits as possible. And naturally we like human beings like what ever is controversial. Look at reality shows. They get the highest number of viewings because they fuel controversy. Similarly like the cases of big CEO's and business heads involved in harassment charges, we like to read about these things. It is these controversies that newspapers like the now closed News of the World got famous in the recent phone hacking scandal in the UK. The point here is that we all love controversies particularly when it is about the personal lives of others. And it is these controversies that make us attracted to links on personal lives of celebrities. So how do we know that the online media won't exploit this basic human nature?

But this isn't to say that all online media sources are useless when it comes to news that matters. Twitter has led a revolution by making news available faster than the television or print media. In my home at Bangalore I came to know about reports on bin Laden's death like around 6 in the morning when major news channels like BBC and CNN started reporting on this around 9 in the morning. Even journalists associated with newspapers make use of the internet to gather their sources and information. A magazine primarily based around international affairs called The Diplomat went completely online in 2009 to avoid losses. I frequently use its website to keep myself updated about the world particularly on whats happening behind the translucent wall in China. Almost all of the major newspapers have websites, twitter feeds and presence on facebook.

However this does not mean that newspapers should be allowed to go into the oblivion. It's one thing that needs to be saved. Established newspapers like the NY Times and Indian ones like The Hindu are not news sources driven by the motive of landing maximum number of visits. Journalists are allowed to print and work on stories not by looking at if it will generate a controversy. Because no matter what stories they write on newspaper copies will get published. We need to hear about what is happening around the world even if we find some celebrities more interesting. We all need stories about the goof ups the Bush administration committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. We need to hear about the corruption scandals even ones involving the governments in India. We need Newspapers.

Just an update... I am alive..

I have been inactive in posting new blog updates. I had exams, holidays and got busy in tackling all those stupid problems regarding attendance in college. But I have managed to overcome all that and I'll start posting now on wards.. 

Meet Prof Heisenstein!! (on a side note- why does he remind of Heisenberg, Einstein..)

Hi. I am in the middle of something important but I have something to share that can't wait. So my "blabber" this time is about- Prof Heisenstein (remember Heisenberg and Einstein?)!! He's going to be my guest blogger for ....wait I don't have another one... umm ok.. He's mine for an YEAR!!

Now please behave as he's the winner of 2 (yeah yall heard me right!!) frigging Nobel Prizes( i respect them prizes(too much gangsta rap i guess!!) tooo much to type the "n" and "p" in small caps). So he will occasionally do the blogging. And also a heads up, he may start debating with himself as he has a split personality or so I've heard. SO BE GENTLE..

Ok ciao for now I have got some work.. Next blog post will be from Prof HeisenStein!!
(I'll also upload his picture after I am done with the work I got..)


P.S- To all those readers who might happen to be from cognitive/psychology sciences- I am NOT A MENTALLY RETARDED PERSON although I've known to behave like one sometimes(like now?). But I would love to volunteer myself for human experimentation if you have reason to believe that I am retarded (I've scientific temper)...

Why Anything divided by Zero gives INFINITY? And more importantly why am I doing this 3.30 in the morning>

Yeh heh. Oops its 3.20 in the night. But what the hell. Tomorrow's sunday. Ok I need to get some sleep but before that there's another "blabber" I wanna share it y'all.

Ok this one's for all those guys who were pretty unfortunate to study in a class whose primary intention was to get more marks (sorry guys you people just missed out on so much just like me). Its been less than a year since I completely my 12 grade and I discovered something important (according to my standards at least). We have all wondered why on earth is the answer infinity whenever the question involves anything divided by zero. Pray O people! Pray! For I have the solution!!

Consider a problem uber-simple one like 2/0.The answer we geeks (I am proud to call myself that!) always have blurting out in these kinds of problems is INFINITY!! Lets look into it. What does zero mean anyways? It isn't a "normal" number. It has several properties by which its pretty easy to explain why does zero have weird characteristics. The most fundamental in this case is that it has no physical extension what so evar. I mean if you plot it onto a co-ordinate plane then you will see that it is on the intersection of the axes. Unlike other numbers which have a physical entity zero has only a dot i.e, you can't really say that it has any physical space associated with it.To the o.O 'ed folks- When we plot 2 or 3 on the graph we count that many units of distance from zero; this "distance" is what I mean by physical extension. But zero on the other hand has no such thing.

Thats the beautuful Infinity. I know right?

So by logic if you divide 2 by "nothing" you'll get infinite values.(A lot of people who haven't done limits/calculus won't- come visit the blog when you learn or better just mail me). This is obviously drawn on the same analogy derivatives work on- dividing a space or in this case a line into infinite things that when you add you get the original value. So zero dividing any value works on the same principle. Zero being physically meaningless can be be assumed as some sort of an invisible ninja who working at the speed of light cuts the 2 into infinite pieces. =)

So get it? It's pretty easy to understand not that difficult at all. You just have to visualize things. In a funny way so that it'll stick to your head for a longer time. If you have any problem even understanding please commentaire? Oui? (IDK why do I have so much fascination with french o.O)

Ok I gotta hit the bed its pretty late in the night and I have loads of things that I have planned for doing. (I don't even do half of them but still I like to be an optimist!)

