Monthly Archives: July 2013
It started in the summer of 2010. June, I believe. The previous decade had been a bad one. If the first ten years were an indicator, the 21st century was really going to suck. I’d gotten married in ’98 and discovered almost immediately I’d made a mistake. In the middle of a turbulent marriage, 9/11 happened. I was born in NYC; my mind rang with grief echos for about a year afterwards.
I was divorced by ’03, and I’d moved twice — once to a rental and then to the condo I bought. In ’04, double barrels: I had 60 days to find another position after they closed my department (which I did on day 58), and then my beloved dog died. For the next five years I threw myself into my work.
Which brought me, stressed and depressed, to 2010. And baseball.
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1 Comment | tags: first base, home run, Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins, Pablo Sandoval, Softball, strike out | posted in Baseball
After Saturn-Day comes Sun-Day, a day named after our local star. (To clarify: I’m referring to the nearby ball of hot, flaming gas, not a regional celebrity.) ((To clarify the clarification: I’m also not referring to any politician, but to the astronomical object.)) [And by ‘astronomical’ I mean ‘in space’ not ‘really, really big’ (although in this case both apply). And by ‘space’ I mean ‘outer,’ not the stuff in your attic.]
I trust things are perfectly clear now. It’s Sunday, so we worship the sun. Or in many cases, the Son. It may be a sacred day — a Sabbath day — or it may be just a day off from (normal) work. [For some parts of the world, it’s just a regular workday.]
A very common view is that Sunday afternoon is just for fun.
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2 Comments | tags: Angie Harmon, Gibbs, Minnesota Twins, MLB, MLB All-Star Game, MLB Home Run Derby, NCIS, picnic, Saturday, Sunday | posted in Baseball, TV
Today I’m starting a brand-new ancient tradition: Sci-Fi Saturday! It won’t mean a science fiction post every Saturday, but when I do post SF topics, it’ll be on Saturday. This new protocol has many precedents. Last August I posted four articles for Star Trek Saturday. The August before that, I posted two key Star Trek articles (one of them my favorite diatribe about the holodeck).
Turns out it was a Saturday I posted those videos with Captain Kirk and Princess Leia giving each other crap about which was better, Star Trek or Star Wars (duh, it’s Doctor Who). And there are other science fiction posts that fell on Saturday (I was surprised at how many — it seems the new tradition is foreordained). Plus, Saturday is named after Saturn, which is an extremely science fiction-y planet!
So welcome to Sci-Fi Saturday!
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14 Comments | tags: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Doctor Who, Final Fantasy, Game of Thrones, Saturn, science fiction, SF, Star Trek, Star Wars | posted in Movies, Sci-Fi Saturday
Over the last two days I’ve written about a way of viewing words, sentences, even entire books, as single (very large) numbers. We do that by treating the characters in the string as “digits” in a number system we define. Technically speaking, we interpret the string as a number written in some large radix.
This is actually what we do every time we look at a written number. For example, we interpret the four-character text string “2013” as representing the numeric value two-thousand-and-thirteen. We do this easily, because we’ve grown up with the base 10 number system, decimal. The systems I’ve written about simply extend the concept.
Today, as a Sideband, I thought I’d get into some of the more technical details.
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Leave a comment | tags: ASCII, CP-1252, decimal, hexadecimal, Mayans, number systems, Python, radix, Sumerians, Unicode, UTF-8 | posted in Computers, Math, Sideband
Yesterday I introduced you to the idea of words as numbers. There are many ways to create a map between words and numbers. For example, we could assign them the number that represents their position in the dictionary. That would make words that start with “A” have smaller numbers while words that start with “Z” would have the largest numbers.
There are also ways to treat the words themselves as numbers. We can interpret the letters the same way we do digits. Each letter has an assigned numeric value, and then a string of letters—just like string of digits—forms a number. The scheme I showed you yesterday allows us to treat (only!) single words as numbers.
Now let’s extend this so that entire sentences—or even entire books—become numbers!
