Saudis, Audis, and alcoholics

Spent a long time drooling at this Audi [link]. Also spent some time reading about how the country (!) of Saudi Arabia has just sentenced a blogger to 10 years imprisonment, 1000 lashes, and a $266,000 fine for insulting islam and setting up a "liberal" network [link]. It's an utter travesty.

Today's Things

• Putin plays a crafty hand [link]
• British spy agencies say they have "noble intentions" [link]

Whoever is in a hurry shows that the thing he is about is too big for him.

A very nice day in New Haven. Had final project demonstrations for CS 437 (Databases) - most of the demos were really, really, really good. I'll see if I can put them up on the course website. People made everything from advanced pokedex to location-based social networks to data analysis software. Very, very impressive.

Also had a very nice lunch at Soul De Cuba, followed by froyo, and a nice walk through the gently sunlit campus. Made some more arrangements for Andrew's bachelor party, bought pizza and cheese fries for (probably) the last Computer Science social this semester (I highly recommend Costa Pizza [link]). Read an interesting opinion piece about the sanctions on Russia [link]. Not sure I agree, but it's still interesting.

Today's Things:

• The Ukrainian govt. is faring badly against pro-Russian secessionists [link]. Also, it appears that there is massive support from ordinary citizens - who are willing to fight (see video).
• More Apple-Samsung [link]
• First case of the deadly MERS virus in the US [link]

Cash

Had a wonderful time watching films made by students for a film studies class/workshop here at Yale. The class was TA'd by a friend of mine, Andrey Tolstoy, who was kind enough to invite me to the showing. Said showing was excellent - I especially loved a 30 minute documentary about a funeral home that was closing down; it was called Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, and featured Ella Fitzgerald's rendition of the song [link].

Speaking of songs, I've been listening to Johnny Cash lately. Class.

> When the man comes around [link]
> Ain't no Grave [link]
> I won't back down [link]

The Man Who Couldn't Cry

Today's Things:

• Oprah might buy the clippers [link]
• James Ujaama on training jihadists in Oregon [link]
• IMF - $17 billion bailout for Ukraine [link]
• Gerry Adams arrested for murder [link]

Mango mango

Spent a long time hating on random people. Did some work using sharemind [link], an excellent secure multi-party computation system.

John Oliver on the(:p) elections:

The full episode can be found here: [link]

Today's Things:

• EU decides to ban a bunch of exports from India, including mangoes [link]
• Ukraine: Separatists seize another provincial capital [link]
• More Apple vs. Samsung [link]
• Botched execution in Oklahoma [link]

Yes, Heartbleed happened

Yes. Yes it did. Do you know how much money OpenSSL receives per year for upkeep? Oh, about $2000. There's one (yes, ONE) full time employee working on the code - which is used by everyone from Google to IBM to Cisco; said companies, along with some others, have finally noticed this, thanks to the revelation of the heartbleed bug, and have agreed (via the Linux Foundation) to increase the amount of money going into OpenSSL [link].

I read an interesting article on net neutrality today [link]. While it talks about a lot of other stuff, I find it's explanation of why net neutrality is a good thing refreshingly simple.

Today's Things:

• Ukraine situation - you guessed it. Worse [link]
• The price of gold is currently 411,898 USD/Kg [link]

Adelante

Proctored an exam today. The professor and I added a very easy math question to the test (as extra credit) to see how many people would (a) see "math" and skip it, (b) try and fail, (c) succeed. There may or may not be some wagers hinging on the result.

Also, Rajeev Suri is apparently going to be the next CEO of Nokia [link]. Satya Nadella, then this? Excellent. It appears my plans for world domination are proceeding satisfactorily, ethnically speaking, at least. I disagree with the common "Indians only excel abroad" mentality - we excel in India as well, it's just less visible under the filth of Indian politics.

That, of course, might be improving now, given the imminent demise of the rectal canker sore that is the Indian National Congress. Good God, just talking about them makes me fly into a rage. The mere mention of their name brought these three videos into my head - I include them here for your viewing pleasure.

Today's things:

• Situation worsens in Ukraine - soldiers kill five pro-Russia rebels [link]
• Time travel using older images in Google Street View [link]
• ARIN is now out of IPv4 addresses [link]; the latin american and african registries still have lots left, though.
• The start menu will probably be back in August [link]
• Google, Apple, etc. agree to settle conspiracy case [link]

Mr. Walker

Walked around the medical campus today - it's surprisingly beautiful. There are some very nice parks, as well as some pretty interesting architecture. Followed that up with some work calls, research, and coding. All in all, not bad.

Watching F1 qualifiers right now. Whoa they're fast.

