Naveen · Kumar · (नवीन · कुमार)

Edward Osborne Wilson: American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity): A man who is devoted to the study and preservation of Biodiversity across the world...He is also the Lord of Ants, for his systematic study of ants and ant behavior.




Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKbj3ZDmvdU

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson
His wish: Encyclopedia of Life: http://www.eol.org/

I have never been able to understand how a good painting is evaluated. Is it story, ideas they represent, aesthetics or a combination of others that makes one painting better than the other. So maybe, I will put my naive understanding in a list. These are some of the things which according to my understanding, in combination, define and describe a painting's value:

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October 25 was the birth date of Évariste Galois(October 25, 1811 – May 31, 1832). Who he was? Well! he was Albert Einstein of Algebra. You can easily find people (And I am beginning to realize this) who consider Galois to be one among the greatest geniuses who ever lived (Probably among top 5 in the ranking). His out of the box thinking resulted in a completely new branch of Mathematics. I would not go into much detail here, but to tell you at an abstract level, he used group of permutations to show that any general polynomial equation of degree 5 (In fact Abel proved it only for the case 5) and above cannot be solved by any formula in radicals. What I mean is that you cannot have something of

[-b±√(b²-4ac)]/2a

as the value of roots in a general polynomial equation of degree 2(quadratic equation) for any polynomial of order 5 and above.

Not only this, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals.

Now if you would suppose that reasoning for such a proof will require and consist of only manipulations of coefficients and variable, you are completely mistaken. No sir, he used permutations of putative solutions. This in itself is out of the box thinking and extraordinarily a work of a genius. Who would have thought of such a thing. Many greats before him and Abel tried to find such formulas(in radicals) for degree 5 and above, and failed gloriously.

If you are wondering what a group(Group Theory) really is: it is just a set with a defined operation. The members of this set follow 4 rules with respect of this operation:

1. Closure: The combination of any 2 members by the group operation has to produce another member of the set.

2. Associativity: When three ordered members combine, the result does not depend on which two are combined first.

3. Identity: There exists one such a member, that when it is combined with any other member by the group operation, the operation itself results in second member. This is true even when the order of Association is reversed. This is the only member, with which commutativity is guaranteed to work.

4. Inverse: Every member when combined with its inverse by group operation, the operation itself results in identity member. So there is an inverse member for every member with respect to the group operation.

Group Theory is also something which at an elementary level allows you to understand symmetry at a greater abstraction, and not just mirror symmetry(reflection symmetry). A thing is symmetrical if there is something you do to it and after you have finished doing it, it looks exactly the same as before (This is not an adult talk :-P).

For example an equilateral triangle is symmetric with respect to n(π/3) rotation, where n is an integer.

Some of the kinds of symmetry one can expect:

1. Reflection Symmetry: As in Butterfly

2. Rotational Symmetry: The symmetry of an equilateral triangle, when we rotate it by n⨯60° (n[π/3]).

3. Helical Symmetry: Screw movement.

4. Glide Symmetry: reflection in a line or plane combined with a translation along the line in the plane

5. Magnification Symmetry: Scale Symmetric under magnification, as in fractals.

6. Translation Symmetry: Repeating Patterns on a bed sheet or a saree.

One can argue that if modern definitions of Symmetry and Groups were known at the time of Sir Issac Newton, probably we would have needed less of Einstein. The above statement only emphasizes the importance of identifying symmetry in natural phenomenons and operations.

I would not go any further, so please read some books to explore more on this subject. You can start with a book titled "The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry" by Mario Livio. This book will definitely set you on the right course, but it is not an exhaustive treatise on the subject. Still it is a great inspiration for Non-Mathematicians like me and inspires us to learn more of pure Mathematics, exhaustively.

Announcing the release of alpha-0.1 version of Anumaan, a perspective based, on-screen predictive text entry system for GNOME desktop. Anumaan is an extension of an Input Method (IM) mechanism (on GNOME desktop) in the sense that it extends its (IM) notion by including the power of text prediction. It has support for UTF-8 unicode encoding.

