Notes on Gregory Neil Derry: What Science Is And How It Works (cont.):

Scientific models are simplified (and sometimes overly simplified) representations of reality.

Game Theory: invented 1928 by John von Neumann; simple game as a model: two players, one penny each, penny has either heads up or down; if they match, one player wins, if not, the other wins the game; one cannot devise a strategy to win more than one loses, but one can assure that he does not lose more than half the time (break even); von Neumann showed that in any zero-sum game (=one player's loss is other player's gain) with two players there is always a strategy that minimizes the losses of both players; when rules are given, this strategy can be mathematically calculated.

Prisoner's Dilemma: not a zero-sum game, therefore far more complex: two players are prisoners arrested together for a crime; kept separate (no communication); rules: if neither confesses, both go free; if both confess, both go to jail with light sentence; if one confesses and the other does not, the confessor is paid off, the other gets a heavy jail sentence; therefore: if either of the prisoners try to maximize their personal gain, both together end up worse than they could.

"The novel contribution of game theory has been to make these 'messy' characteristics of human affairs amenable to mathematical treatment."

Other Links:
Prisoner's Dilemma

"It is usually the imagination that is wounded first, rather than the heart; it being much more sensitive." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862): US essayist, poet, naturalist; transcendentalist.

Transcendentalism: "A movement which developed in New England around 1836 and encompassed philosophical, religious, and social thought. Influenced by European romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy (the name comes from Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, 1788), the movement reacted against 18th-century rationalism and espoused an idealistic philosophy based on belief in divinity pervading the whole of nature and humankind. Members also pursued experiments in communal living and held progressive views on feminism and social issues. Central figures were Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau." (Oxford English Reference Dictionary)

"Nineteenth Century American Transcendentalism is not a religion (in the traditional sense of the word); it is a pragmatic philosophy, a state of mind, and a form of spirituality. It is not a religion because it does not adhere to the three concepts common in major religions: a. a belief in a God; b. a belief in an afterlife (dualism); and c. a belief that this life has consequences on the next (if you're good in this life, you go to heaven in the next, etc.). Transcendentalism is monist; it does not reject an afterlife, but its emphasis is on this life." (Perspectives in American Literature by Paul P. Reuben)

Other Links:
Transcendentalists
Paul P. Reuben: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide

Notes on Gregory Neil Derry: What Science Is And How It Works (cont.):

Dmitri Mendeleev: Periodic system of elements; every element was like a close friend to him that he knew well; after establishing the periodic system, he predicted that the atomic weights of several elements were incorrect; predicted some of the elements discovered later, e.g. germanium and gallium.

Alfred Wegener: Continental drift; continents had been joined 250 million years ago.

Sometimes discrepancies trigger new discoveries. Examples:

1.) Discovery of argon by British physicist Lord Rayleigh, who measured the densities of oxygen and nitrogen. Nitrogen from air gave slightly different results than from ammonia. Rayleigh discovered that the difference was due to an 'impurity' in air, argon.

2.) Barometer: Evangelista Torricelli (1643): water could only be pumped to 34 ft by suction pumps. Explanation by Aristotle: 'horror vacui' (nature abhors vacuum = empty space is an unnatural state); turns out to be false, because most of the universe is 'empty'; Torricelli made the connection between the suction pumps and the fact that air has weight: when suction is applied, the pressure over the opening of the tube pushes water up the tube, since the pressure within the tube is less than that. When weight of the water column pushing down is equal to atmospheric pressure, it can't go any higher; i.e. 34 ft; Torricelli then tried different liquid (mercury) that has a higher density and therefore smaller volume per weight; column was shorter (2.5 ft), proportional to ratio of densities; principle allows measurements of atmospheric pressure.

3.) Neptune (1846): discovered after discrepancies of predicted vs. measured orbit of Uranus.



Babylonians had exceptional observational and mathematical knowledge that was passed on to the Greek.

6th century B.C.: Pythagoras of Samos: the true nature of the world is based on mathematical relationships. Plato incorporated Pythagorean emphasis on mathematics into his philosophy, but Platos work was based upon idealizations rather than study of nature, upon pure thought rather than experience and perception.

Aristarchus: earth and planets revolve around the sun; earth rotates on its axis; for unknown reasons, this idea did not catch on until 1800 years later with Kopernicus.

Retrograde motion of planets was solved by Eudoxos, a student of Plato, who used nested spheres and culminated in the famous 'epicyle' system of Ptolemy.

