Monday, November 28, 2011
Happy Advent
Or not so happy, I guess.
CONDITOR alme siderum,
aeterna lux credentium,
Christe, redemptor omnium,
exaudi preces supplicum.
Labels: liturgical calendar
Sunday, November 20, 2011
A little math and philosophy
Expand your mind as the bright lights of MathOverflow discuss the value of proofs.
As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.
Labels: math, philosophy
Monday, November 14, 2011
Weird things that have happened
Yesterday while out for a jog, a deer almost ran into me. I should have sued him.
Today at Mass, a dude gets up during the Prayer of the Faithful and starts cursing out the priest for, apparently, ad-libbing some of it, and then accuses him of various forms of sexual depravity. Apparently he had some intention that he was listening for and didn't hear it. Security didn't do too much, which is weird with all of the guys they have standing around with walkie-talkies.
Today at Mass, a dude gets up during the Prayer of the Faithful and starts cursing out the priest for, apparently, ad-libbing some of it, and then accuses him of various forms of sexual depravity. Apparently he had some intention that he was listening for and didn't hear it. Security didn't do too much, which is weird with all of the guys they have standing around with walkie-talkies.
Labels: catholic, New York, personal
Waterboarding is torture
Monday, November 07, 2011
Happy blogversery to me
Yet another year of failing to live up to my tagline and stated intentions!
Labels: metablogging
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Latin Q&A Stack Exchange
Taking shape . . .
Labels: education, public service announcement
Cops kill drunk kid
Be careful when you call for an ambulance, I suppose, is the lesson. You may get more of a SWAT team response.
The more I read this opinion, the more I became convinced that there was utterly no reason why 18-year old Lukus Glenn had to die. At least viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. I would be horrified -- horrified -- if I were his parents, and watched the police kill him.
Evalatuion of claims
Just because a book comes from an impressive publisher doesn't mean it's super-good.
This volume of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is a translation of a book originally published in Russian by three scientists from Russia and Belarus, and is mainly based on publications in Russian-language journals and other sources on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident for human health and the environment. The original Russian publication was published in 2008.
In the opinion of this reviewer, the authors unfortunately did not appropriately analyze the content of the Russian-language publications, for example, to separate them into those that contain scientific evidence and those based on hasty impressions and ignorant conclusions. . . .
The list of cited references in the translation (Yablokov et al. 2009) indicates that the authors avoided the most respectable papers of Russian-language authors, which received serious international peer review and were published in respected journals.
Labels: science
Sheep can be dangerous too
Especially if you dance like that.
Labels: humor