Month: July 2023

Don’t Accept No Subsitutions

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July 13, 2023

10:56 pm

11 Comments on Don’t Accept No Subsitutions

VCE

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As a byproduct of the recent differential equations WitCH, I promised to write something on integration by substitution. I’ve been pondering that, and I will write it, soon. But there’s also a little VCAA story about substitution I’ve been thinking about posting for a long time, and it seems natural to do that first. In order to tell the VCAA story, I’ll also give a little history to frame the story. Because you young ‘un readers of this blog need some history. Continue reading “Don’t Accept No Subsitutions” →

I Can See Clarely Now the Brain is Gone

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July 12, 2023

1:19 pm

8 Comments on I Can See Clarely Now the Brain is Gone

education

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Last week, the Federal Minister for Education, Jason Clare released Strong Beginnings, his remarkable report designed to shake up initial teacher education. We really want to write about the report but we have this old-fashioned idea of reading things before writing about them, and we simply haven’t had the time. We haven’t even had the time to read properly the many opinion pieces on Clare’s report.* So for now, making a couple quick points and directing readers to Greg Ashman will have to suffice. Continue reading “I Can See Clarely Now the Brain is Gone” →

Witch 106: Plane Silly

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July 11, 2023

11:55 pm

33 Comments on Witch 106: Plane Silly

WitCH

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We’re snowed, and we have a couple posts in the works that simply won’t behave. So, we’ll just keep the ball rolling with a WitCH, and have you commenters do the work for now. The following is the introduction to planes (a new VCE topic) in VicMaths, Nelson’s Specialist Mathematics Year 12 text.

Continue reading “Witch 106: Plane Silly” →

Squiggly Rick Bids Farewell to Squirrely Larry

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July 10, 2023

1:49 am

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science

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We wrote about Larry Marshall last year, when it was reported that Larry had “opted not try to extend his role” as CSIRO Chief Executive, and was threatening to unleash his entrepreneurial powers upon the university sector. It turns out that Larry’s “step down” from CISRO may have involved a bit of a push.
Continue reading “Squiggly Rick Bids Farewell to Squirrely Larry” →

The Two Missing Words on Robodebt

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July 9, 2023

3:10 pm

8 Comments on The Two Missing Words on Robodebt

politics

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Yeah, “I’m sorry” would have been kinda nice. But those aren’t the missing words.

It was always too much to expect even a façade of contrition from Morrison or Tudge or Miller or Benson, or at least a dozen other down-punching sociopathic thugs. So, although the words of regret are blaring in their absence, the words were not to be expected, they’re not missing as such. The missing words are:

Well, duh. Continue reading “The Two Missing Words on Robodebt” →

Stiegler on Automaticity and Autonomy

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July 6, 2023

12:00 pm

9 Comments on Stiegler on Automaticity and Autonomy

philosophy

Gather ’round, Kiddies. It’s French Philosopher Story Time.

This is not really my kind of thing, but it’s good, I think. While pondering the Californian nitwits’ denigration of memorisation, I talked a bit to my brother Dan, who, as a philosopher and security guard, is very knowledgable on Kant and such fellows. I asked Dan if he had any “strong, pithy references on the importance of memory”. Predictably, Dan reached for Bernard Stiegler, a French philosopher who wouldn’t have known pithiness if he had been run over by a B-double stacked with pith.* But, what Dan threw at me is good. It is an excerpt from an interview Stiegler gave in 2015, after the publication of his book, Automatic Society.** Continue reading “Stiegler on Automaticity and Autonomy” →

WitCH 105: Flippin’ Ridiculous

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July 5, 2023

4:28 pm

87 Comments on WitCH 105: Flippin’ Ridiculous

WitCH

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It’s hard to be believe we haven’t already done this one, since it’s been irritating us for years. But in any case it really irritated us again yesterday during a tute, and so here we are.

The following introduction and example, chosen largely but not entirely at random, is from Cambridge’s Specialist Mathematics 3 & 4. Continue reading “WitCH 105: Flippin’ Ridiculous” →

California’s Memory Loss

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July 4, 2023

12:03 pm

9 Comments on California’s Memory Loss

curricula

The California Mathematics Framework has taken another step, with the latest draft released last week (many Word documents, many idiots). Critics who wish to comment have been given about three minutes to digest the thousand pages and then do so. For those who care to try, Jelani Nelson has posted an anonymous person’s monster work in compiling and PDF-ing the CMF documents, and tracking the (mostly lack of) changes. It is pretty clear that the CMF Powers don’t give a stuff what anyone thinks, but opponents gotta do what they gotta do.

There’s not much point in us working hard on this (our earlier snipes are here and here and here). Undoubtedly, Brian Conrad will soon update his site with comments on the new draft, and Greg Ashman has written on the CMF gang’s love of making things up.  We’ll just comment a little on one aspect of the CMF madness: memory.

Continue reading “California’s Memory Loss” →