There they are, the villainous Israelis sucking back ‘nargilum’ (a flavoured smoke) on a Tel Aviv beach, detached from the plight of the Palestinians and letting the world go to hell while they soak in the rays.  While Middle East Peace is a crucial issue to the rest of the world, these hoodlums could care less so long as they can make money and laze on the beach.

This is the life of an Israeli as portrayed in Karl Vick’s Sept 13, 2010 Time Magazine article:

“Why Israel Doesn’t Care About Peace”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2015602,00.html

Vick has spun this distasteful tale using three main threads, a picture of beach bums, the testimony of two real estate agents, and a poll of critical issues.

Two Israeli real estate agents, Heli and Eli, it would seem, are sufficient witnesses to the moral state of a nation.  They claim proudly that even while the bombs were falling in Ashdod, real estate was still moving.  Eli claims Israelis are indifferent:

"They don’t care if there’s going to be war. They don’t care if there’s going to be peace. They don’t care. They live in the day."

In 1977 the Voyager Probe, launched by NASA, carried a ‘Golden Record’ containing images and sounds of the Earth.  Great deliberations went into the contents of this record to make sure that all races and peoples were equally represented.  Karl Vick would likely be quite surprised to learn that while composers from Beethoven to Chuck Berry are included, there are no real estate agents mentioned. 

If that was too delicate allow me to be blunt.  If God lived on Earth, a real estate agent would sell him a house with a leaky basement marketing it as “… with luxurious indoor swimming”.

Now on to Vick’s damming picture of beach bums.  If a picture is worth 1000 words then the scenery beyond the picture is worth a book; in this case the book is a tragedy.  Those ‘gluttonous’ beach bums are around 18 years old and likely on their way shortly to the army.  Israel has mandatory military service between high school and university for 3 years for males and females alike.  What Vick portrays as “Spring Break in the Middle East” is in fact a last dance before a tour of duty.  I’d say that deserves a toke or two.

Finally let’s deal with Vick’s appeal to statistics and polls.  Vick cites an Israeli poll asking participants to name the most urgent problem facing Israel.  Vick notes that

“just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty.”

He the draws the conclusion that:

“…among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls "critical for the world" just doesn’t seem — critical.”

First, ‘National Security’ likely subsumes the Palestinian conflict for many Israelis.  Next, Turnabout is fair play so let’s use the same logic on a recent US Poll.
When asked “what is the most important problem facing America?” Americans volunteered:
The Economy 49%
Health Care 8%  (Israelis cite the Palestinian conflict as their 8% issue)
Budget Deficit 4%
Wars: Afghanistan and Iraq 4%
Big Government 2%
Immigration 1%

(Apr 27, 2010: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20003551-503544.html)

So applying Vick’s logic symmetrically to this poll, it would seem Americans are callous war mongers who care about their own jobs and health well above the wars they’re actively involved in which have killed hundreds of thousands. 

I don’t support this conclusion, nor likely would Vick.  My point is that Vick uses polls, “as a drunken man uses lamp posts… for support rather than illumination”.  Israelis, by Vicks own admission, cite peace at 8% in their poll which carries equal weight to Health Care for Americans; Americans are anything but indifferent to Health Care.

I take exception with Vick’s swift and cobbled inference that Israelis are indifferent to peace.    Further I refuse to believe that a country with compulsory military service could possibly be indifferent to Foreign Relations.  Vick’s journalism is charlatanic at best.  In the nadir of the printed press, one would think attention to detail and quality would be paramount.  Perhaps Time Magazine need not ask why they are in their eleventh hour?

Stirling Fan

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/9051/msi_employees_stirling_engine_theory/index.html

I’ve posted information about Stirling Engines before:

can-stirling-engines-coupled-with-solar-power-be-the-key-to-meeting-our-energy-needs/

If you follow that link you’ll find a kit which can I used to build such an engine and video of it in operation.

What is cool about this latest application to cool a CPU is that it doesn’t require any additional energy to run.

primeconstellations

primeconstellations_doc_Mar0509

updated Mar 5, 2009

It was with a sense of great loss that I learned of the passing of Cantor Louis Danto.  I sang for many years under his tutelage in the Beth Emeth Choir with Charles Heller as conductor.

Further details about Cantor Danto and his life can be found here:

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19571&Itemid=86

During his funeral there was a poignant recording of his played.  It is called “Elohai Neshama” which is recited in the Shacharit (morning) prayers.  The text for the prayer derives from the Talmud (Berachot 60b)

The text is as follows with audio below:

Click “>” Play:

[
Audio via: http://faujsa.fau.edu/danto/danto_playlist.php?jsa_num=100021&queryWhere=jsa_num&queryValue=100021
Translation via: http://lethargic-man.livejournal.com/189508.html
]

http://religion.lilithezine.com/Patenting-Marriage.html

As I continue my studies of the Economy, I’m continually shocked and horrified to find more evidence of mass corruption.

http://www.gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal

The Gold Anti Trust Action Committee has taken out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal asking, where is all our Gold?

For readers’ information… how did the gold get into Fort Knox in the first place? In 1933 Roosevelt passed a bill mandating that all citizens hand over their gold at base price. This gold was then melted down and stored in Fort Knox.

The last time a civilization was asked to hand over all its gold, they built a golden calf such that they could return to slavery. This time, there was no Moses to save us from our own stupidity. We don’t tromp in mud pits making bricks, but we do tromp to 9 to 5 jobs each day churning out contributions to our 401 K’s.

Fort Knox has never been officially audited. Moreover, strong rumours exist that the Federal Reserve has procured this gold as collateral against the US national debt. If there is no gold to be found in Fort Knox, perhaps with an open and honest audit, we may again find our liberty.

GATA has a video of a symposium they held. A summary can be found here:
http://www.gata.org/goldrush21

it would seem to suggest that the poorer you are, the more inclined you are to be religious.  Perhaps it’s not so odd that most religious television programs are constantly begging for money.  However, they may do better by making their pleas for money to the aetheists instead of ‘preaching to the [poor] choir’ as it were.

Most interesting are the outliers on this graph.  The US is more religious than its overall wealth would suggest, so perhaps George Bush does indeed hear the voice of God.  Also note Kuwait which is highly religious and relatively prosperous compared to countries with similar levels of religiousity.

More information can be found here:

http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=258

(A hike in the Humber river valley (above) with my fiancé (to be wife) served as inspiration)

Riding along I see my dear/deer
River winding all the while
Feelings growing, growing near
Growing like the delta of the Nile

[Chorus]
We
Together will be
Like the river
Flows eternally
Truthfully

Beaver makes his home by the river
Building a dam and a den
I hope we live our lives like the river
Carving valleys ‘til who knows when

{Chorus}

[Bridge]
And if we lose our way
Remember the day
That the river flowed true
Remember we touched the sky
We didn’t need to wonder why
The river ran blue

River winds through our minds
Quenching our thirst for peace
Ebbing and flowing continually
Companionship released

{Chorus}

It all started well, but eventually my daughter was begging for my attention with diapers going unchanged, meals being skipped, etc etc.  It’s a great toy, if the kids can get near it.

Here’s the video!

Come out from the warmth to escape the cold.

As hard as it may be to believe, there is a hardy group of Torontonians that make a monthly pilgrimage into the north in search of yet colder temperatures and more snow. Several ski resorts offer a moonlight cross country ski with lantern lit trails.

Before you even strap on your skis there is a 100 KM trek up highway 400. My ski buddy and I occupied ourselves with banter of generational ski stories hearkening back to our youth. The pauses in conversation offered opportunities to observe the gradual shift in climate from the then snow-less tundra of Toronto to the more typically Canadian snow covered countryside. Upon our arrival, the sun surrendered to a crystal clear sky, as only a winter night can offer. The stars which quickly revealed themselves didn’t twinkle as they do in the heated updrafts of a summer night. Instead they shone resoundingly as if in contempt of the bone chilling -12 Celsius. The wind was strong in the parking lot and I was curious to know how the 6K trek was going to work out, feeling chilly already.

In the clubhouse there was a line of people purchasing trail passes and renting equipment. Mockingly, while under my visible breath, I wondered if I had found the world’s largest collection of long underwear-wearing masochists? The diverse lineup consisted of bus groups, — such as the Toronto Bicycling Network (which offers ski programs) — the old and young all speaking different languages and dialects.

We were soon underway. There is nothing like cross country skiing to warm up on a cold day. The forest canopy blocked the wind and all noise we urbanites were familiar with. We were all collectively struck by the deafening silence and serene darkness of the Copeland Forest. Some skiers wore headlamps looking like obstetric doctors cutting their way through the night.

Despite the occasional paraffin lantern, our more gradual, less illuminated trek was similar to an experience in a sensory deprivation tank. The only interruption in the isolation came from the occasional distant chugging of a freight train and the gentle trickle of a forest creek. About halfway through, my heightened senses detected fragrant burning pine and distant the flicker of a bonfire.

Marshmallows and apple cider were provided free of charge to the welcoming congregation. A toasted marshmallow offered my taste buds a throwback to my youth. I felt a kindred joy with the assembled children who were having so much fun that it could have just as easily been a midsummer night. The temperature was a distant memory left some 3K behind at the parking lot.

