Check Out The Moves On That Kid

The kid being, yours truly. Read the below carefully. Several announcements of engrossing interest follow.

1. ACE 2009 is on, baby!! It's the 5^th edition. It's bigger. It's better. More teams, more media coverage, more everything. More kozhambu, damn it. Please participate in vast multitudes! See this too:



2. This blog is moving!!!!!!!! Sort of. Actually, it's trifurcating. This is a word normally found only in Indian Railways timetables. And with reference to places like Renigunta and Mughalsarai. Anyway, apparently, the key to becoming a famous blogger, is to know the right people. Thanks to such Beings, one part of the blog will now live on the Livemint website under the name Filter Coffee (we're looking for better names, yes.). Some new and rehashed posts are already up. This will contain the "serious" stuff. The insanity such as mythology, engineering, and sundry letters will continue here.

A second, and hitherto unsuspected facet of the Ludwigumbareshwari will occur on the company blog. This will mostly be about arcane Java and project management concepts. Be warned.

So that is move #1.

3. Move #2 is more corporeal. As the Livemint description says, "Ludwig Wittgenstein based out of Chennai blogs about science, literature, travel and culture." Yes, ladeej and jantalbhainses. Mayur Marg, Begumpet is filled with the cries of forlorn hornbills, even as the evil auto drivers of Venkatraman St., T. Nagar salivate. Lock, stock and barrel have been transplanted to salubrious Madras. The hapless denizens of Hyderabad need not fear. The lure of biryani and other such enticements will keep bringing us back. Hell, looks like work will keep bringing us back.

Dear silent Madrasi readers of this blog, hello. Nice to make your acquaintance. Feed me.

4. Yes, the move was a serious pain in the rear. Agarwal Packers broke my washing machine, and are refusing to cough up the insurance money. A pox on their house. Otherwise trying to settle down.

Watch these spaces. Lot's of excitement coming up. Prizes for all.

My IPL Support Algorithm

This surely comes a little too late, seeing as semifinal #1 is about to start in 4 minutes time, but what the hell. Here goes.

if (Chargers.areKnockedOut() != true) {
    support(Chargers);
} else {
    if (Daredevils.areFinalists() == true) {
        support(Opposing South Indian team);
        Saroja.saamaan(nigaalo++);
    }
}

if (2nd semi final) {
    support(CSK);
    System.out.println("I see your Pulakesin II, but look! Here is your Vaataapi Ganapati, and see! There goes Rajendra Chola after your sorry Chalukya ass.");
}

Pay Attention

Really. Pay attention.



Really.

Assorted Links

Seems to be a good day for random readings:

1. Genius: The Modern View - David Brooks finds out what goes into the making of genius.

...In the view that is now dominant, even Mozart’s early abilities were not the product of some innate spiritual gift. His early compositions were nothing special. They were pastiches of other people’s work. Mozart was a good musician at an early age, but he would not stand out among today’s top child-performers.

What Mozart had, we now believe, was the same thing Tiger Woods had — the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father intent on improving his skills. Mozart played a lot of piano at a very young age, so he got his 10,000 hours of practice in early and then he built from there...

2. Siddharth Varadarajan - Narendra Modi is unwilling even to apologize for the Gujarat massacres because neither religious India nor political India considers his involvement a liability.

En passant, he makes some interesting observations on daadi baaba and his oily sanctimoniousness. And finally mentions this chilling piece of news:

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani has written to over 1,000 religious leaders promising to consult them on all government policy matters if he were to lead the next government...

....Seeking the "support" of religious leaders, Mr. Advani ended the letter with a 'shastang namaskar' ("I greet you while prostrating before you") while promising them a "consultative mechanism" and adding that his government "would like religious establishments to play an important role in inculcating spiritual and patriotic values." He further promised cow protection, security of Ram Sethu, simplification of income tax exemption rules for religious institutions, outlawing of all religious conversion using fraudulent means, promotion of spiritual tourism and not allowing controversies like the one on land for the Amarnath Shrine Board.

Swedish visa, whither art thou?

3. What Makes Men Stupid - Apparently Robert Jensen thinks the list of things is countably finite. Ha ha. Anyway, a very very interesting account of a class Jensen was teaching in Islamabad follows. Via TheSouthAsianIdea Weblog.

4. Phantasmagoria offers belated Valentine's Day suggestions addressed to ex-es everywhere:

1) If you expect to stay 'friends', remember that there is no such thing. You will always be the ex. Even if you were friends before you were together. That doesn’t mean you can’t be friendly and civil and kind...
7) Even though as the ex you are entitled to imagine us naked, you don’t have to bring it up. That can be your own little dirty secret. Really. We don’t want to know...

The Return Of The Jedi

"We're back, we're going to whup the Higgs' ass." says a press release from CERN. Woohoo.

The Daily Show does a "scoop" on the LHC story.

The Particle Adventure - The Fundamentals of Matter and Force, seems to be a good source of basic info for the layperson.

See how small we are... (click on the picture to expand)