rantlust

Posted by papi on January 16th 2011 in Books, Journalism, Life, Parenting, Society
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The following book excerpt in the WSJ has been attracting some attention:

Why Chinese mothers are superior

The title of the excerpt, as well as the book itself, seems to have been written with the express intention of provoking extreme reactions, and it seems to have succeeded very well in that. The interesting thing is that if this book had been written by an author of a different race, it would have been dismissed out of hand as an inflammatory piece of racist stereotyping. Perhaps the parents on rantlust would like to comment.

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Posted by papi on November 15th 2010 in Movies, Reviews
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While on movie reviews, thought I’d plug this deliciously unhinged thriller for the ages. Elvis and a back-in-black JFK battle an evil Egyptian mummy in a Texas nursing home. Enough said!

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Posted by anupcs on November 06th 2010 in Movies, Music
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Tron was one of my favorite science fiction movies when growing up in the ’80s. Now I can’t wait for the new movie: Tron Legacy to come out. Jeff Bridges reprises his role in the original movie 28 years later and the special effects are going to be so much better. I hope to catch this in IMAX 3D.

But what I am also excited about is that the soundtrack is done by the Parisian Electronic music duo Daft Punk. Check out their music video for the song Derezzed:

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Posted by jcaldera on November 05th 2010 in Music, Video
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I’ve always considered that Amazon had these weird ways of correlating products to make their recommendations. Yesterday was no exception. I had bought an album a while ago by Ramiro Musotto called Sudaka: Some good mix of electronic, samba, techno dance, urban, hip hop, etc.

I received yesterday an Amazon email saying that since I had bought Sudaka then I should take a look at this newly released album from the Baden Powell Trio: The Frankfurt Opera Concert. The album was recored live at The Frankfurt Opera House back in 1975. As usual it had nothing to do with the Sudaka album, with the obvious exception that both (Baden Powell and Ramiro Musotto) are Brazilians.

Having said that, maybe Amazon does have a different way of associating products because indeed I loved the album. It literally blew me away. At this point I’ve heard the album at least 5 times. It’s been playing in my iTunes ever since I bought it. Almost every track is worth listening to. It reminded me at the feeling I got when I heard Rodrigo and Gabriela’s first album: unexpected, engaging and overall fantastic.

The opening “Valsa Da Euridice” is the perfect opening. Transitioning with “Asa Branca” and the melancholic “Samba Triste”. “Pescador” is absolutely beautiful. The acoustic bass in “Berceuse” is brilliant. The solo guitar in the first four minutes of “Variacao Sobre Canto de Ossanha” are just unbelievable.

This is an studio version of: “Canto de Ossanha” in youtube… enjoy!

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Posted by manish on October 27th 2010 in Rants
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Ms magazine recently ran an article about a girl who refused to cheer one particular player. Her reason: the guy in question had raped her. The school responded by relieving her from the squad.

Atrocious! Right? The article ends with a petition for the school officials and their contact information.

However, a careful read of the facts laid out in that very article paints a different picture.

(Read more…)

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Posted by manish on October 10th 2010 in Rants
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Every society grapples with the question of what is the scope of government in the functioning of the society in general and economy in particular. Questions about what is the right size of government are mostly a moral question about what kind of society we ought to have. As a result, discussion on this issue tends to be very passionate. About half the US electorate subscribes to the theory of small government and claims to exercise their vote at least loosely along those principles.

One could have a “big” government, that has high tax rates and spends a lot on various socio-economic programs. Or one could have a “small” government, which taxes little and does little. Depending on one’s ideal vision of society, one alternative can be better that the other. However, most folks would agree that it doesn’t make sense to have a government that is small in terms of its tax collection, but big in terms of its spending. Unfortunately, in the US, the political reality is that the only part of government that one can cut is the tax collection. So let us, for now, concentrate only on the right way to cut tax revenue.

(Read more…)

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Posted by manish on July 19th 2010 in Rants
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A thought provoking post by Intel’s Andy Grove. He correctly points out that we seem to think that inventing products and manufacturing them are two entirely separate competencies. What he points out nicely, is that today’s manufacturing expertise will lead to tomorrow’s inventions; therefore by outsourcing manufacturing expertise almost entirely, we are running our much vaunted invention engine on borrowed time. Or, as the saying goes, genius is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration. As a society, we seem to be saying: let the Chinese and Indians do the perspiration; we’ll step in for the last 10% and put in the creative genius that really matters.

However, his solution of trade wars and protectionism in not as impressive as his diagnosis of the problem. Here’s a rebuttal.

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