{Perpetual thread} Today, I learned ...

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:31 pm

Today I learned that I officially hate summer vacation.

umsolopagas · Post by **umsolopagas** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 4:29 pm

..changing the board style view to "chronicles" makes the pages look much better but gives me a headache.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:31 am

.. That its never a good idea to dry out wet clothes too close to a heater, they burn.

Oops

Echus Cthulhu Mythos · Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:00 pm

I learned that trying to organise a large group of drunk people to get out to a concert is impossible. Sourly disappointed.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:16 am

I take it you were the only sober one then? Good luck, when people get wasted they speak a different bloody language.

Speaking from experience:

Q:"Do you want to leave?"

A:"Yeah, I fink I know 'Im."

Echus Cthulhu Mythos · Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:01 am

I learned that I seem to be unusually skilled at being kicked out of university parties and then sneaking back in...

...especially when it involves climbing over roofs...

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 5:21 am

Today I learned that I officially suffer from severe road rage.

tollbaby · Post by **tollbaby** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 11:17 am

This weekend, I learned that a spoiled brat invariably becomes 1000x worse when her own wedding is involved, and that people who show no gratitude on a regular basis certainly won't show any to those who bust their humps to get their wedding back on track

Suffice to say, my brother's wedding this weekend was a HORROR, my sister-in-law is the stereo-typical bridezilla, and I will not be doing any favors for either of them for a VERY long time.

CodeBlower · Post by **CodeBlower** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 7:10 am

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I learned that, after baking a pizza, you must first turn the oven down before trying to bake cookies ..

(They're a little "stiff".)

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 5:17 pm

Today I learned that being the only freshman in my advanced spanish class sucks. But it means I DID get to meet a cool sophmore....

ravenwing989 · Post by **ravenwing989** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:58 pm

Today I learned that I REALLY REALLY wanna know how to make my own avatars.

moonwolf021 · Post by **moonwolf021** » Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:12 pm

Today I learned how little time I have to complete my massive summer homework project.

ashellinak · Post by **ashellinak** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:54 pm

Today I learned that one of my classes, which the schedule says starts NEXT WEEK, actually starts today. AUGH.

moonwolf021 · Post by **moonwolf021** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 12:16 am

Okay Grim, that little drunk dialogue kept me laughing. I read it about 6 times. I dont even know why.

Today I learned that my class schedule (I'm a Junior in high school taking 5 college classes of my 7 total) is going to be murder but not the hell I thought it was gonna be.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:33 pm

moonwolf021 wrote:(I'm a Junior in high school taking 5 college classes of my 7 total)

Maybe tomorrow I'll learn something about the US school system.
Do you have college level classes in high school? Or do you attend classes in a nearby college?

Post by **laurie** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:36 pm

voralfred wrote:Maybe tomorrow I'll learn something about the US school system.
Do you have college level classes in high school? Or do you attend classes in a nearby college?

A mixture of both, depending on the school.

My local high school offers Advanced Placement (AP) courses in a number of subjects, with English, American History, Global History, Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Spanish and French being the most commonly chosen. High school teachers in these subjects receive extra training to teach them at a first-year college/university level, and at the end of the course students take a national exam which, depending on their score, will earn them college credit for the course.

A neighboring school district, whose high school is located near a 2-year community college, allows students to cross-register at the college for first-year level courses.

Most high schools here offer at least a few AP courses. Others offer International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, which are similar to AP, and some schools offer both AP and IB.

And these are not "new" programs. When I graduated high school in 1974, I already had a semester's worth of university credits for taking 5 AP courses -- English Language, English Literature, Spanish, Calculus I and Calculus II. That was all my school offered then, or I would have taken more.

ChoChiyo · Post by **ChoChiyo** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:46 pm

Today I learned that the merger is off.

I read Clong's livejournal entry.

the grim squeaker · Post by **the grim squeaker** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 7:46 am

Today I learned that my digital camera is totally crap. I cant even upload images to my facebook account.

sweetharleygirl · Post by **sweetharleygirl** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:33 am

Today I learned that my son has been wearing his school t-shirts under his pads during football practice

, and I also learned that I can stay calm even when I'm agravated and frustrated with my son!

gpackin · Post by **gpackin** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:31 pm

Today I learned that I will not be departing for Cambodia tomorrow. I will now be heading over there next Tuesday. There's nothing like last minute change of plans.

