tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58988849759283701662024-03-14T01:11:34.983+05:30Danish's PensieveMy musings and opinions on Politics, Civil Society, Technology, Social Media, Law, Philosophy, Movies,Cricket and everything I hold opinions on.Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-91814388579316329692021-01-15T01:13:00.000+05:302021-01-15T01:13:18.304+05:30WhatsApp Vs Signal: Battle of The Messenger Apps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmEeq1HrLmI/YABW26MsvOI/AAAAAAAAQHE/jsvl5QNJEpg6hkgD8jy8aZGjojY2C5yvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1601/WhatsApp-vs-Signal1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1601" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DmEeq1HrLmI/YABW26MsvOI/AAAAAAAAQHE/jsvl5QNJEpg6hkgD8jy8aZGjojY2C5yvQCLcBGAsYHQ/w531-h300/WhatsApp-vs-Signal1.jpg" width="531" /></a></div><div><br /></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: left;">So one morning I wake up, check my Twitter feed, switch to WhatsApp, out pops a notification telling me that the messaging app now intends to share my data with its parent company Facebook and I have to accept it's terms by February 8 or it will kick me out of its platform. Of course I don't like the idea but I don't like the tone either. But do I click on "accept" right away because I don't want to lose my WhatsApp account ? After all it is where all our interpersonal communication take place, email now is strictly for official correspondence. However, I clicked "not now" hoping there might be a way out from this forced consent. I have never been a big fan of WhatsApp, so perhaps it was time to look for alternatives.</span></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;">Facebook's Privacy Record</h3>
<p dir="ltr">Facebook doesn't have a stellar record when it comes to ensuring privacy of its users and I am not even talking about Cambridge Analytica. While acquiring WhatsApp, Facebook had explicitly stated that the data would remain private and separate. It wasn't clear why Facebook was acquiring the messaging app if not for all the data WhatsApp would provide. Things cleared up a bit in 2016 when WhatsApp started sharing data with Facebook by default but it gave users the option to opt out of it. How many opted out of it or even knew of such an option is anyone's guess. Of course WhatsApp chats are end-to-end encrypted but it does collect the metadata along with several other identifiers making it as good as actual data. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p><p dir="ltr">In the latest newspaper ads WhatsApp says it respects user privacy and can not "see" private messages or "hear" calls, and that all media and files exchanged, voice and video calls are end-to-end encrypted. But was that the real concern ? The content of most messages would most probably be just noise to its analytics algorithms, metadata can instead be the real signals. It does not specifically deny that it does not collect data such as location, IP address, details about groups, and user activities and interactions. For instance, the ads don't say that it does not collect and share data with Facebook such as who a user interacts with and for how long. This is the kind of data that Facebook can make use of, the images in "good morning" messages may not exactly be useful to it. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Why Choose Signal ?</h3><p dir="ltr">Signal offers nearly everything that WhatsApp does including messaging, voice and video calls and group chat ( but users can't be added to groups without their permission) and is apparently rolling out new features. All communication is secured by the open source <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_Protocol" target="_blank">Signal Protocol</a> which implements end-to-end encryption and even encrypts user's metadata which makes it really secure. Further, with the "Sealed Sender" feature, the identity of the sender and receiver of the message is protected. The files and group calls are also encrypted, users can also relay the calls to Signal server to avoid IP being detected by contacts. However, Signal doesn't have cloud-based back up and restore feature but then this mechanism isn't exactly privacy friendly.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVidSEDv-5Q/YABA4n_KzkI/AAAAAAAAQGw/0-icQamn4IEj29Cm6oBLuqK0CMQgBnU1wCLcBGAsYHQ/s959/signall%2Bv%2Bwhatsapp-forbes.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="959" height="229" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UVidSEDv-5Q/YABA4n_KzkI/AAAAAAAAQGw/0-icQamn4IEj29Cm6oBLuqK0CMQgBnU1wCLcBGAsYHQ/w396-h229/signall%2Bv%2Bwhatsapp-forbes.jpg" width="396" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Data Collection by Messengers| Image Courtesy : <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/01/09/stop-using-whatsapp-after-facebook-apple-imessage-and-signal-privacy-backlash/?sh=241964f36cf5">Forbes </a></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">Can Signal Really Oust WhatsApp ?</h3><p dir="ltr">Facebook is no stranger to controversies and it probably brazens its way out because of two factors. Majority of its users seem to be supremely concerned on matters of data privacy<u>,</u> tweetstorms and social media outrage have a very short lifespan. The hashtag #DeleteFacebook may make periodic appearances on Twitter trends but Facebook doesn't lose that many users. I, myself may be inactive on Facebook but I haven't deleted my account yet. The predicament is similar to the one I face with WhatsApp now. Everyone I know and want to communicate with is already on WhatsApp, to quit now basically means cutting myself off from the network. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p>
<p dir="ltr">However, there is a glimmer of hope now. People whose usual refrain when it comes to matter of data privacy used to be "I have nothing to hide" are now switching to Signal and Telegram. I personally have some reservations with Telegram but wouldn't like it go into it in this post for brevity's sake. Signal seems a better alternative. It is non-profit with the best security features and has been around for years even if it didn't have too many users. In a couple of days I have seen too many of my contacts join Signal. In fact, out of the six WhatsApp groups I am part of two have already migrated to Signal. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p><p dir="ltr">Amidst the user outrage over WhatsApp's new privacy policy Signal's popularity seems to be sky-rocketing. This week it became the highest-ranked app on Apple App Store and Google Play Store and its adoption seems only to have just begun. It may also have something to do with endorsements coming from personalities such as Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and popular whistleblower Edward Snowden. This comes at a tumultuous time when social media companies are cracking down on misinformation and hate speech and Amazon, Apple and Google even <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/10/tech/what-is-parler/index.html" target="_blank">banning</a> far-right leaning social network Parler from their platform. </p><p dir="ltr"><br /></p><p dir="ltr">Perhaps, this time the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect" target="_blank">network effect</a> may work in favor of Signal or/and Telegram but unless the user base reaches the critical mass, we may have to grudgingly go ahead and click the "accept" button. And somewhere deep within I would have to grudgingly accept that tech giants in general and Facebook in particular have become so powerful that they can now openly infringe upon my agency and acquire forced consent. Here is hoping every one reading this <a href="https://signal.org/en/download/" target="_blank">migrate to Signal</a></p>Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-21195183902965300552021-01-10T17:43:00.003+05:302021-01-14T02:04:32.681+05:30Deplatforming US President: Are Tech Giants Waking Up?<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7917_(1).jpg" title="TapTheForwardAssist, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="DC Capitol Storming IMG 7917 (1)" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7917_%281%29.jpg/512px-DC_Capitol_Storming_IMG_7917_%281%29.jpg" width="512" /></a>
<br /></p><p>The last week has been quite eventful, there have been two seemingly unrelated developments involving Facebook that deserve close attention. The bigger event, storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters is being discussed and written upon by nearly everyone who is capable of forming an opinion and is interested in US and World politics. So for now I would prefer to not wade into the politics except where it intersects tech ecosystem.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p> So, by now everyone is aware that US President has been banned from major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, Snapchat (disabled) and his video has been taken off YouTube. It is indeed a big deal for tech giants to deplatform a sitting US President (even if his term expires in less than two weeks). The larger question here is, are tech giants like Facebook and Twitter finally waking up to stop weaponization of information on their platforms or is it fear of repercussion ? </p><p><br /></p><p>Tech giants have for years allowed hate speech to dominate their platforms in the guise of ensuring freedom of speech even if they know the two are quite opposite. Every thing from weird conspiracy theories to outright calls for genocide have been given a freehand by these companies. When critics say the action against Trump is an insurance against possible action by the incoming government of Joe Biden, the argument is not without merit. Any investigation into the attack on the Capitol is likely to go into the role of social media. The outrage against the incidence is so great that attempts by government to regulate online speech might not receive backlash from users as it would have done otherwise. </p><p><br /></p><p>But should governments be allowed to regulate social media platforms ? It's a slippery slope, it could actually lead to curbing dissent and online civil rights activism in autocratic regimes and illiberal democracies. Facebook in India has already been accused of giving free reign to hate speech and pro-government propaganda for increased revenue. Content on Facebook did play a role in the genocide in Myanmar carried out by government forces. Even in the US, government oversight over social media platforms, even by a liberal government may lead to social media being used for furtherance of its own foreign policy which hasn't exactly been beneficial to a lot of countries in the past. </p><p><br /></p><p>However, it does not mean that tech giants who now wield such enormous power can shirk their responsibilities or remain selective in ensuring their own community standards and policies are adhered to. They cannot turn a blind eye to hate speech and call to violence in their quest to acquire more ad revenue, user base and data. They cannot have one set of standards for the first world and another for the rest of the world. Siege of Capitol Hill was a glimpse of how abdication of responsibility by tech giants can lead to subversion of democracy and free society. For now the US seems to have overcome it but in a similar situation not every country can. </p><div>* I kept this short because I have already written on <a href="https://xpensieve.blogspot.com/2018/09/tech-giants-need-to-take-their-societal.html" target="_blank">tech giants' social responsibilities</a> in my previous post two years back.</div>Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-78667108340459958972018-09-17T01:57:00.004+05:302018-09-17T01:57:58.701+05:30Tech Giants Need To Take Their Societal Responsibilities More Seriously <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Over the decade social media platforms have grown phenomenally, in early years there were comparisons of user base of Facebook, for example, with the population of the US and then with India's and China's but now that the number has reached 2 billion and growing that particular metric has been discarded. It is no longer about the numbers alone now but the volume of information being disseminated on them which is pretty much eclipsing traditional media and becoming the dominant space for all kind of discourses globally and especially political discourses.With such monopoly over information dissemination and ability to impact societies and polities significantly it is but natural that governments and the political system would turn their attention towards them and some of them seem to be happening lately. </div>
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When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testified in the US Congressional hearing over interference in 2016 US election it was found that the US lawmakers were largely clueless about technology they were discussing and Zuckerberg emerged largely unscathed. However, things seems to have changed, last week's testimony of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/technology/jack-dorsey-sheryl-sandberg-congress-hearings.html" target="_blank">Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey</a> was somewhat different with both (Jack Dorsey more so) opening up to the challenges they face and partly conceding that there have been lapses on their part to ensure bad actors did not take advantage of their platforms. However, this has not come in isolation, there have been some other interesting developments lately. </div>
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Last month, in what is <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">a first of its kind <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/08/removing-myanmar-officials/" target="_blank">Facebook deleted dozens of governmental accounts</a>, in this case the accounts belonged to Myanmar's military and political leaders including its commander-in-chief who have all been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45318982" target="_blank">accused of genocide in a UN report</a> which was followed by condemnation of the Myanmar government by various other world leaders. Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-weve-removed-hundreds-of-posts-under-german-hate-speech-law/" target="_blank">Facebook deleted accounts to comply with Germany's new anti-online hate speech law</a>, NetzDG, which imposes fines on the platforms that hate speech is being propagated on. Then there is the case of <a href="http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/400767-tech-giants-are-right-to-purge-alex-jones-from-platforms" target="_blank">Alex Jones and his InfoWars being banned</a> from nearly all platforms, including Twitter which seemed quite reluctant to follow the other tech giants until the pressure from users seemed to become insurmountable. But why should someone like me even be talking about Alex Jones ? He may be the biggest American conspiracy theorists and peddler of fake news but his actions have relatively little impact outside the USA. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The answer is, all tech giants are American companies, and react mostly when content being shared on their services and networks seem to have adverse impact on American society or their close allies. After all, serious introspection on how information was being weaponized on their networks was taken seriously only after the allegations of Russian interference in 2016 elections began surfacing. In the meantime, hate speech and even calls for genocide on online platforms were being carried in other countries without any action being taken against them. As a matter of fact ,the same UN report on Myanmar, after which Facebook deleted the official accounts also says </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">that given its dominance in information dissemination in the South-East Asian country, </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-n-says-facebook-slow-respond-myanmar-genocide-against-rohingya-n904056" target="_blank">Facebook did little to prevent hate speech</a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> being propagated on its network. </span></div>
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With US political establishment breathing down their neck (their President may be singing a different tune), these companies may be better able to check fake news and hate speech in the US user segment but can they and are they willing to be as proactive in rest of the world. Ironically, while Americans may still be watching cable news channels and visiting pay walled news sites, for a disproportionately largely number of population equipped<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> with cheap smartphones, </span>in poor and developing countries, social media remains the dominant source of information. And it is in these segments that bad actors can and are gaming the system to do substantial damage to social cohesion by propagating fake news and hate speech. Does that mean there should be laws to govern these companies ? Of course, being American private companies Facebook,Twitter, Google are subject to the US laws which I am given to believe may be able to look at the business aspect of it but not really the content part. Then comes the tricky part, can these companies be subjected to remove content by legislations in other countries as seen in the case of Germany's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz" target="_blank">NetzDG</a> ?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Compared to US and Europe Facebook adoption is growing at a rapid pace in Asia-Pacific region (Source: <a href="https://dazeinfo.com/2018/08/20/facebook-users-by-region-dgraph/">https://dazeinfo.com/2018/08/20/facebook-users-by-region-dgraph/</a> )</td></tr>
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It is undoubtedly a slippery slope. There are far too many autocracies (even if they claim to be otherwise) in the world than liberal democracies and even these are now becoming endangered. If such regimes are allowed to have a say in the regulation of content on social networks, it could very well mean stifling any voice of dissent against the ruling regimes. Further, it is not always dissenters or fringe groups that advocate hate online. The fact that Facebook deleted Myanmar government's official account for propagating hate speech and incitement to violence against a section of the population clearly indicates that ruling regimes can misuse the platform for nefarious ends. It is high time that these social networks to get more proactive in enforcing their own community standards and rules. They should remember that they might ban Alex Jones an American individual but every segment world wide has their own Alex Jones, who go unpunished because the platforms either lack the will or ability to detect them. It is imperative that the tech giants come up with more robust and intelligent means of countering bad actors using platforms to spread fake information, creating hatred and irreparably damaging social cohesion. </div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-33899605785769334392018-08-05T00:49:00.000+05:302018-08-17T02:11:19.319+05:30Aadhaar Challenge: A Perception Battle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Lately my Twitter timeline has been providing me with some sort of amusement at what seems to be a counter-campaign by the UIDAI and its supporters to control the narrative or at least fight the perception battle to the relentless anti-Aadhaar campaign being run on the micro-blogging platform by online activists since last few years. It has perhaps became important for UIDAI to take initiative as the discourse on Twitter has largely been controlled by those opposed to it and a part of the mainstream media, since the media inevitably picks up the dominant narrative on Twitter. Also, with the Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar coming out any time, it might have seemed imperative for the UIDAI to undo some damage to the reputation of the Authority on social media, which would undoubtedly be important if the Court makes the Aadhaar truly voluntary. Whatever be the motivation, the fact is there is a Twitter war over Aadhaar in progress and its an interesting one. </span><br />
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For those unawares, since some time now, a number of computer security researchers, lawyers, hackers, activists and ordinary citizens have been actively campaigning against Aadhaar on social media, especially on Twitter and UIDAI and its supporters have been countering them but the confrontation was taken to an entirely new level when the TRAI chairman, <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/trai-chief-reveals-aadhar-number-twitter-challenge-draws-criticism/story-9F3V2YHSS6X4N5HuV6TeyM.html" target="_blank">RS Sharma tweeted out his own <span style="color: #454545;">Aadhaar</span> number daring</a> critics to "harm" him using it. What followed has already been covered in the mainstream media, his personal information including primary phone number, address, PAN card number, email address, even frequent flier number and more were published on the Internet by a number of users. Mr. Sharma's retort was that all information published was already in public domain and only required some research rather than hacking using his UID number. </div>
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I am inclined to think that Mr. Sharma was taking this as a classical hacking challenge (as he is highly educated himself) or trying to portray a picture, where hackers are caricatured as misanthropes wearing hoodies,face masks,sunglasses breaking into any high security system with a few keystrokes. Such hackers, do exist although they would take considerable time to hack a highly secure system but more importantly I have no reason to believe that they would publicize their success instead of stealthily exploiting the system to gain maximum benefit, monetary and otherwise. Even hacktivist collective like the Anonymous have made their attacks public only after causing extensive damage. Then, currently the most advanced hackers are usually backed by one nation-state or another and in many cases, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/09/hackers-lie-in-wait-after-penetrating-us-and-europe-power-grid-networks/" target="_blank">after gaining access to vital infrastructure,they seem to just sit there waiting</a> for the opportune moment to strike. If at all any of the supporters were expecting a full scale breach of the Aadhaar security system and a public disclosure then they are obviously delusional.<br />
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Then there are security researchers or white hat hackers who typically tend to probe for security vulnerabilities in systems and bring those to the notice of the concerned authorities. Some of these researchers have been active on Twitter highlighting flaws in Aadhaar ecosystem, one in particular going by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson (<a href="https://twitter.com/fs0c131y" target="_blank">@fs0c131y</a>) has <a href="https://www.medianama.com/2018/03/223-french-security-researcher-shows-how-to-bypass-password-protection-on-maadhaar-app-again/" target="_blank">claimed of having cracked the mAadhaar mobile app</a> and was also around the centre of the whole RS Sharma episode. Elliot and a few security researchers claim to have found Mr. Sharma's mobile number using his AADHAAR number, it is with this number that a lot of his personal details were made public. Now for the sake of argument I am willing to accept Mr Sharma's contention that they found Mr. Sharma's phone number on government website and used it to collect personal information from different resources and pieced together to form his personality profile, as it only confirms the charge that personal data on the Internet can be collected comprehensively enough to identify individuals in offline world and cause harm through fraud, intimidation and harassment. After all rest of the people don't really have the privilege of Mr. Sharma who insists he wasn't harmed. Moreover, lot of our personal data also resides in different data silos with companies that may not be willing to give out non-anonymised data to others and certainly not to individuals. More importantly, they give (or so they say) control over our data, who we share our information with and also the option to delete the data. </div>
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But isn't Aadhaar an entirely opposite thing ? It is essentially a highly centralized biometric database of nearly the entire Indian population and unlike other systems it is indeed linked to a number of services that transact with it, even if the transaction is simplistic. I haven't come across any information on their having been a breach of the central database compromising biometric data but there have been enough reports on Aadhaar-seeded data having been used to create surveillance mechanism, one example coming from the top of my head being <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2018/04/25/aadhaar-seeding-fiasco-how-to-geo-locate-every-minority-family-in-ap-with-one-click_a_23419643/" target="_blank">Andhra Pradesh government website creating a 360 degree surveillance mechanism</a> of its citizens which was leaking data like a faucet. However, before proceeding further, I should confess that few years back I did believe Aadhaar (as long as voluntary) was a great initiative,even writing a post on it merits in this very blog (but now it is deleted). At the time when big data was exploding on technological arena and there were ideas floating around how it could be leveraged to solve social problems it did seem a tremendous idea,using biometric data to enable banking and streamlining PDS to floating populations and those in geographically remote regions seemed an exciting prospect. </div>
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But I was looking at it from a purely technological perspective blinded completely to the complexities, inherent flaws in the approach and sheer disregard for human dignity that accompanied this initiative. I suspect that a lot of technocrats aggressively pushing for Aadhaar continue to be blindsided to its ill effects. Of course, since I was merely a passive supporter with no personal interests whatsoever, my blinders were quick to be taken off when it's flaws were pointed out by activists but those looking for techno-utopia would be too high on themselves to reflect on whether it could actually lead to a dystopia. Of course, people who are busy doing things that they believe would change the world seldom stop to think if they should. The mindless seeding of the Aadhaar has turned it into an unbridled beast (remember <a href="https://thewire.in/banking/airtel-aadhaar-uidai" target="_blank">Airtel bank scam</a>), but that is just one aspect of it. The other problems include <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/aadhaar-enabling-a-form-of-supersurveillance/article22444686.ece" target="_blank">control, surveillance</a> and <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/excluded-by-aadhaar-4689083/" target="_blank">exclusion</a> that it enables but I will not discuss them here, there are loads of interesting articles on the web explaining them and this post is getting lengthier. One particular resource I would recommend you to check out is <a href="https://medium.com/karana">https://medium.com/karana</a> </div>
