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Showing posts from August, 2019

The quest for Artificial intelligence - Part 1 - The Deep Blue story

Jottings - Slice of Life - 316 ( The quest for Artificial intelligence - Part 1 - The Deep Blue story ) (Note to my readers: This piece is the first of my intended three-part essay on Artificial Intelligence, and some of its glamorous role models in the last three decades. The essay is nearly 2500 words long and should take about 15 to 20 minutes of reading time. As always, I attempt to write for the general reader, who has the time and curiosity to learn more. I don't expect any prerequisite knowledge in computers to follow this essay, and at the same time, I haven’t diluted the technicality of the language to make it mean something less technical. Popular writing mustn’t presume its readers to be ignorant or lazy. If there are terms that are new, I request the reader to pause, look up the term and proceed.) In the early months of 1997, within the majestic Equitable center building in midtown Manhattan, occupying the 32nd floor in its entirety, sat one of the most powerful c

Jottings - Slice of life - 319 ( a tumultuous political week in India - Abrogation of article 370 - Modi's masterstroke, and the sad story of the appointment of the interim president of the INC)

Jottings - Slice of life - 319 ( a tumultuous political week in India - Abrogation of article 370 - Modi's masterstroke, and the sad story of the appointment of the interim president of the INC) It has been a momentous week in Indian politics. The Modi government, fulfilling one of its primal election promises, have acted decisively within months of being reelected. The beautiful valley of Kasmir is once again the theater of a massive political experiment. A state has now become a Union territory. Without much dialogue or consultation with the opposition party, and within few opening hours of deliberation in the legislative assembly, the ruling party - the BJP, on the 5th of August 2019 introduced a bill abrogating the special status accorded to the beautiful valley and making a part of India albeit with reduced status. The provisions under Article 370 -promulgated under the most fortuituous conditions in those crucial early years of India Independence - is no more valid, and w

Jottings - Slice of life - 318 ( Grace, passion, eloquence, and integrity - The legacy of Sushma Swaraj)

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Jottings - Slice of life - 318 ( Grace, passion, eloquence, and integrity - The legacy of Sushma Swaraj) Integrity is a misconstrued word in public life, especially in the political world. An elected representative of the people has to balance several different personas, only very few manage to keep their heads consistently above water and present an honest face, and not lose the basic thread of morality, honesty, decency and a firm anchoring in the convictions which got them to the position they are in. Because it needs extraordinary strength of character and courage to defy opposing tendencies that not many statesmen and women retire with the same grace they enter politics during the heady spring of their youth. There is a sense of inevitability about the fact that political lives are meant to get scarred, maligned, and misunderstood over the course of time, and that very few can come out at the other end unscathed with their respect and dignity intact. Sushma Swaraj was an exc