Representatives Playing Golf

I have called my two representatives (current and former) and my two senators to express my opinion about the failure of my representatives to see that Donald Trump is tried before the election and to reverse the ridiculous decisions of our right wing nutty boy so called supreme court.   I have also asked them to see to it that we can express our opinion to the supreme court. 

 

Repesentative Cardenas

Representative Carbajal

Senator Laphonza Butler 310 914 7300

Senator Alex Padilla. 310 231 4494

The Supreme Court Doesnt Take Comments

You are not permitted to give comments to the supreme court of the united states.  They couldnt care less.  If you call them, they will tell you this once and then hang up.  If you try to call again you are blocked.  We live in a right wing dictatorship.

But my elected representative did give me a phone number where I could leave a message.  Maybe.  Try 202 479 3000 and 202 479-3060.

Possible Solution to Supreme Court Ruling to Destroy the Homeless

Since the Supreme Court believes that we should destroy the homeless by denying them anywhere to go, but the Court also believes that it is unconstitutional to do anything to regulate firearms, why not put the two policies together and give AR-15s to the homeless and allow them to defend themselves?

Image by MidJourney

Good Background Material on Mandatory Palestine

I refuse to discuss the issues in Mandatory Palestine with most people.  What would be the point?  They know even less than I do, apparently, and that is saying something.  So rather than waste your time with my opinions on most of the issues, instead I will mention a few articles or books that I found particularly helpful.  

First "A Peace to End All Peace" by David Fromkin about the end of the Ottoman Empire. See https://www.amazon.com/Peace-End-All-Ottoman-Creation/dp/0805068848

Second,  "Should American Jews Abandon Elite Universities?" by Bret Stephens in the NY Times.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/opinion/jews-ivy-league-antisemitism.html

Students who police words like “blacklist” or “whitewash” and see “microaggressions” in everyday life ignore the entreaties of their Jewish peers to avoid chants like “globalize the intifada” or “from the river to the sea.” Students who claim they’re horribly pained by scenes of Palestinian suffering were largely silent on Oct. 7 — when they weren’t openly cheering the attacks. And students who team up with outside groups that are in overt sympathy with Islamist terrorists aren’t innocents. They’re collaborators.

Third, an article on the history of Zionism, particularly in the context of other ideologies of the 19th century by Peretz. See https://zionism-israel.com/ezine/Zionism_God_History.htm

I believe that there is something to be said for moral authority.  In other words, before you lecture other people or nations, it would be best if one cleaned up one's own house first.  Sometimes this is stated as "Let he (or she) who is without sin throw the first stone." or "leading by example".  If an American wants another nation which is fighting for its survival to "return the occupied territories" perhaps they should start by returning their own "occupied territories".  For example, in the case of the United States of America, one might return the states of New York, California or Virginia, all of them occupied territories. 

Peace.

Ensign of the Palestinian Mandate

Notes on Adding Assets to the OpenSpace Project (OSP)

There is an open source project to provide a visualization framework to present astronomical data to the public called, logically enough, the OpenSpace Project (OSP).  It is in the grand tradition of the infrastructure of planetariums that stretches back in time to long before computer graphics and even computers.  The current state of the art uses graphics and projection hardware that would have been far too expensive for this purpose even a few years ago.

This particular framework seems to be a robust, somewhat comprehensive collection of the things one might need to put on a science show at a planetarium.  Time marches on, and so must the software.  It must permit new science to be incorporated into the core framework.

Furthermore,   the classic planetarium show has always been interactive and real time even when it has been rigorously scripted. Real time enables improvisation but it does not require it.   Every community has its traditions and the traditions of planetarium shows insist on this capability.

One of the principals of this project, Carter Emmart, a veteran of the ancient Digital Galaxy Project at the Hayden in NYC, asked me to add a very simple item to the repertoire of OpenSpace.  It should have been straightforward, but I have been pulling my hair out trying to get traction because, as we all know, writing documentation for a complicated piece of software like OpenSpace is non-trivial and not particularly pleasant.  OpenSpace does have documentation but not all documentation fits all use cases.

Systems of this type have very different classes of users and they all need different learning materials.  Some of these users will script new shows with the capabilities at hand.  Others will want to add to the functionality of the software.  Still others will be doing a masters or PhD thesis that incorporates visualization of science data or models into the software, but for their own use and not as a general capability.  Some of these people will be astrophysicists, some will be visualizers and some will be children.  So learning the software is likely to be painful depending on what your use case is.

This blog post will attempt to fill in some of these gaps for those who come after me.  The post will evolve as my understanding evolves.

The task at hand is to be able to create a type of lunar surface that exhibits the "retro reflection effect" for want of a better term.  Imagine you are in a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.  One of the observed phenomena is for light to be directed back at its source just as you might see from a reflected sign on a highway at night.  This phenomenon has been observed both on the moon and from earth.  It shouldnt be too hard to have OpenSpace simulate some version of this.

Notes for Adding New Geometry & Shader to OpenSpace

1. In general, types of data to be visualized with the OpenSpace Project (OSP) are defined as assets.  All assets are defined in text files with the suffix ".asset".

2. Assets can be added statically at the startup of OSP or interactively through the Lua console.  

3. The particular type of asset we want to add is called a RenderableModel.  See the documentation for this kind of asset at 

https://docs.openspaceproject.com/en/latest/generated/asset-components/RenderableModel.html

4. There are three fields in particular that interest us: the GeometryFile, the VertexShader and the Fragment Shader.

5. The GeometryFile will be the filename of a GLTF or GLB file.  This filetype is designed to encapsulate 3D geometry and many other things.  It is documented and maintained by Khronos and can be read about here:

https://registry.khronos.org/glTF/specs/2.0/glTF-2.0.html

6. The Vertex and Fragment shaders are individual text files which are compiled and downloaded to the relevant GPUs.  They contain the code necessary to actually render the surface in real time.  

