Author Archive
Man Booker Dozen 2008
The list is in:
Aravind Adiga The White Tiger
Gaynor Arnold Girl in a Blue Dress
Sebastian Barry The Secret Scripture
John Berger From A to X
Michelle de Kretser The Lost Dog
Amitav Ghosh Sea of Poppies
Linda Grant The Clothes on Their Backs
Mohammed Hanif A Case of Exploding Mangoes
Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency
Joseph O’Neill Netherland
Salman Rushdie The Enchantress of Florence
Tom Rob Smith Child 44
Steve Toltz A [...]
How do diviners divine?
How do diviners achieve consistent results? Are there methods and patterns? SUNY Buffalo Anthropologist Barbara Tedlock probes into the chaos, building a theory of divination. Tedlock’s theory is all encompassing (as far as contact spirits is concerned).
Marc Abrahams, editor of Annals of Improbable Research writes in Guardian.
Technorati Tags: Divine, Anthropology
Recording industry conceding defeat to MP3?
International Herald Tribune reports that in the ongoing recording industry meet there is a hot talk about all the major labels ditching DRM in favour of MP3’s interoperability.
Hard to believe! Is the heat too much to bear?
Technorati Tags: RIAA, DRM, MP3
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Big Brother : MJ Akbar’s view from India
Guardian features this nice take of M J Akbar on the Big Brother scene. Well written.
…the Times. This august organ, unable to verify such a lofty incident for itself, reported that the Indian media had:
“also noticed an exchange between Jade Goody’s boyfriend Jack Tweedy and Shilpa. In the incident, featured in the Celebrity Big [...]
Time varying weightage of obscenity
Andrew Brown follows the change between society’s taboos being primarily sexual to primarily racial in the last half century.
Jade Goody’s boyfriend had not called the Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty a “paki”, but a “cunt”, the spokesman explained. The latter word - he felt - was clearly less obscene than the former. He’s probably right, [...]
Weinberg reviews God Delusion
Steven Weinberg reviews Richard Dawkins’ God Delusion in Times Literary Suppliment
The reviews of The God Delusion in the New York Times and the New Republic took Dawkins to task for his contemptuous rejection of the classic “proofs” of the existence of God. I agree with Dawkins in his rejection of these proofs, but I would [...]
Immigration and Integration
Globe and Mail had a cover story three days ago (How Canadian are you?) on the recent University of Toronto study that reveals that the second generation visible minorities are identifying themselves with Canada lesser than their white counterparts.
The sense of exclusion among visible-minority newcomers is not based on the fact that they [...]
Siliconeware in Kitchen
NYTimes has this useful assessment of Siliconware in Kitchen - where do they belong and where not.
“The universally appealing qualities of silicone are its heat resistance; its flexibility, which allows you to fold it, flatten it and squish it into a drawer; its ease of washing; and its ability to go from oven or [...]
The economy of apple picking
You pick your own apples; you pay through your nose. This Slate story is true; but not complete. I am for one a sucker for the fall ritual and yes, my kids love them too. For us it is more of a healthy outing on a chilly fall day rather than bundling inside the house [...]
Waking up to a nano revolution : CNR Rao
Hindustan Times has this op-ed by C.N.R. Rao, Chairman of Scientific Advisory Board to PM of India. He opens with the statement;
We missed the semiconductor revolution in the early 1950s. We had just gained independence. But with nanoscience and technology, we can certainly be on an equal footing with the rest of the world.
There [...]