Using Polynomial Regression with Scikit-learn in Python
Context
About 40 days ago, on September 23rd to be exact, I was tasked by my linear algebra professor with constructing a model to predict deaths from COVID-19 in our university’s home state of North Carolina — from that point up to the day of the election, November 3rd. The model was a fairly simple 2nd order polynomial regression calculated using the Scikit-learn library in Python. Using daily data obtained from the NC Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 dashboard the model was “trained” on data ranging from March 25th, the date of the first recorded COVID death in the…
You’re a subject of late-stage capitalism
“Nihilism is a natural consequence of a culture (or civilization) ruled and regulated by categories that mask manipulation, mastery and domination of peoples and nature.”
― Cornel West
Nihilism as a philosophy can be defined by its rejection of human value-systems alongside the rejection that meaning is intrinsic to life and the greater universe. To be more precise, the above description of nihilism really only covers the branch of existential nihilism. …
A deeper look at the house of cards our modern economy rests on
If you’ve been paying attention you’ve likely noticed the markets tumbling down for the past few days now as apprehension solidifies regarding the coronavirus’ (Covid-19) potential mutation into a global pandemic. This week the S&P 500 experienced its worst 2-day plunge since 2018. Several Asian economies are currently on the brink of recession as economic activity grinds to a halt in China and elsewhere in the region. Gold prices have now reached a 7-year high in response. President Trump is presently panicking since any prolonged recession occurring between now and November would spell death for his reelection bid, and as…
One of the most powerful speeches in American history
It cannot be overstated the contributions Eugene Victor Debs made to the American socialist cause and to the broader mission of spreading class consciousness nor the lessons he left us to learn. Commensurate with this, unsurprisingly, is the complete absence of Debs’ story from the American curricula. It’s a shame really, Debs’ oratory ability stands out even amongst the most gifted in the American canon. Even if you vulgarly separate his politics from his messaging, you're left with a profound display of linguistic command.
One such example is Debs’ statement to a Federal court 102 years ago today. For background…
Take to the streets if you can! And yes, the irony of this posting is not lost on me.
Preface
My intention in writing this is not to shame anyone, police anybody’s actions, or diminish any valid forms of online resistance — they all have their place of course. On the contrary, I’m arguing against any kind of “woke-policing”, which can only ever fully cease by disconnecting from the Internet. The goal of this writing is to provide an alternative prescription for the heavy information-consumer that may feel paralyzed (as I once was) by wanting to say, think, or do the perfectly “right thing” at a tumultuous time when no such solitary moral form exists. By engaging in offline forms…
How the sugar lobby made America obese
An Addendum to Michael Pollan’s “Nutritionsim Defined” Essay
In “Nutritionism Defined” by Michael Pollan, Pollan produces the argument that “nutritionism” and nutritional science are two separate entities. Nutritionism, according to Pollan is an ideology that emphasizes “quantifying the nutrients contained in foods” (492) — that is to say, exercising scientific reductionism that “encourages us to take a simple mechanistic view” (Pollan 496) of nutrition such that all qualitative aspects are removed in favor of a blandly transactional and often incomplete approach. Pollan further cements this premise by pointing out the many times scientists were wrong about nutrition in the past, citing the different evolutions that nutritional science has…
Whether wittingly or not Dr. King’s legacy is consistently whitewashed. Something I found particularly amusing today was the FBI tweeting a quote of Dr. King and remarking how it is etched in stone at Quantico. Mind you, this is the same FBI that tried to blackmail King via a letter instructing him to commit suicide.
Alongside his central role in the civil rights movement, King was also a powerful force in the Democratic Socialist tradition at a time when ‘red scare’ politics were still fervently alive within the manufactured American psyche. Dr. King was staunchly anti-capitalist as well as…
