Bollywood takes over Hollywood?

Interesting report from The Hindu:

Anil Ambani plans a takeover of the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Hollywood studio in an attempt to become one of the world’s most powerful film bosses, the Daily Telegraph reported on Saturday.

When contacted, a spokesperson from the Anil Ambani Group declined to comment.

Anil Ambani already owns a controlling stake in Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio and has struck a series of deals with stars including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts and George Clooney to develop their films.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Big Pictures produced two most successful films last year while its current blockbuster ‘The 3 Idiots’ has broken Indian box office records.

According to the report, he hopes to expand his influence with an ambitious bid for MGM, the Hollywood studio which owns the James Bond franchise.

Sources close to Ambani confirmed his interest in acquiring MGM and it would help him achieve his ambition to become the world’s most powerful film mogul, the report said.

It also happens that Anil Ambani's wife is a former Bollywood star, Tina Munim :)
Here is a clip from an old movie starring Munim:

The strange meeting at the White House: Elvis and Nixon

You ought to read this LA Times story on how the famous meeting happened.  Reads like a movie story, than a real life one.  I suppose truth can be stranger than fiction.
The image on the left is the first of the five-page letter than Elvis hand wrote to Nixon while on the plane to DC.
ht

Meanwhile in Afghanistan ...

Forget not that there is still a war there in Afghanistan, and the US troops coming back home depends on a government in place.  So, what is the latest about good governance in Afghanistan?

The Afghan parliament has rejected 10 of 17 new cabinet nominees suggested by President Hamid Karzai.

The vote comes two weeks after MPs turned down most of Mr Karzai's first choices, dealing him a serious blow.

So, how about everything else? British soldiers dead:

TWO British soldiers have been killed by a Taliban bomb while on foot patrol in the north of Helmand province.
The troops from 3rd Battalion The Rifles died on Friday evening near the town of Sangin. Their families have been informed. ....
The latest deaths came as David Miliband, the foreign secretary — visiting Kabul yesterday — renewed his call for Nato allies to do more, saying: “The burden [of fighting the Taliban] should be fairly shared.”

How about the regular Afghan life, you ask?

A suicide bomber killed 20 people -- including three children -- Thursday in a market in central Afghanistan in the deadliest attack against Afghan civilians in more than three months.

The bomber detonated his explosives in front of a currency exchange shop in an arcade of stores in the town of Dihrawud in Oruzgan province, a mostly ethnic Pashtun area about 250 miles southwest of Kabul. Thirteen people were wounded, according to a NATO statement.

District police chief Omar Khan said the attacker might have been headed for a regular security meeting of NATO and dozens of tribal elders. Khan, who was at the meeting, could not explain why the bomber detonated his explosives before reaching the heavily guarded venue.

Can we please end all these wars?  Enough already!
Oh, BTW, in neighboring Pakistan:

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives on the Pakistani side of the Kashmir region on Saturday in a rare attack on the Pakistani military there.
The bomber blew himself up as a Pakistani military vehicle passed, wounding two soldiers, a Pakistani military spokesman said. The attack took place near the town of Rawalakot, in the Pakistani part of Kashmir, a Himalayan region at the center of a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan.
For years, militant groups had focused their efforts on the Indian side of the disputed territory, some with the support of the Pakistani state, though those attacks have fallen significantly. The Pakistani side had long been free of violence, but a number of attacks in the past year have broken that calm and raised worries that militant groups in Pakistan are widening their fight.

Google, and Censorship in China

James Fallows observes:

What happens after Google is so roundly cheered for taking so clear a stand? China will still be there; many of its people will hunger for outside information and most will aspire to modernization. What is the way out of this that does the least overall damage to Google and the people who once relied on its services inside China? That is the question taken up here (I have met a number of the Google-China employees shown in the pictures) and the the WSJ editorial as well. As that editorial says:

"it's worth remembering that this is a lose-lose-lose scenario. The most likely outcome is that Google loses access to an important market, Chinese customers lose access to its services, and the government loses face."

The next step is to find some way to reduce the number of losses -- including, yes, for the Chinese government, since (believe me) absolutely no good will come to anyone anywhere from the government's feeling shamed, humiliated, or newly insecure. It is emotionally satisfying to see the Chinese government thrown off balance after its recent repressive moves. That won't make things better for most people in China.

Image ht

Recession, recovery, and Oregon's Measures 66 and 67

Are the revenue-raising Measures 66 and 67 doomed to fail because they are scheduled to be voted on in January?

