Interesting articles that came my way in July 2013:
* Desai, Meghnad (2013): THE HINDU RATE OF BACKWARDNESS - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-hindu-rate-of-backwardness/1147631/
- The Indian State can deliver a nuclear bomb and launch satellites but not universal primary education or decent public health..." -- why?
* Chairborne Warrior - MP Anil Kumar -- http://chairbornewarrior.wordpress.com/
* Japan - Tohoku - Social Entrepreneurs -- http://worldinasia.org/aboutus/
* Miyazaki Hayao's new movie -- http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/23/japans_animator_laureate_squares_off_with_prime_minister_with_new_film
- "Kaze wo Tachinu" -- based on the life of Jiro Hirokoshi, inventor of the Mitsubishi 'Zero' Fighter planes
* Pasanth's review of "Dhe Puttu", Kochi -- http://keralascan.hubpages.com/hub/Dhe-Puttu-in-Review
* Wang, Helen H(2013): FIVE THINGS STARBUCKS DID TO GET CHINA RIGHT, Forbes, 10Aug12 -- http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-starbucks-did-to-get-china-right/
* Making Sense of Sen vs. Bhagawati -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/bhagwati-versus-sen-what-s-going-on-113072400516_1.html
* Gawande, Atul (2013): SLOW IDEAS, New Yorker, 29Jul13 -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
* Spolsky, Joel (2013): Victory Lap for Ask Patents, Blog, 22Jul13 -- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html
- The other 40,000-odd software patents issued every year are mostly garbage that any working programmer could “invent” three times before breakfast. Most issued software patents aren’t “inventions” as most people understand that word.
* Embrace Innovations: http://forbesindia.com/article/expat-diary/embrace-innovations-founder-on-keeping-indian-infants-warm/35623/0
* The Rodin-Hoods -- http://therodinhoods.com/ --
* Inside Google's Secret labs -- http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-22/inside-googles-secret-lab
* Aiyar, SA (2013): UNSUNG HERO OF THE INDIA STORY, ToI, 26 Jun 2013 --- http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/unsung-hero-of-the-india-story
- On PV Narasimha Rao
* Blog - http://krishashok.wordpress.com/
- TEDxSSN - Krish Ashok - Disregard Work, Acquire Hobbies --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnI_A6GSYE
* Ghosh, Abantika (2013): IN THE WORKS - AN EPIDEMIC INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, IE 22Jul13 --- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-the-works-an-epidemic-intelligence-service/1144850/0
- As per 2008 data, an estimated 21 per cent deaths in the country were caused by infectious and parasitic diseases.
- Of the 9.2 million cases of TB that occur in the world every year, nearly 1.9 million are in India, accounting for one-fifth of the global TB cases.
- About 2.5 million persons have HIV infection in India — the third highest in the world. More than 1.5 million persons are infected with malaria every year. Diseases like dengue and chikungunya have emerged in different parts of India and a population of over 300 million is at risk of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)/Japanese Encephalitis (JE). One-third of global cases infected with filaria also live in India, while nearly half of leprosy cases detected in the world in 2008 were contributed by India. More than 300 million episodes of acute diarrhoea occur every year in children below five years of age.
* Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2013): FOUND IN TRANSLATION, IE 22Jul13 -- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/found-in-transition/1144719/0
- The modern age was defined by what the economic historian Kenneth Pommeranz called the Great Divergence: the increasing inequality between the West and the Rest.
-... there is a revolution in knowledge production of all kinds. This will generate new institutional forms of knowledge production, new techniques in social science that render current methods obsolete.
