Links from today’s episode:

• Chris Aldrich web site
• Gardens & Streams II (Indieweb pop-up event) on September 25, 2021 https://events.indieweb.org/2021/09/gardens-and-streams-ii-pPUbyYME33V4
• Obsidian (https://obsidian.md/)
• Hypothesis (https://web.hypothes.is/)
• Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies: Orality, Memory, and the Transmission of Culture by Lynne Kelly (Cambridge, 2015)
• Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly (Pegasus, 2019)
• Anthropology: Why it Matters by Tim Ingold (Polity Press, 2018)
• How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers by Sönke Ahrens (Create Space, 2017)

And for the crazy rhetoric and note taking nerds:

Early Philosophical Texts

• Aristotle, Topica, written about 350 BCE Venice, 1495.
• Aristotle, Rhetorica, written about 350 BCE. Basel, 1529.
• Cicero, De Oratore, written about 46 BCE. Northern Italian manuscript about 1450.
• Cicero, Topica, written about 44 BCE. Florentine manuscript, about 1425-30.
• Seneca the Younger, Epistulae morales, written 62-65 CE. French manuscript, about 1175.
• Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, written about 100 CE. Paris, 1542.
• Macrobius, Saturnalia, written about 430 CE. Central Italian manuscript, about 1475.
• Boethius, De topicis differentiis, written about 480-526 CD. English manuscript, about 1275.

Renaissance Handbooks

• Rodolphus Agricola, De formando studio. Antwerp, 1532; composed 1484.
• Desiderius Erasmus, De ratione studii et instituendi pueros comentarii totidem. [Paris, 1512].
• Philip Melanchthon, Institutiones rhetoricae. Wittenberg [1536].
• Philip Melanchthon, Rhetorices elementa. Lyon, 1537.
• Desiderius Erasmus, De duplici copia verborum ac rerum. Cologne, 1540.
• Petrus Mosellanus, Tabulae de schematibus et tropis…. In Rhetroica Philippi Melanchthonis. In Erasmi Roterdami libellum De duplici copia. Paris, 1542.
• Joachim Camerarius, Elementa rhetoricae. Basel, [1545].
• Henry Peacham, The garden of eloquence: conteyning the figures of grammar and rhetorick. London, 1577.
  • One of the first handbooks in English
• Philip Melanchthon, De locis communibus ratio. Augsburg [1593].
• John Brinsley, Ludus literarius: or, The grammar schoole; shewing how to proceede from the first entrance into learning, to the highest perfection. London, 1612.
• [Obadiah Walker], Of education: especially of young gentlemen. Oxford, 1673.

I may have broadened the discussion that some of the intended audience on tools for thought may be showing up for, but I can never resist introducing people to mnemnotechniques and research on orality, anthropology, or the history of commonplaces.

I provocatively (with only a modest amount of wickedness) put forward the idea that a rock is as good a tool for thought as Obsidian.md or Roam Research.

Reposted w4rner (@w4rner@mastodon.social) by w4rner (Mastodon)

thx @chrisaldrich for “HuffDuffing” my trial microcast with @jasraj | expect me to put visual meat on bones in my Micro.camp talk Saturday — #tech https://huffduffer.com/chrisaldrich/612297

Reposted a post by Altadena Library District (Facebook.com)

A top priority for the Altadena Libraries is to reach populations that are historically underserved and increase access to library services and resources. A multitude of issues can limit people from accessing literacy tools, so homegrown, community-driven initiatives like Little Free Libraries (LFL) are ideal channels through which to provide access to books and other literacy tools. Chris Aldrich is a steward of his own LFL #8424, and as a champion for Little Free Libraries in Altadena, he keeps books in his car to "pollinate" other libraries he sees. Talking with library staff, he noted that throughout the pandemic, he has been surprised and encouraged to see people walking to LFLs with their children and reading books on the spot, transforming LFLs from just quick pick-up locations to actual reading destinations.

