Weekend!

Just because in my last posts I was talking to much about books, maths and other non-important stuff, I don't want my friends/family to think I'm getting ill, old or something like that...

So here they are some notes about my activities this weekend...

First, let me talk about the W. Penn Tavern . It has been our meeting point for the spanish guys since I arrived. Here you can have a beer (I prefer yuengling by the moment :-)) , have dinner or spend your time in an interesting conversation with some natives :-)














You can easily recognize spanish people in the photos: they are not watching basketball on TVs. Thanks to Xavi and Nuria, they were the only posing for the photo.

Later we went to ... the firehouse! A disco where to dance a lot and recover energy for the next week. It's a nice place (but I still prefer some places in Malaga). The ride was thanks to a Pitt friend (whose name I can't spell yet) He is one the nice persons we met here, who knows more about spanish soccer and painters than me. Like an european born in USA, he has a volkswagen. In the photo, he is thinking the police is coming after seing the flash... But no, we didn't finish in jail. Anyway I'm not going to publish photos of what the spanish squad did in the disco later :-) Good parties remain secret...

I hope all of you are OK in Spain... Family, I know it was a hard week; I miss you. Take care :-)

Squaring the circle

(NOTICE: This is a hard reading blog entry, written after some days of few sleeping. Maybe you should jump to next one :-) )

Have you ever think about the motivations for doing something? I found myself some nights ago thinking why I choosed my job, the activity I spend most the time in my life. It's not a easy question, specially taking into account that one week ago I realized that I have an 15% salary drop starting this year! I don't believe this the best way to motivate a worker considering it's the result of a contract improvement (now I'm a formal University employee)... but anyway, let continue with the topic of this post.

Probably it's a sequence of coincidences what made me to follow this way. But one thing I'm sure is that I've been always interested in exact sciences and engineering. Why? I really don't know. I guest it should be because of the need all people have of finding something absolute, any truth. As Einstein said: "Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here, involuntarily and uninvited, for a short stay, without knowing the why and the wherefore."
It doesn't mean I don't like humanities. "In our daily lives we feel only that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own" is the second part of Einstein's paragraph I also agree with. But given that I don't have any religion or any hardcoded belief, I think I was biased toward exact sciences. Maybe it's just curiosity or maybe is the need of understanding what we are and which are the ultimate laws behind the universe (and ourselves as part of it). And engineering is the practical part of this, covering the need of doing things and leaving our small personal mark.

I think this is a common question for human beings. As said, probably many people solves this by means of the religion; in this way, they get an absolute reference, a fundamental truth which is the reason and the goal of their lifes. But other persons had tried to get this truth by their own means.

What the hell is the relation between pi and all of this stuff?!!, you may be wondering :-)

I think pi is a perfect example of this, a "small" truth (meaning just a number) that is there and that many good scientists have been trying to analyze since men are men. "If you divide the circumference of a circle between its diameter you get a constant number". As cutting as many of the geometrical laws. This constant was not denoted by the symbol pi until the 18th century, but it has been there forever and you cannot avoid it. But why 3.14159265358979323846...? Which kind of number is pi? Even Babylonians and the Egyptians knew more about pi that is mere existence.

"An history of pi" is an interesting book because is a different approach to mathematics and science, different from the unrelated views I had for maths concepts in the several courses I received. It's a history about thinkers, builders, navigators and madmen looking for an absolute concept they needed.

And it also was interesting to read many of the historical comments by the author, Petr Beckmann. He was born in Prague, but in 1963 he came to the United States and he has stay here since them. As a person just arrived here is interesting to know part of the cultural vision of people at this size of the Atlantic ocean. This is the part related to humanities:-) There are some ideas of his vision for the Roman Empire I'd like to discuss with my friend Francis, a classical history hobbist (and also capable of running the marathon :-) )

By the way... new activities for next week... I bought sport shoes yesterday... you could probably find me running by Shadyside some day :-)

Reading

As part of my "mind refreshment" here in Pittsburgh I promised myself that I was going to read a lot. I actually read a lot at work but this time I mean reading true literature, not just scientific papers. It's a good habit which I've been losing probably in the last years.

And I think my first book choice was a good one. I read "An history of pi" last weekend. Yes...pi, the number. You must say: "well, man, you've completely lost your sense of having fun in America reading math stuff after work" :-) Maybe it's true but keep on reading...

When I was 16 1/2 I read a clever small book called "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4" (wikipedia reference). It a funny diary of a boy who is discovering the world. Adrian's life was a disaster, a quite strange teen life, including, of course, an impossible love for his classmate Pandora or problems with the school thug. So he decided to change everything and became an ‘misunderstood intellectual’ and tortured poet :-) The most interesting parts of the novel are the continuous references to the books Adrian is reading. Comic situations are originated when Adrian is objectively describing what he doesn't understand but that the reader grasps, oftenly through these books he is reading. An example: "Finished Animal Farm (...). From now on I shall treat pigs with the contempt they deserve". Most of then are related to political satire or the changes he is seeing in his family.

Said that, think about me as an older Adrian Mole still trying to understand the world. So what has "An history of pi" has to say about me? Coming in the next post :-)