Chapter 9 As to Cookery and Sculpture But Burns and Homer were seated at a small table in the dining room of the houseboat, discussing everything in general and the shade of a very excellent luncheon in particular. "'We are in great luck today,' said Burns, as he cut a ruddy duck in twain. "'This bird is done just right.' "'I agree with you,' returned Homer, drawing his chair a trifle closer to the table. "'Compared to the one we had here last Thursday, this is a feast for the gods. "'I wonder who it was that cooked this fowl originally?' "'I give it up, but I suspect it was done by some man who knew his business,' said Burns, with a smack of his lips. "'It's a pity, I think, my dear Homer, that there is no means by which a cook may become immortal. "'Cooking is as much of an art as is the writing of poetry, "'and just as there are immortal poets, so there should be immortal cooks. "'See what an advantage the poet has. "'He writes something, it goes out and reaches the inmost soul of the man who reads it, "'and it is signed. "'His work is known because he puts his name to it. "'But this poor devil of a cook, where is he? "'He has done his work as well as the poet ever did his. "'It has reached the inmost soul of the mortal who originally ate it, "'but he cannot get the glory of it, because he cannot put his name to it. "'If the cook could sign his work, it would be different. "'You have hit upon a great truth,' said Homer, nodding, "'as he sometimes was wont to do. "'And yet I fear that, ingenious as we are, "'we cannot devise a plan to remedy the matter. "'I do not know about you, but I should myself much object if my birds and my flapjacks "'and other things digestible and otherwise that I eat here. "'We're served with the cook's name written upon them. "'An omelette is sometimes a picture. "'I've seen omelettes that looked like one of Turner's sunsets.' "'Equiest burns.' "'Precisely, and when Turner puts down in one corner of his canvas, "'Turner, fake it. You do not object, "'but if the cook did that with the omelette, you wouldn't like it.' "'No,' said Burns. "'But he might fasten a tag to it, with his name written upon that.' "'That is so,' said Homer, but the result in the end would be the same. The tags would get lost, or perhaps a careless waiter dropping a tray full of dainties would get the tags of a good and bad cook mixed in trying to restore the contents of the tray to their previous condition. The tag system would fail. "'There is but one other way that I can think of,' said Burns. "'And that would do no good now unless we can convey our ideas into the other world. "'That is for a great poet to lend his genius to the great cook "'and make the latter's name immortal by putting it into a poem. "'Say, for instance, that you had eaten a fine bit of terrapin, "'done to the most exquisite point. "'You could have asked the cook's name and written an apostrophe to her. "'Something like this, for instance. "'O Diner Rudd, O Diner Rudd, "'thou art a cook of bluest blood. "'Nowhere within this world of sin have I ever tasted better terrapin. "'You see? I do, but even then, my dear fellow, "'the cook would fall short of true fame. "'Her excellence would be a mere matter of hearsay evidence,' said Homer. "'Not if you went on to describe in a keenly analytical manner "'the virtues of that particular bit of terrapin,' said Burns. "'Draw so vivid a picture of the dish "'that the reader himself would taste that terrapin, even as you tasted it.' "'You have hit it,' cried Homer enthusiastically. "'It is a grand plan, but how to introduce it?' "'That is the question. "'We can haunt some modern poet "'and give him the idea in that way,' suggested Burns. "'He will see the novelty of it "'and will possibly disseminate the idea "'as we wish it to be disseminated.' "'Done,' said Homer. "'I'll begin right away. "'I feel like haunting tonight. "'I'm getting to be a pretty old ghost, "'but I'll never lose my love of haunting.'" At this point, as Homer spoke, a fine-looking spirit entered the room and took a seat at the head of the long table at which the regular club dinner was nightly served. "'Why bless me,' said Homer, his face lighting up with pleasure. "'Why fidious! Is that you?' "'I think so,' said the newcomer, wearily. "'At any rate, it's all that's left of me.' "'Come over here and lunch with us,' said Homer. "'You know Burns, don't you?' "'Haven't the pleasure,' said Fidious. The poet and the sculptor were introduced after which Fidious seated himself at Homer's side. "'Are you in any relation to Burns, the poet?' the former asked, addressing the Scotsman. "'I am Burns, the poet,' replied the other. "'You don't look much like your statues,' said Fidious, scanning his face critically. "'No, thank the fates,' said Burns warmly. "'If I did, I'd commit suicide.' "'Why don't you sue the sculptors for libel?' asked Fidious. "'You speak with a great deal of feeling, Fidious,' said Homer gravely. "'Have they done anything to hurt you?' "'They have,' said Fidious. "'I've just returned from a tour of the world. "'I have seen the things they call sculpture in these degenerate days. "'And I must confess—who shouldn't, perhaps—that I could have done better work with a baseball bat for a chisel and putty for the raw material. "'I think I could do good work with a baseball bat, too,' said Burns. "'But as for the raw material, give me the heads of the men who have sculpted me to work on.  "'These men you criticise and whose heads you wish to sculpt with a baseball bat have done more for you than you ever did for them. "'Every statue of you these men have made is a standing advertisement for your books, and it hasn't cost you a penny. "'There isn't a doubt in my mind that if it were not for those statues, countless people would go to their graves, supposing that the great Scottish Burns were little rivulets and not a poet. "'What difference does it make to you if they haven't made an adonis of you? "'You never set them an example by making one of yourself. "'If there's deception anywhere, it isn't you that is deceived. "'It is the mortals, and who cares about them or their opinions?' "'I never thought of it that way,' said Burns. "'I hate caricatures. That is caricatures of myself. "'I enjoy caricatures of other people, but you have a great deal of the mortal left in you, considering that you pose as an immortal,' said Homer, interrupting the speaker. "'Well, so have I,' said Phidias, resolved to stand by Burns in the argument, and I'm sorry for the man who hasn't. I was a mortal once, and I'm glad of it. I had a good time, and I don't care who knows it. When I look about me and see Jupiter, the arch-snob of creation and Mars, a little tin warrior who couldn't have fought a soldier like Napoleon with all his alleged divinity, I thank the fates that they enabled me to achieve immortality through mortal effort. "'Hang hereditary greatness,' I say. These men were born immortals. "'You and I worked for it and got it. We know what it cost. It was ours because we earned it, and not because we were born to it. "'Aber's?' The Scotsman nodded assent, and the Greek sculptor went on. "'I'm not vindictive myself, Homer,' he said. "'Nobody has hurt me, and on the whole I don't think sculpture is in such a bad way, after all. There's a shoemaker I what of in the mortal realms who can turn the prettiest last you ever saw, and I encountered a carver in London eating house last month, who turned out a slice of beef that was cut as artistically as I could have done it myself. "'What I object to chiefly is the tendency of the times. "'This is an electrical age, and men in my old profession aren't content to turn out one chef the nerve in a lifetime. They take orders by the gross. "'I waited upon inspiration. Today the sculptor waits upon custom, and an artist will make a bust of anybody in any material desire as long as he is sure of getting his pay afterwards. "'I saw a life-size statue of the inventor of a new kind of lard the other day. "'And what do you suppose the material was? Gold? Not by a great deal. Ivory? Marble even? Not a bit of it. He was done in lard, sir. I have seen a woman's head done in butter, too, and it makes me distinctly weary to think that my art should be brought so low. "'You did your best work in Greece,' chuckled Homer. "'A bad joke, my dear Homer,' retorted Phidias. "'I thought sculpture was getting down to a pretty low ebb when I had to fashion freezes out of marble. But marble is more precious than rubies alongside a butter and lard.' "'Each has its uses,' said Homer. "'I'd rather have butter on my bread than marble, but I must confess that for sculpture it is very poor stuff, as you say.' "'It is indeed,' said Phidias. "'For practice, it's all right to use butter. But for exhibition purposes?' "'Here, Phidias, to show his contempt for butter as raw material in sculpture, seized a wooden toothpick and, with it, modelled a beautiful head of Minerva out of the pat that stood upon the small plate at his side, and before burns could interfere had spread the chaste figure as thinly as he could upon a piece of bread, which he tossed to the shade of a hungry dog that stood yoping on the riverbank. "'Heavens!' cried Burns. "'Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to bricks, is as nothing to a Minerva carved by Phidias, used to stay the hunger of a ravening cur.' "'Well, it's the way I feel,' said Phidias savagely.  "'Of course, you feel badly, but, after all, what's the use?' "'You must know that the mortals would pay more for one of your statues than they would for a specimen of any modern sculptor's art. Yes, even if yours were modelled in wine jelly and the other fellows in pure gold. So why repine? You'd feel the same way if poets did a similarly vulgar thing,' retorted Phidias. "'You know you would. If you should hear of a poet today writing a poem on a thin layer of lard or butter, you would yourself be the first to call a halt.' "'No, I shouldn't,' said Homer quietly. In fact, I wish the poets would do that. "'We would have fewer bad poems to read, and that's the way you should look at it. "'I've entered to say that if this modern plan of making busts and freezes in butter had been adopted at an earlier period, the public places in our great cities and our national wall-hullers would seem less like repositories of comic art, since the first critical rays of a warm sun would have reduced the carven atrocities therein to a spot on the pavement. The butter-school of sculpture has its advantages, my boy, and you should be crowning the inventor of the system with laurel and not heaping coals of fire upon his brow.' "'That,' said Burns, "'is, after all, the solid truth, Phidias. Take the brass caricatures of me, for instance. Where would they be now if they had been cast in lard instead of in bronze?' Phidias was silent the moment. "'Well,' he said finally, as the value of the plan dawned upon his mind, "'from that point of view, I don't know but what you are right, after all, and to show that I have spoken in no vindictive spirit, let me propose a toast. Here's to the butter-sculptors. May their butter never give out.' The toast was drained to the dregs, and Phidias went home feeling a little better. End of Chapter 9 Recording by Jerry Ratief Storytellers Night It was Storytellers Night at the houseboat, and the best talkers of Hades were impressed into the service. Dr. Johnson was made chairman of the evening. "'Put him in the chair,' said Raleigh. "'That's the only way to keep him from telling a story himself. If he starts in on a tale he'll make it a serial, sure as fate. But if you make him the medium through which other storytellers are introduced to the club, he'll be finely epigrammatic. He can be very short and sharp when he's talking about somebody else. Personality is his forte.' "'Great