Universal Rule

Book Reviews

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Raising chicken: where to do it, and how to avoid the dangers -- Comment()
FB commented my entry on raising chicken: "Chickens are not difficult, and it's a pretty good article. But can you actually keep chickens in Vantaa or Espoo? Or do you have to move to aito junttila?" (Note: "aito junttila" can be loosely translated as "redneck-country".)

Some areas in Vantaa or Espoo are really like countyside. And I don't think raising chicken needs a lot of space. But I personally don't have any experience of poultry.

The K5 story reminded me of a classic essay on raising chicken. I think the writer was E.B. White.

One of my uncles lost the tip of his left hand index finger when he tried to chop off the head of a chicken with an axe. So, raising chicken can be dangerous if you are not careful.

-- Comment()
Discovering new mathematics with computers: 'The computer has emerged as the definitive laboratory tool for the field of mathematics, and mathematicians such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's David Bailey and Dalhousie University's Jonathan Borwein contend that math is being revolutionized by computer experimentation. "Instead of just being a number-crunching tool, the computer is becoming more like a garden shovel that turns over rocks, and you find things underneath," notes Reed College mathematician Richard Crandall. Mathematical breakthroughs that owe a great deal to computers include new revelations about hyperbolic geometry, specifically the discovery of a family of knots with completely flat surfaces. This finding was reached through experimentation with the Snappea computer program created by freelance mathematician Jeffrey Weeks. In another milestone, a research team lead by Bailey worked out a shortcut formula for pi by employing a computer program to search for numerical relationships between pi and constants with known shortcut formulas.'

-- Comment()
Wake Up to Ethics Question: "The computer scientist community continues to struggle with the nature of intelligence and the consequences of current technology becoming exponentially smarter. [...] A plateau in computer power would put a halt to exponential growth in automated design. Humans might even come to the realization that it is best to use human ethics when making tough decisions, and that they were presumptuous in believing machines would one day make their moral choices for them."