Vihart

This year, Pi Day is round. A rallying cry against those who would praise appearance over substance. Pi/Anti-Pi playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG7vhMMXagQ&list=PL5F03A9D6D278C5D9&index=1

Some thoughts on tools that have been floating around my mind.

Two shootings in Orlando last weekend. We barely had time to start grieving Christina, a fellow member of the YouTube community, when the Pulse shooting happened. This is mostly about my personal experience with the culture of fame, harassment, and violence against women.

Wanted to do something upbeat this week, so I'm re-styling the digital part of my living room!

If you haven’t been paying much attention to Black Lives Matter, it’s not too late to catch up to where I’m at. Let’s keep listening and learning together. This is a quick overview of some events relevant to the history of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is not meant to judge any particular person or group involved as guilty, innocent, racist, or not, but to give context to why the movement matters to so many people, including myself.

TRUE STORY. Part 2: https://youtu.be/3zQsYJi5pFE

Mathematically, they've got a lot going for them. Last week's video on the calculus of bad driving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI62ANEGK6Q NOTE: Leibniz independently discovered/invented calculus. Liebnitz is my imaginary slope friend.

A different perspective on the 2016 presidential election, based on statistics in context. Full text: http://vihart.com/a-mathematicians-perspective-on-the-divide/ This video is Public Domain CC0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ Feel free to share, use, remix, commercially or noncommercially, with or without attribution. There's a lot to talk about and do following this election, so I thought I'd talk about some of the stuff I haven't seen other people talk about. Don't forget to speak out, call your representatives, and keep an eye on 2018. I'd love to see someone with access to finer grained data follow up on some of this! Comments closed because there were too many of the same partisan reactions you see everywhere else, and that doesn't help anyone consider new perspectives. But I encourage discussion of this video in a longer less-shallow form than the YouTube comment system can provide, especially doing it in real life with people you know. Looking for a way to expand your community interactions to include more diverse age ranges? See what's up at your local library and museums.

On the virtue of good habits, rather than anger and dramatic causes, for sustaining democracy. If you wait for big motivating problems before acting, you'll be comparatively ineffective both because of waiting too long and your own lack of practice engaging with politics, which makes you susceptible to those who would prey on your anger and disappointment. If you’re in the US, find out who your representatives are here: http://www.whoismyrepresentative.com/ You can search their name to find out more about them and their positions, or you can just call them and ask! Hank Green's excellent video about how to write a letter to your representative, with examples and info in the description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp4h-3vQafk There’s tons of videos on the internet of people calling their representatives, so you can get an idea of what it’s like. Want to know more about the electoral college? Mickeleh’s video series on the electoral college has uncommon depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zac-2V7CTs He argues against the idea that they should change their votes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2vV9xBOSmY UK person? Rosianna on post-Brexit political participation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLxzv6HmyHk The internet is full of information for wherever you are and whatever you care about. Also talk in person to friends, family, and people in your community, to learn what they know and help each other take action!