“
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with light weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
We came into the world like brother and brother,
And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,
And careful hours with Time's deformed hand
Have written strange defeatures in my face.
But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
If the skin were parchment and the blows you gave were ink,
Your own handwriting would tell you what I think.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I'll entertain the offered fallacy.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,
to drown me in thy sister’s flood of tears.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one’s soul shine through. If there are places on your body where this is a possibility, you are not attractive – you are leaking.
”
”
Fran Lebowitz (The Fran Lebowitz Reader)
“
If she lives till doomsday, she'll burn a week longer than the whole world.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak; Lay open to my earthy-gross conceit, Smother'd in errors, feeble, shallow, weak, The folded meaning of your words' deceit.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?
Sleeping or waking, mad or well-advised?
Known unto these, and to myself disguised?
I'll say as they say, and persever so,
And in this mist at all adventures go.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Ay, when fowls have no feathers and fish have no fin.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Ill deeds is doubled with an evil word.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,
I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
What is the course and drift of your compact?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Hopeless and helpless doth AEgeon wend,
But to procrastinate his lifeless end.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
The pleasing punishment that women bare....
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
There is always the chance that something else is influencing the data, causing the link. Between 1993 and 2008 the police in Germany were searching for the mysterious ‘phantom of Heilbronn’, a woman who had been linked to forty crimes, including six murders; her DNA had been found at all the crime scenes. Tens of thousands of police hours were spent looking for Germany’s ‘most dangerous woman’ and there was a €300,000 bounty on her head. It turns out she was a woman who worked in the factory that made the cotton swabs used to collect DNA evidence.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
I, sir, am Dromio; command him away. I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
But here must end the story of my life,
And happy were I in my timely death
Could all my travels warrant me they live.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Why should their liberty than ours be more?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Because we all make mistakes. Relentlessly. And that is nothing to be feared
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
If a new system is implemented, humans can be very resourceful when finding new ways to make mistakes.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Humans instinctively perceive numbers logarithmically, not linearly. A young child or someone who has not been indoctrinated by education will place three halfway between one and nine.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
A million seconds from now is just shy of eleven days and fourteen hours. Not so bad. I could wait that long. It’s within two weeks. A billion seconds is over thirty-one years. A trillion seconds from now is after the year 33,700 CE.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind;
Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Return'd so soon! Rather approached too late: the capron burns, the pig falls from the spit, the clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell; my mistress made it one upon my cheek: she is hot because the meat is cold; the meat is cold because you have no stomach, you have no stomach, having broke your fast; but we, that know what 'tis to fast and pray, are pentent for your default today.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
If you ever have access to a friend’s phone, go into the settings and change their calendar to the Buddhist one. Suddenly, they’re living in the 2560s. Maybe try to convince them they have just woken up from a coma.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
And then Robinson Crusoe stripped naked, swam out to his ship, filled his pockets with biscuits, and swam back to shore...."
"What?" I said, hefting my pack and frowning at the child.
"Nothing," she said, getting to her feet. "Just an old preHegira book that Uncle Martin used to read to me. He used to say that proofreaders have always been incompetent assholes-even 1400 years ago.
”
”
Dan Simmons (Endymion (Hyperion Cantos, #3))
“
In February 2007, six F-22s were flying from Hawaii to Japan when all their systems crashed at once. All navigation systems went offline, the fuel systems went, and even some of the communication systems were out. This was not triggered by an enemy attack or clever sabotage. The aircraft had merely flown over the International Date Line.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
The story of June and Mick Riva seemed like a tragedy to their oldest child, Nina. It felt like a comedy of errors to their first son, Jay. It was an origin story for their second son, Hud. And a mystery to the baby of the family, Kit. To Mick himself it was just a chapter of his memoir. But to June, it was, always and forever, a romance.
”
”
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Malibu Rising)
“
A laser ready to shoot financial data between cities. It holds the world record for the most boring laser ever.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Los hombres son dueños de su libertad. Sólo el tiempo es su señor y cuando les parece van o vienen.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Mi corazón ora por él, aunque mi lengua lo maldiga.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,
And strike you home without a messenger.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
You wanted to show us…a battle droid? The most incompetent droid soldier in the history of both the Republic and the Empire. A mechanical comedy of errors.
