The Philosophy of Punk Rock Mathematics – Technoccult interviews Tom Henderson
1) People use the average Joe’s poor mathematics as a way to control, exploit, and numerically fuck him over.
2) Mathematics is the subject in which, regardless of what the authorities tell you is true, you can verify every last iota of truth, with a minimum of equipment.
Therefore, if you are concerned with the empowerment of everyday people, and you believe that it’s probably a good idea to be skeptical of authority you could do worse than to develop your skills at being able to talk math in such a way that anyone can ask questions, can express curiosity, can imagine applying it in the most weird-ass off-the-wall ways possible.
[…]
What’s wrong with math education in the US? What’s wrong is, Whatever it is that makes my students uninterested in learning any more math than is required to minimize feeling stupid.
We’re so good at medical studies that most of them are wrong
The problem is that our statistical tools for evaluating the probability of error haven’t kept pace with our own successes, in the form of our ability to obtain massive data sets and perform multiple tests on them. Even given a low tolerance for error, the sheer number of tests performed ensures that some of them will produce erroneous results at random.
[…]
In a survey of the recent literature, he found that 95 percent of the results of observational studies on human health had failed replication when tested using a rigorous, double blind trial.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
“I can understand why it’s an issue if you’ve got an extremely romanticized view of what art is,” he says. “But Bach peed, and he shat, and he had a lot of kids. We’re all just people.”
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Seems like i post a lot of stuff on Facebook that i should be putting here. Most of it is that Facebook is easier; besides the smaller number of mouse clicks necessary, using a full-on blog obligates me to put in some kind of editorial comment with the content i’m linking to, at minimum putting a title to the post. Also, more people are reading what i put on Facebook. Maybe. i’ve never told a lot of people this blog was here, though. And in fact, what ends up on the blog now for the most part is stuff that is edgier and slightly more controversial than i would show most of my acquaintances.
Maybe a simpler system like Tumblr would help. Twitter is too far the other way though, i think, and i would need to adjust my habits towards it.
There is some tech available to do automatic WordPress to Facebook posting but i would sooner do Facebook to WordPress.
i would also still like to transfer some of my old blog posts – why can’t i remember the system? oh yes, Movable Type, wonder what’s up with it now? – but i would have to relearn Perl or learn something else to redo the involved scripting necessary to switch the format, or cut-and-paste manually; both options are daunting.
i could always scrap the whole thing, but i still rather like having my own webspace. The photos are still here. i might need to put up a message board again sometime too.
(Reminds me of when my buddy and i started a phpBB about Magic the Gathering. He was running Apache off an old shitbox at his house, it overheated regularly from the traffic and he was having to call his dad to reboot the thing every so often. Eventually he bailed out and brought in some tool who happened to have better hardware to host it, which eventually motivated me to quit the enterprise. i couldn’t afford a thing to help at the time; not a problem now.)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Strawberries
There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you
let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills
let the storm wash the plates
Edwin Morgan
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Saudis Seek Payments for Any Drop in Oil Revenues
“It is like the tobacco industry asking for compensation for lost revenues as a part of a settlement to address the health risks of smoking,” said Jake Schmidt, the international climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The worst of this racket is that they have held up progress on supporting adaptation funding for the most vulnerable for years because of this demand.”
take your tracking pixel and shove it.
Rosie DiManno Libels the Dead Anyway – Torontoist
“Don’t be daft. You know very well why Mr. Dewees killed himself.”
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