thescian | July 5, 2007How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart, NY Times
At Costco, one of Mr. Sinegal's[CEO of Costco] cardinal rules is that no branded item can be marked up by more than 14 percent, and no private-label item by more than 15 percent. In contrast, supermarkets generally mark up merchandise by 25 percent, and department stores by 50 percent or more.
"They could probably get more money for a lot of items they sell," said Ed Weller, a retailing analyst at ThinkEquity.
But Mr. Sinegal warned that if Costco increased markups to 16 or 18 percent, the company might slip down a dangerous slope and lose…
thescian | July 5, 2007Science Fiction Writers of the world! Unite, and invade Nature! Nature earlier had (I didn't know, I don't have access to the journals) a science fiction feature called Futures and now it's back again.
Futures is the award-winning science-fiction section of Nature. Contributions are usually commissioned, but unsolicited articles are welcome. Each Future should be an entirely fictional, self-contained story between 850-950 words in length, and the genre should, broadly speaking, be 'hard' (that is, 'scientific' SF) rather than, say, outright fantasy, slipstream or horror. Each item should be…
thescian | July 4, 2007Imagine this: Tie a thread around the earth's equator. Then, say, you let the thread out by 2*Pi metres (Pi=Ï, the mathematical constant) to make a thread circle that stands slightly above the earth's equator. Now, how far above the surface of the equator will the thread stand? In other words, what's the difference between new radius of the thread circle and the original radius (original radius being the earth's equatorial radius)?
This question was posed by Ramanujan, the mathematical genius from India, to a young student he was tutoring in Madras. The answer is so counter-intutive that I…
thescian | July 4, 2007I was checking site stats for thescian.com. Apparently, when a hopeful youngman searches for "get an erection with my mind", google leads him to the Crawling On the Clayball essay!
Please hang on a moment while I awkwardly roll on the tiny doormat laughing.
The youngman should perhaps try the new sexy european youtube channel. (Not impressed with the link? Alright,here it is, your moment of nirvana. Probably, NSFW)
thescian | July 3, 2007The review is here [Guardian]. I have read Gandhi's My Experiments with Truth twice so far: once in school and then again while doing my undergraduation. It had a great influence on me during my younger years and I still owe much to the book for showing what passion and commitment to one's belief means. The second reading was at a time when I was very impressionable which naturally led me into the moral servitude of abstinence from meat. I served time for 6 years and casually broke the abstinence during a fine dinner in a Namakkal hotel with spicy chicken. The reason: I had realized my…
thescian | July 3, 2007Are we a sane civilization or not, asks Science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson in a WIRED interview about his new ecological trilogy.
I'm hoping the scientific community continues to go off like a fire alarm in a hotel, just as they have for the last five years, and that that will do the trick. If they do, the democracies, the political leadership and even big business will all recognize that this is a real threat. And we're seeing enough of the effects, even without catastrophic weather. Take glaciers, for example, which are melting so fast, and it turns out they are the source of…
thescian | July 2, 2007After a few signalling incidents (yelling, screaming, and other fun things), I've ordered the book for folks at home. As for myself, I use common sense, pieces of paper, calendar application, and stochastic efficiency to organize my daily affairs. [Stochastic efficiency? Make a list of tasks - the key is in making them simple but no simpler and unquestionably clear, choose one task from the list at random, finish it, choose the next, rinse and repeat]
I have a healthy suspicion of books that claim breakthroughs in helping us manage our affairs. Still, I recognize that they may help us get…
thescian | June 29, 2007Catching up on readings I had saved up.
Edge essay. WHY DO SOME PEOPLE RESIST SCIENCE? By Paul Bloom and Deena Skolnick Weisberg
Pankaj Mishra's review of The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future by Martha C. Nussbaum.
Battle of the book reviews. Book review on a blog? Nah! You can't be serious!. There's middle ground. There's got to be. Blogs are here to stay.
A plug for TheScian Science Fiction Story Contest. The stories have started trickling in. Don't hurry, though. There's time. Only your very best submission please.
thescian | June 28, 2007The news is this: rich chinese men flagellate on animal penis to soften the blows of midlife crisis. Some time back there was another news about an abandoned boat near a big chinese city that was full of rare animals, starving and at the verge of dying. The newly minted rich in the land of manufactoring-plants need some alternate vocation to eating penises; unsuspecting animals may go extinct otherwise.
thescian | June 28, 2007The Machine Stops is a short story by E M Forster, which he wrote as a reaction to one of H G Wells's optimistic stories. I have read through part of the story and I must confess I find the vocabulary outdated, but that should not surprise anyone, since all science fiction stories run that risk. Here's an interesting section where Vashti, mother of Kuno, is asked by the forlorn son to visit her. They live on either side of the planet, underground in honeycomb like rooms that are plugged into The Machine. The Machine is the all pervading, life sustaining system, a new god created out of…
thescian | June 26, 2007Scientific American July Issue.
