Triple Nine Blog

Wizenberg Law Firm Plug

2008-03-19T13:16:00.000-04:00

Please be sure to visit my brand new website, (created hours ago in about 15 minutes, and it looks it!)

Wizenberglaw.com

--
Peter Wizenberg, Esq.
The Wizenberg Law Firm
662 SW 158 Terrace
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33027-1134
(954) 889-4715
Wizenberglaw.com

I Opened Up a Law Firm

2008-03-19T13:15:00.001-04:00

I have opened up a law firm entitled "The Wizenberg Law Firm". There are, of course, innumerable tasks associated with opening up any new business -- especially a law firm -- and right now, my priority is finding a suitable office to rent.

--
Peter Wizenberg, Esq.
The Wizenberg Law Firm
662 SW 158 Terrace
Pembroke Pines, Florida 33027-1134
(954) 889-4715
Wizenberglaw.com

Learning Spanish

2007-11-13T15:26:00.000-05:00

Due to rush hour traffic, my commute to and from work is approximately one hour. Living in the Miami area, I've wanted to learn Spanish. I had never studied Spanish, (I took French as a schoolboy), and so I got Pimsleur Spanish audio CDs to use while driving. I enjoy them, and my learning seems almost effortless. Indeed, I find that when I respond to the prompts to say a phrase or sentence in Spanish, I do so often without much conscious effort.

I highly recommend Pimsleur for gaining conversational proficiency (not fluency) in a language.

--
Peter Wizenberg, Esq.

Primer on Arab/Israeli Conflict

2007-06-20T22:17:00.001-04:00

<http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/ >

"How to" Videos on the Web

2007-06-17T18:45:00.001-04:00

How to videos on all sorts of topics. Worth a visit. Many of them truly helpful!

<http://www.videojug.com/ >

--
Peter Wizenberg
Pembroke Pines, Florida

Google Ads

2007-06-16T16:46:00.000-04:00

I've decided to accept Google Ads with all monies received to be donated to the Triple Nine Society.

A Little Self-Promotion...

2007-06-16T16:39:00.000-04:00

I have just started a blog on business & real estate litigation with a focus on Florida. If interested, please visit it at <http://businesslitigation.blogspot.com/>

Resumption!

2007-06-16T16:31:00.000-04:00

This blog became moribund due to my stopping posting. However, I intend to resume posting (at least sporadically). I will also seek to encourage other Triple Nine Society members to contribute.

Stringing Out Einstein

2005-05-17T18:35:00.000-04:00

a Novice's Review of NOVA's "The Elegant Univverse"
by Ted Robinson
www.thegodhead.net

