Log24

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Death in Mathmagic Land

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 3:28 pm

"It was our old friend Pythagoras who discovered
that the pentagram was full of mathematics."

— Narrator, "Donald in Mathmagic Land," Disney, 1959

… and it was Peter J. Cameron who discovered that
mathematics was full of pentagrams.

From Log24 on May 3:  Gray Space —

Robert J. Stewart (left) and a pentagram photo posted May 2
by Oslo artist Josefine Lyche. See also Lyche in this journal.

From Log24 on May 13:  An Artist's Memorial —

The death mentioned in the above May 13 post occurred on
May 12, the date of a scheduled Black Mass at Harvard.

Related material:

Monday, April 27, 2020

The Cracked Nut

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 1:25 pm

“At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable
conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being –
the reward he seeks –the only reward he really cares about, without which
there is nothing. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic,
to make his life prevail through his creation, to wreak the vision of his life,
the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence
of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the
essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity.”

— Thomas Wolfe, Of Time and the River

“… the stabiliser of an octad preserves the affine space structure on its
complement, and (from the construction) induces AGL(4,2) on it.
(It induces A8 on the octad, the kernel of this action being the translation
group of the affine space.)”

— Peter J. Cameron,
The Geometry of the Mathieu Groups (pdf)

“The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning
of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But Marlow was not
typical (if his propensity to spin yarns be excepted), and to him the
meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside…."

— Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness

Monday, September 29, 2014

Michaelmas Mystery

Filed under: General,Geometry — m759 @ 9:30 am

IMAGE- Pentagram from Arturo Sangalli's novel 'Pythagoras' Revenge'

Some related material in this journal: “Peter J. Cameron” + Magic.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Mass Appeal

Filed under: General — m759 @ 9:00 pm

For those disappointed by the cancellation
of this evening’s Black Mass at Harvard,
here is a somewhat less exciting substitute.

See also Peter J. Cameron + Magic.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

For the Perplexed

Filed under: General — m759 @ 9:48 pm

From a New York Times  obituary by Bruce Weber tonight—

Charles Marowitz, Director and Playwright, Dies at 82

“There are two kinds of bafflement in the theater: the kind that fascinates as it perplexes, and the kind that just perplexes,” he wrote in The Times in 1969 in an essay about Mr. Shepard’s play “La Turista,” which had recently opened in London. “If a play doesn’t make quick sense, but enters into some kind of dialogue with our subconscious, we tend to admit it to that lounge where we entertain interesting-albeit-unfamiliar strangers.

“If it only baffles, there are several courses open to us: we can assume it is ‘above our heads’ or directed ‘to some other kind of person,’ or regretfully conclude that it confuses us because it is itself confused. However, the fear of being proved wrong is so great today that almost every new work which isn’t patently drivel gets the benefit of the doubt.”

 Another play by Sam Shepard mentioned in the obituary suggests a review of…

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Gray Space

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 9:00 am

Or: Three Shades of Gray

(Continued from previous Gray Space posts.)

Cube subdivided into 8 subcubes by planes through the center

Click the above image for some related mathematics.

Those who prefer “magic” approaches to mathematics*
may consult the works of Robert J. Stewart and his
mentor William G. Gray.

Robert J. Stewart (left) and a pentagram photo posted yesterday evening
by Oslo artist Josefine Lyche. See also Lyche in this journal.

* See the April 2014 banners displayed at the websites
of the American Mathematical Society and of  the
Mathematical Association of America, as well as
a mathematician’s remarks linked to here last evening.

Friday, May 2, 2014

From the Witch Ball

Filed under: General — Tags: , — m759 @ 7:00 pm

IMAGE- Arcade Fire to headline the 2014 Oslo 'Norwegian Wood' festival at Frognerparken

See also, in this journal, Arcade Fire and Witch Ball.

This post was suggested by remarks today of mathematician
Peter J. Cameron, who seems to enjoy playing the role of
Lord Summerisle (from The Wicker Man , a 1973 horror classic).

Friday, April 25, 2014

Bingo

Filed under: General — m759 @ 10:25 am

For John Milton at the Cervecería XX —

Related material: Peter J. Cameron on Bertrand Russell
in A Midnight Exorcism.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A Midnight Exorcism

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: — m759 @ 12:00 am

The summoning of the spirit of Bertrand Russell
yesterday by Peter J. Cameron at his weblog
suggests a review of this  weblog’s posts of
Christmas Eve, December 24-25, 2013.

(Recall that Robert D. Carmichael, who, in a book
linked to at midnight last Christmas Eve discusses
some “magic” mathematical structures,
reportedly was trained as a Presbyterian minister.
See also The Presbyterian Exorcist.)

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

Wednesday June 8, 2005

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: , — m759 @ 4:00 pm

Kernel of Eternity

Today is the feast day of Saint Gerard Manley Hopkins, “immortal diamond.”

“At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being–the reward he seeks–the only reward he really cares about, without which there is nothing. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic, to make his life prevail through his creation, to wreak the vision of his life, the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity.”

— Thomas Wolfe, Of Time and the River

“… the stabiliser of an octad preserves the affine space structure on its complement, and (from the construction) induces AGL(4,2) on it. (It induces A8 on the octad, the kernel of this action being the translation group of the affine space.)”

— Peter J. Cameron,
The Geometry of the Mathieu Groups (pdf)

“… donc Dieu existe, réponse!

— attributed, some say falsely, to Leonhard Euler

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