Archive page 14 of 73
May 1, 2020
Yesterday, the Charter Review Commission presented its final report to the County Council. We had our final meeting Tuesday morning, via video conference, and approved the report with minor changes. You can…
Apr 25, 2020
The most interesting aspect of the Ming Dynasty governance was its support for the lower classes. This was led by the first Ming ruler, Hongwu Emperor, who started the land reforms. Hongwu…
Apr 24, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone in unforeseeable ways. From an educational perspective, this pandemic is affecting both learners and teachers as many countries have suspended their in-person classes due to the…
Apr 15, 2020
Back in December, I did a study on Ebolavirus transmission rates in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Nothing special, but the DRC outbreak had been going on for just over a year…
Apr 12, 2020
Singular value decomposition (SVD) is something I found challenging when I took linear algebra as an undergraduate, decades ago. It's complicated. It's hard to calculate. And there's no reason for it, as…
Apr 11, 2020
It's important to remember that when Buddhism entered China, it did not enter a vacuum. Like Japan, China already had widespread philosophical traditions. By the time Buddhism reached China, sometime during the…
Mar 30, 2020
I often use bootstrapping when I need to get an estimate of some parameter, but that is because I have access to sufficient computational resources to to just do run my analysis…
Mar 27, 2020
One of the most well-known aspects of Confucian thought is the importance of the social order. Confucius thought it was important that everyone know their place in society. This idea is summarized…
Mar 22, 2020
The founding myth of China revolves around the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. Unlike later formal dynasties, even if prehistoric like the Xia Dynasty or Shang Dynasty. This period, before the Xia…
Mar 14, 2020
Everyone is talking about social distancing, but nobody seems to understand why it works. This is what I wrote for someone on Facebook. So with any disease, there's a bunch of metrics…
Mar 2, 2020
Below is the synopsis of the proposed recommendations from the Charter Review Commission. Please come by our hearing tomorrow night to discuss these with us. ::document{src="/assets/docs/One-Paragraph-Summaries.pdf" label="Open the PDF document" embed="true"}