I have a serious man crush on Christopher Hitchens:

http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/04/hitchens_vs_blackwell.php

Yeah, I have a twitter account now, @jonabbey.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127011.600-can-fractals-make-sense-of-the-quantum-world.html?full=true

From jwz:

Space Storm Alert: 90 Seconds from CatastropheIt discusses how extraordinarily vulnerable our technological civilization is to solar destruction, with its high voltage transmission lines and just-in-time delivery and production of, well, just about everything ( Read more... )

How to torment your mathematically literate friends:

Use Donald Knuth's high school prize winning Quater Imaginary Number System.

Nancy and I are waiting to met Tom for lunch at Hula-Hut. SXSW is over, but there's over an hour wait.

Whee, etc.

Andrew Sullivan linked to this amazing piece on hypothermia, and the body's response to killing cold ( Read more... )

Nancy is still in hospital, resting after her gall bladder removal surgery. jher and artemiskalliste were here most of the day helping in every way imaginable ( Read more... )

The surgeon came by the room a few minutes ago, reported that everything was fine. Nancy had a 'nasty gallbladder', so it seems she is well rid of it. She's downstairs in post-op recovery at the moment.