I think Old Dog is referring to the if/then statement. If the if and then phrases are both true then the statement is true. If the if phrase is true and the then phrase is false then the statement is false. If the if phrase is false and the then statement is true, then the statement is true which seems fair enough but also if the if statement and then statement are both false then the statement is true also. The whole thing seems a little unbalanced, but then if you start with a false premise it doesn't matter what your conclusion is. The statement is true but it's useless in the real world.
My mathematical model, which worked fine for enemy of my enemy and friend of my friend also operates just fine for the enemy of my enemy of my enemy, which can be simplified to the (enemy of my enemy) of my enemy which becomes the (friend) of my enemy which becomes my enemy. (-1)X(-1)X(-1)= ( (-1)X(-1) )X(-1) = (+1)X(-1) = -1. The situation with the three of us all being enemies is different because it is three sided.
What Old Dog should do is open peace talks with whichever of us is weaker, then if his ally and he defeat the stronger foe it will be easier for him to defeat his former ally and become king of the hill. If he allies himself with the stronger foe then once the weaker foe is defeated the stronger foe will easily defeat him. And of course Old Dog has to keep in mind that both me and Beagles know this and are considering the same thing about picking an ally.
The difference between Canada and the Roman Empire is that the Roman Empire consisted of most of the civilized world whereas Canada is a small part of the civilized world. Civilized world is hard to define of course, but how about if we consider people who have a written language.
I think Old Dog's cousin would have done well to invest in a better doctor.
I think Beagles is conflating addition with multiplication With addition we have no such odd thing as a negative times a negative becoming a positive, it is all just a walk along the number line with negative meaning go left and positive meaning go right. When we are subtracting a negative number we are taking away steps to the left which translates to steps to the right.
Multiplication came into vogue because that is how you measure the area of your field, the width times the length, it gets a little more complicated if you have to use triangles but that is still multiplying. When you toss negative numbers into that mix they don't make much sense. How can you call a negative four by negative four field equal to sixteen units?
When quadratic equations were fooled with it was soon realized that they must all have two solutions (cubic three, etc), but it often turns out that one of the answers was negative or worse than that a number involving the square root of minus one, and initially these answers were tossed out. How can Susie have negative three, or worse, three times the square root of minus one apples? But it turns out that when you are doing math on complicated things like magnetic fields you need these numbers to make the math work, so I guess they are as real as the integers.
There are two kinds of biblical scholars, the kind who take the bible and associated writings as true and work from there, and the kind that assume no such thing and use written history backed up by archaeology to look for evidence of biblical figures there. Beagles is a man of the first kind, and the second kind are the guys that have found no evidence of David or Solomon.
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Un-Multiplying
Okay, there probably is no such thing as un-multiplying, I just made that word up because I didn't know what else to call it. Let's try a different tack. If you multiply two times one you get two. If you multiply two times negative one it seems like you would get zero because negative is the opposite of positive and the negative makes the positive go away. Two times negative two should then be negative four because you're making the original two go away twice. Now if you start out with a negative two and multiply it by a positive one, you should get zero because the positive makes the negative go away. No, that doesn't sound right. Truth is, I don't remember negative multiplication from school so I'm trying to reconstruct it logically. Then again, maybe the reason I don't remember it is because there is no such a thing as negative multiplication, or negative division either for that matter. I mean, maybe there is such a thing in theoretical mathematics but not in the real world. If Johnny has two apples and he gives one to Susie, he has one less apple, but if Susie promises to pay him back double tomorrow, she should give him two apples. But what if Susie tries to pull a fast one by paying him back negative double? I don't think that's possible in the real world. Assuming that Johnny has already eaten his remaining apple, he couldn't give it to Susie to satisfy her negative double payback request even if he wanted to, which he probably wouldn't because he doesn't like Susie anymore because he has discovered that she is a con artist.
