Racism, I realize that it is a sensitive and PIC topic that most people want to stay away from the moment they hear it but I dont think there is anything wrong is examining it from a social behavior point of view. In fact I think it is fascinating. Just remember to not get too wound up about it people, treat it as any other topic that you would talk about at happy hour and try to be non-defensive and rational.
Ok, why am I getting so deep and Philosophical about this on a Sunday nite? Well, I just read an article in the Sunday edition of NYT titled "In DNA Era, New Worries About Prejudice". Here is the link if you got time to read it, not a bad read honestly:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/us/11dna.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Anyway what is the big hoopla about:
-so, apparently just like you could go into a junk food store and order a burger with fries and a drink you could submit your DNA to a lab and ask them to quantify what percent of your genes are from which race! (well, it's not quite that easy but you get the drift). PS: I am personally fascinated to look at my gene analysis actually. I am pretty certain that my Irish and Jewish ancestry will be proven beyond a doubt!
-Remember we got told at the turn of this century that any two humans are 99% similar genetically (I actually remember Slick Billy (Clinton) announce it in one of his State of the Union addresses in the late 90s). So it is the 1% or so that determine whether you have a high IQ, sweat less, have pale skin, drink more Jaeger shots than others (ok, the last one I made up!). Again remember this according to Scientific experts in the field.
-so what? you ask. Well, looks like a recent study which tried to correlate a certain gene to high IQ in Asians, Europeans, and Africans was published in a scientific journal. And as you can guess non-scientific wannabes have been trying to generalize and pick tidbits of info and interpret it to fit their point of view. Apparently this one dude (blogger from Manhattan) wrote that the high IQ gene is present in higher amounts and more often in Asians and Europeans than in Africans.
-Of course this dude clearly ignored the fundamentals here: Nevermind that there are a gazillion other factors that influence basic thinking processes in humans. And that the Scientists themselves do not come to these conclusions because as is the case for most scientific studies it is almost impossible to arrive at a clear cut conclusion.
-And it is not helping that the gene guru James Watson, the Nobel Prize scientist who discovered the DNA structure, went public and proclaimed that people of African descent are "innately less intelligent than others".
-So as you can see there is social irresponsibility displayed by the so-called great scientists as well. It bothers me that someone as well regarded as Dr. Watson would make such a broad sweeping social statement (again I am assuming here that he did make this statement-I have not checked the article where he proclaimed that) without considering the how it will be interpreted. (The NYT article states that he later resigned from his job for these comments)
-Look, I understand that people from different races have characterestics that are specific to them but that does not mean that they can be extrapolated to define an entire race of people.
In this article specifically there are simple questions to consider: how reliable is an IQ test to relate to the intelligence of a person, what other factors like social environment, evolution, and personal characteristics affect the IQ. Not to mention the statistical certainity of the reported studies.
-It is very tempting for everyone, especially the over-exuberant types, to interpret any study to fit their pre-established theories. And it really grinds my gears (channeling Peter Griffin here!) that people use Darwin's evolution theory to explain general social behavior when he and various scientists specifically warn that his conclusions on evolution were arrived at from controlled experiments and should not be used to explain general social tendencies.
-One of the questions that was raised in the NYT article was "how can use it to explain the fact not oven one winner of the 100m race has been a white person since you can remember?".
-hey, like I said before there are certain characterestics that are specific to a certain race. Why that is could have to do with a gazillion factors? People of a certain run faster than others because they could train better or like Darwin said if you do a controlled experiment it could prove that with evolution necessity made them pre-disposed to run faster (I dont know this but could be).
-So people stay away from blanket statements based on partial or nit picked scientific information.
-Having said all this, I would really like to get a DNA analysis of my genes. Wouldn't you?
ok, gotto go a new episode of The Family Guy just started-looks like Stewie is going to kidnap his family!
later
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Oil/Giuliani/Obama/Buckeyes/Portfolio/Movie Review
Whew! Let's see how much I can cover in this post.
Oil
-Let me tell you, if on a scale of 1 to 10 my reluctance to buy a car was a 7 before October 1, 2007 it is now officially a 10! Why you ask? Well, I read this book titled "Out of Gas-The End of the Age of Oil" by David Goodstein.
-I highly recommend that all of you reading this read it. Goodstein is a Proffesor in the Physics Dept at Cal Tech and has used simple fundamental science and math to illustrate the seriousness associated with the disappearance of Oil in the World.