scheme,' said Diogenes, who was chairman of the entertainment committee. The night's over here along, but if Johnson started on a story they'd have to reach twice around eternity and half way back to give him time to finish all he had to say.' "'Is not very witty in my judgment,' said Carlisle, who since his arrival in the other world had manifested some jealousy of Solomon and Dr. Johnson. "'That's true enough,' said Raleigh. But he's strong and he's bound to say something that would put the audience in sympathy with the man that he introduces, and that's half the success of a storyteller's night. I've told stories myself. If your audience doesn't sympathise with you you'd be better off at home putting the baby to bed.' And so it happened. Dr. Johnson was my chairman, and evening came. The doctor was in great form. A list of the storytellers had been sent him in advance, and he was prepared. The audience was about as select a one as can be found in Hades. The doors were thrown open to the friends of the members, and the smoke furnace had been filled with a very superior quality of Arcadian mixture, which Scott had brought back from a haunting trip to the home of the little minister at Thrums. Friends and fellow spooks, the doctor began when all were seated on the visionary campstools, which, by the way, are far superior to those in use in the world of realities, because they do not creak in the midst of a fine point demanding absolute silence for appreciation. I do not know why I have been chosen to preside over this gathering of phantoms. It is the province of the presiding officer on occasions of this sort to say pleasant things, which he does not necessarily endorse about the sundry persons who are to do the storytelling. Now, I suppose you all know me pretty well by this time. If there is anybody who doesn't, I'll be glad to have him presented after the formal work of the evening is over, and if I don't like him, I'll tell him so. You know that if I can be counted on for any one thing, it is candour, and if I hurt the feelings of any of these individuals whom I introduced tonight, I want them distinctly to understand that it is not because I love them less, but that I love truth more. With this blanket apology, as it were, to cover all possible emergencies that may arise during the evening, I will begin. The first speaker on the programme I regret to observe is my friend Goldsmith. Affairs of this kind ought to begin with a snap, and while Oliver is a most excellent writer, as a speaker he is a pebble-less demosthenes. If I had the arrangement of the programme, I should have had Goldsmith tell his story while the rest of us were downstairs at supper. However, we must abide by our programme, which is unconscionably long, for otherwise we will never get through it. Those of you who agree with me, as to the pleasure of listening to my friend Goldsmith, will do well to join me in the grilled room while he is speaking, where I understand there is a very fine line of punch his ready to be served. Modest knoll, when you kindly inflict yourself upon the gathering, and send me word when you get through, if you ever do, so that I may return and present number two to the assembly, whoever or whatever he may be. With these words the doctor retired, and poor Goldsmith, pale with fear, rose up to speak. It was evident that he was quite as doubtful of his ability as a talker as was Johnson. I am not much of a talker or, as some say, speaker, he said. Talking is not my forte, as Dr. Johnson has told you, and I am therefore not much at it. Speaking is not my line. I cannot speak or talk, as it were, because I am not particularly ready at the making of a speech, due partly to the fact that I am not much of a talker anyhow, and seldom, if ever, speak. I will therefore not bore you by attempting to speak, since a speech, by one who, like myself, is, as you are possibly aware, not a fluent, nor in any sense an eloquent, speaker, is apt to be a bore to those who will be kind enough to listen to my remarks, but will read instead the first five chapters of The Vicar of Wakefield. Who suggested any such night as this anyhow? growled Carlisle. Five chapters of The Vicar of Wakefield for a starter. Lord, save us, we'll need a Vicar of Sleepfield if he's allowed to do this. I move, we adjourn, said Darwin. Can't something be done to keep these younger members quiet? asked Solomon, frowning upon Carlisle and Darwin. Yes, said Douglas Gerald, let Goldsmith go on, he'll have them asleep in ten minutes. Meanwhile, Goldsmith was plodding earnestly through his stint, utterly and happily oblivious of the effect he was having upon his audience. This is awful! whispered Wellington to Boneapart. Worse than Waterloo! replied the ex-emperor with a grin, but we can stop it in a minute. Artemis Ward told me once our camp meeting he attended in the west broke up to go outside and see a dog fight. Can't you and I pretend to quarrel? A personal assault by you on me will wake these people up and discombobulate Goldsmith. Say the word, only don't eat too hard. I'm with you, said Wellington. Whereupon, with a great show of heat, he roared out, You never! I'm more afraid of a boy with a bean snapper than I ever was of you. And followed up his remark by pulling Boneapart's camp chair from under him, and letting the conqueror of Austerlitz fall to the floor with a thud, which I have since had described as dull and sickening. The effect was instantaneous. Compared to a personal encounter between the two great figures of Waterloo, a reading from his own works by Goldsmith seemed lacking in the elements essential to the holding of an audience. Consequently, attention was centred in the belligerent warriors, and by some odd mistake when a peace-loving member of the assemblage, realizing the indecorousness of the incident, cried out, Put him out! Put him out! The attendance rushed in, and taking poor Goldsmith by his collar, hustled him out through the door, across the deck, and tossed him ashore without reference to the gang-plank. This accomplished, a personal explanation of their course was made by the quarreling generals, and peace having been restored, a committee was sent in search of Goldsmith with suitable apologies. The good and kindy soul returned, but having lost his book in the melee, much to his own gratification as well as to that of the audience, he was permitted to rest in quiet the balance of the evening. "'Is he through?' said Johnson, poking his head in at the door when order was restored. "'Yes, sir,' said Boswell. That is to say, he has retired permanently from the field. He didn't finish, though.' "'Fellow spooks,' began Johnson once more. "'Now that you have been delighted with the honeyed eloquence of the last speaker, it is my privilege to present to you that eminent, fabulous Baron Munchausen, the greatest unrealist of all time, who will give you an exhibition of his paradoxical power of lying while standing.' The applause which greeted the Baron was deafening. He was beyond all doubt one of the most popular members of the club. "'Speaking of ways,' said he, leaning gracefully against the table. "'Nobody has mentioned them,' said Johnson. "'True,' retorted the Baron. "'But you always suggest them by your apparently unquenchable thirst for spouting. Speaking of ways, my friend Jonah, as well as the rest of you, may be interested to know that I once had an experience similar to his own, and strange to say, this is the identical veil.' Jonah rose from his seat in the back of the room. "'I do not wish to be unpleasant,' he said, with a strong effort to become. "'But I wish to know if Judge Blexden is in the room.' "'I am,' said the judge, rising. "'What can I do for you?' "'I desire to apply for an injunction restraining the Baron from using my veil in his story.' "'That veil, your honour, is copyrighted,' said Jonah. "'If I had any other claim to the affection of mankind, then the one which is based on my experience with that leviathan, I would willingly permit the Baron to introduce him into his story. But that veil, your honour, is my stock in trade. He is my all.' "'I think Jonah's point is well taken,' said Blexden, turning to the Baron. "'It would be a distinct hardship, I think, if the plain deafness action were to be deprived of the exclusive use of his sole accessory. The injunction prayed for his therefore granted. The court would suggest, however, that the Baron continue his story, using another veil for the purpose.' "'It is impossible,' said Munchas, and gloomily. The whole point of the story depends upon it having been Jonah's veil. Under the circumstances the only thing I can do is to sit down. I regret the narrowness of mind exhibited by my friend Jonah, but I must respect the decision of the court.' "'I must take exception to the Baron's allusion to my narrowness of mind,' said Jonah with some show of heat. I am simply defending my rights, and I intend to continue to do so if the whole world unites in considering my mind a mere slot scarcely wide enough for the insertion of a nickel. That veil was my discovery, and the personal discomfort I endured in perfecting my experience was such that I resolved to rest my reputation upon his broad proportions only, to sink all swim with him, and I cannot, at this late day, permit another to crowd me out of his exclusive use.' Jonah sat down and found himself, and the Baron, with a look of disgust on his face, left the room. Up to his old tricks he growled as he went. He queers everything he goes into. If I'd known he was a member of this club, I'd never have joined. "'We do not appear to be progressing very rapidly,' said Dr Johnson, rising. So far we have made two efforts to have stories told, and have met with disaster each time. I don't know but what you are to be congratulated, however, on your escape. Very few of you, I observe, have as yet fallen asleep. The next number on the programme I see is Boswell, who was to have entertained you with a few reminiscences. I say was to have done so because he is not to do so. "'I'm ready,' said Boswell, rising. No doubt,' retorted Johnson severely, but I am not. You are a man with one subject, myself. I admit it's a good subject, but you are not the man to treat of it here. You may suffice for mortals, but here it is different. I can speak for myself. You can go out and sit on the banks of the vitriol reservoir and lecture to the imps, if you want to, but when it comes to reminiscences of me, I'm on deck myself, and I flatter myself. I remember what I said and did more accurately than you do. Therefore, gentlemen, instead of listening to Boswell at this point, you all can de-excuse him and listen to me. When I was a boy— "'Excuse me,' said Solomon, rising, about how long is this, ah, this entertaining discourse of yours to continue until I get through,' returned Johnson rothfully. "'Are you aware, sir, that I am on the programme?' asked Solomon. "'I am,' said the doctor. With that in mind, for the sake of our fellow spooks who are present, I am very much inclined to keep on forever. "'When I was a boy,' Carlisle rose up at this point, "'I should like to ask,' he said mildly, "'if this is supposed to be an audience of children. I, for one, have no wish to listen to the juvenile stories of Dr. Johnson. Furthermore, I have come here particularly to hear Boswell. I want to compare him with Frude. I therefore protest against there is a roof to this houseboat,' said Dr. Johnson. "'If Mr. Carlisle will retire to the roof with Boswell, I have no doubt that he can be accommodated. As for Solomon's interruption, I can afford to pass that over with the silent contempt it deserves, though I may add with propriety that I consider his most famous proverbs the most absurd bits of hack-work I ever encountered, and as for that story about dividing a