I can’t keep up. There is so much going on that I can only gain a superficial understanding of so many issues and not enough to speak confidently on the matter, and every day there is something new. I want to go back to when my biggest problem was making sure I was understanding the statistics and being glad I stopped stats and math classes before applied multivariate analysis and matrix algebra. Fuck that shit, it’s for smart people.
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They Call Me Noni
There is a lot right now, but at least some of it is good! And as for stats? I was forced to take two semesters of statistics in college and barely passed. I memorized the formulas but couldn’t grasp when to use which one and don’t know that I ever had to use it afterwards (thankfully).
I’m too old to even know what matrix algebra is but I do know debits and credits and can tell time on a clock with actual hands. And read cursive.
Old Man Shadow
I too enjoyed the days when I could just ignore the government and realize that competent people had things under control.
But noooooooo, we couldn’t have that. That was boring. Look at how old Biden is! So old! Wouldn’t you all like government by rabid, ketamine chaos monkeys? How exciting that’ll be!
Fucking Americans.
suzanne
Like the sign reads….. if Kamala was president, we could all be at brunch!
Baud
@Old Man Shadow:
Yep. The country made its choice. I don’t worry about it anymore. Whatever happens, happens.
WereBear
I saw the title and said to myself, “That sounds like John Cole.”
A case of author style. ROFL
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: My daily mantra: “<SIGH> Oh well, it is what it is…”
JaySinWa
@Professor Bigfoot:
Unfortunately, what it is seems to change hourly.
NotMax
@They Call Me Noni
Cue Doug Henning. “It’s ma-a-agic.”
;)
Quicksand
I got my undergrad degree in math because physics was too much for me. Oh well.
Jackie
@Baud:
I feel that way, too. And then I think of my grandkiddos and get pissed – worrying about their futures. They already have less rights than I did.
Honore De Ballsack
Just my opinion, but: compared to the rest of college-level math, matrix algebra is pretty easy and straightforward.
Professor Bigfoot
@JaySinWa: gestures generally: yeah all of it. There’s so much that it is that I can’t keep up with what it is so I just say “it is what it is.” ;)
Eunicecycle
@They Call Me Noni: I had to take 3 semesters of stats in grad school and never would have made it without my husband. He has a masters in math and is a good teacher or I probably would have flunked out.
Baud
@Jackie:
Yeah, I worry about the young people who didn’t have a choice last year.
BlueGuitarist
NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander arrested for asking to see a judicial warrant:
https://bsky.app/profile/gwynnefitz.bsky.social/post/3lrsvgpbt3k2v
Jackie
@BlueGuitarist: GeeZUSSS!
Andrya
Hey JGC- I’m sorry statistics wasn’t a good experience for you. And thanks for maintaining this blog!
I would point out there aren’t (IMHO) smart people vs. dumb people- rather there are different talents for different people. I have an extended family member who can pick up the most difficult languages (Japanese, Turkish, Kurdish) in just a few months, but isn’t especially good at math. I’m a math nerd but have repeatedly failed to learn a foreign language. Different strokes for different folks, etc.
But since you mention statistics, I want to bring it to the community’s attention that the right is making a basic statistical error and only LGM is bringing attention to it- and they are not explaining it very clearly. (I know a lot of jackals don’t like LGM, but I do- and anyway, I think that this is too important to miss. Here’s the link.)
The error is confounding “40% of fraudulent Social Security claims are made by telephone” with “40% of telephone calls to SS are fraudulent”. (This is as ridiculous as confusing “95% of people killed in accidents have eaten wheat products recently” with “95% of those who eat wheat products will soon die in an accident”.)
Needless to say, this is being used as a “justification” for requiring SS contacts to be made in person or online- which will have the effect of denying benefits to a lot of low-income people who don’t have computer access, especially if they have mobility issues or no car. (Arkansas used a similar tactic to force people off of Medicaid, and unfortunately were quite successful.)
Librettist
Trump’s big news for leaving the G7 early wasn’t nuking Iran, it was…. approving the US Steel purchase by Nippon Steel.
Always with the small ball.
Jackie
@Baud: Mine are in middle and high schools :-(
Gotta keep fighting for their futures.
Baud
@Jackie:
Sure. Keep fighting. I’m just past getting emotionally caught up in things I can’t control.
Old School
YY_Sima Qian
@Old School: Drunken uncle at the end of the bar, half remembering something he read on The WarZone last week.
Old School
@Old School:
Adding:
….
Tony Jay
I feel ya. I’ve been on/off trying to find time to finish an extended rant about the threadbare revivalist’s tent that is modern British politics, but the shameless shitopaths just keep on cranking out more nonsense every single day.
There’s no bottom. It’s balrogs all the way down.
WTFGhost
News for today:
Trump administration did something stupid, feces-laden, cruel, and horrible, and performed it with maximum incompetence, to boot.
Trump lickspittles used words in contrary to their definition to defend him; only girls can be press people, because Trump saw Pinocchio too many times as a child, and thinks his face looked like the painted face of Pinocchio, before turning into Elvis Presley’s, and later, Taylor Swift’s, the latter only for a few days. No one has told him that his mirror is actually a photograph, and he’s too stupid to figure it out.
Hoodie
@Old School: “We”? I guess Israel beat out Canada for 51st state.
They Call Me Noni
@Eunicecycle: I questioned why I had to have it. It was torture.
They Call Me Noni
@BlueGuitarist: The courts just cannot work fast enough to keep up with all this.
