Behind Curtains
thescian | August 13, 2008An article in NY Times about an immigrant who has lived half his life in the US dies in custody due to systemic negligence and apathy. This is not a one off case, if you are tempted to dismiss it.
Mr. Ng's death follows a succession of cases that have drawn Congressional scrutiny to complaints of inadequate medical care, human rights violations and a lack of oversight in immigration detention, a rapidly growing network of publicly and privately run jails where the government held more than 300,000 people in the last year while deciding whether to deport them.
Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm…
thescian | August 6, 2008What is the purpose, I wonder, of all this restlessness? I sometimes seem to myself to wander around the world merely accumulating material for future nostalgias. -Vikram Seth, From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet.
thescian | August 3, 2008Today. 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.
thescian | July 22, 2008I have a few invites to give away for Dropbox (private beta). Leave a comment with your email if you want one (first-come first-served).
I have been using it for a week now to keep my notes, pictures, etc synchronized between two computers. Very fast and unobtrusive. Recommended.
thescian | July 10, 2008Someone known to me in India recently had an interview with a large mobile company in the UK. He was offered a job (via email) and he accepted. He then received an email from what appeared to be the UK Visa Office (thoroughly bogus). The email is below (with personal info masked). If you visit immi-gov.com mentioned, it is quite clear that this is a setup (in fact, it redirects to to Microsoft's officelive.com where the scammers seems to have lost interest midway through the setup). The UK company in question was contacted directly by my acquaintance. He was told that there was no one in…
thescian | January 6, 2008Yours truly has come out the rock he has been hiding under and has signed-up onto Facebook.
When I signed-up, Facebook offered a chance to surprise all those on my gmail addressbook ( selvakumar @ gmail , look me up, yo). And, I did. It also offered to send me a million dollars which I politely declined.
Clearly, I am late for the party as I see most of you are on there already. (I was in for a big surprise when I saw my sister on Facebook. It was a weird experience to have Facebook suggest my sister as a Friend whom I may know. Facebook! You socially-inept software!)
Come by and say…
thescian | December 10, 2007Nidhi Nova was born on 7th Dec early morning after a marathon labor (24 hrs) when she and her mother tried to negotiate the rites of passage. In the end, Nidhi had to be operated out as her head was turned improperly disallowing natural birth. Mother and daughter are fine.
You can expect a series of posts on childbirth and related aspects in the coming weeks and months. Needless to say, during the birth there were some scary moments and some moments that I am still coming to terms with. We'll talk. For the moment, my daughter awaits a nappy change. See you in a bit.
thescian | November 25, 2007 The past week has been one long workout. Over the course of the week, I've wrestled with instruments of great power: two electric saws (one light weight, one heavy duty), sander, drill, and a few others for whom I haven't yet worked out what their purpose is. Along the way I have learnt plastering techniques, sanding, using a plumbline (just hang it from above, and don't breath hard on it), wallpapering around an unreacheable corner (you don't do it), floorboarding, and more. We could've hired someone to do it, but the opportunity to learn and sort out things for yourself is hard to let go…
thescian | November 19, 2007Day before yesterday we locked ourselves out of our home. We left the key in the keyhole on the inside and closed the door on our way out. When we came back, our spare key refused to go help because the keyhole was being occupied. Damn keys! Can't they all get along! After some minutes of me wrangling with the door and being impolite to it, Ramya's nimble hands came to our rescue. She sent her thin hands in through the mail opening in the door and used a long forceps to gently shake the inside key out. We had a few people on the road wondering if they should call the police about a possible…
thescian | October 1, 2007Dear reader, If you had subscribed to Zooillogix and have been taken for a ride by yours truly, here's your chance to get off. Andrew has a message for you:
somehow during the transition to the new email subscription system, the wires got crossed and Zooillogix subscribers started getting the Scientific Indian instead of Zooillogix. This has since been rectified, but the fix requires that current subscribers unsubscribe from Zooillogix and then resubscribe to Zooillogix.
Gonna keep away from looking at my subscription numbers for sometime. (I am a sensitive bloke, you know.)
thescian | September 26, 2007I must apologize for the poor quality of the audio recording of Once upon a time in a queue essay published on the 24th. It was recorded at 6:30 in the morning while I was half asleep. I've done a new recording today and have replaced the original audio files now.
