There have been 10 questions that have puzzled me through the years. They are so profound that I hope you don’t feel as lost as I do. Because I’m a proud Southerner, I’m probably more inquisitive than others. In fact, I’ll bet that these questions have never even occurred to people living in other parts of our country.
For anybody old enough, you may remember that for several years running, most news programs covered what was happening with the white folks in Zimbabwe, Rhodesia. Zimbabwe must be a pretty big city, but is it the capital of Rhodesia?
How is it that congressmen and presidents know so much more about biology, medicine, history, economics, and foreign relations than people who’ve spent their lives studying those things? They seem to know all about what defines boys and girls and how understanding “legitimate rape” helps distinguish real rape from pretend rape. They know what does and doesn’t belong in our history books and classes. Now we know that the Laffer Curve means that we can cut taxes while increasing spending. You make up for sales losses by increasing volume. You bring peace and harmony by agreeing with former opponents like Russia and North Korea and giving them whatever they want. You can break treaties that are holding things in a precarious balance because that will force them to give you a better deal. (We learned that with the Indians.) And why are Republicans so much more knowledgeable that Democrats? Is it inherited?
Why can paranormal events only be seen in green light?
I’ve noticed that TV shows have an audience that has been primed to laugh or applaud on cue. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do when something happened that was supposed be funny or provoke deep reflection. Why am I so abnormal?
Why are so many people ignorant of the fact that without Christ’s political guidance, we’ll rapidly slip into moral decay?
Why don’t we discourage voting by other races or ethnic groups? You know that they’ll outpopulate us white citizens and take over. That’s probably why Africa became predominantly black. They may even pass laws that don’t prohibit pollution of our proud racial heritage. Look at what happened in Zambia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe when their governments didn’t control voting well enough. When will all those liberals and socialists wake up?
Why don’t other channels provide the kind of educational content found on the History, Discovery, and TLC channels? Without these three, we might wind up totally ignorant of Bigfoot, pawn brokers, fat people, little people, beautiful people like Honey Boo Boo, ancient aliens, truck drivers, paranormal happenings, people trying to survive in the wilderness totally alone and stranded while being filmed by a camera crew and their support staff, incestuous religious families, people who are so afraid to be naked that they parade around nude for whole shows, ranches where things are so weird that it takes the most advanced technology to catch nothing happening, and so much more. When will Sesame Street take a clue about what’s educationally important?
When a woman named Karen interrupted some foreigners who were babbling in some language she didn’t understand, she admonished them for being so rude, because she was sure they were saying things about her. She asked them a simple question. Why wouldn’t they speak the language of America’s original inhabitants? Damned good question. Why weren’t they speaking Acoma, Calusa, Salish, Pai, Natchez, or Maidu? Why was Karen using English? Balch’s pledge (which was used well into the 20th century) summed it all up so well. “We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!” But which language is that?
I learn a lot about foreign countries from televangelists, businesses giving away promotional prizes, and presidents. One of my earliest experiences was when a local store owner gave away a free trip to Hawhya. I think this was the same foreign country where our illegal president for two terms was born to unAmerican parents. Then there was Peruvia, where Jimmy Swaggart saved the souls of tens of thousands of Catholics who would have burned in Hell. That was in Lighma, Peruvia. One of the more fascinating countries is Africa, where they are well known for their shit holes. Thank for pointing that out Mr. Trump. With all these exotic countries to visit, why do travel companies look at you like you’ve got a second head if that’s the country you want to visit?
Why can’t white patriots celebrate their proud heritage of enforcing servitude and owning people who weren’t white? I heard from a president that “some of them are good people”. Why do people get upset at the assholes who fly the Southern Heritage flag? (You know – the one with stars and bars that was so popular in northern Virginia.)
A half year ago, I promised to try finishing my post on why there is something rather than nothing by the end of February. I had it outlined and ready to go, but I never went. Now I have to make up something to explain why.
As you probably know, I have a strong affinity for visiting Emergency Rooms. By the time I recovered, we were on the road again. Once we find a place to stay, the TV goes on, and the only time I get to make love with my laptop is in the wee hours of the morning. Once there, we spend the day seeing the sights, and turning on the TV as soon as we get back. Of course, we visit friends and family along the way, and no trip would be complete if I didn’t investigate another Emergency Room at a new hospital. (By the way, if you have a choice, I highly recommend the Sentara hospital in Williamsburg, VA.) Along with everything else, I decided it’s time to learn German.
I also decided to include what was going to be my dissertation (from 55 years ago) in the math book I’m writing. I had already delivered 3 lectures on it along with mimeographed notes when two catastrophes conspired against me. The first was a change in requirements in our department for a PhD, and worse yet was a disastrous marriage. I was earning more than enough money with both a fellowship and a teaching assistantship, but somehow it was always gone by mid month. I had to find a job that paid better than teaching, which ended any thoughts of finishing my degree.
Those notes are long gone, but I still remember everything I was going to do, and I decided to at least outline everything and fill it in when I actually start writing the chapters. If nothing else torpedoed finishing my work from February, this definitely did the job.
My dissertation was to show that mathematics is simply a type of linguistic grammar, which was (and probably still is) an approach no one else had taken. The underlying ideas were developed over a period of 10 years (I’m slow). Starting in 1958, I came up with the idea that axioms (or postulates) were nothing more than definitions expressed as equations. In 1962, I found simple definitions for mathematics and science. Again in 1966, I found a definition for languages, their grammars, and equality. By 1968, I found a definition for equality that worked in any language, and found that the only way it worked for mathematics is if the language was completely unambiguous (something I called a semasia). At this point, I started specifying the underlying grammars for math and logic.
Looking at these ideas in more detail, viewing axioms as definitions had roots as early as the the turn of the 20th century, where axioms were were the same as postulates, which were the assumptions needed to create a system of mathematics or logic. Originally, axioms were rules on how to handle numbers, and postulates were “self-evident” observations about geometry. Even into the 1950s, some mathematicians were still clinging to a distinction between the two. Edward Huntington, who made some major contributions to logic, considered that axioms “should only be applied to statements of fact [including] obviously true statements about certain definite operations on angles or distances”, and postulates are “conditions which a given system may or may not happen to satisfy”.
The concept I used was that there are two types of definitions: extrinsic and intrinsic. An extrinsic definition depends on stating the meaning of a term using previously defined terms. In such a definition, the term being defined appears by itself on the left side of a single equation, and previously defined terms are on the right. An intrinsic definition is an equation showing how new terms are to be used. When several terms are being defined simultaneously, the intrinsic equations are called codefinitions. Codefinitions are necessarily intrinsic. Of course this all depends on the meaning of equality, which I didn’t untangle until 8 years later. Axioms are just the codefinitions needed to develop a system of mathematics or logic.
Repeating, a definition is extrinsic if it stands by itself and is expressed in terms of what has already been defined, and it is intrinsic if it only shows how an idea is to be used.
As examples of what I’m trying to explain, let’s start with ‘P’, ‘Q’, ‘’, ‘’, and ‘~’ from logic. ‘P’ and ‘Q’ represent statements which must be either true or false (propositions). The symbols ‘’, ‘’, and ‘~’ stand for ‘or’, ‘and’, and ‘not’ respectively.
Consider the two statements
PQ = ~(~P~Q) and
~(~P~Q)~(~PQ) = P.
These probably don’t make any sense without understanding what they are saying, but the first statement is an example of an extrinsic definition of ‘P and Q’ using ‘or’ and ‘not’ which are assumed to have been previously defined. Note that ‘and’ occurs only once and on the left side of the equation.
The second statement shows an intrinsic definition of ‘~’, assuming that ‘or’ has already been defined. Here, ‘~’ occurs many times, and is allowed to be on both sides of the equation.
What many logicians don’t realize is that the second statement is actually a definition of ‘not’. The idea of intrinsic definitions is not well known, even among mathematicians. I hope that this didn’t muddy the waters too badly.
Now it’s time to ask exactly what math and science are, and is mathematics a branch of science? When I came up with definitions in 1962, I had no idea that Nobel prize winner, Eugene Wigner, had written his famous paper The Unusual Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences two years earlier. I didn’t discover it until the mid 1970s. This is precisely what my definitions were aimed at. It also counters Gauss’s description of math as the “Queen of Sciences”.
Although I knew I wasn’t somewhere out in left field, I didn’t find any indication that anyone else had thought this through. With the advent of Google in the mid 2000s, I learned that the mathematician G. H. Hardy had beaten me to the general definition of math by about 20 years. As far as I know, no one else has come up with similar definition for science.
It takes a while to understand why the definition of science works. It’s almost intuitive seeing the definitions side by side, why they answer Wigner’s question. Many other mathematicians have hit on related precepts, although no one else has followed through with how to use them. For me, it took understanding what language is to see how everything fits together.
In defining language, I looked at what lay behind the construction of a language – a grammar. From this point of view, it’s not only possible to analyze a language, but you can also use it to build a language. Many other approaches (Naom Chomsky, for instance) specify exactly how a language is used for a communication to be a language. The difference is that my definition is descriptive while many others are prescriptive. One result is that according to Chomsky, Pirahã is not a human language – a danger of the prescriptive approach.
In looking at a grammar, it becomes obvious how useful a concept like equality would be. It can be built directly into any grammar. The problem is that for a general language, equality isn’t quite what is needed for mathematics. To get there requires an unambiguous language to gain the full power of equality. Having that in place allows the construction of math, logic, and the sciences. The next problem is to show how to actually do it.
This was the heart of my dissertation. I needed to show that math, logic, and the sciences were completely independent of each other, and that math, in particular could be built from linguistics without involving logic. Depending on how you start, it can be done several different ways. I chose the traditional route using sets and classes.
Set theories are designed to prevent inherent contradictions like Russell’s paradox (which is a variation on the liar’s paradox). With some restrictions, sets can be generalized into much larger structures called classes without incurring additional paradoxes. Both sets and classes can be visualized as Venn diagrams.
What happens with the linguistic approach is that instead of starting with sets, classes are defined first and sets are treated as special types of classes. In doing this, elements of sets and classes are never intrinsically defined. Elements are indirect structures that depend on how sets are (intrinsically) defined.
This final step showing how math can be developed directly from linguistics is what I was looking at when I was distracted from finishing the post on the origin of matter in February.
Once you have classes, defining sets is pretty straight-forward. In defining classes, I used 5 intrinsic codefinitions, and was on my merry way when I discovered a much prettier way by accident. In 1933, Edward Huntington (remember that name?) published an intrinsic definition for negation in logic. He amended it to its present form in 1934. He didn’t interpret it as a definition, and neither has anyone else. It’s called Huntington’s axiom.
It turns out that it is easily reinterpreted linguistically and is precisely what I needed for class theory. I had looked at it earlier, and not being the brightest kid on the block, I discarded it because I couldn’t crack it open to use everything that it unlocks. Huntington did. In addition, he found an exceedingly clever proof for the two distributive properties from logic that also carry over into class theory.
To gain some insight on how brilliant his work was, consider that another axiom was proposed that same year. It was called Robbin’s axiom, and in spite of work by top mathematicians of the time, no one could prove that logic was derivable from it. It took over 60 years before the problem was solved, and even then, it wasn’t by a human. A specialized theorem-proving computer program finally did it.
