Articles of General Interest
Order Of An Element in Group Theory
For students of group theory here is a short tutorial on finding the order of an element in a group.
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Review of the philosophic school of Existentialism
The Existential Concept
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How does our physical experience relate to the concept of Existentialism?
Existentialism and our Bodies
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A Fallacious Adage
Have you ever heard this fallacious saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend In this article we look at why this is a fallacious adage.
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American Elections
Elections in America are shams. I examine the philosophy behind them in the article below.
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Are Our Devices Becoming Sentient?
I have begun to wonder about our devices with CNNs running on them becoming sentient. Here is my rumination on the topic.
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Enemy Of The State
Released in 1998, Enemy Of The State is not anything I'd rave about, except that it oddly presages what Ed Snowden warned us of: government invasion of our privacy.
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Repartir
NEW Repartir is a song by the Brazilian group 2 Reis (2 Kings) I adore this song and just had to give it an English translation.
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Listen to the song
Reversed English Words And Graph Theory
NEW Reversed Lettering and Graph Theory: Reversed English Words and mapping the reversed letters of common English words has become a new interest to me. Read the short intro below and maybe you will be intrigued too.
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Tim's Vermeer
The comedian skeptic duo Penn and Teller have released a documentary about how one man, Tim Jenison discovered how the 17th-century Dutch realistic painter, Johannes Vermeer may have created his famous The Music Lesson. I review it and the metaphysical questions it poses in this article.
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Hidden Figures
The film Hidden Figures was a wonderful little piece of film. Not perfect, somewhat on the bombastic side, but a real ground-breaking work about a period in American history that has been overlooked.
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The Revenant and The Hateful Eight
Two films in 2015 I reviewed in this essay.
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Commercial Festival on American TV
I thought Jeopardy was a commercial festival. Wait until you see what I found happens in commercial-infested American TV. This short study focuses on CBS News, but it's the same for the other two networks.
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Additional Articles
Network National News: An Advertiser's Paradise
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Reverse Lyrics in Stairway to Heaven
I review the debate back in the 80s that the hard rock song Stairway To Heaven contained a satanic message in the form of reversed lyrics
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Dying English Words
Some words are becoming archaic in modern English. I look at 5 such words in the following essay.
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Too many Thank Yous
What's happening to the phrase you're welcome? It seems to be disappearing as a salutary greeting.
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An Affair
This story written in diarist style is about an adulterous affair I had over 20 years ago. I've given fictional names to protect her even now, but the events are true. An example of how destructive, obsessive desire can be.
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Palindromes on the 12-Hour Clock
In this article we look at palindromic numbers that occur as a 12-hour clock proceeds through its cycles. There are 57 palindromic minutes in one cycle, but what if we start adding these palindromes together will new palindromes occur? This is what I'm studying now. There is a downloadable excel file contained within to help anyone interested in further analysis.
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Palindromic Mappings
On Reading
I am finding that reading paper material is becoming rare for me. Do notice this too? Are we becoming a read less society?
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Strange Attractors Spreadsheet
Complexity theory is a part of mathematics and studies phenomena that are fascinating to mathematicians and others within the field of science. Douglas Hofstadter presented an equation in the subdivision of complexity theory called Strange Attractors in his book GEB, circa 1987 (look up that acronym for the full title). I've turned it into an Excel file with a graph that shows the odd behavior of this equation. Have a look, I'm sure you'll be intrigued. Download it and use the instructions I've embedded on the sheet to see how with one seed, the function tends toward a certain value.
Download the spreadsheet
Fixacao (Fixation translation)
Kid Abelha or Kid Bee is a Brazilian popular music group that makes what might be called soft rock. I like some of their songs though few have very profound lyrics. Here is one I enjoy and have translated.
Read the translation
Listen to the song
The Misuse of Verb To Go
Another in my series on English Grammar. This time we look at the verb To Go and how it's misused in common speech
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What is Possession?
Possession is a concept all of us know. The latest in my series of essays on Existentialism, we look at possession from an Existentialist perspective.
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The Martian: My Pre-review
The Martian, I'm reviewing it and haven't even seen it yet. Find out why here.
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What is Nothing?
Have you ever wondered what is nothing? Just what does that word mean? Is there some strange way that Nothing exists? This is what the following article is about.
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Esfera
The song, Esfera (Sphere) is a mesmerizing look at loneliness and love from the point of Rosy Aragao. She is an English instructor in Brazil or so I am told. So, I just had to put this 7-minute song into English. The song hypnotizes me with reflection.
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The Difference Between Chance and Accident
How are chance and accident related? Have you ever thought about what chance is? Well, surely it's a random event. But have you ever wondered if when an accident occurs it too is a chance event? In the essay below I make the point that one is existential, and the other is contrived.
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TV Drug Commercials
TV drug advertisements drive us crazy, right? Here is my take on this form of irritation.
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Football Games And Commercials
It is true when you watch a football game you only see 11 minutes of actual gameplay Sorry, I didn't get this written during the 2015-2016 season. Have a look at my timed study.
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The Biggest Sham in America: Voting
Voting in America is a topic that has been a bone of contention with friends of mine. I have never voted and never will. In this article, I explain why.
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Inductive Logical Method
What is the difference between Inductive and Deductive Logic? In this review of the fields, I compare the two and use a fictitious example to illustrate the difference.
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Are We Finite?
It is a popular idea that all we do and make is limited and finite. We know we will die and our relatives too. But in this essay, I try to look at it from a different perspective. What if we can be infinite as a species?
