everyone...?! Here is a related question. Have you ever been in a position where you have to make decisions for or on behalf of others? Here is an explanation.
'Leading' is making decisions.
Making decisions is choosing between difference choices.
Choosing is rejecting some choices.
Rejection affect people who stand to gain from those choices.
People who lose by your decision usually don't like you! :-)
In an ideal world where everyone is equally smart and appreciate the rational behind decision making, everyone will like everyone else in spite of any loss to their income, prestige, fame, etc. Our world is far from ideal.
So if you are a leader, not everyone likes you. That is guaranteed.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Monday, May 24, 2010
Eating with hands!
Eating with hands is somewhat uniquely Indian. While people around the world invented tools like spoons, forks, chop sticks, etc, we are comfortable eating with our hands. What's up with that? We are bunch of smart people why didn't we invent a tool? We do use different types of spoons for cooking. So why not one for eating?
Last winter I realized an answer to this question. Even if the food is served hot in the plate, when the temperature outside is freezing, very quickly the food becomes cold. If you eat with your fingers in the freezing cold weather, you fingers start to hurt by the time you finish eating! It is pretty uncomfortable. Cold food in mouth goes down without much discomfort. But touching the cold food is not a comfortable feeling. So if you can pick up the food with a tool and drop it in your mouth, that serves as a comfortable meal. In India, we are used to warm weather all around the year. If the food is hot, let it cool for a few minutes and you can pick it up comfortably with your hands to feed yourself. So there is no need to invent a tool!
Incidentally, we have food like Dosa that is difficult to eat with a standard tool like spoon or fork, especially if it is crispy. Either we have to invent a Dosa eating tool or make bite size Dosas just like mini idlies.
People eat sandwiches here with their hands. So it is not completely an alien behavior. The thing that beats me is why the fast food sandwiches are so big that it never fits in your mouth. Eating a sandwich is a scene. You have to wide open your mouth to take a bite. Restaurants boost showing their sandwiches with a huge stack of stuff layered with some bread or bun on the outside. If I am going to pick up loosely assembled stuff to eat, I would rather pick up a bite size sandwich piece and eat it at once. Oh well.... perhaps we need to modernize our food and eating tools...?! :-)
Last winter I realized an answer to this question. Even if the food is served hot in the plate, when the temperature outside is freezing, very quickly the food becomes cold. If you eat with your fingers in the freezing cold weather, you fingers start to hurt by the time you finish eating! It is pretty uncomfortable. Cold food in mouth goes down without much discomfort. But touching the cold food is not a comfortable feeling. So if you can pick up the food with a tool and drop it in your mouth, that serves as a comfortable meal. In India, we are used to warm weather all around the year. If the food is hot, let it cool for a few minutes and you can pick it up comfortably with your hands to feed yourself. So there is no need to invent a tool!
Incidentally, we have food like Dosa that is difficult to eat with a standard tool like spoon or fork, especially if it is crispy. Either we have to invent a Dosa eating tool or make bite size Dosas just like mini idlies.
People eat sandwiches here with their hands. So it is not completely an alien behavior. The thing that beats me is why the fast food sandwiches are so big that it never fits in your mouth. Eating a sandwich is a scene. You have to wide open your mouth to take a bite. Restaurants boost showing their sandwiches with a huge stack of stuff layered with some bread or bun on the outside. If I am going to pick up loosely assembled stuff to eat, I would rather pick up a bite size sandwich piece and eat it at once. Oh well.... perhaps we need to modernize our food and eating tools...?! :-)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Wisdom and Instinct
The good and bad in life are not black and white as in the movies. They are shades of grey. It is only after the fact, well into the future, you realize if something turned out good or bad. Randomness influences life in a big way. So conventional wisdom is subjective and sometimes one has to completely ignore it. Here are few examples of how some famous people ignored their stumbling blocks and got ahead to make history simply by following their instincts.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Fascinating Facts - The floating Earth
As you may know, Einstein's general theory of relativity completely changed the way we think about space and time. Instead of objects sitting in space as time tics and tocs, objects distort and interact with space and time together. The theory predicts that earth, stars and other galactic objects bend the space around them.
