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Terry Boon

@terryboon.bsky.social

Games & stories; maths & language; technology & risk; and thoughtful politics & law. Living in London, UK. Views my own, not representative of employer or anyone else, & reposts and follows are not endorsements. Also on Mastodon: @terryboon@hachyderm.io

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Terry Boon@terryboon.bsky.social · 4d ago

As a former mathematician now in banking: 😂 (At accountancy class, we got the internal rate of return of a project by solving a polynomial for the interest rate, which could have complex solutions - but clients might be unimpressed by "Go ahead if you can get funding at a rate better than (2+3i)%".)

SMBC Comics@smbccomics.bsky.social · 2w ago

They actually say modulus, but journalists dumb it down. COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/imagin... PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

3-panel SMBC comic update. A man wearing glasses stands at a podium, declaring: "at last we've overthrown the economists! From now on the nation's finances shall be run by mathematicians!" Shortly after, the same mathematician declares: "as of today, money will be denominated in complex numbers. The public's long wait for an algebraically closed currency is at an end!" The next panel shows a news article headline: "ECONOMY CRASHES - Nation's money accidentally rotated 90 degrees, now imaginary. Mathematicians (quoted): "calm down, absolute value unchanged."
Terry Boon@terryboon.bsky.social · 2w ago

Pea and ham soup always meant Finnish "hernekeitto" to me. But in Heston Blumenthal's "Is This a Cook Book?", I find a pea and ham soup-in-a-sandwich - filled with fresh petit pois bound with creme fraiche, topped with shredded smoked ham hock - which also looks tasty!

A tin of Jalostaja Finnish pea and ham soup.A photograph of pea and ham soup-in-a-sandwich from Heston Blumenthal's "Is This a Cook Book?" - a sandwich filled with a mixture of peas and creme fraiche, topped with pulled/shredded ham hock.
Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social · last mo.

👇Great post this. Learning the recorder is a classic example of the importance of knowledge-rich learning that may seem pointless: it’s an easy, cheap way to provide children with the building blocks that allow them to learn to play many instruments quicker later.

ex-Lethality Jane@lethalityjane.bsky.social · last mo.

You played the recorder in part to strengthen your fine motor skills and in part to introduce you to basic music theory concepts like rhythm, the C-major scale, and reading basic music notes. Your teachers wanted to make elementary music education available to all, not just the rich.

Threads post "And then for no reason, no reason at all, they made us all learn how to play the recorder"
Terry Boon@terryboon.bsky.social · last mo.

Contest where prize pot is *reduced proportionally to the number of entries*? Hofstadter looked at it with game theory (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoni...), now @joeldavidhamkins.bsky.social with complexity, on way to neat analysis of "largest tweetable number": www.infinitelymore.xyz/p/largest-tw...

The Largest Tweetable Number—Lectures on Infinity (lecture 4)

The paradox of the largest tweetable number. What is the largest number you can tweet?

infinitelymore.xyz

Terry Boon@terryboon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

An exercise wheel, a magnetic sensor, a Python script to convert the data to a .FIT file, and an automated upload to Strava... all to track the running of little Mollie the hamster :-) www.reddit.com/r/SideProjec... (and more discussion at Hacker News news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4918...)

From the SideProject community on Reddit: I built a speed/distance tracker for my hamster wheel, which automatically records the data and uploads it to our hamster's own Strava account

Explore this post and more from the SideProject community

reddit.com

Hetan Shah@hetanshah.bsky.social · 2mo ago

‘Prescott had a tendency to misplace [the keys to his Ministerial red box]. On more than one occasion… he would try to smash his way back into the box with a coal chisel and a long hammer. Issuing Prescott with 16 keys was seen as the best solution.’ www.ft.com/content/b2bc...

The makers of the little red government box

Who are the elusive craftsmen behind one of Britain’s most prized possessions, shared by monarchs, prime ministers and private collectors?

ft.com

Terry Boon@terryboon.bsky.social · 2mo ago

When the cinema in St Albans reopened 12 years ago, it was named after the 1968 science fiction classic from Stanley Kubrick (who lived at nearby Childwickbury Manor) - so now, it will be possible to see #TheOdyssey at The Odyssey!

1968 poster for "2001: A Space Odyssey"Photograph of the Odyssey cinema in St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.Movie poster for "The Odyssey" (2026)
Kit Yates@kityates.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Sometimes the rules of sport induce some strange behaviours. But there probably haven't been many stranger football matches than the 1994 game between Barbados and Grenada. Why, with just a few minutes to go were Grenada trying to score in both goals? open.substack.com/pu...

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