Continuing this saga, in 2000, Stephen Wolfram started with a theorem-proving program and started looking for the shortest axiom that could produce a complete logic system. When he found it, it took several hundred steps to prove that it worked. That’s something a bit beyond what a normal human might do in a lifetime. His result is called the Wolfram axiom.
I decided to rewrite my section on class theory using that last system produced entirely by a human – the Huntington axiom. My decision was based on the lengths of the proofs and the sheer ingenuity it took to derive them.
Most of my time has gone to reworking his method, trying to make it as simple as possible. So there you are – my top-ranking excuses.
You probably remember Carter’s Little Liver Pills (not really made from little livers), Hadacol (with a popular 12% preservative and was often sold in shot glasses), Triple S Tonic (SSS, yes, yes, yes), 666 Cold Preparation (As Seen on I-10 in eastern Florida, and it tastes like hell), Dragon’s Blood Tonic (antidiabetic, anticancer, antiaging preparation that may work by purifying your blood), green isopropyl alcohol (you know it’s safe because it’s green) and 7 River Indian Medicine (spray it in the form of 3 crosses, and it will cure your maladies and protect you against hexes).
I know that this is a little hard to believe, but there was a natural product that was better than all of these combined. It was Seasilver Supplement, and it cured 650 diseases and probably worked for ingrown toenails too. I am here to testify to the miraculous benefits of this product and to spread the word. This is even better than the plutonium washer that you add to each load of laundry to make your clothes come out cleaner and fresher than any detergent (it was guaranteed to work for at least 20 years and it is powered by the same ingredient that gives bombs all their energy).
Add me to Seasilver’s list of testimonials for the efficacy of their product. It’s at least as effective as the best homeopathic remedies. I’m only surprised that King Charles hasn’t given his testimony.
Unaccountably, FTC sued them for 120 million dollars for false advertizing. It cured AIDS, cancer, bad vision, and bad breath. Even though FTC never proved that it didn’t cure these conditions, they won their suit and Seasilver went out of business. Fortunately, the good folks from Seasilver were able to bring back a product nearly as beneficial called Liquid Sea Minerals with Silver, whose name is so different from Seasiver that many people (including the FTC) probably wouldn’t make the connection. It’s cheap at twice the price, but it costs less than $50 a bottle.
Before the name change, Seasilver avoided poisons like lead and arsenic and contained elements that are missing in many supplements. It included your MDR of essential ingredients like uranium, plutonium, radium, and polonium, as well as blood purifiers like cadmium, cobalt, berylium, thallium, selenium, mercury, chromium, and osmium (the non-poisonous varieties of course). Unfortunately, some of these ingredients are no longer available, but they made up for it by adding spirulina.
I’ve copied some information from its labeling for your edification.
Important information
Safety Information
Shake well. Refrigerate after opening for freshness.
Ingredients
Minerals: Bromide, Silicon, Calcium, Nitrogen, Selenium, Phosphorus, Iodine, Chromium, Manganese, Titanium, Rubidium, Cobalt, Copper, Antimony, Molybdenum, Strontium, Zinc, Nickel, Tungsten, Scandium, Tin, Lanthanum, Yttrium, Silver, Gallium, Zirconium, Vanadium, Beryllium, Carbonate, Tellurium, Bismuth, Hafnium, Terbium, Europium, Gadolinium, Samarium, Cerium, Cesium, Gold, Dysprosium, Holmium, Lutetium, Erbium, Ytterbium, Neodymium, Praseodymium, Niobium, Tantalum, Thorium, Thallium, Rhenium, Plus the Other Elements Found In Sea Water. Plus: Macro Minerals, Enzymes, Co-enzymes, and Amino Acids All Naturally Occurring In Trace Amounts. Additional Ingredients: Purified Water, Cranberry Concentrate, Blueberry Concentrate, Concentrace Trace Minerals, Sea Water, Herb and Sea Vegetable Blend (Bladderwrack, Spirulina, Irish Moss, Kelp, Pau D’arco), Sea Cucumber, Natural Flavor Blend, Citric Acid, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate For Freshness.
Directions
Take one ounce per day with food.
Legal Disclaimer
These statements have not yet been evaluated by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition.
In mid 2022, Biden signed a new gun law that introduced a red flag for domestic violence and requiring a background check for 18-21 year olds wanting to buy a gun. It was touted almost universally in the press as a gun safety law. It is an outright gun control law (nothing wrong with that, and in this case, I think it is needed). For members of the press who don’t have a clue what the difference is, I wrote an article just for you: Gun Ownership.
Something I find particularly strange is the Republicans in the House, to a person, rejected this legislation, in part, because it violates the privacy of 18-21 year olds. And just yesterday, they created a new subcommittee with the power to investigate any agency or person they choose to.
Why am I making such a fuss over this? It’s because we need gun safety laws, which have never been discussed in the press or in congress. Gun safety laws are entirely different from gun control laws because they make gun owner responsible for any crime committed with a gun that they own. No more “accidental” shootings or making their gun accessible for someone else to use without strict supervision.
Why am I back on my soapbox? It’s because a woman left a loaded gun (it looked like a Taurus 9mm semiautomatic in the picture) lying around cocked with the safety off. Her 6 year old son took it to school so he could intentionally shoot his teacher. He did; (6 Year Old Shoots Teacher). It was determined that his mother bore no responsibility (was irresponsible?) because she had purchased the gun legally. The kid is underage so it’s okay, and the mother won’t be charged with attempted homicide because the gun was legally purchased. Does that mean that if I shoot someone, that nothing will be done because I purchased the gun legally?
This crap happens on a disgustingly regular basis. It will continue if gun owners are not held accountable for what happens with their guns.
Then there are all those law suits against gun manufacturers for not making sure that their guns can’t be misused. This isn’t because the plaintiffs and their lawyers are greedy. It’s because if they win tens of millions dollars, that will stop misuse of guns. Gun owners will suddenly become responsible.
Something I don’t yet understand is with all the jerks who plow into crowds with their vehicles, no one has filed suits against the vehicle manufacturers. That would certainly stop anyone from trying to run over another person.
We have safety laws for cars. Why is it so hard to even consider that possibility for guns?
Addendum:
Something I didn’t mention earlier was that the shooting occurred on Jan. 6 (probably because it’s irrelevant). The mother (Deja Taylor) is being charged, but not for any gun crime. As it turns out she stored the gun responsibly, although she can’t seem to remember whether it was in her purse, on her dresser, or on a high closet shelf, but she always stores it with a trigger lock. No one seems to know where the trigger lock or its key can be found.
The details are at Deja Taylor. In case you missed the redacted quote from her precious six-year old son, it was “I shot that bitch dead”. The reason for the shooting given from a knowledgeable source is that the boy suffers from “acute disability” and has “severe emotional issues”.
Since it seems there is nothing wrong with letting your 6-year old use your gun, the state has filed charges of “felony child neglect and a misdemeanor count of recklessly leaving a loaded firearm so as to endanger a child” against Mrs. Taylor. She is expected to plead guilty to the charges. There were mitigating circumstances, however. She had miscarriages and suffered domestic abuse and postpartum depression, so it was okay for her son to have the gun. In reality, domestic abuse may have contributed to her son’s attitude, but is that an excuse to leave your gun lying around loaded, cocked, and ready to shoot?
The concept of not being able to file appropriate charges also occurred in the case of Mary Ellen Wilson in 1873. New York had no laws concerning child abuse since children were treated as property of their parents. The standard story is that since there were no laws specific to children, her parents were charged, and the case reached the New York Supreme Court in 1874 under statutes for prevention of cruelty to animals.
The moral of the story is if it’s not covered by law, find a different law. The next step for any reasonable government is to pass laws to address the situation. New York did this shortly after the case reached the supreme court. Virginia is still thinking it over, unless they’ve already forgotten it.
Action on Gun Violence in Tennessee
As you probably know, I live in the Memphis area of Tennessee. We can claim the record for the worst drivers in the state, and we proudly hold the title for the entire United States for the most shootings and violent crime per capita. Our governor, Bill Lee, and his Republican legislators have taken bold measures to improve gun violence for our state.
Let’s look at the benighted days before his improvements. A permit to carry a concealed weapon required professional training on the laws concerning how, when, and where you could carry and use your gun. It also required training on gun safety and minimal proficiency at hitting your target. You weren’t allowed any collateral damage (shooting 5 or 6 people before hitting your target). I know, that last part sounds entirely unreasonable.
Back then, states had reciprocal agreements on requirements to carry concealed weapons. Often this depended on whether they considered the other state to have had sufficient training requirements. Tennessee had among the top-rated requirements when judged by the number of other states accepting the Tennessee permit.
Going back to the 1950s, in the Big Bear Leather Slap quick draw competition, the winner was the first person to shoot 12 balloons from 7 yards away. Since speed was at a premium, most contestants drew and shot from the hip. They simply weren’t as skillful as movie cowboys who could shoot the gun out of their opponents’ hands at 20 yards. In 1959, Jack Weaver made history when he won the competition. Some folks thought that he cheated because he had aimed his gun at the targets.
Some gun owners still haven’t figured out that guns are different from cameras. You seldom get the results you want when you just point and shoot. This is often lost on owners who have no training.
It’s time to move on to Tennessee’s improvements in gun violence. Fortunately, our legislature looked for professional advice from America’s foremost gun experts, which was provided at no expense to the state by the NRA. The solution was simple. “The only thing stopping a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun”. Using this, they developed a method for ensuring that only good guys can legally get and use guns.
They realized that there was a preponderance of good guys who were being excluded from carrying guns solely because they didn’t know the laws concerning guns or how to handle them. Although you can still get a carry license, now there’s no need to bother with the hassle. Anybody 21 or older could carry and use a gun without a permit.
The legislature realized their glaring error in not opening the floodgates to everybody, and now they’ve dropped the age to 18 and older. We can feel much safer now knowing that upstanding citizens like Kyle Rittenhouse can protect us. And we can stand assured that only good guys will be carrying without a permit.
On March 28, 2023, six people were killed in a school shooting in Nashville. The blame for this can be laid at the feet of our legislature for not allowing the kids to carry guns to protect each other. The shooter was also entirely within his rights, since he had purchased all 3 guns legally. He was able to do that because the very first act of the Trump administration was to remove all restrictions for gun buyers, regardless mental issues.
Governor Lee reconvened a special session of the legislature under the misconception that Tennessee needed to address issues such as mental health, gun storage, stalking, juvenile crimes, and school safety policies. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and one of the first bills out of the gates was to provide incentives for safe gun storage, but to prohibit any penalties for noncompliance. That’s the direction one should expect from Tennessee’s lawmakers. I’m still reserving judgment for the outcome of this session, but I’m not holding my breath.
For every odd integer not divisible by 5, there is a corresponding magic integer, but what is a magic integer? Suppose you want to find out whether a number is divisible by an odd prime number (or any odd number not divisible by 5). There is a neat trick to do it without actually doing the division. It provides a simple way to factor a number into its prime components without resorting to a calculator. The easiest way to explain magic integers is with a couple examples.
If you want to find out if a number is divisible by 17, its magic integer is -5, written (17,-5). To determine whether 2686 is divisible by 17, break it into two numbers – the last digit and all remaining digits, that is 6 and 268. Multiply the last digit by 5, giving a new number, and because the 5 was negative, compare the new number (30) to 268, and subtract the smaller number from the larger one, giving 238. If 238 is divisible by 17, then so was the original number, 2686. If 238 is still too large to try division, repeat the process starting with 238. Split that into 8 and 23, and multiply 8 by 5, leaving with 40 and 23. Now subtract 23 from 40, and we have 17. Is that divisible by 17? If so, then 2686 was divisible by 17.