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As a matter of fact, I think instead of throwing a Twitter "dare" RS Sharma and other UIDAI supporters making point by point rebuttal to these articles would have been far more mature way of countering the narrative which was the topic I was writing on but digressed! Interestingly, before I got around to publishing this piece, my Twitter timeline got interesting once again as a lot of Indian users began tweeting after discovering that <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/people-find-uidai-helpline-number-added-to-their-contacts-body-says-it-is-wrong-5290239/" target="_blank">UIDAI toll free number was suddenly on their phone's contact list</a>. In response the UIDAI <a href="https://twitter.com/UIDAI/status/1025311671764623360" target="_blank">tweeted</a> implying that some "vested interests" were behind the operation and the number was not legit. By evening Google India issued a statement taking blame for including the number in its Android Setup Wizard in 2014 and consequently it was synced with Google Contact apps. Clearly a Google now has to answer lot of questions rather than just issuing a statement, it remains to be seen. The UIDAI perhaps doesn't need to answer why it initially thought some "vested interest" were behind pushing the number to everyone's contact list. The plausible explanation would be that they are in an aggressive mode in the perception battle on social media and this was a nervous reaction, quite understandable. </div>
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P.S. <i>I have tried to keep this post light and social media-centric, for some actual reading on Aadhaar please click on the inline links. </i></div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-70047043751335626232018-08-02T02:08:00.002+05:302021-01-14T01:30:28.889+05:30Rumours, Psychographics And Social Media<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">What do the Cambridge Analytica scandal, alleged Russian interference in 2016 US elections, Brexit, rise of right wing ideologies around the world and mob lynching of more than 20 people in India based on WhatsApp rumours have in common ? Of course it is the peddling of fake news through the social media platforms that have now become ubiquitous across the classes and demographic segments. The bigger question though is how and why these misinformation campaigns originate and spread and how this malicious threat can be checked.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">So, let us talk about WhatsApp rumours fueled mob lynchings in India first mostly because they seem simplistic to understand than the Cambridge Analytica controversy and the alleged misinformation campaign being waged on democratic institutions. This year alone there have been around </span><a href="https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/more-than-20-lynched-over-child-lifting-rumours-in-2018-here-s-why-mob-justice-is-prevailing-348559.html" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;" target="_blank">20 deaths by mob lynching</a><span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;"> in various parts of India based on WhatsApp messages identifying random people as child lifters which has led the recipients to think they are law unto themselves and carry out ghastly murders. Mob lynching in India has been happening in India quite frequently and anyone not living under a rock should be quite aware of it but what is different now is that these incidents have been happening in different parts of the country and the victims don't necessarily fall into the segments of minorities or marginalized classes. This is perhaps what led the Indian government to call on the Facebook-owned platform to take action to prevent the spread of these malicious and life-threatening messages. </span><br />
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</span> <span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">WhatsApp has a market of 200 million users in India so it has every reason to take note of the situation. As of now, WhatsApp seems to have come up with some solutions such as limiting the number of messages that can be forwarded to groups, labeling forwarded messages as such. But the question remains, can a technological solution especially on a closed ecosystem such as WhatsApp really help? Moreover, not only are the messages private, WhatsApp claims to offer an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform and if it stays true to its promise it has no way of knowing if a particular message is fake, hate-speech or just another dumb joke. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">As some <a href="https://thenextweb.com/in/2018/07/04/india-must-blame-itself-not-whatsapp-for-its-devastating-lynching-spree/" target="_blank">tech news sites have pointed out</a>, the problem is not so much technological as it is social. One of the pertinent points is that messages on WhatsApp don't go viral because of any algorithm but because the users proactively propagate them. With 200 million users and more being added every day how do you regulate content in such large volume without the ability to screen them ? And if the users themselves are amplifying these messages doesn't it reflect that the problem lies with the society more than the platform itself ? After all, one of the victims in Tripura was a <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/884704/tripura-mob-lynches-anti-rumour-campaigner-two-others-on-suspicion-of-child-lifting" target="_blank">person hired by the government</a> to spread awareness on the dangers of rumours and fake news being spread over WhatsApp! The Supreme Court of India taking cognizance of the menace <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-judgment-condemns-recent-incidents-of-lynching/article24440041.ece" target="_blank">has asked the Parliament to enact laws to curb this evil</a> but it really falls on the law enforcement agencies to ensure that that this kind of violence is check by taking swift and preventive actions. However, it is the society as a whole that can actually stop these kinds of crimes from happening. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">Now, the Cambridge Analytica scandal which may seem old news, the firm itself has now winded up but is the methodology an approach it used going to die with it ? Despite so much conversation, debates,criticism and even the Congressional hearing of Zuckerberg I find popular discourse focus more on how to make user data more secure and relatively less on how to combat that data is being weaponized. In fact this week itself Facebook has identified,announced and reportedly taken action against <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/31/17635288/facebook-russia-influence-us-midterm-election-meddling" target="_blank">social media campaigns to interfere in US midterm elections</a>. What Cambridge Analytica did was siphon off a huge amount of personal data of Facebook users and create psychographic segmentation to micro-target voters with specially crafted messages. Now data protection is undoubtedly a very important issue and there are various aspects to it including the fact that nearly all user data is now in the hands of a few Internet companies making it an alarming situation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">However, efforts are on to ensure that there are some safeguards against collection and misuse of data, GDPR (which I must admit to having not understood in entirety) being the latest and powerful measure. A lot is already being written about it and discussed in various forums so I am not dwelling on it much here with the hope that global community will eventually make efforts to secure data protection. But then data is the lifeblood of Internet economy so things are unlikely to change completely, hence the question on how data is being weaponized as fake news and used against the very people it belongs to.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">The revelations from Cambridge Analytica scandal makes an interesting case study and even if the firm no longer exists, the methodology would surely survive. Psychographic segmentation approach has been around for quite some time but with huge amount of user data taken from Facebook Cambridge Analytica was able to create highly accurate personality profiles of the users which was then used in micro-targeting campaigns. In fact the <a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/we-know-what-you-want-before-you-want-it/" target="_blank">Cambridge Analytica CEO reportedly claimed that they had about to 5000 data points on users </a>that could be used to craft messages that directly appeal to the user's core personality traits and motivating triggers. In effect, it means exploiting even the hidden psychological traits such as xenophobia, bigotry, misogyny and repeatedly targeting them with subliminal messages that reinforced these traits and perhaps even bring about behavioral change as the elections approached. It is interesting to note that while Obama election campaign <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/positively-media/201803/how-cambridge-analytica-mined-data-voter-influence" target="_blank">leveraging the power of social media and analytics</a> which was widely hailed as a great move , Trump's campaign continues to be under the shadow, the reason being while the former used data with consent and traditional messaging methods (much like companies such as Google,Amazon do) the latter's campaign agencies are suspected of acquiring Facebook users data by conceit and then using them in a most insidious manner to manipulate user behaviour especially in context to voting. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">When I say insidious what I mean is the process of creating echo chambers using fake news to reinforce people's prejudices, insecurity, hatred and coalesce them into groups which further make them vulnerable to believe every shred of fake news that confirmed their bias. Of course, thousands of news websites and media portals always exist to inundate people with information that fuel their prejudices. And it is not just one segment only, actors carrying on misinformation campaigns tend to also target groups which they may not be favourable towards. For instance, Russians have been accused of <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/4/10/17219676/facebook-black-lives-matter-page-fake" target="_blank">posing as members of Black Lives Matter</a> and Muslim groups on Facebook, ostensibly to further create schism among the voters and lead to more consolidation among White supremacists a key segment among Trump supporters. If indeed Russia interfered in the US election 2016 or not, the damage is done and I am not talking only about Trump leading the US backwards. The other big damage is that a large section of American people appear to have lost trust on their electoral process which is evident in their reluctance to accept Trump as their rightfully elected President or the Russia-Trump collusion </span></span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">scepter</span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> wouldn't still be hanging. Then there is this curious global phenomenon of large number of people trusting only those information that confirms their bias, perpetually living in their own echo chambers which is a disturbing trend since a lot of information they (or rather we) consume tend to be fake.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">Where are these echo chambers located ? Of course on social media platforms, primarily, Facebook, WhatsApp , YouTube and Twitter. Since we have now become passive consumers of information, not actively seeking out news but simply following what is topmost on our social feed, motivated actors find it easy to manipulate their way through algorithms to make their messages reach us. Facebook in particular has drawn a lot of flak for not doing enough to counter to fake news though it has lately been assuring that it is putting up mechanisms including AI as well as manual fact checkers to demote fake news and hate speech but can it really keep its business model intact and suppress content it considers fake or hateful ? Can it really distinguish between satires ( think Onion) and outright fake content or for that matter what if it flags content from dissenters in authoritarian regimes whose only outlet to the world is through social media. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit; font-size: 17px;">As it is, currently the actors backed by regimes have plenty of resources to spread misinformation or propaganda on social media without impunity. It is indeed a difficult task even if there weren't questions on the priorities of the social media giants and there are quite a few. While Twitter has been accused of not doing enough to suspend handles spewing hate and fake news, Facebook seems fine to accommodate pages which border on loony right wing conspiracy theories websites like info wars. Even if it banned Alex Jones personal account for 30 days this week, the Facebook page is still operational. Furthermore, Zuckerberg while admitting that he personally finds Holocaust denial offensive finds <a href="https://www.recode.net/2018/7/18/17588116/mark-zuckerberg-clarifies-holocaust-denial-offensive" target="_blank">no problem with allowing the platform to Holocaust deniers</a> which <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/18/opinions/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-holocaust-denial-lipstadt-opinion/index.html" target="_blank">says a lot </a>about his efforts to fight fake news and hate speech. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps, it is time for the Internet giants, especially Facebook,Google and Twitter to consider that principles in their Community Standards ought not mean giving equal treatment to fascist leaning actors and their activities and the rest of the users,they wouldn't even have come into existence or grown so large in a fascist society. Social media came into existence as digital manifestation of a free society, allowing it to be run over by radicals of different hues with clear fascistic tendencies may for the time being see growth in revenue but only for a short period, it's effect in the real world would ultimately effect these companies as adversely. Facebook has already lost <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/26/facebook-market-cap-falls-109bn-dollars-after-growth-shock" target="_blank">3 million active users in Europe</a> and its growth is stalling, leading to plummeting of its valuation where it lost $119 billion. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">Finally, this does not absolve the society from its reluctance to address deep rooted prejudices and hatred that allows its members to kill innocent people based on WhatsApp rumours or elect despots based on imaginary fears </span></span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">fueled</span></span><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> by social media messaging which cause rift in social cohesion in society, between nation states, demonization of "others" or simply apathy for sufferings of fellow human beings. I am hugely </span></span><span style="font-size: 17px;">skeptical</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> of new </span></span><span style="font-size: 17px;">legislation</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> to crack down on fake news on social media, lest oppressive regimes misuse them to stifle well meaning dissenters and activists by simply </span></span><span style="font-size: 17px;">labeling</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> them as such. It is the society that needs to heal itself or we are heading back to the age of tribal bloodletting, this time riding on our latest and cutting-edge technology. </span></span></span></div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-24132369497263844302017-10-26T19:34:00.001+05:302017-10-31T14:52:30.288+05:30Risks of Artificial Intelligence: Real or Imaginary ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">For those having grown up watching sci-fi movies , especially those with apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic genre like the Terminator, The Matrix series and even 2001: A Space Odyssey the current trend in technological advancement towards Artificial Intelligence can give a sense of déjà vu. But then the celluloid world is quite different from the real one especially in the "apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic" genre. However, when one of the greatest theoretical physicist alive, Stephen Hawking and technologists and space-age entrepreneur Elon Musk raise alarm on unchecked development of artificial intelligence being a threat to our kind, it is not irrational to pause and wonder if we are on the right track. </span><br />
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So can the Skynet become self-aware ? Or Deus Ex Machina conclude that humans can be enslaved and harvested for thermal energy ? Can a superintelligent machine come into existence and conclude humans are a burden on the planet ? Of course these are fantastical scenarios or at least scenarios we shouldn't be concerned about immediately but it is a fact that many nation-states are developing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethal_autonomous_weapon" target="_blank">Lethal Autonomous Weapons</a> to be deployed in conflict zones. Apparently the final decision making authority still rests with human operators but the natural progression leads to developing combat robots or drones that can correctly assess the situation and take the decision themselves. If the very idea of developing artificial intelligence is that these machines can perform jobs far more swiftly and efficiently than humans, it is but natural that they would be deemed to perform better in battlefields too.<br />
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However, we have already seen combat drones or unmanned combat aerial vehicles kill disproportionately large number of civilians and destroy properties across combat zones even with human control. It is debatable if lethal autonomous weapons can indeed distinguish between real threats and innocent civilians, especially in complex conflict situations. After all, precision here is not just algorithmic output but human lives and properties. Then there are apprehensions that once LAWs go mainstream there is good probability of them being falling into the hands of rogue actors leading to very dangerous outcomes. ISIS did manage to acquire and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/use-of-weaponized-drones-by-isis-spurs-terrorism-fears/2017/02/21/9d83d51e-f382-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.7fe6c66aef9e" target="_blank">use drones</a> to drop bombs on government troops. True, it was a small and rudimentary UAV when compared with those deployed by nation-states and the terror group is nearly finished, but it does not alter the fact that military technology has a way of finding itself in the hands of rogue actors. It is this kind of inherent risk that technologists like Elon Musk have been warning about when they talk of probability of AI triggering the next World War. <br />
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Another aspect of AI application which raises my concerns is how big businesses adopting machine learning and advanced algorithms are affecting our everyday life. True, in many instances such as conducting medical diagnosis, transport services, climate change studies and many other fields AI can deliver astounding results but at what cost ? I am ignoring the question of job losses for brevity's sake and instead focusing on how this trend is likely to affect our private lives. Let us not forget that after being in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter" target="_blank">AI winter</a> for a pretty long time, "thinking machines" found renewed interest in themselves after corporations developed interests in them. And corporates tend to show interest in technologies that can give them maximum profit. Then there is the other aspect, data-mining and analysis by big Internet companies leaving us way too vulnerable when it comes to our public and private lives. </div>
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Companies like Google, Facebook and other smaller players are sitting over a treasure trove of user data involving our likes and preferences, interpersonal relationships, purchasing behaviour, movement and other details of our everyday activities. This is the kind of data that machine learning requires to truly come up with accurate insights and intelligence. No wonder Google and Facebook are aggressively integrating or rather substituting existing systems with AI in all branches. Interestingly, the major focus on developing AI by these platforms are on "neural net", a model based on the understanding of how the human brain functions. Naturally, perception is of special interest to the designers, with "trained" algorithms now capable of processing natural language, speech recognition, facial recognition, identifying objects in a photo and even facial expressions, we could say we have the makings of neural nets in place.</div>
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From end user perspective we are already being influenced, whether consciously or subconsciously, in decisions we make online and offline such as who to connect with, what to buy, where to visit and more. As algorithms become more intelligent and autonomous or semi-autonomous there is a good chance that our online behaviour would be far more influenced by these intelligent algorithms, affecting our own autonomy in making conscious decisions. In effect, users become something like micro-organisms in the gut of this large artificial creature which actually knows and suggests what we want, pretty much deciding it for ourselves. Deus Ex Machina ? </div>
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On the positive side, these advancement can help make our lives easier and productive as well as affect our interpersonal relationships. Remember how Google helps us find relevant information in matters of seconds and how Facebook has helped us stay connected with friends separated by distance and time ? But this new paradigm brings with it its own problems. The idea of losing my autonomy even subconsciously scares me and should scare everyone who care about freedom to make our own choices even if an agency guarantees to make better choices than we do. Then, machine learning depends on data which in this case is user-generated data and likely to include the same bias and prejudices inherent in our society. The worse part is these systems are created and maintained by profit making organisations, so it is difficult to know where the parameters of "what is best for us" overlaps and gives way to "what is best for the company". Now, of course we can always avoid using products of these tech companies (I avoid Facebook but Google for me is not an option, this very blog is on Google owned platform). </div>
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But even those who can afford to avoid using these services or use them securely (anonymous accounts , VPN, encrypted emails) there still remains the issue of governments using their abundant resources to spy on own citizens and those of countries of interest. Post-Wikileaks dumps we are pretty much clear to what extent US Intelligence agencies could go to intercept electronic communications and even use back doors to access computer systems. It would be pertinent to remind of the ongoing tussle between US administration and Apple over the latter's cryptography standard. I haven't come across much information on what countries like China, Russia <u>,</u>Israel and Japan are doing with AI in their security apparatus neither have I read on India's approach but I need to say that the drive to make Aadhaar ubiquitous in every aspect of life is a red flag. I can't even begin to enumerate the dangers, there are too many and dedicated folks are already doing a great job in highlighting the risks. I would urge you to check out the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23DestroyTheAadhaar" target="_blank">#DestroyTheAadhaar</a> or read up articles on web to find out more. In the present context, if the Aadhaar database is somehow accessible to interested agencies, they don't even have to use machine learning to make sense of the data. For instance, law enforcement agencies in the US and other countries are already using machine learning and CCTV camera footage to, among other things, identify people. Just reflect what governments and those with access to biometric database and machine learning in video surveillance can do to keep citizens under a magnifying glass. </div>
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Finally, from everything I have read in recent times, I don't get the feeling that artificial general intelligence with or without anthropomorphic features and capability to become superintelligent is arriving in the very near future, not because technology is not developing fast enough but because the progression is fragmented. However, unchecked advancement in the field in various sectors do raise questions over their safety. When Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and others say that AI needs to be regulated, they are undoubtedly correct regardless of what Zuckerberg and "non-<a href="https://gizmodo.com/why-nominating-ai-alarmists-for-this-years-luddite-aw-1749278661" target="_blank">Luddites</a>" might say. But the bigger question is who can be truly trusted to regulate the AI advancement? Not governments nor companies that make profit out of AI. A global consortium seems a bleak hope, especially after the recent divisiveness seen in the hitherto consensus-driven W3C and over the question of DRM. So who ? Your thoughts ? </div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-62763870040807005442016-10-26T04:38:00.001+05:302016-10-26T04:38:40.317+05:30Cyber Warfare And The Internet Of Things<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">Internet outage in the US and parts of Western Europe on Friday, after waves of cyberattacks on a major DNS host Dyn may not have made much news in India and other parts of the world but it is unlikely to be an one off incidence and something that if repeated is unlikely to affect the Internet users in the US only. The attack made some of the widely used web services and websites such as Twitter, Spotify, PayPal,Reddit,Github,CNN, WSJ and many other service inaccessible. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have been launched against websites since the time hackerdom came into existence but lately they have been becoming increasingly effective/disruptive with the use of botnets. However, what is really alarming is the fact this attack was carried out using botnet of not zombie computers but Internet connected devices including routers,webcams,DVS and commodities collectively called Internet of Things (IoT). </span><br />
