thescian
Posts by this author
January 28, 2011
This is the last blip before Scienceblogs.com/thescian fades into the background. I am no more a blogger. The past few years has been a memorable journey and your company was wonderful. A big thank you to you, the readers, and to Scienceblogs who made this a great experience for me.
Please visit…
January 3, 2011
So, wife asked me what's with connectedness of the stuff in this world, synchronicity and such. Well, there is much to say. Let's take this, for instance: Place the picture of a BZ reaction snapshot and a CMB picture side by side. One is a chemical reaction in a small dish, the other is a seven…
December 30, 2010
I find myself scrubbing (my own person, that is, please read on) vigorously without being aware only to realize later that I am listening to a fast-paced music while bathing. Most of you would have experienced the connection between music and pace of physical action. Amateur observations made while…
December 16, 2010
Go here. There's a search box to look for organs. Quite neat.
December 14, 2010
A remarkable and inspiring presentation of data. Dr Rosling, of course, has been pioneering this for a while now.
There is a recent piece in the Economist which I found informative as well. More vidoes linked here.
November 1, 2010
The thing is, it is dark, but wait, actually, it is not. I mean...
October 28, 2010
That's Narayanan Krishnan, who has dedicated his life to feeding the poor in Madurai. You can vote for him at CNN Heroes 2010. He could use the prize money.
October 28, 2010
So, there's a new heavier neutron star that has been found.
Here's a question: How close can we physically get to it while still keeping most of the atoms in our body intact? We seem to be OK at 3000 light years. Would we be fine at 10 light years, 1 light year, 5000 miles? I suppose if we figure…
October 25, 2010
NYT should be ashamed of itself. The readers know a shit piece when they see it and they make it known in no uncertain terms.
Here's a recent interview with John Le Carré at Writers & Company where he discusses the backdrop (Deep State, as he calls it) and the strangling effect it has on…
October 24, 2010
Ed Witten, the physicist whom many consider a man of genius, has had remarkable early years. Below was linked at Hacker News.
How long will you need to find your truest, most productive niche? This I cannot predict, for, sadly, access to a podium confers no gift of prophecy. But I can say that…
October 7, 2010
Man can only have a certain quantity of hair, teeth and ideas. There comes a time when he necessarily loses his teeth, his hair and his ideas. -Voltaire.
October 3, 2010
Real High Definition as it is called [link]. Allows you to see Leonardo da Vinci's genius at close range. At this range the canvas appears to be quite like human skin--the colors, shadows and cracks on the canvas, extraordinary. Looking at this, I had one of those moments inside my head when the…
September 30, 2010
In cases of unclear legal grounds, a proper court judgement is one that leaves all parties mildly dissatisfied. The Ayodhya verdict may be one such judgement and that is a good thing.
September 28, 2010
There much ado about like at Beebs after actress Thompson was, like, very upset by, like, words and such. This comment by a reader named Colin was very clever.
Comparing "like" to "um" and "ah" as a filler/thought pause is okay, but there's one major difference. The listener can easily filter out…
September 16, 2010
What does it mean to me? Mostly, I am annoyed. There are more annoyed people commenting at beebs.
This is a state visit. If you are wondering which state the Pope hails from, it's the state of Vatican and it's a monarchy. The Pope is the monarch of Vatican. Seriously. What should we do in UK,…
September 13, 2010
Audio at The Guardian. Great fun listening to them talk so freely, especially the last minute when Attenborough shares a good laugh with Dawkins.
September 12, 2010
So, I was taking a trip down memory lane (via a data backup CD created 8 years ago) and found this poem saved up for later reading. Not sure why I had this particular one saved. Anyho, here it is.
My young son asks me
Bertolt Brecht
My young son asks me: Must I learn mathematics?
What is the use,…
September 9, 2010
Here's the thing about Google Instant: it's a rather nifty thing but that's not what is important. What is crucial is the introduction of 'a new kind of "conversational" search interaction'. So, now you can talk to the search engine. Microsoft tried this paradigm some years ago, I think, with some…
September 9, 2010
A NY Times article on the remarkable and inspiring response of two women who lost their husbands in the September 11 attacks.
The woman, Susan Retik, has pursued perhaps the most unexpected and inspiring American response to the 9/11 attacks. This anniversary of Sept. 11 feels a little ugly to me,…
September 3, 2010
This recent research is a significant finding on what could be the cause and potential cures.
August 20, 2010
A seemingly simple question. It's what a hot or cold body--any body, for that matter--has. And, the perfectly valid answer. But, Nature, as we have learnt over the course of humanity's scientific discoveries, is like an onion without a core, it's layers all the way. So, after we peel the question…
August 18, 2010
Plug Computer
Every hackers dream (certainly my dream, in any case) is a dozen of these chugging away quietly in the basement, in the living room, in the bathroom, in the car, in the bike... providing all the services that make living a thrill. What services, you ask. Let's see. Here's a few I can…
August 18, 2010
are acute especially when those carrying it are active in sports like running. Some recent updates at NY Times.
August 13, 2010
The story so far: We really don't know much. This being from a very very smart person (she's the most cited physicist?), I look forward to an exciting future in physics.
August 12, 2010
This is inspiring stuff. From Economist:
SANTOSH OSTWAL, husband and father of two, lost his apartment in 2001 after quitting his job in Pune to solve an engineering problem he'd been thinking about for twenty years. Today his solution - a mobile-phone adaptation that triggers irrigation pumps…
August 12, 2010
Am sure many of you are following the latest developments [Geomblog , Lipton] with interest. P vs NP is one of The Millennium Problems. Here's a neat explanation of the problem with the use of Minesweeper game.
August 11, 2010
Recently saw Laura Barrett (Canadian Indie musician) playing the Kalimba. Great sound and so compact.
Tenori-on. On the other side of Kalimba in simplicity. But, very cool.
And, Vuvuzela. :-)
August 10, 2010
Al Jazeera coverage.
BBC reports on how when the government is inept, militant groups fill the gap.
August 10, 2010
Alfred Russel Wallace was a great traveller, observer, collector and naturalist who lived at the same time as Darwin. He sent Darwin his thoughts on evolution of species after extensive observations around the world, especially in and around Borneo. This accelarated Darwin to publish his…