reality is not what it seems

Carlo Rovelli picked a great title when he chose Reality is Not What it Seems for this follow up to his Seven Brief Lessons on Physics,* which started out a pamphlet and became an international best seller. Rovelli talks a little bit about this in the introduction; how this book came to be; how people had been asking him to explain the theories of quantum gravity in layman's terms, which he was reluctant to try and do. He did try when pressed, and the result was a small book, but because of its popularity, he was pressed further to expand on that work and the result, he explains, is this book.

I will go ahead and tell you now, that I was quoting phrases, and reading passages out loud to anyone who would listen. my apologies to my family When I finished, I gave the book to my wife and recommended that she read it.

In the first few chapters, Rovelli traces the history of where we are in physics, and our understanding of how the universe works. How scientists and philosophers built upon the work of their predecessors to unlock the secrets of the universe as we know it. Because I am interested in this kind of thing, I had a pretty good idea about where we are and how we got there, but the story that Rovelli tells both provided missing links in the trail of information, extended what I understood and how different theories relate to one another, and in a way that was both succinct, and mesmerizing. Two chapters in and I was hooked.

Rovelli then goes on to describe quantum physics, and what we know about it, building upon what we've learned in the past, until he gets to the point where the theories aren't proven yet, and its still conjecture and competing theses. He points out that there are two main branches of theories, the one he is working on and believes in, and the other, which is string theory. You got me about which is correct, or more correct, but he makes a passionate argument.

Read this Book--I enjoyed it thoroughly--but maybe only if you are interested in this kind of stuff. Its good, but I'm not sure how much general appeal it will have for the less geekily inclined.

* You can download a copy of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by clicking here.

 

 

ii march planning guide

 Sweet, sweet March! said no one, ever

Its that time of year friends; actually its 5 days into that time of year as I write this. My apologies for being late, and I hope I haven't messed up your ability to effectively plan your month's activities without the ii March Planning Guide at your fingertips. As today is the 5th, its Wolf, or the Wolf of March, in the generally accepted nomenclature of pretty much nobody but me. But maybe that's changing! 

New and Improved for this year!

This is exciting folks. Not only have we added the days of the week, but we've also highlighted the weekends. That's five full weekends this year in March, so now the ii March Planning Guide is even more useful than it ever was! no way to go but up, amiright

So what are you planning for Saturday, the Horse of March this year? Should be a pretty good one. Sunday the Pig, maybe not as much.

And finally, where else folks are you going to learn that the Snake of March this year--in the Year of the Snake--is on a Saturday! There's your party theme, right there! Sunset is at 6:51 PM in the Boston area that night. Its also the Ides of March, as it is every year, just not as stabby. Now that's a planning guide, brah.

UPDATE: There is a lunar eclipse late tonight, the Bat of March, into Monkey. The penumbral eclipse begins just 3 minutes before midnight, here in the east, or just before 9:00 PM on the west coast. Partially eclipse starts at 1:09 AM on Monkey here, and at 10:09 in Cali. Totality starts at 2:26 AM, here, and 11:26 tonight in the west. Totality goes for about an hour. If you're up late, take a peek! This is what color the moon will be!

MARCH 2025

March 1, Saturday - Lion: Its a good thing it was on a weekend. 4 inches of snow three weeks ago, and its still here!
March 2, Sunday - Tiger: About 11-feet long, they can leap over 30-feet in length.
March 3, Monday - Bear: Its a Monday, of course.
March 4, Tuesday - Shark: Dwarf lantern sharks are the smallest at about 8-inches. That's like... here to here
March 5, Wednesday - Wolf: They don't want to be friends.
March 6, Thursday - Bull: Ole! Looks like rain.
March 7, Friday - Moose: Up to 6 1/2 feet at the shoulder
March 8, Saturday - Eagle: America! Turn your clock ahead tonight
March 9, Sunday - Scorpion: Sunny but cool. Like a bug with sunglasses?
March 10, Monday - Dingo: Dogs that returned to their origins
March 11, Tuesday - Hawk: We have about 7 hawk types in Massachusetts. Skinny Accipiters & chubby Buteos
March 12, Wednesday - Lynx: Not the same as a bobcat, but similar.
March 13, Thursday - Bat: Hang a bat house!
March 14, Friday - Monkey: New world monkeys have prehensile tails. African & Asian monkeys don't. HBD Coleen!
March 15, Saturday - Snake: The Snake of March, on the Ides of March, in the Year of the Snake!? Dude! PARTY!
March 16, Sunday - Ox: Yep, just a trained cow.
March 17, Monday - Elephant: Green elephants for St. Patricks Day?
March 18, Tuesday - Raven: They still keep ravens in the Tower of London
March 19, Wednesday - Stag: Symbolic of many things from nobility to Christ trampling the devil.
March 20, Thursday - Crab: Sidewids walkin' sea bug. First day of spring! Equinox at 5:01 AM in the Boston area
March 2, Friday1 - Goat: Symbol for practical wisdom and diplomacy. And, you know, satan.
March 22, Saturday - Horse: Spanish horses were introduced to the American Continent in the 1500s.
March 23, Sunday - Pig: Thars mud in yer sty, varmint!
March 24, Monday - Dog: You have a dog? OMG, I have a dog too!
March 25, Tuesday - Dolphin: Dolphins have a snout. Porpoises are like small whales.
March 26, Wednesday - Rooster: One rooster for every ten hens is the rule. Harem say what?
March 27, Thursday - Turtle: All tortoises are turtles, but not all turtles are tortoises. Tortoise = just on land.
March 28, Friday - Toad: Frogs got thin, slippery skin. Toads have thick, lumpy skin to hold in moisture.
March 29, Saturday - Robin: "In flew a sea robin (la!)". Yeah, that's not it.
March 30, Sunday - Rabbit: We have New England Cottontail rabbits here AND snowshoe hares. Similar. HBD Kelton!
March 31, Monday - Lamb: Useful for socks, hats, and BBQ.

 

 

 

march monthly planner

March is yet again upon us.

After a few teasers of warmish weather here north of Boston last week, it chilled down again in the past few days so that we slid into March with cold days and colder nights. It was sunny yesterday, March 1, but still cold and windy as all heck. That's Lion for you.

Today it started cloudy and now, at about 5:30 PM, its getting dark, its rainy and cold. But its Saturday! Can't be all bad, right, and while today is definitely the Tiger of March, tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop, and it will just be cloudy all day, and may even get up to 50!

Yeah, a Bear. Definitely. We going to grill anyway. Just try and stop me.

But it just gets better from here. March may come in like a Lion and go out like a Lamb, but don't forget all the days between, and what their names are. How else can you plan your month? In a few weeks it will be Saturday the 16th. Got plans? It may be important to know that Saturday the 16th is the Ox of March. And the next day is Elephant, in case you're planning the whole weekend.

Not sure why that matters? Well feast yer eyes, my friends!

March 2024

March 1 - Lion: How was this beast for you this year? Did it help to have Leap Day first?
March 2 - Tiger: I just ran an errand, and yep, today feels like a 700 pound killer.
March 3 - Bear: Sounds like we may have more of a black bear than a grizzly tomorrow.
March 4 - Shark: Rain and clouds forecast for the rest of the first week. Sharks don't care.
March 5 - Wolf: These dogs hunt in packs.
March 6 - Bull: Can get to 6-feet, and 2500 to 3000 pounds.
March 7 - Moose: Road signs say Brake for Moose. Its not to save the moose.
March 8 - Eagle: Hunter from the skies.
March 9 - Scorpion: If you're not careful they can get into your collar, or up your pant leg.
March 10 - Dingo: Here's where's... I left it right here! Turn your clock ahead! *
March 11 - Hawk: Maybe not as fierce at the Eagle, but keep your cats and small dogs in view
March 12 - Lynx: Not a house cat. Think jaguar in a smaller package.
March 13 - Bat: Seeing these guys in the night sky means the bugs are back.
March 14 - Monkey: Monkeys have tails, apes don't. HBD Coleen!
March 15 - Snake: No legs, but they DO have a neck, backbone, and a tail. Horrible mistake.
March 16 - Ox: Slow and strong.
March 17 - Elephant: Huge and gray.
March 18 - Raven: Black, and bigger than it has a right to be.
March 19 - Stag: Also called a hart, these big boys run in small family groups in Spring.
March 20 - Crab: Watery and unchanging. First day of spring!
March 21 - Goat: Cheese and devil associations.
March 22 - Horse: Clydesdale or pinto.
March 23 - Pig: Get your boots!
March 24 - Dog: Time for a walk! And maybe a catch.
March 25 - Dolphin: Bright, fun and wet.
March 26 - Rooster: Early rise, and lets get things done.
March 27 - Turtle: No one stays closer to home.
March 28 - Toad: Nobbly and damp.
March 29 - Robin: When these guys come back, news is looking up.
March 30 - Rabbit: They live in shrublands, which is why they like the suburbs. You got shrubs right? HBD Kelton!
March 31 - Lamb: Fluffy, warm and delicious!

If you find this helpful, let me know in the comments. 

Headed back to work Monday? Its Shark, take an umbrella. And maybe some reinforced pants.

* Turn your clock ahead at 2:00 AM on Dingo, up to 3:00 AM. That's right you lose an hour or sleep between Scorpion and Dingo this year. And don't make plans for 2:30 AM, Dingo morning, that time doesn't exist.

machines like me

I don't think I'm giving too much away when I say that Ian McEwan's Machines Like Me is an alternate history soft-SciFi story that takes place in the 1980s. This is an interesting take in that it isn't set in a what-if future, rather its set in a possible past which may have been different for all of us if just a few things had played out a little differently. That premise, al by itself, is a fun thing to think about and is a little brain-bendy.

The main protagonist, Charlie Friend, tells the story first person, which is where the 'like me' comparative phrase in the title comes from. Mr. Friend sounds made up (scoff) is a little insecure, has some vague experience writing, and maybe some office-type work in his past but has given it up for self-employment. A venture he is not always successful at, but keeps at it nonetheless. Mr. Friend admits that he hasn't always made sound monetary decisions, but that doesn't keep him from pushing on. 

Just upstairs lives Miranda, Charlie's friend, who is also a graduate student and mid-twenties to his early thirties. Charlie's insecurity extends to his feelings for Miranda, which complicates their friendship, if only because Charlie is in his head too much and not really living. Into this complicated dynamic, Charlie brings a machine, and what he (and we) thought was complicated before, gets even more complex.

McEwan has spun an intriguing story here that reminds me of Asimov's I, Robot series in its examination of what it means when thinking machines become part of our lives, both for us, and for them.

Pinnacle at White Hill

Here goes some horn tootin' (and then I'll give an update on why I haven't written anything here in a while.)

