Vivat Libertas

I've had a lot of time over the past weeks - after finishing the semester (and nearly collapsing with exhaustion, which means I need to take it easy next semester) and flying south for the winter - just to think. It's been good; my brain was nearly frazzled through with physics. Considering that it's by and large frazzled anyway, this was not too great. I've been staying with my boyfriend, which is great because I get to relax, unwind and revise and not have my parents nag me (best of both worlds). Because he's an insomniac and I'm...well...not (my sleeping patterns are great if I can be bothered to get them right), I tend to wake up a bit earlier. I'm also a lazy arse owing to having overworked myself, so I just sort of...well...lie there and curl up and think. It's good for me to try untangling my mind. One of the things I managed to untangle was why I love music so much. Of course, lots of people like music, even to the point of saying it's th...

I don't quite know how to get this across - it confuses even me. I'll try to start. Let's say you're young and horny. Maybe you're unused to people trying it on with you. You meet someone interesting - maybe they're a bit older than you. Maybe they're a lot older than you, if you're someone like me. You have some pretty deep conversations and end up doing some sexual stuff. And even though you don't like them in that way, you might still end up confused as to how the fuck it all happened or disappointed in yourself. This old codger's advice is that this sort of situation is very common and nothing to be ashamed of. When you put interesting and attractive people in a room together, this happens. A lot. Just please try and be safe. And I hope that you enjoy whatever happens.

Meet the man writing a language to program life - opinion - 04 September 2013 - New Scientist

What is the natural logarithm of infinity | ln(∞)=?

Kepler's Three Laws

So maybe some of you are sitting down with a page of maths exercises and feeling close to tears because you're so frustrated that you can't figure out what to do. I mean, it can't just be me, right? And when, like me, you actually like maths to the point of thinking that it's beautiful, it's even more frustrating and upsetting. I have a couple of things to say about this. Firstly, unless your teachers or professors are really  mean (or just incompetent) those problems are solvable. Maybe not with the tools you have right now, maybe you might need to use old tools in a different way, but they're probably solvable. And getting hysterical usually doesn't help with doing maths - well, it doesn't help me with doing maths at any rate. Secondly, take your time. I don't know how I can stress this enough, because it's important and most people (including me) forget to do this. Obviously certain things are going to be quite straightforward and you mi...

So I've moved into my new flat and everything's sort of okay-ish, barring the fact that it took me two weeks to get hot water coming out of the taps. That was not cool. But my flatmates are all really nice - and all girls. To be honest, I wasn't too fussed about this at first, though given that most of the first-year boys I've met consider cooking to be a dark art and are even messier than I am I'm thankful that our kitchen is reasonably clean. It's just that...well...some people extol the virtues of living in all-female environments because there are no yucky, gross men to cause drama (apparently flatmates getting together and breaking up is a huge source of  drama for everyone else) or prey on us vulnerable women. This makes sense given two assumptions: 1. Everyone is straight. 2. If you are sexually attracted to someone, you will act predatory towards them. Both assumptions are bullshit, but surprisingly few people question them. And both hurt an aw...

Pendulum Motion Pretty useful for anyone stuck on that pendulum nonsense.