General crossword

Try this one (already published in a newspaper supplement):

Across
4) Film personality Walter Elias … (6)
7) An overland expedition, particularly for hunting or exploration. (6)
9) Desi car or Megasthenes’ account of the Maurya empire. (6)
10) Waterfall, opacity of the lens. (8)
11) A decorative bow, a problem or a speed unit. (4)
12) ‘Any of various isomeric paraffin hydrocarbons with the formula C8H18, found in petroleum and used as a fuel and solvent.’ (6)
13) Raghuram Rajan’s book talks about saving capitalism from them. (11)
18) … of Sion, written about in the Da Vinci Code. (6)
20) Impel. (4)
21) Male roe deer collectively sounding like branded shoes. (8)
22) Defined as a set of bit that represents a graphic image. (6)
23) Term in Sanskrit for the ‘way of the higher truths.’ (6)
24) A group which fixes prices, limits supply and competition. (6)

Down
1) Alfred Hitchcock thriller, insane (slang). (6)
2) Vishnu’s incarnation, also called Halayudha. (8)
3) Optical phenomenon or a military aircraft. (6)
4) East African country. Anagram: IJI DOUBT! (8)
5) The Japanese abbreviation of a phrase meaning ‘the digits must remain single.’ (6)
6) Asset put into the custody of third party for delivery only after the fulfillment of specified conditions. (6)
8) Navigation plan possibly first conceived in 1860 by Commander A. D. Taylor of the Indian Marines. (13)
14) This international organisation is headed by Ronald K. Noble and its General Secretariat is in Lyon, France. (8)
15) A seat or court of justice. Anagram: LATRUNIB (8)
16) Russian for collection of three … (6)
17) Pierre de —, known for his ‘last theorem.’ (6)
18) False, fake. (6)
19) ‘A person of unquestioning obedience.’ (3-3)

Which show ...

What new name did WLS-TV's show A. M. Chicago get in 1985?

Legendary horse, legendary brand

From BL archives:

An easy one! A Mewar ruler bought two horses from an Arab dealer. The first one, Natak, it is said, performed stunning feats during a test, but was subsequently fatally injured. The second one went on to attain legendary status in Indian history. Four centuries after its death, its name is still famous — now also as a company's brand. Which brand?

Unique country

Its currency is pegged to the India rupee. Sixty per cent of its budget expenditure is financed by India's Ministry of External Affairs. It's a secluded country which even still doesn't have a railway network. It's the only country to measure Gross National Happiness.

It overstated its population some decades back as there was a perception that only countries with over a million population are admitted to the UN. It's economy is entirely agrarian and what's non-agrarian is cottage industry. The country keeps making efforts to preserve its traditional way of life. Amid all this, it seems to be largely peaceful.

I read this piece on Wikipedia about Bhutan. It's surely one of its kind. A very fascinating read, actually. What kind of society will hold on to such a lifestyle without dissent?

Another interesting insight provided in that write-up was that cable TV was introduced only a few years back and since then crime rate is said to have increased! The article actually raises a lot of questions, interesting ones.

Business crossword

Just tried a small 9*9 business crossword.
Eager to know your views about it!


Across

1) Vedanta constituent, ‘Cu’ producer. (8)
6) Communication service or a thought. (4)
7) ‘Let’s Go’ is this car’s baseline. (4)
8) A local network. (3)
9) Sounds like a two-wheeler. It is. (3)
10) Element that is “an open source text-based
news client.” (3)
11) “Seller pays for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment,
plus loading costs.” Short term for the same. (3)
13) Lob was his first name. But this German-born American cloth
manufacturer, a pioneer, changed it to … (4)
14) An ExxonMobil tradename. (4)
15) Headless eerie clan made sense for trustful dependence. (8)

Down

2) Toy named after Roosevelt. (5, 4)
3) Money not imaginary. (4)
4) The land of Zam Zam Cola. (4)
5) — value, also referred to as the
time value of an option. (9)
11) Filling yarn, or —, as they say in
North America for weft or woof. (4)
12) It’s Greek, a first version. (4)

Official and unofficial

Which Indian cricketer has the distinction of scoring a century on debut in an unofficial Test (against Sri Lanka in 1975-76) and following it up with a ton in his debut official Test (against New Zealand)? (Clue: famous name in Indian cricket)

One more connect

From BL archives:

Which name 'connects' the illustrious successor of the not-so-famous fictional character Meadowes and the Web-based company founded by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in 1996?

