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Complex Numbers
Complex Numbers
A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number.
The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi.
Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary.
Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty.
April 26, 2007 at 11:31pm April 26, 2007 at 11:31pm
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My wife wants a robot.
No, not for that. I haven't been replaced by a machine yet. Or, well, maybe I have; her friends have been holding a lot of schtupperware parties lately. But specifically, she wants a robot she saw that travels around the house, cleaning it.
Now, overlooking for the moment the years of therapy our cats will have to endure if we actually get this little slice of science fiction, glossing over the price (which, really, is probably comparable to an Oreck vacuum cleaner), and even forgetting for the moment how this little gadget confirms my theory that if necessity is the mother of invention, laziness is the milkman... aside from all that, there's something fundamentally wrong here:
There exists a household cleaning robot, and I still don't have my flying car.
I was promised a flying car. It was right there at the 1939 World's Fair: Flying Cars are the Future. Not that I was there, you understand. My mother was, though. Her entire family was shaped by the thing. Then her brother went off to WWII... one of these days I'm going to do a literary comparison between the unbounded optimism of the 1939 World's Fair and my uncle's liberation of Dachau a few short years later... but I digress. Point is, how come she gets a household robot, and I'm still stuck driving a vehicle that never leaves the ground (except maybe when I'm being chased by Roscoe P. Coltrane)?
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4215922.html
Oh. That's why.
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So it seems today is Earth Day.
It struck me today that with all this talk of global warming, there's one rather obvious solution to a heated-up biosphere:
Nuclear Winter.
That's right, folks. It may sound like killing a fly with a mining truck, but consider the overall benefits:
 It would reduce the human population of Earth, thus significantly reducing our carbon footprint.
It would wipe out several thousand species, but hey, they were going to be extinct anyway, and the biosphere will recover... eventually.
It would stop the war in Iraq, or at least take it to a more manageable level.
It would make life interesting for those humans who survive the initiation phase
No one would worry about porn on the Internet anymore.
People would be born with superpowers.
It would send a clear signal to aliens: Don't fuck with us.
And it would generate significant cloud cover, so we won't be able to see the Big Rock when it comes.
See? I have the solution to most of our problems, right here. Nuclear Winter: Stop Global Warming Now! |
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Not as if I'm trying to make a point about recent and current events or anything...
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html
Picture a monkey. A monkey dressed like a little pirate, if you wish. We'll call him Slappy.
Imagine you have Slappy as a pet. Imagine a personality for him. Maybe you and he have little pirate monkey adventures and maybe even join up to fight crime. You'd be sad if Slappy died, wouldn't you? |
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Last night was the rescheduled Meat Loaf concert. My wife wasn't interested in schlepping all the way back up to DC, so I ended up going with one of my employees, a guy quite a bit younger than I am who also happens to like Meat Loaf's music (otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to last this long here).
All I can say is, the dude can still rock.
I'd been warned that he might not play very long, having been ill recently. The concert was supposed to start at 8, and the band took the stage around 8:25 - not bad as these things go. The first set was all older tunes, classics such as Paradise by the Dashboard Light, which was perfomed with this skinny brunette chick who could sing.
Not that Meat Loaf couldn't. His voice was a bit rough in places, as he'd been sick, but he belted them right out. The band was tight (not just the brunette  ), and I think carried him over some tough spots.
After a short break, they played the studio version of "I'm Still Alive" (from new album) over the speakers while showing a montage of scenes from movies Meat Loaf has been in, including two of my all-time favorites: Rocky Horror and Fight Club.
Then the band pounded into the second set, mostly stuff off the latest album, though it also included a powerful rendition of "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad" - admittedly, not my favorite song, but done well.
The biggest surprise for me, though, came after they played "Bat Out Of Hell" - they came back for an encore, as is usual, but the encore consisted of some rockin' covers, including Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter."
As the show ended, Meat Loaf finished by bellowing out, "Don't you ever stop rockin!"
Say what you want about Meat Loaf; the dude can put on a SHOW. It was totally worth the money and the wasted trip up there, as well as the return trip in the cold, windy rain. Sometimes he looked his age. Other times, he projected the energy that made him a tour sensation in the 70s.
But mostly, I came away from the concert feeling good about myself (which is what concerts are supposed to be about, yes?) - because in watching the performance, it finally hit home to me that you don't have to be beautiful to be appreciated, and you don't have to be slender to be loved.
And I'll never stop rockin'. |
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I almost went to Virginia Tech, way back in the dark ages when I was applying to schools.
