Ratios and Highlights

It could be post-exercise elation or the caffeine, but I found this excerpt from The Guardian particularly amusing today:  Can the Hawking Index tell us when people give up on books?  It's a tongue and cheek reference to this WSJ article from Dr. Jordan Ellenberg, a professor of mathematics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Both are great reads over your morning coffee or afternoon tea.  

For me, it's not the Kindle reads I fail to finish.  It's the random library book or hard copy in hand.  Perhaps I could start a model of probability to finish a book based on its library shelf position.  I have 28 shelves containing books neither arranged by author nor title but loosely arranged by genre.  If I cataloged the read vs unread (and indeed read more than once), would I find anything interesting?    I might need to check yours as well to be statistically significant.

Have a great mathematical Monday.

Saturday Night Fractions

One-half frozen pizza
One-quarter reading water
One-third of a book

Wholly content.

Icing on the cake

It's been a cake month.

Various celebrations have landed a number of desserts on my table (which means extra miles on my shoes). This NPR segment left me wanting cake for breakfast, for purely scientific research of course.

Happy birthday to you.

We Built this City on...Galileo

This town has no shortage of engineers, physicists, and people who like love math.  It is always such a treat to ask someone what they are reading because I will frequently walk away with a title that's new (and nerdy).  Yesterday's new addition to the book list was Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark.  It was featured on NPR's Science Friday and you can find a review here by The Guardian's Brian Rotman.  It might make a nice "addition" to your list as well.

All in the Cards

My week in a table:

1 month ago	60 stamps
1 week ago	1 photo
1 week ago	50 photos
Monday night	0 stamps
Tuesday am	Still can't find stamps
Tuesday noon	60 stamps
Tuesday night	Not enough photos
Wednesday morning	10 stamps
Projected Wed noon	40 photos
Projected Wed just after noon	40 stamps
Net:	10 stamps on hand
	60 lost stamps
	A lotta hand-written notes

A continual loop of a disproportionate stamps and cards, but a lot of fun.

P.S. If you get a mid-year note with gingerbread house stamps, don't ask any questions.

Don't Pass on the Pi

By now you're probably tired of hearing of my collection of pi books or of my coasters and fancy bottle opener gifted from a friend.

So today, I'll just link to piday.org and let you read a bit about people who like numbers.  If you're in the Princeton area, you should consider celebrating with a $3.14 tour of Einstein's neighborhood.  And for those included for leisure pi-wear, you might find a little something here.

Love Them and Leaf Them

I came across this story yesterday and found it to be fascinating.  I also enjoyed the photography/video of the plant transitions.  Courtesy of NPR:  "Nature Has a Formula That Tells Us When It's Time to Die" by Robert Krulwich.

A few notes:

• It's not as depressing as it sounds.
• Warning, this story contains math.
• The opening line of the story happens to remind me of Waxing Wayne, a song an old boyfriend once wrote about the moon and a guy named Wayne who worked at a wax factory.  (You can't live in Nashville without having dated a songwriter.  Well, you can, but you're missing out on the opportunity to pay for a lot of dates.)  

Happy Monday!

A Piece of the Pi

History of pi
Petr Beckman

You probably don't know me very well if you don't know I have a fascination with π (pi).  It started when I was a child enduring (reveling in, actually) my Dad's rhymes about cake and pi when we would cut dessert and continued on though my minor in Mathematics to my present day self, owner of numerous π themed items and of course, books (like this one).

I was pretty excited last night to discover 2Pi:  Rhymes and Radii via NPR.  Jake Scott is a teacher and he's aware that math can appear to some to be quite (I know this is shocking)  dull.  He also knows that kids' attention spans are short.  (Scott is obviously a realist.)  His solution, a math-rapping alter-ego 2 Pi.  The videos were brilliant and I love his statement that "...if there's no connection, then there's no response."  True for teaching.  True for life.

Mr. Scott, I salute your decision to education children, and I adore that you are finding ways to show that math can be fun.

Hello Tiger

Inside my Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a boarding pass to Seattle dated January 26, 2004.  I had an exit row seat.  This memory was situated at Part Two:  The Pacific Ocean.

My copy of the novel sits on the shelf beside A History of Pi by Petr Beckman.

Tonight I saw the film inspired by Martel's book and was surprised to find passages which were exact quotes from the copy I re-visited this evening.  I enjoyed the cinematography, grew sad but hopeful with the journey and anticipated the eventual question, "which story do you prefer?"

I can recite π to 15 significant digits.

I believe bananas can float.

Bundle Up

I found this experiment to be brilliant, both from my supply/demand economic model part of the brain and from the other bit that loves to read.  The Humble ebook Bundle opened October 9th and ran through yesterday.  Six books bundled together with a bonus six books if you donated higher than average.  In all, 84,189 bundles were sold and this graphic from the HumbleBumble.com site makes me happy.  This Alison Flood story from the Guardian gives a few other highlights.

Source:  HumbleBumble.com

Stealing Home

Math + baseball = a great afternoon and as it turns out, a pretty good book.  Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis was my second holiday read last month.  I sped through this novel like a runner stealing bases, except of course, an Oakland A's runner.  It was head above heart, math versus tradition, and a completely unorthodox approach to a sport I remember from my youth on AM radio in the basement folding laundry with my mother.  And yet...

the principles of Billy Beane sounded quite like the strategy from Viva B (MBA flashback).