Next, let’s try divisibility by 13. The magic integer here is 4, written (13,+4). Now, is 40651 divisible by 13? Start with 1 and 4065; 1×4=4, and because the magic integer is positive this time, add; so 4+4065=4069. This time we have 9 and 406, so 9×4+406=442. Next, we have 2×4+44=52. 52 is divisible by 13, but in case you don’t believe it, 2×4+5=13.
The number 7 has two magic numbers, 5 and -2, or (7,+5) and (7,-2). Let’s check this out by seeing if 3969 is divisible by 7. Using (7,+5), we have 9×5+396=441. With 441, 1×5+44=49, which is divisible by 7. Notice that with 49, 9×5+4= 49, and we have gained nothing by continuing the process.
Now, try (7,-2) with 3969. First, 396-9×2=378. Then 37-8×2=21, which is divisible by 7, but continuing the process, 2–1×2=0,which is definitely divisible by 7.
By now you’ve probably noticed that starting with the magic integer 5, both 5+7n and 5-7n for any integer n are all magic integers for the number 7, but the magic integers with larger absolute values aren’t terribly useful.
When the magic numbers is 1 or -1, something special happens. Let’s look at (3,+1) and (11,-1). Start by seeing if 143475 is divisible by 3; 5×1+14347=14352, 2×1+1435=1437, 7×1+143=150, 0x1+15=15, and 5×1+1=6, which is divisible by 3. This entire process is equivalent to 5+7+4+3+4+1=24, or 1+4+3+4+7+5=24 and 2+4=6, which is the same result as before. In other words, all we need to do when then magic integer is 1 is to add all the digits off the original number to see if the sum is divisible by 3.
If the magic integer is -1, something similar happens. Check the divisibility of 7535 by 11. This time, 753-5=748, 74-8=66, and 6-6=0, which is divisible by 11. This time, alternately add and subtract the digits of the original number; -5+3-5+7=0, or 7-5+3-5=0, which is the same as before, and divisible by 11. Note that for numbers of the form 100…001, if there are an even number of zeros, numbers of that form are divisible by 11.
This is how magic integers work, including the two special cases for the magic integers 1 and -1. But how can one handle powers of odd primes (other than 5)? Being odd numbers, they also have magic integers. What is the magic number for 33=27? It’s (27,-8), so check this against 4671; 467-1×8=459 and 9×8-45=72-45=27, which is divisible by 27.
Now try 72=49 with (49,+5) for the magic integer. Using 31703, check for divisibility by 72. Starting with 3170+3×5=3185, then 318+5×5=343, and 34+3×5=49, which is divisible by 49.
What happens when this process produces a final number that isn’t divisible by the starting odd number? The original won’t be divisible either.
This leaves the problem of what the magic numbers are for the various powers of prime numbers. Here is a list of some magic integers:
(3,+1)
(7,-2) and (7,+5)
32=9 and (9,+1)
(11,-1) and (11,+10)
(13,+4) and (13,-9)
(17,-5)
(19,+2)
(23,+7)
33=27 and (27,-8)
(29,+3)
(31.-3)
(37,-11)
(41,-4)
(43,+13)
(47,-14)
72=49 and (49,+5)
(53,+16)
(59,+6)
(61,-6)
(67,-20)
(71,-7)
(73,+22)
(79,+8)
34=81 and (81,-8)
(83,+25)
(89,+9)
(97,-29)
(101,-10)
(103,+31)
(107,-32)
(109,+11)
(113,+34)
(119,+12)
112=121 and (121,-12)
132=169 and (169,+17)
35=243 and (243,+73).
So how do you calculate the magic integers? It’s actually pretty easy – I didn’t need a calculator to figure out any of these. The catch is that you’ll have to wait until I start publishing a free online book on mathematics.
It will be titled Atheist Mathematics. Of course there is no such branch of mathematics, as explained in the first chapter. Atheist mathematics is just as real as Christian, Jewish, or Aryan mathematics, which are also non-existent. Although Trump is a very stable genius, Adolf Schicklgruber was a genius beyond compare, and unlike mere mortals like me, he was able to ferret out Jewish mathematics. So maybe I don’t know that much about mathematics after all.
My original title was going to be Exploring Mathematics, but after Googling “atheist mathematics” a few years ago and only finding Christian apologists explaining how mathematics can’t exist without first being formulated in God’s mind, I changed the title.
It turns out that because all of mathematics can only exist in the mind of of God, the best mathematicians can hope to do is to discover what is already known by God to be true. Therefore, God. How can I argue against such perfect logic? Nevertheless, I will struggle in my ignorance to write this book.
The third chapter will answer questions about magic integers and will include the magic extended to arbitrary n-ary number systems like binary, tertiary, pental, octal, duodecimal, and hexadecimal numbering. The fourth chapter will talk about what I was doing in eighth grade, and that’s followed by chapters answering recurring questions on Quora about whether there is anything remaining to know about mathematics once you’ve finished calculus. Funny you should ask.
I picked a problem that even many mathematicians can’t answer. Does Cantor-Bernstein hold for classes? This is also known as the Schroeder-Bernstein theorem for classes. It will take several chapters to build to the point it can be proven, but the chapters start at high school level.
I am also writing chapters on how to choose the axioms you need to build the geometry of your choice (like elliptical, hyperbolic, Euclidean, projective, affine, or Fano geometries, for instance).
I have grandiose plans, and I can guarantee that it contains material you won’t find in any other book. Some of the topics are semasics (treating mathematics as a linguistic grammar), which serves also as a basis for logic, making logic superfluous for mathematics. There is a chapter on a definition for language, mathematics, and science, which shows that mathematics is not a science, but also why math is so useful in the sciences. It will reformulate set theory in a way for which the definition of an element of a set is not primitive. As you’ve probably noticed by now, the book has a highly philosophical undertone, and stoops to ask silly questions like “Is the set of all unicorns empty?”.
It will also take occasional dips into physics with topics like teleportation and why. if it exists, it will take an unusual form. If senility doesn’t beat me to the chapter, I would like to investigate an asymmetry (other than torsion) in a manifold’s curvature. The immediate question that pops up is whether this allows a gravitational field to be extended to a quantum field. That would have consequences like explaining quantum entanglement while allowing instantaneous communication. I’m sure that others have had nearly the same ideas.
I would also like to get into the numerology of music with just tempered and equitempered scales. A 5-limit just tempering has been known for almost 2000 years and twelve-tone scales are more than sufficient to approximate it. However, many musicians don’t understand the significance of 7-limit tuning or the difficulty of incorporating it into an equitempered scale. There are at least two approaches.
I hope that someone will take these ideas and run with them. Writing the book isn’t really worthwhile if no one reads it.
It’s time for me to climb onto my soapbox again. With all that I’ve written about guns and laws concerning guns, I realized that I’ve never posted anything about it on my own blog. I even wrote a three-part series on the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings and never posted it because of technical problems with my WordPress software at the time. Correcting my oversight is long overdue.
There is actually a serious message here, so if you want to get right to it, skip past the Cringe-Worthy Misinformation and go directly to Gun Safety and Gun Control. I’ve found that nobody intentionally reads a sermon, so I’m following in PT Barnum’s footsteps and offering popcorn and entertainment before I ambush you with my sermon.
My insight came with writing letters to two candidates for Governor, a few Presidential candidates, and God-knows-how-many Senators and Representatives. I learned the errors of my ways with the We-appreciate-your-concerns-Mr.-Digby letters telling me they would look into matters and never mentioning what my concerns or those matters were. I no longer write letters. Those results are what you have to thank for my inclusion of the next two sections of this post.
Bring on the Entertainment:
I expect complete ignorance from certain opinion sources that label. themselves as news. Fox News, OAN, and Info Wars, it’s time to take your bows. It’s discouraging how many people (including Ted Cruz) don’t know the difference between an automatic and semi-automatic weapon. Of course we can always count on Ted Cruz to make us laugh irresistibly with an Educational Video showing us how he cooks bacon with what he mistakes for a machine gun. (His bacon would have been only slightly warmed over and very raw.) No, Ted. This is how you Cook Using a Machine Gun. One well-roasted sound suppressor coming up.
What reminded me to write this post was a fictional story about a former FBI agent who drew his gun with his finger on the trigger to stop an unarmed trespasser. After he realized he was in no danger, he stuffed his gun into his waistband. In case you missed it, putting your finger on the trigger is the last thing you do before shooting, normally after you’ve already aimed. What’s discouraging is that actors seem to practice this (Law and Order: SVU, for instance) more consistently than some cops and deputies. Then stuffing the gun into your waistband? It’s a good way to lose a penis (Man Shoots Himself in Penis, Another Penis Gone, and Again). In case you think this is unusual, it happened at least 11 times in 1977 alone.
Let’s go back and look at that finger on the trigger. Since Alexander Hamilton is back in vogue, that gives us a good story. The Smithsonian gives a detailed account including the background of the Hamilton-Burr duel, and it’s a story of treachery and deceit. Although Hamilton had his own set of dueling pistols, he borrowed the ones belonging to his brother-in-law, John Church, who had bought them while he was in London in 1797. The specially made Wogdon and Barton dueling pistols with front and rear sights for aiming. (Most pistols from that era only had a brass bead on the front of the barrel and no trigger guard, and they were aimed by placing your finger along the barrel and lowering the pistol until you’re pointing at your intended target, then putting your finger on the trigger.)
Wogdon was noted both for high-quality pistols and making his customers happy for a price. Church had requested a trick trigger assembly which could convert the normal 10-12 pound trigger pull to a half-pound hair trigger if you knew how to change the secret setting. (Normal pull on a modern single-action pistol is around 4 pounds.) This gave an unfair advantage to anyone knowing the secret. In the duel, Hamilton lowered his gun with his finger on the trigger, and he shot prematurely, narrowly missing Burr’s head. Hamilton quickly explained that he had done it intentionally and that he never meant to kill Burr. Burr didn’t buy it, and the rest is history. Let that be a lesson about having your finger on the trigger. (As an interesting side note, Alexander’s son was killed in a duel using those same pistols.)
This will be my parting shot at citizens who know the importance of protecting our gun rights at any cost. This is one of Colonel Erran (“not a Mossad agent”) Morad’s discussions with a true American patriot. We must protect our schools.
Cringe-Worthy Misinformation:
It’s time to look at journalists and politicians that we normally would consider to be well informed. Let me mention a few things that make me cringe. Many journalists don’t know the difference between a clip and a magazine.
A clip is used to load a magazine and does not load ammunition into the chamber. The next time someone suggests limiting the number of cartridges in a clip, ask what that limit should be, since I’ve never seen a clip with more than ten.
When the FN Five-seveN first came out, there was a major push to ban its sale in the US because it was armor piercing. To mimic NRA, guns don’t pierce armor; bullets do. And civilians don’t have access to armor-piercing bullets for the Five-seveN or most other guns (except on the black market).
