tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67782144845963367522024-02-20T00:52:43.505+00:00Data DelugeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1645125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-28574392180425673552024-02-01T15:28:00.001+00:002024-02-02T16:57:45.654+00:00Hooton Tennis Club (31-1-2024)<p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpFyZXbkawyUJfbNRA0X47rA7ioCQuBot0OKjifeLWn8DcLgde22t9fn8bNqmdb98-AL7jsh3i6hXH_WhpI97FDYI5nIfBg8-cuM-OMA-70WCF8R6DVCJokF4BaREVlH07AQObm9Q4Zo7zySfFqBoMq3QZnHxtcnt6Z-3G1p2wUn4o9SMsA_ohJJHCXUt/s1529/HTC-2024.jpg"><img border="0" data-original-height="1529" data-original-width="1073" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZpFyZXbkawyUJfbNRA0X47rA7ioCQuBot0OKjifeLWn8DcLgde22t9fn8bNqmdb98-AL7jsh3i6hXH_WhpI97FDYI5nIfBg8-cuM-OMA-70WCF8R6DVCJokF4BaREVlH07AQObm9Q4Zo7zySfFqBoMq3QZnHxtcnt6Z-3G1p2wUn4o9SMsA_ohJJHCXUt/w449-h640/HTC-2024.jpg" width="449" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">A superb poster for a brilliant gig last night at Future Yard. </span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-72574969972497668852024-01-12T11:54:00.002+00:002024-01-12T11:55:35.618+00:00Iechyd Da<p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg0qCKPsnjuk9SjGTIvu8Jz3wWWJlyoRww7fe_HYivdfVFA6p-CXs4heSB8BOcaZ-a89-bLhzyei24gB-B0YAoL5P4o36VJ2bquxAHu-FgQnZ6TPtUU88Q5ShnktVJrbkdbzHKXcxKNwBjqBynys3Ft12ZRmOEOP9mLwVEJgW1shdKB4CWrE-YveaJM5Pq/s1001/caldy.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="1001" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg0qCKPsnjuk9SjGTIvu8Jz3wWWJlyoRww7fe_HYivdfVFA6p-CXs4heSB8BOcaZ-a89-bLhzyei24gB-B0YAoL5P4o36VJ2bquxAHu-FgQnZ6TPtUU88Q5ShnktVJrbkdbzHKXcxKNwBjqBynys3Ft12ZRmOEOP9mLwVEJgW1shdKB4CWrE-YveaJM5Pq/w640-h474/caldy.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Bill Ryder Jones is a West Kirby based singer, guitarist and song writer. He co-founded <i>The Coral </i>when he was 13 and has been making great music ever since. Last summer he organised and headlined <i>Yawnfest</i> at Future Yard in Birkenhead (his set is easily in my top 10 gigs of all time - along with <i>The Coral</i>'s gig at Future Yard in May last year). </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">He has just released his latest album, <i>Iechyd Da</i>, and it is his best yet. The album has had a slew of excellent reviews in <i>The Guardian</i>, <i>The Times</i>, NME, etc, but perhaps the most insightful is the 4 1/2 star review by Laura Barton in <a href="https://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/bill-ryder-jones-iechyd-da-144653/"><i>Uncut</i> magazine</a>. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">... Iechyd Da feels a culmination of all he set out to do. It’s a record that beckons you over and invites you in, that rewards your faith and careful listening with moments of extraordinary beauty, unflinching honesty, a sonic exchange of love. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-9075276916284809022024-01-12T11:21:00.000+00:002024-01-12T11:21:19.053+00:00Human Cumulative Culture & Innovation<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPoHHbLjPrPrECgwt4u7JsKnNb_Q3AUsDfLvihIPPCCZXpSZV_vdhXYs6-0JDsgFj8SCRQi0C4g9pGLpBHnbX5Wf-bHG-fXrXAkye5ZTq_kV_A5nea2kfMB2YXO-YAGgUYqY5TrN2pVop7VdjpvJGrBZlkC-03zBhbqgUqGO6-4H8M4O4J-L7dcrHKlDZ/s500/derex.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="500" height="445" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPoHHbLjPrPrECgwt4u7JsKnNb_Q3AUsDfLvihIPPCCZXpSZV_vdhXYs6-0JDsgFj8SCRQi0C4g9pGLpBHnbX5Wf-bHG-fXrXAkye5ZTq_kV_A5nea2kfMB2YXO-YAGgUYqY5TrN2pVop7VdjpvJGrBZlkC-03zBhbqgUqGO6-4H8M4O4J-L7dcrHKlDZ/w671-h445/derex.gif" width="671" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">After a long break...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">This paper (<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0311">HERE</a>) by Maxime Derex is the best academic paper I have read for a very long while. It explains in the context of human cultural evolution the difference between the <i>optomisation</i> of shared human cultural activities and <i>innovation</i> in them. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-71945389094985670272023-01-04T16:58:00.003+00:002023-01-04T16:58:34.635+00:00Back on the Vinyl (2023)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1RO6-s69O_A25rYN31uK2cSw6RQtc_fm-7drAs5Zdp5lteryHFAlBR_50lc7bHJrt0LuVCfhiziADgthIPKetQmumAGqvsNUIoTsMfIbl6pTTLsuthV158UMP_w7JkqUCxX6XkxTYf0TxhUXo-wGQ5trr-bCqbsvdIHe0W385G5ouENqr7U2FUzHLhw/s1665/Vinyl22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1665" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1RO6-s69O_A25rYN31uK2cSw6RQtc_fm-7drAs5Zdp5lteryHFAlBR_50lc7bHJrt0LuVCfhiziADgthIPKetQmumAGqvsNUIoTsMfIbl6pTTLsuthV158UMP_w7JkqUCxX6XkxTYf0TxhUXo-wGQ5trr-bCqbsvdIHe0W385G5ouENqr7U2FUzHLhw/w576-h640/Vinyl22.jpg" width="576" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At the tail end of last year I got myself a simple vinyl set-up - a Dual 505 deck and a Cambridge Audio amp. Both items were in excess of 35 years old and they were bought from eBay. </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I was a bit surprised to find that with some new cables both items worked perfectly and they worked very well with some old Wharfedale speakers I had been gifted. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It's the first time for about 20 years that I have played any vinyl LPs or singles - of which I used to have hundreds and now have less than 12. I sold them all about 15 years ago on eBay, so perhaps it is fitting that I am spending some of that money on eBay to get started again. <br /></span></span></p><p> </p><p> <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-15029852675661083252023-01-04T09:58:00.005+00:002023-01-04T09:58:32.873+00:00The Third Magic (2023)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4sFs2ncxnDjEZfDJX3I-1t1J8-USHZLXm5_Sc99cRiZNESLNlZJztB4-i2H39p07-jFFs1TcaK1p67pqzSGcGwswQpiV2ycNeClIY_yoHVreKiTzUUlzUu2IjM1ZtCnSq4d7mqyiYlCi_xBEqhnjBanYRVF0sujrzkBaiRCMcMwTh5paT8qvORJLlA/s783/3rdm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="605" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4sFs2ncxnDjEZfDJX3I-1t1J8-USHZLXm5_Sc99cRiZNESLNlZJztB4-i2H39p07-jFFs1TcaK1p67pqzSGcGwswQpiV2ycNeClIY_yoHVreKiTzUUlzUu2IjM1ZtCnSq4d7mqyiYlCi_xBEqhnjBanYRVF0sujrzkBaiRCMcMwTh5paT8qvORJLlA/w494-h640/3rdm.