Glenn Greenburg

http://www1.gsb.columbia.edu/valueinvesting/research/class_recordings.html

 

Koenraad Elst Interview Sulekha (2002)

http://koenraadelst.voiceofdharma.com/interviews/sulekha.html

 

As for Islam, we might discuss the fate of the Vedic insight �Aham Brahmaasmi� (I am Brahma) in Islam. In Arabic, Mansur al-Hallaj rendered it as �Ana�l Haqq� (I am the Truth), and he was beheaded for it. I suppose that�s not what the critics would want to see highlighted either.

 

It�s always the same story: Hindus are damned if they do, damned if they don�t.

Classic Quote from INDY500

The Indianapolis 500 is touted as "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing." And there's a fascinating quote about what it takes to win the big race at the fabled Brickyard: "To finish first, you must first finish."

 

David Meier, Surviving the Investment Race(http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/01/29/survive-the-investment-race.aspx)

 

Music Music Music

Leonard Bernstein Tribute to Beethoven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZJ1Tgf4JL8

 

 

Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata movement 1 – ahh, what can I say?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6txOvK-mAk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQVeaIHWWck

 

 

Beethoven’s 5^th

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6K_IuBsRM4

 

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons – Sophie Mutter and Karajan

 

Summer mov1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXqHJPuGVsY

Summer move2 Adagio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5SBVm_2EZM

 

Spring mov1 Allegro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50lmd0ngwPc

Spring mov2(Largo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_xcyOCrNx0

Spring mov3 Allegro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rqNuxaqpu0

 

Winter mov1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDRoDercCNA

Winter mov2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXA23PH5zhc

Winter mov3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2QwAZEGA8A

 

 

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6489814468130803124&q=four++seasons+vivaldi&total=491&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6489814468130803124&q=four++seasons+vivaldi&total=491&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

The Undertaking

Recently, a very interesting program aired on WGBH on “undertaking”.

 

Mr Thomas Lynch whose profession is “Undertaking” has written a book on the same, for the life of me, cannot remember where I read this line,

 

“Funerals are for the Living-The dead don’t care” But, …Thomas Lynch added “The dead do matter”.

 

While I could care less about the latter part of the statement – which is shameless self-preservation after mortal demise of the individual…the first sentence is an all time classic…

 

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/10/30/a_middleman_between_life_and_death/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8e8d7af4-8967-11dc-b52e-0000779fd2ac.html

Short term fears –  underestimating cyclical nature of business!

==========================================

At some point, not only will the presidency change hands but the US economy will pass through its trough and start to recover, shifting the interest rate cycle. By that time, European economies could themselves be weakening. There are too many uncertainties to reassure investors at the moment but the current gloom will not last indefinitely.

When secular and cyclical trends come together, as they have now to undermine faith in the US economy, it is a powerful combination. But there is a human tendency at such times to underestimate the degree of cyclicality at work. The US is down but history, including the aftermath of downturns in the 1970s and the early 1990s, shows its tremendous capacity to rejuvenate.

 

Bill Miller (Legg Mason) - Benjamin Graham Quote

Ben Graham's Security Analysis, from Horace's Ars Poetica: "Many shall be restored that now are fallen and many shall fall that now are in honor." (The quote does not say "all" by the way, just "many").

 

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071102/nef041.html?.v=27

 

Aryan Invasion Theory & Koenraad Elst

http://www.hinduwisdom.info/aryan_invasion_theory.htm#Implication%20of%20Aryan%20Invasion%20Theory

 

Koenraad Elst- The Vedic Corpus provides no evidence for the so called �Aryan Invasion� of India

http://koenraadelst.voiceofdharma.com/articles/aid/vedicevidence.html

 

 

USA - casualties of war in Iraq

http://icasualties.org/oif/

 

UGK (Mahesh Bhat Biography)

Definition of a True GURU:

 

'A guru is one who tells you to throw away all crutches. He would ask you to walk and if you fall, he would say that you will rise and walk.'

UGK (Mahesh Bhat Biography)

On Gurus,

 

Gurus play a social role. So do prostitutes. Unfortunately, in society, what the gurus are offering is not only socially acceptable but also considered the be-all and end-all of our existence. The others are not. You choose what suits you best..

Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand

Wall St journal Oct 10 2007 by David Kelley, Capitalist Heroes. (Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged)

 

At a crucial point in the novel, the industrialist Hank Rearden is on trial for violating an arbitrary economic regualtion. Instead of apologiing for his pursuit of profit or seeking mercy on the basis of Philanthropy, he says, “I work for nothing but my own profit – which I make by selling a product they need to men who are willing and able to buy it. I do not produce it for their benefit at the expense of mine, and they do not buy it for my benefit at the expense of theirs; I do not sacrifice my interests to them nor do they sacrifice theirs to me; we deal as equals by mutual consent to mutual advantage-and I am proud of every penny that I have earned in this manner…”

32 and over a 100million and counting

Spending money is a fine pursuit, and anyone’s welcome to do it,” said Scott Banister, a close friend of Mr. Levchin’s since college who recently sold an antispam company to Cisco for $830 million and is now working on a social networking site, Zivity, which he describes as a “cross between Playboy and American Idol.”

“But then obviously at that point, you’re spending,” he said, “not producing.”

For more, check here

-http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/business/28invent.html?ei=5087&em=&en=a37ec3773b496f0e&ex=1193803200&pagewanted=print

 

 

Brief summary - Abbe Dubois - Hindu Customs Practices and Ceremonies

 

Honestly, I have heard variants of crow-sparrow stories BUT NEVER NEVER would have analyzed it from this angle(not that I am incapable of analysis or dumb stupid call what you may) - the white man surely sees beyond what folks like us can - http://www.folklorefellows.fi/netw/ffn20/oncaste.html

 

In the same article, weightage is given to what Abbe Dubois(Hindu Customs Practices and Ceremonies) has to say(I will add more here)...See below in RED.

 

Recently, we asked a colleague, Prof. emer. C. N. Ramachandran of Mangalore University, for his opinion of Abbé Dubois. His verdict was: “prejudiced and unreliable”, “he has eyes only for the dung heap”. If quotations are taken from Dubois, they should be framed with source-critical remarks.

 

From my own initial reading of a few chapters of the book, the approach adopted is too prejudiced and more of shock value highlighting some primitive customs(case in point, paavadam), anti-brahmanical - if the reporting was truly reflective of what the author say rather than author's interpretation...it would have made interesting reading. What is horrifying is H K Beaucomp(guy who translated the French version to English) eulogises the author and his work - I guess there is a reason - Eurocentric scholars kissing each others you-know-what. Hopefully, after completing the book, I will come back and update this space.

 

Why we cannot rely on moderate Muslims

Fjordman, a Norwegian blogger writes in the gatesofvienna blog:

 

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/09/why-we-cannot-rely-on-moderate-muslims.html

 

The goal of ISLAM best captured by the following paragraph:

 

The Arab goal, Habash declared, was to wage war “against Europe and America” and to ensure that henceforth “there would be no peace for the West.” The Arabs, he informed her, would “advance step by step. Millimeter by millimeter. Year after year. Decade after decade. Determined, stubborn, patient. This is our strategy. A strategy that we shall expand throughout the whole planet.”

 

Fallaci thought he was referring simply to terrorism. Only later did she realize that he “also meant the cultural war, the demographic war, the religious war waged by stealing a country from its citizens — In short, the war waged through immigration, fertility, presumed pluriculturalism.”

Think twice before saying "aurat"

This is going to blow your mind : Read on(thanks shahryar)

 

http://members.aol.com/turkseven/aurat.html

Books to Read

Thanks to Ghostwriter on Rajeev’s blog:

 

1. https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no42136.htm
2. https://www.vedamsbooks.com/no35604.htm

 

later,

 

Invest in Foreign Markets - Indian Mutual Funds

Looking for overseas funds
Dhirendra Kumar
New Delhi, September 4, 2006


ONCE UPON a time, it used to be a truism that Indians were crazy about everything foreign, or phoren, as it used to be spelled. Nowadays the distinction between desi and phoren is blurred since you can legitimately buy Indianmade foreign goods. However, in investing the age of foreign investing is just about beginning. Now, the report on ‘Fuller Capital Account Convertibility’ released last week has also recommended an increase in ceiling on mutual funds investment abroad to 5 billion dollar in two steps.

In many ways, the increasingly permissive rules about individuals investing in foreign companies through mutual funds are a watershed in the liberalization of the Indian economy. After all, the fact that capital couldn’t flow abroad was a cornerstone of the old controlled economy.

