The Art of Rhetoric

The Romans, especially in the early and late Republic, greatly valued skills in debating and public speaking. Julius Ceasar was widely regarded as an accomplished and extremely skilled author and orator. For example, his political opponent Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero, consul of Rome in 63) spoke very highly of his Commentaries. In fact, Suetonius (c. 69-130 AD) writing in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars notes that Cicero remarked: "Does anyone have the ability to speak better than Caesar?" Fortunately such skills are not lost. For those who have followed the astonishing advances in particle physics in the first half of the last century, such abilities will be evident from an excerpt from the Nobel Prize acceptance speech made by Clinton Davisson (1881-1958, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1937 for the discovery of electron diffraction):

"Troubles, it is said, never come singly, and the trials of the physicist in the early years of this century give grounds for credence in the pessimistic saying. Not only had light, the perfect child of physics, been changed into a gnome with two heads - there was trouble also with electrons. In the open they behaved with admirable decorum, observing without protest all the rules of etiquette set down in Lorentz’ manual, but in the privacy of the atom they indulged in strange and unnatural practices; they oscillated in ways which no well-behaved mechanical system would deem proper. What was to be said of particles which were ignorant apparently of even the rudiments of dynamics? Who could apologize for such perversity - rationalize the data of spectroscopy? A genius was called for, and a genius appeared. In 1913 Niels Bohr gave us his strange conception of "stationary" orbits in which electrons rotated endlessly without radiating, of electrons disappearing from one orbit and reappearing, after brief but unexplained absences, in another."

Rgveda: The Nasadiya Sukta (after ná ásat "not the non-existent")

नासदासीन्नोसदासीत्तादानीं नासीद्रजो नो व्योमापरो यत |
किमावरीव: कुहकस्यशर्मन्नम्भ: किमासीद्गहनं गभीरं || १ ||

न मृत्युरासीदमृतं न तर्हि न रात्र्याऽआह्नऽआसीत्प्रकेतः |
आनीदवातं स्वधया तदेकं तस्माद्धान्यन्नपर: किन्चनास || २ || [...]

इयं विसृष्टिर्यतऽआबभूव यदि वा दधे यदि वा न |
योऽअस्याध्यक्ष: परमे व्योमंत्सोऽअंग वेद यदि वा न वेद || ७ ||

The quote above derives from the Creation Hymn which is the 129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rgveda/ ऋग्वेद [c. 1200–900 BC (the early Vedic period)]. The Rig Veda is a collection of more than 1,000 hymns which represents the first extensive composition in any Indo-European language. O'Flaherty: "Fraught with paradox, the hymns are meant to puzzle, to surprise, to trouble the mind". Very roughly paraphrased as:
[1] There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottomlessly deep?
[2] There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night or day. That one breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that, there was nothing beyond. [...]
[7] Whence this creation has arisen – perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not—the one who looks down on it, in the highest heaven, only he knows – or perhaps he does not know.
Translation by: Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty.

गणित की कक्षा! इंगलैंड और अमेरिका में समय का फ़र्क

क्या हिना!!!! आज हम शायद तीन या चार बजे उठ गए थे! शिकागो और इंगलैंड में ६ घंटे का फ़र्क है और न्यू यॉर्क और इंगलैंड में ५ घंटे का| इंगलैंड में समय आगे है! :-)

R, R graphics and Sweave

One of the best econometric software packages available to researchers is the package R (www.r-project.org), which is made available under the GNU-GPL license - which basically means it is free to use. It is based on the iconic Bell Labs S language and it has a very large and uptodate menu of implemented techniques used in econometrics, biometrics, maths, physics and engineering. It's object oriented character makes it very flexible indeed. Combined with LateX (using the package Sweave [www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~leisch/Sweave/]), R commands can be embedded into a LaTeX document [www.ctan.org], which means that you have full documentation and output in one place, which can be easily compiled to execute all estimations and to create the final document in one step.

In the process, R creates publication quality graphics which are often of a very high quality and quite innovative as well. For instance, the graphic shown above is Fig. 2 from the paper Grosjean, PH, Ch. Spirlet & M. Jangoux, 2003. A functional growth model with intraspecific competition applied to a sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 60:237-246. (Try doing this in Excel or EViews).

Caesar's Proconsulship in Gaul (58-51 BC)

Shortly after the end of his consulship (59 BC) Caesar left Rome to take up his new position as Governor of Transalpine Gaul or Narbonensis (Provence), Cisalpine Gaul (plains along the river Po) and Illyricum (the Dalmatian coast) for the years 58-54. It was clear that Caesar planned to engage in a campaign of conquest of entire Gallia, Belgae and the Helvetii. Within Gaul the Haedui had been recognised as allies of Rome by the Roman Senate. The Haedui were attacked by Germanic tribes led by Ariovistus (who had himself been recognised as a king and friend by the Roman Senate during Caesar's consulship in 59). The Haedui petitioned Rome for help against Ariovistus and Caesar, as Governor and Proconsul, was authorised to deal with Ariovistus's threat. The main strategic issue was this. Ariovistus claimed the rights of conquest over parts of Gaul, arguing that Roman interests and authority extended only until Transalpine Gaul. But Caesar noted that German reinforcements in Gaul were continuing and it would be a matter of time before such enemy forces would be in a position to invade Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul, and ultimately Rome itself. The Helvetii had defeated the Romans in 107 and earlier, in 387, the Gauls had sacked Rome. In 58, Caesar defeated the Helvetii in the Battle of Bibracte. Shortly afterwards Caesar defeated Ariovistus who never regained his former power and died in 54. Of course, eventually Caesar defeated Vercingetorix in the Battle of Alesia in 52. In 51 after winning the Battle of Uxellodunum, Gaul was 'pacified', as it were.

The origins of war in Europe are long standing, historic and complex. It is in this backdrop that the achievements of the EU must be assessed, especially reconciliation between Germany and France who have been historic foes. The Poles have been won round - but at what cost, one wonders, given the EU's propensity for horse trading. 

हिना अब न्यू यॉर्क में है

अभी तक तो छोटी थी पर अब बड़ी हो गयी है...

EU solidarity

It is sort of interesting to follow the vexed consultation  at the EU summit in Brussels. The Poles and the British are putting up a spirited defence of their national interests. Many bloggers have been alluding to a well-known British sketch from an episode of the 1970s TV comedy "Fawlty Towers" titled: 'The Germans' or 'Don't Mention The War'. However, the issues are complex and keenly contested. Poland feels pressurised by both Russia and Germany (on different issues). Germany and many other EU member states feel that the EU must be strengthened and the peace dividend from EU integration should be maximised through dialogue and reconciliation. A breakthrough seems unlikely ... but Germany only needs to wait 13 years more before hosting  a similar EU summit again (if the number of member states remains the same).