This Should Have Been My Thesis

I just watched a beutifull and and emotionall video by Patricia Taxxon on youtube and it reminded me of something I used to be very close to but have since stopped doing, and that is to just look at math and play! Math is inherently arbitrary! By definition math is art! It's a way to grasp at the world, yes, but it's also a vehicle into creating entierly new worlds! New dimentions! New, novel kinds of logic and causality! You can take any single operation, map it to an arbitrary unused symbol, and just! Use it! In different eqasions! In different contexts! You can stretch you conceptions of what is a number, a value, space itself, and it's all so fun and inventive, and you can draw fractals! So so so so many fractals!

And it can be hard to see it that way. Especially after going through public education, especially after being beaten into the ground with incomprehensible notation of lond dead professors, after being offered only the most optimised and abstracted of formulas with no basis on which to place them but! Math is a jurney! To discovery of not only reality but yourself! What compells you; what you see with ease and what just does not compute, what is the rjeason for all of that notation, what would happen if you just assumed something stupid! And that stupid thing can sometimes be revolutionary to your understanding of numbers! Math and notation is an art form and I'm heartbroken people aren't seeing it for that! Because it's too esoteric or intimidating or because they've been made to feel like they could never succseed at it! Becouse someone hurt you in an attempt to teach you how to fill out a standardised test.

My plea is, to give math a try, look for something that resonated with you, or just draw some triangles and sqares; make a fractal; define how it's built and try to see what comes of it, there's so many things to discover. Try to proove a simple formula. Visualise! Solve a simple problem! It's intimidating; but it doesn't have to be! It's impossible to fail at mathematics, you can only learn from your mistakes, I beg of you, try.

I've said this before but every basic feminism 101 women's empowerment event I've ever been to has been all about telling women and girls that it's okay to speak up for ourselves, it's okay to take up space, it's okay to be strong and fast and loud and hungry and sexy and smart and good at things without feeling shame, but apparently, with the way some people talk, the second a trans woman does any of these things it's evidence of "male socialization" and needs to be called out and "corrected." like, even if this were the case, which it isn't, I think it's patently insane to believe "it looks like these women don't have as much crushing shame from a lifetime of experiencing misogyny as most other women" (<- a claim that, from my experience, is simply not true about trans women) and then follow it up with "I must Fix This by teaching them to shut up and be ashamed" instead of, like, idk "good for them, I wish this type of liberation for all other women as well."

I'm a huge hypocrite, if we're being honest. If I haven't had a beverage and it's been dark for too long I'll be like "nothing has ever been good and I shall die ;__;" but as soon as I get a little sip of water and it's sunny outside I'm like nvm I'm thriving I love life :)

But if my houseplants do that exact same thing, I'll call evert single one of them an overdramatic bitch.

SabrangIndia

Jyotiba Phule’s Trenchant Critique of Caste: Gulamgiri | SabrangIndia

First Published on: 11 Apr 2016 On his 189th Birth Anniversary, April 11, we bring to you excerpts from Jyotiba Phule’s path breaking work,

Jyotiba Phule was born on April 11, 1827 If a Bhat happened to pass by a river where a Shudra as washing his clothes, the Shudra had to collect all his clothes and proceed to a far distant spot, lest some drops of the (contaminated) water should be sprayed on the Bhat. Even then, if a drop of water were to touch the body of the Bhat from there, or even if the Bhat so imagined it, the Bhat did not hesitate to fling his utensil angrily at the head of the Shudra who would collapse to the ground, his head bleeding profusely. On recovering from the swoon the Shudra would collect his blood- stained clothes and wend his way home silently. He could not complain to the Government Officials, as the administration was dominated by the Bhats. More often than not he would be punished stringently for complaining against the Bhats. This was the height of injustice! It was difficult for the Shudras to move about freely in the streets for their daily routine, most of all in the mornings when persons and things cast long shadows about them. If a `Bhat Saheb’ were to come along from the opposite direction, the Shudra had to stop by the road until such time as the `Bhat Saheb’ passed by – for fear of casting his polluting shadow on him. He was free to proceed further only after the `Bhat Saheb’ had passed by him. Should a Shudra be unlucky enough to cast his polluting shadow on a Bhat inadvertently, the Bhat used to belabour him mercilessly and would go to bathe at the river to wash off the pollution. The Shudras were forbidden even to spit in the streets. Should he happen to pass through a Brahmin (Bhat) locality he had to carry an earthen-pot slung about his neck to collect his spittle. (Should a Bhat Officer find a spittle from a Shudra’s mouth on the road, woe betide the Shudra!)……. [[The Shudra suffered many such indignities and disabilities and were looking forward to their release from their persecutors as prisoners fondly do. The all-merciful Providence took pity on the Shudras and brought about the British raj to India by its divine dispensation which emancipated the Shudras from the physical (bodily) thraldom (slavery). We are much beholden to the British rulers. We shall never forget their kindness to us. It was the British rulers who freed us from the centuries-old oppression of the Bhat and assured a hopeful future for our children. Had the British not come on the scene (in India) (as our rulers) the Bhat would surely have crushed us in no time (long ago.)]]

