New Blog.

This site has moved to http://cultureye.wordpress.com/

Husbot.com

Clean, cook, fix, rest, shop, build, are pretty much all the commands one needs to operate one's husband robot. 'Tokyo Moon' is a touching music video by Windmill that was nominated for the British Animation Award. Awesome video, heart wrenching end.

Amiina

If you like Sigur Ros, this Icelandic musical quartet will not fail to impress you with their minimalistic, ambient, classical sounds.. I always liked bands from Iceland, they exude a certain free-spiritedness and natural sounds. You might also enjoy Gus Gus and Mum.
"KURR, the band's debut album, named after the sound that birds are said to make in Iceland ... amiina are the kind of band about whom it could be said, almost literally, that they employ pretty much everything but the kitchen sink... In amiina there are no specific assignments: no official bass player, drummer, guitarist or singer."

Cheers.

Blue Gold documentary

Well I should be studying for finals but certain procrastinations are pardonable.. such as watching the free screening of "Blue Gold: world water wars" at the zero film festival in Galapagos (Brooklyn). It was the most popular film at the Vancouver film festival last year. The film had so much information packed that I could hardly bat my eyelid while watching. The film takes across the world from crisis in Mexico, Cochabamba water revolt in Bolivia, Kaveri river conflict in India, Kenyan floriculture drying lake Naivasha, and several other interesting less known facts. It seems like Sam Bozzo did thorough research on the topic of water politics and wars for every scene surfaced a relevant topic.
For instance, did you know about cloud seeding in China where silver iodide is blasted into the sky to increase the density of precipitation?Or about the all out riot against water privatization in Bolivia ? Depleting fresh water level in Kenya due to roses?
Overall, the film made its mark. It is highly informative, makes your jaw drop and eyes widen at times. Yet two things though: the documentary is wholly one-sided and leaves one with exaggerated loathing for Veolia and bottled water companies. There is "private is bad" written all over the film.. It gives no practical solution other than a 5min. preaching on digging more holes in the ground for rain water harvesting. Also, the background sound/track was kind of conventional (it's same set of sounds one would hear in every 'serious' documentary film). Or maybe it's just my music OCD. In any case, this film is much recommended especially if you want to get some quick, concise, views on water politics!

Rat-a-tat-tat

They were the first band to play in Guggenheim 3yrs ago. Since their debut in 2004, guitarist Mike Stroud and synthesizer player Evan Mast produced some amazing electronic sounds. Definitely worth checking out brooklyn based Ratatat if you haven't already..

Audrey Kawasaki on Saturday

I love her work, which will be on display at Jonathan Levine gallery on 20th street from Saturday (12th) onwards.
This one is my favorite work by her.

Lost in the Trees

Intensely personal classical music that employs instruments across the gamut, quite enjoyable..
Ari Picker's voice + awesome instruments = sonically brilliant!
Their song for the painter is especially beautiful..
Click here and enjoy Lost in the Trees.

Jai Telangana

Next time I'm home, I will belong to a different state.. such an amazing news, never thought we would see this actually happen!
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Govt-relents-agrees-to-form-Telangana-state/H1-Article1-484829.aspx
http://realityviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/india-telangana-towards-becomes-reality.html

Burra Katha

Vanaja the film.. sheds some light on Burra Katha performers. I remember watching these performers as a kid while visiting my great grandmother at our native village. Ahh..the sound of this, I miss carnatic music. I miss my Veena.

http://www.vanajathefilm.com/Images%204%20Reviews/Sangeeta%20Mall%20Paper.html
http://www.vanajathefilm.com/Images%204%20Photos%202%20BIG/Burra%20Katha%20Dancers%20MedShot.html

Scoop on Honduran Election

 Surprising that countries across the world readily accepted the flawed results of last week's Honduran election that placed Porfirio Lobo as head of the state. Here is a violation human rights & denial of freedom of speech on the forefront of international community..

"It's so cold, is the earth really warming?"

take that skeptics! 

