Coalgate

Ah the refreshing logic of our leaders. There is no loss since the coal is not mined. Coal was not auctioned in spite of ministry's own secretary advising same because there was urgent need for coal and so discretionary allotment was the only way.
Few questions:

• If need for coal was urgent than what action if any was taken on firms that left the coal inside earth saving a lot of loss that otherwise would have happened?
• If no action was taken than what action is taken against those who were supposed to take action?
• Why is it that anything non discretionary under this government takes so long even in face of urgent need it cannot cut time on the advisable course of action but the same system is brilliantly quick when doing discretionary allotments?

Schooling Kids

Historic day today with the Right to Education becoming a fundamental Right. Its a beginning that will fructify when that right also translated into quality eduction.
Why don't we begin by setting up 2 schools 1 exclusively for Schedule Tribes and 2nd exclusively for scheduled castes. Not more than 2 to begin with for reasons of funding and also as a proof of concept. Doing it for scheduled tribes and castes will also serve an additional cause of 1 blunting the invariable reservation clamor etc that is bound to ensure in any public funded scheme and more importantly will also serve to prove that the reason for backwardness is that of access to opportunities (reservations started to blunt that) And access to preparatory training (why reservations still fail and attempts to fix that by creamy layer criteria that was effectively politically neutered).
Assign 1000 crore each to these 2 schools (if that seems excessive, remember UP government spends more money on monuments - not infrastructure items named for itself but statues and concrete parks). Have the best of Global faculty - many will come to it to be a part of social cause - do not reserve faculty positions, 100% student reservation should be enough and besides foreign faculty will have no caste and hence crowd out Indian faculty should reservation in faculty be allowed.
Have a common course till at least class 8, preferably till class 10.
In place of courses like SUPW have classes in forestry, crafts etc - I assume most students at least in tribal school will come from tribal areas and we want them to go back to their families and success story and uplift the living standards back home - not become an urban migrant looking for non existent jobs.
Based on candidates aptitude and interest, allow for students to choose a vocational +2 course or continue traditional maths/science/bio/commerce/humanity courses after 8th or 10th as the case maybe. Those who do well in traditional courses can than compete for admission in top institutes and given the excellent training should be able to make it through easily.
In order to make it worthwhile for family to send kids to school which must be residential since we are talking of a single, well funded and monitored school instead of attending local school with questionable quality and then work at home/fields, give them decent scholarships - say a 1000 bucks a month which the students can send back home - in effect a scholarship for family of kids attending school. We can make this scholarship effective for only 2 kids/family if need be. This will also make it worthwhile for students and families to actually compete to stay in school.
Once we monitor this scheme for like 10 years so that we can see that a student from the most disadvantaged of family can be as good as rest we can setup more such schools. Students not very keen on traditional courses can be trained and government can then recruit them as forestry officers/guards. Those good in traditional arts can be given outlets like Delhi Haats and trade fairs to commercialize traditional arts.
Others can train as health workers and work in rural areas. In short a win all.

How does one measure poverty

Interesting that it took so long to finally junk calorie intake as the poverty estimation tool. Even if one take mere food as an indicator I wonder if the calorie intake took into account nutritional needs like proportion of protein/carbs/minerals/vitamins etc.
I think putting things like Education, access to health-care in ambit of calculating poverty is a step in right direction. After all these define your quality of life and also define in a rudimentary way the opportunities available to better the quality of life. Lack of opportunity is what will keep the poor poor and as such is as much a handicap as lack of food/shelter etc.
Its kind of sobering to think by that yardstick India is still miserably poor. I suggest we also put in place a mechanism to evaluation the effectiveness of poverty removal programs. Accordingly government agencies (and private/NGOs) can also be rated as 'good to reduce poverty, not so good etc'. Organizations that serve to reduce total poverty can be given additional incentives. Otherwise I wonder if any real poverty alleviation will happen in near future.