After learning about the Altadena Zine Library, Chris decided to create a zine listing all Little Free Libraries in Altadena, both those officially registered with LittleFreeLibrary.org and not, with photos and locations for Altadenans to explore! As the Altadena Library District and the Friends of the Altadena Library work together to steward surplus book donations and as the District’s mobile library program gets rolling, library staff will draw on on Chris’ vast knowledge and passion about the Little Free Library movement to support the inventories of Altadena LFLs, reach underserved communities, and potentially even build new LFLs! #NationalLibraryWeek2021 #NationalLibraryWeekinAltadena

PICTURED:
- Chris’ very own Little Free Library
- Chris (left) and founder of the Little Free Library movement Todd Bol (right)

I suspected they were going to do something, but just hadn’t seen it yet. The Altadena Libraries have featured me in their newsletter this past month for some of my Little Free Library work.

Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments about an outdated anti-hacking law, the CFAA, that threatens data journalists like us @themarkup with criminal penalties.

We filed an amicus brief https://t.co/gFZlJgCz73

And we are wearing our #ScrapingIsNotACrime t-shirts today. pic.twitter.com/zeRNeIKCZ2

— Julia Angwin (@JuliaAngwin) November 30, 2020

#ScrapingIsNotACrime

Reposted a tweet by IndieWebCamp (Twitter)

This week in the #indieweb https://t.co/48rTu78TSj pic.twitter.com/gjPjn5TYzt

— IndieWebCamp (@indiewebcamp) July 3, 2020

One of my favorite parts about the IndieWeb? All the smiling faces of the people who are participating in a people-first re-imagining of the Internet.

Reposted a thread by Dr. Ariela Gross (Twitter)

1/in my research on trials involving enslaved people as property in Southern courtrooms, I read chilling descriptions of violent deaths at a white man’s hands in which a doctor testified that the cause of death was “apoplexy” or heart attack...

— Ariela Gross (@arielagross) May 29, 2020

2/...or even the anger of the enslaved man or woman leading to their death, by triggering a heart attack. These were cases of terrible bearings, vicious strangling — yet that was found not to be the cause of death.

— Ariela Gross (@arielagross) May 29, 2020

3/ So when the coroner says George Floyd died of an underlying condition plus this and that, and not the full weight of a man on his neck, I know that story.

— Ariela Gross (@arielagross) May 29, 2020

4/ The underlying condition is white supremacy.

— Ariela Gross (@arielagross) May 29, 2020

Reposted a tweet by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (Twitter)

Protest is the heartbeat of humanity. It is the sound of human rights beating to live.

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) May 30, 2020

Reposted a tweet by Maggie Appleton (Twitter)

The best bit about setting up your digital garden is suddenly having a home for all the odd-ball material that has never quite fit into other platforms and mediums. pic.twitter.com/JFgi6ZY4GD

— Maggie Appleton (@Mappletons) May 5, 2020

Why IndieWeb? This is an awesome reason!

Reposted a tweet by Stephen Downes (@oldaily) (Twitter)

Webmentions with WordPress for Open Pedagogy #oldaily https://t.co/vtcVqTmnLS This is the text and images from a presentation at the PressEd conference held online last week. As the title suggests, the focus is the use of Webmentions.

— Stephen Downes (@oldaily) March 29, 2020

Thanks for the shout out (and the Webmention) Stephen!

Reposted a tweet by Chris Wiegman (Twitter)

“Not all my own experiments have been successful but that doesn't mean I'm still not hosting some of my own services. On 13 Feb I'll talk about how to host your own using Traefik 2.0 in a free online webinar. Check it out! https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PRadmjWCRxqmpkgZvE3lAw”

This seems like something that the IndieWeb and Domain of One’s Own crowds might appreciate. 

Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley recently presented its annual Fall Benefit at the Langham Huntington Hotel.
Featured at the event were members of the Planned Parenthood health center staff and health education team to share their moving and inspirational stories about the impact of Planned Parenthood’s work in our local community.
Welcoming hundreds of philanthropists and community leaders, the Fall Benefit raises funds to support the work of Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley.
Each year, more than 40,000 patients count on Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley for birth control, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, screenings for common health conditions, annual exams, vaccines and more. It provides more than 500 hours of sexual health education and advocate for increased access to health care. All services are offered at low-to-no cost to individuals, families and schools.

