July 3, 2009
Category: Prime Stream
Listened to an interview at All In the Mind[link corrected] with David Eagleman, Neuroscientist, novelist.
David Eagleman: ...if I were to take a piano and I were to hit the high note and then I would hit the low note and I would ask you which one is brighter,what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: I would say the high note.
David Eagleman: Right, and if I asked you which one is bigger what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: The low note, weirdly enough.
David Eagleman: Yeah, right. Well it turns out everybody does that, it turns out everybody gives the same answer to that, which is really hilarious because there's no reason why auditory sound should map on to brightness or size, but it does, in all brains. And so this is the sense in which we all have this cross-talk going on in our brains that links different parts.
Clearly, synesthetic experience falls over a spectrum, from those who are intensely synesthetic to those who have a mild experience that cannot be differentiated from metaphorical mapping of experience: like mine when I listen to Bach. The music elevates me, literally. If I close my eyes, I start to fly over a landscape of colors that starts with a endless green field of waving paddy. This is repeatable. I am still not sure if I simply made up that metaphor once and stuck to it because it was enjoyable or if this is some sort of weird synesthesia. There are more than hundred kinds of synethesia documented so far, so I wouldn't be surprised.
Posted by Selva at 10:40 AM • 3 Comments
June 23, 2009
Category: Prime Stream
The French president has spoken in favor of Legislation against women wearing burka in public recently. I agree with the assessment that burka is a symbol of servitude. When women wear it for cultural and religious reasons, they are, as Sarkozy says, prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.
But, what if some women like to wear burka for reasons they choose independantly for themselves? Replace Burka with Hoodies or some other striking dress code and you'll see what I mean. Why should their act be banned in public, just because the majority does not like it? This is a slippery slope. To state the obvious, freedom is never given, it is taken. The useful thing a government can do is to enable and support it's citizens to take that freedom. Confrontational measures like banning could end up hurting the women in the end, is it not?
Posted by Selva at 5:05 AM • 18 Comments
June 22, 2009
Category: Creative commons • DesiPundit
This year's contest announcement is up at TheScian.com. Get going. There are three prizes and a book deal up for grabs.
With the selected stories of this year, we'll have a fantastic collection of stories for our first book. Four years in the making! Thanks to all the participants and readers.
While you are tender with good intentions, can I snag you for a little survey so we know what's in store for TheScian Stories Book? Click here to take it (opens in a pop-up window) or use the direct link.
Posted by Selva at 5:34 AM • 0 Comments
June 21, 2009
Category: Creative commons
With my daughter at a nearby park. To fatherhood, to memories. Warm wishes from one father to others.
Posted by Selva at 4:03 PM • 0 Comments
June 20, 2009
June 17, 2009
Category: Creative commons • DesiPundit
I am sitting at the window seat of the Alitalia flight. It is flying over the Italian alps near Milan, few minutes away from landing. The sun is setting behind the alps creating a vast dynamic art that sweeps slowly across as the aircraft moves over the mountains; a small house besides a stream in the valley beneath, clouds resting halfway up the mountains. And, this is just in the tiny bit of earth and sky that I happened to pass through. Spectacular, sublime, artistic beyond human comprehension.
What is Art? Can art be for itself, without a context, without a witness? Universe as an enigmatic art: the Great Riddle; the greatest of art - always incomprehensible, challenging us forever to raise above ourselves in order to perceive it more fully, in order to participate in it.
Posted by Selva at 10:33 AM • 1 Comments
June 11, 2009
Category: Creative commons
Here.
Posted by Selva at 2:06 AM • 0 Comments
June 9, 2009
Category: Prime Stream
The human brain is easily bored (yes, even amidst sex) that there are many happily married couple who would forgo sex and instead watch a comedy show. The operative word to remedy the situation is, of course, Variation. Here is an interesting read on this subject, especially the comments, at NY Times.
Posted by Selva at 9:52 AM • 2 Comments
Category: DesiPundit • Prime Stream
Comprehensive review of the state of affairs at New Scientist. Surprisingly, the biological mechanism and the reason (or lack of it) for this is still not well known. My last conversation about this was about 12 years ago with a medical student friend of mine in college who obsessed over female ejaculation (he went on to win the top rank at his university, so, I guess it was a healthy obsession). Nothing much has been added to our understanding in all these years, it seems. Is this the female equivalent of moobs (man-boobs)?
Posted by Selva at 7:39 AM • 0 Comments
June 4, 2009
Category: DesiPundit • Prime Stream
The Red Planet is all over the revamped IEEE Spectrum website. I enjoyed reading Kim Stanley Robinson's 10 Favorite Mars Novels and CMU Team's Google Lunar X Prize efforts. There is an interview with Madhavan Nair, head of ISRO, podcasts by astronauts and more. Hop over to Why Mars? Why Now?
Posted by Selva at 2:29 AM • 0 Comments
I am working on some very smart things to say here. Really. Meanwhile, there's 
