When I was on chemo, the drugs would keep me awake for 3 days at a time. I lost the ability to make sense of numbers, alarming for me as a mathematician who can remember tons of numbers because each is like the face of an old friend. I sometimes lost the ability to make sense of time, I could not remember if something happened a day before, a week before, or months, and I could not sequence past events. steve made a short video about that strange experience. After treatment, I slept terribly for a year and my thinking and memory were always foggy. Lack of sleep make a huge impact on my intelligence during that period (however I was extremely production and creative during that time as well. Weird.) I had resigned myself to my condition as my new normal, but my new new normal came around to be my old normal.
I love this. I may be the only one in Norway with it right now, so it may take a while for you to get my party invitation.
I just passed my Norwegian language tests for immigration - got highest levels on oral, writing, reading and listening (yay me!) I've been living in Norway for 10 years now. The first two years I tried to get into the language courses at the university where I was working, but because I was on a year-by-year contract I wasn't high priority. I was number 180 on the waiting list year one and number 75 on the waiting list year two. I just learned on my own. Here's my tips: Watch movies in the language, with subtitles in the SAME language. Don't put English subtitles on your Spanish movie, put Spanish subtitles on your Spanish movie. You can read along and hear and it doesn't matter if you understand only 10% of the words. You'll pick up context and common phrases and even slang expressions. You get to see how the words are being pronounced. Watch one movie per week. Go back and rewatch your favorites, you'll find over time you understand more and more. Try to speak the lines along with the actors. Learn songs in the language. Even better if you play guitar or piano and can play and sing along. Songs are some of the best way to memorize words. Run the lyrics of the songs through google translate and compare so you get the gist of what is being said. Try to learn one song a week. As mentioned here, read children's books. Rhyming books, Doctor Seuss translations, Richard Scarry books, anything. Work your way up grade levels. If you can get ahold of 1st-2nd grade school books even better. Memorize children's rhymes. Norway has a service called Klartale (clear speech), it's a simplified news service with easy words and very well pronounced Norwegian. You can read or listen or download podcasts. Maybe there is something similar in Spanish? Download podcasts or children's stories and play them in the car. Don't understand? Doesn't matter, try to repeat the sentences and phrases you hear. It may help to imagine you're an actor and try to ham up the accent as you visualize yourself as a Spanish movie star. It's partly about the mindset. I bought the Pimsleur Norwegian courses. I think for Spanish they offer 90 lessons. It's (almost) entirely listen and repeat, which means you can run the lessons in the car or while walking to work. I had a half-hour walk to work which is the length of the lesson, so I did a lesson a day, once on the way to work and then repeating it on the way home. I recommend these. (I did 10 lessons in Spanish when I was going there for a conference and learned enough that I was able to ask someone on the street for directions to a pharmacy and understand enough words he told me to be able to find it.) Extreme case: Immerse yourself in the language by moving to the country for 10 years. Be extremely frustrated for the first 6 years that you are living in a fog and not understanding shit. Be satisfied if after 10 years you can get by and don't care anymore about liberally mixing in English whenever you don't know a phrase. Tell yourself that the natives think it's charming how you mangle their language in amusing ways.
Are you disputing the data or the conclusions? (Or just reacting the data and conclusions?) What in particular is shit about it? EDIT: All right, I need to edit my response in response to the edit of your response. A "smear" piece? I don't think so. What they write about matches closely with my experience. My father is a conservative and probably one of the smartest persons you'll ever meet. And yet, last time I met him we were in a room with all of his friends, all conservatives, and I was treated to such nuggets as: "There is not one thing that Obama accomplished these last 8 years" (lots of agreement to that in the room). My father saying "I couldn't vote for Hillary, she's dishonest." (Oh. My. God.) And later in a discussion of gun control he's citing Chicago as an example of how gun control has the opposite effect. It took me 5 minutes of reading up on the Chicago problem to be able to articulate the problem with Chicago, and I was accused of just reading liberal propaganda, to which I needed to respond that I had read a variety of sources, because to find the truth you need to look at all sides and examine all data. This fell on deaf ears -- the argument did not fit with his preconceived notions and he was unwilling to consider other data. Nope, just look at Chicago. Gun control is bad. (This is also a guy who has never owned a gun or experienced anything about guns.) Did I mention he is one of the smartest guys I know? His conservatism makes him stupid, and I find it very sad. This article goes into detail about where this kind of mindset comes from. And yes, it backs it with DATA. It claims that conservatives will ignore this data. So if you want to just sit there and say it's a smear campaign against conservatives and ignore the data, you're fitting pretty well into the very picture they're painting. Maybe it's a trap?
