Sunday, April 15, 2007
It turns out I got a post accepted at slashdot and didn't know about it till now. I'm too used to being rejected to bother to check back.
It's not a very interesting one, just something I noticed that I thought might be slashdot-worthy.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/0717230
Old Islamic Tile Patterns Show Modern Math Insight
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 23, @04:12AM
from the high-tech-tetris dept.
Math Science
arbitraryaardvark writes "Reuters reports that medieval Muslims made a mega math marvel. Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s. 'Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.' It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns or not."
[+] alliteration, penrosetiles, math, science (tagging beta)
In the discussion I noticed this from my brother:
(Score:5)
by billstewart (78916) FriendFriend of a Friend on Friday February 23, @08:18PM (#18130108)
(http://idiom.com/~wcs | Last Journal: Thursday March 03, @12:08AM)
If you break up the paragraphs where the Protestants and Jews break them up, there are four commandments dealing with Gods (Don't worship other gods, don't make statues of idols, don't use God's name in vain, take Saturdays off), and six dealing with your relationships with other people (honor your parents, don't kill, don't cheat on your spouse, don't steal, don't lie about your neighbors, don't be greedy about your neighbor's stuff.)
The Catholics like to make statues of various figures, so they split up the paragraphs so that the "graven images" bit doesn't get its own number, and coveting your neighbor's wife and you're neighbors other stuff get numbered separately. So for them it's three commandments about Gods and seven about dealing with other people.
By the way, if you look at how the Bush Administration's doing with the 10 commandments, they're not doing very well. Putting up statues of the 10 commandments at courthouses violates the graven-images bit, using religion as a justification for rabid right-wing politics violates #3, lying about weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for a war gets #6 and #9, having a war because you want to steal peoples' oil pretty much covers #8 and #10, and Republican politicians seem to get caught cheating on their wives about as much as Democrats do, even if they don't get impeached about it. But I guess they sometimes take Sunday off, except down at Guantanamo.
--
Bill Stewart
Rejecting Unitary Executives since 1776....
It's not a very interesting one, just something I noticed that I thought might be slashdot-worthy.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/23/0717230
Old Islamic Tile Patterns Show Modern Math Insight
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday February 23, @04:12AM
from the high-tech-tetris dept.
Math Science
arbitraryaardvark writes "Reuters reports that medieval Muslims made a mega math marvel. Tile patterns on middle eastern mosques display a kind of quasicrystalline effect that was unknown in the west until rediscovered by Penrose in the 1970s. 'Quasicrystalline patterns comprise a set of interlocking units whose pattern never repeats, even when extended infinitely in all directions, and possess a special form of symmetry.' It isn't known if the mosque designers understood the math behind the patterns or not."
[+] alliteration, penrosetiles, math, science (tagging beta)
In the discussion I noticed this from my brother:
(Score:5)
by billstewart (78916) FriendFriend of a Friend on Friday February 23, @08:18PM (#18130108)
(http://idiom.com/~wcs | Last Journal: Thursday March 03, @12:08AM)
If you break up the paragraphs where the Protestants and Jews break them up, there are four commandments dealing with Gods (Don't worship other gods, don't make statues of idols, don't use God's name in vain, take Saturdays off), and six dealing with your relationships with other people (honor your parents, don't kill, don't cheat on your spouse, don't steal, don't lie about your neighbors, don't be greedy about your neighbor's stuff.)
The Catholics like to make statues of various figures, so they split up the paragraphs so that the "graven images" bit doesn't get its own number, and coveting your neighbor's wife and you're neighbors other stuff get numbered separately. So for them it's three commandments about Gods and seven about dealing with other people.
By the way, if you look at how the Bush Administration's doing with the 10 commandments, they're not doing very well. Putting up statues of the 10 commandments at courthouses violates the graven-images bit, using religion as a justification for rabid right-wing politics violates #3, lying about weapons of mass destruction as an excuse for a war gets #6 and #9, having a war because you want to steal peoples' oil pretty much covers #8 and #10, and Republican politicians seem to get caught cheating on their wives about as much as Democrats do, even if they don't get impeached about it. But I guess they sometimes take Sunday off, except down at Guantanamo.
--
Bill Stewart
Rejecting Unitary Executives since 1776....
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