I like the bigger screen, even as the device is correspondingly heavier than the 6-inch Kindle. Naturally, I suppose, having a Kindle has done nothing to correct my tendency to start reading too many books almost at the same time. I am currenttly reading a novel and three non-fiction books on the Kindle… I am incorrigible.
As of yesterday, I have a Kindle DX; my choice of (slightly early) birthday present. Yes, I gave up waiting for the new iPad, or a really good Android tablet, at least for e-reading. Today I bought and read a Kindle single, as they call them, from the newly launched series TEDbooks, which are short books, 5,000–30,000 word length, which in the case of TEDbooks are written by authors who have given TED talks.
My first reading was Homo Evolutis, by Juan Enriquez and Steve Gullans. At the price of $2.99 it was an easy impulse purchase. I read it in about an hour and a half, not so much because it is short, which it is, but because it is written in a very jumpy style that made me think I was reading the text dump from a computer slide presentation. The style made the book feel overly energetic, hectic even, but the authors do provide more than 100 endnotes with links to literature that supports their claims. They also promise a longer version, in hardback, and have a website at www.homoevolutis.com.
Let others discuss the elegance or not of the “home evolutis” neologism. The main impression I got was that of a couple of frantically hyperactive salesmen selling me, with considerable urgency, the idea that humans are still evolving. Many species of humans may coexist right now, they claim. It helps this claim that the definition of “species”, as the authors point out, is fluid and not universally agreed upon. We evolve, they claim, because of all the changes in our environment, such as the huge populations of bacteria we carry in our bodies, but also because of our own actions, botox injections included, as well as many human-improving (at least so intended) medical interventions. I am glad I read this booklet, since it had interesting tidbits and was entertaining. I am also glad that it taught me that I can avoid the time investment needed to read their hardback version, if and when it appears.
So that you don’t think I called the authors frantically hyperactive salesmen out of sheer jealousy for their engaging writing ability, I finally note that they co-founded Excel Venture Management and are clearly in the hunt for untold riches. Gullans has a more academic pedigree, with a Ph.D., and served as a professor of Harvard Medical School for 18 years, so there is this bit of information to suggest that Homo Evolutis, the breathless tract, actually does convey some scientifically sound ideas.
Let’s spend a quite moment remembering the fabulous Australian soprano Joan Sutherland, who just died. Hat tip to Joyce DiDonato on Twitter (@JoyceDiDonato) who brought this to my attention and also posted this link to a fantastic performance by Dame Joan of Sempre Libera. Oh wait, that’s not a “quiet” moment, but it certainly is appropriate.
UPDATE: and here is a link to the same aria as performed in 1965. The tenor in the background is one Luciano Pavarotti.
Sebastian Thrun, Distinguished Software Engineer at Google, has a fascinating post on the Official Google Blog today. An excerpt:
What we’re driving at
10/09/2010 12:00:00 PM
Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology. And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.
So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research.
I want a car like this yesterday. Even more, I want every one else on the road to have a car like this the day before yesterday. Most people drive in ways that prove they do not deserve the privilege of controlling their own cars.
“The world is always ready to be amazed, but the self, that lynx-eyed monitor, sees all the subterfuges, all the cut corners, and is not deceived.” (page 151) Boy, does that capture how I felt when my book was published. Not that the world was amazed by it, mind you.
The hotel has both Ethernet and Wifi connections, but they cost $13 a day. So we are finally making some use of our Sprint mobile hotspot card. It gets only a 3G connection here, but the speed is passable for light internet use.
Yesterday was a long travel day. US Airways had a plane that could not come to Philadelphia from Florida due to weather; it would have been the one for us. They decided to assign another plane to our flight and this delayed departure. When we finally pushed off from the gate at about 6 pm EDT (the scheduled time was 3:45 pm EDT), we had to wait our turn for the runway, so we finally were airborne at 6:30 EDT. We did manage to land in San Diego at 9PDT. By the time we were at the hotel, we were pretty exhausted so I took one photo (to be posted here later) and then hit the pillow.
The day looks very promising today, weather wise. After a hearty breakfast, we are ready for some sightseeing, once M is back from the convention center, where she is registering for her conference.
OK, so I occasionally play around with the blog’s appearance. I just discovered this rather spectacular theme by visiting Amanda French’s website for a graduate course called Creating Digital History. I am gearing up mentally for some more frequent updates here, especially from our upcoming trip to San Diego/La Jolla (tomorrow to August 19). Yes, I know, I’ve promised frequent updates before. 🙂
There is a major solar storm that sent a plume Earth’s way. It will probably disrupt our electronics some time today.
It used to be that the ScribeFire extension was available only on Firefox. Well, here it is on Chrome. Hurray! (Conditional on this post appearing correctly, of course.)