Go and sleep in Feyman's house?!

Compared to what? I've paid more for less interesting accommodation.

From the booking site:

"Nobel peace prize physicist". Someone needs to do their homework.

*Nobel prize for physics*.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence  
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." 
                                       (Richard Feynman)

Perhaps on the last term, but they are all "peace prizes", since they all relate to civil advancement.

The Nobel Peace Prize is the title of a particular award, awarded in Norway, separately from the other Nobel prizes, for the sciences, literature, etc. which are awarded in Sweden.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence  
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." 
                                       (Richard Feynman)

But still under the Nobel Society Charter, no doubt. Which as I recall was about peaceful endeavor.

Also the other Nobel prizes are usually given to people who did some sort of good work, as opposed to Rigoberta Menchu, Al Gore, Yasser Arafat, Elie Wiesel, the egregious Henry Kissinger and his even more egregious opposite number Le Duc Tho, various presidents, and so on.

(The Nobel peace prize committee doesn't get it wrong every year, of course, but their record is far less impressive than the Swedish guys'.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 USA 
+1 845 480 2058 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

I'm puzzled. Why do you list Elie Wiesel in with the obviously unqualified? ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Maybe so, but the fact remains "Nobel Peace Prize physicist" is just plain wrong.

Feynman never received a Nobel Peace Prize.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence  
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." 
                                       (Richard Feynman)

A

Wiesel is a bit of a borderline case, it's true, but this is a Nobel Prize we're talking about, so the bar ought to be a bit higher.

On the plus side, (a) he's written and spoken on the Holocaust for N years, to try to prevent people from forgetting, and (b) he's certainly suffered a lot more than I have, so I'm cautious about criticizing him.

On the minus side, he's done a quite enormous amount of self-promotion and groupie-collection along the way, and for most of that time, he's been fighting yesterday's war rather than promoting peace in our time.

Ten years ago, before the resurgence of antisemitism on the Left (especially in Europe), I'd have been harder on him.

If Al Gore weren't such a liar and hypocrite, and if he actually believed that the world was in fact warming up, which even Der Spiegel now admits isn't the case, he'd be in that borderline class too. Oh well.

Saint Barry seems to have got it for Not Being W, before he'd actually done anything. I doubt he'd be considered today, even by the Norwegians.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 USA 
+1 845 480 2058 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

I can speak a little on his behalf. In the late 1960's and early

1970's, I was occasionally assisting with skool lectures by Paul Page: on the Holocaust (except it wasn't given that name until after Shindlers Ark was published in 1982). The basic idea was to convince people to remember what happened. The major obstacle was that many students didn't have a clue what happened or had a rather distorted impression. Every talk was an uphill battle. The tag lines were "never forget" or "never again". I suspect that this was also Elie Wiesel's line.

I've never met Elie Wiesel, and have read only one of his 40 books. I have met Oskar Shindler: Some of the principle players in the movie Shindler's List were friends and relatives. There's one problem that all of them had in common. Nobody wants to hear about the Holocaust. The story needs to be sold, promoted, pushed, and in some cases, rammed down peoples throats until they're willing to listen. That was the case with Steven Spielberg, who took 10 years to finally decide to make the movie. After a while, the process gives the impression of being terminally obnoxious, but that's what it takes. If that's your impression of Elie Wiesel, it's correct because there's no other way to deliver the story.

Elie Wiesel has written 40 books. Selling those books requires considerable self promotion. That's the way he makes his living. Given his opportunities and exposure, it would be difficult for him to resist the temptation to at least mention one of his books. I would not fault him for that. As for groupies, I prefer to call them supporters.

Wiesel has not been fighting yesterday's war. That war is over. Most people would rather forget about the uglier aspects of WWII. Wiesel and others think otherwise and want to make sure they don't forget. Those who cannot remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat them. That's really a future war that we're fighting now. However, not to worry. In another 10 years, all those involved in the Holocaust will probably be dead, and then history can safely be rewritten without having awkward witnesses and participants confuse the revisions with facts.

If anyone has questions, methinks email would be more appropriate.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Sure thing. I think he's a good guy who's done a lot of good work, but there's quite a bit of daylight between the ideas of "good guy" and "deserves a Nobel Prize".

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 

160 North State Road #203 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 USA 
+1 845 480 2058 

hobbs at electrooptical dot net 
http://electrooptical.net

pricey though.

But Bill ! Richard Feynman used the term "current flow" (or at least the same in context) in his lectures on physics...

Why would you want to sleep in a place occupied by someone who uses such terrible language ?? ;)

boB

I don't even have a bad guess as to the requirements for a Nobel Peace Prize. Here's the process, but not much on nomination criteria or the definition of "peace":

Well, maybe one bad guess. Methinks that Elie Wiesel was chosen because the committee decided to recognize the holocaust, and needed someone to receive the prize that wasn't a member of an extremist group and where the prize would not look like an endorsement of Israeli politics. Wiesel is agnostic, apolitical, presentable, not directly involved in Israeli politics, and a good guy.

Perhaps you set too high a standard for Nobel Peace Prize recipients. For the politicians that have received the prize, most of them have done something in their past that they regret, or were forced to do by necessity. This would label them somewhat less than a "good guy". Yet when a non-politician like Wiesel receives the prize, he's now expected to uphold a higher standard than these politicians? Apply your litmus test equally, and I think you might change your opinion of Wiesel.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

bit pricey though.

Physicists are not renowned for their grasp of English, and this applies particularly to Feynman, who for quite a considerable part of his life saw no point in the Humanities.

I found Phil's criticism of Elie's "self-promotion" rather Pecksniffian. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.