thescian

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August 22, 2006
The latest Make Podcast has a PDF download that provides some helpful instructions for freezing snails and reviving them back. The snails, I have been informed, take a rather cold view of my characterization about the instructions being 'helpful'. The PDF also has some fascinating history about a…
August 19, 2006
I know you are curious. It's not the one you think. Find out what it is at witnwisdumb speak.
August 19, 2006
The BBC reports on a religious madness in the great city of Mumbai.Hundreds of people flocked to a beach in the Indian city of Mumbai after reports the seawater had turned sweet. Several people who drank the muddy water from the Arabian Sea said it had been changed by a miracle and could now cure…
August 18, 2006
Colbert thrashes the new planets. Neil de Grass Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium, of New York City is on the show. A planet is something that's round?
August 18, 2006
A long and hard look at the current religious and political climate in Europe. I am glad to see the author end the essay with a hopeful note. I was looking for a better understanding of these issues after listening to a muslim colleague describe an incident that happened to him on the train. A…
August 18, 2006
The book tagging meme is back! I love it. Arunn of Nonoscience has a nice list up and has passed on the book love to yours truly. So here goes. One book that changed your life?"The Real Man" by Boris Polevoi. I read the tamil translation from Mir Publishers. One book you have read more than once?"…
August 18, 2006
Yesterday, as I was talking to my brother-in-law near the Amersham Library park, two young girls aged about 15 walk up to us and one of them says, "EXCUSE ME! Can I have a cigarette?". If I were a psychologist, this would be the time to delve into the development (or retardation) of juvenile minds…
August 17, 2006
Your truly's responses to a bunch of fun questions asked by Seed Magazine's Katharine Sharpe. This would be a weekly feature at Page 3.14, the blog by Seed editors. Keep a tab on the page. More accomplished men and women of science would feature there in future. Enjoy.
August 17, 2006
A new program at the National Geographic channel that gets into the science of martial arts. [via]
August 17, 2006
Lose what? The thing between our ears, dear reader. New brain cells die if they don't receive any inputs after they are formed. See this report in New Scientist. The experimenters used a virus to block inputs to the newly formed brain cells of a mice.
August 17, 2006
An article in The Boston Globe on the recent research about how we make moral judgements."MORAL PHILOSOPHERS and academics interested in studying how humans choose between right and wrong often use thought experiments to tease out the principles that inform our decisions. One particular…
August 16, 2006
Toxoplasma must be one of the most mind-boggling (oh! sweet pun!) parasite. Maggie Wittlin has a fascinating report about this parasite at Seed Magazine."In a paper published in the online edition of Proceedings of the Royal Society, United States Geological Survey researcher Kevin Lafferty argues…
August 16, 2006
If you haven't yet visited Hansdehar, a village in the Haryana state, here's where you go for a glimpse. More villages will come online says the Smartvillages.org website. The initiative by Samanvay Welfare Society (I can't find a link. The link at Smartvillages.org is broken) is a smart one. The…
August 15, 2006
Head over to nonoscience where Arunn has a very cool collection of science posts for the 20th edition of Melt.
August 15, 2006
A report at IHT on the perky little electric car called Reva that you may have seen in Bangalore."We were looking at making a car for the crowded new cities in India and China, not a green vehicle for the Californian market," he said. Amen. And, they sell it in Europe. My next car may as well be…
August 15, 2006
Today is India's Independence day. I was born long after that day. Because my people had the courage and fortitude, I was born in a society that was free. I was born in a society that controlled its own destiny. Freedom is the breath of a society. It is the heartbeat of a country. Freedom is life.…
August 14, 2006
A single parent at 25, struggling to feed her three children by working as a maid for a series of exploitative employers, Ms. Halder had no time to devote to reading or to contemplating the harsh reality of her existence until she started work in the home of a sympathetic retired academic, who…
August 14, 2006
A post at Sowmya's blog caught my attention. The point being discussed there about reciting vedas is (I'll paraphrase), Can we use our vocal chords to increase our virility? Sounds like the vedic equivalent of viagra. I can already see many readers turning red with "blasphemy" written all over…
August 14, 2006
A friend of mine sent an invitation for his sister's wedding. This image was on it. Such fun! I love the way the image is done. All those fat buggers blowing and bangin happily. Wonderful caricature. For those not in the know, the long pipe instrument is Nathaswaram and the other one being banged…
August 14, 2006
[This short essay was written for Desipundit originally.] Foreplay Consider a city you know. Bangalore, for instance. The city looks congested and filthy down on the streets but looks remarkably different and even pretty from the 30th floor of a tall building. The city, of course, is still what…
August 12, 2006
The we-torture-and-kill-holy-cows show by Penn and Teller is up at Google videos free for your viewing pleasure. [via mf]
August 9, 2006
The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to…