Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Beast
comments on a review of a book called A Universe From Nothing.

The review is presented in the form of an interview on a blog belonging to Sam Harris. Andrew says this about the author:

"Cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss believes that the universe probably came from nothingness:"

Now, I know Andrew he has 'faith', and he also tries to come across as showing respect for, and giving voice if not credence to, concepts contrary to his point of view, but it seems a subtle ridicule of the ideas in this book, and the assertions made by the author. The excerpt from the interview certainly suggests the author does not adhere to any religious doctrine, and in fact he refers to Darwin's demonstration of natural selection, and states that he wants "to show something similar about the Universe."

This would certainly suggest to one doing a quick read that the author actually believes there is no god, but the author avoids that with the statement, as well he should. He in fact qualifies his ideas with "We may never prove by science that a Creator is impossible,..." and thus confirms that his ideas are speculation, and have to be considered as such.

It is disappointing that Andrew Sullivan would use such a fallacy in one of his posts.

Finished many, many books since the last post, primarily because I posted them to facebook or G+. I've turned the FB account off, and don't post anything to Google, just read other posts.

So, the books I can remember...

The Darling by Russell Banks
The Reserve by Russell Banks
Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks
Lush Life by Richard Price
WWW Series by Robert J Sawyer
The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
Augustus by Anthony Everitt
James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights by Richard Labunski
God, No by Penn Jellette
Adams vs Jefferson by John Ferling
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Wicked by Gregory Maquire
No One Would Listen by Harry Markopolos
The Ghost Mountain Boys by James Campbell
No Simple Victory by Norman Davies
Brother Fish by Bryce Courtenay
Martyr by Rory Clements
The Demon Under the Microscope by Thomas Hager
Room by Emma Donoghue

This by no means completes the list, but is most of what I've read over the past several months. Beyond that I cannot say, and I have no desire yet to complete the list I started years ago to keep track.

This is an update of my Ebay debacle. I sent the package on it's way, but my wife didn't send it priority mail, which upset the buyer. Here is the end tracking information.

Package Services

Delivered
December 14, 2011, 10:41 am
LUDLOW, MA 01056


Expected Delivery By:
December 8, 2011
Delivery Confirmation™
Insured


Processed through USPS Sort Facility
December 12, 2011, 1:02 am
SPRINGFIELD, MA 01152

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
December 11, 2011, 10:40 pm
SPRINGFIELD, MA 01152

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
December 10, 2011, 12:52 am
JERSEY CITY, NJ 07097

Depart USPS Sort Facility
December 09, 2011
SPRINGFIELD, MA 01152

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
December 08, 2011, 4:46 pm
SPRINGFIELD, MA 01152

Depart USPS Sort Facility
December 03, 2011
BELL GARDENS, CA 90201

Processed through USPS Sort Facility
December 03, 2011, 1:00 am
BELL GARDENS, CA 90201

Dispatched to Sort Facility
December 01, 2011, 5:04 pm

You will note that the package made it to MA, then for some reason was diverted to NJ. Who the fuck knows.

The email exchange during all this is entertaining, almost worth the loss of the iPad, should I actually lose it. Still waiting for another email, but the conversation so far is below.

Sent Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Hello Jennie,

Thank you for bidding on the iPad. I have received your payment and will put the tablet, iPad Serial # GB0291JRZ39 in the mail within the next few days and email you the details when I do so.

Cheers,

I received no communication after this email, complete silence.
Then...
Received Wednesday, December 7

hI,
i STILL NOT NOT RECEIVE THE IPAD FOR $13.95 SHIPPING DID YOU SHIP THIS PRIORTY MAIL?
JENNIE

I noted the caps, nice touch.

Received Wednesday, December 7
THIS WAS A BIRTHDAY GIFT I NEEDED IT FOR SUNDAY. FOR A BIRTHDAY GIFT. I AM SO DISCUSTED IT IS STILL IN CALIF.

I replied to this one.

Sent Wednesday, December 7
Hello Jennie,

The USPS tracking isn't the greatest, I know. I was surprised to see it was going to CA, but they expect it to be delivered tomorrow. This is what I get from Track & Confirm;

Label/Receipt Number: 0311 2550 0002 5925 4725
Expected Delivery Date: December 8, 2011
Class: Package Services
Service(s): Delivery Confirmation™
Insured
Status: Depart USPS Sort Facility
Your item departed our BELL GARDENS, CA 90201 sort facility on December 03, 2011.

Regards

Received Wednesday, December 7
DID YOU SHIP PRIORTY MAIL?

Sent Wednesday, December 7
No, asked my wife to do it and I didn't specify, thought it was a given. I can refund the shipping if you like.

Things started to get ugly, and I didn't reply to the next one.

Received Wednesday, December 7
why would you ship a 400.00 item with cheap shipping? would you like that done to you?

Nor did I reply to this next one, things were still ugly, and the caps continued.