JML
Reminders of the good in the world: I changed jobs recently. But I’ve had new colleagues at my new position (where I’ve only been for a short time) check in on me after the horror of the weekend and old colleagues from my previous job reach out to check in on me, because they knew or thought I might have known/worked with one or more of the impacted legislators. Just wanting to make sure I was ok. It’s easy for people to not think that much about the new person or to forget about a former colleague when you don’t see them regularly any longer. So it was awfully nice to have people ask.
Gotta keep encouraging the good people. More allies for smacking down the bad ones.
TheOtherHank
The wildest math class I took as an undergrad was basically “Why does 1+1=2?” It was about the rules underlying math. You can, if follow the rules appropriately make up a math that does almost anything you want. We like the math where 1+1 does equal 2 because it helps us describe the world around us.
Elizabelle
@Old School: Conceived? LOL. And spelled right? Jesus.
suzanne
@BlueGuitarist: That picture is unbelievable.
Jackie
And this just happened:
Sorry all the video links are X. Maybe they’re also posted on Blue Sky?
I feel like we’re being sucked into a vortex, spinning out of control, with all that’s going on both domestically and in the Middle East.
Elizabelle
@Andrya: Thank you for the explainer. Well done.
Baud
The gods are angry.
Melancholy Jaques
@Eunicecycle:
I passed statistics – and therefore graduated – by the grace of a professor who took pity on me.
Elizabelle
@BlueGuitarist: “Do you have a judicial warrant? Do you have a judicial warrant? Do you have a judicial warrant?”
I will tell you. ICE goons need to be picking strawberries, potatoes, spinach, what have you. They are not a match for working in a modern democracy, with legal rules.
Matt McIrvin
@BlueGuitarist: Arrested by ICE– this is an escalation. Are they going to start summary detention and deportation of citizens now?
Belafon
@Jackie:
He challenged ICE.
schrodingers_cat
@Quicksand: For me it was the opposite, I changed my math major to physics because math was becoming to abstract for me to understand.
Jackie
Today FFOTUS has another court date:
Kelly
I have a Comp Sci degree from the University of Oregon. I had a successful, lucrative IT career. I was a skilled coder, COBOL and IBM mainframe Assembler. Completing the math requirements for my CS degree almost broke me.
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin:
I believe that’s already happening.
cain
@Kelly: I’ve always hated the math requirements.
My dad is a mathematician but I got my mom’s genes when it comes to that :D
NutmegAgain
The only good thing I can say is I took multivariate analysis and matrix algebra in grad school, and have since simply forgotten all about it! Brief suffering, now numbness.
WTFGhost
@They Call Me Noni: The funny thing about matrices is, they’re actually relatively easy. They’re hard to wrap your brain around, but once you do, the way they work starts to make sense.
A matrix is a transformation space for a vector. What’s a vector? Just a list of numbers. Seriously, you can muck around a lot, but that’s what it comes down to: a list of numbers.
Of course, it’s math, so they replace the list of numbers, with lists of variables, right? And a matrix can turn from 5×5, all numbers, to 5×5, all variables. And, you’ll find out what special things you can do in this space.
Your two stats courses, don’t worry: you *never* know when to apply those tests from those courses. “When can you apply the tests?” is super-advanced, because these tests are really effed up pieces of math. So in the end, you really do memorize the formulas, and the types of test to which you can apply them.
pluky
@Eunicecycle:
@TheOtherHank:
1+1=0 on an additive ring of <0,1>.
I was obviously the exception here. I found stats intuitive.
/nerd
lamh47
Sup BJ…update on the new job front….it’s time for me to give up the excuses I’ve been making about this job and how it fits me.
I’m pretty sure I made a mistake. I just had my first evening shift day yesterday and while the training wasn’t bad, that night time commute was NOT to my liking.
First it was still an hour long to get home. Second, the drive was essentially pitch black majority of the way on the highway, not many cars, until I got to the SF city limits, but at least the first half of the drive was just nighttime highway…After an 8 hours shift, the ride was actually more stressful than the ride into work.
I’m not sure that I can do it. Actually, that’s me making excuses, I KNOW I can’t do it long term.
Also, too, add a few other things I was just ignoring honestly, and this job just isn’t for me.
Unfortunately, I need it right now to pay bills and so far thanks to Chump the job market is more scarce than I’ve ever seen it.
At this point, I’ve got to decide if my California dreaming is over or have to really think about leaving Oakland for other places in Cali or even back to a place I actually loved living in (DFW)…sigh.
Called into work for today and tomorrow, cause I’m just not in the headspace for the job right now. As a new employee I don’t have time but oh well, either they accept it or nah…
I’m kinda already dialled out.
WTFGhost
@Librettist: TACO! he has got no balls
Miller, has two but they’re a doll’s
JD… tried to steal a baby’s
But Trumpy, has no balls, at all.
Elizabelle
@JML: I have been thinking about you. Very sad loss of a wonderful couple (and their loyal doggo).
I hope we do not have a long hot summer ahead of us.
All the days and weeks are long now.
Vote Kamala for sanity. But. No.
Kelly
@cain: All that work I put into calculus and I never used math more advanced than high school algebra.
Peke Daddy
@Old School: Knee deep in the big muddy.
PsiFighter37
@Matt McIrvin: Lander’s support is going to go through the roof on this. He was already my #1 choice. Hope he is released as soon as possible. Abolish ICE was too radical in 2019 but is probably necessary whenever (if?) Democrats get back in office.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Quicksand: My dad has a PhD in mathematics. His dissertation involved three-spheres, something I know nothing about despite taking matrix algebra and up through Calc 2. I have him beat in one respect though – I’ve taken several stats courses and he never took a single one.
Dman
They are arresting Democrats at court houses again.
The darkness grows with each day.
https://www.amny.com/news/brad-lander-arrested-ice-court-hearing-06172025/
Steve LaBonne
@PsiFighter37: Repeal the whole abomination known as the Patriot Act.
