Desicritics Category: BizTech: Science

Changing The Mindset - From Scientists To Entrepreneurs

Ashoka Chakra — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 22:33:52 EDT

There are many reasons for the United States' dominance in science. Freedom to operate, (relative) lack of seniority and sycophancy, and availability of funds are among them. Another reason the US has been in the forefront of technological innovation is that it allows scientists to be entrepreneurs. Take a look at the cluster of innovative companies coming out of Universities in California and Massachusetts and you get the picture. Companies span the gamut of fields, ranging from software to biotechnology. In most countries, this dual role is frowned upon, if not forbidden outright.

Such was the case in India as well. For example, in 2001, Swami Manohar and three colleagues at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore invented the Simputer, a simple and cheap hand-held computer. However, being employees of a public entity, they could not commercialize their invention. So Manohar and colleagues left and founded their own company, which was in turn bought out by Geodesic. If they had been in the US, they would have had many options including being on the SAB or even a senior executive of the company while still retaining their academic post.

Indian scientists will now have a similar choice. On 24 February, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research issued regulations that permits researchers at government-funded institutions to hold equity stakes in scientific enterprises and spinoff companies.

Approximately 400,000 scientists, about three-quarters of the scientific work force, are employed at public institutions. By bringing India in line with the United States and other Western nations, the new rules should create an attractive environment for talented faculty. The new rules also permit research institutes to hold equity stakes in commercial enterprises. To facilitate this process, the government will encourage the lateral mobility of researchers between institutes and industry. This would also be good of institutions who could reap tremendous financial rewards from successful spin-offs.

So a talented scientist who comes up with a novel idea won't have to play office politics or be sycophantic to his/her boss any more. They can keep their position and at the same time, start a company.

In this instance, it is good that India is following America's lead.

Health Care at Home

Ravi Kulkarni — Sun, 8 Mar 2009 03:30:23 EDT

In my previous blog I listed a litany of complaints about the health care system. In this blog, I will talk about some actions I have taken to ensure a healthy lifestyle.

By most standards, I am a health freak. It is not that I always do optimal things nor that I am in perfect health. But I have improved my health considerably in the last ten years or so and my blog is an effort to share my learning.

Over a period of time, I have been consulting doctors and getting lab reports. In order to improve something, one needs a baseline. One measure is to count the number of times a person falls sick. This is very subjective and sometimes deceptive too as major diseases can lurk under seemingly good health. The metrics in the lab reports provide a more objective basis. Based on these metrics I do my own research on possible lifestyle, diet and exercise changes that are needed to get better. I have realized measurable improvements of health over several years.

In my opinion, diet is the primary source of our health issues. After all we are what we eat. I avoid junk food, including all sodas, colas, synthetic additives and preservatives, synthetic sugar substitutes and so on. Where possible I have substituted whole grains for bleached floor, brown rice for white rice, olive oil for peanut oil and so on. I buy organic where I can. About 50% of my personal diet consists of only raw fruits, vegetables and nuts. For example today my lunch consisted of the following (all raw): sprouted moong (green gram), red and yellow bell peppers, Persian cucumbers, broccoli, apple slices, a mango, blue berries, raspberries, almonds and walnuts. I try to consume flaxseed in many different preparations.

Recently I purchased a Vita-mix whole food machine. It is an excellent device for making juices, soups, dips and assorted other things. I highly recommend this product to anyone interested in cooking and especially those who enjoy raw food.

Our teeth play a very important role in our health. It is not just the social consequences of bad breath or discolored teeth; they have a much more profound impact on our lives. Treatments like root canal can do more harm than good in some cases. I have followed a very simple regimen: I make sure to brush at least twice a day and floss after every meal for at least 2-3 minutes. Just flossing alone has made a tremendous difference in my dental health. Recently I also purchased a Panasonic mouth irrigator. This product is available for about $25 at amazon.com and worth its weight in gold.

