This Week's Read: Vol 1 Issue 4

With this issue I have made it as good as Alvibest lasted!! ;-)
My system has crashed and I have somehow managed to get this post out. In case you feel like congratulating me and buying me dinner, I am open to that!!

1. You simply are an ape! I would so love to say that to the folks I know who have no taste in reading and who can hardly rise above Tinkle but I am not for insulting apes. I recall reading a paper on oral literature and how our whole assumption that literature is purely written is a recent invention. Nevertheless, these guys simply need something to keep themselves occupied!
2. Juggling. It should not surprise the reader that I cannot help but multi-task though those who know me how I can mess them all up. Isn't that an art too? No? Well... I think it is absolute fun to be able to read something while listening to folk musicians and busily scratch a nice pet dog while holding my plate of food in one hand and... you get the picture? Singular focus, in my life, is rare but those that have commanded it are indeed the finest things/people in the world.
3. Gaza Strip. For those who are not sure as to what on earth is the problem with a bunch of small countries throwing explosives at each other, here is a decent summary. I personally thought that the countries had nothing better to do and hence they were emptying their cache of weapons on each other. There seems to be more issues than lightening the baggage!
4. Don't sneeze. I always told you to rub the rabbit's foot and not to walk under the ladder. People thought I was too old fashioned. Now science is entering the space of superstition and they are finding sense in there. Fingers crossed!
5. Let Islam win. This is a thought provoking article and I am still reading through it. Give it a shot.
6. Human enhancement. This is another interesting article and quite thought provoking. I disagree with their main notion of what is good and how that can be determined. I am still working on the article about balance and the human catastrophe, but till then, this article might be interesting enough.
7. Chicken Scratches. That is what my handwriting was called. Everyone around me seemed to write better. This article discusses penmanship and its role today.
8. Must read. I would like people to read this review. It is good in discussing the notions of "white" people and I would like the Indian reader to notice how common such views are becoming in India. The best point raised in this article is about the difference between progressive and open-minded. I am so stuck with people who think they are open-minded while they actually are more closed than the conservatives and traditional people.
9. History of songs. Here is an Edge video about a discussion about attempting to trace the history of songs.
10. A matter of taste. The first article link being about taste and evolution, it makes sense to end this post with an article about the historical routes of establishing taste.