Doug R
California proposal to make it a misdemeanor for officers to cover their faces prompts federal criticism
Jeffro
@Old School: no “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!” ?
well, it’s not official, then!
lol
also, fuck that guy
Elizabelle
@lamh47: I’m sorry. But your heart knows, and that drive in the dark — during the weeks with the longest light of the year — is instructive. (Summer solstice comes Friday night, June 20.)
Jeffro
true, true…it’s almost like we need a better system, or something…
Matt McIrvin
@PsiFighter37: I’m glad that you think any of that might happen.
Scout211
@lamh47: I’m so sorry. Please take care of yourself on your days off. Life decisions like this are not easy but we all know you will make the best decision for yourself.
lamh47
@Elizabelle:
I drove 280 to 101 to 80 and cross the Bay bridge. The drive from Palo Alto to at least the SFO exit is mostly dark with occasional light on the highway signs until you get to more populated areas.
I leave Palo Alto at about 12:30am.
But also, it’s not just the commute WW7, alot of things are not quite adding up that I’ve been ignoring, but the commute just makes it worse.
I called into work for the next 2 days cause I’m just not in the right headspace right now…but when I return on Thursday, I will try to attempt a different route (via 880) and see if it is better.
suzanne
@Jeffro: THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER is how I passive-aggressively sign email when I really want to say MAKE A DECISION DAMNIT.
WTFGhost
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: 3-spheres are topology and weird calculus. A 2-sphere is like the earth – you can walk about a two-dimensional surface, and as far as you can tell, it goes on forever. Well, imagine it this way: take a circle, okay, and this is “a circle, and the flat 2-d space within the borders.”
Imagine the center of the globe (2-sphere) where’re going to make is the south pole.
Take the round border, and make a bag out of it. Every single point on the outside edge of that circle because the north pole. We now have a hollow sphere, that’s 2-dimensional, except, it’s around a big hole. Also: it’s non-Euclidean, because parallel lines *could* meet, if they cross the poles.
That is a 2-sphere. For a 3-sphere, you’d take a 3-dimensional area of space, and map all of the boundary to a single point, making a 3-dimensional space, wrapped around a hole. The actual mapping would happen in 4-d space, but it’s not *that* interesting – what’s interesting is the properties of the 3-sphere, which, please note, might give us insight into our universe, via the laws of relativity, and so forth.
(The laws of relativity state that mass curves space, because otherwise, the equations don’t work out. So this kind of “imagine you curve space in a funny way” really does important stuff, or, at least, it could.)
lamh47
I don’t know about any one else in healthcare, but mahn job market as scarce as I’ve ever seen it and it’s all gotta be thx to the orange menace…so many companies are just scared to do any hiring…especially in healthcare where so many of the hospitals are state run or grant funded by gov’t…smh
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: We can act as though we are going to have elections, etc., and take what actions we can to ensure that we do or we can decide that we aren’t going to have elections and go straight to either giving up or civil war. I am in favor of trying to preserve the country. We might lose, but we sure as hell will if we don’t make the effort.
Scout211
I know there are countless worse things that the Trump regime is doing but this just hit me hard.
Absolutely no human decency.
Jackie
@Doug R: Misdemeanor in CA are punishable by up to one year in a county jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.
And will be ignored by FFOTUS’s goons.
Elizabelle
@lamh47: Good luck to you. And no surprise about the job market. I am so sorry you are going through this much difficulty.
Everything Trump Touches Dies.
WTFGhost
@Doug R: I’d make it an effing felony if the cop also has his (or her) badge number blocked. We, the people of the united states, have an extreme interest in being able to identify criminals with badges, and I don’t care if they might be doxxed, that’s between them, and their employer to work out. Oh, their employer won’t provide security? Tough noogies, and by noogies, I do mean “shit”.
Scout211
@lamh47: Have you checked the Sacramento area? Lots of hospitals and labs in that regional area. The cost of living is a bit less there, too.
ETA: but the weather is much hotter in the summers, so maybe not.
Matt McIrvin
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: All I know about three-spheres (that’s a hypersphere with a 3D “surface”) comes from physics: it’s the same thing as SU(2), which in linear algebra terms is the space of 2×2 complex matrices that are unitary and have determinant 1.
And *that* is the same thing as the space of rotations of a quantum particle with half-integer spin.
Which are the same as ordinary rotations, except that turning 360 degrees doesn’t get you back to the same state where you started, you have to go around twice
Oh, and if you’re a computer graphics person and deal with unit quaternions: it’s those too.
Matt McIrvin
@Scout211: Marcy Wheeler suggested the reporters should have asked him if the DOJ butting in and making it a federal case meant he was planning on pardoning the killer.
suzanne
Saw a devastating post this morning on FB….. Melissa Hortman’s dog Gilbert was also killed when she and her husband were murdered. Apparently she and her husband trained assistance dogs, and Gilbert washed out….. so they kept him as a pet.
Miss Bianca
@Doug R: oh, *now* these bastards are bitching because they can’t wear masks?
WTFGhost
@Scout211: It’s not that he is missing in decency. He’s just a chicken shit, and doesn’t have the balls to talk to someone he’s insulted so grievously.
He knows Walz is a real man, so, he naturally feels completely ball-less in front of him. He just likes to talk tough in front of a teleprompter, for when his spoiled-yogurt brain gives up, and he can try to read his next line. In front of a real man, even on the phone, his tiny-tiny ball-substitutes would fall down his pantlegs and roll on the floor, making a sound almost like water was dripping, so you’d think he wet himself, but no, remember, Diapers Over Democrats, and he thinks his pecker is a democrat because it never rises in his presence, hence, he puts a diaper over it. He’s really not that bright.
