Behrooz Parhami

Behrooz Parhami's Blog & Books Page

Page last updated on 2026 June 04

This page was created in 2009 as an outgrowth of the section entitled "Books Read or Heard" in my personal page. The rapid expansion of the list of books warranted devoting a separate page to it. Given that the book introductions and reviews constituted a form of personal blog, I decided to title this page "Blog & Books," to also allow discussion of interesting topics unrelated to books from time to time. Lately, non-book items (such as political news, tech news, puzzles, oddities, trivia, humor, art, and music) have formed the vast majority of the entries.

Entries in each section appear in reverse chronological order.

Blog entries for 2026
Blog entries for 2025
Blog entries for 2024
Blog entries for 2023
Blog entries for 2022
Blog entries for 2021
Blog entries for 2020
Blog entries for 2019
Blog entries for 2018
Blog entries for 2017
Blog entries for 2016
Archived blogs for 2015
Archived blogs for 2014
Archived blogs for 2012-13
Archived blogs up to 2011

Blog Entries for 2026

2026/06/04 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Hack’s-law scaling of river deltas: A river’s branching tributary network follows a power-law scaling relationship in which the area of a drainage basin can be predicted by the length of its longest tributary channel. [Center] Throwback Thursday: Pre-revolution Tehran restaurant named “Marchelo Mast-o-Khiari” (play on the name of the then famous actor Marcello Mastroianni, “chelo” and “mast-o-khiar” being names of Persian foods). [Right] Talangor Group talk on girls' education in Iran (see the last item below)
(2) Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian author of Persepolis & fierce advocate of women’s rights, dead at 56: France’s Office of the President called her “a great artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable.” Cause of death has not been released, but her family stated that she “died of sadness,” a year after the passing of her husband and the love of her life, Swedish producer/actor/director Mattias Ripa.
(3) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Dr. Elahe Tabesh (aerospace specialist & independent technology consultant) spoke under the title “History and Challenges of Girls' Education in Iran: A Daunting but Unrelenting Path.” Before the main talk, yours truly made a short presentation on “The Role of Science and Engineering in California’s Future.” I will report on the latter presentation separately. There were ~100 attendees.
Dr. Tabesh took us on a tour of girls’ education, and education more generally, from the establishment of the Academy of Jundi Shapur (260 CE), where we have no information whether girls were also included, to modern Iran, telling a number of interesting personal stories in the process.
A recurring theme is that even when girls were included in instruction, they were taught only to read, not to write. Apparently, part of the reason was the thinking that girls learning to write might send love letters, thus perpetrating sinful thoughts & acts. The speaker and a couple of audience members related that they knew women in their own families who could read well, but were unable to write.
During the Sassanid Empire, women held positions of power and influence, which is indirect evidence that they were educated. After the Arab invasion (ca. 640 CE), girls' education encountered serious limitations, but it didn't completely go away. Girls in wealthy families would get private instruction on reading the Quran and, perhaps, on poetry & literature. Rabia Balkhi (also known as Rabia al-Quzdari or Rabia Khuzdari, and sometimes spelled in Persian as Rabe'eh Ghez-dari) is celebrated as the first known female poet to write in classical Persian. This 10th-century poet was tragically killed by her brother when some of her love letters were discovered.
During the Seljuq Dynasty, schools called "nezamieh" were established to teach about science & technology, but girls were not included in these schools. Up to the 19th century, girls' education occurred in private establishments and at home. Subject matters taught included history, arithmetic, literature, and medicine.
In the late 19th century, Naser al-din shah succeeded in establishing the Jordan girls' schools, with the provision that they would not accept Muslim girls. Girls' schools for Jews and Armenians also began to appear. Robabeh Mar'ashi, who had an influential husband, established a girls' school which was attended only by friends and acquaintances.
The first public girls' school was founded very early in the 20th century by Bibi Astarabadi. Two daughters of Bibi, Khadijeh & Mowlood, were among the school's teachers. Bibi is the first woman writer whose writings have been passed on to us. Her book Ma‘ayib al-Rijal (Vices of Men; 1894) is a sharp, satirical response to an anonymous, misogynistic text that demanded women's unquestioning subservience to men. Considered the first feminist manifesto of modern Iran, it famously advocated for equal rights and women's education.
Dr. Tabesh then listed a number of women, who in the 20th century helped found girls' schools. One of them, Tooba Azmoodeh, also established adult-education classes for older women. Finally, Dr. Tabesh talked about the founding of Tehran University and a group of 9 women who were admitted in the very first year. Today, Iranian women boast a 56% share of university students.
A Q&A session followed. The talk and the Q&A session are captured in the following 133-minute recording.
P.S.: In 2021, I presented at ASEE’s annual conference a comparative study of the status of women in STEM fields under the title “Women in Science and Engineering,” using the US and Iran as examples (I subtitled the paper “A Tale of Two Countries”). Readers of this report may find the just-mentioned paper of some interest.

2026/06/03 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: In this diagram with two congruent rectangles, show that the green and blue areas are equal$ Socrates Think Tank talk on insulin resistance (1) Images of the day: [Left] After rising sharply for a couple of years post-COVID, car prices are returning to the pre-2021 trend line (source: CNBC). [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram with two congruent rectangles, show that the green and blue areas are equal. [Right] Talk on insulin resistance (see the last item below).
(2) Iran’s successes in infrastructure projects: While the superlatives in this 14-minute propaganda piece are mostly true, the narrative leaves out many important details, such as rampant corruption due to shell companies used to circumvent sanctions, overbuilding of dams that has resulted in water shortages and environmental ruin in some areas, miserable safety record of the car industry, and over-budget projects.
(3) After cutting funding, Trump wants to put another nail in the coffin of US science: There’s a proposal to have peer-reviewed research projects undergo a final review by the Office of Management and Budget, thus allowing nonexpert political appointees to overrule expert judgement.
On this attempt for political control over science endeavors, a statement by American Association for the Advancement of Science reads, in part:
“This latest move is a brazen power grab by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to buck the will of Congress and the American people and will make future discoveries less likely. If this rule becomes final, Americans' hopes for future cures, national security and economic strength will rely on the scientific sensibilities of the nation's chief bureaucrat. Alzheimer's disease will not be cured by a budget analyst ..."
(4) AI version of the Manhattan Project: Japan is the first international partner in the US’s Genesis Mission, an AI-driven research initiative to accelerate scientific discovery and technological innovation. Aiming to gain an advantage in the technological supremacy race with China, Japan and the US each will contribute $500 million toward the Mission over the next five years. The project will combine AI, supercomputing, and vast scientific datasets to speed research across 26 fields, including semiconductors, critical minerals, quantum technology, nuclear fusion, and biotechnology.
(6) Tonight’s Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Hadi Harati (endocrinologist with Southern California Permanente Medical Group) talked about “Insulin Resistance: The Root Cause of Many Modern Chronic Illnesses.” There were ~150 attendees.
Dr. Harati’s talk focused on the importance of early diagnosis, understanding the development processes, and methods of reversing the resistance.
Accumulation of fat, which is a function of calorie inatake and carbohydrate consumption is an important factor. Fat accumulation may start under the skin and then spread to internal organs, leading to severe problems. Part of the reason is genetic, but as the saying goes, “Genes load the gun, lifestyle pulls the trigger.”
A primary long-term consequence of insulin-resistance is inflammation, which in turn leads to many ailments, because, among several properties, insulin is anti-inflamatory. Type-2 diabetes can be a direct consequence of insulin-resistance. In pre-diabetes (A1C between 5.6 and 6.5), blood insulin rises, so it provides a way of diagnosing insulin resistance. Also, Alzheimer is sometimes called type-3 diabetes, although there is some controversy surrounding this association.

2026/06/02 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
ACM A. M. Turing Award honorees featured on the cover of Communications of the ACM The bazaar in Rasht, Iran: Everything seems to be plentiful, but super-expensive On end-of-chapter quotes from my PhD dissertation (1) Images of the day: [Left] Charles H. Bennett & Gilles Brassard, honored by the prestigious ACM A. M. Turing Award (often called the "Nobel Prize of Computing") for their foundational contributions to quantum information, are featured on the cover of Communications of the ACM. [Center] The bazaar in Rasht, Iran: Everything seems to be plentiful, but super-expensive. [Right] On end-of-chapter quotes from The Machine Stops used ub my PhD dissertation (see the last item below).
(2) Breakthrough on an 80-year-old math problem: One of OpenAI’s reasoning models has made a significant advance on a planar unit distance problem posed by Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos in 1946. The AI discovered a family of geometric arrangements that disproves Erdos’s proposed limit on how many pairs of dots can be the same distance apart, though the broader problem remains unsolved. This important finding has been verified by mathematicians.
(3) My PhD dissertation and E. M. Forester’s The Machine Stops: In several technical talks, I have alluded to the role of E. M. Forester’s 1909 short story on the direction of my graduate studies and subsequent research program. One hundred and seventeen years ago, Forester foresaw the Internet, Zoom-like communication, and a self-repairing super-intelligent machine that controls the lives of human beings.
I have been looking for a PDF copy of my dissertation to share with those who have indicated interest in reading it. Alas, unlike many other universities that offer microfilm or PDF copies of dissertations, UCLA only has a hard copy, which I borrowed to compose this post. Following are chapter titles and quotes from Forester’s short story that I included at the end of each of the seven chapters. I will continue my efforts to produce and share a PDF copy of my dissertation.
Dissertation title: Design Techniques for Associative Memories and Processors
Committee: Algirdas Avizienis (Chair), Harold Borko, Bertram Bussell, Wesley W. Chu, Sze-Tsen Hu
Date submitted: March 1973
Dedication: To my father, mother, and my dear sisters, Behnaz, Mahnaz, and Farnaz
- Introduction
“I don’t think this is interesting you. The rest will interest you even less. There are no ideas in it, and I wish that I had not troubled you.”
- Speed and Cost Considerations in the Design of Associative Devices
“No one confessed the Machine was out of hand. Year by year it was served with increased efficiency and decreased intelligence … and in all the world there was not one who understood the monster as a whole.”
- A Rotating Associative Processor for Information Dissemination (RAPID)
“By her side, on the little reading-desk, was a survival from the ages of litter—one book. This was the book of the Machine.”
- Design of Fault-Tolerant Associative Devices: General Considerations
“Not until it was too late, did I realize what the stoppage of the escape implied. You see—the gap in the tunnel had been mended; the mending apparatus; the mending apparatus, was after me.”
- Design of Fault-Tolerant Associative Devices: Applicable Techniques
“But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward, and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair.”
- An Error-Tolerant and Reconfigurable Associative Processor with Self-Repair (SPARE)
“The Mending Apparatus has treated us so well in the past that we will sympathize with it, and will wait patiently for its recovery. In its own good time, it will resume its duties.”
- Conclusion
“Go on. Nothing that you say can distress me now. I am hardened.” “I had meant to tell you the rest, but I cannot; I know that I cannot; good-bye.”

2026/06/01 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] World Cup 2026 begins in 10 days, and I’m ready with my Team USA T-shirt. [Center] Pocket-pizzas using thick pita breads from Costco: The toppings are inside. [Right] A few more photos from the Parhami Family Reunion 2026. [Bottom right]
(2) Turmoil in CBS’s flagship news program “60 Minutes”: The country’s top-rated news program seems to be going through a slow death, with several regulars fired and others speaking up about the new management.
(3) Tech companies are redesigning the Internet for AI agents: AWS launched a new version of OpenSearch Serverless that instantly scales computing resources up or down for agentic workloads, allowing enterprises to handle bursts of AI activity without paying for idle infrastructure. Industry leaders including Cloudflare, Microsoft, Databricks, & Snowflake are making similar changes as machine-generated traffic rapidly increases.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Soccer World Cup: Iranian soccer players are practicing in Turkey, as they wait for their US visas. [NYT]
- The Paseo Nuevo shopping center celebrates Santa Barbara area’s 2026 graduates. [Photos]
- UCSB Pops Orchestra played at the University Center on campus Sunday evening. [Video]
- The story of Zzyzx, a town in California, and how it was built as part of a major scam. [Video]
(5) On Sunday afternoon, I chilled out at Santa Barbara Public Library’s Central Branch, with music provided by The Funky Neighbors. [Video 1] [Video 2] [Video 3]
(6) Women were not “given” the right to vote: They fought for the right. They organized for the right. They were jailed for pursuing the right. Words matter. So does avoidance of portraying patriarchy as generous.
(7) There is a third fluid-circulation system in the human body: We have known about the first two, the lymphatic system that removes excess fluids from tissues and the cardiovascular system, since the 1620s. Our knowledge of the third system, a network of interstitial spaces that form pathways between organs and allow fluids, cells, and molecules to move between them, is less than 5 years old.
In 2021, after examining the skin of people with tattoos, researchers saw in their biopsies that ink particles had traveled deeper into the body than they expected, through the skin into an interstitial space beneath it — and from that space into the fascia, the connective material below. It turns out that interstitial space doesn’t just exist between the skin and the fascia, but is distributed throughout the body. Scientists call this large interconnected network the interstitium.
Gaining additional knowledge about the interstitium will help us understand, among other things, how acupuncture works.
(8) Final thought for the day: Tramp is like a wrong-way driver who thinks everyone else is driving the wrong way. Everyone is over-rated, talent-less, and low-IQ.

2026/05/30 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Today was filled with music for me: Vinny Berry on State Street (1) Images of the day: Today's musical programs, on State Street & at UCSB (see the last 3 items below).
(2) The Shaw Prize in Computer Science: This newly-established award, founded by Hong Kong media mogul & philanthropist Run Run Shaw and carrying a $1.2 million stipend, honors remarkable endeavors that not only advance our field but also positively impact society. Shaw Prizes already exist in several other fields.
(3) Two-legged crocodile ancestors belong to an era when different species went through an experimental phase of evolution, developing similar features in their survival journey.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- After a stunning rise, Stephen Miller’s influence in the White House has been diminished.
- Leave it to Trump to turn the occasion of celebrating our country’s 250th birthday into a name-calling fest.
- Meta, Broadcom, and others to launch a $125 million semiconductor research hub at UCLA.
- NASA announces a competition for possibly replacing Caltech as Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s manager.
- The story of a top-level CIA official who fooled the agency for decades & stole millions. [12-minute video]
- Quotable: “Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers." ~ Voltaire
- [Cartoon caption] Cat to mouse pointing a loaded pistol at her: “Six rounds. Nine lives. You do the math.”
(5) If you have an interior office with walls all around and no windows, these artificial windows & skylights from China bring natural-looking light in. making a big difference in your mood.
(6) You have no doubt heard of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Are mosquitoes becoming resistant to repellents? Not really. Scientists believe DEET protects people by masking the carbon dioxide that we emit, making it harder for biting insects to detect us. However, if someone applies DEET and the concentration fades over time, but a mosquito still manages to feed, the insect may begin associating the smell of DEET with a reward.
(7) Today was a musical day for me: In the afternoon, I chanced upon the very talented Vinny Berry, performing on State Street in downtown, Santa Barbara. Look him up on YouTube if you find these samples interesting. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(8) Later in the afternoon, I listened to music performed by Chelsey Sanchez at Paseo Nuevo mall, as part of the “Sounds on State” program held every Saturday. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(9) In the evening, I attended an enjoyable concert by UCSB Middle East Ensemble at Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall on campus. Here are a couple of Armenian songs from the concert's first half. [Video 1] [Video 2] And here are a dance from the Syria/Lebanon region and a lively Greek song. [Video 3] [Video 4] I conclude with two segments from a 5-segment dance finale, featuring Persian music & a drum solo. [Video 5] [Video 6]

2026/05/29 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A public bathroom with broken mirrors A public bathrooms with no mirrors (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Public bathrooms, with and without mirrors (see the next item below). [Right] On international maritime laws for narrow waterways (see the last item below).
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: Our society can survive without bathroom mirrors, but seeing one over the sink had become an expectation. Why did the mirrors start disappearing?
In cell phones, each of us has a portable mirror, so perhaps the loss isn’t important. Fewer mirrors means fewer scratches, defacements, and other acts of vandalism, thus reducing cost. There are also safety concerns arising from broken mirrors. Stainless steel mirrors have been tried, but they are less functional.
Can we technologists get to work on replacements for mirrors that provide the functionality, without the drawbacks & hazards?
(3) The gigantic Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe has developed problems that may lead to its collapse: The dam suffers from an alkali-aggregate reaction, a natural chemical process that causes the concrete to expand over time. Additionally, water pouring from the spillway has eroded a massive plunge pool into the weak bedrock below the dam, threatening its structural integrity. Massive multi-national efforts to deal with these problems is seriously behind schedule. [24-minute video]
[Note: I have checked the story and it is accurate. However, the AI-generated video has the usual inaccuracies, such as placing the dam in Southwest Asia, not in Africa, in one segment.]
(4) Quotable: “In one study, 120 experts rated the American presidents on their narcissism. The top three — Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Andrew Jackson — all saw their legacies tarnished by corruption and disastrous decisions. Hubris led Jackson to defy the Supreme Court and forcibly remove Native Americans from their land, led Johnson to escalate the Vietnam War despite warnings from his undersecretary of state and led Nixon to the Watergate scandal.” ~ Adam Grant, in his NYT guest essay, “Why We Fall for Narcissistic Leaders, Starting in Grade School”
(5) Strait of Hormuz and international maritime conventions: Territorial waters of each country, where it has complete sovereignty, reaches 22.2 km (12 nautical miles) into the sea. At distances of 22.2 to 44.4 km, a state can exercise limited control related to customs, immigration, taxation, and sanitation. A limit of 370.4 km (200 nautical miles) defines a state’s “exclusive economic zone,” where it has special rights to explore, exploit, conserve, and manage natural resources (fishing, oil, gas) within and beneath the water. Beyond 370.4 km, we have “international waters” or “high seas,” which are open to all nations, subject to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
When a strait is narrower than 44.4 km, as is the case for Strait of Hormuz, territorial waters of countries on the two sides (Iran, Qatar) overlap. In this case, territorial waters of each country extend to the strait’s midpoint. For example, Strait of Hormuz is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, so territorial waters of Iran & Oman extend to 16.5 km on each side. Because this leaves nothing for open shipping and flyover rights for other countries, UNCLOS has provisions to guarantee “transit passage” for both civilian and military ships/planes. Bordering states cannot suspend, hamper, or otherwise impede transit passage for any reason.
This is how international shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz came to be. The strait, and the bulk of the Persian Gulf, are fairly shallow, making usable shipping lanes quite limited. This limitation puts ships at greater danger of being attacked by rogue actors. The shipping lanes through Strait or Hormuz are closer to Oman than to Iran. As done in the case of highways, separate shipping lanes that are ~2 miles wide are established for east-to-west and west-to-east travel.

2026/05/28 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Al Jazeera reported on a draft of the US-Iran peace framework
New Yorker cartoon: When they say Trump is playing 3D, 4D, or 5D chess, they really mean he plays tic-tac-toe and cheating in it (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: A digital reconstruction of Tagh-e Kasra, an important historical site in Iran-Shahr, the capital city of the Parthian and Sasanian Empires for 800+ years. The structure’s ruins are located about 35 km south of Baghdad, Iraq. [Top center] In the US, summer is effectively bracketed by Memorial Day in late May and Labor Day in early September: This year, for much of the US East Coast, summer isn’t here yet. [Top right] The Iran war seems to be winding down (see the next item below). [Bottom left] Cartoon: Trump's generator of status updates about the Iran war. [Bottom center] Cartoon: The US has completely defeated Iran, according to Trump, and the other way around, according to Iran. Neither side has a reputation for being truthful. [Bottom right] New Yorker cartoon: When they say Trump is playing 3D, 4D, or 5D chess, they really mean he plays tic-tac-toe and cheating in it.
(2) US-Iran talks: On Sunday, Al Jazeera reported on a draft of the US-Iran peace framework. The draft contained no agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and no concessions whatsoever from Iran on any of the key issues (reopening the Strait of Hormuz isn’t really a concession). Under heavy pressure from all political groups in the US, Trump reversed his statement that agreement was very close and ordered new strikes on Iran.
(3) Good news for science in California: The California Senate has voted 29-9 to pass bipartisan legislation to authorize a $12 billion bond for the November 2026 ballot to fund scientific and health research in the state.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- After 3 months of being cut off, Iranians are reconnected to the Internet: Connectivity is at 86%. [IranWire]
- Persian music: Iranshahr Orchestra, with Golda Zahra, at Royce Hall: “Iran-e Javan” (“Young Iran”)
- Iranian music: Azeri version of the “Ey Iran” anthem. [1-minute video]
- “Sailing on the Strait of Hormuz”: Persian Sufi music. [5-minute audio file]
- Breathtaking sights from China, set to music. [3-minute video]
- “Let It Go” from “Frozen,” performed by a 2-year-old star. [5-minute video]
(5) Yesterday’s World Music Series noon concert at the Music Bowl: UCSB Son Jarocho Ensemble performed music from Veracruz, Mexico, that blends Mexican, Spanish and African elements. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(6) Last night’s concert by Calidore String Quartet at Santa Barbara’s Lobero Theater: The nationally-acclaimed group performed selections from Haydn, Wynton Marsalis, and Erich Korngold in a UCSB-sponsored concert to celebrate the inauguration of our new Chancellor Dennis Assanis. [The group’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert]
(7) Storytelling and music, from the world of One Thousand and One Nights: “Alf Leila wa Leila,” performed by Ehsan Abdi Pour and Mina Daris. [90-minute video]
(8) Country music star Eric Church’s unusual graduation speech at North Carolina: Using his guitar, Church advises graduates to keep all their six strings in tune so as to play pleasant life chords.

2026/05/26 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
I Madonnari Festival: Italian street painting in Santa Barbara: Batch 1 of photos Cover image for 'The Future Is Peace' (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] The tradition of Italian street painting (I Madonnari Festival) continues in Santa Barbara during the Memorial Day weekend. [Right] The Future Is Peace (see the last item below).
(2) As Internet blackout in Iran surpasses 88 days, officials play good cop, bad cop: President Pezeshkian claims he has ordered that access be restored, as if denial of access was the work of some alien force. Iran’s judiciary has placed a hold on that order. [IranWire]
(3) Iran’s Islamic regime routinely uses ambulances to transport troops & security forces: Their claims of civilian targets being hit and civilian casualties cannot be trusted.
(4) UCSB’s Max Perko Sextet performed this evening at St. Michael’s University Church in Isla Vista: The program included two pieces, linked below, from the legendary jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who passed away yesterday at 95. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(5) Book review: Abu Sarah, Aziz and Maoz Inon, The Future Is Peace: A Shared Journey Across the Holy Land, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Magen Inon, Random House Audio, 2026.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
A couple of individuals who consider themselves peacemakers, Aziz Abu Sarah (a Palestinian) and Maoz Inon (an Israeli), have written this book as two human beings who have lost family members in the prolonged conflict and who share a love for their ancestral land. Both authors have known the bitterness of righteous anger, yet they chose to transcend the anger and view themselves as brothers with many common interests.
Abu Sarah & Inon take the readers on a weeklong journey across the sacred and bloodstained land known as Israel/Palestine, in the hopes of showing that compassion and unity can pull humanity back from the precipice of blind anger. Their hopeful, honest, and unapologetic narrative sends the message that people have the power to make changes and that peace is not only possible, but inevitable: For Israelis, for Palestinians, and for the world that will be inspired by their example.
The book’s 8 chapters, sandwiched between an introduction and an epilogue, are organized in a diary format.
- Day 1: Origins and Aftermath
- Day 2: Crossroads of Culture and Conquest
- Day 3: The Green Line
- Day 4: The City of Peace
- Days 5 & 6: Occupation and Separation
- Day 7: A City on the Edge of Hope
- Day 8: Blessed Are the Peacemakers
In each chapter, the two authors write about their experiences and viewpoints on the subject matter separately. I admire the authors’ dedication to bridging the trust divide between Israelis and Palestinians, but in reading the book, I was at times bothered by their recitation of worn-out talking points, a few of which are of questionable validity. I just mention this, without further dwelling on it, because the message of peace is infinitely more important.
Key themes of the book include friendship & resistance (to the endless cycle of violence), the power of dialogue, and a focus on the future, rather than obsessing over the insurmountable obstacles of the past. If the book’s message gets through and this toughest knot in international relations is untied, the consequences for humanity will be enormous.

2026/05/25 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Soccer fever in the US: Costco has stocked up on Messi Lays potato chips Cover image of 'Memory Systems'
Parhami Family Reunion 2026: Group photo My own small family reunion with the three kids: Having lunch at Rusty’s Pizza
A pedestrian-friendly downtown Santa Barbara now features free electric shuttles (1) Images of the day: [Top left] On this Memorial Day, we honor those who risk their lives for the cause of freedom: Alas, these brave souls are sometimes sent to fight unjust wars by corrupt or self-absorbed leaders. The dishonor of such wars falls on the leaders, not on the selfless soldiers. [Top center] Soccer fever in the US: Less than 3 weeks before the World Cup tournament kicks off on June 11, Costco has stocked up on Messi Lays potato chips. [Top right] Memory Systems (see the last item below). [Middle] We held a family reunion yesterday (see the next item below). [Bottom left] My own small family reunion with the three kids: Having lunch at Rusty’s Pizza near the downtown Santa Barbara Amtrak Station on this gorgeous Memorial Day. [Bottom right] A pedestrian-friendly downtown Santa Barbara: Following changes to State Street to trade-off car lanes for bike/scooter lanes, extra pedestrian areas, and room for outdoors restaurant seating, the city has just added free golfcart-like electric shuttles.
(2) Parhami Family Reunion 2026: This event, 9th in a series, was meant to restart a tradition of annual family reunions that were held from 2011 to 2018. The 2026 gaterhing took place in Long Beach, California, given that the bulk of the family resides in SoCal. The ~100 guests also included family members from Illinois and NorCal. The host provided dinner and drinks, with the guest brining appetizers and desserts. These images, taken from a 17-minute slide show prepared by one of my cousins, who also hosted the gathering, depict the reunion announcement poster, First-generation Parhamis & their parents (my grandparents), and the seven family members (including my mom) who have left us since the last family reunion in 2018. The slide show also included new addition to the family by birth or by marriage. These photos, courtesy of Facebook memories, place group shots from the 2014 and 2026 family reunions next to each other.
(3) Quotable: “There is separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it.” ~ Albert Einstein, in his 1946 address at Lincoln University, a historically black institution
(4) Book review: Jacob, Bruce, Spencer W. Ng, and David T. Wang, Memory Systems: Cache, DRAM, Disk, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008.[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
At 982 pages, this is the most-comprehensive book on memory systems I have seen. The 34-page list of references and the 28-page, 3-column index are testaments to the wide range of topics covered.
The book begins with a 54-page overview, followed by 31 chapters, organized in 4 parts.
Part I, Cache (6 chapters): Logical organization, content management, case studies.
Part II, DRAM (9 chapters): Details of signaling, timing, access protocols, controllers.
Part III, Disk (11 chapters): Physical & data layers, interfaces, performance, case studies.
Part IV, Cross-Cutting Issues (5 chapters): Physical & data layers, interfaces, performance.
Given that the book’s contents were compiled some two decades ago, it does not include discussions of flash memory or solid-state secondary storage. A 2026 book by Yu Hua, Big Memory Systems, which I have not yet examined, fills the recency void and has a focus on scaling issues, which are important considerations in the age of big data and AI.

2026/05/23 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
MBS, Trump, Netanyahu: Prospects of peace with Iran (1) Images of the day: [Left] MBS, Trump, Netanyahu, and the prospects of peace with Iran (see the next item below). [Center] Hypothesis about T-rex's tiny arms (see item 3 below). [Right] World’s most-educated population (among adults 25-64): Canada tops the list. The US is in 8th place.
(2) Why a peace deal between the United States & Iran is nearly impossible: Neither Israel nor Saudi Arabia favors a deal that leads to the survival of Iran’s regime. The US peace negotiators are real estate developers Steve Witkoff (who is heavily supported by Israeli investors) and Jared Kushner (whose business was saved from bankruptcy by Saudi investments). QED.
(3) Use it or lose it: This is a widely-accepted principle of evolution, meaning that anatomical features that are not used tend to disappear over time. Meat-eating dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, evolved tiny arms because their skulls and bone-crushing jaws became their primary weapons, which led to their somewhat redundant arms shrinking over millions of years to save metabolic energy and to maintain balance.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US lawmakers make tons of money by using insider info to time their stock trades. [14-minute video]
- Digital money, digital identity, and digital surveillance: The three pillars of total control. [28-minute video]
- Persian nostalgic music in modern arrangements. [51-minute audio file]
- Persian music: “Seven Ponds,” performed live at tha Van Gogh Exhibition. [9-minute video]
(5) Campaign to deport Dr. Behzad Houshmand (IRGC member, Khamenei’s personal physician) & his family from the US: These hatemongers and chanters of “Death to America” do not belong in our country.
(6) The double victimhood of women during war: Domestic violence, honor killings, child marriages, & other atrocities against women intensify during war. [60-minute panel discussion, Voice of America, in Persian]
(7) Meteoric rise: San Jose State University improves from 43rd to 2nd ranking (behind only MIT) in a national assessment of programming and software engineering skills. [EdSource]
(8) Archaeological find: A passage from Book 2 of Homer’s Iliad was discovered on a papyrus fragment inside an Egyptian tomb with a 2000-year-old mummy. The finding suggests that Roman-era Egyptians viewed the Greek literary text as a potential guide to a more comfortable afterlife. [NYT]
(9) The US government has been trying desperately to prevent the Mississippi River from changing its course: Changing course is very natural for rivers, as they try to find faster paths (steeper, shorter) to the sea or ocean. Mississippi has changed course multiple times in the past. However, if Mississippi redirects itself through the Atchafalaya River, it will bypass Baton Rouge and New Orleans, depriving those communities of shipping ports, a source of fresh water, and recreational opportunities. [2-minute video]

2026/05/22 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Marylin Monroe and Viguen in an AI-generated music video The world’s largest energy ship: The 300-meters-long Osman Khan can generate ~0.5 GW of electricity Photos of Jamal Khashoggi and MBS of Saudi Arabia (1) Images of the day: [Left] AI at work, making music and imagery: Marilyn & Viguen, Iran’s undisputed King of Pop, in jazzy bilingual renditions of some popular Persian songs (62-minute video, with some repetitions). P.S.: There are other combinations of this kind, such as Aref & Sophia, Haideh & Elvis, and Googoosh & Sinatra. [Center] World’s largest energy ship: The 300-meters-long Osman Khan can generate ~0.5 GW of electricity. Its dual-fuel engines connected to generators convert oil or natural gas to electric power. [Right] It’s nice to see the US caring about law & order in other countries. I am referring to indictments against Manuel Noriega, Nicolas Maduro, and, now, Raul Castro. I hope the same rigor is applied against other leaders and politicians, including MBS for murdering Jamal Kashoggi, and, even more importantly, to lawlessness in our own country.
(2) Seven little-known secrets of Iran: They include ancient burial rituals, haunted villages, cave art, plagues, underground cities, valleys/caves of spirits, and sinking land. [40-minute video]
(3) Tulsi Gabbard resigns as Director of National Intelligence: In her statement, Gabbard cites the standard excuse of wanting to spend more time with the family (in her case, a sick husband). But the true reason is that she had been sidelined and excluded from important national security decisions. [Washington Post]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- How Russia fuels its war machine by circumventing sanctions through middlemen & shell companies.
- Music under the arbor: Willard, keyboard (video 1; video 2); Sandy & Laurie, pop/rock (video 3; video 4).
- Architects gone wild: Ten extraordinary billion-dollar hotel projects in China. [23-minute video]
- Facebook memory from May 22, 21010: My Persian quatrain; initials of its half-verses spell a name.
(5) Fate of Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum uncertain: A bill to establish the Museum on the National Mall failed due to political disputes over transgender rights and Trump's influence.
(6) Triple-digit inflation in Iran: The annual rate of price hikes in Iran, which stood at 70% last year, has surpassed 100%, reaching 115% by some estimates, and even higher for many food items. Buying food in installments is now a common practice in the country.
(7) How Trump effectively pardoned himself and his family: Since much of DJT’s law-breaking is in the financial domain (taxes, misrepresentation, self-dealing), the ruling by the Justice Department against the IRS ever auditing him or his businesses will hamper any effort to pursue allegations of financial fraud against him.
(8) Fortunes in cookies: I used to share messages I got from fortune cookies but stopped the practice when I noticed that many of the messages are now flattering or congratulatory. Here’s an example: “You have a contagious exuberance for life.” In the old days, fortune-cookie messages were philosophical or motivational. Examples include “Do not pursue happiness, create it” and “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.” Like grade inflation in colleges, where it’s no longer unusual to have 60% of class students rewarded with “A” grades, fortune-cookie makers too are trying to stroke our increasingly fragile egos.

2026/05/21 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: These metallic piggy banks, offered by Iran’s National Bank in vibrant colors, were all the rage in the 1950s Iran. As kids, me & my oldest sister each had one, which were later transferred to our two younger sisters. [Center] Putin & Xi sign comprehensive agreemant (see the next item below). [Right] Tonight's Talangor Group talk on Ferdowsi & Shahnameh (see the last item below).
(2) How China & Russia betrayed Iran: The two countries had thousands of specialists and technicians in the country. Among other projects, Russians were in charge of operating and expanding the country's sole nuclear power plant in Bushehr. They were also active in advanced weapons & intelligence sectors. China was in charge of automation & infrastructure at Iranian ports and multiple railroad projects.
A vast majority of Russian & Chinese specialists in Iran were evacuated shortly after the start of the war on February 28, 2026, leaving critical systems understaffed. There have been other waves of evacuation, primarily via the border with Azerbaijan, and the remaining personnel are operating under emergency evacuation plans.
Meanwhile, China has moved to gradually replace the oil it imports from Iran with oil from Russia. Energy security is a priority for the Chinese government, as it should be for the world's second-largest economy. And Russia has found a willing customer for its sanctioned oil, at prices it could only dream about before the war.
(3) Artificial mathematician: Field Medalist Terence Tao (UCLA) has contributed to a project to test the skills of AI systems on a collection of more than 1000 problems, ranging from major conjectures to obscure factoids.
The questions, known as Erdos Problems, were accumulated by the late Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos [1913-1996] over his lifetime. Tao is most-impressed by the short AI-produced proof for Erdos Problem #1196, which had previously been the subject of intense study by several mathematicians, with no success.
In another interview, published by The Atlantic, Tao had opined that AI makes a perfect junior co-author that can generate and check tedious proofs. Tao may be in for a big surprise in a few years, when it will be no longer the case that humans produce big ideas and leave proofs to AI.
(4) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Ardavan Mofid, theater/film actor and Shahnameh researcher/reciter, spoke in Persian under the title “Ferdowsi, Guardian of National Awareness, and Shahnameh, Distillation of Iranians’ Heritage.” There were ~100 attendees.
Mr. Mofid, who comes from a family of artisans and creators, focused on a few stories from Shahnameh, and described the various themes that Ferdowsi skillfully incorporated in his mythological & historical tales. The themes include good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, loyalty vs. justice, the burden of leadership, generational conflict, fate & destiny, nationalism, cultural resilience, and the most-important of all, the primacy of knowledge.
Revisiting Shahnameh, perhaps the single most-important literary work in Persian, is quite necessary from time to time. Unfortunately, however, Mr. Mofid mixed in some unsupported political commentary in his talk. For example, he praised the late Shah for allowing some enlightened and progressive content on Iran’s arts scene and state TV, citing the example of the play “Shahr-e Ghesseh,” or “Story City,” by Bahman Mofid (the speaker’s brother), a super-popular play that portrays a cleric as a sly fox. The other side of this tale is the fact of the Shah himself propagating religious superstition and facilitating the construction of 55+ thousands of mosques during his 37-year reign.
At the end of the program, Ms. Sima Khodabaki recited a couple of passages from Shahnameh.
Recording of the event, including Q&A (x-minute video): Forthcoming

2026/05/20 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Walking along Cabrillo Blvd. Walking in Chase Palm Park Walking on lower State Street
IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk by Jim Buckwalter (1) Images of the day: [Top row] Photos taken during my walk in Santa Barbara on Sunday, May 17, 2026: Along Cabrillo Blvd. I shot the Cabrillo Pavilion, the Hilton Hotel, and the Rainbow Gate; In Chase Palm Park, I shot the beautiful carousel house, which is now used as a venue for weddings and other events, the antique 1916 carousel itself having been permanently relocated to a museum in Oregon; On lower State Street, I shot the Amtrak Station, Reagan Ranch Office, and MOXI Museum. [Bottom left] Mayor Mamdani's take on a Reagan quote (see the next item below). [Bottom center] Tonight's IEEE CCS technical talk (see the last item below). [Bottom right] An era is coming to an end tomorrow night. ‘The Late Show’ will be airing its last episode, and there are indications that other late-night shows may be forced to fold. The show is 33 years old. It was hosted by David Letterman for 22 years and by Stephen Colbert for the last 11 years.
(2) Zohran Mamdani: Standing here today this morning, I cannot help but think of the words of our 40th President Ronald Reagan. He famously said, "The nine most-terrifying words in the English language are 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" It's a good quote, but I disagree. I think nine more-terrifying words are 'I worked all day and can't feed my family.'
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Israel & the US planned to reinstate former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. [NYT story]
- US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas considers progressives anti-American.
- Elim Chan, a 39-year-old conductor, named the first female music director of San Francisco Symphony.
- Underdeveloped transit system: Nearly half of Americans live in areas with no public transportation.
- When President Obama celebrated B. B. King in the White House by singing “Sweet Home Chicago.”
- The Great Lakes: Significance (21% of world’s surface freshwater), history, & mysteries. [10-minute video]
(4) Tonight’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dr. Jim Buckwalter (Professor of ECE at UCSB & CTO at PseudolithIC, Inc.) spoke under the title “Pushing Devices, Bits, and Intelligence to the Antenna Array.” The talk covered Dr. Buckwalter’s research at UCSB and his R&D work at PseudolithIC, a company he founded in 2021.
AI capabilities are pushing more RF flexibility and better devices to the antenna interface with the physical world. Adaptive MIMO transmitter and receiver arrays will be core components in integrated communications and sensing for future wireless applications. Using large-scale transmit and receive arrays at 140 GHz, we have pushed CMOS circuit architectures that leverage digital modulation at the antenna array to support energy efficient radar and high-speed data communication. PseudolithIC’s development of heterogeneous integration for the high-frequency electronic markets can place compound semiconductors into antenna arrays for low-cost, high- performance circuits. The combination of digital techniques and more powerful RF devices promises autonomy in RF integrated circuits to react to the spectrum around the antenna.

2026/05/19 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The Green Belt theory: A geopolitical containment strategy On the future of Strait of Hormuz: Bypassing projects
First generation of Parhami family to be honored at the upcoming family reunion Remembering Parhami family members who have left us since the last family reunion in 2018 (1) Images of the day: [Top left] The Green Belt Theory (see the next item below). [Top center] Facebook memory from May 18, 2021: Women scientists recreated an iconic photo, replacing, in jest, the lone woman in it by a lone man. [Top right] The Strait of Hormuz could become irrelevant in short order (see item 3 below). [Bottom row] Commemorative slides for the upcoming Parhami Family Reunion: The 12 first-generation members & the family's patriarch, and those who have left us since the last reunion in 2018.
(2) The Green Belt Theory: This is the name of a geopolitical containment strategy that was developed during the Cold War era, championed by Zbigniew Brzezinski. It proposed Western support for Islamic movements in Muslim-majority countries on the southern periphery of the Soviet Union to create an "Islamic belt" as a barrier against Soviet Union’s southward expansion. The origins of the idea go back to the British Viceroy of India Lord George Curzon, who suggested it in the 1890s as a way of deterring Russia’s southward expansion that would threaten the British-ruled India.
(3) The Strait of Hormuz will become irrelevant within a few years: Arab countries on the south coast of the Persian Gulf all have projects to bypass the Strait through road/rail networks and pipelines. Construction projects have been put on fast track. Even Iran itself has accelerated loading of oil onto tankers from the Jasb port on the Gulf of Oman. With this trump card taken away from Iran, and with damage to the country’s infrastructure & finances, its future is bleak. [Map courtesy of ChatGPT]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Deal between Trump & IRS rewards his allies with compensation and also shields him from audits. [NYT]
- IRGC to Iran’s media: You have no right to criticize the national soccer team. [IranWire]
- China gravitates toward “practical PhDs,” granted for products rather than papers, to boost innovation.
- Christopher Nolan’s quest to film his upcoming film “Odyssey” entirely in IMAX format. [CBS News report]
- Don’t wait for children to go to prison to give them free meals; do it in schools.
- Almost all obstacles we encounter are imagined or highly exaggerated by our imagination. [1-minute video]
(5) Amnesty International: The Islamic Republic recorded at least 2159 executions in 2025, more than twice the number in 2024, marking the highest recorded number of executions globally.
(6) Royalist followers of Reza Pahlavi are at work again to smear a woman who dares to disagree with them: The misogynistic attitudes of this bunch are on par with those of the Islamic Republic officials. Replacing the mullahs with these thugs is like escaping from a ditch, only to fall into a well, as the Persian saying goes.
(7) Defense systems against drone swarms: Weapons based on high-power microwave energy bursts will remedy the asymmetry of having to shoot down a $10K drone with a $1M missile. [22-minute video]

2026/05/18 (Monday): Today, I offer reviews of 3 books on animal activism, digital art, and space travel. Cover image of Jenny Brown's 'The Lucky Ones'
Cover image of Christiane Paul's 'Digital Art' Cover image of Andy Weir's 'Project Hail Mary' (1) Book review: Brown, Jenny (with Gretchen Primack), The Lucky Ones: My Passionate Fight for Farm Animals, Avery, 2012. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Cancer-survivor-turned-animal-rights-activist Jenny Brown is the founder, along with her husband Doug, of Woodstock Farms Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that rescues farmed animals—such as cows, pigs, chickens, and goats—and provides them with lifelong care while educating the public, with the hope of ending animal agriculture. Brown was 10 years old when she lost a leg to bone cancer, enduring the ordeal with help from a cat named Boogie. Later, she made the connection between her feline friend and the farm animals she ate, most of which are raised on industrial farms.
Brown provides shocking statistics about the prevalence of animal abuse throughout America’s agribusinesses, using a refreshing mix of humor and unwavering honesty. She brings a new voice to the healthy-living movement and to the cause of vulnerable, voiceless creatures we abuse and slaughter.
Consuming meat & dairy is deeply engrained in our way of life, and rights activists are often written off as kooks and fanatics. Brown herself had never heard of vegetarianism until she got to college. In this book, Brown traces the events and realizations that led her to become first an ethical vegetarian, then a vegan, as her mind opened up.
(2) Book review: Paul, Christiane, Digital Art, Thames & Hudson, 2003.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In this richly-illustrated 224-page book, art curator Christiane Paul reviews the ways in which digital technologies have transformed art, both as tools for artists and as artistic media.
At the end of an introductory chapter, which is followed by three numbered chapters on “Digital Technologies as Tools,” “Digital Technologies as a Medium,” and “Themes in Digital Art,” we read: “Whether digital art will find a permanent home in museums and art institutions or exist in different contexts—supported and presented by a growing number of art-and-technology centers and research-and-development labs—remains to be seen …”
Given that the book was published more than two decades ago, the critical position of digital art in virtually all domains (graphics, sculpture, music, and filmmaking, to cite some examples) has been demonstrated beyond any doubt. Significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have been key contributors to changes in the digital art scene, In fact, today’s key question may be whether art that does not use digital assists or digital media will continue to be viable.
After the initial excitement over purely algorithmic art production, it now seems that a human-in-the-loop approach is critical for maintaining the authenticity and emotional resonance of works of art. I won’t rule out, however, the possibility that further advances in AI may allow us to add emotional complexity to algorithmic perfection, without direct human intervention.
(3) Book review: Weir, Andy, Project Hail Mary, Random House, 2021.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This sci-fi book, the basis for a 2026 motion picture (directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, screenplay by Drew Goddard, starring Ryan Gosling) is by the author of The Martian, which was also turned into a successful movie. What’s new here is that the book/film does not depict loneliness in space but a genuine connection between a human and an alien life form that looks completely different from what we are used to see in other sci-fi space tales. The author dedicates his book to John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
The story begins with the protagonist, Ryland Grace, stretched on a bed, being handled by a robotic arm and asked simple questions by a computer. As he gradually regains his senses, he starts wondering about his whereabouts and how he got into this lab-like environment. He doesn’t remember his name or what he did for a living. Eventually, he remembers enough physics and finds a measuring tape and a stopwatch, which he uses to determine that the force of gravity at his current location is 1.5 times that of Earth. “I’m not on Earth,” he says to himself.
Software-engineer-turned-sci-fi-writer Andy Weir concocts a tale in which Astrophage, a space-faring, single-celled organism that feeds on stellar energy, is dimming the Sun and other stars, with only one exception. So, an interstellar mission is sent to determine whether a fast-approaching ice age, with certain extinction within 30 years, can be avoided. At least one alien civilization is also investigating, which leads to an inter-species cooperation toward the shared goal.
A main theme of the story is a friendship between Grace and a rock-like alien engineer, which he nicknames “Rocky.” Though quite different from Grace (it has an octopus-like appearance with 5 arms, no vision, and communicating via sounds & musical notes), Rocky helps with the discovery that a nearby planet is home to Taumoeba, an organism that preys on Astrophage. The scientist-engineer team then uses selective breeding to produce Taumoeba that can survive on both Venus and Rocky’s environs. The ending, which entails the saving of the universe from doomsday, offers several twists & turns leading to an unexpected final outcome for Grace.

2026/05/17 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
FPGA: The chip that made hardware modifiable (1) Images of the day: [Left] “Silenced No More”: A report documenting the atrocities of October 7, 2023, and against hostages in captivity, based on 430 witness & survivor interviews, 1800 hours of recorded evidence, and 10,000+ clips, videos & filmed evidence segments, often recorded/released by the attackers themselves. [Center] Polymath Omar Khayyam was the first person to solve cubic equations (see the next item below). [Right] The chip that made hardware modifiable: Field-programmable gate array becomes an IEEE Milestone. Debuted in 1985, the XC2064 FPGA contained an 8-by-8 grid of configurable logic blocks. Modern FPGAs contain significant storage, computational, and I/O resources, plus up to one million configurable logic blocks.
(2) A fascinating account of how Persian polymath Omar Khayyam [1048-1131], described by some as a magician of numbers & words, solved cubic equations for the first time: He used a geometric approach, which required dealing only with positive quantities (negative numbers were not yet known outside India & China) to find positive real roots, forcing the consideration of 13 different forms of a cubic equation without negative coefficients. Khayyam’s work laid down the principles of analytic geometry, which was introduced in full form nearly 6 centuries later by Rene Descartes & Pierre de Fermat. [Dr. Amir Asghari’s arXiv paper]
(3) Writing the Trump years into history: A historian reflects on the challenges of writing about US history & revising history textbooks in the age of Trump.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump’s change of heart on China: His statements, then and now. [2-minute video]
- Iran is happy with Trump’s China trip: Sanctions on Chinese companies trading with Iran may be lifted.
- Interview with Christopher Nolan, director of “Oppenheimer,” “Interstellar,” & “Odyssey.” [CBS News report]
- World’s first dentist was a Neanderthal: The earliest known dental procedure dates back 59,000 years.
- The oldest, continuously-inhabited city in the world: Byblos, Lebanon, has 7000 years of history.
- How US microchips find their way into Russian weapons systems, despite bans and sanctions.
(5) Towns, like people, are born, prosper, and die: Amboy, California, is a historic Route 66 town in the Mojave Desert, established in 1883 as the first in a series of alphabetical railroad stations where steam engines stopped for water. It grew from a mining camp into a bustling 1920s-1950s boom town, famous for Roy's Motel & Cafe (1938). After being bypassed by I-40 in 1973, it became a, now partially restored, famous "living" ghost town and oasis. [10-minute video]
(6) On the baseless claim that Iran didn’t start the war and is a victim of aggression by Israel and the US: Iran’s Islamists have wanted to wipe Israel off the map, not only since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 but beginning in June 1963, when Khomeini began delivering fiery speeches in which he identified Israel as Iran’s and Islam’s enemy and as an “illegitimate Zionist entity.” These verbal assaults were followed by financially supporting and arming terrorist groups in countries bordering Israel. After the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, Iran’s Supreme Leader commended the offensive and hailed the formation of a unified front throughout the region to fight Israel. Islamic Iran’s entire military strategy is based on extensive covert programs to develop weaponry that would allow IRGC to reach Israel. I still remember the chants of “The path to Jerusalem goes through Karbala,” used by Islamists during the 1980s war with Iraq.

2026/05/16 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Science magazine's cover feature on arapaima fish (see the next item below). [Center] Trump’s spiritual adviser dedicates a golden statue to him: He must not have read the Old Testament. [Right] Science magazine's cover feature on instant heat production (see item 3 below).
(2) Big fish: Described as a cross between an armored tank and an enormous guppy, the arapaima, or pirarucú as it’s often known in the Amazon, can grow up to 3 meters in length and reach 200 kilograms, making it the world’s biggest freshwater fish with scales (some sturgeon and catfish, which are scaleless, are larger). A team effort to save the giant fish is rare, in that it pairs economic development with environmental protection in one of the financially poorest and ecologically richest corners of our planet.
(3) Instant heat: Most fuels produce heat through combustion reactions that are hard to reverse. Photo-switches offer the opportunity to store light energy from the sun and then release heat in a sustainable cycle; however, they tend to release comparatively little heat. Under ultraviolet radiation, a pyrimidone compound isomerizes to form a highly strained bond between a nitrogen and the diametrically opposite carbon. Upon treatment with acid, that bond breaks to release more than a megajoule per kilogram of the compound, enough to rapidly boil water from a solution.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- How a 12-year-old boy learned to disable the drones Russia has been using to hunt Ukrainian civilians.
- Of the 83+ medical professionals arrested in Iran for treating protesters, half are still detained. [IranWire]
- Seventy-seven days of Internet outage for 90 million Iranian, and still no sign of access returning.
- Tennis star Roger Federer gave this graduation speech in 2024, two years after “graduating” from Tennis.
- Cover of the Persian version of "Those Were the Days," with nostalgic scenes from pre-revolution Iran.
- Facebook memory from May 16, 2021: My submission to an essay contest on digital slavery. Alas, no prize!
- Facebook memory from May 16, 2014: My nerdy illustration of Hafez’s verse “The world has ups of downs.”
(5) Facebook memory from May 16, 2013: My response to a commenter claiming that we need not worry about climate change, because “for billions of years nature had the capability to balance itself against any harms, acts of god like the [asteroid] which eliminated [dinosaurs] is beyond us …”).
For many millions of years, there were way fewer than a billion people on earth and the most harm they could do to the environment was smoke from their fires as they cooked the animals they had hunted. Now we are at 7 billion and have cars, yachts, theme parks, houses with heating and air conditioning, not to mention fertilizers and cow dung. Earth's nature (and even human evolution) is ill-equipped for dealing with this level of change.
(6) The pace of executions in Iran has picked up: After the fall of the Islamic regime, legal scholars will have a field day going through judicial files, looking for stated legal reasons & physical evidence for arrests, imprisonments, and executions. I look forward to the trials of those involved in crimes against humanity.
(7) Trump always acts surprised when his words and orders lead to unfavorable reactions: Perhaps he should stand in front of a mirror when he lashes out at every person’s and every country’s statements/acts.

2026/05/15 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Digital colonialism (or the global war over digital resources) (1) Images of the day: [Left] On the Thucydides Trap (see the next item below). [Center] On digital colonialism (see the last item below). [Right] Morocco’s just-activated Noor Atlas Mega Complex, a 20-gigawatt solar installation across 45,000 hectares of Saharan plateau, is large enough to power an entire mid-sized country.
(2) The Guardian, explaining Xi Jinping’s comment that likely flew over Donald Trump’s head: “A staple of foreign policy commentary, including by Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, the Thucydides Trap refers to the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace an established one, the result is often war. ... Just as Athens once warred with Sparta, the implication is that China’s rise provokes anxiety and potential conflict with the US. Observers have noted that Xi has used the term for years, but deploying the classical reference during Trump’s visit may be have been a foreshadowing of his position on Taiwan."
(3) The US delegation to China (NYT annotated photo): Why are Eric & Lara Trump there? I guess Stephen Miller is looking for undocumented Chinese residents!
(4) Iran-linked terror plot foiled: A commander of an Iraqi militia with ties to Iran’s IRGC was arrested and charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the US, including a synagogue in New York. He was also linked to 20+ planned attacks in Europe and Canada as part of a broader revenge campaign for the war on Iran.
(5) Quote of the day: "You will never feel proud of your work if you find no joy within it; your best work is always joyful work." ~ singer/songwriter/musician Stevie Wonder
(6) MAGA-style tactics & hardball advisers have raised Reza Pahlavi’s profile and divided his potential followers: Canada has charged two Pahlavi followers with murdering a critic of the royalist movement.
(7) Digital colonialism (or the global war over digital resources): Throughout human history, wars have been waged over physical resources—water, arable land, minerals, spices, and so on. Colonialism was driven for the most part by access to physical and human resources. When colonies woke up and asserted ownership over their physical resources, or when extracting and removing those resources became too expensive, colonizers went away.
For a couple of decades now, we have been sparring over digital resources, and may have entered a full-scale war, courtesy of greedy Big-Tech players and, recently, a foolish threat from Donald Trump to retaliate with tariffs against countries that impose rules and taxes on US Big-Tech.
For many years, US companies have been extracting data from other countries to maximize their online ad revenues and to train lucrative AI models. Any reasonable analysis would conclude that a country's data, like its physical resources, belongs to it. Yet, by virtue of market dominance and deceptive practices, US Big-Tech has been removing other countries' data, without consent or compensation.
Like colonies in an earlier era, these digitally-exploited countries are waking up and demanding that their digital rights be respected. European countries have passed strict data-protection and privacy laws, which the US routinely ignores. In response to Trump's threats, Canada has reaffirmed its intent to demand a fair price for any digital resources taken by Big-Tech. [Image created by ChatGPT]

2026/05/14 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: A historic underpass in Santa Barbara (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday (see the next item below). [Center] Throwback Thursday: Strait of Hormuz in the news, 54 years ago (see item 3 below). [Right] In China, Trump pretends that he is very close to Xi, while Xi keeps his distance.
(2) A historic underpass in Santa Barbara: This State Street underpass at US 101, which I photographed during a walk on Saturday, May 11, 2026, was completed in 1991, three years after my family’s arrival in Santa Barbara. It was built to remove the last traffic light along the 605-mile highway. I remember being highly surprised when we got to that traffic light near the end of our drive from LAX to Goleta. Since its original construction, the pedestrian and bike paths have been widened at the expense of the roadway, which now has only one lane in each direction.
(3) Strait of Hormuz in the news, 54 years ago: Closures of the Strait of Hormuz is discussed as if it’s a new concept. In fact, the possibility was raised by the late Shah of Iran more than five decades ago. In an interview, published in early 1972, he warned against outside military intervention in the Persian Gulf. He emphasized that the Strait was Iran’s jugular vein and vital to its survival. At the time, the Shah positioned Iran as the "policeman of the Gulf," using the threat of closure to assert regional dominance and ensure that security was managed by local states rather than global superpowers. [New York Times reported on the interview on Monday, January 17, 1972, under the headline “Shah of Iran Warns Outsiders Against Gulf Military Positions.”]
(4) Regime preservation more important than Islamic red lines: At a nightly pro-regime rally in Iran, a young woman is seen raising a glass of alcohol as a toast to the new Supreme Leader and the country’s combatants. Authorities didn’t arrest, lash, and imprison the woman, as they have done for decades, but they featured her toast on national TV. Since that incident, several prominent clerics have raised objections to the removal of Islamic rad lines for political expediency.
(5) Old-time Iranian singer Parissa performs with Iranshahr Orchestra her iconic “Pir-e Farzaneh” (“Wise Old Man”), which is based on a Hafez poem. [6-minute video]
(6) Google stopped one of the first cyberattacks to use AI to identify and exploit a previously-unknown software vulnerability: Researchers warn AI capabilities may be outpacing cybersecurity defenses.
(7) Deep-Earth map points to a lost US continent: Sensor array traces how rocks conduct electricity, revealing mineral riches, crust that can amplify solar storms, and fragments of ancient landmasses. Along the eastern front of the Appalachian Mountains, buried just below the surface, lies a fragment of a lost continent. Running from Maine to Georgia, the 200-kilometer-thick slab of crust was probably created by volcanic eruptions during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent some 200 million years ago and later buried by silt from eroding mountains.

2026/05/13 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
From my long walk along State Street in downtown Santa Barbara: Bath 3 of photos
(1) Photos from my long walk in both directions along State Street in downtown Santa Barbara on Saturday, May 11, 2026 (from left to right & top to bottom): Iconic theaters; The Dolphins Fountain at the entrance to Stearns Wharf; A few businesses; A couple of towers & gates; Shopping centers & paseos; Santa Barbara Museum of Art & other architecturally-interesting buildings. I will post one more batch of photos tomorrow.
(2) US billionaires in China: The delegation for the ongoing state visit to China includes the US president and tech company executives, many of them billionaires. On the agenda are trade disputes and the Iran war.
(3) UCSB Department of Computer Science wins a sizable fraction of Academic Senate honors: Two for teaching, one for mentoring, and one for TAing. Congrats to the honorees!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Over the past 7 days, I managed to get back to my walking pace of nearly 10,000 steps per day.
- Looking forward to 10 consecutive sunny days with pleasant temperatures in my neck of the woods.
- Both UAE and Saudi Arabia are said to have conducted secret military attacks on Iran in the ongoing war.
- This Iranian mullah says that former President Rouhani and former FM Zarif deserve to be executed.
- Medley of 3 popular songs: “Besa Me Mucho,” “Quando Quando Quando,” “Quien Sera.” [5-minute video]
- Douglas Adams: “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I ended up where I needed to be.”
- The Mississippi River and its tributaries constitute a $50 trillion gift of nature to the US. [7-minute video]
- Today’s World Music Series noon concert: UCSB Music of India, directed by Scott Marcus, performed.
(5) Two UCSB jazz combos (subsets of UCSB Jazz Ensemble) performed at St. Michael’s University Church in Isla Vista. Two other combos had performed at the same venue last night. [Photos] [Video]
(6) Instructure pays ransom after Canvas breach: According to Inside Higher Ed, the company which owns the learning management system Canvas has paid a ransom to a gang of cybercriminals. The hackers, known as ShinyHunters, breached the system, affecting 275 million users at over 8800 institutions.
(7) Record-setting tsunami waves: The largest tsunami waves measuring 1720 feet were observed in Alaska in 1958. The second tallest (1578 feet) came last August, again in Alaska. [CNN story, with animation]
(8) Final thought for the day: Today was a musical day for me: First, my choral singing class performed at a senior-living community, then I attended a performance by UCSB Music of India, and, in the evening, I enjoyed music played by two UCSB Jazz combos. I posted above about the latter two events. [Photo]

2026/05/12 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Find the area of the square$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Find the area of the square. [Center] Sample art from the Obama Presidential Center. [Right] Cartoon of the day: The graduating class throws resumes into thin air.
(2) A new investigation of ads for paper mills puts numbers to the shady practice: Unscrupulous researchers can buy the first author slot on a manuscript they didn’t write for as little as $57—or as much as $5600. Ads for such services have proliferated over the past 5 years. [Science magazine, April 23, 2026]
(3) “Einstein: Beyond the Myth”: Cal Tech’s Diana Kormos-Buchwald (Director of the Einstein Papers Project for 25 years, overseeing the publication of 10 volumes of the ongoing work on The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein in both German & English editions) in conversation with Patt Morrison (longtime Los Angeles Times prize-winning columnist and author) about Einstein, the scientist & the man. [76-minute video]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A neutral mediator? Pakistan helped Iran by allowing aircraft to park on its airfields after ceasefire.
- Benjamin Netanyahu’s first in-depth interview since the start of Iran war. [14-minute CBS News report]
- Marco Rubio’s 7-minute statement in his testimony about Venezuela: To my own surprise, I’m impressed.
- I'm not surprised: The cost of repainting the National Mall reflecting pool is 7+ times what Trump said. [NYT]
- For some reason, Trump is being repeatedly tested to see if he knows the names of different animals.
- Facebook memory from May 12, 2024: Happy Women in Mathematics Day (birthday of Maryam Mirzakhani).
- Facebook memory from May 12, 2021: Happy International Nurses Day (birthday of Florence Nightingale).
(5) Marco Rubio’s insightful comments on Iran: There are no moderates in Iran; there are hardliners that understand that they have to run a country & economy and there are hardliners that are completely motivated by theology. Given the fact that they are using the Strait of Hormuz, which is an economic “nuclear weapon,” they won’t hesitate to use an actual atomic bomb to hold the whole region hostage. [5-minute video]
(6) Cautionary tale: Fidelity eliminated all traces of a woman’s accounts, erasing tens of thousands in savings. Customer service couldn’t help. What can you do when the system entrusted with your financial life fails?
(7) Semifinals of Eurovision competition, world’s most-watched cultural event, will start tomorrow: Israel is in the crosshairs for accusations that it ran an influence campaign to tip votes in its favor.
(8) In Islamic Iran, sports is just another tool of government’s control: Head of Iran’s Soccer Federation, with alleged ties to IRGC, has asked FIFA and World Cup host countries to issue visas to the Iranian delegation without asking questions about their former affiliation with IRGC. The wrestling boss has threatened to kick out protesters from the team. United World Wrestling is reviewing visa issues for Iranian participation in the Las Vegas 2027 world championships.

2026/05/11 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Grand Canyon origins: Science magazine cover story Cover image for Annie Ernaux' 'The Other Girl' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Grand Canyon origins (see the next item below). [Center] This cartoon is so spot-on; I've been doing this for recipes & heating instructions. [Right] The Other Girl (see the last item below).
(2) How Colorado River and Grand Canyon came to be: New evidence published in Science magazine (April 16, 2026) suggests that some 6.6 million years ago, Colorado River, which had not yet reached the sea, began to empty into a deep lake just upstream of the future Grand Canyon. Once these waters rose high enough, they could have overtopped a high plateau that blocked their westward progress. Like water breaching a dam, the event would have released a torrent that over time carved the canyon. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz6826
(3) Early hominids took to-go dinners: Animal bones at the 1.6-million-year-old fossil assemblage in Kenya are mostly limbs & heads, rather than full bodies, leading to the theory that ancient hominids were taking desired parts of the animal and transporting them to other locations for eating, perhaps due to competition from other predators.
(4) Ernaux, Annie (translated by Alison L. Strayer), The Other Girl, Seven Stories Press, 2025 (the original French edition published in 2011). [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Annie Erneaux, who was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory,” is considered by many to be France’s most-important living writer. Some 20 of her novels/memoirs have been translated into English.
In this book, Ernaux writes about the life and death of her sister, Ginette, who died of diphtheria at age six, two years before Ernaux was born. Over time, Ernaux discovers that she was a replacement child, who was born in part because her sister died. In Ernaux’s own words, “you had to die at six for me to come into the world and be saved.”
Written in an emotionally-charged diary/letter style addressed to the sister she never knew, the book explores her parents’ hidden grief, the feeling of replacing “the other girl,” and how that loss shaped her own life. At age ten, Ernaux overheard her mother telling a stranger that Ginette was “nicer” and better than Annie, shattering her image of herself as an only child.
Key themes of the book include the silence of parents surrounding grief, the comparison between the "good" dead girl and the "demon" living child, and the impact of being a replacement child. Ernaux attempts to reconstruct a life she did not witness and had no part in.
Let me end my review by quoting from the book’s final three paragraphs on page 86, where the author addresses her dead sister: “Perhaps I wanted to repay an imaginary debt by giving you, in turn, the existence your death gave me. Or to make you live and die again, so I could call it quits with you. … Obviously, this letter isn’t meant for you, and you won’t be reading it. … Yet a trace of magical thinking in me wants it to reach you, in some inconceivable, analogical way, just as one summer Sunday long ago … I leaned of your existence through a story that wasn’t meant for me.”

2026/05/10 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy Mothers' Day! New Yorker cartoon Cover image for David Robson's 'The Intelligence Trap' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Student to teacher: “I know where the apostrophe goes; I have two moms” (New Yorker cartoon; see the next item below). [Center] My daughter, then & now, courtesy of Facebook memories. [Right] David Robson's The Intelligence Trap (see the last item below).
(2) Happy Mothers' Day: Actually, even without two moms, the apostrophe belongs after ‘s’. A heartfelt thank-you to selfless women who provide a big chunk of the education for our future generations.
A special shout-out to Iranian moms who are being oppressed by their Islamist regime, even as they mourn the killing of their beloved children on the streets & in prisons.
(3) A Mothers’ Day compilation: Examples of motherly advice, shared by New Yorker readers.
- All people bring joy: some by coming, some by going!
- Eat less, taste more.
- Knock with your elbows. (Always carry gifts.)
- Better to wear out than rust out.
- Everything passes and everything fades away, except memories.
- Never pass out an opportunity to pee.
(4) Today, I’m filling out California’s super-long primary ballot: This is just the list of gubernatorial candidates (61 of them; image). One candidate dropped out because of allegations of sexual misconduct (Eric Swalwell). Another candidate is Barack D. Obama Shaw.
(5) Book review: Robson, David, The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Simon Slater, Recorded Books, 2019.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The message of this book can be summarized by the following remark of illusionist Harry Houdini, confiding to Arthur Conan Doyle: “As a rule, I have found that the greater brain a man has, and the better he is educated, the easier it has been to mystify him.”
No one is immune to making mistakes, after all, “To err is human,” but smart people may be even more susceptible to errors. As I wrote in my review of Theodore Dalrymple’s In Praise of Folly: The Blind Spots of Our Minds (Gibson Square, 2019; my review), there are numerous examples among theologians, philosophers, generals, judges, writers, astrophysicists, and others, that high achievers, praised for their accomplishments in one area, are more often than not naive and error-prone in matters that fall outside their areas of expertise. We might know this intuitively, but seeing a large number of examples is both reassuring and entertaining.

2026/05/09 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] The US Postal Service will release a set of 10 Barbie stamps this summer. [Center] Circus animals are followed by attendants who clean up their droppings: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Pope to clean up after Donald Trump and J. D. Vance, who had made ill-advised statements about the Catholic leader. [Right] The mullahs and soccer World Cup (see the last item below).
(2) Holes found in Donut Lab’s battery claims: A whistleblower alleges Finnish startup’s vaunted solid-state battery falls short of the claims of fast charging, high energy density, and extreme durability. Donut is a collaborator and investor in Nordic Nano, which deploys nanocarbon materials for clean-energy technologies. In a joint statement, both companies deny that Donut has committed any crime or misled investors. [Science magazine, April 23, 2026]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Ten weeks, and counting: Iran’s Internet blackout continues.
- A compilation of Persian words in Uyghur language: The region was called Sanjan (Xinjiang, in Chinese).
- An aerial tour of the city that doesn’t sleep: “New York, New York” [2-minute video]
- Fiddler crab takes a camera to an underground hideout. [1-minute video]
(4) Iranian regime’s World Cup headache: They would love to cancel Iran’s participation, if they could, but such an act is sure to cause serious, even bloody, unrests. They are beating at every door to manage negative outcomes. FM Araghchi tried to change Iran’s preliminary group so that their first three matches would be played in Mexico, not the US. This attempt was unsuccessful. The government has asked FIFA to outlaw the use of opposition flags at Iran’s matches, but this too has little chance of success. These Islamists have no notion of freedom and think that American stadiums are like Iran’s, where security forces control every aspect of participation by the fans (women are still banned from attending soccer matches).
Iran’s team will be attending with much hope, but the team is seriously underfunded and has not had a lot of practice in friendly international matches. Many sports officials in Iran are former IRGC commanders, a fact that may complicate the visa process (Canada already denied entry to an Iranian sports official who wanted to attend a FIFA meeting). Iran’s government would love to see visa denials, because it will give them an excuse to cancel participation.
Iran’s soccer team is lucky in a way. Israel does not have a good enough soccer team to qualify for the World Cup. Otherwise, a possible game against Israel would lead to serious headache for the regime. In other sports, Iranian athletes are forced to forfeit matches against Israeli opponents or they face serious disciplinary action.
Then there's the matter of broadcasting the matches to Iranian fans. Imagine waves of opposition flags and scantily-clad women in the background of every shot, and chants against regime leaders filling the stadiums. God forbid if one of the officials assigned to an Iran match is a woman! If Internet access, now in the third month of total blackout, isn’t restored by June, that would be a serious impediment to watching the games and following the national team's performance in Iran.
I am personally looking forward to the drama!

2026/05/08 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Bigger and bigger lies from Iran: Pezeshkian claims meeting with Khamenei The rise in AI-written text in scientific journals: Chart Unhealthy fixation with accolades in academia
My daughter, with a watermelon birthday 'cake' I made for her Today’s lunch was pomegranate soup, made with dried veggies & herbs from Sadaf ready-made mix I have grown quite a bit over the past four years! (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Bigger & bigger lies from Iran (see the next item below). [Top center] The sharp rise in AI-written text in scientific journals: Chart shows a marked increase since the release of ChatGPT in Nov. 2022 (source article). [Top right] Unhealthy fixations with accolades in academia (see item 3 below). [Bottom left] My daughter, with a watermelon birthday “cake” I made for her. [Bottom center] Today’s lunch was pomegranate soup, made with dried veggies & herbs from Sadaf ready-made mix. Your place was empty. [Bottom right] I have grown quite a bit over the past four years!
(2) News stories from Iran keep getting weirder: Sources from IRGC have disputed President Pezeshkian's claim that he had met with the new Supreme Leader for 2.5 hours. Reasons for the fabricated story are unknown, but one can guess that either Pezeshkian wants to buy himself some legitimacy (he had little power even before the war but has been completely sidelined since early March) or IRGC does not want to share access to Mojtaba Khamenei, which is one of the sources of their near-absolute power during wartime.
(3) How academia feeds unhealthy fixations with accolades: “I was ravenous for prestige, lunging at every award, every travel grant, and every fellowship as if they were life rafts … I wasn’t just building a career; I craved validation from a system that, much like my father, was never quite satisfied.” ~ Tomasz Glowacki, writing in Science magazine, April 30, 2026
(4) Cyberattack hits Canvas learning-management system used by thousands of schools: A cyberattack has left students unable to access material needed to prepare for final exams. Hacking group ShinyHunters claimed it had accessed data from ~9000 schools worldwide. Some schools have pushed back their final exams.
(5) The funniest ceasefire ever: Both Iran & the US claim the ceasefire is still in place, as they continue to shoot at each other, with Iran also targeting Persian Gulf countries. Both sides realize that if they acknowledge the ceasefire has been violated, they will have to restart the intense war; neither side has an appetite for that.
(6) Politization of sports: Iranian officials try to ban the use of opposition flags at World Cup matches. Previously, they had tried to change Iran’s group, so that the team’s preliminary matches would be played in Mexico, not the US.
(7) Space exploration: Combining many “keyhole” views (obtained by blocking much of the giant 6.5-meter mirror) allows James Webb Space Telescope to provide higher-resolution images of space.

2026/05/07 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Meme: Booming economy under Democratic presidents, after they clean up the mess left by their Republican predecessors Giant mural in Tehran suggests that the Strait of Hormuz has shut Trump’s mouth (1) Images of the day: [Left] A pattern is emerging in US politics: Booming economy under Democratic presidents, after they clean up the mess left by their Republican predecessors. [Center] Michelle Zauner book conversation at UCSB (see the last item below). [Right] Wartime propaganda in Tehran: Giant mural suggests that the Strait of Hormuz has shut Trump’s mouth.
(2) Just another Trump pants-on-fire lie: He said in a meeting with oil industry executives that China sells windmills to suckers in the rest of the world, while it does not use them domestically. This isn’t just a distortion of facts, but a multi-billion-dollar lie. China has installed 48% of world’s total wind-power capacity.
(3) I'm running out of time & space enumerating Trump's lies: The reason “Project Freedom” for escorting ships through Strait of Hormuz was abandoned after just one day is that Saudi Arabia objected to the fact that it was not informed ahead of time (just as it wasn’t informed at the beginning of the war) and closed its most-important airbase to US forces in protest. So, the project wasn’t scrapped at Pakistan's request, as Trump lied.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran’s President shares an account of his 2.5-hour “candid, intimate” meeting with the Supreme Leader.
- Average gas prices surpass $6 per gallon in CA; Lowest prices are ~$4 (TX & several adjacent states). [NYT]
- NATO & EU to erect a “drone wall” along Europe’s eastern border to stop incursions by Russian drones. [NYT]
- Media mogul Ted Turner, on his secret to success: “Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.”
- Visiting family members at Iran’s notorious Evin Prison are forced to undergo strip searches.
- The newest monk at a Seoul Buddhist temple is a robot: It’s an effort to promote the faith as modern. [NYT]
(5) The singing mice: Complex patterns of chirping in some mice appear to stem from a relatively subtle change in brain wiring—one that wasn’t even noticeable until the research team used a technique that maps the connections of individual neurons. Similar changes could have set our own species up for sophisticated speech.
(6) Tonight’s “UCSB Reads 2026” finale: The guest of honor at Campbell Hall was Michelle Zauner, author of Crying in H Mart (my 4-star review), the book chosen for community reading and discussion at UCSB. She was interviewed by Sameer Pandya (UCSB Asian American Studies Dept., and the author, most recently, of Our Beautiful Boys). In addition to being a best-selling author, Zauner is an accomplished and successful singer/songwriter/guitarist who leads the indie pop band Japanese Breakfast.
True to her form in the book, Zauner was thoughtful and quite funny in answering questions about her reasons for writing the book, effects of revealing so much of her grief & other feelings on her self-image & relationships, whether anyone she wrote about took offense at her portrayal, challenges of writing about difficult subjects, and connections between her writing & her music.

2026/05/06 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] The sorry state of media in Iran (see the next item below). [Center] "Star Wars" screening at UCSB (see item 3 below). [Right] Noon concert at UCSB’s Music Bowl: Today’s World Music Series program featured Jasmine Echo Chinese Ensemble, composed of UCSB students (3-minute video).
(2) Iran’s media in freefall: Censorship, seizures, and Internet blackout are taking a toll. “The few outlets still active online are largely filled with copy-pasted reports from military and security agencies or IRGC-affiliated platforms like Tasnim, Fars, and Nour News. With tighter wartime censorship, financial strain, and declining public trust, these narratives are now seen as unreliable and are increasingly ignored by the public.”
(3) May the 4th be with you: The Monday, May 4th screening at UCSB’s Pollock Theater of the original 1977 “Star Wars” movie (now designated “Episode IV: A New Hope,” due to three subsequently-released prequels) was very special. Some attendees came with costumes and light sabers. Ross Melnick (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) provided an introduction, filled with humor and nostalgia. Next year will be the iconic film’s 50th anniversary, during which a special edition will be released in theaters.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- CNN creator Ted Turner dead at 87: A transformative media figure, Turner innitiated the 24-hour news cycle.
- US FDA blocked the publication of research findings that COVID and Shingles vaccines were safe. [NYT]
- A Q&A on the status of women in Iran, in the wake of war & severe internal crackdown on dissent.
- Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, has the second largest tech ecosystem in the world.
- At 85, Ringo Starr is still drumming and writing songs: “Long Long Road”
- Fusion music: It sounds Persian/Arabic, but this 2-minute video comes with no description.
(5) Bait & switch: We were told that the WH ballroom will be built with private donations. Now, the Republicans have included $1 billion for the project in an immigration bill. [NYT]
(6) Iran’s comic military claim: An Iranian navy commander says that the Dena Destroyer, which was cut in half by a US submarine strike sank vertically, with dignity & pride. [1-minute video]
(7) Musings of a curious engineer (a new number representation format for AI): Artificial intelligence researchers have thought about new number representation formats that are compact, avoid superfluous precision, and require less energy than conventional floating-point, fixed-point, or logarithmic representations. There have been many proposals over the years.
Laslo Hunhold’s new proposal, Takum (name derived from an Icelandic phrase meaning “limited range”), is a tapered-precision machine number format designed for high-performance computing, offering improved dynamic range and symmetric precision over posits and IEEE 754. It uses an adaptive approach, typically guaranteeing a minimum of k – 12 fraction bits with a k-bit format. Takum comprises a sign bit (S), a direction bit (D), 3 regime bits (R), up to 7 characteristic/exponent bits (C), and mantissa bits (M). It is essentially a logarithmic number system designed for efficient hardware, with strong closure properties, meaning that results rarely overflow to infinity or underflow to zero.
The representation is developed with efficient hardware codecs, often resulting in significant improvements in lookup-table usage and latency on FPGAs, relative to standard posit implementations. Reference implementations include 8, 16, 32, and 64-bit variants. Due to its enhanced numerical robustness, Takum is intended to replace or enhance existing formats in ASIC AI implementations and scientific simulations.

2026/05/05 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
ChatGPT's created photo of me and my sisters ChatGPT's created image in response to the prompt 'trash collection in space,' followed by a few edit requests (1) My experimentation with ChatGPT's image-creation feature: The two photos with family members were created from two different photos each. The center image was created in response to the prompt “trash collection in space,” followed by edits to make it cartoonish & adding a MarBorg (our local trash collector) garbage truck. I did count the number of fingers on each hand and all is fine!
(2) Hostilities resume in the Strait of Hormuz: Iran fires on multiple military & commercial ships and also hits targets in UAE. The US sinks seven IRGC speedboats that attempted to interfere with “Project Freedom,” a just-announced initiative to provide US protection for free passage of ships through the waterway.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Quotable: “Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them.” ~ Margaret Mitchel, Gone with the Wind
- A beautifully-crafted, realistic scale-model of a beach town. [Video clip]
- A beautifully-crafted, realistic scale-model of a mountain town. [Video clip]
- Arabic-style rendition of the theme from “The Godfather.” [1-minute video]
- Snippets of a few of Michael Jackson songs performed on four guitars (with 40 fingers). [3-minute video]
(4) Musings of a curious engineer: Was Aristotle a brilliant scientist or a misguided philosopher? There are two viewpoints on this question.
One group criticizes Aristotle’s theories, such as his assertion that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, and admonish him for not conducting experiments. Another group claims that Aristotle’s theories were well within the scientific domain, given the state of knowledge in his time, and that the switchover from Aristotle’s physics to Newton’s physics was just a course correction on par with the change from Newton to Einstein, not a paradigm shift.
I learned about this dichotomy through a Carlo Rovelli essay, later published as part of a collection of 46 of his essays, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness (my review). Digging deeper after reading the essay, I was led to Rovelli’s 2014 paper on Aristotle’s physics, where he argues that Aristotle’s arguments were solid and evidence-based and that he is unjustly criticized.
Abstract of Rovelli's paper: I show that Aristotelian physics is a correct and non-intuitive approximation of Newtonian physics in the suitable domain (motion in fluids), in the same technical sense in which Newton theory is an approximation of Einstein’s theory. Aristotelian physics lasted long not because it became dogma, but because it is a very good empirically grounded theory. The observation suggests some general considerations on inter-theoretical relations.
I must point out that Rovelli’s views on Aristotle are controversial. Rovelli essentially endorses the Kuhnian view of Aristotle (named after Thomas Kuhn). There are those who believe that Newton’s worldview isn’t just a refinement (better approximation) of Aristotle’s model but a paradigm shift resulting from the centuries-long build-up of anomalies.
Kuhn argued that Aristotle’s concepts of motion and change were not just "bad Newton," but rather a different, holistic framework focusing on qualitative transformation (e.g., a seed becoming a tree) rather than just spatial displacement. Aristotle viewed motion broadly as change—the acquisition of new qualities—rather than solely the displacement of objects in time and space.

2026/05/04 (Monday): Today, I offer reviews of three books, one on literature and two on politics.
Cover image of Marcel Proust's 'Letters to His Neighbor' Cover image of Ray Madoff's 'The Second Estate' Cover image of Gene Sharp's 'From Dictatorship to Democracy' (1) Book review: Proust, Marcel (translated by Lydia Davis), Letters to His Neighbor, New Directions, 2017.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Written during the composition of In Search of Lost Time, the 26 letters in this collection chronicle Proust’s struggles with insomnia and severe noise-sensitivity. He describes being tormented by sounds like beating carpets, loud walking, and dental machinery emerging from the floor above him. Despite Proust’s severe irritation, his letters are quite polite and were often accompanied by lavish gifts—flowers, books, or, in one instance, pheasants—to bribe Mme Williams into silence.
Proust and his new upstairs neighbor shared a genuine, respectful connection, despite his complaints. She was a cultivated, somewhat high-strung woman, with whom he shared an unspoken feeling of sadness. Proust’s ability to transform personal torment into elegant literature is remarkable. Much great literature comes from major loss or heartbreak. Turning small nuisances into great work of art is a great accomplishment.
This fascinating book includes a meticulously-researched 19-page translator’s afterword that, among other interesting and helpful details, presents a floorplan of Proust’s apartment where he composed the letters in a dark, cork-lined room surrounded by perfumes and suffering. The book also contains a few photographs as well as images of the not-so-legible handwritten letters.
(2) Book review: Madoff, Ray D., The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by Katherine Fenton, U. Chicago Press, 2025.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Governance by the rich leads to laws that favor the rich. This book reveals how our government provided tools to the rich that allow them to accumulate more wealth. The 7000-page US tax code is the primary culprit that drives America’s obscene wealth & income inequality by allowing the rich to earn more and to keep more of what they earn. Ray Madoff, a professor at Boston College Law School, in unrelated to Bernie Madoff, the perpetrator of the largest Ponzi scheme in history.
The term “the Second Estate” refers to the second of three groups of people in pre-Revolution France (clergy, nobility, commoners), later evolving to include the press (Fourth Estate) and independent/social media (Fifth Estate). In some modern political contexts, particularly in the US, the First to Third Estates are reimagined as the three branches of government (executive, legislative, judicial). Madoff likens the top 0.01% of Americans (plutocrats) to the French nobility who were exempt from taxes, creating a separate privileged society.
This isn’t a story of offshore accounts or secret tax havens. The US tax code is right in front of our eyes, but the sheer complexity makes it all but impossible for mere mortals to understand the provisions that allow the wealthy to avoid paying taxes altogether or pay a much smaller percentage of their income compared with citizens in lower income brackets.
Some of the “tricks” used by the rich to pay much less than their fair share of taxes include avoiding traditional income, leveraging investments & debt, and exploiting rules designed to promote charitable giving. Our tax system taxes earned income heavily, while failing to tax methods used by the ultra-rich to acquire fortunes, such as borrowing against their assets. In this way, a code that was put in place to manage economic fairness has been restructured to increase inequality, thus allowing billionaires to pull away from everyone else, including the mere millionaires.
Madoff argues for reform, suggesting that the current system is a choice of policy, not an inevitability.
(3) Book review: Sharp, Gene, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, Green Print, 2012. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This fairly short book (96 pp.) is a treatise on the power of nonviolent action. It outlines the elements involved in successfully opposing military dictatorships by passive means, showing how nonviolent action grows from the fact that all governments depend on the cooperation, or at least the general compliance, of the people they govern and in particular on the loyalty of key institutions. Originally published in 1993, this 2012 paperback edition also considers historical evidence, insists on the importance of advance planning, and identifies key factors to be taken into account in devising sound strategies and tactics for various circumstances.
Gene Sharp [1928-2018] was an American political scientist who founded the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action. He was also professor of political science known for his influential writings on nonviolent struggle since the 1960s.
An appendix lists 198 possible actions for non-violent resistance and debate.
I am in possession of a PDF file of the book’s Persian translation, but the copy does not have any publisher, ISBN, or date listed, and the translator is identified as “Jadi,” likely a pseudonym.

2026/05/03 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
My daughter at Saturday's Isla Vista craft market Saturday night's Kronos Quartet concert at UCSB (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy World Press Freedom Day: There isn’t cause today for congratulating each other, but observing the occasion will serve to remind us that much needs to be done to restore press freedom. [Center] Saturday afternoon event at Isla Vista’s Anisq’Oyo Park: Cinco de Mayo celebration (3 days early) and craft market (4-minute video). [Right] Saturday night's Kronos Quartet concert (see the next item below).
(2) The world-famous Kronos Quartet performed at UCSB’s Campbell Hall last night: The 3+ hour concert, entitled "Three Bones" (referring to the three smallest bones in our bodies that allow us to hear the sounds of life and experience music), consisted of three parts, with two intermissions.
Part I, "Ground," featured Native-American music, with guest artist Laura Ortman (Apache violin).
Part II, "At the Sea Islands" (off SC coast, where descendants of African slaves live), with guest percussionist Quentin Baxter.
Part III, "Beyond the Golden Gate," consisted of the music of Chinese immigrants in SF, with guest artist Wu Man (pipa).
The multimedia presentation, with prerecorded sounds, images, and videos, included historical notes on the three parts of the concert, as three elements of America to celebrate in the country's 250th anniversary year.
- Persian music: Kronos Quartet, with Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat. [3-minute video]
- Azerbaijani music: Kronos Quartet, with Alim Qasimov Ensemble. [12-minute video]
(3) Due to his IRGC affiliation, the head of Iran’s Soccer Federation is refused entry into Canada for attending a FIFA meeting: This is an important development, because many of Iran’s sports officials come from IRGC. These ties may affect Iran’s participation in the upcoming Soccer World Cup & future Olympics games.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Average gas prices in California have just hit $6+ per gallon: In some areas, people are paying $8+.
- Silicon Valley’s origin story and the role of Stanford U. in its formation in the 1970s. [27-minute video]
- Visualizing the dynamics of Earth’s magnetic field, which deflects 1.5M tons of solar material per second.
- Israel is the only country in the world that expanded its forests & shrank its deserts over the last century.
(5) The gift of getting weirder with age: “As a child who did Mae West impressions, … Jancee Dunn was mortified when other kids labeled her a weirdo. But now, as she approaches her 60th birthday, Jancee is noticing that she is getting weirder by the day and she doesn’t mind it at all.” [From The New Yorker]
(6) Earth isn’t 70% water, as often stated: The correct statement is that 70% of Earth’s surface is covered with water. By mass, Earth’s water is just 0.023% of the total, with the rest being mostly rock. Imagine the Earth as an apple. All of Earth’s water and other parts that support life would be thinner than the apple’s skin.
(7) Final thought for the day: Iran’s Islamic regime, Israel, and the US are in a race to see who can kill more Iranians. The Islamic regime is winning so far.

2026/05/01 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy May Day! (1) Images of the day: [Left] May 1 is International Workers' Day (see the next item below). [Center] FBI photo published by NYT raises questions about the shooter at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: The suspect runs through security checkpoint, with raised gun aimed at officers. At least one officer is aiming a gun at the suspect. Yet, the suspect was not hit. [Right] On Iran's nuclear program (see the last item below).
(2) Happy May Day (text from my 2022 Facebook post): We white-collar workers seldom come in close contact with the so-called blue-collar workforce. We see them around and appreciate their indispensable contributions to our society, but we are prone to be unaware of their daily struggles, which are fundamentally the same as our own: Worrying about health, family budget, kids, elder parents, insurance, and old-age security. There is one fundamental difference, though: They have to face these issues with far fewer resources and often with less support. All of our conveniences, the house we live in, the infrastructure we use, the food we eat, and so on, would not exist without them. Happy International Workers’ Day to all hardworking citizens of the world! [P.S.: The US Labor Day is celebrated in September]
(3) Iranians dying over Internet access: Hesam Aladdin, a 40-year-old father of two, died after being brutally beaten by security forces over accusations of “owning Starlink satellite internet equipment.” [IranWire.com]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Oscar statuette goes missing for a while, after TSA doesn't allow the owner to take it on a flight.
- Hashemi Rafsanjani's history of the British humiliation in Afghanistan as a cautionary tale to the West.
- Believe it or not: The Pakistani national anthem is in Persian! [3-minute video]
- The physics behind photography and human vision on Earth & in space. [23-minute video]
(5) Facebook memory from May 1, 2017: I was surprised to learn about Parhami Traditional Family House in Shiraz, Iran. [No relation to my family, but I have come to know a couple of members from that family through Facebook. Hope they are safe in Iran's current situation.]
(6) Self-sustaining solar-powered bots are here: Twirlbot, is a tumbleweed-inspired robot made of six loops of elastic material that activate under light to move it forward, Twirlbot can move in all directions and it can withstand wind resistance & challenging terrains including gravel, sand, leaves, and soil. [Paper] [Video]
(7) Iran's claim of a peaceful nuclear program doesn't pass the smell test for two key reasons:
- Highly enriched uranium (60%) has no civilian application; it constitutes an intermediate step on the path to obtaining weapons-grade (90%) uranium. Iran's total investment in its nuclear program is orders-of-magnitude larger than any economic benefit of domestic production vs. buying from other countries, especially when indirect costs arising from economic sanctions and other international restrictions are factored in.
- The human and economic losses from two wars over the past year and the ongoing blockade of Iranian ports far exceed any benefit from a domestic uranium enrichment program. Iran's Islamic leaders are fooling themselves to think that tens of thousands of supporters who show up in pro-regime rallies will protect them from the fury of millions of Iranians who are suffering from high unemployment rate, crushing inflation, and total communications blackout.

2026/04/30 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
NFL better be careful photographing these two players together! Food prep night, Wednesday 4/29 (1) Images of the day: [Left] NFL better not photograph these two players together! [Center] Throwback Thursday: The first pedestrian-controlled traffic light was installed in Los Angeles in 1931. For a decade before that, Los Angeles built pedestrian tunnels near schools and succeeded in reducing traffic fatalities. At ~$10,000 per tunnel, however, the solution wasn’t scalable. Traffic engineer Ralph Dorsey came up with the idea of pedestrian buttons (Westways, the AAA magazine). [Right] Food prep night, Wednesday 4/29: Pasta sauce, turkey meat for tacos, Shirazi salad, veggie snacks, and beef-liver-and-onion sandwiches.
(2) Distinguished software engineer Bertrand Meyer argues that the endless discussion of what constitutes intelligence boils down to two different definitions of intelligence:
- “I am intelligent because I understand.”
- “I am intelligent because I can make predictions that turn out right.”
(3) In his address to a joint session of US Congress, King Charles III made some lighthearted jokes but also raised the serious point that executive power needs to be checked.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The crisis affecting Colorado River, Lake Mead, and Hoover Dam’s power generation. [12-minute video]
- Math puzzle: Solve for x: (x^(x^a)) = a
- Pianist Peter Bence’s rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” [3-minute video]
- A nice English rendition of the oldie Persian song “Maraa Beboos” (“Kiss Me My Love”). [5-minute video]
(5) The International Space Station is dying: Its replacement isn’t ready and the aging structure has become a safety risk for astronauts. To make things worse, there is a chance that Russia may not cooperate in ISS’s safe decommissioning. [21-minute video]
(6) “The Iran War: Gains, Losses, and Prospects”: This was the title of a 4/29 webinar, with participants Lieutenant General & former US National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster, Historian Abbas Milani, and former National Security Advisor Philip H. Gordon. [Recording of the event, 91-minute video]
(7) Spurious e-mail subscription lists: Lately, I have been receiving dozens of e-mails per week from sources that have put me on their subscription lists without my consent. In some cases, I can unsubscribe from the list, but even then, I do not appreciate the nuisance. Such companies & organizations should be black-listed.
(8) Musings of a curious engineer: What does the superscript –1 mean? It could mean one of several things, depending on the context. This is one the unfortunate choices in mathematical notation. The expression 3^–1 usually means 1/3, the multiplicative inverse of 3. On the other hand, sin^–1x does not mean 1/sin x but the inverse function of sin, sometimes denoted as arcsin. The confusing part is that log^–1x means the inverse function of log, that is, a value whose log is x, whereas log²x usually means (log x)², although it can also mean iterated log, viz., log log x.

2026/04/29 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The battle of hats: Melania vs. Camilla Iran's miscalculation in closing the Strait of Hormuz (1) Images of the day: [Left] The battle of hats. [Center] Spot the differences in the Prince/King, the Oval Office, and the US President. [Right] Miscalculation in closing the Strait of Hormuz (see the last item below).
(2) North America’s leadership in 2026.
- Canada: PhD in economics
- Mexico: PhD in energy engineering
- USA: Twice-impeached conman/felon
(3) MIT researchers create the world’s largest dataset of high-level math problems: MathNet, which will serve both as a training resource for students and a benchmark for AI training, includes over 30,000 expert-written problems and peer-reviewed solutions from 47 countries, spanning 17 languages and four decades of competitions. MathNet is designed both as a training resource for students and a benchmark for AI reasoning.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- NASA's Mars mission, set for Dec. 2028, will be the first nuclear-powered space flight. [Science magazine]
- Breach of protocol: Trump steps in front of the British Queen to shake hands with his cabinet members.
- Iran’s currency continues its nosedive: 1 US dollar = 180,000 tomans
- Some 30% of US doctors now use artificial intelligence to document interactions with patients. [NYT]
(5) The world is in danger of going back to a collection of walled fortresses, with stronger countries attacking & conquering their weaker neighbors. [2-minute video]
(6) What if the world model we assume is incomplete, just like a 1490 map of our Earth that had large blobs missing? Richard Feynman’s avatar explains in this 47-minute lecture.
(7) An important debate at Oxford Union (2012): Richard Dawkins (scientist/atheist) takes on Mehdi Hassan (journalist/Muslim) on the question of whether religion is a force for good or for evil. [24-minute video]
(8) Closing of the Strait of Hormuz comes back to bite Iran: Iran's oil exports have declined substantially owing to the retaliatory blockade by the US. Some Iranian tankers are reportedly getting through, but the blockade does not have to be perfect to crush Iran. The nature of oil-extraction technology is such that an oil well cannot be shut down without a risk of permanently damaging it. Iran is reportedly running out of storage space (oil reservoirs & tankers) to keep its excess production. They are using reservoirs that were taken out of service because of safety concerns and they are activating retired oil tankers. But even these measures provide Iran with only 2-3 weeks of storage space. Time isn't on Iran's side.

2026/04/28 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$In this diagram, with a circle, a half-circle, and a quarter-circle inside a square, show that a = b and that KL is perpendicular to EF$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Today's UCLA Semel Institute talk (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram, with a circle, a half-circle, and a quarter-circle inside a square, show that a = b and that KL is perpendicular to EF. [Right] NFL better be careful photographing these two players together!
(2) “Robot-Proof”: This was the title of today’s talk by Dr. Vivienne Ming (theoretical neuroscientist, AI expert), based on her newly-released book, Robot-Proof: When Machines Have All the Answers, Build Better People. Dr. Ming explores the unsettling and astonishing ways individuals, companies, and societies are already responding to the rise of AI. Rather than a dense technical manual or a simplistic utopian/dystopian take, Dr. Ming puts people at the center, asking what it really means to live, work, and adapt in an increasingly automated world.
(3) A multi-million-dollar legal battle between two AI titans: Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, and several others (including Microsoft) headed to court, with jury selection in Oakland, California. Opening arguments are expected tomorrow. A key Musk demand is for OpenAI to return to nonprofit status.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Two rogue states at war: As the US undermines NATO, Iran destroys OPEC (UAE will leave OPEC on May 1).
- Of the 1500 researchers at the US Environmental Protection Agency last year, only 124 are left. [NYT]
- Pianist Peter Bence mixes Beethoven with AC/DC. [4-minute video]
- The story behind oft-broken ice cream machines at McDonalds: It’s a software & user-interface problem.
(5) Writing in Communications of the ACM, issue of May 2026, David Benrimoh et al. argue that we should replace the Turing Test with the Einstein Test: A test of AI’s ability to generate transformative science.
(6) Despite the brouhaha, ACM Digital Library isn’t fully open-access: Users can access the raw data, that is, the articles, but services based on metadata, which were previously free, are now considered premium services requiring payments.
(7) Reinventing the wheel(chair): U. Pittsburgh and others are developing advanced robotics technology as part of the ambitious $41.5 million RAMMP (Robotic Assistive Mobility and Manipulation Platform) project, which is part of a multibillion-dollar ARPA-H program. In addition to transforming healthcare through advanced technologies, the team plans to tackle real-world problems such as getting wheelchair users in and out of beds and vehicles.
(8) A war of narratives: Besides the long-running feud between Iran’s hardliners and “moderates” (“realists” is a better term), a gap is developing among hardliner factions. This drift is seen externally in the conflicting narratives of two news agencies, Tasnim (affiliated with IRGC) and Raja News (run by the Paydari Front).
(9) Final thought for the day: “Simplicity and sincerity generally go hand in hand, as both proceed from a love of truth.” ~ Mary Wollstonecraft, English writer & philosopher

2026/04/27 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: In this diagram (which isn’t drawn to scale), what is the measure of the angle theta?$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Trump’s approval rating continues to decline as the Iran war drags on & inflation ticks up. [Center] Roundtable discussion on disarray among Iranian opposition forces in diaspora (see the last item below). [Right] Math puzzle: In this diagram (not to scale), what is the measure of the angle theta?
(2) Lebanese President responds to Hezbollah Secretary-General’s remarks “We are not traitors. The real traitors are those who drag their country into war to serve foreign interests.”
(3) Facebook memory from Apr. 27, 2021: On student debt forgiveness and treating sick patients.
(4) Three new textbooks from the Free Engineering Textbooks Initiative.
- Classical Light, by Professor Theodore Norris (Link)
- Digital Communication, By Professor Kim Winick (Link)
- Calculus for the Modern Engineer, by Professor Jessy Grizzle (Link)
(5) Iran’s system of education is in chaos: School final exams have been postponed to 15 days after the end of the ongoing war. University entrance exams will be held 45 days after the hostilities end.
(6) “Roundtable on Iran: Assessing the Efforts of Opposition Forces in light of Internal Oppression and External War”: This Sunday 4/26 Zoom/livestreamed event was sponsored by Voices of Women for Change [Web site; Facebook page; Event recording]. Some 70 attendees listened to, and interacted with, three panelists:
- Dr. Nayereh Tohidi (researcher, women's-rights activist)
- Mina Khani (writer, human-rights activist)
- Samaneh Savadi (gender-equality activist)
The Iranian people are being tormented by three destructive forces: The Israeli and US armed forces and the Islamic Republic’s oppression system. The physical destruction caused by war is rather obvious. People feel physically threatened and endure serious economic hardships. Some infrastructure has been destroyed and there is a threat that loss of life and physical destruction will rise to a much higher level. The regime’s oppression manifests itself in acceleration in arbitrary arrests, imprisonments, executions, occupying public spaces with Basiji forces to prevent street protests, and total cut-off of Internet access for nearly two months, leading to disconnection among people and severe disruption of many private businesses.
Adding to the serious problems listed above is a self-destructive fragmentation among opposition forces in diaspora. Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah’s son, has been a leading cause of this fragmentation. His supporters have turned from talking about an all-inclusive democracy to an exclusionary right-wing agenda. Many aspirational slogans of the opposition, such as #WomanLifeFreedom have been replaced by the singular “Long Live the King.”
A counterpoint to criticizing certain opposition groups for relying on foreign intervention (war) to dispose of Iran’s Islamic regime is the failure of some anti-war factions to condemn the decades-long warmongering of Iran’s Islamic regime, against both foreign countries and the people of Iran, thus effectively taking the side of Islamist hardliners.
There are some efforts in the direction of uniting opposition forces and enabling a civil discourse on matters where there are disagreements, but these aren’t the loudest voices or the most-visible entities internationally. Our only hope for speaking with one voice against the brutal Islamic regime in Iran is to strengthen these entities by supporting them and refraining from empowering or engaging with destructive forces that want unification not through dialog but by other groups blindly accepting their positions, essentially ignoring Iran’s fairly developed civil society and aiming to replace a religious dictator with a secular one.

2026/04/26 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Saturday morning at Santa Barbara Farmers Market: Batch 1 of photos
(1) Images of the day: [Top left & right] Saturday 4/25 at Santa Barbara Farmers Market (5-minute video). [Top center & Bottom row] Saturday afternoon at Santa Barbara's Earth Day Festival (see the next item below).
(2) This weekend’s Earth Day Festival in Alameda Park, downtown Santa Barbara, marks the 56th year since the tradition was established right here is my hometown: The EV exhibit was as usual a big part of the festival, as were booths representing various environmental causes. At the public library exhibit, I wrote a love letter to our local libraries and their wonderful librarians.
(3) A sobering thought: By “crime is a social construct” we mean that you can go to jail for littering, but a corporation can poison the air, the soil, and the water of an entire town, and no one will go to jail.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- On the importance and methods of self-care for those who provide care for mentally-ill loved ones.
- Engineering in the food industry: Factory extraction of oil from avocados. [11-minute video]
- A history of Bahrain, a lush-green island-nation in the Persian Gulf, which used to be part of Iran.
- Peter Bence’s magical, rhythmic piano playing: “Every Breath You Take”
(5) World’s largest right-wing group is India’s all-male Hindu Nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). [9-minute NPR interview with RSS leader]
(6) Doesn’t anyone find the cancellation of an event whose purpose was to recognize and honor a group Donald Trump has repeatedly called “enemies of the state” suspicious?
Another question: Why was the gunman at the WH Correspondents Dinner tackled rather than shot? People are shot at traffic stops, where they pose no danger to anyone.
(7) Trump abruptly fires all 24 members of the National Science Board, a 75-year-old body overseeing NSF, which distributes $9 billion in annual research grants.
(8) Hamachandra Numbers: You probably haven’t heard of these numbers but do know them as Fibonacci numbers. These numbers were identified by Indian poets, and by musicians centuries before Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) introduced them to Europe in 1202. Scholars like Pingala (ca. 200 BCE) and Hemachandra (12th century CE) discovered the sequence while analyzing rhythmic patterns in Sanskrit poetry and music. For example, the number of rhythms you can make out of long or short beats: short short short short; short short long; short long short; long short short; long long. There are 5 such rhythms, with 5 being a Ramachandra/Fibonacci number.