”
”
Chuck Wendig (Aftermath (Star Wars: Aftermath, #1))
“
very painful comedy of errors
”
”
Neal Shusterman (Scythe (Arc of a Scythe, #1))
“
I have no idea how stock traders respond to such an unexpected jump up; like some kind of anti-crash. I assume they jumped back in through windows and blew cocaine out of their noses.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Any historian of warfare knows that it is in good part a comedy of errors and a museum of incompetence; but if for every error and every act of incompetence one can substitute an act of treason, we can see how many points of fascinating interpretation are open to the paranoid imagination: treason in high places can be found at almost every turning -- and in the end the real mystery, for one who reads the primary works of paranoid scholarship, is not how the United States has been brought to its present dangerous position, but how it has managed to survive at all.
”
”
Richard Hofstadter (The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays)
“
This is a common theme in human progress. We make things beyond what we understand, and we always have done. Steam engines worked before we had a theory of thermodynamics; vaccines were developed before we knew how the immune system works; aircraft continue to fly to this day, despite the many gaps in our understanding of aerodynamics. When theory lags behind application, there will always be mathematical surprises lying in wait. The important thing is that we learn from these inevitable mistakes and don’t repeat them.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
I love the example of someone who starts work at 8 a.m. and by 12 p.m. they need to have cleaned floors eight to twelve of a building. Setting about cleaning one floor per hour would leave a whole floor still untouched come noon.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Why should men be more free than women?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
a perfect stance, which is wrong yet supported by enough plausible misconceptions that it is possible to argue about it at length
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Even when the data has made it into a database, it is not safe... which brings us, finally, to Microsoft Excel.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Every why hath a wherefore.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
I need a partner. I need somebody who is not always thinking about what feels good for them at that moment. Most of life is the boring, hard work between big events.
”
”
Rob Armstrong (Daddy 3.0: A Comedy of Errors)
“
Podemos compadecerte mas no perdonarte.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
La fortuna nos dejó, a cada uno por igual, de qué alegrarnos y de qué entristecernos.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Mientras encuentra pues a quien he extrañado tanto me arriesgo a perder a quien tanto amo.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
En busca de ellos, infeliz, me pierdo yo mismo.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Mientras da su compañía a sus amantes yo desfallezco en esta casa por una mirada suya.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
¡A cuántos tontos enamorados esclaviza la locura de los celos!
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Dicen que un porqué tiene un para qué.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Si los dos somos uno, y me haces trampas, yo digiero el veneno de tu carne, haciéndome ramera por contagio.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
El tiempo es insolvente y debe más de lo que tiene.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
In debating which was best, we shall part with neither.
DROMIO OF EPHESUS They stand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors Annotated)
“
Now you can safely reply and say that nothing in the Gregorian calendar can happen less frequently than once every four hundred years. JUST FOR FUN.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
إنني في هذه الدنيا كقطرة ماء
تريد أن تبحث وسط المحيط عن قطرة أخرى،
فلما سقطت فيه لتتعقب الرفيق،
في خفية،وفي تلهف،،أضاعت نفسها..
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
إن الشقاء قد يعتصر النفس البائسة،
فإذا سمعناها تبكي ناشدناها أن تسكن،
غير أننا،لو تحملنا ثقل ما تحمل من ألم
لتشكينا مثلها أو زدنا عليها شكوى
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
I see a man here need not live by shifts,
When in the streets he meets such golden gifts. [III.ii.187]
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
I must get a sconce for my head, and ensconce it too, or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. [II.ii.37]
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Thither I must, although against my will; for servants must their masters’ minds fulfill. [IV.i.113]
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. [IV.3.65]
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
O most unhappy strumpet! [IV.4.124]
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
In the apothecaries’ system of weight units, a pound is divided into 12 ounces, which each consist of 8 drams. A dram is then 3 scruples, each made from 20 grains. I hope that made sense. A grain is one 5,760th of a pound. But not a normal pound: this is a troy pound. Which is different from a normal pound. And people wonder why the metric system was invented.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
A un alma infeliz, maltratada por la adversidad, le pedimos que se calme cuando oímos sus lamentos. Pero si padeciéramos un dolor como el suyo, nos lamentaríamos tanto o más que ella.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
إني أرى الحلية مهما أتقنت صياغتها وأحسن طلاؤها
يذهب رونقها.أما الذهب فيها فيبقى
وإن تناوله الآخرون!غير أن كثرة التعرض
تبلي الذهب،فإذا كان الرجل ذا سمعة طيبة
فيجب ألا يسئ إلى سمعته بالخيانة والفساد.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Allowing for the two types of year (leap and normal), and the seven possible days a year can start on, there are only fourteen calendars to choose from. When I was shopping for a 2019 calendar (non–leap year, starting on a Tuesday), I knew it would be the same as the one for 2013, so I could pick up a secondhand one at a discount price. Actually, for some retro charm, I hunted down one from 1985.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Perhaps Aristotle’s most widely-read work is his esoteric treatise on aesthetics, the Poetics. According to his analysis of tragic poetry (a section on comedy was either lost or never completed), the theatrical audience experiences katharsis (“purgation”) of the heightened emotions of pity and fear as the tragic hero, a basically good but flawed aristocrat, is brought down by his own “error of judgment.
”
”
The New York Times (The New York Times Guide to Essential Knowledge: A Desk Reference for the Curious Mind)
“
¿Y qué se obtiene impidiendo el recreo sino tristeza y un tedio melancólico, parientes de la sombría y desolada desesperación, y a sus talones una gran tropa infecciosa de pálidas dolencias y enemigos de la vida?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
living in cities was one of the things which caused humans to rely on maths. But which part of city living is recorded in our longest-surviving mathematical documents? Brewing beer. Beer gave us some of humankind’s first calculations.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
It's as if, behind our modern wizardry, Oz is revealed working overtime with an abacus and a slide rule. It's only when something goes wrong that we suddenly have a sense of how far mathematics has let us climb--and how long the drop below might be.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Everything in the English government appears to me the reverse of what it ought to be, and of what it is said to be. The Parliament, imperfectly and capriciously elected as it is, is nevertheless supposed to hold the national purse in trust for the nation; but in the manner in which an English Parliament is constructed it is like a man being both mortgagor and mortgagee, and in the case of misapplication of trust it is the criminal sitting in judgment upon himself. If those who vote the supplies are the same persons who receive the supplies when voted, and are to account for the expenditure of those supplies to those who voted them, it is themselves accountable to themselves, and the comedy of errors concludes with the pantomime of Hush. Neither the ministerial party nor the opposition will touch upon this case. The national purse is the common hack which each mounts upon. It is like what the country people call “Ride and tie—you ride a little way, and then I.” [6] They order these things better in France.
”
”
Thomas Paine (The Rights Of Man)
“
The venom clamours of a jealous woman,
Poisons more deadly than a mad dog’s tooth.
It seems his sleeps were hinder’d by thy railing:
And thereof comes it that his head is light.
Thou say’st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:
Unquiet meals make ill digestions;
Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;
And what’s a fever but a fit of madness?
Thou say’st his sports were hinder’d by thy brawls:
Sweet recreation barr’d, what doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair;
And at her heels a huge infectious troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?
