No, I Always Talk Like This

The following from an actual IM conversation I had the other day:

(09:06:15 PM) He: Doesn't the axiom of choice irritate you sometimes?
(09:06:25 PM) Me: not usually. It seems quite reasonable to me.
(09:06:38 PM) He: It's really the well ordering principle
(09:06:40 PM) Me: now, the well ordering principle bugs me.
(09:06:42 PM) He: that bugs me

Observe the 2 second deltas between the last three comments.

Gig Wednesday Night

Wow. It sure has been more or less a full semester since I put something up here. No content to add, but I thought I'd announce for posterity if not my glorious and varied readership in Boston that Jesse, Heather and I will be playing a half-hour-ish set Wednesday night (tonight, as I post this at 1:30am). The gig is at the All Asia on Mass Ave, fun will be had by all. We're supposed to go on around 7.

The seminal underground counter-folk pop collective Structure Shy were formed in 1971 by brothers Alec and Saul Heller. Saul left soon after to pursue a solo career and was subsequently eaten by bears. Their current line-up also features Jesse Tov, formerly Stax Records' in-house banjo hand, and Sgt. Heather Mumford, a world renowned naval aviator and flight deck guitarist. After 36 years in rehab, this will be their second public performance.

Critters En Regalia

There is some preliminary evidence that the creature which is fleeing from the cold by somewhat noisily establishing residence in the space between the roof and my ceiling is, at least temporarily, frightened into quiet by the music of Frank Zappa.

Aleph-One, Shmaleph-One

"Alec, you know this stuff, does the power set of the Integers have the same cardinality as the Reals?"

Now, every time I think I know how to answer this question, some math guy comes along and babbles on about the Continuum Hypothesis, and I get confused about when my cardinals have Hebrew names. I believe it's well accepted that whatever the cardinality of the Reals might be, it is denoted c.

I think this sucks. It looks like a variable or a constant, and lacks something of the dignity I feel an infinite cardinal should have. Worse, though, you can't pronounce c without establishing context first. Consider: when we talk about Ackermann's Function, we don't call it "aye", we call it "Ackermann's Function". When we talk about Graham's Number, we say "Graham's Number" more often than "gee-sixty-four". (When we talk about them together, mathematicians get upset)

So, not being so visual, I ask you, oh Internet, for a new symbol to denote the cardinality of the Continuum. Hmmmm.... a.... Hieroglyphic Yielding the Amount of the Reals... HYAR... Yes! Come up with any symbol you like. People can vote or something. But from now on, however many reals there happen to be, that number shall be called (in a throaty pirate voice) "HYAR!"

Nalgene Hygene

I've learned how to keep my nalgene (distinguishing mark of we from small liberal arts schools) from getting all skunky. According to lifehacker, keep it in the freezer. I was surprised to find out it worked. If it's already smelling foul, I have found that much better than just constantly trying to scrub it out with soap, boiling water almost immediately kills whatever it is in there making the stink. This has been a public service announcement.

"Cool Mathematics"

From Foundations of Mathematics from the perspective of Computer Verification by Henk Barengregt:

Computations alone will not do, as there are many undecidable statements that are provably correct. Considering the Mathematical Universe as a fixed entity gives the working mathematician a strong drive, but one forgets that some properties require a lot of energy to find out (sometimes infinitely much, i.e. one cannot do it). Systems using formal intuitionism for computer mathematics, like Coq and Nuprl have found the right middle way. On the other hand, if intuitionism is considered as a philosophy that states that mathematics only exists in the human mind, one would limit oneself to what may be called in a couple of decades 'pre-historic' mathematics. True, the theories that can be fully run through in our mind constitutes romantic mathematics. But the expected results fully checked by computers that have been checked (by computers that have been checked)ⁿ by us will be cool mathematics.

...

Astronomy and biology have also had their romantic phase of going out in the fields and studying butterflies, plants and stars. The biologist at first could see everything with the naked eye. Then came the phase of the microscope. At present biologists use EM (electro-microscopy) or computers (the latter e.g. for gene sequencing). Very cool. The early astronomers could study the planets with the naked eye. Galileo started using a telescope and found the moons of Jupiter and mountains on the earth's moon. Nowadays there are sophisticated tools for observations from satellites. Again, very cool. Still, even today both biology and astronomy remain romantic, albeit in a different way. In a similar manner, the coolness of Computer Mathematics will have its own romantics: human cleverness combined with computer power finding new understandable results.

First Roast!

See, it's funny, because it rhymes with "first post".

On the advice of a coffee expert at work, I have decided to try and roast my on beans at home under the slogan "Massive Quality of Life Improvements for Minimal Expenditure of Effort". Which is not to say that I'm actually expending minimal effort. But it took about 15 minutes start-to-finish to make this batch, and it tastes pretty damn good. My friend Paul tried this in a pan, and it worked, but I went for specialty equipment.