For the record

I had certain 'opinions' about Malcolm Gladwell's books (without having actually read them, I might add, but based on what I heard from one or the other). I recently read one of his pieces online, and said, wth, I might as well actually read and see. I read Outliers yesterday, and report enjoying it.

Enjoy!!

An important book

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life. The longing for love, search for knowledge and unbearable pity for suffering of mankind.

So begins the autobiography of Bertrand Russell. We have met Mr.Russell before, and the chief reason for me picking up this book (apart from a general curiosity about the life of Mr.Russell), was that I wanted to know how Principia Mathematica came about. I wanted to know the intellectual milieu that fuelled its creation, the decade long effort that went into making it and so on. OK, so on that one count the book disapppointed me. There is not a lot about the things I mentioned above in the book. But the book on the whole is so good, and so important (so it seems to me) that that one particular point dimineshes into insignificance. I knew Russell as a first rate mathematician and a first rate writer, what was new to me was his public life; his countless battles for women's rights, disarmament, justice for war crimes and a number of other issues fills one with awe. Russell was blessed with a long life, ninety-eight years in which he retained all his mental faculties almost to the end, and more importantly, continued utilizing them. Almost all the leading intellects of the era were in his touch, and sought his counsel. A curious feature of the book is that after each chapter, letters from and to Russell from that time are also printed, which make for great reading. Some are personal, some seek counsel, some even heap scorn on Russell, and all in all make the book a lot more interesting. On a personal note, I tend to read more books about facts, because I like to know them. On that count, I learned very little from this large book. But there is also a kind of learning, shaping of thought that I don't think I can express in words, and I learned a lot on that count (I think). Just one concluding observation now, Russell's clarity makes (almost) all others seem like schoolboys. I haven't been able to read anything since last night (when I finished his book) because of it :).

Enjoy!!

Impressions

server rooms are great for contemplation (even when they freeze you to death)

bash is beauty, SHLVL is your totem

hungry like a dog, mad like a dog, basically a dog (and that is called duck typing)

when will I learn?

A short note

On a short book, John Gribbin's In search of the multiverse. OK, just to be clear, there is no 'The Multiverse'. The basic idea is that our visible universe is just a part of a much bigger (possibly infinite) thing, called multiverse. Why do you need it? To explain say, why the universe had low entropy to begin with, or say, why it is so supportive of life (I won't go in much details (the author does it nicely), except mentioning that there are multiple ways to go theorizing about it, for example the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, or chaotic inflation, or cosmic landscape of string theory, and so on). The writing is accessible, but certain parts were not very clear to me (though not due to any fault on the author's part, I think at a certain level words are no substitute for equations, but then you have to go to textbooks for them). Importantly, it packs a lot of information in just 200 pages. A good read if you have read a few popsci books before, and want an upgrade.

Enjoy!!

Bad Science

You know how ICUs came about?
Polio causes paralysis of muscles, and in case of an attack on the chest muscles, patient can die because loss of breathing. But these attacks are also known to retreat spontaneously, and hence doctors came up with the idea of `just keep'em breathing and we might save them`. And to cater to this need was born the Intensive Care Unit.

Just one of the interesting tidbits from Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (which I finished reading recently). But this book is far from just a collection of interesting stories (of which it contains many). It is a serious attempt at public education about science focusing on the medical domain. There is a highly readable discussion of how clinical trials are conducted (and what does a double-blind-placebo-controlled study means). We learn about the caveats in conducting and interpreting these studies (something to which even the researchers are not immune sometimes). We meet some high profile new age health gurus (not local to this land, but you might be able to draw parallels). But probably the most important part of the book is about statistics (note: it's good but could've been better) and how to use it to 'read' news. We are constantly bombarded with miracle cures (and no, not the jaduii pendants (we all are too smart for those) but pills for concentration, creams for bedaag gorapan and not to mention, machines with which you can lose weight (our public seems to be obsessed with this one issue) without exercise). Next in line are health drinks which help your kids grow dugani teji se and even garmiyo me. Next, a drink which has both nature aur science ke guun. Well, my friend, science is not a substance, it's a process so you can't put that in a product [and also, having a robot as mascot for science doesn't help, that's technology]. I can go on, and you can come up with your own list, but that isn't helpful. What this book sets out to do is develop a more sceptical, more rational outlook. And that makes it a must read. Ben (himself a doctor) appears as a supporter of a normal healthy diet, something your mom told you about; and it's a piece of advice soarly missing in our supplement obsessed world, I think.