No, the sound you’d hear is his imitation balls rolling on the floor. Don’t stomp on them – they’re nearly as valuable as his shoe lifts!
WereBear
@lamh47: It sounds bad enough without the commute. The dark highway thing is almost as bad as a whiteout snowstorm in terms of adrenaline and then exhaustion.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Scout211:
Thanks for sharing that and yeah, this one really strikes a chord.
Presidenting, historically, well at least since after WWI, involved a lot of little things that aren’t supposed to care about party affiliation. Like this.
And yet, we can always count on Hair Furor to find another way to slither under a bar we keep setting lower and lower.
Scout211
Now where have I heard this before? Seems vaguely familiar.
Jackie
@Scout211: Honestly, I don’t think Gov Walz gives AF about empty and false platitudes from Trump. It’d be a waste of the governor’s time, too.
ps: Also Walz doesn’t have waste time waiting for “the call,” either. Win Win FFOTUS’s remarks are probably the most honest statement he’s made in years.
Deputinize America
Where is Wikileaks to give us a list of current ICE agents?
Math Guy
That I was able to make a decent living as a mathematician is a weird blessing. It’s not for everyone.
Matt McIrvin
@Deputinize America: busy giving information to ICE, probably
MazeDancer
@BlueGuitarist: So Trump trying to elect Brad mayor?
Belafon
@Jackie: One more thing, though, the US needs to know about Trump.
Shakti
I’m loving that my parents are panicking because Israel decided to go fight Iran now and they’re due to get on a plane in a week? or two — that either flies over Iran or Afghanistan or Pakistan. They are trying to change flights. Also Trump is running his fucking mouth about taking out Iran’s leader.
I hate saying this but: I feel no sympathy for any of the Israeli civilians because I figure they signed up for this joyfully. Israel has shown it doesn’t give a fuck about civilians (understatement). I don’t know why it’s a bipartisan article of faith we have to let Israel do whatever the fuck it wants and give them a blank check for military spending when they’ve had their own damn nukes since the 1950s. Bullshit. Please someone explain why getting dragged into hot World War III/multifront regional war is great for the US.
I’m this close to telling my parents they shouldn’t go. My aunt canceled her trip a couple of weeks ago. Love that planes are (seemingly) fucked up now generally between the FAA being defunded and fucking Boeing’s problems and the Air India crash.
Gretchen
@lamh47: I’m sorry to hear that the new job isn’t working out. Do you have any other possibilities out there? At least you have something to pay the bills until something better comes up.
Miss Bianca
@Scout211: Regardless of who’s in a political bed with whom, it’s long past time that Congress started clawing back its legislative prerogatives from the Executive Branch. They have ceded far too much of their own power and responsibilities.
Llelldorin
@Math Guy: I did OK as a mathematician, but my income increased by quite a lot when I suddenly went “wait, I can also write code — will anyone pay me for that?”
WTFGhost
@Jackie: Plus, let’s face it: he’s probably glad that he doesn’t have to talk to the effing fat, flatulent-mouthed, foul, faffing-for-fascists, trump.
arrieve
@PsiFighter37:
I just voted for him yesterday!
ICE, as it is now, has got to go. There may be a few decent people left there who can be redeployed somewhere, but every one of the goons belongs in jail.
Geminid
@Shakti: That was basically a 50-50 election in November of 2022, the one that put Netanyahu in power. The problem was that two “Left” parties missed tbe 3.25% threshold for Knesset representation, efectively strandng six percent of the vote. So half of Israelis did not sign up for this any more joyfully than you or I signed up for Trump’s leadership.
Omnes Omnibus
@Shakti: If you apply that logic to the US, no one here deserves any sympathy for any of the bad shit Trump is doing.
Andrya
@lamh47: I hope things get better for you.
As a fellow SF Bay Area person, I do have one suggestion- before leaving for any highway trip, look up 511.org online. Their front page is a map which shows all the local highways’ congestion from awful (deep red) to merely annoying (yellow) to flowing freely (green). I have found it very helpful in saving me driving time.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Shakti:
Um, that’s kinda like saying should some catastrophic attack happen in the US (think 9/11), that people like us deserve no sympathy because “we signed up for this joyfully”, when, obviously nobody on this Almost Top 10000 Blog (and the 75 million people who voted for Harris) signed up for this (mal)administration, much less joyfully.
That’s the same kinda comment we see here from people who make cracks about red states going away (or whatever), forgetting the Dems who live in those states.
Now, framing this ire as anti-Netanyahu and the conservative parties that joined his coalition that’s helped bring about this mess, sure, I’ll join you with the pitchforks and torches.
But making a blanket statement about Israeli civilians, many of whom protest and roughly half voted to oppose this government, no.
lamh47
@Scout211: I’m planning to expand my search at least so that I can utilize the license I paid for the next two years.
I do know the VA hosptial is hiring in my area, but you can imagine I’m hesitant about doing fed service again, but at the very least the VA hospital staffing has not been affected like the regulation or gov’t oversight parts…
cmorenc
@schrodingers_cat:
HS and college-age folks learning math now have a huge advantage of us older folks, because of all the graphical learning tools and videos make what’s really going on much easier to understand. Back in the day, if you had a math prof who really was in love with the abstraction of mathematical logic and used textbooks of the same ilk, and you were more of a visual learner, you were dead meat in that class. I’m looking at you, Serge Lang, who wrote a couple of the most densely incomprehensible, yet relatively short, calculus textbooks ever, and the people in the math department at UNC who thought inflicting that incomprehensible mess of a textbook was any sort of way to teach freshmen calculus…
Belafon
@Shakti: Pretty easy reading that you don’t know about Israeli politics.
lamh47
@WereBear: Once I return to work Thursday, I plan to try another route that’s about the same commute time though and we’ll see if it’s a better drive so that at the very least, I can still work while looking for other options.
lamh47
@Gretchen: jobs in my field are scarce right now. Not many hospitals/healthcare companies are hiring as much right now compared to just right after the inauguration…smh
WTFGhost
Hey, Cole: this over at Digby’s is a soldier/Marine who suggested that the troops were either *not* troops, or the NCOs decided they’d had just enough of this crap.
