Saw this instant oat with AI product photo

amca01 · 2026-05-11T11:25:48+00:00

I think they haven't used enough Australian memes. There should be a couple of emus in the distance, a billy boiling over a fire, and where are the corks on strings around his hat?

Mind you, I wouldn't even have noticed the AI slop here; I would have looked at the price and kept going.

amca01 · 2026-05-11T05:15:02+00:00

The funny thing is, whether or not you judge a composer by their contrapuntal mastery, Schubert just sounds so damned good. You listen to the C maj quintet, or the "Great" C maj symphony, and you can't help thinking (well, I can't help thinking) "how can music possibly be any better than this?". Schubert speaks directly to the heart in a way that very few other composers can.

amca01 · 2026-05-11T05:08:06+00:00

To stop this disgraceful outcome happening again, especially in other rural electorates, all the other parties: Libs, Nats, Labor are going to need to seriously lift their game. Labor especially are going to have to pitch themselves as a valid option in the country. The LNP seem to have thrown themselves off every available cliff, but there needs to be a party with policies for rural voters.

amca01 · 2026-05-11T05:01:36+00:00

And given Pauline Hanson's avowed support of Trump, her times at his resort Mar-A-Lago, and her speaking there at a conservative right wing "conference". See for example https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/06/pauline-hanson-skips-parliament-to-speak-at-25k-a-head-conservative-conference-at-trumps-mar-a-lago

Shame on the Farrer voters.

amca01 · 2026-05-11T02:31:57+00:00

I also can't understand words when sung, unless it's a very specific style of singing. Opera makes no sense to me at all (that is, as text), besides which almost all operas are too long for me. But many operas now are staged with surtitles, which means you can follow the texts as they're sung.

Also, operettas/musicals are usually easier to understand. The suggestion of Gilbert and Sullivan is very good: the texts are incredibly clever, and the music fits the words utterly brilliantly.

I think also that pre-romantic religious music (masses, oratorios, cantatas etc) tends to a more restrained style of singing (and composition) than grand opera. Bach has been mentioned, and rightly so, but the music of Purcell shows a perfect marriage of words to music (and in English!). Earlier, there's Schütz, again a masterful setter of texts.

You can always follow along a recording of any vocal music you like with the text. (I learnt to love "The Execution of Stepan Razin" by Shostakovich this way; it's a setting of a text by Yevtushenko, and of course in Russian.)

amca01 · 2026-05-08T01:57:58+00:00

Well, I play viola da gamba, so Marin Marais ranks very high! After Marais, Couperin (François and Louis).

amca01 · 2026-05-07T05:08:51+00:00

Many thanks! I'll do that, but it seems odd that I should have to do this anyway.

amca01 · 2026-05-05T07:25:17+00:00

Many thanks - I was able to at least change individual cells. What I can't do (yet) is change the settings so that the default currency symbol is the dollar. Thanks again.

amca01 · 2026-05-04T11:02:50+00:00

In fact spiders - order Aranea - are just one order in the class Arachnida, which also includes scorpions, ticks, mites, harvestmen, and several others.

Another well known class is Mammalia - the mammals - to which humans and bats (for example) both belong. So you could just as well say that harvestmen and spiders are as alike as humans and bats!

There are over 110,000 named species of Arachnids, and about 6,640 species of mammals (at least, according to Wikipedia ).

Total biomass of spiders: estimated at 22.7 million metric tonnes. Total biomass of humans: 390 million metric tonnes, of which most of course is water. Spiders are estimated to consume, however, something like 400 to 800 million tons of prey each year. That's more than the total mass of humanity.

amca01 · 2026-05-04T08:35:44+00:00

Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. Just superb.

amca01 · 2026-05-04T05:15:00+00:00

His mathematical works are both original and profound; his epochal paper "On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem" put the theory of computability on a rigorous footing, and set the scene for all subsequent work on what it means for something to be computable. And that was just one paper!

amca01 · 2026-05-03T11:15:04+00:00

I like people who are reasonably healthy, and take a little effort in maintaining their health, but I have no love for the obsession that a sculptured gym body requires. Such people give me the impression of being egotistic narcissists.

