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Goodbye, Cruel LiveJournal
I figured I should break my silence to give a quick update of what's going on with this blog. I'm fed up with the crap that LiveJournal has been pulling recently, so I'm leaving and moving to my own website. The reasons to switch away from LJ have been mounting: ( reasons I no longer like LiveJournal ) -
Logic Puzzles vs. Hat Problem II
This is closer to the unsolved hat problem I have previously discussed than the solved hat problem I discussed. It made the rounds on a "Math Enthusiasts" mailing list I'm on today ( Read more... ) -
An Unexpected Annoyance
My car keys have an RFID chip in them, and my car has an RFID scanner that allows me to unlock the doors and drive the car without taking the keys out of my pocket. The transceiver in my new cell phone is strong enough that it jams the RFID communication when it's in the same pocket as my keys. I now need to get in the habit of keeping my keys and ( Read more... ) -
A fun web series
It revolves around Mr. Deity (creator of the universe), his assistant Larry, Jesse (also known as Jesus), and Lucy (short for Lucifer).
More episodes are at mrdeity.com, and extra stuff as well as a Seinfeldesque project they did are on their YouTube channel. Two of the YouTube episodes even feature Michael Shermer and PZ MeyersIt's so strange to ( Read more... ) -
Question for a physicist and/or chemist
I have some wild rice. The instructions on it say to boil some water in a saucepan, stir in the rice, cover, reduce heat to a simmer, and wait a while. When I stir the rice into the boiling water, I also stir in some butter and a spice mix (sugar, powdered soy sauce, onion, sesame seeds, garlic, and some other stuff). I mix everything thoroughly, ( Read more... ) -
Science is Awesome: Speciation Happening Within Our Lifetimes
(found via the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe)
The short version: British bird enthusiasts have (unintentionally) split a population of birds into two separate groups, and over the past 50 years they have slowly but surely been turning into two separate species.
The long version (copied here for fear that the original article will disappear):
( Article behind cut ) -
Ligature Alternatives in LaTeX
I've been corresponding with Dario Taraborelli and Will Robertson, and we have concluded a couple things about LaTeX and alternative glyphs for ligatures: ( Don't bother reading if you don't use LaTeX ) -
Reading the Canterbury Tales, old school
After my previous encounters with the Canterbury Tales, I've decided to read the entire thing. As before, I think that reading a modern translation loses the interesting parts of the language and screws up the poetry, so I want to read it in Middle English. and just because I can, I'm reading (a copy of) a 600-year old handwritten version. Those ( Read more... )
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