* Reflections of people as they once were -- http://fstoppers.com/pics-reflections-portraits-of-the-elderly-as-they-once-were
* http://www.tehelka.com/what-is-striking-in-india-is-the-indifference-of-the-privileged/
* Australia to Araria, Engineering a Dream College (Telegraph, 6Jul13) -- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130706/jsp/bihar/story_17085044.jsp#.Uej-GY3EKSo
- Amit Kumar Das - from Araria distt Bihar, to sydney, Australia -- donating Rs.120 Cr. to start an engineering college in his village
- Journey - Village > Delhi > NIIT > poor english, refused admission > advise from co-passenger > 3month English language course at British School of Language > back to NIIT > 6 month course > 3 year program > BA correspondence course > NIIT faculty @ R1500/m > start-up in 10x10' space in Bharat Nagar > months later, first project for Rs.5000
* Tripathi, Salil (2013): Snowden Less Heroic -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/zijD1zhUGZn3CcIMbygvFO/Snowdens-curious-journey.html
* Shivakumar, Girija (2013): POVERTY LEVELS DOWN BY 15% IN EIGHT YEARS, The Hindu, 16Jul17 -- http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/poverty-levels-down-by-15-in-8-years/article4921497.ece
- the total number of people below the poverty line in the country is 26.89 crore as against 40.73 crore in 2004-05. In rural areas, the number has reduced from 32.58 crore to 21.72 crore.
- Planning Commission had received criticism for pegging the poverty line cut-off at Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas.
- data based on consumer expenditure information collected as part of NSSO surveys since the Sixth Five Year Plan
* Epigenetics -- Passing on traits acquired during one lifetime -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/07/economist-explains-7?Fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/epigenetics
* Dunning-Kruger Effect -- http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/the-dunning-kruger-effect-why-the-incompetent-dont-know-theyre-incompetent.php
- Also - http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/the-worse-than-average-effect-when-youre-better-than-you-think.php
* 10 Tips from the World's Oldest Person -- http://northhollywood.patch.com/groups/eminas-blog/p/10-tips-for-a-healthy-life-from-the-worlds-oldest-person
* Finnish Aid to Nepal - 80% reverts to Finnish consultancies -- http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2013/jul/jul12/news01.php
* Food Security Bill - critique on Amartya Sen -- http://www.firstpost.com/economy/food-bill-amartya-sens-charlatan-economics-debunked-again-944451.html
* Keefe, Patrick Radden (2013): BURIED SECRETS, New Yorker, 8Jul13-- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_keefe
- How an Israeli billionaire took control of Africa's mineral assets
* Indian Memory Project -- http://www.indianmemoryproject.com/
* Kant, Amitabh (Toi, 2013): FOR A MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION, ToI, 11Jul13
- Manufacturing in GDP - 15% -- but only 12% of workforce
- New manufacturing policy -- set to increase share to 22% by 2022 + creation of 100 million jobs (BCG study says 220m jobs are needed by 2025)
- Need to decrease share of agricultue in employment from 58% to 25% by 2030
- SMEs - 40% of India's workforce, 45% of manufacturing
* Guha, Ramachandra (2013): WHEN EXPERIENCE TRUMPS EXPERTISE, The Hindu, 11Jul13 -- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/when-expedience-trumps-expertise/article4902463.ece
- Uttarakhand ignored its own world class geologist - K.S. Valdiya
- Madhav gadgil's report on the Western Ghats - 2009
* Sengupta, Shomnit (IE 2013): PURITY OF COMMITMENT
- Brigitte Bardot - actress, singer, author, animal activist
* Japan, India and the Real Estate bubble -- 9 Jul 2013 (tue):http://www.firstpost.com/investing/japan-to-india-busting-the-biggest-myth-of-investing-in-real-estate-921239.html
* Schumpeter (2013): BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, The Economist, 6Jul13 -- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21580444-design-companies-are-applying-their-skills-voluntary-and-public-sectors-back
- IDEO’s work in re-engineering services is for NGOs and governments.
- There are three main elements to IDEO’s “design thinking”:
> The first is “lots of different eyes”. It employs people from wildly different backgrounds—surgeons and anthropologists as well as engineers and designers—and lumps them into multidisciplinary teams.
> The second is to look at problems from the consumer’s point of view: for example, conducting detailed interviews with patients about their daily pill-taking routines and how they feel about them. IDEO likes to focus on the outliers rather than the typical customers—people...
