Interesting articles of the week
Depression’s Upside by Jonah Lehrer, posits that ruminative thought may be an adaptive mechanism for a more realistic, attentive outlook conducive to working through social issues. Is Algebra Necessary? by Andrew Hacker, paints a depressing picture about 33% of american…
Rant: A breed of well-informed idiot
I’m not liking the peer review system right now. Since I’ve started grad school, I’ve had every one of my papers rejected. This leads me to the following theory: reviewers are some breed of well-informed idiot. They may be smart…
Financial Networks
According to The Great Revealing post at Divine Cosmos it seems that Vitali, Glattfelder and Battiston at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich have released a paper [The network of global corporate control] which executes a version of…
Bayesian Anthropic Law
This one has been on my plate for a long time. There is a popular argument for the existence of God/Creator known as the “Fine-Tuning Argument”. When looking at the universe, we notice that it has a specific construction which…
Notes: CSTA CS+IT Conference
Today I attended the 2012 ACM Computer Science and Information Technology Conference. It was focused heavily on the advocacy of teaching Computer Science material in the K-12 system. I most liked the fact that every session I attended have some…
Notes: Tiger Parenting
First, notes from an article, Why Chinese Mothers are Superior: Short and to the point, Mother gets to say what the child can and cannot do. With ruthless efficiency, the child’s life is managed so that they can get top…
Booze poetry
Last night, Ben and I conversed about mixing drinks. He pointed me to a drink containing Chartreuse VEP by the Cocktail Whisperer. Inspired by the opulent verbiage, I wrote the following: Not satisfied with an insubstantial vodka, I prowl around…
Student’s Sharing Projects
There was once a legal case where a student, proud of their work in the programming course, posted their solution online. The university (San Jose State) eventually had to give in. Which seems right to me. Especially given the real…
Notes: Recovering from Religion
Darrel Ray, author of “The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture” also runs a foundation of support groups for those leaving their faith, called Recovering from Religion. This can be a traumatic time for such individuals, because…
Cognition and Linguistics
I see the study and development of computer languages as two sides of the same coin. A computer language should enable the programmer to express, clearly and concisely, an algorithmic intent. It should not burden the programmer with a particular…