Saturday, January 29, 2011

India by Al-Biruni














Title: India by Al-Biruni
Editor: Qeyamuddin Ahmad
Publisher: National Book Trust 2008 (First published: 1983)
ISBN: 978-81-237-0289-6
Pages: 290

This book is an abridged edition of an English translation of the Arabic original by Dr. Edward C. Sachau. The editor has embellished it with a very good introduction and informative notes at the end. Qeyamuddin Ahmad was a professor of history at the Patna University after completing his PhD in 1962. He is an expert on medieval Indian history and of the Indo-Muslim society of the nineteenth century. He has authored three more books, titled The Wahabi Movement in India (1966), Corpus of Arabic and Persian Inscriptions in Bihar (AH 640-1200) (1973), and Mazharul Haque (1976). This book is brought out by the National Book Trust which is synonymous with good quality, low priced editions.

Al-Biruni (also Al Beruni, full name being Abu Raihan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad, 973-1049 CE), was a celebrated mathematician and astronomer who visited India in the wake of the invading forces of Mahmud of Ghazni in the 11th century. This book, titled Kitab fi Tahqiq ma lil Hind min Maqala fil Aql ao Mardhula, sometime shortened Kitab’ul Hind or Tarikh’ul Hind is a compendium of knowledge in India during those times, which Al-Biruni could gather from Indian experts he consulted. Al-Biruni discusses varied concepts as practised or conceived by early medieval Indians, and the chapters extend to Hindu laws and customs, religious worship, matrimonial rites, astrology, festivals, reckoning of time and days and a good deal of astronomy. Contrary to other Muslim chroniclers who came in the footsteps of conquering and ravaging invaders and who wrote under the patronage of those Islamic sovereigns, Al-Biruni tries to explain the ideas as and when he found it, without showing a condescending attitude to them. On many occasions, he confesses that he, nor any Muslim for that matter, won’t acquiesce in to the concepts narrated, but he still had presented it without any additions or deletions so that a student of the subject gets a true feel of it. This particular volume, being an abridged version, may not expose all occurrences on which he has exhibited this noble posture, but from the tone of his narration, we can safely assume that it is indeed the case.

Al-Biruni began this enterprise of collating the works of India at the behest of his patron Abu Sahl Abd Almunim Ibn Ali Ibn Nuh At-Tifilisi, who was a noble at Ghazni. The book goes on in a comparative mood where the author critically examines the concepts with Greek or Persian ideas which were prevalent in the Islamic world. Details of how the idea differs and why was it so, is brought in fine detail.

One of the first things Al-Biruni observes is the conceit of Indians, which uncannily suits some of the modern Indians who revel in the accuracy of vedic science and ancient Indian concepts. He says, “We can only say, folly is an illness for which there is no medicine, and the Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no king like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs. They are haughty, foolishly vain, self-conceited, and stolid. They are by nature niggardly in communicating that which they know, and they take the greatest possible care to withhold it from men of another caste among their own people, still much more, of course, from any foreigner. Their haughtiness is such that, if you tell them of any science or scholar in Khurasan or Persia, they will think you to be both an ignoramus and a liar. If they travelled and mixed with other nations, they would soon change their minds, for their ancestors were not as narrow-minded as the present generation is” (p.10-11). The constant denouncement of Al-Biruni against Indian scientists is that they mix true scientific ideas with popular superstition like a mixture of pearls and sour dates. The reason for this strange behaviour is conjectured to be the desire of conforming to public opinion without which patronage can’t be extended to scholars. The author’s self-restraint is evident when describing the concept of classes (varnas) and castes as it is astonishing that an Afghan muslim scholar could pass over these contentious topics without passing judgement. Such accurate descriptions are not seen in other pre-medieval non-Indian texts.

However, when hovering over the matrimonial practises of India, some of this restraint is lost and harsh criticism follows. After describing the customs followed in India, he says, “We have here given an account of these things in order that the reader may learn by the comparative treatment of the subject how much superior the institutions of Islam are, and how much more plainly this contrast brings our all customs and usages, differing from those of Islam, in their essential foulness” (p.50). Religious worship is the touchstone of the credentials of a medieval Muslim scholar and Al-Biruni fails there too, when he asserts that only the ignorant worships idols. However, he goes on to say that the educated among Hindus don’t follow this practise and their worship of the god is comparable to other religions. How the Muslim invaders tried to end idolatry is described, with the example of Multan given as, “When Muhammad Ibn Alkasim Ibn Almunabbih conquered Multan, he inquired how the town had become so very flourishing and so many treasures had there been accumulated, and then he found out that this idol was the cause, for there came pilgrims from all sides to visit it. Therefore, he thought it best to have the idol where it was, but he hung a piece of cow’s flesh on its neck by way of mockery. On the same place, a mosque was built” (p.53).

Reckonings of numbers in Indian mathematics goes on to include very large numbers without much practical significance and Al-Biruni chastises the mathematicians for their love of categorizations which serve no real purpose. The Greeks and Arabs go up to 1000 only, but Indians go as far as the 18th order due to religious reasons, particularly to assert the length of epochs (yuga). But the real reason might be the place-value notation which was in vogue in India and which the westerners learnt from here. The custom of giving so many names for objects, like celestial bodies as the sun, is also ridiculed upon as a waste of time, throwing an air of mystery and a fault of the language.

