Geography Is Just Physics Slowed Down, With a Couple of Trees Stuck In It

At least, that's what Terry Pratchett said. I have always been fascinated by maps. When I was little, 4 - 5 years old (we didn't do kindergarten), and my brother and sister were off at school learning, my mom would let me sit at a little desk and do schoolwork for an hour or so each day.  My favorite workbook was a book of maps. I have no idea who published it, but it was all about how to get useful information from maps. Since then I have been hooked. I have a few copies of really old maps that I enjoy looking at (here there be sea monsters) and I think the Internet was invented just to give me new maps to look at.    

Here are a few interesting ones I have come across lately (in each case the map that I could reproduce here is small and difficult to read, so go to the highlighted website to see their map more easily).    

National Geographic Surnames Map

This one shows the most popular family names by region of the US. The size of the name tells you how many occurrences there are in that state and the color of the name tells you its country of origin.  You can see the Scandinavian influence in Minnesota and the Hispanic influence in southern California. Zoom in at their website to see things a little better. Around Chicago? Martin, Wilson, and Anderson. And in southern Wisconsin: Mueller and Schultz.     


United States of Scary Things


This map, from a website called Pleated Jeans, shows the scariest thing for each state. Zombie Lincoln shows up for Illinois (there are a lot of Zombies) and politicians shows up for Maryland.  I'm not sure how scary potato bugs are, but in Idaho, maybe so. There's also a United States of Shame that finds a statistical category that your state is worst at and lists it on the map. For Illinois, that's Robbery; for Texas, that's High School Graduation (your national test scores are higher if you get rid of the students who might fail before they get a chance to take the test).     



Mapping the Measure of America

This one is a good example of how a map can give a bunch of information in a fairly small space. This one is interactive as well. Click on the link above and then on start exploring and you will find all the latest info about how the various states measure up in the areas of health, educational, and income.  There is an incredible amount of stuff to see on this map. As you slide down the bars on the left, you can see the states in order for each category (the categories are in the box on the lower left part of the map). If you click on a state on the map, it gives you a breakdown for that state to the right. Then as you mouse over the breakdown, it gives you the numbers or, in the case of representation, tells you the names of all the senators and representatives. I see that Illinois has 14.1% of its population with less than a high school diploma and a life expectancy at birth of 78 years.  And unfortunately, Mary Lou, Arkansas does rank at the bottom on just about every category. Good thing you're close to getting out.  


America's Best Adventures

On this interactive map, you can click on the dots that show up and get some information on a vacation getaway. You could do the RagBrai bike ride across Iowa, climb Red River Gorge in Kentucky, or kiteboard the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. In spite of all the dots, it is not really a very exhaustive guide to adventuring, and because it is from National Geographic, it takes an incredibly narrow view of what constitutes an adventure. I looked all over and could not find "Betting the Bulls to Win It All" in Las Vegas, "Shopping the Day After Thanksgiving" in Fort Wayne, "Rooting on the Spartans Football Team" at the U of M bar in Chicago, or "Playing Miniature Golf with Grandpa" in Ohio (or anywhere) . Those are all really great adventures, and I feel sorry for them that they have missed out.    

A Puzzle For You

This is not a new puzzle, but it popped up in the Introduction to Logic class I am taking online.
I thought the solution was very interesting. I'll put the solution in the comments later, so you don't have to look it up until you are done thinking about it.

You are shown 100 coins arranged on a table, with 40 showing heads up and the other 60 showing tails. You are then blindfolded and told that you can move the coins around on the table and flip them over all you want, but you can't remove any coins and you can't see through the blindfold. When you are done, the coins should be separated into two groups (they don't have to be the same size) and there should be exactly the same number of heads showing in each group. 

The solution to this does not involve any tricks (ask a friend to tell you when you've got it) or imaginative thinking (turn each coin so it is standing on its edge), just deduction. The original solution I came up with, in fact, was an algebraic one. Forty years of teaching math tends to make me attack problems by writing equations. The first comment contains a hint if you get stuck. Good luck.

Odds and Ends #3: Inconceivable

1.  Yes, it's a year later than the last time I posted this, but isn't Princess Bride important enough to rate a mention every year? Twenty-fifth anniversary!

Photo from The Daily What.

B.   Your music selection of the week. After singing in the high school choir and with the Michigan State Singers choir in college, I find there is no better music than a good a cappella (an Italian phrase meaning "in the style of the chapel" - that is, without instruments) group. My favorite band for years was the Nylons, which unfortunately changed (not for the better) when their lead singer passed away. Here is another excellent a cappella group called the Musae. This is their website.  Enjoy.








Penultimate.   Just because it makes me smile on the day after Jim Henson's birthday.

From here.


The end.  I've mentioned before the Coursera online course website: lots and lots of free courses on every imaginable topic. A new one has popped up from a university new to the system: Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. The course is called "Songwriting" and is taught by Professor Pat Pattison, whose former students include John Mayer, Gillian Welch, and Tom Hambridge, all Grammy winners. There are 6 lessons; here is an example:

Lesson 3: Sonic GPS—Mapping your Song with Rhyme

By the end of this lesson, you will understand the relationship of rhyme schemes and matched and unmatched musical phrases to prosody. You’ll create both stable and unstable sections, using various rhyme schemes to show your ear the way to go home. Matched and unmatched musical phrases solidify your sonic GPS.

If you are a self-taught music writer, it might be helpful to see what he has to say to improve your songwriting. You can find (and sign up) for the course here. Unfortunately it doesn't start until March 1, 2013. So find another course to take until then. How about the "Control of Mobile Robots" course? Whimzy and I are signing up for that. She's really excited.

A Week in Exile

Well, this ends the week that wasn't. It started out nicely enough, with golf on Friday with some friends. It was hot and tiring, but a lot of fun. But by bedtime that night, the pain in my right knee was becoming pretty significant. Even with four advil at a time, the pain didn't go away. After four days of lying in bed or on the living room floor (the only position that didn't hurt was horizontal), I got in on Tuesday to see the doctor and then the orthopedist to find out that my knee was pretty much shot. Lots of arthritis, which means inflammation and not any squishy stuff that goes between the bones and keeps them from grinding on each other. I got a cortisone shot and some steroid pills to clear up the inflammation, a heavy-duty pain killer, and some brochures about the artificial knee I'm going to get. Pre-op appointment is in a couple of weeks. We'll find out then when the surgery will be. I'm excited about getting the knee fixed. I have been hobbling for the last few years now, so I am looking forward to being able to walk with Ann and Whimzy for more than a couple blocks before I have to sit and rest.   

I finally went outside today for the first time since last Friday evening other than to go to the doctor's offices. Very nice to be out of the house and walking around without pain - the pain killers are great. The best images of the last week were the trips to the doctor. I couldn't sit up because it hurt too much to sit, so I curled up in a ball on the backseat of Ann's little Subaru and hung on while she drove me there.    

I'll let you know what I find out. If you've done the knee replacement thing recently, let me know how it went.