Maths is scary

A useful summary of the different types of infinity. The explanations are great though they made my head hurt a little bit and some of them were stomach-clutchingly strange. Thinking about infinity was so upsetting for Galileo that he stopped contemplating some aspects of it. Perhaps Stross is right in that the lower depths of maths are a place man should not tread.

After the tears

More on the neurochemistry of emotions, in this case heartbreak. Reading the description of what happens is almost heartbreaking in itself the changes in the brain caused by are "similar to what is found in young animals abandoned by their mothers". No wonder the sense of loss is so profound. Ooh, and there's more. A 90 minute video of how smells work.

Number wang

The first thousand digits of pi. The last three numbers of that sequence are 198.

Chemical cry

Useful summary of the different types of tears. Useful for me, anyway. Do they smell differently to each other? That could be useful.

Thinking big and small

A map of the connections between philosophers. I will literally have to stop myself spending the rest of the day playing around with it. Strawson? Where are you?

Word counts

A fabulous list of what people on death row say moments before they are executed. Hmm, perhaps "fabulous" is not the right word. Interesting doesn't seem to capture it, nor does intriguing. Macabre? It's certainly that. Anyway, the most used word is "love". "Sorry" comes in at number four.

In memory

I'm seeing more and more of these roadside memorials. Some come and go within days of a tragic accident but there many that persist for far longer. This one near where I live has been maintained for months. There are places in the UK where they have caused problems but their increasing frequency suggests they are becoming more tolerated. The policies of some local authorities suggests they are getting more tolerant too.
This site lists more than 500 of them in Ireland. There is a register for UK roadside memorials here but it's not very well maintained.

Most of the ones I'm seeing, and I'll try to photograph them when I can, are for traffic accidents. But they have a long history. In Ireland they commemorate where people died during the war of independence and the civil war. I know I've seen them in France and Italy too.

There's research being done into these spontaneous shrines. I didn't know it but there are also "ghost bikes" - bikes painted white that are attached to a spot where a cyclist was knocked down or killed.

I suppose I'm slightly puzzled as to why they mourners set them up and maintain them. I can understand it in a graveyard as that's where the remains are laid to rest. But at the place a person died? Is it because they died there, at that spot? I'd guess that relatives would pass by the spot regularly too. Do they genuflect? Is it so they don't forget, that they have to remember, when there is a danger that they would forget?