Essays on Sanskrit literature, algorithms, and eclectic curiosities.
To start with something else: Insomnia The best way to understand what Nolan has done with Homer’s Odyssey is to watch Nolan’s film Insomnia (2002), and then the original Norwegian film Insomnia (1997) that it is a “remake” of. Nolan himself is very fond of hi…
Apparently some old inscriptions have incorrect weekdays; see for example https://x.com/hamsanandi/status/1906223551545512152 where a historical date corresponds to (what we’d now call) Saturday, but the inscription says Monday (sōmavāra). One possibility (and…
There is a well-known verse in Sanskrit that goes (many minor variants exist): रामाभिषेके मदविह्वलाया It is usually presented as a “samasyā-pūraṇa”: someone proposed the meaningless (but metrical) set of syllables “ठठं ठठं ठं ठठठं ठठं ठः” as the last line (sam…
Saki (1, 2, 3)—pen name of Hecto Hugh Munro (1870–1916)—was a writer, known for his short stories that are often biting satires sometimes veering to the macabre. P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) needs no introduction. Some people find it obvious to mention them tog…
Saw this great observation by Ruud de Rooij (via Robin Houston): Combinatorics can be a bit weird sometimes: the number of ways to arrange N Tetris pieces into a 2-by-2N rectangle is the Nth Fibonacci number squared. --> First to understand the statement: the…
The Sanskrit word tāta (“father”) is sometimes used affectionately for a younger person. (Similar to “appa” in Kannada etc.) This usage occurs widely in Sanskrit literature, but we can look at the Rāmāyaṇa as an example. Here are all the occurrences of the wor…
Just writing down what I know, for future reference. Sanskrit text: manuscript traditions Loosely speaking, the available manuscripts of the Mahābhārata fall into three categories, called recensions: Southern (longest/most elaborate) Northern (≈“Vulgate”) Kaśm…
Just writing down what I know, for future reference. Sanskrit text: manuscript traditions Loosely speaking, the available manuscripts of the Mahābhārata fall into three categories, called recensions: Southern (longest/most elaborate) Northern (≈“Vulgate”) Kaśm…
In 2000, Douglas Adams made an interesting observation that I keep returning to. A user on Slashdot named “FascDot Killed My Pr” had asked the following question (where HGttG = Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy): Comedy….or Tragedy? First, a big thank-you. You’…
In 2000, Douglas Adams made an interesting observation that I keep returning to. A user on Slashdot named “FascDot Killed My Pr” had asked the following question (where HGttG = Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy): Comedy….or Tragedy? First, a big thank-you. You’…
TLDR: I hesitate to recommend this to anyone as it’s finicky to set up and may go away, but just in case: Google Sheets has an “Extensions -> AppSheet -> Create an app” that gives an easier interface for editing a sheet from phone (stuff like updating a daily…
TLDR: I hesitate to recommend this to anyone as it’s finicky to set up and may go away, but just in case: Google Sheets has an “Extensions -> AppSheet -> Create an app” that gives an easier interface for editing a sheet from phone (stuff like updating a daily…
Yesterday I read a nice post called “doubly dual shuffles”, which1 pointed out something about the classic algorithm for shuffling an array (i.e. sampling a uniformly random permutation of it). It’s a concise and (his word!) “pearlescent” post and you should r…
Yesterday I read a nice post called “doubly dual shuffles”, which1 pointed out something about the classic algorithm for shuffling an array (i.e. sampling a uniformly random permutation of it). It’s a concise and (his word!) “pearlescent” post and you should r…
The question The following verse occurs twice in the (critical edition of the) Rāmāyaṇa, and four times in the Mahābhārata: सर्वे क्षयान्ता निचयाः पतनान्ताः समुच्छ्रयाः । As translated by A. W. Ryder: All gathering ends in dissipation; (More details about its…
