Monday, June 11, 2012

"What Do I Know, Anyway"


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When I stumbled across the term mathematical psychology I paused and asked myself, "What in the world is mathematical psychology?"

According to Wikipedia, mathematical psychology is an approach to psychological research that is based on mathematical modeling of perceptual, cognitive and motor processes, and on the establishment of law-like rules that relate quantifiable stimulus characteristics with quantifiable behavior.

There followed a long page filled with blah, blah, blah, and various forms of gobble, gobble, gobble de-gook, concluding with: "While the first three laws are all deterministic in nature, later established relations are more fundamentally stochastic. This has been a general theme in the evolution in mathematical modeling of psychological processes: From deterministic relations as found in classical physics to inherently stochastic models."

Well Good God Almighty! According to Wikipedia, the word stochastic is an adjective that refers to systems whose behavior is intrinsically non- deterministic, sporadic and categorically not intermittent.

Oh well . . . I don't think I really expected to learn anything about mathematical psychology anyway.

Mark my words: there are basic flaws in mankind's overall conception of mathematics which will someday be exposed, and; that is inevitable.

In my opinion.

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WORD FOR TODAY

frisson
 noun
a shudder or shiver; thrill

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Jacques Cousteau

Born June 11, 1910
Died June 25, 1997

Jacques Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water.


Born June 11, 1933
He is 78 years old

Gene Wilder (born Jerome Silberman) is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, author and activist. Some of the most well known movies in which he appeared were Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak. Blazing Saddles, and Stir Crazy.
Born June 11, 1959
He is 52 years old

James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE, known as Hugh Laurie, is an English actor, voice artist, comedian, writer, musician, recording artist, and director. From 2004 to 2012, he played Dr Gregory House, the protagonist of of the TV  series House, for which he received two Golden Globe awards, two Screen Actors Guild awards, and six Emmy nominations. As of August 2010, Laurie is the highest paid actor in a drama series on US television. He has been listed in the 2011 Guinness Book of World Records as the highest paid actor ever in a TV Drama--earning US$ 700,000 per episode in House--and for being the most watched leading man on television.

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Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true.
--Bertrand Russell

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