A curious fact which comes to light from these passages is the rivalry exhibited by Brahmagupta against Aryabhata. The author says, “He is rude enough to compare Aryabhata to a worm, which eating the wood, by chance describes certain characters in it, without understanding them and without intending to draw them…In such offensive terms he attacks Aryabhata and maltreats him” (p.174). The reticence of Indians in detailing history is frowned upon, as “Unfortunately the Hindus do not pay much attention to the historical order of things, they are very carelss in relating the chronological succession of kings, and when they are pressed for information and are at a loss, not knowing what to say, they invariably take to tale-telling” (p.193). Also, the treacherous nature of Mahmud of Ghazni is made vividly clear as, “I admire the following passage in a letter of Anandapala, which he wrote to the Prince Mahmud, when the relations between them were already strained to the utmost: ‘I have learned that the Turks have rebelled against you and are spreading in Khurasan. If you wish, I shall come to you with 5000 horsemen, 10000 foot-soldiers and 100 elephants, or if you wish, I shall send you my son with double the number. In acting thus, I do not speculate on the impression which this will make on you. I have been conquered by you, and therefore I do not wish that another man should conquer you” (p.194). A queer case of Stockholm syndrome, indeed! But what came at the end? “The same prince cherished the bitterest hatred against the Muhammadans from the time when his son was made a prisoner” (p.194). We also learn of Indian astronomers teaching the science at Baghdad. “Alfazari and Ya’kub sometimes heard from their Indian master, expressions to this effect, that his calculation of the star cycles was that of the great siddhanta, whilst Aryabhata (Arab, arjabhad) meant a thousandth part” (p.196).

Some very interesting asides are obtained from the book. It says that Indians don’t seek permission while entering a house, but ask it while leaving! Also, the Indian explanation of why the sky appear blue is given. Scholars believed that Mount Meru, which lies between four worlds in four cardinal directions had the height of 80,000 yojanas, one half of which rose to the heaven and the other went down the earth. This side which was next to our world consisted of blue sapphires which was the reason for the bluishness of sky!

The book is very dry and dull, consisting of chapters and chapters on various aspects without any lively interpretations or suggestions from the author. But, that is nobody’s fault, and such is what can be expected from a medieval manuscript. The book leans heavily on astronomy as a lot of chapters are kept aside for that subject alone.

The editor’s handling of some of the topics is also to be examined here. It is common for Muslim historians to attribute economic reasons for the destruction or desecration of Hindu temples by medieval Muslim invaders. Qeyamuddin Ahmad is no different, but the text he gives betrays his argument! We learn of what happened at Somnath in the words of Al-Biruni. “The image at Somnath was destroyed by the Prince Mahmud – may God be merciful to him! – in A.H. 416. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghazni, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Chakraswamin, an idol of bronze, that had been bought from Taneshar. Another part of the idol from Somnath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghazni, on which people rub their feet to clean themselves from dirt and wet” (p.214). Some economics, indeed!

The book is recommended for students of history and ancient Indian customs.

Rating: 2 Star

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The Loom of God














Title: The Loom of God – Tapestries of Mathematics and Mysticism
Author: Clifford A. Pickover
Publisher: Sterling Publishing, New York 2009 (First published: 1997)
ISBN: 978-1-4027-6400-4
Pages: 256

This is the hundredth book to be reviewed in this blog. The number had added significance, as when I started the blog on Rediff, I’d no idea that I’d keep it up for so long. The blog was transferred to blogger in March 2009 and here we are!

Clifford A Pickover is a prolific author and futurist, with a long list of 40 books translated to various languages to his credit. He is a PhD holder from Yale University in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. He holds over 40 patents for inventions dealing with computing technologies and inventions. However, this book reminds me of the adage, Jack of all trades, master of none. A lot of concepts are squeezed in various chapters, with little meaning or relevance. Numbers find a conspicuous place in religious thought and mysticism so much that some sects had actually worshipped them! Pickover’s effort in this work is to compile a few of such instances and present before us with a fanatastic story also put in to weave the concepts in a coherent fabric. Fabulous concepts such as time travel, the end of human civilization and super-intelligent alien beings are part of the story.

Mathematics is the loom upon which God weaves the fabric of the universe, asserts the author. The idea is represented in Chinese calligraphy and reproduced as dividers of important ideas throughout the book. The concept of numbers which formed so integral a part of the cult originated from Pythagoras finds expression in modern religions too. The author says the number 10, 12, 40, 7 and such are special for religions. As an example, he says 12 is the number of Jesus’ disciples, 40 is the number of days Jesus stayed in the wilderness and on and on. The argument is hardly convincing as it can be argued that beyond mere coincidence there is nothing much which can be proved. The relationship between mathematics and religion are summarized as, “In many ways, the mathematical quest to understand infinity parallels mystical attempts to understand God. Both religion and mathematics attept to express relationships between humans, the universe, and infinity. Both have arcane symbols and rituals, and impenetrable language. Both exercise the deep recesses of our minds and stimulate our imagination” (p.20). There are also differences between the two, as “Many of religion’s main propositions are impossible to prove, and religion often relies on faith unaffected by reason. In addition, while various religions differ in their beliefs, there is remarkable agreement among mathematicians” (p.21). The relationship between the two is somewhat strained in the present-day world, as the corpus of knowledge has advanced in unimaginably complex ways. In the early 1900s, an erudite person could’ve acquired all extant knowledge, but today, mastering even 5% of the corpus is a daunting task.

The book gives a detailed picture of the life story of Pythagoras who dominated Greek mathematics and philosophy for several centuries. Being born with a gold-coloured patch of skin on his thighs, he claimed descent from the god Apollo and is said that he openly demonstrated his ‘asset’ during one of the Olympic games to astound the audience. The Pythagorean society kept up utmost secrecy in all their dealings and only after tough screenings could an inititate acquire the secrets of the order. He was steeped in superstition too, as evidenced by his aversion to meat, beans, some cloths and some ceremonial predilections. He was made famous in the modern world by the eponymous theorem which relates to the three sides of a right-angled triangle. The lengths of the three sides are known as Pythagorean triplet. There is a formula given, to easily calculate the sides - One leg of a triangle: X = m2 – n2; Second leg: Y = 2mn; Hypotenuse: Z = m2 + n2. Select any integers for m and n and the triplet can be formed quickly.

Estimates of the world population and the date at which the population becomes infinite (by calculation) presents an interesting chapter. The equation which approximately gives the world population for any year less than 1960 down to the beginning of common era is given by

N = 1.79 x 1011 / (2026.87 – t)0.99

This equation yields surprisingly accurate results for the estimated world populations at various years. N is the population and t is the year in common era. Substitute the values and it is seen that at t = 2026.87 (Nov 13, 2026) the denominator reaches zero, giving infinity as the population. Obviously, the equation should not be stretched that far! Doomsday probably won’t occur on that day. Several doomsday cults led by people like Luc Jouret and David Koresh are given. For comprehensiveness, population formulas like von Foerster formula and Pearl-Reed formula are explained. Sane organizations as the ‘Club of Rome’, which is a gathering of international scientists and businessmen headed by Aurelio Peccei predict the peak of population to occur in 2020 with gradual decline thereafter.