I have never head the allegation before that David and Solomon were mythical characters. Legendary perhaps, but certainly not mythical. I doubt Uncle Ken's assertion that there is no historical record of them. If they weren't kings of Israel during that time frame, then who was? And who ordered the construction of Solomon's Temple if not Solomon himself? I think that Uncle Ken's got some splainin to do.
I have never head the allegation before that David and Solomon were mythical characters. Legendary perhaps, but certainly not mythical. I doubt Uncle Ken's assertion that there is no historical record of them. If they weren't kings of Israel during that time frame, then who was? And who ordered the construction of Solomon's Temple if not Solomon himself? I think that Uncle Ken's got some splainin to do.
Snack time
The effective fish scaling tools were available but their use was restricted to the adults. I suspect it was part of a plan to keep the kids occupied, dodging scales and trying to keep the work area neat and tidy. We weren't told about scaling the fish underwater but that was probably another part of the plan, keeping the kids busy while the grown-ups played cribbage.
Mr. Beagles is spot-on with his assessment of the fish skin. Perch fried in butter? Nothing better, and it's like potatos; when done right the best flavor is in the skin.
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Sorry, Uncle Ken, but I still don't buy your "enemy of my enemy" logic, despite your facile assignment of mathematical symbols. I smell a trap, some mental sleight of hand to confuse and confound. I tossed out your argument because of something I remember from a college class I took while overseas, Logic and Semantics. It had to do with an "if" statement beginning a syllogism; the argument is not logically valid. I forget the details, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And assigning mathematical values and operations to the "enemy of my enemy" is meaningless, in my opinion. The nature of friendship and enmity transcend any mathematical mumbo-jumbo. Suppose I have two enemies and for the sake of argument let's call them Mr. Beagles and Uncle Ken. But then I find out that Mr. Beagles and Uncle Ken are also enemies of each other. Does that make either one of them my friend? If so, who is the friend, if any, of the Old Dog?
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Whenever our discussions touch on areas of history my mind wanders to other facets of antiquity, occasionally bumping into some curious facts. The Roman Empire, for instance. We were taught that it was huge, an amazingly large chunk of the world under Roman rule. And indeed it was; at it's height the Roman Empire covered 2.2 million square miles of land. Then I checked something out...the United States covers about 3.7 million square miles, and Canada and Russia are even larger. Huh.
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On Sunday, during the Bears game I think, there was a curious commercial for Google. No dialogue, just a bunch of images and scenes accompanied by a cover version of the Beatles' song Help. How odd, I thought. Why would Google, with it's overwhelming share of the search market, even bother with advertising? Maybe they have something up their digital sleeve and are preparing the sheep for further shearing.
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I found another amusing diversion today. I mention it only because of Uncle Ken's statement about black-eyed peas bringing good luck for the New Year, and I quote: “Eating black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year’s Day brings good luck all year. I was born and raised in Texas and have heard this all my life.” — Candace, Dallas, Texas
One food myth I remember from my childhood had to do with a distant cousin of mine. He had a rheumatic heart for a while and it was blamed on his consumption of potato chips and the drinking of Coca Cola, which is why neither were present in our home. Ginger Ale and 7-Up were fine, though, but never chips--only popcorn.
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And hot off the wires, The Good Place has been renewed for a fourth season.
Mr. Beagles is spot-on with his assessment of the fish skin. Perch fried in butter? Nothing better, and it's like potatos; when done right the best flavor is in the skin.
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Sorry, Uncle Ken, but I still don't buy your "enemy of my enemy" logic, despite your facile assignment of mathematical symbols. I smell a trap, some mental sleight of hand to confuse and confound. I tossed out your argument because of something I remember from a college class I took while overseas, Logic and Semantics. It had to do with an "if" statement beginning a syllogism; the argument is not logically valid. I forget the details, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. And assigning mathematical values and operations to the "enemy of my enemy" is meaningless, in my opinion. The nature of friendship and enmity transcend any mathematical mumbo-jumbo. Suppose I have two enemies and for the sake of argument let's call them Mr. Beagles and Uncle Ken. But then I find out that Mr. Beagles and Uncle Ken are also enemies of each other. Does that make either one of them my friend? If so, who is the friend, if any, of the Old Dog?
