Wonderful Brahma Chellaney Post on the failure of Indian Diplomacy

The following article by Mr Brahma Chellaney was published in Japan Times. Such an insightful article about Indian Diplomacy by a reputed India found a place in a Japanese News agency but not in any Indian media outlet.Careful dissection of Indian diplomacy like this article does is sometimes too smart for our Dumb Indian Media. India Losing out on US Diplomacy : Losing more than what we have gained
WASHINGTON — Was the U.S.-India strategic partnership oversold to the extent that it has failed to yield tangible benefits for the United States? Even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has just held detailed discussions in New Delhi, an increasing number of analysts in Washington have already concluded that the overhyped relationship is losing momentum. The skeptics cite two high-visibility issues in particular: India’s rejection of separate bids by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. to sell 126 fighter-jets, and New Delhi’s reluctance to snap energy ties with Iran. The discussion over these issues, however, obscures key facts. Take the aircraft deal. Despite that setback, U.S. firms have clinched several other multibillion-dollar arms deals in recent years. These contracts have been secured on a government-to-government basis, without any competitive bidding. But in the one case where India invited bids, American firms failed to make it beyond the competition’s first round because they did not match the price and other terms offered by the French manufacturer of the Rafale aircraft and the European consortium that makes the Eurofighter Typhoon. The most-startling yet little-publicized fact is America’s quiet emergence as the largest arms seller to India. In the decade since President George W. Bush launched the vaunted U.S.-Indian strategic partnership, India has fundamentally reoriented its defense procurement, moving away from its traditional reliance on Russia. Indeed, nearly half of all Indian defense deals by value in recent years have been bagged by the U.S. alone, with Israel a distant second and Russia relegated to the third slot. Given that India has become the world’s largest arms importer and the United States remains the biggest exporter, U.S. firms are set to secure more contracts in India, which plans to spend more than $100 billion over the next four years to upgrade its military capabilities, including by buying submarines, heavy lift and attack helicopters, howitzers, and tanks. Now consider the Iran issue. Just as the Indian rejection of the Boeing’s F/A 18 and Lockheed-Martin’s F-16 bids has made big news but the U.S. landing of multiple arms contracts has received little notice, India’s reluctance to publicly support U.S. energy sanctions on Iran has been in the spotlight but not the quiet Indian strategy since the late 1990s to let the share of Iranian oil in India’s energy imports gradually decline — a trend that has seen the importance of Iranian oil supplies for India considerably weaken. Few in India consider Iran a friend. But given India’s troubled neighborhood, with the country wedged in an arc of problematic states, New Delhi is reluctant to rupture its ties with Iran, its gateway to Afghanistan — the top recipient of Indian aid. India already has paid a heavy price for taking America’s side on some critical issues in its long-running battle against Iran, even though Washington doesn’t take India’s side in its disputes with China or Pakistan. The Bush administration persuaded India not to conclude any new long-term energy contracts with Iran, and — in return for a civil nuclear deal with the U.S. — abandon its plan to build a gas pipeline from Iran. New Delhi, by voting against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s governing board in 2005 and 2006, invited Iranian reprisal in the form of cancellation of a 25-year, $22-billion liquefied natural gas deal which had terms highly favorable to India. That deal’s scrapping alone left India poorer by several billion dollars. Now the U.S. energy embargo against Iran has pushed international oil prices higher, significantly increasing India’s oil bill. The embargo also threatens to undercut India’s import-diversification strategy by making it place most of its eggs in the basket of the Islamist-bankrolling, Saudi Arabia-led oil monarchies that continue to play a role in South Asia detrimental to Indian interests. In fact, thanks to the U.S. embargo against Iran, the swelling coffers of the iron-fisted oil sheikhdoms are set to overflow, increasing their leverage in the region and beyond. Lost in the U.S. public discussion is an important fact — the declining share of Iranian crude in India’s total oil imports as part of a conscious Indian effort to reduce supply-disruption risks linked with the lurking potential for Iran-related conflict. Since 2008 alone, Iranian oil imports have swiftly fallen from 16.4 percent to 10.3 percent. Given India’s soaring oil imports and search for new sources of supply, the Iranian share is set to decline further, even without India’s participation in the U.S. embargo. Make no mistake: India shares U.S. objectives on Iran but the exigencies of its regional situation compel it to toe a more cautious line. The repositioning of the U.S.-India relationship was never intended to be transactional. Rather it was designed as an important geostrategic move to underpin Asian security and serve the long-term U.S. and Indian interests. But even if the relationship were viewed in transactional terms, the U.S. has reaped handsome dividends. On Iran, the right course for U.S. policy would be to encourage India to continue reducing Iranian oil imports by granting it a waiver from American sanctions law — as Washington has to Japan and nine other countries — and by helping to finance the retrofitting of Indian refineries that presently have a technical capacity to process only Iranian oil. More fundamentally, just as the Bush administration exaggerated the importance of a single deal with India, contending that the nuclear deal would be fundamentally transformative, it is an overstatement that the U.S.-India relationship today is losing momentum. The geostrategic direction of the relationship is irreversibly set — toward closer collaboration. Even trade between the countries has continued to grow impressively, from $9 billion in 1995 to $100 billion in 2011. While it is too much to expect a congruence of U.S. and Indian national-security objectives in all spheres, the two countries are likely to deepen their cooperation in areas where their interests converge, such as ensuring Asian power equilibrium. Barack Obama had stroked India’s collective ego by inviting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his presidency’s first state dinner, leading to the joke that while China gets a deferential America and Pakistan secures billions of dollars in U.S. aid periodically, India is easily won over with a sumptuous dinner and nice compliments. The mutual optimism and excitement that characterized the blooming U.S.-Indian ties during the Bush years, admittedly, has given way to more realistic assessments as the relationship has matured. Geostrategic and economic forces, however, continue to drive the two countries closer. Indeed, Obama’s recent pivot to Asia has made closer U.S. strategic collaboration with India critical.

