My friend Dhiya has been writing and publishing one blog post every week for the last 87 weeks in a series she simply calls ‘dilettante’. The eighty-fifth edition focused on an issue I am currently engaged deeply with at work: as a journalist trying to make their team’s
On August 24, Levent Alpöge (@__alpoge__) posted on X.com that they had solved a maths problem with Claude’s help in a way that was contrary to a human proof of it, albeit a reputedly unsatisfactory one. Let us set aside the validity of the new proof. In one
The following is a review of Journalism in the Age of AI: From Acceleration to Reimagination by Seth C. Lewis, Rodrigo Zamith, and Tomás Dodds, available here. The authors write, and I agree, that journalism has spent 25 years on a “hamster wheel” of technologies — web, then social media, then
Indian society has inhabited at least three distinct structures of feeling in relation to science since independence — and they are not as continuous as one might expect.
1. India is not likely to find success by regulating hardware because (i) such regulations will be hard to enforce in practice and in principle, (ii) the regulatory regime could set up a new license raj, and (iii) the regulations will age very poorly when similar technological capabilities come to
Dear Chief Justice Surya Kant: I commend you for your discovery this week that time is finite. On Wednesday, when a petitioner confronted you with video evidence of police brutality on July 20 against the students protesting peacefully in and around Jantar Mantar over exam paper leaks and a dire
In a study published in PNAS Nexus on July 14, two researchers affiliated with institutes in France, Italy, and the UK analysed more than 4,400 launches in 16 geographical entities and with 330 rocket configurations to find that every time the cumulative payload sent to orbit has doubled since
The physicist Carlo Rovelli makes a strong case in this essay that consciousness is “of the same nature” as everything else in the universe, but in the course of doing that, he often writes as if the alternatives to dualism — the view that the body and the mind are irreducibly
From ‘Zero-deforestation commitments in Indonesia’s palm oil sector achieve high compliance but no additionality’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 13, 2026: … we evaluate the compliance and additionality of zero-deforestation commitments (ZDCs) in the Indonesian palm oil sector, a major driver of tropical deforestation. We
That thermodynamics has so very many applications is as fascinating as what it so often illuminates. Its tools and methods can be brought to bear on everything from celestial bodies and industrial machines to cellular biology and human endurance. The simple reason is that energy is the fundamental currency of
Daily writing promptIs a little chaos actually good for us? View all responses I'm just going to invert that question a little and ask: Is a little order good for us? I'm doing this because the question "Is a little chaos good for us?"
As silly as it sounds, as a student of mechanical engineering, I am partial to technologies that make use of mechanical forces. Today they are harder to come by because the solutions to the problems they solved were replaced by electronic components from the mid-20th century on. Today, newer
Analysis
A new PNAS Nexus paper has shed light on a major source of hidden energy waste on the bitcoin network. Here, miners compete to solve a complex mathematical puzzle. The miner that solves a puzzle first is rewarded by the network with a block: new bitcoins plus transaction fees. An
Culture
Daily writing promptEmperor Palpatine has announced open elections for a new Emperor — and he’s nominated Darth Vader. You get to nominate one challenger. View all responses Even against his long career of deception, Sheev Palpatine announcing an open election for the seat of galactic emperor sounds particularly cynical. In
Life notes
Daily writing promptWhat’s a book, movie, or TV show that you wish you could experience again for the first time? View all responses This has to be the TV show Friends. I feel like I know too much these days. The show hasn't aged well. Its attitudes
Life notes
Daily writing promptHow do you build loyal subscribers? View all responses I've always found that a somewhat strange thing to aim for. I understand there are several thousand people worldwide working to build a loyal subscriber base ("building loyal subscribers" makes one sound like Dr. Frankenstein)
Life notes
I'm writing this post on Write, the new text composer/editor on WordPress.com. According to the official blog post, Write is a response to last year's Creators survey, where "'simplify the editor' was the single most-requested improvement from the people already
![A close-up photograph of yellow crime scene tape in sharp focus reading "CRIME SCENE DO NO[T CROSS]", with a group of blurred](https://storage.ghost.io/c/4f/29/4f2939bc-a4a6-402d-b122-db86d3e7e547/content/images/size/w600/2026/08/0b681-joshua-coleman-g86cbfibd6e-unsplash.jpg)
Analysis
From 'The Sulur horror story of child sexual assault and murder', The Hindu, May 31, 2026: Mr. Vijay, who sent Director-General of Police Sandeep Rai Rathore and Additional DGP (Law and Order) Maheshwar Dayal to Coimbatore after the crime, said the murder had caused immense pain and
Analysis
Is it a coincidence that more 'complicated' pathogens to vaccinate against and more poverty/poorer countries share a geographic area?
Op-eds
From 'Measure for measure: On India’s courts and criticism', The Hindu, May 21, 2026: In the Ali Khan Mahmudabad matter, the Court granted him relief from coercive action but also imposed a gag order. Then, in a display of willingness to discipline the norms of public conduct
Analysis
I am a journalist… I think. I have been a desk guy most of my professional life (14+ years). In this time, I have commissioned and published hundreds of pieces, from news reports to investigative features, from explainers to commentary. However, I myself am more of an essayist — and even
Analysis
Excerpt from 'Data center land use issues are fake', by Andy Masley, May 2, 2026: And then, in the middle of all this, a farmer in Loudoun County sells a few acres of mediocre hay field to a hyperscaler for ten times its agricultural value, and the response
Analysis
On May 4, former Tamil film actor C. Joseph Vijay and his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerged in the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections as the single largest party. The magnitude of the victory was widely unexpected, and dislodged the Dravidian duopoly in the State since 1959. While the reasons for
Analysis
Note to readers: Root Privileges is now Slightly Acidic. Daily writing promptWhat gives you direction in life? View all responses I'm a political creature. I didn't think that I'd be one but I am. I believe this is a response to India's