Accidental Blogger
A general interest blog
Category: Educational, Cultural & Social Matters
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Having just gotten back from Across the Pond, and been visiting there, albeit in non-hotspots, while rampaging hordes managed to destroy the fragile sense of peace that hovers over the United Kingdom, it seems almost mandatory that I proffer an opinion regarding what brought them to this bind. For a people who like to utter…
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What Were We Saying About Hindus? (Norman Costa) From the Wall Street Journal July 21, 2011 Animated Debate Is Curtain-Raiser By SUMATHI REDDY ""Sita Sings the Blues," an animated modern take on the Hindu religious epic, "The Ramayana," has won awards and been shown at hundreds of locations across the world since its release two…
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What else should they take back to claim ownership of the faith? This recent story (via a friend's Facebook posting) in CNN's Belief section caught my eye due to its proximity to my home. The opinions expressed in the article by young American Hindus of Houston appear mildly paranoid and parochial to me. But then I am not a practitioner…
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Searching for the Google Effect on People's Memory (Norman Costa) External brain. There's a growing belief…that people have become more dependent on online information, but few studies have directly examined this."CREDIT: RANDALL MONROE/XKCD.COM" [P]eople are using the Internet as a personal memory bank: the so-called Google effect. What surprised [Assistant Professor Betsy] Sparrow most was not…
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Fibonacci's 'Numbers': The Man Behind The Math (Norman Costa) In 1202 Fibonacci published his "Book of Calculation." Eight centuries later we have Arabic numerals and "Quicken – Deluxe Edition." Though generations of schoolchildren have cursed arithmetic, the world was a much more inconvenient place without it. Before the advent of modern arithmetic in the 13th…
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About $22 Billion In Gold, Diamonds, Jewels Found In Indian Temple "In Southern India a story that sounds like the plot line of a Hollywood adventure is unfolding. Over the past week, on orders from the country's Supreme Court, a panel has found a treasure estimated to be worth $22 billion in the underground vaults…
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Mind, I've never been a fan of the silly memes (Indians eat monkey brains?!!?) so egregiously used in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. But when a real treasure trove shows up in nowhere other than the quiet temple that I used to visit in my hometown, making it perhaps the 'Richest Temple on…
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Not just call centers and technology outsourcing; there is also a lot of song & dance to the phenomenon.
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India is hardly the land of non-violence that the legacy of Gandhi seems to suggest. Murder and mayhem, intentional or inadvertent, are commonplace. But this trend in the criminal justice system is heartening.
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After the latest tawdry tale from our nation's capital where yet another male politician has been caught indulging in an unwholesome pastime (cyber-flashing, in this case), some are wondering whether all too often men + power equals recklessness. Not many powerful women have been embroiled in sexual scandals or exercised such poor judgment in their personal behavior as the now very long…
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Answer: Black women are unattractive. Question: WHAT!!! A research psychologist, myself, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about over the Satoshi Kanazawa article: "Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women? Why black women, but not black men?" Published on May 15, 2011 by Satoshi Kanazawa in The Scientific Fundamentalist…
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Without further analysis from my side, the links are followed by exchanges that occurred elsewhere – in an e-mail thread among A.B. authors and my Facebook page. (Joe, see I always follow good advice!) The most complete 3-D map of the universe: (link Dean) Norman Costa: The 2MRS image is a hoax. It is actually a recently discovered, and…
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By accident–this is, after all, the Accidental Blogger–two stories from major news outlets came my way, both in relevant part pertaining to domestic amenities, kitchen conveniences in particular. I don't often read the real estate or dining pages. Now I'm reminded why. With rare exceptions, I can't stomach food writing. A story in yesterday's New…
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Dr. Kiran Martin: Beyond Distinction, Beyond Difference: Transforming Lives in Delhi’s Slum Communities
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Justice is an interesting word. It serves as the front man for a number of different and sometimes incompatible concepts: revenge, retribution, restoration, fate, fairness, equality. In everyday use it often boils down to a sense of cosmic righteousness, a position that takes the universe (or a god) to be a fair and neutral arbiter,…
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