Robert A. Black, Mathematical Storyteller

The internet is conspiring to tell me something today, or rather, to remind me of a topic I revisit from time to time. This morning, Patheos.com had not one, but two commentaries on something written by a conservative Christian blogger calling herself "The Transformed Wife," and claiming that "Men Prefer Debt-Free Virgins Without Tattoos." One of the responses began, "My poor husband will be shocked to hear this..." and tried to refute the claim point-by-point. The other took the argument to another level, saying, "Since when is being a Christian woman about making yourself pleasing to men? Are we as Christians supposed to conform ourselves to men? Or are we supposed to conform ourselves to the Lord?" I found myself flashing back to my marriage, where my ex-wife spent a great deal of time trying to make herself into a "good Christian wife" who would appeal to a "good Christian husband." The fact that I hadn't ...

I first sat down to write this entry the other day, but before I could get a word out, I was interrupted by a day-job crisis that put my entire premise to the test. Fortunately, I got through it in one piece. As I've pointed out before, the news media's business model depends on keeping your attention, so you'll stay tuned through all their commercials. One way they do that is by trying to convince you that something you value is about to be taken away. At the most basic level, they try to make you think your life is in jeopardy. That's where all those local TV news stories come from - "Can your pet hamster kill you? Details at eleven!" You see it in sports, too. As a lifelong fan of the Indy 500, I've been reading articles explaining why IndyCar racing is on death's door ever since the split between the Indy Racing League and CART - twenty-two years ago. You'd think surviving a decade would be long enough to get off the critical list, l...

The fate of this country - perhaps the fate of the entire world - will be decided by white Americans. When the media talks about America being "deeply divided," they mean white America. Americans of color may not be unanimous on anything, but you can't say they're "deeply divided" when ninety percent or so are on the same side. The fate of the entire world ? Seriously? Yes, seriously. Most times, that would be hyperbole, but in this case one of the things at stake is control of enough nuclear firepower to blow up civilization several dozen times over. What's also at stake is control of an economy large enough for its energy choices to tip the global climate balance one way or another. So yes, the fate of the world. Seriously. My fellow white Americans, it's all on us. Again and again lately, I've been hearing and reading commentators saying that the people Red State Americans really don't like are... white Blue State America...

(Not to be confused with "Girls Gone Wild," which is a topic for some other blog to write about...) Trying to forge your own writing path is hard, and it gets me down sometimes. This morning, for instance, although I'm better now. For those of you tuning in late, I've been trying to develop a way of storytelling that communicates math and science concepts, or at least inspires enough interest in them for kids to go and find out more for themselves. One thing that's hard about it is not having anything to compare myself to. Yeah, yeah, I know - "What part of 'forging your own path' did you not understand?" I knew what I was getting into, but that doesn't make it easy. One of the big reasons I've gotten into anime and other Japanese programming so much is that it's one of the few places where I can find at least a few shows that point toward what I'm trying to do myself. On Japanese TV, you can see random references to the...

To tell you the truth, when the first sexual harassment claim against Al Franken came out, I was surprised that it was the only one. Not that I think Al Franken is a bad guy, which I don't, but because of where he came from. The type of shenanigans he was being accused of (and photographed doing, in at least one instance) fit perfectly with the brand of humor he wrote on Saturday Night Live , and that brand was what made him a success. It was his livelihood for a long time, a part of his public persona. Of course he did stuff like that. However ... That doesn't let him off the hook. Yes, there have been complaints already about Franken paying the penalty while Donald Trump and Roy Moore are still around. That's not important, unless you agree with Republicans that having power is more important, even if it means you have to follow your leaders into the sewer. I thought Franken was doing a great job as a senator, but that just makes his resignation a tragedy, no...

I'm not sure I've ever gone this long without a journal update. The week-long audit I've spent more than a year preparing for begins tomorrow. Getting ready for it has been hampered by other craziness in the day-job world, and I haven't had the mental energy to do much else. I've gotten so out of my writing mindset that I feel like I can't even put a decent blog post together, let alone anything else. So today I'm going to do something low-pressure and fun, to get my momentum going again. I give you... The Anime Nerd Girls of Science! Five female anime characters I've come across who take science more seriously than their American counterparts. That is, if they even have American counterparts. #5) Senomiya Akiho, Robotics;Notes The "Science Adventure" series of visual novels and anime series had to have at least one character on the list. My first thought was Makise Kurisu from Steins;Gate , but she's too much of a male ...

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 ...