Olaf Gate « Log24

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Sunday August 16, 2009

Filed under: General — Tags: Eden, Olaf Gate — m759 @ 11:29 am

Refugees

In memory of
Kenneth H. Bacon, dead at 64
on August 15th, 2009.

Bacon was an advocate for refugees.

"Even blue-blooded WASPs were refugees at one time; mine came over from England in 1630, fleeing debts for all I know," he said.

— Today's New York Times

Click cover to enlarge.

Click for details.

Bacon turned 64
last year on November 21.

Log24 on that date:

From a story in the November 21
Chronicle of Higher Education
on a recent St. Olaf College
reading of Paradise Lost:

"Of man's first disobedience,
     and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree,
     whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World,
     and all our woe….

A red apple made the rounds,
each reader tempting the next."

________________________

"Do you like apples?"
— Good Will Hunting

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Friday, November 21, 2008

Friday November 21, 2008

Filed under: General — Tags: Fields, Olaf Gate — m759 @ 5:01 pm

Gatsby Starts Over:
Cleaning Up the
St. Olaf Mess

St. Olaf College,
Northfield, Minnesota —
From The MSCS Mess
(Dept. of Mathematics, Statistics,
and Computer Science)
November 14, 2008
Volume 37, Number 9—

Math Film Festival 2008
The MSCS Department is sponsoring the second of two film-discussion evenings this Wednesday, November 19. Come to RNS 390 at 7:00 PM to see watch [sic] two short [sic]— Whatchu Know 'bout Math and Just a Finite Simple Group of Order Two— and our feature film, Good Will Hunting. Will Hunting is a mathematical genius who's living a rough life in South Boston, while being employed at a prestigious college in Boston, he's [sic] discovered by a Fields Medal winning mathematics Professor [sic] who eventually tries to get Will to turn his life around but becomes haunted by his own professional inadequacies when compared with Will. Professor Garrett will explain the “impossible problem” and its solution after the film.

Background:

Log24 entries of Wednesday, November 19, the day "Good Will Hunting" was shown:
Damnation Morning revisited and
Mathematics and Narrative continued

From a story in the November 21
Chronicle of Higher Education
on a recent St. Olaf College
reading of Paradise Lost:

"Of man's first disobedience,
     and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree,
     whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World,
     and all our woe….

A red apple made the rounds,
each reader tempting the next."

________________________

"Do you like apples?"
— Good Will Hunting

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Wednesday November 19, 2008

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: Destiny, Olaf Gate, on081119, Vanishing Point — m759 @ 5:01 pm

"Through the unknown,
remembered gate…."

— Four Quartets

(Epigraph to the introduction,
Parallelisms of Complete Designs
by Peter J. Cameron,
Merton College, Oxford)

"It's still the same old story…."
— Song lyric

The Great Gatsby, Chapter 6:

"An instinct toward his future glory had led him, some months before, to the small Lutheran college of St. Olaf in southern Minnesota. He stayed there two weeks, dismayed at its ferocious indifference to the drums of his destiny, to destiny itself, and despising the janitor’s work with which he was to pay his way through."

There is a link to an article on St. Olaf College in Arts & Letters Daily today:

"John Milton, boring? Paradise Lost has a little bit of something for everybody. Hot sex! Hellfire! Some damned good poetry, too…" more»

The "more" link is to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

For related material on Paradise Lost and higher education, see Mathematics and Narrative.

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