Math ^ Love Poems = Getting Dumped

Sue clued me into a new book on its way from A K Peters of mathematically informed love poems. With a description like that, it is bound to be either great or terrible.

Personal Statistics

Graphic Designer Nicholas Felton has a project to take a personal accounting of each year. Here is a page from his 2007 Annual Report. This ought to do any statistics teacher proud. Blow up the image or follow the link to see what kind of info he kept track of the whole year. Of course, there aren't many of us that could make our stats look this visually interesting.

Why Frenchmen speak French

This is two Mark Twain posts in very close proximity. But I heard this excerpt from chapter 14 of Huckleberry Finn coming into work this morning. It cleverly points out the difference between reason and education. Chapter 14 has Huck trying to explain to Jim some of the things he learns at school. One of these things is that the French speak a different language to each other than Americans do. This astounds Jim.

"Why, Huck, doan' de French people talk de same way we does?"

"No, Jim; you couldn't understand a word they said- not a single word."

"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How do dat come?"

"I don't know; but it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. Spose a man was to come to you and say 'Polly-voo-franzy'- what would you think?"

"I wouldn't think nuff'n; I'd take en bust him over de head. Dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger to call me dat."

"Shucks, it ain't calling you anything. It's only saying do you know how to talk French."

"Well, den, why couldn't he say it?"

"Why, he is a-saying it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it."

"Well, it's a blame' ridicklous way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."


We are made to laugh at Jim. But the tables quickly turn as Huck tries to prove to Jim that it would make sense for different nations to speak different languages.


"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk like we do?"

"No, a cat don't."

"Well, does a cow?"

"No, a cow don't, nuther."

"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a cow talk like a cat?"

"No, dey don't."

"It's natural and right for 'em to talk different from each other, ain't it?"

"Course."

"And ain't it natural and right for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?"

"Why, mos' sholy it is."

"Well, then, why ain't it natural and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You answer me that."

"Is a cat a man, Huck?"

"No."

"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man?- er is a cow a cat?"

"No, she ain't either of them."

"Well, den, she ain' got no business to talk like either one or the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a man?"

"Well, den! Dad blame it, why doan' he talk like a man? You answer me dat!"


Huck's mistake in reasoning is that his examples generalize to make the following argument:
if x and y are of different species,
then x and y do not speak the same language.
Jim points out of course that a French man and American man are the same species, so Huck hasn't met the premise. Jim also notes that American men and French men are of the same species and therefore should speak the same, which is his own little mistake. This is one of the most common mistakes in ordinary reasoning: equating a conditional with its inverse. (p then q implies -p then -q).

Triangle Inscribed by Sun on Wall

Another great image from the Everything's Geometry Group on Flickr. This is from nolando.

Geek of the Week: Barack Obama

This seemed really timely. The Freaking News is running a photoshop contest for the best photoshop doctored photo's in a geek-wise manner. There are some really funny ones. Unfortunately, there' no McCain photo. Here's an old friend though.

A Free Education?

Ran into two more great education links on the delicious hotlist. First, TeachMate is a site similar to WizIQ, a place for teachers and learners to find each other online. The difference is that WizIQ is a little more professionaly oriented. Students seek tutor/teachers and vice versa. TeachMate is cool though because everyone is both a teacher and learner. You start at the site by listing the things you can teach and the things you want to learn. The site then sets you up with a complement. Unlike WizIQ, there are no resources to conduct the teaching/learning session. This has to be negotiated by the pair.

I also found a great orientation to the world of online lectures in the Boston Globe. It discusses the difference between TED, Bigthink, Fora.tv, and Edge. Now, I want the website that creates more time, so I can put it all in my head.

Jack London, Sled Dogs, and The Evil DRT

I pulled this one out of The Moscow Puzzles.

Jack London's Journey

Jack London tells how he raced from Skagway in a sled pulled by 5 huskies to reach the camp where a comrade was dying.
For 24 hours the huskies pulled the sled at full speed. Then 2 dogs ran off with a pack of wolves. London, left with 3 dogs, was slowed down proportionally. He reached camp 48 hours later than he had planned. If the runaway huskies had stayed in harness for 50 more miles, London writes, he would have been only 24 hours late. How far is the camp from Skagway?