The Scientific Indian
Archives for September, 2008
Peter Norvig on his Obama endorsement
Posted by Selva on September 30, 2008 Comprehensive and absolutely rational. If everyone can make decisions this way…
Temple Stampede in India
Posted by Selva on September 30, 2008 Today. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city of Jodhpur. Previous stampedes. August 3. 140 dead. 40 children. Stampede at the Nainadevi temple, Himachal Pradesh. July. 6 dead. Stampede at Jagannath temple, Orissa. March. 10 dead. Stampede at temple, Madhya Pradesh. January. 5 dead. Stampede at Durga Malleswara temple, Andra Pradesh.
Oppenheimer’s demons
Posted by Selva on September 29, 2008 Held a hefty book today that warrants a blog post. The book is American Prometheus, The triumph and tragedy of Robert J. Oppenheimer. I referred to this book to check on a certain event in Oppenheimers life. It is this: Oppenheimer, at one time, left a poisoned apple for his tutor Blackett at Cambridge (Blackett…
TheScian Scifi Contest: Last few days!
Posted by Selva on September 24, 2008 Send them in. I’ll start reading them from this weekend. For some of the stories with good ideas whose execution can be bettered, I hope to ask the authors for revisions. Btw, we will look through the past two years stories, not just this year’s contest submissions. Over the two years I have improved my…
Misuse of science in Bombay trials
Posted by Selva on September 23, 2008 A C Grayling in his regular column in New Scientist questions the use of Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (it’s like polygraph, for the brain) in a criminal case in Bombay where life sentences were given to accused based on Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) reports from forensic labs. I choose the following words carefully: the…
Anal Evolution
Posted by Selva on September 18, 2008 No, no. This isn’t from the tasteless blurb on the cover of a Creationist book. This is about research on the evolution of anus published at Nature Magazine. “The very simple question is how to get from one opening to two,” says Detlev Arendt, a researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.…
Big Bang, a variation
Posted by Selva on September 17, 2008 Folks, this an experimental post (for me, that is). It is slightly incoherent. Written in five minutes. No corrections made. My typing hands decide not to pause. Enjoy if you can get through the muddle. Big Bang, a variation I watched Brian Cox present an excellent BBC TV programme on the LHC (on iPlayer, UK…
The rhetoric of modern politics
Posted by Selva on September 16, 2008 I found the below from historian and writer Ramachandra Guha’s book India After Gandhi to be of interest given the current US election campaign (Note that Mr Guha was talking within the context of Partition). “The world over, the rhetoric of modern democratic politics has been marked by two rather opposed rhetorical styles. The first…
ScienceBlogs One Millionth Comment Party in London
Posted by Selva on September 12, 2008 We are close! You could be the one and if you are you will be teleported to NYC for a party with people from other dimensions. It’s time to celebrate the conversations we have had all through these years. Come join us Saturday 20 September in London at Calthorpe Arms, a pub near Russell Square…
Libertarian and Anarchist SF: Reading list
Posted by Selva on September 11, 2008 Saw this at a mailing list [Anarchy-SF]. I would have left out Harry Potter (it’s gratuitous with certain themes: homosexuality, libertarian….). A good list to pick from you are looking for fiction on political sf to read.