Thomas Barnett: Mapping The Next Neo-Snafu Parsing political futurist Thomas Barnett’s semi-moronic blueprint for creating the next American century.
Review: 20 Cases Suggestive Of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson Reincarnation is one of those ideas that refuses to die. A review of Ian Stevenson’s empirical studies.
When Prayers Attack The recent study by Benson et. al. suggests other people’s prayers for your welfare could be harmful to your health. That’s just too hilarious.
Stanislaw Lem: The Aesop Of Machines Stanislaw Lem, the incomparable author of The Cyberiad died on March 28, 2006. A cheeky tribute to our modern Aesop of the Machines.
William Makepeace Thackeray: The Indian In The Closet Miscegenation — racial mixing — is a recurring theme in Thackeray’s works. Strangely enough, the most obvious explanation is also a plausible one.
The Price Of An Indian Book The cost of producing A. K. Ramanujan’s Collected Essays was basically a lifetime of study. Book distributors seem unable to agree how they should price that effort.
Tribhanga: Strike A Pose The tribhanga pose — contrapposto — is a very common feature of South-asian art. It has intriguing connections (and differences) with Greek conceptions of the ideal. This is a look at some of them.
Kolam: What The Hand Said Kolams are curvilinear shapes drawn by Tamil women, usually early in the morning and usually just outside the house. Kolams have fascinating relationships with the labyrinths of Crete, sona drawings of the Chockwe and picture grammars.
Caste, Closure & Contagion Caste is not the same thing as class or race. I argue that it’s better to think of it as a “closure system” rather than a hierarchy. A closure system is … what the heck, read the damn thing. Inspired by Christopher Alexander’s essay: “A City Is Not A Tree.”
The God of Small Things A paen to R. L. Goodstein’s miraculous theorem in Proof theory. What’s it about? The God of Small Things of course.