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I have read quite a few pieces about so-called Artificial Intelligence over the past few years. Most of them have been quite unsatisfying. The best, by which I mean most thought-provoking, is an essay I have just read on the topic which was published on 1st January this year by Noah Smith called "The third magic. A meditation on history, science, and AI" (<a href="https://noahpinion.substack.com/p/the-third-magic" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">An extract:</span></span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Humanity’s living standards are vastly greater than those of the other animals. Many people attribute this difference to our greater intelligence or our greater linguistic communication ability. But without minimizing the importance of those underlying advantages, I’d like to offer the idea that our material success is due, in large part, to two great innovations. Usually we think of innovations as specific technologies — agriculture, writing, the wheel, the steam engine, the computer. The most important of these are the things we call “general purpose technologies”. But I think that at a deeper level, there are more profound and fundamental meta-innovations that underlie even those things, and these are ways of learning about the world…</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span><br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-61309413043107304102022-12-16T16:19:00.003+00:002022-12-16T16:19:42.830+00:00YAWNFEST (2023)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6jSsGRboXpiehimKp1k56nrwZJ1BziYazUFNP-hhxuxqKZ0soM0PlqebdyOA4Dy8pjzaP2h8I-AWHwp63fuo2JWddkCRxk6JgAdyfyXuAlXaSyCyPnVEnSS5HHRwqOrzGIe9uqTYDR3Iiw4Na-9421FKRzPwdDPx1m1DxKOkp9cz_rQLmH-uIT6CDA/s2560/Yawn-Fest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1810" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6jSsGRboXpiehimKp1k56nrwZJ1BziYazUFNP-hhxuxqKZ0soM0PlqebdyOA4Dy8pjzaP2h8I-AWHwp63fuo2JWddkCRxk6JgAdyfyXuAlXaSyCyPnVEnSS5HHRwqOrzGIe9uqTYDR3Iiw4Na-9421FKRzPwdDPx1m1DxKOkp9cz_rQLmH-uIT6CDA/w452-h640/Yawn-Fest.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">On 29th April 2023 West Kirby legend Bill Ryder-Jones presents the YAWNFEST at Future Yard, an all day celebration of the wonderful sonic world of Yawn Studios in West Kirby, curated and headlined by Ryder-Jones. Tickets <a href="https://futureyard.org/listings/yawnfest/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>.</span></span><br /> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-12132103696073978052022-11-14T09:02:00.003+00:002022-11-14T09:02:36.749+00:00What You Can Learn from Beowulf (1998)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0z1UVvtqE3AHVUu2eCb1lTQqlnyobPc3XVIRnTbip23sQ7GG92tz4ef7jLs70ftZXMp0p5xPKXH910H-iMRl_OjgpWHbS1Mb5NCFUvu06u0GHBvolWiU92THoN3A6T6nWc-m01hGqL1NMkpdPfRT4cBhkfDDcj8LD0JFZK9TNO4EiaJuw_68U7JSdA/s1480/beow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1480" data-original-width="1480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0z1UVvtqE3AHVUu2eCb1lTQqlnyobPc3XVIRnTbip23sQ7GG92tz4ef7jLs70ftZXMp0p5xPKXH910H-iMRl_OjgpWHbS1Mb5NCFUvu06u0GHBvolWiU92THoN3A6T6nWc-m01hGqL1NMkpdPfRT4cBhkfDDcj8LD0JFZK9TNO4EiaJuw_68U7JSdA/w640-h640/beow.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">From one of Anthony Madrid's reviews (<a href="https://rhinopoetry.org/reviews/taxi-night-by-cliff-fyman-reviewed-by-anthony-madrid" target="_blank">HERE</a>).</span></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>What You Can Learn from Beowulf</i></span></span></b></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Cliff Fyman. Fatstick Magazine Spring 1998, p. 39. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> How to accept a compliment<br /> If you undertake a voyage to save someone<br /> you don’t need to tell him in advance you’re coming<br /> Don’t use a weapon for what you can do by hand<br /> When in trouble look up<br /> If a king’s wife gives you a necklace for a gift<br /> give it away quickly to someone else<br /> If your rival offers you his sword to do battle with<br /> don’t borrow it<br /> If you have any doubts<br /> don’t say them<br /> If it’s going to be your day<br /> you don’t even need to bring an oxygen tank<br /> to fight a battle below a lake<br /> & if it isn’t going to be your day<br /> nothing you bring would matter anyway<br /> When traveling to learn to sleep with one eye open<br /> If you sleep in a hall with forty men<br /> a monster’s bound to eat the hell<br /> out of at least one of you<br /> When you meet the person who insists you borrow his sword<br /> which splits in half & almost gets you killed—?<br /> act like it’s nothing<br /> In fact nod like you’re honored<br /> when he presents you with the snapped off handle<br /> as a token of admiration of your strength<br /> No matter how many dragons you slaughtered today<br /> there’s one more out there waiting for you<br /> Stand on ceremony if that’s what the scene says<br /> Which means not taking anyone or any gesture lightly<br /> Don’t get married if you’re an athlete warrior hero<br /> because it’ll take away your crazy courage<br /> yet through fifty drifting winters<br /> you’ll long for the warm<br /> dry sleep of dreaming lovers<br /> Don’t let success go to your head<br /> but take what’s coming to you<br /> Enjoy your presents while they last<br /> Remember the names of your ancestors<br /> If someone wants to reward you with seven horses<br /> even if you have a small ship<br /> take them anyway<br /> to your tiny goat farm in the snow<br /> Learn to voice your direct love for men and women<br /> Take on every challenge no matter how mammoth the scale<br /> Work through the night<br /> Remember the names of people you meet once<br /> If a dragon grabs you by the neck see it<br /> as an opportunity to establish yourself </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-84124555932363531692022-11-04T20:11:00.000+00:002022-11-04T20:11:02.414+00:00The Future is Birkenhead <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e_z5a_2TDPc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-91860360169626238422022-07-25T09:27:00.004+01:002022-07-25T09:27:36.175+01:00Letterpress Printing (2022)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXEFlB836DXxYEjE5xwkoU_ZDZ_RvMKKK9s_pmA9x6Keea_-xrhrU3At4E7o2KQrbEitYXMPybInZkQUbdJvXbJv7cNiqpvO9eJohDIJknlhVNI_wU3GJBhltxFAauEUdlMwSSkj-uq9d4Q-y5oLEZCrY1_6xeIZs9yNNeVSAVkg8SYkWwcPUZLLHHA/s4280/Close.