James Thomson

…completely. I get the impression that he actually has no conception of what a deal or an agreement consists of. He instinctively cheats whenever he can, and so assumes everyone else is the same. Elections are the same for him. If he wins, fine, if he loses, his opponent was cheating

What an interesting one. Tricky for A level - and for me TBH!

Look at the legs!

My approach:

y = log(7)4

thus 7^y = 4

substituting:

x = (7^y)^(y+1)/y

= 7^(y+1)

= 7 * 7^y

= 7 * 4

= 28

which, I submit, is quite elegant

If you look at any of his business relationships the other general public - and we can only see those - defrauding the public has anyways been his modus operandi. I genuinely cannot think of a counter example where he proposed selling an honestly produced, reasonably priced offering. Am I wrong?

This Trump thinks that trade with the US necessarily involves the US being “ripped off”, because that is what he would try to do were he the other party. This is an economically and morally bankrupt viewpoint.

For Trump, every transaction is an opportunity to defraud or cheat the other party, or risk being defrauded or cheated. The idea of a trade that makes both parties better off is entirely foreign to him. His approach has always been to cheat on the basis that that is what people inevitably do

This thought is probably obvious to everyone but it occurs to me that Trump is opposed to trade in any terms because he completely fails to understand the idea of a mutually beneficial exchange. He has never seen a transaction in those terms

Ukraine, ICE roundups, tariffs, NATO, DOGE, Canada, Greenland, lawsuits against individual law firms, health research, vaccines, science policy…the list goes on. It is all either stupid or wicked, and frequently both

Usually, an administration you didn’t vote for does some things you approve of, or at least you can see the point of. Not in this case. This administration has done nothing, absolutely nothing, that in my opinion is not either stupid or wicked.

Proponents of Brexit and tariffs are both motivated by isolationism, itself fueled by nationalism and xenophobia

I am not a great supporter of the WSJ - and this is behind their subscription wall, but this article makes an interesting connection between the tariff nonsense of last week and Brexit. What Lies Ahead for the U.S. Economy? Brexit Offers Clues - The Wall Street Journal

The people responsible for this are unpersuaded by the almost uniform opinion of educated people that tariffs will damage rather than benefit the economy. They view economists as “experts” - untrustworthy and uniformly wrong. They are unmoved by analysis, knowledge or elementary logic.

Small companies typically are fragile and cannot absorb huge shocks. When these go under, lives are brutally disrupted, employees lose jobs, homes, incur debt, and aren’t able to do the things they want to do. Individuals in many instances don’t recover fully from this kind of setback.

Thinking about the economic turmoil that has been unleashed, and concluding that the stock market (which has almost all my retirement funds) doesn’t really matter. This will eventually get unwound and the market will recover. The people to think about are employees and owners of small companies

Tobias Smollett, writing about the Duke of Cumberland, who had just returned from campaigning in Flanders: “If he had lost his head in battle, the damage with regard to his powers of reflection would have been scarce perceptible.”Applicable to many members of the current administration, I would say

As a concrete way of applauding Jeffrey Goldberg’s #Atlantic article revealing the cavernous ineptitude of the administration - even more so than one could have imagined - I intend to take out a subscription to the print edition of the magazine.

Elbows up, Canada.

My autumnal fruits in sauternes gelee had the kinetic effect I was looking for and was certainly the most discussed dish of this year's Thanksgiving.

An AP Physics told me her teacher had said this about elastic and inelastic collisions: “One is sticky and the other is bouncy”. She said “I forget which, and I don’t understand that anyway”. The definition is a clever mnemonic but is no help if you don’t actually teach the difference. #physics

This is SO important. So often I hear intelligent educated parents say that they can’t help their children with maths because “I was no good at it myself”.

As the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) highlights a widening gender gap in maths attainment at year 9, I thought it might be worth pointing out that you can help your daughter (or anyone else) with maths without being a mathematician yourself: see thread.

We just cancelled our subscription. Shameful.

The stage before the performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro by students of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. The instrument onstage is a fortepiano which would have been an authentic choice for the period. A really splendid performance, highlighting extremely gifted singers and musicians, that was also funny and thought-provoking

On Saturday we went to an excellent and original Le Nozze di Figaro by Curtis students. Rear doors revealed a different scene each time, an original way to sidestep usual elaborate opera staging. Enormously talented singers and orchestra, especially Juliette Tacchino’s Susanna.

I completely agree. It was truly dreadful.. a disservice even to Abba

A letter from the author P G Wodehouse in response to fan mail from a 12 year old girl in 1930. Apparently Wodehouse personally answered all the mail he received from readers. The text is: “Dear Miss Tobias, Thank you for your letter. I am so glad you enjoyed my stories. Empress of Blandings is in splendid form. She put on a couple of pounds last week. She now looks like this (A pen sketch of a large pig) Yours P G Wodehouse” Empress of Blandings, a fictional pig, the prized possession of Lord Emsworth, appears in many Wodehouse stories

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the death of P G Wodehouse. In 1930, my late mother-in-law, then 12, wrote him a letter and received this lovely reply, complete with a drawing of the Empress of Blandings, Lord Emsworth’s prize pig #wodehouse #pgwodehouse

A 2017 Bordeaux from St Julien on the Left Bank. 2017 was a difficult year, marked by many fires, however the best chateaux produced excellent for somewhat earlier drinking than is usual for wines from the region

So, finally this was the choice. 2017 was not a weighty year so this is certainly ready to drink. Good notes of leather and cedar giving the sense of an older wine belied by the quite vibrant ruby color. Good, vibrant fruit and reasonable length. Excellent overall

The only Brunello I have left is a 2019 Altesino, which I feel might be a little too young to broach. It should be pretty good though

I am paralyzed by indecision concerning what #wine to give a guest this evening. Roast leg of lamb - bordeaux, burgundy, brunello, barolo, madiran or something a little out of the ordinary like xinomavro? Not in the global context a real problem, I acknowledge that.

Just rediscovered some #Mathematica code I wrote five years ago to help me find cool 2D strange attractors 😍😍😍 #mathart