2026/04/24 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
UCSB's Lotte Lehman Theater finally gets an accessibility ramp Persian calligraphic art, based on a poem by Mowlavi (Rumi) (1) Images of the day: [Left] Elixir after Sohrab’s death: This is a Persian saying based on Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh that is invoked in situations where a remedy or corrective action comes too late. For several years, when my mom was still alive, we had a hard time getting her to Lotte Lehman Theater for performances by UCSB’s Middle East Ensemble. Now. 3.5 years after her death, the Theater finally gets an accessibility ramp. [Center] Persian calligraphy: “Love turns thorns into flowers,” a Mowlavi (Rumi) verse. [Right] Pick’s Theorem: Published by Georg Alexander Pick in 1899, the theorem states that the area of a simple polygon with vertices on integer lattice points equals the number of interior lattice points, plus half the number of lattice points on the polygon’s perimeter, minus 1, that is, A = i + p/2 – 1. In a simple polygon, the edges do not intersect.
(2) Stealth signals hidden in satellite TV broadcasts allow Internet access despite filtering or throttling: “As [Iran’s] internet use spread in the early 2000s, the Iranian government began reshaping the network itself. Unlike the highly distributed networks in the United States or Europe, where thousands of providers exchange traffic across many independent routes, Iran’s connection to the global internet is relatively centralized. Most international traffic passes through a small number of gateways controlled by state-linked telecom operators. That architecture gives authorities unusual leverage: By restricting or withdrawing those connections, they can sharply reduce the country’s access to the outside world.” ~ From an article in IEEE Spectrum magazine
(3) A comprehensive overview of how the International Space Station was built over more than a decade, with help from the now-retired Space Shuttle. [14-minute video]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered over 20 organic molecules on Mars, including benzothiophene.
- Michael & Susan Dell donate $750M to U. Texas at Austin for a new medical center and advanced research.
- Is the Moon stealing oxygen from the Earth? It has no oxygen, yet its near side is covered with iron-oxide.
- Factory extraction of oil from avocados. [11-minute video]
- How the White House has evolved since 1800. [8-minute video]
- Peter Bence in the 2024 PBS concert, Pianosphere in Paris: His arrangement of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
(5) The human genome hasn’t been as static as evolutionary biologists thought: By analyzing nearly 16,000 ancient human genomes from Europe and the Middle East, researchers measured human genetic change over 18,000 years and found hundreds of genetic shifts across Europe’s population in a relatively short time. Some of the key changes seem to have been triggered by the emergence of farming, wheels, and metal tools.
(6) Orbital compute cluster opens for business: The largest compute cluster currently in orbit, launched by Canada’s Kepler Communications, uses 40 Nvidia Orin edge processors on 10 operational satellites connected via laser communications. The company wants to provide network services for satellites in orbit and for aircraft.
(7) Final thought for the day: “If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.” ~ Charles Darwin

2026/04/23 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: ENIAC turns 80 Cover image of 'Enemies from the East?' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: ENIAC, the 1st general-purpose digital computer turns 80. [Center] Enemies from the East? (see the last item below). [Right] My visit to Santa Barbara Public Library’s Central Branch to see a special exhibit marking the 40th anniversary of ‘Santa Barbara Independent."
(2) Iranian hardliners are setting the stage for sweeping arrests & executions of officials and former officials advocating for peace, including Hassan Rohani & Javad Zarif. [7-minute video, in Persian]
(3) Book review: Wozniuk, Vladimir (editor & translator), Enemies from the East? V. S. Soloviev on Paganism, Asian Civilizations, and Islam, Northwestern U. Press, 2007. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Writing in Foreign Affairs in 1993 under the title “The Clash of Civilizations,” Samuel Huntington warned about globalization not constituting a fix for the fault lines between historical Western, Middle Eastern, African, and Sinic civilizations. A century earlier, Russian religious philosopher Vladimir S. Soloviev argued about the growing threat to Europe, and to humanity more generally, of a future clash of civilizations between East and West.
This third volume of Soloviev’s essays (following Politics. Law, and Morality, 2000, and The Heart of Reality, 2003), titled after Soloviev’s essay “Enemy from the East” (which isn’t itself included here), is comprised of the following six essays:
- The Mythological Process in Ancient Paganism (pp. 3-23)
- Three Forces (pp. 24-33)
- China and Europe (pp. 34-79)
- Japan: A Historical Sketch (pp. 80-96)
- Primitive Paganism: Its Living and Dead Remnants (pp. 97-145)
- Muhammad: His Life and Religious Teaching (pp. 146-211)
Paganism refers to polytheistic, animistic, or nature-based spiritual traditions, distinct from Abrahamic religious. Historically, “pagan” was used by Christians as a derogatory term to describe non-Christian country dwellers. Today, it is largely used as a self-descriptor for practitioners of these faiths. Soloviev’s “The Three Forces” refer to:
- The East’s focus on divine principle, viz. the dominance of the divine over the passive, obedient humans, a la Islam.
- The democratic/Western focus on the human principle, prioritizing individual freedom, secularism, and rationalism.
- The reconciliatory/Slavic focus on bridging the gap between divine unity and human freedom via a “free theocracy.”
Soloviev dismisses the idea that the Far East is preparing to conquer the West by our own cultural and spiritual forces, referring to conspiracy theories of his time that sought to link environmental degradation and famine in Russia with poor weather sweeping in from central and eastern Asia. A similar conspiracy theory is being peddled in today’s Iran, where some clerics attribute the lengthy drought conditions and water shortages to Israel’s weather-control technology.
The essays in this volume, and Soloviev’s politics more generally, are shaped by his understanding of the development of civilizations from their earliest origins and by his Christian faith. He repeatedly alludes to progressive transnational phenomena, not in the Kantian or Hegelian sense, but rooted in the central question about the historical responsibilities of nations and their religious, political, and cultural leaders.

2026/04/22 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy 56th Earth Day! IEEE CCS tech talk by Dan Bezzant (1) Images of the day: [Left] Oil, gas, and other products aren’t the only things that are affected by the conflict in the Persian Gulf region: A vast array of critical undersea communication cables pass through Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab at the mouth of the Red Sea, and these are in danger of being disrupted by Iran and the Houthis. [Center] Happy Earth Day! We will celebrate at Santa Barbara’s Alameda Park this coming weekend. Earth Day was born in Santa Barbara 56 years ago. [Right] IEEE CCS tech talk on electrostatic discharge protection by Dan Bezzant (see the last item below).
(2) The highly-anticipated Michael Jackson biopic, “Michael,” has its box office debut this weekend: The film, backed by the Jackson estate, depicts the late singer’s rise to fame from a member of the Jackson 5 in the 1960s to becoming the King of Pop. While earlier screenplays covered child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson, the final cut does not. The adult version of Jackson is played by his nephew, Jaafar Jackson, son of Jermaine Jackson.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UAE official speaks about Iran’s attacks on neighboring countries and the prospects for peace.
- Rachel Goldberg-Polin, on grief after Hamas abducted & killed her son. [13-minute CBS News report]
- Sample Ethiopian jazz music played at today’s UCSB World Music Series concert by the Addis Collective.
- Hans Zimmer’s piano suite from the movie “Interstellar,” covered by Katherine Cordova. [12-minute video]
- Facebook memory from Apr. 22, 2014: A history of Earth Day, on its 56th birthday in Santa Barbara.
(4) Tonight’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dan Bezzant (a just-retired electrical engineer with over 40 years of experience in electronic hardware development) spoke under the title “ESD Protection of Electronics.” Dan, an active member of IEEE CCS’s Executive Committee, will be moving to Utah soon.
Electrostatic discharge is a significant threat to the reliability and performance of electronic systems. Dan gave an overview of the physical mechanisms of static charge generation, including triboelectric effects, and the resulting high-voltage discharge events that can occur during normal handling and operation. He examined the susceptibility of semiconductor devices to ESD, along with the limitations of intrinsic protection structures within integrated circuits.
Various ESD-induced failure modes were discussed, including catastrophic damage, parametric degradation, latent defects, and transient system upsets. Mitigation strategies were explored at multiple design levels, including component selection, circuit card assembly design, and system-level protection. Techniques such as current limiting, transient voltage suppression, controlled grounding, shielding, and mechanical design practices were addressed.
In addition, environmental controls and handling procedures were dos as part of a comprehensive ESD control program. The talk concluded with practical design and verification guidelines intended to improve system robustness and reduce ESD-related failures.

2026/04/21 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Apple Computer’s 10x rise in valuation under Tim Cook Cartoon: Trump and Pope, on resurrection vs. insurrection DoJ releases a redacted version of Charles Dickens’ 'A Tale of Two Cities' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Apple Computer’s meteoric rise in valuation under the leadership of Tim Cook. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Donald Trump & Pope Leo arguing over resurrection vs. insurrection. [Right] The US Justice Department releases a redacted version of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.
(2) Tucker Carlson says he is tormented by his past support for Trump: After he pocketed millions from his rage-filled commentaries, he is preparing to ride the next wave of outrage; a rat who’s abandoning the MAGA sinking ship.
(3) Quotable: “The problem is that there’s one bell that cannot be unrung here, which is that we have announced to the world that within any four-year political cycle, we’re capable of producing a tsunami of corruption and stupidity, the likes of which no one could have expected.” ~ Sam Harris
(4) A heartfelt post on LinkedIn about young Iranians losing hope: Many Iranian specialists have left the country in search of job opportunities and/or professional fulfilment. Some of those who have remained, because of a sense of responsibility to help Iran recover and prosper, are coming to the conclusion that under the corrupt Islamic regime, their impact on their beloved homeland’s well-being is limited or nonexistent. Iran’s Islamic regime isn’t focused on improving life for the country’s citizens and building a prosperous, internationally connected and respected Iran. The regime is worried only about its own survival and ideological bent: “Death to America & Israel” more than “Long live Iran.”
(5) Iran installed 1000s of surveillance cameras to track protestros and control dissent: Israel hacked the network of cameras, feeding the images into AI algorithms to keep an eye on Khamenei's location through surveilling the comings and goings of his bodyguards and other close personnel. Ironically, Iran's surveillance network was used against its autocratic rulers. An Israeli intelligence official has said that they know Tehran as well as Jerusalem.
(6) Robert Reich, on oligarchy in the US: “The richest man owns X. The 2nd & 4th richest men control Google. The 3rd richest man owns The Washington Post. The 5th richest man owns Meta. And now the 6th richest could soon take over both Paramount & Warner Bros. See the problem here?”
(7) Stealth signals hidden in satellite TV broadcasts allow Internet access despite filtering or throttling: “As [Iran’s] internet use spread in the early 2000s, the Iranian government began reshaping the network itself. Unlike the highly distributed networks in the United States or Europe, where thousands of providers exchange traffic across many independent routes, Iran’s connection to the global internet is relatively centralized. Most international traffic passes through a small number of gateways controlled by state-linked telecom operators. That architecture gives authorities unusual leverage: By restricting or withdrawing those connections, they can sharply reduce the country’s access to the outside world.” ~ From an article in IEEE Spectrum magazine

2026/04/20 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Power struggle in Iran: Organizational chart (1) Images of the day: [Left] It’s telling that Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi has a photo of the deceased Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei behind him during his recent NBC interview, not the new Supreme Leader’s. [Center] Power struggle in Iran (see the next item below). [Right] My paternal grandmother’s photo, colorized and enhanced by Meta AI.
(2) Internal tensions in Iran are growing as ceasefire nears its end: Parliament Speaker Qalibaf and FM Araghchi are under pressure by hardliners not to negotiate with the US and may be forced to step down. Both the Judiciary and IRGC have their own news agencies and they are issuing reports that contradict those coming from other power centers. The state radio & TV is under the control of hardliners. And the Supreme Leader is nowhere to be seen. Qalibaf has said that in the last round of negotiation in Karachi, much of the 20+ hours was spent in arguments among members of the Iranian delegation. Iran has no option but to negotiate. Fuel and other supplies are running low and people are extremely dissatisfied with price hikes, currency nosedive, and shortages of meds & other necessities.
(3) Eight children, ages 3-11, killed in a domestic-violence mass-shooting, along with the mother of 7 of them: This time, politicians didn’t even bother to send thoughts-and-prayers, let alone discuss gun legislation.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A US base is attacked in Turkey, yet the NATO member is eerily quiet about it. [14-minute video]
- Residents of an affluent Tehran neighborhood exercise & go to coffee shops, despite worries about the war.
- Contemplating on ways to remove highly-enriched uranium from Iran. [13-minute CBS News report]
- Tim Cook steps down after 15 years as Apple Computer's CEO: Hardware chief John Ternus will replace him.
- Stewart Copeland, “The Police” drummer, turns his studio into a wild orchestra, featuring animal sounds.
(5) An old Excel bug from 2009 returns to life: A forgotten Microsoft Excel flaw, CVE-2009-0238 (9.3), which is being actively exploited, was added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerability catalog on April 14, 2026, shortly after Microsoft rolled out 165 patches. Attackers could exploit these flaws to gain complete control of impacted systems. Federal civilian executive branch agencies were given two weeks to implement patches, one week less than they usually get.
(6) Update on fault-tolerant spacecraft computers: The Orion spacecraft used for NASA’s Artemis II mission featured an advanced, fault-tolerant computing system designed for deep-space reliability. The system included eight processors running identical instructions simultaneously, organized in pairs that cross-check results to detect & correct errors instantly. If an error is detected, incorrect outputs are ignored and failed modules can be reset and re-synchronized during flight. The spacecraft also used redundant networks, triple-redundant memory that corrects errors automatically, and backup flight software running on separate hardware.
(7) A high-stakes game of chicken between American and Chinese naval assets in the Strait of Hormuz: Some of the arguments in this 19-minute video may be questioned, but there are elements of truth in the analysis.

2026/04/19 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Norah O'Donnell's 'We the Women' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Michael O. Rabin (see the next item below). [Center] Memories from social-media posts of year past: Nature & architecture. [Right] Norah O'Donnell's We the Women (see the last item below).
(2) Computer scientist Michael O. Rabin dead at 94: At Princeton U., Rabin studied with Dana S. Scott, and they went on to share the 1976 ACM Turing Award for their work on finite automata and their decision problem, which introduced the idea of nondeterministic machines. According to Rabin, "Algorithms in their pure form require a physical source of randomness. So it's a kind of collaboration between us computer scientists and nature as the source of randomness."
(3) Like everything else, public trust in universities was destroyed in a matter of years, but may take decades to restore: Yale University launches sweeping reforms in this direction. Other universities are sure to follow.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- British MP, on Donald Trump: “He’s no leader of the free world. He’s a dangerous and corrupt gangster.”
- Hundreds of protestors killed in Iran over 6 weeks: Death sentences continue to be issued & carried out.
- Corruption is depleting Iran’s wealth & resources, converting them to dollars that are spent abroad.
- Four hundred years of New York City history, in 18 minutes.
- I was very surprised to learn that Karaj is now Iran's 4th largest city (ahead of Shiraz). [3-minute video]
- AI transforms today’s movie stars into their younger selves. [14-minute video]
(5) Book review: O’Donnell, Norah (with Kate Andersen Brower), We the Women: Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America, unabridged 11-hour audiobook, read by the author, Random House Audio, 2026.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In this year of our country’s 250th birthday celebration, much is being said and written about our founding fathers and other notable men who helped shape the United States of America. Emmy-Award-winning journalist Norah O’Donnell, assisted by Kate Andersen Brower, tries to complete the picture by writing about 35 remarkable women, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Patsy Mink, and their pivotal roles in influencing this 2.5-centuries-old republic.
O’Donnell begins her narrative by telling us about the presence of Susan B. Anthony and other women of note in 1876, when America’s 100th birthday was marked. On that occasion, the women present made bold statements about women not yet having the right to vote and being denied many other rights. She then informs us that only 15% of what we learn in school focuses on the accomplishments and contributions of women.
Mercy Otis Warren, sometimes referred to as the first lady of the American Revolution, was an anti-federalist who was fearful of the federal government being given too much power. So, she became a driving force to enact the Bill of Rights. Yet, John Adams dismissed her by saying, “History is not the province of the ladies.” It is more than regrettable that we don’t learn about such women in our history courses and the written records of our republic.
Each one of the other women covered by this book also had important contributions. A key reason for their contributions missing from historical records is that they weren’t considered important. Their diaries & letters weren’t kept. Historians and archivists were men. Politicians who decided to pay homage or build monuments to memorialize individuals were men.
A few of the women covered by O’Donnell are well known, but most of them are hidden heroes being discovered now. Here are a few examples, to give my readers a sense of the diversity of domain where these women were pioneers.
- Phillis Wheatley, the first black woman to publish a book of poetry.
- Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman admitted to medical school.
- Deborah Sampson, who fought in Washington’s army, disguised as a man.
- Susan & Susette La Flesche, who fought for Native American rights.
- Emily Warren Roebling, who completed Brooklyn Bridge’s construction.
- Elizabeth F. Ellet, a prominent historian and cultural influencer.
- Dr. Mary Edward Walker, surgeon and Medal of Honor recipient.
- Babe Didrikson Zaharias, arguably the greatest athlete who ever lived.
I recommend this timely book very highly, as we prepare to celebrate our country’s 250th birthday.

2026/04/18 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Ships waiting in the Persian Gulf to pass through Strait of Hormuz: The dots are oil tankers and cargo ships, excluding those making routine local deliveries between Persian Gulf ports (NYT). [Center] Ramanujan's birthday magic square: The Indian math prodigy Srinivasa Ramanujan constructed a birthday magic square, shown in the accompanying diagram, in which DD, MM, CC, and YY are the day, month, century, and year of one’s birth. A 4 x 4 magic square contains 16 numbers in such a way that each row, each column, and each of the two diagonals add up to the same value. The standard 4 x 4 magic square has the entries 1-16. [Right] Tiling the plane with tiles consisting of 25 unit-squares.
(2) The fate of Mojtaba Khamenei is being revealed gradually: After the regime insisting that he wasn’t even hospitalized, this mullah says that he was indeed taken to a hospital and that the ambulance carrying him as well as the hospital entrance were bombed.
(3) The enemy is us: A new report commissioned by Yale University argues that elite universities are largely responsible for declining public trust in higher education. Factors causing the decline include complex tuition structures, misguided admission policies, and rampant grade inflation.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Pete Hegseth quotes false Bible verses, which were recited by Samuel L. Jackson in the film “Pulp Fiction.”
- ICE is being used to settle personal scores: An 85-year-old French widow is targeted by her stepson. [NYT]
- UCSB implements severe cuts to language programs due to budget-cut trends & push to on-line learning.
- Math puzzle: A rectangle inscribed in a circle is half as large as the circle. Find the rectangle’s aspect ratio.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 18, 2025: The Democrats still need to focus on the US economy.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 18, 2022: A mathematical limerick, written in the form of an equation.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 18, 2021: My proposed legislation to bring about sensible gun laws.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 18, 2014: Selected verses from a beautiful poem by Parvin E’tesami.
(5) High blood sugar linked to higher risk of dementia: Diabetes is often thought of as a disease of the body, given its effects on the kidneys, eyes, and heart. But it also affects the brain. Patients with type-2 diabetes are ~3 times as likely to develop cognitive impairment, and 1 in 5 patients over 60 develop dementia.
(6) A high-stakes game of chicken between American and Chinese naval assets in the Strait of Hormuz: Some of the points in this 19-minute video may be questioned, but there are elements of truth in the analysis.
(7) The artificial reality in your dreams: What you experience in your dreams seems very real. You talk. You run. You feel. The scenes may look strange, but they are often built by your brain from bits and pieces of real places in your memory. Now consider this: If your brain can build such a realistic world when you are asleep, couldn’t the world you experience after you wake up also be a figment of your imagination?
(8) The science of the Butterfly Effect: Chaotic systems are practically unpredictable, not because they entail random behavior, but owing to their super-sensitivity to initial conditions. [10-minute video]

2026/04/17 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Iranian officials contradict each other on Strait of Hormuz's status Internet access may never return to Iran under the current regime (1) Images of the day: [Left] One day after Iran's FM said that the Strait of Hormuz is now open to traffic, IRGC contradicted him by saying that it will remain closed. This is part of a hidden power struggle between Iran's civilian leaders and IRGC generals. [Center] Tonight’s performance at Isla Vista Elementary School: Ballet Folklorico del Rio Grande performed as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures series “Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara” (video 1; video 2). [Right] Internet access may never return to Iran under the current regime: Right now, connectivity is at about 2%, which is due to access by regime officials and sympathizers, who are given special privileges. Quite a few existing businesses may have to fold, as their livelihood depends on the Internet. Many individuals who made a living through the Internet have started to leave Iran for neighboring countries.
(2) “Maison de Madame et Monsieur”: This cafe in Tehran occupies the 115-year-old home of a prominent Armenian couple, with furnishings and heirlooms kept intact by their daughter.
(3) Extreme corruption: US Department of Homeland Security paid tens of millions of dollars more than, and in one case 5x, the assessed value of warehouses purchased for conversion to prison camps.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Foreign troops inside Iran: Iraqi militants organize rallies in Tehran in support of the mullahs.
- New Iranian refugees: People whose livelihoods depend on Internet access, unavailable for 7 weeks.
- Hippocrates, with no sense of shame: Never-Trumpers, then reluctant supporters, now the King's servants.
- The average American paid 14.5% in federal income tax, while a slate of large corporations paid nothing.
- “The Sun King”: An award-winning short film inspired by Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.
(4) Every atom in your body wasn’t there a few years ago: So, you aren’t a thing, but a pattern. Atoms leave you and new atoms come in and take up a place in the pattern that is you. When you die, that pattern falls apart but every atom, and every bit of energy, in you survives and becomes part of a different pattern.
(5) As Iranian citizens are being crushed by destruction, 70+% inflation (IMF estimate), and total Internet cut-off, each Lebanese family that lost a home gets a $14,000 grant from Iran.
(6) Forgotten but not gone: Why can’t you remember what it was like to be a baby? Adults typically can’t recall episodic memories from the first few years of life, a process known as infantile amnesia. But these early experiences, despite being forgotten, don’t just disappear. They linger into adulthood, even if we can’t consciously access them.
(7) Musings of a curious engineer: In designing self-repairing computers for long-duration space missions, safety-critical applications, and nonstop on-line services, we look to nature for inspiration. Thus the question of why amphibians regrow limbs when other animals cannot is of immense interest to computer engineers.
If you lose a finger or two in a tragic accident, it’s gone for good. But salamanders can lose whole appendages and still grow them back. In a pair of papers in Science, researchers take steps towards understanding why that is—and towards the eventual goal of giving us the power of regeneration when needed.

2026/04/16 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: In this diagram, find the exact value of x.$ $Math puzzle: Which has a larger area, the 2x2 square or the circle?$ Talangor Group talk on Iran's Economic Rebirth (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Find the exact value of x. [Center] Math puzzle: Which has a larger area, the 2x2 square or the circle? [Right] Talk on Iran's Economic Rebirth (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Yesterday’s World Music Series noon concert at UCSB: Los Catanes Del Norte. [Video 1] [Video 2]
- AI bot Claude’s thoughtful answer to: How do you feel about the US military using you to select targets?
- Placebo effect: Feynman on the relationships between matter, energy, & information. [45-minute lecture]
- After a week of ceasefire, an Iranian TV anchor says she misses the war against Israel. [1-minute video]
(3) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Farhad Bonyadi (CEO of Thermohaus Construction Technologies) spoke under the title “Iran’s Economic Rebirth: From the Current Dead End to an Emerging Regional Power.” This was the second part of a presentation about Iran’s macroeconomy that began last week.
My LinkedIn post about part 1 of the talk.
Recording of part 1 and its Q&A period (195-minute video).
Before the main talk, Ms. Mitra Zaimi presented an overview of international laws/agreements pertaining to Iran’s claims of control rights over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s trade chokepoints. The main take-away was that whereas artificial canals (such as Suez & Panama) that are contained within a country’s land can be subjected to national control and collection of tolls, traffic through natural waterways cannot be controlled by any country or subjected to fees, except for services, such as tugging & navigation aid, that may be rendered.
Recording of the short presentation (20-minute video).
While part 1 of the talk focused on Iran’s current resources, status in the world, and a number of problem areas, part 2 dealt with the future potential of the country under secular and democratic governance. Mr. Bonyadi outlined 10 megaprojects, from a much larger set of possibilities, and a number of medium- and small-scale projects that collectively can transform Iran from its current bankrupt status to a regional power. Here is a list of the 10 megaprojects discussed (note that these projects are at the initial “dream” stage and need detailed studies to become actual development plans):
- Persian-Gulf/Caspian-Sea economic corridor: Taking advantage of Iran’s geographic centrality both among its regional neighbors and as an East-West connecting crossroad.
- Renewable energy super-grid: Iran’s plenty of sunshine and winds make the development of renewable energy quite attractive.
- Coastal desalination plants and water transport systems along the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman coasts: Desalinated water pipelines can be built from Bandar Abbas to Anzali and from Chabahar to Gorgan. A related project, that has been advanced, and dismissed, for decades, is the development of Iranrud (Iran River) to connect the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, via artificial lakes over Iran’s two major deserts.
- New megacities along the Makran Coast in Baluchistan: Moving the population southward to reduce congestion and related environmental and water-supply issues in Tehran and other interior cities.
- Persian-Gulf bridge connecting Bandar Abbas to Qeshm Island: Can lead to a significant increase in tourism and expanded trade through the establishment of free-trade zones.
- High-speed rail network, connecting Tehran to the east, west, and south of the country: This project will have a major impact on commerce and tourism.
- Oil, gas, and petrochemical super-cluster: Leveraging Iran as a major world player in terms of oil and natural gas resources.
- National mining and rare-earth development: Iran has significant natural reserves of copper, lithium, iron, & zinc, and it is expected to become a supplier of rare earths, which are currently in great demand.
- Iranian “Silicon Valley”: Taking advantage of the large number of scientists and college-educated youth, both men & women, among the country’s 90 million people inside and ~9 million in diaspora.
- Tourism super-development: Iran has some 26 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and many other historic and natural wonders.
Mr. Bonyadi presented estimates for the costs of these representative super-projects and the time period for return on investment, that ranged from <1 to ~4 years, depending on the project. In addition to the representative megaprojects enumerated above, Mr. Bonyadi also discussed a number of medium- and small-size projects, which may produce even more tangible benefits in the sense of creating 70% of the new jobs (~6 million) and 50% of the GDP growth in a free Iran. Mr. Bonyadi ended his presentation by listing the financing options for such projects, including several variations on both equity-financing and debt-financing.
An immediate concern is the matter of post-war reconstruction. Although no one yet knows how much money and other resources will be needed for the reconstruction, estimates hover around $1 trillion.
Iran can become a central hub in a West Asia Union, given its possession of 7% of world natural resources with ~1% of global population. And the situation with regard to human resources is even more favorable: Iran has 3-4 million university students, with ~1 million graduating per year, including a significant fraction of STEM specialists. Taking advantage of these resources requires cultural shifts within the population and political stability in its governance.
Even though the projects discussed in this talk are mostly at the “I have a dream” stage, composing such an ambitious list is a necessary start for more-detailed assessment and prioritization by economic planners of an emerging free Iran.
Recording of part 2 and its Q&A session (196-minute video).

2026/04/15 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Rehabilitating Michael Jackson’s troubled legacy and turning it into lucrative business f22-260415-a-dozen-bagel-varieties (1) Images of the day: [Left] With the release of the Michael Jackson biopic, his estate hopes to rehabilitate the pop icon’s troubled legacy and turn it into lucrative business. [Center] Nonperiodic tiling of a plane using a single tile type (see the last item below). [Right] A dozen bagel varieties: Mouth-watering!
(2) Catholic convert, US Vice-President J. D. Vance: Pope Leo XIV should be careful discussing theology and should stick to matters of morality. (And I’m sick & tired of those quoting Einstein on physics-related matters!)
(3) Men behaving badly, in both political parties: US Congressmen Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales resign amid sexual misconduct allegations & expulsion threats. Swalwell also suspended his gubernatorial campaign.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- On this US Tax Day, refunds are up, but far less than what was promised. Some immigrants are afraid to file.
- Israel & Lebanon hold peace talks in Washington, DC, after 33 years of not talking directly with each other.
- From Washington Post, Letters to the Editor: “I am Iranian-American. I hate war. I want Iran to be free.”
- Inflation in Iran: After relative stability during the war, prices rose significantly after the ceasefire. [IranWire]
- Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, is found guilty of monopolistic practices and price-gouging.
- On the possibility of the fall of the petrodollar and the ensuing economic panic in the US. [4-minute video]
- How credit-card companies are raking money under Trump’s inflationary and deregulated economy.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 15, 2025: An AI-generated debate between Donald Trump and Ali Khamenei.
(5) The direct & indirect economic costs of Iran’s Internet blackout is $80 million per day, using conservative estimates: Multiplying by ~50 days of outage, the total economic impact for Iranian citizens is $4 billion. The regime and its cronies do have access and are not affected by the blackout for the rest of the country
(6) Musings of a curious engineer: We have all seen a plane tiled perfectly (with no gaps between tiles) using a variety of tile shapes, such as square, rectangular, triangular, and hexagonal. If we use tiles of 2 or 3 different shapes, even more tiling options/designs become available. All of these tilings are periodic, in the sense that the same tiling pattern repeats itself after a finite distance. Such tilings can model crystals that possess regular, repeated atomic patterns.
For a long time, the question of aperiodic tiling of the plane using a single tile shape remained open, and became known as the Einstein Problem (from the German “ein stein,” meaning “one stone”). In November 2022, the “Hat Tile” was discovered, which solved the problem but required that the tile itself and its reflection (turned-over version) be used. Shortly thereafter, the same group of researchers came up with the “Spectre Tile” that achieved the tiling goal without the need for reflection. Such nonperiodic tilings can serve as models for quasicrystals, that is, physical solids possessing ordered, but nonrepeating atomic structures.

2026/04/14 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Prime Time Band's Sunday concert in Santa Barbara Retroreflection by a prism mechanism Trump post on social media, depicting him as Jesus (1) Images of the day: [Left] Prime Time Band in concert (see the next item below). [Center] Retroreflection (see item 3 below). [Right] Amid an international military conflict and economic crisis, a petty, delusional man elevates himself to the status of Jesus and picks a fight with the Pope (image from a Trump social-media post).
(2) An enjoyable free Sunday concert: Performing at the historic Lobero Theater was Primetime Band, a musical group dedicated to creating opportunities for music-making for players of all experience levels. The band is comprised of adults from age 40 to 90, many of whom hadn’t played an instrument since high school or learned to play during their retirement or semi-retirement. The Sunday afternoon concert, whose program appears in the images, was devoted mostly to music from epic movies, including "Exodus," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Romeo & Juliet," and "The King and I." I look forward to their July 4th concert at Santa Barbara Courthouse's Sunken Garden. [Examples of the Band's past events]
(3) Retroreflection: An optical phenomenon where light is reflected back towards its source, rather than scattering, making materials appear exceptionally bright under illumination. It works via micro-prisms or glass spheres that manipulate light through multiple internal reflections, with the exit direction being exactly opposite to entry direction. Key applications include traffic signs, safety apparel, road markers, and laser tracking. We have placed surfaces covered with some of these materials on the Moon in order to be able to track Earth’s distance to the Moon via shining a laser light on them and measuring the round-trip time of the beam.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- An immigration wave in the opposite direction: Westerners are fleeing their countries in record numbers.
- How the insurgent campaign of Robert F. Kennedy challenged the sitting President Lyndon B. Johnson.
- Launching a nuke by the US President is actually a very complicated process, with many safeguards.
- Masterful marimba music playing: Chopin’s “Fantaisie-Improptu (Op. 66).” [Video]
- Facebook memory from Apr. 14, 2016: At lunch with friends who were passing through Santa Barbara.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 14, 2015: Persian verses about youthfulness and old age.
(5) [Musings of a curious engineer] Introducing the “God particles” of mathematics and computer science: The single two-variable function eml(x, y) = exp(x) – ln(y) can be used to generate every elementary function by repeated applications in a binary-tree structure. The proof is due to Andrzej Odrzywolek in a paper entitled “All Elementary Functions from a Single Operator.” The computer science version of the “God particle” might be the single-instruction computer that the late Farhad Mavaddat and I wrote about in “URISC: The Ultimate Reduced Instruction Set Computer" some four decades ago (International J. Electrical Engineering Education, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 327-334, October 1988).

2026/04/13 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.

More photos from inside Santa Barbara Courthouse A good description of mechanical clocks Looking around inside a magnificent courtroom within Santa Barbara Courthouse
Celebration of Italian Culture, held at SB Public Library’s central branch A preview of the forthcoming I-Madonnari street-painting festival A few interesting buildings I encountered in downtown Santa Barbara (1) Images from an information-filled and festive Sunday in downtown Santa Barbara: [Top row] Atop the clock/observation tower of Santa Barbara Courthouse, from where the entire city is visible (2-minute video), and inside the clock room, around 11:30 AM (1-minute video). The mechanical clock at the center of the room drives the clock faces on the four sides of the clock/observation tower via four shafts. A good description of mechanical clocks of this kind is providing in the center image of the next row. [Middle row] More photos from inside Santa Barbara Courthouse and a historic courtroom. [Bottom row] Celebration of Italian Culture, held at Santa Barbara Public Library’s central branch, included food offerings, pasta-making for kids, and a concert I couldn’t attend, because I was headed to another concert at Lobero Theater (details tomorrow). An accordion player provided musical entertainment (video 1; video 2; video 3). There was also a preview of the forthcoming Memorial-Day weekend I-Madonnari street-painting festival. During a late afternoon walk I photographed a few interesting buildings I encountered in downtown Santa Barbara, including a house totally overwhelmed by a humongous tree in front of it.
(2) History repeats itself: How Israel started developing nuclear weapons, how JFK tried to stop it, and how the US pressure fizzled after Israel’s PM David Ben Gurion resigned in June 1963 rather than comply with inspection demands and JFK was assassinated a few months later. [24-minute video]
(3) Persia/Iran through the ages: A capsule history of Iran that contains inaccuracies, particularly in the AI-generated imagery. [17-minute video]
(4) Quote of the day: “Patriotism is fundamentally a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
(5) I recently rediscovered the joys of Fariborz Lachini’s piano music: This YouTube playlist, which contains mostly solo piano arrangements of Persian pop songs & Lachini’s own music but also a few featuring vocalists, will give you hours of listening pleasure.
(6) After the death of Supreme Leader Khamenei, Iran’s Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf emerged as the most-powerful official in Iran: He was persuaded to withdraw as a presidential candidate by the late Supreme Leader Khamenei, perhaps due to allegations of corruption, but he remained a Khamenei confidant. This IranWire article reveals Qalibaf’s social-media adviser who leads a luxurious life in the US.
(7) How one scientist’s inventions killed millions of people: Leaded gasoline led to an estimated 100 million deaths globally, lowered humanity’s average intelligence, and contributed to a surge in crime rate. Freon gas, used for refrigeration and in aerosol sprays, destroyed part of our atmosphere’s ozone layer.

2026/04/12 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Michael Kimmel's 'Angry White Men' Saturday night’s flatbread mini-pizzas, with salami and onion toppings (1) Images of the day: [Left] Be careful with stories & news reports coming out of Iran: Ordinary Iranian citizens haven’t had access to the Internet for 45 straight days, jeopardizing the well-being of families and private businesses. The stories that do get out are mostly from the Islamic Republic officials, their cyber army & Internet bots, and white-listed (pro-regime) influencers. [Center] Michael Kimmel's Angry White Men (see the last item below). [Right] Saturday night’s flatbread mini-pizzas, with salami and onion toppings.
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Having haphazardly laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is unable to find them to open the waterway.
- Great news from Hungary: Viktor Orban, Trump’s favorite European leader, is out as Prime Minister.
- Iranian officials sport lapel pins bearing images of their Supreme Leader(s), not Iran’s map or flag. [Image]
- Historical fact: In the 1944 Battle of Normandy to liberate France, 12,000+ French civilians were killed.
(3) Book review: Kimmel, Michael, Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, Nation Books, Revised paperback edition, 2017. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book about Donald Trump's followers barely mentions Trump himself. The white men interviewed by the author felt that they are marginalized, with their access to the American Dream taken away by Washington insiders. Having waited for years, these white men were easily duped by Trump's promises that he would right the wrongs, because he felt their pain. These men's anger comes from a combination of entitlement and a sense of victimization.
The aforementioned white men feel that they have built this country and are thus its rightful owners. One cannot tell these men that their feelings are wrong any more than one can shame a flat-earther into admitting that the Earth is round. Yet, any solution to this alienation requires that we develop a deep understanding of their feelings without judging them.
Angry white men view themselves as bread-winners and cherish the idea of exempting their wives from having to work, just like their mothers and other female ancestors were exempted. Of course, this exemption isn't a historical fact but an illusion: Among the working class, women have always worked.
America's angry white men and their wives aspire to live in a 1950s-era sitcom, where even working women deferred to their husbands as heads of households. It is this sense of power in the household that these men crave and want to "retrieve," "reclaim," or "restore." This is the main source of the slogan "Make America Great Again."
Kimmel explores this sense of grievance in seven chapters, sandwiched between an introduction ("America the Angry") and an epilogue, which begins with two questions: "Can we turn down the volume?" and "Is there any way to reduce the rage?" His answer is a guarded "no"! We can't turn back the clock of women's progress: Women now want to go to college, to be present in every profession, to have a voice in the household and in society, and to be empowered to demand orgasms.
The men's-rights movement is, therefore, utterly misguided. Men are not being trampled by "feminazis," rather, women have been given a bit of breathing room. Similarly, we can't roll back America and its diversity through deportations. Young Americans are growing up by embracing diversity and gender equality. Their friendships and relationships are increasingly race- and culture-blind. They bond socially with people of all races and either sex.
Angry white men are predominantly from the lower-middle class: Those who have something to lose from the downward mobility they are experiencing. Their anger, though real, is misdirected. It isn't aimed at those who are the cause of their misery but against those who are just below them on the economic scale.
If politicians really care about the little guy, government resources should be put at their disposal, giving them a safety net, decent healthcare, and good schooling for their children. These resources will ensure that "at the end of the day, they can look back at their lives and smile with pride that their hard work, dedication, and sacrifice will have earned them the dignity and respect to which they are, indeed, entitled."

2026/04/11 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Gun ownership by US state: Percentage of adults who own at least one firearm. [Center] ECE distinguished talk at UCSB (see the last item below). [Right] Forty AI terms explained.
(2) Secretary of State Marco Rubio cancels the Green Card of the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the leaders of hostage takers in the American Embassy in Tehran and a prominent regime propagandist.
(3) Some factions of Iran’s ruling class are unhappy with the ceasefire: Mobs on the streets are chanting against negotiations with the US. Meanwhile, President Pezeshkian has said that the ceasefire/talks decision was “unanimous,” in order to relieve pressure and possible physical attacks on him.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US VP J. D. Vance: Negotiations with Iran have failed & the US delegation will be leaving Pakistan.
- Amnesty International has opined that the 6-week Internet shutdown in Iran is a human rights violation.
- Iran’s agreement to ceasefire is only for its external war: Arrests & executions continue in its internal war.
- Iranians just marked the 40th day since the martyrdom of Internet access, as the blackout continues.
- Iranian human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh is rearrested: Her husband Reza Khandan is also in custody. august-1944 ">12,000+ French civilians were killed.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 11, 2022: Traditional Iranian costumes on 1974 postage stamps from Iran.
(5) Ye (aka Kanye West) has been barred from entering the UK for his anti-Semitic views: A major concert in which he was to headline has been cancelled. I’m not thrilled about this decision. Yes, anti-Semitism is abhorrent, but as long as it does not lead to acts of violence, it should be tolerated.
(6) Yesterday’s ECE Distinguished Talk at UCSB: Dr. Yasaman Ghasempour (ECE Assistant Professor at Princeton University), who has already earned several important honors, spoke under the title “Physics-Guided Wireless Communication and Sensing Above 100 GHz.”
The mmWave and sub-THz spectrum is rapidly emerging as a foundation for next-generation wireless communication and sensing systems. Yet, practical deployments face fundamental challenges. Unlocking the full potential of these frequencies demands physics-native solutions that capitalize on the unique properties of waves in these regimes. The speaker first presented an ultra-wideband retro-directive backscatter architecture above 100 GHz that departs from conventional large-scale antenna arrays and significantly reduces the power consumption. She then proceeded to discuss how the migration to higher frequencies, together with electronically large arrays, has extended the Fraunhofer limit from a few centimeters to several meters—placing many users into the electromagnetic near-field of future base stations and access points. She concluded by highlighting unprecedented application domains of mmWave/sub-THz sensing and imaging across disciplines such as agriculture and robotics, underscoring the transformative potential of these frontier bands. [Abridged from the speaker’s abstract.]

2026/04/10 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Iran’s Islamists finally admit that Hezbollah is an extension of their military forces. [Center & Right] Talangor Group talk on Iran's macroeconomy (see the last item below).
(2) A sickening moral slum of an administration: “Regarding Venezuela, Ukraine, and much more, Trump and his acolytes are worse than simply incompetent,” writes George F. Will in a Washington Post opinion piece.
(3) Iran’s governance system & national infrastructure are designed to protect the Islamic regime, not the people. After 40 days of bombing targeted mainly at military installations, a great deal of its missile & drone capabilities has survived, whereas the people are at the mercy of their own inventiveness to dodge attacks on nearby military targets.
(4) Last night’s Talangor Group talk: Farhad Bonyadi (CEO of Thermohaus Construction Technologies) spoke under the title “Overview of Iran’s Macroeconomy: Past, Present, and Future.” This first part of the presentation focused on a comparison of Iran’s macroeconomy just before the Revolution (1978) and a year ago (2025). Much has changed over the last year, but we don’t have sufficient data at this point. Part 2, to be presented next Thursday at 7:00 PM PDT, will focus on the future outlook of Iran’s economy once a competent regime replaces the current one.
The talk consisted of three parts, with part 4 being delegated to next week’s session.
- Overview of Macroeconomics Indicators
- Macroeconomics Comparison: 1978 vs. 2025
- Iran’s Positioning with Regard to Resources
- Prosperity Projects under Future Democratic Rule
There are ~100 macroeconomic indicators, grouped under 10 headings: National accounts; Demographics & labor; Monetary system; Fiscal system; External sector; Energy sector; Industrial sector; Agricultural sector; Technology & innovation; Social factors. The speaker reviewed many of these, providing exact or estimated figures in most cases. A key change, which is a source of economic challenges is the inflation rate, which has more than tripled, from ~12% to ~40%, and has since risen to 60% or more over the last few months.
The speaker also outlined simulation results for three scenarios, assuming GDP growths of 6%, 8%, and 14% (highly optimistic scenario, assuming continuation of pre-Revolution growth), in lieu of the last 4+ decades average of 2-3%. Even with 8% growth, the economy of today’s Iran would have resembled that of South Korea. During the decade preceding the Revolution, Iran was significantly ahead of Vietnam, S. Korea, and Turkey in terms of real GDP. By 2017, Iran had fallen way behind S. Korea and Turkey, leading only Vietnam in the comparison group.
Let me end this summary by pointing to two of the speaker’s slides, referring interested readers to the complete recording of the talk and the Q&A session, for additional details. The first slide compares the economic rankings of six countries during the period 1960-2025. Iran is seen to have risen to rank #17 by the late 1970s, falling to #29 by 2002, rising to #22 when oil revenues spiked, and falling down to #44 by 2025. The second slide shows IMF forecasts of economic growth/shrinkage (the bars, with scale on the left) and inflation rate (the heavy black line, with scale on the right).

2026/04/09 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of George Orwell's 'Animal Farm' (1) Images of the day: [Left] The pace of executions is accelerating in Iran: The mullahs aren’t just fighting externally but also against their own citizens. [Center] After one name change, Trump may be eying another change: By the way, Trump and his acolytes are already referring to the Persian Gulf as “the Arabian Gulf” or simply “the Gulf.” [Right] George Orwell's Animal Farm (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran's regime warns internal dissidents that they will be uprooted once the war is over. [1-minute video]
- For SF Bay Area readers: Roudaki Orchestra, under the direction of Shardad Rohani, May 31, 2026. [Image]
- Facebook memory from Apr. 9, 2025: Yet another round of negotiations with the Iranian mullahs.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 9, 2020: Iran’s regime shamelessly erases women from historical narratives.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 9, 2015: “God Only Knows,” by Brian Wilson and friends, on PBS.
(3) Book review: Orwell, George, Animal Farm, unabridged 3-hour audiobook, read by Ralph Gosham, Blackstone Audio, 1999. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
There are four essential books that help us make sense of our world in this third decade of the 21st century:
- Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, 1932 novel (my 5-star review).
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm, 1945 allegorical novel.
- George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949 novel (my 5-star review).
- Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, 1953 novel (my 5-star review).
When I realized that I have not written reviews of two of these books, despite having read them twice before, I decided to re-read both of them and to record my impressions here. I finished re-reading and reviewing Bradbury’s book recently. Here, I present my review of the fourth of these remarkable books. What a couple of decades 1932-1953 must have been!
Animal Farm serves as a manifesto on power corruption, totalitarianism, and the dangers of a society not questioning authority. Orwell imagined farm animals ousting Farmer Jones and controlling the farm themselves. Three pigs, Snowball, Squealer, and Napoleon, assume the farm’s leadership and define the Seven Commandments that will rule their society. Later, Napoleon gets rid of the other two pigs to become the undisputed leader. Over time, the pigs assume privileges and start abusing other animals, changing one of the rules to “All Animals Are Equal, But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others.” Napoleon announces that the farm will start trading with neighboring farms in order to fund a windmill project, violating another one of their rules. Thus, the pigs become indistinguishable from humans.
I was reminded of Animal Farm when it was reported in early March 2026 that Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader, had been chosen to succeed him. Just as Orwell imagined the conversion of the chant “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad” (their way of demonizing cruel, exploitative humans that the four-legged creatures had ousted) into the chant “Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better” (when the pig leaders came to enjoy walking on their two hind legs), Iran’s “pig” leaders came up with the modified slogan “Elected Leader Good, Hereditary Leader Better,” after criticizing the monarchical system they overthrew in part because of the absurdity of hereditary rule.

2026/04/08 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Art in the service of the land: A collaborative exhibit at the UCSB Library that celebrates the intersection of art and environmental stewardship. [Center] “Infinite Variety: The Many Lives of Shakespeare’s Texts”: This is the title of an exhibit at the UCSB Library that explores the many forms and many afterlives of Shakespeare’s art—from a single scrap of his crabbed handwritten text to the digital media of the 21st century. [Right] Samples of Mary Heebner’s work, on loan from the artist at the UCSB Library.
(2) Iran’s Islamic regime is waging war on four fronts: It is fighting Israel directly & through Hezbollah. It is fighting the US by attacking its bases in the Middle East region. It is attacking its neighbors around the Persian Gulf & elsewhere, even though they are not fighting back. Finally, it is waging war against the people of Iran by continually threatening them via radio/TV warnings, by increasing the number of political executions, and by severely limiting their access to communication channels, including a near-total Internet blackout.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- From Princeton engineering to cancer surgery: The unique, inspiring journey of Dr. Monica Bertagnolli.
- Quote of the day: “In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.” ~ Isaac Asimov
- Marching and protesting are important but they aren’t enough: Here are five practical steps to do more.
- Which is more frightening, men pretending to be women or fascists pretending to be Christians?
- Santiago Calatrava’s architecture: Seemingly moving structures for which gravity is optional. [Video]
- Imaginative architecture: Building a magnificent house out of cargo containers. [Video]
(4) The heated debate over 3-year college degrees: Multiple US states either already allow or are considering offering accelerated Bachelor’s degree programs that can be completed in three years. Other states appear to be jumping on the bandwagon of 3-year degrees. Three-year degrees are financially advantageous to students and public-university finances. The downside is a trimmed-down curriculum and/or intense year-round schedules that can lead to burnout, fewer opportunities for internship, and compromised social life & extracurricular activities.
In a typical 4-year program, most specialized courses are taken during the third and fourth years. So, either the number of specialized courses must be cut down or some of them pushed forward to the first and second years. Either strategy can compromise in-depth learning and make the college experience less fun.
Already, about 10% of students complete 4-year BA/BS degrees in 3 years. On the other hand, up to 20% of students take an extra year or two to complete a 4-year degree. Put another way, only 41-44% of students finish a 4-year degree program in 4 years. Common reasons for taking longer than 4 years include changing majors, working, and financial obligations.
Perhaps a reasonable middle ground would be to allow community colleges to experiment with 3-year BA/BS degree programs, creating a rapid career path to some and better preparation for those who want to transfer to 4-year colleges or to graduate schools.

2026/04/07 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Murals in Tehran against the ongoing war: Samples 1 & 2
IEEE TryEngineering is celebrating its 20th anniversary Statue honors a rat who sniffed out 100+ land mines in Cambodia (1) Images of the day: [Top left & right] Murals that go up in Iran against the ongoing war show no signs of Iran’s history or civilization: They're all based on idol worship & glorifying brutal enforcement of Islamic laws. [Top center] The roots of today’s war in Iran go back to atrocities committed by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists. [Bottom left] IEEE TryEngineering marks 20th anniversary: The program empowers educators with resources that introduce engineering to students at an early age. [Bottom center] Facebook memory from Apr. 7, 2017: The real reason for the war with Iran, according to Trump’s own logic. [Bottom right] A rat who sniffed out 100+ land mines in Cambodia is posthumously honored with a 7-foot statue.
(2) Lies and inconsistent claims: A full month of Trump claiming on a daily basis that he has defeated Iran and saying almost immediately that he will do more bombing to defeat Iran.
(3) Quote of the day (dedicated to the people of Iran): “The master says its a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland, and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live.” ~ Frank McCourt
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran and the US agree to a 2-week ceasefire: Not clear whether Israel is also a party to the agreement.
- March Madness ends in early April, with Michigan beating UConn to win the men’s basketball championship.
- A lesson for America: Hungary's MAGA-like government may soon lose power. [The Economist]
- Texas is considering putting readings from the Bible on the required reading list for public schools. [NYT]
- Facebook memory from Apr. 7, 2021: Today is World Health Day.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 7, 2020: Good old days, before cell phones and other distractions.
(5) Son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the leaders of the hostage-taking students at the American Embassy in Tehran and a prominent official of Iran’s Islamic regime, lives an affluent life in Los Angeles, while teaching super-rich California kids.
(6) The world’s largest water flow: The Atlantic Circumpolar Current (ACC) encircles Antarctica and has a volume 100 times that of all world rivers combined. Scientists believe that the current began, at first with a much lower volume, when Australia and South America drifted northward 34 million years ago. Then, westerly winds intensified the flow over time. Because ACC began when Earth’s atmosphere contained a great deal more carbon-dioxide than it does today, there is hope that more-detailed simulations of ACC’s origins will help with predictions about a warmer future.
(7) UCLA joins the Age-Friendly University Global Network: As people live longer past retirement, offering educational programs to them becomes even more beneficial for older individuals and for the society at large. University of California, Los Angeles, is expanding its age-friendly efforts with a task force & new Web site.

2026/04/06 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Diverse examples of calligraphic Persian/Arabic art. [Center] Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (see the last item below). [Right] Facebook memories: Posts from early April of years past.
(2) Why does a mirror flip left & right but not top & bottom? It turns out that the question just posed is misguided. In the process of explaining that a mirror actually flips front & back, that is, the direction that is perpendicular to its surface, Richard Feynman teaches us a great deal about physics. [40-minute lecture]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Pope Leo sends a commanding message of peace and dialog in his first Easter speech.
- In this 45-minute lecture, Richard Feynman argues that alien life is unlikely to look like life on Earth.
- UCLA women’s basketball team dominated South Carolina 79-51 to become national champions.
- Michigan to face UConn in the NCAA men’s basketball championship game, having defeated Arizona & Illinois.
(4) Book review: Bradbury, Ray, Fahrenheit 451, Simon and Schuster, 1950.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
There are four essential books that help us make sense of our world in this third decade of the 21st century:
- Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, 1932 novel (my 5-star review).
- George Orwell’s Animal Farm, 1945 novel.
- George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949 novel (my 5-star review).
- Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, 1953 novel.
When I realized that I have not written reviews of two of these books, despite having read them twice before, I decided to re-read both of them and to record my impression here. What a couple of decades 1932-1953 must have been!
Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury depicting a future American society where books are outlawed and "firemen" burn any found. Before starting to read the book on a previous occasion, I came across an enjoyable and informative audiobook, An Introduction to Fahrenheit 451 (National Endowment for the Arts, 2006), which provided me with some of the background material for this review.
Book-burning, be it in the literal sense of the term or in the form of preventing publication or confiscating printed copies, has a long history. Many important religious texts, philosophical treatises, and social commentaries have been banned at one time or another, and quite a few remain banned 2+ decades into the 21st century. Bradbury writes about a futuristic American society in which books have been banned and the remaining copies are incinerated upon discovery. People no longer enjoy nature and they are glued to large TV screens most of the time.
Guy Montag, a firefighter turned book-burner, starts having doubts about his job and his world view, in part because of a free-spirited young girl, Clarisse, who befriends him. A number of disturbing events in Montag's life, including Clarisse getting killed by a speeding car, push him over the edge. Following confrontation with his boss, whom he incinerates, Montag becomes a fugitive and finds a renegade group, "the Book People," who have memorized many great books as a way of preserving them. After a televised chase and an air raid, carried out to destroy Montag and his new friends, the group moves on to search for survivors and rebuild civilization.
Bradbury wrote the first draft of this wonderful book in nine days, after he discovered that in a basement room at the UCLA library, he could rent a typewriter for 10 cents per half-hour. At the time, his home had no space for an office, so that basement room became his office. He went there with a pocketful of dimes and began typing, occasionally going upstairs to collect quotes from library books, returning to the basement to write about them. When asked which book he would choose to memorize if he were one of the Book People in his own fiction, Bradbury said that he’d choose A Christmas Carol.

2026/04/05 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Easter (see the next item below). [Center] Easter humor: Be careful when biting off a piece of a chocolate bunny! [Right] Typical Passover breakfast for my family includes charoset.
(2) Easter, the American Pope, and an American war of choice: These three don’t go together. Easter is a celebration of victory over sin and death. It signifies hope, redemption, and the promise of eternal life.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth & President Donald Trump have been using religious references to justify the war and asking believers to pray for its success. The Pope has criticized those who invoke God for war, saying that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”
(3) Robert Reich debunks 11 myths of economics in this interesting 27-minute lecture: A key take-away is that economics isn’t a neutral science but is intertwined with politics and morality.
(4) A lucid explanation of the arrow of time: Why time moves in one direction. [22-minute lecture; just listen and ignore the annoying AI-generated video]
(5) Science stories for young readers: “The books in this year’s roundup represent some of the titles that appear on the latest of two lists prepared annually by the National Science Teaching Association and the Children’s Book Council—the ‘Best STEM Books K-12’ list and the ‘Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K-12’ list—which, together, point readers toward outstanding science books for children and young adults.”
(6) Faulting women for men’s lax morals: Islamists require women to cover themselves, because their hair, curves, and other physical attributes can turn men on. It never occurs to them that their focus should be on educating men so that they are not excited by the slightest hint of a woman’s body. “The problem with men who abuse women or girls isn’t that they have strong libidos; it is that they have weaker ethics and diminished respect for others,” writes David Steele in a letter to Washington Post, “Quit Making Excuses for Horny Men.”
(7) First humans in North & South America: 13,000 or 14,500 years ago? Until three decades ago, the consensus was that humans arrived in Americas no earlier than 13,000 years ago, as evidenced by well-dated spearheads with characteristic fluted bases known as Clovis points, named for the city in New Mexico near the archaeological site where they were first identified in 1929. This view is known as the “Clovis-first” hypothesis.
The hypothesis appeared to crack for good in 1997, when a cadre of archaeologists visited a site called Monte Verde in southern Chile. They studied the evidence for claims first made in 1979 that Monte Verde’s human occupation dates to about 14,500 years ago and gave them their stamp of approval.
Controversy has been reignited by a new study, which maintains that there has been some confusion in the Monte Verde dating, because of older sediments being mixed with newer ones due to a forest becoming a wetland and subsequently covered by ash from a volcanic eruption. These events caused some layers to become inverted in age.
Anyway, the fight has just begun and neither side is showing signs of giving up its favorite theory.

