Sunday, May 28, 2006

The RIAA's latest:

Heavy use of Gibberish!

Link leads to an article on TechDirt.com regarding an interview with the big wigs of the RIAA.

Friday, May 26, 2006

depraved politics

ummm ... is that a tautology?

nyway .... read the transcript of arjun singh's interview by karan thapar on the obc eductaion quota ... singh came out totally ignorant and arrogant ... the only thing i liked about the interview was ... that it took place, questions were asked - very blunt and straightforward q's at that ... don't know if the public protest will change anything.

Manhattan solstice

"Next Sunday and on July 13, the sun will fully illuminate every Manhattan cross street (not the curved or angled ones) on the street grid during the last 15 minutes of daylight, and it will set on each street's center line."

should make for an interesting view ...

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Free Market:

The true price of a gallon of gasoline is whatever it costs the nation to secure it.

Good post by Barry Eisler ex Goverment Operative turned author on Free Markets particularly concerning gas prices.

Friday, May 19, 2006

India - leaders in plagiarism??

A recent report from the Commission on Intellectual Property and Health (CIPIH), appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO), claims to show that a high standard of protection for intellectual property in pharmaceuticals is hurting healthcare in the developing world.

The report recommends that "[c]ountries should seek through patenting and licensing policies to maximize the availability of innovations" -- but it does not agree with the usual understanding that reliance on the free market itself offers the greatest innovations. Instead, it states that "[c]ountries should provide in their legislation powers to use compulsory licensing ... where this power might be useful as one of the means available to promote, inter alia, research that is directly relevant to the specific health problems of developing countries."

While it shies away from a direct attack on patents themselves, the report's bias in favor of generic drugs is clear. As it notes, "[m]ore than three decades of reverse engineering "on-patent" drugs (process engineering) has made Indian companies extremely proficient in speeding generic drug development." Granted, India's new patent law is far better than having no patent law for drugs (as the country did for 30 years until recently), and Indian drug companies are playing an increasingly important and responsible role in the global market. Certainly, all would agree on the need to reduce the cost of drug development -- a concern of Western companies as much as of the patients who need their drugs.

But the report also commends India's new patent law for providing that only compounds with demonstrated "superior efficacy" may receive full patent protection, to avoid "copycat" patenting that in the Commission's view only extends patents to remove competition from cheaper generic. Even if this were true (a large and unwarranted assumption), to prove "superior efficacy" companies would presumably have to go through clinical trials -- at huge expense -- which would therefore have to begin early in the patent term. While generic manufacturers are busy preparing to market on the first day after the end of patent exclusivity, the original company is therefore effectively denied the right to enjoy the full fruits of its labor. Rather than choosing to invest the "monopoly profits" from the patent on inherently more risky new discoveries, therefore, the company would likely focus its attention on refinements to existing products, which would lead to an overall loss in innovation. So the law discourages the very risk-taking so necessary to scientific innovation.
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My thoughts on this article went far from the actual issue of generic vs patented drugs, but to something I have always felt Indians are famous for... plagiarism!
- from copying / collaborating at school from others or books
- 'Young Indian author accused of plagiarism'
- to largest generic drug company in the world 'Ranbaxy' from India

Weren't we supposed to be the more intelligent ones in the world!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Forwards...

Forwards are great on a day like today:

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R's: Respect for self, Respect for others and Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

WORLD CUP PREVIEW: 32 teams in 32 days

Jamie Trecker / Fox Soccer Channel Jamie Trecker previews 32 teams in 32 days!

Each day between May 8 until the day before the start of the FIFA World Cup on June 9, FoxSoccer.com analyst Jamie Trecker will preview each of the 32 teams playing in this summer's FIFA World Cup in Germany. World Cup Rosters

Picked this up from axe, an interesting website that helps you organize your calendar for the world cup schedule according to the teams you want to follow. Windows or Mac...
http://www.worldcupkickoff.com/

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

the paper trail

worlds largest charity ... founded for the benefit of a single family ... devoted to interior design :o)

Flat-pack accounting

ummm, well its the tale of ikea and its innovative ownership structure

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

RHCP

For all you people headed out to Chicago in August, check out the new RHCP album titled Stadium Arcadium. It is awesome.
Before you run off and download it off your respective file sharing application, here's an email from Flea (yes he's a member of the band.)

