Sports and Drugs

Ever wondered why athletes indulge in taking performance enhancing drugs. I have always thought about their unethical indulgence, getting caught and then getting stripped off their medal or trophy. What do they gain by all this? This article sheds light on it. It is a very interesting article which tries to explain this behavior in a game theoretic sense.
It seems this is a dominant strategy for anyone competing. I highly recommend you to read other articles listed on the below page. I am fascinated by Game Theory and keep reading the applications of it. I hope you like it too.

Social Networking

Social Networking has caught on like wild fire. Everyone seems to be on one or the other networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin etc. I have still not understood how all these networking sites are different from one another. May be it is just about having options. I have till now kept myself out of all these networking. I some how have not bought into this whole idea of social networking.

The only advantage I see, is that through this, one can meet old friends or make new friends. But how many of us really make pen friends. But what is really the value of all this. Potentially it could be used to spread or share views on various topics, but at present it feels more like gossip and eavesdropping on someone else's private space. If it is all about chatting, then we already have messengers available.

May be social networking is the way to the future but I am still not up to it. I still prefer the traditional way of communicating, email.

Martin Gardner - A Non Mathematician par excellence in Mathematics

I still very vividly remember the place and time when I first heard about this great man. It was 1994 around 9 PM in Goa at my relative's place. My uncle very casually asked me if I knew about Martin Gardner or have read his books. Answer to both his questions was a big NO. He started this topic because I was telling him that I had enrolled in Mathematics Honors for my bachelor's degree. He immediately wrote down some books for me which might be interesting for me to read. He told me that Martin Gardner has written lots about mathematics. I didnot know that I was getting initiated into mathematics in a subtle way. Joining a degree course is one thing but getting addicted to it is another. I always liked mathematics no doubt, but never really ventured into the other side of it. I owe my addiction and passion towards mathematics to my uncle.
I have read lot of books written by Martin Gardner. He is such a genius when it comes to writing about mathematics. He is extremely articulate, clear and also very easy to read. He makes learning about mathematics fun. He could talk about difficult concepts with ease. Fun part is that he is not a trained mathematician. He started writing about mathematics as a regular column for Scientific American and then those were compiled as books. He wrote for almost 25 years. I am a big fan of Martin Gardner's books. I would highly recommend reading his books for anyone who wants to have fun with mathematics.

Highest form of pure thought is in mathematics - Plato