kriticulture

Rajesh Sharma Politics is a game of calculated risks. It is at its best when the risks involve putting everything at stake. This is possible only when the future is grasped in a flash, and the way opens for the paradoxical unity of calculation and risk to be realised.             Something of the kind seems to have happened in the political theatre of Punjab. Thanks to this the year 2012 may go down in history as a watershed year when the complexion of politics in the state underwent an extremely significant change. If the change is consolidated – let's hope it will be – Punjab might lead the country to a new politics to which the future belongs.             In a sense, Punjab has proclaimed the triumph of politics over economics. Whatever the sophisticated and well-meaning advocates of the preponderance of economics over politics might have argued over the last two decades,...

The shutdown of library.nu is creating a virtual showdown between would-be learners and the publishing industry. in Share 95 The shutdown of library.nu doesn't bode well for those who wish to learn, but can't afford to pay for textbooks [GALLO/GETTY]  Los Angeles, CA - Last week a website called "library.nu" disappeared. A coalition of international scholarly publishers accused the site of piracy and convinced a judge in Munich to shut it down. Library.nu (formerly Gigapedia) had offered, if the reports are to be believed, between 400,000 and a million digital books for free. And not just any books - not romance novels or the latest best-sellers - but scholarly books: textbooks, secondary treatises, obscure monographs, biographical analyses, technical manuals, collections of cutting-edge research ...