contemporary artifacts

Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Dinner at Gufha

    I finally went upstairs the other night, to Gufha, the totally over the top cave/safari theme restaurant on the top floor of my hotel. The whole interior of the place is covered with paper mache rock formations, the waiters all wear safari outfits and pith helmets, and the only light is provided by fake flaming…

  • Backroads are backroads

    These small country roads, on the way back to Bangalore from Halebid, reminded me, vaguely, of the country roads around my Father’s home town in western Pennsylvania. Of course, we were driving on the wrong side and the vegetation was distinctly more tropical, but the basic spirit seemed the same.

  • Sravanabelagola, Belur, and Halebid

    For my second weekend day trip, we drove west from Bangalore about half way to the coast, stopping off to see the world’s largest free standing monolith at Sravanabelagola, and the ancient temples at Belur and Halebid.  The monolith is a major Jain pilgramage site, and is situated on top of a mountain with some…

  • The Rooftop Bars of Bangalore

    So, I’ve been promising for weeks now a review of the rooftop bar scene here in Bangalore. Truth be told, I’ve only been to two of them, but I hear tell there are more. I expect these two are pretty good examples of the breed; they are The Crossover Lounge, and The 13th Floor.

  • Quitting Bangalore

    Tonight is my last night in Bangalore.  I’ll be heading out bright and early tomorrow and heading south west to an old hill station in Tamil Nadu, a small state in central southern India.  I’ll be spending the weekend there, chillaxin’ and enjoying the mountains and the forests.  From there I’ll be heading down to…

  • Astronomy: today at sunset, NYC turns into Stonehenge

    Happy belated New York Stonehenge Day everyone. Xeni Jardin: An unusual sunset in Manhattan. Snip from NASA “astronomy pic of the day”: Today, if it is clear, Manhattan will flood dramatically with sunlight just as the Sun sets precisely on the centerline of every street. Usually, the tall buildings that line the gridded streets of…

  • How-to build your own CNC mill

    C&C for the masses. I’ma build me one of these, in my copious free time. Yes folks it’s true: You can build a computer controlled 3-axis circuit board mill from cutting boards, a pile of printer parts and a Dremel. My coworker [Will] has posted the third and final installment of his CNC machine build…

  • The Zero Sum Game of Penalty Kicks

    This discussion of the game theory of pentaly kicks has become more and more apropos every day through the end of the tournement.

  • Safe, not in Mumbai

    News is trickling in on the bomb attacks in Mumbai earlier this evening.  I am no where near Mumbai at the moment, and am perfectly safe, but many many people are not.

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