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Brief Blog Break

By jrosenhouse on November 15, 2006.

I will be travelling for the next ten days or so. First up is the big Math Symposium at Western Kentucky University, this Friday. I will be delivering two scintallating, edge-of-your seats barn-burners, both aimed at undergraduates. One will be on primes in arithmetic progressions, the other will be on using Bayes' Theorem to illustrate the differences between the Monty Hall problem and the game show Deal or No Deal. Fun!

Then it's off to Illinois for a conference on Extremal Combinatorics. I'm not speaking at that one, but I will have a chance to see some of the big names in my subject area talk about a lot of trendy, supercool mathematics. More fun!

Then it's off to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Most fun of all!

Sadly, the blog will be on hiatus until I return. Guess I picked the wrong time to start a fight about agnosticism! (Yes, you should be picturing Lloyd Bridges in Airplane when reading that last line.)

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Actually, "using Bayes' Theorem to illustrate the differences between the Monty Hall problem and the game show Deal or No Deal" does sound like fun. Hope you will provide a synopsis here.

you should go back and read the odd essay by Richard Shweder.

Its very strange

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/opinion/27Shweder.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fO…

he makes this case like

"As people opened their eyes, religion (equated with ignorance and superstition) gave way to science (equated with fact and reason). Parochialism and tribal allegiances gave way to ecumenism, cosmopolitanism and individualism. Top-down command systems gave way to the separation of church from state, of politics from science. The story provides a blueprint for how to remake and better the world in the image and interests of the Wests secular elites."

and then blames science or something because it all didn't work out so well.

its as if he's mad that some people don't believe in a god and have the TEMERITY to say so...gee if they're so smart why havn't they FIXED everything that's wrong in the world.!

sort of like the new question: How big of a failure are the democrats because they have not yet achieved victory in IRAQ?

also check out the letters in the science section today.

can you say can't even begin to formulate a logical argument?

no..didn't think so...