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4280" data-original-width="2610" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXEFlB836DXxYEjE5xwkoU_ZDZ_RvMKKK9s_pmA9x6Keea_-xrhrU3At4E7o2KQrbEitYXMPybInZkQUbdJvXbJv7cNiqpvO9eJohDIJknlhVNI_wU3GJBhltxFAauEUdlMwSSkj-uq9d4Q-y5oLEZCrY1_6xeIZs9yNNeVSAVkg8SYkWwcPUZLLHHA/w390-h640/Close.jpg" width="390" /></a></div><p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">I spent a brilliant afternoon on Saturday with my brother on a Letterpress printing workshop in Bristol (<a href="https://www.theletterpresscollective.org/workshops" target="_blank">HERE</a>). The output is above.</span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-66979770097834319752022-06-09T15:22:00.001+01:002022-06-09T15:28:52.571+01:00Compared with what? (2006)<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAVOSYy39q9QweHXWOE4MbOb0ACbxwHEFATUIlBuFY8Nre-wGYtWuDeDoEXSNVeY2C1E100bu2w8CRHmGOdzcb-VNQ1TsIWS3Pvw5pBULv2nPFChqPwtiObtmqPGaE8uuGvgSxR1a8I2KfcytYr7wJ2Mqk5ZO3vUVmkTYhrPDaD3lwOsZOYrQVq-ThQ/s620/COMPARE2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="620" height="552" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtAVOSYy39q9QweHXWOE4MbOb0ACbxwHEFATUIlBuFY8Nre-wGYtWuDeDoEXSNVeY2C1E100bu2w8CRHmGOdzcb-VNQ1TsIWS3Pvw5pBULv2nPFChqPwtiObtmqPGaE8uuGvgSxR1a8I2KfcytYr7wJ2Mqk5ZO3vUVmkTYhrPDaD3lwOsZOYrQVq-ThQ/w640-h552/COMPARE2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span>The fundamental analytical act in statistical reasoning is to answer the question “compared with what?”. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Page 127 of <i>Beautiful Evidence</i> Edward Tufte (2006)</span></span><br /></p><br /><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-50895008410785573332022-05-13T07:17:00.002+01:002022-05-13T10:02:52.238+01:00An intelligent mechanic (1941)<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFFFyMRZO9tEOSwYqcQRsVcSUQk1nAY7CbAJa69niJ1gXgT7m_bdthva0yUxGB3BoRY7Vx2TOUqK_DshZUGE3Ed1paa-d8NMVAv9PKfDp0Cgwiq8tMKNWY9zdxBU_AkLf8Ge7FVoJqQ2LqnylPWr-epxlqbpgXY1t6LSte2lO1piTCPNijl1a8V5xvQ/s750/car-tech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="750" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZFFFyMRZO9tEOSwYqcQRsVcSUQk1nAY7CbAJa69niJ1gXgT7m_bdthva0yUxGB3BoRY7Vx2TOUqK_DshZUGE3Ed1paa-d8NMVAv9PKfDp0Cgwiq8tMKNWY9zdxBU_AkLf8Ge7FVoJqQ2LqnylPWr-epxlqbpgXY1t6LSte2lO1piTCPNijl1a8V5xvQ/w640-h342/car-tech.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Before today, I had never read this quote of George Orwell's from <i>The Lion and the Unicorn</i>: </span></span><p></p><p></p><p><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Right through our national life we have got to fight against the notion that a half-witted public schoolboy is better for command than an intelligent mechanic.<br /></span></span></i></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As the son of an intelligent mechanic, I found this a wonderful thought. </span></span><br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-27659943263663108512022-05-05T15:59:00.000+01:002022-05-05T15:59:22.426+01:00How a watch mechanism works (2022)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6v588cR906YT4zApx6Ge9hIDze6MtDKwlfWzJyUae7uvB75AXXvVl7bZIv1-35VMj67jVD0wxiMI8RRk0bQeiMNMhRoQ9XlTiGL26X7N4517tKu-D3HucHBMHICH4VprI7aTCrbsytiiSubaevKzUV0gTfFLv6Z2DmJ9d4kCmBNu5s7Cmy2mWUE5GA/s671/mechanism.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="671" height="626" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL6v588cR906YT4zApx6Ge9hIDze6MtDKwlfWzJyUae7uvB75AXXvVl7bZIv1-35VMj67jVD0wxiMI8RRk0bQeiMNMhRoQ9XlTiGL26X7N4517tKu-D3HucHBMHICH4VprI7aTCrbsytiiSubaevKzUV0gTfFLv6Z2DmJ9d4kCmBNu5s7Cmy2mWUE5GA/w640-h626/mechanism.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /> </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a> is a superb website that explains very simply and clearly all of the key parts of a mechanical watch movement. </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-79074659851762768382022-04-18T20:49:00.001+01:002022-04-19T15:53:31.033+01:00Rip it Up and Start Again (2009)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i></i></span></span></p><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDvHZKoEaUm2ooo52YK0xwGGA4AGtUs7blVzTERYbSs4HnPMHMgwK4OqaooxhJSklT0DaCi3UWLy6Q1Gs2QJWA1eDVslz-uPJChjKkRN_C5R8xIrmePXSzHH3lD5DzlfLkyhL2zJVQt0S2zbFMk4PCptRTKP_iHdkXzKYFVPIvfnAHavi4J3mjDFcTw/s640/triang.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="640" height="546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDvHZKoEaUm2ooo52YK0xwGGA4AGtUs7blVzTERYbSs4HnPMHMgwK4OqaooxhJSklT0DaCi3UWLy6Q1Gs2QJWA1eDVslz-uPJChjKkRN_C5R8xIrmePXSzHH3lD5DzlfLkyhL2zJVQt0S2zbFMk4PCptRTKP_iHdkXzKYFVPIvfnAHavi4J3mjDFcTw/w640-h546/triang.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><i></i></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Rip it Up and Start Again</i> is an excellent book by Simon Reynolds about post-punk music between 1978-1984. It covers the bands and musical movements that dominated my teenage years and is very well researched and written.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The following excerpt rings very true for me. At the time, even though The Beatles had only fallen to pieces less than 10 years previously, no-one was bothered about their music. There was too much other music to find.<br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">'The prime years of post-punk - the half decade from 1978 to 1982 - were like that: a <i>fortune</i>. I’ve come pretty close since, but I’ve never been quite as exhilarated as I was back then. Certainly, I’ve never been so utterly focused on the present.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As I recall it now, I <i>never</i> bought any old records. Why would you? There were so many new records that you had to have that there was simply no earthly reason to investigate the past. I had cassettes of the best of The Beatles and the Stones taped off friends, a copy of The Doors’ anthology <i>Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine</i>, but that was it. Partly this was because the reissue culture that inundates us today didn’t exist then; record companies even <i>deleted</i> albums. As a result, huge swaths of the recent past were virtually inaccessible. But mainly it was because there was no time to look back wistfully to something through which you’d never lived. There was too much happening right now.'