Next, we have the infamous Glock 7 from Die Hard 2. “Luggage? That punk pulled a Glock 7 on me. You know what that is? It’s a porcelain gun made in Germany. It doesn’t show up on your airport X-ray machines here and it costs more than what you make in a month!” This is the movie where I learned that Glock moved out of Austria, that porcelain is invisible to x-rays, and that people want to pay a month’s salary on a gun that will shatter and blow up in your face the first time you shoot it. It’s also where I learned that screenwriters know more about guns than I do. (By the way, there are dozens of inquiries on the Internet asking where they can buy a Glock 7.) That scene was so bad that it was parodied in Balls of Fury by transparent plastic guns.
With Dirty Harry came the love affair with supermacho guns. Harry chose a .44 magnum because it was the most powerful gun available. Now we have the Smith and Wesson 500.
But really, that’s kind of wussy when you can own a .600 magnum Nitro Express revolver.
OK, I’ve been holding out on you. How would you like to take out a city block with a .50 BMG revolver?
Although this photo shows up everywhere on the Internet, I strongly suspect it’s photoshopped since I can’t find anything more than a picture. Hey guys, I’m afraid that 2-inch barrel is a dead giveaway. At this point, the only things larger are hunting rifles – the .700 magnum Nitro Express and the 60 pound .950 JDJ. They’re perfect for the next time Jimmy John needs to bag a blue whale, snark, or a unicorn. Now you can have wet dreams about fondling something bigger than what Dirty Harry’s got.
If you can’t have the biggest and best, maybe you can try for the fastest. If I had my choice of any machine gun, gatling gun, or automatic shotgun, what would I pick? That’s easy. I’d want a Metal Storm, which can burp out over a million rounds per minute. The bullets travel at about mach 5, and the rounds have no case or primer, which would only slow things down. It’s fired electronically using an exploding wire called a bridge – the same technology used to detonate nuclear bombs. And why would I want this? It’s the most expensive and useless way I can imagine to spend my money.
This is going to be a real letdown after all that excitement. Joe Biden expressed his opinion on why you don’t need an AR-15 to defend against home invasion. He suggested using a shotgun, and for someone who isn’t on a shooting range every week, he’s absolutely right. His only problem was that he didn’t know when to shut up. Joe Biden Advises on How to Protect Your Home.
He suggests a double barrel shotgun, and I would suggest a short barrel pump-action or semi-automatic shotgun. Only buy a pump-action if you intend to learn how to use it. Damn. Now I’m going to have to add a balcony to my bungalow. Make sure you’re outside when you’re shooting at Random. Who knows? You may even hit Random. That’s why it’s illegal in many states (including Biden’s own state) to discharge a firearm in a populated area. Make sure that you use a double barrel shotgun while scaring home invaders away, so that after the second shot, they know when it’s safe to break on into your house. In reality, Biden is better informed than several of his predecessors, which may be a little frightening.
If they do manage to break into your home, that’s what a shotgun is for. Did you think about what kind of ammunition to use? Bird shot will hurt and certainly slow them down, but buckshot will slow them down even more, and possibly permanently.
In Texas, it appears to be illegal for someone to block the direction you’d like to shoot. Dick Cheney shot his good friend Harry Whittington in the face (and chest) for blocking his direction, making him the first sitting vice president since Aaron Burr to shoot someone. Whittington later apologized to Cheney for getting in his way. (Don’t learn your history from me. This last whole paragraph, while true, is pure sarcasm. But do think twice about being Cheney’s friend.)
Now it’s time to talk about “smart” guns. In many cases, it’s an excellent way to prevent using a gun until after it’s needed. The one everyone has heard about has a fingerprint trigger. Another better variation would be to have a fingerprint identification pad just below the barrel, encouraging the shooter to keep fingers off the trigger until it’s time to fire. Anyone who has a biometric safe or fingerprint sign-on identifier on a smartphone or laptop knows the problem is to get the damn thing to recognize you. Until then your gun makes a good paperweight.
Another method is to key in a PIN code from buttons on the gun. A gun could be activated with a radio-frequency identifier with a transmitter worn by the gun operator. A gun could also be locked and unlocked from a cell phone.
New Jersey passed a well thought out law: “The amended bill specifies that three years after it is determined that personalized handguns are available for retail purposes, it will be illegal for any registered or licensed firearms manufacturer or dealer to transport, sell, expose for sale, possess for sale, assign or transfer any handgun unless that handgun is a personalized handgun.” The gun that became available was the overpriced .22 caliber iP1, which would have mandated all guns for sale to be .22 caliber until a higher caliber smart gun became available, which I’m sure went over well with law enforcement agencies. After all this great work, they repealed the law in 2019.
Gun Safety and Gun Control:
I have a feeling that this is where I’ll lose a few preteen fanboys. Gun safety is intended to prevent shootings because of ignorance. Gun control is intended to keep guns out of the hands of people likely to misuse firearms. We need both. It’s that simple, and yet, of all the 2016 presidential candidates, only Corey Booker knew the difference. Most people (especially legislators and journalists) are blissfully unaware of the distinction. (Yes I’m talking to you, Chris Hayes and a couple dozen others.) We have laws requiring licensing for drivers and pilots, but all you need for firearms in many states is to know which part is the trigger.
Gun control should be aimed at people convicted of violent crimes, violent threats, or previous misuse of firearms (like armed robberies). Red flag laws can handle cases that fall through the cracks (until SCOTUS knocks them down). Regulation of certain firearms, accessories, and ammunition is also allowed. Gun control is well-trod territory, so I’ll leave it at this.
Gun safety laws are completely uncharted avenues to limit stupidity. There are three times that gun safety is necessary: when you’re using a gun, when you’re carrying a gun, and when you don’t have your gun in your immediate control. Most gun safety literature only considers when you use your gun.
There are four basic rules for using your gun:
Treat all guns as though they’re loaded.
Never point your gun at anything you don’t intend to shoot.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.
Be sure of your target and what’s beyond or nearly in line with it.
Until you know and practice these rules don’t even consider touching a gun.
When you’re just carrying a sidearm, always use a holster, even if it’s in your pocket, purse, backpack, or waistband. The reason is that it protects access to the trigger by whatever might come in contact with the gun. For long guns like rifles or shotguns, a sling can be useful if that’s appropriate. Otherwise, carry the gun with the muzzle pointed in a safe direction.
Lastly, if you don’t have direct control of your gun, it should be locked in such a way that it can’t be fired. This can be done with a substantial trigger lock, a chamber/magazine cable lock, a gun lock jacket, a locked gun container that’s hard to penetrate, or a safe or vault. Avoid flimsy plastic trigger locks that can be deformed, moved, or cut.
The final idea is to make the gun owner responsible for how a gun is handled, including when the owner allows another person to use the gun. Okay NRA, guns don’t kill people; it’s the idiots who don’t know how to use them.
That’s it! Is it too hard to master these concepts? Of course there is much more to using a gun properly, but this will at least prevent shooting “accidents” that are in no way accidental. The sermon ends here. Was that too painful?
What do the various ways of locking your gun look like? (This is only a display of examples and not an endorsement of any product shown.) These lockups vary from under $15 into thousands of dollars.
This trigger lock only prevents access to the trigger.
The cable lock prevents a cartridge from entering the chamber to be fired.
A lock jacket prevents access to the trigger, chamber, and racking a gun.
A lock box prevents access to the entire gun.
And this is how you make sure that nobody borrows your guns.
Hiding a gun in a linen closet, on a high shelf, in a drawer, or under your pillow is only an invitation for your kids or any night-time visitor to find it. Depend on the younger members of your family to know that you have guns and exactly where you keep them. Believe it or not, when you leave a loaded gun lying around the house in open view, someone is likely to find it. In the US, kids bring their parents guns to school on a nearly daily basis, and where I live, it’s so common that it seldom makes television news anymore.
Finding statistics for gun deaths is fairly easy unless you need specific information (Gun Deaths by Country, Homicides by Type of Weapon, and “Accidental” Gun Deaths). Some statistics are relatively constant from year to year. In the US, there are about twice as many suicides by gun as there are homicides. Brazil still beats us in total murders by gun, but Mexico and India are still trying to catch us. In the more important murders per capita, the US has about 11 murders per 100,000 population, behind 24 other much poorer countries. I’ll let you browse for yourself.
Gun casualty (shot but not necessarily killed) information is much harder to find, and no one even bothers with gun incident statistics. There was an extraordinary Internet site that tracked every gun death in the US for a year starting on the day of the Sandy Hook murders (Dec. 12, 2012). As with many of the articles on gun violence from years ago, it is no longer available, but it showed an alarming news bias. On that day, there were more non-mass murders by gun than the 26 who died at Sandy Hook Elementary. That in no way detracts from the enormity of Sandy Hook, but it does show how we ignore anything that isn’t spectacular.
Another story from about the same time was of a man who had tried to sell his .38 Special to a gun dealer, and he had demonstrated it at the dealer’s indoor gun range. No sale, but when he returned to his car with his 12-year old son, he thought he’d try a funny prank. He pointed the gun at his son’s head and pulled the trigger. The gun accidentally went off, killing the son. He “didn’t know the gun was loaded”, and he must have cried as convincingly as Kyle Rittenhouse, because he was never charged. (If you have access to this article or remember something that I got wrong, please let me know.)
I’m surprised that the story about the guy who shot his dick off while stuffing his girlfriend’s dainty pink .32 ACP pistol into his waistband is still around. Many other stories aren’t, but there are plenty of new ones. Look under something like ‘accidental shootings’. (Also, watch Forensic Files, Dateline, or 20/20 if you have more time that you know what to do with.)
All this brings us to the two points I’m trying to make. First, if you own a gun and you haven’t done this, take a firearms training course – even if you’ve used guns for your entire life. Laws in various states change constantly (Concealed Carry Laws by State, for instance). Knowing the circumstances under which you can use a gun might be handy. Many gun owners ignore practical issues until it’s too late; things like stance, aiming, tactical strategies, handling misfires, gun safety, cleaning a gun, knowing what gun best fits your needs, ammunition, accessories, and all the things you think you already know. So you’ve figured out where the trigger is; you don’t have too much further to go!
If you think you’re through learning, think no more. My .50 BMG Rifle Exploded. He was using very rare ammunition from WW2. You may already be familiar with the difference between detonation and deflagration. Well I’m going to tell you anyway. Deflagration is when a substance burns at a subsonic rate, and detonation is when it becomes supersonic, and the shock wave can be really destructive. Knocking in your car’s engine is an example of detonation.
Ammunition controls the burn rate by controlling the composition and size of the particles in the ammunition’s propellant. In field artillery, to slow the burn rate, the propellant may even be molded into pellets or rods. The purpose is to minimize the peak pressure in the chamber and barrel. Old cartridges have two problems: excessive handling can break the particles in the propellant and age and storage conditions can decompose the propellant chemicals into more reactive components. The extreme overpressure is what the guy was talking about when he mentioned the “hot” ammunition.
You may remember when Reagan recommissioned a WW2 battleship and one of its 16 inch guns exploded (16 Inch Gun Explosion on the USS Iowa). Irreproducible spontaneous combustions and explosions aren’t that uncommon. Causes range from “it just happened” to suspected contaminants or surrounding conditions, and every case is different, particularly the substance that exploded. What makes some cases baffling is that in normal conditions, the material is relatively safe. Spectacular classic examples are the 1947 Texas City disaster and the 1917 Halifax explosion. Although in both cases, the general conditions leading to the event are known, we can only guess at the exact initiating causes. The same is true of the USS Iowa. The Navy determined that spontaneous explosion was impossible (using magic? dowsing rods? psychic readings? channeling Edgar Cayce?) so irreproducible results could be eliminated, and they couldn’t reproduce the results. So?