> The third element is making everything tangible. The company produces mock-ups of its products and processes, to see how people react to them “in the wild”.
* Green, Emma (2013): A ROMANTIC VIEW OF TECHNOLOGY DESIGN, The Atlantic -- http://www.theatlantic.com/events/archive/2013/07/a-romantic-view-of-technology-design/277588/
* Negishi, Myumi (WSJ 2013): CAN SPIDER WEB BE REPLICATED? -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578583562603579062.html
- a Japanese startup called Spiber Inc. said it has produced an artificial spider thread that it claims is equal to steel in tensile strength yet as flexible as rubber.
- Spiber President Kazuhide Sekiyama, who came up with the idea to replicate spider thread in college during an all-night drinking session talking about "bug technology."
- Bio-mimicry: Dubbed Qmonos—literally, "spider web" in Japanese—Spiber's thread is the latest example of biomimicry, a field of science that seeks to replicate how things work in nature to solve human problems. Successful examples include Swiss engineer George de Mestral's invention of Velcro in 1941 from seeing a burr stick to his dog and, more recently, Japan's Nitto Denko Corp.'s development of an adhesive that works in super- high temperatures after analyzing how a gecko's foot sticks to surfaces.
- Spider thread can be stretched 40% beyond its original length without breaking. Stronger than steel and bone at the same weight and twice as elastic as nylon
- One gram of the protein produces about 5.6 miles—roughly the height of Mount Everest—of silk.
* Steel Over-capacity (Economist 6Jun13) -- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21580458-worlds-overcapacity-steelmaking-getting-worse-and-profits-are-evaporating-inferno
- Despite a weak world economy, global production of steel rose by 1.2% last year to a record 1.55 billion tonnes.
- Steel consumption in Europe, at around 145m tonnes in 2012, is nearly 30% below its pre-crisis level and demand is still falling.
- Chinese exports are likely to be 30m-50m tonnes in each of the next few years—a small share of the country’s total production of almost 750m tonnes, but an amount that now exceeds the tonnage sold abroad by longer-established exporters such as Japan, South Korea, Ukraine and Russia.
- Iron ore is a sellers’ market but steelmaking, since there has been little global consolidation, is a buyers’ one. ArcelorMittal, way out in front of any rival, has only 6% of the world market, and 60 firms produce 5m tonnes or more
* Japan Times (June 2013) - Chiyoda's Rice Field Rites -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/07/06/travel/hats-off-to-chiyodas-rice-field-rites/
* Kapur, Devesh (2013-BS) -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/the-wrongs-of-rights-113070800015_1.html
* NYT - The Busy Trap -- http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?smid=fb-share
* Asian flush - risk of cancer -- http://www.nbcnews.com/health/asian-flush-red-flag-risk-cancer-1C6437432
* Swami, Praveen (First Post, Jul13): ISHRAT JAHAN ENCOUNTER -- http://www.firstpost.com/india/ishrat-jahan-encounter-case-why-cbis-chargesheet-is-a-cold-potato-926313.html?utm_source=pop_also_see
* Jokes for nerds - http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/jokes-only-nerds-will-understand
* Reason & Ordinance - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/reason-and-ordinance/1137800/0
* No Mockery Please, We're American --- http://chronicle.com/article/No-Self-Mockery-Please-Were/140021/
- Despite all this, no more generous, open-minded, and enthusiastic group of students can be found in the world. American students tend to be courteous, responsive, cooperative, eager to acquire ideas and ready to criticize anything whatsoever, not least themselves.
- For the Calvinist, a delight in anything for its own sake is sinful. Pleasure must be instrumental to some more worthy goal, such as procreation
- To find the cosmos mildly entertaining has always been a sign of power in Britain. It is the political reality behind Oxford and Cambridge wit. Seriousness is for scientists and shopkeepers.
- Americans are concerned about sin, and the British about bad manners. It is all right in Britain to talk about serious matters as long as you also find a way to make them entertaining.
