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Page last updated on 2025 February 15

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 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 2025

2025/02/15 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Trump is doing what he said Republicans should not allow Obama to do, plus a great deal more Cartoon: Billionaire narcissists in the White House pretending to be family men Cover image of Stuart Chase's 'The Tyranny of Words' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Trump is doing what he said Republicans should not allow Obama to do, plus a great deal more. [Center] New Yorker cartoon of the day: Billionaire narcissists in the White House pretending to be family men. [Right] Stuart Chase's The Tyranny of Words (see the next item below).
(2) Book review: Chase, Stuart, The Tyranny of Words, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1938, 2nd ed. 1966.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Each time I read a philosophical treatise, I become exasperated, because I see attempts at presenting precise arguments, not in a precise language designed for the purpose, but in an inherently ambiguous natural language. I felt validated by Stuart Chase’s book upon hitting this passage: "Another matter which distressed me was that I found it almost impossible to read philosophy. The great words went round and round in my head until I became dizzy. Sometimes they made pleasant music, but I could rarely effect passage between them and the real world of experience." Now, if language can lead us astray in the haughty field of philosophy, you can imagine the dangers of miscommunication in daily human interactions, political discourse, and other domains.
Chase’s main message to the reader is that we should all use transparent, concrete, precise language to improve human communication. Chase was a social theorist and writer who despised imprecision in our linguistic interactions, thereby condemning the overuse of abstract words and urging the use of words that make their ideas accurate, complete, and readily understood. In support of his main point, Chase makes four observations about the dangers hidden in words and languages:
- Languages are fundamentally ambiguous
- We often confuse symbols with reality
- Language is a tool for control
- Interpreting words requires critical thinking
Regarding ambiguity, Chase warns us that words such as ‘freedom,’ ‘justice,’ ‘democracy,’ and ‘reform’ have no precise meanings. Words that refer to concrete objects, such as ‘dog’ or ‘chair,’ are the least problematic. Intermediate between concrete and abstract words are those that refer to clusters of objects, such as ‘consumers’ or ‘the white race.’ On the importance of critical thinking, he urges us to assess whether words are used to reveal the truth or to hide it. Chase posits that we need a science of human communication, built on the same principles as those of other sciences (experimentation & validation) and tasked with creating better linguistic tools.
Chase also offers a few practical suggestions:
- Connect words to physical reality and/or measurable concepts
- Focus on what words represent. Too much reliance on abstract notions such as love and freedom is harmful
- Ask questions, especially when words appear to cause excitement or stir emotions
- Familiarize yourself with logic and critical thinking to avoid linguistic traps
In a wonderful appendix, Chase provides examples of obscure texts and invites the reader to try to make sense of them by identifying abstractions and referents, if any, and deducing whether the speaker knows what he is talking about. I used this method of teaching by bad examples when I taught technical writing many years ago. In the following, I provide snippets of some of the 22 examples cited by Chase.
Exhibit 2, by Henry Ford: Monopoly, we now know, is impossible, for the reason that a monopoly based on anything but service is self-destructive.
Exhibit 3, by Adam Smith: Labor, therefore, it appears evidently, is the only universal as well as the only accurate measure of value, or the only standard by which we can compare the values of different commodities at all times, and at all places.
Exhibit 5, by E. Colman: Without an understanding of regularity from the standpoint of dialectical materialism, physics and biology cannot steer a way through the Scylla of mechanistic fatalism and the Charybdis of indeterminism.
Exhibit 7, by Bernhard Rust: Those democrats who come here and shake their heads because we march so much need to be told something: They will reap from their democratic idea of liberty the destruction of their liberty.
Exhibit 12, by Waldo Frank: America … is a multiverse craving to become One … Each of Hart Crane’s lyrics is a diapason between the two integers of a continuous whole.
Exhibit 14, by Will Durant: This then is the final triumph of thought—that it disintegrates all societies, and at last destroys the thinker himself. Perhaps the invention of thought was one of the cardinal errors of mankind.
Exhibit 19, by Robert Maynard Hutchins: Education implies teaching. Teaching implies knowledge. Knowledge is truth. The truth is everywhere the same. Hence education should be everywhere the same.
The book is structured into a large number of chapters with the following titles: A writer in search of his words; A look around the modern world; Inside and outside; Cats and babies; Primitive peoples; Pioneers—I; Pioneers—II; Meaning for scientists; The language of mathematics; Interpreting the environments; The semantic discipline; Promenade with the philosophers; Turn with the logicians; To the right with the economists; To the left with the economists; Swing your partners with the economists; Round and round with the judges; Stroll with the statesmen; On facing the world outside; Appendix: Horrible examples

2025/02/14 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Wishing you all the best on this Valentine’s Day Happy Valentine’s Day Valentine’s Day math puzzle: What is the area of this heart? (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 & peace. [Right] Valentine’s Day math puzzle: What is the area of this heart, which is formed by two semi-circles joined by a square?
(2) Talk about Trump serving a third presidential term is getting serious: Trump himself talks about it often, although he pretends he’s joking. Several other Republicans have also floated the idea. The 22nd Amendment has made it quite clear: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.” But the Constitution hasn’t deterred Trump before.
(3) Principled stance: Resignation letter of Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten, who deems the order to drop the indictment against former NYC Mayor Eric Adams unlawful.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- WSJ has predicted that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be the first Trump pick to leave the cabinet.
- European start-up plans a reusable space cargo ship to compete with SpaceX Dragon.
- A new report, "The AI Safety Index," gives mostly D and F grades to leading AI companies.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 14, 2016: Valentine’s Day snacks.
(5) National Air and Space Museum’s Exploring Space Lecture Series, "Water, Water, Everywhere": Four Wed. lectures, presented in-person and over the Museum’s YouTube channel. Free with registration.
- March 19, 2025: Oceans Across the Universe; Presented by Dr. Julie Castillo-Rogez, JPL; Oceans in the outer solar system, what they are made of, and how we plan to explore them with ongoing and future missions.
April 23, 2025: The Search for Mars' Oceans; Presented by Drs. Gina DiBraccio & Charles Malespin, NASA Goddard; Scientists believe Mars' ocean escaped into space through the atmosphere. Hear about the search for water on the Red Planet.
May 28, 2025: Did Venus Ever Have Oceans? Presented by Dr. Rita Parai, Washington University of St. Louis; There is much debate over the status of Earth’s twin as a watery world: If Venus had oceans, where did all that water go?
- June 18, 2025: The Origin of Earth's Oceans; Presented by Dr. Kathy Mandt, NASA Goddard; Seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface is covered in oceans. Where does Earth's ocean water came from and how we know.

2025/02/13 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Distribution of US federal workers among different agencies Dan Rather, on why he vehemently opposes Trump Talangor group talk on sustained democratic development (1) Images of the day: [Left] Distribution of US federal workers among different agencies: It seems Elon Musk has begun looking for waste in the smallest, least consequential agencies. [Center] Meme: Dan Rather, on why he vehemently opposes Trump. [Right] Talk on sustained democratic development (see the last item below).
(2) SNL turns 50: “Saturday Night Live" celebrates its 50th anniversary on Sunday 2/16 (8:00 PM ET, NBC) with a 3-hour special featuring former cast members, hosts, and major musical guests. In its normal 11:30 PM ET slot on Saturday 2/15, viewers are treated to a rerun of the 1975 debut episode.
(3) Its’s time we take memory safety vulnerabilities seriously: Several decades after the computing community recognized the need for trusted systems, roughly 2/3 of viruses and other malware in every major open-source and proprietary software, including Windows, Linux, Android, and iOS, continue to spread by taking advantage of memory safety vulnerabilities.
Many of the problems originate from an existing C/C++ code corpus comprising of multi-billion lines of code that may be impossible to replace in its entirety. Attackers can readily advance to arbitrary code execution through a multi-step process that begins with memory safety vulnerabilities.
Twenty-one co-authors from academia and industry, with expertise in memory safety research, deployment, and policy, argue that standardization is an essential next step to achieving universal, strong memory safety.
(4) DOGE hit with lawsuit over data breach: The Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency and other federal agencies over what it calls “the largest and most consequential data breach in US history.” The suit also targets the US Office of Personnel Management and Treasury Department and their leadership, alleging they administered systems containing vast quantities of sensitive personal information while failing to comply with the Federal Information Security Modernization Act, and that they violated the Privacy Act by disclosing that data.
(5) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Dr. Kourosh Parsa (technologist & political activist) spoke under the title "Sustained Democratic Development: Why Nations Fail?"
I generally do not attend political talks, because they tend to be unfocused and wishy-washy. I made an exception tonight, because I had not previously heard a talk by Dr. Parsa. I am so sorry to be negative, but I find it impossible to identify the main points of this talk, a discussion of development, with no charts or other visual aids. This 44-minute interview contains some of the speaker’s views on sustained development.

2025/02/12 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Elon Musk has availed himself of gender-affirming care The Thatcher Effect: Distortions are less noticeable in upside-down images Socrates Think Tank talk on artificial intelligence (1) Images of the day: [Left] Elon Musk has availed himself of gender-affirming care. [Center] The Thatcher Effect: Distortions are less noticeable in upside-down images. [Right] Talk on AI (see the last item below).
(2) The Congress is missing in action, as Trump violates the Constitution and other US laws: Are we heeded for a constitutional showdown between executive and judicial branches?
(3) One option being floated to help pay for the extension of Trump’s tax cuts for the super-rich and corporations is the repeal of the ‘Head of Household’ filing status, a provision that helps single parents.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Get ready for art, as dispensed by Donald Trump, the new chair of the Kennedy Center.
- The US abandons Ukraine by agreeing to Russian territorial claims in the lead-up to peace talks.
- Setback for efforts to make AI safe & inclusive: US & UK refuse to sign Paris Summit on AI's declaration.
- Bernie Sanders delivers diatribe, accusing Trump & Musk of creating an oligarchy. [20-minute video]
(5) The nature-versus-nurture debate in mental illness: Not only both genetics and environment play a role in mental illness, but the two interact in ways that make it impossible to assess the impact of each separately. [Good general introduction, 13-minute video] [Specific estimates of heritability, 8-minute video]
(6) NASA’s self-healing Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC), survived a trip through the radiating Van Allen belts: RadPC, which entered space on January 15 on a lunar mission, features four RISC-V processors, a microcontroller, 2 KB of data memory, field-programmable gate arrays, and 3 dosimeters to measure radiation. The computer can identify faults caused by a radiation strike and repair the damage in the background.
(7) Tonight’s Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Mohsen Attaran (professor emeritus of operations management, information, and technology) spoke under the title "Is AI Really Intelligent? A Comparison Between Human and Machine Intelligence."
Dr. Attaran began by reviewing the physical structure of the brain and how it has evolved to support learning and thinking. He then discussed the history of, and advances in, artificial intelligence, focusing on benefits that it can provide to multiple domains of human endeavor, from medical diagnosis & drug discovery to optimization of various systems & interactions. He ended with the conclusion that as useful as modern AI-based systems are, they are incapable of thinking in the same way as humans.
An extensive Q&A session followed, which examined AI in the context of algorithmic thinking and consciousness. I had to leave early due to other commitments, so I missed a good part of the discussion.

2025/02/11 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Changes in reading performance for US states, 2019-2024 IEEE Spectrum magazine cover: High-voltage transformers are in short supply Changes in math performance for US states, 2019-2024 (1) Images of the day: [Left & Right] Changes in reading and math performance for US states, 2019-2024 (NYT charts): In reading, Louisiana did best, gaining 0.3 grade level; Maine did worst, losing a full grade level. In math, Alabama did best, improving by 0.1 grade level; Virginia did worst, deteriorating by 0.9 grade level. [Right] High-voltage transformers, essential parts of the electric grid, are in short supply: Engineers are getting creative to keep power projects on track. "The world’s power systems are not accustomed to such upheaval. … Because longstanding technologies like the transformer change so slowly, utilities spend very little—perhaps 0.1 percent of their budgets—on R&D. But they must prepare for a sea change."
(2) The Republicans still think of themselves as the opposition party, not the responsible ruling party.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem: "Well, we can’t trust the government anymore."
Journalist Dana Bash: "You are the government."
(3) Part of a longer piece by Nate White, about why the British hate Trump: "He has never said anything dry, witty, or even remotely funny ... He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is -- his idea of a joke is a coarse comment, an uneducated insult, a temporary cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and never laughs; he only triumphs or ridicules."
(4) America is emulating the Islamic Republic of Iran: Anti-women laws & regulations and attacks on news media aside, former presidents & government officials are being stripped of their security clearance and barred from entering federal buildings. Iranian former presidents and many other officials are personae non gratae, having been barred from public speaking, appearing on radio & TV, and writing in newspapers. In democracies, former officials are viewed as sources of advice and wisdom. In autocracies, they are blamed and sidelined.
(5) The spy satellite that helped win the Cold War: By revolutionizing electronic eavesdropping, the Parcae Project neutralized Soviet Union’s emerging advantage in nuclear-powered guided-missile battle cruisers, which threatened to tilt the perilous equilibrium of mutual assured destruction (MAD) in the wrong direction.
(6) Statement by Association for Computing Machinery: ACM is aware that many in our community are concerned about potential negative effects of recent Executive Orders by the new US Administration on our work in both the US and globally. This includes concerns about possible consequences for ACM publishing, conferences, education, and practitioner efforts, as well as concerns about possible harms to our work on inclusion for a strong and diverse technology workforce. ... ACM’s commitment to its mission, guided by its core values, is unchanged. We will work with members of the community to understand how new Executive Orders may affect their work as it relates to scientific, educational, and community development efforts.

2025/02/10 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Rashid Rahnama wins Farhang Foundation’s 2025 Nowruz Banner Design Competition The Time magazine cover that may help end Donald Trump’s love for Elon Musk Cover image of Fumio Sasaki's 'Goodbye Things' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Rashid Rahnama, a graphic artist from Melbourne, Australia, wins Farhang Foundation’s 2025 Nowruz Banner Design Competition. [Center] The Time magazine cover that may help end Donald Trump’s love for Elon Musk. [Right] Fumio Sasaki's Goodbye Things (see the last item below).
(2) Let’s not forget the Los Angeles fire victims: The fires are gone, but victims are struggling financially and emotionally. Many of them cannot rebuild, because they were uninsured or underinsured. Even those who choose, and can afford, to rebuild will forever be haunted by their memories of the destructive flames and may never feel safe again. It’s so easy to be distracted from their plight by ongoing political fights and the daily barrage of vitriol & executive orders emerging from the White House. Please keep all hurting Americans in mind as you go about your daily routines.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump’s devastating cuts to NIH grants put on temporary hold by federal judge. [Nature]
- Turning Gaza into Middle East’s Riviera isn’t Trump’s idea: It was given to him by a DC econ professor.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 10, 2015: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer to shape it.”
- Facebook memory from Feb. 10, 2014: “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” ~ Confucius
(4) Book review: Sasaki, Fumio (translated by Eriko Sugita), Goodbye Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by Keith Szarabajka, Blackstone Audio, 2017.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Marie Kondo’s decade-old book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, achieved sensational success and earned her many followers. In my 3-star review of Kondo’s book on GoodReads, I wrote: "I read this book about half-way through, before becoming frustrated with its arbitrary rules and over-generalizations. Most everyone knows that clutter takes a toll on our peace of mind and productivity, but each of us has a slightly different way of dealing with the problem."
Those who loved Kondo’s book will also appreciate the extreme minimalist pitch of Sasaki, who is less arbitrary and makes allowance for individual tastes and preferences.
Sasaki is a regular guy, not an organizing expert, who one day became fed up with constantly comparing himself to others who had more or better stuff, thus deciding to say goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. By doing so, he gained true freedom and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. Sasaki tells us that we can live comfortably in a fairly small apartment, if we make public spaces part of our floorplan; go out to restaurants, parks, libraries, concerts, and more.
Among the things he discarded was his entire collection of books, which he had kept in case he wanted to reread them, or unread books he had stowed away in the hopes of one day reading them. He also tells us not to store items such as paper towels or toilet paper. Just have one for daily use and one as a replacement, buying a new one when the current one runs out.
The only place I disagree with Sasaki is on books. I have built an extensive collection of books which I recently organized by buying some nice bookcases. Being around these physical books in my library room gives me a pleasure that I don’t get from e-books and audiobooks, which constitute the bulk of my reading these days.

2025/02/09 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Trump orders the US Treasury to stop minting pennies Cartoon: Elon Musk checking out a team huddle at Super Bowl 59 Pizza bites and other snacks for a one-sided Super Bowl: Eagles over Chiefs, 40-22 (1) Images of the day: [Left] An overdue decision: Trump orders the US Treasury to stop minting pennies. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Elon Musk checking out a team huddle at Super Bowl 59. [Right] Pizza bites and other snacks for a one-sided Super Bowl: Eagles over Chiefs, 40-22; unimpressive halftime show.
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Stephen Fry & Richard Dawkins in conversation: Science, religion, politics, and more. [55-minute video]
- The cost of a single pistachio nut in the Iran of 2025: 1.5 g @ 700,000 tomans/kg ~ 1000 tomans
(3) Yesterday’s lecture by Sir Niall Ferguson (historian, visionary, author of 16 books, and Emmy-Award-winning director): Speaking at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theater under the title "Why We Study History: Standing at the Crossroads of Past, Present and Future," Ferguson discussed world’s current problems in the context of contemporary history, before sitting down for a conversation with UCSB historian Dr. Harold Marcuse, who asked his own as well as audience’s questions.
The gist of Ferguson’s message was that we are moving into the early stages of Cold War II, which bears many similarities to Cold War I. China, a much more formidable opponent, has taken the place of the Soviet Union, so this new cold war will be much more dangerous than the first one. China has 80% of the US GDP, whereas the soviet Union’s GDP never exceeded 44% of ours. China is also a manufacturing superpower, beating the US by a factor of about 2.
Here are a few other similarities. Ukraine is today’s Korea, except that we have failed to support it adequately, spending less money on it than we did on the liberation of Kuwait. The small island of Taiwan may constitute the most-dangerous element of Cold War II, much like the role Cuba played in Cold War I.
OPEC was quite influential in Cold War I, but it is now significantly weakened by Israel’s victories in simultaneous wars against Iran and its proxies. Climate change has also degraded the Middle East’s influence. Iran will remain weak, whether or not its Islamic regime is toppled. Three key players in this equation, China, Russia, and Iran are marred by the lack of succession plans; North Korea is our only adversary with succession plans already in place.
Ferguson cited what has come to be known as Ferguson’s Law: Any great power that spends more on debt service (interest payments on the national debt) than on defense will not stay great for very long. The US is already at this crossover point, with its debt and military spending at 3.1% and 3.0% of its GDP, respectively, while moving in the direction of even greater debt and possibly lower military spending. Even modest increases in military spending may not counteract Ferguson’s Law.
According to Ferguson, to understand and learn from history, you have to be non-partisan. You should look beyond memes, social-media posts, and pay attention to actions, not words.

2025/02/08 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Crispy rice, made Japanese-style by frying leftover rice, served with Persian gheimeh stew Frozen waterfall in the Alps, Italy Political humor: Part of Trump’s plans for development on Palestinian lands (1) Images of the day: [Left] Crispy rice, made Japanese-style by frying leftover rice, served with Persian gheimeh stew. Your place was empty. [Center] Frozen waterfall in the Alps, Italy: Note human for scale. [Right] Political humor: Part of Trump’s plans for development on Palestinian lands.
(2) Quote of the day: "There is no refutation of Darwinian evolution in existence. If a refutation ever were to come about, it would come from a scientist, and not an idiot." ~ Richard Dawkins
(3) Trump, 2025: Who the hell made these deals with Canada, they’re so bad? Trump, 2018: They say [my replacement for NAFTA] is the best trade deal ever made.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- NSF reviews grants for compliance with Trump’s orders, plans mass layoffs in anticipation of budget cuts.
- How fitting! Here’s some info about the woman who will lead the White House Faith Office.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 8, 2022: On the need to remove “gheirat” and “namoos” from our vocabulary.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 8, 2019: A silver lining to the cloud of Trump’s presidency.
(5) Safety data for AI-based systems should be open-source: “This work makes the argument for elevating ‘safety data’ as a class of obliged-to-share open data among intelligent system vendors so developers of digital systems can produce safer systems without independently producing repeated harms.”
(6) Advanced farming: Sensors, robots, aerial imaging, GPS, and cutting-edge information technology are transforming agriculture before our eyes. The result? Higher yields, less waste, and greater efficiency!
- GPS-guided tractors moving with super precision
- Robots automating tasks, from planting to harvesting
- Drones capturing real-time data to optimize crops
- Smart sensors tracking soil and weather conditions

2025/02/07 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Arctic temperatures just spiked 20°C (68°F) above average Racist oligarchy in the US Cover image of 'When the Mirror Cracks: A Novel' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Arctic temperatures just spiked 20°C (68°F) above average, threatening massive melting of ice. [Center] Oligarchy is only one part of our problem in the US: Racism is another part. Racist oligarchy is the biggest threat. Marko Elez, a 25-year-old White Supremacist on Elon Musk’s DOGE team, was forced to resign after his social-media posts were exposed. [Right] Book review (see the last item below).
(2) When the only thing you know is real-estate development, every domestic and international problem seems like it can be solved through real-estate development.
(3) Attack on news media continues: Following a $10 billion lawsuit alleging election interference, Trump calls for the termination of “60 Minutes” (a long-established and reputable fixture of US journalism), dismissal of its staff, and revocation of CBS’s broadcasting license.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US aviation safety system is overdue for an overhaul: The staffing level must also be restored.
- NASA’s powerful moon-mining robot could dig 10,000 kg of soil in a single lunar day.
- US colleges and universities are preparing for ICE raids on campus.
- U. California launches Web site to inform students & staff of rapidly-changing federal regulations.
- Trump announces plans to gut the Kennedy Center board and appoint himself chairman.
(5) Book review: Coffey, Jan and May McGoldrick, When the Mirror Cracks: A Novel (in Persian, Aangaah keh Ayeneh Tarak Mi-Khorad), M & M Books, 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This psychological thriller is the work of prolific husband and wife author team, Jim and Nikoo McGoldrick, using the pen name Jan Coffey. The novel is rich with tales of bonding between women, the sacrifices they make, and how they navigate the worlds of motherhood and daughterhood.
To distance herself from a personal tragedy in California and to execute the sale of a gaming company in which she is a junior partner, Christina leaves for the exotic sights and sounds of Istanbul, where she finds herself stalked by a young Kurdish refugee with a newborn daughter and threatened by a driver who seems to know too much about her. She feels that tragedy may strike again if she does not unravel family secrets and correct old injustices.
The wonderful writing is exemplified by this paragraph that begins the prologue: "You’ll never leave. Death awaits you here. Believe me, faith is dogging your every step. It is the wavering reflection on the tile in front of you. It is the shadow on the pillar that you pass. If you listen, you will hear it breathing behind you. Your gaze passes over me but you no longer recognize me. I am the one whose life you threw away."
The reader’s task is complicated by the story unfolding in two different time frames some 30 years apart, but persistence pays off when the storylines merge at the end.

2025/02/06 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Inauguration of direct Iran Air flights from Tehran, Shiraz, and Abadan to New York City, 1975 Throwback Thursday: Ford model T, 1910s Amazing fact: The tiny country of Bangladesh has 22 million more people than the continent-size Russia (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Throwback Thursday: Inauguration of direct Iran Air flights from Tehran, Shiraz, & Abadan to New York City, 1975, and Ford model T, 1910s. [Right] Amazing fact: The tiny Bangladesh has 22 million more people than the continent-size Russia. Yet, Russia thinks it needs more territory.
(2) Eggs are in short supply with high prices due to chickens being killed to prevent the spread of disease: But, chicken wings aren’t in short supply. How come?
(3) The mother of all conflicts of interest: Elon Musk has not divested from his companies, which hold billions of dollars in contracts with the US government and are regulated by US government agencies.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Shell-shocked authorities are scrambling to crack a 100,000-egg heist in Pennsylvania.
- China’s DeepSeek chatbot is linked to the country’s state telecom: Another TikTok problem? [AP]
- Japanese tah-dig (crispy rice), made from leftover rice. [Reel]
- Trump’s trade war strategy: Try to look tough. Fold. Repeat. [Facebook post, with image]
(5) Some Arab-Americans parted ways with the Democratic party over the Gaza war: I wonder what they now think of Trump’s proposal to deport all Gazans and turn the strip into a tourist destination?
(6) Advances in making artificial blood: Not the gooey red stuff used in movies, but a real functional substitute that clots and carries oxygen, just like the real thing.
(7) The mother of all conflicts of interest: Elon Musk has not divested from his companies, which hold billions of dollars in contracts with the US government and are regulated by US government agencies.
(8) An introduction to the field of service-oriented computing, including the concept of micro-services: “Since service-oriented computing was introduced as a major topic in the industry and the research community, 20 years have passed. Today, service orientation has become a commodity in many areas. This has also changed the foci of the research community by a very large degree. In this article, we analyze the current state of the research in the field and give an outlook on future research topics.”
(9) Final thought for the day: "When you hate, the only person who is suffering is you, because most of the people you hate don’t know it and the rest don’t care." ~ Medgar Evers

2025/02/05 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The little-known post-WW-II massacre of Jews in Poland Share of imports to the US from different countries Math puzzle: Find the distance x between tangent points (1) Images of the day: [Left] Massacre of Jews in Poland (see the next item below). [Center] Share of imports to the US from different countries: More than 40% come from Mexico, China, and Canada. So, if Trump’s tariffs go into effect, the US economy will suffer greatly. No wonder the markets reacted so strongly, before Trump caved in and delayed their imposition. [Right] Math puzzle: Find the distance x between tangent points.
(2) The Poles have created a sanitized version of their World War II history, in which they appear as victims or heroes: The massacre of Holocaust survivors in a Polish small town six months after the end of WW II has been erased from this sanitized history. “Among Neighbors,” a film being shown at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, sets the record straight.
(3) More than 200 earthquakes have rattled the Greek island of Santorini since Friday: Tremors have occurred every few minutes, reaching a magnitude of up to 4.9. Experts say the quakes are not linked to Santorini's dormant volcano but to tectonic plate movements and could signal a larger impending event.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Don’t give up on the truth: Striking out against injustice is always right; it always matters.
- The battle of princes over leading Iran: Reza, the Shan's son, vs. Mojtaba, the Supreme Leader’s son.
- The 2025 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering was bestowed upon seven AI pioneers.
- New York Times reporters find 8000 Web pages have gone missing from over 150 US government sites.
(5) Autocracy is contagious: It seems to have been transmitted from US national politics to University of California affairs.
A number of administrative and financial systems are slated to be centralized under the UC President’s office. Centralization has its merits, of course, but it is also known to have some drawbacks. There has been inadequate consultation with the campuses and the systemwide faculty on this process.
There is also an effort underway to change the quarter system, currently in use at 7 UC campuses, to the semester system, now in place at UC Berkeley and UC Merced. Establishing a common academic calendar, with the same semester start & end dates, academic deadlines, and holidays is a positive step, but it isn’t something that should be dictated from above.
Significant academic planning is needed to pull this off, and under normal conditions, faculty would be asked to get involved and to provide input to the planners. For example, conversion of a 3-quarter course sequence to a 2-semester sequence is no easy feat, particularly if it entails laboratory facilities. As another example, a stand-alone 4-unit course will likely require only 3 hours per week under a semester system, with impacts on classroom scheduling, faculty teaching loads, and TA assignments.
Whether or not they are asked, faculty do plan to get involved, beginning with a just-called UC Assembly Special Meeting on February 13, 2025.

2025/02/03 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: In this diagram with two squares and a circle that is tangent to both, find the radius of the circle Aerial view of a section of Grand Canyon in Arizona Cover image of Piran Farhoodi's 'For All of Us' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: In this diagram with two squares and a circle that is tangent to both, find the radius of the circle. [Center] Aerial view of a section of Grand Canyon in Arizona. [Right] Piran Farhoodi's For All of Us (see the last item below).
(2) A large Bitcoin farm is discovered in Tehran: A major question is how the farm, which consumes about 4% of the country’s electricity production, had been operating undetected for years.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Thousands rallied in Los Angeles yesterday, shutting down US 101 to protest Trump’s immigration policies.
- The 2025 Grammy Awards: Complete list of nominees and winners.
- Trump and Musk shut down USAID, a foreign aid agency which had been largely independent for decades.
- Somewhere in Russia, Putin is smiling tonight, as he watches the North American economic war.
(4) Book review: Farhoodi, Piran, For All of Us (in Persian, Bara-ye Hameh-ye Ma), Quip Publishing, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
"Like thousands of other Iranians, I was swept up by political and social waves of the 1980s. Unlike many of my friends, I was lucky to get out alive and to find a quiet, normal life somewhere in the world. But the wounds of those troubled days did not let go of me. All these years, the innocent eyes of the children and young adults who suffered the worst fates because they could not remain indifferent have haunted me. I sometimes think that the hand of fate spared me so that I can tell the tale of my innocent friends. This is the story of Iran's darkest days, an elegy for humanity and an eyewitness account for future generations."
Thus begins Farhoodi's account of the extrajudicial killings of political prisoners in the Iran of the late 1980s. He was only 18 when the killings happened, trapping him in a dark game that had no rules. The stories told by Farhoodi are real, although he has changed some of the names, merged multiple characters, or split some characters for protection and dramatic effect.
Throughout the book, we read the stories of young people, many of them children, who were under the spell of this or that ideology. Those who, influenced by Khomeini’s black-or-white depiction of foes and friends and Shariati’s formulation of antiquated thoughts as progressive and a kind of Islamic Renaissance, were convinced they were on the path of truth and considered killing the non-believers a service to them and to God, because there was no other way to save their souls. Others continued to fight and were killed in street fights or arrested, tortured, jailed, and/or put in front of firing squads, with their clothes and other belongings placed in bags that were thrown to their parents who came to inquire about their fates.
Yet another category consisted of those who were scared stiff by the prospects of jail and torture, or by actual jail and torture, became repentant (tawab, in Arabic/Persian) and cooperated with the regime. In return for giving up their fellow dissidents and preaching to prisoners in order to convert them, the repentant youth were allowed to live and even enjoyed a few perks. These repentant agents weren’t fully trusted and some of them eventually faced firing squads.
A few of those marked for death were lucky enough to earn the trust of their tormentors and were set free, subject to constant surveillance. Some of them escaped through illegal border crossings and lived sorry lives as refugees in Europe under the double threat of spies/assassins scouring Europe for opponents of the Islamist regime and the local population forever suspicious of dark-haired Middle-Easterners living among them.
This is the story of Islamic Iran’s darkest chapter, a darkness that would remain unmatched in later years, when the Islamic regime used its formidable security forces and plainclothes goons to crush dissent before it could escalate into organized resistance. Arbitrary detentions, long prison terms, and executions, in prisons or via terror squads, did continue, but the regime found it unnecessary to apply them on as large a scale as in the revolutionary government’s first couple of decades.
To this date, no regime official has owned up to the horrific extrajudicial and terror killings of the late 1980s and none of the people who joined the regime in subsequent decades has admitted to knowing about those killings or has justified his collaboration with the brutal government that killed anyone who even slightly threatened its authority.

2025/02/02 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Latinos for Trump get what they asked for Kaymakli, an amazing underground city in Turkey Talk on prisons and prisoners in modern Iran (1) Images of the day: [Left] Latinos for Trump get what they asked for. [Center] An amazing underground city in Turkey (see the next item below). [Right] Prisons and prisoners in modern Iran (see the last item below).
(2) Kaymakli Underground City: Located in Turkey’s Cappadocia region, this ancient subterranean settlement is one of the largest and most-fascinating in the world. Originally built by the Phrygians in the 8th-7th centuries BC, the city was later expanded by the Byzantine Empire as a defense mechanism during periods of conflict. This extensive underground complex showcases ancient architectural ingenuity and strategic foresight.
(3) "Prisons and Prisoners in Modern Iran": This was the topic of a fascinating Zoom presentation by Dr. Golnar Nikpour (Dartmouth College), under the auspices of UCSB’s Iranian Studies Initiative and Farhang Foundation. The talk was based on Dr. Nikpour’s 2024 book, The Incarcerated Modern: Prisons and Public Life in Iran.
Even to those who are marginally familiar with today’s Iran, the Islamic regime brings to mind extensive surveillance, arbitrary arrests, torture, and executions, as well as the notorious Evin Prison. Political imprisonment and torture also existed in the pre-revolutionary Iran, but the Islamist government has taken these to new heights.
Iran’s prison system is a fairly recent creation, dating back to the turn of the 20th century. Even by the mid-1920s, there were only a few hundred prisoners held by the newly centralizing government under the Qajars [1789-1925]. Today, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, there are at least a quarter of a million detainees. Current carceral practices (which include not just prisons but also the accompanying systems of policing and surveillance) touch the lives of all Iranians, not just those of the politically engaged.
Centralization of the legal system was enacted in the Pahlavi era [1925-1979] and with it, the number of prisoners expanded from hundreds to tens of thousands. During Mohammad Reza Shah’s later years, international human rights organizations became involved in defending political prisoners and condemning torture. The Shah initiated programs for job training and education among non-political prisoners, which continued under the Islamic regime [1979-present]. These programs were parts of the attempt to depict prisons as places of rehabilitation, rather than sites for punishing criminals.
Prisons, sometimes called ‘cathedrals of modernity,’ have been expanding worldwide. The Iranian public, whose day-to-day existence has been affected by the Islamic regime’s carceral practices, has developed a number of coping mechanisms. Writing prison memoirs, novels, and poetry are some of the tools used. Among other mechanisms for coping, political art, satire, and information campaigns are worth mentioning.
By analyzing the multilingual and multi-genre archives of prisons in Iran, Dr. Nikpour explored the historical interplay between the concrete space of Iranian prisons and the role of prisons in producing new public cultures and political languages in the 20th and now into the 21st century.

