Of matters, Tall and Short

I would like to be a couple of inches taller.

Early nutrition, I learn from a spate of articles is critical here. Europeans are now taller than Americans writes Krugman. North Koreans have been stunted as the South Koreans have risen in stature. The pronounced difference in height between the two countries is evidenced with a paper using data on North Korean escapees.

My fellow graduate student Sarah Adelman uses height as an identification strategy for early nutrition in her work on health in Africa.

I should have had those okra and spinach dished out by my mother.

Capitalism and caste

A recent NY times piece hints that economic reforms in India may have uplifted many "outcastes" and given them multiple opportunities. Although the life and work of Chandra Bhan Prasad is truly inspiring, the leit motif of capitalism inducing positive for all underprivileged classes raises many questions in my mind.

Becker sees it as further vindication for his theory of discrimination.

Nevertheless, cheers to Prasad, the fiery crusader

Bee-eaters: Males, show-offs and females, statisticians

A friend who shares my interest in evolutionary design sent me an interesting link on bee-eaters from this issue of National Geographic. As typical of the magazine, a series of stunning photographs of bee-eaters by Jözsef L. Szentpéteri. Staring at this picture, the male tossing its catch, preparing a meal before making the offering to the female, I could not help drawing an analogy. To me its seems like an aesthetic abstraction of homo sapiens sapiens males tossing a fried egg up in the air from the pan directed to a female in the vicinity (or practicing for it) - going for the oomph quotient. No escape from the evolutionary hardwiring for males. So flaunt it, do it in (birdie) style.

Often times voracious bee-eater females are known to test males if they can bring a second bug. If he returns as the ornithologist Hilary Fry notes, "nearly always accepts the offering, quickly eating" and then consenting to copulate. Is it unlike checking for statistical significance? Female bee-eaters care for males who can wrench a robust bug mid-air with acrobatic ease, not for those who got lucky with a frail sloppy bug. Show me you can do it again and we can take it forward from there.

Eat your cake and have it

Long since, logical debate besets this phrase. Phrase finder puts it at 1546, attributing its provenance to Englishman, John Heywood. I do have a dating fetish.

I see no problem with "have one's cake and eat it too" - necessary to have a cake to eat it. One can buy it, eat it. Or bake it, eat it. Even bum it, eat it. You may have noticed a pattern. Got to have it before you eat it. Simply sequential. Or if you buy now, eat later -- inter-temporal. I learn that Ted Kaczynski used the original and confounding (as in title) phrase in his letter, which helped trace his identity. That phrase befuddles me. So I quit, but not before I celebrate the sine qua non for this posting, the classic sibling game for cake division.

Two siblings are left with a quarter slice of a cake. Who gets how much? The smarter of the two comes up with this, "One cuts, the other picks".

The result is clean. The one choosing to cut would make it squarely (not an apposite word, I realize) equal. Else the other would choose the bigger chunk.

Love cakes.

"qu'ils mangent de la brioche" - Marie Antoinette

Being an artist

I just stole a moment from your enjoying the beauty of Rilke's prose.

"Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast"

From his Letters to a Young Poet
Viareggio, near Pisa
April 23, 1903

Its been many years since my first reading but I clearly remember how it moved me then. I can never overstate the enduring appeal of this quote.

The Economics of "Love is like the Measles"

Infection and ensuing immunity to certain diseases could induce people to go out and seek them, early. Many of us would be familiar with some parents' desiring early immunity of their children, whether through infection or vaccination.

The economic reason being the costs of such disease like the measles and mumps are higher when infected later in life, for instance severe scarring. The disproportionately higher incidence of such disease amongst young children (before vaccination became an almost costless alternative) may partly be attributed to parents deliberately inviting these diseases upon their loved ones!!

This reminds me of a quote from the German writer Rainer Maria Rilke. I happen to share my birth date with him (more accurately, day and month, not year - predated me by a mere 105 years!).

"Love is like the measles. The older you get it, the worse the attack"

Day's high

Listening to Minuet in A major by the 18th century Italian composer Luigi Boccherini was the sublime moment of my day.

