The next Heterodox University faculty member

[gepr]

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

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[Marcus G. Daniels]

Glen writes:

< [⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum. >

After seeing a few distinguished academics get spun up about peer review pissing matches which do not move the world one iota does lead me to believe this is a useful dimension.   Such people benefit from having a circumscribed world to function in, and when that scaffolding is not available, they just lose it.   There's something to be for knowing when your bandwidth and knowledge is running out, and the bad things that can happen when it does.

Marcus
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[Stephen Guerin-5]

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
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[thompnickson2]

Glen,

Rest assured.  You will never be mistaken for a wing nut.  You just don't spin that easy.  Spoken as somebody who has tried to spin you many times.

By the way, our joint exploration of the wing-nut metaphor last Friday was a wonderful example of the intentionality of metaphors. For me, a wing nut is a fastener that can be applied to a machine screw without a tool.  "Spinning off wildly"  was a feature I never really focused on, hence I never really understood the metaphor until you-guys explained it to me.  Yup!  

So, if "spinnability" is a feature of wing nuts, then "spinning off wildly" is a bug, right.  But for the purposes of the metaphor (as you use it) it is a feature.  So the feature/bug relation is another example of the extension-intension relation (aka epiphenomenality).  

Ok.  Now that I have thoroughly bent your thread, I think I will go eat breakfast.

Snow grains, thunder in Santa Fe.  The thunder echoes in the covid-emptied streets.  Apocalyse!

Nick

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of u?l? ???
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:19 AM
To: FriAM <[hidden email]>
Subject: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member


http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[thompnickson2]

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[Marcus G. Daniels]

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[thompnickson2]

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6  bit.ly/virtualfriam
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[David Eric Smith]

Iambic hexameter:

> On Nov 24, 2020, at 12:48 PM, <[hidden email]> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> The thunder echoes in the covid-emptied streets.  
> Apocalyse!

I feel like with a little syllable adjusting, there is a haiku in here somewhere.

Eric

> Nick
>
> Nicholas Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
> Clark University
> [hidden email]
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwordpress.clarku.edu%2fnthompson%2f&c=E,1,GtPpWYWDwSX2rOVkC0B92QiK32JwJol5ZMKy8oql8dTndMlw00u1rkV_uFCY0zqHAvbQ1rZXk4xEEqfMZZAxKsdApk8XycRxiZK2NJypsxeYsEXQ9Sc_oL8wvo8e&typo=1
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of u?l? ???
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:19 AM
> To: FriAM <[hidden email]>
> Subject: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member
>
>
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.quantumthom.com%2fLetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf&c=E,1,Y8eOap2nVfmDztuO4bu1MUpEyMZxC3D1tDa2fmmmJ9Ii_SWK3GCufQ7_Xj_DwMKWWhxk52CxxHkiTY9mWahKrGg5dXQ0EjvfOKeUBKybX9b8VZu9pY623n_hrg,,&typo=1
> https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2ffsutorch.com%2f2020%2f11%2f18%2fscience-professor-denies-science%2f&c=E,1,JmqIENbBR2kvl7Rl3IZb_KNY5fpqumSNj2M6u3EGQiwTKBAg35gcj_jr8TFt0py2i45nTJ3Y3Qzr5WthBk7ZGvfiLp4Yjd1LFZ9WyKSaXVtDGUrTlmw,&typo=1
>> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
>> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
>> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
>> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
>> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
>> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”
>
>
> From the Amazon page for his book:
> "Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."
>
> I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.
>
>
> [⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.
>
> --
> ↙↙↙ uǝlƃ
>
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[Marcus G. Daniels]

I think of a flywheel.   A flywheel with a lot of mass may indeed spin up, but it takes a lot of power to do that.

In contrast, one can spin up a wheel on an upside down bicycle and it is easy to start and stop.   The lack of heft or seriousness is what I associate with Glen’s usage. 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 10:50 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[thompnickson2]

Oh, wow!  I feel a dissertation in Language Arts coming on.  I had not thought of flywheels.  Nor have we discussed tops or gyros, where the speed of the spin contributes STABILITY, no?

 

n

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:56 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of a flywheel.   A flywheel with a lot of mass may indeed spin up, but it takes a lot of power to do that.

In contrast, one can spin up a wheel on an upside down bicycle and it is easy to start and stop.   The lack of heft or seriousness is what I associate with Glen’s usage. 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 10:50 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[thompnickson2]

Oh, and…. What about “spin out” as in a car crash.  n

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:56 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of a flywheel.   A flywheel with a lot of mass may indeed spin up, but it takes a lot of power to do that.

In contrast, one can spin up a wheel on an upside down bicycle and it is easy to start and stop.   The lack of heft or seriousness is what I associate with Glen’s usage. 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 10:50 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

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[thompnickson2]

Or dizziness, as in, “it makes my head spin.”   Definitely a dissertation, here.  n

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:56 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of a flywheel.   A flywheel with a lot of mass may indeed spin up, but it takes a lot of power to do that.

