Bauernfeind on the threshold
// June 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // All, Travel
Truth is rarely pure, and never simple -O.W.
Somehow this scan doesnt quite do justice to what was so breathtaking radiant in that dark corridor where it hung.
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Britain tastes better when it’s swaddled in Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate
// February 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // All
A Hershey’s bar is’nt chocolate – when will the americans understand? Mr Brooker helps explain…
My favourite cadbury? flake, hands down.
But the moment the product itself hit my tongue I was plunged mouthwards into an entire universe of yuk. In terms of flavour, it tasted precisely like I'd swallowed a matchbox full of caster sugar five minutes earlier, then somehow regurgitated it into my own mouth. And the texture was crumbly, dusty – slightly old even, as though this was a chocolate bar that had been found in the pocket of a civil war soldier and preserved specifically for my disenchantment. It was so horrible, I charitably assumed there was something wrong with it. I was eating it in England (someone had brought it back from the States), so perhaps it had gone off somehow in transit. But no. Subsequent encounters proved I'd got it right the first time. Hershey's tastes downright bad.
The strongest sumo wrestler Asashouryuu – he’s retiring!
// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // All
Google’s China Stance: More about Business than Thwarting Evil – Finally somebody talks some sense
// January 17th, 2010 // No Comments » // All
Final somebody sees the woods for the trees:
Google’s business was not doing well in China. Does anyone really think Google would be doing this if it had top market share in the country? For one thing, I’d guess that would open them up to shareholder lawsuits. Google is a for-profit, publicly-held company at the end of the day. When I met with Google’s former head of China Kai-fu Lee in Beijing last October, he noted that one reason he left Google was that it was clear the company was never going to substantially increase its market share or beat Baidu. Google has clearly decided doing business in China isn’t worth it, and are turning what would be a negative into a marketing positive for its business in the rest of the world.
via Google’s China Stance: More about Business than Thwarting Evil.
Behind the glitz : Dubai’s ugly secret
// January 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // All
The inauguration of the tower and the acquittal of the sheikh is a lurid juxtaposition of the hypocrisy, gluttony and crude injustice that lies beneath a glitzy façade. None of the innovation or glamour is indigenous; the architecture is American, the designers European and the slave labour South Asian.
Internet users as percentage of population – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh + Indonesia
// January 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // All, Pakistan
This all started with me plotting the results of a google blog post mentioning the increase of google hits in Indonesia over 08/09 as the fastest they had seen for the period.
Obviously, i went and plotted internet penetration for India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to see how South Asia was doing – i’ve also left in Indonesia to provide some context.
MUSEUM OF BEAUTY – The Louvre Venus de milo in 3D
// January 11th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // All
there is of course tough competition in the louve, and yet to me venus de milo really does hold her own.
i dont think i could define this somewhat intangible allure of the sculpture, and perhaps my obsession with greek sculpture makes it worse – but i’ve found myself finding it beffiting for the reputation that precedes it.
here is a 3d scan that has been put online:
Comatose art – Culture – livemint.com
// January 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // All
I’ve been wanting to post up this article by Aakar Patel for a few days now – i was hoping to have some time to add the stuff that i’d been thinking about reading through the article (any desi journalist that can elicit any emotion other than derision needs to be celebrated), but given work i dont think thats going to happen.
It’s an interested article, one i would encourage you to read – addressing that troubling dichotomy between art and ‘accomplishment’ that seems to have increasingly arisen. not art but artifice – the BBC have done a few excellent programs on the theme this season, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p05ww was (indrectly) one of them.
Aakers bumpy ride through world art is interesting, even if he looses steam towards the end. I have to say i did take mild exception to him dismissing Faiz Ahmed Faiz (perhaps Urdu’s last classicalist poet) as some sort of leftist madman – and instead drawing the close on the Urdu poetic tradition at Ghalib. Ghalib is indeed be conventionally considered at Urdu’s finest poet (i’d wager, in no small part because his heavily Persianised urdu is hard for most modern day readers to properly decipher, and its hard to go against the grain in such situations) - but in some ways Faiz’s revolutionary poetry (irrespective of whether you share his leftist leanings) was the culmination of that evolution of the urdu poetic cannon, and that evolution in of itself doesnt take away anything from the aesthetic value of Faiz’s poetry, something that i this Aaker completely misses.
also – and my final point, just on this (before i hand you over to aaker) is this:
Classical Urdu poetry is now finished, because the poet does not tackle the overarching theme any more.
In fact he cannot, because he would sound ridiculous talking about courage and honour in 2010. And how much courage can a poet add to Homer’s Hector, or vanity to his Achilles, or virtuousness to Tulsidas’ Ram
so have all songs been sung / books written ? … .
