Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Lubos didn't accept this post ... and then he did ... and then after my response he didn't accept me counter-response ... typical

Lubos and Woit continue to moderate the living hell out of their blogs. Good luck getting posted either place.

I start this page as a dump for failed attempts to communicate to Lubos' posters. He doesn't give them the full story.

For example, on this page the following post by me was deemed unworthy. I mean, c'mon, it's not that bad is it?

I wrote:

Lubos, there is an obvious interest in financing a book by you on String Theory. I would certainly buy that book. However, wouldn't such a book be outdated at the end of this year when the LHC starts spitting out new things? Not to worry, it takes about 2 years to write a book. If you haven't started, now might be a good time. The sooner you start the sooner you finish, yes?


I like Robert of Ottowa's request for diagrams and Maths and 2nd the notion. I would write the prose version first, for intelligent laymen who are more laymen than knowledgeable about Math, on the right pages. On the left pages, I would, in say blue-box fashion, put in the Maths and figures for those of us who have taken Calculus. I find too many Science books feel the reader would be scared away with too many Mathematics, but reading around I see many of us are starved for more (outside of textbooks).


Also, besides Robert of Ottowa, I hear there's a Mike of Toronto who has/is financing many things in Quantum Gravity ... :-)

UPDATE: Since I wrote the above, Lubos actually did let my comment go through. Then poster Shawn Halayka responded:

... all wrapped up in a format that focuses on the use of Mathematica.
P.S. Steven, you are joking about this Mike person, right? Smile

To which I responded:

Am I kidding about Mike Lazaridis of Canada, founder of Research in Motion (Blackberry) and chief benefactor of Perimeter Institute, who along with Richard Branson of the UK is one of the few rich guys in the world that doesn't suck? Well yes, yes I am kidding, obviously! Didn't ye note the smiley after me comment, laddie? Obviously, given how Lubos goes after Lee Smolin of Perimeter, Lazaridis is one person Lubos can avoid asking for financing. Shrug.

For Lubos: Have you ever reviewed "String Theory for Dummies" by Andrew Zimmerman Jones? Neither you nor Woit have commented on that from what I've seen. Is it the title? That's an American "joke" that doesn't translate well across our borders. We're so specialized here as Lubos will tell you that we all admit being "dummies" on most topics.

In any event "String Theory f.D." seems quite pro-Strings, so I'm surprised the yin and the yang of Strings haven't commented. Everyone's got too much to read these days, I guess.

Also to Lubos, I ran across the following webpage by Robert Tucci, Ph.D. Physics, that mentions you, titled

Why String Theorists Should Switch Fields to Quantum Computing

It's meant to be comical, I hope.

UPDATE: I also submitted the following to Woit/Columbia U's blog "Not Even Wrong" under "Short Items." It probably won't go through because of the word: "entertainment", but I chose to be honest:

Thank you very, very much Peter for that very funny Why String Theorists Should Switch Fields to Quantum Computing.

I laughed so hard reading it, it reminded me of the first time I read John Baez' "The Crackpot Index." A very pleasant memory.

I especially liked the reply "no PW and LM?" as though a great entertainment would be lost to us. May that never be so. Relax, it won't.

21 comments:

Andrew Thomas said...

I don't think Lubos would be a good teacher. He is totally impatient with those who he thinks know less than him.

Make no mistake, the guy is clever. It's a shame he's just overloaded with personality faults. A real shame.

Steven Colyer said...

Andrew, turns out he did publish it. I got a response and wrote a response. See the update in my article for more.

Jérôme Chauvet said...

Lubos answered me when I posted to his blog here.

Unlike you and he, Steven, he and I are now just like very good friends ;)

Jealous?

Steven Colyer said...

Not even envious. I read his reply to you. :-)

Interesting article, btw, once again Lubos kicks something in the nads, in this case viXra (arXiv spelled backwards).

And this just in from space.com ...
.... TeVeS has been ruled out as a theory of gravity.

Steven Colyer said...

"Peter, why is it and in your opinion, that condensate physicists bow down to string theorists, whereas in my reading of your book as well as looking around with my eyes wide open, it should be the other way around?"

