Father’s Day Ramblings

Another year has come and gone here. Now, as a father of four, I can definitely say that father’s day is meaningless. The thing about becoming a parent is that it is easy. There is no real skill in having children. Raising them, on the other hand, is difficult. So why should we celebrate a biological act that even the lowest lifeforms can accomplish? Ah, I remember now, the economy. The more made-up holidays that we have that can catch on the more money people will frivolously fritter away.

So I’m happy I have children. Other than the constant work, the sacrifice of what I have wanted to do, and generally having to put myself last all the time, there is nothing to say but good things. Don’t take me the wrong way. I don’t think that self-sacrifice is a bad thing either. Sometimes the best thing for people is not to be able to do what they want, and I’m no exception.  So I guess I tip my drink to all the fathers out there who have taken this to heart, but not to the ones who have just fulfilled a biological breeding imperative. Real fatherhood is a great thing, and so also is martyrdom.

Matrix Algebra brings me back to Alexandria

I just finished a little independent study (more like a brush up) on matrix algebra. After all the theorems, proofs, exercises and chapters, the book ended with an application of matrices to conic sections.

I found this strangely beautiful. Euclidean Geometry, it seems to me, finds its perfection in the conics of Apollonius.  Pascal’s brief mathematical career sort of began and ended with conics. Even Descartes’ Geometry is a discussion of the four line locus, and its solution – conics. Kepler and Newton needed conics to discuss the heavens. So then I finish this text and find that eigenvalues and eigenvectors somewhat behave like the proportionality to the latus rectum in Apollonius. Whenever I ’see’ something like this in mathematics, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes:

The pure mathematician doesn’t study mathematics because it is useful, but because he delights in it. And he delights in it because it is beautiful.

Summertime

You know it is finally becoming summertime when a variety of natural phenomenon occur. First, we had the cicada swarms hatch out of the ground. Then, a couple of nights ago, the whole lot of the Beitian clan was outside at dusk catching lightning bugs. Then tonight, not five minutes ago, I saw the first bat of summer on the wing eating bugs. I love summertime. It makes me forget what a cold-godforsaken-swamp I live in…

Market Research Anyone?

One of my co-workers was drinking a Gatorade called “Riptide Rush” this morning. Is that the rush you get while being sucked under and drowning? It hydrates as well as water filling your lungs? Why don’t they name all drinks after varieties of death-causing events: “Tropical Tornado” “Flash-Flood Fusion” “Richter-Scale Refreshment” “Western Wildfire” are examples. We could have a coffee drink called “Cancer-ward Black”.

Do these people think about what they title things? Or does “riptide” just sound cooler?

Sometimes Nature knows best

Ever seen a child with a naturally occurring mohawk? Neither had I.

I’ve got clearer pictures (of the mohawk) but they’re blurry because he’s moving…

Logic? 101

I have the peculiar misfortune of having married someone who reads lots of blogs. Normally, this wouldn’t irritate me so much, but she also has the habit of finding blogs that irritate her, so the irritation is passed down. One thing I’ve noticed, and perhaps this is the virtue of internet ‘arguments’, is the utter and complete lack of mental discipline. The examples are myriad, as Aristotle says: there is one way to do things right, and innumerable ways to go wrong. But a couple of examples are particularly striking, both for their frequency and idiocy.

The first, is to identify all the problems in the world under one name, like liberalism, feminism, modernism, and so forth. Then say everything in the world would be fixed if we could eliminate this one thing. Ignoring the fact that this is a gross oversimplification of the world, the kicker is that if someone dares disagree with the author, who has obviously just solved all of the world’s problems if only everyone would listen, then they are a particular instantiation of the said problem. Example: if they say feminism is the overarching problem of problems, and you disagree, you are then a feminist. Roughly speaking, you can say that these arguments, posts, articles or what have you, are written by morons who can only see one problem, who, like I just did, resort to name-calling at the slightest hint that someone doesn’t see their brilliance.

The second, and also very frequent, stupidity that I have seen is the gender specific attack. This one is more common on the sites run by men. This one is less complicated than the former, all it is is that if a person disagrees with the genius writing the post, or commenting frequently, they are called either one of two things. If they are male, they are called gay, effeminate, or whatever. If they are female, they are called ugly, ugly man-haters, or lesbians. It really cracks me up (and makes me angry at the same time) that people do this. I see it a lot on trad sites too, which cracks me up since it is a very Freudian way of looking at things, saying sexual orientation is the root of philosophic belief. Wouldn’t that, if one were so inclined to follow the first irritating thing I saw, lead one to call them modernists? Wouldn’t that be amusing. Well, not really. These people should know better. Mentally lazy, I say.

So I only read their shit when she forces me to, actually, asks me to. Every time I feel the urge to comment, I remind myself that it is pointless. I don’t really relish being called gay, liberal, feminist, effeminate, or modernist. Not that the monickers of morons mean much. (I love alliteration)

The Brood

My mother came out to visit us over Memorial weekend, and took a lot of pictures. Here’s the whole flock of Beitian progeny in one picture (while waiting for a train to go downtown):

what a handsome bunch of hoodlums.

Politics, ugh….

With the up and coming (perhaps over) debates (I pay no attention to these matters) I am reminded of why I hate American politics. You see, I am a special interest group. Unfortunately, my special interest group consists of (as my count goes so far) only one. My candidate (for any office) would be Catholic, punk rock, a mathematician, environmentalist, smoker and drinker, and fluent in at least two modern and one dead language. Oh, and he’d (she’d) have a mohawk. (no more paretheticals, I promise)

This is a debate I’d like to see – this candidate and any one else. More leaders of the free world need mohawks. Also, since mathematics is a holy project, more leaders need to know how to count. Maybe this would lessen deficit spending. . . and maybe they would stop taxing the hell out of smokes, I’m getting sick of the four dollar a pack bullshit.

Ascension Thursday

Yesterday I went to mass for Ascension Thursday. Of course, it was an evening mass, since I work; it was at seven p.m. I didn’t expect there to be a lot of people there, but I was a little surprised to count (OCD) less that fifty adults. I understand some people probably went to mass at other times, and so on and so forth. But I was saddened and a little struck when I noticed I was the only male adult younger than fifty.

Where have all the young men gone? Were they too busy watching NBA playoffs? Were they out carousing? Do they even care? Not to piss off the other half, but I think as men go so do children and so does society, speaking in terms of religion. When we see no adult younger men at mass, then we stop seeing children at mass, and it becomes a bingo hall of meddlesome older women. I certainly don’t think that is the kind of world I would like to live in.

So, an exhortation. Men my age, get off of your dead asses and get your priorities in line. Unless you want to loll away your life being bossed by meddlesome cranky persnickety old ladies, you had better do something about it.

Problems and Perspective

Interestingly, linear equations with either real or imaginary parts can be perfectly mapped into matrices. Sometimes this makes the equations easier to solve, or to show that there is no solution. In fact, with the form of the matrix being determined, and with the basic elementary transformations of matrices, whether or not there is an answer becomes readily apparent. The mapping of one problem from one system to another reminds me of Decartes’ Geometry, and the solution to the four line locus. Using plane geometry the locus problem is pretty involved, but if we could switch over to basic algebra, the problems become much more trivial (especially if we fix two of the lines at right angles).

A lot of times problems are like this, not only in mathematics. A simple transform, or change of perspective can do wonders. Aristotelian philosophy does wonders to describe how are knowledge can be in us and in the thing in different respects at the same time. But I do think that there are serious difficulties understanding consciousness within such a framework of act and potency. I guess my caveat is this: don’t mistake transformation for relativism.