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…]
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…]
Place holder for The Guardian article “Human ‘behavioural crisis’ at root of climate breakdown, say scientists” “We’ve socially engineered ourselves the way we geoengineered the planet,” says Joseph Merz, lead author of a new paper which proposes that climate breakdown is a symptom of ecological overshoot, which in turn is caused by the deliberate … [Read more…]
Place marker for this Guardian article on the city owned communal buildings, January 10, 2024. how Vienna became the world’s most livable city
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…]
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…]
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…]
This is a small book, in the genre of possible science. Rovelli has his ideas about the existence of “white holes” and explains the development of the theory in a rather charming way, citing Dante most of the way through the process. While I was able to follow along with his reasoning I wasn’t … [Read more…]
Disruptions : stories Steven Millhauser 12/15/2023 This collection was my first book by Millhauser and I liked it a lot. He has a unique viewpoint, mostly 1st person narrative and the scenarios he creates are quite bizarre. The story “After the beheading” is, as many of his stories are, set in a community. This one … [Read more…]
Worlds of exile and illusion by Ursula K. Le Guin From the publisher, ” The author’s first three novels–City of Illusions, Rocannon’s World, and Planet of Exile–are included in an omnibus edition, all set in the same universe as The Left Hand of Darkness, as her characters battle forces in society that seek to tear … [Read more…]