I caught the gardening bug when I helped tend the family vegetable garden during my early teenage years. The bug never left me; for the past 20 years, I have enjoyed cultivating a 350-square-foot vegetable patch. Vegetable gardening has for long had an uncool image. However, topical issues such as sustainability, climate change, and organic […]
Isolate Russia at Your Peril
Many of us have a favorable perception of Russian vodka. And of Swiss chocolates, French wines, and the like. We often believe some specific product (vodka) is likely of good quality if it originates from a particular country (Russia). We also hold broad-based country-of-origin quality beliefs. For instance, I respond very favorably to “Made in […]
Kashmir Conflict: An Indian Perspective
This post is a follow-up to https://tikoo-talk.com/an-overview-of-the-Kashmir-conflict/. Here, I will engage in a cost-based discussion of the Kashmir conflict. What costs have India and Pakistan incurred? Both countries have incurred high per capita defense expenditures and comparable costs fighting multiple wars. Pakistan’s direct cost of sponsoring insurgency in Kashmir is modest compared with India’s enormous […]