There is another engaging chapter on Ramon Lull (1234 - 1315) who sought to prove all the major tenets of Christianity using number symbolisms. He used concentric wheels with different words written at various points to generate ideas for sermons. The logic can be extended using software to replace Lull’s wheels and examples of such computer-generated poetry are presented. Even patentable ideas can be generated in such a way. The word-combination indicated by the software would nevertheless be meaningless, and it is for the user to think of a way by which such a combination could be materialized and patented.

All religions are associated with mysticism and number symbolisms, the latest being the Urantia religion. It postulates that we live in the 5342482337666th universe and 611,121 is Christ’s number among creator’s sons. How they came up with this number is anybody’s guess. Being a 20th century religion, it accepts evolution and the long age of earth. The Urantia book, which is the bible of the movement was published in 1955 with 2097 pages of such mysterious facts.

The author presents the book as the story of a master (identified with the book’s reader) from the future (2080 CE, to be exact). He is transported via time travel to ancient Greece with an assistant named Mr Plex. There they finds Theano, the disgruntled wife of Pythagoras. She joins the duo and the team visits Stonehenge, prehistoric Spanish caves and Greece in AD 2126 when the human civilization ends with the impact of the asteroid Swift Tuttle. Each chapter provides the master to explain some new concepts in the form of questions and answers from his two companions. He falls in love with Theano and they end up together by going back in time to ancient Greece just before the world ended. The narration is too cavalier and irreverent to come from such a prominent author! The trio accidentally smashes the idols of Greek gods in their hideout and litters the place with food packets carried from their future ages. Falling in love and eloping with Pythagoras’ wife is surely a hard pill to swallow for the average reader. To add insult to injury, Pythagoras himself is frightened off by the master’s assistant when he attempted to get near them! Bad taste, surely.

It seems that Pickover is not too fond of Pythagoras. He says that the famous theorem was anticipated in India, as “Evidence suggests that the theorem was developed by the Hindu mathematician Baudhayana centuries earlier, around 800 BCE, in his book Baudhayana Sulba Sutra” (p.28). There is a humorous taunt on the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi whose amorous affairs are notorious. When the apocalyptic events are taking place across the world, we see, “In the grey waters of the Mediterranean, an Italian head of state wields a long knife and chases a nude woman through swamps the colour of tabasco” (p.210). There are several BASIC and C programs listed to construct the features of mathematical curiosities expressed in the earlier chapters, like fractals, numerical gargoyles, urantia numbers, find perfect numbers, as such. A good glossary on religio-mystic concepts is included at the end, which is very helpful for the reader inclined to such concepts.

The disadvantages are many. Chapters are not closely knit together. There are holes in the fabric, so to say! Each chapter can appear alone, without losing context or interest. An appropriate comparison is to the Arabian Nights in which one master story binds sub-stories which itself contain other stories. But in our case, the grouping is bumpy and unappealing. Even though the book professes to unravel the mathematical fabric behind mystic concepts, in some chapters there are no underlying mathematics seen, such as Apocalypse, end of the world by meteoric impact and philosophy of Ramon Lull. The book is riddled with quotes, many of which are only scantily relevant to the major theme. Some quotes, particularly from Shakespeare are repeated. Economy of words is not a strong point for Pickover as many chapters are unnecessarily prolonged without any significance. Some themes, like gargoyles and how to make numerical gargoyles are plain boring with the simulated figures not appealing to aesthetics. Complicated equations are tucked in to explain spirals in hyperspaces. The author has done extensive research on the mysticisms of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, in that order, but there is practically no mention about Asian religions which boast of 40% of the world population. The book is full of spiritual underpinnings, with the existence of God taken for granted. The defeatism is particularly repulsive as the author avers, “A dog cannot understand Fourier transforms or gravitational wave theory. Human forebrains are a few ounces bigger than a dog’s, and we can ask many more questions than a dog. Linguist Noam Chomsky once noted that a rat can learn to turn left at every second fork in a maze, but not at every fork corresponding to a prime number. The human mind, limited by the same kinds of biological constraints as the rat, may reach the edge of its ability to comprehend. We are flesh and blood, not gods. Are there facets of the universe we can never know? Are there questions we can’t ask? Our brains, which evolved to help us find food on the African plains, are not constructed to penetrate all the enigmas in the infinite mathematical cloak of our universe” (p.205).

A long post-script on the mathematician Kurt Goedel’s mathematical proof of the existence of God is utterly boring and tests the patience of the reader. The proof is inconsistent and not to be taken seriously. Comments and remarks the author has received from the internet and his friends are compiled in a long list in this chapter, which is also one of the longest in the book. Finally, a list of 22 mathematicians who were believers are given. What might be the true intention behind compiling such a list? That, if these great thinkers including Newton, Descartes, Pascal, Leibniz and others believe in God, why can’t you? Unfortunately, the author has compiled this list by accumulating suggestions from the internet and laughably obvious errors have crept in. Pierre Simon Laplace (1749 – 1827) is included in the list as a religiously minded mathematician. This goes contrary to the established wisdom as there is a famous story of the encounter between Laplace and Napoleon Bonaparte. “When Laplace first explained his nebular theories to Napoleon, the emperor posed to him a single question. "Where is there room in all this for God?" To which Laplace famously replied, "I have no need for that hypothesis”. Can such a man be termed religious?

The book is not recommended.