With all eyes on the climate debate, I figured I'll compile a few good sites to follow..
http://e360.yale.edu/
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
http://www.newscientist.com/section/environment
http://greenfyre.wordpress.com/
and of course, this is kind of all you need.. http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf

 (psssst..unrelated yet a nice a website: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/topics/ProbabilityandStatistics.html)

                                               The World, on your centennial (2090-99)

Are you a believer?

If you do not believe in Santa Claus, this lecture on Dec 14th at Pete's might convert you.. If you are already one, you might need better arguing points

"In the Great American Slog towards material  decrepitude, old-age, and finally death, no disillusion looms greater than the discovery that Santa Claus is a fraud.  Indeed, Santa may be seen as the first domino to topple on the way towards Godhead itself.  In this interactive lecture, we will attempt to restore the idea of Santa Claus to those who have suffered it’s loss.  Using historical fact, ontological argument, and inductive reasoning, we will prove the existence of Santa Claus in a passion play for the non-believer."

ps. pete's candy store is awesome quaint place with free live music everynight. They also host spelling bee, OCD lecture series (where david byrne appeared) and other random stuff.

Meanwhile, enjoy some feather and folly

Fluxus film

This fluxes film is just awesome. pay careful attention. When I first watched it I didn't see anything other than a series of numbers repeating several times and finally ending with a "1000" that seemed like a misfit. Second viewing, I noticed that there are 10 series that repeat, but each series ends with a different number: 100, 200, 300..so on and finally 1000. Haven't watched it the third time though..



Fluxus movement is an apt transition from Yoko Ono's topic in the previous post, as she is one of the most celebrated artists of the genre. If you have the time and interest, watch "Cut Piece." It's kind of long - 8 mins.

Yoko Ono's Verses

Yoko Ono's snippets of instructions is like poetry that paints a interesting mental picture, almost witty in a way. It vaguely resembles haiku (minus the limitation of 3 lines) in that it furnishes a mental image in the readers mind.

PAINTING FOR THE SKIES (1961)

Drill a hole in the sky. Cut out a paper the same size as the hole. Burn the paper. The sky should be pure blue.

SNOW PIECE (1963)

Think that snow is falling. Think that snow is falling

everywhere all the time. When you talk with a person, think

that snow is falling between you and on the person.

Stop conversing when you think the person is covered by snow 

PAINTING TO BE CONSTRUCTED IN YOUR HEAD (1962)

Go on transforming a square canvas in your head until it becomes a circle. Pick out any shape in the process and pin up or place on the canvas an object, a smell, a sound, or a colour that came to mind in association with the shape.


http://www.a-i-u.net/instructions.html

Paint the town!

Perhaps now I will keep my eyes open for this the next time I step into the streets..



Check out this blog by Jordan Seiler, the New York City artist that started this concept.. http://www.publicadcampaign.com/

Tinariwen

These guys are amazing.. desert poets. Try to get the lyrics to their songs, so good!
Amassakoul is one of my fav

How the wall came to be

http://www.slate.com/id/2234900/pagenum/all/#p2

Khrushchev had never intended to occupy West Berlin, and the wall represented the act of locking in eastern Germany from pouring out of the country to the west. It was a gateway to the west, a way of escaping the communist regime.
"Khrushchev's threat stemmed from desperation. Over the previous decade, West Berlin had grown free and prosperous while East Berlin had stagnated under the Soviet boot. Easterners were emigrating to the West in droves, using West Berlin as their transit point. By the fall of 1958, East Germany had lost 2 million people, with continued losses of 10,000 per month, including some of its best-educated youth. Khrushchev needed to stop the hemorrhage."

The boy who returns to Vietnam..

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/world/asia/10vietnam.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world

Gold Panda - Creative theft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH2QP18wRus&NR=1

This is pretty awesome but what a rip off! Gold Panda just got away with just remixing some Hindustani music.. AND people ogle at this "Goddamn piece of cracked perfection" (to quote a youtube admirer). Meanwhile some talented musician in Rajasthan who actually performed this piece is blissfully unaware.. and would probably never know!

Pitchfork: What's the source for "Quitters Raga"?

Gold Panda: Can't say 'cause I'll get sued. But I'm sure some amazing Brooklyn crate digger will find out exactly what it is and put it on the Internet.

This other video however is SO GREAT. Especially because I am obsessed with archival footage http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-48WUGMY4&feature=related

OMG!! This is the most PERFECT explanation I've found for logs

"Natural Log is about time

• e^x lets us plug in time and get growth.
• ln(x) lets us plug in growth and get the time it would take.

For example:

• e^3 is 20.08. After 3 units of time, we end up with 20.08 times what we started with.
• ln(20.08) is about 3. If we want growth of 20.08, we’d wait 3 units of time (again, assuming a 100% continuous growth rate)."

Long story short: log finds time, e finds rate

For more check out http://betterexplained.com/articles/demystifying-the-natural-logarithm-ln/

If brokerage and banking are "systemically important," they cannot be married to proprietary trading - Zingales

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203440104574403144004792338.html
Blame it on Lehman?
Pay special attention to the chart.

Econophysics?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/business/13unboxed.html
“We’re going to see three-dimensional financial modeling and eventually N-dimensional modeling,”
Goodbye finance, welcome calculus III

Bonus skirmish

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/business/15bank.html?_r=1&8au&emc=au

It's not as much the fact that Merrill paid bonus that gets to me, but that it seeks to settle the issue for $33m of more shareholder's money. You rob them once.. and oh wait to make up for that rob them twice

Bermuda Triangle, a manufactured mystery?

10 years ago, I remember being fascinated by Charles Berlitz's book on the triangle of death between Florida, Peurto Rico and Bermuda.. Recent studies point that these disappearances may have little to do with our alien friends or electromagnetic fields.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8248334.stm
http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/renew/bermuda.htm

art, transformed

http://blog.art21.org/2009/09/01/transformation-of-williamsburg/

http://lorenmunk.com/writing/groundhog_day.html

"Perhaps an aspect of Post-Modernist thought is the attempt to transcend our obsession with novelty and the post-neo-newest, to jump the timeline and see history as a ball rather than a strip, an ocean rather than a river. After all, the Gothic style was vibrant for three hundred years. Surrealism, though perhaps not quite so durable, keeps coming back like a persistent skin rash. And rather that asking ourselves if it’s a failure of artistic originality that an image might echo something done decades ago, we might rather ponder what kinds of shared impulses an artist in Paris in the 1930s, San Francisco in 1969, or Brooklyn in 2008 would lead to such similar results?"

My favorite excerpt on time relation from Sophie's Choice (Styron)

[quote]"Precisely at the same hour in which Mehring and Langner were being done to death, the overwhelming plurality of human beings, two miles away on the Polish farms, five thousand miles away in New York, were sleeping or eating or going to a film or making love or worrying about the dentist. This is where my imagination balks. The orders of simultaneous experience are so different, so irreconcilable to any common norm of human values, their coexistence is so hideous a paradox - Treblinka is both because some men have built it and almost all other men let it be - that I puzzle over time.." ..
.."This notion of different orders of time simultaneous but in no effective analogy or communication" Steiner continues, "may be necessary to the rest of us, who were not there, who lived as if on an other planet." Quite so - especially when (and the fact is often forgotten) for millions of Americans the embodiment of evil during that time was not the Nazis, despised and feared as they were, but the legions of Japanese soldiers who swarmed the jungles of the Pacific..[].. The nexus between these "different orders of time" is, of course - for those of us who were not there - someone who was there, and this brings me back to Sophie. [unquote]

"This notion of different orders of time simultaneous but in no effective analogy or communication" ... "may be necessary to the rest of us, who were not there, who lived as if on an other planet."
It is reasonable to assume that travel and pursuit of knowledge bridge this difference in orders of time. One becomes a 'nexus', aware of what the other world beholds. But these 'other worlds' are innumerable. The more you learn of something the more you realize that there is a vaster ocean of knowledge and experiences of which you are blissfully unaware. I find it impossible that one could find a certain root cause to a certain event. After all, aren't these events driven by micro level choices, the micro by nano, (and eventually somewhere down the hierarchy of stimulants) the sub-atomic activity that quantum mechanics assigns to randomness? The larger events are thus driven by randomness.