There's something of a rivalry between UVA, near where I live, and Tech, one which I try to downplay whenever possible. They're both good schools academically, especially for state universities. The rivalry seems to be mostly confined to football, which I couldn't give two shits about.
Today I'm hearing about shots fired there at Tech, people wounded, people dead. The worst school shooting ever, they say.
That's one rivalry we don't need.
I have predictions. I predict someone will try to pin this on video games, or violence in movies, or television. Someone will try to use this to tighten gun laws in Virginia, or maybe even on the federal level. A lot of people will thank God for sparing them or their loved ones - the same God who didn't seem interested in sparing someone else's loved ones.
Here's the thing: It's not video games. It's not movies. It's not gun laws (hell, if they'd arm all the students, I'd bet my left leg there would have been a lot fewer casualties). And if it's God, it's a God I want nothing to do with. No. There's something deeper, and it's only beginning to come to the surface. But there's only one thing we can blame, really: the person who pulls the trigger. Unsatisfying, maybe, but there can be no satisfaction here - only shock and horror. |
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Don't these people read science fiction?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_T_Rex_Birds.html
Okay, this is cool and all, but a brief overview of several science fiction stories, most notably Jurassic Park, should tell you that sequencing T-Rex genes is a BAD IDEA.
In related, but sadder, news,
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18066068/?GT1=9246
If you've never read this man's work ("related" because many of his books would be defined as science fiction, though I understand he resisted that categorization), do so.
And so it goes. |
April 11, 2007 at 11:02pm April 11, 2007 at 11:02pm
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If you have a burning urge to get a hold of the Star Wars Holiday Special from 1978 and view that shining example of cinematic excellence for yourself, do NOT follow the link below. (Do, however, invest in therapy.)
If, however, like most people, you had only the vaugest sense of an idea, at most, that such a gem ever existed, and no intention of ever seeing it for yourself, and don't mind spoilers, well...
http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/starwars-holiday/ |
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Finally, a club for Marvin the Paranoid Android from Doug Adams' glorious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books. You know, the one splendidly voiced by Alan Rickman (of Snape fame) in the Hitchhiker's movie?
"All right. But I won't enjoy it."
"The first ten million years were the worst, and the second ten million years, they were the worst too. The third ten million I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
Anyway, I present to you...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=447434&i...
I'd say, "Only in Britain," but the fad seems to be catching on all over.
Oh, joy. |
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Someone asked me for advice (sort of) today, and I came to the realization (which I felt I had to share with my loyal readers) that free advice is never free. The price of advice, I said, is knowing that you have options that you can never take. I give free advice anyway, because I'm just sadistic like that.
But few people listen to advice, and fewer still heed it. They want to know that what they're doing, or what they're about to do, is in some way "normal," and you don't get that from TV, movies or the Internet because the people featured there are by definition not normal.
Of course, I'm not normal, either. But I'll give you advice anyway.  |
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... again, lots going on at work so I haven't been around much. And it looks like I'm working this weekend to play catch-up. Good thing I don't celebrate Easter. Without distractions, I might actually get some work done.
Anyway, when I'm feeling down about my job performance, it's good to know there's at least one engineer worse than I am:
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/nardo-design-empire.php |
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I wouldn't know. You know why? Because they fracking POSTPONED it!
We drove our butts all the way up from VA Beach - a journey that is about three hours out of our way - only to find the venue posted with, "POSTPONED until 4/16/07" signs.
D'oh!
So we turned around and headed home.
About an hour south of DC, the realization hit me like a sucker punch: what if the signs were a sick, twisted, April Fool's joke? It's exactly the kind of thing I would do: elaborate, insane and making a lot of people waste a lot of money.
And boy, did I feel like a moron. Why didn't I check into it more closely, verify that it was indeed cancelled, and that some of the NSA agents posing as homeless people who were "sleeping" all around the venue weren't getting a massive belly laugh out of the whole thing? "Ha, ha," I'd've said. "Very fucking funny. Why don't you go protect this country from its citizens and let me enjoy this concert?"
Well, this brewed in my head most of the way home, when I wasn't trying in vain to convince Kirstin that Meat Loaf has redeeming features.
Fortunately, when I got home, there was a phone message and an email from Ticketmaster confirming that yes, Meat Loaf was indeed ill, and not having us all on. The phone message, of course, could have been faked, but the email address checked out.
I hate April Fool's Day. |
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I'm more than happy with Carrion Luggage, however.
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