NASA’s Gravity Probe B satellite proved the theory's predictions.
http://einstein.stanford.edu/SPACETIME/spacetime4.html Don't miss the great video explanations on the link.
NASA’s Gravity Probe B satellite proved the theory's predictions.
http://einstein.stanford.edu/SPACETIME/spacetime4.html Don't miss the great video explanations on the link.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Leaf blower cleans dryer vent
If you understand the title, skip to the second paragraph of this article. Unlike in India where there is abundant sun throughout the year to dry washed cloths outdoor, in the North East United States indoor cloth drying equipments are a necessity. Washing machines and dryers are standard equipments in every household. Natural gas or electricity is used as heating source for the dryers. Hot air is blown in a chamber where wet cloths spin. The air absorbs moisture in the cloths and leave out of the equipment and the house through an exhaust pipe. Duct work to let the hot air exit out of the building is part of standard plumbing. When clothes dry at high temperature most fabrics leave behind fluffy cotton lint in the dryer and the exhaust vent. One of the leading causes of house fire in the U.S is the fire caused by overheated dryer vents.
Recently, I was reminded of a house fire of a colleague because of clogged dryer vent. It was time to cleanup the dryer vent since I haven't done that ever. There are ton of products out there that are meant to clean the dryer vents. I picked up one of those and found it was pretty inefficient. Brush attached to a long flexible cord goes hardly two feet inside the vent. Beyond that it is impossible to push the brush since there is no strong hold and the cord bends instead of pushing the brush inside the vent. Then I tried using the vacuum cleaner. Again I could clean up about two feet on both ends of the vent, but much of the lint is in the middle around the bend of the vent, I could see it with a flash light. After much frustration, I was about to give up.
In a flash of thought, it occurred to me to try using my leaf blower from one end. Viola! That worked like magic
The blower pushes the lint in the vent from one end and moves it out through the other leaving the vent nice and clean. The job was well done in few seconds. Not knowing how efficient this will be I ended up having to vacuum the inside of the house near the dryer where the dirt piled up. Next time I am planning to tie a plastic bag or something on the dryer end of the vent to reduce the mess. Or perhaps I should try blowing air from the dryer end.
Well, turns out Leaf blowers are much more powerful compared to the dryer fans. Long time back I learned that with the right tools, any work can get done with much less effort and incredibly well. Apparently, sometimes we have to find the right tool ourselves.
Recently, I was reminded of a house fire of a colleague because of clogged dryer vent. It was time to cleanup the dryer vent since I haven't done that ever. There are ton of products out there that are meant to clean the dryer vents. I picked up one of those and found it was pretty inefficient. Brush attached to a long flexible cord goes hardly two feet inside the vent. Beyond that it is impossible to push the brush since there is no strong hold and the cord bends instead of pushing the brush inside the vent. Then I tried using the vacuum cleaner. Again I could clean up about two feet on both ends of the vent, but much of the lint is in the middle around the bend of the vent, I could see it with a flash light. After much frustration, I was about to give up.