Bonne nuit =)


P.S- I'll soon upload the cartoons and other pictures that I made regarding this "pathbreaking discovery" (lol) I made.

MIT Blogs, Blabbers

Ok I haven't been active as I was in that previous week where all of a sudden I published over 80% of posts. IDK why is that. But any ways i am back now i'll definitely try to get one post online every week. Ok lets forget all this and please read my blabbers(new meaning that I thought of- the actual reason or the whatever thing that the blogger has to share) for this post

Ok. I am a huge fan of the MIT undergrad blogs (check them out here:-mitadmissions.org/blogs). I have been following them ever since I was in 8th grade. They showed me a different life altogether. I knew about MIT, Harvard and all those Ivies before but reading those blogs instilled a sense of how awesome your college life can be. You see I am from India and here people think of going to college studying hard to get a decent job. And by college I mean "engineering".(People here don't even think of other subjects as time worthy as they don't get much salary if they don't study engineering!) So what all I saw around me was nothing but mindless and numb way of approaching to college. So I actually defined college like this - a factory where high potential "investments" created with capability of getting very high salaries. But then for some reason I went to web.mit.edu and clicked on mitadmissions.org and boom! My whole concept of how boring college could be was turned upside down. My first thought- Man these people attend MIT and yet are having so much fun!
So began my "discovery" of what college could be and most importantly what MIT was! I read about the hacks, Brass rat, CPW, Baker House and before I knew it the site became my favorite "hang out" on the net, more than facebook.com . But then some time back I got super busy with school and other things and lost out on following the blogs. I enrolled at a college here in India doing economics. So I completely forgot about the blogs.

But then few days back I visited  their site and since then I am visiting evar since =) It makes me feel very nostalgic as the MIT blogs are one of the things that I truly love. And also they take me back to my early days at high school...

So please do check the awesome blogs and discover the awesome part of MIT that you don't know!!

Why Rajapaksa is Evil for Lanka.

All though nothing recently has taken place in Sri Lanka I write this post to express the falling state of Sri Lanka's so called democracy. Yeah that's right a democracy whose constitution promotes the rights of the majority while denying the same opportunities to its minority. That is just the democratic machinery. The main violations of any human right existing is committed by those who justify their actions based on the democracy. The main violator is without doubt the current head of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa. Under his regime almost every violations have been stepped up. Media is actively censored and according to the rankings released by Reporters Without Borders Sri Lanka is ranked 158th in the world. A country whose media is censored to that extent indicates the collapse in the basic structure of democracy. 

Mahinda Rajapaksa

After the Presidential win in 2005 Rajapaksa actively galvanized the government to end the LTTE. He along with his Army chief Sarath Fonseka started the main operations to end the Civil War once for all. It culminated by the deaths of the entire senior establishment of LTTE. Prabhakaran who was the head since the inception of LTTE was killed in action along with his entire family. Obviously many believed at that time that Sri Lanka would be now normal. But then a rift emerged between General Fonseka and Rajapaksa. Both ran for the 2010 elections which Rajapaksa won. Using his influence and power he sent Fonseka to jail under a number of controversial charges. But since then there have been increasing number of calls world wide for an independent probe set up by UN to investigate the reports of war crimes being committed against the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka by the army in its war on the LTTE. Countries still continue to push the Sri Lankan government into giving permission for the UN probe to be set up which it continues to deny.

Killing field. All those are corpses.

The recent deterioration in Sri Lanka isn't limited to ethnic bias between Sinhalese majority and Tamilian minority. It is because under Rajapaksa the government is actively targeting anyone who not just criticizes the Human Rights in Sri Lanka but anyone who questions or opposes him. In a widely reported incident a journalist by the name Prageeth Eknaligoda was abducted two days before elections in 2010. He was involved in the campaign of Sarath Fonseka who was the main opponent of Rajapaksa. He still continues to be missing. Amnesty has given the contact details of his wife and encourages to send her a note supporting her. Please do so and show your solidarity (http://www.amnestyusa.org/pdfs/SummerSolidarity_SRILANKA.pdf) 

Not surprisingly many of Rajapaksa's family members are now being given various big positions in the country. It's like he is starting to build a foundation by crushing the democracy in which his political successors will his own family and party members. So the only thing we can hope is that Lankans see this and throw this guy out in the next elections. But who knows his powers will be so influential that he may turn the tides and get away with almost every wrong he seems to committing.

USA under Bachmann/Tea Party

So its 31 August, 2011. All the people in USA will be reeling under the pain and disturbance caused by Her Hurricaness Irene who unleashed herself on the east coast of US moving from North Carolina to New Jersey and New York. The Caribbean also suffered widespread damage which by some estimates could be as high as $ 3.1 billion. And between all this mess, deaths, houses being destroyed Michele Bachmann a Presidential nominee for 2012 elections and thought by many to be the frontrunner Republic candidate couldn't keep her out shut. She said that the Hurricane was, well lets hear it in her exact words- " Hurricane Irene is God's way of telling that Washington is spending too much". Really? I mean this is what the standard of a Presidential candidate has become? 