As I am an IT professional besides being an internet junkie, it is almost certain that my eyesight is weak. However, I have always resisted wearing glasses and never got a pair. I think eyes are the best optical instruments ever designed and they are capable of working under extreme conditions. I have always relied on eye exercises and yoga to keep them in reasonably good condition. I definitely need reading glasses but don't yet wear any. I also do no wear sunglasses even in the sunny locale where I live. I think sunlight is good because we just don't get enough of it in our home and office bound existence.

I have mixed feelings about supplements. If one is deficient in certain vitamins or minerals, it may make sense to take a few supplements until that deficiency is overcome. But I am not sure about the effectiveness of multivitamins. Ideally we should get all our vitamins and minerals from our diet. It is almost impossible to determine the action and interaction of so many different nutrients which are present in foods an isolated in a pill form. Our ancestors did not take any supplements but at least some of them enjoyed perfect health. However, I must admit I have taken certain supplements over the years and they have certainly helped. In particular, Co-Q10 which helped eliminate PVC (premature ventricular contraction, a benign heart condition) and Niacin which helped reduce tri glycerides. I have discontinued use of both.

Our ancestors used to rely a lot on the natural and home remedies. As a result they probably lived a much healthier lives than we do, though our life spans have increased during the last century. Invention of antibiotics and vaccines have reduced deaths due to many infectious diseases. That the overuse of antibiotics is now being seen as a leading cause of super infections is the irony of progress. We are born with amazing healing capabilities. And yet we provide crutches and artificial props in the form of concoctions of harsh chemicals in the mistaken belief that intervention is better than letting the nature take its course. As a result we compromise the very body we want to keep strong and fit for a hundred years.

My favorite home remedies are: turmeric, cinnamon, ginger and garlic for simple infections. Home made yogurt, buttermilk with asafoetida for many stomach ailments. There are a few commercial preparations that have become standard faire at our home. These are:

Inflameric as an anti inflammatory supplement
Oil of Oregano as a powerful natural antibiotic
Calendula Ointment (homeopathic) for cuts and bruises
Septilin for colds and flu

As a family, we have almost eliminated consumption of any prescription medicines. Neither of my kids, ten and six years old, have had to take antibiotics, ever.

We do consult doctors on a regular basis, but we tend to pay more attention to their diagnosis and much less to prescription. But once I have confirmed a diagnosis, subsequent course of action depends on my own research. Nobody knows my body, diet and lifestyle better than myself. Best course of action often depends more on these factors and less on a formulaic prescription. An average doctor does not have enough time or patience to take into account all these factors. My source of information:

Curezone - Lot of information, user contributed information, first hand reports etc.
WebMD - Information about diseases, medicines
FDA - US Food and Drug Administration
Allayurveda - Information about Ayurvedic medicines and principles
Yahoo groups - Individual ailment discussion groups

Our modern lifestyle almost ensures that we need to exercise on a regular basis in order to maintain good health. I try to get at least 45 minutes of 3-4 days a week, mostly on a treadmill. I probably need more flexibility and strength training, but I guess I will get there. While my lifestyle and diet do provide major benefits, exercise provides a further boost to it. My tri-glycerides have been high for the last several years. I have noticed that they come down measurably whenever I exercise regularly and go easy on simple carbohydrates and fat.

Yoga and meditation provide benefits to body, mind and spirit. I am still struggling to incorporate these into my daily routine. When I do that, my at-home health care should be complete.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and this article is not medical advice. Please do your own research and always consult a physician for your health concerns. If I am mentioning certain brands and products here, it is because I found them to be useful, not because I derive any benefits from this mention.

The Healthcare Crisis, Part One

Ravi Kulkarni — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:28:32 EST

There is a big crisis in the health care system (some would like to call it sick care system). The prices are going up by 10-15% every year, and correspondingly the insurance premiums. There is a tuberculosis epidemic that is threatening to breakout anytime, even in the developed countries. The chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension continue to plague us with no solution in sight. The pharmaceutical companies and the medical community have managed to find palliative measures that keep a patient alive for a long time, but there is no true cure for many health problems. Every new drug invented, every new procedure developed is costlier than the one before, but with few exceptions, most of them do not cure the patient. Instead they keep him or her dependent on the system for a long time, with attendant expenses and unwanted side effects. Even antibiotics which saved so many lives in the 20th century have become ineffective against increasingly virulent and resistant bugs.

