Friday, September 19, 2008

More Photos, Nerdy Things, Pictures, And Sundry Items Which Are The Staple Here

-1. Ho Ho



0. Nerd Joke Alert
One for the nerds, let's get it outta the way pronto.

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who think in base 2, and those who don't."

1. How You Just Missed Making A Potload Of Money (But It Involved Mathematics)

A Mersenne Prime is a prime number that may be expressed in the form 2n - 1. Only 46 Mersenne primes are known, but it is possible that there is an infinitude of them lurking.

The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search project has discovered the last 12, each of which except for the latest one was the largest known prime at the time of discovery. GIMPS works by distributing the computational work between volunteers' PCs. The GIMPS program runs when the PC is idle, quietly churning away.

GIMPS announced that prime nos. 45 and 46 were discovered in a space of 3 weeks on August 23 and September 6, which is pretty amazing. The person on whose computer #45 was discovered (Edson Smith who maintains computers for UCLA) gets $100,000 for discovering the first prime number with > 10 million digits. $100,000! And all you had to do was lend your computer. Suckers.

2. Oracellae And Such

The Marine Mammals Conservation Network of India has a new website. We have written about our encounters with marine mammals before, including this one. Nowadays, when we go running, we actually feel like a stranded marine mammal, that's what the cardio-vascular-respiratory system has become.

Be that as it may, do check out the website. Lots and lots of information, including much of Kumaran Sathasivam's excellent book on the Marine Mammals of India. Sekk it out, I say.

3. 'I'm going to die on Monday at 6.15pm'

Points to ponder. Reader discretion advised.

"When Marc Weide's mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she chose euthanasia. Here, we publish his shockingly frank diary of her final days."

4. Love Theme

The Love Theme in RitiGowla is poised on a knife edge. Chapter V came out some time back, and faithful readers are clamouring for more and threatening homicide. If you go now, you can read all 5 and be all up to date, otherwise too many episodes will have passed, and this is not some 'Shanti' or 'Swabhiman' or 'The Pearl' that you can open the page anywhere and start yensoying. What do you think this is, book cricket?

5. Photoos


Begumpet, Onam eve (it-is-a-camel.com)



Alwal, Onammmm...



Early morning, 15th August, Madras Central station. We kid you not, this fellow was hanging out aaraam se in the middle of that gigantic concourse.


And that's that.

8 comments:

D said...

wonderful saar. please continue to dole out fresh stuff like this everyday.

here is $2.56 (hexadecimal)for your trouble ;)

Choxbox said...

yinteresting i say.

Ram Tekumalla said...

What is with camels in Hyderabad? I saw a few of them during my visit

aandthirtyeights said...

arrey! honoured, we are!

Ludwig said...

[d] theka le rakha hai kya, to dole out every day?! :P

[choxbox] y not, i say!

[ramtek] it's freaky. you're stepping out of the building to buy some milk and 4 gigantic camels come barreling out of the gloom and exit stage right with the same alacrity they displayed in entering. surreal...

i think these ones were there to do Vinayaka chaturthi chanda collection. Rajasthani equivalent of gangireddu! gangirontu!

[aandthirtyeights] dai that's all very good, the point is for you to get off your ass and emit the future chapters ASAP.

Anonymous said...

gosh, I read that euthanasia story sometime back...bizzare and unsettling, isn't it?
and, hahaha on the quick gun murugan video...i'd forgotten this particular brand of humour spawned by channel V

-dharini

Sharada said...

Don't tell me Quick Draw Mcgraw erm Quick Gun Murugun is actually a soon-to-be-released movie?!
It's hilarious!:)

And, was not in the mood to say it properly earlier, but thank you for remembering to lend ze Persepolis to ze us!:)

Ludwig said...

[dharini] yeah, that story was a bit much. leaves you thinking really really hard. the sheer number of "what ifs" embedded in it is overwhelming.

can barely wait for Quick G.

[sharada!] ya ya, movie happening, Rajendra Prasad, yippee.

and no problems re: Persepolis. just be aware that your name is safely in the phone and it will beep in my face in a few weeks time and you will start receiving threatening supari messages.