I don't know what to title this post

I don't. Because it deviates from the standard posts - it's not a tab dump, or a recollection of what I read on another blog or news article. For a change, it is about the way I feel.

This summer has been a pivotal period in my college years thus far. I live and travel in waves of obsessions. I often find an interest grow into a consuming obsession to learn. This interest represents array of subjects such as African socialism, Fixed Income finance, Russian cinema, DIY music, 1969.

Yes 1969. The Woodstock festival. Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Baez, Richie Havens, Led Zeppelin, Bitches Brew. And across the atlantic, The Beatles. Haight street. Harvard uprising. My Lai. Apollo 11. Joan Didion's slouching towards Bethlehem. My view is limited, for it is shaped by literature or music or at best archival footage of that period. Richie Havens was performing at battery park last thursday as a tribute to Woodstock and it rained to my dismay. The few people that could talk about those interesting days are of the likes of JP, the awesome vietnam veteran that works in the mailroom at my workplace. Yes, my daily half hour banter with JP covers everything from brooklyn in his heydays, New York accents to Katz's, all while categorically dismissing my flippant thought of moving to bed stuy ("it's not safe you see, for a girl"). Then there is old Larry the guard in Palladium who frowns as he recounts his experiences in crack ravaged hell's hole that was New York in the 70's. Thus my cultural enlightening is restricted to what best media and a few baby boomers can offer regarding the bygone times - my keen interest, I admit, is a second handed appreciation. I get carried away into thoughts around mushroom land..I encounter a feeling that resembles nostalgia. But it cannot be nostalgia, for the plain truth that I haven't seen or experienced these events as they happened, obviously. It must be different altogether to actually live it - If I had, would I still entertain romantic idealism to flourish in my sentiments of 1969?

California's garage sale on ebay

California is having a garage sale. Below is what Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote on twitter :

That's a great idea, @RyanStothard. I think I'll sign some items to bring in more $ at the auction. about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Fantastic idea, @NathanJohns. We'll actually be having a CA Garage Sale at the end of Aug to auction cars and office supplies. about 23 hours ago from TwitterBerry

What recovery?

http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2009/07/when-will-recovery-begin-never.html

So true man.

What Carry Trade means for other Asset Classes

Carry trade doesn't just affect underlying currencies. It's impact is witnessed in gold, commodities, stocks, etc. These assets are financed in low interest rate yen. Here's an excerpt from a report that I was reading..

keep a very close watch upon this cross. It has been, it is, and
it shall be the coincident signal for so many other
markets. If the cross weakens, look for stocks to
weaken. If the cross weakens, look for gold to weaken,
and if the cross weakens… Well, if the cross weakens,
just be on guard!

Missed the boat

Here are 83 stocks that could have doubled your investment in the last 6month period. Sadly, I never stuck my money in any

Putin the modern Tsar?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/07/02/deja_vu_in_the_land_of_dostoyevsky_97274.html
Russia's problems are nothing new. It's an oft-repeating cycle - from Nicholas to Stalin to Brezhnev to Putin. It's no wonder that cynicism is a pervasive element of the society.

Why America is a Fat Nation

Ezra Klein writes that Obesity trend closely follows the amount of food subsidies given. Subsidies result in overproduction, and more food. People become fat because they eat more corn. Lately, everything has corn. or cornsyrup. or corn flour.

Magical Thinking..

I originally started this blog as a whiteboard for thoughts on the books I read. I have long since ceased that attempt after the initial 3 postings. However, here is an excerpt from Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking that caught my eye. Perhaps this was something I was able to associate with

"In trouble, I had been trained since childhood, read, learn, work it up, go to the literature. Information was control."

