Letters Remain

Month: August 2008

  • Applying Mathematics to Escher’s Print Gallery

    Prentententoonstelling—or Print Gallery—is a recursive M. C. Escher drawing. For Mathematics Awareness Month 2003, Escher and the Droste Effect delves into the mathematics behind one of Escher’s more intriguing pieces. The following from the published article. [Prentententoonstelling] shows a young man standing in an exhibition gallery, viewing a print of a Mediterranean seaport. As his…

  • Patient HM Online

    I keep forgetting that audio recordings of Patient HM talking to scientists are online. Brain Connection has a good overview of HM, and NPR discusses him in HM’s Brain and the History of Memory. When twenty-seven year old Henry M. entered the hospital in 1953 for radical brain surgery that was supposed to cure his…

  • Celebrating Last Place

    Every year, the cyclist who finishes the Tour de France in last place gets awarded the Lanterne Rouge. In 2008 Wim Vansenenant was the first person to win the accolade more than twice. [Winning the Lanterne Rouge means you] outlasted those who abandoned the Tour through illness, injury or simple exhaustion; those who were eliminated…

  • Our True Ancestors

    Based on molecular genetic sequence analysis, as a human our nearest relatives are—in order—primates, flying lemurs (colugos), treeshrews and then rabbits and rats. These are the Euarchontoglires, or Supraprimates.

  • The Seed Salon

    I’ve just discovered Seed Magazine’s Seed Salon and am enthralled. Each ‘episode’ is a short, ten-minute conversation between a scientist and an artist or humanist. It’s like a conversational TED Talk. via Kottke

  • Reverse Dictionary

    Know the concept but just can’t find the word—or similar words—for it? A thesaurus is no use. A dictionary’s just torture. Help is here in the form of the reverse dictionary; I’ve got a feeling this is going to come in handy quite often.

  • First Song Downloads. Now Organic Chemistry

    The rise of university textbook piracy: the scourge of the textbook publisher, a blessing for students. All forms of print publishing must contend with the digital transition, but college textbook publishing has a particularly nasty problem on its hands. College students may be the angriest group of captive customers to be found anywhere. Compared with…

  • Communicating Design Decisions

    Primarily meant as an article on how to communicate design decisions to clients, Smashing Magazine also gives us some tips on good website design: Pretty doesn’t mean effective: statistics are your friend Every design should have a measurable goal Your site should have one clear path Remember the Swiss army knife Provide performance metrics Conclusion:…

  • Wep App Start Screen Designs

    If you need design inspiration for a website’s start screen, this screen shot collection of Web app start screens (AKA, signed-out Home Pages) from around the Web is a great starting point.

  • 7 Lies Stopping Us Starting Our Own Company

    Waiting for the right moment to start your own company seems like a perpetual waiting game. There’s always a reason not to, right? LifeRemix tackles the 7 lies preventing us from starting out own business: I’m too busy right now. I’ll start when I have more time. After I get an MBA, I’ll be ready…