Geek Pride Day

[nancylebov]

If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.

In celebration, post something geeky. If you're not posting it as a comment, please let me know where you're posting it.

1000 x 1000 x 1000 Rubik's cube

It's possible to compute the nth decimal digit of pi without computing the preceding digits.

It was very satisfying to read in a Robin Hobb novel that calligraphy can look dry without being really and truly dry. Getting the details right is very geeky.

Reminder thanks to starcat_jewel.

Comments

[twistedchick]

This is also Towel Day -- know where your towel is, frood?

[tod-hollykim.livejournal.com]

Well, I do know where my towel is....

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Damn you, now I have the Rubik's 1k³ soundtrack earworming me!

My contribution for today (which is tjey).

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

It's my opinion that the following two geek "responsibilities" are logically incompatible:

3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.

6. Don't be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.

Accordingly, I disclaim the whole list. The people who came up with it will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reminder!

You might want to check my LJ for meta-geeking.

Geeking for Gardner

[https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawna5c_SU6alPxvyuxNpqdt2z8ZsSzpPrgc (from livejournal.com)]

Wonderfully geeky report on a gathering for Martin Gardner:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18950-magic-numbers-a-meeting-of-mathemagical-tricksters.html

origami fonts. Bizarre tilings of the plane. Strange probability.

almost completely OT

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

reading Todd Alcott's got me thinking: who is the protagonist of Lord of the Rings? The obvious answer is Frodo, but both he and Bilbo are remarkably passive protagonists, who only really emerge as agents late in their respective books. I think before the Emyn Muil Frodo really only acts significantly 3 or 4 times: to agree to take the ring, first to Gandalf, then the Council; to evade the ringwraith in The Shire and to break the fellowship. Arguably his agreement is actually bowing under pressure from Gandalf in the first instance, and continuing under his tutelage in the second.

No doubt this has been written about at length, and no doubt there's a whole body of literature devoted to Gandalf (after all, he sets most things in motion in the books), but I'm intrigued by how LoTR illuminates current screenwriting conventions. If we accept, for a moment, that Gandalf is the protagonist and Frodo is his mule/safety device, then in a current TV screenplay there would be a denouement: to be satisfying the mule/gull would have to turn, outfox the fox, or understand the whole plot and decide it's for the best after all, which gives them the agency they've been lacking. IIRC we never get this from Frodo; he doesn't go through a crisis and realisation regarding Gandalf, only regarding the true cost of bearing and destroying the Ring.