Something to Consider...

Just something for you all to think about during the election tomorrow...


The Coming American Matriarchy


Quick summary: Wommen are smarter than men. Fact.

Article excerpt:
            "Women will not rule men. But they will lead. Think about this: Not only do girls study harder and get better grades than boys; high school girls now take more math and science than do high school boys. If there is a "weaker sex," it isn't female."   

What Will Jared Do Next?

Paid for by Better Math History and Ethics For Tomorrow, Today Super PAC

Redemption is at hand

Good afternoon my fellow Colleagues,

There has been a lot said in this campaign trail, and things are really heating up as we near election time. I know that I have said some things that were unbecoming of a fellow candidate, and I also know that Nate as some things unbecoming of a fellow candidate as well. He has said that I am for grade inflation. That is not true, as a future educator I know first hand the importance and self-satisfaction of earning every percentage you get. I don't have an A in this class, and that is ok. I am proud of my grade, and I will continue to work hard to raise my level of work. I want everyone to do well, and I want everyone to continue to push themselves to achieve more. This concept of pushing yourself is exactly what the Jesuit value of Magis means. I am also a realist and know that we, as a community need to help each other. Through hard work, determination, and cooperation we can achieve high grades. This concept of working together also alines itself to the Jesuit value of Men and Women for and with others. I am continually using this values to guide me in my campaign. I want you to vote for me so that we can continue to strive for more, but also build a web of support so that none of us falter in this final year of our college education. I state my regret for what was said early on in my campaign, and I truly wish I had not use those tactics. I have mislead you, and maybe even betrayed your trust. I, however, am not one to admit when I am wrong, and I am willing to make amends for my actions. It is with this in mind that I set out on a journey. I took to the streets and I met personally with those who powers supersede those of any candidates. I went to both Dr. Crist and Dr. Dugan, and together paved the way for redemption. Now my colleagues it is time you voiced your thoughts. What do you want in a leader, what do you want from me so that I can use my connections with the powers that be, to make this a successful and fun class for you?

 Sincerely,
Jared Good

Guardian of Students,

Protector of Grades,

Defender of Justice,

Election Tomorrow

Dear Friends of SRP 431,

As you have been made very aware, the election for our class leader takes place tomorrow, November 1.  Since Nathan Holman: Philosopher King and Jared Good: Guardian of Students, Protector of Grades, Defender of Justice, and Vanquisher of Final have both made virtual appearances, I felt I too must represent myself.

I would prefer to speak with you all in person on Thursday rather than through the impersonal methods of a blog, but I still would like to take this time to ask one thing of each of you.  As with many elections, I am sure you have a proclivity towards a certain candidate.  Before you cast your vote on Thursday, however, please consider all candidates equally.  Do not view this as begging for your consideration, for it is not.  I only want to set the tone for this election, for it to be as fair as possible and honestly represent the interests of the class.  No matter which candidate is elected, Nathan Holman, Jared Good, or me, the class will be under competent leadership.

Thank you for reading this and thank you for your time.

Best Regards,

Gloria Larson

Lies and Deceit on the Campaign Trail

My fellow classmates,

      After Jared's first post I decided to investigate his claim of having single handedly worked to have an alleged final exam removed from the syllabus. If true, I would have certainly considered throwing my support for his candidacy as he would have proven himself a leader without prompt. In the pursuit of the truth, I emailed Professors Crist and Dugan and asked the the following questions:

"As an inquisitive denizen and candidate of our upcoming election for class Philosopher King (I find the term Dictator to leave a rancid taste to the mouth), I would like to know, on the record, the veracity of his claims. Is it the case that Jared Good convinced you to remove a final exam? If not, did such an exam ever exist on the syllabus?"

Dr. Crist responded quite cogently:

"We have not had a final in this class for the last 5 iterations. He's going Romney on you."

Do we really want a leader who is willing lie to get power? Or do we want a leader who is willing to listen and contemplate what needs to be done. As candidate for Philosopher King, I promise to act as a man of sound principles and do what is necessary, not what is poll tested. I will not offer empty promises of grade inflation nor make attacks on a person based on the cogent analysis of one of his or her advisors. Rather, I will stick what my opponents have actually said or done, not some straw man version of their platform. 

Thank you for taking time to read this public service. As always, if you lend me your voice, I will lend you my ear.