The Navy proudly announced that letting a [gasp] homosexual load the gun was what caused the explosion. It had nothing to do with having to use WW2 era ammunition recovered from old bunkers or the hydraulic presses used to load the gun. After all, the results couldn’t be reproduced.
You can buy more powerful ammunition than normal (+P and +P+) at many stores. Before you do, know your gun’s limits. A parting reminder:
Know your ammunition and clean your gun regularly.
Enough said.
The second and more general topic is enforcing gun safety – the elephant in the room that nobody notices. Many states have become ever-so-much more enlightened in the last ten years. A large number (my own included) have realized how useless it is to actually know how to use the gun you own and dropped all training requirements. (When will they do that for my driver’s license?) Now they’ve made it so much easier to protect yourself, regardless of how irresponsible or how old you are (which as noted before is really gun control, not safety).
I think I need to open with a heart-warming fond Christmas memory.
Well, at least their fingers are off the trigger… No more Red Ryder BB guns to worry about.
We legislate responsibility for everything else. What happened to guns? I have a simple proposal. Charge the gun owner with any crime committed with the gun. (I know. Guns don’t commit crimes; people do. Exactly my point.) It may make an owner somewhere think twice before letting the brother-in-law borrow the gun to rob a bank or giving a rifle to a seven-year old to plink at hikers.
Full disclosure… A couple of kids in the woods had a .22 rifle (they’re safe in the hands of any kid) and I was hiking nearby. We couldn’t see each other, but they must have heard me walking, because I heard three shots as well as the bullets hitting the bushes near me. I yelled at them, and they stopped shooting and stopped talking. Unfortunately, they missed me, so here I am to gripe about gun safety.
With only two exceptions that I know of, there is no such thing as a gun “accident”. I have noticed a preponderance of gun carelessness, however. When a gun has an “accident” and shoots somebody, the gun and its owner need to be charged with the same crime as would apply to someone intentionally shooting that person. (Just kidding about placing the gun on trial, but maybe it needs to be arrested as an accomplice at the same time as its owner.) The rules of gun safety virtually preclude a gun carelessly shooting at someone.
This is one of the few places gun control and gun safety converge. If a person can’t demonstrate the basic knowledge and practice of gun safety, that person doesn’t need a gun. The principles are much simpler than driving a car, so what’s the problem?
Now, about those two exceptions I mentioned earlier… A Massachusetts officer was loading his first-generation Glock in the morning getting ready for work, and when he racked it the gun, it discharged, and nothing was touching the trigger. Following policy, he reported it when he arrived at the station. In the nightmare that followed, he was suspended for not being accountable for firing his pistol and was forced to undergo psychiatric examination. The entire time, he protested and tried to get any other officer to rack his confiscated gun to prove his contention. As a final step before firing him they had the armorer check the gun. On the way to the police range, the armorer racked the gun without paying attention to where the gun was pointed. The gun fired and fortunately, the bullet hit a brick wall. When he checked the trigger assembly, he could find nothing wrong. Glock uses three internal safeties (fail-safes) to prevent this sort of event. He sent the gun to the Glock factory for them to check, and they couldn’t find any problem either, but when they returned the gun, it was miraculously working again.
Best guess? Maybe there was a worn sear that Glock had forgotten that they replaced before returning the pistol. In any event, I couldn’t find the original article, so pile on your corrections in the comments.
The second accident, while preventable, is not part of the gun safety checklist. Also, part of the original article is still on the Internet (Police Chief Shoots Himself in Leg), but the video is missing. An Indiana police chief was in a gun store comparing a store gun to his service pistol. While he was returning his gun to its holster, a cord on his jacket snagged inside the trigger guard and caused the gun to fire into his leg. He did everything according to standards, but he didn’t notice the cord.
I am not a gun expert, but I do use the Internet, and you can too. You may want to start with a site dedicated to gun violence like The TRACE.
Before I sign off, I’d like to plead with legislators and journalists. Many of you have a research staff; please use it on gun issues before you start spreading your knowledge.
Nature seems to be very un-Republican. When Trump regains his stolen office in 2024, one of the first things on his agenda should be outlawing Nature. Did you know that white throated sparrows come in four (count 4) genetically different sexes?
Then there there are people you may mistake as human who are born with aneuploidy and can come in at least 7 genetically different sexes. Fortunately, all this is easily sorted out by some members of congress. North Carolina should be particularly proud of their Representative, Madison Cawthorn, who helped out Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson with defining what a woman is — two X chromosomes and no talliwacker. Of course, this means that Linda Hunt, Melissa Marlow, Catherine Melver, and many other well-known people aren’t woman as you might have guessed. Plus, there are thousands of living beings (I hesitate to call them people for fear of offending my good Republican friends) who have two X chromosomes and a talliwacker.
Maybe Trump can get by with just outlawing white throated sparrows and non-humans. Perhaps there’s someone out there who listens to Faux News who can help me untangle my confusion. Please, I’m desperate to understand science when it’s obviously so simple for so many people.
WARNING: You may want to preview some of these hymns before you attempt a family sing-along. The content of a few may not be of the sort you learned in Vacation Bible School. In the case of that old spiritual favorite, God Fucks You Up, the title might give you an inkling of the subject matter. On the other hand, you may find an innocent sounding title like The Loophole, which deals with God’s solution to premarital abstinence.
You may wonder what a Christmas carol like Gaudete is doing in this hymnal. It’s not quite as secular as Little Sandy Sleighfoot, but it was part of that heathen church that uses Latin to exorcise and cast out daemons (because Latin is the only language daemons understand). This is why unholy folk like wizards use Latin to cast spells and curses. Like Adeste Fideles, we know that there must be something ungodly about it. For whatever reason, it is almost never played during the Christmas season when they play those other dreadful tunes that are repeated continuously. Besides, I like the song (done properly).
Then there is Dies Irae, which is the one you’ll hear when the world is ending and you’re on your way to hell. Think of it as the elevator music you’ll hear as you descend to the basement floor. (The weird bent brass instrument in the video is a cimbasso, which may have up to six valves, probably meant for six-fingered people. It was designed in hell for composers who hated and wanted to replace the more Godly Austrian tuba.)
Of course there are also songs for people looking forward to a warm, toasty afterlife. There’s a song known by several titles, but the title I knew was No More Water But Fire Next Time. Then there’s the heartwarming We Will All Go Together When We Go.
Of course no collection would be complete without Haywire Mac (who wrote Cigareets and Whuskey and Wild Wild Women in 1908) singing The Preacher and the Slave written by Wobbly Joe Hill in 1910.
There are some songs like Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam that are so far over the top that it makes me wonder what they’re doing in a Christian hymnal… and there’s Nirvana’s take on the song, Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam, which makes it all worthwhile. Wreck on the Highway makes its debut in this hymnal for the same reason; it just makes me feel so holy and justified to think someone else is going to hell.
You may wonder why I picked this obscure performance of Plastic Jesus when so many more popular versions are available. It’s simple; this one comes closest to the version with limitless verses that I grew up with and loved as a kid.
It was Sunday in Reality that inspired me to start this hymnal. I have included some other Internet compilations of hymns in this collection, but this falls miserably short of what I had before my computer crash in 2012. (God was letting me know His opinion of my collection.) I have tried to correct the problem referenced in Atheists Don’t Have No Song. Few songs can surpass the beauty and pure joy of Evil. Of course, we can’t forget Deteriorata. There’s always Die Schlittenfarht – a kid’s favorite for a good giggle when they hear the name.
There are several entries that are really more science than atheism, but I’ve accepted them from other people’s suggestions. I’m open to musical suggestions to add to this collection celebrating the joy of atheist gatherings. I regret that so few other gods or holidays other than Christmas are represented here. Enjoy.
Until recently, I’ve had problems entering previously written script into WordPress. I hope those issues have been resolved. I found a clever puzzle in Quora.com that I solved there and have copied here.
Over a certain period of time nine workmen earned a total of $333.60. If one of the workmen was getting paid $5.00 for a working day. Some of the others, $3.75 and the rest $1.35, for how long did the nine men work?
It can be solved with high school algebra using two assumptions: the number of workers earning $3.75 a day is a non-negative integer, m; and all workmen work the same integer number of days, n.
SOLUTION
From the statement of the problem, the number of workers earning ($5.00, $3.75, and $1.35) a day are (1, m, and 8 – m), respectively, adding to a total of 9 workers. To simplify the arithmetic, note that the daily salaries are $.05∙(100, 75, and 27), and the total earned over n days is $.05n∙(1∙100 + m∙75 + (8-m)∙27) = $.05∙6672. So we have (316 + 48m) = 6672/n.
Factoring, we get 6672 = 2∙2∙2∙2∙3∙139 = 48∙139. Suppose that 139 is a factor of n. Then n/139 is a positive integer, so n≥139, and 6672/n ≤ 6672/139 = 48. This gives (316 + 48m) ≤ 48, which is impossible. Since 139 is a prime number, n divides 48.
Next, factor 316 = 4∙79. Using 4∙(79 + 12m) = (4∙79 + 4∙12m) = (48/n)∙139 = 4∙(12/n)∙139, so (79 + 12m) = (12/n)∙139, and 12m = ((12/n)∙139 – 79). Since 12m is an even number, (12/n) must be odd, i.e. (12/n) must be 1 or 3. If it’s 3, then (3∙139 – 79) = 338, which isn’t divisible by 12, so 12m ≠ 338. Now (n/12) = 1, and 12m = (1∙139 – 79) = 60. We have only one positive integer solution: m=5 and n=12.
When I sent this to my wife, I didn’t realize that PZ Myers had already posted it his blog. It’s been around for two years and somehow I missed it. If you’ve already seen it, I apologize, but it’s just too good not to share.
I’m allowed to say it because I have one of those blue placards with a stick figure in a wheelchair hanging from my mirror that says “Handicapped”. It took a string of events before I found out this word is nearly as taboo as the ‘N’ word.
My realization began years ago when I heard our local NPR host, Darel Snodgrass, interview a blind guy whom he introduced as “visually challenged”. The guest replied “Actually, I’m blind.” Snodgrass continued insisting the guest was visually challenged through most of the interview until the guy could take it no longer and blurted out “I’m not visually challenged. No matter how hard I try or how often you challenge me, the simple fact is that I can’t see. I’m blind.” Darel was a bit dense and responded “My guest today is visually challenged.” He continued using his pet phrase for the remainder of the interview.
Over the years I found out that a person can’t be blind, visually handicapped, or visually disabled, because that would imply that there could be something wrong with them. It’s so impolite to remind a person of a fact that they’ve lived with for a significant part of their life. It must make them feel so inferior. That’s why my car wears that blue placard – to remind me that I may never become an Olympic runner. I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from what people must think of me, not being an Olympic runner, the same as everyone else.
Since the time of that interview, calling a person “challenged” has become pejorative, a bit like saying they’re retarded. Not being terribly socially adept, I sometimes refer to myself as a cripple, or even lame. Like a Weeble, I wobble, but unlike a Weeble, I don’t dare fall down because I can’t get up again. That means baths are out, and I can’t stand up from a seat that’s too low. That includes most toilet seats without grab bars.
