Of course, to many of you, Lady Gaga probably comes to mind. I especially enjoyed her line,
I don’t consider myself to be a particularly ethical person, but I am fair
from:
House of Gucci is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott, based on the 2001 book The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed by Sara Gay Forden. The film earned a nomination at the 94th Academy Awards for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It has grossed over $153 million against a $75 million budget.
I also like her song Shallow from:
A Star Is Born is a 2018 American musical romantic drama film produced and directed by Bradley Cooper (in his directorial debut). The film received eight nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, among them Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), Best Actress (Gaga) and Best Supporting Actor (Elliott); it won Best Original Song for “Shallow”. For her acting and soundtrack contributions on A Star Is Born, Gaga became the first woman in history to win an Academy Award, Grammy Award, BAFTA Award and Golden Globe Award in one single year. The film had box office receipts of over $436 million on a budget of $36 million.
Way back, while at IIT-Madras, I had seen the 1976 version (with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson) at OAT, and recall not liking it very much.😏
What folks may not know is that Lady Gaga has cited Radio Ga Ga, the 1984 Queen song, as the inspiration behind her stage name:
I adored Freddie Mercury, and Queen had a hit called Radio Ga Ga. That’s why I love the name.
Growing up, my first Queen song that I heard – and memorized – was Death on Two Legs from A Night at the Opera. It also included:
Bohemian Rhapsody is a 2018 biographical musical drama film that focuses on the life of Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the British rock band Queen, from the formation of the band in 1970 to their 1985 Live Aidperformance at the original Wembley Stadium. Bohemian Rhapsody received numerous accolades, including a leading four wins at the 91st Academy Awards for Best Actor (Malek), Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing; it was also nominated for Best Picture. It had box-office revenues over $910 million (on a budget of about $55 million).
Not at all a surprise – see True Grip (Lucid v Ferrari v McLaren) – that one of my other favorites from that album was I’m in Love with My Car:☺️
The machine of a dream
Such a clean machine
With the pistons a pumpin’
And the hubcaps all gleamI’m in love with my car
Got a feel for my automobile
Get a grip on my boy-racer Rollbar
Such a thrill when your radials squeal
What I am really gaga over is this from Nico Slate (see La Femme Nikki?):
Hello again, Sridhar.
Thank you so much for lunch today. It’s always a pleasure to speak with you.
As I mentioned briefly, we’ve made some progress in planning the first Kedia-Tayur Distinguished Lecture in South Asian American History. The lecture will be on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at noon EST. It will on-line and I am hopeful we will attract a good audience on the East and West coasts as well as in India. The featured speaker is Dr. Seema Sohi, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.
In addition to her talk, Dr. Sohi will also be writing a short essay that will be published on the SAADA website.
I’m absolutely delighted to have Seema onboard to give this first lecture, and am very grateful to you for providing the necessary funding.
And now, finally, to Quantum.
As you know from Q-HOPE, I was an invited (by Konstantinos Nikolopoulos and Aris Syntetos) keynote speaker last Saturday (sadly, there was an earthquake in Morocco just a few hours earlier) – along with Dilek Onkal, Nezih Altay, Emel Aktas and Sridhar Seshadri – for the mini-conference:
Responding to Major Disasters: decision informed from the Theory and Practice of Operations/(al) Research
where I presented:
Q-HOPE: Quantum-inspired algorithm for Humanitarian Operations.
This work is in collaboration with Koc University faculty (Sibel Salman and Baris Yildiz) and students (Amirreza Pashapour, Ayşe Duman); CMU group includes Ananth Tenneti and Anthony Karahalios.
A major methodological innovation in our work is the algorithm (see GAMA: A Quantum Inspired Classical Algorithm)
GAGA: Bi-level GAMA inside GAMA
that, in our initial numerical testing, is performing really, really well on the problem of Optimizing First Responder Routes, a fundamental problem in Disaster Management, that jointly optimizes for First Responders (FR) and Supplies to get to damaged sites and people that need help in a timely manner while also allowing others who are mobile to evacuate safely and swiftly, an example when:
preparation meets response.
Indeed, this topic is so important – and real – that the Turkish Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure announced (on August 26, 2023) that:
evacuation plans for a potential Istanbul earthquake have been prepared, and they are conducting reinforcement work, particularly on bridges connecting the two sides of the city.
Our goal is to provide decision support (and what-if analysis) to several such initiatives not just in Turkey, but anywhere in the world. To me, this is another of my Academic Philanthropist (see The Art (and Craft) of OM) initiatives in the area of Public Sector Operations Research.
