The Breakfast Club

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We're a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we're not too hungover we've been bailed out we're not too exhausted from last night's (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Everyone's welcome here, no special handshake required. Just check your meta at the door.

Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it's PhilJD's fault.

The Breakfast Club (Clio)

 
breakfast beers photo breakfastbeers.jpgDo
you know why the muse of history plays a lyre?  Well it's because in
the western classic tradition the earliest recorded history is the Iliad.
 It's an epic poem, sung rather than spoken, legendarily written by
Homer between 760 - 710 BCE though it's far more likely that it was
assembled out of much older pieces. 

It recounts events of the Trojan War which was generally considered by the Greeks to have occurred sometime
between the 14th and 12th century BCE.  Modern Historians associate it
with Troy VIIa which was destroyed by fire sometime around the 1180s
BCE.

Before the development of writing, songs and poems were the best
way of preserving the accuracy of oral traditions because they are
easier to memorize than prose and errors are recognizable through a
failure of rhyme or meter.  Even after written language a sense of
history, the concept that there is a continuous sequence of cause and
effect and not a random collection of happenings mediated by the random
actions of gods and fortune, can be slow to emerge.

The "father" of history as is commonly taught today (at least in U.S. primary and secondary schools) is Herodotus who in the 5th century BCE wrote The Histories, an account of the Greco-Persian Wars that occurred in the early to mid part of the century.

Thucydides is often labeled the first "scientific" historian and his great work the History of the Peloponnesian War which recounts events of the late 5th century BCE conflict between
Athens and Sparta in which he probably participated or had access to
first hand accounts.  Xenophon,
another early historian, was considered his successor and wrote about
the last stages of the war as well as his own experiences as a mercenary
in Persia.  He was a contemporary of Socrates, Plato, and Aristophanes.

Of course the century long slice of time recorded by these
authors 2600 years ago really represents the parochial views of a single
state, Athens, and as we know today time is much longer than that, even
recorded time.  Egypt, Minos, the Fertile Crescent, the Indus Valley,
and China among others had vast organized civilizations with their own
written language and histories predating the earliest Hellenic efforts
by thousands of years.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.- George Santayana, The Life of Reason

All great historical facts and personages occur, as
it were, twice ... the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.-
Karl Marx, The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.― Mark Twain

The great fascination of history is that it's really a study of human
nature.  Because of our underlying psychology and methods of social
organization, tantalizing patterns tend to emerge, different in detail
but often with the same result.  What I think is important to remember
in it's study is that the people were no dumber or inherently primitive
than you or I.  The thought experiment I frequently propose is the
phonograph.

The mechanics of recording and playing back analog sound are not
particularly difficult.  You need a diaphragm and a stylus (one unit), a
recording medium and a method for moving the recording medium at a
constant rate relative to the stylus/diaphragm (another unit).  When
recording the diaphragm vibrates with the air pressure generated by the
sound and the stylus creates an image of those patterns in the recording
medium.  When playing back the stylus follows the pattern recorded in
the medium and generates vibrations in the diaphragm which moves the air
in a duplicate of the original event.  Now there are some minor details
such as amplification but there is no inherent advantage to wax on a
cranked cylinder as opposed to clay on a well regulated potter's wheel.

Where then is the Voice of the Pharohs?

It may in fact exist.  Certain pots with strange spiraling
"decorations" do suggest the surface of a record, the problem may be
that we have lost the knowledge we need to play them back.  Do you think
you could recognize spoken Sumerian if you heard it?  Me either.

And gaps like this are more the rule than the exception.  We can't fix the Iowa because the tools needed to do it have long since been sold for scrap
and most of the craftsmen are dead.  Until the recent revival of vinyl
the future of musical recording seemed to be fast deteriorating magnetic
films in a variety of incompatible formats or optical dots in a whole
different panoply of incompatible formats.

