Today’s topics:
NY Times, Siobhan Roberts, 28 Mar 2023: Elusive ‘Einstein’ Solves a Longstanding Math Problem, subtitled “And it all began with a hobbyist ‘messing about and experimenting with shapes.'”
CNN, Jacopo Prisco, 6 Apr 2023: Newly discovered ‘einstein’ shape can do something no other tile can do
Three items today.
NY Times, Oliver Whang, 27 Mar 2023: Can a Machine Know That We Know What It Knows?, subtitled “Some researchers claim that chatbots have developed theory of mind. But is that just our own theory of mind gone wild?”
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Back from a weekend in LA, as described previous post. What happened while we were gone? Oh, yes, the former president was charged with 34 felonies. Continue reading
This past weekend Y and I drove down to Los Angeles to attend his younger son Michael’s wedding. (Thus the absence of daily posts here for five days.) It was our first trip out of town in 3 1/2 years, since December 2019, the last time we drove to LA. (Y has been on a couple business trips over the past couple years, but I haven’t left the Bay Area in that time.)
We left Thursday morning Continue reading
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Despite conservative histrionics and paranoia:
Washington Post, Eugene Robinson, 27 Mar 2023: Opinion | ‘Wokeness’ is winning
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(And these are just the left-over links after several weeks of addressing such issues at higher levels.)
NY Times, Jamelle Bouie, 28 Mar 2023: What the Republican Push for ‘Parents’ Rights’ Is Really About
On Sunday evening, March 26th, we went a concert on the UC Berkeley Campus, at Zellerbach Hall, to see the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. The concert included an extraordinary piece by contemporary composer Max Richter, a re-imagining of Vivaldi’s ever-popular The Four Seasons.
I missed seeing that greenish comet that was visible in the sky a few weeks ago. The latest sky event being discussed in the media — at least on TV and on websites — is a fairly rare conjunction of five naked-eye-visible planets (all except Saturn, and including Uranus, which will require binoculars to see) in recent days, with tonight, March 27th, having a prime view.
I happen to have a perfectly clear view of the western horizon from my house, and there are no major clouds today, so I’m hoping to see it.
What strikes me in the coverage of this story is the scientific illiteracy, at worst, or simply journalistic sloppiness, at best, in how this event is described. Continue reading
Today: some better descriptions of wokeism; how wokeness undermines the idea of eternal conservative values; and if so many other books are banned from public schools, why not the Bible?
Today’s NY Times website has this letter column: A Conservative’s View of What ‘Woke’ Means
The latest about chatbots, why they would be biased one way or another, and how there is now a conservative version of them; and recalling Conservapedia.
Our story so far: Continue reading
