Re: JSH: Relief after the dump


Larry Hammick wrote:
Jesse F. Hughes wrote:
Why such slim odds? It's only a BS we're talking about here. That
doesn't seem very unlikely to me.

It really isn't so hard to find incompetent college graduates.

This being a JSH thread, I misread "BS" at first glance :)

If he had even a little physics, would JSH keep resorting to his
ridiculous quadratic equations to "prove" every conjecture in sight?
Also, he occasionally picks up a technical term ("Galois theory",
"quadratic residue", etc.) and then uses it over and over, without
necessarily knowing what it means; but physics jargon never creeps into
his stuff. He doesn't claim any breakthroughs in physics, nor does he
post to physics rooms AFAIK. He likes words, and he likes computers,
and he mentions other interests occasionally, but not physics.
Yet he does have a bee in his bonnet about academia and I wouldn't be
surprised if he once had some unpleasant experience in connection with
a university, perhaps Vanderbilt. Compare the case of Archie Plutonium.
Lots of cranks are the same way.

JSH's claim to have a physics degree from Vanderbilt is longstanding.
To my knowledge he's never narrated his experiences there in any
further detail, but there are a few observable characteristics that
tend
to support the idea of his having an undergraduate degree in science:

1. A notion of "proof" that amounts to equal parts giving examples of
things and a garbled form of reductio ad absurdum. The former, which
amounts almost to an idee fixe with JSH, would make more sense from
someone with a background in empirical science rather than math.

2. His rationalizations for posting here reflect an understanding, if
somewhat distorted by emotional affect, of the colleagial pursuit of
consensus on novel discoveries. After endlessly being chastised
for providing editorial content when a simple proof would suffice, JSH
has long since adopted this argument as if it were his own! Again
it makes more sense coming from a background in empirical science
rather than math. E.g. if he fails to get "results" published, it is
attributed by him to an opposing consensus rather than simply
bad math. With JSH, academic recognition is everything, and
the "proof" is incidental.

3. His original Web site, which purported to present a proof of FLT
that
could be followed by anyone with a knowledge of high school math,
contained a couple of preliminary sections rehashing the Abel-Barlow
results. There was considerable contrast in the writing style compared
to his "proof of FLT" page. It was more lucid and actually avoided any
mistakes greater than simple omission of assumptions that could have
been easily fixed, but it also avoided even the appearance of providing
proofs (another omission that at the time I wrote to him, explaining in
some detail how to supply, provoked a disinterested response). I got
the impression of material taken from a college "honors" paper, maybe
for a "not for math majors" class emphasizing historical methods.

4. His posts, however reckless and emotional, are quite grammatical
with a good vocabulary and spelling. I'd say his writing is college
level.

So I'm inclined to give credence to his claims of a physics degree from
Vanderbilt, despite JSH's litany of mathematical "results" that do not
stand up to even casual scrutiny. If one were motivated to lie about
one's academic accomplishments (not an unheard of event), wouldn't
one obsessed with painting themselves as all knowing and powerful
choose a bigger lie?


regards, chip

.

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