The subtitles are a great add-on to the humor value.
https://digbysblog.net/2025/06/17/ministry-of-silly-marches
(NB: he said “soldier, was a Marine” but I’ve known too many of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children to leave “Marine” out.)
lamh47
@Andrya: Oh…I always have the map app up…it’s not really about the route, per se…no matter which way I go…the commute is still dead at night and at least an hour. I thought I could do it, and I can for the short term, but I just can’t do it long term.
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
Given all that’s happened since Friday morning, the National Guard question had totally dropped off my radar. Too much news indeed.
Sure Lurkalot
@lamh47: Sorry that the job isn’t a good fit. I’ve been there and it’s both disappointing and scary when the job market in your field is contracting.
Wonder if labs aren’t hiring because our dear HHS secretary apparently believes illness is airborne or a poor lifestyle choice with the solution being to eat better. No reason to get blood work for a diagnosis or treatment.
Good time for jackals to check out Tom Levenson’s book So Very Small and learn about how germ theory replaced the miasma theory of illness. It’s a terrific read and illustrates clearly what a dangerous nutjob RFKJr is to embrace debunked and other conspiracy theories about health.
lamh47
@Sure Lurkalot: Right…the DHSS being run by that kook and CMS (which regulates labs) being run by Dr. fuq’n Oz…smh
Trollhattan
@Doug R:
Nice. Shake up their safe little world.
WaterGirl
@BlueGuitarist: Holy fuck!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WTFGhost:
I love how he references the SecDef:
Professor Bigfoot
@Omnes Omnibus: Hear hear.
What we had before had its own shittiness before Field Marshal von Bonespurs; and there’s always the possibility that what comes after is exponentially worse.
”A republic, if you can keep it,” indeed.
BlueGuitarist
@Jackie: yes, also on BlueSky
Geminid
@Shakti: People are still flying in and out of Dubai. One of the pilots caught a spectacular sight on camera a couple days ago. They were looking out the window towards Iran; it was a peaceful scene not long before dawn. All of a sudden some bright lights started rising off Iran and heading off to the northwest. It was about a dozen ballistic missiles intended for Israel.
I saw another video taken at a wedding in Lebanon. Iranian missiles and Israeli and American interceptors were staging a big lightshow in the southern sky. The wedding guests oohed and ahhed some, then carried on with the festivities
Ed.
frosty
@Kelly: Yep. Was a math major until I never figured out Real Analysis. I ended up as an engineer and here’s the Sekrit: Differential Equations for Engineers is all about Fourier Transforms etc. that converts everything to … Algebra! Ta-Da!!!! No more calculus, just 8th grade math for my whole career.
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m actually encouraged that they bothered to charge him with a crime, instead of declaring him an “illegal” on the spot and disappearing him.
suzanne
@Shakti:
This is fucked up.
JoyceH
I saw an article that claimed to be insider accounts of Trump’s reaction to the parade and it claimed that he was angry at the troops demeanor – angry that they smiled and waved rather than being stern and menacing. Geez, I would hope that the military of a democracy would smile and wave to their own citizens! Or citizens of any non-enemy country for that matter. Trump doesn’t think like a citizen of a democracy.
I saw video of him boarding AF1 leaving the G7 and man, he looked bad! He was all drooping and his face almost looked like it was melting. He’s just… done. And his expression was cranky, defeated, just finished. Tell you what, he may be making us all miserable and ruining a lot of lives, but at least he’s not enjoying it.
TONYG
Somebody with brains in Trump’s entourage (maybe Russel Vought?) has planned things this way. A constant onslaught since January of multiple crimes and outrages happening simultaneously. It makes it very hard for the opposition to focus.
Matt McIrvin
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Around the time of the Iraq invasion I saw one supporter argue that he had no sympathy for Iraqi civilians because they hadn’t overthrown their dictator. I remember thinking it was a pretty high bar. Also very similar to Osama bin Laden’s stated justification in his videos for killing American civilians.
suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: The inverse has been people who have no sympathy for Gazans because they hate Hamas. Never mind that there haven’t been elections in Gaza in almost a generation, and over half of the population has never voted at all.
It’s all fucked up. Civilians aren’t their leaders.
Matt McIrvin
@TONYG: This is how Trump always operates– he’s got to keep people off balance with constant outrages to stay in the spotlight. But in his first term, a lot of them were just saying stupid shit. Here, though, I think he’s being yanked around by another head of government who is even better at playing the same game.
Jackie
@Shakti:
Just as “all of us” did with Trump. You might want to rephrase that statement.
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: Same damn thing, indeed.
With a democracy you can at least argue that the people signed on in some abstract sense, but we all know our control over what these people do is limited.
WaterGirl
@JML: Thanks for sharing that .
Omnes Omnibus
@WTFGhost: Every soldier knows how to march in step. They may not be good at it, in which case you see the doing a sort of skipping step to get back in sync. What these soldiers were doing was a route step march. They maintain formation but do not keep in step. It is a more comfortable way to march over distance. As an army officer, I did not march my soldiers very often – that is generally an NCOs job, but when I did I would switch to route step almost immediately. It is easy enough to switch back. The command Quick Time, March and someone calling cadence for about eight steps does it. Going to and staying at route step for the whole parade was a definite choice. And an uncommon one.
