Rumi Nations

Paul Krugman had some harsh words for climate change deniers in his recent New York Times column: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/opinion/29krugman.html?_r=1&em With his customary clear-thinking, he has wondered about the implications of the narrow margin with which the Waxman Markey bill passed in the House. The scary part about all this is if legislators in advanced nations find it hard to come to a consensus about climate change, what would be the fate of similar bills in legislatures in less developed nations such as China and India ... Will people realize the gravity of the issue only when the dire consequences predicted by scientists become real and people start dying ? When hurricanes with the ferocity of Katrina become annual events rather than unusual anomalies and droughts become commonplace around the world, perhaps people will begin to realize that we can't go on burning fossil fuel without suffering consequences.

This day marks the end of a tumultuous life … I was thinking oddly enough about whether MJ will be part of the In Memoriam section on Oscar night next year … The extraordinary levels of fame that accrues to people in the entertainment industry is a strange and new phenomenon of the 20th century and beyond … the extraordinary power of music to touch people in the deepest possible way is something quite mysterious. Bob Dylan talked about people listening and liking a song that he had written and thinking that they knew him … but really, of course, they didn’t. That’s true for all music and all musicians. Unlike Bob Dylan, most musicians revel in the public adulation that they get … indeed, it tends to be the primary purpose of their music to gain that public acclaim. But what’s it in a person’s ability to sing well or dance well that makes them so appealing to so wide a spectrum of the population? Are humans so fundamentally a species hardwired to ‘like’ these talents? From an evoluti...

I read just the other day that Mark Bittman is preparing to run the New York Marathon. I find that astonishing as he's someone with a 30-year-old daughter. It's also a challenge to a 30-something guy like me and to all persons who are in a similar age group. Here's a link to the story: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/running-in-your-daughters-footsteps/?scp=2&sq=mark%20bittman%20preparing%20for%20marathon&st=cse I have only just started walking a little bit whenever possible ... I try to do it everyday . Even that is a big achievement for me ... but I've realized the age-old wisdom of health is wealth after being especially ill for a somewhat prolonged period of time ... I am unfortunately still carrying the damage sustained from a fall on the stairs on my right foot, which starts paining when I put too much stress on it ... Not to mention, of course, the other manifold damages that I carry such as those from smoking ... Be that as it may, if I can some...

Yesterday, I tried to view Dr. John Holdren releasing the latest report on climate change but could not download it after several attempts because of some intermittent power troubles ... even could not watch it from the White House page on YouTube as it was not playing in a continuous manner ... don't know if there was some issue with my net connection or with the speed of YouTube as I am usually able to watch streaming videos without much trouble ... With respect to my broad opinions/inclinations about climate change, I can say that I've watched with fascination both of Al Gore's famous Senate depositions — the older one before the Senate EPW Committee and the newer one before the Senate FRC . Of course, I've watched An Inconvenient Truth . Recently, I learned that Freeman Dyson is a 'skeptic' about the effects of human actions on climate change. I very much believe that the issues related to climate change need to be examined with proper scientific skept...

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Today the news pages report that Aamir Khan is going to have a baby. Today also marks the end of a life — Habib Tanvir. And a celebrity has been arrested for carrying declared jewellery into the country. The stock markets continue their see-saw movements. dead bodies continue to be found from the Air France plane crash. Some trifling developments from the T20 World Cup. Federer of course has equalled Pete Sampras' career Grand Slam wins. A random day in the life of India. "The Perils of Tradition" basically references the fact that Indians tend to be happy to live their everyday lives. People basically don't like upheavals in their lives. Even the young generation isn't necessarily designed to seek out revolutions. That's a sad fact that I've discovered recently. Perhaps, someone like Jawaharlal Nehru who lived almost a century ago was more progressive than most Indians who are alive today. Come to think of that!!!

Tara Parker Pope wrote this interesting article and there have been many interesting comments on it ... basically, people sharing their own stories. I thought to post a comment as well and here it is: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/when-sex-leaves-the-marriage/?apage=17#comment-329013