Today's count

The scent of wine from fallen leaves.  Rescuing a ladybug off the bus. Warm enough to take off socks. Horse feather clouds across the blue.  A girl with purple hair.  A swarm of graceful green robed people crossing the bowl - most likely the Greystone Singers.  The sound of a child outside the library, clearly setting eyes on the T-Rex for the first time. Wooooohooowwoooo.

Trust them

I know in this current age there are those who would have rushed up the stairs to help, or worse called the cops and social services, but luckily the group I was on tour with yesterday was made mostly of people my age and we just watched with joy and grinned.  I was on a tour, and as the speaker talked (and I listened) about the architecture, two children came down the staircase behind her.  A big brother of about seven and his kid sister of about three. One foot on the step below, one foot on the step she was on, he came down at her pace one stair at a time.  One had behind her, and one hand before.  Patient.  His sister, and he was going to get her down intact.  How will that effect his view of himself as he grows?  No adult even in sight to yell, 'don't do that, you'll fall'.  Because, honey, he wasn't going to fall.  No way.  He had this thanks. And it was so darn cute.

Brute Force Vulnerability Discovery

A bunch of books dropped into the book drop, through the return slot (amazing enough in this age and joyful because my nostalgic Luddite long term environmentally-sound storage loving self likes the clunk the books make as they go in).  As is my wont I check them over to make sure they don't need repair work done (no soddering irons required) and check titles for things of interest.  Fuzzing!?  What **&^ is Fuzzing.  Has it to do with the fuzzy bear on the cover?  Of course it does, because as I have know since I was small Fuzzy wazzy was a bear, and it turns out Fuzzy wazzy is now clogging up computer programs with with his fuzz (much random data - not to be confused the BIG data) to see when they will crash.  It is a brute force test, looking for the vulnerable bits, don't you know.  Though I am quite sure the grizzly on the book cover is really only interesting in catching that salmon jumping toward his open maw - no brute force required, just intelligent placement.

Fuzzing: Brute Force Venerability Discovery.

New Books

Doing the new books again.  Most times I find something that amuses my odd sense of humour. Today I find something that makes me growl.  Masterminding Nature: the breeding of animals, 1750- 2010.  Masterminding nature?  Rather like two squatting toddlers holding up their mud pies claiming to have fed the world all their lives.

Don't go out in Geology Today

PMD@2015

'Cause if you go out in Geology today, you're in for a big surprise.  The dinos have been corralled for their biennial teeth floss and general wash.  This process includes yellow 'do not cross' tape, the removal of a center post between the stainless steel double doors to the out-of-doors to allow for the entry of the cherry picker, and, the cherry picker.  Not to mention two guys in hard hats and Sue - the official dino wrangler.

PMD@2015

Child's play

We had a spring snow dump on Saturday and on Sunday I arose to a foot (30 cm) of wet heavy snow.  Trundling out in my rubber boots, jammies, and my dad's overcoat, I knocked snow off the tree branch bowed under the weight to the sidewalk.  With my granddad's saw I cut up the honeysuckle, planted when the building was built about fifty years ago, that had given up under the weight. The saw handle gave way on the last branch.  Inspecting it closely for the first time in the 30 years I have owned it, I discovered it inscribed with the last name of my granddad's brother in law. Hummmm.  I helped my neighbour from down the hall dig out her car.  We agreed it was perfect snowman snow.  We returned inside to our separate abodes for warmth and rest. In the evening, dressed like a grown up, I ascended to the roof to make sure all was well.  It was. And there I build a snowman.  He was two feet tall when I said good night to him.  I named him Aloysius. Play like a child when life gives you the chance.

Today's Count

A spectacular dust devil, probably one foot in diameter showing itself as it crossed the bowl only in the flower beds.  Tree buds opening and thickening day by day, making shadows fulsome. Butterflies.  Birds practicing their calls. A man in a rainbow Afro wig, and a lime coloured car the shape of a box.

Yesterday's Count

Sun, warmth, my bike, the smell of the earth, equal day and night - 7:15 am to 7:15 pm, and little gophers.  Deep breath and relax.

Quantum chess covers

New book time again.  Well, okay, it happens every week, but I have been away for some months in another city and living another life, so I am new back to the pleasures of this one.  New books.  And this time quantum mechanics.  Mrs. Google tells me that quantum mechanics is:  the mathematical description of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, incorporating the concepts of quantization of energy, wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and the correspondence principle.  Or as I like to say, the interaction of tiny things.  So, as I process books and I come across two in my pile that both have chess pieces on their covers and the word 'quantum' in the title.  I look again. Because I love these tiny quinky dinks.  

I look closer and I find that in book number two, the bigger book, with red chess pieces, has four authors, all of whom have a first name starting with G: Giampiero, Giuseppe, Gennaro, and George.  But I am unimpressed.  I write stories for kids.  I know there is supposed to be three things. But this is only two matching things, chess pieces, quantum, and... what?  The four G's is suspicious though.  There must be more.  Then it hits me, one is published by MIT in Cambridge Mass and the other is published by Cambridge University Press.  Quinky dink mechanics: the interconnectedness of tiny things.

Quantum Algorithms via Linear Algebra

Advanced Concepts in Quantum Mechanics