Google to scan 800,000 manuscripts books from Indian university
"Google has agreed to index and digitize 800,000 texts stored at the University of Mysore in India."
"Written in both papers and palm leaves, there are around 100,000 manuscripts in our library, some dating back to the eighth century," said the vice chancellor of Mysore. "The effort is to restore and preserve this cultural heritage for effective dissemination of knowledge."
Impressive.
I wonder how long it will be before there's a Google Cuneiform clay tablet search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform_script
From the wikipedia page linked directly above:
"Cuneiform tablets could be fired in kilns to provide a permanent record, or they could be recycled if permanence was not needed. Many of the tablets found by archaeologists were preserved because they were baked when attacking armies burned the building in which they were kept."
How ironic that the improvements that took writing from the unwieldy medium of a clay tablet to the more versatile papyrus also heralded an enormously increased vulnerability to destruction of irreplaceable future texts.
Thursday, 24 May 2007
On the Mundane Behaviours of the British
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6687667.stm
An article on the BBC website describes a project which started in the 1930s to catalogue the details of everyday activities - activities which would ordinarily be seen as so mundane as to not be worth documenting. Some choice quotes from the article:
" As well as asking volunteers to keep diaries, Mass Observation's researchers interviewed people in the street, listened in to conversations, and observed public behaviour in places like pubs and factories. It wanted to thwart the tendency in modern society to live our daily lives deadened by habit, "with as little consciousness of our surroundings as though we were walking in our sleep"."
• Implications of Peckham
• The application of face cream
• Upper and middle-class soup-eating habits"
Peckham is of course just another boring suburb of London. But what of its implications? :-)
The article also makes the obvious point that these days such attention to the 'man in the street' is common-place due to polls and rolling news interviews. Silly blogs such as this now add to the deafening noise.
Perhaps the only place left in the world where you don't hear the opinions of the common plebs is North Korea. Make of that what you will.
An article on the BBC website describes a project which started in the 1930s to catalogue the details of everyday activities - activities which would ordinarily be seen as so mundane as to not be worth documenting. Some choice quotes from the article:
" As well as asking volunteers to keep diaries, Mass Observation's researchers interviewed people in the street, listened in to conversations, and observed public behaviour in places like pubs and factories. It wanted to thwart the tendency in modern society to live our daily lives deadened by habit, "with as little consciousness of our surroundings as though we were walking in our sleep"."
" If you visit the archive today, you will see that the files have wonderfully banal headings, obviously provided by someone with a quirky sense of humour:
• Implications of Peckham
• The application of face cream
• Upper and middle-class soup-eating habits"
Peckham is of course just another boring suburb of London. But what of its implications? :-)
The article also makes the obvious point that these days such attention to the 'man in the street' is common-place due to polls and rolling news interviews. Silly blogs such as this now add to the deafening noise.
Perhaps the only place left in the world where you don't hear the opinions of the common plebs is North Korea. Make of that what you will.
Tuesday, 22 May 2007
Short article on India and carbon emissions
Blog from 'ethical man' from the BBC's Newsnight programme
Quite a short article - I presume there will be an ongoing series of posts and broadcasts from India - with interesting figures on India's position in the topic of climate change.
The figures are brief, though, and though there is a brief mention of the Indian Parliament raising the issue (allegedly for the first time):
"I opened the Times of India over breakfast to find that the Indian parliament had scheduled May the 8th for its first ever debate on India’s role in global warming."
... there is very little coverage of the opinions and intentions of the business leaders of India and of the opinions and levels of awareness of the common people, from the burgeoning middle classes to the people on the street. It is this that makes me suspect there are more articles and Newsnight programmes to follow on this subject, recorded during the reporter's time there.
Interesting figures also here, though not surprising given the population levels in latter years and I suppose the levels of industrialisation in the early years:
"Between 1950 and 2000 each American produced 642.0 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Each Briton toted up 499.1 tonnes. Over the same period the average Indian was responsible for just 16.5 tonnes. That is one of the lowest figures for any country on earth - 164th out of 185 countries - and is less than the average American is responsible for in a single year."
I did read a recent article though talking about the chronic lung disease suffered by those working in the high-density areas on Calcutta and such cities. I think there was a leader of a taxi trade union who was protesting against some changes.
I finally found it! Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6614561.stm
So yeah, this quote caught my eye, and it reminded me of the old cynics saying that when a company makes the claim that "such a change to our products would be detrimental to our customers" it is usually not the customers who are threatened by the changes but the company's profits.
Cynicism aside, it is fairly clear that the customers in this case - the commuters using the services of the Bengal Taxi Association - are already suffering, and paying with their lives.