In food, in sport, and life-preserving rest
To be disturb’d, would mad or man or beast:
The consequence is, then, thy jealous fits
Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated. Perhaps the love is occasionally on the man's side; perhaps on the lady's. Perhaps some infatuated swain has ere this mistaken insensibility for modesty, dulness for maiden reserve, mere vacuity for sweet bashfulness, and a goose, in a word, for a swan. Perhaps some beloved female subscriber has arrayed an ass in the splendour and glory of her imagination; admired his dulness as manly simplicity; worshipped his selfishness as manly superiority; treated his stupidity as majestic gravity, and used him as the brilliant fairy Titania did a certain weaver at Athens. I think I have seen such comedies of errors going on in the world. Chapter 13
”
”
William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)
“
People who do admit making errors are at best suspended or moved on, thus leaving behind a team who ‘do not make errors’ and have no experience of error management. – H. Thimbleby, ‘Errors + Bugs Needn’t Mean Death’, Public Service Review: UK Science & Technology, 2, pp. 18–19, 2011
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
there is any moral to this story, it’s that, when you are writing code, remember that someone may have to comb through it and check everything when it is being repurposed in the future. It could even be you, long after you have forgotten the original logic behind the code. For this reason, programmers can leave “comments” in their code, which are little messages to anyone else who has to read their code. The programmer mantra should be “Always comment on your code.” And make the comments helpful. I’ve reviewed dense code I wrote years before, to find the only comment is “Good luck, future Matt.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
آه،لا تدفعيني بلحنك يا جنية البحر الجميلة،
إلى أن أغرق في دموع ىأختك الفياضة.
عروس البحر،ادعيني إليك أنت بغنائك أجن حبا؟
وانشري على الأمواج الفضية جدائلك الذهبية
فأتخذها مرقدا أرقد عليها،
وفي نشوة هذا الوهم الرائع،أحس
أن قد فاز بالغنم من تيسرت له أسباب ميتة كهذه،
ولتغرق الأمواج مرقدي بالحب إذا أثقلته الخيانة.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
Imagine the slices of cheese are horizontal and mistakes are raining down from the top. Only mistakes which fall down through holes in every layer make it out the bottom to become accidents. The new element is that the cheese slices themselves are hot and parts of them are liable to drip down, causing new problems.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
If desire were really one to one, self to self, there would never be a problem of infidelity, but desire will always, without confusion, demand a particular class, Caring for a unique object is an illusion, but the feeling must be unique, and though that feeling may not be natural, it is duty. You must love your neighbour like yourself, uniquely. From the personal point of view, sexual desire, because of its impersonal and unchanging character, is a comic contradiction. The relation between every pair of lovers is unique, but in bet they can only do what all mammals do. All the relation in friendship a relationship of spirit, can be unique. In sexual relationship love the only uniqueness can be fidelity.
”
”
W.H. Auden (Lectures on Shakespeare (W.H. Auden: Critical Editions))
“
Que tu lengua no pregone tu vergüenza. Sé dulce, habla cortésmente, ten gracia en la infidelidad; viste al vicio de mensajero de la virtud. Ten una presencia amable aunque tu corazón esté manchado: enseña el pecado comportándote como un santo. Sé infiel en secreto. ¿Qué falta le hace a ella enterarse? ¿Qué ladrón es tan ingenuo para jactarse de su infamia?
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
In the mid-1990s, a new employee of Sun Microsystems in California kept disappearing from their database. Every time his details were entered, the system seemed to eat him whole; he would disappear without a trace. No one in HR could work out why poor Steve Null was database kryptonite. The staff in HR were entering the surname as “Null,” but they were blissfully unaware that, in a database, NULL represents a lack of data, so Steve became a non-entry. To computers, his name was Steve Zero or Steve McDoesNotExist. Apparently, it took a while to work out what was going on, as HR would happily reenter his details each time the issue was raised, never stopping to consider why the database was routinely removing him.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
Even when we cannot see parts of the moon, they are still physically there. During a new moon, when it is completely lit from behind, it appears only as a black, starless circle in the sky. For while we sometimes cannot see the moon, it is still there as a silhouette. Which is why I get upset when a crescent moon is shown with stars visible through the middle of it!
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
When, through enjoyment (or indeed through pain) which takes possession of some inner strength, the soul is gathered up round that alone, 4 it can’t, it seems, pay heed to other powers. And this refutes the error that maintains the soul ignites in us in multiples. 7 When something, therefore, that is heard or seen holds in its thrall the lower act of soul, time passes by, and we don’t notice it.
”
”
Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso)
“
They can be meek that have no other cause.
