Author Archives: Gilbert

Vectors

Posted on 2012-06-18 by Gilbert

This is part two of a series on Fourier analysis and intuition. In the intro post to this series I promised to explain how Fourier analysis is similar to the geometry of shadows but noted I would first have to … Continue reading →

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My tactics on the Ideological Turing Test

Posted on 2012-06-17 by Gilbert

My last post explained how I came up with my atheist persona for the ITT.  Now I want to talk about judging heuristics and how I tried to game some of them. I think it pays off to  plant cultural … Continue reading →

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My strategy on the Ideological Turing Test.

Posted on 2012-06-17 by Gilbert

So I participated in the second Ideological Turing Test contest at Leah Libresco’s Unequally Yoked, both with own entries and by voting on those of everyone else. I don’t think I have to explain the concept, because near everyone reading … Continue reading →

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Hi everybody

Posted on 2012-06-13 by Gilbert

I have an avalanche of people coming over from the Ideological Turing Test at Unequally Yoked. So many people have never been here yet. Unfortunately it’s more than a month since I last updated. But the blog is not dead … Continue reading →

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Liturgical fretting for hypocrites

Posted on 2012-04-22 by Gilbert

I just left mass early.  It was a children’s mass and I hadn’t expected that. Now I like children, and I like mass, and I approve of children’s masses. But I can’t bring myself to like them.  The way I … Continue reading →

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Today in history

Posted on 2012-03-21 by Gilbert

75 years ago today, on March 21, 1937, the papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (with burning concern) was read in all Catholic churches of Germany. It had been prepared and copied in secret, for doing that openly  was impossible, Germany … Continue reading →

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Someone is wasting my money

Posted on 2012-03-18 by Gilbert

Within minutes of posting this, it was accessed by two IP’s that had never been here before. One is registered to the Commission of the European Communities, the other to the  Council of the European Union. Both were using dated … Continue reading →

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Constitution blogging day wrapup

Posted on 2012-03-18 by Gilbert

This ends my day of blogging on the German constitution. Technically, the day ended two hours ago, but I didn’t finish in time.  I didn’t cover everything worth covering. For example, a lot could be said about proportional representation, international … Continue reading →

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Delegation and Europe

Posted on 2012-03-18 by Gilbert

Germany is traditionally big on European integration. And indeed European integration has gone much further than anyone would have expected, say, 30 years ago. In fact it has gone much further than most Europeans realize. Right now I won’t explain … Continue reading →

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No direct democracy

Posted on 2012-03-17 by Gilbert

One standard criticism of the Basic Law is that it doesn’t allow the people to ever vote on federal laws directly. This is a point I fully agree with. As I said in my last post, a simple majority at … Continue reading →

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