Yet still the written word is my enemy
Posted on 2006-03-30 at 09:08
For some reason, everything I've written in the last month has been a dissappointment to me. I think my head is just elsewhere. The seed ideas are good enough (though they have come with less frequency in this past month), but the actual entries are hardly my best, in my opinion.
Maybe the problem is related to those government mind-control experiments the CIA did on my in the 60's.
Government Evils Not To Be Forgotten
Posted on 2006-03-30 at 07:30
MKULTRA
In December 1974, The New York Times reported that the CIA had conducted illegal domestic activities, including experiments on U.S. citizens, during the 1960s. That report prompted investigations by both the U.S. Congress (in the form of the Church Committee) and a presidential commission (known as the Rockefeller Commission) into the domestic activities of the CIA, the FBI, and intelligence-related agencies of the military.
In the summer of 1975, congressional hearings and the Rockefeller Commission report revealed to the public for the first time that the CIA and the DOD had conducted experiments on both cognizant and unwitting human subjects as part of an extensive program to influence and control human behavior through the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD and mescaline and other chemical, biological, and psychological means. They also revealed that at least one subject had died after administration of LSD.
Following the recommendations of the Church Committee, President Gerald Ford in 1976 issued the first Executive Order on Intelligence Activities which, among other things, prohibited "experimentation with drugs on human subjects, except with the informed consent, in writing and witnessed by a disinterested party, of each such human subject" and in accordance with the guidelines issued by the National Commission. Subsequent orders by Presidents Carter and Reagan expanded the directive to apply to any human experimentation.
COINTELPRO
COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) is a program of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation aimed at investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO operations of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against organizations that were (at the time) considered to have politically radical elements, ranging from those whose stated goal was the violent overthrow of the US government (such as the Weathermen) to non-violent civil rights groups such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference to racist and segregationist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party. The founding document of COINTELPRO directed FBI agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these dissident movements and their leaders.
How did they go about acheiving their stated goals? Good question.
Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents. As an example of infiltration of organizations, Bill Wilkinson, the leader of the Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was an FBI informant. I'm no fan of the KKK, but it perfectly illustrates the point.
Psychological warfare from the outside: The FBI and police used myriad other "dirty tricks" to undermine these movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists. An example of COINTELPRO's work in the media is a series of articles run in the San Francisco Examiner purporting to be interviews with radical Marxist H. Bruce Franklin. A subsequent libel suit showed that right-wing columnist Ed Montgomery had cooperated closely with the FBI in writing the story, and that J. Edgar Hoover had signed off on the articles before publication. In another example, the FBI also carried out a smear campaign against civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo after she was murdered by four Ku Klux Klan members, of whom one was a paid FBI informant.
Harassment through the legal system: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.
Break-ins: The FBI conducted "black bag" jobs against the targeted groups and their members. Read this part of the COINTELPRO report fopr more details.
Extralegal force and violence: The FBI instigated violence, and its paid informants carried out assaults, beatings, and, in many cases, murders.[6] (Glick, War at Home). An example of a burglary is discussed here. An example of involvement in violent acts is the 1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo by four Klansmen, of whom one was FBI informant Gary Rowe. The Church Committee also found that, "while performing duties paid for by the Government, [Rowe] had ... 'beaten people severely, had boarded buses and kicked people, had [gone] into restaurants and beaten them [blacks] with blackjacks, chains, pistols.'". Another example noted by the Church Committee was "Sending an anonymous letter to the leader of a Chicago street gang (described as 'violence-prone') stating that the Black Panthers were supposed to have 'a hit out for you'. The letter was suggested because it 'may intensify . . . animosity' and cause the street gang leader to 'take retaliatory action'".
See Book III of the SUPPLEMENTARY DETAILED STAFF REPORTS ON INTELLIGENCE ACTIVITIES AND THE RIGHTS OF AMERICANS for more details on this project.
So what ever came of the investigation of COINTELPRO? Would you be shocked to learn that the answer is Nothing? So much for an accountable government.
