Reinventing the Sacred (False alarm)

I was alerted today to the existance of a relatively new book by Stuart Kauffman (a renowned researcher of complexity theory), called 'Reinventing the Sacred'. From the rumors about the book, it sounded as if the following claims are suggested there:

1. Complexity does not allow reduction of all phenomena to elementary particle physics.
   
2. Therefore we need a God to explain the highly complex systems all around us (including us).

I got all worked up and made a list of counter arguments, but before I published these thoughts, I went to www.amazon.com where a few pages of the book can be viewed for free. As it turns out, Kauffman does not believe in a creator God, and merely wants to use the word God to describe the 'creativity' of the world, that we should appreciate religiously. Bottom line, this is a publicity stunt that will probably be misunderstood by many as proof that important scientists believe in God. Too bad...

Yom Kippur 2008

So, what did you do on Yom Kippur? We went to a nice secluded beach with our friends, had a good meal, slept there in tents and drove back after Yom Kippur ended. All in all a good time. What did other people do? You can read about the riots in Acre on the news. Apparently an Arab drove his car into a non Arab region of Acre. That was enough for a bunch of trigger happy Jews to start rioting. The Muslim response was quick to follow. This demonstrates that the same dangerous seeds of violence exist in all religions. I strongly suggest checking out Richard Dawkins's book 'The God Delusion'. Some of his lectures can also be found on www.ted.com and www.youtube.com . Well, on that happy note I'll sign out. Have a good Sukot vacation and beware not to be cought without Lulav Hadas Etrog and Arava (I hope I got that right) in your Suka

;-)

Helium leak

The lab I work at has experienced liquid helium leaks for a while (a long long while...). As it turns out, a huge leak occured at the LHC. We are not alone!!!

137

The number 1/137 is an important constant in quantum mechanics, known as the fine structure constant (actually it is not exactly 1/137). Advocates of the Kabbalah note that 137 equals the word 'Kabbalah' in hebrew gimatria (gimatria is a method of assigning numbers to words). This amazing coincidence is then used as an example of the higher power (god) in action. Recently I found a nice internet site which gives gimatric synonims (words that have the same gimatric value). I found a few nice phrases that equal 137:

• 137='Homosexuals are good' : Perhaps this is a sign that all religious jews should reconsider their sexual tendencies?
• 137='Miluim' (Miluim means army reserve duty): Maybe this is a sign for the religious people (many of which are exempt) to recruit?
• 137='Bin Laden' : Well...

Feel free to use the gimatria site and find more 'amazing coincidences', it's fun.

bye 4 now

Amir (Amir = 251 = not interesting = Guliver)

The end of the world

Today at 9:00am Geneva time the new LHC particle accelerator satrted the new high energy experiments. Some concern was raised in the media regarding a possible catastrophe due to formation of a large black hole. Most scientists believe that there is no danger. However, in order to check that the large hadron collider didnt destroy the world yet , you can stay informed by visiting the site:

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

Have a good day, and stay away from black holes.

The apartment chapter 1.5

So, today I went to the bureau of land registration to register the new apartment under our name. Last time I went there was an astounding success, I had all the proper documents and only waited sixty minutes in line. With this notch in my belt I entered the building, self confident and determined to get the job done. In the elevator I decided to check that I have all the documents… suddenly I discovered that my ID is not in my wallet. A few days ago when we were at the attorney’s place, he copied our IDs and returned them to Avigail. Never mind, I have my driver’s license and other cards, there is still a chance. I entered the office and looked for something or someone to guide me. I went to the desk clerk and asked her where to go in order to change apartment ownership. Surprisingly she said: “I do that, I need these papers and that papers…”. She didn’t even ask for my ID. So I start producing this paper and that paper… then she says: ”I need the official mortgage bills”. Suddenly I recall a vague memory, we are at the mortgage bank and the mortgage clerk says to us “congratulations, the mortgage was approved; the money will be transferred… Blah Blah Blah… the official mortgage bills will be ready in Blah Blah days, we will call you Blah Blah….”. Bottom line, I don’t have these papers. So I start asking the clerk if she would accept a fax from the bank, thus becoming the annoying person the irritates me when he stands in line before me, obviously doesn’t have the correct papers, and still tries to get away with it. The clerk refused, and I had to admit another bureaucratic defeat. But fear not, next time I will be armed to the teeth with ID’s mortgage bills, the works… Wish me luck.

Noise

Yesterday we saw a good film called Noise. It is about a guy (played by Tim Robbins) that lives in Manhattan, gets fed up with the noise (specifically with car alarms going off) and actually does something about it. Think about it, car alarms are completely useless. We all disregard them, and some researches show explicitly that they do not prevent car thefts at all. A Google search for 'ban useless car alarms' gave 124,000 results! The film also raises some questions as to how far do we have to go in order to really make a change. The advantage of Noise compared to the film Falling Down (Michael Douglas) is that the hero in Noise begins his journey as a rather normal person whereas in Falling Down, the hero is not normal to begin with. So, if you have some spare time on your hands, watch Noise, or go fix the world.

;-)