The counter-intuitive science.........

...............of sea levels.   A very interesting interview.  Do read it.

There are so many interesting problems in our science that you can see with your eyes. But your eyes can fool you. Richard Feynman, the great physicist, used to start his physics lectures by showing students their intuition could take them a long way. They could do things just through intuition that would get them roughly the right answer. Then he used to throw some counterintuitive examples at them. Then he said, “This is why you need physics. You need to understand when your intuition might go wrong.” I firmly am a Feynman acolyte. There are some things that you can explain, but as a scientist you’re always going to face things that are counterintuitive. You’re never going to understand that water is falling near an ice sheet from your everyday experiences of the bathtub. You need to bring in something more; in this case, Newton’s second law of gravitation. You have to bring in physics; otherwise, you’re never going to explain that.

via

Fifty years ago.........................

Blue Cheer...………………………………………....Rock Me Baby

Two weeks to go..........................

     We won't be 100% complete in two weeks, but The Old School will have a temporary occupancy permit and our first tenant moving in.   Day by day the final product is coming into sharper focus.  One recent milestone was the paving of the parking lot,  As differences go, this is a big one:

The lonely paver

Asphalt delivery trucks stacking up

First passes

Detail work

Nothing like rolling asphalt on a 90 degree day

finished product

Fifty years ago.....................

Johnny Cash..................................................Folsom Prison Blues

Disruptive........................

As everyone agrees, a disruptive force. He disturbs the holy cows — the vested interests, that had been peacefully flatulating in their fields. People hate him, but other people love him for this, even in Europe — the smell was becoming unbearable. “Hope and Change” masked a programme for, “more of the same.” It was just perfume. Mister Trump’s vision is the meat packer’s.

-David Warren, as culled from here

image via

Clear, smooth passage.....................

     The way of the Essentialist means living by design, not by default.  Instead of making choices reactively, the Essentialist deliberately distinguishes the vital few from the trivial many, eliminates the nonessentials, and then removes obstacles so the essential things have clear, smooth passage.  In other words, Essentialism is a disciplined, systematic approach for determining where our highest point if contribution lies, then making execution of those things almost effortless.

-Greg McKeown,  essentialism:  The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Art..............................

One of the more interesting aspects of the Old School is the former boiler room.  From the beginning it had the potential for "cool."   The puzzle was how to deliver it.   After several go-rounds with our architect, we settled on a design that we hoped would elicit a "wow" reaction.  The jury is still out.  The rest of the building is almost complete.  Plans are for the first tenant to move in August 1.  The former boiler room, which has its own private entrance, is trailing.  We are at least a month away from finishing it.   The space has many unique features.  One of the most significant is its size:  1,800 square feet.  Another is the multiple levels.   Multiple levels require staircases.  Staircases require railings.   Railings can be cool.  At least we hope so.

Rough framing of the staircase to the second bedroom.  Wooden rails are only
temporary, for safety purposes.  Likewise the support posts.  Ultimately, the
staircase will be supported from the roof structure, not the floor.

Having your main man be handy with welding and working with metal
is a definite plus

About halfway finished with the railing.  Rather than spindles
(building codes do not allow for open railings in residential
units), half-inch glass panels will be fitted in between the posts.  

Been there, done that...............

via

Leadership......................

...............................................................A suggested reading list.

De-stress: Part 2.............................

...............................Here is another typically wonderful list of surprises from Nicholas Bate.    A few samples:

2.   How less stressful it is when you realise some stuff is simply not under your control and you accept that.

8.    How much more wealthy you feel when you finally release the need for more stuff simply because everybody else seems to need more stuff.

11.   Whatever your chronological age, you can still be young at heart

De-stress.................................

.......................Here is a pretty good story and a very good list to help you on your way:

3.  Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

17.  We could learn a lot from crayons.  Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull.  Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all live in the same box.

Fifty years ago....................

Joni Mitchell..............................................................I Had a King

Fifty years ago..........................

The Bee Gees...……………………....And The Sun Will Shine

One definition of respectability.........

     In this chapter, I will propose that what people resent - or should resent - is the person at the top who has no skin in the game, that is, because he doesn't bear his allotted risk, he is immune to the possibility of falling from his pedestal, exiting his income or wealth bracket, and waiting outside the soup kitchen.  Again, on that account, the detractors of Donald Trump, when he was still a candidate, not only misunderstood the value of scars as risk signalling, but they also failed to realize that, by advertising his episode of bankruptcy and his personal losses of close to a billion dollars, he removed the resentment (the second type of inequality) people may have had toward him.  There is something respectable in losing a billion dollars, provided it is your own money.

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb,  Skin In The Game:  Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

Fifty years ago..........................

The Band.......................................................................The Weight

Watching, always watching..............

................................meanwhile, 2,000 light-years away:

Who am I.................................?

"I have been referred to as inarguably 'the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced... because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating.' I was accomplished as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor, psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, book reviewer, dramtist, actor, short story writer, phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician, and metaphysician. I developed a cardinal arithmetic for infinite numbers years before Cantor, axiomatized natural number arithmetic before Dedekind and Peano, and set out axiomatized set theory before Zermelo. Fifty years before Shannon, I described how Boolean logic could be implemented in electrical switches.

The answer may be found here.   I first stumbled across him while reading this book; he is impressive.  Although, as far as "most versatile" intellects go, if you don't include Ben Franklin then leave me out of the discussion.

quote courtesy of

Fifty years ago............................

The Who........................................................................Magic Bus

Fifty years ago.............................

Dusty Springfield........................................Son of a Preacher Man