2005 being the hundredth anniversary of Einstein's "miracleyear", during which he published the first five of his mostsignificant papers, including special relativity, it seems onlyright to talk now about the possible answer to his final, mostfrustrating goal. Unreached by him, unfortunately, this drive for a Theory of Everything, but his earlier studies at least started others toward what might end up meeting the criteria for such a theory, according to the first part of a 3-hour series onNOVA, titled "The Elegant Universe". I missed the program when first shown in 2003, so, on hearing it would be repeated in one 3-hour clump this year, I flagged thecalendar, stationed myself before our plasmatized wall, yellow tablet and multi-pens poised, and awaited. The product of my scribblings follows, together with a couple of my dilettante musings on the subject (usually hiding within parentheses), although it loses something without the quite imaginative visuals used in NOVA. This is not intended as any kind of scientific dissertation, of course, certainly not from any shopping center developer, but it might lure some responses and clarifications from the real physicists among us.
NOVA begins the journey toward a Theory of Everything by first exploring Einstein's attempts at tying together the only two forces known at the time -- gravity and electromagnetism -- with some common element. He previously solved the macro-workings of gravity in 1915 with his theory of general relativity, a warping of space-time "like a trampoline", wherein the indentation (my word, Ithink, although an obvious one) in the trampoline by a large mass causes smaller masses either to fall into it or, angled at the right speed, to circle around the curvature of the indentation. (My grasp of this is that mass just gets in the way of an otherwise ongoing space-time, which would seem to give the mental picture more dimensionality than a trampoline, but I'm not sure whether this would be either adequate or correct.)
The main problem with finding a common element, however, was the enormous difference in strength between the two forces, since the electromagnetic force is "some thousand billion, billion, billion,billion times stronger than gravity." (Direct quote.) His efforts along these macro-world lines fell apart when young upstarts like Neils Bohr found that atoms were not the smallest particles in nature, but instead were themselves made up of a proton-neutron nucleus, orbited by electrons. Einstein's macrotheories were useless, as I understand it, at explaining how these tiny bits interact with each other. Then it got worse, and a lot more weird, with the development of quantum mechanics, which made a further shambles out of Einstein's "orderly universe". At the scale of atoms and particles the world appeared to be a game of chance, with only a "probability" of one outcome over another, and now two new forces needed to come into play -- the "strong nuclear force" to hold protons and neutrons together in the nucleus, and the "weak nuclear force" that accounts for radioactive decay (although I didn't catch what necessary function this plays), which creates radioactivity. The strong force is so powerful that if it could be broken, splitting the atom in a specific way, a chain reaction would follow and the energy released could become, among other things, an atomic bomb, with the weak force releasing the radioactive residue. Ergo, again, there seemed no way to relate relatively weak gravity with the power of either the strong force or electromagnetism.
The refinement of quantum mechanics eventually did tie together and explain three of the above -- the strong and weak forces and electromagnetism -- but at the possible cost of our sanity. The physical rules in our macro-world do not exist at the quantum level, which also spookily infers the existence of parallel universes within all the other combinations of probabilities. (I once attempted to start a discussion of these multi-world possibilities with the real physicists in the TNS e-discussions, which caused them to huff themselves off the list, hurling the epithet "pop science!" as they went. However, this NOVA program has given me a whole list of physicists from MIT, Columbia, Harvard, Cambridge and the like to hide behind as we progress into the even stranger "string"phase of this discussion. Although, as Prof Edward Farhi of MIT asks and answers himself during the program, "Do I feel likeI have a deep intuitive understanding quantum mechanics? No." So if he doesn't, me neither.)
Ah, strings. Each one a hundred billion billion (yes, a hundred billion billion) times smaller than an atom, each having their own vibration, or "song", which, in turn form together into the components of force, mass, and all things universal. (On seeing this, I could not help wondering if this was akin to reduction to such a tiny number that it becomes a common denominator for any numerator of force or mass, which would make it more of a mathematical trick. Or not. Don't ask me anything more onthat.)
Apparently the boiling down of the calculations of string theory culminated one summer night in 1984 when two scientists, Michael Greenand John Schwarz, were trying to apply the mathematics at a depth that would encompass all four basic forces. This apparently required both of two calculations (quantum and general relativity? I missed that part) to be totally free of anomalies, and, for this, both needed to come out with the same number. "On one side of the black board they got 496," said the NOVA narrator. "And if they got the matching number on the other side it would prove string theory to be free ofanomalies". They did, and therefore it was. (I have double-checked these calculations and also did not find any anomalies. . . . Just kidding.) But again (the horror, the horror), their calculations predicted a universe of more than the three-plus-one dimensions in our space-timeworld. The first calculations called for six extra dimensions, and from there it went downhill as others began jumping on the string bandwagon, creating four other string theories. Each required different numbers of dimensions, each performing without mathematical anomalies, one using 26 dimensions. Now what?
Then comes Professor Edward Witten, whom all the other scientists describe as the genius above them all, who determined that what they thought were five theories were actually just five different ways of looking at the same thing. He was able to combine them into one, his "M" theory, that recognizes that "strings need to move in more than three dimensions", but the M theory calculated that the real number of dimensions required was 11, and that number apparently has now stood unchallenged to date, more or less.
So here they've arrived at the Theory of Everything sought byEinstein, at least they've done so on paper, albeit being virtually untestable. They have, that is, if one can grasp the concept of the universe being composed of unbelievably tiny, squiggly strings. (My first thought on this, for what it's worth, was that although these calculations mathematically describe string-like elements, that might be all they do, only because strings are understandable objects in our macro-world. But these elements, having the characteristics of strings, vibrating squiggles of energy, or fields, or points of non-existence, might not be as graspable as simply picturing strings. What they really are might not be graspable at all by the current mortal ways of thinking.)
One other interesting extrapolation of this theory, a step beyond the multi-worlds of quantum mechanics or the multi-dimensions needed by strings, is that our universe is only a membrane of one dimension among many membranes that form into a larger reality. (I recall reading in an issue of Scientific American last year that, rather than the Big Bang, the origin of the universe might well be the collision of two of these so-named "branes". This further theory, apparently by applying string theory math, does calculate out without the need of supra-natural physics, such as that required by the believability-challenged expansion following the Bang.)
But, these other dimensions might indeed be provable, someday, maybe. The string theory has determined that most strings are open-ended and attached to the membrane of our dimension. Gravitons, on the other hand, are unattached closed loops and therefore are free to travel between dimensions, this slippage being a possible explanation why the force of gravity is thus so weak in our dimension. Fermilab, located near Chicago, is busily shooting hydrogen protons toward each other within a 4-mile tunnel at nearly the speed of light, hoping that the shower of particles from the collision will show a graviton in the process of disappearing into another dimension. Thus farthey haven't, but hope remains that they will before the giant CERNlab, seven times more powerful than Fermilab, comes on line in Switzerland.
Anyway, as the narrator of NOVA concluded, a hundred years from now this Theory of Everything and its inferences might be looked upon as quaint, or not, but for now at least we have one that fits, so for now the only difference between you and me appears to be the way our strings wiggle. -- T.R. __ __ __

Apple bloggers get press support

2005-04-12T16:37:00.000-04:00

Eight US newspapers and the Associated Press agency have thrown their support behind three bloggers sued by Apple.

In March, Apple won the right to see the bloggers' e-mail records to find out who leaked information on upcoming products to them, which they published.

The news organisations have now filed a court brief which says they should be allowed to protect their sources.

If not, they said, it could make journalists wary of publishing stories which are in the public interest.

Philosophers Behaving Badly...

2005-03-13T11:38:00.000-05:00

New Sport...Chess Boxing!

