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Russian Exceptionalism

March 25, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

(The events in Moscow unfolded as I wrote this, it isn’t aimed at the current events except tangentially.) I finished this review in the New York Review of Books and wanted to share it. It is a long review, but rather fascinating for someone who knows next to nothing about this history, it filled in … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Politics, Racism, Thinking about, What I Read Tagged: 2024, Aleksandr Dugin, Charles Clover, Dugin, February 22, Gary Saul Morson, Gennady Seleznev, Halford Mackinder, Hans Sievers, Jafe Arnold, John Dunlop, John Stachelski, Mark Bassin, Moscow, New York Review of Books, Nikolai Berdyaev, Nikolai Trubetskoy, Russia, the Duma, The Foundations of Geopolitics, The Legacy of Genghis Khan, The Russian Idea, Yeltsin

Christo’s Running Fence

February 21, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In an article written in 2016, 40 years after the Running Fence was erected, Sonoma Magazine ran this article: Christo’s Running Fence

Posted in: California History, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, History, Politics, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene Tagged: 1976, California Coastal Commission, Christo, Christo’s Running Fence, Estero de San Antonio, Jeanne-Claude, Running Fence, Sonoma County, Sonoma County Planning Commission, the Marin County Planning Commission, Valley Ford

Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field

February 18, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

CERN Courier review. Faraday, Maxwell, and the Electromagnetic Field: How Two Men Revolutionized Physics 27 November 2014 By Nancy Forbes and Basil Mahon Prometheus Books My review: This was a snap to read, light on the equations, but with enough math to make sense, the story line follows the lives of Michael Faraday and James … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Science, the Anthropocene, What I Read Tagged: 1790, 2000, Einstein, Electromagnetic Field, electromagnetism, Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Josiah Willard Gibbs, Maxwell, Michael Faraday, Oliver Heavyside, physics

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!

February 12, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Finished this “classic” a few nights ago. Feynman is quite a story teller and if you haven’t read this and like zany, bongo playing Nobel winners, it’s for you. I wasn’t sure what to expect but he writes in short stories about his life and his opinions on a lot of subjects, he is brilliant … [Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Faits Divers, History, Politics, Sea Stories, the Anthropocene, What I Read Tagged: atomic physics, Brazilian Samba, CALTEC, Cornell, Einstein, Feynman, Los Alamos, Nobel Prize, physics, Princeton, safecracking

Greece finally pays tribute to Iannis Xenakis

January 28, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Greece finally pays tribute to Iannis Xenakis (The Guardian 01/28/2024) “Few cultural figures were as important in the second half of the century,” said Katerina Gregos, the artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST). “Xenakis was not just a polymath, a visionary, a true cosmopolitan, he was a mathematician, civil … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Modern Music, Obituaries, Photography, Politics Tagged: architect, author, avant-garde music, civil engineer, Composer, draftsman, electronic musi, Iannis Xenakis, Le Corbusier, mathematician, music theorist

The Double Helix by James D. Watson

January 27, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

While at the library earlier this week to return Dr. Fei Fei Li’s book, I stumbled across another science memoir, this one The Double Helix by James D. Watson. It is a very easy read, fast paced, on topic, and rather funny in many ways. He tells on how, by working with chemists of various … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Science, What I Read Tagged: 1968, Dorothy Hodgkin, Francis Crick, Jack Dunitz, James D. Watson, Leslie Orgel, Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins, Max Delbrück, Max Perutz, Raymond Gosling, Rosalind Franklin, Salvador Luria, Sir Lawrence Bragg, Sydney Brenner, The Double Helix

“Soiled Doves” & Highway Robbery

January 23, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Elko Independent, 18 March 1871 — Nevada Items: A few days since a couple of “soiled doves” arrived in town from Carson, in search of a member of the late Legislature, claiming that he owed them $200. The individual in question circumvented them by getting on the engine of the western-bound train and running to … [Read more…]

Posted in: California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, History Tagged: 1871, Carson City, Elko Independant, Ely Nevada, Ely Record, Fontier News, Highway Robbery, Nevada, six-shooters, Soiled Doves, Wild West

Transatlantic slavery continued for years after 1867

January 4, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In The Guardian, an essay on recent findings of historian Hannah Durkin showing the arrival of slave ships in Cuba as late as 1872. Historians have generally assumed that the transatlantic slave trade ended in 1867, but it actually continued into the following decade, according to new research. Dr Hannah Durkin, an historian and former … [Read more…]

Posted in: History, Racism, Sea Stories, Slavery, Thinking about Tagged: 1867, 1872, Angola, barracoon, Benin, Cuba, Dr Hannah Durkin, Ouidah, slave ships, Slavery, Spain, Transatlantic slavery

The Murder of Sonoma County Sheriff James Petray – December 6, 1920

December 29, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

SHERIFF PETRAY AND 2 DETECTIVES KILLED Press Democrat Dec 6, 1920 On December 6, 1920 in Santa Rosa, California, the Sheriff of Sonoma county, James A. Petray and San Francisco Detectives Miles Jackson and Lester Dorman were gunned down. The killer was one George Boyd of Seattle, a professional boxer and a member of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, History, Obituaries Tagged: Detective Lester Dorman, Detective Miles Jackson, District Attorney Hoyle, George Boyd, Howard Street Gang, James A. Petray, John M. Boyes, Judge Emmet Seawell, lynching, mobs, San Francisco, San Francisco Police, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Sonoma County Sheriff

ONE WOMAN LYNCHED

December 21, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

In researching a lynching in Santa Rosa Press Democrat of 11 December 1920, this bit of California history was mentioned: ONE WOMAN LYNCHED What is reputed to be the only known lynching of a woman in the history of California, occurred in Downieville in 1851. As described by Charles L. Felton, an eye-witness, she was a … [Read more…]

Posted in: California History, California Newspaper Archive, Faits Divers, History, Obituaries Tagged: 1851, belles of the camp, California, dagger, Downieville, history of California, lynching
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