baby between two mothers by splitting it in two, it was grossly inhuman unless the baby was twins. When I was a boy,' as the doctor proceeded, Carlisle and Solomon accompanied by the now angry Boswell, left the room, and my account of the storyteller's night must before stop. Because, though I have never here to foreconfest it, all my information concerning the houseboat on the sticks has been derived from the memoranda of Boswell. It may be interesting to the reader to learn, however, that according to Boswell's account the storyteller's night was never finished, but whether this means that it broke up immediately afterwards in a riot, or that Dr. Johnson is still at work detailing his reminiscences, I am not aware, and I cannot at the moment of writing ascertain, for Boswell, when I have the pleasure of meeting him, invariably avoids the subject. End of chapter 10 It was Noah who spoke. I'm glad, he said, that when I embarked at the time of the heavy rains that did so much damage in the old days there weren't any dogs like that fellow's Cerberus about. If I had to feed a lot of three-headed beasts like him, the Ark would have run shorter provisions inside of ten days. That's very likely true, observed Mr. Bonham, but I must confess, my dear Noah, that you showed a lamentable lack of the showman's instinct when you selected the animals you did. A more commonplace lot of beasts were never gathered together, and while Adam is held responsible for the introduction of sin into the world, I attribute most of my offenses to none other than yourself. The members of the club drew their chairs a little closer. The conversation had opened a trifle spicily, and furthermore they had retained enough of their mortality to be interested in animal stories. Adam, who had managed to settle his back, dews and delinquent house-charges, and once more acquired the privileges of the club, nodded his head gratefully at Mr. Bonham. I'm glad to find someone, said he, who places the responsibility for trouble where it belongs. I'm round-shouldered with the blame I've had to bear. I didn't invent sin any more than I invented the telephone, and I think it's rather rough on a fellow who lived a quiet, retiring pastoral life, minding his own business and staying home nights, to be held up to public reprobation for as long a time as I have. It'll be all right in time, said Raleigh. Just wait, be patient, and your vindication will come. Nobody thought much of the plays Bacon and I wrote for Shakespeare, until Shakespeare had been dead a century. Hmm! said Adam gloomily. Wait! What have I been doing all this time? I've waited all the time there's been so far, and until Mr. Bonham spoke as he did I haven't observed the slightest inclination on the part of anybody to rehabilitate my lost reputation. Nor do I see exactly how it's to come about, even if I do wait. You might apply for an investigating committee to look into the charges, suggested an American politician, just over. Get your friends on it, and you'll be all right. Better let sleeping dogs lie, said Blackstone. I intend to, said Adam. The fact is I hate to give any further publicity to the matter. Even if I did bring the case into court and sue for libel, I've only got one witness to prove my innocence, and that's my wife. I'm not going to drag her into it. She's got nervous prostration over her position as it is, and this would make it worse. Queen Elizabeth and the rest of these snobs in society won't invite her to any of their functions, because they say she hadn't any grandfather, and even if she were received by them, she'd be uncomfortable going about. It isn't pleasant for a woman to feel that everyone knows she's the oldest woman in the room. Well, take my word for it, said Raleigh kindly. It'll all come out all right. You know the old saying, history repeats itself. Someday you'll be living back in Eden again, and if you're only careful to make an exact record of all you do, and have a notary present, before whom you can make an affidavit as to the facts, you'll be able to demonstrate your innocence. I was only condemned on hearsay evidence anyhow, said Adam ruefully. Nonsense, you were caught red-handed, said Noah. My grandfather told me so. And now that I've got a chance to slip in a word edgewise, I'd like mightily to have you explain your statement, Mr Barnum, that I am responsible for your errors. That is a serious charge to bring against a man of my reputation. I mean simply this, that to make a show interesting, said Mr Barnum, a man has got to provide interesting materials, that's all. I do not mean to say a word that is in any way derogatory to your morality. You were a surprisingly good man for a sea captain, and with the exception of that one occasion, when you allowed yourself to be stranded on the bar, if I may so put it, I know of nothing to be said against you as a moral temperate person. That was only an accident, said Noah, reddening. You can't expect a man six hundred odd years of age. Certainly not, said Raleigh, soothingly. And nobody thinks less of you for it. Considering how you must have hated the sight of water, the wonder of it is that it didn't become a fixed habit. Let us hear what it is that Mr Barnum does criticise in you. His taste, that's all, said Mr Barnum. I contend that, compared to the animals he might have had, the ones he did have were as ant hills to alps. There were more magnificent zoos allowed to die out through Noah's lack of judgment than one likes to think of. Take the Proturosaurus, for instance. Where on earth do we find his equal today?  If you'd spend a week in the Garden of Eden with me, with lizards eight feet long dropping out of the trees onto your lap while you were trying to take a Sunday afternoon nap, you'd be willing to dispense with things of that sort for the balance of your natural life.  I'm not saying anything about that, returned Barnum. It would be unpleasant to have an elephant drop on one after the fashion of which you speak, but I'm glad the elephant was safe, just the same. I haven't advocated the Proturosaurus as a Sunday afternoon surprise, but as an attraction for a show. I still maintain that a lizard as big as a cow would prove a lodestone, the drawing powers of which the pocket money of the small boy would be utterly unable to resist. Then there was the Iguanodon. He'd have brought a fortune to the box office. Which you'd have immediately lost, retorted Noah, paying rent. When you get a reptile of his size that reaches 30 feet up into the air when he stands on his hind legs, the ordinary circus wagon of commerce can't be made to hold him, and your menagerie room has to have ceilings so high that every penny he brought to the box office would be spent storing him. Mischievous too, said Adam, that Iguanodon. You couldn't keep anything out of his reach. We used to forbid animals of his kind to enter the garden, but that didn't bother him. He'd stand up on his hind legs and reach over and steal anything he'd happened to want. I could have used him for a fire escape, said Mr. Barnum. And as for my inability to provide him with quarters, I'd have met that problem after a short while.  Why, my dear fellow, it would have taken the whole of an ordinary zoo such as yours to give the megalosaurus a lunch. Those fellows would eat a rhinoceros as easily as you'd crack a peanut. I did have a couple of megalosaurians on my boat for just twenty-four hours, and then I'd chuck them both overboard. If I'd kept them ten days longer, they'd have eaten every blessed beast I had with me, and your zoo wouldn't have had anything else but megalosaurians. Papar is right about that, Mr. Barnum, said Shem. The whole Saurian tribe was a fearful nuisance. About four hundred years before the flood, I had a pet creosaurus that I kept in our barn. He was a cunning little devil full of tricks and all that, but we never could keep a cow or a horse on the place while he was about. They'd mysteriously disappear, and we never knew what became of them, until one morning we surprised Phaedo. In surprised who? asked Dr. Johnson scornfully. Phaedo returned to Shem. That was my creosaurus's name. Lord, save us. Phaedo cried to Johnson. What a name for a creosaurus! Well, what of it? asked Shem angrily.  Go on, said Johnson. I've nothing to say. Shall I send for a physician, put in Boswell, looking anxiously at his chief? The situation was so extraordinary. Solomon and Carlisle giggled, and the doctor, having politely requested Boswell to go to a warmer section of the country, Shem resumed. I caught him in the act of swallowing five cows and ham's favourite trotter, sulky and all. Baron Munchasen rose up and left the room. If they're going to lie, I'm going to get out, he said, as he passed through the room. What became of Phaedo? asked Boswell. The sulky killed him, returned Shem innocently. He couldn't digest the wheels. Noah looked approvingly at his son, and, turning to Barnum, observed quietly. What he says is true. And I will go further, and say that it is my belief that you would have found the show business impossible if I had taken that sort of creature aboard.  I'd have tried to save a couple of discusorians, if I hadn't supposed they were able to take care of themselves. A combination of sea-serpent and dragon, with a neck twenty-two feet long, it seemed to me, ought to have been able to ride out any storm or fall of rain. But there I was wrong, and I am free to admit my error. It never occurred to me that the sea-serpents were in any danger, so I let them alone, with the result that I never saw but one other. And he was only an illusion, due to that unhappy use of stimulants to which, with shocking bad taste, you have chosen to refer. I didn't mean to call up unpleasant memories, said Barnum. I never believed you got half seas over, anyhow. But to return to our muttons, why didn't you hand down a few varieties of the Ethereum family to posterity? There was a Dynatherium and the Megatherium, either one of which would have not spots out of any leopard that ever was made, and alongside of which even my woolly horse would have paled into insignificance. That's what I can't understand in your selections. With Megatheriums to burn, why save leopards and panthers and other such everyday creatures? What kind of a boat do you suppose I had? cried Noah. Do you imagine for a moment that she was four miles on the water line with a mile and three-quarters beam? If I'd had a pair of Dynatheriums in the stern of that ark, she'd have tipped up fore and aft, until she'd have looked like a telegraph pole in the water. And if I'd put them amid ships, they'd have had to be wedged in so tightly they couldn't move to keep the vessel trim. I didn't go to sea, my friend, for the purpose of being tipped over in mid-ocean, every time one of my cargo wanted to shift his weight from one leg to the other. It was bad enough with the elephants, wasn't it, papa? said Shem. Yes, indeed, my son, returned the patriarch. It was bad enough with the elephants. We had to shift our ballast half a dozen times a day, to keep the boat from travelling on her beam ends, the elephants moved about so much. And when we came to the question of Provinder, it took up about nine-tenths of our hold to store hay and peanuts enough to keep them alive in good tempered. On the whole, I think it's rather late in the day, considering the trouble I took to save anything but myself and my family, to be criticised as I now am. You ought to be much obliged to me for saving any animals at all. Most people in my position would have built a yacht for themselves and family, and let everything else slide. That is quite true, observed Raleigh, with a pacificatory nod at Noah. You were eminently unselfish, and while with Mr. Barnum I exceedingly regret that the Saurians and Theriae and other