Economist removed from plane for Algebra, flight delayed 1.5 hours

I applaud your restraint. I was going to suggest 21 - but feared the female sky-god’s wrath.

Now what’s all this about the branding of heretics?

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When it comes to counting transfinite numbers, there are those who Kant and those who Cantor.

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I don’t mind if smart people do their thinking behind closed doors, but if they start thinking in public it makes me uncomfortable.

So them making me uncomfortable means I must call in the authorities.

Next thing you know they will be doing math in the wrong bathroom and then it’s angry jesus time.

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Wrote this at the bottom of my end-of-year essay exam for “extra credit” (actually, attempting to get a grin out of our prof in Ancient Philosophy 101 at uni):

There once was a Greek named Xeno
Who dated a hooker from Reno
But move he would not.
The weekend was shot
She said he was no Valentino

This was before the internet, folks! I wrote it all in pencil.

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One of my favorite stories of all time.

I miss the heck out of Borges. Who these days can compare?

Such a master. And an incredible, extremely full life.

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He had strong opinions about transfinite numbers, too.

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And the poet Coleridge was followed around on the Devon coast during the Napoleonic wars by a government agent because he kept writing things down. But this, and the Lie case, were in the days before supposedly universal education.

Shouldn’t the woman who made the fuss in the first place be put on a no-fly list as “too stupid to travel safely”? And be sent the bill - it costs money to delay a flight.

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Who else would encourage one to flaunt things that should be rightfully covered up? Who dwells beneath the ground where the toes trod?

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The lowest common denominator?

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Lower.

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21?
Ya, right… the Lord frowns upon fractions, Hedwig.

Oh Algebra is a place? I’m not very good with geometry. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Ah ha ha! Good!

So if there is a number called “aleph” and “googol” and “million,” is there a number all you mathematicians and math majors can rename “trump” that has the following qualities:

  • Infinitely negative
  • Irrational
  • Never yields the same answer twice
  • Suitable for use in the lowest of lowest common denominators
  • Orange-ish

?

Thanks in advance for your insights.

Yours sincerely,
a very curious English major

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I know of aleph… naught!

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It was the imaginary numbers that were the real problem.

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Though my opinion may make you _ci_pher no good reason, I think Trump will make a complete hash of things if he ends up as POTUS. That poor economist had nothing up his sleeve and there was nothing cryptic jotted on his notepad. That innumerate woman should have been ejected by any door, backdoor, side exit, whatever, for her rudeness.

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Well, he could embody the Hairy Ball theorem in topology. And he certainly seems preoccupied with probability’s Wiener measuring process.

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This is excellent. I can’t wait to deploy these terms inappropriately. Preferably in mixed company, esp. where some of the nerds I talk with are definitely not going to get these references, and one or two definitely will.

(off to Wiki to go educate myself about these two refs…)

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You may already know the Wiener process as Brownian motion, AKA the random walk for gaseous particles :wink:

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