thescian | March 4, 2007Taken by yours truly using his wobbly hands and a Sony DSC H2 camera from the backyard between 8 PM and 10:30 PM.
I thought I'd see a reddish hue as noted here. It was better. It was blue. A pebble in the sky. Magnificent.
thescian | March 1, 2007If you spend a lot of time peering into a window that opens into the World Wide Web, you may like using Verdana font set at a comfortable font size. I personally have set Firefox to ignore all site specific fonts and just use Verdana size 18 for all western fonts.
I've heard that Verdana is a poor choice as a web font for various reasons. I am not an expert on that but I know what I see and I see Verdana working well. My screen resolution is 1400 x 1050, the system is Microsoft Windows with ClearType installed.
If you run Windows, install ClearType. It's one of the genuinely good things to…
thescian | February 28, 2007Too skeptical for our own good. That's how someone characterized many scientists and science teaching on BBC Radio 4. I was listening yesterday morning where Lewis Wolpert*, the scientist and another gentlemen - apparently religious, whose name I forgot - were guests. Wolpert is an avowed atheist who was startled at one point when the other gentleman pulled the Origin of Universe question from his hat. Here's my recollection of the discussion.
"Surely, the origin of the universe has an explanation", he said.
"Perhaps, but saying god made the universe explains nothing. Who created god then…
thescian | February 26, 2007 Some personal search statistics from 2006. Almost all of these searches were done when I was not aware of google collecting data on my searches. I am mildly shocked - particularly when considering these numbers only represent a part of my actual searches and not the searches done when logged out. Addicted to Google, I suppose. We all are, isn't it.
thescian | February 25, 2007 To Martin Gardner
"Lines that are parallel
meet at Infinity!"
Euclid repeatedly,
heatedly,
urged
Until he died.
and so reached that vicinity:
in it he
found that the damned things
diverged.
*Poem quoted from the book Imaginary Numbers
*Piet Hein
thescian | February 22, 2007Over here. Arunn of Nonoscience takes the second prize in Sci/Tech category. Wonderful. Congrats to all the winners and pariticipants. Cheers, beers, etc.
We should hopefully have separate categories for Science and Technology next year. There are lot of excellent science blogs and it would be good not to lump them with tech blogs that are not focussed on science.
thescian | February 22, 2007So, you read my story a while back and want to know how are things now. Thanks for asking. Things have gone from 'no more tech support' to 'my mother does her own installation'. She has installed amsn to do video chat with us (take that Skype). amsn works across platforms and uses my iSight webcam just fine.
Of course, I walked my mother through the installation. As she says, she didn't educate me for nothing. She hit all the right buttons on Synaptic ( and sometimes the wrong ones too - luckily with no harmful effects.). Hey Presto! She saw me digging my nose via iSight video and felt all…
thescian | February 22, 2007A Beebs report on the looming sex ratio problem in China that caught my attention.
thescian | February 22, 2007The large insect - almost two feet in length - was hiding in the loft. It looked like an enlarged scorpion with the legs and head of a cockroach. I could see it hiding because the antennae were visible and rubbing the walls. I stood transfixed at the door, my body shivering with excitement and terror. I am going to kill it I said, my voice hoarse with animal rage. My chins hurt. I was grinding my teeth hard. My ears must have lost their hearing. I could not hear any sound. My right hand clenched the large sword; the sword quivered. A vague perception wedged itself into my mind - the sword's…
thescian | February 21, 2007Being sick helps you survive says Sharon Moalem, author of Survival of the Sickest. A condition where the body stores a lot of iron may have led to the the survival of a large number of people after the years of Black Death, the author describes in a New Scientist article. "Iron overload was once thought a very rare condition - a medical curiosity. But since the first genetic mutations for haemochromatosis were discovered in 1996, it has turned out to be much more common than we realised among those whose ancestors come from north or west Europe. The current estimate is that 1 in 200 of this…
thescian | February 16, 2007I hope to move TheScian.com to a new host over this weekend. Sit tight. I am also hoping to make some changes to the site. All in the coming weeks. First the move, though.
Update: Alright. We've moved TheScian.com. On the way we lost some weight. Kitchen is closed. Many thanks for those who dropped by over the months. I have a copy of the sql dump if you want to nibble. What else..yes. Melt is over. It was good while it lasted. We'll do something else. Make a suggestion.
thescian | February 16, 2007 The little boy went to the corner of the hut and fished out a matchbox from his school bag. He had not told anyone about his secret pet: A Ponvandu*. The colorful insect emerged out of the matchbox when he slid the lid off; its body iridescent as it reflected the morning sunlight in myriad colors in a thousand angles. A bonsai version of an impossible aurora borealis. The wings covered a heavy body. It would have to think twice before flying. A peacock among the insects. The wings resembled - indeed more than just resembled - the shields of an ancient warrior. The wings defended the ponvandu…
thescian | February 13, 2007It has been a while since I click-scratched google's back. So here. *grin*. There's more if you have clicks to spare.
thescian | February 13, 2007"The Elements of Style". Prescriptive. Precise. Buy it for the elegant introduction by E B White. Read the original text online.
thescian | February 13, 2007Flashing giant squids at the beebs. The video is scary.Enormous deep-sea squid emit blinding flashes of light as they attack their prey, research shows.
Taningia danae's spectacular light show was revealed in video footage taken in deep waters off Chichijima Island in the North Pacific.
Japanese scientists believe the creatures use the bright flashes to disorientate potential victims.
thescian | February 13, 2007A 25 million dollar prize is open for an invention that can eat substantial amount of carbon out of the atmosphere. News at Nature."The winner must be able to demonstrate a commercially viable design which will result in the net removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric, greenhouse gases each year for at least ten years without countervailing harmful effects," state the written rules of the competition. It must "contribute materially to the stability of the Earth's climate".
The winning entry could be anything from manufacturing bacteria to install in industrial emissions pipes, to creating a…
thescian | February 13, 2007Sean at Cosmic Variance points out the disingenuity of oil industry which encourages skeptics among climate scientists.
thescian | February 12, 2007Yes? Here's an opportunity to correct your mistakes.
Debashish fell over the keyboard when working late in the night. Your votes in the Science/Technology were lost. Go vote once more, will ya.
thescian | February 11, 2007A conversation between my two year old neice and her mother (my sister).
"Let me check your temperature, Nethra."
Nethra waits patiently as my sister sticks the thermometer into her mouth. After the thermometer is pulled out Nethra makes a motion as though she was eating the thermometer.
"No, Nethra! You can't eat temperature. It's not like food. You have to read it."
A harmless category error (ascribing a property to something that cannot have that property). Adults make category errors too - claiming Creationism as Science, for instance; a bit more subtle but certainly not as harmless as…