stoutfellow

Pain

2020-04-19T20:10:08Z

I have figured out how I hurt myself - an artsy-schmartsy maneuver I repeated many times, until it caught up with me. I'll not do that again.

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Cheek

2020-04-18T21:46:25Z

I took a bit of a nap this afternoon. I awakened to the (internal) tune of "Wake Up, Little Suzy".

My Inner Minstrel is a bit cheeky sometimes.

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Return Towards Normalcy?

2020-04-18T09:16:17Z

I did not get a full night's sleep last night.

The reason for this was the usual old-person's-bladder problem.

My torso is still very sore, but it did not prevent me from sleeping.

It did not prevent me from eating a bowl of cereal and drinking a cup of coffee this morning.

We shall see what else it will not prevent me from doing today.

I am cautiously optimistic.

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Conservation of Lack of Energy

2020-04-18T00:23:47Z

I'm really short on energy, thanks to this muscle strain thingy. I grab for a couple of hours of sleep, courtesy of Icy Hot (but only once or twice a day), or for an hour or so of rest (tucked into the right-hand corner of my couch, one of the few places of minimal pain); I eat a bit, or drink a bit more (water, milk, OJ. coffee, tea, cocoa). Once in a while I have the energy to post something for my classes.

Today, I put up something on the Bernoulli brothers (took longer than I expected, straightening out their work on the brachistochrone problem); I've mapped out a post on Nicolaus and Daniel, focusing on the work on the fringes of mathematical expectation (a concept in statistics).

For my other history of math clase, I've mapped out a couple of posts on the solution of cubic and quartic equations - one on the people, with some discussion of Renaissance Italian politics and economics, and one on the methods: how they solved those equations, the problematic aspects of their techniques, the first evidence of the necessity of complex numbers even for the solution of real problems, and why their techniques, though quite ingenious, were ultimately a dead end.

And in differential geometry, the stretch drive: the concept of parallel transport, which leads to geodesics, which finally leads to the brilliant and beautiful Local and Global Gauss-Bonnet Theorems.

I think I can, I think I can...

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"Last Night, I Didn't Get To Sleep At All"

2020-04-15T08:34:50Z

I don't know what I did to myself, but sometime yesterday I must have done something.

Basically, every muscle on the right side of my torso, from the shoulder to the base of the rib cage, hurts. Breathing is slightly painful, coughing or sneezing very much so. Hot showers don't seem to help, nor does Tylenol. I was at least able to close my eyes a bit during the night, but I didn't get any real sleep.

I hope this will ease up soon. I've got work to do, and intermittent spasms of pain do not help.

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Explanation

2020-04-14T14:09:21Z

In case my "ON WISCONSIN" post was too obscure:

Last week, Wisconsin held an election. It included the Democratic presidential primary, but also a number of judicial elections. There were efforts to extend the window for mail-in ballots, but these were (mostly) quashed by the Wisconsin and federal Supreme Courts. Because of the ongoing pandemic, the (mostly Democratic) cities were unable to staff enough polling places; Milwaukee, which normally has about 180 polling places, could only open five.

Despite these handicaps - despite the health hazards of congregating to vote - voters in Milwaukee and elsewhere swarmed to the polls, standing in lines (expanded by social distancing) for hours to get their chance.

The ballots were, by court order, not counted until yesterday. The voters had their say: two conservative lower-court judges were defeated for re-election. A liberal appeals-court judge, who had narrowly been elected last time, was re-elected. And a conservative Supreme Court justice, bidding for a ten-year term, was decisively upset (55-45) by his liberal opponent.

November Is Coming.

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Go Badgers Go!

2020-04-14T00:02:44Z

ON WISCONSIN!

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Google Grudge

2020-04-13T00:31:20Z

I cannot fathom the following sequence of events.

a) I begin typing in the Google search box.
b) Google offers several possible completions, and I select one.
c) Google objects to my selection: "Did you mean :something else:?"

(I have many objections to the "Did you mean" message, but this one is especially annoying.)