Somehow the tagline here fits - Dumb Blonde

Well you can't really expect anything apart from stupid comments from Bachmann. She is belongs the Republican party and also to the Tea Party faction. Many worldwide would have heard of Tea Party from the debt deal the US passed early this month. They oppose any form of taxation and argue for less government spending. They quite weirdly say that Global Warming is a hoax. Most of them belong to the Republican party and at times even embarrass their own party. John McCain the Republican candidate in 2008 elections blasted the Tea partyers for resisting efforts of John Boehner the current Speaker of the House to reach common ground with the Democrats on raising the debt ceiling. Bachmann very unfortunately seems to be leading the polls and a lot of the media houses believe that she may have enough support to win over Mitt Romney the current frontrunner for being the Republican candidate. I say this is unfortunate simply because she reminds me of the nightmare many had over the possibility of Palin becoming the President. Remember the way she portrayed herself as the Hockey mom and also showed her smartness b saying Africa was a country, dinosaurs existed 4000 years ago and of course how North Korea was an "indispensible American ally"? Well honesty Bachmann doesn't even come close to the standards Palin set in her campaign on how dumb can someone be. But her beliefs have the potential o turn America from Superpower to not even being a power. She said that she'll reduce even further taxes and also cut government spending if she comes to power. Tell me honestly how can a country grow if it reduces its spending and also its coffers are empty courtesy its tax cuts? Bachmann doesn't seem to get this at all.

A legend and an influential man- the World
A stupid overrated man whose work is false- Tea Party

Every person has in some way or the other heard of the Great Depression. It occurred in the 1930's and culminated in the onset of the WWII. The depression led to an economist going by the name John Maynard Keynes publish his monumental work on macroeconomics. Today he is considered to be one of the most influential persons of our time. His theories were put into effect by Roosevelt's New Deal which drastically changed the economic situation. In fact the recent recession of the late 2000's led to a resurgence in Keynesian school. Despite his work being time tested and considered to be a masterpiece the Tea Party as usual thinks of his work as being obscure and a complete false. It says that Keynes was wrong in his assessment.

Its possible what you see in this image according to Palin

It'll be a nightmare if a person belonging to this movement gets elected as the President. Then we can expect economic chaos to be unleashed all across the world. But being an Indian and Asian in general I have to say that if this does happen India stands to benefit from this immensely as China will suffer economically because of the debt bonds of US it owns. India will then accelerate and may play the role what China played during the recession- leading the global economy.

P.S -Here's a link to all the major dumb gaffes of Bachmann- http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/republicans/a/michele-bachmann-quotes.htm

8-2 Manchester United- Arsenal

Yesterday I sat down to watch the Premier League match between Man Utd and Arsenal with couple of my friends and had no idea what I was in store for everybody who was watching. The first half saw some intense moments, some missed shots and even a missed penalty. The score stood at 3-1 during halftime. Pretty brutal but somehow digestible right? I mean Arsenal have been having an extremely bad time with six years being past without any trophy wins. And all the star players leaving- Nasri going to filthy rich Man City and Fabregas going to Barca where he learned it all. So eventhough it was Arsenal trailing 3-1 against United it was believable. But fast forward 45 minutes and you get the shock of your life- score board reads 8 frigging 2! This is totally unbelievable! I mean this is the first time Arsenal has lost by 8 goals since 1896. To lose by 5 goals is ok, 6 is somehow fine but 8 GOALS!

That's history. A big one for the history books.

Ask anyone who saw the match and they'll tell you that it was truly a massacre at Old Trafford. The match saw some incredible performances from United kids. Rooney scored a hattrick. He scored the first two goals from two textbook executed free kicks and was very close to a scoring a third from another free kick and accomplishing a rare feat of hattrick from free kicks! But the best goal undoubtedly was that of Ashley Young. United were leading 1-0 and Young doubled that lead by a goal that was truly magical. Young went on to score even once more in the same fashion.

This match however funny for all the United "fans" signals something far more important, That Arsenal needs to revamp its play this season. A lot of you will say they needed to do that years ago but at least they didn't make headlines for losing 8-2. And  they had Nasri and Fabregas. But this season they need to do something fire or hire or whatever they can and get their play together. Their defence last night was for the lack of a better word shambolic. How awesome the United were last night that bad Arsenal were.

After the match I googled Wenger to find out if there was any fall out on him. He refused to step down as many were calling him to do so. But strangely enough his entry on Wikipedia.org read that he'd been dismissed and said that he'd been one of the greatest managers in the Premier League. Of course this was edited by some Arsenal venting out his anger. But I sincerely hope that sense prevails on Arsenal's Board of directors and don't sack him as it will spell doom for Arsenal. They've lost their star players and to lose someone who has lead Arsenal to a magical unbeaten season in 2003-2004 deserving the title of the Invincibles. Things don't look too rosy for the Gunners and they need Wenger more than anyone else. Surprisingly his rival Sir Alex jumped to his defence. Even Pep did saying that Wenger had done so much for the club.

The next match of Arsenal is against Swansea. They will eventually get over this. But its hard to get over that this match will remain in history books. 8-2 That's something that's etched on everyone's memory.