I can't express how excited I was when I stumbled upon this section. It was a weird sense of assurance that swept me - as if here's a writer speaking to me It's ok to escape reality this way. Speaking truly, if you are ever depressed, grieved, obsessed, upset, just read. or occupy yourself with some fond activity of yours - be it running, watching movies, cooking, painting, etc. It works.

One man's quest to keep history alive

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/nyregion/30forgotten.html?th&emc=th

Andrew Carroll began a wonderful journey marking forgotten places of historical relevance through the Nat Geo sponsored Here Is Where project.

Mr.Schwarzenegger, what art thou contemplating??

Arnold, I understand that you've got to stand true to your Republican ideals, but this failure in resolving your state budget that is in complete shambles - like really, issuing IOUs? common man..! - is disappointing. Avoiding substantive reforms till the last moment, you are running the state budget on a tightrope. Would you really put college students, poor, sick and disabled Americans, grandpa and grandma in jeopardy (recollect advocating cuts in college aid, healthcare and welfare?) rather than consider Dems advice on hiking Vehicle license fee, Tobacco tax, and tax on oil drillers? where's my terminator hero??
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1940d18e-64cf-11de-a13f-00144feabdc0.html

Bill of Exchange

"In Bagehot’s day, the credit default swap traveled with the bill, and the entire package was the asset acceptable for lender-of-last-resort discount at the Bank of England. Since Bagehot’s day, we have learned the value of extending discount eligibility to long term bonds—no one today argues “bills only”."
perhaps if we continued trading CDS as a part of a bill rather than a separate instrument, AIG debacle could have been avoided. Click here for an interesting working paper on Credit Default Swaps, and trust me it contains an insight seldom discussed.

The Cranes are Flying

When I finished watching this film, I had to go up to the library counter to double check its release date..1957. That too in Soviet Union. It is so well made that I find it unbelievable for it to belong to that time. Cranes are Flying is probably one of the best films I have watched. It is set in World War II period and captures the sentiment of regular soviet people amidst conscription, German air raids, etc. They are ideologically indifferent and detached from the high powered politics yet make unbearable sacrifices in the personal realm. This movie is beautifully made, and feels real - no overdoing of gross and violent war scenes, no pretensions or gratuitous actions that trap box office cinemas into mediocrity. I wonder if many such movies emerged after Stalin died.. perhaps this period of the thaw was the formative period of Russian cinema, which during Stalin's time was little else than a propaganda vehicle. The biggest indication of its redemptive or transformative symbol is the humanistic nature of the film - it is sad love story of two war torn individuals, not some Stalinist fetish for tractors or modern mechanization! In fact the movie hadn't even encroached on the popular hatred of Germany.
After Kruschev shocked congress with his 1956 speech, life in USSR began to change (mostly for the better).The Soviet society was experiencing a cultural revolution - unmasking of previous misdeeds, relaxation of norms, and relative freedom of artistic expression. Films are not merely tools of communist party propaganda any longer.. In such a scenario, Cranes are Flying is bold experiment. It is a step into the future.The best part was the ending scene which has a strong political message (Stepan's speech), and unmistakable optimism that resurfaces from total loss, like a resurrection from the choas and sorrow of war. Ironical because I was close to writing it off as another sad ending - a trait of numerous Russian films.This is the only scene after the first 15 mins of the film do I find Veronica smiling! Click here for the ending scene in the film.

Lastly, Cinematography was incredible and the film consistently kept me in anticipation (a feat not commonly accomplished by old style Black and White cinema). I am sure to watch more of Kalatozov films in the future, in fact here's my wishlist - True Friends, Unsent Letter, I am Cuba.

