DavidMcK

To respond to the rumor that Shockley stole the concept of the transistor, here is a quote from wikipedia: The first patent[1] for the field-effect transistor principle was filed in Canada by Austrian-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld on October 22, 1925, but Lilienfeld did not publish any research articles about his devices.[2] In 1934 German physicist Dr. Oskar Heil patented another field-effect transistor. There is no direct evidence that these devices were built, but later work in the 1990s shows that one of Lilienfeld's designs worked as described and gave substantial gain. Legal papers from the Bell Labs patent show that William Shockley and Gerald Pearson had built operational versions from Lilienfeld's patents, yet they never referenced this work in any of their later research papers or historical articles. I always wondered how a great genius could also be a racist since it contradicts Rand's prototype so strongly; it appears Shockley wasn't as much the innovator as he presented himself to be.

"The philosopher Immanuel Kant was the first to use the terms "analytic" and "synthetic" to divide propositions into types. Kant introduces the analytic/synthetic distinction in the Introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1998, A6-7/B10-11)." From wikipedia....note the date. The point that Barbara made is something I agree with.

Some of us are just waiting to see what the next thing to happen might be. I happen to like this web site, though I get a little tired of the infighting sometimes. I see some very smart people on here that have made me think and learn: what more can you ask of a web site? Also I get a little scared sometimes; the people that Obama is getting in his administration seem New Dealish...now there is talk of a health care 'czar' (Tom Daschle). As though there haven't been enough czars already.

LOL That is the most generous interpretation of Greenspan's tenure at the Fed I've heard so far! I keep thinking he could discredit the central bank idea: ("After considerable debate, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act which Woodrow Wilson signed into law on Dec 23, 1913. The act stated that its purposes were to "provide for the establishment of Federal reserve banks, to furnish an elastic currency, to afford means of rediscounting commercial paper, to establish a more effective supervision of banking in the United States, and for other purposes." ) by mimicking the gold standard; i.e. pick a measure of the money supply (say mzm) and flat line it. That would have been politically impossible or very difficult so he could have decided to go the other way and discredit it by hyperinflation. Brilliant Brant!

I would appreciate someone vetting my comment 7 messages up; in which I write about how exponential functions seemingly exert influence on everything from populations to inflation. I really think this is a crucial point in understanding the past and perhaps making some good guesses about the future. Thanks!

I don't think a regression to the mean rules everything: look at the stock market over the last 70 years e.g. There are exponential functions operating, even if we don't know what exactly they are. Some of them that I can think of off the top of my head are wealth formation (there is a formula for calculating compound interest); population, the growth of power, expenditures of the federal government, the growth of debt, inflation. This doesn't mean the end of the world is coming to an end, as Michael says, but it does say that something is going to end since there eventually has to be an interruption to an exponential function in the real world. For example, the end of inflation might be to restore the gold standard. A regression to the mean implies nothing ever really changes, no consequences, no end of the story. I think we are seeing the last days of the mixed economy, with something better (libertarianism) replacing it.

I have been thinking some about good and evil presidents lately, and I've come up with the idea that a good person can do irreparable harm. I'm thinking about a story I read about a doctor who amputated the wrong leg a few years back, he wasn't evil but the effect was exactly the same as if he had been. To me Obama is like a very personable and articulate doctor who is cutting off the free enterprise leg and growing the government leg when it should be just the opposite.

Thanks Dr. Hudgins for your bit of enlightenment; If I may add my own $0.02 watch out for the word 'oversight'. By a lack of oversight many are suggesting that they just want some regulatory body or government authority to sit and watch: what they really mean is control.

It is interesting to me to see on cnbc people clamoring like crazy for more of the poison that is sickening our economy: cheap and easy money. It is wrong to see the financial crisis as just a manipulation of symbols, and we can't go back to bartering as though nothing has changed. A bartering economy can't possibly support 300 million people. I'm not an economist but I've read Hazlitt's 'Economics in One Lesson' maybe 10 times, and not so long ago I ratcheted up my understanding of austrian eco. with Calahan's 'Economics for Real People' which makes the von Mises theory more approachable by non-economists. The bubble of 2006 was the result of Greenspan's reduction of the fed prime rate to 1%, and now we are almost back down to 1% trying to stave of the consequences of the last bubble...a long series of bubbles ending in ??? The difference between now and 1932 is that back then there were very few Fed watchers, and very little comprehension in the board of governors that deflating the money supply was making the bad situation worse. Now we have made fed watching into a popular sport: there won't be any deflation, but every time the economy starts to improve the Fed will try to raise interest rates to keep inflation within bounds and it will be a long and difficult road to restore soundness to the monetary system. A return of the gold standard would be best but seems politically impossible. The budget deficits are working against a sound money supply, so we have entered a new phase of our history, one in which crises and inflation and banking system failures, unemployment and every sort of dislocation are more ordinary than unusual. I read somewhere that Greenspan said that this crises was something that happened only once every 50 years or so; how strange that the person who advocated the gold standard in 'Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal' ended up doing exactly that against which he warned. http://mises.org/story/3130 A link to 'The Housing Bubble in 4 Easy Steps' short and lucid.