What I found out a few years ago is that some people are mortally offended by what I just described. In PZ Myers’ Pharyngula blog he had made some comment about gun safety, which many of his readers interpreted as banning guns. Since PZ was out of town and not following comments, a few of his followers felt it necessary to guard the comments for him. Since everything had turned to the meaning of the second amendment by the time I got in, that’s where I picked up. By that time comment after comment pointed out that you shouldn’t be able to own a gun unless you’re a member of a well-regulated militia (like The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord?). I jumped in and pointed out that both circuit courts and SCOTUS had ruled on exactly that point and that the supreme court had specifically said that the well-regulated militia portion of the second amendment was to be treated as an example of those who were allowed to own guns. I included several links to that ruling as well as several different cases where ownership is specifically allowed.
Several people continued to argue without bothering to read my links to the rulings in each of the cases. The most tenacious was someone called Crip Dyke, who after running out of arguments, told me that as soon as the next supreme court justice was appointed, SCOTUS would immediately overrule all of those interpretations of the second amendment. I replied that SCOTUS doesn’t get to file the cases that it hears, and that even if it does come up, it may be years or decades before those rulings are challenged. Since that time, two new justices have been appointed and nothing has happened.
With that said, Crip Dyke was really itching for a pissing match, and she(?) dove into a nasty ad hominem argument. I had referred to myself in some sort of deprecating way, and she suddenly realized many comments later how horribly offended she was. This went on for several more comments, and I found out I was horrifying the whole world and that I was being extremely rude to all handicapped people (apparently including myself).
It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally realized that Crip Dyke was right about the whole world being offended. Now that my awareness has been awakened, I thought it was appropriate to warn my readers about how rude they’re being if they use the ‘H’ word. It needs to be eliminated from polo, golf, and horse racing too. Although some people may not know the appropriate catch phrase, I’m sure all my readers already know that it’s “alternatively abled”. I think that’s some kind of superpower, putting me in the same class as the X-Men. From now on, I want you to know that I’m not a cripple, nor is my writing lame. I am ambulatorily alternatively abled, and I’m going to lord that over everyone until the next more proper catch phrase comes along. Thank you, Crip Dyke, for letting me know how superior I am.
You may have noticed that I haven’t posted to this blog for a while. It’s not because I’ve stopped writing, but because I haven’t been able to get WordPress to accept Word documents. Although I’ve had minor problems before, the first major problem came with Rambling #2 comparing the Pirahã and Sirionó languages of the Amazon basin, when WordPress dropped all my references and formatting near the end of the article. When I wrote my last post in December of 2015, it wouldn’t even accept input from Word.
That seems to have been fixed, so I’m going to give it another try. I’ve been looking at mostly third-party vendors who provide direct editing inside WordPress using drag-and-drop plug-ins. Along the way I discovered that to install plug-ins, you’ve got to use self-hosting, which is expensive and requires changing from WordPress.com to WordPress.Org, making continued blogging more difficult in the short-run. For now, I’m sticking with trying to use the free Word converter in WordPress and not make major changes.
Sorry about getting side-tracked. As you may have guessed, I have a real interest in math (and if you’re British, that’s maths). I’ve decided to write about topics that you may not have seen unless you’re a math major.
There are two major problems: Microsoft Word is deficient in fonts needed for mathematics, and I have a real paranoia about someone stealing the original work that I did and publishing it as their own. This last concern isn’t unfounded, and I personally worked with a physicist whose work was successfully plagiarized by a senior researcher in whose lab she worked. Of course there are many classical examples from mathematics such as Tartaglia and Cardano and Grassmann and Cauchy. I couldn’t find anything that was both simple and relatively complete about these two examples. Where Grassmann thought that Cauchy had plagiarized his work, everything I could find was dry and technical.
As a result, I’ll describe results without going too deeply into how it was done (in most cases). I’m slowly writing a book that does get into the bloody details, and if I live to 120, I may even finish it and publish before I start pushing up daisies.
I’ll describe some of my early work from 50 or more years ago. Back then, I had no problem remembering the details, so I had no reason to write anything down. Senility does nasty things to details, and trying to recreate what I did has been fun. In all that time, no one else has duplicated some of the things I did (as far as I know).
The first thing I want to talk about in a later post is the gulf between mathematics and science, which is really surprising since math seems to be part and parcel of understanding science. At times there are philosophical dilemmas in trying to distinguish the two. In Newton’s three laws of mechanics, and depending on how you look at it, parts of the laws seem to be either definitional or axiomatic. The original edition of Resnick and Halliday’s Fundamentals of Physics discussed this at length. (Back then the book only costed me $5, and now, it’s over $200 for just the first volume.)
A related topic is the queen of the sciences. As everyone knows from Thomas Aquinas, it’s without a doubt, theology. Stephen Hawking disrespectfully thinks it’s physics. The final word (at least for mathematicians) comes from Carl Gauss. (You only need to follow the link on the unlikely chance you’ve never heard of him.) Every mathematician definitively knows that “Mathematics is the queen of sciences and number theory is the queen of mathematics. She often condescends to render service to astronomy and other natural sciences, but in all relations she is entitled to the first rank”. Only she’s not a science, which I’ll talk about in my next post.
Eugene Wigner wrote an influential paper in philosophy a few years before becoming a Nobel Laureate. It’s entitled The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences. I found this reprinted in a humanities magazine in the 1970s, long after thinking many of the same things that Wigner talks about. Be sure to read this article; there will be a test on it later.
I thought I had resolved this issue in 1962 in my sophomore year and only 2 years after Wigner published it, but I had no idea that anyone else was thinking about the problem. The fact that it was my sophomore year seems almost ironic, given the British folk etymology (at the end of the definition) of meaning “wise fool”. Of course I won’t talk about my solution until my next post on mathematics. Even then, it will only be about the solution without divulging some specific details. It’s my paranoia kicking in again.
If you enjoy seeing visual displays of geologic conditions, geography, and paleontology for the phanerozoic aeon (from the present back though Cambrian period) check out Earthviewer, created by HHMI (Howard Hughes Medical Institute).
It displays the globe for any time back to 540 MYA along with the atmospheric composition, climate, positions of modern cities traced through plate tectonics, geological events, biological events, mass extinctions, meteor impacts, fossils, and coastlines. You can pull up charts for temperature, day length, luminosity, and biodiversity. It also has several interesting in-depth presentations. It also contains a tutorial for using the download.
WARNING: It helps to understand evolution and have some inkling the earth may be older than 6000 years. Be careful that your children don’t fall for the science indoctrination. It doesn’t even mention God and His undeniable part in Creation.
When I was in eighth grade, one of our local newspapers would occasionally publish a math problem and wait for at least a week for someone to write in a solution. I know better than to try that here, since the people I thought might read my last set of problems apparently didn’t. Since the previous problems were more logic than math, I promised one actual math problem. Three of the five here use math. Since the last group was such a dud, I promise no more problems after this. Continue reading →
I didn’t find out until I got back home that Yoichiro Nambu died about 2 weeks ago. Such things don’t make the news, because who in hell is Yoichiro Nambu? On the pretty good off-chance that you’ve never heard of him, keep reading.
It’s been about two months since my last post. Again, I’ve been away from my beloved desktop. We just got back to town a little over a week ago, and I’ve been catching up on what’s happening in the rest of the world.
A lot has happened in the last two months. I’ve been through two more rounds of chemo and my hematocrit is above 30 for the first time in a very long while (I have about 70% of my blood!) – no more transfusions, at least for a little while. In the mean time my white cell count dropped again, and they put me on filgrastim until I was no longer in danger from neutropenia. Anyway, things are going so well, that my hematologist (that’s a hæmatologist if you don’t speak American) wants to do another round of chemo. Lucky me – two more weeks of being a pincushion. One other positive thing; my platelet count is up and I don’t look like a mass of bruises looking for a fresh place to bruise. I accused my wife of putting a pea under my mattress, and she told me not to worry and that I’m no princess.
I was a little disappointed that so few people are interested in mathematics (or in this case, logic). My next problem will be pure mathematics, just in case it’s logic that people don’t like, but I’m still not optimistic.
I’m finally getting caught up on my e-mail; I need to quit spending so much time away from home. One of the things I used to enjoy back in junior high (before they invented middle schools) was that one of our local newspaper columnists would throw in a math problem from time to time.
I’ve pulled 3 problems off the Internet and reworded them slightly to make it harder to find the answers with Google. The answers will come in the next post.
A guy goes to a hardware store to buy a common item found in any hardware store. He asks the clerk what 1 costs – 20 cents. 12 would cost 40 cents, and 128 would cost 60 cents. What was he buying?
When a mathematician asks a second mathematician the ages of the second’s three children, he answers that the product of their ages is 72 and the sum is equal to the number of dollars he pulls from his billfold. The first mathematician comments that the information is insufficient to solve the problem, and the second adds that his oldest child likes butterscotch, and the answer is then obvious.
Fred and George have just met Hannah, and they want to know when her birthday is. Hannah gives them a list of 10 possible dates, shown in tabular format:
May
15
16
19
June
17
18
July
14
16
August
14
15
17
Hannah then tells Fred the month and George the day of her birthday. Fred: I don’t know when Hannah’s birthday is, but I also know that George doesn’t either.
George: At first I didn’t know Hannah’s birthday, but now I do.
Fred: Then I also know her birthday.
So when is Hannah’s birthday?”
I don’t know what I’d do if I were a pastor. If I had to wait until inspiration struck, I’d have a sermon ready about as often as I post to this blog. Several things converged recently to lay this in my lap.
In a recent video, some guy was talking about attending Sunday school at a synagogue with the rabbi in attendance. I immediately wondered when Liberal Judaism became so liberal.
If you were as educated as I was when I was a kid, you’d know that the Sabbath is Sunday and that the Jews were just another Christian sect. Sigh. Why couldn’t I have just remained in blissful ignorance so I could display it on a regular basis in my newspaper’s letters to the editor.
I’ve been catching up on old e-mail and blogs, and I just finished a post by fojap on quantum homeopathy and anti-vaxxers. I realized that it’s been a while since I extolled the virtues of a whole field of medicine whose only impact is to replace effective therapy with the notion that you are finally doing something to fix what ails you.
There is so much cynicism about homeopathy, just because their medicines repeatedly dilute the active ingredients to non-existence. They don’t take into account that the water remembers what was in it before that super-dilution process. In addition, the water is energized by succussion, giving it the energy of “all the chemicals in a bomb”. Wow! If that doesn’t fix your gizzard, I don’t know what will. It’s only proper to hear this from a practicing homeopath, but I need to warn you, it’s awfully sciency.
This is the 57th anniversary of the date that a thermonuclear bomb “device” was dropped on the U.S. Surprisingly, some people are unaware that it ever happened, just as some don’t know that one of our H-bombs has killed a Japanese citizen.
My favorite animal for years was the opabinia. It has many things that should be shared by all animals like five eyes and a long snout with a claw on the end.
In the last couple weeks I’ve adopted a new animal because it’s just so incredibly cute. Their eyelashes are long and unbelievably beautiful.
No, it’s not first cousin to a jackalope. It’s a real animal – a Venezuelan poodle moth. It was discovered about 5 years ago.