Now, privatisation

Why workers oppose privatisation? This paper by Harvard Economics Prof Sendhil Mullainathan explores, among other things, the psychology behind such opposition. It stems from a phenomenon called 'loss aversion', he says.

The paper cites an experiment by Kahneman, Knetsch, and Thaler to point out that people who "are given objects very quickly appear to value them more than those who were not given the objects." In the case of privatization, the people who "are given the objects" are the incumbent workers.

This is what Sendhil has to say: "The insight about loss aversion can also help understand why policy change is so difficult in developing countries.

"Consider market reforms that transfer resources from one group to another with an efficiency gain. For example, suppose privatizing a firm will result in gains for customers while resulting in losses for incumbent workers.

"Under this perspective, such reforms are fought so vigorously partly because the losses are felt far more sharply by the workers. One implication of loss aversion is, at the margin, to pursue strategies that preserve the rents of incumbents rather than ones that try to buy out incumbents.

"All other things equal, a strategy that offers a buyout for incumbent workers will be far more costly than one that grandfathers them in. The buyout requires the government to compensate the workers for their loss, and this can be much greater than simple utility calculations
suggest.

"In contrast, a strategy that guarantees incumbent workers a measure of job security would not need to pay this cost. Many situations of institutional change require some form of redistribution. The recognition of loss aversion suggests that successful policies may require protecting the losses of incumbents."

Film and the book

From BL archives:

'Connect' a pioneering effort with a commercial success: A 1923 British committee recommended the merger of existing airline companies into one. Thus was born Imperial Airways Ltd. In 1925, it became the first airliner to screen an in-flight movie . This movie, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work, shares its name with the sequel of one of the most successful books of the ’90s. The book and its sequel were subsequently made into blockbuster movies. What's the title that they share?

e-democracy?

Stalling Parliament costs the taxpayer Rs 20,000 per minute, said this article in Rediff recently. Reading it, I was wondering if we could have an e-Parliament in the future! What do you think? Or at least there could be video conferencing or something of that sort.

By getting into Parliamentary debates from their own constituencies, the MPs can avoid costs under the following heads:

* Travel to and fro to Delhi
* Food, accomodation, benefits, servants while there

Plus, the country can save from

* Not needing an army of secretaries, administrative staff
ensuring the function of Parliament

Actually, such an arrangement could free up enough time for the MPs to think and debate meaningfully. They will have enough time to talk to people, getting to understand their issues rather than running around, delivering one speech after another (They can do that now too, but with e-democracy it will free more of their time, and remove all excuses).

Debates can really be more independent of the party line and can emerge out of individual knowledge and perception, untainted by a group mindset. And this feature can really energise the collective intelligence of a group. (That's the funda behind James Surowiecki's 'The Wisdom of Crowds')

Even if the favourite tactic of the Opposition - walkouts - continues to be used, the loss to the nation in monetary terms will be considerably less that way!

In 1951, the loss per minute was Rs 100, it seems (it's now Rs 20,000). In other words, the money pumped in per minute to run the Parliament. The per capita income (income per Indian) was about Rs 275 in 1951. It has grown to just over Rs 20,000 currently. Clearly, the growth in income has been lower.

Does it indicate the falling productivity of the Parliamentarians! Hope not.

Five-letter answer

Remember having come across this crossword clue (or something like this):

Train or part of it (5)

Quite simple but nice! What's it?