Rating: 2 Star

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Lords of Finance














Title: Lords of Finance
Author: Liaquat Ahamed
Publisher: Windmill Books 2010 (First published: 2009)
ISBN: 978-0-099-49308-2
Pages: 505

Liaquat Ahamed was a professional investment manager turned writer, with working experience at the World Bank. He is adviser to many financial enterprises and has degrees in economics from Harvard and Cambridge universities. This is his first book, but judging from the mature and witty style, lots of infotaining books on finance can be expected from him. This work runs contrary to the public perception of books on finance being dull and boring. Ahamed has transformed the rules of the game and has presented a glorious example which should be emulated by other writers in this field. The immediate inspiration for writing this book, as confessed by the author, is the economic recession which set in during 2007-08 threatening to engulf a large swathe of national economies.

The book attempts to trace the sequence of events which led to the Great Depression of 1929-33 and how the world freed itself from the clutches of the economic octopus through the actions and follies of governors of central banks in the leading economies of the world, U.S., U.K, France and Germany. Ahamed delves into the lives of the bankers, Montagu Norman (U.K), Hjalmar Schacht (Germany), Emile Moreau (France) and Benjamin Strong (U.S.). We see them with curiousness tinged with alarm at the ineptitude of some of them in understanding the economic impacts, let alone developing ways of wading through them. The author gives the impression that bankers too are not immune from overreacting to unsettling events, thereby jeopardising investors’ money and confidence.

The reasons for the Great Depression goes back to 1914 when the first world war began. Europe was without major wars for 40 years and the relative peace had boosted up trade among the nations, making London the centre of elaborate international credit. Her bankers extended their reach to far flung areas and every soverign government had to deal through them to stay in international trade. The bankers were averse to war, as it would unsettle every aspect of financial activity. There was the curious case of Lloyds in London which had insured the German mercantile fleet compensating them in the event of British ships destroying German vessels. Such interconnectedness among the leading economies should have been proved a guarantee against war, but popular sentiment is a dangerous thing, which can sway this way or the other, depending on petty incidents which flare up mob frenzy. As it happened, the first world war broke out in August 1914, in the aftermath of the assassination of Austrian Prince Ferdinand in Serbia.

Onset of hostilities derailed European finance. National stock exchanges, except that at Paris closed down. As the major currencies were based on gold standard, in London people demanded gold in return for pound sterlings. British gold reserves dwindled, banks also downed shutters for a few days to avoid runs on bank. A good deal of European capital was employed in U.S during the pre-war period, which had to be paid back urgently. This caused the dollar to fall in value, with American tourists travelling in Europe suffering the worst. Many were evicted from hotels and had to spend their nights in the open, because their dollars were not accepted by traders. Thus, even though the U.S. was not a party to the war, had suffered due to the domino effect. The brutal war which claimed the lives of 11 million people elicited hardships in the monetary sphere too. Governments make money from three methods – taxation, selling bonds and printing money. During the war, many nations came out of gold standard (the practice of keeping gold in reserve equivalent to a percentage of printed money) and freely printed money. This boom in currency automatically devalued them and hyperinflation set in. Money supply doubled in Britain, reached three-fold in France and four-fold in Germany.

Treaty of Versailles ended the war, forcing Germany to accept defeat and pay reparations to the allies who demanded $32 billion, but had to settle for $12 bn. Germany was unwilling to pay. The situation was compounded by the fact that France and England, the major allies, were themselves under war debts to the U.S., which they hoped to pay back from the amount receivable from Germany as reparations. The U.S. firmly rejected all proposals to link the two accounts, terming them as separate issues. America was portrayed as shylock in European media. Flow of gold continued to U.S., while its stocks continued to decline in Europe. Excess gold in U.S. caused price rises and the Federal Reserve had to bypass some of the gold, rising accusations that the gold mined out from inaccessible places are again buried to equally inaccessible bank vaults.

Hyperinflation reigned in Germany and the skyrocketing prices prompted the Reichsbank to print currencies in ever higher denominations, sometimes running into trillions of marks. The vicious circle fed into itself and more currency prompted even higher prices. With no gold to back the mark, Germany introduced a new currency, rentenmark, whose value was based on land. The method was economically doubtful, but prices stabilised and inflation came down. International effort to bail out Germany from the turmoil bore fruit in 1924 as Dawes Plan, formulated under the leadership of Charles Dawes, later Vice president of U.S. As per the plan, U.S. and other foreign agents would issue loans to Germany, which it would utilise to build up its industry and reconstruction. The returns from the development would be used for paying reparations to the Allies as per a softer schedule. At the end, the Allies would pay back U.S. war debts. A magical European turnaround resulted and Dawes was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Upon pressure from U.S., Britain returned to the gold standard in 1925 with prewar exchange rates. Such artificial measures increased the pound’s value and British goods became dearer. The Dawes plan was so successful that Germany was heaped with foreign money. Even provincial towns used the cash to build opera houses and indulged in extravagant expenditure. They were sitting on top of a volcano, as many of the loans were of short-term, liable to be claimed back anytime. By 1926, central bankers began to be concerned with three major issues – rising stock market in U.S., excessive foreign borrowing by Germany and increasingly dysfunctional gold standard. Capital was flowing to U.S. to invest in the burgeoning stock market, with credit crunch becoming evident in Britain. The Fed eased credit by reducing the interest rates to 3.5% from 4%, causing Wall street to continue to go up during much of 1927. Even though the rate was increased to 5% in Feb 1928, the damage had been done. The upward spiral moved ahead.