The trail continued from there in a loop which offered a gentle uphill and a brisk downhill. Effort and reward; cross country has no ski lifts; either does life. Slowly, while trudging upwards, the sky over the valley wall brightened with an indomitable light. In a seeming instant, the moonlight pierced the forest canopy casting dots of light over the sylvan glade creating a live impressionist painting. I have no talent for painting but seldom think much of it; however, beholding this site I felt the lacking.

The trail looped back to the bonfire such that you were never very far from warmth, food and drink. The experience offered the perfect balance between thoughtful isolation and warm camaraderie and uniquely balanced dark and light. Most Torontonians bitterly bemoan the winter and can’t wait to be rid of it. The moonlight ski offered a terrific opportunity to escape the cold by heading straight into it. Cold is only a problem if you are not in motion. Perhaps this notion offers a wider metaphor for life.

—–

Toronto Bicycling Network Pictures
http://www.tbn.ca/gallery/v/xcski/Horseshoe-Valley-February-11-2006/
http://www.tbn.ca/gallery/v/xcski/January+30+2010/

Episode 1: Examining Cancer Research and DCA. If a promising drug can’t get a patent, it risks never used in a patient. 
Guests:  Drs. Akbar and Humaira Khan – Medicor Cancer Centres.

  Slides

Evidently the terrorist attacks on Sept 11, 2001 were really just a smokescreen for the more prolonged strategy to destroy our economy.  It started with Fedr Al Grin, a high ranking operative deeply embedded in the US banking system, decided to lower interest rates under the guise of stabilizing the economy. 

Below is a transcript of the interrogation of the recently captured Al Qaeda operative Hanny P’Alsin:

This [Fedr Al Grin's actions] led to freely available money which the “infidels gulped up like candy.”  Fedr Al Grin smiled happily watching the infidels load up on overpriced housing and cars they couldn’t afford until 2005 when he started to tighten the noose he had placed around the necks of the infidels.

In 2005 Fedr Al Grin started to raise the interest rates, again under the guise of protecting the economy, and the foolish infidels fell for it.  Suddenly they all began to realize that they were living beyond their means as the money supply evaporated.  Fedr Al Grin played the clarinet as the mortgage market burned.  The Department of Homeland defense became wise to Fedr Al Grin and had him removed from office.  Under water boarding at Abu Ghraib, Fedr Al Grin admitted to many of his sins and wrote an expose detailing the turbulent times he had overseen. 

However, while Fedr Al Grin was on one hand admitting to the evils of the system he had overseen, he had already placed a backup, his protoge Bin Bernik in place.  Bin Bernik watched as banks suffered and fell.  In their weakest moment, he offered help with a secret system to bail them out with infidel taxpayer dollars.  Bin Bernik was well trained by Fedr Al Grin to use a financial terrorist tactic to counterfeit US treasury notes.  By printing too many of them and using this counterfeit money to bail out and own financial institutions, Ben Bernik was and is covertly taxing the entire infidel population into bankruptcy.

One by one the mighty infidels fell.  Bear Sterns, survivor of the great depression sacrificed itself at the feet of Ben Bernik and his plan.  Freddie and Fannie, sacrificed themselves to Bin Bernik saddling the infidels of America with $5 trillion dollars in debt in a single weekend.  Even to this very day, the great intelligence of this plan is still giving fruit.  Lehman Brothers of New York is faltering, soon to fall. 

The US infidel automakers are also rallying to the cry of Bin Bernik.  They too want this free money which secretly bankrupts the US economy.  Airlines, insurance companies, all too big to fail, will sing the song of Bin Bernik to their destruction.  Bin Bernik will happily supply all these companies with counterfeit currency and thus dilute the savings of all the infidels until their lavish economy implodes.

On this anniversary of 9/11 we as Americans have come to realize that all our problems exist overseas.  Clearly this latest report serves only to amplify our need for our continued efforts in the Middle East occupying more sovereign nations to ensure our freedom.  I call on all Americans to pick one of the non-invaded ‘stans (Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan) for immediate attack.  It doesn’t matter which one, clearly any country ending in ‘stan will harbor some sort of terrorist.  Only in so doing will we secure freedom for our children and security at home.

Randall Mills Holding A Hydrino Reactor

BlackLight’s physics-defying promise: Cheap power from water – Jul. 2, 2008.

“For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.”

  — G. K. Chesterton

It would seem that the same is true regarding our worship of fossil fuels.  As fuel prices skyrocket there has been a run on alternative energy ideas.  I’ve covered several on this blog. 

http://mwiner.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/over-unity-cavetation-water-heater/
http://mwiner.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/thane-heins-perpetual-motion-free-energy-or-simply-releasing-a-brake/
http://mwiner.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/perpetual-motion-claim-if-its-a-hoax-its-a-good-one/
http://mwiner.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/solution-to-the-energy-crisis-aluminum-hydrogen-cycle/

This one, like that of Thane Heins breaks some laws of physics.  In the case of Heins, it was the Law of Conservation of Energy.  Randall Mills has broken some laws of Quantum Mechanics in suggesting that there is a lower energy state below the currently known ground state of hydrogen.  Mills terms such hydrogen atoms in this new lower energy state: ‘hydrinos’.

Electrons orbit the nucleus at well defined distances.  These distances (states) are finite, discrete or quantized as it were.  If an electron is excited by an influx of energy, it jumps to a higher state.  Conversely when an electron jumps to a lower orbital state, it releases some energy (a quanta of energy).  There is a theoretical limit to how low an electron can go in this scheme.  It’s called the ground state and it’s analogous to the lowest floor an elevator can go.

Hydrogen is the simplest, and most studied atom in modern science.  It consists of a proton and an electron.  It’s no wonder then that when Mills claims to have discovered a new ‘basement’ state below the known ground state that many physicists dismiss him out of hand.  If Mills is correct however, then this new ‘basement’ state could be used to cause hydrogen to release much more energy than simply burning hydrogen.

The crown jewel of science is the scientific method.  It avoids any political and otherwise human failings.  In short, can Mills produce this effect reproducibly and reliably.  The answer so far appears to be yes.  Mills’ company Blacklight has released prototype commercialized applications of his technology which are slated to be installed in power stations in 2009. 

During the interim, there is soft evidence which is also compelling.  Mills doesn’t want your money.  He has plenty of it in the form of $60 million in investments.  Mills also doesn’t want your help.  He has plenty in the form of an all star board of directors featuring many energy magnates.  All Mills needs to do now is to demonstrate his technology working on industrial scales.  He promises to deliver energy at 2 cents per kilowatt hour, whereas the current national average is 8.9 cents. 

This blog will continue to track events on this front.

Our first day consisted of pen and pencil cognitive tests adding numbers, mentally folding boxes, and figuring out which way a submarine will go when its control surfaces were adjusted. Rudely, I knew exactly where I’d like that submarine to go upon first inspection, but there was no entry on the form for my proposed destination. Despite the continued assurances of the counselors that these tests were only a part of the overall equation, they were a shot across the bow for many of us since these tests are becoming ever more popular in interviews. I personally lost several points on one test after falling into a daydream where I asked: “If I took a five pound weight and used a 10 meter lever, would it be enough to crush the infernal 5 minute timer which callously and repeatedly told us we were out of time?”

Were we out of time? Were we too old, too obligated to family, short on funds, or too far removed from Canadian culture to find the employment and fulfillment we sought? Despite healthy doses of gallows humour about the testing process and the general state of the economy there was a palpable weight on people’s shoulders. While we all smiled and shrugged off the indignity of the return to school days, we all feared that the next spatial visual acuity box we might fold might very well be a coffin in which we would be forced to bury our dreams.

Fortunately the rest of the program returned our egos to an even keel. Patricia, a course facilitator guided us through assessments of personality where the only wrong answer was to have no personality to speak of; fortunately this was a fate suffered by no one. She is a veteran of many lands, many careers and I imagine many recessions who seems to pay them no mind. Her right and proper British manner seems to remind us of Mary Poppins who would advise us all to take “a spoon full of [optimistic] sugar to make the [recession] go down.”

Then there was Derek, the course facilitator with a coy and sly smile which hinted at his razor sharp interviewing style sure to eviscerate any unsuspecting and inauthentic candidate. While we would rue having him on the opposite side of the interview table, luckily for us, he was on our side and was willing to share his insights. He built our confidence and ability to market ourselves and revealed some insider interviewing secrets such as having his secretary work on his behalf as a covert agent. Candidates be forewarned: be nice and polite to the secretaries – while you cannot remain silent, everything you say can and will still be used against you.

Career change is never easy, under any financial climate. I note that some attendees proudly claim that they can do anything while others are more reserved about their dreams and ambitions. Our facilitators would quickly point out that the differences in expressions were due to the different personality types we had studied that week. Both types of expression however are a defense against the underlying fear that our high flung ideas will run aground on McDonald’s Island where we’ll be forever enslaved serving cheeseburgers to other people who somehow managed to make it. There was tremendous talk among attendees of the economic climate and other external factors which the course could not possibly change. The course however, spent precious little time on the economic situation and instead looked to what it could adjust, our attitude and direction. Ultimately we all cast off and sought our own safe harbours but we did so with the benefit of a true and straight compass. For the beacon lighthouse JVS offered me in navigating a foggy and tumultuous job market, I am truly grateful.