So I spent some of my spare time recently putting together a drawing <yeah, that's it right there based on a science fiction (SF) book I've been writing over the last... 20 years? The drawing is for the One Drawing Challenge put on by Architizer, which is an online journal about architecture and design.

My wife found this juried contest in a newsletter and its their second annual outing, so I took a look at what did well last year, and the rules are pretty relaxed. From the FAQ section on their website: "Your drawing(s) can take the form of a plan, section, elevation, perspective, sketch or abstract. As long as it portrays part or all of a building or group of buildings, it is eligible." Any part of a building, so a still life, in a room, would do it.

When I looked at last year's submissions though, there were a fair number of the entries that included speculative and/or abstract architecture and design, and that led me to my domed city. Over the years, I've sketched some images, and I even drew up some plans in CAD of the city, including some of the sub-levels below the city. Come on, what futuristic city ISN'T under a dome, and of course its got miles of piping and basements drilled into the earth.

There are 100 finalists in The One Drawing Challenge; that was announced earlier today. The winners--there will be two, a student winner and a non-student winner--as well as 10 honorable mentions will be named on September 28 (or the 29th, depending on where on the site you look.)*

SO where have I been for the past year? Well I've been busy with some other projects,** but what really messed up my blogging was that we cleaned up around the house last year around this time, and a handful of books I had read but hadn't written about went to the donation box at my library. I tried to remember what they were, and piece together list, while continuing to read other books until I got hopelessly lost and enough time had gone by that I didn't think I could recreate what I'd read.

In the recent past, here's what I've read, in order:

Skylark - Sheila Simonson

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2015 - Adam Johnson, Editor

Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson

Blue Moon - Lee Child

The Day After Tomorrow - Allan Folsum

The Secret History - Donna Tartt

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Warlock - Winbur Smith

Outlander - Diana Gabaldon during which I learned the term 'self-insertion'

The Order - Daniel Silva

The Way of Kings (Part One) - Brandon Sanderson

This is not everything in the past year, just what I can put my hands on and reasonably reconstruct in order (based on my piling system.) I'll try and write about these soon, but I'll probably write short summaries and combine a few together at a time.

* FAQ section says 28th, the new splash page posted today announcing the finalists says 29th.

** Making Youtube videos about tool making and restoration is one of the things I've been doing. My channel is here.

einstein's dreams

Einstein's Dreams is a cute little novel by Alan Lightman, about the dreams Einstein has in the weeks surrounding the publication of his theory of relativity. Lightman imagines Einstein working through various scenarios involving time, and what it would mean if he was wrong. 

 

Night after night, Einstein dreams of how his town and its people might deal with time that runs backwards, or if it skipped around randomly rather than moving always forward. These dreams are nearly all that occurs in this story, other than a short introduction describing Einstein's discussions with his friend Besso, to which he returns to a few times over the weeks, for coffee or lunch, to discuss his dreams. So the novel reads like a dream journal, as dictated to his friend. Each interlude with Besso is also illustrated with a great little townscape--of Bern, presumably--but the illustrator is not credited and I can't find them on the interwebs either.

Lightman digs pretty deep into the science in these little fables of life and how it would be if we knew the future before it arrived, or if we lived backward through time, or in circles, endlessly repeating our lives. Its a fun little book.

 

 

PS: It seems like this book was a popular item for art students and graphic artists to illustrate as a project. Many examples of the artwork this book created are online.

indispensable wisdom

The Big Book of Indispensable Wisdom, is a collection of three books, published by Reader's Digest. I'm not sure where this book came from, but its been sitting on my shelf for a few years. The three books are: The Classics, My Grammar and I...Or Should That Be Me?, and Easy as Pi.

I know, its adorable.

There are a series of authors, and copy editors involved, so lets just say that these three books were edited by Pamela Johnson. Each has its own focus, but all of the subject matter is treated the same: 'You know this stuff, we're just going to remind you what you forgot since high school, and have a laugh doing it!'

None of the three subjects is explained in any depth. I think the idea is to cover as much ground as possible, and give the reader a framework to organize their own thoughts and memories on these subjects that we already (should) know. There were a few trinkets and additives that were new to me, and that was fun. All in all, it wasn't an awful read, and it certainly didn't read like a text book, but I certainly didn't find myself laughing along with the crummy jokes and enjoying myself. I finished, I guess that's something.

ideagraph

I'm probably not the first one to come up with something like this, but I did develop this without researching other things which may be similar, so it may need to be tweaked as I begin to test it out. I've done one test so far, mapping out a series of ideas and things to see where they fit. With a little fiddling, I was able to come up with results that seemed like a proof-of-concept this isn't exactly the scientific method at work here I'll probably post a version of that test run at some point but for now I wanted to post  the chart in the hope that it may be helpful to at least a fraction of the half-dozens of people that occasionally wander past this blog.

Clicky-click to bigenate. Use at will, according to rules below please*

The IdeaGraph was born on a short walk I took at work the other day. I walked past a bus/camper parked in front of the Artisan's Asylum. This vehicle is some kind of mobile eye exam venture. I know this because I searched for what it was after seeing what I did. As I approached, looking up from a vantage point that was probably too close for maximum effect, I saw a bus painted mostly pale-peach, with a large, black graphic made of curving black lines, overlapping in a random way, forming a large tapered arc. What? I'm too close, so I looked again assuming it was something normally smaller than 8 feet long. Ah, an eyebrow. Yep, there's another one, down the other end. A little hard to see from where I was approaching. There is a spot that juts out when parked, fancy camper style, making the front end brow harder to see. I'm almost past it now, searching for what would have two big eyebrows, clearly a face graphic, no, a photo. There's the name, opto-blah,  whatever, but where are the eyes? Just eyebrows? No...

