Stay Tuned for My Mathematics Opinion Piece :)

Achievement Unlocked: I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've felt the need to promise to an editor that I would not swear in an opinion piece that I'm going to write about mathematics.

Note: You should have seen the smile on my face when I was asked to write this. :P

— Mason Porter (@masonporter) February 17, 2020

In case you're wondering, the correct analogy (which you'll understand if you are familiar with Dragonlance) is "Tasslehoff was bored." (Nothing on Krynn is more dangerous than a bored kender.)

A sudden thought: I wonder if this counts as an Invited Tirade?

Not more than four...

Justin Howell sent me an e-mail with a link to an article about recent research that apparently shows that fish can count up to four. It goes on to say that their concept for 'four' and 'many' is essentially the same with the caveat that if n > 2m + 1, then they can still tell n and m apart. Even with this extra ability, I automatically thought of gully dwarves---in particular smart ones like Bupu who could get up to three.

Here is the article's money quote: Dr Agrillo said: "The most interesting thing is that fish performance is very similar to what is observed in adult humans who possess a very limited vocabulary for numbers."

2007: The Year in Literature (and other reading)

We're almost at the end of the year, so it's time to start writing up my end-of-year summaries.

I'll start with literature and other readings. Here is what I wrote in 2006.

Just like last year, I am defining "literature" rather broadly, as I really just mean whatever I read this year.

The book I am currently reading is the final book in the Taladas Trilogy, which is the first set of Dragonlance novels covering events on Krynn's other continent (that is, on Taladas rather than on Ansalon). The first book in the series was ho-hum, but I liked the second one a lot, so I immediately moved on to the third one.

In the Forgotten Realms world, I have read the first book in a new series that follows Halistra Melarn from a recent 6-book story on "The War of the Spider Queen." I also read the first book in a series that follows an alu-fiend from that same series. These were two of the interesting surviving characters from those books, so I am pleased to read about more of their adventures. I also read the second book in the Dragonlance "Lost Chronicles" series, which allowed me to read about old friends again. The two main foci this time were Kitiara and Laurana.

I think I also read another book or two from my old queue of D & D novels (and perhaps one or two that spent a much shorter period of time on my shelf), but they aren't coming to mind at the moment.

I also finally read Flatland and Neuromancer, which I intended to read years ago. I read Oath of Fealty as well because part of it was inspired by life at Tech. I read some more short stories by Philip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison. In fact, I finally finished my Ellison collection, so I ought to buy a new one at some point.

I think I read other literary things, but they're not coming to mind at the moment. I'll add them to this entry later if I can think of them.

I read my usual websites: friends' blogs, ESPN.com's baseball page, baseball-reference.com, pages from various academic societies, and so on. I also made it a point to read The California Tech online after I moved to Oxford.

I also read my usual magazines: Electronic Gaming Monthly, various Caltech publications, and so on.

And of course I read lots of technical scientific material --- I always do.

Once I am done with the third book in the Taladas trilogy, I'll move on either to the new Drizzt book or to Amber and Blood, if the latter is out by the time I am ready for it. (Amber & Blood got delayed from last summer until February, and I've been anticipating that one for a while because it is the conclusion to the current trilogy containing the main Dragonlance storyline.)

I think that's about it. I'll post some other year-end reviews later.

Physical Review resubmission process imitates Dragonlance

I am currently trying to resubmit one of my articles to Physical Review A. My collaborators and I changed several of the figures (we needed to increase the font size of the axis labels) so I need to upload all the figures and indicate what number figure each of the new ones is. I keep writing down what the correct number and subpanel is (for example, 8b) for each .eps file, but when I go to the next screen in the submission process after uploading, most of them are listed as figure "2" and I am getting an error indicating that I have multiple figures labeled as "2". (This has happened on multiple iterations, and I swear there are a couple of figures that I've corrected more than, um, two times.) WTF? When did gully dwarves start working for APS?

Dragonlance movie!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy Ben Williamson, I have just received the awesome news that there is going to be a movie based on Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first book in the Dragonlance chronicles. (Presumably, the other two books in the Chronicles will follow.) I am so there! By the way, the movie will be animated. It's supposed to come out at some point in 2007. I am so stoked! This is incredible news!

By the way, if there were going to be a live action Dragonlance film, Angelina Jolie should play Kitiara.

Some of the voice acting talent is pretty reasonable: Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon. I've never heard of many of the other people (though a couple are a bit familiar), but that's fine. I'm really looking forward to this!