Prime Stream
thescian | March 4, 2008When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I was fascinated by dreams. My father had a book on dreams (Interpreting Dreams, or some such title) that was pure psycho-babble but I didn't know that. Even a bad book can fuel our imagination. I played the interpretation game every time I woke up and remembered a dream. Childish hope on the wings of ignorance.
One cold December night, I was sleeping and apparently dreaming of knights and swords. A battle scene and I was in the middle of it. When would a 12 year old be in a battlefield? When he has just watched a historical movie with an impressive…
thescian | February 28, 2008You may have seen the WIRED interview with Psychologist Philip Zimbardo and the mind-numbing pictures of torture linked there. A recent New Scientist interview of Darius Rejali( more, his book) is a necessary read on how torture deeply breaks both the sufferer and the torturer. Part of the NS interview:
Why is torture so hard to control?
Usually the top authorises it and the bottom delivers. Then it's a slippery slope as torturers quickly become less responsive to centralised authority. One reason is competition between interrogators. When policemen track down information, they cooperate. In…
thescian | February 26, 2008Not Exactly Rocket Science. A delicious science blog by science writer Ed Yong, now at Scienceblogs.com.
thescian | February 25, 2008An article in National Geographic about the search that's to begin at LHC for the particle responsible for gravity - a.k.a God particle, god's own glue, etc. Lickable pictures - a NatGeo speciality - to gawk at.
In Our Time podcast on Parallel Universes. I am posting this with my legs in one, head in another and arms in your Universe. Please don't stare, you are collapsing my multiversal wavefunction.
thescian | February 18, 2008An FT article:
Poverty in early childhood poisons the brain, the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston yesterday heard.
Neuroscientists said many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development. That effect is on top of any damage caused by inadequate nutrition and exposure to environmental toxins.
Studies by several US universities have revealed the pervasive harm done to the brain, particularly between the ages of six months and three years, from low socio-…
thescian | February 17, 2008Hitchens in an interview about his book on Mother Teresa.
It's either consciously or subconsciously assumed that a person of the cloth actually has better morals. There's precious little evidence of this; there's a great deal of evidence to the contrary, in fact.
[via reddit]
thescian | February 15, 2008Let it be known that a rational scientific mind will shrink at nothing, including the thought of eating shit.
thescian | February 14, 2008Some tools that you may find useful.
Blogbridge. I have been using this regularly now. If they can get their plugin architecture sorted out to play enclosures, it'll be quite nifty.
Firefox 3 Beta. The latest release is fantastic. Add-ons need to be ported but I am not very big on add-ons. Ars has a review.
Opera. I have been playing with the Widgets. Love this widget.
thescian | February 14, 2008Beebs reports[thanks Ramya] on a council that pandered to a family's delusions to save tax payer money.
A psychic was paid £60 by a council to rid a County Durham home of a "poltergeist" after ghostly goings-on.
...
A council spokesman said it paid half the psychic's fee as it was the most cost-effective solution.
It is a cost effective solution for the council but what about the ghost that is not homeless? Who's gonna care for it now? I must say, Durham county council is full of heartless councilors with noses pressed deep into their budget books.
I read this and needed some exorcism…
thescian | February 13, 2008Barnacles!
Yes, indeed, it's the long flagellating thing in the picture. Watch them have a go at it. [wmv video file]
thescian | February 13, 2008
Beebs reports on a frenchman's successful effort [video] to run a car with compressed air. This is being backed by Tatas. Production is to start in India this year it appears. A TR article that has more details.
thescian | February 12, 2008Why does Darwin matter? It is because he cut through so much chaff with one of the most simple, beautiful and exquisitely sharp ideas. Evolution is Life's greatest and truest legacy and he was its most brilliant student.
Read Dawkins celebrating Darwin on the occasion of Darwin Day.
thescian | January 30, 2008You an atheist? Well, we at MySpace are all retards and don't want around us no smarties who use their own brain to think for themselves. Tuck-in your atheist tail and tow the line or MySpace Monster will eat your balls (follow the link to read points 7 and 8, that's how we feast on you, and make YOU enjoy the experience). If you protest we will make you friendless and throw you out into the big bad world where you may go on to become smarter and feel sorry for having balls. [via richarddawkins.net]
thescian | January 29, 2008A poignant, sensitive performance by Antony Sher as Primo Levi. On BBC 4. You can watch it in iPlayer if you live in the UK.
thescian | January 25, 2008Nicholas Carr has an insightful post that points to a fascinating study of online user behavior while they are looking for information and researching some subject, done by British Library (the research study, 35 pages PDF, well organized and well worth your time).
...In one sense, the process of information retrieval seems to have become more important than the information retrieved. We store lots of information, but like distracted squirrels we rarely go back to examine it in depth. We want more acorns.
The authors note that this kind of behavior is not restricted to the young. It…
thescian | January 22, 2008JoVE: Journal of Visualized Experiments, an online video-publication for biological research.
schlolarZ.blog, a new blog by a group of young scientists at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany.
thescian | January 22, 2008I was at the hospital the other day for our daughter's vaccination. On a TV mounted on the wall, a lady in white lab coat was explaining how massaging the baby increases skin tone (it doesn't). Being a new parent, I was paying careful attention to gather useful information and there seemed to be some of it forthcoming from the TV.
Immediately after lady peddling the baby oil went away, this appeared on the screen: Did you know that Sharks do not get any disease because they have a perfect immune system? What? I was taken aback by this enthusiastic display of stupidity for wider public…