In Passing...

"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:16:21 +0800

“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.”

- Sir Francis Bacon via Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Re-thinking Entrance Exams

"One wonders if there is any point in wasting time stopping anyone who is convinced that..."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:15:03 +0800

“One wonders if there is any point in wasting time stopping anyone who is convinced that self-destruction is a noble endeavor.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » A Tragic Tale of Callous Hindu Indifference

"The Kashmiri Pandits are not the first victims of Islam-motivated pogrom of Hindus. It’s been going..."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:14:40 +0800

“The Kashmiri Pandits are not the first victims of Islam-motivated pogrom of Hindus. It’s been going on for a thousand years. It is only getting more intensified.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » A Tragic Tale of Callous Hindu Indifference

"The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou,..."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:12:02 +0800

“The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, to the central city of Wuhan. The distance of 1,100 kms between Guangzhou and Wuhan is the same as between Mumbai and Delhi. The fastest train on that Indian line is the Rajdhani. It takes 18 hours compared to China’s 3 hours.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Yeah but India is a Democracy

"The political leaders are criminals and crooks? Yeah, but India is a democracy! The children are..."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:11:12 +0800

“The political leaders are criminals and crooks? Yeah, but India is a democracy! The children are malnourished? Yeah, yeah, but India is a democracy. Trains barely average 30 kms an hour? Sure, but India is a democracy. The most illiterates in the world? Never mind that, because India is a democracy. Liberalization of the economy is dragging on and the people are in economic shakles? So what, India is a democracy. Country being divided along religious and caste lines that is socially destabilizing and ruinous? Not an effing big deal because India is a democracy.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Yeah but India is a Democracy

"Wind farms could yield much greater power density if they were modeled on formations of fish."

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:52:22 +0800

“Wind farms could yield much greater power density if they were modeled on formations of fish.”

- What Fish Can Teach Us About Wind | Design and Innovation | Fast Company

Can I simply have a book to read please?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:57:56 +0800

“…you can’t read the electronic book you buy from one store on a device supported by a competing store. Similarly, you can’t read e-books you borrow from your library if you don’t have the right kind of device. And there’s a chance you won’t be able to read the e-books you buy today on the e-book reader you own several years from now.

Does anyone in the books business realize how dumb this is? Seems not. Because just when the situation seemed to be getting better, it suddenly got worse.”

From:

E-books need a common language

"With autism, as with many medical diagnoses — like hypertension and obesity — the boundary lines are..."

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:26:26 +0800

“With autism, as with many medical diagnoses — like hypertension and obesity — the boundary lines are drawn as much by culture as by nature. Dividing up the workings of the mind is not as neat and orderly as categorizing species.”

- Op-Ed Contributor - Disorder Out of Chaos - NYTimes.com

"They thought that what they could see from the top of their camels is all that the universe was...."

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:03:02 +0800

“They thought that what they could see from the top of their camels is all that the universe was. Nope, the world is much bigger. Other people have other ways of living and thinking. Believing that the entire world was just a huge freakin’ desert where everyone must do everything exactly the same way is retarded and unimaginative.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » The Distinction between People and Ideologies

Flying 101

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:26:51 +0800

Flying 101

What if you needed to streetview the entire planet!

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 13:39:43 +0800

What if you needed to streetview the entire planet!

Apple's 9 Biggest Flops

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:24:04 +0800

Apple's 9 Biggest Flops:

Think that Apple, with its new tablet, can do no wrong? A look back at some of the company’s misfires may change your mind. WATCH VIDEOS of hilarious commercials for Apple’s biggest flops.

"What leaves me at a loss, though, is how many otherwise sane and sensible people give their time and..."

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:12:25 +0800

“What leaves me at a loss, though, is how many otherwise sane and sensible people give their time and energy freely to help support a company like Apple that, despite its elegant designs and generally excellent products (I use many of them), certainly doesn’t need free PR from some of the most talented people on the web.”

- Free Publicity: Who do we help? - Anil Dash

"What made my blood boil was “If blood has to be shed, let it be ours."

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:06:11 +0800

“What made my blood boil was “If blood has to be shed, let it be ours.””

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Bose, Gandhi, Ghadar and India’s Independence

Spot on!

Dancing House - Gehry, Gehry, Gehry…how do you do it!

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:05:21 +0800

Dancing House - Gehry, Gehry, Gehry…how do you do it!

"France must write Haiti a reparations check for $22 billion."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:10:17 +0800

“France must write Haiti a reparations check for $22 billion.”

- Why? Read Why Haiti’s Earthquake is France’s Problem - The Daily Beast by Tunku Varadarajan

"What matters is not who the rulers are but what the rules are."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:07:11 +0800

“What matters is not who the rulers are but what the rules are.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » India needs a New Set of Rules, not Rulers

And that, dear friends, is precisely why Singapore has prospered.

"There’s one more thing that distinguishes the British colonization of India from the Islamic..."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:05:39 +0800

“There’s one more thing that distinguishes the British colonization of India from the Islamic invasion of India. India could learn a lot from the English, and more generally from the Anglosphere. Rule of law, how to manage a large economy, modern science and technologies, the importance of institutions, etc. There was nothing that India could have learned from its Islamic invaders because in practically all aspects, the invaders were primitive relative to Indians. The invaders destroyed whatever they could — especially thousands of temples — and whatever their primitive mentality could not comprehend. India, in the words of V S Naipaul, became a wounded civilization.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » India needs a New Set of Rules, not Rulers

"The reason why the government hangs on so tenaciously to the control of the Indian education system..."

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:04:48 +0800

“The reason why the government hangs on so tenaciously to the control of the Indian education system is simple. The educational system is designed to be maximally dysfunctional so that it is impossible for Indians to become educated. Indians who do go through the system become incapable of rational thought and inquiry. A vanishingly small percent is technically competent (but only technically) and the modest achievements of this minuscule minority is the basis for the building of huge imaginary edifice which is hailed as India, Inc.”

- Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » India needs a New Set of Rules, not Rulers

Einstein, religious?

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:02:15 +0800

That depends on what one considers as religion…

“Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.” - From Denis Brian’s, “Einstein, a Life”