As They Are
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like am ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?
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There was a time when the church was very powerful -- in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being "disturbers of the peace" and "outside agitators." But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were "a colony of heaven," called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be "astronomically intimidated." By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests.
Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent -- and often even vocal -- sanction of things as they are.
Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr., April 16th, 1963
In chemistry, computational models may be getting worse →
Over the last few decades, researchers have built a variety of algorithms meant to produce an approximate result, typically based on concepts collectively termed "density functional theory." But researchers have now shown that the most recent generations of algorithms have gotten extremely biased; they continue to get better at estimating the energy of the electrons, but they may be getting worse at getting their geometry right.
Anyone who's worked in rof. Henry F. Schaefer's lab knows that DFT is not real computational chemistry and CCSDT(Q) is the only real science. Hartree–Fock algorithms for the win!
I see us free, therefore, to return to some of the most sure and certain principles of religion and traditional virtue — that avarice is a vice, that the exaction of usury is a misdemeanour, and the love of money is detestable, that those walk most truly in the paths of virtue and sane wisdom who take least thought for the morrow. We shall once more value ends above means and prefer the good to the useful. We shall honour those who can teach us how to pluck the hour and the day virtuously and well, the delightful people who are capable of taking direct enjoyment in things, the lilies of the field who toil not, neither do they spin.
But beware! The time for all this is not yet. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight.
— John Maynard Keynes, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, 1930
Learning Chess at 40 →
Although it scarcely occurred to me at the time, my daughter and I were embarking on a sort of cognitive experiment. We were two novices, attempting to learn a new skill, essentially beginning from the same point but separated by some four decades of life. I had been the expert to that point in her life—in knowing what words meant, or how to ride a bike—but now we were on curiously equal footing. Or so I thought.
Notes on Distributed Systems for Young Bloods →
When asked what separates distributed systems from other fields of software engineering, the new engineer often cites latency, believing that's what makes distributed computation hard.
But they're wrong. What sets distributed systems engineering apart is the probability of failure and, worse, the probability of partial failure.
Thieves can guess your secret Visa card details in just seconds →
Clever attack method, but really one Visa should be already stopping.
How Stable Are Democracies? 'Warning Signs Are Flashing Red' →
Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way.
His research suggests something quite different: that liberal democracies around the world may be at serious risk of decline.
"These Days, Everyone Needs a Side Hustle" →
It is no coincidence that the growth and success of gig platforms has taken place during a period of stagnant wages and labor market bifurcation [...]. It is precisely because so many Americans have needed to find a little work on the side that these gig platforms are thriving.
Some commentary and highlights from Microsoft's Social Media Collective on Pew's research on the gig economy.
Jon Stewart on President-elect Trump, hypocrisy in America →
Insightful and well-reasoned as always.