One of the bibliographic hero’s

I was bidding for a set of books on ebay and came across this name. John Leland.

What a great man in the annals of bibiliophilia. I quote from his wiki entry.

In 1533, the king appears to have entrusted Leland with a document, "a moste gratius commission" (or principis diploma as he called it in Latin), which authorized him to examine and use the libraries of all religious houses in England.^[10] Leland spent the next few years travelling from house to house, for the most part shortly before they were dissolved, compiling numerous lists of significant or unusual books in their libraries.^[11] About 1535, he met the ex-Carmelite churchman and fellow antiquary John Bale, who much admired his work and offered his assistance.^[2]

In 1536, not long after the First Suppression Act commanding the dissolution of lesser monasteries was passed, Leland lamented the spoliation of monastic libraries and addressed Thomas Cromwell in a letter seeking aid for the rescue of books.^[2][12] He complained that

"The Germans perceive our desidousness, and do send daily young scholars hither that spoileth [books], and cutteth them out of libraries, returning home and putting them abroad as monuments of their own country."^[12]

In the 1530s and 1540s, the royal library was reorganised to accommodate hundreds of books that were previously kept in monastic collections. Leland himself describes how Henry's palaces at Greenwich, Hampton Court and Westminster were adapted for the purpose. Leland's part in this is uncertain.

In humanist fashion, Leland styled himself antiquarius, a title which was at one time interpreted as referring to a formal appointment as 'king's antiquary': however, it is now understood to have been merely Leland's own preferred way of describing himself.^[13] There is no evidence that he personally oversaw the relocation of the books to their new home or received a librarian's wages. What he did do was to compile his lists of important volumes, and to take measures to encourage their preservation.

What a man, eh? a man who rescued books. Hats off to you, Sir.

The Shot That Nearly Killed Me

War photography is also called as war porn. People like to see bloody body parts, shocked expressions. The cloud of smoke and burning vehicles. While in the safety and comfort of their homes. 

But what about the photographer? Some of the famous photographers talk about their famous photographs. 

One day I'm going to do this. Capture the moment. That's going to be fun. Once you both go to university and then I can go potter around in a war zone or a disaster zone. 

Love

Baba

 

The Shot That Nearly Killed Me [longform.org]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/18/war-photographers-special-report

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• The Guardian, Friday 17 June 2011
• Article history

Adam Ferguson, Afghanistan, 2009

Adam Ferguson: ‘As a photographer, you feel helpless. Around you are medics, security personnel, people doing good work. It can be agonisingly painful to think that all you’re doing is taking pictures.’ Photograph: Adam Ferguson/VII Network

I was one of the first on the scene. The Afghan security forces normally shut down a suicide bombing like this pretty quickly. I was able to get to the epicentre of the explosion. It was carnage, there were bodies, flames were coming out of the buildings. I remember feeling very scared because there was still popping and hissing and small explosions, and the building was collapsing. It was still very fresh and there was a risk of another bomb. It was one of those situations where you have to put fear aside and focus on the job at hand: to watch the situation and document it.

This woman was escorted out of the building and round this devastated street corner. It epitomised the whole mood – this older woman caught in the middle of this ridiculous, tragic event. I wish I could have found out how her life unravelled, but as soon as the scene was locked down, I ran back to the office to file.

As a photographer, you feel helpless. Around you are medics, security personnel, people doing good work. It can be agonisingly painful to think that all you’re doing is taking pictures.

When I won a World Press award for this photograph, I felt sad. People were congratulating me and there was a celebration over this intense tragedy that I had captured. I reconciled it by deciding that more people see a story when a photographer’s work is decorated.

Economists operate in a fact free environment

So I read this with interest.

ECONOMISTS love to argue. Indeed, since the crisis, it has often seemed they cannot agree on anything, and especially not on important matters like how best to boost a sickly economy or when to trim government borrowing. “Schlock economics” was the judgment bestowed by Robert Lucas, a Nobel prizewinner, on the stimulus proposals of Christina Romer, then Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser. Another Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman, labelled a rival view of business cycles “Phlogiston economics”, a reference to a debunked 17th-century theory of chemistry. More soft-spoken economists worry the bickering may carry a reputational cost: the public may simply conclude that solid, fact-based conclusions are beyond economists’ reach.

Such concerns were discussed (politely) at the latest annual meetings of the American Economic Association. Dismal scientists throng together each year (this time in not-so-dismal San Diego) to gossip, test the job market and hear presentations on hundreds of new academic papers. Among them were a handful focused on economists’ image problems. They suggest that economists, in fact, agree on quite a lot but that the public is resolutely unimpressed when they do.

I started laughing like an idiot on the tube when I read this part.

Economists might conclude from this that they just need to shout their views more loudly. But communication is only part of the problem. Ms Sapienza and Mr Zingales note that when Americans are told what economists believe before answering a question, their view scarcely budges. Told that economists favoured a carbon tax, the share of the public supporting the tax rose only marginally, from 23% to 26%. The public actually grew more confident in its ability to pick stocks successfully after learning that economists think it is close to impossible. Americans seem to believe that economists operate in a fact-free environment, a bit like Buddhists, commented Robert Hall of Stanford University.

As an economist (well its a fairly specialised branch that I mess about in, financial economics, but also relating to international trade and macro-economics), I find this fairly distressing. For example, the idea of too much debt being bad for the economy is something that people simply do not get. And I find that absolutely gobsmacking. Painful, but then the flip side is, looks like when I talk about debt, a glazed look comes over people’s eyes..