Every spoke in the wheel of health has had its own role to play in creating the mess we find ourselves today. Let's start with the health care professionals. General physicians seldom get to spend enough time to understand an individual patient, his or her lifestyle or diet. More than 50% feel they are overworked. More often than not, it is a quick enumeration of symptoms and some lab tests and a prescription. Physicians are happy to prescribe antibiotics and other strong medications even when they are not strictly called for. The pediatricians are the worst offenders of overprescribing antibiotics. Majority of the cases do not even need them because the infections are viral. This not only creates super bugs, but also weakens the immunity of a child. My reasoning is simple – if you give a crutch to the body, the body stops making an effort to heal itself and comes to rely on the crutch. See this article on antibiotics. Specialists such as dentists and orthopedics doctors are even more culpable. Often they tend to treat individuals like mechanics treat your cars – the more repairs the better – for them. This is not to say that there are no ethical, sincere and loving doctors around. But often they become unwitting part of an establishment that is too hard to navigate and change.

Next come the insurance companies. They show no interest in ensuring that an individual gets proper health care. For them every medical expense is another expense and it is their stated goal to reduce this expense. For example, most insurance policies do not cover preventive measures such as multi vitamins or supplementation. Most policies won't cover the membership of a health club or give discounts if you are an active member. Most often they are not interested because the employers who provide the biggest chunk of insurance policies, keep changing the insurance companies frequently. Thus insurance companies have zero incentive in keeping an individual healthy.

Then come the pharmaceutical companies. While they have done some wonderful work in the past in developing life saving drugs, now they are in a rat race. Their credibility lies in tatters due to recent scandals. Peddling drugs that are of dubious efficacy, suppressing research that shows negative aspects of their drugs, bribing doctors to prescribe more medicines, encourage doctors to use the drugs off label, you name a perversion, they have indulged in it. The scandal goes on and on and with no end in sight. What is worse, there is hardly any liability for the individuals who consciously swindle the society. At the most they get a slap on their wrists.

This brings us to the fourth spoke – the regulator – FDA in America. For all practical purposes they do the bidding of the pharma companies. It is a revolving door at the FDA, often professors and researchers with deep connections to pharma industry head the FDA. While there is a process to certify and monitor drugs, FDA uses its big stick to beat back any attempt by alternative medicines to address a market need. In the States, no supplement or food producer can make a claim that his ware can cure anything. There are many such instances where a traditional (really traditional like an Ayurvedic preparation) can and does alleviate a certain condition, but they are not allowed by FDA to make that claim or at least FDA won't certify them. According to FDA, something is a drug only if it has gone through certified clinical study. No matter that these clinical studies are conducted by the interested parties, and that the traditional medicines have gone through millennia long trials. A lot of the funding for FDA comes from the pharma industry itself.

The final spoke is the consumer. This is where the biggest blame lies in the whole system. People tend to believe that a doctor knows everything. We are ultimately responsible for our own health – failure to recognize this simple truth often results in fatal consequences. People go to doctors with their mundane problems and accept prescriptions which are often not necessary. Doctors have become very defensive because of the ever hanging threat of malpractice lawsuits. So they will choose the strongest measure even when a wait and watch method will work just as well. We are too lazy to choose a careful diet that's suitable for our lifestyle, genes and body. We do not exercise enough. We eat and drink a lot of junk food. In the end is it any surprise that we are at the mercy of harsh chemicals and - at best - indifferent professionals?

In the second part of this article I will write about some of the methods we have adapted to ensure a healthy lifestyle.

