Precise answers to useless questions

I recently ran across a tweet from Allen Downey saying So much of 20th century statistics was just a waste of time, computing precise answers to useless questions. He’s right. I taught mathematical statistics at GSBS [1, 2] several times, and each time I taught it I became more aware

Diverting more backdoor disasters

In the wake of the XZ backdoor, Ben and Ryan unpack the security implications of relying on open-source software projects maintained by small teams. They also discuss the open-source nature of Linux, the high cost of education in the US, the value of open-source contributions for job seekers, and what

Quick Tip: How to Animate Text Gradients and Patterns in CSS

In this quick tip, we show how easy it is to add animated background gradients and images to text on the Web, with handy demos. Continue reading Quick Tip: How to Animate Text Gradients and Patterns in CSS on SitePoint.

Pairs in poker

An article by Y. L. Cheung [1] gives reasons why poker is usually played with five cards. The author gives several reasons, but here I’ll just look at one reason: pairs don’t act like you might expect if you have more than five cards. In five-card poker, the more pairs

How a tech consultant boosts her coding skills with CodeSignal Learn

Whether you’re trying to break into tech, prepare for the job search, or level up in your current role, it helps to know that you’re not alone in your journey to build your technical skills. That’s why we’re sharing stories from learners like you: to motivate and inspire others in

Ready To Learn Python? These are the Best Python Courses

Solar system means

Yesterday I stumbled on the fact that the size of Jupiter is roughly the geometric mean between the sizes of Earth and the Sun. That’s not too surprising: in some sense (i.e. on a logarithmic scale) Jupiter is the middle sized object in our solar system. What I find more

Climbing the GenAI decision tree

In this sponsored episode, Ben and Ryan are joined by Ria Cheruvu, an AI evangelist at Intel, to discuss the different approaches to incorporating AI models into organizations.

Earth : Jupiter :: Jupiter : Sun

The size of Jupiter is approximately the geometric mean of the sizes of Sun and Earth. In terms of radii, The ratio on the left equals 9.95 and the ratio on the left equals 10.98. The subscripts are the astronomical symbols for the Sun (☉, U+2609), Jupiter (♃, U+2643), and

Gravity on Jupiter

I was listening to the latest episode of the Space Rocket History podcast. The show includes some audio from a documentary on Pioneer 11 that mentioned that a man would weigh 500 pounds on Jupiter. My immediate thought was “Is that all?! Is this ‘man’ a 100 pound boy?” The