Jim Hoffman

{{na}] Jim Hoffman is a software engineer in Oakland, 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, among other journals.

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Hoffman created several web sites about the attacks and analysis suggesting alternative accounts for the events of that day, often described as 9/11 conspiracy theories. His primary website, 9-11 Research, serves as an archive of documentation and alternative analyses about the attacks. Hoffman has also written numerous technical essays which focus on the World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories.

Mathematics
Jim Hoffman has worked in applying scientific visualization of mathematics, which was instrumental in the discovery of the first new examples of complete, 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."

Hoffman's work has been featured in articles in Science News, Scientific American, and Nature, and he has co-authored papers in Science and Macromolecules. He is credited with involvement in the discovery of new three-dimensional morphologies for modeling block co-polymers, such as the Split-P surface (a hybrid of the P and G triply periodic surfaces) , and derived the first level set formulation for the Lidinoid surface.

Inventions
Hoffman is the co-author of a patent for an internal combustion engine with increased thermal efficiency. He is also the inventor of a solar panel using concentrating photovoltaics for increased efficiency.

September 11, 2001 attacks
Since early 2003, 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. 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. 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, a critique of the 2006 NIST FAQ, and critiques 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."

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?". Hoffman has also been cited by author David Ray Griffin.

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 Pentagon was hit by something other than a jetliner. In an interview with Salon, Hoffman alleged ad hominem attacks on conspiracy theorists, 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.” His website has a detailed critique of the 9/11 documentary Loose Change, which suggests that something other than American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

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.' 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. "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."

In 2009, Hoffman wrote three essays to accompany a scientific paper written by Danish chemist Niels H. Harrit, of the University of Copenhagen, and eight other authors, titled, 'Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe', published in The Open Chemical Physics Journal. The paper by Harrit et al., concludes that chips consisting of unreacted and partially reacted super-thermite are present in the samples of the dust Hoffman's essays were written to help explain the findings of the paper to the layperson and to examine a hypothetical scenario involving the Harrit et al. paper's findings.

Publications

 * Hoffman, Jim and Paul, Don. "Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City" ISBN 0943096103
 * Hoffman, James and Ashley, Victoria. California Proposition 7: Redefining renewable energy to concentrate power, The East Bay Express, October 15, 2008.
 * Hoffman, Jim and Paul, Don. "Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City" ISBN 0943096103
 * Hoffman, James and Ashley, Victoria. California Proposition 7: Redefining renewable energy to concentrate power, The East Bay Express, October 15, 2008.
 * Hoffman, Jim and Paul, Don. "Waking up from our Nightmare: The 9/11 Crimes in New York City" ISBN 0943096103
 * Hoffman, James and Ashley, Victoria. California Proposition 7: Redefining renewable energy to concentrate power, The East Bay Express, October 15, 2008.
 * Hoffman, James and Ashley, Victoria. California Proposition 7: Redefining renewable energy to concentrate power, The East Bay Express, October 15, 2008.

Websites designed by Hoffman

 * Scientific Graphics Project, now hosted by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
 * Justice for Woody - Website documenting and analyzing the police shooting of Robert Woodward in Brattleboro, VT in 2001
 * California Photon - Information and resources about renewable energy economy in California and beyond
 * 911review.com - "9-11 Review: A Resource for Understanding the 9/11/01 Attack"
 * 911research.wtc7.net - "9-11 Research: An Attempt to Uncover the Truth About September 11th, 2001"
 * wtc7.net - "wtc7.net - The unexplained collapse of Building 7"

Audio

 * Visibility 9-11 Welcomes 9-11 Researcher Jim Hoffman (August 2009)
 * Visibility 9-11 interviews Jim Hoffman in two parts. Part one, and part two. (September 2006)
 * SueSupriano.com - 'Don Paul - Jim Hoffman', interviewed by Sue Supriano (November 3, 2003)
 * Guns and Butter - interview September 28, 2005

Video

 * - Jim Hoffman WTC 9/11 Demolition Analysis video