The Bedside Book Of Geometry

I’ve finished another book. This one is The Bedside Book of Geometry. It’s a fairly light read and probably needs a Year 12 or so understanding of mathematics to enjoy. It starts with constructions with compass and straightedge and covering all manner of interestinng topics. Space-filling curves, fractals, map colourings, graph theory and the golden ratio all get a mention. Interleaved with the mathematical concepts are biographies of various mathematicians from Euclid to Grigori Perelman and Martin Gardner.

Each page is presented beautifully and it’s clear that whoever laid out the book knew what they were doing. Almost every topic and bigraphy is given two pages, a large chunk of which is assigned to side-bars and diagrams. This is especially important in the compass and straightedge constructions, but every topic benefits greatly from its diagrams.

My main complaint with the book is that it’s too short. Most topics end quite abruptly just as they’re getting interesting. Adding a second page to each topic wouldn’t go astray, but the number of topics would need to be reduced. Otherwise, this pleasant little volume would become an intimidating tome.

Would I recommend it? Sure, but probably only to mathematically inclined non-mathematicians. I fear it’d be a bit too demanding otherwise.

Wild Dayz

Another voyage complete, another delayed post. This time, we took a bunch of Venturers who were in Tasmania for their Venture (called Wild Dayz this year) on a five-day voyage. The performed exceptionally well, and it’s worth trying to understand why. The number of people (within Scouts) who sign off on their permission forms is apparently quite high, so the best people are the ones most likely to be selected. Further, the Venturers would be used to going into unfamiliar situations and doing cool stuff, so I would expect them to adapt quickly.

I never took the camera out during the voyage, which was a shame. There was some really beautiful sights along the way, but I was on watch and couldn’t go below. I was up the rigging furling a sail during a squall, and one of the rainbows looked like it ended on a bulk carrier at anchor nearby. Leprechauns have apparently upgraded their logistics.

I did get one photo once we finished the voyage. At sea, the bilges are checked every half-hour so we’re not taken by surprise if something unusual starts happening. (Each of the ship’s watertight compartments has a bilge beneath it, where liquid eventually drains into.) Even though we have alarms that trigger if the bilges fill, we make the trainees check them because it’s part of the ship’s routine. On the last day, one of the trainees drew this:

Inside Steve's Brain

Last year, Steve Jobs died. As Richard Stallman wrote, “I’m not glad that he’s dead, but I am glad that he’s gone”. As a self-confessed Free Software Hippie, Steve stood and Apple stands opposed to a number of principles that I hold dear: software freedom and the right to tinker with your own devices among them. When a friend recommended this book to me, I immediately added it to my reading list; I need to study my enemy and see what I can learn.

Sydney to Hobart

Wow. What a week. With all the yachts coming in, we’ve had to move out of our usual berth on Elizabeth Street, because it now looks like this: