Courtesy of Paul Kirschner (link and name corrected), by way of Greg Ashman:
Month: December 2021
Close Encounters of the Turd Kind
In his press conference today, Prime Minister ScoMoFo gave the new definition of “close contact”:
And the definition for a close contact is as follows … except in exceptional circumstances, a close contact is a household contact … of a confirmed case only. A household contact is someone who lives with a case or has spent more than four hours with them in a house, accommodation or care facility. Continue reading “Close Encounters of the Turd Kind”
Science Fiction, Double Feature
No, we’re not intending to go into this. Our concern is with the parallel nonsense of indigenous mathematics, about which we’ll be writing in the near future. But this stuff has to be noted, and someone should be hammering it. Aren’t there some active scientists around who are just a little perturbed?
NotCH 5: Ken Clements on a Very Young Terry Tao
Ken Clements is an interesting character, of whom and by whom we’ve been reading a lot of late. We plan to write about Clements in the near future, but for now we’ll just post an article by Clements on a really interesting character. Continue reading “NotCH 5: Ken Clements on a Very Young Terry Tao”
Puzzling Souls
We’re a little out of steam right now. Some big posts are planned, but it’s difficult to gather our strength to write them. In the meantime, we’ll keep things going with a few light and easy posts.
A while back we posted some (still unanswered) puzzles by Tony Gardiner, as well as the excellent article by Tony from which they came. Exploring Gardiner’s writing a little further, we stumbled upon a hilarious problem, from long ago. Continue reading “Puzzling Souls”
This Blog Might Get Interesting
Yesterday we met for the first time a very nice fellow, who reads this blog and who occasionally comments. He gave us the present above, obviously with a hat tip to our vodka shtick: Continue reading “This Blog Might Get Interesting”
The Wonderful Function of Michael Deakin
I briefly mentioned Mike Deakin in this post, and I talked about him (too) briefly in Mathematics in Hell (at 6:40). I’ll be having reason to refer to Mike in a future post. As background, the following is an Age article Burkard and I wrote about Mike Deakin in 2014, one of our final Maths Masters articles. Continue reading “The Wonderful Function of Michael Deakin”
PoSWW 23: Jo Boaler is Challenged
It’s Greg Ashman‘s fault. It’s always Greg Ashman’s fault.
A couple days ago Ashman had an excellent post, on Jo Boaler and her California Dreamin’ curriculum. That draft curriculum has been, let’s say, hammered, particularly by mathematicians. Not that such criticism slows Boaler:
“We understand education, and they have no experience studying education. Mathematicians sit on high and say this is what is happening in schools.” Continue reading “PoSWW 23: Jo Boaler is Challenged”
RatS 16: The Sacrificing of Julian Assange
It is astonishing the extent to which Australians don’t give a shit about what happens to Julian Assange. He can be kept in a Kafka prison, undergo a Kafka trial at the behest of a country who openly want to torture him, and probably kill him. But no one except a very few good guys, like George Christensen, says a word. Nothing from the Poster Child for Principle, Penny Wong. Nothing from Albanese. Of course nothing from ScoMoFo or the invisible Payne-in-the-ass. Nothing from our oh-so-wonderful stately journalists, from Michelle Grattan or Laura Tingle or Katherine Murphy, and of course nothing from the stable of Murdoch toads. Nothing from Paul Barry and of course nothing from Michael “Gold Star” Rowland. Nothing from any of them. Deutsche Welle and Le Monde and Aljazeera can publish opinion pieces on the lunatic sadism of the persecution of an Australian. Cédric Villani, while taking time off from winning Fields medals, can lead a French political call for Assange’s asylum. But from Australians? A screaming nothing. Continue reading “RatS 16: The Sacrificing of Julian Assange”
Why We Have Maths Wars
The Age is getting ready to have another Schools Summit, this time under the banner “Disruption, resilience and new possibilities”, whatever that means. The Summit’s headline acts are (the ghost of) Alan Tudge and ACARA‘s Renaissance CEO Man, David de Carvalho. There is also a brief panel discussion on “Maths Wars”: Continue reading “Why We Have Maths Wars”