My Numbers, Higher Dimensional Categories, Sheaves and Modal Logic

Erdos: 5
n-Category: 2  (actually I think it's 1 and a half....it tends towards 0 depending on the time of day :-) )*
Bacon: infinite

*Dan Freed claims his is still 1

So what the hell is an n-Category anyway?

Higher-Dimensional Categories: an illustrated guide book
Eugenia Cheng and Aaron Lauda
University of Cambridge, 2004

and I happen the like this neat mix of sheaves and modal logic found here:

Topology and First-Order Modal Logic

 

A Categoric Theory of Music?

Published in the March 2010 edition of the European Mathematical Society's Newsletter

How to theorize music today in thelight of mathematics? A musician’s point of view
François Nicolas

discusses a musician's (and mathematician's) view to the theorisation of music - in particular is the idea that music is really a topos...quite nice really.

Urban Exploration

France24 has an excellent article on urban exploration...read on:

Exploring society's ruins

 We became interested in ruins in 2002, first through sheer curiosity, but now more so for the historical side. We feel a bit like budding archaeologists; we dig out empty buildings that are just next door from our homes but we never knew existed. We don't touch however, we only photograph.

And their website and forthcomming book ... some superb photographs in there.

 

Lunokhod 2 Found!

Damned cool animation made from real pictures thanks to Nasa:

New Lunar Images and Data Available to the Public

And the image from The Univesity of Western Ontario:

Going to the toilet in Canada during the Olympics

Interesting graph found at Pat's Papers:

It shows water consumption in Edmonton during the Canada-USA Ice Hockey Final (Canada 3-2 USA).

I guess the same was true in many, many places Worldwide and not just Edmonton - certainly was true in the Marriot Hotel Burlington's bar...

Dave Carroll is my hero

I'm not saying that United Airlines' customer service is bad, no, it is much much worse. Anyway, here's Dave Carroll's third video about United:



Not only do they break guitars but screw passengers (families in particular) out of money ( 1x23 kg takes a lot less hold space and fuel than 8x20 kg, but the former will cost you at least 150USD ) AND they don't process I94-W forms correctly either.

If your I94-W form is handed back to you at check-in when leaving the USA, inform the CBP as soon as possible with the name of the airline,check-in person, date, flight, airport etc. I'm told that not doing this is "very bad" for the airline.

Good thing that Finnair isn't going the same way....oh wait....

The Cartoon Guide to Digital Rights Management

Genius: The Brads – Why DRM Doesn’t Work

 

Salmiakki

Personally I love the stuff - anyway, how many different types of salmiakki (and in English, though is there really a good translation?) are there? Leave it to the contributors to The Daily WTF to solve that one:

Souvenir Potpourri: Salmiak Attack

and the obligatory blog about experiences of eating salmiakki...

The Romance of Flying...

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you make now unfasten your seatbelts, smoke and move about as you wish. We shall be serving cocktails, lunch and afternoon tea...."

Not quite Ryanair or United Airlines ... anyway, enjoy a time when flying was a pleasure and the flight was longer than check-in and security...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9pN591cF1Y

Nazi Nuclear Bomb Project Uranium Found

From The Register:

Lost Nazi nuke-project uranium found in Dutch scrapyard:
Atomic CSI team fingerprints 1940s 'Joachimsthal' metals

By Lewis Page Posted in Physics, 19th February 2010 13:37 GMT

EU nuke boffins say that mysterious bits of uranium found last year in a Dutch scrapyard originated in the Nazi nuclear-weapons programme of the 1940s.

Forensic nuke scientists at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) traced the two pieces of metal - described as a cube and a plate - back to their exact origins and dates. Apparently both came from ores extracted at the "Joachimsthal" mine in what is now the Czech Republic, though the two are from different production batches.

Privacy

How the hell this particular school failed not to understand the implications of what they were doing is completely incomprehensible to me...read on:

School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home

A class action filing has been made on behalf of 1800 children and their families. It is already known that some teachers and possibly other staff already have images of the children at home in their possession. I wonder how many of those could (and will) be classed as child pornography? Who else saw these photographs? How many photographs were taken and of what? The invasion of privacy is utterly without precidence here.

Here are the list of complaints:

• Electronic Communications Privacy Act - interception of communications
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - exceeding authorized access
• Stored Communication Act - more unauthorized access
• Civil Rights Act - Invasion of Privacy
• 4th Amendment - Invasion of Privacy
• Pennsylvania Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Act - wiretapping
• Pennsylvania common law (1) - Invasion of Privacy

(1) footnote reads: "Should discovery disclose that the Defendants are in possession of images constituting child pornography [...] Plaintiffs will amend this Complaint to assert a cause of action thereunder."

Slashdot - as ever - has an interesting discussion.

Flight 666 videos

OK, so its a Boeing, but at least it was a 757 - anyway, a nice shot of the aircraft and Captain Dickinson at the helm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzEQ440YjUE

Pluto

Latest pictures of Pluto from Discovery News and National Geographic:

 

and not long to wait before New Horizons gets there too.

Language death...

This is incredibly sad, from the BBC; basically an way of thinking has been lost...

Last speaker of ancient language of Bo dies in India 

By Alastair Lawson
BBC News

Boa Sr remained the last Bo speaker for at least 30 years

The last speaker of an ancient language in India's Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85, a leading linguist has told the BBC.

Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world's oldest languages - Bo - had come to an end.

 

Satans Rørmokarë

Possibly the greatest band ever....  Tampere YO-Talo 25 January 2010:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLkX3Dr6CU8&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDiGhd0u26o&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75pnaY3c9H0&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyX1m9tHYQ4&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueNeShozeaU&feature=related

and our entry on the wall of fame and a link to more pictures of us and The Trophy!

NB: We had everything --- including a stage diver....no names!

Videography by Sergey Boldyrev