The eyes are the wheels! oh, I get it

Round, black, shiny hubcaps. yeah, sure, but...

Wait, the eyes are... dirty, sort of separated from the rest of the face by the wheel wells, the dark hollows are like the eye sockets in a skull, the eyes are detached, dangling, lumpy, dry, filthy, and wait... they're actually touching the street! In the gutter! Ground right in there, smooshed into the asphalt and the grit, flattening out the irises... bleeahck

Yeah, its kind of gross. Dumb. Not a good design. Not a good idea. The antithesis of eye health.

It probably started out as an interesting idea. That's how design works.But how do we know whether or not something that looks good on paper or a computer screen will work in reality. what if we tear off the eyelids, and scrub the eyes in the dirt. forever. yeah, lets try that Some things need to be mocked-up, prototyped, tested. But before we go to the trouble, we just need to think about things a little more before foisting them onto humanity.

IdeaGraph won't help you determine if your idea is worth realizing by plugging in some numbers, or cranking it through some algorithm, but it may help you to see where your idea lies in relation to other ideas. This is the reason I'm not including my own test mapping. Everyone has their own value system and the mapping skews toward what works for you. Disclaimer: In order to be useful for idea realization, you will need to think about the norms of the society upon which you be doing your foisting while mapping on IdeaGraph. So what does it do? It may just help to organize your thoughts.

How does it work? IdeaGraph helps organize ideas (and real things) by fitting them into an overall framework of their relative weights, and seeing how they compare to one another, with some Venn diagram aspects to it. The map has no real scale, and if you blow it up you can fit more into it. The more ideas you enter, the more helpful it becomes. Thinking about things that are real, as ideas rather than physical things is helpful when mapping. George Washington was definitely a real guy, but the idea of George Washington, or taxes, or music (regardless of whether you consider these things as worth it) will help you map.

An oval representing ALL IDEAS sits at the center of the graph. This oval shape represents every idea we have or can have, and its expanding over time. The ALL IDEAS oval is overlaid, Venn diagram-style, with a parabola representing GOOD, which grows upward, and is potentially infinite. The mirror of that, EVIL, is a parabola which extends downward, and is also potentially infinite. Think positive and negative on the y axis with Venn aspects.

GOOD and EVIL overlap in the center, creating a zone where things and ideas are both good and evil, again, Venn diagram-style, but with scale. The further ideas are located from the center, vertically, the more good or evil they are. Where they overlap, ideas are more meh, but the scale is still important.

There is also a scale from left to right. The further things are to the right on IdeaGraph, the more helpful they are, the further left, the less helpful (or more detrimental, depending on your viewpoint.) The line between MORE HELPFUL and LESS HELPFUL is not vertical. The higher ideas get on the vertical scale, the more the line (shown in red) slides to the left. The more evil things get, the more the line slides right. At the upper and lower limits, really good is always helpful, and really bad is never helpful. Even though the arrows are shown graphically, they are not overlays in the Venn diagram sense, its just a relative scale. Think positive and negative on the x axis.

Running vertically through GOOD and EVIL is a vague strip of weirdness. This band is a little murky and expands at the upper and lower limits, where it also becomes more vague. Unlike the line between more and less helpful, the weird band is an overlay of the GOOD and EVIL zones (Venn again) but its character changes; it doesn't have a fixed value. Its has some labels along the band to help you decide where things fall. For example, weird ideas on the low end of the GOOD scale are just ODD. The higher you go, the more lofty, and lower things get darker. Fee free to add your own intermediate labels to fine tune the scale.

Within ALL IDEAS is a smaller oval shape representing ACHIEVABLE IDEAS. These are the ideas that can be spun up into tangible things: buildings, books, movies, art, governments, nuclear bombs, etc. That means the oval ring of ALL IDEAS that sits outside ACHIEVABLE IDEAS contains the rest of our collective intangible ideas: greed, charity, despotism, faith, dragons, magic, Satan, etc.

Both the ALL and ACHIEVABLE ideas ovals extend left and right beyond the bounds of GOOD and EVIL. Some ideas and things are neither good nor evil, but we still need to decide if they are helpful or not. For example, I would argue that optimism exists outside the limits of good and evil, and as an intangible idea, it sits in the oval ring. Maybe it does; if so, does it fit on the left or the right?

The green circular area floating high at the center is labeled "Ideas worth considering." I put it here, on the good side of the scale, but overlapping the bad a little, spanning equally left and right, but a closer look at the red line shows that this zone is more helpful than not. This is where my value system indicates I should be looking. Yours may differ slightly. This zone has no hard limit; its more Vennish than Venn. This zone also extends outside what is achievable, with the hope that we can expand that oval.

Lastly is a red colored parabola, that makes up a very small portion of what is actually achievable. This is the "Ideas worth realizing" zone. This is where you want to be. It sits on the good side, but not too high, and extends to infinity on the right, toward helpful. The smallest bit of the parabola extends to the left, and the bottom just touches on bad, assuming that some ideas worth realizing may not always be extremely helpful, or without a darker side, but only at the very lowest scales. The red zone is also overlapped by the weirdness zone; some things worth doing may also be a little weird. This is where some art, comedy, and Shakespeare live. A blow-up of this zone, mapped with only real things may be helpful for graphing your ideas when they are close to fruition, to see if they fall in the red zone, or if they are just outside it (like scraping your eyeballs on the pavement) or way outside it (like Fat Man and Little Boy.)

