The History of the Internet

Thanks to Kim Komando I was able to relive the short history of the Internet. Her site today (9/06/2008) was the National Science Foundation. There you can learn about how fast and how far we have come since the 1970's when there was just ONE network connection.

I bought my first personal computer in 1975. There was no Internet until a few years later.

As you read and listen, place yourself, as I did, in that evolving stream of technology.

Exploring the Oceans

It's hard to believe we know so little about the Oceans of our Mother Earth. Robert Ballard gives us an insight into what we are missing in a recent speech at a TED conference. This is just another gift to us all from TED.

Thank Robert!


To get to his lecture just click of the title of this post.

If all else fails copy the following and paste it to Google search

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_ballard_on_exploring_the_oceans.html

Squashed Philosophers

Image via WikipediaI recently ran onto this website created by Glyn Hughes It's a timeline of philosophers, starting with Plato at 355 bc and moving ever closer to today. . At each point along the way you have a choice of reading a condensed version of what the philosopher was stating or a more detailed version of his thinking.Cicero at 50 bc or Thomas Paine in 1792, or Charles Darwin in 1859 or Sir Karl Popper in 1957.

Mr. Hughes has listed some 45 philosophers and their ideas.
Dip into the timeline and enjoy.

http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/squashed/

Are we just Chemical scum?

I've been "prospecting" again for the gems at the TED conferences. I ran onto a lecture given by the research physicist David Deutsch. His words transports us to the furthermost reaches of space, and describes it in some detail.Then back to planet Earth and how we know about this "typical" universe so far away.

Sorry you will have to copy and paste the URL below

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/47

Timshel

Lockhart's Lament

I'll never forget my High School math teacher. I
was standing at the blackboard trying to solve a problem.
And she says to me ...."I've never seen anyone so stupid"

That pretty much did it for me as far as
mathematics was concerned. I avoided it like the plague.
My next encounter with math was a required college Statistics
class. Things went better because I was presented with ideas
and concepts.

Today, I ran onto a "math guy" I wish I had known
65 years ago. I hope you enjoy his lament as I did.

(You will have to cut and paste this link..sorry)

http://www.maa.org/devlin/LockhartsLament.pdf

Charlie Rose Interwiews David McCullough

Source: WikipediaI knew zip about Charlie Rose until a few weeks ago. Now I have a season's pass for him on my TIVO. The first thing I had to learn was that just because I hadn't heard of the interviewee didn't mean that it wouldn't be interesting.

A few nights ago I learned about David McCullough. I learned that he is a writer of history. His works are not history novels. They are the essence of history told by a master story teller. Since then I have traveled to Wikipedia to get the list of his books.Then to my local library. (online) There I discovered there were hundreds of copies of his books. None of which were available. So I placed a "hold" an several of them.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail saying one of McCullogh's books (The Johnstown Flood) was waiting for me to come and get it. Last night I started reading. It took me back to my high school days when I watched my first play.....Thornton Wilder's "Our Town". At the beginning of the play, the stage manager walks out and starts talking about Grover's Corners and what was going on there.The town came to life for me.

That's what I experienced as I started reading the Johnstown Flood.Here was another story teller breathing life into a place and time of yesteryear.

This is a list of the books I placed on HOLD at my library:

Path Between the Seas
The Great Bridge
Mornings on Horseback
Brave Companions
Truman
John Adams
1776