Iraq, and Withdrawal of American troops from the cities

The New York Times article Abstract: “In accordance with the security agreement, there were few American troops to be seen on Baghdad streets, and the Iraqi authorities stressed that they did not want to see them unless their help was requested. The American military has obliged, ordering soldiers to remain in garrison for the next few days to give the Iraqis a chance to demonstrate that they are in control.”

Link to the Times article: Iraq Marks Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Cities

The New York Times Editorial Abstract: “For a badly overstretched American military it will certainly be time to go. Repeated deployments have taken a huge toll on soldiers and their families. The Iraq war — an unnecessary war — has diverted critically needed resources away from Afghanistan, the real front in the war on terrorism. Many Iraqis are eager to see the Americans gone. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has declared June 30 to be a day of “feast and festivals.””

Link to the Times editorial: The First Deadline

Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod Virtuoso

Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod Virtuoso,

The New York Times Abstract: “Mr. Khan, who was named a national treasure by the Indian government in 1989, carried on the musical traditions of his father, Allauddin Khan, whose ashram in East Bengal produced some of India’s most celebrated musicians, notably Mr. Shankar, the flutist Pannalal Ghosh and the sitarist Nikhil Banerjee.

Unlike his father, a volatile and uneven performer, Mr. Khan maintained an austere demeanor onstage while coaxing passages of extraordinary intensity from his sarod, an instrument with 25 strings, 10 plucked with a piece of coconut shell while the remainder resonate sympathetically.

“He was not as flashy as Ravi Shankar, but he had the ability to play a single note, or a simple passage of notes, and draw out such amazing depth,” said John Schaefer, the host of “New Sounds” and “Soundcheck” on WNYC-FM in New York. “That’s why he was able to get a world of emotion and color out of ‘Malasri,’which is often called a three-note raga. That, for me, stands as the calling card of the genius of Ali Khan.”

The violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who brought Mr. Khan to the United States in 1955, called him “an absolute genius” and “the greatest musician in the world.””

The New York Times complete article: Ali Akbar Khan

Michael Jackson: An artist who transcended all boundaries

As an artist, Michael Jackson transcended geographic boundaries, race, gender, ethnicity and all other divisions.  His contributions are celebrated all over the world by all the people.

Here is a The New York Times Report:    “Michael Jackson’s brand of pop knew no borders and needed no translation, linking listeners around the world through the accessible corridors of rhythm, beat, and dance. And as reaction to his sudden death began to pour in Friday, its extent underscored how far his influence had spread.”

Link to the New York Times Article: The Word Mourns

The Press Trust of India announces: “Michael Jackson dies of cardiac arrest; world mourns”

Link to the Press Trust of India Article: Press Trust of India Report

The Times of London states that, ” A secret library of over a hundred songs recorded by Michael Jackson could now be released following his death.
One of the singers biographers, Ian Halperin, claimed that the unheard songs had been made for his children.”

Links to The Times of London articles: Michael Jackson R.I.P.;  and Michael Jackson: secret library of 100 songs could be released

The Economist writes, “The length of Mr Jackson’s career ensured that he experienced, popularised and even pioneered many of the techniques that help artists to profit from their musical talents.”

Link to The Economist article: Michael Jackson

President Barack Obama (through his spokesperson Robert Gibbs), observed “I talked to him about it this morning. Look, he said to me that obviously Michael Jackson was a spectacular performer and a music icon. I think everybody remembers hearing his songs, watching him moonwalk on television during Motown’s 25th anniversary. But the president also said, look, he had aspects of his life that were sad and tragic. And his condolences went out to the Jackson family and to the fans that mourned his loss.”

The U.S. House of Representatives held a moment of silence Friday morning to mark the passing of Michael Jackson.

Representative Jesse Jackson Jr, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representaatives, said,  “I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and in his era.”

