Category Archives: Uncategorized
There is neither truth nor news in Elon Musk’s ‘Pravda’
Elon Musk tweeted this week that he plans to setup an online platform called ‘Pravda’, where people can “rate the core truth of any article and track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor and publication.” This isn’t … Continue reading
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Starting over again
I read a blog post on Coding Horror this morning, where Jeff Atwood, its author, writes about how he inculcated his blogging habit to the extent that it has come to change his life, net him book deals and speaking … Continue reading
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Happy new year!
2017 was a blast. Lots of things happened. The world became a shittier place in many ways and better in a few. Mostly, Earth just went around the Sun once more, and from what we know, it’s going to be … Continue reading
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The language and bullshitness of 'a nearly unreadable paper'
Earlier today, the Retraction Watch mailing list highlighted a strange paper written by a V.M. Das disputing the widely accepted fact that our body clocks are regulated by the gene-level circadian rhythm. The paper is utter bullshit. Sample its breathless … Continue reading
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Tagged pseudoscience, scientific papers, scientific publishing, Second language, University Grants Commission, vernacular languages
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That astrology workshop at the IISc
Couple caveats: I wrote this post on the night of October 28, before the workshop was cancelled on the morning of October 29. I haven’t bothered to change the tense because issuing this caveat at the top seemed simpler. A … Continue reading
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Tagged astrology, casteism, falsification, Karl Popper, MS Rameshaiah, pseudoscience, superstitions
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Some empathy for Treebeard's privilege
There’s a line from The Two Towers (2002) that’s really stayed with me: I’m on nobody’s side because nobody is on my side. It’s spoken by Treebeard, the Ent, to one of Meriadoc/Peregrin when asked whose side he was on: … Continue reading
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Tagged mainstream media, political journalism, politics, privilege, science journalism, The Wire, Treebeard
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Appa Rao Podile made fellow of science academy that published his problem paper – some questions
Appa Rao Podile, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, has been elected a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in spite of one of his three papers – which The Wire had identified in April 2016 as containing evidence of … Continue reading
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Tagged Appa Rao Podile, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Science Congress, Millennium Prize, plagiarism, research misconduct, Rohith Vemula, science academies, Subhash Lakhotia
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Gigernama / 'A man dressed in black with a tube under his arm'
On May 12, 2014, about half a week before the Lok Sabha election votes were to be counted, ahead of the result that would catapult the BJP to power with an overwhelming majority in the lower house of Parliament, H.R. … Continue reading
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Tagged Alejandro Jodorowsky, Dark Star, depression, horror, HR Giger, Li Tobler, Necronomicon, nightmares, pareidolia, perinatal, xenomorph
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Taking the ringdown route to understanding the humans of science
What follows is an attempt to process and understand Cassandra Willyard’s post on Last Word on Nothing, about her preferring the humanised stories of science over the stories of the science itself (“Physics writers, this is how you nab the … Continue reading
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Tagged Cassandra Willyard, emotions, humanisation, humans of science, Last Word on Nothing, populism, positivism, privilege, ringdown, science communication, science journalism, scientism
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