Holiday Idea

Came across this randomly - Harlingen Lighthouse. Yes, you can actually spend a romantic night in a lighthouse, staring out at the sea. Oh, and they have the option of spending a night in a lifeboat too!

All I need now is a return ticket to Holland.

Intellectual Vitality

Is on the top three of Stanford Graduate School of Business' admission criteria. I honestly feel that so far the Stanford MBA application is the best - it is the most in-depth and personal admission process I have ever come across and frankly that makes it a bit daunting. That's why I've missed my deadline for Round 1 in order to really think about what I am going to write.

But Intellectual Vitality is so attractive. So essential. And this immediately brought the realisation that the discussion part is exactly what is missing. I don't feel the environment I am in enables intellectual vitality. And I miss it. I miss having lively discussions with colleagues and friends in London about everything from the ethical aspects of the Congestion Charge to the advantages of Organic food. Or how OCR can be adapted for mobile phones with a good lens. Or how Rafa got it all wrong with his rotation policy.

I definitely am not going to get any intellectual conversations at work, unless you count reasons for sesame market fluctuations. And sadly my friends seem perennially preoccupied with their personal lives or money. And sometimes alcohol. It was highlighted by the fact that most of my friends did not want to see Letters from Iwo Jima purely because it was "serious" (which was a brilliant film, especially given my dislike for war films). I suppose a resentment toward war or war films might make more sense but the mere fact that films are supposed to be only mindless entertainment really makes me question my friends and Indian audiences.

I suppose my answer lies in reading. I should read the Economist, the FT, the Times, as well as books like A Brief History of Nearly Everything. But that is honestly half the fun. The other half lies in discussing things with people - to me intellectual vitality is mostly the sharing of ideas. Or even listening to others debates. Besides, with my concentration levels I can't get through more than one book a year (that too I usually finish it during 3 days of my holiday)

Anyone offering a lively discussion on this topic?

Salt and Pepper

I had to write about the unfortunate media controversy surrounding James Watson's comments on differences in intellectual abilities based on geographic locations - i.e. the apparent emperical outcome showing Black people to be less intelligent.

And laugh at the stupidness of it all - why the big fuss? All he did was talk about emperical evidence out there that not all races are equally intelligent, and it is unfortunate that that black people - traditionally subject to racist behaviour - were shown to be less intelligent. It doesn't matter what he or anyone else personally believes to be true, as that really wont change with scientific evidence anyway. Why should people be shot down just when they bring up a topic in the lightest possible manner - he was not trying to incite racism, just point out that evolution differs geographically (and hence affects skin colour).

Where was the outrage when he also claimed Black people had a higher libido?

Quick, Hide!

Technology - you've got to love it. And loathe it. Also, since the past few years, fear it too. Not because it's going to take over your life (it already has), but because it's going to pry into it too. Much has been written about Google's meteoric rise resulting in fears about the common person's privacy - with the amount of data Google mines and analyses, they probably are justified. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Oh, and the best example is yours truly - if you google my name, the fourth or so link is to an ancient set of webpages hosted on ntlworld.com. Which is great, but the search shows my cv and there is nothing I can do to remove it from Googles index as I don't have access to the webpages anymore and the dear ISP doesn't really care to address my complaints. Point is, sometimes it is information you put up on the net that could be a problem.

What really scares me though is that Facebook recently announced a policy to allow user data to be searchable via engines such as Google and Yahoo! - to be fair they did have a nice big box on top of every users homepage warning everyone about it. I think it's wrong for a social networking site to allow it's user database to be searched by Google, even if it is just to match names only. But what surprised me was the execution of this new policy completely went against Facebook's old privacy style - i.e. protect the user's privacy unless specifically requested. Facebook asked its users to reduce visibility if they so desired, but that should really not be the case - most users do not know yet that they probably do desire this. However, that scandalous-photo-of-two-girls-you-know-kissing is a bit more important and hence most users would not have reduced their visibility on Facebook.

An example of why this is bad? Ok, so I browse a group of alcoholics who meet every thursday after work for drinks. And this particular person seems interesting given she has just graduated from an Ivy league school I'm curious about in and has a familiar face. Here are the things I've been able to find out about her without adding her as a friend on Facebook + the help of Google:

1) Her high school, names and current locations of her two close friends from school
2) She represented India in a racket sport, and continued playing at university. Lots of details on that.
3) Her visibility allows access to all her photos. Some funny, some not. All morphable in the wrong hands
4) Basics about her family (brother's name and school, dogs entire biography, etc.)
5) Her new job - so now I know where she works.

How hard would it be for some freak to get access to this information anonymously and either harm the subject physically or scar the persons online presence - e.g. naked photos as the top google result on the name.

Honestly, I'm not personally worried or I don't feel it currently is that much of a worry. Purely because most of these things could happen in the real world too - how hard would it be to find out information about someone in Bombay!? But the point is now information like this could be found anonymously. Sure, IP addresses are traceable and if a body is found police can come after you. But it becomes extremely easy to harass someone random you don't even know, perhaps online stalking. With the caveat that this could easily extend to your real life.

As for that girl, I've discovered she goes to the same gym I do so I'm sure I will strike up a conversation someday. Or probably not, given that I don't want to explain how I know certain things a stranger shouldn't know.

Like her favourite drink. I would know, I've never met this person.

DVD Library: Update 08th October 2007

I love visitors from London, especially the DVD-bearing kind :-)

The Painted Veil - John Curran
Solaris (2002) - Steven Soderbergh
After The Wedding - Susanne Bier
Away From Her - Sarah Polley
Inland Empire - David Lynch
Little Children - Todd Field
Zoolander - Ben Stiller
Mulholland Drive - David Lynch
American Dad - Series 1
American Dad - Series 2

See updated list Here

Stop the Press

I suppose this is a bit late, but try buying the Sunday (Indian) Express if in Bombay for today, 30th September. In the Mumbai Newsline section is a little article written by moi, my foray into being a writer. Of course, one can always be a part time writer, so it would be an interesting hobby if that did materialise.

You're wondering how this happened? Essentially a friend of mine works in the Express and they apparently do a feature "Personal Blog", a column on people's personal experiences. So she called me on Thursday and by Friday morning she had her column ready! Given that this was strictly experiences and not views (which I keep a collection of) I wrote about my eventful shaving of head, although I would much rather write about food.

Anyway have a look, let me know what you think. Will post a link online if it gets published there, else might just upload the column here.