Germany was dependent solely on foreign loans to prop up its economy. Out of the $3 bn loans, $1 bn was short-term, ready to be pulled out at any moment. The Wall Street boom dried up the money flow from America as the lenders found their stocks a more attractive investment. Prominent European lenders also channeled their money across the Atlantic to participate in the stock boom. To keep money within their nations, European central banks had to raise interest rates, thereby reducing credit. This action came at a time when unemployment was rising and shows the desperate measures Europeans were compelled to take. Economic slowdown began in Europe. On Sep 29, 1929, Clarence Hatry, a U.K businessman was arrested for bond fraud, which swindled $70 mn of investors' money. To cover their losses, British agents pulled out their money from Wall Street immediately and most equities fell by 20% on that day. The bubble was about to be burst. On Wednesday, Oct 23, 1929, a lot of sell orders knocked down the market by another 10%. The next day is called 'Black Thursday', as the index was down by 15% at the start of trading. A determined effort by New York banks to intervene in the market buying bluechip stocks helped stave off the crisis. At the end of the day, stocks rallied and index was off by only 2%. For the next two days, index went up and the banks could sell the stocks they purchased at a nominal profit. But on monday, Oct 28, 1929, huge selling began and the index was off by 14%. The day is called 'Black Monday'. There was no let up the next day too, as it is now remembered as 'Black Tuesday' (Oct 29, 1929). Curiously, it was the day Winston Churchill, who was on a visit to U.S., chose to visit the stock exchange! Such disastrous deals stretched broker loans given by banks to the extreme. New York Fed and banks stepped in and secured the loans so that the system is not broken down. By Nov 1929, markets stabilized to a fair value. European markets also fell, but by moderate amounts. While the market fell 40% in U.S., it was 16% in U.K, 14% in Germany and 11% in France. However, credit was eased and interest rates were down to as much as 2.5%.

Recession began in the U.S. Industrial production fell by 30% in U.S., 25% in Germany and 20% in U.K. France was only moderately affected. There were 5 million jobless in U.S., 4.5 million in Germany and 2 million in U.K. Commodity prices dipped by as much as 50%. Wholesale prices fell by 15% and consumer prices by 7%. To add to the voes, a bank named Bank of the United States broke down, setting in motion a cascade of bank failures, due to runs on the deposits. Close on the heels came the bursting of real estate bubble in Chicago. In Europe too, bank closures began with the defaulting of Credit Anstalt, an Austrian bank. This caused a run on Austrian banks and German economy which are psychologically connected to Austria's. German employment scaled new heights of 6.5 million and the public discontent made the Nazis the second largest party in Reichstag. The condition of living in Germany had deteriorated so much that when Reichswehr (German military) decided to recruit 6000 men, 80000 people showed up, half of them undernourished! Herbert Hoover's (the then U.S. President) plan to declare a moratorium on war debts payments didn't ease the situation. Leading Germans banks were tottering and with no source of long term credit, the system collapsed. There were speculations among leading financialists that the capitalist economy was disintegrating all over the world.

The recovery was equally dramatic. U.K came out of the gold standard on Sep 21, 1931. This action devalued the pound which made British goods cheaper. Central banks which had pound reserves suffered badly, but British production moved up. America was still in doldrums, as by the end of the year, 2294 banks were closed. It was the year 1931 in which the recession turned into 'The Great Depression'. Stock markets lost 90% of value, prices were falling and almost a quarter of the workforce was jobless. Franklin Roosevelt assumed office in March 1933 and immediately declared national bank holidays, until the situation improved. Bank runs stopped and Roosevelt devalued the dollar, without officially going away from the gold standard and economic activity restarted. The book goes on to describe the most prominent financial events during and after the second world war too.

The book is very entertaining to read. It brought out in vivid detail as any national economy could be floundered due to the ill-conceived notions of a few central bankers. Their actions and inactions are far reaching, particularly so in today's connected world. In those days, people had to physically come to the banks and stand in line to withdraw money. Today, they can move huge amounts with nothing more than a few mouse clicks. Hence a bank run today would be much more grave. However, the author assures us that a major catastrophe on those scale might not happen because the central banks are more vigilant now and there is a mechanism in place for ensuring international credit in the form of IMF and World Bank. The book is a very palatable mixture of wit, facts, analyses and history combined in a truly masterful way. Ahamed's firm grasp of the details involved quickly translates into a narration akin to story telling.

One drawback which may be raised against is the unnecessary biographical detail included of every character, which sometimes go backward to one or two generations prior to the person of note. At least at some points, the author is to be accused of inflating the content, especially the irrelevant detail of the menu of the six-course lunch at the second Dawes Conference. Apart from these, there is nothing which can be said against.

The wry humour exhibited throughout the book is very entertaining. When German mobs were dismissed forcibly by military police, "Even when shots were randomly fired near the palace, the fleeing crowds remained so instinctively law abiding that they obeyed the signs to keep off the grass" (p.101). The stock market boom in U.S. prompted many people to voice against the speculation in stocks. The author comments, "Watching other people become rich is not much fun, especially if they do it overnight and without any effort" (p.274). To stop bank runs, President Roosevelt closed all banks for a few days and we see "The residents of Michigan woke up on Saint Valentine's Day to find that all that they could draw upon was the cash in their pockets" (p.443).

Even though not related to the theme of the book, there is a side issue which is to be noted here. There is a concerted drive going on among the religious to establish that Hitler was an atheist, which he was not. The book describes a rally at Bad Harzburg by the Nazis in Oct 1931. "It was a reunion of everyone who was or had ever been against democracy in Germany. The town was festooned with banners in the old imperial colours. Aged generals and admirals from the previous war turned out. The event was kicked off by an invocation for divine guidance by a Lutheran pastor and a Catholic priest. The star of the occasion was Hitler, who hogged the spotlight with his impromptu speeches" (p.420).

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

And Thereby Hangs A Tale


 










Title: And Thereby Hangs A Tale
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: Pan Books 2010 (First)
ISBN: 978-0-330-51368-5
Pages: 288

This time, let’s take Jeffrey Archer for a change and to have some light reading. Archer is superb in his delivery of the story and the sudden twist at the end of it reminds one of O. Henry. The ability to keep the reader on tenterhooks in a suspenseful wait till the end of the story clearly delineates Archer from the several others of the same genre. His style is unstrained, easy to follow and easy to read – in short, it is a delight to have a book of Archer around, if you are bored or on a long journey.

There are 15 short stories in this volume, 10 of them related to actual happenings as claimed by the author. As usual, several of them relate to crime – since Archer himself was behind bars for a brief time so he had first hand experience of felons and surely might have extracted the roots of several stories from them. Among the non-criminal ones, a not-so-compelling one (Caste-off) is charactered in India. The author is familiar with India and her English writers, as we find the hero of No Room At The Inn reading R K Narayan’s Malgudi Days. His distaste of new-genre Indian writers is clear from a phrase in the same story which runs “He’d advised Richard to ignore the sacred cows of Indian literature and instead enjoy the genius of R. K. Narayan” (p.253). Whom was he referring to? Vikram Seth? V S Naipaul? Salman Rushdie? Impossible to tell.