Received Wednesday, December 8
IT IS STILL IN CALIFORNIA , IF I DON'T GET IT TODAY THEN YOU CAN KEEP IT.
JENNIE

I thought about pointing out in an email that the latest update on the Post Office site was dated December 3rd, but I'd already pointed out that the updates weren't the greatest, and the expected delivery date was that day. I figured I was dealing with a psuedo psycho, and didn't want to fan the flames. So, I just let it sit

Received Friday, December 9
today is the dec 9th and it is not here. you sugested you would refund my shipping , that would be a good idea since i am 5 days late on my daughters birthday gift.
jennie

I noticed the caps lock came off, but she is still being rude. I refrained from pointing out that never did I guarantee that I would get the thing there for the alleged birthday.

Received Friday, December 9
IT IS DEC 9 AND I HAVE STILL NOT RECEIVED THE IPAD.
JENNIE

No fucking shit, and the caps are back.

Received Saturday, December 10
yes you can reund my shipping like you said. did did not get it.
jennie

Received Saturday, December 10
Hi,
now i am confused why it it in new jersey? did you request it back?
jennie

Caps are off again, and it seems she is making an attempt at being polite, but I'd already had it. What I wanted to say was that she is more than just confused, hence my lack of response.

Received Saturday, December 10
Hi,
now i am confused why it it in new jersey? did you request it back? I still want it . Thought for sure i would get it today. Please answer. Sorry i was so upset.
jennie

Yep, an attempt at politeness, but still I'd had enough. There was nothing I could do, the question about whether I requested it back was just stupid because that isn't possible. This was the last email. There were attempts to get my phone number from Ebay, but I hadn't updated that information to replace our old disconnected landline with cell phones. It took four more days to get routed back to MA and get delivered. The Post Office isn't the greatest, and it probably would have been less painful had we sent it priority. My wife tried to take responsibility for that, but I didn't specify that, just the return receipt request and insurance. I sent an email today acknowledging delivery...

Sent Thursday, December 15
Hello Jennie,

I see that the iPad was delivered. If you want to keep it, I will refund the shipping via paypal. If you no longer want it and send it back, I will submit a full refund when I receive it.

Regards,

Worst case scenario, she tries to send it back without insurance and it gets lost, or arrives broken. I would prefer she just take the shipping charges and be done with it. She is an idiot, and I expected something different from someone with 100% feedback over 14,000+ transactions.

My latest experience with ebay.

I had an iPad I bought used about a year ago, I paid $360 or $380 for it from someone locally that was replacing it with an iPad II. I had decided to check Craigslist the day Apple put iPad II on the market, and sure enough there were many there. I used it for a while, then let my wife use it after I bought a Samsung Tab 10.1.

Now, my wife and I handle our finances unconventionally. We keep our finances separate and split our expenditures. So, she wasn't surprised when I asked her for some money if she wanted to keep the iPad. She didn't think it was worth the $350 I was asking, so I put it out on Craigslist. Apparently nobody locally thought it was worthwhile enough to pursue with anything more than emails asking if I still had it, because that was all I got. There was one person that did actually come to the house to look at it, but he left empty handed after I turned down his lowball offer of $315.

So, I decided to go to ebay. I've used them before, but it has been years. I put it up for $350, and there was no activity until the last day besides a few 'watchers'. At the end there was a flurry of bids, and it ended at $395. I was surprised, but it turns out the extra $45 came in handy after Paypal took their fee of $12.14, and ebay's fee turned out to be a total of $37.19. In the end I got about what I wanted for the machine, but those fees are killer, more so than I remember.

I found this article from way back in 2008, long after my last transaction on the website before the latest....

The fee came out to be close to 10%, and now with that in mind the dude making the lowball offer probably had that in mind. I've heard about the lowballing that goes on on Craigslist, and I'm sure it's probably a given that savvy sellers will post at 10% above what they what to take this into account. I don't know that I would have had many serious responses had I asked for $385. I certainly wouldn't pay that much.

Still waiting for my positive feedback on ebay before I consider the transaction final, even though the money is already in my bank account. Still apprehensive about the whole thing, waiting for an email that the tablet is DOA, but the buyer had very good feedback.

I enjoy reading the blog over at Ernie the Attorney. The latest post has this link.

A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom As It Relates To Investment Management & Business
Charles Munger, USC Business School, 1994

Informative, but kind of boring. I decided to look up some of the terms he uses in the first part of the article. Here are some of the things I've found.

Decision Analysis

Elementary Probability

Basic Accounting

Five W's rule

Microeconomics

There is a lot of free information out there. I used Google for most everything I looked up, of course.

In the end, the Internet includes an enormous amount of information that is easily accessible to anyone. Sometimes when people use this phrase they say anyone with a computer. More and more, computers have become synonymous with Internet access, and in fact are useless without some kind of network connection. The $100 computer first envisioned for children of developing nations, evolving into the One Laptop Per Child program, necessarily included connectivity of some kind.

We aim to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning.

Over at The Khan Academy, Salman Khan has put together a website of lectures and information that could form the foundation of a basic education for anyone, with practical application, real world problems, and step by step solutions to those practice problems.