I relocated to Oregon in the fall of 2002 and soon I was on the metaphorical public policy treadmill in order to figure out what was at stake in the special election the following January. Measure 28 was on the ballot and it was an attempt to temporarily raise income tax rates. On Jan. 28, 2003, Measure 28 was defeated by almost a 10 percent margin, and budget cuts resulted, including at the university where I work.

Before the year ended, there was another measure on the ballot, and again at about the same time of the year. On Feb. 3, 2004, it was with a convincing 18 percent margin that Oregonians voted down Measure 30, which was aimed at increasing revenues through income and corporate taxes.

I wonder about the timing for such votes to increase taxes. Are such revenue-raising attempts self-defeating because the ballots arrive at about the same time that we also receive bills for all the purchases we made over the lengthy holiday season from Thanksgiving until the new year?

If the "no" votes are more a reflection of voters juggling with their personal finances and less about a political philosophy of taxes, well, Oregonians seem to be significantly less secure now compared to back in 2003 or 2004 — we are currently amidst a deep and broad level of economic contraction and unemployment.

Will we then look past our respective financial insecurities to understand that Measures 66 and 67 will not raise tax rates for most Oregonians? Measure 66, for instance, will mean higher taxes for roughly about 3 percent of personal income tax filers, which means that it will not affect the remaining 97 percent.

I suspect that as in 2003 and 2004, the word "tax" could easily grab the attention of a significant number of voters who might almost reflexively reject the idea. Should the measures fail, the impacts could be worse than the aftershocks of the rejection of Measures 28 and 30.

In the current recessionary environment, government spending has been able to prevent a more serious depression. A reduction of public spending could further worsen the state's economic situation through direct cuts and their eventual multiplier effects.

In a recent report, the National Governors Association observed that "the biggest impact on states is the one to two years after the recession is over." It is, therefore, important to uphold the taxes approved by the Legislature. However, we also ought to recognize that Measures 66 and 67 are temporary solutions, at best. We need to look no further than down south at California to realize that increasing the revenue stream alone is not enough.

Thus, irrespective of the results on Jan. 26, 2010, I hope Measures 66 and 67 will catalyze discussions on Oregon's priorities and commitment to its citizens. In the meanwhile, here is to hoping that this month Oregonians will reverse past trends.

Published in the Statesman Journal, January 16th, under the title "Upholding tax increasesis important for economy"

Quote of the day

Over to Daniel Dennett (ht):

We need to change the prevailing assumptions in the same way that public opinion has been reversed on drunk driving. When I was young, drunk drivers tended to be excused because, after all, they were drunk! Today, happily, we hold them doubly culpable for any misdeeds they commit while under the influence.

I look forward to the day when violence done under the influence of religious passion is considered more dishonorable, more shameful, than crimes of avarice, and is punished accordingly, and religious leaders who incite such acts are regarded with the same contempt that we reserve for bartenders who send dangerously disabled people out onto the highways.

I am getting rich .... soon ....

So, a few weeks ago I posted from an email I received; this email promised me a cool mil or two so that somebody's estate in some part of the world can be laundered :)
This is a gift that keeps on coming.  Here is from today's email (BTW, where are those people with real money?  Contact me. Please. Now.  But, I will not respond if your offer has spelling and grammatical errors!!!)

From Hamadu Zanou

The Junior Staff of Group Banking of African BOA

Ouagadouguo Burkina-Faso West Africa

Please kindly accept my apology for sending you this email without your consent. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the Trust that i have delvelop in you now i believe that you can assist me in taking this business to it success.

I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events. I have a proposal for you..

This however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you to honor against your will, but I hope you will read on and consider the value I offer.

As young staff of Operations in BOA Bank. I have a business proposal in the tune of US$17.3 to be transferred to an off shore account with your assistance if willing.And it will be a secret between me and you to avoild order members not to know what is going on

After the successful transfer, we shall share in ratio of 30% for you and 70% for me. Should you be interested, please respond to my letter immediately, so we can commence all arrangements and I will give you more information on the project and how we would handle it.

(1)Full name:

(2)private phone number:

(3)current residential address:

(4)Occupation:

(5)Age and Sex:

Call me immediately with this Num

+226-750-054-33

I look forward to hear from you.

