Nepali Bloggers and Unification

bloggers.com.np:
Are you ready?

Yes, I am talking about saving efforts and energy+time for integration of Nepali Bloggers under one umbrella (Hey we are done with discussion of reviving BLOGAN, right?). In addition, I would like to suggest that there should be some kind of mechanism which penalizes copy and paste things. There are people who love to do copy and paste to produce "blog".


The importance of being organized comes here. One way of realizing it is to have an universal feed from Nepali Bloggers.  
Is bloggers.com.np ready for it?
There is no doubt that it has a great collection of blog by Nepali people around the globe. As I indicated previously, many has gone for hibernation. It would be frustrating to find many links wasted to not find active Nepali Bloggers.

Based upon personal connections, we have nice hamro-circle[link] list of active nepali bloggers. Currently, we have a widget, and Email subscription to updated blogs through it.

Instead of having to go for different server, my question would be whether current blogger.com.np team would be interested in having such aggregation of rss and an universal feed (not hosted in personal server/not any other dot com / dot org or dot net server). I am talking about the Authenticity, Brand and Unification.
Note that experiment with hamro-circle proves that such aggregation is possible.
You can see an example here:
http://knuthlab.rit.albany.edu/people/malakar/planet/dcs/output/
(this is a temporary place for experiment)

What we need next is a server with python support. The software can be scheduled with cron job; this will enable gathering of all the feed as desired. We can also go ahead and work on having some nice gadget from the rss generated thereby ( I had created one... see here).

The beauty lies in the fact that it will be an open source project (more eyes on it), the in-active bloggers (enlisted) are pushed into the bottom. There would be no such thing as new and old blogger "discrimination", all get equal chance to get their post visible. Plus ability to deliver updated blog summary by Email (this help increases the visit to active blog). This may also be the motivational factor for many quality posts. Moreover, since this would be supplemented by the unified forum (Google group), we can bring justice to copy pasted items.

The idea is simple and easy. What we need is connection and commitment.

This is all possible with bloggers.com.np. 
bloggers.com.np: Are you ready?

PS: based upon communications with Aakar, Nepalean G, Dilip G et. al. Views presented here may not be representative view of all quoted above. I will take any responsibility of any such discrepancy in interpretation.

Indiscrete Thoughts: by Gian-Carlo Rota

The conventional approach to teaching abstract ideas and natural sciences are sometimes phrased as, "I do not know how true the story is, I will tell you as it was told to me" [1].

There has been several attempts to break the conventional method of passing the lecture notes from one generation to another so that the classroom environment and learning could be implemented in more effective ways [2]. In the context of discussing the philosophical aspects of what effective teaching and learning environment means to student-teacher relationship, and more importantly to learning, I would like to briefly review the book by Gian-Carlo Rota [3].  Rota was one of the most respected and popular teachers at MIT. He taught difficult but very popular courses in probability, and Applications of Calculus [4].

Rota, as described by others, has always been portrayed as a successful teacher [6]. The book successfully grabs a very rare story told from the perspective of a mathematician and a philosopher.  Reading through the book gives a rare glimpse of what it takes to be a successful teacher. The deep philosophy behind every classroom activities and professional life has been elaborated in beautiful ways.  The learning theme such as "You learn what you don't know you are learning";  "By and large, 'knowing how' matters more than 'knowing what' " [5] forms the basis of  the same philosophy  when it comes to teaching. "Ten Lessons I wish I had been taught" and "Ten Lessons for the survival of a Mathematics Department", not only applies to mathematics professionals and students but equally to any academicians. Moreover, it is equally delightful to read his other chapters which involves portrayal of many famous scientists as human beings. The book is absolutely spellbinding.



References:

[1] Sir Walter Scott: "I tell the tale as it was told to me." http://www.readprint.com/work-5618/My-Aunt-Margaret-s-Mirror-Sir-Walter-Scott.


[2] http://uni600.pbworks.com/Annotated+Bibliography

[3] Gian-Carlo Rota. Ed: Palombi, Fabrizio. Indiscrete Thoughts. Boston: Birkhäuser, 2008.

