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We had planned to put out new posts but the COVID-19 issues have pulled our attention elsewhere.  So we are on Spring Break for the month of March.

We at Blog Wyrm rarely comment on politics and, when we do, it usually on the lower-case politics (how we interact with each other generally) and not upper-case politics (focusing in on some politician or another).  However, we can’t always avoid calling the situation as we see it.  Right now, be it the Iowa Caucuses or the Impeachment of Donald Trump, the conviction of Harvey Weinstein or the disgrace and death of Jeffery Epstein, or the cancel culture so rampant on social media it is our duty to uphold the central principles of the republic.

Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, not only in a legal court but also in the court of public opinion.  Our neighbors, as well as our enemies, deserve to be treated as we would want to be.  Each of us should have the opportunity to have his side of the story heard before the ‘mob mentality’ of modern tribalism concludes that he needs to be exterminated for the common good.

Throughout history, the hysteria found in the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials rears its head and sweeps the innocent up with the guilty.  Sentiments like those ushered by the Bishop of Béziers, who said “Kill them all, God will know his own.” become the rallying cry to justify swift retribution untempered by justice or compassion.  After all, one cannot make an omelet with cracking some eggs and vice in the pursuit of virtue        is no vice at all.  As long as the guilty are punished and expunged from the public eye.

And speaking of the guilty, it is important to remember that no matter how vile and repulsive the behavior the person underneath is still a human being and we ignore that fact at our peril.

Enough said… now onto the columns.

One of the weirdest and paradoxical parts of mathematics is the Axiom of Choice. Aristotle To Digital takes a hard look at this controversial, mathematical concept and demonstrates that humans still have a long way to go in dealing with infinity and infinite sets.

The trendy new idea circulating amongst certain circles is the forgiveness of student debt.  Certainly student debt is burdensome and even crushing for students but is forgiveness really the correct amelioration?  Common Cents argues that such a course of action has terrible unseen costs and incentivizes or even rewards behavior bad for society,

Continuing with the concept of vorticity, this month’s Under The Hood looks at the Rankine Vortex and some of the difficult concepts such a simple model brings in its train..

The Super Bowl is upon us this Sunday.  The red-clad Kansas City Chiefs take on the slightly different shape of red clad 49’ers from San Francisco (of course they will be in there Gold with Red highlights jerseys but who cares).  It is odd just how much of the viewing year centers on this one event.  From commercials to parties to football pools the Super Bowl, a uniquely US phenomenon, shows just how free and, sometimes silly, we can be.  Hopefully a good time will be had be most (sadly not by all since someone has to lose).

Now onto the columns.

One of the weirdest and paradoxical parts of mathematics is the Axiom of Choice. Aristotle To Digital takes a hard look at this controversial, mathematical concept and demonstrates that humans still have a long way to go in dealing with infinity and infinite sets.

The trendy new idea circulating amongst certain circles is the forgiveness of student debt.  Certainly student debt is burdensome and even crushing for students but is forgiveness really the correct amelioration?  Common Cents argues that such a course of action has terrrible unseen costs and incentivizes or even rewards behavior bad for society,

Continuing with the concept of vorticity, this month’s Under The Hood looks at the Rankine Vortex and some of the difficult concepts such a simple model brings in its train..

In celebration of Christmas, BlogWyrm staff is taking a winter break.  We will be back in the last Friday of January with new columns.  In the mean time, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and may God bless you.

BlogWyrm Staff

It’s that time of the year again.  Football, turkey, and shopping.  We at Blog Wyrm hope that each of you will find time to be really thankful.  Thankful for friends and family; thankful for the modern standard of living; and thankful for the freedom afforded us by living in the finest country in the world.

Now onto the columns.

To make an AI that behaves like a human one must first understand the human.  Specifically, one must understand the structure of the human mind.  And here, old fashioned philosophy leaps to our rescue.  Out from days gone by, Aristotle To Digital shows the three acts of the mind and how they play out in producing what is characteristically human thought.

Hardly a year goes by without Common Cents looking at the origins of Thanksgiving in the need for human beings to be free.  Unfortunately, there are many people who look at the origins of our most unique national holiday look only at the ‘dark side’ of colonization without perspective or sense.  This month’s Common Cents takes one such individual to task.

One of the most interesting concepts in fluid dynamics is the idea of vorticity.  This month’s Under The Hood takes up this concept and examines some of the subtleties using a plain bucket full of water..

Well, we are back.  It’s been quite a struggle and we are still not completely recovered, so this month’s columns are a bit shorter than usual.  Nonetheless, we trust that  nobody will object as we ease our way back into the saddle.  Suffice to say, the last several months have been rough and, in the spirit of wishing everyone well, we extend a hearty, Happy Halloween.

Now onto the columns.

Hardly a day goes by without some article, commercial, or advertisement pushing the glories of AI or arguing to us how upping our skills in ML will put us on the fast track for a fat salary.  What isn’t discussed is that AI/ML is only one facet of the real vision.  What exactly is the real vision and what pieces are missing?  Well, read this month’s Aristotle To Digital to find out.

In the last two columns, Common Cents looked at the downsides that accompany the presence of a monopoly in an economy.  Nonetheless, there are good reasons to consider having monopolies in limited circumstances.  This month’s column considers these specialized cases and considers the associated pros and cons.

With the survey of fluids now complete, Under The Hood starts looking at explicit cases that help sharpen the applications of the theory and develop the intuition.  This month’s theoretical laboratory focuses on Bernoulli’s Principle..