Today's Things:

• More Ukraine stuff [link]
• Pakistani news anchor shot [link]

Here comes the sun

After yesterday's dreary drizzle, it was a joy to see the sun this morning. It looks like it's going to be another wonderful day in New Haven. I need to do something about my sleeping habits - I keep waking up late (10-11ish). Resolution: Am going to go to bed early tonight. But before that, I have much to do - need to do some research, work on a patent app, make an exam, fix some code..

Speaking of things to do - I'm pretty stoked for the Real-Barca match today. Let's see how it goes! Real won the Real-Barca game today 2-1; things got pretty exciting towards the end - Gareth Bale scored a wonderful goal around 85 to put the score at 2-1, and Neymar's shot rebounded off of the post at the 89th minute. Real (intelligently) wasted the 3 minutes of extra time to deal a 2-1 crusher. The score doesn't really reflect Real's dominance of the match (remember, this is a team that's missing its star player - Cristiano Ronaldo!). Barca's play was pretty lacklustre - it's been a pretty bad week for them: knocked out of the Champion's League by Atletico, reeling from a loss against minnows Granada in La Liga, and now this. Not a good time to be a Barca fan.

Update: Went out this evening with Andrew Sinclair to talk about the financial crisis. In addition to being a great friend, he's a doctoral student advised by Gary Gorton, and is currently studying precisely that topic. I think I have a good handle, and extensive notes, on the basics now (for a layman). Hopefully, I'll be able to turn those notes into a coherent document over the next couple of weeks.

Today's Things:

• South Korean ferry accident - hundreds missing, mostly schoolchildren [link, link]
• I know that saying "things are looking bad in Ukraine" is a bit of an understatement, but whoa! Russian separatists flew the Russian flag on armoured vehicles it had captured from the Ukrainian army's operations against it; pretty humiliating for Kiev [link].
      Furthermore, the manner in which said "capture" occurred is also pretty pathetic - "The Ukrainian troops appear to have been disarmed before being fed by pro-Russian militants at a cafe in Sloviansk and then put on a bus back to their home city of Dnipropetrovsk." [link]
• Lavabit: When asked to hand over their encryption keys, Lavabit obeyed - by printing the keys in tiny size 4 font (this is size 4 font) and sending the resulting 11 page document to the FBI, for which they are now being held in contempt of court [link].
• Another poison gas attack in Syria [link] - this happened a few days ago, but I learnt about it today.
• Iran reduces nuclear weapon capabilities [link]
• Turkey plans to create separate prisons for homosexuals [link]
• NYPD ends its muslim surveillance program [link]

(To be updated throughout the day)

Rainy Day

We're having some strange weather here today. Or perhaps it's just me that's feeling strange. New Haven is bathed in a delicate drizzle, casting everything in a subtle, eldritch light. There's a strange tingle in my skin, as if it's about to sweat. An anxious current dances across my palms, overstimulating the muscles underneath. I want to sit alone in a large squarish wooden veranda overlooking the Ganges with the rain around me and a fire within. I feel like something is happening, or is about to happen; every fight or flight response within me is singing. Jack London shouts quietly in my head - "I would rather be ashes than dust!". A poor man from rural Bengal gives lottery tickets worth 2.5 Lacs to someone who hadn't even paid for them - simply because he had given his word. Nalini Sengupta stands firm and refuses to give up his fury.

Like I said, strange.

I woke up pretty late this morning, having stayed up till three or four to catch a glimpse of the blood moon [link]. The cloudy sky waylaid my astronomical attempt, and the late night ensured a dilatory awakening - by the time I got out of bed, it was half past eleven. I would have sluggishly slithered back to sleep, but I suddenly remembered that I had to meet some students at noon, so instead, I had to take a quick shower and run to the department.

Went to Avi's class in the afternoon and then to the gym to box (had an excellent workout). Dinner was underwhelming - the dining hall had practically nothing vegetarian (as a friend put it, they need to learn the difference between having vegetables and having vegetarian food); I ended up eating some yogurt with honey. I was going to hang out with a friend in the rec. room, but he told me that a bunch of bio people were already there, and that they were drinking, being loud, etc. On a Tuesday. Ah well.

Today's Things:

• A lawsuit trying to remove a memorial to Korean "comfort women" in LA [link]
• Ukraine launches special ops against separatist militia [link]
• One year after the Boston Marathon bombing [link]
• Iraq shuts down Abu Gharib prison [link]
• Gmail adds to its ToS, saying that it scans all emails [link]
• The Indian Supreme Court officially recognizes transgender people as a third gender [link]

I've been listening to Ehren Starks on repeat; here's a little something to get you started...