tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29430205610376373122024-02-20T17:34:17.019-08:00Radioactive UniverseEssays by recently UN-retired [May 2012] call-in radio newstalker Bryan StybleBryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-83782243021111257662012-09-19T15:32:00.002-07:002012-09-19T23:38:42.311-07:00What a Feeling!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Just moments I ago finished one of the most thrilling conversations of my life!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Yeah, I know, you've heard that kind of Styble hyperbole before. But this ain't hyperbole, Pal. Nope, this is genuine excitement, generated by a lengthy chat with a long-retired high school mathematics teacher--and then subsequently a highly successful St. Louis-based tax preparer--named J. Harold Vaughn, or as I merely knew him starting back in 1969, just Mr. Vaughn.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've been hugely <i>desirous</i> of speaking with him again for many years, but I just finally made the telephonic connection within the hour. If the <i>RadioactiveUniverse</i> reader finds that name a bit familiar, it's because you read my "The Count Ends at Three" essay, easily accessible just a few entries below.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And I'm this excited because I not only had the most wonderful chat with this man who has meant soooooo much to me in a considerable number--pun intended, yes--of ways, but also because I learned I'm going to soon meet with him over lunch or dinner, perhaps this coming January.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I told him, without exaggeration, that <i>literally</i> he's the third-ranking person on the <i>planet </i>I'd like to meet with at a nice restaurant over a fine meal.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Those familiar with Bryan Styble's quirky ways <i>already</i> know who Number One is (that would <i>of course</i> be Dylan [reference sister blog www.RadioactiveDylan.blogspot.com]) <i>and</i> that Number Two would be my late father, Lewis John Stibal (1921-1986), but of course that's flatly impossible.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But I kid you nor even exaggerate not: Number Three is James Harold Vaughn, and I am delighted to report his mind clearly remains as razor sharp today as it was in 1969. And I'm going to again shake his hand, G-d willing, as soon as January 2013. (Wish I could say the same about Audrey Stibal, longtime beloved wife of Lewis cited above, whose brain has been gradually and oh so heart-wrenchingly wasting away, due to the scourge known as Alzheimer's, since 2004.)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I just can't <i>wait</i> until January. But I'll <i>have</i> to.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>BRYAN STYBLE/Florida</b></span></span></span><br />
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Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-207620684945955442011-11-08T14:23:00.001-08:002011-11-10T12:46:44.884-08:00Kindly Place the Accent on the First Syllable!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Despite the nonstop national nattering about the Herman Cain mess, I've yet to see this all-important issue addressed: which is the preferred pronunciation of the word "harassment"?</span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In fact, amid the dozens of newscasts, talk radio calls and cable roundtable chats I've listened to since </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Politico</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> broke this story nine days ago, I've heard the accent placed on the first syllable a total of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">once</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> thus far. (And that was j</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ust a couple minutes ago,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> by the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Wall Street Journal</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> questioner at Cain's ongoing press conference in Phoenix.)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now it so happens that I have a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">decided</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> preference for "HAIR-iss-ment", and in turn also positively abhor the almost-universally-used "huh-RASS-ment".</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And make no mistake, both pronunciations are equally acceptable as Standard English. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It's unfortunate so many people incorrectly believe lexicographers rank pronunciation preference; in fact, virtually every dictionary publisher sequences so-called "variant" pronunciations by <i>usage frequency</i>, rather than to reflect any supposed consensus of expert preference. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So you're skating on grammatically thick ice with <i>either</i> pronunciation. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">(Now mind you, it's always considered terribly bad form if you fail to stick with just one.)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">But I'm here to make the case for the, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">ahem</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, pronounced superiority of the first-syllable option. Call</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> me a bluenose if you like, but I just don't enjoy hearing the sound "ass" uttered, even if it's merely three-quarters of a syllable sandwiched betwixt two other quite innocuous syllables.