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09:15 am
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nyt's bankruptcy update: the results
yesterday i pointed to the nyt's plans to bankrupt itself by losing all its readers。 today， some of the consequences of those plans start to appear：
The New York Times announces a staggering staff reduction, including 45 jobs from the newroom, alone.
The New York Times may have stepped in it, big time, with their version of pay-per-view for OP/ED columnists. Editor and Publisher says that the popular columnists Dowd, Friedman, Krugman, Brooks et al have dropped out of the top five in the "Most E-mailed Articles" list from the Times which they typically dominate. When I checked just a little while ago, they were doing significantly worse than when E&P checked them. And E&P reminds us that "e-mailed" doesn't equate to "paid for and read", because the persons e-mailing the article must be subscribers and the persons receiving the e-mails must also be subscribers in order to open and read the articles. In fact, the "Select" contributors had dropped all the way to #18 (Krugman), #20 (Tierney) and #21 (Kristoff).
more detail at the link。 it has taken one day of this stupidity to turn their editorials from their top three most read articles into low ranked articles。
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
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09:26 am
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tom delay caves under pressure from the real media
while the fossil media talk of large tax increases to pay for post-katrina reconstruction， and tom delay claimed that "there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget"， the real media acted。 already results are starting to appear：
"Raising taxes would kill jobs, choke off investment, and stifle economic growth. That's not exactly a recipe for the kind of economic renewal that region so desperately needs.
Instead, I hope some of the money can be the product of spending sacrifices elsewhere in the federal budget.
There are programs all over the federal budget that are bloated or wasteful or inefficiently using the funds we provide them, and I'm very interested in identifying them." -- tom delay
no doubt the real media will continue the pressure until they achieve something more than just a change of words。
more on the fossil media and other representatives starting to catch up。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want
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09:42 am
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calls for a "truth-in-legislation" amendment
as mentioned previously， the us congress is currently in political problems and many are attempting to use these problems as an opportunity to force reform。
at the time i mentioned term limits。 i have since mentioned the "porkbusters"' attacks on financial corruption。 yet another interesting angle of attack is the "truth-in-legislation" amendment：
A single-subject, descriptive-title (hereinafter, SSDT) requirement for all Congressional bills — more popularly labeled a truth-in-legislation amendment as suggested by law professor Brannon Denning and attorney Brooks Smith (see their “Uneasy Riders: The Case for a Truth-in-Legislation Amendment,” 1999 Utah Law Review 858) — would only help cure some of the legislative abuses inflicted upon the populace by both chambers of Congress. The Denning/Smith version would read: "Congress shall pass no bill, and no bill shall become law, which embraces more than one subject, that subject being clearly expressed in the title."
The SSDT rule has roots as far back as Roman law. [...] Forty states require the SSDT rule for state bills. [...]
Admittedly, an attempt to place the SSDT requirement into the U.S. Constitution was defeated in the Senate during a previous Republican administration, that of Lincoln in 1864; a SSDT amendment proposed by Kentucky Sen. Powell was defeated by a 37-6 margin.
while most are suggesting such an amendment on the basis of cutting pork and horse-trading， it would also have the advantage of greatly slowing the congress， as each item of likely-dubious new law would have to be debated separately。
this has the potential to snowball。。 if those interested can keep the pressure on and focussed。 a chance for america to once more demonstrate why it leads the world。 "all that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing"。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's
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11:13 am
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quote: what is happiness?
this amused me：
For centuries, philosophers and poets have tried to understand what happiness is, and what might contribute to it. In recent decades, scientists have started to come up with the answers. Happiness is electrical activity in the left front part of the brain, and it comes from getting married, getting friends, getting rich, and avoiding communism.
heads a long and somewhat interesting item on current understandings of what makes people happy or unhappy。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: The Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
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12:10 pm
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the new math: rational trigonometry
an australian mathematician (nj wildberger) has come out with a new book that looks set to radically change the way that trigonometry and geometry are taught。 here is his description：
This text introduces a new and simplified approach to trigonometry and a major restructuring of Euclidean geometry. It replaces cos, sin, tan and all those other transcendental trig functions with rational functions and elementary arithmetic. It develops a complete theory of planar Euclidean geometry over a general field without any reliance on `axioms'. And it shows how to apply this new theory to a wide range of practical problems from engineering, physics, surveying and calculus.
