If You’re A New Tumblr User From Tiktok Or IG Or Something And Only Like Posts And Dont Reblog Them

I have a new post up on my blog, continuing the Fictional History of Numbers series. In part 1 we started with the natural numbers and built up the algebraics, which let us solve equations. In part 2 we started asking geometric questions, and constructed the real numbers.

But the real numbers are weird and hard to define. In part 3 we see one way they're extremely strange, and then talk about why we want them anyway. In the end, we shouldn't worry about the definition of the reals; we should worry about what they allow us to do. And it turns out they're exactly what we need to make calculus function as it should.

I'm boggled. This isn't the same thing as in the letter, is it?

Thank you so much for the ask!! Good job on spotting the difference!

Posting the letter again for reference:

So you're right, on the rock it reads 張仲仁 (Cheung Chong Yan in standard cantonese romanisation), while on the envelope the name is 張仲文 (Cheung Chong Man). Hergé’s real life Chinese friend is 張充仁 (Cheung Chong Yan), so the romanisation would be the same as the name in your ask. 

HOWEVER, those are just romanisations (which are less accurate but easier for foreigners to pronounce). Their actual pronunciations in cantonese (spoken in Hong Kong) / mandarin (spoken in mainland China including Shanghai) are different:

張充仁 = Tcheung Chong Yun* / Zhang Chongren

張仲文 = Tcheung Tchong Mun / Zhang Zhongwen

張仲仁 = Tcheung Tchong Yun / Zhang Zhongren 

* 'Tch-' is similar to J sound; '-ong' is OW-ng; '-un' as in under

As you can see, there’s a bit of a mix and match. But I think it makes sense to change the first word in his given name into 仲 given that the story says Chang is from HK, because we seldom use 充 in our names (perhaps more common in mainland China, not 100% sure). 

Another fun fact for you on the meanings of those given names~ 

充 = full of

仲 = still be (only in cantonese)

仁 = love for all beings/ benevolence

文 = cultured/ gentle

Both 仁 and 文 are commonly used here across different generations and genders. So I think both translations are pretty nice!!

Also, I just spotted that the stamps in the top right corner are of Queen Elizabeth II and King George VI:

Not so good at maintaining consistency but good attention to detail, I must say :)

Based on context clues I've put a green dot where I kinda think Tom's house might be. They come out of the forest, which can be seen from Tom's west window, and they saw the downs to the east of his house. And then there's this bit:

By his advice they decided to make nearly due North from his house, over the western and lower slopes of the Downs: they might hope in that way to strike the East Road in a day's journey, and avoid the Barrows.

The yellow arrow is the journey they're hoping to make today :]

Just adding the former Twitter thread of analysis here for posterity.

threadreaderapp.com

Thread by @normative on Thread Reader App

@normative: I just got a graphic novel adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four and was pleasantly surprised to see they included the Appendix “Pr

Actually the implied timeline for the fall of Ingsoc is even shorter than that, on a second look. The Appendix says the Newspeak spoken in 1984 is captured in the 9th & 10th editions of the Newspeak dictionary, and that the 11th edition was the “final” one.  We don’t know exactly when the Party rose to power or started Newspeak, but if they’re already on the 10th edition by 1984 or shortly thereafter, and the Party doesn’t take power until after 1949, that implies new editions being released at absolute most every 3-4 years.  If the 10th edition is released roughly contemporaneously with the events of the book & Ingsoc lasts long enough to produce an 11th edition, but not a 12th, that suggests the collapse of the regime within about a decade of those events.  Another clue: Translation of English Lit classics to Newspeak were planned, and it “was not expected that they would be completed before the first or second decade of the 21st century,” after which the originals would be destroyed.  The use of the subjunctive—and the fact that the future authors of the Appendix assume readers remain familiar with works of Shakespeare, Milton, Jefferson etc.—also implies the fall of Ingsoc before “the first or second decade of the twenty-first century”.  So that’s at least two very strong clues Orwell plants that Ingsoc did not outlast the 20th Century, despite its seeming efficiency at ferreting out and breaking dissenters.

Absolutely amazing money quote too:

The large number of people responding that they did indeed miss this when they read Nineteen Eighty-Four suggests Orwell pulled off a rather brilliant literary prank: He wrote an optimistic epilogue, but hid it in the guise of an Appendix which many (perhaps most) readers either skipped or took at face value as just an essay about Newspeak, rather than a continuation of the story. And this is perfect. It would have been a literary crime to spoil the gut punch of “He loved Big Brother” by tacking on an overt happy ending epilogue. The happy ending is there, but Orwell makes you work for it.

Besties I am reading about the appendix of 1984 by George Orwell and I just re-read the actual appendix last night and I stg I'm gonna scream and cry and throw up because it's fucking past perfect tense and it's the "woulds" and it's the fact that the appendix is written in modern English. 1984 secret ending where Big Brother is long gone it makes me cry.