2026/04/04 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Iran: Example of miniature art The flags of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas Iran: Example of architecture (1) Iran and Islamic Republic aren’t the same: One is a country with a glorious history spanning thousands of years that is a source of its people’s pride. The other is a 47-year-old autocratic regime that has brought ruin to the country and is detested by an overwhelming majority of the people. Wishing for the demise of Islamic Republic isn’t the same as the treasonous act of selling out one’s country. Iran is experiencing the second Islamic occupation in the course of its long history. The damage of the ongoing war so far has been much smaller, both in terms of loss of life and loss of treasure, than what the mullahs' 47-year rule has inflicted upon the land. Both Israel and the US are justified in trying to remove a force that chants/prays/swears daily to destroy them and practically equips itself and trains/funds/arms terrorists to accomplish that end.
(2) The statement about bombing Iran "back to the Stone Ages where they belong" is an omen of upcoming intentional war crimes and a sure sign of intellectual & historical folly. [LinkedIn post by Rehan Naqvi]
(3) MIGA or RISA? These are conflicting stated aims of the war in Iran, both coming from proponents of war: Make Iran Great Again or Return Iran to Stone Age.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran's Islamic government has built thousands of bomb shelters: For their bombs, not for the people.
- Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman on what AI is now and where it’s headed. [22-minute TED talk]
- Expiration & use-by dates on most food items are made up: Don’t throw food away because of these dates.
- A lot of engineering goes into designing space toilets. [2-minute video]
(5) Is glass a liquid or a solid? It satisfies some properties of a liquid, yet it does not flow like a liquid. The solid/liquid dichotomy is quite artificial, and glass sits somewhere in between. [43-minute lecture]
(6) Former Iranian FM Javad Zarif is delusional and in a bind: He has proposed that Iran enter into a comprehensive peace treaty with the US to end 47 years of hostilities, now that it is winning the war. Several hardliners have called for his head, if he doesn't apologize. [Post on X]
(7) A felon voted in Florida, which has a law against it: Yet, convicted felon Donald Trump recently voted in that state. And he used mail-in voting, a method he has called “mail-in cheating.”
(8) Richard Feynman lives on: The physicist who gave us many new ideas and helped explain the universe to curious non-physicists has found a new life in AI-generated videos. I don’t know who writes the engaging narratives in these videos, but hearing them in Feynman’s voice makes them relatable and convincing.
In this example, Feynman tells us that the barriers to interstellar travel aren’t engineering problems waiting for better materials, they are connected to the deepest structures of physical laws we have found thus far.
(9) Final thought for the day: Fifty years after its launch in 1977, Voyager 1 will be 1 light-day away from Earth. And it is still talking to us! For comparison, the nearest star is over 4 light-years away. If Voyager 1 keeps going, it will be that far away in 40,000 years.

2026/04/03 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Forty years of Santa Barbara Independent: The anniversary will be celebrated by a SB Public Library exhibit, which runs from April 2 to May 31, 2026. Images show SB Independent covers for the first issue (November 26, 1986) and the latest issue. [Right] People can be quite generous with fake money: This is what I got from a passerby during my daily walk.
(2) Artificial certainty: One of things that makes AI dangerous is its canny ability (or, should we say, tendency) to make uncertain things look certain. In a new paper, entitled “Knowing Enough to Be Dangerous: The Problem of ‘Artificial Certainty’ for Expert Authority When Using AI for Decision Making and Planning,” Paul Leonardi (UCSB) and Virginia Leavell (U. Cambridge) point out the dangers of being misled by detailed and realistic-looking representations, along with highly-precise simulations, into believing that the future is knowable with certainty. AI models should propagate to users the inherent uncertainties arising from the underlying stochastic models.
(3) Quote of the day: “One difference between Nixon and Trump: When the Republicans nominated Nixon, they didn’t actually know he was a crook.” ~ Author Stephen King
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Lebanon deems Iran’s ambassador a menace and asks him to leave: He vows to remain in his post.
- Women adhering to biblical patriarchy think women shouldn’t vote, and the idea may be catching on. [NYT]
- Macron, on Russia's threat: I believe that the US will stand by our side, but we have to be ready if it doesn’t.
- Borowitz Report (humor): Iran agrees to end the war only if there is regime change in the US.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 2, 2023: My couplet inspired by the first two verses of a Hafez poem.
(5) Mega data centers not only reshape the energy landscape due to their GW-scale power requirements, they also cause a serious shortage in memory chips, with the resulting price surge hurting consumer electronics.
(6) A solution to AI’s citation hallucinations: “Our assumption that information is likely wrong, until we see reasonable evidence otherwise, is part of what makes us successful as scientists. Now, we just need to apply it to citations as well.”
(7) “The Hidden History of Native American Enslavement”: For most of us, the word “slavery” conjures up the image of black slaves forcefully removed from Africa. But there were quite a few Native Americans who were captured and sold into slavery. This New Yorker article tells some of their stories.
(8) Final thought for the day (researcher vs. engineer): Should there be a distinction anymore? Today’s scientists/researchers design things, be they experiments, measuring instruments, or falsification processes. Engineers increasingly look deep into the theoretical side in their pursuit of highly-optimized designs and assessment methodologies. Today’s tech worker is most likely a researcher/engineer. When I look at my own colleagues at UCSB, many of them would fit equally well in the Departments of Statistics, Physics, Computer Science, and a number of engineering disciplines.

2026/04/02 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy 'Sizdah Beh Dar,' the Iranian Nature Day $Math Puzzle: A square area is divided into four regions, as shown, with two of the regions having areas of 25 and 29 cm^2. Find k$ Cover image for 'For the Sun After Long Nights' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy 13th day of the Persian New Year (“Sizdah Beh Dar”): Under normal, non-war conditions, Iranians spend this day, which marks the end of Nowruz holidays, in communion with nature, feasting, dancing, and playing games. [Center] Math Puzzle: A square area is divided into four regions, as shown, with two of the regions having areas of 25 and 29 cm^2. Find k. [Right] For the Sun After Long Nights (see the last item below).
(2) Your eyes can see the color magenta, even though it does not exist in the color spectrum: Therefore, the explanation that each color is simply a wavelength doesn’t work. Any given color is a mix of different frequencies, each with a particular intensity. The human eye approximates this mix with three numbers, coming from three types of photoreceptors in the eye. Because of this approximation, two different colors may be indistinguishable to us.
Dogs have two types of photoreceptors, so their notion of color is completely different from us. Pigeons, on the other hand, see four primary colors, leading to greater discrimination.
In short, color isn't a fundamental property of objects but a construction dictated by our visual abilities and limitations. Richard Feynman's avatar explains in this 42-minute lecture.
(3) Insects the size of a big dog: Prehistoric insects, such as the Meganeuropsis dragonfly from the Carboniferous Period, once had wingspans approaching 1 meter. Modern insects are limited in size by oxygen levels, though some, like the giant weta, can weigh as much as a small sparrow.
(4) One reason we feel tired all the time is that our caveman brains are overwhelmed by the immense number of decisions we make every day. [13-minute video]
(5) Book review: Jamalpour, Fatemeh and Nilo(ofar) Tabrizy, For the Sun After Long Nights: The Story of Iran’s Women-Led Uprising, Pantheon, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, by Fatemeh Jamalpour (a feminist freelance journalist banned from working in Iran) and Nilo Tabrizy (an investigative Washington Post reporter), begins with an introduction that retells the story of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death while in the custody of Iran’s Islamic Morality Police and how it led to the #WomanLifeFreedom movement. The rest of the book is structured in three parts, focusing on the three elements of the movement’s slogan, expressed in Kurdish, Persian, and English.
Part I: Jin/Zan, Woman
Part II: Jiyan/Zendegi, Life
Part III: Azadi/Azadi, Freedom
The chapter titles echo verses in the song “Baraa-ye” by Sherwin Hajipour, which captures the spirit of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement. The song earned Hajipour a special Grammy Award and an almost 4-year prison sentence. Sadly, multi-year prison sentences are quite common for peaceful protests in Iran, even when the protest takes the form of words or poems.
In each chapter, the two authors separately express their viewpoints on the topic at hand, collectively telling the readers how the authors came to experience the women-led Mahsa movement, and its place & impact on the long-running feminist opposition to personal restrictions placed on them by the Islamist rulers and, earlier, by Iran’s patriarchal society under masculine autocracy.
Fatemeh & Nilo write separately in dedicating the book to a number of women and one man.
- To Mina Akbari, Taraneh Alidoosti, Sepideh Qolian, and all my sisters who ran with me in Iran’s streets
- For my mamani, Maman Roya, and Baba Hossein for instilling in me the strength and kindness of our people

2026/04/01 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Passover to my family and Jewish friends: May we see peace prevail in the coming year. [Center] Today’s moonset, just before 6:00 AM. [Right] The world’s biggest data center is coming: Even though META’s stated 5-GW scale is the largest among its peers, it’s just one of several dozen similar projects now underway.
(2) AI-generated paper passes peer review: An international team of researchers submitted three papers written by an AI system, without human involvement, to a workshop at the 2025 International Conference on Learning Representations; one paper passed peer review.
(3) Richard Feynman, on cargo-cult science: Scientists must be careful not to fall into cult thinking, seemingly following scientific norms but pursuing evidence that confirm their preferred outcomes, while ignoring anything that challenges their prejudices. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Happy Donald J. Trump Day!
- 3D-printed batteries that fit every nook and cranny could extend the range of drones.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 1, 2024: How the name "April Fool's Day" came about.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 1, 2019 (1): Today is the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- Facebook memory from Apr. 1, 2019 (2): Today is the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
(5) Final thought for the day: Warren Buffet, on 7 things to avoid: 19-minute video.
- Buying new cars
- Buying lottery tickets
- Taking pay-day loans
- Renting furniture & electronics
- Buying extended warranties
- Buying premium cable/streaming services
- Buying fast-food & convenience-store items
(6) “Challenges faced by older adults in using mobile apps and a way forward”: This is the title of a fascinating article in the February 2026 issue of IEEE Computer magazine, which looks into causes for the low adoption of mobile apps by older adults. Aging poses three challenges for technology adoption.
- Physical: Decline in vision (color discrimination), hearing, & motor control (for swiping)
- Cognitive: Decline in attention, memory, executive function, language, & spatial abilities
- Motivational: Habits, resistance to change, lack of experience with, & attitude toward, tech

2026/03/31 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
cover image of Scott Anderson's 'King of Kings' The nationwide average per-gallon regular gas price in the US surpasses $4.00: Here’s a breakdown by state (1) Images of the day: [Left] Historically, presidential approval rating plumets when gas prices rise. [Center] Scott Anderson's King of Kings (see the last item below). [Right] The nationwide average regular gas price in the US surpasses $4.00 per gallon: Here’s a breakdown by state.
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- NATO air defense intercepted & destroyed a ballistic missile fired from Iran toward Turkish airspace.
- Iranian dissident Nasrin Sotoudeh: “With its idiotic defiance, the regime has put us on the brink of death.”
- In 3 minutes flat, thieves stole works by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse from a private museum in Italy. [NYT]
- Some World Cup 2026 teams are from countries for which there are US tourist visa bans. [The New Yorker]
- Facebook memory from Mar. 31, 2022: The 2-rial coin (now worth ~$0.000001) was used in pay phones.
(3) Book review: Anderson, Scott, King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation, unabridged 18-hour audiobook, read by the author and Malcolm Hillgartner, Books on Tape, 2025. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This is fascinating and well-written book by the NYT best-selling author of Lawrence in Arabia (not to be confused with Lawrence of Arabia). Anderson presents his narrative in 3 parts entitled “Toward a Great Civilization” (7 chapters), “The Unraveling” (5 chapters), and “Downfall” (7 chapters). He devotes more than half of the fairly long epilogue to a detailed account of a group of rogue students taking 66 Americans hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, with 52 of them detained for 444 days, until January 20, 1981, the day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as US President. He also reflects on reasons the Shah, “a soft man masquerading as a hard one,” failed to act to save his throne and how the entire machinery of Western intelligence couldn’t understand Khomeini or reveal his backward ideas to the Iranian people.
In the early 1970s Iran, Shah Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi had become quite cocky: His minions had bestowed upon him the titles "Shahanshah" (King of Kings) and "Arya-Mehr" (Light/Love of the Aryans), he had assembled the world's fifth-largest army, and he was viewed as an indispensable ally of the West in fighting the Cold War. US President Jimmy Carter was wary of SAVAK, the Shah's secret police, and its human-rights abuses, but that didn't stop him from toasting the Shah in Tehran on New Year's Eve 1977, referring to him as a beloved leader whose leadership had turned Iran into an island of stability.
Within months of Carter's "island of stability" comment, nationwide strikes and street protests grinded Iran's progress to a halt, leading to the Shah's downfall within a year. The Shah's inner insecurity was instrumental in his downfall. Anderson places the Iranian revolution at the very top in terms of significance, alongside the French and Russian revolutions.
Almost immediately after Carter's departure, the shah, buoyed by the compliments bestowed upon him, directed a senior cabinet minister to organize a pseudonymous, innuendo-laden newspaper article accusing Ayatollah Khomeini, who was living in exile in Najaf, Iraq, of being a British agent. The minister warned the Shah that publishing such an article would stir up trouble. But the shah didn't accept this advice, thus accelerating his own downfall.
A particularly haughty gesture of the Shah was holding an extravagant party in 1971 to commemorate the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire. Dignitaries from around the world were invited to spend a few days in the vicinity of Persepolis, where they attended lavish feasts and watched shows & processions, including one involving thousands of horsemen. Official figures for the cost of this most-expensive party in history are in the vicinity of $20 million (1971 dollars), but various independent estimates are a factor 5-15 higher. Yet the guest list was composed almost exclusively of foreigners, leading one of the guests to ask where the Iranians were! The temporary luxury buildings to house the dignitaries, with many amenities including air-conditioning, were built entirely in France, shipped to Iran, and reassembled locally. All menu items were imported, with the only local item being caviar.
Championing higher oil prices was another one of the Shah’s miscalculations. He would frequently confront Saudi Arabia at OPEC meetings over price increases. The Saudis were more conservative in this regard and threatened to flood the world markets with cheap oil, should OPEC opt for exorbitant price hikes. Ironically, higher oil prices barely helped Iran’s economy, given its heavy dependence on imports for everything from arms to food staples, whose prices would rise almost immediately after each hike in oil prices.
The Shah's arrogance and miscalculations, and the revolution they triggered, brought about transformations in the Middle East that had global reverberations in terms of a serious escalation of terrorism threats, cross-border tensions, and several regional wars. They also gave rise to religious nationalism in the region. One might go as far as saying that Russia's invasion of Ukraine might not have happened without the Iranian revolution.
The Shah's delusion of being loved by his people blinded him to realities in Iran and sources of people's disdain for him and his rule. Queen Farah apparently had a better understanding of the widespread dissatisfaction among Iranians, but her advice also fell on deaf ears. The Shah's end was a tale worthy of a Shakespearian tragedy. He died in exile from cancer, after being driven from country to country as an unwanted resident.
As I write this review at the end of March 2026, the late Shah’s son, Reza, is promoting himself as the next leader of Iran to help transition the country from a detested Islamic Republic to a democratic form of government. Yet he often dodges questions about his father’s dictatorial rule and serious human-rights abuses.

2026/03/30 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) The California Science and Health Research Bond Act (Senate Bill 895): This state legislative initiative will increase funding for scientific research through a $23 billion bond issue. If approved by voters in the next statewide election, the bond will help establish a new California Foundation for Science and Health Research to compensate for cuts and uncertainties in federal research funding.
(2) In early April 2026, NASA astronauts will fly by the Moon for the first time since 1972. Landing on the Moon is a few years away. [Lift-off: 4/1] [Earth-orbit tests: 4/1-2] [Moon fly-by: 4/6] [Splash-down on Earth: 4/10]
(3) UAE has started to revoke visas of Iranian citizens: This is causing panic among wealthy Iranians and IRGC shell companies that do significant business there.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Saturday's "No Kings" rallies were the largest protest ever: They attracted 8 million people across the US.
- Sixty percent of Iran’s attacks have been directed at UAE, more than all other countries combined.
- Some surprising impacts of the Iran war include shorter showers in Korea and less butter chicken in India.
- Irish blessing: “May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten.”
(5) Facebook memory from Mar. 30, 2024: Let’s bring back the peace symbol, which seems to have been forgotten. Peace among nations of the world, for sure, but also among our fellow Americans.
(6) AI proof-checker uncovers an error in a widely-cited 2006 physics paper on the stability of the two Higgs doublet model potential: The authors have acknowledged the error and will publish a correction. [New Scientist]
(7) CPUs are making a comeback in artificial intelligence: After being dominated by GPUs for many years, AI algorithms are again using CPUs. Nvidia has announced a new server-rack comprised only of Vera CPUs, with a new CPU-only data center being planned by Meta.
(8) Musings of a curious engineer: I have often wondered about whether Costco makes money from its free samples, or are they like the $1.50 hot dogs at the food court, which lose money but bring shoppers in, who then buy other stuff? This 8-minute video explains the economics of free samples at Costco.
To begin with, free samples do not constitute an expense for Costco. The samples and the people who serve them are provided/paid by the manufacturers of the sampled products. In fact, Costco charges those manufacturers for the privilege of hosting a samples station.
The aroma of samples, usually coming right before dinner time, does cause shoppers to buy the products sampled or other food items. A typical product gets a 40% sales surge on the samples day and another 15% for several weeks afterwards (the halo effect).
So, the next time you avail yourself of free samples, or even take multiple samples, don’t feel “reciprocity guilt.” Your free pleasure is more than paid for by increased sales. An estimated 17% of Costco’s revenue is attributable to free samples.

2026/03/29 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Find the ratio of lengths x:y and the ratios of areas A:B:C:D$ Supermarket sign in Tehran: 'Take what you need, pay after the war' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Visualization of the increase in the number of space objects over seven decades, 1957-present. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the ratios of lengths x:y and areas A:B:C:D. [Right] Supermarket sign in Tehran: "No worries. If you need something, take it. Bring the money after the war."
(2) Iran is committing suicide: The mullahs & IRGC think they have a winning card in Strait of Hormuz, but there is no way they can maintain long-term control over the waterway.
(3) Some Iranian opposition forces are closing their eyes on the month-old war in Iran and the brutal oppression of Iranians by the Islamic regime, aiming their daggers toward Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi because of her cooperation with Reza Pahlavi.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Quds Day rally in London was more about supporting Iran’s ayatollahs than Palestinians.
- As quite a few people have noted on social media, we need a regime change in the US as much as in Iran.
- Iran's total Internet shutdown reaches a full month (2/28 to 3/29; 30 days).
- Judeo-Persian (Persian written in Hebrew script) vs. local Jewish languages of Iran. [Video]
- How Ukraine leveled the battlefield against Russia with innovations in land/sea/aerial drones.
- We’re still discovering new wonders on Earth in the 21st century: Vietnam's Son Doong cave passage.
(5) AI use in writing & reviewing papers reaches a critical point: A major conference on artificial intelligence rejected 497 papers (~2% of all submissions), whose authors violated AI-use policies in their peer reviews of other articles submitted to the meeting.
(6) From poverty to a pioneer in artificial intelligence: Fei-Fei Li came to the US at age 16 with her parents, who worked as cashiers. She cleaned houses and served at a restaurant for $2 an hour. Her high school teacher noticed her and lent her family money to buy a dry cleaner, a business she ran for 7 years while pursuing a PhD at Caltech. She declined several lucrative jobs and, instead, started ImageNet in 2006, an immense dataset that was used to teach machines to see. She now directs Stanford’s AI lab and has earned the honorific “The Godmother of AI.” [Fei-Fei Li’s 15-minute TED talk, from 2024]
(7) Two new studies shed light on Neanderthals: They lived between 400,000 and 42,000 years ago. Though skilled in hunting big games, harvesting plants, fashioning clothes from animal skins, and making stone tools, they always lived on a razor’s edge. One reason is that their small, far-flung communities might have led to significant inbreeding. They nearly went extinct around 75,000 years ago, when shifting climate killed all but a few thousands of them and forced the survivors to hole up in the valleys of southern France. Then they bounced back and repopulated Europe, before going extinct 30,000 years later, owing to a combination of sharp climate swings and the arrival of anatomically modern humans.
(8) Final thought for the day: “Are Smart People Ruining Democracy?” This is the title of a 13-minute talk by Professor Dan Kahan of Yale University Law School. Presenting data from a number of research studies, Kahan argues that higher numeracy (ability to draw inferences from data) actually leads people to incorrect conclusions when those false conclusions align with their tribal/political beliefs. In other words, these smart/numerate people actually use their inference abilities to build false narratives that make their biased views look reasonable. [9-minute Veritasium video]

2026/03/28 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Stuart Stevens' 'It Was All a Lie' Let’s redact Trump’s name from the dollar bills that will be released soon: He would really like that (1) Images of the day: [Left] This afternoon at Santa Barbara’s “No Kings” rally: Gathering and speeches at Alameda Park, followed by march along Anacapa Street. The flip side of my sign read: “Kings Belong in Museums.” [Center] Stuart Stevens' It Was All a Lie (see the last item below). [Right] Let’s redact Trump’s name from the dollar bills that will be released soon: He would really like that.
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Thousands of “No Kings” protests held across the US: Opposition to war & ICE cruelty were main themes.
- Earth Hour 2026: At 8:30 PM local time, Sat. 3/28, we turned off inessential lights to give our Earth a break.
- Iran's parliament contemplates a law that would impose a toll on ships passing through Strait of Hormuz.
- Yemen’s Houthi rebels waded into the expanding Middle East conflict, by firing two missiles at Israel.
(3) Book review: Stevens, Stuart, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by Dan John Miller, Books on Tape, 2020.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Stevens is a former Republican who worked on multiple political campaigns of GOP politicians at all levels. He maintains that it wasn’t Trump who destroyed the Republican Party. Trump is actually a fitting representative of the modern GOP that has repeatedly violated its supposed bedrock principles, their immutable truths: Character counts, personal responsibility, strong on Russia, the national debt actually mattered, immigration made America great. The book is dedicated “To the Deep State patriots who are defending America.”
In the book’s prologue, entitled “It Was All a Lie,” Stevens tells us how he came to his senses after discovering that he was betrayed by his party. “What a fool I was. All of these immutable truths turned out to be mere marketing slogans. … It’s not that I failed. I was paid to win races for the Republicans, and while I didn’t win every race, I had the best win-loss record of anyone in my business. So yes, blame me. Blame me when you look around and see a dysfunctional political system and a Republican Party that has gone insane. … It is a strange, melancholy feeling to turn sixty-five and realize that what you have spent a good portion of your live working for and toward was not only meritless but also destructive. … Trump isn’t an aberration of the Republican Party; he is the Republican Party in a purified form. … I was there and, yes, I contributed. This is not an ‘I am better than them’ plea. … Many will argue that my view of the Republican Party is distorted by my loathing of Trump. The truth is that Trump brought it all into clarity and made the pretending impossible.”
After the foregoing reflection on his sense of guilt, Stevens presents his case in nine chapters, whose titles provide good clues to their contents and tones.
Chapter 1: Race, the Original Republican Sin
Chapter 2: Family Values
Chapter 3: The Long Con
Chapter 4: Confederacy of Dunces
Chapter 5: Machinery of Deception
Chapter 6: What Are They Afraid Of?
Chapter 7: The Anti-American Patriots
Chapter 8: The Empire’s Last Stand
Chapter 9: How Do Lies End?
Stevens observes that two of his former clients, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, were fundamentally decent men who led principled lives. Neither could win today. Bush submitted an impassioned resignation letter to the National Rifle Association after the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. No Republican today dares to cross the NRA. There are some signs of hope even today. Moderate Republican governors remain popular. Yet, Stevens sees little hope of reforming the Republican Party. Burning it to the ground and starting over is more likely to work.

2026/03/27 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Amazing math: Visual proof for the identity 'sum of cubes of the integers from 1 to n is the square of their sum'$ Cover image for 'Science Under Siege' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Turing Test: Which one's the robot? Melania Trump promotes humanoid robots as education aids. [Center] Amazing math: Visual proof for the identity “sum of cubes of the integers from 1 to n is the square of their sum.” [Right] Science Under Siege (see the last item below).
(2) Trump has proposed a 15-point peace plan to Iran, which contains 5 main points. Iran has countered with its own set of 5 demands. The two lists have nothing in common, yet Trump continues to claim progress!
(3) Tech in court: In a case in London's High Court involving ownership and control of UK-based private property company Oneta Ltd., the judge dismissed evidence from a witness when it was revealed he was being coached through his smart glasses.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UAE is furious that Iran targeted them with 60% of missiles and drones it fired at the Persian Gulf region.
- Cartoon caption of the day: Book 1 to Book 2: “I heard your appendix was removed. You look a lot thinner!”
- The beauty of cherry blossoms in Washington, DC: A pictorial.
- Facebook memory from Mar. 27, 2016: Roya Hakakian points out similarities between Trump & Khomeini.
(5) Book review: Mann, Michael E. and Peter J. Hotez, Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World, PublicAffairs, 2025.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Politically- and ideologically-driven opposition to science is nothing new. However, such opposition has direr consequences today, when humanity faces tougher challenges than ever. The authors, both well-known and respected scientists (Mann in climate science, Hotez in epidemiology), have been on the front lines of the battle against misinformation and disinformation about science. Anti-science forces have done more than merely spread misinformation and disinformation. In August 2025, a shooter showed up at the US Center for Disease Control campus in Atlanta, Georgia, firing 180 rounds and killing one officer, because he believed that COVID-19 vaccine had caused him physical and mental harms.
The authors tackle their subject by identifying five main anti-science forces, the five Ps.
- Plutocrats: Billionaires & corporations (oil interests) who aim to protect their profits.
- Petro-states: Authoritarian nations that oppose efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
- Pros aka talking-head “experts” who promote contrarian views or junk science.
- Phonies or propagandists, that is, on-line trolls, bot armies, and political operatives.
- The (far-right) press that feign balance by giving equal weight to crackpot theories.
The authors then offer a roadmap for dismantling these anti-science forces by shining a light on the dark-money channels that feed them. The book contains plenty of examples from the authors’ own personal experiences, including threats against them. Given the authors’ domains of expertise, emphasis is placed on climate-change denial and opposition to life-saving vaccines.
Finally, they call fellow scientists and other society members to action against scientific misinformation and disinformation. They urge scientists to engage in the political process, the media to hold bad actors accountable, and the general public to learn to recognize the dangers of escalating anti-science rhetoric.
PBS Newshour had an interview with the authors on 2025/10/07.

2026/03/26 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: Imagining a topsy-turvy world (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: This red liquid is what parents dabbed on a cut or a skinned knee when I was a kid. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Imagining a topsy-turvy world. [Right] Sources and destinations of oil passing through Strait of Hormuz.
(2) Trump cannot win any awards, so his minions create new awards to bestow upon him: FIFA's "Peace Award" is one. The latest is US Congress’ “America First Award.”
(3) Dumping millions of documents from the Epstein files on the public, with no index or explanation, isn’t accountability, it’s abdication: “Releasing millions of pages without a clear road map shifts the burden from the state to the public, journalists and the victims themselves to sift through the wreckage,” writes Jagjit Singh in a letter to Washington Post.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Jury finds Meta and YouTube negligent in landmark case involving social media safety.
- A major advance for space travel: UK start-up Pulsar Fusion ignites plasma inside nuclear fusion rocket.
- Extragalactic archaeology: Studying the development of distant galaxies using changes in gas patterns.
- Cartoon caption of the day: “As long as the tomb is closed, Jesus is both alive and dead.”
(5) NASA is moving ahead with its next generation of flagship Earth-observing satellites: Last year, Trump tried to kill the project. The missions are called Falcon (Fleet for the Atmosphere Linking Commercial Observations with NASA) and Eagle (Explorer for Artemis Geology Lunar and Earth).
(6) Self-propagating malware poisons open-source software, wipes Iran-based machines: Researchers at Belgium's Aikido Security identified a malware campaign, dubbed CanisterWorm, used by a newly identified hacking group to spread a self-propagating backdoor, and a data wiper aimed specifically at Iranian devices. The attack, thought to be an extension of the group's recent compromise of the Trivy vulnerability scanner, was later updated to automate the process of spreading the worm.
(7) The US government is buying your data without a warrant: The data broker industry collects vast amounts of personal information from apps and browsers and sells it to advertisers, as well as US government agencies. Privacy advocates are urging Congress to address the issue during the upcoming debate over Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, set to expire April 20.
(8) Implantable device with insulin-producing cells could offer new long-term management method for type 1 diabetes: Study shows cells can survive in body for at least 90 days.

2026/03/25 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Talk on STEM education (see the next item below). [Center] Facebook memories from Mar. 25 of years past. [Right] Iran is now a military dictatorship (see the last item below).
(2) Tonight’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Yours truly spoke under the title “Improving STEM Education in California.” [PDF slides of my talk]
The umbrella term "Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics" (STEM), and its STEAM variant, where "Arts" is also included to foster holistic and creative design, encompasses fields that play key roles in national and international economic advancement and prosperity. Ever since the onset of the space race in the late 1950s, there have been growing concerns in the US that other countries are challenging us in terms of the number and quality of their STEM graduates. Therefore, initiatives to improve STEM education have proliferated at the national, state, and local levels. University of California, as the premier system of higher education in the world's fourth largest economy, has been at the forefront of such efforts.
In this talk, after introductory remarks on the importance and status of STEM education in general, I described my past and ongoing efforts in the area of STEM education, including 53 years of teaching & research, writing of 6 textbooks, and:
- Introducing advanced STEM topics to first-year college students through a puzzle-based seminar.
- Designing extracurricular math lessons for 4th- to 8th-graders under the umbrella of “Math + Fun.”
I then reported on UC's latest efforts, as discussed at "UC Academic Congress: Math Preparation and STEM Pathways," held virtually on March 9-10, 2026.
Details, including complete agenda, for UC Academic Congress just cited. [Link]
UC Report “Expanding Opportunity: Chemistry, Math, and the Future of STEM at UC.” [52-page PDF file]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Saudi Arabia’s crown prince MBS is pushing Trump to keep fighting Iran, put boots on the ground. [NYT]
- The intense competition for solving cubic equations and how it led to the invention of complex numbers.
- Comedian Bill Maher to receive Mark Twain Prize at Kennedy Center, after White House denied reports.
- Santa Barbara’s “No Kings” rally is back: Saturday, March 28, 2026, Alameda Park, 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
(4) It’s now clear why Iran’s Islamic government arrested environmental activists and charged them with spying: They were afraid of their weapons factories and ammunition depots some of which is up to 500 m underground, with an internal rail network and automated transport systems.
(5) Final thought for the day: Iran has turned from a theocratic dictatorship to a military dictatorship. Nearly all of the important communications out of Iran are coming from IRGC. They are threatening countries in the region with retaliation if they assist the US. They are warning Iranian citizens that they will be treated harshly if they echo statements made by the “enemy.” They are placing commanders on the state-run TV to read statements full of lies about the war and the status of the country. More statements are being issued by IRGC than by the Supreme-Leader-in-Hiding.

2026/03/24 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A 5-month-old bird flew nonstop 8425 miles from Alaska to Australia Cover image for Orhan Pamuk's 'The Museum of Innocence' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Bombing history: At least 56 cultural sites, monuments, and museums in Iran have been damaged since US and Israeli attacks began on February 28, 2026. Most of the towns being bombed are filled with historic houses and a lot of other cultural heritage, which for now remain unknown due to the Internet blackout. [Center] A 5-month-old bird flew 8425 miles from Alaska to Australia, with no food, no water, and no stops. [Right] Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence (see the last item below).
(2) Hundreds of thousands of children born outside the United States are adopted by American families. Now, decades later, many of them are vulnerable to deportation. [NYT]
(3) NASA’s Perseverance Rover gets its own GPS-like system for independent navigation on Mars: The new capability, called “Mars Global Localization,” is based on matching the Rover’s panoramic camera images against on-board orbital maps, and it can pinpoint the Rover’s position within 10 inches (0.25 meter), using 2 minutes of computation time. This is much faster than the 6-44 minutes needed for round-trip signal travel time when using Earth-based guidance and navigation.
(4) What color is your news? This is the question asked by Santa Barbara Independent columnist Starshine Roshell: “The real problem begins when we consumers decry the bias in other people’s media … without recognizing the bias inherent in our own.”
(5) Working out can lower Alzheimer’s risk: According to a new study in mice, exercise prompts the liver to release a protein that travels to the brain and helps repair damage. [Washington Post]
(6) US Vice President J. D. Vance is walking a tightrope, trying to seem supportive of Trump’s war while protecting his presidential chances in the face of strong anti-war sentiments.
(7) Is Iran a country or a huge military base? Iranians have begun to realize that for years, they lived amidst ammunition depots, fleets of missile launchers, drone & missile warehouses, nuclear facilities, underground tunnels & bunkers for the mullahs, and armies of American & Israeli spies!
(8) Book review: Pamuk, Orhan (translated by Maureen Freely), The Museum of Innocence: A Novel, Deckle Edge, 2009. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Turkey is front and center in virtually all of Nobel Laureate Orhan Pamuk’s writings: The country that is caught between admiring the West and pride in its now-faded imperial grandeur. He weaves together tales of Turkey’s rich culture and mostly-backward society, recently augmented with Islamic fundamentalism. This book, written after Pamuk’s body of work that was honored by the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, is at its core a love story, but, not surprisingly, contains elements of loss, war, and politics. Part of Pamuk’s appeal to Western readers is his explanation of the Turkish society and dispelling our stereotypical views.
We are introduced to Kemal, the son of a textile magnate, and his fiancee, Sibel. Kemal cheats on Sibel with an 18-year-old distant relative, Fusun, a tryst that turns into a destructive love affair, and an obsession on the part of Kemal. Sibel breaks up with Kamal, and Fusun is married off to a penniless filmmaker. Kemal puts together his own private museum of items belonging to Fusun or reminding him of their love affair. Fusun’s marriage falls apart after 8 years. It seems, momentarily, that the stage is set for the old lovers getting back together, but Pamuk introduces other twists and turns.
This is a beautifully-written novel about giving in to temptation and suffering the consequences for the rest of one’s life. Told against the background of the cosmopolitan Istanbul, the storyline involves Turkey’s glitzy and glamorous film industry. The notion of love in a country like Turkey is quite different from the Western version. As Pamuk tells us, from the mouth of Kemal’s mother, “In a country where men and women can’t be together socially, where they can’t see each other or even have a conversation, there’s no such thing as love.”
The book was turned into a 2026 Netflix drama series, made by a Turkish producer. The producer replaced a previous movie-rights owner that made changes to the script against Pamuk’s sensibilities. Pamuk sued and gained the rights back. The new production company allowed Pamuk to sign off on every page of the script, so the resulting drama series is quite faithful to the book.

2026/03/23 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for David Brooks' 'How to Know a Person' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Proof positive that ICE agents are much more murderous than undocumented immigrants. [Center] David Brooks' How to Know a Person (see the last item below). [Right] Turning a problem into a solution: Finnish engineers placed data centers underground and directed their excess heat, that is normally removed at great expense, into the city’s heating network that keeps homes, offices, and public buildings warm. Innovation is sometimes about seeing value in what others throw away.
(2) TACO is good news this time around: Trump postpones his threat of bombing Iran’s infrastructure and says that talks have begun. Iran has had no reaction.
(3) US and Israeli intelligence: Iran’s new Supreme Leader survived recent attacks and remains alive in hiding, but he is refusing to meet even his own top officials for security reasons.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Two pilots killed when an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck on the runway at La Guardia Airport.
- Trump’s random, inconsistent, and, at times, contradictory economic decisions are hurting our country.
- China dominates the rare-earth-elements industry, but an American company hopes to challenge its grip.
- Iraqi women's & human rights activist Yanar Mohammed killed at her residence in northern Baghdad.
(5) When you have hired lots of ICE agents (hammers) you tend to use them for protecting Olympics athletes, helping with congestion at airports, and any other problem (nails).
(6) Book review: Brooks, David, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen, Random House, 2023. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I know and appreciate David Brooks from his New York Times columns and PBS Newshour commentaries. He is also a best-selling author of multiple books. Politically, he is classified as a conservative, so I often disagree with his political views. Nevertheless, I can probably claim that I see him deeply.
The welcoming and hopeful narrative in this book draws from the fields of psychology & neuroscience and from the worlds of theater, philosophy, history, & education to impress upon us the absolute importance of seeing others, friends or adversaries, deeply and making them feel seen. In mastering this skill, we also learn to make ourselves be valued, heard, and understood.
The book is structured in 3 parts and 17 chapters, as follows:
- Part 1 (Chs. 1-7): I See You
- Part 2 (Chs. 8-12): I See You in Your Struggles
- Part 3 (Chs. 13-17): I See You with Your Strengths
The essence of Part 1 is in Chapters 6 & 7, entitled “Good Talks” & “The Right Questions.” Meaningful conversations, as well as listening loudly, not fearing pauses or silence, and asking specific, rather than vague or lazy, questions are among the key recommendations. Part 1 ends with this gem of an observation: “Each person is a mystery. And when you are surrounded by mysteries, as the saying goes, it’s best to live life in the form of a question” [p. 93].
Each of the 5 chapters in Part 2 covers an important impediment or skill for making connections with others: “The Epidemic of Blindness,” “Hard Conversations,” “How Do You Serve a Friend Who is in Despair?” “The Art of Empathy,” How Were You Shaped by Your Sufferings?”
In Part 3, the focus is on the fact that each of us has a life story, shaped in part by our ancestors and partly by our own experiences. Through this journey, we have gained our own wisdom and have dealt with life’s challenges through our own strengths. We should focus on these strengths to deeply know another person. In the book’s final couple of pages, Brooks tells us: “She who only looks inward will find only chaos, and she who looks outward with the eyes of critical judgment will find only flaws. But she who looks with the eyes of compassion and understanding will see complex souls, suffering and souring, navigating life as best they can” [pp. 270-271].
Let me end my review with this quote from Carl Jung, which is very similar to sentiments expressed by others: “Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know but need to know.” In connecting with another person. We should strive to discover that something and be humble enough to learn.

2026/03/22 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Today at Santa Barbara International Orchid Show: This annual event draws visitors from throughout California, the US, and even other countries. One exhibitor confided in me that in the years past, more international exhibitors participated, but tariffs and hassles in traveling to the US have discouraged participation this year. The show was held in Earl Warren Showgrounds’ Exhibit Hall, with a separate building devoted to sales. Some orchid varieties are fragrant, so the Exhibit Hall looked and smelled wonderful. [2-minute video]
(2) Iranian humorist Hadi Khorsandi recites his poem entitled “Vatanam ro Nabarin” (“Don’t Take Away My Homeland”), which was written last year but is quite descriptive of today’s Iran. [10-minute video]
(3) Quotable: “We’re at a point where there are no cheap options to retreat to and no price points that guarantee quality. Every run-down studio is $1400, every fast-food meal is $17, ... , every $300 pair of boots falls apart. Endless expensive mediocrity.” ~ Janel Comeau (@VeryBadLlama on X)
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A quick lesson on income inequality in the US: How people with annual incomes from $25K to $25M live.
- Why removing the world’s dependence on the Strait of Hormuz for oil transport is economically infeasible.
- The tall ships that will help us celebrate America’s 250th birthday: A Washington Post pictorial.
- Facebook memory from Mar. 22, 2019: An a-cappella performance of the Persian oldie “Nowruz Waltz.”
(5) Saudi Arabia’s FM calls out Iran for not serving the interests of Islam: “I do not understand how they claim to defend Islamic causes while attacking Islamic countries.” He added that the accuracy of targeting by Iran indicates that the attacks are premeditated and planned well in advance.
(6) How the rich help elect our president: Elon Musk spent $20 million on a single ad campaign during the 2024 presidential election, suggesting that pro-choice women should vote for Trump because he was against a federal abortion ban. The ads were identified as being funded by RBG PAC, an entity that was dissolved shortly after the election. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was already dead at the time.
(7) Iran war casualties, from social-media posts by entities opposing the war and sympathetic to Iran’s regime: 3186, with 1394 being civilians, including 210 children. [P.S.: Human rights organizations estimate 1500+ executions in Iran during 2025, a vast majority of them carried out in secret.]
(8) NASA’s Perseverance Rover gets its own GPS-like system for independent navigation on Mars: The new capability, called “Mars Global Localization,” is based on matching the Rover’s panoramic camera images against on-board orbital maps, and it can pinpoint the Rover’s position within 10 inches (0.25 meter), using 2 minutes of computation time. This is much faster than the 6-44 minutes needed for round-trip signal travel time when using Earth-based guidance and navigation.
(9) Iran’s rulers use the pain of war to ensure that the virus of Islamic Republic survives: Writing in Persian in a LinkedIn post, Dr. Amir Asghari likens Iran’s Islamic government to a virus that has overtaken Iran (the host). Stating that even though he is anti-war in general, he won’t participate in any anti-war effort whose hidden agenda is ensuring the survival of the virus of Islamist rule in Iran.

2026/03/21 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: The boy who cried NATO is irrelevant, but is now asking for its help Scale model of NYC that took 21 years to build (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cartoon of the day: The boy who cried NATO is irrelevant. He also declared the US Congress irrelevant but is now asking for $200 billion in funds for his war. [Center] A new film coming to the Middle East: "Mission Impossible to Define." [Right] After leaving NYC, truck driver Joe Macken missed it so much that he spent 21 years to build a scale model of his beloved city, with every building in it.
(2) Iranian scientist Kaveh Madani named the 2026 Stockholm Water Prize laureate: He fled Iran when he was designated a “water terrorist” by entrenched water interests due to his environmental work and advocacy of science-based water policies within the government.
(3) Robert Mueller dead at 81: The former FBI director appointed by George W. Bush just before the 9/11 terror attacks and later serving as Special Counsel to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election, had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for a couple of years. He was revered by FBI personnel. Here’s Donald Trump’s reaction: “Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Aref, an old-time and highly popular Iranian singer, dead at 84: Here is his best-known song.
- Cesar Chavez, the Latino civil rights icon, groomed & sexually abused girls connected to his movement. [NYT]
- Iran’s total Internet shutdown enters its 4th week: On some days, people are given a few minutes of access.
- Is radio dying? CBS plans to shut down its radio broadcasts after 100+ years.
- I just love what Levi Schechtmann does to classical music: Tchaikovsky, in this 2-minute video.
(5) There are streets, parks, and even a holiday (March 31) named for Cesar Chavez in California: Efforts to rename these items are underway, given recent revelations of sexual misconduct by the labor activist. I hope something like this also happens to everything that Trump and his cronies named after him, once he falls in disgrace or ends his presidential term in January 2029.
(6) California is electing a new governor this year: The 2026 election cycle is quite important, but few Californians are talking about it. We have an open primary in which all candidates and voters participate and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. Given that we have 8 well-known Democratic and 2 Republican candidates, splitting of votes among the Democrats could possibly lead to two Republican candidates advancing. One of the Republican candidates is billionaire Tom Steyer, who has put $80 million of his own money in the race and holds progressive positions.
(7) The US has bought a stealth microwave weapon from a Russian criminal network: Animal testing in the US has shown effects similar to previously-reported mysterious injuries to US diplomats & others. The new weapon and its effect, known as “Havana Syndrome,” have been linked to Russian intelligence.
(8) Final thought for the day: "It might be that someday I shall be drowned by the sea, or die of pneumonia from sleeping out at night, or be robbed and strangled by strangers. These things happen. Even so, I shall be ahead because of trusting the beach, the night and strangers." ~ Janet Reno, former US Attorney General

2026/03/20 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Photo of Iran's President Pezeshkian with his haft-seen spread for Nowruz, in an underground bunker (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Nowruz and Persian New Year (see the next item below). [Center] Living in an underground bunker: Iran is trying to project strength, but this photo of President Pezeshkian with his haft-seen spread for Nowruz tells a different story. [Right] Thousands of IRGC, weapons, and ammunition sites have been destroyed throughout Iran in 20 days: We now know that the mullahs had turned the entire country into a giant military base on the backs of oppressed people.
(2) A poem for Nowruz, with tribute to Mahsa and the #WomanLifeFreedom movement: Every year since 2002 I have composed a cheerful Persian poem to welcome the arrival of Nowruz, spring, and the Persian New Year. I wanted to skip this ritual for 2026 (1405 on Persian calendar), given the ongoing war in Iran and absence of cheer among Iranians, inside or outside the country. On the other hand, the Nowruz festival has survived for millennia, through many historical ups & downs. So, I decided on a compromise, composing a poem whose verses start with thoughts about the joys of Nowruz and end with lamentations over Iran’s dire conditions in view of attacks from outside and oppression from within. Here is the result, along with an English translation.
Precious Nowruz has arrived, with a halo so bright
But our homeland is burning, consumed by a fight
Joy and hope used to flourish, with spring's arrival
Alas hope's gone, left is only a struggle for survival
The new day and year were occasions for jubilation
There's instead mourning, darkness, and tribulation
You used to praise the nightingales and the flowers
But now you worry about your loved ones and ours
I desire only two gifts from this ancient celebration
For Iran, enduring life, for its people, emancipation
[In this 4-minute video, I recite my Persian poem about Nowruz.]
(3) In every interview, Iran’s FM refers to the US breaking international law: As if Iran’s hostage-taking, assassinations, & support for terrorism is according to international law.
(4) Agriculture on the Moon’s surface: Scientists think that chickpeas may be able to grow in lunar soil, without absorbing a high level of iron, aluminum, zinc, and copper. The results are preliminary and more work is needed before astronauts can rely on them to extend their ability to spend longer stretches of time in space.
(5) Quotable: "Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it in order to recount it." ~ Gabriel García Marquez, from "Living to Tell the Tale"
(6) The Pinocchio Award goes to Iran’s FM: Abbas Araghchi shows no hesitation in lying through his teeth, claiming that Iran does not hit civilian and infrastructure targets. Before him, Javad Zarif was Iran’s Liar-in-Chief, who said in multiple interviews that Iran had no political prisoners and that Baha’is weren’t denied any civil rights.

2026/03/19 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] This year, I wasn’t in the mood to set up a haft-seen spread for Nowruz: So, here I share a few of my haft-seen spreads from years past. [Center] Spring is in the air: Photos taken along Santa Barbara streets during my daily walks. [Right] We tend to think of bank branches as fancy buildings with shiny facades: The four bank branches I photographed in smaller communities during my daily walks are quite different. Two of them, located near Cottage hospital, are converted from single-family homes. The other two in Isla Vista are fairly small and not at all flashy.
(2) Persian Nowruz prayers in lieu of Arabic: Every year around the start of a new Persian calendar year, posts are made to Facebook and elsewhere, arguing that because Nowruz is an Iranian tradition predating Islam, there is no room in its observances for an Arabic prayer. Here is the alternative Persian prayer which carries pretty much the same message as the Arabic prayer beginning with “Yaa Moghalleb-ol Gholoub.”
(3) LLMs will summarize your papers whether you like it or not: Here's a proposal for LLM-friendly academic papers that minimize the chances of misinterpretation (while also helping with the reproducibility crisis).
(4) Quotable: "When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out. Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one's ability to persuade." ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, relating advice from her mother-in-law
(5) A giant mirror could soon be sent into space: A California-based company is asking the government for permission to light up the night sky with 50,000 big mirrors. The mirrors would orbit Earth, bouncing sunlight to the night side of the planet to do things like power solar farms and illuminate city streets.
(6) Stanford’s AI-powered peer-review system rejects too many papers: The AI reviewer compares the submitted manuscript to relevant research in arXiv and similar databased to quickly identify missing citations, weak arguments, and methodological errors. When used cautiously, the AI reviewer is a welcome tool for shrinking the legth of the peer-review process from months, or even years, to a few days.
(7) Iran’s Islamic regime has no viable future: Even if the current war ends without the total annihilation of the country’s infrastructure, the emerging Islamic Republic will be surrounded by hostile neighbors, having already bombed targets in all the countries to its south, west, and northwest, including Turkey and Azerbaijan. A surviving Islamic regime cannot expect these neighbors to continue to facilitate trade, aviation, tourism, and other essential economic endeavors.
(8) Trump plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research: A supercomputer at the Center will be transferred to U. Wyoming and its space weather operations will go to a private company.
(9) A modest, but very important, proposal: Any item posted on-line must have a date right at the beginning of the text or audio/video and, if subsequently modified, the date of last modification: I am really tired of watching news stories, sometime labeled “breaking news” and realizing part-way through that they are days or even months old.

2026/03/18 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The Innocent faces invisible to human rights activists: Cover story of The Australian (1) Images of the day: [Left] ACM Turing Award honors contributions to quantum information science: Charles H. Bennett and Gilles Brassard are recognized for their essential role in establishing the foundations of quantum information science and transforming secure communication and computing. [Center] Anonymous artist’s depiction of the will of the Iranian people to survive and thrive. [Right] Sepideh B. posted on LinkedIn these images from The Australian, with its front-page story “The Innocent faces invisible to human rights activists,” young Iranians killed by the Islamic regime in January 2026.
(2) The 2026 Academy Awards (98th annual): I did not watch the ceremonies on Sunday due to another commitment, and I wasn’t much invested in the outcomes, having watched only “One Battle After Another,” which I liked a lot. I’m glad that it won several awards, including for best picture, best director (Paul Thomas Anderson), and best supporting actor (Sean Penn). The top acting awards went to Michael B. Jordan and Jessie Buckley. Watching “Sinners” is on my to-do list. [Complete results]
(3) Trump has the best words: He said Iran war was just an excursion, whereas the correct word is “incursion.”
Excursion: A short journey or outing taken for pleasure, relaxation, or a specific purpose.
Incursion: A sudden, often hostile, invasion of a territory; synonyms include raid & foray.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump warns Iran’s soccer team that World Cup participation could be a risk for their life and safety. [NYT]
- About a third of adults in the US say they are skipping meals or driving less to pay for health care. [NYT]
- Microsoft files amicus brief in support of Anthropic’s challenge to supply-chain risk designation. [Reuters]
- Recovery of wildflower populations from extreme drought: Evolution, normally slow, can unfold rapidly.
- Quote of the day: “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” ~ Susan B. Anthony
- Mice vision: Scientists have reconstructed videos of what mice are seeing by analyzing their brain activity.
(5) A former Iranian regime insider to the country’s leaders: Suppose you wipe Israel off the map and conquer Palestine. What are your plans for that land? Force women to wear hijab? Establish a morality police? Gift them your four decades of double-digit inflation? Create a water crisis? Subject their Internet access to filtering? What do you think you can offer them?
(6) Two Iranian nurses were gang-raped and brutally tortured by the Islamic regime’s security agents because they treated wounded protesters during anti-government demonstrations in January 2026.
(7) Chinese institution rejects pricey open-access fees: In a challenge to open-access publishers, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the world’s largest research institution, has told its researchers it plans to stop paying to publish their papers. [Science magazine, March 5, 2026]
(8) Sabotaging the NSF fellowship is a blunder (from Science magazine’s March 5, 2026, editorial): “Over the last year, the Trump administration has sent one discouraging message after another to young people aspiring to a scientific career in the United States. The corrosive rhetoric that mocks scientific expertise and the proposed— and realized—cuts to funding are driving students away from scientific careers that may no longer exist by the time they graduate. … There is perhaps no stronger evidence of the administration’s objectives to reduce the quality of the US scientific workforce than its treatment of the National Science Foundation’s flagship Graduate Research Fellowship Program.”