Time to break my promise from my last post. I haven’t done squat since then with the math book I’m writing. On top of that, when I thought about what to include in my next post, I realized that the organization of the book doesn’t make much sense without knowing the idiosyncrasies of my education, so I’m still pondering what to write.
In the meantime, we took a break from our hectic schedule here and 4 weeks ago, we took a 2-week break. We visited our oldest granddaughter for a day in Nahunta, GA and spent the day shopping. That’s my least favorite pastime, but she enjoyed it, which is a bit strange since she normally likes being out in nature.Continue reading →
So, what’s been happening for the last 3 months? As I’ve mentioned before, my parents are very likely to pass the century mark and increasing disabilities have pretty much required us to go from assisted living to memory care for them, and for the last several months we have talked with them about over a dozen different options for doing that along with visiting each facility (including seeing some multiple times because they couldn’t remember what they were like). If you wind up in that situation, remember to take lots of videos and photos. To make a very long story short, my mother found only one of them acceptable, and we had to make arrangements for when an opening would occur, followed by reminding them every time we visited about eventually moving.
I’ve been back to my beloved PC for about a week after being gone for nearly a month. We’ve been visiting family in the East and taking historical tours.
After visiting everyone in east Tennessee, we continued to the Colonial Williamsburg area in eastern Virginia to see my youngest brother. If you cross the Coleman Bridge between Yorktown and Gloucester County, he’s likely to be the one in the control booth above the bridge, so be sure to wave as you go by.
This nearly had the title “A Tale of Two Languages“. A couple weeks ago I was watching a rerun on the Smithsonian channel about the Pirahã of Brazil and Daniel Everett. It immediately reminded me of the cultures of El Beni in Bolivia, and particularly, the Sirionó. The similarities and differences are striking.
There’s something you may not know about me. At one time I worked with the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now known as SIL International) and its sister organization, the Wycliffe Bible Translators (now called the Wycliffe Global Alliance), both founded by William Townsend. For those unfamiliar with Bible history, Wycliffe was the first to translate the Bible (Vulgate version) into Middle English in 1382, and he was a constant thorn in the side of the Holy See. The purpose of the organizations is to study and document lesser-known languages and to translate the Bible (especially the New Testament and Gospels) into the local languages for the edification and enlightenment of the natives. Yes, I was one of them, but my excuse was to aid in studying and recording languages before they became extinct and because it was something I truly enjoyed. Continue reading →
I haven’t had much time to finish my monsterpiece on guns and legislation. Again, I’ve been out of town for about 2 weeks, and we had to hurry back when my father-in-law took a turn for the worse.
I’ve decided to start a new series on nothing in particular. In this case, it’s about kids and grandchildren. As everyone knows, theirs are better than anyone else’s. So it is with mine.
My youngest granddaughter turned five earlier this year, and she’s still not through with her never-ending surprises. She is an absolute joy to be around. Since about the time she was learning to talk, she knew the difference between normal conversation and a joke, and she’s been mastering the art of comedy ever since.
A couple of years ago, she started with one of her perfectly serious matter-of-fact conversations. “Mema, you and I have the same hair. And our eyes match. Your mouth and nose are the same as mine! Now I know what I’ll look like when I’m about to die.” She carried it off perfectly, and her timing was spot on.
One of her many talents is to improvise a dance to match any music she likes. In fact, her second birthday invitations were unusual in that they didn’t invite her friends to her birthday party. Instead, they said “Invitation to the Dance”… It only took a few songs before everyone was participating.
Last week she went to an Alison Krauss – Willie Nelson concert. During Nelson’s first number, she felt inspired and went to the area in front of the stage and began dancing to the music. Eventually, he noticed her and waved and was even gracious enough to share the spotlight. The highlight of the night was when he sang “Angel Flying too Close to the Ground”, which begins with the lines
“If you had not have fallen Then I would not have found you”.
She took the cues perfectly. Willie did something completely unexpected. He took off his bandana and threw it to her. It was a perfect ending to a perfect night.
I can think of no better way to end this than sending you an Invitation to the Dance.
I had hoped that I’d be finished with my next posting by now. Since I’m not, I thought I’d give a quick preview. It’s about a very unwelcome topic: gun legislation – specifically legislation that I think would be effective while trying not to be overly intrusive, unlike some recent legislative attempts which are neither.
The article includes the pertinent resources and research that I did in coming up with the information I present. It compares firearm deaths world-wide, their causes, what is unique and what is comparable to the situation in the U.S., and over a year’s worth of data for every reported case on who was killed, where it happened, and further details, so that if you’re inclined to pick me apart, you too can go through the data.
I have condensed and summarized information from articles that I had promised and started over a year ago but never finished. The topics have been reorganized and structured in a way that I hope is more helpful than before.
Although many people are thoroughly uncomfortable even talking about guns, if you have kids or grandchildren, this is a topic you need to understand whether or not you have a gun yourself. The must-read portion will be under the heading “Proposed Gun Legislation”. Although you may miss why I recommend what I do, at least you’ll know what I am proposing.
The last part of the article is aimed at education about guns and ammunition that seem to be either unknown or confused by most media sources. If this is a non-issue for you, skip it.
The last point I’d like to make is that although I have little expertise with guns, I know what sounds questionable when I hear it, and I look it up – something that seems to be increasingly uncommon. I have accumulated a lot that way – enough to feel comfortable in writing my article.
Again, it’s been a while since my last post. In the past I’ve had problems, mainly with being out of town and trying to catch up with my correspondence. A couple times I had a computer crash.
We still leave town from time to time, but now it’s compounded by another problem. Our parents are rapidly approaching the century mark. Until last year when planting season was too wet, my wife’s father planted a backyard garden approaching half an acre. No one ever explained to him that it’s hard work. On top of that, he has at least one family party every week, and he does the cooking. It’s embarrassing to go, because not many people realize that I’m younger than he is. A few months ago he was diagnosed with lung cancer, but that hasn’t slowed him down.
In the next 3 years, my parents will hit their 75th anniversary. That used to be the diamond anniversary, but with inflation of anniversaries, I don’t know what it is any more. But there is a down side to it all. They’ve lost most of their short-term memory, and we get calls from them at all times of day and night asking about something that we’ve talked about many times before but they don’t remember. We spend a large part of our week visiting with them because something is always going on. Sometimes we take turns. Often we need to go shopping – one of my least favorite things. When we can, we take a short vacation break, but it never lasts long enough. Several times we’ve had to cut a short vacation even shorter because of some emergency.
Just a few months ago, we went on a vacation with my parents to the Smoky Mountains, and all of my brothers met us there. It may be the last for my dad, since he has had an increasingly difficult time getting around. One of our favorite past-times is hiking the trails. We picked a couple particularly easy ones. There are two very close to the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Just behind the center, is a short trail leading to a pretty little fall, and a slightly more strenuous trail that passes one of the original homes in the foothills. We passed on those for a paved absolutely flat half-mile trail a couple miles from there that goes through a settlement that still existed when the park was built. The homes were near the fork of two mountain streams and you can easily make out where two of the homes and a stone wall were. Dad got out, took a few steps to read a sign, then got back in the car where he remained for the rest of the outing. It started snowing about then.
We drove to the NC side and visited nearby falls on the Cherokee reservation, then went on to Bryson City to see Junie Whank, Indian Creek, and Toms [sic] Branch falls. By the time we finished, the roads in the park were closed and we had to take the long route home over steep mountain roads. We had to cancel our plans to visit Cataloochee since Dad wouldn’t be able to visit the settlement homes. We also weren’t sure whether the elk had come down from the hills.
Since then he has gotten progressively worse and insists on using a wheelchair. Mom still gets around well, although she doesn’t like hiking. She has expressed an interest in going on vacation with us when we get a chance. I’m hoping that our plans don’t get cut short again.
On top of everything else, some of our friends are dying of cancer. My wife babysits half a week at a time for our youngest granddaughter since her other grandmother is on a downward spiral with esophageal cancer. The same is happening in our extended family, so we have a hard time taking a break.
I’m almost caught up on my e-mail and the blogs that I read, so I may be able to post another entry soon. Until then…
This fossil started making the news in February and is from the Anisian age of the Middle Triassic period about 247 to 242 million years ago. It was found in Luoping County in Yunnan province, China in a well-known marine fossil area. Yunnan is an extremely mountainous province in southern China bordering Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Vietnam, and Tibet, and Luoping is a center-eastern county in the least mountainous region of the province.
It is the Atopodentatus unicus(approximately meaning “unique disturbingly weird-toothed”) and is classified as a sauropterygian (best-known for its plesiosaurs and nothosaurs). Atopodentatus had semi-aquatic adaptations but retained strong hips and legs. What sets it apart from all other reptiles is its beautiful smile.
Illustration 1 is from the National Geographic by Julius Csotonyi.
Illustration 2 is by Nobu Tamura, 2014.
Illustration 3 is by MALvit, 2014.
In spite of having needle-like teeth, Atopodentatus was incapable of biting hard or holding small prey, and is suspected to have been a filter feeder. The teeth in the center of the upper mandible have been described as “comb-like” or “zipper-like”, and the mouth has been compared to that of a flamingo.
There are several interesting articles with the more technical ones at the bottom:
Yesterday there was a news item about the creation of a magnetic monopole. Although the news accounts are far above average for the usual explanations of a scientific breakthrough, most still leave a lot to be desired. For instance not all of them distinguish between the elementary particle and the quasiparticle that was what was created here. The best new account that I could find was written by a reporter for nature magazine at Quantum cloud simulates magnetic monopole, which sums up the work remarkably well. If you would like a slightly more in-depth account, keep reading.
Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, has announced that his latest venture, Ark Encounter, is facing dire financial difficulties. With a quick visit to the Creation Museum website, the first words you run into are “Prepare to Believe”. If you don’t mind swallowing a little bullshit, you too can believe.
The Ark Encounter was to be a replica of Noah’s ark, complete with dinosaurs, unicorns, and fire-breathing dragons, just as the Bible tells us. Actually, I had missed those 3 kinds of animals in Genesis, but that’s what makes Ken the expert on Genesis and the genius that he is.
Between now and Feb. 6, Ken has to sell $29,000,000 in unrated junk bonds, so if you have some spare change, won’t you send him a few million dollars? The state of Kentucky was so enthusiastic about this great idea, that during the recession, they plunked down several million dollars of the taxpayer’s own money for infrastructure and tax breaks.
Ken blames this mess on atheists (way to go, atheists) and the secular media. Specifically, “the trouble with Ark Encounter’s financing is due to the treachery of atheists and godless bloggers, who have sabotaged the giant dinosaur boat…”. Thanks for finally acknowledging me, Ken. But he goes further. He has been wrestling “against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” I do admit to being a ruler of the darkness of this age, but thanks for thinking that I am a spiritual host of wickedness and that I rule from heavenly places. I’ve tried to project that image for a long time now.
A few months ago, I wrote about the atheist’s nightmare, dreamed up by Ray Comfort of the Living Water Ministries. Realizing that threatening us with hell is futile since that’s just about as real as God, the even worse threat of going to heaven doesn’t hold water either. So he knew the only way to get us was to make us think of bananas. His twisted mind knew that we could never shake the image of a banana haunting our dreams.