Global Warming More Severe Than Thought

Ashish — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 11:11:10 EST

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had warned that the rate of climate change was reaching epic proportions, and the effects were generally under-estimated. It had predicted that the rate of warming would increase and damage would be far more than thought. Well, a recent research indicated that the actual bad effects of global warming are going to be far more severe than thought. Research shows that the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases increased far more than thought, and this is just the beginning:

The severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed, a leading climate scientist has warned. Professor Chris Field, an author of a 2007 landmark report on climate change, said future temperatures "will be beyond anything" predicted.

Speaking at the American Science conference in Chicago, Prof Field said fresh data showed greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2007 increased far more rapidly than expected. "We are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously in climate policy," he said. Prof Field said the 2007 report, which predicted temperature rises between 1.1C and 6.4C over the next century, seriously underestimated the scale of the problem.

As has been stated in the past, global warming will have disastrous effects on global weather, such as increased ferocity of storms, skewing of weather patterns (which will make dry regions drier), the sinking of coastal regions, and so on. It will not discriminate between developed and developing countries; developed countries have more people staying near the water (which affects them due to both water fronts during storm and higher sea levels), developing countries will be increasingly affected due to climate changes, and affect of increasing water levels on coastal regions (severely affecting many regions such as Maldives, Fiji, Bangladesh, etc).

However, the focus on global warming that was there just a couple of years ago is gone, with the worries about the global economic recession having wiped out all other worries. No more is there a focus on the increasing ill-effects of global warming (even though a slow down in the economy is not going to lead to a decrease or cut-down in the emission levels and there is no current way that the ongoing increase in global warming can happen). It is pessimistic, but there is almost no current push to reduce or cap emissions in a way that will have beneficial effect.

Human Cloning - The Clone Wars

Ashoka Chakra — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 08:30:29 EST

Seeing double seems to have acquired a new meaning lately, thanks to the controversy over cloning. After all, cloning is an issue that tests our very sense of identity and therefore it is critical that this be looked at carefully. There seem to be two aspects to this controversy: animal cloning and human cloning.

There appears to be a consensus that animal cloning is acceptable so long as it satisfies the need for human medical and scientific advancement. The present purpose of cloning animals is for animals to serve as modern organ factories -- a combination of Orwell's Animal Farm (in reverse) and Chaplin's Modern Times. The mental image is of a factory with grunting cloned pigs rolling on the conveyor belt to be slaughtered, and their organs harvested to be sent to hospitals for transplantation. To many, this is the price that animals pay for not being at the top of the evolutionary scale. The rationale is that if we can kill them to eat them, surely we can clone them and harvest them. Except for the animal right activists, unfortunately very few seem to be bothered by this.

The issue of human cloning seems to be a different matter altogether. It is an issue that pits scientists and medics against religious leaders and politicians (with plenty of crossover between the groups). The subliminal question appears to be -- if God creates an individual human (however indirectly) can there be more than one of that individual at the same time? Would that second individual have a soul? If not, do we want soul-less beings amongst us? If the duplicate had a soul, where did that soul come from? Certainly it would not come from the traditional route assumed in most, if not all, religions of the world. If two identical beings did exist at the same time, it implies that the first one is not unique, with attendant implications on life and creation as a whole. No wonder the strongest opposition to human cloning comes from the creationists amongst us.

As can be expected, there are many counter arguments. Some say that human cloning is justified for scientific progress. Others would say that cloning is justified for the medical benefits it could provide -- stem cells, haplo-identical organs, etc. Finally, there are some that seek immortality, through cloning. After all, if one can buy a stairway to heaven, cloning is certainly a step in the right direction.

Like many complex issues (such as abortion), there are many points to consider. These considerations need time. However, when science moves faster than our hearts and minds do, the luxury of time is absent where we can cogitate and ponder over these issues. It is unlikely that there ever will be a consensus on human cloning, but whatever the decision made, at least all sides would have had their say and the issue thoroughly explored.

Maybe we could learn from Dolly, the world's first mammal cloned by the Roslin Institute in Scotland on Feb. 23, 1997. She was euthanized on February 14th, 2003 (Valentines Day), well short of her normal lifespan after being diagnosed with progressive lung disease. The premature death of the famous clone raises the issue of over whether animal cloned from adults inevitably produces flawed copies. There are now hundreds of animal clones around the world, including cows, pigs, mice and goats, many of them appearing robust and healthy. But many attempts to clone animals have ended in failure. Deformed fetuses have died in the womb with oversized organs, while others were born dead. Still others died days after birth, some twice as large as they should have been.