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DDoS attacks are quite simple in essence and require the attackers to send junk requests to the servers in such a large magnitude that the servers are overwhelmed with the incoming traffic. Botnets or network of computers infected with malware to serve as zombie computers sending requests to particular IP address on receiving command have been used by hacker groups before. The hacker collective Anonymous has successfully targeted websites such as PayPal but as a means of protest and by publicly claiming it. However, this latest attack seems to much different as it attacked a high value DNS host (DNS servers translate user friendly domain names such as Twitter.com and direct traffic to corresponding IP address and forward requests) , so when this particular service was disrupted a whole group popular services were made inaccessible to a large number of users.<br />
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Clearly, this was an attempt to arbitrarily shut down part of the Internet rather than a political protest as seen before. After US accusations against Russia of carrying out cyberattacks on political organisations during the ongoing Presidential election campaign , it is not surprising to find many Americans speculating Russian involvement in it. It is unclear to me what exactly Russia can gain by causing outages in large parts of the USA for a day, surely if nation-states like Russia, US and China preparing for cyber warfare do decide to carry out attacks, they would seek to extract much heavier costs than a single day's outage. Yet, cyber criminal groups hired to probe the vulnerability of US' core Internet infrastructure sounds very feasible,the complexity in the operation suggest some level of cooperation. Officially the US has, as of yet, not blamed any country for the attacks and has instead pointed fingers at cyber criminals using a botnet of IoT to carry out the attacks which makes the future of cyber security look bleak. </div>
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Ironically, this attack comes very close on the heels of numerous warnings being raised by cyber security experts of an attack on these lines being more than probable. Just a month back a malware named Mirai had been dumped in public domain which could help hackers scan and hijack IoT devices and turn them into a botnet. The firepower of this botnet is so powerful that in earlier attacks the servers had been hit with traffic on the scale of 600gbps to 800gbps. Critical services providers may scale up their security measures but this new trend in DDoS attacks may make things unpredictable . Of course government agencies (all "responsible" governments) and critical Internet infrastructure hubs would scale up security measures but can they guarantee that no such outages occur in future, when the production of smart devices is growing at an exponential pace.<br />
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It is estimated that by 2020 there would be 50 billion connected products. It seems rather unlikely if security of connected products are sufficiently secure,since upgrades and security patches are not always accessible to consumers, more so if the devices are old even if very much active. Further, the commodity manufacturing industries as a rule prioritise rapid development of products so they can be released in the market before their competitors do. It follows that security testing of these "smart commodities" has to be lower on the priority list if they are to meet the deadline. Most consumers on their part remain oblivious to this security threat even when their devices are already hacked. </div>
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Further with developing countries like China which are dumping low cost smart devices in large quantities there is little scope to know how secure the products are. During the cyberattacks on Friday many of the targeted devices included webcam and digital recorders manufactured by Chinese firm <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/24/chinese-webcam-maker-recalls-devices-cyberattack-ddos-internet-of-things-xiongmai" target="_blank">Xiongmai which has since recalled some of its products</a> from US market. With such vulnerable smart devices being sold and source code of malware like Mirai available on web it shouldn't be very difficult for hacker groups to replicate the attack on other countries. But what should concern us more is if instead of DDoS attacks state-backed hackers go after the actual IoT devices and to inflict physical damage on users. From smart grids to smart cars to even connected pacemakers, security analysts have already demonstrated how vulnerable they are to dedicated groups of hackers. Here I must say by hackers I mean not only rogues but also cyber criminals working for nation-states or even part of a military establishment's cyber warfare cell. </div>
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That cyber warfare between countries is real has already been established, perhaps the first such demonstration was made by US-Israel's cyber weapon Stuxnet targeted against Iranian nuclear facilities nearly destroying a fifth of the latter's centrifuges and inflicted considerable setback to Iranian nuclear program. Russia's cyberattacks against Estonia and then Georgia during South Ossetia War indicated the country's preparedness for cyber warfare. China has often been accused of carrying out cyber espionage and even North Korea and Iran have been active in cyber warfare frontier. With so many powerful nations showing willingness to indulge in this new form of warfare that does not involve confrontation between armed forces but civilian infrastructure and civilians, it would be prudent to develop a mechanism of mutual restraint on the lines of conventional treaties but given the nature of this medium and current mutual mistrusts such a proposal at best be a pipe dream.</div>
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However, with this new trend of IoT botnet being used to carry out DDoS attack perhaps it is time to rectify platform fragmentation and get on board all stakeholders,especially manufacturers to follow a single set of security standards that also requires rigorous testing and auditing to minimise security vulnerabilities. Ambitious initiatives such as smart grids,smart home,smart cities have the potential of improving the quality of life of average citizen considerably but like all technological advancement they also are fraught with risks. Ironically the Internet evolved from what was initially a US military project and went on to democratise information and knowledge and eventually empowerment of individual. The Internet of Things is set to take this progression to an entirely new level. It would be a shame and a huge travesty if companies blinded by commercial interests inadvertently turn it to war machine. </div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-86944395554216209642016-09-15T02:37:00.002+05:302016-09-16T01:41:09.774+05:30Book Review : Harry Potter and The Cursed Child <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 17px;">For a long time I have been in two minds about writing a review of the Harry Potter series' latest instalment. The fact that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was made for the theatre and the book released is a script and not novel as the previous instalments were,did bother me even before I started reading it but what bothered more was the knowledge that even though the original story is by JK Rowling,the script was written by Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. But then as a Harry Potter fan, there was no way I was going to ignore this one. I have never reviewed a Harry Potter book on my blog before,this time I want to precisely because it is part of yet different from other books of the series.</span><br />
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Do note that I haven't seen the play,this review is of the script released in the book format and also that though I will try to avoid including spoilers,I don't offer an entirely spoiler free review especially in the first act.</div>
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The play begins retelling some of the parts already included in the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,the opening scene set to platform nine and three-quarters of King's Cross railway station as the 37 year old Harry is seeing off his two sons leave for Hogwarts on the all too familiar Hogwarts Express. Although,Harry's elder son James has already adapted well to the wizarding world, his younger son Albus Severus Potter is seemingly nervous and wonders what it would be like if he is sorted into Slytherin and not Gryffindor to which his entire family belonged. Although Harry tries to reassure him, there is a strong hint that Albus is already troubled with the idea that he would have to live up to his father's legacy and he resents it. In fact, one of the first act of rebellion he does is by striking up friendship with Scorpius Malfoy, son of Harry's school adversary and a former Death Eater,Draco Malfoy.<br />
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Further, because of a certain rumour, Scorpius is resented by nearly everyone else. Albus' fears of not being able to live up to his father's legacy is further reinforced when he is sorted into Slytherin House which also brings him closer to Scorpius. The next few scenes highlight the facts that Albus is struggling with studies, has little affinity for extra-curricular (read Quidditch) and his close friendship with Scorpius has made the duo extremely unpopular within Hogwarts. Harry because of his workload is unable to truly connect with Albus and their relationship strain until just before the start of Albus' fourth year at Hogwarts when things between them go horribly wrong. </div>
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Albus along with Scorpius resolves to embark upon his own adventure to correct what he perceives as mistake committed by Harry. As the story proceeds the boundary line between magical fantasy and science fiction become nearly indistinguishable as time traveling and alternative realities come into play. The time travel element is actually quite interesting since the writer introduces new characters but much of the action remains rooted in the past when the golden trio faced adventures as Hogwarts students and even Harry's first encounter with Voldemort. To reconcile these two periods,time travel provides an excellent plot device. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As a matter of fact, JK Rowling has used time traveling as a plot device in her third book,Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban but her treatment of the subject was such that it seemed purely in the realm of magic. But that is not the case in the Cursed Child, you could easily replace the magic device with a science fiction device and the story would flow without any hiccups. While I do realise that a script of a play doesn't give much liberty to create a magical environment (that's what the sets and effects are supposed to do on stage) at least the dialogues could have been less of the way <i>muggles </i>speak and more the way it is spoken in Hogwarts and in the wizarding world.</span></div>
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It is perhaps the dialogues that are so different from Rowling's original prose that at times this seems another work of fiction derived from Harry Potter series. Some fans have alleged that this reads more like a fan-fiction than original work and looking at the treatment meted out to some of the characters from previous books,I cannot disagree with them entirely. Now,I have always considered JK Rowling as a masterful story teller,though I hadn't been much of a fan of her prose but after reading this script one has to accept that it is her writing style that breathes magic into the Harry Potter series. The story of the Cursed Child may not match the standard of the rest of the series,it seems more like an experiment to introduce new characters without taking off the focus from the originals and as far as the story goes I found it quite likeable. It is the writing and execution of the plot that really seems to disappoint. And there are some major plot holes. No wonder the fans feel utterly let down and have been demanding a new book from Rowling <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">even if millions of books have been sold. </span>I too would like to join the chorus since this story clearly indicates that there is much scope to take the series further as long as author is solely wielding the quill.</div>
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So if you are a great fan of Harry Potter series, this is a book you might find enjoyable because of the nostalgia it evokes, even if it doesn't stand up to the mark the originals have already set. However, for those not much into Harry Potter series, and don't remember the stories of the previous books there is not much that this book has to offer. However,I must again emphasise that this is a review of the script only,I do have a strong feeling that the staged production maybe a completely different thing and much more enjoyable (unfortunately,I don't think I would be able to watch it anytime in the near future).</div>
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<script async="" src="//affiliate.flipkart.com/affiliate/widgets/FKAffiliateWidgets.js"></script><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rating : 3/5</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Language : English</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Publisher :Little,Brown</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Originally Published : July 31, 2016</span></b><br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-11672420356594291242016-03-06T00:24:00.000+05:302016-03-09T05:26:37.133+05:30Kanhaiya Kumar: One Trick Pony Or Rising Political Star<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar has suddenly become a political sensation with prominent TV news anchors and journalists lining up to interview him and politicians across party lines giving sound bytes on live TV. Of course it followed his electrifying speech in JNU campus, hours after being released from jail which was broadcast by most TV channels and went viral with #KanhaiyaKumar trending globally on Twitter and his speech on YouTube, websites and other social media platforms getting millions of hits. Some pundits were quick to pronounce the birth of a new political star but one of the sanest voices in Indian media, Ravish Kumar actually asked the question, partly to Kanhaiya whom he was interviewing and partly to the viewers, if the student leaders new found fame is a flash in the pan or there is a possibility of it becoming something bigger. Though Kanhaiya made a brilliant and noble plea to delink personalities and individuals (especially himself) from battle between ideologies and principles, it is but a fact that it is because of his oratory skill that he is in the spotlight today,the political dynamics of the country have become too personality driven to be wished away.<br />
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Also let us not forget that Kanhaiya has been in news for last three weeks, first being labeled as an anti national then drawing sympathy for being victim of vindictive system that first charged him for sedition based on doctored video clip and then being lynched by the ruling party's rough necks in black robes within the court premises even as the police turned a blind eye towards what was a clear violation of the Supreme Court's directive to ensure his security. But it was <a href="https://youtu.be/yS9AX8rvYhg" target="_blank">his fiery speech</a> delivered in JNU campus and beamed by most TV channels right into our living rooms that made him an icon overnight. There was an apprehension that 20 days in jail, mob attack and an interim bail for 6 months with conditions that virtually put him at the mercy of the police and central government might have mellowed him down but what he delivered was a blistering attack on the BJP/RSS, the likes of which have rarely been seen. Yet he managed to avoid crossing the fine line which could have landed him in jail again by using wit, sarcasm and most importantly undeniable facts. Clearly the might of the government as well as the highly condemnable physical as well as verbal violence of its supporters, far from softening the student leader had in fact made him more resolute. However, it is not just resolve and conviction, Kanhaiya seems to have emerged from the jail with a kind of political maturity that has left a credible impact on the ongoing national political discourse.<br />
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Hence the question arises, would he make forays into mainstream politics and if he does, can he make a mark? CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury announced that Kanhaiya would campaign for the Left Front in the upcoming state election. However Kanhaiya hasn't indicated his readiness and if he remains as cool headed as he was on Thursday night, he is more likely to let it pass. Let's not forget his now famous speech was markedly different from his earlier statements as well as the kind of rhetoric left-wing student activists often offer. While winning the post of the president of JNUSU despite being fielded by a relatively weaker student organization AISF, Kanhaiya Kumar has demonstrated amazing talent for being able to reach out to people beyond his own base. This seems to be also the case in his speech which was aimed at reaching out to the masses through the media and not just address to his leftist supporters or JNU students. Despite the customary and highly charged leftist slogans and "lal salaams", his eloquent oration with a rustic tinge was mainly against the BJP/RSS dispensation as well as ideology because of which he was able to instantly connect with millions of people from different sections, parties and ideologies as well as people who had voted for the BJP but were now getting disillusioned.<br />
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So it seems unlikely that a budding politician earning overnight fame after single-handedly taking on the Sangh and making them bite the dust would like to campaign in states like West Bengal and Kerala where BJP is virtually non-essential and the fight is mainly between the Congress and the Left Front (TMC in case of West Bengal). As of yet he has unflinching support of nearly all opposition parties with at least one Congress leader comparing him with Che Guevara but campaigning in WB election would erode the new-found support from not only Congress but also from most of the regional parties and their supporters. Given the dwindling support base of the Left parties among voters, Kanhaiya would be spending hard earned political capital very cheaply. At the same time, if he doesn't campaign and remains out of public space for a long time, he is likely to be forgotten in a matter of months. That's quite a dilemma but having seen a sample of the political maturity in Kanhaiya Kumar, it shouldn't surprise one to find him staying out of electoral politics for the time being but continue to occupy space in political discourse which can seriously damage BJP's image and poll prospects by 2019 elections. Bounty placed on Kanhaiya's head (and tongue) by fringe Sangh outfits and BJP/RSS continued efforts to take control of universities, muzzle dissenting voices would ensure that he does.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jvwJ1c-wFYQ/Vt9kak3G87I/AAAAAAAAKo8/V1m1cB7XLVI/s1600/protest-occupyUGC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jvwJ1c-wFYQ/Vt9kak3G87I/AAAAAAAAKo8/V1m1cB7XLVI/s320/protest-occupyUGC.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Police crackdown on OccupyUGC movement protesters</td></tr>
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After all crackdown on JNU students was not an isolated incident even if it was drastic one, there is a pattern of the government, on request of ABVP, interfering in university campuses and asking the administration to come down hard on dissenting students. In May 2015, Dalits group Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle of IIT Madras was derecognized for criticizing PM Modi after the Dean received a letter from the Union HRD ministry. However, the group was reinstated after widespread protests but by then the Occupy UGC movement had begun to protest against UGC's decision on scrapping of non-NET Fellowship for research scholars. The <a href="http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/police-crackdown-on-occupy-ugc-protesters/" target="_blank">protesters led mostly by JNU students were mercilessly thrashed by the Delhi police</a>. Then came the Hyderabad Central University suspended student/researcher Rohith Vemula's suicide. Despite her award winning speech in the Parliament the fact remains that Minister of Human Resource Development <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/respond-to-vip-complaint-smriti-iranis-ministry-told-hyderabad-university-1267496" target="_blank">Smriti Irani sent 5 letters to the HCU</a> to investigate a clash between ABVP and Ambedkar Students Association but what is horrendous is that the subject of the letter clearly implied that the ASA members were to be viewed as casteists and anti-national. As a result the accused students suspension was confirmed, their stipends frozen and they were socially boycotted in the campus. Unable to cope up, a bright Dalit researcher, Rohith Vemula committed suicide.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u0TZLSwOvog/Vt9ZwqP788I/AAAAAAAAKos/snt_-ukLNco/s1600/rohith-and-kk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u0TZLSwOvog/Vt9ZwqP788I/AAAAAAAAKos/snt_-ukLNco/s320/rohith-and-kk.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rohith Vemula and Kanhaiya Kumar - victims of an arrogant regime</td></tr>
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The baton was picked up by several other university student unions but JNU in particular (Rohith Vemula's name has been constantly revoked though some hear it as Afzal ) and JNU was already on the radar of the BJP/RSS/ABVP. Now everyone knows what has been going on in JNU since February 9, but none of us actually know who raised those anti-India slogans, who doctored the video to implicate Kanhaiya and why no arrests have been made in either case! Now, the ABVP is gunning for the head of the first female President of the Allahabad University Students Union, perhaps because she does not subscribe to the RSS ideology. So for Kanhaiya and other student leaders resisting the strong arm tactics of the government there are whole lot of issues to fight for and influence public opinion without getting into electoral politics. For now.<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-10803002535046160602016-02-28T03:10:00.001+05:302016-02-29T01:40:30.126+05:30The Revenant - A Brutal And Beautiful Saga Of Survival And Revenge <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Revenant <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(n. One who has returned, as if from the dead.)</span></td></tr>
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After earning Oscar for Birdman, director Alejandro G Iñárritu comes up with another masterpiece, The Revenant, a movie on the legendary American frontiersman and fur trapper Hugh Glass whose gritty survival story is brought to life by the absolutely brilliant performance by Leonardo DiCaprio, excellent direction by Iñárritu and the overall outstanding effort of his crew members. And when I say brought to life I mean it. The movie is executed so flawlessly that it draws the viewers into the torturous ordeal of Glass as he suffers from tremendous violence of wild nature and savagery and malice of fellow-humans to the point of death but returns overcoming untold hardship with an unyielding zeal to survive and extract revenge.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Partly based on Michael Punke's book <i>The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge</i>, the story begins with flashback glimpses of the protagonist Hugh Glass' tragic past as he along with his half-native son Hawk (half-Pawnee Indian from mother's side) guides a company of American frontiersmen fur trappers through the icy cold wilderness where they come under sudden attack from a tribe of local natives (Arikara Indians whose chief's daughter has been kidnapped) . A gory battle ensues which leaves three-fourths of the party dead and the rest escape on the boat but abandon it on advice of Glass and start trekking on foot. While alone Glass is severely mauled by a bear, clawed and bitten on chest, neck and back leaving him barely alive. Unable to carry him through difficult terrain, three members are left behind to look after him and give Glass a decent burial when the time comes. The unscrupulous John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy) betrays Glass, first trying to suffocate him to death but after being prevented from doing so by Hawk he murders Glass' son and leaves him half buried to die from wounds. But in doing so he inadvertently also gives Glass a strong reason to try to survive and seek revenge.<br />