Personally, I liked Stuck On You in which the protagonists manage to steal a very expensive diamond from DeBeers. The story is magnificently written with wit, intrigue and suspense duly thrown in, but the plot is too shallow. The hero sticks the diamond to his chewing gum pasted under the deal table. Even though a thorough search was conducted on his body, he had to be let free as he was clean. Soon after, the lady comes in and retains the diamond from under the table and walks away freely. It is inconceivable that the jeweller’s guards didn’t take it to their heads to do a painstaking search in the room as they had exhausted every possible options on his body! The story is thus not convincing, but it is admirably crafted.

The best among the lot seemed to be The Queen’s Birthday Telegram. Albert Webber, the lead character was overwhelmed by the love and affection shown to him by the townspeople on his 100th birthday. It was the practise of the British Queen to send a greeting telegram to people reaching the centenary. Albert was so overjoyed at receiving a telegram from the monarch that he framed and hung it on his study. He expected similar ceremonies for his wife who would turn hundred in three years. But to his consternation, no telegram is received from the Queen and gets upset. He dials the Buckingham Palace while his wife was out on shopping with their daughter and enquires about the discrepancy. The palace official replied that there was no oversight on their part and that they had actually sent her a telegram five years ago, meaning that she was older than him by two years and had kept this a tightly guarded secret even from her husband of more than 75 years. The story ends with the words, “Albert heard a car door slam, and moments later a key turned in the lock. He quickly put the phone down and smiled”, as if impressed by the steadfastness of feminine character!

The book is ideal for light reading and recommended for such an audience.

Rating: 3 Star

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The Google Story














Title: The Google Story
Author: David A Vise
Publisher: MacMillan 2005 (First)
ISBN: 1-4050-5371-2
Pages: 306

Google is the search engine par excellence in today’s net world. There is no substitute for it and it has become to the Internet what mouse is to a PC user. Every netizen visits the site at least once a day. Google has a domineering presence in contextual ad delivery and its tentacles reach far and wide, across continents and cultures. The company is young, founded only in 1998 by two students of Stanford University, doing their PhD courses! The enchanting story of the birth of this internet juggernaut is captively narrated by David A Vise, who is a renowned journalist and author for more than two decades and has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990. The Google Story is his best seller published in more than 20 languages. The book is aptly packaged in the primary-colour scheme of the Google homepage which makes the design simple, elegant and eye-catching.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, developed an algorithm for fast and relevant web searching while doing their PhD work in Stanford University. Brin was born in former Soviet Union and his parents migrated to the U.S. in 1980 to escape anti-semitism at home. The developed algorithm, called PageRank was very effective and was based on relevance of the content and not in the repetition of keywords or tags in the text. The search engine was an instant hit in the University intranet and the young developers registered a company to market the idea. ‘Google’ was in fact the incorrectly spelled word ‘Googol’ which represents a very large number, the digit 1 succeeded by 100 zeroes. Brin and Page wanted to sell the patent to a competitor and to return to the academic field to complete their coursework. Altavista, Yahoo, Excite and a few others, who were the leaders in internet search at that time didn’t find the software worthwhile to part with $1 million which was the humble asking price of the inventors. Search was not an activity the behemoths thought would prevail in the connected world because of the transience of the operation, as the user would immediately move on to the suggested results. This didn’t go well with their business idea of keeping the users spending more time on their site. Disappointed, but not losing heart, Brin and Page started the company with a capital little more than $1 million and Google was incorporated on Sep 7, 1998 as a privately funded company.

Google generates its lightning fast response to search queries based on a combination of software and hardware. Mainly it runs of inexpensive PCs interoperated in a proprietory way and searches its archives consisting of 50 billion web pages. This unique combination of hardware and software is often called Googleware. Even though inexpensive, the huge clusters of machines required considerable investment which prompted the founders to seek and obtain a fresh infusion of $25 million in cash from Kleiner Perkins ad Sequoia Capital, two venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Under the terms of the agreement, Brin and Page had to appoint Eric Schmidt, a sharp and savvy business executive in July 2001 to attend to the day-to-day functioning of the company.

The year 2000 was rife with aspirations of the budding dot-com industry which saw hundreds of net-enabled firms rise to multibillion dollar status overnight. But there was not much time for the bubble to burst. Many of them went bankrupt, with lots of talented software engineers suddenly available without jobs. This was a great opportunity for Google as it grew from strength to strength and their profits soared. Soon, Yahoo tied up with Google to power their own net search confirming the superiority of the product. Even though being the undisputed leader of internet search, there was no money earning proposition in Google’s business strategy. This was addressed in 2002, and it started to provide context-based text-ads along with the search results. Whenever a user clicked on these ‘sponsored links’, Google obtained money which ranged from a few pennies to about $10 per click. The young company’s coffers burgeoned with cash and the time came to take it to the public domain with an IPO as stipulated by legislation.

Google went public in August 2004 with an IPO, claiming $85 per share. They sought to raise $2.71828 billion from the market and this number itself is a way of measuring the quirkiness of the founders, both of them mathematicians and computer engineers. The number 2.71828 is called Euler’s number and is designated by the letter ‘e’ in mathematics. It is also the base of natural logarithm! Also when an additional tranche of 14,159,265 shares were made available for the market in August 2005, the world witnessed another mathematical trick. The number represents the first eight digits of the decimal part of the number ‘pi’.