Well, as you can see... The labor party got the most with 27.4% (AP on the chart, for Arbeidspartiet). The right (H for Høyre) got 25.1%. These percentages assign the number of representatives the parties get in the parliment, 169 total. All the parties that earned a place in parliment: R = Red, or communist party. This is the first year they got enough votes to have 1 representative. The commies are pretty stoked this year in Norway. SV = Socialist left. They increased since last time. AP = Labor party. (This is the party that matches my ideals most. Funny to me is that in the U.S. I'm considered quite liberal, in Norway I'm right in the middle of the spectrum. I think that means this is a good country for me.) SP = Center party. MDG = Green (environmental) party. Also the first time they've gotten enough votes for a member in parliment. The green party is very popular with youngsters. (All 3 of my kids took political party tests and they got placed as green party members). KRF = Christian party. V = Left H = Right FRP = Forward step party. This was a radical nationalist party many years ago when it began, think "Tea Party" or "Trump". Anti-immigration, Norway first, that kind of thing. They've been steadily getting more popular, which alarms everyone who is not them. The graph at the top shows how these parties grouped together to decide who the prime minister would be. This is generally a liberal/conservative split. The conservative bunch has more members now, 89 to 80. They selected the previous prime minister, Erna Solberg, to continue as PM. Most folks I know, even liberals, think she is a solid choice anyways and are not too disappointed. In fact, I don't think a lot of people in Norway are disappointed with election results ever. The difference between polical extremes in Norway is far far far far less than in the U.S.!
Here's 4 fractals based on the sphinx dissection. The sphinx puzzle is to take a sphinx shape (composed of 4 equilateral triangles, see start images of each of the fractals) and divide it into 4 similar pieces. Each fractal is made by removing one of the four pieces, dissecting the remaining 3, and repeating.
Interesting! First thing that came to my mind was "Two flat layers of one substance with another flat layer pressed between." This works for food but also for non-food, sandwich transistors for example, or when you get sandwiched between two Finnish dwarves. But of course this use of sandwich came after the original use which was the food item, and "sandwich" nowadays can mean "something resembling the structure of the sandwich food item." The idea of an "open-faced sandwich" is particularly interesting. It's like sandwiches became so common that the part of definition about two pieces of bread was no longer important - it is a sandwich because it looks like a sandwich. And if it's missing the top piece of bread well then it's a sandwich that's open. Weird. Is that like a one-hand clap? Or a four leaf clover with 3 leaves? Or related to the fact that I'm half-centaur and my girlfriend is half-mermaid? Reminds me of a nearby mountain called Forbordsfjellet. "Fjell" = mountain, and Forbord is the little village in front of the mountain. So far so good: Forbord's mountain. But "forbord" means "before the foot of the mountain." The village was named for being at the foot of the mountain, and then the mountain was named later after the village. Before-the-foot-of-the-mountain mountain. Weird. Sorry - don't want to hijack an awesome discussion about sandwiches with Norwegian mountain names, but this feels connected to open-faced sandwiches somehow.
Funny about mothers and dogs. My mother once called for me, going through a rapid string of names: "Bill, Lorna, Judi, Heather, Ginger, Mike!" And I said "Ginger? You seriously called the dog's name before mine?"
Oh! I wasn't even watching. Today I'm 2003. You're 4 days older than me! But after my first day you were a Hubskier 400% longer than me, and now you have been a Hubskier less than 0.2% longer than me. So I'm catching up...
One of the first images I made with POV-ray about 15 years ago.
1790. I'll do something special for 2000. Like make a drawing of a robot or something.
I didn't think I'd have a Thanksgiving this year. I was resigned to the fact that would be my first Thanksgiving-less year, me out alone in the wilds of Norway with my kids celebrating with my ex-wife. The day before I bought a pack of processed turkey slices, intending to eat a turkey sandwich alone for spite. But the morning of Thanksgiving I had a change of heart. I had two folks working out at my business and my partner would be coming around lunch-time with a visiting professor from Bergen and asked if I could prepare some lunch. Prepare I would! I went to the store and bought a marinaded turkey breast and other supplies. The turkey was frozen, so I tried for a quick-thaw with 90 minutes in a sink of warm water and then 90 minutes in the oven. Would it be enough? I made mashed potatoes and gravy, cooked carrots, beets, pears, cranberry juice, pie, and an assortment of crackers and cheeses. A "small" set of dishes, but good enough for short notice. I set the table, placed out the food and candles, and then pulled the turkey, hoping against all hopes it would be ready. It was bright pink inside. Damnit! BUT - remember the pack of sliced turkey product? I did! I opened the pack and did some turkey-origami to make the perfect bird shape. I brought it out on a cutting board with a flourish and proceeded to proudly carve the best Thankgiving turkey these Norwegians had ever seen! We got half a bite each of turkey, but there was more than enough of everything else and it turned out to be a really lovely event. The real turkey was ready in the evening and made for delicious "left-overs". Thanksgiving turned out ok after all.