In a way, I would agree with some of his sentiments - because in such a high-density population centre, any changes to the transport infrastructure, be it from taxation or legislation prohibiting certain classes of vehicles, could probably have a significant effect on the economy. Though for how long and by how much is a question I know I can't answer.
What are your thoughts on all this, Upasna and Vinay? Assuming Vinay can finally remember who I am, haha :)
Quite a short article - I presume there will be an ongoing series of posts and broadcasts from India - with interesting figures on India's position in the topic of climate change.
The figures are brief, though, and though there is a brief mention of the Indian Parliament raising the issue (allegedly for the first time):
"I opened the Times of India over breakfast to find that the Indian parliament had scheduled May the 8th for its first ever debate on India’s role in global warming."
... there is very little coverage of the opinions and intentions of the business leaders of India and of the opinions and levels of awareness of the common people, from the burgeoning middle classes to the people on the street. It is this that makes me suspect there are more articles and Newsnight programmes to follow on this subject, recorded during the reporter's time there.
Interesting figures also here, though not surprising given the population levels in latter years and I suppose the levels of industrialisation in the early years:
"Between 1950 and 2000 each American produced 642.0 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Each Briton toted up 499.1 tonnes. Over the same period the average Indian was responsible for just 16.5 tonnes. That is one of the lowest figures for any country on earth - 164th out of 185 countries - and is less than the average American is responsible for in a single year."
I did read a recent article though talking about the chronic lung disease suffered by those working in the high-density areas on Calcutta and such cities. I think there was a leader of a taxi trade union who was protesting against some changes.
I finally found it! Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6614561.stm
So yeah, this quote caught my eye, and it reminded me of the old cynics saying that when a company makes the claim that "such a change to our products would be detrimental to our customers" it is usually not the customers who are threatened by the changes but the company's profits.
Cynicism aside, it is fairly clear that the customers in this case - the commuters using the services of the Bengal Taxi Association - are already suffering, and paying with their lives.
In a way, I would agree with some of his sentiments - because in such a high-density population centre, any changes to the transport infrastructure, be it from taxation or legislation prohibiting certain classes of vehicles, could probably have a significant effect on the economy. Though for how long and by how much is a question I know I can't answer.
What are your thoughts on all this, Upasna and Vinay? Assuming Vinay can finally remember who I am, haha :)
One of my four cats is persuaded to take a leap
Spurred on by the prospect of a pot of yoghurt, Hubble bravely spans the chasm.
Interesting debate, Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton
The ever-outspoken Christopher Hitchens, publicising his recently published book entitled 'God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons Everything' enters a debate with the Rev Al Sharpton.
The full, free, video can be viewed here at fora.tv and makes for fascinating viewing. I think it makes a pleasant change to see an interview or debate from the USA conducted in a polite erudite manner with no raised voices, and in front of an audience which is equally attentive and respectful. There's no whooping and hollering here - and applause doesn't appear after every other sentence, unlike in other places and on other shows.
The discussion is definitely worth watching. No big final agreement is arrived at, as you can expect - since the subject is, partially:
1) the existence of deity/deities and for the greater part the possibility of the existence of moral frameworks outside the influence of religious instructions or teachings and
2) of the problems (vagueness, contradictory teachings) with moral frameworks as set up by religious instructions.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the debate takes mostly a focus on Christianity, Judaism and Islam when religious texts are referred to - the other major world religions like Hinduism and Buddhism aren't referred to as far as I can recall.
Nevertheless, both of the fellows taking part in the debate make very decent points - and Rev Al Sharpton, as the fellow defending religion and religiously-oriented morality, makes some concessions that I did not expect him to give - and I give him full credit for doing so. I had expected him to be a whole lot more dogmatic than he was.
At any rate there is a good deal of humour there - Christopher Hitchens is a fairly controversial character, and has a fairly powerful bite with some unusually strongly held views on various matters. None of them appear to be founded from the shaky foundations of a position of illogical or kneejerk reactionism; he can, and often does, back up his views with vigorous and convincing arguments. Convincing even if in the event that you finally disagree with whatever is his final conclusion.
To give an illustration of his unwillingness to bow to convention when he has decided such 'convention' is illogical or distasteful, view the following video. He is asked to give his views following the recent death of the rather notorious 'Rev' Jerry Falwell:
youtube video of Hitchens interview
You can also read Hitchen's full views at Slate, where he has a column: http://www.slate.com/id/2166337/
Quite outspoken, but entertaining.
