Rajeev’s Almanack

When we published the post reprinted below, we did not have President Clinton in mind. All of us are familiar with leaders who find it hard to bow out, even after their time is up.

The wisdom of the American people in imposing a limit of two terms on Presidents is clearer now than ever before. Not only does it save the country from ineffective leadership, it saves a President past his prime from making a public fool of himself.

Whatever Mrs. Clinton’s claims to the Presidency, her case is not strengthened by letting the former President be her main advocate. Clearly, she understands this. Early in the campaign, President Clinton played the role of strategist-in-chief. Karl Rove not withstanding, there is no one who understands American politics as well as him. So this would be how he is most useful for her.

So what changed in the last three weeks? It looks to us that Senator Obama successfully baited Bill Clinton into becoming an attack-dog. (more…)

Times, they are a-changing. It was not too long ago that Indian diplomats used to make speeches at the UN General Assembly condemning Israel. A new, more pragmatic, generation is in charge of India now. Fewer speeches at the UN. More interested in development and return on investment. Even from the space program. Due to various sanctions, India had to develop the capability to launch into space on its own: a slow and painstaking process. Now that it is able to launch reasonable size payloads, it would like to enter the commercial launch business. As of now, India offers the cheapest launch options- $14M for a 650 kg payload in low Earth orbit. There is some question about reliability though; this can nullify the cost advantage because of the insurance needed.

It is important therefore to show that you can deliver reliably. The latest launch of a `Remote Sensing Satellite’ with `Synthetic Aperture Radar’ in polar orbit (i.e., spy satellite) for Israel went off exactly as planned, although months past the original date. This ought to attract more business. Also, make a few people mad; but probably not make many new enemies.

So why did Israel choose the Indian Space Research Organization for this launch? It is doubtful it is for technical reasons. Israel most likely has the capability to launch such a payload on its own.Even otherwise, Israel has many other options. It could be for strategic reasons. India is already Israel’s largest customer for arms exports. Some trade in the other direction could be a good way to cement a deeper strategic relationship. It could be a good way of keeping tabs on what India is up to.

Or may be it was just a good arrangement for both sides. Sometimes a rocket is just a rocket.

Bill Foster: Businessman, Scientist, Democrat

Congress makes decisions that require scientific knowledge all the time. Yet very few Congressmen have a science background. So it is in all of our interests to have scientists run for Congress.

Bill Foster, a physicist with a distinguished career at Fermilab, is doing just that. (I know him only by reputation.) He is running for the seat vacated by the retirement of former Speaker Dennis Hastert. It turns out that Foster is a successful businessman as well! He and his brother started a company that is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lighting equipment for the theater. A rare combination of talents.

Sadly, the support of 22 Nobel Laureates probably won’t help much in the real world. But the Chicago Tribune endorsement ought to matter.

Contribute to his campaign. If you live in the 14th District of Illinois, ( in true Chicago Democrat tradition) Vote Early, Vote Often on primary election day, Feb 5th.

Actually, early voting began on Jan 9th. The `vote often’ bit is not entirely a joke either. You can vote twice for the same seat: once to pick the person who will fill out Hastert’s term and another for the full term in the next Congress.

Update Jan 26: The Daily Kos reports on the race.

Feb 6: It looks like Foster won the democratic primary narrowly. The district traditionally leans Republican by five points, but could be within reach this election year.

Feb14: The race is a dead heat. Remarkable, as this is a District previously represented by the Republican Speaker of the House. Foster has a real chance!

Feb 23: From the Robert Novak column:

McCain presided over a $1,000-a-ticket fund-raiser in Sugar Grove, Ill., for conservative dairy magnate Jim Oberweis. Although Hastert carried the district easily, Republican nominee Oberweis faces a serious battle against liberal Democratic physicist-businessman Bill Foster. Oberweis lost previous primary bids for governor and the U.S. Senate.

An analogy is often made between scientific research and exploration. In High Energy Physics, the accelerator physicists are the ship builders, the theoreticians the map makers, phenemenologists the navigators and the experimentalists are the sailors. The spokesman for the experimentalists is the captain of the ship, a dashing figure with power over life and death during the voyage. Ah, if only we were still in this romantic era..

Exploring in Canoes

The mega collaborations of thousands of physicists, that are being formed, are more like aircraft carriers. A good way of projecting power, but a bad instrument for exploration.

“But you can’t go exploring in a canoe”, I am told when I bring up this point.

Actually, you can. Canoes were exactly what the polynesians used to explore and settle the largest ocean on Earth, the Pacific. (more…)

It’s official. The Grey Lady hath spoken. The Pakistani secret service (ISI) has been aiding terrorists even as they claim to be fighting them. Not only that, they rigged the original election that made Musharraf President. The plan was to hold the extremists in reserve, to use against India and Afghanistan when the Western powers lose interest in the region. Except they ISI lost control of them. Once you convince people that they will go to heaven for killing, it is hard to make them stop. Duh.

Will anything change because NYTimes wrote a font page lead story stating the obvious? Probably not. Still, it is one step in the right direction.

Nano Nano
Nano has been a buzz word in physics for a while. Now it is also the name of a car, made by Tata Motors of India. It is cute, looking more like a toy car than a real one. It is small. I have seen potholes in Calcutta that are bigger. And most of all it is cheap. It costs less than the DVD player in the SUV that some of my neighbors drive. The Nano is unlikely to be another Yugo: India is not in danger of breaking up, destroying its supply chain. The dream is that will be the next Volkswagen Bug. More likely it will be the next Trabant. Not too bad.

Whether the Nano succeeds or not, it is part of a larger trend. This is what engineering for the masses will look like in the future. What the iPod did to the record industry and the arxiv did to costly journals is about to happen to many well-established businesses.

So what do the $2,500 car and the $200 laptop tell us? Driving and computing are not the only things that can be done much cheaper and smaller. (more…)

Drona was the greatest teacher of his time. He had no peer in his command of the martial arts and sciences. But, at the end of many years of studying and perfecting his skills, he found himself destitute, and with a wife and son to support. He decided to pay a visit to his best buddy from elementary school, who was now King of the minor country of Panchala. Perhaps his friend would arrange for a job. (more…)

Breaking News….

The crack investigation team set up by General Musharraf to investigate the death of Mrs. Benazir Bhutto has submitted its report. The conclusions might surprise some who made hasty deductions based on a grainy video.

Mrs. Bhutto died from a severe case of indigestion. Having lived abroad for so long, her stomach could no longer handle the spicy food of her homeland. A particularly spicy meal of Naan and Chicken Tikka at Army HQ in Rawalpindi did her in. Other than that, the dinner was a nice affair.

In the videos shown you can see her bending over suddenly with stomach pain. Purely by coincidence a young man in the crowd can be seen raising a revolver and aiming it at her head. The near simultaneity of these two events led most of the world to mistakenly conclude that Mrs. Bhutto was assassinated. The truth is mundane but inescapable.

Unscrupulous elements are trying to take advantage of the confusion. They will be put down mercilessly. The truth has always been on the side of the Glorious Pakistan Army.

Absurdistan Zindabad!

We return to our regularly scheduled program now.

Something odd is happening with environmentalism. It is being opposed vehemently by American Conservatives. What is strange about this is that usually the drive to preserve nature comes from conservatives. It is not a coincidence that the words `conservative’ and `conservation’ have the same root. (more…)