</span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span><br /></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-51282762152868898542022-04-17T20:07:00.003+01:002022-04-19T15:57:49.409+01:00A present of things past, a present of things present, a present of things to come.<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTE-Zr7qjgE-9-PKFwlbKZlQrp3aKNoqEX3EptNxpsv1-vS9f1XfmJ0meNufuwT58cuTvd-eevEBNse3hR9o7NRdtIkN7iCxmzKEpV_IdKqvtlVEQ1kWyHYeL5eiyA9h0QXHpoNV6xDJXFmHcytzkCHzwyZdpewbogxLR4V8ATpOD8AGepFRzmjViDQ/s1400/old-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="1400" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqTE-Zr7qjgE-9-PKFwlbKZlQrp3aKNoqEX3EptNxpsv1-vS9f1XfmJ0meNufuwT58cuTvd-eevEBNse3hR9o7NRdtIkN7iCxmzKEpV_IdKqvtlVEQ1kWyHYeL5eiyA9h0QXHpoNV6xDJXFmHcytzkCHzwyZdpewbogxLR4V8ATpOD8AGepFRzmjViDQ/w640-h328/old-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One of the most thought provoking passages in Lewis Hyde's book <i>A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past</i>, is about time and St Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>. Here it is:<br /></span></span><p></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">He moves then to thinking of these temporal categories as existing not by themselves but as human mind-states, all of them taking place in that fleeting present. His boyhood lies in the past, but when he recalls it, he is “looking on its image in present time.” To speak of time with any exactness, we need to say that “there are three times: a present of things past, a present of things present, a present of things to come.” And we have a name for each of these: “The present considering the past is the memory, the present considering the present is immediate awareness, the present considering the future is expectation.”<br /><br />And time? Time is the experience of simultaneously holding two of these states in mind. When we do so, the mind gets stretched out just as the body gets stretched out when touching two separate spots in space. Augustine’s name for this mental stretching out is “distension”, a term he probably borrowed from Plotinus, who also speaks of time as a “spreading out (<i>diastasis</i>) of life.” Says Augustine, “I have come to think that time is simply a distension. But of what is it a distension? I do not know, but it would be surprising if it is not that of the mind itself.”</span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-21459480597940838512022-04-17T17:45:00.003+01:002022-04-19T16:25:32.637+01:00Wilko dreams of dashi (2022)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YpR-LJfkI45pt5kDvt5YTLGIuA-XXWabBTFsWYHBFSwO1vIBlQoNZIGiB_6-XKk0PPSujXfxHOsQ5gLxlGSApfMYsr6Sdz_760NRYtmtQxjht50xiK_aD0FPT6weLNA42ANRHgOQs0aSHcRa-joJNkivMXT_9MBJ6bR6-LNzccbeL5aohoKdYf6vbg/s1492/sushi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1492" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YpR-LJfkI45pt5kDvt5YTLGIuA-XXWabBTFsWYHBFSwO1vIBlQoNZIGiB_6-XKk0PPSujXfxHOsQ5gLxlGSApfMYsr6Sdz_760NRYtmtQxjht50xiK_aD0FPT6weLNA42ANRHgOQs0aSHcRa-joJNkivMXT_9MBJ6bR6-LNzccbeL5aohoKdYf6vbg/w640-h394/sushi.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The documentary, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jiro dreams of Sushi</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, focuses on the 85 year old sushi chef Jiro Ono, doing what a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Preserver of Important Intangible Cultural Properties </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is supposed to do, that is to demonstrate such intense dedication to their craft that they completely transcend what the basic version of the same craft is capable of delivering. In the case of Jiro, his sushi is so good that his tiny (10 seat) Tokyo subway sushi shop repeatedly won 3 Michelin stars. He is widely recognised as a ‘living national treasure’.</span></span></span></p><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, the UK does not have any equivalent way of conferring high status on outstanding craft practitioners. However, such levels of craft do exist. A few weekends ago, my son and I experienced something similar to the experience that Jiro delivers to his customers, when we spent more than three hours in a tiny one Michelin star restaurant called </span><a href="https://www.restaurantfraiche.com/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fraiche</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Oxton, Birkenhead (on the night we were there, only 4 customers were eating, but more frequently there are 8 - 10 customers). </span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The restaurant is owned and run by the chef Marc Wilkinson. On the night we went, there were only two members of staff, Wilkinson, and a waitress/sommelier. The food was exceptionally good, delivered in about 13 tiny ‘courses’, each of which came with an explanation of where the ingredients had come from and what was special about the dish. The experience was wonderful, because it was an immersion into the complete dedication that Wilkinson has to his craft. As he has said:</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fraiche is a very personal journey for me, building a modern cuisine on a classical trained foundation to keep my sensibilities in check. My expanding cooking techniques and cutting edge preparations help me to express myself, thus enabling me to offer our guests a complete "experience", taking them on both a culinary and visual journey.</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On reflection, although his customers are of very high importance to Wilkinson, I got the impression that he may have been almost as happy cooking all of the food he made without any customers being present. His focus and drive to create the food that he sees and tastes in his minds eye, is the primary thing, and the fact that he has paying guests who want to eat his food, helps to subsidise and validate his efforts.