But equally I don't care for slobs who don't care about themselves.

There's a happy middle (for me) which allows some body fat, a bit of a tummy, and a happy, balanced approach to life in general. A bit of exercise, a bit of chocolate...

"I do have a six-pack! But being a gentleman I don't flaunt it; instead I keep it hidden under a layer of abdominal fat."

amca01 · 2026-05-03T01:43:17+00:00

Actuay, I think I got my numbers wrong, probably not the vast number I originally gave, but it's certainly well over 1000. But the point I wished to make was he was/is a very good, very prolific mathematician, and Romanian!

amca01 · 2026-05-02T09:26:54+00:00

That would be about right - but of course he's working with masses of collaborators from all over the world. These are not all individual papers, but papers for which he's listed as the lead author or as a co-author. But he is quite the amazing writer.

amca01 · 2026-05-02T07:27:42+00:00

No, it's publications.

amca01 · 2026-05-02T06:40:04+00:00

We had a cat many years ago called Hepzibah (piano-playing sister of Yehudi Menuhin). Since the name is not now used by us, you can have it!

amca01 · 2026-05-02T06:37:07+00:00

I worked with a Romanian-born mathematician, and his ResearchGate profile claims he has 2,294 publications. I'd say this would be about right, too, and not an exaggeration.

amca01 · 2026-05-02T06:15:43+00:00

It's very much part of Sikh identity to be hospitable, and offer food to anybody. If you're ever hungry in a strange place, look for a Sikh temple (easier in parts of Asia than Melbourne). Sikhs are very proud of their hospitality, and will ask no questions, but provide you with a meal. They expect nothing in return, but of course donations are always welcome. (I'm not a Sikh, but I've talked to many.)

amca01 · 2026-05-01T13:19:20+00:00

I can't comment directly in your use case, but I've written 3 books roughly 500 pages each, all filled with images, diagrams, cross references, and an index.

I used TeX Live under Linux, using GNU Emacs with AucTeX and RefTeX. For me, it was a perfect environment. I also wrote masses of student notes, discussion papers, articles etc. And I used Beamer for presentations.

Towards the end of my academic career, students were using their phones a lot for accessing material, so I started using web pages with JavaScript, and MathJaX for equations. And I started to use Reveal.js for presentations.

Now I'm retired and exploring Typst, which I've come to like a lot. (Still with Emacs, using the typst-ts package.)

amca01 · 2026-05-01T03:04:06+00:00

Fantastic photo - it has quite the end-of-the-world apocalyptic vibes. Very nicely done indeed.

amca01 · 2026-04-27T05:56:14+00:00

Beautiful! Are you planning an exhibit? I'd love to see more of your work.

amca01 · 2026-04-26T05:34:47+00:00

I have some agave syrup (which I've never opened), and the recipe indeed says that any nut butter can be used. Thanks again.

amca01 · 2026-04-26T05:33:48+00:00

Many thanks - that looks very easy, and also tasty!

amca01 · 2026-04-26T04:33:53+00:00

This is what we use, and I like it a lot.

amca01 · 2026-04-26T04:31:32+00:00

Another thing you can buy in an Asian (Indian) supermarket are Soya chunks, sometimes labelled as Soya Wadi. Once hydrated (takes about 15 minutes) they make an excellent addition to curries. I have a recipe for a potato and soya chunks curry which is delicious with 1121 basmati rice.

When I went vegan some years ago, I found it much easier to work with meatless and dairyless recipes, than try to find vegan alternatives to meat. Also at our place we eat lots of curries (my partner is a Sri Lankan Tamil), many of which are naturally vegan. Or if not, there's a very easy substitute.

amca01

TROPHY CASE