-----
Whenever our discussions touch on areas of history my mind wanders to other facets of antiquity, occasionally bumping into some curious facts. The Roman Empire, for instance. We were taught that it was huge, an amazingly large chunk of the world under Roman rule. And indeed it was; at it's height the Roman Empire covered 2.2 million square miles of land. Then I checked something out...the United States covers about 3.7 million square miles, and Canada and Russia are even larger. Huh.
-----
On Sunday, during the Bears game I think, there was a curious commercial for Google. No dialogue, just a bunch of images and scenes accompanied by a cover version of the Beatles' song Help. How odd, I thought. Why would Google, with it's overwhelming share of the search market, even bother with advertising? Maybe they have something up their digital sleeve and are preparing the sheep for further shearing.
-----
I found another amusing diversion today. I mention it only because of Uncle Ken's statement about black-eyed peas bringing good luck for the New Year, and I quote: “Eating black-eyed peas and cornbread on New Year’s Day brings good luck all year. I was born and raised in Texas and have heard this all my life.” — Candace, Dallas, Texas
One food myth I remember from my childhood had to do with a distant cousin of mine. He had a rheumatic heart for a while and it was blamed on his consumption of potato chips and the drinking of Coca Cola, which is why neither were present in our home. Ginger Ale and 7-Up were fine, though, but never chips--only popcorn.
-----
And hot off the wires, The Good Place has been renewed for a fourth season.
still multiplying negatives
I misspoke when I said prophet, clearly preacher is a better term. I see him as sort of country preacher, some guy who was far from the central church, tending to his flock, though they probably didn't call it that because I don't think that ovine nomenclature took off until after Jesus showed up. I think he is a little disillusioned with things, tired of pretending that there are answers to things when really it is all, as the band Kansas discovered, dust in the wind. Maybe I should read it again, it has been years. My Elsdon Methodist King James Version sits just feet away on a bookshelf because I think sometimes I should look up something, but I never get around to doing so. I'm pretty sure that David and his son are mythical. There is no historical record of him, which there would be if he was some big king. Likewise the Queen of Sheba sadly.
I don't understand how multiplying a positive number by a negative number is un-multiplying it. I would think that division is the reverse operation of multiplication. I don't understand how you are un-multiplying something twice, or how a second negative will cancel out a first negative by un-multiplying it. I don't understand Beagles' explanation at all.
I think negative numbers were allowed into the pantheon by the practice of commerce. When balancing the books you would have to account for debts owed to you and debts that you owed and you would subtract what you owed from what was owed to you and if the former was greater than the latter than you would be in a hole, your net worth would be a negative number. I think if you converted a debt owed by you to one owed to you that would be the equivalent of multiplying it by negative one, but you know that is not much of an explanation. I wonder why what should be so obvious is so hard to explain. I am a few clicks away from googling why does multiplying a negative by a negative result in a positive, but like that reach for the good book I will hold it in abeyance until at least this is posted.
I was inclined for kind thoughts for the late Herbert Walker, but here it is Tuesday and the funeral isn't until Wednesday and then it will be Thursday when they bury him. I guess that's the way it always is when a prez dies, but isn't it a bit too long? There's no trouble at all having nice thoughts for the departed not long after they have departed, but the longer thereafter when everytime you turn on the tube there is that casket, you begin to think he wasn't really all that hot.
I don't understand how multiplying a positive number by a negative number is un-multiplying it. I would think that division is the reverse operation of multiplication. I don't understand how you are un-multiplying something twice, or how a second negative will cancel out a first negative by un-multiplying it. I don't understand Beagles' explanation at all.