5:42 pm | October 7, 2019

At their annual Fall Benefit, Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley welcomed 375 guests to the Pasadena Langham Huntington Hotel. The event raised over $378,000 in much-needed funds for the organization’s four health care centers located in Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Alhambra and Glendora.

The evening honored Joan Caillouette for more than 60 years of service and dedication to the organization’s mission. Caillouette began volunteering at the Pasadena health center in the early 1960s. For the next 15 years, she became a warm and dependable presence caring for patients each week and even enlisting the help of her husband, Dr. James Caillouette. In the 1970s and 80s she served two terms as the chair of the Board of Directors. She has also chaired the patron committee for the Fall Benefit for nearly 60 years.

Emcees for the event were Roni Geva and Margaret Katch, creators of the pro-choice comedy, CTRL ALT DELETE, an award-winning short film series that highlights their passions for female-driven stories and the intersection of art and activism.

Founded in 1933 by Pasadena residents dedicated to women’s health, PPPSGV is not only among the oldest of Planned Parenthood affiliates—they’re also one of the fastest growing. Today, they see over 60,000 patient visits per year and deliver over 15,000 opportunities for sex and relationship education in local schools and colleges.

Photography by SHIRLEY HUANG

Reposted a tweet by Jeffrey Zeldman (Twitter)

☛ How did let our beautiful WWW turn into a garbage fire of lies, hate, and privacy violations? I have some thoughts.

“Nothing Fails Like Success” ... by @zeldman in today’s @AListApart.https://t.co/6AqhFGJccr pic.twitter.com/mlGMsCJlku

— zeldman (@zeldman) April 11, 2019

Reposted a tweet by WordCamp Santa Clarita (Twitter)

SPOTLIGHT ON #WCSCV SPEAKERS: @chrisaldrich presents Micropub and WordPress: Custom Posting Applications. Join us to celebrate @WordPress at @wordcampscv the weekend of April 5-6. Learn more about Chris Aldrich at https://t.co/dXDze2mIap #wordpress #wordcamp #conferences pic.twitter.com/wSWT03bugt

— WordCamp Santa Clarita #WCSCV (@wordcampscv) March 16, 2019

Reposted a tweet by WordCamp Santa Clarita (Twitter)

THREE'S A MAGIC NUMBER: It's our pleasure to welcome to WordCamp Santa Clarita our third round of speakers to @santaclarita! @jessigurr @davidnuon @joe4ska @heyitsmikeyv @ChrisAldrich @decodingjortega Tickets available at https://t.co/BsveiHppNT #wcscv #wordpress #wordpressscv pic.twitter.com/ri98dbxlbw

— WordCamp Santa Clarita #WCSCV (@wordcampscv) March 6, 2019

Welcome to the world Boden Finley Aldrich. Born December 16, 2018 at 5:27 AM. 8 lbs 5 ozs, 21.5 inches, and a triple nuchal chord. You're the cutest little tough guy and loved by many! Leah is recovering nicely from a quasi emergency c-section after many hours of labor during a hopeful home birth.

I’m an uncle again! Congratulations Steve.

Planned Parenthood Pasadena and San Gabriel Valley hosted its annual Fall Benefit at the Langham Huntington Hotel in Pasadena on Saturday.

Hundreds of donors, advocates, and community and business leaders turned out for the event, which marks the organization’s 85th anniversary serving 24 communities. Stephanie Dencik and Stephanie McLemore served as the event’s co-chairs; Sheri Bonner is the local organization’s CEO.

Emcee Cristela Alonso shared her stories of finding care as a Latina and local high school students Amanda Estevez and Nick Sanchez brought the audience to their feet with their transformative experiences as Peer Advocates, serving as resources for sexual and reproductive health information in their schools and communities.