Real world review (RWR): Byron bay cookies – stuff you should never buy
// January 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // All, Bachelor's guide to cooking without Shan
I’d been thinking about writing up a few posts every now and then of my experiances buying random, unusual stuff – and how the suppliers turned out. this started because sometimes, when im mail ordering something particularly obscure, say: climbing gear, an out of print book, food items, aromatherapy kit, pen, and hopefully one day an authentic japanese style futon bed with tatami mats to go with it – i often hesitate before punching in my credit card number and pressing ‘buy!’. not all of these companies have a lot of reviews on the internet and im not always certain what the postman will get me.
Happily, there have only ever been very few nasty surprises (perhaps because of my overly suspicious nature) and lots of happy transactions.
But alas, this series doesnt start on a happy note: so im wizzing around in the local supermarket, having been existing on yogurt for the past 4 days (no, im not joking – but ill expain later) i was particularly exhuberant in the supermarket.
I chanced upon these byron bay cookies, and on a whim i bought them. bad call. not only are they unlike cookies in appearance (im not stickler for tradition, but sometimes there is a reason why – and the cookie shape is the perfect marriage of form and function, i cant understand why ANYBODY would have any cause to change it). But even worse was the terrible terrible cloying sugar rush.
These nasty squidgy ‘cookies’ overflow with the invert sugar syrup you deserve when you buy sweet things without reading the label carefully. and terrible milk chocolate.
particularly appauling because i could swear i’d heard byron bay cookies were nice and edible.
i wonder if its fair on the birds.
Imran Khan Supporting TCF Schools
// December 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // All
YouTube - Imran Khan Supports TCF Schools.mpg.
TCF do a FANTASTIC job. i dont think ever seen an ngo quite like them. anywhere.
“we want to dream for them what their parents have not been able to dream for them”
Ocaml and Jane street capital – making the case for a specialized, niche language for financial services applications (hedge fund trading to me and you)
// December 17th, 2009 // No Comments » // All
An interesting take from Jane street capital re. their (pretty substantial) investment in Ocaml. whilst a lot of hedgies work with VB and excel combo, there is an interesting case to be made for fast, functional languages like caml. this sure would be fun coding in c++ :)
incidentally, microsoft’s f# is based, essentially on caml, and i understand a number of alternative investment group tech is being built on it, since its going to be a fully supported part of .NET
one of their papers on the topic:
http://www.janestreetcapital.com/minsky_weeks-jfp_18.pdf
Our jokes aren’t like your jokes…
// December 11th, 2009 // No Comments » // All
The ducks in the bathroom are not mine
// November 26th, 2009 // No Comments » // All
Dear Helen,
Thankyou for your letter concerning pets in my apartment. I understand that having dogs in the apartment is a violation of the agreement due to the comfort and wellbeing of my neighbours and I am currently soundproofing my apartment with egg cartons as I realise my dogs can cause quite a bit of noise. Especially during feeding time when I release live rabbits.
via The ducks in the bathroom are not mine.
Thanks VB
A home-made flu cure and now incense too
// November 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // All
I must be one of the most flu / disease susceptible people in the world. looking back on my childhood, i cant seem to remember any stretch of time in which i wasnt suffering from contagion or another. though as as suketu mehta points out, in the heavily polluted cities of south asia – various contagious flus ‘doing the rounds’ is nothing out of the ordinary. Mehta’s book, which i’m about a 1/3 into is rather interesting incidentally.
anyways, im currently suffering from another bout which is why im here, indoors, trying to be as productive as a can on a friday night – and consequently this flurry of posts. but this disease enforced writing would be incomplete if i didnt mention a small chance discovery which has completely changed my flu recovery cycle: clove tea (well, thats what i call it).
basically, i somehow discovered that (apparently) cloves are considered to be particularly good for flus, colds etc in the ayurvedic canon- and this was in my indic phase, so i was especially susceptible to such notions at the time. i got my self a large bag of cloves (we call them loong in india / pakistan) and started experimenting.
the final brew that seems to work best is:
c. 6 cloves per cup
2 tsp of honey
2-3 cardamon pods
just drop all of these in a saucepan, cover it up and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so. i usually have 2-3 cups on the day that i start feeling a bit under the weather, and increadibly, even a totally relaxed and chilled out immune system like mine almost always conquers the flu / cold by the next day. i took some pre-emptive action with the swine flu when a few people around me got bit, and i’ve some how managed to come through unscathed, at least until now….
i’d read somewhere that most of the cigarettes sold in indonesia are clove flavoured ones, and that international brands where thus having trouble directly selling their standard brands of cigs in the country (that is exactly the sort of junk, unusable knowledge i like to fill my head with), ive now discovered, in the course of posting this email that cloves are used extensively in south east asia + japan (tp my knowledge, not in india or pakistan) as incense. im quite intrigued, this sounds like a project for the weekend!
