Category Archives: The Evidentialism Files

Why Did Six Hate Seven?

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I was reminded that this weekend (Saturday, to be exact, 3/14) was National Pi Day. While it’s not as trippy as 4.20, 3.14 is a head spinner, too. In honor of the infinitely baffling, some math FactSlaps:

  • Ancient Babylonians did math in base 60 instead of base 10. That’s why we have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 360 degrees in a circle.Image result for ancient babylonians mathematics
  • Students who chew gum have better math test scores than those who do not, a Baylor University study found.
  • 2,520 is the smallest number that can be exactly divided by all the numbers 1 to 10.
  • There are 177,147 ways to tie a tie, according to mathematicians.Image result for tie knot funny
  • In 1900, all the world’s mathematical knowledge could be written in about 80 books; today it would fill more than 100,000 books.Image result for huge stack of books
  • The Birthday Paradox says that in a group of just 23 people, there’s a 50% chance that at least two will have the same birthday.
  • 2200 years ago, Eratosthenes estimated the Earth’s circumference using math, without ever leaving Egypt. He was remarkably accurate. Christopher Columbus later studied him.Image result for Eratosthenes
  • Mathematician Paul Erdos could calculate in his head, given a person’s age, how many seconds they had lived, when he was just 4 years old.Image result for Paul Erdos
  • In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in science, technology, engineering and math, but when choosing a college major, just 0.4% of high school girls select computer science.
  • The largest prime number ever found is more than 22 million digits long.
  • The discoveries of Greek mathematicians such as Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes are still used in mathematical teaching today.Image result for Pythagoras, Euclid, and Archimedes
  • Arabic numerals, like the ones we use today in English, were actually invented in India.Image result for Arabic numerals, like the ones we use today in English, were actually invented in India.

Love in the Time of Corona

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Welcome, ye converts!

We knew we were onto something with Evidentialism. But we never expected such a widespread conversion. No worries; we can accommodate you all, though it’s clearly a limited-time offer.

For here we are, called to collective Mass by Circumstance. Our heads are bowed, our hands are clasped. Of course, we have a lot of time for solemn reflection lately; we can’t go to most public gatherings, schools are closing, sports are canceled. What’s a body to do besides pray for a body?

Yet those heads are bowed not for a higher power to smite an enemy, not a savior to bring forth justice with great vengeance and furious anger.

No, we’re praying to science.

Look at the way we changed our everyday lives when science told us of an imminent, existential threat. We now elbow-bump. We wear medical masks to the grocery stores. We have suspended human interaction until further notice.Image result for elbow bump

The urge here is great to make this column one long endorsement of Evidentialism, the faith that posits that science is a faith. It’s tempting to point out that folks aren’t flocking to their houses of worship (haven’t you heard? Pope’s taking confession on Instagram.). Normally, I’d point out that, suddenly, we’re not hearing from anti-vaxers clamoring to get to the bottom of the list. I might even take a shot at friends much smarter than I who dismiss the science-as-faith concept out of hand; if that praying for a cure you’re doing isn’t an act of faith, I might ask, what is?Image result for pope on video

But I’m not going to do that.

The larger precept here is much simpler; COVID-19 underscores the dangerous habit of acting without evidence. The American political system has made a cottage industry out of turning science into ideology. Corona smashed that to hell in  a week.

Whether it’s politics or religion or the weather, beware those who act without evidence. If anything, resist it. Yeah, it makes you an asshole. But it’s time we pucker up and give resistance to stupidity.

As Evidentialism loves to cite, we do it in our everyday lives anyway. Imagine: You live in a place that gets a real winter. You’re in day 3 of a winter storm that’s dumped 8 inches a day and dropped temperatures to sub-zero.Image result for snowstorm guy in t shirt

Your brother walks into the living room, icicles dangling from his nose and eyebrows, dressed in nothing but a t-shirt, jeans and sandals. “Man!” you’re brother proclaims. “I’m freezing!” After laughing your ass off at the dullard, you’d probably ask why he didn’t bother checking the forecast — or looking outdoors.

