"Oxford is a complete dump"

The above quote is from the Blackadder goes forth series, the episode involved Cpt. Blackadder looking for a German spy. Out of the following universities of England, Oxford, Cambridge and Hull, only two are of greatness. General Melchet (played by Stephen Fry) pipes up with the immortal statement, "Oxford is a complete dump".

With that classic humor behind us let us get to the whole point of this page (beautifully entitled page :). The whole point of this page is to deal with the current books I am reading and have read.

The previous book I read was on Alan Turing, a fellow of Kings College Cambridge, the book is entitled 'Alan Turing the Enigma' by Andrew Hodges. Cambridge and Hull 1, Oxford 0.

The current book I am reading is entitled 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' by Robert Kanigel. This book is about the genius of RAMANUJAN.
He also attended Cambridge, Trinity College Cambridge, 2-0.

I really recommend you read these books, fascinating people.

These books both look at Mathematics, a vast area of science I know little about, "knowing everything isn't fun, but the process of learning is fun".

Another common feature between these books is that both subjects, Turing and R', died very young, but despite that, made huge comtributions to the area of science, life. I ask you, the reader, what have you contributed in the area of life, science?

Both these books are littered with great quotations from great entities, for example here is Oscar Wilde's closing lines of 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

These words mean a lot to me, because the are very true, I wish they weren't true :)

Another great poet, Shelley and his "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty".

"I vowed that I would dedicate my powers
To thee and thine; have I not kept the vow?"

The above quote again means a lot to me, it is about respect, honour and dedication, values I try to adhere to, and sometimes unintentionally I break. Of course I always try to put the pieces back together but sometimes that is not alloWed.

I'll leave you with the topic of Infinity, what is infinity? Well for me it is a dog chasing his tail, or a series of repeating numbers, like points on a circle as we go around and round, ad infinitum.

Infinity

                                                Infinity is endless,
                                                Endless is infinity,
                                                Never ending space,
                                                Space-time is tranquility,

                                                Infinite life repeating,
                                                Death becomes birth,
                                                Traversing a ring,
                                                Dust becomes earth,

                                                Earth captures moon,
                                                Moon creates waves,
                                                Waves crashing tune,
                                                Waters create caves,

                                                Caves become sand,
                                                Deposited at shore,
                                                Time gives hand,
                                                Sand forms floor,

                                                Earth becomes dust,
                                                Never ending recycle,
                                                Forever earth's crust,
                                                Life's repeating cycle.

Michael James Dempsey

Sigma

Ok, I have finished 'The Man Who Knew Infinity', it was a masterpiece.
Godfrey Harold Hardy the greatest English Mathematician of the 20th
cent. is a remarkable man, like Ramanujan. Here is something that has
me in stitches with laughter...
Hardy's New years resolutions (like mine are always ridiculous, and unattainable *sigh*)
1. Prove the Riemann hypothesis
2. Make 211 no out in the fourth innings of the last match at the Oval
(Which was something like hitting a grand slam home run while behind
by three runs in the ninth inning of the world series' final game.)
3. Find an argument for the nonexsistence of God which shall convince the
general public.
4. Be the first man at the top of Mt. Everest.
5. Be proclaimed the first president of the U.S.S.R. of Great Britain
and Germany.
6. Murder Mussolini.

void chuckle()
{
 printf("\n He He Ha Ha He");
 chuckle();
}


"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,

 It's with O'Leary in the grave."


Oh and one thing before I go, Cork Institute of Technology is the best,
it has and had some AMAZING people pass through, especially the Maths and
Computing Department, all hail DCOM4. :)

"Oxford is a complete dump"

Sigma

"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone, It's with O'Leary in the grave."

"Romantic Ireland's dead and gone,
It's with O'Leary in the grave."