The Associated Press reports of sorrow in Middle-East: “Beyond his global reach, Michael Jackson held a special place in the Muslim world, as one of the first major Western entertainers to break through cultural barriers in the 1980s.
Some made a connection with the pop icon because of rumors, never substantiated, that he had converted to Islam. Others embraced him as one of their own after he sought refuge in the Gulf emirate of Bahrain in 2005, following a bruising trial on child molestation charges in the U.S.”

Link to the The Associated Press: Arab world mourns Michael Jackson

The reliability of Electronic Voting Machines (EMVs)

India just concluded monumental elections for the 15th Indian Congress (Lok Sabha).  The voting was done through Electronic Voting Machines.  There is a public debate in India about the accuracy and the tamper-proof resistance of these machines.

There is debate about Electronic Voting Machines in the U.S. and other parts of the globe.  Several scientists have commented on the reliability of these machines.  Here is an interesting editorial in The New York Times on this topic.

Abstract: “Electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper record of every vote cast cannot be trusted. In 2008, more than one-third of the states, including New Jersey and Texas, still did not require all votes to be recorded on paper. Representative Rush Holt has introduced a good bill that would ban paperless electronic voting in all federal elections. Congress should pass it while there is still time to get ready for 2010.”

Article: How to Trust Electronic Voting (New York Times)

Human minds are stubborn, so it is difficult to change the perception

Unfortunately, once the human mind forms an opinion/perception it is difficult to dislodge that.  That’s how myths, prejudices and stereo-types are born and survive.

One of the persistent misinformation is that President Barack Obama is of Islamic faith.  Of course, this is not true at all.  But it has been impossible to complete disabuse the individuals and the society of this falsehood.

Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, and their coauthors show in a recent study (The Effects of Semantics and Social Desirability in Correcting
the Obama Muslim Myth) that mis-perceptions are stubborn and persistent.

“In this paper, we address the question of how to counter political misperceptions, which are often difficult or impossible to eradicate. One explanation for this difficulty is that corrections frequently take the form of a negation (i.e. “Tom is not sick”), a construction that may fail to reduce the association between the subject and the concept being negated (Mayo et al. 2004). We apply this approach to the persistent rumor from the 2008 presidential campaign that Barack Obama is a Muslim, comparing the effectiveness of what we call a misperception negation (“I am not and never have been of the Muslim faith”) with what we call a corrective affirmation (“I am a Christian”), which should be more effective.

As expected, we find that the misperception negation was ineffective. However, our hypothesis that the corrective affirmation would successfully reduce misperceptions was only supported when a non-white experimental administrator was present, suggesting a strong social desirability effect on the acceptance of corrective information. In addition, three-way interactions between the corrective affirmation, race of administrator, and party identification suggest that social desirability effects were more prevalent among Republicans. When nonwhite administrators were absent, the corrective affirmation not only failed to reduce Republican misperceptions but caused a backfire effect in which GOP identifiers became more likely to believe Obama is Muslim and less likely to believe he was being honest about his religion. We interpret this reaction as being driven by Obama’s embrace of Christianity, which may provoke cognitive dissonance among Republicans.”

Is the credit card business in US losing it market attractiveness?

Here is the analysis by The Economist –

Abstract: “CREDIT-CARD borrowers who roll over a portion of their balance each month are known as revolvers. These days lenders are in a spin as they struggle to cope with write-offs, a regulatory crackdown and changes in consumer behaviour.

On May 18th American Express, a credit- and charge-card giant, announced a second round of job cuts (bringing the total to 11,000), slashed its marketing and business-development budgets and offered a “very cautious” outlook. A few days earlier Advanta, a provider of cards to small businesses, froze all existing accounts after charge-offs (uncollectable debt) reached a dizzying 20%. The shutdown sent a shiver through the market for bonds backed by credit-card debt, which is only now starting to recover from the ravaging securitised assets took last year.

