Comments on: Diary of dangerous curves

By: Late Late Cocktail Party Physics | Bad Astronomy | moregoodstuff.info

Late Late Cocktail Party Physics | Bad Astronomy | moregoodstuff.info — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 15:38:27 +0000

[...] On that page they embedded the video of Jennifer when she appeared on Craig Ferguson’s TV show, which I totally forgot to do when she was on! So here’s the video of her talking about her book The Calculus Diaries: [...]

By: Swoopy

Swoopy — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:35:46 +0000

Dear Critical Thinkers. Please do so.

Judging the book by the cover is never wise – readers of the Bad Astronomer should know better.

I suspect – you’ve not read the book yet. I just did. It’s awesome. It also goes into great detail about the real odds of gambling (mathematically) and about the myth of “streaks” as well as the downfall of those who think they can beat the odds, and gambling addiction.

So yes – the title is laced with sarcasm, and is a play on those books we all revile so much that promise miracles where none exist.

Also – the BA is thanked in the book’s acknowledgements. Well deserved, Phil.

By: Mike Torr

Mike Torr — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 22:49:30 +0000

Great cover! As a maths nerd and coincidentally also a rollercoaster anorak, I feel compelled to buy this

I believe that loop on the front may be what is known as a clothoid, which provides constant acceleration; but I suppose I’ll have to read the book and find out!

(Update: I think I was wrong… curse my failing memory!)

By: Kim

Kim — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:40:04 +0000

Geez Louise. Obviously the subtitle is tongue-in-cheek; it promises to help you “survive a zombie apocalypse”! Do you know anyone who would be offended by that, because their loved one was killed by zombies? Because it’s clear that you’re just trying to get butt-hurt.
I will definitely check this book out–looks very interesting!

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:15:05 +0000

I’ve quite enjoyed several popular-maths-type books, including Marcus du Sautoy’s The Music of the Primes (which I highly recommend) so I’ll add this to my wishlist.

By: Donovan

Donovan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:54:40 +0000

I object to the objecting as I have been called objectionable, and that made me sad.

If the object is to object to the object, object being the book, the book being the third object, the second “object(n)” of this sentence, to be perfectly objective, then such an objection should be made with objective criteria, if we may agree, or do you object?

By: t-storm

t-storm — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:17:55 +0000

#14
Also not a single star was harmed except the death star which wasn’t even a star at all.

I object to the title Death from the Skies since it should really be called Death from Space.

I also object to object oriented programming.

By: dalai_lala

dalai_lala — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:53:53 +0000

I wanna be Jennifer Ouellette when I grow up!

Lala

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:04:44 +0000

There are people with serious gambling problems and mentioning “winning in Vegas” is not a good thing.

There are blind people. Printing non-braille books at all is an insult to them!

There are dead people. Products that assume you are alive are just atrocious. Won’t someone think of the dead?

By: QuietDesperation

QuietDesperation — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:02:00 +0000

math dorks

You know, I’ve given up my fight against the use of geek (the G word) and nerd (the other N word), but you might want to consider the origins of dork.

Well, I’m off to bite the head off a chicken.