Other speakers included Dave Quast, PP Advocates board member and long-time advocate, and Dr. Leah Torres, a Utah-based OB/GYN whose health advocacy had helped bridge divides across conservative and progressive communities, states and countries.

see additional photos.

Reposted a tweet by Jeffrey Zeldman (Twitter)

Over 1 million Webmentions can’t be wrong. Join the next revolution in web communication. Add the Webmentions standard to your website to solve the biggest communications problem on today’s internet and add rich context to your content. @chrisaldrichhttps://t.co/bB9B8LiS3A pic.twitter.com/14eNR9bBmh

— zeldman (@zeldman) July 19, 2018

Reposted a tweet by Alan Levine (Twitter)

Get ready for @ontarioextend Domain Camp, open to new and experienced folks with domains of their own https://t.co/iy0j8VWqSk

Starts Tuesday, July 10

— Alan Levine (@cogdog) July 6, 2018

Reposted a tweet by Devon Zuegel (Twitter)

Excited to announce Tools & Craft, an interview series I've been working on with @NotionHQ for the past few months!

In this first episode, I spoke with Andy Hertzfeld, who architected the operating system of the original Macintoshhttps://t.co/CqOLwm7LPm pic.twitter.com/76iA3amzU6

— Devon Zuegel (@devonzuegel) June 18, 2018

In this first episode, I spoke with Andy Hertzfeld, who architected the operating system of the original Macintosh https://t.co/CqOLwm7LPm”

Reposted a tweet by Detlef Stern (Twitter)

liest (und hört dann endlich): "Ein IndieWeb Podcast" von @pfefferle über Podcasts von @ChrisAldrich https://t.co/JC5YgdKbIX

— Detlef Stern (@t73fde) May 26, 2018

Reposted a tweet by Jon Udell (Twitter)

Wanted: An annotation-savvy journalist to join @dangillmor and me at https://t.co/tMTAmHeHmH to discuss how annotation can streamline newsroom workflow.

— Jon Udell (@judell) May 23, 2018

I am tired of listening to comments on Facebook, mentioning it’s already too late or no point now or the platform is too valuable. We need to stop this. We are conveying to owners & other parties involved that don’t worry. It doesn’t matter how bad you screw up. You own us.

It never occurred to me that people would be blaming @oauth_2 for the Facebook mess. Friendly reminder that OAuth is what lets you control *which* parts of your Facebook data apps get access to, and what lets you revoke that access, which you can do here: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications

There's no need to go out tonight for a movie. There are 100s of math videos on every conceivable 'math' topic' at --> https://www.pinterest.com/mathematicsprof/

"The race to be wrong first is always live-tweeted."

Let the celebrations begin. #Fornacalia offers bakers everywhere a chance to honour their ovens and their ingredients. https://www.fornacalia.com/2018/gearing-up-for-fornacalia/

My ten hour white noise video now has five copyright claims! pic.twitter.com/dX9PCM1qGx

— Sebastian Tomczak (@littlescale) January 4, 2018

Information Theory and signal processing FTW!

(Aside: This is a great example of how people really don’t understand our copyright system or science in general.)

According to Google Scholar, Turing's paper inventing modern computing is only his _second_ most cited paper pic.twitter.com/T1M4k4dMYK

— michael_nielsen (@michael_nielsen) October 7, 2015

Looks like Alan Turing, like Claude Shannon, was interested in microbiology too! I’ll have to dig into this. [pdf]

Unconditional love means unconditional likes. At least, that’s how it works with Chris Aldrich’s mom, who “auto-likes” everything he posts to Facebook. Family pictures? Like! A blog post titled “A New Low in Quantum Mechanics?” Like!

The Next Web has a piece on my Facebook Mom Algorithm Problem article from a few weeks back.

Source: Your mom is killing your chances of going viral on Facebook

Reposted a tweet by DreamHostVerified account (Twitter)

DreamHost is a proud sponsor of @indiewebcamp meetups! Right out of our #PDX office, no less! #webdesign #bloggingpic.twitter.com/bFsowoe4vK

Reposted a tweet by Open Culture (Twitter)

Hear The Epic of Gilgamesh Read in its Original Ancient Language, Akkadian http://bit.ly/2dF0SFZpic.twitter.com/sdgjcJX5ZK

Dave Harris is sure to appreciate this.

