Numbers on a Date

Warning! The following video contains mathematical humor.

Cast of Characters
pi
e
i

See also The First Thousand Digits of Pi

Other Mathematical Vdeos
Fermat's last Theorem
The Story of One
The Mendelbrot Set

Can You Read This?

The following was obtained from the excellent blog, Amazingly Bizarre. It is used here by permission.

Lets see how smart u are :)
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

if you can raed tihs psas it on !!

Herbal Cigarettes

I could tell you what little I know about this sketch and the show it came from, but that would spoil the fun. (See the comments on a Language Sketch for a lively discussion.)

Herbal Cigarettes

Aside from being a funny sketch. it contains some delicious ironies that will only be apparent if you are up to date on American television. I welcome your comments.

Language Sketch

This may not be a tough question for some of you, but can you identitify the actors? If so leave a comment.

Language Sketch

Digital Communication

I recently signed up as a contributor at a new blog. I thought that this was a great opportunity to promote my blogs and articles. My first article was on Unusual Music and Instruments. I shamelessly filled it with links to my blogs and articles on music. I also pointed some links in the direction of my musical friends.

I was rather proud of my effort and of my cleverness at getting incoming links to my sites. Then, it occurred to me that since the blog is very new, I really can't expect my post to be seen by many people. By the time the blog becomes popular my post will be deeply buried in the archives. Who knows if it will ever be unearthed. Then, I thought it doesn't really matter. The search engine robots will read it. Then, I thought this is crazy! I wrote an article for robots!

I remember reading science fiction as a kid. There were all sorts of fears about how technology would control and ruin our lives. It has been speculated that robots would become our entertainers and squelch the need for humans to exhibit creativity.

So far this hasn't happened. Robots aren't producers of art. They have become consumers and critics of it. As we speak robot spiders are crawling the net, trying to index every square inch of digital space. As they crawl, they categorise and prioritise the information. Search engines results are the ultimate testament to the untiring labor of these indefatigable laborers.

If you want humans to find the information that you post to the Internet, you must first submit to the demands and tastes of these robots.

Consider just one consequence of this. These robots don't understand pronouns. If you want good search engine ratings you should probably replace many of your pronouns with the keywords that they represent.

Some people claim that this is a good practice, anyways. The overabundance of information on the Internet has caused us to change our reading habits. We tend to scan text, just looking for highlights that we find interesting. This makes it easy to confuse your readers if you use too many pronouns.

This is true, but disturbing. We really don't have to worry about machines becoming too much like people in the foreseeable future. We are far too complex to make that an immediate worry. My concern is that people will become too much like machines. Maybe, this is already happening. (Imagine ominous music.)

Infinity Plus Infinity

Infinity plus infinity equals infinity. Infinity times infinity equals infinity. Infinity divided by infinity equals, well, I'm not sure. It could be one or two or seventeen. Infinity minus infinity equals, I guess don't know that one either. It could be zero, but not always.

Zero divided by infinity is zero, but so is one divided by infinity or a billion divided by infinity. Infinity divided by zero is undefined. You can't do it. It violates the laws of mathematics. If you try it, the math police will lock you away for √-1 years.

There are different kinds of infinity. There's the common, everyday infinity that describes the set of counting numbers, as in 1,2,3...infinity. There's also an indescribably larger infinity that represents the number of points on a line. Oh, and there's the dreaded infinity plus shipping and handling.

How many different kinds of infinity are there? Well, it's infinite. What kind of infinity describes the infinite number of infinities. I don't know, neither does anyone.

We can describe infinity but our knowledge is finite, whereas infinity is, well, infinite. If you turn this into a fraction with the finite part on top you get zero. It appears that I know nothing about infinity. You should keep this in mind and probably ignore anything that I say on the subject (especially this last paragraph).

Infinity Links
Hotel Infinity
Infinity, you can't get there from here!

Time Flies When You are Having Fun,

but fruit flies like bananas.

Fruit Fly Links
Fruit Flies
A Family of Peptidoglycan Recognition Proteins in the Fruit Fly Drosophila Melanogaster

Flying Fruit Links
Flying Fruit
Flying Fruit Over Paris

Subjectivity of Time Links
The Psychology of Time
Time Shifting

A Peeve of Mine

One of my peeves is pet peeves. I am not saying that my pet peeve is peeves. What's the difference? Am I playing word games? Yes, I am, but there's a point to it.

Peeves are common and, sometimes, appropriate. Peeves can help us to avoid unpleasant situations. They can provide us with the motivation to make needed changes.

You should know, however, that peeves make lousy pets. A little peeve can be a pathetic, helpless looking thing. It is natural to take pity on a little peeve, to wonder why the world hasn't paid more attention to it. Some people have a habit of taking these little peeves in. They feed them, groom them, lavish them with attention, and even start to show them off to their friends.

This is a slippery slope. Let me warn you, if you must have a pet, consider a puppy. They're not as destructive and they make less of a mess.

Walk into a pet store and what do you see? All sorts of fuzzy little creatures strategically placed to tug at your heartstrings. A pet store may occasionally sell unusual animals like snakes, lizards or spiders, but you will never see a pet store selling peeves. They know that the the customer will invariably be dissatisfied. There's to much of a tendency for the customer to come back and try to return it. If there's one thing a merchant doesn't like, it's a customer trying to unload a peeve.

It's easy to grow attached to your little peeves, but please remember that it's sometimes difficult for others to see them the way you do. Use caution when displaying your peeves, you may occasionally run across another connoisseur with similar tastes, but most people will just wonder why you ever gave shelter to such a scraggly creature.

Thank you for listening. It's something I had to get off my chest. I know I offered unsolicited advice, but I think it's an important topic, don't you? I do feel a little better now. Yes, I was correct in saying these things! This is something the world needs to know about! I shared this information with you, but it doesn't seem like that's enough. Oh, I see the postman outside. I think I'll tell him all about it. I'm sure he will be grateful.

I Like Parentheses

I like parentheses,(They're great for setting aside little comments (or references, legally required disclaimers, (note: I am not qualified to give legal advice. (The mention of legally required disclaimers was for informational purposes only. (It was not my intention to provide guidance on the proper use of such (legally required disclaimers).)))sources, dates, etc.) that don't quite fit into the normal flow of conversation (Of course, in actual verbal conversation, parentheses would have to be implied. (It would be convenient if there was a gesture (rather gestures, as there are two of them (parentheses)(The argument that they (parentheses) always come in pairs is invalid. (The concave portion facing left parenthesis (singular of parentheses) can be used in isolation (as in 1)first item on a list, 2)second item, etc.(Perhaps, this answers the age old question. (What is the meaning of one parenthesis enclosing?))).))) that could be universally recognised as referring to parentheses (or a solitary parenthesis (perhaps, two distinct but symmetrical gestures (one for each parenthesis))).) or written (or typed) text.(Parentheses are also useful for indicating that certain statements are less important than others(such as this statement and the one proceeding it).)) don't you?

If you would like to learn more about parentheses, visit The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation or this article.