In a flash of thought, it occurred to me to try using my leaf blower from one end. Viola! That worked like magic
Well, turns out Leaf blowers are much more powerful compared to the dryer fans. Long time back I learned that with the right tools, any work can get done with much less effort and incredibly well. Apparently, sometimes we have to find the right tool ourselves.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Winter and Ear Infection
Right from the childhood I have suffered from ear infections during winter. Had my tonsils removed long ago. Yet, I had to suffer through every winter at least once, sometimes more than once when the temperature remains below comfortable level. I have knocked the doors of many a specialists, internal medicine, ENT, family practice, etc. Once an ENT specialist wanted to eliminate the possibility of a tumor growth inside nostrils and subjected me to a thin tube insertion with camera and light on one end to look inside. Nothing came up out of norm. One treatment option went like this. We should put a hole in the ear drum and fix a pipe to drain the fluid that builds up around your sinus during cold temperature. This tube will be a permanent artificial fixture inside the head and prevent ear infections! Well, I wasn't sure I wanted to go for that. An internal medicine doc prescribed a nasal spray that you point in an oblique angle inside the nose and spray twice a day. A side effect of that was that it makes you addictive to using it for ever. Other than that I didn't see it work at all. And the worst of all, every time I suffered from the ear infection, I had to be on one full dose of Antibiotics that ran for 30 days a course. That means, for more than half of winter every year I was on antibiotics! The antibiotic is not a preventive medicine; it did not reduce the pain, it just helped prevent further infection, I guess. So, this gave me one more reason to hate winters!
Early this winter, I was at a local Target (a supermarket chain) and spotted a ear muffler. It looks something like the figure shown.
Every time I went out, I wore the muff. It worked like magic! Apparently, my body is sensitive to cold air getting inside the ear canal and reacts by pushing the ear drum from inside. The pressure develops into prolonged pain, redness in the inner ear and thus infection. As soon as the ear muff blocked cold air from getting inside the ear canal, it relieved me of my long lasting problem! What a simple world, that we complicate by over thinking. For the first time in many winters, I am free of ear infections this year and it happened just by pure luck! I am so thankful I found this little contraption that has improved my quality of life tremendously.
Early this winter, I was at a local Target (a supermarket chain) and spotted a ear muffler. It looks something like the figure shown.
Every time I went out, I wore the muff. It worked like magic! Apparently, my body is sensitive to cold air getting inside the ear canal and reacts by pushing the ear drum from inside. The pressure develops into prolonged pain, redness in the inner ear and thus infection. As soon as the ear muff blocked cold air from getting inside the ear canal, it relieved me of my long lasting problem! What a simple world, that we complicate by over thinking. For the first time in many winters, I am free of ear infections this year and it happened just by pure luck! I am so thankful I found this little contraption that has improved my quality of life tremendously.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Science, Engineering and Technology
Simple minded message
Science can be viewed as a self-correcting process of observation, hypothesis, and test.
whereas
Engineering can be viewed as a self-correcting process of observation, design and test.
while
Technology can be viewed as the wherewithal or state of the art produced by the practice of science and engineering.
- Abstract from A Discourse on Winning and Losing by John Boyd.
Science can be viewed as a self-correcting process of observation, hypothesis, and test.
whereas
Engineering can be viewed as a self-correcting process of observation, design and test.
while
Technology can be viewed as the wherewithal or state of the art produced by the practice of science and engineering.
- Abstract from A Discourse on Winning and Losing by John Boyd.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Can death be treated?
Can we treat someone out of death? Granted we don't know when the moment comes. But when an individual is old, lived a full dignified, happy life, laboring in the last moment of life, should the individual be "treated" with ventilator, dialysis, blood transfusion, CT Scans, heavy dose of medications, etc.? The cardiologists, the neurologists, the nephrologists and other specialists give their expert opinion on the condition of the individual body part heart, brain, kidney etc., Life inside is fighting back to make an exit..Unfortunately this situation is not unique to our honorable leader Mr. Jyothi Basu who is in his death bed right now.
A Doctor comments the following on the condition of Mr. Jyothi Basu in The Times of India forum.
"He is 96 years old. The life expectancy of someone born in India in 1914 would have been less than half of that, and almost 100 years later, most Indians (and most humans) don't live that long. While the media is reporting all the "heroic" efforts the doctors are making, and all the technology they are throwing at a frail elderly man, nobody seems to care to ask if he would have approved of his body being put through all this invasion and indignity. He has multiorgan failure over age related decline in organ function. An elderly person in this condition is unlikely to recover his previous cognitive and functional status. Isn't it time to allow natural death?"