SUPER FREAKONOMICS : My thoughts - Part 1

Investing in Books is always more fruitful than any Software or gaming platforms or any other electronic gadget as a book is far more enthralling than any other means of entertainment. Buying Good books is a virtue. I still remember the years in which my entire summer holidays are spent just sitting in bed from mornin till night and reading Archies,Enid Blyton Children series like Nancy Drew,Famous Five etc.... from age 10 till 15. Then i graduated myself to Michael Crichton,John Grisham,Jeffrey Archer, John Hadley Chase,Stephen King and my favorite of all time Sydney Sheldon.This serial reading of novels perhaps made me a couch potato and i never went outside in my childhood but atleast it helped me to have a vivid imagination and create absolute virtual worlds in my mind. When i bought the paperback version of this book from Landmark - I was really excited as i heard good reviews about the first one in the series and how popular it was.the Foreword told me that there is no structure in this book and no two case studies are correlated. You are informed about the business acumen of prostitutes in one page and right to the solution of Global warming by artificial Global cooling in the other page.

The Book shows certain statistics to debunk some of the perceived assumptions of Society like. a)"How Walking drunk is more dangerous than Driving Drunk" b)"How Prostitution is the most lucrative profession for American women" c)"How Airline hijacking is actually the most inefficient forms of Terrorism" d)"How Infants are generally ignored in Car safety" e)"How pumping a pollutant just 10 feet high in the air actually prevents global warming" This book looks at certain innocuous statistics and derive a hypothesis which is not exactly believable.But the Book is quite convincing and will leave you cursing why such simple solutions cant be implemented to solve all our troubles. Then you will probably realize all these hypothesis are simply just solutions in theory and not in practice.

Interesting speech on Economics by Nobel Laureaute Joseph Stiglitz

Catherine : Ending Insane Game

Vishy Anand : Thoughts on Decision making

Amazing Speech on his thought process and Training Methods and how computers has affected his preparation over the years.A very good Insight on Pattern watching whether in chess or in your work life.

All Hail King Lebron

The Coronation was over the King has arrived. I was disappointed that my favorite Boston Celtics with their ageing stars managed to lose their 3-2 advantage against the eventual champions and also the opportunity to close out the Series and might be even the Title at their home - Boston Garden. Looking at the History how strong Boston was at home it almost looked likely that the ageing Boston will pull this through against an injured Miami Heat but one small problem . King James!!!! To say that Lebron went crazy that night is an understatement. He scored almost 30 points in just the first half and the game is over. To receive such a hammering at home must have been demoralizing and knew then that the series is over and Lebron has arrived.His stats has been remarkable all through the regular season but it was his postseason performance which comes under scrutiny. Lebron averaged 30 Points and 10 Rebound throughout this post season - actually more than his regular season stats.This proves that Lebron is a Champion afterall and certainly no "Choker". His assists are improving every year and his career stats will probably surpass that of Michael Jordan when he is finished.

Any individual who gives 30 - 10 every night is nothing short of an incredible player and Lebron certainly deserved this championship.Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh tagged along with the superstar to get a ring.It is to be seen where OKC goes from here. James HArden completely disappeared in the NBA finals.Ibaka and Perkins are in free trade next year. Eventhough KD and Russell are star players, they would need a better supporting cast than what they have right now to win a ring. Similarly Miami also needs a better supporting cast in place of the ageing defensive players like Joel Antony,Udonis Haslem,Shane Battier,Mike Miller etc. There are some talks about Steve Nash going to Miami - that would be a travesty what can a elite point guard do with "drive to basket" type players like Lebron and Wade.Trying to convert Lebron to a Jump shooter is like asking a Mercedes to drive like a Kia.Maybe Chris Bosh would love to play with Steve Nash.

Kasparov's Immortal Game against Topalov

Prometheus : A discussion at Emory University

A discussion on a movie which i saw last week - Prometheus. I was unhappy that the movie didnt explain much at the end and left us on a limb really..... Im not asking for a complete understanding but atleast a glimpse of what the hell is going on could have made sense but the fact that they immediately assume that the humanoid at the end is going to Earth and kill the planet simply just doesnt make sense.

Hilarious Class Day - Harvard speech by Andy Samberg

Classic Class Day Speech by Andy Samberg of "Lonely Island" and "SNL" Fame for the Class of 2012 at Harvard.

Catherine - Manga style Game

Found this game on youtube. Cant wait to see the full walkthrough in one of my favorite Game commentator channels - GHOSTROBO. This is the guy who did an amazing LA Noire walkthrough. Catherine  is developed by the japanese game developer Altus. Japan is known for their anime style games based on the Manga Series but this is the true Anime style game Im going to witness. Devil May cry Ghost in the shell are more action oriented games this is a true story oriented game with anime cutscenes rather than a graphic cutscenes used nowadays.

By the Way Celtics lost today What a BUMMER!!!!!

Celtics SWEET comeback against the Heat

After the absolute travesty in game 2 where Heat came back from a 15 point deficit to an overtime victory at home. The Celtics deserved to win Game 2 of not for many many dubious calls from the refs.The worst of which is illustrated in the video below

But the Celtics showed their mental toughness in a roaring comeback in Game 3 at home. The Celtics took the early initiative and never let go. Eventhough Brandon Bass was off color and Rondo wasnt in the points the Celtics roared through the bench points and exemplary defense on the Heat. Thoroughly enjoyed a very professional performance from the home team this morning.Though the Miami had a late rally to come within 5-7 points in the final quarter the Celtic shut them down in the final minutes.I hope the Celtic scrape through to the NBA Finals and meet the other veteran team in San Antonio to make a final dance of the Veterans who played the Game the way it should be played.

NBA Finals - Aging Veterans show their mettle

As expected the reigning NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks got swept disappointingly.That makes one of my other favorite teams the Boston Celtics my lone hope of enjoyment in the NBA Finals.Boston Celtics has been an absolute surprise in the post season. I have been waking up early on the weekend at around 5 AM to watch the postseason games and i like to watch the LA Clippers as they are probably the most entertaining team to watch with CP3,Blake in the mix but was also happy that SA Spurs went through to the Conference Finals.Aging teams like Spurs and Celtics proved their mettle and class even in the case of a shortened and physically taxing season.The level of play that Kevin Garnett ,Paul Pierce and Tim Duncan able to perform in their late thirties is nothing short of amazing.The Spurs and Celtics personify what Team basketball looks like.Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli are like the best wingmen for the centre Tim Duncan who still has the best post moves in NBA.Rondo has really matured into a All Star Hall of Fame Point Guard who cares of he doesnt average 25 points a game he is a PG his job is to make others better which he excels in.... I hope either the Spurs or the Celtics win.

