On the 8 Spot

Written by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou

Illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna

347 pp. Bloomsbury. $22.95

Multimedia

Excerpt: ‘Logicomix’

Well, this is unexpected — a comic book about the quest for logical certainty in mathematics. The story spans the decades from the late 19th century to World War II, a period when the nature of mathematical truth was being furiously debated. The stellar cast, headed up by Bertrand Russell, includes the greatest philosophers, logicians and mathematicians of the era, along with sundry wives and mistresses, plus a couple of homicidal maniacs, an apocryphal barber and Adolf Hitler.

Improbable material for comic-book treatment? Not really. The principals in this intellectual drama are superheroes of a sort. They go up against a powerful nemesis, who might be called Dark Antinomy. Each is haunted by an inner demon, the Specter of Madness. Their quest has a tragic arc, not unlike that of Superman or Donald Duck.

via Book Review – ‘Logicomix’ – A Comic Book About Logic, Math and Madness – Review – NYTimes.com.

I feel this happens too often, and in the fantasy land of my mind, this happens to me (joke lang hehe)

An 18-year-old construction worker braved rampaging floods in the Philippines to save more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his life in a last trip to rescue a baby girl and her mother who were being swept away on a styrofoam box.

Desperate relief effort amid rising death toll

Family members and people who Muelmar Magallanes saved have hailed the young man a hero, as his body lay in a coffin at a makeshift evacuation centre near their destroyed Manila riverside village.

via Philippine man loses own life after saving dozens from floods.