BlogWyrm was to resume publishing at the end of August and here it is the end of September and yet no new material.  What is the explanation?  Well, BlogWyrm staff routinely blogs about Philosophy and Computing, Economics, and Physics and an unfortunate diagnosis has given the staff to be philosophical about how modern physics contributes to the economics of health care.

The bottom line is that the staff has had its hands full in August and September but are all set to return in October.  Thanks for all the patience.

Blog Wyrm is taking the summer off – we’ll be back with new content in August 2019.

The weather makes frequent appearance in this general introduction posts each month here at Blog Wyrm.  The primary reason is that it is easy to talk about, although, to paraphrase Will Rogers, no one does anything about it.  But one of the compelling reasons to talk about it, besides its impact on day-to-day living, is that sometimes Mother Nature goes out of her way to present the glory and beauty she possesses in a way that one simply can’t ignore.

Such has been her habit for the last several weeks.  About twice a week, she has opened her skies and brought rain down upon the land during my commute home.  Ordinarily the snarled traffic would cause me not end of headache but Mother Nature had a reward in mind.  Just as a certain overpass presented itself in my way, the rain would let up, the sun would emerge, and a spectacular arc would appear (as well as sometimes a fainter arc above and outside the main one).

The above picture can only give on a modest sense of the breathtaking wonder.  Needless to say, it made the whole trip worthwhile.

Now onto our own small wonders the posts, which, hopefully, will make the time you invest in reading them worthwhile.

A recent news story reported that Navy pilots saw hypersonic UFOs off the east coast of the United States.  Once a source of wide-spread skepticism, frequent scorn, and story material for science fiction both good and bad, UFOs have gained a bit of cache in the recent months.  But does that make them any more ‘scientific’ or are they still in the realm of ‘pseudoscience’ and what do any of these terms really mean?  This month’s Aristotle To Digital takes a stab at answer these questions by casting an uncompromising look at what really constitutes scientific inquiry and what problems arise when we blur the lines between science and pseudoscience.

Many people believe they know exactly what is wrong with a monopoly.  But when pressed the answers sound more like a politicians polemic than a hard and dispassionate analysis using the tools the ‘dismal science’ of economics.  Surprisingly in contrast to the way monopolies are portrayed in movies and in the often useless punditry that litters our public discourse, monopolies are really slackers in corporate disguise.  Common Cents continues its multipart analysis of how monopolies work by working with one of the favorite tools of economists the world over  – graphs of supply and demand curves.

Given the wide range of fluid behaviors and the weird phenomena that often crop up assuming a linear relationship between stress and strain rate may seem awfully limiting.  That is until one steps back and appreciates that the two most ubiquitous  fluids on the planet – water and air – often  follow such a Newtonian behavior.  This month Under The Hood explores Newtonian fluids and derives the famous Navier-Stokes equations.

Enjoy!

Habit can be good things.  Brushing one’s teeth twice a day, eating healthfully at each meal, changing the oil in you car every 5000 miles, getting a physical checkup once a year these are all good things.  Smoking two packs a day, texting while driving, and compulsively gambling are not.  Increasingly, it looks like obsessing over social media is also a bad habit.  And while that may be particularly true for Facebook and Twitter it is also, sadly true for YouTube.  The reason it is sad is that off of the beaten track of political polemics, social justice virtue signaling, and excessive outrage one can find a wealth of material to enjoy, to stimulate, and to learn from.

There is a whole group of content providers who fill YouTube with more than rants and vitriol.  They provide great material that helps build rather than tear down.  Some of them are reasonably well known, some lesser still.  Some of our favorites are:

• The Mathologer
• Three Blue One Brown
• Louis Rossman Repair

But even these are fairly well known.  Even further off the beaten track one can find out of print audiobooks and comedy specials from years gone by which can never air on conventional television.  So our advice for each of our readers is to turn your back on the well-traversed paths and meander into the back streets and less-visited streets of YouTube.  You never know what gem you might find.

Speaking of gems, let’s move now onto the posts.

On several of those back streets of YouTube, one might just come across some audiobooks read not by a human being but by a ‘read aloud’ application that may have originated with Kindle or some other type of service.  Putting aside the legality as to whether this material belongs on YouTube, the fact that it is there opened up a door of contemplation.  English is hard for organic beings with wetware and years of training.  How hard is it for an auto-reader programed into silicon, steel, and plastic?   Aristotle To Digital considers this question by taking a linguistic stroll through some of the more befuddling aspects of the English language.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are aware of the issues with Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 aircraft and the automation software that seems linked to two fatal crashes in last five or six months.  While the technical details are interesting (and a bit scary) the economic questions are no less important and interesting, especially given the fact that Boeing is essentially a part of the a monopolistic market dominated by it and Airbus.  This month Common Cents begins a multipart analysis of how monopolies work by posing the practical question: what actions, if any should the federal government take?

We’ve all seen those cool videos where a mixture of corn starch and water behaves in bizarre ways.  A person can run across a tub filled with the stuff without sinking but stopping for a moment at the halfway point to consider ones next move spells disaster and a trip to the bottom.  Why does this fluid do the things it does.  Why do water and air do the things they do?   This month Under The Hood makes a broad survey of the possible fluid behaviors and goes on to present the stress-strain relationship for the Newtonian class of fluids.

Enjoy!