kicking your idols

I'd probably root for each of Brazil's opponents from here on in the world cup; hoping atleast one of them will have what it takes to beat the champs.
Almost every single cricket lover I know was in total support of South Africa against Australia during that epic '434-438' ODI (labelled by some as the best ever). The joy that SA won was doubled because of the fact that Aus was the opponent.
There is a good number of Formula 1 followers who were desperately waiting for M Schumacher to make way for other contenders and let go his seemingly eternal hold on the championship.

We can probably call it the 'kick your idols' syndrome. I remember writing something to this effect in one other blog a year ago and the phenomenon still interests me no end. In almost every sport people are looking for a champion, a master of the game. When they find somebody or some team with the potential, they support them all the way to their glory. Then the particular individual/team begins to dominate. Now, this is where things change. People soon want a new champion. They wait like hounds for the slightest sign of downfall. And if they can spot an upcoming talent at the same time, they start baying for the blood of the current champ. Some like to say its just a case of supporting the under-dog. But to me this explanation always seemed more like a euphemism.

I remember reading an article which suggested that people, involuntarily, take solace in the defeat of a champion to boost their own ego; "Even champs arent infallible. How can I be?"
Oh and yes, i certainly do not purport to classify the whole 'kick your idols' thing as wrong (ethically or in any other way). Its just an interesting thing to take note of.

My very own Weboggle solver :D

Do you play weboggle? Did you recently notice names like "India rocks!", "Sachin Tendulkar", "pcubed" on the top in the weboggle score list?
...after getting sick and tired of trying to make it to the top five on weboggle i finally gave in to the temptation of writing a solver for it, which is obviously how some of those weirdos with names like 'Ubergeek' etc win the thing. Though it did take a while coming, its ready now and is working just fine. Initially i got good results only with the tougher boards, ie the ones which contained very few words. After a little weaking and tuning, it now works with almost any board. I wrote it in perl, since i was dying to use perl's regexps for something. It outputs the words into a file from which i type in the words into the weboggle page. So, with my typing speed being the only constraint, i almost always come first when i use it. I'll probably post the program here after further 'performance enhancement' ;)
Yeah yeah i know it isnt in the spirit of the game. Which is why i dont play it anymore. Without the solver i am sure i wont get into the top 5 (or even the top 20 when a lotta ppl play) and with it I know i'll end up in the top 3 for sure. So there's no fun nemore:)

When I'd interviewed Arjun Singh...

Only last september, I was mighty pleased with the fact that I was to interview Arjun Singh on behalf of my institute's newsletter, InsIghT. He was in IITB for the convocation ceremony and the PRO got us an appointment with him.

It is funny how dramatically things can change in such a short time. To me, he had come across as a well-meaning HRD minister. What else would you infer when a minister tells you that he intends to provide thrust to nanotechnology and biochem. in the institute and that the standards set by the IITs over the years must be preserved by all means?
And today he is responsible (atleast technically) for what is probably the most outrageous political move involving academics, since Indian independence.

What was a proud moment to me back then, now fills me with contempt for politicians - a feeling i always try to avoid.

Given the way the govt. has bulldozed its way thru the reservation issue, one can only wait and hope things will change...somehow.

Billy Pilgrim came unstuck in time

I was reading Slaughterhouse five by Kurt Vonnegut, which is an anti-war novel. It talks about the Dresden bombing of World War II (which, surprisingly, very few of us know about, inspite of its magnitude). But to make the book more interesting, the author tried something pretty strange ('good' strange).
The protagonist often finds himself in his own past and future. He can see and act in 4-dimensions (space-time).
The book starts like this:
Listen.
Billy Pilgrim came unstuck in time.
And ends like this:
Poo-tee-weet?

I do get random thoughts about the possibility of bustling through time, making ridiculous visits to see urself on a different day. But i always parried such ideas, simply because of the huuuuge amount of complexity associated with them. When every thought of yours results in a paradox, u would do well to stop thinking and thats what i do with time travel.
And all this usually happens when reading sci-fi thrillers. I always felt that sci-fi books on time travel were like buffalo sheds. You'll find that there is very little hard ground and a whole lot of crap (i have a copyright on this metaphor).

Is time an arrow? a line? a circle (as the hindus believe)? Is time irriversible?
General Relativity allows warping or bending of space-time and thus theoritically permits time travel. And if certain entities called worm-holes exist, a lot of particles are already, probably, making trips across centuries. But does it make sense that the past, present and the future are all happening together, right now? Thats the whole point. In a world where time travel is possible, there is no right now. Accept that first and everything becomes so convenient:)

Easier said. Ultimately, while dealing with the highest level of physics, it is usually advisable to work with mathematics and talk in equations. Paraphrasing Richard Feynman: whether you and I like it or not, the deepest secrets of the world seem to be written in a highly complex language. It is nothing short of blasphemy to try and talk physics in everyday terms.

And on a finishing note, the book is fantastic. It doesnt concern itself with time travel at all. That part is just incidental. It is primarily about war. And it features in the list of the top 50 works of fiction, of all time:)