Kopernicus: geocentric system.

Johannes Kepler was convinced that deep numerical relationships existed. Tycho Brahe collected precise and systematic measurements that Kepler used. Kepler's laws.

Galileo.

Rene Descartes: very influential French philosopher; his physics were mostly proven wrong, except for his idea of inertia.

Newton: calculus; mechanics = science of motion.




Snippets:
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CD: Alisha's Attic: The House We Built (UK, 2001): good; like previous recordings of the duo.
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CD: Eddie Reader: Candyfloss and Medicine (1996).
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Elias Canetti: 'Die Blendung' mentions Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725): top Japanese government director; famous Confucian scholar; added ceremonies to calendar; built Confucian shrine and study center in Yushima (Edo=Tokyo); supported Buddhism; wrote 'Told round a brushwood fire: the autobiography of Arai Hakuseki'; Canetti cites how A.H. disciplined himself during his studies with two buckets of cold water that he used to pour over his head when he got tired.

Other Links:
Sacret Texts: Confucianism

Snippets:
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CD: Dietmar Wischmeyer: Der kleine Tierfreund - Im Taumel der Wollust (German, 1991): very funny
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CD: Herbert Knebels Affentheater: Da sind wa schon wieder (German, 1996): cabaret; can go without
~~~~~~~
CD: Mucho Macho: The Limehouse Link (1998): cool groove
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CD: Ani Difranco: So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter (2002): Not as good as 'Living in Clip'
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CD: Rosalie Deighton: Truth Drug (2001): received CD from U.K. today, totally unknown in U.S.; reminds of Sarah McLaughlan at times; a winner!
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CD: The Beautiful South: Miao (1994): like 'em
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Book: Bryan Magee: Philosophy and the Real World. An Introduction to Karl Popper (1985): Empirical generalizations, though not verifiable, are falsifiable. Scientific laws can be tested by systematic ways to refute them.
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Book: Hans Joachim Stoerig: Kleine Weltgeschichte der Philosophy (German, 1990): Confucius: One should not worry that he is not famous, but should be concerned with becoming worthy of fame.
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Mad Magazine Jan. 2003: George W. Bush's Notes from his last Cabinet Meeting: hilarious, laughed out loud for minutes: Arafat --- Araskinny, Axes of Evil, Change name of state to 'Oilaska', U.N.ESSESARY
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Mad Magazine Feb. 2003: Yoga Positions that occur in Daily Life: plain funny
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Elias Canetti (1905-1994), Nobel Prize for Literature in 1981: 'Die Blendung' (German = 'The Deception'), English title: Auto-da-Fé (also released as 'The Tower of Babel'); first published in 1935, banned by the Nazis; deals with the dangers inherent in believing that rigid, dissociated intellectualism and detached, dogmatic scholarship can prevail over evil, chaos, and destruction.

Canettis book mentions Eratosthenes (3rd century B.C.), the great librarian of the Library of Alexandria and also a mathematician. Eratosthenes is said to have become blind in old age and it has been claimed that he, unable to read, committed suicide by starvation.

Other Links:
Authors' Calendar at Pegasos
History of Mathematics
Ancient and Lost Civilizations

More information on Nikola Tesla can be found at the Tesla Wardenclyffe Project (TWP) web site. Interesting bits and pieces in the extensive Q&A section! TWP is an organization that advocates the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, one of Tesla's laboratories located in Shoreham, Long Island, NY. The Wardenclyffe plant, which included a huge tower for wireless transmission of radio signals, was designed as the foundation of a multifaceted global communications system. Unfortunately, due to lack of financial support, the plant was never completed. The tower was demolished in 1917, but the original laboratory building still stands. TWP has the goal to convert the site into a science museum complex to be known as the 'Tesla Museum and Science Center at Wardenclyffe'. Various photos at the TWP Photo Archive.