The full, free, video can be viewed here at fora.tv and makes for fascinating viewing. I think it makes a pleasant change to see an interview or debate from the USA conducted in a polite erudite manner with no raised voices, and in front of an audience which is equally attentive and respectful. There's no whooping and hollering here - and applause doesn't appear after every other sentence, unlike in other places and on other shows.
The discussion is definitely worth watching. No big final agreement is arrived at, as you can expect - since the subject is, partially:
1) the existence of deity/deities and for the greater part the possibility of the existence of moral frameworks outside the influence of religious instructions or teachings and
2) of the problems (vagueness, contradictory teachings) with moral frameworks as set up by religious instructions.
Unsurprisingly perhaps, the debate takes mostly a focus on Christianity, Judaism and Islam when religious texts are referred to - the other major world religions like Hinduism and Buddhism aren't referred to as far as I can recall.
Nevertheless, both of the fellows taking part in the debate make very decent points - and Rev Al Sharpton, as the fellow defending religion and religiously-oriented morality, makes some concessions that I did not expect him to give - and I give him full credit for doing so. I had expected him to be a whole lot more dogmatic than he was.
At any rate there is a good deal of humour there - Christopher Hitchens is a fairly controversial character, and has a fairly powerful bite with some unusually strongly held views on various matters. None of them appear to be founded from the shaky foundations of a position of illogical or kneejerk reactionism; he can, and often does, back up his views with vigorous and convincing arguments. Convincing even if in the event that you finally disagree with whatever is his final conclusion.
To give an illustration of his unwillingness to bow to convention when he has decided such 'convention' is illogical or distasteful, view the following video. He is asked to give his views following the recent death of the rather notorious 'Rev' Jerry Falwell:
youtube video of Hitchens interview
You can also read Hitchen's full views at Slate, where he has a column: http://www.slate.com/id/2166337/
Quite outspoken, but entertaining.
Monday, 21 May 2007
Aaargh!
Look! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6675381.stm
"A fire which severely damaged the famous 19th Century ship Cutty Sark is being treated as suspicious by police.
The ship, which was undergoing a major restoration project, is kept in a dry dock at Greenwich in south-east London. An area around the 138-year-old tea clipper had to be evacuated when the fire broke out in the early hours."
"A fire which severely damaged the famous 19th Century ship Cutty Sark is being treated as suspicious by police.
The ship, which was undergoing a major restoration project, is kept in a dry dock at Greenwich in south-east London. An area around the 138-year-old tea clipper had to be evacuated when the fire broke out in the early hours."
"Speaking to BBC News, the chief executive of the Cutty Sark Trust, Richard Doughty, said he feared what would be lost in the blaze.
"When you lose original fabric, you lose the touch of the craftsman, you lose history itself," he said.
"And what is special about Cutty Sark is the timbers, the iron frames, that went to the South China Seas, and to think that that is threatened in any way is unbelievable, it's an unimaginable shock." He said the ship would be "irreplaceable".
He added that the Cutty Sark was not just an important part of maritime heritage but an important part of British identity."
I don't know about all this 'British Identity' stuff, but I fondly remember visiting the Cutty Sark when I was in primary school (and still living in London) in the mid 1980s.
It's a beautiful ship. Or should I now say 'was' a beautiful ship.
You can see images at the wikipedia page.
The above image taken from the wikipedia page as linked above.
It all calls to mind the famous painting by Turner, depicting the inglorious end of sail - The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up
Friday, 18 May 2007
Interesting BBC article on Net Censorship
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6665945.stm
""In five years we have gone from a couple of states doing state-mandated net filtering to 25," said John Palfrey, at Harvard Law School."
Those aren't US states, fortunately.
As no computer system is 100% impregnable to hackers - so no filtering system can be expected to be perfect, and there will always be, excepting one particular circumstance I can think of, a way for information to get through these government filters.
Even so, there are the inevitable sensitivities of reporting the other side of the story than that covered by the article linked above, reporting on the trends of governments' activities. On that other side of the story are the activities of the general population - their attempts to penetrate those firewalls. Any articles run in the larger media (BBC or whatnot, etc) trying to provide detailed figures on the relative successes and popularity of the assorted techniques citizens employ, run a strong risk of being counterproductive. The state (assuming it is not blind and hampered by Soviet-style bureaucracy) would use that as feedback for themselves, and clamp down more effectively, futher securing their methods.
Of course, as I - and countless others - have said no computer system (especially an internet-connected system) can be expected to be 100% secure. Especially in the long term.
That one circumstance I mentioned that I think would make it all the easier for a government to keep a far stronger hold on the internet activities of its citizens is the prohibition of private home computers and instead the installation of state-sponsored internet cafes - where the state can possess greater control over what software is installed and run.
