Robert A. Black, Mathematical Storyteller

The Circle X Ranch area in the Santa Monica Mountains can be a real beast in hot weather. I'd learned that before . But the weather forecast had been looking good yesterday. Yes, there was an excessive heat warning for today and the next few days, but the Saturday forecast had been cooler, cool enough that I thought I could take Emma out there. She'd had a health issue back in London a couple of months ago, and she wasn't really sure how much hiking she was up for, but she wanted to see one of my favorite hiking spots. Little did I suspect that the excessive heat would roll in a day early, or that I'd be the who struggled more with it. Maybe there's a bit of poetic justice in that, a reminder that I shouldn't be overconfident of my hiking abilities. In any event, we did make it up to the top of Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's only one of several good places to visit in the area, but it's one worth seeing, ev...

And just like that, the Whedon Wars are upon us again. This past weekend, Kai Cole, ex-wife of Joss Whedon, published a guest essay on the entertainment website The Wrap (full disclosure: an old college roommate of mine is one of their editors), accusing Joss of cheating on her multiple times over the course of their marriage. I'll spare you the details. You can look them up for yourself if you like. The point she was making, the reason she gave for telling her sad story, was to inform the world that Joss is not the feminist hero he makes himself out to be or that much of the media acknowledges him as. And that's where I come into the picture, because I'm one of many people who started questioning his feminist street cred a long time ago. A quick review: I was a fan of his Buffy the Vampire Slayer series from the very beginning. I learned how to switch from screenplays to prose by writing Buffy fan fiction. And what really drew me into the show was the story ...

There's a group of friends I meet for dinner every month. I'm the youngster in the bunch, as most of them go all the way back to their student radical days in the 60s. One of them is now a conservative Trump supporter, and so I asked him a question that's been on my mind for quite a while now: How is it that all those young, idealistic hippies of the 60s - the ones who embraced peace and love and brotherhood, the ones I looked up to and tried to emulate - have turned into such angry, bigoted, Trump-supporting old people in their old age? His answer? "Yeah, look where all that got us! We spent our lives being idealists, and it didn't pay anything, so now we've got nothing to show for it." Okay, his tone of voice wasn't quite as hostile as the words may suggest it was, but the point still came across. At least from this guy's perspective, the values their idealism espoused back then have come up empty. He said it in a joking-not-joking wa...

The demonstrators at Charlottesville were misunderstood. That's one of the things I was hearing last night. They're not like the white supremacists of old. They don't think white people are better than everyone else. They just want equality. If Black Lives Matter, they want White Lives to matter too. If there's a Gay Pride Month, they want a Straight Pride Month. What's wrong with that? A lot of these demonstrators looked like they were college-age, and in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that when I was that age, I too had some ignorant viewpoints and did some insensitive things. (Although really, if I was that age and had been there in Charlottesville, I'd like to think the swastikas might have tipped me off that I was in the wrong crowd.) I can see how a young white person, especially someone who's grown up sheltered and privileged, might not realize that in our society, White Lives always matter and every month is Straight Prid...

Without a doubt, the most haunting and thought-provoking anime series I've ever watched is Jigoku Shoujo , which translates to English as Hell Girl . Note that I do not say it's the best anime series I've ever watched, because it's often repetitive and depressing - but it sticks with me like no other show has. This summer, it's back for its fourth season after a nine-year layoff, and it hasn't missed a beat. The premise is simple - There exists a mysterious, otherworldly website, which can only be accessed at midnight by someone bearing a strong hatred. On that site, you can enter the name of someone you want revenge against. At that point, you're whisked away to the Realm of Eternal Twilight, where you meet a girl named Enma Ai and her assistants. Ai has one of the assistants turn into a straw doll with a red string around it, which she then gives to you. If you untie the red string, the person whose name you entered will be taken directly to He...