* Peter Attia (TED-2013) - Insulin Resistance -- http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_attia_what_if_we_re_wrong_about_diabetes.html
- Insulin controls fuel partitioning in cells...our fundamental ideas of obesity are wrong!
- Just as Abe Lincoln surrounded himself with a team of rivals, we've got together a team of scientific rivals..
* http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/men-and-ideas/entry/food-security-bill-corruption-by-another-name
* Exploitation of Africa -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_keefe?currentPage=all
* JICA President's Speech at JNU - 18 June 2013 - http://www.jica.go.jp/english/about/president/speech/130618_01.html#.UdG-DcVUWV4.facebook
- The import from Japan to India has expanded to 12.5 billion USD in the fiscal year 2012, 1.6 times bigger than that of 5 years ago. The export from India to Japan was 6.1 billion USD, which has expanded by two times during the same period.
- the net flow of FDI from Japan to India was 2.8 billion USD in 2012, more than ten times increase from 2005. That is the third largest FDI inflow into India after Mauritius and Singapore. The share of Japan in the total cumulative FDI to India ranks the 4th place after Mauritius, Singapore and U.K. Recently, the presence of Japanese companies in India has increased two fold from 2008; as of November 2012, there are 926 companies operating in India. In comparison, China's FDI into India 2011 was 180 million USD, only 8 percent of Japan's FDI in the same year.
* NEHRUVIAN CHINA -- http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/nehruvian-china
* The Best Brainstorming Is Not Done in Groups -- http://thebuildnetwork.com/team-building/brainstorming-individual-group/
* Princess of whales: How a naked female scientist tries to tame belugas in the freezing Arctic -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004042/Naked-female-scientist-tries-tame-beluga-whales-arctic.html
* 4 Changes to English So Subtle We Hardly Notice They're Happening --- http://mentalfloss.com/article/51362/4-changes-english-so-subtle-we-hardly-notice-theyre-happening#ixzz2XiLRDP6W
* Desai, Meghnad (2013): THE HINDU RATE OF BACKWARDNESS - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-hindu-rate-of-backwardness/1147631/
- The Indian State can deliver a nuclear bomb and launch satellites but not universal primary education or decent public health..." -- why?
* Chairborne Warrior - MP Anil Kumar -- http://chairbornewarrior.wordpress.com/
* Japan - Tohoku - Social Entrepreneurs -- http://worldinasia.org/aboutus/
* Miyazaki Hayao's new movie -- http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/07/23/japans_animator_laureate_squares_off_with_prime_minister_with_new_film
- "Kaze wo Tachinu" -- based on the life of Jiro Hirokoshi, inventor of the Mitsubishi 'Zero' Fighter planes
* Pasanth's review of "Dhe Puttu", Kochi -- http://keralascan.hubpages.com/hub/Dhe-Puttu-in-Review
* Wang, Helen H(2013): FIVE THINGS STARBUCKS DID TO GET CHINA RIGHT, Forbes, 10Aug12 -- http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2012/08/10/five-things-starbucks-did-to-get-china-right/
* Making Sense of Sen vs. Bhagawati -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/bhagwati-versus-sen-what-s-going-on-113072400516_1.html
* Gawande, Atul (2013): SLOW IDEAS, New Yorker, 29Jul13 -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all
* Spolsky, Joel (2013): Victory Lap for Ask Patents, Blog, 22Jul13 -- http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2013/07/22.html
- The other 40,000-odd software patents issued every year are mostly garbage that any working programmer could “invent” three times before breakfast. Most issued software patents aren’t “inventions” as most people understand that word.
* Embrace Innovations: http://forbesindia.com/article/expat-diary/embrace-innovations-founder-on-keeping-indian-infants-warm/35623/0
* The Rodin-Hoods -- http://therodinhoods.com/ --
* Inside Google's Secret labs -- http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-05-22/inside-googles-secret-lab
* Aiyar, SA (2013): UNSUNG HERO OF THE INDIA STORY, ToI, 26 Jun 2013 --- http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/unsung-hero-of-the-india-story
- On PV Narasimha Rao
* Blog - http://krishashok.wordpress.com/
- TEDxSSN - Krish Ashok - Disregard Work, Acquire Hobbies --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZnI_A6GSYE
* Ghosh, Abantika (2013): IN THE WORKS - AN EPIDEMIC INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, IE 22Jul13 --- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-the-works-an-epidemic-intelligence-service/1144850/0
- As per 2008 data, an estimated 21 per cent deaths in the country were caused by infectious and parasitic diseases.