2025/02/01 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Yours truly, blowing the birthday candle 78 is the sum of 4 distinct squares in 3 different ways My birthday cards and gifts (1) Celebrating my 78th birthday with the family, the birthday cards and gifts I received, and the discovery that 78 can be written as the sum of 4 different squares in 3 different ways.
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: With electric propulsion, automobiles will be changing shapes and looks. Thus far, nearly all electric-car models have maintained the looks of older internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, so that until you see the car’s name or logo, it is difficult to recognize electric cars. Even the charging port resembles the gas tank access outlet. This conservatism in maintaining the old look could be the result of not wanting to scare-off customers, who are already nervous about many issues such as driving range, availability of charging stations, and the high cost of batteries if they need to be replaced. But if you pay closer attention, you will see changes in the making. Gone are front grilles that allow cool air in to prevent overheating.
(3) Quote of the day: "I have the distinction of being the only chemistry laureate who failed the topic in high school!" ~ Tomas Lindahl, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- President Trump’s tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China are set to go into effect today.
- For the first time since 1978, all best-actress Oscar nominees have appeared in best-picture nominees.
- U. California leaders express concerns over Trump’s temporary halt on federal research grant reviews.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 1, 2020: Today is the start of Black History Month.
- Facebook memory from Feb. 1, 2020: Today is World Hijab Day, not the forced kind.
(5) Trump’s new Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy’s resume includes roles on three different TV reality shows: He sure got a dose of reality when on his second day on the job, he had to deal with the DC mid-air collision that killed 67.
(6) “Math in the Age of AI”: This was the theme of Joint Mathematics Meetings, held in Seattle Jan. 8-11, drawing 5,444 mathematicians. Yann LeCun, Meta's chief AI scientist and an ACM Turing Award laureate, delivered a keynote in which he discussed the current state of machine learning. LeCun also suggested a "large-scale world model" as an alternative to generative large language models, noting that it "can reason and plan because it has a mental model of the world that predicts consequences of its action."
(7) Final thought for the day: As I get ready to retire at the end of a day of celebrating my birthday with the family and being showered with love & gifts, I would like to thank everyone who honored me by sending birthday wishes and other messages of caring. [1-minute video]

2025/01/31 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Moon craters named after the crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger, who died 39 years ago Meme: We are all made of stardust Cover image of Salman Khan's 'Brave New Words' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Moon craters named after Space Shuttle Challenger crew, who died 39 years ago. [Center] We're all made of stardust. [Right] Salman Khan's Brave New Words (see the last item below).
(2) Calendar anomaly: February 1 (tomorrow) is my official birthday according to the Gregorian calendar. The equivalent date of Bahman 12 on the Persian calendar is today. This anomaly occurs every few years due to the different handlings of leap years on the two calendar systems. It allows me to celebrate my birthday twice!
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Meta pays $25M to Trump for closing his Facebook account over spreading election disinformation.
- Adding Trump to Mount Rushmore comes up again: A Republican lawmaker is introducing a bill.
- Trump tax cuts will again favor the rich, penalizing single parents, scholarship students, & homeowners.
- Members of EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and Science Advisory Board have been dismissed.
(4) Book review: Khan, Salman, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing), unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by the author, Penguin Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Salman Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, an on-line treasure of course material and tutorials on many topics. In this book, Khan explains how AI and GPT technology will transform learning, offering a roadmap for teachers, parents, and students to navigate this exciting, and occasionally intimidating, new world.
Khan explains how he and his Khan Academy co-workers negotiated access to GPT-4 before it was released to the public in order to roll out compelling educational applications at the same time as GPT-4's release. While acknowledging imperfections and potential problems, Khan wants parents and teachers to embrace AI and adapt to it, so that every student can complement the work they're already doing in new and creative ways, to personalize learning, adapt assessments, and support success in the classroom.
Not limiting himself to pushing the benefits of technology, Khan also delves into ethical and social implications of AI and GPT, offering thoughtful insights into how we can use these tools to build a more accessible system of education for students around the world. Among other topics, he touches upon the possibility of cheating, maintaining a place for parents in their children's education, and dangers of unfettered data collection. The need for transparency is also discussed.
Here's the list of 9 parts and 32 chapters in the book.
Introduction: Let's write a new story together
Part I: Rise of the AI Tutor; Throwing away the bottle; How to teach everything to everyone
Part II: Giving Voice to the Social Sciences; Why students write; The future of reading comprehension, where literature comes alive; AI and creativity; Conversing with history
Part III: Empowering the Next Innovators; Using science to study science; 1 + 1 = closing the math gap; Accessing courses that students otherwise would not; The most important subject-matter domain to master
Part IV: Better Together; Bolstering collaborative learning; AI meets student mental health coaching; The place for parents in AI- based education; Increasing points of connection between parents and their kids
Part V: Keeping Kids Safe; Delivering the facts: The state of bias and misinformation; What about data collection? AI and the gift of transparency; AI as 'guardian angel'
Part VI: Teaching in the Age of AI; How AI will supercharge teachers and teaching; Dawn of the AI teaching assistant; Helping build alternative education models; Fixing cheating in college
Part VII: The Global Classroom; The global classroom; economics of AI in education
Part VIII: AI, Assessments, and Admissions; The future of K-12 assessments; The AI of college admissions
Part IX: Work and What Comes Next; Employment in the AI World; How to prepare kids to thrive in the AI-future workplace; Matchmaking between job seekers and employers; Where this leaves us and where it will take us: A call for educated bravery

2025/01/30 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Ford model T, 1910s Mid-air collision in Washington DC Adding Trump to Mount Rushmore comes up again (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: Ford model T, 1910s. [Center] All 60 passengers and 4 crew members on board the American Airlines plane and the 3 on the military chopper are assumed dead after a mid-air collision in Washington DC. [Right] Adding Trump to Mount Rushmore comes up again.
(2) Trump, on last night’s mid-air collision that killed 67: After some scripted comforting words to the victims’ families and the nation, POTUS shamelessly tried to put the blame for the incident on FAA’s DEI programs and on former Democratic administrations.
(3) Trumpian doublespeak: An executive order on “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship” is less about restoring free speech than about giving free rein to disinformation on social media. Other administration actions ban words including “gender” and “inclusion” in federal documents and declare the very real book-banning crisis a “hoax.”
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Let’s hope we all stay alive for the next four years and don’t perish in an economic crash or a foolish war.
- How fitting! The lunar new year is the year of the snake. And we have a snake-oil salesman in the WH.
- Jim Acosta, as he leaves CNN: “It’s never a good time to bow down to a tyrant.”
- You mullahs criticize Israel? You have done all of things that you accuse Israel of doing.
- Persian piano recital: Selected works of Javad Maroufi and Anoushirvan Rohani.
- Persian pop music: The oldie song “Niloofar,” played on piano and percussion. Enjoy!
(5) Trump's attack on DEI is a distraction: He diverts our attention to a relatively powerless/harmless program, as he guts consequential programs, fires federal employees, and changes the tax code to benefit the rich.
(6) University of California has begun a concerted effort to move all of its 9 general campuses to operate under a common semester-based academic calendar. Seven of the nine UC general campuses operate under quarter systems, Berkeley and Merced being the only exceptions. A workgroup has been formed, whose charge, as well as benefits of semesters over quarters and a common UC calendar over each campus setting its own, are addressed in this document.
(7) In the age of hundreds of TV channels, thousands of newspapers/magazines, and omnipresent social media platforms, it is extremely difficult to deny all the damaging statements you have made in the past, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., discovered during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
(8) SpaceX & Vast Space invite research proposals for experiments to be conducted aboard the Haven-1 space station, set to launch in August: The companies are focusing on biological and physiological experiments in microgravity and autonomously executable research payloads. Heaven-1 will be the first commercial space station, providing a new platform for space research as the ISS nears retirement.

2025/01/29 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Trump doesn’t like DEI programs, but he chose the names of his oldest children so that their initials spell DEI Researchers reconstruct the face of a medieval warrior whose remains were found in a mass grave Socrates Think Tank talk by Dr. Mohammad Bagheri (1) Images of the day: [Left] Trump doesn’t like DEI programs, but he chose the names of his oldest children so that their initials spell DEI. [Center] Researchers reconstruct the face of a warrior whose remains were found in a mass grave from a historic 1361 battlefield. [Right] Socrates Think Tank talk (see the last item below).
(2) Senator Mitch McConnell is no John McCain: He was one of three Republican senators who voted against the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but he did so when it became clear that Hegseth would be confirmed. Remember that McConnell endorsed Trump as GOP’s presidential candidate after saying that Trump was practically and morally responsible for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol and calling him a despicable man, a narcissist, stupid, and ill-tempered.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- MAGA has gone mum on high egg prices, something they mentioned daily before the election.
- US Department of Justice fires officials who worked on Jack Smith’s Trump investigation.
- Texas and North Dakota introduce bills to ban faculty tenure.
- Trump halts federal funding and grant programs: NSF has stopped reviewing research proposals.
- Trump doesn’t just deport people from the US: He also wants to deport Gazans to Jordan and Egypt!
- Teams are set for Super Bowl 59 (Feb. 9, 6:30 PM ET, on Fox). Kansas City Chiefs vs. Philadelphia Eagles.
(4) Tonight’s Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Mohammad Bagheri, expert in critical thinking, spoke under the title "Martin Heidegger’s Influence on Iranian Intellectuals." There were ~125 attendees.
Martin Heidegger [1889-1976] was a German philosopher best known for contributions to phenomenology (a philosophy which favors the primacy of experience), hermeneutics (the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation), and existentialism (a philosophy emphasizing the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent). Heidegger’s work covers a wide range of topics including ontology, technology, art, metaphysics, humanism, language and history of philosophy.
Heidegger recognized two types of thinking: Calculative and meditative. He complained that Westerners, from the time of Aristotle to Enlightenment, favored calculative thinking (tafakkor-e estedlali), which led to advances in science and technology, essentially ignoring meditative thinking (tafakkor-e shohudi), the native thought process which is required for examining our existence and our role in the universe. Along the same lines, Heidegger distinguished between natural language, used for our day-to-day communications, and the language of poetry, which we use to express deeper thoughts.
Beginning with Ahmad Fardid [1910-1994], Iranian intellectuals mischaracterized and misinterpreted Heidegger’s views and formulated them as a kind of return to self, which led to the perjorative term "Westoxification" and a declaration of war on Western values. Both Fardid, and Jalal Al-Ahmad [1923-1969], who adopted the notion of Westoxification and developed it into a book, brought religious elements into their philosophies, thus deviating from secularism, which was one of pillars of Enlightenment. So, Iranian intellectuals took Heidegger’s criticisms of modernity and turned them into a war with modernity.
These and other Iranian thinkers essentially validated the theory that intellectuals often fall for extremist ideologies; Heidegger himself was a Nazi sympathizer. According to Dr. Bagheri, two main factors led to the abuse of Heidegger’s ideas in Iran’s intellectual scene: Reckless minds (as discussed in the book The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics, by Mark Lilla, 2016) and lack of deep familiarity with Western languages, which led to inappropriate and misleading translations of Western thought.

2025/01/27 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Find the area S of the outer right triangle with two squares inside it Cover image of Tom O’Neill's 'Chaos' Math puzzle: Find the area A of the square inside the triangle (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Find the area S of the outer right triangle with two squares inside it. [Center] Tom O’Neill's Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (see the last item below). [Right] Math puzzle: Find the area A of the square inside the triangle.
(2) Illinois Democratic Governor J. B. Pritzker vows to stand in the way if federal authorities try to break state law while carrying out Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.
(3) Is DeepSeek China’s giant step forward in AI or a political bluff? A Chinese start-up’s announcement that it has overcome the effect of US sanctions, by using commercially available chips to develop a lightweight AI model that competes favorably with those offered by major tech firms in the US, sent stocks tumbling, with NVIDIA stock losing 17% of its value. This is a development worth watching in the coming days.
(4) Book review: O’Neill, Tom (with Dan Piepenbring), Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties, unabridged 16-hour audiobook, read by Kevin Stillwell, Little, Brown & Company, 2019.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In 1999, the film magazine Premiere gave entertainment reporter Tom O'Neill a 3-month assignment to write about how the Tate-LaBianca murders, committed by the Manson Family 30 years earlier, changed Hollywood. That assignment led to 20 years of research that produced this book and much accompanying trouble for O'Neill, as well as the Quentin Tarantino movie, "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood."
The book’s thesis is that the Helter Skelter (disorderly, confused action) theory of the lead prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, who later wrote a lucrative 1974 book by the same title, does not hold water. Bugliosi retaliates by threatening to sue the virtually penniless O’Neill for $100 million and smearing him as a gay pedophile. The book's title is a reference to a covert CIA program, Operation CHAOS, which spied on US citizens.
Over two grim nights in 1969 Los Angeles, the young followers of hippy messiah Charles Manson, his so-called family, murdered seven people, including the actress Sharon Tate, then eight months pregnant. The book questions the official narrative of the case, that Manson hated blacks and wanted to make it look as though the murderers were black revolutionaries. The victims’ blood used to write "pigs," a popular slang term for cops at that time, on the walls of both houses appeared to support this narrative.
In the course of his long investigation, O’Neill came to believe that FBI agents colluded with the district attorney, presumably because the FBI Director at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, saw Manson and his gaggle of sex slaves as countercultural brutes who deserved to be exterminated. O’Neill even manages to imagine a link between the gruesome 1969 murders and the assassination of JFK and the ensuing cover-up.
Based on interviewing more than 500 witnesses, reporters, and cops in the course of his meticulous research, O’Neill suggests that drug dealers who knew Manson may have hired him to initiate “a vengeful massacre” on Sharon Tate and the other victims. O’Neill points to the inexplicable leniency shown Manson and Susan Atkins before the murders by their parole officers, when they suffered no consequences for breaking the terms of their parole. In addition, O’Neill posits that Manson might have been one of the subjects of CIA’s LSD/hallucinogens experiments.

2025/01/26 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Islamic Republic of Iran's officials lie through their teeth Two math puzzles We had hail in Goleta for a few minutes this morning: This photo was taken an hour later (1) Images of the day: [Left] Iran's Islamist officials lie (see the next item below). [Center] Two math puzzles: Determining the number of unit-cubes in an object with the given front, side, & top projections, and a simple true/false question. [Right] We had hail in Goleta this morning: This photo was taken an hour later.
(2) Khamenei’s Whitewasher-in-Chief: Iran’s former FM and current presidential advisor Javad Zarif is back in the West, giving speeches and interviews to convince everyone that all is calm in Iran and that Iranians are a happy bunch. "Hijab law isn’t being enforced," he says, ignoring videos and pictorial reports showing the exact opposite. Of course, he says nothing about why there should be a law, if it isn’t enforced. "Hijab is an Iranian tradition and most women choose it freely," he claims. Two lies in one sentence. It isn’t a tradition, and most women, including many of those who choose to wear the hijab, are against making it compulsory. "Minorities and women are treated fairly; look, we have four female cabinet members!" A lie uttered on the same day that news broke about a large group of Baha’i women starting to serve their 5-year jail sentences.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Some Republicans are already talking about allowing Trump to run for a third term.
- An international team of researchers has pinpointed 36 genes linked to bipolar disorder.
- UCSB purchases multiple properties in downtown Santa Barbara as part of its expansion plan in the city.
- Math puzzle: If F(n), the nth Fibonacci number, is prime, then n is prime or it is 4.
- Being all thumbs is no fun, but having an extra thumb might help. [4-minute video]
- Facebook memory from Jan. 25, 2020: Each engineer has a different opinion.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 25, 2014: Sturgeon’s Law: “Ninety percent of everything is crap.”
(4) Renamings: US Interior Department has announced that Gulf of Mexico is now Gulf of America. I am waiting for international reactions, which can't be positive. Alaska's Mt. Denali has been renamed Mt. McKinley, despite objections from Alaska's senators. MAGA folk are thrilled by these actions. Meanwhile, talk of inflation and high prices has ceased, even though eggs are still way too expensive and other prices are still high. And tariffs are suddenly not a high priority.
(5) Equation of the day: 1 Israeli soldier = 50 Hamas fighters.
This could be a statement about their fighting effectiveness, but I am using it in the context of the worth of a human life. There is much talk by Palestinians about being considered second-class citizens. The 50/1 ratio is actually based on the Palestinians’ view of themselves. In the latest hostage release deal, Hamas insisted on the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners in return for freeing 4 Israeli soldiers.
(6) The Ames optical illusion: We are so used to seeing rectangular shapes (rooms, doors, windows) that we perceive a trapezoid as a tilted rectangle.

2025/01/24 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Optical illusion: The square at the center is completely stationary, yet it definitely appears to move Cover image of Paul Lockhart's 'Measurement' IranWire cartoon: Khamenei thinks of himself as a chess master, but he doesn’t see the entire chessboard (1) Images of the day: [Left] Optical illusion: The square at the center is completely stationary, yet it definitely appears to move. [Center] Paul Lockhart's Measurement (see the last item below). [Right] IranWire cartoon of the day: Khamenei thinks of himself as a chess master, but he doesn’t see the entire chessboard.
(2) Here comes another "nasty" woman: Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, asked for compassion toward immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community in her sermon, where Trump was in attendance. Trump has asked for an apology, calling her "nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart."
(3) Book review: Lockhart, Paul, Measurement, unabridged 9-hour audiobook, read by Kyle Tait, Tantor Audio, 2019. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In a previous book, A Mathematician’s Lament, expanded from a 25-page essay by the same title, Lockhart criticized the way we teach math, suggesting that math should be taught like art, without hand-holding or using hints/solutions. "If you paint a picture from your heart, there is no ‘answer painting’ on the back of the canvas. If you are working on a problem and you are stuck or in pain, then welcome to the club. We mathematicians don’t know how to solve our problems either." His ideas proved quite controversial, facing the criticism that it’s easy to pronounce what’s wrong.
This book, which reads like a love letter to mathematics, explains how math should be done. Geometry is fundamentally about ‘practical’ measurement, not ‘practical’ in the sense of measuring the area of a garden plot or the height of a building with some end goal in the imperfect physical world, but measuring to establish relationships between the parameters of an abstract shape or between different abstract shapes.
With conversational English and ample use of line drawings that help the reader follow his reasoning, Lockhart makes complex ideas about shape and motion intuitive and graspable, and offers a solution to math phobia by introducing us to math as an artful way of thinking and living. Math is our creation and it is affected by our features and scale. If we humans were as small as an atom or as large as a galaxy, a different kind of math may have emerged.
Each of the 60 short chapters, divided equally between Part One and Part Two, reveals eye-opening beauties in geometric shapes and their relation to analytical expressions and differential equations.
Part One, “Size and Shape,” is about the geometry we study in high school, that is, things like polygons, circles, and 3D forms. In this part, Lockhart investigates abstract geometrical figures, symmetrical tilings, angle measurement, scaling & proportion, length, area, volume, trigonometry, conic sections, and projective geometry. In one example, Lockhart cleverly derives the volume formula for a special kind of pyramid and then uses previously-discussed ideas about deforming shapes to show how to generalize the formula to all pyramids.
Part Two, “Time and Space,” moves, gently, into calculus to reveal its enormous power. Along the way, we learn how multiplication signs, exponents, and other sometimes off-putting mathematical symbols make reasoning easier. In this part, Lockhart discusses mathematical motion, coordinate systems, dimension, vector representation, and mechanical relativity. The part ends with some final words of encouragement to the reader.
In this 3-minute video, Lockhart describes an example of beautiful, and unexpected, math results one encounters in his book.

2025/01/23 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Confluence: The phenomenon of two rivers converging without blending their waters IEEE CCS tech talk on logical fallacies A bilingual thought for the day: Palace or stable? It depends on the occupants (1) Images of the day: [Left] Confluence: The phenomenon of two rivers converging without blending waters. This can happen due to differences in water density arising from factors such as temperature and salinity. [Center] IEEE CCS tech talk on logical fallacies (see the last item below). [Right] A bilingual thought for the day: Palace or stable? It depends on the occupants.
(2) Oscars nominations: “Emilia Perez” leads the way with 13 nominations. “The Brutalist” and “Wicked” secure 10 each. Acting nominees include Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Adrien Brody and Timothee Chalamet.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- OpenAI & SoftBank will lead the $500 billion Stargate project to develop AI infrastructure in the US.
- A new fire in SoCal: The Hughes Fire is burning the equivalent of a football field every 2-3 seconds.
- Trump issues full pardons for 1500 January 6 rioters, including two serving long prison terms. [The Atlantic]
- Fareed Zakaria again gives Iran's Javad Zarif a platform to spread his shameless lies via CNN.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 23, 2022: Calligraphic rendering of a verse from Hafez.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 23, 2020: Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
(4) Is the love affair between Donald Trump and Elon Musk ending? Musk bashes Trump’s new Stargate AI initiative with OpenAI and Oracle. In an escalating war of words on X (Twitter) between Sam Altman and Elon Musk, the latter characterized the deal as "fake" and Altman as "a swindler."
(5) Last night’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dan Bezzant (Section Manager of EE Hardware Engineering at Raytheon) spoke under the title "Logical Fallacies and Suboptimal Technical Decisions" at the monthly event’s usual venue, Goleta Rusty’s on Calle Real. I attended virtually via WebEx.
Due to their appearance of correctness, logical fallacies often mislead analysts during technical problem analysis, leading to erroneous conclusions and prolonged issue resolution times. Mr. Bezzant provided an overview of logical fallacies that frequently arise in technical problem analysis and how they can obscure a problem’s root cause. By identifying these fallacies and employing strategies to mitigate their influence, those tasked with technical problem analysis can improve product reliability, adherence to schedules, cost efficiency, and organizational reputation. Key fallacies discussed included False Cause/Correlation, the Fallacy Fallacy, Ad Hominem, Personal Incredulity, Red Herring, Burden of Proof, Gambler’s Fallacy, Bandwagon or (appeal to popular belief), Appeal to Authority, Genetic, Black or White (false dilemma), Appeal to Tradition, and Appeal to Ignorance (ad ignorantiam). Through real-world scenarios and practical tips, the presentation emphasized the importance of grounding technical problem analyses in sound logic and evidence to avoid common pitfalls and achieve effective solutions.
At the end of the talk, the speaker provided several sources for further study, including a Web page entitled "Thou Shalt not Commit Logical Fallacies" and a 146-item master list of logical fallacies (Wikipedia also has a list of fallacies).

2025/01/21 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover feature of IEEE Spectrum magazine Math puzzle: Prove that the length x of the blue line segment on the tangent equals the sum R + r of the two radii Cover image of Paul Lockhart's 'A Mathematician’s Lament' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cover feature of IEEE Spectrum magazine, Jan. 2025 (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: Prove that the length x of the blue line segment on the tangent equals the sum R + r of the two radii. [Right] Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician’s Lament (see the last item below).
(2) The January 2025 issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine highlights 10 ideas that will flourish in 2025. Article titles in the special cover feature include:
- Startups begin geo-engineering the sea
- The rise of RISC-V laptops
- China’s thorium nuclear-power play
- Reversible computing escapes the lab
- NATO maps out orbital Internet reroute
- Plug-in hybrids get a reboot
- The US will start manufacturing advanced chips
- Making humans aquatic again
- Inside an American rare earth boomtown
- AI is coming to Bollywood
(3) Book review: Lockhart, Paul, A Mathematician’s Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Forms, Bellevue Literary Press, 2009.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In this book, which was expanded from a 25-page 2002 essay by the same title, Lockhart maintains that the American system of math education is broken, suggesting that math should be taught like art, without hand-holding or using hints/solutions. "If you paint a picture from your heart, there is no ‘answer painting’ on the back of the canvas. If you are working on a problem and you are stuck or in pain, then welcome to the club. We mathematicians don’t know how to solve our problems either."
His ideas proved quite controversial, facing the criticism that it’s easy to pronounce what’s wrong. In a subsequent book, Measurement, which reads like a love letter to mathematics, Lockhart explains in great detail how math should be done. Geometry, for example, is fundamentally about ‘practical’ measurement, not ‘practical’ in the sense of measuring the area of a garden plot or the height of a building, with some end goal in the imperfect physical world, but measuring to establish relationships between the parameters of an abstract shape or between different abstract shapes.
Despite numerous suggestions for fixing the curricula and teaching methods in our system of math education, we have not been able to make much progress in this regard. We often compare the math skills of American students to those of Indian or Japanese students, who earn higher scores in standardized math tests, but their systems are also broken, for different reasons. Indian students are quite good in recognizing patterns in specific kinds of math problems that appear in entrance exams. They are not really taught math, but a specific pattern-recognition skill that comes from hundreds of hours of practice.
Lockhart’s view of math as an art is presented in the two parts of this book, entitled "Lamentation" and "Exultation," taking up ~50 and ~30 pages, respectively. Headings in Part I include "Mathematics and culture," "Mathematics in school," "The mathematics curriculum," and "High school geometry: instrument of the devil." Lockhart begins Part II thus: "[M]athematics education continues, and only grows more indefensibly asinine and corrupt with each passing year. But I don’t really want to talk about that anymore. I’m tired of complaining. ... So what I’d rather do is tell you more about what math really is and why I love it so much." And he proceeds to do just that, beautifully and convincingly.

2025/01/20 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy MLK Day: Memorial in Washington, DC Happy MLK Day: Do not be passive in the face of evil Happy MLK Day: Move forward, at whatever speed you can (1) Happy MLK Day: Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the man who dreamt that everyone will be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, who advocated for showing love in response to hate, who asked that we move forward at whatever speed we can, who compelled us not to passively accept evil, because doing so is no different than cooperating with it.
(2) January 20 in recent history: 1930, Astronaut Buzz Aldrin is born; 1981, Iran hostage crisis ends after 444 days; 1986, MLK Day is observed for the first time; 1993, Actress Audrey Hepburn dies; 2009, Obama becomes first Black US president.
(3) CNN settles defamation suit after being ordered to pay $5M in damages for defaming a US Navy veteran, accusing him of charging excessive fees and implying he was part of a black market to evacuate Afghans.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Can we survive the next four years? Countdown to the next inauguration day.
- As risk of extreme winds returns to SoCal, Palisades & Eaton fires are ~50% & ~75% contained.
- Apple suspends AI-powered news feature over inaccurate summaries of headlines & stories.
- Walgreens sued by DoJ for knowingly filling millions of unlawful opioid prescriptions.
- $TRUMP cryptocurrency passes $11B market capitalization in two days, with fully diluted value near $60B.
- TikTok briefly goes dark, then returns when Trump signals he will sign 90-day extension on its ban.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 29, 2018: Women’s rally & march in Santa Barbara, CA.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 20, 2017: Avicenna, on men without & with religion.
(5) Azerbaijan plans an energy corridor from the Caspian Sea to Europe, going across the Black Sea: The link will supply Romania, Hungary, and points beyond with clean electricity from the Caucasus. [Tweet, with map]

2025/01/18 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered ratified, but does not force certification Effect of sea-level drop Polar vortex brings extreme, below-normal cold temperatures to much of the US (1) Images of the day: [Left] Biden says the Equal Rights Amendment should be considered ratified, but does not force certification. [Center] Effect of sea-level drop (see the next item below). [Right] Polar vortex brings extreme, below-normal cold temperatures to much of the US, including the deep South.
(2) Atlantis: If sea level drops by 1300 meters (~4000 ft), to the level they were after the last Ice Age, much new land will appear, including an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where Plato believed Atlantis was located. With a 2000-meter drop, we will see major changes, including the disappearance of Red Sea, conversion of Gulf of Mexico & the Mediterranean Sea to a bunch of lakes, and connection of the world’s entire landmass into one continent.
In this video, you can see a simulation of the effect of sea level rise, followed by results of sea level drop.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- SCOTUS upholds the law banning TikTok: However, Biden will not enforce the law, leaving it to Trump.
- It’s no one’s fault: The clock is broken. Rain is 2+ months overdue & Santa Ana winds are 2 months late.
- Assassinations in Tehran: Supreme Court judges Mohammad Moghiseh & Ali Razini killed in a firefight.
- A wonderful couplet from the Persian poet Abu Sa’id Abul-Khayr. [Tweet, with the Persian poem]
- Facebook memory from Jan. 18, 2022: The double threat of anonymity and disinformation.
(4) US tech salaries rise: Skills with biggest salary increases in 2024 include natural language processing, with an average salary gain of 21%, followed by AWS CodeWhisperer (16%), Amazon Redshift (15%), BigQuery (15%), COBOL (15%), Ruby (13%), AI (12%), Blockchain (12%), Oracle eBusiness (12%), and application delivery (11%). Survey results show a nearly 18% premium for AI skills versus other tech roles.
(5) Schrodinger's Cat with 7 lives: In a quantum computing breakthrough, researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales have used the nuclear spin of an antimony atom to encode data. Because an antimony atom can store eight different values (0, 1, and six others in between), a single error would not be enough to interfere with the quantum encoding and flip a 0 to a 1. Using the metaphor of Schrodinger's cat, UNSW's Xi Yu explained that in their method the metaphorical Schrodinger's cat has seven lives; it would take seven consecutive errors to turn a 0 into a 1.
(6) Math puzzle: Show that if you connect the midpoints of the sides of an arbitrary quadrangle to form another quadrangle, the latter quadrangle is always a parallelogram.

2025/01/17 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
On firefighting in Los Angeles Cover image of Michael Lewis's 'Going Infinite' Finally, an affordable Apple Watch! (1) Images of the day: [Left] On firefighting in Los Angeles (see the next item below). [Center] Michael Lewis's Going Infinite (see the last item below). [Right] Finally, an affordable Apple Watch!
(2) Hats off to firefighters for their valiant efforts during Los Angeles fires: This includes LAFD crew, other regional fire departments, firefighters from Mexico & Canada, incarcerated firefighters, and citizen volunteers. While the city isn’t perfect or guilt-free, experts have described the fires as “unstoppable” and fire hydrants as not designed to provide water for thousands of structure fires raging at once. When fire engulfs one structure or a handful of adjacent ones, we typically see 3-8 fire trucks at the scene. This does not scale up to entire neighborhoods burning at once.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Average temperature for 2024 the highest in more than 100,000 years. [Science magazine, Jan. 17, 2025]
- AI-designed miniproteins make antivenoms cheaper & more effective. [Science magazine, Jan. 17, 2025]
- New meaning of DEI hire: Donald Expects It.
- Arabic music: Ya Rayah, performed by Rachid Taha & Catherine Ringer. [4-minute video]
(4) Book review: Lewis, Michael, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon, W. W. Norton & Company, 2023. [My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is about Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced chairman of FTX, the defunct cryptocurrency exchange company. If that’s all it was, I probably wouldn’t read it, because I have already been saturated with news stories on Bankman-Fried. The real story here is how Bankman-Fried fooled Lewis, an experienced reporter, into believing that all was hunky-dory at FTX and kept him convinced, all the way to the end, that Bankman-Fried was in the crypto business for altruistic reasons, not to enrich himself.
Many critics have panned Lewis for fawning over his subject and shadowing him uncritically. Lewis still maintains that in October 2002, there were no signs that anything was amiss at FTX, whereas in an April 2022 interview, Bankman-Fried all but admitted that the cryptocurrency industry was essentially a Ponzi scheme. Lewis occupied a front-row seat at the FTX saga from which he apparently couldn’t see anything. I, for one, have lost much of my respect for Lewis because of this book.
I am also interested in the deeper story, not covered in this book, about the viability of crypto as a replacement for regular currency. Crypto’s claim to fame is its distributed control and invulnerability to government control. With the latter claim shattered, little trust remains. The distributed control is a double-edged sword in that when investors are devastated by losses, they will be holding the bag with no prospects of help or legal action to recover their losses.
The book’s Chapter 11, "Truth Serum," tells the story of FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings. Once Bankman-Fried signed the bankruptcy papers, John Ray was appointed as the firm’s new CEO, with the mission to find as much of the missing money as he could and return that money to the creditors. Later, helping the US prosecutors make their case against Bankman-Fried was added to his mission. Six days into his new job, Ray’s report to the US Bankruptcy Court stated: "Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information."

2025/01/16 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Figure from Science magazine from an article on multiyear droughts Deeply-engrained misogyny Talangor Group talk on game theory, by Dr. Forouza Pourkay (1) Images of the day: [Left] The January 17, 2025, issue of Science magazine contains a fascinating article about the global increase in the occurrence and impact of multiyear droughts. [Center] Deeply-engrained misogyny: This official site of Iran’s government congratulates the country’s doctors on the occasion of Men’s Day, as if all Iranian doctors are men! [Right] Talangor Group talk on game theory (see the last item below).
(2) Green supercomputing: Since 1993, the Top500 Web site has kept track of the world’s most-powerful supercomputers, the largest of which, as of November 2024, consists of more than 11 million processor cores and has a performance in excess of 1.7 Exaflops. It consumes a whopping 30 MW of power. Another Web site, Green500, inaugurated 15 years ago, keeps track not of highest-performing supercomputers but of those that perform the most computations per Watt. At the top of this second list is a 4.5 Petaflops supercomputer that achieves an impressive 72.7 Gigaflops per Watt.
(3) The media are making a big deal of Michelle Obama planning to skip Trump’s inauguration, without even mentioning that Trump skipped Biden’s 4 years ago.
(4) Tonight’s Talangor Group talk: Dr. Forouza Pourkay (retired professor of engineering management) spoke under the title "Game Theory, Decision Making, and Applications." Before the main talk, Sara Mirzaei made a brief presentation on empowering the youth who will build Iran’s future. There were ~65 attendees.
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions. It has applications in many fields of social science, and is used extensively in economics, logic, systems science, and computer science. Initially, game theory addressed two-person zero-sum games, in which a participant's gains or losses are exactly balanced by the losses and gains of the other participant. In the 1950s, it was extended to the study of non-zero-sum games, and was eventually applied to a wide range of behavioral relations. It is now an umbrella term for the science of rational decision making in humans, animals, and computers. [From Wikipedia]
Each game involves three elements: Players, actions (perhaps performed according to a strategy), and payout. The assumption is that the players are rational and engage in the game in such a way as to maximize their reward or payout. Rationality may not hold in practice, as a variety of other factors, such as emotions, can play a role. Dr. Pourkay covered the basics of game theory, while providing several examples of hypothetical games as well as real-world games played by political actors. He touched upon a prominent example known as "prisoner’s dilemma," in which two members of a crime team are interrogated separately, being offered lax or severe punishments depending on whether or not they cooperate by providing evidence against their partner and whether or not the partner cooperates.
This 27-minute video contains a nice introduction to game theory that in many ways complements Dr. Pourkay’s presentation.

2025/01/15 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Gender equity has a long way to go Benefit concert for LA fire victims
(1) Images of the day: [Top left] On helping the fire victims of Greater Los Angeles (see the next item below). [Top center] Gender equity has a long way to go: We have made much progress in winning this right or that right for women, but the fight is nowhere near over. [Top right] Concert for LA fire victims. [Bottom row] Lab set-up for the circuits course ECE 10A I am teaching this quarter. Shown are the lab room with 20 workstations, close-up of the equipment on one of the workstations, and the instructor wearing his Ohm’s-Law T-shirt.
(2) Feeling helpless for Los Angeles fire victims: I have been restless since multiple wildfires started in the Los Angeles area last week. I searched for trustworthy organizations through which I can send financial support (a partial list appears at the end of this post). But, somehow, sending only money does not feel like I have done enough. I would have liked to drive down to LA and volunteer in one of the evacuation centers, to help and comfort the victims up close, but my physical health and daily teaching schedule do not allow me to do that. Hence, my feeling of guilt and discomfort. This isn’t a disaster to end within days or even weeks. Victims need long-term support to resettle or rebuild, as they face the prospects of delays in insurance claims, probable price-gouging by sellers of building material, the onslaught of scammers, and lack of care and cooperation from federal officials, who are using the misfortune fallen upon Los Angeles residents for personal and political gain.
NBC News has announced that it has vetted the following charities:
California Community Foundation, California Fire Foundation, LA Fire Department Foundation, Pasadena Humane Society, Ventura County Community Foundation, American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Direct Relief, World Central Kitchen.
(3) Hana Kamkar explains how in Iran’s TV and movie productions, women’s bodies are wrapped in elastic material to make their curves less noticeable. #WomanLifeFreedom
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A $30 million campaign to free social media from billionaire control is now underway.
- Paul Lockhart talks about the world of mathematical reality. [3-minute video]
- If you connect the midpoints of the sides of any quadrangle, the resulting quadrangle is a parallelogram.
- Fear of appearing selfish or mean is the #1 obstacle to setting healthy boundaries in a relationship.
(5) Final thought for the day: When the Titanic sank, no one’s priority was to ostracize its designers or punish its crew. Efforts in the aftermath of the disaster were focused on saving lives and searching for the missing. Investigations and ship-design engineering updates came later. Much sensitivity is needed in communicating with survivors of a disaster, who have already suffered great losses. Please shut your mouths if you can’t say anything compassionate, positive, helpful, or comforting.