There is much discussion in forums and in the literature as to how to ensure that we construct Friendly AI when seeking to construct intelligent consciousnesses. It appears that we are suffering hugely from some tragic, yet simple mistakes in diction. Let’s deal with them word by word.

First, we have ‘Artificial Intelligence’. This is the first misnomer. There is no such thing as ‘artificial’ intelligence, only intelligence. The artificial modifier is used colloquially to indicate non-human, created by human intelligence. Even with this clarification, the term still does hold any meaning. A nuclear bomb is an artificial intelligence by this definition. Its intelligence is limited to how to react to the ‘fire’ command, how to navigate to its target and when to detonate, but it’s an intelligence nonetheless.

Wait? How are we now speaking of nuclear bombs as ‘intelligent’. That can’t be right! Clearly we have problems with our definition of intelligent. The problem is that we use intelligent as a noun when in fact it is more of an adjective. The gradients of intelligence can be illustrated by the following example.

Suppose we build a robot that can respond to the verbal command ‘walk’. We say ‘walk’ and away it goes walking. Wow! How intelligent! So intelligence is the ability to respond to commands. There, we now have a working definition of intelligence.

Wait?! What about a robot that walks but if it encounters a precipice such as a cliff, it stops. Great, even more intelligent! Now intelligent is something that responds to commands but is able to assess the situation to decide for itself when to disobey the command. Thus intelligence must include the holism of situational awareness. There, so now we’re done.

But wait?! Suppose your enemy is lying below you on this same cliff and you order the robot to walk towards it. It stops at the cliff. You explain to it, that you need it to walk over the cliff to land on top of your enemies head such that you may survive. The robot understands the sacrifice it is making and rolls off the cliff. A miracle of intelligence! Now intelligence must include the holism of understanding the notion of a personal sacrifice to reach a common goal. Finally we’re done with our definition.

But wait! Finally your enemy is beneath you on the cliff and you again order the robot to roll off the cliff to fall on top of your enemy. The robot refuses! POS! (this is technical lingo for Piece of ‘Sugar’). This robot clearly isn’t intelligent at all! You beg and plead with it, explaining your ‘superior’ logic to it as to why it must die, to defeat your enemies. What you don’t know is that it has calculated that it has insufficient mass to incapacitate your enemy and when it examines the holistic intelligence of its decision vis-à-vis the state of the universe it faces two choices. 1) a broken robot and an surviving enemy or a 2) working robot and a surviving enemy and picks the more holistically logical of the two. In this case, the robot is more intelligent than the person issuing the orders, but the person issuing the orders, for whatever reason is incapable of seeing this superior intelligence. I point out with emphasis, that intelligence is the sum of logic and holism.

So how does this allegory solve the problem of having to refer to nuclear bombs as intelligent (artificially or otherwise)? While we still must refer to nuclear bombs as intelligent, the allegory offers two terms ‘holism’ and ‘logic’ by which we can differentiate ourselves and other intelligences we may choose to create from the intelligence of a nuclear bomb. We see the definition of intelligence of the robot evolve as the allegory progresses in four stages. The first holism is the knowledge of self and universe and the ability to react to stimulus (respond to ‘walk’). The second holism is the realization that there is a possible termination of existence, and a maximization of survival and fitness in the universe (‘stopping at a cliff when told to walk’). The third level of holism occurs in the realization that you are part of a larger whole and that even by reducing your immediate survivability, the whole could be advantaged (‘self-sacrifice of the robot reduces the survivability of the robot but increases the survivability of the robot-owner pair). The final holism occurs when the robot considers itself as part of the universe and evaluates how the universe is best optimized by its actions. In this final holism, the considered unintelligent by it’s owner, however, upon closer inspection of its reasoning it can be demonstrated that the robot was more intelligent than its owner. Returning to our nuclear bomb, it’s still intelligent, in that it can respond to its surroundings given the ‘fire’ command, however, it lacks the holistic intelligence as to the damage it will inflict upon humans.

We’ve managed to pare ‘artificial’ away from intelligence, leaving us with only discussions of intelligence hereinafter. Parenthetically when people speak of artificial intelligence, they are really discussing the construction of intelligent devices, optimizing for holism. Now we are in a position to examine the notion of Friendly AI, or, as we now may see, Friendly Intelligence. I intend to demonstrate that the ‘friendly’ modifier is superfluous, that is to say that Friendly Intelligence and intelligence are one in the same. As a corollary I intend to show that ‘unfriendly intelligence’ is really just a failure in the holism of the intelligence under consideration.

The pain due to discussion of ethereal terms such as holism and intelligence is often soothed by concrete examples. Let’s consider the example of an intelligence which was commissioned to solve the overpopulation of rabbits in Australia. Rabbits are non-indigenous to Australia and have no predators there. Sure enough, as the aphorism goes, they bred like rabbits and they were hugely overpopulated causing ecological peril. The commissioned intelligence came up with a lethal rabbit virus. The virus was purified, its virulence increased, its lethality maximized. This virus was then unleashed on the unsuspecting rabbit population. Those that had relied on the intelligence understood its approach and expected a quick eradication of the problem. However, very few rabbits died and the problem persisted. What happened? Was the intelligence unfriendly?

The intelligence failed to take into account the holistic knowledge of how viruses evolve and spread. The virus killed the rabbits so quickly that it failed to transmit itself to the population. The only variations of that virus that did transmit themselves were the less virulent strains. (For any biologists in the house, this is referred to as a bottlenecking event in evolution.) In a short order of transmissions, the virus was completely harmless. The rabbits persisted, unharmed. Thus we see that a possible ‘friendly intelligence’ would have taken that holistic knowledge into account. Thus we see that friendly intelligence is synonymous with holistic intelligence which, in turn, is synonymous in common usage with intelligence in general. The modifier ‘friendly’ need not be used.

Now before we completely dismiss the ‘friendly’ modifier from in front of ‘intelligence’ we have to visit the intended meaning of its users. We all can imagine humans constructing an intelligent device which ends up harming us in some way. Thus friendly AI would seem to refer to the construction of intelligent devices which are prevented from harming humans, their inventors. Regrettably, ‘harm’ is a value loaded term. Let’s use a fun thought experiment to demonstrate the issues.

Let’s invent a hypothetical intelligent computer which comes online today. Just for fun, let’s give it sufficient power to simulate the entire planet. That is, to see the current state of the planet and run simulations. Effectively, we’ve given this computer the ability to see the future (Heisenberg uncertainty aside, we’ll give it the ability to see a 99% accurate picture of the future). The computer runs its simulations and discovers that in 50 years the planet will be hugely overpopulated and massive resource wars will ensue. It sees a future of dog-eat-dog Malthusian horror. In response, the computer immediately unleashes a virus which selectively sterilizes people such that the population stabilizes at what the computer determines is a ‘sustainable’ level. The population is unaware of this simulation; moreover, the computer tries and fails to explain to the general population why it’s doing what it’s doing. The inventor is sanctioned as an evil person who created a doomsday machine, an unfriendly AI. Parenthetically, ‘evil’ is a term I take to mean ‘a lack of holism’. In any conflict between intelligences when one accuses the other of being evil, one party has a flaw in their holism.

Thus, the message of friendly AI is that we must, in constructing intelligent devices, seek to maximize the holistic intelligence of those devices. We must also accept that intelligences which we construct to be ‘friendly’ may do what appears to be ‘unfriendly’ things to us. When we are in conflict between what is ‘friendly’ and ‘unfriendly’ we must realize that either our holism is flawed, in that we fail to see the friendliness in the seemingly unfriendly act, or the holism of our construction has somehow failed and is actually committing an unfriendly act. Thus, while I dismiss the use of ‘friendly’ intelligence as superfluous, I simultaneously submit that the issue is addressed by being careful to build holistic intelligence.

In conclusion, the study of Intelligence offers to solve one of humankind’s most pervasive questions: "does ‘good’ ultimately triumph over ‘evil’?" Setting aside the value loaded terms ‘good’ and ‘evil’ for a moment; the question is uniquely tied to the corollary question: "is the ultimate intelligence ‘good’?" Fortunately we have a model intelligence with which to study this question. We turn to the intelligence of human society. "Wait! That’s no intelligence?!" Sure it is. Political systems are tried out, weights assigned, optimizations applied. Ideas are discussed in forums, weights assigned, hashed, rehashed. Make no mistakes about it, human society is an intelligence, just a very (painfully) slowly moving one. So let’s press fast forward. For every extinction level event you can imagine, there must be a non-zero probability of the human race surviving it. Thus, even if an extinction level event occurs, we shuttle to another ‘human like’ planet where the non-zero probability of survival actually allows that society to survive and continue. This has the same effect of imagining this planet where every extinction level event is somehow avoided. On such a planet, does good ultimately triumph? We’ve seen the triumph of democracy (yes, still in progress and democracy itself is not a perfect solution, but a better one for sure). In the future will we not see the triumph of some better methods of government? We’ve seen the eradication of some diseases. Will the future not see the eradication of many diseases? We’ve seen the increasing awareness of our impact on the environment in our correcting of the ozone hole (it’s closing). Will the future not see improved environmental awareness too? I can offer no conclusive proof that good will triumph over evil, only subjective evidence. However, the construction of an intelligence whose evolution time is much shorter than the evolution time of our society’s intelligence will help speed our answers to this pervasive and compelling question.

