I'm pretty pleased with this year's Halloween costume. Simple, comfortable and conceptually interesting. I give you: Tycho Brahe. (He wore a metal nose after losing most of his in a duel, see.)
Yeah, I had planned to shave the beard after getting back from the canoe trip. But then everyone wanted to see it at the party. And then I still had it when I got my student ID picture taken, and I almost laughed out loud at just how much I looked like a grad student. So I've decided to keep it for now. :)
I have lots of fun with Tycho when I teach astronomy. Both with the nose (And yes, I was thinking, "what is this, Tycho Brahe on my friends list?" followed by "Ah, he's heard the gold-nose version instead of the silver-nose version.") and his timely death (sadly, Kepler couldn't do anything useful until Tycho, uh, popped, so his death did move civilization forward).
And I've also read that it was just the bridge of his nose, not the whole thing.
Man, I can't believe I'm that pedantic! And I haven't even gotten to the "partially ptolemaic" issue.
Great costume concept. I must steal it next time I teach on Halloween.
Tycho took on his program of observations because Ptolemy's Almagest was giving bad predictions, so he knew there was something wrong with Ptolemy.
Like Ptolemy, Tycho believed the sun revolved around the earth, but unlike Ptolemy, he had Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn revolving around the sun, which was certainly not Ptolemaic.
Tycho wanted to be the big hero who overthrew Ptolemy, but he didn't have the math-fu to do it. What he had were sharp eyes and observational competence. Sharp eyes that were a fraction of an inch from getting sliced open by the sword that hacked off the bridge of his nose in a duel in his younger days.
Oh! *That* I knew (your second paragraph) because after I did the text on the front, Fishy had me do a diagram of Tycho's system on the back. :) (Sadly I guess nobody got a photo of that.)
Oh, and I meant to thank you for your Iron Doodler thing. It reminded that I had one nagging Iron Composer assignment left over, and that I had wanted to do an Iron Composer "lite" for some time. It's fun to do a piece of music with a rule of spending one hour on it--you essentially can execute the first idea that pops into your head. While it doesn't guarantee a good result for each "customer" it has produced one song that I think is genuinely funny, and an electronic/orchestral piece that got me making interesting new sounds.
And it balances some of the negative stuff I've posted lately.
Way cool. Easy and intellectual. Can't say it was better than our family costume/house decorations: http://home.earthlink.net/~peter.a.taylor/darkmark/darkmark.htm
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Just don't imitate his death.
(And OMG, you look... well, completely like a grad student. Which shouldn't be a surprise, but... *blink*)
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And I've also read that it was just the bridge of his nose, not the whole thing.
Man, I can't believe I'm that pedantic! And I haven't even gotten to the "partially ptolemaic" issue.
Great costume concept. I must steal it next time I teach on Halloween.
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Tycho took on his program of observations because Ptolemy's Almagest was giving bad predictions, so he knew there was something wrong with Ptolemy.
Like Ptolemy, Tycho believed the sun revolved around the earth, but unlike Ptolemy, he had Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn revolving around the sun, which was certainly not Ptolemaic.
Tycho wanted to be the big hero who overthrew Ptolemy, but he didn't have the math-fu to do it. What he had were sharp eyes and observational competence. Sharp eyes that were a fraction of an inch from getting sliced open by the sword that hacked off the bridge of his nose in a duel in his younger days.
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And it balances some of the negative stuff I've posted lately.
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I love Halloween.
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