The Scientific Indian
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There comes a time when
Posted by Selva on October 7, 2010 Man can only have a certain quantity of hair, teeth and ideas. There comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, his hair and his ideas. -Voltaire.
Greatness at 28 billion pixels
Posted by Selva on October 4, 2010 Real High Definition as it is called [link]. Allows you to see Leonardo da Vinci’s genius at close range. At this range the canvas appears to be quite like human skin–the colors, shadows and cracks on the canvas, extraordinary. Looking at this, I had one of those moments inside my head when the separation between…
Ayodhya: As long as everyone is mildly dissatisfied
Posted by Selva on September 30, 2010 In cases of unclear legal grounds, a proper court judgement is one that leaves all parties mildly dissatisfied. The Ayodhya verdict may be one such judgement and that is a good thing.
The use of ‘like’ as filter while speaking
Posted by Selva on September 29, 2010 There much ado about like at Beebs after actress Thompson was, like, very upset by, like, words and such. This comment by a reader named Colin was very clever. Comparing “like” to “um” and “ah” as a filler/thought pause is okay, but there’s one major difference. The listener can easily filter out the “um” and…
The Pope visits UK
Posted by Selva on September 16, 2010 What does it mean to me? Mostly, I am annoyed. There are more annoyed people commenting at beebs. This is a state visit. If you are wondering which state the Pope hails from, it’s the state of Vatican and it’s a monarchy. The Pope is the monarch of Vatican. Seriously. What should we do in…
David Attenborough meets Richard Dawkins
Posted by Selva on September 13, 2010 Audio at The Guardian. Great fun listening to them talk so freely, especially the last minute when Attenborough shares a good laugh with Dawkins.
My young son asks me
Posted by Selva on September 12, 2010 So, I was taking a trip down memory lane (via a data backup CD created 8 years ago) and found this poem saved up for later reading. Not sure why I had this particular one saved. Anyho, here it is. My young son asks me Bertolt Brecht My young son asks me: Must I learn…
Some day, Google will google itself
Posted by Selva on September 10, 2010 Here’s the thing about Google Instant: it’s a rather nifty thing but that’s not what is important. What is crucial is the introduction of ‘a new kind of “conversational” search interaction’. So, now you can talk to the search engine. Microsoft tried this paradigm some years ago, I think, with some eminently forgettable avatar character…
The Healers of 9/11
Posted by Selva on September 9, 2010 A NY Times article on the remarkable and inspiring response of two women who lost their husbands in the September 11 attacks. The woman, Susan Retik, has pursued perhaps the most unexpected and inspiring American response to the 9/11 attacks. This anniversary of Sept. 11 feels a little ugly to me, with some planning to…
Pregnancy problems in older women
Posted by Selva on September 3, 2010 This recent research is a significant finding on what could be the cause and potential cures.