My favorite film critic is currently busy.
craziness warning: violet
And you should be too.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
What is a miracle?
I would say something that cannot be explained by natural causes. I was arguing with a friend, saying that unlikely or statistically improbable is not miraculous. I will agree with John Stewart, we use the term too lightly. (He was referring to a Canadian plane crash.)
Religious warning: Gold
I really don’t think that miracles happen much anymore. I can’t think of one in recent history. Does this mean God doesn’t care? No, I think God learned that humans aren’t that impressed with miracles. This is why I think the Bible is one of the most realistic books ever written. Moses was dropping miracles left and right, the Israelites would be impressed for like 15 minutes, and then they would start complaining again.
Oh we of little faith. Humanity is constantly singing “What have you done for me lately?”
Of the people that believed they were miraculously saved from Katrina, how many of them will change the way they live. I’m not talking about moving to a new place to live, or being economically devastated. I’m referring to those that say, “God saved me…I’m gonna quit swearing, and quit drinking and start going to Church.”
I am guilty of lack of faith also. I’ve been lucky, when hit by cars, and I never really capitalized upon the gift of life that I was given.
So what would be an example of a miracle? So we will know if we witness one.
And remember, “an advanced enough technology will look like magic” (who said that? Arthur C.Clarke?). We don’t want to confuse advanced alien technology with the work of the Supreme Being.
I think something that goes against the arrow of time.
A puddle of water and shards of glass on the floor fly back up into the air and reforms into a glass of ice water on the table.
Cheese turning back into milk.
Thoughts?
Hey sports fans,
I usually try to be positive and uplifting here (unless of course I give a stoopid movie its due review) but today will be slightly different.
Different warning : cobalt blue
We as Americans are incredibly rich.
There are others in the world that are poorer than we can imagine.
And recently they have been hit with earthquakes.
I don't know the details, I don't know the best ways to help, but here at "getting better 3.15" we encourage you to think of non-Americans who have been hit by devestating disaster, AND help them.
It's the right thing to do.
Suggestions for best way to help?
Let me just start by saying that I am not smart enough or educated enough to be intelligently talking about the logician Kurt Gödel. I just finished Incompleteness, which discusses Gödel and his famous Incompleteness Theorem. Once again, I basically enjoyed the story of the people in the book, but when it came down to the explanations, I kinda had to skip some stuff.
A famous story of this math recluse was that when he became a United States citizen, he was asked about his Austrian citizenship. The judge made a flippant remark that America couldn’t become a fascist state. Gödel, who had spent weeks studying the Constitution, replied “on the contrary, I know precisely how it can happen here,” and started to explain an internal contradiction he had found in the Constitution that could be used to turn American into a tyranny. (No one knows the particular flaw Gödel found with the Constitution.) pgs 232-234
The other famous anecdote would be that Einstein said he went to work (at the Institute of Advanced Study) to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel.
Some interesting and funny quotes by Gödel:
“Who ever became more intelligent by reading Voltaire’s writings?” pg 247
“I don’t believe in natural science.” Pg 31
“You know Stalin didn’t believe in evolution either, and he was a very intelligent man.” Pg 32
Vain amateur attempt to explain “Incompleteness Theorem” warning: Red
Silly ideas of my own warning: bright red
Gödel proved that “there would never be a finitary formal proof of the consistency of the axioms of arithmetic with the system of arithmetic.” Pg 163.
Definition from Encyclopedia of Philosophy “In any formal system adequate for number theory there exists an undecidable formula-that is a formula that is not provable and whose negation is not provable. Pg 23-24
“…for each formal system there will be truths expressible in that system that will not be provable…” pg 191
Gödel gave a formal demonstration of the inadequacy of formal demonstrations.
What I think this means is that math is not self-supporting. For a long time I thought that math was perfect, that it could have no mistakes. That one of the beauties of it was that it was completely logical, and that there is a correct answer. Gödel proved that arithmetic is not consistent, that there are truths in arithmetic that cannot be proved in arithmetic. You have to go outside the system of arithmetic to prove them.
I think there may be proof of freewill implications.
pg 200 John Lucas, philosopher Oxford, 1961, “Gödel’s theorem seems to me to prove that Mechanism is false, that is, that minds cannot be explained as machine.”
Pg 201 Roger Penrose, Oxford, “Among the things that Gödel indisputably established was that no formal system of sound mathematical rules can ever suffice…to establish all the true propositions of ordinary arithmetic….there must be more to human thinking than can ever be achieved by a computer”
This contradicts what I believe Bertil Hille said in his lecture, “Can the mind just be a machine?”
Gödel pursued what Einstein called, “problems of genuine importance” pg 194. He published little but the following:
Five Gödel theorems: page 251-252
Proof theory
Model theory
Recursion theory
Set theory
Intuitionist logic
…all transformed by or had inception from Gödel
I think that Gödel could be described as the stereotypical depressed genius. “He…looked for (but failed to obtain) an epiphany that would enable him to see the world in a different light.” Pg. 260 Ironically enough, he gave mathematicians a new way to view the world.
It was a good day. I learned two things.
Trivia warning: purple
The price of Argon is high right now. There were a couple of plants in the Gulf region that were affected by hurricanes. And the main West Coast producer of Argon, (I forget, but they're in Canada) they are on strike now.
You are born with two neurons attached to every muscle fiber. But soon after birth, the neurons "fight" and then you only have one neuron per muscle fiber.
:-jon
for some reason I believe that if your pace is faster than 8 minutes per mile you are running. Greater than that is jogging. I don't know the speed difference between jogging and walking...gee I hope that I actually jogged the Portland Marathon a few years back. (And yes, my knees are still slightly grumpy with me about it. Or maybe I just need new shoes.)
running stats warning: mauve
So, we went up to the local middle school the other day, and I was able to run a 7:58 mile.
Wanna know a secret? I would like to run a 5:00 minute mile. And I feel the window of opportunity closing. I wish I wasn't so lazy.
:-jon