</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yes, having spent an evening with Wilkinson, I am convinced that he does dream of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dashi </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(a Japanese broth which is most commonly made from an edible kelp called </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">kombu</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></span></span></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-2925455956836484112022-04-13T07:05:00.000+01:002022-04-13T07:05:26.207+01:00Slaughterhouse-Five<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3d1_i3KwgglNm8oEe9PEAHyFOazYr2zHC8oDqqd4Tm2nB-heS0JHVrKdGLEYPawlX814ki6T3kLioSIh6qnD_PnnTJA7IvLCK8gvkG00RydmNbYvaHfvO8Yn-VSjIVVeVUwr8Z8x5zN74ruaQaDnZfFw_kemtbEe2VvbjxEmvkfieoBm4XqosSa-LA/s1739/sh5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1244" data-original-width="1739" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3d1_i3KwgglNm8oEe9PEAHyFOazYr2zHC8oDqqd4Tm2nB-heS0JHVrKdGLEYPawlX814ki6T3kLioSIh6qnD_PnnTJA7IvLCK8gvkG00RydmNbYvaHfvO8Yn-VSjIVVeVUwr8Z8x5zN74ruaQaDnZfFw_kemtbEe2VvbjxEmvkfieoBm4XqosSa-LA/w640-h458/sh5.jpg" width="640" /></a> </div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/why-slaughterhouse-five-resonates-50-years-later/586180/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a> is a superb piece by James Parker in <i>The Atlantic</i> on Kurt Vonnegut's masterpiece <i>Slaughterhouse-Five.</i> </span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Fifty years have passed since the publication of Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s the same age as me. And the older I get, and the more lumps fall off my brain, the more I find that rereading is the thing. Build your own little cockeyed canon and then bear down on it; get to know it, forward and backward; get to know it well. So I don’t know how many times I’ve read Slaughterhouse-Five. Three? Four? It never gets old, is the point. It never wanes in energy. This book is in no way the blossom of a flower. Slaughterhouse-Five is more in the nature of a superpower that the mutant author had to teach himself to master—and then could use, at full strength, only once.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What I love about this is Parker's acceptance as he gets older that 'rereading is the thing'. It's what I have been doing for years: <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i>, <i>Catch-22</i>, <i>Cannery Row</i>, <i>The Old Ways</i>, <i>Popper</i>. But I have never thought of this habit of mine as building '...your own cockeyed canon' and bearing down on it. I will now. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">So it goes.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-37122124876183442332022-04-08T12:05:00.000+01:002022-04-08T12:05:04.312+01:00Two Legs, Thing Using and Talking (1998)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjI2N5PKY6tJcs-Wg2cHsdPOL3IbUpF4P2PV9u2UIQZN378Y9COrSSdtmKlGXV4r041F95ZbTUlow7sBAQP5vNsO3oDCW_7L4BUkiB9Q0FszQ96NzykYZKmduYTlRY0GPVn-vIzAhyOIKeCGxeaSCUtZiBOouhDgSPsN-zRg0Tov7Nd2AZcoThlv2DQ/s1100/thingmake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1100" height="525" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkjI2N5PKY6tJcs-Wg2cHsdPOL3IbUpF4P2PV9u2UIQZN378Y9COrSSdtmKlGXV4r041F95ZbTUlow7sBAQP5vNsO3oDCW_7L4BUkiB9Q0FszQ96NzykYZKmduYTlRY0GPVn-vIzAhyOIKeCGxeaSCUtZiBOouhDgSPsN-zRg0Tov7Nd2AZcoThlv2DQ/w640-h525/thingmake.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This paper by Francis Evans is one of the best things I have read about the interaction of our human capacity to walk, talk, make things, and technology. In Google Scholar it has just 9 citations, which means that in the past 20+ years it has been cited in other scientific papers less than once per year. <br /></span></span></p><p><i><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Abstract Reads:</span></span></b></i></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Instead of seeing technology as outside ourselves, it is argued that it is an innate human function and the main driving force in human evolution. Opportunistic ‘thing using’, long before stone tools appeared, was the likeliest cause of bipedalism. It also forced brain development and the emergence of creativity. The neural basis for this creative technical activity later provided the brain functions on which language could develop. This simple unifying hypothesis has interesting implications for the way that we see technology in history, and for determinist theories of the future. It also bears on the way engineers are trained, and more important, the human faculties which need to be fostered in children.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It can be downloaded <a href="https://timhunkin.com/a119_francis_evans.htm" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-82055276988520144452022-01-26T13:57:00.004+00:002022-01-26T13:57:32.454+00:00Revealed (1977 - 1982)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxKym69X65O2er5bNCJViQp49dgICNCx4-CJeazBPLZiyRih7uZsz-Jun8pBBIIcYIHIuUyZdSpfdm3cbxTJnu_LMku8c3Onjjsq5ZKPZ_UJxHm0xQjp7rYQDTWjkpZKAvno0O-XnmkrsX0ImsBzbLpGuTM65YfKcueKj62K1Jx6jclKDFfGl5KzJURA=s4319" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2916" data-original-width="4319" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjxKym69X65O2er5bNCJViQp49dgICNCx4-CJeazBPLZiyRih7uZsz-Jun8pBBIIcYIHIuUyZdSpfdm3cbxTJnu_LMku8c3Onjjsq5ZKPZ_UJxHm0xQjp7rYQDTWjkpZKAvno0O-XnmkrsX0ImsBzbLpGuTM65YfKcueKj62K1Jx6jclKDFfGl5KzJURA=w640-h432" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />A friend has very kindly just given me a signed copy of <i>Revealed </i>by Francesco Melina (<a href="https://www.march-design.co.uk/portfolio_page/revealed/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>). </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Melina was an Italian who travelled across Europe and ended up in Liverpool (he's still there) and he made friends with artists, musicians and other Liverpudlian creatives. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The book is fantastic - </span></span>it
contains dozens of photos taken in Liverpool in the late 70's - just
