On the way to Helsinki

I’m on my way to the Bridges 2022 conference in Helsinki, Finland. It has been… *checks watch*… five years since the last time I posted to this blog. I won’t try to catch you up in a single blog post on everything that’s happened in those five years, but suffice it say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

At the moment I am sitting in the Chicago airport next to my friend Brian, on my way to present my first paper at a math conference. You can read it here, and as you can see I’m still writing about fractals. This will be my first trip overseas, and only my 3rd country overall (though we plan to add Estonia as well after the main conference).

The paper like many things is evidence that the only way to accomplish anything is to not know how much time it is really going to take you in the first place. These 4 pages (about 1200 words) are the culmination of some initial explorations two years ago, dozens of hours programming, 10’s of hours writing, some copy-editing from the aforementioned Brian, two rounds of reviews and revisions, 20 hours building a 3D model (for one picture) by hand, and another dozen hours or so writing a presentation (which I was revising for a few more hours before leaving the house yesterday). I’m excited, nervous, but I think generally ready, and even after I just gave you that laundry list, I want to do it all over again as soon as I can.

The aforementioned 3D model, made out of PixBrix.

The Bridges conference is really special. When I went there five years ago, I felt like I had met my tribe. I like working as a professional software engineer / architect, but it’s math and making art that excites me, and the opportunity to try to inspire that joy in others. The last time I went I felt like I learned more than I could take in all at once, and I’ve been itching to go back and learn even more.

I’m not sure when you’ll hear from me next. I am trying to scare together time outside my job to work on another programming book (this one in python/cython), but that could be quite a ways off. Going to the conference did at least drag me onto Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/fractal_man2147/). I’ll try to keep up with posting new artwork in-between larger projects. I may take a crack at other papers as well (maybe a longer paper for Bridges, or something for the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts). And I’ve got a pipe dream idea for a recreational mathematics magazine of my own. Maybe someday.

In the meantime, below is one of my favorite sandpiles from the work on the paper. It’s made using a quilting pattern called “Road to Oklahoma” and was color-sampled from the flowers in my garden.

Until we meet again, hopefully a little sooner next time!

Back in the world… from Canada

I honestly didn’t think it would be more than seven months between posts (if I did I wouldn’t have left you with such a downer). No special reason for the long hiatus. Actually just all the usual reasons. Work got busier, I got more tired, and I had less creative energy leftover from working on the new book.

But this week I’m in a place with boundless creative energy. I just finished the first day of the Bridges Math + Art conference in Waterloo. There are literally not enough hours in the day to talk to all of the interesting people here. Today I went to talks on fonts, fractals, and fun with OK Go.

In the art math spirit I thought I’d share a quick visual from the new book:

I’ve been playing around with fractal genetic codes from the Fractals for the Classroom series. Simple patterns and rotations that make some interesting forms as you keep iterating. Anyone see a Canadian maple leaf in this one?

More tomorrow…

This we don’t need

It’s been a week since the attack on OSU campus. As you might imagine this particular act of violence struck a little closer to home than most. I’m an alum of OSU and live a few miles north of the campus.My dad is involved with campus ministry, as are some people I used to go to bible study with. While I don’t go down there as often as I used to, I did see a game with my wife earlier this fall, and I sometimes go for a sentimental walk to No. 1 Chinese, Used Kids Records or just down the Oval. I think of OSU as part of my home.

I’m grateful that people were not more seriously hurt and that the situation was able to be resolved in a short amount of time. Though things certainly seemed uncertain for most of Monday morning (I spent the day trying to get work done while listening to 10TV news feeds and Facebook Live press conferences) the actual incident was only about a minute.

Not long after the attack a friend of mine said on social media that he wasn’t looking forward to whatever hateful thing the President-elect was going to tweet on the subject. And sure enough, the Donald delivered:

ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2016
There are a lot of things wrong with this tweet. For starters, the motive of this 18 year old student will likely never be firmly known, and speculating is a destructive activity. Of course ISIS claimed credit. The attacker isn’t alive to contradict them, and it makes them look like they have more influence. Second, Columbus, Ohio has a thriving Somali community (who were among the first to condemn the attack). We have a legacy of taking in refugees for over 25 years. The president-elect may have won Ohio, but he didn’t win Columbus and he doesn’t know this city or have a right to speak for it.

But honestly it isn’t even Trump I want to talk about, but the people who are using this attack as an opportunity to advocate for a concealed or open carry policy on campus. This culminated today in a group of people parading around the campus carrying guns. Let me repeat. A week after a violent attack on a college campus, a group of non-students organized by a gun-rights activist from Cincinatti decided it was a good idea to march around with guns including assault rifles.

Now to be fair the students were notified, and the advocates were escorted by police the whole way. But this was far from a calm discussion of gun rights. When a professor questioned the group’s presence and said this wasn’t what the college needed, the gun-advocates questioned his citizenship. Lot’s of students are still dealing with the trauma and the fear of the last week. This community is still healing.

There was a lot of luck and providence in last Monday’s attack. A gas leak meant that an officer could be on the scene in less than a minute, and good training resolved the situation quickly. The school’s alert system notified everyone almost as the attack was happening, and the run-hide-fight protocol probably kept a number of students safe. One of the people injured by the attacker had military training, and even tried to grab the knife. There were heroic and well trained people on scene. The students were as prepared as any student population could be. And I believe God was there as well.

Here’s what a someone with a concealed carry permit would have added to that situation. Unless they had hours of extensive training dealing with active-attacker situation, there’s a decent liklihood they would not have drawn their gun, or fired it if they did pull it out. If they drew their gun and fired there is no guaruntee they would not have injured people besides the attacker. And when the officer came on scene they’d be adding another confusing element to a hot situation. Unless they were immediately compliant with the officer’s commands, they’d stand a decent likelihood of being shot themselves.

You may disagree with my assessment, and that’s fine. I know a lot of reasonable people who are gun enthusiasts. Maybe we can discuss it calmly in a month or two. But for right now, why don’t we spend our time having a national conversation about what OSU did to prepare for attacks like these, and praising the work of a fine young officer. Let’s not tar an entire community because of the actions of one person, and let’s stop waving guns around for a while.

That’s not too much to ask, right?

New Release: Fractals – 2017 Adult Coloring Calendar

I know how it is. You get to the end of November and you realize you forgot Mandelbrot’s birthday (it was Sunday). Or your friends ask you to come over for Pi day and then laugh at you when you bring pie instead (which they eat without thanking you). Well don’t worry, I’m looking out for you.

Introducing Fractals – 2017 Adult Coloring Calendar.

Did you know that you can make up math holidays just by choosing the right numbers? I mean, tomorrow is Fibonacci day because it’s 11/23 (it’ll really be cool in 42 years when it’s 11/23/58). I even made up my own holiday on January 26th: Koch curve day (because the approximate fractal dimension of the Koch curve is 1.26. It’s also E. H. Moore’s birthday apparently).

Feeling stressed? Why not color in some fractal bubbles or a cozy quilt? And take some time to marvel at the clean numbers and lines of the calendar template I created using a python script. There were definitely at least five tiny pixel adjustments to make sure the numbers lined up in diagonals just right.

Perfect for the math geek who also enjoys trivia and pretty colors. But even if your name isn’t Brian Buckley this calendar is a great for someone looking for something just a bit different in their date tracking this year. Available now on Amazon from the good people at Green Frog Publishing.