A Burroughs Wellcome trademark ...

From BL's archives (slightly modified):

Which single word connects the following:

a) A Burroughs Wellcome trademark, registered on March 14, 1884. The word took its name for the process of making compressed pharma preparations.

b) The nickname of a Sopwith biplane during the First World War.

c) Due to the negative connotations of the word, 'compact' is preferred by some.

For divestment

My opinion, of course unsolicited, is that our Govt doesn't try to explain some of its controversial moves before trying to bring them in. The move for reservation was one such. Divestment of its stakes in companies is another.

Though there's merit in both these moves, it's the duty of the Govt to roll out an elaborate communication exercise to rid people of their apprehensions. It makes sense too, even though both these issues have been in the public domain for ages.

There has been no attempt, at least in the public space, to challenge the arguments of, say, the opponents of divestment. This is all the more surprising, as the anti-divestment argument seems based on layers of assumptions. When the Centre tried to divest a 10% stake in Neyveli Lignite Corporation (where it holds nearly 95% currently), these were the arguments against such a move:

1) It's a move that could lead to privatisation eventually
2) The jobs of employees will be at stake

Take 1) first. There are numerous companies at present in India where the Govt's stake is between 51 and 100%. They are not private companies, they are in Govt control. So, it's clearly a big assumption.

Now for the second assumption, for which their first assumption must hold good. It's clearly their major worry. So, assuming NLC is privatised, there 'could' be job loss. The private sector in the last decade has clearly shown that it's adding people, not retrenching them. And still there could be enough safeguards against random firing.

In fact, if it's privatised and it's a big 'if', the skills of NLC staff would fetch greater monetary benefits when the private sector too competes for such skills. But, of course, people love status quo and want to stick on to NLC as it is now.

The fear is fanned by politicians, who also dish out interesting statements like 'Don't sell the family silver.' The other argument is that NLC is a profit-making company. That's all the more reason why people shouldn't worry with privatisation.

One new entrant to politics even praised the Govt's eventual decision to stall the divestment, saying the whole of Tamil Nadu is happy with it or something to that effect. Actually, the people of the State and the country would have been a lot happier if they had been allowed to own a part of the profit-making NLC.

The Govt didn't do that, sacrificing the chance for lakhs of retail investors for the superficial happiness of 18,000 employees. And, of course, politicians who will continue to be invited for the company's functions.

What it all implies?

1) The Govt will continue to find raising resources increasingly tougher. Taxes, in many cases, have already seen their highs. Expanding the tax base could be another political challenge.

2) Point 1) becomes a monstrous challenge when we consider that many of the state govts think that it's their duty to provide everything from safety pins to TV sets free of cost.

3) All these means education and health, where the Govt should have an enormous presence, will be sacrificed. Remember, AIIMS is not the only Govt hospital in India.

PS: The Govt at least for the sake of the money that divestment raises could have sweetened the offer by presenting two possible alternatives:
1) Present salary plus benefits continue, Govt stake unaltered
2) Present salary plus benefits continue, Govt sells 10% stake which means a chance to own a part of equity

I am sure 2) would have had a fair chance!

Which poem?

The last lines of which English poem,
published in the early 1920s, are:

"Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.
Shantih. Shantih. Shantih."

Myth quiz

In Ramayana, what was the name of the eldest son
of a character that was also called Nikasha?

A line each about four books

This is an interesting and a novel way of looking at the central theme of four books. The idea was suggested by my friend Ramnath's (who says he read about the framework somewhere), and I told him I would post this one!

Imagine you are in a restaurant and just about to order. You would

1) Order what dish comes to your mind immediately, if you follow Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

2) Give the whole issue a thought and order after evaluating all options, if you follow Michael LeGault's Think, which talks about the flip side of Blink.

3) See what others in the restaurant have ordered and choose accordingly, if you follow James Surowiecki's Wisdom of Crowds.

