December 2011
2 posts
+Reblog if you know an Asian guy named Kevin.
lorenzthesexysaurus:
aye-cer-dan:
oheytherecamille:
kevjumbo:
pseudosane:
I heard my name?
i know like 5 lol
I know like 2 or something
like, 12.
It makes me very sad.
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
3 posts
jonathan mann - song a day guy: My 1000th Song →
1000 songs in 1000 days! Congratulations to Jonathan Mann.
jonathanmann:
So, I’m sitting here on the couch, dead tired, looking at footage from my just-concluded 1000th song show. It was an immense time. Bitter sweet in many ways, not the least of which because it’s the last time I’ll be playing music with any of these folks for a while.
Once you make the decision to…
9 tags
August 2011
6 posts
George Berkeley on the aims of science →
“The sort of explanation proper to science, then, is not causal explanation, but reduction to regularity.”
"The Mountain and the Squirrel", Ralph Waldo...
The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel,
And the former called the latter
“Little prig.”
Bun replied,
“You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I’m not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry:
I’ll not deny you make
A very...
"The Mountain and the River", Pablo Neruda
In my country there is a mountain. In my country there is a river.
Come with me.
Night climbs up to the mountain. Hunger goes down to the river.
Come with me.
Who are those who suffer? I do not know, but they are my people.
Come with me.
I do not know, but they call to me and they say to me: “We suffer.”
Come with me.
And they say to me: “Your people, your luckless...
"Mother to Son", Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So,...
"The Insect", Pablo Neruda
From your hips down to your feet I want to make a long journey.
I am smaller than an insect.
Over these hills I pass, hills the colour of oats, crossed with faint tracks that only I know, scorched centimetres, pale perspectives.
Now here is a mountain. I shall never leave this. What a giant growth of moss! And a crater, a rose of moist fire!
Coming down your legs I trace a spiral, or sleep...
"Your Hands", Pablo Neruda
When your hands leap
towards mine, love,
what do they bring me in flight?
Why did they stop
at my lips, so suddenly,
why do I know them,
as if once before,
I have touched them,
as if, before being,
they travelled
my forehead, my waist?
Their smoothness came
winging through time,
over the sea and the smoke,
over the Spring,
and when you laid
your hands on my chest
I knew those...
"Your Feet", Pablo Neruda
When I cannot look at your face
I look at your feet.
Your feet of arched bone,
your hard little feet.
I know that they support you,
and that your sweet weight
rises upon them.
Your waist and your breasts,
the doubled purple
of your nipples,
the sockets of your eyes
that have just flown away,
your wide fruit mouth,
your red tresses,
my little tower.
But I love your...
July 2011
7 posts
Under the Sun by Mia Doi Todd →
i am the ocean
you are the salt in my sea
the cream in my coffee
honey in my tea
maybe we should spend the summer
maybe we should spend some time together
under the sun
i am the ocean
you are the land
my deep devotion
crashes on your sand
maybe we should spend the summer
maybe we should spend this life together
under the sun
i am the ocean
you are the wind in my sail
we drink my...
June 2011
14 posts
‘Belief’ in evolution? It may be the wrong word →
This article by Faye Flam from the Philadelphia Inquirer addresses, sort of, the issue that I talked about in my previous post.
I still find something missing. It is repeatedly pointed out that ideas like evolution are firmly established in the scientific community. However, as per usual, it’s not explicated how it’s been so firmly established. These appeals to the authority of the...
History of birth control
I read up a bit on the history of birth control on Wikipedia. It is very fascinating.
Birth control and infanticide are well documented in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. One of the earliest documents explicitly referring to birth control methods is the Kuhn gynaecological papyrus from about 1850 BC. It describes various contraceptive pessaries, including acacia gum, which recent research has...
Accidental Chinese Hipsters →
This seems like it would be funny, but it’s not.
Modern Magus →
The loss of Kadambari, Tagore writes in “My Reminiscences,” was his first mature experience of death, and it forever transformed the way he thought and wrote. “I was unaware then of the slightest lack anywhere in my life; there seemed no loophole in its tightly woven fabric of laughter and tears. Nothing was visible beyond it, hence I had accepted it as ultimate truth. And then...
Fourier series
Given a function \(f(x)\), its Fourier series is something like \(\sum_n a_n e^{inx} \), where \(a_n\) is \(\int f(x) e^{inx} dx\). The idea is to use the inner product \( \langle f,g \rangle = \int f(x)g(x)dx\) in order to write \(f(x)\) in terms of the \(e^{inx}\), which I guess we view as a “basis” of the vector space of functions.
So now consider the delta function at zero...
Dear Diary,
Today I hung out with Julianne and we had TWO lunches.
Then I met up with Anton and we got dinner at Pakwan and talked about math. I had ONE beer and he had FOUR beers.
Then we went to Adobe Books to check out an art show there.
Then I came home.
Geometric series trick
We have \(1 + x + x^2 + \cdots = \frac{1}{1-x}\).
Then we also have \(1 + x^{-1} + x^{-2} + \cdots = \frac{1}{1-x^{-1}}\).
Hence we get \( \cdots + x^{-2} + x^{-1} + 1 + x + x^2 + \cdots = \frac{1}{1-x} + \frac{1}{1-x^{-1}} - 1 \).
For \( x \neq 1 \), the right hand side simplifies to zero. On the other hand, when \(x = 1\), the expression diverges to \(+\infty\).
So, \(\sum_{n \in \mathbb{Z}}...
May 2011
31 posts
Tumblr = a million reblogging monkeys
How to Read Nancy →
nancypanels:
To mark hitting 1,000 followers(!), here is a .pdf of Mark Newgarden and Paul Karasik’s classic 1988 essay. This is a mind-blowing piece of comics theory, semiotically deconstructing Bushmiller’s idiosyncratic cartooning methods, and providing a staggeringly comprehensive formalist dissection of one particular Nancy strip.
This essay was a major inspiration for starting this blog,...
A. O. Scott's review of "Midnight in Paris" →
This is a very nice review. I think I have to see this movie now. (J, check out the “Prufrock” references!)
http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/ai-weiwei/ →
What music are you listening to?
I never listen to music.
What do you like the look of?
I like the look of anything. Everything is interesting to me.
Burbank Near LA →
Somehow I just stumbled upon this: “Burbank Near LA”, a cute re-imagining of “Washington, DC” by the Magnetic Fields, by Hellen Jo — a name that I recognized but I couldn’t remember how or why. It took me a few minutes but I figured it out: We were both undergrads at Cal at the same time, and she used to do comics for the Daily Cal and the Squelch and other...
