HMOG, my information loop just blew up. People think I'm the one with all the answers. Um, NO.

Wild turkey stops traffic on Triborough bridge:

A small wild turkey wandered onto a busy bridge's toll plaza Tuesday afternoon, halting traffic for about 15 minutes as workers chased the fowl down.

No one knew how the 10-pound female bird ended up on the Triborough Bridge, which connects Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bridges and Tunnels officials received a call that there was a loose bird just before the start of the evening rush hour, and six officers chased it around the Manhattan toll plaza.

The frightened turkey skittered back and forth across the plaza, evading capture for 15 minutes. Bridge officers finally cornered it, and a construction worker snatched it.

MTA officials talked with state and city animal control authorities and released the turkey into a wooded area on nearby Wards Island, which has acres of open land inhabited by pheasants, rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks.

This is cool if you're a math geek.

While I was researching yesterdays post on Archimedes integration, one of the things I read reminded me of one of the stranger things about Greek and earlier math. They had a notion that the only valid fractions were unit fractions; that is, fractions whose numerator is 1. A fraction that was written with a numerator larger than one was considered wrong. Even today, if you look in a lot of math books, they use the term "vulgar fraction" for non-unit fractions.

Obviously, there are fractions other that 1/n. The way that they represented them is now known as Egyptian fractions. An Egyptian fraction is expressed as the sum of a finite set of unit fractions. So, for example, instead of writing the vulgar fraction 2/3, the Greeks would write "1/2 + 1/6".

...

We don't know that much about the origins of Egyptian fractions. What we do know is that the earliest written record of their use is in an Egyptian scroll from roughly the 18th century BC, which is why they're known as Egyptian fractions.

That scroll, known as the Rhind Papyrus is one of the most fascinating things in the entire history of mathematics. It appears to be something along the lines of a textbook of Egyptian mathematics: a set of questions written roughly in the form of test questions, and fully worked answers. The scroll includes tables of fractions written in unit-fraction sum form, as well as numerous algebra (in roughly the equational reasoning form we use today!) and geometry problems. From the wording of the scroll, it's strongly implied that the author is recording techniques well-known by the mathematicians of the day, but kept secret from the masses. (What we would call mathematicians were part of the priestly class in Egypt, usually temple scribes. Things like advanced math were considered a sort of sacred mystery, reserved to the temples.)

[link]

Mathematicians were part of the priestly class? Cool!

I go to bars way too much since I was expecting an article about a truck carrying the liquor.

Now if the headline had been "Captain Morgan stops traffic on Triborough bridge"...

I would think my uncle had moved up north.

I go to bars way too much since I was expecting an article about a truck carrying the liquor.

Where I grew up, both are so prevalent you kinda have to guess which one people are talking about from context, which isn't very useful when someone's trying to tell you a story about drinking Wild Turkey while hunting wild turkey.

Aww.

VHS, 30, dies of loneliness

[link]

Dan Savage's take on the Ted Haggard thing (which is worth the wait): [link]

Mostly he talks about how this discredits the "ex-gay" movement.

If giving his heart to Jesus couldn't cure Haggard, what hope is there for the likes of me? If Jesus can't be bothered to work a miracle for the most powerful evangelical minister in the country, what "hope" is there for the average dyke?

None.

The ex-gay thing is over. It's dead. It was bullshit from the start, and it's bullshit now. And I will personally track down and bitch-slap the next fundie douche who sends me an e-mail explaining how Jesus can cure me.

How to Regain Control of a Spooked Camel