Who invented radio (i.e., 'radio' in the most general sense, including wireless telegraphy as well as broadcasting)? A fascinating question that even today --- more than 100 years after the first transatlantic transmissions --- is not entirely resolved and fuels heated discussions. On January 17, 2003, I happend to listened to an NPR interview with Princess Mary Elettra Elena Anna Marconi, the daughter of Guglielmo Marconi. Even though most history books attribute the invention of radio to Marconi, the ingenious inventor Nikola Tesla may in fact deserve the credit. Tesla had already lectured on the subject back in 1893. Both inventors have filed patents including, among others, Tesla's basic radio patents (patent no. 645,576 and 649,621) in 1897, and Marconi's (British) patent in June of 1896. Marconi's U.S. patent applications were at first rejected for reason of prior art (Tesla's patents), but surprisingly in 1904 a new patent examiner, possibly for political reasons, also granted a radio patent to Marconi (patent no. 763,772). An endless patent dispute was finally (at least from a legal perspective) decided in 1943, only a few months after Tesla's death, when the US Supreme Court gave Tesla's patent priority over Marconi's. Legal opinions on the Supreme Court ruling are published in favor of either side by A. David Wunsch and Wallace Edward Brand in the Mercurians newsletter 'Antenna' and well worth the read. Overall, it seems that Tesla indeed invented radio. Nevertheless, Marconi deserves great credit for his vigorous commercialization of wireless telegraphy and radio.

Other Links:
PBS Show on Tesla
Who invented radio?
Tesla Museum in Belgrade
Patents by Nikola Tesla (PDF; requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912): mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of science; mathematical 'universialist'; considered by many one of France's greatest theoretical scientists; major contributions to such diverse fields as analysis, algebra, topology, astronomy, and theoretical physics; revolutionized celestial mechanics; wrote extensively on the philosophy of science. Currently available: The Value of Science: Essential Writings of Henri Poincare by Henri Poincare & Stephen Jay Gould (Editor); collects his three most important books: Science and Hypothesis (1903); The Value of Science (1905); and Science and Method (1908).

Other Links:
Henri Poincare Chaos Group (University of Maryland at College Park)
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Bruce Medalists

Notes to NYT012103: Astronaut Captures Rare Images of Red Luminosities in the Skies: Sprites (discovered 1989): upper atmospheric optical phenomena associated with lightning; develop at high altitudes (30-95 km); red flashes of electricity shooting up from thunderclouds 13 miles into the ionosphere. Elves (1994), which are glowing red doughnut shapes radiating 190 miles; diffuse regions of luminosity. Phenomena last only mseconds. Now photographed from space shuttle. Until now, images have been limited to those taken from the ground or airplanes.

Sprite Photograph:

CREDIT: S. REISING; SOURCE: STANFORD/LOCKHEED-MARTIN

Other Links:
Sprites (Science Magazine)
Sprites and Elves (New Mexico Tech)

Notes: Gregory Neil Derry: What Science Is And How It Works:

Heart of science is in its methods of investigation and ways of thinking, not in specific facts and results. Observations must be put in a general framework to be understood; science tries to provide a coherent understanding of the real world. Meringues should be beaten in a copper bowl, because of formation of stable conalbumen/copper complexes.

Types of discoveries:
1.) Serendipidy and Methodical Works: Serendipidy = discovering something that you are not looking for. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered X-rays by accident [1895]; also found that bones absorb the rays better than other tissues; --> medical applications; [However, Derry does not mention that Nicola Tesla had already lectured three years earlier, in 1892, about a 'very special radiation' that he used to create 'shadowgraph' pictures, before his lab was destroyed in a fire. See Margaret Cheney: Tesla: Master of Lightning, p. 75]

2.) Detailed Background and Dreamlike Vision: Friedrich August Kekulé claimed to have found the solution to the structue of benzene in a dream, after a prolonged period of apparently fruitless concentration on the problem.

3.) Idealized Models and Mathematical Calculations: Understanding semiconductor behavior, assuming energy bands separated by band gaps in solids; discovered by several people between 1928 and 1931. Attempting to explain how electrons can travel through metals. According to calculations before 1928, electrons should not get father than 1-2 positive ions, but experiments showed that they can pass hundreds of ions.
a.) Felix Bloch applied principles of quantum mechanics, where electron is a wave rather than a particle. Also assumed that ions are arranged in periodic lettice. The new calculations agreed with experiments (i.e., high conductivity); resistance was only due to vibrations of ions, and imperfections in the crystal.
b.) Then, Rudolph Peierls varied the strength of forces between ions and electrons. 'Flattening' of the energy curves of electrons, i.e., leads to energy zones where no electron states at all can exists (gaps), followed by another, higher band of 'allowed' energy states and so forth.
c.) Alan Wilson (1931): If a band is 'full' (all possible states occupied by electrons) then no electron can gain energy, because that would put the electron in a gap. Solids with full energy bands are insulators, solids with partly empty bands are metals (conductors). Semiconductors (e.g. silicon) become better conductors at higher temperatures instead of worse (like metals): they are solids with full bands, but with rather small band gaps; thermal activation allows transition to band above the gap.

