Migration!

I am planning to migrate to Wordpress.com (and, thanks Abi for the tip). The main advantage I found with Wordpress is that they allow categorisation of posts. So, I do not need to maintain two different blogs, and it makes easier for people to navigate through the blog based on their topics of interest. In addition, wordpress also allows for private (and password-protected) posts. The new blog is called Entertaining Research--the Alicious adventures of a Malkanthapuragudi-an. It will take a while for the new blog to be customised; in the meanwhile, any comments or suggestions you may have are welcome! See you there!

Some more Nobel lectures!

Via Marginal Revolution, we learn that the video of the Economics Nobel lectures are now available (on a site called Mahalanobis;-).

A time to look back and read!

Via PTDR, I learnt about this special issue of Daedalus; the issue celebrates the 50th aniversary of Daedalus by reprinting some of the old articles; the fare includes Amartya Sen, Steven Weinberg, Susan Sontag, Umberto Eco, and Robert Frost. Have fun!

Holiday reading; some suggestions!

The approach of Christmas is also the approach of holidays; and what better way to spend the holidays than by reading! Here is a reading list for this holiday season. The short essay also tells the significance and importance of holiday reading:

But then comes holiday time, sacred days, time outside of ordinary time, when it's possible to find free hours for reading during a day usually given over to work. On a day such as this you can commit the absolutely marvelous act of reading for pleasure, the heightened version of this being the stimulating mix of entertainment and edification about the world and life that comes from reading great fiction and poetry. In this way, we truly participate in the holy separation of ordinary time and sacred time.

Meditation practice in a number of spiritual traditions separates special thought from ordinary, rational thought. Holiday reading distinguishes itself from reading for courses or reading for business reasons or reading to keep up in a book club. It is the gift you give yourself, the gift of time infused with adventure, the gift of supercharged language and deep insight into character, the gift of story that we need every day -- and if only everyone could seize the time! -- to instruct us in how to understand the seeming relentless forward propulsion of our lives.

Happy reading!

A truly amazing project!

I am talking about Project Gutenberg. Here is an interview with Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg; link via Literary Saloon. I did not know that Project Gutenberg was started in 1971. The interview tells the difference between Google books and the Gutenberg approach. And, two quotes from the interview to give a flavour:

In a typical week, there are at least a million downloads. We get a lot of Thackeray downloads, a lot of James Joyce, a lot of Dickens. “Pride and Prejudice” is always up there. Sherlock Holmes is always up there. … There are always some you don’t expect, like “Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the Renaissance Period” by Paul Lacroix. …We also have reference material, which most people probably wouldn’t think of — like Roget’s Thesaurus. Plus, the Koran, along with the Bible.

Q: What are some of your favorite books or authors?
A: “Alice in Wonderland” was a family classic for us, and my dad was a Shakespeare professor. I do love Shakespeare.

Many meanings of the life of Bach!

Here is an essay profiling the life of Bach (from Gaurdian).

Chomsky - podcast of an interview!

Here is a link to a podcast of an interview with Noam Chomsky (from Boing Boing).