Absolutely IV

 

With A Little Help From My Friends

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
I'm certain it happens all the time, yeah
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you, but it sure feels like mine.

How certain are you that it happens all the time?

A random equation has two parameters: 1) its location, mean/median/mode, and 2) its scale, variance, uncertainty. The adage is that nothing is certain except death and taxes. Given that you can cheat on taxes, but you can’t cheat death, I would suggest that only death is certain, and thus life is uncertain, i.e. has a variance.

An exponential distribution also has a variance but is defined only for positive numbers. This restriction is identical to saying that its location is zero. It still has a scale parameter, a variance, that is given as λ. It is suggested that the exponential distribution is a distribution of the absolute. It can be coordinate transformed by translation to any location, µ, as long as µ>0 and then its Probability Density Function, PDF, becomes

λ*e^-λ*(x-µ)

and its Cumulative Distribution Function, CDF, becomes

1-e^-λ*(x-µ)

The median of an exponential distribution is generally given as ln 2/λ, but this is when the location is zero. With the translation of the location, the median is ln 2/λ+µ. The mean is 1/λ+µ.

A normal logistics distribution has both a location and a scale parameter. Its CDF is

½*tanh((x-µ)/(2s))+½.

For the median of the two distributions to be equal requires that s = (ln 2)/λ and that µ>0.

When the location of a logistics distribution is zero, then its upper half, above its median, looks like an exponential distribution with a location of zero. This is hardly surprising. The exponential distribution is also the equation of radioactive decay. Its scale parameter, λ, is then known as a half-life.

There is no need as Grushka (Grushka, 1972) and Reyes (Reyes, Venegas, & Gómez, 2018) wo each have proposed to combine an exponential with a normal (e.g. Gaussian or logistics) distribution.  An exponential distribution is only the upper half of a normal logistic distribution with a location of zero. That does not mean that a logistics distribution is an absolute. An exponential distribution, an absolute, is half of a random normal logistics distribution, life.  Of this I'm certain.

References

Grushka, E. (1972). Characteristics of Exponentially Modifed Gaussian Peaks in Chromatograhy. Analytical Chemistry Vol 44, pp. 1733-1738.

Reyes, J., Venegas, O., & Gómez, H. W. (2018). Exponentially-modified logistic distribution with application to mining and nutrition data. Appl. Math 12.6, 1109-1116.

 

Impossible

 

Impossible / It’s Possible

But the world is full of zanies and fools
Who don’t believe in sensible rules
And won’t believe what sensible people say,
And because these daft and dewy- eyed dopes
Keep building up impossible hopes,
Impossible things are happening every day!

Did you mean Improbable?

When I was growing up, many of my neighbors and relatives worked for the then headquarters of the Naval Construction Battalion of Engineers, "SeaBees", at Quonset Point Naval Air Station.  The motto of the SeaBees is “Can Do” and the phrase "With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once, the impossible takes a bit longer" is often associated with them.

I always wanted to be a Seabee, but I had to settle for being just an engineer.  As an engineer I may be willing, but I know engineers can’t ever do the impossible, just the improbable.  But often what is called impossible is merely improbable.  So ask an engineer.  He may be just the zany fool you need!.

Safe Schools

                                                                 Ever True to Brown

We are ever true to Brown,
For we love our college dear,
And wherever we may go,
We are ready with a cheer,
And the people always say,
That you can’t outshine Brown Bears,
With their Rah! Rah! Rah! and their Ki! Yi! Yi!
And their B-R-O-W-N.

Go Bears!

I graduated from Brown University in 1973.  While I am proud to be a Brown Alum, this was not my first, or even my second, choice of school.

My first choice was the US Naval Academy.  I thought that my godfather having the rank of Navy Captain and my being a Merit Scholar made me a shoo in.  But I failed the medical exam because of my eyesight.  ( I CAN see a battleship!  I immediately went to my draft board physical and was found to be 1-A before I got a student deferment.  Apparently I see good enough to be a grunt, just not to be a naval officer!)  My second choice was MIT, but I was rejected there. Which made Brown my "safe" school.

Art

 

A Secretary Is Not a Toy

That a secretary is not a toy
No, my boy
Not a toy to fondle and dandle
And playfully handle
In search of some puerile joy
No, a secretary is not
Definitely not
A toy

And an artist is NOT his work of art.

