While I am on the question of human psychology, I am reminded of Nilu speculating that perhaps the logical faculties of human beings must have evolved because being logical gave early humans an advantage over others who weren’t capable of logical thinking.
Yes, but… things are unfortunately more complicated than that. Please take this test and you will find out what I meant when I said that humans are wired to be combative and not logical.
Classic
Thoughts on evolutionary psychology
Ramnath notices that men and women are jealous for different reasons. Men (in general) are worried that their wives will have sex with others, while women (again in general) are worried that their husbands will love someone else. He also notices that this fact is explained by evolutionary psychology. If women sleep around, men are faced with the prospect of having to raise the children of the gair, while for a woman if her husband sleeps around, it does not make as much of a difference as it would if he deserted her.
Having identified the reason, he goes on to speculate that with society changing, i.e with women becoming financially independent, this behaviour will probably change.
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More about College Education
Amol Hatwar responds to my earlier posting about Indian college education. Just to repeat, my point was about college education in general, not about Indian college education. Indian education has many problems, most of them having to do with the centralised university system. But the problems I talked of will occur even in a perfect world.
The Indian Airlines ad
The guy with the moon in his matted hair responds to my question about the Indian Airlines ad. The discussion started with my question about the Indian Airlines ad that has been airing on TV and it has done a to and fro round over email.
I still disagree with the guy with the moon.. etc.
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Was Gandhiji a liberaliser?
Longtime readers of my blog know that I am not an admirer of Gandhiji. A while ago, Ramnath sent me a link to an article by Swami Aiyar which purports to show that Gandhiji, unlike Nehru was not a socialist, but committed to a free market.
Sorry, but the article sounds thoroughly convoluted to me. You can prove anything by selectively quoting a person and giving your own interpretation to what he said. This is the same Gandhiji who said “Honesty is incompatible with the amassing of a large fortune.” What does that statement tell us about his attitude towards capitalism?
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Economic Illiteracy Watch
India best emerging market in 3 months
India has been the best-performing emerging market over the three-month period ended August 2004, giving a return of 9.1 per cent compared with 5.3 per cent for Hong Kong and 4.5 per cent for Phillipines, according to a study by ABN Amro.
Thus, despite concerns about the new government, which came to power in mid-May and the subsequent crash on May 17, the markets have rebounded smartly
Not despite.
Because of concerns about the new government, the market crashed on May 17. The subsequent recovery has ensured that the three month growth rate in the stock market looks impressive on India’s resume.
Dane-geld
It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
“We invaded you last night –we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
To call upon a neighbour and to say: —
“We invaded you last night –we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away.”
And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you’ve only to pay ’em the Dane-geld
And then you’ll get rid of the Dane!
It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
To puff and look important and to say: —
“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”
And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.
It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to say: —
“We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that pays it is lost!”
Rudyard Kipling
Car Survey
The Economist has a damn good survey of the car industry. But unfortunately, all articles beyond the first one are subscriber-only, so you won’t be able to read it while I can. Life is unfair.
I am very happy that
I am very happy that my “jokes” are being “appreciated”. I make jokes for the same reason that a psychopath kills – because he is utterly impervious to others’ pain.
The Worth of College education
Selva at the Scientific Indian has some interesting thoughts about whether Indian college education is really “worth it”
Unfortunately, he makes the issue a tad more confusing than it ought to be, because he mixes up the questions of whether college education is “worth it” for the student, whether you actually learn anything there, and whether society gets its money’s worth for what it spends on the student.
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Selling out
Observant visitors might have noticed that my blog has started showing advertisements served by Google. Ad sense program policies require me not to draw undue attention to those ads. I hope I have fulfilled that requirement by making them as difficult to find as possible. I would also like to inform my readers that it would be most improper to click on those ads for any reason other than that you are interested in what they offer you.
The Law of Conservation of H
K R Aadishthan, who is on a voyage of self-discovery in Bangalore, independently discovers the Law of conservation of H, which I had stumbled upon and written about in my old blog, and wonders what explains the fact.
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