Ex-Underachiever

I’m getting busy, so I will not be on this app for a while. I’ll be taking three classes this semester: mathematical statistics, mathematical logic, and linear algebra. And, I’ll do grad school applications later this fall. I’ll have non-academic activities too, such as my job and social life. I have both academic goals and non-academic goals to accomplish this year. Real life is always more important than online life.

@justalexoki You can flip that around. Maybe rational numbers are the weird numbers.

the fact that important numbers like e and pi are irrational feels like proof our number system is fucked up. we made some mistake somewhere and that's why everything is shit

Linguists are too prescriptive about the opinions they think people should have about language. They moralize about this prescriptive/descriptive debate, and also about other topics such as language diversity (language death is “bad”, languages “should” be preserved). I think intelligent people can recognize the distinction between the science of linguistics and the non-scientific opinions of linguists.

I know, I know. I get lectures from my wife and daughter all the time extolling John McWhorter and describing me a language Neanderthal (lovingly, of course). I am unmoved.

I’ll take a course on mathematical logic soon. I’m getting one or two library books to help me, because it looks like the instructor isn’t assigning a book. The gray one is the well-known textbook by Joseph Shoenfield. I’m aware that Mendelson’s is also popular. The yellow book on top looks readable. Logic is the geekiest subject anyone can study, but I think it’s important. However, I don’t see myself becoming a logician. I really want to be able to make money outside of academia.

I’m only 38, and I’m irritated by some of the changes people have made to English without my permission. These words irritate me the most: ‘Impact’ I absolutely hate this annoying buzzword. English already has the perfectly good words ‘influence’, ‘effect’/‘affect’, and ‘change’. ‘That’ (in place of ‘who’/‘whom’) A person should be called ‘who’ or ‘whom’, not ‘that’. Even people my age or older seem to have forgotten how to use these words.

You think that's bad. Look at Merriam-Webster on "disinterested." Note the final sentence.

@crusadepepe I’m tired of hearing people whine about how they want to keep Social Security because they “paid in for all those years”. Social Security never was an investment or a saving program. It’s a pyramid scheme. I hope we can cut the losses and simply end it.

I have a social security compromise, boomers get every dollar they paid in (we have clear records of this) then we discontinue the program and young people get 6.2% of their wages back along with a pay increase since their employer no longer needs to pay in.

@DemoDoomer Meanwhile, Americans say they can’t afford to have kids.

@signulll Beef

been upping my protein intake lately… what’s your go to protein powder, bar, & shake with max protein, ~zero junk ingredients, & minimal plastic contact?

@TannerBuilds Sounds like a lack of self-understanding.

Reddit never disappoints. Am I the only one who has no sympathy for this person at all? What did you think the mountains would be like??

The equation “x^2 = 4” literally means “x is a square root of 4”. The equation is extremely simple. Solving it doesn’t merit mechanical symbol manipulation. The main idea is that every non-zero real number has a positive and a negative square root. I understand what the image is saying, but it’s rather silly.

Sharing this again to address misconception about square roots. From Dr. Garces #sharingisthenewlearning

@Anthony_Bonato This is actually the Lagrange Remainder Theorem! Taylor’s Theorem itself does not give a formula for remainders.

The Life of a Showgirl

@antidoc Pittsburgh has a lot to do, but it’s not too big.

What’s a city that you’re totally convinced people only pretend to like? My answer is Pittsburgh

He might have actually been adhering to the 1500 Calorie daily limit. But, his energy expenditure would have decreased. That’s one of the major problems with the “Calories in, Calories out” thinking. When the Calories in are reduced, the person literally has less energy, and so the Calories out decrease too.

An example from New England Journal of Medicine of how the way doctors are taught about weight loss is really messed up. Here's the clinical vignette - man trying to lose weight follows 1500 kcal diet, which doesn't work because his hunger is unchecked. He doesn't lose much weight. So, in real life, this ALWAYS happens. Calorie restricted diets almost never work. Everybody knows it. Patients know it, doctors know it. If this calorie restricted diet doesn't work, because it almost never does, then what does a doctor do? Improve quality of food? Intermittent fasting? Cut ultraprocessed foods? Reduce refined carbs? Reduce sugar? Eat more protein? NO.

@Eowyn_the_Fair Can’t couples just want to have sex? Isn’t that normal? Why do they have to “need” it too?

These people can go buy the stuff and eat it, but the prices will not be lower than the prices of real meat. This is all about economics. The markets for real agricultural products are very competitive. That keeps profit margins and prices low. Yes, there are big ag companies with economies of scale and big profits. But, there still are numerous small farms from whom you can buy food directly. The manufacturing processes for artificial meat, butter, et cetera will be in the hands of only a few producers. People aren’t going to be setting up small-scale local meat factories. So the markets will be less competitive. If the government begins to regulate the natural foods (which is likely to happen—based on environmental excuses), then people will be forced to pay higher prices than ever. The artificial foods will have lower marginal costs to the producers. But their market power will let them restrict supply. That lets them get higher profit margins while consumers pay more. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_po…

@peterboghossian @waitbutwhy That stuff will be a profit maker for monopoly or near-monopoly companies that manufacture it, but it will NOT be cheaper for the consumer.

@waitbutwhy Ditto

I may be far less jacked than Liv but I also tried (and loved) lab meat and will eat it regularly as soon as it's available to me in Austin.

@waitbutwhy That stuff is NOT going to be cheaper than real meat.

@BrianLenzkes A negative number.

I wonder how many lives were saved by pouring sand in skateboard parks and this in 2022:

@USA_TW_KR Catchy song youtu.be/zudDiQawxFo?si…

The side of China they don’t want you to see… A working woman breaks down after being stopped by police—can’t afford healthcare, marriage, or a home. This is the weight of the CCP’s “prosperity.” 💔

@DisrespectedThe Don’t link to scam websites.

Social media is an evil place. This man is trying to save his farm, and this is the type of comments he gets.