Skywatch
I went to the RAS-Science Museum of Virginia skywatch last night, where we show the public the stars. I have been to several of these in the past year. Each one is different. Each one is a different journey to the moon and stars and each one has a different public wanting to view the stars. Last night was highlighted by a surreal moonrise in clouds above the DMV building, and by an early appearance of Venus. I arrived so early that only three people, all showing the sky with telescopes like I did, were there, along with about four people from the public. But these people were lucky because I was able to find Venus low on the horizon and show it to them. It showed a banana-moon crescent in the telescope view. This lasted about five minutes, then Venus set in a cloudbank and was gone for the rest of the night.
It was a balmy night, a leftover from the departing summer, and I felt that added to the atmosphere. Lots of people were there because of an article about us in the local newspaper. We could not show much, only the moon and for some with go-to telescopes, the beautiful gold-blue double star Albireo. Many people did enjoy seeing the Moon anyway; it was a new experience for many. The children appealed to me especially, because it reminded me of when I first learned about astronomy as a child; when I was about 9 I attended a skywatch at a local school and found the images of the planets in the telescopes intriguing.
The only unfortunate thing about skywatches is that they are apt to get clouded out, and the light pollution is so bad that only the planets, Moon, and brightest stars are visible. But I am still hoping for another ethereal experience next month when I once again show the public the stars at a skywatch.
A Journey through Blogrealm
Blogtrek
Blogtrek
2002/09/21
2002/09/20
10890
I used to record and analyze my dreams a lot. I still record them but don't get as much time to look at them. My dream last night, though, was really interesting. I dreamed that I was looking at some calendars, from the 20th and 21st centuries, until I found a calendar for the year 10890. I thought when I saw the calendar that the people of that time would have to contend with another digit in the year. Soon after I woke up I realized the significance of that number. Take any four-digit number. Reverse the digits and subtract the smaller from the larger number. Then take the remainder, reverse its digits and add it to the remainder. The result will almost always be 10890. Once in a while you get zero, and sometimes you get 9999. But usually you get 10890. I may write up a paper or column for my mathematics page about it. The analysis would be somewhat complex, as it would itemize exactly how the carries and borrows would occur. I am usually not that interested in problems like this for they seem artificial and based on our base ten system of numeration. But this one has links to automata theory, which examines systems in which a string of symbols becomes another string according to some rules. Automata can get quite complicated, as in the Game of Life. Adding and subtracting numbers have their counterparts in automata by interpreting the symbol strings as the digits of numbers. So I find a problem like this interesting. I had first found out about it when I was a child, and now I suddenly dream about it.
I used to record and analyze my dreams a lot. I still record them but don't get as much time to look at them. My dream last night, though, was really interesting. I dreamed that I was looking at some calendars, from the 20th and 21st centuries, until I found a calendar for the year 10890. I thought when I saw the calendar that the people of that time would have to contend with another digit in the year. Soon after I woke up I realized the significance of that number. Take any four-digit number. Reverse the digits and subtract the smaller from the larger number. Then take the remainder, reverse its digits and add it to the remainder. The result will almost always be 10890. Once in a while you get zero, and sometimes you get 9999. But usually you get 10890. I may write up a paper or column for my mathematics page about it. The analysis would be somewhat complex, as it would itemize exactly how the carries and borrows would occur. I am usually not that interested in problems like this for they seem artificial and based on our base ten system of numeration. But this one has links to automata theory, which examines systems in which a string of symbols becomes another string according to some rules. Automata can get quite complicated, as in the Game of Life. Adding and subtracting numbers have their counterparts in automata by interpreting the symbol strings as the digits of numbers. So I find a problem like this interesting. I had first found out about it when I was a child, and now I suddenly dream about it.
2002/09/18
Advanced Access
I just finished a two-day course on Advanced Access. I had not taken elementary or intermediate Access but nevertheless I found instead much of the course old hat and easy. I did learn a few things and the instructor said I had more of a grasp on things than he did. Perhaps I should take certification exams? I wonder if I would be happy teaching things like Access instead of mathematics to people. But maybe that's a way. Get experience teaching computer, then teach mathematics, then become a mathematical columnist somewhere.
I just finished a two-day course on Advanced Access. I had not taken elementary or intermediate Access but nevertheless I found instead much of the course old hat and easy. I did learn a few things and the instructor said I had more of a grasp on things than he did. Perhaps I should take certification exams? I wonder if I would be happy teaching things like Access instead of mathematics to people. But maybe that's a way. Get experience teaching computer, then teach mathematics, then become a mathematical columnist somewhere.
