Creative commons
thescian | February 6, 2008Sunita Narain makes a case. Speaking of what she calls the Nano-flyover syndrome (Nano being Tata's new low-priced car), she says:The question is should we discount the price of motorization so that some (and maybe a few more) can drive a car or a two-wheeler? Or should we pay the real cost of our commute so that the government can invest in mobility for all? The fact is that the government cannot afford to subsidize cars for all. Nor can it afford to invest in both cars and buses.
Ultimately, it is not about economics. It is about politics and the imagination needed to build cities in which…
thescian | February 5, 2008Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! -D H Lawrence
It's a charmed life that astronauts lead. Wouldn't the catheters that carry more solid things from astronaut's behind have some de-gassing contraption? If not, it's a charmed life indeed. You can get a taste (smell? either way, what a nasty pun) of it if you sniff under the collars in winter when you are totally wrapped in wool. (Admit it, you have sniffed, haven't you).
thescian | February 1, 2008The Bet: In a Google search of five keywords or phrases representing the top five news stories of 2007, weblogs will rank higher than the New York Times' Web site.
The Result:Blogs win.
Dave Winer is right. Informed people will look to amateurs they trust for the information they want.
thescian | February 1, 2008A hilarious podcast by John Oliver (of Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman at Times Online.
thescian | January 31, 2008Sunil reminds us of the pleasures of haircuts.
When I first shaved my head hair off (2001 or thereabouts, when my hair retreated rapidly from the forehead and met the nape), I had recurring dreams in which I would get astonishingly hep haircuts by world's best hair artists. Slowly my brain descended into hairless reality and regained its composure. I also stopped looking ravenous at heads full of hair (photos of Sathya Sai Baba, a godman and miracle worker with an enviable afro, really messed me up, his miracles had only ill effects on my atheist head). These days, my brain has given up and…
thescian | January 26, 2008The bane of immigrants. Reader's comments at Spiegel following an opinion piece that was critical of germans. Quite rightly, a lot of readers point out that Germany is not special in its Xenophobia. Every country is so to varying degrees. Integration, as always, is hardsell, especially when we are biologically wired to be suspicious of strangers. The color of a single organ - the skin - is enough to prejudice us. Add accent, attire and cultural differences to it, and we will readily puke at someone for them being different. We humans are a fickle fucking bunch. Europe may have had its moment…
thescian | January 24, 2008Clive Thompson in a WIRED essay:... If you want to read books that tackle profound philosophical questions, then the best -- and perhaps only -- place to turn these days is sci-fi. Science fiction is the last great literature of ideas.
From where I sit, traditional "literary fiction" has dropped the ball. I studied literature in college, and throughout my twenties I voraciously read contemporary fiction. Then, eight or nine years ago, I found myself getting -- well -- bored.
Why? I think it's because I was reading novel after novel about the real world. And there are, at the risk of sounding…
thescian | January 24, 2008One of the greatest living science fiction authors. His Childhood's end and The City and the Stars were a great influence on me many years ago.
thescian | January 24, 2008I often show pictures of animals, birds and insects to my three year old niece. Today's picture: Japanese tree frog. One of it has been to Mir Space station.
thescian | January 23, 2008
One of the many ills of poverty is that it denies men and women of their aspirations and their basic right to be heard and to be acknowledged. Lakshmi and Me is a film on the unacknowledged divide between haves and have-nots, between a young domestic worker and her employer - something that all Indians would have experienced on this side of it or the other. A review by Kalpana Sharma (author of Rediscovering Dharavi, a book on my reading list): ...important aspect of domestic work that the film brings out is the crisis that befalls these women when they fall ill. Most of them continue to…
thescian | January 23, 2008I have been reading Emily Dickinson from Everyman's Poetry series. Apart from a few poems published during her initial years (the poems were mangled badly by her editors because they went ballistic on seeing her punctuation, limited men as they were), she never published her poetry. In the poem below she speaks of it. (She never titled her poems, the numbers are the reference if you want to locate it in some other book)
Fascicle 17
709
Publication -- is the Auction
Of the Mind of Man --
Poverty -- be justifying
For so foul a thing
Possibly -- but We -- would rather
From Our Garret go
White…
thescian | January 22, 2008Good laugh to be had at this New Yorker video where Steve Brodner sketches the tempestuous relationship between Hillary and Obama. Hilarious.
thescian | January 18, 2008The Green Children is a young band of musicians inspired by Prof Muhammad Yunus. Support them, support children and families in need.
What's Microcredit.
thescian | January 14, 2008Ian McEwan (author of the novel Atonement, an adaptation of it won the Golden Globe yesterday) in an interview:it is crucial that people who do not have a sky god and don't have a set of supernatural beliefs assert their belief in moral values and in love and in the transcendence that they might experience in landscape or art or music or sculpture or whatever. Since they do not believe in an afterlife, it makes them give more valence to life itself. The little spark that we do have becomes all the more valuable when you can't be trading off any moments for eternity.
Rejecting afterlife has…
thescian | January 9, 2008The Onion demands your attention to inform you of an important election issue:Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters
Also, Jimmy's got a message.
awild | January 9, 2008People occasionally ask why I don't assign my photos a Creative Commons license. Dan Heller explains. And adds a horror story here.
The short of it is, while Creative Commons was established with the best of intentions it is easily abused in the photographic setting. Users unknowingly open themselves up to large legal risks, and I find photo licensing by traditional means to be both more secure and more professional.
thescian | January 9, 2008
If you aren't a Tamil, you probably didn't get the title. i09's got a post about a Indian sci-fi movie along with a ravishing image of Thaleevuru (a.k.a Rajnikanth, a extremely popular tamil movie star. Thaleevuru is a Tamil slang for Da Man, which is a slang for...never mind). The movie to be made in Hindi will be directed by Shankar, a popular director hailing from Chennai. The movie would probably do well if it comes out, as Shankar is a good kalyana samayalkaran (another Tamil slang for someone who satisfies everyone's tastes). I wouldn't expect any real science, though. There has been…
thescian | January 7, 2008Found a Buddhist statue that's got style. (Style: also know as cool, aesthetics, taste and w00t!)
I sent this picture (well, tried to) to all those unfortunate folks on my friends list in Facebook using some weird app that kept crashing on me (or my instance of Firefox 3 Beta). In the end, I think I sent more than a few duplicate messages. Sorry and dang. Facebook, as I see it now, would be my place of cool - pictures, art, music, and such. Also hopefully, I'll rub off some cool from those who unwittingly accepted my request to be their friend.
If you liked the Buddha, here's another. Both…