Man Booker, Olympics, etc.

Today, I have brought two news for you that, I believe, are worth to know, especially if we care to keep ourselves up-to-date.

My first news is about Britain's novelist Hilary Mantel, who has won this year's Man Booker Prize for her novel Wolf Hall.  She beat five other contenders including two previous winners A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee.  Wolf Hall is a fictional account of the rise of scheming advisor of King Henry VIII.  Mantel took about five years to complete this novel, but now her efforts have come to a good end as she would gain good fame all over the English-speaking world besides the prize of 50,000 pounds and a sharp hike in sales of her books.

Another news is from the world of sports. Olympics Games 2016 are going to be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, which will be the first South American city to host Olympics after knocking out Chicago from the race for the 31st Olympic Games.  Rio de Janeiro's victory came despite US President Barack Obama's personal pitch in favor of his hometown.

That's all for now.  In fact, I have lot more issues in my mind to put for discussion.  Lata Mangeshkar, playback singer, winning Officer de la Legion d' Honneur, the highest civilian award of France; North African country Libya completing 40 years of reign of M. Gaddafi after an army revolution in 1969; and the current political and constitutional crisis in the Central American country of Honduras after an army coup against President Zelaya in June 2009.  Lots of issues--seeds in soil--waiting to germinate.  But by the time they will germinate, news will become history.  So, just have a look over them, think over them if life permits you to do so--or just forget them.

Paul Samuelson: Father of Modern Economics

I don't care who writes a nation's laws or crafts its advanced treaties, if I can write its economics textbooks.  ~Paul Samuelson.

The news came last night.  Paul Samuelson, whose work helped to form the basis of modern economics, died on December 13, 2009 at the age of 94 after a brief illness.  Paul Samuelson was best known for his work about making economics more practical and oriented towards problem-solving rather than just subject of academic discussions.  He was the first American to get a Nobel Prize for Economics in 1970.  The Nobel Prize Committee stated, while giving the award, that he has "done more than any contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in economic theory."  He is justly considered as 'Father of Modern Economics' for his contribution revitalization of the basic economics by Keynes.

Samuelson is mostly known for his epoch-making book Economics: An Introductory Analysis, which has been used as a standard textbook of economics worldwide over decades with a print of millions of copies with above 40 editions and reprints.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Paul Samuleson devoted his career, notes:  "The world is different today because he was with us for many years."  The world of economics too feels the same paying its modest homage to the economist of the economists.

Paul Samuelson

Obama, Elections, and Greenland

Lot of issues are in mind to discuss, but cannot find time to think over them. Just trying to keep them in front of you:
1. Elections in Maharashtra. Counting on November 13. Shivsena/BJP has no issues and Congress/NCP has 10 years of anti-incumbency. Maharashtra is waiting for results this Diwali.
2. We had talked about Greenland. We talked about how can such a big territory remain under sovereignty of some other state (Denmark)? It is an autonomous state under the Kingdom of Denmark with the queen of Denmark as the Head of State.
3. The topic of Greenland gave rise to thoughts about many other united dominions that form a state collectively. UAE consists of seven separate Emirates: Dubai, Sharjah, and Abu Dhabi are well known to us. Each Emirate is ruled by a separate Amir.
4. Nobel prize of peace for Obama. Obama states: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.
5. Nobel prize of literature to Herta Muller, Romanian-born German novelist and poet.
6. Nobel prize to Venki Ramakrishnan, Indian-American molecular biologist.
7. Problems on permutation and combination, I find them very tough.

Waiting for you views. ~~Ganesh.