Some may well wonder as to how the Bhats managed to crush the depressed and down-trodden people here even though they (the Shudras) outnumbered them tenfold. It was well-known that one clever person can master ten ignorant persons (e.g. a shepherd and his flock). Should the ten ignorant men be united (be of one mind), they would surely prevail over that clever one. But if the ten are disunited they would easily be duped by that clever one. The Bhats have invented a very cunning method to sow seeds of dissension among the Shudras. The Bhats were naturally apprehensive of the growing numbers of the depressed and down- trodden people. They knew that keeping them disunited alone ensured their (the Bhats’) continued mastery ever them. It was the only way of keeping them as abject slaves indefinitely, and only thus would they be able to indulge in a life of gross indulgence and luxury ensured by the `sweat of the Shudras’ brows. To that end in view, the Bhats invented the pernicious fiction of the caste-system, compiled (learned) treatises to serve their own self-interest and indoctrinated the pliable minds of the ignorant Shudras (masses) accordingly. Some of the Shudras put up a gallant fight against this blatant injustice. They were segregated into a separate category (class). In order to wreak vengeance on them (for their temerity) the Bhats persuaded those whom we today term as Malis (gardeners), Kunbis (tillers, peasants) etc. not to stigmatise them as untouchables. Being deprived of their means of livelihood, they were driven to the extremity of eating the flesh of dead animals. Some of the members of the Shudras community today proudly call themselves as Malis (gardeners), Kunbis (peasants), gold-smiths, tailors, iron smiths, carpenters etc, on the basis of the avocation (trade) they pursued (practised), Little do they know that our ancestors and those of the so¬called untouchables (Mahars, Mangs etc.) were blood-brothers (traced their lineage to the same family stock). Their ancestors fought bravely in defence of their motherland against the invading usurpers (the Bhats) and hence, the wily Bhats reduced them to penury and misery. It is a thousand pities that being unmindful of this state of affairs, the Shudras began to hate their own kith and kin. The Bhats invented an elaborate system of caste-distinction based on the way the other Shudras behaved towards them, condemning some to the lowest rung and some to a slightly higher rung. Thus they permanently made them into their proteges and by means of the powerful weapon of the `iniquitous caste system,’ drove a permanent wedge among the Shudras. It was a classic case of the cats who went to law! The Bhats created dissensions among the depressed and the down- trodden masses and are battening on the differences (are leading luxurious lives thereby). The depressed and down­trodden masses in India were freed from the physical bodily) slavery of the Bhats as a result of the advent of the British raj here. But we are sorry to state that the benevolent British Government have not addressed themselves to the important task of providing education to the said masses. That is why the Shudras continue to be ignorant, and hence, their ‘mental slavery’ regarding the spurious religious tracts of the Bhats continues unabated. They cannot even appeal to the Government for the redressal of their wrongs. The Government is not yet aware of the way the Bhats exploit the masses in their day to day problems as also in the administrative machinery. We pray to the Almighty to enable the Government to kindly pay attention to this urgent task and to free the masses from their mental slavery to the machinations of the Bhats.

Read the full text in the original Marathi, in Hindi, in English.

Just elementary topology will give you a good enough idea. The empty set is both open and closed and the universal set is both open and closed in a topology for instance.

Sometimes open balls are closed :)

where can I read more about this?

Do you have some idea of what a group is? and do you have any experience navigating math textbooks?

What the hell is group theory...

I've tried watching a couple videos about it and I barely understand what it's about TwT

It's so abstract!

I seek your help mathblr, how would you explain group theories to someone who has never had any direct experience with it and how does it play with other fields of math?

The very basic basics I mean ofc (but if you'd like to provide an in depth post I'm not against it)

I was thinking through what else I’m looking forward to this holiday season and I realized I haven’t mentioned it on here, just on discord, but— MY MOMS BEEN MAKING ME A REALLY COOL ART THING??

I think I’ve talked about it before, but my mom has been a quilter for most of my life and in the last few years started doing these really cool fabric collages, and it was my turn to request one so I asked for a phoenix cause I’m obsessed with this one art piece I did in art therapy ages ago

Anyway, my mom has been working on it and THIS was the last update I got???

I’m so excited for it?? Can’t wait to see where it’s at by the time I get there this weekend

How do I explain to my professor that me forgetting what an algebraic variety does not mean that I do not know what it is.

I was making a pb&j today and forgot that

1. I need bread for sandwich

2. What bread was......

(bluescreened, pretended to continue making the pbj and then realised peanut butter goes on bread usually)

To be fair, I was thinking pb&j and it didn't have the word sandwich in it to give me clues.