2005-03-12T11:39:00.000-05:00

Eight Ancient Roman Recipes

2005-03-12T10:06:00.000-05:00

Pantanassa, (who styles herself an "Ancient" Greek), says that some of these ancient dishes remind her of her grandmother's cooking.

Bon Apetit!

Rats!

2005-03-09T19:47:00.000-05:00

2005-03-09T16:03:00.000-05:00

Gives a whole new gloss to the phrase 'dead duck' .....

Where Have All the Children Gone?

2005-03-08T09:21:00.000-05:00

The Coming Crackdown on Blogging

2005-03-05T15:51:00.000-05:00

Because of the McCain-Feingold law the Federal Election Commission may get involved if someone posts a link on a website to a campaign, or even if they reproduce a press release on their site.

California Judge: Shield Law Protecting Jounalists Doesn't Apply to Bloggers

2005-03-05T09:11:00.000-05:00

California has a shield law that protects "journalists" from revealing their sources. In a case involving Apple Computers, the court agreed with Apple's claim that people who publish on web sites are not "legitimate members of the press."

What's scary to me is that if this ruling were to hold up, it's conceivable that some of the free speech protections that people who publish on the web enjoy, could be jeopardized.

Of course, we haven't heard the last of this issue.

What Are the Chances It’ll Happen?

2005-02-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

The following point is very obvious—but only when one thinks about it. The reason I bring it up is that I suspect, all too often, many people, especially when in haste, don’t think about it.

I was discussing something with someone and he said that a certain event we were discussing would likely occur. I pressed him and asked him how likely he thought it would be. He said he guessed it’d be about 80%.

When I asked him why, he said, event A is about 80%, which leads to B which is about 80%, which leads to C which is about 80%. So, he concluded, the likelihood of C occurring is about 80%.

Now this man is not a stupid man; he just wasn’t thinking. When I pointed out to him on that chain of probabilities, C is about slightly better than 50%, he immediately realized I was right.

I suspect that all too often, when people are estimating probabilities they merely average them out in their heads rather than multiply them; what I mean is, that if you asked many people about the probability of an event occurring when the prior events leading up to it all have a probability of around 80%, many people would unthinkingly answer about 80%. Yet, if there are five events in the 80% chain of events, the likelihood of the final event occurring is less than 1/3.

Just something to be mindful of.

Increasing Happiness

2005-02-25T07:56:00.000-05:00

New Yorker Article About Godel & Einstein

2005-02-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

Injustice, in Secret

2005-02-22T10:17:00.000-05:00

From the February 21, 2005, Washington Post:

"ATTORNEYS FOR the Justice Department appeared before a federal judge in Washington this month and asked him to dismiss a lawsuit over the detention of a U.S. citizen, basing their request not merely on secret evidence but also on secret legal arguments. The government contends that the legal theory by which it would defend its behavior should be immune from debate in court. This position is alien to the history and premise of Anglo-American jurisprudence, which assumes that opposing lawyers will challenge one another's arguments..."

Click the title above to read the entire article. (Registration may be required.)

Evolving Law

2005-02-20T16:58:00.000-05:00

Many people are opposed to the idea that the U.S. Consitution is a 'living document'. For example, some people argue that the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection clause doesn't mandate that same-sex couples be allowed to legally marry, since none of the people who were involved in enacting the 14th Amendment would have supposed that that would be the case, or indeed would have supported the legalization of same-sex marriage. I'm sympathetic to the idea that we should interpret laws in light of our best current understanding of the manifold purposes of law.

The Talmud, (the Jew's NEW Testament, in the sense that it amplifies and supersedes, in some sense, the Torah), evinces the argument that our understanding of law evolves and develops; read below.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Halakha_&_aggadata_&_midrash.html

One particularly well-known bit of aggadata is found in the talmudic tractate Bava Mezia 59b. The aggadata follows a halakhic discussion in which the rabbis debated whether an oven that had become impure could be purified. While almost all the sages felt it couldn't be, Rabbi Eliezer, a lone voice but a great scholar, disagreed:

"On that day, Rabbi Eliezer put forward all the arguments in the world, but the Sages did not accept them.

"Finally, he said to them, 'If the halakha is according to me, let that carobtree prove it.'

"He pointed to a nearby carob-tree, which then moved from its place a hundred cubits, and some say, four hundred cubits. They said to him 'One cannot bring a proof from the moving of a carob-tree.'

"Said Rabbi Eliezer, 'If the halakha is according to me, may that stream of water prove it.'

"The stream of water then turned and flowed in the opposite direction.

"They said to him, 'One cannot bring a proof from the behavior of a stream of water.'

"Said Rabbi Eliezer, 'If the halakha is according to me, may the walls of the House of Study prove it.'

"The walls of the House of Study began to bend inward. Rabbi Joshua then rose up and rebuked the walls of the House of Study, 'If the students of the Wise argue with one another in halakha," he said, "what right have you to interfere?'

"In honor of Rabbi Joshua, the walls ceased to bend inward; but in honor of Rabbi Eliezer, they did not straighten up, and they remain bent to this day.

"Then, said Rabbi Eliezer to the Sages, 'If the halakha is according to me, may a proof come from Heaven.'

"Then a heavenly voice went forth and said, 'What have you to do with Rabbi Eliezer? The halakha is according to him in every place.'