"Know exactly what every player in baseball is worth to you" (Kindle Location 3149) read to me like BATNA.

"Know exactly who you want and go after him" (Location 3150) sounded to me like a man who had a BHAG.

I have a great deal of respect for instruments of change, particularly when their methods are against the norm.  Even if you're not a sports fan or strategy buff, it's a lot of fun to read a David vs Goliath (A's versus Yankees) tale and wonder if our protagonist's theory has any "bases."

Author's note:  One of her few regrets is not utilizing Chicago baseball tickets in the summer of 2006.  She still hasn't visited the stadiums.

Pi in the Sky

Today's a day that I can admit I have a book about pi.  To some, I could even admit that I as I drove to spin class my nerd brain automatically calculated the speed of the biker I passed using my speed and the time it took to pass him.  I might also (if you prodded) admit I deduced a range of 20-23 mph.  (In class, he confirmed a speed of 21 mph.)  You might even remember that I once won a bet with a guy because I could rattle off the 15 significant digits of pi.    If you know me (and remember my pi poem), I don't have to tell you that I like math.

So as GBC K1m suggested this morning, let us all eat pie in celebration of circles round (and do random math problems in our heads).

Prime Time

Cohesion may not be the theme of the day. I trust you will give a lenient eye to a gal who awoke at half past three and is just having her first three shots of espresso. [This post brought to you by the number "3".]

The Man Booker Shortlist was announced today. Time to make your guess for the likely winner.

The plane rides went through in a blur with Flat-Out Love by Jessica Park. It is a light, hold on to the last bits of summer book book with License Notes that include a fairly stern warning and threat to "soak a geeky t-shirt in ammonia and beat you with it" for illegal sharing. Noted. The acknowledgments included references to math, zombie, time travel, and grammar. She had me with geeky.

Hope your week is off to a good start. Cooler temperatures and rain might just be the excuse you have been waiting for to finish those lingering few chapters.

3.14 to 0 in 60 seconds (and 32 words)

In honor of my fellow math geeks, a tribute to π 's first 32 signifcant digits:

Yes. I mean
a thing alkalized to create words
the sense actively abandoned
meaning concluded
are to the sensible
with circle to circle
this pie
tho appalled not pi
created crediting maths
[ ]

Three Falling

The June chapter of The Happiness Project was subtitled "Make Time for Friends." One of the author's goals was to "Make three new friends" during this summer month. My original goal when I moved to my new locale (also in June) was to make one new friend. I had a bit of a slower start, but in January, I ended up with two new friends via an introduction. Within a week, this couple introduced me to one more person and suddenly with three new friends, I felt like I had a network (and options). "Three's a crowd" and suddenly I was happier.

Three is an auspicious number in yoga, in religion, and as a grouping technique when decorating. I once had a friend who always referred to her demanding Mother, Grandmother and Aunt as "The Trinity." Three is the 2nd prime number (for the math geeks). The Earth is the third planet from the sun (for the space geeks). "3" was a chart-topping Britney Spears song (for the pop music geeks and blog writers about books). Finally, three consecutively bowled strikes is a turkey. (I am sure all of you are feeling much more complete with this little nugget of trivia.)

Particle Man

"Any device in science is a window on to nature, and each new window contributes to the breadth of our view."

- Cecil Frank Powell

Continuing with our photo Friday series, I snapped this picture in West Chester, PA last summer. Hope you find a new window today.

10-is anyone?

Top 10 reasons to be happy today:

* You are a perfect ten (or at least your date is)

* You had a splendid time at Oktoberfest (or reading)

* You are attending your neighbors' wedding

* The temperature is less than the sum of the date in MM/DD/YY format (degrees C of course)

* You have survived multi years of mathematical blogging humour

* You took a walk

* You called a friend or a friend called you

* You did not volunteer to be part of the take-down crew for aforementioned German fest

* You discovered new music

* You are enjoying the last day of the Southern Festival of Books

* You will ponder what you will be doing for 10/11/12

Lights, Camera, Inaction

I typically read owner's manuals. I find that some of these technical documents can be informative (for example, ABS light + Passenger Airbag Light + Brake Light = complete electronic failure) and quite entertaining (see previous parenthetical). Little nuggets like this formula when coupled with "the car alarm will buzz 90 times before it stops" when one does not don their safety belt can make someone the life of the party. Well, perhaps that is true only in this town where "are you an engineer?" has replaced "do you play guitar?" Regardless, I appreciate a technical writer with a sense of humor almost as much as I do one with a sense of style.

Library Status

His or Hearse

A great thing about airport travel with delays is that one may be able to finish another book. Two books in two days was my mid-week mantra. By completing Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls, I am back to GBC neutral with this year's reads. Reports from last meeting indicated this book had mixed reviews, however I liked the story. I am certain that the author's graduation from Barnard and travel delirium contributed to my enjoyment of the work. I also laughed aloud when the narrator recounted her conversation with Jim regarding the school bus (hearse). "Painting the word 'dog' on the side of a pig don't make the pig a dog," he said. He is right, but I gave her credit for creativity.