Confessions of an e-book reader..........

Friends here comes the confessions of a self proclaimed green crusader(or brand  ambassador of e-books).....
Its back to square one!I am going where I belong!!For all these months I was advocating for e-books and e-book reader devices,but now I really miss my good old books.These new age ebooks just cant replace
the tradiotional books.It says that old habits die hard.The book you love most is one which you can hold with two hands,can recognise by its smell and possess in its physical form.Even today I must say an ebook is easy to carry,more environment friendly etc etc.But personally I am more comfortable reading a printed book.The "selfish reader" in me will not  bother  if  few trees are to be cut  to produce my book! May be lack of proper e-book reader device(like Kindle) is the reason behind my apathy towards e-books.I planned to buy one kindle but that got delayed.Now it is the "temporay end" of my "flirting" with e-books.Come next week end I will buy some books to renew my ties with printed books.....

Books in their new Avatar

Yesterday I was reading an article on The New York Times.It discusses about how technological evolutions are changing the habits of reading books.The author was in a flight.When the flight was going to land an announcement  was heard requesting the the passengers to put down their books.Few years ago everyone would have been confused by this announcement.But not today.Everybody obediently switched off their kindles and ipads.This shows how widespread is the use of ebook reading devices nowadays.Gradually these are becoming part of our day to day life.May be in few years from now everybody will own a 6" library at his disposal!In recent past widespread use of mobile electronic gadgets are promoting this new trends of reading.There are different categories of devices.Some are dedicated ebook reader like Amazon kindle,Sony ebook reader.These devices are for reading books only in black letters on white background like conventional books.they dont support coloured text .Amazon and Sony argues that the book reader are not concerned about colour.Dedicated ebook reader have e-ink technology which makes the  text as good as text in a conventional book.Reading book on an Amazon kindle will not strain your eyes unlike reading book on a palmtop or on a laptop or smartphone.Some people argues that as habit of reading colour text with photos and videos is growing via internet,there are people who would like to read color text with photos on their mobile devices.The next two types of devices I will discuss are this type. Nook color by Burns and Noble  is having color text with some auxiliary features.These additional features let you do things beyond reading.The third type of devices are the iconic ipad and its "cheap" imitations like samsung Galaxy.Ipad is more than an ebook reader.It is a full fledged computer.So if you have ipad with you you dont need to carry ur ebook reader additionally.Though it does not have the advantages of e-ink technology as mentioned above.Competition is fierce among these three type of devices but ultimately people will decide in which form they will read book in future.

The question I asked Thomas L Friedman

"What is your view on the ban on outsourcing in the state of Ohio?Dont you think this will deny countries like india a level playing field in today's "Flat World"?Well...this was the question I asked Thomas L Friedman.If you cant recognize him then I must tell you he is the famous New York Times columnist who came up with the idea of the "Flat World".In his book "The World is Flat" he suggested that in today's world technology has enabled third world countries like India to compete with developed countries in a level playing field.Now as the competition becomes more intense the developed countries (especially the USA) resort to protectionist steps like ban on outsourcing.
Today it seems that Obama administration will go ahead with this anti outsourcing stance.I was quite eager to know what Friedman himself was thinking about this.So I asked him this question
through twitter.Will his "Flat World" cease to exist in near future?He has not replied as yet....

Is "green way of living" a luxury?

It is often articulated in developing countries like India that "going green" is a luxury.As the green measures will put a break on industrialization and building infrastructure.
The phycology of the people in developing countries can be understood by using Maslow's hierarchy of needs.Maslow's hierarchy says humans will fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher level ones. If you're unemployed and dont have a house to live global warming will not be your biggest concern.When a person is stuck at safety needs, they cannot rise to social needs.In the developing
countries we have most of the people pushed into fear/survival level.At that level, anything beyond personal selfish survival is disregarded, or seen as hurting survival.These people dont have time to
think about an environmental issue like global warming.They are quite busy earning their livelihood.

A similarity can be seen between today's developing states and southern states in USA during civil war.When president Lincoln proposed to abolish "slavery" the southern states violently opposed that move.These states were dependent primarily on slaves for agriculture which the
main occupation in the south.They opposed a noble idea like abolition of slavery only because it would affect their livelihood.

Lima syndrome=1/Stockholm syndrome !!!!

Dear friends yesterday I wrote about Stockholm syndrome.Now let me talk about "Lima syndrome" which is said to be the inverse of "Stockholm Syndrome".Unlike ""Stockholm syndrome", where hostages develop sympathy for their abductor, "Lima syndrome"is the result of the abductor / kidnapper sympathizing with his hostages. It was named after an abduction at the Japanese Embassy in Lima, Peru in 1996, when members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party in the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, due to sympathy.

Goals:NOT to be revealed!!!

Do you have a goal?Do you announce it in public to motivate yourself or to get inspiration
from the people who are close to you?But in the opinion of music entrepreneur Derek Sivers
(as qouted in the NY times) if you announce your goal you have less chances of accomplishing
it.“Any time you have a goal, there are some steps that need to be done, some work that needs to be done in order to achieve it,” says Sivers. “Ideally, you would not be satisfied until you had actually done the work, but when you tell someone your goal, and they acknowledge it, psychologists have found that it’s called a social reality. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done. And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary.”

So morale of the story is that "Got a plan?Best keep it Quiet....."!!

Stockholm Syndrome:a paradoxical psychological phenomenon

Recently in a book entitled " 3096 days" Natascha Kampusch , an Austrian woman has described her 3096 days of captivity.Her captor Wolfgang Priklopil locked her inside a basement for eight years.Some psychologists have described the relationship Natasha shared with her captor as Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological condition when the victim of an abduction identifies with the kidnapper and becomes attached to him or her.This prompted me to know more about this "Stockholm Syndrome".I would like share with you the interesting facts I encountered in the process.

What is stockholm syndrome?

In psychology, Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. The FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast.It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.

The following are viewed as the conditions necessary for Stockholm syndrome to occur

1)Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.

2)The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.

3)The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder

4)The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage.

Instances of stockholm syndrome in films

• In the "Bond movie" The World Is Not Enough, James Bond deduces that Elektra King, the female antagonist in the movie is affected by Stockholm Syndrome.

• The term Helsinki syndrome has been used erroneously to describe Stockholm syndrome, popularized by the movie Die Hard

• The story tag of the 2010 Bollywood and Kollywood movie, Raavan or Raavanan is based on Stockholm Syndrome.