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This considerable--to me, at least</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:130%;">*</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">--consideration would be reason enough to a verbally punctilious type like myself, but there's a bonus. The pronunciation I invariably employ also alludes to Jean Harris, the Virginia finishing-school dean whom you'll remember served time for the upstate New York shooting death of another famous Herman, the <i>Scarsdale Diet</i> guru Dr. Tarnower.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The late physician and author may or may not have ever sexually harassed his longtime galpal per se, but by every account the two-timing Tarnower clearly done her wrong in that sad 1980 case. Of course, he didn't deserve to pay for his callousness with his life, either accidentally, as Harris implausibly contended at trial, or accidentally-on-purpose.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#33FF33;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Harris survives</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> in quiet post-prison retirement in Connecticut, incidentally, and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">remains at age 88 at least a somewhat sympathetic figure to anyone who holds cads in contempt. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And, as an old-school headmistress responsible for the education of a couple generations of daughters of the Eastern elite, Harris presumably regards elegant grammar as rather important. So even if your ear isn't</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> annoyed like mine is by that darned A-sound, if only to pay homage to Harris, why not argue the Cain matter with the accent on the first?</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:180%;color:#FF6600;">BRYAN STYBLE/somewhere </span></b></span></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF6600;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-large;">*</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Or perhaps at</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51); font-weight: normal; font-size:100%;"> <i>most</i>; I'm fully aware few and maybe even <i>no</i> others are as absolutist as I am regarding verbal vulgarity, on <i>or</i> off the air.</span></span></b></span></div>Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-42170550917264994012009-08-25T08:41:00.000-07:002012-09-19T09:37:18.184-07:00I Don't Believe, I'm an Atheist—I mean, I Don't Believe I'm an Atheist!<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">In addition to the Obama-vote inquiry <span style="color: #ffff66;"><span style="color: #ccffff;">(</span>"<span style="font-size: 85%;">Stuck on Obama?</span>", <span style="font-size: 85%;">directly below</span></span>), the question has also been e-raised as to whether I'm a closet atheist.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">The short answer is no, I remain an agnostic.</span><br />
<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">The long answer is no, I remain an agnostic, but one who is definitely sympathetic with the growing atheistic movement being spearheaded by the likes of such serious thinkers as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">Most specifically, I'm an agnostic who sees absolutely zero <em>convincing</em> evidence of G-d's existence. Alas.</span><br />
<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">I'm also a putative Jew, having converted through the Society of Humanistic Judaism in 1999, but SHJ definitely <em>is</em> an atheist-dominated movement. If one equates simple non-belief with atheism, then I'd be an atheist by that elastic definition, for<span style="color: #ccffff;"> I see faith as being in direct conflict and mutually-exclusive with reason. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">For those who are still unclear on what exactly agnosticism is, and most important, why it's not synonymous with or simply a euphemism for non-belief, this is a good definition: a stance that argues that the way nature seems to be structured, it is impossible to rule out or in the existence of a natural intelligence or consciousness that we normally refer to as G-d. As you know, the true atheist avers the <em>impossibility</em> of G-d's existence. But even I must grant the possibility of some intelligent force making itself undetectable by us, hence my nominal agnosticism. And yeah, I know, even that's a stretch. So I remain thoroughly dubious as to the likelihood <em>any</em> religion got correct what Michael Kinsley (and I) call "the central question of the universe".</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ccffff; font-family: georgia;">But I could be wrong, and am always willing to be persuaded.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ff9900; font-family: georgia; font-size: 130%;">BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle</span>Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-40711356184267577022009-08-25T01:05:00.000-07:002009-08-25T01:08:29.469-07:00Stuck on Obama?<span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ffccff;">The question has been raised in the <em>Radioactive</em> e-mailbag as to whether I yet regret my vote in November for Barack Hussein Obama.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ffccff;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ffccff;">The answer is: Nope, not yet.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ffcc66;">BRYAN STYBLE/Seattle</span>Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-65045631545603833502009-08-24T16:51:00.000-07:002012-09-19T10:03:34.829-07:00The Count Ends at Three<span style="color: #33ff33;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">My long-suffering readers might be justifiably concerned that the <em>Radioactive</em> brand is proliferating out of control. If so, rest assured, this third blog <em>RadioactiveUniverse</em> is my absolute final one. And I can even prove it mathematically.