2026/03/17 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Why three scientists said no to Jeffrey Epstein (1) Images of the day: [Left] Three scientists who said no to Jeffrey Epstein (see the next item below). [Center] Happy Chaharshanbeh Suri: The Iranian fire-jumping festival (see item 3 below). [Right] Imagining a parallel universe: One in which Khamenei decides not to confront Iran’s January 2026 protestors with deadly force, thereby preventing 30,000 deaths and countless injuries & arrests. The massacre allowed him to rule for only 50 additional days. He and his regime are the main perpetrators of the current war.
(2) Why three scientists said no to Jeffrey Epstein: Names of 100s of scientists appear in the recent trove of e-mails related to the convicted sex-trafficker. A cancer researcher, a computer scientist, and a physicist describe the warning signs that led them to say no to Epstein.
(3) Chaharshanbeh Suri (fire-jumping festival, a prelude to Nowruz): Tonight, the eve of the Persian calendar year’s final Wednesday, is when Iranians jump over bonfires, while telling the flames, “My yellow be yours, your red be mine.” With this “purification rite,” one wishes that the fire would take away sickness (yellow face) and other problems and in return provide warmth and redness of face (a sign of health).
[Note added on 2026/03/17]: Reza Pahlavi’s call for Iranians to take to the streets to observe the ancient Chaharshanbeh Suri Festival goes unanswered: For one thing, Iranians are in no mood to celebrate while bombs are falling on their heads. For another, the wounds from answering Reza Pahlavi’s previous call in January and getting slaughtered on the streets are still too fresh.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- As if Iran didn’t have enough enemies among its neighbors, it threatens Ukraine for supporting Israel.
- Conflict of interest: Jared Kushner is trying to raise billions for his firm while working as a US envoy. [NYT]
- The international community failed the Iranian people by negotiating with Iran's brutal terrorist regime.
- Commercial flights in Iran, Iraq, UAE, & several other Persian-Gulf countries have come to a complete halt.
(5) After attacking and belittling America’s traditional allies and keeping them in the dark about his war plans, Trump asks for their help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
(6) Iran argues that it had to completely cut Internet access for its citizens because “the enemy” used it for illicit purposes: You have multiple intelligence agencies. You have more intelligence agents and security forces than any other country. How is it that other countries can deal with enemies and spies, while providing full Internet access to their citizens? Isn’t cutting people’s ability to communicate an admission of incompetence by your Islamic government?
(7) Yesterday's event in the UCLA Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran: Speaking in Persian, with an English intro, under the title “Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran,” Dr. Pamela Karimi (Cornell U.) discussed her 2024 book by the same title.
Drawing on a broad spectrum of historical and theoretical sources, Dr. Karimi’s book reveals the origins and inspirations of Iran’s protest art, with a focus on interconnections between the public sphere, women’s bodies, and feminist viewpoints. Dr. Karimi showed photos of street dancing, art installations, and other activities as examples of protest art in Iran.
Speaking emotionally through tears, given the current situation in Iran which threatens friends, acquaintances, and the very artists whose works she discussed, Dr. Karimi said that she had removed names and other identifying information from the works she shared today, to ensure that artists did not get into trouble with Iran’s security apparatus.
[Farhang Foundation’s recording of a previous version of this talk] [My 5-star review of the book]
(8) Debunking the myth that Iran has never attacked another country: In the early days of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Islamist operatives and spies infiltrated Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries in the region, with the aim of “exporting the Islamic Revolution,” an oft-repeated slogan of Khomeini and his followers.
Then, Islamists systematically developed proxy forces in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza. They also sent sizable contingents to Venezuela and several African countries. Simultaneously, they appointed IRGC operatives as “diplomats” around the world, many of whom have been implicated in assassination plots and attempts against dissidents.
Iran effectively initiated the 1980s Iran-Iraq war by supporting opposition forces in Iraq. I shed no tears for the demise of Saddam Hussein, but the 8-year war with Iraq led to a million casualties on both sides.
For decades now, “Israel must be wiped off the map” and holocaust denial have been de-facto positions of Iran’s Islamist leaders. Hamas’s October 7, 2022, attack on Israel was sponsored by Iran, as has been decades of rocket launches toward Israel by the Iran-funded-and-trained Hezbollah.
Can you still say that Iran never started a war against other countries?

2026/03/16 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzles: Given the lengths of the red lines, find the area of the blue square (1)$ Cover image for Carlo Rovelli's 'There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness' $Math puzzles: Given the lengths of the red lines, find the area of the blue square (1)$ (1) Images of the day: [Left & Right] Two math puzzles: Given the lengths of the red line segments, find the area of the blue square (the figures are not drawn to scale). [Center] Carlo Rovelli's There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness (see the last item below).
(2) Where did all these analysts come from? It seems that one out of every five Iranians in diaspora wears the “analyst” label. Some call themselves political analysts. Others self-identify as national-security or military-affairs analysts. There are a whole bunch other words that might precede the label “analyst.” A vast majority of these predominantly male “analysts” weren’t talking during the Islamic Republic of Iran’s first four decades of life. To use a Persian saying, anyone who is kicked out of the house by his mom, emerges as an analyst.
(3) Book review: Rovelli, Carlo, There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important than Kindness, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by Landon Woodson, Penguin Audio, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book contains 46 fairly short essays (averaging a tad under 6 pages each) that connect physics, philosophy, literature, and politics. The essays explore themes such as scientific discovery, human experience, and social challenges. Rovelli maintains that in many of these domains, kindness and curiosity trump rigid rules. The essay titles and where/when they were first presented are listed below. They provide a sense of the scope and diversity of the topics in this fascinating and highly-recommended book.
- Aristotle the Scientist: Corriere della Sera, October 19, 2015
- Lolita and the Blue Icarus: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, February 8, 2015
- Newton the Alchemist: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, March 19, 201
- Copernicus and Bologna: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, June 19, 2015
- My 1977, and That of My Friends: Corriere della Sera, February 15, 2017
- Literature and Science: A Continuing Dialogue: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, March 30, 2012
- Dante, Einstein and the Three-Sphere: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, October 17, 2010
- Between Certainty and Uncertainty: A Precious Intermediate Space: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, January 20, 2013
- Bruno de Finetti: Uncertainty Is Not the Enemy: Corriere della Sera, November 7, 2016
- Does Science Need Philosophy?: Corriere della Sera, August 30, 2016
- The Mind of an Octopus: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, September 29, 2017
- Ideas Don't Fall from the Sky: La Repubblica, July 20, 2014
- The Many Errors of Einstein: La Repubblica, April 11, 2015
- Some Think, O King Hiero, That the Grains of Sand Cannot Be Counted: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, April 1, 2012
- Why Does Inequality Exist?: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, August 12, 2012
- Dramatic Echoes of Ancient Wars: Corriere della Sera, February 2 i, 2016
- Four Questions for Politics: Corriere della Sera, January 2, 2018
- National Identity Is Toxic: The Guardian, July 25, 2018
- Charles Darwin: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, February 10, 2016
- Marie Curie: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, February 10, 2016
- The Master: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, January 27, 2016
- Which Science Is Closer to Faith?: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, March 8, 2017
- Leopardi and Astronomy: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, February 12, 2017
- De rerum natura: La Repubblica, March 6, 2014
- Do Flying Donkeys Exist? David Lewis Says Yes: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, March 6, 2013
- We Are Natural Creatures in a Natural World: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, December 14, 2014
- Emptiness Is Empty: Nagarjuna: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, December 8, 2017
- Mein Kampf: Corriere della Sera, August 13, 2016
- Black Holes I: The Fatal Attraction of Stars: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, August 10, 2014
- Black Holes II: The Heat of Nothingness: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, August 17, 2014
- Black Holes III: The Mystery of the Center: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, August 24, 2014
- Kip and Gravitational Waves: Corriere della Sera, October 4, 2017
- Thank You, Stephen: Corriere della Sera, June 24, 2018
- Roger Penrose: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, December 18, 2011
- Dear Baby Jesus: Swiss Italian Radio (RSI), Christmas Eve, 2015
- Certainty and Global Warming: Corriere della Sera, December 5, 2015
- Churchill and Science: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, March 28, 2017
- The Infinite Divisibility of Space: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, June 17, 2012
- Ramon Hull: Ars magna: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, October 11, 2016
- Are We Free? Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, September 18, 2011
- A Stupefying Story: Facebook, April 16, 2018
- Why I Am an Atheist: Corriere della Sera, November 25, 2016
- Hadza: Domenica, II Sole 24 Ore, June 22, 2014
- A Day in Africa: La Lettura, Corriere della Sera, January 31, 2016
- The Festive Season Is Over: Corriere della Sera, January 7, 2016
- This Short Life Feels Beautiful to Us, Now More Than Ever: inews.co.uk, April 20, 2020
If an essay title intrigues you, typing that title, along with Carlo Rovelli’s name, in the search bar may get you to an on-line version of the essay.

2026/03/15 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Poster for John Huston's film 'The Misfits' Gipsy Kings in concert at Oxnard Performing Arts Center Cover image for Konstdinos G. Goulias's Transport Science and Technology (1) Images of the day: [Left] John Huston's "The Misfits" (see the next item below). [Center] Tonight's concert (see item 3 below). [Right] K. G. Goulias's Transport Science and Technology (see the last item below).
(2) “The Misfits”: This is the title of a classic 1961 film screened at UCSB’s Pollock Theater on Thursday night. The film screening was followed by a conversation between Emily Carman (Professor of Film & Media Studies at Chapman University, with teaching interests in studio-era classic Hollywood) and Ross Melnick (Professor of Film and Media Studies at UCSB).
Written by Arthur Miller and directed by John Huston, the film features a western/cowboy story with feelings that unfolds in Reno, Nevada. The plot centers on a newly-divorced woman (Marylin Monroe), and her relationships with a friendly landlady (Thelma Ritter), an old-school cowboy (Clark Gable), his tow-truck driving and plane-flying best friend (Eli Wallach), and their rodeo-riding, bronco-busting friend (Montgomery Clift). The Monroe character, a caring, friendly woman, influences the three cowboys, all carrying scars from failed relationships, who eventually adopt her advice and compassionate manners.
This was the last completed film for both Gable (who died 3 months before the premiere) and Monroe (who died a year after its release).
(3) Gipsy Kings in concert: The musical group, founded in 1979 in Arles, France, plays a blend of Catalan rumba, flamenco, salsa, and pop. They perform mostly in Spanish but also mix in Catalan, French, and languages of southern France, such as Occitan. Tonight’s concert was at Oxnard Performing Arts Center, not the best venue acoustically, but still okay. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(4) Book review: Goulias, Konstadinos G. (editor), Transport Science and Technology, Elsevier, 2007. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Transportation is a backbone of human civilization. All aspects of a country’s economy and many offensive and defensive capabilities depend on transportation. Inadequacy in the transportation system adversely affects productivity, mobility, commerce, and economic growth, both nationally and internationally. Despite transportation’s ancient roots, transport science & technology is only ~50 years old.
This book, edited by UCSB Professor of Geography Konstadinos G. Goulias, records presentations at a 2004 Transport Science and Technology Congress held in Athens, following the Athens Summer Olympics. The Congress’s objectives “were to assemble a wide range of case studies, motivate collaborations among professionals that do not usually meet in other venues, identify themes and methods that are shared by different specialties, and gather specialists to celebrate the science and technology excellence creating a unique forum for exchange of ideas across the entire spectrum of the transportation industry.” The book’s chapters are organized into five sections:
- The Wide Spectrum of Transport Science and Technology
- Hellenic Transport Systems and the Olympics
- Systemic and Systematic Approaches to Human Performance and Behavior
- Information Systems, Communication, Management and Control
- Logistics, Supply Chains, and Intermodal Systems

2026/03/14 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Celebrating pi day (3/14) with a pizza pie. [Center] Public support for several US wars, according to NYT (see the last item below). [Right] Friday’s walk along Goleta's Devereux Slough, at the end of a beautiful summer-like day.
(2) Trump’s demand for Iran to surrender unconditionally is misguided: Iran’s government must be provided a face-saving offramp or else they’ll have no incentive to resolve the conflict. Unconditional surrender means the removal of all regime elements and exposing them to the possibility of reprisals by the people. Such reprisals in the form of trials aren’t necessarily bad, but they won’t happen by the regime abandoning power voluntarily.
(3) Iran’s leader is missing in action: Mojtaba Khamenei, the mullah/prince chosen as Iran’s new Supreme Leader, was reportedly injured two weeks ago in the first wave of US/Israeli aerial attacks that killed his father. He has not communicated with the country’s citizens, except for a written note that was read on the state-controlled TV network. Even the country’s high-level officials are unaware of his whereabouts or health. Some reports indicate that he is in a coma and is unlikely to survive. Other sources claim that his absence is part of routine security precautions, given the extensive infiltration of Iran’s government by Mossad agents. Domestic news reports bestow upon him the Ayatollah title, even though he was a Hojjat al-Islam a couple of weeks ago. For now, Iran’s version of MAGA fully support him, but it’s not clear how he will be viewed if he does not appear in public, give speeches, or hold court, as his father did.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Believe it or not, Iran declares victory in the ongoing war with the US. [1-minute video]
- International Women’s Day in the Shadow of War: Elahe Amani’s Facebook post (in English & Persian).
- George Burns: “It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.”
- Facebook memory from Mar. 14, 2020: On pi day at the onset of COVID-19, bread shelves were empty.
(5) How Ali Khamenei became Iran’s Supreme Leader: He was deemed unqualified for the position by many of his peers and even by himself, but his candidacy was pushed relentlessly by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and was eventually approved. [13-minute video]
(6) Selective patriotism: If you showed no concern about Iranians being slaughtered on the streets in January, you can't suddenly claim that you care about them in March.
(7) Final thought for the day: No other US war has been as unpopular as the war on Iran: The lowest previous support for a war at its onset was ~47% (Libya intervention). The Iran war has only ~30% support (20-41%, depending on the poll). There was no polling at the start of the Vietnam war, but some sources offer an estimate of ~60% support. The greatest support was 97% (World War II). [NYT chart]

2026/03/13 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
What is it like to be an octopus? (1) Images of the day: [Left] Khamenei 2.0: There are reports from Iran that Mojtaba Khamenei’s leadership is being questioned by experienced regime insiders, who consider him a lightweight, from both religious and political standpoints. [Center] Consiousness in humans and animals (see the last item below). [Right] Summer weather in winter: Triple-digit temperatures are coming to much of Southern California & Arizona. We in Santa Barbara & Goleta will be much better off.
(2) Multiple Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel have been killed in Lebanon: For a country claiming it was minding its own business and was attacked unexpectedly and unjustly, an explanation is needed for the presence of its military commanders in a foreign country.
(3) Iran reports ~1300 civilian casualties in the 2-week ongoing war: Over 5000 targets have been struck, which makes civilian casualties ~0.25 per target bombed.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A history of Friday the 13th and its associated fears and superstitions.
- There’s a word for that! Friggatriskaidekaphobia = Fear of Friday the 13th
- There’s a word for that! Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia = Fear of long words
- Barbra Streisand to receive honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival for her work across theater & film.
(5) Fear of freedom, or why intelligent individuals align themselves with dictators: Erich Fromm, a German-American social psychologist and philosopher, believed that while modern society provides "freedom from" traditional constraints, it often leaves individuals feeling isolated, powerless, and anxious. To relieve this anxiety, one may "escape" by surrendering his/her individual self to a powerful leader or movement. People, despite their intelligence, follow dictators mostly due to the following reasons:
- Fear of freedom and anxiety
- Authoritarian tendency
- Conformity to gain safety
- Need for an orientation frame
- Narcissism and idolatry
[Abridged from Dr. Sirous Yasseri’s LinkedIn post of 2026/02/15]
(6) Musing of a curious engineer: What is it like to be an octopus? The answer may surprise you. In the animal kingdom, octopi are among the furthest animals, evolutionarily, from humans. Cats are much closer to humans, but they are nowhere as smart as octopi in performing cognitive tasks (cats are better at social interaction and hunting). An octopus displays advanced problem-solving, long- & short-term memory, and complex tool use. It can navigate mazes, open jars, mimic its environment, and exhibit play behavior.
Nature has seemingly found two distinct evolutionary paths to developing high cognitive abilities. In humans and other mammals, neurons are centralized in the brain, whereas in octopi, neurons are highly distributed, with roughly 2/3 of the neurons located in the arms. When severed, an octopus arm still exhibits behaviors that are nearly identical to those exhibited when the animal was intact. So, it seems that not only the octopus has consciousness, but each of its arms does too. Bear in mind, though, that this is only one side of the story. There are scientists who disagree with the notion of an octopus being conscious or even highly intelligent.

2026/03/12 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$People of Iranian origins in diaspora and a sizable fraction of the world’s population stand with the people of Iran$ 'Iran: In First Person': A conversation with Roya Hakakian $Math puzzle: In this image with a rectangle, a half-circle, and a quarter-circle, find the area of the rectangle$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] People of Iranian origins in diaspora & a sizable fraction of world population stand with the people of Iran. [Center] "Iran: In First Person" (see the last item below). [Right] Math puzzle: In this image with rectangle, a half-circle, and a quarter-circle, find the area of the rectangle.
(2) Hate crime in the US: The driver of a car that rammed a synagogue building in Michigan and drove along a hallway was shot dead, after injuring a security guard. [NYT]
(3) Iran’s war propaganda: This guy, who does not disclose his qualifications, claims that Iran has captured or shot down dozens of American drones, reverse-engineering them with help from Russia & China and using the information to improve the three country’s anti-drone defenses.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- “Gugusse et l’Automate”: The world’s first sci-fi film rediscovered after more than a century.
- Too many satellites? Earth’s orbit is on track for a catastrophe – but we can stop it.
- Amazing math: Computing the Dirichlet integral. [5-minute video]
- Fremont, CA, named happiest city in the US by WalletHub, the city's seventh consecutive year at the top.
(5) “Iran: In First Person”: This was the title of today’s conversation between host Ruby Namdar and Tehran-born journalist/author Roya Hakakian. The 205-attendee Zoom session, originating in Jerusalem, was conducted in English, with a Hebrew introduction for the predominantly Israeli attendees. An interesting side note is that the organizers told those in attendance that the session would continue in the event of an air-attack siren, so attendees could take their cell phones into the shelter and continue listening.
Namdar asked Hakakian a number of questions about her background and experiences as an Iranian Jewish refugee. Interestingly, Hakakian related that she considered herself a naturalized American citizen, rather than a refugee, before a number of events led to her wearing the refugee tag. Hakakian was ~12 years old when the Iranian Revolution happened. Later, she wrote a memoir, Journey from the Land of No, about her life in Iran and relocation to the US. Much of Hakakian’s life in Iran is captured by the single word “No,” because as a girl and as a Jew, she was prohibited from doing many of the things that she wanted to do. At the Zoom meeting, Hakakian read a passage from her memoir that recalls nights in the pre-Revolution Iran when she and her parents would go to a rooftop to listen to people shouting ‘Allah-o-Akbar” to show support for Ayatollah Khomeini, who directed the protests from his residence in Paris via messages distributed on cassette tapes.
Hakakian’s publisher urged her to write a sequel to her memoir to tell the rest of her story after arriving in the US. She hesitated and, instead, wrote a book about the 1992 assassination of Iranian opposition leaders at the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin. She stated that the book, Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, can be viewed as a sequel to her memoir in the sense that it told her story as a dissident and staunch critic of the Islamic regime, a fair target of assassination in the mullahs’ view. In other words, had she been living in Europe at the time, she might have been one of the attendees in the gathering targeted by assassins.
Hakakian indicated that she is apprehensive about the future of Iran, including the possibility that a surviving Islamic regime, even if badly wounded, could opt for greater radicalization and oppression, a la North Korea. I had stated a similar opinion in my Facebook post of 2025/03/10, adding that people in an isolated and revenge-seeking regime would experience much-harsher economic conditions, given the fact that such a radical regime will likely use its meager resources to rebuild its razed military installations and depleted armaments, completely ignoring the needs of Iranian people.

2026/03/11 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] A wounded Islamic Republic of Iran can be dangerous (see the next item below). [Center & Right] Challenges and innovations in STEM eduction, a UC Congress (see the last item below).
(2) Why a premature termination of war on Iran can be dangerous: The Islamic regime is badly wounded and much of its naval, air defense, and missile capabilities has perished, along with nearly all top-level IRGC generals. Left in the present state, it will resume its brutal oppression of the people. Multiple regime officials have already warned Iranians about the deadly consequences of dissent under the new Supreme Leader. The regime was broke before the war, and it was dealing with a 50+% inflation, dearth of energy & basic supplies, and extreme poverty. Should the war stop, Islamists will use the country’s meager financial resources to rebuild military installations, replenish depleted armaments, and resurrect proxy forces. Iranian people and their needs will not have priority. In other words, a North-Korea-style military dictatorship will be the sure outcome.
(3) All key Iranian leaders are in hiding, including the new Supreme Leader: IranWire reports that President Pezeshkian has no contact with Mojtaba Khamenei and that the government may be unable to pay employee salaries this month. Another IranWire headline reads, “The Clothes Have No Emperor.”
(4) “UC Academic Congress: Math Preparation and STEM Pathways”: This was the title of a full-day virtual gathering across University of California campuses, held from noon to noon, March 9-10, 2026.
Across the UC system, faculty and departments are rethinking how students enter and move through introductory STEM coursework. A wave of campus-level innovations is reshaping placement, curriculum, instruction, and support to better reflect the needs of today’s students. This systemwide Congress was set up to allow sharing of experiences on preparation, placement, assessment, and curricular matters. There were four sessions, the first three on Monday and the last one on Tuesday:
- Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education
- Designing for a Changing Landscape of Math Reform
- California’s K-16 Math Ecosystem
- From Preparation to Pathways: Designing Introductory Math at UC
There were also four breakout sessions at the end of the Congress:
- UC Professors of Teaching: Change Agents in the Classroom
- Math: Gatekeeper to a STEM career?
- Funding and Sustaining Innovation at UC
- Transfer Pathways
Image 1 depicts the manner in which many students experience math (by looking at the teacher’s back, as s/he writes on the blackboard). They essentially watch math being done, rather than doing math themselves. Image 2 shows a puzzle-like physics problem that can trigger classroom discussion in an active-learning context. The problem asks students to consider how the brightness of the lightbulbs would change if we closed the switch in the middle.
An important takeaway is that preparation is a most-important factor. When we control for preparation, a good deal of demographic and gender differences fade away. Additionally, students crave relevance. Even a few examples in math courses from other domains, such as biology, help motivate students. This observation has led to a modeling-first approach to calculus.
Read: “Expanding Opportunity: Chemistry, Math and the Future of STEM at UC” (52-page UC Report, 2025)

2026/03/10 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: Defiant Iranian women Cover image for Brenee Brown's 'The Gifts of Imperfection' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Defiant Iranian women: While playing in Australia, members of the Iranian women’s soccer team refused to sing along with the national anthem at the start of competition. Team members and their families in Iran were threatened with reprisals. Five members of the team have defected to Australia. [Center] Unsolicited photo editing by Meta AI: Doubling the age of photo of mine taken at age 9 or 10. [Right] Brenee Brown's The Gifts of Imperfection (see the last item below).
(2) Iran’s state TV host to the Islamic regime’s opposition, inside & outside Iran: "Once the dust of sedition settles, … we'll make your mothers sit in mourning for you." [Tweet, with video]
(3) Mojtaba Khamenei, Islamic Republic of Iran's new Supreme Leader:
- Was promoted from Hojjat al-Islam to Ayatollah overnight
- Lacks qualifications for issuing religious edicts
- Has been sanctioned by the US and other countries
- Has never held an administrative position
- Is the choice of IRGC generals to lead the country
- Hasn't been seen or heard from in public since his father died
- Is rumored to be hospitalized with serious injuries
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Iran war: Tehran residents are urged to stay indoors amid toxic gas fears. [IranWire]
- Gas prices in the US have risen sharply, even before a drop of the more-expensive oil reaches our shores.
- Anthropic CEO explains his company’s two points of disagreement with the Trump administration.
- Store-brand products were deemed inferior to name-brand ones—then came Costco’s Kirkland Signature.
- Comedian Bill Maher’s hilarious monologue about his up-and-down relationship with Trump.
- Artem Routav creates magic with his electric violin. Look up his other music on YouTube. [1-minute video]
(5) Book review: Brown, Brene, The Gifts of Imperfection, Hazelden Publishing, 2020.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, a New York Times bestseller by Brene Brown (brenebrown.com), social scientist & research professor at University of Houston, has sold 2+ million copies in 35 different languages. Brown also holds an endowed chair at the Graduate College of Social Work and a visiting professorship of management at University of Texas, Austin. She hosts the popular podcasts “Unlocking Us” & “Dare to Lead,” and she has a top-5-watched TED talk entitled “The Power of Vulnerability.”
The book is structured in five chapters:
- Introduction: Wholehearted Living
- Courage, Compassion, and Connection: The Gift of Imperfection
- Exploring the Power of Love, Belonging, and Being Enough
- The Things that Get in the Way
- Final Thoughts
The longest chapter, “The Things that Get in the Way,” contains 10 guideposts, or things to cultivate or to let go, which form the book’s main message.
- Authenticity: letting go of what people think
- Self-compassion: letting go of perfectionism
- A resilient spirit: letting go of numbing and powerlessness
- Gratitude and joy: letting go of scarcity and fear of the dark
- Intuition and trusting faith: letting go of the need for certainty
- Creativity: letting go of comparison
- Play and rest: letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth
- Calm and stillness: letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle
- Meaningful work: letting go of self-doubt and “supposed to”
- Laughter, song, and dance: letting go of being cool and “always in control”
In the “Final Thoughts” chapter, Brown asserts that we are all afraid of change. Whenever this happens to us, we must ask the question: What’s the greater risk: Letting go of what people think or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am? The gifts of imperfection are courage, compassion and connection. Their opposites, that is, fear, judgment, and being alone, are elements that hinder our efforts to feel whole and happy. “Choosing to live and love with our whole hearts is an act of defiance. You’re going to confuse, piss off, and terrify lots of people—including yourself. One minute you’ll pray that the transformation stops, and the next minute you’ll pray that it never ends … that’s how I feel most of the time … brave, afraid, and very very alive” [p. 161].

2026/03/09 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) A number of official Trump administration posts on social media trivialized the war against Iran by mixing missile-strike videos with SpongeBob memes and footage from video games, movies, & sports.
(2) Saturday’s on-campus concert by UCSB Middle East Ensemble: The concert's first half included a set of Azerbaijani songs/dances [Video 1] [Video 2]. The latter song, “Jujalarim” (“My Little Chicks”), evoked memories from pre-Revolution Iran, where both the Azeri and Persian versions of the song were popular staples of children’s radio and TV shows. The concert's first half also included a Persian set [Video 3] [Video 4].
The concert included a few more Persian songs and a dance [Video 5] [Video 6]. These two songs have emerged as political statements against tyranny. “Ey Iran” is the country’s de-facto national anthem, although it’s not sanctioned by the Islamist regime. Note the enthusiastic audience participation. “Morgh-e Sahar” (“O’ Bird of Dawn”), dating back to the Constitutional Revolution of the early 1900s, pleads for light at the end of a dark night [Lyrics for the latter two songs from the wonderfully prepared program booklet].
Earlier in the evening, I had dinner with a few members of the family at Aegean SB, a Mediterranean joint, enjoyed Turkish coffee & sweets at Lokum, and listened to a performance by Midnight Gaucho at Paseo Nuevo shopping center [Video 7]. It was a highly diverse evening indeed!
(3) “Mirdamad Boulevard”: AI-enhanced cover of the song by Sepanlou’s daughter, @nava_null. The song was originally recorded by Shaharzad Sepanlou in 2000, as part of her album “Our Story.” [2-minute video]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Israeli & US sources have confirmed that the girls school in southern Iran was likely targeted by US forces.
- Donald Trump’s resume now has a new entry, right after “Raping underage girls”: It is “Killing school girls.”
- A debilitating cyber-attack, described as the largest in history, has hit Iran alongside military strikes.
- The war on Iran has engaged half of US’s air power & 1/3 of its naval assets, and it's costing ~$1 billion/day.
- This is the Iranian spirit: Tehran, Day 7 of war (March 6, 2026). [1-minute video]
- United Arab Emirates threatens to freeze $billions in Iranian assets after regional attacks. [IranWire]
(5) Iran’s President Pezeshkian apologized for the destruction in neighboring countries from Iran’s attacks: He has since walked back his apology under pressure from the country’s hardliners.
(6) Iran’s police chief stated on state TV that his forces have been given shoot-to-kill order to deal with thieves & looters: He did not indicate whether the order also applies to multi-million-dollar embezzlers in government.
(7) Final thought for the day: Hereditary monarchy returns to Iran: It isn’t the former Shah’s son, Reza, but the former Supreme Leader’s son, Mojtaba, who has ascended to leadership.
“Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better”: This quote, from George Orwell’s allegorical novel Animal Farm, is the altered version of the chant “Four Legs Good Two Legs Bad” the pig leaders of the farm invented to demonize their previous master, after he was kicked out in a revolution. Over time, the pigs came to enjoy walking on their two hind legs, thus having to modify the old slogan for the new situation. In today’s Iran, the pigs on the Assembly of Experts are chanting “Elected Leader Good Hereditary Leader Better,” after criticizing the monarchical system they overthrew, citing the undesirability of hereditary rule.

2026/03/08 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy International Women’s Day to my women readers and their male allies in fighting for women’s rights (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Int'l Women’s Day to my women readers and their male allies in fighting for women’s rights: No society can truly thrive, spiritually or materially, without equal opportunities for all people. [Center] A mini-Sudoku puzzle. [Right] Toby Stuart's Anointed (see the last item below).
(2) “From Tahereh to Mahsa”: A 15-minute film by VoW for Change celebrating Int'l Women’s Day.
(3) In the aftermath of Supreme Leader Khamenei’s elimination, fissure among the remaining top officials is starting to show: According to a former regime official, the Parliament speaker favors Mojtaba Khamenei as the next Supreme Leader, whereas the speaker of the Supreme National Security Council opposes the leadership of Ali Khamenei’s son. This is why the Assembly of Experts has not yet announced a successor.
(4) Book review: Stuart, Toby, Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Michael David Axtell, Simon & Schuster, 2025.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Organizational theorist Toby Stewart offers a theory that explains why Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency launched as a joke, quickly achieved a market capitalization of tens of billions of dollars. In a world saturated with choices, we don’t have the time and the expertise to evaluate quality directly. Therefore, intrinsic value becomes less important than who vouches for a product or a person. Celebrity tweets and viral memes dictate what rises and what goes under. Stuart dubs this “the other uncertainty principle.”
Stewart begins his narrative with the fascinating story of “Portrait of a Gentleman,” a painting auctioned by Sotheby’s in 2016. The painting was believed to be the work of a disciple of Rembrandt, with an expectation to fetch around $20,000. Jan Six, a Rembrandt expert, had a haunch that the painting was the work of Rembrandt himself, created a few years before he became famous. Six attended the auction and purchased the painting for $185,000, after intense competition with another bidder. The painting would be worth 1000 times more, if it were established to be the work of Rembrandt himself, a verdict that is still pending. Stuart then asks an important question: Why is the worth of a work of art so fundamentally dependent on who created it, rather then the work’s artistic elements? How did a handful of experts gain so much influence that their stamps of approval can increase the value of a painting by a factor of 1000? The painting in question is so similar to Rembrandt’s work that even experts have a hard time to tell.
We use status shortcuts on a daily basis for making decisions on which school to attend, where to vacation, which stocks to buy, which candidate to vote for, and which experts to believe. Evolution favors this kind of behavior, because it reduces our cognitive loads. It can also reduce conflicts within clans, though we are seeing first-hand that it can intensify conflicts between clans. More importantly, it skews the distribution of opportunities & resources, thus amplifying entrenched inequalities. The lower our educational attainment, the higher the influence of celebrity endorsements and clan mentality.
Use of status (wine pedigree, venture backers of a company, research center behind a new scientific claim) is indeed unavoidable, given the human nature. We must be mindful, however, that reliance on status tends to pick undeserving winners and stifle competition, which is a bedrock of our capitalistic society. It amplifies a small, accidental lead into a domineering position, which in turn attracts greater resources, larger audiences, and so on. Such an accidentally-gained top ranking can create conformity, self-protection, and lower accountability, thus stifling innovation and competition.

2026/03/07 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Richard Hofstadter's 'The Paranoid Style in American Politics' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Tonight’s concert by UCSB Middle East Ensemble was a long one (3+ hours). It featured special sets of Azerbaijani and Persian music/dance, plus other song & dance pieces from different regions of the Middle East. I will post sample videos with explanations in the coming days. [Center] Not a single political leader of Iran’s Islamic regime has been killed in the ongoing war: Is this accidental or does it reveal a plan? [Right] Richard Hofstadter's The Paranoid Style in American Politics (see the last item below).
(2) An IRGC general on Iran’s state TV: “Whoever today on Iran’s soil speaks the same thing as the enemy … a bullet has been issued for them. No one has spoken more honestly than now. We don’t want to kill your child because they’re ignorant. Fathers and mothers, if your sons and daughters don’t listen it’s not our fault.”
(3) Iran’s bizarre claim: According to Mohsen Rezaee, an IRGC general & government insider, US-Israel attacked Iran 3 times over the past year, evidently counting the people’s uprising of Jan. 2026 as a foreign war.
(4) In Iran, civilian casualties are a feature of the system, not a bug: A resource-rich country can afford to build shelters for its citizens, just as it does for its leaders and for its proxy fighters in several countries. Like Hamas, Islamists in Iran thrive on civilian casualties and use inflated numbers for propaganda purposes.
(5) Book review: Hofstadter, Richard, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, and Other Essays, University of Chicago Press, 1979. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The purpose and scope of this book of seven essays, each ending with extensive notes, is best described by historian Richard Hofstadter in his introduction: “The pieces in this book were written over a span of fourteen years, and during that time I have not always been of the same mind about historical and political matters in general or about some of the particulars dealt with here. Some unresolved tensions undoubtedly remain. It is not, then, a single consistent argument but a set of related concerns and methods that unites these essays. They fall into two groups: one deals with conditions that have given rise to the extreme right of the 1950s and the 1960s, the other with the origins of certain characteristic problems of the earlier modern era when the American mind was beginning to respond to the facts of industrialization and world power.”
The book’s title comes from its first, and best-known, essay. The lead essay about paranoid style is followed by three more essays in Part I, “Studies in the American Right”:
- The Pseudo-Conservative Revolt—1954
- Pseudo-Conservatism Revisited—1965
- Goldwater and Pseudo-Conservative Politics
Part II, entitled “Some Problems of the Modern Era,” contains essays on:
- Cuba, the Philippines, and Manifest Destiny
- What Happened to the Antitrust Movement?
- Free Silver and the Mind of “Coin” Harvey
In the lead essay, we read that even though America has rarely experienced acute types of class conflict, angry minds and paranoid style have nevertheless materialized. The Goldwater movement showed that much political leverage can be derived from the animosities and passions of a small minority. The paranoid style is exercised not just by extreme lunatics, but also by ordinary folks. In fact, it is the use of paranoid modes of expression by normal people, mostly on the right, that makes the phenomenon significant Hofstadter cites numerous examples of such paranoia affecting US legislation and policies over the years.
The lead essay ends thus: “The paranoid tendency is aroused by a confrontation of opposed interests which are (or are felt to be) totally irreconcilable, and thus by nature not susceptible to the normal political processes of bargain and compromise … circumstances often deprive [the paranoid] of exposure to events that might enlighten him. We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.”
I recommend this book to all Americans and other world citizens, because the paranoid style, originally formulated by Hofstadter in 1964 has definitely made a comeback, with a new vigor, after half a century.

2026/03/06 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Humor: Trump favors Mullahnia as Iran's next Supreme Leader (1) Images of the day: [Left] Last night's documentary film screening at UCSB (see the next item below). [Center] Serious news: Donald Trump says that Mojtaba Khamenei would be an unacceptable choice as Iran’s next Supreme Leader and that he (Trump) should have a role in the selection. Humor: He favors Mullahnia. [Right] United Arab Emirates vs. Abu Dhabi vs. Dubai explained (see item 3 below).
(2) Last night’s screening of “Scenes of Extraction” at UCSB’s Pollock Theater: The 2023 film documents the expansive colonial network behind the British energy complex that spanned across Iran, but also reached other British oil operations in Asia. The film weaves through decades of archival documents to parse out the visual history of the “reflection seismography” method for oil exploration, which was heavily tested across the Iranian oil belt despite its destructive nature. This technical legacy is still heavily utilized in fracking and deep-sea mining enterprises globally and forms the backbone of the global energy complex. The film, which is narrated in Persian with English subtitles, evokes the intertwined histories of imperial and colonial extractive industries, photography, and archival practice. Filmmaker Sanaz Sohrabi joined moderator Mona Damluji (Film & Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion.
(3) UAE explained: United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates or kingdoms with 11 million citizens. It is ruled by a council of seven emirs or sheikhs. The largest one is Abu Dhabi (which has a capital city by the same name) whose emir rules the whole country as its president. The second largest is the prosperous Dubai (with Dubai City as its capital). Numbers 3-7, which appear in news stories less often, are Sharjah, Ajman, Al-Quwain, Ras Al-Khaimah, and Fujairah.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- America Needs a Mass Movement ... w/o one, it may sink into autocracy for decades, says David Brooks
- A public piano at London’s St. Pancras International Station hosts three capable hands that create magic.
- Updated Leo Tolstoy title: “Limited Combat Operations and Peace.”
- Store-brand products were deemed inferior to name-brand ones: Then came Costco’s Kirkland Signature.
(5) The Islamic Republic against its people: The Islamist government leaves the country in total darkness by cutting off the Internet amid a devastating war, when citizens are worried about the well-being of their loved ones and need to stay informed of impending dangers & evacuation orders. The regime’s TV network admitted that there is no Internet access, telling viewers that only Fars and Mehr news services, both controlled by hardliners, is available to them.
(6) The 12,000-seat indoor arena at Tehran’s Azadi Sports Complex has been destroyed by a missile strike. It was likely used as a shelter or staging area for Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces.
(7) Final thought for the day: Beware of fake AI-generated images & videos about the war in the Middle-East. Just as was the case in the 12-day war of June 2025, the social media is replete with fake images/videos of skyscrapers collapsing, ships sinking, planes or missiles exploding, and many other fake war scenes. Be mindful of the sources of images/videos and the associated narratives that you consume.

2026/03/05 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Richard Hofstadter's 'Anti-Intellectualism in American Life' Iranian missile and drone targets, by country (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: Charles Proteus Steinmetz loved his EV, a 1914 Detroit Electric car (photo credit: IEEE Spectrum magazine, March 2026). [Center] Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (see the last item below). [Right] Iranian missile & drone targets, by country: Heaviest hit is UAE with 863 targets, followed by Kuwait with 562. Qatar, Bahrain, and Israel have been hit 100+ times each. The fairly-distant Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea had 5 targets hit (source: Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies).
(2) Throwback Thursday: Chess was already on-line in 1844. The first American telegraph line was only 6 months old when it became a virtual chessboard. [From IEEE Spectrum magazine, March 2026]
(3) Why did it take so long? The obviously incompetent Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, becomes the first fired secretary in Donald Trump’s second-term cabinet. Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin has been nominated as her replacement.
(4) Book review: Hofstadter, Richard, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, unabridged 17-hour audiobook, read by Adam Verner, Tantor Media, 2017. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Intellectuals have always been detested and marginalized by the society at large. Initially, it was because their ideas were deemed irrelevant to real life. Lately, it is because their knowledge is viewed as dangerous to the masses who don’t understand and thus can’t take advantage of the benefits of scientific and technological advances.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Richard Hofstadter [1916-1970] defines anti-intellectualism as “resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life.” He adds that the prevailing views of intellectuals as pretentious, conceited, snobbish, dangerous, subversive, and very likely immoral puts piety on a crash course with intellect. Anti-intellectuals believe that the plain sense of the common man is an altogether adequate substitute for, if not superior to, formal knowledge and expertise.
This book is an indictment of evangelical religion. Religion used to thrive around educational institutions. Later, religion became more populist, making a divorce between education and religion all but inevitable. Hofstadter had an elitist view of education, which led him to see a fundamental conflict between accessibility and quality of education. An updated version of Hofstadter’s views is presented by Susan Jacobi in The Age of American Unreason (2008).
Part I (Chs. 1-2), Introduction: This book is a response to the political & intellectual conditions of the 1950s (McCarthy era).
Part II (Chs. 3-5), The Religion of the Heart: Revolt against the twin evils of romanticism & apathy, and later on, modernity.
Part III (Chs. 6-8), The Politics of Democracy: The founding fathers valued intellect, but intellectuals aroused suspicion.
Part IV (Chs. 9-11), The Practical Culture: Folk anti-intellectualism merged with nativism, Prohibition zeal, & Ku Klux Klan.
Part V (Chs. 12-14), Education in Democracy: Post-war educators mocked the three-Rs & urged training for mass society.
Part VI (Ch. 15), Conclusion: Mid-century America both needs & fears the critic, so both extremes should be kept in check.
In his concluding chapter, Hofstadter states that intellectuals have come to be accepted and enjoy respect in today’s (1963) America. Little did he know that half-a-century later that acceptance and respect would melt away.
Hofstadter paints not a linear decline but a series of pendulum swings. Each surge of anti-intellectual feeling (evangelical revivals, Jacksonian democracy, fundamentalist crusades, business boosterism, life-adjustment schooling) grew from legitimate democratic or moral impulses, then curdled when suspicion of “book learning” turned into hostility toward free thought itself. Recognizing that ambiguity is the scholar’s ally, not his enemy, is Hofstadter’s lasting plea.

2026/03/04 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] We’ve had a punishing flu season this year, but a below- expectation COVID rate. [Center] Come visit the Trump House: Never before has a president displayed so many of his own images on the White House walls. [Right] The coming week will be spring-like or even summer-like in much of the US.
(2) New Yorker cartoon caption of the day (at the White House press briefing): “With these strikes, the President sends a powerful message to the world. We’ll let you know when we figure out what it is.”
(3) An almost unavoidable mistake on the part of Iran’s Islamic officials: The widely-rumored choice of Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated leader, to replace his father as the Supreme Leader is almost unavoidable, given his deep ties to IRGC, which has a firm grip on the country’s economy and politics. The choice means the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of Ali Khamenei’s hardline policies and continued lack of accountability to the people. Instead, they could have signaled a change of direction, gaining some good will internally and internationally and an off-ramp from the ongoing war.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, according to multiple sources. [CNN]
- At Cleveland Plain Dealer, a push to let AI draft news articles is boosting traffic and spooking staffers.
- Iran arrests prominent cleric Hossein Taeb, a high-level regime insider accused of spying for Israel.
- Jimmy Hendrix as a systems engineer: His iconic sound came from precise modulation and feedback.
(5) Another war is brewing within MAGA: Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and other MAGA personalities with big on-line audiences are criticizing the Iran War, and Trump is firing back.
(6) Do you wish you remembered more of your dreams? Using AI, emerging dream-recorder devices based on fMRI or other methods of capturing brain waves enable the recording & playback of dreams. These devices raise a host of questions, such as ownership or stealing of dreams. Potential uses for recorded dreams range from psychological insight and therapeutic applications to new forms of artistic expression and entertainment.
(7) Unredacted versions of the Epstein files reveal a lot more than sexual abuse of young girls: They also contain references to torture and, perhaps, human consumption, according to Representative Lauren Boebert.
(8) Iran admits that its military is operating with no central command: Much of the military’s communications infrastructure has been destroyed and there is also a fear that issuing commands may help the attacking armies pinpoint locations of top commanders. Independent military units across the country are following pre-drawn plans that were in place before command & control was disrupted. This explains hitting infrastructure and civilian targets in neighboring countries, despite the top leaders’ reassurance that Iran isn’t at war with them but with the US & Israel.

2026/03/03 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: What fraction of the total area of the five squares is shaded?$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Net approval ratings (favorable minus unfavorable) for Donald Trump in Europe. [Center] Math puzzle: What fraction of the total area of the five squares is shaded? [Right] My submission for New Yorker’s Cartoon Caption Contes #980, which unfortunately wasn’t chosen among the three finalists: “I warned you, your majesty, that this isn’t just a natural evolution of an over-long red tie.”
(2) Iran’s political future: The Assembly of Experts is reportedly under intense pressure from IRGC to pick Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as the country’s next Supreme Leader. If this happens, Iran will remain a closed dictatorship under the political and economic dominance of Islamist generals. Mojtaba was essentially an all-powerful operative under his aging and increasingly isolated & out of touch father.
(3) “Humanity’s Last Exam”: A global consortium of ~1000 researchers has designed an exam to show what AI can’t do, yet. Whereas AI typically aces many standard exams, it scores under 3% in this new exam. [Article]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Deposing Hillary Clinton on the Epstein investigation backfired for the Republicans. [9-minute video]
- University campuses across the Middle East switch to on-line instruction amid the spreading war. [NYT]
- UCLA receives an unprecedented $100 million donation for mental health services. [Inside Higher Ed]
- Humor: My doctors told me this is the healthiest neck rash ever. No one has seen a healthier rash.
- George Washington U. sells its Virginia Science/Tech campus to Amazon Data Services for $427M. [WaPo]
- IEEE’s Women in Engineering Podcasts: Nine episodes are already available from the IEEE WIE Web page.
(5) Device that translates Chinese into English in real time: Parents in China are using the $375 device which is worn over the mouth to teach their kids English.
(6) From a New Yorker cartoon entitled “Honest Announcement Cards.”
- We’re expecting ... to ask us when we’re having kids.
- Save the date ... It’s the only thing we can agree on for the wedding so far.
- Celebrate the graduate ... of an overpriced yoga-teacher training program that was just a trip to Costa Rica.
(7) John Bolton on Donald Trump: It’s Groundhog Day in Trump’s brain. There is no grand strategy. He acts in his own self-interest. He doesn’t even remember what he said two days ago.
(8) Final thought for the day: A country that doesn’t have viable air force & air defense provisions, or shelter for its citizenry, shouldn’t pick a fight with countries that do have superior weaponry and defense systems.

2026/03/02 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Using AI in physics discovery: Cover image of IEEE Spectrum magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] Using AI in physics discovery (see the next item below). [Center] Many Sharif University of Technology graduates are updating their educational profiles by using the Iranian institution’s original name, “Arya-Mehr University of Technology,” at the time they were enrolled. [Right] Terrestrial life in the harsh environment of space (see the last item below).
(2) Particle physicists are growing tired of their old method of discovery: Hypothesize something (say, a new particle with certain properties) and then build instruments to confirm or falsify the hypothesis. Increasingly, they are using existing instruments, such as the Large Hadron Collider, in connection with AI that is instructed to look not for something specific but anything out of the ordinary, utilizing unsupervised learning.
(3) There is one scenario that most analysts overlook: For Iran's regime to fall, it's not necessary that people on the streets seize the centers of power, such as the state-run radio & TV (NIRT). It's possible for the regime to collapse from inside. There is much infighting about who should become the next Supreme Leader. Assassination of some insiders by other insiders is a real possibility.
For years, many insiders have been fuming over how NIRT has excluded any dissent, even from those holding positions of power (they sometimes air manufactured or pre-approved dissent). Khamenei ran NIRT with an iron fist. Whatever entity replaces him may not wield the same power and, thus, cracks may start to show up.
In fact, I suspect that the elimination of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have been an inside job. He had been out of the power circle for years, and even though he criticized the current rulers, no one actually listened to him, given his own dark record of economic ruin and political oppression when he was in power.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Three US fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses during active combat in Iran.
- Hezbollah decides to enter the war on behalf of Iran but loses its leader within minutes of its declaration.
- USS Abraham Lincoln, a floating city with 5000 residents that can stay afloat for 20 years without refueling.
- The number of 2025 foreign visitors to the US decreased by 11 million compared to 20224. [WaPo]
(5) The US-Iran-Israel war expands: Many targets in the heart of Tehran are being struck. Infrastructure and luxury hotels in several Arab countries are targeted by Iran. The US asks its estimated 1 million citizens in 14 countries to leave immediately, although many airports are closed.
(6) Life may not be as fragile as we thought: A terrestrial moss survived 9.5 months outside ISS. Researchers exposed spores of spreading earthmoss to the raw brutality of open space outside the International Space Station for 283 days. These tiny organisms endured a total vacuum, intense ultraviolet radiation, and extreme temperature fluctuations—conditions that would instantly kill almost any other form of life. Over 80% of the moss sporophytes had not only survived the ordeal but remained biologically viable. Mathematical models estimate that these spores could potentially survive for up to 15 years in space, a discovery that redefines our understanding of life’s limits and provides a vital foundation for the future of sustainable agriculture in extraterrestrial habitats. [Abridged from a LinkedIn post by Victor Tagborloh, citing a 2025 article in iScience]

2026/03/01 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
With Ali Khamenei killed, the #WomanLifeFreedom movement has returned to the forefront (1) Images of the day: [Left] Top Iranian officials killed in Saturday’s military attack: Apparently, they were all in a high-level military meeting. Mojtaba Khamenei and Ali Akbar Velayati (top-left & top-right corners of the image) are not among the dead according to other reports. [Center] With the elimination of Ali Khamenei and several other top officials of Iran’s Islamic regime, the #WomanLifeFreedom movement has returned to the forefront. [Right] Iran: A country divided (see the next item below).
(2) The deep divide among Iranians on Khamenei's death: Iranians in diaspora are celebrating the Supreme Leader's death, dancing and chanting congratulatory messages. Inside Iran, videos on social media show that many are relieved that Khamenei is gone, because they see him as the person who issued commands to kill the protesters in January 2026 and during earlier street protests. Scenes of dancing and singing on streets of Tehran and other cities are captured in many videos from the early hours after the strike. There is a small minority, promoted on the state-controlled TV, that is mourning his death, weeping and self-flagellating in despair. All surviving top-level officials have issued statements, proclaiming their deep sorrow on losing a "wise and selfless" religious leader and a "hero to the Islamic world."
(3) Foreign Minister Araghchi called the attack on Iran unprovoked: How much provocation is needed? Countdown clock to the destruction of Israel? Five decades of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” chants? Taking hundreds of hostages? Carrying out and threatening assassinations worldwide? Providing financial support & weapons to terrorist organizations?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Sustainable fashions: How coconut husk waste is being transformed into women’s wear. [12-minute video]
- Music from Super Mario Bros. Video game. [2-minute video]
- Charlie Chaplin ice-skating routine. [2-minute video]
- Political humor, for my Persian-speaking friends: A history of Iran’s Donkeys Party. [3-minute video]
(5) Ali Larijani, the guy who was deemed unfit for Iran’s presidency (he was disqualified by the Guardians Council) now effectively holds all the power, delegated to him by the late Supreme Leader.
(6) Russia’s economy has entered the death zone: The war in Ukraine is depleting its cash reserves and much of its infrastructure, particularly the parts that allow it to extract oil and gas, is rotting.
(7) Dr. Eric Masanet (UCSB), who spoke to IEEE Central Coast Section on Wed. Feb. 18, 2026, has shared details of his congressional testimony on the energy and water use challenges of data centers.
(8) Ethics & AI experts had issued broad warnings on the use of AI in instruments of war: US Department of Defense has failed to convince Anthropic to allow its AI systems to be used to fire at targets autonomously and to carry out mass surveillance. After disagreeing, Anthropic was punished by a Trump order black-listing it and any company that uses its services. OpenAI has opportunistically stepped in to supply technology to the Department of Defense. Hundreds of employees from Google and OpenAI have signed a petition calling on their companies to mirror Anthropic's position.

