By the time this issue of Blog Wyrm publishes, the world may know the outcome of one more game in the truly historic World Series matchup between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Perennial losers both, the Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 and the Indians since 1948. On the surface, it is hard to decide who to root for since both teams tug at the heart strings for support with their down-on-their luck history and their diehard, loyal fan base. From shear length-of-drought, one may be tempted to root for the Cubs. But Blog Wyrm would remind the reader that the Cubs are the only team in baseball that has ever turned a simple fan into a pariah.

The famous Steve Bartman incident, which took place on October 14, 2003, showed not only how petulant Cubs fans could be but also how low-class several members of the team were and still are. Blaming the Cub’s NLCS collapse on a single play, many in Chicago were ready to tar-and-feather Steve Bartman instead of putting blame where it was due – on the players. Bartman’s quality of life was irrevocably destroyed. The only reason that Blog Wyrm isn’t ready to completely argue for the total rejection of the Cubs is that Bartman maintains his loyalty and support for the team even to this day.

So if you root for the Indians in the Fall Classic that’s great. If you root for the Cubs, do it for the right reason – that a win by them may finally bring some measure of peace into the life of a guy who didn’t deserve all the grief the Windy City heaped upon him.

Now onto the columns.

Under The Hood explores how waves and the wave equation look to different observers with different points-of-view. Contrary to the usual ‘lore’ found in some physics circles, there is a reasonable mathematical and physical interpretation of the wave equation after it has been subjected to a Galilean transformation. Since this behavior is central to the arguments that lead to Special Relativity, it is particularly important to understand just how far one can get with the classical picture.

Continuing last month’s theme on how complexity can arise from simple rules repeated often, Aristotle To Digital discusses Conway’s game of life. This form of cellular automata pretty much launched a revival in that field and makes for a fun home programming project. It is amazing to see the boundless patterns that emerge from these simple rules. And, by the way, the how system is Turing complete, meaning that one can actually program the Game of Life using the Game of Life – very meta, in the strictest sense of that term.

When are money and wealth the same thing? Almost never! But that hasn’t stopped a huge portion of the known world from conflating the two with sometimes humorous and other times disastrous consequences. Join Common Cents as it reviews Jane Gleason-White’s book Double Entry and reflects on the creation of wealth amidst the assignment of credits and debits on the accounting ledgers of the world.

For a different “October Classic,” our own Jack attempts a Halloween-themed marathon in Green Screen. She attempts to watch and review a different creepy movie every day of the month! Follow her on her quest starting with the Halloween Challenge post and continuing through the “Next Post” link at the bottom of each one. How far did she get?

And finally About Comics begins the first of a two-part installment on the acclaimed Watchmen mini-series. Widely held as one of the most important literary works of the 20th Century, the 12-part comic series by Moore and Gibbons set the bar for what comics should/could be. But does it really deserve that lofty position? Read and find out.

Enjoy!