Nuclear Woes!

Very few things get me more excited than some good Left bashing. Consider that coming from someone who has lived most of his life in a state controlled by commies for almost three decades! The 1-2-3 Agreement, Singur, Nandigram… there is no dearth to how hard the left tries to be disliked and their ambiguous protests labeled idiotic. What befuddles the mind is that even though the lower echelons of the party are populated by blithering morons, the Left in India (like in China) is headed by some of the intellectual stalwarts of the country. Rarely do we find men of such caliber as Yechury and Karat, yet, contrary to what the so called intellectual consensus of the country believes, they will oppose it. Surely they are not that smart…I perused the salient features of the 1-2-3 agreement, and I can not fathom why the Left is so determined to oppose it. What the f*ck do you mean Muslims are against the deal? Why? Mayawati, of course, has no answer for that...

From a purely entertainment (let’s face it, that’s what Indian politics is about) perspective, the drama could not play out any better than the Samajwadi Party getting entering the scene. Will the Left fold? Will Manmohan moon Yechury and Karat? I can’t wait!

aMAD Films Presents:

Amit and I made a sequence of short movies with a math theme for fun. Here's a first look. Enjoy. If you want to watch it in high quality, you need to go to the youtube site. You can do that by just clicking on the "youtube" sign on the video. In youtube you can choose the "view in high quality" option.

Smashing M&Ms


The Mathematical Father


Professor Gone Wild

"Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands, and all you can do is scratch it!"

~ English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham commenting on a cello player's talent.

Although this is an arbitrary post to pick up after being AWOL for so long, but I really don't want to talk about life, universe, or anything else along those lines.

I have been listening to some western classical music since December last year. No apparent reason, just happened to stumble across it as I was aimlessly trying to find something interesting to distract me while waiting for a job... which, by the way, I still haven't found, so I would appreciate any help anyone could give me.

Anyway, on to the subject at hand. This is not meant to be pretentious. I am musically talentless, tone-deaf, if you will. Nor am I educated in the jargon. I don't claim to be a connoisseur, these are just some of the pieces I have truly enjoyed listening to, some over and over again in our media library selection... a top 10 pick. I have provided a few links to some of the pieces on youtube, but most are of poor quality not to mention in incomplete parts, but will give you a sense of the piece.

1. Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto#2, Op. 18
Compared to the chaps we are familiar with, Rachmaninoff is fairly contemporary (d. 1943). He wrote this piece recovering from severe depression and a particularly dirty break-up with his wife. Although not as famous as his Piano Concerto#3, this is a powerful piece and the first movement is absolutely spellbinding. A virtuoso himself he often played this as a part of his repertoire. There are lots of renditions... Arcadi Volodos, Sergei Vassiljevitsj, Evgeny Kissin, but my favorite has to be Alexis Weisenberg with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the late (Nazi!) Herbert von Karajan. The clip is a little messed up in the beginning but it's Karajan and Weisenberg.

2. Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto#3, Op. 30
His most famous composition, and reputedly extremely hard to play well. Although, I personally prefer #2, #3 requires more deftness and technical fingering, or so I am told by resident piano experts at Hamilton. I have only heard two renditions, but 69 year old Vladimir Horowitz playing under the baton of Zubin Mehta in 1978 was absolutely spectacular. Clip of the first part of the first movement.

3. Camille Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28
Although considered repetitive or even boring, along with Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto #1, Op. 35, this is my favorite piece for the violin. Again there are many renditions, Itzhak Perlman, Jascha Heifetz, etc. The one that really captured me was 14-year old Viviane Hagner performing with the Israeli and Berlin Philharmonic in Tel Aviv in 1990 under Zubin Mehta. There was something about that performance that was just right...see for yourself.

4. Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto#1, Op. 35
When this composition premiered it was major failure and most violinists of the time refused to play it, but today it is concerned as one of the best pieces for the violin and virtuosos covet to play the solo. I have mixed feelings about this. At times, it is sublime, at times it sounds discordant and scratchy, more of an experiment with the instrument than the results of success. Nevertheless, 18 year Akiko Suwanai, prize winner at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow has played a beautiful rendition. Jascha Heifetz's is the most famous, but I still prefer Suwanai. First part of the first movement.

