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RSS FeedNovember 26th, 2008
Onus
The word “onus”, I understand comes from Latin, and is a distant relative of the Sanskrit word for “cart” – a vehicle that bears burden.
Does someone know what that Sanskrit word is? If so, please leave that as a comment on this blog. Thanks!
November 24th, 2008
Death of the Used Car Dealership?
This weekend, I finally took tangible steps to phase out my aging Nissan Sentra, and look for a newer (about 5-6 yrs old) car. The Sentra now has 200k miles, and is a 1995 model. Phew. Still gives me absolutely no major problem, but it is time now.
One of the better places to look for used vehicles on the web is Craigslist (or at least has been known as one of the better places). It does have a couple of issues – like not able to search by mileage, and since the search feature works only on Keywords, it is not easy to search for a model (say you search for a Civic, then even a car advertised as “better than a civic” will show up). This is simply because CL does not have a specialized model for cars, it is simply a generic ad posting website. On the plus side though, you can bookmark full URLs, such as: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/cto/mld?maxAsk=10000&minAsk=5000&query=sentra which searches for all Sentras between 5000$ and 10,000$ located in Maryland.
So, how has the used car dealership changed due to the internet boom, and what are its future prospects? The car dealership was established to fill two main needs. Firstly, it serves as a collection point for many cars – sellers can trade in their vehicles, and buyers can buy those cars. Thus, it was much easier before the Internet era to match up buyers and sellers by inserting the dealership as the middle layer. Secondly, the dealer could review the cars, and provide some sort of soft guarantee that the car being sold is not a lemon. The dealer’s reputation hinges on the performance of the vehicles it sells, so it is not usually in dealer’s interest to sell bad cars (though, it is entirely in dealer’s interest to charge another 500$ as some “fees”, as people rarely remember that a few weeks after the transaction).
With the advent of the web, the first need has gone away to a large extent, and if it hasn’t gone away entirely, with adequate web sites and web applications, that really should go away. People should be able to go to a central website (such as CL), and sell and buy cars. The second need still remains as customers are extremely cautious before buying from other customers. Though in this regard, the customers have started bringing their own mechanic and using vehicle history reports (which mean so little or not at all by the way).
So, all factors considering, what is really happening – are used car dealerships going bust, or they actually growing? I will look at some statistics to answer that. But until I get down to doing that, I am going to take a “wild guess” that the used car dealerships are still growing and will grow, until the web applications can really make it much much more user friendly for people to find cars, and vehicle history reports can start meaning something more.
November 17th, 2008
Homeopathy
Came across an interesting narrow-minded rebuttal of homeopathy here. (Actually, I was debating whether I should give that article any internet importance by linking to it, and then decided, it is worth it.)
I strongly oppose and condemn such rebuttals – they are mostly the works of pre-decided closed minds, not scientific discussions. What surprises me is some people make it the mission of their life to negate a theory (let us call homeopathy a theory for now, since it should work for both the proponents and the opponents). The most interesting aspect is that there are thousands of ailments that the allopathic medicine has no answer to, and it recognizes as such. There are thousands of good MDs who routinely refer their patients to alternative therapies if they have nothing better to offer. That really underlines a key principle of medicine (and perhaps to entire life): if you have a suggestion on how to make things better for a patient, by all means, go ahead. If you are simply trying to disrupt other people who are trying to make things better for a patient, and you admit that you have nothing to offer, then please let the other practitioners proceed.
If you think something is impossible, do not discourage the person trying to do it!
– Author Unknown
There are many alternative therapies that are regulated by the board of medicine, are evidence based, and have very strong regulations on how they should be administered. Any preconceived notion against these therapies is really baseless and out of context at this point. The alternative therapies are here to stay, and constructive criticism can make them better.
One fundamental line of reasoning that is frequently used against homeopathy is that we do not really understand (and that homeopaths have been unable to show) how it works. This is really a false line of reasoning. For a patient, it is not really important how a treatment works, as long as it works! So, from a patient’s perspective, the focus is on “evidence based” therapies, and the lack or presence of side effects. Consider that millions of patients who take pain medication have no idea on how it works, but they know that it works, and they take the medication and benefit from it. Even though the doctors may know how the drug works does not necessarily impact the patient’s perspective. That all being said, the reality is that for many homeopathic treatments, it is actually known to some extent how the treatment works. But more importantly, human studies exist for many conditions and homeopathic treatments that show that the treatments work.
That is it from me on homeopathy.
November 10th, 2008
Senator Ted Stevens
A lot is being said about Ted Stevens – the senator from Alaska, who has been convicted on multiple counts of corruption. He is still in the reelection race, though. A hypothetical question: In case Ted Stevens stays in the election, and in case he wins the reelection, should the senate move to remove him?
I have not been and do not plan to be Senator Stevens’ supporter. However, in this hypothetical scenario, I have a clear view that such a move by senate would be against the spirit of democracy. The people who are voting in this reelection are fully aware (or if they are not, the opponent has the full chance to make them aware) of the incident, and if they still choose to vote for the person, then we must respect that. Since the senate has no rule saying that a convicted felon cannot serve in the senate, we should not make up rules as and when they suit us. If such a rule does make sense, then of course, it can be made, using a regular amendment process, and in that case it should be applicable to all, including Stevens.
Some of you have argued that Stevens brings so much money to his cronies in Alaska that he might win the reelection anyway. Well, that is just a problem that we have to deal in a democracy, perhaps handled by limiting or removing pork projects, but to deal with this problem by removing him is not in the spirit of democracy. If he keeps his constituents happy, they can vote for him.
As mentioned up front, this is a hypothetical, and possibly unlikely scenario, still playing out these scenarios is what active participation in democracy is all about.
November 10th, 2008
Agnes
Agnes is a common western name, which derives from the Greek word hagnē, meaning “pure” or “holy”. Agni is a Sanskrit word for fire, which is also shared in Hindi, and with minor differences in Russian (Ogon), Polish (Ogin) and Lithuanian (Ugnis). Agni (or in general) fire, is also the bearer of purity in Indian culture, manifesting in countless traditions, such as weddings.
This all banal commentary, because I have only now connected the dots that obviously lie between a common western name and the common word in Hindi. I would never have thought that Saint Agnes of Rome has her name from this common word. And obviously, also from the root of the common English word ignite.
Wow, etymology really rocks my boat.
November 3rd, 2008
Palin boost for Obama
It is a day before the Nov 4th election day, and whatever I write here today will be utterly meaningless and out of date tomorrow – either as obvious understatement, or as an obvious lack of understanding by a politics neophyte; still, I must document what I saw yesterday.
For the record, I was a Hillary supporter. When she lost, I went to center, between Obama and McCain. Then came Palin. I ran and ran and ran and ran. Towards Obama. It turns out that I was not alone (though I certainly did not see other people running with me). As I talked yesterday with friends and other members of the community, this effect was very common. Some people were simply angry that McCain would try to win female votes using any woman. Others were aghast at this gambling behavior, picking someone he just met 18 hrs ago (thats what I hear – seems unlikely, at least to me).
Still, there are more things upsetting about Palin than simply the fact that she does not have significant experience. For one, her rhetoric conveys a lack of depth in many things. As an example, her labeling the troop withdrawl as a “white flag of surrender” shows that she simply does not realize that the Iraqi people now want the US forces out of there – indeed even the Iraqi govt (that the US itself helped form) is now asking for a 2011 troop withdrawl guarantee. Then, on what basis is the war that Palin wants to keep fighting till infinity?
Now, it seems that Palin is really helping Obama, and it is also possible that this “close” race finishes with well over 300 votes for Obama. Till tomorrow.