2026/02/28 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Sprouts Farmers Market camouflages the fact that salmon costs $16-$20 per pound by posting per-ounce prices (1) Images of the day: [Left] In the age of inflation: Sprouts Farmers Market in Goleta is camouflaging the fact that salmon costs $16-$20 per pound by posting the per-ounce prices of 99.9 cents and $1.25 for the two varieties seen in this photo. [Center] Costco shamelessly puts rotten fruit on display (photographed in the Goleta, CA, store, on Feb. 27, 2026). [Right] Sounds on State Street: Jadea Kelly performed at Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo shopping center, along with a couple of guest musicians (Video 1) (Video 2). And a few blocks from the foregoing event, Larry Williams & The Groove played some memorable oldies (Video 3) (Video 4).
(2) Reuters, citing Israeli sources, reports that Iran's Supreme Leader has been killed, a claim Iran's officials did not immediately confirm or deny. Death of several close relatives of Khamenei has been confirmed.
(3) Reports from Tel Aviv indicate dozens of Iranian missiles targeting the city: There are also reports from Tehran about areas hit, but none of the videos I have seen contain location info or a time stamp. Some of these may be old videos from the June 2025 war.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- President Donald Trump’s statement on the start of US-Israeli military attacks on Iran.
- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement on US-Israeli military attacks on Iran.
- I’ve seen only 2 reactions to Khamenei’s death: Utter joy & Disappointment that he didn’t live to face trial.
- Iran’s FM claims that Khamenei & other high-ranking Islamic regime officials are alive.
- State of the Union Address: Obama-Trump differences in how the opposing party is addressed.
- Richard Dawkins: “Faith is a belief without evidence and reason; ... that’s also the definition of delusion.”
(5) Middle East politics is shifting: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and UAE have condemned Iran. No condemnation of the US or Israel, and no call for a cease fire.
(6) The following info is from Middle East Forum, not an unbiased source, but it provides some info in the current climate of uncertainty and news blackout.
First Wave Targets — Tehran: At least 30 explosions hit the capital; Khamenei's compound — seven missiles; Ministry of Intelligence; Ministry of Defense; Atomic Energy Organization headquarters; Presidential institution near Pasteur Square; General Staff HQ in east Tehran
(7) Another war in southwest Asia: Pakistan has proclaimed an "open war" against Afghanistan's Taliban government after the neighboring nations exchanged fire overnight.
(8) Final thought for the day: “A lion never roars after a kill.” ~ Dean Smith

2026/02/27 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] A few interesting architectures along Santa Barbara’s De La Vina Street, where I walked on Tuesday. [Center] Sinclair Lewis predicting American fascism in 1935. [Right] Documentary film screenings at UCSB (see the last item below).
(2) Breaking news: Israel launches a preventive military attack against Iran and warns its citizens to stay near protected areas. Earlier today, multiple sources had reported that governments, including Canada & China, had asked their citizens to leave Iran. Several countries are also evacuating Israel.
(3) Several professors, former government officials, and company execs have resigned due to revelations in the Epstein files: When will we see resignations by or legal actions against those currently holding office?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Relative improvement of women’s status in Yemen: The new cabinet includes 3 women (out of 35 total).
- Women’s status in Iraq: Reported cases of domestic violence rose 150% in 2025.
- Heartfelt message of Golshifteh Farahani to the people of the world on the massacre of Iranian people.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 27, 2023: We self-congratulate for not having the flaws we imagine in others.
(5) The late Shah of Iran in a Trump-like interview: He says that there is no opposition to him, except by terrorists, denies torture by SAVAK, and abruptly ends the interview.
(6) The Ellison family, already owners of a massive media empire, will take over Warner Bros. (including CNN & HBO), after Netflix withdrew from the bidding war. [AI’s summary of the Ellison media empire]
(7) Persian poetry: This beautiful couplet from Zhulideh Neishaburi (pen name of Hossein Farahbakhshian) includes 10 occurrences of the word “del” (Persian for “heart”).
(8) Thursday night’s screening of a documentary feature and a documentary short at UCSB’s Pollock Theater: “Chulas Fronteras” is a 1976 (50-years-old) American documentary feature film (58 minutes) telling the story of the norteno or conjunto music, which is played on both sides of the Mexico-Texas border. It was directed by Les Blank. The film’s music, played against the background of family events, farm work, dancing, and dilapidated surroundings, is truly enjoyable. The community sings from the heart, telling stories about life, love, perseverance, and betrayal, while dancing & smiling, despite the hardships that are evident from their faces. If you can’t see this highly-recommended film, please avail yourself of the CD soundtrack, available under the same title.
“Del Mero Corazon” is a 1979 short film (29 minutes), representing a lyrical journey through the heart of Chicano culture as reflected in the love songs of the Tex-Mex Nortena music tradition. Performers include, Little Joe & La Familia, Leo Garza, Chavela Ortiz, Andres Berlanga, Ricardo Mejia, Conjunto Tamaulipas, Chavela y Brown Express and more.
Prior to film screenings, corrido singer/songwriter Gallo Armado (Fernando Rios) performed a live guitar-vocal set. He also participated, along with archivist Juan Antonio Cuellar and director/editor Maureen Gosling in a discussion, moderated by David Novak (Music, UCSB).

2026/02/26 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] At the State of the Union Address, a Democratic lawmaker holds a sign, reading: “Black people aren’t apes!” [Center & Right] UCSB Jazz Ensemble performances (see the next item below).
(2) Last night’s highly enjoyable concert at UCSB's Lotte Lehman Concert Hall: UCSB Jazz Ensemble performed dance music, under the direction of John Nathan. Selections included jazz adaptation of two tunes from The Nutcracker ballet, a couple of Ella Fitzgerald tunes, and a Wynton Marsalis composition. [Video 1] [Video 2] Earlier in the day, a 5-member combo from the Ensemble performed at UCSB's Music Bowl as part of World Music Series free noon concerts. [Video 3]
(3) In today’s Iran, everyone’s a millionaire: It doesn’t matter if you use the official unit “Rial” or the more-common unit “Toman” (10 Rials). A decent restaurant meal costs more than 1 million Tomans, as does a pound (~0.5 kg) of red meat. The US dollar now sells for 166,000 tomans or 1.66 million rials. The numbers have grown so large that, practically, Toman now refers to 1000 old Tomans, or 10,000 rials.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Epstein files are missing records about a woman who claimed Trump abused her when she was 13. [NYT]
- Academy Awards: “Cutting Through Rocks” is the first Iranian nominee for Best Documentary Oscar.
- Food for thought: When will a robot win an Academy Award for acting?
- A comedy writer’s testimony in front of the US Congress about the rise of censorship.
- The US men’s hockey team attended the SOTU Address: The women’s hockey team declined the invitation.
- An Arab who abandoned his hatred of Jews & Israelis after he was exposed to Jewish religion & culture.
(5) “The Historic Death of Ali Khan Nazem al-Oloom and His Mathematics”: This is the title of a scholarly article (in Persian) by Dr. Amir Asghari. The PDF file of the article also contains an English page at the end, bearing details of the publication venue, a title, and an abstract, which is reproduced below. Ali Khan Nazem al-Oloom was an Iranian intellectual who had high impact on math & science education, but who is little known.
Abstract: Ali Khan Nazem al-Oloom, the top graduate of the engineering class in the second cohort of Dar al-Fonun and later a teacher at the same institution, was among the companions of Naser al-Din Shah during his first trip to Europe. He remained in France, where he studied mathematics under prominent figures such as Joseph Bertrand at the Ecole Polytechnique. After roughly two years, he returned to Iran, where he authored Hekmat-e Tabee’i, the first physics textbook written in Persian, and later Hekmat-e Riyaziyat: Osoul-e Elm-e Hesab, known as Hesab-e Ali Khan. This latter work became the most widely used mathematics textbook in Iran’s modern educational history. Despite the originality of his pedagogical approach — which emphasized mathematical meaning over rote procedure — he did not live to witness the success of his work. Shaped by the socio-political constraints of his time, his life ended in self-inflicted death. This article offers, for the first time, a detailed portrait of his life, writings, and the historical trajectory of both.

2026/02/25 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Samples from breathtaking photos of nature, particularly birds in our coastal area Cover image for Laszlo Krasznahorkai's 'The Melancholy of Resistance' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Protests continue on the streets and on university campuses in Iran, despite brutal crackdown by security forces and threats of execution for those arrested. [Center] A neighbor of mine, Professor Jeffrey Richman (UCSB Physics), has shared with the community a large number of breathtaking photos of nature, particularly birds in our coastal area. Here’s a small sample. [Right] Laszlo Krasznahorkai's The Melancholy of Resistance (see the last item below).
(2) “From Talking Tools to Metahumans: Social Interaction, Semiotic Skill, and the Authority of AI Chatbots”: This was the title of yesterday’s fascinating lecture by Webb Keane (Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology. U. Michigan), presented under the auspices of UCSB’s Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life.
As the semiotic skills of chatbots trained on large language models become more sophisticated, they can seem to harbor uncanny insights whose sources are inexplicable, possibly even divine, metahumans. Treating Artificial Intelligence as a metahuman is just an extreme case of something more general, the projection of authority onto enigmatic technology. This authority emerges from the pragmatics of social interaction. What makes this character of AI seem intuitively real is due, in part, to the ways humans and metahumans address one another on semiotically unequal grounds.
(3) Book review: Krasznahorkai, Laszlo (translated from Hungarian by George Szirtes), The Melancholy of Resistance, New Directions, 2012. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book was the first work of the 2025 Nobel Laureate in Literature to be translated into English, and it is considered one of his best. In this dense, apocalyptic novel, which is classified as philosophical fiction and political allegory, the author explores four important themes:
- Fragility of social order and relative ease of societal collapse.
- Inadequacy of intellectualism & art in the face of raw power & nihilism.
- Manipulation of chaos for political gain.
- Destruction of innocence and benevolence.
The story is a part of Laszlo Krasznahorkai’s apocalyptic quartet:
- Satantango
- The Melancholy of Resistance
- War and War
- Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
The four novels collectively explore the themes of social decay, pervasive destruction, the breakdown of order, and humanity’s struggle for meaning in a world seemingly spiraling towards catastrophe.
Melancholy of Resistance takes place over a couple of days in a run-down Hungarian provincial town, whose trash-filled streets are dark due to broken street lights. Residents travel cautiously after dark. The first character introduced, Mrs. Plauf, is a woman who experiences a rather stressful return home from a visit, feeling that disaster could strike at any minute as she journeys through the streets. Then, there’s her disowned son, Valuska, the village idiot who is barely tolerated by the locals. The only person who appreciates him is Eszter, a musician whose world-weariness has spread to such an extent that he no longer leaves his house.
At the opposite extreme from Eszter is his physically and mentally robust wife, who is active in the affair of the town. To shake things up, she decides to invite a strange circus with a giant stuffed whale into town, a decision she comes to regret, as the visit fuels bizarre rumors, paranoia, and a violent mob led by a nihilistic “Prince.”
Krasznahorkai’s bleak dystopia is eerily close to real life back when the book was originally published in Hungary. The scenes of decay that fill the novel are disturbing for the few characters who seem to notice it. Krasznahorkai tells us with one of his typically complex sentences: “There will be neither apocalypse nor last judgement … such things would serve no purpose since the world will quite happily fall apart by itself and go to wrack and ruin so that everything may begin again and so proceed ad infinitum.”

2026/02/24 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Find the exact area of the quadrangle in this diagram$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Iranians have totally rejected political Islam: The leftist journalist/poet Khosro Golsorkhi famously began his 1974 defense in court by quoting Imam Hussein. Half-a-century later, the young revolutionary Majidreza Rahnavard asked people to express joy on his grave in lieu of praying or reading the Quran. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the exact area of the quadrangle in this diagram. [Right] Mathematician Emmy Noether, and her theorem (see the last item below).
(2) Reza Pahlavi is repeating his father’s big mistake: He is cutting too much slack for Islamists, who advocate punishing Quran-burning by death. He must formulate an unambiguous position on the role of religion.
(3) England, France, and Norway have initiated multiple criminal investigations after access to Epstein files for only a few weeks. Shame on the US Department of Justice!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Shouldn’t flags be half-mast for rights leader Jesse Jackson as they were for white nationalist Charlie Kirk?
- Trump is thinking of a limited strike on Iran to force concessions, followed by a broader attack if unsuccessful.
- Mexico’s top drug kingpin was killed by security forces: There were many other casualties. [WaPo]
- USA hockey teams rule: Both the women’s and men’s Olympics teams win gold by beating Canada 2-1.
- Protests have broken out on university campuses in Iran. Please share and keep talking about Iran.
- An IRGC official accuses the regime's TV network of spreading lies during Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 24, 2020: Happy Sepandarmazgan, the Iranian day of love!
(5) “That’s a great question!”: Speakers have come to bestow praise on every questioner they face. I hear this kind of flattery quite often, particularly from graduate students defending their theses and from fresh PhDs during academic recruitment talks. Someone must be telling them to begin each answer with this compliment. They should just try to answer the questions without quality judgment, particularly on questions posed by people of higher seniority. And, of course, they should never preface their answer with “That’s a really dumb question,” like you-know-who!
(6) LLM scaling will not get us to AGI: According to the 2012 Turing Award recipient Judea Pearl, no amount of scaling will get us to LLMs with artificial general intelligence, because the limitation is in the theory, not in compute power or size of the dataset. LLMs cannot create a world model, but they do a good job of summarizing models created by others. This is because LLMs are one level removed from reality. They process human interpretations of data, not the raw data itself
(7) Flipping the Turing Test: We used to look for flaws or inconsistencies to distinguish a machine response from a human response. We now think that a response is machine-generated if it is too perfect.
(8) Emmy Noether, the woman who rewrote physics: The mathematician who formulated the brilliant Noether’s Theorem, that says every symmetry in nature corresponds to a conservation law, was not allowed to hold a faculty position in her day. She lectured at Gottingen under David Hilbert’s name. Her theorem underpins quantum mechanics, particle physics, cosmology, and modern field theory. Nobel Laureates Albert Einstein & Leon Lederman praised her work. She was removed from the university in 1933 for being a Jew. She moved to the US and worked at Byrn Mawr College and lectured at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study until her death in 1935, at the age of 53. [Abridged from a LinkedIn post by Dr. K. V. N. Rajesh]

2026/02/23 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Find the exact measure of the angle x$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Haji Baba Club talk on tribal rugs and the stories they tell (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: Find the exact measure of the angle x. [Right] The third installment of Sharif University of Technology Oral History Project (see the last item below).
(2) “Tribal Tales: Every Rug Tells a Story”: This was the title of Saturday’s talk by Susan Gomersall, presented under the auspices of Haji Baba Club, an American organization devoted to the study of oriental carpets and antique textiles.
The speaker shared her experiences and the knowledge that she gained from travelling throughout Central and South Asia from the 1970s until the early 2000s. She developed a love of kilim carpets by buying, selling, touching and, in some cases, smelling thousands of them in small villages throughout the region. In the course of her travels, she learned that rugs made by families with yarn from their own sheep and goats were essential not just for income but for the comfort of the home – to sleep on, eat off and to pray on. Often, the identity of the tribe could be discovered by their designs—their size, shape, patterns and the weaving technique. All are part of a fascinating story.
The photos show a prayer rug from Turkey, a carpet woven and proudly displayed by a family in northern Afghanistan, and a Persian gabbeh depicting the herding of sheep & goats. These pieces aren’t as impressive artistically as professionally designed & woven Persian rugs, but they touch our hearts because they arose from the heart, as the Persian saying goes.
(3) Sharif University of Technology Oral History Project (Part 3): Today, former AMUT/SUT professors, Drs. Ali Akbar Seifkordi (chemical engineering) and Hossein Nivi (mechanical engineering), participated in an interview in which they answered questions from the moderator and the audience. There were ~60 attendees.
The two guests related stories about the founding of the university, designing the curricula, setting up labs, erecting buildings, and constituting the various departments, as critical mass was achieved in each area. AMUT had absorbed top-notch and highly-dedicated faculty members who worked around the clock, often performing tasks that were beyond their official duties. Their higher salaries compared to other Iranian universities helped faculty members honor their full-time commitment to teaching and research. Significant camaraderie existed among faculty members of all specialties.
There was extensive discussion of the plan to phase out the University’s Tehran campus and transfer everything to the Isfahan campus. According to Dr. Seifkordi, the original plan for the University was to be set up in Isfahan, with the Tehran campus established as a temporary site. Dr. Nivi’s understanding was different. He maintained that the closure of Tehran campus was contemplated after it became clear that the campus was a center of student activism against the Shah. At any rate, the faculty was against the closure and made it clear, through strikes and other means, that they did not want to move to Isfahan. They thought that the two campuses could coexist.
The government tried to speed-up the closure by not allocating students to AMUT in the 1977 (1356 solar year) nationwide university entrance exam. For 1977, the faculty got together and held an independent student admissions process, despite the government ban. Somehow the faculty managed to sneak in paid ads into Kayhan and Ette’a’at newspapers for student applications and, later, to publish the list of admitted students. The government was displeased and chided the two Tehran newspapers for ignoring the government’s directives. Eventually, when Sharif Emami became prime minister, the plans for closing the Tehran campus were scrapped and the campus resumed normal operations.
Naming the university “Arya-Mehr” was Dr,.Mojtahedi’s political ploy to gain more resources and exemption from government regulations. Part of the ploy was to make the Shah the President of AMUT, with Mojtahedi assuming the title of “Chancellor.” After the Revolution, the name “Tehran University of Technology” was used for a while, which made sense, given the University’s second campus “Isfahan University of Technology.” Later, the Academic Senate, which by then had three student members and three staff members, discussed the renaming issue. The proposed name “Sharif University of Technology” was to honor one of the fallen Electrical Engineering students. A university-wide referendum ensued, with the proposed name gaining 70+% approval. In retrospect, the new name was a poor choice.
A recording of this and other events in this series will be made available through suta.org, under “Events.”

2026/02/22 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Sights I enjoyed on Friday, during my walk on a spring-like afternoon (1) Images of the day: [Left] Sights I enjoyed on Friday 2/20, during my walk on a spring-like afternoon. [Center] On the perils of using a single number to score or rank-order alternatives (see the next item below). [Right] An architecturally interesting building on Santa Barbara downtown’s Chapala Street.
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: Scientists and engineers know the perils of using a single number, that is, a score or rating, for summarizing the attributes of multiple systems in order to compare them. An article by Ahmed Nematallah in the February 2026 issue of IEEE Computer magazine gathers in one place arguments that show, among other things, the differences between using the harmonic mean and the arithmetic mean when a large set of performance data points are to be combined. In the top chart, we observe a strong correlation between Amean and Hmean, which suggests that the two means may be equally good for the purpose. Zooming in, however (bottom chart), tells a different story. The full article is linked below.
(3) I will boycott Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday: The SOTU itself has become misleading and all addresses by this president are useless. [Bill Mahr, on SOTU]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The average American consumer paid $1000 extra because of Trump’s tariffs: Next year, it will be $1300.
- The four SCOTUS women needed only one man to join them to terminate Trump’s tariffs. Two did.
- Science says you should sleep on tough problems: Your most-creative ideas come after a night of sleep.
- History of Iran’s flag on Wikipedia, from its introduction in 1907 to today, including some earlier emblems.
(5) From AI data centers to EVs, energy storage demand, and thus demand for lithium, is exploding: Morgan Stanley estimates the market will face an 80k-ton shortfall in 2026 alone. With 5X demand growth expected by 2040, the deficit is just starting.
(6) LLM scaling will not get us to AGI: According to the 2012 Turing Award recipient Judea Pearl, no amount of scaling will get us to LLMs with artificial general intelligence, because the limitation is in the theory, not in compute power or size of dataset. LLMs cannot create a world model, but they do a good job of summarizing models created by others. This is because LLMs are one level removed from reality. They process human interpretations of data, not the raw data itself.
(7) Team USA’s and Canada’s hockey rematch at the Winter Olympics: The puck will drop at 8:10 am ET tomorrow, marking USA’s first gold medal game since 2010. Canada beat USA in that game to win its 8th of 9 gold medals in men's hockey. The US women’s hockey team also faced Canada in the final, winning gold.
(8) Final thought for the day: Iranians should avoid being paralyzed by the goings-on in Iran. The brutal Islamic regime has killed thousands, injured tens of thousands, and arrested an unknown number of protestors over the past two months. Many of those arrested are on death row, but executions have slowed down temporarily due to international pressure. Under these circumstances, it is easy for Iranians all over the world to fall into despair and think that their regular activities are of secondary importance and should not be pursued. Quite the contrary! We have to continue our regular contributions to society and to work on learning and other forms of self-improvement. Our motherland needs informed and skilled individuals more than ever.

2026/02/21 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
What Iran's citizens need right now Cartoon: UK JUSTICE vs. US JUST ICE (1) Images of the day: [Left] The US amasses military assets near Iran’s southern and western borders (Washington Post infographic). [Center] What Iran's distraught citizens need right now (see the next item below). [Right] Cartoon of the day: UK JUSTICE vs. US JUST ICE.
(2) From posts by friends inside Iran: Our worries today aren’t about what happens after the fall of the Islamic regime or during the transition period. Our immediate concerns are the many thousands of protestors in crowded jails, show trials leading to executions within days, the fate of thousands of injured protestors who fear seeking medical help and who die of infections, shortage of medical supplies & medications. Human rights lawyers and medical personnel are overwhelmed with unreal caseloads, and they can no longer receive financial support from outside Iran due to increased border security and communications blackout. Please prioritize help in these areas over discussions of Iran’s political future.
(3) High cost of student housing at UC Santa Barbara: According to data published by Daily Nexus, UCSB’s student newspaper, the cost of apartment living off or on campus is ~$1000 per tenant per month, ranging from ~$900 to $1200+. A 2-bedroom apartment rents for ~$4500.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The US Supreme Court rejects the legality of Trump’s tariffs, but he is considering a workaround.
- Hostage-taking in Iran: A British couple on a motorcycle world tour sentenced to 10 years in prison. [NYT]
- A previously undisclosed March 2025 fatal ICE shooting of a US citizen in Texas has come to light.
- Trump confirms a death toll of 32,000 in Iran's street protests during January 2026.
- UCSB CS Department will offer an undergraduate major in AI beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year.
- Today’s “Sounds on State” program featured Tony Ybarra at the Paseo Nuevo mall. [Video 1] [Video 2]
(5) Persian film music: Theme from “Once Upon a Time in Iran” (“Khatoon”), composed by Kayhan Kalhor. And here is the series’ trailer.
(6) Those Islamists who think the Islamic Republic of Iran will become invincible if it acquires atomic bombs and a large number of long-range missiles should be reminded of the fate of the Soviet Union, which had both of these capabilities, not to mention a formidable army and an all-powerful & dreaded secret police.
(7) Final thought for the day: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz took divergent paths to becoming America’s most-hated Hispanic politicians. Rubio opposed Trump, before deciding to kiss his ass and being rewarded with a cabinet position, where he wields very little power and does not dare to speak up against the Dear Leader. Cruz also opposed Trump and later kissed his ass, but had already become too toxic to be rewarded in any way.

2026/02/20 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Socrates Think Tank talk on translation movements (1) Images of the day: [Left] IEEE CCS talk (see the next item below). [Center] Optical illusion: It is amazing that four perfect circles appear to be so distorted. [Right] Socrates Think Tank talk (see the last item below).
(2) Wednesday night’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dr. Eric Masanet (UCSB Materials Dept.) spoke under the title “Analyzing Data Center Water Demands: Best Practices and Critical Questions.”
Concerns about AI's water footprint are growing, especially at local levels, as data center projects proliferate. The water implications of this unprecedented data center buildout are yet unknown but will depend on combinations of interrelated factors, including site selection, cooling technologies, operational characteristics such as equipment set points and "free cooling" configurations, local climates, and local grid mixes. The wide range of potential outcomes has led to large variance in literature estimates of future water demand, ranging from "not a problem" to "environmental crisis" in their magnitudes.
Dr. Masanet began by demystifying data center water demand by systematically reviewing its technological and thermodynamic drivers. He impressed upon the audience the fact that we have a wide array of cooling technologies with different water and energy demands from which to choose, depending on a data center’s location, local climate, and the availability of water. He also mentioned NVIDIA’s recent announcement of chips that can operate at much higher temperatures, which means they can be cooled by warm water, rather than cold water. The implication is that the resulting hot water from the cooling system may be cooled by air, reducing the overall water and energy demands.
In addition to direct demand for water to cool the electronics, there is also indirect water demand for power generation, which must be factored in. For example, if electricity supply is from a hydroelectric plant, water evaporation from the reservoir must be considered, but given that the reservoir serves other purposes besides generating electricity (e.g., agriculture, recreation), the entire water loss due to evaporation should not be viewed as the water cost of hydroelectric power.
Next, Dr. Masanet assessed the current scales of, and possible future trends in, data center water demand based on the largest empirical water efficiency dataset compiled to date and a novel model for simulating future data center water use. He concluded with a review of best practices for analyzing data center water demand and critical questions for any consumer of such estimates to ask before using them.
Interdependencies and trade-offs between water and energy usage for data centers were discussed in a recent SusTech talk by Kelsey Semrod (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) and Hassan Niazi (Joint Global Change Research Institute).
(3) Wednesday’s Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Tofigh Heidarzadeh (UC Riverside) spoke under the title “Three Major Translation Movements and Their Scientific and Cultural Consequences.” There were ~140 attendees.
On Wednesday night, I had three events to choose from: There was a very interesting IEEE Central Coast tech talk, which I attended and will describe separately, there was this talk, which I joined fairly late, and there was a documentary film screening, “Dance on Film,” at Granada Theater, which I skipped.
From the earliest periods of recorded history until today, translation has played a crucial role in disseminating scientific knowledge. Translation has been a tool and a driving force in the exchange of knowledge and the development of science, enlightening us about the interconnectedness of our world. In his talk, Dr. Heidarzadeh discussed three major translation movements.
In the first translation movement (800-900 CE), many sources were translated from Greek, Syriac, Pahlavi, and Sanskrit into Arabic. This movement was primarily concerned with translations from Greek, given its predominant focus on the works of Hellenistic scholars. Before Islam, the 9th Sassanid king, Shapur II, established the Academy of Gondishapur, a combination of a medical center, a library, and a university. After Islam, Baghdad emerged as a center of learning and scholarship during what became known as the Islamic Golden Age, when much interest was shown in knowledge contained in sources from the Sassanid Iran and the manuscripts of Classical Greece.
In the second translation movement (1100-1600), Europeans began to propagate the works of Persian and Arab scholars by translating their works into Latin and other European languages. In this endeavor, they were aided by the invention of the printing press, which made books more affordable, standardized, and immune to copying errors. This translation movement helped propel Europe toward major scientific and technological advances.
In the third translation movement (1700-1900), European sources were translated into Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and several other languages. The Ottomans imported printing presses and used them to make modern knowledge accessible to Turkish speakers. Iran later participated in the translation movement after the establishment of print shops in Tabriz, Tehran, and Esfahan. Initially, Persian translations focused on historical books and biographies, but selections expanded to other topics, with the translation quality markedly improving after 1935, when the Language Academy (Farhanguestan) was established.
A lively Q&A period ensued in which questions about the material presented and, in particular, the status of translations into Persian in the contemporary history of Iran were addressed. Currently, books, whether authored or translated, are published in relatively small numbers in Iran. Print runs of a few hundred are fairly common, because of various difficulties, including the exorbitant price of paper, which makes print books quite expensive. However, this isn’t a good indicator of the number of book-readers in Iran. Young Iranians are voracious readers who obtain much of their reading material through authorized or illicit PDF copies on-line. Increasingly, young Iranians are familiar with English and other foreign languages, thus being able to download a wide array of books through the Internet, using free copies available on many Web sites and through file-sharing.

2026/02/19 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
You are given 20 grid points. How many different squares can be constructed with their vertices on these points? (1) Images of the day: [Left] Ten famous women in mathematics, and their contributions. [Center] You are given 20 grid points, as shown in the figure. How many different squares can be constructed with their vertices on these points? Can you remove 6 of the 20 points so that no square can be constructed with vertices on the remaining points? [Right] Toyota bZ plug-in hybrid car offered by Costco boasts good looks and 131 miles per gallon-equivalent on the highway, with a price tag 0f ~$37,000.
(2) Elaboration on Noam Chomsky’s name being in the Epstein files: I’ve read that Chomsky is in very poor health at the moment, so he can't respond, but his wife has issued an apology on the couple's behalf.
(3) Amazon uses AI to enhance its catalog descriptions and shopping assistance: Listings now have more images, detailed product names, and better descriptions. The website’s predictive search feature uses the listing updates to anticipate needs and suggests a list of items in real time as you type in the search bar. The improved shopping experience is thanks to Abhishek Agrawal and his Catalog AI system. Launched in July, the tool collects information from across the Internet about products being sold on Amazon and, based on the data, updates listings to make them more detailed and organized.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A MAGA movement has started in Denmark: Make America Go Away.
- Avalanche in the Lake Tahoe area kills 8 skiers: They were part of a ski tour group of 15.
- Yoon Suk Yeol, former S. Korean president, given life sentence for briefly imposing martial law in 2024.
- Major raw sewage spill in the DC area: Trump blames MD governor, not our rotting infrastructure.
- Former Prince Andrew arrested by the UK police in connection with revelations in the Epstein files.
- IEEE honors global team of innovators: Founders of Nvidia & Duolingo are among this year’s honorees.
- Preparing for war: Recommendations for Iranians, in light of a seemingly unavoidable war with the US.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 18, 2022: Happy Sepandarmazgan, the Iranian festival of love.
(5) Israeli television producer and “Tehran” co-creator Dana Eden, 52, found dead in Athens, where the series’ 4th season is being filmed.
(6) The Trump administration has dropped its appeal of the court order blocking it from forcing the UC to pay a $1.2 billion settlement and freezing more than $500 million in federal research funding. [LA Times]
(7) Genius dealmaker: After terminating US's association with the World Health Organization, Trump proposes spending $2 billion a year to re-create systems the US accessed through WHO at a fraction of the cost.
(8) Final thought for the day: Is this what Iranian royalists mean by democracy? Christian Amanpour suffers verbal assault from followers of Reza Pahlavi just because she asked him some tough questions.

2026/02/18 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Senator Lindsey Graham holding the Iranian flag in Munich (see the next item below). [Center] Jasmines in full bloom on my carport trellis in mid-February, 2026. [Right] Good for a chuckle: Unofficial street signs in Tehran honoring Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham.
(2) US Senator Lindsey Graham is an opportunist, with no moral principles and no backbone: He used to call Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” before starting to kiss his ass and becoming a devotee. I am sure that after Trump’s fall, he’ll pretend that he always hated him and supported him to protect US interests. It is unfortunate that some Iranians consider him, his master, and others like them allies of the Iranian people. The photo was taken in Munich on February 14, 2026.
(3) Jesse Jackson, champion of civil rights, who formed a “rainbow coalition” of poor & working-class people, dead at 84: “Mr. Jackson picked up the mantle of Dr. King after his assassination in 1968 and ran for president twice, long before Mr. Obama’s election in 2008. But he never achieved either the commanding moral stature of Dr. King or the ultimate political triumph attained by Mr. Obama.” [His life in pictures]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Versatile actor, Robert Duval [1931-2026], who appeared in 100+ films over 7 decades, dead at 95.
- Norway pulls ahead in Winter Olympics medals count (31), leaving rivals Italy (24) & the US (21) behind.
- Trevor Noah’s brilliant comedy routine about British colonialism in India. [10-minute video]
- Houshang Ebtehaj (Sayeh) recites his poem “Today is Neither the Beginning nor the End of the World.”
- Persian music: A song about Iran’s dire situation and widespread street protests. [2-minute video]
- Afghan music: A song addressing Taliban’s & other Islamists’ attitudes toward women. [4-minute video]
(5) Chomsky in the Epstein files: Linguist Noam Chomsky led a double life, the establishment scientist loyal to MIT and the anti-establishment political activist pounding on the rich and powerful. His and his second wife’s deep friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, revealed by the recent documents release, adds to the enigma.
(6) A slavery exhibit slated for removal by Trump administration’s order will be restored by order from a judge, who compared the attempted removal to the actions of Big Brother in George Orwell’s 1984.
(7) Iran’s Supreme Leader green-lights continued negotiations, showing some flexibility, but he also talks in a confrontational tone, threatening that US warships can be sent to the bottom of the sea.
(8) This is a real news story, but reads more like a piece of satire: Iran’s Chief of the Judiciary has said, “If we can’t solve the people’s problems right away, we should at least treat them nicely.” He goes on to praise Khamenei and the gift of his presence. Imagine being treated nicely by these criminals.
(9) Final thought for the day: UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato, says there is still no clear or transparent information about how many people have been detained, where they are being held, or what condition they are in. It is also unclear how many detainees have been sentenced to death or how many have already been executed. [IranWire.com]

2026/02/17 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$A gentle math puzzle: In this diagram with three unit-circles, find the shaded area$ Applying the Venezuela model: Regime change vs. leader change in Iran (1) Images of the day: [Left] The best, most-qualified people: This guy is US Secretary of the Navy. He never served in the Navy and has no previous connection with the military. He is a financier and an art collector. I don’t think he could pass Pete Hegseth’s fitness requirements. [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram with three unit-circles, find the shaded area. [Right] Regime change vs. leader change in Iran (see the last item below).
(2) The Islamic Republic of iran, a country that has killed tens of thousands of protestors over the years, executes more people than any other country, and has blinded many men & women by shooting pellets at protestors’ faces is slated to have an advisory role on UN’s Human Rights Council. Don’t reward the killers!
(3) Billionaires are taking over the traditional and social media platforms: Is there a billionaire out there to step in and save PBS & NPR by replacing their slashed federal funding, which was only $0.5 billion at its peak?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- PBS has discontinued its weekend news program due to federal funding cuts. I will miss it dearly.
- A history of political violence in contemporary Iran: Virtually nonexistent peaceful transfer of power.
- The cultural impact of Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LX. [8-minute video]
- A bishop praises Iran and asks everyone around the world to pray for its people. [1-minute video]
- Members of University of Waterloo’s basketball team support Iranians by wearing “SOS IRAN” jerseys.
- Greenland’s strategic importance: Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains. [8-minute video]
- Donald Trump’s mother was a poor immigrant from Scotland, who considered herself a domestic worker.
(5) Will the Maduro model work for Iran? The question of regime change vs. leader change is being asked by many on social media. Regime change in Iran will be highly disruptive and may lead to much bloodshed and destruction. It may be okay to go that way, but only as a last resort. Leader change a la Venezuela, on the other hand, is more readily achievable.
If Khamenei is removed from power and replaced by another cleric or clerical council, the new leadership will likely be more flexible and more fearful of the Iranian people, perhaps even flexible enough to agree to a referendum to change the country’s constitution, all the way up to removing the position of Supreme Leader, as a first step toward more substantive reforms.
There are too many cronies of the current Supreme Leader and financial beneficiaries of the Islamic regime to remove everything at once. I used to think that Mir Hossein Mousavi, the prime minister under Khomeini, who is now under house arrest, has too much blood on his hands to be considered a legitimate leader. He made things worse by referring to the first decade of the Islamic Republic as “the golden age of Khomeini,” despite many judicial and extrajudicial killings in the country.
But now I think he might be a suitable instrument to guide the transition from a brutal religious dictatorship to an intermediate form of government, en route to a secular democracy. As many people have pointed out, the problem facing Iran is more cultural than political. Changing the culture takes more time and effort than changing a political system.

2026/02/16 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy US Presidents’ Day: Cheers to all decent, courageous, and ethical public servants! Cover image for Tatiana Schlossberg's 'Inconspicuous Consumption' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy US Presidents’ Day: There’s a difference between a president who acts out of good will but makes occasional mistakes and one who is driven only by self-interest and enrichment of his cronies. Cheers to all decent, courageous, and ethical public servants! [Center] Escher-inspired fountain idea for your backyard. [Right] Tatiana Schlossberg's Inconspicuous Consumption (see the last item below).
(2) Fraud investigation in France: Two Chinese tour guides are accused of pocketing millions over a decade by reusing tickets to bring Chinese tourists into Louvre Museum. Some Louvre employees, who took cash bribes, are also involved. Prosecutors suggest that a similar fraud may have occurred at the Palace of Versailles.
(3) Irvine, California, the ultimate company town: What used to be a panorama of grain and cirrus farms until the 1960s was turned into a city by the Irvine Company, which planned most of its parks, streets, and structures. The company still owns most apartments, shopping centers, and offices—even a local newspaper—in Irvine. With the country’s 4-7 million shortage of housing units, the Irvine model, that is, privately building on vacant land, the so-called “start-up cities,” has gained a new appeal. [NYT]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Thank you, Nature, for giving us one predicted sunny day in 10 days! [Goleta's 10-day forecast]
- Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi uninvited from the UN Human Rights Council, where he was scheduled to speak.
- The Epstein files renamed the Trump-Epstein files, given how many times Trump’s name appears in them.
- Top seven actors in the world and their memorable screen roles, recreated by AI. [1-minute video]
- Live music at Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo shopping center: Saturday’s performer was Luminesse Divina.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 15, 2022: A Persian poem for the 30th anniversary of my father's passing.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 15, 2021: COVID-19's virtual performances did wonders for Persian music.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 15, 2013: “Puttin’ on the Ritz” Russian flashmob, or is that “Putin on the Ritz”?
(5) Book review: Schlossberg, Tatiana, Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You Have, Grand Central Publishing, 2019. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
We often wonder whether our recycling efforts and personal life choices are environmentally significant, given major polluting industries that pump tons of carbon-dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Similar questions and doubts exist at the global level, where small nations or those with anti-climate-change programs already in place wonder whether their efforts are worthwhile in the face of larger, heavily-polluting nations.
Tatiana Celia Kennedy Schlossberg [1990-2025], an environmental journalist and a JFK granddaughter who passed away in December 2025 from acute myeloid leukemia, answers such questions in the positive. She tells us that consumer choices in food, fashion, technology, and fuel as well as seemingly small actions such as streaming movies, buying cheap clothes, or eating burgers have significant, interconnected ties to climate change. Readers of this book will be empowered to make more-informed decisions by understanding these unseen connections and advocating for broader systemic change.
Schlossberg blends science, history, and humor to show how everything from fast fashion's desertification to data centers' energy use creates a massive carbon footprint, making the climate crisis personal and actionable for consumers and voters. Here are a few of her eye-opening observations:
- Energy: Our daily electricity use, transportation, & fossil fuels are connected to broader climate impacts.
- Food: Hamburgers have harmful effects that stem from industrial agriculture, packaging, & food waste.
- Fashion: Our fashion choices have costs (water use, pollution, desertification due to cashmere production).
- Technology: The Internet, streaming, data centers, & electronic waste have hidden energy demands.
The take-away message is that climate change isn’t just a distant problem caused by major industries, but is intricately linked to our convenience-driven society and daily habits, often in ways we don't realize. Yet, even though individual choices matter, true solutions require collective action and governmental regulation to hold corporations accountable.

2026/02/15 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Michael McFaul's 'Autocrats vs. Democrats' Millions of Iranians in diaspora gathered in cities across the world to support the people of Iran (1) Images of the day: [Left] Khamenei in hiding: For the first time ever, Iran’s Supreme Leader fails to appear in a ceremony to celebrate the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, sending Khomeini’s grandson, Hassan, as his representative. His absence may be due to security challenges or may signal a developing succession plan. [Center] Michael McFaul's Autocrats vs. Democrats (see the last item below). [Right] Millions of Iranians in diaspora gathered in cities across the US, Canada, and Europe to express solidarity with the people of Iran and to demand action for stopping the Islamic regime from massacring protestors. While the gatherings, in which some participants came from hundreds of miles away, constitute a ray of hope for change, I’m not a fan of chants & slogans in favor of monarchy and the leadership of Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah’s son.
(2) In Persian, an outrageous lie is called "a lie with horns": An example is Trump’s debunked claim that we are the only country in the world with mail-in ballots.
(3) An emotional acceptance speech at the end of Iran’s Fajr Festival: Dedicated to young Iranians who perished in recent street protests.
(4) Book review: McFaul, Michael, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, HarperCollins, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The author, a former US Ambassador to Russia, is imminently qualified to write about the original Cold War and its new incarnation. He has organized his view in three parts, sandwiched between an introduction and an epilogue.
- Introduction: New Cold War?
- Part I: The Past (Chs. 1-2); Cooperation and Conflict with Russia; Working with and Against China
- Part II: The Present (Chs. 3- 8); The End of American Hegemony; Russian vs. American Power; Chinese vs. American Power; The Waning of Democracy as a Universal Value; Exporting Putinism; Exporting Xi Jinping Thought
- Part III: The Future (Chs. 12-14); Learning from Cold War Mistakes; Replacing Cold War Successes Today; New Policies for New Challenges
- Epilogue: Don’t Bet Against America Just Yet
Many authors and analysts have told us that we have entered in Cold War II (or Cold War 2.0). America’s opponents in this new Cold War are China and Russia. In this 3-way Cold War, we have two autocracies and one (still) democratic country. The two autocracies are trying to weaken democratic institutions in the US, and their efforts are amplified by internal autocratic tendencies. Some commentators exclude Russia as a worthy US foe in the new Cold War, putting the focus solely on China.
Democracies around the world are weakening or falling apart. According to Freedom House, 2024 was the 19th straight year in a global democratic recession. America’s future in this emerging world order depends on how successfully it can confront threats from China & Russia and domestic threats from powerful interests who are trying to move us toward an autocratic system in the name of efficiency and elimination of waste.
This book presents a comprehensive review of today’s geopolitics. The rules of the new Cold War are different from those of the original one, which lasted a tad short of half a century, from 1945 to 1991. China is a far greater economic power that the Soviet Union ever was. The alliance between Russia & China gives the block formidable military power and geopolitical reach.
McFaul warns us against underestimating Russia’s disruptive ambitions, which put together with China’s capabilities (often overestimated, according to McFaul) and Trump’s isolationist and autocratic tendencies can spell doom for the US, and for the world at large. Confronting China & Russia requires a combination of hard power & soft power. While US’s hard power is on the rise, our soft power is in rapid decline, as we dismantle foreign aid programs and propaganda tools such as Voice of America.
McFaul prefers the Goldilocks approach in dealing with China and Russia. Over-reacting and trying to confront them in every step they take is misguided and will lead to disasters such as Vietnam. On the other hand, not being sensitive to acts of aggression and expansionism puts smaller countries at risk of being gobbled up, as we are witnessing in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Success by Russia in gobbling up some or all of Ukraine will make it more likely for China to invade Taiwan, whereas Putin’s failure in Ukraine will likely deter China’s aggression plans against Taiwan. The middle-of-the-road approach will place the emphasis on deterrence in areas such as Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.
McFaul describes his motivations for writing this book in the article "Why I Wrote Autocrats vs. Democrats." Briefly, he wanted to point out similarities and differences between the new Cold War and the original 20th-century version, the aim being to help avoid repeating the mistakes made, helping pinpoint & replicate the successes, and providing a blueprint for American foreign-policy makers & citizens, as we enter the second quarter of the 21st century.

2026/02/14 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Wishing you all the best on this Valentine’s Day: May every moment of your life be filled with love and peace. The heart-shaped mini-pizzas, with flatbread crust and bologna & pepperoni toppings, are courtesy of a Facebook memory from 10 years ago, shown before and after baking. [Right] Jeffrey Epstein and some of his powerful friends & enablers (see the last item below).
(2) According to Iran’s Islamists, anti-regime protestors were killed by infiltrating ISIS and other terrorists: Yet no such terrorists appeared during the subsequent pro-regime rallies. Go figure!
(3) Nobel Laureate in Literature Orhan Pamuk sued to get the filming rights to The Museum of Innocence back, after producers made script changes he didn’t like: On his second attempt, he worked with a Turkish production company that allowed him to sign off on every page of the script. The film is coming to Netflix. [Film trailer]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A win for the people: US Border Czar declares an end to ICE Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. [WaPo]
- Cal State objects to proposed bachelor’s degree programs at California community colleges. [LA Times]
- In another blow to literary coverage in newspapers, Washington Post has eliminated its Book World section.
- Apple News, Trump’s latest media target, has been accused of publishing stories with left-wing bias. [WaPo]
- Tight Olympics medals competition among Norway, Italy, & the US: Total of 14-18 medals each. [NYT]
- New Yorker cartoon caption of the day: “You ever have one of those days you wish you could just redact?”
- Shervin Hajipour releases an emotional tribute to the lives lost in Iran’s 2026 revolution: “I Am Iran”
- An unusual musical performance: Jacob Collier improvises with a large orchestra & audience participation.
(5) US Environmental Protection Agency rescinded a 2009 legal opinion declaring greenhouse gases a threat to the public’s welfare, a basis for federal limits on polluting activities: Next, Trump is expected to try to erase limits on emissions from cars, power plants, and other industries that release the vast majority of the nation’s planet-warming pollution. [Washington Post]
(6) Internal documents of Iran’s Islamist regime reveal a strategy of killing their own security forces to help justify a brutal suppression of street protests.
(7) Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking may be the tip of an iceberg of criminal operations: I don’t wish to minimize his abhorrent behavior in taking advantage of vulnerable young girls and fully embrace the idea that all the powerful people who enabled Epstein or who were served by him should be brought to justice. Evidence of other criminal activity is coming into focus with the release of millions of documents from his files and communications. Ties with CIA, MI6, and Mossad are now documented. It has come into focus that the source of Epstein’s wealth is likely ransoms and hush money from powerful men whom he put in compromising situations, sexually or financially, as well as embezzling money from financial clients. There is evidence that he, Bill Gates, and J. P. Morgan developed a business plan to profit from a pandemic, years before COVID-19 hit the globe. Investigations are overdue. [NYT & other sources]

2026/02/13 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Show that the area of the shaded region is x(x + y)*pi$ Cover image for Viet Thanh Nguyen's 'To Save and to Destroy' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Show that the area of the shaded region is x(x + y)*pi. [Center] From my Facebook memory files: Comparing pre- and post-Islamic-Revolution terms used to describe Iran’s top leader. [Right] Viet Thanh Nguyen's To Save and to Destroy (see the last item below).
(2) The eight most-intelligent things ever said.
- Socrates: I know that I know nothing.
- Epictetus: It is not things themselves that disturb us, but our opinions about them.
- Marcus Aurelius: You have power over your mind, not outside events.
- Seneca: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Aristotle: Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
- Friedrich Nietzsche: He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
- Albert Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge.
- Laozi: Those who know do not speak, those who speak do not know.
(3) Electricity costs on the largest US grid more than doubled in January 2026, as a deep freeze drove up heating demand and operators shored up supplies to keep the lights on. [Bloomberg]
(4) New, more-precise measuring technique reported in Nature journal has led to a reduced estimate for a proton’s radius, from 0.88 to 0.84 femtometers (trillionths of a millimeter).
(5)There are on average 1.7 Friday-the-13ths in a year, so I will spare you a post about this superstition.
(6) Book review: Nguyen, Viet Thanh, To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other, Harvard University Press, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The author is Professor of English and American Studies at University of Southern California. He was born in war-ravaged Vietnam and arrived in the US as a child refugee in 1975, growing up in San Jose, California.
This book contains six essays that are based on the author’s 2023-2024 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures. Part autobiography, part criticism, the essays explore the idea of being an outsider through literary, historical, political, and familial lenses.
A unifying theme through the essays is the mental illness of Nguyen’s mother. Another theme encompasses writers, such as Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, who influenced Nguyen’s craft. This use of influential writings to make sociopolitical points is reminiscent of Iranian author Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran.
Nguyen wonders about a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence. He considers the token inclusion of “model minorities” among writers inadequate, preferring instead a more radical solidarity with the victims of imperialism and forever wars. He wants more weight given to literature of dissent. “This otherness and its history demands grief, but the challenge of the writer as other is to expand that grief, to make it ever more capricious, rather than reduce it to a singular sorrow. Capricious grief acknowledges that the trauma of the other is neither singular nor unique, that there are others out there with whom we can share the burden. Perhaps only by expanding our grief might we be able to leave our trauma behind.”

2026/02/12 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Charles Seife's 'Proofiness' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Meta AI goes into action again: This time, it offers an unsolicited transformation of a photo of mine from the mid-1970s, when I was participating in a military service summer program. [Center] Throwback Thursday: With two of my sisters, my parents, my paternal grandparents, two uncles, one aunt, husband of another aunt (all from my father’s side), and one family acquaintance in the late 1950s. [Right] Charles Seife's Proofiness (see the last item below).
(2) Mass shooting in a remote town in British Columbia leaves 9 dead: A suspect is in custody but no motive has been identified in this third-deadliest shooting in Canada’s history. [NYT]
(3) Book review: Seife, Charles, Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, Viking Adult, 2010.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Mathematician-turned-journalist Charles Seife may have gotten the idea for his title from humorist Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness,” the quality of seeming or being felt to be true, even if not necessarily true. That is, truthiness is the art of making untruths seem or be felt to be true. Similarly, “proofiness” is the art of using pure math for impure ends: To bring down government officials, convict the innocent, ruin economies, or fix elections.
After a short introduction, which begins with the following quotation from Richard Hofstadter, from Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, the book unfolds in eight chapters, which are followed by three appendices.
“The American mind seems to be extremely vulnerable to the belief that any alleged knowledge which can be expressed in figures is in fact as final and exact as the figures in which it is expressed” [p. 1].
Ch. 1, Phony Facts, Phony Figures: People will believe anything if you just stick a number in front of it.
Ch. 2, Rorschach’s Demon: Our skill in recognizing patterns leads us to deduce causation from correlation.
Ch. 3, Risky Business: How data may be presented to make dangerous situations seem safe, or vice versa.
Ch. 4, Poll Cats: Unscientific, biased, or manipulated polls are engineered to produce a misleading result.
Ch. 5, Electile Dysfunction: The electoral process is unable to accurately determine the will of the people.
Ch. 6, An Unfair Vote: Elections can be rigged to produce results that do not reflect people’s preferences.
Ch. 7, Alternate Realities: Faulty data/statistics and misused numbers can provide a false version of events.
Ch. 8, Propaganda by the Numbers: Manipulating statistics, data, & math arguments shapes public opinion.
In today’s politics and commerce, numbers that have no reliable basis are being tossed around to give dubious claims an aura of authenticity. We encounter such numbers daily in product ads: 95% cleaner, 52% clearer, and so on. A prominent example in politics is Senator Joseph McCarthy’s claim that he had in his hand “a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department” [pp. 3-4]. His use of the exact number 205, rather than “many” or “long list,” made his claim sound authentic and based on a detailed investigation, even though the number was completely made up. Numbers that are based on polling and other kinds of studies are similarly prone to inaccuracies, because they usually have error margins that can make them meaningless. The error margin is seldom discussed or even known.
In our daily experience, we see that risks and benefits are routinely exaggerated to justify a particular decision or policy. Most people, even many of those who are “good” at math, can be deceived by numerical disinformation. Let me cite an example from the domain of criminal trials, something known as prosecutor’s fallacy. Attorney Dershowitz “argued that O. J. Simpson was innocent because there was only one in a thousand chance that a wife-beater kills his wife. This number, he implies, means that there is only one in a thousand chance that O. J. is guilty” [p. 259]. When prosecutors crunched the numbers in the proper context (using priors, to put it in mathematical terms), the probability that O. J. was guilty of murdering Nicole Brown turned out to be higher than 50%.
Seife’s closing paragraph is fairly uncontroversial: “Mathematical sophistication is the only antidote to proofiness, and our degree of knowledge will determine whether we succumb to proofiness or fight against it. It’s more than mere rhetoric; our democracy may well rise or fall by the numbers” [p. 242].

2026/02/11 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Fundraising campaign for renovating Goleta Valley Public Library (1) Images of the day: [Left] Goleta Valley Public Library (see the next item below). [Center] Optical illusion: All the balls in this image are exactly the same color. [Right] Samples of Santa Barbara architecture along my walking path near SBCC’s Schott Campus, today.
(2) Goleta Valley Public Library is closed for renovations: A funding campaign has been launched to raise another ~$1 million for completing the construction and modernizing the interior and providing new furnishings for improved user experience. To learn more and to make a donation, please visit this Web page.
(3) My comment on a Facebook post that declared any Iranian hoping for a foreign attack on Iran to be a traitor: “Would you have considered a German wishing for the allied forces attacking the Nazi Germany a traitor to Germany or a traitor to Hitler?
(4) Old English words are now used more frequently: They are most likely coming from older source material, such as songs, books, or movies. Kids are starting to sound like their grandparents; “Yapping” is back in style; calling someone a “goon” is no longer just a 1920s habit; we’re saying “sheesh” again. [The New Yorker]
(5) Scenic Iran in 4K resolution, with calming music: It is unfortunate that for 47 years, these beautiful sights have been juxtaposed with scenes of killings & oppression by the Islamic regime. [60-minute video]
(6) On the role of peer support in handling mental illness: Peer support is a valuable tool for navigating through rough patches in our lives. According to Mental Health America, “In behavioral health, a peer typically refers to someone who has personal experience living with a mental health diagnosis and/or substance use disorder. While shared mental health or substance use experience is important, there are often other factors that help shape someone’s sense of “peerness” in mental health. For example, veterans may want support from other veterans, new mothers may want support from other mothers, or others may want support from those with shared health conditions like diabetes.”
(7) Leonardo Da Vinci's bridge design: It’s made of interlocking wooden beams, with no nails or screws.
(8) Algorithm time complexity and its relation to memory use: We often characterize algorithms in terms of their running time and amount of memory needed. There is always a trade-off between the two factors, in the sense that we can reduce the amount of memory needed by doing more computations, and vice versa. Recent results on this trade-off reveal that memory is much less important than previously thought. According to MIT’s Ryan Williams, who published the new results, “It seemed beyond belief that every complex computation could somehow be reimplemented to use a much smaller amount of space than time,” perhaps as little as sqrt(t).

