thescian | November 2, 2007
The Firefly
by Ogden Nash
The firefly's flame Is something for which science has no name
I can think of nothing eerier
Than flying around with an unidentified glow on a
person's posteerier.
thescian | November 1, 2007One small click of a mouse, a giant list of good books. Do recommend a book that comes to your mind now.
thescian | October 30, 2007Yesterday on the radio I heard the phrase 'statistically significant' twice (one on a discussion about crime and other about cancer). We all think we know what it is: If all the birds overhead poo on you simultaneously, you know, it cannot be a random event. It is surely a statistically signifcant event full of practical consequences ordered by an angry diety to dirty your atheistic bald head (alright, my atheistic bald head). Nevertheless, if you aren't a scientist or a statistician, a short readup may help, because, it ain't so simple. The wikipedia page is not laymanish (if you are an…
thescian | October 29, 2007A one line poem by W S Merwin.
Elegy
Who would I show it to
The intensity of sorrow made more poignant by economy of expression.
thescian | October 27, 2007An appeal from Jimmy Wales, founder of wikipedia.
It'll be a shame if you let that charitable thought pass. Donate now.
thescian | October 25, 2007Let's talk politics. Shall we.
I just watched a video of a passionate young man willing to sponsor a democratic candidate. The video is on youtube, he has started a blog, and the news is out on the internet. No corporation can censure him for standing up to what he believes. It's unfortunate, and in the recent past a grave mistake, to have corporations masquerading as platforms for societal and national debates. Corporations follow the money. The money has turned direction and is heading back to your pocket. The new Network is yours, ours.
thescian | October 24, 2007I have been reading Primo Levi, that man who was sent to to vey core of inhumanity and returned more humane than anyone, that man who I am proud to look up for inspiration. There are only a few who can move us the way Levi does with his prose, his courage and his life. A few links to share.
A story (translated) published recently at New Yorker called A Tranquil Star.
Once upon a time, somewhere in the universe very far from here, lived a peaceful star, which moved peacefully in the immensity of the sky, surrounded by a crowd of peaceful planets about which we have not a thing to report. This…
thescian | October 24, 2007Particle physics explained in 60 second bursts of words at Symmetry Magazine published by Fermi Lab and SLAC.
I find this picture simple and utterly fascinating. It's an artistic rendering of the tracks of an electron and it's anti-particle as they dance in an electromagnetic field. Positron, electron's anti-particle, came out of Dirac's beautiful equation before it was found in a particle accelerator.
thescian | October 19, 2007Read three novels in one week. (Why you ask? So I could nod knowingly tomorrow at a one day lecture course on reading modern fiction. See). Haven't done this sort of a thing since I was a wide-eyed teenager from the railway town Jolarpet who walked into his first proper library in the great city of Chennai. The original rush of youth has now been replaced with all the many layers of meaning that age adds to a reading experience. To the novels now.
'Never Let Me Go' by Kazuo Ishiguro
A novel set in an alternate/future world where clones are reared to accept, and in fact, believe, that donating…
thescian | October 18, 2007BBC reports
A spokesman for the Science Museum said: "We know that eminent scientists can sometimes say things that cause controversy and the Science Museum does not shy away from debating controversial topics.
"However, we feel Dr Watson has gone beyond the point of acceptable debate and we are, as a result, cancelling his talk."
thescian | October 17, 2007[via Times Online] Dr Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and author of "Avoid Boring People", says that
he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really.". He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".
Did he really say that? Sheesh. Here's a sensible response to that from the same article
Commenting on Dr Watson's current views about race, Steven Rose, a…
thescian | October 17, 2007Go here. A free service that asks companies to stop sending paper catalogs to you. [via Joel On Software]
thescian | October 16, 2007By Ibrahim Lukman, a Syrian artist [via Spiegel]
A video of another installation.
Intense. Like a slap in the face.
thescian | October 16, 2007 Here's a BBC news that reports on a study about bed bugs that is so confusing that I can't make out what is really being suggested. At the beginning, there is this: "bugs cannot survive in the warm, dry conditions found in an unmade bed" Unmade bed is bad for bugs, and good for you, atleast that's what the news seems to imply, which is quite strange. Another paragraph down we see this "The warm, damp conditions created in an occupied bed are ideal for the creatures, but they are less likely to thrive when moisture is in shorter supply." In other words, if you don't sleep on the bed, bugs won…
thescian | October 15, 2007An exhibition of equations. A proper nerd's day out last sunday in London. Here's an equation I love, by Alison Gopnik's.
thescian | October 12, 2007Advice from a very cool multi-lingual guy.
The first thing I advise people to do when they think they know a language well enough is to shut up. You don't learn a language to tell people what YOU think, you learn it to understand what THEY think. And hopefully what THEY think will change or enhance what I think..
Checkout this video (3rd part).
thescian | October 11, 2007An Independent article.
"There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap. Nothing," said a 24-year-old monk who was held for 10 days at the Government Technical Institute, a leafy college in northern Rangoon which is now a prison camp for suspected dissidents. The young man, too frightened to be named, was one of 185 monks taken in a raid on a monastery in the Yankin district of Rangoon on 28 September, two days after government soldiers began attacking street protesters.
"The room was too small for everyone to lie down at…