Happy Thanksgiving 2013: Food Pyramid

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

I'll be up for seconds in a minute, then thirds will go forth.

Exponential Decay!

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

A little late for Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day, but I wasn't up to this topic yet.

The Torch Has Been Passed

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

Fifty years since his death. I thought it was worth noting.

Ironically, though I've wanted to do a comic for a while, I wasn't sure what or how to do it. Then I settled on a quote that I would use along with a simple illustration. And then when researching -- basically, double-checking the exact wording of the quote -- I'd discovered that I had my brain wires crossed and had picked a quote by the wrong Kennedy. Thank Heaven for the new age of information. Once again, the torch has been passed to a new generation.

Blue Box and Whisker

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

Eight minutes were added to Paul McGann's time.

For the non-geeks and geeks of a different calling, the numbers above represent the about of hours each actor starred as The Doctor in BBC's Doctor Who, which premeired 50 years ago. It had a 16-year hiatus, but came back in 2005, not as a reboot (I hate those) but as a continuation of the original. The numbers have been rounded to the nearest tenth of an hour, and do not, as far as I know, include later appearances in the series with other Doctors.

Paul McGann appeared on screen for only a 2-hour TV movie, intended as a pilot for a new series. (Eric Roberts played the Master.) It didn't get picked up. However, I included his recent Internet mini-episode, approximately eight minutes in length, because it's just that cool. Go watch it.

Finally: You don't have to write. I did the math. Despite his short TV tenure as The Doctor, 1.2 hours is NOT really an outlier. But it's not as funny the other way, and the back-up joke was too complicated. So you can save your Anonymous corrections. In this case, Math bows down to Humor. And I think it's "Fantastic" or even "Brilliant".

Tangent

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

Thanks to Gregory Taylor of Taylor's Polynomials for allowing me use of his Tangent character. It saved me from making another graph or creating a one-shot character.

That said, any occupational or relational issues discussed here do not extend back to Mr. Taylor's serial ... unless he chooses to incorporate it. Not my call. (but what a good storyline it could be ... dit-dooda-dit-dooda-dit ...)

EDIT: As Mr. Taylor pointed out to me in a tweet, the relationships mentioned couldn't carry over as-is into his strip, because I implied (stated, actually) Cotangent was male. However, in his serial, the trig functions (regular and "co-") are all female. It's the arc- functions which are male. It was right there in the Cast of Characters (from where I took the image) and I should've noticed it. Not that it would have changed anything one bit. Just a little trivia on the side. Now was that the opposite side or the adjacent side?

Asymptote

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

If a line had any thickness, that could actually be a problem. I wonder what its origin could be?

EDIT: Fixed. An unsung anonymous poster pointed out I'd left out the "un" in "unusual".

Happy 11-12-13!

I didn't forget about it! I just didn't have the time to blog today. (I did tweet a message this morning. Do you follow me on twitter?)

HAPPY 11-12-13!
Those of you outside the U.S., we can revisit this next month. ;)

There's only one more Sequential Day left this century! After that, you'll have to wait until January 2, 2103.

Sadly, one of the students in my class said that next year will be the last one in "our lifetimes". I wanted to say (and I might've without thinking) "Speak for yourself!" I thought it sad because she's only, say, 15, which would make her 102 the next time it happens. We're living longer and they're are medical breakthroughs -- miracles, even -- happening all the time. No reason to believe that she couldn't reach that age.

As for me, okay, I'll probably only get that far with a robot body, and, hopefully, some cybernetic helper monkeys.

Vets 2013

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

And I didn't even work in the vet's vest. And that's his best vest, which means that if he works the hardest, it'll the best vet's best vest. You bet!

Don't be surprised if I work in "Let's Go Vets!" next year. Just lobbing that out there.

Compound Inequality: From Take-off to Landing

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(C)Copyright 2013, C. Burke.

Once you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way. Unless you get traded to another team.

Or if they tear down your section of the Upper West Side right after your movie is filmed to make way for a cultural institution.

Actually, this could be a great place to go off on tangents about the graph, the movie, the city, . . .

For example, I debated whether the endpoints of the compound inequality should be open or closed. Are you still a Jet if you're dead? Not according to the song, which is, in point of fact, a little too sad to believe that you're forgotten that easily. I mean, (SPOILER ALERT) Tony's dead and they carried him off together, but did they forget all about him a day later? I don't know the answer to this. However, it occurred to me that you'd still be a Jet on that day that you died, up to the point of death. Ergo, closed circle.

So "1st cigarette < Jet < last dying day".

Translating this into Set-Builder Notation is left as an exercise to the reader.
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