woodenghost

woodenghost [comrade/them] @hexbear.net 3mo ago

I read that deliberately alternating listening to one new song between two to four already known songs is supposed to be a good exercise for the brain. (Don't remember where I read that, maybe I should exercise my brain more.)

4mo ago

Permanently Deleted

"Oh, this'll be the last time with you on a baseball field."

"Oh, don't worry, there's still plenty of thyme and I'll have any thistle be dealt with first thing tomorrow."

"You'll have what?"

"I'll tell our groundskeeper. He knows how to deal with them. You should hire him for your garden, you can see what marvelous work he's done here."

"This'll be the day. I can see it everywhere."

"Only until tomorrow."

4mo ago

Permanently Deleted

"Okay, nevermind, we'll get back to it. For now, what's that growing around second base?"

"That's a big dill."

"Well yes, obviously, it's almost obstructing the field. But what herb could be such big a deal that you let it grow on a baseball field?"

"It sure is."

"Never mind, we don't have time for this. Can you get me back the time I lost on this bullshit?"

"Oh, you want thyme? Then let's go to third base."

"I just said, we don't have time for this!"

"Well that's why we should go to third base. We have plenty of thyme, you'll see!"

"No we don't, I just told you! We should head back to first base."

"Back to witch grass?"

"I don't care about grass, I just want to go back to first base."

"Yes. Witch grass grows around first base."

"I don't care about which grass grows there, I'll tell you what, you decide to which base we'll go next, as long as we keep the time in mind and pass by the big deal on second base. So if we do that, we'll get to which?"

"That's the first time you got it right!"

4mo ago

Permanently Deleted

Those brown/red gases are different Nitrogen oxides and very unhealthy to breath in. I had to do this once and the fume hood was barely keeping up. It filled quick with the stuff. Later, we had to get the copper back and were deducted points for each fraction of a gram lost.

Once I discovered a large hole with black edges on the back of my lab coat. Someone must have spilled sulfuric acid on it without noticing. So it makes sense to wear them in a crowded lab, even if you think you yourself don't need to.

4mo ago

Permanently Deleted

Except the study has some issues.

4mo ago

Permanently Deleted

Well, there's also apps you can use to scan a leaf and others to scan a recording of a bird song and it'll tell you what it is with some accuracy. Combine this with a field manual (paper or digital) and you'll learn it over time.

5mo ago

Permanently Deleted

Math: here's a theorem, if it's proven, it's true until someone finds an error in the proof or in the computer program or its compiler, if it's a computer assisted proof and the compiler can never be proven not to be flawed (Turing). Or until someone finds an error in one of the assumptions or in their proofs. Or until the axiomatic system used is proven inconsistent and it can never be proven not to be inconsistent (Goedel). Or until you decide you need to work in a different system. Or technically if we stay in the system, but language or culture shifts and we change what we mean by the specific words and symbols used in the theorem.

Even if it's true, unless you're a platonist, it's not true in the sense that it corresponds to a factual state of affairs in the world (there are no triangles). It's only true within the system you're using, just like the sentence: "Sherlock Holmes lives in Baker Street" is only true in the fictional world of the novels by Arthur Conan Doyle. But in a more redundant way, because unlike novels, math statements are tautologies, reducible to a small number of axioms or axiom schemes, while novels don't follow necessarily from, say, the table of contents.

5mo ago

Permanently Deleted

Neither. Math builds a lot on other math. And the curriculum is very standardized. That's why, when people just happen to miss something at any point, because maybe they have more important stuff going on in their live right now, they never catch up. We should drop the requirement that everyone has to learn the same math at the same time, hire more teachers and allow students to flow freely between courses to focus on the stuff they can learn with the math they already know. This will allow students to catch up and, paradoxically, produce a higher over all level of math knowledge, if less standardized and predictable for employers.

Now, to ensure students also want to learn math, both abstract math courses and mixed seminars should be offered. Students could choose to attend either or both. In the seminars, math, physics and engineering would be mixed in challenges where students with different skills and preferences have to work together to produce a cool result (like a robot, a game, an experiment, etc.). The abstract courses shouldn't be forgotten, because many students actually enjoy learning math. Instead of just teaching rules and how to follow them, they should involve a creative aspect, where students are encouraged to break rules by making their own definitions, formulate their own theorems and try to prove them (like actual mathematicians do).

5mo ago

Permanently Deleted

"Teaching practical skills" is code for producing lots of 'human-capital' with a highly standardized skill set that is useful and predictable for capitalists. Catering to individual interests is not required, neither is actually understanding math, just being able to blindly follow an algorithm.

5mo ago

Permanently Deleted

They only look unfamiliar, because they are just that good at hiding.

7mo ago

Permanently Deleted

woodenghost [comrade/them] @hexbear.net 7mo ago

People have tried to ban it. But it's an ever so slight inconvenience for hunters to switch to other ammunition.

7mo ago

Permanently Deleted