In this latter situation, the use of easy-to-use filter-beating tools written by the more philanthropically-minded breed of hackers living wherever else in the world is more fraught with difficulty. On a home computer, privacy is all the more available. In an internet cafe, less so - especially with (IT savvy, of course) government minders breathing down the users' necks.
Here's hoping this latter example does not occur - and it may well prove uneconomical and so less desireable to larger countries like China, where the state is putting the economy as pretty high priority. The benefits to the economy of people being able to use internet-enabled computers in their private offices are fairly clear, I would have thought. Though then again - if the govt doesn't see the industrial smog that's destroying the health of their 1 billion strong populace as an economic disaster in the making, then who knows?
Well, perhaps they do see it as a problem after all:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6213051.stm
""In five years we have gone from a couple of states doing state-mandated net filtering to 25," said John Palfrey, at Harvard Law School."
Those aren't US states, fortunately.
As no computer system is 100% impregnable to hackers - so no filtering system can be expected to be perfect, and there will always be, excepting one particular circumstance I can think of, a way for information to get through these government filters.
Even so, there are the inevitable sensitivities of reporting the other side of the story than that covered by the article linked above, reporting on the trends of governments' activities. On that other side of the story are the activities of the general population - their attempts to penetrate those firewalls. Any articles run in the larger media (BBC or whatnot, etc) trying to provide detailed figures on the relative successes and popularity of the assorted techniques citizens employ, run a strong risk of being counterproductive. The state (assuming it is not blind and hampered by Soviet-style bureaucracy) would use that as feedback for themselves, and clamp down more effectively, futher securing their methods.
Of course, as I - and countless others - have said no computer system (especially an internet-connected system) can be expected to be 100% secure. Especially in the long term.
That one circumstance I mentioned that I think would make it all the easier for a government to keep a far stronger hold on the internet activities of its citizens is the prohibition of private home computers and instead the installation of state-sponsored internet cafes - where the state can possess greater control over what software is installed and run.
In this latter situation, the use of easy-to-use filter-beating tools written by the more philanthropically-minded breed of hackers living wherever else in the world is more fraught with difficulty. On a home computer, privacy is all the more available. In an internet cafe, less so - especially with (IT savvy, of course) government minders breathing down the users' necks.
Here's hoping this latter example does not occur - and it may well prove uneconomical and so less desireable to larger countries like China, where the state is putting the economy as pretty high priority. The benefits to the economy of people being able to use internet-enabled computers in their private offices are fairly clear, I would have thought. Though then again - if the govt doesn't see the industrial smog that's destroying the health of their 1 billion strong populace as an economic disaster in the making, then who knows?
Well, perhaps they do see it as a problem after all:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6213051.stm
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Folk from Bihar have big muscles
It's true!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6666729.stm
Hilarious, impressive and yes, bizarre:
"In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident," Deepak Kumar Jha, a spokesman for Indian Railways, told the Reuters news agency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6666729.stm
Hilarious, impressive and yes, bizarre:
"In so many years of service in the railways, I have never come across such a bizarre incident," Deepak Kumar Jha, a spokesman for Indian Railways, told the Reuters news agency.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
So!
I just finished reading Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses'. A great read, quite a bizarre story - the plot tends to weave in and out of view, hiding beneath periodic visits to other plots and stories from around the world, and whose relevance to the main story is only slowly revealed, layer by layer. For the most part, the plot deals with various characters coming to terms with their identity, with the identities of those around them and with the ever tenuous subject of 'spiritual awakenings'.
In the hands of a lesser author, the book may very well have turned into just another of the more shambolic examples of science fiction or magic and spells fantasy or into a one-dimensional religious fable. Through masterly craftsmanship, the plot veers skillfully away from being either an out and out criticism of certain religions* or, on the other hand, of being a (boring, to my view) wacky fantasy wherein whatever miracles that do (seem to) happen are cardboard cut-outs of reality - where the ordinary people see them as indubitably real and no questions are required. An exception must be made, though, for one particularly unquestionable example concerning the character Saladin Chamcha, and I shall leave that as a discovery for the reader!
[*Not that this at all deterred certain trigger-happy 'Fatwa-flingers'.]
Salman Rushdie toys with your senses, in a way. What happens and what does not truly happen can be hard to discern.
What was also interesting was that one or two of the aspects of the book's philosophising were echoed rather well in an (old) post I saw on Upasna's blog - regarding the notions and issues of 'home' versus 'other countries', and the behaviours and reactions and opinions of those people on either side of the divide (If I should call it that): between those-at-home and those-gone-out (and the latter perhaps also divided amongst those who have been only to visit, and those who have chosen to find a new home away from childhood home).
