tantalizing

Jean-François Colonna makes elaborate and striking mathematical images. I only wish they had more annotation.

Posted in eye-candy, mathematics | Leave a comment

the danger of analogies

Catching up (as usual) – PvP has an interesting take on the furry issue.

Posted in cartoons | 1 Comment

did the wabbit ever learn what updock is?

I am advised by World Wide Words that Oxford University Press have just published a Dictionary of Catchphrases. Joy at the availability of a reference that could soothe many a mental itch is diluted by a touch of “Is nothing sacred?”. (Is there a word for the emotion expressed in that question?)

Posted in language | Leave a comment

don’t let this golden opportunity . .

I see that Pobox’s spam filter has learned to spot at least some Nigerian scam letters. That must have been tricky, as they vary more and look a lot more like normal mail than most junkmail does.

Posted in spam | Leave a comment

more in sorrow

Department of Good Rants: Jim Henley (Unqualified Offerings) chides libertarians who thought good things would happen if they supported a party to which they are irrelevant.

Posted in politics | Leave a comment

spot the language

Someone wrote to my favorite list,

I received this spam today. Does anyone know what language it is? (And is there a tool, pref. on the web and free, that can take a piece of text and guess what language it’s written in?)

I’d never have thought to look for such a tool, but Lance Nathan came through with three:

Posted in language | 1 Comment

liberty, equality

John Rosenberg (Discriminations) writes:

There is indeed a tension between equality and liberty, especially when equality is thought to mean equality of condition. The characteristically American solution to this tension is the concept of equality of opportunity, which draws on both equality and liberty. In practical terms, debates usually occur over how much state intervention is required to “level the playing field,” and how much collective responsibility to take for the clear and persistent losers.

The thought is not original, but it is neatly put, and I value that. I seem to have reached the above-excerpted item indirectly from Dodd Harris’s (Ipse Dixit) essay on the same subject(s), which in turn was linked by Susanna Cornett (Cut on the Bias).

Posted in politics | 1 Comment