With the help of modern medicine, we take extraordinary measures to prolong life at all costs. Our hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have made death invisible even to the closest family members. The patient almost always has no say on how they want to pass. As a culture, we are growing ignorant of letting go our near and dear gracefully and with dignity.
Tamil poet கவிப்பேரரசு வைரமுத்து (Vairamuthu) in his collection of poems "இந்த பூக்கள் விற்பனைக்கு அல்ல" writes as follows in the poem "வேண்டுவன"
"...
கடைசிவரை
சுயமாய் நீர் கழிக்கும் சுகம்
உறக்கத்தில் உயிர் பிரியும் வரம்"
(The wants - Being able to urinate without aid; to die in sleep)
Even if one is not lucky to pass while asleep, wouldn't it be wonderful if one remains conscious, meets with all loved ones to say that they love them and they forgive them, labor through the dying process, just as it happens during birth and finally depart?! Wouldn't it bring a sense of closure on a life, not only to those who die, but also to those who live to remember them? Is there is a better way to end a great journey of life? Should a life go in the dark, alone, unconscious and surrounded by strangers? I have seen one too many to go the same route. Now we see the drama being played out in the media for Mr. Jyothi Basu. May him rest in peace when the time comes. India will miss a great leader of the people.
A Doctor comments the following on the condition of Mr. Jyothi Basu in The Times of India forum.
"He is 96 years old. The life expectancy of someone born in India in 1914 would have been less than half of that, and almost 100 years later, most Indians (and most humans) don't live that long. While the media is reporting all the "heroic" efforts the doctors are making, and all the technology they are throwing at a frail elderly man, nobody seems to care to ask if he would have approved of his body being put through all this invasion and indignity. He has multiorgan failure over age related decline in organ function. An elderly person in this condition is unlikely to recover his previous cognitive and functional status. Isn't it time to allow natural death?"
With the help of modern medicine, we take extraordinary measures to prolong life at all costs. Our hospital Intensive Care Units (ICUs) have made death invisible even to the closest family members. The patient almost always has no say on how they want to pass. As a culture, we are growing ignorant of letting go our near and dear gracefully and with dignity.
Tamil poet கவிப்பேரரசு வைரமுத்து (Vairamuthu) in his collection of poems "இந்த பூக்கள் விற்பனைக்கு அல்ல" writes as follows in the poem "வேண்டுவன"
"...
கடைசிவரை
சுயமாய் நீர் கழிக்கும் சுகம்
உறக்கத்தில் உயிர் பிரியும் வரம்"
(The wants - Being able to urinate without aid; to die in sleep)
Even if one is not lucky to pass while asleep, wouldn't it be wonderful if one remains conscious, meets with all loved ones to say that they love them and they forgive them, labor through the dying process, just as it happens during birth and finally depart?! Wouldn't it bring a sense of closure on a life, not only to those who die, but also to those who live to remember them? Is there is a better way to end a great journey of life? Should a life go in the dark, alone, unconscious and surrounded by strangers? I have seen one too many to go the same route. Now we see the drama being played out in the media for Mr. Jyothi Basu. May him rest in peace when the time comes. India will miss a great leader of the people.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Friday, January 01, 2010
Decibels and Octaves
Happy New Year everyone. It has been a while since I blogged last. Sometime back I started learning Piano. That was my first introduction to world of music - theory and composition. As you may know already, a Piano has several white keys with black keys spread between them. The arrangement has a repetitive symmetry to it, even a casual observer would notice. Little did I know that there were fundamentally just 12 keys - 7 white and 5 black - collectively called as an 'octave' and this set is 'kinda' repeated over and over throughout the piano. Not quite repeated, but a key in one octave will emit a sound of frequency exactly twice as that of the corresponding key in the previous octave. And as for the relationship between keys within the same octave - it is quite simple - since you do not want an abrupt transition when you go from one octave to another, the 2nd key in an octave has a frequency (f2), that is the frequency of the 1st key (f1) multiplied by 12th root of 2. i.e. f2 = f1*(2^-12). This is so that automatically when we reach the first key of the next octave, which can be referred to as (f13), we have f13 = f1*(2^-12)^12 = f1*2 - Thus 1st key of next octave has frequency twice as much as that of the 1st key of this octave - therefore no abrupt transitions in frequency and at the same time an octave is doubled in frequency as it is repeated over.
