Jim Hoffman
3210629
221325903
2008-06-24T01:06:44Z
DOI bot
6652755
Citation maintenance. Initiated by [[User:Fconaway|Fconaway]]. You can [[WP:DOI|use this bot]] yourself! Please [[User:DOI_bot/bugs|report any bugs]].
'''Jim Hoffman''' is a [[software engineer]] in [[Alameda, California|Alameda]], [[California]], who has worked in [[scientific visualization]] and was instrumental in producing the first visualization of Costa's [[minimal surface]]. His scientific visualizations have been published in ''[[Scientific American]]'' and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', among other journals.
Following the [[September 11, 2001 attacks]], Hoffman published several websites challenging the mainstream theory of the 9/11 attacks, challenges often referred to as "conspiracy theories."<ref name="meigs">{{cite news |url=http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4199607.html |title=The Conspiracy Industry |author=Meigs, James B. |publisher=Popular Mechanics |date=October 13, 2006}}</ref><ref name=nym>{{cite news|first = Jacobson|last = Mark|url = http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/16464/index4.html|title = The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll|work = Feature|publisher = New York Magazine, Inc.|date = 2006-03-27|accessdate = 2006-08-25}}</ref><ref name = repudiations>{{cite web | last = Hoffman | first = Jim | title = Repudiations | url = http://911research.wtc7.net/re911/repudiations.html#conspiracy_theorist | date = March 1, 2007 | accessdate = 2007-03-13}}</ref> His primary website, [http://911research.wtc7.net 9-11 Research], serves as an archive of documentation and alternative analyses about the attacks.<ref name="salon">{{cite news|first = Farhad|last = Manjoo|url = http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/06/27/911_conspiracies/index_np.html|title = The 9/11 deniers|work = Feature|publisher = Salon.com, Inc.|date = 2006-06-27|accessdate = 2006-08-21}}</ref> Hoffman has also written numerous technical essays<ref name="salon"/> which focus on the [[controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center]].
==Mathematics==
Jim Hoffman has worked in applying scientific visualization of mathematics, which was instrumental in the discovery of the first new examples of complete, [[Minimal surface|embedded minimal surfaces]] in over one hundred years. As described by Stewart Dickson:
:"By the 1890s the study of minimal surfaces was thought to be exhausted — no new surfaces could be described mathematically which were non-self-intersecting (embedded) in three-space and which had vanishing mean curvature. However, in 1983 a graduate student in Rio de Janeiro named Celso Costa wrote down an equation for what he thought might be a new minimal surface, but the equations were so complex that they obscured the underlying geometry. David Hoffman at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst enlisted James Hoffman to make computer-generated pictures of Costa's surface. The pictures they made suggested, first, that the surface was probably embedded— which gave them definite clues as to the approach they should take toward proving this assertion mathematically— and, second, that the surface contained straight lines, hence symmetry by reflection through the lines."<ref> [http://vr.coe.ecu.edu/vrits/vris1-4.htm Article on scientific visualization]</ref>
Hoffman's work has been featured in articles in ''[[Science News]]'', ''[[Scientific American]]'', and ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'', and he has co-authored papers in ''[[Science (magazine)|Science]]'' and ''Macromolecules''.<ref>[http://911research.wtc7.net/re911/about.html#who 9-11 Research - About 9-11 Research]</ref> He is credited with involvement in the discovery of new, three-dimensional [[Mathematical morphology|morphologies]] for modeling block co-polymers<ref>[http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=62959.62961&coll=GUIDE&dl=&idx=J79&part=periodical&WantType=periodical&title=Communications%20of%20the%20ACM&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618 Computer graphics tools for the study of minimal surfaces]</ref>, such as the Split-P surface (a hybrid of the P and G triply periodic surfaces)<ref> [http://www.msri.org/about/sgp/jim/papers/morphbysymmetry/splitp/index.html The Split P Surface]</ref>, and derived the first level set formulation for the Lidinoid surface.<ref> [http://www.msri.org/about/sgp/jim/papers/morphbysymmetry/lidinoid/index.html The Lidinoid Surface] </ref>