Here are my six solutions. flagamuffin found one of them - kudos! 15 = (1 x 5)!! 24 = (2+√4)! 24 = (√ ( 2 x 4!! ) )! (I'm pretty proud of that one!) 36 = 3 x 6! 46 = -√4 + 6!! 48 = ( (4! / 8)! ) !! (another tricky one!) Four of my solutions make use of double factorial. 4!! = 8 and 6!! = 48. I've worked on this on and off for a few days while I've been traveling -- a great airplane puzzle. And I've worked out a lot of strategies and smart ways to think about solutions. Key is not starting with a number and trying to make a solution, but to look at what operations are available and which ones will get near to the result you want. By the way, if you don't like the double factorial (I hear sometimes from people that think it's cheating), it is a real function and I solved a problem some years ago dealing with probability that made use of this function, although I didn't know the function at the time.
My outlook is very similar to yours, white. I see my life as a story. I have a goal to have an interesting story, and when I make decisions it helps me to think of what will make for the best story possible. It also helps when facing difficulties. In the best stories, the hero faces terrible difficulties and these are most often preludes to something to come that is even better than before. I wonder sometimes if our lives are a static sculpture in multidimensional space, and what gives action and consciousness in life is a higher dimensional "being" running a spark of experience along our story line, like someone watching a video if you will, and it is this that creates the illusion of time and experience. If that's the case, and there are countless lives in which to experience, then why did this being choose my life to follow? It must be that my story is a good one, and terrible tragedies will be followed by magnificent triumphs. It's a silly thought I know, but I find it comforting nonetheless. I don't know if there is a difference between those understand their lives as stories and those who don't, but I think that thinking about life as a story makes for a better life.
I'm a mathematical artist. I love it. And I feel like a productive member of society. I give courses on math and teaching and math creativity and will be starting my own math learning center this fall. I will soon be a new columnist for the country's math teacher journal, writing on math and creavitivity. (I've got the first column due on Monday and it's not ready -- but there's no minute like the last minute!) I would not be doing a different job given the choice, but I would be doing more creative work and less work work. I'm getting there...
If I like it, it's art. God, doesn't that sound egocentric? But that was one my great realizations years ago, when I would go to art museums and wonder what was good art and what wasn't. It was incredibly liberating to realize that if I liked it, it was art. That makes all of us art critics! I think flagamuffin said it fairly well with regards to street art. Some of the #streetart links we've seen here are fabulous. They add something beautiful. Tagging your initials on street signs adds something negative. Yes, it can be very subjective, and some things are deep into the gray zone, but that drone vandalism is just vandalism.
Abacuses (or abaci, both are acceptable plurals). I've got them in wood, brass, jade, ivory, one over a meter long, a usable one that's 5 cm, silver cufflinks that are just 2 cm (and not usuable, except with a toothpick perhaps). I've got some very old ones and very modern ones. I've got 5-2s, 5-1s and 4-1s (number of beads on each rod), a few big russian ones with 10 on each rod. My favorite is one used by the blind, with felt backing so that the beads stay put so you can feel the position without disturbing where they are. I was really into the about 20 years ago. I don't play with them much anymore, but they are great decor and will soon be decorating my math park (former viking camp).
Cool! Amazing to think we can improve on evolution. I guess not that amazing, we made bicycles... I wonder how that 7% translates into increased distance you can walk before getting tired. I bet it's more than the 7.5% you'd get with a straight up ratio (100/93 ≈ 1.07527)
Agree wholeheartedly. As pointed out, the opposition to these types of programs comes from a "prison as retribution" mind-set as opposed to a "prison as rehabilitation" mind-set. We want revenge, and it comes at a steep price. Recidivism in the US is extremely high. In a study cited on the National Institute of Justice website:
Within three years of release, about two-thirds (67.8 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. Within five years of release, about three-quarters (76.6 percent) of released prisoners were rearrested. Of those prisoners who were rearrested, more than half (56.7 percent) were arrested by the end of the first year.
Compare that with Norway's recidivism rate of 20 percent. That country's prison system focuses on rehabilitation, and yes people may grumble a bit that prisons are a little too nice, with classes, jobs and responsibilities but the end result is worth it. A lot of people commit crimes not because they're shitty people, they do it because they don't have or can't see other worthwhile opportunities. Expand their worlds – it works!
