# LATEX rules!

Ah, then! We do have LATEX support in wordpress… although I’ve taken nearly a year to realise this 😀

So, then we can have $E=mc^2$, $\hat{H}|\psi\rangle = i\hbar\frac{d}{dt}|\psi\rangle$ and what not, all written in these blogs…

# Happy Birthday, Dr Doyle!

147 years ago, on this day, was born the creator of arguably the most famous detective of all time, fictional though, Sherlock Holmes!

There are two famous lists of favourite stories: that of Conan Doyle himself, in 1927, and that of the Baker Street Journal in 1959.

Conan Doyle's list:

The Baker Street Journal's list:

# Cometh Holi, cometh the Ho(o)ligans!

Holi, the Indian festival of colours is quite a one-of-its-kind festival, commemorating both the destruction of Holika, as well as the burning of Manmatha, symbolising desire/lust. Read more on the mythology on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

However, the colour-throwing, as fun as it may be, has often been quite a nuisance, since a lot of people are quite paranoid about the synthetic colours, their adverse effects on the skin/eyes, leave alone merely getting very very dirty! A lot of hooliganistic behaviour has often been seen in various cities, Delhi I think, being particularly notorious, and Bombay too, uncharacteristically.

Even in an elite place like IISc, there is too much of hooliganism to believe or bear. The messes were messed up, as were several corridors. And after all this, this was probably the cleanest of the last three Holi’s I have seen here. The first one was a veritable disaster with colourful handprints on the brand new hostel’s walls. The next time, not even departments were spared, with colour strewn all over. This time, being a working day, the damage was contained I should guess. People walking into messes with colours strewn all over is never an endearing sight, more so if they take food — from the perspective of everyone’s health and hygiene! — dirtying chairs and the food alike.
The bottomline is that the celebration of the victory over the Asuras, of Prahlada being saved is celebrated indeed in Asura fashion. Some serious soul-searching needs to be done by these people. No one objects to peaceful enjoyment. Why drag in someone who is not interested? (Curiously, I say all this even though I’ve had to suffer nothing!) Why is there a failure to merely respect each other’s preferences?

# The Similarity Transform Song

(to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It“)

Note: This song describes what to do for a similarity transformation to find the eigenvalues of a matrix A. A similarity transform changes the matrix but does not alter its eigenvalues. Ideally, if you could find a similar matrix that was diagonal, you could pick the eigenvalues right off the diagonal. A similarity transform is of this form: B = T^{-1} A T, where T is the similarity transform matrix, and B is the matrix that is similar to A.

If your matrix has distinct eigenvalues,
It is very much apparent what to use:
Choose nonsingular for T,
and get a diagonal B,
If your matrix has distinct eigenvalues.

If you have a real symmetric matrix A,
Choose orthogonal for T: it’s the best way!
Because, after all
B is real diagonal
If you have a real symmetric matrix A.

If it’s complex and Hermitian, never fear!
The solution to your problem is quite clear:
Use a unitary T,
to get a real diagonal B
If it’s complex and Hermitian, never fear!

If your matrix A is normal as can be,
Take the following advice from me:
B’s diagonal (how scary!)
If your matrix A is normal as can be.

If A is chosen arbitrarily,
and you find a T that’s unitary,
Then B has the form of Schur
(that’s upper triangular)
If A is chosen arbitrarily.

If A is once again arbitrary,
Then you choose “nonsingular” for T,
B is almost diagonal,
(that’s Jordan form, y’all!)
If A is once again arbitrary.

“The Similarity Transform Song” Copyright (c) 2000 Rebecca Hartman-Baker.(from http://www.cse.uiuc.edu/~rjhartma/eigensong.html)

Found this while surfing. Was really funny and interesting.

# Ultra Efficient Car – 157 mpg!

This looks incredible! They claim a mileage of nearly 60 kmpl! That’s truly amazing. Let’s see if this is going to be a breakthrough in automobiles!!

# 4-1 Series roundup: The Emperor strikes back, the crown prince graduates

The ODI series in Pakistan has been quite wonderful for India. It was a kind of turnaround after the Karachi result and more importantly a revenge well-exacted, for the loss in the ODI series at home last year, particularly since we won four matches on the trot. If there was one thing that killed Pakistan in this series, it was their too-abysmal-for-words fielding. It was hardly even club class, save for a few of the cricketers. Apart from misfields and overthrows, the worst part was that they hardly collected even the balls they fielded properly. Woolmer’s got some work on his hands!

As for India, the Emperor (read Sachin) struck back, both with bat and ball just to prove, if at all he needed to, as to who’s still the boss. More importantly, Yuvaraj really matured as a batsman, played with an unbelievable head on his shoulders. The bowlers did their job and Dhoni, has worked real magic. The real test for Dhoni would start in the near future, when teams, having realised his potential and the danger he holds, start working on him. Interesting cricket lies ahead.

As for Dravid, he’s wonderfully jelled; he’s contributed as a batsman quite well but more importantly captained quite astutely. I’d still like to see him defend totals better, considering we kinda faltered in Game 1.

Overall, it’s been a memorable series, with a lot of positives. Sreesanth, RP Singh are all proving to be good material, and we’re surely having a problem of plenty in the pace department ahead of the World Cup. We need to pull up our socks a bit in the test matches as well, and we’re well on our way to becoming a very very good team. Kaif must soon get back into form; there’s no reason to hold Ganguly back, if Kaif is performing so badly.
Postscript: I think we’ve shot up on ICC ODI rankings. I guess we’re 2. Good job. Good form.

# More random musings…

As though my several blogs on blogspot weren’t enough, I thought I’d start one at wordpress too, to add more random musings on the web. Thanks to Swarna for introducing me to wordpress. I do like the upload feature already! This does seem to be a no-nonsense kind of editor.

Blogspot was just beginning to annoy me by not allowing any line breaks, whatever I tried, including
!!

My other blogs: