Einstein for PresidentDid you know that in 1952 Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel? If it were me I would have jumped at the opportunity but here is what he said:

"My awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain -- especially from the development of a narrow nationalism within out own ranks against which we already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state."

Albert Einstein

ExplosionWell you all want to hear about my everyday life, but there is not much to tell, work, work, work, eat, sleep, work, but today something happened. I was driving home from work and contemplating the words of Jesus in the book of Thomas: "A person is like a wise fisher who cast a net into the sea, and drew it from the sea full of little fish. Among them the wise fisher discovered a fine big fish. So the fisher threw all the little fish back into the sea, and with no hesitation kept the big fish. Whoever has ears to hear ought to listen.", and then at that moment a big flash of white light appeared before about 100 yards in front of me, shortly followed by a BANG startling me. A few seconds later I drove past the location where the explosion occurred and saw that it was a power line, still smoldering. Now I think back to grandfather who said, "It is best to be a big fish in a small pond." What does it all mean? Maybe just another random Shrodinger probablity wave crossing along, nothing to see here, move along.

White & Nerdy

New video from Wierd Al Yankovik. I actually saw him in concert when I lived in Tucson. The irony is that almost 50% of this stuff is true about me. Now you know. A free cookie to the first person who can identify the equation on the whiteboard behind where they are dancing.

Dog Day Memories
These are my childhood dogs and friends, all long since passed. Names are clockwise starting from left: Windsor, Tyke, Hershey, and Topper. Can you guess who the king was?

Boardgames
Since my last posted cartoon had such a positive response, I can't resist.

Rosslyn MotetThis song was created from the patterns on the ceiling of Rosslyn chapel. Stuart Mitchell, a composer, recognized these patterns as Chladni patterns, or modes of resonnance and turned them into notes. These are the same phenomena (EDITED for grammar police) attributed to the the very basis of quantum physics, discrete modes or standing wave patterns sustaining everything at the atomic level (i.e. Heisenberg solving for the 3D energy levels of the hydrogen atom.) These patterns in mathematics are called eigenfunctions and the energy levels eigenvalues.

Have a listen to the beautiful choir of angels: The Rosslyn Motet

Chain Reaction


Fun addictive little game. My record is 2235, can you beat it?

Love

Father-Son Talk

Well I was going to post something philosophical, but it was too much work, so you get this instead.

Some Family HistoryRead all about the violent history of my ancestors here.

UPDATE: Wow, some extra unconfirmed stuff:

1) Sinclairs of Roslin were heriditary grand masters of Masons in Scotland.
2) Knights Templars, a powerful, wealthy force, throughout Europe, formed in the 1100's to protect pilgrams going to Jerusalem. In 1312 the King of France ordered them suppressed. Survivors escaped to Scotland, where King Robert the Bruce protected them, hiding treasure at Rosslyn Castle. There are many Templar graves in the Sinclair family cemetary.

Faithless-Insomnia (2005)

Well it's Friday, so let's PARTY! This song is one of my favorites and the 2005 version of the video is over the top. When I visited Ireland and my best fiend (um friend) were driving around, this song was playing on every frequency. Check it out if you are in a festive mood because I would only give you the best goodness (or evil.) There was some Christ dude who said there is only black and white with no in-between. Ramble, ramble... Well um, let me tell you why I like this song. It's because it's blogsphere cool and I can't sleep dammit! (<- warning, kids should have not read that word.) There are too many problems to be solved and things to worry about in this World. Should I search for religion, pharmaceuticals, or love? No worries, I have a blog.

Fun with FinanceJust finished reading my first book on investing (see above available from Amazon.) This book was really readable with lots of good real world examples and experienced tips. The goal of investing is to maximize returns while minimizing risk, but the riskier an investment is, the more return one stands to gain or lose, so you understand the dilema. I already knew most of the math, but needed to know the lingo and theories, such as; volatility, efficent market hypothesis, hedging, leverage, put, call, and arbitrage. It covers everything from stocks to options, bonds, money markets and more. There seems to be no way anyone can predict the market, but only respond to trends and new information that is introduced, so the market in current views is essentially random (without insider information, bad Martha.) I was actually surprised at how simple the methods of current day professional investors are, surely at least compared to a rocket scientist (or for somebody like Jesus, man if the stock market was around back then he could've invested and bought all the disciples he wanted...nah the bible would be too huge then.) I have never invested in the "market" before because frankly, I consider it another form of gambling (some people get lucky and some don't), however if the right techniques are applied, maybe it is possible to beat the market...

Here is a good article about a guy who just sits around and lets his computer algorithms do the work for him. If his computer algortihm detects something deemed significant it dings like an egg timer. Let your PC do the investing