Got married.
Wow, that was a chilling piece of commentary and exceptional artwork.
What!? "yur guy hit our truck with the train"? Yeah buddy, good luck getting the train company to pay for that one! My funniest wrong number story: When I first moved to Norway some 7 years ago a lady called from Denmark trying to reach her son in Tromsø. I couldn't speak much Norwegian, but she just kept talking. I tried all the simple things I could say, I had just moved from the US, the weather was nice, I worked in mathematics, etc. Found out her name was Elsi. A couple of weeks later she called again. We laughed about the wrong number and chatted a little bit more. She seemed delighted just to talk. A few days later she rang again. "Hei! Det er Elsi!" she said. "Hvordan er været?!" (How's the weather?!) No pretense of a wrong number now! This dear old lady just wanted to talk. She became a phone friend for a while, calling me at random times and talking slowly so I could understand, but I really couldn't speak many words and I guess it was too demanding so after a while she stopped. Oh Elsi, where are you today? We could discuss so many things now!
That is not very common in Norway. I was quite surprised by this attitude when I first came to Norway from the U.S. Norwegians speak out. It is part of the culture, and it takes some getting used to. Everyone feels they have a responsibility to speak or act when they see something that is not right. I have been approached by someone (not an employee) who told me I could not take pictures inside of a building, even though I was not taking pictures of people. Another time I swung my car to the other side of the street to nab a parking spot so I could run into a store to grab something quick. Someone called out to me as I ran into the building, but I was in too much of a rush to stop and see what he wanted. When I came out I saw that I had pulled into a handicapped spot - I did not see the sign because I pulled in the wrong way. The man was standing by my car and had waited 10 minutes to tell me that I parked incorrectly. A part of this is connected to the Norwegian expression "take the ball, not the man", meaning when you speak out against someone's behavior, you address the behavior and not the person. When this attitude exists at a culture-wide scale, it is easier both to speak out and easier to accept correction when you have done something wrong ("Oh, I did something wrong, I am thankful that someone let me know. I am not a bad person.")
Had to do it...
Well Pubski, I bought a viking camp yesterday. 8000 sq.ft house, 4 cottages, workshop, and a kindergarten which pays rent. It's on beautiful cape on a fjord. Renovating starts right away. It will become a mathematics creativity center with classroom, meeting space, coffeeshop, art gallery, math garden, bar, and store. I'll be giving up my job this summer to do this full-time and we'll be open for business August 1st.
21. Did you know that If all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end, you'd be dead.
Nice idea goldbludgeon! That's an unusual handle, what does it refer to? My name's Mike. I'm American but I live in Norway. My hobbies are as weird as yours. - I'm a father of 3 teenagers. They are awesome. - I'm a math guy. I've taught every level from preschool to university. Middle school is my favorite. - I was a circus artist (I did juggling, trapeze, slack wire, and clowing) and graduate of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Clown College. I've performed with three circuses when I was in my 20s. - I play guitar and piano. Not so good. But I like to write songs. Currently secretly writing songs with steve. Don't tell anyone. - I make math art. http://nakedgeometry.com, for example. - I just bought a viking camp last week that I'll be turning into a mathematics creativity center. It's the gutsiest thing I've ever done. http://matematikkbølgen.com - I got tenure in the US and gave it up to move to Norway. I got tenure in Norway and I'm giving that up to run my own business. I think math in schools entirely misses the point. This makes me unpopular with some of my colleagues. But popular with the downtrodden. Thus my soon-to-be break with the establishment. - I like cool mathy things, such as puzzles, logic, balloon animals, magic, music, games of all kinds - I like scifi movies and tv. I don't read books like I should. Instead I read hubski. - I write. Articles, a novel, children's books, poetry. I perform in a play every year. - I have a dog. And a cat. They don't like each other. But they like me. - I have uncurable cancer (how's that for mood-killer?) I've had more unpleasant medical procedures in the last 3 years than a human should be allowed. I'm doing pretty damn good right now and should last for a while. - I hate sleeping - I have a few bitcoin. I bought my first one at $600. I like watching them lose value. mk tells me I'll be rich someday. I believe him. If I go broke, I'm going to sleep on his couch. - I'm a member of a secret organization. We meet every year. And sometimes throw axes.
