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- “Lethal Tides” – Researcher Heroines of WW II
- Why Does “Avatar” Look So Dated?
- Musk Really Is Like Tesla, But Not In a Good Way
- “The Mountain in the Sea” – Aliens Among Us
- The Netherlands Would Be a Pretty Nice Future
- Why Care That “The Rings of Power” Is Mediocre?
- Obscure Creators of the World #1 – Federico Faggin
- Ukraine v Russia Is a Tech War Like Union v Confederacy
- My Mother Was a Ukrainian Refugee
- Following in the Parents’ Footsteps
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“Lethal Tides” – Researcher Heroines of WW II
“Lethal Tides – Mary Sears and the Marine Scientists Who Helped Win World War II” by Catherine Musemeche is a thorough biography of the sort of person that is easy to overlook. Sears was an unassuming marine biologist who wound … Continue reading
Why Does “Avatar” Look So Dated?
“Avatar: the Way of Water” is an overwhelming movie. Every frame is filled with astonishing detail. The alien world of Pandora is as vivid as the most scenic places on Earth. Beyond that, the performances are rich and expressive, even … Continue reading
Musk Really Is Like Tesla, But Not In a Good Way
Although Elon Musk did not found or name Tesla Inc, he often gets compared to its namesake, Nikola Tesla. Both were from the provinces – South Africa for Musk and Serbia for Tesla – and made their fortunes in the … Continue reading
“The Mountain in the Sea” – Aliens Among Us
In the last few years we have been learning an enormous amount about intelligence among animals. In particular, we’ve found that octopuses are startlingly smart. They use tools, they invent hunting techniques, they invent disguise techniques, and they are curious … Continue reading
The Netherlands Would Be a Pretty Nice Future
The Washington Post today has a fascinating article about what would seem to be a dull topic: Netherlands Agriculture Technology. It notes that tiny little Holland, with the land area of Maryland and only 17M people, is the second largest … Continue reading
Why Care That “The Rings of Power” Is Mediocre?
“The Rings of Power” is a new streaming series based on Appendix A of “The Lord of the Rings”. It gives the history of Middle Earth before the War of the Ring: the second rise and fall of Sauron, the … Continue reading
Obscure Creators of the World #1 – Federico Faggin
The people we know about are usually the ones with publicity staffs. Their success depends on how widely known they are. This is obviously the case for sports figures, actors, musicians, and politicians, but also applies to technicals like Steve … Continue reading
Ukraine v Russia Is a Tech War Like Union v Confederacy
In the 1860s the Europeans watched the American Civil War in horrified fascination. It had been almost 50 years since the Napoleonic Wars, when they had been in a real war with matched combatants. They had been mainly fighting colonial … Continue reading
My Mother Was a Ukrainian Refugee
Let me start by encouraging you to support the Ukrainians in any way you can. I gave money to AmeriCares, a relief outfit that is sending medical supplies and personnel to help refugees in Poland. The International Red Cross was … Continue reading
Following in the Parents’ Footsteps
I just read a fun steampunk-ish novel, Angelmaker, by Nick Harkaway (2012). It’s set in the present day, but takes place in a London that is just as ancient and weird as one would hope. A morose young man who … Continue reading
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A Niche in the Library of Babel 