thescian | July 6, 2009Essay at NY Times by Anand Giridhardas. Nuanced and well written. You can read more at his blog.
thescian | July 3, 2009Listened to an interview at All In the Mind[link corrected] with David Eagleman, Neuroscientist, novelist.
David Eagleman: ...if I were to take a piano and I were to hit the high note and then I would hit the low note and I would ask you which one is brighter,what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: I would say the high note.
David Eagleman: Right, and if I asked you which one is bigger what would you say?
Natasha Mitchell: The low note, weirdly enough.
David Eagleman: Yeah, right. Well it turns out everybody does that, it turns out everybody gives the same answer to that, which is really…
thescian | June 22, 2009The French president has spoken in favor of Legislation against women wearing burka in public recently. I agree with the assessment that burka is a symbol of servitude. When women wear it for cultural and religious reasons, they are, as Sarkozy says, prisoners behind netting, cut off from all social life, deprived of identity.
But, what if some women like to wear burka for reasons they choose independantly for themselves? Replace Burka with Hoodies or some other striking dress code and you'll see what I mean. Why should their act be banned in public, just because the majority does not like it…
thescian | June 21, 2009This year's contest announcement is up at TheScian.com. Get going. There are three prizes and a book deal up for grabs.
With the selected stories of this year, we'll have a fantastic collection of stories for our first book. Four years in the making! Thanks to all the participants and readers.
While you are tender with good intentions, can I snag you for a little survey so we know what's in store for TheScian Stories Book? Click here to take it (opens in a pop-up window) or use the direct link.
thescian | June 21, 2009With my daughter at a nearby park. To fatherhood, to memories. Warm wishes from one father to others.
thescian | June 17, 2009I am sitting at the window seat of the Alitalia flight. It is flying over the Italian alps near Milan, few minutes away from landing. The sun is setting behind the alps creating a vast dynamic art that sweeps slowly across as the aircraft moves over the mountains; a small house besides a stream in the valley beneath, clouds resting halfway up the mountains. And, this is just in the tiny bit of earth and sky that I happened to pass through. Spectacular, sublime, artistic beyond human comprehension.
What is Art? Can art be for itself, without a context, without a witness? Universe as an…
thescian | June 9, 2009The human brain is easily bored (yes, even amidst sex) that there are many happily married couple who would forgo sex and instead watch a comedy show. The operative word to remedy the situation is, of course, Variation. Here is an interesting read on this subject, especially the comments, at NY Times.
thescian | June 9, 2009Comprehensive review of the state of affairs at New Scientist. Surprisingly, the biological mechanism and the reason (or lack of it) for this is still not well known. My last conversation about this was about 12 years ago with a medical student friend of mine in college who obsessed over female ejaculation (he went on to win the top rank at his university, so, I guess it was a healthy obsession). Nothing much has been added to our understanding in all these years, it seems. Is this the female equivalent of moobs (man-boobs)?
thescian | June 3, 2009
The Red Planet is all over the revamped IEEE Spectrum website. I enjoyed reading Kim Stanley Robinson's 10 Favorite Mars Novels and CMU Team's Google Lunar X Prize efforts. There is an interview with Madhavan Nair, head of ISRO, podcasts by astronauts and more. Hop over to Why Mars? Why Now?
thescian | June 3, 2009Racists, Nazi-sympathisers. It's a typical example of how, if you let them, the ugly-at-heart would try to twist democratic processes to grab power. Stop them.
Here's view under the hood.
thescian | May 29, 2009Warning: Artsy-fartsy post.
Read this article on Francis Bacon, a unique artist. His painting of the head in a cube (that's Pope X) kept me disturbed for many days and nights. Later in life, Bacon hated having painted this, saying it was a mistake to engage with Velázquez's original. That could be true within the context of artistic skill. However, it is useless denying the fundamental need for a young artist to re-examine the past, particularly when it could be potentially shocking. Artists love to shock and parody other artists. Taking the head of an authority figure--who is more…
thescian | May 27, 2009How can you see hummingbirds, roses, orchids and not believe in Lord's splendor? But, if you're going to look at those things, you should look at other things, too. Think of an African boy with a parasitic worm boring into his eye. If you tell me God not only created but cares for us all, what about that boy? Are you telling me he says: "I understand. God deliberately created a worm that is going to blind me?" I find that intolerable.-David Attenborough in a recent New Scientist interview.*
As an optimist, I believe people are curious by nature and don't want to be willfully ignorant (…
thescian | May 25, 2009
. So, Mark Vernon wants us hard-nosed realists to feel warm and fuzzy. From this BBC post:
A prize-winning quantum physicist says a spiritual reality is veiled from us, and science offers a glimpse behind that veil. So how do scientists investigating the fundamental nature of the universe assess any role of God, asks Mark Vernon.
Before anything, a note on the aforementioned prize winning physicist: It's Bernard d'Espagnat, a French physicist, and more importantly, the prize is The Templeton Prize (aha, that explains it). Firstly, who and what the heck is God. Secondly, what the hell does…
thescian | May 24, 2009This news at the beebs.
A Catholic church in Malaysia which prays to Allah has prompted a court case over who can use the word.
Muslim leaders say Islam should be the only faith to use it, saying its use in other faiths could lead to confusion and conversions.
The medieval argument to own god's name has taken a modern twist: that of trademark ownership. I don't think there is a legally sound case here. But, this is in Malaysia and things may be different there.
thescian | May 19, 2009A few days back, I happened to watch a few scenes of an old Star Trek episode. There was the usual fare of beam-me-ups, tea materializer, mother levitator, etc. And then there was the Matter Displacement Detector. That piqued my interest. This device allows the Star Trek crew to check if there was someone at a place in the past. Presumably, the said person left eddies in the spacetime continuum that can be detected to ascertain the presence of the person in question. Naturally, I started wondering if the physics behind it is plausible in some way. It was not explained in the episode, so we…
thescian | May 16, 2009Watched this delightful interview by Gabby Logan with Agassi and Graf, two of my favorite tennis players when I was young. It was more than just two former professional tennis players talking. Very smart and very self-aware. I've grown fond of this couple even more now.
The greatest sports piece ever written. Foster Wallace on Federer. Reading it again. Poignant when you know that David Foster Wallace was a child prodigy who played tennis really well before taking up writing, and then dying. Sad, sad, sad.
The second best sports writing, written in 1960 by John Updike on Ted Williams, the…