Reposted GitHub have published some guidance on persistence and archiving of repositories for academics #openscience by Arfon Smith (Twitter)

GitHub have published some guidance on persistence and archiving of repositories for academics https://help.github.com/articles/about-archiving-content-and-data-on-github/ #openscience

The crowd from Dodging the Memory Hole are sure to find this interesting!

For the first couple of months of freshman year, I spent my evenings breaking into buildings on campus.

Having just passed our 20th college reunion, an old friend starts spilling the beans…

Apparently the statute of limitations on college shenanigans has run out and one of my best friends has written a nice little essay about some of “our” adventures. Fortunately he has kindly left out the names of his co-conspirators, so I’ll also remain silent about who was responsible for which particular crimes. Like him, I will leave the numerous other crimes he redacted unsung.

For the first couple of months of freshman year, I spent my evenings breaking into buildings on campus. This began, naturally, because a few of us who lived in and around the Vincent-Willard dorm had mail ordered lock-picking kits, and, well, we needed something to practice on besides our own dorm rooms.

So down into the midnight bowels of Krieger we crept, sneaking deep underground into disused classrooms, mute hallways, and one strange lab whose floor was tight-knit mesh wiring with a Silence of the Lambs–esque chamber below. We touched little, took nothing (except, once, a jar of desiccant—sorry!), and were never caught.

Such was the state of fun at Johns Hopkins in the fall of 1992, an era when the administration seemed to have adopted a policy of benign neglect toward the extracurricular happiness of its undergraduate body. We had Spring Fair and the occasional bus trip to New York for the day. What more could we want?

For many—really, most—of my cutthroat classmates, this was reason to grumble. Why, they moaned from the depths of D-level, couldn’t school be more exciting? A student union, they pleaded. A bar. A café. Anything to make campus life more bearable.

But for my friends and me, the school’s DGAF attitude meant freedom: We could do whatever we wanted, on campus or off. When lock-picking grew old (quickly, I’m pleased to say), we began to roam, wandering among the half-abandoned industrial sites that lined the unreconstructed harbor, or driving (when someone happened to have a car) under the interstates that cut through and around the city. We were set loose upon Baltimore, and all we ever wanted was to go and see what there was.

Here’s what we found: A large yellow smiley face painted on the end of an oil-storage tank. The 16mm film collection at the Pratt Library. A man who claimed to have been hanging out with Mama Cass Elliot of the Mamas & the Papas the night she lost her virginity. The Baltimore Streetcar Museum. How to clear the dance floor at Club Midnite by playing the 1978 song “Fish Heads” (eat them up, yum!). The big slice at Angelo’s and the $4.95 crabcake subs at Sip & Bite. Smart drugs, Neal Stephenson, and 2600 magazine at Atomic Books. The indie movie screenings at Skizz Cyzyk’s funeral home “mansion.”

None of these alone was world-changing (okay, except maybe “Fish Heads”). Put together, though, they amounted to a constant stream of stimulation, novelty, and excitement, the discoveries that make new adulthood feel fresh and occasionally profound.

All the while, I heard the no-fun grumbling from around campus and failed to understand it. We had freedom—what more could we need? The world was all around us, begging to be explored. We didn’t even have to leave campus: One spring, my girlfriend and I simply stepped off the sidewalk next to Mudd Hall into a little dell—and discovered a stand of wild scallions. We picked a ton, brought them home, and feasted on our foraged bounty. All we’d had to do was to leave the asphalt path—no red brick in those days—behind.

Matt Gross, Johns Hopkins A&S ’96, ’98 (MA), is a food and travel writer/editor who’s worked for everyone from The New York Times and Bon Appétit to The Guardian, The Village Voice, and Saveur. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Jean Liu, A&S ’96, and their two daughters.