2002/09/16
Twilight Zone
Today I heard on NPR a description of how Rod Serling developed his Twilight Zone show, despite frequent objections from the Television Establishment. They mentioned several of my favorite episodes, including "Beauty and the Beholder", in which an injured woman had her face remade to be "ugly" but she looked perfectly normal to us, and the doctors and others were the ones with pig faces, as well as another episode in which a man wandered by himself all alone in a town. Some of my other favorites include those where: gremlins kept occurring outside the window of an airliner in a storm; aliens land with a book entitled "How to Serve Man" only at the last minute people discover it was a cookbook; a man describes people into his tape recorder and makes them suddenly materialize; astronauts are lost and land on a foreign looking planet only to discover it was Nevada; a man dies and winds up in a place of eternal happiness where he had all the pleasure and women he wanted so he asks for Hell instead and is told he already is in Hell; one in a war where a soldier sees halos on the heads of soldiers that subsequently die, and then sees it on his own mirror reflection, and one in which a man gives a recalcitrant woman a love potion and then she keeps going after him and he can't get rid of her. I saw these episodes when I was a teenager, and the memory of them sticks in my mind. I would like to see it again; I hear they are playing it again but wonder if it will measure up to the original.
Down and South
I have found objectionable the use of "south" to mean "down", as in "the Dow is headed south". I feel it is wrong; the Dow is going down instead, and furthermore, I feel it disparages southerners of all types - southern US, Third World, and Australians, for example. But I now see by a notable example that one should also not do the reverse; namely use "down" to mean "south". I had not thought of that one. But when the three Arab-Americans were detained in southern Florida because the authorities thought they were a terrorist threat, one of the things that they allegedly said at a Shoney's was "Do we have enough to bring it down?". According to news reports, a lady at the restaurant thought it meant a building, in these post-Planeattack days. But they said they meant a car instead. They used "down" to mean "south" to Miami. They should have said "Do we have enough to bring it south?" or "do we have enough to bring it to Miami?" Then there would have been no misunderstanding. But one thing this whole episode brings up is that one should use "down" to mean "down and "south" to mean "south" and not confuse the directions.
Today I heard on NPR a description of how Rod Serling developed his Twilight Zone show, despite frequent objections from the Television Establishment. They mentioned several of my favorite episodes, including "Beauty and the Beholder", in which an injured woman had her face remade to be "ugly" but she looked perfectly normal to us, and the doctors and others were the ones with pig faces, as well as another episode in which a man wandered by himself all alone in a town. Some of my other favorites include those where: gremlins kept occurring outside the window of an airliner in a storm; aliens land with a book entitled "How to Serve Man" only at the last minute people discover it was a cookbook; a man describes people into his tape recorder and makes them suddenly materialize; astronauts are lost and land on a foreign looking planet only to discover it was Nevada; a man dies and winds up in a place of eternal happiness where he had all the pleasure and women he wanted so he asks for Hell instead and is told he already is in Hell; one in a war where a soldier sees halos on the heads of soldiers that subsequently die, and then sees it on his own mirror reflection, and one in which a man gives a recalcitrant woman a love potion and then she keeps going after him and he can't get rid of her. I saw these episodes when I was a teenager, and the memory of them sticks in my mind. I would like to see it again; I hear they are playing it again but wonder if it will measure up to the original.
Down and South
I have found objectionable the use of "south" to mean "down", as in "the Dow is headed south". I feel it is wrong; the Dow is going down instead, and furthermore, I feel it disparages southerners of all types - southern US, Third World, and Australians, for example. But I now see by a notable example that one should also not do the reverse; namely use "down" to mean "south". I had not thought of that one. But when the three Arab-Americans were detained in southern Florida because the authorities thought they were a terrorist threat, one of the things that they allegedly said at a Shoney's was "Do we have enough to bring it down?". According to news reports, a lady at the restaurant thought it meant a building, in these post-Planeattack days. But they said they meant a car instead. They used "down" to mean "south" to Miami. They should have said "Do we have enough to bring it south?" or "do we have enough to bring it to Miami?" Then there would have been no misunderstanding. But one thing this whole episode brings up is that one should use "down" to mean "down and "south" to mean "south" and not confuse the directions.
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