Douglas Rushkoff responding to Steven Pinker at Edge.org: Facebook -- as a way for college kids to meet and greet one another -- was a terrific program. As a mirror through which young people forge an identity, however, the program is lacking the nuance of real life. Facebook -- more than a program to be feared for its code -- is a business plan to be feared for its ubiquity. The object of Facebook is to monetize social interactions. This is the bias of the program, and a bias of which most people are painfully unaware.
Is he really that accurate?
Signed-off with an apt message.
Apparently there may not be just one God particle but perhaps five of 'em. Shall we say physicists are testing Many Gods Hypothesis. See this Beebs report. Here's a question that has assailed our collective primate head all through its history: Do truly fundamental constituents of matter exist or is it turles all the way? Some ancient Greeks took a bold and bogus stand. They abstracted the idea as Atom and said it's the end of all matter splitting but we now know better (or maybe not). We have been continuing that splitting tradition. Is it possible to think that there are no fundamental…
TheScian Science Fiction Anthology - a collectible very first paperback edition is now available for purchase. For eye-candy, preview and to buy visit the book page. Shipping to US is 2-3 days (one day with Amazon Prime), to Europe and UK takes about 5 days. Kindle eBook edition and an Indian paperback edition will be available in a few weeks if you don't want to spend more on shipping. That said, I think you'll enjoy this 150 page volume more on real paper. Follow us on Twitter where we talk about books, publishing and more. (How do you handle spam on twitter? I just created the account…
A New Scientist note (points to PNAS paper):Post-mortems of binge-drinking adolescent monkeys have produced the best evidence yet that heavy drinking at an early age can do lasting damage to the brain. The worst damage was to stem cells destined to become neurons in the hippocampus, the brain area responsible for memory and spatial awareness.
Over the weekend dug and tilled a patch of land in the garden to plant some herbs. It took an hour and the effort was rewarded with a rich harvest of pebbles, worms and roots of various sizes that ran underground like highways carrying nutrients to far away places (one can imagine trees as cities here, the analogy seems to fit quite well). Just beneath one's feet lurks a world that we are oblivious to most of the time. Sometimes, to feel human, we must plant our feet an inch into the ground and let our head and shoulders soak in the air and sun. I planted sage, peppermint (top) and basil,…
A fabulous article on potato fries at Serious Eats. For the sheer depth and mad commitment, this is surely one of the best food hacking I have come across so far this year.
A report on BBC on a psychology study done in Australia.The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies". Information processing strategies! That rings the bullshit bell in my grumpy head, loudly and clearly. I don't intend to discredit the study. It is unfortunate that everything in psychology seems questionable. Many of these studies appear misleading even when they may lead us down a useful path. That's this subject's bane.
Watched the match between Soderling and Federer. Soderling is a brute, and he played a brilliant game. Distastefully aggressive play that never let Federer in the game. A quick tech note that may be of some interest to geeks. I am at a place where there is no TV and no broadband internet. I carry a vodaphone mobile internet dongle to use in such places. Unfortunately, the dongle does not have linux support (I run Ubuntu on my laptop). Still, it is possible to read the dongle in Ubuntu and work out the username, password and other details to make use of the dongle (it's just a mobile phone…
A little poem I wrote for the little ones (5 year old niece Nethra and 2 1/2 year old daughter Nidhi). Small Finger of a Lady SingerI am the small finger Of a lovely lady singer. When her voice goes south She puts me in her mouth Or strikes up a pose And puts me in her nose.
Behold this book title: Traveller's Manual for French Persons in Germany and German Persons in France. Such clarity of purpose! This was a French-German phrase book Published in 1799 in France by one Caroline-Stephanie-Felicite Du Crest de Saint-Aubin. Learnt about this remarkable manual from another more contemporary book I have been reading, The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, a brilliant and engaging exploration of France and Frenchness.
I hear this phrase often from people and immediately start wondering if their normal mode of speech is dishonesty and in this instance they are favoring me with honesty. The phrase itself is usually just a verbal tick--a watered down conspirational tone--to draw others to one's side. To be honest, it is best avoided.
I feel obliged to inform you of the reason for the paucity of posts on this blog. I have been busy for the past six months on a startup (software) which has swallowed all my spare time like a blackhole eating light. The gravitational well I have fallen seems to be too deep to send any signals except the occasional random tunnelling like this post. I expect another half a year to go before I can get any down time. But, being a incurable optimist, I hope to manage the juggling in the coming weeks. Some book news. Work on TheScian SF book is due to finish this week for US and European…
When we are young, we have it easy. Unfounded confidence and untested convictions informed much of my muddling through as I tried growing up. Whether I have grown up or have just aged is open to interpretation. In any case, I am not young anymore. As I near middle-age, inevitably, I keep looking out for the middle-ground--especially social and political middle-ground (typical of a liberal and a moderate, you say). Where does it lie, the middle-ground? Where is that space that exists between Light and Dark, Charity and Humanity, Left and Right, Rational and Emotional?
The name Facebook comes from college yearbooks where photos of classmates are stuck and things are scribbled on. The scribblings are some(many?)times deeply regretted later in life. As most of you who read this may already know, Zuckerberg who started Facebook is young and reckless (not unusual in itself, but his success with Facebook is). His stand on privacy is that of someone who is out of his depth and not that of someone who is a revolutionary. You can read an interesting and critical analysis here. I quote:Zuckerberg and gang may think that they know what's best for society, for…
Bare bones to grind food inside our head.
Trying to place science and literature in their proper places in my head. The story so far... If Science is an undertaking to find Absolute Truths, then what is Literature with a dominant scientific theme (like Ian McEwan's Solar or E. O. Wilson's Anthill)? Literature can't take the place of science in leading us to absolute truths. So what is it for? To me, it appears to be an undertaking to talk about the path, the exploration itself. Measured discourse (good literature), as it does always, can illuminate the way--ahead of us and behind us. More than the illumination, it is--for those who…
Crab Nebula Caesium-133 atom has 551,557,906,200 heartbeats per minute Humans have 70 heartbeats per minute Sun has 1 heartbeat every 11 years Crab Nebula pulsar has 1812 heartbeats per minute Wondering what's the purpose of all this time keeping.
Still alive. Still listening to music. Here's a few from my playlist this morning. Sophia by Nerina Pallot Les Etoiles (The Stars) by Melody Gargot (check out her lickable website and who she is). A Sunday Smile by Zach Condon (wish he made more music) Pourquoi me réveiller (Why do you wake me?) from Werther by Josha Bell ("Pearls Before Breakfast", a Pulitzer prize winning essay about Bell)