James Tauber's Blog 2005/03/06
Bloglines Handling of Relative Links
Why is it that <a href="/leonardo">Leonardo</a> in Leonardo Mailing List Down is linked correctly to http://jtauber.com/leonardo when read in Bloglines but <a href="/nelson_james">Nelson James</a> in Blog of a Singer, Model and Actor is incorrectly linked to http://bloglines.com/nelson_james?
Is this a bug in Bloglines?
by jtauber : Created on March 6, 2005 : Last modified March 6, 2005 : (permalink)
Otiose Apostrophes and SG-1
Dorothea Salo raises a question I've been wondering about myself for a while: what is it about scifi/fantasy and its love of the meaningless apostrophe?
A few months ago, during an all-day D&D session, my sister Jenni (who is a linguistics student) pointed out some of the names on the map contained apostrophes with no apparent linguistic meaning whatsoever.
Jenni and I also observed that Stargate SG-1 is particularly guilty of using the otiose apostrophe (e.g. Teal'c and many others names).
One interesting exception in Stargate is Goa'uld where the apostrophe could legitimately exist to indicate that 'a' and 'u' are separate syllables and not the diphthong 'au'.
But what is strange is that Goa'uld seems to be completely mispronounced by Daniel Jackson who is supposed to be a linguist (or is it an archaeologist this week? Or an anthropologist?). In the first two seasons I'm watching on DVD, I've heard three distinct pronunciations:
- one syllable rhyming with 'fooled'
- two syllables : 'goh ooled'
- three syllables : 'goh ah ooled'
Jackson always says the first, Teal'c always says the third. Others vary (I think General Hammond uses the second).
by jtauber : Created on March 6, 2005 : Last modified March 6, 2005 : (permalink)
Poincare Project: Switching from Analysis to Algebra
Previously, we defined the mathematical structure known as a manifold which is a topological space that is locally homeomorphic to R^n (and hence able to have the notion of a coordinate system or systems).
You may recall that when we started our journey, we began with the idea of adding structure to sets and took a step down the path of topology by introducing the notion of open sets which allowed us to, in turn, define the notion of continuity. That path led us to manifolds. If we continue down the path we'll get into analysis.
But at this point, we're going to go back to sets and take a different path; rather than take the path of continuity we'll take the path of discreteness. Where as topology took us from sets to topological spaces to manifolds and the gateway to analysis, we will now explore the beginnings of group theory which will take us from sets to groups and the beginnings of abstract algebra.
Once we've spent a little time on group theory, we'll be ready to talk about the Poincaré Conjecture itself and also start laying the foundation for differential geometry, which is the basis for recent work on the conjecture as well as for Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.
UPDATE: next post
by jtauber : Created on March 6, 2005 : Last modified March 6, 2005 : Categories poincare_project : 0 comments (permalink)
Leonardo Mailing List Down
Looks like the Leonardo mailing list has been down for the last week. Apologies to people on the list. I've emailed support at python-hosting.com so hopefully it will get sorted soon.
It happened last month too, although last time mail was still making it into the archives (just not getting distributed). Now it's not even getting that far.
by jtauber : Created on March 6, 2005 : Last modified March 6, 2005 : (permalink)
Blog of a Singer, Model and Actor
If anyone is interested in following the very early career of a singer, model and actor, I recommend subscribing to my good friend (and Nelson James front man) Nelson Clemente's blog. You'll read about modelling classes, auditions, photo shoots, songwriting, theatre and the occasional bit of SCADA engineering (his day job). Oh, and don't miss his advice on using hair removal cream!
by jtauber : Created on March 6, 2005 : Last modified March 6, 2005 : (permalink)