thescian | October 14, 2008Watched this delightful Mexican duo play on a Jools Holland music show a few nights back (you can watch it on BBC iPlayer in UK).
thescian | October 13, 2008Somini Sengupta writes about the recent religion incited violence in Orissa at NY Times. A Bajrang Dal leader offers an explanation that is the veneer on the surface of the violent brand of nationalism based on religious identity that's the trademark of the saffron brigade:
Given a chance to explain the recent violence, Subash Chauhan, the state's highest-ranking leader of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu radical group, described much of it as "a spontaneous reaction."
This the line used by Modi government during the Gujarat riots in 2002 when the same Bajrang Dal killed many Muslims and looted much,…
thescian | October 9, 2008While LHC recovers from it's starting jitters, give a read to a learned article on it by B. Ananthanarayan.
thescian | October 6, 2008I want to point you to a fascinating write-up by Mo at Neurophilosophy. It is about renegade proteins (proteins are long chains of molecules vital to life) that recruit other well-behaved ones into a sinister and fatal plot to pulp animal brains (including humans). These kind of proteins - called Prions - have been implicated in the Mad Cow Disease. Mo writes,
It is now known that the clumps of abnormally folded prion protein can break down into smaller fragments. Thus, if infected tissue is consumed, these fragments act as "seeds", which cause the normal protein in the host cells to adopt…
thescian | October 2, 2008Photo via Speigel.
When I was about 15 or 16, I read Gandhi's autobiography. I clearly remember how much his simplicity and honesty impressed me. Later while in college, I re-read it and as young men are wont to do, stopped eating meat for seven years - as a sort of pledge of allegiance to non-violence and ahimsa principles. Whatever my immature reactions to Gandhi were at that time, his message of compassion and truth left a deep mark on my mind and I still carry it.
After college I went through a phase and held views perhaps similar to that of Orwell about Gandhi. It evolved over the years…
thescian | October 1, 2008The contest is now closed. We've received 34 stories this year which, I think, is more than last two years. My thanks for all the authors who have participated. I have so far read three stories in the order I received them and have written out feedback for them. Authors can expect feedback and request for revisions in the coming days. Although, we'll have some stories revised before publication, for the purpose of the contest, stories will be judged on the originals received.
thescian | September 30, 2008Comprehensive and absolutely rational. If everyone can make decisions this way...
thescian | September 29, 2008Today. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city of Jodhpur.
Previous stampedes.
August 3. 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 | September 29, 2008Held a hefty book today that warrants a blog post. The book is American Prometheus, The triumph and tragedy of Robert J. Oppenheimer.
I referred to this book to check on a certain event in Oppenheimers life. It is this: Oppenheimer, at one time, left a poisoned apple for his tutor Blackett at Cambridge (Blackett apparently and luckily did not eat it). This rather alarming action was the result of Oppenheimer's lack of good experimental hands. Blackett had assigned him seom experiments without knowing Oppenheimer's ineptitude, and boy! What a way to be avenged! Oppenheimer almost got expelled…
thescian | September 24, 2008Send them in. I'll start reading them from this weekend.
For some of the stories with good ideas whose execution can be bettered, I hope to ask the authors for revisions. Btw, we will look through the past two years stories, not just this year's contest submissions. Over the two years I have improved my own literary taste and skills. If I had missed any author earlier because I was stupid, it's time to rectify that omission. We'll have to work out how we'll handle revisions to stories. Probably get the original stories out on TheScian.com and later update them with revised stories as the…
thescian | September 23, 2008A C Grayling in his regular column in New Scientist questions the use of Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (it's like polygraph, for the brain) in a criminal case in Bombay where life sentences were given to accused based on Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature (BEOS) reports from forensic labs.
I choose the following words carefully: the utter irresponsibility involved here, and its attendant outrage of justice, is staggering. It is yet another example of how technology is increasingly misapplied and abused, and represents a major threat to civil liberties.
