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melannen (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} melannen) wrote,@ 2009-09-10 23:06:00 |
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Hi! Remember when I used to talk about Doctor Who on here all the time?
Let's do that some more.
The best_enemies community on lj is picking up speed, and they've started an Academy-based rpg (or something, rps confuse me these days) and that combined with going through some of my old school papers, has me reading the Wikipedia entries on "Theta" again and trying to understand them. ("Theta", of course, is the Doctor's school nickname, short for Theta Sigma which may be his actual use-name on Gallifrey, or as close as can be rendered in English.)
And now I want a Doctor Who fic fest (preferably doctor/master, but I'm easy) with these as prompts:
"Johannes Lydus says that the Egyptians used a symbol for Kosmos in the form of theta, with a fiery circle representing the world, and a snake spanning the middle representing Agathos Daimon (literally: good spirit)."
"In classical Athens, it was used as an abbreviation for the Greek θάνατος (thanatos, “death”) and as it vaguely resembles a human skull, theta was used as a warning symbol of death, in the same way that skull and crossbones are used in modern times. It survives on potsherds used by Athenians when voting for the death penalty. Petrus de Dacia in a document from 1291 relates the idea that theta was used to brand criminals as empty ciphers, and the branding rod was affixed to the crossbar spanning the circle."
"Euclid defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other. According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was used by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines."
"Potential temperature is a more dynamically important quantity than the actual temperature. This is because it is not affected by the physical lifting or sinking associated with flow over obstacles or large-scale atmospheric turbulence."
"The Jacobi theta function is a function defined for two complex variables z and τ, where z can be any complex number and τ is confined to the upper half-plane, which means it has positive imaginary part."
"Θ is often studied in contexts where the axiom of choice fails, such as models of the axiom of determinacy."
"A Theta structure is an intermediate structure formed during the replication of a circular DNA molecule (prokaryote DNA)."
"In statistical usage there is a clear distinction: whereas "probability" allows us to predict unknown outcomes based on known parameters, "likelihood" allows us to estimate unknown parameters (θ) based on known outcomes (x)."
"The Big O notation often is permitted to be somewhat abused to describe an asymptotic tight bound where using Big Theta Θ notation might be more factually appropriate in a given context."
"The calculations performed by the Petersburg trio predicted a pentaquark, named "Theta-plus," that contains three different flavors of quarks: two up quarks, two down quarks, and a strange antiquark. The presence of the strange antiquark should make the particle uniquely identifiable in experimental searches, giving it a property called strangeness. Armed with this specific information, several experimenters turned their attention to the finding the Theta-plus and its partners."
"The symbol was a combination of the letters "E" and "O" taken from the words "Environment" and "Organism", respectively. The theta symbol that it is similar to has been used throughout history as a warning."
"Theta is seen normally in young children. It may be seen in drowsiness or arousal in older children and adults; it can also be seen in meditation. Excess theta for age represents abnormal activity."
"Theta Θ, or "time decay", measures sensitivity of the value of an option to the passage of time."
"In Generative grammar, (in particular Government and binding theory and the Standard Theory of Transformational Grammar) a theta role or θ-role is the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure required syntactically by a particular verb."
"A Body Thetan is an alien thetan who is "stuck" in, on or near a human body, and all human bodies are said to be covered in these misplaced thetans, or clusters of them. This information is not divulged until a Scientologist reaches the third Operating Thetan level (or OT III). Most Body Thetans were said by Hubbard to be a result of a prehistoric "Incident" involving Xenu, as well as other similar alien occurrences on the whole track."
"The Theta Society is a non-collegiate social sorority, women ages 35 and older, in Texas."
(Also, Θ looks like an egg with a needle in it, which is where Koschei left his heart. just sayin'.)
Let's do that some more.
The best_enemies community on lj is picking up speed, and they've started an Academy-based rpg (or something, rps confuse me these days) and that combined with going through some of my old school papers, has me reading the Wikipedia entries on "Theta" again and trying to understand them. ("Theta", of course, is the Doctor's school nickname, short for Theta Sigma which may be his actual use-name on Gallifrey, or as close as can be rendered in English.)
And now I want a Doctor Who fic fest (preferably doctor/master, but I'm easy) with these as prompts:
"Johannes Lydus says that the Egyptians used a symbol for Kosmos in the form of theta, with a fiery circle representing the world, and a snake spanning the middle representing Agathos Daimon (literally: good spirit)."
"In classical Athens, it was used as an abbreviation for the Greek θάνατος (thanatos, “death”) and as it vaguely resembles a human skull, theta was used as a warning symbol of death, in the same way that skull and crossbones are used in modern times. It survives on potsherds used by Athenians when voting for the death penalty. Petrus de Dacia in a document from 1291 relates the idea that theta was used to brand criminals as empty ciphers, and the branding rod was affixed to the crossbar spanning the circle."
"Euclid defines a plane angle as the inclination to each other, in a plane, of two lines which meet each other, and do not lie straight with respect to each other. According to Proclus an angle must be either a quality or a quantity, or a relationship. The first concept was used by Eudemus, who regarded an angle as a deviation from a straight line; the second by Carpus of Antioch, who regarded it as the interval or space between the intersecting lines."
"Potential temperature is a more dynamically important quantity than the actual temperature. This is because it is not affected by the physical lifting or sinking associated with flow over obstacles or large-scale atmospheric turbulence."
"The Jacobi theta function is a function defined for two complex variables z and τ, where z can be any complex number and τ is confined to the upper half-plane, which means it has positive imaginary part."
"Θ is often studied in contexts where the axiom of choice fails, such as models of the axiom of determinacy."
"A Theta structure is an intermediate structure formed during the replication of a circular DNA molecule (prokaryote DNA)."
"In statistical usage there is a clear distinction: whereas "probability" allows us to predict unknown outcomes based on known parameters, "likelihood" allows us to estimate unknown parameters (θ) based on known outcomes (x)."
"The Big O notation often is permitted to be somewhat abused to describe an asymptotic tight bound where using Big Theta Θ notation might be more factually appropriate in a given context."
"The calculations performed by the Petersburg trio predicted a pentaquark, named "Theta-plus," that contains three different flavors of quarks: two up quarks, two down quarks, and a strange antiquark. The presence of the strange antiquark should make the particle uniquely identifiable in experimental searches, giving it a property called strangeness. Armed with this specific information, several experimenters turned their attention to the finding the Theta-plus and its partners."
"The symbol was a combination of the letters "E" and "O" taken from the words "Environment" and "Organism", respectively. The theta symbol that it is similar to has been used throughout history as a warning."
"Theta is seen normally in young children. It may be seen in drowsiness or arousal in older children and adults; it can also be seen in meditation. Excess theta for age represents abnormal activity."
"Theta Θ, or "time decay", measures sensitivity of the value of an option to the passage of time."
"In Generative grammar, (in particular Government and binding theory and the Standard Theory of Transformational Grammar) a theta role or θ-role is the formal device for representing syntactic argument structure required syntactically by a particular verb."
"A Body Thetan is an alien thetan who is "stuck" in, on or near a human body, and all human bodies are said to be covered in these misplaced thetans, or clusters of them. This information is not divulged until a Scientologist reaches the third Operating Thetan level (or OT III). Most Body Thetans were said by Hubbard to be a result of a prehistoric "Incident" involving Xenu, as well as other similar alien occurrences on the whole track."
"The Theta Society is a non-collegiate social sorority, women ages 35 and older, in Texas."
(Also, Θ looks like an egg with a needle in it, which is where Koschei left his heart. just sayin'.)