4.) Exploration and Observation: Alexander von Humboldt [1769-1859]. Biogeography of ecosystems. Humboldt was a versatile 'natural scientist': astronomy, botany, geology, geophysics, meterology, oceanography etc. Climbed mountains and found dramatic changes in vegetation and animal life in different elevations; developed theory of biogeography, i.e. how physical conditions determine inhabitance of a place.

5.) Hypothetico-Deductive Method: Edward Jenner. Smallpox vaccine (1796). It was publicly known that infection with cowpox can protect from contracting the more severe smallpox. Almost one third of all children under age three in Britain succumbed to smallpox (the Red Death); disease sometimes raged in terrible epidemics; victims either died, or were left horribly disfigured, blinded and insane. Jenner extracted cowpox material from a pustle on the hands of a milk maid (particular type of the disease was necessary!), and administered it to a young boy, before infecting him with live small pox! The boy did not develop any smallpox symptoms.

A couple of weeks ago, on Jan. 7, the New York Times printed an article called 'Land of the Free, Home of the Fat' by Michiko Kakutani, a review of the new book 'Fat Land' by Greg Critser. Americans are getting fatter and fatter, supported by 'supersize meals', and 'easy fit' or 'baggy fit' jeans. A few numbers: Fast food supersize meals can weigh up to four pounds (!), supersize sodas are five times larger than a standard can. A serving of McDonald's French fries increased from 200 kcal (1960) to 320 kcal (late 1970's) to 450 kcal (mid-1990's) to 540 kcal (late 1990's) to now 610 kcal! More than three fold! The Department of Agriculture reported that between 1977 and 1995, the average individual caloric intake increased by almost 200 calories a day. It is not surprising that as a consequence 61 percent of Americans are 'overweight enough to begin experiencing health problems as a direct result of that weight.' '25 percent of all Americans under age 19 are overweight or obese' (doubled in the last 30 years). Type 2 diabetes is on the rise, along with associated liver, eye and coronary artery disease. Cheap ingredients like high-fructose corn sirup and the highly saturated palm oil get part of the blame, and low cost mega portions at fast food restaurants are simply too tempting to resist. It is often a matter of eating habits, education about what types of food are good for us, and last but not least discipline. So what about the fitness and gym boom? Unfortunately this is only a small fraction of people, mostly from the upper and middle classes; the real problem though lies in the classes below.

Guinness (from Wikipedia): a dark stout (a type of beer), brewed in James Gate, Dublin, Ireland. It is also brewed under licence internationally - the resulting beer is, from all reports, significantly different. Considered at its best flavor when served cool and poured slowly. While this method of pouring (slow) is done in Ireland, American bars seem to ignore the requisite 'slow pour'. The Guinness company also produces the Guinness Book of Records, which originated as a method of settling bar bets.

A couple of interesting resources for finding information on the WWW:
1.) Wikipedia: Open content online encyclopedia. An unbelievable wealth of information!
2.) WebRing: Collection of sites with similar interests in 'rings'. Good starting point for a search. Rating system. Links sometimes not updated though.

Notes to SWOT Analysis. Effective way of understanding your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Internal: Strengths: What are your advantages? What do you do well? What do other people see as your strengths? Consider from your own point of view and from the people you deal with. Be realistic, not modest! Weaknesses: What could you improve? What do you do badly? What should you avoid? Again, from internal and external. Similarities? Disagreements? Compare with competitors. External Opportunities: Where are the good opportunities facing you? What are the interesting trends you are aware of? Threats: What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? Changes? Overall analysis helps to point out what needs to be done, and in putting problems into perspective. Also apply SWOT analysis to your competitors.

Other Links: SWOT:
--> Quintcareers
--> QuickMBA

Notes to 'The Golden Apple of Eternal Desire', a short story by Milan Kundera in the collection 'Laughable Loves': Very funny! Made me smile. Narrator talks about his friend Martin, forty, who is happily married, but is constantly in pursuit of women. An 'absolute pursuit'. '... A self-deluding game with which Martin wants to retain for himself the illusion that nothing has changed, that the beloved comedy of youth continues to be played, that the labyrinth of women is endless, and that it is still his preserve'. Levels of acquaintance: 'registration', 'contact' (sometimes 'practice contact'), and above that, 'only one last level of activity'. Nevertheless, Martin never betrays his wife. He loves her dearly, for him she is the absolute best. I've read 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being' a few months ago. There, the theme of the 'absolute pursuit' appears again.

