Unexpected Great Discoveries. Calculating The Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils The Universe. By Ian Stewart.

What I really hate about younger people in fandom asking older fangirls why they’re “still” in fandom is that it’s the outcome of a misogynistic lack of representation for older women to be seen as people who have fun and fuck off.We never ask dude fans the same question. We have all kinds of cultural narratives of dude’s fucking off, playing videogames well into their 40s. And even when these narratives aren’t 100% sympathetic (ie: the perpetual manchild), there’s always this sort of exasperation around it like, what can you do? Boys will be boys. But when women age into fandom, there’s a whole lotta confusion around her very existence. When a younger fan wants to know why I’m here, in this space, they seem genuinely confused and uncomfortable. Because what are our archetypes for older woman: wife, mother, cougar even. Not womanchild. Not fuckoff. Not fangirl. Men are allowed seemingly childish pursuits but women better get in the kitchen and start scrapbooking.

No. 448

A new geometric design every day

i love angry women. if ur a woman and ur fucking pissed off i love you

Mythbusters Physics: Relative Velocity

The Mythbusters tested what would happen if a ball was shot at 60 mph off the back of a truck travelling at 60 mph to see what would happen.

It became a perfect example of the relative nature of physics - showing that velocity can vectorially add together. 60 mph in one direction cancels the 60 mph in the other, meaning a net velocity of zero.

Since I already brought up my university’s chaplain once today, I thought I’d share with you the best advice he ever gave me.

If someone is suffering and you want to help, instead of saying “let me know if there’s anything I can do,” offer a few options of things you know you can do.

“Can I do your dishes while you study for your exam?”

“Would it help if I came to the waiting room with you?”

“I can distract you if you like.”

When someone’s suffering, making them choose how to be helped can sometimes be an extra burden, especially if they don’t know how serious your offer is. By giving examples, they only need to say yes/no, and they know you wouldn’t offer anything too big for you to handle.

my everlasting hunger for obtaining knowledge will never subside. my mind will forever be a bundled mess of complex messages ending with a simple question mark.

A list of math books

…to read in lieu of an actual math class. So far I have

- Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

- I am Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter

- Chaos by James Gleick

- Category Theory by Steve Awodey

A 392 year-old shark found in the Arctic. This guy was wandering the oceans back in 1627.