The Great Grocery Smackdown

article over at the Atlantic

I think that a good way to enact social 'good' is to make it an economic benefit for some profit-making venture. For-profit entities tend to be more efficient than non-profit ones in general. Of course, there will be cases where only non-profit ones will do.

E-book pricing

E-book pricing article at NYT

What most authors dont seem to realise is that there isn't really any "real" price a book which is based on what it costs to produce a book. The only "real" price is that which a consumer will pay for the book.
So if a consumer will not pay more than $9.99 for a book, then that is what it will retail at - and to hell with what it took to produce the book. For example, take a painting. The only reason a Picasso is more expensive than a Thomas Kinkade is the paucity of Picasso paintings, and the willingness of customers to pay a certain price.

Here's an idea, sell e-books or paper books with advertisements every 10th page. Let the ads pay for the cost of the book, and sell the book at a cheaper rate. I probably need to digest the ads in books a little more. Any opinions?

NY Times : Leap to Nowhere

One Giant Leap to Nowhere from NY Times.

Indeed, we should've been pursuing the Mars project for much longer. Now though, there is renewed interest. Moreover with China most certainly on the way to put a man, nay a Chinese man, on the moon, NASA might awake again. Hell, even India has the Chandrayaan project.

I couldn't care less who gets to Mars or beyond first, eventually we all need to get out of here. The fact that there is competition is the only way militaries can be convinced to spend; without military support (financial and political), any space exploration projects won't take off (pardon the pun).

Foreseen..

"America is becoming poor .... it’s because America has become a land without substance. We let our manufacturing go. We don’t make things anymore. When you manufacture products, you add value to raw materials, and you literally create wealth. But America has stopped doing that. Americans make money now by paper manipulation, which the Japanese say is bound to catch up to us because paper profits don’t reflect real wealth. They think our fascination with Wall Street and junk bonds is crazy."

It is amazing that these words are from Michael Crichton's 1992 novel, Rising Sun. 1992, seriously.

Teen Patti

Now this is something that I would love to see...

A nice read

The grand edifice of brand-name consumerism rests on the narcissistic fantasy that everyone else cares about what we buy.

Partition

From NYTimes, a poem that is apt, and heart-wrenching. How could the British have done this..
"
W.H. Auden made the absurdity of the way the border was created the subject of the poem “Partition,” published in 1966:

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
“Time,” they had briefed him in London, “is short. It’s too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you.”

Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.

The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.
"

Finite Incantatem

So I'm back. Its been two years, and two very happening years. The spell of graduate school is over, and I can now print visiting cards which say Dr. Sourabh Dube without feeling too guilty.
There will be updates here now, some rants, some observations - the point being that I have now moved from one end of Interstate 80 to the other.
The more pressing reason is of course the publishing of a new blog, LordsofLeptons with friends to discuss/review movies/books and argue/taunt. Looking forward to it!