Since the intention of this blog is not to give you a lesson in music, let me get to the point. When I first heard the term 'octave' while learning Piano, I didn't think about it too much - but it did ring bells in my subconscious mind. One day I was working at my office dealing with a measurement which used log2. When I was comparing one value with another one, I was writing down in my record book, "2nd measurement is one octave higher than the 1st one" - oops, 'octave'!! Now I remembered - in engineering like we use 'decibels' as units when we refer to a log10 value, we use 'octaves' when we use log2. The etymology of 'decibel' is known - it is from Graham Bell, an unit often used to measure sound as Graham Bell invented the sound device of telephone. But in college I always wondered where 'octave' came from - because what has log'2' in common with number 8 ('oct'ave)? Well it is all clear new - every '8'th white key in a piano will belong to the next 'oct'ave, that will have a frequency 'twice' as much as the 1st white key. In other words, if we take two white keys of frequencies fx and fy and compared them logarithmically, and if log2(fy/fx) = 4 then one white key is 4 'oct'aves away from the other. Well, people were measuring sound long before they even heard of electricity - I guess they used the same units they used for sound, which they were familiar with, when they started measuring electricity first.
After all that being said, I still have no clue why an octave contains 12 keys (why not, say, 14?). It might hit me someday!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Why does it snow?
My daughter asked that question today. It snowed about 3 inches and I was blowing away the snow on the drive way. My kids were excited to come out and play on the snow. They were running around on the lawn covered with the white stuff, making snow man, making snow ball to throw at each other. They always have a blast when it snows. But I have to make sure the drive way is clean so we can get the car out easily.
When I heard that question, in my own geeky way I asked her back the questions, well...why does it rain? why is there an ocean? why do plants grow? why are we here? She looked at me strangely and said, so we don't know any of those? I nodded with a smile. She replied quickly, as if it was pretty obvious to her. "I think it snows so children can play and grownups can get a work out!" She went back to play. That was good enough answer for her! :-)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Try, Win, Quit
We have all heard about the importance of trying hard and not quitting. There are inspirational poems and quotes about not quitting. But do you know that quitting is a constant companion of winners!?
In Seth Godin’s book, The Dip, he reveals the truth about quitting: “In a free market, we reward the exceptional. Everyone picks the best one when given a choice. And the people who are perceived as the best get rewards that dwarf the people who are third and fourth and fifth.” So, being average is same as losing! One has to quit or be exceptional. So, winners DO quit, after all!
It is "try, win, quit" ideally. But often times, "try, quit,..., try, win, quit" is also a norm. As a saying goes, "The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook"!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The reality of Indian agriculture
The situation is not good! Not that it is any surprise to those who keep up with the news of farmers committing suicide in different villages often times. But I didn't realize the profession is like a slow poison in every farmer's life until my recent visit to India. When I talk to the folks in agriculture, most of them seem to have no clue that they are in a financial quick sand. On the other hand, with poor literacy in villages, the farmers seem to have no option but to live in a no win situation. The situation is really bad for those who are 100% relying on agriculture as their sole family income.
I see three groups of people in agriculture.