In contrast, one can spin up a wheel on an upside down bicycle and it is easy to start and stop.   The lack of heft or seriousness is what I associate with Glen’s usage. 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 10:50 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[Frank Wimberly-2]

Turbo.

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020, 11:50 AM <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Marcus,

 

But what is the metaphor, here?  When people say “spin up /down” I think of a centrifuge.  What is it that you think of?

 

N

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 12:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

I think of being “spin up” or “spun down” in this context as someone who has too little self-control.   

Someone that is easily “spun down” can be easy manipulated into despair.   They are the audience for programs like CNN Heros, or people that go on spiritual retreats.    Someone that is easily “spun up” may lack the ability to see the consequences of their mania.   Like JD Vance’s mother who would never speak at a reasonable volume when screaming would do.   Both are too coupled and reactive to their environment.

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of [hidden email]
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 9:57 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Mmmmm!

 

I always assumed that it had to do with diseases (rabies?) associated with bats.  People who cleaned belfries got sick.  Kind of like, “mad as a hatter”.  What is wonderfiul about all of this is that how our attempts to understand metaphors that other people use leads to new meanings of the metaphor.  Surely “spin up” and “spin off” arise from totally different realms of discourse.  Shirley? And “spin” in the political sense arises from a totally different realm, entemology: i.e., to “spin a web of deceit.” 

 

Nick

 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

[hidden email]

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

 

From: Friam <[hidden email]> On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:42 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member

 

Glen, your wingnut footnote put me in the mood to chase down the origin of "batshit crazy". Here's one that makes sense:

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=batshit%20crazy
A person who is batshit crazy is certifiably nuts. The phrase has origins in the old fashioned term "bats in the belfry." Old churches had a structure at the top called a belfry, which housed the bells. Bats are extremely sensitive to sound and would never inhabit a belfry of an active church where the bell was rung frequently. Occasionally, when a church was abandoned and many years passed without the bell being rung, bats would eventually come and inhabit the belfry. So, when somebody said that an individual had "bats in the belfry" it meant that there was "nothing going on upstairs" (as in that person's brain). To be BATSHIT CRAZY is to take this even a step further. A person who is batshit crazy is so nuts that not only is their belfry full of bats, but so many bats have been there for so long that the belfry is coated in batshit. Hence, the craziest of crazy people are BATSHIT CRAZY.

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Nov 24, 2020 at 10:19 AM uǝlƃ ↙↙↙ <[hidden email]> wrote:

http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/
> The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
> “Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
> “Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
> “F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
> “Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
> “I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”


From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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[Steve Smith]

Glen, 

Rest assured.  You will never be mistaken for a wing nut.  You just don't spin that easy.  Spoken as somebody who has tried to spin you many times. 

By the way, our joint exploration of the wing-nut metaphor last Friday was a wonderful example of the intentionality of metaphors. For me, a wing nut is a fastener that can be applied to a machine screw without a tool.  "Spinning off wildly"  was a feature I never really focused on, hence I never really understood the metaphor until you-guys explained it to me.  Yup!  

So, if "spinnability" is a feature of wing nuts, then "spinning off wildly" is a bug, right.  But for the purposes of the metaphor (as you use it) it is a feature.  So the feature/bug relation is another example of the extension-intension relation (aka epiphenomenality).  

Ok.  Now that I have thoroughly bent your thread, I think I will go eat breakfast. 

Snow grains, thunder in Santa Fe.  The thunder echoes in the covid-emptied streets.  Apocalyse!

Nick -

Love the meta-Haiku!   Well done...

The metaphorical mangle continues with your use of "thread" as I was tangented (in my own mind) into the details of threaded fasteners, their history, and idiosyncrasies.   After doing a full overhaul/replacement of my solar hot-water system and well-house, I am very familiar with the details and finickyness of a multitude of of pipe-threads (each system is order-40-60 years old with a dozen upgrades/repairs in the interim)...   and sing the praises of teflon tape which helps ameliorate some  of their design/manufacturing shortcomings as well as my own. 

I suspect Glen IS a wingnut but has enough viscosity in his threads to keep from spinning wildly, and also like an Escher self-drawing hand, his homuculii all take turns spinning one another as an ensemble that on average somehow never quite "spins off the end"...   sort of a spin-glass composed of wingnuts?