I think negative numbers were allowed into the pantheon by the practice of commerce. When balancing the books you would have to account for debts owed to you and debts that you owed and you would subtract what you owed from what was owed to you and if the former was greater than the latter than you would be in a hole, your net worth would be a negative number. I think if you converted a debt owed by you to one owed to you that would be the equivalent of multiplying it by negative one, but you know that is not much of an explanation. I wonder why what should be so obvious is so hard to explain. I am a few clicks away from googling why does multiplying a negative by a negative result in a positive, but like that reach for the good book I will hold it in abeyance until at least this is posted.
I was inclined for kind thoughts for the late Herbert Walker, but here it is Tuesday and the funeral isn't until Wednesday and then it will be Thursday when they bury him. I guess that's the way it always is when a prez dies, but isn't it a bit too long? There's no trouble at all having nice thoughts for the departed not long after they have departed, but the longer thereafter when everytime you turn on the tube there is that casket, you begin to think he wasn't really all that hot.
Monday, December 3, 2018
Ecclesiastes
Uncle Ken seems to have confused the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes with "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran. In my old RSV Bible, the subtitle of Ecclesiastes is "Or The Preacher". Indeed, the author identifies himself in the first verse: "The words of the Preacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem." Of course King David must have had more than one son, seeing as he had I don't know how many wives and concubines, but Solomon was his most famous son and his successor to the throne. The preceding book of Proverbs and the following book titled "The Song of Solomon" are also traditionally attributed to him, although I suppose it's possible that any or all of them might have been ghost written. Solomon lived around 1,000 BC, so that would make his books closer to 3,000 years old than 2,000. While it's true that God is scarcely mentioned in Ecclesiastes, I don't think He's mentioned at all in The Song of Solomon. That one is basically a love letter to the author's girlfriend which gets pretty racy in places. It's generally believed that the girlfriend in question was the Queen of Sheba, but Solomon was even more of a ladies' man than his father, so there's no way to know for sure. Now that's the one that probably shouldn't have been included in the Bible.
It always made sense to me that, when you multiply a negative number by another negative number, you get a positive number. When you multiply a number by a negative, you are essentially un-multiplying it. Two times negative two has to be negative four because you are un-multiplying it twice. Ergo, if you multiply a negative by another negative, the second negative cancels out the first negative by un-multiplying it, or something like that.
While it is possible to scale fish with a knife, they make a special tool for that job called a fish scaler which works better in my opinion. You can prevent most of the scales from flying all over the place by scaling your fish under water, or you can eliminate the problem altogether by filleting and skinning instead of scaling. I prefer to scale my smaller fish, anything under about 12 inches, because the skin is usually good eating when coated and deep fried, but some people fillet everything.
It always made sense to me that, when you multiply a negative number by another negative number, you get a positive number. When you multiply a number by a negative, you are essentially un-multiplying it. Two times negative two has to be negative four because you are un-multiplying it twice. Ergo, if you multiply a negative by another negative, the second negative cancels out the first negative by un-multiplying it, or something like that.
While it is possible to scale fish with a knife, they make a special tool for that job called a fish scaler which works better in my opinion. You can prevent most of the scales from flying all over the place by scaling your fish under water, or you can eliminate the problem altogether by filleting and skinning instead of scaling. I prefer to scale my smaller fish, anything under about 12 inches, because the skin is usually good eating when coated and deep fried, but some people fillet everything.
double negatives
I just can't think of anything to say about our current subjects of discussion that I haven't already said.
I'm with you on that one, Mr. Beagles. Sometimes I think I'm beginning to repeat myself
Is that so bad? Did not the prophet say that there is nothing new under the sun? And that was like two thousand years and some change ago. A few hundred if you think that Solomon wrote it, and maybe seven hundred if you think otherwise, which very brief internet research reveals most biblical scholars do.