Dolly's body has been promised to the National Museum of Scotland and will eventually be put on display in Edinburgh. Will a similar fate befall cloned humans?

So, to go back to the question - to clone or not to clone, I’d say wait. Till we figure out the science, the morality, and the ethics. It is too important an issue to rush into.

Iran Launches Indigenous Satellite

Aaman Lamba — Tue, 3 Feb 2009 07:37:15 EST

Iran joined the select group of spacefaring nations today when it announced the launch of a domestically-produced satellite, Omid ("Hope"), aboard its Safir-2 rocket and that it was "successfully set into orbit." This coincided with the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution that overthrew the Shah, and on the heels of President Obama's announcement of a new era of detente with Iran. This is Iran's second satellite, after Russia launched the Sina-1 in 2005.

In the recent book, The Inheritance by David Sanger, Washington Post correspondent, which deals with the legacy inherited by President Obama from the Bush administration, he opens with the Iran issue and how it was handled by the Bush team. Coming soon after their intelligence failures with Iraq, they were far more circumspect and cautious than they perhaps would have been otherwise. Far from harbouring active regime-change fantasies, the book reveals that the administration sat on compelling evidence that Iran was likely pursuing an active weaponization program (pp 64-69, "The Laptop of Death") that was broken by the New York Times in 2005, and was even shared with the IAEA earlier that year. Even so, the National Intelligence Estimate of 2007 showed that the design program for an atom bomb had been suspended ("Project 111") even as the civilian enrichment program continued. The author also reveals how skilfully Iran exploited American concerns post-Iraq and undermined the new Bush strategy to involve the other powers like Russia, China, and the Europeans by playing one against the other.

Iran's new launch comes after last August's launch of a similar rocket capable of carrying a satellite to orbit. The Omid is positioned as a data processing and television transmission satellite, although concerns of dual-use technology and the potential for the combination rocket to be converted to carry a warhead will likely raise fears around the world.

President Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying, "Iran's presence in space with the aim of expanding monotheism, peace and justice has now been officially recorded in history."

A Limitation Of The Scientific Method

Ravi Kulkarni — Mon, 2 Feb 2009 01:42:36 EST

The Scientific method (from wikipedia)

"Scientific method refers to bodies of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses."

I often hear from scientists and wanna-be scientists (like me) that the scientific method is the only way possible forward in understanding the universe. Logical reasoning and the scientific method have their place in the scheme of things. But to say that they are primarily responsible for all progress is putting the cart before the horse. In the definition above, formulation of a hypothesis is taken as a part of the scientific method. However, this formulation is often mysterious, and no one can really explain how a "productive" hypothesis is arrived at. Most of the times logic and reasoning have nothing to do with it.

The anonymous Indian genius that conceived zero, Kepler, Newton, Kekulé, Marie Curie and Einstein all have one thing in common: they created a paradigm shift in our understanding of nature. The paradigm shift was not in the proof they offered but the hypothesis itself. While proof is important, it is secondary to the hypothesis. I doubt if anyone of these giants have explained how they came up with the hypotheses. Given a "productive" and viable hypothesis, someone can and will come up with a proof eventually just as Fermat's last theorem demonstrated.

The modern scientists spend their lifetimes perfecting the scientific method. But they probably do not spend enough time understanding how the hypotheses are made. It is assumed that a good scientist "knows" how to arrive at one. There is no process, no class (that I know of) and no "formal" guidelines to come up with a good hypothesis. No good hypothesis no significant progress. That's a limitation of the scientific method.

