"Ms Kwan Goes to Washington", from Hersh | Page 3 | Golden Skate

"Ms Kwan Goes to Washington", from Hersh

Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Political conventions in the U.S. are a kind of carnival for politicians. (I'm only half kidding. There are bands and flags and balloons and hats and all sorts of shenanigans during a convention, along with speeches and back-room deals. Portions of it are televised--like the world's most highly populated reality show!) Each state sends delegates, and the delegates decide on the nominee for that party for president (and incidentally the vice president too; you can't vote for these two offices separately in an election). The delegates can't just vote for whom they want: most of the choice has already been made by what are called primaries, which are sort of pre-election elections in each state. We ordinary citizens vote in those primaries. A candidate who wins a primary wins some or all of that state's convention votes. Each political party has its own convention, and by the end of that convention, the party has chosen its presidential candidate.

In 1964, if I recall correctly, an all-white delegation from Mississippi was seated at the Democratic convention. There was great controversy, and a racially mixed delegation, including Fannie Lou Hamer (see my post above) petitioned to be made the official Mississippi delegation. They were denied. But things did change. As I say, by the next year, the Voting Rights Act was made into law.

The history of the civil rights movement is an amazing one, because the main part of the action was spearheaded by people who committed themselves to nonviolent direct action, inspired by Gandhi. I recently read that some of the Egyptian activists this year had made a study of the movement and tried to put some of their ideas into practice. I think that Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King would be most gratified if that is true.
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Bob Moses, the CORE worker who did so much to help get voters registered in Hamer's home state of Mississippi that year. He could share your screen name, Mathman: he is the founder of the Algebra Project, designed to teach math literacy to low-income children.

I knew (and know) Bob Moses fairly well. He was the general and I an insignificant foot soldier in the 1964-65 voter registration project in Mississippi. (By the way, the most charismatic of that group was Stokely Carmichael. He later became radicalized and left the mainstream movement.)

And now - ahem -- OK, y'all asked for it...:biggrin:

"Al-jabr and al-mukaballah" (restoring and balancing) was the title of a treatise written by the great Persian-Arabian mathematician Al-Kwarismi in the ninth century. (His name survives in the form “algorithm,” which originally meant, “reasoning in the fashion of Al-Kwarismi.") He invented, among other things, the idea of solving equations by “doing the opposite (restoring) to both sides (balancing)." He was also instrumental in introducing the Hindu numerals into the Arab world; in 1200 this astonishing base ten place-value system was transmitted to the Latin-speaking West by Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa).

Aren't you glad you asked? :p
 

janetfan

Match Penalty
Joined
May 15, 2009
^^

Always good to hear about Fibonacci who appears in quite a few historical/thriller type novels.
Wonder why certain contemporary novelists seem so fascinated by Fibo and his sequence :think:

A partial list of Fibonacci in literature from Wiki:

The Fibonacci sequence plays an important role in the plot of the children's book The Wright 3 by Blue Balliett.

The Fibonacci sequence plays a small part in the bestselling novel and film The Da Vinci Code.

The Fibonacci sequence plays a part in unravelling the Atlantis Code in Stel Pavlou's bestselling novel Decipher.

A part of the Fibonacci sequence is used as a code in Matthew Reilly's novel Ice Station.

In Philip K. Dick's novel VALIS, the Fibonacci sequence (as well as the Fibonacci constant) are used as identification signs by an organization called the "Friends of God".

In the collection of poetry alfabet by the Danish poet Inger Christensen, the Fibonacci sequence is used to define the number of lines in each poem.

The Fibonacci sequence is one of many mathematical topics in Scarlett Thomas's novel PopCo whose main character has an affinity for mathematics.

The Fibonacci sequence is one of the main sources of math-based magic for the main character, Reason Cansino, in Justine Larbalestier's trilogy, Magic or Madness

The Fibonacci sequence is mentioned in the children's book Math Curse by Jon Scieszka.

It was briefly included (and recognized by Charles Wallace) in the television film adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.

