thescian
Posts by this author
November 21, 2008
This seems like the future for the truly lazy ones who pile up papers all over their desk.
Impressive. But, can they match this:
November 17, 2008
My 11 month old daughter loves electric lights. If you visit my home, you may often find me standing near the switch and flicking it on and off while the daughter watches and squeals in delight. Today morning we were playing our switching game and I explained to her with much drama how photons are…
November 15, 2008
First prizeAski's Choice by Rinku Dutta
Second prize21 Minutes by Rahul Jaisheel
Sponsored prizeNoah's Ark by Narendra Desirazu
Selected storiesLive and Exclusive by Aditya Sudarshan (winner of our first scifi contest in 2006)
Touchstone by J Ramanand (winner of the contest in 2007)
Of Resolutions…
November 14, 2008
The realization of a dream. I believe we still need an inspiring campaign to create awareness and thereby generate enthusiasm among the taxpayers. Whatever lies ahead, this is a great day for the thousands of scientists and engineers who have made this possible.
November 13, 2008
The latest New Scientist magazine has soundbites from writers like Gibson and Atwood and much else. Give it a read.
E M Forster in Aspects of The Novel, asks a pertinent question: Will the mirror get a new coat of quicksilver? Will the creative process itself alter? (By mirror he means novels, and…
November 10, 2008
via BBC.
Learn more:at Reporters Without Borders
at Committee to protect bloggers
November 10, 2008
The winners have been decided. We have an exceptional story as a winner this year. Picking it as the winner was not hard.
I have been mulling over five stories for the past week - any of them could be chosen for the second prize. These stories are all excellent and I loathe to choose. In the end,…
November 6, 2008
Chandrayaan-1 has entered the phase where in two days it'll start circling the moon. ISRO Press release here. Feels good to finally have a piece of India around the moon, is it not!
November 5, 2008
Rebecca Traister writes at SpiegelHow could Jesse Jackson not cry, standing in that crowd, realizing that whatever hurt time and generational difference might have inflicted on his project and his legacy, he was witnessing the dawn of a world that his work made possible, but which he had not been…
November 4, 2008
Wife and I looked at this slideshow a few minutes ago and tears started rolling down our eyes. Through the hopeful and tearful eyes of these men and women, we glimpsed history. Our own spontaneous tears seems to be how our lives - a couple from India - has been deeply touched by the people of…
November 1, 2008
Vivaldi - The Four Seasons (Spring, Allegro, Nigel Kennedy). I am nostalgic today.
Beirut - St Apollonia. A haunting melody. What are they singing about?
'Nantes' , the take away show. This is how music happens.
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Tamacun. Full of life.
Coldplay - Viva la vida. Not many sing…
October 29, 2008
I'll holler when it's up. (The site message is courtesy of Shakespeare, Henry the Eighth.)
Update: It's up!
October 28, 2008
Sunny day in the UK but I can't be oblivious to what's really happening around me: it's raining neutrinos. It's a deluge, in fact.
October 27, 2008
There are many ways one can paint a portrait of the brain: as an organ that evolved from the simple beginnings as a few neuronal tissues in worms to one of the most interconnected mass of tissues anywhere in the universe perched atop a primate body; as the center of consciousness that questions its…
October 22, 2008
BBC has some reactions by Indians on the launch. One of them is from a fruit vendor Sheila who is quoted as saying: "I don't think it is a good thing. I think this money could be used here for the poor. Look at how expensive things have become! If the money goes away from (our streets) then…
October 22, 2008
When we (self and wife) were in Atlanta, Ramya had a dental operation (to remove a painful inner tooth). I was waiting outside the operating room expecting her to come out holding her chin gingerly and saying, ga ma tut puld, and bravely smiling. Instead she came out on a wheelchair with her eyes…
October 21, 2008
Reading Günter Grass's The Rat. She-rat speaks thus:we rats have battened on it, eaten our way to erudition. Oh, those mouldy parchments, those leather-bound folios, those collected works bristling with slips of paper, those clever-clever encycopedias. From d'Alembert to Diderot, we know it all:…
October 17, 2008
Destructive re-entry (planned) of Jules Verne ATV. [Click on the link for a must-see ESA Video]
[via APOD]
October 16, 2008
Instead, we'll have a regularly updated set of 'Today's Recommendations' (on the left, heading may change) that'll display the intertube bits I have read or heard that I'd love to share. This includes blog posts (not blogs themselves, which I have lately realized is meaningless if I did't tell you…
October 14, 2008
Watched this delightful Mexican duo play on a Jools Holland music show a few nights back (you can watch it on BBC iPlayer in UK).
October 13, 2008
Somini Sengupta writes about the recent religion incited violence in Orissa at NY Times. A Bajrang Dal leader offers an explanation that is the veneer on the surface of the violent brand of nationalism based on religious identity that's the trademark of the saffron brigade:Given a chance to explain…
October 9, 2008
While LHC recovers from it's starting jitters, give a read to a learned article on it by B. Ananthanarayan.
October 6, 2008
I want to point you to a fascinating write-up by Mo at Neurophilosophy. It is about renegade proteins (proteins are long chains of molecules vital to life) that recruit other well-behaved ones into a sinister and fatal plot to pulp animal brains (including humans). These kind of proteins - called…
October 2, 2008
Photo via Speigel.
When I was about 15 or 16, I read Gandhi's autobiography. I clearly remember how much his simplicity and honesty impressed me. Later while in college, I re-read it and as young men are wont to do, stopped eating meat for seven years - as a sort of pledge of allegiance to non-…
October 1, 2008
The contest is now closed. We've received 34 stories this year which, I think, is more than last two years. My thanks for all the authors who have participated. I have so far read three stories in the order I received them and have written out feedback for them. Authors can expect feedback and…
September 30, 2008
Comprehensive and absolutely rational. If everyone can make decisions this way...
September 29, 2008
Today. Atleast 100 dead at Chamunda Devi temple in the city of Jodhpur.
Previous stampedes.
August 3. 140 dead. 40 children. Stampede at the Nainadevi temple, Himachal Pradesh.
July. 6 dead. Stampede at Jagannath temple, Orissa.
March. 10 dead. Stampede at temple, Madhya Pradesh.
January. 5 dead.…
September 29, 2008
Held a hefty book today that warrants a blog post. The book is American Prometheus, The triumph and tragedy of Robert J. Oppenheimer.
I referred to this book to check on a certain event in Oppenheimers life. It is this: Oppenheimer, at one time, left a poisoned apple for his tutor Blackett at…
September 24, 2008
Send them in. I'll start reading them from this weekend.
For some of the stories with good ideas whose execution can be bettered, I hope to ask the authors for revisions. Btw, we will look through the past two years stories, not just this year's contest submissions. Over the two years I have…