4) Reject the waiter's recommendations and wonder what incentive does he have in motivating your behaviour, if you follow Freakonomics, authored by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.

If people really tune their ordering strategies according to their favourite books, restaurant owners would be really wary of hosting Lynne Truss' fans. Wasn't she the one who wrote Eats, Shoots & Leaves!

Origin of the codename

From the BL archives:

It is said an anti-Communist film Red Dawn, made 20 years ago, inspired the title (carrying the same name) for the operation to capture Saddam Hussein. As part of it, US forces considered two locations near the town of Adwar, 10 miles from Saddam’s hometown Tikrit. The codename assigned to the ‘suspect’ locations is also the name of the company that is a leading maker of casual, work and outdoor footwear. Its brands include Merrell, Caterpillar and Bates. What's the 'common' name?

What's the word?

If 'mazingo' is the Swahili word for 'bends', what's the Makonde word for 'that which bends up'? (Makonde is the language of an ethnic African group)

Connect ...

Another one from Brand Quest archives:

Which five-letter name connects the following:
'Silly'; debut in Mickey's Revue; and Roy Disney?

Can anyone confirm this 'fact'?

This is a potentially interesting cricket quiz fact. 'Potentially' because it has to be confirmed, I am not 100% sure. So, pls send in your comments.

Here goes: I guess the only cricketer to play a masters match (or a veterans match) before playing a normal match (that is, a regular international match) is Flavian Aponso, who played the 1996 World Cup for Netherlands. Before playing what was to be his first and final regular international series, he played a veterans' series for Lanka - his place of birth. In the early '80s he was banned from playing for Lanka, as he had gone on a rebel tour to South Africa.

Any thing wrong with this fact? Pls let me know!

Updike's take on consumerism!

From novelist John Updike's interview (featured in latest Time magazine):

"I find myself disturbed lately by the fact that restaurants give you more than any sane person would want to eat, and food is packaged in bigger and bigger containers now so that you try to buy a mere quart of ginger ale and you have to buy a gallon of it that won't fit in the refrigerator. I'm very aware, almost for the first time in my life, of consumerism, being a dupe of consumerism. In my old age, as my appetites lessen, I guess I'm more and more easily disgusted by the fact that we're living in this society committted to making us spend more than we have, or more than we should, for stuff we don't really need or want, and that furthermore is killing us slowly as well as filling all the landfills and making the birds sing less and so on."

What did he scribble?

Another one from the archives:

The venue: Two Continents Restaurant in Washington. Year: 1974. This economist met the then Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford, Donald Rumsfeld, and his deputy, Dick Cheney. While discussing Ford's proposal for tax increases, he scribbled something on the cocktail napkin, illustrating the trade-off between tax rates and revenues. Who's he and what did he scribble?

Q from the archives!

This is one from the archives of Brand Quest, which I used to compile while at BL:

This expression, which later became a popular economic phrase, courtesy a Nobel Prize winner, appeared in Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 science-fiction novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. And though the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations mentions the authorship as anonymous, the idea behind the phrase is said to have originated from the deceptive tactic that some 19th Century American bars used in order to draw customers. What's the phrase?

You might be thinking like this too ...

Enjoyed reading quotations on elections from this page.

And as I intend to do more than just give you the link, I will copypaste those quotes which I found really funny. Here they go:

1) Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. Sydney J. Harris

2) It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

3) Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. Author Unknown

4) Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. W.C. Fields

5) The problem with political jokes is they get elected. Henry Cate, VII

6) Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. Oscar Ameringer

7) Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right. H.L. Mencken

PS: I am planning to vote for a party that's willing to pay my rent and telephone bills. Any takers?

And who's this?

Easy one:

Singanalluru Puttaswamayya Mutturaju
How do you know him better?

Of course, pls assume only the quiz master has access to search engines!

Which book?

Another easy question:

First line of which novel is this: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."?

ps: Pls assume only the quiz-master has access to search engines!!