A few (many?) years ago, Cody, during a typical WedTech lunch (many talking over many about several topics of tech-interest) handed me one of the largest wingnuts I'd ever handled.... it was not too big to fit into the watch-pocket of my jeans but it was at least a 3/8" thread with a "wingspan" of 1.5 inch ( to be SAE rather than ISO oriented) and was hefty enough to feel like I could give it a good fling across the room with boomerang like-precision and bean a human-wingnut with it.   I looked it over, admired it and devilishly and handed it back to him asking if he realized it was a "Left" wingnut rather than a "Right" one...  True to form, his response was the familiar non-committal "I guess so" or "oh yeah?" (he may correct me here if he remembers the exchange at all) as he said, "no, it is for you" as he refused to take it back.   I shrugged, thanked him, and slipped it into my coin/watch pocket in my jeans where I often squirrel away such oddities until they disappear somewhere (laundry, couch-cushion, ???) in a week or two.   I assumed he was making a personal comment with it, based on some FriAM or WedTech conversation I'd been blathering on about online (like a wingnut)...   A month or so later, we were across the same table, and I was reminded of the conversation and reached into my pocket for it and found that a small "badge" had replaced it.  This pewter faux-badge had come to me in a similar fashion and the wingnut had found it's way into someone else's pocket.   The badge read "Santa Fe Brothel Inspector".... it was a kind of base and crude topic but it seemed appropriate to hand it off to Cody unexplained in payback to the "wingnut".   I wonder if he still has it, or even remembers any of this?

I have certainly enjoyed the benefit of *real* wingnuts which not only can (usually) be secured and loosened by hand but are particularly handy when the threaded male portion has a lot of threads to traverse...   I do love the "momentum" the wings offer when you give them a whirl, compared to "spinning on/off" a conventional nut.  I often use a conventional nut with a wingnut following it as a "locker".... the wingnut tightened against the conventional nut binds well enough to keep the two from loosening even if they aren't more than hand-tight otherwise.   Useful when the goal isn't to *cinch* something down with the nut(s), just secure it firmly. 

As a child, my father told me something I took as gospel (as children often do from their parents even if they doubt them otherwise).  He said that the Japanese used left-hand threads by convention while "the West" had landed on "right hand" threads long ago.   He may have conflated handedness with the dimensional standard differences between metric and english units...  and as I grew up I encountered occasional left-hand-threads occurring for various reasons such as turnbuckles and counter-precession-spin-off threading in high speed machining, airplane propellors and even heavy-duty pickup (rear) axle lugs (I spent a huge amount of time on my first 3/4 ton pickup *tightening* the lug nuts on the left-hand side of my rear-axle before someone got me down off the lug-wrench I was jumping on and explained my misunderstanding).    As of today I find no evidence of his attribution to "the Japanese"... or perhaps when he explained it all I conflated his explaining handedness with metric vs english fastener standards (though we owned an early VW pickup which surely had metric fasteners as well?)...  

Finally, the punchline of my subject-line refers to Dave Egger's first novel:  "We Shall Know our Velocity" which triggered in ME "We Shall Know our Chirality" when I read it...   I highly recommend his work as well as a contemplation on the implications of our "chirality", whether it be our politics (wing nuttery) or that of our DNA...  it DOES seem that if  DNA evolved/emerged/exapted from RNA into a chiral-double strand more than once or a few times, that we might have an entirely distinct set of organic life as we know it which is genetically independent, in spite of being entirely protein-chemistry compatible?   Or does gene-fragment exchange happen in single-strands?

I wish I had the focus to compose a Haiku to respond to Nick's throwdown...

- Steve

Nick 

Nicholas Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
Clark University
[hidden email]
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [hidden email] On Behalf Of u?l? ???
Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2020 11:19 AM
To: FriAM [hidden email]
Subject: [FRIAM] The next Heterodox University faculty member


http://www.quantumthom.com/LetterToFerrisCommunity.pdf
https://fsutorch.com/2020/11/18/science-professor-denies-science/

The account’s other tweets in regard to COVID-19 say things such as:
“Guess what the covid stunt has failed. You won’t get your leftist new world order.”
“Covid19 is another jewish revolution.”
“F— this evil wizard,” in reference to a video of Dr. Anthony Fauci. 
“Stand up for yourselves people, and stop falling for this corona virus hoax!”
“I’d say covid-19 is fake. An evil medical system just killed a bunch of old people.”

From the Amazon page for his book:
"Thomas Brennan is a professor of physics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he's taught physics and astronomy since 2014. He completed his PhD thesis on the topic of sonoluminescence in 2009 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He also received a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago and an MS in Physics from UCLA. His research interests include both experimental and mathematical physics as well as astronomy."

I continue to marvel at how someone seemingly intelligent can fly off the bolt [⛧] so easily. As one who regularly expresses my opinions about non-professional things, I consistently wonder how/when it will or has already come back to bite me, not to assert that I'm seemingly intelligent or anything. It also questions the coherence of the "public intellectual", best exhibited by people like Chomsky, or Pinker, or Tyson. We need them ... but they put themselves at great risk. So thanks to all those people who manage to speak outside their competence, but do so without flying off the bolt.


[⛧] Yes, I'm aware that "wingnut" is often understood as a nut who sits on the wing of a political spectrum. But I prefer to think of it as someone who's easily "spun up", spun on, or spun off. This fits nicely with the old saying that there's a fine line between genius and crazy, it's only a difference in chirality. That batsh¡t old man who spends his lifetime in his basement working on his time machine exhibits the same dedication as the non-batsh¡t microbiologist who spends his lifetime in the cancer lab. They're both easily spun up, wingnuts on a different spectrum.

--
↙↙↙ uǝlƃ

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