"Then Rabbi Joshua rose up on his feet, and said, 'It is not in the heavens' (Deuteronomy 30:12).

"What did he mean by quoting this? Said Rabbi Jeremiah, 'He meant that since the Torah has been given already on Mount Sinai, we do not pay attention to a heavenly voice, for You have written in Your Torah, 'Decide according to the majority' (Exodus 23:2).

"Rabbi Nathan met the prophet Elijah. He asked him, 'What was the Holy One, Blessed be He, doing in that hour?'

"Said Elijah, 'He was laughing and saying, "My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me.""'

The British-Jewish scholar and writer Hyam Maccoby has commented: "This extraordinary story strikes the keynote of the Talmud. God is a good father who wants His children to grow up and achieve independence. He has given them His Torah, but now wants them to develop it...."

Really Cool Visual Periodic Table of the Elements

2005-02-15T19:50:00.000-05:00

A Princeton Philosopher's Unprintable Book Title

2005-02-14T11:01:00.000-05:00

The New York Times > Books > A Princeton Philosopher's Unprintable Book Title: Harry G. Frankfurt, 76, is a moral philosopher of international reputation and a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is also the author of a book recently published by the Princeton University Press that is the first in the publishing house's distinguished history to carry a title most newspapers, including this one, would find unfit to print. The work is called "On Bullshit"...

... What is "bullshit", after all? Mr. Frankfurt points out it is neither fish nor fowl. Those who produce it certainly aren't honest, but neither are they liars, given that the liar and the honest man are linked in their common, if not identical, regard for the truth.

'It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth,' Mr. Frankfurt writes. 'A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it.'

The bull artist, on the other hand, cares nothing for truth or falsehood. The only thing that matters to him is 'getting away with what he says,' Mr. Frankfurt writes. An advertiser or a politician or talk show host given to [bull] 'does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it,' he writes. 'He pays no attention to it at all.'

And this makes him, Mr. Frankfurt says, potentially more harmful than any liar, because any culture and he means this culture rife with bullshit is one in danger of rejecting 'the possibility of knowing how things truly are.' It follows that any form of political argument or intellectual analysis or commercial appeal is only as legitimate, and true, as it is persuasive. There is no other court of appeal."

Quotable Quote

2005-02-12T13:29:00.000-05:00

“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence.” – Bertrand Russell, Roads to Freedom

Koranic Arguments Convince Terrorists to Renounce Terrorism

2005-02-11T14:51:00.000-05:00

Reinventing Physics

2005-02-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

A Nobel Laureate reflects...

"Escape From the Universe"

2005-01-30T20:55:00.000-05:00

Great article!

Interesting Article About Gifted Children

2005-01-20T20:29:00.000-05:00

How to keep an idiot busy...

2005-01-17T16:44:00.000-05:00

Scanning for Schizophrenia

2005-01-09T19:17:00.000-05:00

The Scotland Sunday Times reports on a new method to detect schizophrenia up to three years before onset.

Researchers at Edinburgh University believe their test — which measures IQ, memory, motor skills and verbal learning — can be used to take action against the illness, which typically strikes people aged between 17 and 30, from being triggered.

[Crossposted from PlagueBlog.]

Suicide and IQ

2005-01-06T13:54:00.000-05:00

There's a brief blurb at GNXP about the positive correlation between suicide and national IQ.

Turning Pi into Music!

2005-01-05T17:29:00.000-05:00

Click HERE to go to a site that enables one to turn the digits of the decimal expansion of Pi into music. You pick ten notes to represent the ten digits and then hear what the music sounds like when the notes are playing out the decimal expansion of Pi!

2005-01-05T10:32:00.000-05:00

Tsunami Theodicies

Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study...

2005-01-04T16:04:00.000-05:00

...is the title of a newly published paper.

Abstract:

The links between income, sexual behavior and reported happiness are studied using recent data on a sample of 16,000 adult Americans. The paper finds that sexual activity enters strongly positively in happiness equations. Higher income does not buy more sex or more sexual partners. Married people have more sex than those who are single, divorced, widowed or separated. The happiness-maximizing number of sexual partners in the previous year is calculated to be 1. Highly educated females tend to have fewer sexual partners. Homosexuality has no statistically significant effect on happiness.

If you want to read the paper, Blackwell Publishing is charging $25 for the download. Click HERE to visit the site to pay and download it. By the way, I have not read the paper.

2005 EDGE Annual Question, Asked of Prominent Scientists & Thinkers: "What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?"

2005-01-04T00:39:00.000-05:00

The 21st Century Will Belong to China

2005-01-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

Brainy Women & Marriage

2005-01-03T08:42:00.000-05:00

News item reports that British study says a high I.Q. reduces women's marriage prospects.

Helping the Most With Your Charitable Donations

2004-12-30T14:03:00.000-05:00

With the tsunami catastrophe in the Indian Ocean area numbing us as to the immensity of human suffering being endured, people all over the world are giving money to help.

Readers may be interested in a website that asseses the "efficiency" of charities, and displays results for specific charities along a number of factors. Here is a link to Charity Navigator. Also, here is a link to a part of the site that specifically focuses on helping the victims of the tsunami.

