Rationality 1 : Superstition 0

On 3 March 2008, in a popular TV show, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged India’s most “powerful” tantrik (black magician) to demonstrate his powers on him. Minutes turned to hours as the tantrik tried spell after spell against Sanal Edamaruku, attempting to kill or harm him. Live on TV (attempted murder in …

90 and out.

Had to happen eventually, though he looked set to last forever, Clarke is no more. I first discovered the writing of Arthur C. Clarke (or as Viz once memorably renamed him, “The Arthur of Space-1999, Author See Clarke”) in the early 1990s at the local library. I started with 2010 (2001 was on loan), thoroughly …

Local history Monday Tuesday

Whalebone Lane, bit of an odd name for a main road in a town not exactly famed for its whaling fleets, isn’t it? Well, the name derives from Whalebone House, that stood close to the junction of the modern-day High Road and Whalebone Lane. The house taking its name from the large whalebone arch that …

Papers

Today, via but she’s a girl I discovered an incredibly useful piece of software – Papers.  Now I’m not the most tidy person in the world anyway, but when it comes to journal articles and papers I’m hopeless. I keep my references in a bibtex database managed by  Jabref, but as for managing actual electronic …