-I am usually sceptical about people coming up with extreme forecasting to rile up the crowd but this one uses simple science that we can understand. And it is scary.
-Let me summarize briefly what his projections are: Demand for Oil will outgrow Supply in the next 5-8 years; Not only will prices go up but slowly the fundamental forces keeping the economies robust will be affected since Oil is a source of not only fuel but of 80% of all organic materials we use; Humankind has used up almost 2/3rd of the Oil reserves in the earth's interior within 80 years which needed a million years to be made; Alternative sources like natural gas and coal can be used but they may only last another 80 years. He claims that there is an urgent need for the leaders of the world to use a visionary approach in seeking alternate sources of energy (Solar/Nuclear/Wind etc).
Giuliani
-Caught Rudy's interview on CNBC this past week and was shocked to see how personal the US Presidential Campaign has become already.
-The whole interview lasted for about 10 minutes and I think Rudy attacked Hillary's stands, her record, her personal demeanor, etc for about half of that time.
-Not sure if political campaigning needs to get so aggressive and personal. Maybe this is a sign of the times since so little separates the candidates policies that distinctions have to be made any and every way possible.
-I am not sure how campaigning is in Europe but one thing that is kept off limits there is personal attacks. If you want to attack policies of the candidates it's fine but why the ugly personal attacks.
-Well anyway, Rudy's selling point (atleast in the interview) was that he is THE ONLY candidate that has experience with dealing any crisis-and this is not only limited to handling 9/11 according to him: he was responsible for making NYC crime-free; he was responsible to changing the tax structure in NYC; and helped the poor with healthcare.
-One poll that I saw had him a point or two ahead of Hillary in the national race.
-Let's see how this campaign pans out.
Obama on MTV
-Was flipping through the channels and stopped when I saw Barack being interviewed in a stage audience setting on MTV.
-First thing that seemed strange was how serious and political the questions from the young audience were. The dudes looked not a day over 20 and they were asking pretty serious questions on foreign policy and healthcare. Not sure what to make of it, either they were staged or it was genuine.
-Anyway, as usual Barack was a smooth operator. Nothing fazed him, he did not even hesitate while responding, the guy is one slick Willy!
-Looks like the pressure is getting to him and he is getting personal in his attacks as well (not during the interview).
Buckeyes
-College football is getting interesting now! Me being a HUGE Ohio State Buckeyes fan am happy to see that they are ranked #1 this late in the season. Plus the times that I am not a big fan of are languishing at the bottom! Ahhhh! That always feels good.
-The #1 ranking this year was definitely not expected especially considered they lost a lot of kids to the NFL last year. But the whacky season this year has almost by default put them on top. The so-called "better" teams have one by one lost atleast one if not more games: USC, Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma were all supposed to be National Title contenders but ending losing a game each already. Meanwhile the Buckeyes quietly have taken care of business and are sitting pretty, thank you very much!
-There are still 2 big games to play for the Buckeyes, one of them the biggest and grandest of College Sports Rivalries: OSU-Michigan. I dont see them losing either of them. So come the New Year expect them to be playing for the title game!
-Who are they going to play, let's see. I would put my money on LSU but they have it tough with a conference championship game to win in addition.
Portfolio
-No, I have not forgotten about my portfolio! And it has recovered very well from the bashing in August!
-As expected my bets on the Oil stocks recovered well. COP and E are both close to even while CHK is making money! My bet on the alternate fuel stocks, CCJ, is also recovering nicely. PAL on the other hand is not doing so well.
-I did a little of research on all of them this weekend and was pleasantly surprised to read about the COP CEO's comments on alternate energy research. I will post more about this later.
-Overall still about 5% in the Red for the year. But this is better than the 20% hole I was in in September.
Movie Review
-Went to see "We Own the Night" this weekend. One word: Confused!
-The movie makers had no idea what they wanted the movie to be and in the end this confused the audience. Not really sure what the story line or message from this movie was. The trailers make it out to be a "Good Brother Vs Bad Brother" type movie with one being a cop and the other a mafioso. The actual movie was anything but!
-Once the movie ended, I waited for the credits to roll and once I saw that both Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg were producers of the movie it made a whole lot of sense. Looks like they wanted to make a movie together and chose whatever script came their way! Seriously, I had no idea what the movie was supposed to be!
