I took a break from Robert Malone to read and review Why We Sleep and An End to Alzheimer’s, which have more bearing on my life. When Anna asked me if I could do a speech next Saturday, the answer was immediate: my subject will be Why We Sleep.
Both these books have an inordinate number of reviews already on Amazon. Twenty thousand for Alzheimer’s, three thousand for Sleep. But neither has a video review. That’s a niche!
Both the above books drum home the deleterious effects of caffeine, too many carbs in general and sugar in particular. Eddie and I got to talking about it. His sweet tooth has already led to dental problems. Mine led to weight problems.
Wholly unrelated, we were talking about a great article by Pierre Kory on the problems with education. His professors would often gig him because he came up with the right answer the wrong way. I pointed out to Eddy that, as we learned from Michael Shermer’s book Mental Math, there are different ways to do multiplication. We talked about the formula for body mass index: 703xweight / height^2. Weight in pounds, height in inches. In his case, 56” and 83lb.
So how do you multiply 703 x 56? In school they tell you, 703*6 + 703*50. In my head I do 3*6=18. 8 carry 1. 1+3*5+0*6 =6, carry 1. 1+7*6+0*5=3 carry 4. 4+7*5=39. Therefore, 39368. For me, easier. But mainly, different and also effective.
Dividing out we find his BMI is 18. That would be underweight for an adult, but it is absolutely average for an 11 year old boy. One less thing to worry about. The dentist is enough.
Kory’s point is that his medical education taught innumerable “facts” without encouraging analysis of why they might be so. Also, as Beredsen might say, the “fact” that there is no way to treat Alzheimer’s disease because there is no effective monotherapy (single medicine) to address it. Or the “fact” that Kory disproved, that there was no way to treat Covid because there was no vaccine.
The paradigm is pervasive. Eddie first tried to stop me from doing it “wrong” as I showed him my algorithm for multiplying, then pleaded he didn’t understand as I encouraged him must to watch. I’m glad to say he quickly caught on.
The temperature fell to the teens last night, something for which we usually wait until January. This graph below shows that northern hemisphere snow cover is on track to break records. My room was 59 when I woke up with PJs over my long johns. I slept well, better I am sure than climate alarmists concerned for their funding in these parlous days. Or Greta. Poor dear is probably still too warm on her yacht in the Bahamas. Oh, wait! It is fully air conditioned.
The 14 day forecast shows highs above freezing starting Wednesday. Quite a bit of rain as well. It may melt the snow that his been with us for three weeks now.
Here is a letter from a friend with relatives in a town on the left bank in the Kherson region.
Russians still occupy the city. More missile launch positions have been moved into residential areas. M***** spoke to her mother who mentioned a close family friend in his 85th year who she worries about but said no more.
Her niece called her via a Ukrainian number and stated that the gentleman came home from the daily chores of getting food to find Russians putting in defensive trenches in his garden and placing a missile launch site there. But what was worse the entire Russian unit had moved into his house as his "guest". The niece is like her grandmother careful with what she says and how she says it because the Russian State Security Service is monitoring everything.
It seems the gentleman who has mobility issues is being allowed to travel on his motorscooter to daily pick up the food rations for the soldiers in his house and when he returns must be searched including his mobile phone to include where he went and how long there. As you can imagine after 30 years of free Ukrainian society being forced to return to the totalitarian tyranny of the soviet state is not welcomed. Apparently. the elderly gentleman is voicing his unhappiness when not at home. M*****'s mother is fearful the soldier just may kill him if he becomes unuseful to them.
No one seems to have gas, and old furnaces are the way to keep warm and cook. Wood is expensive, if you cannot get to it on your own, coal is scarce and you are considered very lucky to have any. Many families have moved in together to enhance resources. M*****'s brother is still doing the manual labor job, he hates it, but he wants to support his family. Apparently, he passes a growing junkyard of damaged, destroyed Russian armor and vehicles. There is no guard on this junkyard and so there is a growing economy of taking working part and either creating something that is useful or hiding them for when they are liberated and can help the Ukraine war effort in the needed repair work.
That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the strong man is getting to work on his video, Eddie’s rocketry class was cancelled on account of yet another air raid alert, and Oksana is teaching music at one nursery school while the girls are at the other. Go figure.
Another interesting article. I particularly liked the two math puzzles that you and Eddie talked about. I computed my BMI without difficulty and solved the multiplication you set out, using a method that neither you nor Eddie considered, but one that I was taught in elementary school.
I wrote the GMAT test almost 40 years ago, before starting my MBA. In preparation for same, I enjoyed doing all the math and grammar problems that were part of such tests.. I relearned all the intricacies of fractions, decimals, algebra and geometry, and was the richer for it.
Thanks.
Regarding the plethora of multiplication methods: I always looked at multiplication and division as a Rubick’s Cube. Many ways to solve it. But whatever you default to is likely your fastest and most accurate for that attempt. I see the same here. Fantastic.