Muddled media

Neutrinos appears to have travelled slightly faster than light. BBC reports suggest that that refuted

e = mc²

which connects energy to mass, yet the observations have no direct relevance to that, what they do challenge in the Lorentz Transformation.

A general revision of the theory of relativity might involve changes in many formulae accepted today, but it it too early to jump to the conclusion that e = mc² is one of those.

Distracted by Sex

The revision of my notes on Philosophy recently reached the chapter on Ethics, and I realised that there was nothing there about sex.

That's not as surprising as it might seem, because much pontification about sex consists of proposals to apply to sexual behaviour special rules and restrictions that are not applied to other behaviour, while I think that the same general rules apply to any behaviour. However there are things that need to be said, if only to repudiate superfluous pseudo-morality.

I've now done it. See the revised chapter 8 on the Philosophy page for the result.

Early Christmas

I went into a card shop today, looking for birthday cards, and found that about half the display space was taken up by Christmas Cards.

Perhaps we should have Christmas right away and get it over.

We could enliven the end of December with a revived Saturnalia.

A New Type of Aphorism

I recently came across this faux proverb:

A pizza without anchovies is like an egg without a moustache

So much of what people say solemnly is similarly mad, but less obvious.

If only I were creative I might try to write a story entitled The egg that lost its moustache

In Praise of Flat Peaches

I recently bought some unusually shaped peaches. The are roughly disk shaped. One market stall compared them to doughnuts.

I liked them very much. They were ripe sweet, and easily skinned.

I prefer peaches skinned because I don't share the cats' liking for furry food.

I strongly recommend flat peaches.

More Philosophy

My Philosophy notes continue to distract me from other things.

I've just edited two more chapters so I've now checked this first six chapters this Summer. The latest versions are now on my web site

Peace

Earlier this week I noticed that I was no longer receiving automated nuisance messages by telephone, and enjoyed the freedom from interruption.

Then, yesterday evening, a friend appeared unannounced to ask if I were still alive - he'd been getting no reply to phone calls, and is the only member of my circle who has no Internet access.

It turns out that my phone line is out of order, so, reluctantly, I've sent for Virgin Engineers to restore the normal level of interruption.

I could almost manage without a telephone - but not quite.

An Ill-informed Spell Checker

Earlier today I made a comment about C. S. Peirce on an American website, and the spell checker objected to the spelling. I assume it was an American spell-checker, so it seemed very odd that it should not be able to spell the name of America's most distinguished Philosopher.

I notice that the spell checker on this site can't spell it either.

Alas for America !!

Wider screens with more discriminating owners

I've just checked my web site statistics for the last three months, and found that only about 3% of visitors have screens less than 1000 pixels wide, and only 33.6% used Microsoft Internet Explorer, though that was still the most popular browser, with Chrome and Firefox close behind.

I've designed the picture pages of my site to accommodate screens just over 800 pixels wide; I'm thinking of redesigning them so there will be less empty space on wider screens. Fortunately I've written a special style sheet for pages with lots of pictures

Philosophy Revised

My excuse for my recent neglect of this blog is pre-occupation with a revision my Philosophy notes.

I've started at the beginning and corrected, and in a few places extended, the first four chapters. The revised versions are on my website here.

I should be especially interested to hear from anyone who tries the logic exercise in Chapter 2.

Bankrupt States

When individuals or companies go bankrupt, their assets are administered, and usually sold, by agents of the creditors to pay as high a proportion as possible of the debt.

States are treated with surprising leniency. Discussion of the possibility of a Greek default rarely mentions the sale of Greek Government assets, yet those must be considerable.

Governments usually own many buildings in prime city centre sites and considerable tracts of land. Military installations alone take up considerable space.

It would be amusing to see all that auctioned by the liquidators.

Plumbers Beware!!

I was unhappy to learn that the recent turmoil in the Metropolitan Police Force has resulted in a promotion for Ms. Cressida Dick.

It was she who presided over an anti-terrorist operation in the course of which armed police arrived three and a half hours late, and made up for lost time by shooting a plumber.

Should that become the standard way of dealing with crises, Londoners with blocked pipes may find it hard to get anyone to unblock them.