The rise in unemployment—which card defaults track and may now be exceeding, given the recession’s severity—has spattered a once-profitable business with red ink (see chart). David Robertson of the Nilson Report, a newsletter, expects card write-offs in America to hit $94 billion this year, up from $61 billion in 2008″

Link to the article: Credit cards in America: A once-glittering business loses its shine

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, Judge Kim Wardlaw and Solicitor General Elena Kagan: Their potential Achilles’ Heels for a nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court

Law.com has an interesting discussion of some of the critical opinions issued by Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Kim Wardlaw of the 9th Circuit, and critical issues advocated by Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

These opinions and issues may become the Achilles’ Heel for these individuals if they were to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama.  Some of the controversial opinions and issues range are  Maloney v. Cuomo, Rumsfeld v. FAIR, Redding v. Safford Unified School Dist. No. 1.

Here is the link to the entire article: What Old Sin Will Haunt the Next Supreme Court Nominee?

Indian Parliamentary Elections: How New York Times and Far Eastern Economic Review view the outcome of the elections?

How do New York Times, Far Eastern Economic Review and The Economist view the outcome of the Indian parliamentary elections?  Here are the links to the articles –

New York Times: India’s Ruling Party Set for Decisive Victory; andVictorious Coalition in India Now Choosing Allies

Far Eastern Economic Review: India Finds the Center

The Economist: The Congress party romps to victory by a surprisingly big margin. Its next government will be expected to do rather more than its current one

Time Warner, and Internet Programming (A new business strategy?)

The Economist has an informative piece of Time Warner’s retooled business strategy which focuses on its core competencies, and explores new opportunity in internet programming (as in cable television).  Given below are a short abstract and link to the complete article.

Abstract: Time Warner, which span off its cable-operating business in March and has pruned its film-production outfit, is now trying to undo its eight-year partnership with AOL, an internet portal. Just as Time Warner moves to end one internet relationship, though, it is beginning another. Later this year the firm will test a scheme for putting programmes online that it calls TV Everywhere. Its cable channels such as HBO, which have so far kept their shows off the internet, will make them available online at no extra cost to people who can prove they subscribe to a cable or satellite package that includes the channel. Rival networks and cable providers have pledged to co-operate.

It is an attempt to preserve what is now plainly the core business of the slimmed-down Time Warner—and which also happens to be one of the most dependable rackets in media. Subscribers to multichannel television, who may get it from a cable, satellite or telecoms firm, pay for “bundles” of channels, whether they watch them all or not. They are also shown advertisements. Content providers like Time Warner receive carriage fees from the cable and satellite companies, which account for about half of their revenues (and the great majority for a premium channel like HBO). These fees are a handy bulwark against shocks to the advertising market, and they tend to go up faster than inflation.”

Link to the entire article: Time Warner has a plan to save cable television—half of it, anyway

Presidents Barack Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton, and their legacies

William McGurn has an insightful opinion piece (in The Wall Street Journal) arguing persuasively why President Obama’s public policy prescriptions and philosophy not only repudiate President George Bush (that was inevitable and natural) but more importantly President Bill Clinton too.

The following observations are not those of McGurn but of this blog.  The public policy prescriptions of Barack Obama were evident from the campaign.   That’s why it was surprising when Hillary Clinton agreed to join the cabinet.  It is also a testament to the big-heartedness and public-spiritdness of both President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Clinton to join Obama’s team and be such a co-operative and unassuming member of the team.  In the longer run, the bigger legacy of President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton may be just this: their public spiritedness.

Here is the abstract of the piece by McGurn, and the link to the actual article.

Abstract: “..there’s a persuasive case that the legacy most threatened by the Obama presidency belongs to the last Democrat who sat in the Oval Office: Bill Clinton. Think about it. It was Mr. Clinton who campaigned on the promise to “end welfare as we know it.” It was Mr. Clinton who signed the bill removing the Glass-Steagall barriers separating commercial from investment banking. Most famously, it was Mr. Clinton who assured us that “the era of Big Government is over.” Today all the assumptions that once defined Bill Clinton’s “New Democrats” are being contested by the Obama White House. And nowhere is the contrast more stark than on the defining issue of trade.”

Link to the entire article: Obama and the Clinton Legacy