- Of the 9.2 million cases of TB that occur in the world every year, nearly 1.9 million are in India, accounting for one-fifth of the global TB cases.
- About 2.5 million persons have HIV infection in India — the third highest in the world. More than 1.5 million persons are infected with malaria every year. Diseases like dengue and chikungunya have emerged in different parts of India and a population of over 300 million is at risk of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)/Japanese Encephalitis (JE). One-third of global cases infected with filaria also live in India, while nearly half of leprosy cases detected in the world in 2008 were contributed by India. More than 300 million episodes of acute diarrhoea occur every year in children below five years of age.
* Mehta, Pratap Bhanu (2013): FOUND IN TRANSLATION, IE 22Jul13 -- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/found-in-transition/1144719/0
- The modern age was defined by what the economic historian Kenneth Pommeranz called the Great Divergence: the increasing inequality between the West and the Rest.
-... there is a revolution in knowledge production of all kinds. This will generate new institutional forms of knowledge production, new techniques in social science that render current methods obsolete.
* Reflections of people as they once were -- http://fstoppers.com/pics-reflections-portraits-of-the-elderly-as-they-once-were
* http://www.tehelka.com/what-is-striking-in-india-is-the-indifference-of-the-privileged/
* Australia to Araria, Engineering a Dream College (Telegraph, 6Jul13) -- http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130706/jsp/bihar/story_17085044.jsp#.Uej-GY3EKSo
- Amit Kumar Das - from Araria distt Bihar, to sydney, Australia -- donating Rs.120 Cr. to start an engineering college in his village
- Journey - Village > Delhi > NIIT > poor english, refused admission > advise from co-passenger > 3month English language course at British School of Language > back to NIIT > 6 month course > 3 year program > BA correspondence course > NIIT faculty @ R1500/m > start-up in 10x10' space in Bharat Nagar > months later, first project for Rs.5000
* Tripathi, Salil (2013): Snowden Less Heroic -- http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/zijD1zhUGZn3CcIMbygvFO/Snowdens-curious-journey.html
* Shivakumar, Girija (2013): POVERTY LEVELS DOWN BY 15% IN EIGHT YEARS, The Hindu, 16Jul17 -- http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/poverty-levels-down-by-15-in-8-years/article4921497.ece
- the total number of people below the poverty line in the country is 26.89 crore as against 40.73 crore in 2004-05. In rural areas, the number has reduced from 32.58 crore to 21.72 crore.
- Planning Commission had received criticism for pegging the poverty line cut-off at Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas.
