TED - Truly sprEading iDeas

TED (if you somehow live on a rock away from all the other rocks and haven't ever heard of it before) is a series of conferences that constists of presenters sharing their ideas. Held annually since 1990, it has had several celebrity speakers like  Bill Clinton,Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Bono, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners.

In this year's edition, they featured a surprise appearance from Edward Snowden, the ex-NSA contractor who was responsible for the leak of classified information and the PRISM scandal. Speaking via telepresence robot from Russia, Snowden spoke about the issue of privacy vs security, and about government transparency. In totality, it was a fairly interesting talk to listen to.

Now this is great. We desperately need discussion on this issue, which underlies the structure of our communications. This is also a major trust issue between the people and the government. How can people continue to trust the government when they have no guarantee that the goverment itself  is operating within the confines of the law. 
Have such a crucial figure in the revelations share their views and ideas in "person"  is a great step forward in the discussion.

What happened next, was even better.

TED then also had a representative from the NSA Deputy Director Richard Ledgett speak in counter-view to the previous discussion.

This is equally critical to ensuring a resolution to this issue, because unilateral discussion and circle-jerking benefit no one. Only through bilateral discussion, and eventually, action, will this issue be resolved.

But kudos to TED for showcasing both parties and their views. Such outreach by the NSA and the government in general is the first step towards progress.

Wikipedia... You so silly.

Wikipedia is the largest online repository for knowledge, but sometimes, it just baffles me.

Take this page.

List of chemical compounds with unusual names

The public editing process of Wikipedia allows such lists to grow and flourish beyond the knowledge of a single individual, (because seriously, no single person could have thought of all this).

2048 - The Most Addictive Game

It's been a week, and I cannot seem to extricate myself from the screen.

⇦, ⇧, ⇨, ⇨, ⇩,⇩, ⇨, ⇨, ⇨, ⇦, ⇧⇦, ⇧, ⇨, ⇨, ⇩,⇩, ⇨⇩,⇩, ⇨

The small rewards, the large combines, the heart going thump thump thump.

⇦, ⇧, ⇨,⇩, ⇨,⇩,⇩, ⇨, ⇨, ⇦, ⇨, ⇨, ⇩,⇩, ⇨, ⇧,⇦, ⇧, ⇨, ⇨, ⇩

Another long streak, followed by an empy board at 1024. There is a God.

Halfway there.

Halfway there.

Here we go again. 

Heart rate rising. To 128 bpm of course.

Almost there. Chain set up. Need that 2 out of the way.

Got it, 2..4...8....16.....32......64........128..........256............512.................1024.........................................  2048!

At last.

Ah.... can feel heart in toes.

Fingers shaking.

Deep breaths.

Its over for now.

Back to work, maybe?

Oh look.
Someone made it in 3-D  
And 4-D too.

And this one is till 9007199254740992

Will it ever end?

Getting to 262144 was a pain...
Further? Maybe another day.

Maybe one day I'll actually get the 9007199254740992 tile. Maybe not.
Probably not.

Oh and this one doesn't stop.

This will do wonders for my productivity.

You Are What You Eat.

You are what you eat, as the maxim goes. But are you really?

Let's break this question up into two parts: What are you? and What do you eat?
So what is the shape of the human body? If you answered "Blob", no one would blame you. But the problem is, you're a blob, I'm a blob, Anne Hathaway is an extremely shapely blob; but how do we distinguish them? We can't. At least not scientifically. No one has any trouble distinguishing me from Anne Hathaway.

But, this is science; so we have to do things in a logical, orderly, reproducible way. 

Enter topology, the field of mathematics that deals with this kind of problem.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Topology (from the Greek τόπος, "place", and λόγος, "study") is the mathematical study of shapes and topological spaces. It is an area of mathematics concerned with the properties of space that are preserved under continuous deformations including stretching and bending.

Let's take a quick detour to look into topology a little more deeply and then using that knowledge, address our original question.
The most important aspect of topology is that it is not concerned with the exact shape or figure of the body, only the characteristic properties.
Let's look at some common shapes for examples.  Any three-dimensional body with no holes through it would be topologically equivalent to a sphere.  An ellipsoid is also a sphere, that is compressed from the sides. Remember that in topology, stretching and bending are allowed, and don't constitute a shape change. So topologically, a sphere is equivalent to an ellipsoid.

A sphere  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere#Topology)

An ellipsoid (http://virtualmathmuseum.org/Surface/ellipsoid/ellipsoid.html)

Ok, but what does this have to do with the human body?
Well, the human body is three dimensional, but, it does have a hole through it. 
Wait, what?!
Yup, your digestive canal is actually a direct hole from your mouth to your, well, butt. 
That shape is defined as a toroid. Here's a picture of it.

A mesh diagram of a toroid.  (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Torus.png)

Look familiar?
The toroid also has another casual name. We also refer to it as - the donut.

So bringing it all together, the human body has the same (topological) shape as a donut.
And that provides us with the solution to our question.

You are what you eat; if you eat a donut.

Now you recognise it. And your mouth is watering.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glazed-Donut.jpg)

Now that we know about topology, let's take it a bit further too.

Topology also allows continuous deformations. Here, you can pull and bend the solid (theoretically, of course) in ways that arn't physically possible (typical mathematicians).
Consider your coffee mug. Doesn't seem like a simple object to model, but when you consider it from a topological perspective, it is still a distinct shape.

A coffee mug is a donut too!   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topology#Elementary_introduction)

Did you guess what is was?
If you bend it, stretch it, and push a little bit...

A coffee mug is a donut too!

So the next time someone asks you what you are drinking, you can honestly tell them it's coffee in a donut.

Further reading: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topology
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Topology.html
 

Do you have any other interesting shapes that topologically form interesting things?
Let us know in the comments!

Multiple Magic

Yesterday was a special day, in term of Quora achievements.

1. First off, I completed my 100th answer, which I think is worth noting. *Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
2. I reprimanded Oliver Emberton for this answer, and thought I was too smart to be a 17 year old. :D :D :D
3. Alia Caldwell introduced me to John Zorn, which was a gem discovery. And followed me.   : )  : )  : )

Just for the record, I squealed a bit at one of those.
You'll have to guess which one.