Thursday, April 24, 2008

Man-eating strangelets.

Questionable Content is one of the webcomics I finished last week. (Real life being the other.) Apart from the really vague Indie-music references, the comic is quite alright. And very addictive.

Doesn't the whole Higgs-Boson business seem so science-fictiony? Strangelets and mini-black holes and weird vacuums whatnot. Would He come down from the heavens with his host of angels and make war with the strangeness and take the chosen ones to heaven?

"Ode to the LHC"
O! Prometheus of mass,
We come to unchain thee
Not with key, nor torch, nor saw
But a circus of relativity
Hadrons colliding,
A sudden, stable strangelet
devours us all.

:D

Less than 3 hours to go for the Med Chem final. Start studying, dammit.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

What I really want.

A historical fiction novel set in India. Must be set in a time at least 400 years ago, and older the better. With elaborate explanations of Indian warfare, heraldry, politics and the like. Written in English, of course. With little or no religious subtext, if that is possible.

Shouldn't be about Anarkali and Salim, or about the nutter Allaudin Khilji coveting Rani Padmini of Chittor. I can read Shakespeare if I want something so sordid. (Anyone who goes around besieging castles without even pretending that the damsel is in distress, is a nutter. And he was gay for crying out loud! Hmm... perhaps a case of over-compensation.)

Know of any? Please do let me know.

As I haven't found any so far, and as I have finished David Gemmell's series set in Helenic(sic) Troy (See what I did there?) twice, I shall endeavour to read A Song of Ice and Fire again. Bliss. The next two weeks are taken care of. All work goes down the drain, of course.

PS. I'm curious. Have Ponniyin Selvan and the other Kalki novels been translated well into English? I know, I know, even these are sappy stories. I remain curious.

PPS. Feel free to thank me for all the wiki links. I really doubt that any of you would be very familiar with all of the things I've mentioned. Though the last one is kinda superfluous. :)

PPPS. If anyone replies to this asking me whether I've heard of the Mahabharata or the Ramayana, I'll hunt them down to the ends of the earth and make them listen to all of my poetry.