He also is co-author of a patent for an [[internal combustion engine]] with increased thermal efficiency.<ref>[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsrchnum.htm&Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&r=1&l=50&f=G&d=PALL&s1=4584972.PN.&OS=PN/4584972&RS=PN/4584972 US Patent & Trademark Office, Patent Full Text and Image Database - patent 4,584,972]</ref>
==September 11, 2001 attacks==
{{911tm}}
Since early 2003,<ref>[http://www.911research.wtc7.net/re911/hoffman.html 9-11 Research - About Jim Hoffman]</ref> Hoffman has been writing about the [[collapse of the World Trade Center]] (WTC) and other aspects of the September 11, 2001 attacks, which he believes involved insiders within the United States government.<ref>[http://911review.com/reason.html 9-11 Research - The 9/11/01 Attack: Means, Motive, and Precedent]</ref> He is co-author, with Don Paul, of ''Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City'', and the video, released in February, 2006, ''9/11 Guilt: The Proof is in Your Hands''. He has also given talks and been interviewed on radio shows across the US and Canada.<ref> [http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/index.html 9-11 Research - Talks and Radio Interviews]</ref> His work has examined the collapse of the smaller [[7 World Trade Center]], and he is critical of the official explanation of that collapse. Hoffman has also written a critique of the official [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] ([[NIST]]) report on the building collapses,<ref>[http://www.911research.wtc7.net/essays/nist/index.html 9-11 Research - Building a Better Mirage: NIST's 3-Year $20,000,000 Cover-Up of the Crime of the Century]</ref> a critique of the 2006 NIST FAQ,<ref>[http://www.911research.wtc7.net/reviews/nist/WTC_FAQ_reply.html A Reply to the National Institute for Standards and Technology's 'Answers to Frequently Asked Questions']</ref> and critiques<ref>[http://www.911research.wtc7.net/essays/sciam/index.html 9-11 Research - Scientific American's Dishonest Attack On 911Research]</ref><ref>[http://www.911research.wtc7.net/essays/pm/index.html 9-11 Research - Popular Mechanics Attacks Its "9/11 LIES" Straw Man]</ref> of articles about the [[9/11 conspiracy theories]] by the [[popular-science]] magazines ''[[Scientific American]]'' and ''[[Popular Mechanics]]''. The Editor of ''Popular Mechanics'', formerly of [[Entertainment Weekly]], James B. Meigs, describes Hoffman as a "leading conspiracy theorist."<ref>{{cite web|first = James B.|last = Meigs|year = 2006 |url = http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4199607.html|title = The Conspiracy Industry |work = Science |publisher = Hearst Communications, Inc. |accessdate = 2006-10-16}}</ref>
Hoffman has disputed the [[9/11 conspiracy theories#.22No_plane.22 theories|"No Crash" theory]] concerning [[The Pentagon]] and in an interview with Salon, alleged ad hominen attacks on [[conspiracy theorist]]s, stating, “This is just the sort of wackiness defenders of the Official Story harp on to show how gullible and incompetent we conspiracy theorists are supposed to be.”<ref name="salon">{{cite news|first = Farhad|last = Manjoo|url = http://www.salon.com/ent/feature/2006/06/27/911_conspiracies/index_np.html|title = The 9/11 deniers|work = Feature|publisher = Salon.com, Inc.|date = 2006-06-27|accessdate = 2006-08-21}}</ref>
Dr. [[Steven E. Jones]], a [[physicist]] formerly with [[Brigham Young University]], has credited Hoffman's WTC7.net website and described his work as an inspiration for conducting his own analysis of the WTC building collapses. Hoffman's book and websites are cited in Jones' essay "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?".<ref> [http://www.wtc7.net/articles/stevenjones_b7.html "Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?" by Steven E. Jones]</ref> Hoffman has also been cited by author [[David Ray Griffin]].<ref> {{cite book| last = Ray Griffin| first = David | year = 2004| title = The New Pearl Harbor| publisher = Interlink | id = ISBN 1-56656-552-9}}</ref>
Hoffman has been very critical of what he considers the more extreme 9/11 conspiracy theories. In particular he does not endorse the theory that the [[The Pentagon|Pentagon]] was hit by something other than an airplane,<ref>[http://911research.wtc7.net/re911/noplanes.html 9-11 Research - 9-11 Research Does Not Endorse No-Jetliner Theories]</ref> and his website has a detailed critique of the documentary ''[[Loose Change (video)|Loose Change]]''.<ref>[http://911research.wtc7.net/reviews/loose_change/index.html 9-11 Research - Sifting Through Loose Change: The 9-11 Research Companion to Loose Change Second Edition]</ref>
