Fine Dining in Jersey City

Believe it or not, Jersey City and environs have some pretty nifty restaurants. See Helen Stapinski, Only the Food Is Exotic, The Ethnic Buffet of Hudson County, N.J. NYTimes (May 28, 2013).

Laico's is an Italian restaurant hidden on a residential street in Jersey City. (NYTimes)

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Letting Go (of Books etc.)

Stanley Fish, Moving On, NYTimes (May 27, 2013):

Snippets:

"I have sold my books. Not all of them, but most of them. I held on to the books I might need while putting the finishing touches on a manuscript that is now with my publisher. I also kept the books I will likely need when I begin my next project in the fall. But the books that sustained my professional life for 50 years ... are gone.

 ...

"The ostensible reason for this de-acquisition is a move from a fair-sized house to a much smaller apartment. It is true, as Anthony Powell said in a title, that books do furnish a room, but in this case, too many books, too little room. But the deeper reason is that it was time. What I saw on the shelves was work to which I would never return....

"... I had always thought that I could return to my annotated copies of familiar texts and pick up where I left off. That fantasy, I now see, was part and parcel of the core fantasy that I would just go on forever, defending old positions, formulating new ones, attending annual conferences, contributing to essay collections, speaking at various universities, teaching the same old courses, confidently answering the same old questions.

"I’m not going to go on forever. ...

"... Behind these musings is a word I can barely utter — 'retirement.' ..."

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I recently retired from full-time teaching - but not from writing. So I threw away some of my books, but not most of them. In any event, quite a few of my books are for purely personal pleasure and are still unread. So I can't throw those away, can I?

• Addendum: Some of my "academic" interests survive my retirement; some of the questions I ask myself genuinely interest (and preoccupy) me.
  

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What Is a "Crisis"?

“If investments in the banks fail, ‘Oh, it’s a tragedy,’ ” [Pope Francis] said, speaking extemporaneously for more than 40 minutes at a Pentecost vigil last weekend, after a private audience with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, the architect of Europe’s austerity policies. “But if people die of hunger or don’t have food or health, nothing happens. This is our crisis today.”

Rachel Donadio, Francis’ Humility and Emphasis on the Poor Strike a New Tone at the Vatican NYTimes (May 25, 2013)

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Guns in the Sky; Good Guys with Guns

Nicholas Davidoff, More Guns in the Sky NYTimes (May 25, 2013). A snippet:

"Confidential. For N.R.A. internal. Now that the Senate has voted down new gun control laws and we have the president on the defensive — never thought I’d say it, but God bless the I.R.S.! — we have a real opportunity to guide Congress along a common-sense path that will further ensure the freedoms of peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Herewith, talking points on the next crucial phase of our work. Please distribute to all concerned elected officials who share our love of liberty and public safety.

"Objective:

"We aim to pass laws that will allow passengers to carry guns on commercial airplanes; this will make business class the safest place in America.

"Talking Points:

"Experts say, 'This is the most progressive means of preventing hijacking in aeronautic history.'

"Air Marshals are good people, but on a modern aircraft anyone can nod off. Our plan mitigates snoozing risks. And consider the budget savings when every flyer becomes a Citizen Air Marshal (CAM).

"CAMs eliminate the need for uniformed personnel patrolling our nation’s terminals. Now trained personnel can be deployed to the domestic and international hot spots, including war zones and schools.

"Duty-free ammo sold on international flights is good for the American economy."

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Obama on Guantanamo: A True Profile in Courage

Barack Obama: a genuine profile in courage. I have had reservations about some of Obama's policies. But he has now won me over 100%. That's because President Obama has just proclaimed again his determination to close Guantanamo and reduce injustice to those people who are needlessly detained there - and his explanation of the importance of doing this is just magnificent. See the C-Span video of his speech.
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Hitting the Wall

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Naked Mayoral Power in Jersey City

Charles Hack, Jersey City Mayor Healy tells Star-Ledger 'three Hispanic girls' lured him out of house for naked pix nj.com (May 5, 2013):

"So you think you've heard all Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy had to say about the naked pictures of himself, slumped on the stoop of his Ferry Street home, that surfaced shortly before the November 2004 special election? Well, think again.

"Star-Ledger columnist Tom Moran reports today that Healy has offered new details about the photos that comes, in Moran's words, 'with a bizarre sexual twist.'

"According to the version offered to Moran, Healy said three young women woke him up by banging trash cans outside his house, so he rose from bed, wrapped a towel around himself, and went to investigate.

“'Three Hispanic girls, young kids,' Healy is quoted as saying. 'So I go out on the porch and they pulled the towel off me. Now I start laughing, and then they started doing other stuff. I said, "I’m old enough to be your grandfather."'

“'It was filthy,' he says. 'I chased them away, and I just sat down.'"