That's my latest submission to Not Even Wrong re Strings 2010. But will Peter let that though? No. Why not? Because, he fucking hates me, I guess. I guess I don't kiss his ass enough. So be it, pfft, I have bigger worries. Se la vie.

Phil Warnell said...

Hi Steven,

There’s an old saying that a indicator of having a good character is in being able to take as well as you can give, which I always apply in such situations. More plainly I take all blogs with a grain of salt that moderate their comments before their admittance and/or release. That’s as to understand that as Maxwell's Demon has been demonstrated unable to defeat nature’s law in respect to equilibrium being reached within a closed system,therefore any such attempt is not merely fruitless, yet more so unnatural and thereby simply wrong. For the average person to ignore or fail to recognize this truth is bad enough, yet for a physicist it’s totally inexcusable :-)

Best,

Phil

Jérôme Chauvet said...

The more you reject posts, the more you generate fascination about you and your business. Being hard to reach is a pretty nice strategy to make anyone feel offered something when you allow one in.

That is the reason why we all talk a lot more about Woit and Motl for their mounty blog with unattainable top, than about Andrew's wonderful "what is reality?" site, Internet's best-ever Physics site. Hell fascinates. Heaven is just a normal place anyone think to belong to.

Best,

Jérôme Chauvet said...

@Steven:

Se la vie.

In fact this reads: "C'est la vie."

C' = This
est = is
la = the
vie = life

In French, one usually does not write words the way they are spoken (France has the "Académie Française", a quite conservative institution for our language, which protects word spellings against the drifts of spoken language)

End of the French lesson :)

Regards,

Steven Colyer said...

Sock ray blue, you're right! Sorry about that, I never learned the world's most beautiful sounding language.

Is it true what the Merovingian says in the 2nd Matrix film, that it's the best language to curse in?

By the way, I'm embarrassed I lost my cool yesterday. "Emotional control" is the art of man, as "expressing emotions" is the art of woman. I'm definitely thinking of Woit and especially Motl too much, so I found the perfect solution. Don't think of them, go to their websites as little as possible, and never try to post at either place again. That should do it.

Once again, an American solves a problem, and gets on to the next thing. Lunar colony, anyone?

Sacre bleu. :-)

Jérôme Chauvet said...

I never learned the world's most beautiful sounding language.

It is true that Parisian girls have quite a sexy accent, quite both snobbish and erotic in fact... but this way of speaking means "Heh guy, I'm not someone you can mess with, so please, get away from me..." That's the problem.

To curse in French is like to sing in English: it just fits...

But in fact, many of the things thought to be so typically French, are in fact so typically from Paris... And that's another problem in my country, other regions have other states of mind.

Best,

Phil Warnell said...

Hi Steven and Jérôme,

I would admit that one of the best sounding languages would be French and yet I always liked the sound of Spanish and with it the mental image it brings of its own femme fatales. However, the saying that always captured my imagination the most which I think best applies here is “Qué será sera “ in Spanish, “ce qui sera” in French, with being “whatever will be will be” in crude old English. Interestingly it was the title of a popular song sung by Doris Day for the Hitchcock film entitled “The Man that Knew to Much”, which always had me to be reminded that sometimes comes a price for having an insatiable curiosity :-)

Best,

Phil

Steven Colyer said...

Good points, Phil. Italian is another beautiful-sounding language. But I must admit prejudice: when I say these things, I always think of a woman from these countries speaking. For raw unprecedented machismo, nothing can beat German.

:-)

Phil Warnell said...

Hi Steven,

” For raw unprecedented machismo, nothing can beat German.”

