Recently, I identified the “Tier II” lights that could use CFLs. So I bought a Rs 200 CFL to replace the existing Rs 10 bulb in a light that was used for about an hour everyday. The problem that I didn’t expect to face, was that I had no idea what to do with the perfectly good bulb that was replaced.

There weren’t any empty sockets to plug it into. I didn’t want to keep it as a spare, because if another bulb blew, that would be a good opportunity to use yet another CFL. It could have been donated to the domestic help to use at their house but that wouldn’t save any electricity at the macro level. The last option was to break the bulb and dispose it.

This bulb dilemma is a good reflection of most energy efficiency initiatives and or initiatives to reduce CO2. When there is a new initiative or project and if there is enough money to invest, it’s easy to “buy new CFLs” and save money through efficiencies. The problem is with existing assets. How much money can one spend to upgrade these and what does one do with the residual value of replaced assets? It’s difficult to find projects with no upfront or ongoing costs.

Now the question is, what do I do with the bulb lying on my table?

The Indian left parties that support the coalition UPA government are threatening to pull the plug if the government signs the nuclear cooperation treaty with the US. Whether the government will stay in power or not is uncertain but what is certain is the fact that the nuclear deal is doomed despite US threats that it’s either now or never.

Who is the biggest loser? India as a whole, as we will miss our target of 20,000 MW of power generation coming from nuclear sources by 2020. Lack of electricity will put a slow brake on the growth of our economy and wouldn’t a certain neighboring communist Asian superpower like to see that happen?

Maybe this is why the Indian communists have been so busy opposing economic reforms of the Central government ever since the UPA government has come into power, while in their own playground of West Bengal, reforms are going at full steam turning the state into an economic powerhouse.

What’s sauce for the goose is obviously not sauce for the gander or is there a “Phoren Hand” stirring the pot?

According to Wikipedia, the highest occurrence of NPD is in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, with an incidence of 1 in 40,000. Given this incidence and a test accuracy of 99.9%, the chance of actually having the disease, if tested positive, is just 2.4%. If the test accuracy fell to 99%, the chances drop to 0.25%.

Could this be a case of the test providing a False Positive?

From the way the post liberally uses the word “lawyer” it looks like they are quite serious about not letting the brand go the Xerox way.

Wake up lawyers, is there anything you can really do to stop this?

PS Anousheh Ansari has her own “space” blog.

Seth Godin gives a really nice talk (20 mins), at the Gel Conference 2006, with lots of illustrations about things that are “broken.” How can anyone make a signboard that reads, “SOCCER MAY ONLY BE PLAYED IN ARCHERY RANGE”?

Over a 3-day sojourn in Goa, I was amazed by the consistent quality of the road surface everywhere I went. There were small things that together made a big difference. A smooth and even pothole-free surface, clear white lines down the middle and on both sides, and lastly small but very clear and standardised signboards at every junction.

Such a simple formula seemed to transform narrow 2-lane roads into a driver’s paradise. Bangalore roads are a nightmare at best. Most roads, even though they are 4-lanes wide, have pockmarked surfaces and unnerving undulations. The lines drawn down the middle look like they were done by Pablo Picasso.

I gave up looking at Bangalore signboards after I saw one that had three arrows pointing to K R Circle, K H Circle, and K G Road. In addition to the information being useless, the signs at each junction are of different sizes, colours, and formats making the process of finding a road sign among the sea of billboards, ads, and shop signs impossible when you have 5 seconds remaining to catch the green signal.

This is all of course if the roads exist after being dug up by various telephone companies running fibre optic cables, works department building sewers, water authorities installing pipes, electric companies laying cables, and locals tapping new water connections. Normally all this activity happens after a new road has been laid.

I travelled around quite a bit and didn’t see a single instance of road damage anywhere in Goa.

The government always blames the poor condition of Kerala’s roads on the monsoon. The monsoon rains in Goa are of no less intensity but the roads look straight out of America. So much for excuses.

When will our other states learn from Goa?

