August 30, 2017

Respect the Parallelogram

Here’s a tweetstorm that demands respect:


And now the storm:

  • First: don’t disrespect geometry and don’t effin disrespect parallelograms – particularly IN a parallelogram…
  • The SIGN is a parallelogram (rectangle) as is the WINDOW. Structurally the building is held up with triangles & parallelograms…
  • The graphic software used to MAKE the sign contains maths that deals with vectors & hence PARALLELOGRAMS…
  • EVERY season is PARALLELOGRAM season if you live in a built environment or use technology. I’m bloody glad I learnt about parallelograms…
  • Imagine if I’d spent my time learning about taxes at school instead of parallelograms…
  • 1 it would all be out of date now & 2 be about the wrong country & 3 be so vague as to be irrelevant to my current life.
  • Oh & 4 be as dull as shit. Whereas geometry is truly amazing…
  • …now no offence to accountants in general. I admire all maths related disciplines & accountants are unfairly maligned as dull…
  • BUT don’t shit on a different field of maths for cheap laughs…
  • ‘But it is just a joke’ no it is a shitty joke that perpetuates a shitty idea: that only ‘useful’ maths is worth learning.
  • ‘Useful’ is a shitty standard for general education. Drama, literature, art, music we learn because they are good in themselves…
  • ‘Oh but STEM is different!’ No! Name a dinosaur – go on. I bet you can name several correctly with the right technical name…
  • …how come? Most people will never need to deal with actual dinosaurs. But we learn about them because they are FUN and weird & freaky…
  • People who succeed in maths & related areas find pleasure in maths. ‘Useful’ has its place but it is not as powerful as pleasure.
  • …and tying down a subject whose power is its abstractness with ‘useful’ means that it will always fail…
  • ‘When will I use this’ I don’t know because you haven’t lived your life yet!…
  • Anyway. Moral: don’t disrespect parallelograms.

Quite so. The problem with parallelograms is that they’re a con. They tell you that finding the area is simple: it’s base · height. Easy peasy!

But what’s the height? Crap. The length of the sides isn’t enough to figure that out. You need to know the angles too. And then you have to apply some trigonometry:

So there you go: the area of a parallelogram is a · b · sin α. Greek letters! Blecch. So sure, respect the parallelogram, but only because such a simple looking thing requires more math than you’d think to figure it out.

No worries, though. You’ll need it when you take physics anyway.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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