International Institute of Mathematical Physics in Riga

The DNS has the following entry for phys-maths.edu.lv

domain: phys-maths.edu.lv
descr: International Institute of Mathematical Physics
admin-c: 23391-LUMII
tech-c: 23391-LUMII
nserver: DNS1.SUPREMESERVER11.COM
nserver: DNS2.SUPREMESERVER11.COM
changed: dns-reg@nic.lv 20031201
source: LUMII

person: BOGDANOFF IGOR
address: none
phone: 33608250825
e-mail: igor.bogdanov@wanadoo.fr
nic-hdl: 23391-LUMII
source: LUMII

That address now hosts a web-site for the Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmology, which mysteriously seems devoted to the work of the Bogdanovs. The newsgroup fr.sci.physique has all sorts of threads devoted to the Bogdanovs. In one posting by the brothers, where they give their e-mail address as “igor.bogdanoff@phys-maths.edu.lv”, they helpfully explain that the University of Riga set up the site for them and that’s why it is in the Lithuanian DNS.

One problem: Riga is in Latvia, not Lithuania.

I take this kind of personally because, besides being an American citizen, I also have a Latvian passport (the Latvian version of my name is “Voits”). My father was born in Riga, and he and his parents became exiles at the time of the Soviet occupation starting during World War II. I’ve visited Riga several times (including a visit to the university), first soon after independence on a trip with my father while he was still alive. Riga is a beautiful city, with the downtown not much changed since before the war. In recent years the old city and much of the downtown have been elegantly renovated, and Riga is now once again a large, vibrant city with great restaurants, hotels, shops, etc. And now it has an International Institute of Mathematical Physics.

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22 Responses to International Institute of Mathematical Physics in Riga

  1. Bogdanoff says:

    Dear Fabien,

    Just a precision. You write that our quantum group paper is in our book. But if you compare the “annexes” of Avant le Big Bang with the paper itself, you will have to admit that only a short fragment of it was published in the book. In fact, we published this extract (our theorem 3.3.2) much more as an example of a scientific paper (which may be of interest for a large audience). The objective was not to be understood by specialists of quantum groups theory (many readers said that they liked it the same way they like some creation of modern art.). But at the end, the only thing that matters is the “impression” left by a book. In the case Avant le Big Bang laks of precision or contains some mistakes, we hope that grace to you and others, we will be able to correct it.

    I/G

  2. The intersection is not the empty set since your quantum group paper IS in your “large audience” book ! When I say you do not follow the scientific method I include a lack of intellectual rigor which is a minimum requirement even in a large audience book.

  3. Bogdanoff says:

    Dear Fabien Besnard,

    Thank you for your response which has the advantage to be honest.
    But now : how can you compare a quantum group paper with a large audience book? From our view, the intersection between these two categories is really an empty set. A scientific paper is written for experts; by definition, it requires a high level of technicity and very few readers are able to grasp the real meaning of it. At the opposite, a book is not written for experts, even not for specialists of scientists : it is meant to be read and understood by a large audience. Before the Big Bang was written as a large audience book. Not as a scientific paper. Indeed you are right when you say that it does not follow the scientific method. Of course not. But it still reflects a certain “state of the Universe” by an other path. It may contain some mistakes, erros or misquotings (Woit, Schreiber); but at the end “something” good may remain; So we propose that instead of burning the whole, you make the effort to look after this tiny “something” that may be hidden somewhere between the pages.

    Thank you for your attention

    I/G

  4. To IGB : it is not the place to discuss about that, but since I have been attacked at several places on this weblog, I will made one last comment : I began to read your article but then I read your book, and there I found many evidences that you do not follow the scientific method (to say the least). So it was pointless to go on reading about bi-crossproducts. Another important thing is that I realized that if ever I turned out saying that just one line of calculation was right in your paper, you would go everywhere misquoting me, perhaps making me one of your supporters in your next book !

