Semester Start
Jan. 12th, 2012 08:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowIt appears that this place has finally taken a look at the calendar. Yesterday, temperatures dropped sharply, and today it's snowing. The forecast is for only an inch or two of accumulation, but it's supposed to continue falling at least lightly until tonight. Of course, today's the day I have an evening class, and won't be home until after 8:00. (The #16 bus doesn't run that late, so I'll be taking the #19 - which means getting off at Dierberg's, an extra couple of blocks away.)
The semester is going fairly well so far, I think. I'm teaching History of Math (MW) and Differential Geometry (TTh); the students in the history class seem particularly alert - one of them asked a question I hadn't considered, about the public competitions that made part of a mathematician's income in 16th century Italy, and another had some comments to make on the history of Latin orthography, which connected to my discussion of the early development of mathematical symbolism.
My current bus book is Charles Mann's 1493. It's interesting and informative, but hasn't grabbed me the way his 1491 did. I do think I'll review it when I'm done.
Oh, yes, one parenthetical note, of something that tickled me: one of the political blogs I read had a post yesterday titled "Lord Bain's Foul"....
The semester is going fairly well so far, I think. I'm teaching History of Math (MW) and Differential Geometry (TTh); the students in the history class seem particularly alert - one of them asked a question I hadn't considered, about the public competitions that made part of a mathematician's income in 16th century Italy, and another had some comments to make on the history of Latin orthography, which connected to my discussion of the early development of mathematical symbolism.
My current bus book is Charles Mann's 1493. It's interesting and informative, but hasn't grabbed me the way his 1491 did. I do think I'll review it when I'm done.
Oh, yes, one parenthetical note, of something that tickled me: one of the political blogs I read had a post yesterday titled "Lord Bain's Foul"....
