You can’t find a better manual on how to make people hate you than Tony Lagouranis’s description of how he tortured people in Iraq when he was in the US Army. An excerpt from John Conroy’s article on Lagouranis:
The warrant officer secured a shipping container that became the unit’s interrogation booth. Stress positions became standard operating procedure. They included standing for long periods; kneeling on concrete, gravel, or plywood; and crawling across gravel. “Another one we’d use was where they would have their back against the wall and their knees bent at right angles. We used to do that as an exercise in basic training and it gets real painful after a few minutes, but we’d make the prisoners do that for a long time.
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Posted by Amit Varma on 05 March, 2007 in
Politics
All the newspapers today are full of the “rave party” that was busted by cops near Pune yesterday. It is a party that I might well have gone to in my youth (I never did drugs, but I did like to rebel), and I feel sorry for the kids who’ve been arrested for activities that harmed no one. It is a pity that so many victimless acts are treated as crimes in our country. If I want to snort a little of whatever it is kids these days snort, what business is it of anyone else? Unlike cigarettes, where bystanders can be hurt by passive smoking, most recreational drugs don’t even harm anyone else.
But then, who cares about individual freedom in this country?
An aside: And do check out the following line in the Hindu report:
All those arrested have been booked under the NDPS Act and Foreigners Act, while the police are also thinking of invoking provisions of the IT Act against them because the invitations for the party were sent via the Internet, he [the superintendent of police in Pune] said.
That’s right, shoot the messenger. Bang bang.
Posted by Amit Varma on 05 March, 2007 in
Freedom |
India |
News
Definitions can be immensely amusing. Consider the following definition of ‘Bed’ from Wikipedia:
A bed is a piece of furniture or location primarily used or intended for resting upon, but can serve other functions, such as providing a place for sexual intercourse and/or relaxing.
The “and/or” at the end blows me away. It is a masterful comment on the role sex plays in all our lives. No?
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 March, 2007 in
Miscellaneous
Dear readers
For your enjoyment, an email conversation is reproduced below, between me and my kind friend Manish Vij, who has consented to the publication of this most-enlightening exchange. Please read from the top. As I am blogging this via broadband, the grain of rice in front of me lies unsullied.
Warm regards and Happy Holi
Amit
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Posted by Amit Varma on 04 March, 2007 in
India |
Personal
In paying too much for condoms.
(Link via email from reader Jayakamal Balasubramani.
Where your taxes go: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Also see: 1, 2, 3.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 04 March, 2007 in
India |
Old memes |
Taxes
The Times of India reports that an astrologer in Tamil Nadu has gotten himself into trouble by “allegedly predicting a long life for a dead man.” No, it isn’t the dead man protesting, but someone else. Joy.
Also, giants such as Bejan Daruwalla and Sanjay B Jumaaaaaaani have given their predictions for the World Cup. Daruwalla says:
In 1983, the combination in the Indian team was that of Capricorn (Kapil Dev), Cancer (Sunil Gavaskar) and Libra (Mohinder Amarnath), which worked wonders. Even this time, captain Rahul Dravid (Capricorn), Sourav Ganguly (Cancerian) and Virender Sehwag (Libran), may repeat the success story.
With 15 guys in each squad, you can probably get any combination of sun signs that you desire, and it is not unlikely that all the squads may contain a Capricorn, Cancer and Libra. Note that both gentlemen are being cautious, though Jumaaaaaaani more or less counts Australia out of the running. No matter what happens, though, I’m sure believers will note only the parts of their prediction where they seemed to have got it right. Always, the confirmation bias.
(Some earlier posts on astrology etc: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.)
My take on the World Cup: After a close perusal of some fine coffee beans (followed by their consumption, as is necessary for the ritual to be successful), I have come to the conclusion that my earlier post on this subject, written months ago, was somewhat off target. To my list of seven favourites, I add an eighth: New Zealand. I don’t think I can get any more precise than that.
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 March, 2007 in
India |
Old memes |
Astrology etc |
Sport
A version of my story below was published today in Mint.
Our love for the game is deep and passionate. Our love for the game is fickle and superficial. Which is it?
The historian Ram Guha once compared cricket in India to football in Brazil. It is easy to disagree with that, but hard to figure out which hairs to split. On one hand, cricket in India is surely followed more fervently, with temples made for some cricketers, with an obsessive passion that Brazilians, for all their lust for football, surely can’t match. People have even speculated, not entirely flippantly, on the economic impact cricket has on India because so many people stop working when a cricket match is on.
On the other hand, football matches between minor club teams in Brazil can attract tens of thousands of spectators, while Ranji Trophy games in India generally draw so few people that you could fit them all in a bus. Much of the following of the game in India revolves around celebrities, with few fans concerned about the nuances of the game.
Our love for the game is deep and passionate. Our love for the game is fickle and superficial. Which is it? Do Indians really love cricket? It is futile to generalise about an entire country – each individual has his own relationship with the game – but certain patterns of love and longing for cricket run through the country. And outside it.
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Posted by Amit Varma on 03 March, 2007 in
Essays and Op-Eds |
India |
Sport
Imagine this: man enters crowded place. Man blows himself up. There is a flash of light. Man find he is still alive. Or wait! He is dead! But he is in the afterlife, and there are the gates of heaven!
Man goes to gate. Gate opens. God is standing there to greet him.
“Welcome, young martyr,” says God. “For fighting them infidels, you get to come to heaven. And you know what you’re here to do, don’t you?”
“Yes,” says Martyr. “I know. I was a loser on earth, but here I finally get some action. Bring me the 4000 virgins.”
“4000 virgins?” says God. “Ha ha ha. You got to be kidding me.”
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Posted by Amit Varma on 03 March, 2007 in
Dialogue
Immense exotification happens here. It’s a parade of stereotypes, that slideshow. All except for one picture, which you will no doubt identify if you enjoy good food. Heh.
Posted by Amit Varma on 03 March, 2007 in
India |
Media
Earlier today, I’d posted on Linkastic about Wired‘s story on how rankings at Digg can be manipulated using money. Well, Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch has a problem with this: Wired‘s parent company owns Digg competitor Reddit, he points out, and he perceives a pattern to how they’re gunning after Digg, in this case “actively creating negative news about a competitor and then using the massive reach of Wired to promote that ‘news.’”
“Digg should sue Wired,” Arrington’s headline reads, which I think isn’t practical. Users aren’t stupid, and they’re the ones who will pass judgement on Digg and Wired’s behaviour. If Digg’s system really is corruptible, if there aren’t enough checks and balances in place, then the quality of stories on the site will suffer, and so will its readership. You don’t need a sting operation by Wired to achieve that.
Equally, if Wired is being unethical for commercial reasons, then readers will see through that, and Wired‘s credibility will fall, impacting their readership. You don’t need Digg to sue for that.
In either case, the people will decide. Or the markets, if you will.
My take: By and large, Digg works pretty well in displaying the wisdom of the crowds, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. And Wired has enough credibility for most readers to accept that there was no ulterior motive in reporting this story. This time. The next time Wired wishes to bust the Web 2.0 party, though, they’d be well advised to look towards Reddit.
(Arrington link via email from Gautam John. You can read related posts by me here.)
Posted by Amit Varma on 02 March, 2007 in
Miscellaneous