tribes were left on the pier when you sailed, I nevertheless think that you showed most excellent judgment at the time. He was the only man who had any at all, for that matter, suggested Shem, and it required all his courage to show it. Everybody was guying him. Sinners stood around the yard all day and every day, criticising the model. One scoffer pretended he thought her a canal boat, and asked how deep the flood was likely to be on the towpath, and whether we intended to use mules in shallow water and giraffes in deep. Another asked what time allowance we expected to get in a fifteen-mile run, and hinted that a year and two months per mile struck him as being the proper thing. It was far from pleasant, said Noah, tapping his fingers together reflectively. I don't want to go through it again, and if, as Raleigh suggests, history is likely to repeat herself, I'll sublet the contract to Barnum here and let him get the chaff. It was all right in the end, though, Dad, said Shem. We had the great laugh on Hoypalloy the second day out. We did indeed, said Noah. When we told him we only carried first-class passengers and had no room for emigrants, they began to see that the Ark wasn't such an old tub after all, and a good ninety percent of them would have given ten dollars for a little of that time allowance they'd been talking to us about for several centuries. Noah lapsed into amusing silence, and Barnum rose to leave. I still wish you'd saved a Discosaurus, he said. A creature with a neck twenty-two feet long would have been a goldmine to me. He could have been trained to stand in the ring, and by stretching out his neck, bite the little boys who sneak in under the tent and occupy seats on the top row. Well, for your sake, said Noah with a smile, I'm very sorry. But for my own, I'm quite satisfied with the general results. And they all agreed that the Patriarch had every reason to be pleased with himself. End of Chapter 11, Recording by Ruth Golding Queen Elizabeth, attended by Ophelia and Xanthippe, was walking along the riverbank. It was a beautiful autumn day, although owing to certain climatic peculiarities of Hades it seemed more like mid-summer. The mercury in the club thermometer was nervously clicking against the top of the crystal tube.  Ophelia was doing most of the talking. I am sure I have never wished to ride one of them, she said positively. In the first place I do not see where the pleasure of it comes in, and in the second it seems to me as if skirts would be dangerous. If they should catch him one of the petals, where would I be? In the hospital, shortly, me thinks, said Queen Elizabeth. Well, I shouldn't wear skirts, Xanthippe. If a man's wife can't borrow some of her husband's clothing to reduce her peril to a minimum, what is the use of having a husband? When I take to the bicycle, which, in spite of all Socrates can say, I fully intend to do, I shall have a man's wheel, and I shall wear Socrates's old dress-clothes. If Hades doesn't like it, Hades may suffer. I don't see how Socrates' clothes will help you, observed Ophelia. He wore skirts himself, just like all the other old Greeks. His toga would be quite as apt to catch in the gear as your skirts. Xanthippe looked puzzled for a moment. It was evident that she had not thought of the point which Ophelia had brought up. Strong-minded ladies of her kind are apt sometimes to overlook important links in such chains of evidence as they feel called upon to use in binding themselves to their rights. The women of your day were relieved of that dress problem at any rate, left Queen Elizabeth. The women of my day retorted Xanthippe. In matters of dress were the equals of their husbands. In my family particularly, now they have lost their rights, and are made to confine themselves still to garments like those of your. While man has irrigated to himself the sole and exclusive use of sane habiliments. However, that is apart from the question. I was saying that I shall have a man's wheel, and I shall wear Socrates's old dress clothes to write it in, if Socrates has to go out and buy an old dress suit for the purpose. The Queen arched her brows and looked inquiringly at Xanthippe for a moment. A magnificent old maid was lost to the world when you married, she said. Feeling as you do about men, my dear Xanthippe, I don't see why you ever took a husband. Huh! resorted Xanthippe. Of course you don't. You don't need a husband. You were born with something to govern. I wasn't. How about your temper? suggested Ophelia Meekly. Xanthippe sniffed frigidly at this remark. I never should have gone crazy over a man if I had remained unmarried forty thousand years, she retorted severely. I married Socrates because I loved him and admired his sculptures. But when he gave up sculpture and became a thinker, he simply tried me beyond all endurance. He was so thoughtless, with the result that, having ventured once or twice to show my natural resentment, I have been handed down to posterity as a shrew. I've never complained, and I don't complain now. But when a woman is married to a philosopher, who is so taken up with his studies that when he rises in the morning he doesn't look what he is doing and goes off to business in his wife's clothes, I think she is entitled to a certain amount of sympathy. And yet you wish to wear his, persisted Ophelia. Turnabout is fair play, said Xanthippe. I suffered so much on his account, that on the principles of averages he deserves to have a little drop of bitters in his nectar. You are simply the victim of man's deceit, said Elizabeth, wishing to mollify the now angry Xanthippe, who was on the verge of tears. I understood men, fortunately, and so never married. I knew my father, and even if I hadn't been a wise enough child to know him, I should not have wed, because he married enough to last one family for several years. You must have had a hard time refusing all those lovely men, though, sighed Ophelia. Of course, Sir Walter wasn't as handsome as my dear Hamlet, but he was very fetching. I cannot deny that, said Elizabeth, and I didn't really have the heart to say no when he asked me, but I did tell him that if he married me I should not become Miss Raleigh, but that he should become King Elizabeth. He fled to Virginia on the next steamer. My diplomacy rid me of a very unpleasant duty. Chatting thus, the three famous spirits passed slowly along the path until they came to the shelter nook in which the houseboat lay at anchor. There's a case in point, said Xanthippe, as the houseboat loomed up before them. All that luxury is for men. We women were not permitted to cross the gang plank. Our husbands and brothers and friends go there. The door closes on them. And they are as completely lost to us as though they never existed. We don't know what goes on in there. Socrates tells me that their amusements are of the most innocent nature, but how do I know what he means by that? Furthermore, it keeps him from home, while I have to stay at home and be entertained by my sons, whom the Encyclopedia Britannica rightly calls dull and fatuous. In other words, club life for him, and dullness and fatuity for me. I think myself they're rather queer about letting women into that boat, said Queen Elizabeth. But it isn't Sir Walters' fault. He told me he tried to have them establish a lady's day, and that they agreed to do so, but a sense resisted all his efforts to have a date set for the function. It would be great fun to steal in there now, wouldn't it, Gigoldophilia? There doesn't seem to be anybody about to prevent our doing so. That's true, says Xanthippe. All the windows are closed, as if there wasn't a soul there. I have a mind to take a peep in at the house.  It was a great novelty, and an unpleasant one to her, to find some place where she could not go. Let's do it, she added. So the three women tiptoed softly at the gang-plank, and silently boarding the houseboat peeped in at the windows. What they saw merely wetted their curiosity. I must see more, cried Elizabeth, rushing around to the door, which opened at her touch. Xanthippe and Ophelia followed close on her heels, and shortly they found themselves open-mouthed in wondering admiration in the billiard room of the floating palace. And Richard, the ghost of the best billiard room attendant in or out of Haiti, stood before them. Excuse me, he said very much upset by the sudden apparition of the ladies. I'm very sorry, but ladies are not admitted here. We are equally sorry, retorted Elizabeth, assuming her most imperious manner, that your masters have seen fit to prohibit our being here, but now that we are here, we intend to make the most of the opportunity, particularly as there seem to be no members about. What has become of them all? Richard smiled broadly. I don't know where they are, he replied, but it was evident that he was not telling the exact truth. Oh, come, my boy, said the queen kindly. You do know. Sir Walter told me you knew everything. Where are they? Well, if you must know, ma'am, return Richard, captivated by the queen's manner. They've all gone down the river to see a prize fight between Goliath and Sampson. See there? cried Xanthippe. That's what this club makes possible.  Yes, ma'am, they have, said Richard, and if Goliath wins, I don't think Mr. Socrates will get home this evening. Betting, eh? said Xanthippe scornfully. Yes, ma'am, returned Richard. More, club, cried Xanthippe. Oh, no, ma'am, said Richard. Betting is not allowed in the club. They're very strict about that. But the shore is only ten feet off, ma'am, and the gentlemen always go ashore to make their bets. During this little colloquy, Elizabeth and Ophelia were wandering about, admiring everything they saw. I do wish Lucretia Borgia and Calpurnia could see this. I wonder if the Caesars are on the telephone. Elizabeth said. Investigation showed that both the Borgias and the Caesars were on the wire. And in short order, the two ladies had been made acquainted with the state of the affairs at the houseboat. And as they were both quite as anxious to see the interior of the much-talked-of-club houses as the others, they were not long in arriving. Furthermore, they brought with them half a dozen more ladies, among whom were Desdemona and Cleopatra, and then began the most extraordinary session the houseboat ever knew. A meeting was called with Elizabeth in the chair, and all the best ladies at the Stingian realms were elected members. Zanthipe, amid the greatest applause, moved that every male member of the organization be expelled for conduct unworthy of a gentleman in attending a prize fight, and for encouraging two such horrible creatures as Goliath and Sampson in their nefarious pursuits. Desdemona seconded the motion, and it was carried without a dissenting voice. Although Mrs. Caesar, with becoming dignity, merely smiled approval, not caring to take part too actively in the proceedings. The man having thus been disposed of in a summary fashion, Richard was elected janitor in Charon's place, and the club was entirely reorganized with Cleopatra as permanent president. The meeting then adjourned, and the invaders set about enjoying their newly acquired privileges. The smoking room was throng for a few moments, but owing to the extraordinary strength of the tobacco which the faithful Richard shoveled into the furnace, it developed no enduring popularity. Zanthipe, with a suddenly acquired pallor, being the first to renounce the pastime as revolting. So fast and furious was the enjoyment of these thirsty souls, so long deprived of their rights, that night came on without their observing it. And with the night was brought, the great peril into which they were thrown. And from which at the moment of writing they had not been extricated, and which to my regret, has cut me off for the present from any further