Kirk
@WTFGhost: There’s a short clip out there that shows the 75th (ranger) regiment in front of what looks like a combined unit from 1st Special Forces command. Both are terribly out of step as they’re marching past the review stand.
40 years ago I was a Ranger (3/75). I’ve kept an eye on the organization for nostalgic reasons, and I can tell you that the Rangers have the pride and discipline for sharp formation drills – as for example see when 1/75 marched in Savannah’s St Patrick’s day parade. SF has always been just as sharp when I’ve seen them.
I’m leaning very heavily toward intentional but unprovable disrespect.
lowtechcyclist
@TONYG:
Perhaps, but I doubt it. First of all, Trump 1.0 was like that in terms of a constant onslaught of shit, just at a much lower level of atrocity overall. Second, Trump wants to be driving the news all the time, that’s just how he is. He wants everything to be about him; from his POV, if he’s President, there shouldn’t be days when he isn’t at the top of the news.
Now the actual atrocities? Yeah, that’s where Stephen Miller, Russell Vought, and (in the early going) Elon Musk came in. And others too of course, but mostly them AFAICT.
Kirk
@Shakti:
Speaking as a liberal Democrat stuck in Texas, would you kindly take yourself off to join other haters somewhere else? If you decide to help /fix/ the problem, then welcome back.
WaterGirl
@lamh47: That sucks. But now you know for sure that this one isn’t for you, and there’s something to be said for that.
(Looking for the silver lining.)
Matt McIrvin
@suzanne: …What makes it murkier is that wars in general are often very popular with the general population at first, regardless of the justification or the merits: they make their own support through appeals to emotion. It doesn’t necessarily last. But the people are always operating with limited knowledge and understanding.
Jackie
51st state?
Does the U.S. European Command have any say?
And does Denmark have any say? Today’s only Tues. Monday was a week ago.
WaterGirl
@suzanne: I had a boss at the University who was a maddening combination of Ready-Fire-Aim on a lot of stuff where that’s a really bad idea, and taking forever to make a decision about other stuff.
I started appending a date/time reference in the emails. Something like, “I know how busy you are, so if I haven’t heard from you by X date, I will assume that you’re in agreement, and I will proceed with what was proposed.”
Ironcity
@cmorenc: I never did find a calculus textbook that was readable. The way to learn how to solve differential equations at least was to talk to the EEs.
JWR
@Jackie:
I’m pretty sure this is a live feed of the actual judges hearing said case:
Ruckus
@JaySinWa:
It is what it is changes hourly.
The disturbing part is where shitforbrains makes a short, weird sort of gurgling noise, then very slowly turns around 360 degrees, and resets that tiny, demented brain back to zero, all the while emitting a whirring noise, which is weirder than the weird gurgling one.
Jackie
PSA
MSNBC is covering the CA hearing re presidential authority to deploy the National Guard over the governor’s objections.
Lyrebird
WORST CLASS(es) EVER at my small college – prof actually READ TO US from those little Lang- authored volumes. They probably still serve well as reference books, but as textbooks? As read-aloud? I’m about Cole’s age, so that tells you something.
Thank heaven I took regular calc before college, and that textbook is the only one I absconded with (paid the fine after claiming it was lost) from my entire HS career
ETA:
@Ironcity: If I find the right box I will try to look it up, bc that book, with a good teacher, was a pleasure to use. Wasn’t new even then, and def. big enough to take out a rodent if dropped, but a GOOD textbook. Sorry so shouty with all caps.
Jackie
@JWR: See my #135 comment :-D
Nebber mind. MSNBC is bouncing between that and Iran/Israel and NYC ICE goons arresting one of the Democratic candidates for mayor. Brad Lander.
zhena gogolia
@cmorenc: SERGE LANG TURNED ME OFF MATH FOREVER
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Librettist: I thought our ugly, old president left early because he looked, sounded (and probably felt) like an idiot.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
Trump administration did something stupid, feces-laden, cruel, and horrible, and performed it with maximum incompetence, to boot.
So, a normal shitforbrains day.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@lamh47: the Goypers put you through one heckuva wringer for no fault of your own. Jerkwads
JWR
@Jackie: Yeah, what a burn. I generally can’t follow legalese, but as a CA and L.A. County resident, I was getting into this one.
zhena gogolia
@HopefullyNotcassandra: He’s so, so, so ugly. His mouth now looks like a frog’s all the time. Someone had MSNBC on during a social event the other night, and it was the first time I’d laid eyes on him in any video since the election. It’s very striking how much he’s declined. (Not that he was ever handsome, even in his salad days.)
Ruckus
@Eunicecycle:
Stats was easy for me, possibly because I used math in my job every day. Geometry, trigonometry, and all that elementary grade stuff.
Math is difficult for many because it actually has rather strict rules. OK most of it does. I think one of the reasons is that, at least in how I was taught is that teachers used examples, a lot of which worked OK with the basic 4, addition, subtraction, multiplication and devision but you go beyond that and the explanations often need to be as involved as the mathematical process itself, which if not done correctly, step by step makes it a lot more difficult. I mostly had good teaches that explained the processes very well and that made things a lot easier. The other side is that a lot of higher math usage is something that most people rarely, if ever see. So even if you learn it, it often becomes easy to forget the process and rules.
1,000 flouncing lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Kirk: The rest of the Army got a long weekend; they had to go to DC and march in the Circus Peanut’s parade, in the heat, humidity, and rain. Their quarters & meal provision sucked, and they probably missed all of Father’s Day.