Hollowed Generation

It is somewhat of a wonder why India fails to win in international sports. Lot of factors are blamed from a lack of sporting culture, to politicians holding all sports bodies memberships to lack of sporting facilities to parental attitudes.
These are all valid reasons but are they all? I think it also has a lot to do with our nutritional status. Reports all over indicate that Indian kids as a majority are malnourished. And it is not just the poor classes but even middle and rich class. Its not that all kids are hungry, just that they don't eat right.
Coomi Kapoor in Indian Express makes a valid argument. Most of us simply do not know what makes a good meal. Our breakfast are typically fried parathas which while very filling are hardly what one should eat for breakfast. In place of breakfast being the most important meal it is usually dinner which ideally should be the least important meal.
This leads to a situation where 70% of kids don't get proper nutrition! So that means out of maybe 100 million kids and youth there might be in India, its only 30 million who are eating well. So in sports we are a nation of maybe only 30 million population which no sporting culture. No wonder.

Musings on a trip to a religious place

Its amazing the amount of violence devotees happily inflict on other devotees pushing and punching, jumping over ropes delaying those who actually wait in queue to get a darshan of someone who preached love and devotion!

PS: Those planning to go to Shirdi from Pune, the most convenient route is to follow the Yerwada road (if coming from Boatclub, get down the bridge and take a right. Just follow the route keeping always on left till Ahmednagar and there ask for directions to Shirdi.

State of Hindi Publications and What can We do About It.

I often keep searching for Hindi magazines to read. As it happens Pune does not really have good outlets keeping Hindi books barring the occasional Premchand, lot less magazines. So the only option is to search online. I came across this very well written piece that talked about the current state of Hindi Publishing.
It is indeed sad. I remember the time I was still a middle school boy, there were Dharmayug and Saptahik Hindustan that carried great pieces in Hindi. Alas both folded up. I was surprised to read that Dharmayug was printing over 4 lakh copies a month during those days. It was a pity that the very rich Times of India group and Hindustan Times group could not manage to keep these two periodicals running.
Most of the few remaining Hindi journals have an monthly print of 5000 copies or less. Its sad to see that Hindi state governments can spent crores every years in erecting statues and like but cannot spend a couple of crores in subscribing to these magazines that preserve a whole culture and provide for intellectual dynamism of the masses.
This is one thing that I admire about Maharashtrians (its also there is south from what i hear but I know about Maharashtra since I now live here). Average educated Marathi takes a lot of pride in sustaining the Marathi cultural pursuits like literature and theater etc. And its not just some notion of philanthropy that makes them pay money. The fact is that people genuinely enjoy the local art forms.
Hindi heartland probably suffers for its poverty. The big towns has its literary minded citizens reading English. and the small towns probably find the whole trouble to getting writers to contribute, print and distribute a quality magazine too expensive for its general public. I think there is also a lack of certain awareness. I and many of my friends would love to read Hindi magazines of literary kind. And I do spend money buying books so yes given a quality periodical, I would buy it. Same would go for so many of people like me, people in cities like Pune. Bombay, Bangalore, Hyderabad, California and New York.
There is a surprising lack of online presence of these magazine. This especially comes in way of expats, a lot of whom feel nostalgic about the literature and culture back home. An online - subscription and/or ad based magazine I am sure will find takers. We already have Hindi Newspapers seeing very healthy circulation. So a large group like HT or TOI should find restarting a web based Hindi magazine maybe chump change.
There are I am sure lots of writers who still write in local languages. If these online periodicals start accepting stories online getting submissions may not be tough. There could even be some sort of a view + ratings based system where all submissions are up for view and those that cross a viewership/rating threshold gets money proportional to the number of views. To get around the usual moronic vandalism that happens on online sites, maybe a submitter needs to open an account with the site for say INR100/- so only serious authors get online and INR100/- is so low that any author will be able to sign up.
Similarly deals can be made with corporates to buy a few copies for reception areas, schools for libraries. Language schools teaching Hindi could be another target demographics. In short I think embracing new technologies, newer channels of distribution should easily allow for another 50000 a month copies for a quality journal. Even at that tiny volume, a small profit can be made.
Another idea could be that some of these magazines can even double up as literary agents. Yes there can be certain amount of discomfort with this idea but maybe a separate marketing function can take care of it. So a magazine can hook up with say a TV producer so serialize a story or have a story and episode kind of format. Both the existing publisher and the author can share the royalties from it.
Lets see if any of this is realized. Who knows one day if I have some money I might start some venture of my own. After all dead of a language is too painful to be allowed.

