The human nose does smell a lot

The human nose can detect at least 1 trillion different odours, much higher than the 10,000 scents earlier estimated, says the Nature magazine.

The noted science magazine also says that the human nose has around 400 types of scent receptors.

The worst crime by an editor or reviewer

Have you ever wondered what constitutes a crime committed by an editor or a reviewer?

In the days of proofreading, there were standard symbols associated with the changes to be made in a copy or manuscript. When it came to desktop publishing, the editor or reviewer used to turn the Track Changes feature in a word processing software like Microsoft Word on. Technical writing tools such as Adobe FrameMaker and Madcap Flare enable commenting on a document. Adobe Acrobat allows comments in PDF docs.

So, despite all these modern facilities, what if someone goes to the extent of editing text on the sly in a document? Edits that the poor writer discovers later and finds them damn wrong.

One reason may be overconfidence. The reviewer would have been so overconfident and would have never imagined that the edits would be wrong. The reviewer must not be knowing that industry practice provides the benefit of doubt to the writer. The mantra, "When in doubt, check it out." applies to reviewers also. There is no place for megalomania in such cases.

The second reason may be the lack of integrity and ethics that are so crucial for a reviewer or editor. For some reason, the reviewer did not want the writer to know about the edits. Such dishonesty can cause the writer trouble if project stakeholders or customers discover the errors later. In a professional, corporate setup, such dishonesty should have no place.

The final reason can be ignorance. When people become reviewers just because of an authority granted by the organization and was never ever trained to review or edit, such things happen. Editing is an art and it cannot be done by everybody unless they put dedicated efforts.

Editing or reviewing is not an exercise to find other's mistakes. It is a struggle towards perfection. Any Tom, Dick, and Harry cannot become a good editor or reviewer overnight. It requires continues learning, patience, humility, and ability to correct oneself. There should be no place for dishonesty and half-baked knowledge in this fiercely competitive world.

Elephants can recognis human voices

If you believe that human beings are the ultimate species on earth bestowed with all the qualities that can ever be imagined, please think twice.

BBC reports that elephants can recognise human voices and also differentiate the voice of a kid from that of an adult. And the reaosn why they can or have learnt to recognise human voices is that they are scared of human beings.

For the poor elephants, human beings are the most feared predators. As human beings, we all know what that really means.

Dugout and Primaries

1

I love cricket. I like to waste time by watching cricket, even though the results many not be in line with what I want or like. Indian cricket fans know that. Team India will lose when we expect them to win; the team will win when we expect them to lose. Just like the lives of millions in this "developing" country and also the "Next Big Thing" in the world, we are used to frustration.

Usually, the teams had the dressing room where the team, next batsmen, coach, and the 12th man used to sit and watch the game. But, somehow T20 heralded the arrival of a new term to cricket: Dugout.

On checking at M-W.com, Dugout is "either of two low shelters on either side of and facing a baseball diamond that contain the players' benches." The key thing is "baseball". Yeah, baseball.

With T20, cricket is or resembles baseball. Because, here, in T20, what matters is over the top ecstasy. Whether the batsmen can hit the maximum number of balls out of the ground. So, just like weekends in the US, we have a game that resembles baseball. It is called T20 cricket. Naturally, baseball jargon has to be imported into cricket.

So, the bench in cricket became dugout. There is a pleasure in saying that word. Dugout.

By sensitizing us with Dugout, we are happy. We have become modern.

2

Yesterday, the election commission of India announced elections for the 16th Lok Sabha. On nine separate days starting from April 7, 814 crore people are expected to vote. The Members of Parliament that get elected will decide upon a Prime Minister who will lead a cabinet of ministers.

We just elect our Members of Legislative Assemblies at the state level, and the Members of Parliament for the centre. The voters are the same here.

We simply don't have Primaries as in the US. In India, most of the political parties do not hold an election to select candidates to run for public office. Parties discuss and announce their candidates. There is no provision in the Constitution for Primaries.

But for the media, there are Primaries in India. That is, after years of research and observation, the media in India has concluded that the absence of Primaries is the real problem with Indian democracy. Primaries is the panacea for corruption, nepotism, cronyism, criminals as lawmakers, and other stuff so characteristic of developing world democracies.

So, let us enjoy the invasion of "Primaries" into Indian media lexicon.