Download it, print it out, fool around with it, and let me know if it works for you. And tell me where IdeaGraph and this blog post fit on IdeaGraph. I'm guessing a shorter post would probably move up and to the right, but I'm not sure if it makes it to the red zone! Based on my experience, mapping ideas can get pretty funny, pretty quickly.


* You are free to use the IdeaGraph for whatever you would like as long as you maintain the copyright information, the title, and the text referring to this blog. Also give credit to me, and link back here. If you decide to derive from the ideas and/or intellectual property manifest within IdeaGraph for profit, whether or not you've modified the graphics and text, then be a grownup and send me a fat check.**

** If you're unsure if this is the right course of action, plot it on the IdeaGraph without lying to yourself.*** And then send me the check.

*** If you are an evil person, IdeaGraph won't work for you, because everything you plot will be skewed down and left. Lying to yourself is as indivisible from evil as responsibility is indivisible from privilege.

in like a lion

Lion and Lamb Eyes

I'm a little late getting my March calendar up this year, but figured I had to get with it with a big storm coming to the Northeast. Might be rain, might be a foot of snow, might be nothing. We won't know until tomorrow. Today was a bull, and tomorrow is a moose. Either one could be trouble, so we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Last year, March was so bad, I ended up changing the whole month to lion. I hope that's not the case this year. Enjoy!

Here's how it stacks up this year. yes, its the same every year, that's why we call it a tradition.

March 1 - Lion: Of course. Its in like a lion, right?
March 2 - Tiger: Up to 11-feet, and nearly 700 pounds!
March 3 - Bear: Oh my! Definitely polar bear this year.
March 4 - Shark: Everyone knows that shark week is not really a thing, right?
March 5 - Wolf: The Timber variety. They're coming back, baby!
March 6 - Bull: One word: Pamplona.
March 7 - Moose: Brake for moose, it could save your life.
March 8 - Eagle: Don't leave your pets outside... or your chickens.
March 9 - Scorpion: Step on it before it steps on you.
March 10 - Dingo: No, its not a stray dog.
March 11 - Hawk: Not hawkish. That's for scared people, pretending to be strong.
March 12 - Lynx: No honey, that's not a tom cat, don't feed it.
March 13 - Bat: Wanna put on your Batman suit, party on!
March 14 - Monkey: They're cute but can also throw poop! HBD Coleen!
March 15 - Snake: The Ides of March. Snakes are known for wisdom, and treachery.
March 16 - Ox: Hard working in a plodding kind of way.
March 17 - Elephant: Wise, big, powerful... gray.
March 18 - Raven: Nevermore.
March 19 - Stag: Power and compassion. Might make a good patronus.
March 20 - Crab: This one can sneak up on you. First day of spring!
March 21 - Goat: Stubborn and tough going.
March 22 - Horse: Strong and reliable. Sometimes crappy on the back end.
March 23 - Pig: Smart but messy; wear your boots today.
March 24 - Dog: Friendly and good-natured; take a walk.
March 25 - Dolphin: Fun and wet; bring an umbrella.
March 26 - Rooster: Get up early and wake the neighbors.
March 27 - Turtle: Muddy, but adorable; boots again.
March 28 - Toad: Similar to turtle, but a little squishier.
March 29 - Robin: I guess you could wear your Robin costume today. You cosplay nut!
March 30 - Rabbit: Roasted with rosemary and potatoes! HBD Kelton!
March 31 - Lamb: Mmm... arrosticini. Smells like spring!

According to one source I read "This phrase has its origins with the constellations Leo, the Lion, and Aries, the ram or lamb. It has to do with the relative positions of these constellations in the sky at the beginning and end of the month." Sounds like a stretch to me. My guess is it comes from someone making up a story to tell children around a fire, or something equally as mundane.

In any case, March is the month that brings us Spring, so it can't be all bad. But the weather might be.

Sheep eyes are weird. That's all I'm saying.

UPDATE: Happy Easter everyone! We made it, tho I was tempted to change this year to lion (or some other vicious beast) everyday. This March was one to remember. Wednesday was Nor'easter Day this month. Seems like we got one once a week all month, but it WAS sunny and warm yesterday, so lamb-like it was.

united states of beer

First off, thanks so much to the folks in Erving, who were nice enough to bring this book for us to help celebrate my office's 20th anniversary. The book came with a wonderful bottle of beer for us all to enjoy as well.

The United States of Beer, sub-titled: A Freewheeling History of the All-American Drink, is by Dane Huckelbridge, and is a follow-up to his previous endeavor, Bourbon: A History of the American Spirit. I think that he learned a lot about beer, doing his research for his bourbon book, and luckily for us, he decided to turn that research into this fun little book about America's beer history.

For the uninitiated, bourbon and beer are related; The first step in making whiskey, is to make beer (without the hops) and then distill it. Beer is therefore whiskey's daddy. It also predates the development of whiskey by millennia. Seems like a good place to start any history project, but just how closely beer is intertwined in the history of this nation is remarkable. But its as simple as one of the first (of many) take-away facts from this book: 

TAKE-AWAY FACT 1: People couldn't drink the water, it wasn't clean in most of Europe. What people drank--men, women, children--is beer. All day, every day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At home, and at work.

