Comments for Intrinsically Knotted

Comment on About Me by William Lee

William Lee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:06:50 +0000

Our website Science.org is a informational databases and online news publication for anything and everything related to science and technology. We recently ran a poll asking our website users regarding what online informational resources they use to keep up to date or even to simply find great information. It seems many of our users have labeled your blog as an excellent source of Space information. We have reviewed your blog and must say, we absolutely love the information you have made available to the public and would love to make your blog a part of our top science blogs. After browsing your blog, our research team has decided to award you a Top science Blogs award banner.

Comment on Let’s Play a Game, Part 2: Game Trees and Totally Finite Games by Melvin

Melvin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:28:55 +0000

Hmm.. I never knew about this before^^ Very interesting.. So there’s no such thing as infinite games. Nice writing!

Anyway, if you have time take a visit to my website http://www.sheeparcade.com

Comment on This is why I love New York. by sandrar

sandrar — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:20:26 +0000

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

Comment on Who uses algebra? by musesusan

musesusan — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:32:26 +0000

Oooh, my first troll! How exciting!

Say you’re in the grocery store and you have a total of $8 to spend. You know you need to buy milk and a box of cereal which together cost $4.80, and you see that bananas are on sale for 40 cents each. How many bananas can you buy?

You could figure this out by trial and error and just keep guessing different numbers of bananas, but it would be easier to solve it by subtracting $4.80 from $8, to get a total of $3.20 that you can spend on bananas, then divide that by $0.40 to see how many you can buy. That is, by solving the equation $0.40x + $4.80 = $8.

You’re driving to a different city 70 miles away for a job interview and you have an hour and a half to get there. How fast will you need to drive to get there on time? What if you want to get there 15 minutes early? What if you know there is a 5 mile construction zone partway through where the speed limit is 20 mph?

As for exponents, Wendy’s has a little advertisement that smugly states that there are 256 ways to personalize one of their hamburgers. How did they get this number? How many different toppings are there? Should you be impressed?

Comment on Who uses algebra? by John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:36:21 +0000

In the context above, we’re talking about high-school algebra, so..

The abstract study of equational relationships in the system of real numbers.

Twelve words. No go wash your mouth out, Greg.

Comment on Who uses algebra? by Greg

Greg — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:52:11 +0000

Please fuck off! No one can demonstrate even one real example in life of using an exponent!

When was the last time you did “Prime Factorization”. If you answer anything other than “Never!” you are a fucking liar.

Algebra is difficult for people to grasp because it cannot be defined. As is evidenced by all the rambling and evasiveness in the so called answers above/below.

I’d challenge anyone to come up with an actual definition of Algebra in under 20 words.

Later you insufferable know-it-alls

Comment on Strange Loops by mariana

mariana — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 06:45:53 +0000

dont loose your sense of self or you ll be troubled in this world. Geek people tend to have that happen now.
And also take care with the metaphors that build up our language concepts cause you will be driven to the bad side of content

Comment on On Representing Skepticism by Matt @ Rational Imperative

Matt @ Rational Imperative — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:06:48 +0000

It is to be expected of any T.V. show that they must give some documentaries that are either entertaining or spark controversy, just as when PBS is doing Sweeps Week, it usually plays Campbell’s Power of Myth or some sort of other exciting broadcast rather than a detailed biography of a quasi-entertaining figure.

Also, about the general premise of your blog … I realize skepticisms importance to our study of thought, but I have a hard time understanding what it means to be a “skeptic”. Perhaps you could help me understand better.

You can reach me at our site our at rationalimperative@gmail.com, I’m really interested on this feedback. Great post, keep it up.

Comment on On Representing Skepticism by Ferinannnd

Ferinannnd — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:25:09 +0000

Спасибо. Добавлено в закладки

Comment on On Representing Skepticism by miller

miller — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:05:40 +0000

I, too, am more articulate in writing than in person. I think it takes practice, practice, practice. Practice that I don’t have time for!

Here are some of my thoughts when reading this:

1. You should not be expected to watch the aliens documentary! Unless you are trying to seriously debunk it (something best done in writing), you just don’t have the time investment for that sort of thing. There are plenty of amazing and plausible theories out there to learn about, and you don’t have time for all of those either.

2. I would have made the point that they are giving much less credit to ancient people than they deserve. Isn’t it amazing and wonderful how smart humans can be? It’s amazing and plausible, quite unlike the aliens hypothesis.

3. To assure your relative that you are not implying she’s crazy, tell an anecdote about how you experienced something very similar! (I can’t think of a good anecdote myself though.)

4. I think you were trying too hard to persuade. Persuasion, while not impossible, is rather unlikely when you have an audience of one. Make a point to agree to disagree.

Of course, it’s all too easy for me to simply dispense all this advice, but I doubt I would have done any better than you in the same situation.