The Mind of John McPhee (2017)

Recently, the New York Times magazine published this superb profile of John McPhee (HERE). 

Super-Kamiokande

The Super-Kamiokande apparatus!

Grand Unification Dream Kept at Bay (2017)

Great piece HERE on how careful high quality observation (not experiment) by Japanese physicists at the Super Kamiokande over a 20 year period have not seen proton decay - and not supported some of the most cherished Grand Unified Theories of theoretical physicists. 

Oh dear.

Q: How could it be that nature isn't as mathematically beautiful as thousands of mathematical physicists willed that it must be so? 

A: The Mind Projection Fallacy strikes again.  

OR

Another story to file under the heading of Thomas Henry Huxley's assertion: 

The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.  

The American Annual of Photography (1911)

From HERE.

Inside the Painters Studio (2009)

Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art idea.’ And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you’ll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you did today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.

From an interview with Chuck Close by Joe Fig in his book  - Inside the Painters Studio. 

How to fit an elephant (1953)

A superb story HERE by Freeman Dyson about how a meeting with Enrico Fermi changed his career. At the heart of the story, Fermi quotes John von Neumann, who famously said:

With four parameters I can fit an elephant, and with five I can make him wiggle his trunk.

An example of how to actually do this, with Python code is HERE. 

On the Disposition of Iron in Variegated Strata (1868)

More of these images HERE.

On Exactitude in Science (1946)

 By Jorge Luis Borges. More HERE.

Compassion, Empathy, Flapdoodle (2017)

An excoriating, but highly entertaining, review in the Dublin Review of Books by Seamus O’Mahony of three books on empathy and neuro science. HERE.  

O'Mahony is perhaps not the most typical book reviewer - he is a  Consultant Gastroenterologist at Cork University Hospital who also writes on medical humanities.

Peer review: not as old as you might think (2015)

 

Peer review - is not as old as you might think (HERE). Above the Google ngram for `peer review'.

Best Practices for Scientific Computing (2014)

 A really good, readable paper. HERE.

The Book on the Floor (2016)

This book begins with an in depth, but entertaining, analysis of the famous picture of Malraux and one of his books spread out in front of him in his salon taken in 1954. HERE.

Unendurable Line (2017)

Unendurable Line: A Fun Short Film that tracks the Movement of Everyday Objects as a Real-Time Graph. HERE.

Draft No. 4 (2017)

Here is Michael Durda's review of John McPhee's new book: Draft No. 4. He ends the review by quoting McPhee:

“Creativity lies in what you choose to write about, how you go about doing it, the arrangement through which you present things, the skill and the touch with which you describe people and succeed in developing them as characters, the rhythms of your prose, the integrity of the composition, the anatomy of the piece (does it get up and walk around on its own?), the extent to which you see and tell the story that exists in your material, and so forth. Creative nonfiction is not making something up but making the most of what you have.”

John McPhee - Structure (2013)

A great piece in the New Yorker by John McPhee on how he structures his long non-fiction pieces. The image is a series of the illustrations he has of his structural motifs. From HERE. 

Rules are for Fools! (1915)

Harmonics, Patterns, and Dynamics in Roman and Italic type (2016)

The website for Frank Bloklund's PhD Thesis at Leiden University - On the Origin of Patterning in Movable Latin Type. (HERE).

The Shape of Design - Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero's "odd little design book",  The Shape of Design, is available to read online HERE.

On Margins Podcast (2017)

On Margins is a podcast by Craig Mod on Book making (HERE).

The Data Visualisation Catalogue

The Data Visualisation Catalogue HERE.

To Make a Book, Walk on a Book (2017)

 A great essay on the practicalities of designing a book, by Craig Mod (HERE).

Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (2017)

A piece HERE in the New York Review of Books on Ichi-F: A Worker’s Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant by Kazuto Tatsuta

Aesops Fables (1912)

From HERE.

Problems, Myths and Stories (1999)

We take stories and story-telling for granted. The great reservoir of myths, legends, parables, tales, that we dip into for entertainment, use for films and plays, refer to so as to elucidate a point or draw a parallel – it is always there and we hardly think about it. Tales are as old as humanity, like a long shadow thrown by our history. How old? We don’t know. Whenever we reach a point where it seems impossible to go back further, then we can be sure that soon the dark of our ignorance will yield to research and, behold, it is evident that the long shadow showed itself much earlier than we had thought.