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Goedel Numbering
Goedel Numbering is the basis for Kurt Goedel's famous Incompleteness Theorem. In this article, I explain it and explore its implications.
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The King Came Long Live The King
O Rei Chegou Viva O Rei
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Onde Anda O Meu Amor
This song is Jorge Ben's tribute to monarchy, I guess. It describes the kind of ruler you'd find in 18th Century Europe, but the chanting, melodic development, and driving beat takes you in when you listen, though the lyrics are shallow platitudes.
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Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers have made so many good films. This one is called Burn After Reading. It's a comedy and boy what a good laugh it is. I of course relate it to mathematics.
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What is Prayer
Is Prayer Just Hope? Is it different from hoping? This is what this next article in the Existentialism series looks at
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Do you like your given name? What if we could choose our names at some point after we were born? Until then, what if we had a temporary name? I think this system could work in any culture. See why.
Self Naming
Hector Hugh Munro was a 19th-century Burmese-born British writer with the pen name Saki. He wrote many spell-binding short stories. The Interlopers is the first I'll review. There are many more to come. Here is my take on a story of men in deadly conflict that find their biggest enemy is not themselves but well... something else.
The Interlopers
Another in my continuing series of articles about contrived human conceptions. This time we examine Beauty, the idea and the perception.
What Is Beauty
When we send messages over computer networks today, we are using encryption to protect what is within them. When we want to know that the source of messages received is authentically from the person we believe is sending them, again we use encryption. RSA is one method to this. It comes from cryptography mathematics which is part of set theory and here is simplified description of it.
RSA Algorithm
Intuitionism is a form of Logic that the Dutch mathematician Luitzen Brouwer helped to create. It is a direct repudiation of the older Truth-Functional system of Logic. Its implications are far-reaching as I examine in the article below
Intuitionism, Brouwer and GÓ§del
Television advertising is turning us into consumer machines. I look at Jeopardy, the quiz to see how it's just a device to make us buy things.
Jeopardy An Advertiser's Paradise
Is music sampling plagiarism? I don't think so, see why.
Sampling Music Debate
A real science fiction novel that will have you entranced. Written in 1958 by the famous British cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle, it's about alien visitation to Earth
The Black Cloud
What if as we aged our real age from say 25 only grew by half-lives of that age in an infinite diminishing convergent series? One way to live forever for sure.
Infinite Life
James Cameron's Avatar is not worth its ticket price.
Avatar
A short article about the concept of Perfection
Does Perfection Exist?
Here is the PDF of the same article
Does Perfection Exist? (PDF)
Does the Turing Test really measure if a computer is conscious? In this article, which I wrote over 10 years ago, the issue is thoroughly examined.
Turing Test and AI
Web Piracy is everywhere on the Net and I've made a brief study of it. Here are my results.
Is Web Piracy Out of Control?
Jorge Ben Jor creates a searing hot narrative about the power of a Black slave woman in 18th century colonial Brazil: Xica Da Silva, the theme song to the movie of the same name.
Xica Da Silva
Ze do Caroco (Joe Pit) is a song about a man trapped in the "favela" or slums. It's poignant and makes you sway to the plaintive tone. She speaks of a new leader arising in the slums. Like a new paragon, or anointed hero.
I have read on some Internet pages what I consider an inaccurate English translation of this song. Some seem to have been done by transformer programs for sure. Well, here is mine:
Ze do Caroco
Jorge Ben sings about a man who wants to be a star. Or better put a Superstar.
O Astro (Superstar)
One of Ben Jor's most melodic works. A Minha Teimosa uma Arma Pra Te Conquistar.
My Plan To Win You Over
Celso Fonseca is a Brazilian artist with a Bossa Nova style and being a Carioca he knows it. The song in English means The Night is my Opium.
A Noite Meu Opio
Document
De Jesus de Praga
Jorge Ben Jor shows his Catholicism again with this song about the amazing boy Jesus in Prague. I like this song for his pure beauty of melody and style.
Ed Motta is to my mind the direction that Brazilian-American-Afro music should take. This guy has African-Americans down so pat, you can't help but love him
Fora da Lei (Outside the Law)
What Is Belief
An article about the philosophic idea of Belief. I explore the topic from the perspective of science and philosophy.
Um Homem Solitario
Skank is a rock group in Brazil that has made a song that speaks to my Existentialist philosophy. I love the sardonic tone of this song, even its American-influence rock thematic structure. Check out the translation.
Language and Infinity
Is language construction infinite? Can we form an infinite real world sentence? Steven Pinker, the author of The Language Instinct believes we can. I believe this idea is wrong, and explain why in this article.
Translation of Barbarella
A song from the cult classic Barbarella, starring Ann-Margaret in the late 70s, what Ben Jor does with is beyond description
L'Enfant (The Child) is a film by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne that will tear at your parental instincts.
L'Enfant
The Wrong Man
A film by Alfred Hitchcock. Henry Fonda plays the mild-mannered musician who becomes the subject of a police investigation into a recent bank robbery.
Unique Infinity
Is there a unique infinity? This article looks at infinity from a different perspective.
The 4th Spatial Dimension
Is there a 4th spatial dimension? If so, are there living beings within it? This unfinished work looks at that question.
Sao Liebowitz translation
Jorge Ben's song based on the book The Canticle of Saint Liebowitz, A chilling work about the aftermath of nuclear war.
Typical Dreams
Dreams are strange night stories we fashion for ourselves.
Tolstoy, Kafka, Life and Death, and English Idiom
In The Penal Colony is another of Kafka's grotesque stories. A prison colony that enforces its will through a deadly mechanical instrument.
In The Penal Colony