2025/01/14 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover feature of IEEE Micro magazine on warehouse-scale computing US child vaccinations have gone down further, after a sharp decline during COVID years Cover image of Julian Togelius's 'Artificial General Intelligence' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cover feature of IEEE Micro magazine on warehouse-scale computing (see the next item below). [Center] US child vaccinations have gone down further, after a sharp decline during COVID years. [Right] Julian Togelius's Artificial General Intelligence (see the last item below).
(2) Warehouse-scale computing: When Google was founded in 1998, it was already clear that successful Web search would require enormous computing power. No wonder Google has emerged as a leader in warehouse-scale computing. The following review article was written by two prominent Google researchers.
Parthasarathy Ranganathan and Urs Holzle, "Twenty-Five Years of Warehouse-Scale Computing."
(3) Winning the US presidency saved Donald Trump from near-certain criminal conviction in the Jan. 6 case: Vol. 1 of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report, released today, states that the admissible evidence against Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection "was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial." A federal court has blocked for now the release of Vol. 2 that details Smith’s separate investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and obstruction of government efforts to retrieve them.
(4) Book review: Togelius, Julian, Artificial General Intelligence, The MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by Steve Marvel, Ascent Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
We are surrounded by Artificial intelligence. Knowingly or unknowingly, we use AI on a daily basis. Most AI is narrowly-focused and has highly-specific functionality, such as spell-checking or GO-playing. A spell-checking app cannot do math and a GO-playing program cannot play Tetris. Human intelligence is somehow more general, because we can solve a variety of tasks, including those we have never encountered before. Developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the holy grail of today’s AI Research.
According to NYU’s Professor Togelius, even human intelligence isn’t really general. We have developed an ad-hoc collection of analysis and decision-making skills through evolution. Therefore, even if we replicated human intelligence in a robot, it’s unclear that everyone would agree that the robot possessed AGI. We’ve had AI systems that are superhuman in some sense for more than half a century. To take the next step toward AGI, we need to develop a clear definition of what we are trying to achieve. We should look at definitions from the perspectives of psychology, ethology, and computer science.
Theoretically, an evolutionary method may be successful in developing AGI, but it will probably take too long. There are two promising families of technical approaches to developing AGI: Foundation models through self-supervised learning and open-ended learning in virtual environments. The designation self-supervised means that learning occurs without someone first going through massive amounts of data and labeling them. As for learning in virtual environments, the transition from a simulated world to the real world, where you may not be able to try things multiple times, is non-trivial.
In Chapters 9-11, Togelius investigates the potential of artificial general intelligence beyond the strictly technical aspects. Among the questions discussed are whether such general AI would be conscious, whether it would pose a risk to humanity, and how it might alter society.

2025/01/13 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of IEEE Computing Edge magazine, January 2025 issue Architects are turning drab apartment buildings into works of art to behold A piece of our immense universe (1) Images of the day: [Left] Focus on machine learning (see the next item below). [Center] Architects turn drab apartment buildings into works of art. [Right] A piece of our immense universe (see the last item below).
(2) IEEE's Computing Edge magazine's January 2025 cover feature is on machine learning. The feature includes an editorial and two articles.
Editor's note, Machine Learning: Weighing the Risks and the Rewards
Ozkaya, Ipek, Appl'n of Large Language Models to Software Eng. Tasks: Opportunities, Risks, & Implications
Meuser, Tobias et al., Revisiting Edge AI: Opportunities and Challenges
(3) This 2-minute video should help with Dr. Abdolkarim Soroush's amnesia about the damage he did to Iranian universities: In it, he explicitly states that his mission at the Cultural Revolution Council was the Islamization of Iranian universities from top to bottom, including the curricula, faculty members, and students.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Reversible computing comes of age: Startup plans the first chip based on this power-saving scheme
- Give a man a program and you frustrate him for a day. Teach him to program and you frustrate him for life.
- Eric Hoffer: “Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness.”
- Erich Fromm, on creativity: “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”
(5) "Leadership and Entrepreneurial Choices: Understanding the Motivational Dynamics of Women Entrepreneurs in Iran" by Marcus Goncalves, Sadaf Sartipi, & Ghazale Asadi Damavandi. [New publication]
(6) Mental illness and homelessness: We often hear that mental illness is the primary cause of homelessness. Not even close! Mental illness isn’t even among the top-3 causes. Only 16% of the homeless suffer from chronic/severe mental illness. Unavailability of affordable housing and healthcare are more important causes. Surprisingly, 53% of people living in homeless shelters and 40% of unsheltered people are employed, though they are often underemployed. Life expectancy among the homeless is 42-52 years, so there aren’t very many homeless seniors.
(7) Quote of the day: “Demanding that women should cover themselves to keep men from sinning is like saying that the sun should stop shining to prevent our ice creams from melting.” ~ Simin Daneshvar
(8) Laniakea Supercluster: A remarkable region of our universe encompassing an enormous network of galaxies interconnected by gravity. The name "Laniakea" translates to immense heaven in Hawaiian reflecting the vastness of this structure. It extends over 520 million light-years and has a total mass of around 10^17 times the mass of our Sun. The Milky Way's location within this supercluster emphasizes how our galaxy is just a tiny part of a much larger cosmic web. Our Sun, a relatively average star, is one of the billions within the Milky Way and the galaxy itself is just one among the tens of thousands in Laniakea. This discovery has significantly enhanced our understanding of cosmic structures, showing how galaxies are not isolated but are part of interconnected systems influenced by gravitational flows. The Milky Way resides near the edge of Laniakea, bound by gravitational forces to other galaxies and superclusters like the Shapley Supercluster and the Great Attractor. [Credit: Michael is unbreakable]

2025/01/12 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Five former US presidents at the funeral for President Jimmy Carter Cover image of 'Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist' (1) Images of the day: [Left] A rare display of unity: Five former US presidents at the funeral for President Jimmy Carter. [Center] Lecture about transition to democracy in Iran (see the last item below). [Right] Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist (see the last item below).
(2) Today's event in the UCLA Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran: Dr. Hadi Zamani spoke under the title "A Comparative Analysis and Proposition on the Process of Transition to Democracy in Iran.
Speaker’s summary: Over the past few decades, democratic movements in many countries have successfully overthrown autocratic regimes and established democratic governments. In some cases, these transformations occurred suddenly, driven by dramatic mass uprisings and nonviolent civil resistance, as seen in the Philippines in 1986, Czechoslovakia in 1989, Serbia in 2000, and Tunisia in 2011. In other instances, such as Portugal and Romania, the initial change was marked by sudden and violent revolutions, followed by a more gradual and peaceful transition to stable democracy. However, in most cases, democratic change has been achieved through a more gradual and incremental process, as exemplified by Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, Hungary, Chile, Croatia, Uruguay, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, and others. While it is impossible to predict with certainty when and how democracy will emerge in Iran, the experiences of other nations offer valuable lessons. Additionally, Iran’s unique structural and historical characteristics play a crucial role in understanding its potential pathways. This talk explored the issues above, providing a comparative analysis of the possible trajectories for Iran, their defining characteristics, and the challenges they may present.
(3) Book review: Munson, Richard, Ingenious: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by Keith Brown, Tantor Media, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Benjamin Franklin is usually portrayed as a diplomat/statesman who happened to engage in some practical scientific experiments. This biography places Franklin’s science at center stage—this, the author asserts, was how Franklin fundamentally viewed himself—and was the identity from which all else in his complex character derived. Franklin’s well-known practical inventions, such as the lightning rod, were not merely the products of playful or quirky tinkering. Rather, they were informed by serious underlying scientific thought. Franklin’s science played a big part in giving him access to the French court, where he helped advance the American cause in the Revolutionary War.
His contributions to science aside, Franklin had diverse interests and took pride in a job well done. When he worked as a printer, he cherished the identity. If I were to discuss all domains to which Franklin made significant scientific contributions my review would become almost as long as the book itself. The list includes heating, cooling, refrigeration, bifocal glasses, urinary catheter, high-quality print fonts, and much more. Franklin was a master of promoting his ideas, with his expertise as a printer/publisher coming quite handy. He had a vast network of acquaintances as well as experience as a postmaster, which helped him connect easily and widely.
Other scholars have argued along these lines before. More than 80 years ago, the pioneering historian of science I. Bernard Cohen promoted Franklin’s scientific prowess in his critical edition of Franklin’s own “Experiments and Observations on Electricity.” A 1990 collection of essays, “Benjamin Franklin’s Science,” also did the same.
Munson is particularly ticked off by the trivialization of Franklin’s kite-flying experiment. Franklin’s work on the fundamental properties of electricity, which went far beyond the famous demonstration of the electric nature of lightning, earned him the British Royal Society’s highest honor in 1753. Three years later he was elected to the society by an unprecedented unanimous vote. He was praised by prominent natural philosophers of his day, as well as by physicists a century and more later.

2025/01/11 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cartoon: Women political activists and even aid workers are executed by Iran’s Islamic regime Socrates Think Tank talk on energy storage Iranians love George Orwell’s 'Animal Farm'
A gentle math puzzle: What is the sum of the four angles alpha, beta, theta, and omega? Optical illusion: The blue strips are actually parallel to each other Math puzzle: What is the ratio of the red area to the green area? (1) Images of the day: [Top left] IranWire cartoon of the day: Women political activists and even aid workers are executed by Iran’s 1979 Islamic regime. [Top center] Talk on storage technologies for renewable energy (see the last item below). [Top right] Iranians love George Orwell’s Animal Farm: They view the book as an allegory for Iran’s Islamic Revolution. This best-selling foreign novel has been translated into Persian 164 times. [Bottom left] A gentler math puzzle: What is the sum of the four angles alpha, beta, theta, and omega? [Bottom center] Optical illusion: The blue strips are actually parallel to each other. [Bottom right] Math puzzle: What is the ratio of the red area to the green area?
(2) [Arguments in the TikTok case, abridged from New York Times]
Against banning: Some 170 million Americans use the app. They entertain themselves, communicate with friends, follow the news, go shopping and operate businesses. Congress has failed to show that China uses TikTok to manipulate Americans; the law is instead based on the worry that China might one day do so. The law’s effect is to substitute definite manipulation by our own government for feared manipulation by China.
For banning: China’s recent actions and future ambitions are troubling. It treats companies as extensions of the state. If executives disobey orders, they can be fired or sent to prison. Videos on some subjects, including Taiwan & Tibet, are hard to find on TikTok. The same is true of pro-Ukraine & pro-Israel videos. These patterns suggest that TikTok suppresses material that the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t like. Limits on foreign ownership have been a part of US policy for more than a century.
(3) Talk on energy storage technologies: In the evening of Wednesday, January 8, 2025, yours truly presented a lecture on energy storage technologies at a Zoom meeting of Socrates Think Tank.
Renewable energy is gradually becoming cost-competitive, as we invest more in developing new production and storage technologies. The storage part is critical and needs significantly more effort. Production levels of renewable energy, solar and wind in particular, tend to be variable. Such supply variations, combined with natural variations in demand, give rise to the need for storing energy, in much the same way that we store grains in silos to smooth out the variations in when & where they are produced and when & where they are needed. In the case of grains, even year-to-year variations due to weather, pests, and natural disasters can be tolerated with sufficient storage capacity.
There is no reason why similar smoothing methods cannot be used for energy. The fact that we have not been investing more in developing energy-storage technologies is a direct result of the “low cost” of energy derived from oil, gas, & coal and the exorbitantly-funded campaign by the fossil-fuel industry to brand renewable energy as “expensive.” However, most cost comparisons are unfair, because they ignore environmental and other indirect costs. Mitigating the effects of harmful emissions from burning fossil fuels is rather expensive, a figure we should include in their life-cycle cost. If we do so, the so-called “green premium” will vanish or even become negative. [PDF slides]

2025/01/10 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Three political prisoners are in danger of execution in Iran after losing their final appeal Mahvash Sabet, an Iranian Baha’i woman, has been returned to prison following open-heart surgery Greenland is preparing for an invasion by the US armed forces
Facebook memory from Jan. 10, 2018: View of the US 101, the day after the devastating Montecito mudflow And an example of devastation in Pacific Palisades 7 years later Washington Post maps of the five major fires raging in Los Angeles (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Three political prisoners are in danger of execution in Iran after losing their final appeal. [Top center] Mahvash Sabet, an Iranian Baha’i, has been returned to prison following open-heart surgery. [Top right] Greenland is preparing for an invasion by the US armed forces. [Bottom left] Facebook memory from Jan. 10, 2018: View of the US 101, the day after the devastating Montecito mudflow, killing 23. [Bottom center] And an example of devastation in Pacific Palisades 7 years later. [Bottom right] Washington Post maps of the five major fires raging in Los Angeles: Arson is suspected and a few people are in custody.
(2) [On Los Angeles fires] Joe Biden: The federal government will cover the entire cost of protecting lives & property for the next 6 months. Donald Trump: It’s Newsom’s fault.
(3) Wildfires in the Los Angeles area have led colleges to cancel events and classes, close campuses, or provide shelter. Santa Monica College, Pasadena City College, Ventura College, and Glendale Community College closed through the week. California Institute of Technology and Occidental College shut down on Wednesday and Thursday. Although most students are on winter break, the fires’ proximity has prompted close monitoring. Pepperdine University closed its Malibu campus to facilitate emergency response, with the Palisades fire consuming more than 15,000 acres but not threatening the university. The University of Southern California canceled its spring event, while UCLA moved classes online due to anticipated poor air quality. UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said, “While there remains no immediate fire danger to our campus, it is likely that the air quality in Westwood will worsen.” California State University, Los Angeles also moved classes online.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- An insult to Kamala Harris: Biden claims that he would've defeated Trump if he’d stayed in the race.
- It’s quite fishy that Meta ended its fact-checking program a couple of weeks before Trump’s inauguration.
- Iranian school girls stand up to the morality police for harassing the hijabless among them.
- Hossein Mousavian supported Khomeini’s death fatwa against Salman Rushdie: Fire him from Princeton!
(5) President of Mexico to Trump, in response to his suggestion that Gulf of Mexico be renamed Gulf of America: How about changing the name of United States to Mexicana?
(6) Gender balance in computer science & engineering has improved at elite US universities but worsened at less selective schools: Analysis of 34 million degrees from 2002 to 2022 revealed that at institutions with high average math SAT scores, the gender gap narrowed, with men earning degrees at 1.5 times the rate of women in 2022, down from 2.2 in 2002. However, at less selective schools, the gap widened significantly, with men earning degrees at 7.1 times the rate of women.

2025/01/09 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Iranian train ticket from 1951, third class, 14.5 rials (~$0.20) Math oddity: The percentage of the total area that is shaded is 5^2, 4^2, and 3^2 This is what North America looked like 77 million years ago (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: Iranian 1951 third-class train ticket, 14.5 rials (~$0.20). [Center] Math oddity: The percentage of the total area that is shaded is 5^2, 4^2, and 3^2. [Right] This is what North America looked like 77 million years ago: During the Late Cretaceous period, a shallow inland sea split the continent into two landmasses (Laramidia in the west and Appalachia in the east).
(2) Work in neurotechnology earns UCSB’s 2024-2025 Plous award: Michael Beyeler’s work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, computer science, engineering, and psychology, where he is advancing sight-recovery technologies, including retinal and cortical implants often dubbed “bionic eyes.” As the leader of UCSB’s Bionic Vision Lab, Beyeler and his team are enhancing artificial vision systems while deepening the theoretical understanding of how the brain processes visual information.
(3) From a tweet by Jay Kuo: You would think with all his legal victories and political triumph, Trump would be a happy camper. But judging from his online rants, he is still fuming mad at our legal system and has earned little personal peace from any of this. While he likely won’t ever see the inside of a prison cell, the battle has shifted to how history will record Donald Trump. And our legal system still manages to send him into online fits of rage. Specifically, Trump faces a judge in Manhattan who has refused to postpone his sentencing date of January 10 and a special prosecutor who, though forced to close his cases against Trump, has penned a two-volume report that might soon get released to the public.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Wildfires in the Los Angeles area are spreading unchecked, with devastating losses.
- In a message to customers, SoCal Edison warns about the likelihood of weather-related power outages.
- Meta announces the end of fact-checking on Facebook: Guess who is delighted about this?
- Performance of a Persian golden oldie by eighty-something pianist (Rohani) and singer (Aref).
(5) A Swiss citizen committed suicide in a prison, in Semnan, Iran: It's not clear why European governments continue to appease Iran’s terrorist, hostage-taking Islamic regime.
(6) Funny politics in Iran: For many years, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was ridiculed and sidelined. Even after his death, his family was cursed & harassed. Now, suddenly, the crumbling Islamic regime is hailing him as a national hero, as it observes the anniversary of his passing.
(7) Final thought for the day: As I go to bed tonight, with all my loved ones safe and my house intact, my heart is with the people of Los Angeles, who are suffering from the worst disaster in the city’s history. A few family members lost their houses, but fortunately they are all safe. Getting through the losses and rebuilding will take time and effort, but we are all ready to help in whatever way we can. <3

2025/01/08 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Shown are three circles inside right triangles. Find the area of the rectangle Cover image of 'Merlin’s Tour of the Universe' Math puzzle: Find the length x (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Shown are three circles inside right triangles. Find the area of the rectangle. [Center] Merlin’s Tour of the Universe (see the last item below). [Right] Math puzzle: Find x.
(2) President Biden honors 14 researchers with the National Medal of Science. Additionally, 9 individuals and 2 companies received the National Medal of Technology.
(3) Quote of the day: “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” ~ John F. Kennedy
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Today is the 5th anniversary of the downing of Ukraine Airlines Flight PS752 by Iran’s IRGC, killing 176.
- Fire forces thousands to evacuate Pacific Palisades in the Los Angeles area.
- Former terrorists, who wear academic regalia in the US, help ensure the survival of Iran’s Islamic regime.
- We often use oligarchy to describe Russia’s political system, but oligarchy is headquartered in the US.
(5) Vaclav Hovel, on fighting tyranny: 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) Book review: DeGrasse Tyson, Neil, Merlin’s Tour of the Universe, A Traveler’s Guide to Blue Moons and Black Holes, Mars, Stars, & Everything Far, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by the author and others, Revised and updated for the 21st century, Blackstone Publishing, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Born 5 billion years ago on the planet Omniscia in the Andromeda Galaxy, Merlin is a fictional timeless character who observed firsthand everything that happened on Earth for its entire history. He visits Earth to clarify the details of phenomena such as gravity, light, space, and time, and travels to distant stars and galaxies to describe what makes them tick, rotate, explode, and collapse. The format is that of "Dear Merlin" questions, asked by the general public, with answers provided and read by the author. The Qs&As are adapted from a column published in StarDate, a magazine for space and astronomy enthusiasts.
The book’s 13 chapters contain questions about: 1. Earth; 2. Moon; 3. Planets; 4. Asteroids, comets, and Meteors; 5. Sun; 6. Stargazer; 7. Gravity; 8. Stars; 9. Light and telescopes; 10. Galaxies; 11. Time, space, and sense of where you are; 12. Black holes, quasars, and the universe; 13. Life, here and there.
The answers are scientifically accurate and are presented with humor and an occasional verse.

2025/01/06 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Fourth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection Math puzzle: What fraction of the outer square’s area is the area of the blue equilateral triangle? The 150-km-wide crater created by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs (1) Images of the day: [Left] January 6 will live in infamy (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: What fraction of the outer square’s area is the area of the blue equilateral triangle? [Right] The 150-km-wide crater created by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs about 66 million years ago.
(2) Fourth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection: As I head back to class following the 2024-2025 holiday break, I’d like to acknowledge the events of January 6, 2021, when the Capitol Police courageously defended Senators, Representatives, and others working in the US Congress from a mob unleashed by Donald Trump. Many of those who were protected on that fateful day turned on their protectors, siding with the Insurrectionist-in-Chief and blaming the police for using excessive force. Now, the said insurrection leader is about to resume power as US President, having pledged to pardon members of the mob and prosecute those who investigated the insurrection or testified in the various legal or civil proceedings.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Kamala Harris presides over the congressional certification of the election she lost to Donald Trump.
- Tuna fish weighing as much as a grizzly bear sells for $1.3 million in Japan.
- A witty verse from the great Persian poet Sa’eb Tabrizi. [The verse and its English translation]
(4) "Language and Thought": This was the title of Sunday's Zoom lecture by Dr. Mohammad Bagheri, under the auspices of UCLA Salamat Group.
We tend to think of language as a tool for communication. Yet, it is arguably the case that language is primarily a tool for thinking. Primitive languages, with limited vocabulary and structures severely limit one's thought. There is also the element of culture that sits between language and thought.
Concerning the connection between language and thought, there are two camps. One camp (which includes Lev Vygotsky and Ludwig Wittgenstein) considers thought impossible without language. The opposing camp (which includes Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky) views language as facilitating thinking but isn't necessary for it, citing the ability of a baby to think even before s/he acquires any language skills.
Dr. Bagheri belongs to the first camp, believing that our thoughts are influenced, and at times limited, by the language in which we think. A bilingual person, depending on how s/he has acquired the second language, may be able to think in the new language or be a thinker in the first language who constantly translates from the second language to first one.
Multiple recorded lectures on the topic are available on Dr. Bagheri's YouTube channel.

2025/01/05 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A downsizing project we completed over the holidays Cover image of Bob Woodward's 'War' My grand-nephew Aiden turned 2 yesterday: Happy birthday! (1) Images of the day: [Left] A downsizing project (see the next item below). [Center] Bob Woodward's War (see the last item below). [Right] My grand-nephew Aiden turned 2 yesterday: Happy birthday!
(2) A project we completed over the holidays: Swapping bedrooms with my older son. It involved significant downsizing on my part. I gave away loads of clothes, perhaps 70% of everything, including many items I had not worn for years. It’s funny how we keep clothes and other items, hoping they will become useful again, only to discard them years later. Take it from me: There is much joy in downsizing!
(3) Book review: Woodward, Bob, War, Simon & Schuster, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This counts as Bob Woodward’s fourth book on Donald Trump, after Fear, Rage, and Peril, not counting a compilation of interview audio clips, The Trump Tapes, although the focus here is mostly on the ongoing wars, a behind-the-curve octogenarian president currently in the White House, and the threats from another octogenarian president and his minions. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine occupies about half of the book’s 77 chapters, with the rest discussing the Middle East conflicts and the internal US battle for the presidency.
Woodward reveals one secret to his stamina in a personal note: A knowledgeable and hard-working assistant, Claire McMullen, who really owns much of this book. Like other Woodward books, this one too is filled with minute details, making the narrative boring at times, but this oversharing does not detract from the historical significance of his reporting.
Woodward takes us back to a 1989 interview with Trump, then 42, conducted by him and Carl Bernstein the day after they chatted with him at a private dinner party in New York City. The interview was never published and got lost among Woodward’s massive collection of records. Then, it was found in 2023 and deemed interesting enough to form this book’s prologue. The 35-year-old snapshot, though primarily about Trump’s real-estate business, clearly reveals Trumpism in the making. We learn from the interview that Trump ignores three groups of people, inspectors, the Mob, and unions, because folding to them will make them come back for more. He describes himself as adapting to the people he is dealing with, characterizing himself as "killer, candy, or both."
When the top Republican Kevin McCarthy, who only days earlier had criticized Trump’s role in the January 6 insurrection and his failure to stop it, went to Mar-a-Lago on January 28, 2020, he cemented Trump’s role as the GOP leader. Nearly all the other Republicans soon fell in line, leaving only isolated voices that were drowned by MAGA screams. There were whispers of private misgivings about Trump, but a bully who craves public adoration is not deterred by cowardly criticism behind closed doors.
It is in the description of the lead-up to the Ukraine invasion and the waging of wars by Israel on multiple fronts against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis that the boring details I alluded to earlier emerge. We learn that Biden and his envoys were persuasive enough to have Putin delay his long-planned invasion, but ended up powerless to stop it. Biden frequently lost his patience with Netanyahu and routinely used the F-word about him.
After enjoying Bob Woodward’s four straight best-sellers about Trump, I look forward to reading his next volume about Trump’s second term as US President.

2025/01/03 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Airborne town, on Cloud Nine There is no absolute physical limit on the length, width, or height of a passenger plane The ocean planet is covered entirely with pure water and has no rocky surface (1) Images of the day: [Left] Airborne colony (see the next item below). [Center] There is no absolute physical limit on the length, width, or height of a passenger plane: Economics and safety concerns dictate some practical limits, though. Relevant factors include runway length & strength, passenger entry/exit access, airport terminal facilities, boarding time, and evacuation time. [Right] The ocean planet: Known as GJ 1214B, this planet is covered entirely with pure water and has no rocky surface. It lies ~40 light years away and has a radius of about 10,000 miles (~1.25x that of Earth).
(2) Airborne town, on Cloud Nine: Cloud Nine is the name Buckminster Fuller gave to his proposed airborne habitats created from giant geodesic spheres, which might be made to levitate by slightly heating the air inside above the ambient temperature. A mile-wide geodesic sphere has a mass that is negligible compared to the mass of the air trapped inside it, so if the air inside were heated by even 1 degree relative to the sphere's surroundings, the sphere could become airborne, lifting with it the considerable mass of a mini-city or town.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Google, Harvard, and more are offering free AI courses (no payment required).
- Facebook memory from Jan. 3, 2021: Islamic Republic of Iran’s misogynistic culture.
- Facebook memory from Jan. 3, 2018: Iranian women have been protesting hijab laws for many years.
(4) Free access to papers & data from US federally-funded research: Two years after President Biden’s administration called for immediate free access to journal articles produced from federally-funded research, NIH and DOE have released their final compliance plans. Other US agencies will do so soon. Nine percent of worldwide published papers have US-funded authors. Universities are worried about logistics and costs of this openness, and many publishers are dismayed. [From Science magazine, Jan. 3, 2025]

2025/01/01 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A very happy new year to you and your loved ones Wow! Sixteen years of Facebook friendship with two of my children, a sister, and a niece Narges Mohammadi, Iran’s Nobel-Prize-winning political dissident on the cover of Elle magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] A very happy new year to you and your loved ones: Let us resolve to work hard in this new year to help bring about peace, justice, and equality to our troubled world. [Center] Wow! Sixteen years of Facebook friendship with two of my children, a sister, and a niece. [Right] Narges Mohammadi, Iran’s Nobel-Prize-winning political dissident, on the cover of Elle magazine: “I will never give up the fight.”
(2) My new year 2025 puzzle: 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) between its digits. In the case of 2025, 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!
0 = 2 * 0 * 25; 1 = –2 + 0 – 2 + 5; 2 = 2 + 0 * 25; 3 = 2 * 0 – 2 + 5; 4 = –(2 + 0) / 2 + 5
(3) Russia’s gas & oil supply to Europe halted: Ukraine refuses to renew a transit deal which had allowed Russian oil & gas to cross its territory to serve Europe. [Washington Post]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- At least 15 killed and dozens injured in ISIS-inspired mass murder in New Orleans using a truck.
- Yet one more property of the new year: 2025 = 1^3 + 2^3 + 3^3 + 4^3 + 5^3 + 6^3 + 7^3 + 8^3 + 9^3
- ThePianoBoys, the talented duo from Santa Barbara, are all grown up now: Here's their New Year's concert.
(5) Many politicians and other individuals have indicated that they won't attend Trump's inauguration: They cite various reasons, including being potential targets of prosecution by Trump, the prospects of their January 6th attackers being pardoned, and being people of color who'd rather celebrate MLK Day elsewhere.
(6) America’s small-scale experiment with direct democracy: Citizens' assemblies are to politics what juries are to the legal system. A randomly-drawn assembly would allow a governing body that truly mirrors our society, as opposed to the current system in which elected representatives are predominantly educated and wealthy individuals.

Blog Entries for 2024

2024/12/31 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover images of some of the books I read in 2024 I had pledged to read 100 books in 2024:  I ended up reading 121 I will try to make it five years in a row of 100 books in 2025
Assuming no glue is used, can this be a real photo? Two one-term US presidents, 39 & 46, with significant legacies that will be etched in history Our Sunday breakfast: Your place was empty (1) Images of the day: [Top row] My reading stats for 2024, and cover images of some of the books: Surpassing 100 books for the fourth year in a row. I will try to make it five years in 2025. Before 2017, I did not record my books on GoodReads. Having cleared my backlog of reviews to the end of 2024, from now on, I will post reviews in real time, at the rate I read books (~2 per week). [Bottom left] Assuming no glue is applied, can this be a real photo? [Bottom center] Two one-term US presidents, 39 & 46, with significant legacies that will be etched in history. [Bottom right] Our Sunday breakfast: Your place was empty.
(2) Remember this fact the next time Republicans talk about effective governance: Every government shutdown in the last 30 years occurred when the GOP had control of the House.
(3) Reacting to undersea cable-cutting: NATO has launched a project in response to recent disruptions to undersea Internet data traffic. The goal of the HEIST project is to ensure that when underwater data cables are damaged, operators will know their precise locations in order to mitigate disruptions. The project also aims to expand the number of pathways for data to travel. In particular, HEIST will investigate ways to divert high-priority traffic to satellites in orbit. [From IEEE Spectrum magazine, Dec. 2024]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The cherry-red artificial food coloring may soon be banned: California has already moved to ban it.
- Cover image of The Economist: The World Ahead 2025. [Tweet, with image]
- Please don’t bring this iron lung back by not vaccinating. Thank you! [Tweet, with photo]
- Neat fact about the coming new year: 2025 = (20 + 25)^2
- We had fesenjoon stew last night: I used Sadaf stew in a jar, adding beef and some pomegranate paste.
(5) Elon Musk asks X users to post positive, beautiful, or informative content: Users quickly remind Musk of his own less-than-positive posts and his welcoming of previously-banned hatemongers back onto the service.
(6) Final thought for the day, month, & year: Over the past few days, I worked hard to clear my e-mail in-box for a clean start in 2025. In the final hours of 2024, each time I cleared the in-box, a new donation request or sales pitch would arrive, urging me to take advantage of some year-end opportunity. As I go to bed, I've managed to keep the in-box clear, knowing full well that I'll face dozens of messages early tomorrow morning.

2024/12/29 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
One of the nature's wonders: The Mariana Trench A wintery Persian breakfast Cover image of 'Inspirational Women in Academia' (1) Images of the day: [Left] One of the nature's wonders (see the next item below). [Center] A wintery Persian breakfast. [Right] Inspirational Women in Academia (see the last item below).
(2) The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Japan: Its deepest point, the Challenger Deep, lies approximately 11 km below sea level. The Trench was formed by the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the Mariana Plate and is part of the geologically active Ring of Fire. Due to its extreme depth and immense pressure, it remains one of the least-explored places in the world.
(3) Former US President Jimmy Carter dead at 100: He was reviled by most royalist Iranians, because they considered him responsible for the downfall of the Shah. Meanwhile, his successor Ronald Reagan was loved, despite having negotiated with the mullahs to make sure that the US hostages were not released before he took over as president.
(4) Book review: Kucirkova, Natalia and Loleta Fahad, Inspirational Women in Academia: Supporting Careers and Improving Minority Representation, Routledge, 2022. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Natalia Kucirkova (U. Stavanger, Norway, and The Open University, UK) and Loleta Fahad (University College London) bring together their lived experiences working within symbiotic areas of academia, amplifying the voices of academic women and celebrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reducing inequalities within and among countries.
Working day and night has become entrenched in the academic culture, so that a woman who isn’t working at all times comes to think of herself as a failure. Then, there are discrimination and other setbacks, matters that each woman handles in her own way. The authors found a sample of inspirational women, which is in no way complete, and made an effort to tell their success stories and how they handled inequities and other roadblocks.
At the beginning of Chapter 2, the authors quote Anne-Marie Slaughter, who urged women not to make the same mistake as earlier generations of feminists who tried to find a place for themselves in male-dominated domains by acting and talking like men. The authors agree with slaughter’s advice that it is the discriminatory rules and practices that must change, not women navigating them. The COVID-19 pandemic was instrumental in raising awareness about a gendered academia that saw women’s academic workload increase alongside their domestic responsibilities, creating a 2-year gap in their advancement prospects.
Another manifestation of a gendered academia is men talking only to men about important subjects, giving them a distinct advantage in the informational hierarchy. Similarly, male-oriented social gatherings such as beer parties allow men to network and exchange ideas, putting women at a disadvantage. Even bathroom urinals serve a networking function not available to women.
You can see the book’s detailed table of contents (outline, actually) and read its first 1.5 chapters on Google Books.

2024/12/28 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s film 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' In Iceland, the spectacular Mid-Atlantic Ridge reaches above sea level, creating an impressive landscape Santa Clause visited Iran on Christmas Eve to pay tribute to the victims of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement (1) Images of the day: [Left] An award-worthy Iranian film (see the next item below). [Center] In Iceland, the spectacular Mid-Atlantic Ridge reaches above sea level, creating an impressive landscape of volcanoes, towering rocks, geysers, and geothermal springs. [Right] Santa Clause visited Iran on Christmas Eve to pay tribute to the victims of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement.
(2) Movie on screen at Santa Barbara’s Riviera Theater: I watched Mohammad Rasoulof’s "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," an acclaimed thriller shot in secret on location in Iran, followed by the escape of the producer/director to the West. It portrays the life of a family of four, with the father being a government investigator who helps sentence political dissidents to long prison terms or death and craves a promotion to judgeship. The mother is apprehensive about her husband’s line of work, but she does not want to hurt his career. The couple’s two daughters do not care for a pious lifestyle or a religious government and are bothered by their friends being arrested or seriously injured during street protests. The internal family tension, when mixed with an escalating social unrest, eventually builds up to dangerous levels, placing the prosecutor father in mortal conflict with his family. Like most Iranian productions, the movie is too long (167 minutes) for its content/message. Repetitive and slow-moving scenes, and an extended chase scene at the end, could have been shortened with no harm. Otherwise, the screenplay, acting, and actual footage of brutally-suppressed street protests are quite effective.
(3) Google develops new quantum AI chip at its Goleta campus, located near UCSB: The chip, called Willow, features advanced quantum error correction at incredible speeds.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Five decades of election results in Al-Assad family’s Syria. [Tweet, with data]
- Putin apologizes to Azerbaijan over the downing of its passenger plane flying in Russian airspace.
- An essay by Majid Jalise on Iran’s backwardness in digitizing its cultural and literary heritage.
- Like last year, I have set out to clear my e-mail in-box by New Year’s Eve. Wish me luck.
(5) In case you were wondering why the Iranian regime would take an Italian journalist hostage: Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, a key IRGC figure, was arrested in Milan at the request of the US.
(6) Google’s top 2024 search terms for the US: The No. 1 search term overall was “election,” followed by “Donald Trump,” “Connections,” “New York Yankees,” and “Kamala Harris.”

2024/12/26 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Image from an exquisite collection of mazes and mandalas by @MaxxxDoubt Africa is bigger than you think Cover image of Steven Pearlstein's 'Moral Capitalism' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Image from an exquisite collection of mazes and mandalas by @MaxxxDoubt. [Center] Africa is bigger than you think. [Right] Steven Pearlstein's Moral Capitalism (see the last item below).
(2) "A Complete Unknown": This is the title of a new Bob Dylan biopic screening in theaters this week. In this James Mangold film, which I saw on Wednesday, Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan actually sings and plays all the songs. The film is very well-done, both musically and cinematically. It features a lot of Dylan’s music and the music of some of his contemporaries, including Joan Baez and Johnny Cash. [Trailer]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Syria is reportedly filing a $300 billion lawsuit against Iran for damages it caused to the country.
- Russia’s air-defense system emerges as a suspect in a Kazakhstan plane crash that killed 38.
- The hidden figure behind GPS: Gladys West did the math that changed global navigation.
- Hydrodynamic levitation: How a ball stays in equilibrium over a water jet.
- Persian poetry recitation: Javad Almasi’s beautiful love poem, recited by Jaleh Olov.
- Puzzle-solving by ants: They figure out how to move an object through tight spaces.
(4) Book review: Pearlstein, Steven, Moral Capitalism: Why Fairness Won't Make Us Poor, St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition, 2020. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist Steven Pearlstein argues that our 30-year experiment in "markets know best" economy has undermined core values required to make capitalism and democracy work. He asserts that we are missing a key tenet of Adam Smith’s wealth of nations: Without trust and social capital, democratic capitalism cannot survive.
The recent decades’ prevailing mantras of "greed is good," "maximize shareholder value," "only fools pay taxes," and "trickle-down economy" have set back the American economy, benefitting only the super-rich, while around the world market capitalism has lifted more than a billion people out of poverty. The misguided mantras have been used as justification for squeezing workers, cheating customers, and leaving communities in the lurch.
As the French economist Thomas Pikettty has argued, steady economic growth outpaced the rate of return on capital during capitalism’s post-World-War-II golden era, thereby delivering rising prosperity to millions and masking the ill effects of unfettered capitalism. Widening gaps in income and wealth were the predictable results, which we are left to deal with. Unfortunately, capitalism is not swayed by moral arguments and we need deliberate action to wipe out inequities.
Pearlstein lays out bold steps we can take as a country: A guaranteed minimum income paired with universal national service, tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, ending class segregation in public education, and restoring competition to markets. He provides a path forward that will create the shared prosperity that will sustain capitalism over the long term.