The Massacre at Ruby Ridge
After 16 months of surveillance of the Weaver property in preparation for an arrest, A Deputy Director of the Special Operations Group of the Marshals Service recommended against a tactical assault on the Weaver compound and his recommendation that the indictment be dismissed and then refiled later under seal, so Weaver would be unaware of the new indictment. This was in hope that it would cause Weaver to drop his guard. His recomendation was not passed on, and on August 21, 1992, several well-armed US Marshals went to the Weaver property to clandestinely survey it. The group had strict orders that they were to avoid all contact with the Weaver family. According to a Department of Justice report on the incident, the Marshals were detected by the Weavers' dogs and began to retreat. Randy Weaver, his 14-year-old son Sam and his house guest, family friend Kevin Harris, left the house to investigate, all carrying firearms. The DOJ report corroborates this with a statement dictated by Randy Weaver to his daughter, in which he says that "Approximately 11:30 Friday morning....the dogs started barking like they always do when strangers walk up the driveway. Randy, Kevin, and Sam ran out to the rock with their weapons." Eventually the Marshals stopped retreating and took up defensive positions in the woods.
The sequence of events during the ensuing shootout is disputed, with Weaver and Harris saying that the Marshals fired first and did not identify themselves. The Marshals' version of events is they were fired on first after identifying themselves. In the ensuing exchange of gunfire, Sam was fatally shot in the back and Harris shot and killed a U.S. Marshal by the name of William Degan.
The next day, an FBI sniper named Lon Horiuchi shot and wounded Weaver while Weaver, Harris, and Weaver's 16-year-old daughter were outside, attempting to visit the dead body of Sam Weaver, which was placed in a shed after being recovered the previous day. As the three people ran back to the house, Horiuchi fired again in an attempt to shoot Kevin Harris, but the shot went through the open door of the cabin killing Weaver's wife Vicki, and only wounding Harris. Vicki Weaver was holding a baby in her hands when shot. Much controversy was later generated by the fact that, after the first day's events, the FBI had changed the rules of engagement. Specifically, that "deadly force could be used against any armed adult male if the shot could be taken without a child being injured."
A stand-off ensued for ten days as several hundred federal agents surrounded the house, in which Weaver and his three surviving children remained with Harris and the dead body of Vicki Weaver. The FBI engaged in psychological warfare, saying over a bullhorn such things as “Good morning Mrs. Weaver,” “We had pancakes this morning. And what did you have for breakfast? Why don't you send your children out for some pancakes, Mrs. Weaver?”. The FBI later maintained that they were unaware that Vicki Weaver lay on the floor of the cabin, dead. This is in conflict with standard procedures by which snipers record the placement of each shot which they take; the level of accuracy reflected by this procedure would mean that Horiuchi knew exactly where his bullet had gone and also that he had intentionally fired at Vicky Weaver.
The Massacre at Waco
On February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) raided the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a rural area near Waco, Texas. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and five Davidians. The subsequent 51-day siege by the FBI ended on April 19 when the compound was completely consumed by fire killing seventy-six people, including the Davidian leader David Koresh.
On the morning the raid occured, the Davidians were lying in wait for the ATF agents to arrive. Koresh's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, testified at the civil trial that Koresh told his people, "Don't shoot until I give the order!" Davidian survivors reported that they rushed to take guns out after they were tipped off about the impending raid. One Davidian, who was an attorney known to local law enforcement, phoned the McLennan county sheriff's department to ask why the agents were shooting at them. The resident asked for a cease-fire, and audiotapes clearly caught him saying "Here they come again!" in reference to the helicopters, and "That's them shooting, that's not us!" The sheriff, in audiotapes broadcast after the incident, said he was not apprised of the raid and did not know how to contact the ATF agents involved. They shouted to television news crews to use their cellular phones to call for ambulances.
What does this mean?
It means just what you think it means. When you put people in positions of power you must keep a close eye on them. This sort of power breeds corruption of the most heinous sort. But instead of moving toward a society where we are seeing a more open government, we are moving toward a society that accepts a black-box governmental process. Our current administration has been found to be illegally spying on the citizens of this country. What is the reaction of the people in power? They want to change the laws so he can continue. Whaaaa? The USAPATRIOT Act was renewed again. Whaaa? The populus accepts all this in the name of the War on Terror. Whaaa?