Incidentally he also had two other meaty pieces that came out yesterday as well:

• Are we Living in a Post-Bacon World? | ExtraCrispy.com
• A New Book About Nathan’s Famous Feeds Our Need for Cheap Eats — and the Prosperity Myth | Village Voice

Popular physics has enjoyed a new-found regard. Now comes a brave attempt to inject mathematics into an otherwise fashionable subject

This review of Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw’s forthcoming book The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen sounds intriguing. I’m highly impressed that so much of the review focuses on the author’s decision to include a more mathematical treatment of their subject for what is supposed to be a popular science book. I always wish books like these at least had the temerity to include much more in the way of the mathematical underpinnings of their subjects; I’m glad that the popular press (or at least The Economist in this case) is willing to be asking for the mathematics as well. Hopefully it will mark a broader trend in popular books on scientific topics!

Fundamental physics

Big bang

Popular physics has enjoyed a new-found regard. Now comes a brave attempt to inject mathematics into an otherwise fashionable subject

Nov 5th 2011 | from the print edition

The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen. By Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw. Allen Lane; 255 pages; £20. To be published in America in January by Da Capo Press; $25.

PREVIOUSLY the preserve of dusty, tweed-jacketed academics, physics has enjoyed a surprising popular renaissance over the past few years. In America Michio Kaku, a string theorist, has penned several successful books and wowed television and radio audiences with his presentations on esoteric subjects such as the existence of wormholes and the possibility of alien life. In Britain Brian Cox, a former pop star whose music helped propel Tony Blair to power, has become the front man for physics, which recently regained its status as a popular subject in British classrooms, an effect many attribute to Mr Cox’s astonishing appeal.

Mr Cox, a particle physicist, is well-known as the presenter of two BBC television series that have attracted millions of viewers (a third series will be aired next year) and as a bestselling author and public speaker. His latest book, “The Quantum Universe”, which he co-wrote with Jeff Forshaw of the University of Manchester, breaks the rules of popular science-writing that were established over two decades ago by Stephen Hawking, who launched the modern genre with his famous book, “A Brief History of Time”.

Mr Hawking’s literary success was ascribed to his eschewing equations. One of his editors warned him that sales of the book would be halved by every equation he included; Mr Hawking inserted just one, E=mc², and, even then, the volume acquired a sorry reputation for being bought but not read. By contrast, Mr Cox, whose previous book with Mr Forshaw investigated “Why does E=mc²?” (2009), has bravely sloshed a generous slug of mathematics throughout his texts.

The difficulties in explaining physics without using maths are longstanding. Einstein mused, “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility,” and “the fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle.” Yet the language in which the world is described is that of maths, a relatively sound grasp of which is needed to comprehend the difficulties that physicists are trying to resolve as well as the possible solutions. Mr Cox has secured a large fan base with his boyish good looks, his happy turns of phrase and his knack for presenting complex ideas using simple analogies. He also admirably shies away from dumbing down. “The Quantum Universe” is not a dry undergraduate text book, but nor is it a particularly easy read.

The subject matter is hard. Quantum mechanics, which describes in subatomic detail a shadowy world in which cats can be simultaneously alive and dead, is notoriously difficult to grasp. Its experiments yield bizarre results that can be explained only by embracing the maths that describe them, and its theories make outrageous predictions (such as the existence of antimatter) that have nevertheless later been verified. Messrs Cox and Forshaw say they have included the maths “mainly because it allows us to really explain why things are the way they are. Without it, we should have to resort to the physicist-guru mentality whereby we pluck profundities out of thin air, and neither author would be comfortable with guru status.”

That stance might comfort the authors, but to many readers they will nonetheless seem to pluck equations out of thin air. Yet their decision to include some of the hard stuff leaves open the possibility that some readers might actually engage in the slog that leads to higher pleasures. For non-sloggers alternative routes are offered: Messrs Cox and Forshaw use clockfaces to illustrate how particles interact with one another, a drawing of how guitar strings twang and a photograph of a vibrating drum. A diagram, rather than an equation, is used to explain one promising theory of how matter acquires mass, a question that experiments on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, will hopefully soon answer.