The question The following verse occurs twice in the (critical edition of the) Rāmāyaṇa, and four times in the Mahābhārata: सर्वे क्षयान्ता निचयाः पतनान्ताः समुच्छ्रयाः । As translated by A. W. Ryder: All gathering ends in dissipation; (More details about its…
Sanskrit has a rich tradition of Chitrakavya (roughly, constrained writing). Just came to know that Dr. Shankar has composed Sanskrit verses that satisfy a certain constraint (he has named it “anantarākṣarī”): the second half is precisely the first half with e…
Sanskrit has a rich tradition of Chitrakavya (roughly, constrained writing). Just came to know that Dr. Shankar has composed Sanskrit verses that satisfy a certain constraint (he has named it “anantarākṣarī”): the second half is precisely the first half with e…
Tom Lehrer got into Harvard in 1943 at age 15, and it is said that the following poem he wrote (at that age or even earlier) was his admission “essay”. The Loomis Alumni Bulletin issue of autumn 1943 (Loomis was the prep school he went to) said of the poem: Th…
Tom Lehrer got into Harvard in 1943 at age 15, and it is said that the following poem he wrote (at that age or even earlier) was his admission “essay”. The Loomis Alumni Bulletin issue of autumn 1943 (Loomis was the prep school he went to) said of the poem: Th…
I know that some/many people use LLMs (ChatGPT etc) for writing (emails, docs, etc), but I’ve never found it worthwhile myself, for at least two reasons. One, the results always look unnatural and “AI-written” (even with system prompts to make it more casual o…
I know that some/many people use LLMs (ChatGPT etc) for writing (emails, docs, etc), but I’ve never found it worthwhile myself, for at least two reasons. One, the results always look unnatural and “AI-written” (even with system prompts to make it more casual o…
The mathematician Alexander Grothendieck was “considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century”. Somewhere in his 1000+-page autobiographical work Récoltes et Semailles (“Harvests and Sowings”), he describes two styles in mathematic…
The mathematician Alexander Grothendieck was “considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century”. Somewhere in his 1000+-page autobiographical work Récoltes et Semailles (“Harvests and Sowings”), he describes two styles in mathematic…
Let $M_p = 2^p - 1$, so that: $$\begin{align} M_2 &= 2^2 - 1 = 4 - 1 = 3 \cr M_3 &= 2^3 - 1 = 8 - 1 = 7 \cr M_7 &= 2^7 - 1 = 128 - 1 = 127 \cr M_{127} &= 2^{127} - 1 \end{align}$$ Is $M_{127}$ prime? This is a large number with 39 digits, specifically it is 17…
Let $M_p = 2^p - 1$, so that: $$\begin{align} M_2 &= 2^2 - 1 = 4 - 1 = 3 \cr M_3 &= 2^3 - 1 = 8 - 1 = 7 \cr M_7 &= 2^7 - 1 = 128 - 1 = 127 \cr M_{127} &= 2^{127} - 1 \end{align}$$ Is $M_{127}$ prime? This is a large number with 39 digits, specifically it is 17…
This will be a quick post to collect some screenshots. I ran diff in the terminal (the macOS default Terminal) on a couple of files containing text in Kannada script, and the output was unreadable. So I tried installing a bunch of other terminals: turns out th…
This will be a quick post to collect some screenshots. I ran diff in the terminal (the macOS default Terminal) on a couple of files containing text in Kannada script, and the output was unreadable. So I tried installing a bunch of other terminals: turns out th…
MathJax = { AuthorInit: function() { MathJax.Hub.processSectionDelay = 0; }, tex: { inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']] }, svg: { fontCache: 'global' } }; Donald Knuth has a page on his website where he sometimes posts programs he has written. (He says he…
MathJax = { AuthorInit: function() { MathJax.Hub.processSectionDelay = 0; }, tex: { inlineMath: [['$', '$'], ['\\(', '\\)']] }, svg: { fontCache: 'global' } }; Donald Knuth has a page on his website where he sometimes posts programs he has written. (He says he…