When I was an undergraduate, the Department library had a pinboard, displaying the standard kind of random maths snippets. There were two that I remember, and have pondered on and off about the origins (which were not clear, even at the time). One snippet was a couple paragraphs from a novel, with a plane crashed in the desert or something. The survivors didn’t know which way to walk for the safety of Town X, and it was remarked by one of them that if they just chose a direction at random they would have one chance in 360 of getting to safety. (It sounds a little like Flight of the Phoenix, and I think someone told me that the 1/360 thing did also occur in a movie, but I don’t think it occurs in that movie.) Continue reading “On Some Π-Hedral Surfaces in Quasi-Quasi Space”
Category: Humour
The Importance of Not Being Ernest
I was thinking to title this post Haileyburying the Hatchet. That ridiculous episode, however, plays only a minor role in this post. Plus, at the moment, I have little interest in burying the hatchet. On with the post.
Cancelled by researchED
A few months ago, I registered for a researchED conference, to be held in Melbourne next week. I am sceptical of researchED, but I am also genuinely curious to know what these guys are about. It seems I’m not gonna find out.
Today, I got a call from one of the conference organisers, to “discuss” my registration. She queried the email address I provided, which made no sense, and then denied querying it, but we soon got to her “concern”: when registering for the conference, I had given my “company name” as assholesRUS. Continue reading “Cancelled by researchED”
The Perfectly Proportioned Body
Thanks to Renae, who pointed to its existence on Twitter, and is presumably created by (and at least was dug up by) Math Lady Hazel. Continue reading “The Perfectly Proportioned Body”
Funny Numbers
The leadership of my high school in the early 70s was, I presume, pretty typical for a suburban Melbourne school. It was not unkind, but it was authoritative and distant. Except for one guy, a deputy principal or something, who was a complete asshole. This one guy was always angry, always yelling at some kid for something, and forever stomping down the hallways. He also always held his head at a weird and pronounced tilt. And so, the students’ name for this asshole was 43 Degrees. Continue reading “Funny Numbers”