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Read and Reread the Classics

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 When I read the news about the cancellation of a horror novel in the US, it was just another news story. What else can we expect? A few years back, I was part of a writing group that used to meet once in a month to learn and experiment with the act of writing. When the group got to the stage of writing drafts, a few started to provide tips to others in the group on how to create outlines, plan the plot, and write the drafts. It was not the group's organizer who provided the tips.  I withdrew from the group and did not attend further sessions since I had a strong concern that some of the drafts were developed using AI tools or bore the imprint of AI tools. As a two-decade-old technical writer, I have some insights into how Indians write in English, the common errors we make, and our creative capabilities. I also felt the presence of strong egos at work, as a newbie was recommending tips to other newbies.  I did not develop the first chapter of my book because the book I h...
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Back to Blogging again

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Restarting my writing on a day when Bengaluru was hot and humid and the monsoon rains seem to have vanished. Are we staring at a bad El Nino this year?
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Newspaper front pages - June 5

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Image
 Some images of front pages of newspapers after votes were counted on June 4, 2024 after a ridiculously long parliament elections.  Did the graphics team use AI for these images?
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Books Update - Nov 2022

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 Writing a post after a long time.  The following books were too boring and were queued for exchange: 1. The Wall by John Lanchester 2. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje 3. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
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IPCC Sixth Assessment Report and Climate

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It is now or never’ if world is to stave off climate disaster, says The Guardian report on the latest reports from the IPCC.  What exactly are these reports? The  IPCC website says, " The IPCC prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports (AR) about knowledge on climate change, its causes, potential impacts and response options . It adds that " The IPCC also produces Special Reports, which are an assessment on a specific issue and Methodology Reports, which provide practical guidelines ." The latest reports called AR 6 reports are on the following: AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2022 AR6 Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change AR6 Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability The IPCC Working Group II (WGII) assesses the impacts of climate change, from a world-wide to a regional view. This is what I understood after reading a slew of news reports: Substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions beyond what governments committed. Emissions gap...
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Sea Erosion or Coastal Erosion?

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In an interesting news story on the plight of the people affected by coastal erosion , I noticed how the word ' sea erosion ' has been used throughout the story.  In this Mongabay India story about the east coast of India, 'sea erosion' appears 16 times in the story! The story is basically an anthropocentric one about the plight of the villagers and fisher folks affected by coastal erosion.  Back to early 1990s. In the university library, there were thick hardcover textbooks of Geology that I used to refer to during my MSc studies. Of all the textbooks, Alan Strahler's Physical Geography was the best for me. His textbooks were beautifully illustrated and excellently written. One will fall in love with the subject of Geology just because of his textbooks.  Thirty years later I bought a copy of Strahler's textbook. It is top class as always with vivid descriptions of additional topics and meticulous organization.  The book does not mention 'sea erosion' at...
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Week Ending Jan 30, 2022

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New Scorpions Song : The first single that I heard from hard rockers Scorpions was Still loving You followed by the smashing Sails of Sharon . Meanwhile, the new single Rock Believer turned out to be disappointing. Setback to AI Hype : IBM's decision to sell off parts of its Watson Health business has come as a setback to AI nerds. In a tweet, Gary Marcus termed the decision as a "staggering collapse of its ambitious artificial intelligence effort". Another War : The Ukraine-Russian tangle dominated the week's headlines indicating the probable beginning of another cold war. Indian Cricket in Trouble : India lost the ODI cricket series against South Africa after a promising first test win in one of the final frontiers. The loss triggered the speculation that all is not well in the team. The series saw some poor batting, especially the middle order, and some pointless bowling. Neil Young Rocks Spotify : Alleging that Spotify is spreading fake information about vacc...
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Week Ending Jan 23, 2022

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From this year, I have decided to post weekly updates about things that I have noticed more than others.  Joe Satriani's New Single Virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani is back with a new single and new album. I and my friend watched the song, Sahara's, premiere on YouTube. The new single was an OK one similar to the songs in the Strange Beautiful Music album with the typical Satch flourishes, but it fell short of some strange expectations. The new album is titled  The Elephants of Mars . Covid-19: Kerala Imposes Sunday Lockdown My home state of Kerala went to a complete lockdown on two Sundays starting today after the Covid-19 positive infections spiked dramatically in many districts. The state capital and Ernakulam fared the worst, as there were reports and group messages of entire families getting infected. Meanwhile, Karnataka lifted the weekend curfew from Jan 22, but decided to continue with the night curfew.  Jacinda Postpones Marriage  New Zealand Prime Ministe...
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