Word Economy

See here for the paper titled, 'A Novel Multi-Antigen Virally Vectored Vaccine against Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis'.

At the risk of being called names, I couldn't have put 'TB Vaccine' any more frugally...

The Gracious Way?

This is a serious issue, but I'm in an inessential class with no chance of participation - so it's going to be a rant.... A couple of issues that have found me somewhat confused on my position, particularly seeing as I claim to know a little (very little) about international law.

First see this, and the Comfort Women coming back to haunt Japan for the upmteenth time. Then take a look at this ,which is a draft of the resolution in the US Congress to label the Turkish massacre of Armenians as 'genocide'.

Fundamental issue: what does it matter what country 'A' says about country 'B' 50, 60, 70 years on? Apologise and make some people happy - give them the closure they need. Unfortunately, international law (and indeed, diplomatic practice) says it matters - it will go down in history as a genocide or as a country responsible for the Comfort Women with the country in question having acceded to this.

Do we need a change?

"To courage find and gracious will
Deliver good from ill
Clean the water clean our guilt
With us do what you will

Then will my judge appear
Bear no false angel that I hear
For only then I will confess
To my eternal hell

Now give us our holy sign
Changing the water into wine
So to you we bid farewell
Kingdom of heaven to hell"

- The Pilgrim by Iron Maiden

For the Greater Good...

"Are you a man of peace
Or a man of holy war
Too many sides to you
Don’t know which anymore
So many full of life
But also filled with pain
Don’t know just how many
Will live to breathe again

A life that’s made to breathe
Destruction or defense
A mind that’s vain corruption
Bad or good intent
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
Or saintly or sinner
Or some that would believe
A holy war winner

They fire off many shots
And many parting blows
Their actions beyond a reasoning
Only God would know
And as he lies in heaven
Or it could be in hell
I feel he’s somewhere here
Or looking from below
But I don’t know, I don’t know"

Foo Fighters - Home

Spend 5 mins - this song's worth it...

Foo for thought

To one of my favourite musicians, just for sheer talent, and a song off his latest album courtesy YouTube above... Dave Grohl was Nirvana's drummer, then founded the Foo Fighters and writes the songs, plays lead guitar and does the vocals. The YouTube video of 'Home' above has him playing the piano. He's also done a bunch of songs in the past (OSTs and the like) where he's done everything - all the instruments and vocals... ridiculous....

Lyrics to 'Home' while you're watching:

Wish I were with you
I couldn't stay
Every direction
Leads me away
Pray for tomorrow
But for today

All I want is to be home

Stand in the mirror
You look the same
Just lookin' for shelter
From cold and the pain
Someone to cover
Safe from the rain

All I want is to be home

Echoes and silence
Patience and grace
All of these moments
I'll never replace
No fear of my heart
Absence of faith

All I want is to be home

All I want is to be home

People I've loved
I have no regrets
Some I remember
Some I forget
Some of them living
Some of them dead

All I want is to be home

Dodgeball

If you have been, in general (no pun intended), following the Pakistan situation, you must watch this interview of Musharraf with the BBC.

Ever since the Agra summit, we've all known how well he handles the media. This is, of course, true about his interviewing skills as well. I've only ever seen him slip up once - that was a minor one in an interview with Prannoy Roy.

In this interview, he certainly struggles everytime a specific question is put to him and he goes into these broad discussions. But watch how he smartly he avoids the question of why the 'War on Terror/Extremism' is doing worse now than it was 3-4 years ago. (around the 6:30 mark).

An abject lack of humour

What is it with us Indians? Why is everything so hierarchical? After umpteen un-funny funny movies - I'm told that Om Shanti Om attempts a number of potshots, falling short of funny at times - but attempts are made, nonetheless... Here is a fall-out...

Why can't we learn to laugh at ourselves?

Maiden...once again

Tickets have been bought courtesy the Larger A and we will be at the IZOD arena in NJ on March 14 wearing the Maiden passion on our sleeves and screaming from the upper tier.

SM is hereby directed to send me the song set after their Bombay gig.

Nostalgia - good...or bad

This is the original article in the Economist reporting the death of Che. Kindly forwarded to me by APR (who, to put it mildly, is quite the Marxist at heart), I think it quite rightly shows the power that one man can wield, simply by symbolism if nothing else.

Fast-forward to this, and a rather smart, yet despicable method of making some post-retirement money by selling parts of Che...

To the rebellion....

Fighting a losing battle

This is worth a read... Tarun Tejpal and his fellow crusaders deserve better... I think he unwittingly spots the true reason behind Tehelka's futility in the last para of that piece; when you want to take down a system, the only way to do it is to simultaneously present a realistic alternative for those involved. Is that possible 60 years in?

The Competitive Streak

Yesterday I played one of the best matches I've ever played in any sport. Maybe the reason I probably enjoyed it this much is that I actually won at the end. But closer inspection would indicate otherwise.

It's been years since I've seen myself so passionately engaged in a match that I'm able to do the Connors-esque pump of the fist and scream 'C'mon' loud enough for the 2 basketball court indoor gym to stop their games momentarily and wonder what's going on. I miss that...and I'm glad I'm back to playing some sort of competitive sport - I just love it. It's now that I realise how much I miss it as well...

The match in itself was very good, in terms of quality and otherwise - I played a German with very good table manners (I'm not sure my screaming would put me in the same category). There are some opponents (particularly in TT, because of the physical proximity) who annoy the hell out of you. And there are others against whom you play hard, but enjoy playing against just because of the courtesy across the table...yesterday was the latter.

In any case, for the record - I won 17-15 or 16-14 in the 5th. During the last game, when we went back to yet another deuce, we sort of looked at each other for a moment, trying to recall the score and just shrugged with a smile!

Great match....

Eddie cometh

In NJ on March 14...let the tickets sell for cheap and be available - pls. I already missed the US Open. The travesty is that they are in Bombay this year - no more trips to B'lore!!