Lost Knowledge at Alexandria

Found inscribed on the bottom of a reused limestone block at the Q'am Mosque in Cairo, "If you enjoyed our stelae on the great works of Pharaoh Khufu, then see our scroll 'How its made - the Pyramids' now in the library at Alexandria".

This is an ironic story, fictional at many levels, all in one sentence...
Sometimes the disclaimer takes the bite out, and has to be read as carefully as the material, so imagine you had not read the above disclaimer line.

I thought such a one sentence construct would be an accepted form of story/literature, but I could find no reference to such a form? What is a one sentence story called? Ultra short story?http://www.onesentence.org/stories/popular/
The above one sentence entities are based on reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story
Short stories, though short, are typically longer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdote
Anecdotes are typically based on reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable
Parables have an instructive moral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable
Fables involve anaimals or supernatural aspects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke
Jokes are meant to evoke laughter or humour.

The one sentence fictional story above is meant to provoke thought through thoughtful (not humourous) irony.

Cornell Clark Hall Car Cam and from Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) has many uses: http://www.archive.org/index.php

Was trying to find my old webpages at the Cornell Materials Science Center (roughly 1995 onwards)http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://msc.cornell.edu/~putnam
http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/~putnam/clcarcam.html
Had to navigate through link changes. http://web.archive.org/web/19990417232519/http://www.msc.cornell.edu/~putnam/clcarcam.html
So here is the record of my build archived in 1999. The actual Cornell Clark Hall Car Cam construction was in 1996. Wireless camera mounted on an RC car transmitting (on weak UHF) to a battery operated TV. But cannot claim to be first... it was based on an a segment on Letterman in 1994/1995.

There was one in toy stores in 2008.
http://dvice.com/archives/2008/10/-snooping-just.php
The ATV-360 camera on a tracked vehicle.
http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Planet-Gear-Video-ATV-360/dp/B0016A7PGU

Make Magazine 20 page 120 has a similar thing, but for a recording camera. http://makezine.com/20/
http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol20/?folio=120
ala George C Hale, Hale Tours - where cameras were mounted on trains, footage taken and shown in cinemas.
http://www.vintagekansascity.com/halestours/
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_Ride
Oddly enough only gets a reference in German - not in English?

Book Collecting and Bookstores

Always in favour of libraries, except that increasingly they seem to not be in the business of "books" anymore. Seems egregious to me that a library would throw away a book that it took the time to acquire and catalog. But space and money are not infinite for such things. And libraries do the best they can. Where education in school stops, the library begins.

So where one demands continuity and loves a subject, to the best of ones ability - time, space and finance-wise, one collects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_collecting

I am lucky to live in Boston Metro and can take the MBTA to http://www.brattlebookshop.com/
You may have seen Ken Gloss on Antiques Roadshow. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiques_Roadshow
I used to work nextdoor to Brattle Books, but at that time the book bug had not bitten me.

And there are, of course, places worldwide.

London http://www.visitlondon.com/attractions/shopping/book-shops

Japan http://web-japan.org/nipponia/nipponia24/en/travel/index.html
Kanda, Jimbocho, Yasikuni Ave.(and interestingly enough even if you are not fluent in Japanese Japan has some of the best technical and picture books in the world).

Moscow http://www.waytorussia.net/Moscow/Shopping/Books.html

Business Novels

Ever wonder if there are a whole new genres of literature you might have missed? Manga amd cyberpunk come to mind as new forms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novel
Older forms included romance, mystery, historical novels and so on.

Now comes the "business novel". Which has had "incidences" but never has really coalesced into a new genre...

Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine" is more of a documentary than novel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine
Here is a list of business novels
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/january-february-magazine-contents/0116-the-ten-best-business-novels/
And certainly the Cryptonomicon fits and comes to mind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon
But what of general business working and economics? trade? corporate structure?

The Japanese seem to have a quiet stream going in this area...
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/heath-row/novel-ideas-0
http://abe.villanova.edu/proc2006/white.pdf
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/bankfiction/japan.html
Just do a search for "Japanese business novel".

Fine Art Model Galleries

When I visited London in 2008, I had it my mind to visit the Bassett Lowke shop on High Holborn. http://www.bassettlowke.co.uk/ But it is long since gone.