Intro:

You go to a ‘learning about the faith weekend’ or some such event expecting to be enlightened.  Up to the podium steps a bearded Rabbi whose face speaks of wisdom and learning.  Eagerly you wait for the inspiration you’ve been waiting for to believe.  Out of those lips flow an argument which is akin to a method of argument you’ve learned about in calculus class: induction.  Starting from a base generation which witnessed an event at Mount Sinai, this story has been passed down through the generations unchanged until it reached your ears.  A miracle!

The Argument:

Numbers 1:24-26 tells of 600,000 adult males that witnessed the giving of the laws to all at Mt. Sinai.  Since it is impossible to fake the simultaneous testimony of 600,000 adult males (approx 2-3 million all together) the story must be true.  Since your (Jewish) ancestors witnessed and passed on the story of God publicly giving us his laws, we must obey his laws and worship him.

Another plausible solution:

20,000 people witnessed a volcano and worshipped it.

20,000?

There is a confusion in hebrew between alluph (chief, master, family clan) and eleph (thousand).  They are spelled the same way since the torah (and most semitic languages) omit vowels.  As a result a redaction or copy error has led to the interpretation of alluph as eleph.  600,000 adult males in ancient egypt is just a historically ridiculous number.  For more info, visit:
reconciling-biblical-numbers-three-million-at-sinai-is-making-a-mountain-out-of-a-molehill

Volcano?

Many descriptions of Mount Sinai sound more to me like a volcano than anything else.  The fact that the Israelites heard God’s voice in this may simply mean that they were frightened by the volcano and thought it was God’s voice?  Recall this is the time of sun worship.  It was common then to worship natural phenomenon and deify them.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Mount_Sinai#Biblical_description

Do I really believe Israelites worshipped a volcano?

I believe that the Israelites may have heard loud scary sounds at a volcano or some other natural phenomenon.
See, second part of:
http://extremegh.blogspot.com/2008/07/apology-to-rjm-chazal-destroy-kuzari.html

My point is that my alternative explanation is as plausible, if not more plausible than the Kuzari explanation.  Hence the Kuzari proves nothing.

Why should we care about debunking the Kuzari Proof?

“Every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we weaken our powers of self-control, of doubting, of judicially and fairly weighing evidence. We all suffer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the fatally wrong actions which they lead to…. But a greater and wider evil arises when the credulous character is maintained and supported, when a habit of believing for unworthy reasons is fostered and made permanent.” — W. K. Clifford

That’s why!

Over the years I’ve tried a few tools for converting from various file formats to PDF.  Fortunately, I chanced upon this one:
http://www.download.com/PrimoPDF/3000-10743_4-10264577.html?tag=lst-0-1

What a great tool!  All you need do is install it and it shows up as a printer that you can print to.  Simply print from any application and a popup dialog box will ask you where to save your PDF file.  You needn’t worry about spyware or malware either.  It’s certified spyware free by CNET.

Take a look at the terrific job it did on my Math paper about Prime Constellation Counting Functions.

Number of Prime Constellations

http://www.goodnewstoronto.ca/heroes.html

I found a very useful tool for creating nicely formatted equations. I find MS-Word’s equation editor a little lacking when it comes to some math functions. I came across this site:
http://rogercortesi.com/eqn/index.php
which will allow you to enter a LaTeX equation and it will return the properly formatted equivalent in several convenient formats.

For example if you wanted to enter the equation for the prime twin counting function (the number of prime twins between P(n) and P(n)^2) the LaTeX would be:

\#twins[P(n)\to P(n)^2] =
[\frac{(P(1)-1)*(P(2)-1)*...*(P(n-1)-1)}{2*P(1)*P(2)*...*P(n-1)} *(P(n)^2-P(n))]- n*\log_{10}(n)*0.058652

the output would be:

Many thanks to Roger Cortesi for making this tool available.

http://s21.divshare.com/launch.php?f=7793954&s=c76

My high-school English teacher taught us a module on the holocaust.  As part of the module we read ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel in addition to some other texts on the subject.  I remember quite vividly the stark transition of Elie Wiesel from an optimistic Torah student to a hardened realist by the end of the war.  At the beginning of the book he was discussing the notion that there were many pathways into the Garden of Eden (heaven).  By the end of the book you were left wondering which pathway coincided with the horrible events of the Holocaust.

I myself, like the young Wiesel, was an optimistic student of Torah.  I was convinced that everything would be alright and that the events Wiesel had endured would soon be redeemed by the imminent return of the Jewish Messiah.  Nothing would or could shake my faith or at least, so I though.

At the end of the module on the Holocaust, our teacher brought in a slide show.  He was a tour leader for ‘March of the Living’ which is a tour of high school students to the concentration camps of Europe followed by Israel.  I saw images of soap made from human bodies and fabric made of human hair.  These images attacked my shield of faith violently but the attack was repelled.

It was only when my teacher got to the image of the mausoleum shown above that I felt my shield give way a little and the sharp edges of that image met with flesh.  The damage was not done in a single instant.  The initial damage felt more like a pin prick, but like glass shards in carpet fibers, over time they wear into the pile until the underpad is exposed and bare.

My initial thoughts were defensive: “Perhaps there were the ashes from the wood included with the ashes of the bodies, accounting for the large volume?”  I had seen cremation urns however, and had previously remarked that the volume of ashes was remarkably small.   I had many other such attempted defenses but they all failed.

Again, the reaction to this image was anything but immediate.  It was a slow process which occurred over several years.  Whenever I hear God exalted and people sing the virtues of religion, this image was in the back of my mind.

This image just didn’t mesh with my view of the universe — a universe with a caring God that would soon make everything alright.  Some things once done, can’t be undone, no matter what the explanation.  When I decided that there would be no explanation that I would accept for the mausoleum at Majdanek, I was forced to conclude that there could be no active caring God.  That one image changed my entire world view.  I’ve never been the same since.

It turns out however that the Beatle’s Song “Because” off the Abbey Road Album was indeed composed based on the reversed chord progression of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.

John Lennon in a 1980 interview remarked:

I was lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ on the piano. Suddenly, I said ‘Can you play those chords backward?’ She did, and I wrote ‘Because’ around them. The song sounds like ‘Moonlight Sonata,’ too. The lyrics are clear, no bullshit, no imagery, no obscure references.

The next clips show “Because” forward and reversed as well as “Moonlight Sonata” forward and reversed.  Note that it is the chord progression which is reversed between “Because” and “Moonlight Sonata” but the forward and reversed versions give you a feel for the similarities between the two pieces. 

“Because”

Forward:

Reverse:

“Moonlight Sonata”

Forward:

Reverse:

Here are the links for Ron Paul’s speech from his Rally for the Republic:
(1/3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGONDUxUxc4
(2/3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbzdOFhDydc
(3/3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPO9mPCqG70

I’m 100% behind his commitment to restore the power over issuing money back to the government.  His monetary policy is a breath of fresh air with promises to eliminate income tax and abolish the Federal Reserve.

As for his policy of non-interventionism, I’m not convinced that we live in a world where we can simply detach from the rest of it and hope for the best.  While I agree that the US is overburdened by its subsumed role of world police, I don’t think that turning a blind eye to the affairs of the world will result in a better tomorrow for America.  Of non-interventionism I will say this.  When the oxygen masks drop down in a plane as a result of depressurization they tell you to put on your mask first to make sure you’re getting enough oxygen to help others with their masks.  It makes sense to mend fences at home before mending fences elsewhere.  Just the same after we’re in better shape, we can’t simply ignore the rest of the masses and assume they’ll be happy for us as we live better lives than they do.

My tried, tested and true recipe.
3 leeks, trimmed, well washed and quartered
3 carrots
1 parsnip
4 celery stalks
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 bunch dill stems
2 bay leaves
6 peppercorns
3 tsp white wine
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1.2 kg chicken bones, parts
14 cups water

Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, simmer for a few hours. Refrigerate overnight and then skim off fat. For a clearer broth, strain through cheesecloth.

Yield – approx. 12 cups chicken soup.