information connected with the associated shades and their beautiful lounging place. Had they not been so intent upon the inner beauties of the houseboat on the sticks, they might have observed approaching, under the shadow of the westerly shore, a long ragged craft propelled by oars, which dipped softly and silently and with trained precision in the now jet black waters of the sticks. Manning the oars were a dozen evil visage ruffians, while in the stern of the approaching vessel there sat a grim-faced weather-beaten spirit, armed to the teeth, his coat sleeves bearing the skull and crossbones, the insignia of piracy. This boat, stealing up the river like a thief in the night, contained Captain Kidd and his pirate crew. And their mission was a mission of vengeance. To put the matter briefly and plainly, Captain Kidd was smarting under the indignity which the club had recently put upon him. He had been unanimously blackballed, even his proposer and seconder, who had been brow-beaten in denominating him for membership, voting against him. I may be a pirate, he cried, when he heard what the club had done, but I have feelings, and the associated shades will repent their action. The time will come when they'll find I have their clubhouse, and they have its debts. It was for this purpose that the great terror of the seas had come upon this, the first favorable opportunity. Kidd knew that the houseboat was unguarded, his spies had told him that the members had everyone gone to the fight, and he resolved that this was a time to act. He did not know that the fates had helped to make his vengeance all the more terrible and withering by putting the most attractive and fashionable ladies of the Stingian country likewise in his power. But so it was, and they, poor souls, while this fiend, relentless and cruel, was slowly approaching, sang on and danced in blissful unconsciousness of their peril. In less than five minutes from the time when his sinister craft rounded the bend, Kidd and his crew had boarded the houseboat, cut her loose from her moorings, and in ten minutes she had sailed into the great unknown. And with her went some of the most precious gems in the social diadem of Hades. The rest of my story is soon told. The whole country was aroused when the crime was discovered, but up to the date of this narrative no word has been receded of the missing craft in her precious cargo. Raleigh and Caesar have had the seas scoured in search of her. Hamlet has offered his kingdom for her return, but unavailingly. And the men of Hades were cast into a gloom from which there seems to be no relief. Socrates alone was unaffected.  So why repine? I'll never lose my xanthipi, permanently, that is. I know that, for I am a philosopher, and I know there is no such thing as luck. And we can start another club. Very likely, sighed Raleigh wiping his eyes. I don't mind the club so much, but to think of those poor women. Oh, they're all right, returned Socrates with a laugh. Caesar's wife is strong, and you can't dispute the fact that she's a good shepherd-own. Give the ladies a chance. They've been after our club for years, now let them have it. And let us hope that they like it. Order me up a hemlock sour, and let's drink to their enjoyment of club life. Which was done, and I, in spirit, drank with them. For I sincerely hope that the new women of Hades are having a good time. End of Chapter 12 End of A Houseboat on the Sticks by John Kendrick Banks Recorded by James Christopher JxChristopher at yahoo.com September 2008 A Houseboat on the Sticks by John Kendrick Banks


You are our most valuable asset You are our most significant asymmetric advantage You are what makes the United States undaunted by the difficulties Motivated by the impossible and your commitment is not just to a job to a calling a way of life On a non contiguous non-linear battlefield with very little higher command supervision and maximum Decentralization we must We have to develop leaders who have incredible character under the tense pressure Ground combat and there is no greater crucible than ground combat


감사합니다. 모든 орг한이예요, 특히 이 앤스는 여기 me를 가져왔습니다. 그리고 특별히 Douglass만 제 앞에 있는 것에 대해 말합니다. 왜냐면 30분 정도는 제가 똑같이 말합니다. 그래서 이 문제에 대해 제작되었을 것입니다. 하지만 조금 다른 경험이 있습니다. 그리고 제가 타이틀에 대해 대화의 대화의 대화입니다. 그래서 이 물 them in numbers I'm going to show you will be sort of necessary condition for such a state either exist or not exist. So it's different from actual construction. But since problem is such a difficult problem as you have seen in the previous talk. This does have a value in my mind. And in particular I was asked to tell you about things that happen during last five years actually, 또한 15년 만에 더빙시amy m was to compute index of this SU2 Maximally supersymmetric 양멸 콘터 미친� requests that was painstakingly described for larger n. And the object, the conjecture actually by Whitton in fact 95 for the M-theoric conjecture if there is such a thing as M-theoric in eleventh dimension 위대한 것들에 대해 알아봅시다. 위대한 것들에 대해 알아봅시다. 첫 번째를 해봅시다. 이 인덱은 그라운드, 페리미엄, 그리고 보존익 스테이크와 상대로 적용한 상대로 적용되어 있습니다. 그라운드의 한 상대로 적용되어 있습니다. 그래서 이 상황이 필요한 것입니다. 당연히 다이나믹스의 셔프가 하지만 또한 SUN 버전에도 같은 느낌의 fruition의 조합은 아! 같은 attorneys 1s -, 2s 4s 4s 4s 4s 아티아와 싱어에서는 소속 loading of computation. 이 스스로 아티아와 싱어는omenong time of all. However as was described in the morning, it's not the case here, there is lots of continuum state. And once you have a continuum state, this independence of data just breaks down completely. So you compute this because you can. But that's not exactly the index. So in pure mathematics of course, 이 부분은 아티아파트 오디싱어 인덱스 DRM입니다. 왼쪽은 엉덩이 인테리어의 캐릭터리스트 클래스입니다. 이 코렉션의 피스에 필요한 인덱스 컴퓨터는 에타인베리언의 APS 인덱스 DRM입니다. 이 코렉션의 피스에 흐뭇히 볼 수 있습니다. 이 코렉션의 피스가 없어 이 코렉션의 정취는 가정ction을 note 아티아파트 오디싱어 인덱스 DRM입니다. 이 코렉션의 정취는 그런데 이 학생은 아니죠. 그런데 아직은 기술의 퀀틈을 적용할 수 있습니다. 우리의 일을 다 살펴볼 수 있다면 어떻게 하는 것인지 모르겠어요. 저는 여기 물어보는 게 아니고요. 그는 1, 2, 그리고 b가 b가 h입니다. 그래서 그는 정렬을 정리합니다. 그는 정렬을 정리합니다. 그런데 정렬을 정리할 때, 정렬이 있는 것과는 정렬을 정렬한 것에 대한 보존의 정렬을 정렬합니다. 그리고 페르미오닉의 정렬을 정렬합니다. 그러나 그는 정렬을 정렬한 것에 대해 그리고 그 이유는 이 깍두기입니다. 그래서 이 깍두기에는 더 subtlety가 있습니다. 물론 이 깍두기에는 모든 것이, 이 컴퓨터를 했을 때, 이 컴퓨터를 늦게 했을 때, 이 컴퓨터를 늦게 했을 때, 더 편안해졌을 때가 있습니다. Q. 1을 말하실 때 1을 말하실 때 1을 말하실 때 256을 말하실 때 1을 말하실 때? 256 times 1, because I separated out u1 part. Yes, yes, the entire supermultiplot. Very good, thank you. Now, of course, I do not have analog APS index DRM, so I do not know in general how to compute this correction piece, which is difference between the two. And still, it's the same in the general problem of this kind, that has a boundary or asymptotic infinity. There is no well-known systematic way of computing this. However, for gauged quantum mechanics of kind of classes I'm looking at, and it's a very large class, it turns out there is a very simple way of doing this. It comes from the observation that this correction piece, which arises from continuum contribution, which is why it is fractional. You can argue it always comes from the asymptotic integral of something else. So just like left-hand side is given by integral of some characteristic class in APS case, right-hand side eta-invariant was computed by integral over a boundary. So this, you can convert it to boundary integral in some physics problem. And all the complicated stuff in this SVN theory does not really matter as long as you understand the asymptotic dynamics. And asymptotic dynamics because it's a commutator potential, just to mean commutator potential, all reduced to carton, the mutually commuting part of the matrix dynamics. So it's essentially free dynamics divided by vile groups. So that way you can relate this to another bulk index problem of this kind, right? And that way you can compute this indirectly. And by doing this, one find, one quarter, and therefore you have one. Please. There is a mass deformation of this problem. There was mass deformation of this problem. That's right. Which would suggest that it's a good way of defining it. Right, that's one way of defining it except that you don't know how to control zero mass limit, which is the original problem. So in this n equals 16 problem, there is a lot of control you have, like adding mass deformation of PP wave kind or some other kind, for example, cats and smell that try. So there is a lot of ways of getting this to one. But I do not want to deform original dynamics that much. I want to keep this asymptotic dynamics and do things as honestly as I can, okay? So let's see how far we can go. Anyway, so this trick that I invented, I said on this for about the months wondering what to do and one day in March, this trick came to my mind. So I did this, it was like one day computation. And that was taken up by Necklace of Moschata. She really laid the left hand side on the log of the so-called bulk term was computed this way. We have for SUN, you have this one of a P square where P is a divisor of N. It's a very interesting number theoretical thing on the left hand side. Right hand side, green and gotper and laid the cats and smell got took up my idea, generalized to other gaze group SUN in particular and combine the two and argue that this must be the case. You can sort of, this complicated sum is there because if you have N such particle you can divide N into P over N bunches, okay? And these bunches will form sub-bounds state, fly apart from each other and in every such sector contribute some fractional number. So that way you can understand this number again you get the right number you want to. So at least necessary condition we find. As Douglas said, smaller supersymmetry version can be also, I mean conjecture about it shows up in some other context and not the membrane context but the brain type two theory compactified on Calabria two-fold and Calabria three-fold. In this case, consistency between supersymmetric field theory and type two string theory demand that these numbers would be one, zero, sorry, there's no state whatsoever. No normalizable ground state. Left hand side, of course it's easier problem. So same people, no one across of Chateaubrile computed left hand side and instead of this sum you have only the case P equal to N so one over N square. Right hand side, again I use exactly same trick and you get one over N square. Again, don't buy a green and gupper. So N square minus N square, one over N square minus one over N square is zero. Okay. So. Oh, this is the vile group of this SUN. So there is this part of computation. I'm not really describing how I get this to stage but sorry about this. This will take a little bit more time but I have other things to do. So I am happy to tell you about this later. Now, since SUN do not have any bound states only natural to expect other gauge group do not have bound state either. In fact, for ON and SPN there is a similar conjecture or similar demand coming from type two string and field theory consistency between the two that says this. And again, this was computable the same method. Right hand side is computable in the same method and you compare the two and this happened around year 2000. And here we are. So left hand side was done by Katz and Smilga which gave one of n squared and you get these series of fractional numbers. Right hand side starting from what Mu and Krasov-Shatavish evenly gave a Stadakko in 2000 in particular Vasili-Pesto in 2002 I was told that this was when he was undergraduate student remarkably. This is really nice computation of this number the right hand side, this one. So by the way, I should have said earlier the this Z is really nothing but the matrix integral of the kind, the model is essentially what we now call IKKT. It's a matrix, not quantum mechanics. Matrix integral and that's because I take small beta limit. This is like having a circle and make it very, very small. So circle disappears. So that seems really natural thing to do and that's what we did. Everything is