Brandon E Taylor's Weblog Cogitations, Meditations, and Ruminations

Reflection, Renewal, and Resolution

I always find that this time of year is ideal for reflecting on the year about to end, renewing commitments to goals and principles, and resolving to make the coming year better than the last. 2004 was a great year for my wife and me - the conception of our son Caleb ensured that. His birth early next year will serve as a brilliant start to a year to which I look forward with great hope and anticipation.

Happy New Year, folks, and God bless!
( Dec 31 2004, 06:31:51 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Word of the Day

perspicacious

adjective - of acute mental vision or discernment
( Dec 31 2004, 04:26:28 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Fabric of the Cosmos

Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality - Brian Greene (2004)

**** (out of 5)

Fabric of the Cosmos is Greene's latest foray into modern, and speculative, physics and cosmology. Like his previous book, The Elegant Universe, Fabric of the Cosmos tackles some weighty material. The subject matter of this latest book, as indicated by its subtitle, is no less than space, time, and the nature of reality.

The book contains 5 sections. Section I deals primarily with space. Greene starts with Newtonian physics, works through Einstein's Theories of Special and General Relativity, and ends with quantum mechanics. Section II focuses on time and its 'arrow'. Section III deals with spacetime and cosmology. Inflationary cosmology is given a fair amount of space, no pun intended, in this section. Greene deals with unification in Section IV. Superstings and M-Theory are featured. Section V, the final section, contains the most speculative material of the book - including time travel, teleportation, and the "Holographic Universe" theory.

I highly recommend this book to readers interested in modern physics - or readers wishing to develop such an interest. Greene's writing is enlightening and entertaining and his ability to clearly articulate and explain very complex notions is impressive - even quantum entaglement seems within cognitive grasp when he explains it. His metaphors are sometimes corny and his prejudices for string theory are evident. These, however, are relatively minor issues and detract little from a very nice book. The overlap with The Elegant Universe was a bit more irritating to me, as was the somewhat 'breezy' treatment of a few subjects (e.g. particle physics).

Also recommended:

• A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes - Stephen W. Hawking (1988)
• The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory - Brian Greene (2000)
• The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen W. Hawking (2001)

Trivial Tidbits

The tallest - 420 feet - and fastest - 120 mph - roller coaster in the world is the Top Thrill Dragster, opened in 2003 at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.

Six Flags Great Adventure is planning on opening a new roller coaster - Kingda Ka - in Spring, 2005 that will surpass the Top Thrill Dragster in both height - 456 feet - and speed - 128 mph.

The tallest - 218 feet - and fastest - 78.3 mph - wooden roller coaster is Son of Beast, opened in 2000 at Paramount's Kings Island in Cincinnati, Ohio.
( Dec 29 2004, 07:43:34 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Top Ten IT Stories of 2004

The Sun-Microsoft cooperation agreement was ranked by PC World as one of the top 10 IT stories of the year. Read about all ten stories here.

Also from PC World: Tech 2005: What's New and What's Next
( Dec 28 2004, 08:21:58 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Tsunami Satellite Images

DigitalGlobe has a number of incredible satellite images of the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka before and after the recent - and unfortunately tragic - tsunami impact.
( Dec 28 2004, 07:39:40 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Theme Park Information

The 'Theme Park Brochures' website has brochures, maps, etc. for a large number of theme parks, past and present.

Here are some of the parks that I have visited:

• Silver Dollar City (Branson, MO) (brochure from 1986)
• Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, MO) (brochure from 1987)
• Six Flags St Louis (Eureka, MO) (map from 1997)
• Elitch Gardens (Denver, CO) (map from 1997)
• Epcot (Orlando, FL) (map from 2003)
• Disneyland (Orlando, FL) (map from 2004)

Overclocking the NES

An overclocking guide for the Nintendo NES has been posted on the Epic Gaming website. This guide provides step-by-step instructions for overclocking the NES' 6502-based 2A03 processor past its rated 1.79 MHz.
( Dec 27 2004, 06:09:57 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Words to Live By

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.
( Dec 26 2004, 02:19:21 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Steelers: 20 Ravens: 7

With today's victory, the Steelers have clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs and a first round bye. Hopefully, this will afford the Steelers' injured starters an opportunity to get well.

I found the game particularly gratifying as it allowed the Steelers a chance to avenge their only loss of the season, a second week 30-13 trouncing by the Ravens.
( Dec 26 2004, 02:05:26 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Siloam Pool Found?

Archaeologists in Jerusalem believe that they have discovered remnants of the Siloam Pool mentioned in the following bible passage:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." As he said this, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Silo'am" (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. - John 9:1-7
( Dec 25 2004, 12:10:04 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Trivial Tidbits

The word Christmas comes from the Old English Cristes maesse, meaning 'Mass of Christ'.

The historical Saint Nicholas (c.280-c.345) was bishop of Myra (now Demre, Turkey) and had a reputation for anonymous gift-giving.

Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was responsible for establishing the Nativity scene (the Christmas creche) as a worldwide devotion. He displayed the seminal Christmas creche in 1223 in Grecio, Italy.
( Dec 25 2004, 11:48:48 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

Christmas Is...

Christmas is all of these things. Most of all, however, Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Happy holidays, folks, and God bless.

'Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love." - Hamilton Wright Mabie

'And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."' - Luke 2:10-11

( Dec 25 2004, 12:34:38 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

RLX Exiting Blade Business

RLX Technologies has announced an intention to exit the blade server business in order to focus on the development of blade/rack management software.

Read the article here.
( Dec 24 2004, 11:17:42 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]

The Island at the Center of the World

The Island at the Center of the World : The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan & The Forgotten Colony that Shaped America - Russell Shorto (2004)

*** 1/2 (out of 5)

The Island at the Center of the World is a history of New Netherland, the Dutch colony that occupied the island of Manhattan beginning early in the 17th century. Much of the material in this book is based on a large volume of primary sources that have only recently been made available.

I found the most interesting contribution of this book to be Shorto's arguments related to the influences that Dutch philosophical ideas - particularly the Dutch notions of liberty - and the nature of the New Netherland colony - particularly its tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity - have had on the American way of life.

I recommend The Island at the Center of the World for its presentation of material based on new sources, its interesting ideas about the influence of the Dutch on American mores, and its colorful vignettes of life in New Netherland (although I felt Shorto engaged, at times, in a bit too much 'artistic speculation').
( Dec 24 2004, 12:23:25 AM PST ) Permalink Comments [0]