The Scientific Indian
Archives for February, 2009
Do gods have arseholes?
Posted by Selva on February 24, 2009 What a tasteless and offensive question, you think. Let me correct that misunderstanding. Don’t look upon arseholes as second-class organs. If you did not have one, you’ll be full of shit. If gods don’t have the hole, boy, then they surely have accumulated all the crap since the beginning of time. If they do have…
Synchronicity and Seven Samurai
Posted by Selva on February 17, 2009 Swarm of flies on the left. source In Seven Samurai – one of the greatest movie of all times, there is a scene where the hired Samurai gather the villagers to instruct them on defending their village. A jittery villager runs away from the crowd and is brought back by Kambei, the aging samurai, who…
Amazon Kindle 2
Posted by Selva on February 9, 2009 The newer model is out. The beginning of the end of paper books? Maybe. Paper books will be around, but devices like Kindle are certain to change the rules of the game. Gone are the days when we can argue that paper books are superior to electronic reading devices because they are portable, don’t need…
Death and John Updike
Posted by Selva on February 3, 2009 It made a deep impression in me to listen to Updike talk about the countless stars and galaxies and our cosmic insignificance in an old interview recording (one of the rare few) given to Eleanor Wachtel who hosts Writers & Company. Ian McEwan writes in the guardian: This most Lutheran of writers, driven by intellectual…
Is there a limit to human memory?
Posted by Selva on February 2, 2009 There is and there isn’t. The case for there is would go like this: let’s say, our brain can store 1000 doodles in each cell and a further 5000 doodles in each distinct connection (that is, the wiring itself as information). If we consider all the permutations and combination of cells and wiring, we get…