For centuries.

Huckelbridge walks us through the history of the nation from New England, to the South, to the Mid-west, to the coast. Each of the regions begins with its history, and importantly, where the predominant immigrants come from, and the beer styles they brought with them. Huckelbridge describes the traditional European beer, and its own history, and then the version the new American make for themselves when they arrive, working with what they have.

TAKE-AWAY FACT 2: American versions of European beers were (and are) often very different from their beery ancestors, because the conditions, and ingredients in America are not the same as they were in the countries of origin. 

By the time we get to the Mid-west, America has been around for a while, and the Germanic folks who began to move into the Mid-west brought lager beers with them, and eventually the lighter, crisper Pilsner style beers. But these beers were not (NOT) the pale, yellow, watery beers that are the standard American Big Beer company products we have today. So you know what that means...

TAKE-AWAY FACT 3: American pale lager used to be deep, rich, and flavorful. We ended up with yellow, watery American beer--produced, by the way, by some of the same companies that originally produce those better beers--due to mass marketing, and cost cutting to stay in business through prohibition.

There are lots more, and obviously, the changes to the standard American lager happened slowly, and Huckelbridge walks us through it all, ending with the history of beer making on the west coast, and how a small company in San Francisco kicked off the rebirth of American microbrews in the mid 1960s.

Read this book, while drinking a beer.

 

conversion

Conversion is, according to Katherine Howe's description in the backmatter of this book, a mash-up of a case of conversion disorder that had recently hit the news, and her re-reading of The Crucible in a class she was teaching. She has woven together the story of the Salem witch trials with a modern outbreak of conversion disorder suffered by a number of high school students.

The stories aren't connected so much as they are strung along in tandem so that the reader can draw their own parallels and conclusions. And if it sounds like I'm giving away a little more of the plot lines than I usually do, its only because everyone knows the Salem witch trails, and I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear how that ends.

I guess this falls into the teen lit category. It was a fast read, and there were some fun parts, but I didn't love it. There was some insight into how high school girls behave, especially around each another, that rang true to me.

notes from the beach

Greenhead fly: used without permission from Yankee Mag

After discussing what a group of flying insects is called (swarm) we got to talking about how some groups of animals have names more specific to the species; a Crash of Rhinoceros or a Murder of Crows, for example. So we tried to think of what group of greenhead flies my be called. So I came up with a Sickness of Flies. Later in conversation, the word plague came up in a different context and I suggested that it could also be a group of flies. I then went to look it up, assuming that it may already be established. I found on Wikipedia that it is a Business of Flies. I get it, they're buzzing busily away, but I don't think 'business' gets at the unwholesomeness of them.

A little while later I got to thinking that greenheads may be closer to horseflies see below so I looked for a suitable horse related word. Herd, haras, or stable didn't seem to work--although a variation of the second option, a Harass of Horseflies does have some promise. I however went to The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse for what I needed. There are various interpretations but the one I chose is one of the names attributed to the first horseman on the white horse, which gives me: a Pestilence of Horseflies.

So I did a little reading and greenheads are, in fact, a type of horsefly. They populate salt marshes, just like the huge tract of land directly behind the house we're staying in, and they are looking for a blood meal so that they can continue to lay eggs (200 eggs or so at a time!) I say continue to lay eggs, because its just the females that bite, and they only bite after they lay their first batch of eggs. Prior to that: vegetarian. They feed on nectar, etc.

Two last points: the season is apparently mid-July to mid-August (bully for us) and, they prefer to tear you open so that the can lap up the freely flowing blood, rather than poke you like a mosquito. Their mouthparts are so delicate that you don't feel them rip open your skin until they vomit up some digestive juices and anticoagulant onto the wound, which your body recognizes as foreign, and reacts with pain. That's why you're already bleeding when you swat at them.


Edit: Just to be clear, I may not in fact have been the person that actually came up with each of these brilliant ideas, I assume that it was a group effort, for which I am simply taking the credit. 

They say that history is made by the victors, but it may be that history is actually made by the people who write it down.

 

saturn run

I picked this book up in a library I'm working on a month or so ago. I knew it was science fiction, and had a pretty good idea it was about a trip to Saturn. I had no idea that it would so many similarities to Seveneves. Let me be clear, its not the same story, they are completely different, but they both have a hard science approach, and deal with people working in space in long-term, difficult conditions. It ended up being a great follow-up book. I'd say they fall into the 'also like' category for anyone who enjoyed either. that means go get the other one, and read it. go on.

John Sandford has a lot of books published, and a lot of them have the word 'Prey' in the title, so I assume its some kind of series. Ctein, who has co-author status on this book, is more an unknown. He seems to be Sandford's science go to guy, and ended up being much more involved in both helping to crank the science, and help inform the storyline. His credits include writing as well, so I'm sure it was a team effort. And having someone who can help run orbit injection simulation software and help vision future interplanetary-capable engines has got to be handy.

Saturn Run is a fun, exciting sci fi adventure. Its got  a hard science core, and an engaging story with a series of sub-plots and intrigues, from geopolitics, to sexual tension. There are some well crafted characters here to, that show some real depth and complexity. Sanford and Ctein do a good job of spelling out the science and explaining its implications in a very simple way so that allows the story to move forward. I can see that Sandford has done really well with the Prey books, but I, for one, would like to see more of this from him and Ctein.

night villa

I found this one at the library book sale, on the back cover I read, "The eruption of Italy's Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79..." and that was it. Between the title and those first words in the description, I was sold. Of course, its doesn't take much when you're talking about spending a dollar or so and supporting the library. Its funny, I don't take too many new library books out, I think its because the newer books have two week lending periods, and I don't usually read that fast.