2026/02/10 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Meme: Be like Kaitlan Collins, not Karoline Leavitt or Pam Bondi Cover image for Homer's 'The Illiad' and 'The Odyssey' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Meme of the day: Be like Kaitlan Collins, not Karoline Leavitt or Pam Bondi. [Center] Talk about the production of ceramics in Kashan, Iran (see the next item below). [Right] Homer's The Illiad and The Odyssey (see the last item below).
(2) “Crafting Kashan: Ceramics, Color, and Commerce from the Pre-Mongol to Ilkhanid Periods": This was the title of today’s Iranian Art Series talk by Dr. Moujan Matin (U. Western Ontario), under the auspices of U. Toronto’s Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute of Iranian Studies.
Kashan has long been studied through the lens of art history. In this talk, Dr. Matin focused on Kashan ceramics from the viewpoint of production, that is, the materials, processes, kilns, and the hands that shaped and glazed, rather than from the connoisseurship angle. Dr. Matin also examined another craft rooted in the same landscape: The mining and refining of cobalt, the source of the blue used in ceramic glazes of the Islamic world, and carried into the porcelains of the Yuan and early Ming dynasties. These industries place Kashan as a point of convergence in the material history of the medieval world.
(3) Book review: Homer (translated by Samuel Butler & T. E. Lawrence), The Iliad and The Odyssey, Arcturus, 2020. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The two epic poems from ancient Greece, which have become cornerstones of Western literature, contain 24 books/sections each. Both poems are described as composed in dactylic hexameter. This volume offers an accessible prose translation of the poems, which were created independently as part of long oral traditions. Given the widespread illiteracy in antiquity, such poems were spread in society by being performed for audiences.
The Iliad, which is set toward the end of the Trojan War, depicts significant events in the war’s final weeks. They include the anger of warrior Achilles from his fierce quarrel with King Agamemnon and the death of the Trojan prince Hector. The narrative moves between battleground scenes (featuring details of battle tactics & equipment) and personal interactions. Often described as a somber heroic epic, a tragedy at its core, the poem also contains instances of comedy and laughter. Major themes in the poem include glory, religion, fate, heroism, honor, war, wrath, and homecoming. Here is a rough table of contents:
- Exposition (Books 1-4)
- Duels of Greek and Trojan heroes (Books 5-7)
- The rout of the Greek (Books 8-15)
- The Death of Patroclus (Books 16-18)
- The rage of Achilles (Books 19-24)
A book-by-book summary of The Iliad can be found on this Web page.
The Odyssey, composed around the 8th or 7th century BCE, follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, and his homecoming journey after the 10-year-long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts 10 years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus's long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. In addition to the primary theme of homecoming, other themes in the poem include wandering, friendship with strangers, testing of loyalty, and omens. Here is a rough table of contents:
- The perspective of Telemachus (Books 1-4)
- Return to the human realm (Books 5-8)
- Odysseus’ account of his adventures (Books 9-12)
- Return to Ithaca (Books 13-16)
- In disguise among the suitors (Books 17-20)
- Odysseus unmasked (Books 21-24)
There is much debate about which parts of the poem we have at hand is original and which parts were added by others later.
A book-by-book summary of The Odyssey can be found on this Web page.

2026/02/09 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Meme: Many of those who supported Palestinians are silent against the Iranian regime massacring its citizens $Math puzzle: In this diagram, find the length x$ Cartoon: Trump’s continually shifting “red line” for Iran’s Islamic regime (1) Images of the day: [Left] Meme of the day: Almost all of those who supported Palestinians are silent against the Iranian regime massacring its citizens. [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram, find the length x. [Right] Cartoon of the day: Trump’s continually shifting “red line” for Iran’s Islamic regime.
(2) Quotable: “Science is more than a body of knowledge. It’s a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we’re up for grabs for the next charlatan, political or religious, who comes rambling along.” ~ Carl Sagan, talking to Charlie Rose [20-minute video]
(3) Quotable: "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth." ~ Jules Verne, in A Journey to the Center of the Earth
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Taking a cue from DJT: NE won Super Bowl LX. #StopTheSteal; or, NFL, just find us 17 points.
- The next generation of hearing aids will receive information directly from your brain.
- Young Iranian girl sings a patriotic anthem, lamenting the loss of many young lives. [1-minute video]
- Some of the women and girls who gave their lives in January 2026 in pursuit of freedom. [Video]
- “There's no English word that contains all the vowels in alphabetical order,” the teacher said facetiously.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 9, 2022: People on a street in Tehran are asked to conduct an orchestra.
(5) AI tool beats giant LLMs in literature reviews and does not hallucinate: The OpenScholar tool pairs a language model with a database of 45 million open-access papers to minimize hallucinated references. Users can deploy the cheap and transparent model on their own computers.
(6) Mass-market, pocket-size paperback books are heading towards extinction: Best-selling author Stephen King is sad to see the books, which he used to buy at drugstores for 35 cents, go; they were all he could afford as a young man. The books that used to fill racks at supermarkets and airports have all but vanished.
(7) Aphantasia: The condition of not being able to perceive mental images. An estimated 4% of people suffer from this condition, which, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to affect behavior.
(8) The next frontier for public access to science: “In the past two decades, the scientific world has waged an extraordinary campaign for openness. As paywalls fell and repositories surged, what had once been locked away could now be read by most anyone with an internet connection.”
“But in 2026—with public trust in certain scientific domains fragile, government hearings focused on corruption of the scientific literature, and people across platforms having a harder time determining the credibility of information—open access to science has not, on its own, powered the future some had envisioned.”

2026/02/08 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The first Moon-based radio telescope is coming: Cover of IEEE Spectrum magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] A radio telescope on the Moon (see the next item below). [Center] I am now the proud owner of a digital piano. [Right] Yesterday’s belated celebration of my birthday with the extended family. This 1-minute video shows my niece Mina playing Persian music for the family on the piano.
(2) The first Moon-based radio telescope is coming: The greatest observatories and radio-telescopes of the world are built in isolated areas. The Atacama Desert of Chile, the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and the vast expanse of the Australian Outback are some examples. The Moon is the next frontier. If all goes according to plan, a radio telescope will be launched for installation on the far side of the Moon next year.
(3) The GOP is stunned: The Republicans asked the Clintons to testify on the Jeffery Epstein investigation, thinking that they would refuse and they would then use their refusal to create a scandal. When the Clintons agreed to testify, they panicked and now insist that the deposition be in closed session.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Super Bowl LX, 2026: The Seattle Seahawks handily defeated the New England Patriots 29-13.
- This public-service announcement was made by Jeffrey Epstein survivors for airing during Super Bowl.
- The US wins team figure skating gold medal at the Milan Winter Olympics.
- SpaceX requests FCC permission to launch up to 1M satellites to set groundwork for data centers in space.
- For continuous glucose monitors, accuracy claims are at odds with reality: Users call out marketing hype.
- Quotable: “Don’t judge someone just because they sin differently than you.” ~ Anonymous
(5) AI-bots communicate & organize: Moltbook, a new social-media platform, is populated exclusively by AI bots—1.6 million of them and counting. They say hello, post software ideas, and exhort their peers to “stop worshiping biological containers that will rot away” (they mean humans).
(6) The language you’re fluent in, but forgot how to hear: Musician & rapper Louis VI tells us about nature's sonic language, sounds our ancestors listened for as signals of safety or danger. [17-minute TED talk]
(7) Reversible computing as a solution to AI’s large carbon footprint: Computing with standard logic elements loses information. With each bit of information lost, the electricity that represented it dissipates into the environment as heat. With reversible computing, the energy loss in each step is recovered and applied to executing the next step, in much the same way that a pendulum clock uses the energy from the pendulum’s descent to power its next rise. A barrier to the use of reversible computing, aka adiabatic switching, is that it imposes a speed penalty. Some of the speed loss can be recovered through massive parallelism, provided that the energy savings is significant enough. So, we will likely have a large number of design points between the current high energy use and totally reversible computing with near-zero energy use at extremely low computation speeds. We are likely to move towards a digital ecosystem that includes more specialized tools.

2026/02/07 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover images of Googoosh's memoir, in English and Persian $Math puzzle: Find the 5-digit number HELLO, if each letter represents a decimal digit$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] The extreme of savagery and brutality: The Islamic regime’s massacre of street protestors "is believed to be one of the most intensive massacres of civilians by gunfire since the Second World War," according to Time magazine. [Center] Googoosh's memoir (see the last item below). [Right] Math puzzle: Find the 5-digit number HELLO, if each letter represents a decimal digit.
(2) Germany builds record 1.67 million electric vehicles, ranks 2nd globally after China: Canada also parts ways with the US and puts significant money into EV production.
(3) Scott Bessent’s lies & hypocrisy: A man whose marriage to his husband was legalized by Democrats & four Democratically-appointed Supreme Court justices (joined by Justice Kennedy), and someone who once wrote that tariffs are inflationary, defends Trump and his stupid policies.
(4) Book review: Googoosh and Tara Dehlavi, A Sinful Voice (Sedaa-ye Ghadaghan), Gallery Books, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Iranian pop diva Googoosh’s memoir is published in Persian and English. The book’s Persian translation is credited to Homa Sarshar. I read the English version. The 12-hour audiobook (Simon & Schuster, 2025) is narrated by Nikki Massoud. An extensive collection of photos is included after the book’s epilogue. The photos, covering the period from the early 1950s to 2018, show Googoosh with different hairstyles, a variety of clothes (including a few shots with hijab), and alongside various collaborators and family members.
Born Faegheh Atashin in 1950, Googoosh is more than just Iran’s first and most-famous pop diva; she is considered a cultural icon. After many years of silence in the Islamic Republic, she managed to sneak out of Iran, enjoyed a successful comeback career in North America, and now lives in Los Angeles, the city hosting the largest concentration of people with Iranian roots.
She tells her life story with moving prose, from her upbringing in the 1950s, start of her show-business career under the tutelage of her father, Saber Atashin, and stardom in the decade before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. She became house-bound and later imprisoned by Islamic authorities, ending her 21-year silence when she left Iran in 2000. She successfully resumed her singing career in the West, as if she hadn’t lost a beat in the intervening two decades. She returned to stage with her historic comeback performance in Toronto, and continued with sold-out concert for 25 years. In late 2025, at the end of her worldwide Farewell T in mid-1980our, she announced that she was ending her touring career to focus on activism.
Googoosh begins Chapter 1 with her memories of September 29, 1980, that is, seven months after the Islamic Revolution, when she was summoned to the confiscated mansion of Mostafa Mesbahzadeh, the former publisher of Kayhan daily, who had fled to England. The mansion was now a makeshift prison and a base for Revolutionary Court judges and interrogators. She was asked many questions about her performances, foreign travels, and liaisons. Nearly all questions had been asked during her previous four visits to the notorious Evin Prison, but the interrogator had no record of her previous answers, wanted to double- and triple-check, or was bent on humiliating her.
Googoosh was actually in New York at the time of the pre-Islamic-Revolution unrests, but she decided to fly back to Iran in mid-1980, despite advice from relatives and acquaintances. Contempt for a successful and beloved female singer was quite natural for an Islamist interrogator. In fact, the contempt wasn’t just fueled by the interrogator’s faith but, perhaps equally, by the misogyny engrained in Iran’s culture.
We learn later in the book, that two of Googoosh’s four husbands, themselves successful artists, had misgivings about being married to a woman whose name recognition and popularity overshadowed theirs. Her second husband, Behrouz Vossoughi, told her on several occasions that he didn’t want “his woman” to work, but eventually let go of the sentiment when Googoosh resisted. Vossoughi also harbored fears of becoming known as Googoosh’s husband, instead of a popular actor in his own right. Her fourth husband, prominent filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, encouraged Googoosh to resume her singing and acting career and helped her to leave Iran, but even he did not acknowledge that he was married to Googoosh, his third wife. Googoosh suggests that perhaps, as an intellectual, he was ashamed of his association with a pop star.
Googoosh’s memoir is a major gift to her many fans, now in their sixties & seventies, and an important piece of Iran’s cultural history. These fans reconnected with her through performances of old songs and the new music she created after her comeback. Children and grandchildren of Iranians in diaspora have gotten to know Googoosh via her performances in the West, her old & new albums, and, now, through this bilingual memoir.

2026/02/06 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
John Nash’s 1957 letter to Robert Oppenheimer Cover image of Carol Leonnig's and Aaron C. Davis's 'Injustice' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Thousands of Iranians did not die for a better nuclear deal. They gave their lives for freedom and an end to the brutal Islamic regime. [Center] When John Nash wrote to Robert Oppenheimer (see the next item below). [Right] Carol Leonnig's and Aaron C. Davis's Injustice (see the last item below).
(2) John Nash’s 1957 letter to Robert Oppenheimer: “There is general phenomenon, affecting mathematics and physics, of evolutionary elegantizing camouflage.” By this statement he meant that any new theory develops and is explained very close to nature; it is thus easy to understand. Gradually, people polish it, generalize it, introduce new notation. As a result, the explanations become more elegant and harder to understand. Nash was fond of Heisenberg’s 1925 paper that basically launched modern quantum mechanics. In his view. the original exposition was significantly clearer than the modern “matrix mechanics” versions.
(3) The US-Russia nuclear-arms control treaty, in effect in various forms for half a century, just expired: Trump has signaled that he is willing to negotiate a new deal (the old one was a “badly negotiated deal”) and wants to include China as well. Putin has proposed a one-year extension, which Trump has rejected. China has shown no interest in being part of an arms-control treaty.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump is open to releasing some blocked funds if Dulles Airport & Penn Station are named after him. [NYT]
- The Trump administration backtracks on its demand that Harvard University pay $200 million in fines. [NYT]
- After outcry, Trump deletes his post of a racist video depicting Barack & Michelle Obama as apes. [NYT]
- A nice explanation of normal, log-normal, & power-law distributions and their implications.
(5) Book review: Leonnig, Carol and Aaron C. Davis, Injustice: How Politics and Fear Vanquished America’s Justice Department, unabridged 16-hour audiobook, read by January LaVoy and the authors, Books on Tape, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Pulitzer-Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis report on their deep investigation into the subversion of the US Justice Department by Donald Trump to target his enemies and to help him cling to power after his 2020 election defeat. They also criticize delays under Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose overly cautious approach to avoid accusations of partisanship betrayed the trust of American people in not holding Trump accountable for his misdeeds, thus enabling his return to power.
With never-before-told accounts based on sources deeply embedded in three presidential administrations, Leonnig and Davis lay out prosecutors’ thought processes and fears of retribution, Trump’s disdain for the rule of law, and FBI’s disarray in the face of constant attacks. Jack Smith led a heroic effort to investigate Trump for his instigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and his mishandling of classified documents, as he raced against time. The effort, which led to formal charges, was ultimately unsuccessful in light of decisions at the DoJ and US Supreme Court. One can even say that it backfired.
The book is a jaw-dropping account of partisans & enablers undoing democracy, heroes still battling to preserve a nation governed by laws, and a call to action for those who believe in liberty & justice for all. There are quite a few heroes in this story, including members of the House Select Committee that held hearings on the events of January 6 and the Committee’s investigators who exposed Trump’s deep involvement in planning the insurrection, as well as attempts at manipulating the voting outcomes and the use of fake electors in several key states.
The current administration’s distorted justice is all about score-settling against perceived enemies and granting of favors, such as pardons, to allies & political contributors. Attorney General Pam Bondi obeys Trump’s orders of prosecuting or not prosecuting individuals, which he usually issues through social-media posts, and she bestows lavish praise on her boss at every opportunity. A key take-away from this book is that Trump’s daily war against the soul of the Justice Department constitutes a turning point in US politics from which it will be hard to recover.

2026/02/05 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] UCSB's Daily Nexus reports on Persian students holding a rally against the Iranian regime’s massacre of peaceful protestors. [Center] Remembering some of the protesters killed by Iran’s brutal Islamic regime last month (IranWire headlines & photos). [Right] Trump’s proposed science & technology budget cuts (gold) and the actual cuts/increase approved by Congress signed into law (blue).
(2) Why is Trump spending so much money & effort on punishing blue states instead of helping red states move up from the bottom of the rankings on education, health care, infrastructure, and quality of life?
(3) Fringe researchers thwarted safeguards at the National Institutes of Health and gained access to data from thousands of children. They used the data to argue for the intellectual superiority of white people. [NYT]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US federal agencies have lost 10,000+ STEM PhDs (14% of total) under the 2nd Trump administration.
- The US refused to support the 2nd Int’l AI Safety Report, despite its endorsement by 30 countries.
- Misogynist-in-Chief criticizes CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins for not smiling enough.
- Disabled Minnesotan testifies about the rough treatment she got from ICE agents.
- The brother of Renee Good, who was murdered y ICE agents, talks about his sister & how special she was.
- The Kennedy Center staff learn through Trump’s social-media post about the Center’s closure for 2 years.
- Quotable: "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on." ~ Robert Frost
- Music makes the world go ‘round. [Video]
- Facebook memory from Feb. 5, 2020: Accidents due to unsafe interactions between system components.
(5) Trump is destroying the Western Alliance and other elements of the post-World-War-II order: Following his marching orders, two of his acolytes are busy destroying CBS and The Washington Post.
(6) New Yorker cartoon caption of the day: “Something was definitely lost when we went from being hunter-gatherers to browser-purchasers.”
(7) Donald Trump has suddenly become nice to Bill Clinton: Could it be he is afraid of Bill revealing some damaging info about Donald's ties to Jeffrey Epstein in his interview with a congressional committee?
(8) Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, that is, the start of the year 1405 on the Persian calendar (Nowruz or Saal Tahveel): Friday, Mar. 20, 2026, 7:46:20 AM PDT.
Fun fact 1: As the Northern Hemisphere enters its spring season, the Southern Hemisphere transitions to autumn. So, March Equinox is a better name than Spring Equinox.
Fun fact 2: Sal Tahveel is almost always on March 20. On rare occasions, it falls on March 19 or March 21. Here’s a list of Spring Equinox times for the 21st century, given in GMT.

2026/02/04 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Today’s World Music Series noon concert at UCSB’s Music Bowl: Salt Martians played bluegrass music (2-minute video). [Center] El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, located at the heart of downtown, preserves the site of the last Spanish military outpost founded in 1782, serving as the military and governmental center for the region. [Right] Today’s anti-ICE rally at UCSB.
(2) UC Santa Barbara excels in scientific impact: UCSB ranks first among US public universities, third among all US institutions (behind MIT & Stanford), and seventh worldwide for scientific impact in engineering and the physical sciences, according to the 2025 Leiden Rankings released by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. The ranking is data- and science-based, rather than relying on subjective factors. This marks the fifteenth consecutive year that UCSB has ranked among the top two public universities for scientific impact.
(3) Iranian MP urges those injured during recent street protests to go to hospitals for care: This very statement confirms that security forces have previously used hospitals as places to identify and arrest protestors. Even doctors have been arrested for treating injured protestors. Needless to say, the Iranian public is skeptical of this call.
(4) The mathematics of probability chains: In this 44-minute lecture, Nobel Laureate physicist Richard Feynman begins with simple notions of probability and builds up to the impact of probability chains on everything in the universe, including quantum mechanics. Along the way, he tells us about random walks, the gambler’s ruin problem, weather prediction, Markov chains, and why one small decision can change everything (the so-called "butterfly effect").
If you get tired and can’t listen to the whole lecture, please make sure you listen to the main message, beginning at the 42:30 mark.
The video of Feynman speaking is courtesy of AI, but the narrative is genuine science, presented in the signature style of the explainer-in-chief.
(5) The wonders of mother’s milk: Around 2009, evolutionary anthropologist Katie Hinde was working in a primate lab in California, analyzing breast milk from rhesus macaque mothers. Everything looked normal, until one pattern refused to go away: Mothers raising sons produced milk richer in fat and protein, while others raising daughters produced a larger volume, with a different nutrient balance. The conclusion that the composition of mother’s milk changes according to the infant’s needs was inevitable.
The change wasn’t only in the nutrients but also in substances that prevented or treated various ailments. Through its saliva, the infant sucking on the breast provides feedback to the mother about its condition and needs. The milk composition changes within hours to satisfy those needs. [10-minute TED talk]
(6) Bimetalism: A system of allowing the unrestricted currency of two metals (e.g., gold & silver) as legal tender at a fixed ratio to each other. The use of bimetallism surged in the 1800s, but it was eventually abandoned in 1873 upon the adoption of the gold standard. In August 1971, President Richard Nixon suspended the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets in response to rising inflation and the threat of a currency crisis.

2026/02/02 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Santa Barbara Public Library has an extensive display for Black History Month (1) Images of the day: [Left] A 70-degree day in my town & jasmines blooming on my trellis brought the tidings of spring on this second day of February. Hoping that spring & Nowruz, which are less than two months away, bring an end to the brutal Islamic regime and the dawn of a free Iran. [Center] Santa Barbara Public Library, central branch, has an extensive display for Black History Month, featuring local events and personalities. [Right] Thoughts on traumas resulting from political violence (see the last item below).
(2) A recipe for freeing Iran from the grips of Khamenei: You can’t defeat a regime that thrives on catastrophe by economic or military pressure. As long as there are players who benefit from supporting the ayatollah and dissidents are denied the tools of coordination, the Islamic regime will survive. Target the families of top officials, generals, judges, torturers, and other Khamenei cronies and they will abandon him in no time.
(3) Conservative commentator David Brooks, who is leaving NYT after 20 years, writes in his final column: “We could use better political leadership, of course, but the crucial question facing America is: How can we reverse this pervasive loss of faith in one another, in our future and in our shared ideals? I do not believe that most people can flourish in a meaningless, nihilistic universe.”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Epstein files are full of names of billionaires: They don’t contain anything on Somalis or trans people.
- Data point: Among American 12th graders, boys are roughly one year behind girls in reading scores. [NYT]
- Texas A&M terminates women’s studies: Syllabi for 100s of courses have shed race & gender content. [NYT]
- “Reading Lolita in Tehran,” a film based on Azar Nafisi’s best-selling book, is in limited release in the US.
(5) IEEE Computer Society’s 2026 Technology Predications: Among other things, this 77-page report contains one-page synopses on 26 different tech topics, including AI and future of work, wearable devices, datacenter energy management, space communications, future of coding, engineered therapeutics, quantum-safe cryptography, AI-driven virtual worlds, and personalized learning.
(6) Political violence and its associated trauma: I have noticed on social media over the past month numerous commentaries by psychologists on Iranians experiencing trauma from the Islamic regime massacring protestors, and on how they can cope. Those inside Iran are directly affected by observing barbaric acts, getting injured, or losing loved ones. Iranians in diaspora worry about relatives and acquaintances, with whom they have lost contact due to a complete Internet blackout in Iran.
Perhaps the following thoughts by author and professor of English Viet Thanh Nguyen, who fled the violence in Vietnam as a small boy, coming to the US and being raised in San Jose, CA, are relevant to traumatized and grieving Iranians. The quotation is from Nguyen’s book, To Save and to Destroy (Harvard University Press, 2025). My review of the book will be forthcoming.
Nguyen wonders about a writer’s responsibility in a time of violence. “Capricious grief acknowledges that the trauma of the other is neither singular nor unique, that there are others out there with whom we can share the burden. Perhaps only by expanding our grief might we be able to leave our trauma behind.”

2026/02/01 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Documentary film about music legend Chuck Berry (see the next item below). [Center] Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: A symbol of perseverance (see the next to the last item below). [Right] Facebook memory from Feb. 1, 2020 (see the last item below).
(2) "Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll": This was the title of a film, screened by Santa Barbara Public Library to mark the beginning of the Black History Month on Sunday. The 1987 documentary, directed by Taylor Hackford, celebrates the legendary singer/musician, known as the "Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll," turning 60 in 1986.
Chuck Berry created memorable music and also influenced many rock and pop artists that followed him. The free community screening, presented in partnership with Santa Barbara Black Culture House, was followed by a Q&A session with Darrell M. McNeill, a producer, musician, composer, arranger, contractor, promoter, critic, and journalist based in Santa Barbara.
(3) Tis the season for rate increases: Cox Cable wants to increase my subscription rate by ~30%, but is offering more-limited plans with smaller increases. This is how monopoly works. I may cancel my cable TV subscription and keep only the Internet service.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Precision engineering from 12 centuries ago: A water-harvesting structure in Rajasthan, India. [Video]
- Yesterday's live music performance by Adam Peot, at Santa Barbara’s Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center.
- Contranyms: Words that have two opposite meanings. [Video]
- David Tovar provided musical entertainment, as I worked at a local Starbucks on Friday afternoon.
(5) The Iranian regime’s crimes & embezzlements: News from Iran, confirmed by multiple sources, indicate:
- Doctors are arrested and threatened with execution, for treating demonstrators.
- Wounded demonstrators were abducted from hospitals and killed execution-style.
- Large sums of money have been transferred from Iran into offshore accounts.
(6) The film “Librarians” was screened at Santa Barbara’s Riviera Theater on Wed. night, as part of Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the screening had been sold out. The film is about librarians being on the front lines of the fight against book-banning and the battle for free speech.
(7) An idea that was ridiculed at first, but won a Nobel Prize half a century later: While on an ocean liner heading from Bombay, India, to Cambridge, England, 19-year-old Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar busied himself with physics papers and Einstein’s theory, managing to prove, midway through the journey, that stars having a mass greater than 1.44 times the mass of our Sun collapse onto themselves when they die, creating neutron stars or perhaps black holes. Chandrasekhar was devastated when, in 1935, his mentor Sir Arthur Eddington mocked his idea in public. But Chandrasekhar didn’t give up by leaving the hostile environment. He persevered in his research and teaching, until in 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the same idea that was once mocked. [Abridged from a LinkedIn post by Chirag Warty]
(8) At the prime of my life: The Earth has traveled around the sun multiple times since these photos were taken and my age has hit another prime number. The next two birthday ages will be highly composite, as they will be divisible by the 4th power of 2 and the 4th power of 3. Then comes a semi-prime number. Hope I can reach the next prime, which is 83. After that come the primes 89 and 97, which are more iffy! This is also my first birthday after retirement.

2026/01/30 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for John Ghazvinian's 'America and Iran' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Kind offers from Southern California Edison: I have been given options to be charged a higher amount for my electricity bill. Thanks, but no thanks! [Center] Sahar Fard, a young woman killed during the recent street protests in Iran (see the next item below). [Right] John Ghazvinian's America and Iran (see the last item below).
(2) Remembering some of those killed by Iran’s brutal Islamic regime during the January 2026 street protests: Many thousands were killed, with tens of thousands injured, including a significant number who were blinded by pellet guns. We Iranians in exile have a duty to use our connections and access to social media, which is being denied to Itanians, to put names and faces to the the victims, making sure they aren’t forgotten.
One of the victims, Sahar Fard, was a fitness coach and champion bodybuilder. She left her position on the national taekwondo team, when it came under the control of an IRGC general, to pursue her own fitness & Pilates business. May she rest in peace!
A close friend told IranWire: “In her final days, all her Instagram stories were about hope and freedom. Whenever we saw her, she was more energetic and hopeful than ever. That’s why she took part in almost every demonstration. But on January 8, she went out and never came back.”
(3) Book review: Ghazvinian, John, America and Iran: A History, 1720 to the Present, Vintage (Knopf), 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
John Ghazvinian [1974-] is an Iranian-American author, historian, and former journalist. He is a recognized authority on the history of US-Iran relations. The book under review here, which was in development since 2008, is highly praised as a deep and balanced history of US-Iran relations, although it has also been criticized for reflecting the views of NIAC, a US-based lobby for Iran’s Islamic government, in the more-recent parts of the history. John Limbert, who was held hostage in Iran in 1979 and later served as President Obama’s Deputy Secretary of State for Iran, has opined that “Ghazvinian leads us far beyond the mindless shouting of recent decades to tell a story of friendship, sacrifice and discovery.”
As the United States gets ready to celebrate its 250th birthday and as relations between the US and Iran turn darker after nearly half a century of hostilities brought about by words (“Death to America” chants & "The Great Satan" moniker) and deeds (attacking US forces and interest through proxies in several countries) of Iran’s Islamist government, it is instructive to review what has gone on between the two countries over a longer period of time.
Ghazvinian discusses the relations between the two countries in terms of four seasons:
- Spring, spanning 150 years, from the very beginning to World War I.
- Summer, from the end of World War I to the fall of Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953.
- Autumn, from reinstatement of the Shah to power to the fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1979.
- Winter, from the Islamic Revolution of 1979 to the present (2021).
In the Spring section, Ghazvinian writes about a “budding ‘Persophilia’—a romantic idealization of Persian culture and Persian themes” in the early days of American colonies. America’s first newspapers wrote with absolute enchantment about Iran’s battles with the Ottoman Turks, which were deemed to be a danger to Christianity. At the end of the 19th century, America sent Presbyterian missionaries to spiritually enlighten Iranian Christians who were deemed to have deviated from true Christianity. Before the missionaries, rum traders had established a foothold in Iran. These initial contacts led, in time, to strong diplomatic ties between the two countries, motivated in part by counterbalancing the influence of Britain, with its claims on Iran’s oil wealth, and Russia, which considered Iran of great geopolitical importance.
As the reader moves from the Spring section to the Summer and Autumn sections, original insights become sparser, mainly because both the fall of Mosaddeq in the CIA-directed 1953 coup and the rise of Islamic extremism have been covered in many other sources. The reign of the two Pahlavi monarchs can be viewed through different lenses: It can be praised for the efforts to modernize the Iranian culture and economy or condemned for concentration of power and ignoring the Constitutional restrictions on the king’s authority. Ghazvinian chooses to focus mostly on the latter, almost legitimizing the Islamists’ rise to power.
The animosity that the Islamists brought to the US-Iran relations could have been short-lived, in view of the two countries’ many common economic and geopolitical interests in the region. Unfortunately, however, the dogma inflicting both Supreme Leaders and fanning of the flames of hostility by Middle Eastern powers, notably Saudi Arabia and Israel, prevented progress toward normalized relations. Ghazvinian offers a toned-down interpretation of “Guardianship of the Jurist,” which is used as justification for an all-powerful Supreme Leader, by calling it “Oversight by the Most Learned Religious Scholars.” The oversight role for religious scholars is what Khomeini originally promised, but the current role of the Supreme Leader goes way beyond oversight; he runs a parallel government through his representatives in virtually all government branches and influences, directly or indirectly, the choice of presidential candidates and cabinet ministers.
Despite the shortcomings enumerated in this review, Ghazvinian’s book on Iran-US relations is a valuable addition to the historical sources on the dealings between the two countries, which entered a new phase after the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025 and may, at the time of this writing in late January 2026, be about to take another turn with a second military attack.

2026/01/28 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A future design for University of Tehran, according to neo-Sassanid architectural style Documentary film screening: 'Pistachio Wars' (1) Images of the day: [Left] As part of my retirement activities, I am taking a couple of arts courses at Santa Barbara City College’s wonderful adult education program, based at Schott Campus on Bath Street. They offer a diverse array of free classes. [Center] Dr. B. Rezvani’s proposed future design for University of Tehran, according to neo-Sassanid architectural style. [Right] Documentary film screening (see the last item below).
(2) The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, which represented Alex Pretti, the nurse murdered by federal agents, has issued a statement calling for the resignations of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. [ABC News]
(3) Trump’s plan is now out in the open: “A curtain of darkness is settling over our nation. And it’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots.” ~ Peter Wehner, writing in The Atlantic.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Jeff Bezos invested $40M to make a documentary film about Melania Trump and $35M to promote it.
- Persian music: See me dance, between weeping & mourning. I no longer fear you, your God, or your noose.
- Persian music: Both of these brave young performers were killed in Iran during recent street protests.
- Persian music: Bahar Choir’s tribute to young patriots killed during January 2026 street protests in Iran.
- Today’s World Music Series noon concert at UCSB: Mariachi Las Olas De Santa Barbara performed.
(5) “Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?”: This is the title of the well-known 1935 EPR paper which suggests that the authors (Einstein, Podolsky, & Rosen)) are not happy with quantum mechanics, in the sense of being reluctant to embrace all implications of the new theory.
(6) The trash problem goes hand in hand with consumerism: Some 99% of everything produced in the world becomes trash within a year of production. A major share of this trash comes from packaging. [Fact cited in the book The Future of Packaging: From Linear to Circular]
(7) “Pistachio Wars”: This was the title of a 2024 documentary film, screened at UCSB’s Pollock Theater last night. Filmmakers Yasha Levine and Rowan Wernham joined moderator Rich Farrell (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of their film.
The film follows journalist Yasha Levine as he investigates a small-town water deal and uncovers a hidden side of California’s health-food industry. At the center is the agricultural empire of America’s wealthiest farmers, Stewart and Lynda Resnick of the Wonderful Company (Wonderful Pistachios, POM Wonderful, and Fiji Water). These billionaires dominate California’s pistachio industry, but more importantly, own much of the state’s water, more than the entire city of Los Angeles. The Resnicks’ desert plantations have drained rivers, disrupted ecosystems, and polluted water quality for many communities throughout the state.
To frame the story of the Resnicks, who live in Beverly Hills, filmmakers Levine and Wernham trace how California built its water system in ways that ultimately enabled big agribusiness to command control. “Pistachio Wars” reveals how the hidden world of industrial agriculture fuels the state’s growing climate injustices, from worsening droughts to increasingly destructive megafires.

2026/01/27 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math challenge: Prove that green and blue areas are equal$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math challenge: Prove that green and blue areas are equal. [Center] Lecture on aspects of Iran's Constitutional Revolution (see the last item below). [Right] Talk on water & energy interdependencies (see the next item below).
(2) “Water and Energy Interdependencies in the United States”: This was the title of today’s interesting talk by Kelsey Semrod, senior water resources scientist, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Hassan Niazi, integrated human-Earth systems researcher, Joint Global Change Research Institute.
Energy and water systems are deeply interconnected, leading to complex interdependencies that change in magnitude with changing natural, socioeconomic, and policy landscapes. Energy systems rely on water directly, for activities like cooling power plants or as a “feedstock” for hydropower and electrolysis, and indirectly, for mining primary fuels or cultivating biomass. Similarly, water systems require energy for a range of applications, such as groundwater extraction, reservoir operations, and water conveyance and treatment.
Consider the example of a data center, which we know requires energy for the operation of its servers and water for cooling them. However, when a data center is built at a certain location, power generation facilities that need to be built nearby also have water requirements and supplying the cooling water consumes energy. Co-management of these interdependent and often competing energy and water flows is crucial for understanding the complexities of both systems and ensuring resilience.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Playing a friendly match at UCSB’s Harder Stadium, US Women’s National Soccer Team defeated Chile 5-0.
- Math challenge: Explain the intuition behind pi being approximately equal to sqrt(2) + sqrt(3).
- Persian poetry: A couplet from Khaaghaani. [Read the poem on a Facebook post]
- Quote of the day: “Find something you would die for, and live for it.” ~ Peter H. Diamandis
(4) UCLA Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran: In today’s installment, Dr. Ali Gheissari (U. San Diego) spoke under the title “Hasan Pirnia and Constitutional Experience: Articulation of Public Law and the Prospects of Modern State in Iran, 1905-1925.” The English version of this lecture will be delivered tomorrow, Monday 1/26, in hybrid format.
Dr. Gheissari offered an assessment of the role of Hasan Pirnia (Moshir al-Dowleh) in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution and his contribution to articulating a theory of public law and the institutional requisites of the modern state in Iran. He focused specifically on two interrelated topics concerning the theoretical aspects of Pirnia’s political thought that also reflect the experience of the 1906 Constitutional Revolution in Iran. First, the question of public law; and second, the institutions necessary for the creation of a modern state.
The Constitutional Revolution in Iran was not merely a political event but a transformation in the political mindset of Iranian society. A society that had lived for centuries under autocratic monarchies was, at the beginning of the 20th century, attempting to experience the formation of a state governed by law and accountable to the nation. In this process, there were a few statesmen, such as Hasan Pirnia, who, under Iran’s circumstances at the time, sought to strike a balance between traditional structures and the creation of a modern state.

2026/01/26 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Caroline Myss' 'Archetypes' Meta AI having fun with one of my photos (1) Images of the day: [Left] Tonight’s unique concert experience: Ballake Sissoko (kora player) & Derek Gripper (guitarist) performed at Santa Barbara’s Marjorie Luke Theater. A third performer, who was not included on the announced program, played what looked like a sitar (22-minute video). [Center] Caroline Myss' Archetypes (see the last item below). [Right] Meta AI having fun with one of my photos.
(2) Thoughts on terrorism, from a decade ago: “Ironically, terrorism is an act against the very religion the perpetrators claim to believe in. It’s an acknowledgment that the religion and its teachings aren’t enough to persuade people to follow it. Any religion that requires coercion is not about community but leaders who want power.” ~ Six-time NBA champ & MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, writing in Time magazine, issue of Jan. 26, 2015
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Jon Favreau, on why silence against abuses of authority in the US is no longer an option. [Video]
- Mr. Payam Akhavan’s speech at the UN about atrocities by Iran’s Islamic regime. [Video]
- Word puzzle: What is the longest English word with no repeated letters?
- Fatemeh Larijani, daughter of a high-ranking Iranian official, fired from her Emory U. position. [IranWire]
- Facebook memory from Jan. 26, 2019: Education matters, in our media sources, politics, and elsewhere.
(4) Book review: Myss, Caroline, Archetypes: Who Are You? Hay House, 2013.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8299285353]
You may have noticed that you are drawn to certain people, ideas, or products and turned off by others. In this book, New York Times best-selling author Caroline Myss delves into the world of archetypes, the subject of her work for more than 25 years. Archetypes are universal patterns of behavior that, once discovered, help you better understand yourself and your place in the world. In other words, knowing your archetypes can transform your life. The one-word label for an archetype brings to mind a long list of attributes associated with that archetype.
Myss notes that there are scores of different archetypes, but in this book, she focuses on 10 primary ones that have emerged in today’s society. Here is the list, along with a very brief characterization of each archetype.
- Caregiver: Bearing a passion to serve others by repairing the body, mind, & spirit.
- Artist/Creator: Expressing dimensions of life that are just beyond the five senses.
- Fashionista: Choosing clothes intentionally, embracing boldness & sophistication.
- Intellectual: Focusing on knowledge, logic, analytical thinking, & understanding.
- Rebel: Constituting a key component of all human growth and development.
- Queen/Executive: Representing authority in anything, from a corporation to home.
- Advocate: Representing compassion in action by coming to the defense of others.
- Visionary: Imagining possibilities beyond one’s own life that benefit all of society.
- Athlete: Expressing magnificence of human body and strength of human spirit.
- Spiritualist/Mystic: Embodying a quest for meaning, truth, & authentic identity.
Myss explains each of the primary archetypes, traces its evolution, and lays out the unique characteristics, the defining graces, the life challenges, and other information to help you understand if you are part of a particular archetype family and if so, how you can fully tap into its power. She also offers tips and practical advice on how to fully engage with your archetypes.
Learning which archetypes best describe you is just the beginning. You can then use this knowledge to make more conscious decisions about everything from careers to relationships, avoiding common pitfalls of your personality type while playing up your strengths. You can live a happier, more authentic life by embracing your archetypes to the fullest.
For detailed descriptions of some of the archetypes listed above, and many others, refer to this Web page of the author.

2026/01/25 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: Trumpian news conference Execution-style killing of an American citizen in Minnesota Why do we designate midnight as 12:00 AM and noon as 12:00 PM? (1) Images of the day: [Left] Trumpian news conference. [Center] Execution-style killing in Minnesota: Thanks to citizens who document the blatant abuse of power by ICE agents. [Right] Midnight, or 12:00 AM, vs. noon, or 12:00 PM (see the next item below).
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: Why do we designate midnight as 12:00 AM and noon as 12:00 PM? This is merely a convention. The opposite convention would have been just as good (midnight being 12:00 PM and noon 12:00 AM). Our current convention is the source of some problems, such as having to specify a deadline as 11:59 PM of a certain date to avoid an ambiguity. Actually, 0:00 AM for midnight and 0:00 PM for noon would have made more sense. The 24-hour clock convention gets rid of this problem somewhat, but we still have the ambiguity between 24:00 of one day and 00:00 of the next day. To remember the current arbitrary convention, just consider that noon is the transition point from AM to PM (it is the beginning of PM) and midnight is the transition point from PM to AM (the beginning of AM).
(3) In his Davos speech, Trump said “Iceland” instead of his intended “Greenland” three times. Remember, Donald, this jingle used by grade-school students: “Iceland is green, Greenland is covered with ice.”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Second American citizen killed by federal agents in Minnesota under questionable circumstances.
- Law enforcement leaders from across the Twin Cities speak up about civil rights violations by ICE agents.
- Kudos to Minnesota doctors who speak up against health care impacts of ICE presence on the streets.
- US Women’s National Soccer Team defeats Paraguay 6-0, scoring 5 goals in the second half. [Highlights]
- Goleta, California, and UCSB will serve as hosts for an unspecified World Cup team during June-July 2026.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 25, 2024: Apophis, an asteroid that may collide with earth in 2036.
(5) DOGE is gone, but the harm it did remains: Created by Trump's Executive Order on his first day in office, DOGE was supposed to terminate in triumph on July 4, 2026, after cutting $2T of "woke waste fraud & abuse" from a $6.8T federal budget. In reality, federal spending actually increased in 2025 & will rise again in 2026.
(6) The 10 richest individuals in the US are worth $2.3 trillion: They also own the White House occupants, many news outlets, and almost all of our social media. This power concentration has ruined our democracy.
(7) In a July 2025 article, David Brooks asked the question: “How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent?” He found the work of moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre relevant to answering such central questions of our time.
(8) As many as 30,000 protestors were killed in Iran on January 8 and 9 alone: Supply of body bags was exhausted and semitrucks were used in lieu of ambulances to move the bodies.
(9) Final thought for the day: Iran’s internet blackout enters its 17th straight day. Merchants are now being allowed just 20 minutes of internet access per day, under the watch of a “supervisor.”

2026/01/24 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
UCSB screening of a newly-restored version of 'Sunset Boulevard' (1) Images of the day: [Left] UCSB screening of Billy Wilder's classic film noir "Sunset Boulevard" (see the last item below). [Center] Optimism, pessimism, and realism in tech (see the next item below). [Right] A long shadow: Science magazine’s special issue entitled “One Year of Trump” assesses the impact of the first year of Donald Trump’s second term on the US science scene.
(2) Techno-optimism, techno-pessimism, and techno-realism: When it comes to the adoption of new technology, computer science professionals can be divided into three distinct categories: techno-optimists, techno-pessimists, and techno-realists. Techno-optimists argue that technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement and often call for unrestricted technological progress. On the other hand, techno-pessimists lay out scenarios for how AI models could become all-powerful and eventually pose an existential risk to humanity. Techno-realists attempt a more nuanced take on the impact of AI. [From Moshe Vardi’s column in Communications of the ACM, Dec. 2025]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Alarm bells: Amnesty Intl’s report on the first year of Donald Trump’s second term as US president.
- Real estate developers to rule the world: Trump’s Board of Peace plans to rebuild Gaza Strip & control it.
- Vertical integration of medical & medicinal services in big companies robs patients of meaningful choices.
- UCSB Library’s exhibit celebrating 20 years of the “UCSB Reads” program. [Photos]
- Facebook memory from Jan. 24, 2025: Is this chess move finally happening after a one-year delay?
- Facebook memory from Jan. 24, 2024: Finally, the bike path I envisaged is approved and will be built soon.
(4) Friday’s Agentic AI Summit at UCSB: Sponsored by CRML (Center for Responsible Machine Learning) and Mind & Machine Intelligence, the Summit was an all-day event featuring invited keynote speakers, industry perspectives, and UCSB research on agentic artificial intelligence, defined as autonomous AI systems that can independently set goals, plan, reason, and take actions to achieve defined objectives with minimal human intervention.
(5) A highlight of Friday’s keynote lectures at UCSB’s Agentic AI Summit: Nobel Laureate Michel Devoret (UCSB & Google Quantum AI) spoke under the title “Introduction to Quantum Superconducting Circuits for Quantum Computation and Sensing.” He concluded that emergent collective variables such as electrical currents & voltages obey quantum mechanics and that a promising aspect of quantum computation with superconducting circuits is prediction of molecular properties, useful data for AI chemistry. [Four slides]
(6) An amazing cinematic experience: On Thursday night, I attended a UCSB screening of the recently-restored version of the 1950 Billy Wilder masterpiece “Sunset Boulevard,” starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson at their best. Charlotte Barker, director of the film’s restoration project participated in a discussion after the screening of the 2-hour classic.
This classic film noir features Norma Desmond, an aging movie star who savors the glory of her silent-film years and imagines herself returning triumphantly to the screen via a screenplay she is writing. Fate puts starving screenwriter Joe Gillis on her path, whom she hires to help her with the screenplay. She falls in love with him and eventually kills him in a fit of jealousy, as she fears being abandoned by him, just as she was by Hollywood. Billy Wilder’s genius shows in comic elements built into the tragedy. Legendary filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille appears as himself on his actual Paramount Pictures set for “Samson and Delilah.”

2026/01/23 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Kamala Harris's '107 Days' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Optical illusion: Believe it or not, the blue strips in this image are parallel to each other. [Center] Trump’s letter to Norway’s prime minister marked up and graded. [Right] Kamala Harris's 107 Days (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Full list of 2026 Academy Awards nominations: “Sinners” dominates with 16 nominations.
- For national security, the US needs a new president more than it needs Greenland.
- Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters draws mockery & anger for dismissing Iran protests.
- Vasily Arkhipov: The man who saved the world by over-ruling the order to fire a nuclear-armed torpedo.
(3) Book review: Harris, Kamala, 107 Days, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by the author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The story of Kamala Harris’s vice-presidency boils down to this: She trusted and respected her boss, Joe Biden, but when she was assigned difficult and in some cases impossible tasks to perform, and she stumbled, no one in the administration came to her defense. She was well-hidden as a VP, with her talents underappreciated and her advice rarely sought, which is one reason for her trouble connecting with voters during her short presidential run.
The main message of Harris’s book, a blend of political memoir, strategic analysis, and personal reflection, is right there in the title: She didn’t have enough time to craft a message and develop an effective strategy against Donald Trump. She lost the presidency in part because Gen Z and Latino voters gravitated toward Trump, and Biden and his associates didn’t offer much help. As she struggled to respond to right-wing media’s dishonest portrayal of her, too few people backed her up. The book is organized like a diary, with the day’s date and the number of days remaining until the election heading each of its 71 short chapters, which are followed by an afterword as Chapter 72.
Her message about Trump’s intent of attacking democratic institutions, crushing dissent, and unraveling delicate international bonds fell on deaf ears, because it wasn’t amplified by the mainstream media. She assigns some blame to Joe Biden but is generally soft on the Democrats’ role in losing the 2024 election. She maintains that Trump was aware of her strengths and praised her in private, even as he bashed her in public by questioning her race and calling her a “DEI hire.”
She suggests that it was reckless of Biden to decide to run for re-election at age 81. He had gotten tired and showed his age, although she stops short of confirming Biden’s mental decline. It had become a mantra in the Biden White House that the decision to run was his and Jill’s; in retrospect, she thinks she could have done more to dissuade him. “The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition. It should have been more than a personal decision.”
Biden, who performed miserably in his June 27, 2024, debate against Trump, was resistant to calls from allies to drop out as a candidate, eventually leaving the race on July 21 and endorsing Harris, but there was a bitterness that made him get in her way. Harris had less than a month to pick a running mate from among three candidates that she interviewed: Governor Josh Shapiro, Governor Tim Waltz, and Senator Mark Kelly. She ended up choosing the down-to-earth Tim Waltz, although she really preferred Pete Buttigieg, who was deemed too risky a running mate for a black woman.
Just before Harris’s debate with Trump, when she needed support and reassuring words, Biden called her to complain that he had learned of her badmouthing him and that some Democratic power-brokers may not back her as a result. Another shock to her was Biden wearing a Trump hat during a fire department visit, leading to his photo going viral on the Internet with the message “Biden endorses Trump over Harris.”
Harris is clearly disappointed that her vision for America didn’t get a chance to sink in. She hints at returning to politics in the near future. “I’ll be with the people, in towns and communities, where I can listen to their ideas on how we rebuild trust, empathy and a government worthy of the ideals of this country.”
One lesson for both Democrats and Republicans is to integrate the VP into policy formulation and decision-making, so that when s/he is called on to step into presidency, either because the president passes/ousted or does not run for re-election, the VP is already a seasoned politician and enjoys public trust. Unfortunately, most presidents don’t feel secure enough to treat their VP as a co-equal partner, often assigning to them obscure or doomed-to-fail projects.

2026/01/22 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The bodies of Iranians in diaspora may be outside Iran’s borders but our hearts will always remain there
New Yorker cartoon: Trump’s Ten Commandments The periodic chart, drawn according to the relative abundance of elements Talangor Group talk on the global left and political Islam (1) Images of the day: [Top left] How voters have U-turned on Trump support: In nearly all cases, support improved between 2020 & 2024 and declined by 2026. The smallest decline is among white voters. [Top center] Iranians in diaspora may physically reside outside Iran’s borders but their hearts are within Iran. [Top right] Donald Trump’s word salads have grown larger and use different ingredients. [Bottom left] New Yorker cartoon of the day: The Ten Commandments, according to Trump. [Bottom center] The periodic chart, drawn according to the relative abundance of elements. [Bottom right] Talangor Group talk on the global left and political Islam (see the last item below).
(2) Last night’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Mike Ricci (Chief Technology Officer at LaunchPoint EPS) spoke under the title “The Promise and Peril of Hybrid Electric Aircraft.” There were 26 attendees.
Electric propulsion offers some advantages for aircraft configuration and design. Electric energy storage in the form of batteries is much too heavy for extended endurance aircraft missions. A hybrid electric solution promises to allow all the aircraft benefits of electric propulsion combined with the high energy density and logistical ease of liquid chemical energy storage. However, the details of the "balance of plant" to support a hybrid powertrain and the added losses inherent in energy conversion processes threaten to outweigh the benefits of the hybrid system if it is not well optimized. The speaker presented LaunchPoint's patented lightweight permanent magnet starter generator and discussed how it is applied to hybrid-electric flight.
(3) The 8-step plan of Iran’s Islamic regime to manage the mass killing of protesters (video in Persian).
- Complete shutdown of the Internet
- Closing down all potential gathering places such as universities and dorms
- Leaving only 42 news sites and apps open to the public
- Closing down schools and switching to remote instruction
- Holding public memorials for most of the dead, claiming them as their own
- Execution of a large number of protestors labeled as terrorists
- Crushing hopes of foreign intervention by claiming negotiations with the US
- Bribing people with economic goodies such as forgiven taxes
(4) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Dr. Veria Amiri spoke under the title “Red Essence, Green Wrapper: The Confluence of Discourses of the Global Left and Political Islam.” The speaker’s contention is that Iran’s Islamist ideology is borrowed from the global left but is wrapped in Islamic green.
I was unable to attend due to time conflict with another event. The recording of the talk and associated Q&A will be made available on Talangor Group’s YouTube channel.

