Our next book (suggested by Vishy) is
The Five People You Meet In Heaven
by Mitch Albom
We'll meet again at
6PM on Tuesday, July 24.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Longitude Discussion
Thanks to those who came last night to discuss Longitude. I think we've all been a bit busy lately, but I'm happy that this group is still going forward. Finding the time to read a novel and having the chance to mull it over can be challenging, but I find it worthwhile. And especially so when there's people to discuss with each month.
Lisa did a lot of the leading of the discussion this time, since she originally suggested the book. We talked a bit about the writing style of Longitude- whether it was a biography or history. We noticed that even though the subtitle of the book suggests its about John Harrison, there's a feeling in reading it that you don't get that many personal details about Harrison-- it is somewhat detached and doesn't quite pull you into his life. We discussed the pros and cons of this style- how it allowed a broader story to be told, and in fact was an interesting contrast to Harrison's somewhat obsessive character. One of us even found it to be a technically useful book -- Vishy discovered that he was not the original inventor of the Gridiron Pendulum!
Lisa did a lot of the leading of the discussion this time, since she originally suggested the book. We talked a bit about the writing style of Longitude- whether it was a biography or history. We noticed that even though the subtitle of the book suggests its about John Harrison, there's a feeling in reading it that you don't get that many personal details about Harrison-- it is somewhat detached and doesn't quite pull you into his life. We discussed the pros and cons of this style- how it allowed a broader story to be told, and in fact was an interesting contrast to Harrison's somewhat obsessive character. One of us even found it to be a technically useful book -- Vishy discovered that he was not the original inventor of the Gridiron Pendulum!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
of future clockmaking
In the spirit of our current book of the month, I thought I'd throw out a link to The Long Now Foundation. For a literary introduction, here's what Michael Chabon has to say about it.
I actually saw some of these prototype clocks at the Fort Mason Center museum in San Francisco, a year or so ago.
Here's a question: is the idea to use mechanical guts for this clock of ten thousand years based mainly on nostalgia for the past? Are there technical reasons why a more "solid state" solution wouldn't work? Ok, we've been using atomic clocks as a time standard since 1967, but could one of them last for ten thousand years on its own, in a cave in Nevada? Beyond the question of technical feasibility, is there something more human, more understandable, to using mechanical gears, rather than the frequency of cesium electronic transition radiation for the basis of time keeping?
I actually saw some of these prototype clocks at the Fort Mason Center museum in San Francisco, a year or so ago.
Here's a question: is the idea to use mechanical guts for this clock of ten thousand years based mainly on nostalgia for the past? Are there technical reasons why a more "solid state" solution wouldn't work? Ok, we've been using atomic clocks as a time standard since 1967, but could one of them last for ten thousand years on its own, in a cave in Nevada? Beyond the question of technical feasibility, is there something more human, more understandable, to using mechanical gears, rather than the frequency of cesium electronic transition radiation for the basis of time keeping?
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