About Schlafly blogsI am Roger Schlafly. (There is only one.) I write a couple of blogs which are described below. I also write an anonymous blog with more personal comments, but you'll have to find that on your own.About Dark BuzzYou may have heard about Dark Matter. The known universe is made up of quarks, leptons, and bosons, but it is believed that other mysterious particles constitute a dark matter that is a much greater portion of the masses of the galaxies. The dark matter is in addition to the black holes that result when a large star collapses into a spacetime singularity, and the giant black holes that gobble up stars at galaxy centers. Dark matter is thought to be essential to galaxy formation, and may even be responsible for killing the dinosaurs. There is also Dark Energy, the unknown force that permeates the entire universe and is accelerating its expansion. There may also be Dark fluid and Dark flow.Dark also means hidden, obscure, or unknown, besides meaning a lack of visible light. We have phrases like the Dark Ages, which means a period in the Middle Ages where we have lousy historical records compared to early Roman times and later times. We also have Dark Continent, to mean lesser known parts of Africa, and dark side of the Moon, to mean the side cut off from Earth view and communications. This blog is about Dark Buzz, and I write about science subjects. I am a logical positivist. I accept what has been mathematically or scientifically proved, and tend to be skeptical about what cannot be proved. My slogan Natura non facit saltus is Latin for "nature does not make jumps". It is an ancient principle of natural philosophy, going back to Aristotle's time. Today many implicitly deny the principle and emphasize quantum leaps, nonlocality, and paradigm shifts. This blog emphasizes continuity, and points out the errors of discontinuous beliefs.
About Singular ValuesI am a mathematician, and this is my blog. When mathematicians look at the world, they model everything in terms of mathematically constructed spaces that are locally defined by multiple parameters. Transformations are approximated by tangential matrices, and a matrix is analyzed by decomposing it into its singular values.Besides numerical values, there are also the values that represent the qualities or beliefs that people consider important, such as loyalty and respect. Some values are singularly important, and yet are commonly overlooked. Nunquam praescriptos transibunt sidera fines is Latin for "Never pass the prescribed limits of the stars." It has also been translated as "Nothing exceeds the limits of the stars" and "Never do the heavenly bodies transgress their prescribed bounds." The French mathematician Henri Poincaré submitted an anonymous paper under the name of this code phrase to an 1887 contest to solve a celestial mechanics problem. He won a prize from the King of Sweden, and proved the existence of chaotic orbits, a possibility that was previously not imagined. As he later described chaos, "It may happen that small differences in the initial conditions produce very great ones in the final phenomena. A small error in the former will produce an enormous error in the latter. Prediction becomes impossible." I interpret the Latin quote as meaning to think big, but to remember that even the grandest plans have their limits. Poincare himself was both cautious and fearless in his analysis. He stuck to what he could prove, and he never shied away from the consequences of his ideas. Poincare did not know that chaos was a possibility when he wrote that phrase. About Eagle Forum blogEagle Forum is a conservative political organization, and most of the blog content is from my mom, Phyllis Schlafly. I sometimes contribute.Send comments to Roger Schlafly. |