2024/12/25 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Merry Chirstmas: May the promise of Peace on Earth materialize Happy Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Light A beautiful nature shot: Sunset in the desert
Cover feature of CACM on self-designing software Signs advising that hijab laws should be followed are ignored by Iranian women. The Equal Rights Amendment may still be alive (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] Merry Christmas & Happy Hnukkah: May Peace on Earth & victory of light over darkness materialize soon. [Top right] A beautiful nature shot. [Bottom left] Self-designing software (see the next item below). [Bottom center] Signs advising that hijab laws should be followed are ignored by Iranian women. [Bottom right] The Equal Rights Amendment (see the last item below).
(2) Cover feature of CACM on self-designing software: "Exploring ways to include a software system as an active member of its own design team, able to reason about its own design and to synthesize better variants of its own building blocks as it encounters different deployment conditions." The article’s key insights include the ability to hot-swap code at runtime, allowing software to change its design to optimally match its environment, and deriving higher-performance version of a piece of code by capturing and analyzing function-call sequences.
(3) Heliophysics takes a giant step: Yesterday, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, moved closer to the sun than any human-made object. Launched in 2018, the probe is designed to study solar winds, which influence communications and power grids on Earth, by flying within 3.8 million miles of the sun’s surface at a speed of 430,000 mph. Its carbon-composite heat shield can withstand temperatures up to 980C.
(4) Cartoon caption of the day: One alien to another, as they look over Planet Earth from their spaceship: "They’re fighting over which religion is the most peaceful!"
(5) Intel’s fall from grace (CACM, Jan. 2025): "In Aug. 2000, Intel briefly had a market value of $509 billion (more than $930 billion in 2024 dollars). It was the most valuable public company and the “platform leader” in the personal computer industry along with Microsoft. At the start of Dec. 2024, Intel’s value stood at $104 billion (after falling under $100 billion), far below Microsoft ($3.1 trillion) and Apple ($3.6 trillion). Nvidia ($3.4 trillion) became the new leader in semiconductors, rivaling Apple in market value. Intel also had fallen behind longtime rival AMD ($222 billion), Broadcom ($176 billion), Qualcomm ($174 billion), and ARM ($141 billion). Then we have Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., known as TSMC, valued at $958 billion."
(6) The Equal Rights Amendment may still be alive: Even though women were given the right to vote and an Equal Protection Clause was adopted in the 14th Amendment, the equality of men and women has never been explicitly acknowledged in the US Constitution or its Amendments. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), first proposed in 1923, is an amendment to the United States Constitution that guarantees equality of rights under the law for all persons regardless of sex. As of January 27, 2020, the ERA had satisfied the requirements of Article V of the Constitution for ratification (passage by 2/3 of each house of Congress and approval by 3/4 of the states). However, a technicality, a deadline set when the amendment first passed the Congress, is preventing its adoption. Some scholars believe that the deadline is meaningless or unconstitutional, because nowhere in the Constitution is any deadline mentioned for ratifying amendments. Democrats are urging Biden to pick up the phone and call the Archivists of the United States, urging her to enter the ERA in the books. This may result in legal challenges, but those can be dealt with, given that Repulicans likely won’t want to be seen as opposing equal rights for women.

2024/12/24 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of CACM: Self-designing software Math puzzle: Find the side length x of the equilateral triangle Cover image of Victoria Hay's 'Slave Labor' (1) Images of the day: [Left] CACM cover story (see the next item below). [Center] Math puzzle: Find the side length x of the equilateral triangle. [Right] Victoria Hay's Slave Labor (see the last item below).
(2) Self-designing software: "Exploring ways to include a software system as an active member of its own design team, able to reason about its own design and to synthesize better variants of its own building blocks as it encounters different deployment conditions." The article’s key insights include the ability to hot-swap code at runtime, allowing software to change its design to optimally match its environment, and deriving higher-performance version of a piece of code by capturing and analyzing short traces of function-call sequences.
(3) Who owns AI’s output? Countries are scrambling to effectively legislate and regulate the ownership and usage of AI-produced works and ideas. A central question is whether AI’s output can be copyrighted. In the US, work produced solely by AI cannot be protected through copyright, but the verdict isn’t so clear for joint AI-human work. A related question is limits on the use of copyrighted material to train AI models. It is a complex domain full of intellectual and legal questions.
(4) Book review: Hay, Victoria, Slave Labor: The New Story of American Higher Education, 2014. [My 4-star review of this book GoodReads]
[Note: For some reason, the book under review cannot be found via on-line search. It could be because it has been withdrawn due to some problems with its contents or lawsuits from the institutions named by the author.]
It is difficult for me to write this review, given that I am a faculty member at an elite research university which is guilty of some of the practices critized in this book. The author shares her experiences as an adjunct faculty member, temporary teaching staff that do not enjoy the benefits of tenure and are often forced to carry unreasonably high teaching loads to make ends meet. She calculated that accounting for the unpaid hours of lesson prep, grading homeworks/exams, and outside-of-class tasks like conferences with students and staff, her high educational level paid less per hour than minimum wage.
Hay explains the short- and long-term effects of replacing professors with part-timers and chronicles one adjunct's semester in America's largest community college district. I should mention that adjunct faculty aren’t universally unhappy. Some enjoy their work and have written rebuttals to the assertions made in this book. They point out that working as an adjunct faculty is a deliberate choice and comes with many rewards that make the low pay acceptable.
The trend of doing away with full-time professors and hiring contract adjuncts for a tiny fraction of the cost is spinning out of control. As tuition and other college costs continue to rise, students are left paying more and more for less and less in terms of quality teaching, advising, and other academic services. According to Hay, some 80% of college instructors aren’t professors at all, but underpaid, often underqualified, adjuncts. Adjunct faculty are essentially gig workers who enjoy no support infrastructure (e.g., no TAs or grading help), no benefits, and no representation.
Another aspect of slave labor at universities and colleges, not addressed by this book, is that of graduate students, whose working conditions are sometimes compared to sweat shops. Because graduate students are being trained to pursue prestigious high-paying careers, they often do not complain, assuming that the low pay and difficult working conditions in grad school will be more than made up for in future. There is, however, mounting evidence that the high-paying careers may not materialize and, upon graduation, they may end up working as adjunct faculty.
Some of these dilemmas are discussed in the book Is a PhD for Me? whose publisher’s blurb states: "The experience can be formative, uplifting, fulfilling, and inspiring. It is also often intense, frustrating, demoralizing and at times even infuriating." Among the latter book’s recommendations, we find: "Never assume you’ll be able to get a job in university or community-college teaching. To the contrary: assume that at best you’ll spend several years as a grossly underpaid part-time adjunct, that you’ll be outlandishly lucky to nail a full-time position, and if you do, it probably will be in Podunk, South Dakota."

2024/12/23 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzles: Find the area of the brown triangle within the regular hexagon Recurring headlines in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran Cover image of France Winddance Twine's 'Geek Girls' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzles: Find the area of the brown triangle within the regular hexagon. [Center] Recurring headlines in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. [Right] France Winddance Twine's Geek Girls (see the last item below).
(2) An award-worthy Iranian film: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” is now showing at Santa Barbara’s Riviera Theater, through Thursday, 12/26, with show times at 12:30, 4:00, and 7:30 PM. It is short-listed for a foreign-film Academy Award. The director has fled Iran, after filming it in secret.
(3) Who are some economists who support Trump’s tax plan? Lots of economists. Really great economists. Some of the best economists on the planet. They love it. Love it. They’re constantly saying, “oh Mr. President you understand the economy so well! You should have been an economist!” That’s what they say. Did you know that? A lot of people don’t know that. But I have a list of those economists and it’s a very long list. A list with some amazing names. You will be shocked when you see those names. And we’ll be releasing that list in two weeks. [From Quora Digest]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Maybe Trump was right. Immigrants do take Americans' jobs away. Look no further than President Musk!
- Vice President Trump: Nickname given to Trump in view of Elon Musk having taken over the presidency.
- Largest nth power that has n digits in its decimal representation: 9^21 = 109,418,989,131,512,359,209
- How pizza was named (humor): A pie of radius z and thickness a has volume pi(z^2)a = pizza.
(5) Book review: Twine, France Winddance, Geek Girls: Inequality and Opportunity in Silicon Valley, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Machelle Williams, Tantor Audio, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The book’s author, France Winddance Twine, is my UCSB colleague in the Sociology Department. She describes her research as spanning “Gender, Inequality, Intersectionality, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Race, Racism & Anti-Racism, Work and Organizations, Visual Sociology.”
Being a computer “geek” is still perceived to be a masculine occupation. This is why the high-tech industry is dominated by men. Ironically, in the early years of digital computing, many women participated and flourished in the fields of programming and hardware maintenance. Then, the tasks were elevated from clerical to high-paying and technical, and the men rushed in to take over. I have written about the status of women in technology in a conference paper entitled "Women in Science and Engineering: A Tale of Two Countries."
Over the past decade, the growing number of employment discrimination lawsuits has called attention to tech world’s persistent pattern of gender discrimination. To the average observer, reasons for discriminatory policies in the tech world is veiled in secrecy. Twine lifts this veil to provide firsthand accounts of inequality and opportunity in the tech ecosystem. She collected data for her study from about 100 interviews with male and female technology workers of diverse racial, ethnic, and educational backgrounds who are currently employed at tech firms such as Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, and at various start-ups in the San Francisco Bay area.
Twine shows how the tech industry remains rigged against women, and especially Black, Latinx, and Native American women from working-class backgrounds. Problem areas span the entirety of the recruiting, hiring, training, mentoring, and promotion processes. Much of hiring occurs through connection to those already employed, creating a barrier to entry that amounts to segregation by academic prestige hierarchies. Those belonging to the dominant ethnic group in the industry reap the benefits and prosper, with others left out and even actively pushed out, regardless of their knowledge and skill levels.
The rhetoric of diversity and opposition to discrimination in the workplace is embraced by tech firms, mainly because it’s good PR, but hiring practices that reinforce the statue quo tell a different story. Twine offers suggestions on how the tech industry can address ongoing racial and gender disparities, create more transparency, and empower women from underrepresented groups, who are currently denied opportunities.

2024/12/22 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Santa Barbara public library: The beautifully redone entry plaza and the renovated historic door Saturday evening at Toranj Restaurant, Westwood, Los Angeles, four college buddies had a mini-reunion Cover image of Thomas S. Kuhn's 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Santa Barbara public library: When I visited the library last Friday, I was pleasantly surprised by the beautifully redone entry plaza and the renovated historic door, not used as a real door, because it’s a valuable historic artifact. [Center] Saturday evening at Toranj Restaurant, Westwood, Los Angeles, four college buddies had a mini-reunion. [Right] Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (see the last item below).
(2) Islamic Mothers’ Day: Iranian mullahs celebrate Mothers’ Day on the 20th of Jumada al-Thani (which, in 2024, falls on Sunday, December 22). This is the birth anniversary of Fatima, the daughter of prophet Muhammad, according to the Islamic calendar.
Mother's Day was first established in Iran in 1960 during the Pahlavi era. It was celebrated on December 16, commemorating the establishment of the Institute for Women Protection.
I, for one, do not want to celebrate an Arab woman’s birthday when there are so many accomplished and brave Iranian women to honor. Let’s stick to the unifying international version on the second Sunday of May. In 2025, Mothers’ Day will be on May 11.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Nobel Laureates discuss the significance of the 2024 prizes in natural sciences and economics.
- Elon Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal, who is revolutionizing the food industry, may be richer than him.
- Facebook memory from Dec. 22, 2019: Selected verses from a Mowlavi (Rumi) poem.
- Facebook memory from Dec. 22, 2014: Khamenei, on women’s equal participation in society.
(4) Book review: Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, U. Chicago Press, 1962; 2nd enlarged ed., 1970; 50th anniversary ed., 2012. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This historically-significant book pulls you in from its very first sentence: "History, if viewed as a repository for more than anecdote or chronology, could produce a decisive transformation in the image of science by which we are now possessed." Later in his career, physicist Thomas Kuhn [1922-1996] studied the history and philosophy of science. His main argument in this book, his second, is that scientific activity unfolds according to a repeating pattern, which we can discern by studying its history.
An avid follower of the works of Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget about the stages of cognitive development in children, Kuhn saw similar developmental stages in the sciences: Maturation through forming a paradigm, guiding principles on which most members of the pertinent community agree, followed by a period of "normal science," during which researchers articulate what the paradigm might imply for specific situations. As more work is done, anomalies that cannot be assimilated to the paradigm arise and accumulate, leading to a state of crisis, which can be resolved only with a revolution. The revolution gives birth to a new paradigm that can address the anomalies. And the cycle repeats.
A radical thrust of Kuhn's analysis is that science does not move continuously toward a truer representation of the world, but simply moves away from previous representations, in the process discarding whole sets of irrelevant questions and answers. In the closing pages of his original edition, Kuhn used Darwinian natural selection as a metaphor: Scientific knowledge does change over time, but it does not necessarily march towards an ultimate goal.
The chapter titles, listed below from the book's 50th anniversary edition, provide a good picture of the framework and coverage. - Introductory essay by Ian Hacking - Introduction: A role for history - The route to normal science - The nature of normal science - Normal science as puzzle solving - The priority of paradigms - Anomaly and the emergence of scientific discoveries - Crisis and the emergence of scientific theories - The response to crisis - The nature and necessity of scientific revolutions - Revolutions and changes of world view - The invisibility of revolutions - Progress through revolutions - Postscript—1969

2024/12/21 (Saturday): Offering 3 book reviews to help clear my backlog of reviews before 2025.
Cover image of 'Passion Undercover in Tehran' Cover image of 'Two Centuries of Silence' Cover image of Against Elections' (1) Book review: Hessel, Shalva, Passion Undercover in Tehran: One Woman's True Story of Espionage, Passion and Deception in the Heart of Iran, unabridged 14-hour audiobook, read by Lauren Garvin, eBookPro, 2024. [My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is one of a burgeoning collection of books about Israeli undercover operations and espionage in Iran, with a few such books already turned into movies or TV series. The Israeli penetration in the upper echelons of Iranian government is so extensive that a number of officials have been dismissed, having been accused of acting as Israeli spies or inadvertently influenced by spy networks.
The story’s protagonist, Sally, an undercover Israeli agent posing as a businesswoman and tasked with infiltrating the highest levels of the Iranian government, rises in the ranks to gain the trust of some of the world’s notorious terrorists. She did not choose the life of covert espionage; it was forced upon her when she discovered her husband, pretending to be a simple embassy attache, was, in fact, a top-secret spy for the Israeli Mossad.
The story begins with Sally and her husband boarding a plane en route to a secret mission. The mission is cancelled due to some complications, landing the couple in Athens, where they are nearly compromised. Sally undergoes extensive training in preparation for her next major assignment, eventually traveling to Iran after a stay in Qatar.
The part of the narrative about Sally’s mission in Tehran, which took only a few weeks and had to be terminated when an IRGC Colonel began showing romantic interest in the pretend businesswoman, is a small part of the book, but, hey, spy stories about Iran sell; hence, the title. The bulk of this autobiographical book is based on events in Israel, Europe, and the US.
Regardless of how she got into the spying line of work, Sally’s loyalty to her country never wavers, even when she realizes she may be in over her head in this complicated world of politics, corruption, and suspicion. The book’s plot is based on a true story of a woman-turned-spy whose life takes a sharp turn in the wake of tragedy. We see the portrait of a strong woman forging her own destiny amid secret missions, passionate romantic encounters, and non-stop danger.
The narrative ends with the author revealing that the book’s end is not the end of the story. Her life’s story which began with a previous book, Married to the Mossad, will likely continue in forthcoming books.
(2) Book review: Zarrinkoub, Abdolhossein, Two Centuries of Silence (Do Qarn Sokut), 1951, 2nd ed. 1957. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
[This review is based on the original Persian edition of the book, 1951; 2nd ed. 1957.]
Zarrinkoub, a prominent scholar of Iran's culture, history, and literature, presents an account of the events and circumstances of the first two centuries of the Iranian history following the Arab conquest of Iran in the 7th century AD until the rise of the Tahirid Dynasty, a Muslim dynasty of native Iranian origin.
Zarrinkoub begins with an intriguing question that has puzzled many: How was a world civilization with significant achievements in art and architecture, religion and law, agriculture and engineering, and civil and military organization, overthrown by a nomadic people with limited literacy and few accomplishments? Zarrinkoub discusses how the Arab/Islamic conquest was followed by nearly 200 years of social, cultural, and political silence of native Persians, allowing the Arabs to exert an outsize influence on the Persian language and culture and fully replacing Zoroastrianism with Islam. Rather then openly opposing the Arabs, Persians took their identity underground, until conditions became ripe for the flourishing of the Persian language and culture.
In the preface to the second-edition of his book, published in 1957, Zarrinkoub sounds contrite: “I picked up my pen and crossed out what was dubious, dark, and incorrect in the first edition. Many such instances were occasions that in the past—either due to immaturity or by prejudice—I had been unable to rightly acknowledge the faults, inequities, and defeats of Iran. ... Now, did I do my duty properly in this revision? I do not know, and I am still of the opinion that the moment a history writer chooses a topic, he has strayed from neutrality."
The book became embroiled in an on-going dispute between those wishing to restore “pure” Islam in Iran and secularists who want to lessen the authority and power of the clergy. Many in the latter group have shaped a fashion of proclaiming Persian nationality with Zoroastrian imagery. Zarrinkoub’s revisionist history did not officially gain a certificate of publication until 1999, when the Iranian publisher (Sokhan) included in a preface excerpts from a book that refutes Zarrinkoub (“Khadamat-e Motaqabel-e Iran va Islam,” or “The Reciprocal Services of Islam and Iran”). The author of the refutation, the noted religious scholar Morteza Motahhari, asks: How could Zarrinkoub call the period silent? After all, the Persians did gain a powerful new language, full of poetry, the medium of the clear and simple message God gave His Prophet. Rather than an age of silence it was a time of awakening to the sound of God’s very voice.
There are two English translations of this book: Avid Kamgar’s 2016 version (Oughten House Publications) and Paul Sprachman’s 2017 edition, which includes an extensive introductory essay, elaborating on how Zarrinkoub was compelled to change his views on Iranian history after the 1979 Revolution.
(3) Book review: Van Reybrouck, David, Against Elections: The Case for Democracy, Random House, 2016. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Conducting free and fair elections to pick our representatives & leaders is the current gold standard for democratic government. Unfortunately, these representatives & leaders come from a relatively small group of citizens (predominantly, highly-educated and wealthy), thus making the government not quite “by the people.”
Sortition-based democracy gives the reigns of power to a randomly-chosen group of citizens, typically serving for only one year. This kind of selection is what we do for juries, which, according to Alexis de Tocqueville, is the most enviable part of American system of government. One may worry about non-specialists making important governmental decisions, but the jury will have specialists and lobbyists at its disposal to help it see the various viewpoints. This 10-minute video describes the basics of sortition-based democracy.
The book’s table of contents follows.
Introduction: The Crisis of Democracy (by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan)
I Symptoms
- Enthusiasm and mistrust: The paradox of democracy
- Crisis of legitimacy: Support is crumbling
- Crisis of efficiency: Declining vigour
II Diagnoses
- It's the fault of politicians: The diagnosis of populism
- It's the fault of democracy: The diagnosis of the technocracy
- It's the fault of representative democracy: The diagnosis of direct democracy
- It's the fault of electoral-representative democracy: A new diagnosis
III Pathogenesis
- A democratic procedure: Drawing lots (antiquity and Renaissance)
- An aristocratic procedure: Elections (18th century)
- The democratisation of elections: A bogus process (19th & 20th centuries)
IV Remedies
- The revival of sortition: Deliberative democracy (late 20th century)
- Democratic innovation in practice: An international quest (2004-2013)
- Democratic innovation in the future: Allotted assemblies
- Blueprint for a democracy based on sortition
- Timely appeal for a bi-representative system
Conclusion

2024/12/20 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy Yalda night, the Persian winter solstice festival Our family's Yalda Night celebration UCSB has become a major hub for quantum technology: Convergence magazine cover image (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Yalda night (see the last item below). [Center] Our family's Yalda Night celebration: Hope the dawn’s light at the end of this longest night of the year raises hopes of the disappearance of the forces of darkness in the US, Iran, and the rest of the world. [Right] UC Santa Barbara has become a major hub for quantum technology research, in part due to a 2019 major research grant to establish the nation’s first quantum foundry.
(2) Why probability probably doesn’t exist, but it is useful to act like it does: In an essay just published in the journal Nature, David Spiegelhalter maintains that one source of our difficulties with the notion of probability is that we use it in two distinct ways: As the likelihood of an event and as the extent of our ignorance. For example, if a friend tosses a coin and asks you for the chance of it landing tails, with the assumption that he is using a regular fair coin, you might answer fifty-fifty. Then, when the coin lands, your friend covers it and asks you about your probability that it landed tails. There is no randomness in this second question, as the coin has already landed. Your probability in this second context measures the extent of your ignorance about the state of the coin. Notice the use of "your probability" rather than "the probability." I have previously read and reviewed on GoodReads the book Bernoulli’s Fallacy, which contains a much more extensive discussion of these ideas.
(3) EV energy use estimate: The average US vehicle is driven 15,000 miles per year. A typical EV uses 0.3 kWh per mile and the average price of electricity is $0.15/kWh.
(15,000/12) x 0.3 x $0.15 = $56/month.
For comparison, the average ICE gets 25 mpg and gasoline is averaging $3.27/gallon currently. That gives $163/month, or almost three times as much.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Iranian cities turn into gas chambers: Air pollution is now worst in the world.
- Hackers stole $2.2 billion from cryptocurrency platforms this year, 61% of it attributed to North Koreans.
- The dawn of a new Gilded Age: Wealth is replacing expertise and experience.
- IranWire has a long-running series on influential Iranian women: Highly recommended.
(5) A billionaire immigrant, whose tech companies rely on skilled immigrant workers, and another billionaire with immigrant current and ex-wives, are anti-immigration.
(6) When was the last time you heard any good news from Congress? Averting government shutdown, triggered by an unelected person who pulls Trump’s strings, doesn’t count.
(7) The White House honors Hector D. Abruna (Cornell U.), Paul Alivisatos (U. Chicago), and John H. Nuckolls (LLNL) with the Enrico Fermi Presidential Award. This prestigious award, established in 1956, recognizes significant contributions to science and technology.
(8) The Persian festival of Yalda: The [Winter Solstice] festival is celebrated in Iran and the regions of greater Iran, including Azerbaijan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Balochi areas, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The longest and darkest night of the year is a time when friends and family gather together to eat, drink and read poetry (especially Hafez and Shahnameh) until well after midnight. Fruits and nuts are eaten and pomegranates and watermelons are particularly significant. The red color in these fruits symbolizes the crimson hues of dawn and the glow of life. The poems of Divan-e Hafez, which can be found in the bookcases of most Iranian families, are read or recited on various occasions such as this festival and Nowruz. [Description from Wikipedia]

2024/12/19 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
One of my 'VOTE' T-shirts that help me convey the importance of voting to my students and others Cartoon: Breathing problems make Santa regret giving coal to naughty kids Cover image of Jean-Paul Sartre's 'The Words' (1) Images of the day: [Left] One of my “VOTE” T-shirts that help me convey the importance of voting to my students and others. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Breathing problems make Santa regret giving coal to naughty kids. [Right] Jean-Paul Sartre's autobiography, The Words (see the last item below).
(2) Blame Joe for Kamala’s loss: This verdict may seem too harsh for a fundamentally decent man, but had Biden honored his promise to be a one-term transition president, Harris would have had a longer runway to rebrand herself and to gain trust by going through a rigorous primary process.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Biden’s approval rating continues to tank and with it the political fortunes of many Democrats.
- Among US adults, some 40% of cigarettes are smoked by people with behavioral health conditions.
- Science contradicts the rule "I before E except after C."
- In the last century, Roger Penrose is second only to Einstein in deepening our understanding of gravity.
(4) Book review: Sartre, Jean-Paul (translated by B. Frechtman), Let Mots (The Words), George Braziller, 1964. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Ever since he was a child, Jean-Paul Sartre [1905-1980] was fascinated with writing. He would settle down at his writing desk, without doing anything, just so that everyone nearby could marvel at him and his love for writing. Later, Sartre's natural fascination with writing developed into something much more profound because of his grandfather's reaction to this behavior. He let the young Sartre know that the life of a writer was incredibly difficult, deepening Sartre's resolve to truly dedicate himself to writing. A conversation with the Holy Ghost in a vision led him to the belief that he had been chosen and that he had no choice but to accept his literary vocation.
Beginning with his earliest memories at age 4, Sartre describes his rather protected life as a child. At school, he discovered the joys of friendship and began relating to children his own age, rather than being surrounded by the adults that had been his companions up to that point.
Existentialism was the philosophy that defined all of Sartre's literary output. He defined this philosophy after the end of World War II and watched it become quite fashionable. Sartre believed that individuals construct their own identities by their actions and that there is no such thing as an essence that predetermines a person's character. Existentialism permeates Sartre's literary work, given his belief that producing a work of literature is an action and a way for the writer to engage with the surrounding world. The author is responsible for the subject addressed, the target audience chosen, and the written content.
This autobiography allowed Sartre to throw away his mask, admit to being born into a middle-class family, and denounce the pretenses he indulged in. This level of honesty, that is, speaking openly about pretenses and facades, demanded that the autobiography be his last work, so Sartre never published any literary work afterwards. It is also quite interesting that Sartre ended his autobiography's narrative at the age 11, when he began secondary school.
Sartre's other works include: Nausea (novel, 1938); Being and Nothingness (1943); No Exit (play, 1944); The Age of Reason (1945); Existentialism and Humanism (1946); Anti-Semite and Jew (1946); What Is Literature? (1947); Critique of Dialectical Reason (1960).

2024/12/18 (Wednesday): Offering 3 book reviews to help clear my backlog of reviews before 2025.
Cover image of 'Measurement: A Very Short Introduction' Cover image of 'The Tech Coup' Cover image of 'Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction' (1) Book review: Hand, David J., Measurement: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford U. Press, 2016.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Let me begin my review of this wonderful book in Oxford’s "Very Short Introduction" series by presenting the book’s table of contents: 1. A brief history 2. What is measurement? 3. Measurement in the physical sciences and engineering 4. Measurement in the life sciences, medicine, and health 5. Measurement in the behavioral sciences 6. Measurement in the social sciences, economics, business, and public policy 7. Measurement and understanding
The history of measurement goes as far back as human history. Early units of measurement were not precise, given that they were based on human anatomy or physical distances that assumed the Earth to be a perfect sphere. Units were different in different communities and even had different names. Herbert Arthur Klein remarked that "a given unit of length recognised in Paris, for example, was about 4 percent longer than that in Bordeaux, 2 percent longer than that in Marseilles, and 2 percent shorter than that in Lille." Writing in 1850, J. H. Alexander mentioned 110 separate values for the ell in Europe. For a long time, there was no standard unit for volume, say, with the volumes of coal, grain, and wine measured differently. Advocating for standard units of measurement, the French philosopher and mathematician Condorcet wrote: "The uniformity of weights and measures cannot displease anyone but those lawyers who fear a diminution in the number of trials, and those merchants who fear anything that renders the operations of commerce easy and simple."
A proposal for a unified system of physical measurements was made by Gabril Mouton, who, in 1670, suggested that France's many different units should be replaced by a decimal system, with increasing units being defined in multiples of ten. It took 100 years before such a system was adopted for some French units and much longer before the system was adopted more widely around the world. SI units were introduced at the 11th General Conference for Weights and Measures in 1960.
As an engineer/scientist, I am quite familiar with SI units used in physical sciences (Chapter 3), although I was unaware of the long preceding history. More interesting for me were ideas in Chapters 4-6 about measurements in life sciences (e.g., medical tests), behavioral sciences (e.g., rating intelligence), and social sciences (e.g., economic indicators). The final Chapter 7, "Measurement and understanding," introduces us to the notions of inaccuracy and bias. The former is handled by error bounds and the latter by calibration.
(2) Book review: Schaake, Marietje, The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley, Princeton University Press, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Under the cover of “innovation,” protecting proprietary technology, and “free” services, big tech is amassing so much power that it is routinely surveilling us for economic gains, successfully evades regulation, and takes over certain governmental functions. The same facial-recognition technology supplied to law-enforcement agencies is used by the big-tech providers for their own commercial surveillance and ad-targeting to you and your on-line friends. Digital surveillance tools are sold to anyone who can afford them, which includes autocrats in many countries.
Marietje Schaake, a Dutch politician who served as Member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands and is now international director of policy at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center, offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments, draining our wallets and depriving us of a private and dignified life, with unsurveilled leisure time. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies, including social media and artificial intelligence, have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democratic institutions.
Reversing this existential power imbalance and preventing the unchecked power of companies from destabilizing governance requires innovative solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can and must resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world.
(3) Book review: Catling, David C., Astrobiology: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford U. Press, 2013.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This volume is another wonderful addition to hundreds of titles in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction" series, my go-to source for learning about new topics and to brush up, or bring myself up-to-date, on already studied topics. The question of whether we are alone in the universe has occupied us humans for a very long time. The ancient Greeks had a haunch that Earth wasn't the only cradle for life, but lacked the technology to test their beliefs. The near-simultaneous discoveries of bacterial remains in a Martian meteorite and the first planets orbiting other stars brought the question of the existence of life beyond our planet to the scientific forefront.
Now, the new field of Astrobiology harnesses the required technological and scientific capability to seriously address this ancient and fundamental question. The prefix "astro" means "related to outer space," so astrobiology is the study of life in the universe. This precious little book (pocket size, 142 pages) covers the basics of astrobiology in eight chapters averaging 16 pages each. 1. What is astrobiology? 2. From stardust to planets, the abodes for life 3. Origins of life and environment 4. From slime to the subline 5. Life: a genome's way of making more and fitter genomes 6. Life in the Solar System 7. Far-off worlds, distant suns 8. Controversies and prospects
I end my review by quoting the book's final paragraph (p. 129): "When astrobiology came to fore as a discipline in the 1990s, some questioned its future and wondered if it might be a fad that fades, perhaps because of disappointment in not quickly finding extraterrestrial life or a failure to answer questions about life's origin. However, the discovery of Earth-sized exoplanets in habitable zones will ensure that the possibility of life elsewhere becomes more relevant than ever. Astrobiology is here to stay."

2024/12/17 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Over the past week, Iran has sentenced 14 Baha’i women to a total of 73 years in prison. Changes in Taiwan’s national identity over time (1) Images of the day: [Left] Over the past week, Iran’s Islamic regime has sentenced 14 Baha’i women to a total of 73 years in prison. [Right] On Taiwan’s national identity: This chart shows how the Taiwanese view themselves. The chart extends only to 2018, but I have added the results from a 2023 Pew Research Center survey on its right margin, indicating that 2/3 consider themselves primarily Taiwanese, 28% view themselves as both Taiwanese and Chinese, and only 3% consider themselves primarily Chinese. Interestingly, women are more likely to view themselves as primarily Taiwanese.
(2) SpaceX restricts Elon Musk’s access to sensitive national security programs due to concerns about his contacts with foreign nationals and drug use. [Wall Street Journal]
(3) Patriarchy rears its ugly head again: Many Iranians of all political persuasions, even some women, refer to #ParastooAhmadi with terms implying that she was naked during her virtual concert, whereas she was wearing a top that would be considered normal almost anywhere in the civilized world. So the curtailment of Iranian women’s social and professional lives isn’t merely a religious verdict, but a social construct deeply rooted in a patriarchal culture. #WomanLifeFreedom
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Ukraine assassinates Gen. Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s radioactive, chemical & biological warfare. [NYT]
- Turkey’s foreign minister warns Ayatollah Khamenei to heed the lessons of Bashar Assad’s fate.
- A Syrian man pretending to be a freed prisoner was actually an intelligence officer and possibly a torturer.
- Donald Trump had his first press conference since winning the election: Let the fact-checking begin!
- Rules of Thumb for Writing Research Papers: Table in a 2002 article by Tomislav Hengi & Michael Gould.
- The popular "Happy Birthday" song played in the styles of famous classical composers.
(5) Double-ballot voting: I learned from the research papers of my students in the graduate seminar ECE 594BB that Germany, South Korea, and Taiwan, to name three countries, use a voting system with two ballots. One ballot pertains to the election of a single member from the voter’s local district, as we do in the US. The second ballot allows a voter to vote for a party, with the parties then getting seats in a proportional allocation scheme. A certain fraction of representatives are chosen based on the first ballot and the remainder based on the second ballot. Single-member districts tend to reward large, powerful parties, so the second ballot is a way of giving smaller parties a chance to gain some representation. Ironically, two of the three countries named above experienced serious governance problems over the recent weeks.
(6) Tarrifs imposed on one country will quickly move that country’s exporters to nearby countries, as has happened between China and Vietnam, which is booming with export business. Vietnam is now third in exports to the US, after China and Mexico. [NYT]

2024/12/16 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Yesterday, I decided to put just one cup of rice in my rice cooker to get pure crispy rice, with no regular rice Math puzzle: A square is divided into 4 regions of area 9, as shown. What is the length of the blue line segment? Cover image of 'DSM-5 Essentials' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Persian cuisine: I have a small 2.5-cup rice cooker which can make tah-dig (crispy rice, at the bottom of the pot). Today, I decided to put just one cup of rice in it to get pure crispy rice, with no regular rice. It worked great, and we had it a-la Persian restaurant appetizers with some leftover stews. [Center] Math puzzle: A square is divided into 4 regions of area 9. What is the length of the blue line segment? [Right] The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Essentials (see the last item below).
(2) Gorilla glass: Steve Jobs’ insistence on having a glass rather than plastic screen for the original iPhone led Corning to develop a type of glass that has been used on electronic gadgets and computer screens ever since. From the viewpoint of its widespread use and impact on our lives, gorilla glass is perhaps the most-important material ever made. [22-minute video]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The shooter at a Christian school in Wisconsin was a 15-year-old girl. [Washington Post]
- A tour of Bashar Assad’s palace in Syria: His country was bankrupt, but he lived in the lap of luxury.
- “Nefrin”: Artoush performs his hit from 60 years ago, at age 80. Still sounds great!
- I am now officially done with the fall quarter, having submitted my course grades today.
(4) Book review: Reichenberg, Lourie W., DSM-5 Essentials: The Savvy Clinician's Guide to the Changes in Criteria, Wiley, 2014. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the handbook used by healthcare professionals in the US and much of the world as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. DSM contains descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders. A new edition of DSM is typically issued every 10-15 years, with DSM-5 superseding DSM-IV in 2013. Given significant advances in mental healthcare over the past decade, the 6th edition should appear very soon.
The book under review is intended to facilitate the transition from DSM-IV to DSM-5 by presenting, in an organized and concise manner, the changes from the old to the new edition, to provide background material and limited treatment recommendations for the new disorders making their debut in DSM-5, and to relate the topics and diagnoses to the codes in ICD-9 and ICD-10 (International Classification of Disorders). The book should thus be viewed as a supplement to DSM-5, rather than its "Cliff Notes" version.
This isn't a book that one would read from cover to cover. The best approach to the perusal of such a handbook is to absorb the overall structure, make note of chapters and sections, and develop a big-picture of its contents. Here are the 20 chapter titles as an aid to visualizing the book's structure and scope. For chapter titles that were unfamiliar to me, I have provided a brief description in parentheses.
1. Neurodevelopmental Disorders 2. Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders 3. Bipolar and Related Disorders 4. Depressive Disorders 5. Anxiety Disorders 6. Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 7. Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders 8. Dissociative Disorders (marked by depersonalization, derealization, amnesia, and other dissociative symptoms, which are shared with Chapter 7 disorders) 9. Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders (characterized by thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to somatic symptoms) 10. Feeding and Eating Disorders 11. Elimination Disorders (fecal and urinary incontinence) 12. Sleep-Wake Disorders 13. Sexual Dysfunctions 14. Gender Dysphoria (marked incongruence between experienced or expressed gender and the one assigned at birth) 15. Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders 16. Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders 17. Neurocognitive Disorders 18. Personality Disorders 19. Medication-Induced Movement Disorders and Other Adverse Effects of Medication 20. Other Condition that May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention

2024/12/14 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Find the side length a of the square A group of 113 poets took inspiration from Taylor Swift’s music
Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 9 of photos Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 7 of photos Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 10 of photos
Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 1 of photos Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 5 of photos Visit to Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit: Batch 8 of photos (1) Images of the day: [Top left] A pioneer and a modern embodiment of Iranian women singers, representing talent and courage. #WomanLifeFreedom [Top center] Math puzzle: Find the side length a of the square. Please note that the diagram isn’t to scale. [Top right] A group of 113 poets, including Pulitzer winners, best sellers and poet laureates, took inspiration from Swift’s music: They each picked one of her tracks and wrote an original poem in response for the collection “Invisible Strings.” [Middle & Bottom rows] Today's visit to Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to see the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit (see the next item below).
(2) Visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: Besides the scrolls and accompanying narratives, which I photographed in two batches of four, there were many artifacts and historical documents on display. At the regular part of the Museum, we got to see Air Force 1, Marine 1, a presidential motorcade, a replica of the Oval Office, a hologram presentation by Reagan, and many memoribilia from Reagan's terms as Governor or California and as US President.
(3) Science magazine picks the breakthroughs of the year for 2024: The following articles appear in a special section of the December 13, 2024, issue.
- Mantle waves sculpt the continents
- Multicellularity came early for ancient eukaryotes
- A new type of magnetism emerges
- Starship sticks the landing
- Organelle discovery adds an evolutionary twist
- RNA-based pesticides enter the field
- JWST probes the cosmic dawn
- Ancient DNA reveals family ties
- Unleashing immune cells on autoimmune disease
(4) Texas wants professors to have no role in devising curricula: Of course! A state panel can do a much better job than subject-area experts. And for movies, producers and directors have too much power. Let’s have a state panel to decide on movie contents.

