DISCOVER Magazine. Science, Technology and The Future
Current Issue
Subscribe Today »
  • Renew
  • Give a Gift
  • Archives
  • Customer Service
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Newsletter
  • Health & Medicine
  • Mind & Brain
  • Technology
  • Space
  • Human Origins
  • Living World
  • Environment
  • Physics & Math
  • Video
  • Photos
  • Podcast
  • RSS
Cosmic Variance
« How Much?!
From Quantum to Cosmos-I »

Category Theory

by cjohnson

Some splendid groupings of objects seen today in London on my wanderings in my old ‘hood (I’ll be explaining more later):

harrods hats

rockets science

harrods hats

tools science

-cvj

Share

May 21st, 2006 4:10 PM
in Miscellany, Personal | 22 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

22 Responses to “Category Theory”

  1. 1.   Kea Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:28 pm

    Oooh, Clifford. Can I have the blue hat on the right? (Flutters eyelids)

  2. 2.   Travis Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:33 pm

    I look forward to finding out more about the display of rockets and tools. Sadly the hats do not appeal to me nearly as much.

  3. 3.   Clifford Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:36 pm

    Kea, Yea, it’s pretty lovely isn’t it? Sadly, Harrods is closed now, and I must be checked in for my flight before it opens again. (So the eyelid fluttering, powerful as it probably is, won’t get the job done.) Sorry! ;-)

    And before anyone flutters at me (don’t get me wrong…I like the fluttering) to ask me for a hammer or a Saturn V rocket….. Same story.

    Cheers,

    -cvj

  4. 4.   Cynthia Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:39 pm

    Is this hat collection made with advanced rocket science or primitive tool science?

  5. 5.   Clifford Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:41 pm

    Actually, the Rockets and Tools were made with advanced Hat science and technology. Little known fact.

    -cvj

  6. 6.   Cynthia Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:53 pm

    Oh really…quite a twist on logical reasoning.

  7. 7.   i Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 4:54 pm

    did you get a new hat for your LA summer?

  8. 8.   Clifford Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 5:03 pm

    No… did not occur to me. Old one going strong. Incidentally, it was bought in a famous department store in Paris during the Strings 2004 conference there. So I could make a nice resonance of I got my next hat in a Beijing department store this June.

    -cvj

  9. 9.   Kea Says:
    May 21st, 2006 at 10:11 pm

    Sigh. Oh, well. Not sure when I’ll get to London next. Last time I was in Europe I managed to skip London, in a feat of master traveling, on a budget 14 hour trip from Sheffield to Grindelwald.

  10. 10.   Plato Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 12:43 am

    Just taking a wild stab at it.


    In this language, many counterintuitive features of quantum theory turn out to be properties shared by the category of Hilbert spaces and the category of cobordisms, in which objects are choices of “space” and emorphisms are choices of “spacetime”.

  11. 11.   Rufus Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 8:39 am

    What happened to the science that was supposed to be on this blog?

  12. 12.   Ambitwistor Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 9:21 am

    Or are they groupoids of objects?

  13. 13.   Plato Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 9:47 am

    I am sure we’ll get the full scoop on this when Clifford has time.

    I mean looking at the pictures above, does it seem natural?

    As a aging student, it is confusing.

  14. 14.   spyder Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 3:01 pm

    I quite literally grew up with much of that rocket collection in my house. My father researched, designed, engineered and managed the building of several of those payload delivery systems. He also helped evaluate and analyze the intelligent reports on some of the other systems from the Soviet era that are displayed their as well in your photo. Thanks for the precious memories just from that one image. Now if only i hadn’t been such a destructive little twit.

  15. 15.   citrine Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 4:44 pm

    Which of these hats would make good “thinking caps” for the Physicists here? Ummmmm…. the camoflage one with the red ribbon for Clifford, the turquoise one for JoAnne, the orange one for Risa and brown hats for Sean or Mark.

  16. 16.   Clifford Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 8:40 am

    [Inserted comment:] Yes, folks… Dear Rufus still can’t stop himself or herself from reading, despite helpful suggestions, e.g., here and here, and still posts up amusing rude remarks to let us know (s)he’s here.