5. Maurice Ravel's Miroirs 4: "Alborada del Gracioso"
French. In my opinion the pop star of the baroque period. Ravel is the turn of the century ABBA. Upbeat, catchy, and you can tap your feet to it and you don't need to close your eyes to enjoy the music. I personally like the piano solo version, but the arrangement for the orchestra is quite good too but feels a little somber and not, well "happy enough". There's a strange piece with Bram van Sambeek doing a bassoon solo! As for versions, there's Richter (a bit too fast, I felt), Karstein Djupdal (the other version our library had) is quite good. I'm sure there are some better ones out there, let me know if you find a good piece. It's a horrible version but the best I could find on youtube.

6. W. A. Mozart's "Requiem" K626
Foggy, gloomy, surreal. Mozart's famous unfinished work. Although there is debate on how much of it was actually written by the maestro himself, it is still a hauntingly beautiful piece. The violins and the chorals... it's pretty scary. Haven't found a favorite version yet. First part of 6.

7. Camille Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre"
Another hauntingly surreal piece. I first heard an excerpt of this as the opening theme to the British drama "Jonathan Creek" starring Alan Davies. For this composition too there are arrangements for violin and piano, but I like the orchestral version the most. There is something about the thundering sound of violin crescendos and timpani. Complete clip, good quality, Philadelphia Philharmonic.

8. Igor Stravinsky's "Petrushka" (ballet)
I wasn't sure if I wanted to add this, so I am playing it right now and I think I should add it. Petrushka is a ballet, and although it has it's moments of genius, if simply heard, rather than seen, it can feel a bit, well, "rough". Russian to the core, it's very hard with heavy, banging fortissimos. The piano arrangement that he later did for Russian pianist Rubenstein is actually quite good. I'm trying to see if I can get hold of a video, I've asked the library to order a copy, let's see. Youtube has a very dirty copy if you're interested. Piano rendition of "Russian Dance" from the first act.

9. Pyotr Tchaikovsky's "Festival Overture: The Year 1812", op. 49
To quote Calvin, "The fire cannons in a crowded theater... and then they say classical music is boring!" No seriously, this is as Russian as it gets, war drums, cannon fire... gotta love that. Quite different from the Violin Concerto I listed above, but equally good. And if you're Russian, patriotic to beat. If you're French, well that just sucks now doesn't it? Versions, hmm... well we have the Moscow Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic versions conducted by Ozawa. Both are good, but use synthesized sounds. I want a taste of the real thing!

10. Johannes Brahms' Symphony#1, Op. 68
I was torn between Handel's "Messiah" and this but I think the fact that Brahms took almost 20 years to write the damn thing, gives him a little more weight. We'll cover Handel next time around. The opening is powerful. It isn't overtly long like Mahler and Beethoven (Brahms was supposed to carry on Big B's legacy...) for that matter and he manages to keep it tight. He put the 20 years to good use. Right till the finale there is a sense of tension. However, even a novice like myself can hear the similarities between this piece and a mix of Big B's 5th, 7th, and 9th symphonies. No favorite version yet. I don't know how good the clip is, I haven't heard it... it's the first decent on I found on youtube.

Well that covers that for now, next time, let's see, Beethoven, Liszt and his unplayable "Transcendental Etudes", Strauss, Debussy, Haydn, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Bruckner and whatever I find interesting in the interim. Maybe Paganini. I'm sure many of you have recommendations, so fire away...

"My Name is Harry Meadows, But You Can Call Me Death"

So I am doing a little news segment on Asian Affairs for our weekly Asian Cultural Society meeting. Of course, there was no way I am going to use the common current affairs material, because, like Canada, who cares. So I dug around trying to find some interesting stories from the past, present, and the foreseeable future of Asia, and I found the following stories on the BBC website of QI (Quite Interesting).