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Warfare Over Empire

Charles Bagli, 102 Floors, 10 Million Bricks and One Tangled History NYTimes (May 4, 2013):

"The Empire State Building stands as an enduring symbol of New York City — and of the mayhem and legal conflict to which New York City real estate titans are prone."

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Should we call such magnates "titans"?

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There was also much legal and other "mayhem" over the reconstruction of the One World Trade Center. See, e.g., Larry A. Silverstein.


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No rush to judgment?

I hope that our sage political leaders will not rush to judgment on the question of the Assad government's use vel non of chemical weapons or Sarin. I also hope our leaders will not push to get the U.S. into another war. (These wishes are not directed at Sen. John McCain, who seems to lack all prudence and judgment.)
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Human Computer

Haresh Pandya, Shakuntala Devi, ‘Human Computer’ Who Bested the Machines, Dies at 83 (April 23, 2013):

Shakuntala Devi, an Indian mathematical wizard known as “the human computer” for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations, died on Sunday in Bangalore, India. She was 83.

Ms. Devi demonstrated her mathematical gifts around the world, at colleges, in theaters and on radio and television. In 1977, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating a Univac computer, which took 62 seconds.

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Then there are the people who can solve the puzzles created by Will Short...

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The Ideological and Intellectual Detritus of a Tragedy: premature judgments in investigations

There were two bomb explosions in Boston yesterday. Little if anything is known about the possible culprit or culprits. Nonetheless...

a commentator on a left-leaning public radio station in Boston said (s)he thought the most likely culprits were right-wing Minutemen
a commentator on a right-leaning radio station in New York City said (s)he thought the most likely culprits were radical Islamists
Both commentators are feckless idiots.
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New Web Site about Worldwide Persecution of Religion

Perhaps the following web site will help convince the U.S. State Department to at least mention the extensive persecution of Christians in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt: http://persecutionreport.org/

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What's My Line?

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Yoo and Addington Are Outlaws (in Russia)

I see that the Russian government retaliated against the U.S. government by barring (among others) the following two people from setting foot in Russia: "John Yoo, a former U.S. Justice Department official who wrote legal memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques; [and] David Addington, the chief of staff for former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney." Russia Bans 18 Americans After Similar US Move NYTimes (AP) (April 13, 2013). I suppose some wag will wonder whether the U.S. government might be induced to bar these two people from American soil as well. (Of course, I do not for a moment entertain such a thought. Expelling Addington and Yoo would be quite unAmerican. Isn't that right?)

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Who Cares about Christians in Egypt?

Tarek El-Tablawy & Salma El Wardany, Egypt Copts Blast Mursi at Memorial After Fatal Weekend Clashes Bloomberg News (April 7, 2013):

"Hundreds of grieving Coptic Christians packed inside a Cairo cathedral called for an end to Muslim Brotherhood rule after the worst sectarian clashes in months laid bare the polarization in the country.

"The anguish in the church today erupted ahead of funerals for at least four Christians killed in weekend fighting with Muslims in the Greater Cairo town of Khosous. The skirmishing was the bloodiest in a weekend of political violence as a leading youth organization took its opposition to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi to the streets." 
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Pope, Not-Yet-Easter 2013

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More on Philip Roth

February 1st, 2013

Philip Roth

Philip Roth: Unmasked

American Masters explores the life and career of Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning novelist Philip Roth, often referred to as the greatest living American writer. Reclusive and diffident, Roth grants very few interviews, but for the first time, allowed a journalist to spend 10 days interviewing him on camera.

The result is Philip Roth: Unmasked, a 90-minute documentary that features Roth freely discussing very intimate aspects of his life and art as he has never done before. The film has its world theatrical premiere March 13-19 for one week only at Film Forum in New York City and premieres nationally Friday, March 29 on PBS (check local listings) in honor of Roth’s 80th birthday.

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Philip Roth on PBS

My local public TV station will air a program on Philip Roth at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time today, Good Friday. I am looking forward to this program. (I live close to Roth's home town Newark, New Jersey.)
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Ronald Dworkin on Atheism and Religion

This is an interesting essay: Ronald Dworkin, Religion without God New York Review of Books (April 4 [sic], 2013).

The New York Review's blurb states: "Before he died on February 14, Ronald Dworkin sent to The New York Review a text of his new book, Religion Without God, to be published by Harvard University Press later this year. We publish here an excerpt from the first chapter."
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Early Morning in Liberty Park

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President Obama and Political Hackery

President Obama is sometimes a person of extraordinary gifts. For example, his recent talk to students in Jerusalem was eloquent, wise, and humane. But sometimes Obama is a creature of pure expedience. See his endorsement of Mayor Jerramiah Healy of Jersey City. This endorsement is truly appalling. Healy is a tawdry political hack.

