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Aide-Memoire

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

Charles V. Hamilton, an Apostle of ‘Black Power,’ Dies at 94

February 18, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Charles V. Hamilton, an Apostle of ‘Black Power,’ Dies at 94 He popularized the term “institutional racism” and, with Stokely Carmichael, wrote a book in 1967 that was seen as a radical manifesto. “Equitable distribution of power must come from mutual self-interest, not altruism or guilt feelings,” Dr. Hamilton wrote

Posted in: Faits Divers, Obituaries, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: Black Power, Charles V. Hamilton, Civil Rights, Columbia University, Dr. Hamilton, institutional racism, Jeh C. Johnson, Kwame Ture, manifesto, N.A.A.C.P., political scientist, Social Welfare Policies, Stokely Carmichael, Tuskegee Institute, University of Chicago

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

Manzana Products, Sonoma County’s last apple processing plant, moving to Washington state

February 14, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Manzana Products, Sonoma County’s last apple processing plant, moving to Washington state Manzana Products cites the county’s low apple production and high cost of out-of-state apple transportation as the main factors for its move to Washington state.

Posted in: California History, Environment, Faits Divers, the Anthropocene Tagged: 2024, agricultural history, Apple, apple processing, California, Manzana Products, Sebastopol, Sonoma County, sustainability, Washington State

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 Worlds I See by Dr. Fei Fei Li

January 27, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

The Worlds I See by Dr. Fei Fei Li, borrowed from my local library after a two month wait in the queue. This is a “Moment of Lift” book which supports “publishing original nonfiction by visionaries working to unlock a more equal world for women and girls.” I didn’t know this until I had finished … [Read more…]

Posted in: Ethical and green living, Future of Work, IT Failures, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about, What I Read Tagged: AI, AI4ALL, artificial intelligence, computer vision, Dr. Fei Fei Li, Fei Fei Li, ImageNet, John Etchemendy, Olga Russakovsky, Stanford, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI

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

Human ‘behavioural crisis’ at root of climate breakdown, say scientists

January 13, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

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…]

Posted in: Climate Change, Environment, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Finanace, Future of Work, IT Failures, Pandemic, Politics, Racism, Science, the Anthropocene, Thinking about Tagged: behavioural, carbon emissions, climate breakdown, climate change, consuming, consumption, crisis, geoengineered, large families, neuropsychology, norms, Population, renewable energy, social signalling, waste
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