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A severely wounded Glass' journey towards the fort clawing his way through miles of frozen rocks, enduring the biting frost, escaping a tribe of natives as well as a French expedition party, eating roots, live fish and raw bison liver with a gritty determination to survive. All of this could pass as yet another survival movie were it not for the brute realism with which the narrative flows. Well before the movie was released to world audience there were plenty of news stories on Iñárritu making his cast and crew members to shoot in hellish conditions which also led to some his crew members leave the project, the finished work makes it abundantly clear what they may have gone through to complete the filming. Leo in particular seems to have been made to relive some of the sufferings of the legendary figure he portrays. For the major part of the screen time Leo has very little dialogue apart from his groans, grunts and barely audible whispers because of the neck wound his character suffers in the bear attack. He communicates the physical pain and suffering through his facial expressions and body language so powerfully that he dominates the screen connecting with the audience with his raw performance. After all he has actually endured some of the hardships in real. From shooting in sub-zero temperature to being swept by icy river rapids, having to eat raw bison liver, sleeping inside an animal carcass and crawling through icy and hostile terrain, Leo's harsh experience comes out as an enthralling performance which makes you really feel some of the pain that Glass endures. I am no movie critic but a blogger who loves cinema and have seen a fair share of it but I can't recall the last time an actor has slipped into a character with such self-torturous and masochistic zeal. If Leonardo DiCaprio doesn't win an Oscar for his role in The Revenant then for me it would be more of a loss for the Academy.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XiZBzcO538c/VtIGhewfnaI/AAAAAAAAKnk/npAmhJQCbwc/s1600/therevenant-tom-hardy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XiZBzcO538c/VtIGhewfnaI/AAAAAAAAKnk/npAmhJQCbwc/s400/therevenant-tom-hardy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tom Hardy as John Fitzgerald</td></tr>
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Having said that, Tom Hardy as the antagonist has been exceptional in his performance too, though I did find it hard to follow his lines. As someone from India I am not sure if it is because of his on screen accent or his dialog delivery but I also found it hard to understand him in The Dark Knight Rises in which he plays the role of Bane. But despite that I found the menacing demeanor he puts on while playing unscrupulous, selfish and downright villainous John Fitzgerald quite chilling and wouldn't be be surprised if he picks up the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Revenant. Will Poulter playing the young frontiersman Bridges may have fewer lines and less screen time but with his intense expressiveness, he still manages to stand out despite towering presence of Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.<br />
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Further Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's collaboration post Birdman pays off brilliantly again. The decision to shoot in natural light brings out the cruel but natural beauty of the tundra in strong contrast to the harsh and grueling narrative. After winning Oscars last two consecutive years for Gravity and Birdman, Lubezki might win a third one the manner in which he has captured the spittle flying out of Glass in his agitation, the icy breath fogging the lens and the beautiful sunset with equal brilliance. Even the only CGI scene, that of the grizzly bear mauling Glass is shot in a way so as to bring out the ferocity of the attack rather than focusing on just the visual effect.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-glOsaGsO8vQ/VtIHQB3Lt7I/AAAAAAAAKno/1DimvnBp-T4/s1600/the%2Brevenant-1280x720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-glOsaGsO8vQ/VtIHQB3Lt7I/AAAAAAAAKno/1DimvnBp-T4/s400/the%2Brevenant-1280x720.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lubezki's breathtaking photography capturing beauty of the hostile wilderness makes the movie more palatable</td></tr>
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Finally, the movie seems to convey parallel messages in what is essentially a story one man's grit and determination to survive against all odds and a wronged father's zeal to avenge the death of his son. Interwoven in the plot are elements of violence between man vs wild, man vs man, exploitation of indigenous people by European settlers and also spiritualism as Glass drifts in and out of hallucination of his dead wife, who whispers to him words of encouragement that keeps him going.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"As long as you can still grab a breath, you fight. You breathe. Keep breathing " [<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/quotes?item=qt2743227" target="_blank">IMDb</a>]</blockquote>
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Finally, this harsh and brutal and highly realistically made survival story of Hugh Glass may not be for everyone, it is more of an visceral experience than a story on celluloid. But it is definitely worth a try for everyone except those very weak of heart. However, if you find the gory realism in the movie pulling you into it and making you uncomfortable, people slaughtering each other without giving much reason and the ending bit ambiguous, remember it's a survival story in a time when as the placard in French put around the neck of the hanged Pawnee Indian says.<br />
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"WE ARE ALL SAVAGES" [<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/quotes?item=qt2765246" target="_blank">IMDb</a>]</blockquote>
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Rating: 4.5/5<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-9783898329459349322015-12-28T02:11:00.000+05:302016-01-02T18:47:03.183+05:30Star Wars : The Force Awakens | Review (Spoiler free) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Courtesy: Wikimedia)</td></tr>
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A long time ago in a galaxy... well in our own galaxy and our very own planet Earth, George Lucas wrote and directed an epic space opera film called Star Wars which grew into a hugely popular franchise and a global pop cultural phenomenon with a cult following spanning generations. The first movie was released more than 32 years back and it's been 27 years since release of the last installment of the original trilogy (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi) which is indeed "a long time ago" as sequels and prequels go, even the last installment of the much less appreciated prequel trilogy (Episode III: Revenge of the Sith) came out 10 years back but Star Wars franchise continued to command huge fan following. The announcement of the release of Episode VII: The Force Awakens and the huge marketing campaign made it one of the most anticipated movie releases in recent times if not of all times. However, one of the issues eager fans had to deal with was avoiding exposure to spoilers and leaks proliferating on the Internet. I assiduously avoided every piece of information that had anything to do with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, so my review of the movie includes NO SPOILERS, or so I hope. <br />
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Director JJ Abrams has already shown his calibre by making thrillers like MI3 and visually stimulating scenes of space battles in his two Star Trek movies but it did seem doubtful if he could match the myth making skill of George Lucas. Further the tag line "Every generation has a story" further raised the question if the movie was aimed at a complete new generation or sought to satisfy the legions of fans of the original trilogy. Of course, he had at least one of the original writers, Lawrence Kasdan as a co-writer but one must confess that Abrams has been able to bring balance to the force, metaphorically speaking.<br />
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Is it a reboot? The Force Awakens does use the template of A New Hope as well as a bit of Return of the Jedi but the content is definitely fresh. As this is Episode XII, it is obvious that the story begins after the events of the Return of the Jedi and it does introduces a whole lot of new characters, places and powers of the force. The plot is fast paced, at times faster than one can absorb it fully, which thankfully gives me reasons for second viewing. At the same time there is enough emotional drama and tense sequences which could have you glued to the screen but there is very little long-drawn melodramatic sequences that partly bogged down the narrative in the prequel trilogy. The slick action sequences including those involving lightsabres while using latest CGI maintain elements of the original trilogy which both suits the script as well as the expectations of the original Star Wars fans. As shown in the trailers, the droids, X-wing fighters, TIE fighters, spacecrafts and other props are not squeaky clean but look rugged like those used in the original trilogy to give the fans feel of the classic Star Wars action.<br />
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Besides there are plenty of references and homages but the best comes in the form of Harrison Ford (I don't believe this is a spoiler as Ford and Chewbacca have been prominent in the film posters and trailers). Even after 30 years, Harrison Ford as Hans Solo blows you off with his performance although he doesn't use blasters as freely :p Among the new ones, Daisy Ridley as the protagonist has delivered an incredible performance winning accolades from fans and critics alike. Other key actors like Adam Driver, John Bogeya, Oscar Issac and Carrie Fischer have done justice to their respective roles. The chemistry between the protagonist and the antagonist is surprisingly strong and is likely to get more intense in the next episode. I would love to go into details but do not wish to give away anything. An ambitious project of this magnitude and executed so brilliantly deserves to be seen on the big screen first, so I will probably wait for the DVD release and follow up with a post-review delving deeper into the plot as I have done previously with <a href="http://xpensieve.blogspot.in/search/label/movies?&max-results=6" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">my favourite movies</a> .<br />
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Till then the only bit I am willing to give away is that it seems in this episode the Force is no longer as passive and there couldn't have been a better title than - The Force Awakens.<br />
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Rating : 4.5/5<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-12268743537733551372015-12-11T03:10:00.000+05:302015-12-12T03:52:15.575+05:30The Salman Khan And Talwars<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The recent acquittal of Salman Khan in 2002 drunken driving and running over five people,killing one of them and injuring four others has the media and social media talking about the judgement incessantly. While his massive fan following is celebrating the acquittal, a lot of people have been sorely disappointed with the proceedings and even the Judge pointed out the shoddy investigation carried out by the prosecution. In Salman Khan's case, not including Kamaal Khan, the other eyewitness and one of the persons inside the vehicle during the incidence as a witness before the court seems too callous. There are other lapses on part of the prosecution too but I don't intend to do an autopsy of this case, which the media has been conducting anyway. However I must confess that being a fan of Salman Khan I am not at all unhappy that he has been acquitted, besides I am not the kind of person who seeks personal gratification in punishment of individuals. Punishment through due process of law is a necessity to uphold the rule of law and dispense justice but I don't see any role of individual or collective passion in it (except in rare cases). At the same time, the idea that people can be subjected to rigorous punishment as a result of similar shoddy investigation is highly disturbing.<br />
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Although there might be numerous such cases all across India, the one that comes to mind instantly is that of the Noida dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar convicted in the murder case of their daughter Aarushi Talwar and domestic help Hemraj.Several media reports as well as recently released movie, Talvar by Meghna Gulzar/Vishal Bhardwaj and Avirook Sen's book Aarushi have revealed how farcical the investigation was from the beginning which is why it was transferred to the CBI. At the onset the investigating team was nearly convinced that the Talwar couple were innocent but then the team was taken off the case and a new team appointed to carry on the investigation. The reason I have drawn parallel between Salman Khan's case and that of the Talwars is that both are high profile cases which were covered by media extensively but while Salman Khan is a Bollywood superstar, the Talwars were ordinary folks, even if belonging to the upper middle class. Perhaps it is because of their social status that they landed in a unique situation. While not exactly rich enough to influence investigation, employ a battery of eminent lawyers or possess political connections, they belonging to the upwardly mobile class with the typical and absolutely normal lifestyle but perhaps different from those of the investigating officers (what is a sleepover? the officer asking Rajesh Talwar rather derisively hints at it),<br />
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Perhaps this worked against them when malicious rumours such as them having extramarital affairs, indulging in orgies, wife-swapping and other salacious insinuations against them and their 14 year old daughter was lapped up and amplified by the media. The local police was instrumental in making these insinuations go public so they could have an open and shut case without actually spending time and effort to conduct real investigation. Given the popularity of this sleazy narrative of the media amongst the people and subsequent demonization of the Talwar couple, the first CBI team's findings on the parents being innocent was not well received. The only likely conclusion on why the then CBI team investigating the case was taken off it and a new team was created to investigate, could be that that some people involved in decision making may have preferred the investigation to proceed on the lines of the popular narrative rather than conduct investigation and find facts.<br />
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Despite, there being incriminating leads (according to first CBI team which it obtained through narco analysis tests) on presence of other people in the house the fateful night and the compounder confessing to having committed the murders and recovery of at least one crucial evidence the second CBI team chose to follow the "honour killing" narrative even if there was no evidence supporting it. The Talwars even cleared all lie detectors and narco analysis tests. This is why the CBI filed closure report in the case but in an unexpected move the magistrate rejected it and asked CBI to try both the parents as accused by converting the closure report into charge-sheet. Now since the CBI thought it didn't have enough evidence to convince the court that Rajesh Talwar murdered his daughter, it follows that the prosecution's case would have been weak during the trial. Yet, the trial court found it otherwise and convicted Rajesh and Nupur Talwar for life. Avirook Sen's book gives a detailed account of the bizarre trial proceedings and even <a href="http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/arushi-talwar-case-when-the-lawyers-son-typed-first-few-pages-of-judgement/article7395499.ece" target="_blank">reports</a> how during an interview he found that the judge was already writing the verdict well before the defence had completed its final submission.<br />
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Coming back to Salman Khan's case, High Court overturning a trial court's verdict isn't exactly a rarity. Appeals filed in higher courts by nature aver that the lower court has erred in judging the case. The same was ruled in Salman's case and could hold true in the case of the Talwars. As opposed to Salman who was accused of hit-and-run case and was out on bail the Talwars are in prison and if the learned court has erred it would be too great an injustice for parents whose only daughter was brutally killed when she was only 14 years old and now they have been convicted in the same case and serving life sentence because the prosecution was at first extremely lousy and then vindictive towards them. Unlike Salman who was granted bail by the High Court immediately after his conviction, the Talwars have been denied bail but more importantly the Salman Khan's appeal against the trial court verdict was disposed off in 7 months. Talwar couples' appeal before Allahbad High Court is pending indefinitely. With appeals from 1980s still pending in the court, it is unlikely to be listed for hearing any time soon. When Meghna Gulzar's Talvar was released to critical acclaim, changing a lot of people's opinion on what really happened there was a wave of sympathy for Rajesh and Nupur Talwar with some calling for the appeal to be put on fast track but the enthusiasm seems to have fizzled out. <br />
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Of course Salman Khan has every right to use all legal means available to him to seek acquittal but it is really tragic that ordinary couple like the Talwars have to wait for an eternity for their appeal to be heard. It is a truly sorry state to be in.<br />
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<i>For detailed insight into the tragic story of the Talwars, I highly recommend this book :</i><br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-73902671168539984952015-12-06T08:30:00.000+05:302015-12-08T02:04:23.876+05:30Is Modi's Solar Alliance At COP21 The Real Deal <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(Image Courtesy: <a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/" target="_blank">UNFCCC</a> )</td></tr>
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Quite recently I heard an eminent academic speak on the need for PM Narendra Modi to improve his relationship with the press. I think it was the economist Jagdish Bhagwati, a known Modi supporter but I could be wrong. Anyway, a recent event did make me think that perhaps he is right, by not directly engaging with the mainstream media, Modi is not only allowing his image being transformed to that of an opaque personality but also some of his real achievements get ignored and completely sidelined in the nation discourse. But before that I must confess that though I see Modi the politician as a product of the RSS ideology, Modi the Prime Minister seems be too ambitious to be restrained by ideological shackles especially when it conflicts with his attempts to create his own legacy. This twin personas were especially evident when he was on election campaign in Bihar, his rhetoric being aggressive and almost uncouth and then his statesman like oration in the Parliament at onset of the Winter session which was way mature. However what really surprised me was the lack of adequate reportage by media as well as support from his own supporters on social media on his successful launch of International Solar Alliance of 120 countries along with French President François Hollande during the Paris COP21 climate summit.<br />
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While I am not very knowledgeable person on climate change policies, I do know that all participants in the Paris conference were far more serious about climate change than they were earlier but still a comprehensive solution is unlikely to evolve as the developed countries just do not see the fact that the major onus lies on them and they have to take the extra mile. Just because these countries were developed by the time climate change became a clear and unavoidable danger, expecting developing countries like India to cut down carbon emissions drastically and stunt infrastructure development is simply not fair. Especially when India is also facing the disastrous effect of climate change as seen in Chennai floods. Modi's exhortation to look beyond climate change and focus on climate justice was a stand India has taken before, but the announcement of International Solar Alliance is a clear message that India's stand is not "developed countries destroyed the environment for 150 years, don't stop us from developing even if we are destroying it further". Rather, the formation of International Agency for Solar Technologies and Applications with initial investment of $30 million by India and raise it $400 millions through membership fees and aides, clearly sends a signal that India is also taking global lead in adopting and helping other developing countries (solar resource rich countries located around the tropics) adopt clean energy and cut down carbon emissions without slowing down development. <br />
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Of course, implementing such an ambitious task is not easy and with 300 million people in India without access to electricity, fossil fuels would perhaps continue to be employed but with the cost of solar energy coming down, a global effort to make it more affordable is likely to see it emerge as a viable alternative and clean energy source. With the alliance headquarters to be set up in India, there is also a great possibility of the move helping the national economy. The proposal has been supported by most environmentalists /conservationists in the world. <br />
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However, when it comes to our own media reports and the very vocal Modi supporters on social media I did not come across much information on this Alliance,though they have covered it they don't appear to have given it priority. Rather, I first came across it in foreign news sites which were earlier hostile to India in the climate change context, accusing the country of trying to obstruct the agreement. But the launch of this ambitious project was received very positively by the very same news agencies. Of course, how it works out remains to be seen but at the conference Modi did steal the show in the largest gathering of heads of states since more than half a century which is a much more meaningful accomplishment than his address to NRIs packed in London's Wembley Stadium. Perhaps it is time Modi really starts giving attention to the media rather than allowing motormouths to issue outrageous statements and also undermine his achievements.<br />
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<u>Read More</u><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://newsroom.unfccc.int/clean-energy/international-solar-energy-alliance-launched-at-cop21/">http://newsroom.unfccc.int/clean-energy/international-solar-energy-alliance-launched-at-cop21/</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/30/india-set-to-unveil-global-solar-alliance-of-120-countries-at-paris-climate-summit">http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/30/india-set-to-unveil-global-solar-alliance-of-120-countries-at-paris-climate-summit</a></li>
<li><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/11/30/narendra-modi-climate-justice/">http://fortune.com/2015/11/30/narendra-modi-climate-justice/</a></li>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-10517648120001601932015-11-19T00:50:00.000+05:302016-10-10T02:23:39.005+05:30Paris Attacks: A Wake Up Call For International Community<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The dastardly terrorist attacks in Paris on 13 November hours after a similar attack in Beirut should wake up all actors in the Middle East theatre of proxy wars as well as the global Muslim community to the danger that ISIS now poses to the whole world. As of now, ISIS was seen as a region specific entity, a quasi-state disconnected and autonomous but with a large number of fighters and more than adequate resources to continue expanding the size of its territory as well as attract more jihadis from across the world. What separated it from Al Qada both figuratively and literally is the fact that the latter believes in carrying on a long duration global jihad or prolonged war of attrition with Western powers and their allies in the region through decentralized network of terrorists or sleeper cells in key geographical centres around the world. It seeks to weaken and overthrow the global order through terror attacks like 9/11 believing the time was not ripe for establishment of the caliphate (read: gaining allegiance of majority of global Muslims community ). The ISIS on the other hand chose to declare itself as the caliphate on the basis of the territorial gains it had already made and with the ambition to conquer a sizeable territory in a short span. However, the attacks in Paris and the manner in which they were planned and executed indicate that ISIS may be adopting and improvising the modus operandi of Al Qaeda which is indeed scary given the number of recruits the terrorist group attracts from many parts of the world including Europe.<br />
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What makes ISIS far more dangerous than Al Qaeda is that while the latter chose to stay behind shadows and works through existing financial and communication systems and at the most relying on the Taliban for territorial space, ISIS already occupies a region roughly size of Austria. Unlike Taliban ruled Afghanistan which has been traditionally poor, areas captured by ISIS includes oil resources which it is able to sell in the black market using the numerous smuggling routes. Besides, its capture of cities like Mosul gave it opportunity to capture enormous amount of money deposited in the banks there. High rates of tax on citizens and ransom money received in return of hostages have been keeping it financially sound and since it deals in cash, checking the inflow of money seems pretty difficult from outside. Money and recruits skilled in modern technology has been instrumental in driving online propaganda and recruitment campaign over social media. While spreading it's tentacles into poor regions like Libya and Afghanistan where it faces direct contest from Al Qaeda and its affiliates like the Taliban, it is known to use money to poach jihadis from rival camps to its own. According to a recent news report, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2015/11/islamic-state-isil-taliban-afghanistan-151101074041755.html" target="_blank">ISIS is offering fighters in Afghanistan almost 10 times more than the Taliban does.</a> It has also been alleged that ISIS was able to win allegiance of smaller jihadist groups and even larger ones like Boko Haram with monetary incentives and supplies of arms and ammunition and not exactly on ideological grounds. With the combination of ideological indoctrination and monetary bribery, it seems to have developed a strong base in Libya so as to suggest it's foreign recruits to go to Libya instead of Syria as it is becoming difficult for them to enter Syria or Iraq. But the most alarming instruction ISIS has issued to its wannabe recruits is to stay in their countries and and carry out terror attacks. This seem almost validated by the preliminary findings in Paris terror attacks which suggest that most of the operatives were French and Belgian citizens.<br />