BEOS profiling is a…
thescian | September 18, 2008No, no. This isn't from the tasteless blurb on the cover of a Creationist book. This is about research on the evolution of anus published at Nature Magazine.
"The very simple question is how to get from one opening to two," says Detlev Arendt, a researcher at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany. The question may be obvious, but it is not easy to answer. Punching a new hole on the opposite end from the mouth is unlikely from an evolutionary standpoint, says Arendt. So he and others have suggested that over time, the mouth elongated and then separated into a mouth…
thescian | September 17, 2008Folks, this an experimental post (for me, that is). It is slightly incoherent. Written in five minutes. No corrections made. My typing hands decide not to pause. Enjoy if you can get through the muddle.
Big Bang, a variation
I watched Brian Cox present an excellent BBC TV programme on the LHC (on iPlayer, UK only). He covered a great deal and did it engagingly. As I watched the Big Bang being presented as garguntum explosion, I wondered if this is a true picture of the beginning of the Universe. The explosions seemed to pander to the shockjocks in us. Explosions: good. Explanations,…
thescian | September 16, 2008I found the below from historian and writer Ramachandra Guha's book India After Gandhi to be of interest given the current US election campaign (Note that Mr Guha was talking within the context of Partition).
"The world over, the rhetoric of modern democratic politics has been marked by two rather opposed rhetorical styles. The first appeals to hope, to popular aspirations for economic prosperity and social peace. The second appeals to fear, to sectional worries about being worsted or swamped by one's historic enemies."
India has, I think, held up pretty well with Mr Guha's observation over…
thescian | September 12, 2008We are close! You could be the one and if you are you will be teleported to NYC for a party with people from other dimensions.
It's time to celebrate the conversations we have had all through these years. Come join us Saturday 20 September in London at Calthorpe Arms, a pub near Russell Square and King's Cross (details) from 7:00 pm. Free drinks, food till we run out of money (we have $500 from our Sb overlords).
Bloggers in attendance: Mo Costandi (Neurophilosophy), Ed Yong (Not Exactly Rocket Science), Kara Contreary (Pure Pedantry), Nick Anthis (The Scientific Activist) and yours truly.…
thescian | September 10, 2008Saw this at a mailing list [Anarchy-SF]. I would have left out Harry Potter (it's gratuitous with certain themes: homosexuality, libertarian....). A good list to pick from you are looking for fiction on political sf to read.
thescian | September 9, 2008and today the Large Hadron Collider has begun probing the very stuff that we and our dreams are made of.
thescian | September 4, 2008I am sure this has happened to many. I find catching myself out at times in that strange land where an Explanation has taken the place of Truth. I stand there looking lovingly at the face of Clarity and Certainty with little realization that they are strangling curiosity to death; when they vanish, one is left staring at a void with a dead soul. All this while that we have indulged these deadly twins, we have stopped from going further. When one has 'explained' something satisfactorily (to oneself), that is normally the end of one's quest, and therein lies the danger. The danger is this: the…
thescian | September 1, 2008Muse and make money.
Hi all,
We're delighted to be able to tell you about this contest we have just got up and running. We're presenting it in partnership with LiveJournal, one of the oldest, most respected names in the community blogging world.
It's a pretty simple challenge we have here, one that will particularly appeal to all the fiction writers among you, but not too intimidating for those of you who like other forms of writing to give it a bash.
Can you tell a quicker, snappier story than anyone else? Would you care to pit your story-telling abilities against those of your peers?
Quick…
thescian | August 29, 2008It's blogroll rebuilding time! How better to start than with a clean slate. To begin, all the book podcasts I listen to regularly have now been placed in Google Reader. You'll also find it shared on the side bar to the left. Subscribe to the share, if you would like to keep a tab on my recommendations. At the moment, unfortunately, the shared items are listed in the order I marked them and so you may have to paginate a bit to get through them. It's still worth a look, if I may say so. Below are some I highly recommend:
I welcome your recommendations of writers/books podcast you think I…