Is There A Mathematician In The House?

So, what it is; I'm hoping for help from a mathematician, should one happen to read this. But first, a complaint, the discussion of which may well end up taking longer than the actual topic…

The commonly given definition of a mathematical exponent (rather than an exponent of mathematics, which would be an enthusiastic maths teacher; I'm here all week, folks!) is that it represents how many times a given number should be multiplied by itself. Even as a child—a rather pedantic child, I should admit, but I know for a fact that I wasn't the only one—when I was given this explanation by a maths teacher, I found it both misleading and ambiguous.

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Two Parts Bigotry, Two Parts Noodle-Patery & One Part Essence Of Pure Ignorance. Add A Pinch Of WTF, & Simmer

Take a gander, Gentle Reader, at the face of a complete and utter prat.

Says the Daily Mirror…

Susan-Anne White is running for election in West Tyrone, Northern Ireland, as an independent candidate. Her manifesto has appeared on social media in the last few days and it's pretty shocking.

And I suppose it is to anyone whose capacity for shock at the words of right-wing evangelist noodle-pates hasn't been raised through constant exposure to same. I really do wish I still found crap like this shocking. I still find it awful, but sadly there's nary a shock to be found.

As posted on her blog, The Truth Shall Set You Free, here's her manifesto:

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The Dire State Of Music Education

Here's one of those interesting coincidences that come up now and again. My attention was drawn to a great piece on the usefulness and under-valuation of music education, at the Daily Kos, on the same day that this petition turned up in my inbox. I won't quote from the first—though I do urge you, Gentle Reader, to take a gander at it. From the petition, though:

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A Petition To End Compulsory Worship In UK Schools

A petition by the National Secular Society:

The law requires all publicly funded schools, even non-faith schools, to hold a daily act of "broadly Christian" worship.

The law as it stands is an anachronism; the legacy of a society unrecognisable from the diverse and pluralistic Britain of today where citizens hold a wide variety of religious beliefs, including no religious belief.

Most people would agree that it's healthy for children to learn about a variety of religious, non-religious and secular philosophies and worldviews. That's all part of education. But worship is different.

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Rocket-Propelled Lions Yet More Jonny Scaramanga

Gawd but that bloke gets around. A heads-up for those in the UK: He's on Newsnight tonight at ten thirty. But probably not talking about important things like rocket-assisted lions, damnit.

That is all. You may now return to whatever you were doing.
—Daz

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Jonny Scaramanga On The BBC

Helping my uncle move house on Thursday, I was sat in the passenger-seat of the moving van, when a strangely familiar voice appeared on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show. Jonny Scaramanga, on national radio, talking about ACE! You can listen to it here. (Starts at about 1:09, and I'm fairly sure radio programmes on iPlayer are available world-wide, unlike TV programmes.) There's also an accompanying written story on the BBC website.

And, of course, you really should be following Jonny's blog, Leaving Fundamentalism, where you can find way more details on the subject of faith-schools in general, and the more fundamentalist kind in particular.

He's still a rank amateur where standy-uppy hairstyles are concerned though.
—Daz

[Me, when I had standy-uppy hair]

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I Get Mail

Granted, it's a few days old, as I've been otherwise engaged, and it's not very interesting mail, but it is, indubitably, mail. According to Bob Hutton—and I quote—I "will love this." He then provides a link to his blog. Not a blog-entry, you understand. His entire blog. And that's it.

I'm going to assume that he meant to point me at his latest waste of effort. It's just that Bob's grasp of nineteen-nineties technology (you know; interweb links an' stuff) is rather weak. I long-ago asked Bob to stop spamming my email when he makes new posts, but I guess he was so excited about having managed to string a few sentences together that he momentarily forgot that.

(And Bob, for what it's worth, I'm already subscribed to the RSS feed of your blatherings. I do not need a personal reminder whenever you spill your e-ink. I make comments at your blog about some of my posts here, because, in those cases, I have chosen to address your own posts, and letting you know that I've done so is the polite thing to do. I assume that if you wanted to know when I make any post about anything you would subscribe to my blog. Please Bob, enough with the spam, okay?)

So, okay, I'm in a fisking kinda mood, so let's have a look what the Broadstairs Buffoon has to say…

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It Truly Is A Godwin Fail, When You Blame The Nazis For Something They Didn’t Do…

Is Bob Hutton trying to make me out a liar? Three posts he's made this month, and we're barely halfway through it. By the Lord Harry, his keyboard must be on fire!

Anyways, his latest is yet another persecution-ejaculation, on the subject of Germany's very sensible recent ban on homeschooling. Hutton waxes lyrical about how "In the Nazi era a law was passed making it compulsory for all parents to send their kids to state schools," thus throwing a rather sinister light on this recent ban.

Whoops! Did I say "recent"? Did Hutton attribute it to a political party which came into power in 1933?

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Reframing: Call It What It Is

I'm tired of having the nice, polite-sounding Why should we have the right to stop child-circumcision? debate. Let's call it what it is. Let's have the open and frank Why the hell should you be allowed to mutilate your children's genitalia? debate.

Likewise, let's not have the Why should abortion be legal? debate. Let's have the Why should we force women to donate the use of their body to another organism? debate.

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Female Genital Mutilation: A Petition

From Change.org:

You wouldn't think school girls in the UK have to worry about female genital mutilation (FGM), but we do. Although it is illegal in the UK, it is still happening – 24,000 girls in the UK are currently at risk of FGM. People just don't talk about it, doctors don't check for it and teachers don't teach it.

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