To everything
(Turn turn)
There is a season
(Turn turn)
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
I don't recall that the subject came up in Sunday school at sleepy Elsdon Methodist Church, so my introduction to the book of the prophet comes from the Byrds' song. What an interesting group that was from Dylan to psychedelic to country.
Anyway, my brief internet sorty revealed also that this was a book that barely made it into the bible. Well it seems contrary to most everything else in the good book. It doesn't tell a story. It seems like a lot of folk wisdom gussied up poetically that's almost atheistic in that it doesn't say much about The Man Hisself. I should do more research on the subject but I will wait for the resident expert to opine.
People didn't know much about history then and their science was nowhere, but they did have some pretty good mathematics thanks to the Greeks, and the word on the street is that Israel at the time was under the Hellenic influence.
The Greeks were fond of the natural numbers because they were so well behaved, add or multiply a couple and you get another natural number, but subtract or divide a couple and suddenly you are into the realms of the integers and the reals and things get messy, dip your toes into square roots and you get into the rationals which are not rational at all and the Greeks turned to geometry.
But back to the integers. They give us the double negative as in the enemy of my enemy. I wonder if either of the dawgs thought something was fishy when they were taught that a negative times a negative is a positive. Wait a minute, what are they pulling off here? I don't recall that we were given much of an explanation for why a negative times a negative becomes a positive. Then shouldn't a positive times a positive become a negative then? I mean just to be fair.
I don't recall anybody objecting though. If you didn't do it their way you would get the wrong answer and fail your arithmetic test and the horrifying specter of summer school loomed past the equinox.
There are explanations for why a negative times a negative becomes a positive. They are a little complex but you can see that if it were otherwise, if a negative times a negative becomes a super negative and a super negative times a super negative becomes a really super negative and so on, which common sense would seem to dictate, you can just see how everything would get out of hand, so it looks like math dodged a bullet there.
Not so with that other number which joins with the negatives, and I speak here of the humble zero which leads us into unreal realities, but that is a story for another day.
Herbert Walker, as a partisan dem I was not a big fan, but compared to his son (actually i think W might have been an ok prez if he hadn't fallen to the Cheney cabal), he grew a lot taller. Then he became a giant compared to the present prez, but then all former prez's are giants compared to that guy.
I'm with you on that one, Mr. Beagles. Sometimes I think I'm beginning to repeat myself
Is that so bad? Did not the prophet say that there is nothing new under the sun? And that was like two thousand years and some change ago. A few hundred if you think that Solomon wrote it, and maybe seven hundred if you think otherwise, which very brief internet research reveals most biblical scholars do.
To everything
(Turn turn)
There is a season
(Turn turn)
And a time to every purpose under heaven.
I don't recall that the subject came up in Sunday school at sleepy Elsdon Methodist Church, so my introduction to the book of the prophet comes from the Byrds' song. What an interesting group that was from Dylan to psychedelic to country.
Anyway, my brief internet sorty revealed also that this was a book that barely made it into the bible. Well it seems contrary to most everything else in the good book. It doesn't tell a story. It seems like a lot of folk wisdom gussied up poetically that's almost atheistic in that it doesn't say much about The Man Hisself. I should do more research on the subject but I will wait for the resident expert to opine.
People didn't know much about history then and their science was nowhere, but they did have some pretty good mathematics thanks to the Greeks, and the word on the street is that Israel at the time was under the Hellenic influence.
The Greeks were fond of the natural numbers because they were so well behaved, add or multiply a couple and you get another natural number, but subtract or divide a couple and suddenly you are into the realms of the integers and the reals and things get messy, dip your toes into square roots and you get into the rationals which are not rational at all and the Greeks turned to geometry.
But back to the integers. They give us the double negative as in the enemy of my enemy. I wonder if either of the dawgs thought something was fishy when they were taught that a negative times a negative is a positive. Wait a minute, what are they pulling off here? I don't recall that we were given much of an explanation for why a negative times a negative becomes a positive. Then shouldn't a positive times a positive become a negative then? I mean just to be fair.
