Blogs: Luke Setzer

In the realm of discussion forums, the site owner has great leeway in the level of tolerance of annoying people where "annoying" gets measured against the standards that owner establishes.  Numerous "right" ways exist to handle these annoying people.  Sometimes one can learn lessons about these right ways from unusual sources. (Read the entire blog entry)

Persons who find this post offensive to their sense of intellectual property rights and copyright laws may treat the entire entry as a work of creative fiction! (Read the entire blog entry)

I learned of Tulane mathematics professor Maurice Dupré while engaging in some autodidactic learning of linear algebra using Pearson Education online tools. He appears in many of the streaming videos. A Google search on his name led me to his home page and a number of interesting papers, including "The Mathematical Seeds of Economic Collapse." (Read the entire blog entry)

Dr. Yates J. Canipe shows, with a touch of self-serving humor, how our current president uses covert hypnosis on the masses. (Read the entire blog entry)

My recent ranting article about education sparked memories of my days in elementary school and some of the silly activities there. (Read the entire blog entry)

Poor Leslie! The ignorance and fallacies of my plan became evident soon enough. I quickly learned that teaching someone to drive requires nerves of steel and the patience of a saint. I have neither. Between my shortcomings as a teacher and her own terror of making a mistake, instructing her in basic driving skills became a mutually masochistic relationship. (Read the entire blog entry)

What lessons can I learn from these experiences to calibrate my skill at characterizing quickly the new people I meet?  While I dislike making harsh snap judgments, I dislike squandering my precious time even more.  So in the interest of getting back to basics, let me point to SuperSelf by Charles Givens. (Read the entire blog entry)

Toastmasters Clubs teach members not only to speak, but to listen and to think.  Unfortunately, communication relies on the effectiveness of all three skills in order to succeed.  Perhaps my letter proved too terse or perhaps others read too carelessly, but these two responses made their way into the April 2008 issue of the magazine. (Read the entire blog entry)

Because both of my parents came from large families, the memorial service packed the church with my many cousins.  I never really discussed my loss of religious faith with any of them -- or my immediate family for that matter -- after I left home simply because I saw no point to the effort.  However, evidently someone somewhere must have gotten wind of it because of what happened after the service.  As my wife and I packed the display items in the lobby, the husband of one of my cousins -- a man I barely know -- came to me.  I noticed he wore a tie with holy buzzwords such as Jesus, Savior, etc. written all over it. (Read the entire blog entry)

Those who campaign righteously for stronger "Slower Traffic Keep Right" laws ought at least honestly to admit their true agenda and package into their campaign "No Speed Limit in Left Lane" laws. (Read the entire blog entry)