by the meltingpot: In tactical retreat.

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Indeed, what is at work in the recent return of realism is the revenge of geography in the most old-fashioned sense. In the 18th and 19th centuries, before the arrival of political science as an academic specialty, geography was an honored, if not always formalized, discipline in which politics, culture, and economics were often conceived of in reference to the relief map. Thus, in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, mountains and the men who grow out of them were the first order of reality; ideas, however uplifting, were only the second.
And yet, to embrace geography is not to accept it as an implacable force against which humankind is powerless. Rather, it serves to qualify human freedom and choice with a modest acceptance of fate. This is all the more important today, because rather than eliminating the relevance of geography, globalization is reinforcing it. Mass communications and economic integration are weakening many states, exposing a Hobbesian world of small, fractious regions. Within them, local, ethnic, and religious sources of identity are reasserting themselves, and because they are anchored to specific terrains, they are best explained by reference to geography. Like the faults that determine earthquakes, the political future will be defined by conflict and instability with a similar geographic logic. The upheaval spawned by the ongoing economic crisis is increasing the relevance of geography even further, by weakening social orders and other creations of humankind, leaving the natural frontiers of the globe as the only restraint.
So we, too, need to return to the map, and particularly to what I call the “shatter zones” of Eurasia. We need to reclaim those thinkers who knew the landscape best. And we need to update their theories for the revenge of geography in our time.
Here is the link for the whole write up.

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My view is that relations between countries in the coming decades are most likely to reflect their cultural commitments, their cultural ties and antagonism with other countries rather than other factors. Quite obviously, power will continue to play a central role in global politics, as it always does. But usually there is something else behind conflicts. In the 18th century in Europe, the issues to a large extent involved questions of monarchy versus the emerging republican movements, first in America and then in France. In the 19th century, it involved states identifying themselves through nationalism. In the 20th century, ideology came to the fore, largely, but not exclusively, as a result of the Russian Revolution. We had fascism, communism and liberal democracy competing with each other. Well, that’s pretty much over. Liberal democracy has come to be accepted, in theory at least, around the world, if not always in practice. So the question really is what will be the central focus of global politics in the coming decades? My argument remains that cultural identities, antagonisms and affiliations will not only play a role, but play a major role in relations between states. The full interview is here.

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Every citizen in the City of Richardson will be able to access 756 Kbps of internet connectivity for free, from anywhere in the city. They will be able to access the internet from their homes, schools, restaurants and parks using standard wi-fi connections which are now installed on almost every notebook computer. That is almost as fast as many so-called high speed broadband connections that one pays dearly for today, and several times faster than the various hotspots at your local coffee shops. And I should note that the tax-payers of the City of Richardson are not paying one penny for this, and in fact are going to see additional revenues as a benefit. ... At the beginning of this letter, I suggested that this would be one of the fastest worldwide rollouts of a technology ever seen. It was just 20 years ago that the first cellular systems were being built. The rollout for mesh wireless systems is going to make that look slow. There are several reasons I make this assertion. But they all center on the facts that installing mesh systems will be cheaper and easier than any previous system and the economics in both the developed and especially the developing world will be so radically compelling. Throw in the fact the any astute politician will want to be at the front of this parade (They will all want to say, "I was the man who helped bring free internet to everyone!") and the groundwork is laid for rapid deployment. In Richardson and elsewhere, MeshLinx is offering the basic infrastructure for free. This avoids all the time consuming, political budget battles in the cities. When a service is offered for free, much of the mandated competitive process is eliminated. Next is the low cost of installation of the system. As noted above, Richardson is a city of roughly 100,000 people living in 27.4 square miles. It will "only" cost about $2,000,000 today to lay the wireless blanket I mentioned above. It will cost a great deal less in the future, as MeshLinx is building the pods at a pace of 100 a month today. The maximum output of the US pilot assembly line is 500 a month. When the demand exceeds this (and it will in a very short time) discussions have been held to move volume production to China. Of course, the world will need tens of millions of pods. The cost for a pod will be a fraction of today's cost, with that installation number for a city like Richardson soon being half (or less) the cost of today. What does that $1 or 2 million get you? The infrastructure to be an internet connection, telephone, security, entertainment provider and a whole lot more company. As noted, it will get cheaper as the number of pods being made each month rises, thus lowering their costs dramatically. This technology does have scale. The cost of physically putting up a pod is not a large part of the equation, as you simply need to run a power line, attach a few bolts to a mount on the side of a building or light pole and then off to the next point. Think about the 40,000 homes and businesses in Richardson. If and (hopefully) over time when 10% decide to pay $50 a month for 10-20 Mbps high speed internet access you could see a revenue of $2.5 million a year just from internet access. Now add in all the other income possibilities (phone, entertainment, security and don't forget advertising revenue on the free service!). Think about your town or country. What would service like this be worth? If you are a small city that does not have high speed connections available, how many businesses that could bring jobs do not come your way because they need reliable communications for their work and their employees? If you are in a developing country, where internet access is difficult and expensive, it will open whole new vistas. Couple that with the various programs which want to give cheap laptops to kids in poor countries, and you could see significant social progress in a generation. Here is the link.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

In tactical retreat.

Again,on that particular social media platform.

Our Heingang personality(my last post) came out--making sure that all the three keywords,namely,"heingang","masked-gunmen" and "an editor" were put into full display to everyone who is curious enough to look out for them.

And the most important thing--the date.

It was the 30th Dec 2020--that is,just one day short of our deadline(my last post).

Again,we need to decode the body language of our Heingang personality--our Heingang personality was mocking.

At what?

Of course,at the way the three rebel groups are fleeing the deadline.

The three rebel groups who initiated the attempted covert attack have fled--abandoning the the self-proclaimed deadline,that is,the 31st December 2020.

I don't particularly like the idea of anybody making mockery of any person or a group.That's in the bad taste.

But,if we go further into the fine-grain evaluation of the whole process,we detected that equally venomous reaction to the mockery--that too,is in the realm of bad taste.

Our Heingang personality's mockery was immediately retaliated with downright obscene comments--this is the first time,as far as I know,our Heingang personality ever received bad comments,let alone,downright obscene ones.

And.I also suspect that those comments of yesterday,obscene as they were, were purposely added,apparently with cold calculation.

What might be that cold calculation aimed at?

I think that they are intent to put forward the narrative that they were not fleeing-- instead,they are on a tactical retreating mode.

OK,they are on tactical retreat.

But,for this blogger,this is totally anti-climatic.

Nevertheless,this blogger will on the look out for any development in the future and publish post discussing them.It is not for any trifle that this blogger spend two to three hours daily in reading up news and trying to detect trends!

Well,that's a lame joke of mine! Today is the last day of the year 2020 and everybody can tolerate a rare joke from a blogger,howsoever, lame that might be!!

Now,on a personal note--I definitely love reading news--spending long hours in front of my computer.I discover that I enjoy reading.And,I DO NOT try to find trends particularly.It's just the part of the whole process--as I keep reading news,trends simply pop up,in front of my eyes,all by themselves.

Then,how did I miss the news that Netflix had two two-days stream-fest last month--on those two days it allowed any Indian to view any videos in its collection for free?

One reason might be that I'm a little wary Netflix.How do one go about in his/her normal life trying to connect with such a vast collection of videos?For one things,video demands huge allocation of one's time.Can anybody reasonably find the time for sites,like Netflix.

Netflix is also bad for climate change.If anybody is serious about cutting down one's carbon footprint,he/she should not subscribe to Netflix.

Let me come to my point--I came to know of the stream-fest from a site called 'Ukhrultimes'.I keep a tab opened for the site as I want myself updated for any happening in Ukhrul.Netflix and Ukhrul--what a connection!If I did not come across the site from a social media platform on that last of the fest,I would not have the chance to log into Netflix!!

I promptly logged into Netflix--for the fest,the log in was kept extremely simple.I instantly felt how competitive a corporation Netflix might be.Only a few hours later I felt vindicated--I received an sms in my phone thanking for my first visit to their site--judging by the timestamp of the sms it seemed to come all the way from their headquarters in California.

I watched a wonderful documentary--"Human Nature".

The slick documentary makes it easy for us laymen to understand what CRISPR is.

Without CRISPR,it is impossible to usher into messenger RNA technology.It's the tech behind the BioNtech covid 19 vaccine,currently in use in the UK and the US.

It's interesting to note that bioNtech is a tiny company(almost a startup) run by a husband and wife team,who are Turkish immigrant to Germany.An Islamic couple coming to the rescue of blindly Islamophobic West!

What is most interesting is that bioNtech has been testing the mRNA tech to cancer and HIV patients--with encouraging initial findings.

Now,we must say Ukhrul,Netflix,CRISPR and mRNA--what a connection!

The moral of the story--one should not fail to listen to the small (and apparently less significant,by size or whatsoever) ingredients in a whole process.

That leads me to remember (late) Andy Gove--the past CEO of Intel Corp.

What's there in this chaotic world more fitting way than to end this year with the words of Andy Gove?

Please give me the permission to use all CAPS--

ONLY THE PARANOID SURVIVE.

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

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