Kind Regards,

Mr Hamadu Zanou

Haiti, the tragedy

I wish David Brooks had stopped with the first half of his column.  The first half is wonderful, and to the point.  The second half .... 'nuff said.  The best part is this:

This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story. It’s a story about poorly constructed buildings, bad infrastructure and terrible public services. On Thursday, President Obama told the people of Haiti: “You will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten.” If he is going to remain faithful to that vow then he is going to have to use this tragedy as an occasion to rethink our approach to global poverty.

the country of Haiti .... does not exist any more

 Tyler Cowen: (ht)

Haiti is about the size of Maryland and a big chunk of the population lives in or near Port-Au-Prince, maybe a third of the total, depending on what you count as a suburb.  So the collapse of Port-Au-Prince is a big, big deal for the country as a whole.  It's a dominant city for Haiti.  Plus Jacmel seems to be leveled.  From the reports I have seen, my tentative conclusion is that the country as a whole is currently below the subsistence level and will remain so for the foreseeable future.  Hundreds of thousands of people have died, the U.N. Mission has collapsed, the government is not working (was it ever?), and hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of people are living in the streets without reliable food or water supplies.  The hospitals and schools have collapsed.  The airport is shut down.  The port is very badly damaged.  The Haitian Penitentiary has collapsed and the inmates -- tough guys most of them -- are running free for the foreseeable future.  There is no viable police force or army.

In other words, it's not just a matter of offering extra food aid for two or three years.

Very rapidly, President Obama needs to come to terms with the idea that the country of Haiti, as we knew it, probably does not exist any more. 

In what sense does Haiti still have a government?  How bad will it have to get before the U.N. or U.S. moves in and simply governs the place?  How long will this governance last?  What will happen to Haiti as a route for the drug trade, the dominant development in the country's economy over the last fifteen years?  What does the new structure of interest groups look like, say five years from now?

There is nothing there for me to disagree with.

For now, all I can do is repeat from my earlier blog post:

Want a real simple way to donate?

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

Or, the more conventional route: The American Red Cross is accepting donations through our International Response Fund.

We are at war :(

Fewer than two in 10 soldiers on their first or second combat deployment showed signs of mental illness or reported marital problems, according to battlefield research in Afghanistan completed last year. The rate increased to three in 10 soldiers for those on a third or fourth deployment.

... Suicides are at record levels. The divorce rate among enlisted soldiers has steadily increased during the war years. Rates of mental health and prescription drug abuse are on the rise.

With a growing number of injured or wounded soldiers, painkillers are now the most abused drug in the Army. One in four GIs admit to illicitly using narcotic medication during a 12-month period, according to a 2008 Pentagon health survey.

That is from a USA Today story on repeated deployments of US troops.  Just awful conditions.

The Army's aim is to allow two years of recovery for every year in combat. Given the current pace of war, however, it will be a "couple of more years" before that goal is met, says Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For those in the infantry, who do so much of the fighting, a return to combat often comes within a year.

Meanwhile, soldiers must return to war again and again because the size of the nation's all-volunteer force is limited, Army leaders say. In the past, the government could grow the Army quickly through conscription, allowing the burden of war to be shared by more people.

Chart of the day: cost of producing energy

The trillion dollars we owe China? Here is Obama's plan

Grammar can be fun. Really. It was, in 1934! Really?

ht

Haiti earthquake: Donating is as easy as texting

Only yesterday it was that in my office I had a long conversation about Haiti with a student .... all because he used to serve in the US Coast Guard, and one of his toughest assignments was to escort back people trying to sneak in to the US, and this included Haitians.  An awfully poor country, he described.  This was during the violent and chaotic times with all the Aristide confusion ....
So, reading about the earthquake today makes that place very much real, with only one degree of separation .... As if they did not have enough problems on their hands ....

Want a real simple way to donate?

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

Or, the more conventional route: The American Red Cross is accepting donations through our International Response Fund.

Google, and freedom of speech in China

HT to a friend who sent me the link to this important info about Google, China and human rights.  Read the entire piece, which is at the official Google Blog.  Google is sharing this with the public because:

We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech.

More excerpt:

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

Cartoon of the day: steroids

Oh no!!! Not another bubble!!!

Says the Economist:

It seems likely that, if developed countries keep interest rates low for a long time, bubbles will emerge somewhere. The argument against tightening policy now is a strong one, given the fragile state of the economic recovery. But to central banks it always is, whether the economy is healthy or not.

It is hard to imagine any circumstances in which the authorities will have the foresight (or the courage) to prick a bubble. It cannot be done when the economy is weak. And when the economy is strong, as it was in the late 1990s, central banks argue that higher asset prices are justified (back then, by the productivity improvements brought by the internet). Central bankers tend to see higher asset prices as a validation of their policies and to shy away from “second guessing” the markets. ...

The markets are beset by a series of contradictions. They are dependent on extraordinary amounts of government stimulus. But that stimulus is in turn ultimately dependent on the willingness of markets to finance governments at low rates. They should be willing to do so only if they believe that growth prospects are poor and inflation will stay low. But if they believe that, investors should be unwilling to buy equities and houses at above-average valuations. At some time—maybe in 2010—those contradictions will have to be resolved. And that will trigger another nasty bout of volatility.