Sorry to hear that he doesn't seem to share my opinion of how to monetize an event that will definitely take place anyways given modern trading platform limitations around intellectual property especially music.

Again since they are touring as part of a promotion for this album they will certainly be playing a large section of this album, and it really is a worthy album. So give it a spin or two.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Trivia: The world's oldest written recipe, inscribed on a clay tablet in about 1,800 B.C.

is for BEER.

Read on:
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/2006/04/25/beer-best-drink-cx_np_0426featB_ls.html?boxes=popstories&boxes=custom

Interesting & Disturbing

The strange case of the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in nine years ·

Usage increased to 25 tablets a day at peak· Memory problems and paranoia may be lasting David McCandlessTuesday April 4, 2006The Guardian

Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George's Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years. The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills.

Though the man, who is now 37, stopped taking the drug seven years ago, he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side-effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent.

The man, known as Mr A in the report in the scientific journal Psychosomatics, started using ecstasy at 21. For the first two years his use was an average of five pills per weekend. Gradually this escalated until he was taking around three and a half pills a day. At the peak, the man was taking an estimated 25 pills every day for four years. After several severe collapses at parties, Mr A decided to stop taking ecstasy. For several months, he still felt he was under the influence of the drug, despite being bedridden.

Hallucinations
His condition deteriorated and he began to experience recurrent tunnel vision and other problems including hallucinations, paranoia and muscle rigidity. "He came to us after deciding that he couldn't go on any more," said Dr Christos Kouimtsidis, the consultant psychiatrist at St George's Medical School in Tooting who treated him for five months. "He was having trouble functioning in everyday life."

The doctors discovered that the man was suffering from severe short-term memory problems of a type usually only seen in lifetime alcoholics. But evaluating the full extent of his condition was difficult as his concentration and attention was so impaired he was unable to follow the simple tasks involved in the test.

"This was an exceptional case. His long- term memory was fine but he could not remember day to day things - the time, the day, what was in his supermarket trolley," said Dr Kouimtsidis. "More worryingly, he did not seem aware himself that he had these memory problems."
With no mental illness in his family and no prior psychiatric history, the doctors concluded that his unique condition was direct result of his intense ecstasy use.

"This is obviously an extreme case so we should not blow any observations out of proportion," says Dr Kouimtsidis. "But if this is what is happening to very heavy users, it might be an indication that daily use of ecstasy over a long period of time can lead to irreversible memory problems and other cognitive deficits."

For 10 years, MDMA has been suspected of causing these kinds of effects in heavy users. It is thought to be due to its disruption of the regulation of serotonin, a brain chemical believed to play a role in mood and memory. It remains unclear whether these effects are the result of permanent neurotoxic damage or just temporary reversible alterations in the brain.

A study today in a special MDMA issue of the British Journal of Psychopharmacology, suggests long-term side-effects may be temporary. The researchers from the University Of Louisiana could find no significant relationship between depression and recreational ecstasy use.
In the case of Mr A, a structural MRI brain scan failed to show any obvious damage or atrophy in his brain. However, these results, says Dr Kouimtsidis, are difficult to interpret. "A scan of this type is not sensitive enough," he said.

Such limitations in brain scanning technology, along with ethical and legal barriers to giving MDMA to human test subjects, have limited direct observation of the drug's effects in humans.
Instead, scientists have had to use recreational drug users as subjects in their studies. Conclusions from this are often flawed because few, if any, drugs users use ecstasy in isolation.

Cannabis user
Mr A was also a heavy cannabis user, and when he was encouraged to decrease his use, his paranoia and hallucinations disappeared and his anxiety abated. But his memory and concentration problems remained, leading the doctors to suspect that these may be permanent disabilities.

When he was admitted to a specialist brain injury unit and put on anti-psychotic medication, he did start to show some improvement. "Unfortunately, he discharged himself before we were able to complete the assessment," says Dr Kouimtsidis. "We continued to support him. But he started to use cannabis again and he dropped out. We tried to re-engage him but we lost him about a year ago."
The Guardian made several attempts to find the man without success.