Here’s a list of the animals used in various languages:
- Foxes - English, Malayalam, Japanese, Armenian, Italian, Portuguese
- Jackals - Hindi & Afrikaans
- Monkeys - South African English & Zulu
- Rats - Arabic
- Bears - Bulgarian
- Tigers - Korean
- The poor (not animals but…) - Greek
- Witches - Spanish
- Leopards - Various African languages

Is this more than just a coincidence?

(List compiled from Wikipedia & Google Answers)

Here’s how some of their products stack up against the competition.
- MSN Messenger is 50 times bigger than GTalk
- Yahoo Mail is 10 times bigger than Gmail
- MySpace is 100 times bigger than Orkut (For the US users)
- Technorati is 6 times bigger than Google Blog Search
(Multiples in terms of subscribers or searches)

To be fair, Google has had a few successes like:
- Google Maps – Though it trails MapQuest, it’s very popular with mashups
- Google News – Thanks to its international focus

The problems that Google faces aren’t easy to overcome:
- Conflict between Googlesque simplicity and elegance versus feature richness required for products other than search
- Not being able to compromise the classic Google homepage by listing all it products… imagine Google looking like Yahoo!
- Super smart engineers wanting to keep moving to the next big thing instead of seeing through the successes of launched products.

Any guesses on the success of Google Checkout, their answer to PaPal.

On remarking to my wife that it was nice to showcase an Indian playing the role of the nurse, especially with Indians being one of the largest ethnic segments of nurses in the US/UK/Middle East, her immediate response was that the movie may have been localised for each region. Western audiences would see a Caucasian nurse, Far Eastern audiences would see an Oriental, and so on.

It could be possible. There was a Malayalam movie called Harikrishnans, which originally had 3 different endings, each tailored to different religious demographics. With the controversy that it created, they finally released the movie with only one ending.

Top 7 Indian Medical Schools (Alphabetical Order):
1. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi - 90 (Revised from 50)
2. Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune - 130
3. Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana - 60 (Assumed)
4. Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore - 60
5. Jawaharlal Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry - 75
6. Mahatma Gandhi Institute Of Medical Sciences, (MGMIS), Sevagram, Maharashtra - 64
7. St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore - 60

Top 10 US Medical Schools (By Rank):
1. Harvard University (MA) - 692
2. Johns Hopkins University (MD) - 463
3. University of Pennsylvania (PA) - 703
4. University of California-San Francisco (CA) - 600
5. Washington University in St. Louis (MO) - 472
6. Duke University (NC) - 459
7. Stanford University (CA) - 473

Top 7 annual enrolments – US - 3,862 / India - 539
Total number of annual enrolments - US - 68,343 / India - 30,000
Total number of medical colleges – US - 128 / India - 450
Average number of seats per college – US - 530 / India - 67

[Data Sources: India / US. The Indian schools' data has been crosschecked for veracity]

The average per college intake is a huge 8 times higher for US medical schools as compared to their Indian counterparts. The top Indian colleges have a miniscule 539 seats for a population of 1+ billion people. If a reasonable working period for a doctor is 30 years and, for discussion’s sake, we assume that the total enrolments for the past 30 years have been a constant, then:

The population to doctor ratio from the top 7 medical schools is:
India: 67,000:1
US: 2,500:1

The population to total doctor ratio is:
India: 1,200:1
US: 140:1
[If you factor all the Indian docs who have moved to the US/UK, the ratio gets worse.]

So should the whole argument be about percentages or about absolute numbers? With such small numbers, whether the seats are general or reserved, they will go to the elite, either the general elite or the OBC elite. The government is spending thousands of crores of rupees in educating the elite. It’s no wonder that most doctors are the children of doctors and most labourers are children of labourers.

What students should protest for is an increase in the absolute number of seats. Our country needs 10 AIIMS each with 500 annual enrolments, 25 IITs each with 2,000 annual enrolments, and 20 IIMs each with 750 annual enrolments.

If institutes cry that they cannot increase the numbers, then it’s time that they and the Ministry of HRD pulled up their socks and got smart about what they are doing to make a real difference to this country.

