Interesting exercise: list the top 10 books which have influenced your view of the world.. I’m not sure I have a view of the world, and it is difficult for me to think of individual books that have been that influential. In no particular order:

1. Bertrand Russell, The History of Western Philosophy.
2. Anthony Zee, Fearful Symmetry.
3. Tim Hartford, The Undercover Economist.
4. Allen Ginsburg, Collected Poems.
5. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States.
6. Richard Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype.
7. Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation.

That’s all I can think of at the moment. But An Empire Wilderness may be joining the list, as it affects how I think about the American landscape, and the organization of cities, in particular.

A thumb, middle finger, and tooth removed from the corpse of Galileo Galilei, lost for a century, have been recovered. The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze are planning to put the relics on display next year.

I think the middle finger should be installed facing the Vatican.

Just experienced my first earthquake. All I can think was: you have to be shitting me. I don’t have earthquake insurance.

News from Cosmic Variance: John Archibald Wheeler passed away this morning.

To me, Wheeler was the greatest surviving name from the epic era of early 20th century physics.

There is no mention yet on any news site–including slashdot. Instead are headlines about the democratic candidates in a ‘Faith Forum.’ No time to note the passing of the father of the H-bomb, the author of a classic book on general relativity, the most profound and beautiful creation of mankind (seriously–quantum theories have greater practical impact, but nothing else achieves so much with such simple premises). No, we have to hear about our presidential candidate’s relationship with a magic man in the sky. Please kill me.

I hope this lack of attention is remedied tomorrow. As the post on Cosmic Variance was from a former student and personal relation, I’m guessing a formal public announcement hasn’t been made yet. He was a great scientist himself, but his legacy as a teacher is almost unparalleled. It would be impossible to measure the net influence his life had on the world, accounting for the knowledge and contagious passion instilled in this students. Alas, I was not one of them. Things would probably be very different…

wow, those were some bad picks in the east. Shows how much i pay attention to that conference. Tampa Bay? Carolina? TORONTO ? Ouch. I had Montreal missing the playoffs and they get the #1 seed. FAIL.

The west was better. I figured four northwest teams couldn’t possibly make it, especially with the division-heavy schedule, so I picked Calgary to miss (not being a Mike Keenan fan). Perhaps Vancouver was not the best pick for division winner, but with Luongo in net and the twins up front, I figure they were as good a pick as any. St. Louis was my dark-horse pick. They started strong, but it didn’t pan out. Still, things are looking better under the arch.

Let’s see if I can make up for that with a playoff pick’em:

Round1:
Habs-Bruins: Habs in 5
Pens-Sens: Pens in 7
Caps-Flyers: Caps in 6
Rangers-Devils: Rangers in 6

Wings-Preds: Wings in 4
Sharks-Flames: Sharks in 6
Wild-Avalanche: Sigh, Wild in 6. Different story w/Clark & Svatos.
Ducks-Stars: Ducks in 7

Round 2:
Habs-Rangers: what the hell: Rangers in 6. Jagr gets hot & Lunqvist does the rest
Pens-Caps: AO vs. The Kid. Malkin is the difference. Pens in 5.

I see I picked all top seeds in the west. How boring. That will NEVER happen. Avs or stars have a decent shot at upsets, but…

Wings-Ducks: Ducks in 6.
Sharks-Wild: Sharks in 5.

Round 3:
Pens-Rangers: Pens in 6
Your All-Cally Conference Finals, Ducks-Sharks: Sharks in 7

Final:
Pens-Sharks: Sharks in 7. Stickin’ to it.

It was exalting to search and find, or create, the right word, that is, commensurate, concise, and strong; to dredge up events from my memory and describe them with the greatest rigor and least clutter. -Primo Levi, The Periodic Table p. 153

These are some cathedrals I can get behind.

NHL all star-break. I hardly noticed. Ten years ago, the all-star game was sort of fun. Now, everyone considers it a joke. This is what I would do:

1. Shorten the NHL season and ditch the all-star game completely. There are too many low intensity games. There’s nothing like playoff hockey. Especially playoff overtime hockey. We could do with 60 or even fewer regular season games.

2. After the NHL season, have a yearly international tournament. A round robin season for seeding, and a best-of-seven elimination tournament. Screw the all-star game, how about an all-star playoffs? Imagine Russia & Czech Republic going at each other for seven games.

A question on slashdot today asked: what would you do if you were POTUS?

I’m amazed that, among supposed nerds (i.e., smart people), so many (a) have no idea what the POTUS can/is supposed to do and (b) think that saying “I will fix X” is a plan of action for fixing X.

As an experiment, I’d like to

1) Ban political parties, i.e., any financial entity whose purpose is to get someone elected. This would probably be difficult, since they seem to always arise spontaneously. The only way to do it is to design an electoral system that makes them obsolete.

2) Eliminate the presidency. Divide the USA into a half dozen or so regions (northeast, mid-atlantic, etc), and have each set of states elect an executive representative to serve on the federal executive cabinet.

3) Put prerequisites on almost all political offices: only state governors or senators can run for the executive cabinet, only county EO’s can run for governor, only mayors can run for county EO, etc. Work your way up.

4) Mandatory political content on public airwaves. Take the money out of politics by giving candidates enough air time they don’t need to buy any.

Not to mention, our voting system of plurality is mathematically demonstrable to be the worst of all seriously considered voting systems. I would recommend approval voting: it’s not quite the best, but any further improvement in performance requires a lot more complexity.

Reading: Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell, written by a Navy SEAL, principally about a misadventure in Afghanistan. A real conservative Texas cowboy. The story of his early life sure confirms Lakoff’s “strict father” interpretation. Generally a good read, but with some things like this:

For me, it began in Iraq, the first murmurings from the liberal part of the U.S.A. that we were somehow in the wrong, brutal killers, bullying other countries; that we who put our lives on the line for our nation at the behest of our government should somehow be charged with murder for shooting at our enemy… It’s been an insidious progression, the criticisms of the U.S. Armed Forces from politicians and from the liberal media, which knows nothing of combat…

Disappointing, but enlightening. I read liberal bloggers & watch the Daily Show all the time, and never have I seen so much as an insinuation that a soldier should be charged with murder for doing their job. I can hardly pay attention to politics at all anymore because it’s become professional wrestling: choose a side, and have a shouting match. Mr. Luttrell clearly only knows what “liberals” say by what talking heads on “his” side tell him. For the record, there is not much politics in the book, although there is some strange praise of W, noting his equally studly SEAL bother calls him a “real man.” It’s sad a real Texan can’t see past the veneer, to the prissy Maine Yale boy who spent most of his adult life getting drunk, snorting coke, avoiding military service, fucking up everything he touched, and having daddy’s Saudi friends bail him out. Why? Because he’s on “his” team. I’d be a little miffed if my commander-in-chief couldn’t look me in the eye and say, really, why he sent me and my comrades into harm’s way.

I’ve got tickets to see Henry Rollins in a few months. I love his attitude on America’s military misadventures. He always displays proper awe for people in uniform, while being very, very pissed off about the greedy old cowards who are so cavalier with their lives.