Oh, there are things that frighten Christians (especially those in Oklahoma), like Allah or maybe Shiva. Even something as cuddly as Ganesha seems to upset them. Atheists have tried to make them tremble at the sight of Cthulhu or the Flying Spaghetti Monster with all His noodly appendages, but Christians just don’t realize the dire threats being posed.
Touched by His Noodly Appendage
Let’s face it. Atheists have been going the wrong direction. To get to a Christian, you have to show him God in all His magnificence. Only their God can give them nightmares as bad as thinking about a banana.
You may already be aware Queen Elizabeth out of the goodness of her heart issued a “mercy pardon” for Alan Turing almost 60 years after he committed suicide when the British courts had him neutered for the heinous crime of being a grossly indecent homosexual. (Isn’t homosexuality always grossly indecent in Britain?) At least she didn’t wait as long as the Vatican did to pardon Galileo for the crime of being right while the pope thought he was being ridiculed. Had she issued the pardon within two years after ascending the throne the suicide could have been prevented, but gays didn’t need mercy in those good old days.
To put this into perspective, Turing led a pretty useless life. He not only broke Germany’s enigma code, shortening WW II considerably, he helped design the machines that automated the code-breaking process when no key was available. He was a mathematician, logician, and is best known for modeling a general-purpose computer which still bears his name. He formalized the concepts of algorithms, computability, Turing reduction, Turing completeness, and Turing degree as well as being the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. He worked in two different laboratories developing early variations on the first stored-program computers. He wrote a paper on what later became known as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reactions, which were only discovered 8 years after his death.
There is little question that he lived a wasted life, and the queen, her empire, and the world could just as well done without him. Now the U.S. can start working on pardons for the Salem witches. If we get through that in the next century, we can retroactively save their lives. I can only thank God that the queen found the mercy in her heart, but only after the House of Lords had already passed a bill for statutory pardon on Oct. 30 of this year.
Sorry about taking so long in getting back. I’ve been away from my PC more than I’ve been on it for the last few months, but I can’t let this inspiration slip away. Certainly the greatest discovery of the 20th century was the observation by Prosper-René Blondlot of N-rays in 1903. It’s somewhat like seeing or hearing God for your first time and the only people who believe you are other Christians. That was the fate of Blondlot – only other French physicists and spiritualists were able to detect N-rays, while physicits of other nationalities were either envious or had insufficient IQs and claimed to be unable to see the obvious.
Until very recently, I was convinced that the greatest invention of the 20th century (even greater than Kirlian photography in 1939) was the revelation in 1911 of Kilner Goggles. Since I am in agreement with such great minds as Paul Harvey (who listed Kilner Goggles as one of the 10 greatest inventions of the 20th century, along with television and penicilin), I was sure that I couldn’t be wrong on this one. The lenses in the goggles were Kilner Screens which allowed direct viewing of the human aura from which one can diagnose diseases without any other confusing tests being necessary. The Nobel prize committee must have been napping when he made this startling announcement.
Last month I was alerted by PZ Myers (Don’t waste your time with this survey) that the MRA (Men’s Rights Activists) have determined that there is only one objective measure for determining a woman’s worth. I would have guessed the acronym would be OOOM for only-one-objective-measure, but no, they had to confuse things. They call it SMV for Sexual Market Value, which immediately alerts you that it must be objective as well as measuring the only meaningful way of evaluating a woman’s worth. Those MRA folks sure are clever. Because we know that love should have nothing to do with sex, this method of calculating Sexual Market Value is how to find who you should impress when you exude your sexual charms.
For some reason PZ Myers doesn’t understand what a boon this is for manly men, and he dares criticize it repeatedly through several posts for being unscientific. I was devastated until I found what I now deem to be the greatest invention of the 20th century. It was created by none other than Max Factor, Sr., probably the world’s most renowned cosmetologist – probably better than Mary Kay (he’s male, after all). His invention was the Beauty Calibrator from 1934, and it has restored my faith in the scientific value of the SMV and the MRA movement. It’s something that every man should have and take with him when he goes bar-hopping. Every woman will want to try it on for the sake of science. If you want one (and there is only one), the last time it went on auction in 2009, it didn’t even make it to the $10,000 mark, so you may be in luck if you want to buy it.
I hope my readers agree with me about the value of this invention.
Of course this is as much a lie as Ray Comfort’s lies, omissions, distortions, and incomplete excerpted interviews in his latest movie Evolution vs. God: Shaking the Foundations of Faith, which garnered a 2.5 rating out of 10 in the International Movie Database (IMDB), placing among the worst movies of all time.
In case you missed it in your home schooling, Ray Comfort is a fundamentalist evangelist who founded The Way of the Master ministry along with child actor Kirk Cameron and radio host Todd Friel. He also started Living Waters Publications, should you need to come to Christ and learn the Truth about evolution.
With all this claim to fame, you’d think that Comfort might be satisfied, but he has done something really frightening. He showed us the atheist’s nightmare: a banana. It’s left me sleepless at nights and makes me panic every time I think about it.
I had written nearly a complete post on this subject when my computer crashed last fall, and I lost the work on all my posts in progress. There is little doubt that God was chastising me for being an atheist, and He fully expected His flock to fill the void. It didn’t come to pass, so here I go again on this important subject.
There is no doubt of God’s opinion about sitzpinkel – He despises it. Most Bible apologists simply don’t understand how God could have overlooked this offense to His holy creation in His 613 Laws, but the explanation is really pretty easy. He obviously originally had 614 Laws, and Moses just couldn’t understand what such a strange law was doing in the collection because in Biblical times, no one violated it, so he neglected to include it with the other 613. (On the other hand, the tenth commandment [Exodus 34:26 – Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.] was necessary, because so many Biblical Jews were eating cheeseburgers. For those not familiar with God’s wishes, read Meat and Milk and Cheese and Whey.)
I can hear you now protesting that you don’t know what sitzpinkel is, when in fact, you know damned well but you won’t admit it even in your darkest nightmares. For those who are hopelessly clueless, watch the following exhortation.
I stole this from Digital Cuttlefish since he says it so much better than I could.
Once upon a conversation, I received a revelation—
Just a tiny aberration in the phone line could be heard
It was near too faint for hearing, all too quickly disappearing,
And it surely had me fearing they had listened to my word
But of course, there is no reason to be snooping for my word
Such a notion is absurd!
With the conversation ending, and my paranoia pending—
Was some listening ear attending? Had a wiretap occurred?
My suspicions were implying what I’d rather be denying;
That the government was spying, and the lines had all been blurred
There had formerly been limits, but those lines have all been blurred—
Ah, but surely that’s absurd!
Could my phone call now be quoted? My associations noted?
Are there data banks devoted, at the mercy of some nerd?
All the data they can hack up, with more copies just for backup
In some cave where servers stack up with the info there interred?
They will long outlast my body, which will rot when I’m interred
This is far beyond absurd!
In a time that seems chaotic, is my worrying neurotic?
Maybe spying’s patriotic—it’s what 9/11 spurred.
Sure, the citizens are frightened, but security is heightened
With the leaky borders tightened and some terrorists deterred
Why, the means are surely justified if terror is deterred
Or they’re not… cos it’s absurd.
I last wrote about Allie nearly a year ago in Where Are They Now. She had stopped writing completely after her post from October 2011, Adventures in Depression, and I think we all had little hope of seeing her brand of humor again. I’m really late in welcoming her back, but she has given us a brilliant update that I hope everyone who reads this post will visit – Depression Part Two. As you can see, her comments started almost immediately and were cut off when they reached 5000. I’m not the only one overjoyed to see her back. It has been a long battle for her, and I don’t know when we’ll hear from her again, but at least we have this.
Maybe this isn’t quite as spectacular an example of progress as my article 2 posts ago, but Sam’s Club and Oxford Mayor Leon Smith have determined after exhaustive business research that a 1500 year old Indigenous American ceremonial mound is a ‘natural’ formation because it isn’t on the National Register of Historic Places, which they researched so well, they called it the “Natural Register”. It was the largest stone mound of its kind in Alabama. Smith knows for fact that it was only used for smoke signals (he is, after all, at least as accurate a historian as David Barton), and that the United South and Eastern Tribes are just blowing smoke signals up his ass to claim otherwise. Really, who’s the business expert here?
I stole this from Archon’s Den. I have such an insufferably high opinion of my own writing (plus parking my head up my ass) that I can’t admit when I’ve been outdone. Enjoy.
The following is the general examination for a Doctor of Philosophy degree:
History
Describe the history of the papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious and philosophical impact from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Be brief, concise and specific.
Public Speaking
Some 2500 riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek. Your performance will be video-recorded.
Biology
Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this life had developed 500 million years earlier, giving special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system. Prove your thesis.
Music
Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and violin. You will find a piano under your seat. In the interests of time, you may omit the coda.
I almost called this A Tale of Two Stories as there are two stories to celebrate. The first ended in 2001 with victory for Allah and his prophet, Muhammad (PBUH), while the second ended just this month with a complete victory for Capitalism, Objectivism, Ayn Rand, and probably Jesus Christ. I hope you’re as excited and as much a sucker for happy endings as I am.
I started this over a month ago for people who may not have given much thought to gun legislation. I expect it to be a 4-part series to give you a little more insight into the matter than most of the politicians who are cobbling together laws to protect us from guns (and those who would oppose any change). You don’t have to own a gun to be informed about guns. After listening to legislators and journalists, many of whom claim to own or use a gun, I’m really appalled. Especially cringe-worthy is the expert on gun violence who put together the new proposed gun legislation (which is essentially a rehash of the old Brady bill).
Warning: this article is rather long and is about controlling gun violence as opposed to controlling gun access – a difference that our lawmakers don’t seem to appreciate. (Gun access is a separate issue and requires more competence on the part of policy makers than violence prevention.) I hope it is useful if you’re interested in gun violence.
Tim came out with a new song today. In it, he recognizes his mistaken lack of belief in a God when a fan describes for him a genuine miracle. Tim immediately had to swallow his pride, and he rejoiced in the Truth by writing a hymn of contagious joy praising God. Now I, too, have realized the error of my ways and I feel compelled to share Tim’s witnessing with you. Consider this my testimonial too.
March 25 marks the two hundred second anniversary of the University of Oxford sending down, or according to one source, merely rusticating (translation: expelling, or merely suspending) Percy Bysshe Shelley and Thomas Jefferson Hogg for sending a tract to the heads of all colleges at Oxford entitled The Necessity of Atheism. They were shocked and appalled (as am I).
This post is for his cojones in publishing the tract and not because I enjoyed his poetry (a bit gushy for my tastes, in spite of his ability to turn a phrase) or the contents of the tract. As with all generalizations, there are exceptions, and Ozymandias is one of those.
Shelley turned the idea of atheism on its head. He rejected deism (the idea of a creator god with no other attributes) which is opposite of many who reject a meddling god or a god of supplication but can’t imagine creation without a god. On the other hand, he saw some outside influence that co-exists with the universe. He stated it this way: “There Is No God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.”
This “Spirit” is often interpreted by modern authors as Shelley’s vision of the kind of pantheism espoused by Benedict Spinoza. One of several points of contentions I have is Shelley’s opinion that beliefs are involuntary. At least he used this idea to good effect, arguing that atheism shouldn’t be persecuted (something that the University of Oxford college heads disagreed with him about). Shelley continued to espouse unpopular ideas for the remainder of his life – he just never learned, and that’s what an Oxford education is all about.
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
The Infrequent Atheist 