The first story is about Cats in Boxes, continuing my cat theme from previous posts:

Between 1959 and 1961, a British/WHO project accidentally killed lots of cats when treating malaria with DDT in the Sarawak area of Borneo. The DDT also killed cockroaches, which were eaten by cats, which also died and the area became thus infested with rats. Now Sarawak is quite a dense forest region and fighting rats the conventional way was problematic, so the British/WHO team decided to parachute in cats in boxes into the region to fight off the infestation. The boxes had little springs attached to them which would open the box when it hit the ground. Forget about whether it worked or not, the whole concept boggles the mind!

Second story, Adding 2 Feet to the Everest:

Radhanath Sikdar a Bengali mathematician, was the first to measure the peak as 29,000ft, but because he thought people would think he just rounded up to 29,000 feet, he "added" 2 feet to make it 29,002 feet to make it seem legitimate. This was the accepted height of Everest up until 1955, when it became 29,028ft. Incidentaly, Mt. Everest is named after George Everest, the Surveyor General of India at the time, and he pronounced his name as "EVE-rest".

On a side note, apparently the most dangerous sport in the world, purely in number of related accidents and deaths, is kite-flying! Apparently the "manja" string causes many people to lose fingers, and in a few cases, arems and heads! Falling kites have also known to fall in front of motorists causing road accidents and such...

I have a few more, but if any of you have heard anything interesting of late, let me know...

Buy My Umbrella...

How do I sell something that I do not own? You pay me the money, I buy the umbrella, and I give it to you. Simple, right? That's how all brokers work. However, what happens if the person sells an umbrella that does not exist, and the buyer again sells it to someone else who sells it someone else and so on. All the while, no one has actually seen the umbrella since it doesn't really exist, just the promise of it. Now consider everyone who has bought the umbrella had to borrow money to make the purchase and the last buyer borrowed money from the first seller. Who loses?

Exceprt: Ramblings in Econometrics; Maity, Abhishek, Pengu, New York, 2007.

Bradfinger's Shadow

I tried but I could not think of a more banal title.

This is a story, not just any story, but a story. Captain Homomorphism is there. So is Redfield, Sloth, and The Cow. Mass produced Schrodinger's Cats play special weapons. We're not entirely sure what they do, but it's pretty bad. Tamim is the retarded son of a retired triad kingpin. he has a feline fetish. The Bald Pragyan is his brother. He is bald. He wants to kill Tamim so he can take over the Triad Empire. His weapons of choice are exploding kittens. Coupled with a Schrodinger's Cat, the kittens explode, but miraculously survive to be reused. It is still in the testing phase but the manufacturer Clicheco claims it can be used nine times before it needs to be returned to the animal shelter. There is no intrigue so stupid people can read it. There are a few women with nice puns. It is a story told within a story to understand a story that is essential to the the story - take that Faulkner. There isn't a laugh track so you probably will not laugh as the jokes are too sophisticated. They may seem poor and corny - so stupid people can read it - but underneath that what is hidden lies a deeper, funnier, Woodehousian humor, several from the mouth of a nonchalant cigarette.

This is esstentially what I have at the moment. I was bored in Econometrics and didn't want to "write some emails"...

Experiment #1

Does it seem like self-help websites are getting more and more popular? It may just be me, but during my recent brain-dives into the Internets, I’ve noticed growing number of self-help websites and links to self-help articles. These articles try to inspire readers to "boost productivity” and they provide tips for “living a healthier life,” or “being more successful at _____ (fill in the blank),” etc. My question is does this stuff really work? A lot of people must think so, considering that the self-improvement market is expected to grow to $11 billion by 2008¹.

Like many other things, individual mileage² likely varies. In my case, I know that texts and speeches induce only ephemeral motivation at best. Still, I found some articles that look interesting enough, so I've volunteered myself to be the guinea-pig. I will follow the prescriptions of a few articles one at a time for at least 30 days each.

This first article is supposed help me break my habit of staying up for half of the night and sleeping in for half of the day³. I will report back within 30 days…



1. See Wikipedia link in the first sentence. It should also be noted that the revenue generated by self-help websites would only constitute a fraction of the $11 billion.
2. Yes mileage - it's slang. You can try kilometerage, but it just doesn't sound right.
3. Isn't it strange that we "stay up" at night and "sleep in" during the day. What are we staying up above or sleeping in? The blankets?