The whole argument is whether admissions should be merit-based or whether they should be used to help backward classes. The vocal anti-reservationists, as they like to call themselves, believe that the quality will come down and that only the “creamy layer” of OBCs will benefit from reservations. The silent minority are quietly praying that the quotas come in to place so they can see more opportunities for themselves or for their children. Even those who don’t have a position find it more fashionable to side with the anti-reservationists.

Arjun Singh, the Minister for Human Resources & Development and the key proponent of the new policy, reacted to the protests by assuring students that the number of seats available to the general quota. This should have assured the anti-reservationists but they are still unhappy. Some of the institution managements are even unhappier.

Protests have included fasting and several attempts at self-immolation, though the protests have been weak as compared to Mandal I in 1990, which led to the resignation of the then Prime Minister, V P Singh.

The biggest protesters are medical students, presumably because they are the most directly affected. So I did a little digging on what the actual impact of this is and the story revealed something totally different. Continued on Institutionalised Protection of the Elite.

Where did all that money come from? American investors who bought into their story of huge demand for the Gizmondo console, a portable gaming device.

What was it that P T Barnum supposedly never said?

The markets have been driven up by FIIs (Foreign Institutional Investors) doubling the Sensex in the past 1 year from 6,438 to a high of 12,671 two weeks ago. FIIs have pumped in Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion) last year and about half of that in the first few months of this year.

The reasons being given for the crash are the sale of Rs 7,300 crore (Rs 73 billion) shares by FIIs in the past 1 week, an expected increase in interest rates by the US Feds, a crash in the international commodity prices, and the straw which broke its back seems to be a government circular which was interpreted that FIIs should be taxed. P Chidambaram, the country’s Finance Minister, issued an evening press release denying the latter.

A decade ago powerful individuals could sway the market and everyone would scream that small investors have lost their retirement savings but this time most investors have suffered only paper losses and are still in the black. The real big losers, paper losses again, are the business tycoons. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani lost Rs 11,600 crores (Rs 116 billion) in personal wealth yesterday.

Notes
Sensex is the index of the BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange) analogous to to NYSE
Nifty is the index of the NSE (National Stock Exchange) analogous to NASDAQ
Dalal Street is where the BSE is located and is analogous to Wall Street
1 Lakh - 100,000
1 Crore = 100 lakhs (10 million)
US$ 1 = Indian Rs 45.50

Sub: Humpback Mountain and Viagra Falls

A girlfriend of mine suggested that we see Brokeback Mountain together. I’m always open to new experiences so I agreed. I heard it was a movie about cowboys so I thought it would be like one of those old Ronald Reagan movies. I got myself a big glass of soda and settled down to watch the movie. The plot was as follows:

1. Two cowboys working through the summer on Brokeback Mountain end up humping each other.

1a. Cowboy 1 gets married in a church.

2. The two cowboys get back together on Humpback Mountain.

2a. Cowboy 2 meets a hot woman and marries her but she turns out to be more interested in making money than in him.

3. The two cowboys meet once again on Humpback Mountain.

3a. Cowboy 1 has a couple of daughters.

4. The two cowboys visit Humpback Mountain yet again.

4a. Mrs. Cowboy 1 wonders why her husband never seems to catch anything when he goes fishing.

5. The two cowboys rendezvous on Humpback Mountain.

By this time the big glass of soda has hit my bladder and I’m squeezing my legs together and squirming in my seat. My date is completely absorbed in the movie. I don’t want to appear homophobic or insensitive so don’t dare move from my seat. I keep hoping that the movie is going to end and sure enough, there are a couple of scenes when it looks like it’s ending. But then the two cowboys somehow go back to Brokeback. Finally, one of them dies and you would think that the movie would be over. But no, it keeps going for a while longer. If that cowboy hadn’t died I might have been watching the movie for an entire week with scenes like:

1. Cowboy 1 using a walker and Cowboy 2 in a wheelchair are going up Humpback Mountain yet again.
2. Cowboy 1 breaks his glasses on Humpback Mountain and a passing sheep gets deflowered – Cowboy 2 gets jealous.
3. Cowboy 1 and Cowboy 2 discover Viagra – both of them bound up Humpback Mountain on their pogo sticks.
4. Cowboy 2 forgets to take out his new set of false teeth while performing an intimate act on Cowboy 1 – a nasty flesh wound results.