Indeed true and now that I come to think of it might explain why I have trouble imagining cuddling up to a Fräulein, with even less if that being a Frau as this disturbing my precepts of femininity . Mind you as made evident with the Germans still thriving it must be simply my failing, rather than representing anything resembling truth. With that said I think we both as having to admit being enamoured with one certain Frau; yet I can assure you with me it’s strictly Platonic:-)

Best,

Phil

P.S. You might be interested to know that with many others the Germanic gene resides in me, as my mother’s name being of the kind. Of course from what I’ve come to know there is also, French, English, Scottish, Irish as well as aboriginal North American. Perhaps this give reason why I feel more innately comfortable as considering myself a Globalist and have my loyalties rest with the planet and humanity more generally, rather than with any boarder conceived of man. Oh yes you might be interested to learn my forefathers’ came to Canada by way of what is now the U.S. resultant of being loyalists, with my favourite of my distant relatives stemming from those that remained as being this fellow :-)

Best,

Phil

Jérôme Chauvet said...

Hello Phil and Steven,

Fun to see where the talking has drifted to. In fact, my wife is a German, and even if you are right saying the German accent is not that sexy... I can say besides from experience that the cuddling part of my life has nothing to do with the sounding of this language :)

Regards,

Phil Warnell said...

Hi Jérôme,

If I’ve offended anyone please accept my profound apology, particularly as it relates to your better half. That is as I have already admitted this is only a failing of mine. This have me reminiscent of a joke regarding an American travelling abroad who strikes up a conversation with a stranger in remarking that he has just returned from Canada. The stranger replies “ Canada you say ,all I know is the place is full of hockey players and loose women”. In anger the man then replies ‘my wife is Canadian” to which the stranger quickly responds “ that’s very interesting, so what team does she play for” :-)

Kind Regards (to you and yours),

Phil

Jérôme Chauvet said...

Hi Phil,

I do absolutely not feel offended by you or Steven. I just paid myself a good laugh with what had been written previously about the German accent and stuff. I know the German culture well enough to be okay with what was said here. I keep saying my wife that German people have mud in their ears considering the fact the German taste in music is so... how to say... well, as bad as the Japanese's one. Germany is clearly not the country of nice sounding voices. And she agrees with me! I guess each culture has its qualities and flaws.

Anyway, everyone is nice here at Steven's blog, it never gets nasty here... except when Motl's dudes come roaming around for some fighting.

Best regards,

Steven Colyer said...

German girls!

Heck, I don't care WHAT they sound like, as long as (at that link as you'll see) they're even half as sweet as Heidi Klum, Claudia Schiffer, Nicole Maria Niemann, Julia Görges, Jeanette Biedermann, Julia Stegner, and Collien Fernandes!

Jérôme Chauvet said...

What's wonderful with having a German wife is she brings you beer, and drinks with you :)

Regards,

Steven Colyer said...

Well, I lied I guess. I actually did submit something new to Woit's "Not Even Wrong" blog, on Grigori Perelman, and I'm just reproducing it here because once again, Woit probably won't let it go through:

"Perelman is a single 40’s something man who lives with his 80’s something mother. He obviously has his priorities straight by taking care of the most important person of his life.

"I say give the guy a break by living the life he chooses to live. He may be more sociable after her passing, but she hasn’t passed. Let him live the life he feels is right for the time being."

Shawn Halayka said...

"I don't think Lubos would be a good teacher. He is totally impatient with those who he thinks know less than him.

Make no mistake, the guy is clever. It's a shame he's just overloaded with personality faults. A real shame."

He is the only "teacher" that I ever had, and he was patient to the extreme with me. He probably won't be too keen on my "derivation" of Hawking radiation based on information theory (sans info loss paradox, of course) but it's not wrong, and it's definitely years ahead of anything the LQG people are doing. Caught quite a few people with gaping jaws by dropping that one in their laps. The only time he got impatient was when I was straying too far from reality -- his warnings paid off, because the derivation basically says that string theory is the only theory that makes sense when you integrate Shannon's theory (instead of jamming it on and attaching it with duck tape, like in LQG).

You have to understand that I'm a Canadian taxpayer, and I am not a fan of PI precisely because I've known for years that these people were just abusing Shannon's theory. Not my prerogative to make them look stupid on their schedule... I'm too busy doing eavestroughing work.

All they had to was keep their fat yaps shut about CS&F and focus on El Naschie, but clearly their egos wouldn't allow it.

- Shawn

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