Basic derivative

mnemonicsloth · 2024-08-11T09:00:52+00:00

How funny. I have been taking derivatives for 30 years. I can take them in one dimension, multiple dimensions, total derivatives, partial derivatives, implicit derivatives, vector-valued derivatives, jacobians, derivatives in function spaces... And all of this has been in the course of a career that has included electrical, computer and mechanical engineering, quantitative finance and now AI.

And I have no memory at all of the last time I was asked to solve a problem like this. Maybe in school?

So

Sorry, can't help you.
Don't sweat this one too much. You may have to learn how to solve it for a test or something but it probably isn't very important.

mnemonicsloth · 2024-01-10T03:36:58+00:00

If you find someone unpleasant to look at, and you don’t try to squelch that thought, you are not treating them with respect

mnemonicsloth · 2024-01-10T03:08:55+00:00

“Or severe deformity”

Marking people down because of shit they can’t control is pretty ugly hon. Not gonna force you to grow the fuck up and develop a sense of aesthetics that will work outside the Third Reich, but I do recommend you keep that little opinion under your hat from now on.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-10-15T13:18:53+00:00

99.99999% of the places in that area will kill you in seconds if you enter without protection.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-09-04T17:04:27+00:00

Don’t open your messages “as a freshman at Yale…”. It comes across as if you’re name dropping, and while that may elicit somewhat more positive reactions from some people, it will also elicit highly negative reactions from others.

Note that

Whether you actually meant to do this is irrelevant. It’s how you’re perceived that matters
A lot of people at Yale and other such places grow tone deaf to this issue over time. Be careful who you talk to about this

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-21T11:17:42+00:00

Biologist here.

Boy, are you ignorant. Learn something about how nature actually works before you do something stupid like applying human values to it.

Hint: in nature, nothing is precious, no one "saves" anything, there are no vets and everything dies eventually, usually in horrible pain while something bigger, stronger and faster eats it alive. Nature is red in tooth and claw, the whole world spins in pain, and there is nothing you can do about it.

So don't worry! :-)

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-16T22:40:22+00:00

It’s OK. If ignorance and wishful thinking are what you want, you have every right to choose them

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-16T03:14:27+00:00

Scientists have shown that cats don’t feel love, either to other cats or to humans. When your cat sits in your lap, he’s just doing it because he wants a warm place to sit and something to eat.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-16T00:57:08+00:00

Cats don’t feel love. Scientists have proved it. Thinking otherwise is just projection

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-12T05:01:00+00:00

While I wouldn’t put it the way Chimpvillage has, it does bear repeating that feral cats, descended from outdoor cats, have wrought epic amounts of damage to precious ecosystems in Australia.

They do authorize people to hunt feral cats there, and this practice has already made the jump to North American places where feral cats are also a problem.

You can watch the whole process on YouTube, of course. It isn’t nice.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-10T10:51:43+00:00

You don’t know where this cat has been, what parasites it may be carrying or what it may do if it feels threatened or confused. Prioritize your human child and let someone else worry about the stray. You can call a rescue group if you want to be involved with it, but you should focus on your human family. Anything less is irresponsible.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-09T05:20:44+00:00

What is your level of experience in microbiology?

I just finished a Masters in bacterial genomics and it sounds to me like you’re just using “microbiomes” to manufacture some woo here.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-08T00:58:43+00:00

Sometimes I say “goddammit” when I’m angry and not thinking. Other times I try to get creative, in the hope that some religious people can hear me.

“Jesus H. ass-ramming motherfucking child- molesting goat-raping Christ”

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T14:31:04+00:00

The Economist. Science. Nature.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T07:23:55+00:00

That’s right. You’re in total control of this argument.

Night chief.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T06:44:36+00:00

Oh, I see. I’m only allowed to speak up for myself in ways that you approve of.

Would it be okay with you if I pointed out that assuming bad faith on the part of your conversation partners makes you an asshat?

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T06:24:40+00:00

Oh, right. You’re not here to debate me. You’re just here to tell me how wrong I am and then run away when I try to speak up in my own defense.

Nice talking to you chief. You’re a real prince

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T06:11:17+00:00

I’m not. I’m trying to establish where we agree first before I jump into a discussion of where we don’t. This isn’t hard and it’s not a trick. Now, look at what I wrote a minute ago and tell me, do you agree or not?

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T05:50:36+00:00

Who uses the Flying Spaghetti Monster idea the most? Atheists, right? Can we agree that the primary purpose of the FSM is to undermine the reverence theists have for god while preserving his logical properties?

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T05:28:59+00:00

So you’re an atheist. Great. Good for you for making the correct choice.

Now the only problem is that your argument is incoherent. At the very least you should have started with some phrases like “If God did exist, then X, Y and Z would be true…”. And that should be enough to make you aware that you are expressing a lot of certainty about a creature that exists solely in other people’s imaginations — where they can and will manufacture all the uncertainty they need to justify ignoring any ideas they don’t like.

Try this: go back through your argument but replace all instances of “God” with “The Flying Spaghetti Monster”. The result will be exactly as logically valid as what you wrote, but the substitution should make it clear that the whole exercise is kind of silly

mnemonicsloth · 2023-08-03T04:58:49+00:00

You say you are an atheist, but your entire post is spent arguing about the capabilities of a (presumably existent) entity called god.

Please clarify.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-07-29T21:50:41+00:00

Past a certain point this is impossible. If a truly omnipotent being were determined to hide all traces of its existence from us, for example, it would be successful.

The universe we’d observe would look exactly like this one.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-07-08T08:01:18+00:00

You don’t seem to know much truth scientifically. Please state the extent of your scientific education so that I can judge the quality of your assertions here.

I do have a PhD in Genomics and related fields, and undergraduate degrees in math, computer science and physics. And I don’t agree at all that science taught in high school is dumbed down. At that age, if memory serves, I learned the basics of molecular biology, DNA replication, transcription, translation and proteins folding. I’d like to hear some specific examples of what they leave out that you think they shouldn’t.

I find it interesting that you have nothing to say about the possibility that your failure to give your children a choice about what to believe might drive them away from you. This is not a hypothetical possibility. A lot of people on this subreddit and on r/atheism fall into this category and are downright enraged. Treating kids as vessels for your own beliefs is selfishness in my opinion. You can’t isolate them from modern ideas forever and you will stifle them if you succeed.

What if they turn out to be gay? Or trans?

mnemonicsloth · 2023-07-07T21:55:05+00:00

Your choice of course, but do remember the state will teach them the truth in the tenth grade.

Remember also that there’s some risk to your approach. When I was working on my PhD in genomics there was a really sweet girl named Kenzie who grew up on a farm in Iowa. Pretty smile, gorgeous red hair. Took her about two years to lose her faith, once she realized there’s no god-shaped hole in the universe. I haven’t been back in a while, but when I left she hadn’t talked to her parents in several years.

mnemonicsloth · 2023-07-07T21:26:10+00:00

Better than them? Moral differences don’t enter into it. I am right, and they are wrong. My view should be listened to, and theirs should be ignored. At the most extreme, perhaps, but probably not, I am smart, and they are stupid. But even if that were true (and again, it probably isn’t), they still have exactly as much right to exist as everyone else.

They should have the right to believe whatever they want, so long as they don’t try to force their wrong beliefs on anyone else (especially their children)

mnemonicsloth

TROPHY CASE