  5. Bogdanoff says:

    Tell us, dear Fabien Besnard, how you can follow such a line of de-reasoning? You see, since you wrote your article, you got involved in a matter that is obviously beyond your field of expertise. You even wrote us (May 20,2004) : ” I had a glance on your “bicrossproduct article”. Since I do not know this matter, I have to refer to Majid and it may take some time.” You never got back to us. Following your own statement (since you admit in you letter that you do not understand our work in quantum groups) on what basis do you claim that this work should be “empty”?

    Obviously, your reaction is neither “objective” nor scientific.

    Thank you for your attention,

    IGB

  6. serenus zeitblom says:

    By the way, I wonder how the people in the
    universities in Hong Kong feel about an
    address like http://th-phys.edu.hk/? Has
    anyone asked them?

  7. Tell me, dear Ark, how someone who “thinks” can still use such a line of reasoning as “A is a crank and go unnoticed, B has been caught, so I will defend B” ? I never heard of the people you speak of (Tiller et al) so they don’t bother me. But now each morning I hear an advertisement for Bogdanov’s book on my favourite radio station. This is enough for me not to turn my attention away from B&B at the moment…

  8. ark says:

    Nobody knows for sure why the world seems to be 4-dimensional. Anthropic principle is one pseudo-explanation. That I have five fingers on my hand, and one is evidently different than the other is another “explanation”, as good as any other one, including one with four different kind of numbers.
    Some people think, some don’t. Some use their cerebral cortex, some don’t. Some have souls, some, evidently, don’t. That’s normal.

    Now, to just shift your ( YBM ( pseudo of Besnard))attention to a slightly different subject let me quote from a book by three American “scientists”. In fact I invite all of you to visit my web page

    http:/quantumfuture.net/cass/bogdanov3.htm

    There you will find:

    “Conscious Acts of Creation: The emergence of new physics by William A. Tiller”, PhD, Walter E. Dibble, Jr., PhD, and Michael J. Kochane, Ph. D. The Preface to the book is signed by Rustum Roy, Penn State, Wayne B. Jonas, USUHS and …. E.C. George Sudarshan, University of Texas, Austin.

    Are we ready to be bitten by monopoles? Here is a quotation:

    “Through the agency of a nine-dimensional coupling substance in the vacuum, called deltrons, the faster than light magnetic monopoles functioning in reciprocal space can interact with electric monopole substance functioning in direct space of physical matter. The vacuum phase transition mentioned above involves an ordered phase formation of magnetic monopole substance phase of R-space. These magnetic monopoles of R-space travel so fast that they ‘write the waves,’ thought to be de Broglie pilot waves, controlling the movement of particles in D-space. A symmetry principle, called the mirror principle is thought to operate between D-space substances and R- space substances so that the monopole charge singularities in one space produce dipole images through the mirror into the other space. Likewise, the monopole mass singularities in one space produce images through this mirror into the other space. Thus the negative negative monopole mass singularities of R-space are thought to be the origin of the ‘dark matter’ we currently detect with our instruments in D-space.(…)”

    If you think that these concepts are explained somewhere in the book – you may be surprised to find out that after you are through with the book, you will not have an idea of what the “theoretical part” is about.

    Now, let me mention that I wrote papers on magnetic monopoles and on “reciprocity” (including conformal symmetric spaces). Therefore, I suggest, that after we are done with KMS, signature fluctuactions, and topological field theory, there is a new field to be exploited in the space of hoaxes: D-spaces and R-spaces and monopoles that write the waves, thought to be de Broglie pilot waves…. All supported by PhDs.

    ark

    Conscious Acts of Creation is being madly promoted by the “alternative crowd” as “proof” that all their “you create your own reality” ideas are true. Conscious Acts of Creation, tells us:
    This book marks a sharp dividing line between old ways of scientific thought and old experimental protocols, wherein human qualities of consciousness, intention, emotion, mind and spirit cannot significantly affect physical reality, and a new paradigm wherein they can robustly do so! ?utilizing a unique experimental protocla on both inanimate and animate systems, that the human quality of focused intention can be made to act as a true thermodynamic potential and strongly influence experimental measurements for a variety of specific target experiments.

