January 2010
49 posts
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“Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery’s shadow or reflection: the...”
– C. S. Lewis (via reluctantbuddha) (via quote-book)
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” Is a Tesco in Cardiff right in banning people from shopping in the store dressed in pyjamas or nightgowns? It is getting very proscriptive, Tesco — a month or two back they banned people who were dressed as Jedi knights, on account of the hoods. And the light sabres. It cannot be too long before they ban people who are dressed as geography teachers or members of the Chilcot inquiry, or...
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“The union of the mathematician with the poet, fervor with measure, passion with...”
– William James (1842 - 1910), Collected Essays
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Britain becoming more conservative, survey... →
…But in an apparent contradiction, the public are more liberal on personal lives and family values. Disapproval of homosexuality and cohabiting parents has virtually disappeared, even among older generations.
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“Geometry enlightens the intellect and sets one’s mind right. All of its...”
– Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), The Muqaddimah. An Introduction to History.
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"Looking into the past" →
charmian:
Flickr gallery of old photos in their modern day locations
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“Mathematics is not only real, but it is the only reality. That is that entire...”
– Martin Gardner, December 1994
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“First: five syllables
Second: seven syllables
Third: five syllables”
– Ron Padgett, “Haiku”
…I am so easily amused. (via decrescendo)
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“To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more than...”
– Ronald Aylmer Fisher, (1890 - 1962)
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“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his...”
– Sirius Black, Harry Potter (via quote-book)
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“Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they...”
– -The road less traveled (M Scott Peck)
(via missswastiana) (via quote-book)
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Aliens visiting Earth will be just like humans,... →
Extra-terrestrials likely to possess human foibles such as greed, violence and a tendency to exploit others’ resources, conference to be told
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“In the pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths which existed in the...”
– Edward Everett (1794-1865)
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“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a...”
– Henry Ward Beecher
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Foundations - Greg Egan →
Foundations is a series of articles, first published in the magazine Eidolon, on some of the theories of twentieth-century physics that have most influenced modern science fiction. However, these are not essays on the history or philosophy of science; their aim is to show how the central idea of each theory leads to detailed, quantitative predictions of real physical effects. For example, the...
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GCSEs: the view from the trenches.... →
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Defending private education - by a 17 year old... →
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“In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by...”
– Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, in H. Eves Mathematical Circles Adieu, Boston: Prindle, Weber and Schmidt, 1977
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‘Wet’ computing systems to boost processing power →
A new kind of information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems is being developed by researchers at the University of Southampton.
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Oxford University bans Spotify →
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Final word: give that Miss Poppins a safety... →
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“It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters...”
– Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) in Sartor Resartus III.
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“No one really understood music unless he was a scientist, her father had...”
– Pearl Buck, The Goddess Abides, Pt. I, 1972.
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Epigram
quote-book:
blogut:
Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
(via quote-book)
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“Every minute dies a man, Every minute one is born;” I need hardly point...”
– ~Charles Babbage, letter to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, about a couplet in his “The Vision of Sin”
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Too proud to claim my Jaffa Cakes on expenses -... →
“There are two financial camps. And a man who won’t buy his own anorak for a charity climb is in the opposite one to me”
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Invalid Proof Techniques →
1.1 Proof by example
1.2 Proof by intimidation
1.3 Proof by vigorous handwaving
1.4 Proof by cumbersome notation….
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The neuroscience of screwing up →
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Designing society for posterity - Charles Stross →
Generation starships: they’re not fast. If you can crank yourself up to 1% of light-speed, alpha centauri is more than four and a half centuries away at cruising speed. To put it in perspective, that’s the same span of time that separates us from the Conquistadores and the Reformation; it’s twice the lifespan of the United States of America.
We humans are really bad at...
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What is the minimum number of organisms one would... →
What is the minimum number of organisms one would need to create a biosphere capable of sustaining human life (for example, aboard a deep space mission too prolonged to subsist solely on canned goods)? Just to scope it out a bit further: I’m assuming you want a stable minimal ecosystem drive by sunlight-equivalent illumination. I’m not concerned with its size, so much as its...
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SF reading protocols →
“ Genres are usually defined by their tropes—mysteries have murders and clues, romances have two people finding each other, etc. Science fiction doesn’t work well when you define it like that, because it’s not about robots and rocketships. Samuel Delany suggested that rather than try to define science fiction it’s more interesting to describe it, and of describing it more interesting to draw...
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Harry Potter fandom – the new folklore? →
According to a PhD student in Folklore, the fandom that kids construct around franchises like the Harry Potter series is a global phenomenon which is not (contrary to what many harassed parents might believe) principally driven by official merchandise.
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HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK? →
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Locations of Ancient Woolworths Stores follow... →
I miss Woolies
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Evolution of Elves →
Originally tiny mythical beings, elves have become a clichéd race of pointy-eared, arrow-slinging, forest-loving, effeminate warrior mages that populate every unimaginative stab at fantasy storytelling. Recent mutations look like dumptrucks.
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roots of polynomials of degree →
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Why do you never see unruly children on a roof... →
lists of 10s, rather amusing
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Solitary words that live on baleful tenterhooks,... →
Q: You are here to tell us about the work of the Single Word Protection Society?
A: That’s right.
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The Physics of Space Battles →
‘First, let me point out something that Ender’s Game got right and something it got wrong. What it got right is the essentially three-dimensional nature of space combat, and how that would be fundamentally different from land, sea, and air combat. In principle, yes, your enemy could come at you from any direction at all. In practice, though, the Buggers are going to do no such thing....