1. The passive income group
2. The farmers group and
3. The hopeless group!
The passive income group is a working class of people who have a job or primary income from sources other than agriculture and have farming as a passive income producing source. They are passionate about investing in agriculture most likely because they grew up in an agricultural family environment. They are not directly involved in farming. But have someone close to the farms (farmers group) take care of agriculture while they make their living in cities. Almost always the indulgence of this group in agriculture is an emotional decision to retain the family tradition or to maintain the inherited agricultural fields. They are not making profit in the investment. They are not hurt by the loss either. Some of them are under the illusion that their agricultural investments are profitable short term investments. Two concepts in financial management prove otherwise - the risk and the opportunity cost.
The passive income group puts forward an argument for agriculture that goes like this. If I invest one lakh rupee in agriculture, I get 1.5 lakh in about 6 to 8 months. That is probably true. Can't argue with numbers. There are three nuances in this argument though.
1. To begin with, one has to come up with a significant amount of money to invest in agriculture as a down payment before harvesting the returns. Luckily this group of people are able to do that on their own and avoid the "cost of capital" burden in terms of payment of interest and principal on that investment cost. The other two groups unfortunately are not as lucky.
2. The return is not guaranteed and depends on many factors like the rain/water level in the well, monsoon fluctuations, seasonal pests, etc. There is no systemic protection such as insurance against any of these factors. The biggest risk however is that the producers have no control over the price of their produce! Invariably when the volume of production is high, prices are down and when the volume is less, prices are moderate to high. So profit is shot always as Profit = Price*Quantity produced - Sunk Costs. Price is set by the "commission" shops who are traders of the produce. When the price is artificially controlled against the supply-demand dynamics and the costs are ever increasing because of the increasing labor, fertilizer, pesticide costs, profit becomes very unreliable. So there is enormous risk in the agricultural investment. Higher the risk, higher should be the expected reward.
3. In addition, if you look around to invest that initial expense in a bank FD or gold or residential land or some other investment what is the potential return? That is the opportunity cost. (Of course, each one of those alternatives come with a risk profile)
If you take the opportunity cost, add a markup for the risk factors and adjust for inflation (by the way, that goes up almost every year. Rs. 100 last year is worth less than Rs.100 this year) you should expect a return that exceeds the actual return consistently year over year. But that calculation is never considered by this group. Neither do they keep record of their investment and return over a long period of time to study the performance of their investment against alternatives. They write off the sunk costs if it comes to that and continue to go on. Well good for us! Without this group, agriculture is doomed in India.
That's a lot for now. More on the other two groups who are worse off than the first group. At least this group can sustain the losses and continue to invest in agriculture. The other two groups can not.
I see three groups of people in agriculture.
1. The passive income group
2. The farmers group and
3. The hopeless group!
The passive income group is a working class of people who have a job or primary income from sources other than agriculture and have farming as a passive income producing source. They are passionate about investing in agriculture most likely because they grew up in an agricultural family environment. They are not directly involved in farming. But have someone close to the farms (farmers group) take care of agriculture while they make their living in cities. Almost always the indulgence of this group in agriculture is an emotional decision to retain the family tradition or to maintain the inherited agricultural fields. They are not making profit in the investment. They are not hurt by the loss either. Some of them are under the illusion that their agricultural investments are profitable short term investments. Two concepts in financial management prove otherwise - the risk and the opportunity cost.
The passive income group puts forward an argument for agriculture that goes like this. If I invest one lakh rupee in agriculture, I get 1.5 lakh in about 6 to 8 months. That is probably true. Can't argue with numbers. There are three nuances in this argument though.
1. To begin with, one has to come up with a significant amount of money to invest in agriculture as a down payment before harvesting the returns. Luckily this group of people are able to do that on their own and avoid the "cost of capital" burden in terms of payment of interest and principal on that investment cost. The other two groups unfortunately are not as lucky.
