Robert J. Kolker

I love them too. The sting of the cold air against my face, the excitement of the crowd, the sight of luge riders flying through the air. Quite a rush. Bob Kolker

If you have a specific question, pray do ask it. Just understand, I do not do other people's homework. Bob Kolker

good looks as in having a pleasing form for genetic reasons, or good looks as the result of good grooming? The first is an accident, the second shows diligence and good judgment. Bob Kolker

Please have a look at this article in -Science- http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id...ntum_on_Quantum Bob Kolker

Let me try again. It is a very strong gravitational field that causes nuclei to come close enough together so that the strong force binds them. This binding, and the release of energy because of the mass deficit IS fusion. A lot of force is required since nuclei are positively charged and the Coulomb repulsion tends to drive them apart. It is only when protons are very, very close together that the strong nuclear force will bind them, so to get fusion to happen one must get the nuclei very close together. Is this clearer? Bob Kolker

I don't expect to talk sense about God with any believer. But that is not what I would talk to Newton about. I would talk with him about motion, matter, force, energy, light. I believe discussing religion is a waste of time. If one is talking to a believer, then there is no rational basis for the discussion. If one is talking to a non-believer then it is redundant and unnecessary. That is why my conversations are usually well bounded away from theology. Besides I find theology as boring as it is useless. Talking about math, physics, hiking, bicycling, and flying is much more interesting to me. Would you like to talk about math and physics with me? If you have a question I will try to answer it. If you have something new and important to say, I am all ears. Bob Kolker

The gravity field is strong in stars that it overcome the Coulomb repulsion of the nuclei (which consists of positive and neutral particles). This enables the nuclei to come close enough for the strong force to bind them together. This produces a mass defect which is converted into energy. In the case of a star it is gravity the produces the clinch. In the case of a fusion reactor it is high temperature plasma that is able to bang positively charged nuclei together for long enough for the strong force to bind them. In hydrogen bombs, it is the explosion of a fusion bomb that produces high enough temperatures to produce the desired effect. Bob Kolker

Your art has an up-beat quality to it. Are you, by nature, an optimist? Bob Kolker

We would call Newton well compartmentalized, these days. On matters of physics and mathematics he was totally rational. Hell, he invented it! On matters of the Ultimate Mysteries and Realities, he was .... well....mystic. Wrote four times as many words on the ultimate mysteries of the universe than he ever did on physics and mathematics. His main life work was to decipher the Bible Code and to find the ultimate principles of matter by way of alchemy. He was the last great alchemist and the first great theoretical and experimental physicist. Bob Kolker

Example: Isaac Newton. Aside from inventing physics and much of mathematics as we know it, he was a God Phreak. Bob Kolker

The "personhood" of corporations is a privilege extended by the State to a business firm to protect its principal members and asset holders from liabilities under the Common Law. What it means is that if a corporation goes belly up or loses a law suit, the Courts cannot come after the personal assets of the stockholders, as in the case with a partnership or a single proprietor firm. Without the State there would be no corporations. Bob Kolker

What the Audi add showed was that the trendoids at the advertising agency for Audi have latched onto the Latest Trend. Ten years from now it will be something else. Bob Kolker

The Interstate Highway System was conceived to be exactly what the Autobahn was to the Third Reich, an efficient system for moving troops and their weapons about the country. In a way, when Eisenhower saw the Autobahns in Germany he said to himself; "I just have to get me one of these!". The Interstate was sold to Congress as a commerce enhancing program as well as a public works program, but its initial motivation was military. Bob Kolker

Nothing guarantees the best choice. A just society makes the best choices possible. Bob Kolker

If an act of charity promotes a value of yours, it is a reasonable act. I donate my time to recording technical books (math, science and engineering) for blind folks. 1. I could be blind someday and I would appreciate the help. I would not ask for something I had not given, myself. 2. Recording math and physics text books promotes scientific knowledge and technique, things that I consider valuable. I would not give to a charity or volunteer my precious time to something I did not think was worthwhile on my terms. Bob Kolker

