Tag: math

Progressives should vote for Clinton because she will in no way be viewed as a progressive/liberal, therefore she cannot suck the oxygen out of the progressives’ air in the way Obama did  (for eight precious years), while betraying those he pretended to represent.  Thusly, by voting for Hillary “We Came, We Saw, He Died” Clinton in 2016, an obvious anti-progressive war monger, progressives can freely grow like shadowed mushrooms on the rotting log of neoliberal wealth-pumping via wars and debt-disciplined austerity for the peripheral poors, including vast regions of the United States.

That’s what I read.

Fourteen years  plus after the Event Horizon I (Bush v. Gore), and nearly six years after Event Horizon II (Lehman),  never mind the multiple event horizon markers along the way, Armando is still imagining “long-term strategies” for progressives.  Awesome.  In its blank stupidity, imho, given the fact that if the economy doesn’t get you (global debt now 40% above 2008 levels), climate will (CO2 levels at 143% of Pleistocene, and rapidly climbing into positive feedback territory).

Obviously, you could look back in time to re-define Event Horizon I, such as, US peak oil in 1971, or “human agriculture” 12,000 yonks past.  But turning Hillary into a pro-progressive argument is something only a bone-headed lawyer or academic could do at this late date.  

Am I surprised by this level of argument?  Huh.   I s’pose not really after everything I’ve seen.  However, my disdain for people routinely ignoring reality is solid as a rock.  It’s like they should make a new place on the periodic table for pure, solid, elemental disdain.  It would be amongst the metals, I think.  I’d have to ask Translator Doc to be sure.

Warmest Regards.

Boehner Will Insist on Cuts to Raise Debt Limit

Said Boehner: “I believe that if we’re going to increase the debt limit, there ought to be cuts and reforms in place that are greater than the increase in the debt limit.”

http://politicalwire.com/archi…

Even Dan Quayle couldn’t possibly have gotten through Princeton on his minority set aside without being able to figure out that if spending cuts result in a surplus rather than a deficit, there would be no need to increase the debt limit.

Is there no unemployed Head Start teacher who would be so kind as to volunteer to teach the President and congress critters how math works?  He or she isn’t likely to find work anyway and would have a roof over her head for a few hours anyway.

I know it would be a hell of a tough job but isn’t that what teachers ask for?

Best,  Terry

Some have postulated before if there is, in fact, a strictly biological component to faith.  For example, many scientists, mathematicians, and left-brain dominant individuals are Atheists.  They see no role for a higher power, since the scientific process and deductive reasoning can reduce the unexplainable to mere coincidence or chance.  To them, the universe is as neat and orderly as an algebraic equation.  Taking delight and contentment in perfection, the same formula or theorem always works the same way and always produces the same result.  I never doubt the constant need for people whose ways of looking at the world are so different than my own, but they also present significant challenges.  Getting on the same page without confusion is not the least of these.  

BP Call Center Just A ‘Diversion’

6/13/10 A KHOU interview reveals that the BP call center in Houston for the company’s oil disasters is just a “diversion” to prevent concerns and ideas from reaching BP corporate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Transcription of this Channel Eleven News Report KHOU-TV, Houston.

follows below …

My diary yesterday was a hit…. so….

here’s another from long ago on dailyKos.  It started a little series.  Maybe it will, here, too.

In other diaries and comments I’ve written, I’ve alluded to the fact that math is beautiful.  That it’s not the boring, stultifying stuff many of us were forced to endure, but rather a kind of artwork, akin more to music and poetry than to accounting or physics.  In this (possible) occasional series, I’ll explore some elementary theorems that are nonetheless, beautiful, interesting, or just cool.

This is an introduction to the series

So, what is this nut talking about now?

Well, what mathematicians do all day is prove theorems.  The most prolific mathametican of the 20th century (Paul Erdos – for a delightful bio of him, see The Man Who Loved Only Numbers) said ‘a mathematician is a tool for turning coffee into theorems’.  

A lot of these theorems are so abstract that only a dozen or two people in the world can understand them.  But many are accessible to people with only HS math.  Those are the ones I want to talk about in this series

Bertrand Russell, a mathematician, philosopher, radical and general smart guy (and one of the few people to actively protest both WW 1 and Vietnam), said  “Math is the only subject in which we never know what we are talking about, or whether what we are saying is true”.  Hmmmm……that doesn’t sound like the math I learned in high school

I welcome thoughts, ideas, or what-have-you.  If anyone would like to write a diary in this series, that’s cool too.  Just ask me.  Or if you want to co-write with me, that’s fine.

The rules:  Any math that is required beyond arithmetic and very elementary algebra will be explained.  Anything much beyond that will be VERY CAREFULLY EXPLAINED.

Anyone can feel free to help me explain, but NO TALKING DOWN TO PEOPLE.  I’ll troll rate anything insulting, but I promise to be generous with the mojo otherwise.

(from dkos, long ago)

What if kids loved to learn?

What if at the end of class, they wanted it to be longer, and kept the teacher in the hallway answering questions?

What if they learned that coupling their imaginations to their powers of reasoning would give them a tool of awesome power for exploring the cosmos?

What if an 11 year old got so excited by his insights that he yelled out

OH WOW! I get this now!

What if all this happened in math class?