The ongoing projects undertaken by the company is digitization of the content of world’s prominent libraries and data search and retrieval for human genetic program, details of which are not given in the book. These projects are also motivated by the desire to disseminate information across the world and self-explains the company’s motto, ‘Don’t be evil’. However, reading about its deal with AOL Europe in 2004 makes the reader suspicious of the founders’ commitment to their ideal. The incident goes like this. In October of that year, AOL invited bids from Yahoo and Google for providing search facility for its operations in Europe. Both the rivals submitted quotes and finding Yahoo’s bid to be greater, AOL decided to award the contract to them and informally conveyed the matter to Yahoo. Brin and Page got wind of the deal and instantly flew in to London to meet AOL Europe’s CEO and offered a substantial increase over Yahoo’s bid to snatch the deal. To be fair, AOL invited Yahoo to submit a fresh bid, but they were reluctant to offer the very big amount Google had promised. Such a blatant act in violation of corporate ethics can hardly be expected from a company which takes pride in its motto of ‘Don’t be evil’! Another tainted practice followed by Google was to snare away employees from its rival, Microsoft. It seemed once that Bill Gates had become the recruiting agent for Google! Law suits ensued between the giants in 2005 over the hiring of Dr. Kai-fu Lee, a top level executive of Microsoft who had in-depth of knowledge of its strategies in China. Google employed him to oversee their initiatives in China. A U.S. court restrained Google from such practices.

The book is really to easy to read and follow. The focusing of key players and analyzing their contributions in detail gives the reader a very good grasp of the hectic and complex business deals associated with big-ticket corporate houses. The coverage extends even to Charlie Ayres, former chef at Google whose pioneering activities in campus help spread the image of a free flowing, family-like organization as judged from the good quality free food provided to the employees. But in this case, the coverage far exceeded what was expected by the scope of the book as seen by the detailed recipe of buttermilk fried chicken printed in full! There was no need to put in such an irrelevant one! The author has included 23 very helpful tips while searching in Google in an appendix and every net surfer will benefit by carefully following the advice given. The sample GLAT (Google Labs Aptitude Test) given in another appendix and vouch for some entertaining brain racking! (I, however, failed to answer even one of them, but let’s push that under the carpet!).

There are, however, a handful of points to showcase on the negative side. The flow of the thread is not smooth as it is significantly interrupted even inside and between chapters. The author doesn’t give the final outcome of a maneuvre in a chapter. The library digitization project may be taken as an example. In the chapter allotted to it, we get the impression that Google is spearheading it, but in a later chapter, it is declared that it has temporarily shelved the project. The latest position was given almost as a footnote. The author is in the habit of dropping prominent characters between chapters make readers difficult to remember the people who built up the organization as most of the names are not mentioned in any context later in the book. This may be the reason why the flow is broken sometimes. The ordinary reader also gets the impression that a lot of space could have been saved by condensing some of the portions. Large coverage is given for simple matters too and it is quite possible to illustrate the story in 150 pages as opposed to the 292 it had in this edition. The information seemed old, because 5 years have passed since the publication of the title. 5 years means 40% of the total lifespan of Google till date, so that’s a huge disadvantage. The readability of some chapters are not commendable, while in general, it is very good.

There is an inconsistent remark made about searching something using plurals. On page 294 in Appendix 1, it is declared that Google does not make a distinction between a word and its plural, like dance, dances, and dancing. This is contrary to the idea given earlier, where it is seen that, “She juggled bids, for example, on the term “digital camera” and its plural, “digital cameras” – with the cost of a click on the second averaging $1.08 compared to about 75 cents for the first. The reason for the disparity, she said, was that customers who typed in the plural were more likely to end up as buyers” (p.116). This is, of course, the experience of a client of Google, but the difference in pricing shows that Google indeed differentiates between a word and its plural.

The book is eminently readable, even though business matters form the bulk of the material covered, with practically nothing technical. It is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Planets


Title: The Planets
Author: Dava Sobel
Publisher: Harper Perennial 2006 (First published 2005)
ISBN: 978-1-84115-621-7
Pages: 258

Dava Sobel is a famous popular science writer having many titles like Galileo’s Daughter and Longitude to her credit. This is her first book to be reviewed here and from the style of it, I can safely assume that more will follow in due course. Her easy flowing, fluid style has made her a prominent figure in the genre and it is no wonder that an asteroid is named 30935 Davasobel after her. Astronomy is the most stressed aspect of science in many of her works.

The present volume is in essence, a survey of the solar system starting the journey from the hot centre of it all, the sun and ending with the cold extremity, in the Oort Cloud. The author takes each celestial object in turn and explains about them in the context on which that object has enriched popular culture. For Mars, it is science fiction, for Venus it is beauty and for Jupiter, it is astrology! The narration mostly follows this thematic approach proving a great attraction to general audience not well versed in science. On every chapter, the way in which the structures are related to human aspects are carefully laid out.

Mercury is the first of all planets, being closest to the sun. It is associated to the messenger of gods in Greek mythology with Hermes being an alternate name. The perturbations in the orbit of mercury which upset astronomical calculations were long puzzling the scientists as they couldn’t figure out why Newton’s laws are violated in this case. Urbain J J Leverrier, who also found Uranus detected deviations in the perihelion of mercury on every rotation. He proposed that another body, named Vulcan was affecting the orbit due to its gravity, but the painful search by astronomers worldwide failed to locate the elusive body. It was in 1915 that Einstein proposed an answer to the vexing problem in his General Theory of Relativity. He argued that the nature of space-time is different when gravity is very strong like the neighbourhood of the sun and mercury’s orbits were precisely obtained using Einstein’s relativity theory. Spacecraft Mariner 10 flew by the planet in 1974-75 and sent back pictures of its surface full of impact craters, the largest being Caloris Basin. Another mission, christened Messenger is expected to orbit and send pictures later this year.

Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon and reflects 80% of the light it receives due to its cloud cover. The moon would have paled into insignificance if Venus was nearer, as the Moon reflects only 8% of the light it gets from sun. Even though Venus is only second in distance to the sun, it is the hottest planet of the entire system, due to the greenhouse effect of its cloud cover. The atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid and hydroflouric acid and the pressure is 90 times atmospheric pressure on earth. Russian crafts Venera and Vega landed there between 1970 and 1984 and pictures were transmitted to earth before the crafts were damaged because of the extreme surface conditions. The craft Magellan circumnavigated the planet for four years from 1990. Radar exploration of the surface features are possible from earth and the largest mountain thus located is named Maxwell Montus in memory of the great Scottish scientist who proposed the theoretical framework of electromagnetic waves of which radar is also a part. All the other surface features are given feminine names to rhyme with the female aspect of the planet of beauty. Many of the characters in womens’ history have found a place there, and even female first names from various countries are chosen.