After the math pope, we have a math president

From the Wiki page of Nicușor Dan, the new president of Romania:

He won first prizes in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 1987 and 1988 with perfect scores.[3] Dan moved to Bucharest at the age of 18 and began studying mathematics at the University of Bucharest.[4] In 1992, he moved to France to continue studying mathematics: he followed the courses of the École Normale Supérieure, one of the most prestigious French grandes écoles, where he gained a master's degree. In 1998 Dan completed a PhD in mathematics at Paris 13 University, with thesis "Courants de Green et prolongement méromorphe" written under the direction of Christophe Soulé and Daniel Barsky [de].[5][6]

Dan's 1988 gold medal also means he was one of eleven contestants to get full marks on the infamous Problem 6, a question so difficult that nobody on the IMO problem committee could solve it.

His personal website lists his primary area of research as Arakelov geometry, a method of studying Diophantine equations from a geometric point of view.

His thesis, in the same field.

His arXiv.

The Billy Joel GIF set on Instagram is funny because you've got all your Uptown Girls, your We Didn't Start the Fires, your Allentowns, and your The Longest Times and a couple of the old man's live performances and then for some reason there's a GIF of "Say Goodbye to Hollywood" Live at Sparks 1981. I have no idea who is responsible but they have criminally good music taste and I hope their soup is always warm and their milk always fresh.

people trying to insist a fandom is tiny when it /only/ has a few thousand works on ao3 meanwhile my current fandom is a sixteen book series and has several hundred fewer works than goncharov, a movie that, and i cannot stress this enough, doesn’t even exist

On Criticism vs. Insult

It is important to understand the difference between appropriate criticism and constructive feedback vs. insults.

One can help you grow, while the other is not something you have to carry, as they are unnecessary burdens given to you for torment.

While it is easier said than done to let go of the heavy baggage, the first step is awareness. It is vital to carry the ability to distinguish between criticism and insult, and to be able to discern if what has been given to you is out of good or bad intentions.

I got the Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage for free from Thriftbooks (after much fussing about getting the book rewards points spent for the best value) and it's like YES, SOMEONE WHO LIKES FOOTNOTING THEIR COMICS AS MUCH AS ME.

Also it's an amazing set of 4 panels

His Famous Last Words: Billy Joel’s River of Dreams

From the first few chords of “No Man’s Land” to the fade-out at the end of “Famous Last Words”, this album is entirely unlike anything else I’ve ever heard. Heck, it’s unlike Billy Joel. He made a name for himself as the Piano Man—twenty years after that iconic breakout single, he made an album with barely a hint of piano on it and pretty much disappeared so that he could give new musicians a chance to be heard. And he didn’t come back until he had a truly worthwhile song to share.

Now, he’d seen his share of style changes over the years—look at Glass Houses or even The Bridge. But if those albums were a slow shuffle away from his piano-oriented roots, River of Dreams was a flying leap as he traded his trademark baby grand for overdriven guitars. But under this grittier rock sound, it really still feels like a Billy Joel album.

In my mind, no song handles better this fusion of the new sound with Billy’s signature lyrical style and themes than “No Man’s Land”. Despite its obviously rock sound, it is in many ways a thematic successor to The Stranger’s opening track, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”. The two songs handle the a very similar sense of disillusionment and uncertainty, as well as the idea that you shouldn’t take what you’re told at face value. To the average listener, this is a shockingly punk rock sentiment to hear from a pop-oriented singer-songwriter, especially as blatant as it is in “No Man’s Land”. But I feel like this theme returning is a wonderful way to close the book on his career as a (probably unintentional) callback.

But that’s just it—this is his final album. He stepped back from music after River of Dreams. This whole album has a sense of finality about it; Billy has always been a storyteller more than just about any songwriter I’ve ever seen, and he seems to have done everything in his power to make his last big story (at least for now) great. For that reason, I find this album thematically akin to Turnstiles. Both deal with moving on and change, though in very different ways. That’s why—to me, anyway—this album seems so fitting as a goodbye. The drastically different styles present here fit and compliment the overall theme of change.

This is all pulled together by the final track, “Famous Last Words”. It’s a slow-paced, easygoing song exploring the prospect of change through the shift from summer into fall, ultimately using this as a metaphor for the end of Billy’s musical career. But it looks to this uncertain future with a feeling of safety and contentment, secure in the knowledge that good things must be somewhere up the road. It’s similar to “Vienna” in that way, as it’s also about accepting the future not with dread but with a willingness to go at your own speed and enjoy the scenery while you’re there.

I’d consider “Famous Last Words” to be among the greatest closing tracks ever—probably topped only by “The Long One” on the Beatles’ Abbey Road. It closes the record with every bit of strength with which “No Man’s Land” opened it, though in an entirely different way. With a track like this as his last true song for so many years, I think “Turn the Lights Back On” wasn’t the perfect single to release; it was the only one that could follow this song in theme, quality, and lyrics. In fact, I would count “Turn the Lights Back On” as almost a coda to River of Dreams because of this.

In the end, though, I think what River of Dreams represents most to me is an artist who wanted to leave a good legacy in terms of his work. From start to finish, it feels like Billy gave this record his all, and I have nothing but respect for any musician who decides to step back when they feel they have nothing left to say at the moment. Not to mention the fact that his decision to stop making new albums every few years most likely gave him time to really buckle down and get to breaking that record for longest residency at Madison Square Garden. Between the aforementioned residency and the clear care and effort put into both River of Dreams and “Turn the Lights Back On”, it seems that Billy Joel has a level of dedication to both his music and his fans that I greatly respect. If he were to make another full-length record, this precedent is enough to show me that it would very likely be a worthwhile one.