Euclidean because I'm doing Hickona. But of course I'm looking for actual wave function in real time. So that idea went into this computation in this computation same computation here but except for SUN numbers do not match. So the first one that does not match is rank to SP or SO5. left hand side, this boundary on a log of eta invariant give you 5 over 32. on a log of characteristic class integral give you 9 over 64. But this is the example where left hand side minus right hand side should equal index which should be integer and in particular zero, it's not a zero. And this was n equal 4, the four supercharge and a supercharge version of the story. There is another, yes. So what is it that you are computing if it's not an index? It is index, it's just that there is somewhere along the way computation needed a correction. That's what I'm going to tell you later. So exactly what are we missing here? For example, I mean looking at these two numbers you might say oh one of the two guys made a mistake. That was my reaction too. And since I invented the left hand side I naturally would have said the right hand side is wrong. But right hand side has very nice beautiful computation. And as I will tell you during last few years I redid the right hand side and indeed these are correct numbers. So there's something missing that I'm not telling you about yet. So we want to get there. Anyway so n equal 16 version of the same problem just like SUN problem give you bunch of predictions in this m theory context. And if I write those index actual integers in the form of generating function this should be the one if m theory do exist and it does produce type 2a string theory at the end of the day. But of course the program is not going anywhere at the moment because even simpler problem there was an issue. So this was state of things as of year 2001, 2002. Actually I was doing something else. I was doing something else happily for many many years. But about five years ago I came back to this general class of index problem because of not this old problem but because of work crossing problem. I wanted to understand for example concept which is very very nice this very beautiful work crossing from the physics viewpoint. And there I ended up doing again supersymmetric quantum mechanics index problems. So for physicists that studying for example D3 brains wrapping Calabiao 3 folds and propagating along the remaining time and this is something called BPS particles. Some of them bind together and some of them do not bind together and sometimes this bound state disappear so this is called work crossing problem and this says of course geometric analog in mathematics. So there what I have to solve is again gazed quantum mechanics not just matrix model but matrix with other representations added in the Kaila Multiplet. And start with some dynamics like quantum mechanics like that and again compute define and compute index like object as much as possible. In fact we did this entire thing by the way this was something did I say this and maybe it shows up later. Something I did with Kentaro Hori and Heon Kim who was my student back then. I'm not going to tell you how we did it. This is a path integral computation but you can sort of think of it as an analog of heat corner computation. It's just technically easier to do path integral. So the object we wanted to compute is index so corner of supercharge corner of dirac operator you trace over minus one to the f this plays the role of f and then you put bunch of equilibrium parameters so we call it defined index. However this is again impossible thing to compute generally because you really have to understand ground state sector only. What one can compute is this thing called omega is a path integral version of this except you compute it in a different limit. So this is gauge dynamic so there is a gauge coupling constant e and this e this number controls all the dynamics all the interactions almost all of it not everything. So this path integral computation you do it in this small parameter regime arbitrary small e and hope you would hope that if this happen to be a discrete system if for example this flow down to some geometrical model at the end of day something like cpn quintic then you can argue that this deformation just like one would argue small beta or large beta does not matter this deformation does not matter and in such cases you would find this quantity equal to this quantity not always but there are a lot of cases where it does so that this is already very useful tool to study geometry that comes out of this gauged system so that's sort of Lagrangian where we start and we say localization and magic happens and we do the computation and there is a long long story behind this which I'm going to get into you get this this is not something we invented this is invented by actually mathematician Geoffrey K1 and then developed in the purely mathematics exercise what we added is a path integral derivation of that and I think we added how wall crossing happens in this system so this is some sort of topological invariant so you think when you change parameter of the theory so for example wall crossing happens when you change the shape of Calabria 34 continuously and at some point all of a sudden you are calibrated a submanifold the set of that changes that's what wall crossing is so what we added is how that is realized in this computation so don't worry about any detail of this mechanism just be assured that there is a routine which we can put into the Mathematica which is exactly what it did and at the end of the day we get bunch of polynomials or rational functions as a result so this actually followed similar computation by Benini, Yegge, Hori, Tachikawa or Ergo for the purpose of computing elliptic genus you might think especially physicists might think oh why not take this and do go to a small radius limit of one of the circle and then you get from two dimension to one dimension wouldn't that be better thing to do but turns out whole point of this exercise that's impossible because those of you who have worked on wall crossing will know elliptic genus does not have a wall crossing so if you take this sensor and do the dimensional reduction you will get one side somewhere but not this discontinuous behavior of the index at the end of the day anyway so for example let me take simplest case or the u1 with n fundamental representation which will define cpn-1 on one side of this wall you get the usual Ho Chi diamond of cpn on the other side in this theory in one dimension you get nothing so you have here n number of ground state on the left hand side on the other side of parameter regime you get nothing this is wall crossing this prototype of wall crossing other side is just a mold of more space of stable things which can disappear that's right quintic which would have gave you same Ho Chi diamond in geometric and Landau-Ginseberg phase in one dimension the vertical middle in particular disappears there is a reason why vertical middle disappears another Calabria example which has four this is one of the canonical 2Km of Calabria 3-fold which is embedded in weighted projective space here and you get these various Ho Chi diamond you can see something happens vertical middle first and then horizontal middle etc so every single one of this I can compute one thing I failed to mention when I was which I should have done is if this theory this gauge theory give you a manifold at the end of day which is compact and geometry is if it flows down to nonlinear sigma model to a compact geometry I'm effectively computing kaiwise genus that's why I was able to get cohomology information but of course kaiwise genus alone will not give you cohomology yet I'm displaying the cohomology right I mean this is of course trivial example you already know other things not that trivial one of the things that happen in this business in physics side is that for certain class a very large class of gauss quantum mechanics and in particular entire class of UN type quiver quantum mechanics there is a routine that allows me to reconstruct entire Ho Chi diamond in all chambers so that requires that's another talk sorry so I'm displaying I use that routine which I'm not telling you and reconstruct this Ho Chi diamond of this quiver theory in particular chamber so sorry about telling you details of this but trust me there is such a routine and there is all kind of things I wanna do with this thing and in particular this quiver invariant concept that came out of physics which allowed me to do things like this okay so we now have what I in the title somewhat boldly suggested index theorem I'm not quite sure I have the right to call it theorem but as far as physicist goes this is as rigorous as it can be so I have a routine I can put it in the Mathematica I can compute things that if you ask me to compute in many cases now so one of the things that bothers one when you try to do computation like this is this phenomena of work crossing where homology changes suddenly and also this sometimes contribution fractional contribution or nonintegral contribution you get and both of this has something to do with the fact that there is a continuum sector so that continuum sector you have to treat it very carefully right since it's not discrete spectrum it might depend on how you regularize that integral that sum, continuous sum and in particular in this examples I was showing what's generically happening is remember there was this parameter c and at c equal 0 something happens so positive could see you have one cohomology negative could see you have a different cohomology and from the physics term the reason that happens is because there is a direction in this dynamics that mathematicians do not usually look at physicists call it Coulomb phase there is asymptotic Coulomb phase along which plane wave like state can propagate so you have a continuum of state that possible above certain energy and that energy is dictated exactly by this parameter c so when this is somewhere up finite you can identify this piece very easily so in particular you can scale up this c to infinity without affecting ground state sector that's sitting there and that's how you do compute the index usually in such a system where you have finite gap so in fact work crossing happens precisely because as you approach c equal to 0 in your parameter space this continuum touches ground state and of course on the other side it will go up but sometimes leave behind some extra state or take some extra ground state with it go up and that's why you have work crossing happens precisely when this parameter is 0 so that's why we see pictures like this but in each chambers because of this gap we know how to deal with this continuum easily and that's why we have this integral numbers at the end of the day without worrying about on a log of this one quarter earlier okay Can you say more what is the horizontal axis? Oh sorry so this is what we call Coulomb axis and this is an expectation value of your vector multiplied scholars so in mathematics literature they do not usually look at that direction because they just gauge away and usually you look at Hicks part what we call Hicks part of the theory so Both of these are Coulomb branches so these are Coulomb branches This part also What do you mean this part? I'm just displaying one axis for illustration so The blue and green is just the wave Oh I see this is a wave that propagating along this Sorry So arrow probably I should have done wavy lines Sorry about that So what this means this having something like this means that even though I wanted to compute this integers or integral coefficient polynomial you cannot quite do that you end up with theory where this parameter or this 갭 is absent And in fact this very first example I