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A Tribute

2020-04-12T21:29:37Z

I think I'm going to dig out my copy of _Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays_, the two-volume opus on combinatorial game theory that Conway wrote along with Richard Guy and Elwyn Berlekamp, and try to finally finish it. Volume One begins so breezily, and the concepts are so simple, that I float along with it until, about halfway through the volume, I realize I have no idea what they're talking about.

This time, it's for real. I'll *study* the damn thing if I have to.

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John H. Conway

2020-04-12T15:22:17Z

It's being reported that John Horton Conway has died, of Covid-19.

This one hurts. Conway was a great and versatile mathematician. Non-mathematicians may know him as the inventor of the Game of Life - not the Milton Bradley board game, but the one played with black and white stones on a go board. I have several of his books and have read at least two more. He wrote on combinatorial game theory, on crystallography, on the theory of quadratic forms, on Euclidean geometry... One of my proudest memories is of the time I proposed a name for a certain phenomenon in triangle geometry, and he approved it. He was very fussy about names, for good and cogent reasons, and to win his approval delighted me.

Rest in peace, Professor Conway, and may the Great Geometer continue to give you things to think about.

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No Milk Today

2020-04-11T00:46:54Z

My latest Shipt delivery just arrived. It included most of what I asked for, but no milk. (Orange juice, yes, which helps.) So I've put together another order, and am waiting for a delivery slot to open up. I anticipate that there'll be another three-day lapse.

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Not So Happy Endings

2020-04-10T22:30:09Z

On Twitter, some people are asking for favorite movies where the main couple doesn't end up together.

"Casablanca" is an obvious choice, but my number-one pick would be "Roman Holiday" - the sheer *rightness* of the two of them separating, not for the sake of a war but to be true to themselves, outmatches Rick & Ilsa, to my mind.

I'd also put "The Lion in Winter" here. The love between Henry and Eleanor is twisted and bitter, but it's still there; IMO the last scene ("Do you think there's a chance?") drives that home. My opinion only, of course.

(I'm not including "Pretty Woman", because it's not one of my favorite movies.)

Your picks?

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Dog Treats

2020-04-10T22:16:46Z

Since I'm getting three-day delays from Shipt, I've decided to buy my dog-related goods from Chewy - hopefully, they're less inundated with orders, and can get stuff to me more quickly. Unfortunately, they don't seem to sell the particular dog treats that Buster & Gracie like, but I stayed with the same company, at least, and have ordered a big bag of everyday treats and another bag of dental treats. Hopefully the dogs will like them.

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Good Friday

2020-04-10T16:17:03Z

"There were solitudes beyond where none shall follow. There were secrets in the inmost and invisible part of that drama that have no symbol in speech; or in any severance of a man from men. Nor is it easy for any words less stark and single-minded than those of the naked narrative even to hint at the horror of exaltation that lifted itself above the hill. Endless expositions have not come to the end of it, or even to the beginning. And if there be any sound which can produce a silence, we may surely be silent about the end and the extremity; when a cry was driven out of that darkness in words dreadfully distinct and dreadfully unintelligible, which man shall never understand in all the eternity they have purchased for him; and for one annihilating instant an abyss that is not for our thoughts had opened even in the unity of the absolute; and God had been forsaken of God."

G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, pt. 2, ch. 6

Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

(I posted this once before, but it's been eight years and I really like this passage.)

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Chiang

2020-04-08T00:03:23Z

The nominees for this year's Hugo awards have been announced. I've kind of fallen behind on current F/SF, so I don't recognize most of them. I do note, though, that two of the stories from Ted Chiang's _Exhalation_ were nominated: "Omphalos" for Best Novelette, and "Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom" for Best Novella. Both are, I think, worthy nominees.

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No Goats!

2020-04-07T15:26:19Z

I am saved! My lawn care people have shown up, and are now mowing my lawn!

:does happy dance, dissolves in fit of coughing:

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Amenddream

2020-04-06T10:21:01Z

Last night, I finally managed four hours of uninterrupted sleep. It ended with a most peculiar dream.

