Numb3rs

I heard Ira Flatow talk about this TV show on CBS called Numbers. A crime show that uses mathematics to solve crime. How cool is that!

So, of course, I ordered season 1 & 2 from Amazon - and watched it with the kids. And it was fun! I absolutely loved it - and so did Kit - and Laal. We discussed, as a family, the P=NP? problem, Schrodinger's uncertainty principle, Bayesian math, Diffy-Helman encryption algorithm, The Monty Hall problem, etc. etc. etc....

Kit is fascinated by the idea of researching a problem for decades....Laal started appreciating the value of Mathematics (and Kit's intellect) a bit more. And I absolutely am addicted to the show.

I found a blog on the show run by a mathematics department - commentary by authors, etc., etc. A whole new world! So cool!

Social Networks and the Decay of Reality...

I started a Recipe blog for myself - to allow me to share my recipes with friends and find them myself easily no matter where I am.

Then, I got invited by a group of climbing buddies to join Multiply. A fellow climber works for the company - and it seems like a perfect place for maintaining a climbing blog. So, I have a climbing blog...

And, when I got back from India, I got an invite to a group on Facebook. So - now I have a facebook account - where I blog on my ties to India.

So - I have just as fractured an online personality as in reality - and maintaining 4 blogs takes up a little more time from reality. Not sure if that is a good or a bad thing...

But the more I think about it - apart from family, travel and climbing, I really have no interest in the real world...I could very easily spend my entire time in virtual reality.

My mother's generation did it by using the Television, mine is the internet - and I see my kids using gaming as the alternate reality. I suppose the 60's generation used drugs for it - so did many other cultures. Some use books - art - science. So, short of the time where we were preoccupied by eating or being eaten, was there ever really any time in history where being immersed into a distraction was not a way of life?

I would seem that the decay of reality is an ancient phenomenon indeed!

Back home...

Back home from our crazy trip. Still recovering from the Jet Lag. It was good to see the kids - and breath clean air and drive in sane traffic with no loud beeps and see clean roads and neighborhoods.

We spent the last day there shopping - Ken got a new statue of Krishna. We did get to spend some time with my uncle and aunt - and then the politics start pouring out. Apparently my brother does not approve of my uncle and aunts. All the reasons he gave us for it appeared to me a bit on the lame side - and he really did not give any reasons for not liking my uncle. It was more about how he thought that my aunts did not behave in what he considered appropriate manner. Seeing as they never cost him a dime, and that my uncle has in the past helped him in many ways - I don't see his point - but that's that.

Haven't been back climbing yet. I wonder how I will fare... I am feeling weak already.

The kids were delighted to see us - well Laal more so than Kit. It's good to be back - away from crazy homeland. Can't wait to go climbing again.