by the meltingpot: The soul of a 'Paat' and experiments in pictorial syntax

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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.

Now at 2nd place

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.

This is the 3rd

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.

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

The soul of a 'Paat' and experiments in pictorial syntax

This series of discussion was sparked off by the curiosity over the term 'Paat',which is,of course,denoting a lake.That was a week ago.Now,I have just come upon an exciting insight.If we fly a drone over a lake,we would have the picture of the lake proper as the 'Eyeball' and various streams and rivulets draining into the lake as the 'Eyelashes'.But why giving this disproportionately large emphasis on the 'Eyelashes' when the beautiful water body itself is front of everybody's eye?It turns out the architects of our language were not bogged down by the 'Ya' stuff(my last post) but instead were trying to sneak behind and made a fruitful encounter with what constitute the soul of a lake.(The lesson here is the we should not get bogged down by the 'Ya' stuff but instead try to find the soul behind the worldly things).Let's try to track down the path they might have taken to get to the soul of a lake.When two 'Eyelids' met (or make contact with each other) how many contacts are there among the 'Eyelashes'--may be,30 to 40 contacts(Should we Google how many eyelashes are there on an adult eyelid?).One contact makes it possible for another 40 contacts.This is essence of multiplication,which we call 'Purinaba',which,of course,comes from the root word.'Pa'.So,the soul of a 'Paat' is 'multiplication'.A 'Paat' gives human society a lot of benefits--in its multi-faceted dimensions,that too,in a multiple ways.This must be the reason why there is currently great buzz of the urgency of saving and reviving lakes and wetlands.The architects of our of our language were super creative and innovative.(By the way,'Paat' is the 'Pa' oscillated--in other words,the 'Pa' in the re-incarnated state--'Ta' is the only root word,besides,'Ka',which necessitate a diagram simulating an oscillation to make any headway in interpreting it--here,'Ta' as a suffix to 'Pa' denotes the 'Pa' in its oscillated state).

To make our statement implying the great ingenuity of the architects of our language more robust,let's take another discussion,letting a 'Ya' stuff taking the centrestage of it.As was discussed in my last post,'Cha' should be on the x-axis and 'Che',on the -x- axis.Why do we visualize the journey of 'Cha',along the positive plane towards the negative one? One possible way of visualization is to make the 'Cha'(the nutrient) to coalesce and the, beaten flat.That,of course,produce our 'Che'--the paper.This deduction is easy because 'Che' is 'Ya' stuff.The exercise becomes more complex when we try our hands at the stuffs which are not in the domain of 'Ya'.Suppose,'La'(the expanse) is on the x-axis and 'Le',on the -x- axis.Following the path taken by 'Che',how we let the 'La'coalesce into itself and then,we beat it to make flat?Of course,this makes our heads spin.For us,lesser mortals,the best escape route is to find some clues in our common usage.The first one that comes to mind is 'len',which is hailstone in English.As was discussed in several of earlier posts,'Len' is either small 'Le' or an individual 'Le'.If we replace the 'Na' in 'Len' with 'E',we get 'Le-e'.If we take 'E' in its anatomical facade,we have a 'Le' which is flowing.This makes us to think of 'Le-e-cha',which might have corrupted to 'Laija'.I am not yet sure of this deduction.But this deduction holds,we have 'Laija' to mean potable water.The great innovation here is that the architechs of our language went to 'Laija' without ever mentioning 'Eshing',which is the main term denoting water.Potable water is made connected with the 'expanse' before our eyes.What makes them to do so?Is it something to do with human health? It is pretty reasonable to see that we cannot make any 'expansion' to any sphere without the basic potable water.Of course,this explanation of mine is terribly lame.And,I am confused at the moment but I will keep trying to find some insight in the days to come.Instead of feeling intimidated,let's try to find some inspiration from the architects of our language and try our hands in some basic steps in trying to see how pictorial syntax works.(my last post).In my blogspeak,we should be active members of 'Chindamba party'.In my post 'Heirangkhoi' and 'Chindamba',we have seen that someone executing a small is far better than the one who is prone to lecturing--in Mao Ze dong worldview,we should not be paper tigers.So,let's get to work!

1) Tomba ki Lairik ni.

The trick here is to view the above four words as pictures.We all grew up accustomed to the narrative of subject,verb and object.We should train ourselves to go out of that world.We should try to enter a room which has a prominent wall on which several pictures are hanging.Let's draw Tomba as a balding man.Then,a thick book.My monograph has the pictures of both 'Ki' and 'Ni'.So,let's hang up the four pictures to that prominent wall of the room we have entered.Looking at all the pictures can we figure out some message coming out from them? Here,'Ki' is the existential stage of 'Ka' and 'Ni' of 'Na'.In this particular case we are taking 'Ka' as to denote a room and 'Na',an appendage.One plausible message might run like this--in Tomba's room the thick book is an appendage(a single book).I'm not yet fully comfortable with this model but I should make constant effort,as befitting an active member of 'Chindamba party'!Having said this,I can assure the following five discussions sound positively bizzare.They are purely experimental.Without constant experiments,we cannot go forward.

2) Tomba ki lairik si.

Here,I would take the plausible message as--this might be Tomba's book(not certain about it).The reason is that 'Sa' stands for middle ground.Not announcing one's position in an explicit manner.

3) Tomba ki lairik mi.

These group of books belong to Tomba.It's because 'M' indicates group.

4) Tomba ki lairik li.

These vast numbers of books belong to Tomba.The reason for getting this message is that 'Li' denotes expanse,which again,is taken to mean vast numbers.

5) Tomba ki lairik hi.

This is Tomba's most valuable book.Please remember 'hi-yai'!

6) Tomba ki lairik fi.

These two books belong to Tomba.As was discussed in my next to last post,'Fi' carries the meaning two or twice.We should quickly fold up this discussion!!

by the meltingpot

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Now at 2nd place

This is the 3rd