13 DEC 2018 by ideonexus
A Minority of Users Account for Majority of Online Comments
In July, NPR.org recorded nearly 33 million unique users, and 491,000 comments. But those comments came from just 19,400 commenters, Montgomery said. That's 0.06 percent of users who are commenting, a number that has stayed steady through 2016.
When NPR analyzed the number of people who left at least one comment in both June and July, the numbers showed an even more interesting pattern: Just 4,300 users posted about 145 comments apiece, or 67 percent of all NPR.org comments for the two month...
1 21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
"Susicion of Authority" is Also Propaganda
While individuals get our empathy and sympathy, institutions seldom do. The "we're in this together" spirit of films from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s later gave way to a reflex shared by left and right, that villainy is associated with organization. Even when they aren't portrayed as evil, bureaucrats are stupid and public officials short-sighted. Only the clever bravado of a solitary hero (or at most a small team) will make a difference in resolving the grand crisis at hand.
This rule of con...A conspiracy meme that comes from both the left and right.
25 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
T T T=<em>N</em>
Occasionally he made a comment similar to Archimedes' "Eureka!" about a discovery, as he did when he wrong T T T=N. This is part of number theory, the field that Gauss called the Queen of Mathematics. A triangular number T is a number that you can get by adding up a string of consecutive whole numbers beginning with one. The number 6 is triangular because you can get it by adding 1 2 3, and 15 is triangular because you can get it by adding 1 2 3 4 5. The number 5,050, the sum of the first 100...Folksonomies: mathematics
Folksonomies: mathematics
1 
notes
notesGauss' beautiful mathematical discovery.
24 MAY 2013 by ideonexus
No Such Thing as Professional Photographers
...there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers. Certainly there is varying levels of skills, but we didn’t want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing.The Yahoo CEO took a lot of heat for this comment, but there is a great deal of truth to it. With digital photography, photographs are so pervasive that professionals are now competing with a horde of amateurs.
28 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Religion is a Solution to a Non-Problem
At the 2005 World Religions Conference, I was asked to represent atheism, sitting on the stage with a Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Sikh, Hindu, and Native American spiritualist. (I accepted the invitation only after making it clear that atheism is not a religion, and they agreed to include it as a “world philosophy.”) The theme of the conference was “salvation,” and each of us was asked to summarize our respective positions on that topic. After pointing out that “sin” is a re...Folksonomies: atheism
Folksonomies: atheism
1 notes
notesIt's like a doctor going around cutting people in order to heal them.
12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Mystery is a Cover for Absurdity
A pleasant morning. Saw my classmates Gardner, and Wheeler. Wheeler dined, spent the afternoon, and drank Tea with me. Supped at Major Gardiners, and ingag'd to keep School at Bristol, provided Worcester People, at their insuing March meeting, should change this into a moving School, not otherwise. Major Greene this Evening fell into some conversation with me about the Divinity and Satisfaction of Jesus Christ. All the Argument he advanced was, "that a mere creature, or finite Being, could no...
1 John Adams comment on a debate he had with a a Major concerning the Divinity.
04 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Ecological Approach to Nutrition
The interactions of man with his environment are so complex that only an ecological approach to nutrition permits an understanding of the whole spectrum of factors determining the nutritional problems that exist in human societies. 1 notes
notesBecause our interactions with our environments are so complex. Reminds me of Polan's comment that we have to stop looking at vitamins and nutrition in isolation from their foods.
23 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Attention is the Fundamental Literacy
Attention is the fundamental literacy. Every second I spend online, I make decisions about where to spend my attention. Should I devote any mindshare at all to this comment or that headline? — a question I need to answer each time an attractive link catches my eye. Simply becoming aware of the fact that life online requires this kind of decision-making was my first step in learning to tune a fundamental filter on what I allow into my head — a filter that is under my control only if I prac...Life online requires properly allocating our attention to maximize our productivity.