-Having said all that, Phoenix is good in his role. Marky Mark had a bad role so there is not much he could do. Robert Duvall was adequate. And Eva Mendes (I still remember her as that Naked Chic from "Training Day") was there to show some skin and act cool in one shot.
Allrite then, that is all for this week.
Oil
-Let me tell you, if on a scale of 1 to 10 my reluctance to buy a car was a 7 before October 1, 2007 it is now officially a 10! Why you ask? Well, I read this book titled "Out of Gas-The End of the Age of Oil" by David Goodstein.
-I highly recommend that all of you reading this read it. Goodstein is a Proffesor in the Physics Dept at Cal Tech and has used simple fundamental science and math to illustrate the seriousness associated with the disappearance of Oil in the World.
-I am usually sceptical about people coming up with extreme forecasting to rile up the crowd but this one uses simple science that we can understand. And it is scary.
-Let me summarize briefly what his projections are: Demand for Oil will outgrow Supply in the next 5-8 years; Not only will prices go up but slowly the fundamental forces keeping the economies robust will be affected since Oil is a source of not only fuel but of 80% of all organic materials we use; Humankind has used up almost 2/3rd of the Oil reserves in the earth's interior within 80 years which needed a million years to be made; Alternative sources like natural gas and coal can be used but they may only last another 80 years. He claims that there is an urgent need for the leaders of the world to use a visionary approach in seeking alternate sources of energy (Solar/Nuclear/Wind etc).
Giuliani
-Caught Rudy's interview on CNBC this past week and was shocked to see how personal the US Presidential Campaign has become already.
-The whole interview lasted for about 10 minutes and I think Rudy attacked Hillary's stands, her record, her personal demeanor, etc for about half of that time.
-Not sure if political campaigning needs to get so aggressive and personal. Maybe this is a sign of the times since so little separates the candidates policies that distinctions have to be made any and every way possible.
-I am not sure how campaigning is in Europe but one thing that is kept off limits there is personal attacks. If you want to attack policies of the candidates it's fine but why the ugly personal attacks.
-Well anyway, Rudy's selling point (atleast in the interview) was that he is THE ONLY candidate that has experience with dealing any crisis-and this is not only limited to handling 9/11 according to him: he was responsible for making NYC crime-free; he was responsible to changing the tax structure in NYC; and helped the poor with healthcare.
-One poll that I saw had him a point or two ahead of Hillary in the national race.
-Let's see how this campaign pans out.
Obama on MTV
-Was flipping through the channels and stopped when I saw Barack being interviewed in a stage audience setting on MTV.
-First thing that seemed strange was how serious and political the questions from the young audience were. The dudes looked not a day over 20 and they were asking pretty serious questions on foreign policy and healthcare. Not sure what to make of it, either they were staged or it was genuine.
-Anyway, as usual Barack was a smooth operator. Nothing fazed him, he did not even hesitate while responding, the guy is one slick Willy!
-Looks like the pressure is getting to him and he is getting personal in his attacks as well (not during the interview).
Buckeyes
-College football is getting interesting now! Me being a HUGE Ohio State Buckeyes fan am happy to see that they are ranked #1 this late in the season. Plus the times that I am not a big fan of are languishing at the bottom! Ahhhh! That always feels good.
-The #1 ranking this year was definitely not expected especially considered they lost a lot of kids to the NFL last year. But the whacky season this year has almost by default put them on top. The so-called "better" teams have one by one lost atleast one if not more games: USC, Florida, LSU, and Oklahoma were all supposed to be National Title contenders but ending losing a game each already. Meanwhile the Buckeyes quietly have taken care of business and are sitting pretty, thank you very much!
-There are still 2 big games to play for the Buckeyes, one of them the biggest and grandest of College Sports Rivalries: OSU-Michigan. I dont see them losing either of them. So come the New Year expect them to be playing for the title game!
-Who are they going to play, let's see. I would put my money on LSU but they have it tough with a conference championship game to win in addition.
Portfolio
-No, I have not forgotten about my portfolio! And it has recovered very well from the bashing in August!
-As expected my bets on the Oil stocks recovered well. COP and E are both close to even while CHK is making money! My bet on the alternate fuel stocks, CCJ, is also recovering nicely. PAL on the other hand is not doing so well.
-I did a little of research on all of them this weekend and was pleasantly surprised to read about the COP CEO's comments on alternate energy research. I will post more about this later.
