Quick post
thescian | October 25, 2010NYT should be ashamed of itself. The readers know a shit piece when they see it and they make it known in no uncertain terms.
Here's a recent interview with John Le Carré at Writers & Company where he discusses the backdrop (Deep State, as he calls it) and the strangling effect it has on civil and democratic society. He is alarmed and so should we be.
Update: Glen Greenwald covers the NYT piece
thescian | October 7, 2010Man 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.
thescian | September 30, 2010In 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.
thescian | September 16, 2010What 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 UK, welcome him to the 21st century, maybe.
thescian | September 3, 2010This recent research is a significant finding on what could be the cause and potential cures.
thescian | August 18, 2010are acute especially when those carrying it are active in sports like running. Some recent updates at NY Times.
thescian | August 13, 2010The story so far: We really don't know much. This being from a very very smart person (she's the most cited physicist?), I look forward to an exciting future in physics.
thescian | August 10, 2010Al Jazeera coverage.
BBC reports on how when the government is inept, militant groups fill the gap.
thescian | August 8, 2010The final paragraphs.
My habits are methodical, and this has been of not a little use for my particular line of work. Lastly, I have had ample leisure from not having to earn my own bread. Even ill-health, though it has annihilated several years of my life, has saved me from the distractions of society and amusement.
Therefore, my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions. Of these the most important have been--the love of science--unbounded patience in long reflecting…
thescian | August 7, 2010Darwin at his best--always questioning the very foundations.
With respect to immortality,1 nothing shows me how strong and almost instinctive a belief it is, as the consideration of the view now held by most physicists, namely that the sun with all the planets will in time grow too cold for life, unless indeed some great body dashes into the sun and thus gives it fresh life.--Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-…
thescian | August 6, 2010Succinct and spot-on. This is Darwin speculating that he thinks the prevalent feeling of the world is happiness rather than pain.
Some writers indeed are so much impressed with the amount of suffering in the world, that they doubt if we look to all sentient beings, whether there is more of misery or of happiness;--whether the world as a whole is a good or a bad one. According to my judgement happiness decidedly prevails, though this would be very difficult to prove. If the truth of this conclusion be granted, it harmonises well with the effects which we might expect from natural selection. If…
thescian | August 5, 2010CCTV in Birmingham.
CCTV does not justify its use and cost,in most cases. The money spent on unnecessary CCTV costs twice--the money lost and opportunity lost to spend the money on better training and better recruitment.
thescian | August 5, 2010This was the time when Darwin was studying for his B.A at Cambridge.
But no pursuit at Cambridge was followed with nearly so much eagerness or gave me so much pleasure as collecting beetles. It was the mere passion for collecting, for I did not dissect them and rarely compared their external characters with published descriptions, but got them named anyhow. I will give a proof of my zeal: one day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right…
thescian | August 4, 2010to my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading. Dr. Duncan's lectures on Materia Medica at 8 o'clock on a winter's morning are something fearful to remember. Dr. Munro made his lectures on human anatomy as dull, as he was himself, and the subject disgusted me. It has proved one of the greatest evils in my life that I was not urged to practice dissection, for I should soon have got over my disgust; and the practice would have been invaluable for all my future work. This has been an irremediable evil, as well as my incapacity to draw.
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During my…
thescian | August 3, 2010I'll keep quoting as I read through. Don't want to add anything myself and sully the experience of reading Darwin.
I have heard my father and elder sisters say that I had, as a very young boy, a strong taste for long solitary walks; but what I thought about I know not. I often became quite absorbed, and once, whilst returning to school on the summit of the old fortifications round Shrewsbury, which had been converted into a public foot-path with no parapet on one side, I walked off and fell to the ground, but the height was only seven or eight feet. Nevertheless the number of thoughts which…
thescian | August 3, 2010What's he doing in the 21st century? Well, the same thing of course, only with a more contemporary vocabulary. Michael Shermer on Deepak Chopra's "quantum flapdoodle"
thescian | August 2, 2010over here.
This is around 1817 when he is around 8 or 9 years old:
By the time I went to this day-school my taste for natural history, and more especially for collecting, was well developed. I tried to make out the names of plants, and collected all sorts of things, shells, seals, franks, coins, and minerals. The passion for collecting, which leads a man to be a systematic naturalist, a virtuoso or a miser, was very strong in me, and was clearly innate, as none of my sisters or brother ever had this taste.
One little event during this year has fixed itself very firmly in my mind, and I hope…
thescian | July 31, 2010Some weekend geek read. (May not be for everyone's taste. You have been warned.)