The ancient Indian sages approached the process in a different manner. Many of them were true yogis and attained samadhi by meditation. The claim is that when one attains samadhi, the knowledge about the true nature of the universe arises spontaneously. Perhaps this is the source of all hypotheses. They made seemingly amazing leaps in understanding the nature. Often they didn't explain how they arrived at that knowledge, but only stated it with authority. Frequently one hears the phrase "self evident" with such statements. It is left for the later commentators to comment on that statement and expound it. Some commentaries on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras say this: if all the books are burnt and all knowledge is lost save the Yoga Sutras, then rest of the knowledge can still be developed by accomplished yogis.

I know that there will be some scientist types on DC who will grill me on this one (where is Commonsense?), but I will make this claim: scientists will do much better in their disciplines if they include meditation in their curriculum. Have you noticed how often multiple scientists come up with the same new idea that miraculously solves a difficult problem that mankind has grappled with for ages? In my opinion this phenomenon is not magic or coincidence, but it can be explained by our spiritual nature. We are all connected by an underlying thread and that manifests itself in these mysterious ways. In fact someone even conducted a maze running experiment on rats that showed that once a particular maze is solved by one rat, other rats find it easy to solve.

Action Sociology: Human Rights with Sanitation

Somik Raha — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:34:43 EST

Ever since independence (and from a long time before that), people in India have been appalled with the abuse of the caste system, especially the poor treatment meted out to "untouchables." As usual, well-meaning people think they can change attitudes by passing laws. And so, India has The Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955, which punishes the preaching and practice of untouchability. Needless to say, the act made little difference on the ground in terms of changing people's attitudes.

There is no dearth of angry activism on this issue in India and outside, and as is the nature of all angry activism, the message is so loud that people close their ears and ignore it. Meanwhile, India's politicians are more interested in maintaining the status quo and milking caste divisions for votes instead of working for the welfare of the "untouchables." In this hopeless scenario, one man is running a silent revolution with a lot of success.

This is the story of Bindeshwar Pathak, whose life transformed as a young man in the 60s, when he was told by the General Secretary of a Gandhian organization that it was Gandhi's unfinished work to remove the profession of manual scavenging from India and liberate the untouchables. The General Secretary told the young Pathak that he had to finish Gandhi's mission and added, "I see light in you." The young man had no clue what this meant, but he read a few books published by the WHO on sanitation, and decided to live in a scavenger's colony for two months to understand them and their problems. People thought he was crazy. He survived, and came back with an understanding that was different from any social activist in this field.

He felt that the discrimination of the untouchables was due to technical reasons. The untouchables, or manual scavengers of toilets, were considered dirty as they dealt with human excreta while cleaning "bucket toilets." Human excreta would be pulled out of such toilets into buckets and then, scavengers would carry buckets on their heads to a location for disposal. If there could be an alternate toilet designed to be self-cleaning, then it would be cheaper for the consumer as they wouldn't need to hire people to clean it. It would also eliminate the need for the scavenging profession.

Pathak started "Sulabh" (which means "easy") to address this. He came up with the two-pit pour-flush toilet which would work in the Indian context. One pit would be in use at a time. Once the pit was full, it would would be closed and the other would be in operation. Over a year, the first pit's contents would turn into manure and could be used as fertilizer in the field. Thus, there would be no need to scavenge and clean these toilets. Sulabh's toilet product turned out to be a great hit, with over a million pieces already sold. Sulabh then channeled their profits toward retraining the untouchables to enter mainstream society - as cooks, beauticians, electricians, etc. Today, Sulabh has a whole array of toilet products to suit your budget.

Pathak also felt strongly about the problem of open defecation. Unlike those who faulted the "Indian civic sense," he recognized that the problem was that we didn't have enough public toilets. This is also a question of human dignity, especially for women, as they would suppress the call of nature the whole day and only go very early in the morning or in the night. Even so, such trips would make them a target of sexual predators, snakebites, diseases due to defecating in unhygienic environs, etc., not to speak of the health problems that come from suppressing the call of nature the entire day. Again, this was a technical problem waiting to be solved. So, he started the first public toilet in (hold your breath) Arrah, Bihar, a state where people would rather travel on top of trains than buy tickets. Pathak believed people would pay for a clean toilet experience, and he was proved right. The people of Bihar paid and sustained the public toilets. Today, Sulabh has built over 5000 public toilets all over India, including the largest toilet in the world at Shirdi for pilgrims.

