think again!

… he compares his method, rather, to playing music students Beethoven, or giving English students Shakespeare. “They don’t get everything that’s going on in Shakespeare, but we’re still quite prepared to throw it at them. Well, why aren’t we throwing something like the Riemann hypothesis [which would explain how the primes are distributed through the universe of numbers] at them? It’s exciting, it’s got big ideas, it’s got things that you can engage with - although you won’t understand the whole thing. 

Read an interview with ‘the world least likely math professor’ here.

Langton’s ant travels around in a grid of black or white squares. If she exits a square, its colour inverts. If she enters a black square, she turns right, and if she enters a white square, she turns left. 

The evident long-term behaviour is remarkable, and unexplained

More from Wikipedia. Play with Langton’s ant here.

- I once had a dog.
- I once had a boat.
- I got it when it was just born, a puppy no less.
- I wonder where my boat is now.
- At one time I was three times as old as my dog.
- There is seven dog years in a normal year?
- Yes, Sir.
- So after a while the dog became older than you?
- Seven years later it was twice as old as me!
- Seven years later than what?
- Seven years later than when I was three times as old as my dog.
- How old were you when you got your dog?
- I think I know where your boat is.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. - Martin Luther King Jr.

In some parts of the world the winter is approaching. When snow is covering the ground the birds that don’t fly to warmer climates have a hard time finding food. Some people put therefore a half coconut, seeds, grain, etc outside their kitchen window and are entertained while the birds have their meal.

One time I put starch in the shape of a ball outside my window. After two weeks and two days it was all gone. The birds ate from the ball the same amount every day and they made sure the shape of what was left was always a ball. 

Amazing!

What is equally amazing is that I don’t remember when the radius of the original ball was reduced to half of its original length. Can you help?

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. — Chinese Proverb

In tennis you can win the match although the opponent won more points. In other words, all points are equal, but some points are more equal than others. Why is it like this in tennis? I don’t know, any guesses? Is it because it makes the game more exciting?

In a democracy I would like all votes to be equal and none more equal than others. In most, all?, democracies that is not the case. If Obama got 64,115,182 votes and McCain 56,538,849 they should share the Electoral Votes in the same ratio, giving, out of 512 votes, 272 to Obama and 240 to McCain. With the present system in the US a big proportion of the votes have no influence on the distribution of the Electoral Votes.

In Norway, for sixteen straight years, i.e. for four elections, the political block who got the majority of votes did not get the majority of seats in the parliament, the minority block did. 

Why is democracy like tennis?

Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind. - E B White

I am not quite certain what a mathematical proof is, but I have come to realise that it is quite different from a proof in the street.

Let me give two examples.

Recently I had to prove to the local Traffic Department that I live in Thailand in order for them to issue me a driver’s license.

Hypothesis: I live in Lom Talay 7, Street 2, House 75, Banchang, Rayong, Thailand. (the address has been altered slightly, so don’t send flowers to this address)

Accepted proof: I sent a letter to the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok stating my address was so and so. They replied with a letter ‘to whom it may concern’ stating that such and such address was registered under my name in the embassy. The Traffic Department accepted the letter from the embassy as proof of my address.

Hypothesis: I am a resident of Bolivia. (this I had to prove to a pension company in the Cayman Islands a year ago for them to pay me my pension)

Wrong proof: Send the pension company documents demonstrating that I have a resident visa in Bolivia. The company did not accept this as proof.

Accepted proof: Send the pension company a receipt of a phone bill in my name with a Bolivian communication company.

Lately I have watched Sesame Street’s ‘the Word in the Street‘ where ‘predicament’, ‘apology’, and other words are explained in the street.

I am curious to know of your examples of proof in the street.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it. - Jack Handey