- data based on consumer expenditure information collected as part of NSSO surveys since the Sixth Five Year Plan
* Epigenetics -- Passing on traits acquired during one lifetime -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/07/economist-explains-7?Fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/ee/epigenetics
* Dunning-Kruger Effect -- http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/the-dunning-kruger-effect-why-the-incompetent-dont-know-theyre-incompetent.php
- Also - http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/06/the-worse-than-average-effect-when-youre-better-than-you-think.php
* 10 Tips from the World's Oldest Person -- http://northhollywood.patch.com/groups/eminas-blog/p/10-tips-for-a-healthy-life-from-the-worlds-oldest-person
* Finnish Aid to Nepal - 80% reverts to Finnish consultancies -- http://www.nepalnews.com/archive/2013/jul/jul12/news01.php
* Food Security Bill - critique on Amartya Sen -- http://www.firstpost.com/economy/food-bill-amartya-sens-charlatan-economics-debunked-again-944451.html
* Keefe, Patrick Radden (2013): BURIED SECRETS, New Yorker, 8Jul13-- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_keefe
- How an Israeli billionaire took control of Africa's mineral assets
* Indian Memory Project -- http://www.indianmemoryproject.com/
* Kant, Amitabh (Toi, 2013): FOR A MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION, ToI, 11Jul13
- Manufacturing in GDP - 15% -- but only 12% of workforce
- New manufacturing policy -- set to increase share to 22% by 2022 + creation of 100 million jobs (BCG study says 220m jobs are needed by 2025)
- Need to decrease share of agricultue in employment from 58% to 25% by 2030
- SMEs - 40% of India's workforce, 45% of manufacturing
* Guha, Ramachandra (2013): WHEN EXPERIENCE TRUMPS EXPERTISE, The Hindu, 11Jul13 -- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/when-expedience-trumps-expertise/article4902463.ece
- Uttarakhand ignored its own world class geologist - K.S. Valdiya
- Madhav gadgil's report on the Western Ghats - 2009
* Sengupta, Shomnit (IE 2013): PURITY OF COMMITMENT
- Brigitte Bardot - actress, singer, author, animal activist
* Japan, India and the Real Estate bubble -- 9 Jul 2013 (tue):http://www.firstpost.com/investing/japan-to-india-busting-the-biggest-myth-of-investing-in-real-estate-921239.html
* Schumpeter (2013): BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD, The Economist, 6Jul13 -- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21580444-design-companies-are-applying-their-skills-voluntary-and-public-sectors-back
- IDEO’s work in re-engineering services is for NGOs and governments.
- There are three main elements to IDEO’s “design thinking”:
> The first is “lots of different eyes”. It employs people from wildly different backgrounds—surgeons and anthropologists as well as engineers and designers—and lumps them into multidisciplinary teams.
> The second is to look at problems from the consumer’s point of view: for example, conducting detailed interviews with patients about their daily pill-taking routines and how they feel about them. IDEO likes to focus on the outliers rather than the typical customers—people...
> The third element is making everything tangible. The company produces mock-ups of its products and processes, to see how people react to them “in the wild”.
* Green, Emma (2013): A ROMANTIC VIEW OF TECHNOLOGY DESIGN, The Atlantic -- http://www.theatlantic.com/events/archive/2013/07/a-romantic-view-of-technology-design/277588/
* Negishi, Myumi (WSJ 2013): CAN SPIDER WEB BE REPLICATED? -- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324399404578583562603579062.html
- a Japanese startup called Spiber Inc. said it has produced an artificial spider thread that it claims is equal to steel in tensile strength yet as flexible as rubber.
- Spiber President Kazuhide Sekiyama, who came up with the idea to replicate spider thread in college during an all-night drinking session talking about "bug technology."
- Bio-mimicry: Dubbed Qmonos—literally, "spider web" in Japanese—Spiber's thread is the latest example of biomimicry, a field of science that seeks to replicate how things work in nature to solve human problems. Successful examples include Swiss engineer George de Mestral's invention of Velcro in 1941 from seeing a burr stick to his dog and, more recently, Japan's Nitto Denko Corp.'s development of an adhesive that works in super- high temperatures after analyzing how a gecko's foot sticks to surfaces.
- Spider thread can be stretched 40% beyond its original length without breaking. Stronger than steel and bone at the same weight and twice as elastic as nylon
- One gram of the protein produces about 5.6 miles—roughly the height of Mount Everest—of silk.
* Steel Over-capacity (Economist 6Jun13) -- http://www.economist.com/news/business/21580458-worlds-overcapacity-steelmaking-getting-worse-and-profits-are-evaporating-inferno
- Despite a weak world economy, global production of steel rose by 1.2% last year to a record 1.55 billion tonnes.
- Steel consumption in Europe, at around 145m tonnes in 2012, is nearly 30% below its pre-crisis level and demand is still falling.
- Chinese exports are likely to be 30m-50m tonnes in each of the next few years—a small share of the country’s total production of almost 750m tonnes, but an amount that now exceeds the tonnage sold abroad by longer-established exporters such as Japan, South Korea, Ukraine and Russia.