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Clearly, this should send alarm bells ringing, especially since the terrorist group has already made clear that it wants to clear the gray zone (Muslims against it). Takfiri Jihadist groups like ISIS believe that Muslims that do not follow their ideology are apostates and need to be eliminated first. In fact, the barbarism of the group was first revealed to us when the footage of brutal torture and mass execution of Shia, dissenting Sunnis and also Al Qaeda jihadis were released. By using French citizens for the terror attacks it has deliberately provoked the French government, society and European society as well to take a hard stand against their own Muslim population as well as the freshly arrived Syrian refugees. One of the main objectives of any terror attack is to create distrust, suspicion and loosen social cohesion. In this case, since the ISIS already considers the refugees apostates, it doesn't really care if each and every one of them is executed, on the other hand if there is reprisal forcing the refugees back to Syria or prevent them from fleeing, they would have no choice but to become workers for the terror groups. How then can such a diabolic group be stopped? The battle has to be fought on two fronts, a ideological one by mainstream Muslims and through bombs and bullets by a global military alliance. <br />
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Right after the Paris attacks a "terrorism has no religion" hashtag had began to trend on Twitter. It is true, terrorism has no religion but the fact is terrorists do. One would simply be living in denial to say that these terrorists are not motivated by religious ideology. However, it is also a fact that this particular ideology propagated by ISIS is rejected by more than 99% of Muslims globally. Mainstream media seems to have latched on to Wahhabism as the root of this ideology which is not entirely false Wahhabism is a regressive ideology but the ideology of ISIS is an much extreme form of it, so much do that even other Salafi Jihadist groups like <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida" target="_blank">Al Qaeda reject it and label it un-Islamic</a>. Besides, ISIS seems to be more of a motley collection of foreign fighters who now depend on militancy for survival, local Sunnis uprooted from their homes in the civil war with no alternative employment opportunity available, ex-Baathist officers and soldiers, led by a group of extremely motivated takfiri jihadists, many of whom have arrived from abroad. Interestingly, Al Qaeda's war against ISIS stems from the belief amongst the leaders of the former that ISIS is a collection of criminal elements and power hungry leaders with little knowledge of the Salafist Jihadist ideology it seeks to represent. As a matter of fact while mainstream Muslims vehemently reject the extremist interpretation of Islam by Al Qaeda's, the latter's charge against ISIS on ideological bankruptcy offers new perspective on this barbaric terrorist organization. It is indeed a fact that ISIS with its horde of young militants has a very few Islamic scholars espousing its doctrine unlike other jihadi outfits like Al Qaeda or even Taliban. Further, the charge that a large number of ex-Baathist fighters who had been nothing to do with Islamist movement and spent most of their lives adhering to a secular and nationalistic ideology does hold true. For instance, lies, torture and execution of emissaries, genocide against minority communities like Yazidis, sexual exploitation of female captives, corpse mutilation and many more similarly unspeakable acts are more in line with what the Iraqi intelligence led by Baathist leaders were notorious for. Even extremist Salafi scholars have condemned ISIS extremism as un-Islamic.<br />
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Most commentators on Islamist movement seem to be of the opinion that the ISIS runs more on fear factor, money and spoils of war while very few members appear to have in depth knowledge of Islam. As a matter of fact, most ISIS members we see on TV seem young people revelling in murder and mutilation of corpses, not well-read scholars expounding merits of jihad. So how is it then that they are able to indoctrinate young people and lure them into these orgies of violence? While I am yet to come across any such material, what I can guess is that with well-qualified recruits amongst its ranks, ISIS is able to target potential recruits and repackage and market their ideology that appeals to them the most. Many of the European recruits seem to be recent converts or Muslims with petty crime antecedents, the common thread being the identity crisis in European society and little knowledge of Islamic theology. ISIS bribes them with the promise of accommodating them in a true Islamic society and give role to play in the impending apocalypse. This is where global Muslim community, especially it's scholars need to come in and counter ISIS propaganda to stop more gullible youths falling prey to its false ideology. That ISIS acts least in accordance to even extremist interpretation of Islam is evident from the fact that it mostly presents scriptural arguments tailored to justify it's barbaric acts after having committed them rather than presenting a more coherent argument in the beginning and then proceeding to act on it. Another example is its use of a single "prophecy" to convince it's supporters that we are living in end times and apocalypse is imminent in the very near future. Traditional scholars do not interpret "prophecies" in general in such a simplistic manner but rather through a very rigorous method. Yet it seems, the apocalyptic narrative is helping radicalization of youths in different parts of the world.<br />
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The mainstream Muslim scholars need to take the ideological fight not just by condemning the extremists but countering their arguments in the loudest way possible,including through social media. While the two leading Islamic seminaries of the Indian subcontinent, Darul Uloom Deoband and Dargah-E-Aala-Hazrat in Bareilly have issued fresh <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Clerics-issue-fatwa-take-their-war-against-Islamic-State-to-UN/articleshow/49824460.cms" target="_blank">fatwas declaring ISIS as un-Islamic</a>, Indian Muslim scholars cutting across sects have unitedly and vociferously condemned the vile acts of ISIS. A <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Muslim-clerics-in-Kanpur-protest-against-the-terror-attacks-in-France/articleshow/49835639.cms" target="_blank">protest in Kanpur</a> led by Muslim clerics condemning Paris terror attacks and ISIS in particular as well as a <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/madrasas-run-a-fatwa-campaign-against-is-in-bareilly/article7896184.ece" target="_blank">signature campaign</a> by Bareilly based Madrasas against the terror group are exactly the kind of response needed to counter ISIS propaganda. Further,the deputy sheikh of Al Azhar Institute,one of the world's leading Islamic learning centre, has <a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/11/16/Senior-Muslim-Azhar-imam-urges-anti-ISIS-ideological-battle.html" target="_blank">called on for an ideological battle</a> with terrorist groups like ISIS. Clearly, the Muslim world is not entirely living in denial but how it translates to action without state assistance needs to be seen. Also, it would crucial to see how Saudi Arabia in particular acts in response to call for ideological battle. It definitely has resources to make major impact and is in the cross-hairs of ISIS too but would it forsake its most potent tool to check Iranian influence in the region, is an open question.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dIQMM317fHM/Vk5DhrZWwwI/AAAAAAAAKkw/6CHYxwmYrnw/s1600/FRANCE-SHOOTING-INDIA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dIQMM317fHM/Vk5DhrZWwwI/AAAAAAAAKkw/6CHYxwmYrnw/s400/FRANCE-SHOOTING-INDIA.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Protests by Indian Muslims against ISIS After terror attacks in Paris</td></tr>
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There already is a deafening call for a united global military crackdown on ISIS but there are too many fault lines among the participating nation-states, I have previously <a href="http://xpensieve.blogspot.in/search/label/ISIS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">posted a lot on how ISIS has been consistently gaining</a> out of the disparate goals of the different actors in the middle east conflict, especially the struggle between Saudi Arabia led Arab countries and Iran for hegemony over the region. Western powers have been supportive of the Saudi bloc even turning blind eye to its allies funding radical outfits which led to the rise of ISIS. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bomb Syrian opposition to help the Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad remain entrenched in his office. It is high time countries like Saudi Arabia realise that ISIS has grown too big to be seen as a deterrent to Iran, it can now take on the Arab Kingdom itself and judging by the way the numerically superior Iraqi army fled from a paltry ISIS fighters leaving behind precious US supplied arms and vehicles, how armies of other Arab countries would fare is questionable. Similarly, Turkey should already know that ISIS fighters attempting terror attacks in Istanbul, which was luckily thwarted, is a much bigger and immediate threat than Kurdish secessionists who now are leading the offensive against ISIS on the ground. Then it is also a fact that Al- Assad has as much blood on his hands as the ISIS does even if he brutalizes in the name of secularism, the US and its Arab allies as well as Turkey are unlikely to agree to any terms that cements his position in Syria but if an arrangement for a future transition could be reached giving him option of dignified exit, his opponents might just acquiesce to make elimination of ISIS the top prior. It also means that Russia and Iran should be willing to relent from their current stand on Al-Assad as well as treat ISIS as a much bigger threat than anti-Assad Syrian rebels. But even that would be only a part of a long term solution.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M6HogdgW3qY/Vk5Gyv5U_PI/AAAAAAAAKlE/RxoGUZi66tE/s1600/french-airstrike-drops-20-bombs-in-massive-anti-isis-raid-in-syria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M6HogdgW3qY/Vk5Gyv5U_PI/AAAAAAAAKlE/RxoGUZi66tE/s400/french-airstrike-drops-20-bombs-in-massive-anti-isis-raid-in-syria.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">French airstrikes on ISIS bases in Raqqa</td></tr>
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Even if combined airstrikes are able to degrade ISIS completely without an effective alternative we might again witness sundry jihadists groups rushing in to take control of the region in fresh chaos. It is imperative that the world powers and the regional powers look for a long term solution which implies that each one of them has to compromise for the sake of millions of lives that are at stake. If continuation of Al-Assad repressive regime and Iran's attempt to gain hegemony over middle-east needs to be addressed then Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies promotion of Salafi Jihadist doctrine is certainly unacceptable as is flow of funds from these states to Jihadist groups. Then Iraqi establishment should also realize the role it played in the rise of ISIS through its sustained prosecution of Sunni population and it cannot expect to be a stable polity without sharing political power with its Sunni population. As far as Kurds are concerned, their fight against ISIS has brought their ethnic identity and political grievances to the fore. If not for their right to self-determination, the Kurds could still be given the state they demand as a bulwark against Jihadist groups. Of course that is asking a lot from countries that have shown no intent for cooperation on any level even as hundreds of thousands of innocent people are being killed but the threat of ISIS looms large and concessions and cooperation are the only route to any long term solution.<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-69696545537850256822015-08-30T16:00:00.000+05:302015-09-03T19:52:27.404+05:30From Aarushi To Sheena : Trial Or Lynching By Media?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Courtesy: Youtube </td></tr>
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So the Indian media has latched on to the ghastly and extremely tragic tale of the murder of Sheena Bora with a zeal that falls somewhere between responsible journalism and savagery of a lynch mob screaming for punishment at a medieval trial. The latter part is of course disguised in more civil and self-righteous statements and opinions but criticism by various eminent and less eminent members of citizenry now and then rip off parts of this disguise. But then there always two sides to a story. It is true that without media coverage, it is highly unlikely that investigation into this crime would been as prompt but the way it has been handled by the media can be described in milder terms as cheap and immature. However some television channels, especially (but not exclusively), vernacular news channels have indeed removed all stops and gone all facetious, dishing out murky details on an hourly basis. After all, this sordid story has more ingredients than a typical Bollywood potboiler and prime time soap operas combined. A mysterious murder in a rich and influential family, a web of lies and deceit and purported evidence of sleazy activities are things these news channels would give anything for and in Sheena Bora murder case, they only have to sacrifice a little journalistic ethics.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Such coverage harms both individuals and society in general in at least two ways. By sensationalizing a gruesome case of murder of a young, innocent person, they turn it into a reality show, along with background score from popular Bollywood flicks, dramatic and graphical representation interspersed with clichéd and tacky lines that transports audience from being viewers of news reports to that of a suspense thriller, entirely fictitious (since they haven't been indicted by the court yet) but presented as the indisputable truth. In the process a grave injustice is being done to the young woman who was brutally killed as intimate details of her life are thrown into the public domain. The second question is, can such media trials have any bearings whatsoever on real trial that is to follow? Of course, the courts of law are not influenced by media reports but they do rely upon the charges and evidences that the prosecution and the police. Are the police and prosecution insulated from media reports, public opinion and prejudice?<br />
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The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Noida_double_murder_case" target="_blank">Aarushi-Hemraj double murder case</a> is a good example of how investigation can be influenced by media narrative and personal opinion of the investigators over facts. Although the parents of Aarushi Talwar have already been convicted by the trial court, their appeal is pending but importantly a large number of people, including this writer, continue to believe that justice for Aarushi has not been delivered. A detailed inquiry into the even "known" facts suggest that the murder case may not have been an open and shut case. There are several discrepancies in the prosecution case starting with the fact that no deception was found in the Talwar couple's lie-detector tests while two the three outsiders initially investigated failed the tests. As a matter of fact, Krishna the assistant in Rajesh Talwar's clinic and the domestic help of family friends of Talwars,<a href="http://www.tehelka.com/2013/06/framed-the-aarushi-hemraj-murder-case-an-investigation/?singlepage=1" target="_blank"> during narcoanalysis tests confessed on not only being present in the house but also being involved in the crime</a>. Ignoring evidences such as presence of beer and wine bottles in teetotaller Hemraj's room, ambiguity over murder weapon and the pillow with blood stains found in Krishna's room which prosecution never produced as evidence questions the investigation's efficiency and also motive. The CBI at first pointed fingers at these three accused in a press conference much to the protest of media and a section of public who had alreaded judged that the parents were indeed the real killers. Then the CBI had already filed closure report acquittal Ramesh and Nupur Talwar and reopening of case that led to their conviction was done at their behest. Now why would any sane person want reopening of the case if they had something to hide? <br />
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Understandably, after the high decibel media campaign if the Talwars had been exonerated and the other three persons convicted, it would have been construed that the rich and affluent couple escaped punishment because of their clout while the less privileged but innocent people were instead framed. Of course, "honour killing" in high society (not really as high as the Mukherjeas) along with salacious insinuations made a much better media narrative and perhaps more acceptable one but what if it wasn't really true. A new CBI team was constituted which followed the lead laid own by popular narrative, the Talwars were convicted based on circumstantial evidence. If one were to presume the innocence of the couple for a moment (back then media didn't stick to the dictum "innocent until proven guilty") ,can one really understand the pain a father and a mother have to go through after not only losing their only daughter, having aspersions cast upon her moral character and also being punished for her murder ? However, it is not just the investigating agencies and media that can be held responsible, the audience and the society it is part of, cannot wash its hand off. Even the <a href="http://xpensieve.blogspot.in/2008/06/arush-murder-case-and-role-of-media-and.html" target="_blank">post I made in June, 2008</a> was more of a critique on the way media was indulging in sensationalism and salacity but not on how the narrative was being shaped that would in time become strong enough to force investigative agencies conform to it. <br />
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Now as the Sheena Bora murder case plays out on our televisions, it would indeed be difficult to avoid being drawn into its latest twists and turns and exclusive reports but it might do well too remember that unlike Rajesh Talwar, Indrani Mukherjea <i><b>seems </b></i>a lot more of a ruthless social climber who first denied existence of her two children to the world and then went on to kill one of them for some reason. But it still remains an allegation and does not imply that the media has the right to prejudge the case and expect the prosecution to follow suit or face the heat on television talk shows. Media does have right and in fact duty to pursue the case to its logical end and report the developments to the public. The very definition of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_media" target="_blank">trial by media</a> states that because of the strong public opinion, a fair trail becomes difficult and even when acquitted, the accused have to live with the stigma attached to them for the rest of their lives. The media would do well to refrain from being hasty and indicting the accused before the court has determined the guilt and simply report police findings instead of taking up the role of the investigating agencies. <br />
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<b>Note</b>: I have not read author/journalist Avirook Sen's book "<a href="http://amzn.to/1KLN21x" target="_blank">Aarushi</a>" yet, the assertions made above are partly sourced from Wikipedia and Tehelka.com article, links to which are included inline. </div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-34612903232132826352015-07-23T19:26:00.000+05:302015-07-25T19:54:15.149+05:30Book Review - Mandate : Will of The People <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kBsZYz37am4/VbAKnZ1_YQI/AAAAAAAAKeA/ohsnjh_YjO0/s1600/mandate-100x100-imae4kfdqcecrwyv.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kBsZYz37am4/VbAKnZ1_YQI/AAAAAAAAKeA/ohsnjh_YjO0/s200/mandate-100x100-imae4kfdqcecrwyv.jpeg" width="132" /></a></div>
<a href="http://dl.flipkart.com/dl/mandate-people-english/p/itme4jbezjbvvghe?pid=9789384030391&affid=danishctcg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="http://img6a.flixcart.com/www/prod/images/buy_btn_1-b05fffbb.png" /></a>Vir Sanghvi's book Mandate: Will of The People was quite a revelation to me. I expected it to be yet another book chronicling post-independence Indian political history, but it turned out to be something entirely different and delightfully so. For those of us who became politically aware in the 90s and later, there is a clear disconnect when our political leaders talk of the Emergency, Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi assassination, the genocide that followed and many other past events . Sure we can read it up in history books, look up Wikipedia and hear stories about them but frankly there is too much information to process and more importantly, it appears to have little value in the present age. But can we really ignore the past and still hope not to commit the same mistakes all over again?<br />
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I wonder if it's by design or simply a coincidence, that at a time when our span of attention on social media is limited to 140 characters, eminent journalist Vir Sanghvi's book has come up with this book which comprises of about 140 pages and claims to tell political history of nearly five decades! Sanghvi says, this book should be read in one sitting and I assure you would if you are interested in politics. The author weaves the narrative around successive general elections from 1971 to 2014, tracing the source of people's mandate for each government that followed and their achievements and failures which shaped the public perception thus determining the next mandate.<br />
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Though a book on political history Sanghvi almost makes it read like a thriller, revealing little known facts and snippets of interviews which open up entirely new perspectives in some instances, such as those about the Emergency, Giani Zail Singh, PV Narsimha Rao and even Manmohan Singh. Now it would be unfair to give away the "revelations" here (may not be revelations for some people but for me it was and I reckon it would be the same for lot of readers of my generation at least). But just to arouse your curiosity, I must say that I was surprised to learn that Indira Gandhi did not really just inherit leadership, she had to fight for it in her early years and established the dynasty in later years. Sanghvi's first person account brings alive the real politics that were being played behind the curtains in the corridors of power in Delhi and what shaped the decisions that bore long term impact on Indian polity and the nation as a whole.<br />
Strongly recommended for everyone interested in Indian politics.<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-14021468294506987472015-05-09T02:30:00.000+05:302015-05-15T01:10:00.624+05:30Net Neutrality: Is Your ISP Shaping Traffic Now<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9E8IytTIkBU/VU1SJevBOlI/AAAAAAAAKV0/p7ERbXth0aI/s1600/netneutrality5-9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9E8IytTIkBU/VU1SJevBOlI/AAAAAAAAKV0/p7ERbXth0aI/s1600/netneutrality5-9.png" /></a></div>
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In my previous post I have discussed about Internet censorship in India, in this post I wish to discuss bandwidth throttling and how to find out if your ISP is slowing down transfer speed despite you paying for it. According to <a href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/isps-slam-brakes-on-bittorrent-speeds/article3751310.ece" target="_blank">The Hindu, Airtel and BSNL have been found to throttle Bittorrent traffic</a>. However, this data is couple of years old and probably doesn't include your ISP information, so here are some tools to find out if your ISP is cheating you.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Glasnost</h3>
This is a simple web-based tool to check if your ISP is throttling traffic from your application. It lets you test traffic from P2P apps such as Bittorrent, standard apps using HTTP, POP, IMAP4,SSH and NNTP protocols and also Video-on-Demand.<br />
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To test your ISP just <a href="http://broadband.mpi-sws.org/transparency/bttest.php" target="_blank">visit this webpage</a> and start testing. (Java 7 required)<br />
Here are the screenshots of the results of my tests. Thankfully my local ISP ( <a href="http://www.ortelcom.com/" target="_blank">Ortel </a>) doesn't seem to be interfering with the traffic at all.<br />
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<b>Bittorrent</b><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t-VzgdxK98M/VUvuGV0jF8I/AAAAAAAAKT8/O0qzBSeJVTw/s1600/glasnost-bittorent-traffic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t-VzgdxK98M/VUvuGV0jF8I/AAAAAAAAKT8/O0qzBSeJVTw/s1600/glasnost-bittorent-traffic.png" /></a></div>
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<b>HTTP</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-08YoiIwpLGU/VUvuatniF1I/AAAAAAAAKUE/IZZ65eJ2Isc/s1600/glasnost-http-traffic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-08YoiIwpLGU/VUvuatniF1I/AAAAAAAAKUE/IZZ65eJ2Isc/s640/glasnost-http-traffic.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<b>Video</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9MLLKuuCbCk/VUvvAN-HVBI/AAAAAAAAKUM/m_iTcd7WTyY/s1600/glasnost-video-traffic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9MLLKuuCbCk/VUvvAN-HVBI/AAAAAAAAKUM/m_iTcd7WTyY/s1600/glasnost-video-traffic.png" /></a></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Neubot</h3>
Neubot is a network neutrality bot which after installation, runs in the background, periodically performing transmission tests with Measurement Labs's M-Lab servers. It emulates HTTP, Bittorrent and raw TCP tests and publishes them as public data. Download link as well link to its source code and the location where raw data are published, can be found <a href="http://www.measurementlab.net/tools/neubot2" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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Neubot also uses a web interface to display results of its periodic tests on your terminal. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q4lCizul52o/VU0nhdC9f8I/AAAAAAAAKUk/0KalILfbJQ4/s1600/neubot-result-speedtest1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q4lCizul52o/VU0nhdC9f8I/AAAAAAAAKUk/0KalILfbJQ4/s400/neubot-result-speedtest1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speedtest Result Using Neubot</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OBellpM8t0w/VU0oGUtiJ1I/AAAAAAAAKUs/-ry8r29U5rk/s1600/neubot-result-bittorent-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OBellpM8t0w/VU0oGUtiJ1I/AAAAAAAAKUs/-ry8r29U5rk/s400/neubot-result-bittorent-2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bittorrent Transfer Result Using Neubot</td></tr>
