Independence vs. Correlation

I wonder, of the many distinctions made between these statistical notions whether the following interesting one has been made, i.e., to declare two random variables independent, an observer is not required, whereas only an observer can pronounce two random variables as correlated, post-hoc. Hence, independence is a property of the distribution, (in the context of generative function as opposed to histogram), whereas correlation is a property of one single realization sampled from that distribution with respect to another such realization.

If I were Hugh Macleod, I would say at this point, "Exactly. Bayesian vs. Frequentist."

Vetri kodi kattu

I walked into the bus with a textbook and a take-away snack, my usual brooding self, and proceeded towards a seat. Instead of the normally indifferent or imperceptible nod from the bus driver, I received an animated "tervetuloa" and a broad smile. He was black. Listening to his own radio catching a bit of the victory speech. Obama trickle-down effect WIN? I tried to find a seat in front to eavesdrop. For the rest of the people on the bus it was another day in the works.

Commedia dell' arte

Watched a Finnish play yesterday called Kalevala Dell' Arte, an adaptation of parts of the Finnish epic, Kalevala in the genre of Commedia dell' arte, an Italian street theatre tradition from the 16th century.

I was told that Commedia dell' arte, a masked theatre tradition, was created by the first full time travelling theatre group in Europe. This anonymous medium was a voice to criticize society and ridicule the bourgeois. The plots were on common themes such as love, adultery etc. The roots of the modern clown are believed to have originated here. Some brief wiki hopping revealed this.

Aussie Enfield riding Che

For a while, I had abandoned the dream of road trips of scale. Across continents and spanning years. As eurocentric, as hippie, as naive. Today I bumped into a drunk, genial, greying aussie, who bought an Enfield -- 350cc, 6V battery, he was careful to point out -- in Triplicane. Twenty years ago. And biked across 3 continents in 4 years. Latent dreams are not extinct etc.

Le moderne post (incomplete)

Orientalism

Edward Said
The myth of the clash of civilizations

Pay attention to the criticisms of Said, most of which I find more important than his work, particularly, the very valid accusations of occidentalism. I find it difficult to believe that the generalization employed by oriental scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries (under scrutiny in Said's work), is intended as a willful misrepresentation of the 'truth' about the east. Whatever that is. In this context, Sen's view of generalizations (and a fluid, evolving truth) in his conversations with history talk (see below) is more earthy.

Subaltern studies (to be watched)

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
The trajectory of the Subaltern in my work


Welfare economics etc.

Amartya Sen
Liberal Paradox
Conversations with history
Identity and violence

In connection with Sen's analysis of famine, see Emily Oster

English news in Scandinavia

With its rapidly greying work force, it has been some time since the European labour market has opened its doors, even if just a symbolic inch, to immigrant workers. It is my perception however (unbolstered by statistics) that among the refugees and the skilled professionals of the third world who enter the continent for work, while the former go on to naturalize, the latter return home, or move away to greener pastures where naturalization is easier (US, Canada, UK, Australia).

One incentive to retain and integrate professionals is to provide more local news in English. Since recently, English print edition dailies in Europe have been extremely rare. Here is a highly incomplete collection of English news and magazines in Scandinavia. Finland seems to be the last to have woken up, but I am optimistic.

Major resource: World Newspapers

Newspapers
Helsinki Times. Estd. 2007. Quality and circulation has improved drastically in a very short time. Printed weekly.
Helsingin Sanomat has daily English summaries and a weekly digest. But this service, like most things in Finland goes down for the summer!

Copenhagen Post. Estd. 1997. Tabloid format. I thumbed through it while I was there. International and local news. Very few pages though. Printed daily.
Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's leading daily, has an online News in English section.

The Local (Sweden). Estd. 2004. Excellent coverage of equality, women's rights etc. which are central issues in Sweden. Free online daily. A print edition doesn't seem to exist. They have started a franchise in Germany this year!
The Local (Germany): Estd. Feb. 2008. Online daily.
Japan News Review (Sweden). Estd. 2007. A unique and exclusive coverage of Japan. Includes redirects to other English news featuring Japan and compilations from Japanese news pieces. How strange!
There is also the rather trendy World News Cafe with newspapers from all over the world (about a week late), situated inside the Kulturhuset in central Stockholm.

The Norway Post: Estd. 2005. Online daily.
Aftenposten (Norway) has daily English summaries online.

Magazines
Six Degrees (Finland). Estd. 2006. Coverage is very expat centric i.e. language problems, job market, refugee integration etc. Some travel pieces etc. A good place to look for city events (Turku, Tampere, Helsinki, Oulu). Prints10 issues a year.
The Reykjavik Grapevine. Estd. 2003. I came across it in some Espresso bar in downtown Reykjavik circa July 2007. Content is very eclectic. Perhaps targeted at the tourist market (who are all quite eclectic). Also quite prolific and prints 18 issues a year.
The Scandinavian Insider. Estd. 2006. Printed in Sweden and Denmark 4 times a year.

Moral high ground

Recently, I have passively, yet voraciously been consuming distilled wisdom from thought leaders in the blogosphere. Two exhilarating Chennai based blogs are krishashok and maami. They are so good that I could hawk them at traffic signals, pursue a disinterested bloghopper like you unrelentingly, and aggressively advertise them with illegal subliminal messages until you buy into them. In other words, I highly recommend them.

Anyway, a common accusation I have encountered in post-related-comment-page-skirmishes is: you are being self righteous. you are taking a moral high ground. My question is: isn't this accusation itself, moral?