High School Dropout ?= Good Leader

I remember how I have had a lot of dinner table conversations about how there must be an educational standard for political leaders, and at some point it made some sense to me. Not any more though, after I have seen people with advanced degrees spill communal vitriol near me. However, a clear example always helps.

And the Daily Show comes to the rescue! Here is the clip of the interview that Jon Steward had with Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. Apparently, he is not even educated up to high school, and is the first indigenous president of the country, and has apparently fulfilled his three main promises within 8 months!!

See the video for yourself to hear him talk about nationalization of his country's oil, the agrarian revolution, and his views on making sure the white-folk in Bolivia do not mind the changes. I wish Lalu was as good in fulfilling promises, and as humble in his interviews.

Hunger, Terror and Music

First all, thanks for your comments on the new look (ranging from 'you look good' to 'I never thought you could look nerdier').

In main news, as last year, and the one before, I am fasting today for the fast-a-thon organized by the USC MSU. A whole bunch of other people are too, and so far it has been good. Each year when I do this, I realize how one's sense of smell increases when one is hungry :(. I think I now realize how the hungry kids at the BHU Temple felt when they are around the snack shops. [Note to self: Must try to introduce such a system in my next workplace]

In other news, as I was looking at my incoming traffic yesterday, I realized that Abi had linked to my post about Randy Pausch! I must say I am honored to be linked from his blog, but also a bit perplexed as to how he saw my blog post in the first place :-?

In any case, it was a pleasure reading his posts, esp. the one about myths about terrorists. I feel proud in mentioning that he is a fellow ITBHU alum :-).

Finally, check out the songs of Laga Chunari Mein Daag, amazing stuff. I especially like Hum to Aise Hain and Kachchi Kaliyan - very nice lyrics and good music. With Rani Mukherjee, Konkona Sen and Jaya Bachchan, this one is a must watch!

That's it for now folks... I will resume work [and the wait for sunset :-)]
-A

39 dollars for a new look...

Before:


After:


'nuf said. Bring on the mugshot jokes!

cheers,
-A
P.S. To see the reference of the post title, go here. Thanks to M for pointing it out, and all those who helped me finalize the design :-).

A last, inspiring speech

A couple days ago, N forwarded me an email from S about the last lecture of Prof. Randy Pausch, a virtual-reality and graphics guru, who, at 46 years of age, has been diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer, and has been given only months to love.

Now I am not a graphics guy, but there was something about that announcement that struck me, and I ended up watching the lecture live, streamed from CMU. And boy, was I impressed. I think my resolve to be in academia has been strengthened by this event.

I strongly encourage you all to see/listen to it.

Google Video [thanks to Abi]:


A good coverage is here, but I encourage you to read it _after_ seeing the videos, so the surprises are not spoiled :-).

Long Time no Write

Hi all,
I can't believe it has been almost a month since my last post! At the same time, I hope my status links on IM have kept you all entertained/informed :-).

The last couple of months were marked by a lot of activity, esp the visit of mom and dad, which had me freaked out, and a paper submission.

Well, all said and done, it has gone off well. My parents had a good time here, and are now in Atlanta, with my big bro.

This past long weekend, I drove a thousand miles in two days (!!) to grand canyon and back. The trip was nice, and mom took a lot of snaps. [yes yes... I will upload them soon.. please don't kill me]. Perhaps the most memorable part of the trip (apart from the Grand Canyon scenes themselves) was when we say rain clouds pour away in the distance... complete with lightening strikes. I could swear I saw two strikes simultaneously at a time!

The paper submission to the conference went fine. And now, off to more such endeavors!

In other news, Sushant sent me the link to this very interesting article, which uses game theory to explain why we should/should not be selfish. Read more here. I am thinking of buying the book.

That's all for now... more when I upload the pics.
cheers,
-A