Carol Goodman writes a good story. This one has a little bit of everything. It is not--as I suspected from the little I read on the back cover--historical fiction, although it does have an historical fiction aspect to it. Its a modern day story, but involves archaeological study of the era leading up to Vesuvius, and in particular, the late occupants of Villa della Notte, or the Night Villa.

The Night Villa is a fictional place, but this villa in Herculaneum, and this story in general, is based on the true story of Petronia Iusta, a slave who sued for her freedom from Calatoria Themis. Scrolls were indeed found in a trunk in an excavated building in Herculaneum which describe the Roman court case involving this young woman. She was born to a woman called Petronia Vitalis, who was once the slave of this Roman couple, but who eventually bought her freedom from them. After her daughter, Petronia Iusta, was born, Iusta continued to live with the couple as a servant, and her mother paid for her upkeep. After the deaths of both Iusta's mother, and Calatoria's husband, Petronius Stephanus, Calatoria claimed that Iusta was born while her mother was still a slave, and therefore was still her slave, whereas Iusta claimed she was born after her mother was freed, and was therefore free herself. facinating

It seems clear that Carol Goodman read this story,* and decided that it was ripe for some historical fictionalizing. Good decision. I liked this story, and as I read, I was very taken by the story that slowly emerged from the depths of time, and the twist about Iusta's case was great. Little did I know at the time that it was based on a true story.

There are a series of sub-plots and backstories that also charge this story with a sense of mystery, not least of which is an ancient cult based on the teachings of Pythagoras. whaa?

Yeah, read this book.



* Here's a link to a PDF of a research paper about the Petronia Iusta case written by Ernest Metzger of the University of Aberdeen, The Case of Petronia Iusta. Originally published as E. Metzger, 'The Case of Petronia Iusta', Revue Internationale des Droit de l'Antiquité (3rd series) 47 (2000), 151-165.

art forger

B.A. Shapiro writes a fast paced, fun-to-read novel, that doesn't require a lot of heavy lifting by the reader. In fact, there were a couple of minor plot holes, that Shapiro wrote around pretty well. As long as you're not bothered by that, this story moved along at a quick pace.

Shapiro spends some time in The Art Forger talking about both the techniques involved in copying an old painting, as well as the history of the painting, the original painter (Degas) and his patron (Isabella Stewart Gardner.) It was fun to read a story about the history and intrigues (albeit, fictional) of this local museum and its eccentric founder, and to hear about how forgeries may have been done.

Shapiro took some liberties with the history of the museum, its construction, the personal affairs of Gardner herself, the paints included in the collection, and those stolen in the major heist a number of year ago, even the existence of certain relatives and extant descendants. Like I said, it was fun but its harder to suspend disbelieve when the story revolving around such as well-known local personality is stretched this way.

system of the world

The System of the World is the third and final volume of The Baroque Cycle, by Neal Stephenson, and baroque is right. I've never read a story so ornamented, festooned, and gilded as this trilogy. Stephenson seems to have gotten lost in the research of the period, and then in the minutiae of his storyline and its characters. There are letters, secret messages, stories taken from broadsheets, and the text of entire pamphlets and libels, discovered under the feet of the characters as they walked about London in the early 1700s; garlands, embellishments, ornaments, and flourishes, all, to the main story. Stephenson doesn't tell the story, so much as take us there. With all of the stink, coal soot, pockmarks, and horse dung hanging on to us as we wander with him, and learn the details of this story with him. The sub-plots all have sub-sub-plots, and Stephenson juggles them all masterfully.

 

And the cast of characters is enormous; I may have mentioned in my review of the first book that it included a Cast of Characters in the frontmatter. If I hadn't borrowed that volume from the library, I may have gone back to it a few times, as nearly everyone has a title, or two. Just keeping track of the Natural Philosophers alone is difficult enough, never mind the lords and ladies, French, English, German, and other wise, soldiers, pirates, vagabonds, and thieves, clock-makers, counterfeiters, jailers, and executioners. No character is so minor, that we don't learn a little bit about him or her, and perhaps their family.

I was reminded of Herman Melville in some of the detail Stephenson provided, altho I'm happy to report there are few whole chapters dedicated to the history, construction and use of harpoons. Stephenson himself honors two novelists in his acknowledgements--a multi-page affair in the backmatter-- Alexandre Dumas, and Dorothy Dunnett. I don't know Dorothy Dunnett, but I'm going to look her up based on this mention alone.

Not everyone is up for a 3000 page novel, so you need to in it for the long haul. This is a novel form that seems to be designed to entertain, night after night, in the years and centuries before television and movies. I can imagine dark, candle-lit nights, coal fires and quiet reading for an hour or two before bedtime. If you are that type of reader I'm looking at you Chuck then read this book. All three of them.

cell

I'm getting low on reading material, so I gave Cell, by Robin Cook a go.

Myeh.

Almost as soon as I started reading, I could see where it was going and had a pretty good idea how it would end. I was pretty close on both counts. What I really had a problem with is the main character, George something. Sorry, Dr. George something. Dr. George is getting the creeping suspicion that something may be up with a new medical device/system that is all the rage and is currently in trials. His suspicion revolves around the fact that everyone he meets who is involved in the medical trial dies.