I'm disgusted.
How may we appease you, Oh Great Sun God?
Posted on 2006-03-29 at 08:31
Oh great and powerful Sun God, do not leave us to die a cold and lonely death. Come back to us to shed your warmth and your occasional firey spat of justice! Be not angry with our blasphemers who called your absence the "ultimate astronomical show".
Though your indignation lasted just three of our mortal hours as you showed your anger to Africa, Turkey and Central Asia, it was a terrifying three hours, where your faithful wept openly and sought reconciliation with you, Great Blazing One.
Know that when the Moon God's vile shadow first besmirched your red visage at sunrise on the east coast of Brazil, we prayed that she would be punished for her crime! And when the Moon God, in infinite foolishness chased your glowing face across the Atlantic Ocean to the African land of Ghana, we wailed and gnashed our teeth while the vile residents of the doomed city of Accra filled the streets to take joy in your suffering. It is said that on this day did one of the sinners of Ghana name the event "the most amazing sight" and "a must see experience". My eyes seep tears of sadness at the recounting.
As you were chased further into the deserts of southern Libya where more errant nonbelievers gathered to point and gawk at the viciousness of the Moon Bitch; Lo', the sight of your torment, which lasted four minutes and seven seconds, was as watching puppies being gutted.
As if to punctuate your torture by the Errant God of the Moon, Nasa and Britain's Royal Institute of Astronomy gathered with thousands of jeering sinners to watch your torment from a Roman amphitheatre in Turkey. Though surely not the first such audience of atrocity in a Roman amphitheatre, it was assuredly the most heinous.
Spake Jay Pasachoff---professor of astronomy at Williams College, Massachusetts---after he had observed this event, "It was more fabulous even than we expected." May he rot in that special roped off section of hell reserved for lawyers and the guy who invented the seat belt alarm car buzzer.
I only pray that you can forgive us our transgression and return to us. I vow to hold the moon in scorn forevermore. Amen.
Because it bothers me
Posted on 2006-03-28 at 20:40
Why does the last piece of ice always stick to the bottom of the cup?
Have you heard the story of the bird's eye?
Posted on 2006-03-27 at 07:09
Many years ago in India, there lived a man named Druna. He ran a school in the middle of the forest where he taught archery. Students traveled from all over asia to learn archery from the master, Druna. Arjuna wanted to be the best archer in the world. So he chose Druna's academy at which to learn his craft. He lived in the cottages with the other students.
Druna showed his pupils how to hold the bow and arrow. He taught them to focus, "Look at where you want your arrow to be. Let the rest dissolve away." He taught them to concentrate, "Think only of what you want your arrow to do. No more."
Arjuna listened attentively. He practiced from morning til evening. One night while Arjuna was eating his dinner, a gust of wind blew out the oil lamp. Arjuna continued eating.
"I can eat in the dark because I know where my mouth is," he thought to himself, "I don't need to look at anything else."
He decided to practice archery in the dark. He relighted the lamp and used it as a target. He thought, "I know where my target is and I don't need to look at anything else."
He picked up his bow and arrows and began shooting. TWANG! TWANG! The sound of bow strings filled the air. When Druna heard the sound, he came out of his cottage. The sight of Arjuna practicing archery delighted him. He blessed Arjuna, saying "May your arrows never miss their targets."
Soon other students grew jealous of the attention Arjuna was getting. "Why do you think Arjuna is the best among us all?" they asked the teacher. That evening Druna made an announcement.
"Tomorrow, there will be an archery competition to determine the best archer among you," Druna said. "When the sun peeps from the moutaintops, be ready with your bows and arrows."
The students polished their bows and sharpened their arrows. Next morning, they gathered in the yard. Glossy bows and pointed arrows gleamed in the sun. The wind was still but the students' hearts fluttered with excitement.
Druna placed a wooden bird on the branch of a distant tree. It was partly hidden by the foliage. A prominent artificial eye was painted on the wooden bird. The teacher called all his disciples and said, "Look my children, a bird is sitting on that far off tree. You have to hit the arrow exactly in its eye. Are you ready?"