A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burden’d with like weight of pain,
As much, or more, we should ourselves complain:
So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,
With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me;
But, if thou live to see like right bereft,
This fool-begg’d patience in thee will be left.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
لا تجعل لسانك هو الذي يعلن خيانتك وعارك،
تلطف في نظرتك وترفق في حديثك فهذا أليق بالخيانة،
واكس الرذيلة ثيابا فبدو فيها كالفضيلة.
تظاهر بالإخلاص وإن كان قلبك قد تلوث.
وعلم الخطيئة كيف تسلك مسلك القديس المقدس،
خن في السر:فما حاجتها لأن تعرف؟
فما من لص مهما يكن ساذجا يتفاخر بجريمته.
وإنها لإساءة مضاعفة أن تخون زوجك
ثم تجعلها تقرأ في عينيك وأنت تحدثها.
فقد يكون للإثم،إذا أحكم تدبيره،سمعة زائفة تستره.
والقولة الشريرة تضاعف من شر الأعمال الآثمة.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
The exterior of the building was designed by architect Rafael Viñoly to have a sweeping curve, but this meant that all the reflective glass windows accidentally became a massive concave mirror—a kind of giant lens in the sky able to focus sunlight on a tiny area. It’s not often sunny in London, but when a sun-filled day in summer 2013 lined up with the recently completed windows, a death heat-ray swept across London. OK, it wasn’t that bad. But it was producing temperatures of nearly 200°F
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
I am an ass, indeed; you may prove it by my long 'ears.
I have served him from the hour of my
nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his
hands for my service but blows.
When I am cold heats me with beating; when I am warm he cools me with beating.
I am wak' d with it when I sleep; rais'd with it when I sit; driven out of doors with it when I go from home; welcom'd home with it when I return; nay, I bear it on my shoulders, as a beggar wont her brat; and, I think, when he hath lam'd me, I shall beg with it from door to door.
”
”
William Shakespeare (The Comedy of Errors)
“
The sixty-story John Hancock Tower was built in Boston in the 1970s, and it was discovered to have an unexpected torsional instability. The interplay of the wind between the surrounding buildings and the tower itself was causing it to twist. Despite being designed in line with current building codes, torsional instability found a way to twist the building, and people on the top floors started feeling seasick. Once again, it was tuned mass dampers to the rescue! Lumps of lead weighing 330 tons were put in vats of oil on opposite ends of the fifty-eighth floor. Attached to the building by springs, the lead weights damp any twisting motion and keep the movement below noticeable levels.
”
”
Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
“
A crude analogy for resonance is that of a pendulum, often modeled as a child in a swing. If you are charged with pushing the child and you just thrust your arms out at random intervals, you will not do very well: you’d hit the child coming toward you and slow the swing down as often as you’d give the swing a push as it’s going away and speed it up. Even a regular pushing rate that did not match the movement of the swing would leave you pushing empty air most of the time. Only if you push exactly at the rate that matches when the child is directly in front of you and starting their descent will you achieve success. When the timing of your effort matches the frequency the swing is moving at, each push adds a little more energy into the system.
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Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
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People stepping up and down should not be a problem, and even the 1-Hertz sideways back-and-forth movement of humans walking should not have been a problem, as everyone is likely to be stepping at different times. For anyone pushing with their right foot, another person would be pushing with their left, and all the forces would pretty much cancel each other out. This sideways resonance would only be a problem if enough people walked perfectly in step. This is the “synchronous” in “synchronous lateral excitation” from pedestrians. On the Millennium Bridge, people did start to walk in step, because the movement of the bridge affected the rhythm at which they were walking. This formed a feedback loop: people stepping in sync caused the bridge to move more, and the bridge moving caused more people to step in sync.
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Matt Parker (Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors)
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Belirleyici olan tek başına eylem değildir, bunun tanımı ve etkisi daha önce gelir. Yapılan bir şeyi anlatan ve açıklayan kişi, çoğu zaman onu yapandan daha önemlidir ve tarihin önceden kestirilemez güçler dengesi içinde genellikle en küçük bir hareket bile en inanılmaz etkilere neden olabilir...Tarih ölümsüzlüğü genellikle yalın, ortalama bir insana dağıtırken en cesur ve bilge olanları, isimsiz karanlığa savurur...