The Fibonacci sequence is frequently referenced in the 2001 book The Perfect Spiral by Jason S. Hornsby.

The Fibonacci sequence is mentioned In the movie The Oxford Murders. In the movie a professor and a grad student work together to try and stop a potential series of murders seemingly linked by mathematical symbols.

The Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio are briefly described in John Fowles's 1985 novel A Maggot.
 
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Violet Bliss

Record Breaker
Joined
Nov 19, 2010
I find Fibonacci in nature fascinating, making some of the most beautiful configurations.

Using Fibonacci in predictions of stock price movements is so common now that it is often included as a one of the technical analysis tools in charting. Less commonly used is in timing the turning points of stock prices.

Just a couple more reasons to be fascinated by Fibonacci.
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Fibonacci has been a favorite subject of this forum;)
Now who can write the real Phi with his keyboard?:cool:
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Math, my admiration and gratitude grows by leaps and bounds. (It increases geometrically, one might say.) You worked with Bob Moses? Wow.

I love your history of algebra. By coincidence, we were just talking about algebra on another site where I was chatting. But this conversation here is much more exalted. The whole phi ratio is amazing, and its many appearances in nature are as beautiful to me as any rainbow or cloud formation. In fact, the page in The Da Vinci Code where the main character talks about phi and the Fibonacci numbers is the single most interesting section of that book for me. I was disappointed that there wasn't more of that to the story. I didn't care a whit about the supposed lineage of the French royal family. I wanted more number patterns! And how cool to hear about how it helps people analyze stock prices, SkateFiguring. Hah! Learn Fibonacci and see the world.

I think most people take our numeral system for granted, and yet it's such a huge step forward. Never even mind algebra...that numeral system revolutionized what could be done with math in Europe, affecting architecture and other applied sciences. The Roman system was not a place value system. The number XLVIII, or 48, looked larger than the number M, or 1,000. Impossible to do any computation, even basic column addition, let alone multiplication and division. The idea of zero as a place holder (also used by I think the Mayans) was crucial. I believe the Europeans had to use little stones, called calculi (aha!), for actual computation.

I'm curious...anyone know the history of math and number systems in East Asia?

So much fascinating discussion from Michelle Kwan starting a second career.
 
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Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Seniorita said:
Now who can write the real Phi with his keyboard?



Alt 106 on my keyboard. :) But I can't see this on GS :( Maybe GS does not support this font?
 
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seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Each state sends delegates, and the delegates decide on the nominee for that party for president (and incidentally the vice president too; you can't vote for these two offices separately in an election). .....
Thank you, I got it all, except how delegates are picked?Is there a criteria for simple citizens, or local politic people?And who decides if this delegation is the official?

Aren't you glad you asked? :p
Thrilled, but I m having an overdose of info today, I cant process them!:)
you mean golden skates doesnt support the golden number?:biggrin: φ this you see? in school not to confuse it with another similar letter we had learnt phi is like a lolipop.:)
 
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Hooray! I've heard of art by committee but this is the first phi by committee that I've ever encountered.
 

seniorita

Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 3, 2008
Last thing, alt + 106 for me is letter j. Have you tried alt +1000?

we are OΦΦ topic. :)
 

Serious Business

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Mathman, you are a true hero! You are a civil rights pioneer and the efforts of you and those you worked with helped make this land a more perfect union. I'm sorry for and humbled by the fact that I've never heard of Fannie Lou Hamer until now, but reading up on her, what an amazing woman — she braved jail and violent beatings just to register black people to vote. Thank you for standing along side her and for all the ideals she did!

But the fight continues. Look what happened to ACORN. Or all the odious requirements and fees being added to voting in various states as we type. And I've seen first hand in Ohio how a polling place that serves two neighboring districts had an empty queue for the white majority district, while the black majority district was lined up around the block because they used the same number of voting machines for a far larger number of people. I've been threatened with cops, dogs and guns on my voter registration drives.

But we wouldn't even have these freedoms to fight for if you, Fannie Hamer, Bob Moses and other civil rights heroes didn't get us there in the first place. Again, thank you.
 
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