2024/12/13 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
My updated Web page for ECE 10A/AL, winter 2025 Active and passive circuit elements My updated Web page for ECE 254B, winter 2025 (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] My updated Web page for ECE 1A/AL (Foundations of Analog and Digital Circuits & Systems), winter 2025: The page contains a wealth of information for those interested, including lecture slides, lab descriptions, homework/exam samples, and more. [Right] My updated Web page for ECE 254B (Advanced Computer Architecture: Parallel Processing), winter 2025: The page contains a wealth of information for those interested, including lecture slides, lecture videos, and more.
(2) The two cultures meet again: In an influential public lecture delivered at U. Cambridge in 1959, British chemist and novelist C. P. Snow lamented what he perceived as a breakdown in communication between “the two cultures” of modern society, the sciences and the humanities, arguing that the resulting divide imperiled civilization’s progress. The latest attempt to heed this warning and heal the divide began this fall in Southern California, where more than 70 exhibitions probe terrain where “Art & Science Collide.” Organized by PST ART (previously Pacific Standard Time) and presented by Getty, the initiative includes offerings that explore everything from environmental justice to human-robot dynamics to remote sensing and surveillance.
(3) United Healthcare exec’s shooting heightens the debate over ghost guns (news headline): I hate to break it to you, but ghost guns or other types of guns aren’t the problem. The blame rests entirely on the American gun culture and its Wild-West vigilante mindset. This culture and mindset won’t go away by banning one gun type.
(4) A new vulnerability discovered: A security flaw in AMD computer processors identified by researchers at UK's U. Birmingham, Belgium's KU Leuven, and Germany's U. Luebeck allowed the bypassing of AMD's Secure Encrypted Virtualization technology, which safeguards data stored in shared cloud environments. The researchers used rogue memory modules, known as BadRAM, to trick the CPU into addressing non-existent memory regions, allowing CPU memory protections to be bypassed.
(5) Addressing interconnect challenges for enhanced computing performance: The continued shrinking of integrated circuits is shifting the limits of performance from the transistors themselves to the interconnections between them. Interconnect RC delay has emerged as a bottleneck for device performance. The search for new interconnect materials with low resistivity upon scaling and compatibility with the current CMOS fabrication process is urgent to slow the accelerating pace of RC delay in future electronics.

2024/12/12 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: On the beach, in the pre-Islamic-Revolution Iran The wonderous glass-winged butterfly Cover image of Yuval Noah Harari's 'Nexus'
Math puzzle: Find the exact value of x Math puzzle: Find the length x of AB Math puzzle: Find the radius of the smaller circle (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: On the beach, in the pre-Islamic-Revolution Iran. [Top center] The wonderous glass-winged butterfly. [Top right] Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus (see the last item below). [Bottom row] Find the exact value of x (first two puzzles) and the radius of the smaller circle (the last puzzle).
(2) Iran’s delusional dictator is losing it: In a speech, Khamenei threatened the media to not cover negative stories (about Syria) that frighten and dishearten people. Doing so is a crime and will be confronted as such.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Facebook memory from Dec. 11, 2020: On decluttering your e-mail inbox.
- Facebook memory from Dec. 11, 2015: Electronic menorah assembled from a kit.
- Facebook memory from Dec. 12, 2013: Embarrassing things we all do, and why.
(4) Book review: Harari, Yuval Noah, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, unabridged 17-hour audiobook, read by Vidish Athavale, Random House Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book stands head and shoulder above other books on the AI explosion in terms of accessibility and breadth. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, author of the highly-successful Sapiens and Homo Deus, tells us that we humans are in an existential crisis, despite our seemingly enormous accumulated power, our supposedly high intelligence, and a wealth of mind-boggling discoveries. Aspects of this crisis include an impending ecological collapse, a tsunami of misinformation, and the real possibility that a new AI-backed information network will annihilate us.
Harari’s focus in this book is on the central role of information networks in human societies, taking us from the Stone Age through the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, to the recent resurgence of populism. Exploring how different societies and political systems have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill, Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He tells us that information is not the raw material of truth, nor is it a mere weapon. There is a hopeful middle ground between these extremes.
Information is often wrong, and more information does not necessarily improve matters. “What information does is to create new realities by tying together disparate things. … [We must realize that] errors, lies, fantasies, and fictions are information, too.” It is, therefore, essential that institutions contain self-correcting mechanisms. The US Constitution allows amendments to fix problems, whereas a holy book is deemed an infallible basis for maintaining an eternal order. The tension between truth-seeking and maintenance of order has existed throughout the human history.
According to Harari, democracy isn’t synonymous with majority rule, rather it guarantees everyone liberties that even the majority cannot take away, a notion that seems to have fallen out of favor in today’s world. Democracy is a system of government with distributed decision-making and self-correction mechanisms. Dictatorships are centralized and lack self-correction. Often a dictator rises to power through a democratic process but then systematically eliminates the self-correction mechanisms, until nothing is left to detect and point out errors.
Adding to our already enormous challenges is the ascendance of AI and emerging non-carbon life forms. Silicon-based networks are unlike the printing press, the radio, and other inventions, because they can make decisions and create ideas by themselves. AI’s ability to gather and analyze massive amounts of information and engage in total surveillance “will not necessarily be either bad or good. All we know for sure is that it will be alien and it will be fallible.”

2024/12/11 (Wednesday): Offering 3 book reviews to help clear my backlog of reviews before 2025.
Cover image of ' Cover image of ' Cover image of 'Jews of Iran: A Photographic Chronicle' (1) Book review: Cooper, William and Michael McKinley, A Quiet Life, Arcade, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Michael Housen and Pam, a beautiful woman born in Los Angeles to Iranian parents, are living a quiet life, full of love and mutual admiration, a calm that turns into turmoil on the first page of the novel. The entire story unfolds over a period of two months, June 20 to August 21, during the tenure of the Trump-like 48th US President.
The narrative begins on the wee hours of one morning, when sleepless Michael is fighting the urge to take some of his wife’s sleeping pills, eventually resisting the temptation, because the prospects of being sedated the next day, perhaps the most important day of his life, didn’t appeal to him. He had just learned that his company’s computer system had been hacked, with national security consequences, and he was being investigated as a suspect, given that the unauthorized access had been gained through his computer, after he was fooled by a malicious e-mail. From there, the Iranian cyber-army had hacked a large collection of connected sites, including that of the US Treasury Department, a customer of his company’s security services.
Following cyber-attacks on the US electricity grid, Iran had conducted a major terror-bombing campaign in multiple American cities, as an aerial raid was being waged on Tehran and other Iranian cities by the US and Israel. The unwitting click that started the entire process and gave a belligerent President Davis a pretext for war against Iran turned Michael and Pam into enemies of the state and landed them in private prisons owned by the multibillionaire president. The couple eventually found a set of extraordinary partners that helped them clear their names and stop the global conflict.
The novel is a page-turner. Readers with knowledge of computer systems, cybersecurity in particular, will find it particularly appealing, although it can also form compelling reading for novices being instructed about cybersecurity.
(2) Book review: Levitsky, Steven and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Fred Sanders, Random House Audio, 2018. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book was written and published during Donald Trump's 2017-2020 presidency. With a second Trump presidency looming, it is necessary for us to go back and heed the warning signs that the authors, both Harvard political scientists, have raised.
The authors contend that military coups and revolutions, which used to be the main routes for dictators coming to power, are no longer prevalent. Today’s dictators assume power with support from voters and then attack the institutions that helped them take charge. The book includes case studies from many different countries, including the US, which is the primary subject of the second half of the book, with a few references to other countries for comparison.
Before dying, democracies get sick by the erosion of mutual toleration and respect among political opponents. Donald Trump’s presidency raised a question that we never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? The authors, who have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, maintain that modern dictators kill democracy by a slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and by eroding long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.
The last chapter, “saving democracy,” offers a pledge among several recommendations to save democracy: "We must be humble and bold. We must learn from other countries to see the warning signs. We must be aware of the fateful missteps that have wrecked other democracies. We must see how citizens have risen to meet the great democratic crisis of the past."
(3) Book review: Sarbakhshian, Hassan, Lior B. Sternfeld and Parvaneh Vahidmanesh, Jews of Iran: A Photographic Chronicle, Penn State U. Press, 2022. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This fairly short book consists of an introduction providing an overview of “Iranian Jews in the Twenty-First Century,” two sections containing photos and narratives on “Business and Everyday Life” and “Religious Life and Rituals,” and a concluding chapter.
The introduction contains notes written separately by two of the authors.
Lior Sternfeld tells us that Jews have lived in Iran since the Babylonian exile some 2700 years ago. Over the centuries, Jews were integrated into Iran’s Muslim-majority population and had fairly good social standing. The 1979 Islamic Revolution changed everything. Movies and books portray Iranian Jews as being trapped, with no way out. The revolutionaries’ promise of making Jews and other minorities full-fledged citizens never materialized. In fact, restrictions on the Jewish population drove them toward greater loyalty to Israel and to Zionist aspirations. Institutions and schools, that had been established by Iranian Jews before the Revolution to improve their social mobility, gradually disappeared.
Parvaneh Vahidmanesh tells us that few Jews remain in her city, Tabriz. There were an estimated 100,000 Jews in Iran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the country had friendly relations with Israel, which maintained an embassy on Kakh Avenue in Tehran. The building was confiscated and given to Palestinians shortly after the Revolution. Holocaust deniers within the government and the designation of the last Friday of Ramadan as Quds Day, when marchers chant anti-Israeli slogans and burn the Israeli flag, made life more difficult for Iranian Jews, although they maintained some semblance of normal life, as evident from the pictorials.

2024/12/10 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
US deportations per year under the last four administrations Happy International Human Rights Day! Energy consumption of data centers compared with that of US states and world countries/regions (1) Images of the day: [Left] US deportations per year under the last four administrations. [Center] Happy International Human Rights Day! [Right] Energy consumption of data centers compared with that of US states and world countries/regions.
(2) Multiple Lebanese leaders have been assassinated over the years on orders from Syria and/or Iran: Perhaps Lebanon can now experience a peaceful existence.
(3) The Mufti (Islamic leader) of Jerusalem during 1921-1937 was Haj Amin Hosseini: A staunch anti-Semite, he was in agreement with Hitler’s Final Solution, a codeword for the annihilation of Jews.
(4) Quote of the day: “Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.” ~ Aldous Huxley, British author [1894-1963]
(5) Why did Bashar al-Assad’s regime fall? The social and traditional media are full of "experts" explaining what happened; except that none of these so-called experts had said a word about the possibility of Assad’s regime collapsing before it actually did. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
(6) Iranian mullahs are gloating in the aftermath of Assad’s fall. Some claim that he rejected Iran’s offer of help to eliminate the rebels. Others are praising the Supreme Leader’s "brilliant maneuver" of abandoning Syria to teach enemies a lesson about the importance of Iran’s role in the region.
(7) Parastoo is a singer who is not allowed to sing for her fellow-Iranians because she is a woman, so she arranged this virtual concert. [28-minute video]
(8) True or false? Under some circumstances, hot water freezes faster than cold water: This super-strange statement is actually true. In 1963, a Tanzanian schoolboy Erasto Bartholomeo Mpemba was doing a simple school physics experiment and discovered that hot water freezes faster than cold water. After much ridicule, he eventually met and convinced physicist Dr. Denis Osborne that his experiments were repeatable and together they wrote a paper about what came to be known as the “Mpemba Effect.” Even though the phenomenon has been confirmed, the actual reason is far from clear and there are at least ten competing explanations for it.
E. B. Mpemba and D. G. Osborne, “Cool?” Physics Education, Volume 4, Issue 3, 1969, pp. 172-175. [PDF]

2024/12/09 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
One reason people feel helpless in their fight against health insurance companies: Denial of service translates into fat checks for healthcare CEOs The next time Republicans talk about fiscal conservatism and controlling budget deficits, show them this ABC News chart Shameless: Trump reaches out to Dr. Jill Biden, a member of 'the Biden Crime Family' which he plans to prosecute, during the Notre Dame de Paris reopening ceremony
Saturday’s magical blue skies at Santa Barbara Harbor’s breakwater This plaque at the end of Santa Barbara Harbor’s breakwater commemorates the 34 souls who perished on board the diving boat MV Conception, as a fire engulfed them Cover image of Jessi Gold's 'How Do You Feel?' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] One reason people feel helpless in their fight against health insurance companies: Denial of service translates into fat checks for healthcare CEOs. [Top center] The next time Republicans talk about fiscal conservatism and controlling budget deficits, show them this ABC News chart: The slope of this curve represents budget deficits. It was low until 2000 under presidents from both parties, and it shot up under the last four presidents, two from each party. [Top right] Shameless: Trump reaches out to Dr. Jill Biden, a member of “the Biden Crime Family” which he plans to prosecute, during the Notre Dame de Paris reopening ceremony. [Bottom left] Saturday’s magical blue skies at Santa Barbara Harbor’s breakwater. [Bottom center] This plaque at the end of Santa Barbara Harbor’s breakwater commemorates the 34 souls who perished on board the diving boat MV Conception, as a fire engulfed them and escape became impossible due to a lack of safety provisions. [Bottom right] Jessi Gold's How Do You Feel? (see the last item below)
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Horror stories emerge from Bashar al-Assad's prisons: Rescuers dig deep to get to the torture chambers.
- Golden Globes 2025 nominations announced: Viola Davis to be honored with a Cecil B. DeMille Award.
- Jon Batiste finds the Blues in Beethoven. [43-minute podcast]
(3) Book review: Gold, Jessi, How Do You Feel? One Doctor's Search for Humanity in Medicine, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Keylor Leigh, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I was lucky to attend a UCLA Semel Institute book talk by Dr. Gold on October, 17, 2024, and have incorporated my notes from that session in my review. This thought-provoking memoir, whose chapters alternate between patient stories and the doctor's reflections, follows a psychiatrist and four of her patients as they deal with mental and physical tolls of caring for others.
By weaving research with deeply personal stories and raw emotions, Dr. Gold demonstrates the remarkable capacity of us humans for connecting, learning, and growing. She reminds us that when caring for others, we should not forget to care for ourselves.
Dr. Gold began to examine healthcare systems through the eyes of some of her patients working in the healthcare industry. In discussing burnout, perfectionism, empathy, and the emotional burden of their lines of work, and through her own personal therapy sessions, Dr. Gold recognizes that she is not alone in struggling to maintain her humanity, in a field that she chose because of its humanity in the first place.
Healthcare professionals are trained not to disclose too much information about themselves, so it's refreshing to read about Dr. Gold's experiences and personal challenges. The lack of personal connection is worse in other fields of medicine, but it is quite noticeable in psychiatry as well.
Mental healthcare workers feel disempowered because decisions are made by outside factors such as insurance or cost. Empowering mental healthcare workers will go a long way toward improving diagnoses and outcomes. Like other healthcare workers, mental healthcare professionals spend an inordinate amount of time filling out poorly designed forms, which take away time from keeping up-to-date in their field of expertise and giving personal attention to their patients.
The American healthcare system, including mental healthcare, is in urgent need of reforms, and advocates such as Dr. Gold play a big role in bringing about change.

2024/12/08 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Walking on the breakwater at Santa Barbara Harbor, under Saturday's magical blue skies Saturday, at Santa Barbara Maritime Museum The mullahs are doing the same with Trump (1) Images of the day: [Left] Walking on the breakwater at Santa Barbara Harbor, under Saturday's magical blue skies. [Center] Saturday, at Santa Barbara Maritime Museum: I will likely go back for a second visit, because I had to leave early today due to a personal issue. [Right] The mullahs’ Kereshmeh dance for Trump: In Kereshmeh-style Persian dance, women dancers alternately invite and push away the male observer. The mullahs are doing the same with Trump. One day they order a government official to talk of negotiations and economic ties. The next day they send one of the generals to the microphone to talk of their atomic capabilities and unyielding stance against the Great Satan.
(2) US higher education institutions excel at interdisciplinary research: According to the Times Higher Education Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2025, US dominates the top-10 list (MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, Duke, U. Minnesota, UCSB, and U. Michigan) and has 16 institutions in the top-100.
(3) Democracy is not over: A reassuring piece in The Atlantic about Trump’s band of opportunists and kooks (led by the VP-elect, a person who once compared Trump to Hitler) eventually failing against institutional safeguards and the rule of law.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Notre Dame Cathedral is set to reopen to the public on Sunday, after a five-year labor of love to restore it.
- Instead of arms and warplanes, the Swiss built hundreds of bunkers to protect themselves.
- Veritasium (4-minute video): Why facts don’t matter anymore.
- A love verse from the great Persian poet Sa’adi. [Tweet, with the Persian verse]
(5) Mexico's Silicon Valley: Known as El Centro de Tecnologia de Semiconductores, the Center's early years, 1981-2001, are reviewed in the April-June 2024 issue of IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
(6) The Mufti (Islamic leader) of Jerusalem during 1921-1937 was Haj Amin Hosseini: a staunch anti-Semite, he was in agreement with Hitler’s Final Solution, a codeword for the annihilation of Jews.
(7) We keep on learning from Therac-25 Accidents: "A medical physicist describes events around an accident in which a radiation therapy machine killed two patients due to software bugs, a poor quality user interface, an obscure error message, and the machine's failure to shut itself down permanently after noting that something was very wrong." Therac-25's poor engineering design is one the case studies I cover in my UCSB graduate-level course ECE 257A, Fault-Tolerant Computing.

2024/12/06 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
IranWire cartoon: Iran’s just-passed medieval hijab law subjugates women A gentle math problem: Simplify A 1000-page textbook on electronic circuits (1) Images of the day: [Left] IranWire cartoon of the day: Iran’s just-passed medieval hijab law subjugates women (see also the next item below). [Center] A gentle math problem: Simplify. [Right] A 1000-page textbook on electronic circuits (see the last item below).
(2) The Iranian mullahs enact a medieval law on hijab: The law faces stern opposition from women and human-rights groups. In a December 1 joint statement, activists Nasrin Sotoudeh & Sedigheh Vasmaghi called for the repeal of this shameful law before people take matters into their own hands. The law is widely viewed as a show of force by the Islamic government in light of humiliating defeats on the international scene.
(3) Several Russian state TV figures have praised Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, one TV host gleefully asserting that Trump’s picks will dismantle America.
(4) Iran's Sarrafan Family: The story of a $200 million rice fraud and how one powerful family exploited Iran’s banking, trade, and legal systems for decades, leaving a trail of victims from Lahore in Pakistan to New Delhi in India.
(5) Syrian rebel leader speaks to CNN: “We will form an Islamic government in which minorities are protected,” words that Iranians remember hearing 45 years ago and that make them cringe!
(6) One of my pet peeves, 1000-page textbooks: When I set out to write my graduate-level textbooks on parallel processing and computer arithmetic more than two decades ago, one of my goals was to break the curse of 1000-page textbooks, which were quite bulky and nearly impossible to carry in students' backpacks. You can't say everything there is to say in a field of science or engineering even in 1000 pages, so the goal should be to focus on essential ideas and to leave certain details to other sources. I set my limit at 500 pages and managed to finish both books within the 500-page limit.
Tonight, I am looking at the textbook for the electronic circuits course I'll be teaching next quarter. The book serves a sequence of three UCSB courses, ECE 10A/B/C, but still, 1000 pages is too much in my opinion. I can hardly lift the super-heavy tome. If I were to write an electronic circuits book, I'd limit it to about 300 pages. All the important ideas can be conveyed in 300 pages, and there is no shortage of on-line documents and videos to help fill the gaps. Alas, I am about to retire and don't want to take on another book project!

2024/12/05 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Photograph of all the workers who helped restore the Notre Dame Cathedral after its devastating fire The current status of Syria: Map of rebel advances Book talk about Isfahan as an early modern city (1) Images of the day: [Left] Photograph of all the workers who helped restore the Notre Dame Cathedral after its devastating fire. [Center] The current status of Syria: Assad forces control central and southern Syria. The rebel forces, who were previously confined to a small region in the northwest, have moved eastward and southward to take over the two major cities of Aleppo and Hama. They are still on the move. [Right] Book talk about Isfahan as an early modern city (see the next item below).
(2) "Isfahan: Architecture and Urban Experience in Early Modern Iran—A Daylong Journey in Safavid Isfahan": This was the title of today's interesting book talk by Farshid Emami of Rice University.
"A vibrant urban settlement from medieval times and the royal seat of the Safavid dynasty, the city of Isfahan emerged as a great metropolis during the seventeenth century. Using key sources, this book reconstructs the spaces and senses of this dynamic city."
"Focusing on nuances of urban experience, Farshid Emami expands our understanding of Isfahan in a global context. He takes the reader on an evocative journey through the city’s markets, promenades, and coffeehouses, bringing to life the social landscapes that animated the lives of urban dwellers and shaped their perceptions of themselves and the world. In doing so, Emami reveals seventeenth-century Isfahan as more than a cluster of beautiful monuments and gardens. It was a cosmopolitan city, where senses and materials, nature and artifice, and ritual and sociability acted in unison, engendering urban experiences that became paramount across the globe during the early modern period."
"Drawing extensively on Persian literary and visual sources, including the 'Guide for Strolling in Isfahan,' this book casts new light on the history of a major Eurasian city and opens up new possibilities for cross-cultural studies of urban experience in the early modern period."
(3) Bernie Sanders: It's time to take on the greed of the food and beverage industry to curb the rise in type-2 diabetes and the related obesity epidemic. Putting warning labels in front (not back) of food packaging is part of the proposed solution.
(4) The very first virtual meeting was in 1916, a century before Zoom took over our lives: At 8:30 PM on 16 May 1916, John J. Carty banged his gavel at the Engineering Societies Building in New York City to call to order a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. This was no ordinary gathering.
The AIEE had decided to conduct a live national meeting connecting more than 5,000 attendees in eight cities across four time zones. Telephone lines linked auditoriums from coast to coast.
AIEE members and guests in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco had telephone receivers at their seats so they could listen in.
The AIEE, a predecessor to the IEEE, orchestrated this event to commemorate recent achievements in communications, transportation, light, and power. The meeting was a triumph of engineering, covered in newspapers in many of the host cities.

2024/12/04 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Venn diagram of Trump top-level appointees shows three groups My December 5, 2024, IEEE Central Coast Section talk will be held with the section's holiday banquet at Mulligan's cafe NYT chart: Are wealthy Americans cheating on estate taxes? (1) Images of the day: [Left] Venn diagram of Trump top-level appointees shows three groups: Those with ties to Project 2025 or the America First Policy Institute; Fox News hosts and contributors; Those who held events at Mar-a-Lago. [Center] My December 5, 2024, IEEE Central Coast Section talk, entitled “The Science and Engineering Behind Democratic Elections,” will be held with the section's holiday banquet at Mulligan's cafe, Santa Barbara Golf Club. [Right] Are wealthy Americans cheating on estate taxes? Since 2000, the wealth of the richest Americans has quadrupled. Yet estate tax receipts have not gone up, according to New York Times.
(2) I just finished the 6-week Iran Academia course on "Gender and Budgeting": The course was successful in impressing upon me the importance of putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to advancing gender equity goals. Gender-aware public policy decisions in general, and budgeting in particular, play a big role in achieving desired equity outcomes.
On the negative side, the course, consisting of reading material and lectures, was rather dry, as it lacked any aids, such as charts, trend lines, and concrete examples. The reading material in Persian were difficult to follow because they bore signs of being literal translations from English. I hope the future editions of this course are improved to make it more useful as a general source of knowledge in the domain of gender equity.
(3) Microsoft founder Paul Allen’s impressive collection of historic tech gadgets and other memorabilia, formerly kept at a Seattle museum, were put on the auction block.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Australia’s law to ban social-media use for children under 16 passes with broad support.
- Is the Assad regime doomed? Iran begins to evacuate military officials and personnel from Syria. [NYT]
- How a digital twin became the blueprint for restoring Notre-Dame de Paris.
- Photos of Sepehr and me, shot last Friday on Santa Barbara’s East Beach by my brother-in-law Armin.
(5) Free instruction for people with a loved one facing mental illness: Classes described in this flyer, plus a class in Spanish (SB, 1/6-2/24, Mondays, 6:00-8:30 PM) are held in the Santa Barbara and Santa Maria areas, but NAMI has affiliates elsewhere, including throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
(6) Martial law in South Korea: President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law late Tuesday, vowing to eliminate “anti-state” forces as he struggles against an opposition that controls the country’s parliament and that he accuses of sympathizing with communist North Korea. Less than three hours later, parliament voted to lift the declaration, with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik declaring that the martial law was “invalid” and that lawmakers “will protect democracy with the people.”

2024/12/01 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Saturday night's Bee Gees tribute band concert at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theater Math puzzle: Find the length of the red line segment as a function of R and r More photos from November 30, 2024, at the Santa Barbara Cemetery (1) Images of the day: [Left] Saturday night's Bee Gees tribute band concert at Santa Barbara’s Granada Theater: The SF-based band played a large collection of Bee Gees songs, with skill and high energy (video 1; video 2; on YouTube). [Center] Math puzzle: Find the length of the red line segment as a function of R and r. [Right] More photos from November 30, 2024, at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.
(2) Give me a break! Yes, I dislike the fact that Biden pardoned his own son, but where was the outrage when Trump pardoned a family member and several of his partners in crime?
(3) GGM’s magical realism on screen: For decades, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Nobel-Prize-winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, a masterpiece of magical realism, was avoided by filmmakers. Netflix’s 16-episode adaptation was shot on location in Marquez’s native Colombia with the backing of his family.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UN talks on limiting plastics pollution by curbing production collapse.
- Cucumbers grown in Mexico & distributed by SunFed Produce have been recalled after tens of people got sick.
- The Fermi Paradox (about alien life) and several other mind-boggling paradoxes in our universe.
- Share of all-cash home-buyers hits 33%, making the market even tougher for first-time buyers. [Tweet]
- Smithsonian Magazine: Engineers choose the ten best STEM toys to gift in 2024.
- All about Syria: Who leads Assad's opposition and where was he until now? [20-minute podcast, in Persian]
(5) Oxford University Press’s word of the year is “brain rot,” a phrase commonly used on social media to describe the deterioration of a person’s mental state brought on by overconsumption of trivial online content.
(6) Beyond representative democracy: Conducting free and fair elections to pick our representatives & leaders is the current gold standard for democratic government. Unfortunately, these representatives & leaders come from a relatively small group of citizens (predominantly, highly-educated and wealthy).
Sortition-based democracy gives the reigns of power to a randomly-chosen group of citizens, typically serving for only one year. This kind of selection is what we do for juries, which, according to Alexis de Tocqueville, is the most enviable part of the American system. One may worry about non-specialists making important governmental decisions, but the jury will have specialists and lobbyists at its disposal to help it see the various viewpoints. This 10-minute video describes the basics of sortition-based democracy.

2024/11/29 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Salem Parhami Family in perfect attendance Sunset at Santa Barbara's East Beach Cover image of the December 2024 special issue of IEEE Computer magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] My complete extended family at Santa Barbara Cemetery and on East Beach (see the last item below). [Center] Sunset at Santa Barbara's East Beach. [Right] The December 2024 special issue of IEEE Computer magazine focuses on computing for agricultural and urban environments: The included articles discuss drone technologies, artificial intelligence, and computer vision in domains such as real-time insect detection, attacks against city-scale drone deployments, and transformative intersections.
(2) Black Friday: A day when Americans trample others to get to on-sale items, exactly one day after giving thanks for all the things they have.
(3) Aleppo falls to Syrian rebels: This is hardly a cause for joy. The so-called "rebels" are as bad for the people as Assad, the butcher of Syria. Assad's forces are preparing for a counter-offensive, which will lead to more death and destruction.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Saudis are pushing to block the signing of a global plastics treaty.
- Counteracting disinformation: PEN America’s interviews with reporters from NYT and Texas Tribune.
- An abundance of talent: Liber Tango, as you have never heard it before.
(5) Today, our entire family of 19 gathered at Santa Barbara Cemetery to pay respects to my mom's memory, two years after her passing: I read the Persian version of the following letter at her tomb. Later in the day, we dined at an East Beach restaurant.
Dearest mom: On this Friday after Thanksgiving Day 2024, all of your family members, that is, four children, seven grandchildren, four sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and three great-grandchildren, have gathered on your tomb to express our love and pay respects to a precious mother and loving grandmother & great-grandmother.
Your place was so empty at yesterday's family celebration of Thanksgiving. Your 94-year presence in the family is one of the items we are thankful for. You loved the Thanksgiving holiday, because it brought your entire family, some coming annually from distant cities, to Southern California, to be around you and to celebrate with you. One of your final worries in November 2022 was that you might not make it to Thanksgiving and also not get to see Yalda's son. This is, unfortunately, what happened, as you joined our beloved father in your final resting place 10 days before Thanksgiving and a couple of months before Aiden was born.
Here is our message to you: We adore you and we remember you fondly. Whenever we do something without you that we used to do together, it brings back your sweet memories. Frequent, large parties that you hosted in order to bring the family together and to nourish the family bonds made us more hopeful and strengthened our resolve. Thinking of you still accomplishes the same end.
Your anniversary of passing coinciding with Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to honor you and to send blessings to your soul in our annual gatherings. I hope knowing that your family members are inseparable and thankful for your love would allow you to stop worrying about your absence on Thanksgiving Day and to rest in eternal peace.
Your memory is always with us. May your soul be blessed. Your son, Behrooz

2024/11/28 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: In 1939, FDR moved up the Thanksgiving Day by a week to stimulate holiday shopping & boost the economy (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy Thanksgiving Day! I realize that times are tough for Americans and even tougher for many people around the world. Yet giving thanks for the love, friendships, shelter, and food that we enjoy is a prerequisite for happiness and avoidance of the sins of glut & envy. [Center] Throwback Thursday: In 1939, FDR moved up the Thanksgiving Day by a week to stimulate holiday shopping & boost the economy. Retailers were pleased but many others didn’t like the break with tradition or were ambivalent. In 1941, Congress standardized the date for the whole country. Roosevelt folded & signed the change into law. [Right] CACM cover image, December 2024 (see the next item below).
(2) Responsible deployment of AI systems: The EU AI Act passed by the European Parliament will now be implemented in 27 member states of the EU. It is the first major law aimed at regulating AI across sectors, with a focus on risk management, transparency, ethical governance, and human oversight. AI systems categorized as high risk will be subject to stringent regulations to ensure they do not compromise human rights or safety.
(3) Several universities, including U. Mass Amherst, MIT, and Wesleyan U., have encouraged their international students and employees to come back from the winter holiday break ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
(4) TikTok's CEO summoned to EU Parliament: EU lawmakers have questions about the platform's role in Sunday's Romanian presidential election. The first-round victory of the ultranationalist and pro-Russian Calin Georgescu has triggered concerns over how a TikTok campaign managed to propel the relatively unknown candidate to a win using thousands of fake accounts. [Politico]
(5) Pigeon-inspired flying robot: David Lentink at U. Groningen & colleagues have solved the mystery of how birds fly without the vertical tail fins on which human-designed aircraft rely. The researchers programmed a computer to control the nine servomotors in Pigeonbot II to steer it using propellers on each wing, but also to automatically twist and fan the tail to create the stability that would normally come from a vertical fin.
(6) Tom Nichols, writing in The Atlantic: “Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope. Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child. He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people. All of them can be beaten: in court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena. America is a federal republic, and the states—at least those in the union that will still care about democracy—have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president. Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight.”

2024/11/26 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A few Facebook memories from November 26 of years past Math puzzle: If the smaller circle has the same area as the rectangle, what is the ratio R/r of the two radii? Meme: Science deniers love their high-speed Internet, which they use to spread lies on social media (1) Images of the day: [Left] A few Facebook memories from November 26 of years past. [Center] Math puzzle: If the smaller circle has the same area as the rectangle, what is the ratio R/r of the two radii? [Right] Science deniers love their high-speed Internet, which they use to spread lies on social media.
(2) Israel-Hezbollah cease fire to take effect tomorrow: Some media stories report on an Israel-Lebanon truce, but Israel was never at war with Lebanon.
(3) Eight authentic Dead Sea Scrolls and over 200 artifacts from the Second Temple period will be on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential library until September 2, 2025.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Khamenei says that an arrest warrant for Netanyahu isn't enough: He must be executed.
- What a coincidence: In 2025, presidential inauguration falls on MLK Day.
- UCSB Police seeks access to pro-Palestinian Instagram accounts to unmask Girvetz Hall vandals.
- An article about violence against women and the origins of Nov. 25 being set to recognize and fight it.
- American colleges and universities’ R&D spending topped $108.8 billion in fiscal year 2023. [Forbes]
- Persian music, performed by a mother-daughter team. [Reel]
(5) Coverage of weight-loss drugs by Medicare & Medicaid is a positive development: However, unless major discounts are negotiated with their manufacturers, healthcare costs will skyrocket, leading to significant premium increases for seniors.
(6) PEN America discussion held on Nov. 15, Day of the Imprisoned Writer: Language and the imagination that fuels it open up new worlds for those living under repressive regimes. This is why, all too often, those in power target the writers whose lives are built out of the very language governments seek to control.
(7) Microarchitectural weird machines: Writing in the Dec. 2024 issue of CACM, Thomas Benjamin et al. show how certain observable microarchitectural properties, that are not available to the architecture-level programmer, can be used to run a weird machine underneath and in parallel with the main machine. For example, whether a piece of data is in the data cache affects the data access speed, thus defining a binary variable in the weird machine. Such weird machines can run fairly sophisticated programs, which are usable in both offensive and defensive adversarial scenarios in future.

