Category Archives: Life notes
Refusing battles
“Pick your battles” is probably the most important thing I’ve learnt as a journalist. A lot of it is probably due to my firm belief that science has always been political, and getting people to see this has often left … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged FOMO, health, persistence, pick your battle, sustainability
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Rob McKenna
Anyone who reads Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and doesn’t come away thinking it belongs on the list of the best books they’ve read has to get themselves checked. I don’t think this about many things but if I had … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Life notes
Tagged Douglas Adams, H2G2, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, rain, Rob McKenna
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Games grimy and green
Every day, I spend an hour or three playing a game called Factorio, in which you mine and process natural resources with which to build and automate ever-larger factories that manufacture materials for research, transport, power, and weapons. Once your … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged Dyson Sphere Program, Factorio, Oxygen Not Included, Terra Nil, videogames
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Lord of the Rings Day
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 to read … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Life notes
Tagged 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, Reaper's Gale, Steven Erikson
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Books – 2022
Even as I whined about losing my reading habit, I managed to read a surprising (to me) number of books through 2022. One reason I think I didn’t notice is because very few of them started out being books I … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged books, Christophe Jaffrelot, David Quammen, Jacques Ellul, monographs, Nambi Narayanan, nonfiction, reading habit, Viriconium
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2022 in retrospect
2022 has been my worst on the record on several fronts. I had COVID-19 in the first month, which did a freaky number on my heart. My unexplained weight loss from 2021 continued its run into six months of 2022 … Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
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Saying bye to The Wire
November 30, 2022, is my last day. Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged science journalism, The Hindu, The Wire
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A salvage
Why do you write? is a very difficult question to answer, so when an answer presents itself, you treasure it. Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged blogging, ergodicity, historicity, will to purpose, writing
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A trip to Jebel Jais
A peak of the Al Hajar mountains in the UAE and an important part of the country’s future. Continue reading
Posted in Life notes
Tagged Al Hajar mountains, Hope probe, Jebel Jais, Musandam peninsula, Ras Al Khaimah, sandstorm, United Arab Emirates, Zagros fault
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