rofessor Hamblin's Cousin, Thomas Pilar

ome time ago Baron Von Lodge was the head of a small country near Switzerland known as Lilliland.

The Baron and his fiancée, Lady Angela of Alpine Castle, often wondered if they go directly to Professor Hamblin for his advice and council, then where does the Professor go with his concerns?

When they asked the Professor that question, he promptly said, “Why, to Cousin Thomas.” He reminded the Baron and Lady Angela that his cousin Thomas was a professor at Oxford University and Professor Hamblin often took his vacation time away from Lilliland to visit his cousin.

The unique thing about Cousin Thomas was that he believed that many of the personal, state, and national problems could be solved by the application of mathematical numbers. He would evaluate each major point in a concern and reach a decision with a number. The number would be larger if the point was more significant and a lesser number would be used for a trivial point. Then, by carefully reviewing the weight of each number, and using a formula for adding and dividing by the number of significant issues, a solution may come into focus.

It sounded relatively simple, but there was a lot more to it than just that. That was the essence of his decision-making process.

Cousin Thomas was highly regarded as brilliant among his peers at the university and across the world, in the field of applying mathematics to numerous situations.

Professor Pilar thought that most major wars were started with poor prognosis about the outcome. The decision and outcome were practically predetermined before the first shot was fired.

A fair example was the sinking of the invincible Spanish Armada off the coast of Great Britain largely due to very poor weather forecasting. Weather forecasting was largely numerical measurements and predictions. But, if you feel that you are invincible against Mother Nature, you will probably lose again and again.

The Baron asked Professor Hamblin if he ever used his cousin’s number system to solve Lilliland’s problems. Professor Hamblin said, “Of course. Cousin Thomas is my ‘Pilar’ of strength.”