Science journalism and jargon

The India media's expertise is primarily on politics, cricket, entertainment, and business. Their forte is not on science, unlike other well-known publications like The Guardian or the New York Times.

When I read the headline, Mandya's lake man to build 15th pond with award money, I was not all surprised. I was sure that normal readers may not find the words, Lake and Pond, that intriguing. A discerning reader or someone who have studied Ecology will notice that there is something wrong here.

A lake and a pond are not the same thing strictly from an ecological science point of view. Of course, they are static water bodies of varying sizes. But there are obvious ecological differences. One is there are man-made lakes and there are lakes borne out of natural phenomenon such as volcanic eruptions, retreat of ice sheets and earthquakes. Technically, there are differences in the structure, energy flows, ecological stratification, flora and fauna, and so on.

There is an interesting page by the well-known science journal, Nature, describing the aquatic ecology of lakes. The page says that "...Ponds are generally <2 hectares in size, shallow (<3 m),...". The news story is all about one man's mission to create and conserve ponds, and definitely not lakes.

My point is 26 years after the historical Earth Summit at Rio, the Indian media lacks specialist ecology or science writers. They are not serious about covering science minus the jargon, and with the right context and nuances in mind.

It is this assumption that readers don't care about these technical differences that needs to change. It is all about setting some standards in reporting. But who cares about standards in this free for all world?

Literary Mag Publishes Hemingway's Unpublished Story

AP big story reports that the literary magazine, The Strand Magazine, has published an unpublished story from 1956.

The story is titled, A Room on the Garden Side. AP reports that the story is "...Steeped in talk of Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, and Alexandre Dumas..." and is set in the writer's favourite city.

Here's the link to the AP news story.

Small, useless posts

I like small blog posts.

I think big posts, ranting on and on, are just fake. Synthetic and contrived.

Created to impress. Soulless.Plastic.

There is a song called Fake Plastic Trees from Radiohead.

Poetry is rich, right? The experience the few words evokes is matchless. The neuronal networks it spawns are tremendous.

I like to write brief blog posts.Small ones.

If I have left anything unsaid or missed anything. you may fill it. 

CNN asks it all

Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, asks some questions about the air strikes launched by US and its allies.

In India, The Hindu asks what did the strikes achieve and what will be the response. Other Indian media seem to have been not aware of this development.

There is a book club meeting today that will discuss books on World War I. I am sure someone will say this may be the beginning of another war.

For the beleaguered Indians, what exactly is in store?