Comments for The insoluble pancake

Comment on The road to the space coast (looking back on the ideas that led to Euclid) by John wilson

John wilson — Sun, 25 Jun 2023 20:21:21 +0000

WOW WOW WOW,what a thrill for you and your colleague’s! This is probably history making moment so cherish and enjoy. I am sharing with my two grand daughters so they have bragging rights in their science class! Thank you for sharing, oldest hrNd daughter going b freshman high school other a year behind, Madalyn the eldest has been invited to two science camp, any way again thank you for this. Look forward to your postings as always, John

Comment on A post for Tim by Stephen Jenner

Stephen Jenner — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 07:34:05 +0000

So sad, I’ll miss Tim’s ideas, humour and wit, as well as his wonderful pictures.

He was so personable, even though I never met him, he was akin to a lifelong friend.

Rest in peace Tim.

Comment on A post for Tim by John Wilson

John Wilson — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 22:38:47 +0000

REQUIESCAT IN PACE! Eternal rest our friend, you will be missed but always remembered!

Comment on Looking into (the) COSMOS with the James Webb Space Telescope by John Wilson

John Wilson — Sun, 19 Dec 2021 18:13:53 +0000

Man so great to hear from you again! I was hoping JWST would get you active again, even a layman like me find this to be exciting, and that means we need an explanation from someone like you! WELCOME BACK KOTTER! (Title of old Tv show about a teacher}

Comment on Images in the 21st century: some thoughts on Andre Rouillé’s: “La photo numerique, une force neo-libérale” by Mark Whitney

Mark Whitney — Sat, 21 Aug 2021 17:45:42 +0000

I remember the first time I saw someone waving their phone around at arm’s length in a vain attempt to line up the image while they also tried to tap the screen to take the snap. I thought to myself, what a perfectly horrid way to take a photograph. Even though I personally have since taken some images that way with a phone, I still find it distasteful. Besides the inelegance of it, ‘you see the image and not the world’ sums up the experience really well. Andy Warhol taught us that everything and everyone is an image and he wasn’t wrong.

Comment on Chris Marker at the Cinémathèque française by H. J. McCracken

H. J. McCracken — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 08:08:24 +0000

In reply to Carlos Alberto Mattos.

Dear Carlos,

thanks for the comment, well sounds like la Jetée … Marker used pictures of cities bombed during the war as a stand-in for Paris destroyed by atomic bombs…

Comment on Chris Marker at the Cinémathèque française by Carlos Alberto Mattos

Carlos Alberto Mattos — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 19:04:40 +0000

Please let me know which was Chris Marker’s first film “made in the rubble of Berln”. I can´t find any information about it. Thanks

Comment on Remembering George and Margaret Whiterod by Philip Horobin

Philip Horobin — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 22:17:46 +0000

That’s George. Rats! I was so hoping it would turn out not to be. I came across this blog as I was searching for him with hopes of a reunion. I stayed in the Army after National Service and so spent most of my subsequent life abroad. Hence my failure to keep in touch with him. I mentioned a particular exam earlier that became my Damascene moment. I decided I loved Physics when I was fourteen and worked hard to get to into the Birmingham Physics Department. I was orphaned early and my Guardian disowned me when I was sixteen. So it was quite a struggle sometimes. But I arrived at the Department with respectable results at A level and Scholarship level. I became friendly with George straight away and, since we got on so well, I assumed we were well-matched in every way. We socialised together and I certainly worked no less hard than he did. Then we had the end of year exams. The Applied Maths paper will stay with me for ever. The instructions at the top read, “ There are fifteen questions on this paper. Candidates are advised that they are not limited to any fixed number of questions but that it is possible to obtain full marks with perfect answers to four questions.” I read the questions and my heart sank. The rule at Birmingham was that no one could leave an exam before an hour had elapsed but I was clearly going to need every moment of the three hours allotted to make any headway. After an hour and a half George stood up and handed his paper in. As he walked past my desk, we grimaced at each other. I stayed to the bitter end and answered halves of two questions. Afterwards I walked over to the coffee bar and sat down next to George. “ What a paper! “ I said. George agreed. I continued, “ But at least I stayed to the end. Why did you leave so early?” “ I’d finished.” said George. I stared at him and said in disbelief, “ You finished four questions?”. “ No”, said George, “ Fifteen ! “.
And, in that one moment, I realised what a huge gulf existed between the competent and the really bright and that my hopes of a career as a physicist had just been dashed by one of by best friends.
We were a group of five originally and then I made friends with one of the girls on the course and she, fatally, joined us. She was engaged to a research student in London who drove up every weekend to see her in a TR2, so it all seemed safe although Wendy and I had some surprisingly intimate moments. Then things all went wrong with my life and I left towards the end of the second year. But I kept in touch. Shortly after I left, Wendy became romantically attached with another member of the group which created considerable surprise and some angst. This ended most unhappily and then, tragically, she move on to have an affair with George, of all people! By now, Finals were on the horizon and this distraction was something unlikely to assist the preparation of someone confidently expected to get a first. But then, not long before the exams, she abruptly ended the affair. George, I was told, was completely distraught and dislocated by this most unexpected rupture and, entirely as a result, failed to achieve the success that he deserved. This left the Department, who had no wish to lose one of its brightest students in such disarray, in something of a quandary. Nor could they ignore the results. So their cunning plan was to offer George a fast track MSc, in which he did brilliantly in record time, and then get him back where he belonged on a PhD course in particle physics.
So, indirectly and completely unwittingly, I turned out to have had as great an effect on George’s career as he had had on mine.
His influence has lasted as i discovered early on that he was amazingly well read. So I asked his advice on where to turn and, as a result, and to the detriment of my studies, became hooked on Steinbeck, then Faulkner, then Hemingway and finally Beckett. I’m reading Earnest even as I write.
So his influence on my life continues and I very much regret that I’ll never be able to tell him that.
Philip

Comment on Remembering George and Margaret Whiterod by H. J. McCracken

H. J. McCracken — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 19:41:40 +0000

In reply to Philip Horobin. Dear Philip, this sounds so very much like George! I appreciated very much his dry sense of humour, everyone did. Actually I have a photograph here of him, I will add it to the post.

Comment on Remembering George and Margaret Whiterod by Philip Horobin

Philip Horobin — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 09:17:10 +0000

My George came from Norfolk and, I think, went to Norwich Grammar School. He was about 5ft 7in, slim, straight dark hair swept back. He spoke with a sort of drawl and slowly. He smoked. He always strolled and never hurried. He had done very well at school, particularly maths, where he passed A level , Schol. level, Further Maths and Schol Further Maths. in two years. He told me he’d done no new Maths in our first two years at University. He had a very dry sense of humour. Do you think this is he?