7. Probably we will define this type of asset interactively using Lua, and therefore will need the scripting API documentation, which is documented here:

https://docs.openspaceproject.com/en/latest/generated/scripting-api/index.html

8. So, to my current understanding, I will be creating a new type of asset which points to some geometry, a vertex shader, and a fragment shader, and add this asset interactively via Lua.

No doubt this post will be updated as I learn more.

Fan Art for "Earthly Pleasures"

 
Jill Fraser's new album, Earthly Pleasures, is loosely based on the music of 19th century hymns.  As a fan, I contribute the following fan art, based on the idea of an angel and worshippers.  The angel is wearing a silver bathing suit and carries a whip.

There are some very entertaining things that were mostly unintentional in some of these pictures.  Notice how the groveling worshippers seem to be in pain.  Is that because I said the angel was carrying a whip?

The Philosophical Research Society and the Library of Esoteric Knowledge

For all the years I lived in Los Angeles, I never visited the Philosophical Research Society.  I knew it was off in Los Feliz somewhere.  

Generally speaking, back in the day, I would rarely go east of Western and only go as far as Western because that is where the AFI was located.  

But the PRS is an example of the best of old Los Angeles.  Founded in the 1930s by a self-educated mystic, Manly Hall, he eventually built a library for his 30,000 plus titles of his collections of Esoteric Knowledge and wrote many classics in the field.  Their bookstore is the best of its type since the Bodhi Tree.  The library is open Thursday & Friday from noon to six.  The bookstore is open normal business hours and in the evening during an event.

An entertaining and informative article on the PRS, Manly Hall, and their history, is here:  
https://www.laweekly.com/the-strange-history-of-los-felizs-mysterious-metaphysical-research-center/

If you can judge a place by its people, then the PRS is a very interesting place.  We should all spend more time there.

Vegetarian Vegetable Soup #1

 
Recipe for one variation on vegetable soup.   

prepare soup stock

in olive oil, saute 1 yellow onion and 6 cloves of chopped garlic

add several carrots chopped into large pieces

add several stocks of celery also chopped

add a handful of dried shitake mushrooms

add two bay leaves 

add several dozen pepper corns

add about 8 cups of water and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes

strain the stock, discard the vegetables and put half of it in the freezer

keep half for the rest of the recipe

in a clean soup pot, saute several cloves of garlic 

1 teaspoon paprika

add the soup stock

add about a dozen romano beans chopped roughly

add several dozen snow peas chopped roughly

add a handful of chopped broccoli 

add a can of cannellini 

3/4 small can of tomato paste

4 or so large fresh shitaki mushrooms sliced

fresh oregano, fresh thyme, fresh basil 

add dried oregano, basil and thyme

several bay leaves

salt and pepper

and simmer for 15-20 minutes

variations: 

cook the cannellini from scratch

use fresh tomatoes sauted in olive oil 

roast an anaheim pepper, remove the skin and seeds, chopped

add one small chopped carrot 

add one stalk of celery chopped

add juice of 1/2 lemon

Vegetarian Pseudo Pozole

Recipe for a vegetarian pseudo pozole:

1 anaheim
1 poblano/?
1 jalapeno
roast & skin peppers

1 onion, shredded
6 cloves of garlic
saute in olive oil

1 can red enchilada sauce (hot)
put peppers & 1/2 the saute onion in blender with enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup water 

4 cups soup stock
in pan with 1/2 onion saute
2 cans garbanzo beans
add teaspoon cumin seed
add fresh oregano
add pinch of cinnamon

put pepper mix into the main pot
salt and pepper
cook for 15 minutes

garnish with avocado, radishes, lime juice, cilantro, cheddar cheese

Campus Protests Redux and the Media Failure

(Rewritten to tone down this post).

The campus protests about the Israel-Hamas war are slowly dissipating but their impact is still very much with us although what those implications actually are or will be is to be determined.  Many, many people are annoyed by these protests and annoyed at how our media failed to deal with many points.  Here are a few of the issues.

1. It is possible to do protests without making other people feel unsafe.  See for example the women's marches of the last decade.  

2. Many people attend the University in order to get an education.  They do not have infinite time to screw around and to be intimidated.  The role of the President and the Trustees is to see that people get their education.

3. I dont recall ever seeing a contract that says a student can determine the investment policy of these institutions.  Furthermore there are people associated with the University, including other students who do not agree with the opinions of these protesters.  

4. Many campuses have been unsafe for Jews for a long time.  This issue is well known to the administration(s) and they have declined to do anything about it.  I think its funny that all the noise about "safe spaces" turns out to be hypocritical bullshit.

5. I have no desire to have this country's foreign policy determined by these people.  I do relate to the protester's frustration with our foreign policy elites.  

6. From what they say, I have no reason to think that the protesters know enough about the history here or what they are protesting.  Or maybe they do know enough about what is going on and have made some choices that I do not agree with.

7. There are slogans that are code words for killing Jews, and when the media repeats them they need to make that clear. 

8. Failure to understand and use words like "genocide" is offensive.

9. I personally have been prevented from expressing my opinion on this topic and been removed from social events on the possibility that I would express these opinions.   What about my freedom of speech?  Oh I guess that doesn't matter.

Palestinian Flag