    LOL!

    -cvj

  17. 17.   Clifford Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 5:57 pm

    Hey! Why can’t I have Kea’s blue one? (Although the other choice is nice too)   :-)

    -cvj

  18. 18.   Kea Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 6:14 pm

    Because it’s mine!

  19. 19.   Clifford Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 6:16 pm

    Oh. Good point. Ok.   :-(

    -cvj

  20. 20.   Shopping, Sightseeing, Science | Cosmic Variance Says:
    May 22nd, 2006 at 8:25 pm

    [...] I love to go and look at all the displays of food (pictures all down the right of this post so far), some good plain old-fashioned theme-park Englishness (both on the part of the store and staff on the one hand, and the customers on the other), and also some of the other displays too. Recall the pictures of the hats from my previous post. Dear Reader (and I’m not just talking to men here), if you don’t go and wander in the women’s “soft accessories” section, where on earth would you ever see such wonderful composition? If anybody thinks less of you for wandering in there, tell them from me they’re an idiot. [...]

  21. 21.   More Future Scientists Revealed! - Asymptotia Says:
    September 14th, 2006 at 10:40 am

    [...] This year I was unable to do so due to a trip across the Atlantic concerning the birth of my sister’s son (details of the london trip here, here, here and here; Last link has a fun trip to Harrods and to the Science Museum). But my USC colleague Chris Gould -the chief organisational engine behind the fair- has prepared hundreds of photographs again, and you can go and have a look here, and see some of the project descriptions also. [...]

  22. 22.   Fashionably Deconstructed - Asymptotia Says:
    November 3rd, 2006 at 3:56 pm

    [...] Quite different from the hats in Harrods – remember those? – but quite a splendid display idea all the same. [...]





    • Cosmic Variance Cosmic Variance is a group blog by people who, coincidentally or not, all happen to be physicists and astrophysicists:
      • Daniel Holz
      • JoAnne Hewett
      • John Conway
      • Julianne Dalcanton
      • Mark Trodden
      • Risa Wechsler
      • Sean Carroll
      Our day (and night) jobs notwithstanding, the blog is about whatever we find interesting — science, to be sure, but also arts, politics, culture, technology, academia, and miscellaneous trivia. We have similar outlooks on many things, widely disparate opinions about others, and will do our best to keep the discourse reasonably elevated.
    • Recent Posts

      • Metaphysics Matters
      • How To Think About Quantum Field Theory
      • A 3.8-Sigma Anomaly
      • Boycott Elsevier
      • Mind = Blown
      • Unsolicited Advice XIII: How to Craft a Well-Argued Proposal
      • Your Favorite Deep, Elegant, or Beautiful Explanation
      • Good News/Bad News: Nobel Edition
      • Do I Not Live?
      • Noisy Systems and Wandering Canines
      • Happy Birthday, Stephen Hawking
      • Predictions for 2012
      • A Year Well Blogged
      • Happy Holidays!
      • Last-Minute Shopping List
    • Recent Comments

      • Avattoir on Metaphysics Matters
      • Brutus on Metaphysics Matters
      • Dronewatch on Metaphysics Matters
      • Jim Harrison on Metaphysics Matters
      • Physicalist on Metaphysics Matters
      • Josh on Metaphysics Matters
      • psmith on Metaphysics Matters
      • Physicalist on Metaphysics Matters
      • psmith on Metaphysics Matters
      • Drew on Metaphysics Matters
      • psmith on Metaphysics Matters
      • Physicalist on Metaphysics Matters
    • Facebook

    • Archives By Date

    • Archives By Category

    • Useful Pages

      • Home
      • RSS Feed
      • Comments Feed
      • About
      • Links (Blogroll)
      • Guest Bloggers
      • Equations Using LaTeX
      • Facebook page and group
      • Twitter
      • Goodies Store
      • Google Blog Search
      • Technorati Profile
      • Bloglines citations
    • Site Meter



  • Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Copyright © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

    Privacy - Terms - Reader Services - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us