Marking Time

2004-12-30T13:44:00.000-05:00

With 2005 approaching, I started thinking about the ways we mark the passage of time. (E.g., trips around the Sun, the Earth rotating about its axis, etc.)

I stumbled across a site (click here also click here for the home page) that has a "calculator of useless facts." One inputs a date and time, and it calculates what a subsequent date and time is in so many seconds, minutes, hours or days. Areas of the website enable one to mark time in any number of seconds, minutes, hours and days.

For example, it calculates time intervals and presents one with a list of for example 1 billion seconds, 25 million minutes, 1/2 million hours, 25,000 days, etc.

Mathematically inclined children of all ages enjoy this, and it also informs one of the next "celebratory" event. For example, one could use it to plan a surprise party for someone when he or she turns 20,000 days old, or one billion seconds old!

The Amish & the Law

2004-12-28T15:28:00.000-05:00

Piping Up

2004-12-27T11:41:00.000-05:00

Harvard Magazine has an article about Daniel Pipes and his views about Islam.

Money quote:

"It's a mistake to blame Islam, a religion 14 centuries old, for the evil that should be ascribed to militant Islam, a totalitarian ideology less than a century old. Militant Islam is the problem, but moderate Islam is the solution."

~Daniel Pipes

Aristotle "versus" Ayn Rand

2004-12-26T23:46:00.000-05:00

Here's a reference to an interesting exploration of what the author believes that Ayn Rand should have understood with regard to the philosophy of Aristotle, in support of perhaps a more complete and consistent development of her own thought.

An Auburn University professor of philosophy offers new interpretations of Aristotle and Ayn Rand in ethics and epistemology.
Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand, by Roderick T. Long, Ph.D.

The Author says:

Two of the central questions in philosophy are: What are the foundations of knowledge? and What is the nature of human well-being?

Ayn Rand regarded herself as a follower of Aristotle. I argue, however, that in answering the above two questions she unfortunately deviated from Aristotle in ways that subverted her own philosophical intentions.

In particular, I maintain that Rand's rejection of Aristotle's coherentist, testimony-based epistemology in favor of her own version of foundationalist empiricism both opens the door to a corrosive skepticism that she rightly wishes to avoid, and forces her into defending an instrumental survival-oriented conception of the relation of morality to self-interest, even though a constitutive, flourishing-oriented relation along Aristotelian lines would more closely match her basic ethical insights.

Hence Rand's admirers may still have something to learn from Aristotle, their "teacher's first teacher."

About the Author:

Roderick T. Long is a professor of philosophy at Auburn University, as well as Editor of the Free Nation Foundation's journal Formulations. His principal research interests are moral psychology, Greek philosophy, and libertarian thought.

iPods Ain't Just for Tunes...

2004-12-26T22:13:00.000-05:00

Elementary Web Presentation of Libertarianism

2004-12-26T21:45:00.000-05:00

Click HERE for a web presentation of a very elementary introduction to a version of political libertarianism. I just thought this was interesting/provocative enough to post. My reaction was a bit mixed to it.

EU Overturns British Banning of Canadian Berry

2004-12-26T17:17:00.000-05:00

The Telegraph reports that ever vigilant British bureaucrats banned the (unfamiliar to them) saskatoon berry, eaten by people in Canada for God knows how long. Because other EU nations were importing it, Brussels overrode the British ban.

Money quote:

"[T]he berry is illegal in Britain, and will be for as long as two years while tests are conducted to find out whether the population of Canada is right in thinking it to be edible, and that is all there is to it."

A Godfather of "Neo-Conservatism" Explains His Views on 'World War IV'

2004-12-26T14:11:00.000-05:00

2nd Wives (of the Polygamous Sort) May Get a Tax Break in the U.K.

2004-12-26T13:33:00.000-05:00

Faced with men who have (under the laws of the religion they subscribe to) more than one wife, the U.K. Inland Revenue is contemplating recognizing those marriages for tax purposes.

Click here for the Times of London article.

Money quote:

"It is seen as a breakthrough by Muslim leaders who have been campaigning to incorporate sharia into British domestic law."

"What the #$*! Do We Know?!"...

2004-12-26T13:18:00.000-05:00

...is the title of a new film that explores in a 'popularized' fashion, (not in the good sense of the term), the interrelationships of quantum mechanics, reality and consciousness. Click HERE for the Scientific American article on the movie.

Sidney Morgenbesser...

2004-12-25T22:54:00.000-05:00

...Sidewalk Socrates.

Click here (registration may be required) to read about him.

Money quote:

"There is a danger, of course, in being too clever, and no one knew this better than Morgenbesser. He was exceptional at taking ideas apart, but not at building them up. No argument ever satisfied him, least of all his own, and his exacting standards made it hard for him to publish..."

Birth of a Rabbi/Carpenter

2004-12-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

Geza Vermes discusses here who the real Jesus was.

Merry Christmas!

Nativity Scenes & Aluminum Poles: Festivus Joins Christmas in the Public Square

2004-12-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

In December in the U.S., when government property is used to display Nativity scenes it leaves the door open to other groups to erect their own displays. Typically Chanukah menorahs, since Chanukah is also in December. (Incredibly, courts have ruled that Nativity scenes and Chanukah menorahs are NOT religious symbols! What an insult!) Consequently, besides the placing of menorahs near Nativity scenes, government property may now be adorned with other holiday symbols.

