It’s Friday today and the end of the work week of most of us. So I thought, let me end this work week with some comics from one of my favourite sites, one that I visit at least once a day and mostly when I am getting ready for bed. This is usually my bedtime reading material. It marries my love for books and humour – two things that I feel are essential for life!
Read on and enjoy…
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Freakonomics #1) – Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime?
These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.
Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.
What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
Ishtadev is a concept in Hinduism which literally translated to “cherished divinity” and is used to term one’s favourite God from within the 33 million Gods of the Hindu pantheon.
This poem on faith is my way of paying homage to my personal God, Lord Ganesha, whom I reach out to whenever I am sad or happy and speak to him as a friend.
Ishtadev
You are the name I take when I wake up and take in the first sight
And the one I think of when I close my eyes for the night
I think of you throughout the day, in all that I do in every way
Folding my hands often to pray
You are my friend, philosopher and guide
I know you are always on my side
You know all my secrets, my sadness and innermost thoughts
You know exactly what it is that ties me up in terrible knots
I know that you are always there to cover my back
That you will never fail me, will always take up the slack
Thank you for being there all the time
My Lord, My God, My Ishtadev!
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the colour yellow.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbour’s dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.
Some weeks I really don’t know what to update and wonder why I am still continuing this series. Then I suck up and sit down in front of the screen trying to find words that describe my boring and mundane life.
This week was the same the previous weeks and my life stands as it was before. The only positive note is that we are going to renew R’s work permit as she does not want to change employers. Since there’s not much work for her to do, we are looking at reducing her pay with us for a time period till I secure a new position and she is happy with the solution. Hope this does not take very long to do.
Another couple of weeks before August comes around. Have a wonderful week folks!
