about life, the universe, and everything
Daniel H. Pink has written a very good article, which considers various viewpoints, for Wired on Wikipedia, a sort of “open source” encyclopedia. Recently, while implementing the Collidoscope applets, I found Wikipedia most useful as a reference for the coordinates of the vertices of the Platonic and Archimedean solids.
posted @ 07:56 AM EST
If you’ve used other road map services on the net, but haven’t tried Google Maps yet, do yourself a favor and check it out. In addition to high quality images and good performance, there’s a great innovation: you can click and drag the map to re-center it. Wow!
posted @ 08:06 AM EST
A note about myself: I’m now teaching math—pre-algebra, algebra I, algebra II, and geometry—at Cocheco Arts and Technology Academy, a new charter high school in Dover, NH.
posted @ 06:04 PM EST
Again and again I find myself returning to William Dunham’s wonderful books, Journey through Genius: Great Theorems of Mathematics and The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities, for inspiration and material to pass on to students others.
posted @ 07:54 AM EST
Sky & Telescope has an article on the amazing longevity of the Mars rovers, which have been surveying the planet’s surface for almost five times as long as their designed minimum operating lifetime. “Wednesday marked Martian day (sol) 427 of Spirit’s scheduled 90-sol mission.”
posted @ 08:57 AM EST
From the Information Please Almanac, this year’s vernal equinox occurs tomorrow at 7:34 am EST.
posted @ 08:42 AM EST
More important than any esoteric astronomical alignment are the traditional human events of spring, such as the 96th Milan - San Remo (294 km) professional cycling road race now underway.
posted @ 09:16 AM EST
Reading The New York Times article “Unexpectedly, the Mars Rovers Are Still Going Strong,” it occurred to me that there might have been quite a bit of gamesmanship going on in the specified, designed lifetime of the Mars rovers as well as the funding of a surface exploration period longer than 90 days. NASA may have been unwillingly to commit to an extended support schedule at the same time that the science and engineering team was cautious of claiming high confidence in a greater longevity. And all along, all parties might have known that, barring unforeseen catastrophe, the rovers’ design made surface operations lasting a couple of years very likely. Now, project “managers have requested that the mission be extended up to another 18 months.”
posted @ 09:33 AM EST
The Dolben Family software has been upgraded to version 3.3 of PhpGedView.
posted @ 01:26 AM EST
The release date of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been moved to April 29th, 30 days away. Check out my favorite new trailer (in QuickTime).
Spoiler: the answer to the really big question—you know, life, the universe, and everything, i.e., “What is six by nine?”—is 42 (base 13).
posted @ 07:47 AM EST
Looking back I see that last year my first day of biking on the road was March 26th; four days earlier than this year’s first, not counting the rides on New Year’s Day and January third this year. Those were in some hyperseason.
posted @ 02:10 PM EST
