Op-eds
US fusion bhashan
Nuclear fusion? Yay! Climate finance? Shh!
Op-eds
Analysis
The biopolitics of Covaxin
In a new investigation, STAT has reported fresh problems with Covaxin’s approval process in India, including the phase 2 trial dropping its placebo arm in favour of one preordained to make Covaxin look good and Bharat Biotech – the maker – commencing phase 3 trials based on results from animal studies.
Op-eds
A story of dogs
This article in The Wire, while entirely compelling, also contains an unarticulated tension. Headline: 'How a Missing Stray Dog Led to the Withdrawal of a Caribbean High Commissioner to India'. Excerpt: Uploaded on social media, a grainy dimly-lit video apparently shows the night-time confrontation. A man, speaking English
Op-eds
Bad responses to The Wire's Meta reports
Note, September 18, 2023, 6:40 am: I've often returned to this post since The Wire retracted its 'Meta' reports, to see if I still stand by its contents. I do with the portions that I haven't struck through. That said, I believe in
Op-eds
WordPress.com rolls back its botched 'experiment'
So, WordPress.com has restored the family of premium plans that it had until April this year, and has done away with the controversial 'Starter' and 'Pro' plans. The announcement on the WordPress.com blog yesterday has already garnered a high 65 comments, even as the
Op-eds
With Gyanvapi article, Abhinav Prakash Singh does logic wapsi
The national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Abhinav Prakash Singh, published an article on May 22 on the Gyanvapi mosque issue that is from start to finish an exercise in verbal sophistry. But while we have come to expect such nonsense from functionaries of the Bharatiya Janata Party,
Culture
Why there's no guarantee that Musk's Twitter will resemble Dorsey's
Many folks are saying they're not going to leave Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk's acquisition because Musk and Jack Dorsey aren't different.
Op-eds
To be better at being anti-crypto
Molly White has a difficult read, one that I'm forced to agree with in spite of my vehemently anti-cryptocurrency position. Three representative paragraphs from her post: I … think that [cryptocurrency-based financial solutions] are enormously attractive to people who see them as a tangible option in a world where
Op-eds
Renewable energy and technological debt
Renewable energy is a bit like oil.
Op-eds
Free-speech as an instrument of repression
One of the more eye-opening discussions on Elon Musk's attempt to take control of Twitter, and the Twitter board's attempts to defend the company from the bid, have been playing out on Hacker News (here and, after Twitter's response, here) – the popular discussion board
Op-eds
JWST and the imagination
When the Hubble space telescope launched in April 1990, I was too young to understand what was going on – but not yesterday, when NASA launched its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Every once in a while, the Hubble telescope team releases an image of thousands of stars packed
Op-eds
About vaccines for children and Covaxin…
I don't understand his penchant for late-night announcements, much less one at 10 pm on Christmas night, but Prime Minister Narendra has just said the government will roll out vaccines for young adults aged 15-18 years from January 3, 2022 – around the same time I received a press