    After almost 400 pages of speculation and descriptions of experiments and very little math, we are told:

    Under some conditions, it is indeed possible to attach an aspect of human consciousness, a specific intention, to a simple electrical device and have that device, when activated, robustly influence an experiment conducted in its vicinity in complete accord with the attached intention. Thus, if they do it right, humans can influence their environment via specific, sustained intentions. [?] Some new field appears to be involved in the information passage that occurs between conditioned locales that are widely separated from each other in physical space. Even with transmitters and receivers located inside electrically grounded Faraday cages, highly correlated patterns of information appeared in the remotely located locales. [?] Although we don’t fully understand them, we now have some new tools with which to probe the deeper structures of the universe and a new adventure is underway for humanity.

    It is important to note that the “intenders” of the experiments were long-time practitioners of Siddha Yoga and could thus be considered metaphysically “in tune” to some considerable extent. The question is: What did they accomplish? Based on the descriptions, it sounds pretty earth-shaking, right?

    Well, as noted, after almost 400 pages we find that the most significant result seems to have been changing the pH of a small sample of water.

    Yup. That’s it.

    But we notice that nobody says a word about this sort of thing. At this point in time, the physics community hasn’t said a discouraging word about Tom Bearden and his follower, Richard Hoagland – nor the interesting fact that Bearden is a former associate of Ira Einhorn, Andrija Puharich, the gang at Esalen and Penn State who flirted with the edges of the Secret Government experiments in mind control and the promotion of LSD to the young people of America. Nobody has cried “Hoax!”

    Happy reading!

    ark

  9. YBM says:

    « YBM ( pseudo of Besnard) »

    The last line of defense : pretend that everyone and his brother questioning their work is in fact one person. It is so desperatly ridiculous (anyone familiar with fr.sci.* would know) that I wonder if I should deny.

    BTW, Mr Woit, did you know that in their book they pretend (sqrt(5)+1)/2 is transcendental ? And that the Universe has four dimensions because there are four kind of number (integers, rationnals, reals and complexes) ? Therefore, in their spirit, I aprove the following statement :

    if the golden ratio is not albebraic, then I am Fabien Besnard (and the Pope as well)

  10. Igor Grichka Bogdanoff says:

    Dear Peter,

    We do not understand how someone (like you) who is very familiar with internet technics cannot make any basic difference between a post coming from us and a message coming from someone else. Instead of checking the situation with us you immediatly write an article on it, prentending that you got a message from us hidden behind a “double pseudo”. Once for good : Alexandre Fau is NOT a pseudo of Bogdanoff! We do not know this person, we never met him, but we sent him an email yesterday. He must have sent you another email and we hope that you have a clearer view of the situation by now. If we want to write you, we do not need to hide ourselves behind anyone. We do it directly, as we wrote you this morning. Our advise is that you should not listen too much people like Besnard or YBM ( pseudo of Besnard). There are much more serious things to do and other important problems to solve in the Universe.

    Best regards

    I/G

  11. ark says:

    Hi Peter,

    I agree that misquoting was bad and you did the right thing pointing it out. As for problems “at the top levels” – well …. It all started long ago with the “publish and perish” ideology and research grants and money tied to politics. I decided to try to create an “alternative research institution”. Whether it will fly or fall – we will see. For a couple of years I was a v-ce director of the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Uni Wroclaw, Poland. So I was witnessing how the level of the research deteriorates with the institution of plans and grants. It deteriorated to the extent that I decided to leave organized science completely. Ambitious and/or original projects have little chance to get support. In the US we have, in addition, the military complex that intercepts what is in their field of interests, which additionally severely restricts the freedom of research.

    These are just few thoughts that are on my mind right now. I wish you success in your mission!

    ark

  12. Peter says:

    Hi Ark,

    Actually I’m not spending my time criticizing the scientific activities of the Bogdanovs. They’re not much of a problem for the scientific community. Much more serious is the situation at the top levels of the US (and other country’s) scientific establishment in particle theory, and it is that problem that I have been trying to do something about, despite warnings from many that it is unwise of me to challenge powerful interests.