Philosopher King Candidate,
Nathan Holman

Humble thanks to the "Philosopher King"

My dearest colleagues,
It would seem that the newest candidate for dictator has taken to the stage. I personally want to thank those who did the analysis of my first statement. It would seem that in my enthusiasm to meet you all, I made a few grammatical mistakes in my paper. Through the kind efforts of those who represent the philosopher king, they were kind enough fix those mistakes for me. But citizens you must ask yourself, who do you want to represent yourself. There is me, a man willing to put himself out there for  you, a man who knows no fear, and a man who is willing to admit when he makes a mistake. Then, there is this "philosopher king" who refuses to show himself, who instead lets other speak for him. Do we really need a ruler who is so blatantly being controlled by some puppet-master from behind the stage? I can offer you the personal touch of ruler ship that is so desperately needed in this country. Do we really need another ruler who will be spoken for by lobbyist who only have their own interest in mind? I don't want that, Barrack Obama doesn't want that, and I know that the world doesn't need that. The cycle must end, and we must take the risk to strive for more, to go where others have yet gone. I was chosen to lead, and if that is what fate has destined me to do, then who am I to deny it? I am a man, a husband, a teacher, a student, a human, and I will fight against the unknown shadows who call themselves the "Philosopher King"

Sincerely,
Jared Good

Guardian of Students,

Protector of Grades,

Defender of Justice,

and Vanquisher of Final

An Analysis of "Make the Good choice on Thursday"

Good evening my fellow classmates,

If you have not yet read “Make the Good choice on Thursday,” then please do so before proceeding to my analysis of it.  For those of you who have already read Jared's piece, let’s take another look at it and see what we learn about him.

Good afternoon my fellow classmates,

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me the chance to prove myself as your enlightened leader. I (I believe he means “if” here.) there are some of you who don't know me, and that is okay. I know there are some (Does he mean to have the word “of” here?) you who may not even like me, and that too is okay. I just want to take this opportunity (“I just want to” #1) now to extend out the hand of friendship to all who wish to know me more. With your support I promise to do everything in my power to make sure there is no final exam for seniors (He fails to clarify that “everything in his power” concerning our final is equivalent to “nothing.”). You may ask yourself, (The following should be in quotation marks:)I didn't think there was a final exam, to that I say you're welcome. I have been working hard  over the Summer (CaPiTALizatION is FUN!!!) to make sure there would be no final exam, and it is with my valiant efforts that I got  the final exam  taken out of the syllabus. The final exam that was going to be given in addition  to the paper (This would be a complete sentence if he left out the word “that.”). I just want to (#2) say that with your vote, I will continue to work for you for as long as I am in power. I will continue to pursue other endeavors that will continue to benefit you guys. I just want to (#3 - What about what we want?) caution you that if I don't get elected, I will lose all my power to help you guys (Thinly veiled threats will not keep the electorate from choosing the best candidate, Jared.). Thus, forcing you to bend to the whims of some other ruler who may not even care if you all get an A in this class (Finishing strong with another incomplete sentence).

I care, I want everyone to get an A, and I want you all to be successful. The power is in your hands and it is up to you to make the Good (Really?) decision on Thursday.

Sincerely,

Jared Good

Guardian of (S)tudents,

Protector of (G)rades,

Defender of (J)ustice,

and Vanquisher of (F)inal

Jared hoped that we would learn more about him from this post.  We do not doubt that Jared is a loving husband, a masterful pun-nisher, and has a kind heart, but in these trying times we need a judicious leader.  We need philosopher king candidate Nathan Holman to lead us into an era of sound principles.

This thoughtful political analysis was paid for by “A Better Math History and Ethics Class for Tomorrow, Today” Super PAC.

Make the Good choice on Thursday

Good afternoon my fellow classmates,
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you for giving me the chance to prove myself as your enlightened leader. I there are some of you who don't know me, and that is okay. I know there are some you who may not even like me, and that too is okay. I just want to take this opportunity now to extend out the hand of friendship to all who wish to know me more. With your support I promise to do everything in my power to make sure there is no final exam for seniors. You may ask yourself, I didn't think there was a final exam, to that I say you're welcome. I have been working hard  over the Summer to make sure there would be no final exam, and it is with my valiant efforts that I got  the final exam  taken out of the syllabus. The final exam that was going to be given in addition  to the paper. I just want to say that with your vote, I will continue to work for you for as long as I am in power. I will continue to pursue other endeavors that will continue to benefit you guys. I just want to caution you that if I don't get elected, I will lose all my power to help you guys. Thus, forcing you to bend to the whims of some other ruler who may not even care if you all get an A in this class.