-Overall still about 5% in the Red for the year. But this is better than the 20% hole I was in in September.
Movie Review
-Went to see "We Own the Night" this weekend. One word: Confused!
-The movie makers had no idea what they wanted the movie to be and in the end this confused the audience. Not really sure what the story line or message from this movie was. The trailers make it out to be a "Good Brother Vs Bad Brother" type movie with one being a cop and the other a mafioso. The actual movie was anything but!
-Once the movie ended, I waited for the credits to roll and once I saw that both Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg were producers of the movie it made a whole lot of sense. Looks like they wanted to make a movie together and chose whatever script came their way! Seriously, I had no idea what the movie was supposed to be!
-Having said all that, Phoenix is good in his role. Marky Mark had a bad role so there is not much he could do. Robert Duvall was adequate. And Eva Mendes (I still remember her as that Naked Chic from "Training Day") was there to show some skin and act cool in one shot.
Allrite then, that is all for this week.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
...and I'm back!
Feels like it's been ages since I posted here. And I have a million things to write about. Let's see how much I can write with my nephew hanging onto my neck!
Vacation:
-It was freakin' great, what can I say.
-I highly recommend that people visit Budapest if they get a chance. Just the visits to the thermal bathhouses are worth it.
-Buildings, food, museums, food, paprika, pastries, did I mention the Hungarian food? All worth it.
-The people were interesting. Strangely, I dont think I ran into many working type people the five days I was there. Seems like everybody was in high school or older people just wandering around.
-There was an Indian feel to some places in Budapest. For example, attached to every subway station would be a bunch of shops that were selling everything from garments to alchohol. And the way the wares were displayed was very different.
-With Hungary having come out of Communism only in 1990 there are many remnants of it everywhere. Buildings, dressing, etc.
-I could not go to Belgrade unfortunately because of some paperwork issues and that was the down part of the trip. My friend had made plans for my trip and I felt bad for her. Oh well, next time.
Red Sox Win the World Series:
-I thought I had lost some of the passion for watching sports this past year-you know being busy and all with all the applications, financial markets etc. but one incident put a rest to that thought: I found myself pumping my fists at 5 AM alone in a Budapest hotel when Okajima induced Casey Blake into a double play in the 7th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS. I was pumped up! (not sure what that says about me, but I was excited!).
-Needless to say, once the Saaawx beat the Tribe in Game 7 of the ALCS (I paid $40 to watch it in Budapest from 2-6AM by the way and it was all worth it), I knew they were going to kill the Rockies!
-Say what want to about the Red Saaawx and their front office but the bottom line is this team was built to win in the playoffs. I dont care if people say that is a cliche but it is the truth. I have been saying all season long (check my posts) that pitching will take this team far and it did. Of course the team got some breaks but that's sports you need breaks to win it all. Everyone on the team produced and as a fan it is great to watch that.
-Also along the way we got to hear a lot of quotable quotes from the Saawx players:
- "When you are getting hits even when you are not feeling good, that's when you know you are a bad man" - Manny
- "When you are wearing this uniform (Red Saawx) you know you are a bad MF" - David Ortiz
- "You dont want to eat your cake before your birthday" - Manny
- Of course any of my baseball stories is not complete without mentioning the Spankees. A-Rod opted out of his contract and Joe Torre left. I know a lot has been made about A-Rod leaving and his agent and all but the truth is the Yankees have to replace a power right handed bat (not so easy) and the fans are partly to blame. You dont boo the best player in the game, atleast not every freakin' time. A lot is made about Derek Jeter and his "intangibles" but whatever happended to them in the past 6 years? Well I am not complaining any loss for the Yankees is a gain for a Red Saawx fan. And no I would not mind having A-Rod on the Sox (as much as I can't stand the guy). Imagine a lineup of Ortiz-Manny-ARod. Of course there is no way in hell I would pay $250 million for him. If he is willing to sign a 5 year $125 million contract, I say sign him. Not more than that.
B School Applications:
-Wharton:
I got an Interview invite from Wharton about 2 weeks ago. It was a bit of a relief as I was beginning to get worried there. Of course there is still a long way to go as Wharton interviews about 35-40% of their applicants and only admits about 30% of the people who are interviewed. Nevertheless it is a step in the right direction. I scheduled my interview for the 2nd week of November. First things first, I need to buy a suit!
