2010-09-23

Faith

When I was a child, I was attracted by the world beyond our planet. I did not have the opportunity to see a really starry night, for the I did not often live in the country side. But I could still imagine. I bought I lot of books which introduced efforts humans had made on exploring the outer world. I also watch cartoons related to this topic. My yearning for the vast world first led me to science.

Years have passed. Now I've been concentrating on mathematics. But the deep spaces still play an important role in my life. I am not fond of money, honor, reputation or something else, for I believe that there is something far greater. Money, honor or reputation only works in human society and the duplicity, deception and disguise intended for these things are simply nothing but abjection in front of the universe.

2010-09-12

An Animation and the Middle Age

This weekend I came across the anime Spice and Wolf. The character Horo is so cute, but this is not what I want to mention most.

It was in the Middle Age, Lawrence, the main character is a travelling merchant. Therefore trading activities and religious organizations(sorry I can't find an equivalent word) are often mentioned in the story. That inspired me to the imagination of the Middle Age.

2010-09-04

Diary (Sep 4, 2010)

The book From Calculus to Cohomology by Madsen looks a nice book. Well, it's the first time I saw an introduction to topology from CALCULUS so I believe it amazing. Maybe I am too ignorant in mathematics.

I'm studying Commutative Algebra and Topology recently. As far as I'm concerned, categories are fundamental in mathematics so I'm particularly fond of algebra in favor of the concept of category. I saw some one says geometry and topology structures are much more interesting than algebra structures. I don't understand it very much. Maybe in my mind all structures are algebraic. Well, maybe when we adopt measures and Cauchy sequences we are entering the field of Analysis, Geometry and Topology? Actually in my heart it is still algebraic. I think continuity doesn't mean non-algebra.

How do we think?

When I say "apple" ,an apple will appear in your mind. You can understand it. People may explain it as some correspondence between images and specific signs. And the signs themselves are images so actually we associate the images with sounds and then sounds with signs. Humans have evolved so much that today they can understand written language in silence, not needing to read them out.

The understand of concrete things may be as easy as the above. But what about that of abstract things, concepts and statements? That should be hard to explain because explanation itself is an abstract statement, which I must use my understanding system of abstract things to understand.

2010-08-27

A Testing Post

Human and Natural Disasters

Human activities are largely involved in the formation of some natural disasters, while not involved in the formation of some others.

As we all know, it is obvious that humans have nothing to do with the formation of volcano eruptions or earthquakes. But some other disasters, for instance, sandstorms, are related to human activities. Overgrazing and overcutting ruin vegetation, in turn causing desertification. When sands meet a windstorm, a sandstorm comes into being. Another instance is acid rain. Waste gas produced in industry activities, mostly in thermal powering, goes up to the clouds. It then blends with the water vapors. As a result, the rain from the clouds becomes acid, doing a lot of harm to humans, animals, plants, etc.