-
Unexpected
‘The shepherd in Virgil sought for love and found him a native of the rocks.‘― Samuel Johnson
-
Not knowing
‘I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.‘― Richard Feynman
-
Turning point. The bomb and the Cold War
I recently was tipped about this Netflix series about the atomic bomb and the Cold War so I decided to give it a try. It fitted with much of my recent reading about Oppenheimer and the making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes and Leslie Groves. The series has 9 episodes of roughly 70 minutes each and focuses mostly on the Cold War, the making of the atomic bomb is covered in the first episode. Much of what is covered in the series that is related to the atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race can also be read…
-
Rega Planar 2 Record Player
After hesitating for a few years I finally bought a new record player. I ended up chosing the Rega Planar 2. There was a nice open box deal at Eglantier hifi. I had been playing with the idea to buy a record player for some time just to be able to listen to some old records we still have. I got rid of most of my old records long ago after switching to CDs but had a few left and then got more from an inheritance about 5 years ago. I originally thought to get a budget player but then…
-
-
Through rugged ways to the stars, Harlow Shapley (ISBN 9781124074719, Charles Scribner’s Sons)
This is the autobiography of Harlow Shapley, the man who discovered size of the milky way and the place of our sun in it. Shapley considered the discovery that our sun was not in the center of the milky way as his most important contribution to our world view because it was more or less the ultimate degradation of our importance in the creation of the universe, the next step after having abandoned geocentricism and heliocentrism before. The book is based on a transcription of a two day interview when he was already eighty years old. This origin is reflected…
-
-
Beginnings of war
‘Since wars begin in the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.‘― Clement Attlee & Archibald MacLeish
-
The Story of Numbers, John McLeish (ISBN 978-0-449-90938-6, Fawcett Columbine)
The Story of Numbers explores the history of mathematics to trace the rise of various number systems in cultures from Mesopotamia to the modern Computer Era. It is not a traditional history of mathematics or a history of mathematicians. Instead it focuses on the different number systems and calculation methods that evolved in time in different cultures. It describes how the needs of these cultures influenced the development of numbers and early mathematics and how the mathematics in turn influenced the cultures. All civilisations had some counting methods but only cultures that needed elaborate calculations to predict the calender and…
-
Poison
‘Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.‘― Adam Smith
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Response 418 