Okay… this will be two weeks in a row where the Blog Wyrm staff has something to say about sports in the United States. Now don’t misunderstand, we actually aren’t huge sports fans but there is no doubt that professional athletic competition is a big component of American life. There is also no doubt that the two busiest times of the sporting year are early fall and middle spring, so there is a lot that can be said. But this week’s comment is more a matter of marketing and timing than one of actual sport. We find it hard to fathom the idea of how hockey, which, on the surface, is a ‘winter sport’, can persist well into the spring and can even overlap nearly into the summer. It just seems strange to be seeing the Stanley Cup finals in June. We watch from time-to-time each year but we still find it strange. Oh well!
What we trust is not strange is the fine crop of articles for this week.
Sound argumentation and clear reasoning is based on a disciplined and careful application of definitions and rules – the use of a logical system. This week, Aristotle to Digital begins a three part examination of one such logical system known as the propositional calculus. Despite its relative simplicity, this system possesses some powerful applications to artificial intelligence.
About Comics returns to the craftsmanship theme this week with an annotated summary of the recent ‘how-to’ publication by Mitch Gerads. Gerads is the artist on The Sheriff of Babylon and his step-by-step creation process has some interesting nuggets.
Elon Musk is a heck of a salesman and there is no doubt that the Tesla is an example of the wonders of modern engineering, but can electric cars really save the environment. Common Cents‘s economic analysis of electric cars and solar power suggests otherwise.
From day-to-day common applications to statistics to the most abstruse theories of spacetime and quantum mechanics, the Gaussian family of integrals seem to be everywhere. Part of their charm is their broad applicability, part of it is that they are tractable. This week’ Under the Hood shows just how tractable and easy they are to work with.
Enjoy!