In other news, Nature has started Scintilla, a service that keeps you up to date on papers, news and science weblogs. You can also rate and recommend things. You'll have to register to do anything and you can't have a RSS feed (What!! My browser doesn't run on free fuel, you know; I can't take it everywhere. Give me RSS feeds or lose me).
Seed did a great job in spotting the trend early.
thescian | June 26, 2007Intelligent Religion is Religion. This isn't news. The news is: UK Government has said so, shoving witless non-science like Intelligent Design and Creationism back into the holes they came from.
"The Government is aware that a number of concerns have been raised in the media and elsewhere as to whether creationism and intelligent design have a place in science lessons. The Government is clear that creationism and intelligent design are not part of the science National Curriculum programmes of study and should not be taught as science." -Reported in The Register
thescian | June 25, 2007What are we going to do with the stupid? Assuming, of course, that you and me are not stupid. A contentious and explosive question in its political and moral implications. A New Scientist opinion piece:
They are the individuals who lie at the bottom of the normal range of human intelligence. I'm not talking about people with learning difficulties; these people are generally protected and helped by the state. I mean those too bright to qualify for such assistance but not clever enough to thrive easily in today's knowledge-based society.
The unfairness these people face is shocking. It is…
thescian | June 25, 2007Is NHS (UK's National Health Service) turning into a wonderland? Magical magnets have been approved to screw the desperate - poor and elderly, usually, the ones who need proper treatment and not some wacko prescription.
The accountants at the Prescription Pricing Authority have decided that the "the magnets will save money on bandages and nurses' time by healing the wounds." I dare say they could save even more money by removing all effective treatments. -David Colquhoun at Improbable Science
thescian | June 24, 2007Driving in India is a unique and beguiling experience. There are many lessons to learn, and in the end of it all, you will attain Nirvana, the quintessential Indian state of non-being.
Roads in and around Bangalore are like earth's oceans during the Cambrian period; an explosion of unpredictable shapes and forms slither around; cars of various sizes and personalities, bullock carts, plastic eating cows, buffaloes that shamelessly shit in the middle of the road, cyclists carrying shipping containers, mopeds on a death run, and colorful pedestrians dodging predatorial vehicles.
Bangalore…
thescian | June 22, 2007Ladies and gentlemen, no need for any introductions.
[via reddit]
Senile Age, I abhor thee. Sensible Youth, I adore thee. Here is a young student who shows the idiocy of a priest who is unaware that the pulpit reeks.
Long time ago I lived in Boulder. I was new to the country and was channel surfing. I saw O'Reilly speaking assuredly of things he didn't understand. Well, I didn't know who he was then; I didn't know the channel he was on either, and thought, hey, this guy seems smart and sure. When I mentioned it the next day to an american colleague, he gave a bemused smile. It wasn't long…
thescian | June 21, 2007Lawence Lessig has annouced his decision to shift his focus from IP related issues to solving the problem of Corruption for the next ten years. Bravo! He defines corruption thus:
"Corruption" ... the subtle pressure to take views or positions because of the financial reward they will bring you. link
thescian | June 20, 2007India, it is, informs beebs. The condom ring, powered by a small battery, vibrates apparently. As expected, the moral police would have no vibrations anywhere near their genital regions and are protesting at this atrocity.
Given the number of AIDS cases in India (around 5 million, official figures are lower), condoms need all the attention they can draw among Indians. Vibrating condoms, condoms that can check for STDs, condoms that can make coffee, condoms that do the dishes.. we need all sorts of innovative products.
thescian | June 20, 2007Scientific Curiosity is a science blog that I chanced upon via India Blogs 1.0. As always I started looking through the posts to find one that had science and sex in it (Don't look at me like that. Isn't sexy posts the reason why you read my blog?). And, sure, I found one: Haig hypothesis.
it relates the development of a baby to the parent's inherent fidelity. The hypothesis, put forth by David Haig, predicts that Mom and Dad have different interests when in it comes to the development of their baby in any non-monogamous species, and hence imprint genes that are involved in growth of the…