as Matthew Street in Liverpool was coming to life (again).</span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The photos brilliantly evoke their time. For me this was the backdrop to my late teen years. Many of the bands pictured in the book played at our local pub (the Bulls Head) or at Erics in Matthew Street. We saw these bands, bought their records from probe Records on Button Street, and had tea in the Armadillo tea rooms. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Image Above: Echo and the Bunnymen at a rehearsal in Liverpool in 1980. Copyright F. Melina.<br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-87827617826318033222022-01-11T17:09:00.002+00:002022-01-11T17:09:44.385+00:00Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research (1940 - 2020)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><span></span></i></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEht5qysOUFlpS5NJVw6T0s0TmkxVm1TVyAMZiPIRP3sM694V7kwfA2n4yRKw_QSv_6tMl9Q39mhckqJSq34HjCh3Mj1gnwAtMjtNcxWaWCKFPafy-7nU4RFP2BpGC4ud19mjXIrPax0qk36ik7CVj4tl7uRl15Uz6PndDefDNVFGTZlIpDXafG9HAVLZQ=s627" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="627" height="544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEht5qysOUFlpS5NJVw6T0s0TmkxVm1TVyAMZiPIRP3sM694V7kwfA2n4yRKw_QSv_6tMl9Q39mhckqJSq34HjCh3Mj1gnwAtMjtNcxWaWCKFPafy-7nU4RFP2BpGC4ud19mjXIrPax0qk36ik7CVj4tl7uRl15Uz6PndDefDNVFGTZlIpDXafG9HAVLZQ=w640-h544" width="640" /></a></i></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><i> </i></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><span>The Sea of Cortez</span></i><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><br />
In March 1940 Ed Ricketts and John Steinbeck chartered the <i>Western
Flyer</i>, a 75-foot purse seiner built in Tacoma in 1937, and sailed from
Monterey to the <i>Sea of Cortez</i>, also known as the Gulf of California.
This unique marine environment is located between the mainland coast of
Mexico and the coast of the Baja peninsula. The <i>Sea of Cortez</i> is one of
the most ecologically diverse seas on the planet and is home to more
than 5,000 described species. Ricketts and Steinbeck had an ambition
to undertake the first serious scientific study of the <i>Sea of Cortez</i> as an
ecological whole. They aimed to emulate the voyaging style of Charles
Darwin on their trip and this is reflected in the full title of the book <i>Sea of Cortez: A Leisurely Journal of Travel and Research</i>. The first portion of the book is a log written by Steinbeck, but based closely on the <i>Verbatim Transcript</i>
that had been written by Ricketts from the contemporaneous notes he had
kept during the voyage. In addition to the narrative Ricketts had
compiled an extensive phylectic catalogue describing the species that
they had found, with full cross-references to the known literature on
the marine fauna of the region. The full book is about 600 pages long
and was never commercially succesful. In later editions the publishers
completely dropped the phylectic catalogue and the log portion was
published under the title <i>Log from the Sea of Cortez</i> under Steinbeck’s sole authorship.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span>Now Arion Press has composed a new edition in celebration of the 80 years since the voyage of the <i>Western Flyer</i>. It has very high craft production values, and a sky-high price (<a href="https://www.arionpress.com/store/sea-of-cortez-by-john-steinbeck-and-ed-ricketts-richard-wagener" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE<span style="font-size: large;">)</span></span></a>. This new edition includes limited edition wood engraved prints by Richard Wagener, including a multi-colour print of the <i>Western Flyer</i> itself. <br /></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-32142664470995893692022-01-06T11:10:00.000+00:002022-01-06T11:10:28.282+00:00Why do we love books so much? (2020)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH65Rko6ReLjsBsILZncbD8Lom-BOlaRCU3QfpeMvCCrsmKq_d8ojoo-H91rHxy9xc9FiY5bkhQhvwFofaxJ-aUN43QzQhRRRRaeBoATWLw1LaEN3v9qJOqSk2U50ScgDuX03yhdaTKTiaWw64WpaVftyi-cZf2Nb4XO4Y-0vnhJdexxz_EuWI7sY1UQ=s706" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="706" data-original-width="579" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH65Rko6ReLjsBsILZncbD8Lom-BOlaRCU3QfpeMvCCrsmKq_d8ojoo-H91rHxy9xc9FiY5bkhQhvwFofaxJ-aUN43QzQhRRRRaeBoATWLw1LaEN3v9qJOqSk2U50ScgDuX03yhdaTKTiaWw64WpaVftyi-cZf2Nb4XO4Y-0vnhJdexxz_EuWI7sY1UQ=w524-h640" width="524" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is one for my wishlist. <i>Ex Libris. 100+ Books to Read and Reread</i> By Michiko Kakutani.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In it, Kakutani critiques a long list of books that she feels are worth reading and rereading. And I guess she would know - she was formerly the chief book critic for <i>The New York Times</i>, and has won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. What shocked me is how few of these books I have read. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">As to why we love books so much, this is what she has to say:</span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br />These magical brick-sized objects—made of paper, ink, glue, thread, cardboard, fabric, or leather—are actually tiny time machines that can transport us back to the past to learn the lessons of history, and forward to idealized or dystopian futures. Books can transport us to distant parts of the globe and even more distant planets and universes. They give us the stories of men and women we will never meet in person, illuminate the discoveries made by great minds, and allow us access to the wisdom of earlier generations. They can teach us about astronomy, physics, botany, and chemistry; explicate the dynamics of space flight and climate change; introduce us to beliefs, ideas, and literatures different from our own. And they can whisk us off to fictional realms like Oz and Middle-earth, Narnia and Wonderland, and the place where Max becomes king of the wild things. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Image from <a href="https://www.kb.nl/en/themes/book-art-and-illustrated-books/private-press/the-collectors-and-the-private-press" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>. <br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-82566102200805842072022-01-01T13:47:00.001+00:002022-01-01T13:48:01.828+00:00HNY 2022<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhou9lMdvNnv3PZtQY3iO9m-HN4MZMnYwKKd-woTMUhsGXz4rjtdz-RXuHF_iPTSCqU5uIGt26lxTYLC8snbg1VnNSvZdPhcPK4kwcIGQDDReVAQwzcngdlNFDHmfzWnOLFMJJb-dq55gHSQWVOTlSjuu4_uPAfOs20t-LR-VPxTn_WkW5O7KG8wF9VHg=s1868" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1868" data-original-width="1800" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhou9lMdvNnv3PZtQY3iO9m-HN4MZMnYwKKd-woTMUhsGXz4rjtdz-RXuHF_iPTSCqU5uIGt26lxTYLC8snbg1VnNSvZdPhcPK4kwcIGQDDReVAQwzcngdlNFDHmfzWnOLFMJJb-dq55gHSQWVOTlSjuu4_uPAfOs20t-LR-VPxTn_WkW5O7KG8wF9VHg=w616-h640" width="616" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-18467989967903464512021-12-30T15:19:00.003+00:002021-12-30T15:19:32.373+00:00Get Back (1969)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHiUcEn8gaHx8mh8kmpxRf2yQfhMom61-AYckNw_bl9wTxWxCcVOZcfLHLeLnRLdVMUi40mt206nUCJKL6PJk2wYBSsKVWhcdGs98gKflJSmuZDt4kHz6gHzQi3Pzl4uVxy9PxIghBRe1vFnptV48_El5Oll_odeEJefnI5Coh31O1A7pp5g2uRyr7BA=s1408" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1408" data-original-width="1408" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiHiUcEn8gaHx8mh8kmpxRf2yQfhMom61-AYckNw_bl9wTxWxCcVOZcfLHLeLnRLdVMUi40mt206nUCJKL6PJk2wYBSsKVWhcdGs98gKflJSmuZDt4kHz6gHzQi3Pzl4uVxy9PxIghBRe1vFnptV48_El5Oll_odeEJefnI5Coh31O1A7pp5g2uRyr7BA=w640-h640" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><br /><p id="docs-internal-guid-93e37840-7fff-7264-60d0-ef6432bcb57a" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Brain Eno calls scenius emerges within human groups who share a common space and understanding of how to make a particular type of artefact. They share traditional knowledge, but are not limited by this tradition. The group uses the tools and techniques which their wider peer group also use, but they push at the boundaries and one or more of the individuals in the group begin to modify and change what they have inherited. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From my own experience of innovation in science and technology, Eno’s idea of scenius rings true, and others with hands-on experience of innovation will also recognise what Eno describes. Whilst in the midst of making an innovation there is chaos and frustration, but also a palpable energy, and a feeling that something useful and new is in the process of emerging. The group responds positively to these attempts to change a shared tradition, and a creative energy is unlocked. The peer pressure acting within the group is not constrictive, acting to keep everyone within the bounds of traditionally accepted norms, but expansive. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Eno’s letter about scenius, he describes a set of ethnographic observations he would like to make: ‘...I would love to be involved in making something to explore this idea - to support my thesis that new ideas come into being through a whole host of complicated circumstances, accidents, small incremental contributions made in isolation (as well as gifted individuals, of course) that in total add up to something qualitatively different: something nobody has ever seen before and which could not have been predicted from the elements that went to make it up’.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is only with the development of film and audio recording technology that this idea of Eno’s has been possible. One unusually well documented example of the innovations made by a mature scenius was recorded early in 1969. The Beatles had decided to create and rehearse 14 songs to play in front of a live audience for a TV special. They planned to record the whole process on film and began on 2nd January 1969. The original deadline for the TV special was 24th January. The filmmaker they worked with, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, recorded extensive film and audio footage of this period of work by the Beatles, which he used for his 1970 documentary <i>Let It Be</i>. The full archive of more than 60 hours of film and 150 hours of audio tapes has recently been remastered and edited into an 8 hour long 3-part documentary called <i>Get Back</i> by Peter Jackson. This film is a remarkable document of the interpersonal dynamics of creativity and innovation within the scenius that surrounded the Beatles. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rehearsal sessions began at Twickenham Studios on 2nd January. After a few days of desultory progress, early on the 7th January, we see a seated Paul McCartney in a yellow sweater begin to strum his bass guitar as if it was a six string rhythm guitar. George and Ringo are sitting very close to him, and John Lennon has yet to arrive for the rehearsal. While McCartney is playing the riff, he is tapping his left foot to keep time, and he then starts to accompany himself with a vocal melody made up of indistinct, and maybe nonsense lyrics. In response to what McCartney is doing, Ringo looks bemused and George yawns. Around this tight inner circle of three Beatles, studio technicians, the band’s road manager and roadies are wandering about plugging in equipment. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After a minute and a half of strumming and warbling, Paul pauses for a few bars whilst he keeps his foot tapping, and then he restarts the riff. He now begins to sing that in hindsight sound like one of the early verses in their song <i>Get Back</i>. George Harrison begins to tentatively play along. Over the footage, we hear George commenting on what Paul has been doing: ‘Yeah it’s good, it’s you know, musically man it’s great’. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Within two minutes of Paul starting, Ringo begins clapping along and George more enthusiastically strums his guitar. Just then, Paul begins singing ‘get back, get back to where you once belonged’. Moments later, Ringo begins to harmonise and George is now adding guitar motifs in time with Paul’s riff. The footage cuts to what seems to be just a few moments later. Ringo is now playing a beat on the drums and George is adding guitar stabs. At that point, John Lennon arrives at the rehearsal in a fur coat, jeans and tennis shoes, sits down and begins playing along. All of a sudden, as observers we realise that surprisingly we have just witnessed the very first stages of the spontaneous composition of <i>Get Back</i>. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later that January, after they have moved rehearsals to a makeshift studio in the basement of the Apple corporation building in Saville Row, we see Lennon and McCartney iteratively develop the lyrics of the song. They incorporate elements of nonsense, play with different phrasing, modify the guitar accompaniment, include a protest song element as a response to a speech by Enoch Powell's. Yet the core of the song remains the same. One of the takes from these sessions is included on the <i>Let it Be</i> album and released as a single, on 11 April 1969. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remarkable as it is to see <i>Get Back</i> conjured from thin air, the band also either freshly composes or substantially develops more than a dozen songs in the three weeks work that is documented on the <i>Get Back</i> film. These songs include 11 that are on the <i>Let it Be</i> album, songs on their <i>Abbey Road</i> album and songs on solo albums by each of the individual Beatles. The <i>Get Back</i> footage also shows that the Beatles’ working milieu included a wider set of influences. It included the pianist Billy Preston who dropped in to say hello, and stayed to play on many of the tracks, the engineer Glyn Johns, their long term road manager Mal Evans, the roadie Kevin Harrington, their regular producer George Martin, and their partners Yoko Ono, Linda Eastman, Pattie Harrison and Maureen Starkey. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There has been much written about this period in the Beatles’ history. Yet what this film shows is the incredible creativity and productivity of a band that was both close to splitting up and with a mature, almost familial set of relationships. It is a masterclass in how scenius can lead to innovation. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Videos of the emergence of Get back can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07q95KiVguc&t=0s" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIDCKoZf43A" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>. </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An excellent article about this documentary by David Remnick is in <i>The New Yorker</i> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/paul-mccartney-doesnt-really-want-to-stop-the-show " target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>.</span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-82104120667914005262021-12-27T07:37:00.002+00:002021-12-27T07:37:39.352+00:00After Dark (2021)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaN5CHPrUjcW3Gi9wZe6ySPCOl6IG-m7HIX9uZTOZc588EwvL7OSt15dziJv63IxBPWuxdh5NFxXE7L_Jl1UK26-nquS9RpzLNcYW7BDIlCIYc7d8vdZ8Kwjj3YjAGxwQcJwHxaZikXyj7qm2JLw74CvS4_P7O58U_a08xGtrvvVW__zgkm9Tk8akq0A=s1000" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="805" data-original-width="1000" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgaN5CHPrUjcW3Gi9wZe6ySPCOl6IG-m7HIX9uZTOZc588EwvL7OSt15dziJv63IxBPWuxdh5NFxXE7L_Jl1UK26-nquS9RpzLNcYW7BDIlCIYc7d8vdZ8Kwjj3YjAGxwQcJwHxaZikXyj7qm2JLw74CvS4_P7O58U_a08xGtrvvVW__zgkm9Tk8akq0A=w640-h516" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Keita Morimoto is a Japanese painter. He recently held an exhibition of his night time paintings at Kotaro Nukaga in Tokyo. More <span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.spoon-tamago.com/2021/11/27/after-dark-keita-morimoto/" target="_blank">HERE</a></span>. </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-91935677510669042062021-12-24T10:06:00.000+00:002021-12-24T10:06:00.443+00:00Wordle (2021)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5qJOjqI4GnaGiMiWW5BoE6VKfxyK2Vq745PClbwfaXvebgYIn8UX2KaICWizRwJ6rmtzUGXDwFF51vtZ4DzPIyjs-kgeMYPp5y8sXndX0F6pJkCvJIukZkd7pN8OcjoWco6cyBFj-ggQdTtmLOgTjG2BIDlQ8mc-EGRhoEgDERnH-NnUMUgnH5vUBAw=s1624" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1624" data-original-width="1092" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh5qJOjqI4GnaGiMiWW5BoE6VKfxyK2Vq745PClbwfaXvebgYIn8UX2KaICWizRwJ6rmtzUGXDwFF51vtZ4DzPIyjs-kgeMYPp5y8sXndX0F6pJkCvJIukZkd7pN8OcjoWco6cyBFj-ggQdTtmLOgTjG2BIDlQ8mc-EGRhoEgDERnH-NnUMUgnH5vUBAw=w430-h640" width="430" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Wordle (<a href="https://www.powerlanguage.co.uk/wordle/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a>) is a simple interactive word game. You have six attempts to guess a 5 letter word. Ideal for the 2021 Xmas break. </span></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6778214484596336752.post-77443804168368845532021-12-22T15:07:00.001+00:002021-12-22T15:07:42.317+00:00What are working professionals missing in their AI education? (2021)<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfDoXGUVCcq5zbqN_A5jFxAjiRJCVTCUm4p9hE5hczYqC5owVQLTmCrVjUPwCvl7rFsyCvR4le7TQNE0yfsPQ0bNhwFlGGnu7XOHCEAXHaX4XyMKy48OajSix0mEgFdDpfZphU6KLXt8R0U7eDCIHxq18W17gWhZB8KzqrcKhTJ7I1pF456Wbdhp53Og=s982" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="982" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhfDoXGUVCcq5zbqN_A5jFxAjiRJCVTCUm4p9hE5hczYqC5owVQLTmCrVjUPwCvl7rFsyCvR4le7TQNE0yfsPQ0bNhwFlGGnu7XOHCEAXHaX4XyMKy48OajSix0mEgFdDpfZphU6KLXt8R0U7eDCIHxq18W17gWhZB8KzqrcKhTJ7I1pF456Wbdhp53Og=w640-h464" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Peter Norvig is the co-author of a very widely used AI textbook. <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/news/peter-norvig-todays-most-pressing-questions-ai-are-human-centered?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_content=Stanford%20HAI_twitter_StanfordHAI_202112200902_sf156716840&utm_campaign=&sf156716840=1" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: small;">HERE</span></a> is an interview with him about AI, including AI education. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It includes the following Q&A. <br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span><strong><span><span>What are working professionals missing in their AI education?</span></span></strong></span></span></span></span></p><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">
</span></span></div><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span><span><span><span>In AI education teachers assign a
simple well-defined problem with a given dataset and a pre-defined
objective. Students then see their job as building a model that
maximizes the objective function. But in a real world project,
professionals need to define the objectives and collect or generate the
data on their own. You don’t get credit for choosing an especially
clever or mathematically sophisticated model, you get credit for solving
problems for your users. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span><span><span><span>In my own experience, you could take out "AI" and replace it with "Data Analysis", and the statement would remain 100% true. <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><span><span><span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com