Yet on deeper issues — issues that shape the core of what makes you you — it’s impolite to ask whey they hold the opinion they do. It’s rude, we’re told. It’s intrusive. People are free to think what they want.

Exactly. So why not find out where they’re coming from?

It’s time to push back against the hunch. Our president — the one who in 2017 dissolved the National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Bio Defense (the government’s pandemic team) — has a “hunch” COVID-19 will “magically” evaporate with the warming spring air. Get back to staring at the sun, Cadet Bone Spurs. COVID doesn’t give a shit about stock markets, border walls, party affiliations or wealth. This is science, bitch. There are no cuts in line.Image result for trump stares at sun

Assuming this does not wipe out the human race (and we’re making no assumptions), we will likely forget how we once prayed to science. That, as usual, will be due to science saving the day to allow us to worship whatever coconuts we hold sacred. That’s the other wondrous thing about science: It’s a faith that doesn’t seek glory, but equilibrium. Just pray we’re not too late in seeing its beauty.

 

Why Sports Are Better Than Real Life

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Amid the sound and fury of Super Tuesday and the din of idiots signifying nothing, we can forget real news. Like Thomas Lee.

Lee loves the Jackson State University Tigers. I mean, loves them.

Growing up in Mississippi, Lee used to hang out at the Tigers’ basketball practices, usually with snacks in hand. Skittles were the favorite, hands down. Over the years, Lee became a fixture to the team, a walking concession stand of sorts, earning him the nickname ‘Snacks.’ It’s an apt title. Lee has clearly partaken in some.

Lee was so enchanted by the school he once mentioned to an assistant coach for the Tigers that he wanted to be the school’s team manager someday. The coach told Lee something the boy took deep to heart: Stay on the honor roll throughout high school, the coach said, and when he was admitted to Jackson State, Lee could be team manager.

“I kept my word,” Lee said in a local TV news interview. “And he kept his.”Image result for snacks lee

And for four years, Lee had the college experience of a lifetime. He hung out with players after practice, always willing to feed a shooter who needed extra shots — and take a few himself, of course. He always carried Skittles for, you know, emergencies.

This year marked Lee’s senior year. Throughout the Tigers’ season, kids and their social media avatars had been calling for “Snacks” to make an appearance in a game. Lee admits he did nothing to squelch the rising call.

In fact, Lee must have been feeling pretty cocky. He showed up at the college last week before 6 a.m. on Senior Day  — in uniform, donning the number 35 for his favorite player, Kevin Garnett. Image result for kevin garnnett

Tigers coach Wayne Brent told reporters he was surprised to see the manager suited up, but made a promise to the hopeful. If the Tigers run up the score in a blowout win for the school’s final home game of the year, he could play. Though the Tigers had a mediocre year, Brent had the genius idea to the let the team know of the wager. Image result for coach jackson state basketball

The Tigers kicked Arkansas Pine-Bluff’s ass. Running up a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter, Brent sent Lee out. The auditorium buzzed with his entrance, and collectively gasped — and sighed — when Lee took and missed three shots.

But with 32 seconds remaining, a Tiger on a fast break found Lee open on the right wing, far beyond the three-point arc. But Lee does not lack for guts, and recalled the preposterously long shots he’d take with players after practice. Without hesitating, he turned and arced a shot.

Swish.

By the end of the game, players and students had mobbed him, chanting “Snacks!” “Snacks!” as they led him out of the school.  The Southwestern Athletic Conference named Snacks its Player of the Week. NBA superstar Kevin Durant (who has a great nickname, “The Grim Leaper”) tweeted that Lee should change his nickname from “Snacks”to “Snipe.” Image result for kevin durant leaping

Promises made, promises kept. Sometimes, it matters. Usually, the news isn’t fake. It’s just overlooked.