thescian | April 20, 2008The real crisis behind climate crisis. A NY Times article:
Thirty years ago, Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer and writer, put forward a blunt analysis of precisely this mentality. He argued that the environmental crisis of the 1970s -- an era innocent of climate change; what we would give to have back that environmental crisis! -- was at its heart a crisis of character and would have to be addressed first at that level: at home, as it were. He was impatient with people who wrote checks to environmental organizations while thoughtlessly squandering fossil fuel in their everyday lives -- the…
thescian | April 18, 2008Yesterday evening our three year old niece was playing with our four month old daughter Nidhi. She (niece) would leap towards Nidhi and shout. At first, Nidhi seemed slightly fearful of this leaping figure. At around the third try, Nidhi started laughing loudly to everyone's surprise. Our niece, encouraged by the success of her antics, started a regimen of vigorous jumping. A positive feedback loop of leap-n-laugh ensued, much to our amusement.
This was the first instance when Nidhi was laughing out loud in such a sustained manner. Her father - like all fathers do - found this heart-warming…
thescian | April 14, 2008Big whorls have little whorls,
Which feed on their velocity,
And little whorls have lesser whorls,
And so on to viscosity
--Lewis Richardson
Poem quoted at Arunn's post on turbulence (in Tamil). Your southside smooth ride into turbulence.
thescian | April 14, 2008Consider a pebble in space. Assume it is very lucky in that it never gets hit by anything in space, neither does it fall into a star, planet or meet with any such physically violent end. How long will it last as a pebble (i.e. retain it's shape)? In other words, how long would atoms stick together if untouched by external forces? Do feel free to rephrase the question if needed.
thescian | April 11, 2008
A few blogging folks in and around London met on Wednesday on Bora's visit for a tour of the Darwin Center. It was great fun, especially the later part when I started shaking all over (only partly aided by two mugs of beer. I forgot to take my coat and we stood out of the pub on the cold cold street. There was no room inside the pub).
Bora, Karen and Matt have posted. More pictures here and here. I was hoping to run through the fascinating stuff that Karen so generously led us through. But, it's a Friday evening. I'll do it later. Before I run away, The Beagle Project rocks!
thescian | April 9, 2008We read blogs to read why we read blogs.
Checkout an Ars post on a HCI (Human Computer Interface) study on blog reading.
thescian | April 8, 2008A few lines from the poem by Louis MacNeice.
It's no go the Government grants, it's no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.
It's no go my honey love, it's no go my poppet;
Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit.
The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall forever,
But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather.
thescian | April 7, 20082300 cotton farmers have committed suicide in India since 2000 due to crop failure. Profound gloom as Amelia Gentleman says in a IHT story.
thescian | April 7, 2008Bloody hell! Pseudo-scientific nonsense at a school near you. More at Bad Science. It seems the well-meaning but scientifically-challenged people would go to great lengths to mess-up our children's brains.
thescian | April 2, 2008First, this beebs report on why coffee is your partner in health, your muse and your burden (financially, if you're the coffee-to-go kinda person).
Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.
The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.
Caffeine: A User's Guide to Getting Optimally Wired by Chris is a must read if you are coffee fan like me.
I have an elaborate coffee routine that starts every morning with picking…
thescian | April 2, 2008This type of brain drain happens when physicists get carried away by the ingenuity of their own brains. Lawrence Krauss is reminded of Thomas Aquinas' supposed theological argument about dancing angels (and their poop in the heavens). Read his column String theory's latest folly in New Scientist.
A quick search brought up this post at Cosmic Variance.
Not Even Wrong has a note.
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 26, 2008Former NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik writes in Economic Times:
...cost-efficient technologies that fit the socio-cultural milieu are yet awaited.
These examples point to a pressing need and an exciting challenge, representing a unique three dimensional convergence of technological capability, economic opportunity and societal need. The time is now ripe for this convergence: the growth of India's technology base has resulted in far greater capability to meet the needs. At the same time, economic growth -- though skewed and iniquitous -- has created an economically attractive market in rural…
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 20, 2008Was a poet ever kept in house arrest?
Taslima Nasreen
Was a poet ever kept in house arrest?
May be she has been a subject of politicking
True she caused clashes once in a while
May be an arson, too.
But no, a poet was never taken to safe custody.
This India, this civilization, this 21st century
They all had welcomed the poet
Ignoring its childish religionism, its merciless politics.
But today, the poet languishes in house arrest.
She has done no offense.
Having been deprived of the view of the sky
No longer she can tell how does the sky look like;
Deprived of the sight of men, no longer can…
thescian | March 19, 2008Arthur C Clarke is no more. What a life he has lived! Like the many millions who have read him, I was inspired by his visions of future in my young years.
If you have not read him, I recommend the novel that I devoured many times in my early years: The City and the Stars.
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 17, 2008Boston Dynamics' DARPA funded robot. Watch how it regains balance after being kicked and on slippery ice patches. Stunning! Via Gizmodo