kelrin's New Writeups

Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (person)

2003-02-14T05:28:06Z

'Gordo' Cooper is best known as one of NASA's 'Original Seven' astronauts. Born on March 6, 1927, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Cooper was eventually connected with the Marine Corps, then the Army (via ROTC while at the University of Hawaii), and finally the Air Force. He continued his training while in the Air Force, recieving his bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering in August of 1956, and attended the Experimental Flight Test School at Edwards Air Force Base, in California. Upon his graduation, Cooper worked in the Fighter Section of the Flight Test Engineering Division at Edwards before seeking a position with the newly-formed Project Mercury.

On May 15-16, 1963 Cooper piloted the "Faith 7" spacecraft on its 34 hour, 20 minute flight, making 22 orbits of the earth. This mission, designated MA-9, was the last Mercury mission, and successfully…

Original Seven (thing)

2003-02-14T04:42:38Z

The 'Original Seven' U.S. astronauts were the seven pilots chosen to train for and perform the manned Mercury missions, first introduced to the public on April 9, 1959. 508 service records of American military officers were searched, 110 were found to meet pre-established standards, 56 began the testing process, and finally these seven were chosen from the 18 finalists:

source: http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury-overview.htm

Infinity is not a number (idea)

2002-12-24T17:46:28Z

Think about what a number is--as I understand the foundations of mathematics, natural numbers are constructed from successive sets of the empty set. Thus, the number 0 corresponds to the empty set itself (represented as zero with a slash through it, or simply {}), 1 corresponds to the set of the empty set ({{}}), 2 to the set of that ({{{}}}), and so on. Now, for any natural number you name, I can write down the corresponding set*. I may need more time than I actually have before I die, but it is in principle possible. This is how we get natural numbers without merely assuming their existence.

This is not possible with infinity. Indeed, it is presumably for reasons such as this that Luitzen E. J. Brouwer and the intuitionists had problems with modern mathematics. The following quotation is taken from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry on Constructive Mathematics (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematics-constructive/): …

Princeton Review (thing)

2002-06-22T05:17:40Z

The Princeton Review is primarily a test-preparation company, and the most visible competitor to Kaplan, though both companies are expanding into other areas. As an employee, I was told that the name comes from founder John Katzmann's alma mater, but that the company has no official ties to Princeton University. The name is also purported to be unrelated to the location of the Educational Testing Service, which generates many of the most popular tests used in education in the United States (and thus, represents probably the single greatest source of revenue for The Princeton Review, Inc.), including the SAT, GRE, and GMAT.

The Princeton Review publishes much of their own material, both for use in their classes (e.g. The Big Book of LSAT's, various manuals for each major test) and for those studying independently (e.g. the 'Cracking the ___' line). Most are of high quality and emphasize a fairly consistent set of strategies within each test, so that a student who has…

control (thing)

2002-06-11T08:48:54Z

In experimentation, 'control' can be used as a noun meaning either the group which is not manipulated by the experimenter, or a measure taken to prevent confounds (or counfounding variables) from influencing the results. Example: "The experimental group took the drug we're testing, while the control group was treated exactly the same way, except that the pill they were given contained no active ingredient."

Also a verb meaning to take such measures. Example: "We thought that age of the subjects might introduce a confound, so we controlled for that by selecting only subjects born in May of 1944."

Realpolitik (idea)

2002-05-18T05:31:35Z

I just wanted to note the origins of the term. Otto von Bismarck, chancellor (in German, Ministerpräsident or Reichskanzler*) of Prussia beginning in 1862, coined the term to refer to blatant power politics. Very much in the style of Cardinal Richelieu of an earlier France, Bismarck deliberately ignored similarities of taste, government, and values in his choice of allies, instead focusing on national interests. This abandonment of principle as a guiding force in foreign policy was both unusual in the context of 19th-century Europe and quite powerful (as ought to be expected of a focus on power).

The term seems to be used most often in the United States today in a derogatory fashion, to suggest that the one so accused lacks principles or strength of character.

The information in this writeup comes from Henry Kissinger's 1994 book Diplomacy (published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-65991-x).

I am told by…