Active learning

You're innocently walking down the street when aliens zap away the sensory neurons in your legs. What happens?
a) Your walking movements show no significant change.
b) You can no longer walk.
c) You can walk, but the pace changes.
d) You can walk, but clumsily.

A look at how active learning is transforming education, particularly in the sciences.

Incompatibility

One of my cousins wrote this on Facebook:

When any black kid is beaten the racist police in USA,
When a colored Argentinian was shot by UK police,
when a cranky preacher planted bombs in Tokyo subway,
When the Russian military ran over innocent women and kids in Hungary,
When the Chinese tanks crushed students.......
No one talked and linked such barbaric incidents with their science and technology efforts ...
I don't know how digital India gets clubbed with the inhuman act at UP. The buffoons who link it either have hidden agenda or have their brains stapled to their posterior.

Notwithstanding the danger of being considered a buffoon, my reply to his post:

I agree that some politicians are making hay but it is not right to dismiss this as an invalid argument. During the height of the Apollo missions, civil rights activists rightfully argued that there was a fundamental incompatibility between a society in the brink of putting a man on the moon and a society where some of its inhabitants were second class citizens. So it is not something altogether unheard of. Pointing out this mismatch is a narrative platform while not giving the entire picture presents an important link of the jigsaw puzzle. That a government that is proud of its progressive agenda, atleast when it comes to technology, still subscribes to an outdated and inhuman system is cause for concern. And commentary. It is the same unease one feels when immense poverty coexists in otherwise rich countries.

The link between technological accomplishments and societal malaise is the people. Why shouldn't someone who takes great pride on Sundar Pitchai becoming a CEO because he was born in your region not feel shame for some guy from your country doing a heinous act? Why is he the outlier, a lone nut, a bad apple? Where is the ownership? Sundar's success is a reminder of how awesome Indians are but this guy's lynching is just this guy lynching? Where is taking good with the bad? Indian society, particularly the Hindu right cannot insulate itself from criticism. Oh btw, to claim that other countries don't have enough self-awareness, while factually true, does nothing more than proffer a weak excuse. I am sorry, but the sign of a culture in decline is the reluctance for self-examination.