Everyone nodded. First the eldest Yudhisthira was invited to try his skill. He stretched his bow-string and was about to release the arrow when Drunacharya asked him a question, "O eldest son of Kunti, may I know what is visible to you at this point of time?"
Yudhisthira replied innocently, "Why, O Gurudev, I am seeing you, the tree, people around me, and the bird!"
When his arrow flew out, it missed the target wide
Similar questions were put to Duryodhana, Bhima, Nakul, Sahadeva and others, and Druna got the similar answers as those given by Yudhisthira.
"What do you see ahead of you?" Druna asked.
"I see the tree, the branches, the leaves," the student replied as he released the string. The arrow shot forward and landed near the roots of the tree.
The next student came forward, plucked an arrow from his quiver, placed it on the bow, and pulled the string.
"What do you see ahead of you?" Druna asked.
"I see the bird, its legs, its wings," the student replied as he let the string go. The arrow shot forward and grazed the wings of the bird.
Finally it was Arjuna's turn. He plucked an arrow from his quiver, placed it on the bow, and pulled the string.
"What do you see ahead of you?" Druna asked.
"I see the eye of the bird," Arjuna replied.
"What else do you see, Arjuna?" Druna asked.
"Nothing. I only see the round black eye of the bird," Arjuna replied as he released the string. The arrow shot forward with a swoosh. It pierced the center of the eye of the wooden bird.
Dovetailing into my future plans as an arch villian
Posted on 2006-03-22 at 06:57
I'm quite pleased to annouce that the Great LazyWeb has offered me another time-saver. Apparently someone else has already done the legwork on how to destroy the planet. This means I can go straight into demanding one mill...er...BILLION dollars from your earth governments.
Fear, children, fear!
On Being Human and the Art of the Bitch Slap
Posted on 2006-03-21 at 08:10
What is with people who don't want to help others?
I understand not wanting to help them in the wrong way. I get that. My familial history drove that point deep into my skull years ago. But at all?!?
What is it that makes a human being lose that most basic drive---empathy? What emotional callouses allows a person look at the suffering of others and say "I'm cool with that"?
Sometimes I wish I could be given special dispensation to bitch slap those who need it. It might help.
The Iraqis had it coming! *bitch slap*. Who cares about runaways? *bitch slap*. Poor people are only poor because they are lazy. *bitch slap*. Inmates brought it on themselves, so I don't care if the conditions in our prisons are bad. *bitch slap*. Rascism is gone and black people need to get over what happened 300 years ago. *bitch slap*.
Yes, I think the bitch slap is a form on immediate punishment that should be reinstituted; a sort of Ike Turner style justice of the street. It seems to me that it would work wonders. People wouldn't say as much insensitive, ignorant crap if they thought there was a chance that they might get a red faced smack down over it. I mean, if it's good enough for the Submariner:
But I'm not the policy maker. Perhaps I should write my Senators and Congresscritter....
The look has changed again
Posted on 2006-03-16 at 07:29
As you can already see, I've just changed the look of my blog again. I have no reason other than whim. Feedback is welcome, of course. I'll be tweaking the color arrangement over the next few days to get it just right. I have chosen a color palette on which to base my site's color scheme. You can see that palette below:
Butter_Light #fce94f Butter_Medium #edd400 Butter_Dark #c4a000
Orange_Light #fcaf3e Orange_Medium #f57900 Orange_Dark #ce5c00
Chocolate_Light #e9b96e Chocolate_Medium #c17d11 Chocolate_Dark #8f5902
Chameleon_Light #8ae234 Chameleon_Medium #73d216 Chameleon_Dark #439a06
SkyBlue_Light #729fcf SkyBlue_Medium #3465a4 SkyBlue_Dark #204a87
Plum_Light #ad7fa8 Plum_Medium #75507b Plum_Dark #5c3566
ScarletRed_Light #ef2929 ScarletRed_Medium #cc0000 ScarletRed_Dark #a40000
Aluminum_Light1 #eeeeec Aluminum_Light2 #d3d7cf Aluminum_Medium1 #babdb6 Aluminum_Medium2 #888a85 Aluminum_Dark1 #555735 Aluminum_Dark2 #2e3436
So, whaddaya think of the new look-n-feel?