told you where I got 5 over 4 is an example where I do not have a parameter like this naturally I could introduce this massive deformation you suggested but that's not the original problem original dynamics I want to stick to original dynamics Now original dynamics does not have anything like this So this continuum come down and give you something funny that you should be you want to be able to get rid of So generically this localization computation pass integral computation do not give you integral things However as I was giving you this 5 over 4 example it's not this additional piece you get is not just arbitrary real number it's 1 over 4 In fact it's 1 over 2 squared if you know how to do there is a reason for that So let's understand that reason So we will come back to same set of problem arbitrary gauge group but now we have a new device to compute what's left hand side of this say on a log of Attyapater this thing of theorem So we will compute this omega quantity and for supersymmetry 4 and 8 you do this computation you get these rational functions old computation you should think of it is analogous to have doing the same computation except you set equilibrium parameter to nothing which means y equal 1 therefore this give you 1 over square SU3 give you 1 over 9 SU4 give you 1 over 16 this give you 1 over n square So I'm essentially reproducing 20-year old numbers in the new method but I have extra information here because this refinement allowed me to distinguish this not only by numerical factors but by this linearly independent rational functions Remember it was SUN was fine but it's SO, SP and others that were problematic So let me redo that computation in this way This is going to be different from the old computation So the rational functions I get is something like this for rank 2, rank 3, rank 4 you have these complicated things What is it? You need to understand the structure You need to understand the structure of this first and here is the answer if you believe this or not The old rational expression you can package into the following thing given a simple regroup G its vial group is this so this is cardinality of vial group dividing the entire thing and you sum over element of your vial group but not everything but something called elliptic vial elements only that means when it acts on the root lattice it leaves no direction invariant no eigenvalue 1 so this apparently is called elliptic vial in fact I haven't seen this elliptic vial too many places I don't know if mathematicians use this much or not but you do this sum you do determinant and every single one of them has this shape so why is that? in fact remember this one quarter I was saying I have this funny way of computing it and that was taken up by Katz and Smilga two years later for arbitrarily simple algebra and in fact this was what they obtained back then with y equal 1 this is elliptic vial and the reason that happens is this so as I was saying I want the integral thing but I can compute only bulk thing which is small beta limit of this expression what I have computed just now is actually a different limit small coupling constant limit of the same path integral on the other hand both beta and e square are dimension for things and it doesn't really make much sense to send a dimension for quantity to 0 you have to find what is dimensionless combination and that combination is this so what this means is this is actually computing this quantity that I computed long time ago and on the other hand this is the problem where you expect no bound state at all because of smaller supersymmetry and then this should be 0 so this computation the end result of this computation has to be same as minus of this and that minus of this was expressed this way when y was 1 so you can have guess make intelligence guess what this expression should be so that's what we wrote down and every single one of them indeed agree what is the upshot of this story? upshot of this story is remember I had two a way of computing the left hand side that Vasily did for arbitrarily simply algebra and I had a way of computing the right hand side in such a way that this should cancel against it there was small discrepancy I have a new way of computing left hand side and remember the small list example where discrepancy happen was sp2 or equal SO5 so same the algebra and therefore it has same expression same bile group and therefore it has same expression and you evaluate this at y equal 1 you get 5 over 32 and this was the number I needed to cancel the other number so for the moment let's forget that there was this other conflicting numbers but just try to trust this number and then this number equal that number and therefore this index that you wanted is zero so that's consistent with anticipation that no bound state exist for smaller supersymmetry so let's buy this for now and then go on to n equal 16 version of that problem maximal supersymmetry version so this is the problem where index the integers you wanted is not zero it has particular prediction coming from m theory and you do this and everything there is this bunch of rational function that follows and every single one of this would have interpretation as coming from particular continuum sector so what we do is compute do the localization and compute this left hand side and you get horribly, horribly complicated rational function look up what kind of things can enter on the right hand side using the same procedure I used for n equal 4 and 16 4 and 8 and ask is the unique decomposition of this kind and indeed there is a unique decomposition and for various up to rank 4 we did a computation you have this unique decomposition in every one of them so the integers in the first line is the bound state number or index the integral index you wanted to find so those are real answer every single thing that follows is analog of this 5 over 32 it's a result of particular continuum state in this asymptotically three problem where you have plane wave going out to infinity so at the moment I'm interested once I know how to blame every single one of these to particular physics sector only thing that remains is these integers and I try to extract those integers and in particular I try to extract integers I need to conform this empty hypothesis the other set of hypothesis that was never conformed and I get these numbers this is not much I have how many integers eight integers however these integers are consistent with this conjecture that was given around 1999 again this is physics conjecture Hanani and Company said this must be the right number otherwise there is a problem with M-theory and these numbers matches precisely with numbers here this is not a proof because I did only up to rank 4 but it's not that difficult to imagine that this will persist down the road okay so that confirms this M-theory again I mean somebody like me of course think M-theory do exist so it's not really necessary but this one extra block of evidence that says M-theory do exist oh by the way I mean this fractional structure that we see this rational functions we see is not something that's accidental it has been seen in all kind of other places in particular it has been seen in the word crossing formula or I should say solutions to word crossing concept which serves as word crossing formula is naturally phrased in terms of rational quantity like this this is the exactly same rational function you saw in the SUN case and this is the index of quiver like this we are I mean when I say quiver I assign integers for every single node so if this quiver if this ends have common divisors okay then you have to have this sum and then you have to acquire this fractional pieces physics is exactly same as SUN problem and what the computation suggests is it's path integral computation of this compute precisely this rational invariant and then that allowed me to extract the integer part integer quantity by doing reverse of this thing using the so-called Mabius function which I learned only very recently this inverse nice inversion formula like this and then you do the computation and indeed you get integral quantity out of this path integral which is your fractional quantities so there are tons of things I would like to do with this but you might have noticed that I have examples only up to rank 4 and that's essentially given by computational power I have because this so-called Jeffrey Kewan residue is just horrendous thing once we have large number of charged particles in the problem so we would like to understand asymptotic large n version of this better but I don't think such a thing exist yet and except some very simple problem like QCD type problems now so as I promised I need to tell you what happened 15 years ago so I said I claim that I have two set of numbers that matches precisely so that I end up with integer 0, 1, 2, whatever such that everything is consistent but this goes against what I said like 30 minutes ago there was a problem there was different way of computing back then like this I have these fractional numbers I have these fractional numbers this number is not quite the same and if you look at it carefully left hand side is always larger or equal than the right hand side so this suggests we are missing pieces on the right hand side so remember how I got this I start with one dimensional quantum mechanics problem I do some small beta that is small Euclidean circle version of the path integral shrink this circle and end up with IKKT type matrix integral and this is the result of that matrix integral and when I saw these numbers initially I said oh they must be wrong they did a mistake but Stadak for example in 2002 I mean he must have been a little bit uneasy with these numbers he came back he teamed up with a Monte Carlo person and tried to do this integral numerically by Monte Carlo and came to the conclusion with for example this number is accurate within a part in 1000 so I cannot ignore that so what I did about a year ago is redo this computation in the new Jeffrey Kiran residue method so there is a version of doing this in this new a matrix integral technology that give you Jeffrey Kiran residue and in my mind it's a sort of I have relatively rigorous physics wise rigorous way of doing this in fact it's mathematically rigorous because it's no longer path integral and I try to get these numbers out of that computation and voila I get these numbers again so it's not the computation that is problematic it's physics wise something is missing or mathematics wise so this is the number I just gave you I claim that I have obtained by doing this localization where I take a different limit small coupling limit this is the number you get out of this elliptic biosum this is number you get out of this IKKT matrix integral this agrees with this giving me zero this number does not agree with this so what are we missing so it has to mean only thing only logical possibility that's left behind is that maybe the quantity I wanted to compute the small beta limit is not computed by this matrix integral that's only logical possibility that remained but if you think about it a little actually it's amazing that that didn't happen in general you see this mechanics path integral or heat kernel computation you do in small beta limit and as I said small beta limit is like time disappears so we replace mechanics by matrix integral on the other hand one of the non-trivial thing happens is A0 the gauge connection along the time but because it lives on a circle gauge connection itself or its holonomy values in circle so it actually lives on a circle however when by the time I get there what I do is replace this circle by an infinite line I pretend A0 was one of the scarlet field or joint scarlet field so what when I do that what I'm really doing is replace this large