The Scientific Indian

Free Dr Binayak Sen

Category: Prime Stream

A related BBC article.

Posted by Selva at 11:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Children in India and rising global food prices

Category: Prime Stream

A BBC report:

According to Unicef's latest State of the World's Children's report, India has the worst indicators of child malnutrition in South Asia: 48% of under fives in India are stunted, compared to 43% in Bangladesh and 37% in Pakistan.

Meanwhile 30% of babies in India are born underweight, compared to 22% in Bangladesh and 19% in Pakistan. Unicef calculates that 40% of all underweight babies in the world are Indian.

Put all that in hard numbers and the figures are stark. Fifty million Indian under fives are affected by malnutrition. Rising food prices, Unicef says mean 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India alone could end up malnourished.

Posted by Selva at 4:07 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

The intoxicated brain

Category: Prime Stream

The intoxicated brain knows no fear. Apparently, that's why people loosen-up when drunk and will happily talk to fearsome strangers. That's funny, 'coz someone I know will go completely quiet when drunk and will simply stare at you like you are a wall of abstract painting if you talk to him. I am wondering why..

Posted by Selva at 5:18 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

This year's Scifi Contest

Category: Creative commons

I've received a couple of emails from folks who wanted to know when this year's contest would be announced. Shortly, folks. Meanwhile, get going with your story. If I may, I'd suggest mulling over the story idea, setting, characters, tone, etc obsessively and making notes before you actually begin to write the story. Try and get hold of Writing Fiction by Alan Wall and give it your undivided attention for a few days. The rules this year would be pretty much the same as before.

There will be an exciting new addition to what we'll do with this year's (and past year's stories) - besides publishing them online at TheScian.com. More later.

Posted by Selva at 4:41 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Note to the so-called Intelligent Designer

Category: Creative commons

The divine architect of runny noses,
The wizard of ooze, of two stinky hoses,
You made every man woman a misfit
With appendages and stomach full of shit.

Sexy theater in a messy sewer,
Shame on you unintelligent designer!
Harris, Hitchens, PZ, Dennett and Dawkins:
May their godless fists land where your chin is.

Old man Paley walking by a heath found,
A perfectly wrought Timepiece on the ground.
Inside his skull god's bell went a'ringing,
A wonderful spell! Paley went a'singing.

Dear Mr Paley? Truth by rhetoric?
When there is good science and proper logic?
Teleology is warm and quite fuzzy
But, surely, it's for minds lazy and lousy.

Acknowledgements:
Endless supply of early morning sneezes -
Thank you very much, Rhinoviruses.
Dennett, Dawkins, Hitchens and Sam Harris:
Them and others, also our appendix.
Lastly, the mammalian vagina:
What will we do without Pharyngula.
-Selva, 10 May, 2008.

There. Had to write it after many years of silent suffering against the cold virus. A better formatted version along with linked acknowledgements at TheScian.com. If you are a prosodic dude, you may scan the rhyming couplets as iambic pentameter (mostly).

The poem was read by yours truly last weekend when he had rhinoviruses (or, is it rhinovirii?) oozing out of all his pores. Brave souls can try listening to the audio version.

Enjoy.

Posted by Selva at 11:01 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Burma

Category: Prime Stream

Donate what you can. Save the Children. Red Cross. The death toll may have crossed 100000.

Posted by Selva at 6:04 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Larry Page on how to change the world

Category: Creative commons

at Fortune Magazine. [via yc.news]

Posted by Selva at 12:21 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

What OLPC now needs

Category: Creative commons

is a good dose of the idealism that started it. And, it has now got it in full measure! As most of the readers know, I am enthusiastic about the OLPC (and have obtained one via G1G1). Slapping Windows on it may make it more useful in the short term (every business quarter), in the long run though (years and years) it would probably kill it and leave thousands of students with a tool that pushes the wrong kind of learning down their throats.

Posted by Selva at 5:19 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks

Global food crisis

Category: Prime Stream

Speigel Online. Check this graphic.

Posted by Selva at 9:26 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks