thescian
Posts by this author
March 12, 2010
A poo bag that can make a difference to a lot of people in need, especially women and children. The PeePoo site.
[via NDTV, thanks Ramya.]
March 4, 2010
Is there a difference between thinking and thinking hard? I mean, thinking is thinking. How can you say if someone is thinking hard or not?
Well, I am going to first call on Newton to tell you what that difference is. Newton said, `If others would think as hard as I did, then they would get similar…
March 4, 2010
Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth
Schopenhauer in the introduction to "The World as Will and Representation". The introduction is quite remarkable and lucid for a heavyweight philosophical book. If you are wondering what the book's obscure title means, first…
March 4, 2010
4 March 2010: BBC News. At least 60 people have died in a stampede after the gate of a Hindu temple collapsed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Previous Stampedes
14 Jan 2010. Seven die in India temple festival stampede
Sep 30, 2008. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city…
March 3, 2010
The finest explanation I've read so far. In Margaret Atwood's post-climate-catastrophic novel Oryx and Crake. Snowman, a battered survivor is slowly losing his mind and memories."What is toast?" says Snowman to himself, once they've run off. Toast is when you take a piece of bread - What is bread?…
March 2, 2010
An important ruling on data retention by German Federal court that sets the politicians and beaurocrats straight.Germany's highest court on Tuesday overturned a law allowing authorities to retain data on telephone calls and e-mail traffic to help fight terrorism and crime. The Federal Constitution…
February 26, 2010
The aspiration to truth is more precious than its assured possession. -German playwright and philosopher Gotthold Lessing.
From TheScian Photos
Einstein noted this quote in an autobiographical note he wrote a month before he died [Chapter 26, Subtle is the Lord, Abraham Pias]. The later part of…
February 17, 2010
G H Hardy once said numbers would exist even if the universe did not. The zoom below takes us into that alternate mathethematical reality which appears to be more richer and deeper than our physical one.
Mandelbrot Fractal Set Trip To e214 HD from teamfresh on Vimeo.
Via kottke
February 14, 2010
Conversation with my two year old daughter this morning.
Daughter: [looks at a picture book involving tigers] Where is the mummy tiger, daddy?
Me: It has gone for hunting, Nidhi.
Daughter: No, daddy. It has gone to a shop to buy baby-corn.
February 8, 2010
Silence the expression of two pesky genes, and hey presto! you've got a tomato that stays fresh for as long as a month or more. Clearly this is a very useful trait for fruits and vegetables in India where Things Fall ApartTM--even when they are inside the freezer. Kudos to the scientists at…
February 7, 2010
You get a square! More exciting mathematical thoughts in the latest edition of Steven Strogatz NY Times column.
January 31, 2010
Steven Strogatz is beginning a column in NY Times aimed at you and me. Not to be missed.I have a friend who gets a tremendous kick out of science, even though he's an artist. Whenever we get together all he wants to do is chat about the latest thing in evolution or quantum mechanics. But when it…
January 29, 2010
You may know that a while ago the swiss voted to ban any new minarets from being built. And now comes this. A local court in Switzerland has upheld a basketball headscarf ban. From the beebs:A Muslim woman has failed to overturn a ban stopping her from wearing a headscarf during league basketball…
January 20, 2010
"Brain 'entanglement' could explain memories"[New Scientist] is a bit of a hyperbolic title. Oh, what's in a title, you ask. Quite a lot. For instance, you can be mislead into thinking that there is a connection between quantum entanglement and the phenomenon of human memory. Aforementioned New…
January 18, 2010
Chesnut School Lane, Amersham.
A few days back when England was covered in a bit of snow, an image on the television screen caught my eye. An aerial camera was showing a highway from above--for a moment the snow covered trees and houses looked like they were engulfed in thick white clouds. Snow…
January 13, 2010
14 Jan 2010. Seven die in India temple festival stampede
Previous stampedes.
Sep 30, 2008. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city of Jodhpur.
August 3. 140 dead. 40 children. Stampede at the Nainadevi temple, Himachal Pradesh.
July. 6 dead. Stampede at Jagannath temple, Orissa.
March…
January 13, 2010
I am reading "Einstein, a life", by Denis Brian. The book is remarkable--a two decade long labor of great love and reading. Quoted in the book is a dinner conversation where Einstein is asked about his religion by someone at the dinner:"What?" exclaimed Kerr. "It isn't possible! I must ask him…
January 11, 2010
Seems it does. I hear a distinct change of sound outside now that there is a lot of snow covering up things.
December 28, 2009
First the name. Avatar--if you play computer games, you may know this very well--is a character you use inside an unreal world. The word Avatar has its origins in Indian mythology. An Avatar (ava-tara in Sanskrit) is god's visit to earth to fix something that is broken. Vishnu, one of the three…
December 18, 2009
See here for more.
In other news: I've gone quiet over the past weeks due to complete absorption in a few personal projects (TheScian SF Book is one of them). Regular blogging should resume next year.
Seeing Avatar movie tomorrow (3D). There would probably be a weekend post if the movie is very…
December 8, 2009
A passionate and poetic talk by Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor about the nature of our brain and what it entails. She describes her very own perception of a stroke she had. Quite extraordinary. Here's an old post about split brain for some more background.
December 2, 2009
Suketu Mehta writes of greed and irresponsibility over Bhopal. :Union Carbide and Dow were allowed to get away with it because of the international legal structures that protect multinationals from liability. Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary and pulled out of India. Warren Anderson, the…
December 1, 2009
at TheScian.com. Enjoy. The authors would be glad to see your comments and--am sure--would happily respond.
The stories are a break from the past. They are uncompromising, and hence, I hope, will give the reader the rare satisfaction of a thoughtful discussion, rather than superficial entertainment…
November 22, 2009
Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the participants. The stories will go online at TheScian.com within a few days.
First prize - "Stalker" by Shuchikar (author's penname)
Second prize - "On board the Ark" by Ankit Bhardwaj
Third prize - "Dropping Off" by Ramanand
I am pleased to say…
November 19, 2009
My father recalled sometime back the terrible drought that happened when he was a child: since the grains were running low, my grandfather would go out and dig tubers from surrounding fields, my grandmother would make something out of it for the kids. It is an experience that is far removed from my…
November 18, 2009
I often go to a small woods near our home in Amersham with my daughter. Recently, I came to know a bit of history about the place that gave me a rude awakening and bought home the evil that pervaded societies in the form of Catholic Church in the past centuries (the evil still is there, in a more…
November 14, 2009
Folks, the SF contest results will be delayed by a week. Unforeseen travel has intervened. I'll get the results out next Sunday, 22 Nov.