Creative commons
thescian | May 12, 2008I've received a couple of emails from folks who wanted to know when this year's contest would be announced. Shortly, folks. Meanwhile, get going with your story. If I may, I'd suggest mulling over the story idea, setting, characters, tone, etc obsessively and making notes before you actually begin to write the story. Try and get hold of Writing Fiction by Alan Wall and give it your undivided attention for a few days. The rules this year would be pretty much the same as before.
There will be an exciting new addition to what we'll do with this year's (and past year's stories) - besides…
thescian | May 12, 2008The divine architect of runny noses,
The wizard of ooze, of two stinky hoses,
You made every man woman a misfit
With appendages and stomach full of shit.
Sexy theater in a messy sewer,
Shame on you unintelligent designer!
Harris, Hitchens, PZ, Dennett and Dawkins:
May their godless fists land where your chin is.
Old man Paley walking by a heath found,
A perfectly wrought Timepiece on the ground.
Inside his skull god's bell went a'ringing,
A wonderful spell! Paley went a'singing.
Dear Mr Paley? Truth by rhetoric?
When there is good science and proper logic?
Teleology is warm and quite fuzzy…
thescian | April 30, 2008is a good dose of the idealism that started it. And, it has now got it in full measure! As most of the readers know, I am enthusiastic about the OLPC (and have obtained one via G1G1). Slapping Windows on it may make it more useful in the short term (every business quarter), in the long run though (years and years) it would probably kill it and leave thousands of students with a tool that pushes the wrong kind of learning down their throats.
thescian | April 23, 2008Two book podcasts I listen to regularly.
CBC Writers & Company
Eleanor Wachtel is probably the finest interviewer of writers out there. Give a listen to her recent interviews. In one of the episodes, Orhan Pamuk is interviewed and what he said about V S Naipaul is still on my mind. Naipaul, Pamuk says, sought the center of colonizers to understand his own place while he (Pamuk) does not feel the need to go out of Turkey (Pamuk rarely goes out of Istanbul) since Turkey was never colonized. In another episode, Arthur C Clarke is interviewed. Mind filling.
World Book Club
Another podcast…
thescian | March 30, 2008Tommy did as his mother told him
Till his soul had split:
One half thought of angels
And the other half of shit.
One of his short poems from 'As I walked Out One Evening'. Beautifully rhymed, talking of shit and uplifting all the same. Another poem I'd like to share: Miss Gee. Deftly written, it startled me with it's brutal honesty.
Miss Gee
Let me tell you a little story
About Miss Edith Gee;
She lived in Clevedon Terrace
At number 83.
She'd a slight squint in her left eye,
Her lips they were thin and small,
She had narrow sloping shoulders
And she had no bust at all.
She'…
thescian | March 25, 2008 She is one of the writers I admire for her uncompromising and thoroughly researched exploration of possibilities - especially of race, gender and political philosophies. Ursula Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed has in many ways clarified my personal questions on anarchism and gave a vocabulary to build my thoughts on. It is great to see her speak. These words in the interview struck a chord in me:
I can't say I have suffered for my politics. SF and fantasy slip under the wire a lot, you know? People just aren't looking for radical thought in a field the respectable critics define as…
thescian | March 18, 2008The Tiger is the poem where the immortal line 'fearful symmetry' appears. It is a wonderful and famous poem by William Blake ( 1757-1827) from Songs of Innocence and of Experience that talks about Evolution without talking about Evolution. Blake expresses subtle thoughts on Creation and God through these poems. I am not well read to comment upon those thoughts. What makes me re-read this poem every so often is: the way he poetically captures the awe and wonder we feel about Life.
The Tiger
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy…
thescian | March 11, 2008NY Times publishes a fictional account of a fictional account assuring us that it's a real account. Kafkaesque? Whatever. The man was beyond bizarre and certainly a brain shattering phenomenon; he reached into the human mind like those tentacles we see in our worst nightmares. Anyway, I wasn't sure if Indian Express syndicated it knowing what the piece was really about. I am not a regular reader of Indian Express. Maybe, they knew.
thescian | March 7, 2008A Conversation with Jorge Luis Borges at Habitus, A Diaspora Journal. [via The Elegant Variation]
thescian | March 4, 2008It's true. You can't. I tried it on a Nokia and it suggested 'shiv' (which, incidentally, is a shortened form of Shiva, a name that's in use in India). Watch below for a hilarious take on this. [via Language Log]
thescian | March 2, 2008 I was listening to a discussion with Umberto Eco on his phenomenal book The Name of the Rose. [Real Audio here] At one point in the interview, Eco answers a question on the numerous Latin phrases in the book spoken by the monks that were left untranslated. The question was: why weren't they translated. Eco answers by saying that the Church has done well - has been remarkably successful for the past 2000 years - by conducting all it's affairs in Latin. He was, of course, implying (for comic effect) that his book is a success due to the Latin phrases.
Ensuring people don't understand what is…
thescian | February 28, 2008A comprehensive and very readable post by Coturnix.
In other news, blogging will be slow for some more days till I get back on schedule on some personal matters.
thescian | February 26, 2008Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it. - R P Feynman [more]
Part of a beebs program where Feynman talks of physics and more.
thescian | February 24, 2008Why is this so important. Chris Abani, an extraordinary Nigerian novelist who published his first story at the age of 16 ( he was imprisoned by Nigerian government for it), at a TED talk.
thescian | February 20, 2008Hair is one of nature's most amazing inventions. It is one of the toughest and lightest of materials. Even if it is harvested from the heads of unsuspecting believers, it does not diminish in value, especially in the eyes a resourceful businessman. Speigel reports:
Balsara hasn't been in the business long. He studied business management in London, and eight years ago a friend came up with the idea of exporting hair. At that time, Indian temple hair was being sold at $30 (â¬20) a kilo. Today the going price ranges from $300 (â¬205) to $600 (â¬410). "Hair has become one of the most expensive…
thescian | February 19, 2008The Letter Writer of Mumbai. A reminder of how technology makes the past obsolete.
thescian | February 12, 2008Kenji Miyazawa was a 20th century Japanese poet who loved Nature and Science. In a New Scientist article Roger Pulvers who has translated Miyazawa's poems describes him as a tireless and faithful chronicler of nature.
A beautiful line from one of his poems quoted in the article:
Messengers, so to speak, of a catalogue of light
From every possible era that is or ever was.
This "catalogue of light" is a catalogue of time. Miyazawa recognises that the light from the celestial objects we see represents images from different times in the past. At a time when Einstein's theories were not well…