Not only do these toilets generate local employment, they also collect raw material for Sulabh's energy innovation - bio-gas and electricity production. You have to see it with your own eyes - yes, your excreta can now be used to produce cooking gas and electricity.

Pathakji also understood that he needed to help the children of the scavengers get the same opportunity as others. Sulabh uses its profits to run a school where children of the scavengers get free education, books and uniforms. They also eat together with children of other communities, and learn Sanskrit, a language they were earlier denied access to. The children in this school are taught all religions so they can celebrate all of India's traditions.

And the story does not end here. Sulabh also has a toilet museum which is now on the tourist maps of New Delhi. They have expanded to eco-sanitation projects that help with pisciculture, among other things. Throughout these projects, Pathakji continued his education to go on for a Phd and a D.Litt, and has coined a new term, "Action Sociology," which he advocates as a way to solve social problems.

Behind all of these efforts is a deep-rooted spirituality. Pathakji's day begins with the entire Sulabh community praying (they sing a universal prayer) and filling their hearts with positive vibrations. When I interviewed him, not once did I sense anger against society for discrimination of the untouchables. At the same time, there was no acceptance of the injustice. Like Krishnammal and Sandhya, and in a completely unique manner, Pathakji has transcended anger and hatred to make a difference, a big difference, through social entrepreneurship. He is indeed a bright light in India who has illuminated our conscience and given us great hope for the future.

You can meet him by going to the Palam Vihar (New Delhi) office of Sulabh International Social Service Organization (although he travels often, he is generally accessible). You can also meet the other heroes of Sulabh and see their toilet museum and a demonstration of bio-gas and electricity from human excreta in the same complex. There are several volunteering and internship opportunities with this organization, if you have the time.

And if you can't visit them, here is a film I made on Sulabh in 2006. I recommend watching it in full-screen mode (press the TV icon) and using headphones.

In case the full screen feature does not work below, you can watch it directly on Blip TV.

Errata: the film says Sulabh has built over 500 toilets, when in fact, the number is ab

Book Review: Head First Statistics

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:29:26 EST

Head First Statistics is more a study guide covering basic topics of most statistics courses or even parts of statistical topics in application areas such as analog and digital communication, noise theory. Measuring central tendency, measuring variability and spread, calculating probabilities, using various distributions for solving problems, correlation and regression are some of the topics covered across fifteen chapters.

While the discussion is paced to be reader friendly, there seems to be an emphasis on distributions with entire chapters dedicated to some of them. The quality of the examples can do with some upgrading for a consistency within the book. Maybe lesser number of useful examples such as the one bringing out the various statistical concepts related to measuring central tendency in improving a health club could be continued across multiple chapters. This could ensure the continuity as the concepts build on one another.

To summarize, a good statistics study book with an emphasis on distributions. It would be good to see some of the other statistical concepts to be given more coverage in future editions. At least one other book which can be an additional read to this book would be Statistics in a Nutshell.

Book Review: Head First Physics

Ganadeva Bandyopadhyay — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:18:58 EST

Here is a refreshing approach to the subject of Physics which is one of the elementary science subjects in any high school. Emphasizing a “reader as part of the problem” approach among the many innovations in this book, it is a delightful read.

The book covers almost all the topics of algebra-based mechanics and practical physics in its eight ninety four pages, including an index. In spite of being such a huge book, the book makes for a consistent pace of understanding and comprehension as it starts from guidelines to think like a physicist, units and measurement more advanced topics such as gravitation and orbits, oscillations and finally coming back to applying the algebra and physics formulae to having a new understanding to thinking like a physicist.

With memorable examples and various innovations of the Head First series on full exhibition, the book is one of the must reads taking away from drab text-books and learning by memory approaches to learning physics. One of the outstanding aspects of this book is the continuity of the topics as they connect with each other while interpreting the examples.