Post by **Kvetch** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 4:40 pm

Today I learn that while it is lovely to know what a Grothendieck group is, it would help if I a) had a more concrete understanding of what a category is first and b) could pronounce it.

The former I can work out with time. The latter I would appreciate suggestions on. I am leaning towards pronouncing it as if it were German (because I think it is), but I have a fear of Dutch getting involved.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:23 pm

Well, though Grothendieck was German-born, he is definitely a French mathematician. Therefore the authorized pronounciation is not the one he was born with but the way he was called by his french colleagues throughout his career thus:

Gro-ten-deek (but the -ee- is not a very long one, more like the vowel in "be" than in "bee", but not as short as the "i" in "Dick", that would definitely sound wrong to a French ear)

By the way, it is rather close to the the German way to pronounce it (though the Germans would sound it as the long -ee- of "bee")

the H is mute after the T, it does not turn it into either of the two english "TH" which do not exist in French nor in German, though Germans would make an expiration after T (Grot-hen-deek) but Frenchmen ignore the H altogether.

Indeed, the French pronounce it knowing it is a foreign name. In an autochtonous french name, "IE" before a consonant would be a diphtong, not just the pure vowel in "be" (though that would be the case at the end of a word), and "EN" wound not be a clear vowel followed by the consonant "N" but a "nasal vowel", the "N" would not at all be heard as a consonant but would modify the vowel in a way no english-speaking person who never learned French can imagine. But though Frenchmen would realize it as foreign enough to sound "N" as a consonant and "IE" as a single vowel, they would not deign trying to emulate an German accent thus the H disappears and the "IE" shortens to a French "I", neither long nor very short.

Though I am a physicist, not a mathematician, I must have heard his name hundreds of times from people who knew him first hand. But he withdrew from public academic life before I started mine, so I had no chance to meet him.

A concrete understanding of what a category is? Ahem....
Categories have always been very abstract in my own mind, so abstract that I'd be hard pressed to do anything with them. That's why I chose physics rather than mathematics....

From the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grothendieck_group I understood that the Grothendieck group of the monoid of "natural numbers" is the group of all integers (including negative ones). But all the talk about categories is well beyond my head.

ashellinak · Post by **ashellinak** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:30 pm

Today I learned that my board writing cursive has vastly improved!!

Post by **Kvetch** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:52 am

voralfred wrote:(Grot-hen-deek) but Frenchmen ignore the H altogether.

And the IBDoF comes through for me again!

A concrete understanding of what a category is? Ahem....
Categories have always been very abstract in my own mind, so abstract that I'd be hard pressed to do anything with them. That's why I chose physics rather than mathematics....

From the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grothendieck_group I understood that the Grothendieck group of the monoid of "natural numbers" is the group of all integers (including negative ones). But all the talk about categories is well beyond my head.

By 'concrete' I meant 'axiomised' (I make no claim on their not being very abstract - at this point, it is a a collection of objects and morphisms between those objects, subject to some set of unknown axioms).
The Grothendieck group in question for me is not in fact the general definition as cited by the eternal channel* of wisdom that is wikipdedia, but the K-theoretic ring part of that definition (The idea is to use the group as a measure analogous to the dimension of a vector space, only for modules over rings).

[Apologies to everyone who got an unexpectedly large dose of maths today]

Today, I learnt that trying to talk maths before 8am is a bad idea.

*I don't use the word 'font' deliberately.

voralfred · Post by **voralfred** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 2:04 am

Today (or, rather, yesterday) I learned Kvetch is doing mathematics on a rarefied level I have never approached....

Exactly what kind of studies are you embarked on? How many years since you finished high-school? This looks like pretty hard stuff!

But I insist: Alexander Grothendieck is a Frenchman, not a German, just as much a Frenchman as Isaac Asimov and Arnold Schwarzenegger, (to take just the two first random examples that jumped to my mind- I could have mentioned Martin Kruskal and Robert Miura, but they are not so well-known beyond my narrow field of expertise, where they are among the world's greatest), are Americans. So it would be totally wrong to try and give a german twist in pronouncing his name. The correct way is with a french accent: Gro-ten-deek