Buddenbrooks!

The ‘Buddenbrooks’ phenomenon is characterized by “the gradual decline in entrepreneurial talent from the first generation to the third,” says Francis Fukuyama in his book ‘Trust’.

The term originates from a 1901 German novel by Thomas Mann, whose title when translated means ‘Buddenbrooks, The Decline of a Family’.

A resource in the Web says, “The novel is the saga of the fall of the Buddenbrooks, a family of merchants, from the pinnacle of their material wealth in 1835 to their extinction in 1877. The novel traces the story of the family and its business over four generations, showing how an artistic streak not only unfits the family’s later members for the practicalities of business life but undermines their vitality as well.”

That’s one of the arguments against family-held businesses. How members of successive generations rarely have the same passion for the business nor have the skill. And yet families are reluctant to exit from the business. But of course, there are obvious exceptions (BOCTAOE), as Scott Adams would say.

Those families find a way out by recruiting professionals to run the show while still maintaining overall control.

But isn’t it only natural that different members of the same family aren’t equally gifted in ‘a’ particular area of interest?

Buddenbrooks, I believe, will always apply in cases where successors are chosen because they belong to the family that runs the show, and not because they are able.

This holds true for family-run business or even political parties!

BOCTAOE

Interview link

Pls read this

Interview with Vilayanur Ramachandran, explorer of human brain, in Frontline.

National motto?

Another quiz question.

The national motto 'Satyameva Jayate' (or 'Truth Alone Triumphs') is taken from which Upanishad?

Good and bad

Nice one from Scott Adams' blog http://dilbertblog.typepad.com

(Adams is the creator of Dilbert).

Question: What's your opinion of yourself?

Adams' answer: I’m good at some things and bad at others. I’m lucky that there’s a market for the things I’m good at.

One of my favourite questions

This has been one of my favourite quiz questions ever since I came across it about 10 years back:

In which sport would you come across all the following field positions: point, coverpoint, thirdman and goalkeeper?

Saving journalism from journalists!

Top para from David Randall's 'The Universal Journalist':

"In many British papers, annoyance (meaning you are not pleased) is invariably now 'fury' (suggesting anger beyond control), an arrangement (meaning an informal agreement) is a 'deal' (meaning a far more formal agreement, with definite overtones of a financial, possibly even shady, side), bad luck is a 'curse', to criticise is 'to slam', failure to attend is a 'snub', internal dispute is 'civil war', possibility is 'threat', a proposal is a 'plan', to replace is to 'oust', a traffic jam is 'road chaos', etc. All of these examples (and there are many more to choose from) are shorter, more extreme and more brutal than the reality they describe."

And now the punch line: "It is as if the story is being translated into another language by an angry man with a limited vocabulary."

Indian papers are getting there or aren't they already there?

Punch lines and leads

"When you look at all jokes and humour across socieites, the common denominator of all jokes and humour despite all the diversity is that you take a person along a garden path of expectation and at the very end you suddenly introduce an unexpected twist that entails a complete re-interpretation of all the previous facts. That's called a punch-line of the joke."

Lines from one of the five 2003 Reith lectures delivered by Vilayanur Ramachandran, who I read somewhere is described as the Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience!

Apart from the punch line, he says, what is vital is that the re-interpretation should be of trivial significance.

His argument is that "Laughter is nature's false alarm."

Example: "Here is a portly gentleman walking along, he is trying to reach his destination, but before he does that he slips on a banana peel and falls. And then he breaks his head and blood spills out and obviously you are not going to laugh. You are going to rush to the telephone and call the ambulance. But imagine instead of that, he walks along, slips on the banana peel, falls, wipes off the goo from his face, looks around him everywhere, and and then gets up, then you start laughing. The reason is I claim is because now you know it's inconsequential, you say, oh it's no big deal, there's no real danger here."

Let me digress from neuroscience but will extend the punch-line theme a bit.

