20 April 2024

Jay Jay enjoying the breeze

I was doing something in the garage. Jay Jay started yelping from inside the house. I let him out. Usually, he is very well behaved. Does not run away or let us get out of his eyesight.

He watched me for a few seconds, walked to the driveway and sat down to enjoy the breeze and watch the neighborhood activities. Why he folds his right front leg like that I will never know!!

20 April 2024

A short 30 mile ride to test out the leg

The left leg is not fully recovered. I can walk but any time the leg is stretched, it gives a stern warning. Took the bike out to see if the leg can deal with it. The riding is not the problem. It is how I land my left leg when I come to a stop is what I had to be careful about. Coming down a staircase is a bit of a hassle but the motorbiking went fine.

20 April 2024

Very interesting event in downtown Alpharetta

After shopping for fresh vegetables, we ran into a bunch of tents that were being set up in Brooke Street Park. There was a surprisingly large number of young kids there. Went to investigate.

Turns out it was Childrens’ Entrepreneur Market. Apparently this is a new thing started in downtown Alpharetta this year. Lots of very young kids had their parents set up the tents so they could sell stuff they had made. Some were fairly interesting and some not so much.

But loved their willingness to take the initiative.

Best was one young girl who had come prepared with a board where she had written “Sorry! We are sold out!!” Loved the confidence. Loved the thinking around the corner.

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16 April 2024

Why the heck do we write 4 that way?

Given my love for numbers, lately I have started reading a book on where do our senses for numbers come from? Do animals understand numbers? (They do – but not the way we think). Does a child of 2 months understand the difference between 2 and 3? (You will be surprised!!)

Now I am trying to figure out why is it that in most cultures, we write 2 by repeating 1 in some fashion. Same for 3. But when it gets to 4, we go a very different way. And all cultures have uniformly decided to take a fork while representing 4.

The Roman notation is the most unintuitive. After denoting 2 as nothing but two of 1 and 3 as three of 1, to denote 4, first it introduces 5 !!! And then the understanding of subtraction!!

Why did they do that?

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