So pleased to welcome NYC author Erin Yun to the blog today. Her debut middle grade novel, Pippa Park Raises Her Game (Fabled Films Press, 2020), is a contemporary reimagining of the Dickens’s classic Great Expectations. Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her … Continue reading [spicy guest post] Pippa Park’s Favorite Korean Stew by Erin Yun
The old classical type of bus no longer in use |
Memorial plaque |
Memorial plaque |
Archbishops BMW license plate |
Gozo bishops Toyota license plate |
President Abela's car and flag |
Jules Hedges has written a thought-provoking blog post, On compositionality where he connects the familiar idea of compositionality to the idea of emergent effects in nature, where systems can be understood as either having compositional properties or emergent properties.
The key point about emergent systems is that they are hard to understand, and this is as true for engineering as it is for science. He goes on to say "As a final thought, I claim that compositionality is extremely delicate, and that it is so powerful that it is worth going to extreme lengths to achieve it", so that avoiding emergent effects is a characteristic of good programming language design.
Some thoughts:
Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory
2018 by Brendan Fong and David I. Spivak
Category theory is becoming a central hub for all of pure mathematics. It is unmatched in its ability to organize and layer abstractions, to find commonalities between structures of all sorts, and to facilitate communication between different mathematical communities. But it has also been branching out into science, informatics, and industry. We believe that it has the potential to be a major cohesive force in the world, building rigorous bridges between disparate worlds, both theoretical and practical. The motto at MIT is mens et manus, Latin for mind and hand. We believe that category theory—and pure math in general—has stayed in the realm of mind for too long; it is ripe to be brought to hand.A very approachable but useful introduction to category theory. It avoids the Scylla and Charybdis of becoming incomprehensible after page 2 (as many academic texts do), and barely scratching the surface (as many popular texts do).
An enjoyable 25-minute introductory talk: YOW! Lambda Jam 2019 - Ken Scambler - Applied Category Theory (slides)
What do programming, quantum physics, chemistry, neuroscience, systems biology, natural language parsing, causality, network theory, game theory, dynamical systems and database theory have in common?
As functional programmers, we know how useful category theory can be for our work - or perhaps how abstruse and distant it can seem. What is less well known is that applying category theory to the real world is an exciting field of study that has really taken off in just the last few years. It turns out that we share something big with other fields and industries - we want to make big things out of little things without everything going to hell! The key is compositionality, the central idea of category theory.
Previously: Seven Sketches in Compositionality: An Invitation to Applied Category Theory.
(via Brian McKenna)
As those Hugo voters apparently recognized nearly 20 years ago, Darger and Surplus not only join the small company of SF’s classic rogues, but the world they occupy is as complex, detailed, and morally chaotic as we’ve come to expect from the best of Swanwick’s fiction.
Besides being one of the stars of “The Booksellers,” Henry Wessells is also the proprietor of the micro-publisher, Temporary Culture. His latest booklet, “She Saved Us From World War Three,” brings together an interview, essay and two letters highlighting the friendship between Gardner Dozois, the longtime editor of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and Alice Sheldon, the former Washington intelligence agent whose intense, sometimes feminist sci-fi — no one ever forgets “The Women Men Don’t See” — was written using the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr. In one letter Sheldon explains that she has pretty much stopped writing because “the stories were getting to hurt too much.”
The mayor's list of ideas to alleviate crowding offers little relief in the short term.
Mayor John Tory announced a ten-point plan to fight congestion and delays on the TTC at a press conference just before Toronto Council began its final debates on the 2018 budget. Through the entire budget process, starting with Tory’s cohort on the TTC Board and continuing through the City Budget and Executive committees, transit has […]
The post A Last Minute Ten, Nine, Eight … Point Transit Plan appeared first on Torontoist.
Divestment is “more urgent” in Toronto than NYC
A growing list of large institutional investors around the world – state and provincial pension funds, university endowments, and most recently, New York City itself, have been aggressively divesting from fossil fuel investments so as to do their part in mitigating against climate change. Here in Toronto, it’s been a different story. Prominent institutional investors, […]
The post Habitat: Environmentalists eye city’s investment policies appeared first on Torontoist.
Creepiness In this Pocket-Sized episode #1005, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Jean Berko Gleason. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Psychology issue (vol. 26, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public. 1. […]
Hot Sauce Aggression In this Pocket-Sized episode #1006, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Dany Adams. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Ig: the Triumph of Miss Sweetie Poo issue (Vol. 7, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research Magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get […]
Bereitschaftspotential In this Pocket-Sized episode #1007, Marc Abrahams shows an unfamiliar research study to Jean Berko Gleason. Dramatic readings and reactions ensue. The research mentioned in this episode is featured in the special Psychology issue (vol. 26, #1) of the Annals of Improbable Research magazine. Remember, our Patreon donors, on most levels, get access to each podcast episode before it is made public. 1. […]
Something extraordinary happened on May 4, 2020. Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger delivered an extremely impressive speech in virtually flawless Mandarin. Here it is: Here's the transcript of Pottinger's speech (pdf), the formal English title of which is "Reflections on China's May Fourth Movement: an American Perspective — Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger to […]
Oh man, this is great! It's perfect for... seeing texts the second they come in? Showing off your cell phone? Watching videos in a horrid orientation? Wait a minute, why is this useful again?