2. The return is not guaranteed and depends on many factors like the rain/water level in the well, monsoon fluctuations, seasonal pests, etc. There is no systemic protection such as insurance against any of these factors. The biggest risk however is that the producers have no control over the price of their produce! Invariably when the volume of production is high, prices are down and when the volume is less, prices are moderate to high. So profit is shot always as Profit = Price*Quantity produced - Sunk Costs. Price is set by the "commission" shops who are traders of the produce. When the price is artificially controlled against the supply-demand dynamics and the costs are ever increasing because of the increasing labor, fertilizer, pesticide costs, profit becomes very unreliable. So there is enormous risk in the agricultural investment. Higher the risk, higher should be the expected reward.
3. In addition, if you look around to invest that initial expense in a bank FD or gold or residential land or some other investment what is the potential return? That is the opportunity cost. (Of course, each one of those alternatives come with a risk profile)
If you take the opportunity cost, add a markup for the risk factors and adjust for inflation (by the way, that goes up almost every year. Rs. 100 last year is worth less than Rs.100 this year) you should expect a return that exceeds the actual return consistently year over year. But that calculation is never considered by this group. Neither do they keep record of their investment and return over a long period of time to study the performance of their investment against alternatives. They write off the sunk costs if it comes to that and continue to go on. Well good for us! Without this group, agriculture is doomed in India.
That's a lot for now. More on the other two groups who are worse off than the first group. At least this group can sustain the losses and continue to invest in agriculture. The other two groups can not.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Sunday, December 06, 2009
A.D to C.E
Recently I came across a year notation like "6th century B.C.E" and I was lost. What is B.C.E? Turns out when I was not looking, the calendar convention B.C and A.D., which we were taught in the schools was changed to B.C.E and C.E.
The use of C.E.—signifying "Common Era" apparently has become popular in recent decades. As Christians and others have become increasing aware that Christianity is not the only Western tradition, it has made sense to many to switch the designation of dates from A.D. (Anno Domini meaning in the year of the Lord) to C.E., and thus also from B.C. ("Before Christ") to B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era").
Well. Perhaps we should close the history books on Y2K and start afresh on a new scientific era (S.E). Let's get ready for 10 S.E folks!
:-)
The use of C.E.—signifying "Common Era" apparently has become popular in recent decades. As Christians and others have become increasing aware that Christianity is not the only Western tradition, it has made sense to many to switch the designation of dates from A.D. (Anno Domini meaning in the year of the Lord) to C.E., and thus also from B.C. ("Before Christ") to B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era").
Well. Perhaps we should close the history books on Y2K and start afresh on a new scientific era (S.E). Let's get ready for 10 S.E folks!
:-)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Baldness and Malaria
Do you know that the ratio of amount spent annually on treating baldness Vs treating malaria is 50 to 1?
Malaria kills about a million people in Africa and Asia every year. Yet, it does not offer an attractive market opportunity for businesses to invest capital to address the issue. On the other hand, baldness affects rich old men who care to look young. This customer is willing and able to spend considerable amount of money to get cure for baldness. They have enough disposable income that presents an attractive market opportunity for businesses to go after!
- From Bill Gates speech on TED.org
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Tamiflu / Antiflu
In the pharma industry, to bring a product to market is no easy task. There is a huge stage-gate process during drug development and a lengthy clinical trial for the FDA approval. A high investment in R&D is required and the failure rate of products is very high. So to protect the industry, U.S. grants patents on drugs that offer exclusive right for the pharma company to make, sell and reap the rewards of the innovation for a 20 year period. So it only takes one or two succesful drugs for pharma companies to sustain and generate a rate of return that is acceptable to the investors. Having said that, Pharma industry makes above average return in general and considered as one of the attractive investment opportunities.