Problems, Myths and Stories by Doris Lessing, HERE.

Image from HERE.

 

The earliest English version of the fables of Bidpai; The morall philosophie of Doni, by Sir Thomas North. (1888)

The first English translation of the ancient sanskrit collection of fables, The Panchatantra, was published in 1570 by Sir Thomas North.  A reprint was made in 1888, which is available HERE.

Ancient Babylonian Math Tables deciphered (2017)

 

Plimpton 322 is a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet, that has a sophisticated set of trigonometric tables inscribed in the base 60 mathematical notation that the Babylonians used. It includes extensive use of Pythagoras Theorem and Pythagorean triples (3,4,5 is the simplest but the table includes less obvious triples such as 119, 120 and 169). It has just been fully deciphered. Story in the Guardian HERE. 

Daedalus RIP (2017)

The obituary HERE of David Jones, the person who wrote countless Daedalus colums for New Scientist, then later Nature and the Guardian.

Despite limited statistical power (2017)

A great short post by Andrew Gelman HERE.

It’s not always clear what people mean by this expression, but sometimes it seems that they’re making the “What does not kill my statistical significance makes it stronger” fallacy, thinking that the attainment of statistical significance is a particular feat in the context of a noisy study, so that they’re (mistakenly) thinking of the “limited statistical power” of that study as a further point in favor of their argument.

Moses and the Brazen Serpent and the Transfiguration of Jesus (1683)

HERE is a fantastic time lapse video of the unpacking and hanging of Cristóbal de Villalpando's Moses and the Brazen Serpent and the Transfiguration of Jesus at the Met. The installation of the 28-foot-tall painting took five days.

Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple... (2017)

A paper HERE on the complex history of how the domestic apple developed along the `silk road' trading routes. 

The abstract reads:

Human selection has reshaped crop genomes. Here we report an apple genome variation map generated through genome sequencing of 117 diverse accessions. A comprehensive model of apple speciation and domestication along the Silk Road is proposed based on evidence from diverse genomic analyses. Cultivated apples likely originate from Malus sieversii in Kazakhstan, followed by intensive introgressions from M. sylvestris. M. sieversii in Xinjiang of China turns out to be an “ancient” isolated ecotype not directly contributing to apple domestication. We have identified selective sweeps underlying quantitative trait loci/genes of important fruit quality traits including fruit texture and flavor, and provide evidences supporting a model of apple fruit size evolution comprising two major events with one occurring prior to domestication and the other during domestication. This study outlines the genetic basis of apple domestication and evolution, and provides valuable information for facilitating marker-assisted breeding and apple improvement.

 

On the Earthshine depicted in Galileo's watercolors of the Moon (1609 / 2017)

A great paper HERE by Paolo Molaro, carefully re-analysing the wash studies that Galileo made of the moon in 1609. The abstract reads:

With the manuscript of the Sidereus Nuncius preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence are included 7 watercolors of the Moon painted by Galileo himself. We suggest that some of them, and in particular the drawing of the 30 Nov 1609 of the very first Moon's observations, illustrate the phenomenon of the Earthshine of the Moon, which was discussed in some detail in the Sidereus Nuncius to provide evidence of the similarity of Earth to other celestial bodies. The watercolors were used as models for the engraving of the Moon in the Sidereus but, surprisingly, the secondary light had not been reproduced. Galileo may have decided for the inclusion of the passage on the Earthshine only at a very late stage of the editorial process. Galileo's hesitation shows how contentious was this issue already recognized as a possible discriminant between the different systems of the world.  

Book of Miracles (1550)

The Book of Miracles is a recently discovered book of apocalyptic Renaissance art. The illustrated manuscript was created in 1550's Augsburg. Taschen have just published an annotated and fully illustrated edition (HERE).

Sir, I exist! (1899)

from War Is Kind (1899) by Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

Example Computer Plots (1980)

From Byte Magazine 1980 (HERE).

Spontaneous fine-tuning to environment in many-species chemical reaction networks (2017)

HERE is a computer simulation study of how a dilute solution of different `chemical' species can spontaneously begin to capture energy and create non-random structures (cf life).