Environmentalism as a religion: green guilt!

The final paragraphs of an essay in the Chronicle:

If environmentalism is a substitute for religion—a way of validating certain emotions—then we might expect to find other secular surrogates for guilt and indignation. Our tendencies to sin, repent, and generally indulge in self-cruelty can be seen cropping up in our obsessions about health and fitness, for example. Struggling with our weight (diet and relapse) has risen above the other deadly sins to take a dominant position in our secular self-persecution. And our resentful aggression still manages to find some occasional pathways to the external world. We may not be able to punch the people we want to punch in real life, but we can turn some of our aggression outward at the reprobates of TV land. What a joyful hatred we all felt at the Octomom or Britney. It was a thoroughly cleansing bit of moral outrage. Or consider the inflamed moral drama for viewers of the Jon & Kate Plus Eight debacle. And more of this kind of indignation, previously reserved for religious condemnation, can be seen and heard everywhere on the screens and airwaves of the 24-hour "news" cycle. Large segments of the news seem calculated to facilitate the catharsis of our built-up resentment. Daytime talk shows and reality shows seem similarly designed to elicit our righteous anger. They form the other side of the religious coin—in addition to the self-cruelty of guilt, we can vent our aggression outwardly (like a crowd at a witch drowning) as long as it's justified by piety and the defense of virtue and orthodoxy.

Environmentalism is a much better hang-up than worrying about the spiritual pitfalls of too much masturbation. Even if it's neurotic, it's still doing some good. But environmentalism, like every other ism, has the potential for dogmatic zeal and obsession. Do we really need one more humorless religion? Let us save the planet, by all means. But let's also admit to ourselves that we have a natural propensity toward guilt and indignation, and let that fact temper our fervor to more reasonable levels.

Russia beats Saudis as largest oil exporter. Trouble for all of us!

Putin and Russia are slowly gaining ground as the largest exporter of the much needed hydrocarbons that we rely upon as source of energy.  While the US and the rest of the world continues to focus on oil in the Middle East, ahem, Russia has had one wonderful decade, and is all set to pounce on Europe and Asia.

The year 2010 will see the global energy map redrawn as Russia, the world’s largest producer of hydrocarbons, reorients its oil and gas flows from Europe to Asia. ... Last year, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as the world’s biggest producer and exporter of oil.

 If that does not impress you, read on:

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia looked forward to winning a much bigger share of the Asian oil market than its current 5-6 per cent compared with nearly 70 per cent for Gulf-originated crude. East Siberian crude, to be marketed under the name of ESPO, is similar or even superior to the Middle East crude and the new pipeline will take it close to Asian customers.

India also stands to benefit from the new pipeline, as it will be linked with oilfields in Western Siberia, including the Tomsk region where India’s Imperial Energy has operations.

So, what might be next on Putin's agenda?

The next big goal in Mr. Putin’s plan is to challenge the U.S. dollar-denominated oil trade by switching trade in Russian oil to roubles. Mr. Putin first declared Moscow’s intention to use rouble in its oil and gas transactions in his 2006 state of the nation address. The following year, Russia began trading Russian oil for roubles at the Russian Fuel and Energy Exchange set up for the purpose in St. Petersburg.

 Which is also why this opinion piece says, "For the West, 'game over' in Central Asia":

The West has only itself to blame for this outcome. Despite sharing regional interests with Russia and China -- ranging from disarmament to the eradication of terrorism and the drug trade -- the United States and the European Union have rarely proven themselves willing to come to terms with Moscow and Beijing on Central Asian affairs. In the field of energy, Western policy objectives have fluctuated indecisively between attempting to fully depoliticize the industry -- through legal instruments such as the Energy Charter -- and providing American and European corporations with dirigiste-style support, based on the misplaced assumption that their technological superiority would offer more attractive conditions to Central Asian leaders. On the other hand, Russia and China have elaborated innovative responses through a network of bilateral deals and the institutional structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The West has also misunderstood the resilience of Russian leverage and soft power in the region and dramatically overestimated the appeal of its "normative power." By insisting on issues -- such as democracy and human rights -- that not only had no influence, but scared the local power elites, they increased the attractiveness of Beijing and its strict adherence to the principle of non-interference in domestic affairs.

Where there is smoke, .... there are health issues

The travel doctor gave me a tincture of iodine kit to disinfect water, if needed, when I was in Tanzania.  I never had to use it though because bottled drinking water was available everywhere.