I care, I want everyone to get an A, and I want you all to be successful. The power is in your hands and it is up to you to make the Good decision on Thursday.

Sincerely,
Jared Good
Guardian of Students,
Protector of Grades,
Defender of  Justice,
and Vanquisher of Final

Elections

While the “Don’t vote” article argues that any one vote doesn’t matter, I initially would have argued that each vote would count towards the growing margin between the candidates. In the “Do the math, vote!” article, it brought up another good point, that many would think it as their duty as a citizen. I also found it really interesting, when following the math, that it was more likely to make an influence on the election than it was to win a Powerball. I have heard of the debate against the electoral college, but only just, and I was wondering how big of an effect it has.

To be honest, all of the proofs of the following article, were highly confusing to me. What I did get was that with our two social choice options (dictatorship and convention), the voting with many individuals in convention is paradoxical in that either option can be preferred over one another as a variance of individual preferences. What also interested me, was purchasing power, and that when the distribution of income and tastes is at its optimum, it winds up determining what happens. I apologize if I misunderstood something; I got sick over the weekend...

I thought it was rather amusing that our last webpage recommended that individuals should not participate in voting systems that are based on rank-ordering. I would have to agree, since this voting system gives results that are highly confusing as we saw in the original article, that the majority of three individuals with completely differing option would give an inaccurate assessment of the individual’s preferences.

Can You Rock The Vote?

Does our vote count? As we know our vote does not directly "rock" the vote. Our vote goes to the electoral  college and then they cast the vote. Many states has a winner takes all approach to the electoral votes and they are not divided up or a reflection of the states choosing. According to the federal archives the only two states that do not support this policy are Maine and Nebraska both have proportional representation in voting. So what does that mean for your vote?

According to Landsburg, in "Don't Vote" your vote doesn't count. Your vote will not make a difference in the grand scheme of things. The only way in his mind your vote  matters is if their is a tie. If you lived in Florida  the chance of a tie is slim.   "That's about 1 in 3,100- roughly the same as the probability you'll be murdered by your mother." That even decreases substantially if you are not in a swing state. So for those people voting in Texas, your vote probably play a large factor. And in the smaller states even if you vote in a small swing state your electoral votes may be so low it doesn't make a huge difference in the long run.

Ellensberg argues though that you can never comfortably know the other side. Many polls showed either  party being a certain percentage in the lead and that can change many of the votes are based off initial polls. Many small swings in the swing states can make a big difference. I believe even besides the percentage that if every one of a certain party just assumed their vote wouldn't matter it would change results possibly enough to make a difference.

 If you are in Nebraska or Maine however your vote matters slightly more. According to the federal archives 56.53% or 452,979 people for McCain and 41.60% or 333,319 people  voted for Obama. 4 of the electoral votes went to McCain and 1 went to Obama.  I am curious if anyone knows more about this process?

What do you think about the
What do you think about our current system and how it poorly reflects on votes?

usefull/lessness of math

After reading this book, the one thing that seemed to stick out the most (at least for me) was the question on how usefulness (or uselessness) mathematics is. According to Hardy, something can be said to be useful if “its development increases… the material well-being and comfort of men, if it promotes happiness, using that word in a crude and commonplace way” (116). There are many ways that one could interpret this. For example, someone could say that because of mathematics, engineers are able to do their job and build things. By doing their job, mathematics is contributing to the well being and comfort of man because firstly, the engineers can get paid, which in turn helps comfort the engineer, and secondly, whatever the engineer builds also comforts the engineer’s client(s) since the engineer is building something for them (whether it be a house, a building, a bridge, etc…). Another way this could be interpreted is that by just simply sitting down and solving math problems, this could promote happiness to a person that just likes doing this type of thing (like a mathematician).

However, this also begs the question on how mathematics is also useless. I remember there was a time in my Analysis class where my professor told us that not everything in mathematics has a practical purpose. There are some things in mathematics that (at least for now) only have a purpose in mathematics. From this, I can see how some people may say that mathematics (or at least, certain branches) are useless because they don’t benefit anything except for the pleasure of mathematicians.

Anyway, according to Harding, he believes that ultimately, mathematics is not useful (75). Personally, I think that mathematics is useful since a lot of areas of mathematics does indeed supplement other areas of study (like the sciences). Furthermore, just because something in mathematics doesn’t serve a physical purpose now doesn’t mean that it wont always not serve a physical purpose. At the bare minimum, those areas of mathematics can serve the purpose of getting people to think and use their brain cells :)