Archives 2007

Lowest Common Denominator

I was just thinking of the phrase “lowest common denominator” in the sense of something lowbrow that appeals to the unwashed masses, rather than something refined. And it occurred to me that in math, the lowest common denominator of a group of (natural) numbers is always going to be 1. What’s more interesting is the largest common denominator: it’s more interesting to know that 12 and 20 are both divisible by 4, than that they’re both divisible by 1.

Admittedly, I didn’t learn this part of arithmetic in the US (or even in English), so it’s possible that the phrase “lowest common denominator” is commonly understood to mean 1/n. In the example above, 1/4 is < 1/1, so 1/4 could be viewed as the lowest common denominator of 12 and 20.

But another possibility is that the phrase “lowest common denominator”, as applied to marketing and popular tastes, was originally ironic: a filmmaker might want to make a movie that appeals to the largest common denominator, i.e., one that’s as highbrow as possible, while still appealing to everyone. A critic who said that a movie appealed to the lowest common denominator would be saying that the movie appealed to the public’s basest tastes and wasn’t even trying to be good.

I haven’t found an etymological reference to confirm or disprove this, but I think it’s at least possible that the phrase started out ironic, but that over time people forgot this.

35 Years Ago

Phil Plait reminds us that 38 years ago, Neil Armstrong was the first person in history to set foot on another world.

But how many of you remember the last astronaut on the moon?

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svAQ6BCIgxg]

Fundamentalist Math

(Update, Aug. 6, 2007: Hey, this post appears in the 51st Philosophers’ Carnival. And I didn’t even submit it. How cool is that?)

I didn’t think it was possible to write a Christian math textbook. I mean, math is math, right? But this comment at Pharyngula pointed to an article in Harpers that purports to give excerpts from just such a book, Precalculus for Christian Schools, published by Bob Jones University Press.

I don’t normally read Harpers, so I don’t know whether they publish humor. And the excerpts they quoted seemed just too wacky to be true. Or would be, if it weren’t for Poe’s Law.

So I decided to be a good skeptic and check it out. One Amazon reviewer quoted the Harpers excerpts, which most likely meant he was copying from them. Then I found that BJU Press has a sample chapter online.

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Due Process Was Overrated, Anyway

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this executive order, which el Presidente signed a few days ago.

Unitary Executive Summary: if Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury determines that you’ve been “threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq” or are likely to, then he just needs to “consult” with the Secretaries of State and Defense (it doesn’t say they have to agree with him, and he can have all your property seized. Also that of your friends and anyone else who helps you, including your defense lawyer (except, of course, if past behavior is anything to go by, you won’t get a lawyer).

Nobody will disagree with the idea that it’s a good idea to seize Al Qaeda assets to prevent those assets from being used to bomb us. But I could’ve sworn that there were already law enforcement agencies in charge of doing just that, and laws allowing them to do it. In fact, I may be misremembering, but I seem to remember a time when warrants were involved. Something about those pesky 4th and 5th amendments or something.

(Note: the 5th amendment only forbids taking private property for public use. There’s nothing in there about seizing your bank account and giving it to one of Cheney’s cronies.)

Remember: they hate us for our freedoms. So if we don’t relinquish our freedoms, the terrorists will have won.

Meanwhile, the sum total of the Post’s coverage seems to consist of a three-paragraph blurb that merely says that this order will be used in the War on Terra (how’s that working out, by the way?), and a passing mention in an op-ed piece.

Linky Love

2+2 = 5 (HT PZ)

The original Laugh-Out-Loud Cats

Mike Wong, the Cheerful Atheist, lists 12 Benefits of Atheism. Like him, I haven’t received my black helicopter yet, but I’m sure it’s in the mail.

The Long D’oh! Man

If you’ve read Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies, you may remember the Long Man, a figure cut into a hillside, inspired by the Cerne Abbas Giant in Dorset, in England.

To promote the new Simpsons movie, a new figure, of Homer Simpson in tighty-whities and holding a doughnut, has been painted on a neighboring field (in water-soluble paint, so it should wash off when it rains).

What’s funnier, though, is the reaction of the local Pagan community:

Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation, said: “It’s very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

“We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We’ll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away.”

Point 1: Lighten up, dudes. Bitching about this being “disrespectful” makes you look as wacky and unhinged as the Christian nutjobs protesting The Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ.

Point 2: Rain magic? Rain magic?! In case you hadn’t noticed, this is the 21st century. We know what causes rain, and it ain’t rain fairies or however you think it works.

Point 3: The oldest written references to the Cerne Abbas Giant only date back to the 17th century. In a country that’s been continuously inhabited since long before there was even such a thing as the English language, this is the equivalent of last week’s graffiti in the subway. So either this “symbol of ancient spirituality” went unnoticed for thousands of years (including by medieval Christians, not known for their tolerance of pagan symbols), or else this is really an 18th century farmer’s way of telling his neighbor, “I’m gonna beat your skull in, then make you squeal like a pig.”

So please cut out the drama. And next time you’re at Marks & Spencer, pick up a sense of humor.

Fabric Brain Art

The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art.

Fabric brain

On one hand, people like this obviously have too much time on their hands. On the other hand, damn, that’s cool!

(HT Neurodudes,
Fresh Brainz.)

Gallery Comments Disabled

I’ve disabled comments in the photo gallery. I’m sorry to do this, but the spammers were just getting too obnoxious, and Gallery‘s crappy captcha just wasn’t keeping them out.

I’m not happy about this, but it was just too much work deleting spam.

Some ID Research Projects

TR Gregory at Genomicron has a list of ten research projects for ID proponents, all having to do with non-coding DNA. An excellent list, and any ID researcher should jump on it, if only to demonstrate that ID is science.

(HT Freshbrainz)

Glances at History

This is from Mark Twain’s Glances at History, part of an unfinished work about the civilization that flourished between the creation of Adam and Noah’s flood..

The introductory paragraph and the bit about Adam at the end serve as a fig leaf to allow Clemens to pretend that he’s not talking about the Philippine-American war. See for yourself how much of it still rings true 100 years later.

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