The Foreign Spell
The foreign has long been my stomping ground, my sanctuary, as one who grew up a foreigner wherever I happened to be. Born to Indian parents in Oxford, England, I was seven when my parents moved to Ca
Hasnain says:
"But all I thought then was that nearly everywhere I knew was foreign, which meant that nearly everywhere had the power to unsettle and surprise me, forever."
Posted on 2015-01-10T02:27:08+0000
A Career in Science Will Cost You Your Firstborn
"I hate science." In six years of graduate school, this has to be the phrase I’ve heard most frequently from my colleagues. People who have dedicated their lives to science. People who made a decision...
Hasnain says:
Science: where the theory doesn't hold up in practice
Posted on 2015-01-10T02:12:42+0000
Anti-vaccination update: How the measles crisis struck Disneyland
As many as 12 measles cases have been connected to visits to Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure Park, California public health authorities say--including at least six occurring in people who were unvaccinated for the disease. Among them were two infants too young for immunizations.
Hasnain says:
Why the hell are doctors recommending against vaccination?
Posted on 2015-01-09T17:49:25+0000
For Sale: “Your Name Here” in a Prestigious Science Journal
An investigation into some scientific papers finds worrying irregularities
Gamasutra - Dirty Coding Tricks
[When the schedule is shot and a game needs to ship, programmers may employ some dirty coding tricks to get the game out the door.
The Colombian army sent a hidden message to hostages inside a pop song
To reach hostages held deep in the Colombian jungle, the Colombian army turned to an ad man and wrote a pop song
Antibiotic Pulled From Dirt Ends 25-Year Drug Drought
Scientists have discovered an antibiotic capable of fighting infections that kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, a breakthrough that could lead to the field’s first major new drug in more than a quarter-century.
Hasnain says:
Let's hope we can avoid over prescribing these and not get as huge a resistance problem
Posted on 2015-01-08T02:09:12+0000
Wikipedia on HHVM
If you've been watching our GitHub wiki, following us on Twitter, or reading the wikitech-l mailing list, you've probably known for a while that Wikipedia has been transitioning to HHVM. This has been a long process involving lots of work from many different people, and as of a few weeks ago, all no…
Dissecting OpenBSD's divert(4) Part 1: Introduction - Lawrence Teo's Pseudorandom Thoughts
For more than four years I have been using and tinkering with OpenBSD’s divert(4). At one point after OpenBSD 4.9 was released, I ran into an …
This Ingenious Machine Turns Feces Into Drinking Water
Bill Gates recently got to check out the Omniprocessor, an ingenious machine designed and built by Janicki Bioenergy, which turns human waste into water and electricity.