Olympic torch in India and Tibet protests

India does have a delicate balancing act in the whole Tibetan - China issue that is right now taking the world's center stage. While justice demands that we strongly oppose the cultural annihilation of Tibet being conducted by China, real politic demands that the government conducts itself with India's best interest in mind and not being guided by emotions.
That said as a genuine democracy India must not repress any peaceful protest against China or the Olympic torch. Democracy as the most participative of the current political systems needs to emerge a winner here. So all the security and all being planned for the torch relay into India is fine, let no harm come to the torch that is a symbol of human athletic achievements.
At the same time nothing should stop us from letting peaceful protests happen in background. What is the harm is allowing black armbands? Or people staging plays depicting the concern in the backdrop of a torch and our TV covering it? Will China like it? Of course not. But so long as the torch is not harmed we must be firm. No one respects a lap dog, a lesson many of our senior politicians and powers to be will do well to realize. Yes China will fret and fume and that is their right. And it is our right to show how a competent democracy works and how people are free to do their will in India so long as they do it peacefully,.
China will respect a confident India and not a groveling India.

Equal society or Tyranny of the Clique?

Judging from what the fine intelligent patriotic intellectuals in our left politics (and across the globe) say about communism being the best politico-economics system that really fosters equality and liberates mankind from tyranny, I wonder why all communist countries so heavily repress their own people?
And to those who counter this by saying that no they don't its merely the pro capitalist media that spreads disinformation I'll ask if that is true why do countries like China have so much state control over media, do not allow foreign journalists (or human rights workers since journalists apparently are all rabidly pro-capitalist) to freely interact with people?
Why are communication channels so heavily controlled (China has a state firewall that actively screens content)? If all are so equal why do only communist party members have only real power in such countries?

God - a mathematical equation?

Just stumbled on Shiva's cosmic dance statue at CERN . An eloquent term that captures the mood of religion and science. While most religions have degenerated into a thought of clash with science, at a deeper philosophical level, spirituality is one of the paths to searching for truth, science in another. Alas religion is often a matter of faith that precludes a rational analysis.
The most ancient Indian/Hindu philosophy text "Rig Veda" has a "Creation Hymn (Nāsadīya)" a rather powerful deliberation on God. You can read the translated hymn on boloji.com; and read more at Google books searching for "The Rig Veda: An Anthology : One Hundred and Eight Hymns".
The essence of it, if we take a somewhat literal meaning is a question of what/Who was before everything was created? There was no mind nor matter, no life nor death. Then something triggered it all and we do not know what. Lets worship as the (unnamed) God (that created it). Extremely powerful concept.
Modern physics is hovering around to theories that among others talk about how particles and antiparticles were created from nothingness. Time begins with creation. Similarly there are branches of Quantum theory that layout mathematical models to explain the birth of Universe. (read Physorg.com). Geneticists are talking of creating life from fabricated organic molecules someday (read at Harvard.edu).
If such a physical model exists that can explain how thing created out of nothing and then particles interacted in ways leading finally to life. Such a model might even explain how the matter and antimatter may one day combine and again end in nothing. And the cycle continues. Then such a model with its equation(s) be worth worshiping.

Will God in the end, turn out to be a mathematical equation?