Yipeeee !!!! Anand is still the World Champion

Im thrilled to say that Anand has retained his World Crown. but Im also disappointed that he needed a tie break to win against a lowly ranked challenger in Boris Gelfand. I was watching the Rapid Games live on Chessbomb. No one held a decisive positional advantage in any of the four games but in each one of them Anand was well ahead of time proving to everyone that he is still the "Speed King" in chess.

This was such a good news for Anand and India. He clearly deserves a Bharat Ratna for his FIVE yes FIVE World Tiles. But i have to agree with Kasparov that this was by far the lowest quality in World championship Chess.I hope in 2014 Anand gets to meet the rising young players like Carlsen or Nakamura or even maybe Anish giri for the World Championship.Then maybe he can retire as he has already reached his retirement age in Chess. I have embedded the Chess analysis of the decisive Game in the Rapid Game Tie-break below. Anand will probably go down in history as the best defensive player in the world.

Jimmy Kimmel - about his life with Ellen

One of my favorite late night comedians Jimmy Kimmel He is really maturing now......

To kill a Mocking Bird - Favorite Dialogues Part 2

Great Script from an Amazing Movie with perfect acting !!!!!

To kill a mocking bird - Favorite dialogues Part 1

Nice Review on the shortest game of World Chess Championship History

Game theory 101 : General Battle

A really weird Soccer Match

Another great post by Presh Talwalkar on a really weird soccer match where both the teams used Game Theory

Yesterday I wrote about a weird World Cup game where nobody tried to score.
There is amazingly an even weirder game on record. The infamous game is about a team advancing in a tournament by scoring an own goal.
In the 1994 Shell Caribbean Cup, Barbados needed two clear goals to advance against Grenada. Losing or winning by one goal meant not advancing. The wrinkle was a rule that goals in overtime would count double to reward a team winning a close game.
The stage was set for an unusual match. Professor Mike Shor of Vanderbilt University writes about the resulting craziness where scoring an own goal was rational:

Barbados needed to win by two goals. With less than ten minutes left in the match, Barbados led by exactly two goals and began to play very defensively. In the 83rd minute, Grenada finally scored, making the score 2-1. Barbados tried to answer but, with only three minutes remaining, was unable to score. Members of the Barbados team contemplated their options. To advance, they needed either to score one more goal in the last three minutes (winning by two), or force the game to extra time where a goal would count as if they won by two. Barbados scored on their own net, tying the game at 2-2.
This is not yet the odd part of the match. The Grenada players, initial shock abating, developed their own strategy. If they could score on Barbados in the waning minutes, they would win the match and advance. But, if they could score a goal on themselves, they would lose by one goal which was still enough to advance. For two minutes, Grenada tried to score on either goal, with Barbados players split between defending their own goal and that of their opponents!
Normal time ended in a tie and the game did go to overtime, in which Barbados scored a game winner and advanced
[emphasis mine]

Professor Shor’s cleverly dubbed the game “which goal is mine.”
Barbados managed to advance but it was eliminated in the next round. No penalties were given to either team since they were both trying to win (albeit in an odd way akin to the puzzle about fixing a broken bet).
The lesson is that simple and seemingly smart rules can have a devastating impact on competition and good play. And much of this can be anticipated if one uses game theory to consider the incentives by thinking ahead and reasoning backwards.
There is a video which shows highlights and the own goal (sadly it omits the chaos where Grenada tried to score on either goal)

Anand fought back with an early win

Back to the World Championships this time im not that excited as Anand is playing a lowly ranked player in Gelfand but still he managed to lose Game 7 after a string of draws. But Fortunately he came back on a Gelfand blunder in Game 8 with one of the shortest victories ever in World Championships.

I believe Anand should try to finish this series as soon as possible cause leaving it till the end is not going to help anybody but still Anand still holding on to the World title at his age is remarkable.

Max Payne is back !!!!!

Hoping it is as good as the first two parts of the Series.

Dark Shadows

Went to the recent Johnny Depp starrer "Dark Shadows" at PVR.This movie was certainly intriguing. Johnny depp as usual was wonderful in this movie couldnt tell the same for the rest of the cast.This movie has mostly received negative reviews but deservingly. Just thought that the Director - Actor Combo which brought us "Edward Scissor Hands" and "Sleepy Hollow" could have bought up a lot more thrill and passion in the storyline. Im especially disappointed in the scope available to the cast in the screenplay.

div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> There isnt much of a role to anyone except for Johnny and Eva Greens character.Tim Burton could have got a lot more townspeople of Collinwood involved in this movie just like sleepy Hollow and Edward Scissorhands. Still the movie was watchable once for its comedic moments interspersed with corny dialogues

Me at New York

Adele : I'll set Fire to the Rain

Adele - Ill set fire to the Rain Live at the Royal Albert Hall. What a powerful Voice like an Opera singer.
 

SINGAPORE AT NIGHT

Photos taken from my trip to Singapore

The Walking dead : Game

The Walking Dead is a different kind of Zombie game. this is not the typical blood/gore slasher game we are looking at a Heavy Rain type Zombie game with more emphasis on character development rather than gameplay. Such games are getting popular these days. With Episode 1 i believe that they have achieved their goal. Cant wait for episode 2.