A Seinfeld fan club in Polk County, Florida, in celebration of Festivus, erected a display that read: "Festivus for the Rest of Us". Click HERE to read an acount of it. Moreover, a Zoroastrian display was also put up.

Expect of course, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, and all sorts of other displays (including pagan and Satanic ones) to become more common on government property.

Years ago, when the constitutionality of Christmas being a government holiday was litigated before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court ruled that it was constitutional for Christmas to be a legal holiday, because, the Court held, Christmas is NOT a religious holiday!

Merry Christmas!

Group Opposed to the Death Penalty MURDERS 23 People on Bus

2004-12-24T15:00:00.000-05:00

Philosopher-Mayor

2004-12-24T14:37:00.000-05:00

Hat Tip: A Triple Nine Society Member via the Triplenine Message Board.

The Unusual Situation of the Druze

2004-12-24T01:51:00.000-05:00

Interview With Penn Jillette

2004-12-24T01:22:00.000-05:00

Do Not Pass Go....

2004-12-23T23:41:00.000-05:00

Have a Festive Festivus!

2004-12-23T00:08:00.000-05:00

Click here if unlike the rest of us, you're unsure of Festivus.

Death Knell of the West?

2004-12-22T23:42:00.000-05:00

In what seems to be simultaneously a disturbing restriction on both freedom of expression & freedom of religion, two Christian ministers have been found guilty of "religious vilification" in Australia. Click here to read it and weep.

Battleground God

2004-12-21T02:10:00.000-05:00

This was linked to in an earlier post (among other games), but I wanted to ensure that more readers were aware of this fun game which consists of a series of questions to test the consistency of one's beliefs about theistic matters. Click the title above to start the game!

Ex-Best Friend, Now Enemy, Shines the Spotlight...

2004-12-21T00:27:00.000-05:00

Bill Clinton has numerous enemies. But to me, his most fascinating nemesis is Dick Morris, because Morris was once Clinton's closest friend and advisor and knows him better than virtually everyone else.

Morris has written a book entitled Because He Could in which substantial portions are rebuttals to Clinton's autobiography. Here is a thoughtful review of Morris's book.

E Anti-Americanus Unum

2004-12-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

Here is a review of a book entitled The United States of Europe by T. R. Reid. The reviewer proffers the notion that anti-Americanism underlies the agglomeration.

"The United Nations is the pre-eminent trade association for people involved in the business of government power."

2004-12-20T10:16:00.000-05:00

Read the whole thing by clicking here.

Why Stand When You Can Sit?

2004-12-20T09:40:00.000-05:00

(Hat Tip: Andrew Sullivan)

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer

2004-12-19T21:10:00.000-05:00

Read this article from the New York Times about the relative advantages of Firefox vs. Internet Explorer by clicking here. (Registration may be required.)

Then, if you want to download Firefox for free, click here.

I heartily recommend Firefox.

Update: A newly reported security problem shows that Internet Explorer is vulnerable to Phishing. Click here for a 12/20/04 article on the topic.

Let's Stop All the Abominations!

2004-12-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

Dear Nigerian Scam Artist,

2004-12-19T18:41:00.000-05:00

A recipient of Nigerian scam spam engages his would-be predators in hilarious correspondence...

Click HERE to be amused...

Frank Costanza Would Be Proud!

2004-12-19T11:52:00.000-05:00

The growing popularity of Festivus for the rest of us! Click here! (Registration may be required.)

Is Syria Next?

2004-12-19T11:35:00.000-05:00

I just overheard John Loftus (someone in the past whom I've found to be quite reliable, and I enjoyed one of his books) say on Fox News Television something to the effect that when Israel informed the White House that it was interested in negotiating with the present government of Syria, (under dictator opthalmologist Assad) over the Golan Heights, the White House told Israel, don't bother negotiating with them they won't be in power for long!

Important Caveat: I was only half-listening in the beginning and all of this is totally unconfirmed. Moreover, perhaps I heard it wrong.

Anyway, if Syria's Criminal Gang does come tumbling down soon, remember where you heard it first!

Update: This article (registration may be required) affirms what Loftus was saying.

Money quote from the article:

"It really wouldn't look good if Israel legitimizes Syria's regime by resuming peace talks when there is talk in Washington about striking Syria militarily," said one Israeli diplomat.

Blog, Blog, Blog...SEX

2004-12-19T11:25:00.000-05:00

Today's New York Times Magazine (registration may be required) has an article about blogging & sex...

World's Greatest Pickup Line...

2004-12-18T20:12:00.000-05:00

"What are you doing after the orgy?"

0/0 = ?

2004-12-18T18:28:00.000-05:00

If a is NOT equal to zero, we say a/0 is undefined because it has no real solutions. No real number multiplied by 0 gives a non-zero product. Hence we disallow division by zero.

If a =0, then a/0 which is the same as 0/0 is also considered "meaningless" or "undefined", yet it seems to me that 0/0 has an infinite number of solutions, namely the set of real numbers. Any real number multiplied by 0 gives the product zero.