==9/11 Guilt: The Proof Is In Your Hands==
In a 2006 DVD collaboration with [[Don Paul]], ''9/11 Guilt: The Proof is in Your Hands'', Hoffman produced a section entitled 'Proving Controlled Demolition of World Trade Center Building 7 and the Twin Towers.'<ref>[http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/905/ Toward Freedom - 9/11 Guilt: An Interview with DVD Producer Don Paul<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In his presentation, Hoffman offers five "features" and then five 'proofs' of demolition along with some pointed graphics. "He shows beyond question, I think, that all three buildings were taken down by different methods of controlled demolition," according to Paul, who added "The Twin Towers were exploded as no buildings have been before or since and about seven hours later World Trade Center Building 7 was imploded in a classic, conventional demolition."<ref> Toward Freedom: [http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/905/ 9/11 Guilt: An Interview with DVD Producer Don Paul]</ref>
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Publications==
* {{cite journal | author=Callahan, M. J., Hoffman,D. & Hoffman, J. T. | title=Computer graphics tools for the study of minimal surfaces | journal=Communications of the ACM Archive | year=1988 | volume=31 | pages=648–661 | doi=10.1145/62959.62961}}
* {{cite journal | author=Anderson, D. M., Bellare, J., Hoffman, J. T. , Hoffman, D., Gunther, J. & Thomas, E. L. | title=Algorithms for the simulation of two-dimensional projections from structures determined by dividing surfaces | journal=Journal of Colloid and Interface Science | year=1992 | volume=148 | pages=398–414 | doi=10.1016/0021-9797(92)90179-P}}
* {{cite journal | author=David Hoffman | title=A New Turn for Archimedes | journal=Nature | year=1996 | volume=384}}
* {{cite journal | author=Hoffman et al | title=Ordered Bicontinuous Nanoporous and Nanorelief Ceramic Films from Self Assembling Polymer Precursors | journal=Science | year=1999 | volume=286 (5445) | pages=1716–1719 | url=http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/286/5445/1716 | pmid=10576734 | doi=10.1126/science.286.5445.1716 | format=abstract}}
* {{cite journal | author=Hoffman et al | title=Triply Periodic Bicontinuous Cubic Microdomain Morphologies by Symmetries | journal=Macromolecules | year=October 2001| volume=34 (17)| pages=6083–6089| url=http://0-pubs.acs.org.lib1.npttc.edu.tw/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/mamobx/2001/34/i17/abs/ma0019499.html | format=abstract }}
*Hoffman, Jim and Paul, Don. ''"Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City"'' ISBN 0943096103
==See also==
* [[Steven E. Jones]]
* [[David Ray Griffin]]
* [[9/11 Truth Movement]]
* [[Collapse of the World Trade Center]]
* [[Controlled demolition hypothesis for the collapse of the World Trade Center]]
==External links==
===Websites designed by Hoffman===
* [http://www.msri.org/about/sgp/SGP/index.html Scientific Graphics Project], now hosted by the [[Mathematical Sciences Research Institute]]
* [http://911review.com/ 911review.com] - "9-11 Review: A Resource for Understanding the 9/11/01 Attack"
* [http://911research.wtc7.net/ 911research.wtc7.net] - "9-11 Research: An Attempt to Uncover the Truth About September 11th, 2001"
* [http://wtc7.net/ wtc7.net] - "wtc7.net - The unexplained collapse of Building 7"
===Audio===
* Visibility 9-11 interviews Jim Hoffman in two parts. [http://visibility911.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=99562 Part one], and [http://visibility911.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=101683 part two]. (September 2006)
* [http://www.suesupriano.com/donpaul-jimhoffman.html SueSupriano.com] - 'Don Paul - Jim Hoffman', interviewed by Sue Supriano ([[November 3]] [[2003]])
* [http://www.google.com/search?q=20060104-Wed1300.mp3 Guns and Butter] - interview [[September 28]] [[2005]]
===Video===
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5721945375919981724&q=%22jim+hoffman%22&hl=en] - Jim Hoffman WTC 9/11 Demolition Analysis video
{{911ct}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Jim}}
[[Category:American mathematicians]]
[[Category:American writers]]
[[Category:Geometers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists]]
[[fr:Jim Hoffman]]