Monthly Archive: February 2015

I suppose that if Blog Wyrm were a young woman, we would be thinking about holding a party and would be shopping for cars. If it were an NCAA men’s basketball team, we would be swelling with college pride, looking forward to a doubling of admission applications and burning cars, sofas, and mattresses in the street. Well Blog Wyrm is none of these things but 16 issues is still an awesome achievement and a reason to celebrate – although we won’t be burning anything.

When launched, Image Comics was a prepubescent’s dream: big muscles, big breasts, big guns, big action and no story. Things have change in the past twenty years as discussed in this week’s About Comics.

What do language, metaphor and Star Trek have in common? Come read Aristotle to Digital and find out.

The calculus of variations is a rich body ot techniques that has untied many disparate fields of study. Sadly the notation is often fractured by sloppy presentations. Under the Hood tries to set things right.

Contrary to popular belief, capitalists are not limited to business owners, bankers, and Wall Street wolves. Common Cents talks about what capital is and how there is a little bit of capitalist in each and everyone of us.

Enjoy!

The snow has fallen and so has the temperature. The irony of this current issue, is that the number 15 is greater than the reading on my thermometer. And since it is so cold outside why don’t you stay in and read some fine columns in this week’s installment.

While not quite the three-card Monte made famous as a classic New York scam, the two card Ace problem is an interesting study in probability, statistics, and counting and a perfect application of stochastic reasoning in this week’s Aristotle to Digital.

When does multiplying by a matrix look like performing a vector cross product? When you are in the magic that is three dimensions as explained in Under the Hood.

Sure the Godfather can make you an offer that you can’t refuse – by unfairly using force. But can the free market ever be fair and gentle? Common Cents explores the Ultimatum Game and the results may surprise you.

Well it seems that the Marvel cinematic universe has performed perhaps another homage to a little known character. About Comics explores the literary similarities between renaissance religious literature and a big bad super villain on Agent Carter.

Ever been on a merry-go-round and things look different because you were going around in a circle? Well  explains how to describe what you see and we promise it won’t make you sick.

Enjoy!

The Blog Wyrm staff have always been fond of the unusual and quirky.  This should come as no surprise considering our tongue-in-cheek nature and our eclectic subject matter. So in celebration of our quirkiness and the fact that our fourteenth issue is coming out on Friday the 13th, we thought we would focus on the word ‘Fortnight’. Fortnight comes from old English where it literally means fourteen nights. A popular unit of speed, the furlong per fortnight, is a blazingly fast, if you are snail. At that speed, it would take only a short 21 minutes to cross, from left to right, a typical 8.5×11 sheet of paper. Quirky enough for you or perhaps too quirky? In any event, let’s get on to the columns.

The January jobs report is in. The economy has been producing new jobs at a good rate. So why did the unemployment rate go up and what should the Fed do about it? Common Cents has some answers.

About Comics finishes the backstory of our favorite Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. with a look at Skye’s very huggable and lovable father – Calvin Zabo – and looks ahead to what the future may hold for her in the Marvel cinematic universe.

Aristotle to Digital takes a random walk through thoughts on the use of uncertainty, statistics and probability in everyday life.

Ever been on a merry-go-round and things look different because you were going around in a circle? Well Under the Hood explains how to describe what you see and we promise it won’t make you sick.

Enjoy!

Do to a variety of small events, we at Blog Wyrm are running a bit late this week for Issue 13. We comfort our consciences by pointing out that this Baker’s Dozen installment is pack full of columns a bit bigger and more eye grabbing than we’ve put out before.

About Comics continues the back story of the Inhumans. In this installment, the connection between the Inhumans and the Kree is center-stage with a fleeting reference to this past summer’s blockbuster movie ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Find out the secret origin of the Inhumans why their city doesn’t seem to sit still for very long.

Where does money come from and is it true that time is money? Common Cents answers these questions with a little help from the O’Jays and Schoolhouse Rock and shows how it is better to think of that old saying the other way around.

Aristotle to Digital explores how the simple symbol of ‘=’ can pack so many different meanings into two small horizontal lines. Along the way, we ponder why its seems to be that the smaller the word the bigger its entry in the dictionary.

Finally, Under the Hood explores the various properties of the one-sided Greens function. Connection are made all over the place to the propagator, the Wronskian, and complex variables with a dash of causality thrown in for good measure. This column is the coda to the presentation of time evolution in quantum and classical mechanics that has been filling the column these last ten weeks.

Enjoy!