NS,
Yup - not the first time I've mixed up my enki with my ekim: my apologies to both.
As for old Rubber Spatula of Flatulence, his modus operandi seems to be to carpet bomb with logical errors and then to disappear again. Very odd.
No problem at all, Blue. Apologies accepted.
I found Rovelli's book extremely readable. In the third part of his book he puts forward some very interesting conjectures on the nature of space and time, emphasising loop quantum gravity, whilst acknowledging that others may prefer the string theory approach. There's a fascinating chapter on the idea of 'Empirical Confirmations' which, for me, goes to the heart of what modern science is all about.
Incidentally, I noted your reference to the coincidence aspect. It has always fascinated me that there are people who think that coincidences are particularly meaningful. My take on this is that it is part of human nature to recognise patterns, to seek patterns and to be tempted to give significance to patterns. Sometimes this can be a useful survival trait, but without the necessary checks and balances, they are simply coincidences, which by their very nature are empty of meaning(apart from the subjective, that is). Most card games emphasise easily discernible patterns of cards(e.g. 3 kings, a run of sequential cards etc.), even though logic dictates that the same probability exists for any selection of cards(given the equality of their distribution). The only meaning to these card patterns therefore is the one which we give to them. My take on Alan's 'Lepanto' coincidence is that he is extremely naive in not recognising that it is simply a random event without any significance at all(apart from that which he creates for himself).