~NSHA
The tail light cover used to be a plastic Folgers can. I know because the label is still on it.
Zombie Strippers has got to be hands down one of the cheesiet, oddest, zombie movies movies I have ever seen
First off welcome to my site The Razors Edge. If you've been to this site before you were probably expecting to find my old website which delt with post apocalyptic survival. I've decided to do a complete overhaul including the content. Now this site deals with topics such as basic SEO tips ( Search Engine Optimization ) for those new to creating websites and blogs, movie reviews, general tips and advice, videos, and anything and everything in-between. Basically same name completly different taste
Having a privacy policy for your website or blog is a way to declare to your viewers and subscribers on what happens with any information that’s collected on them, why it’s being collected, and how that information is being stored. This is a vital component to your site if your site is for business, or if you have a website that uses affiliate type advertising in order to earn revenue such as Amazon or Google Adsense. In fact not having a privacy policy will get your affiliate account banned on most sites, so apart from that and covering your back to protect yourself from legal action are good enough reasons to have privacy policy.
When it comes to adding content to your site one effective method is to write a list post. Why should you write a list post? Because a list post provides an easy to read format that allows your vistors to quickly scan content in an easy to follow format. And while well written original content with useful information will always be better at keeping your readers coming back, writing list posts will get them in the door. Here’s some of the reasons why you should write a list post.
One of the corner stones of SEO is to get back links from other related sites, talk to anyone who knows even a hint of what search engine optimization is about and they’ll all tell you this. It’s what makes the internet….well the internet. But when it comes to linking to sites one you have to be especially careful of are sites that are considered “bad neighbourhood sites”
When it comes to getting people to your site one of the ways you can do this is through social bookmaking sites. And while these all give your site excellent one way back links, there is one site that you should sign up to first to get more traffic, and that site is Stumbleupon. Why you should use Stumbleupon to get more traffic If you’re not familiar with Stumbleupon this is how it works for your site to get more traffic. Instead of using keywords like how you would for a search engine, visitors select categories that interest them such as videos, music, or computers to name a couple examples. Once they pick their categories and click on the stumble button their randomly taken to a site, article, or video that fits that category. They can then decided if the like or dislike that site by giving it thumbs up or down. The more thumbs up your site gets the more hits it will get because it will show up more frequently when people stumble that category. Visitors to your site can also write reviews and share it with other users or add a sites link to their list of favourite sites giving you even more exposure, back links, and that oh so coveted traffic..........
Every SEO and web expert out there and their dog will tell you how important Google page rank is to your site and how it can help your site rank well in search engine listings. One thing you might not have heard about is trust rank. It’s important to understand what this seo tool is, and to start making changes now because this is the direction Google is looking at taking.
I recently received an email from Infolinks a contextual affiliate advertiser. It seems they want to expand their service and get more blogs and websites using their service. Now I have no problem with this and have found their services pretty good overall. However how they want to expand is by getting you to spam comments for them.
Recently Google announced a new service called Google Plus 1. A new button that Google plans to rival against Facebook’s Like button. Plus 1 works in much the same manner as a like button in that it is a way to help determine a site’s popularity and relevancy to visitors. It will also be applied to Adsense ads as well, again similar to how Facebook uses it’s like button.
Most of the popular social book marking or networking sites have some form of social media share button. A little button that with one click allows you to share an article, video or web page on there site, in the hopes that it goes viral and gets you a tonne of hits. And while these buttons are usually easy to install, most sites only have either a limited number of choices, or a one size fits all approach. This is fine if you like what they offer, but if you want something that fits better with the theme and look of your website you have to do a bit of digging around.
In my opinion Stumbleupon is one of the best ways to get more traffic to your to your site, especially if it’s brand new and your looking to get noticed quickly. If you’re not familiar with Stumbleupon it’s a web based service that allows you to discover websites, blogs, and videos without having to use traditional methods such as Google. Instead you can choose what topics you want to look for, click stumble and your randomly shown sites that meet your search criteria, if you like it you can give it a “thumbs up”. What makes this so appealing to site owners is that the more thumbs up your site gets the more times it’ll appear when that topic is searched.
Google recently introduced their plus 1 button for website and blog owners to add to their sites. If you haven’t heard of this new feature it’s essentially Google’s answer to Facebooks like button and works in a similar way. It allows your viewers to “plus 1” your page or site, basically saying to the world “Hey I like this site come check it out”. It’s also currently available on Blogger and YouTube which have automatically added the new button.
It seems everyone is on Facebook these days. But it also seems that a good majority of those on Facebook have some very annoying habits they might not even realize is. Here is a list of 10 annoying Facebook habits.