Dear Tom,
My ideas are constantly evolving. I think they are scale invariant now, but I have only shared the latest version with Lawrence.
Dear Anon,
My father is a businessman, but there are also Engineers in my family. I am the lone physicist in my family, and have always been torn between Physics and Business. After I finished my Ph.D. in High Energy Physics in 1996, I had two job offers: 1) my friend Prof. Xerxes Tata at the U. of Hawaii offered me a Postdoc, and 2) a teaching position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Mobile (in Mobile, Alabama). Because of family dynamics (closer to home and better pay), I chose Mobile over Hawaii.
I taught at the U of Mobile for three years, and performed research at NASA'a Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama during the summers. I loved life as a teacher. I enjoyed the hours, and I enjoyed being called "Dr. Munroe". My typical Tuesday/Thursday schedule consisted of teaching calculus-based Pre-Engineering Physics at 8 am, non-calculus Pre-Med Physics at 9:30 am, and non-technical Physical Science at 11 am. I typically taught Laboratories on Mondays and Wednesdays. I worked my office hours around the rest of my schedule, and was usually off by 3 pm and on Fridays. Typically, I had about an extra 25 hours a week worth of prep time and grading that I would often do at home, but I loved having long weekends, and I loved being able to go to the gym at a reasonable time of day.
Family dynamics forced me back to Tallahassee, Florida and back into the family business in 1999. I continued to teach Introductory Astronomy at nights as an Adjunct Instructor at Tallahassee Community College from 2000 until 2003. If I could make the same money teaching that I make as the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, I would teach. I eventually gave up teaching to make more time for my personal research. At the time, I was finishing up my Quantum Statistical Grand Unified Theory (QSGUT) and working on an alternative rocket engine with my great-uncle, the Engineer. I tried to publish QSGUT in respectable journals. My first choice was Phys Rev D because my prior publications had been in that journal. They simply said that my QSGUT paper was "not appropriate" for their journal. I would have appreciated some detailed constructive criticism, but I never recieved much. I also submitted the paper to EPJC with the same response. After two years of being rejected, I finally decided to self-publish my ideas on Lulu.com.
My publications in CS&F were not planned - they just happened. I wrote a paper at Nasr Ahmed's request for Newcastle University's Dept. of Math & Statistics Postgraduate Magazine. Nasr thought it was too advanced for the magazine, but he forwarded it to M.S. El Naschie, and El Naschie wanted to put in CS&F. The same happened to the second paper that I sent to Nasr. Finally, I wrote a non-technical paper that Nasr used in the magazine. IMHO, El Naschie has been fair with me and I would like to return the favor. I have not bought E-Infinity Theory "hook, line and sinker" because I think there are flaws in this theory. But don't worry, I think I can fix it.
I love FQXi because it allows an isolated physicist like me to share ideas with other intellegent people. Dr. Lawrence Crowell and I are working together. His knowledge of General Relativity and Mathematics complements my knowledge of Particle Physics and Solid State Physics.
Have Fun!
Ray