Describing earth would seem preposterous in a book of astronomy dealing with planets, but the author included it with a prominent theme of exploration of her geography. Attempts on the mapping efforts of its surface, atmosphere and inner parts are given. Earth has a solid core of iron and nickel which rotates at a rate faster than the outer parts by one second a day. Seismologists can hear the sound of the core making upon its contact with the mantle due to this difference in rotating speeds.

The Moon is the only natural satellite of earth and is somewhat larger for a satellite. This causes larger gravitational attraction between the two bodies, making the tidal forces slowing down the rotation of earth by a minute fraction. Meanwhile, the moon drifts away by an inch or two every year. This slowing down and slipping away would end in a stalemate at which earth’s rotation and moon’s recession is stabilized and both would be in a geo-stationary orbit such that moon will be always visible from one hemisphere of earth whereas it would disappear forever from the other.

Mars is smaller than earth, but the early conditions prevailed on the planet allows the possibility of life forms. While all life has been wiped off from the martian soil long ago, the concept of terraforming, the artificial manipulation of the atmosphere is being discussed among the scientific community. Mars is tilted 25 deg about its axis, as compared to earth’s 23.5 deg. This tilt causes seasons as it revolves around the sun, making the polar ice caps consisting of CO2 and water to recede and advance as the seasons change in a martian year of 687 earth days. Crafts Viking 1 and 2 landed there in 1976 and analysed soil samples.

Jupiter is the largest planet and was closely linked to astrology till the time of Galileo. Astronomy and its false brother astrology was separated conclusively, by Galileo’s discovery of the moons of Jupiter which he named Medicean planets to ingratiate himself to his patrons, the Medici family. Astrologers couldn’t assign these new-found objects of anything worthwhile. Astronomy thus proved that it is possible for a planet to have satellites rotating them while at the same time going around the sun as a single system. It conclusively put down earth-centric views on this ground. Jupiter is a gas planet and there is no hard ground to walk on. The Great Red Spot first observed in 1879 is a giant storm raging across the Jovian atmosphere changing colour as time goes on. Scientists believe that the planet has a liquid metallic hydrogen core due to extreme high pressure, is the cause of its magnetic field which is 20,000 times stronger than earth’s. The Jovian magnetosphere even reaches saturn’s orbit, so all of Jupiter’s own satellites are well inside it. A prominent moon, Io, has 150 active volcanoes on the surface due to tidal effects, pouring a constant stream of ions and electrons into the magnetic stream inducing a huge current of several millions of amperes between Io and Jupiter. The space probe Galileo reached Jupiter in 1995 relaying details of its atmosphere.

Saturn was a curious entity for astronomers ever since it was detected to possess concentric rings. The rings containing tiny particles of rock, ice and such space debris may be the remnants of a satellite or planetoid which couldn’t resist the planet’s pull. The spacecraft Cassini flew by the planet in 2004. Close observation of saturn resulted in observing more concentric rings than the three found by telescopic measurements. In fact, it was established that all outer planets starting from Jupiter do possess them.

Uranus and Neptune are similar in many respects. The former was first observed by William Herschel in 1781. Being a long period planet (83.7 years), it was not practical for astronomers to follow it on its course around the sun and obtaining measurements. They tried to extrapolate from previous unintentional observations by other people, but the system failed to obtain correct results. As Mercury’s perturbations were also plaguing the community at that time, it was thought that another planet was deviating Uranus’ path ever so slightly. Very complex theoretical exercises ensued and Urbain J J Leverrier and John Couch Adams did calculations extending over thousands of sheets to pinpoint the location of the planet. The report was published in 1845 and in the very next year, Neptune was observed at the suggested spot by Johann Gottfried Galle. Voyager 2 flew by Uranus in 1986 and by Neptune in 1989. The astronomers were not fully convinced that the deviation of Uranus was due to Neptune alone, as the estimated size of the planet was smaller than the actual. The natural wayout was to look for another planet in the periphery and Pluto was first observed by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. But later observations from advanced telescopes and probes gave a higher figure for Neptune’s size, obliterating the need for another planet. Compounding on such a revelation was the discovery in 1992 of another Pluto-like object on the fringes of solar system. In 1993, five more planetoids was detected in that area and the fate of Pluto hung in balance. The International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto to a minor planet in the first decade of 21st century. (This fact is not given in the book).

The book provides interesting reading of Columbus on his explorations to the New World. We can deduce the religious zeal affecting the people of those times from Columbus’ self-professed mission statement, “In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, sent by the most Christian, exalted, excellent, and powerful princes’ the King and Queen of Spain, to the regions of India, to see the Princes there and the peoples and the lands, and to learn of their disposition, and of everything, and the measures which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith” (p.79).

Even though appealing to readers who are staunch believers, some references in the book equating revelations in scripture with scientific concepts might be grating on the nerves of sceptics. The author has included those portions without any logical basis other than placating a section of her audience. Take for instance that solar eclipse can be total only on earth, because the moon is apparently the same size as the sun because of its shorter distance. The author asks “Is this startling manifestation of the sun’s hidden splendour part of a divine design?”. Superfluous and avoidable argument, really. In another part she says that solar wind is reminiscent of the wind from god mentioned in the Bible. In the chapter on Jupiter, the author examines Galileo’s horoscope and argues that some of the predictions had come true, while several of them failed equally. She then proposes to vindicate even the failed ones, the prediction that he would do foreign travel being one of them. Galileo never set foot outside Italy, but the author asserts that his invention, the telescope has virtually made him go far off places. Such unscientific mumbo jumbo would rather better be omitted from such books. The chapter on Venus is laced with poetry, some of them really amazing, but one gets the impression that it was overdone. Also, the thematic collection of ideas which the author takes pride in, is not as appealing as she might have thought. Saturn’s theme was music, but it was dull and rather short, leaving much to be desired.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star