    On the other hand, if they are going to do things like publish books misquoting me and send me e-mail purporting to be from someone other than who it is really from, I’m going to use this forum to tell about this activity, and, yes, ridicule it.

  13. ark says:

    If only to amuse you (as apparently some of you guys has nothing better to do than follow Igor and Grichka, why don’t you choose Thomas Bearden or Myron Evans, with connections to US DOD and DOE agencies?):

    It does not matter when the server is – if it is convenient to have a server in Thailand – it will be in Thailand. The cheapest servers are certainly in US, but due to Bush Reich lies, some organizations do not like to have servers in US. While some do.

    Notice that International Institute of Mathematical Physics has updated its web page at

    http://th-phys.edu.hk/

    ( I did it) though it is still in status nascendi, so it will have its reasonable web site in due time. For the time it is just a “project”, even though officially registered, yet it will take about a year to give it a shape.

    If you wish to have me help you to find american targets for your attacks (because France has been already used), I will certainly be willing to help you. If you are really so moved by the idea that physics publications should all make sense, and all mistakes should be ridiculed – just try to read carefully, checking every formula and every sentence, all papers in arxiv.org. 80% of these papers will be nosnsensical, and can be easily ridiculed – if one is determined to do so, and has nothing better to do.

    ark

  14. Mcrc says:

    There is nothing “mysterious” with the existence of this website : it has been legally registered and it is ruled from Paris. So what? Where is the problem? Why bother any further?

  15. YBM says:

    “Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmomogy”

    “Cosmomogy” is the name ! Ridiculous and nonexistant : the place where you consider the consequences on the Universe of the hypothesis that the golden number is transcendant ?

  16. igor says:

    YBM wrote in message news:…
    > Tiens, puisque vous êtes réveillés, Peter Woit vient de mettre
    > en ligne un résumé de votre pitoyable tentative d’inventer encore
    > un Institut International de Mathématiques tout entier dévolu
    > à votre gloire :
    >
    > http://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/blog/archives/000045.html
    >
    > Comment pouvez-vous être si maladroits ?

    Re bonjour,

    A la suite d’une conférence faite à Riga (2001), les responsables de l’informatique de l’Université nous ont proposé de créer un site. Comme il fallait bien lui donner un nom, nous avons pensé à Mathematical Center of Riemannian Cosmomogy, qui reflète exactement notre domaine de recherche.
    Il y a environ un an, nous avons créé les quelques pages correspondant à nos orientations de travail, papiers, etc. et le site a été créé à l’automne 2003. Comme tous les autres sites, il est administré par l’institution suivante :

    University of Latvia
    Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science
    Department of Network Solutions (DNS)
    Rainis Boulevard 29
    Riga LV-1459

    Voilà. Depuis 2001, nous ne sommes plus jamais retournés à Riga et n’entretenons aucun lien particulier avec ce pays. Notre seul lien tient au nom de domaine qui nous a été attribués et que nous opérons depuis la France.

    Merci de ton attention,

    Amicalement,

    I/G

  17. Anonymous says:

    Oops that’s Estonia. Guess I was thinking of Mikhail Tal? 🙂

  18. D R Lunsford says:

    Paul Keres!

  19. JC says:

    Also amusing is how some of the links on phys-maths.edu.lv to the Bogdanov’s papers and *.gif picture files, all appear to be on an expired account at http://www.mydocsonline.com

    These guys have been doing a piss poor job of even trying to perpetuate their own hoax. Probably even a high school computer whiz kid can do a better job!

  20. Peter says:

    Doing a “whois” search on the networksolutions.com website shows that the address is hosted by a web hosting company called “Ancient Media” at an IP address in South Carolina.

  21. JC says:

    It appears the machine hosting phys-maths.edu.lv is not even physically in Lithuania nor Latvia. A traceroute reading to phys-maths.edu.lv looks like it’s hosted in north america. If you do a traceroute to machines located physically in Lithuania (.lt) or Latvia (.lv), you’ll typically get longer delay times that are characteristic of transatlanic connection times to eastern europe or Russia. Even America -> England connections, shows the transatlanic delay.

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