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/A-little-less-nationalistic-hero-worship-please/articleshow/5129529.cms

The part I liked the most:

....The best way to take pleasure in someone’s achievement is to take an interest in their work and feel motivated to learn more about science. I remember reading about Gellman’s work as an undergraduate in Baroda, and, when he won the Nobel prize, rushing upstairs to tell my parents. It did not matter to me whether he was Indian or not. In my case, I am lucky to have had a combination of education, opportunities and a great team of co-workers to have made a contribution to an important problem. I am not personally that important. If I hadn’t existed, this work would still have been done. It is the work that is important, and that should be what excites people...

XlitHindi transliteration tool for OpenOffice.org http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/xlithindi by CDAC Mumbai. 3 Cheers to Xlit team.

I am releasing a personal keymap software utility named mathwriter at http://code.google.com/p/mathwriter/. Till now I was using this personally to put mathematical contents using iiimf (Internet Intranet Input Method Framework) Unit Language engine. But I think this may be useful generally if released in public domain. It is by no means complete, but still whatever is there may find its usage with some people and especially university students. I am also releasing a video to explain its usage. A general usage of iiimf can be understood from the following URL: http://202.141.152.41/~aparna/consolidated/x1963.html

The subsequent version of this application will see more improvements and maybe change in the very nature of current utility and interaction mechanism and maybe a full fledged math-editor. At least almost all of the codepoints will be covered in next release.

Video Link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzJLeJgid9U



Please send me your feedback at mailto:mathwriter007@gmail.com

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4831175.cms
Link to Center for Inquiry: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4384391.cms

Sadly, it does not list GNU/Linux despite having tux on the opening page image...

Linking Sarvesh's post here (http://sarvesh-nikumbh.livejournal.com/1185.html)

An amazing story uncovering an accidental discovery of lost works of 'Archimedes of Syracuse'. This story also uncovers how modern imaging techniques are helping conservationists to retrieve lost works of Archimedes from the Palimpsest.

Archimedes was the most important scientist of Antiquity and it can be argued that he "is the most important scientist who ever lived". Recent discoveries point to the fact that it was Archimedes who can actually be attributed to the discovery of Calculus, almost 2000 years before Sir Issac Newton. In fact Newton might even have been inspired from some of the works of Archimedes. One of the conservationist of Archimedes' Palimpsest once stated "The entire Western Science is nothing but a series of footnotes to Archimedes".

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Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonour'd, and unsung.

~Sir Walter Scott~

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Richard_M_Stallman_Vs._Linus_Torvalds (sorry for only the link again...:-P).

Every description of nature, world, god or any other natural phenomenon is a complete nonsense if it does not stand the rigours of description. And that is the way of science. Anything else just exists in the minds of a conscious/sentient being, either getting ready to be described rigorously, or (getting) ready to be given the status of cult or religion by those who just cannot handle uncertain knowledge in any way (anytime). We need science and research to understand our complicated nature and universe and remove ignorance and imaginary hypothesis'. Science never claims to know it all as opposed to cult and religion. Those who believe in scientific ways are even ready to embrace a cult or some form of god if it is shown with absolute rigour that it stands the most/or a more accurate description (than science) of nature, universe, god and our origins. But unfortunately they do not have such notion. Their's is a very elementary description which is probably not true. And they all play mind games which can very easily be equated with madness. Even a madman feels something. The question is how do you distinguish between madness and reality.

Further their description stands like; white light across a tunnel, state of no mind,revelations, feel good, peace of mind etc etc... some/most of which even a mind gone awry will experience. Only difference is that we send them to mental asylum. And just look at the number of lives we have lost for just these imprecise descriptions of god.

A more precise way is to learn about nature through rigours of mathematics and science. Learn mathematics, do the form of meditation(described by your religion) if necessary, describe it(rigorously). Only then it can be put to any argument. Otherwise there will be no objective description and consequently the arguments will not stand any rigours of description. We invented Language and science to describe our world in an objective way, to better ourselves than any other sentient being on this planet. Otherwise there is no difference between a society of dogs and humans. Probably (or not) even they feel about god the same way some of our fellow humans do (or they don't). The great difference is that we have the power of science and mathematics to prove and disapprove the validity of any such claims. There is no other way. Otherwise propose one...:)