Monthly Archives: September 2011

What I said about entropy yesterday is interesting (at least to me) but not really mind-bending.  Today’s continuation has stranger things, largely based on a couple of books by noted physicists, The Fabric of the Universe by Brian Greene and … Continue reading →

I remember reading once, in a dreary reference called something like The Harvard Guide to American Literature, that Thomas Pynchon’s work was sometimes inspired by Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics. This is about as plausible as Benjamin Franklin’s key role … Continue reading →

In 1723 in the French colony of Saint Domingue (now Haiti), citizens were outraged by exclusive trade privileges granted to the Company of the Indies. A crowd of a hundred women attacked the company’s local headquarters, the Maison d’Afrique. Having … Continue reading →

In trying to pin down the fascination of George R.R. Martin’s quasi-medieval fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire , I am reminded of a story I read maybe 30 years ago in an interview with John Irving. When Irving … Continue reading →