thescian | August 22, 2007Don Pedro: You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter.
Leonato: Her mother hath many times told me so.
Benedick: Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?
-From Much Ado About Nothing
My first encounter with Shakespeare was in school at the age of 13. We had the play Julius Caesar for our english course (not summaries, the original work). Julius Caesar in all its english glory was a play that was next to incomprehensible - both in words and historical details - for us not-so-literary children of Jolarpettai. Jolarpettai is a town that grew around a large railway…
thescian | August 21, 2007New Scientist reports on a study that indicates paedophiles may have less grey matter. The legal implications are enormous. What if a court finds such anomalies in brain as admissible for a plea?
You can run away but you can't forget. MIT Technology Review on How Ads Affect Our Memory
Physicist Freeman Dyson asks young people to be heretic. He shows how by saying: "...all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated".
thescian | August 21, 2007 The second part of Enemies of Reason, the two part series hosted by Dawkins, aired yesterday night here in the UK. At some point, Deepak Chopra, the quantum quack, was interviewed by Dawkins. Mr Chopra said the word quantum is used as a metaphor in alternative therapies, and then - to the eternal surprise of reason - claimed scientists have hijacked the word. Scientists have hijacked the word quantum? Right, all ur quantum belong to me, said the LOLcat. Dawkins barely controlled himself from exploding. I don't think he would want to interview Chopra again.
Note on first part here. What's a…
thescian | August 20, 2007I've been reading a bit of european history (because science is too exciting and I needed a history break) and waded into the time of french revolution (1789) and what the british were upto at that time. In the last decades of eighteenth century, continental europe was pre-occupied with social revolution. But, the nearby islanders wouldn't have any of it. Instead, they had their industrial revolution going strong (fabulously supported by capital plundered from India, see).
Image from here (Image 23)
By semi-random googling, I found a historically interesting caricature (above) by James…
thescian | August 16, 2007A discussion at reddit. Is it ethical to block online ads using your brower? My personal opinion: Hell, yes. I don't block Google Ads and I don't block flash ads at many sites where ads are relevant and show some taste. Site owners and advertisers who invoke guilt ethics could do better.
thescian | August 15, 2007There were reports earlier in the media (BBC, for instance) that Chernobyl has become an oasis for wildlife running away from humans.
Well, it seems someone was too optimistic. The media (BBC again) now reports that Chernobyl is no haven for nothing.
thescian | August 15, 2007But, why should an adult digest milk? This and many other evolutionary hilarities in this debate on Complexity and Evolution. Featuring Richard Dawkins, Steve Jones, Lewis Wolpert.
thescian | August 14, 2007Salil Tripati compares the two uneasy neighbors who began self-rule at the same time 60 years ago, in an IHT article:
One could argue Pakistan had little choice, once it had chosen to be a theocracy. The more Pakistani society modernized, the more its people sought freedom, the more Pakistan would begin to look like India. But being like India was not the point of the Partition: The point was to create a home for the subcontinent's Muslims, who were presumably unsafe in India. But while India has a shameful record of riots in which many Muslims have died, and many Muslims lead lives of utter…
thescian | August 13, 2007 Enemies of Reason is a two part series presented by Dawkins on Channel 4. The first part was broadcast yesterday. I missed the first half hour but did watch later half.
As always, Dawkins is passionate and eloquent in identifying and rallying against the enemies of reason. He takes us into the twisted superstition of dowsing: it is where people allegedly find water, gems, etc with sticks (if it works at all, they should first look for their brains, ahem). A double blind experiment is shown where the stick-men and stick-women go nuts on TV. The psychologist who conducted the study thinks…
thescian | August 13, 2007 In Japan, robots are going to save that last dance. They would be used to store and replay dance moves of Japanese folk routine called the Aizu-Bandaisan, sez New Scientist. Oh, joy. The video (link below) where the Dance Librarian Robot HRP-2 "Promet" dances is fascinating to watch. It's like some sort of new-age thing for robots seeking zen.
Video [mpg]
thescian | August 9, 2007Via Rationalist International
Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen [was attached] today by the radical political outfit Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM) at the Hyderabad Press Club. She was releasing the Telegu translation of her book "Shodd"...
MIM activists, led by three state Legislative Council members (MLAs), raised slogans against Taslima and flung bouquets and chairs at her and others attending the function. However, no injuries have been reported so far.
MIM leader Akhtar Khan, an MLA, said: "She is enemy of Islam, she is a black spot on Muslims.. We cannot bear anyone talking against…
thescian | August 9, 2007We need to reach an accommodation with uncertainty. Not only is the universe uncertain, but so too is human knowledge. Science as a process should never have fostered any illusions about this: it was always about provisional truths - and knew it. Perhaps it's time for us to finally accept that we shouldn't believe in science because we think it's certain, but precisely because it's not.
Certainty is totalitarian. It forecloses further thinking. Not one of the theories devised by Newton, Darwin, Einstein or Planck is certain and perfect. Powerful and beautiful they undoubtedly are, but they…
thescian | August 8, 2007News in IHT
A teenage boy carrying a severed head walked into a Japanese police station Tuesday saying he killed his mother, the latest in a series of grisly dismemberments that have horrified a nation renowned for its low crime rate.
The 17-year-old suspect led officers to his house in northern Fukushima prefecture (state) and pointed out his headless mother on her futon mattress, with a frank, "It's in here," Kyodo News reported.
While Hikikomori (hermetic individuals) have been a problem for years in Japan ( See this old guardian article), this level of remorseless pathological violence…
thescian | August 8, 2007Baiji, the Yangtzse River dolphin, is now extinct after having lived in the Yangtzse river for the past 20 million years.
In the 1950s several thousand baiji, as the dolphins are known in Chinese, were thought to swim in the Yangtze. The last authenticated record was in 2001. By the end of 2006, an expedition by the team triggered reports that the creature was functionally extinct, suggesting only one or two individuals at most survived. Now the team concludes it is probably extinct.
Dr Turvey said: "The primary factor responsible for the baiji's extinction was probably unsustainable by-…
thescian | August 7, 2007You have been up early and are at your desk, your brows are tangled in deep concentration, you squeeze your eyes for a moment, and voila! A dream-breaking thought! You punch the computer keys quickly and catch the thought into your electronic potter's wheel to sculpt it into a work of art.
Do continue. There's still a few more weeks to polish your story before you send it off to TheScian Science Fiction Short Story Contest 2007.
A related note on an interesting book: The World Without Us. Reviews at Salon, Washington Post. I haven't read it. But would certainly like to once I finish Snow…
thescian | August 7, 2007Beebs reports that you can now drink many a cuppa joes to stay sharp as you age.
"French researchers compared women aged 65 and older who drank more than three cups of coffee per day with those who drank one cup or less per day.
Those who drank more caffeine showed less decline in memory tests over a four year period.
The study, published in the journal Neurology, raises the possibility that caffeine may even protect against the development of dementia.
The results held up even after factors such as education, high blood pressure and disease were taken into account. "
What joyous moments you…
thescian | August 6, 2007An NDTV report on confinement compounds for mentally ill people. Another instance where the financial buden, social stigma and scientific illiteracy leads to vulnerable people being incarcerated.