Delicious LiveJournal Links for 1-5-2010

[andrewducker]

• First Cousins Once Removed - finally explained in a manner I understand!
  (tags: family cousins)
• BeautifulPeople.com axes holiday weight gain members
  Oh, the hilarity
  (tags: funny beauty dating relationships bodies)
• Israeli pathologists harvested Palestinian organs without consent
  (tags: israel palestine ethics doctors organs)

Comments

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

I find that explanation a lot more complicated than it needs to be!
Back recursion is good for computers, but silly for humans. Start the other way round and use induction: two people are siblings; their children are cousins; their grandchildren are 2nd cousins, etc.
The problem with removal is that it's symmetric, which is silly, because we have a different word for nephew/uncle.

[andrewducker]

It was the explanation for normal people that I understood :->

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Though I'm not convinced that an explanation for "normal people" should include the terms "absolute difference" and "minimum" :)

My explanation would be similar, and for mathematicians definitely use the 0'th cousins terminology, but to try to be clearer, be something like:

* If Joe and Sally are siblings, their children are first cousins
* if Joe and Sally are n'th cousins, their children are n+1'th cousins
* if Joe the First and Sally are n'th cousins, Joe The N+1 and Sally are first cousins N times removed.

I used to find it very confusing before anyone explained it to me, which took a long time, but it didn't seem especially complicated once someone HAD explained it.

[simont]

For me, the biggest problem isn't understanding it; it's remembering, for Nth cousins M times removed, which of M and N represents which parameter.

(It therefore seemed particularly silly to me that the explicitly worked example on that page was one in which M=N.)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see. I don't know, I always remember that "first cousins" is the commonest and synonymous with normal cousins, and from there you can see which is which.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Even that one was bit convoluted...

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Blogosphere consensus seems to be that the second story is a publicity stunt by that website, which seems to have worked a storm. I wonder what there ad venue spike looks like?

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Really? Because I went to take a look and once I got over the hideous interface, I found most of women on there were grim.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Which may well be why they are trying a publicity stunt! By 'worked', I meant 'got them a lot of irate discussion and news coverage' which if nothing else will have prompted people to take a look.

[d-c-m.livejournal.com]

Israeli pathologists harvested Palestinian organs without consent
*raspberry*

A a person who is part Jewish this INFURIATES me.

[andrewducker]

Ditto and, well, ditto.