yosefblog » knowledge

Who’s Adam Kissel?

matthew — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 07:43:55 +0000

This page is concise, interesting reading for those interested in education. Or, if you’re interested in your own education, back up to his main page and surf the links, or get ideas from the reading lists.

Many salient passages, but this one stood out to me:

Undoubtedly, fine associations, fine buildings, green grass, good food, and exercise are excellent things for anybody. You will note that they are exactly what is advertised by every resort hotel. The only reason why they are also advertised by every college and university is that we have no coherent educational program to announce.

esoteric obit

matthew — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:03:34 +0000

Not that any of you have heard of him, but this week the social sciences lost quite a good thinker… Ralf Dahrendorf. I recommend sleuthing up an article by him or something…

Unnecessary Knowledge

yosef — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:14:56 +0000

Unnecessary Knowledge

26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong

yosef — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:33:12 +0000

26 cognitive biases to which yosefblog is immune.

Update: wikipedia has more complete list (of course it does!)

do something productive this summer

yosef — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:48:27 +0000

Top 100 Open Courseware Projects

what color is your hat?

yosef — Tue, 15 May 2007 13:32:38 +0000

NYT: Why Mathematicians Now Care About Their Hat Color

I’m reserving comment until some yosefblogger solves this. And remember what Pólya said: “If there is a problem you can’t solve, then there is an easier problem you can’t solve: find it.”

Note to ERs: stop killing dead people

yosef — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:19:34 +0000

Docs Change the Way They Think About Death. Is Newsweek a trustworthy source for ______ [noun]?

Dean of Admissions at M.I.T. Resigns

yosef — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 02:43:02 +0000

lesson to stressed-out kids applying to college: don’t worry about being perfect: just lie and say you are

lesson to anyone who got their job by lying about their credentials: if you don’t have the guts to come clean, stay under the radar. forever. don’t try to get quoted in the press. and definitely don’t write a book.

[update: expert consensus is that either way you're screwed]

Wikipedia Releases Offline CD

yosef — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 19:25:18 +0000

via slashdot:

“WikipediaOnDVD, with cooperation with the Wikipedia community, has released its first offline test version. The articles were selected by Wikipedians and reviewed for accuracy, vandalism, and importance. Nearly 2,000 core Wikipedia articles will be sold on compact disc to give people without a net connection access to highlights of the popular web resource. The CD can be purchased or downloaded online via their site or the torrent.”

Seriously? I think its a great idea to have “fixed” versions of wikipedia articles approved by staff, just like many software authors distribute both stable and beta releases of their work. So I could go to wikipedia and click on “see last community board approved version of this document”. But offline? Seriously? Unless they’re intended for time capsules.