Happy Birthday, Einstein!
Posted on 2006-03-14 at 07:27
Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist widely regarded as the greatest scientist of the 20th century. He was the author of the general theory of relativity and made important contributions to the special theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and cosmology. He was awarded the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 (his "miracle year") and "for his services to Theoretical Physics."
After British solar eclipse expeditions in 1919 confirmed that light rays from distant stars were deflected by the gravity of the sun in the exact amount he predicted in his general theory of relativity, Einstein became world-famous, an unusual achievement for a scientist. In his later years, his fame exceeded that of any other scientist in history. In popular culture, his name has become synonymous with great intelligence and genius.
In November 1915, Einstein presented a series of lectures before the Prussian Academy of Sciences in which he described his theory of gravity, known as general relativity. The final lecture climaxed with his introduction of an equation that replaced Newton's law of gravity, the Field Equation.9 This theory considered all observers to be equivalent, not only those moving at a uniform speed. In general relativity, gravity is no longer a force (as it is in Newton's law of gravity) but is a consequence of the curvature of space-time.
The theory provided the foundation for the study of cosmology and gave scientists the tools for understanding many features of the universe that were discovered well after Einstein's death. A truly revolutionary theory, general relativity has so far passed every test posed to it and has become a powerful tool used in the analysis of many subjects in physics.
Initially, scientists were skeptical because the theory was derived by mathematical reasoning and rational analysis, not by experiment or observation. But in 1919, predictions made using the theory were confirmed by Arthur Eddington's measurements (during a solar eclipse), of how much the light emanating from a star was bent by the Sun's gravity when it passed close to the Sun, an effect called gravitational lensing. The observations were carried out on May 29, 1919, at two locations, one in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil, and another in the island of Principe, in the west coast of Africa. On November 7, The Times reported the confirmation, cementing Einstein's fame.
Many scientists were still unconvinced for various reasons ranging from disagreement with Einstein's interpretation of the experiments, to not being able to tolerate the absence of an absolute frame of reference. In Einstein's view, many of them simply could not understand the mathematics involved[citation needed]. Einstein's public fame which followed the 1919 article created resentment among these scientists some of which lasted well into the 1930s.
In the early 1920s Einstein was the lead figure in a famous weekly physics colloquium at the University of Berlin. On March 30, 1921, Einstein went to New York to give a lecture on his new Theory of Relativity, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Though he is now most famous for his work on relativity, it was for his earlier work on the photoelectric effect that he was given the Prize, as his work on general relativity was still disputed. The Nobel committee decided that citing his less-contested theory in the Prize would gain more acceptance from the scientific community.
Sir Edmund Whittaker(1953) stated that David Hilbert published the theory of general relativity nearly simultaneously with Einstein.
Einstein's postulation that light can be described not only as a wave with no kinetic energy, but also as massless discrete packets of energy called quanta with measurable kinetic energy (now known as photons) was a landmark break with the classical physics. In 1909 Einstein presented his first paper on the quantification of light to a gathering of physicists and told them that they must find some way to understand waves and particles together.
In the mid-1920s, as the original quantum theory was replaced with a new theory of quantum mechanics, Einstein balked at the Copenhagen interpretation of the new equations either because it settled for a probabilistic, non-visualizable account of physical behaviour, or because it described matter as being in necessarily contradictory states. Einstein agreed that the theory was the best available[citation needed], but he looked for a more "complete" explanation, i.e., more deterministic. He could not abandon the belief that physics described the laws that govern "real things", the belief which had led to his successes with atoms, photons, and gravity.
In a 1926 letter to Max Born, Einstein made a remark that is now famous:
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.
To this, Bohr, who sparred with Einstein on quantum theory, retorted, "Stop telling God what He must do!" The Bohr-Einstein debates on foundational aspects of quantum mechanics happened during the Solvay conferences.
