Yum!
June 7, 2007
June 6, 2007
"I didn’t know how the book would end."
Graying duo keep passenger in check – The Boston Globe
Hooray for graying geezers.
Hayden’s wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from “The Richest Man in Babylon,” the book she was reading.
“The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading,” Katie Hayden said. “Bob’s been shot at. He’s been stabbed. He’s taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody’s neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn’t know how the book would end.”
The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
SourGrapes commented I can’t wait to see what you’re going to make of a mash-up of Baudrillard, Aristotle and Robert-Houdin.
The mash-up already exists: I’m reading a book the YYG told me I should read: The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas.
I’ve taken to scratching notes when I come across something interesting, unknown, strange. I stopped reading for a while this afternoon to hunt down some of the “unknown”s on the Web.
Also in my notes are some turns of phrase:
- Monday morning and the sky is the color of sad weddings
- it looks like the kind of place you’d come to when you’d retired or given up on life in some other way
Huh? Retiring is the same as giving up on life? Whatever. She’s far younger than I am.
And, sure, I know. That writing may be a bit self-conscious. “the color of sad weddings” tweaks my mind in a fashion similar to “The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”
In both cases, you’re pretty sure the writer thinks he’s too clever by half, but he is.
More random sites in the next few days, probably. (I only brought up the first collection of notes and there’s probably 4/5ths of the book left to go. …)
The book’s an amazing amalgam of references, everything from Paley’s watch to Lamarck v Darwin, Erewhon (which I’ll now have to go and reread for the first time since I was eighteen), Derrida and Edgar Allan Poe.
June 5, 2007
[URL] www.arachnoid.com: a playground for thinkers
OK. This site is just plain mind-stretching. I came to it from the discussion of Olbers’ paradox.
Subtitled “a playground for thinkers,” this site has articles ranging from science to philosophy to bumperstickers to programming. The index is a breeze to use. The site is full of fascinating stuff.
Dip in: www.arachnoid.com
Olbers’ Paradox: Why is the Sky Dark at Night?
In 1826, the astronomer Heinrich Olbers asked, “Why is the sky dark at night?” By his time, physicists had learned enough to realize that, in a stable, infinite universe with an even distribution of stars, the entire universe should gradually heat up. Think about it — if there are stars generating energy throughout the universe (energy sources), and if there is no way ultimately to dispose of that energy (energy sinks), then all the objects in the universe must rise in temperature, in time achieving the temperature of the stars themselves.
Scientists and physicists had to learn quite a lot about the behavior of energy before they were even prepared to ask Olbers’ question. In fact, for millennia the dark night sky provided an answer to a question no one thought to ask.
In these pages you will learn the simple physics behind Olbers’ question, some of the answers that have been proposed, and the currently accepted answer. You will also discover the connection between a rubber band, your refrigerator, and the universe.
(Found while looking for information on Olbers’ Paradox, natch.)
Spirits, Art, and the Fourth Dimension, by Bryan Clair
Interesting article at the STRANGE HORIZONS site: Spirits, Art, and the Fourth Dimension, by Bryan Clair.
(Found when searching for information on Zöllner and the controversy over his 1878 book Transcendental Physics, which argued that Henry Slade‘s spirits were real and had to be operating in the fourth dimension.)
[URL] HyperPhysics
HyperPhysics, “a continually developing base of instructional material in physics.”
Amazing collection of physics-related information.
(Found whilst looking for information on The Michelson-Morley experiment, which drove a stake into the heart of the theory of a luminiferous aether|ether back in 1887.)
[URL] Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Free! No subscription required.
Welcome to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP). From its inception, the SEP was designed so that each entry is maintained and kept up to date by an expert or group of experts in the field. All entries and substantive updates are refereed by the members of a distinguished Editorial Board before they are made public. Consequently, our dynamic reference work maintains academic standards while evolving and adapting in response to new research. You can cite fixed editions that are created on a quarterly basis and stored in our Archives (every entry contains a link to its complete archival history, identifying the fixed edition the reader should cite). The Table of Contents lists entries that are published or assigned. The Projected Table of Contents also lists entries which are currently unassigned but nevertheless projected.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Projected Table of Contents
(Found while looking for a précis of Aristotle’s metaphora.)
(Have I mentioned that I didn’t get too much of this philosophy/sociology/lit stuff when I was getting my biology/chemistry degree? I feel like such a dunce at times. …)
History of automatons, androids and artificial animals
From the Web site of T.I.L. ProductionsSARL (Paris), which specializes in production of videofilms about automata and mechanical music and creation and manufacture of music boxes) comes this History of automatons, androids and artificial animals.
(Found while tracking down information about Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin and his automatons.)
SparkMuseum
Welcome to my “virtual” radio and scientific instruments museum where I display the radios and other items I have collected over the past 35+ years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. I’m always interested in early wireless, radio, scientific and other electrical items up to about 1920 (including books and other publications)
Highlights of Jenkins’ collection.
This site is amazing. A prime example of Web sites offering up a treasure trove of information simply because someone (in this case Jenkins) has a passion for a subject.
(Found whilst searching for information on Geissler tubes.)