For those who are curious and interested in how I record and the equipment, I use a Samson C01U USB Microphone purchased for 100 dollars. It is a condenser mic and works very well with Apple Powerbook running Audacity for audio capture. -From the September Newsletter.
Have you subscribed to the Newsletter? It's a good way to keep…
thescian | September 12, 2007Blogging will be slow for the coming few days. Before I head out to make money in the big bad world, let me quote Munro's words that I read in Margaret Atwood's 'Negotiating with the Dead'.
I bought a school notebook and tried to write - did write, pages that started off authoritatively and then went dry, so that I had to tear them out and twist them up in hard punishment and put them in the garbage can. I did this over and over again until I had only the notebook cover left. Then I bought another notebook and started the whole process once more. The same cycle - excitement and despair,…
thescian | September 5, 2007
Am I a HTML horror or what!
blah
meh
HTML is a den of horrors. One of the ugly ones is called the Radio Button. If you did not intend to set a radio box choice and set it by mistake, you cannot unset it easily. Why the heck is a radio box so snotty and unforgiving? Sheesh.
thescian | September 4, 2007Few more weeks for the Sep 30 deadline. There's a countdown on the page to thrill you everytime you visit till the day you send that story in.
thescian | August 26, 2007CBS likes Lord of the Flies. What better way to show the appreciation than to use it for a reality show[NYT]. What did you say? Kids are not adults? Come on, don't be so naive. Kids acting like adults makes for a more entertaning show. No?
"Kid Nation," which is scheduled to have its premiere on Sept. 19, is a reality show that takes 40 children ages 8 to 15 to a New Mexico desert ghost town south of Santa Fe for 40 days and challenges them to build an adult-free society. Several children were injured during the production; four children drank bleach from an unmarked soda bottle and another…
thescian | August 22, 2007Dear Neelam Shah,
Glad to see your note submitted via TheScian.com Contact Form. Unfortunately, the email you provided seems to be incorrect and my response to that email bounced. If you were wondering why I haven't replied, you now know. Here's my reply.
You asked if there is any age limit for the contest (from your email, I gather you are 15 years old and probably not sure if you can send a story to the contest). There is no age limit. Everyone who can write a good scifi story can enter the contest. There will be contests in the future too. But, don't wait. Send your story for the 2007…
thescian | July 16, 2007The July issue of the newsletter that I write to keep you informed of The Scientific Indian website is out today. If you haven't subscribed yet, you can subscribe and also read the previous issues at TheScian.com.
The number of visitors to TheScian.com has grown steadily the past one month. More heartening than the growth is the amount of time each visitor spends here which averages to about 6 minutes during each visit. This is almost like sitting all through a classical music concert when Kylie Minogue is playing in the neighborhood. I am very glad of this fact.
We have more content to…
thescian | July 2, 2007After a few signalling incidents (yelling, screaming, and other fun things), I've ordered the book for folks at home. As for myself, I use common sense, pieces of paper, calendar application, and stochastic efficiency to organize my daily affairs. [Stochastic efficiency? Make a list of tasks - the key is in making them simple but no simpler and unquestionably clear, choose one task from the list at random, finish it, choose the next, rinse and repeat]
I have a healthy suspicion of books that claim breakthroughs in helping us manage our affairs. Still, I recognize that they may help us get…
thescian | June 22, 2007Ladies and gentlemen, no need for any introductions.
[via reddit]
Senile Age, I abhor thee. Sensible Youth, I adore thee. Here is a young student who shows the idiocy of a priest who is unaware that the pulpit reeks.
Long time ago I lived in Boulder. I was new to the country and was channel surfing. I saw O'Reilly speaking assuredly of things he didn't understand. Well, I didn't know who he was then; I didn't know the channel he was on either, and thought, hey, this guy seems smart and sure. When I mentioned it the next day to an american colleague, he gave a bemused smile. It wasn't long…
thescian | June 14, 2007 Ladies and gents, TheScian.com has woken up from slumber. After weeks of prodding, the new site with a new logo, new style and new everything is up.
Selected stories from last year's contest are published for your reading pleasure. This year's Science fiction Short Story Contest announcement is up. There's also an essay by yours truly on a trip to India, and a lot more. Hop over and get started.
If you find any glitches, clear your browser cache and try again. If the problem still persists, shoot me an email.