I like hobby shops just fine, but I always envision visiting a model gallery... like Lannan Ship Model Gallery on High Street in Boston. http://www.lannangallery.com/lannan_gallery/Index.html

Admittedly Lannan is rather high end. And many shops have interesting and impressive displays. Charles Ro in Malden MA always seems to have a nice selection of large scale models (which are great in displays) in its showroom. http://www.charlesro.com/store_tour.htm

And I was lucky enough to visit Aster in Japan in Spring 2009 http://www.asterhobby.com/.
Much like the visit by Jason Musheno and Joel Taylor. http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/misc/aster-japan-visit.htm
See this page too for the Aster gallery...
http://www.southernsteamtrains.com/misc/aster-japan-visit-02.htm .
Aster was just re-running a C11 lot. The C56 and C11 are my favorite Japanese prototypes. Many thanks to Fujii-san and Yamato-san for their kind hospitality.

My main like is steam locomotives. And what sort of things would be in the gallery apart from finest steam examples from Aster? -
USA Trains http://www.usatrains.com/,
LGB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGB_(Lehmann_Gross_Bahn),
Bachmann http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/index.php,
Accucraft http://www.accucraft.com/,
Osaka http://www.oslivesteam.com/english/corporate/index.html
and other art pieces.

Would that there were more of such. It is a toss up between fine master works of true mechanical function from Aster and the great details from those like USA Trains.

There is simple fine art like those made by Wilbur Frey http://www.walkertrans.org/WilburFrey.htm
and working fine art like that from Kozo Hiraoka
http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Hiraoka.htm
And an assortment from others like Heinz Holtz http://www.steam-model.ch/

And on a smaller scale... Chris Schmuck (simply amazing - the details make it look like Chris is working two scales larger) http://hon30tinker.blogspot.com/

Optimizer Energer Energist

Friends and family ask what I do, and it takes a couple of sentences to describe products and services to help people save energy, reduce maintenance, move data, and improve governance. Lawyers and doctors and physicists and accountants and politicians and economists have it much easier. They can describe their professional services in a word. My thought is to make up a couple of professional classes.

If an "X"er/""X"ant/"X"ist/"X"ian is a professional expert in the "X" field who understands the science, technology, sociology and economics of "X". And offers professional services in "X"... then

1. Energist or Energer: Professional expert in the energy field. Understands the science, technology, sociology and economics of energy. Offers professional (often technical) energy consultation.

2. Optimizer: Professional expert in the optimization field. Understands the science, technology, sociology and economics of optimization. Offers professional (often technical) optimization consultation.

So I would style myself an Optimizer with a specialization in Energy and Metrology.

There are other parallels to such professionals too. It is considered "comic" (except amoung family and closest friends) to ask professionals specific service questions, without tacit realization you are engaging them in their profession (and the livelihood by which they feed their children). It is the age old funny story of meeting an orthopedic surgeon at a dinner party and asking about your backache.

It is considered declasse as a customer (but not as friend or family) to ask professionals to offer their service as an educational programme without paying a large multiple of the costs for the actual service itself. I mean if you, as a customer, ask a lawyer/doctor to teach you or your organization how to be a lawyer/doctor, he/she is well within their rights to ask for ten to twenty times their hourly rate to teach you how to do their job. I guess I am only bemused with individuals, but company-types should know better.

On the flip side of the equation, that is why some companies which have core law and finance needs have in-house lawyers and accountants, but they are paid well and have been trained in professional schools (which had a high initial cost) and are key to the company. The company realizes the value of having devoted personnel in such a core company function.Most companies are not there yet for energy and generalized optimization.

Human Spark with Alan Alda on PBS

Have been watching PBS's Human Spark with Alan Alda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Alda

Always like Alan Alda in science shows. But the science in this show is especially interesting.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/humanspark/

There are threads in the show that what makes us human is our imagination and our urge to understand the world around us. And we seek as humans to map the intentions of others, remember our past and map our future and be outside the limits of our self. In a way, this show is both about that and helps us to some extent do that.

It is especially exciting to learn something new when that new something is about how we learn something new, or the conditions around our interactions and innovations. That is precisely what this show proposes to touch.

Learned some great stuff about to what level we can read others intentions... "Mary is thinking that, Jim is thinking that Bob may be worried about his children." Doubly neat that the same areas of the brain that work on these problems of intent may be what allow us to imagine other times and places.

Snippet about mimicry was very enlightening.

The idea that we attribute intent, beyond merely social interactions, to everything sheds a powerful light on why we think about a universe driven by externalities. It almost sets one at ease to know, writ small, this is extremely useful, but also that, writ large, it may be a simple source of some of our deepest social problems.