What a strange and wonderful thing, Newgreen! I like my hands. Juggling and piano and karate and coin tricks have made them strong, flexible and coordinated. They have endured grievous wounds and Beau lines. And I have so far avoided the crippling arthritis which plagues my family. I feel my hands are an extension of my brain, and of course they are. Here's my hands doing something my brain often does...
More spam from me. Here's my new Borromean rings model. Each of these ladies is a ring. No two rings are linked. All three together are inseparable. I previously had a 2d picture of this, now I've made a 3d: I've turned it into jewelry. This is the prototype: Not yet up at Naked Geometry, but will be this summer.
I was in Norway for half a year and came back to the US. The first week back there was a car wash fundraiser. I went to it and went to buy some cookies as well to support whatever cause it was. It was for a boy with a severe food allergy. They were raising money for his special diet. I was shocked. In Norway it would be no question -- this boy would get all the care he needs and it would cost the family nothing. In America, his community has to operate a car wash. After that, my eyes were opened to wide disparity in the US, a land where "freedom" has come to mean "every one for themselves". Not the kind of place I want to be. I'd rather be in a culture where people take care of each other. I moved back to Norway the next year, and have been here for 6 years now. It's not perfect here. But they've got their priorities straight at least.
I love watching these. It really brings ideas about evolution to light, especially that the design that takes over is not necessarily the optimal design, but it was "locally optimal" in that it is better than all the designs that are small variations of it. It's interesting to let the designs evolve for 10 or 15 generations then crank up the mutation percentage to 50% or so for a couple of generations, then tune it back down to 5%. This shakes up the environment and can possibly stimulate better designs that never got a chance to evolve. It shows how important major environmental shifts are for the long-term health of a species (maybe!) When I used to teach university courses, my students would sit in groups, get comfortable, and then half-way though the term I'd use a simple algorithm to switch people around to new groups with no common factors. There would lots of complaining but people would settle in. After a few weeks, I'd let them sit wherever so they could reunite with friends if they like. I thought of it as creating a stable environment, letting it grow, then dropping an asteroid on the planet and letting it restabilize -- a mini "ideal evolution environment" if you will. It's cool to see vestiges of structures that were useful at one point and are no longer useful. I don't really see them in this simulation but there's probably examples to be found.
I live in Norway. For comparison, the government here cannot monitor your web activity. Or your phone records. Private surveillance cameras must be pointed away from streets and sidewalks. Traffic cameras, if they do not issue a ticket, must delete data about your transit within 30 seconds of recording it. Citizens are not permitted to take pictures of other people, or inside buildings. There are 7 police video surveillance cameras in the entire country, all in Oslo. Privacy is important here. Even if it makes police work more difficult. Even though the Norwegian government isn't monitoring me though, I'm still being spied on by the U.S. I use gmail, which we now learn might all be copied (easy enough). And my data surely travels through U.S. servers, so the NSA knows what I buy and many of the websites I visit. Yep, even though I'm living and conducting my business in Europe, the U.S. is spying on me. While Norway is deleted records that are 30 seconds old, I don't expect the NSA will delete their records. At all. Ever. Even if they say they will. And I don't expect they will stop. Even if they say they will. Everyone's pretty screwed. Time for a new mode of email. Some kind of anti- Tin Can.
Damn, frikking great commentary here. I'm in remission after having lymphoma for 2.5 years. I've thought about dying pretty much every day, and in a real practical sense not just a "what-if". I've set up google inactive account manager to alert friends and family to my "secret caches" to unlock my digital life and leave directions to make things easier for those cleaning up after me. That went a long way towards peace of mind. This has changed me in an unexpected way. How can one be optimistic about the future when you know you're going to die? How does anything you do matter? It's enough to make me wish I could swallow the stories put out by one or another religion. One thing that keeps me going is my children: my children are my immortality, not just for my genetics but for my attitudes and knowledge. I need to stay alive for them. Even though I know the entire world will be gone someday, that enough for me, it's enough "scope". And so I try to make something of myself. Put as much into the world as I can before I go. And hope that I can leave behind enough good stuff to help my kids, and maybe other kids too. Life. It sucks. But it's the only game in town. If you don't play, you get nothing. And I want something. I want it bad.
I suddenly feel very small.
I really dug "Moon", a low-budget not-so-well-known film I saw last year that has stayed with me. Been thinking of watching it again this week.