Ed Bradshaw

My favorite mathematics links

Ed — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:33:18 +0000

Division by Zero

http://divisbyzero.com

MAA Minute Math

http://maaminutemath.blogspot.com/

Plus Maths

http://plus.maths.org/

The Endeavour

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/

Random Walks

http://mrchasemath.wordpress.com/

The Mathematical Tourist

http://mathtourist.blogspot.com/

Understanding Uncertainty

http://understandinguncertainty.org/

Vi Hart

http://vihart.com/

Notable Video’s

David Spiegelhalter on uncertainty

Vi Hart on Infinity

James Grime on Benford’s Law

Nutella Latte Challenge; Viet Style

Ed — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 19:00:53 +0000

This is my response to a challenge put forth by @floridagirlindc for a Nutella Latte. Instead of latte, I went with Vietnamese iced coffee style.

Ingredients:

2 Tbs French Market Coffee with Chicory
1 1/2 Tbs Sweetened condensed milk ( I’m thinking 1 Tbs next time)
1 tsp Nutella
Boiling water

Result? Tasty. The chocolate and hazelnut of the Nutella works really well with the chicory.

Grist Mill Garden Plot: 2011 season begins

Ed — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 20:08:37 +0000

I took a trip to the Grist Mill community gardens yesterday to survey our plot. We closed up things in November and haven’t been back until now. I had intended to plant some garlic for the winter but we hadn’t gotten the raised beds in yet. In all fairness, we did just inherit the plot late last season and Janelle was in a cast all summer.

Things looked pretty good so far but as expected, the weeds are coming in at full force. Something will need to be done soon before they get out of hand. There are a few early starters but most, like us, haven’t started yet. So I don’t feel so bad. It still amazes me how fast and hearty weeds will grow and yet you have to baby the pants you WANT to grow.

We will be putting in 8″ raised beds, using simple 2×8 pine boards and stainless steel lag bolts. One of our garden neighbors did a great job with his and will be adding woodchip mulch as paths as well to keep the weeds down. Luckily we have access to large piles of free wood mulch.

What to fill the beds with is another question. Mel Bartholomew, the author of “Square Foot Gardening”, recommends 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost. If I have to buy the compost, the approximate cost for each 4×8 bed would be $50. Not bad for one or two but I’m looking at setting up about 8 beds total. I think I’m going to use a mix of the soil and peat moss for starters. It will mean more weeding but more savings.

A cheep macro lens for the iPhone

Ed — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 02:50:50 +0000

By using an inexpensive 10X loupe, you can take pretty impressive macro photos with the iPhone camera. This was helped by my Speck Candyshell case that adds about 1/8″ of thickness to the back, where the camera lens is. This helped position the loupe at a pretty good focal distance to give me clear photos of these interesting little pests that were hanging out on a vine leaf.

I discovered this one quiet summer day last year as I was messing about with Janelle’s jewelers loupe. I can be a bit dangerous when I’m bored.

Your results may vary but it’s well worth a try and a whole lot of fun.

Update: You can use the zoom feature of the iPhone to crop the dark ring out of the photos.

Phase-Jam: Exploring the phaser effect

Ed — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 08:00:49 +0000

This is a track I recorded while messing around with my Ibanez PT9 Phaser pedal.

phase-jam by EdBradshaw

Speck CandyShell Card iPhone 4 case

Ed — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:46:30 +0000

Speck has released a new item in their line of CandyShell cases. The CandyShell Card has space to place your credit cards on your iPhone.

I’m a huge fan of the Speck cases and like the idea of having one less thing to cary but I must admit, I’m not sure I’m sold. What do you think?

http://bit.ly/gcgpuB

Zometool

Ed — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 03:37:10 +0000

Zometool is a plastic construction set that allows you to build all sorts of polyhedra models. Think of it as Lego for math geeks.

George Hart, Chief of Content at the soon to be opened Museum of Mathematics, has some great information at his site if you are interested in learning more.

My favorite whisky, Laphroaig

Ed — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:11:30 +0000

Laphroaig (La-froyg) is a single malt Scottish whisky from the Isle of Islay. It is arguably the most distinctive tasting whisky around, with a strong peat and iodine flavor imparted from their water source and storing of barrels in a seaside warehouse. The taste is so distinctive that an earlier add campaign had the tagline of “Love it, Hate it”.

Jetpack enables LaTeX in your blog posts

Ed — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:10:20 +0000

=H\left|\Psi(t)\right>' title='i\hbar\frac{\partial}{\partial t}\left|\Psi(t)\right>=H\left|\Psi(t)\right>' class='latex' /> Is just one example

is another

When $a \ne 0$, there are two solutions to $ax^2 + bx + c = 0$ and they are
$$x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}.$$

Recipe: Irish Soda Bread

Ed — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:21:16 +0000

Recipe: Irish Soda Bread

Recipe type: Bread

Author: http://www.sodabread.us/Recipes/sodabreadrecipes.htm

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour

This is my favorite soda bread recipe, so far. If you happen to have access to raw milk that has gone sour, you can use it in place of the buttermilk.

Ingredients

4 cups (16 oz) of all purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon salt
14 oz of buttermilk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 F. degrees.
Lightly crease and flour a cake pan.
In a large bowl sieve and combine all the dry ingredients.
Add the buttermilk to form a sticky dough. Place on floured surface and lightly knead (too much allows the gas to escape)
Shape into a round flat shape in a round cake pan and cut a cross in the top of the dough.
Cover the pan with another pan and bake for 30 minutes (this simulates the bastible pot).
Remove cover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. The bottom of the bread will have a hollow sound when tapped so show it is done.
Cover the bread in a tea towel and lightly sprinkle water on the cloth to keep the bread moist.