holonomy circle by a line but circle does not equal line topology is different there is a problem potential problem here so what really happens is something like this along this circle in fact there are not one place but many different places where I this place give you one matrix model this place give you another matrix model this place give you another matrix model in fact this actually happened for SUN what happens in SUN is depends on how you define your mechanics there are actually n such places displaced by center of the SUN so depending on whether you are careful about whether you do SUN or SUN mode ZN in one version if you do SUN in the beginning then you actually have n such identical holonomic centers so you acquire numerical factor n in front and without that factor n you end up with a complete nonsense So how do you get this yellow point? So let me give you answer in more general setting So generally these are places where when you do dimensional reduction with this holonomy value assumed as a background you do not have any free u1 factor in the remaining degrees of freedom and in this problem what that translate mathematically is that these are holonomy values where unbroken gauge group is maximal non-habilian subgroup so remember how you obtain those you take a thinking diagram make it extended thinking diagram and you cross out one circle that's the way you obtain maximal non-habilian subgroup and all such holonomy that give you maximal non-habilian subgroup contribute it turns out and any other point does not contribute because of this small beta limit So using this for SPSUSO you can sort of look for those maximal non-habilian subgroup those are those things and you have this finite sum and remember that I have bunch of fractional numbers on the right hand side which was slightly smaller than the numbers I wanted so you put in these smaller numbers on the right hand side sum and try to see you recover the numbers these fractional numbers you wanted and indeed every single case it works out in particular Basile's paper have a conjecture on individual of these SO and SP I mean although he did explicit computation for small rank up to rank 4 I think or rank 6 but he has actually a conjectured answer for this for arbitrary version and that works out perfectly every single one of them so this is why you are missing 1 over 64 in SO5 example for example so it's not that computation was wrong it was missing piece and actually I have to confess that that's my fault I mean when I did it when Sadie and Stun did it we were not very careful we said oh this must be matrix integral at the end of day and that was took up by Muonakrasov-Shatashvili and they were very successful for SUN and then that was took up by Stadako and etc so it's really our fault we should have been a little bit more careful back then now in remaining five minutes of course this is was personally very satisfying because I ended up solving all the remaining problem I started out solving back then not mathematically but physically at least but I have a bonus this saddle thing I mean this I think people I mean in old times notice this sort of thing might happen in some cases but they keep forgetting about it I think and I was forgetting about it but this is very important now because these days we compute all kinds of localization computation for higher dimensional gaze theories super conformal index A twisted version of that there are all kind of partition function people now can compute very explicitly and whenever they try to relate say for example four dimensional such partition function to three dimensional partition function you always have to invoke a circle very small size circle and there is a relation you want to understand there and whenever you have a gaze theory on a circle you have to have a holonomic circle but if you do dimensional reduction you just keep this guy and nothing else and this will give you completely misleading picture of small circle limit so in this right so generically what happens it turns out D dimensional manifold on some supersymmetric manifold where you can define global supersymmetry S1 times some manifold in four dimension this is typically what we call cyphot manifold you compute this take small vector limit and try to express that in terms of three dimensional partition function on M but there is typically a co-option that is not entirely determined by this theory it's determined by relation between this four dimensional theory and three dimensional theory and this is typically exponential piece and the co-option of exponent is called cardic exponent what people initially try to look at is really look at this guy trivial holonomy expand around it and get some expression there but it is very clear that you should not do that it might be that this is the dominant contribution to this but maybe this is the dominant contribution you never know until you do the computation so in particular the particular version of this where this is torus I'm computing written index again and what this tells me is written index of four dimensional gauge theory is actually sum of written index in three dimensional gauge theory in a very particular manner so I mean people who did this sort of game long time ago should remember same set of field four dimension, three dimension you end up with completely different indices generically this only happens this doesn't happen for SUN is that your statement? no I mean SUN when I was saying SUN it was in adjoint only theories so generically this happens so SUN adjoint only was very exceptional and we were very lucky 22 years ago to be able to look at that particular problem so this happens all the time and then we have a way of gluing say three dimensional supersymmetric theory to bunch of them to a single four dimensional supersymmetric theory I think this is very important idea and in fact this also explains wall crossing that happens in 1D which does not happen to this exactly same if you're sitting on the right place you do not miss holonomic saddle if you are sitting in some wrong place you miss holonomic saddle and that's why one dimension and two dimension is completely different behavior another implication is suppose you have a dual pair so called cyber dual pair in one say four dimension where you have two different theory apparently yet partition function agree with each other you do the same to small radius limit what you end up is bunch of duality in three dimensions because you have to have sort of one-to-one match there so that give me another systematic way of discovering multiple duality in 3D starting from one single four dimensional duality things like this has been noticed by the way collaboration of Aroni, Razzamad and Cyborg several years ago but all of this is you can sort of understand everything in terms of holonomic saddle 카디 exponon as I was saying earlier I mean let me oh my time is up as I expected there is actually a very nice set of partition function invented by Closet, Kim and Willett and it's something like this configuration you have T251 over eight so called eight twisted Riemannian surface that defines bunch of partition function and it's sort of matter of trying to find in this sigma in this two dimensional remainder the what we call Coulombic back cure like this and how they cluster this clustering of back cure is essentially holonomic saddle phenomena and for example given multiple saddle whose location is labeled by this fractional number epsilon or not fractional number it's number I think it's fractional numbers in general between zero and one you get card exponent of this type and those of you who follow this story should remember that B.T. Pietra and Comagos he made a very beautiful suggestion several years ago that this card exponent is simply given by say in conformal theory case conformal anomaly A-C what this tells you is that that's simply wrong if you stick in there and if it is dominant that's the right answer but typically that's not the dominant place it's elsewhere that's dominant and typically this number is larger than this number but when you have the representation of gaze group is relatively simple suppose fundamentals only with the S-U-N or U-N these other saddle tends to be sort of relatively suppressed but you do have such a sector you cannot forget about that sector where something similar happens with super conformal index but this is probably not the crowd so that's the end of story in empty early hypothesis this game of trying to find or not find threshold bound state I think this closed an entire chapter and I was very happy to do it myself this notion of H-Seder is not just for quantum mechanics but is any gauge theory it's very important idea I think and it meticulously this allows to glue supersymmetric gauge theory in the adjacent dimensions and this might be useful something I don't know exactly what there is even more speculative question about what is on a low in tensor theory but I think that's going too far here thank you Thank you Mr. Remark When you say it closes a sector in M-Theory but it confirms for the n equal to 16 phase everything is good so what is finally confirmed? So what? Well, I mean confirmation I guess is that there is no obvious contradiction to M-Theory hypothesis as I said all of this is necessary conditions rather than sufficient condition so there was this SUN problem which we have confirmed 20 years ago then there was turns out to be ON and SP N on a log of it somebody should have done it and I was happy that I was the one who did it I'm sure there are a lot of other things about M-Theory that we need to learn more but this is one small maybe I should have called it subsection not a chapter but yeah So eventually other compute numbers for exceptional E67 Very good as I was saying we were sort of our capacity was with this Jeffrey Q1 computation So right hand side this rational expression we of course have it question is can we do this Jeffrey Q1 computation for the exceptional case? The highest we went to is SP4 rank 4 we try to do F4 and thing wouldn't just come out I think I need supercomputer to do that or maybe you can invent better way of doing the counter integral probably they see G2 we did it and it comes out and we have a number I don't know if it has any prediction from anywhere else but we do have a number I think it's 2 So back to 2002 for n equals 4 for the simpler case the computer stopped at E7 it couldn't do E8 Did we try we did E6 I remember I don't know whether we try this 7 actually But yes but today computers are bigger but the computation is more complex I think is that I mean this old counter prescription that you used and Microsoft invented is actually much simpler than JK Residue if you look at actual set of residue So I think one of the important thing along this line is to find a better residue prescription conceptually because by the time we have F4 I think number of charge bacteria I think 48, 52 something like that and we are stuck at the stage of classifying the pores not the residue computation So we need a better way of doing a contact badly I guess you discussed the case with 16 supersumdries and 4 and 8 but what about the 2 case which was once a D plus 2 in my Actually that's the problem I'm working on although you might find it's strange that n equal 2 should be easiest right there's something funny going on which I noticed even back in 97 with n equal 2 I mean of course Yen demonstrated there is no such bound state at all I think that's it yeah yeah yeah and yeah I mean there is something interesting because of smaller supersymmetry I don't know exactly what's going on there let me say I'm working on it yes but there is no as far as I know string theory prediction about the number that's maybe one of the reason nobody looked at it thank you