Flatland is a novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott, published in 1884. It's written as a biography by "A. Square," a two-dimensional creature who is literally a living square, thinner than a sheet of paper. He lives with other two-dimensional creatures on a surface called Flatland. In the book, Mr. Square tells of his adventures in worlds of different dimensions: Pointland (zero dimensions), Lineland (one dimension), and Spaceland (three dimensions) all inhabited with creatures suited for their respective worlds. Abbott does a wonderful job of world building, explain how the society (a satire of the Victorian society) and infrastructure of Flatland works. Even though the book was written 135 years ago, I found it very easy to read. Amazon is selling the Dover edition of Flatland for less than the price of a cup of coffee. I just bought it for my daughter.
Dover edition of Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland (1884)
Trippy demonstration of recursively rotating images
Githubber rvizz shows off a few nifty examples of some code he wrote to rotate images recursively. As the recursion reaches the one-square pixel point, it then appears to reassemble the image turned 90 degrees. You can learn more and try it yourself over on GitHub at rvizz/rotate. Image: youTube / rvizz READ THE REST
The astonishing math behind Penrose tilings
Veritasium takes a deep dive into Kepler and Penrose to examine the infinite pattern that never repeats. The overlay at about 9 minutes in is especially cool. His videos are always good, but this is one of his very best in terms of introducing a complex concept to a general audience. Image: YouTube / Veritasium READ THE REST
Best 1950s kids' science books
In the latest issue of my newsletter, The Magnet, I wrote about some of my favorite old kids' science books: A long time ago I read a good piece of advice in The Whole Earth Review: read a children's book to learn about a topic. Ever since then I've been adding kids' science books to my… READ THE REST
If you want your boost your memory, try this course
Your brain is a wondrous creation. Even when you're destroying it with Cheetos and hour after hour of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, it's still the most powerful computer you will ever own. According to Northwestern University psychology professor Paul Reber, each human brain has the capacity to store up to 2.5 petabytes of data.… READ THE REST
This 3-piece extra large cast iron cookware set is on sale for just $70
If you're anything like millions of Americans, staying at home these past several months has been followed by a steadily increased diet of cooking shows. It's really not hard to understand why. If you can't go out to restaurants the same way right now, why not bring those delicious meals to you? The next logical… READ THE REST
Learn to play guitar, piano, and drums with this monster music training package
Unless you're an essential worker, there's a good chance your work from home, stay at home lifestyle will be continuing, at least through the winter months. That's more than a little depressing, but it doesn't have to mean you've just given up. Instead of just surfing the web or watching TV, maybe you can even… READ THE REST