Einstein was not rejecting probabilistic theories per se. Einstein himself was a great statistician, using statistical analysis in his works on Brownian motion and photoelectricity and in papers published before the miraculous year 1905; Einstein had even discovered Gibbs ensembles. He believed, however, that at the core reality behaved deterministically. Many physicists argue that experimental evidence contradicting this belief was found much later with the discovery of Bell's Theorem and Bell's inequality. Nonetheless, there is still space for lively discussions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics.
Einstein's writings on religion are frequently associated with pantheism, an areligious spirituality that regards the natural world as definitionally equivalent to God. Although he was raised Jewish, he was not a believer in the religious aspect of Judaism, though he still considered himself an ethnic Jew. From a letter written in English, dated March 24, 1954, Einstein wrote, "It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."
He also said (in an essay reprinted in Living Philosophies, vol. 13, 1931): "A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds—it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity; in this sense, and this [sense] alone, I am a deeply religious man."
The following is a response made to Rabbi Herbert Goldstein of the International Synagogue in New York which read:
I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." After being pressed on his religious views by Martin Buber, Einstein exclaimed, "What we [physicists] strive for is just to draw His lines after Him." He also quoted once "When I read the Bhagavad Gita, I ask myself how God created the universe. Everything else seems superfluous." Summarizing his religious beliefs, he once said: "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
Einstein was an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Press Association beginning in 1934, and was an admirer of Ethical Culture.
As with the article on Pi, this was taken from the Wikipedia article on the subject. The text of this entry falls under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Happy Pi Day!
Posted on 2006-03-14 at 07:19
The mathematical constant Pi is a real number which is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference (Greek Piεριφέρεια, periphery) to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, and which is in common use in mathematics, physics, and engineering. The name of the Greek letter Pi is pi (pronounced pie) in English. This spelling can be used in typographical contexts where the Greek letter is not available. Pi is also known as Archimedes's constant (not to be confused with Archimedes's number) and Ludolph's number.
In Euclidean plane geometry, Pi may be defined either as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, or as the ratio of a circle's area to the area of a square whose side is the radius. Advanced textbooks define Pi analytically using trigonometric functions, for example as the smallest positive x for which sin(x) = 0, or as twice the smallest positive x for which cos(x) = 0. All these definitions are equivalent.
The numerical value of Pi, truncated to 50 decimal places (sequence A000796 in OEIS), is:
3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 50288 41971 69399 37510
Although this precision is more than sufficient for use in engineering and science, the exact value of Pi has decimal places that never end. Much effort over the last few centuries has been put into computing more digits and investigating the number's properties. Despite much analytical work, in addition to supercomputer calculations that have determined over 1 trillion digits of Pi, no pattern in the digits has ever been found. Digits of Pi are available from multiple resources on the Internet, and a regular personal computer can compute billions of digits with available software.
Pi is an irrational number; that is, it cannot be written as the ratio of two integers, as was proven in 1761 by Johann Heinrich Lambert.
Pi is also transcendental, as was proven by Ferdinand von Lindemann in 1882. This means that there is no polynomial with rational coefficients of which Pi is a root. An important consequence of the transcendence of Pi is the fact that it is not constructible. Because the coordinates of all points that can be constructed with ruler and compass are constructible numbers, it is impossible to square the circle, that is, it is impossible to construct, using ruler and compass alone, a square whose area is equal to the area of a given circle.
The value of Pi has been known in some form since antiquity. As early as the 20th century BC, Babylonian mathematicians were using Pi=25/8, which is within 0.5% of the exact value.
It is sometimes claimed that the Bible states that Pi=3, based on a passage in 1 Kings 7:23 giving measurements for a round basin as having a 10 cubit diameter and a 30 cubit circumference. Rabbi Nehemiah explained this by the diameter being from outside to outside while the circumference was the inner brim; but it may suffice that the measurements are given in round numbers. Also, the basin may not have been exactly circular.
The most pressing open question about Pi is whether it is a normal number -- whether any digit block occurs in the expansion of Pi just as often as one would statistically expect if the digits had been produced completely "randomly", and that this is true in every base, not just base 10. Current knowledge on this point is very weak; e.g., it is not even known which of the digits 0,…,9 occur infinitely often in the decimal expansion of Pi.