Getting books to pupil

Recently watched a debate on CNN-IBN about effectiveness of government programs on the state of social sector in India. In the midst of all the usual politicians calling for caste based quotas in private sector, Industry complaining about governmental restrictions, government quoting %age increases in budget as proof of progress came something that I think is one step that can actually help
Sunil Mittal of Bharti was mentioning that his firm is opening 200000 schools across India in mostly villages. While our SUV riding poor politicians might claim otherwise the fact is that most of the caste related distinctions are real issues in villages where group have to fight for meager resources. What can lift people out of the misery called villages is good educations and as survey after surveys indicate, government schools are simply not delivering.
If private firms can ensure that they have quality schools at village levels we can see that in another 10 years a lot more trained talent is available to industry. Agriculture simply cannot provide living to 60% of our billion strong population so this is an urgent demand of times. What can put a spanner is if government insists on quotas in teacher recruitments. If the argument of quota demanding segment is correct that the lower castes are not getting education because of bias or whatever we evidently cannot have enough trained teachers from the disadvantaged sections (if we don't have students from those sections how will we have teachers? ).
So if we don't get so shortsighted to put such spanners I can see maybe a million schools opening that provide quality education where the real disadvantaged sections of population lives and is denied opportunities. Modern education will not only provide job skills but can transform attitudes. I suggest the government gives incentives to industry to set up such schools. Something like if you spend 5% of your income to setup and operate schools you can deduct 5% from your taxes. Since the government will have to spend money on schools anyway and money comes from taxes, such an arrangement will not lead to any net revenue loss in long term. However what will happen is that instead of government directly running schools where as per an earlier PM's own admission only a meager portion of actual spend reaches the intended poor, the private sector can be held to a lot more stringent criteria.
Let their be a committee of educationists/NGOs/private sector participants who can evaluate the schools as some sort of a board. Only those schools which pass a certain level of quality accredition can claim tax exemption. Industry will have a stake in ensuring that the output of schools is good because we do have a severe talent crunch. The courses can be more vocational which should work for a large majority of rural families.
Its only by such direct action that we can achieve our potential. Let the work begin.

Language as a Weapon

Language as a weapon? of mass subjugation? Language is one of the crowing glory of human kind. A unifying force for communities, it also is one of the more divisive factors in our cultural life. Look at the French - English rivalry. or closer home the hostility to Hindi in south? Why does mere choice of language strike such emotional chords? Maybe it has to do with language being the ultimate symbol of cultural heritage. Where language is not merely the communication tool for cultural ideas, it IS a cultural expression itself.

Language serves to stratify societies. Listen to Prof Higgins expostulate the same in "My Fair Lady". Or more recent times read 1984. An interesting idea there. When we think, we think in a language. So What if certain words (symbolic of ideas) are simply not there in a language? What if state ( or society) prevents us from introducing such ideas in language terms. Will over a period of time we see a gradual withering of such ideas?

Forms of language serve to differentiate people. English court had French as the official language for quite a while. Mughal Durbar in Delhi had Persian as the court language for long. It took an Amir Khusro to evolve Urdu - a mix of Persian and Hindustani (the language of the masses) to bridge the gap. Hindi Channels today strive to maintain the Allahabadi Hindi as the standard bearer. It took an AajTak to popularize a much more eastern Bihari style to Hindi to differentiate itself from the traditional elites and posture itself as a channel for the masses. So its obvious that linguistic abilities can serve to stratify societies even where the language is otherwise common.

Jacques Derrida in his theory of Deconstruction mentions how language is a barrier to communication. When communicating through words we are slowing our thoughts down to the flow of the words. Mind which is so much more capable of faster action is essentially slowing down. Hence language itself is sometimes problematic. If we extend the same to inner thoughts - While we may not be saying anything, is the mind slowing down while thinking because we 'think' in a language. Will thinking in way devoid of language be much faster?

Friends...

Why do we so often take friends for granted? Often so times I have observed that friends ask us to do something and we refuse - sorry no time, nah not mood. Basically we can tell them what we really feel like.
On the other hand same kind of questions coming from say colleagues, casual acquaintances, bosses, seniors and we play along, sometimes even enjoy doing it.
So which is right? Being true to self and denying friends the company while maybe being polite and letting those we do not care about that deeply have the company? I would expect that close friends should by definition get more of us than the rest. But does it always happen in real life?
We also use close friends to steam off. Poor folks who care enough to suffer us in all moods are those who actually bear the brunt of our ill humor while the acquaintances merely get a coldish shrug.
I wonder if we haven't got it all wrong? Shouldn't the ones we love be the ones we always give the happiest us and the enemies get to bear the steam?

