What is a region? Why study regional economics?

Region
A region is a medium scale area of land or water which can be differentiated on the basis of physical, human or functional characteristics.

1. Physical characteristics: This includes factors such as forest, cover, mineral resources, climate etc.
2. Human characteristics: Regions defined on the basis of human characteristics include historical regions, tourism regions, religious regions etc.
3. Functional characteristics: Regions in this category are linked by commuting patterns, trade flows, newspaper circulations, television and radio broadcasts etc.

Why Regional Economics?
As regions differ so do the problems of every region. Regional economics came into existence to enable us to plan in terms of a specific region. The various fields that regional economists enquire into are:

• The determinants of industrial location. (Both within the nation and within the region.)
• The regional economic impact of the arrival or departure of a firm.
• The determinants of internal migration patterns and land use change.
• Regional specialization.
• Environmental impact of social and economic change.
• Geographic association of social and economic conditions.

The notes provided here are far from perfect. Please feel free to use the comments section to inform me about any additions or omissions that you may deem necessary. 
 

Photoshop Magic

Probably the most awesome thing, I've seen a home computer do. An absolute must watch. It also confirms my belief that awe inspiring photography is becoming increasingly common. And photoshop is to be thanked for much of that.

Fake IPL Fans

Today was the last day of our examinations. It was a tiring week for all of us; very little sleep, skipped lunches and  diabolical university exam timings conspired to ensure that we were one day away from dead.

But nobody really wanted to go home and we decided to stay at the college as long as the chowkidar allowed us to. Thats when this acquaintance of ours walks up to us with somebody who can be best described as  a tanned version of Yuvraj Singh. As I don't remember his name, we will stick to calling him Yuvraj. So, Yuvraj  asked whether we were interested in watching the next IPL match at Ahmedabad. He said he would provide us free entry and guaranteed that we would be stationed close to the pavillion. He even offered us free food. The only condition was that  we had to do wear the uniforms that will be provided to us and cheer wildly for the team whose uniform we were sporting. Would've loved to go. Free food + Free cricket is not a combo you can easily beat, but other plans were already made for the day and we had to refuse. We offered him chai and he sat down to talk with us. He later revealed that he had been delegated the task of collecting 50 players: 25 for the Rajasthan Royals and 25 for Chennai. He said he had no clue why the teams were doing this. But then it was good money and he was not the type to bother asking too many questions.

But i still wonder why the teams had to resort to tactics like these. From what I can see on T.V, the IPL seems to be a roaring success. All the stadiums seem to be packed. The only reason i could think of is probably little to no sale of team merchandise. Allegiances have been formed between fans and franchisees but loyalty still has some way to go. So, maybe the organizers feel that people will eventually start buying these uniforms when they get the impression that most people show up at venues wearing these team uniforms. Also notice how the cameramen seem to focus on people who show up in the uniforms. This may be at the behest of the team owners.

Image via Wikipedia

Supersized Quantum Mechanics

I always felt the world of things visible to the naked eye was impervious to the assault on common sense that most of quantum mechanics is. But, no more, the first paragraph of the article says it all:

A team of scientists has succeeded in putting an object large enough to be visible to the naked eye into a mixed quantum state of moving and not moving.

The nature.com article is rather poorly written. Here is a much better version.

Brillliance by Dravid

Maybe this is why he holds the world record for the most number of catches. Also remarkable is the level of athleticism that he shows after almost 15 years in cricket.