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Showing posts from 2011

How Not to Miss a Birthday Greeting

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My New Year's Resolution

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The Lord of the Kings : A Christmas Movie Project - Part III

Three kings will see a great star in the bright blue sky, Seven men will follow it and lead them far; Nine days it shall guide them to the greatest King, One whose kingdom shall have no end. In the land of Judah, He shall lie, One King to rule the world, one who'll redeem men; One King to save the world, and from their sins release them, In the land of Judah, He shall lie. THE LORD OF THE KINGS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE KING PART III <  Go to Part II  FELLOWSHIP DEPARTS FROM RIVENDELL The members of the Fellowship are seen leaving Rivendell, bidding farewell to Elrond. As all of them depart, the camera focuses on one man hiding behind a bush, who, after witnessing everything, departs from the scene. FELLOWSHIP TRAVELING TOGETHER Shots in a plain field. On top of a mountain with each one appearing one after the other, just like in the movie. Shots of dusk against Taal lake. Shots in a fog, with the fellowship cutting through it o...

Trip around the Möbius Strip

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I lost a turn driving to the airport today and ended up in a department store called SM.  Driving from the airport, I lost a turn again and I ended up in SM once more. Suddenly, I thought that I was in a  möbius strip. Or, you could say, I had a möbius trip. A möbius strip is a surface with only one side and one edge.  You can make a mobius strip by getting a strip of paper, giving it a half twist (180 degrees), then joining the ends together. Möbius Strip by David Benbennick The möbius strip has many curious properties. In an ordinary cylindrical strip (ends joined together without a twist),  if you start from the seam then draw a line around the strip, you end up in the same starting point, in the same surface. In a möbius strip, drawing a line from the seam, then around the strip, will bring you to the "other side" of the strip. The möbius strip is studied in the field of mathematics called topology. An ant walking along a mobius strip can cover "both ...

Birthday Thoughts

My message to all Thank you very much to all of you for being part of my life. My life has definitely been much richer because of all of you. I mean, life without challenges would definitely be a bore. :-p My reply to all greetings in FB Since there are so many greetings, I decided to write a code to save me time. I hope you guys don't mind. For i=1 to Num_FB_Friends  do If Greeted(FB_Friend[i]) then   Write(Wall(FB_Friend[i]), ¨Thank you so much for the greetings!¨) Else   Write(Wall(FB_Friend[i]), ¨Did you check your calendar today?¨);   Unfriend(FB_Friend[i]) My age If you wish to know my real age, check out this post : 17 Again : Discovering the Fountain of Youth My birthday aspirations That what should be shall be.  (Galadriel to Frodo at the Mirror of Galadriel in JRR Tolkien's Fellowship of the Rings ) Genuine peace and human progress around the world. Emitte Spiritum tuum et renova faciem terrae! (Send forth your Spirit and renew th...

17 Again : Discovering the Fountain of Youth

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I’ll be celebrating my birthday in a few days time. I’ll be 17 again! Yes, I have discovered the Fountain of Youth! The  Fountain of Youth that has evaded many explorers and philosophers for ages! The thing is, they were looking for it at the wrong places! The Fountain of Youth is to be found in Math, in Number Theory, in the Base Number System! I was 17 turning  18 when I found out I could remain 17 forever by simply changing the base number system when calculating my age! The day I turned 18 (Base 10), I decided to say goodbye to the Decimal System (at least in computing for my age) and adopted the Undecimal Number System (Base 11) so that I’ll be 17 again. The following year, I adopted the Duodecimal Number System (Base 12), and thus, I was 17 again!  As  I approach another birthday, I’ll be 17 yet again. But please, don’t ask me which Base Number System I will be using then . We are most familiar with the Decimal Base Number System.  In grade s...

Recession hits mathematicians

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Does God want us to suffer?

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Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is yes? Does God want us to suffer? This question may arise in the midst of catastrophes. C.S. Lewis, a convert from atheism, may provide us the answer. In the movie Shadowlands , a biopic on C.S. Lewis., Lewis is shown giving a lecture on the topic of suffering: Yesterday, I received a letter... that referred to an event that took place... almost a year ago now, December . My correspondent hadn't forgotten. I doubt if any of us have. That was the night... a bus drove into a column... of young Royal Marine cadets in Chatham... and killed all of them. You remember? The letter asks... some simple but fundamental questions. Where was God on that December night? Why didn't He stop it? Isn't God supposed to be good? Isn't He supposed to love us? Does God want us to suffer? What if the answer to that question is yes? See, I'm not sure that God particularly wants...

Abstinence and Fasting during Lent

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Lent prepares the Christian faithful for the celebration of the great mysteries of our faith: the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. During this season, the Church invites its faithful to do practices of charity, almsgiving and penance.  Abstinence and fasting are among the penitential acts that the Church recommends. Below is a summary of penitential practices that the Catholic Church demands from its faithful during Lent. Practice of Abstinence and Fasting during Lent On Ash Wednesday and Good Friday for 14 years old up : Abstinence from eating meat and its derivatives for 18-59 years old : Fasting (eating only 1 full meal during the day) * abstinence and fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are not substitutable On Fridays (inlcuding Fridays of Lent) for 14 years old up : Abstinence from eating meat and its derivatives In the Philippines, abstinence is substitutable by any of the following : exercise of piety (e.g. reading the B...

Baby Names

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My chemistry teacher one time came to class with her daughter. She said, "Class I want you to meet my daughter, Chlorine." My classmates and I began to snicker. We wondered whether her other children are named Fluorine, Bromine, Iodine and Astatine, and that, in fact, their family name is actually "Halogen". In college, I found out that one physics professor named his children after atomic particles and subparticles. At least I'm sure that one of his children is named Atom. It's quite amusing how some people name their children after things related to their field of work. With this blog entry, I would like to suggest names for babies, depending on the field of interest or work of the parents. The list is not exhaustive (of course!). Feel free to give your own suggestions. Is your field not here? Well, why not make a comment and add your suggestions! ***** Like Asymptotes on Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/Asymptotes Follow Asy...

Math In Nature

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Enjoy this intellectual, musical and visual treat about math and nature from a film by Cristobal Vila . Great presentation concept, nice graphics, good music, and of course, great math!    

Happy V-Day!

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It's February 14 . We are reminded of the color red :  the color of love ,    the color of blood ,  the color of self-sacrifice . It is the fourteenth of February . Let us not fail to remember  how special this day is for everyone. For today, we celebrate V-Day . .. ... .... The special day dedicated to the super electromagnetic machine  Voltes-V! V - LETTER NOW!!!

Irrational Love (why true love is like an irrational number)

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In mathematics, an irrational number is any real number that cannot be expressed as a fraction of two whole numbers. Two of the best-known irrational numbers are pi and e (Euler's number). The decimal expansion of an irrational number is non-repeating and non-terminating. This is not the case with rational numbers (for example 1/4 can be expressed in decimal form as 0.25 - which  terminates with the digit 5; 1/3 , on the other hand, is expressed in decimal form as 0.333333... , in which the digit 3 repeats ad infinitum ). Below is a verse which relates irrational numbers with true love. Trivia Below is an interesting trivia on how pi , an irrational number, is used in the software versioning of TeX , a typesetting software popular among scientific journal-writers. TeX has an idiosyncratic version numbering system. Since version 3, updates have been indicated by adding an extra digit at the end, so that the version number asymptotical...