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July 31, 2009
Sympathy, help, and a positive engagement. - Robert Louis Stevenson. That partial quote is from a fascinating essay called My First Book by the same author. A must read for all young writers. Here's a bit more:The accepted novelist may take his novel up and put it down, spend days upon it in vain,…
July 27, 2009
Even with all it's shortcomings, democracy matters because there is hope of representation for everyone, however poor one is. Unlike this disgusting corruption reported at NY Times that ruins poor young lives in China with no way for them to get back their future.
July 24, 2009
In India snakes charm you. Yes, they do, especially if you are a legislator in Orissa state assembly. Have time to hear a personal anecdote of the charms of snakes? Here we go. When I was about 6 or 7, I used to roam around the fields in my mother's native village (google map). There were two…
July 20, 2009
Yesterday night I happened to listen to the BBC programme called The Bottom Line. Mr James Dyson was on. For those who are not aware, he is one of the finest engineers around. His company makes many things, most famous of all the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner. So, he was asked what gets the creative juices…
July 17, 2009
Do you think you ought to 'own' your digital content the same way you own material content? Take ebooks from Amazon stored in the Kindle. Recently, Amazon snuck into users Kindle and removed a book with questionable copyright (the book is 1984, feel free to laugh with irony). Pogue writes: "As one…
July 16, 2009
Bill Gates has made it available online. You need to install Silvelight (the flash alternative from Microsoft). It's worth it.
July 15, 2009
Recently discovered the works of Raqib Shaw. Raqib Shaw was born in Culcutta, spent his youth in Kashmir and now lives and works in London. There are conflicts at so many levels in Raqib Shaw's paintings that, as we look at it, we are drawn deeper and deeper into a strange, fantastical and…
July 15, 2009
Rock musician Andrew W.K's take on Bach at NPR. For a blissful ten minutes, listen to the linked 'Bandenburg Concerto No.5: Allergro'. You would know that Bach was a deeply religious man. Reminds me of what Harold Bloom said of genius*, (I paraphrase): Genius is not bound by culture or religion…
July 9, 2009
The world is serendipitous, for those who explore it sideways, that is. Two of them explorers are Dr Richard Wool of University of Delaware and Erman Senöz. One fine day, Dr Wool (is his name a great nominative determinism, or what) unplucked a chicken, threw away the meat and kept the feathers.…
July 8, 2009
Never thought about the cover page of a book as much as I am doing now. With the upcoming TheScian Stories book, all things bookish has become an obsession. Yesterday evening, wife was plugging away at the numerous things that need to be arranged before publishing a book and she had covered the…
July 6, 2009
Essay at NY Times by Anand Giridhardas. Nuanced and well written. You can read more at his blog.
July 3, 2009
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…
June 22, 2009
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…
June 21, 2009
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.…
June 21, 2009
With my daughter at a nearby park. To fatherhood, to memories. Warm wishes from one father to others.
June 20, 2009
This note is dedicated to tomorrow's children...
June 17, 2009
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…
June 10, 2009
Here.
June 9, 2009
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…
June 9, 2009
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…
June 3, 2009
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?
June 3, 2009
Racists, Nazi-sympathisers. It's a typical example of how, if you let them, the ugly-at-heart would try to twist democratic processes to grab power. Stop them. Here's view under the hood.
May 29, 2009
Warning: Artsy-fartsy post. Read this article on Francis Bacon, a unique artist. His painting of the head in a cube (that's Pope X) kept me disturbed for many days and nights. Later in life, Bacon hated having painted this, saying it was a mistake to engage with Velázquez's original. That could…
May 27, 2009
How can you see hummingbirds, roses, orchids and not believe in Lord's splendor? But, if you're going to look at those things, you should look at other things, too. Think of an African boy with a parasitic worm boring into his eye. If you tell me God not only created but cares for us all, what…
May 25, 2009
. So, Mark Vernon wants us hard-nosed realists to feel warm and fuzzy. From this BBC post:A prize-winning quantum physicist says a spiritual reality is veiled from us, and science offers a glimpse behind that veil. So how do scientists investigating the fundamental nature of the universe assess…
May 24, 2009
This news at the beebs.A Catholic church in Malaysia which prays to Allah has prompted a court case over who can use the word. Muslim leaders say Islam should be the only faith to use it, saying its use in other faiths could lead to confusion and conversions. The medieval argument to own god's…
May 23, 2009
The 1995 Literature Nobel Laureate speaks of the poem Digging.
May 19, 2009
A few days back, I happened to watch a few scenes of an old Star Trek episode. There was the usual fare of beam-me-ups, tea materializer, mother levitator, etc. And then there was the Matter Displacement Detector. That piqued my interest. This device allows the Star Trek crew to check if there was…
May 18, 2009
Here are some tips on what to do with it.
May 16, 2009
Watched this delightful interview by Gabby Logan with Agassi and Graf, two of my favorite tennis players when I was young. It was more than just two former professional tennis players talking. Very smart and very self-aware. I've grown fond of this couple even more now. The greatest sports piece…