Believe it or not, this actually does help.
Just Four Dimensions?
On E8 and symmetry
At the most basic level, the E8 calculation is an investigation of symmetry. Mathematicians invented the Lie groups to capture the essence of symmetry: underlying any symmetrical object, such as a sphere, is a Lie group.
Lie groups come in families. The classical groups A1, A2, A3, … B1, B2, B3, … C1, C2, C3, … and D1, D2, D3, … rise like gentle rolling hills towards the horizon. Jutting out of this mathematical landscape are the jagged peaks of the exceptional groups G2, F4, E6, E7 and, towering above them all, E8. E8 is an extraordinarily complicated group: it is the symmetries of a particular 57-dimensional object, and E8 itself is 248-dimensional!
To describe the new result requires one more level of abstraction. The ways that E8 manifests itself as a symmetry group are called representations. The goal is to describe all the possible representations of E8. These representations are extremely complicated, but mathematicians describe them in terms of basic building blocks. The new result is a complete list of these building blocks for the representations of E8, and a precise description of the relations between them, all encoded in a matrix with 205,263,363,600 entries.
Nobody seems to be writing about what all this means.
Climate Change and the Wide-eyed TV
When ever I have questions about climate science, global warming, or context, I click over to RealClimate. Al Gore is in the news, of course. The problem of “what’s the real story here” that 24hr news laughs out of the screen always brings out the devils and angels. I see the debate as fact-based with fairly complicated moral choices on the line, not “Will he run?”
Anyway, there will be lots of people debating the proposals. Many will also call Gore “alarmist.” Others will defer with dullness.
This post by Mann and Schmidt is an example of what I mean by the debate as fact-based first. It’s also a wonderful example for students of argument to brush up on their counterargument skills. TAnd please follow the links. The facts are one thing, but then we have to act on what we know best now. That’s the moral/ethical part.
TV Redux
At the moment, believe it or not, I’m watching Hawaii Five-0. I had forgotten about its stylized panorama. Drama of a different time.
Prior to play, my wife tried to turn the volume up by turning the black on/off circle on our Samsung television. She now lives in the world of the iPod. It was a great moment.
Conduct Space
From Reuters
Students in England could be banned from wearing full-face Muslim veils for security or educational reasons under government guidelines to be published on Tuesday, officials said.
The guidance paper from the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) would leave it up to individual head teachers to decide what pupils should and should not be allowed to wear in class, a DFES spokesman said.
“If they feel any garment imposes on a child’s ability to learn or is a safety or security issue they could be banned,” the spokesman said.
The new school guidelines come after a British girl lost a legal battle a year ago to be allowed to wear full Islamic dress in school. Shabina Begum’s case was likened to a row in France triggered by a ban on Muslim headscarves in state schools.
Reuters Pictures
PhotoMuslim veils have been a hot political issue since senior minister Jack Straw said last October they made community relations “more difficult”. British Prime Minister Tony Blair then described the full-face niqab as a “mark of separation”.
I want to try this. I’m going to ban ballcaps and blue t-shirts from my classroom because they inhibit “community relations.”
Theater Continues
Sorry, not listening anymore. Well, not for a while now.
We’ve always fed the dogs Blue Seal.
Now to the question of student speech.
“Illegal drugs and the glorification of the drug culture are profoundly serious problems for our nation,†Mr. Starr, a former solicitor general, told the justices in the opening moments of his argument on Monday.
. . .
A majority of the court seemed willing to create what would amount to a drug exception to students’ First Amendment rights, much as the court has in recent years permitted widespread drug testing of students, even those not personally suspected of using drugs, under a relaxed view of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches.
Maybe I’m just dense, but I don’t get the connection other than the same-old deep moralistic bunk expressed in war promotion. Isn’t this like chasing mice with a truck?
We should get back to poetry.
So, when is Connecticut going to break ground on road-surface technology, emissions, and better weather?
But by the way, could someone tell me the use of Google Scholar?
Transitions
Over the last couple of years I’ve been taking pictures of transitions. The other day, during a cold, sunny morning, I walked into the kitchen and saw light making it’s way over a corner. I ran for the camera, knowing that taking photos of light and the patterns it makes is a tough thing to keep up with. Transparency, reflection, and contrasts are important, too, but the found image doesn’t often make for a great center-point. The eye’s shape here is often out splashy but from the two photos duration can be detected.
Photo Closure
After a game we usually stick around the table and play with the game goods, pieces, cards, chips, whatever. My son and I stack, arrange, and build.
So I decided to take some pictures of the results, a six stack pattern of Rummikub chips.
Thirty chips where there should be thirty six. The pattern isn’t symmetrical because my son made sure he got most of the chips. Nevertheless, I thought the object strange enough to watch for a while.
But there’s a story here too, an old story. The next photo is called “Ready.”
The next is called “SetGo.”
American Shaolin
Matthew Polly’s American Shaolin is thus far filled with wonderful conversation. Polly has spoken with a Beijing cabdriver and a Zheng Zhou key girl named Moon. The talk is very similar which, in many ways, diversifies and develops the narrative. The dialogue is planted with irony.
“What country are you from?”
“America.”
“America is a great country. Very powerful. Not like China.”
“But China has advanced rapidly,” I said.
“No, it is inadequate. It will take seventy years before it is acceptible.”
“I have heard it will only take fifty years.”
“Who told you that?”
“A cab driver in Beijing.”
The Language of Love
Wally Rorschach fell in love in English. His wife fell in love in Spanish. They never really reconciled the linguistics of love. Nevertheless, they were able to raise two children. In English.
He remembers the land of Benito Juarez, Oaxaca. She did too, but was consoled by southern New Mexico, then struck dumb by the Connecticut River. They met at the south side of Monte Alban, Zapotec country.
“She once said that you should wish to stay at night there and listen for the age of the wind. How things go. You can see for miles there,” Wally said.
Swellman closed his eyes.