Army:Talent:Pension

I once read - I think it was in the Art of War by Sun Tzu- that it takes a 100 villagers to support 1 army man in war. Our armed forces are in similar quandary. The money just can't keep up with expenses. Most of the money goes in supporting salaries and pensions leaving rather little for modernization. There is already a lot of debate on how much money is wasted in hiring people for non essential jobs and unoptimized logistics operations.
In other news corporate India is facing a talent crunch because well most of our university graduates are unemployable the univs being nothing more than mugging shops and rather terrible ones at that too. So there is this line of thought that says that since most soldiers and junior officers retire rather early why not train em to take up jobs in corporate sector. They already have plenty useful skills in some areas, train em in some more functional stuff and there you have ready material to fuel our economic engines.
The idea does have its merits. While its true that many of these guys our in their 30s and 40s (thing soldiers and JCOs) and corporate are seem to prefer young blood; it should work because these folks after a life of moving about may actually be interested in a stable life and may therefore stick with the same firm on a longer term.
What i want to talk about is how it can benefit the army. As we already know that getting people to join army is becoming tough. This is more true for senior officers but the argument I hold for soldiers hold for senior positions also. One many of the army recruits come from poor families. Unless you are brilliant, chances of making it to top institutes (or sports team or whatever) is rather remote. If they don't join army and go for corporate sector as workers chances of their being employable is remote. On the other hand army gives them a great lifestyle for a while and then when u settle down, a nice decent job with training done on maybe govt or corporate+govt money. But then maybe if they managed to join someplace as a worker which trains them and pays them peanuts for years because well they started useless 15-20 years is a long time to catch up.
What the army needs to do is 2 fold. It can actually train the soldier in skill, over years, that may have required maybe a few years in various schools. Then army has canteens and pension and the glamour of its lifestyle. What can really sweeten the deal for the army is that if it says that ok we'll train u well. In return if you start earning maybe say 20k per month in corporate I do not pay u pension. If if income falls below certain limit I start paying pension. If the payout is such that soldier gets partial pension depending on how much is the total earnings and pension reduces as a proportion to the outside earnings which is not linear. Since there is a guarantee that the pension is not stopped permanently, only till the soldier can earn more. And my reducing proportionally those who can work outside will make more money by taking up jobs as opposed to those who decide to live on pension only. This will reduce army's wage bill.
By tying up with corporates for trainings army can reduce its training costs too. Corporate sector can prepare targeted trainings. Army bears the salary bill while the soldier trains and corporate bears the training preparation and may administrating costs. Again a win win.

Gandhigiri?

We are choosing a new Il Presidente! Congress pulled out some obscure entity to become one. As it turns out the candidate has some financial irregularity charges leveled against her. Opposition is planning to make that an issue.
My suggestion - since when politicians bothered about mere frivolities like corruption being a disqualification? Dudes in opposition, nothing will come of it. if you want to fight, throws sins of public life like - morally upright, independent thinker, idealist. Now THAT will scare the politicos. No one wants someone who is independent, incorruptible, upright in any position of power. That might seal her fate.

Good Idea, wrong context

Pune recently introduced a Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Apparently a technical committee of IIT professors and similar ilk recommended this over train/tram systems. On the face of it, its a good idea. dedicated tracks for high speed buses.
I think the solution suffers from 2 major shortcomings. One the existing roads are narrow and reserving two lanes for buses reduced the width of the rest of the road a lot. Then the BRT lanes at times criss cross with normal lanes leading to weird sorts of stops. Second is something more Pune and India specific.
What this technical solution completely misses is the human element. BRT buses can only be rapid if the drivers can safely speed. In India in general and Pune in particular, chances are that someone will come in the way unexpectedly. Look at some of my other posts on this. This is a city where while the traffic is moving in response to a valid green light, vehicles from red light facing lanes cut into it expecting the vehicles with valid signal to yield instead. Then there are the bus passengers.
On the way to work, the stretch in Hadapsar (locality) BRT got introduced today leading to all sorts of Jams (its supposed to solve jams by the way). 3 lanes suddenly have to collapse in 2. It did collapse because traffic cops were enforcing it. I am sure the day cops are not there, the BRT lanes will have all sorts of vehicles on it.
Then we had bus passengers coming out of bus. Now they want to come to the normal lanes and go shopping or whatever they want to do. So every 5 seconds someone happily crosses over in front of the oncoming traffic. Some of them realize that they lost a loved one back in BRT stop so immediately go back again cutting across traffic, retrieve the dude or the dudette and cut back again leading to utter chaos. Lets face it, we Indians simply do not have traffic sense and in their defence, there is no safe way to come to the other side of the road from the BRT stop that is in the middle of the road because their is no subway not a bridge to do so.
There is a lesson here. Mere technical suitability is not enough. You have to match the solution to the people too.

