Where were you when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon? When John F. Kennedy was assassinated? When the first plane hit the World Trade Center? We have a knack for recalling our circumstances during world-shaking events. For me, I remember what I was reading. Perhaps it is simply a weird trick…
Selfishly, I wish we’d do away with Daylight Saving Time. As an early riser, who heads out for a 2-1/2 mile walk first thing each morning, I prefer walks in the half hour before sunrise. Each spring forward hurtles me back into morning darkness for my walks. I take a light with me that I…
Some books are a call to action. Such was Andrew Chaikin’s A Man on the Moon. This book set me off on two paths of discovery: one on the U.S. space program before the space shuttle era; the other was one to see if I could be part of that program. It started with the HBO miniseries From…
I’m back from another recent jaunt to the future to scout out interesting books that will be hitting the shelves. One of the more exciting books that I’ve mentioned elsewhere is a new posthumous collection of essays by the late David McCullough called History Matters. I was delighted to see that Simon Winchester has a new book coming…
My notions of art were formed during high school. Three years of art history as part of a core of humanities classes made me something of an art snob. We memorized paintings and artists the way chemistry students memorize elements and atomic weights. It took decades to shake the snobbery, decades to go from “beauty…
One of the traits that made Isaac Asimov a great explainer was his ability to start at the very beginning and tell a good story. The more complex a topic, the more important it is to begin with the basics and work your way up. Once asked to write a book on black holes, Isaac Asimov started…
There are some days that start with meetings early in the morning and end with meetings late into the evening. This entire week has been like that, so I hope you will forgive me if I don’t have something prepared for the blog today. My brain is worn out. Fortunately, I have a new Shelf-Life post coming…
Roughly four years ago, I bought myself a sit-stand desk for my home office. Sitting is sedentary and standing is healthier, I was told. As I wrote at the time, “My idea was that I would stand whenever I was working, and sit when I am not working. Given that the former tends to be more than…
I try to walk twice a day: once first thing in the morning, then again around lunchtime. I do a pretty good job, especially in the mornings. I’d guess that I manage to get out 330-340 days each year. Even when we travel, I get my early morning walks in. It was on one such…
In a recent meeting, a vendor was speaking to a large group of people with mixed technical experience. They mentioned “blob storage” and I felt compelled to interject for the benefit of those folks who’d never heard the term that despite sounding like a warehouse for Hollywood 1950s B-movie props, blob storage was, for our…