looking for sanity checks in an insane world

Posted on Tuesday, 2008 July 08 by Anton

Some years ago, using basic theorems of hyperbolic trigonometry, I worked out a conformal representation of the hyperbolic plane which preserves one line – analogous to the Mercator projection of the sphere, a conformal map which preserves one great circle. (At that time, I had a mistaken notion of the Mercator rule, so I didn’t know until later how strong the analogy is.) Unfortunately I’ve utterly forgotten how I worked it out; and I need to try again; because, now that I’ve learned enough hyperbolic analytic geometry to try making some pictures, there appears to be a flaw in my formula.

Posted in mathematics | 1 Comment

Vince Miller

Posted on Sunday, 2008 June 29 by Anton

The “Master of the Revolution”, cofounder of the International Society for Individual Liberty, a former flatmate of mine who taught me much about firearms, has died.

Tributes: Tom Knapp, Joseph Bast (Heartland Institute), Sieg Pedde, Tim Starr, Classically Liberal, LPUS press release

Posted in California, politics | Leave a comment

what the cat did in the night-time

Posted on Friday, 2008 June 06 by Anton

Whenever I get settled in my big chair, Pillow (the junior cat) is all over me; but when I’m in bed he almost never comes within reach. So I was surprised when, on waking in the night, I found him sitting on the bed, in the spot most convenient to my hand, waiting to be tickled.

Having spent the previous night in hospital (where many tests found no cause for my chest pain), I thought of Oscar.

Posted in medicine, pets | 3 Comments

link salad

Posted on Wednesday, 2008 May 28 by Anton

The latest fire in the Santa Cruz Mountains recalls an idea of mine: import ice boulders from Saturn’s rings, put them in Earth orbit, and drop them on fires as needed. Is that crazy?

Misc links: a somewhat nerdy pun; a summary of Lost

Posted in cartoons | Leave a comment

to balance a calendar

Posted on Wednesday, 2008 May 07 by Anton

A Martian year is 668.6 Martian days; that’s 3.4 less than 24×28. I asked myself, how should the short months be arranged for best ‘balance’? I ran all combinations and this is it:

The three big dots represent the missing days in short months; the smaller dot represents the sometimes-missing day in the variable month; and the diamond, slightly left of center, is the center of gravity of the dots.

Then I thought, what if I were designing a calendar for a world where the number of days in a year is 5¼ off from a multiple of 12?

Posted in calendars | Tagged | 3 Comments

paraphrasing Groucho

Posted on Tuesday, 2008 April 29 by Anton

Another Facebook “friend” request from a foaf I’ve never heard of. This one appears to be a scientist, in a field of which I approve, and we have six “friends” in common – or five, not counting one of his peers whom I accepted as a “friend” because of his reputation though we’ve had no direct contact.

Though it’s not obvious what I could possibly lose by it, I’m a bit suspicious of any stranger who’d seek to be linked with a nobody like me.

Posted in society | Leave a comment

Netflix oddities

Posted on Tuesday, 2008 April 22 by Anton

Netflix’s subgenre “Dramas Based on Classic Literature” includes Driving Miss Daisy, an adaptation of a play first staged in 1987.

A list of recommendations for me shows some surprising and even dubious inferences:

  • Life in the Undergrowth — Because you enjoyed:
    • The Straight Story
    • Throne of Blood
    • Fawlty Towers: The Complete Set
  • Homestarrunner: Everything Else: Vol. 2 — Because you enjoyed:
    • Ballad of a Soldier
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Live at the El Mocambo — Because you enjoyed:
    • The Outlaw Josey Wales
  • Sandwiches That You Will Like — Because you enjoyed:
    • Sandbaggers: Collection 2
Posted in cinema | 1 Comment