I am a math phobe. For as long as I can remember numbers have often left me baffled and people who understood them might as well have been speaking another language. I did manage to graduate high school, university and find a career without much in the way of mathematics, despite some hellfire and brimstone speeches from a couple of exuberant guidance counselors.
Over the years I have learnt to, if not love numbers, at least stop avoiding them entirely. But engage them in my free time? I don’t think so. That, though, has become easier said than done. With the emergence of geek culture has come a rise in numerics in pop culture. Earlier this week I happened across Clive Thompson’s assertion that math proves that the Buffy universe harbors
no more than 512 vampires. His geek calculations were a refutation of a paper that claimed that vampires don’t exist:
If a single vampire fed on a single human in the first month, this would create two vampires -- and decrease the human population by one. In the second month, those two vampires would each feed, transforming two people into vampires. The vampire population is increasing in a geometric progression, and the population of humans is similarly decreasing -- and at that rate, the authors calculate, the entire human population would be transformed into vampires.
Seeing as we aren’t all vampires – as cool as that might be – they therefore must not exist. The problem with that argument, says Thompson, is that it ignores the existence of vampire slayers. Of course I think both math and the undead are equally unlikely occurrences.
Another lucky find was Jessica Hagy’s site
Indexed. She takes apart politics, human foibles and pop culture with cool little mathematical charts that even I get Very funny stuff and well worth checking out.
Of course there’s the numbers on Lost, though nobody has talked much about those much lately.
Finally, something to put my classical studies degree to work on! From illustrator and designer Jim Unwin, a venn diagram of mythical creatures. I've always been a fan of griffins myself. Click on the image for the full-sized version. (Link via Boy Reporter)
Evil movie monsters, from smallest to tallest: Chucky, Wicked Witch of the West, Tyrannosaurus Rex, King Kong, Rancor, Maegatron, 50 Foot Woman, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Tripod, Gozilla, and Cloverfild monster. From graphic designer Sean Mort.
Leela: They're going to destroy the entire Earth if they don't see some stupid TV show about some bimbo lawyer?
According to Dan Meth's Futuristic Movie Timeline, Clockwork Orange (there it is again!), Escape From New York and 2001 should have happened already. We're only a few years off from Postman, Robocop and just a decade from Blade Runner, which doesn't seem entirely off base.
Conservation Status, from Threadless designer Aled Lewis: "All the best creatures are already extinct. This chart makes for depressing viewing. Sorry."
These days I'm split between the Black Obelisk and the The Great Prophet Zarquon. Use this handy chart to help you decide.
I am a math phobe. For as long as I can remember numbers have often left me baffled and people who understood them might as well have been speaking another language. I did manage to graduate high school, university and find a career without much in the way of mathematics, despite some hellfire and brimstone speeches from a couple of exuberant guidance counselors.
Another lucky find was Jessica Hagy’s site Indexed. She takes apart politics, human foibles and pop culture with cool little mathematical charts that even I get Very funny stuff and well worth checking out.
