Page 5 of 18
3 min read
Solve all our problems
This is xkcd #1232. When it came out I remember it was to rebut a particular line of argument against NASA’s lunar and interplanetary missions — that the agency was
6 min read
Correlation isn’t causation — the EVM edition
The space to disagree with the Election Commission’s position vis-à-vis the integrity of electronic voting machines without finding oneself backtracking into the Congress or the BJP camps is shrinking,
4 min read
Externalised costs and the human on the bicycle
Remember the most common question the protagonists of the eponymous British sitcom The IT Crowd asked a caller checking why a computer wasn’t working? “Have you tried turning it
2 min read
The farm fires paradox
From The Times of India on November 18, 2024: A curious claim by all means. The scientist, a Hiren Jethva at NASA Goddard, compared data from the Aqua, Suomi-NPP, and
3 min read
An infuriating editorial in Science
I’m not just disappointed with an editorial published by the journal Science on November 14, I’m angry. Irrespective of whether the Republican Party in the US has shifted
1 min read
Tamil Nadu's lukewarm heatwave policy
The policy is only for heatwaves, and if it doesn't expand in future to include the state's own responsibility, Tamil Nadu will miss the forest for the trees.
1 min read
Build it, they will more than come
From ‘KSTOA seeks alternative road to Bengaluru airport amid increasing commuter challenges’, The Hindu, October 23, 2024: The Karnataka State Travel Operators’ Association (KSTOA) has raised concerns over the existing
1 min read
What’s ailing the Indian Railways?
‘What are the stress factors for Indian Railways?’, The Hindu, October 20, 2024: The operating ratio (OR) — the amount the Railways spends to earn ₹100 — in 2024-2025 is estimated to
6 min read
On the 2024 Nobel Prizes and the Rosalind Lee issue
The Nobel Prizes are a deeply flawed institution both out of touch with science as it is done today and with an outsized influence on scientific practice at the most
3 min read
Off the rails
Either Matt Mullenweg's screws have fallen off or I deeply overestimated how sensible a person I thought he was. On October 3, Mullenweg wrote on his blog that
3 min read
Review: 'Maharaja' (2024)
Spoilers abound; trigger warning: sexual violence In case you haven't watched the film and don't plan to, you can check out the plot description on Wikipedia.
9 min read
The frustrating wait for quiet in Chennai
Deepavali is less than a month away — then again it will only be a storm amid a steady drizzle of noises
6 min read
Matt Mullenweg v. WP Engine escalates
Update, September 26, 2024: WordPress.org has banned websites hosted on WP Engine from accessing its resources. As someone put it on X, this is Matt Mullenweg dropping a giant
3 min read
Matt Mullenweg v. WP Engine
Automattic CEO and WordPress co-developer Matt Mullenweg published a post on September 21 calling WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress”. For the uninitiated: WP Engine is an independent company that
10 min read
What can science education do, and what can it not?
On September 29, 2021, The Third Eye published an interview with Milind Sohoni, a teacher at the Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas and at IIT Bombay. (Thanks to