The worst blowout in College Football happened in 1916 when Georgia Tech beat Cumberland College by a score of 222-0.  Apparently the football coach of Georgia Tech, who was also its baseball coach, wanted to enact vengeance because of a baseball loss to Cumberland College of 22-0.  Cumberland College had disbanded its football team and tried to get out of the game.  The Georgia Tech coach refused and the game was to be played as scheduled.  A ragtag football team was assembled from the student body for just this game.  Georgia Tech scored on every possession in the inevitable slaughter.  The vengeful football coach of Georgia Tech?  John Heisman. Yes, the same coach whose name is honored in the Heisman trophy.

Sticking with a college football theme,  Pop Warner was the coach at the Carlise Indian School where he was not above cheating to win his games against other college football teams.  In fact many of his efforts to bend the rules of his day were adopted to become the regulations of what we know today as football.

It isn’t only college football.  Vincent Van Gogh was a madman who cut off his own ear.  Thomas Jefferson owned slaves when he wrote the Declaration of Independence.  Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for his performance in American Beauty before his sexual assault scandals.  Bill Cosby was America’s Dad before his own scandals. Has anyone seen the movies The Imitation Game or A Beautiful Mind?

All humans, including artists, are flawed beings.  The Bard was being ironic when he wrote “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones”.  Often it is the good that lives after them and the evil that is buried with their bones.  What endures is art.  The art may be judged as good or great, even if the artist is flawed.  You might expect great art from certain artists, but that does not make those artists without flaws.  The art may be great, but the artist, as a human, can be not so great. Don't confuse the two. "Love the sinner, but hate the sin" works both ways. You can "Love the art, but hate the artist".

Absolutely III

 

Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

So if you like pajamas (I like pyjahmas)
I'll wear pajamas (you got pajamas)
For we know, we need each other
So we better call the calling off, off
Let's call the whole thing off
Let's call the whole thing off (yes)

You saying ee-ther and I saying eye-ther is not a very big difference!

At infinity, the absolute, differences do not exist.  The absolute is accepted as being two things at one time: odd and even, male and female, red and black, less filling and tastes great, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, etc.  So if we are to try and emulate the absolute, shouldn’t we accept that our differences do not matter, we are all the same and we need each other.  Let's call the calling off, off.

Absolutely II

 

Woodstock

We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song
And a celebration

And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet planes
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation

We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

We are here because we are billion-year old carbon.

In the United States, it is said that a hundred miles is a short distance but one hundred years is a long time.  By contrast, in Europe, it is said that one hundred miles is a long distance but one hundred years is a short time.  In both places, a million miles is a very long distance and a million years is a very long time.  And maybe that is a lesson for all of us.  

Our lives are typically no more than a hundred years. The typical human will travel 30,000 to 50,000 miles in their lifetime. The Earth on which we live might travel 370 million miles in our lifetime but those are still insignifcant compared to the 14 billion light-year size, 14 billion year age of the universe. https://www.space.com/human-travel-trillion-miles-lifetime-universe-motion 

But we are here because the universe is as large as it is and as has existed as long as it has.  Each individual may only live for a mere fraction of the age of the universe and travel only a mere fraction of the size of the universe.  And even that age and that size of the universe is limited.  The absolute is limitless.  Remember that.  Don’t get caught in the devil’s bargain.  Get back to the garden.

Morality and the Law

 

Anything Goes

In olden days, a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
But now, God knows
Anything goes

But don’t confuse morality with legality!

Immoral and Amoral are two words that sound similar but have different meanings. Immoral is an adjective that describes “something against pre-established morals, ethics, or standard societal practices.” Amoral, on the other hand, is an adjective that describes “something or someone completely lacking morals.”

https://www.easybib.com/guides/grammar-guides/vocabulary/confusing-words/immoral-vs-amoral

Justice is blind.  The legal system is supposed to represent ALL moralities.  That does not mean that it is immoral because it does NOT represent only the majority morality.  But it also does not mean that it has no morals at all.  This suggests that perhaps another word needs to be used. The legal system is omni-moral!

You can’t legislate morality.  Society should enact laws to protect itself, and its members, but unless its members, or itself, are harmed it has no business imposing its morality on another.  To impose the morality of the majority, whether it is prohibition of alcohol, religion, gender preference, sexual orientation, etc. should not be the subject of laws unless society or its members are actually harmed, not merely offended.  A moral majority might indeed be moral and a majority.  But that does NOT mean that its morals should be the law.