It's true enough that 0/0 doesn't indicate or demarcate any particular real number, but so what? Other operations can have more than one solution, (When X "squared" = 4, then X = +2 or -2), and that's considered perfectly acceptable. [Maybe mathematicians want to set things up so that "fundamental" operations (like +, multiplication, of course, is just repeated addition) have only one solution.] So, this operation, 0/0, has an infinite number of solutions. I guess because 0/0 has an infinite number of solutions it's characterized as "meaningless".

Maybe it's all just a matter of pragmatics in mathematics, insofar as since 0/0 is equal to any real number, it wouldn't do any interesting work.

Update: The above was just written off the top of my head. (Obviously.) As a commenter correctly points out, in some areas of mathematics, division by zero is accomplished. Albeit with different mathematical rules. I should have made it explicit in my posting above that I was referring to the rules in ordinary arithmetic and algebra. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_by_zero for more information. (Note: Wikipedia's reliability cannot be vouched for.)

Actually, this buttresses my point that pragmatics is involved with whether mathematics accepts division by zero. Different rules can be used to achieve different purposes.

The Economist's Competition for Wisest Fool

2004-12-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

Send in your nomination for "The Wisest Fool". Click here for the gory details or email competition@economist.com. Winner gets a King James Bible dedicated to the memory of the first wisest fool.

Erections & Fresh Breath! What a Combo!

2004-12-18T17:58:00.000-05:00

Wrigley has patented a chewing gum that enables erections (and gives you fresh breath). I kid you not...

Click here for a discussion of two books, one entitled The Rise of Viagra, and the other the Updated Joy of Sex.

Only Nixon Could Go to China...

2004-12-18T17:38:00.000-05:00

This was said (partly) because of Nixon's unimpeachable (pun intended!) anti-Communist credentials. Analogously, Hosni Mubarak, the President (i.e., dictator) of Egypt said recently:

"Sharon is the only one in Israel who can take the courageous step toward peace".

When some people were wailing and gnashing their teeth upon Arik Sharon's ascension to the Prime Ministership of Israel, I told them that it was just like when Begin was elected. (It's also reminiscent of Reagan's peace breakthroughs with the U.S.S.R.) Only someone like Sharon (with unimpeachable Israeli security credentials) would be capable of making great progress towards peace.

Click here (registration may be required) to read the full story.

Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman on the Battle Half Won

2004-12-18T17:05:00.000-05:00

Invitation to Triple Niners

2004-12-18T13:31:00.000-05:00

Triple Nine Society members wishing to contribute to the Triple Nine Blog are invited to email their names to wizenberg@yahoo.com.

Revolving Apartments!

2004-12-17T23:58:00.000-05:00

Historian: Honest Abe was Gay...Honest!

2004-12-17T23:13:00.000-05:00

The New York Times (registration may be required) has a review of a new book by C. A. Tripp entitled The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln in which he argues that there is substantial evidence to conclude that it is more likely than not that Lincoln was a homosexual.

I wonder how opponent of same-sex marriage George W. Bush would react to the poem the G.O.P. hero penned in which two men marry each other.

An American in Berlin

2004-12-17T22:43:00.000-05:00

Click HERE to read a fascinating interview with one American working and living in Berlin. I was personally pleasantly surprised to see that the interviewer's last name, Gerstenfeld, is the same as my mother's maternal grandmother's maiden name.

Pop-Tart Expertise

2004-12-17T20:55:00.000-05:00

This is why you visit the Triple Nine Blog--to read here about a court allowing an engineer to testify solely on the basis of his being an expert on toasting Pop-Tarts!

How the Drug War Undermines the War on Terror

2004-12-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

My favorite self-described hard-core Leftist, Christopher Hitchens, explains HERE how the U.S. Government's "War on Drugs" aids terrorists.

Victor Davis Hanson on the Left's Credibility

2004-12-17T20:02:00.000-05:00

I enjoy the writings of Victor Davis Hanson. Moreover, people who vehemently disagree with him grudgingly acknowledge that he's quite thought-provoking. (His allusions to ancient history are also very refreshing.)

Click HERE for a very interesting and controversial column from National Review in which Hanson contends that "the Left" has lost credibility in foreign policy matters. I'm hoping that readers who disagree with his thoughts will post their opposition.

Money quote:

"All the standing ovations for Kofi Annan cannot hide the truth that the Oil-for-Food scandal exceeds Enron. Indeed, Ken Lay’s malfeasance never involved the deaths of thousands, while cronies siphoned off food and supplies from a starving populace. The U.S. military does not tolerate mass rape and plunder among its troops, as is true of the U.N. peacekeepers throughout Africa. There can be no serious U.N. moral sense as long as illiberal regimes — a Syria, Iran, or Cuba — vote in the General Assembly and the Security Council stymies solutions out of concern for an autocratic China that swallowed Tibet. Millions were slaughtered in Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur while New York bureaucrats either condemned Israel or damned anyone who censured their own inaction and corruption. Rather than faulting those who fault the U.N., leftists should lament the betrayal of the spirit of the liberal U.N. Charter by regimes that are neither democratic nor liberal but who seek legitimacy solely on their ability to win concessions and sympathy from guilt-ridden Westerners."