Anyway, many of today's featured stories have to do with history
about which it must always be remembered that it is written by the
victors.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.― Winston S. Churchill

Science and Technology News and Blogs

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think,
the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to
you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with
Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If
it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these
experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found
to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope;
there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

-Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

Science Oriented Video

 

 

Obligatories, News and Blogs below.

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The Breakfast Club (Earth Day)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We're a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we're not too hungover  we've been bailed out we're not too exhausted from last night's (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and
weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our
boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late,
it's PhilJD's fault.
 photo Winter_solstice.gif
     

This Day in History

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

     

Richard Nixon dies, Elian Gonzalez seized by federal agents, Oklahoma land rush begins.

 

 

 

 

 

Zombie Lies - Environmental Edition
    

ou know what, why am I getting excited and bothering?
This was never about facts to begin with. But what is new, is that it's
not even about pandering to voters any more. Even half of Republicans
now want this issue dealt with.

Well good luck, because the zombie lies aren't for the voters.
They're for the donors who make their money killing the planet. The
question is not why today's politicians suck more than ever. It's who
they're sucking more than ever.

The Koch brothers are in the oil business and they're pledging
almost a billion dollars in this election. For that kind of money, Cruz
and Bush and the rest of them will say anything. It's what their fellow
prostitutes in the sex industry call the girlfriend experience.

Breakfast Tunes

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

     

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

 

As crude a weapon as the cave man's club, the
chemical barrage has been hurled against the fabric of life-a fabric on
the one hand delicate and destructible, on the other miraculously tough
and resilient, and capable of striking back in unexpected ways.

Rachel Carson, The Silent Spring.

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The Breakfast Club (Classical Gas)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We're a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we're not too hungover  we've been bailed out we're not too exhausted from last night's (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it's PhilJD's fault.

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The Breakfast Club (Clichéd)

 

Well, it's been 10 years and I hope I'm constantly surprising you
with facets of my character I have not yet revealed even when I write
within a restricted format (which is the essence of poetry).

breakfast beers photo breakfastbeers.jpgI hate Borodin, just because of that commercial.

My therapist is leaving the medical group (oh, don't worry, it's
all related) with which I am associated and in our final session they
asked me-

"Do you answer to ek hornbeck?"

Yes, of course I do.

It's not a common name so it's easily picked out of the crowd
whereas regular names like Robert or Bob have instantly a dozen heads
spinning.

Well, I'm not like that.  Not that my head doesn't spin because
it might be someone I know personally, but because I don't share myself
on the Internet.  Personally I Google rather poorly, ek hornbeck much
better, and my onion layers are part of the fascination-

Is he in Heaven?  Is he in Hell?  That damned elusive Pimpernel.

Except I'm more on the Robespierre side.

Tout institution qui ne suppose pas le peuple bon et le magistrat corruptible est vicieuse.

Yup, one of 500 and ignored on a rainy day.

But by 1833 when Borodin was born the struggles of 1789 were far in the past (hah). and he...

Well, he was an award wining chemist.

He dabbled in music and wrote several things but rarely finished
any of them, still he attracted the attention of the more serious
composers who saw flashes of talent and was considered one of The Balakirev Circle of new wave nationalist Russians because he was so conciously derivitative of popular folk tunes.

The Polovtsian Dances referenced in the commerical above were a part of his (unfinished) opera, Prince Igor, which was about the suppression of native Mongolians (the Polovtsians) by Prince Igor and has all the charms of Opera...

Let's review the rules, shall we?

The 3 rules of Opera.

  1. It must be long, boring, and in an incomprehesible foreign language (even if that language is English).
  2. The characters, especially the main ones, must be thoroughly unsympathetic and their activities horrid and callous.
  3. Everyone must die, hopefully in an ironic and gruesome way.

Ballet is the same, but with more men in tights and without the superfluous singing.

with an admirable mixture of genocide of the culture you are
stealing.  It has all the charm of a musical about Greasy Grass in which
Custer wins.

Oh and it and several other snippets were stolen by Broadway for Kismet.  Someday I'll chat about Nellie Forbush, a thoroughly unsympathetic character.