This result is very interesting. May I point out that a flash light or a laser also teleports energy? As a practical matter the entanglement device is very touchy and getting large amounts of energy from There to Here is mortal combat with decoherence. I recommend that you do not hold your breath until industrial quantities of energy are shipped by this method. Likewise, I do not expect practical quantities of energy pulled out of the quantum vacuum by the Casimir Effect either. These are all very interesting and will point the way to some new and important physics, but as practical devices they are right up there with machines that derive energy from controlled nuclear fusion. As you probably know, controlled nuclear fusion is the Energy Source of the Future. It has been thirty years down the road for the past sixty years and a hundred years from now it will still be the Energy Source of the Future. So far, Something for Nothing Energy Schemes have been much more promise than delivery. Bob Kolker

I beg to disagree on some of the proposed wonders. 1. The Space Shuttle was and is an abomination. 2. Disney Theme parks are schlock. High grade schlock, but schlock never the less. On the some the other proposals I agree. The Large Hadron Collider will rank well up there with the Great Pyramid of Kufu. It will be the final burial place of a great deal of treasure. I consider Richard Feynman's blackboard and note pad even greater Wonders. Bob Kolker

hundreds of billions of $ to register contracts? I don't think so. A modern military force is extremely expensive. Bob Kolker

Children are the charges of their parents, not their cargo. Children are not property. Bob Kolker

How would this be used to maintain an armed force (Army, Navy, Air Force)? Bob Kolker

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents the States from setting up compulsory schooling laws are supporting the schools out of tax revenues. See tenth amendment. Public schooling in no way abridges the right to free speech, freedom of the press or freedom of religious practice. The parents can say or print anything they want and the kids can say what they please after the dismissal bell rings. Bob Kolker

Enumerative induction does not always produce true general (universally quantified) statements. European bird observers having seen nothing but white swans concluded that all swans were white. In Austrialia (or was it New Zealand?) black swans were found. Empirical Induction (I am using the term "empirical induction" to distinguish it from arithmetic or mathematical induction) is used to predict the future from the past. For example if whenever condition A (A is a Type) has been observed condition B collaterally holds or follows. This is the well known case of predicting the future from the past. At a certain scale of beings (man-size scale) this holds often enough to be a useful heuristic. In fact this is how we learn. But is it a generally valid mode of inference? Let me give you an example. If electrons are shot through the magnetic field of a Stern-Gerlach magnet oriented horizontally, half the electrons have up-spin, the other half down-spin. Now take the stream of up-spin electrons and put them through a Stern-Gerlach magnet oriented vertically. Half of those electrons will have left-spin and half right-spin. Now take the stream of right-spin electrons (which started out as up spin electrons from the first magnet), and put them through another horizontally oriented Stern-Gerlach magnet. Intuitively one might think that all will be up-spin electrons. Not so. Half are up-spin and half are down-spin. In short the previous condition of being up-spin did not predict the final up or down spin states. One's common sense expectations simply are not fulfilled in this example. In this case we cannot predict the future from the past. The best we can predict are the odds or frequency of outputs. Bob Kolker

response to xgenx: class is to object as type is to token. Types as instantiated as Tokens. Sets are one thing, the elements of a set are another, although the second is related to the first by the relation "element of". A set of numbers is not a number. A set of people is not a person. The Type Person is instantiated as an Individual Person, but is not itself an individual person. Confounding the Type with the Token is characteristic of Platonic thinking. Can you tell me where measure or measurement enters into this? To have a measurement one needs a linearly ordered set and a function that maps a set of objects into a linearly ordered set. In the absence of a linear ordering there is no measurement. Bob Kolker

A corporation is neither a natural born nor a naturalized citizen, therefore it is not eligible to hold office. Since corporations are not born (as are human persons) their ages cannot be ascertained as your age or mine is. Bob Kolker

I am asserting efficacy of free will. One can always say No to any idea or argument. Actions are the responsibility of the individual who takes them. No one who lived after Kant's death had to take a word he wrote seriously. For example me. I rejected Kant's epistemology and metaphysics from the git-go. I rejected the apodictic synthetic apriori. That was my free will in action. If I had bought Kant's bogosity, then shame on me, not on Kant. Bob Kolker