I don't recall anybody objecting though. If you didn't do it their way you would get the wrong answer and fail your arithmetic test and the horrifying specter of summer school loomed past the equinox.
There are explanations for why a negative times a negative becomes a positive. They are a little complex but you can see that if it were otherwise, if a negative times a negative becomes a super negative and a super negative times a super negative becomes a really super negative and so on, which common sense would seem to dictate, you can just see how everything would get out of hand, so it looks like math dodged a bullet there.
Not so with that other number which joins with the negatives, and I speak here of the humble zero which leads us into unreal realities, but that is a story for another day.
Herbert Walker, as a partisan dem I was not a big fan, but compared to his son (actually i think W might have been an ok prez if he hadn't fallen to the Cheney cabal), he grew a lot taller. Then he became a giant compared to the present prez, but then all former prez's are giants compared to that guy.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Off the scales
In another odd instance of synchronicity, right about the same time Mr. Beagles mentions Pontius Pilate, Israeli archaeologists find a ring that may have belonged to the Roman governor. I've lost track of the Beaglesonian coincidences but this was a good one.
A short time before the recent Alaska earthquake there was a subtle seismic ripple that traversed the globe and only one geologist caught it. It may mean nothing but scientists are speculating that a pool of magma collapsed in the waters near Madagascar; I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend that began with the recent Hawaii volcano activity.
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My fond memories of being a barefoot lad with a fishing pole ignored a significant fact that Uncle Ken reminds me of: cleaning the damn fish is required, a task that came with the territory. There wasn't any easy method to scale the fish except, scrape, scrape, scrape with an old knife. The scales flew everywhere and there was no way to avoid them. Cleaning smelt was a lot easier and a bit of fun. Just chop off the heads, slit them up the middle, and slide the guts out with your finger; very quick and easy.
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The death of Bush 41 will probably dominate the news for a few more days, much to annoyance of Trump. Comparisons between the two are being made and the Orange One looks like the bum that he is in comparison. And I'd forgotten how young Bush was when he crashed his bomber, only twenty years old. It's a little startling to think that Bush and Eisenhower were fighting in the same war; their presidencies were decades apart.
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I just can't think of anything to say about our current subjects of discussion that I haven't already said.
I'm with you on that one, Mr. Beagles. Sometimes I think I'm beginning to repeat myself, and then I read that cattle are back in the news. There are a couple of steer vying for the title of World's Largest Cow. Maybe tomorrow there will be something new in the news.
A short time before the recent Alaska earthquake there was a subtle seismic ripple that traversed the globe and only one geologist caught it. It may mean nothing but scientists are speculating that a pool of magma collapsed in the waters near Madagascar; I hope this isn't the beginning of a trend that began with the recent Hawaii volcano activity.
-----
My fond memories of being a barefoot lad with a fishing pole ignored a significant fact that Uncle Ken reminds me of: cleaning the damn fish is required, a task that came with the territory. There wasn't any easy method to scale the fish except, scrape, scrape, scrape with an old knife. The scales flew everywhere and there was no way to avoid them. Cleaning smelt was a lot easier and a bit of fun. Just chop off the heads, slit them up the middle, and slide the guts out with your finger; very quick and easy.
-----
The death of Bush 41 will probably dominate the news for a few more days, much to annoyance of Trump. Comparisons between the two are being made and the Orange One looks like the bum that he is in comparison. And I'd forgotten how young Bush was when he crashed his bomber, only twenty years old. It's a little startling to think that Bush and Eisenhower were fighting in the same war; their presidencies were decades apart.
-----
I just can't think of anything to say about our current subjects of discussion that I haven't already said.
I'm with you on that one, Mr. Beagles. Sometimes I think I'm beginning to repeat myself, and then I read that cattle are back in the news. There are a couple of steer vying for the title of World's Largest Cow. Maybe tomorrow there will be something new in the news.
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