Why commoners are fascinated by royalty?
The royal wedding of the century as was hyped by international media was wrapped in about an hour on Friday, April, 29, 2011. Britain’s Prince William married Catherine “Kate” Middleton in a storybook ceremony at Westminster Abbey in central London in the United Kingdom (UK).
Prince William is the elder son of The Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales and he is second in line to the British throne. After the marriage traditions at the famed church, Prince William, now conferred the title the Duke of Cambridge, kissed his new wedded wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Many people lined up the streets of London and crowds celebrated the event all day long, and many more were glued to their television sets to get a glimpse of the fanfare worldwide.
Now comming to the central question, why commoners from around the world are so crazy and fascinated by the royal wedding and royalty in general? The answer my friends is best said by the above picture taken today, a picture that is really worth more than a 1000 words.
To add to the charm, Kate was born a ‘commoner’ and not an aristocrat from a royal family, as was Prince William. The royal wedding also provides an avenue for us to express our ambivalence about class privilege, whereby rooting for Kate, who is commoner, a descendant of coal miners, lets us revel in our egalitarianism. However, paradoxically we would not see Kate’s marriage as a triumph for commoners if we did not accept the premise that it is desirable to join the ranks of the aristocracy?
God bless and may all the hopes, wishes and dreams of all commoners around the world be fulfilled!
Dalai Lama’s Quotes on Kindness
The Dalai Lama is one of the best known living ambassadors for peace in the 21st century world we live in. He is famous for his quotes and views on many topics that touch the lives as lived in this modern era, and his signature jovial smile also highlights his inner peace that radiates contentment.
Here are a couple of quotes by the Dalai Lama on the importance of kindness in the world we live today.
Our visit to this planet is short, so we should use our time meaningfully, which we can do by helping others wherever possible. And if we cannot help others, at least we should try not to create pain and suffering for them.
It is important to reflect on the kindness of others. Every aspect of our present well-being is due to others’ hard work. The buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat, are all provided by others. None of them would exist but for the kindness of so many people unknown to us.
The logic behind global military spending?
Military spending among all countries totaled $1.63 trillion in the year 2010, but that was up just 1.3% from the year 2009. Such military spending includes weapons, military equipment, soldiers and the cost of maintaining and upgrading a country’s military infrastructure. Take a look at what some of the world’s top 10 costliest militaries, which is a listing of top 10 countries ranked by their budget for military spending each year.
Take a look at the military expenditure as percentage of GDP chart using World Bank data, it shows that some of the top 10 nations listed are spending a proportionally higher amount on military spending in relation to their country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), money that could well be more importantly spent on other projects that benefits its citizens directly.
India has become the world’s largest weapons importer, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute report on military expenditure, in the process overtaking China. India accounted for 9 percent of all international arms imports between 2006 and 2010, while China accounted for 6 percent. India’s $32.5 billion defense budget for 2011 jumped 40 percent from 2009, and it now expects to spend $80 billion over the next decade on arms. Russia is India’s largest arms supplier, accounting for 82 percent of sales.
All this military stockpiling for the greatest battle ever? Man and mankind will never change, I guess, as human nature is always ingrained to chase victory and supremacy, even though all victory is just an illusion?
The BRICS decade or two?
The BRICS, comprised of emerging economic countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will restructure international economic and diplomatic relations over the next 10 to 20 years. Currently, representing around 40% of the world’s population and nearly a quarter of global economic output, the BRICS countries hold the reins of the economic engine for this and coming decade.
In 2010, China overtook the dragging economy of Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy. At current growth projections, China is sets to catch up America within a decade or two. India and Brazil are growing rapidly. The past few years have reinforced the suspicion of many that the story of the century will be the inexorable rise of emerging economic powers.
If projections of future growth look rosy for emerging markets, however, history counsels caution.
Google, Bing, and Blekko Talk Spamish
Long long before in web years, before there was spam filters in email, our inbox was mostly filled with spam. Now thanks to spam filters, we are able to see the main email in the inbox.
Is this the story with web search today? Article spam, content farm, 10 articles on how to tie your shoe, how to build a brick wall, watch the above Big Think video on Spam!
Lot of talk of direct or primary spam in search results, i.e. links of sites ranking high on search engines which are of poor or spam quality pages. But I see the real issue, and bigger one to deal with, is of secondary spam, which are good sites or web pages maintaining or trying to manipulate their position to the top by submitting spam articles to many article and other related websites, just only to give their main site or web page a boost of some link juice through some aptly placed keyword links. Worst even, is these operators resort to article spinning where they try to fool and trick search engines by producing tons of other articles spun by re-arranging words and/or structure of the sentences used and combination’s there of. Search engines have to really get smarter here, and this is easier said than done.
There is a fine fine line with black-hat and white-hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, with a lot of overlap, what is right, wrong or evil is left for lot debate. Read the case of penny links in the New York Times article - The Dirty Little Secrets of Search. Another high profile article on Overstock.com was posted on the Wall Street Journal - Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics.
Also, what about search engines turning a blind eye to secondary spam as detailed above, because these sites or web pages are used by the search engines themselves profit for the clicks through link advertisements placed on these pages. So, we really need some separation of search and ads, if you may, to really keep the objective or intent of search engines clear.
On a philosophical side, the real issue here is something higher - human nature. Can search algorithm get smarter than human nature. Again, my friends, victory is just an illusion, as human nature is always trying to be victorious. Now that gets into programming human nature?