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Meister des Hausbuches (1475)

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President Obama's (Semi-)Secret Global Warfare

This op-ed piece discusses Obama's secret and semi-secret use of drone warfare around the world: Mary L. Dudziak, Obama's Nixonian Precedent, NYTimes (March 21, 2013).

Ms. Dudziak concludes, "The Cambodia bombing, far from providing a valuable precedent for today’s counterterrorism campaign, illustrates the trouble with secrecy: It doesn’t work."
I would have thought that the bigger problem is the possible illegality of secret drone warfare around the world.
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John Sexton

Although I personally very much dislike the "superstar" system that President Sexton apparently has run at NYU - faculty superstars, so-called, get paid a lot more than "ordinary" faculty members - I find it hard to sympathize with the NYU arts & science faculty's vote of no confidence in him. Sexton has done an awful lot to make NYU one of the world's leading universities.

Your opinion?

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Rand Paul II

Rand Paul lecture on foreign policy
See also Douthat on Rand Paul..
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Hero Worship

Hero worship reminiscent of that for Josef Stalin.
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Rand Paul, Drones, U.S. Citizens, and Due Process

Rand Paul defends due process for U.S. "noncombatants" (citizens) on U.S. soil. 

See C-Span.

Rand Paul for President?
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USA SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FESTIVAL – ROLE MODELS IN SCIENCE & ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT

Lofti Asker Zadeh

Lotfi Asker Zadeh -- Computer Scientist and Mathematician

The Father of the scientific concept,"Fuzzy Logic", as well as "Fuzzy Sets" and "Fuzzy Systems"

You've likely heard of the term "Fuzzy Logic", or "Fuzzy Mathematics". But despite what their names may imply, there is nothing inexact about these scientific concepts were formulated, says Lotfi Asker Zadeh, the famous UC Berkeley University mathematician and computer scientist who coined the names of these theories and spent a career advancing their applications.

Known as "The Father of Fuzzy Logic",Lotfi was born in 1921 in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan to an Iranian father (a journalist) and a Russian mother (a pediatrician). In 1931, when Zadeh was ten years old, he moved with his family to Tehran, Iran where he was enrolled in Alborz College (an American-run Presbyterian school), where he was educated for the next eight years. In 1942, he graduated from the University of Tehran with a degree in electrical engineering and emigrated to the U.S. the following year, enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Why He's Important: While a professor and scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, he published his seminal work on "Fuzzy Sets" in 1965 in which he detailed the mathematics of what he called the Fuzzy Set Theory. In 1973, he formally proposed his theory of "Fuzzy Logic", which, based on precise formulas, began allowing scientists, mathematicians and others to make accurate, realistic research data decisions when working in environments of incomplete information, uncertainty and imprecision. Fuzzy Logic does this by allowing for approximate values and inferences as well as for incomplete or ambiguous data (fuzzy data) -- instead of relying solely on crisp data (binary yes/no choices).

Other Achievements: Fuzzy Logic and his Fuzzy Set theory in general have been applied to numerous fields – from computer technology and control theory to artificial intelligence. Lotfi is also credited, along with John Ragazzini in 1952 with pioneering the development of the z-transform method in discrete time signal processing and analysis. These methods are now standard in digital signal processing, digital control, and other discrete-time systems used in industry and research. His latest work includes computing with words and perceptions.
Education: Lotfi received his Master's degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1946, and his Ph.D in the same discipline from Columbia University where he taught for 10 years before joining UC Berkeley in 1959.

In His Own Words: Commenting how he came up with the name "Fuzzy Logic," he says: "I decided on the word 'fuzzy' because I felt it most accurately described what was going on in the theory. I could have chosen another term that would have been more 'respectable'. For instance, I had thought about using the word 'soft', but that really didn't describe accurately what I had in mind. Nor did 'unsharp', 'blurred', or 'elastic'. In the end, I couldn't think of anything more accurate so I settled on "'fuzzy'".

At age 92, Dr. Zadeh still remains active in his field. He serves as an editor of the International Journal of Computational Cognition, and his website at UC Berkeley lists him as Professor in the Graduate School of Computer Science. In addition, his Facebook page reports that he still goes to his office at UC Berkeley everyday whenever he is not out of town at national or international professional conferences.

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Infrared Andromeda

Ain't nature magnificent?

ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/J.Fritz, U.Gent/XMM-Newton/EPIC/W. Pietsch, MPE

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Robust Conversation

Some politicians (and some other people too) are wont to say, now and then, that the public should "have a conversation" about this or that issue. But most political talk is not much like a dinner conversation; most of it is much more like an argument. People who agree about fundamentals have conversations. The rest of us have arguments (unless we keep quiet).  &&& The dynamic evidence page