The Simpsons, that is. Here’s an article about using the show for the instruction of higher math. And here’s the unofficial Simpsons episode index for math references.
[Via The Corner]
* Reference is to the episode in which Homer asks the same question about donuts.
The Simpsons, that is. Here’s an article about using the show for the instruction of higher math. And here’s the unofficial Simpsons episode index for math references.
[Via The Corner]
* Reference is to the episode in which Homer asks the same question about donuts.
If you haven’t been paying attention to the current state of play in the regulation of suborbital vehicles over the past few months, Jeff Foust has a good, up-to-date summary today.
And yes, I am very busy, with some consulting on the Vision for Space Exploration. And I don’t get President’s Day (which I think is an atrocity to the memory of Lincoln and Washington) off.
Sam Dinkin is promoting better space journalism.
I’m running a few private blogs, for business purposes, that are password protected via .htaccess on the main and archive directories. There are no external links to them from the open net, and they haven’t been archived by Google. Yet somehow the spammers have found them. A couple days ago, we had dozens of poker spams in the comments.
Anyone have any idea how they’re doing this?
One of the most useful “Carnivals” in the blogosphere, I think, is “Carnival of the Recipes.”
I used it as the basis for tonight’s dinner. I started with the leek and potato soup, and modified it to make a seafood chowder (post title refers to the Simpsons episode in which Freddy Quimby is falsely (though justly, considering what a twerp he is) accused of injuring a French waiter because he wouldn’t pronounce “Chowdah” correctly (using the Kennedyesque Boston accent), instead pronouncing it “Chowdair”).
Instead of using sausage, and chicken broth, I instead used fresh mahi-mahi, and a couple cans of chopped clams, with juice.
It was delish.
…and I hope those of my readers, to the Instawife. And Glenn, too.
At Business Week. Steven Baker doesn’t fear The Blog:
…with all their clout and reach, bloggers alone can’t bring down their enemies. In the end, it’s up to society’s traditional powers — the corporate boards, politicians, CEOs — to rule on these matters. Do they fire an executive for uttering one foolish sentence, ax a reporter for a wrongheaded story, exile a university president for offensive remarks? If the bloggers appear to be censorious, it’s only because the rest of society plays along.
In truth, blogging represents an explosion of free speech. While blogs certainly empower lynch mobs, they can also lead to long and open conversations, virtual town meetings. These are the greatest antidote to censorship and secrecy. The Jordan case gave birth to loads of such discussions.
Like many, he does get one thing wrong, though:
He resigned on Feb. 13 after conservative bloggers feasted on a controversial statement he made in late January at the annual World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, about the U.S. military. His allegation — that coalition soldiers in Iraq mistook journalists for enemies and killed them — brought down a storm of criticism on him and his network.
No, that wasn’t his allegation, at least not initially, if numerous accounts are correct. His allegation was that journalists were targeted by coalition soldiers (and that word includes identification). He then attempted to walk it back to them being hit by mistake.
But the columnist raises an interesting thesis: that the days of privacy are ending. To whatever degree that’s true, if it means that the powerful will no longer be able to get away with slander and bias, it’s hard to see how that’s a bad thing.
As he notes, Jordan losing his job wasn’t a blow to free speech–it was a victory for it. The First Amendment never meant anything more than that the government can’t censor you, or pass laws against the dissemination of ideas (though the current government doesn’t seem to think that the First Amendment applies to election campaigns any more). It was never meant as a shield against potential consequences of speech.
…that the people we’re told are our greatest intellectuals seem so incapable of basic critical thinking, or English comprehension?
Several Harvard professors said they were more furious after reading the precise remarks, saying they felt he believed women were intellectually inferior to men.
Everett I. Mendelsohn, a professor of the history of science, said that once he read the transcript, he understood why Dr. Summers “might have wanted to keep it a secret.”
I’m very glad that I don’t have to be in college today.
Chairman Boehlert had a very interesting opening to today’s hearing on the NASA budget. Some highlights:
I am for returning humans to the moon by 2020. I am for moving ahead prudently but swiftly with the development of a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) for that purpose. I am for retiring the Space Shuttle as soon as possible, but under absolutely no circumstances later than December 31, 2010. I am for a NASA that sees itself as a science agency, with all of Space Science, Earth Science and Aeronautics receiving theattention and funding accorded to priority areas. I am for a NASA that is open to outside ideas from academia and the private sector…
…We understand that the Administration could send up in the next month or so proposed language to amend the Iran Nonproliferation Act. That