Thursday, July 12, 2007

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: How many 'Doh!' moments does the average person have?

BPS RESEARCH DIGEST: How many 'Doh!' moments does the average person have?
I often wonder if I'm growing old too quickly because of the number of memory lapses I have, so this study is comforting. Healthy people commit an average of 6.4 “action slips” a week.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Untouchables: My Family's Triumphant Escape from India's Caste System
by Narendra Jadhav


Untouchables is collage of memoirs by Dr. Narendra Jadhav and his parents. Although the title suggests a political slant, the book actually has a substantial set of stories revolving around family life and Indian village life. Jadhav's father was part of Babasaheb Ambedkar' s movement to eradicate untouchability, but he was just a leader on a local level, so his story is novel to those of us familiar with the great-man approach of history textbooks, Indian and otherwise.

The book's most poignant moments, which made it a worthwhile read for me, come in the parts where Jadhav describes the marriage of his parents, which, though arranged, was very successful. Despite their poverty, they did not seem to have disease or death to deal with, so the book as a whole doesn't have a tragic quality. In fact, the everyday stories are humorous and somewhat familiar to anyone who has spent anyone time among farmers or in villages in any part of the world. Moreover Jadhav's father was an adventurer in Mumbai a la Shantaram, albeit on a small scale, and his garrulity adds much spice to the central chapters.

The book is translated from Marathi by the author himself, who is now a renowned economist. Some Marathi words, such as Aiee (mother), are left untranslated for their endearing quality; a glossary will help non-native speakers translate these words.

Suburban Guerrilla � James Capozzola, 1962-2007

James Capozzola, 1962-2007:

James's blog, The Rittenhouse Review, was on the very first blogroll I created back when I was just reading about five or ten blogs on a weekly basis. I took for granted that he would always be around, but now comes the news that he died after battling multiple illnesses.

From his own blog:
James Martin (Jim) Capozzola launched The Rittenhouse Review in April 2002, TRR: The Lighter Side of Rittenhouse, HorowitzWatch, and Smarter Andrew Sullivan in July 2002, and Bulldogs for Kerry-Edwards in October 2004. He is also a contributing member of President Boxer.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Oswald 'had no time to fire all Kennedy bullets'
Blogging has been light lately what with all the other 2,546,504 bloggers out there doing a great job. In the mean time here's some interesting news about Oswald's rifle.