Tokyo dogs : Japanese Drama

Right after Nobuta wo Produce this is the new Japanese Drama Series I'm watching right now. Here is a short info on the series from DRAMACRAZY.NET
tok1D by afffwork13 Takakura So witnessed his father's murder at a young age. Pledging to catch the killer, he grows up to become an elite cop in New York City, where the criminal lives. His character is cool-headed and disciplined, yet adapts well. Because of major drug dealings, he gets sent to Tokyo to conduct a joint investigation with the Japanese police. There, he gets teamed up with, Kudo Maruo, a detective from a special investigative division. Kudo is a hot-blooded fighting expert due to his earlier days as a delinquent, but he makes a strong impression with his stylish appearance and is always interested in going on group dates. His personality, interests, and investigation methods are completely mismatched with Takakura's, but the two somehow work together to crack the case they've been given. --Tokyograph

Blake Griffin Murders!! Gasol

Finally the Silent Hill downpour is Here

Cant wait to find out how it is.

Super Junior : Sorry Sorry

Korean Band... Shorry Shorry !!!!!

How a 35$ Book went upto 25 Million Dollars $$$ in Amazon

This is what happens when we have a bidding war between price determining algorithms This taken from a post on Michael Eisens Blog A few weeks ago a postdoc in my lab logged on to Amazon to buy the lab an extra copy of Peter Lawrence’s The Making of a Fly – a classic work in developmental biology that we – and most other Drosophila developmental biologists – consult regularly. The book, published in 1992, is out of print. But Amazon listed 17 copies for sale: 15 used from $35.54, and 2 new from $1,730,045.91 (+$3.99 shipping). I sent a screen capture to the author - who was appropriate amused and intrigued. But I doubt even he would argue the book is worth THAT much. At first I thought it was a joke – a graduate student with too much time on their hands. But there were TWO new copies for sale, each be offered for well over a million dollars. And the two sellers seemed not only legit, but fairly big time (over 8,000 and 125,000 ratings in the last year respectively). The prices looked random – suggesting they were set by a computer. But how did they get so out of whack? Amazingly, when I reloaded the page the next day, both priced had gone UP! Each was now nearly $2.8 million. And whereas previously the prices were $400,000 apart, they were now within $5,000 of each other. Now I was intrigued, and I started to follow the page incessantly. By the end of the day the higher priced copy had gone up again. This time to $3,536,675.57. And now a pattern was emerging. On the day we discovered the million dollar prices, the copy offered by bordeebook was1.270589 times the price of the copy offered by profnath. And now the bordeebook copy was 1.270589 times profnath again. So clearly at least one of the sellers was setting their price algorithmically in response to changes in the other’s price. I continued to watch carefully and the full pattern emerged. Once a day profnath set their price to be 0.9983 times bordeebook’s price. The prices would remain close for several hours, until bordeebook “noticed” profnath’s change and elevated their price to 1.270589 times profnath’s higher price. The pattern continued perfectly for the next week. But two questions remained. Why were they doing this, and how long would it go on before they noticed? As I amusedly watched the price rise every day, I learned that Amazon retailers are increasingly using algorithmic pricing (something Amazon itself does on a large scale), with a number of companies offering pricing algorithms/services to retailers. Both profnath and bordeebook were clearly using automatic pricing – employing algorithms that didn’t have a built-in sanity check on the prices they produced. But the two retailers were clearly employing different strategies. The behavior of profnath is easy to deconstruct. They presumably have a new copy of the book, and want to make sure theirs is the lowest priced – but only by a tiny bit ($9.98 compared to $10.00). Why though would bordeebook want to make sure theirs is always more expensive? Since the prices of all the sellers are posted, this would seem to guarantee they would get no sales. But maybe this isn’t right – they have a huge volume of positive feedback – far more than most others. And some buyers might choose to pay a few extra dollars for the level of confidence in the transaction this might impart. Nonetheless this seems like a fairly risky thing to rely on – most people probably don’t behave that way – and meanwhile you’ve got a book sitting on the shelf collecting dust. Unless, of course, you don’t actually have the book…. My preferred explanation for bordeebook’s pricing is that they do not actually possess the book. Rather, they noticed that someone else listed a copy for sale, and so they put it up as well – relying on their better feedback record to attract buyers. But, of course, if someone actually orders the book, they have to get it – so they have to set their price significantly higher – say 1.27059 times higher – than the price they’d have to pay to get the book elsewhere. What’s fascinating about all this is both the seemingly endless possibilities for both chaos and mischief. It seems impossible that we stumbled onto the only example of this kind of upward pricing spiral – all it took were two sellers adjusting their prices in response to each other by factors whose products were greater than 1. And while it might have been more difficult to deconstruct, one can easily see how even more bizarre things could happen when more than two sellers are in the game. And as soon as it was clear what was going on here, I and the people I talked to about this couldn’t help but start thinking about ways to exploit our ability to predict how others would price their books down to the 5th significant digit – especially when they were clearly not paying careful attention to what their algorithms were doing. But, alas, somebody ultimately noticed. The price peaked on April 18th, but on April 19th profnath’s price dropped to $106.23, and bordeebook soon followed suit to the predictable $106.23 * 1.27059 = $134.97. But Peter Lawrence can now comfortably boast that one of the biggest and most respected companies on Earth valued his great book at $23,698,655.93 (plus $3.99 shipping). How can a book about Flys can go for 25 Million Dollars... About time someone bought his book.

The Rise of Jeremy Lin

Max Payne 3 Trailer

Just watching the NBA All-Star 3 point contest and then suddenly the MAX PAYNE 3 Trailer show up cant wait to get a look at the game. GO MAX.... One of the best games ever. Only wondering about the Gameplay

Jason Mraz - I'm Yours

I'm on the Linsanity train

Ricky Gervais - Conan

AMAZING GAME THEORY post by Presh Talwalkar

How Game Theory Solved a Religious Mystery

image source: marvinxsteadfast via flickr
The Bankruptcy Problem
A man owes debts of 100, 200, and 300, but dies with insufficient funds to pay everyone.
How should his estate be divided?
As we all know, there might not be one correct answer. Fair division is a concept that depends as much on logic as it does on social custom. To see why, consider the following three situations that afford very different solutions:

• A parent promises gifts to his children, but has to back off when a bonus is smaller than expected
• A publicly traded company issues stock and bonds, but soon goes bankrupt in an accounting scandal
• Partygoers order items at a restaurant, with promises to pay, and then end up arguing over the best way to split the bill