Improving Infrastructure

The monsoon season is here again. Mumbai has had painful experiences of infrastructure crumbling at the first sign of rains. There were lots of promises, lots of money spent but as people have come to expect, nothing has improved.
My own take is that while we do not have enough money to spend on infrastructure, what we do spend is also wasted by misplaced priorities, vested interests, apathy, incompetence and corruption. The real sufferers are the citizens. So I've been thinking. Why do we pay taxes? So that government can spend money on common good right? Now making infrastructure upto mark is a common good.
Here is my take, instead of paying taxes that still do not serve the purpose, why not create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) that reports to a high body (not necessarily made up of politicians, lets face it, no one trusts them to do the right thing). The body can float bonds that companies and individuals can subscribe to. The amount you subscribe is deducted from the taxes that you have to pay through some formula so that the whole amount is deducted over say 10 years.
This SPV will be a listed company like any other with full oversight by regulators and all. The SPV can now create storm drains, improve roads etc. Being a listed company, it cannot get away with corruption, shoddy job and all. The infrastructure created is operated on Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis for say whichever is the number of years your tax bonds work for.
By taking the power of spending money as per whim, this will ensure that a designated part of the tax actually works for what its supposed to work for. Since owners (companies+individuals) are those who loose money / life because of lack of infrastructure they will do a good job of it. Win Win

Fruits of Technology

I have often heard leading lights protest about technology being anti poor and so on. Recently on Discovery channel was this pretty anti-globalisation activist in Bangalore criticizing globalisation as anti human for the rich. Now once a while there is a loose-loose for poor because of "progress" i think over all the benefits outweigh the risks.
There is a story how Mr Sukhram- a ex telecom minister who had wads of cash discovered in his house by a police agency still won his elections. His singular contribution - he put up PCOs in every nook and corner of Himachal Pradesh. Apple farmers could call up buyers and fix prices and sell produce. While he may have been corrupt (or not, don't know if court has decided the matter one way or another) what mattered to the farmers is that their incomes increased.
The Economist has this story about fishermen in Kerala who use mobile phones to figure out where are the buyers and directly go there. Fish is a perishable commodity so in case of a good catch by many prices fall and hence a lot of stock had to be dumped. Not any more, fisherman can locate a buyer upfront and directly deliver there, problem solved.
Similarly ITC has put echoupal (choupal refers to Village meeting ground) where farmers can log in and check crop prices across market and directly deliver. Without this, they just have to hit across a market and hope they'll get good prices. Transport costs ensure that you have to get it right the first time. The only people who benefited earlier were the agents who would buy cheap because the producer could not take away the produce to another market after getting it to one for costs reasons. They could store and later sell higher.
Interestingly its the much maligned private sector that has lead these initiatives.
There are many such cases. Broadband can get masses access to world very cheap. Farmers eg can read about weather forecasts in their area as well as competing regions and decide on what to sow. Small producers can look up consumers. Artists can showcase their catalog, resturants can advertise food festivals, the list is endless. Technology empowers the masses. Often the proponents of politics of poverty get anti technology. This harms the poor (and helps the proponent), Whats the point of preserving excess manpower in say a textile firm when the competitor in China has half the workforce and twice the machines. We will simply stop getting orders, govt will subsidize a while and finally the whole nation will get broke and collapse. We almost had that situation in early 90s. Sometimes I wonder if actually the left has a hidden agenda to ensure India cannot compete with China?
Its not just the left though. The opposition to technology is widespread. Some out of ignorance, some out of malice. Ruling classes don't want the great unwashed to be empowered because than they expect results. Capitalists sometimes don't want to invest in costly upgrades, especially if there is a government willing to subsidize. Have a look at our fertilizer subsidies and many PSUs for examples.
But I have hope. TV is now so universally available, and it makes an impact. Not just the news items and such shows but even the soap operas impact the masses in many ways. It creates an aspirational culture and it introduces a world view in masses. Internet is getting ubiquitous and that brings unprecedented amount of unfettered information. Sooner or later masses will get on the bandwagon and discover the opportunities.
I just hope it comes within my lifetime.