I am more than willing to share my copy of the book so if you are interested, let me know. Also there is a lot of good stuff on the author's website. Do check it out.

Enjoy!!

P.S. Trick or Treatment would be nice complementary reading to this. You can find my review of it here.

Aah Consistency!!


# 1 + 2.1 ;;
Error: This expression has type float but an expression was expected of type int

# 1.0 + 2.1 ;;
Error: This expression has type float but an expression was expected of type int

# 1.0 +. 2.1 ;;
- : float = 3.1


More of the same

I seem to be losing (rather quickly) whatever little capacity I had had for writing posts about one topic. Welcome to today's collection of random notes

Cartoons - Their importance can't be put into words, neither can their impact. For me, almost all of the favorites remained those I picked up as a kid. Not that I stopped watching cartoons, but somehow no one entered the inner circle (the area occupied by Johny Quest, Aladin, Darkwing Duck and Centurians, just to name a few). That's not the case now. Gates have been opened for another worthy candidate, Phineas and Ferb. Thanks to bangi for introducing us.

This one again relates to childhood. Your truly (and many of his friends) still retain their fascination with stationary section of a shop (along with Toys, and yes, Tools). In one of those leisurely strolls, I came across a package. It was almost a compass box, ruler, protractor and stuff but for one thing, it also had a pocket calculator. Now what does that tell you?

I finished reading the 2007 Edge book [more about edge in the linked post]. The question for that year was 'What are you optimistic about?'. Wonderful reading, as expected. It's hard for me to pick the best response, so I'll tell you the one which I liked most
Sometime in the 21st century, I will understand 20th century Physics.
Something yours truly is optimistic about too. Now time to get the new Edge books [haven't seen them in the bookstores yet. but for the impatient: they are available online]

Started reading Anathem recently. Haven't read much yet, but am wondering, how much of the alternate universe created by an author (prime example: Middle Earth and Tolkein) with all the hard-or-impossible to pronounce names (remember kwisatz haderach?) is genuine requirement of the story, and how much is it a vehicle for showing the writer's genius? The answer would vary per case, and it's too early to draw conclusions (at least in this case).

And the last point, WHERE ARE THE RAINS?

Enjoy!!

The fifteen year old question (approximately)

Why do red ants bite while black ones don't?

When I was a kid (hence fifteen years in the title), the prevalent theory was that because black ones were from god and red ones from devil, and hence it was ok to kill red ants. And as far as I remember, I did buy it. Now today, and it's a little hard to explain why, the question popped back in my mind while having lunch. And having the great power of the internetz at my fingertips (which my ten-year-old-library-scavenging self would have been totally awed at), I decided to put it to good use. And the short answer is, not sure. Stinging is the dominant defense mechanism in the ant family tree, but recently evolved subspecies lack it. Which means the black ant I met as a kid (most likely some relative of black carpenter ant) is younger than the red ant (most likely some relative of fire ant) in evolutionary terms (again my ten-year-old-self would have been totally awed by this, having no concept of evolution). In the process I learned a bit about different defense meachanisms employed by ants, bite-and-spray-acid vs sting-and-insert-alakoloid etc (red ants do not actually bite, they sting. Some workers from black ant family do bite) and discovered this interesting blog (in fact, many of the facts in this post come from this post). Take a look, gooood stuff!! To top it all, there is even a sting index (so sting like a bee is 2.x if you are a honey bee). Fundoo!! As for me, I am just glad, you know that pure gladness which we all knew as kids (which now seems to have deserted for the most part), that kind of glad to have made a little more progress :).

Enjoy!!

P.S. I realize there must be more to this than my few minutes worth of googling revealed. If you do come across further info, please let me know. Thanks in advance.