Psalm 1

The book in the Bible that emphasizes the true blessing for God’s children: those who mingle with sinners or mockers of God will not be together with the righteous but instead perish; however, those who meditate day and night on God’s word will be blessed, for they will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which bears fruit in season and whose leaf never withers—whatever they do will be successful.

Psalm 1 lays out the results of the paths chosen by those who want to please God and those who do not respect Him: God takes care of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will lead them to a bad end.

by MathPlus June 18, 2021

Viral Math

When a brain-unfriendly, tricky, or ill-posed oft-elementary math question in a national exam is shared rapidly and widely on the internet, because an obscene number of unhappy students and their clueless parents could not solve it, who blamed the problem poser of the “unfair” question for causing them trauma, nightmare, pain, or suffering, with some even entertaining suicidal thoughts.

Singapore’s high-stakes Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)—grade six—exam is notorious for setting viral math questions almost every other year—the PSLE math paper via its higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions acts as a social filter to filter out the nerds from the herd.

by MathPlus October 21, 2021

Hypnotic Pi

When autistic folks and idiot savants claim that hours-long meditation on the seemingly random or sacred digits of the number π puts them in some kind of trance, which allows their mind’s eye to see sexy numerical patterns or relationships, or to visualize kaleidoscopic geometric shapes in higher dimensions.

Number theorists obsessed with the properties of π love to indulge themselves in hypnotic pi activities, hoping to experience a few aha! moments, which could help them secure early tenure thanks to some breakthrough results or elegant proofs on pi that grace the pages of reputable math journals.

by MathPlus June 27, 2021

COVID-19

The planetary equivalent of someone who suffered a heart attack that nearly killed them—which often arises due to zero exercise, unhealthy diet, or high-stress lifestyle—because earthlings made bad choices like deforesting and polluting the earth, ignoring the poor and the marginalized, and overspending on the military but underspending on health care systems.

COVID-19 exposes how fragile global supply chains are, how under-funded health or medical systems worldwide are, and how vulnerable the poor and marginalized in both developed and developing countries are.

by MathPlus March 10, 2021

Maskophobia

The fear of wearing a face mask—when some people become mentally disturbed or paranoid of seeing their and others’ faces covered.

Guesstimate how many people globally suffer from maskophobia, who would find it hard to explain to the authorities why their psychological condition calls for a mask exemption during this pandemic.

by MathPlus July 24, 2021

Give a Shit!

Do your best in whatever you do, especially when no one is around, and don’t expect anything in return for your good deeds—live as if it is your last day on earth.

If only more people’s mantra were “Give a shit!” regardless whether their boss likes them or not, or whether they’re fairly being treated, heaven would be overcrowded.

by MathPlus March 20, 2021

Faux More Years

Also known as “Trump 2020 2.0.” Trump’s politically incorrect slogan, after failing to extend his White House stay until 2024 in spite of numerous frivolous lawsuits and repeated alleged fraudulent ballots in states where he lost to his older “low energy” presidential rival.

From “four more years” to “faux more years,” Trump 2020 ought to be rechristened Trump 2Ø2Ø, as he’s hoping (and his diehard supporters all maniacally praying and interceding) that a second miracle might be heading his way before 1/20/21—the palindromic date when they might have to escort him out of his temporary residence if he still insisted that he “won” the 2020 election.

by MathPlus December 03, 2020