The authors have wisely chosen to leaven their tome with amusing tales of dysfunctional characters among scholars who developed quantum mechanics in the 1920s and beyond, as well as with accounts of the philosophical struggles with which they grappled and the occasional earthy aside. Where the subject matter is a trifle dull, Messrs Cox and Forshaw acknowledge it: of Heinrich Kayser, who a century ago completed a six-volume reference book documenting the spectral lines generated by every known element, they observe, “He must have been great fun at dinner parties.” And they make some sweeping generalisations about their colleagues who pore over equations, “Physicists are very lazy, and they would not go to all this trouble unless it saved time in the long run.”

Whether or not readers of “The Quantum Universe” will follow all the maths, the authors’ love for their subject shines through the book. “There is no better demonstration of the power of the scientific method than quantum theory,” they write. That may be so, but physicists all over the world, Messrs Cox and Forshaw included, are longing for the next breakthrough that will supersede the claim. Hopes are pinned on experiments currently under way at CERN that may force physicists to rethink their understanding of the universe, and inspire Messrs Cox and Forshaw to write their next book—equations and all.

from the print edition | Books and arts

The amount of information carried in the arrangement of words is the same across all languages, even languages that aren't related to each other. This consistency could hint at a single common ancestral language, or universal features of how human brains process speech. "It doesn't matter what language or style you take," said systems biologist…

Reposted IPTV primer: an overview of the fusion of TV and the Internet by Iljitsch Van Beijnum (Ars Technica)

This brief overview of IPTV is about as concise as they get. It’s recommended for entertainment executives who need to get caught up on the space as well as for people who are contemplating “cutting the cable cord.” There’s still a lot of improvement the area can use…

“The Information,” by James Gleick, is to the nature, history and significance of data what the beach is to sand.

This book is assuredly going to have to skip up to the top of my current reading list.

Reposted ‘Loca’ event raises over $6 mil by Army Archerd (Variety)

GOOD MORNING: Sunday morning, hours after they departed the SRO BevHilton ballroom where their Carousel of Hope Ball raised more than $6 million ($1.5 million from Marvin) benefiting the Children’s Diabetes Foundation, Marvin and Barbara Davis were hosting a lavish lunch for the out-of-town guests plus participants in the fundraiser. Marvin still couldn’t get over the ball’s finale when he saw wife Barbara on stage shaking it with Ricky Martin — who had the entire ballroom on its feet dancing. Barbara had also told Michael Jackson, “Ricky wants to meet you.” So Jackson and his date Elizabeth Taylor made their way backstage with Barbara, who shoved Michael onstage for a brief moment in the spotlight with the new king, Ricky Martin. Martin had flown in from Australia with his entire troupe to perform gratis, as did the other artists. I had been annoyed by Jackson and Taylor, who were sitting directly in front of our table. I thought them rude as they engaged in conversation during Ricky’s first two numbers. Jackson’s doctor, dermatologist Arnold Klein; had sidled up to talk with them during Martin’s performance. (Klein’s nurse Debbie Rowe, you recall, married/divorced Michael and bore him two children: son Prince, 3-1/2, and daughter Paris, 2-1/2). Jackson and his children have been regular (biweekly) visitors at the Davis’ home and the offspring get high marks from Marvin. John Davis had birthday-gifted dad Marvin with two tiny donkeys which graze on the lush lawn; the celeb lunch bunch had a full view of the tiny critters who have free rein (and you know what that includes) of the garden … At the BevHilton, Elizabeth and Michael were seated at one end of the head table on the first riser and in full view of the crowd below. As you might imagine, their presence created a major crush of visitors; some like Shirley MacLaine and Carrie Fisher (who just toiled with Taylor in “Those Old Broads”) carried on their conversation on the carpeting alongside Elizabeth. Another of the “Broads,” Joan Collins, was seated elsewhere with Evie and Leslie Bricusse. Collins is off to England to be at daughter Tara Newley’s side during her divorce battle. Joan is no stranger to that stage.