Judicial Propriety

2004-12-17T19:06:00.000-05:00

Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, is widely acknowledged to be among the smartest judges around.

Click HERE for a very interesting article by him on ethical issues facing judges.

2004-12-16T11:04:00.000-05:00

Killing Time: Godel & Einstein's Friendship

You're Visiting the Triple Nine Blog...

2004-12-15T15:11:00.000-05:00

...so, tax your brain & click here!

2004-12-15T14:56:00.000-05:00

Christmas gifts for the scientifically inclined

Whither Intellectuals?

2004-12-15T01:57:00.000-05:00

Click here for a review of a book entitled "Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?"

Money quote from the review: "[British philosopher A. C.] Grayling argues that surprisingly few university academics in the English-speaking world are intellectuals 'in the sense of having wide interests of the mind and deep commitments in moral and political terms, often together with a vocation for deploying these in debate about matters of public concern.' A university academic is a specialist in a narrow field who publishes, usually in jargon, technical research in journals of interest only to other specialists."

A hefty percentage of that research is purely careerist, and only read by a relatively small subset of the specialists in those areas.

Academia's Sincerest Form of Flattery?

2004-12-15T00:20:00.000-05:00

Was Kerry Poisoned??

2004-12-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

Click here.

Japanese Parisians Depressed...

2004-12-14T01:31:00.000-05:00

Click here to read about it in the Australian...

Human/Animal Chimeras

2004-12-13T23:38:00.000-05:00

Free Global Virtual Library on the Way...

2004-12-13T22:57:00.000-05:00

Google agrees with Oxford University and leading libraries to make their holdings freely searchable and available over the net...

Click here for the New York Times article, (registration may be required)...

2004 Junk Science Awards

2004-12-13T11:44:00.000-05:00

All the Junk That's Fit to Debunk!

Click here for Junkscience.com's Top Ten Most Embarrasing Moments of 2004.

Update: Antony Flew: "I'm Still an Atheist"

2004-12-12T23:03:00.000-05:00

Click here for the latest!

National ID cards with biometric markers

2004-12-12T16:13:00.000-05:00

December 9, 2004

The United States Congress passed legislation yesterday that requires the States to surrender their regulatory rights over driver’s licenses and birth certificates to The Department of Homeland Security.

The massive US Intelligence Reform Bill weighed in at over 3,000 pages and though unread by individual Members of either the House or Senate nevertheless passed all of the legislative hurdles needed in order to become law.

President Bush lobbied hard for these provisions, only objecting when Senator Sensenbrenner attempted to require these same provisions for illegal aliens but which the President opposed. This provision was dropped from the final bill.

Beginning in 2005, the Department of Homeland Security will issue new uniformity regulations to the States requiring that all Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates meet minimal Federal Standards with regard to US citizen information, including biometric security provisions.

Added to currently existing Federal Laws and Supreme Court rulings American citizens when born will be issued a Social Security Number that will be included on their Birth Certificates, along with DNA biometric markers. All birth certificates will also be registered in a Federal Government database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security. No child will be allowed enrollment to schools or be entitled to either State of Federal Government benefits programs without first presenting a certified Homeland Security registered Birth Certificate.

Drivers Licenses will also contain DNA biometric markers and include the holders Social Security Number and be required for receiving and applying for all State and Federal benefits programs. Previous Supreme Court rulings have also upheld State and Federal Law Enforcement authorities right to request Identification from any American citizen, for any reason and at any time as not being violations of their, the citizens, constitutionally protected rights.

Major Banks and credit card companies have applauded the adoption of a National ID system as being important to counter fraud and increasing instances of identity theft. National ID cards with biometric markers will eliminate them from having to issue Credit and Debit cards, which for the first time in US history have surpassed the usage of checks and cash. Utilizing The Department of Homeland Securities centralized federal database, Banks and credit card companies will only require the presentation of a citizens Driver’s License to make purchases as all of the persons financial information, including credit and cash balances, will already be known in ‘real time’. (The combining of Homeland Security and Banking databases on citizen’s balances and purchases, along with their past and present purchasing information, has been allowed under previous Federal Laws including the Patriot Act.)

from Jonathan Wheeler http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index575.htm

In Feb., 2002, Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., distinguished professor of management at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, said the country needs all adult citizens and residents to carry national ID cards with biometric markers.

"Some people are squeamish about national ID cards, but I think it is the only way we’re going to get around issues of racial profiling and violations of civil liberties. Those cards would speed up free movement of travelers throughout the United States."
http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb02/rand020802.htm

Euroblogging Catches On...

2004-12-12T15:24:00.000-05:00

Click the above heading for the story.

Stephen Hawking Implicitly Disses Triple Nine?

2004-12-12T09:27:00.000-05:00

Click here (registration required) to read an email interview with Stephen Hawking in the December 12, 2004 issue of The New York Times Magazine.

Interview tidbits: Hawking answers a question about I.Q. and calls President Bush's plans to put a human on Mars "stupid".

Money quote: "People who boast about their I.Q. are losers."

Suggestions

2004-12-11T15:41:00.000-05:00

Any suggestions as to how this newborn blog may be improved would be appreciated...