In your job, success is often measured by how much value you generate for your company every day. That's not always as simple as it sounds, because 'value' can sometimes not be quantified so easily. It's still worth trying though.

Getting a new hard drive? Throwing out the old one? Think again! A study by two MIT students was highlighted in the news today. The two had bought a bunch of (158) used disk drives and analyzed them for retrieval of any confidential personal or corporate data. What they found was a big surprise! 129 drives were still functional and on 28 of them little or no efforts had been made to erase the saved information. Among those, a disk from an ATM machine in Illinois with a years worth of transactions, and a drive with 5000 credit card numbers! Only 12 disks had been properly sanitized. Identity theft made REAL easy! The study is published in the January/February 2003 issue of IEEE Security and Privacy, a journal published by the IEEE Computer Society. Good to know: Deleting or even formatting your HD is not good enough. The MS Windows 'format' function does not delete every block, but only checks whether it can be re-written. Special software can help though; some of them are even free of charge (e.g. Eraser). If you trash your drive, hammer, scissors, and matches are probably still the most effective ways. Unless it gets into the hands of Convar Systeme Deutschland GmbH: they may still be able to recover the data, as they did with some of the HDs from the WTC after 9/11!

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations: 4, XI: Hast thou reason? I have. Why then makest thou not use of it? For if thy reason do her part, what more canst thou require?

Notes to Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Preface by N.N. (Project Gutenberg):

* Marcus Aurelius (121-180). Roman Emperor (161-180). Commander-in-chief in battles against barbarian tribes. Legend of the Thundering Legion, a battle against the Quadi in 174, which was won through a sudden great storm of thunder, lightning, and rain that struck the foe with terror. 'Mediations', written day by day in every situation, including war. M.A. devoted himself to the study of law and philosophy, especially Stoicism. Meditations not written for an audience. M.A.'s philosophy is not an eager intellectual inquiry, but a 'religious feeling'. May not be profound, but always sincere. To serve the divine spirit, a man must keep himself pure from all violent passion and evil affection, from all rashness and vanity, and from all manner of discontent, either in regard of the gods or men (=unspotted by pleasure, undaunted by pain). Whatsoever any man either doth or saith, thou must be good; doth any man offend? It is against himself that he doth offend: why should it trouble thee? The offender needs pity, not wrath. The best kind of revenge is, not to become like unto them.

* Background: Roman religion: unsatisfying for the thoughtful mind. Childish legends, teachings had little to do with morality. Nature of a bargain: men paid certain sacrifices and rites, and gods granted favors independently of right or wrong. Intellectuals turned to Greek philosophy. Two rival schools: Stoicism (repression of all emotion; in todays sense: stubborn endurance) and Epicureanism (freedom from all disturbance; today: unbridled, uninhibited licence). Stoic idea of virtue: conforming of life with nature.

* Pax Romana: 200 years of peace in Rome. 27 BC-180 AD. Order and good government. Prosperity. Roads, cities built and expanded.

* Other Links:
--> Pax Romana
--> Ancient European History

The mind is to the spirit what notes are in relation to music. In the same way as music is not just simply a sequence of tones, the spirit exists in another dimension and the mind provides the building blocks for the former. This higher ground is what we strive for. Perhaps this analogy can help explain John Coltrane's strong connection between music and spirituality. For some people it is easy to open the gate to this higher dimension (in music and/or in spirit), for others it may always be locked. In my sense of the word, however, the 'spirit' does not necessarily have to be a religious or supernatural entity; it can plainly be a 'higher meaning'.

What do you write about when the day was rather busy, and there really wasn't much time to think? How about the 'quiet mind'? 'The secret of strength lies in the quiet mind...' says White Eagle in his book (I actually did not read it, but I liked the quote). How do you achieve this stage of quiescence? Meditation is certainly one possibility. The Meditation Quick-Start Guide might be a good starting point. Even though the site has a sales pitch for your personal mantra it caught my eye because of its simplicity, and I like things to be simple at times. Then, the Meditation Archive at Interlude can give you a few initial thoughts for your meditation, and off you go!

So, now what should I do with all that? See what it's good for in 'Use Your Quiet Mind' from the 'Top 7 Business' site.

