Physics, Religion and Creationists-vs-Evolutionists

Lately, I've been reading a couple of blogs/articles where people argue over topics like GOD/Atheism, Indo-US Nuclear-Deal etc.

I had decided long back that I wouldn't participate in arguments of the following categories -- (i) God/Atheism (ii) Capitalism/Communism (iii) Selfishness/Altruism.

But.. in a week moment, I got involved in one of the arguments from the first category. I should say that I was surprised to see that many of the participants [from both sides] didn't even know the ground rules of carrying on a healthy discussion. And as one would expect, the debate got over without reaching a conclusion. :(

I am a hard-core atheist by all means - very much convinced about the non-existence of a supreme-intelligent-designer-being. But I realized that I was not knowledgeable enough to convince someone who wasn't convinced yet. If I really want one thing in life, it is knowledge. I started to make myself knowledgeable.

I started to:

1. Follow some of the links I got from the debates - links which even take you to the big-bang. [eg: First three minutes (book) by Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate]. Haven't finished the book - but till now, it'd been wonderful.
2. Read a religious text. Well, I could only start with it. It was ultra-mega boring - which means that it would take ages before I finish reading it. But I do want to read it.
3. Watch Mr. Dawkins - his debates in youtube and google-video, programs @ BBC. This person is an awesome character. Too smart to be true. Totally logical, sensible, terrific, awesome.
   
   I, whom I myself consider quite smart and intelligent, take sometimes a moment before really understanding his arguments. He is that good. Do you know, how useful these arguments could be - for your brain-muscle exercises? :)

So, I have been reading up Physics, Religion and listening to creationist-vs-evolutionist arguments. That is one of the reasons along with fever, which kept me away from the blog for about two weeks.

This entry was probably not a light read. Will try for a light read next time.

And this entry is dedicated to this great person, Dawkins, who never loses his temper, against pompous fools.

Signing off, Sands.

PS: If you are interested, you can watch a set of nice dialogues between Mr. Dawkins and Mr. McGrath - HERE. A long one, which gets a little boring in between.

PS2: The picture -- I took from Max Plank Institute

PS3: The post is over here - the following is the scrap/byproduct, from the production of the post.! :)

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Two friends of mine were arguing. One of them lost the argument. What does it mean?

Does it always mean, in an argument, when one of the participants lose, that the other person was right?
Not necessarily, right?

It could also mean that one of them was better at arguing.

Well, we are coming to the topic: Debates.

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I haven't been coming to my English blog as frequently as I used to earlier. Well, there are mainly two reasons.

(i) I was getting a little more involved in Malayalam blogland.
(ii) I was down with fever.

The beauty of Malayalam blogland is that, first of all it is not so huge and large as this one; I personally know most of the main players there.

Secondly, there are quite a few debates*/arguments going on among the bloggers - almost at all times.

Thirdly, one can find all genres of comedy too in there - which of course should be one of the main reasons for getting new people.

A storm is on its way

As I had written in the last post, I have to do my German exam by myself and should submit it in the next class. I was just going through the syllabus and my phone rang. It was in silent mode, it didn't ring really :)

It was Daniela, my teacher. Today's class is cancelled because of a storm this evening. Yes, from morning itself there is very strong wind. It might get stronger in the evening. You know what? this could be the signal of a strong snowing which is going to come. I wish it'll snow a lot.

I went to the weather sites to see the following.

Wind: 26 mph / 43 km/h / 11.8 m/s from the WSW
Wind Gust: 47 mph / 76 km/h / 21.1 m/s

And Wind Gust is defined as this : "The wind gust is the maximum wind speed recorded over a specified time period. When wind speeds are measured and the peak wind speed during the measuring period is roughly 10 knots more than the average wind speed, a wind gust is reported." (never mind, you really needn't understand it really)

So the wind is going to be really strong tonight - 76 kmph - cool!

That's all for the weather reporting.

I wanted to buy some tea. I can't go out :(. I don't have anything to cook tonight. I will eat rice + curd + pavakka vattal :)

Back to work. Signing off, sands.

Schönen Tag --- Beautiful Day

Herr Sandeep Sadanandan, geboren am 16.02.1982 in Coimbarote, ist an der Technische Universitat Munchen als Student immatrikuliert.

Yes, this is what I was waiting for the past 6+ months "Mr. Sandeep Sadanandan, born on 16.02.1982 in Coimbatore, has been enrolled as a student of T.U.M". They have made mistakes in Date of birth and also with my Place of birth. Still I am happy with this. Finally I got it done :)

My Insurance too is ready now. I hope they don't come with a new problem. I got my salary for the work done on conference too. Altogether today was a real good day.

Evening, I will be going for "Casino Royale".

Signing off, Sands

Valgrind and Fundamental Algorithms

It's been quite sometime since I blogged last time. I was not sure whether I'd be blogging for another week. Life's a little busy and this week it's at it's peak. I am moving from Dulferstrasse to Muenchener Freiheit. More about that later...

In one of my old posts I had mentioned that I would be giving the course Fundamental Algorithms this semester. Finally it was decided that I would be doing the exercises for the course and Jens would be doing the theory session. So far so good.

It happened to be my first class today. I was quite busy over the weekend - preparing the notes/problems-solutions for today's class. It was 10:00 at night (yesterday) when I was done with the notes and the web-page for the same.

Today morning, Jens wanted to have a small chat with me regarding the problems and other details. We were talking and he was quite happy with the stuff I had done :). While talking, I noticed the word "valgrind" written on his desk. Being the co-author of "Valgrind-Howto", Obviously, I was curious about that.

I asked him whether he uses Valgrind and he told he wants to use it and he wants me to give him a small session on "Introduction to Valgrind". I was surprised to know that, there were people around me who knew that I wrote that stuff!, at the same time I thought that "I am screwed". It was about 4 years back I wrote the 'howto' and I hardly remember anything about it. But I was sure that, it would be quite easy for me to give him an intro. And that might even help me to upgrade the 'howto' once.

Somehow, the conversation was slowly moving into programming - yes, it happened. He asked me about M$, C# and .Net. He wanted me to tell him a little about those things too. Good heavens, I only know how little I know about the last two. It's true that I have done programming in C# and .Net, but I don't consider myself as a knowledgeable person who can tell about these things to others. Anyway I assured him - I shall help him in trouble.

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Later in the class, I think I did it quite okay. There were 18 students. Never in my life, I had to explain anything to someone who was having a lower degree than me. I am not comparing the importance of degree/qualification. Whenever I have done a presentation or something, I was always doing it in front of my colleagues or professors. Since they already knew whatever I talked, it was always easy.

Today the scenario was different. Those students were new to algorithms/complexity. How do I tell them and explain them "what is what"? How do I go down to their level and explain things so that they get the complete meaning? It wasn't easy, but was exciting.

I was not tensed. But was not in the normal state too. I hope, in another 6 months, i.e, by the end of this semester I would turn out to be a good teacher. Today I did make some silly mistakes, but managed to go over them without panicking :). Very happy about it. I would give 5/10 for my today's class. Next week I should improve.

I want to write many more things. Lucky you!! - I don't have time. Let me do my packing and cleaning, before I move.

Signing off, Sands.