2024-11-07

[EN] Shakespeare Hits Bull's Eyes Again

"So are they all, all honourable men."
And women.
And nobody is a demagogue, none whosoever, not then, not now...

The first one is performed by Brando twenty years before Don Vito.

Furthermore.
Remember Hamlet's words?

"The law's delay,
the insolence of office
and the scorns that patient merit of th'unworthy takes."

As then as now.
Even more so...

2024-11-06

[EN] "Gang Aft Agley"

Picture credit: Andy Morffew via Wikipedia

"Miracles don't happen."

It is significant that Donnie won.
But the following two are even more significant:
(1) the reasons why he won;
(2) the reasons why Devi lost.
Both points would have remained even if the election had gone the other way.
_________
The Democratic party is undemocratic.
The Republican party is unrepublican.
Never mind the echoes of the Ministry of Truth...

Included in (1) is the simple fact that many people have had more than enough, even though many of them believe in the wrong savior.

Reject Gore and McCain, get Donnie and Joe...
_________
Contesting the results would merely say, loud and clear, "we are as bad as the opposition".
And 51:47 is a decisive majority.

2024-11-05

[bg] „Кой ще цивилизува Шопско?“

— Какво можеш?
— Моем да копам.
— Какво друго?
— Моем и да не копам.

— Защо копаеш седнал?
— Яз опита̀х и легна̀л, ама не ми е удобно.

Он че ми каже той на мене дека джамо бил стъкло.
Кое си требе, оно си сака.
Оти да се ко̀сим, като че ми мине.

За пълнота, четирите класически максимума:
От София по-големо нема.
От Витоша по-високо нема.
От Искъро по-глибоко нема.
От Цариград по-далеко нема.

2024-11-04

[EN] Same TLA, New Meaning

UTC: Universal Time, Centralized
The time at the center of the Earth.

Advantages:
Eliminates a vestige of British imperialism.
Does away nicely with leap seconds, too.

Disadvantage:
Geocentric.

2024-11-03

[EN] Consumerism

I heard about it, and about the harm from it, for the first time in Italy in 1995.
With fresh memories of the scarcity of Soviet socialism, I didn't get it then.

I get it now.

Consumerism is a Bad Thing.
Consumerism begets pollution.
Consumerism begets garbage, both as produce and as waste.
Consumerism is a kind of greed and deserves to be declared a mortal sin.
Consumerism is a scourge.

2024-11-02

[EN] Real-time Programming

Picture via Facebook group At the Controls.

When the Apollo 13 flight went into emergency mode, it became necessary to program the unexpected trajectory calculations to return the spacecraft under these extraordinary conditions. That was real-time programming under pressure with the hardest possible deadline!

Frances Northcutt was one of the people who did the work.
This wasn't her only achievement: see

2024-11-01

[bg;EN] Главните задачи на училищното образование *** The main tasks of grade school education

Да дава основни умения: четене, писане, смятане (в дълбочина: функционална, а не само повърхностна грамотност).

На предмета математика:
Да развива ума.
Не да научи учениците да решават уравнения или да преобразуват тригонометрични изрази: това са само средства за развиване на ума.
Който е с развит ум, по-трудно може да бъде излъган (хмм... cui prodest?).

На предмета литература:
Да посее семената на „разумното, доброто и вечното“, макар и те не винаги да поникват.
Не да научи учениците какво са написали изучаваните автори, хеле и да го разберат.

***

To teach essential skills: reading, writing, arithmetic (in depth: functional and not just nominal literacy).

Of the subject mathematics:
To develop the mind.
Not to train the students to solve equations or transform trigonometric expressions: these are merely means to the end goal of developing the mind.
Those with a developed mind are harder to cheat (hmm... cui prodest?).

Of the subject literature:
To sow the seeds "of reason, of the good, of the eternal", even though they do not always grow.
Not to teach the students what the authors in the curriculum wrote, never mind to understand it.

[EN] Performance of 'Naive' Ratio Addition

;;;; -*- mode: lisp -*- ;;; Explore the performance of 'naive' ratio addition. ;;; Evaluate (time-addition 17000) ;;; to compare tha...