Book Collections

Thoughts on Marie Kondo from Lileks.

I have too many books, and I’d never have time in this life (barring breakthroughs in life extension) to read or reread them all. I have a twenty-volume encyclopedia of the Illustrated Science And Invention, which may come in handy after the apocalypse, when all knowledge of technology has been lost, and we have to rebuild civilization, so that definitely stays. But I really need to organize all of my books, and papers. My office is a godawful mess.

Sixteen Years Ago

Columbia was lost on this date in 2003, putting a final stake through the heart of the Space Shuttle program. We were staying at a Residence Inn in San Bruno (Patricia was working in Millbrae), when I was awoken by someone on the east coast with the news. Here were my immediate thoughts, which held up pretty well, I think. And if you go to this page, you’ll find that post at the bottom, but can scroll up to see my further reflections over the next few days (or click on “Next post” from the first blog link). I had only been blogging for a year and a half or so at the time.

Today, Ian Kluft had a thread on Twitter on his recollection of seeing the disaster live, though at the time he didn’t know exactly what was happening:

[Early-afternoon update]

Here is the archived version with comments. In that post, and this one, you can see the beginning of formulating my thoughts for the book, though it wouldn’t happen for another eight years or so.

AOC

Why Trump superfans admire her.

Like Obama and Trump, she and Trump actually have a lot more similarities than most fans of either realize. They’re both charismatic, they both know how to use social media to get attention and get around the MSM, and facts and reality never get in the way of their message. Now that I think about it, I’ll bet that if Twitter had existed four decades ago, Reagan would have used it.

Leaving California

A meditation.

The one thing she doesn’t mention about why people hate Californians when they move into their community; they’re afraid that they’ll bring with them the voting habits that have made the state such a disaster. I remember when we were in Austin a couple years ago, doing wine tasting in Hill Country. The tone of the conversation got distinctly chillier when they learned we were from CA. I tried to assure them that we weren’t the problem.

Europeans Are Terrible

A new paper claims that the die-off of indigenous Americans in the sixteenth century after colonization caused the Little Ice Age.

I’m skeptical.

[Update a while later]

A response to a query to Judith Curry.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!