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The tools mentioned above are mainly for broadband service but as we know well the world is moving swiftly towards mobile Internet services. </div>
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<a href="http://trai.gov.in/Content/Regulation/0_3_REGULATIONS.aspx" target="_blank">The Standards Of Quality Of Service For Wireless Data Services (Amendment) Regulations, 2014</a> stipulates that</div>
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Every service provider shall ensure that the minimum download speed, specified by it in the data wireless plans, is available to the consumer for not less than eighty percent of usage time [3A(2)] </blockquote>
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Of course "not less than eighty percent of time" condition would make it difficult to prove if the speed is as promised by the provider but since the authority has not specified any benchmark for the parameter minimum download speed, there is just no way to establish if the consumer is getting service with a much lower speed than subscribed for. With my EDGE subscription (my network doesn't provide 3G yet) I should expect 256 kbps ( <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G#Capacity" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">EDGE should support 500 kbps</a>) but the average speed <i><b>I experience is 60 kbps</b></i>. I find no reason to expect telcos will abide by whatever regulations TRAI comes up with. So I tried finding out about ISP practices vis.a. vis net neutrality.</div>
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NDT Android Client</h3>
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For some reason, the link from Google search result to Measurement Labs location for NDT (Mobile Client) return "page not found status". However, I was able to find <a href="https://code.google.com/p/ndt/downloads/detail?name=AndroidNdt-1.0b1.apk" target="_blank">the app (NDT for Android )</a> at <a href="https://code.google.com/p/ndt/downloads/list" target="_blank">Google code repository</a>. Do note, since this is not available at Google Play, you need to turn off security setting on your Android phone to install this .apk , <i>do it on your own risk</i>. </div>
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Using the tool I tried testing three different services, Airtel, Aircel and Reliance GSM. Here are the screenshots. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9dk5YDYo9Os/VU0zHkJRYfI/AAAAAAAAKVU/0SVlujRbJao/s1600/IMG-20150427-WA0002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9dk5YDYo9Os/VU0zHkJRYfI/AAAAAAAAKVU/0SVlujRbJao/s640/IMG-20150427-WA0002.jpg" width="372" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Reliance, the test never completed </td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWrJrdjhih0/VU0yDkZtNkI/AAAAAAAAKU8/VsERCQ2VCEM/s1600/IMG-20150427-WA0000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWrJrdjhih0/VU0yDkZtNkI/AAAAAAAAKU8/VsERCQ2VCEM/s640/IMG-20150427-WA0000.jpg" width="412" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aircel</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASqbXJmzbeU/VU0ytqP2a2I/AAAAAAAAKVM/FGBID72T2hc/s1600/2015_04_27_02.35.56.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ASqbXJmzbeU/VU0ytqP2a2I/AAAAAAAAKVM/FGBID72T2hc/s640/2015_04_27_02.35.56.png" width="394" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Airtel </td></tr>
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Now I don't have enough knowledge to interpret the the test results given above except the rate of data transfer and the firewall, the bit about "Network Address Translation box modifying IP address" does bother me as it prevents end-to-end connectivity which does <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation#Applications_affected_by_NAT" target="_blank">affects certain applications</a>. I strongly suggest you read up this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation#Port_address_translation" target="_blank">Wikipedia section</a> to understand if this architecture degrades quality of service and threatens net neutrality. </div>
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Before signing off I should mention another network testing tool called Switzerland.<br />
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Switzerland Network Testing Tool</h4>
<span id="goog_936456789"></span><span id="goog_936456790"></span> Created by Electronic Freedom Foundation, Switzerland was one of the first tools to be released that checked if your data packets travelling over IP networks were being forged or injected and returned the modified packets to you. Switzerland is Open Source,you can read all about it and find the download link <a href="https://www.eff.org/pages/switzerland-network-testing-tool" target="_blank">here</a>. However, I don't think the codebase has been updated recently, I suggest you give a try only if you are on Linux. On Windows 7 64-bit with Python 3.4.3 I had already spent a lot of time updating code (I am not much familiar with Python but it was mainly syntax issue) to download latest WinPcap and NTP which were additional requirement for the application to run on my OS.<br />
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So why am I listing the tool here ?<br />
Firstly, because it is by EFF, the only party in net neutrality debate to be purely non-profit and it claims to give you complete control over testing process. So I sincerely hope, some alpha-geek reading this does the necessary tweaking and points me a resource to get the binaries from ;)<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-40147084533927471512015-04-19T17:30:00.000+05:302015-04-21T03:00:05.937+05:30Open The Internet Please<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Net-neutrality-to-aid-Digital-India-drive-DoT/articleshow/46968381.cms" target="_blank">Times of India report says</a> "<i>telecom and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad backed an open internet three days ago</i>" which makes one wonder whether the minister really backs open internet or there was some shoddy reporting on part of the Times Group. But let us not get into the semantics now (though I will come back to it eventually), so as not to dilute the issue at hand. The current debate raging on has more to do with the concept of net neutrality, which thanks to the efforts of online activists, seems a certain victory now. If you are unaware of what net neutrality means and why it is under threat, the video created by AIB explains it best.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mfY1NKrzqi0?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Also visit <a href="http://savetheinternet.in/">savetheinternet.in</a><br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
After about 800,000 emails shot to TRAI and collective outrage over social media, Internet retailers such as Flipkart Group pulled out off the Airtel Zero platform and media houses like NDTV from Facebook's Internet.org forcing the government to side with net neutrality advocates. While, it seems the battle for net neutrality is nearly won, we must leave a little room from cynicism. After all, the "Do Not Disturb" never really worked for me nor was I ever able to prevent myself from being charged for "Value Added Services" I neither opted for nor could easily get unsubscribed from. The latest statement from <a href="http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/trai-says-corporate-war-between-telco-media-house-sparked-net-neutrality-debate-263618.html" target="_blank">TRAI chief saying</a> <i>the furore had been sparked off by a ‘ corporate war’ between a media house and a telecom operator, which is ” confounding already difficult matters”</i> in reality seeks to obfuscate a very simplistic issue and also raise doubts about how TRAI seeks to resolve it.<br />
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Now what I find it interesting is that it was Airtel that faced major backlash even though Facebook and Reliance deal on Internet.org had been going on since some time. The obvious reason is that though both sought to tap into the potential of App-based ecosystem, Airtel's deal with online retailers and services directly affected the consumers bringing the exploitative practises into notice. I am not in any way implying that there is anything elitist in net neutrality campaign, it is very much a principle driven mass activism to ensure that access to the Internet remains free from interference by telcos and ISPs. All I am trying to say is that there still remain arrangements that escape scrutiny of users in all license regimes, perhaps TRAI's final ruling should also be given closer attention so that ambiguities that mask these practices are detected while there is time.<br />
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Further, I have mentioned "apps-based ecosystem" above but that was mainly in reference to e-commerce and Internet businesses in their various avatars. True, mobile web browsers and search services are apps too but they also act as gateway to the entire Internet and World Wide Web , some components of which may be available in apps but strictly do not fall in the domain of the "apps ecosystem". The debate on net neutrality in the US began after <a href="http://www.wired.com/2011/10/bittorrent-throttling-comcast/" target="_blank">allegations of some ISPs slowing down speed of peer-to-peer communication, BitTorrent</a>, the US Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) ruled in favour of BitTorrent. However, intermittent blocking of peer-to-peer communication services are regular in India especially when they inadvertently end up challenging corporates. For instance, during FIFA World Cup 2014, Sony went to court to block 472 (which was later reduced 219) websites to preserve its commercial interest threatened by these sites allegedly making the matches available online (previous Court orders stipulate blocking of specific URLs).<br />
However, the <a href="http://www.medianama.com/2014/07/223-world-cup-2014-472-websites-including-google-docs-blocked-in-india-following-sony-complaint/" target="_blank">blocking of these websites continued even after the World Cup was over</a>, though not all ISPs have continued blocking them.<br />
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Coming back to the concept of Open Internet, the Wikipedia defines it as<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The idea of an open Internet is the idea that the full resources of the
Internet and means to operate on it are easily accessible to all
individuals and companies. This often includes ideas such as net
neutrality, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard" title="Open standard">open standards</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transparency_%28telecommunication%29" title="Transparency (telecommunication)">transparency</a>, lack of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship" title="Internet censorship">Internet censorship</a>, and low <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barriers_to_entry" title="Barriers to entry">barriers to entry</a>. The concept of the open Internet is sometimes expressed as an expectation of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralization#Technological_decentralization" title="Decentralization">decentralized technological power</a>, and is seen by some as closely related to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software" title="Open-source software">open-source software</a> </blockquote>
When it comes to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India" target="_blank">Internet censorship in India</a>, Google Transparency Report presents an interesting picture. From 2010 to December 2013 there has been a steady rise in Government of India requesting Google to remove content.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screenshot of <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/government/IN/?hl=en" target="_blank">Google Transparency Report on India</a></td></tr>
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Do note the above chart represents data upto Dec 2013 only, instances like the new government demanding Youtube to pull down BBC documentary India's Daughter haven't made to the list. Free speech advocates opine that Internet censorship has lately increased substantially. If the telecom and information technology minister really backs "Open Internet", now would be a good time to make his stand clearer on open standards, transparency and Internet censorship in India.<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-33439109430907665112015-04-01T00:00:00.000+05:302015-04-03T02:01:17.944+05:30China's Next Great Leap: Reincarnation, Resurrection and Hubris <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Communist People's Republic of China while extending its sovereignty over the afterlife of its citizens (both actual and Tibetans) plans to set up a department to deal with reincarnation and resurrection of its dearly departed dictators and generals, certain reports indicate. The very first batch of reincarnated or resurrected souls are likely to include that of Mao Zedong and other important Communist leaders of China. The inspiration behind this seems to be the strong stand China has taken on the question of the reincarnation of the present Dalai Lama. The spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism has more than once indicated that he might not reincarnate at all, ending centuries old Tibetan Buddhism tradition.<br />
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However the Chinese administration has severely criticized the statement and has ruled that the question of his reincarnation is not for His Holiness to decide. Rather, it is the Chinese administration which has the final say over the afterlife of Tibetan Buddhism's supreme leader. The atheistic Communist Party of China member and current head of head of the Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, Mr Zhu, in classic Orwellian double-speak says<br />
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"Decision-making power over the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, and over the end or survival of this lineage, resides in the central government of China"</blockquote>
While the Chinese government has spared no effort to denounce the Dalai Lama as a traitor, opportunist, "wolf in monk's robes" and labels normally applied to dissenters of Communist Party of China, the Chinese officials are hopeful that, under covert official supervision and manipulation, the selection by <i>a sacred</i> <i>ritual involving participation of senior monks, visiting sacred Lake and divining dreams </i>would be successful and the 15th reincarnated Dalai Lama would be selected following the sacred tradition. The only break from the tradition would be that the new Dalai Lama would be ensured to be much more loyal to the party and the State. <br />
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Notwithstanding the interest Prime Minister Xi Jinping has recently shown <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/sinosphere/2015/01/30/china-warns-against-western-values-in-imported-textbooks/?">renewed interest in dialectic materialism of Marx and Lenin</a>, the Chinese administration is completely devoted to continuance of the post of the highest spiritual leader of Tibetians Buddhism and vehemently insists that the current Dalai Lama reincarnate and more importantly, that the final authority over it rest with the Communist Party of China. Speculations are rife that the party may not stop with the Dalai Lama.<br />
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Sources indicate that a new department is being constituted, which when roughly translated means "Department of Afterlife and Hubris", to deal with reincarnation and resurrection of other people who the party thinks would further embolden their rising military assertiveness in the region and the world.<br />
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Of course Marx and Angel and even Lenin are out of question given their dedication to materialism, their souls, if they exist might refuse to take part in such intellectual heresy. But Mao and his more pragmatic as well as ruthless aides are said to be first on the line to be reincarnated. Sources also indicate that applications are also being accepted from living persons but strictly from the members of the party only, religious people have been asked not to apply as the state is firmly committed to atheism and shuns all religions from matters of the State.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">PS</span>: <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">This post is partly, an April Fool prank, just in case someone failed to notice :P </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Partly a prank because everything about Chinese authority's stand on the Dalai Lama's reincarnation issue is true, including the quote. The statements about new department and all are fictitious ;)</span></i></div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-28137653159984897002015-03-02T01:00:00.000+05:302015-03-03T02:26:10.050+05:30Open Source Politics And Aam Aadmi Party (beta)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Who would have thought even five years ago that <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">a political party with all India appeal</span> could coalesce as if by magic out of <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">social activism</span> by several thousand <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">volunteers and supporters</span> scattered all over the planet, connected only by the tenuous strands of <span style="background-color: #ffe599;">an Idea </span>?<br />
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The above paragraph is actually taken from Eric S Raymond's essay <a href="http://www.unterstein.net/su/docs/CathBaz.pdf" target="_blank">The Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>, considered as the Bible of the Open Source Software Movement, the highlighted words are substitutions I have made to suit the present context; the original text is as follows:<br />
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Who would have thought even five years ago (1991) that a world-class operating system could coalesce as if by magic out of part-time hacking by several thousand developers scattered all over the planet, connected only by the tenuous strands of the Internet? [source: <a href="http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/homesteading/cathedral-bazaar/">http://www.catb.org/esr/..</a> ]</blockquote>
Aam Aadmi Party's rise is in many ways similar to the rise of Open Source Software paradigm which later inspired numerous movements such as Open Source Hardware, Open Content (Wikipedia), Open Data, Open Access, Open-source Robotics, Open Source Education, Open Source Economics,Open Source Governance, Open Source Politics (not what I mean here) and whole lot of "Open Source" things including Open Source Cola and Open Source Terrorism !<br />
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Not all movements may have been drawn from Open Source Initiative but the key principles they share are <i>collaboration</i>,<i>transparency </i>and <i>crowdsourcing</i>. However, when I draw analogy between AAP and Open Source Politics, I am not referring to the existing definitions which have more to do with political campaign and governance using Internet technologies to connect with the people. Call it Politics 2.0, Governance 2.0, AAP does embrace the concept and with good results too but I wish to investigate more on organisational aspect of it. There is a reason why, in the opening paragraph I said "connected by an idea" and not "connected by the Internet".<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img5a.flixcart.com/img/thumb/281/9781607962281.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Cathedral & The Bazaar" border="0" src="http://img5a.flixcart.com/img/thumb/281/9781607962281.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dl.flipkart.com/dl/cathedral-bazaar-english/p/itmdykvhzptdwey2?pid=9781607962281&affid=danishctcg">Buy Cathedral and<br />
the Bazaar</a></td></tr>
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For that it would be prudent to go back to the doctrine of the Open Source Initiative. Like AAP, Open Source Movement started as a movement challenging software giants such as Microsoft, Apple and others, the open source operating system Linux was a tremendous success and today the Open Source model is ubiquitous, embraced even by its strongest opponents. If your smartphone runs on Android you already know how ubiquitous it is.<br />
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ESR compares software development by commercial software companies as building cathedrals, "<i>carefully crafted by individual wizards or small bands of mages working in splendid isolation, with no beta to be released before its time</i>" in contrast Open Source community or rather the "<i>Linux community seemed to resemble a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches (aptly symbolized by the Linux archive sites, who’d take submissions from anyone ) out of which a coherent and stable system could seemingly emerge only by a succession of miracles</i>."<br />
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In Indian politics, traditional parties function reverentially, following hierarchies of power, maintaining secrecy and delivering, if at all , in a grand manner after a lot of time. In contrast, AAP came together as a motley group of individuals from diverse backgrounds and differing views held together by the common thread of fighting against a corrupt and exploitative establishment by forming a party. It did seem that for AAP to become a formidable political force it required a succession of miracles. Well, it did, today, AAP is able to majorly influence the national civil/political discourse in the country.<br />
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Raymond lays down a set of aphorisms/principles that he through experiment found key to the success of the Linux methodology, I am reproducing some of them which are analogous to the AAP methodology:<br />
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<i><u>Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.</u></i><br />
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Most AAP volunteers joined up to scratch their personal itch, but that the itch was to cleanse the political system from corruption, VIP culture, sectarian and divisive politics and general decadence. After all AAP emerged from the hugely successful, Anna Hazare led India Against Corruption movement. The movement paved way for emergence of a political party that sought to eliminate corruption, crony capitalism and bring systemic change. Even in politics scratching an itch caused by altruism is certainly a virtue. <i></i><br />
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<i><u>Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite (and reuse)</u></i><br />
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AAP did not come up with a stereotypical political ideology but instead sought to stick to constitutional principles. <b>For this party, secularism as a single point agenda or development as single point agenda were simply moot points. </b>The state is supposed to preserve secularism, ensure social equality and one of its function is economic development. None of these are negotiable enough to become single point agenda,more so because they are too abstract. AAP also adopted the "bijli,sadak , pani" agenda (electricity,roads,water) which political parties had used earlier but only as electioneering slogan. Again, AAP did not offer these as sops but as rights people were already entitled to but were denied by corrupt system. </div>
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<i><u>Plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.</u></i></div>
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Well, Arvind actually had to throw away his chief ministership because it was not working out without a majority. Unfortunately he had to apologize for the mistake but looking back, continuing as a minority government, which means dependence on these two for passage of bills, would have given Congress and BJP lots of options to obstruct and discredit him. The risk paid off with AAP sweeping the Delhi Assembly polls 2015 by capturing 67 out of 70 seats. </div>
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<u><i>Treating your users as co-developers is your least-hassle route to rapid code improvement and effective debugging. </i> </u></div>
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When attempting to deliver solutions to people's problems, involve them in the process , Delhi Dialogues, Residents Welfare Associations, Mohalla Sabha's are mechanism implemented/planned by AAP to take proactive roles in decision making in solving issues of their respective areas. </div>
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<i><u>Release early. Release often. And listen to your customers.</u></i></div>
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The AAP government did not wait to make a grand press conference to declare new schemes which would take years to begin. Instead it started delivering its promises from day one itself. The long term solutions by definition require time but there is no reason why short term relief can't be delivered immediately.<br />
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<i><u>Linus’s Law : Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.</u></i><br />
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From the beginning Arvind has made transparency in funding and governance an integral part of his party's working style. In fact, in his speech, he has warned volunteers from becoming arrogant and has within a week set up several mechanism for the people to address their grievances to him or his government.</div>
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It needs to be mentioned here that organisations do need faces and if the current election had all components of a contest of personalities, personality cult need not be an outcome. Like Arvind Kejriwal becoming face of AAP, Linus Torvald became the rallying point of hackers developing the Open Source Operating System so much so that it came to be known as Linux (named after Linus) . Yet,Linus never became the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs or even Steve Ballmer. </div>