Blood feuds part II - while we're at it..

we might as well learn more.
Below are two links about the Balkan Blood feuds, especially those triggered by Kanun in Albania. I did not learn about its severity until now..
Here's an interesting paper on Kanun link
and this is a BBC article
I found it peculiar that feuding families hire professional killers to fulfill their vendettas. Kanun (of Lek Dukagjin) is the centuries old law in Albania that amongst other things allows for legal killing of an offender. The victim's family is in turn permitted to exterminate any male from the rival family, and what follows is a vicious circle of killings. By hiring professionals to do the 'job', one is stripping away the supposed dignity that Kanun was designed to restore and it ceases to be the practice of idealistic law of centuries past.. This speaks of a peevish 'sub-culture' - which for petty personal reasons exploits the traditional law - emerging from the ancient institution of honor killing that first of all has no place in modern world. With hiring goons kanun assault would be no more 'honorable' than what the Italian mafia does. Oh well, cultures evolve.. or should I say degenerate?

When official institution fails, (un) conventional justice prevails

Blood feuds in Turkey are commonplace. Eye for an eye settlements, revenge, honor thy family, faction families in general… Add a dose of forced marriage or forbidden love, Panchayat Raj, and it is reminiscent of innumerable Telugu film scripts. Blood feuds are indeed common in both extremely underdeveloped, and transition economies. I grew up watching telugu evening news, which never failed to broadcast a murder or few killings that frequently took place in certain districts of Andhra Pradesh. This section of the news is where my father covered my eyes or changed the channel to avoid the consequent all-night long painful expression on my face. Few districts worth noting are Kadapa and Rayalaseema, which are hotbeds of faction feuds – and yes, they are still undeniably favored by Telugu filmmakers for shooting - in movie parlance of course!
The recent shooting of 44 guests at a wedding in Bilge, Turkey, as very tragic as it is, brings to the world’s conscience the state of several thousands of communities – from those in Afghanistan to Balkan states - reeling in disputes due to deficient political and legal institutions. Yet one mustn't forget that faction feuds are embedded in the very sociocultural structure of these regions.. It is common to find killings that still take place over a 200yr old land dispute for instance. What complicates matters is the close ties with religion, customs and traditions that precede any official tenet of legal scriptures. Even the most efficient police headquarters in the community cannot do much without altering the social system, or significantly affecting the way people perceive things. These social systems have evolved through passage of time, and new cultures emerge out of them, constantly. Culture.. is intriguing. It is constantly changing; in my geeky view, culture is like a Taylor series expansion - a sum of infinite terms, which can be expressed in a single term... Assigning a culture a tangible designation is perhaps paradoxical because the elements that make it are constantly changing and have a long history (this is where I can conveniently incorporate my learning from Time Series class but I'll save you the headache). Returning from my calculus-cultural detour to blood feuds, I think that conventional western institutions and their way of enforcing law are ineffective in less developed communities and leave a lot of room for local ideas to handle or settle disputes. Prominent peacemakers in some places fill the gap left behind by useless political systems, such as Sait Sanli

Misc. links..

Interesting cultural analysis of Graffiti, and how it is evolving from its original roots.. article
And it is legal here : map

*art by Ron English


The Herd - I like these Aussies.. video

Bernanke, Friedman, et all : speech

woe the fiscal stimulus..

Following is an article by Robert Barro on the efficacy of (or lack thereof) Obama's stimulus..old news, yes. Interesting nonetheless.
here's the link http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1527&context=ev

Defining Genocide in Ukranian context

Much contention surrounds the issue of Ukrainian man-made famine around 1930s resulting from the soviet requisition of grains as a Stalinist policy. The breadbasket of Soviet Union quickly turned into a mass cemetery of nearly 3-7million people (official records are not open to public). Today several countries around the world recognize it as genocide upon Ukraine's plea, but Russia does not follow suit.

"The Holodomor, which means death inflicted by hunger, can be considered one of the most successful genocidal policies pursued by Stalin and the Soviet leadership.. Aside from achieving Stalin’s genocidal goals, the Holodomor also helped achieve some of his modernization ambitions." there's more to read here

Russia does not call it genocide because it was not a famine that was targeted on ethnic lines, i.e. targeting Ukrainians due to their nationality, but in accordance of 'state policy' which is collectivization.
How do you officially define genocide?
Wikipedia defines Genocide - deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.