2024/11/25 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: Kamala Harris abstract silhouette Humor: The revenge of bananas (1) Images of the day: [Left] November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: Observed since 1981, the date was selected to honor the Mirabal sisters, three activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country's ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961). [Center] One thing we learned from the 2024 election is that good intentions and compassionate programs aren’t enough: The plans have to be packaged in easily understandable pitches targeted at different demographics. Young men, older women, and Latino men weren’t adequately targeted by the Harris campaign. [Right] Humor: The revenge of bananas.
(2) A lurid case of violence against women: As we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the trial of a French man who allowed and even encouraged many strangers to rape his wife, while she was drugged and rendered unconscious, is coming to a close. Prosecutors are asking for the maximum 20-year sentence for the victim’s ex-husband, a slap on the wrist in my humble opinion. Punishments sought for the other men involved are as yet unclear.
(3) ACM Gordon Bell Prize, 2024: The honor went to an 8-member team drawn from Australian and US institutions for the project, “Breaking the Million-Electron and 1 EFLOP/s Barriers: Biomolecular-Scale Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Using MP2 Potentials.” Using a new technique, the team achieved a record-breaking performance in simulating more than a million electrons for a computational chemistry application, and scaled their algorithm to an EFLOP/s.
(4) ETH Zurich has tightened its admissions criteria for master’s and PhD programs in certain science and technology fields to comply with Swiss laws aimed at countering international espionage. The new policy is aimed at students applying to fields that can have military applications, including information technology, engineering, and AI.
(5) Israeli-led consortium publishes cell atlas of the human body: The first draft of the Human Cell Atlas, a comprehensive database of human cells, has been published. The project, launched in 2016, aims to create comprehensive reference maps of all human cells as a basis for understanding human health and for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating disease.
(6) There's no reason to avoid seed oils and plenty of reasons to eat them: Another pseudoscientific war being waged on social media is about seed oils. RFK Jr., the soon-to-be cabinet member in charge of our health, wants to remove certain seed oils from our diets, and fluoride from our drinking water. Scientific studies are against his views in both domains, but hey, who cares about the views of elite, highly-educated scientists when supplements-peddling charlatans say otherwise?

2024/11/24 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
UCSB Middle East Ensemble in concert Amazing math: This formula yields the correct decimal digits of pi to over 42 billion digits, but produces incorrect values once we reach 43 billion digits IKEA has smarter cabinets than Trump! (1) Images of the day: [Left] Middle Eastern music (see the next item below). [Center] Amazing math: This formula yields the correct decimal digits of pi to over 42 billion digits, but produces incorrect values once we reach 43 billion digits. [Right] IKEA has smarter cabinets than Trump!
(2) Saturday night’s UCSB Middle East Ensemble Concert: The Ensemble presented a suite of traditional Arab instrumental music, a song by the Arab superstar Umm Kulthum (Alexis Story Crawshaw, solo vocal), a Tunisian song, two Armenian songs, and a 10th-century Hebrew song from Yemen.
As always, Alexandra King brought dancers to perform Egyptian, Lebanese, Persian, and Turkish dances (with vocal solos by Javid John Mosadeghi and Dylan Rodgers). Additionally, there were two sets of extended solo dances by Genavieve and Zia.
[Full program, with song lyrics] [A dance from the Lebanon/Syria region] [Persian Kereshmeh dance] [An Israeli song] [An Armenian song, whose melody bears a strong resemblance to the Persian oldie “Ki-ye Ki-ye Dar Mi-Zaneh”] [A stick-dance from Northern Egypt]
(3) Why Persian Jews became musicians in large numbers: The Dardashtis tell their grandfather's story at refugee commemoration in London.
(4) We have heard enough of your monologues: Brave student invites officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran to a dialogue/debate. [Tweet, with video]
(5) The American Dental Association supports community water fluoridation as a safe and effective way to prevent tooth decay: Brace for yet another fight between science and Trumpism.
(6) Friday's ECE Distinguished Lecture at UCSB: Dr. Nikhil Shukla (U. Virginia) spoke under the title "Analog vs. Digital Computing: Revisiting the Old to Innovate the New."
In the 1930s, analog computing was the only game in town. The emergence of more-flexible, higher-precision digital computers in the 1940s quickly put an end to the reign of analog computers, which were relegated to certain niche applications. More recently, the slowing down of Moore's Law, one of the primary drivers of digital computing, has forced us to look for alternatives (neuromorphic, optical, probabilistic, quantum) and to reexamine old technologies (analog) to see if they can offer solutions to tough computational problems by themselves or in combination with current digital methods.
Non-von Neumann analog computing platforms capable of harnessing the physics of natural systems offer a promising paradigm. In his presentation, Dr. Shukla addressed the opportunities as well as the challenges of this computing paradigm. Against this backdrop, he described some of his lab’s recent experimental and theoretical results on implementing oscillator-based dynamical systems. Specifically, he presented the design and implementation of oscillator Ising machines (and their extensions) to solve hard combinatorial optimization problems.
Dr. Shukla concluded by discussing his lab’s ongoing efforts to leverage oscillator dynamics in other computing paradigms, such as probabilistic computing and identified some crucial performance metrics that would need to be achieved for such systems to become competitive computing platforms in the future.

2024/11/22 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Find the length L Math puzzle: Find the fraction of the rectangle’s area that is shaded
My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is fully set up now: Photo 1 My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is fully set up now: Photo 2 My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is fully set up now: Photo 4 (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Math puzzle: Find the length L. [Top center] Baha’i women in the city of Khoi, Iran, nearly a century ago: Iranian Islamist rulers continue to harass and imprison Baha’is with a variety of fictitious charges. [Top right] Math puzzle: Find the fraction of the rectangle’s area that is shaded. [Bottom row] My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is fully set up now and I look forward to using it.
(2) New supercomputer champ: LLNL’s El Capitan dethrones Frontier as the world's fastest supercomputer. In a recent test, El Capitan achieved 1.742 exaFLOPs of performance.
(3) The first IBM Quantum System One is online: Housed at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, the 127-qubit system provides researchers, students, and organizations dedicated access to a utility-scale quantum computer that will help solve problems in chemistry, physics, materials, and other fields.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Much of the US West Coast is under threat by an atmospheric river and a bomb cyclone.
- US proposes break-up of Google via the sale of its popular Chrome browser to fix
- US Secretary of Education: From 45’s Betsy DeVos to 47’s former WWE CEO Linda McMahon.
- The Nile is Egypt’s lifeblood and the government is willing to protect its waters by any means, even war.
- What is art? This age-old question came to the forefront again with the sale of a taped banana for $6.2M.
(5) Key Project 2025 figure to join Trump’s cabinet: Russell Vought, who would lead the Office of Management and Budget, has spent years building plans to rework the American structure of government in ways that would enhance presidential power. [NYT]
(6) Several Republican senators have stood by Hegseth despite sexual misconduct allegations, noting that no charges were filed: So, if filing of charges is a determining factor, how do you justify your support for Trump?
(7) Does a long freight train need more power than a Boeing plane? Not even close! A Boeing 747–400 with four engines at cruise is generating a little over 95,000 horsepower. To pull a mile-long freight train with a weight of ~15,000 tons on flat territory two engines, each with 4300 horsepowers, will do.

2024/11/20 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy World Children’s Day IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk on graph signal processing Peanuts cartoon: Love and compassion are prerequisites for greatness
UCSB IEE's Emerging Technologies Review: Panel discussion UCSB IEE's Emerging Technologies Review: Poster session UCSB IEE's Emerging Technologies Review: Lunch break (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Happy World Children’s Day: Every day, children are being let down by members of the clergy, athletic coaches, tech execs, and politicians. On this day, we reiterate our stance that “enough is enough”! see also the next item below. [Top center] IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk on graph signal processing (see the next to the last item below). [Top right] Love and compassion are prerequisites for greatness. [Bottom row] UCSB IEE's Emerging Technologies Review (see the last item below).
(2) On the occasion of World Children’s Day: Republicans pretend to be protectors of families and children, to the extent that they make up fictitious child-trafficking rings run by Democrats from the basement of a specific pizza parlor, a joint that happens to have no basement. Now, faced with real child-trafficking and sex with underage girls by their own politicians, suddenly the GOP isn’t as interested in protecting children.
(3) A Facebook post from Nov. 20, 2020, which is still worth sharing: The story of a Syrian man living in Germany, with two wives and 7 kids, in a 5-room apartment provided by the government. The man, who neither speaks German nor works, plans to go back to Syria to marry a third wife.
(4) Tonight’s IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Graph Signal Processing is, as its name implies, signal processing applied on graphs. Classical signal processing is done on signals that are ordered along some axis. For example, if we take the alternating current waveform, it can be represented as a periodic curve along the x axis. Dr. Gareth W. Peters (UCSB) presented a review of core ideas on graph signal reconstruction and regression on a single graph and on graph product tensor-valued data settings. The talk was based on the following published work.
E. Antonian, G. W. Peters, and M. Chantler, "Bayesian reconstruction of Cartesian product graph signals with general patterns of missing data," J. Franklin Institute, Vol. 361, No. 9, 2024.
(5) Emerging Technologies Review 2024: Under the auspices of Institute for Energy Efficiency, an all-day workshop on climate risk and smart food systems was held today at UCSB’s Henley Hall, titled “Managing Water Security and Energy Transition from Farm to Market. Four agricultural industry execs discussed the challenges of meeting mandates and guidelines on the road to decarbonization, given the unpredictable nature of the ag business and impacts of long-term droughts and climate change. [Program]Lwine from a local winery and fruit samples (along with a letter) from the local Abbott Ranch.
Lunch featured wine from a local winery and fruit samples (along with a letter) from the local Abbott Ranch. A poster session followed. I could not attend any other afternoon session due to teaching commitments.

2024/11/19 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Find the area of the quadrangle Firearms are now the leading cause of death for our children: NYT chart Cartoon: Trump advisors in training (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Find the area of the quadrangle. [Center] Firearms are now the leading cause of death for our children: Thoughts and prayers won’t bring the rate down. We have to act. [Right] Cartoon of the day: Trump advisors in training.
(2) Elon Musk proposes $2 trillion cuts to the $6.75 trillion federal budget: He warns that there will be some “temporary” hardships. Not to him, of course! The world’s richest man will get his tax cuts and fat contracts.
(3) Republican false-flag efforts, funded by Elon Musk and his friends, were designed to turn off Harris voters: Muslims in Michigan began seeing pro-Israel ads this fall praising Vice President Kamala Harris for marrying a Jewish man and backing the Jewish state. Jews in Pennsylvania, meanwhile, saw ads from the same group with the opposite message: Harris wanted to stop US arms shipments to Israel. [Washington Post]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- One dead, 15 hospitalized in cases linked to organic carrots sold by stores such as Wegmans & Trader Joe’s.
- Gunmen attacked and looted about 100 trucks carrying desperately needed supplies into Gaza.
- Trump picks wrestling executive Linda McMahon as education secretary: Where is Hulk Hogan?
- Nazis paraded in Columbus, Ohio, confidently and with little reaction from the police.
- Small bundles of paper that can be turned into beautiful flowers with some skill and patience.
- The Daily Show’s take on why the Democrats lost and on Trump cabinet nominations. [35-minute video]
(5) Russia postpones three scientific megaprojects: Plans for building or improving major research facilities where Russian scientists can probe the structure of molecules and materials have hit a significant snag. Officials announced late last month that they have postponed efforts to build a new synchrotron light source, modernize an existing light source, and expand a neutron research center. [From Science magazine]
(6) Latinas, constituting 12% of registered female voters, have been missing from election analyses: They voted for Kamala Harris in a 3-to-2 ratio.
(7) The 2024 presidential election wasn’t about culture: It was about gender. According to a NYT/Siena-College battleground poll from August, men from every age cohort were more likely to support Trump, while women in every age cohort were more likely to support Harris. In that poll, the biggest gap was among the youngest cohort — 53 percent of men ages 18-29 planned to support Trump, compared to just 29 percent of women. Even among Latinos/Latinas, men preferred Trump while women went for Harris. [ABC News & LA Times]

2024/11/18 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Meme: Hostage-taker now advocates negotiations with the US There are 16 circles in this image which are hard to find at first, but once you see them, they stay with you Cover image of Amor Towles' 'A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the 1979 hostage takers at the American Embassy in Tehran, has had a change of heart: She urges the mullahs to negotiate with Trump in order to improve the situation in the region & the world. Perhaps one reason is that her children live abroad. [Center] The coffer illusion: There are 16 circles in this image which are hard to find at first, but once you see them, they stay with you. [Right] Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel (see the last item below).
(2) Republicans have had a change of heart since Donald Trump’s victory: They now think that the US elections are secure and that the economy is doing great (consumer confidence among the Republicans is up).
(3) Bad news for US science: “The campaign promises that propelled Republican President-elect Donald Trump to a decisive victory last week over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, including huge tax cuts and tough anti-immigration measures, threaten collateral damage to the US research enterprise, science advocates say. They foresee less money for basic research and a restricted flow of foreign scientists into the country. They also expect the new administration to ignore the scientific consensus on numerous topics, including climate change and public health.” [From a Science magazine analysis, Nov. 15, 2024]
(4) Book review: Towles, Amor, A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel, unabridged 18-hour audiobook, read by Nicholas Guy Smith, Penguin Audio, 2016. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I hesitated to read this book, despite its glowing reviews, because I was put off by its title, heralding the story of a man of privilege, who was bred to consider work below his dignity and expecting his every whim attended to, in a country which isn't very popular right now. Bill Gates helps those of us who are put off by the novel's title when he deems the novel "an amazing story because it manages to be a little bit of everything. There’s fantastical romance, politics, espionage, parenthood, and poetry. The book is technically historical fiction, but you’d be just as accurate calling it a thriller or a love story. Even if Russia isn’t on your must-visit list, I think everyone can enjoy Towles’s trip to Moscow."
Count Alexander Rostov, a wealthy man living in Moscow's Metropol Hotel, is sentenced by the new Communist regime to a life of exile within the hotel, except that he is moved from his luxurious suite to a cramped attic room, where he ends up living for decades. He witnesses the unfolding of the Bolshevik Revolution and regime from his vantage point. He makes the best of his limited life, combatting depression and suicidal thoughts by developing relationships, becoming a father, and starting a career as a waiter. That such a story ends up being a page-turner is testament to Amor Towles' skill in developing characters, creating tense situations, and mixing the realistic elements of his story with a good dose of observations about the human condition.
Perhaps the following observation can be used to sum up the novel: "What can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only consideration, but 're-consideration'—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour."

2024/11/17 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Fall colors with mirror symmetry Fall colors, with winter colors waiting to move in Cover image of Patric Gagne's 'Sociopath: A Memoir' (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Fall colors with mirror symmetry and winter colors waiting to move in. [Right] Patric Gagne's Sociopath: A Memoir (see the last item below).
(2) Today's celebration of the life of Miye Tachihara Ota [1918-2024] at Pepe’s Mexican Restaurant in Goleta: A large number of family members and friends paid respects to the matriarch of the Ota family, who recently passed away at 106.
(3) We seem to be falling into the same trap that Trump set for us during 2017-2020: He throws so many shiny objects in the air that our reaction to each and every one of them leaves us exhausted and ineffective. Let us slow down and make sure that we don’t miss any important shiny object by focusing on decoys.
(4) Book review: Gagne, Patric, Sociopath: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I was fortunate to be able to attend a Semel Institute (UCLA) talk by the author on September 25, 2024. The talk’s flyer described the author thus: “Patric Gagne, PhD, is a passionate mother and wife, an engaging therapist, a charming and well-liked friend, member of a country club who throws parties, lives in a nice house, is a writer, cook, she votes and makes people laugh. She has a dog and a cat and waits in carpool lines next to other women with dogs and cats. On the surface, she resembles almost every other average American woman, a happy mommy, a loving partner. Patric Gagne is also a sociopath.”
This inspiring story of the author’s struggle to understand and come to terms with her own sociopathy teaches us about the oft-misunderstood mental disorder. As the author embarked on a journey to change her fate and build a life full of love and hope, she realized, even before attending kindergarten, that others were uncomfortable around her. She didn’t understand why people reacted to her the way they did.
It wasn’t until she went to college that she developed an understanding of her sociopathic condition. The disorder had been known for a century, but mental health professionals paid little attention to it. Inexplicably, she was told that there was no treatment for her condition, which led to her being haunted by sociopaths in pop culture, monstrous madmen and evil villains.
Reconnecting with an old flame made the author realize that perhaps she isn’t a monster, given her ability to love. Her sweetheart and some curious characters she met along the way helped her embark on a mission to prove that the millions of Americans who share her diagnosis aren’t all monsters either.

2024/11/15 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Statues from 2500 years ago accidentally discovered in 1972 by a snorkeler New Yorker cartoon: The new administration is being shaped Cover image of Andrew Sean Greer's 'Less: A Novel' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Statues from 2500 years ago: In 1972, while snorkeling off the coast of Monasterace near Riace, Stefano Mariottini spotted what appeared to be a human hand protruding from the sand. Assuming it was a corpse, he called the police. To his astonishment, the discovery turned out to be two ancient Greek bronze statues known as the "Warriors from Riace.” [Center] New Yorker cartoon of the day: The new administration is being shaped. [Right] Andrew Sean Greer's Less: A Novel (see the last item below).
(2) Mike Pence is against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becoming secretary of Health and Human Services: When I read the headline, I thought Pence is redeeming himself, until I noticed that he cited Kennedy’s support for abortion rights, not his anti-science views and promotion of conspiracy theories.
(3) Ugliness next to a historical monument: A high-rise building may be erected next to the beautiful, historic Santa Barbara Mission.
(4) Shiny objects: We seem to be falling into the same trap Trump set for us during 2017-2020. He throws so many shiny objects in the air that our reaction to each and every one of them leaves us exhausted and ineffective. Let us slow down and make sure that we don’t miss any important shiny object by focusing on unimportant ones.
(5) Book review: Greer, Andrew Sean, Less: A Novel, Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The novel begins: "From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad. Look at him: seated primly on the hotel lobby's plush round sofa, blue suit and white shirt, legs knee-crossed to that one polished loafer hangs free of its heel." This is our introduction to the slim homosexual protagonist, a novelist, who is mistaken for a woman.
As Arthur Less approaches 50, nothing is going well for him. His first book was a moderate success, garnering a review from a big-name critic. “But every author can taste the poison another has slipped into the punch.” Less checks with his lover, an older poet, to find out what the critic meant by calling him “a magniloquent spoony.” He didn't like the reply: "He's just calling you a faggot."
Out of desperation, Less starts accepting gigs that no self-respecting author would entertain. These gigs take him to Mexico, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, and other places, where he participates in reading books, conducting creative writing workshops, and accepting awards no one had heard of. Less is stunned to find that one of these awards is judged and given out by a group of high-school students.
The reader, who may have begun indifferent to Less's struggles, will likely begin cheering him on, as his adventures around the world unfold. This alternately funny and wise book won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

2024/11/14 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Grace Hopper’s A-0 compiler paved the way for modern programming languages Throwback Thursday: Old-style mortadella sandwiches and a Canada Dry drink, from pre-Revolution Iran The Kelpies: A pair of steel horse-heads between the Scottish towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth. Each head is 30 meters (~100 ft) high
Things can change dramatically over 1000 years The circus is back in town ('The Atlantic' cover image) President Biden welcomes President-Elect Trump to the White House as a gesture toward peaceful and orderly transition (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: Grace Hopper’s A-0 compiler paved the way for modern programming languages. [Top center] Throwback Thursday: Old-style mortadella sandwiches and a Canada Dry drink, from pre-Revolution Iran. [Top right] The Kelpies: A pair of steel horse-heads between the Scottish towns of Falkirk and Grangemouth. Each head is 30 meters (~100 ft) high. [Bottom left] Things can change a lot over 1000 years. [Bottom center] The circus is back in town (The Atlantic cover image). [Bottom right] President Biden welcomes President-Elect Trump to the White House as a gesture toward peaceful and orderly transition, a courtesy Trump did not show to his successor. He was also a no-show at Biden’s inauguration.
(2) Infowars to become a satirical news site: The Onion, which has bought Alex Jones’s Infowars out of bankruptcy, plans to turn it into a parody of itself, mocking weird internet personalities who peddle conspiracy theories and health supplements. [NYT]
(3) A silly AI error: Content emanating from Coulsdon, England, was censored by Facebook's algorithms, apparently because of the letters “lsd” in the town's name.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Elon Musk has reportedly met with Islamic Republic's Ambassador to the United Nations.
- After months of behind-the-scenes testing, Waymo robotaxis have become available in Los Angeles.
- US Christian Nationalists won't stop at a total abortion ban. They want the 19th amendment repealed. [NPR]
- The Beatles’ unfinished song, “Now and Then,” completed with AI assist & nominated for a Grammy.
(5) Learning surgery from how-to videos: An AI model developed by Johns Hopkins U. researchers enables robots to perform complex surgeries after watching how-to videos. The imitation learning model was trained on a vast amount of footage captured by wrist-mounted cameras on da Vinci Surgical System robots.
(6) “America’s Trust in Science: What’s Changed, What’s Next?”: This was the title of today’s AAAS panel discussion, featuring a breakdown of Pew’s 2024 trust-in-science survey results, released this morning. There is some moderately good news. The public trust in science, which dropped by 14 points during the COVID years, exhibits an uptick of 3-5 points. My haunch is that the previous drop wasn’t entirely due to COVID and that Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies played big parts in it. A major uptick in high-profile research misconduct and retractions didn’t help our cause. We have to brace for more of the same over the next four years, while trying to increase the effectiveness of our public interface.

2024/11/12 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Visiting my aunt Victoria in Los Angeles: Batch 5 of photos Visiting my aunt Victoria in Los Angeles: Batch 10 of photos These two T-shirts of mine, and others about freedom and women’s rights, are even more necessary in 2025 than before (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] On Moday, I traveled to Los Angeles to visit my aunt Victoria, the wife of my late uncle Younes and a close friend of my mom. [Right] These two T-shirts of mine, and others about freedom and women’s rights, are even more necessary in 2025 than before. [Right] The myth that Elon Musk founded Tesla persists: He was actually an early investor who subsequently pushed out the original founders.
(2) The way things are going, everyone who has ever set foot in Mar-a-Lago, including the staff, will be getting a cabinet or ambassadorial position.
(3) Thoughts and Prayers: Let’s ban guns and when people are upset about it, we’ll just send them thoughts and prayers. If these words are good enough for those who have lost family members, they are more than good enough for those who have lost their guns.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Iranian mullahs’ $2.3 billion ballistic-missile attack on Israel accelerated their regime's bankruptcy.
- I guess Donald Trump was right after all: The 2024 election was rigged!
- GOP’s game plan: Pass a giant tax cut for the rich; blame the resulting deficit on Social Security & Medicare.
- May God help us: Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy will be in charge of making our government more efficient.
- Facebook memory from Nov. 12, 2011: Photo from my college days (late 1960s).
(5) I just finished the third week of a 6-week Iran Academia on-line course on "Gender and Budgeting": We read daily about gender equity and well-intentioned efforts to end discriminatory practices. In reality, such efforts are doomed to failure if not supported by an appropriate level of financial resources. For example, equity in healthcare cannot be achieved when there is a significant gap in the budgets allocated to male and female health programs. This is an instance of putting your money where your mouth is. Gender-aware public policy decisions in general, and budgeting specifically, play a big role in achieving desired equity outcomes. How we allocate budgets is a reflection of our priorities.
(6) A data point on electric cars: An EV owner responded to a Quora question about the electric bill for charging. Increase in electric bill, $60. Savings in gas costs, $500.
(7) Here’s another interesting data point from Quora: The first astronauts to land on Mars will have to stay there for 12-18 months, waiting for Earth & Mars to realign.

2024/11/10 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
We have power, even without the presidency or control of the Congress The myth that Elon Musk founded Tesla persists: He was actually an early investor who subsequently pushed out the original founders Alexei Navalny's 'Patriot: A Memoir' (1) Images of the day: [Left] We have power, even without the presidency or control of the Congress. [Center] The myth that Elon Musk founded Tesla persists: He was actually an early investor who subsequently pushed out the original founders. [Right] Alexei Navalny's Patriot: A Memoir (see the last item below).
(2) Quote of the day: "When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it—always." ~ Mahatma Gandhi
(3) US elections in the classroom: The final slide in my lecture of 2024/11/06 for the UCSB graduate seminar ECE 594BB, “Mathematical, Algorithmic, and Engineering Aspects of Democratic Elections.”
(4) Book review: Navalny, Alexei, Patriot: A Memoir, unabridged 17-hour audiobook, read by Matthew Goode, Random House Audio, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This memoir of Alexei Navalny, a Russian dissident who survived an attempted poisoning by his government and eventually died in an arctic penal colony under mysterious circumstances, was compiled by his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, based on notes smuggled out of prison.
Navalny knew that he would be killed. After all, few of Vladimir Putin's critics have lived to tell their stories. Yet, he was relentless in exposing corruption, mocking the naked czar, and asking how it was possible for people's servants to acquire half-million-dollar watches and secret waterfront palaces.
When the Russian state began piling up ridiculous charges, such as rehabilitating Nazism, against him, even as he was already confined to prison, he had to laugh. “Rarely has an inmate in solitary confinement for more than a year had such a vibrant social and political life,” he wrote in his diary. When a hunger strike caused his weight to drop to his 8th-grade level, he lamented, “I still don’t have a six-pack.”
The son of a Soviet army officer, Navalny spent many of his childhood summers in the early 1980s with his grandmother in a small Ukrainian village near Chernobyl, charged with taking care of grandma’s immense cow. After Putin's ascent to power, Navalny cozied up to the far-right opposition and made numerous racist and xenophobic remarks. He later apologized for many of these remarks, although it's not clear whether he had a genuine change of heart or was just playing the anti-racism and pro-LBGTQ cards to make himself more palatable to an international audience.
The narrative is long-winded and includes a lot of detail that the reader may not care about. Nevertheless, the mere fact that Navalny remembers so much detail in spite of his highly restrictive environment is admirable. He seemingly kept a robust memory and a sharp wit under very difficult circumstances.
Navalny writes, clairvoyantly, that “if they do finally whack me, the book will be my memorial.” In February 2024, after three years in confinement, Navalny, 47, collapsed and died in his remote penal colony. This book is indeed his memorial.

2024/11/08 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Anti-American and anti-Israeli banners and murals, including some bearing Hebrew texts, are all over the place in Iran A mini-tutorial on tariffs World's first rice-cooker, introduced by Toshiba in 1955 (1) Images of the day: [Left] Anti-American and anti-Israeli banners and murals, including some bearing Hebrew texts, are all over the place in Iran. [Center] On tariffs (see the last item below). [Right] World's first rice-cooker, introduced by Toshiba in 1955 (see the next item below).
(2) The invention loved by Iranians, and its unlikely inventor: Fumiko Minami, who helped her husband in his small factory of electric water-heaters, spent 5 years perfecting the idea of a rice-cooker. She discovered that the key to automating the rice-cooking process was to turn off the cooker after exactly 20 minutes of boiling. Toshiba engineers eventually landed on the idea of a bimetallic switch, which they used in the world’s first automatic rice-cooker, the ER-4, introduced in December 1955. [From IEEE Spectrum magazine, Nov. 2024]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Professors’ stature & their input into the administrative processes (shared governance) are diminishing.
- A tale of survival in exile: Journalist/Author Homa Sarshar talks about her life. (In Persian)
- Khalil Gibran: “Between what is said and not meant, and what is meant and not said, most of love is lost.”
- Facebook memory from Nov. 8, 2023: On bothsidesism and whataboutism.
(4) “Inconceivable Iran: To Reproduce or not to Reproduce?”: This was the title of a talk by social anthropologist Soraya Tremayne (Oxford), based on her book of the same title. The talk was sponsored by UCSB’s Iranian Studies Initiative and Farhang Foundation. [The talk's recording]
“Over the past two decades, scholarship on Iran has often claimed that modernization and globalization have transformed the country’s cultural institutions. This volume, however, argues that Iranian cultural norms, particularly surrounding reproduction, persist in essence despite such changes. Through four decades of ethnographic research, the author explores how reproductive practices in Iran are shaped by enduring values intertwined with modernity, judicial rulings, new reproductive technologies, and state policies. The findings suggest that Iranian reproductive values remain strong across generations, and recent declines in population growth reflect not a loss of these values, but a demand for autonomy in reproductive decisions. Challenging studies that label Iranian youth as ‘confused,’ this book suggests that perceived contradictions are strategies for balancing tradition with modernity without disrupting social order.”
(5) A mini-tutorial on tariffs: I heard that Google searches on tariffs are trending up, a sign that many US voters didn’t know what they were voting for. So, I decided to help.
A tariff is a tax imposed by a government on goods or services that are imported from another country.
Tariffs are a type of trade barrier that can raise prices, reduce availability of goods & services, and create an economic burden. Governments typically impose tariffs for protection or revenue purposes.
The most common types of tariffs are ad valorem (a fixed percentage of the value of the imports) and specific (a fixed amount charged on each unit of an imported good). Tariffs have been used for centuries, but their importance as a source of government revenue has been steadily declining.

2024/11/07 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Tehran, Hafez Avenue, 1960 Grace Hopper, whose A-0 compiler paved the way for modern programming languages Today's UCLA Semel Institute talk on eating disorders (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Throwback Thursday: Tehran, Hafez Avenue, 1960, and Grace Hopper, whose A-0 compiler paved the way for modern programming languages. [Right] Today's UCLA Semel Institute talk on eating disorders (see the last item below).
(2) Was Jill Stein a spoiler candidate? She was in Dearborn, MI, drawing 18% of the Arab-majority city's vote, to Trump's 42% & Harris's 36%.
(3) Iranian plot to kill Trump uncovered: The man tasked with the plot to kill Trump is Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to reside in Iran. Two other men from New York were arrested in the case. [NYT]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Mountain Fire: A fierce, rapidly-spreading fire has already burned many in California’s Ventura County.
- Forty-three monkeys are on the loose in South Carolina after escaping a research facility. [Washington Post]
- The national security nightmare begins: Trump puts Elon Musk on the phone, as he talks to Zelensky.
(5) CEO of AAAS, in the aftermath of US election: “Now is the time for the scientific enterprise to get out of our defensive crouch and become once again the energetic protagonists of our own story. We must present a vision for what the US science and technology enterprise can be for the country and what it will take to continue among the global vanguard. We have to work even harder for scientific excellence and integrity in all we do. We will speak up for policies informed by evidence and good science—and push back when they are not.”
(6) A sobering thought: “America has now twice elected him as its President … it is a disastrous revelation about what the United States really is, as opposed to the country that so many hoped that it could be.” ~ Susan B. Glasser, writing in The New Yorker
(7) "What's Eating Us? Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety": This was the title of today's conversation between Emmy-award winning journalist, Cole Kazdin, author of 'What's Eating Us? Women Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety' and George M. Slavich, UCLA Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.
In her critically-acclaimed book, Ms. Kazdin blends personal narrative and investigative reporting to reveal that disordered eating is an epidemic crisis killing millions of women. Cole Kazdin was one such woman, and she set out to discover why her own full recovery from an eating disorder felt so impossible.
Interviewing women across the country as well as the world’s top researchers, she discovered that most people with eating disorders never receive treatment––the fact that she had, made her one of the lucky ones.
Kazdin takes looks at the diet industry and research community, exposing the flawed systems that claim to be helping us, and revealing disordered eating for the crisis that it is: a mental illness with the second highest mortality rate (after opioid-related deaths) that no one wants to talk about.
Along the way, she identifies new treatments not yet available to the general public, grass roots movements to correct racial disparities in care, and strategies for navigating true health while still living in a dysfunctional world.

2024/11/06 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A rainbow is essentially full-circle, but we only see its upper half from our usual ground-level vantage point Math puzzle: Find the area of the square ABCD, given that its three colored parts are equal in area Places where Roman coins have been found: Mostly Western Europe, but also North Africa, the Levant, the Caucasus, and Southern India (1) Images of the day: [Left] A rainbow is essentially full-circle, but we only see its upper half from our usual ground-level vantage point. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the area of the square ABCD, given that its three colored parts are equal in area. [Right] Places where Roman coins have been found: Mostly Western Europe, but also North Africa, the Levant, the Caucasus, and Southern India.
(2) Moshe Vardi considers himself a member of the theoretical computer science (TCS) community, not a mathematician: Yes, TCS uses a lot of math, but so does theoretical physics. The latter uses math to explain and predict the real world and not for internal esthetics, which John von Neumann viewed as a grave danger even for math. TCS similarly aims to explain and predict real-life computing. The important problem of satisfiability (SAT) was proven to be NP-complete, meaning that its solution takes exponential time in the worst case. But in real-life computing, we have wonderful SAT-solvers whose effectiveness cannot be explained by the elegant NP-completeness theory. [For more details, read Vardi’s column, entitled “What Is Theoretical Computer Science?”, in the November 2024 issue of CACM.]
(3) Congrats to MAGA folk for electing a corrupt, criminal, racist, misogynistic man to the highest office. We’ll survive this choice and will be ready to accept your apologies in four years.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- High-IQ Kamala Harris concedes her election loss in a phone call to low-IQ Donald Trump.
- Kamala Harris: “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.”
- We were hoping to swear in the first-ever woman President. Instead, we'll get the first-ever felon President.
(5) Who is to blame? Following a few friends, I too have decided that I blame Trump less for his vile manners and pursuit of absolute power than his enablers among the Republican establishment. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz come to mind as Republicans who sold their souls to gain a sliver of power and the privilege of being insulted by their master.
(6) Kamala Harris’ message to her supporters in the face of big-money prevailing over an agenda to help the working class and the middle class:
My heart is full. Full of gratitude for the trust that you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve. I know you gave so much of yourselves to this fight. And I am so grateful to you.
The outcome of this election is not what we wanted. And it is not what we fought for. But the light of America’s promise will always burn bright – as long as we never give up and keep fighting.
While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign.
The fight for the ideals that reflect America at its best: Freedom, opportunity, fairness, and dignity. That is a fight I will never give up.
I will never give up the fight for a future where every American can pursue their dreams. Where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies. The fight to protect our students and our streets from gun violence. The fight for our democracy.
Because the fight for our country is always worth it. And we cannot give up now.
This is not the time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.
You can and will make a difference. [Kamala Harris, November 6, 2024]

2024/11/05 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Meme: Advice from someone who has already voted to those who will be voting tomorrow Amazing patterns in math: See if you can explain them Cover image of Brian Tyler Cohen's 'Shameless'
Math puzzle: Given that the small circles are of radius 1, find the radius of the big circle Meme: The mullahs’ regime executes a Jewish Iranian man
Math puzzle: Given the radii of the three smaller circles, find the radius of the big circle (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Advice from someone who has already voted to those who will be voting by tomorrow. [Top center] Amazing patterns in math: See if you can explain them. [Top right] Brian Tyler Cohen's Shameless (see the last item below). [Bottom left & right] Math puzzles: The radius of the large circle is to be determined in each case. [Bottom center] The mullahs’ regime executes a Jewish Iranian man.
(2) Book review: Cohen, Brian Tyler, Shameless: Republicans' Deliberate Dysfunction and the Battle to Preserve Democracy, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by the author, Harper Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I watch progressive political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen's on-line videos and read his written analyses on a regular basis, so when his debut book was published, it became a must-read for me.
In this fairly short book, Cohen observes that the Party of Lincoln has been hijacked by "a burgeoning extremist faction for whom compromise is unacceptable and chaos is the goal." The situation has entered a downward spiral, with citizens becoming dangerously numb to it. The authoritarian tendencies of today's Republicans constitute an assault on democracy and go against common sense and decency, hence the title "Shameless."
Cohen draws on conversations with historians, constitutional scholars, former senators, attorneys, and members of the Biden administration to conclude that the GOP dysfunction comes from a perverse desire to break, rather than reform, a bloated government system that is too large to function well.
Before Trump became the party's center of gravity for racism, misogyny, and anti-everything narcissism, and just after Obama’s ascendance to the presidency, Newt Gingrich, Mitch McConnell, and other Republicans were working on a strategy built on opposition for partisan gain. When Donald Trump appeared on the scene, they transformed him into the GOP standard-bearer who gave them license to "openly court white supremacists and neo-Nazis, who now march proudly down our streets."
Despite today's dismal political landscape, Cohen still believes in our ability to salvage the situation, if we don't fall into the helplessness trap and recognize the power of our own agency. It does not suffice that we become active and participate in democracy. We must also actively persuade those who have lost faith, and who constitute the margins on which modern "elections are won or lost," to participate as well.
As I write this review, we have four days left to the 2024 US presidential election. All indications are that the election will be very close, raising the fear that the Republicans’ shamelessness will be rewarded with the presidency of Donald Trump and, perhaps, control over the US Senate. If we dodge this bullet, it will be in no small part due to efforts of commentators like Brian Tyler Cohen.