Beauty and the Bento Box a a whirlwind tour through japanese design sensibilites
// November 6th, 2009 // No Comments » // All, Travel
Haruo Iida via Flickr.com
This post on Japanese aesthtics really reminded me of my backpacking trip through Japan. I dont think there is a more facinating country in the world. It also reminded me of all the things i’d stuffed into my head before I left for that trip, in praise of shadows :
The essay consists of 16 sections that discuss traditional Japanese aesthetics in contrast with change. Comparisons of light with darkness are used to contrast Western and Asian cultures. The West, in its striving for progress, is presented as continuously searching for light and clarity, the subtle and subdued forms of oriental art and literature are seen by Tanizaki to represent an appreciation of shadow and subtlety. In places the work is strongly metaphorical. In addition to contrasting light and dark, Tanizaki further considers the layered tones of kinds of shadow and its power to reflect low sheen materials like gold embroidery, patina and cloudy crystals. In addition, he distinguishes between the values of gleam and shine.
The text presents personal reflections on topics as diverse as architecture and its fittings, crafts, finishes, jade, food, cosmetics and wabi-sabi (the art of impermanence). Tanizaki explores in close description the use of space in buildings, lacquerware by candlelight,[1] monastery toilets[2] and women in the dark of a brothel. The essay acts as “a classic description of the collision between the shadows of traditional Japanese interiors and the dazzling light of the modern age.”
What a completely orginial perspective! Although I found myself being reminded of mirror encrusted sheesh mihal (lit palace of mirrors) in lahore’s mughal fort, a perhaps more overblown implementation of the idea :) Ditto the japanese gardens, and not merely their ineffable tranquillity and beauty but also the pains the designers took to make sure that it slowly unravelled like a yarn elegantly, gracefully and ever so subtly. and then you came to the centre (or wherever the main sitting area was) and you saw the small pieces now pulled together in a rich tapestry that you’d walked through but only appreciated on their own. and somehow having carefully been introduced to the parts, the sum of the whole was only greater.. and which is why a photo could never do it any justice, its never a point in time – its a tale and a story.
It also reminded me of when i nearly burn the skin off my legs playing with one of these self heating bento boxes (more…)
The ultimate investment banking tonic: what should have fueled the credit boom – mate or tea?
// October 17th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // All, Bachelor's guide to cooking without Shan
The credit boom was of course (and dont listen to what they say in the news) fueled by one key ingredient: (no no, not booze) caffeine.
Coffee and Coke is what made investment banking analysts click away at computer screens despite the (in)famous 110 hour working weeks. And apparently, in London (no only place i’ve personally worked) things were better than in the US. in any case – coffee played a very important role in keeping us awake/alive notwithstanding the vicious cycle of caffeine tolerance that soon set in. and look what all those overdosed, twitching bankers managed to do to the world.
at some point, me and then eventually the cubicle monkey who sat beside me (a very cool frenchman who had spent the last 2 years of his life travellindg the world, including a stint as a bollywood dancer) discovered tea. At first, this was whatever was around at the local supermarket, but after many trials we settled on the house blend, the Clipper Lemon green tea made in the tepid water from the coffee machine. 
Of all the ones we tried these were the best (though the twinings jasmine were nice too), plus the lemon helped and more importantly these are made of unbleached paper, an important consideration which isnt given enough thought. why would you pour bleach in your tea?
what was even cooler were the silk full leaf tea bags our bank used to import from the US (i forget the name). this stuff was awesome, and even thought i dont generally like dried mint tea (prefer fresh mint sprigs) i remember their’s was awesome. must have cost a fortune. as i said, this was still in the good old days of the credit boom.
once i cut down my coffee consumption (and just to give you an idea of its importance, of all of the banks i have worked for, none have had less that 5 separate coffee shops + free coffee/brown sludge vending machines – some even had starbucks AND/OR an inhouse neros.) i soon discovered green tea kept me awake just about as well, once id calibrated to the lower caffeine content. it might sound pathetic, but really at the time the only thing i judged a beverage by was how long it could keep me awake without sleep. and then, somehow (it was a discreete inflexion point) i discovered the wonders of loose leaf tea – and thats been an exciting discovery for me, perhaps a future post on it someday.
an honorable mention also must go to a largely undiscovered gem: yerba mate. of which i became curious after reading Che Guevara’s motorcycle diaries – which mentions them getting offered mate constantly. so i found some in bourough market strangely enough and after an initial mishap or two with the brewing, i’ve found it an interesting (if acquired) tase. apparently because of a different chemical composition, its able to sidestep caffeine tolerance, amongst caffeine nuts like me. the irrepressable, if sometimes tangential wikipedia has this to sat on the subject: (more…)