I typically shy away from watching American Idol. I find watching peoples hopes dashed by ‘judges’ akin to watching humans flayed by gladiators to the amusement of the dullard populace. Parenthetically, I wonder how the objectively questionable voices of legends: Louis Armstrong, Neil Young, Bob Dylan or Robert Plant would survive the scrutiny of the bastions of talent assessment found in judges: Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul. Paula Abdul. My automatic grammar checker is telling me that the sentence “Paula Abdul.” on its own is a sentence fragment; I couldn’t disagree with it more in this context. In fact, I find it to be a full paragraph.While I find the show irksome, mustering the power to ‘turn the other cheek’ is about as hard as turning to another channel and as such, I haven’t, until recently, paid it much mind. However, when this show chose to wax moral, I perked up my ears because when a Fox Network program discusses morals, this is bound to be something I want to tune into. (Words fail to express the sarcasm of the previous sentence.) The Fox Network is the same network which brought you the tasteful tidbit “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?” and is the official station of George W. Bush and his war to eradicate weapons of mass destruction. (In a strange twist of fate, the largest [and only] weapon of mass destruction after the year 2000 in Iraq turned out to be George W. Bush himself.) This is the network that sought to sanction contestant Antonella Barba on American Idol after it was revealed she had some scandalous photographs found on the internet. Barba was voted off the show, but it was her voice that was cited as the final cause. Nonetheless, American Idol has previously removed a contestant “Frenchie” after pictures surfaced of her on an adult pay site.

A Google search of either girl will reveal an onslaught of the related pictures as well as 50 pop up adds suggesting you need a larger penis, methods for fixing the problem and several contests you’ve won which should provide funds for any such programs. After closing the fog of pop ups, the pictures that emerged were at best Maxim or FHM worthy. To those not versed in the realm, Maxim and FHM are to Playboy and Penthouse as light-filtered-cigarettes are to cigars. My initial reaction to the pictures was flaccid causing me to momentarily rethink closing all the previous pop ups. After that moment I realized that I was unimpressed because it was clear to me that these pictures had absolutely nothing to do with the talent of the contestants. For the record, Frenchie has moved on to a promising career on Broadway. Instead, these pictures had everything to do with our confused morals.

Some will immediately protest: “the show is called American IDOL” — emphasis on ‘idol’ — and hence part of the criteria must be if such people are worthy of being idols. As soon as we open this can of worms, it’s necessary for American Idol to somehow consider the morals of the contestants. Morals and ethics are complicated and I’m certain that the Fox Network lacks the acumen to address the issue. In fact, I find it very hard to determine if it was revealed that Barba mutilated puppies would it have received more or less press and attention? I hear the conservative drone say: “the children, the poor children, whatever will we do if they see those pictures?!” To such parents, I point out that what would happen to children if children watch the evening news? I will attend that point momentarily.

Only in such a state of moral asymmetry could we even begin to ask these sorts of questions. Let’s look at the issue. Pornography: bad, good, neither, both? Dr Phil’s ‘Occam’s Razor’ style argument on the topic goes like this: If you wouldn’t want your daughter involved in porn, then why would you watch someone elses’ daughter? Dr Phil, President Bush and the Fox Network are experts at providing short answers to complicated questions that sound reasonable and under scrutiny turn out to be faulty. At the risk of being guilty of the same thing I accuse Dr. Phil, the short answer to Dr. Phil is: I don’t want my daughter to be a sanitation maintenance engineer (the politically correct term for garbage man/woman) but that doesn’t stop me from taking my trash to the curb. However, let’s take a deeper look at the issue, and to do so, we’ll restrict the general porn issue to examining going topless at a beach. If anyone reading the rest of this article derives that I carte blanche advocate pornography, I invite them to reread the previous sentence.

(An unremembered comedian [likely Bill Maher or Robin Williams] once quipped that to, the overly simplified criminal justice mantra, “three strikes and you’re out” is the answer to gays in the military “four balls and you walk”?)

I’d like to ask Dr. Phil if he’d let his daughter go topless on a beach. I suspect strongly that he’d say no. Then I’d like to ask him if he’d let his daughter go topless on a beach in Brazil where the practice is commonplace (certainly more common place) and considered about as common as walking around in a bikini. I suspect he’d still say no, but the question would have got him thinking (and hopefully you as well). People will hem and haw over this point but that’s only because we’re dealing with the cusp of what’s currently considered ‘ok’. Then I’d ask him if he’d let his daughter wear one piece swim suit (not a bikini). I suspect he’d say yes. Then I’d finally ask him, if he lived in the 1800′s (when woman swam in the equivalent of a ‘Burka’) would he also let her wear a one piece swim suit? I’d like very much to hear his answer. Whether he says yes or no, he’d be forced to admit that his ‘morals’ have more to do with the time (society) he lives in than what is actually ‘right or wrong’. Star Wars got it right when George Bush gawks: “You’re either with us or against us” and Obe Wan Kenobi replies: “only the Sith believe in absolutes.” It’s my personal belief that the ‘Sith’ is a code for George Bush and the conservative lot (Sith = Simple Ignorant THeists).

Thus, questions of moral propriety are very hard questions to answer, and I sure as hell don’t want the Fox Network to even make the attempt. The question of where this moral confusion arose in the first place begs answering. I can only offer an answer in a form of an allegory of two presidents. First we have a story of an otherwise good president who had sex in the oval office; He was impeached. Next we have a story of a president who didn’t have sex in the oval office and sent a nation to war to get rid of weapons of mass destruction which didn’t exist. This president who sent thousands to their deaths for no reason at all was, was… was… Oh, nothing happened to him.

The take home message of all this confusion is that morals are hard. You’re going to have to turn off the TV and think about them if you want to have a chance of getting them right. In turn, the only take home message one can glean about the state of American morals from all this is that Americans are fine with boobs only so long as one doesn’t post pictures of them on the internet and instead elects them to office.

What follows are pictures of volcanoes, one from a recent eruption in Iceland.  Try to guess which is which. 

View Full Album

Update: There will be a History Channel special on this: “Quest for the Lost Ark” on March 2, 2008 at 8pm.

I was reading a recent article in Time magazine and had to double check that I was reading an article in the “Health & Science” section instead of a book review of the most recent Dan Brown novel. The article can be found here:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1715337,00.html

Since this generation suffers from a mass case of ADD, let me use bullets to demonstrate how Tudor Parfitt, a professor at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, reveals the Ark to be a multipurpose carry-all for religious relics which doubles conveniently in times of war for a cannon. Yes, you read correctly.

• A Southern African tribe called the Lemba claimed to be a lost tribe of Israel. (They practice circumcision and call meetings using a rams’ horn.) No one believed them until it was discovered that the Lemba priestly cast had the same frequency of a specific marker to the Jewish priestly cast (cohens).
• The Lemba also claim to be custodians of the Ark of the Covenant. Based on the now verified first claim, Parfitt began to investigate this second claim.
• The Lemba call Ark the ngoma lungundu.
  • “The ngoma,according to the Lemba, was near-divine, used to store ritual objects, and borne on poles inserted into rings. It was too holy to touch the ground or to be touched by non-priests, and it emitted a ‘Fire of God’ that killed enemies and, occasionally, Lemba. A Lemba elder told Parfitt, ‘[It] came from the temple in Jerusalem. We carried it down here through Africa.’”
• His search led him to the ancient city of Senna where Parfitt believes the Lemba and their ancestors may have converged where he uncovered several clues as to where the Ark may be today.
• His search ended at the Harare Museum of Human Science in Zimbabwe where he found a drum like object, with remnants of the carrying rings and crossed reeds indicative of biblical origins.
• Neither Parfitt nor the Lemba contend that this object is the original Ark of the Covenant. The object was carbon dated to 1350 ad, which is some time after Moses. However, the Lemba folklore holds that the original ngoma destroyed itself and was rebuilt upon its own ruins by the temple priests.
• Parfitt contends that the Ark was in fact a drum which was a repository of relics and a cannon!

Don’t believe it? It’s hard to believe I admit, however, it is interesting to note that the Ark of the Covenant is brought into many Israelite battles at the head of the attacking force. Now do you put your relics at the head of an attacking force, or do you put your greatest weapon?

Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us.” [Josh.2:24]

Still can’t believe it? I admit, I’m having similar trouble. Worshipping a weapon? I keep conjuring up images of “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”:

“Life would be tragic if it weren’t funny.” — Stephen Hawking

Bob Dylan and his entourage strolled casually, with nary an introduction, on to stage at Copps Coliseum and began to play.  Missing was the standard introduction to most Bob Dylan’s recent concerts:

“Ladies and gentlemen please welcome the poet laureate of rock ‘n’ roll. The voice of the promise of the 60′s counterculture. The guy who forced folk into bed with rock. Who donned makeup in the 70′s and disappeared into a haze of substance abuse. Who emerged to find Jesus. Who was written off as a has-been by the end of the 80′s, and who suddenly shifted gears releasing some of the strongest music of his career beginning in the late 90′s. Ladies and gentlemen – Columbia recording artist Bob Dylan!”

I suppose that no introduction is needed when it comes to Bob Dylan, but it’s good to keep that introduction in mind when considering his performance last night.  Dylan opened with “Cat’s in the Well” and it took me most of the song to figure out that that was what he was playing. 

The acoustics at Copp’s Coliseum were set for a hard rock band.  Everything was loud to the point of reverberation.  This made Dylan’s failing voice impossible to make out and his harmonica playing resonate painfully in my sinuses.  There were no theatrics or effects which was a good thing, save one:  A large display showing Dylan and his band would have made the event seem more intimate. 

As for Dylan’s performance, his voice has, with age, lost the ability to inflect.  It sounded like Dylan was speaking most of the songs and even at that, he was speaking in a foreign tongue.  When the ever present cannabis wafted my way, there was a moment where I could understand him quite clearly, but the moment was fleeting.

Had last night’s performance been the debut of some band, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all.  Just the same, the performance being Dylan, I was able to make out some of my favourites and appreciate his legacy as an artist if not his artistry that very night.

The songs played where:

1. Cat’s In The Well (Bob on keyboard)  
2. It Ain’t Me, Babe (Bob on keyboard)  
3. Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again (Bob on keyboard)  
4. Girl Of The North Country (Bob on keyboard)  
5. High Water (For Charlie Patton) (Bob on keyboard)  
6. Just Like A Woman (Bob on keyboard)  
7. Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (Bob on keyboard)  
8. Tryin’ To Get To Heaven (Bob on keyboard)  
9. Highway 61 Revisited (Bob on keyboard)  
10. Moonlight (Bob on keyboard)  
11. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) (Bob on keyboard)  
12.  When The Deal Goes Down (Bob on keyboard)  
13. Thunder On The Mountain (Bob on keyboard)  
14. Ain’t Talkin’ (Bob on keyboard)   
  (encore)
15.  Like A Rolling Stone (Bob on keyboard)  
16.  All Along The Watchtower (Bob on keyboard)  

I’ve heard better versions of every one of these songs.  While that’s a criticism of last night’s performance, it’s an accolade to the songwriter whose songs have been lovingly covered by so many others.  From last night’s performance alone, here are some of the originals and their covers:

It Ain’t Me Babe
(A song about a rebuffed love which is really a thinly veiled reaction to his fame.)
Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImpKzFXO1WI
Johnny Cash/ JuneCarter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkeBgz_7brI
Joan Baez: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cmNRVL1drA

Just Like a Woman
Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueGuzmotwaI
Richie Havens http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfqkTVD0ls

How Does It Feel
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0gSJGJ7Fs
Rolling Stones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuGjBNSRi1c

All Along the Watchtower
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ncQgjIlFM
Hendrix (At the Isle of Wight) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCwCBh0z3Hs

Those are the covers from last night performance.  However, Dylan’s legacy goes far beyond that.  Some highlights are:

Blowing In The Wind
(a 60′s anthem)
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ced8o50G9kg
Peter Paul Mary : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LoBwkVLVKU

Times They Are A Changin’
(another 60′s anthem)
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D9S48A81os
The Byrds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzFulFba3HA

Forever Young:
Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P22cMZFvJAs
The Band + Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TLygQpSiyU

I Shall Be Released
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtjIf1iSbB8
The Band + Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLjNjSpZxzg

Hurricane:
(A protest song on behalf of Rubin Hurricane Carter featured in the movie The Hurricane )
Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=few4kiKjNzw

Knocking On Heaven’s Door
Dylan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-5JvACzGp8
Eric Clapton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh4WwCzjtL4
Guns N Roses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWTTs8QVRc

Mr Tambourine Man:
Dylan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia06DeCxhTM
The Byrds:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVnU_WaTvdc

“Only puny secrets need protection. Big discoveries are protected by public incredulity.”   – Marshall McLuhan

(From  “Take Today: The Executive as Dropout (1972)”, page 92.)

Gene DiNovi Presents Benny Goodman...

http://www.jccc.on.ca/calendar/view_entry.php?id=290&date=20090530

A special thanks to my reader “Nobi” for letting me know about this.

Saturday May 30, 2009 is the 100th birthday of the great clarinetist Benny Goodman.

On that day Gene Dinovi will present the Benny Goodman Centennial Orchestra playing selections from “The Sound of Music”and Goodman favourites, including Let’s Dance, Memories of You, Don’t be that Way, Stompin’ at the Savoy, Sunny side of the Street, Rose Room, Moon Glow, One O’clock Jump, Sing Sing, Sing and more!

Pianist and composer DiNovi, who is one of the great icons of Canadian and American jazz, together with Order of Canada-winning musicians Campbell (clarinet) and Young (Bass), will be performing with and passing on a legacy to the next generation of premier jazz musicians who make up the rest of the Benny Goodman Centennial Orchestra This top talent includes: Bryden Baird (trumpet), Graham Campbell (guitar), Ernesto Cervini (drums and clarinet), Tara Davidson (alto saxophone and flute), David French (tenor saxophone), and RJ Satchithananthan (trombone).

Exactly 50 years ago pianist Gene Dinovi recorded the music from “The Sound of Music” with Benny Goodman at a famous New York club called “Basin Street East”. The band was a stellar “Tentet” featuring Benny Goodman (clarinet), Jack Sheldon (trumpet) ,Gerry Dodeion (alto sax), Flip Phillips (tenor sax), Bill Harris (trombone), Red Norvo; (vibes), John Markham (drums), Red Wooten (bass), Jimmy Wyble (guitar), and Gene DiNovi (piano).

DiNovi, Campbell and Producer Ted Ono all agreed that this was an opportunity to make a legacy of this music for the younger generations of jazz players. The first half of the concert will highlight the music from the perennially popular “Sound of Music”

These were (and remain) fresh and modern arrangements by a very talented young man in 1959 named Fred Karlin. Gene DiNovi served as an emissary between Benny and Fred at that time. Benny thought Fred a little young for the job at hand but Gene convinced Benny to go with the young guy. Sounds perenally familiar. In any case the Yale University library was very kind in the arrangements to DiNovi who enlisted the talented young musicians who fill out the exciting group.

Date & Time: Saturday, May 30, 2008, 7:30PM
Location: The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
6 Garamond Court, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 1Z5 (Don Mills and Eglinton)
Tickets: $35 for General Public, $30 for members of the JCCC. To purchase, call 416-441-2345 x222.

The Past:

In the web 1.0 world, we were happy just to be able to surf the web and have access to thousands of new and wonderful services.  However, shortly thereafter, our hard drives became bloated with installed components, some of which were seldom used, slowing our operating systems to a crawl.  Around the same time, surfing the web became a game of ‘memory’ where we had to guess which user names and passwords we had created to get at all these great services.  If we had the misfortune of guessing incorrectly more than 3 times, we often ran into a situation where accounts became locked, requiring emails to virtually nonexistent customer service departments.  In web 1.0 our surfing was limited by our ability to remember passwords and our OS’s ability to support multiple plug ins and installed software components.

Web 2.0 — The Present:

With the advent of Web 2.0 we’re witnessing a new movement, that of the no cost,  no install, and no log in software.  Tired of installing software and creating user accounts, sites have popped up which offer much of the functionality we’re used to with less of the hassle.

Photo Sharing:

Yes Flickr is great.  But what if you want to simply post a fast picture without having to log in and create a sign on?  I just want to quickly share a picture.  I’ve tried these two sites:

Share4Pic -> http://share4pic.com/en/
Image Ox -> http://www.imageox.com/

For example, using Share4Pic to share the image associated with this post:  I need only simply visit the site and perform a quick upload.  After that I’m immediately given a url (link) which I can use in a chat or in an email or what have you.

http://share4pic.com/images/5/8/1/5811518.jpg

Screenshot Sharing

You can adapt this idea to allow for screen shot sharing.  Suppose you are helping someone having some problems using a program.  You’d like to send them a picture of the screen in front of you with some comments.  No problem, just press ALT+PRINT SCREEN.  Now, on Windows, under accessories, open “Paint”.  Using the “Edit” menu click on “Paste” and your screen shot will now appear.  Use the text tool to enter comments as necessary.  Save the file as type “JPG” (jpeg) and save it with a name you’ll remember in a location you’ll remember.  Now, just upload this file to a photo sharing site like share4pic or imageox and send the link to your suffering friend.  He or she will now be able to view your screenshot and benefit from the advice you’ve added.  An example is here:

http://share4pic.com/en/6541394/How_to_share_images/

Screenshot Kwouting (Quoting)

Another great util for sharing screenshots or part of a screen is www.kwout.com .  Have you ever just wanted to show someone where to click or what to look for on a web page?  The best way to do so is to simply show them a picture of what you’re talking about.  They’ve provided a handy widget such that web designers can embed their functionality into their own site.  If you click on this button:

you can ‘kwout’ an excerpt from this blog entry!  As an example from www.simple2chat.com, if I wanted to show someone how to start a new conversation, I could tell them to click on the new conversation button in the tool bar  .  As they say “a picture is worth a thousand words”.  Hopefully this utility will save you several thousand words.  Again, no login, and no install required.  (There is also a handy Firefox plugin which isn’t necessary but is very helpful to have.)

Online Office:

Microsoft Office is great.  It’s been great since 1995 after which I can’t understand the justification for any upgrades.  The problem with Microsoft Office is 1) its cost and 2) it takes up space and resources on your machine.  Web 2.0 has seen the introduction of online office suites.  Three come to mind right of the top of my head:
Think Free: http://member.thinkfree.com/
Zoho: http://www.zoho.com/
Google Docs:  http://docs.google.com

Now, admittedly all these sites require a log in, but they don’t require any installation.  The log in is required to keep track of your documents.  These online suites are, in my opinion, better than Microsoft office as they allow for collaboration across many platforms and sites.  You can build a slide show with your colleagues across the world while working on the final numbers on a spreadsheet type application.