Anyway, one of the cowboys dies and after a great many final gasps so does the movie. At this point, I suppose I could have run to the restroom but after a movie like this, you re expected to watch the credits in silence. So I continue sitting in my chair squirming and squeezing my legs together watching the names of the following people among others:

1. Producer
2. Assistant to Producer
3. Guy who brought coffee for the Assistant to Producer
4. Guy who brought cream and sugar to put in the coffee of the Assistant to Producer.

When the credits finally got to the Guy who was the roommate of the Assistant to Producer when they both were attending film school in LA, my date got up. That was the signal for me to jump up and tell her I would meet in the lobby. I just managed to make it to the restroom before a torrent was let loose that makes Niagara Falls look like a dripping faucet.

After that I met my date in the lobby and we discussed the movie. We agreed that it was very moving. After a couple of days I got an e-mail from her saying that she felt there was no chemistry, so I would not be seeing her again. At first, I took it in my stride but suddenly an awful thought hit me.

What if she thought I was squeezing my legs together and squirming in my seat because I was watching a movie about two gay men?

In short, it says that the area under the tail of a statistical distribution is larger than the area under the main hump. The whole concept arose primarily with the advent of the internet which changed the landscape of customer reach and distribution.

Let me give you an example. If you walk into a store of Barnes & Noble or Landmark in India, they may have 5,000 titles available. Each title must sell at least 1-2 times a month for that book to pay for the 2” to 5” of shelf space that it occupies.

On the other hand, Amazon may have 250,000 titles. Most of the titles sell only 10-20 copies a year but with their back of beyond warehouses, they can afford to keep those rare titles. When you have 245,000 titles that sell 10-20 copies, it represents a huge volume, which is known as the Long Tail.

Search engine queries also follow a Long Tail but it was Google who effectively monetised this through its ability to offer a huge volume of narrow searches to a huge number of ad buyers looking for niche search phrases and by using market-driven pricing. Their latest annual report even has a picture of the Long Tail on it.

Most people view Netflix as only a DVD rental business but its business depends on the Long Tail. 70% of their movie demand is back catalogue, while only 30% is for current movies. The beauty of Netflix is they are able to easily provide niche movies to niche audiences and still make money. In fact, 99% of all their 50,000+ titles get rented at least once a quarter.

Last year more than 500 movies were released in the US. Can you name 20?

The lobby & restaurants are on the first floor and I normally walk up the stairs. A flight of stairs takes me to the second floor that has meeting rooms and guest rooms. Then another flight of stairs takes me to the third floor where my room is located. Very straightforward, 1st floor -> steps -> 2nd floor -> steps -> third floor. No funny stuff.

Last night I saw the open doors of a welcoming lift (elevator) and jumped in and pressed “3″ to go to my room. On my way up, I observed that the buttons listed (in order) were 1, 2, 2A, 3, 4, and 5. Now how could that be? I take the steps up every day and know for a fact that there is no floor 2A.

Half way to my room, curiosity got the better of me and I got back in the lift and pressed the 2A button. If you can guess what happened, write it into the comments and the first correct guess gets a free coffee from me (from my fav coffee bar whenever you’re in town).

Interestingly, in London’s King’s Cross Station, they actually have a signboard that says “9 3/4 Platform“. It’s there in Wikipedia too.

“The Tooth Fairy doesn’t work on Saturday…” was the first thing we blurted out, bleary eyed after the late night movie. But somehow the answer wasn’t convincing.

It was half way through breakfast that I figured out a great explanation. “She came while you were sleeping in our bed but the tooth was under the pillow in your bed.” Referring to the period he spent in our bed while we were watching TV and with the hope that at least on Sunday night there would be no fuss about sleeping alone.

In India, there is no myth of the Tooth Fairy but I thought it was a useful way of getting the kids over the fear of having their tooth pulled. Of course, after seeing my kid count the remaining 19 teeth while clutching his 20 rupee note, I quickly did some math and told him, “The Tooth Fairy picks up only the first two teeth.”

Don’t we love myths?

“What does the Tooth Fairy do with the teeth?”
“She gives them to new babies…”