Effects of ecstasy
MDMA is one the most intensely studied recreational drugs in history. But despite thousands of research papers and studies, scientific evidence on the side-effects remains inconclusive.

Death by overdose
Undoubtedly, large amounts of ecstasy can lead to over-heating which in turn, in rare cases, can trigger fatal heat stroke. Many factors contribute: number and strength of pills taken, environment, alcohol-consumption, body weight - but women seem more at risk. The bulk of ecstasy-related deaths around the world have been young women.

Water-poisoning
Panicking users, fearing they are overdosing, drink too much water and provoke hyponaetraemia (water-poisoning). Leah Betts died after drinking 14 pints in just 90 minutes. The recommended amount of water to drink per hour is one pint.

Toxic reactions
Much of the reports of toxic reactions are muddled with overdose or water-poisoning deaths. There is no clear evidence that some people suffer allergic reactions to ecstasy. However, around 10% of Western users do lack a key liver enzyme CYP2D6 needed to break down MDMA. This may make them more sensitive to the effects and more prone to accidental overdose.

Depression
Many weekend users report a mid-week mood dip. This is suspected to be related MDMA's effect on serotonin, but hard evidence is lacking. In heavy users, dips can turn to crashes and depression. However studies suggest this effect reverses after a 2-3 month abstinence.

Positive effects
Users still claim "long lasting improvements in self-awareness, self-esteem, openness and insight into personal problems", reports the study from the University Of Louisiana. In the US, research continues into the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Lalu comes to upper castes' help

NEW DELHI: Amidst the raging controversy over OBC quota in elite educational institutions, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday said he was not averse to granting reservation to children from the upper castes. "I have no no objection for provision of 5 to 10 per cent reservation to upper castes children by amending the Constitution", he told reporters on the sidelines of a Conference of Railway General Managers here. On the question of reservation to OBCs, he said Mandal Commission, which is in operation, was very clear and this should be implemented for the OBCs. "There is already reservation for the SCs/STs. Mandal Commission, which is being implemented, is very clear in providing reservation to OBCs. It should be implemented", he said. Prasad's comments assumes significance as he is one of the prominent leaders of the OBCs who came to the fore in post Mandal era and who ruled Bihar for 16 long years espousing the cause of the backwards.
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So now we can break down the admissions to everything in quotas... Upper - 10%, Lower Left 20%, Lower Right 20%, Other Lower Regions 20%... Middle Class - go fuck yourself

Deviant Art

this is my friend's gallery. pretty cool stuff he does...

http://the-blacklisted-one.deviantart.com/gallery/

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

India News

On 5/3/06, *Ananth Ramanathan* <
ARamanathan@wbresearch.com wrote:

Pramod Mahajan of BJP was shot and killed by his brother.
Its sad, cos for all the fluff politicians put out, he was
one of the better ones.

*From:* Premkumar Iyangar [mailto: pkiyangar@gmail.com]
Over 2 weeks old news. Apparently his bro was mentally
unstable when he shot him over some propoerty dispute..Dunno abt him
being better or worse. he was a good speaker..

prem.

On 5/3/06, Ananth Ramanathan
wrote:

Of the pack, he did do some decent work. He died today, was shot about 10 days ago.

Also Baroda is in a state of emergency, riots and curfew.

Was reflecting on my own ignorance to what's goin on back
home

On 5/3/06, Mavryx

Hmm, I wasn't aware that he was dead.. or what was happening
in Baroda.
Feel bad and weird, and somewhat more nomadic than I did two
minutes ago. Funny how my first reaction is how does this affect
me...


On 5/3/06, Premkumar Iyangar

speaking of news...dunno if anyone read the story of an indian
engineer beheaded by taliban militants in afghanistan and threatening to
kill all indians in afghanistan if they did not leave the country asap..
prem.

Flickr Badge

Threw a Flickr badge into the sidebar. Sorry was just playing around, feel free to change it as you like, or remove it completely.
The current tag is "adaywithoutimmigrants". A quick change in the template code can change that flickr badge to anything that you like.

Immigration Rally

So I went and watched the immigration rally in the city this week.
Anybody have any thoughts on it? Does anyone on this blog even care?
Just curious how we're dealing with it.