Author Archives: Anton

dream geography

In a dream, while strolling among bookshops and the like, I chance to meet someone who hates me but is constrained to be polite. With a venomous smile that person asks, the better to avoid them, on what streets one … Continue reading

Posted in psychology | Leave a comment

models of the 35 smallest fullerenes

I noticed that Shapeways had 13 models of the roundest of the fullerenes (one of the 1812 forms of C60), but none of the less regular forms; so I made some. Each of the white pieces has mirror symmetry; the … Continue reading

Posted in merch, sciences | 4 Comments

FCC cube generator

I could have used this a week ago. def fccstack(): newlimit = 0 while True: oldlimit = newlimit newlimit += 1 # extend z for x in xrange(oldlimit): for y in xrange((x+oldlimit)&1, oldlimit, 2): yield (x,y,oldlimit) # extend y for … Continue reading

Posted in mathematics, neep-neep | Leave a comment

some thoughts about packing

My bundle of 19 fullerenes is arranged in a face-centred cubic lattice, each ball occupying one of the 24 even-numbered cells of a 4×4×3 array (and parts of the adjacent cells). The spacing of the grid planes is determined by … Continue reading

Posted in mathematics | 3 Comments

in which I curse my lack of omniscience

I want to push several hundred greyscale images through a threshold filter, so that an output pixel is black or white according to whether the corresponding input pixel is less or more than 1/2 bright. (My goal is a ‘woodcut’ … Continue reading

Posted in neep-neep | 2 Comments

small irregular fullerenes

Shapeways has thirteen models of (the most symmetrical and famous form of) C60, but none of the thousands of smaller fullerenes. So I designed models of the 35 smallest, i.e. up to C36; this includes the smallest with no symmetries, … Continue reading

Posted in merch, sciences | 1 Comment

yeah, that makes me a total hermit

Yesterday I relayed a message from the local humane society, which contained an email address and a phone number; and the first response I got was “Is she on Facebook?” Phooey. Apparently it’s no longer possible to delete my Facebook … Continue reading

Posted in society | 1 Comment