There isn’t a single right way to approach any of these problems. That’s what family fights, lawsuits, and restaurant arguments demonstrate every day. The conflict is a matter of perspective.
Some people prefer proportional division that depends on debt size. An example is the classic “pay what you ordered” method in restaurants where guests put money based on food they ordered. As logical as this sounds, not everyone desires this method.
Others prefer splitting things up equally. They argue it is the person–not the debt size–that matters. Equal division is common particularly among families with young children. During Christmas or holiday time, parents may choose to give every child the same gift regardless of age or merit.
What gets accepted depends on social custom. Getting everyone to agree is an exercise in persuasion, not in economics. It’s possible for emotionally pleasing methods to beat more sound systems (like my time-tested method for dividing bills fairly in large groups).
One of the earliest discussions of fair division comes from the Babylonian Talmud, a record of discussions about Jewish laws and customs. The Talmud contains discusses a bankruptcy problem in the context of a man offering debts to his wives in excess of his assets. The Talmud answer is not immediately obvious, and in fact, the answer baffled academics for over almost 2,000 years. Let’s see why.
The Talmud answer
How should an estate be divided among three creditors claiming sums of 100, 200, and 300?
The Talmud offers answers through three examples. The text does not contain a general rule, which is what makes these answers seemingly contradictory. The three cases are when the estate size is 100, 200, and 300.
In the first case when the estate size is 100, the Talmud awards 33 1/3 to each party. The division suggests a principle of an equal division, which is easy mathematically and holds social appeal. But strangely this is not the same idea used in the other cases.
In the third case of 300, the Talmud offers a division of 50, 100, and 150. The math here is a proportional division based on the size of the debt. In modern times, proportional division holds wide appeal among lawyers and economics. At this point one might ask why is the 300 case treated differently than the 100 case?
If that question bothers you, then get ready for another surprise in the division for 200. In this case, the estate is supposed to be divided as 50, 75, and 75. Not only does the division not classify as an equal division nor a proportional division, but it is simply a curious decision altogether. Why should the second and third creditors be given the same amount of money? And where do the numbers come from?
Before I proceed, it’s worth summarizing the claims in a table. We can think about the Talmud answers as a table that illustrates how an estate would be divided. I provide an illustration below, in which the rows are estate sizes, the columns are claims, and the table entries are the division size.

The answers defied a proper explanation for almost 2,000 years, filling volumes of critical review. Some scholars have essentially given up and suggested the 200 case might be an issue of faulty transcription. And this is the unlikely background for which game theory enters and possibly saves the day.
Game theory offers an answer
In the 1980s, Professors Robert Aumann and Michael Maschler wrote a paper claiming to have cracked the mystery.
They suggest there is no inconsistency in the Talmud answer. Aumann and Maschler demonstrate the Talmud answer can be viewed as a consistent application of a game theory principle. Why was game theory used? It turns out the Talmud answer is the solution (the nucleolus) of a properly defined coalitional game. Aumann and Maschler explain the concept in lay terms as a single and consistent principle: equal division of the contested sum.
It is worth being skeptical before proceeding. Is the explanation simply a coincidence? After all, there are probably an infinite number of explanations that might produce the same split.
Aumann and Maschler justify their answer by examining other Talmudic passages and suggesting the same principle is applied in many topics. Equal division of the contested sum was apparently a social custom and that would help explain why it might seem strange to us but could have been natural for their culture.
Below I explain the concept of “equal division of the contested sum,” and describe why the Talmud answer demonstrates it.
(Notes for the sources: The original academic paper is in Journal of Economic Theory 36 (1985), pp. 195-213 (full paper). For this article, I relied on a complementary non-technical article “Game Theory in the Talmud,” written by Robert Aumann, retrieved from Professor Jacob Rosenberg’s website. I also wish to credit Paul Walker’s chronology of game theory, the document that introduced me to this fascinating problem).
Equal division of contested sum, two people
The Talmud examines a situation that might have been common to their times. Suppose two people are arguing over a garment. One claims half belongs to him while the other claims the whole is his. A judge is asked to decide who gets what. What would you do?
There are naturally various answers. One could propose an even split (1/2, 1/2) or a proportional split (1/3, 2/3).
But the Talmud offers a different answer, an answer that turns out to be an equal division of the contested sum (1/4, 3/4). How does this principle work? There are three stages. First, decide what portion of the cloth is being disputed. In this case, exactly half of the garment is being claimed by both parties. Second, split the disputed division among both parties–so 1/4 of the cloth is awarded to each. And third, give the remaining cloth–the “undisputed” portion–entirely to the person whose claim is not disputed.
This logic yields a split of 1/4 for the person claiming half of the garment and 3/4 for the person claiming the whole.

This answer might seem strange, but remember that division methods depend on social custom.
The same method can be used for any problem among two parties, using the same three steps above:

1. Determine which portion is contested or claimed by both parties
2. Split the contested portion equally
3. Assign the uncontested portion to the sole person claiming it

How else might this principle be applied? It can actually be applied to many situations, like when the claims are larger than the asset to be divided, as in the case of dividing an estate.
Equal division of contested sum, two creditors
It’s worth going through a few examples to get a feel for the idea. Let’s examine how to divide estates of various sizes with two creditors claiming 100 and 300.
Example 1: (estate 66 2/3)
If the estate is 66 2/3, then the entire estate is contested. The split should be even at 33 1/3 going to each party.
Example 2: (estate 125)
If the estate is 125, then the first 100 is contested by both parties and divided evenly. The remaining 25 is entirely awarded to the 300-claimant. Hence, the division is 50 and 75.
Example 3: (estate 200)
Finally, if the estate is 200, then again the first 100 is contested by both parties and divided evenly. The remaining 100 is entirely awarded to the 300-claimant. Hence, the division is 50 and 150.
Here are the divisions in tabular form:

Why stop there? Here are some examples when the claims are (100, 200) and (200, 300). Note that these are the remaining pairs of claims for the three-person split that is motivating this article.
Explaining the Talmud puzzle
Let’s go back to the Talmud division for the three creditors. In the case of a 200 estate, the division was 50, 75, and 75 for parties that claimed debts of 100, 200, and 300.
To analyze this answer, let’s do the following exercise. Take any two creditors and consider how they might split the total money awarded to them. Why would we do that? It’s a check of consistency. It makes sense that pairs of creditors should have claims divided in a manner consistent with the way a disputed garment would be divided.
Consider the pair of creditors claiming 100 and 200. Together they are awarded a sum of 125. How is that sum split? It is split as 50 and 75. And amazingly, that’s matches the work we did in examples above: this answer is consistent with an equal division of the contested sum! The logic is that the first 100 is contested by both parties and split evenly, and the uncontested 25 is awarded to the 200-claimant.
In fact, the same observation can be seen when considering other pairs of creditors. Look at how much the 100 and 300 parties are getting. Together they receive a sum of 125, and this is split as 50 and 75. Again, this answer is consistent with an equal division of the contested sum.
Finally, consider the total reward to the 200 and 300 parties. In this case, the total sum of 150 is split as 75 to each. As the total sum is contested, this once again reflects an equal division of the contested sum.
In other words, when the mysterious Talmud solution is broken down by pairs of creditors, there is a consistent principle. I think this is quite remarkable.
Aumann and Maschler demonstrate the method can be extended, whether the claims are for three creditors, a hundred creditors, or even a million creditors. The same condition needs to be met: the assets are divided up such that the amount received by any two people reflects the principle of equal division of the contested sum. Furthermore, the division is a unique solution.
An algorithm
It’s good enough to see certain divisions are pairwise equal divisions of contested sums. But how do you find them starting from scratch?
Aumann and Maschler show there is in fact only one division that is consistent. And this answer can be described by the following seven step algorithm:

1. Order the creditors from lowest to highest claims.
2. Divide the estate equally among all parties until the lowest creditor receives one half of the claim.
3. Divide the estate equally among all parties except the lowest creditor until the next lowest creditor receives one half of the claim.
4. Proceed until each creditor has reached one-half of the original claim.
5. Now, work in reverse. Start giving the highest-claim money from the estate until the loss, the difference between the claim and the award, equals the loss for the next highest creditor.
6. Then divide the estate equally among the highest creditors until the loss of the highest creditors equals the loss of the next highest.
7. Continue until all money has been awarded.

Here is how the claims would be divided in the Talmud example:

Mystery solved? I think so. Not only do the Talmud answers follow a consistent principle, but they also rely on an idea that was very likely a social custom.
In that case, it is surely an interesting case that a tool of logic and rationality–game theory–was needed to decode the Talmud solution, which primarily depended on social custom.

Wonderful post by Rajeev srinivasan on Indian History

Commentary/Rajeev Srinivasan The Battle of Colachel: In remembrance of things past A dramatic and virtually unknown past, in an area of bucolic calm surrounded by spectacular hills: that is Colachel, a name that should be better known to us. For this is where, in 1741, an extraordinary event took place -- the Battle of Colachel. For the first, and perhaps the only time in Indian history, an Indian kingdom defeated a European naval force. The ruler of Travancore, Marthanda Varma, routed an invading Dutch fleet; the Dutch commander, Delannoy, joined the Travancore army and served for decades; the Dutch never recovered from this debacle and were never again a colonial threat to India. It was a remarkable achievement for a small princely state; yet not one of my Indian friends has ever heard of the Battle of Colachel. This, in my opinion, is another example of our sadly skewed education -- we have adopted wholesale a Macaulayite curriculum that was designed to drum into Indians the notion that we were inherently inferior, mere powerless pawns in a European-dominated world. We study events where Indians were crushed, massacred, trounced, humiliated: Plassey, Panipat, Tarain, Chittor, the failed First War of Independence, Jallianwallah Bagh. We study about every invader, from Alexander the Macedonian onwards, who came over the Himalayan passes and laid waste to the land. We study the disastrous history of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. We never hear of the far more lustrous history of the Peninsula -- not of Rajendra Chola's maritime Southeast Asian empire, nor the wealth and power of fabled Vijayanagar, nor the chivalrous chaver suicide squads in the Zamorin's kingdom at Kozhikode, nor even about perhaps the greatest of Indian philosophers, the Buddhist Nagarjuna. This is a serious lacuna --and yet we wonder why we as a nation suffer from an inferiority complex? Colachel is on the route from Thiruvananthapuram to Kanyakumari, which has some dramatic shifts of scenery. You drive down the ill-named National Highway 47, in reality an overcrowded two-lane road with no centre divider, no more than a city street with a continuous population along its entire length. A typical interior Kerala landscape surrounds you -- tropical abundance, coconut palms, rice fields, plenty of greenery, banyan, jackfruit, tamarind and mango trees, and houses within a stone's throw of the road. Then you cross into Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, and you pass my personal landmark, a century-old aqueduct. Suddenly, without warning, the landscape opens up -- you come upon an immense flood-plain, with paddy fields, lotus-filled pools, a small river, and occasional clumps of banana trees stretching all the way to the horizon. Except, that is, where the hills are -- the very last redoubts of the Western Ghats, as the land yields grudgingly to the oceans at the Cape: A series of jagged and menacing peaks towering over you. One especially well-shaped, conical mount resembles, in its symmetry, the Grand Tetons of Wyoming; but otherwise, the forbidding, brooding peaks of granite remind you of rogue elephants. Nestled incongruously amongst these hills is Mahendragiri, where the Indian Space Research Organisation's rocket testing facility is located. Close by is Colachel with its Round Fort. It has a strategic and commanding view of the Arabian Sea; on a clear day you can see as far south as Land's End, the promontory at Kanyakumari. It was here, with the tactical genius of Marthanda Varma's prime minister, Ramayyan Dalava, that the Dutch fleet was vanquished. I imagine infantrymen with ancient blunderbusses repelling invaders; and a battery of archaic cannon making mincemeat of the attacking ships. It was here that the Dutchman, Delannoy, later trained Travancore soldiers in the arts of musketry and artillery. Delannoy lies entombed at an inland fort, Udayagiri, a few miles away from Colachel. At his tomb, there is an inscription: Stand, Traveller, and behold! For here lies Captain Delannoy, who served Maharaja Marthanda Varma and Travancore faithfully for three decades This foreigner, this feringhee, served our country well, two hundred years ago. How little we know of the reasons this man agreed to serve an enemy prince. It could hardly have been coercion -- not if he stayed on for the rest of his life. It must have been a genuine respect for, and perhaps admiration and even affection for this land and this prince. It behooves us to understand that even at the height of the European colonisation spree, there were Indians capable of resisting and winning. Most of us know that in 1905, the Japanese under Admiral Tojo trounced the Russians in the Yellow Sea. This is considered the first example of an Asian power defeating a European power in a naval engagement. Yet here we have little Travancore defeating the Dutch two-and-a-half centuries ago; the same Dutch who went on to conquer and dominate the entire Indonesian archipelago. As the saying goes, those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it. History is one of the most precious possessions of a people; the other being their common culture. Somehow, a common Indian culture has emerged over several millennia; nevertheless, we have been distressingly lax about remembering our past. Perhaps because we have so much history, it has become meaningless for us. But the only way we can build up a common purpose is through the use of common mythologies and a shared racial memory. Based on our experiences, it can be argued that an open economy and free trade would be disastrous for us. There is genuine concern that the rapine and pillage of the transnational corporation will be as bad as the excesses of our former colonists. The spectre of the East India Company continues to haunt us; so do Union Carbide and Bhopal. Behind that fear is the implicit assumption that our people and our institutions are somehow weak; somehow unable to withstand the onslaughts of rapacious aliens. Yet, as Colachel shows, there was at least one occasion when we could and did stand up to the European marauder. Our lack of faith in our ability to be competitive is at least in part because we study only a history of defeat. Furthermore, there were great trading centers in the Peninsula -- troves of ancient Roman, Greek, and Phoenician coins have been found at Bharuch in Gujarat, Kodungalloor (Muziris) in Kerala, and Arayikkamedu in Tamil Nadu. Peninsular India was the center of a thriving and lucrative trade in gems, spices, silk, and other luxuries, much of it trans-shipped from further east such as the Moluccas or China. Ancient and medieval Indians were no mean traders; if we can recapture some of that entrepreneurial spirit -- and it is certainly alive in overseas Indian populations -- we have little to be afraid of. There is no obstacle in our path that we cannot overcome. As we rush headlong into globalisation -- as Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet, once said of his own country, we also seem 'condemned to modernise' -- it behooves us to look into our past. For, in the cyclical nature of the Hindu universe, it is suggested that what once was, will be once again. We need to look at the Colachels of our past; not only the Jallianwalla Baghs. Rajeev Srinivasan

