Swimmer « Log24

Friday, March 24, 2017

A Large Superset

Filed under: General — Tags: Swimmer — m759 @ 1:06 pm

From a search for "Preparation" in this journal (see previous post) —

"It is almost inevitable to compare this book to Borevich-Shafarevich
Number Theory . The latter is a fantastic book which covers a large
superset of the material in Cohn's book. Borevich-Shafarevich is,
however, a much more demanding read and it is out of print.
For gentle self-study (and perhaps as a preparation to later read
Borevich-Shafarevich), Cohn's book is a fine read."

"I meant a larger map." — Number Six in "The Prisoner" (1967)

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Swimmer in the Ocean of Night

Filed under: General — Tags: Fields, Swimmer — m759 @ 3:17 am

For Scarlett

SNL promo for the March 11, 2017, broadcast

From a search for "Preparation" in this journal —

"In a nutshell, the book serves as an introduction to
Gauss' theory of quadratic forms and their composition laws
(the cornerstone of his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae ) from the
modern point of view (ideals in quadratic number fields)."

From a film in which Scarlett portrays a goddess —

Madness related to several recent posts —

Then, with an unheard splash which sent from the silver water to the shore a line of ripples echoed in fear by my heart, a swimming thing emerged beyond the breakers. The figure may have been that of a dog, a human being, or something more strange. It could not have known that I watched—perhaps it did not care—but like a distorted fish it swam across the mirrored stars and dived beneath the surface. After a moment it came up again, and this time, since it was closer, I saw that it was carrying something across its shoulder. I knew, then, that it could be no animal, and that it was a man or something like a man, which came toward the land from a dark ocean. But it swam with a horrible ease.
As I watched, dread-filled and passive, with the fixed stare of one who awaits death in another yet knows he cannot avert it, the swimmer approached the shore—though too far down the southward beach for me to discern its outlines or features. Obscurely loping, with sparks of moonlit foam scattered by its quick gait, it emerged and was lost among the inland dunes.

— From "The Night Ocean," by H. P. Lovecraft
and R. H. Barlow

Thursday, March 23, 2017

More Harvard Ignorance

Filed under: General — Tags: Swimmer — m759 @ 6:42 pm

"… the leftist war on truth, the never-ending campaign
to recast objective fact as subjective and open to question."

— Kyle Smith in The New Criterion on March 18

"A sort of flint stone" —

See also the above six-part image in the previous post.

Yabba Dabba Doo.

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Best Frame

Filed under: General — Tags: Numberland, Swimmer — m759 @ 10:16 am

From yesterday's post "The Story of Six" —

"… death ultimately provides a frame
for the magnificent picture that is life."

— Publisher's Weekly , summarizing the
1987 fable Numberland .

Related news —

From the online Harvard Crimson today …

Related images —

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Wednesday, March 22, 2017

The Story of Six

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: Numberland, Six-Set, Swimmer, The Story of Six — m759 @ 8:01 pm

On a psychotherapist who died at 86 on Monday —

"He studied mathematics and statistics at the Courant Institute,
a part of New York University — he would later write … a
mathematical fable, Numberland (1987)."

— The New York Times online this evening

From Publishers Weekly

This wry parable by a psychotherapist contains one basic message: though death is inevitable, each moment in life is to be cherished. In the orderly but sterile kingdom of Numberland, digits live together harmoniously under a rigid president called The Professor. Their stable society is held intact by the firm conviction that they are immortal: When has a number ever died? This placid universe is plunged into chaos when the inquisitive hero SIX crosses over into the human world and converses with a young mathematician. This supposedly impossible transition convinces the ruling hierarchy that if SIX can talk to a mortal, then the rest of the numbers are, after all, mortal. The digits conclude that any effort or achievement is pointless in the face of inevitable death, and the cipher society breaks down completely. The solution? Banish SIX to the farthest corners of kingdom. Weinberg (The Heart of Psychotherapy ) uses his fable to gently satirize the military, academics, politicians and, above all, psychiatrists. But his tale is basically inspirational; a triumphant SIX miraculously returns from exile and quells the turmoil by showing his fellow digits that knowledge of one's mortality should enrich all other experiences and that death ultimately provides a frame for the magnificent picture that is life.

Harvard Lovecraft

Filed under: General — Tags: Swimmer — m759 @ 12:00 pm

The review quoted in the previous post continues . . .

"Blue’s book is an attempt to untangle the mystery of her demise,
from the safe remove of Harvard Yard . . . ."

Another attempted untanglement, from today's Harvard Crimson —

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Mystery Woman

Filed under: General — Tags: Brodie at the Chateau Marmont, Swimmer — m759 @ 2:45 am

From a book review quoted here in yesterday’s post
of 12:41 PM ET, “Special Topics” —

“That teacher, Hannah Schneider, has the magnetism of
Miss Jean Brodie and the film-noir mystique of Lauren Bacall.
When Blue meets her, in a ‘Hitchcock cameo,’ by the frozen-food
section at a grocery store, she falls under her spell. ‘She had an
elegant sort of romantic, bone-sculpted face, one that took well to
both shadows and light,’ Blue recalls. ‘Most extraordinary though
was the air of a Chateau Marmont bungalow about her, a sense
of RKO, which I’d never before witnessed in person.’ Hannah
teaches a course on cinema in a room lined with posters . . . .“

From a Facebook page related to the death yesterday morning at
Webster University of the teacher of a course on cinema —

“I need a photo opportunity . . . .” — Paul Simon

The title of the film in the cover photo above is not without relevance.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Special Topics

Filed under: General,Geometry — Tags: Apollo Psi, Swimmer — m759 @ 12:41 pm

A roundup of posts now tagged "Apollo Psi" led to the name
Evan Harris Walker in the post Dirac and Geometry of
Dec. 14, 2015. That post mentions …

"… Evan Harris Walker’s ingenious theory of
the psi force, a theory that assigned psi
both positive and negative values in such a way
that the mere presence of a skeptic in the near
vicinity of a sensitive psychic investigation could
force null results. Neat, Dr. Walker, thought
Peter Slater— neat, and totally without content."

— From the 1983 novel Broken Symmetries
by Paul Preuss

It turns out that Walker died "on the evening of August 17, 2006."

From this journal on that date —

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