In 1970, India put into place a series of policies aimed at moving the country towards self sufficiency in medicines. At this time, the national sector was less than 25% of the domestic pharmaceutical market. Of the top ten firms by retail sales, only two where Indian firms and the rest were subsidiaries of multinationals. Much of the country's pharmaceutical consumption was met by imports. Most of the Indian population could not afford the imported medicine and millions of people were dying because medicines were not affordable. The national sentiment on this issue is well captured by the Indira Gandhi's statement at the world health assembly in 1982, "The idea of a better-ordered world is one in which medical discoveries will be free of patents and there will be no profiteering from life and death"
India passed the Patents Act 1970 that greatly weakened intellectual property protection in India, particularly for pharmaceutial products. Pharmaceutical innovations as well as those of food and agro-chemicals become un-patentable, allowing innovations patented elsewhere to be freely copied and marketed in India. Supported by this regulatory environment, by 1991, Indian firms accounted for 70% of the bulk drugs sold in India.
Of course, this issue which is identified as TRIPs (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual property rights) has been one of the main issues of contention at GATT summits for a long time.
Fast forward to the present day. The one company (Roche) that manufactures Tamiflu could not manufacture and supply enough quantity for this U.S. national H1N1 flu emergency. Tamiflu patent is valid until 2016. Indian pharma company Cipla has a generic drug that it reverse engineered from Tamiflu, called Antiflu, and Cipla is ready to step in to meet the demand. Center for disease control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are considering bringing in Antiflu into the U.S market.
For a long time, the developed nations condemned India as a pirate. Indian government acted to make life saving medicines affordable to its millions. Weighing the Return on Investment of Pharma companies on one hand and the life of millions of people on the other, the choice of Indian government is not surprising. Now U.S is made to choose between those same two choices. Should be interesting to see the U.S. decision.
In 1970, India put into place a series of policies aimed at moving the country towards self sufficiency in medicines. At this time, the national sector was less than 25% of the domestic pharmaceutical market. Of the top ten firms by retail sales, only two where Indian firms and the rest were subsidiaries of multinationals. Much of the country's pharmaceutical consumption was met by imports. Most of the Indian population could not afford the imported medicine and millions of people were dying because medicines were not affordable. The national sentiment on this issue is well captured by the Indira Gandhi's statement at the world health assembly in 1982, "The idea of a better-ordered world is one in which medical discoveries will be free of patents and there will be no profiteering from life and death"
India passed the Patents Act 1970 that greatly weakened intellectual property protection in India, particularly for pharmaceutial products. Pharmaceutical innovations as well as those of food and agro-chemicals become un-patentable, allowing innovations patented elsewhere to be freely copied and marketed in India. Supported by this regulatory environment, by 1991, Indian firms accounted for 70% of the bulk drugs sold in India.
Of course, this issue which is identified as TRIPs (Trade Related aspects of Intellectual property rights) has been one of the main issues of contention at GATT summits for a long time.
Fast forward to the present day. The one company (Roche) that manufactures Tamiflu could not manufacture and supply enough quantity for this U.S. national H1N1 flu emergency. Tamiflu patent is valid until 2016. Indian pharma company Cipla has a generic drug that it reverse engineered from Tamiflu, called Antiflu, and Cipla is ready to step in to meet the demand. Center for disease control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are considering bringing in Antiflu into the U.S market.
For a long time, the developed nations condemned India as a pirate. Indian government acted to make life saving medicines affordable to its millions. Weighing the Return on Investment of Pharma companies on one hand and the life of millions of people on the other, the choice of Indian government is not surprising. Now U.S is made to choose between those same two choices. Should be interesting to see the U.S. decision.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Craftspeople and Seers
Craftspeople are highly skilled experts in the practice of one's craft. Master craftspeople are best students when they were in the school. They are excellent problem solvers. In the normal period of work, you need crafts people to run the business smooth. Lot of people fall into this category.
The prime example of a Seer is Einstein. He couldn't get a decent job as a scientist when he was young, slow in argument, easily confused; others were much better at mathematics. Einstein said to have remarked, "It's not that I am so smart. It's just that I stay with the problems longer."
Like anything, there are exceptions to this categorization. Isaac Newton is both an extraordinary visionary and the best mathematician of his day. Almost everything about Newton is singular and inexplicable.
- Derived from the book "The Trouble with Physics" by Lee Smolin
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