thescian
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July 17, 2007
My problems all started with my early education. I went to a school for mentally disturbed teachers. -Woody Allen
We don't know why we laugh. But we do know this: before we laugh truthfully there is a flash in the mind, a flash which tells us undeniably that we really get it.
July 16, 2007
The July issue of the newsletter that I write to keep you informed of The Scientific Indian website is out today. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe and also read the previous issues at TheScian.com.
The number of visitors to TheScian.com has grown steadily the past one month. More…
July 16, 2007
Beebs reports of the recent case here in the UK. A school girl joins a chastity club and wears a ring that marks her chastity to school. School asks her not to be so snotty and chastizes (oh, sweet pun) her.
Lydia Playfoot was told by Millais School in Horsham, West Sussex, to remove her ring -…
July 13, 2007
What a horrible farce.
The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in southern India in an apparent attempt to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon.
The last thing a patient needs is a juvenile doctor…
July 12, 2007
People live in places, like Namakkal and Amersham. Amersham is a place named after a heap of stones. Namakkal is also a place named after a stone, but a stone is not a place. A stone is something stuck in a place because it has no legs. People have legs. That's why they move about to many places. I…
July 11, 2007
Marcus Du Sautoy is making a series for the Beebs on India's contributions to Math [thanks Ramya]. You've probably heard the popular regurgitation popular among Indians: 'India invented zero'. Do you know why and when? [In Our Time] Apparently, the concept of zero owes much to the ancient Indian…
July 10, 2007
Did life start from simple chemical reactions? What is the nature of Life? I was reading about these questions in an excellent summary of the current ideas at Scientific Curiosity blog.
I bought a book many years ago and still haven't managed to finish it: Investigations by Kauffman. Nevertheless…
July 9, 2007
The first copy of my subscription to New Humanist has arrived. A few articles of interest.
Meera Nanda's review of Holy Warriors: A journey into the heart of Indian fundamentalism.
A C Grayling is in no charitable mood as he gives one Mr John Gray a good beating for being an apologist for religion…
July 9, 2007
Shit, when suffocated (anaerobic decomposition), produces methane that can be used as fuel to power engines. The catchall name for this is biogas. Biogas projects have a history in India. As a child, I remember checking out a neighbor's plant in my parents' village. All the cow crap would be fed…
July 9, 2007
I don't understand anything about ballet. All I know is that during the intervals the ballerinas stink like horses.-Anton Chekhov
July 5, 2007
How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart, NY Times
At Costco, one of Mr. Sinegal's[CEO of Costco] cardinal rules is that no branded item can be marked up by more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more than 15 percent. In contrast, supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent, and…
July 5, 2007
Science Fiction Writers of the world! Unite, and invade Nature! Nature earlier had (I didn't know, I don't have access to the journals) a science fiction feature called Futures and now it's back again.
Futures is the award-winning science-fiction section of Nature. Contributions are usually…
July 4, 2007
Imagine this: Tie a thread around the earth's equator. Then, say, you let the thread out by 2*Pi metres (Pi=Ï, the mathematical constant) to make a thread circle that stands slightly above the earth's equator. Now, how far above the surface of the equator will the thread stand? In other words,…
July 4, 2007
I was checking site stats for thescian.com. Apparently, when a hopeful youngman searches for "get an erection with my mind", google leads him to the Crawling On the Clayball essay!
Please hang on a moment while I awkwardly roll on the tiny doormat laughing.
The youngman should perhaps try the new…
July 3, 2007
The review is here [Guardian]. I have read Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth twice so far: once in school and then again while doing my undergraduation. It had a great influence on me during my younger years and I still owe much to the book for showing what passion and commitment to one's belief…
July 3, 2007
Are we a sane civilization or not, asks Science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson in a WIRED interview about his new ecological trilogy.
I'm hoping the scientific community continues to go off like a fire alarm in a hotel, just as they have for the last five years, and that that will do the…
July 2, 2007
After a few signalling incidents (yelling, screaming, and other fun things), I've ordered the book for folks at home. As for myself, I use common sense, pieces of paper, calendar application, and stochastic efficiency to organize my daily affairs. [Stochastic efficiency? Make a list of tasks - the…
June 29, 2007
Catching up on readings I had saved up.
Edge essay. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE RESIST SCIENCE? By Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg
Pankaj Mishra's review of The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future by Martha C. Nussbaum.
Battle of the book reviews. Book review on a blog?…
June 28, 2007
The news is this: rich chinese men flagellate on animal penis to soften the blows of midlife crisis. Some time back there was another news about an abandoned boat near a big chinese city that was full of rare animals, starving and at the verge of dying. The newly minted rich in the land of…
June 28, 2007
The Machine Stops is a short story by E M Forster, which he wrote as a reaction to one of H G Wells's optimistic stories. I have read through part of the story and I must confess I find the vocabulary outdated, but that should not surprise anyone, since all science fiction stories run that risk.…
June 26, 2007
Scientific American July Issue.
In other news, Nature has started Scintilla, a service that keeps you up to date on papers, news and science weblogs. You can also rate and recommend things. You'll have to register to do anything and you can't have a RSS feed (What!! My browser doesn't run on free…
June 26, 2007
Intelligent Religion is Religion. This isn't news. The news is: UK Government has said so, shoving witless non-science like Intelligent Design and Creationism back into the holes they came from.
"The Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to…
June 25, 2007
What are we going to do with the stupid? Assuming, of course, that you and me are not stupid. A contentious and explosive question in its political and moral implications. A New Scientist opinion piece:
They are the individuals who lie at the bottom of the normal range of human intelligence. I'm…
June 25, 2007
Is NHS (UK's National Health Service) turning into a wonderland? Magical magnets have been approved to screw the desperate - poor and elderly, usually, the ones who need proper treatment and not some wacko prescription.
The accountants at the Prescription Pricing Authority have decided that the…
June 24, 2007
Driving in India is a unique and beguiling experience. There are many lessons to learn, and in the end of it all, you will attain Nirvana, the quintessential Indian state of non-being.
Roads in and around Bangalore are like earth's oceans during the Cambrian period; an explosion of unpredictable…
June 22, 2007
Ladies and gentlemen, no need for any introductions.
[via reddit]
Senile Age, I abhor thee. Sensible Youth, I adore thee. Here is a young student who shows the idiocy of a priest who is unaware that the pulpit reeks.
Long time ago I lived in Boulder. I was new to the country and was channel…
June 21, 2007
Lawence Lessig has annouced his decision to shift his focus from IP related issues to solving the problem of Corruption for the next ten years. Bravo! He defines corruption thus:
"Corruption" ... the subtle pressure to take views or positions because of the financial reward they will bring you.…
June 20, 2007
India, it is, informs beebs. The condom ring, powered by a small battery, vibrates apparently. As expected, the moral police would have no vibrations anywhere near their genital regions and are protesting at this atrocity.
Given the number of AIDS cases in India (around 5 million, official figures…
June 20, 2007
Scientific Curiosity is a science blog that I chanced upon via India Blogs 1.0. As always I started looking through the posts to find one that had science and sex in it (Don't look at me like that. Isn't sexy posts the reason why you read my blog?). And, sure, I found one: Haig hypothesis.
it…