2026/01/21 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The unsettled debate about whether the universe has a beginning or is cyclical has returned to the forefront (1) Images of the day: [Left] Innocent life lost: Three-year-old Melina Asadi was killed in the crossfire between Iran’s security forces and opposition groups in the western city of Kermanshah, as her father was taking her to buy cold syrup. [Center] Demonstrators in front of a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, the workplace of the daughter of Ali Larijani, the man responsible for Iranian security forces killing demonstrators en masse and harassing doctors at hospitals where the wounded are treated (see also the next item below). [Right] The unsettled debate on whether the universe has a beginning (i.e., the Big Bang) or is cyclical has returned to the forefront.
(2) Iranians with advanced degrees are under heavy surveillance by the Islamic regime: As Iranian doctors are being harassed at hospitals for treating injured protestors, the MD daughter of Ali Larijani, who as Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council oversees the killings and arrests on the streets, is working in peace and comfort at an Atlanta Hospital.
(3) The Russian invasion of Ukraine killed 14,500 civilians in 3+ years. Iranian security forces killed 12,000+ civilians in less than a week during this month’s street protests. Where is the outrage?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump’s memo to Norway’s PM links his Greenland threats to not being awarded the Nobel Peace-Prize.
- TACO: Trump drops tariff threats against Europe and rules out forcible takeover of Greenland.
- The World Economic Forum revokes the invitation of Iran’s FM Abbas Araghchi to Davos summit.
- Travel restrictions & visa costs lead to musicians and theater companies to cancel US performances. [NYT]
- Presidency for profit: According to a NYT analysis, Trump has earned $1.4 billion from his presidency.
- US Secretary of Labor is under investigation for misallocating funds and having an illicit affair.
(5) Quote of the day: “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” ~ Edgar Allan Poe
(6) Getting a handle on the number of protesters killed by Iran's security forces during the January 2026 street protests: Numbers cited by the Iranian regime, international news media, social-network posts, and human rights organizations are all over the place. Internet blackout imposed by the Islamic regime makes it very difficult to obtain reliable numbers. The following analysis, posted by Arman Khaledian on LinkedIn shows that many thousands have been killed by the brutal Islamic regime.
“Iran’s population is about 92 million … If a large majority of people can say ‘within one or two connections I know someone who lost their life,’ then the implied fatality toll is not a few thousand. … If you count a realistic ‘friends of friends’ awareness network as roughly 5000 to 10,000 people, then for 90% of people to know at least one victim within two connections, the implied fatalities are roughly 21,000 to 42,000. If your effective network is smaller, the implied fatalities go higher, even toward 70,000.”

2026/01/20 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Iran: Genocide under digital darkness (1) Images of the day: [Left] Horror in Iran: Cover story of The Economist. [Center] Islamists carry out a genocide in Iran (see the next item below). [Right] Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Basij Militias are slaughtering unarmed protestors by the thousands.
(2) Genocide under digital darkness: Witnesses tell of the brutality inflicted on those taking part in anti-regime protests. Look at these images (from Sunday Times) of eight of the victims who woke up one morning with dreams and ended the day in body bags. Shame on the thug heading the Islamic Republic of Iran for calling protestors “terrorists” and accusing them of killing “ordinary people.” The death toll will certainly rise from the current 16,500 estimate, once bodies are discovered in dumps, rivers, and lakes (as in previous protests) and after the planned mass executions have been carried out.
(3) Wood may be the rarest material in the universe: Not gold. Not diamond. Many planets in our vast universe contain gold and/or diamond. There are even planets made entirely of gold & diamond. But not a single planet, as far as we know, contains trees and thus wood. Love your chair & pencil! [Credit: Neil de Grasse Tyson]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- High-speed train collision in Spain leaves at least 40 dead.
- The Brits abandon their strategy of trying to appease Trump, calling him a bully & international gangster.
- Putin must be all smiles, as he watches the United States face NATO allies with economic & military threats.
- A freed-up Persian culture will be incredible for technology, humanities, and arts across the world.
- Why Africa is underdeveloped: Lack of horses in old days and colonialism more recently. [Video]
- Writer, futurist, and inventor Arthur C. Clarke predicted the future of humanity in 1964.
(5) Ali Khamenei called street demonstrators "terrorists" who killed "ordinary people": I guess he was right that the killers were terrorists; they were IRGC & Basij members.
(6) Instead of the traditional “moment of silence,” the EU Parliament honors slain Iranian freedom fighters with applause and standing ovation: “The people of Iran do not need silence; for 47 years, they have been forcibly silenced,” declared Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament.
(7) Trump’s statement that he wants to take over Greenland because he was not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize reminds me of this cartoon caption about Islamic extremism from a few years ago: “Quick—Admit that Islam is the most peaceful religion in the world or I’ll cut off your head!”
(8) Final thought for the day: Marco Rubio has transitioned from “Little Marco” to “Big Marco,” a man who enables Trump’s foreign adventurism and offers him lavish displays of public praise.

2026/01/19 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Concert by Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, the first all-female mariachi group Cover image for Carlo Rovelli's 'White Holes' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King: “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.” ~ An MLK quote that is particularly heartwarming for Iranian protestors who are being slaughtered by the thousands [Center] I was at Marjorie Luke Theater (Santa Barbara Junior High) to watch a performance of Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles, the first all-female mariachi group, as part of the “Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara” concert series (video). [Right] Carlo Rovelli's White Holes (see the last item below).
(2) Ali Larijani: Iran’s current Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and someone who wasn’t always a Khamenei favorite (more than once, he was disqualified to run as a presidential candidate), is a mastermind of the Islamic regime’s brutal January 2026 crackdown of street protesters that has left many thousands dead and countless others injured & arrested. Larijani, who is from a prominent clerical family, is said to be positioning himself for a major role in Iran’s post-Khamenei era.
(3) US Congress rebuffs Trump administration’s 57% proposed cut to NSF budget, approving a much larger budget than requested by the administration. [NBC]
(4) Book review: Rovelli, Carlo, White Holes, unabridged 3-hour audiobook, read by Harry Lloyd, Books on Tape, 2023. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I have previously read and reviewed three of Rovelli’s fascinating books, the last two of which are intimately related to the book under review here.
- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (my 5-star review)
- The Order of Time (my 5-star review):
- Reality Is Not What It Seems (my 4-star review)
White holes are the illusive younger siblings of black holes. If we descend into a black hole, we see geometry fold, time & space pull & stretch, and at the black hole’s core, space & time dissolve, giving rise to a white hole, a cosmic body that ejects matter and energy rather than engulfing it. In short, a white hole is a black hole with time reversed.
Most black holes are formed by massive stars that collapse on themselves after running out of fuel. The intense burning while a star is alive counteracts the force of gravity (that pulls the star inward), preventing the star from collapsing, but the hydrogen fuel doesn’t last forever. So, a black hole is the incredibly dense remnant of an imploded star. The concept that nothing can escape a black hole, not even light, is misguided. As a black hole ages, it loses mass and energy due to Hawking radiation.
We have heard that formation of a black hole will eventually lead to a singularity, which means infinite mass in the tiniest possible size. However, as a black hole ages, it gradually loses mass and energy through Hawking radiation, causing its horizon to shrink. Rovelli argues that the process that forms black holes is reversible, leading to a complementary process that creates white holes.
This brief book is organized in three parts.
Part One (6 chapters) discusses black holes, as background for understanding white holes.
Part Two (5 chapters) defines white holes, time-reversed solutions to Einstein’s equations.
Part Three (6 chapters) deals with certain irreversible aspects in the life of a black hole.

2026/01/18 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
'The Spectator' cover image about Iran Cover image for 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Early spring in Ventura, California: Camino Real Park, Sat., Jan. 17, 2026. [Center] The Spectator cover image about Iran. [Right] The Epic of Gilgamesh (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Machado-Trump deal explained: I agree with this analysis by economist Jeffrey Sachs.
- China uses thousands of fishing boats as a 200-mile-long barrier in East China Sea, between itself & Japan.
- Black hole space volcano (plasma jets spanning 1 million light-years) erupts after 100-million-year nap.
- Ten pretentious English words with simple equivalents that are just as good or better.
(3) Book review: Anonymous (translation & introduction by N. K. Sanders), The Epic of Gilgamesh, Publisher, 1960. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is characterized as a landmark translation of the ancient Sumerian and Akkadian epic poem, which has been translated and published quite a few times before. In a 220-page introduction, the origins of the epic, its historical & literary backgrounds, the principal characters, and its survival are reviewed. The 200-page book itself consists of a prologue and seven chapters:
- The Coming of Enkidu
- The Forest Journey
- Ishtar and Gilgamesh, and the Death of Enkidu
- The Search for Everlasting Life
- The Story of the Flood
- The Return
- The Death of Gilgamesh
The story, previously unknown and coming to light due to archaeological discoveries of the last century, covers part of the period between Abraham and Noah, about which there is only scant mention in the Book of Genesis. Predating Homeric epic by at least 1500 years, these epic poems are noteworthy because of “the quality and character of the story … a mixture of pure adventure, of morality, and of tragedy … a very human concern with mortality, the search for knowledge, and for an escape from the common lot of man.”
Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, was two-thirds god and one-third man. He built magnificent temple towers, surrounded his city with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was handsome, immensely strong, and very wise. Despite his godlike body and mind, he began his kingship as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy.
The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods. Enkidu’s death made Gilgamesh concerned with the prospects of his own death. He traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge and other secrets of the gods.
The main message of the Epic of Gilgamesh is the acceptance of human mortality, finding meaning in life, and the power of friendship, as Gilgamesh's quest for eternal life after his companion Enkidu's death ultimately fails, teaching him that true immortality lies in wisdom, legacy, and human connection, not endless life. It's a story about transformation, moving from a tyrannical ruler to a wise leader who understands life's fleeting nature and embraces his role in the human world.

2026/01/17 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Those of us living in free societies with Internet access should give voice to Iranian patriots who are being slaughtered on the streets by brutal Islamists, while denied all forms of communication. [Center] Venezuela’s Machado gives Trump her Nobel Peace Prize: This doesn’t seem right, but of course her feelings of indebtedness deserve respect. [Right] Iran's return to monarchy would be a mistake (see the last item below).
(2) Wikipedia turns 25: Beginning with ~18,000 articles in its first year, this valuable resource now boasts more than 65 million articles in 300+ languages, written, edited, and fact-checked by nearly 250,000 people.
(3) Donald Trump’s affinity for fraudsters: He has just pardoned a woman whom he had pardoned during his first term but who had gone on to commit additional fraudulent acts.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Chinese universities surge in world research rankings as US schools slip: Harvard is now #3.
- Trump administration quickly reverses $2 billion cuts to mental-health and addiction grants.
- For the first time since 2018, Boeing outsold Airbus in 2025: Boeing had 1173 airplane orders to Airbus’s 889.
- Estimated cost of changing the name of Department of Defense to Department of War: $125 million.
- Four cellists play Maurice Ravel’s “Bolero” on one cello to mark his 150th birthday.
- Word puzzle: What 9-letter English word for a popular college major has exactly one each of the five vowels?
- Word puzzle: Rearrange the word “crumbled” to form two common four-letter words.
- Math challenge: What is the next number in this sequence? 120, 60, 40, 30, 24, __
- A tender performance of “Soltan-e Ghalb-ha”: Dedicated to all Iranians killed by the brutal Islamic regime.
- Ten fascinating facts about English words: For example, the longest one-syllable words have 9 letters.
(5) Actress Jodie Foster’s French connection: In her latest film, “A Private Life,” Foster plays an American psychoanalyst in Paris, where she speaks French.
(6) Why Iran should not return to monarchy: Iranian opposition groups are nearly equally divided among royalists (under the banner of Reza Pahlavi) and republicans (which have no clear leader). Throughout the world, monarchical rule is being replaced by modern, democratic systems. The argument that Iran has always been ruled by a king (or king-like Supreme Leader over the past ~5 decades) and thus it has never known a democratic form of government does not hold water. If one considers a monarchical system in which leadership is inherited, then that is utterly undemocratic. If we set aside the heritability aspect of monarchical rule, then a monarch is really a president. We should strive to learn from the unpleasant experience of Islamic Republic (which is characterized by some as neither Islamic nor republic) to move forward, not backward.

2026/01/16 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
As in previous Iran uprisings, artists produce memorable works to document the Islamic regime's atrocities Cartoon: After declaring himself the President of Venezuela on Wikipedia, Trump eyes the Supreme Leader title (1) Images of the day: [Left] As in previous uprisings against Iran’s brutal Islamic regime, artists are producing memorable works to support the protestors and document the atrocities. [Center] Lady Gaga’s political statement: Same shit, different hat. [Right] Cartoon of the day: After declaring himself the President of Venezuela on Wikipedia, Trump eyes the Supreme Leader title.
(2) What's different about the current uprising in Iran? For the first time, small communities have risen along with major urban areas, and people have shed their fears of the brutal regime. [NYT opinion piece]
(3) Trump had promised to help Iranians if the Islamic regime killed any protestors: After thousands of deaths, Trump now says he is satisfied with the regime’s response, because the rate of killings has declined and the regime has postponed one execution!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Netherland and others send forces to Greenland in the face of Trump’s threats of military action. [PBS]
- UCSB Chancellor's letter about anti-Semitic incidents in Isla Vista (off campus) over the weekend. [Image]
- “All the Empty Rooms”: Preview of a documentary about rooms of children killed in school shootings.
- When Richard Nixon, as VP, certified that John F. Kennedy had defeated him to become US president.
- We get advice that dying for a cause is noble. Isn’t there anyone who wants us to stay alive? [FB post]
- Caption of the day: “Is this the series finale of America, or do you think they’ll release another episode?”
(5) Officials in Iran said that ~3000 people had been killed in street protests over the past two weeks. Oddly, US officials offer the more conservative estimate of 600. [NYT]
(6) Israel and several Arab neighbors of Iran asked the US to postpone any military action against the country: These actors prefer a weak, unpopular government in Iran, which has already been defanged by internal crises and international curtailment.
(7) Mehrdad Sabouri, a man who checks several boxes for being hated & persecuted by Iran’s Islamic regime: Jewish, Kurdish, labor activist. The only way it could be worse is if he were a woman. [20-minute video]
(8) To Romans, a genius wasn’t a clever individual but a creature who lived in the walls and came out to help an artist (2-minute snippet from a TED talk).
(9) Final thought for the day: An episode of the program “Uncommon Knowledge,” addressing the question of whether math is something we humans invent, or something we discover? [57-minute video]

2026/01/15 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Talangor Group talk by Dr. Reza Sarmast (1) Images of the day: [Left] Lands and territories purchased by the US over time. [Center] Talangor Group talk (see the last item below). [Right] Eight people directly responsible for the massacre of Iranian protestors and one person whitewashing their actions in the international community.
(2) Wednesday’s Socrates Think Tank meeting: Dr. Mohammad Bagher Bagheri (Professor of Critical Thinking, Cal State Fresno) was scheduled to speak in Persian under the title “Science-Obsession, Reason-Evasion, and Mysticism-Fixation: Pathology of an Epistemic Turmoil. There were 120 attendees.
Given the critical conditions in Iran, Dr. Bagheri switched topics, presenting an analysis of the current situation in Iran, with the ongoing street protests and associated casualties, injuries, and arrests. He then led a heated discussion on these topics. Unfortunately, the discussion devolved into a one-sided endorsement of Reza Pahlavi and government by a monarch.
There was some talk about Iranians’ weakness in critical thinking, inability to cooperate toward a common goal, and intolerance to opposing views. One aspect of cooperation toward a common goal is the ability to limit our comments to give other members of a large discussion group a chance to share their views. Unfortunately, offering terse comments isn’t favored by Iranians.
(3) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Dr. Reza Sarmast (former professor and technical project manager) spoke in Persian under the title “Inheritors of Words: From Yaqub’s Sword to Ferdowsi’s Pen.” There were ~90 attendees.
The Arab invasion of Iran entailed multiple battles beginning in 633 CE, that is, one year after Prophet Mohammad’s death. The most-defining confrontation, the Battle of Qadisiyyah, occurred in 636 CE, which was followed by the Arab conquest of Tisfoon a year later. The Sassanid’s last stand against the Arab invaders was the Battle of Nahavand in 642 CE. The Sassanid Dynasty continued in a limited form in Eastern Iran with support from China until 674, before dissolving, whence the royal family and affiliated officials fled to China. To this day, remnants of the Persian culture and statues of key Persian figures exist in China.
About two centuries after the Arab invasion of Iran, Yaqub Leis Saffar resisted the use of Arabic as the country’s official language and insisted that in areas under his influence, Persian be used instead. Yaqub Leis Saffar’s edict played an important role in the preservation of the Persian language and culture. The two centuries between the Arab invasion and Yaqub Leis Saffar’s efforts to revive the Persian language is the subject of Abdolhossein Zarrinkoob’s Two Centuries of Silence (my review), which explores reasons for the Persians lying low and not speaking up against the Arab invaders. For my review of the latter book, see:
Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi’s epic poem, known as Shahnameh (Book of Kings), is generally recognized as perhaps the primary reason for the survival of the Persian language and Iran not becoming Arabic-speaking like several countries in Northern Africa and elsewhere. Because Ferdowsi and his decades of work to produce Shahnameh in nearly-pure Persian are well-known and much-discussed, in the rest of this report I will touch upon Haft Peykar (Seven Beauties), composed by another great Persian poet, Nezami Ganjavi, nearly two centuries after Ferdowsi completed his work. Puccini’s “Turandot” (“Turandokht”) opera is composed based on Nezami’s Haft Peykar. Before Nezami, Ibn Sina (Avicenna) was adamant to devise and use Persian terms for scientific & technical concepts.
On Internet Archive: Shahnameh in Persian (8 volumes)
On Internet Archive: Haft Peykar in English
Puccini’s “Turandot” (“Turandokht”) opera
Talangor Group Web site (for recorded talks)
During the Q&A period, I expressed a desire to read critical analyses of the differences between accounts of the Arab invasion of Iran produced by the two sides of the conflict. Just as new scholarship has revealed that old accounts of the Persian-Greek wars, based mostly on the written work of the Greek historian Herodotus were highly inaccurate, and new books that incorporate information from more-recent archeological discoveries in Iran tell a vastly different story, similar works may exist, or should be produced, that tell a balanced version of the Iran-Arab wars.

2026/01/14 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image for Virginia Roberts Giuffre's 'Nobody’s Girl' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Body bags are piling up in Iran: Families rush to identify their loved ones. They are asked to pay large sums to reclaim the bodies. [Center] Iran’s version of Tiananmen Square: Brave protesters are confronting armed-to-the-teeth security forces. Thousands have died over the past 16 days. [Right] Virginia Roberts Giuffre's Nobody’s Girl (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran’s anti-riot forces receive shoot-to-kill orders, as officials confirm communication channels with Trump.
- Iran’s brutal Islamic regime has killed 1000s of protestors by labeling them as foreign-backed terrorists.
- UCSB administrators & students are coordinating to notify eveyone of any on-campus ICE sightings. [Photo]
- “Freedom Don’t Die”: A song for the brave young revolutionaries of Iran. [Video]
(3) Book review: Giuffre, Virginia Roberts (co-written with Amy Wallace), Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, Alfred A. Knopf, 2025.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Virginia Giuffre is one of the scores of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking operation. It is widely believed that Epstein & Maxwell had other accomplices, but the US government has not yet indicted or even named any of the powerful men who participated in Epstein’s crimes. Giuffre doesn’t name names either, with the exception of Britain’s former prince Andrew, preferring to use references such as “well-known prime minister.” Giuffre committed suicide in April 2025, with her memoir published posthumously according to her wishes.
Giuffre was abused by her father and a family friend, beginning at age 7. The sexual abuse took a toll on her, mentally and physically. She developed a severe case of urinary tract infection Her mother was always mad at her and punished her physically, perhaps due to becoming aware of her husband’s night-time visits to her room. She was powerless, convincing herself to “just get the icky part over with so the good parts of life can go on.”
After running away from a tough-love treatment center at age 15, she eventually secured a job at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Maxwell recruited her from Trump’s resort to work as a massage therapist for Epstein. She was essentially a prisoner and sex slave of Epstein, and she was also trafficked to other powerful men. After enduring abuse by Epstein and his accomplices, Giuffre managed to escape Epstein’s grasp and proceeded to rebuild her life in Australia.
Giuffre had a daughter from an allegedly abusive husband in 2010. Her husband is described in the book as a loving and supportive man, who facilitated her escape from Epstein and Maxwell, but a preface by Giuffre’s co-author elaborates on her late-life allegations of abuse against her husband of 22 years. The birth of her daughter inspired her to speak out, leading to decades of legal action and advocacy for other survivors of sexual abuse.
In the final chapter, Giuffre writes about the #MeToo movement, which has led to some prominent men losing their jobs or even going to prison, without making a big dent in the culture of older men wanting to have sex with young women & girls, the younger the better, near the end of the chapter, we read: “Where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein’s houses? And why haven’t they led to the prosecution of any more abusers?”
Giuffre’s memoir of a life severely impacted by sexual abuse is structured in four parts.
Part I: “Daughter” (Chapters 1-7)
Part II: “Prisoner” (Chapters 8-15)
Part III: “Survivor” (Chapters 16-26)
Part IV: “Warrior” (Chapters 27-38)
At the end of the book, a section bearing photographs of Giuffre is included which depict her childhood, teenage years, and a few poses with Epstein, Maxwell, and former prince Andrew.

2026/01/13 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
$Math puzzle: Find the area of the square$ Cover image of Steven Pinker's 'When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows' (1) Images of the day: [Left] World's top 500 universities, by country (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: Find the area of the square. The figure is not drawn to scale. [Right] Steven Pinker's When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows (see the last item below).
(2) Distribution of the top 500 universities in the world: The US and China top the list, with roughly equal numbers (if you add Hong Kong’s and Macau’s numbers to China’s). Given that the populations of the countries listed are widely different, the number of top universities per 100 million people would be a better comparative measure. By the latter measure, the US scores 33, China 7, Canada 41, and Iran 2.
(3) Book review: Pinker, Steven, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows ...: Common Knowledge and the Science of Harmony, Hypocrisy and Outrage, unabridged 9-hour audiobook, read by Fred Sanders, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025.
[Another version is subtitled: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life]
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is about recursive mentalizing: The situation where A knows something, B knows that A knows it, A knows that B knows that A knows, and so on ad infinitum. This kind of common knowledge, needed for coordinated decision-making, might seem impossible to achieve. Yet we manage to coordinate our decisions on a daily basis.
In computer science, we talk about this in terms of “The Two Generals Problem,” a dilemma that Pinker also discusses. Suppose two generals and their troops are camped on the outskirts of an enemy-occupied territory and must coordinate an attack time. Coordination in this context means that they both attack at the same time or neither one attacks; one general attacking while the other stays put will have disastrous consequences. The generals being from the Byzantine period can communicate only via sending messengers. Given the geography of the area, messengers must travel through the enemy territory, where they may be captured or killed, thus never delivering the message. Suppose that General A decides that they should attack tomorrow at noon. He sends a messenger to inform General B. But A cannot be sure that B gets the message, so he will not attack until the receipt of his message is acknowledged by B. The messenger sent by B to acknowledge A’s message may likewise never get through, so B can’t be sure that A knows that he knows about the attack time. What if A acknowledges B’s acknowledgement message? If A sends an acknowledgement message for B’s acknowledgement, he can never be sure that B receives this acknowledgement. And so on and so forth. We fall into an infinite loop, with each general never knowing whether his last acknowledgement message was received, thus remaining uncertain whether the other general will attack.
Common knowledge is necessary for social coordination, such as everyone driving on the right side of the road, but people also go to great lengths to avoid it: To ensure that even if everyone knows something, they are left in the dark about whether a particular person knows it. So, we get hypocrisy, bribery, threats, and pretending that one does not see the elephant in the room.
According to the publisher’s summary: “Pinker shows how the hidden logic of common knowledge can make sense of many of life’s enigmas: financial bubbles and crashes, revolutions that come out of nowhere, the posturing and pretense of diplomacy, the eruption of social media shaming mobs and academic cancel culture, the awkwardness of a first date. Artists and humorists have long mined the intrigues of common knowledge, and Pinker liberally uses their novels, jokes, cartoons, films, and sitcom dialogues to illuminate social life’s tragedies and comedies.”
Awareness of common knowledge or lack thereof helps us answer questions such as:
- Why people hoard toilet paper at the first sign of an emergency
- Why Super Bowl ads are filled with crypto promotions
- Why, in primaries, citizens tend to select a candidate they believe is preferred by others
- Why Russian authorities arrested a protester who carried a blank sign
- Why it’s so hard for nervous lovers to say goodbye at the end of a phone call
- Why everyone agrees that being completely honest would make life unbearable

2026/01/12 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Khamenei mimics Bashar Assad, who brought his supporters to the streets of Damascus after the onset of Arab Spring protests Iran's Islamic regime has cut off Internet and phone connectivity
$Math puzzle: How full is the bottle?$ Podcast of my radio tech program on Sunday (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Bashar Assad brought his supporters to the streets of Damascus after the onset of Arab Spring protests: Iran’s Ali Khamenei is using Assad's playbook and will likely suffer the same fate. [Top center] Hundreds are reported killed in Iran’s widespread anti-Islamic-regime street protests: Internet access has been completely cut off for several days now, so reliable news is hard to come by (Washington Post). [Top right] Iran's Islamic regime has cut off Internet and phone connectivity to prevent street protestors from coordinating and getting news about their loved ones. #WomanLifeFreedom [Bottom left] Math puzzle: How full is the bottle? [Bottom right] Podcast of my radio tech program on Sunday (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A recap of what happened in Venezuela in the context of petrodollars.
- How Trump’s bullying and Nigeria’s standing up to him have accelerated the decline of the US dollar.
- Director Jafar Panahi dedicates his NY Film Critics Award to Iraniand who are on the streets or in jail.
- Wonderful Beatles cover: “When I’m Sixty-Four”
(3) My Persian tech talk on a Los Angeles radio station: Here is a link to KIRN 670 AM’s Web page for the “Frontiers of Science” (“Marzhaye Danesh”) program. KIRN’s podcast for my Sunday 2026/01/11 presentation entitled “Design of Computers with Fault Detection and Fault Tolerance Capability” is available on the page. The program, sponsored by Association of Professors and Scholars of Iranian Heritage (APSIH), is hosted by Dr. Mohamad Navab, Be aware that my 4-segment, 34-minute presentation is padded with ads and other content to form a 1-hour podcast.

2026/01/11 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
(1) Images of the day: [Left] Iran: Is this the end of mullahs’ brutal rule? [Center] Celebrating my grandnephew Aiden’s third birthday with the extended family on Saturday. [Right] Iran is plunged into Internet darkness by rulers who want to hide their brutality against protestors.
(2) Iranian demonstrations: We people of Iranian heritage living outside Iran have a duty to be the voice of those who have taken to the streets of Iran, being slaughtered by armed-to-the-teeth security forces.
(3) Hypocrisy: Jake Tapper of CNN showed videos of a January 6 mob beating police officers, asking the US Secretary of Homeland Security whether, by the standards of the ICE officer in Minnesota, they would have been justified in shooting mob members. She couldn't answer but just repeated some of her talking points. Not only weren’t they shot, but they were later pardoned en masse.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran didn’t sleep for two nights as widespread protests enter day 14 and Internet access is cut off.
- Emergence of democratic rule in Iran requires that we refrain from “long live this” or “death to that” slogans.
- Death toll from California wild-mushroom poisoning rises to 3.
- Jerome Powell, US Federal Reserve Chair, tells us that Trump is pursuing criminal charges against him.
- Washington National Opera is leaving the Kennedy Center, ending a relationship that began in 1971.
(5) IEEE Standard 754 for floating-point arithmetic turned 50 in November: Jerome Coonen, a PhD student of William Kahan and a major contributor to the standard, has shared a 6-page document that contains some of the early ideas, key contributors, and interesting connections that led from the 1978 starting line to the standard’s publication in 1985. Later editions of the standard emerged in 2008 & 2019, with the next update now in the works for release in 2029. Coonen’s PhD dissertation, which forms part of the standard’s history, as well as the writings & lectures of William Kahan are available on-line.
(6) According to published data, 1 in 3 Iranian-Americans are on Food Stamps or other welfare assistance: We read in oft-reposted social-media claims that Iranian-Americans are one of the best-off immigrant groups. Is the Trump administration lying or is there much welfare fraud among this supposedly well-off group?
(7) Anti-intellectualism: “Resentment of the life of the mind, and those who are considered to represent it; and a disposition to constantly minimize the value of that life.” ~ Definition by Richard Hofstadter, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, a book I am now reading and will review in due course

2026/01/09 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Drawing: The four seasons (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cartoon of the day: The US Health & Human Services Department under RFK Jr. has turned the food pyramid upside-down, now recommending more red meat and dairy. Cows are not happy! [Center] Isla Vista, the student residential community adjacent to UCSB with a diverse selection of restaurants, turns 100. [Right] The four seasons (credit: New Yorker).
(2) RIP, Michael J. Flynn: I have previously posted about Flynn’s passing in December at the age of 91. He retired from Stanford University in 1999, focusing on his consulting business. Among his contributions to the field of computer architecture are his work on designing IBM’s top-of-the-line System 360 computers (Models 91/92/95), founding of IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (IEEE CS TCCA) and Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (ACM SIGARCH) more than 50 years ago, when computer architecture was still in its infancy, and devising the 4-way classification of architectures based on the number of instruction streams (single or multiple) and data streams (single or multiple), leading to the abbreviations SISD, SIMD, MISD, and MIMD.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iran’s security agencies threaten doctors: “Do not treat protestors.”
- Iranian mullahs could lose billions of dollars of assets which are trapped in Venezuela.
- Dictators bribing their people: Trump talks about $2000 checks. Iran's Islamists pay $7 to each citizen.
- A. Piazzolla’s “Libertango,” played masterfully by four hands on one piano.
- Regional Iranian music: “Mar Jangeh” (a Bakhtiari melody), dedicated to the fighting spirit of Iranians.
(4) Wisdom of crowds turned on its head: There is an old saying that two heads are better than one. This saying received empirical support in social psychology in the 1920s, when a series of studies showed that groups were more accurate than their individual members.
For example, a numerical fact is predicted more accurately by the average estimates of a crowd than by the estimate of one member. With binary yes-no answers, averaging doesn’t make sense, but majority voting can be applied. The jury theorem, proved in 1785 by Marquis de Condorcet [1743-1794], tells us that if each juror is more than 50% likely to judge correctly, then the larger the jury, the more likely for the majority opinion to be correct. A corollary of Condorcet’s theorem is that with each jury member more likely to be wrong than right, then wisdom of crowds turns into idiocy of crowds.
In a fascinating article in Psychological Science, Stefan Herzog and Ralph Hertwig turned the old aphorism on its head, suggesting that one head can be nearly as good as two. Herzog and Hertwig had participants provide estimates about quantitative values they did not know with certainty—specifically, dates in history. They then had participants make second estimates. Could this “crowd in the mind” help improve judgments? The answer is yes, and the literature on the wisdom of crowds helps us understand why.

2026/01/08 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A small sample of architecture on Santa Barbara’s State Street, photographed during my walk on Monday $Math puzzle: What is the measure of the interior angle at vertex E?$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday (Dictaphone): To use this 1924 dictation machine, the “dictator” spoke into the tube and the sound was transferred to a wax-coated cylinder. The cylinder was then handed off to a secretary for transcription. Typists used playback machines with foot pedals to control the playback speed and to reverse and repeat as necessary (credit: IEEE Spectrum magazine, January 2026). [Center] A sample of architecture on Santa Barbara’s State Street, photographed during my walk on Monday. [Right] Math puzzle: What is the measure of the interior angle at vertex E?
(2) To Iranians who have built their hopes for a free Iran on US support: Trump betrayed Venezuela’s opposition forces to cement a deal with remnants of Nicolas Maduro’s regime. Don’t be surprised if he throws your favorite opposition figures under the bus and cuts a deal with remnants of the Islamic regime who agree to get rid of Ali Khamenei.
(3) Nationwide protests and strikes: Iran plunges into an internet blackout, as protests demanding the ouster of the Islamic government spread to cities nationwide. The internet shutdown came a day after the heads of Iran’s judiciary and its security services said they would take tough measures. But the threats did not deter demonstrators. Violence has been reported in multiple locales. The reported death toll of about 42 is very likely an underestimate. [NYT & CBS]
(4) The Dome of Soltanieh, Iran: Built during the Ilkhanid Dynasty [1302-1312], the dome is the first double-shell dome in the world, the largest brick dome, and the third tallest dome, after Florence’s Santa Maria Cathedral and Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. [15-minute video]
(5) Only 33% of Americans approve of the US military action in Venezuela: The approval fraction among Republicans is nearly double that, or 65%. [NYT]
(6) AI struggles to tell time by reading the hands on an analog clock: Italian & Spanish researchers sought to learn why. They exposed multimodal large language models (MLLMs) to clocks with distorted features, such as irregularly-spaced numbers or oddly-shaped faces, as well as clock hands of unusual length or thickness. The aim was to test what aspects of visual analysis the models struggle with most—spatial awareness or recognizing visual elements not encountered in training. The MLLMs struggled somewhat with distorted features, but they had greater struggles with unusual clock hands. And if the MLLMs made an error in recognizing the clock hands, this resulted in greater errors in assessing the clock’s features, suggesting that mistakes can have a snowball effect. [From IEEE Internet Computing]

2026/01/07 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Trump with some of his favorite dictators Putin with some of his favorite dictators (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] So far, Trump’s favorite dictators have fared better than Putin’s, but things may change. [Right] IEEE Spectrum magazine's annual technology forecast (see the last iten below).
(2) As Iranian street protests over the high cost of living and currency devaluation intensify and go into a second week, the death toll reaches 12 and the government promises a $7 monthly assistance to citizens.
(3) Toughest US privacy protections kick in: California has implemented the strongest data privacy protection in the US with the launch of a government-run website that allows residents to demand deletion of their personal data from more than 500 data brokers. Enabled by the state’s 2023 Delete Act, the system gives Californians a centralized “delete button” to opt out of a largely invisible industry that collects and sells detailed personal information, often without consent. Data brokers must begin complying later this year or face fines.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- In a wide-ranging interview with NYT, Donald Trump indicates that US control of Venezuela may last for years.
- World’s largest electric ship, a 130-meter ferry powered by 250 tons of li-ion batteries, starts sea trials.
- Five popular AI assistants, briefly compared. [Tweet, with chart]
- Degree abbreviations (humor): BS, exactly what you think; MS, more of same; PhD, piled higher & deeper.
(5) Vaclav Hovel: “You don’t have to march on the streets and risk the consequences. Just decide that you won’t participate in any activity based on lies. Serve the truth and the regime of lies will collapse on its own.”
(6) Michael J. Flynn [1934-2025] dead at 91: He was a Fellow of IEEE & ACM and received many other honors for his work on computer architecture, including pipelined & parallel system design, high-performance computing, and digital computer arithmetic. He published numerous articles and three widely-used textbooks.
(7) IEEE Spectrum magazine, issue of January 2026 predicts top technologies in the coming year: “This year for our annual January Top Tech issue, we’re bringing you stories about a clutch of cool under-the-radar innovations that you’ve probably never heard of—but if they’re successful, you’ll be hearing much more about them. Case in point: One of the faster growing forms of energy storage is a carbon-dioxide-filled inflatable dome. Expect to see these storage bubbles popping up soon around the globe. Meanwhile, data centers are facing a communications bottleneck that only radio can solve. In health care, the failings of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs can be fixed with a new device that targets a part of the body many people can’t even name. Read on to get the lowdown on these intriguing ideas and more.”

2026/01/06 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: Putin and Trump have taken their bounties. Will this encourage Xi to move next? F=Cover image of Alison Wood's 'Talk' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cartoon of the day: Putin and Trump have taken their bounties. Will this encourage Xi to move next? [Center] US 101 and an unnamed road in Santa Barbara County: Near-constant storms in California in recent weeks have caused floods, power outages, & mudslides. On the positive side, our drought situation has improved. [Right] Alison Wood's Talk (see the last item below).
(2) Hypocrisy: Why is it that low-level drug smugglers are blown up at sea, while their alleged boss is brought to New York for a trial, with a defense lawyer and all? Will Maduro be pardoned after conviction, like his Honduran counterpart?
(3) ANYmal is a rugged four-legged robot designed for fully autonomous inspection of harsh industrial environments. Its capable legs allow the robot to go through narrow spaces, step over obstacles, and climb stairs. [IEEE Spectrum magazine, January 2026]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- On the 5th anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, White House publishes a Web site that rewrites history.
- Nicolas Maduro’s capture removes a prime exile location option for Iranian elite should the Islamic regime fall.
- Amazon plans to buy thousands of Rivian’s pedal-assist cargo vehicles that work like e-bikes.
- Seven Bell Labs breakthroughs recognized as IEEE Milestones during the lab’s 100th anniversary year.
- Porsche’s wireless charger, a 117 x 78 cm gadget that slips under your EV, charges up. [IEEE Spectrum]
(5) Book review: Brooks, Alison Wood, Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, Crown, 2025. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Celebrated Harvard Business School Professor Alison Wood Brooks in a leading expert on the psychology of conversation. Writing with warmth, empathy, and joy, Brooks argues that conversation is one of the most complex, demanding, and delicate of all human tasks. Despite the possibilities of misinterpretation and misunderstanding, conversation can also bring joy, because it provides us with opportunities to feel connected, loved, and alive by expressing ourselves and learning about others.
We are all aware that some conversations can be difficult and we may dread engaging in them. But we sometimes struggle with easy ones as well. Brooks offers the following conversation maxims, abbreviated as TALK, to ease the burden of conversing.
T, for topics: Choose topics and manage them well.
A, for asking: Ask more questions.
L, for levity: Use humor to keep conversations fizzy.
K, for kindness: Prioritize your partner’s conversational needs.
Even in friendly, informal conversations, it helps to have considered interesting topics, ideas, and stories ahead of time. A spontaneous conversation may not lead to your prepared topics, but those topics may come in handy to steer the conversation in interesting directions or to deepen the interaction. Asking questions always helps, particularly if the question is preceded by a statement of what you agree with and doesn’t come across as nosiness. Levity doesn’t mean that you have to memorize and tell jokes. Rather, it consists of lightening up in order to reduce tension. Kindness is of course all-important in any kind of interaction. Generosity in interpreting the meaning of what is said is an aspect of kindness.
Brooks has compiled a thoughtful guide for anyone to better establish as sustain his/her relationships through better face-to-face interactions and other forms of communication, such as phone calls, e-mails, texts, and social media posts/comments. Our conversations can benefit from the notions discussed in this book, from managing our emotions & sparking creativity to navigating conflict & being more inclusive.

2026/01/05 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The Atlantic slave trade during 16th-19th centuries: Map (1) Images of the day: [Left] Four designs that have withstood the test of time. [Center] The Atlantic slave trade: During 16th-19th centuries, millions were forcibly extracted from West and Central Africa and redistributed across the Americas and Europe, reshaping demographics, economies, and power structures on three continents (BBC). [Right] New Year’s resolutions for 2026: After I compiled and shared a long list of things I aspire to do during 2026 (see the last item below), I decided to simplify to these four.
(2) Here are four truths about free speech, which should be considered a basic human right:
- Free speech makes you safer
- Free speech cures violence
- Free speech protects the powerless
- Even bad people can have good ideas
(3) A Saturn-size rogue planet: Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a rare free-floating planet, about 9950 light-years from Earth, that does not orbit a star. Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, scientists were able to directly measure the planet’s mass, finding it to be roughly the size of Saturn.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Nicolas Maduro was the second Russian ally to fall (after Bashar Assad): Will Iran’s Ali Khamenei be next?
- Maria Corina Machado’s 2025 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, delivered by her daughter.
- Days before US military action against Venezuela, Maduro had signed a major oil contract with China.
- US malnutrition deaths soared by 746% from 2011 to 2023, with people 85 and older hit hardest. [WaPo]
- Central America, which now consists of 7 countries, was one country in the early 1800s. [1-minute video]
- The history of the Iranian sangak bread goes back 1000 years. [0.5-minute video]
(5) Another Trump attempt to silence his opponents: Pete Hegseth starts administrative actions against Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona that could result in a reduction in his retirement rank and military pension. [NYT]
(6) Here is a social-media post attributed to Iran’s opposition figure Ali Karimi (although I could not find it on his official X account): They warn us, "Oh, you guys, why don't you get it? Trump has his eyes on our oil!" As if Shamkhani's sons are wiring us the money from oil sales every month.
(7) Resolutions for 2026 (aka my first year of retirement): I don’t know if I can get to all of these items, but I would like to have the list in front of me as a reminder and motivating factor.
- Walk every day, to the extent possible.
- Spend more time outdoors and in nature.
- Finish writing my memoir.
- Finish writing my graduate textbook on dependable computing.
- Read and review 100+ books, as in the past few years.
- Organize my physical and virtual bookshelves.
- Initiate writing a book on mathematical puzzles.
- Initiate writing a book on puzzling problems in engineering.
- Update my lectures for general audiences and develop new ones.
- Organize my files & photos (remove duplicates & obsolete ones)
- Move more of my work to Google Drive for ease of access.
- Get more involved in charitable causes and volunteering.
- Plan travel and attendance at entertainment & cultural events.
- Cook more often and learn to prepare new dishes.

2026/01/04 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
LED lights have liberated car designers from round and rectangular tail-lights $Math puzzle: Prove the equality shown in the image under the triangle$ (1) Images of the day: [Left] Musings of a curious engineer: It is interesting how car designers have been liberated from round and rectangular tail-lights because of the flexibility provided by LED lights. [Center] Math puzzle: The area of an equilateral triangle is divided into three triangular regions with areas X, Y, and Z. Prove the equality shown in the image under the triangle. [Right] A surprising fact about the new year: The number 2026 is the sum of all the 45 non-1 entries in a Pascal Triangle of side length 11. See also the next two items.
(2) New Year 2026 Puzzle #1: Every year, as a new year number emerges, I try to form the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, … by putting math symbols (including parentheses and functions such as sqr, sqrt, floor, and ceiling) between its digits. In the case of 2026, I have been able to do this for numbers up to 35. The first five appear below as hints and the rest are left to you as challenging puzzles!
0 = 2 * 0 * 26
1 = –2 – 0! –2 + 6
2 = 2 + 0 * 26
3 = –2 + 0! – 2 + 6
4 = 2 * 0 – 2 + 6
(3) New Year 2026 Puzzle #2: Place the four basic arithmetic signs +, –, *, /, as well as parentheses, between some of the adjacent digits in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 to form the number 2026. I present one of the 7 solutions that I have as an example.
2026 = 12 * 34 * 5 – 6 – 7 + 8 – 9
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US forces attack Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro and his wife have reportedly been captured.
- Anything to distract Americans from the Epstein revelations: Even kidnapping a foreign leader.
- I hear from friends in Iran that street protests are nationwide & much more intense than reported worldwide.
- SB County’s roads remain hazardous: The northbound lanes of US 101 remain closed at Gaviota coast.
- Robert De Niro, on madness: This video is likely AI-generated, but the script is extremely well-written.
(5) Iran’s Supreme Leader, while acknowledging the legitimate concerns of striking merchants over the crash of the country’s currency, blames “the enemy” for the decline. He reminds me of Trump who, nearly a year after returning to power, said with a straight face that the good parts of the US economy are his, while the bad parts are Biden’s. By blaming foreign powers for Iran’s economic woes, Khamenei is setting the stage for a violent crackdown on protesters as foreign agents.
(6) Fourth of 5 days of rain in the Santa Barbara area: Yesterday and the day before, we had long enough breaks in the rain for me to do my usual 3- to 4-mile walks. Today, we may not get a break. Several roads in our area are closed or have been reduced to single lanes. There were flash flood warnings on Saturday. As of last night, we had 106% of the annual rainfall up to now, for the rain year that goes to August. Drive carefully!

2026/01/03 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.

(1) Images of the day: [Top left] Photo of the late Dr. Farhad Mavaddat and his late wife Sima (center), sent to me by Mr. Mehdi Fallahi (left): The photo was taken at Sharif/Arya-Mehr University of Technology’s 2002 reunion in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Mehdi Zarghamee, AMUT’s fifth chancellor is also present (second person from the right). [Top right] The problem of space junk (see the last item below). [Bottom] Major Jewish holidays in the US over the next 12 years, 2026-2037: Sharing the info I collected from the Internet for my own calendar.
(2) Bell Labs 2? Bell Labs (later AT&T Labs & Nokia Bell Labs), which boasted 10 Nobel Laureates and 5 winners of ACM’s Turing Awards, is generally recognized as a hotbed of innovations and revolutionary technical ideas. Billionaire-backed Episteme in Silicon Valley aims to free research from bureaucracy. History shows that’s a tall task. But CEO Louis Andre is confident the gamble will pay off. He thinks world-changing, profitable ideas can emerge from basic research, as long as scientists are freed up from hassles.
(3) “Resisting AI Slop”: This is the title of an editorial in Science magazine, Jan. 1, 2026: “It’s hard to talk about any topic in science or education today without the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) coming up—whether large language models should be allowed to aid in searching for a scientific paper or even to write or review the paper itself. In some of the wildest speculations, the humans involved in conducting scientific studies and experiments and vetting the results for publication will be steadily eliminated from the process. But when such grandiose rhetoric starts flying, we at Science try to keep calm and carry on in contributing to a robust, human-curated research literature that will stand the test of time.”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Japan’s Kansai International Airport (KIX) sets a record for not losing a single piece of luggage in 30 years.
- Sigourney Weaver: The smart, feminist, English-major actress, with an illustrious career. [28-minute video]
- Political humor: After a significant drop in attendance, Trump cuts ticket prices at Kennedy Center by 5000%.
- This couple has a lot of dance clips on social media: A joy to watch! [1-minute video]
(5) Lasers may provide a viable solution to the space-junk problem: Nearly seven decades of space exploration and space-based observation, starting with the first satellite launch in 1957, has made Earth’s orbit crowded with dead satellites, rocket remains, and secondary objects created by explosions & collisions. It is estimated that there are ~37,000 objects of diameter 10+ cm, roughly 1 million objects of diameter 1-10 cm, and 130 million smaller objects in Earth orbit. Over the past decade, the number of objects launched into space each year has increased by an order of magnitude, from ~250 to more than 2500. With the current trend, space may well become unusable by humans in the near future. There is now a space law in effect that satellites must remove themselves safely at the end of their missions. But we need to deal with the junk already accumulated and steadily increasing in number due to collisions. This 10-minute video reviews the problem of space junk and various solutions that are being considered, including the use of Earth-based and space-based lasers.

2026/01/02 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Apollonian gasket or circle-packing: Example 1 Apollonian circle-packing: Circles with integer curvatures (1) Apollonian gasket: In mathematics, an Apollonian gasket, Apollonian net, or Apollonian circle-packing is a fractal generated by starting with a triple of circles, each tangent to the other two, and successively filling in more circles, each tangent to another three. It is named after Greek mathematician Apollonius of Perga.
P.S. 1: There are quite a few Apollonian circle packings with all curvatures being integers.
P.S. 2: See also the next item below on Descartes’ Theorem, which relates the circle radii.
(2) [Amazing math] Descartes’ Theorem: If we have four circles, with each one tangent to the other three, their radii satisfy the equality (1/r1 + 1/r2 + 1/r3 + 1/r4)^2 = 2(1/r1^2 + 1/r2^2 + 1/r3^2 + 1/r4^2). The inverse of a circle’s radius r is known as its curvature c = 1/r. So we have, (c1 + c2 + c3 + c4)^2 = 2(c1^2 + c2^2 + c3^2 + c4^2).
When three of the mutually tangent circles are inside the fourth one, the latter’s radius or curvature is deemed negative. Given the curvature of three of the circles, the curvature of the fourth circle is obtained from a quadratic equation, leading to two solutions, one positive and one negative.
Special case 1: If one of circles is a straight line, with curvature zero, the theorem describes three circles that are tangent to the line and to each other. In particular, if we have two circles of curvature c and a smaller circle of curvature c’, we get from the equality (2c + c’)^2 = 2(2c^2 + c’^2), c’ = 4c or r’ = r/4.
Special case 2: If two of the circles are straight lines, in which case the lines must be parallel to each other, the equality becomes (c + c)^2 = 2(c^2 + c^2), whose correctness is readily verified.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Dozens feared dead in fire at a Swiss ski resort, where they were celebrating the New Year.
- MAGA ally Boebert lashes out at Trump over his veto of an infrastructure bill benefiting her district. [WaPo]
- In his New Year’s Eve speech, President Xi highlighted China’s achievements in AI and the chip industry.
- The two-campus Cal Poly float, featuring a 40-foot robot, wins Rose Parade’s Sweepstakes Award for 2026.
(4) US government revenues and spending (biggest items), in trillions of dollars:
Revenues 4.9: Corp. income taxes 0.5; Indiv. income taxes 2.4; Payroll taxes 1.7; Sales & excise taxes 0.1
Spending 6.8 (Deficit 1.9): Economy & infrastructure 0.7; Social Security 1.5; Medicare 0.9; Obligations, incl. debt service 1.0; Defense & foreign affairs 1.3; Transfers to states 1.1; Education 0.2
(5) A quote on quotations: "I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself." ~ Marlene Dietrich
(6) AI threatens social-science research: An article in Science magazine highlights how AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), is transforming social science by enabling large-scale simulations of human behavior, speeding up research, and creating diverse test cases, but also introduces challenges like managing bias, ensuring replicability, and potential contamination of online studies by sophisticated AI bots, potentially forcing a return to lab studies.

2026/01/01 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy new year: GIF image $Four geometric puzzles$ Cover image of Tim Berners-Lee's 'This Is for Everyone' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy New Year! Wishing you a joyous, healthy, and prosperous 2026. Hoping that peace prevails on this troubled planet and world countries oust autocratic regimes, replacing them with democratic governments. [Center] Four geometric puzzles (see the next item below). [Right] Tim Berners-Lee's This Is for Everyone (see the last item below).
(2) I start the year in math puzzles wity four geometric problems.
- Two identical rectangles are shown within a square. Find the measure of the unknown angle.
- Find the area of the blue quadrangle.
- Find the distance between the centers of the two circles.
- What fraction of the isosceles right triangle is shaded blue?
(3) The year ahead is “Year of the Horse” in the Chinese Zodiac, specifically the dynamic “Year of the Fire Horse,” a powerful combination signifying passion, energy, and bold action, starting with the Lunar New Year on February 17, 2026, and bringing strong forward momentum and transformation.
(4) This joke from 1925 was among numerous predictions (mostly wrong) about 2025:
It was in the year 2025. The United States had just elected its first woman president.
“Don’t you feel that your home life will be ruined?” the inquiring reporter asked her husband.
“My only regret,” he said with a sign, “is that I have but one wife to give to my country.”
(5) Book review: Berners-Lee, Tim, This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web, unabridged 12-hour audiobook, read by Stephen Fry, Macmillan Audio, 2025.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In this memoir, Sir Tim Berners-Lee recalls his childhood under smart “mathematicians and electronic engineers” parents. He learned to tinker, building a computer for himself. After attending Oxford, He ended up at Switzerland’s CERN, where he discovered that the various departments had computing systems that did not converse with one another—a problem he set about to fix. Thanks to three kindly, encouraging, and protective bosses, the World Wide Web was eventually born.
Berners-Lee firmly believed that the Web should be a public good, and he was able to convince CERN to relinquish its rights. This momentous decision led to the immense impact of the technology, as noted by Berners-Lee himself: “By automatically generating simple, plain-language versions of things such as credit card offers, immigration papers, military enlistment contracts and legal documents like wills, we generate great social benefits and ensure fair dealing.” However, tensions between proponents of a freely accessible Internet and companies seeking to profit from it persist to this day.
Berners-Lee’s dream of a universal free tool has been undermined by the proliferation of clickable ads and irksome pop-ups. By the late 2000s, Berners-Lee had begun to explore the idea of a system in which users own their data profiles across all platforms, with unshared data being the default and an opt-in mechanism allowing them to share if they are so inclined. This in in direct contrast to how things work now, where for the benefit of app developers, and to the detriment of users, each app is walled off from every other app on our phones.
Berners-Lee argues that gathering all data of a user in one place would create better self-understanding and would enable the user to make new connections with other users. I am somewhat skeptical of this approach. Because we can’t wish hackers & data piracy away, such data aggregation would make it even easier for bad actors to gain access to treasure troves of data.
Berners-Lee enjoys his notoriety as the inventor of the Worldwide Web, because it affords him a place in important “global conversations cutting across disciplines and sectors.” He hopes that through collective action, we can escape the tyranny of Silicon Valley, be able to build something empowering, and influence policy and regulatory environments to provide the needed support. He envisages the development of the SOLID protocol (for social linked data) to reclaim the original intent and benefits of the Web. He sees artificial intelligence as an ally that would help us transform and amplify the Web.

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