The Real Problem

Bérubé raises some Old Business

I'm speechless.
I guess that means the DoE goal is halfway accomplished.

Given enrollment trends, though, we need to know if journalism profs could teach "stars for poets"?
I mean, I know Bérubé can but we expect versatility from the JoePa Professor.
Could your average Bob Jones University Media Studies Prof really handle "Charles Messier’s late-eighteenth century catalog of stellar objects"? I don't think so... I mean, dude was French!

PS: everyone MUST READ comment #36 in Bérubé's article by "Grumpy Physicist". Priceless.

I quote:

"If you transform the original opinion (call it ’x‘) by making a parody, we can write this as:

x’ = P x

where ’P‘ is the “parody” operation. Now from all possible opinions, one can construct linear combinations that are eigenstates of the operator P (the proof is trivial, and left as an exercise for the student). That is, x’ = a x, where a is a constant. And since a parody of a parody gets one back to the original state, PP = 1, and thus allowable values for a are +1 or -1.

Most sensible opinions have a=-1: when you parody them, you invert their sense.

There must exist, however, sets of opinions that have a=+1; that is, they are ‘invariant under the parody operation’. When subjected to parody, the parodied opinions are indistinguishable from the original opinion."

- Grumpy Physicist

Damn. I wish I had written that...