Bravo Boccherini. Bravo Pandora. This is the closest substitute I could find on youtube. May not be as emotive as rendered by a Spivakov but these kids deservedly worthy of a standing ovation!!

Squirrels and statistics: a requiem

On my bike ride to school today, I saw one too many dead squirrels splayed on the road. Three gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) and another oversized rodent (possibly a fox squirrel and hopefully not the endangered Delmarva fox squirrel) lay mangled disagreeably. The gray color is helpful camouflage in the woods but unfortunately does not offer enough contrast to be detected by speeding motorists on gray asphalt roads.

The images kept haunting the conservationist in me but intrigued the theorist. This no mere coincidence!!

I admit that I do not have the roster of squirrel deaths due to unnatural causes in north College Park for adequate days to plot distributions and draw statistical inferences. Nevertheless, a couple of my typical surmises. Was it a day when single male squirrels went out seeking those females advertising their availability - and in the heat of the moment scurrying around and prancing about, oblivious to human traffic on shared territory? Oh, how I wish I had that roster with gender on it. Or could it be harvest season? But I see no abundant proffering of wild edibles. Some behaviorists might postulate that it could have been a bad day for drivers in the area (longer wait at red lights, collision in vicinity) who pushed up speeds considerably, transforming cars to squirrel squashing metal contraptions. Could it be that serial squirrel carcases is indeed routine (to even think of that is disquieting). Maybe for once I was looking out onto the road and not being self absorbed in earnest disquisition about some fuzzy idea.

All said, a trivial statistic for most of us, a death knell for four magnificent squirrels.

Evolution and Intelligent (game) design

My dear fellow Darwinians.

For those keeping tabs on everything about theories of evolution, particularly the gamer populace amongst us - Will Wright dishes out his new evolution game, SPORE. Here is the link to the Slate article

I am no gamer, so disavow any judgment of quality. I could lay claims to being a fence sitter given that three of my house-mates between them stock up over 250 gaming DVD's, not to mention possess both the rival gaming consoles - Xbox and Playstation.

Evolutionary game theory on the other hand was no fence sitting but diving head first for me. Game Theory Evolving by Herbert Gintis is the book recommendation for those curious for a taste. My current fascination and research aside is evolutionary psychology. Another unsolicited book tip on the emerging discipline - A Moral Animal by Robert Wright.

Non sequitur - I presume you have heard of the Darwin Awards.

Pandora's music box

Hello,
Pandora radio listeners.
Remember to calibrate your station with the "thumbs up" for those numbers that rock your world; and to avert an attempt at defiling your musical sensibilities a "thumbs down".

I tried containing one station by constantly nurturing it with the thumb clicks - great results! Another control station with a similar start was unleashed to graze wild - it now plays irrevocably wayward music. This transmission path reminds me of the ubiquitous phrase 'Chaos Theory' for its core idea of "sensitive dependence on initial conditions".

On Mikael: a snapshot of my desk

A text book on probability theory sits atop the Sen and Dreze omnibus on hunger, famine and poverty. If one of them has to find my favor, at this point I have a hard time choosing. On the far end of my cheap Ikea "Mikael" series desk is a forlorn OED from the late 90's. It has traveled with me from its hometown bookstore shelf in Bangalore through my Delhi years and few miles further to the dry desert dust in Tucson, Arizona. Recently did the road trip to the other coast and now in DC. A long journey for a dictionary.

Disparate flyers are strewn around the desk - metro planner, a guide to DC museums and another pamphlet 'bike n ride' exclusively for enthusiastic bikers commuting on the metro. Two ferns seek attention. At least some water.

Deirdre McCloskey urges me not to overlook my human facets in her brilliant book "How to be Human though an Economist". I let it rest. Orhan Pamuk regaled me at bedtime reading a few nights before. Now all that his "Istanbul" prose can do is beseech me and leave me with a heavy conscience for ignoring his oeuvre. Any charge of me being unfair will stand no trial. My contemporary writer Coetzee has been sitting on the near shelf waiting over four weeks with at least four of his works, unread.

Although the pack of Montecristo Cuban habanos perched on my tallest book pile is getting lighter by the day.