http://www.cato.org/

I have observed that people who are loudest in declaring: "I don't care what anyone thinks of me," tend to be the touchiest and angriest if they are misunderstood or disliked. The important question is not whether one cares or not, but whether or not this caring is a motivating force in choosing one's actions, words, and opinions. Barbara, this is one of the most succinct statements I've seen of the real problem. I can remember wondering if an athlete who performed superlatively well, say, during an Olympics (with all the cameras and an audience of millions) was a sign of social metaphysics. Obviously others can bring out the best in us as well as the worst; our choice. Mike, if I can presume to comment, I think the mythmaking began before Barbara and Nathaniel met Ayn Rand, before she was Ayn Rand even; remember how horrible her life was in the Soviet Union. I think 'We the Living' was deliberately an attempt to kill Kira (Rand's alter ego) so that all of Kira's problems would die with her, it just didn't work. Kira was too powerful, and kept resurrecting herself, sometimes in strange and nearly unrecognizable forms (e.g. Dominique). David

Can someone clarify how assets can be a problem for responsibility? An example would be useful. David

Darn, that would have made me smile. David

Dustan, Mike and Kat's resident psychologist (if I may so speak) is Nathaniel Branden, the author of many books which many have found to be a new and exciting way of looking at yourself and others, particularly with respect to self-esteem. There is a Branden corner here, and many comments about Branden's work. I'm a guest here but I can extend a welcome. David

You're right, it was two records of Wunderlich. David

I used to have a record of Fritz Wunderlich singing Das Mullerin (sorry no umlaut on here), one of my favorites. Do you kids know what a record is? Like a big CD with grooves? Usually black but sometimes red and other colors? I don't know where they are now, but the other side had Shumann's Dichterliebe (poet's love), also wonderful. BTW fusing word to music perhaps even more than Schubert was Hugo Wolf. David

Dragonfly, I don't hate it, but after I discovered the great classics I find it hard to get enthralled by the music everybody else in the world seems to like. David

BTW, Agent Smith (or rather the actor that played him, sorry forgot his name) is the V in V for Vendetta. David

Those are wonderful paintings; they make me want to visit Chi town (one of my favorite places). For others curious about the funny story of the nude actress: http://www.sexualitycompendium.com/node/474 You might have to copy and paste I suppose. Thanks Kat for the wonderful post. David

I had heard of that contest, this is the first I've seen the entries. The first one does seem a little objectivist doesn't it? By the way, you are one of the few people I've read who have remarked on the difference between seeing a reproduction and seeing it in person. I can remember my trip to the Louvre where suddenly some of my favorites were severely downgraded. The Mona Lisa, if you can see past the people and plastic is actually better, so is Velasquez, Vermeer, who else do you think? David

Dragonfly, Reading your post about 'tesseract' reminded me of a book I read long ago as a kid: 'A Wrinkle In Time'. In it there is some 'tessering' going on which allows people to cross light years nearly instantaneously (obviously science fiction). Rereading it now as an adult is a different experience. At any rate, I wonder if Dali was using the hypercube as a symbol of science, rather than altruism. P.S. For you literary types: The first sentence in the book was'It was a dark and stormy night.' Not sure if that is where the Peanuts character Snoopy got his inspiration or not. David

Would their nemisis be the 'Y' Communicants? David

On the map, it looks as though the East is well represented, and the West, but notice the huge space in the Midwest? I wonder if that has any implications for the future, and I wonder if anyone here is more politically active, such as being active in the Libertarian party. David

So would you say Paul, that the ability to regard entities as units is essential to conceptualizing, as well as the ability to regard units as entities (temporarily for the purpose of understanding a relationship)? Thus i (sorry my italics isn't working) is an imaginary number, existing (imaginition is the genus, number is the differentia) so it is technically not an entitiy, but an aspect of consciousness, but we treat it as an entity for the purpose of performing some mathematical procedures. ? Comment please, your previous post was helpful, and that is a novel way of looking at a novel. David

I was seeking an answer, not giving an answer. David