I think we saw some world-class malicious compliance.
Ruckus
@YY_Sima Qian:
I’m not sure he even half remembers – or is it more likely he never learned/knew in the first place?
Jackie
Update on FFOTUS’s Big UGLY Bill:
Raven
@Kirk: Route step?
prostratedragon
@cmorenc: Lang!😵💫 I actually sat in a couple of lectures by him, in a class that, naturally, would use his textbook. I quickly retreated to the more practically oriented class, that used Hannibal and Lechter or whatever. It was basic physics that helped me understand calc better.
JML
@Jackie: Basically meaningless. It doesn’t change Greenland’s status, just which group of US Forces would immediately be tasked to respond if they were attacked by the Russians or something and we responded. More show & tell for Dear Leader.
But no: US European Command doesn’t get to complain if their superiors task someone else with what used to be their job. They’re all still part of the same chain of command.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Doug R: excellent!
lowtechcyclist
@Jackie:
I dearly hope there’s some NYS criminal statute those ICE goons can be charged under (IOW, beyond the reach of Presidential pardon powers). If some of them were to find themselves facing the possibility of a criminal trial, it might the rest to stop running roughshod over the law.
WTFGhost
@Lyrebird: I’m not sure I saw the book you mentioned, but, I do remember Serge Lang as an author, and I can believe it would be dense. If it mentioned “Lebesgue Integration,” then I’m officially horrified. I’m not sure anyone outside of math (and maybe physics, including EE) needs to know what that is, other than “thank goodness, it proves this integral is correct.”
Also, if you have a continuous orange, and a knife-of-choice, you could… never mind, at least one of those things doesn’t exist.
@suzanne: It also ignores how Bibi is staying in power by extending the war. He was risking ouster before the attacks. *Now* he gets to explain how those attacks happened under his watch, except “oopsie,” he has to attack Iran, can’t hold an election while fighting Iran!
The Israeli citizenry haven’t had much say in this for a while, now.
Baud
@WTFGhost:
As I said in the other thread, I’ll be interested in seeing if the success against Iran makes Netanyahu popular enough for him to call elections.
WTFGhost
@Ruckus: that said, your brain will remember having used arcane rules that didn’t make much sense, and how to reason, using just those rules, nothing else.
*THAT* is the power of math for ordinary people. All math is, really, is a language extender. You can only use it properly if you use the rules, otherwise, it’s like saying “we add a fisherman, and bait, and get… a 1957 Caddy wagon with extra-burnished wood trim!” Well, you rarely want to say such nonsense – who carries fishing line that can land a Caddy *wagon*? Huh? I mean, really!
Ahem. I always wanted to teach math, and it’s probably best that I didn’t try (though I have tutored quite well).
Raven
@WTFGhost: braid is pretty strong!
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Jackie: Then California police can get judicial warrants and arrest their law-breaking selves. California police can do this unmasked and even wearing name tags because they aren’t scared of the public they are serving.
This is not only a good move. It is a just one.
Ruckus
@lamh47:
Well shitforbrains pretty much does screw up any thing he has even the remotest contact with in his job. And that may include anyone that runs a segment of the government. I’m sort of amazed that the time of day hasn’t been screwed up. He has that ability…..
Matt McIrvin
@WTFGhost: What I don’t think most people get about modern math is that the idea is you can just make up ANY rules (if they’re logically consistent, but that’s a very big if) and then you strictly follow those rules and explore the consequences, and what you can prove. And that may or may not turn out to be useful for something, but surprisingly often it is.
The creative, imaginative aspect is lost because the math classes most people take aren’t really about math itself, they’re about applications of some tiny corner of math for clerks or engineers or scientists. (But when they do start to be about math, there’s also a huge leap up in difficulty!)
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Matt McIrvin: That is exactly the question to ask. Next, what do you plan to do about all of these mass-murdering American men? What is your plan? because targeting immigrants, while undermining basic policing just is not going to cut it.
Baud
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed. (As a layman who enjoys math talk).
Kirk
Raven and Omni,
re route step (and at ease march), there’s an issue. The units execute “eyes right” and the commander saluted the reviewing stand. This can only be done when marching at attention. (Good old FM 22-5). The only marching orders that can be given in those two relaxed march commands are mode of march commands: Quick time, route step, and at ease. (Half step only comes from quick time.)
Ruckus
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
He doesn’t slither anywhere, anyhow, any time. I mean if he did he’d be covered in his own exhaust – which wherever he is, is always a couple feet think – in the least. He’s a shit delivery service. And always seems to have a full load. Maybe he’s recycling his own…..
Baud
Ruckus
@lamh47:
As a vet I use the VA and because of where it’s located I use a VA hospital. I’d say it’s a good place to work, at least from what I hear. Now of course there are always some that, how should I say this, just don’t really fit. But mostly I’m extremely happy with about 95% of the people that work there.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kirk: Correct.
JWR
Oh look! PBS has a live feed of the Newsom vs Trump hearing:
HopefullyNotcassandra
@JoyceH: Do you think this president has ever enjoyed anything?
prostratedragon
Balloon Juice: where people bond over Serge Lang.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Good! Now, Governor, please see if you can find a New York law to charge the ICE goons with violating.
stinger
@lamh47:
Ah, rats, so sorry to hear this.
Ruckus
@WTFGhost:
As someone who served, a long, long time ago, I saw exactly what you are talking about. At one point I saw a sergeant walking along smiling as he was looking at the group next to him. They knew exactly what they were doing. It wouldn’t have looked any different if they’d all had one finger raised. (Yes you know which one….)
