Interstellaaaaaa!!! or, the physics of wonton burrito meals

So, I watched Interstellar.

It was a pretty big let-down. Don’t let all the dorks posting on the internets about accurate physics in visual effects* distract you from the fact that if it wasn’t for the herculean efforts of Jessica Chastain and a couple of cool robots(think bender from futurama but a lot more helpful), this movie would have literally nothing to recommend it compared to all that hype. Given that it’s a Nolan film, the hero’s wife is dead yet again. It was an interesting meta move to cast Matthew Mcconaughey though, as his infamous line from ‘dazed and confused’ is inverted by the plot of this movie.

AS there is no aspect of the movie that is not explained in the movie, there is no reason for me to go into the details. Let me assure you that he plot twists are actually gentle, well banked, large radius turns with signboards at a frequency that would make the most safety minded highway official proud. So if you’re not making out with your partner or distracted by the jerkoffs who won’t switch off their phones in the movies, you don’t have much to ponder aside from whether the price of admission was/will be worth it. See it on IMAX if you can because the space visuals are definitely impressive, and Jessica Chastain seems like she acts even better when her face is 30 feet tall. I WILL WORSHIP YOU, SCIENCE GODDESS JESSICA!

Some good, writer-y reviews are here, here, and here too.

 

* hey, at least it wasn’t about ethics in gaming journalism.

I am NOT Anna Hazare

I am not Anna Hazare. I do not become Anna Hazare by typing 420 characters on the internet and to be honest, a facebook status or tweet is the worst token of protest. What do you give up by stating that you ‘support’ Anna Hazare? I do support the REAL Anna Hazare in principle, who is actually putting his health and safety on the line to achieve something he believes in, but that is where we part ways.

I personally do not believe that the Jan Lokpal Bill will eliminate the primary engine of corruption, which is the system of arbitrary power we have mindlessly inherited from the British Empire. What we need is not a new set of overlords, but the removal of all existing overlords because it is the very existence of power that leads to the corruption of people and not some inherent flaw in a particular person.

One good lesson that should be learned from this flurry of protests, amidst all the uproar created by media, is that if your ‘protest action’ is supported by elite (who consider themselves ‘middle class’ because their parents were) interests you will reach great heights. Whereas if your actions genuinely endanger any sort of state or class privilege, you will be ignored and humiliated.

on the arundhati roy thing^

is it not obvious that this is purely a media spectacle, and it’s sudden appearance should ask people to look closer at why such spectacle is being promoted at this time suddenly, when there have been political engagements going on at all levels of society in the much-affected kashmir valley? it certainly gets my spidey-sense tingling. there’s a glitch in the matrix. if there is anything i have learned over my exposure to news lo these 10 years, it is that if the corporate (and govt. run) media is deliberately focussing on one particular issue, one can be sure that the actual issue is somewhere else. you do not have to be noam chomsky to figure that out.

anyways. regardless of the content or tone of her words, and discounting the fact that she is a minor celebrity since she a) won a booker prize a while back and b) articulates a radical left-of-center view in good prose, this sudden attention seems to me an obvious ploy to pre-emptively discredit any and all leftist thought and action on the issues faced by kashmiris by equating, rather falsely, any demands for justice(which are definitely warranted) as an act of sedition* and thus ending the possibility of any real dialogue by drowning the concerned populace in a sea of parochial nationalism branded as patriotism.

(^ = if you are wondering what the arundhati roy thing is, google news is your friend)
(* = as someone tending towards anarchism[in the language of calculus] , the concept of sedition does not fempute )

shorter tom friedman

“In my day, we walked 10 miles barefoot to go to school. uphill. Both Ways!”

bonus head-exploding fun: a jewish writer, quoting other jewish and christian writers is talking about the ‘values’ of ‘hindus’ and ‘confucians’ being ‘protestant’. surely, his world is flat!

Kill the poor

Let us be perfectly clear: In the face of epic food-price inflation(over 10% for most of the past year), the Prime Minister of India – who heads the executive arm of the Government of India – is actively denying release of a staggering amount food-grains which are going to literally(not joe biden) rot in warehouses to the poverty stricken in this country. At the same time, there is going to be no regulation or investigation into the activities of commodity and derivatives traders who have contributed significantly to the current level of food prices.

With the Prime Minister of India so smugly asking the Supreme Court to stay away from ‘policy formulation’, I guess it is obvious that the official state policy of India is to starve already deprived people, maybe to death, in order to preserve their market incentives for production of foodgrains in the future.

“But to say that we can give foodgrains free, quite frankly, if we do that on a large scale you would destroy the incentive of our farmers to produce more food and if there is no food available for distribution what will you distribute?”

How about Cake, Mr. Singh?

i took your stupid survey, but it’s not going to do you any good

The ‘Rebuild India’ online survey is based on the suggestions and opinions collected from bloggers who possess a sound knowledge of the Indian administrative system. These bloggers include prominent business personalities, administrative experts, media professionals, socialists, socialites and of course the most important sect i.e. the ‘Aam Aadmi’.

say the geniuses behind the ‘rebuild india‘ meme, where ‘Aam Aadmi’ means ‘common man’.

the fatal flaw in the whole damn thing is that the common indian person, be it man or woman, is NOT SITTING AROUND READING FUCKING BLOGS as they are TOO DAMN POOR to afford an internet connection. blogging in india is mostly an upper-class thing, that people with reasonably sound english medium education engage in to pass the time with mental masturbation.

the survey is poorly designed i.e, most of my views are unrepresented. i had to choose between the lesser of evils in many of the questions, and it shows a pretty reactionary streak in the very wording of the questions. EPIC FAIL!

results here