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<b>Now can lessons learned from Open Source Software model be adopted to scale AAP to a national alternative without relying on Arvind Kejriwal to take proactive role. </b></div>
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Decentralization played an important role in open source software movement, there was no chain of command, there just principle and the rule- share the source code. Small agile teams took the movement forward, rapidly innovating and creating world class software application. I am not sure how the chain of command runs in AAP but it does have a core doctrine, starting with Arvind Kejriwal's book Swaraj.</div>
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<i><u>If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource,they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.</u></i></div>
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Now that Aam Aadmi Party has formed government in Delhi, it is but natural that it would face a lot of criticism now and then, mostly politically motivated but some very genuine criticisms too. The latter should be identified and their opinions taken seriously, one of the biggest drawbacks of traditional political parties is that their leaders, surrounded by sycophants are so indifferent to criticism that they just can't see the ground realities.<br />
I do feel Aam Aadmi Party members and active volunteers do not take positive criticism well enough nor value their "beta-testers" which might turn out a drawback when not on their own turf.<br />
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<u><i>Provided the development coordinator has a medium at least as good as the Internet, and knows how to lead without coercion, many heads are inevitably better than one</i>.</u> </div>
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AAP already has presence in most states but in absence of a strong volunteer and support base as in Delhi, it has to ensure that those in charge of local units are able to take along as much volunteers with them as possible. Politics is a lucrative career in India, which is why corruption and party infighting is so rampant across party lines. A threat AAP now faces especially outside Delhi and regions where it already has a strong foothold, is influx of political opportunists . Apart from that, even well meaning individuals are not immune from ego clashes or plain arrogance. Official posts, hierarchies may not be such a great idea in regions where their volunteer base is not strong enough. They can lead to friction among individuals seeking to exert more influence and even to ego clashes. The biggest challenge that the party would face during expansion is to keep many heads together, without letting the lead appear coercive.<br />
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Note : In keeping with Open Source methodology, this is an early release. Expect revisions, more so if you leave feedback :) </div>
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-26224413489261304802015-02-22T03:25:00.000+05:302016-01-02T18:43:26.148+05:30Interstellar : A Journey Through Human Minds<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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One of the criticism Interstellar faces resulting in being snubbed in awards ceremonies, is the lack of character development. Most science fiction have little room for character development which is justifiable given the nature of the plots, it would be difficult to incorporate elements of emotional states people go through in every day life while narrating a fast moving story based in a fictitious world where laws of science are bended to accommodate thrill. Yet, Nolan doesn't do such a bad job in Interstellar,since the story is one about mankind's bid for survival by leaving Earth for another habitable planet and theme is an epic space journey largely based on real science, the characters are archetypes rather than regular people. In absence of character development, Nolan bases his story on philosophy and bare emotions, both simple and deep as well as with all their complexities.</div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="color: red;">Spoiler Alert!</span><br />
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The basic premise of the movie is drawn from a philosophical/scientific argument on the risky consequence of unchecked progression of technological civilization. In the beginning we find that a massively diminished human population has turned into an agrarian society, shunning technology for the most part. The reason given is that shortage of food has led to a situation where NASA's trained pilot is forced to take up farming. From a philosophical perspective there could be another reason. Enrico Fermi proposed in response to the question why we haven't encountered any form of communication from extra-terrestrial civilization (in the famous Fermi Paradox) that one of reasons could that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#They_do_exist.2C_but_we_see_no_evidence" target="_blank">an intelligent civilization that has developed technology for space travel would also have developed the capability to self-destruct.</a> This seems all the more true when we look at our history to find that we developed the atom bomb and nuclear arsenal for MAD (mutually assured destruction) before we landed on the moon. And I am not even looking at climate change scenario. For a world with hugely diminished human population and facing starvation ,the only way to avoid complete annihilation of the species would be to forsake industrial civilization and return to basic survival methods. It is not surprising that the school teachers talk about them being a caretaker generation and things getting better. <br />
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This is a rather cold rationalist perspective on survivalism which relies more on instinctual drives not sentiments that bind people into families and towards society, especially when it comes to making irrational sacrifices or perishing with stoic calmness. One of the earliest statements in the movie made by Professor Brand indicates the strong role that the doctrine of evolutionary survivalism has to play is:<br />
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<b>Dr. Brand: </b>Then get out there and save them. We must reach far beyond our own lifespans. We must think not as individuals but as a species. We must confront the reality of interstellar travel. </blockquote>
I might mention here that ideologically, nothing is good or bad here, only points of views. As Amelia puts it in the start of the journey:<br />
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<b>Amelia</b>: You know out there, we would face great odds, Death but, not evil.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: You don't think nature can be evil?<br />
<b>Amelia</b>: No,formidable, frightening. But, no, not evil. Is a lion evil because it rips a gazelle to shreds?<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Just what we take with us then?<br />
<b>Amelia</b>: Yeah. This crew represents the best of humanity.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Even me, huh?<br />
<b>Amelia</b>: You know what? We agreed, 90%</blockquote>
This banter brings out the fact that the members of the Lazarus mission do not share a single ideology or priorities. Cooper makes the tongue-in-cheek remark rather self-deprecatingly because he seems quite selfish being concerned mostly about saving his kids. But it is just not that, Cooper comes across as a different kind of person than the rest of the crew even before he had stumbled into NASA secret base. From the very first scene, Cooper is shown as someone who dreams of stars but is still content with farming to take care of his children. He is concerned about the species but it doesn't mean as much to him without his kids.<br />
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<b>Cooper</b>: We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.</blockquote>
Yet, when given the chance to pilot the Endurance, he hesitates because he has kids to take care of and only agrees after learning that they wouldn't survive if they didn't find a new home soon. Throughout his extraordinary journey, Cooper never for a moment forgets that he has to return home. Dr Mann, while making a statement in a different context tells Cooper<br />
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<b>Dr. Mann</b>: Because he knew how hard it would be to get people to work together to save the species instead of themselves. Or their children.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Bullshit.<br />
<b>Dr. Mann</b>: You never would have come here unless you believed you were going to save them. Evolution has yet to transcend that simple barrier. We can care deeply - selflessly - about those we know, but that empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight.</blockquote>
I find Dr Mann's character fascinating,he seems absolutely convinced that the only way to save the species is overcome petty attachments and even be ready sacrifice one's own life to save the human species. But when put to test he realises the power that the instinct of self-preservation has over human will when he transmits fake data to get someone to rescue him. He probably realises that being with other humans is integral part of the human nature but still doesn't understand that the strength of human emotions over the abstract idea of saving the species. While the interpretation that Mann is egoistical and wants to take all the credit of saving humanity himself does have merit, given the fact that he knows his planet doesn't support life and are Cooper intends to take back Endurance to Earth thus unwittingly scuttling Plan B does give Mann a reason to try killing Cooper, at least from his perspective. (Here is the <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/11/absolute-zero/">official comic book giving backstory of Dr. Mann's expedition</a>)<br />
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The reason I am sympathetic towards Mann is that he raises a profound philosophical question. What makes us human ? <br />
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<b>Dr. Mann</b>: You have attachments, but even without a family, I promise you that, that yearning to be with other people is remarkable. That emotion is, at the foundation, of what makes us humans.</blockquote>
Yet despite pontificating on what it means to be human, he doesn't really understand how complex human emotions really are. Emotional beings need not necessarily follow the diktats of evolution or as for that matter, always act rational. For instance, people like the school teachers,Donald and Tom are satisfied with the way things are. Donald and Tom ( who are likely aware of impending apocalypse) face the situation with stoic calm, they are the kind of people who would rather die attempting to grow food rather than seek shelter in underground bunkers. For farmers, Earth is mother, even when she is poisoning them.<br />
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But the real balancing act is done by Amelia who tries reconciling cold rationalism with human emotions. She is scientifically sound enough to suggest that Mann's planet has less chances of supporting human life because it lies to close to Gargantua :<br />
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<b>Amelia</b>: Accidents are the first building block of evolution, but when you're orbiting a black hole,not enough can happen, it sucks in asteroids, comets,other events which would otherwise reach you.</blockquote>
Yet, when Cooper accuses her of favoring Edmunds' planet because she is in love with him, makes the most profound statement of the movie<br />
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<b>Cooper</b>: You're a scientist, Brand.<br />
<b>Amelia </b>: So listen to me when I say love isn't something that we invented. It's observable. Powerful. It has to mean something.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Love has meaning, yes. Social utility, social bonding, child rearing...<br />
<b>Amelia </b>: We love people who have died. Where's the social utility in that?<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: None.<br />
<b>Amelia</b> : Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand. Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive. I'm drawn across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing that we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it. All right Cooper. Yes, the tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. That doesn't mean I'm wrong.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Honestly, Amelia, it might. </blockquote>
Amelia reveals herself to be far more complex and mature than her father and his protegee Dr. Mann, who are so convinced of their knowledge of how universe works that they are unwilling to even consider that there could be more than they know. The Lazarus mission's plan B intends to start a new colony of humans with on-board fertilized embryos in order to save the species but they aren't making slightest effort to save the human civilization. Humans aren't just biological organisms, those born on a different planet with the help of incubators and surrogacy and growing up oblivious to the way human life used to be on Earth, its vast heritage of ideas, philosophies, arts and culture and science wouldn't really be a continuation of human civilization. Without the indescribable deep bonding or love between parents and their children, between siblings, friends and two individuals; without equally strong affiliations towards family,community,society and the civilization, such a colony can be a collection of the species but not continuation of human race. While Professor Brand living on Earth doesn't really understand this, Dr. Mann's bizarre behaviour indicates deep rooted conflicted within him between what he believes and what isolation for a decade on a barren planet reveals to him about human nature. Yet, he is arrogant enough to disregard it and pays the price for it.<br />
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Cooper too is not a character without flaws, in the beginning he doesn't give much thought to finding a solution , his focus is more on piloting the spaceship and returning home. Amelia's argument about love being capable of transcending space and time, even if we don't know how it works, reminds Cooper that deep down he his decision to pilot the Endurance has always been about his feeling to come up here, to fulfil his destiny even if he doesn't quite know how to do it.<br />
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<span class="character"><b>Cooper</b></span>: We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us. [source:<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/quotes?item=qt2084353" target="_blank"> IMDb</a> ]</blockquote>
It is after Dr. Mann's disastrous docking attempt sends Endurance down towards Mann's planet that Cooper starts to reflect the undauntable human spirit in him that seeks to overcome the impossible.<br />
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<b>Brand</b>: What are you doing?<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Docking.<br />
<b>CASE </b>: <span class="italic">Endurance</span> rotation sixty-seven, sixty-eight rotations per minute.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: Get ready to match it on the retro thrusters.<br />
<b>CASE</b>: It’s not possible.<br />
<b>Cooper</b>: <i>No. It's necessary</i>.</blockquote>
Moments after the spectacular docking sequence, the Endurance starts getting pulled into the black hole. Cooper comes up with a plan to allow Gargantua to pull Endurance closer until the critical orbit and then make a powered slingshot launching towards Edmunds' planet using a lander and a ranger as rocket boosters. But after their fuel had been spent they needed to detached and as linkages had been broken the modules had to be controlled manually. a lander and a ranger after their fuel had been spent acting as rocket boosters to lift Endurance out of the pull and send it towards Edmunds' planet. After TARS detaches in lander 1, much to Amelia's horror, Cooper detaches too and plunges towards the event horizon of Gargantua.<br />
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While detaching, Cooper tells Amelia that it is necessary to shed weight to allow Endurance to escape but TARS final remarks "see you on the other side, Coop" hints, Cooper may indeed be thinking he could work with TARS to relay the information the latter finds. It may be the same feeling that led him to space in the first place. Finally, in the tesseract, love triumphs over survival instinct. The fifth dimension beings, existing outside our four dimensional brane may have access to every event in time and possess capability to send message through gravity, they wouldn't know how to really communicate. Communication requires that information transmitted is understood which is nearly impossible if both the sides aren't aware of the context in which the information should be interpreted or decrypted. More importantly with the father-daughter bonding, the information Cooper sends couldn't have been seen as such and perhaps dismissed as anomalies.<br />
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It is a father's love for his daughter that partly motivates Cooper to plunge towards the black hole from which he is sucked into the artificial construct in the fifth dimension and from where TARS is able to gather quantum data after observing the singularity. Cooper's love for Murph is quantifiable, the matrix of cubes, each representing six different views of Murph's bedroom in every instance of time makes it possible for him to navigate specific instance of time to send message by exerting force on world-lines of specific objects such as books and hands in a watch to create gravitational waves that affect these objects. Similarly, Murph's love for his father transcends space and time. Her father has been gone for more than 25 years and if alive is thousands of millions of light years away, but she is still drawn to her bedroom where both of them started investigating the anomalies and where she believes she can find the answers. And she does. She finds the quantum data encoded in the seconds hand of the watch her father had given her and decodes the message to complete the gravity equation so that the space station is able to take off and mankind is saved from extinction.<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-36601054009629278842015-02-21T20:08:00.000+05:302015-11-16T20:08:55.000+05:30Interstellar - Explanation And Summary<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The very idea of science fiction implies a narrative which does not fully conform to established laws of physics but its not fantasy either. In other words, laws of science have been bent or simply ignored to accommodate the storyline. Interstellar is different as the science layer added over the story is based on real science. Kip Thorne, a scientist and a leading authority on astrophysics, especially on concepts such as black holes and wormholes, as consultant and executive producer definitely helped. However, this doesn't change the fact that the human part of the movie is as powerful as the scientific one. Nolan's unique story-telling style includes non-linear narratives but within a symmetrical structure,archetypical characters and awe-inspiring visual effects have left permanent mark in cinematic history. Interstellar is as much a voyage through the minds, beliefs and priorities of different characters as much as it about the interstellar travel to another Galaxy.<br />
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Towards the end of the 21st century, Earth is ravaged by blight, population of mankind has been <br />
reduced to a tenth and the remnant are fighting for survival. Though not explicitly stated, there are hints to suggest that half a century's food crises has probably lead to conflicts among nation-states, groups for control of resources which combined with blight has led to annihilation of the majority of human population. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic agrarian world, in which the remnant of mankind has largely, but not entirely forsaken technology and gone back to farming to put food on the table. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) , an ex-pilot and engineer - turned farmer and his 10 year old daughter,Murph, detect gravitational anomalies and also decrypt coordinates from the Morse code that it contains. The coordinates lead them to a secret NASA facility where he learns that the space agency has been planning something big to save the world.<br />
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He also learns about a race of an advanced 5 dimensional entities, about whom nothing is known except that they are able to communicate through gravity and have also placed a worm-hole near Saturn which leads them to a new galaxy with 12 potentially habitable system, to each of which astronauts have already been sent a decade back. Cooper a trained pilot to fly rangers is convinced by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) of NASA to pilot the space ship Endurance to one of the systems which has 3 potentially habitable planets but 2 of them orbiting a massive black hole called Gargantua. Murph, who decodes the messages from what she calls "ghost" gets angry at her father leaving despite the message asking him to stay, an anger born out of love and that would stay with her for decades. Cooper leaves emotionally shaken which is the first indication of the role, the father-daughter relationship would play later on.<br />
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As the Endurance begins it journey, NASA has two plans :<br />
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Plan A - NASA is construction giant space stations on Earth which could carry people of Earth and its simulated ecology to space and then to the planet most suitable for harbouring life. The problem is such a massive vehicle cannot be lifted off the planet without harnessing gravity, which is what the equations on Professor Brand's blackboards are about. However, we later learn that for the equation to work the quantum data is needed which can be observed only from a singularity.<br />
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Plan B - The Endurance carries about 5000 frozen embryos that can be incubated on board, then through surrogacy allow the population to grow exponentially.<br />
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The crew of Endurance, Cooper, Dr Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway ), Doyle (Wes Bentley), Romilly (David Gyasi) and two robots, TARS and CASE fly to Saturn and then traverse the wormhole to reach the Gargantua system.<br />
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<b>Gargantua </b><br />
Miller's planet orbits the supermassive rotating black hole Gargantua with a mass of 100 million times mass of our Sun. Black hole as the connotation implies cannot be seen, yet Nolan and Thorne came up with something extraordinary that explains how habitable planets can exist around such a black hole and also a create visual delight for film viewers that can actually help physicists gain insight into black holes. The massive rotational speed of Gargantua whirls space and time around it which captures the radiating photons in the same direction, creating accretion disk with is about the same temperature and conditions as the Sun. The visual effect created through CGI has been described as being so accurate that Kip Thorne will release <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/10/astrophysics-interstellar-black-hole/" target="_blank">two scientific papers</a>, one for astrophysics community and another for computer graphics community.<br />
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<b>Miller's Planet</b><br />
Continuing with the plot, back on Earth, NASA had been able to receive only binary pings from these planets as technology to transmit data through the wormhole is rudimentary, so they really didn't know much about the ecosystem of the planets, only the fact that the astronauts have landed on the planets. After reaching the system they find more meaningful data and head for the closest planet, visited by Dr Miller and which also indicates availability of water. The problem with the planet is that it is too close to Gargantua, orbiting in it's cusp hence under immense gravitational pull of the black hole. As such a massive gravitational pull bends space well as time, the time flows in Millers's planet much slower than on Earth. In this case, a hour in Miller's planet is 7 year on Earth. To avoid time slippage while travelling to the planet, Cooper comes up with an excellent plan. He intends to fly in a parallel orbit of the planet about just outside the cusp an hence the extreme gravitational pull and then drop straight to Miller's planet.<br />
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Romilly along with TARS, stays back aboard endurance to study the black hole while the other crew members start for the planet. After landing on the water planet they discover Dr Miller's spacecraft wreckage but also a mile high wave about to crash, CASE saves Brand by bringing her into the ranger but Doyle is unable to make it back and the ranger's engine is flooded. Just before the water is pumped out completely another wave approaches and Cooper evading the mile high wave in his ranger is another audio visual sequence that leaves you spell bound. Reaching Endurance they find they have lost 23 years, because of the accident and the duration of the journey.<br />
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Back on Endurance, Cooper views the cached video messages, how relativity of time can affect a human being is brought best when Cooper views cached video messages. While he has spent just hours or days in the journey, back on Earth his son, has grown up, married, become a father and later lost not only his son,grandfather but also faith that his father would return. One of the most emotional scenes in the movie is when a grown up Murph (Jessica Chastain) messages her father for the first time, reminding him that he had said that when he returns they might be the same age and that she was now the same age as when he had left. The intensity of father daughter relationship is brought out captivatingly as Cooper finds himself helpless to reach out and tell her that he still intended to return. The very next sequence is pivotal to the theme of the movie that deals with human emotions. When realizing that they have only enough fuel to visit either Dr Mann's planet or Wolf Edmunds' (besides fuel to go back to Earth), Cooper insists they visit Mann's planet because he is the leader of the Lazarus Mission but Amelia want's to visit Edmunds' planet,when Romilly proposes a vote Cooper reveals that Amelia is in love with Wolf Edmunds and it is for that reason, she want to go to his planet.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="character"><b>Brand</b></span>: So listen to me when I say love isn't something that we invented. It's observable. Powerful. It has to mean something.<br />
