Category Archives: Random Stuff

A Better Year

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

This year has been a trying year for many of us. In the US and most of the West, unemployment is high and a gradual recovery is the best we can hope for. In the IT world, in India and … Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | 21 Comments

Indian Church in Fremont

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

Fremont has a very high percentage of immigrants among the city residents. Especially North Fremont, where I live has a sizable Indian crowd. Most, like us are immigrants. Because of which Indian food, groceries and Bollywood movies are all within … Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | 3 Comments

Ideas from the New York Times

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

The NY Times Magazine’s latest issue is on “ideas”. The ideas are of mixed standards, probably because they were force fitted into an alphabetical list as much as possible (“hey, we don’t have any ideas for X Y Z. We … Continue reading →

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The Genetic Melting Pot in India

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

An important paper was published in September. You can get the paper Reconstructing Indian Population History from the home page of David Reich at Harvard’s Department of Genetics, who was the lead author. The team analyzed 132 genotypes from 25 … Continue reading →

Posted in Random Stuff | 3 Comments

KenKen Puzzles

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

In the last two months I have gotten hooked on to a puzzle called KenKen. It is similar to Sudoku, but different. I never played Sudoku much so I am not the best person to do a compare and contrast. … Continue reading →

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Funny Chart

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

Andrew Biggs compares spending on veterinary services and healthcare spending in the US. The case he makes is that the issue with healthcare is not the rate of growth of spending but the absolute amount of spending. He presents this … Continue reading →

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The Broader Context of Swatting Flies

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

A couple of weeks back, President Obama swatted a fly in the White House. It did not go unnoticed in the media. Since this blog is about global trends, it would be remiss if I didn’t cover this important event … Continue reading →

Posted in Humour, Random Stuff | 3 Comments

Why do so many NBA games go to Overtime

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

There is a fascinating analysis of NBA scores by Jeff Ely and Toomas Hinnosaar on Ely’s blog Cheap Talk. Read through the comments as well which try to explain the data. The data plotted in the chart is the margin … Continue reading →

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Conflicts of Interest in Healthcare

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

Atul Gawande’s piece The Cost Conundrum in the New Yorker has created quite a buzz. Apparently, President Obama has been recommending it as a must-read. Peter Orzag, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the administration, referred … Continue reading →

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Spelling Bee Notes

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Basab Pradhan

Kavya Shivashankar won the 2009 Scripps Spelling Bee Championship, as has been widely reported. I watched the last few rounds of the contest. The Bee doesn’t sound like an exciting sport to watch, but once you get into it, it … Continue reading →

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