2024/11/04 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Women are taking their fate into their own hands: Cartoon about voting The final NYT/Siena-College Poll bears some good news for Kamala Harris in the 7 battleground states Brave Iranian woman student, who was harassed and insulted by her university’s Basij for her “improper” hijab, strips down to her underwear in protest
Social media are abuzz with awe & respect, and support in the form of art, for the Iranian woman student, Ahou Daryaei: Batch 2 Social media are abuzz with awe & respect, and support in the form of art, for the Iranian woman student, Ahou Daryaei: Batch 1 Social media are abuzz with awe & respect, and support in the form of art, for the Iranian woman student, Ahou Daryaei: Batch 3 (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Women are taking their fate into their own hands: They reject the “protection” offered by a sexual predator and self-avowed genitals-grabber. [Top center] The final NYT/Siena-College Poll bears some good news for Kamala Harris in the 7 battleground states. [Top right] Brave Iranian woman student, who was harassed, insulted, and roughed up by her university’s Basij for her “improper” hijab, strips down to her underwear and walks in protest. She was, of course, arrested and sent to a mental institution. [Bottom row] The social media are abuzz with awe & respect, and support in the form of art and action, for the Iranian woman student, Ahou Daryaei, who stripped down to her underwear after being harassed, insulted, and roughed up by Basij forces on campus.
(2) You may be disappointed that the US presidential race is effectively tied: But remember that a tie between a woman who began running less than 4 months ago and a man who has been in continuous campaign mode for more than 9 years is an amazing result.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Kamala Harris meets her impersonator, Maya Rudolph, on "Saturday Night Live."
- The possibly week-long presidential gender-reveal party begins tomorow night. Let’s hope it’s a girl!
- My talk in Persian about energy storage technologies: The first 52 minutes of this YouTube video.
(4) Trump/Musk team: Isn’t it interesting that two men who, between them, have had 17 children by 6 different women are preaching about traditional families?
(5) South Korea’s Ambassador to Iran sings an old Persian song, made famous by Delkash, to mark 62 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
(6) Final thought for the day: Those who use the Bible to justify their White-Supremacist views should be reminded that there are no White people in the entire Holy Book.

2024/11/03 (Sunday): Today, I offer reviews of two science titles and a Nobel Laureate's novel.
Cover image of 'Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction' Cover image of 'The Vegetarian' Cover image of 'Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction' (1) Book review: Pierrehumbert, Raymond T., Planetary Systems: A Very Short Introduction, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by Mike Cooper, Tantor Audio, 2022. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
It wasn’t long ago that we knew only of the Solar System as the only example of a planetary system, that is, a star and the bodies orbiting it. Now, thanks to a new generation of powerful telescopes, not only do we know many thousands of planetary systems, but we have observed planetary systems as they were being born.
This book, from Oxford’s wonderful “Very Short Introduction” series composed of hundreds of titles, explores our newfound information and ongoing research in this exciting frontier. Pierrehumbert, a professor of physics at Oxford University, takes us on a grand tour, from the Big Bang to trillions of years into the future, when the universe will be a dilute soup of dim galaxies, populated mostly by red dwarf stars.
Pierrehumbert also explains how the elements that make up life are forged in the interiors of dying stars, later making their way into rocky planets. He also covers the vast array of newly-discovered planets within star systems other than our own, and explains the factors that determine their climates. Finally, he reveals what determines the life-span of planetary systems and what happens to them as they die.
(2) Book review: Kang, Han (translated by Deborah Smith), The Vegetarian, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by Deborah Smith, Janet Song, and Stephen Park, Random House Audio, 2016.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I decided to peruse this book when Han Kang was awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature, "for her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life."
The novel's protagonist, Yeong-hye, is completely unremarkable in every way, according to her husband, Mr. Cheong, whose narrative opens the story. Chapters are written from the viewpoints of Yeong-hye, her husband, and various other individuals. This ordinary, somewhat boring, life comes to a screeching halt, when Yeong-hye decides to throw out all the meat in her house and become a vegetarian. Mr. Cheong's demand for an explanation goes unmet, when Yeong-hye just says that she had a dream. Though unknown to her husband, the dream was dark, bloody, and violent.
Yeong-hye's married life soon falls apart, as do her physical and mental health. It is unclear whether she has a predisposition to illnesses that were triggered by malnutrition or that the author implies that there is something wrong with being a vegetarian.
Mr. Cheong is highly frustrated by his ordinary life going up in smoke, his wife not wanting sex anymore, and her not being presentable to his colleagues, especially since she stopped wearing a bra. Things go downhill quickly for Yeong-hye, her husband, and the rest of the family, with Yeong-hye eventually committed to a mental institution.
This remarkable novel covers a society’s most-inflexible structures, as we watch them fail one by one. It portrays the frictions between passion and detachment, between feeding and denying desires. With impassive or violent reactions to those desires, they are bound to break out somehow, with super-ugly results.
(3) Book review: Maslin, Mark, Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by Gareth Richards, Tantor Audio, 4th ed., 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Over the last couple of decades, global awareness of climate change has grown very rapidly, thanks in part to the efforts of youth activists such as Greta Thunberg, groups such as Extinction Rebellion, IPCC's high-impact reports, numerous documentaries, and declarations from world governments that we are in a climate emergency.
Awareness of climate change and its possible catastrophic impacts continues to grow, although there are also serious efforts, funded by interest groups such as the fossil fuel industry, to dismiss the problem as overblown or even a hoax. Incontrovertible scientific evidence points to a forthcoming crisis of our own making, forcing us to examine the entire basis of modern society and humans’ relationship with other species and the entire planet.
As politicians, supported by interest groups and organizations with deep pockets, argue against the seriousness of climate change, Maslin tells us that climate change is not a problem for the distant future: It is already happening! He also discusses the geopolitics of climate change and the win-win solutions we can employ to avoid its very worst effects. Throughout, he demonstrates how the scope of the problem demands that we develop new modes of thinking at individual, corporate, and government levels to collectively tackle this do-or-die challenge.

2024/11/01 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
My Halloween set-up on Thursday 10/31 I have fulfilled my GoodReads reading challenge for 2024 a couple of months ahead of schedule Many churches have become politicized: Their tax-exempt status must be revoked (1) Images of the day: [Left] My Halloween set-up on Thursday 10/31. [Center] I have fulfilled my GoodReads reading challenge for 2024 a couple of months ahead of schedule. [Right] Many churches have become politicized: Their tax-exempt status must be revoked.
(2) There are only two reasons a woman might not have children: Either she can’t, or she doesn’t want to. In either case, it’s none of your business.
(3) UCSB announces its selected book for “UCSB Reads 2025” program, now in its 19th year: The Book of Delights: Essays (2019), by Ross Gay, has had a good reception and became a best-seller, but I was underwhelmed by it. Here’s my 3-star review of the book on GoodReads.
(4) Homa Sarshar: “Solutions to Iran’s problems & the country’s future leaders are all inside Iran. No one can prescribe solutions from 1000s of kilometers away. While there are sincere, decent people among the overseas opposition, most act with the intention to line their pockets.” [Tweet, with video]
(5) Iranians who support Trump because they believe he will topple the mullahs’ regime must be disappointed: He says he will negotiate with the Islamic Republic of Iran and isn’t looking for regime change. [Meme]
(6) An Iranian lioness: A hijab-less Iranian woman is harassed by a soldier in uniform, riding a motorcycle. She takes the matter into her own hands, teaching the harasser a lesson, as men just look on without helping.
(7) Final thought for the day: Cold Play in its Buenos Aires concert collaborates with Golshifteh Farahani to perform Sherwin Hajipour’s “Baraa-ye,” the Grammy-winning song which has become an anthem for the #WomanLifeFreedom movement.

2024/10/31 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: This Great-Depression-era teardrop camper was lightweight and thus could be easily towed by any vehicle Cartoon: Closing arguments by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Throwback Thursday: The magnificent Art-Deco City Hall of Buffalo, NY
My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is taking shape: Desk and conference table My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is taking shape: File cabinets Tonight's Talangor Group talk on contradictions of democratic rule (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: This Great-Depression-era teardrop camper was lightweight and thus could be easily towed by any vehicle. It slept two and featured an external galley kitchen. The design fell out of favor in the 1960s, only to be rediscovered in the 1990s. [Top center] Closing arguments by Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. [Top right] Throwback Thursday: The magnificent Art-Deco City Hall of Buffalo, NY. [Bottom left & center] My new UCSB office in Ellison Hall is taking shape: Only a couple of super-heavy 5-drawer file cabinets remain to be pushed into place. [Bottom right] Tonight's Talangor Group talk on contradictions of democratic rule (see the last item below).
(2) Scarier than a Halloween ghost: RFK Jr. is said to have been offered a healthcare-related cabinet position in DJT's next administration.
(3) Tonight’s Talangor Group meeting: Dr. Ali Akbar Mahdi (Professor of Sociology, Cal State U. Northridge) spoke in Persian under the title "Contradictions of Democratic Rule." Before the main talk, Dr. Nayereh Tohidi made a brief presentation on Iran Academia, a free on-line university, and encouraged contributions to its endowment fund.
Dr. Mahdi began by presenting a brief history of democracy, from ancient Greece to now. Democracy can be defined as rule of the people, regardless of whether it is implemented in a republic, a constitutional monarchy, or some other form of government. Democracy can be participatory, representative, or deliberative. At the scale of modern nations, representative democracy is the most practical. While democracy is the rule of majority, it also respects minority rights.
Dr. Mahdi then discussed a number of contradictions or dilemmas faced by democratic rule.
- Freedom of economic activity vs. efficiency
- Equality vs. wide range of abilities
- Freedom of speech vs. national security
- Representatives’ self-interest vs. people’s will
Next, taking ideas from the book How Democracies Die (by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, 2018), Dr. Mahdi enumerated a number of dangers lurking behind every democracy. These include populism, dealing with the opposition as threats to national security (the enemy within), questioning democratic laws, casting doubt on the legitimacy of elections or political opponents, resorting to violence, and curtailing civil liberties.
Other problems we face in the US include ineffective parties with inadequate screening of candidates and the undue influence of money throughout the election process. Big news corporations, with many other economic interests that can be threatened by criticizing politicians or political candidates, are also part of the problem.
During the Q&A session, I shared a definition of democracy from Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. Democracy is a system of government with distributed decision-making and self-correction mechanisms. Dictatorships are centralized and lack self-correction. Often a dictator rises to power through a democratic process but then systematically eliminates the self-correction mechanisms, until nothing is left to detect and point out errors.

2024/10/30 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a close adviser to Khamenei, states in an interview that Iran is ready to resume talks and establish friendly relations with the West Persian calligraphic art with the theme of 'eshgh' ('love') Underground parking and other amenities at the Sydney Opera House (1) Images of the day: [Left] Iranian mullahs raise the white flag after the destruction of their entire Russian-supplied air defense system by Israel. Ali Akbar Velayati, a close Khamenei adviser, states in an interview that Iran is ready to resume talks and establish relations with the West. [Center] Persian calligraphic art with the theme of “eshgh” (“love”). [Right] Underground parking and other amenities at the Sydney Opera House.
(2) Billionaire owners of major newspapers and other media outlet dare not offend the big orange bully: They withhold previously-planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. In their various businesses, these billionaires benefit from government largesse and fat contracts. Therefore, given Trump's threats to retaliate against those who do not show loyalty to him, these owners put their financial interests over their patriotic duty.
(3) I can't believe that CNN is still both-siding every election story by including Trumpian talking heads: There is only one side; the side of decency, respect, honesty, and tolerance.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Verified satellite images of the damage inflicted by Israel's aerial attack on Iran's military facilities.
- Flash floods in Spain kill ~100, as they carry debris of houses and cars. [NYT]
- Irvine, CA, is considering a sister-city pact with Gaza City, which is run by a terrorist organization.
- Persian and Kurdish names for a number of plants that grow in western Iran.
- Quote of the day: “Mr. Bezos: Journalists must be truthful, not neutral.” ~ Christiane Amanpour
(5) The “grate cheese robbery”: Nearly 1000 wheels of artisanal cheddars — worth more than $389,000 — were reported stolen from a London-based company this month. [WaPo]
(6) Blame AI for your rising electricity bills: Tech giants are building new data centers to compete in the AI domain, leading to a rise in demand for electricity.
(7) Definition of democracy, from Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, Nexus (my review forthcoming): Democracy is a system of government with distributed decision-making and self-correction mechanisms. Dictatorships are centralized and not self-correcting. Often a dictator rises to power through a democratic process but then systematically eliminates the self-correction mechanisms, until nothing is left to detect and point out errors.

2024/10/27 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Science magazine, issue of Oct. 25, 2024 AutoFlight's eVTOL concept aircraft Not the most-important data in today's troubled world, but here it is anyway: Average number of weekly bowel movements in Europe, by country (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cover feature of Science magazine (see the next item below). [Center] AutoFlight's eVTOL concept aircraft (see the item 3 below). [Right] Not the most-important data in today's troubled world, but here it is anyway: Average number of weekly bowel movements in Europe, by country.
(2) Fast fires: The cover feature of Science magazine, issue of Oct. 25, 2024, examines the reasons for greater destructiveness and rapid spreading of recent fires in the US. "The most destructive and deadly wildfires in US history were also fast. Using satellite data, we analyzed the daily growth rates of more than 60,000 fires from 2001 to 2020 across the contiguous US. Nearly half of the ecoregions experienced destructive fast fires that grew more than 1620 hectares in 1 day. These fires accounted for 78% of structures destroyed and 61% of suppression costs ($18.9 billion)."
(3) Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL): VTOL is slated to be one of the key technologies of the future, both for aircraft and for urban vehicles such as air taxis. Electric VTOL (eVTOL) has already been successfully deployed in fully-electric aircraft for short-range travel. As battery densities grow, higher-capacity batteries can be incorporated into light-weight aircraft, extending their range and safety. Get ready for traffic jams in the air!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Donald Trump has a 15-point lead among male voters: Now you know who to blame if he wins.
- It's Gates vs. Musk: Bill Gates says privately he donated $50 million to Kamala Harris campaign.
- Factory that produced 60% of IV fluids used in the US shut down due to NC floods, causing severe shortage.
- Iran's Islamist regime has executed another foreign hostage, the kidnapped and tortured Jamshid Sharmahd.
(5) Breaking news about a long-dead composer: An unknown waltz by Chopin, written nearly 200 years ago, has been discovered in the vault of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. It was unearthed in a collection of memorabilia, alongside postcards signed by Picasso and letters from Brahms and Tchaikovsky.
(6) My thoughts for after November 5, 2024: I am rooting for Kamala Harris and have been contributing to her campaign in multiple rounds. However, I am genuinely scared for our future, regardless of the outcome.
Why I am scared of a Trump win is obvious: Paying lip service to the needs of the working class, while further enriching the super-rich; Weakening the rule of law; Putting in positions of power know-nothing individuals, based only on their loyalty; Tarnishing the US image around the word, so that it can no longer deter territorial aggression or act as a force for good.
My reasons for fearing a Harris presidency are less obvious. The prospects of Civil War II are quite real. Even in the absence of a full-blown national war, we may experience local conflicts, as well as violent attacks on politicians, civil servants, racial minorities, and religious minorities. In short, I am concerned about pent-up rage when the grand MAGA promises go the way of Trump Charity or Trump University, to name just two of his countless scams.

2024/10/26 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of Curtis Sittenfeld's 'Romantic Comedy' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Forget about immigration policy, tariffs, who gets a tax cut, judge appointments, and other policy differences for a minute: Which of these two faces do you want to see splattered over your TV screens and newspaper front pages over the next four years? Do you want to be shown a fist or a smile? [Right] Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy: A Novel (see the last item below)
(2) Israel retaliates against the mullahs' regime: Scores of Israeli jets conduct three waves of strikes before dawn on Saturday against missile factories and other sites inside Iran. Iran claims limited damage and releases the names of two soldiers killed at a military facility.
(3) Apology was overdue: President Biden apologizes to Native Americans for the forced removal of their children from their homes and enrolling them at special Indian boarding schools to erase their language and culture. Nearly 1000 of the children died of disease and malnutrition at these schools.
(4) Discovering lost Silk-Road cities: Michael Franchetti of Washington U. of St. Louis and Farhod Maksudov of Uzbekistan's National Center of Archaeology used drone-based LiDAR to identify the remains of two medieval cities along the ancient Silk Road in the mountains of southeastern Uzbekistan. The high-resolution LiDAR images show homes, plazas, fortifications, and roads in detail, shedding new light on urban life in the remote mountains of Central Asia between the 6th and 11th centuries.
(5) Book review: Sittenfeld, Curtis, Romantic Comedy: A Novel, unabridged 9-hour audiobook, read by Kristen Sieh, Random House Audio, 2023. [My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The protagonist of this novel, Sally Milz, is a sketch writer for "The Night Owls," a late-night live Saturday TV show a la "Saturday Night Live." Having abandoned the pursuit of love in favor of a fulfilling career and an occasional fling, she is nevertheless envious of average-looking or even dorky men, such as her co-worker Danny, who date stunningly beautiful and highly accomplished women, wondering why the reverse never happens. Sally channels her annoyance into a comedy sketch called the "Danny Horst Rule," poking fun at this asymmetry.
When charismatic pop star Noah Brewster, the show's guest host for a week, enters Sally's life and sparks fly between them, she wonders whether life is imitating rom-com storylines; or is she imagining something that's too good to be true? Sally and Noah hit it off and develop a long, loving relationship, after sally drives 1500 miles for their first romantic meeting, which she calls a "booty call."
The novel, written in the form of a diary covering 5 years, consists of three chapters, with a shorter Chapter 2, titled "July 2020," sandwiched between much longer Chapters 1 and 3, "April 2018" and "August 2020." The Prologue covers "February 2018" and the Epilogue, "April 2023." I found the first half of the novel better-written and more absorbing.

2024/10/25 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
My wooden back-patio fence was partially removed for replacement, due to extensive termite and dry-rot damage Results of Thursday night's food prep: Egg salad, salad from a Costco kit, and pasta with Turkey sauce Cover image of Vaclav Smil's 'Invention and Innovation' (1) Images of the day: [Left] My wooden back-patio fence was partially removed for replacement, due to extensive termite and dry-rot damage. The front-patio fence needs only minor repairs. [Center] Results of Thursday night's food prep: Egg salad, salad from a Costco kit, and pasta with turkey sauce. [Right] Vaclav Smil's Invention and Innovation (see the last item below).
(2) Media reports indicate that Arab-Americans are frustrated with Biden administration's Israel policy, so they may vote for Trump: Try to figure this one out!
(3) Iranian women against a brutal, misogynistic, Islamist regime: Atefeh Na'ami, 37, a kind-hearted activist, was found dead in her own home. Atefeh was covered with bruises, and a hose pipe connected to the building’s heating shoved down her throat. Iranian authorities have claimed it was a suicide, but not before the original investigator was taken off her case after saying it was murder. Atefeh was a vocal supporter of the #WomanLifeFreedom movement. She joined street marches sans her hijab and chanted slogans from her balcony in the evenings. [Source: IranWire] [Tweet, with photos]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- This debate between Jews belonging to Republican and Democratic parties should be interesting. [Flyer]
- Two Iranian women were killed by men whose marriage proposals they had rejected. [Source: IranWire]
- Two companies will pay $102 million to settle the Baltimore bridge collapse lawsuit. [NYT]
- Yummy fish recipe with pomegranate sauce, prepared in an outdoors setting (don't try this at home)!
(5) Book review: Smil, Vaclav, Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Tim Fannon, Recorded Books, 2023. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Smil, who has written more than 40 books on scientific subjects and global matters, begins by discussing a number of inventions that were hailed as important breakthroughs but produced disastrous environmental consequences: Leaded gasoline, DDT insecticide, and Chlorofluorocarbons.
Smil then moves on to a few inventions that were supposed to change the world but did not live up to the hype. These include airships (which may be making a comeback now), nuclear power, supersonic passenger planes, and magnetic-levitation trains.
He next tackles ideas that, aided by the media looking for easy, attention-grabbing headlines, generated much excitement but failed to develop into useful technologies. Examples include nuclear fusion, high-speed travel in vacuum (hyperloop), and nitrogen-fixing cereal crops.
Smil expresses doubt that, even if successfully deployed, supersonic air travel or land travel in the cramped space of a hyperloop train would markedly improve our lives. Life-changing discoveries of the future pertain to the less-glamorous water-treatment processes and improvements in agricultural yields.

2024/10/24 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: A famous strudels/donuts joint on Tehran's Naderi Ave. Throwback Thursday: Iranian women pilot trainees This mural in Tehran's Palestine Square declares in Hebrew: 'No hostage will be freed!'
This week is International Open Access Week Today's beautiful sunrise, captured from my bedroom window Beauties in mathematics and Persian calligraphic art (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] Throwback Thursday: A famous strudels/donuts joint on Tehran's Naderi Ave. and Iranian women pilot trainees, both dating back to ~50 years ago. [Top right] This mural in Tehran's Palestine Square declares in Hebrew: "No hostage will be freed!" [Bottom left] This week is International Open Access Week: University of California and other organizations are holding events to celebrate the positive impact of open-access publishing on broader dissemination of research discoveries. [Bottom center] Today's beautiful sunrise, captured from my bedroom window. [Bottom right] Beauties in mathematics and Persian calligraphic art.
(2) Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, achieves another distinction: Of the top 100 performers in the National University Entrance Exam, 93 choose to attend SUT, with a whopping 71 selecting the computer engineering major. The EE major attracted 16 of these top students. [From a posting by Bardia Safaei]
(3) Daron Acemoglu and 22 other Nobel Laureates in Economics signed a letter endorsing Kamala Harris for President. "We believe Harris's policies will result in a stronger economic performance, with economic growth that is more robust, more sustainable, and more equitable."
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Thousands of North Korean soldiers are in Russia to help with the Ukraine War. [NYT]
- Iran's new President has been unable to reconcile his promises with the goals & policies of IRGC.
- Greece confronts new internal Islamist threat: The Dawat-e-Islami Organization.
- Already widespread, and likely growing, outbreak of e-coli linked to McDonald's Big Mac burgers.
(5) Meme of the day: How sad it must be, believing that scientists, scholars, historians, economists, and journalists have devoted their entire lives to deceiving you, while a reality television star, with decades of fraud and exhaustively documented lying, is your only beacon of truth and honesty.
(6) Luke Durant, a 36-year-old programmer from Alabama, has discovered M136279841, the largest known prime number, which has 41 million decimal digits.
(7) Longer crosswalks blamed for higher pedestrian fatalities: From 2010 to 2021, the number of pedestrians killed in US traffic collisions rose 77% while the number killed in Europe declined 20% for the decade. An NYU study examined the relationship between a city’s crosswalk length and its rate of pedestrian collisions. The study found the average crossing distance in Paris to be 26 feet vs. 43 feet in San Francisco & 58 feet in Irvine.

2024/10/22 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Shortly after midnight, I noticed that one segment in the 7-segment display of my bedside clock had gone dark Someone suggested that every American should try to visit these 34 places Here's a tough puzzle for Sudoku fans
Sloppy math used to prove 4 = 5: See if you can spot the error IranWire cartoon: Khamenei's ship is sinking List of Project 2025's authors and their roles in the first Trump administration (1) Images of the day: [Top left] On 7-segment display turning into a 6-segment display (see the next item below). [Top center] Someone suggested that every American should try to visit these 34 places: I have done 18 of them and will be satisfied if I get to 25. [Top right] Here's a tough puzzle for Sudoku fans. [Bottom left] Sloppy math used to prove 4 = 5: See if you can spot the error. [Bottom center] IranWire cartoon of the day: Khamenei's ship is sinking. [Bottom right] Donald Trump insists that he has nothing to do with Project 2025. Judge for yourself. Here is the list of Project 2025's authors and their roles in the first Trump administration.
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: Shortly after midnight, I noticed that one segment in the 7-segment display of my bedside clock had gone dark. The failure affected the representations of most digits, that is, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9. The digits 1, 2, 4, 7 remained recognizable, but 0 resembled 6, both 3 & 9 looked like 5, and 8 turned into 6. Given that the faulty segment is in the rightmost or least-significant position, I may be able to live with this clock for some time, but I sense that other segments may start failing soon.
(3) Hope you enjoyed your 60th birthday, Madame Vice President! Your opponent is nearly two decades older. Use your youthful energy to defeat him.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US charges Iranian Revolutionary Guards senior official in a plot to assassinate activist Masih Alinejad.
- Who is the only US President who refers to "Persian Gulf" as "Arabian Gulf"?
- Yes, Gazans are suffering: But remember their celebrations after October 7, 2023, and September 11, 2001.
- I guess it's hard to separate church from state when you can't even separate fact from fiction.
(5) AAAS webinar on the upcoming US elections: A panel set up by the American Association for the Advancement of Science took up the subject of "2024 US Elections and Its Potential Impact on Science Funding." The panelists discussed the ways in which AAAS engages with the media and government agencies on science policy and helps scientists connect with local and national media in their areas of expertise. AAAS has launched press packages based on the contents of the Science family of journals in order to spread correct scientific information, thereby battling misinformation and disinformation. Science and technology issues on AAAS’s radar include CHIPS & science funding, research security, AI everywhere, NIH modernization, scientific misconduct & AI tools, and distrust of scientific information & data. Attending local events and engaging with the local media are very important, as the latter are the most trusted information sources these days.

2024/10/20 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
After an orange boor and a senile man, it would be nice to see a glamorous President in the White House Photos from Ventura Harbor Village, where our family dined today to celebrate my niece's birthday Science policy in the next US administration: cover image of Science magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] After an orange boor and a senile man, it would be nice to see a glamorous President in the White House. [Center] Photos from Ventura Harbor Village, where our family dined today to celebrate my niece's birthday. [Right] Science policy in the next US administration (see the next item below).
(2) What the next US election could mean for scientific research: An enormous amount is riding on the upcoming US elections in terms of social and economic programs. But scientists and technologists are also anxious about the outcome. The stakes for science are indeed quite high. Unfortunately, neither candidate talks about science policy. Harris's priorities on climate change and renewable energy will bring benefits to the scientific community. Trump's focus on staying ahead of China could mean robust support for AI and cybersecurity research.
(3) Use additions instead of multiplications to save 95% of the energy consumed by AI applications: Floating-point matrix multiplications account for much of the computational workload in machine learning. Given that machine learning does not need high-precision computation of the kind performed by standard microprocessors and GPUs, many proposals have emerged for low-precision or approximate multiplication to mitigate the high energy cost of AI applications. In a recent paper, Hongyin Luo and Wei Sun of BitEnergy AI, Inc., suggest that 8-bit floating-point multiplication can be approximated by integer addition, which uses at least an order-of-magnitude less energy. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.00907
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Documents pertaining to a possible Israeli attack on Iran leaked.
- SNL's "Weekend Update" contrasts the styles of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates.
- History of Jews, Jerusalem, and Palestine. [71-minute part 1] [102-minute part 2]
- A short Persian poem using words whose initials are all the letters of the alphabet, in order. [Video]
(5) Final thought for the day: According to media reports, many Americans say that they will leave the country if their candidate loses the presidential election. This is so un-American! they should stay and fight to push the "wrong" president out of office in 2028 or perhaps earlier.

2024/10/18 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Given two circles and a rectangle of area 243 cm^2 as shown, find R (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: Given 2 circles & a rectangle of area 243 cm^2 as shown, find R. [Center] Today, I got rid of a large batch of stencils (Persian/Arabic letters in different font sizes and some decorative borders), which I used before the availability of word processors to make brochures and compose Persian text. The text on my father's tombstone was composed in this way. [Right] Math puzzle: Find the ratio R/r of the two radii in this diagram with a square and two circles.
(2) A mass-terror plot foiled: Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a Pakistani national on a Canadian student visa, was arrested for planning a mass attack in New York. [NYT]
(3) China assumes leadership role in setting tech standards: China has been increasingly assertive in the technology standard-setting process. Last month for example, the International Telecommunication Union approved three new technical standards that will be embedded in sixth-generation (6G) mobile technology, all developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Telecom. Unlike the West, which has tended to defer to private companies and industry associations in the standard-setting process, China's approach is led by its government. [The Economist]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Yahya Sinwar, the new leader of Hamas and mastermind of the October 7 massacre, is confirmed dead.
- DNA evidence shows that Yahya Sinwar was involved in the execution-style killings of six hostages.
- Archdiocese of Los Angeles agrees to pay $880 million to settle sex abuse claims. [NYT]
- All of Cuba is plunged into darkness by a nationwide power outage. [NYT]
(5) Latinos are the largest target of election misinformation & disinformation: Claims such as Harris being a communist (scary to Cuban-Americans), the election having been cancelled, and illegal aliens being allowed to vote are making the rounds on social media.
(6) A team from United Kingdom's University College London demonstrated wireless data transfer at speeds of nearly 1 terabits per second, over five times the previous wireless transmission world record.
(7) Responsible Machine Learning Summit, 2024: This all-day event, with a focus on "AI and Materials," was held at UCSB today. In the opening keynote address, Eric Toberer (Colorado School of Mines) spoke about his own work and an alliance of more than a dozen institutions collaborating on emerging AI applications at the boundary of physics and material science. The keynote talk was followed by a panel discussion, "Integrating AI into Material Discovery and Design." For the full program, see the Summit's Web page.

2024/10/17 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Socrates Think Tank talk on lab-grown diamond Recent addition to a NYC subway sign Talangor Group talk about instability in the Middle East (1) Images of the day: [Left] Socrates Think Tank talk on lab-grown diamond (see the next item below). [Center] Recent addition to a NYC subway sign. [Right] Talangor Group talk about instability in the Middle East (see the last item below).
(2) Last night's Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Reza Abbaschian (Distinguished Professor of Sustainability, UC Riverside) spoke under the title "High-Pressure, High-Temperature Growth of Jewelry Diamonds." There were ~100 attendees.
I was disappointed that the talk began with a mention of Marilyn Monroe's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," what in this day and age is construed as a sexist remark. There are two ways of producing lab diamonds: High-pressure, high-temperature process and chemical vapor deposition. Carbon, which is the sole ingredient in diamonds, takes several different forms.
- Carbon as graphene, which is a single layer of carbon atoms with amazing strength and electrical properties.
- Carbon as graphite, bulk material with many applications, including in building lithium-ion batteries.
- Carbon as diamond, in which each carbon atom is connected with other atoms, with no free electrons.
Mined diamond is of two types, type I (98%) and type II (rare). Mined diamond costs ~$100/carat wholesale, with retail cost being 2-3 times higher. Each carat is 200 mg. In 1955, six General Electric researchers succeeded in synthesizing diamond.
The rest of Dr. Abbaschian's talk covered his personal experiences in synthesizing diamonds, the market & applcations for lab-grown diamonds, and bringing the production machinery to U. Florida, where he worked.
(3) My older son turned 40 today. To help him celebrate, I dug up the following facts about the number 40.
Repdigit 1111 in ternary notation.
Fourth octagonal number.
Sum of the first four pentagonal numbers, 1 + 5 + 12 + 22.
40 primes are generated by n^2 + n + 41 for n = 0, 1, 2, ... , 39 (Euler).
The 40 primes above are separated by 2, 4, 6, ... , 78.
–40 is the unique temperature where the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales coincide.
"40" is the title of songs by Dave Matthews Band, Franz Ferdinand, and U2.
And, of course, we have WD-40!
(4) Tonight's Talangor Group talk: Dr. Reza Alavi talked about "The Roots of Instability in the Middle East and the Nostalgia for an Islamic Empire." There were ~90 attendees.
After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the relative stability of the Middle East perished. Over time, Sunni powers have wanted to return to the caliphates of early Islam. Shi'is, on the other hand, want a powerful religious state centered on an Imam. As a result, Islamic revival movements proceeded along divergent paths.
Fundamentalist Sunni ideology emerged in India, Saudi Arabia, and in the form of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and several other countries. Saudis, and Al Qaeda that followed in their footsteps, favored activism to usurp political power. Al Qaeda had a long-term plan of disposing the existing governments and then proceeding to establish their own ideal caliphate. Both Taliban and Daesh had territorial goals from the very beginning.
Both Sunnis and Shi'is wanted to rule differently from normal political systems. They wanted the rule of God through a Caliph or an Imam as an absolute authority.
When in 1923, Turkey abolished the caliphate and built on its ruins a modern republic, Muslims blamed all of their problems on the absence of religious rule. They viewed an Islamic government as the only cure for all ills. This upheaval preceded the establishment of Israel by 25 years (1923 to 1948).
While the French accepted the demise of monarchy and didn’t look back, Muslims never got over the abolishment of the caliphate and continued to seek its return. The fact that the order imposed by an empire went away without being replaced by a democratic system with people's rights and rule of law, is a main cause of instability.
During the Cold War, both the US and the Soviet Union extended their tentacles into the Middle East, with the US establishing treaties in North Africa and Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union trying to influence Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the relative balance and superficial calm went away, leading to many governments collapsing and going into turmoil.
During the Q&A period, I contested the assertion that the demise of the Ottoman Empire was a main cause of instability in the Middle East. Instead, I suggested that the fall of the Ottomans was an effect, not a cause. Britain ruled India for more than 1.5 centuries before the Ottomans fell, and they made mischief in Afghanistan before that fall. The Brits moved their focus westward to Iran upon the discovery of oil in 1908, some 15 years before the Ottomans fell. One can conclude from this timeline that perhaps the Ottomans were pushed out rather than collapse under structural problems and internal rot.

2024/10/14 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 2024 A special section of Science magazine, issue of October 11, 2024, celebrates the 20th birthday of graphene Cover image of John Polkinghorne's 'Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction' (1) Images of the day: [Left] The last nobel prize for 2024, Economic Sciences (see the next item below). [Center] Science magazine cover feature (see item 3 beleow). [Right] John Polkinghorne's Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction (see the last item below).
(2) Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 2024: Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson were honored for their research on global inequality explaining the differences in prosperity between nations, and for their research into how institutions affect prosperity.
(3) Graphene at 20: A special section of Science magazine, Oct. 11, 2024, celebrates the 20th birthday of graphene, the atom-thin carbon sheets with surprising properties (e.g., better at carrying electricity than any metal, a superb heat conductor, and hundreds of times stronger than steel). Although some of the imagined applications, such as space elevators, have not materialized, there is no shortage of exciting applications.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Nearly 100 people are still missing in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. [NBC News]
- November 9 wedding plans replaced by 4 funerals in the wake of Hurricane Helene. [The News & Observer]
- A Sikh activist's murder led Canada to expel several Indian diplomats, with India reciprocating. [WSJ]
- K-Mart, the store that once sold everything, everywhere, is about to close its last full-size US store.
(5) NASA sends a spacecraft to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, a frozen "ocean world" judged to be the likeliest place in the Solar System to harbor life.
(6) Book review: Polkinghorne, John, Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by Dennis Holland, Tantor Media, 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This is yet another wonderfully-written and accessible title in Oxford's "Very Short Introduction" series. You can learn about virtually any subject from one of the hundreds of titles in the series.
The discovery in the 1920s, by Werner Heisenberg and Ervin Schrodinger, among others, that Newtonian mechanics and Maxwell's equations (classical physics) cannot explain phenomena at atomic and subatomic levels and that determinism must be abandoned in favor of a probabilistic view is hailed as perhaps the greatest scientific discovery of all time.
Such a short introduction to the immensely complex subject of quantum mechanics is barely enough to introduce and define the key terms and concepts of the field. Polkinghorne gives the reader a basic understanding of quantum theory and helps him/her decide whether a detailed study of the field from one of the many excellent books is something you want/should pursue.
Here are some suggestions for further reading, given on a Web page entitled "The 6 Best Quantum Physics Books on the Planet."

