Author Archives: d4vid

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Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, so hydrogen fusion is a cheap source of energy for (main-sequence) stars.  As hydrogen runs out in a star’s core, it resorts to slightly more expensive helium fusion. When the outward … Continue reading

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Bounty

There’s an Indian restaurant in Stamford that I’ve been frequenting, but I can’t read the name without thinking of  the Han Solo line “Well, the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind.”

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Compost

More from the State of the World 2019.  Great Bruce Sterling throwaway line: “Tomorrow composts today.”

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Philology

I have long heard people say (what I thought was) “What is your read?” when asking others for their opinion of something.  As if it were short for “What is your read of the situation?” However, I ran across it … Continue reading

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Verbing

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Autobiography

The author Jonathan Carroll posed this thought experiment:  “What would be the title of the book of your life and what would be some of the chapter names?” Delight is a Harsh Mistress “Elder Young’s Eldest” “A Children’s Catechism” “Protoculture … Continue reading

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State

Every year, the sci-fi author Bruce Sterling, web developer Jon Lebkowsky, & invited guests convene a “State of the World” discussion on The WELL. From the State of the World 2019, I was struck by this comment from James Bridle, author of the book New … Continue reading

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Steganography

This clever AI hid data from its creators to cheat at its appointed task Clever girl.

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Jonah

Between this ad and the “Bilby” short film, I feel like I may have been the one holding DreamWorks Animation back all these years.  They ought to have thrown me overboard years ago.

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Precarity

In reflecting on my 2018, I neglected to think in terms of the Blue Escape.  I should give it more thought, but my reflexive answer would be “results have been mixed.”  I reread my highlighted passages of Cal Newport‘s Deep Work … Continue reading

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Dilated

My brilliant friend Holly had mentioned that Ninefox Gambit, the first book in Yoon Ha Lee‘s Machineries of Empire trilogy, had “cracked [her] head open in a good way” which made me want to read it immediately. By the end of the … Continue reading

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Anxiety

Current conventional wisdom is that the recent rise of fascism throughout the world, even in historically democratic countries, is related to vague “economic anxiety” or the threat non-whites pose to white supremacy (or, more likely, economic anxiety over the ebbing … Continue reading

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Summarized

Someone on Twitter suggested trying to summarize your 2018 with a single word and then try to summarize your plans & hopes for 2019 with  a single word.  Here are mine. 2018:  Journey 2019:  Stillness

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Threshold

I’ve been reading The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn and ran across this chilling paragraph which seems appropriate for the times we’re living in: “Evidently evildoing also has a threshold magnitude.  Yes, a human hesitates and bobs back and forth … Continue reading

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Review

I’m seeing a lot of “Did I even do anything this year?” tweets.  And I can’t relate.  This was my 2018: Sorted my father’s belongings. Scattered my father’s ashes. Drove nearly 12,000 miles around America to see family & friends. … Continue reading

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