The above definition shines light on certain less popular views-
"Alexander Solzhenitsyn..opined..that Holodomor was no different from the Russian famine of 1921 as both were caused by the ruthless robbery of peasants by Bolshevik grain procurements..The writer cautions that the genocidal claim has its chances to be accepted by the West due to the general western ignorance of Russian and Ukrainian history."
"..the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Zina Kalay-Klaitman, stated that Israel considers only destructions by ethnicity to be genocide. Thus, Israel could not recognize Holodomor as genocide." He follows to state that Isreal nevertheless considers Holodmor a great catastrophe to mankind.

Does labeling the event 'Genocide' mollify the tragedy of Ukraine? definitely not.. Solzhenitsyn makes an insightful statement in that this catastrophe is a result of state policy - the grain requisition, precedence of state over individual, grand experiment of collectivization that led to epic failure. If this is a genocide, so is the event of death of millions of Russians in former USSR that have been sent to concentration camps during Stalinist regime. Genocide or not, both are devastating and ought to be recognized as extreme milestones of cruelty witnessed by humanity..

A Turkish man's life in former USSR

Lately I have been avidly following certain blogs dedicated to post-Soviet lifestyle and other history blogs. I happened to come across one site called Turkish Invasion in which the self proclaimed provocative writer Dinc Arslan, a Turkish immigrant in Russia, offers entertaining daily commentary on his Russo-Ukrainian experiences and insightful glimpses of post-Soviet history and politics. It certainly offers perspective on mass culture of the region. Check out his blog at http://www.dincarslan.blogspot.com/ and I am afraid that you will be hooked! In particular, read the feeds located on right side while scrolling down the page..his humor could land him in a Siberian camp. My favorite is probably "Russian Media - Finest quality toilet paper delivered to your doorstep everyday"

Bringing down the iron curtain

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8030278.stm

Trading pot

http://seekingalpha.com/article/131035-first-publicly-traded-marijuana-company?source=article_lb_articles

When tobacco companies and alcohol companies are traded, why not weed??

..and it exists: http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com/

Husk Power Systems - show us the light!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/education/edlife/ideas-huskpower-t.html?_r=1

Manoj Sinha and Charles Ransler won the social entrepreurship award for a brilliant idea that can indeed impact the lives of millions of Indian farmers. These guys are using their proprietary technology of converting rice husks into methane that supplies electricity to rural India. Currently piloted in a few villages, they have plans of expanding to about a hundred. It's amazing how a small idea can have scalable effect! I find it inspiring to read about such accomplishments. I envy talented people involved in creating business plans that have far reaching social benefits.

Now reading

This was never meant to be a blog on finance, and I feel guilty for having unintentionally turned it into one. I will get back to the original goal, which is to write about interesting things I read or observe..and not all are finance related (give me break!)

I just completed reading Paul Coelho's book called Brida. It is yet another fascinating read on how Coelho manages to entwine the pursuit of wisdom with magic and spirituality. Although it's nothing to surpass his classic, The Alchemist, which I read a very long time ago perhaps in high school or middle school and all I recollect now is the continuous travel of a Shepard who follows his dream of finding treasure, encounters a wise old man/magician/god(?), arrives at an Oasis, etc. This is the origin of the famous and often repeated quote that flows somewhat along the lines of "..if you really desire something and work towards it, the entire universe conspires for you to achieve your goal." I know that it is a far cry from the actual wording in the book, much contorted and less coherent, but this is what I remember given the thick layer of dust that settled on the recollection of the details from the book. And I am not planning to hit google to find that quote either, too much effort for what purpose other that entertaining myself with writing these posts? All I can say about Brida is that every time I closed the book I felt vaguely free spirited, light headed and idealistic. It's an enjoyable musing for a dreamer!

My current book affair is with 'Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy' - by Joseph Schumpeter. It really isn't as corny and dense as the title may suggest. I shall update the blog if I find in it any jeweled thought out of the ordinary..

Failure of VAR as a risk metric

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/01/woefully-misleading-piece-on-value-at.html

Here's an excerpt

[in october] There were two daily changes of more than 10% during the month. With a standard deviation of daily changes of 1.032% (computed over the period 1971-2008) movements of such a magnitude can occur only once every 73 to 603 trillion billion years.