The various effects the character whom I named above is subjected to are of course rather more dramatic than those inflicted on anybody Upasna mentions (if not, then oh my god!), but the general opinions of himself (Chamcha, 'Spoono, me old Chumch') regarding the stay-at-homes are brilliantly illustrated by the last paragraph in Upasna's post.
"Even a hundred years of staying in the west, change of diction or the accent shall not make you a westerner. Lying through your noses won’t too. You are what you are. The sooner that is realized, the better."
Upasna - this is almost word for word the words of one of the characters berating the haughty Saladin Chamcha! You should most definitely pick up, and wade into that book.
I was going to post all this in a comment there, but then decided to collate my shredded, raggedy ideas into a proper blog post - and also to wait a few days until I had actually finished the book. ;-)
In the hands of a lesser author, the book may very well have turned into just another of the more shambolic examples of science fiction or magic and spells fantasy or into a one-dimensional religious fable. Through masterly craftsmanship, the plot veers skillfully away from being either an out and out criticism of certain religions* or, on the other hand, of being a (boring, to my view) wacky fantasy wherein whatever miracles that do (seem to) happen are cardboard cut-outs of reality - where the ordinary people see them as indubitably real and no questions are required. An exception must be made, though, for one particularly unquestionable example concerning the character Saladin Chamcha, and I shall leave that as a discovery for the reader!
[*Not that this at all deterred certain trigger-happy 'Fatwa-flingers'.]
Salman Rushdie toys with your senses, in a way. What happens and what does not truly happen can be hard to discern.
What was also interesting was that one or two of the aspects of the book's philosophising were echoed rather well in an (old) post I saw on Upasna's blog - regarding the notions and issues of 'home' versus 'other countries', and the behaviours and reactions and opinions of those people on either side of the divide (If I should call it that): between those-at-home and those-gone-out (and the latter perhaps also divided amongst those who have been only to visit, and those who have chosen to find a new home away from childhood home).
The various effects the character whom I named above is subjected to are of course rather more dramatic than those inflicted on anybody Upasna mentions (if not, then oh my god!), but the general opinions of himself (Chamcha, 'Spoono, me old Chumch') regarding the stay-at-homes are brilliantly illustrated by the last paragraph in Upasna's post.
"Even a hundred years of staying in the west, change of diction or the accent shall not make you a westerner. Lying through your noses won’t too. You are what you are. The sooner that is realized, the better."
Upasna - this is almost word for word the words of one of the characters berating the haughty Saladin Chamcha! You should most definitely pick up, and wade into that book.
I was going to post all this in a comment there, but then decided to collate my shredded, raggedy ideas into a proper blog post - and also to wait a few days until I had actually finished the book. ;-)
One (more) for the list!
Oblomov, by Ivan A. Goncharov
I love the synopsis for this novel; from the Amazon website:
"Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia's dying aristocracy, a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the bustle and activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpone change and finally risks losing the love of his life. Written with sympathetic humour and compassion, Oblomov made Goncharov famous throughout Russia on its publication in 1859, as readers saw in this story of a man whose defining characteristic is indolence, the portrait of an entire class in decline."
With sympathetic humour and compassion? This sounds like quite an entertaining read. The cover picture, for what its worth, is rather brilliantly apt.
I love the synopsis for this novel; from the Amazon website:
"Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is a member of Russia's dying aristocracy, a man so lazy that he has given up his job in the Civil Service, neglected his books, insulted his friends and found himself in debt. Too apathetic to do anything about his problems, he lives in a grubby, crumbling apartment, waited on by Zakhar, his equally idle servant. Terrified by the bustle and activity necessary to participate in the real world, Oblomov manages to avoid work, postpone change and finally risks losing the love of his life. Written with sympathetic humour and compassion, Oblomov made Goncharov famous throughout Russia on its publication in 1859, as readers saw in this story of a man whose defining characteristic is indolence, the portrait of an entire class in decline."
With sympathetic humour and compassion? This sounds like quite an entertaining read. The cover picture, for what its worth, is rather brilliantly apt.
Tuesday, 15 May 2007
A sly aside, but quite loudly.
Random post-title aside. Once upon a time, long, long ago, I had a job!
Anyway, I wondered whatever had become of those with whom I had become friendly during my brief tenure at said job, and via the stirling stuff of Google, found their blogs. Easy enough.
So basically - hello folks. I'm back to bore you to pieces.
Anyway, I wondered whatever had become of those with whom I had become friendly during my brief tenure at said job, and via the stirling stuff of Google, found their blogs. Easy enough.
So basically - hello folks. I'm back to bore you to pieces.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