This can be a close second to bubble wrap

Every manager needs this on his desk. There is something so hypnotic about it all..

Bloody hell, and I eat those things?

Be warned!

Leadership Lessons from Storming Norman

Some very interesting lessons from Normal Schwarzkopf, the general commanding Desert Storm.

10) “Do what is right, not what you think the high headquarters wants or what you think will make you look good.”

9) “You learn far more from negative leadership than positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it.”

8) “War is a profane thing.”

7) “The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”

6) “True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.”

5) “It doesn’t take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.”

4) “When placed in command, take charge.”

3) “The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in battle.”

2) “Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar; and still there are things worth fighting for.”

1) “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy.”

I like 10, 7, 6, 5, 3 and 1.

I specially like 3. So many times I find myself speaking to people who think it will be all right on the night without preparation, planning and rehearsals. Oh! and think that meetings are a good replacement for achievement. Sweat the small details, sweat the preparations, sweat the planning…

It's not cool to be clever at the moment, especially as a girl

More I read about the educational system here in the UK, the more I worry. Why is being clever and intelligent considered to be bad? I quote from this story about why girls don't take up Physics.

For the past two decades, female students have accounted for only one-fifth of those taking the subject at A-level. It is the fourth most popular subject for boys, yet slips to 19th in the rankings for girls. According to a recent study by the Institute of Physics, using information provided by the National Pupil Database, 49% of state co-educational schools in England did not send any girls to study physics at A-level in 2011. By contrast, girls were almost two and a half times more likely to take the subject at A-level if they were at a single-sex school – a finding that suggests there might be an ingrained cultural perception in co-educational establishments that physics is somehow "not for girls".

This is sad indeed. The problem is those little shits (boys!)

So what are the girls saying?

"It's not cool to be clever at the moment, especially as a girl," adds Williams. "Boys don't mind being thought of as geeks, but girls do. I do English lit as well, and I'm the only one in the class who also takes physics. Everyone in the class was kind of like, 'You do physics?'" She curls her lip in disgust. "But we're good because we've got a whole group of friends [doing physics as well]."

These school kids are stupid, seriously stupid. Who will be earning more and having more fun? the idiots or the smarts? Why would you not look up to the smarts?

So what can one do?

The importance of a supportive network of friends taking the same subject is key. But it is also, as Alice points out, a question of seeing more positive role models on television and in schools. Although there are prominent male presenters in popular science – Brian Cox,David Attenborough – there are hardly any female counterparts. And when female scientists do make it on to the pages of newspapers, or into television studios, the way they are presented can be extremely patronising. A 2010 paper by academics at the University of Cardiff examined 51 interviews with scientists, eight of whom were women, pulled from a sample of 12 UK national papers in 2006. Half of the profiles of the women referred to their clothing, physique or hairstyle, compared with 21% of the profiles of men. The male scientists interviewed were often used to signal gravitas, while women were more likely to be said to make science "accessible" or "sexy".

<sighs> here we go again…But the article ends with a spot of brightness

And yet there are signs that the culture is changing. It's not just the clever young women I meet at Lampton who signal the dissolution of previously entrenched ideas, but also those physicists currently working in postgraduate fields. Aki Matsushima, a 26-year-old studying for a PhD in quantum physics at Imperial College, London, insists that the lifestyle of a research scientist "is very flexible and actually accommodating, and in that respect it can be really good for women who have other responsibilities, like childcare. There's been a lot of encouragement and funding to get more women in, and once you're in there's no discrimination. In fact, there's lots of encouragement."

However, Matsushima acknowledges that the lack of female professors is a problem. She, like Donald, attended an all-girl school and then chose to attend a single-sex college at Cambridge. "I knew the course was going to be all men," she explains, "so I applied to a women's college so I could hang out with girls as well." But once Matsushima had made it into the male-dominated world of physics, she found it was – and continues to be – an extremely fair environment, with no gender discrimination.

"Maybe at lunchtime you're hanging out with a load of guys talking about computer games, but that's about it," she says. This year, Matsushima was a finalist in the BBC's Masterchef and came into contact with some professional chefs who told her she would have to work "twice as hard" to make it as a woman. "In cooking, there is a kind of discrimination internally," she says. "That hasn't happened to me in physics."

We need more of this, more women stepping up and the organisations being gender neutral. It is not easy. Over the past 10 odd years, ever since I got into a situation that I would be hiring, I have encouraged the recruitment agencies and HR folks to send more women into the mix. It has been a struggle. For the front office roles, for the sales roles, there is a dearth of good women but it is getting better. For example, right now, my team has a balanced gender ratio, and believe you me, it took a shed load of effort. The pressure to pick the first half way decent candidate (who usually is male) is huge due to business pressures. So to delay hiring, to reach out into the women networks, to insist that for every 2 male cv’s I get, I need a female cv. It slows down the process hugely…

one hopes…

The Success Indicator

From here.

while its a bit simplistic, still, makes sense..you can actually avoid them and be a happy person.

Scotch Whiskey Lovers–look away now

This is a fake Chinese Scotch Whiskey…its working class dirty…

Splashing around in KL’s Monsoon

As soon as I got free in KL, I left to go take some photographs..and then there was torrential monsoon rains. I got royally wet and I loved it. You ask me, how did I feel? Well, this photo describes my feeling…