Resuscitation or Resurrection?

Medicine sure keeps doing interesting turnabouts. Which is always a good reminder to the best of us that what we may know for a fact today may be thoroughly debunked tomorrow. I always hear that if someone is deprived of oxygen for a short while, the lack of oxygen will kill within a few minutes. Now the latest research shows that in fact its not the lack of oxygen that kills. It is the re-introduction of oxygen which is more lethal!
So what does this mean? If someone is just fished out of the pool, should I not try and revive? Is it better to put a bag on head? No No I won't say all that. What I make out from the article is that maybe the technique for CPR will now change a bit.
Advancements in medicine are terrific. Imagine someone being clinically and brain dead and still be revived. brain dead does not mean all the cells are dead. So the whole notion of life and dead is getting changed. These also raises moral questions about the whole when do we consider someone dead.
Another interesting fallout of this whole treating the dead could be in spiritual terms. I personally believe that the concept of God (true or just a concept is not what I am implying) must have started when humans must have tried to understand death and failed. Its comforting to know that there is a God and a loved one doesn't really cease to exists at death. Thats my belief.
Now if medicine end up reviving someone dead and dead is a very comprehensive way but maybe not at cellular level where does that lead us? Does medicine and its practitioners become the new objects of Godhood? Or does science becomes so? How will religions try and reconcile to the whole idea?
Its an interesting chain of thought. Spirituality, the long source for explanations when in doubt, may end up searching for newer answers.

Prescience or Pattern recognition?

Recently finished reading the God Emperor of Dune. An interesting idea of a God emperor. Why a God? Leto II has collective memories of his ancestors. Also a startling measure of prescience. Will a startling degree of prescience project an image akin to God on rest?
Somewhere I read (It might be Sherlock Holmes stories or one of the countless other books I keep getting into) that future is essentially a combination of events already happened. In the sense that our collective memories should throw enough patterns that most of future events can be said to have been following one or the other pattern.
So then will someone who has immense collective memory, processing large enough to see patterns and draw projections based on similar patterns in past, achieve a degree of prescience also? Now I ain't saying that its the plot of the book. Just another thought that should such a trait occur, will we be considering the entity as someone in God mode.
Its unlikely that a human brain will achieve that kind of recall and processing, but some quantumesque computer sometime in future may. While maybe not creating events in physical world, such an entity may be able to very accurately forecast a lot of future events. All it will need is some acts and derive the patterns. Will it be a passive God to some or many?

Musings

Ever wonder we teach our kids in school - Napolean's campaigns in Europe, Mayan civilization, Calculas, Newtonian mechanics, predicting reactions of H2SO4, calyx and corolla, Tuglaq...
What we do not teach kids in school - how to drive safely in school, how to change an electric fuse, how to test for adulteration in milk, how to get rid of pesticide in vegetables by washing, how to prevent abuse, how to identify genuine currency...



Kids end up learning all of whats taught in school and lot more data in coaching/tuitions.
Kids never end up learning the surviving skills not by teaching/not by self analysis.
Mayday?

Updated 16Nov2007. Apparently the officialdom has finally realized that school education can serve some purpose in making life better. They are planning to teach good road habits in school now.