Why this Kolaveri Di - Top song of the year 2011

Incredible this is the Top song of the year. Amazing !!! it got released only in November 2011 and it has already gone absolutely nuts.... CNN report below

The fall of Dallas Mavericks

It was really sad to watch the Dallas Mavericks fall to a 1-4 start to a truncated season of NBA.At this rate the Dallas might have to struggle just to make the playoffs with Clippers,Timberwolves and Warriors looking like a far better side than the one that played in the previous season.The main factors that could contribute to the downfall are the following......
Insane deal to let go Tyson Chandler and JJ Barea
How in the world the Mavs thought that the only focal point of their defense of a championship team is not worthy of an extended.Come on Mark Cuban cant you offer more than a year for Tyson Chandler,thats ridiculous the guy helps you get your first ring and then you treat him like a disposable commodity,thats not fair.Looking at the Knicks this year Tyson might be the missing puzzle that the knicks are waiting for.

What does JJ Barea have to do to get an extended deal.He was the only reason why Mavs won that crucial game in the Finals when Dirk fell sick and JJ Barea scored a valuable 20 odd points running circles around the Miami defense.The very fact his current side Timberwolves defeated the Mavs yesterday is sweet justice for him.

Not to mention the trade of Caron Butler who is one their consistent performers.
 
The Replacements

What has the Dallas Mavericks got in return. Lets see that they did receive two All Stars in the form of Vince Carter and Lamar Odom. But both of them are in the fag end of their careers and are probably not starter material but still effective.Vince Carter - the most entertaining player to have ever played the game but rarely has a side ever won a playoff series because of him.He cannot carry sides to victory, the best he can do is to play a support cast to Dirk and score some points and looking at the way he is playing he simply cant dunk anymore either.Lamar Odom looks disoriented in the Dallas team.He probably needs more time to fine tune his setup plays with his team members.It takes time even for veterans to gel like a team and this Nba Lockout has ensured that they have no time whatsoever. With the hectic schedule it is more likely Dallas goes from bad to worse.

The Hopefuls

There might be a chance that Dallas can come back and thats through their marquee player Dirk Nowitzki. He usually heats up at the fag end of the season and lets accept it ...there is absolutely no defense against the Dirk fade away. The veterans Lamar,Kidd and Carter might bring in their experience in crunch games and they can very well cause problems for any defense in the playoff games.But Vince and Dirk has no defensive skills at all.There is also the fact that Beaubois is back and healthy. He is probably their only hope now...

He is probably the smoothest player in the NBA and the only player other than Dirk to have ever scored more than 50 points in a game for the Mavericks.How come he is not a starter is beyond me.......

As of now it looks like Dallas is not even trying for a repeat.


 

FLAG - Japanese anime Episode 3

This is getting interesting every episode and looking more like a Nat Geo Documentary. Never thought an anime would make me feel like that.







F03[pimpanime]

jjoho - F | Myspace Video

Knights Tale - Introductions

The best part of the movie - Paul Bettany's introductions. "The protector of Italian virginity" HEHE!!!