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian-Carlo_Rota

[5] http://www.math.tamu.edu/~cyan/Rota.html


[6] Wesley T. Chan (December 5, 1997). "To Teach or Not To Teach: Professors Might Try a New Approach to Classes -- Caring about Teaching". The Tech 117 (63). http://tech.mit.edu/V117/N63/chan.63c.html.

Congratulations to Recent Physics Ph. D. s (TU Physics Almuni)

It is quite amazing that this month we witnessed a burst of Physics PhD holders. (Recent Nepali PhD Physicists or Tribhuvan University almuni.)

Dr. Bed Nidhi Pantha from Kansas State University. (Announced Nov. 20, 2009)
Dr. Pantha: working as Post Doc. fellow in: Texas Tech University.
URL: http://www.phys.ksu.edu/personal/bpantha/

Dr. Rajendra Dahal from Kansas State University. (Announced Nov. 20, 2009)
Dr. Dahal: working as Post Doc. fellow in: Texas Tech University.
URL: http://www.phys.ksu.edu/people/graduate/dahal_r.html

Dr. Himal Khatri from University of Toledo, OH. (Announced Nov. 20, 2009)
Dr. Khatri working as Post Doc. fellow in: University of Toledo.
URL: http://www.utoledo.edu/as/physast/facstaff/_People/_Gradpages/gsHimalKhatri.html

Dr. Laxman Mainali from State University of NewYork @ Albany. (Announced Nov. 20, 2009)
Dr. Mainali working as Post Doc. fellow in: Medical College of Wisconsin.
URL: http://www.albany.edu/~lm923395/

Dr. Indra Dev Sahu from State University of NewYork, Albany, USA.(Announced Nov. 2, 2009)
Dr. Sahu: working as Post Doc. fellow in Ohio Advanced EPR Lab at Miami University, Oxford, OH
URL: http://www.albany.edu/~is195712/

I would like to congratulate the recent Nepali Physics Drs and wish all the success in their academic endeavors.

Source(s):
http://groups.google.com/group/nps_nepal

Acknowledgements:
Rudra dai and Bhoj R. Gautam.

PS: There are a lot of list collectors out there. I would appreciate if the list collectors acknowledge the source.

Subscribe to Active Nepali Blogs by Email: Hamro-Circle

Hamro-Circle provides an easy access for updated blogs from active Nepali Bloggers around the Globe. I am thankful to so many adorable people for the positive response and acceptance of Hamro-Circle and the associated Google Widget.

It gives me a great pleasure to announce that now we can subscribe to the feed in hamro-circle by Email. Since the feedburner is designed to gather only some words from the first paragraph of posts, I hope no one will be upset about his/her blog is being sindicated to Email.
To me it is really nice feature that I will get updated blog titles/post summaries to Email everyday through Feed burner.

Please subscribe to Hamro-Circle Feed by Email.
Subscribe to Hamro Circle: Active Nepali Blogs by Email

http://hamrocircle.blogspot.com/

The defect at the moment is the fact that Email feed delivery is set at mid-night EST. Which makes me get it after the delay of a day. Sometimes it feels bad to be in the last of the discussions. However, I still try to convince myself that is OK as I am not completely missing the juice. I mean the post is fresh and alive after a day. :)

Please subscribe and post your experience in comment.
Thank You!

Moon Pictures from Observatory @Earth Science Department

For long time I was not aware of the 16inch telescope located at the roof top of the Earth Science Department @ SUNY Albany.

This year I am doing Teaching assistant ship job for Prof. Knuth's Star Systems class. (http://knuthlab.rit.albany.edu/courses/F09/StarSystems/)
Today provided very nice opportunity to invite students for stargazing through twitter and Phil's Black Board page. It was dark enough by 7 PM. The night sky was very very clear. We did some observations including Moon and Jupiter.
Here are some pics taken by my Mobile.

Please note that I could get only some portion in the field of view. Let me tell you:
It was amazing

Got a blurred version captured. You can see three of the Jupiter's Moons.




http://www.atmos.albany.edu/mars/telescope-2.html