I was in Kohl's - not shopping, just hanging out. There was a large electronic signboard in the middle of the store, which listed all fifty states, color-coded (blue, green, red) to indicate the ratification status of the Equal Rights Amendment. As I watched, "Ohio" turned blue, and the display changed to a declaration that the amendment had at last been ratified. I was excited, and began writing down my thoughts (in longhand, in pencil). As I was finishing, one of the Kohl's employees came up and told me I would have to leave.

I very rarely have political dreams, barring the occasional "I am/used to be a Senator" dream. (I don't know where those come from either.)

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A Bright Day for Hollywood

2020-04-05T11:33:31Z

Today's birthday list includes Spencer Tracy (1900), Bette Davis (1908), and Gregory Peck (1916). That's some star power right there.

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The Donkey

2020-04-05T09:44:05Z

"When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet."

-G. K. Chesterton

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The Other Leonardo

2020-04-03T19:46:34Z

I just posted another slide show for one of my history of mathematics classes, about Leonardo of Pisa, who was, more than anyone else, responsible for Europe's adoption of Hindu-Arabic notation. At the end of it I drop the bomb: they've heard of him, under another name. His father's name was Bonaccio, and he was often referred to as "the son of Bonaccio" - in the Pisan dialect, "fi'Bonacci".

I love that one.

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Withering

2020-04-03T14:48:36Z

We've lost another one: Bill Withers has died. This one's not a loss to the coronavirus, though.

"Ain't No Sunshine".
"Lean on Me".
"Use Me".
"Just the Two of Us".

and, lesser known but worth remembering:
"Lovely Day".
"Grandma's Hands".
"Harlem".

and a number of others. His career was brief, but he burned bright.

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Cuddle-ish

2020-04-03T13:21:11Z

When I lie down, even for a nap, Buster and Gracie like to join me. Buster lies near the head of the bed, curled into the crook of my arm, and Gracie crawls down to my lower torso, usually slipping under the covers. Buster's is kind of pro forma; after ten or twenty minutes, he jumps down and goes to his Safe Place, under the hassock on the other side of the bed.

Lately, Gracie's gotten a little testy. If she's already on the bed when Buster wants up, she'll snarl and even feint at snapping. I give her a little shove when she does that, but still, Buster (twice her mass!) has become reluctant to challenge her on this.

He has now taken to going to the other side, climbing up on the hassock and getting on the bed from there. That achieved, he then steps over (or on!) my head to cross to his preferred spot. I'm usually quick enough to grab the pillow and sit up so he can cross unmolested, but not always.

:shakes head:

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Yardage

2020-04-03T00:00:35Z

Oh, dear. I'm going to have to mow my lawn. Repeatedly.

For the past however-many years, I've had a lawn care company do it for me. They have not contacted me this year, and I doubt they will.

I have a corner lot. I have a fenced-in back yard. And I have a (probably rusty) push mower.

:groan:

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Deliverance 2

2020-04-01T19:21:02Z

This time, shipt came through; the only deviations were the brand of milk and the amount of orange juice (1/2 gallon as opposed to a full gallon). It also included two boxes of cereal, a bag of the special treats I only give the dogs once a day, and some potato bread.

I still hope the InstaCart strike is settled fairly and soon.

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500-year-old Advice

2020-04-01T16:18:27Z

"It is even more shameful for a person to pay no heed to his own body and to fail to protect it against the plague the best he is able, and then to infect and poison others who might have remained alive if he had taken care of his body as he should have.

He is thus responsible before God for his neighbor’s death and is a murderer many times over. Indeed, such people behave as though a house were burning in the city and nobody were trying to put the fire out. Instead they give leeway to the flames so that the whole city is consumed, saying that if God so willed, he could save the city without water to quench the fire.

No, my dear friends, that is no good. Use medicine; take potions which can help you; fumigate the house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city."

- Martin Luther, "Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague"

(h/t The Slacktivist)

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