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
shitforbrains thinks (such as it is…) that everyone OWES HIM everything for his greatness. Attention, admiration, any possible public indication of his greatness. Personally I think the entire nation ought to have a middle finger, doubles contest, where everyone flips him off with both hands whenever he’s within 1/4 mile of their presence.
They Call Me Noni
wrong thread
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Never heard or saw anything like that in the USN. Now it’s been a few decades ago so things may have changed. But everyone had to learn step distance and step cadence when I was in. When marching in formation it was strictly enforced.
Jeffro
@suzanne: well, at least that’s a good reason!
trumpov just does it ’cause he thinks it makes him sound more authoritative and lawyer-ly and shit ;)
Matt McIrvin
@HopefullyNotcassandra: The other thing Wheeler is doing is fighting a hopeless battle to convince the people of Bluesky and Mastodon that some Democrats are actually doing something to oppose Trump, because the collective social-media left seem hellbent on making the story of every single Republican outrage about how, actually, it happened because Democrats suck or are secretly on his side.
stinger
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Yep. Not an immigrant. Also not a drag queen.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ruckus: Ever need to march more than a couple of blocks? The army frequently does.
Jackie
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Physicallysexually assaulting women. He admitted to such on the Hollywood video tape.Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
That does sound hopeless. I hope the frustration doesn’t get to her.
Baud
prostratedragon
@Baud: // blank expression
Scout211
@Baud: CNN says she’s conscious and speaking with her security team.
I hate to say it, but . . .
I DON’T REALLY CARE, DO U?
Jackie
@Jackie: Physically should be physically sexually assaulting women. Missed the edit window.
Baud
@Scout211:
No, it’s just news.
Baud
suzanne
@Baud: I was rooting for anaphylaxis, for maybe the first time ever.
Jackie
@Scout211:
Nope. Other than I hope it hurts. Cruel of me, but she’s inflicted so much cruelty on others…
Baud
@suzanne:
Rooting for disease is official government policy now.
Geminid
In the silver linings department, reports are that DNI Tulsi Gabbard will step down if the U.S. enters the Israel/Iran war.
prostratedragon
Mike Lee’s great cause:
Yeah, that Mike Lee, in the same time frame as his cruel “joke”:
Scout211
If only!
Baud
@Geminid:
That is the most pro-war argument I’ve ever heard in my whole life.
Jackie
@Geminid: Who’s the evil person FFOTUS would replace her with? I’d say Tucker, but he agrees with Tulsi’s pov.
Miss Bianca
@Scout211: I love to say it, personally. I was hoping the witch strokes out and is left paralyzed and slurring and confined to a nursing home.
But I’m not a nice person
Jackie
@prostratedragon: Even a broken clock is wrong twice a day…
Captain C
@Jackie: I want to make it clear that I don’t think we should give all masked ICE agents who refuse to identify themselves properly the same treatment as Nicky Santoro got at the end of the movie Casino. I want them to spend most of their pathetic, bullying lives in jail thinking about everyone else who’s free to enjoy life because they didn’t choose to be fascist thugs.
I do think they deserve it, though.
zhena gogolia
@prostratedragon: So true.
Jackie
@Scout211:
If we don’t see her on the tvs for a few days… we all know Noem loves her tv time!
Captain C
@WTFGhost: In addition, I would also make it possible to plead self-defense if one ganks someone claiming to be ICE or other law-enforcement but refuses to show their face or ID. Can’t be too careful these days.
Jay
@Baud:
She inhaled a tiny amount of empathy and had a massive allergic reaction.
Captain C
@lowtechcyclist: Violation of Civil Rights under color of law? Impersonating a law enforcement officer?
Captain C
@Ruckus:
If everyone did this properly, the USPS would be overwhelmed by large shipments of manure.
Randal Sexton
@cmorenc: shout out to the Swokowski calculus book. I was a pretty older math/physics/EE student and loved that book. Now my youngest kid also loves that book and has made me swear to will it to him
frosty
@Jay:
Haha! That’s on the money!
Noskilz
It is quite the churning kaleidoscope of madness.
All one can do is the best one can under the circumstances.
WaterGirl
@Jackie: Fixed for you.
Matt McIrvin
@Jackie: John Bolton suddenly decides he loves Trump after all and jumps at the chance?
Jackie
@WaterGirl: thanks!
Jackie
@Matt McIrvin: That didn’t work out too well for Bolton last time. ‘Sides, I seem to recall that Bolton’s on FFOTUS’s Hit List of enemies.
dnfree
I was a math major and studied matrices about 60 years ago, but couldn’t explain matrix operations now. Fortunately I never had to use them. Surprised to see them mentioned.
dnfree
@Kelly: But you could do hexadecimal arithmetic, right?
Gloria DryGarden
@Baud: shot at a gravel quarry? Ate a poisoned apple? Some ecoli from an under regulated restaurant that bought under regulated food? Someone returned her purse but slipped her something harmful in it?
putting attention remainders on people I find congenial.
Gloria DryGarden
@dnfree: i stopped short of differential equations, diffi-q. All those matrices. It seemed mind boggling. I took a semester of stats, but I never understood it, it was like a foreign language. I know people get a masters in statistics. It’s too weird, but I know scientists need and use it.
calculus, algebra, geometry, and arithmetic, all have concrete real world applications. ( how much food to cook, how many grams of protein, converting from ounces, how to build a curve in a highway to handle certain velocities, what diameter can the curve have to be safe… important stuff)
When I was in those courses, it was a fun language to interact with. And calculus was all about shapes and movement, and was a fun dance partner for the minds eye.
When my life changed directions, I cried, because I missed it. Still today, I think about relearning it to tutor it.