Except that no one seems to care. The response from investors has been noticeable mainly for not being there. In Budget 2006, the Finance Minister has raised the limit for the total investments from a billion dollars to two billion dollars yet this appears to be a meaningless gesture since the actual investments have been a tiny fraction of even the older, lower limit.

In the two years since foreign investments through mutual funds have been permitted, just one fund has been launched that invests in foreign equities and that fund currently has an utterly irrelevant 13 crore rupees invested in it. That’s about 0.3 per cent of the permitted limit of 1 billion dollars. However, I don’t think this 0.3 per cent is an indicator of the future im portance of investing abroad.

Since the time that investing abroad has been permitted, the Indian stock markets have been doing better, much better, than most other markets abroad. As a result, Indian investors aren’t really interested in investing abroad. Therefore, the actual future relevance of foreign investing will be known only when the markets turn.

Think of a situation when the Indian stock markets are doing badly. And please don’t tell me that in this globalised world everything moves in tandem, take a look at our cover story in this issue. If the Indian markets are doing badly and other markets are doing well, then I expect these two billion dollars to be exhausted overnight. Fund companies will be hawking country or region specific funds and investors will probably be clamouring for ‘allotment’ since there will be an upper limit for the amount of money that could be invested.

If I peek into my crystal ball, I can foresee situations where people are buying and selling (‘informally’, and at a premium) such future products like a SBI Magnum US Tech fund or a Prudential-ICICI China Fund. Does this sound like wild speculation? No. I think this sort of a thing is almost inevitable.

At some points when AMCs need to look at this type of fund seriously, they may well find out that there foreign investing products don’t need to be exclusively foreign. I, for one, would welcome if some top-performing Indian funds could amend their offer documents and say that they could allocate investments abroad if market conditions justified it. All in all, it sounds like a very tax-efficient way to shift to a better-performing market when the need arises.

One thing is certain. Whether these things happen next year or next decade, it’s going to be a whole new world for Indian mutual funds and their investors.

Aryan Invasion Theory - Wonderful work by Sushama Londhe

Feel free to spend time on the website – this is a treasure trove of information and well-researched articles  -  http://www.hinduwisdom.info/aryan_invasion_theory.htm

 

  .

Christians seek West's atonement for colonialism

I look forward to the day when the same happens in India

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060901/ts_nm/africa_atonement_dc&printer=1

 

 

Christians seek West's atonement for colonialism

By MacDonald Dzirutwe1 hour, 13 minutes ago

Hands aloft and tears streaming down her cheeks, Alicia Chipoyi prayed in a high-pitched voice for spiritual healing for the wounds caused by years of slavery and colonization of Africa by Europeans.

Chipoyi was one of hundreds of people attending a European-African-American church prayer meeting on atonement and reconciliation for the West's past role in the exploitation of what has become the world's poorest continent.

In prayer sessions punctuated by wailing and weeping, song and dance, delegates said the West had to repent before God as the first step to reconciliation with Africa, which blames many of its problems on the legacies of enslavement and imperialism.

"We are not looking to man for help, we are looking to God for our dignity to be restored but first of all the West must confess, repent and atone for their past," Langton Gatsi, the organizer of the meeting, told Reuters on the sidelines of the prayer session.

"Once that happens we can talk of reparations and co-operation and how we can start on an equal footing."

African leaders including Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have in the past called for reparations from the West for its part in the slave trade.

Chris Seaton, who leads the Europe-Africa Reconciliation Process, a London-based Christian pressure group that seeks to persuade Europe to admit its past role in colonialism, said more Europeans were now aware of the "dark side of colonialism."

The West should see Africa as an equal partner in all its dealings with a continent wracked by poverty, civil wars and underdevelopment, he said.

"We are having to explain the dark side of colonialism to our people in Europe. It is a spiritual initiative which comes in a sense, as a (result) of our history," Seaton told Reuters.

"Some call it indulging on white guilt but our purpose is to acknowledge our past mistakes."

Seaton said atonement and reconciliation were the first steps toward stronger co-operation between the two continents.

"Some of the intractable problems between Africa and Europe are premised on history. We also want to listen from our counterparts in Africa and make a difference," Seaton said.

Mugabe did not attend the meeting as earlier expected, but the veteran leader has frequently blasted the West for his country's economic woes and has been hailed by some fellow Africans for standing up to powerful countries and seizing white-owned farmland.

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