The following is the best example that I can think of of a nifty lead (punch line attached) for what you may call a fairly serious story. Given below is an intro of an Economist article on robots in Japan that I read a few months back:

"HER name is MARIE, and her impressive set of skills comes in handy in a nursing home. MARIE can walk around under her own power. She can distinguish among similar-looking objects, such as different bottles of medicine, and has a delicate enough touch to work with frail patients. MARIE can interpret a range of facial expressions and gestures, and respond in ways that suggest compassion. Although her language skills are not ideal, she can recognise speech and respond clearly. Above all, she is inexpensive. Unfortunately for MARIE, however, she has one glaring trait that makes it hard for Japanese patients to accept her: she is a flesh-and-blood human being from the Philippines. If only she were a robot instead."

Didn't that make you smile?

Difficulty in negotiating!

I yearn for a simpler world when I read such things: "When the maker or holder of a negotiable instrument signs the same, otherwise than as such maker, for the purpose of negotiation, on the back or face thereof or on a slip of paper annexed thereto, or so signs for the same purpose a stamped paper intended to be completed as a negotiable instrument, he is said to have endorsed the same and is called the endorser."

This is Section 15 of the Negotiable Instruments Act defining 'endorsement'.

Try this one!

Let me expand the P. G. Wodehouse theme a bit further with this question: Which character of his is based "more or less faithfully" on Rupert D'Oyly Carte, the son of the Savoy Theatre man?

One more to the 27.2 million

I had always known in a vague sort of way that many blogs have poor readership. But till yesterday I had no clue as to how many constitutes "many" and how "poor" is their readership.

It seems 26.9 million of the 27.2 million blogs in existence don't have any readers. I came across this not-encouraging statistic just before registering mine yesterday.

I am determined to make my blog part of the elite list of blogs that has readers. As a major step, I intend to ask my closest relatives and friends to take a look at it.

Having made up my mind, the first major question was: what to name it? My broad plan was to find an appropriate synonym for words like 'thought' or 'views' or something to that effect.

A quick thesaurus check made me realise that my senior bloggers have already employed some of the better words (Why should I have assumed that 27.2 million bloggers wouldn't have checked free resources on the Net!).

Some of the other impressive options like Instant Kaapi, Idli Sambar and Coffee House (my friend Ramanth's blog) have already been used up.

Irritated at not finding an appropriate word at a vital time (surely not the first time in my life), I looked around my room - a sign that all's not well.

Thankfully, my eye spotted P. G. Wodehouse's novel 'Something Fresh'. There were no second thoughts; this was the title.

Having put that as the blog title, I would like to assure 'readers' that my posts more often than not wouldn't adhere to what the title stands for.

For me, 'Something Fresh' sounds good. Nothing more than that.

But to justify the title at least in this blog, I will quote a part of Wodehouse's preface for the novel. Typically Wodehousian, if there's such a usage, the passage tells us why George Horace Lorimer, the editor of Saturday Evening Post, agreed to publish 'Something Fresh.'

"I have always had the idea that Lorimer must have been put in a receptive mood the moment he saw the title page. My pulp magazine stories had been by 'P. G. Wodehouse', but 'Something Fresh' was the work of: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, and I am convinced that that was what put it over.

A writer in America at that time who went about without three names was practically going around naked. Those were the days of Richard Harding Davis, of James Warner Bellah, of MargaretCulkin Banning ... Naturally, a level-headed editor like Lorimer was not going to let a Pelham Grenville Wodehouse get away from him.

If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the names Pelham Grenville, I must confess that I do not. I have my dark moods when they seem to me about as low as you can get. At the font I remember protesting vigorously when the clergyman uttered them, but he stuck to his point. 'Be that as it may,' he said firmly, having waited for a lull. 'I name thee Pelham Grenville.'

Apparently I was called after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it except a small silver mug which I lost in 1897. I little knew how the frightful label was going to pay off thirty-four years later."

What a writer!