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Hello World
I've created this journal so that I have a journal from which to comment to authors of other lj journals. My main LJ interests are fan fiction, especially sci-fi, especially adult, especially non-heteronormative. Right now, my favorite fandom is Numb3rs, which reminds me of my first one, X-Files. Got recs ( Read more... ) -
Math Anxiety through the Ages
"The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell"
-- St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, circa 400 BCE
quoted in "Mathematics for the Nonmathematician," Morris Kline, 1985 -
Charliesm
How I miss Charlie Eppes from Numb3rs! I came across a couple of headlines yesterday that reminded me of him:
Why the Brain Sees Maths as Beauty (BBC)
The Physics of Curly Hair: Researchers develop first detailed model for a 3-D strand of curly hair (Science Daily)
The research comes from one of Charlie's alma maters, MIT:
The heroes and ( Read more... ) -
Learning about Jewish experiences
In the past year, I've read "The Bedwetter" by Sarah Silverman, "My Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs, and "The Story of My Life" by Moshe Dayan ( Read more... ) -
"For large sets, this will be our guide, even unto death."
I have been crying tears of laughter in front of my computer this evening, as I read excerpts from "King James Programming, "generated by a Markov chain trained on the King James Bible and 'Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs'." It's a mash-up of the King James Bible and a classic comp sci textbook by a comp sci prof in the UK. A few ( Read more... ) -
"Repairs" ep of Agents of SHIELD (minor spoiler) and Primeval: New World
Last night, I saw "Repairs", an episode of Agents of SHIELD that relies on multiple-universe theory (or was the guy caught between Midgard and another of the nine realms from the Thor movies? If so, they were never referenced). Today, I watched the first two eps of (sadly, cancelled) Primeval: New World, which relies on multiple-universe theory and ( Read more... ) -
The World's End with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
Last night, I saw "The World's End," a much funnier bro-medy than James Franco's "This is the End". Simon Pegg (Scottie in the NuTrek movies) plays a burnout whose life has been all downhill since high school. He remembers the apex of his life as the pub crawl he led his friends on the night they graduated, in 1990. They ran out of steam around the ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
What I'm reading right now: Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order, by George Johnson. I've just read the first chapter. As I understand it, the book is supposed to be about whether scientific laws are discovered or invented. It's trippy so far. I'm not sure whether I'm better off spending the time reading about philosophy of ( Read more... )