To his credit Borodin was an early advocate of Women's Rights and
despised by his "revolutionary" contemporaries in 'The Five' for
writing in conventional formats like Quartets, Concertos, and Symphonies
of which I offer you the two that he indesputedly finished all on his
own.

 

 

So what does this say about me (aren't we all the star of our own movie)?  I like this role.  He's exactly like me only more in your face-

I'm not trying to prove anything. All I want
to do is teach my students that man just wasn't planted here like a
geranium in a flowerpot. That life comes from a long miracle; it didn't
just take seven days.

But it's against the law. A school teacher's a public servant. He should do what the law and the school board want him to.
Has the accused have anything to say in his own defense? If not, I
sentence you to life as a public servant. A silent butler in the service
of your school board. Waste baskets for ideas on sale in the outer
lobby.

I don't see anything funny in this Mr. Hornbeck.
Objection sustained. Neither do I.

Then why don't you just leave us alone? You newspaper people have stirred up enough trouble for Bert. What do you want anyway?
I came to tell Boy Socrates here that the Baltimore Herald is opposed to Hemlock and will provide a lawyer.

Who?
Who? I don't know yet but what's the difference? A new lawyer with
old tricks, an old lawyer with new tricks. Wake up Copernicus! The law
is still on the side of the lawmakers and everything revolves around
their terra firma.

Then why bother, you and your newspaper?
Because I know that the sunrise is an optical illusion. My teacher told me so.

Sigh.  I have to break in a new therapist.  I think I'll start with this one-

What do you call a schizophrenic Buddhist?

Someone who is at two with the universe.

And actually, that's multiple personality disorder and I've never been diagnosed as anything except depressed and anxiety prone.

Yet.

Obligatories, News and Blogs below.

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The Breakfast Club (May The Force Be With You)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We're a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we're not too hungover  we've been bailed out we're not too exhausted from last night's (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and
weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our
boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late,
it's PhilJD's fault.

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This Day in History

 

 

 

  

 

 

   

Cuban exiles invade Bay of Pigs; Three astronauts of
Apollo 13 land safely in pacific ocean; Benjamin Franklin dies at age
84; JP Morgan born in Connecticut; Ford rolls out the Mustang
convertible.

Breakfast Tunes

 

 

 

  

 

 

   

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

 

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Benjamin Franklin

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The Breakfast Club (Logic)

 
breakfast beers photo breakfastbeers.jpgWell,
I was going to talk about planetary science today (about which you'll
find plenty of links below) but instead I spent all night puzzling over
what is supposed to be a simple 5th grade math problem. 

Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl,
and they want to know when her birthday is.  Cheryl gives them a list of
10 possible dates.

May 15 May 16 May 19
June 17 June 18  
July 14 July 16  
August 14 August 15 August 17

Cheryl then tells Albert and Bernard seperately the month and day of her birthday respectively.

Albert: I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know too.

Bernard: At first I don't know when Cheryl's birthday is, but I know now.

Albert: Then I also know when Cheryl's birthday is.

(note: copied by me directly from the picture)

If you don't want spoilers you'd better stop reading and figure it out now.

What is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths.  Are mine the same as yours?- 39 Lashes

Let's start with one truth.  This is not a simple 5th grade math problem.

You see the meme is that this is a regular old word problem from a
5th grade math test that Singapore children are expected to pass in
order to graduate to the 6th grade which led of course to much Internet
hand wringing about the abysmal state of U.S. education in general and
particularly in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) where
the privatizing looters of our School funds and fiscal conservatives in
general bemoan the lack of a qualified work force that must be
supplemented by smarter (and cheaper) H-1B imported slave labor.

Here's some tangential truth to start off- there is no shortage
of STEM qualified native labor, in fact there is a surplus.  The problem
is that they expect salaries commensurate with their expensive multi
year training.

Irrespective of that, almost every element of the meme is untrue.