Abstract

A chemical mixture that continually absorbs work from its environment may exhibit steady-state chemical concentrations that deviate from their equilibrium values. Such behavior is particularly interesting in a scenario where the environmental work sources are relatively difficult to access, so that only the proper orchestration of many distinct catalytic actors can power the dissipative flux required to maintain a stable, far-from-equilibrium steady state. In this article, we study the dynamics of an in silico chemical network with random connectivity in an environment that makes strong thermodynamic forcing available only to rare combinations of chemical concentrations. We find that the long-time dynamics of such systems are biased toward states that exhibit a fine-tuned extremization of environmental forcing.

Voyage d'Urien (1928)

Two images from Voyage d'Urien by André Gide, with engravings by Alfred Latour, set in Lutetia by Jan van Krimpen. Published in 1928 by the Halcyon Press, Maastricht, by A.A.M. Stols. Images from HERE.

Open Letter to an Editor on Wood Engraving (1940)

'Each time one looks at the beautiful highly polished surface of a new piece of boxwood one should set out with the thought that one has the whole of one's life in which to make one perfect engraving, so there is no need to hurry. And in actual fact it is not easy to do so. What with the natural limitations of the wood, the fact that one is working in reverse and with white on black, instead of the normal black on white, there are sufficient difficulties to overcome without imperilling any chance of success by working to time.' 

John Buckland Wright,  Open Letter to an Editor on Wood Engraving (1940). 

Image above, the ex libris that John Buckland Wright created in 1932 for the Dutch collector M.B.B. Nijkerk. Image from HERE.

Joy and Pain (1980)

One of my all time favourite songs: Joy and Pain by Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly. A great piece on their 40 year career HERE. A live version of the track HERE.

Pi is Wrong (2001)

HERE is the seminal paper from 2001 by Bob Palais on why the mathematical constant pi is wrong. Recent adherents of this paper have created a manifesto dedicated to building support for the alternative to pi - tau.

 

Decoding the Enigma with Recurrent Neural Networks (2017)

A fantastic page HERE by Physics under graduate Sam Greydanus on how he has used Neural nets to decode the Enigma machine. 

Image copyright S. Greydanus 2017

Research Debt (2017)

A great article by Chris Olah & Shan Carter on the Distill platform, on the concept of research debt. 

Achieving a research-level understanding of most topics is like climbing a mountain. Aspiring researchers must struggle to understand vast bodies of work that came before them, to learn techniques, and to gain intuition. Upon reaching the top, the new researcher begins doing novel work, throwing new stones onto the top of the mountain and making it a little taller for whoever comes next. 

Mathematics is a striking example of this. For centuries, countless minds have climbed the mountain range of mathematics and laid new boulders at the top. Over time, different peaks formed, built on top of particularly beautiful results. Now the peaks of mathematics are so numerous and steep that no person can climb them all. Even with a lifetime of dedicated effort, a mathematician may only enjoy some of their vistas. 

People expect the climb to be hard. It reflects the tremendous progress and cumulative effort that’s gone into mathematics. The climb is seen as an intellectual pilgrimage, the labor a rite of passage. But the climb could be massively easier. It’s entirely possible to build paths and staircases into these mountains. The climb isn’t something to be proud of. 

The climb isn’t progress: the climb is a mountain of debt. 

Image and quoted text from Olah & Carter, "Research Debt", Distill, 2017. 

http://doi.org/10.23915/distill.00005.

Good Morning America (1928)

Frontispiece art by W.A. Dwiggins for Carl Sandburg’s Good Morning America (Crosby Gaige, 1928). From the Dwiggins Twitter feed. 

The Story of Books (2017)

HERE is the website of a new working museum of books, with a physical base in Hay on Wye. The founder Emma Balch says: "My vision was for a working museum with a college-like space, where experts could pass on their skills, working cross-generationally."

   

Pentagon Tiling Proof (2017)

A great piece HERE in Quanta magazine on how the French mathematician Michaël Rao has used a computer aided approach to complete the classification of convex polygons that tile the plane by solving the problem for pentagons. 

Le Conte Pear (1901)

A watercolour image of a specimen of the Le Conte variety of pears (Pyrus communis). Painted by Bertha Heiges in 1901. For more beautiful images like this see the vast collection at the USDA Pomological Watercolors collection HERE.


IMAGE: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705

The Old House at Home (1940)

The American journalist Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996) was one of the outstanding non-fiction prose writers of the USA. Between 1938 and 1964 he worked at the New Yorker creating brilliantly observed profiles of people he met in New York. Between 1964 and 1996 he continued to work at the New Yorker but never wrote another piece again.