By the way, the site also has a bunch of other 'short and sweet' pages for self-improvement, including a page with quotes, like Make it a great day! instead of Have a great day! Many years ago a passing stranger once said to me as a farewell greeting 'Have a nice life!', so now I should say 'Make it a nice life!'

I received a book in the mail yesterday, a gift from a friend who lives 3000 miles away. She wrote a nice dedication on the first page. I imagined how --- maybe in a hundred or so years from now --- somebody will carefully open this book, perhaps in a used book store, read the few short lines, and will then envision what it was like in January of 2003. Bi-directional time travel, imagined...

Froogle (Part 2): Apparently no airline tickets on Froogle. :*(

U.S., British jets hit Iraqi radars makes me wonder: When does ---technically speaking--- peace end and war begin?

When I read some of the blogs by others, I can't help being reminded of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend --- a must read if you are (too) serious about your diary.

Am I mistaken, or is it that when you run a search on one of the major engines now, about half of the hits lead you to some blog? Hey, maybe you are reading this right now for the same reason? This can get annoying! I wonder whether there is a way of separating blogs from non-blog sites ...

Do you shop on the web? Are you one of those people who have a bazillion windows open, logged into all the different stores out there, trying to find the best deal; spending hours browsing, even when it saves you only a couple of bucks? I am one of you ...

Came across some help today: Froogle, the sister of the popular search engine Google, but entirely dedicated to shopping! Everything from books and CDs to electronics to car tires to Viagra. Even though the site's not perfect (and still a beta version), it's a tool that can save you some leg (pardon: click) work. Categories and price brackets help to limit your searches. Also it's better to use the 'advanced search' interface. Downside: listings are usually incomplete, and you can't sort the results, e.g. by price.

Here are a couple of recent blogs from pre-blogger times.Transfer to Blogger.

Sunday, January 5, 2003:

~11:00 AM.
Seneca (Part 2). Georg Schoeck's little book Seneca fuer Manager gives some more insights: Although his philosophy was quite stoic, he has had a problem with living it! The discrepancy of theoretical demands and reality was particularly apparent in his relationship to emperors, and his dealings with money. Seneca was a close advisor to Nero, in fact he had educated the Emperor from early childhood on (age 12). In general, he seems to have known how to turn things to his own advantage.

~2:30 AM.
Spent most of the day re-establishing the DP-website. Not much time for philosophy. Read a few passages by Seneca, the upholder of moral standards in ancient Rome, titled: Was ist wesentlich? [What is important?] He says: It is more important to control your vices than to conquer the world, to face your fate with dignity, to have a strong mind, to abandon bad intentions. To be proactive, to remember that we are only human. Therefore one knows that happiness will not last, but can also realize that he can avoid unhappiness, if he chooses not to be unhappy!

Seneca was "inclined to the stoic system, with Epicurean modifications". A Stoic is a person without a tear, who smiles and lets the world have its way. Seneca was also consul under the tyrannic emperor Nero.

The above mentioned passage was referenced as "nat. III, praef. 10-16". I assume that means 'naturales quaestiones', questions of natural sciences. So I looked it up. Interestingly, in there Seneca already gave some insights into the nature of thunder and lightning, water, clouds, earth quakes, and comets. It went onto my 'to read' list.

Satuday, January 4, 2003:

~ 1:00 PM.
What do I want from this BLOG? Certainly not a record of how my day was, and whether I went to the gym, when I went to bed, and in what position/condition I woke up the next morning. No, it should rather be a journal of thoughts and impressions, ideas and conclusions. >Ground rule #1: Keep profanity out!

~ 4:00 AM.
So here I am! Among the BLOGgers. Of course it sounded rather silly to me at first; what would I have to document in a BLOG? On second thought ... maybe I could put out some ideas, day-to-day, just when they come up? BLOGger's motto: >Things only matter when you take them public. We'll see...

Technical stuff --- first exercise: a link to an html file generated from Excel: facts.htm. This can be used to publish tables with a garden variety of info. At first, I tried to link it directly to the XLS, but that did not work (confirmed by some WWW newsgroup posting). So now the html-version.

It took me a long time to find an appropriate server to post these pages. For now, esmartstart.com (dynamicplanet.250x.com) does the job. And it's free.

Also spent some time evaluating Blogger and Blogspot.com. Decided that a self-designed HTML page would be more flexible, although these blog sites seem to be simple to use and are reasonable in appearance. Who knows, maybe I'll come back to that later.

Everybody needs to get started on something sometime. Here I am! Let's go!