Administrative

Oler Update

I’ve had enough. More than half the comments on this post were from Oler, and they were generally nonsense, and generated a lot more unnecessary posts to respond to him. When I compared it to this post, in which he didn’t participate, and there was a reasoned and intelligent discussion, I just wondered, “why”? I can’t help but think that the correlation is meaningful.

The signal/noise ratio from him being zero, to first order, I’ve banned him from this blog. I, and my readers just have better things to do with our lives than to respond to his fantasies.

Science And Society

Wow

I decided to pull this up into a separate post, because I think it illustrates exactly the problem that Frank Tipler was identifying. Two comments:

“I’ll add that General Relativity is sort of a “dead end” in physics in the sense that practically nothing depends on it. You can’t really use it for anything.

and

Rand, I think you just cited the exception that proves the rule when you referenced GPS. Where else do you use general relativity on a regular basis? It’s an interesting topic, but doesn’t seem to be core to a physics degree.

Well, I provided at least one more example–tracking NEOs that might hit us in the next few decades.

But the point is that if you don’t understand general relativity, you won’t even know whether or not you need to consider it. I’m simply staggered by the notion that it’s an esoteric field that has no use.

Any time you do an orbital calculation, you have to know whether or not you can get by with Newton, or whether or not you need to incorporate Einstein. It may be that in many cases you don’t need to, but to not even consider it would be professional malpractice, just as someone doing a suborbital rocket would need to decide whether a flat-earth (i.e, Galileo) model was good enough, or if they had to do it Newtonian, and consider the differences in the model. And how could you possibly make such an assessment if you don’t understand General Relativity?

To me, this simply reinforces Tipler’s point.

Media Criticism

The Situation

…in Iraq:

So far this year, many more parts of central Iraq have been cleared of terrorists, and the remaining ones know they have to maintain their visibility to survive. Setting off several bombs a day keeps the terrorists in the news, even if the explosions take place in a smaller and smaller area of Iraq. The terrorists play more to the international media, than they do to anyone inside Iraq. The terrorists are already hated and feared throughout the country, even in Sunni Arab areas. There, the terrorists must increasingly divert resources to terrorize Sunni Arabs, and keep them in line. They are aided by Islamic conservatives, who see all the unrest as an opportunity to impose Taliban like rules on the population. If the terrorists accomplish nothing else, they will have shown how to manipulate the mass media, and divert attention from the true origins of the terrorists, and their objectives. It’s been a masterful job which, of course, the mass media will have no interest in examining anytime soon. In a generation or so, there will be books and articles about it, but the subject will never get a lot of media attention.

…Pro-Iranian Shia groups are having second thoughts. Several years of having a Shia majority running the country has instilled a confidence in the Shia community that has not been felt in generations. The thought of Iran pulling the strings in a Shia run Iraq was never very palatable. Iraqi Shia know that the Iranians despise Arabs, especially Iraqi Arabs. The Iranians try to hide this, but the Iraqis know, and now the thinking is “we can do this.” No one will know for sure until the Americans leave, and the security forces either stay united, or fragment to join the dozens of tribal, religious and political militias.

Education

Academic Fraud

Frank Tipler says that not only are English majors no longer required to know Shakespeare, but physics majors are no longer required to know general relativity:

The basic reasons why modern physics is not covered in required courses are identical to the basic reasons why Shakespeare is not covered: (1) the faculty in both cases want to teach their narrow specialty rather than the basic courses in their field, (2) the faculty members in both cases no longer understand the basic material in their own field, (3) the faculty no longer believe there are fundamental truths in their own disciplines. I’m sure that many members of typical university

Political Commentary

Sandy Burglar Update

Glenn asks the question that we still have no answer for:

“In giving up his license, Mr. Berger avoids being cross-examined by the Board on Bar Counsel, where he risked further disclosure of specific details of his theft.”

Hmm. That would seem to confirm suspicions that we haven’t gotten the full story. And why has the Justice Department seemed so uninterested in following through here?

Not just here. It seems that Clinton cronies are never held accountable for their actions, even under a Republican administration. One law for them, another for the rest of us.

Of course, Hillary may still have to testify in the Peter Paul civil trial. If so, we’ll see how her memory is.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!