This question is actually one of the more difficult math nerd questions given to high school students at a Math Olympiad.

Then there is some dispute about the semantics of the question.  The New York Times goes so far as to re-write it so it is undisputably true that
"seperately" in this case means that Albert knows only the month and
Bernard only the day instead of another fair interpretation of the word
that would mean merely that Cheryl told them independently.  I'll point
out the official language of Singapore is not just English, but British English (hell, they even drive on the wrong side of the road) so that's
kind of a minor, if glaring, quibble; the sort that ought to make Alex
Trebeck blush if not adjust the score during the commercial break (I
give it a 25% chance, but what the heck).

There is however a deeper, logical flaw that allows for two (count 'em, 2) "correct" answers that is explained by The Guardian's James Grime.

The 3 Easy Steps

1. Albert knows that Bernard doesn't know.

2. Albert deduces Bernard can't have a unique date such as 18 or 19.

3. Albert, smugly taunts Bernard, announcing Bernard doesn't know.

As we've seen above in The New York Times discussion, step one is dependent on what the definition of "is" is.
 Clearly if knowing the date (as Bernard does) provides a unique
solution, Bernard knows all which he admits he does not.  This
eliminates the 18th and 19th (you know my methods Watson).

The Difficult 4th Step

4. Bernard realises what Albert has realised,
which is that Bernard does not have 18 or 19. Now if Albert was holding
June he would know the answer, because there is only one remaining date
in June, namely June 17. So Bernard deduces it is not June.

The "Wrong" Answer- QED

5. Bernard announces he knows the answer. This is the second statement of the problem.

6. If Bernard is so confident, he must have a unique date. We know
it's not 18 or 19. What other unique date can it be? There are two 14s,
two 15s, two 16s and two 17s - but Bernard has eliminated June 17 -
leaving him with August 17 only. That's how he worked it out.

7. Albert is furious Bernard beat him to the answer. Albert puts
himself in Bernard's shoes, running through the six steps above. Finally
Albert reaches the same conclusion we have, Bernard must have 17.
Albert announces he knows the answer too.

So August 17 is a valid answer.

Or is it?

It is all about how you interpret the first statement. If Albert has to deduce that Bernard doesn't know, then we get July 16.

But if Albert knows that Bernard doesn't know - in other words, that
this is a statement of fact, rather than a deduction - then we get
August 17.

This incredibly subtle change - deduction vs fact - completely
changes the nature of the question. Indeed, with fact interpretation the
reader can now deduce the answer from just the first two statements of
the conversation, whereas the argument for July 16 does require all
three statements.

So, can we accept August 17?

Not any more. The originators of the question, Singapore and Asian School Math Olympiads, have rejected this alternative answer.

I'll point out that in most classic logical problems all the
statements are to be taken as fact rather than bluffs.  On the other
hand usually (but not always) all the information is relevant.

In any event I'm taking Alex to the mat on this one.  Jeopardy is an incredibly lucrative franchise and they give away only a pittance
in prizes.  I know plenty of lawyers (looking at you PhilJD) and I
think I get at least a settlement and an invite back.

 

 

The law that entropy always increases holds, I think,
the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to
you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with
Maxwell's equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's equations. If
it is found to be contradicted by observation - well, these
experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found
to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope;
there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

-Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

Science and Technology News and Blogs

Science Oriented Video

 

 

Obligatories, News and Blogs below.

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The Breakfast Club (Lovin' Eyes Can Never See)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We're a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when we're not too hungover  we've been bailed out we're not too exhausted from last night's (CENSORED) the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and
weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our
boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late,
it's PhilJD's fault.

 photo 807561379_e6771a7c8e_zps7668d00e.jpg
   

This Day in History


The Titanic sinks off the coast of Newfoundland;
President Abraham Lincoln dies; Jackie Robinson becomes first African
American player in MLB; US launches air raid against Libya; Pol Pot
dies; Joey Ramone dies.

Breakfast Tunes

Percy Sledge 1940 - 2015

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln

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