- Iron ore is a sellers’ market but steelmaking, since there has been little global consolidation, is a buyers’ one. ArcelorMittal, way out in front of any rival, has only 6% of the world market, and 60 firms produce 5m tonnes or more
* Japan Times (June 2013) - Chiyoda's Rice Field Rites -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2013/07/06/travel/hats-off-to-chiyodas-rice-field-rites/
* Kapur, Devesh (2013-BS) -- http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/the-wrongs-of-rights-113070800015_1.html
* NYT - The Busy Trap -- http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?smid=fb-share
* Asian flush - risk of cancer -- http://www.nbcnews.com/health/asian-flush-red-flag-risk-cancer-1C6437432
* Swami, Praveen (First Post, Jul13): ISHRAT JAHAN ENCOUNTER -- http://www.firstpost.com/india/ishrat-jahan-encounter-case-why-cbis-chargesheet-is-a-cold-potato-926313.html?utm_source=pop_also_see
* Jokes for nerds - http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/jokes-only-nerds-will-understand
* Reason & Ordinance - http://www.indianexpress.com/news/reason-and-ordinance/1137800/0
* No Mockery Please, We're American --- http://chronicle.com/article/No-Self-Mockery-Please-Were/140021/
- Despite all this, no more generous, open-minded, and enthusiastic group of students can be found in the world. American students tend to be courteous, responsive, cooperative, eager to acquire ideas and ready to criticize anything whatsoever, not least themselves.
- For the Calvinist, a delight in anything for its own sake is sinful. Pleasure must be instrumental to some more worthy goal, such as procreation
- To find the cosmos mildly entertaining has always been a sign of power in Britain. It is the political reality behind Oxford and Cambridge wit. Seriousness is for scientists and shopkeepers.
- Americans are concerned about sin, and the British about bad manners. It is all right in Britain to talk about serious matters as long as you also find a way to make them entertaining.
* Peter Attia (TED-2013) - Insulin Resistance -- http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_attia_what_if_we_re_wrong_about_diabetes.html
- Insulin controls fuel partitioning in cells...our fundamental ideas of obesity are wrong!
- Just as Abe Lincoln surrounded himself with a team of rivals, we've got together a team of scientific rivals..
* http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/men-and-ideas/entry/food-security-bill-corruption-by-another-name
* Exploitation of Africa -- http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/08/130708fa_fact_keefe?currentPage=all
* JICA President's Speech at JNU - 18 June 2013 - http://www.jica.go.jp/english/about/president/speech/130618_01.html#.UdG-DcVUWV4.facebook
- The import from Japan to India has expanded to 12.5 billion USD in the fiscal year 2012, 1.6 times bigger than that of 5 years ago. The export from India to Japan was 6.1 billion USD, which has expanded by two times during the same period.
- the net flow of FDI from Japan to India was 2.8 billion USD in 2012, more than ten times increase from 2005. That is the third largest FDI inflow into India after Mauritius and Singapore. The share of Japan in the total cumulative FDI to India ranks the 4th place after Mauritius, Singapore and U.K. Recently, the presence of Japanese companies in India has increased two fold from 2008; as of November 2012, there are 926 companies operating in India. In comparison, China's FDI into India 2011 was 180 million USD, only 8 percent of Japan's FDI in the same year.
* NEHRUVIAN CHINA -- http://www.caravanmagazine.in/reportage/nehruvian-china
* The Best Brainstorming Is Not Done in Groups -- http://thebuildnetwork.com/team-building/brainstorming-individual-group/
* Princess of whales: How a naked female scientist tries to tame belugas in the freezing Arctic -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004042/Naked-female-scientist-tries-tame-beluga-whales-arctic.html
* 4 Changes to English So Subtle We Hardly Notice They're Happening --- http://mentalfloss.com/article/51362/4-changes-english-so-subtle-we-hardly-notice-theyre-happening#ixzz2XiLRDP6W
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