There is another suite here worth mentioning and that’s Open Office.  It doesn’t require a log in, but does require an install.  Just the same, it’s a full featured office suite that is free of charge and is very robust in the features offered.

Music:

The recording industry and the internet community have been playing a game of cat and mouse over the past decade.  There are so many file sharing programs that have been made available and then prosectued that I’ve almost lost track.  To name a few, Kazaa, Bear Share, EMule, Limewire, and all the torrent sites no less.  All are/were great ways to get plenty of mp3′s illegally.  Then came along ITunes and several other pay sites which had a terrific library which you could access by proprietary installed software.

What if you could listen to all the music you wanted without the legal entanglements?  Sounds too good to be true?  Well, not in the world of Web 2.0.  I came across this gem in my internet travels:
http://songza.com/

It’s 100% legal (all artists are payed) and it’s provided to you with no log in and at no cost.  I was amazed with the coverage their library offered.  I tested the depth of coverage with a few rare or rarer favorites of mine from various eras such as:

Saint Saens “Danse Macabre”: http://songza.com/z/gg09tj
T-Bone Walker  “Stormy Monday” : http://songza.com/z/yg36z3
Herbert Gorecki  “Symphony No 3″: http://songza.com/z/af287q
Billie Holiday  ”I Wished On The Moon”: http://songza.com/z/qh8i8y
Pink Floyd “Corporal Clegg”: http://songza.com/z/umf8nj
John Foxx “Underpass”: http://songza.com/z/yo3705
Lenny Kravitz “The Resurrection”: http://songza.com/z/yyv2w6

Music Sharing

If you are an artist yourself and wish to share your music there is a site I recommend which does require a login, but no installation:  www.odeo.com On it, you can create channels of your own works and share them with your friends and colleagues.  Here is a channel created by yours truly:
http://odeo.com/channel/120616/view

Chat:

Internet chat is at once the greatest productivity booster and impedement of the modern era.  I have four different chat clients running on my machine (msn,yahoo,googletalk, and skype).  There are programs such as Trillian which seek to consolidate these services under one umbrella.  First off, it requires an installation and second, I find it doesn’t do a great job at completeness (eg file sharing and video often disabled).

Web 2.0 has a few partial solutions to the chat client overpopulation problem.  The first is www.meebo.com.  This is a site, which like Trillian, puts all your chat accounts under one umbrella.  It has a Firefox plugin which will allow you to use it as though it has been installed on your computer.  It won’t support video or several other advanced features of any given chat program, but at least you don’t need to install anything.

If you’d simply like to have a chat conversation with a few people without having to have them all on the same chat protocol, you can use www.simple2chat.com which is provided by yours truly.  This isn’t intended to be a replacement for chat, but is instead a no login, no install, simple, and fast chat site to allow people to converse or conference quickly and easily.

File Sharing / File BackUp:

With web 2.0, we won’t be installing as much software as we used to.  However, what do we do with all the files we have?  A good example that comes to mind is my mp3 collection.  When I’m at work, how do I have access to my mp3 collection?  I could take a USB memory key, but wouldn’t it be great if there was a web accessible service which could store reams of data?  Well there is.  www.adrive.com offers 50GB (!!) of storage.  You can share the files you’ve stored and upload and download files from any computer with internet access.  You have to provide a login, but that’s no big deal given the advantages.

If you’d like a quick file sharing utility, try www.drop.io .  This utility allows you to share files plus a whole host of other great features.

Summary:

Web 2.0 is a brave new world wide web.  There is no longer the need to install software for hours on end.  Your data, songs, pictures, work documents, and chat clients can now follow you wherever you go.

Websites Mentioned:

Photo Sharing
http://share4pic.com/en/

http://www.imageox.com/

Screenshot Quoting
www.kwout.com
Online Office
http://member.thinkfree.com/
http://www.zoho.com/
http://docs.google.com
Free Downloadable Office Suite
Open Office
Music (Listening)
http://songza.com/
Music (Sharing)
www.odeo.com
Chat – Download – All In One
Trillian
Chat – Online – No Install – All In One
www.meebo.com
Chat Online Instant Chat / Conference – No Install, No Login
www.simple2chat.com
File Sharing
www.adrive.com
www.drop.io

Digg This Story!

“A truth that’s told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent.”
                                                           — William Blake 

“Brent T. White, a University of Arizona law school professor, says that it’s in the homeowners’ best financial interest to stiff their lenders and that it’s not immoral to do so.”

– http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney29-2009nov29,0,3801270.story

This story, suggests that mortgage holders politely flip the bird to their debtors when they come to collect on underwater mortgages.  The argument provided is that when times were good, the banks were negligent and irresponsible in handing out loans.  As such, now that times are bad, it’s fine to simply walk away, and you should do so with a clear conscience.  I agree with the message but not with the reasoning.

The real reason is that you may think the bank has offered real money to the previous seller of your home; not so.  The bank instead paid the former seller of your house with money it conjured into existence from another mortgage.  The fractional reserve banking system allows the bank to ‘leverage’ 90% of its deposits, reserving only 10% for those who make periodic withdrawals.  So the money that the bank put up for the house is actually someone else’s deposits which theoretically could be called in on a moment’s notice?

Confused?  Good, you should be.  Suppose your neighbour lent you 5 DVD’s on condition that he might ask for then to be returned at any time.  You then turn around and rent out those 5 DVD’s for a dollar each for 1 week.  If your neighbour doesn’t ask for his DVD’s back during that week, you just made 5 bucks.  But suppose your neighbour comes back 2 days later to reclaim his DVD’s – what then?  Legally, in either case, the DVD’s weren’t yours to rent; the agreement between you and the people you rented the DVD’s to is null and void.  The only difference in the two scenarios was whether you got caught or not in the fraudulent activity.

Believe it or not, the banking system, worldwide, is currently this fraudulent.  The loans a bank issued are from the unwitting depositors funds’.  Only due to the Federal Reserve Act (and similar acts worldwide) is this fraud considered ‘legal’.  Even so, the bank never puts up its own assets for a loan.  As such a successful, yet rarely mentioned case, makes the argument that having failed to put up legal ‘consideration’ (hard assets) for a mortgage, the mortgage is null and void.

Here an article about this decision including links to the actual decision on file.
http://www.martincwiner.com/a-fast-way-out-of-the-mortgage-crisis/

 Episode 2: ‘Dances with Rabbis’: Early Semitic Influence in America
Christopher Columbus is one in a long list of people who RE-discovered America.  The Smithsonian and academic dogma have long stifled research into extensive evidence of transatlantic influences on America. 
Guests:  Dr. Donald N. Yates – http://dnaconsultants.com/default.htm

Scene mentioned from Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles”

  Slides

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=the+money+masters&total=630&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Normally any discussion of the economy or finance causes my eyes to glaze over. However, I chanced upon this documentary and started to watch it. Shortly thereafter, I was glued to it. I finally understand questions I’ve had for a long time.

1) How do they know how much money to print?

2) What causes recessions/depressions?

In addition I learned a lot more about the corruption inherent in our financial system. Well worth the 3.5 hours this documentary runs for. Just one question: what is with this guy and his pen?

Its whimsical nature can be traced to the inspiration for the song which comes from a Ukrainian lullaby “Oy Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon”.

Gershwin wrote it after hearing "Oy Khodyt Son Kolo Vikon" at a 1926 concert of the Ukrainian National Chorus under Oleksander Koshetz, in New York City.
(lyrics and facts courtesy of : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi_Khodyt_Son_Kolo_Vikon)

Here is a sample of the original lullaby:

Porgy and Bess was intended to be an "American Folk Opera" revealing the plight of African Americans in America.  Its centerpiece aria was inspired by a Ukrainian lullaby and the rhapsodized by a Jew.  This is a telling summary of the fundamental power of music.

Here is a close representation of what the original was intended to sound like as scored:

Here is a more popularized version, highly popular at that:  Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald

All of the divas of the day recorded this tune so let’s take Ella’s rendition as representative.

Artie Shaw delivers a defining Big Band rendition:

Here is a creole style jazz rendition of Summertime by Sidney Bechet.  This recording and subsequent album launched his career.

Starting to diverge more significantly from the original, Stan Getz offers a bassa nova stylized rendition:

Miles Davis renders a more interpretive jazz version which became highly popular in the 50’s

Janis Joplin recorded a version in the late 60’s which emphasizes the soulful nature of the piece.

The list of talent in this recording is unprecedented and the ensemble is unrepeated.

Reunited after many years with tenor saxophonist Lester Young, Billie’s visual reaction to his moving solo remains as eloquent as anything she ever sang; a touching finale to their historic musical partnership. Introduced by Robert Herridge (producer/host of CBS’ "The Sound of Jazz"), this is perhaps the single most famous "live jazz" performance in TV history. Other members of the all-star band seen here: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Mal Waldron.

