Realo

Storming the Bastille, and Manning the Barricades

The French resistance has waited for this moment, and it has lasted for several days now. Sarkozy is widely viewed and an authoritarian bigot, even by people who voted for him. All he has to do is open his mouth and Paris bursts into flame. Will he last 5 years?

Huffington Post called this the "Globalization of Electronic Voting", Sarkozy calls it a victory and blows a nationalistic horn: "...I will rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit. I will restore honour to the nation and national identity - I will bring French pride back to the French people." Riots continue.

Labels: Barricade, Bastille, france, french, Paris, riot, Sarkozy

BLOGGER has fallen to the bigger fish which is Google, in Mountain View, 500 miles north of the original debacle - so I was finally forced to get a google account in order to post to BLOGSPOT.COM. Horrors. Well the dashboard hadn't changed radically (though it was not around in October 2000 when I was merrily blogging. I took it for a spin and BITE ME OFF is realos new blog spot com realos.blogspot.com is a mighty fine spot for what I'll be dishing out next so BITE ME OFF!

Labels: BITE ME OFF, google

The New Years Bombing in Bangkok sent Thailand's currency into a tailspin. It has since recovered. Who cares? More than 25% of Japan's trade is with Thailand, and the Thai economy is considered the most stable and modern in Asia. What will happen if another "asian crisis" hits, like the one 10 years ago that sent our Dow (not Tao) downward? Don't expect an IMF/ World Bank intervention this time: according to Walden Bello, who has a "think -tank" in Thailand, they have neither the will nor the wherewithall after their failed efforts a decade ago. He's more qualified than anyone to explain
The Neo-Liberal Model of Resource Extraction

Some time ago, I mention the reality check about the billard balls that were once on display as part of a mathematics exhibit at The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The original is at a web host in the UK, here's a copy for now. I'll create a mirror of the original page soon:

T h o u g h t

by

Wilder Fox

 

"I cannot believe God plays dice with the universe."

- Albert Einstein

A long time ago, a display in an exhibit called Mathematica at the Museum of Science and Industry left me in awe.

It consisted of two large panels of glass with evenly spaced horizontal rods running through them, while beneath each column of rods was a rectangular chimney with its two dark sides perpendicular to the glass.

A red line on the glass had the shape of a bell curve, a curve that rises slowly at first, then rapidly to a peak, then falls rapidly, then slowly again in a symmetric pattern.

At the top center of the case, hard dark balls fell one at a time onto the rods, bouncing from rod to rod. A ball hitting the rod directly beneath the opening was equally likely to bounce left or right. It was less likely to hit a second, lower rod, less likely still to bounce in the same direction two or more times in a row.

I understood this. No human or machine controlled the balls' motion. They fell at random. Yet this perfectly random motion filled the chimneys in the perfect pattern of a bell curve.

A bell curve was created by chance.

That astounded me. Mindless, inanimate matter moving by chance created an elegant form. It did so every time the chimneys were emptied into a hidden well and the balls started falling against the rods again.

I became overwhelmed with a realization that has stayed with me ever since:

Chance is not chaos.

Isaac Newton worked out the clockwork of the heavens. He believed that it could not exist without a clockmaker.

But it can.

All the patterns of nature result from mega-trillions of random events. The myriad cells in the human brain ultimately act randomly and are the product of random gene mutations, giving rise to a pattern, a history of decisions, a life and a soul.

The material and the nonmaterial have been wedded from the beginning of the universe. Metaphysically, the properties of an entity are simply the patterns formed by the boundary that separates it from other entities, allowing it to be distinguished. A general property embracing a multitude of entities crosses their boundaries, making them indistinguishable and invisible to sensory perception, which operates by discriminating boundaries.

General properties are thus invisible to the senses. An example of a general property is the square root of two. Another example is the binomial distribution, which can be generalized and made concrete by drawing a bell curve.

General properties are perceived through general properties of brain cells -- thoughts. Thoughts that lead to successful interaction with the world are considered true. There are infinitely many general properties, but the only valid ones for us are those that allow us to interact successfully with the material world. The internal laws of thought -- logic -- are the preferences evolution has given our minds.

Since evolution acts through the world, we assume that logic is a valid guide in interacting with the world. Thoughts range far beyond the particulars of the world, which means, on the one hand, that thoughts can follow along useless or dangerous lines, but on the other, that thoughts can lead to innovation, the creation of new realities.

Intelligence is inherent in nature. There are signs of intelligence everywhere. But it is rare for intelligence to be internalized in individual organisms, so we need not assume their presence every time we see signs of

intelligence, as in the clockwork of the heavens.

Yet, we exist in nature. Because nature's intelligence is internalized in us, it is inescapable to conclude that we have an important role to play in the destiny of the universe.

It is not guaranteed that we will survive to play such a role. Life may triumph in the universe and still perish on Earth. Yet, while our potential does not make us immune to the perils of the universe, it does give us reason to believe in ourselves, reason to accept human desires as reflective of tendencies inherent in nature.

 

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They Looked Like BILLIARD BALLS

The links I posted from Chicago have all disappeared from the web. My quote about "racking them up again" now makes no sense to anyone. So here's an explanation and a new link to a demonstration of Pascal's Triangle that uses ball bearings. The one I saw used 30,000 palastic balls the size of billiard balls. It was part of the classic 1961 "Mathematica" exhibit that was once again going on tour. It didn't stay at the Musuem of Science and Industry for very long, and pictures of it have been removed from their web site. Probably to embarass me:)

Here's a reality check from someone who saw the exhibit long ago.

REALO!

Ahmed Chalabi Goes to Washington

Ahmed Chalabi will be visiting Donald Rumsfeld and other high-level government officials while being whisked around DC in a Secret Service Limo. Pretty royal treatment for a fellow with so many pending warrants for his arrest.

FULL STORY

I have returned, and here's the first entry from my "Website of Mass Destruction".
OK crack open a cold one, and prepare yourself with PBR for my Weekend Edition:

Yes, We Have No Bananas, No Bananas from the CIA

John King of CNN has eaten too many bananas. The load of compost he dumped on TV viewers via CNN has aged considerably since the original lies that got us into Guatemala in 1952. Now a re-colonization of South America is being planned, and along with it the same stale CIA lies promulgated by smirking reporters, who, knowing the truth, nonetheless collaborate to mislead the American people because only they know which side their bread is buttered on.

FULL STORY