Accidental Blogger
A general interest blog
Category: Educational, Cultural & Social Matters
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John Bianchi of Discover magazine sent me the following email. "DISCOVER Magazine has just announced a nationwide contest, open to students grades three through eight, to create the cover of its October 2007 issue. Participants are asked to submit artwork capturing their vision of "The State of Science in America" to the magazine editors. This…
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More than twenty six years ago, I left New Delhi, India to follow my peripatetic husband on a journey that would take us across two new continents and four different cities. Until then my birthplace Delhi, was the only home I had known. Most of my family and all my friends lived there and frankly,…
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And I’m not talking about my Dell vs. your Mac, either… This is a war to win the maximum number of consumers in the backwoods of the world, the battle of the $100 (at least in name, currently actually costing $175/-) XO laptop from OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) and the $200 dollar Classmate PC…
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After-life rituals such as funerals, memorial services, disposal of the dead body by burial, cremation or mummification benefit the living – the dead are beyond caring. For grieving families, friends and survivors last rites are a mechanism for coping with the loss and pay their respects. Usually funeral ceremonies are planned around what local culture…
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A little bit of self advertisement, a little bit of weekend curmudgeonliness.
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On this Mother’s Day I hope you remember to call your mother, send her flowers (or a card), cook her breakfast or take her out for lunch or dinner. Mother’s Day is by far the most warm and fuzzy commercial holiday on the calendar. Florists, confectioners, perfumeries, Hallmark, restaurants and other retailers love the bonanza this…
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Just came across two stories – one a study in the New Scientist on the effect on primate brains of socialization between genders and the other a report in the Christian Science Monitor about rural Indian women’s co-operative business ventures raising the ire of some men folk. It may be that there is no connection between…
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My first foray into China Town in west Houston took place even before I had moved to Houston. My husband and I happened to drive through the area during one of our house hunting trips prior to our actual relocation. It is a fascinating place – Houston’s China Town. Having lived in the midwest until…
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A very interesting story from the front page of Sunday’s Houston Chronicle — read it before the Chronicle "disappears" the story into its inaccessible archives. I was not aware of this phenomenon, apparently quite common in our border towns. Now, isn’t this a much better and cheaper way to spread our "values" among other nations…
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Superman and his mythical powers will forever inhabit the world of comic books, movies and our imagination. But Kryptonite, the green mineral he so feared (stolen by Lex Luther) may have a more mundane origin and non-lethal characteristics. A newly discovered mineral mined in Serbia, after being subjected to chemical analysis was found to closely resemble…
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I am coming to this story a bit late on purpose, in order to have some distance from the jagged nerves resulting from last Monday’s insane mayhem at Virginia Tech. The most important people in this sorry, scary episode are the dead victims and their friends and families who will forever remain scarred by the…
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"Love and Marriage, Go Together Like A Horse and Carriage," goes a popular song by Frank Sinatra. But according to Warren Chisum (R- Pampa), the powerful conservative House Appropriations Committe chairman of the Texas legislature, it should read more like "Sticks and Carrots." I have lived in Texas for close to nine years now. During…
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There is a mildly interesting article in the New York Times about the nastiness in some parts of the blogging world and a call for civility and self policing by some bloggers. The article is rich in instances of the dismal and vicious quality of on-line discourse involving mostly anonymous bloggers and commenters. But it…
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After a long break, we finally managed a family vacation to Baltimore and Philadelphia. I wasn’t going to bore you with the details of what would have been a very mundane account that any traveler could come up with, except for the fact that we paid a visit to the much-touted King Tutankhamun and the…
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Dick Cheney’s travel plans have run into unexpected strormy weather. Invited to deliver the commencement address at two of the nation’s "safest" conservative campuses, West Point and Brigham Young University, he is likely to face protests at one of them. Some BYU students, faculty and members of the Mormon Church at Utah’s flagship educational institution,…
Accidental Blogger 