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2 Comments | tags: big numbers, number systems, numbers, positional notation, Rudy Rucker, words, zero | posted in Basics, Math
Today I’d like to introduce you to a concept I picked up from mathematician Rudy Rucker in his 1987 book, Mind Tools (The Five Levels of Mathematical Reality). I’ll warn you now that there is some math ahead (but no math homework—unless you want to). It won’t get any more complicated than multiplication and addition, but we will be dealing with some extremely large numbers (so large they are more ideas than numbers).
The end result is that we’re going to tie together the written word with numbers. I’m going to show you how every word, every sentence, every book, magazine and blog article can be reduced to a single (very large) number. That we can do this provides a foundation we can use to discover some amazing things about mathematical reality.
It may sound dry or intimidating but stick with it! You just might find it worthwhile.
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10 Comments | tags: base 10, base 2, binary, decimal, number systems, positional notation, Rudy Rucker | posted in Basics, Math
“Far Less” what?
Yesterday I wrote about a TV commercial with a bit of a design flaw (and, yet, without that flaw the commercial wouldn’t work). I generally go to great lengths to avoid having to see television commercials, but sadly one cannot avoid all of them. Still, as a former TV and film student, they fascinate me as much as they annoy me.
Advertisers have under a minute to tell you a story that pushes their product. Some are straight-forward about it, others are more oblique. (Generally, the more real substance a product offers, the greater the chance the commercial is straight-forward.) Some commercials can be real works of art. One of these days I’ll write about some that I find very striking.
Today I want to talk about Toyota Jan. And Bacon.
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19 Comments | tags: bacon, Bebe Neuwirth, commercials, Jodie Foster, Kevin Costner, Laurel Coppock, Lawrence Kasdan, Lilith Sternin, Lisa Edelstein, Steve Martin, Toyota Jan | posted in Brain Bubble, TV
Not this Perkins!
A local chain of (what used to be called) coffee shops was running a commercial touting their inventive use of fresh strawberries in their various breakfast combos. I say “used to be called” because now a “coffee shop” is one of those specialized places that sells a mind-numbing variety of coffee concoctions. The places I’m talking about now call themselves “family restaurants,” which means they serve families, and you can parse that any way you like (“It’s a cookbook!”).
I have absolutely nothing against the commercial, fresh strawberries (love them, especially in champagne) or pancakes (although I prefer waffles). I’m not sure I buy into the idea there are new ways to use strawberries in breakfast dishes, but such is the commercial’s claim. (Hmmm (and Mmmm), perhaps an evidence-gathering field trip is required!)
What does amuse me about the commercial, though, is the misfired mother.
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8 Comments | tags: commercials, conflict, Harry Nilsson, Mother Earth, Mother of Invention, Perkins, strawberries | posted in Brain Bubble, Rant, TV
Yesterday I managed to avoid turning on the A/C, although it was borderline most of the day. At one point I looked at the thermometer, and it was 82. “One more degree,” I thought, “And the A/C comes on.” In fact, it did hit 83, but either I’d acclimated to the humidity, or it had dried out a little, so I resisted the temptation.
Today, not even noon, and it’s already 81, so I’ve given in completely to sweet temptation. (Fortunately, I have considerable experience giving in to temptation. I am, in fact, a certified professional with special safety equipment and am operating on a closed course. Do not try this at home or without expert support.)
For your Sunday enjoyment, I have a few last items from my cache…
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7 Comments | tags: humor, insanity, mom, mom is awesome | posted in From My Collection
Ugh! It’s not even noon, and already 79 is in the house. Not doubt the less welcome friends, the 80s, aren’t far behind. I hate the idea of closing the windows and turning on the A/C, but I also hate the idea of the humid heat sucking the life out of me. I could siesta the day and play at night, but in Minnesota it doesn’t cool down at night!
The retirement “party,” a week of dedicated loafing and sybaritic pleasure, is winding down now. Come Monday, the Retired Life, a whole new phase of life work, really begins. And being my own boss, I can pick my own hours (or minutes!), and I can choose the nature of my work! (It does make calling in sick a tricky proposition. On the other hand, my employer is totally down with siestas and drinking on the job.)
In the meantime, I have some items in my cache that I’ve wanted to share.
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6 Comments | tags: breasts, humor, Mick Jagger, Romanesco Broccoli, stop and smell the roses | posted in From My Collection, Life
Logos con carne 