Elli yaşına geldiğinde bile üç kez ufacık bir gemiye atlayıp o zamanlar tehlike ve maceraya atılan yüzlerce “adsız tayfa”dan biri olarak daha keşfedilmemiş okyanusa yelken açacak cesarete sahip dürüst ve cesur bir adamın adıdır bu. Hatta belki de bu ortalama, sıradan adamın adı demokratik bir ülke için, bir kralın ya da conquistador’un namından daha doğru ve kesinlikle Amerika yerine Batı Hindistan, Yeni İngiltere, Yeni İspanya ya da Kutsal Haç Toprakları olarak adlandırılmasından daha uygundur. Bu ölümlü adı, ölümsüzlüğe taşıyan bir insan olmamıştır; haksız davranıyor göründüğü her yerde eninde sonunda haklı olanı savunan yazgı seçmiştir bu adı. Emir böylesi yüksek yerden geldiğinde boyun eğmekten fazlası gelmez elimizden.
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Stefan Zweig (Amerigo: A Comedy of Errors in History)
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Only twice in literary history has there been a great period of tragedy, in the Athens of Pericles and in Elizabethan England. What these two periods had in common, two thousand years and more apart in time, that they expressed themselves in the same fashion, may give us some hint of the nature of tragedy, for far from being periods of darkness and defeat, each was a time when life was seen exalted, a time of thrilling and unfathomable possibilities. They held their heads high, those men who conquered at Marathon and Salamis, and those who fought Spain and saw the Great Armada sink. The world was a place of wonder; mankind was beauteous; life was lived on the crest of the wave. More than all, the poignant joy of heroism had stirred men’s hearts. Not stuff for tragedy, would you say? But on the crest of the wave one must feel either tragically or joyously; one cannot feel tamely. The temper of mind that sees tragedy in life has not for its opposite the temper that sees joy. The opposite pole to the tragic view of life is the sordid view. When humanity is seen as devoid of dignity and significance, trivial, mean, and sunk in dreary hopelessness, then the spirit of tragedy departs. “Sometime let gorgeous tragedy in sceptred pall come sweeping by.” At the opposite pole stands Gorki with The Lower Depths. Other poets may, the tragedian must, seek for the significance of life. An error strangely common is that this significance for tragic purposes depends, in some sort, upon outward circumstance, on pomp and feast and revelry, With mask, and antique pageantry— Nothing of all that touches tragedy. The surface of life is comedy’s concern; tragedy is indifferent to it. We do not, to be sure, go to Main Street or to Zenith for tragedy, but the reason has nothing to do with their dull familiarity. There is no reason inherent in the house itself why Babbitt’s home in Zenith should not be the scene of a tragedy quite as well as the Castle of Elsinore. The only reason it is not is Babbitt himself. “That singular swing toward elevation” which Schopenhauer discerned in tragedy, does not take any of its impetus from outside things. The
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Edith Hamilton (The Greek Way)
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When you prepare and focus on what you need to say next, you are the opposite of present. You are stuck in your own head, and not listening or observing at all – you’re just waiting for your turn to speak. This is a very common error. The results are also very common.
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Patrick King (Improve Your Conversations: Think On Your Feet, Witty Banter, and Always Know What To Say with Improv Comedy Techniques (Social Skills, Small Talk, and Communication Skills Mastery))
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Truly, the world was a comedy of errors, and she was the butt of the joke.
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Carole Nelson Douglas (Killer Tails: 8 Pawsome Cat & Dog Cozy Mysteries by 8 Bestselling Authors)
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Maybe he was a softy, but that was okay. Being hardened by this world, I figured, was a true tragedy, and Lincoln didn't belong in a tragedy. A comedy of errors, possibly, but not a tragedy. For as long as I was in his life, I wouldn't let that be the outcome.
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Megan Squires (Love Like Crazy)