FLAG - Japanese Anime - Episode 2

F02[pimpanime]

jjoho - F | Myspace Video

FLAG - Anime Review

THEM.ANIME REVIEW Flag Synopsis Sometime in the near future, a violent civil war erupts in a small, mountainous country of Uddiyana. The United Nations Forces quickly intervenes by taking over the capital city in the interests of brokering peace talks, and during the chaos that ensues, a Japanese photographer named Saeko Shirasu takes this photograph: The photo quickly becomes cherished around the world as a symbol for peace in Uddiyana. Because of public outcry, a date is set for the two sides to meet and sign a peace accord to end the feuding. A few weeks before the signing, however, the flag in the photo is stolen. Fearing that any chance for peace will be lost if the flag is not found, the UNF creates a special task force to find it. The best minds of the free world are gathered together, and among them is Shirasu, who will document this top secret mission. Review Japanese anime rarely attempts to confront modern social and political issues. When a series does, though, usually we get something like Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig or Grave of the Fireflies, both of which are excellent series that tackle social issues in Japan and beyond with the appropriate weight. For that reason alone, I hoped Flag would be worth watching. And while I did get a heavy dose of modern issues such as responsible journalism, Middle Eastern politics and religion, and nation building, it came in one very dull package, heavy on the preaching and light on the entertainment. Taken all together, Flag is a mixed but ultimately disapointing show, as my own mixed review will show. The first thing a new viewer of Flag will notice is its animation. Production IG continues their high standards of animation quality, but this time with an intriguing stylistic twist: the entire series plays like an elaborate multi-media documentary, with graphs, still photography, videos and screenshots weaving together a visual narrative. The animators try to make each frame of their animation as realistic as possible, making the camera shake when its owner is running, go in and out of focus to follow the action, and often poorly frame the camera's subject. It looks like candid camera on the frontlines of modern warfare. Production IG had obviously done research on the camera's subjects, since they look very realistic too, from the indigenous people who populate the slopes of the mountains to the slightly-futuristic helicopters and weapons. Tying all the visual chaos together is narration by a Japanese journalist named Keiichi Akagi (voiced by Taylor Henry), a veteran reporter who has seen his fair share of wars. It wasn't long ago that he had taken a promising photographer named Saeko Shirasu (voiced by Dorothy Fahn) under his wing, showing her the ropes and teaching her how to be a freelance journalist. He took her with him to the conflict in Uddiyana, where she quickly became famous for a photograph she took during the UNF's invasion of the capital city. Now, as the date for the signing of the peace accord draws near, they are both returning to Uddiyana, but this time separately. While Akagi is returning to the capital to keep taps on the nation's progress towards peace, Saeko will be going with a special section of the UNF assigned to a top secret mission... which she told Akagi all about before leaving. The flag in the picture that made Saeko famous has been stolen, and though the UNF has been able to keep that fact a secret from the press, they are desperate to recover it before the signing of the peace accord. If they do not, they are afraid that the country will never know peace, and public opinion will turn against them. Saeko has been asked to document the mission, possibly as some sort of publicity stunt by the UNF, because I can't think of any other reason why anyone would want a top secret mission heavily documented. Saeko is given unlimited access to strategy meetings, she tapes the unit commander's reasoning on why she made such and such an order, she records the officers living quarters, the kitchens, the warehouses, and the day-to-day lives of the soldiers. She also photographs and videos a top secret weapon used on the mission called the HAVWC, a "bipedal armored vehicle." In other words, mecha, and I can't say I'm happy to see it here. Flag could easily have done without the HAVWC; it had obviously been shoehorned in to attract mecha fans. But let's be reasonable here- because the animation is so detailed, then it must be a foregone conclusion that the mecha action is kick-ass? Fanboys be damned, even I get a little weak at the knees at the idea of giant robots laying the smack down. Sadly, though, because the series is essentially a drama visualized as an elaborate multi-media presentation, most of the action looks like this: Hooray! Graphs! Charts! Symbols! If you're a freak for both math and mecha, you may have wet yourself. As for the rest of ya'll, I assure you that the action is as dull as it sounds. Frankly, the entire series is dull, stiff and a disappointment. It's heavy on dialouge that isn't much to begin with, and on top of that the premise of the UN spending millions of dollars on a secret mission to retrieve a piece of cloth insults my intelligence. Symbols be damned, a peace accord is too important to be stopped because of a missing flag. The UNF's reaction to the armed extremists should have been to laugh at how silly they were to go through all that effort, and then go on with their time table for peace after a short press conference. What's frustrating about this premise is that Flag could have easily chosen something else that is believable and interesting simply by turning on their nine o'clock news. Civilian kidnappings. Better yet, important officers kidnapped. Planes hijacked. Suicide bombings. Take your pick; all of these is better than a frickin' piece of cloth. Despite excellent visuals, Flag takes a ridiculous premise too seriously, and the series suffers for it. — Bradley Meek Recommended Audience: Mild language and violence. For teenagers and up, though this may go over the head of most teenagers Cant agree more with the last line this is not the Anime for teenagers.This is for a mature audience.Not for Children. Just by watching the first episode i could feel that. Judging by this review one cant expect any more action excitement. This looks more like a documentary.

FLAG - Japanese Anime - Episode 1

Japanese are the real experts of this genre of anime.This would have made a better live action movie...... The script, the way this anime starts and the narrative style of storytelling brings outs the finer touches of movie making which rivals the authenticity of a live action version. FLAG - This is the first episode.....
F01[pimpanime]

jjoho - F | Myspace Video

Ajax and Alkmaar: Match abandoned after a bizarre incident

This soccer match was abandoned in 36 minutes. The Goalkeeper was redcarded for what????. A crazy hooligan was running towards him, what should he be doing be kind to him or ignore him. It is obvious that the the goalie put out all his frustration on the hooligan but he doesnt deserve a red card for that.The ref was so unkind to punish him for beating up a hooligan.People get away with a lot in Soccer but this Goalie did no wrong.....

BEST POKER REACTION EVER!!!

This happened during the World Series of Poker 2010. Nicholas Cage would have been proud of that reaction.

LMFAO- I'm sexy and i know it

Wiggle,Wiggle,Wiggle,Wiggle......... :)

Rebecca - Alfred Hitchcock Movie

In a Lonely Place -(1950) Nicholas Ray Film

Jon Stewart,Condoleeza Rice,John Grisham,Mary Roach

Deadly Premonition - Red Room Soundtrack

Brings me fond memories of the Game