And that gets Dr. George thinking: Hmmm.... Maybe something is up?

Ya think?

But what really gets me is that George tries to maintain his objectivity. We keep hearing about how Dr. George thinks this new system is swell, and how it may revolutionize medicine. And this is AFTER he has begun to seriously question whether or not its killing people! Including his friends! And Loved Ones! shouldn't be hasty

I think I read Coma back in the late 70s, early 80s when it was all the rage, and the made a movie based on it. Naked coma patients hanging from wires. All very titillating and spooky. But not that good, if I recall.

Cell is a sleeper. see what I did there

1491

I picked up 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, a little while ago and then put it down, assuming that it was going to be a little dry. That was a mistake.

Charles C. Mann is writer of research. He studies things and then writes about them. Magazines, books, etc. He describes some of the early research he did for this book as research for smaller projects: articles about newer discoveries about earlier Central and South American Indians. He describes how some of these newer discoveries were at odds with what he learned (we all learned) in high school. Information printed in our textbooks based on the prominent theories of the time, taken as fact, but without a lot corroborating evidence. What Mann was finding, as that in many cases, that corroborating evidence is only recently being discovered, and a lot of what we used to think was true was based on the only evidence available, 50 or even 100 years ago, in the form of journal and log entries by Europeans who visited the Americas and documented what they saw, in some cases incorrectly either from a lack of understanding, and lack of investigation, or simply exaggerated to please whomever was footing the bill for their trip.

Mann compiles the most recent archeological evidence and compares and contrasts the current theories on early American Indian populations and their civilizations and they way the may have lived before the Europeans arrived. Its a fascinating look at cultures that now appear to have been much more complex, advanced, and populace then I thought. Mann discusses how even now, theories based on new data still contrast with one another. The science is still very much in process, so this makes for an extremely informative snapshot of what the current thinking is on the myriad cultures that inhabited these lands for thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. And the language he uses really helps translate the scientific theses into terms I could get my head around.

Mann wrote a follow-up, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, in 2011, so I'll have to keep my eye out for that one.

Read this book.

her (robot love iii)

I don't do a lot of movie reviews, and I'm not even sure this is a movie review, but I saw her last night by Spike Jonze starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Scarlett Johansson and I had to write about it. It has everything that I've been interested in, when thinking about the singularity, all in one place; things I've written about here on the blog in the past. Spike Jonze actually showed up most recently here at the blog, when I wrote about his sci fi short: I'm Here. I titled that blog post to recall another post about this subject, robots in love, or maybe more accurately, people in love with robots.

The robot jr. post has one of the highest hit rates on the blog, and I just had to write it after running into one too many references to folks falling in love with artificial intelligences. AND, I probably should add, I've got this sci fi book of my own that's been brewing for years, and there is some artificial intelligence interaction in my story as well. One of the reasons I'm drawn to these stories is so that I can witness all of my fresh ideas from my 20 year old book being scooped while my book languishes, but enough about me!

Jonze and company look hard at the potential realities of future human/artificial intelligence relationships and what they come up with is much like you might expect for any inter-species relationship: some things are amazing, and other things, not so much. What I found fascinating was how closely the hiccups and major road blocks to such a relationship--as well as the uncanniness of some element--struck nerves with me that are very closely tied to feelings I have about fairness, equality, and human rights.

Are these types of relationships the next logical step for mankind as some would have us believe, or will they be a more modern version of the typically ill-fated May-December relationship?

leonardo, yeah, that one

Leonardo and the Last Supper is my third or fourth Ross King book, I'm not really sure. One of them: Brunelleschi's Dome, you'll see down along the right hand column under 'great.' Leonardo won't be on the 'great' list. was that too abrupt?

Its been a while since I've read one of Ross King's books, pretty much everything I read now ends up on this blog and there aren't any of his books listed on 'the books' tab, so its a few years anyway. I also read one about Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which was also very good. This latest installment wasn't up to those standards however, and I'm not sure why, but I have some guesses. In order for my guesses to be proven out, I'd have to go back and do a little comparative analysis, but that's not going to happen; this isn't science I'm doing over here.

Here's my guesses for what I think is missing from this book, when compared to the other two I mentioned. First, historical data. King seemed to be short on it, as is everyone else, and he did an admirable job in putting together this story from what seems like not very much. He had to rely quite a bit on other biographers, and then suggested that maybe those other biographers were wrong, or at least weren't above conjecture. Second, there isn't much to the story; da Vinci took a number of years to paint the Last Supper, but that seems to be because he was always busy doing something else. There isn't a whole lot of information about how the panting/mural was done, who worked on it, or what happened day-to-day. For that matter, there isn't much information available about what da Vinci was doing during this time either. So that brings me to my third point, the book is more filler than substance. Because so little is know about what the master was actually doing and how he did it, this book is more about what was going on in Italy at the time, centering mainly on his sponsor in Milano, Ludovico Maria Sforza, or as he was known, Ludovico il Moro (Ludwig the Moor.)

The Sforza story is a very interesting story, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Leonardo's name in the title was more about selling books than a true reflection of what this story is about. "Il Moro and Leonardo's Last Supper" might have been a better title given what I read. I'm not saying you shouldn't read this book, especially if you are a fan of Leonardo da Vinci, just don't expect that King uncovered some amazing treasure trove of lost information about him.

Last complaint: there are a handful of color plates in the center of the book, but no image of da Vinci's Last Supper. No where in the book, in fact, is there an image of the entire work.