IT WAS NO SECRET that Ricky Martin, while the toast of the (young) world, was nervous about appearing before this mature, star-studded audience of performers and execs. He needn’t have been! Sure, he’s had movie offers but can’t accept because of the time they’d take away from his concerts and recordings. He winged out (in his plane) immediately after the BevHilton benefit to Miami … Performers at future BevHilton events will be pleased to know that Merv Griffin, the Carousel Ball’s host, has built a new backstage facility for talent. It was appreciated by the magnificent performers Toni Braxton (who said her mother has diabetes), young Charlotte Church (whatta voice!), David Foster and the musicians. Jay Leno’s takeoff tape on candidates Gore and Bush was classic, but his remarks about President Clinton are getting to be overdone by now. Touching moments were the remarks by Barbara Davis, daughter Dana (and the presentation of a hand receiving the brass ring sculpture) and Sidney Poitier. George Schlatter did a terrif job again producing the show … Clive Davis, one of the music chairmen, just signed Luther Vandross and O-Town to his new J Records and has now added a young duo from Brazil: Medeiros, brothers Julian and Rodalgo M. who sing in Portuguese, Spanish and English. Attending with Davis was his cousin Jo Schuman Silver, owner of SanFran’s fantastic “Beach Blanket Babylon” show, which continues SRO for every performance … Among those who stopped by to hug Michael Jackson was Berry Gordy, his discoverer. Also Suzanne De Passe. Also there Keely Shaye Smith and Pierce Brosnan, who told me he doesn’t expect to be away at work when their baby arrives in February. And they probably will not have the wedding until summer, in Ireland … As always, the Carousel Ball featured a silent auction which preceded in the BevHilton’s rooms surrounding the lobby and ballroom. Dana Davis and sister Nancy Davis-Rickel again chaired and the auction brought in $623,389 — to date. They are still selling items. Celebrity-designed plates brought in $56,700. Guests included Line Renaud, just in from Paris. She arrived with Veronique and Gregory Peck (he contributed one of the designed plates). Neil Diamond even bought a painting by LeRoy Neiman, which he had contributed … Marvin Davis, whose properties over the years have included 20th Century Fox and the Beverly Hills Hotel, has a new affiliation with Lend Lease with plans to build everything “all over the world.” Meanwhile the Davises continue to build to one day find a cure for childhood diabetes.

AND NOW, AS THEY SAY on the 11 o’clock news, “some late-breaking news”: Charlton Heston, who starred in the first two “Planet of the Apes” pix for 20th, will cameo in the next. Yes, he was killed off in the second pic — but now he returns as an ape. No, he’s not a foot soldier, so he won’t have to carry a gun — as I did, as an ape (member of the National Rhesus Assn., ya know) in the first “Planet” pic, opposite Heston. Producer Richard Zanuck and director Tim Burton launch next week in Paige, Ariz., site of the first.

It’s all about the donkeys:

John Davis had birthday-gifted dad Marvin with two tiny donkeys which graze on the lush lawn; the celeb lunch bunch had a full view of the tiny critters who have free rein (and you know what that includes) of the garden …

Class of 1996: JEFFREY P. DOSHNA and SARAH (WATSON) DOSHNA write: "We are pleased to announce the birth of our son, Noah Alexander Doshna on April 29. Sarah continues to work as a process engineer for Merck & Co., in their sterile pilot plants. Although Jeff is continuing his doctoral studies in the department of urban planning at Rutgers University, he has assumed the role of 'stay-at-home' dad for the time being. Fellow Vincent-Willard alumna IVY WONG '96, paid a visit in June and brought a card for Noah signed by ROGER OEN '96, JAMES ARMSTRONG '94, CHRIS ALDRICH '96, MAX BARTEAU '96, TAMMY WU '96, JANET LEE '96, PETER SYLVES '96, and TONY TSAI '96. We also regularly see JOHN PAXTON '96."

8/8/2018: I’m collecting some snippet mentions of me from the early days of the web. Notes like this online (and also in print at the time) were the original social networking.