Re: inverse-square law through geometry
From: John Steinberg (seesig_at_bottom.invalid)
Date: 11/08/04
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Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2004 16:53:42 GMT
Davoud wrote:
> Oy! I am constantly surprised at how much we have in common--though you
> are a bit ahead of me in the long-division front. Your post sent me to
> the dictionary to find out what long division is.
Oy! For your sake I hope this commonality is just an illusion. Really,
nobody should be like me. Dictionary, hrrrmm, I keep meaning to get me
one of those.
On the math front, there was a time (first two years of undergraduate
school) where I had a torrid love affair with math. I had long grasped
mathematical concepts quickly, but I just refused to study.
In college I started to apply myself and study, and honest-to-goodness
fell in love with math. The clarity, the precision, the refinement,
the answers to so many questions, it was heaven. Then one fateful day,
I was walking across a footbridge and I suffered a horrible epiphany.
Her name isn't important, but I married that woman and math seemed like
something for kids. Anyway, today that early promise in mathematics is
just a dream, like me reconciling my checkbook or leaving a tip without
using my digits.
> Are you still in the USA? The Canada Immigration sites have been
> overwhelmed, or so I read. I'm thinking summers in Québec and winters
> on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.
Nice, but I am and will always be a NYer. It's pretty clear had Canada
voted Crawford would have gotten their village idiot back, but I have
many ties to Canada - just no desire to move from my ancestral and
natural home.
> The apparent end of 228 years of liberal democracy is profoundly sad;
> that it would come eventually might have been expected by persons
> smarter than me, but that it came so soon, and in my lifetime, was
> completely unexpected. So much -- everything, actually -- in the way
> of rationalism and critical thinking was completely lost on the Bush
> voters.
I went through the five phases of grief (numbness, denial, anger,
depression, acceptance) very quickly. I had done all I could do by
election day and within about a day I recognized that for all the pain,
there was still a warm sun, bright stars, a clear sky, and much to
take comfort in.
This incumbent received more votes *against* him than any in history.
And did so when his rival was a Massachusetts liberal.
This 'war' president was soundly rejected by my home state and
surrounding region, and most of the places in this country that I would
consider living. The centers of culture, business, intellectual and
educational life firmly voted to send him home.
That NY, the place that suffered the most direct devastation of 9/11
and remains the putative favorite for another attack, said adios, in a
big way, to this presidency, provides me with much comfort.
I am not sad at all. In some ways, I am more at peace since 9/11 than
I could have ever imagined. Of course I'm mindful of the implications
for the country and the world, but I feel vindicated in a lot of ways.
True, I am embarrassed and ashamed that we have a dolt in the Oval
Office, but I didn't vote for this jackass, so no guilt here.
> I have been asked if I find it ironic that we are fighting wars
> against people just like us. "Not at all," I reply. There are many ways
> of viewing history, and the view of recorded history as a series of
> struggles between religious extremists is a valid as any other, IMO.
This is not the first time in American history that the religious right
has tipped the balance scale in their favor. Ultimately this too will
pass, and I look forward to the day when those on the far right look
into the mirror and recognize that the enemy is reflected back.
Help may not be on the way come January, but the worm will turn.
We now return this thread to its rightful owner and topic. Rod's DVD
collection.
--
-John Steinberg
email: not@thistime.invalid
...And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped.
--Sir Bedevere
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