Since high school, I have been collecting quotes wherever I find them: books, songs, films, advertisements, emails, overheard conversations. Initially, they were written in pen, preferably black, on yellow lined pages in a spiral notebook with heavy green cardboard...
The Antikythera Mechanism may be the most fascinating and improbable artifact in human history.
This is my talk on the subject at East Bay Nerd Nite, July 2019. Watch on youtube (click link) for the best viewing experience.
Artists — There are still hundreds of tons (yes, tons) of Bay Bridge steel available, for free, for projects intended for public spaces within California. Other than those guidelines, they are fairly flexible. The next application deadline is coming up (March 2nd) so dream large and build it in steel!
Donald Trump has, without doubt, wrongfooted the old guard and confounded the punditocracy, but these are still early days. It only seems as if the election should be around the corner because the current cycle started two months after the midterms ended. (Don’t get...
have always appreciated the long view and unhurried pace of the Catholic Church.
The time that the Inquisition condemned Galileo for teaching that the earth went around the sun, for instance, in 1633. Even in 1820, long after the Vatican had established their own Observatory, the Church’s chief censor tried to ban publication of a book because it treated heliocentrism as a physical fact. Not until 1992 did the Church officially pardon (sort of) Galileo, and only after a Commission studied the matter for thirteen years.
The ‘magic asterisk’ was imagined into being in 1981, by then CBO Director David Stockman. In order to account for a $44B deficit in Reagan’s proposed budget, he offset the shortfall with a revenue followed by an asterisk and a footnote: ‘Future savings to be identified.’ It threw the hounds off, for a time. One is forced to conclude that investors and financial journalists did not read small print in those days.
My first real game, four against four, at the Palo Alto Polo Club in Argentina, Feb 2015.
I've been thinking about Coach Charles Schmitter lately. He was a true man of the world - he spoke five languages fluently, traveled all seven continents, stayed married for five decades, and taught me a great deal about fencing and many other subjects. Coach was the...
Since the late 1970s, pork consumption has increased nearly sevenfold in China. Half a billion pigs are birthed, raised in metal sheds, killed and eaten each year. The Chinese government subsidizes the industry to the tune of $47 per pig. Each kilogram of pork...
Reuters consistently beats out every other news outlet for intelligent, in-depth coverage of the Syria conflict. Why do the others, including the NYT and the BBC, give the topic such short shrift? Also - what gives with the BBC constantly referring to twitter as if it...