More Updating In House and On Line

I've now updated the Rationalist Essays section of my website http://www.mayhematics.com/e/e.htm.
The changes are mainly cosmetic, using CSS to keep the style consistent and put in coloured backgrounds. There is one new Essay on "Rewriting of History by Christian Apologists", which was the subject of my 9 February talk to Hastings Humanists.

On Friday I took delivery of a new sofa-bed. This is to replace the oslo futon I previously had but found too heavy, because of the metal base, and difficult to keep the mattress in place in the upright position. The new one is smaller and has no arm rests. It is in plain brown upholstery but I can cover this with a selection of differently patterned duvet covers. I've also moved everything round to make space for it, but not sure I've found the best way to fit the computer in.

History of Ideas and Science Overview

I've at last got round to updating the sections on my website dealing with "History of Ideas" and "Science Overview". Much of this was done towards the end of last year but I've only just got to the position where all the necessary facilities my new computer are operational. There is still a lot of work to be done on these pages - they are an ongoing project. The "History of Ideas" pages make much use of colour-coding of the entries, to distinguish between subjects.

Next on my to-do list is the section on "Rationalism", which I propose to put in the form of a series of Essays.

Catching Up

I seem to have lost the motivation to keep this diary up to date lately.

Before christmas I invested in a new computer, a Samsung laptop with Windows 7 and considerably more power than my previous desk top tower type, and I've now just about got it all working, transferred all the files from my old machine, and reinstalled the key programs that I use. Now I should be able to catch up on all the updating work on my website, and on the Hastings chessclub site, that I have in mind.

Over the new year I played in the Hastings chess congress, just in the lower sections, and didn't do particularly well, but I'm hoping my grade may have improved slightly. I seem to be getting better at prosecuting an attack once I have obtained an advantage, particularly using queen and knight together.

Today (Sunday) I went to London by train, to attend the 11 am lecture by Kenan Malik at Conway Hall. The subject was "The Myths of Christian Europe". I thought it might provide me with some material for my own talk to Hastings Humanists on 9 February, which is on the rewriting of history by christian apologists.

I also stayed for a symposium held at 2.30 pm on the future of South Place Ethical Society, of which I am a member. It seems some members fear a "take-over" by the BHA, but personally I can see no harm in greater cooperation between the two organisations. I would also like to see the Rationalist Association involved. Some of the members there seem to hold strange ideas about what "Humanism" is.

Going to the first meeting meant getting up very early since there were works on the line and a bus service between Wadhurst and Tonbridge. The train left at 7.38 and I arrived at Charing Cross about 10.15. The return journey was longer due to waiting for the connecting bus and train. The "bus" was in fact a very long "Eurocruiser" coach which had considerable difficulty negotiating some of the sharp bends on the side roads and station entrances.

Mathematics and Number Wisdom

I've at last got round to updating the mathematics section of my website. The "Rational Mathematics", "Alternative Mathematics" and "Geometry" sections are now all under one index page. I've also transferred the pages on "Altairian Arithmetic", "Numerology" and "Numeromancy" from Esoterica to the Alternative Mathematics section, together with a new page on "Arithmosophy".

I'm not sure that Numeromancy and Arithmosophy can really be called Mathematics but they use numbers and require a knowledge of some arithmetic. I base my interpretation of "Wisdom of Numbers" on multiplicative relationships rather than additive properties. This makes it a more disciplined realm.

I have masses of notes on Geometry, but lack of satisfactory software for producing diagrams has held it back. There is nothing particularly new, just improved arrangement and presentation, making use of CSS.

A Bright Morning's Walk

I seem to have been neglecting this Diary. The last message I intended to post here, about seeing a rainbow at London Bridge, went to the Hastings Humanists blog by mistake.

It was a beautiful sunny day this morning, so I took a walk along the front as far as Glyne Gap to see how the new cycle path is progressing, and there is stil quite a lot of work to be done, but when finished it will be possible to cycle to Bexhill without going on a main road at all.

I went to the Ravenside retail park to have a look at the computers on display in PCWorld and ended up buying one. It's a large Samsung laptop, which I'm hoping will be able to replace the old desk-top machine on which I'm typing this message.

I left about 10 am and got back about 2 pm. There was quite a cold wind, whipping up surf on the sea, which was near to high tide, but the sky was blue like a spring day, and the birds were singing. But soon after I got back the sky darkened and the rain came down. It's just started again now as I write.

Last month, after my visits to Leicester and Bournemouth for the chess, I had some trouble with my right leg and had to rest it, but it seems to have held up today, but maybe a bit stiff in the morning, well see. I needed the exercise anyway.

Words

A day or two ago I finally got round to updating the Words section of my website. There is not much difference really except in the presentation, which now makes use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to ensure the pages are in a consistent style throughout. There is a lot more to CSS that I need to learn, I've only used the basics to determine the background colours, typefaces, margin settings and suchlike.

In the simplified spelling I've gone back closer to the orignal 1997 article, though with j used for the th sound in 'then' and q for the indefinite vowel. The only new feature is the use of th for the tch sound in 'match' and dh for the dge sound in 'hedge', which I consider an analogous use of h as for sh in 'fish' and in the combination zh often used for the sound in 'leisure'. It always seems to me that there must be another little tweak somewhere that will make the system better, but when I try it there is usually some unforeseen problem. I'll probably come back to the question in another three years.

The z-section, which used to contain the verse anthologies, is now devoted to lists of links, and the s-section whch contained the stories is no more. Instead they are all in the w for Words section.

Bournemouth Weekend

Around the 7th October I got the idea into my head that I should play some more chess and enter the Bournemouth Congress which was on the next weekend 14 to 16 October. Thanks to the internet and email I managed to send an entry form, book a bed and breakfast for two nights and work out a railway journey, along the south coast, changing at Brighton and Southampton Central.

The travelling went very well apart from getting a slow train from Southampton and having to change again at Brockenhurst, to catch the Cross-Country train from Manchester that I should probably have caught in the first place.

This was the first time I'd been in Bournemouth since the memorable BCPS weekend there in 1989. The weather was excellent and I did a lot of walking around the central areas of the town; probably too much as by the end I was struggling to get up the hill to the venue with a stiff right knee.

My results were as poor as at Leicester, winning only the last game, and that only because my opponent blundered away a rook, and refused to agree a draw, which I thought would have been fairer, since he had played well and had the advantage up to that point. There are photos of the event here.

Since I got back on the Sunday night I've been feeling pretty tired and have endeavoured to take it easy and rest my brain and my leg. The photo is of a tethered balloon on which people were booking rides in the Winter Gardens.