The internet is filled with things. Here are some of them.
Every great scientist has an anecdote that characterizes him (or her): Oppenheimer’s poisoned apple, Einstein’s days as a patent clerk, Feynman’s lockpicking. Fermi’s characteristic anecdote, for my reckoning, comes from Rhodes’s account of Fermi’s time at Los Alamos. Los Alamos was in the desert of New Mexico, and, as a lark, the scientists there adopted much of the dress and activities of cowboys, including swing dancing. Fermi, awkward nerd that he was, had no idea how to swing dance, and spent an entire night sitting on the edge of the dance and furiously trying to work out the pattern in his head. At some point, he got up, asked the instructor (one of the scientist’s wives) to dance with him, and, much to her surprise, carefully led her through all the steps with grim determination. This was Fermi in a nutshell: identify what’s interesting, work furiously to understand it, and then end up at the front of it.
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things.Love live the fantasy of the scholar cloistered in their tower library, a hermit buried in their arcane work. I hope I can one day rise to the level of no-fucks-given that I have relegated receiving communication to something done only as whimsy, when all other entertainment avenues have run dry.
Surprising announcement: jihadists actually believe in their religion.
I know, shocking.
But really, the writer is constantly complaining how Western analysts are always trying to understand the jihadists’ motivations and plans through their own lens: economy, strategy, nationalism, fighting against oppression. Dean claims that these all overlook a major goal that motivated him and many of his comrades: fulfilling the prophecies.
Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in modern southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.Apparently on Wikipedia you can't say that someone is black even if their being black plays a major and defining role in their life, seeing as Equiano was a black man living in 18th century white-and-racist-as-fuck England.
The importance of this lies in the fact that such a biography was not edited by Omar ibn Said's owner, as those of other slaves written in English were, and is therefore surmised to be more authentic. Second, it is an important document that attests to the high level of education, and the long tradition of a written culture that existed in Africa at the time. It also reveals that many Africans who were brought to the United States as slaves were followers of Islam, an Abrahamic and monotheistic faith. Such documentation counteracts prior assumptions of African life and culture.
In 1854 he [...] retraced his footsteps to San Mateo county, and opened a store at Searsville, which he conducted for thirteen years. In 1878 he came to Mayfield where he has since resided, being now engaged in the lumber business. He has an interest in a large tract of timber land in the southern portion of San Mateo county, also a half interest in a steam sawmill, with a capacity of fifteen thousand feet in the twelve hours.
Iverson split redwood shakes and shingles for a living and, in the 1880s, served as a bodyguard for the wife of Capt. Harry Love, a California ranger who supposedly captured and beheaded the famous outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. One day Love flew into a jealous rage and opened fire on his wife and her protector, only to be shot to death by Iverson.
In 1889, Iverson sold his property to William Page, who had built the first of two sawmills along Peters Creek, which was named after another early immigrant named Jean Peter, who ran a dairy and grew hay and grain.
Page, who also operated a general store and served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, used the lumber to make shingles. He later built a logging road that became known as Page Mill Road. The road, which still exists, was used to transport lumber to Palo Alto.
I'm playing that new House of Tesla puzzle mystery video game, and featured in the story are of course Tesla's associates who you'd expect – JP Morgan and Mark Twain, to name the two most prominent. But who surprises me by their appearance in the game is Aleister Crowley. I had never even before considered that Crowley and Tesla even lived in the same era, let alone would have known each other. But did they know each other? The game is obviously fantasy, but draws on real historical events for plot points, so is this relationship something that it's just making up?
Thankfully, back in 2021, this website pop matters wrote an article examining the exact relationship, or lack thereof, between Crowley and Tesla. Because while there is no evidence that the two have met, they apparently ran in the same circles. And the article is well researched and well referenced, making a convincing and nuanced argument.