<span class="character"><b>Cooper</b></span>: Love has meaning, yes. Social utility, social bonding, child rearing...<br />
<span class="character"><b>Brand</b></span>: We love people who have died. Where's the social utility in that?<br />
<span class="character"><b>Cooper</b></span>: None.<br />
<span class="character"><b>Brand</b></span>: Maybe it means something more - something we can't yet understand. Maybe it's some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can't consciously perceive. I'm drawn across the universe to someone I haven't seen in a decade who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing that we're capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space. Maybe we should trust that, even if we can't understand it. All right Cooper. Yes, the tiniest possibility of seeing Wolf again excites me. That doesn't mean I'm wrong.<br />
<span class="character"><b>Cooper</b></span>: Honestly, Amelia, it might. [source: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/quotes?item=qt2307348" target="_blank">IMDb</a>]</blockquote>
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<b>Mann's Planet</b><br />
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<span style="color: #990000;"> SPOILERS!!!!! </span></div>
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The fact that Dr Mann's character was reprised by Matt Damon was kept under wraps until the movie was released. Described as legendary, Cooper discovers a distraught Dr Mann when brought out of cryosleep but quickly regains his composition. It is here that Murph's video message (Murph is now a scientist and most likely second-in-command after Professor) is received informing Amelia that her father was dead and she also asks Amelia if she knew that the plan A was a sham and the mission's objective was to start human population on a habitable planet and not come back to Earth as Professor Brand confesses to Murph on his death-bed. Mann explains that though Brand had completed the equation even before they left, it was ineffective unless the quantum data could be observed close to the singularity in the black hole, which was impossible. Cooper, whose main motivation is to save his family is outraged by the idea and wants to go home, to which Amelia Brand acquiesces. Dr Mann, takes Cooper along on a short exploratory trip and attacks him, revealing that the planet is inhospitable and he had sent fake data so be could be rescued. He leaves Cooper with a broken visor to die breathing ammonia but is saved in nick of time by Amelia piloting a lander.<br />
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Meanwhile, Romilly dies in an explosion when trying to access Mann's dysfunctional robot KIPP's archival function (robot named Kipp as a nod to Kip Thorne) . Mann tries to dock his Ranger with Endurance without knowing the mechanism. While Mann is trying to manually override the mechanism, the airlock blows killing him and destabilizing the starship. Cooper's attempt to dock the ranger with Endurance spinning at the rate of 67-68 rpm is one of the most terrific sci-fi stunt, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. However, the spaceship begins to fall into Gargantua's pull, Cooper quickly analysing that they don't have enough resources to make it back to Earth, suggests they use Gravitational pull to slingshot towards Edmunds' planet. He allows the ship to be pulled to the critical orbit (losing 50 years according to Earth time) and then attempts to shed load by first letting TARS detach with a lander and fall into the black hole, then he himself detaches with a ranger into the black hole.<br />
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<b>The Black Hole, Fifth Dimension And Tesseract</b><br />
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In this part of the narrative, the boundary between real science, science fiction and science fantasy become blurred. Let us first begin with exploring scientific theories about our universe. According to Brane Cosmology (drawn from string theory, superstring theory and M-theory) , our four dimensional universe (3 spatial + 1 time dimension) is a brane (derived from the term membrane) residing in a higher-dimensional space called the Bulk or Hyperspace. No matter how under-qualified I am, I will attempt to elucidate in a later post, for the moment, think of a rubber sheet enveloped within other sheets.<br />
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To understand black hole think of the rubber sheet stretched out and a small but heavy object dropped on it. The objects cause the regions of the sheet to dip almost making it funnel shaped. Black holes act similarly on our brane except instead of matter its the the immense warping of space and time and travelling downwards towards the singularity that lies at the centre. A point of infinite warping of space and time. An important point Kip Thorne makes is that, Gargantua is a "gentle singularity", it is possible to survive after crossing its event horizon but not singularity. Cooper ejects just in time to see his ranger ripped apart by the tidal forces of the singularity but he himself survives because he doesn't reach the edge of the singularity, the Bulk beings, pull him into the the fifth dimension (remember the black hole is in our brane which is contained within the extra-dimension)<br />
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However, since Cooper cannot understand the nature of the bulk, the entities have created a tesseract in which time is represented as a physical dimension and which also acts as a traveling capsule. The construct moves rapidly in the bulk space and docks with Murph's bedroom. Cooper discovers that each hypercube of the tesseract is a moment in time and offers six views of Murph's bedroom, he can navigate to any point in time physically and view the room. However, he cannot communicate with Murp because according to rules of physics, no object or field can travel backward or from the bulk to the brane. Since gravity is the only thing that can travel across space and time (gravity is effect of curvature of space) , Cooper generates gravitational waves to knock off books,sending morse encoded message to 10 year old Murph. Once he has succeeded opening communication to Murph and found that TARS has survived and has the quantum data, he asks the robot to encode the data in morse and give to him.<br />
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Cooper then manipulates gravity to transfer this data through the movements of the second hand of the watch he had given Murph as parting gift. Brand's statement of love being able to transcend space and time is proven true. Cooper makes the effort to get close to singularity and obtain quantum data out of love for his children who would otherwise die along with all human life on Earth. Similarly, Murph visits her old bedroom and picks up the watch because of her love for her father. After the data is successfully transmitted, the Bulk beings close the tesseract ejecting Cooper and TARS, probably, near wormhole since they are found drifting near Saturn by a ranger. Cooper finds himself in Cooper Space Station, named after her daughter who is now more than 90 years old,in frail health and a towering figure in the scientific community. After meeting Murph and being assured that the people of the Earth have been saved, Cooper takes a ranger to join Amelia in Edmund's planet which is revealed to have a habitable environment.<br />
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This is merely a summarized plot synopsis, the 169 minutes epic of journey through interstellar space, navigating concepts of spacetime curvature, wormholes, black holes, extreme time dilation and fifth dimension and keeping complexities of human emotion as the central theme makes Interstellar too much to handle in a single viewing. That's why I set down to write this post, simply touching the concepts crammed into the nearly 3 hours of space drama. As is obvious I have merely touched upon the various concepts, the science part especially is not accurate enough nor is character analysis. I will try to follow up with more post focusing on those aspects. If you like it or find errors in this post, please do leave your feedback. <br />
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Do check out my <a href="http://xpensieve.blogspot.in/2015/02/interstellar-journey-through-human-minds.html" target="_blank">second post on Interstellar</a><br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-46363512811472659062015-02-18T18:50:00.000+05:302015-02-19T19:28:52.996+05:30Scaling Up AAP Model And New Politics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Picking up the thread from my last post, Aam Aadmi Party's tremendous success in Delhi polls and speculations on its ability to deliver dominating the public discourse indicates that AAP may be Delhi based party, it is now a pan-Indian phenomenon. Support for AAP all across India and even abroad suggest a positive anti-establishment sentiment. Mostly, anti-establishment moniker is applied to subversive elements,especially the Naxalites and secessionist which seek to overthrow the state but AAP's anti-establishment posture is more about going back to the fundamental principles the Indian State was founded on and against the predatory system that has now become the establishment. During the high decibel negative campaign against AAP,the competitors charged the latter for negativism which is both ironic and somewhat ridiculous, the Delhi voters interpreted it as such. The fact is, AAP is heralding new politics which is difficult to understand when looking at it from traditional point of view.<br />
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The country it seems, is ready for the new politics but Arvind Kejriwal has ruled out going national now. Yet, AAP already has dedicated volunteers in all across the country. So the most pertinent question would be , is AAP's model of new politics scalable ? If the party itself doesn't expand aggressively, can other parties emulate its model of politics and electioneering , especially regional parties, some of which even openly came out in support of AAP, even though the latter never solicited it. Can political parties reconcile their respective ideologies with that of AAP ? Does AAP even have a neatly defined ideology ?<br />
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Some experts lament on the lack of a well defined ideology of AAP but what they forget is this party is not a traditional party, it is driven more by real, tangible ideas rather than rigid ideologies with abstract, academic terminology which largely turn out hollow on the ground. Let's not forget, AAP think-tank has some of the best academic minds with sound understanding of socio-economic-political realities. Lack of traditional ideology couldn't be lack of foresight, their meticulously drafted manifestos defy any such notion.<br />
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Before proceeding further, I should mention that organisations like RSS and the now diminished Left do have ideologically motivated cadres on the ground who may not be lured by personal interest but they seek to make India what it is not or what the constitutional fathers envisioned India as. They tend to wave their saffron and red flags more than the tricolor. The thing about RSS is that it wilfully ignores a large segment of population because it needs itself juxtapositioned against them to be recognizable. Cultural purification, rewriting history and establishing its own brand of nationalism may appeal to a section of people but it doesn't simply have pan-India appeal, elections are mostly fought on local issues not on questions of foreign policies. All it can do is consolidate Sangh Parivar's core vote-bank but it doesn't seek universality in the first place.<br />
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The major difference between politics India's <i>ancien regime</i> and the new politics of AAP is that latter is built upwards from the ground. This is the primary reason, some people question if AAP can deliver, they look at it from a macro perspective which is understandable given the feudal structure of our current political establishment. Political leaders seldom have connect with the common people except superficially, the are hierarchies that stand between them and the people. Of course, hierarchies are necessary in functioning of organisations but in this case the hierarchical levels are determined by amount of political power concentrated there rather than responsibilities towards the people. It is not uncommon to find most of the leaders as well as important party workers having taken to politics as a profession and in some cases to further their or their loyalists' business interests. While legislators are seldom seen on road after the end of the election season, their point-persons do, not to connect with the common people but secure political capital.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/33094616.cms" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo/33094616.cms" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(source: Economic Times)</td></tr>
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Holding and nurturing distinct religious, ethnic, caste-based and even interest-based identity is in fact a good thing in a pluralistic democratic society such as ours but leaders based out of them should be single-mindedly working to help people of their communities meet basic needs are met, the grievances addressed. They should make sure all sections of the population become part of the mainstream without giving their up their religious/caste/class identity. Yet they are often found attempting to segregate these communities, treating them as herds so as to extract and showcase their own political power as a bargain tactic. These practices are so deeply entrenched that even people who have joined politics and continue to work with the best of intents are still hostage to this system. Traditional parties might find it difficult to follow the AAP paradigm without bringing structural changes in their organisations.<br />
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As for AAP scaling itself to a national alternative is quite possible despite Arvind expressing the contrary in his speech. If the motivation is to work for the people and not further one's own political ambitions or a particular ideology, AAP model can be carried forward by its volunteers without requiring the Delhi CM to shift his focus from his state. The party's units in most states already exist and seem quite functional, volunteers have been galvanized by the Delhi electoral results. Perhaps all that the senior leaders need to do is ensure that the fundamental principles remain intact, funding and electoral campaign had been largely crowdsourced, what needs to be seen is if this is the dawn of open source politics in India.<br />
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Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-3110932436339069662015-02-14T18:20:00.000+05:302015-03-04T02:17:22.170+05:30Can AAP Live Up To Its Promises ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Within minutes of Arvind Kejriwal taking oath as the chief minister of Delhi NCR, questions on his ability to deliver his promises have started coming up. Undoubtedly his speech would undergo a lot of scrutiny, dissections and continue to remain in national discourse, even if he has categorically ruled out another pan-India "misadventure". Why then are so many people not from Delhi so interested in Delhi affairs while political upheaval in "proper" and far more bigger states of Bihar and government formation issue Jammu and Kashmir are almost sidelined in mainstream and social media? The obvious answer is AAP and Arvind Kejriwal have brought in something to Indian democracy that defies the traditional political narrative and threatens it despite the Delhi CM's statement on not going national.<br />
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A narrative is being built that AAP's victory is largely based on freebies it has offered. This is untrue and insult to mandate people of Delhi. What AAP has offered and vowed, is to bring systemic changes and to do away with practices that are unnecessary, corrupt and benefit crony capitalists rather than people. Since every party that has been in power has doled out freebies starting from cycles, TV, laptops and free electricity to sections of population for electoral dividend, it is but expected a lot of people would see AAP's promises as cheap populism. But is it ?<br />
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Most of these people, some with genuine concern, believe large scale development, revenue generation is the way to bring about inclusive growth. It is true, industrial development is necessary for economic growth in the longer term but that doesn't mean immediate measures cannot be taken to bring relief to the poor. Most of us seem to have forgotten that more than large scale industrialization, it is the "jugaad" that has been one of the key factors of the economic growth of last two decades. The thing about jugaad is, it can work both ways. Arvind made some interesting points in his speech, eradicating corruption and the state coffer having enough money to slash prices of water and electricity. And these being interrelated. In one of my previous posts I had mentioned about the eighteen-fold rise of water tariff issue in a decade in Delhi as had been revealed by the Aam Aadmi Party. The Delhi Jal Board maintained that <a href="https://app.box.com/s/af2nmh3adjpmx46wya98" target="_blank">50% of water in Delhi was Non-Revenue Water and more than 200 million gallons of water were lost in leakage every day</a>. Yet where does all this water go ? The Universe wastes nothing!<br />
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Neither does the Universe transfer the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/water-shortages-lead-tanker-mafia-india-052848460.html" target="_blank">water into illegal tankers</a> that charge outrageous amounts for a basic necessity such as water, <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2329934/Parched-Delhi-mercy-tanker-mafia-flourishing-audacity.html" target="_blank">the case of tanker mafia is well reported </a>but no action was ever taken against them by any government except the 49-days AAP governed Delhi. Something similar applies to the electricity tariff, it has long assumed that private DISCOMS fudge balance sheet to show losses when in reality their profit has been substantial. The director of DERC, Brijendra Singh had in 2010 communicated that given the amount of profit discoms were making electricity tariff should be slashed by 23% but after his retirement the tariff was actually increased by 20% and ten 30%. This alone slashes the tariff by 50% but then truth is, it isn't that simple. companies involved in power generation, transmission and distribution, have all been inflating figures in their balance sheets. The <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/DRI-unearths-Rs-29000-cr-coal-import-scam/articleshow/45555438.cms" target="_blank">Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has found that overvaluation by companies importing coal for power transmission amounts to Rs 29,000 crores for the period between 2011-2014</a>. This inflated cost has been directly passed to the consumers. Yet people complain about subsidising water and electricity, which is not something new, what is new is that while offering 20 KL of water free to every household also implies that in order to avail them, they get metered connection and a significant reduction in Non-Revenue Water quantity.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<a href="https://twitter.com/aartic02">@aartic02</a> AAP effect has started in Delhi. <a href="http://t.co/w4ZBddHgAG">pic.twitter.com/w4ZBddHgAG</a><br />
— Anugrah (@BreakiNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/BreakiNews/status/567259842209792000">February 16, 2015</a></blockquote>
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However, more needs to be be done to develop infrastructure, revive water plants, build power station for Delhi, the details can be found in the <a href="http://aamaadmiparty.org/sites/default/files/Action%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">AAP's 70 Point Action Plan document here</a>. Of course, these would take time and obstacles, both incidental and politically motivated ones. Case in point is the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2532858/AAPs-free-water-promise-scuppered-South-Delhi-hit-artificial-dry-spell-DJB-tanker-mafia-create-deliberate-shortage.htm" target="_blank">water scarcity created in parts of Delhi immediately after the AAP government was sworn in the last time</a>. The mandate of 2015 has largely prevented agencies and parties from carrying out similar sabotages. AAP has already begun fulfilling promises at a pace that I find difficult to keep up with in order to mention them here, nor was it my original intention. I don't live in Delhi, for me it is not about the results as much as it is about the process and the intention to deliver which I believe people of Delhi too look at. After all, in the electoral campaign and even before that Arvind Kejriwal was attacked for his 49-days stint, especially his resignation. Arvind on the other hand asked for trust based on the efforts they made in those 49 days and later as volunteers and in his speech made it clear that they will work with honest intention and remain grounded amongst the people of Delhi. Given the strong connect AAP leaders and volunteers have with the common people, it would require mammoth effort to derail it. As for analysts,commentators, experts they might well take a break as far as this question is concerned.<br />
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There is a difference between mindless populism, crass cronyism and prudent pro people governance. Those commenting might wanna understand.<br />
— Raghav Chadha (@raghav_chadha) <a href="https://twitter.com/raghav_chadha/status/567581105180516352">February 17, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2532858/AAPs-free-water-promise-scuppered-South-Delhi-hit-artificial-dry-spell-DJB-tanker-mafia-create-deliberate-shortage.html" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Aam Aadmi Party effect: Free water tankers, clean roads</a><br />
<span style="background-color: #cccccc;"><b>Updated</b>: 2/17/2015</span></div>
Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5898884975928370166.post-38231241298262992512015-02-11T00:00:00.000+05:302015-02-14T19:29:12.101+05:30When The Unstoppable Force Meets The Aam Aadmi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;">What kind of political leader calls a truly overwhelming mandate, scary ?</span></div>
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"The people of Delhi have achieved something spectacular. It is <i>very scary</i>, the kind of support the people of Delhi have given us". Obviously it has to be someone who doesn't lust for power, who doesn't look at victory as merely laurels heaped on him but also responsibility entrusted to him and whose first thought is not to take victory laps but how to fulfil them. AAP and Arvind Kejriwal have not only swept the Delhi Assembly polls but have shattered many myths, including the myth of political ideologies being rigid frameworks but which can also be discarded for opportunism or its euphemism, political expediency. I am not sure if AAP has an ideology but it certainly is an idea in itself. An idea clothed in simplicity, based on universal ethics and on a single minded pursuit of helping people, resolving their issues or at least addressing them.</div>
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With the mainstream media going orgiastic over the historical win there is little I can say in this post, avalanche of comments, reactions from veteran analysts, social scientists, journalists dominate the discourse over television and print media and the Internet already. I haven't written a single post on AAP since nearly a year mainly because AAP doesn't follow traditional politics, it innovates brilliantly as it goes along, brilliant because the motivation and intent are simple and real. My last post on AAP continues to be as relevant as before, except this time, the political dividend returned adds a lot of credibility to it. So I wouldn't have much to say except in retrospection. It is incredibly interesting to find that nearly everyone has called electoral result as rejection of BJP and Congress (of course, Congress calls it BJP's rout and BJP labels it Congress' decimation) , except the AAP itself, which views it as a positive mandate based on work they did in the 49 days stint as government and as volunteers/ activists since then. And the promises they have made.<br />
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Undoubtedly, AAP faces enormous challenges and its not about fulfilling promises made, especially with BJP government retaining some key department and agencies under its control. The fact that the seemingly unstoppable Modi wave meeting immovable Aam Aadmi resolve has left the former train-wrecked, one can expect minor road-blocks on AAP's path. I say minor because the scale of mandate by Delhi electorate backed by a pan-India consensus is something even the union government cannot undermine as brazenly as they have done before, without expecting fresh backlash. However, expecting the Sangh Parivar to take the defeat graciously, especially when they have come so close to fulfilling their destiny, would be an enormous blunder. If at all any political party is likely to learn from AAP's electioneering tactics, it is the RSS cadres but most likely adapt by perverting them. Of course, one cannot rule out Congress cadres resurging and doing the same, the grand old party's roots go deep and wide.<br />
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However, ideologies of the Sangh, Congress and the Left occupy the political Right-Centre-Left spectrum, they are confined by it, AAP transcends it. Therein lies the hope. In a truly aspirational India the politics of ghettoisation, communalization and crony capitalism might not work. Indian democracy has emerged stronger and much revitalized after a period of tense political churning.</div>
Danishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01636779341430888553noreply@blogger.com0