This recession is different..it is more severe

The unexpected further fall in US industrial production only points towards how much worse the recession could be. The data from post war recession (blue line in the chart) indicates that Ind.production should ideally start recuperating from the earlier lows, but the latest data from CFR shows even further dip..which is why the stimulus from govt. is much needed despite its limitations.

check this out : http://www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/2009OutlookFinal_Long.pdf

Creating 'renewable energy'...non

The fundamental flaw with today's renewable energy sources is that they utilize non-renewable elements to work, points out an article in NewScientist.
Solar Cells need sillicon which is abundant on earth's crust, but they are only 25% efficient. The the more efficient cells (upto 40% level) called multi-junction cells use indium, and that is far from abundant.
"There are fewer than 10 indium-containing minerals...accounts for a paltry 0.25 parts per million of the Earth's crust...used to manufacture LCD screens, an industry that has driven indium prices to $1000 per kilogram in recent years. Estimates that did not factor in an explosion in indium-containing solar panels reckon we have only a 10 year supply of it left."

Another brilliant idea was generating electricity from hydrogen. Unfortunately though, splitting water cells requires platinum which is even rarer than indium (earth's crust has .003 parts of platinum per billion, and it would be exhausted in 15yrs).

When it comes to biofuels, most of us know the limitations of ethanol fermented from maize (food shortage), but algae that grows in tanks seems to be a bright solution that is receiving considerable attention.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16550-why-sustainable-power-is-unsustainable.html

Some fixed income learning

Here's a link to the site created by SIFMA for those intrigued/interested/enthusiastic about bonds :)

http://www.investingbonds.com/

Corruption+Derivatives+Munis = big blow-ups

Municipal Bond market is not as 'safe' a haven as I thought it was..paybacks to politicians, entanglement with Swaps and other derivative products without due dilligence, have all but resulted in increasing credit risk of municipal bond issues. Heard that few counties are on the verge of going bankrupt after interest rate swap deal went bust recently..for more, here's the scoop
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/business/09insure.html?_r=3&ref=business&pagewanted=all

More on treasury convenience yield..

I found this interesting abstract as a follow up to where I ended the previous post on treasury convenience yield

The convenience yield diferential between on- and off-the-run Treasury securities with identical maturities has two components. A non-cyclical component may arise due to the higher illiquidity of off-the-run bonds. Also, trading in the market for the next issue often causes cyclical shortages of the on-the-runs. When this occurs, owners of the on-the-run bond can earn riskless profits by borrowing at a special repo rate while lending at the prevailing risk free market rate...

for more, http://neumann.hec.ca/pages/eric.jacquier/papers/abs.repo.rdr04.html

Update on TED spread

TED spread, which is the difference between LIBOR and 3mo treasury bill, has narrowed to 1.33% today - a great improvement from all time high of 4-5% that it was around october. While this reflects lower percieved credit risk of lending to banks, it's still very high compared to the normal average of 20-40 bps.

Also, I recently read about "convinience yield" on Treasury bonds. Little did I realize that it was something to do with special repo rates..yet to confirm but I'm guessing it's the difference between Special and GC (general collateral) rates. When Treasury dept. issues new bonds, they trade at a slight premium compared to just-off-the-run securities due to higher percieved liquidity. This bestows the specialness.

Yield curve as an economic indicator

It is generally perceived that inverted yield curve signals a looming recession, as long term yield is lower than short term yield. The subsequent recovery is foreseen when the yield curve steepens. This may have been true to some extent in the past, but the current economic scenario calls for a reassessment of this belief.
Yield curve is not as much an economic indicator as it is an indicator of fed funds rate. Steepening yield curve only signifies lower short term yields. Since fed can't possibly target below zero, long term yield has to be higher than the current short term yield. It is not a pointer of economic health, in fact, Japan for a long time saw a steep curve throughout the downturn. So to think that US is getting out of recession soon because the steep yield curve indicates so is of questionable logic.