</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Speaking of math class, as I often did to those suffering in the audience of my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">newstalk</span> radio broadcasts, algebra was repository of many of my favorite scholastic memories. Perhaps my most inspiring moment ever in my mathematical education came, as they so often did, courtesy my all-time fave teacher in <em>any</em> subject, Mr. J. Harold Vaughn.</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span><span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">Now mind you, only about half of my math education ever took place in class; the rest came on my own via lay books which popularized the concepts which animate advanced realms like topology, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">nonEuclidian</span> geometry, number theory, set theory and the calculus. But it was in Algebra II when I learned that—just as you above were surely relieved to find will be no more additional <em>Radioactive</em> blogs—there would be never be a need for more</span><span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;"> types of numbers beyond the so-called complex numbers.<br /><br />You see, as Mr. Vaughn explained, primitive man needed only the positive integers to count his livestock, or wives, or enemies. Then commerce created a need for negative numbers—in the red to a patient neighbor for a certain number of whatever the barter currency of the day was. So they <em>invented</em> negative integers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">And by that point, the divvying up of certain commodities necessitated the <em>invention</em> of fractions. And eventually, problems like the length of diagonals of geometric figures mandated the <em>invention</em> of irrationals. And many of us also know of the centuries-long struggle to <em>invent</em> zero. And thus we had <em>invented</em> all the real numbers. And then when the need came along during The Enlightenment to solve equations like <em>x</em> times <em>x</em> = -1, my hero Euler <em>invented</em> the imaginary numbers, but, like so many 21st Century software engineers, failed to dub them with an intuitive name. So math students to this day are confused by these nominally "imaginary" numbers, when in fact they are no more or less imaginary than any of those invented prior to them.</span><span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">But this process was starting to scare me. What if the further I went in math, the more types of exotic number systems they'd keep inventing and for me to increasingly struggle to understand? How could I ever sort it all out?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">But as he so often did, Mr. Vaughn set my mathematical mind at permanent ease. For it turns out the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, proved by Euler himself and many others, forever limits the need to invent new systems! This, on top of my favorite theorem's most elegant charm—that any<em> n</em><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">th</span> degree equation has precisely <em>n</em> complex roots—meant the complex numbers limits forever the array of fields mathematicians must till. That is, no matter how exotic a mathematical realm you dream up, the complex numbers will be able to computationally describe it.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">Likewise, my initial blog (<em><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">RadioactiveSeattle</span></em>, regarding the commercial <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">newstalk</span> radio biz) in 2007, my second blog (<em>Radioactive</em> <em>Dylan</em>, regarding <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Dylanology</span>, an utterly fascinating and esoteric realm, but <i>not</i> for the faint-of-heart) earlier this year, and now <em><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">RadioactiveUniverse</span></em>, whose domain is <em>everything else.</em> So this third blog is, for better or for worse, <em>it</em>. And I intend to make it for better.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #33ff33; font-family: georgia;">And of course, you can make it better too, with your constructive—or just vindictive—posted comments hereto. Feel free to point out typos even, if you like.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #ff9900; font-family: georgia; font-size: 180%;">BRYAN <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">STYBLE</span>/Seattle</span>Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943020561037637312.post-31327339529260776692009-08-24T10:20:00.000-07:002009-08-24T16:50:49.446-07:00Birth of a Universe<span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff0000;">A verbose guy shall be <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">succinct</span>:</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff0000;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff0000;">This <em>RadioactiveUniverse</em> blog is being established for essays, brief or lengthy, by Bryan Styble on any matters <em>un</em>related to the respective realms of its two sister blogs, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">newstalk</span> radio (sister blog <em><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">RadioactiveSeattle</span></em>) and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">Dylanology</span> (sister blog <em>Radioactive Dylan</em> ).</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;font-size:180%;color:#ff9900;">BRYAN <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">STYBLE</span>/Seattle</span>Bryan Styblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12579588570002368030noreply@blogger.com0