One of his most famous pieces is The Old House at Home, first published in the New Yorker in 1940 (HERE). It is a long, brilliantly detailed, and affectionate profile of McSorley's Old Ale House, which opened at 15 East 7th Street, New York city in 1854.

HERE is a recently published, unfinished piece by Mitchell. 

In 2015, a biography of Mitchell called Man in Profile: Joseph Mitchell of  The New Yorker written by Thomas Kunkel was published. A review of the book in the NYRB is HERE.

Image: McSorley's Bar (1912) by John French Sloan.

 

Clockwright (2017)

Rick Hale is a clockmaking artist who lives in Kalamazoo Michigan. He makes fantastic large clocks from wood. His site is HERE.

Artist's Statement
I've learned most of what I know through reading old books on mechanical engineering, clockmaking, physics, & art.

Each of my timepieces is crafted from Michigan hardwoods, brass, & stone over the course of about 400 hours. I make a special effort to pay homage to the best work of the best clockmakers of the 18th century—Especially that of my favorite clockmaker, the legendary John Harrison.

In combining two ancient traditions—clockmaking & woodwrighting—I'm trying to change the way feel & process the flow of time. Time is hard on living things as it passes, surging endlessly out of the future & into the past. We've all felt it. Gentle, silent, ceaseless destruction, the slow, entropic loss of information & physical form. It's why many of us create. It's why we learn, teach, cultivate, persist. It's why we work through the night, rage quietly, methodically, against oblivion. It's why this wood sways again in the light of day, speaks again in the soft, creaking language of trees—alive, despite the wreckage.

Nothing Lasts Forever (1997)

HERE is a great piece in the Guardian on ten of the best songs by Echo and the Bunnymen (aka The Greatest Rock Band of All Time). I first saw Echo & the Bunnymen in 1979, supporting The Teardrop Explodes at Chester Arts Centre. They had just released their first single The Pictures on my Wall. The band had yet to recruit a drummer and were still using a rudimentary drum machine for backing (legend has it that this was Echo).

The list includes Nothing Lasts Forever, my own favourite Bunnymen track (released in 1997 when they got back together after a split, which they called the greatest comeback ever).

I want it now
I want it now
Not the promises of what tomorrow brings
I need to live in dreams today
I'm tired of the song that sorrow sings
And I want more than I can get
Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget
I'd walk to you through rings of fire
And never let you know the way I feel
Under skin is where I hide
The love that always gets me on my knees
And I want more than I can get
Just trying to, trying to, trying to forget
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever
Nothing ever lasts forever

Will Sergeant/ Les Pattinson / Ian McCulloch
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
 

Pulchritude (2008)

 

Pulchritude

A paradoxical noun because it means beauty but is itself one of the ugliest words in the language. Same goes for the adjectival form pulchritudinous. They’re part of a tiny elite cadre of words that possess the very opposite of the qualities they denote. Diminutive, big, foreign, fancy (adjective), colloquialism, and monosyllabic are some others; there are at least a dozen more. Inviting your school-age kids to list as many paradoxical words as they can is a neat way to deepen their relationship to English and help them see that words are both symbols for things and very real things themselves.

By David Foster Wallace.

The Oxford American Writer’s Thesaurus  2nd Edition

Image from The Book of Spice by Wallace Irwin (1875- 1959) published in 1906 (HERE).

On Revision (2012)

The American writer and literary critic Michael Dirda (b 1948), writes for the Washington Post amongst others. In 1993 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book reviews. HERE is Browsings, his collection of short pieces for the American Scholar that have subsequently been collected into a volume. There is also a very entertaining piece about his book collecting habits HERE. 

Below is a small exerpt from a Browsings piece called Books on Books:

These days, The Paris Review has repackaged its long-running series of conversations with authors, and even made them available online. I’m glad for this, and yet the original Writers at Work volumes, especially the first three, possessed a magic all their own. As a teenager, I virtually memorized my paperback editions, greedy for insider tips about the literary life. Pound, Eliot, Hemingway, Faulkner, Colette, Waugh—they were all there. What has stuck with me the most over the years is their almost universal insistence on the importance of revision, of revising and revising again.  

Image of Thomas Burke from The Glory That Was Grub Street (HERE)