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Lord of the Rings Day

Mar 25, 2023 2 min read
Culture Life notes books epic fantasy fiction high fantasy JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings Lord of the Rings day M John Harrison Malazan Book of the Fallen Steven Erikson Reaper's Gale

Happy Lord of the Rings Day. :) About a week ago, I began rereading book 7 of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. This followed my realisation earlier this year that I had somehow lost the ability…

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AI v. our ability to build AI

Mar 24, 2023 1 min read
Science artificial intelligence Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists large language models synthetic proteins

A lot of this article, by Sean Ekins, Filippa Lentzos, Max Brackmann, and Cédric Invernizzi, published by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on March 24, makes good sense – except the following two sen…

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BLR road-widening is a sham

Mar 23, 2023 2 min read
Analysis Scicomm Bengaluru ekistics induced demand public transport traffic congestion urban sprawl urban transportation

While I'm told that discussions on a plan to widen Bengaluru's Sankey Road, between Bhashyam Circle and Malleshwaram 18th cross – a stretch that's one of the contributors to the city's…

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India's devious reason to not spend more on culture

Mar 20, 2023 3 min read
Analysis Culture Archaeological Survey of India doublespeak Ministry of Culture Monument Mitra privatisation rural infrastructure Union Budget

'Difficult to allocate public fund to art and culture: Centre', The Hindu, March 19, 2023: Given the high disparity it experiences in elementary rural infrastructure like health, education an…

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Nature paper says bad news is good news

Mar 18, 2023 4 min read
Analysis Scicomm Science bad news disinformation echo chambers journalism misinformation Nature Human Behaviour negative emotions news consumption Upworthy

'Negativity drives online news consumption', Claire E. Robertson et al., Nature Human Behaviour, March 16, 2023: Here we analyse the effect of negative words on news consumption using a massi…

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What's the anomaly in a Nobel for Modi?

Mar 16, 2023 2 min read
Analysis Scicomm binding energy Narendra Modi Nobel Prize for peace Planck scale Planck units universal constant

I'm sure you've seen the reports doing the rounds today that some person on some Nobel Prize Committee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was very deserving of the vaunted peace prize, followed…

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The devil's lassi

Feb 25, 2023 2 min read
Analysis Science Ayurveda East Palestine modern medicine rationalism solar eclipse superstition Devil's Milkshake

‘The Devil’s Milkshake’, Tarence Ray in The Baffler, February 23, 2023: You’ve seen it before. An industrial disaster poisons a town’s food or water supply. Residents get angry. Public officials try…

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Who are you, chatbot AI?

Feb 23, 2023 3 min read
Analysis Tech artificial intelligence Ben Thompson Bing Chat ChatGPT Donald Trump large language models robotic assistants Sydney

In case you haven’t been following, and to update my own personal records, here’s a list of notable {AI chatbot + gender}-related articles and commentary on the web over the last few weeks. (While I’v…

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Some science prizes are only for men

Feb 22, 2023 3 min read
Analysis Culture Science bad faith Bias Watch MS Valiathan National Science Day Nobel Prize S Natarajan Samir K Maji SASTRA Deemed University T Pradeep women in STEM

Say Someone has won the Nobel Prize for physics, perhaps the most prestigious honour (as awards go) for a physicist. What would it mean for all the future awards given to this Someone? One thing that…

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Keep working. Don't get up.

Feb 18, 2023 2 min read
Culture Science cubicle cult of productivity esprit de corps Meta office space productivity

'Inside Meta’s Push to Solve the Noisy Office', WSJ, February 16, 2023: Coming to the campuses of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. is a contraption that can block sound, shield workers fro…

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A vortex in my bucket

Feb 9, 2023 1 min read
Scicomm laminar flow turbulence vortex

One of the taps in my bathroom at home issues water in laminar flow – without any turbulence. Sometimes the flow from the tap to the bucket looks like it's frozen: there are no disturbances on the…

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Hype from Fermilab

Feb 9, 2023 1 min read
Scicomm Fermilab Google Sycamore hype Joseph Lykken Peter Woit Quanta wormhole

Where do you think the following bit of text is from? A wormhole, also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, is a hypothetical tunnel connecting remote points in spacetime. While wormholes are allowed b…

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