But, that is also the source of one of Tanzania’s environmental problems—empty plastic bottles all over the place.  By the highways, beaches, and in open drains. 

One might hypothesize that collecting such recyclables will be a source of income to the hard-working poor, which is the case in India.  But, I suspect that Tanzania lacks a robust industrial base to offer the necessary economic incentives for the poor to turn all that plastic into cash.

The litter problem was, however, nothing compared to the more pressing smoke pollution.

I spent most of my time in Tanzania in a village, Pommern, in the southern highlands.  It was a two-hour drive from Pommern to the nearest town, Iringa, which itself is a little more than 300 miles from Dar es Salaam.  Pommern is up in the hills—I was at close to 6,500 feet elevation for most of my time in Tanzania.

With red soil on the rolling hills, and fascinating flora that included “sausage trees,” Pommern was absolutely picturesque indeed.  But, at the same time it was hard to get away from smoke.

There were two primary sources of smoke.  One came from the rubbish that was burnt, well, practically everywhere in the village.  The smoking piles included plants that were cleared away, and even plastic bottles and batteries. 

But, the smoke and smell from such trash incineration was secondary to the noxious clouds from wood and charcoal burning, which is how the village’s energy needs are met. 

In a country of 37 million people, barely ten percent of the population has access to electricity, and that is mostly in urban Dar es Salaam, while more than 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas like Pommern where electricity is rare.  And gas for cooking is rarer even within Dar es Salaam

Thus, most of the population relies on charcoal and firewood for cooking--the World Bank recently estimated that about one million tons of charcoal are consumed every year in Tanzania.  This amount is projected to increase even more due to the fact that electricity and gas are not available for the growing population.  

Charcoal making itself, therefore, is an important economic activity.  Charcoal, of course, comes from trees and is preferred over firewood because it is easy to store and transport, and offers more energy than a comparable weight of firewood.  It was quite common to see young men selling bags of charcoal all along the drive in the rural and forest areas that dominate Tanzania’s landscape outside Dar es Salaam.

But, both charcoal and firewood are often used in remarkably inefficient settings that generate a lot more smoke than usable heat.  Often, the “stove” is nothing but a traditional fireplace with three stones. 

Women, and children too, are often present around these smoking stoves.  As one can imagine, such a constant inhalation of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and other gaseous chemicals, along with the tiny particulate matter can be devastating for health.  Which is why “Acute Respiratory Infection” (ARI) is a leading public health problem in this beautiful mountainous setting, along with HIV and malaria. 

This has not gone unrecognized.  The Improved Charcoal Stove (ICS) was introduced in Tanzania in 1988, and research continues in developed and developing countries alike on designing more efficient firewood and charcoal burning stoves.

It was, thus, with a gladdened heart along with local pride that I read, after returning home, the essay in the New Yorker magazine, which was also referred to in a recent editorial in this newspaper.  The New Yorker featured the Aprovecho Research Center—right here in Oregon—which has won international recognition for its efforts to design better stoves that would also be inexpensive. 

My academic discussions with students about the more than 2.5 billion people who depend on wood and charcoal as the source of energy pale next to experiencing it everyday amidst an otherwise, and ironically enough, gorgeous setting on this blue planet of ours. 

I bet the people of Pommern, along with other billions can’t wait for the kitchen upgrade.  Go Aprovecho!

Cartoon of the day

Our frenzied response to terrorism only feeds it

More rational commentaries--in addition to the ones I recently blogged about--on our over-reaction to terrorism; here is Fareed Zakaria:

The purpose of terrorism is to provoke an overreaction. Its real aim is not to kill the hundreds of people directly targeted but to sow fear in the rest of the population. Terrorism is an unusual military tactic in that it depends on the response of the onlookers. If we are not terrorized, then the attack didn't work.

I don't understand why we fall for this all the time.  Is it because of politics?  That if we do not over-react then we are afraid of being tagged as wimps?  Are we always so concerned about the testicular fortitude?
Zakaria notes:

Overreacting to terrorist attacks plays into Al Qaeda's hands. It also provokes responses that are likely to be large scale, expensive, ineffective, and perhaps even counterproductive. More screening for every passenger makes no sense. When searching for needles in haystacks, adding hay doesn't help.

Yep!

Photo of the day: from Afghanistan

Note from the source:

THREAD OF LIFE: Ten-year-old Nahid grabs a thread while she weaves carpet in her home in Kabul, Afghanistan. Afghan carpets, made mostly in the north of the country, are one of the country's few exports which made Afghanistan recognized as a global leader in carpet production for centuries.