Bailey and Crandall showed in 2000 that the existence of the above mentioned Bailey-Borwein-Plouffe formula and similar formulæ imply that the normality in base 2 of Pi and various other constants can be reduced to a plausible conjecture of chaos theory. See Bailey's above mentioned web site for details.
It is also unknown whether Pi and e are algebraically independent. However it is known that at least one of Pie and Pi + e is transcendental.
In non-Euclidean geometry the sum of the angles of a triangle may be more or less than Pi radians, and the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter may also differ from Pi. This does not change the definition of Pi, but it does affect many formulæ in which Pi appears. So, in particular, Pi is not affected by the shape of the universe; it is not a physical constant but a mathematical constant defined independently of any physical measurements. Nonetheless, it occurs often in physics.
The above stolen liberally from the Wikipedia article on the subject. The text of this entry falls under the GNU Free Documentation License. Now you are edified. Go forth and spread the wisdom of Pi.
Miscellany
Posted on 2006-03-13 at 20:23
This blog entry will have no cohesion or structure.
This site has ads and stuff. You already know that. Do I make money like that? Not really. Mostly because I'm not really trying. I'm sure I could if I changed things a bit. I'm made some pocket change. If you have a moral objection to the ads, try something like Firefox's AdBlock extension or some other plug in to remove them from the page...or don't. I'll do my best to care, but I don't expect to succeed. :)
Work is "teh suX0r". Not becuase the project is bad (it's kinda fun) or the people suck (all people suck, the guys I work directly with suck much less than most). It's just that it's work and work blows fat chunks. I just want the stuff I do on this project to be decoupled from the income it generates. That would be ideal. If you don't get what I mean, then let me put it differently: Work sucks because work is an obligation to others...usually "demanding others".
'Nuff said.
Writers' block
Posted on 2006-03-07 at 17:16
My creative juices are all dry and dusty.
I have things I want to write about. I have ideas and rants and insights that I'd love to share. But ever since getting full-headed into this project, I just find myself staring at the same blank screen.
I want to tell you about my latest problem with language standardization (In short, there is nothing wrong with the phrase "I was a-fixin' to do that.") and the failures of fundamentalism (If you preach biblical inerrancy as your foundation, you've built a house of cards that will fall eventually, and then you have a bitter ex-Christian with no interest in returning to the fold.).
I want to say so much, but I can't seem to find the right words to express myself lately. And it isn't just writing. I can barely speak. I'm going through a linguistic valley and the sun is already down over the mountain's mantle. I'm left stumbling through the underbrush of broken english and the dust of incoherent thought.
See?!? Even my metaphors are broke and tilting wrong.
My brain needs an enema.
ASP.NET 2.0 thoughts
Posted on 2006-03-07 at 09:35
You can pick it up, clean it off, and shine it for the guests, but ASP is just a way to try to shove 15 pounds of dung in a 5 pound canvas sack.
ASP.NET 2.0 is far better than previous versions I've written for, but html just doesn't cut it as a medium for rich application development.
I understand the maintainence benefits are sustantial, but as a development platform, it blows.
Who's watching me?
Posted on 2006-03-02 at 08:44
I just found out that I got over 50 hits on my blog from the Department of Homeland Security. Since I don't want their idle web surfing to be in vain I'm including a link to the wikipedia article on Pipe Bombs.
Ohhhh! I'm so counter-culture and revolutionary. Now back to my sick bed where I will enjoy my breakfast of an ice cream sandwich and a hot coffee.
I've got the body rot!
Posted on 2006-03-01 at 14:40
I've come down with that flu thing that my daughter had. That's why I ain't blogging right now. I'll blog more when I can breath through my nose and when my fingertips don't ache from typing.
But just a quick sidenote: I know she's 18 months old, but damn, seriously, it should be biult into the human genome that you don't cough into someone else's mouth! I mean, come on! WTF?!? I'm not asking that she cover her mouth properly yet or anything, but coughing into another person's mouth is totally unacceptable! We'll be working on with some urgency over the next few days.
Now back to my death bed, I crawl.