Divine Proportions: Rational Trigonometry to Universal Geometry contains dozens of new and important formulas, and almost a hundred theorems. The formulas are mostly polynomial or rational, and the basic ones, such as the Triple Quad formula, the Spread Law, the Cross law and the Triple Spread formula are quadratic in any variable. The theorems are often based on existing results, but they hold in much greater generality, and their formulations are sometimes unusual. For example the new Spread polynomials replace the closely related Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, but extend to arbitrary fields.
Classical trigonometry relies on transcendental functions, so that the numbers output by calculators are only approximations to the true values. This means round off errors are ever present in classical trigonometry, and for complicated computations these can become significant. Rational trigonometry is more accurate, since ordinary arithmetic carries along all the information as it goes. Decades ago this would have been unwieldy for large scale applications, but with the development of computer algebra systems, such as MAPLE, MATHEMATICA, MUPAD and so on, it can be made fast and accurate.
as you can see from the above description， and from the 18 page pdf of his first chapter available on his site， this book is aimed at already proficient mathematicians， rather than teachers or students。 it will probably take some time before a competent teacher/writer turns his work into something applicable to education， but from what i can see this is an obvious "better mousetrap"。
under current mathematics， when one wishes to discuss the relationship between two places， we talk of a distance and a direction， usually called an angle。 due to the way "angle" is defined， this results in difficult/confusing calculations based on distances on circles and square roots。
wildberger's brilliant bit of inspiration is to do away with distance and angle。 in their place he defines quadrance and spread。 with these measures， the calculations become easier and more obviously related to what one wishes to find out from one's calculations。
with two points A and B with coordinates of (xA,yA) and (xB,yB) respectively， their quadrance is defined as：
(xB-xA)2 - (yB-yA)2
the usual distance measure is simply the square root of that quadrance。
the formula for spread between two lines is somewhat more complex and requires diagrams to explain properly (see pages 5-7 of the pdf)， but importantly it can be calculated with simple arithmetic， rather than magical irrational trig functions and magical circles。
he defines a line L as the proportions <a,b,c>， representing the quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0。 he then defines the spread between two lines M (<aM,bM,cM>) and N (<aN,bN,cN>) as：
((aM*bN - aN*bM)2) / ((aM2 + bM2)(aN2 + bN2))
once you have those two concepts clear in your head， the usual calculations become very simple， requiring no magic sines， cosines and tangents， and no circles。
i shall probably buy the book。 perhaps after i have it properly straight in my head， i will post again。 poor teaching of trigonometry is one of many problems that results in current absurd levels of effective innumeracy。 wildberger's work can but help the situation。 the book is expected in the shops within the next couple of weeks。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Jennifer Rush - The Power Of Love
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01:32 pm
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important hurricane preparation information
imao explains how to fight hurricanes：
"What's with all the hurricanes?" you're probably asking, "And why isn't the U.S. government stopping them?" Well, hurricanes are a global problem, and thus the U.N. should take care of them. We could do it for them, but then the U.N. will never learn responsibility. [...]
When preparing to bunker down for a hurricane, make sure you have plenty of food and potable water. How is potable water different from drinking water? I'm not sure, but, in hurricane situations, everyone uses the word "potable" so you better make sure the water you buy is labeled such.
When taking inventory of your supplies, make sure to ask your self important questions:
"If I have a sudden craving for quesadillas, am I prepared?"
"While I might have enough water for drinking and cleaning my socks, if a water balloon fight breaks out, do I have enough water (and balloons) to return fire?"
"If the water balloon fight turns into a war and then a quagmire, how long can I keep armed with water balloons until my water supply is exhausted?"
"If the only food left is Spam, am I prepared to eat it, or is that the time to resort to cannibalism?"
with more as per usual。
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: ELO - Turn To Stone
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