Ravi S. Iyer: Worldly

The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came.,  https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/23/20991659/ebook-amazon-kindle-ereader-department-of-justice-publishing-lawsuit-apple-ipad , 23rd Dec. 2019 I find this article to be of great interest even though I am a not-for-profit author & self-publisher of 2 books so far, as against commercial (for-profit) books. Some points based on my understanding of the article: * Amazon Kindle introduced in 2007 made ebooks mainstream. * Analysts expected ebook sales to outstrip print book sales. * At end of 2010s decade (in 2019), ebook sales are about 20% of total book sales with other 80% being print book sales. Some analysts in 2010 may have thought it would have been the other way around at end of the decade (in 2019): 80% ebook sales and 20% print book sales. * Ebooks are not selling cheap as was expected. As an example, the article states that Sally Rooney's Normal People costs $12.99 but only $11.48...

I was going through some old document-stuff of mine and saw this message on the back of my 1987 Maharashtra (state of India) driving licence: "HELP TO KEEP ENVIRONMENT CLEAN BY CONTROLLING AIR AND NOISE POLLUTION THROUGH YOUR VEHICLE". I found it interesting that even back in 1987, Maharashtra was trying to alert vehicle drivers about pollution through their vehicle. Of course, I don't think it mattered much. During my years in Bombay/Mumbai till early 2000s, I experienced more and more environmental air and noise pollution through vehicles. Nonetheless it is good to see that Maharashtra state govt. through their road & traffic regulatory offices were trying to alert drivers about this issue even in 1987 which is over 30 years back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharashtra_Pollution_Control_Board states that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board was established in 1970 and was mainly responsible for legislation like Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) A...

I debated quite a bit before I put up this post, on whether I should share such horrors committed by Japanese imperialism. I decided to share it as I think knowing this history of Asia of the 1930s to mid 1940s of the 20th century which is not so far back in the past (a period when my parents' generation would have grown into adulthood in India), will help to show the importance of preparedness of military defense for Asian nations today, including India, to combat aggression from any aggressor nations. But I must say that the shared video below, released in 1944, is a ***propaganda*** video made by USA armed forces in support of its then ally China, and against its then war enemy Japan. So there is a positive bias towards USA and China and a negative bias against Japan. Also there is either no mention, or almost no mention, of the role of Mao Zedong and his communist fighters in this war. I did not catch any reference to Mao Zedong and Chinese communists. The role of Chiang Kai...

Calling the U.S.’s bluff in 1971, https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/calling-the-uss-bluff-in-1971/article30341831.ece The above article gives fascinating details of the geopolitics involved in India's 1971 war with Pakistan that liberated Bangladesh. Note that India fought and won the war but did not get into any empire stuff as it withdrew and Bangladesh elected its own political leaders. That is really a great noble thing that India did. Even if I, an Indian, am saying it, that is the plain and simple truth. But that would not have been possible unless the Soviet Union had kept at bay not only USA under President Nixon assisted by National Security Advisor Kissinger (USA had sent its Seventh Fleet into Bay of Bengal to intimidate India but Soviet Union sent its warships too to neutralize that threat), but also China! I had not known about or noted this China angle to the 1971 war. The article states that by December 1971 (when war broke out), USA had got close to China ...

On this matter, I decided to make an exception from my decision not to publicly post or comment about USA politics. Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html . The vote was largely along party lines. Democrats voted for impeachment and Republicans voted against. For President Donald Trump to be removed from office, the Senate has to vote for impeachment but that is very, very unlikely given that Republicans have a majority in the Senate, and almost all of Republican members of Congress are solidly behind Trump. The NYT article says: "Acquittal in the Republican-controlled chamber may be likely, but the proceeding is certain to further aggravate the political and cultural fault lines in the country that Mr. Trump’s presidency has brought into dramatic relief." I felt it appropriate to add some views of President Trump and his supporters. Given below are some tweets from Preside...

Given below are contents of my recent Facebook posts on this matter: https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/2693001267583100 The tragic thing about some Indian protests is the destruction of public services' property e.g. public transport - buses and railway stations. Who suffers due to that? The needy sections of the public who depend on such services of ***subsidized*** public transport,  and cannot afford more expensive private services. This has been the case for decades - it is not a new thing. Here is a tweet from Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev giving his view on this matter: "Whatever the issue, no one has any right to destroy public property. Buses that you burn do not belong to Government but to people funded by our tax money. All who destroy public property their properties must be confiscated and costs recovered. -Sg #CAAProtest", https://twitter.com/SadhguruJV/status/1207167085979127808 . ================ https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/...

Good to see this in USA. I think India should learn from this. In my case though I did my graduation, B.Sc. in Physics, I dropped out of M.Sc. Physics in end 1983/early 1984 and, in a few months time, joined a Mumbai software company as trainee programmer on very low salary for initial training period, and a 3 year bond. That was like an apprenticeship and it worked wonders for me by making me a member of the then sunrise industry of software developers. If the higher education system today is drowning students in horrible debt then it is better to have good alternatives to such higher education. Apprenticeship seems to have been the way people learned trades for centuries and millennia prior to higher education replacing them. Perhaps now that higher education is making a mess of the lives of many students due to its high costs, maybe it is a good time to revive apprenticeships in a big way. [USA] Want a White-Collar Career Without College Debt? Become an Apprentice, https://ww...

"Freeze! I'm Ma Baker, put your hands in the air and give me all your money." This is how the song starts with these lines being spoken not sung. I have quite good recall of the above lines and the "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Baker" lines that are sung in the song. I have heard this song and the initial spoken lines of it, many times in the late 70s and 80s (the song was released in 1977, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Baker ). It was quite popular among English song fans in Bombay then. Here's the audio of the song with lyrics being shown in the video: Boney M. - Ma Baker Lyric Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH0ADtWZ59U , 4 min. 7 secs. [The lyrics in the video are inaccurate in a few places. It should be mowed NOT moved and so on. Here's what seems to be an accurate version of the lyrics: https://genius.com/Boney-m-ma-baker-lyrics .] I think I viewed it as quite a freaky song then. But it did make an impression on me in the period when I first got...

Last updated on 11th March 2021 When author of post or comment is not mentioned, it should be assumed that it is me (Ravi S. Iyer). To save time, I am usually not providing my FB post links but only contents. I am also not hyperlinking links. So readers will have to copy-paste links from this post onto a browser link box and then browse to that link. ========================================== Good to see this in India. It is the right of such elders to choose whether to live solitary lives or whether they want to be married. In this case, the couple seem to be Hindus but I think this should apply to Indians of all religions. All the best to the newly married couple! [Shared article: Elderly couple in Kerala old age home falls in love, gets married in their 60s, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/love-sex/elderly-couple-in-kerala-old-age-home-falls-in-love-gets-married-in-their-60s/articleshow/73028126.cms] ---------- Good to see this. I ha...