Continuous Productivity

And Yet Again, Out of the Movies

Police on the Greek island of Santorini have shot and injured a knifeman who decapitated his girlfriend and walked around the streets with her head.

This is the second decapitation crime reported in less than a week.

Yes, You Can be a Hindu and a Muslim

A very interesting profile of a Rajasthani community that is, essentially, both Hindu and Muslim:

They are people with a mixed Hindu-Muslim identity. And left alone, that is how they would like to be.

Deepa, 60, has a Hindu name but he thinks he is a Muslim because he follows Muslim practices.

"In my family, we celebrate Hindu festivals such as Holi and Diwali. But we also offer namaz (prayers) at (the Muslim festival of) Eid. We worship both local gods and Allah. This has been a tradition in my family. I do not know whether my ancestors were Hindus or Muslims."

Another Mehrat member is Mahendra Singh who has a Hindu name.

"We don't care about being Hindu or Muslim. It is sheer politics," he says.

Barely, 15km (9 miles) from Byawar town, Rasool runs a tea shop. He says his great grandparents were Hindus. But somewhere along the line, they became Muslims.

"It wasn't such a big deal to be Hindu or Muslim," says Rasool. His son Shankar is named after a Hindu god but he says they consider themselves Muslims.

India, I believe, is at the forefront of these hybrid religions due to its history and general tolerance.

As an Indian-American, I have many Indian friends that are Hindu, Muslim, and Christian. It's always striking to go to weddings, or baptisms, or other events and notice the similarities in food, rituals, interactions, etc no matter the religion of the people hosting the event.

Perhaps, I'm biased, but I think it's a testament to India holding on to its culture and heritage above religious boundaries.

The Various Forms of Civilization

One of the more fascinating articles that I have read recently reminded me that there are still numerous "indigenous" tribes that don't quite live a life like ours:

The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Acre region.

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera.

Check out the pictures!

Roger Clemens and Teenagers

The more we learn about Roger Clemens, the more we realize how much of a lowlife he is:

Roger Clemens carried on a decade-long affair with country star Mindy McCready, a romance that began when McCready was a 15-year-old aspiring singer performing in a karaoke bar and Clemens was a 28-year-old Red Sox ace and married father of two, several sources have told the Daily News.

Roger Clemens has some serious delusional issues about his infallibility. He is clearly grasping at straws instead of letting this situation just go away. He has made a fool of himself, has opened himself up to perjury charges, and now:

"The issue in Roger's suit against McNamee is Roger's reputation and how it has been damaged," said Richard Emery, one of McNamee's lawyers who is handling the defamation suit. "If it's proved that he's a philanderer, his reputation is already damaged. When you sue for defamation, you put your whole reputation in the community at issue. Anything is fair game, including his claim of sanctimonious purity. We would cross-examine him and other witnesses who might impact on his alleged behavior. We would probably subpoena her and witnesses who knew [of the relationship]. He's a 'family man' - he implies that. It's about what his damages are. All is fair game."

What Causes Divorce?

A nice synopsis of the root causes of divorce at EconLog.  I found the following most interesting, but you should head over and check out the entire post:

3.  Defection due to expected divergence in mate value. As evolutionary psychologists will tell you, female mate value peaks and starts to decline at a much earlier age than male mate value: It's a lot easier for a 45-year-old man to remarry than a 45-year-old woman. This creates a big incentive for men to promise lifetime fidelity, then jump ship.

4.  Defection due to unexpected non-culpable divergence in mate value. Remember the part of the contract that says "for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health"? When one partner experiences an unexpected rise in mate value (e.g. one becomes a successful novelist) or experiences an unexpected fall (e.g. develops a horrible disease), one of the parties has a temptation to back out - and some do.

6.  Punishment for unexpected and culpable decline in mate value - or in plain English, "You let yourself go!" The marriage contract may not explicitly say that you can't become a bum or morbidly obese or perpetually bitter. But you've heard about incomplete contracts, right? When one party falls far short of expected mate value due to deliberate action or inaction, divorce is not only likely, but easy for neutral outside observers to understand.

I especially like the incentive/economics angle in the above root causes.

Don't Be Cheap

According to E'temad, the woman, identified as Hengameh, decided to claim her entire dowry of 124,000 red roses after 10 years of marriage to "punish her very stingy husband".

"Shortly after marriage, I realised that Shahin was very cheap," she told the newspaper. "He even refused to pay for my coffee if we went to a cafe or restaurant."

An amusing article forwarded  by a loyal reader.  You know what they say about a woman scorned- she'll get her roses.

Honey Trapping

Interesting Reuters article on the field of "honey trapping":

Martinez is a "honey trapper" -- or as he likes to call himself, an "integrity tester" -- one of a growing team of private detectives who are hired by wives, husbands or partners to test the loyalty of their loved ones.

The private detective agencies are hired when a spouse or significant other suspects a partner of cheating.  The idea is to use "honey trappers" to test the person and see if he/she will succumb to temptation.  But, there is etiquette even within the "honey trapping" industry:

And Martinez has "rules of engagement": The target must not be drunk, there must be no touching, and the relative attractiveness of the trapper to the target must be equal.

"It's got to be a fair test," he explains. "So we make sure that we don't set a very attractive honey trapper on a not so attractive target, and vice versa."

Online Dating Problems

While cleaning out my inbox, I found an interesting WSJ article about people now stealing entire online identities:

A search on MySpace.com brought up more than 700 recent comments that accuse others of stealing headlines, user names, songs, background designs and entire profiles. In a recent survey of more than 400 online daters commissioned by Engage.com, 9% of respondents said they copied from another person's profile; 15% suspect their own words were stolen.