-MIT/Sloan:
I submitted the application last weekend. Have to wait for 4 weeks before I hear from them. I thought my application was above average. Sloan has a very different application packet that involved less scope for BS in my opinion. I contacted a faculty member about the program I am interested in and she was very supportive and encouraging. Let's see how it turns out.
-NYU:
I decided to apply to NYU only in the 2nd Rd as there is not time for me to put together an acceptible application for the 1st Rd. The 2nd Rd deadline is in Jan. One way or another I will know if I HAVE to apply here.
Ok, gotto go now. More to post later.
Vacation:
-It was freakin' great, what can I say.
-I highly recommend that people visit Budapest if they get a chance. Just the visits to the thermal bathhouses are worth it.
-Buildings, food, museums, food, paprika, pastries, did I mention the Hungarian food? All worth it.
-The people were interesting. Strangely, I dont think I ran into many working type people the five days I was there. Seems like everybody was in high school or older people just wandering around.
-There was an Indian feel to some places in Budapest. For example, attached to every subway station would be a bunch of shops that were selling everything from garments to alchohol. And the way the wares were displayed was very different.
-With Hungary having come out of Communism only in 1990 there are many remnants of it everywhere. Buildings, dressing, etc.
-I could not go to Belgrade unfortunately because of some paperwork issues and that was the down part of the trip. My friend had made plans for my trip and I felt bad for her. Oh well, next time.
Red Sox Win the World Series:
-I thought I had lost some of the passion for watching sports this past year-you know being busy and all with all the applications, financial markets etc. but one incident put a rest to that thought: I found myself pumping my fists at 5 AM alone in a Budapest hotel when Okajima induced Casey Blake into a double play in the 7th inning of Game 7 of the ALCS. I was pumped up! (not sure what that says about me, but I was excited!).
-Needless to say, once the Saaawx beat the Tribe in Game 7 of the ALCS (I paid $40 to watch it in Budapest from 2-6AM by the way and it was all worth it), I knew they were going to kill the Rockies!
-Say what want to about the Red Saaawx and their front office but the bottom line is this team was built to win in the playoffs. I dont care if people say that is a cliche but it is the truth. I have been saying all season long (check my posts) that pitching will take this team far and it did. Of course the team got some breaks but that's sports you need breaks to win it all. Everyone on the team produced and as a fan it is great to watch that.
-Also along the way we got to hear a lot of quotable quotes from the Saawx players:
- "When you are getting hits even when you are not feeling good, that's when you know you are a bad man" - Manny
- "When you are wearing this uniform (Red Saawx) you know you are a bad MF" - David Ortiz
- "You dont want to eat your cake before your birthday" - Manny
- Of course any of my baseball stories is not complete without mentioning the Spankees. A-Rod opted out of his contract and Joe Torre left. I know a lot has been made about A-Rod leaving and his agent and all but the truth is the Yankees have to replace a power right handed bat (not so easy) and the fans are partly to blame. You dont boo the best player in the game, atleast not every freakin' time. A lot is made about Derek Jeter and his "intangibles" but whatever happended to them in the past 6 years? Well I am not complaining any loss for the Yankees is a gain for a Red Saawx fan. And no I would not mind having A-Rod on the Sox (as much as I can't stand the guy). Imagine a lineup of Ortiz-Manny-ARod. Of course there is no way in hell I would pay $250 million for him. If he is willing to sign a 5 year $125 million contract, I say sign him. Not more than that.
B School Applications:
-Wharton:
I got an Interview invite from Wharton about 2 weeks ago. It was a bit of a relief as I was beginning to get worried there. Of course there is still a long way to go as Wharton interviews about 35-40% of their applicants and only admits about 30% of the people who are interviewed. Nevertheless it is a step in the right direction. I scheduled my interview for the 2nd week of November. First things first, I need to buy a suit!
-MIT/Sloan:
I submitted the application last weekend. Have to wait for 4 weeks before I hear from them. I thought my application was above average. Sloan has a very different application packet that involved less scope for BS in my opinion. I contacted a faculty member about the program I am interested in and she was very supportive and encouraging. Let's see how it turns out.
-NYU:
I decided to apply to NYU only in the 2nd Rd as there is not time for me to put together an acceptible application for the 1st Rd. The 2nd Rd deadline is in Jan. One way or another I will know if I HAVE to apply here.
Ok, gotto go now. More to post later.
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