I've been doing a lot of math education in the past few years with 0-6 year olds. We encourage the use of words to describe location and placement ... up down next to under behind higher far near through in... etc etc. Kids who learn these concepts at a young age perform way better in mathematics years later, not even just on spatial tests but on non-spatial as well (see "Big, Little, Tall and Tiny: Learning Spatial Terms Improves Children’s Spatial Skills, Science Daily (Nov. 9, 2011)) Using language with young kids is one of the best and easiest ways to boost their early learning, and I believe it has to do with chunking concepts together into a word and then our brains can think using that word and save a whole lot of energy. No word for something and it is just too costly to think about. With one group of 4-5 year olds we taught them to name patterns, an AB-pattern for example to describe a simple alternating pattern like red-blue-red-blue-red-blue, etc. Their teacher was sceptical that learning to name a pattern would be meaningful for so young a child. The next week he came to us with his mouth agape -- saying these kids were seeing patterns everywhere and naming them. One boy made a tower from cups stacked upright and upside down. "Look!" he said. "I made an AB-pattern!" I think when we have names for concepts, we are much easier able to think about them. I think I do a lot of my reasoning verbally, I talk inside my head and can hear myself. (Interesting aside: I very often think in Norwegian now, and some concepts are difficult for me to think about in English). It makes sense to me that having more words for colors make it easier to think about colors. Having more words about anything makes it easier to think about those things. Language and the brain... cool stuff.
"The Lion Sleeps tonight". Must have been in 1972, the song was already 11 years old. I remember thinking the song had something to do with Lego windows. I can understand where the "windows" part of my thinking came from, but I can't fathom why I thought it had anything to do with Lego. Maybe I was just really into Lego. I also remember that once I started listening to the words in songs, I was disgusted that all of them were about love. I complained to my parents, much to their amusement.
Then I'm in. Looks like awesome work you're doing Blob! Good luck!
Hei Steve! So nice to round up folks -- du er helt topps! Viking camp is purchased and I've moved in to the really great apartment over the business. We've begun taking out stuff we don't want and decorating with math artwork. Meetings continue with the county and state to get contracts to bring in teachers and classes in the fall. Looks like the money will be there. It's an amazing property. It has a value of $1.3 million. I bought it from the county for $0.27 million. I think I just became a millionaire. Weird. There's a lot to do right now, and I'm still working full-time at my day job. I'd post some pictures when I get the time and energy. I've just made a couple of sculptures I'm proud of. Here they are. The pair is called "The Fox and the Mouse", one is made from 60 wooden salad forks and one from 60 wooden spoons, they are polyhedral duals of each other so they have all kinds of splendid symmetric properties, and they're about 1 meter in diameter and cast the best shadows. I have a lot of ideas for other art projects I'll be working on to make this place special. Here's my company's website if you want to see some funny Norwegian letters. And a cool animated logo.
Fantastic... legendary! What an experience. We wish you the very best! :-)
Risgrøt This is a Saturday morning favorite in my house. It's basically rice and milk. It's a traditional Norwegian breakfast dish. "Risgrøt" means "rice porridge". (I don't like the word "porridge" but it's the same word in "havregrøt" which means "oatmeal".) You'll need 3/4 cup rice, a half-gallon of milk or a pint or two of cream, a dash of vanilla extract, and a couple of hours on a lazy Saturday morning. Take 3/4 cup of rice. Boil it in water. Then turn the heat way down so it cooks slowly. As the water boils down, add whole milk or cream (or milk and cream) and cover. Keep adding liquid as it cooks down (milk or water), and stir every 10 or 15 minutes so it doesn't burn on the bottom. After one hour and before two (I think 1.5 hours is pretty good), let it cook down so the mixture is not too watery and nice and creamy looking. I always add dash of vanilla to make the kitchen smell beautiful during the long cooking time. The rice expands to about 7 or 8 times its volume. That 3/4 cup will feed a family of 5. Set the table with butter, salt, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and jelly. Put whatever you want in it. I like salt and butter, the kids like cinnamon and sugar, my wife puts in raisins. Dead simple, delicious, and fun.
Yeah, that guy's not too smart. Going through all the trouble of cutting off Medusa's head without looking directly at her, and then he holds up the head and looks at it. See what happened?
I agree that it's probably easier for rich gay people to come out than others, but I think it absolutely matters that newsworthy people come out -- maybe more so then others for the very fact that they are newsworthy and will get a lot of attention. The more we can put in the public eye that it is ok to be gay, the faster change will occur and the better it will be for everyone. And by everyone I mean everyone -- gay acceptance is about human acceptance and it makes the world better for all. Here's an great graphic from xkcd:
Cool. I own a 1909 Waltham pocket watch, 19 jewels which was required for train station-master precision back in the day. Inside are engravings on many of the surfaces, some of which can only be seen if the watch is disassembled. Engravings by the watchmaker that will only ever be seen by other watchmakers.