To us, here and now, it appears thus

How much does my weblog own me?

37.5 %

My weblog owns 37.5 % of me.
Does your weblog own you

Thats what that weird survey says atleast.

Signing off,
Vishnu Vyas

You get free access to NBER papers!

So what is the NBER ?

Founded in 1920, the National Bureau of Economic Research is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.

Or so their website says.

And the best part is allmost all their work is free for people who  are associated with the government or have an academic subscription or - hold your breadth - living a developing country!

Don’t you just love living in a third world country with first world internet facilities
Signing off,
Vishnu Vyas

Freemarket advocates like me usually focus on the efficiency of the free market ignoring another equally powerful factor that makes it such a wonderful system - Innovation. After the london terror threat and virtually stalling all trans-atlantic and european airlines, passengers facing delays in airports and getting hassled have been chosing private chartered carriers recently. The BBC reports.

“Flight delays and cancellations at London’s airports in recent days have sent demand for executive jets and other private charter aircraft soaring.”

A system discussed more that 400 years back by Adam Smith seems to have stood the test of time and has once again proved that it can come up with completely amazing solutions for even the most difficult of problems.

Signin Off,
Vishnu Vyas.

The modern day web is very much like an eccentric library. You could be surfing along and could step on something weird yet utterly delightful such as this.

The Microbe - by Hilaire Belloc

The Microbe is so very small
You cannot make him out at all,
But many sanguine people hope
To see him through a microscope.
His jointed tongue that lies beneath
A hundred curious rows of teeth;
His seven tufted tails with lots
Of lovely pink and purple spots,
On each of which a pattern stands,
Composed of forty separate bands;
His eyebrows of a tender green;
All these have never yet been seen—
But Scientists, who ought to know,
Assure us that they must be so….
Oh! let us never, never doubt
What nobody is sure about!

A poem that is about a microbe and yet also about the uncertain bases of certainity. In this day and age of faith-based warfare and terrorism I am sure this could be something that should go in our textbooks. To imagine this was written as early as 1896!
Signing off,
Vishnu Vyas

The recent report by CSE on colas having excessive amounts of pesticides and other possibily harmful substances has had a wide and varied response. From several states banning the colas in schools and colleges to government of kerala banning it completely in the state. The irony being, the communists are those who gave the permission to setup the plant in the first place are now the loudest voices calling for the ban!

What’s more weird is that, CSE openly admits that everyday food items like vegetables and milk has even more pesticides than colas. They even have a technical word for it, “nutrition-poison” trade-off. The weird thing is, if you can trade off nutrition to poison (which is crazy in its own right), then why can’t you trade off anything else for poison? Getting high-poison trade off in the case of smoking and liquor.

The loony lefties have outdone themselves again by being too clever by half. The commies who banned colas becuase of the alleged poison-nutrition trade off have kept “BEVCO” a government owned liquor distribution company open. For those who seem to champion the causes of the people, the sure are sending the wrong messages.

So for all those budding politicians here is a tip on making national policy, listen carefuly to what the left is saying and do exactly the opposite.

Signing off (disgusted and bitter at the government and loony lefties),
Vishnu Vyas.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose would smell as sweet” - William Shakespeare

That was William Shakespeare writing over 400 years ago, and if he had e-mail and had known that people across the atlantic would be sending him mail, He would have definitely refrained from letting his imagination get the better off him.

Why all this “quoting dead poets” business you ask? Well, It all started with a random mail I got the other day about how I am utterly incapable of understanding “liberalism” and that I shouldn’t be so presumptous to go about calling myself a liberal. See, I can take criticism as well as the next person, but this is something that I was totally confused over. A little help from wikipedia quickly got me to the root of the problem.

It turns out what the rest of the world calls socialists and lefty lunatics are called as “liberals” in america and what the rest of the worlds calls as liberalism is actually “Libertarianism”. It turns out that the shakespearean rose can stink like a pigsty.

I can understand different spellings and in some cases I think there was a point to loose the u in colour or write metre as meter. But why do people across the atlantic have this need to keep inventing new words for old concepts? An Identity crisis perhaps?

So, for the convenience of readers across the atlantic, I am a libertarian on many acounts and for the rest of the english speaking world, I am a liberal.

Signing Off,
Vishnu Vyas.