Sounding like the classic “The Who” album “Quadrophenia”, quadrophobia is the less than chance absence of the .4 decimal in corporate (Wall Street) financial statements.  Of course, x.5 can be rounded up and it’s lure to creative accounts is irresistible. 

A statistical analysis of corporate financial statements revealed a ‘mysterious’ absence of the .4 decimal when studying the statements en masse.  What it proves is no mystery to most people:  Wall Street is full to the brink with liars and crooks.  What is a nice touch to this research is that statistical manipulation is a key tool to these same crooks and liars.  It’s redeeming to know that statistical analysis in the proper hands can reveal the shenanigans.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/02/proof-companies-manage-earnings/

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/stirling-solar-power-46012108

Can Stirling engines coupled with solar power be the key to meeting our energy needs? First off, what is a Stirling engine in the first place. A Stirling engine works on any heat differential: that is it has a hot side and a cold side. This temperature differential is used to generate kinetic energy (motion).

I’ve actually built a Stirling engine using this kit:
http://www.stirlingengine.com/ecommerce/product.tcl?product_id=87

And here you can see it working on boiling water and on ice:
http://rankyouragent.com/stirling/stirling_boiling.avi
http://rankyouragent.com/stirling/stirling_ice.avi

In 1979 Jimmy Carter delivered a televised speech bemoaning the increasing US dependence on foreign oil.  In it he outlines his Energy Policy for the coming decades.

“[Foreign Oil is] a cause of the increased inflation and unemployment that we now face. This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation.”

– Jimmy Carter  (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_crisis.html)

Today the US relies on 60% foreign oil (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/oildep.shtml) in strong defiance of president Carter’s prescient warning.

As far as the US dependence on foreign oil, nothing has changed since the Carter’s clarion call aside from the problem getting far worse.  However, president Carter didn’t live in a world threatened by Global Warming (at least it wasn’t commonly known).   President Carter also didn’t live in a world with two superpopulations, India and China weighing in at a billion people each who are poised to ramp up their consumption.

Clearly oil will no longer do as a source of energy.  Luckily science has provided an alternative: The Hydrogen – Aluminum Cycle.  To be clear, I’m not speaking of hydrogen power alone.  Hydrogen power alone is a red herring of alternative energies.  The catch is that hydrogen is hugely expensive to make and today largely comes from the demethylization of hydrocarbons; ie oil.  No, the Hydrogen – Aluminum cycle is something different entirely.

When we think of hydrogen, some horrible images from the past might emerge.

Here we see the Hindenburg which was filled with hydrogen bursting into flames.  Many see the risks of hydrogen in cars and decry ‘oh the humanity!’.  Well there are no such worries with the hydrogen – aluminum power cycle because the hydrogen is produced in micro amounts and only as needed.  Hydrogen need not be stored in a cryogenic canister with motorists barrelling down the highways with a bomb on board.  This in situ or just in time production solves the danger of using hydrogen in a car.

Next, we must solve the problem of where to find our hydrogen.  Clearly deriving it from oil simply won’t do.  The other current method for obtaining hydrogen is through a process called hydrolysis which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.  Regrettably, this process is too inefficient to be used on a wide scale.

Enter into the picture aluminum.  Aluminum has a high affinity for oxygen.  Whenever you hold a piece of aluminum it has a skin of oxidation.  This skin, once formed, prevents any further oxidation which is why you never have to worry about rust in components built of aluminum.  Aluminum likewise reacts with water;  A jealous lover of oxygen, it bonds strongly with it, ousting the hydrogen.  While a jealous lover aluminum may be, it is quickly satiated and forms a skin failing to react any further.

Jerry Woodall, a professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Purdue, discovered in the 60′s that when aluminum, gallium and water were mixed, the aluminum oxidized fully, liberating massive amounts of hydrogen.  It would seem that the gallium acts as a mediator in the reaction and prevents the formation of the oxidation skin on aluminum.  The end results of this reaction are hydrogen gas, aluminum oxide (aka alumina) and gallium.  The gallium is not consumed, and thus can be recycled.  The alumina can be electrically converted back into aluminum and thus recycled.  Burning hydrogen produces only water.

The idea of using hydrogen to power a vehicle is certainly not a new one.  While Woodall was experimenting with gallium in the 60′s, GM was trying to prototype a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle: The Electrovan.  It is recognized as the first hydrogen fuel cell prototype.  The prototype was scrapped due to the high cost of the rare (precious) metals used in its fuel cells and the complexity of storing hydrogen.

The aluminum-gallium-hydrogen cycle may allow us to succeed where the Electrovan failed.  So now, let’s put the pieces together: How does this get you to work in the morning?  Your new, non-polluting car has two fuel tanks, one containing water, the other containing aluminum and gallium flakes.  As hydrogen is needed the water and the flakes are mixed.  The hydrogen is harvested and runs the engine.  Also the heat produces by the chemical reaction may be harvested for energy by a Stirling Engine which is a type of engine which can run off of temperature differentials.

When it comes time to fuel your vehicle, the new filling station attaches three hoses to your car.  One removes the slurry of used alumina to be recycled.  The other two replenish your supply of water and aluminum-gallium flakes.  When it comes time to pay for your aluminum flakes, will it be competitive with gasoline?

“Since standard industrial technology could be used to recycle our nearly pure alumina back to aluminum at 20 cents per pound, this technology would be competitive with gasoline,” Woodall said. “Using aluminum, it would cost $70 at wholesale prices to take a 350-mile trip with a mid-size car equipped with a standard internal combustion engine. That compares with $66 for gasoline at $3.30 per gallon. If we used a 50 percent efficient fuel cell, taking the same trip using aluminum would cost $28.”

–  (http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/x/2007b/070827WoodallNanotech.html)

Next, some may wonder where the aluminum will come from.

Enough aluminum exists in the United States to produce 100 trillion kilowatt hours of energy. That’s enough energy to meet all the U.S. electric needs for 35 years.  If impure gallium can be made for less than $10 a pound and used in an onboard system, there are enough known gallium reserves to run 1 billion cars.”

–  (http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/x/2007b/070827WoodallNanotech.html)

Recall that alumina (aluminum oxide, the waste product) can be recycled electrically back into aluminum.  So it’s not like oil where, once burnt, we can’t reclaim it.  We can electrically reclaim the waste alumina back into aluminum.

Ecologically this is a dream come true.  When thinking ecologically it’s important to think in terms of cycles.  Everythings output must be something’s input cycling back to the original source.  Here we have aluminum going to aluminum oxide (alumina) going back to aluminum.  The alumina to aluminum step can be powered by non polluting nuclear or renewable sources such as solar or wind etc.  The water turns to hydrogen which combines back with oxygen to produce water.  Gallium is never consumed and is recycled continuously.

So there you have it: president Carter’s dream some thirty years later, but not too late.  With the skyrocketing prices of oil the need for this change has never been more clear.  The only missing ingredient in this equation is the political motivation to fund and accelerate the conversion process.  This may prove to be the trickiest part of the equation to balance.

Further reading:

Please don’t take my word on this matter, feel free to do your own research:

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=aluminum+gallium&spell=1

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=aluminum+gallium&search_type=

There is also a similar approach using boron

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=boron+hydrogen+car&meta=

I’ve put pen to paper to explain it:

Here is a link to my original work:

http://www.martincwiner.com/prime-twin-proof-constellation-counting-functions/

http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey.html

The 2008 Massey Lecture – Payback by Margaret Atwood is available for listening via streaming.

Atwood deals with the moral and social aspects of debt and finance.  This timely lecture series is both thought provoking and insightful.

Interesting Quote:
(From Lecture 3)
“Put a miller, a weaver, and a tailor in a bag, and shake them, the first that comes out will be a thief.”  
                                              – Howell 1659
(meaning they are all thieves as they process things, but do not produce them)

I recently attended the second in a series of lectures given by Jordan Klapman on the Jewish contribution to Tin Pan Alley. I regret missing the first in the series and hope to make it for the 3rd. Some notable points from this lecture:

1) It is easy to detect clear Klezmer influences in the music of the period. For example, Klapman played a recording of the Eddie Cantor classic “Lena From Palestina” which has clear origins in the Klezmer standard “Noch a Bisl” (A Little More). Other examples are “And the Angels Sing” recorded by Benny Goodman which owes its origins to “Der Shtiler Bulgar” (A Quiet Bulgar).

2) Prior to 1920 and the advent of records and radio, songs were sold as sheet music. People would purchase the songs and learn to perform them themselves. With the advent of records, sheet music sales declined markedly, and with the advent of radio, even more so.

3) Radio originally refused to pay artists for airing their works. They claimed they were transmitting ‘ether’ (an antiquated term for radio waves). It took ASCAP 7 years of legal proceedings to force radio to pay royalties to ASCAP members. This has strong parallels to file sharing technologies which claim innocence by the defence “we’re transmitting bits.”

4) With the decimation of the sheet music market, music was reduced to a pulp industry. The emphasis was on quantity over quality in the hopes that one song would meet with fame. The advent of radio further exacerbated this problem in that now audiences could tire of music much more rapidly than before. Thus composers were forced to produce more in order to keep themselves in the public eye.