2024/10/13 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Photos of Dr. Mahmood Nahvi and visitors Autographed book on electric circuits Cover image of the book on electric circuits
Cover image of the book on signals and systems Author's biography for the book on signals and systems Northern Lights at my neck of the woods (1) Images of the day: [Top row] Visiting Dr. Mahmood Nahvi in Arroyo Grande: Today, thanks to the generosity of Drs. Mohamad Navab of UCLA and Reza Sarmast visiting from Norway, I got to see an old colleague from Arya-Mehr/Sharif University of Technology. We drove north to Arroyo Grande, close to San Luis Obispo, and were treated to a sumptuous lunch and heavenly desserts by Dr. Nahvi and his wife Zari, as well as to an enjoyable conversation about our memories from 50 years ago. The book on electric circuits was gifted to me and autographed. [Bottom left & Center] Another book by Dr. Mahmood Nahvi. [Bottom right] Northern Lights at my neck of the woods: Photo snapped by my daughter on her iPhone and slightly edited by me.
(2) The ability to synthesize information is now more important than knowledge acquisition: "The hallmark of expertise is no longer how much you know. It's how well you synthesize. Information scarcity rewarded knowledge acquisition. Information abundance requires pattern recognition. It's not enough to connect facts. The future belongs to those who connect dots." [From Adam Grant Newsletter, Oct. 13, 2024]
(3) My course on the science and engineering behind democratic elections: Now in its third week, the UCSB graduate-level seminar being offered for the first time this fall is a wonderful learning experience for me and my students. You can find out more about the course and follow along through its Web site, which contains numerous references, problems with solutions, and PDF files of the lecture slides.

2024/10/12 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
It's easy to claim economic success if you don't have to back it up with data (WSJ chart) Some humorous mathematical simplifications Historical trend of the US federal debt-to-GDP ratio since 1940 (1) Images of the day: [Left] It's easy to claim economic success if you don't have to back it up with data (WSJ chart for US GDP growth). [Center] Some humorous mathematical simplifications. [Right] US federal debt-to-GDP ratio since 1940 (see the next item below).
(2) Historical trend of the US federal debt-to-GDP ratio: The first big bump on the left was caused by World War II. The smaller bump in the middle coincides with Reagan and Bush Sr. presidencies. The final bump on the right started during Obama years and rose further during the Trump administration.
(3) In 1977, a space radio signal, known as the “Wow! signal,” was detected, and we still don't know its origin. It lasted 72 seconds and has never been heard again. [Source: Star Talk]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Kamala Harris introduces herself and her policies in this 21-minute segment on "60 Minutes."
- A Texas doctor's encounter with four Saudi princesses kept drugged and locked up for two decades.
- Adam Grant, in his newsletter: "Generosity is not just a sign of virtue—it's a mark of intelligence."
- Top-5 happiest US states in 2024, according to WalletHub: Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, Utah, Delaware.
- This is a physical demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem, using flowing beads. [GIF]
- Republican candidate in Illinois tells his Indigenous election rival to go back where she came from!
(5) Dangers of aging water infrastructure: "In September 2023, more than 11,000 people died after torrential rainfall triggered the collapse of two dams in Libya. In May 2024, a flash flood in Mashhad, Iran, led to loss of lives because of poorly designed and malfunctioning stormwater drainage systems. Developing nations will increasingly confront similar hazards as their aging water infrastructure encounters more frequent and intense storms, population growth, and urbanization. Financial shortfalls, mismanagement, and corruption complicate efforts to upgrade infrastructure, exacerbating the dangers." [From Science magazine, issue of Oct. 11, 2024]
(6) TED talks turn 40: Using the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading," TED, an acronym meant to convey the group’s interest in technology, entertainment, and design, launched its first conference in 1984. Today's TED is a mixed bag, covering topics from creativity & poverty to procrastination & orgasms, featuring speakers ranging from Naomi Klein & Monica Lewinsky to Bono. Perhaps the rapid expansion of TED and its many affiliated TEDx programs has led to a sacrifice in quality. I, for one, still enjoy watching an occasional TED talk, but choose the topics carefully in order to avoid exhaustion.

2024/10/11 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Nobel Peace Prize 2024 goes to Nihon Hidankyo Attended an enjoyable Billy Joel tribute concert by Billy Nation at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theater (1) Images of the day: [Left] Nobel Peace Prize (see the next item below). [Center] Tonight, I attended an enjoyable Billy Joel tribute concert by Billy Nation at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theater. [Right] On public education (see the last item below).
(2) Nobel Peace Prize, 2024: The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grass-roots movement of atomic bomb survivors, was recognized "for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again."
(3) AGs from 13 states and DC sue TikTok: The company is accused of violating consumer protection laws by designing its video-sharing app in ways that lead to compulsive use, exposing young users to mental & physical risk. [Washington Post]
(4) Young Nobel Laureates: It seems that this year's winners of Nobel Prizes in science are younger than usual. It used to be that the Prizes were awarded for work completed decades ago. But now, we see, for example, that John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind wins the Chemistry Prize at age 39, only 7 years after earning a PhD. He is, of course far from being the youngest Nobel Laureate (see this Web page). In sciences, 25-year-old Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915), was the youngest.
(5) Public education in a democracy: Public schools' mission is to teach children what they need to know in order to help shape a principled, thriving, and prosperous society. The fact that they have been less than successful in doing so does not give every parent the right to dictate the curriculum based on his/her personal preferences. Parents dissatisfied with the public-education curricula have options. One option is to participate in shaping the school curricula on a democratic basis, where you convince others by logical arguments not by shouting or name-calling. Another option is to use home or private schooling. Dictating what other children learn or which books they read isn't one of the options.

2024/10/10 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Nobel Prize in Literature Talangor Group talk by Bijan Kian on US politics day in Tehran, Iran, ca. 1976" />
Stand with women in Iran A day after the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, atrocities, keffiyehs are out in full force and pro-Hamas/Palestine protests have resumed on the UCSB campus Throwback Thursday: A rainy day in Tehran, Iran, ca. 1976 (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] Nobel Prizes in Chemistry & Literature (see the next two items below). [Top right] Talangor Group talk on US politics (see the last item below). [Bottom left] The onset of a broader war in the Middle East has temporarily overshadowed the struggles of Iranian women to gain their rights and to be treated with basic human dignity. Stand with women in Iran! [Bottom center] A day after the anniversary of the October 7, 2023, atrocities, keffiyehs are out in full force and pro-Hamas/Palestine protests have resumed on the UCSB campus: Protesters are peaceful for now and have not disrupted the university’s normal functions. [Bottom right] Throwback Thursday: A rainy day in Tehran, Iran, ca. 1976.
(2) Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2024: The honor went half to David Baker (U. Washington) for contributions to "computational protein design" and half to Demis Hassabis & John Jumper (Google DeepMind AI Lab), for work on "protein structure prediction." This is the second award this year that points to the central role of computation and AI.
(3) Nobel Prize in Literature, 2024: Best known for her novel The Vegetarian, South Korean author Han Kang is honored for "her intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas."
(4) Tonight's Talangor Group meeting: Bijan Kian spoke under the title "History and Origins of Differences Between US Republican and Democratic Parties." Mr. Kian has a long history of involvement in business management and government service, including senior positions in the administrations of the 43rd, 44th, and 45th US Presidents.
Eisenhower entered the political scene with help from the Dulles Brothers, who were lawyers involved with negotiating Iran's oil contracts with the British. Subsequently, Iran's oil was nationalized and the Dulles Brothers essentially failed in their mission.
Mr. Kian is a member of the Republican Party, but he stressed that he will not be talking about current politics and presidential candidates. He began by pondering why a wealthy nation such as Iran has millions of people below the poverty line.
Both parties claim that they want to limit the scope of the government, but historically, the Democratic Party has been paying attention the poor and needy, priorities that tend to produce larger governments and higher taxes. Republicans favor businesses and view themselves as defenders of capitalism, with fewer regulations.
Today's Republicans do not support their party out of philosophical or even ideological convictions. They assess their own economic status, income, and purchasing power.
The extent of cooperation between the two parties has varied. Reagan had a good relationship with Democratic congressional leaders. Obama was more suspicious of the opposing party. The American political system is based on a balance of power, with a government that rules from the center. When the political pendulum swings wildly to one side, it will eventually return to its natural position in the middle.
Today, we face an American nation that is bifurcated, threatening the "United" part in United States of America. One may wonder why a Pennsylvania miner, for example, votes for a candidate whose policies would eliminate his job or otherwise hurt his economic status. Is he not aware of his self-interest or are there other factors at play?
Mr. Kian said that his primary focus is on world peace, that is, changing the current status that has been created primarily by Russia and Iran.
A lively discussion ensued, which continued even after Mr. Kian left the meeting due to time constraints.

2024/10/08 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Nobel Prize in Physics for 2024 Our family gathering in Ventura, California, a few days ago Donald Trump's dream, according to MAGA postings on social media: Rivals in orange jumpsuits (1) Images of the day: [Left] Nobel Prize in Physics (see the next item below). [Center] Our family gathering in Ventura, California, a few days ago. [Right] Donald Trump's dream, according to MAGA postings on social media: Please kick this sick man out of politics once and for all. It's just this one election next month. He will be too old to run in 2028.
(2) Nobel Prize in Physics 2024: John Hopfield (Princeton U.) and Geoffrey Hinton (U. Toronto) are honored "for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks." The selection of computing researchers in physics is a welcome change.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Donald Trump has secretly spoken with Vladimir Putin as many as 7 times since leaving office. [NYT]
- Hurricane Milton, one of the most-powerful storms on record, will tear through Florida tomorrow.
- Facebook memory from Oct. 8, 2018: A Persian sentence with nothing but verbs.
(4) Iran uses propaganda alongside terrorism: Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi has issued a scathing indictment of the former high-level Iranian government official Seyed Hossein Mousavian, now at Princeton, and institutions that host him, because of his alleged role in assassinating Iranian dissidents.
(5) Flower Piano: For a few days last month, 12 grand pianos were placed under the trees in San Francisco's Botanical Garden, allowing players and listeners to enjoy the music in a beautiful setting.

2024/10/07 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2024: Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were honored for the discovery of microRNA Protest movement against executions in Iran Anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel
Math puzzle: In this diagram with a square, a circle, and four equal semicircles, what is the ratio R/r? Beauty for the eyes and beauty for the mind in one frame Math puzzle: Given four squares with areas A, B, C, and D, as shown, find the ratio (A + B)/(C + D) (1) Images of the day: [Top Left] First 2024 Nobel Prize (see the next item below). [Top center] Protest movement against executions in Iran (see the last item below). [Top right] Anniversary of the October 7 Hamas atrocities (see item 3 below). [Bottom left] Math puzzle: In this diagram with a square, a circle, and four equal semicircles, what is the ratio R/r? [Bottom center] Beauty for the eyes and beauty for the mind in one frame. [Bottom right] Math puzzle: Given four squares with areas A, B, C, D, as shown, find the ratio (A + B)/(C + D).
(2) Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2024: Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were honored for the discovery of microRNA, which plays a crucial role in determining how organisms develop and function.
(3) Anniversary of the October 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel: The brutal Hamas terrorists slaughtered 1200 civilians, while joyfully posting their savagery on social media, and kidnapped ~250. As they observe this anniversary, residents of villages that were attacked are slowly returning home.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- US DOJ indicts 68 members of a Neo-Nazi, White-Supremacist group on drug and other charges.
- The Israeli media have published this chart of IRGC's command structure: Is Israel sending a signal?
- Fewer college students have the ability or focus to read even a simple book, let alone a challenging one.
- Taiwan faces a serious electricity shortage, threatening the future of 68% of the world's chip production.
(5) While still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, Floridians are bracing for the approaching category-5 Hurricane Milton.
(6) The asteroid that hit Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was not alone: During the same era, a second smaller space rock smashed into the sea off the coast of West Africa creating a large crater.
(7) Playing the citations game: China has risen in the citations rankings because of its immense population and an unusually high number of citations to the work of Chinese scientists from within China.
(8) The pace of executions has picked up in Iran: Amid a continued post-election execution surge and increased suppression of peaceful prison protests in Iran, Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO and 67 human rights organizations across four continents expressed their support for the ongoing "No Death Penalty Tuesdays" weekly hunger strike movement currently spanning 17 Iranian prisons. Please support this movement in the lead-up to World Day Against the Death Penalty on October 10.

2024/10/05 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Republicans pay lip service to the rule of law while supporting a criminal who broke multiple laws and was caught for it 'We are not going back' is a slogan embraced by Democrats and many Republicans alike J. D. Vance falsely blames his mom's drug addiction on the situation at our border with Mexico
T'is the season for scary movies. Boo! American women are not going back, and we men will follow them forward Cover image of Nick Otre Le Vant'a 'On Progress in Physics and Subjectivity Theory' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Paying lip service to the rule of law while supporting a criminal who broke multiple laws and was caught for it is hypocrisy to the extreme. [Top center] "We are not going back" is a slogan embraced by Democrats and many Republicans alike. [Top right] J. D. Vance blames his mom's drug addiction on the situation at our border with Mexico: She actually fed her habit by stealing drugs from the hospital where she worked as a nurse.[Bottom left] T'is the season for scary movies. [Bottom center] American women are not going back, and we men will follow them forward. [Bottom right] Nick Otre Le Vant'a On Progress in Physics and Subjectivity Theory (see the last item below).
(2) As we approach the anniversary of October 7, five Jewish college students have been assaulted in recent days. A group of Palestine supporters plan vigils on October 7!
(3) Book review: Otre Le Vant, Nick, On Progress in Physics and Subjectivity Theory: An Amateur's Meanderings as Inspiration for Actual Physicists, self-published, 2024.
[My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I approached this self-published book, sent to me kindly by the author, with caution. As I had suspected, trouble began early on. There is a 4 x 4 table in Chapter 1 whose rows and columns are labeled Object, Movement, Space, Time. The idea is to show that the four notions are inter-dependent. In some cases, actual theories and dates of discoveries are cited, but, at the bottom of the page, we read, "As for cell SO [Space-Object], which asserts that there can be no Space without Objects, several discoveries throughout the 20th century support this idea." The non-physicist reader is left hanging without any further details.
The book is composed of three numbered chapters, sandwiched between a preface and an afterword, ending with a glossary.
Chapter 1: Questioning Everything (pp. 1-28)
Chapter 2: Subjectivity Theory (pp. 29-89)
Chapter 3: Achieving Progress in Physics (pp. 90-302)
The entire book is written in the form of a conversation between A (Alice) and B (Bobby). This isn't unprecedented, as Galileo used the format in his 1632 Italian-language book, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, comparing the Copernican system with the traditional Ptolemaic system, and Amazon is currently selling a book series, The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe.
We read on p. 8: "Let's take Newton's unification of gravity as an example. He realized that the force that keeps the planets in orbit is the same as the one pulling the apple to the ground. Before Newton's discovery, those two phenomena were regarded as entirely separate. While this new, unified theory is also wrong—remember, everything is wrong—it's less wrong as there is now only one wrong theory instead of two wrong theories. Making something up isn't good, but at least it's better than making two things up." With this logic, we are better off developing no theories, because then we'd have zero thing wrong!
By the way, the discussion above is reminiscent of a proposal I encountered when I was a graduate student. The suggestion was that a paper of m pages should be accepted and published only if it makes other papers of total length of at least m + 1 obsolete. The m-page paper is itself wrong and will be made obsolete by an even shorter paper in due course, thus reducing our worries about information explosion. Eventually, over many decades or centuries, we will arrive at a 1-page paper that contains the essence of all human knowledge, which is, of course, wrong!
An interesting feature of the book is a set of profiles covering the lives and work of 12 top physicists. Two-thirds of the parents of these physicists were middle-class (2 were poor; 2 were wealthy). They were equally divided between religious and non-religious. The number of their siblings was nearly uniformly distributed between 0 and 5.
Throughout, I took in the ideas with a huge grain of salt, as suggested by the author himself in a full-page graphic at the beginning of the book.

2024/10/03 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy Rosh Hashanah to all who observe this Jewish New Year Festival Throwback Thursday: How babies used to fly on airplanes Communication of the ACM cover feature for October 2024: AI as a provocateur
A top-heavy Earth: Nearly 7 times more people live in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere Turnout was pretty good for the 2020 US election: Let's make 2024 even better! Cover image of Lisi Rankin's 'A People's History of Computing in the United States' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Happy Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year Festival): The new Hebrew calendar year 5785 will start tomorrow and, like all Jewish holidays, is celebrated beginning with the night before. Observance of Rosh Hashanah involves eating several kinds of fruits and vegetables. For example, honey-dipped apple represents sweetness and pomegranate signifies fruitfulness. [Top center] Throwback Thursday: How babies used to fly on airplanes. [Top right] CACM cover (see the next item below). [Bottom left] A top-heavy Earth: Nearly 7 times more people live in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. [Bottom center] Turnout was pretty good for the 2020 US election: Let's make 2024's turnout even better! [Bottom right] Lisi Rankin's A People's History of Computing in the United States (see the last item below).
(2) Communications of the ACM cover feature for October 2024: "In between the two extreme visions of AI as a servant and AI as a sentient fighter-lover, resides an important and practical alternative: AI as a provocateur. A provocateur does not complete your report. It does not draft your email. It does not write your code. It does not generate slides. Rather, it critiques your work. Where are your arguments thin? What are your assumptions and biases? What are the alternative perspectives? Is what you are doing worth doing in the first place? Rather than optimize speed and efficiency, a provocateur engages in discussions, offers counterarguments, and asks questions to stimulate our thinking."
(3) Book review: Rankin, Lisi, A People's History of Computing in the United States, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Bernadette Dunne, Blackstone Audio, 2018.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Rankin's title is reminiscent of Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, in which history is viewed from the eyes of ordinary citizens, as opposed to politicians, military leaders, and industrialists. Computing, too, isn't the brainchild of a handful of male heroes, but a product of a multitude of ordinary people who got involved passionately and early on.
A prevailing myth in tech circles is that Silicon Valley has been the center of all important advances in computing. Even though big tech companies have been very innovative recently, from a historical standpoint, people (students and educators), were the driving engines for key advances. For example, Dartmouth College and University of Illinois were two important innovation hubs in the 1960s and 1970s where citizens engaged in the development of computing for the public good. Communication, game-playing, and social interactions were all there.
Rankin argues that "personal computing," the ability of people to access, create, and form communities around computer resources, existed way before computing devices were marketed to the masses and that the Internet was not a prerequisite for social computing. Furthermore, she dismisses the notion of "a digital America dependent on the work of a handful of male tech geniuses." In reality, ordinary citizens participated widely in computing through the use of time-shared systems. The contrast between these involved citizens and today's predominantly consumer-minded tech users is striking.
"Geographically, innovative educational experiments were conducted in New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Illinois, locales that are not synonymous with digital culture in many people's minds. Today, "we think of public schools and college classrooms as the last stop for mature technology," but the experiments just cited were really producers of new ideas and technology that were later exploited by big tech. The programming language BASIC, developed at Dartmouth, became the language of computing citizens worldwide.

2024/10/01 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy IEEE Day! National poll averages seem to have stabilized into a 3-point lead for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump This homeowner speaks for many of us (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy IEEE Day! Today, the Institute of Electrical and Elrctronic Engineers celebrates the first time in history when engineers worldwide gathered to share their technical ideas in 1884. [Center] Five weeks from the US presidential election: National poll averages seem to have stabilized into a 3-point lead for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump, but results in battleground states remain extremely close. [Right] This homeowner speaks for many of us.
(2) Iran launches 500 missiles toward Israel: Multiple hits on Tel Aviv are reported and the Ben Gurion airport is closed. Israeli authorities say they were ready for the attack. The attack caused minimal loss of life; A Palestinian man was killed in the West Bank. There were, however, damages to buildings, infrastructure, and military facilities.[Later reports cite ~200 missiles.]
(3) Many researchers pursue STEM fields to get away from the challenges of writing: They are often surprised to find out that writing plays an important role in science and technology.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The snake of Islamist terror in the Middle East is left with a head and no body!
- While continuing to bombard Lebanon, Israel starts hitting Houthi targets in Yemen.
- Hurricane Helene's death toll surpasses 100: Recovery efforts have begun, but they will take months.
- Former President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 today, is delighted with the Harris campaign.
- US port workers strike across the East and Gulf Coasts: Major supply-chain disruptions are expected.
- Climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's first female and first Jewish president, takes offices.
(5) Computing with bacteria: Researchers at India's Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics combined genetically engineered bacteria to act as biological computers for solving various problems. These "bactoneurons" were arranged in an assortment of combinations to perform 12 tasks, such as identifying prime numbers and vowels. The bacteria cultures work together as a single-layer artificial neural network, and their ability to self-replicate means they could be produced cheaply at scale.

2024/09/29 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Mom holding her two toddlers and, years later, held by the grown sons Some of the wonderful protest art arising from Iran's women-led #WomanLifeFreedom movement Country music singer/songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson dead at 88 (1) Images of the day: [Left] Young mom holding her two toddlers and, years later, held by the grown sons. [Center] Some of the wonderful protest art arising from Iran's women-led #WomanLifeFreedom movement. [Right] Country music singer/songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson dead at 88: RIP. The Rhodes Scholar, who earned a master's degree in English literature from Oxford, will be remembered for ballads like "Me and Bobby McGee" & "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and his role against Barbra Streisand in "A Star is Born."
(2) Long-time Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, 64, killed in Beirut air strike. He was in a bunker 60 feet underground when struck and killed. Iranians celebrated Nasrallah's death, remembering the time when he openly boasted that all expenses of Hezbollah are paid by Iran, adding "if Iran has money, we have money."
(3) Memory loss is both scary and natural: In 2010, James Collins wrote an essay in which he describes books that he loved, about which he remembers nothing.
(4) IEEE Computer Society elections: Grace A. Lewis, a Principal Researcher at the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute, has been elected to lead the IEEE Computer Society, as President-Elect during 2025 and as President during 2026. A good friend of mine, Dr. Ladan Tahvildari (U. Waterloo), is one of 6 members elected to 3-year terms on the Society's Board of Governors.
(5) SNL kicked off its 50th season last night: A new movie dramatizes the story of the chaotic 90 minutes before the first episode in 1975 of what would become Saturday Night Live.
(6) Yesterday's arts & crafts market in Isla Vista: With UCSB students back on campus, the market was busier than usual. My daughter participated and did good business. Unfortunately, I couldn't visit. [Image]
(7) "The Apprentice": A new film about the young Donald Trump and how despised & disbarred attorney Roy Cohen shaped him into what we see today, thus affecting the course of American history.

2024/09/27 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Quote: Hannah Arendt, on constant lying designed to promote disbelief Humor: Here's how to find Kentucky on a US map. You're welcome! Talk on Iran's protest art, by Dr. Pamela Karimi (1) Images of the day: [Left] Quote of the day: Hannah Arendt, on constant lying designed to promote disbelief. [Center] Humor: Here's how to find Kentucky on a US map. You're welcome! [Right] Talk on Iran's protest art (see the next item below).
(2) Today's book talk: "Women, Art, Freedom: Artists and Street Politics in Iran" was the title of an insightful talk by Dr. Pamela Karimi (Cornell University). There were ~55 attendees.
Drawing on a broad spectrum of historical and theoretical sources, this new 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.
(3) Around the world in 175 days: This week is the centennial of the first flight around the world, completed by two aircraft out of four that flew together in 1924.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Canada, Germany, Holland, and Australia want to take the Taliban to International Criminal Court.
- Donald Trump and his minions believe in the rule of lies!
- Trump, embraced by the Christian Nationalists as their savior, is the polar opposite of Jesus.
- Allowing religious zealots to run the world? We have tried it before, and the result was the Dark Ages.
- "Violence of Benevolence & the Struggles for Women's Rights in Iran" (57-minute talk: Arzoo Osanloo).
- SNL will turn 50 in October 2025: A new movie offers a fictional reimagining of the show's first episode.
- A little puzzler: What temperature has the same numerical representation in Kelvin and Fahrenheit?
(5) President Pezeshkian has said that Iran wants to be in peace with the world: Yeah, but before that, try to be in peace with your country's women, artists, students, journalists, and ethnic/religious minorities.
(6) On restoring mobility after spinal cord injuries: We humans walk, run, and climb stairs without consciously thinking about the highly complex interplay of muscle activations for each step. Interestingly, stepping can be generated without any communication between the brain and the spinal cord. For those with injuries that disrupt the communication between the brain and the spinal cord, the automatic ability to step is often lost, leading to mobility impairments or even permanent paralysis. Given that stepping can occur independently of brain input, should we continue to focus on restoring communication between the brain and spinal cord or should we instead target neurons located in the spinal cord itself?

2024/09/25 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Beauty from three natural elements (sunset, clouds, birds) cover image of Aubrey Clayton's 'Bernoulli's Fallacy' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Beauty from three natural elements (sunset, clouds, birds). [Center] My graduate seminar course on mathematical and engineering aspects of voting and elections in the campus news (see the next item below). [Right] Aubrey Clayton's Bernoulli's Fallacy (see the last item below).
(2) My course in the campus news: The feature article of UCSB Current, UC Santa Barbara's official news site, is about the ECE 594BB graduate seminar I will be teaching this quarter. "I want the students to understand that our voting system is flawed and that voting is not as simple as what we might think ... It's complicated, and we should work toward removing the flaws of our election system, even in the face of mathematical proof that a perfect voting system is impossible."
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- California sues ExxonMobile for deliberately lying about plastics being recyclable.
- The quest to build a radio telescope on the Moon, pioneering mining and manufacturing in space.
- The seven types of anxiety disorders (from generalized anxiety to social anxiety). [13-minute video]
- Facebook memory from Sep. 25, 2022: Rosh Hashanah at my mom's, two months before her passing.
(4) Book review: Clayton, Aubrey, Bernoulli's Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science, Columbia U. Press, 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
There is a long-running feud between science and statistics with regard to the statistical methods used across experimental science. Far from being a minor academic quibble, it underlies a reproducibility crisis now threatening entire disciplines. As statistics has entered more and more aspects of our lives, the error at the root of the dispute, which stems from a misunderstanding of probability and its role in making inferences from observations, shapes important decisions in medicine, law, and public policy.
The association of a fallacy with Jacob Bernoulli [1655-1705], the founder of probability theory and a member of a family of mathematicians and scientists with numbers, theorems, and laws named after them, seems bizarre. The fallacy arises from a confusion between the probability of data given a hypothesis and the probability of a hypothesis given the data. Clayton tells us that significance testing, a widely used method, is based on Bernoulli's Fallacy and thus leads to false conclusions. In particular, he points out irreproducible results published in top social-sciences journals which have made significance testing a prerequisite for publication.
Clayton discusses the racist past of statistics (eugenics) and points out that the frequentist view of probability, used extensively in teaching the concepts, is misguided. Defining probability as "the frequency of occurrence of an event in proportion to the total number of possible events that could have occurred" and then using this definition as the sole basis for drawing inferences about the real world (e.g., deriving population parameters from sample parameters) is at the core of the fallacy. What is missing is a use of our knowledge of the world or "the prior." The latter is integrated into Bayes Theorem. The Bayesian method is still not well-understood, or is otherwise ignored, by some statisticians.
In way of conclusion, Clayton discusses “the way out” of the fallacy, which entails 5 recommendations:
- Abandon the frequentist interpretation and its associated language
- Don't fear the prior
- Data you didn't get aren't as important as hypotheses you didn't assume
- Get used to approximate answers
- Give up on objectivity; aim for validity instead
In short, the way out consists of abandoning much of conventional views in statistics, including the claim that statistical methods are objective, embracing the messiness of the world around us, and taking the Bayesian approach. An important prerequisite is to view all probability as conditional on something (background info), rather than absolute.
This 78-minute book talk by the author covers the book's key ideas.

2024/09/24 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
UCSB welcomes its class of 2028 with pre-instructional activities Notice board at the entry of my soon-to-be former office Thousands of reprints in these two file cabinets have been converted to junk by the Internet
Iran's criminal Islamist regime tries to silence the brave mothers of those it has killed or abducted IranWire cartoon: The UN and US welcome a large delegation of representatives from Iran's criminal Islamist regime Optical illusion: This seemingly bulging figure is composed of squares and rectangles that are horizontally and vertically aligned! (1) Images of the day: [Top left] UCSB welcomes its class of 2028 with pre-instructional activities: Fall 2024 classes begin on Thursday, September 26. [Top center & right] Moving my office (see the next item below). [Bottom left] Iran's criminal Islamist regime tries to silence the brave mothers of those it has killed/abducted: The regime prevents these "justice seekers" from holding memorials for their loved ones and, in many cases, imprisons them or roughs them up. [Bottom center] IranWire cartoon of the day: The UN and US welcome a large delegation of representatives from Iran's criminal Islamist regime. [Bottom right] Optical illusion: This seemingly bulging figure is composed of squares and rectangles that are horizontally and vertically aligned!
(2) My UCSB office is being moved from 5155 Harold Frank Hall (the former Engineering I) to 1816 Ellison Hall: This notice board is at the entry of my soon-to-be former office. My office move provides an opportunity to get rid of decades of accumulated junk. The thousands of reprints in these two file cabinets weren't junk when I acquired them by photocopying and, in some cases, sending requests to the authors. These reprints, and hard copies of journals to which I subscribed, formed my archive of reference material before the Internet.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Chain explosions suggest that residential buildings in South Lebanon are used as ammunition depots.
- California sues ExxonMobile for deliberately lying about plastics being recyclable.
- The quest to build a powerful radio telescope on the Moon, pioneering mining and manufacturing in space.
(4) Final thought for the day: A new book by investigative reporters Russ Buettner & Susanne Craig attributes much of Donald Trump's success to a lifelong string of astounding good luck: first his inheritance, then lenient treatment by banks, then being refashioned, late in life, as a reality-TV business genius. Is there finally evidence that Trump's luck is running out?

2024/09/23 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Distribution of captures on chessboard in 300 games by strongest players Donald trump: I have the very best friends and fans cover image of Daniel Susskind's 'Growth' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Distribution of captures on chessboard in 300 games by strongest players. [Center] I have the very best friends and fans. [Right] Daniel Susskind's Growth (see the last item below).
(2) Coal mine explosion in Tabas, Iran, kills at least 51: Money that could have been spent on improving the mine's safety was diverted to building an extensive network of tunnels in Gaza.
(3) Pakistani-American Lina Khan, 35, is firmly in control as FTC Chair: At the Federal Trade Commission, Chair Lina Khan's mission is breaking illegal monopolies, blocking mergers that stifle competition, and protecting consumers. [13-minute video]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Escalation of war in the Middle East: The latest Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have reportedly killed 270.
- A devastating report on global threats & American weakness is issued by a bipartisan commission.
- Microsoft agrees to buy power for its data centers from a resurrected Three Mile Island nuclear plant.
- Islamist Mohammad Jafar Mahallati Scandal at Oberlin College: An Interview with Writer Roya Hakakian.
- How did an Islamist become a tenured professor at Oberlin College? [47-minute video]
- Who's smarter? She has a Juris Doctorate. He threatened to sue his schools if they released his transcripts.
(5) Shape-shifting wheels: Inspired by the surface tension of a droplet of liquid, this adjustable wheel changes shape in real-time to move over uneven surfaces and high obstacles.
(6) Book review: Susskind, Daniel, Growth: A History and a Reckoning, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by the author, Tantor Audio, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Politicians keep talking about growth and want more of it at all cost. But what exactly is growth? Susskind traces the history of growth, coming to the conclusion that it is a relatively new concept dating back to the mid-20th century. At the time, economists were thinking about the cost of war and whether a country can afford it. They came to the conclusion that the answer lied in the total size of an economy, which they did not know how to measure. After several iterations, the notion of GDP was developed, which also provided a means for quantifying growth. Since then, politicians and, to some extent the public, have become obsessed with growth, because it is intimately linked to a higher standard of living.
Growth is at the center of our politics these days. No one knows what causes it, yet politicians argue endlessly about how to get more of it and environmentalists point to its link to climate change, making us doubt whether we should have any growth at all. Susskind, a professor at King’s College, London, provides an informative study of the idea, its past, and its potential future. After enumerating the benefits and down sides of growth, Susskind comes to the conclusion that we should not ignore growth but putting it front and center in our policy-making is likely a mistake.
Quantifying growth is less than a century old. Growth itself is a phenomenon that arose after the Industrial Revolution, when the explosive rise in our standard of living began. Before then, humans lived at subsistence level for millennia, what Susskind calls “the Long Stagnation.” According to Susskind, the pursuit of useful ideas, together with new technologies inspired by those ideas, are the most-likely causes of growth.
One reason politicians are enamored with growth is that it offers an easy fix for political disagreements, because “by pursuing growth, you could sidestep many of the practical tradeoffs in political life.” When the GDP rises and everyone has more money in the bank, tolerating other problems becomes much easier. Proponents of growth sometimes snap back at degrowth advocates, who aim to save the rainforests by actually shrinking the GDP, thus: “Medieval peasants would have killed for your air fryer, so quit complaining!” These two extreme views create a growth dilemma.
A rising standard of living tends to accompany population shrinkage, leading to fewer young minds to innovate and to implement the new ideas. In fact, population growth, which has been a key component of economic growth, is already on the way out in many countries. Do we really have to go back to emphasizing population growth? In my humble opinion, advances in artificial intelligence may obviate the need for population growth as a prerequisite to economic growth.

2024/09/22 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Ingenious design: A wristwatch that uses magnetism to hold two small balls in proper places to act as the hour and minute hands Musings of a curious engineer: Bridge foundation in water Mahsa's Revolution: The second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death while in the custody of Iran's morality police was observed throughout the world over the past week
Pre-Islamic Iran: Holding hands, Persepolis FedEx-delivered plaque of my Dr. Amin Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in absentia on August 31, 2024, during SUTA’s reunion event Cover image of Simone De Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Ingenious design: A wristwatch that uses magnetism to hold two small balls in proper places to act as the hour and minute hands. [Top center] Musings of a curious engineer: Bridge foundation in water. [Top right] Mahsa's Revolution: The second anniversary of Mahsa Amini's death while in the custody of Iran's morality police was observed throughout the world over the past week. #WomanLifeFreedom [Bottom left] Pre-Islamic Iran: Holding hands, Persepolis. [Bottom center] FedEx-delivered plaque of my Dr. Amin Lifetime Achievement Award, presented in absentia on August 31, 2024, during SUTA’s reunion event. [Bottom right] Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump's late-night meltdown over Truth Social: Bashes Oprah Winfrey for her event with Kamala Harris.
- How Elon Musk went from an innovator & tech genius to conspiracy theorist & MAGA mouthpiece.
- Donald Trump's assertion that Jews could cost him the election raises fear of anti-Semitic reprisals.
- Senator spews hate against an Arab-American witness at a hearing about hate crimes.
(3) Book review: De Beauvoir, Simone (translated by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier), The Second Sex, 2010 (originally published in 1949). [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, often described as the Bible of feminism, gets an amazing 4.6 stars on Amazon (based on 1856 ratings) and 4.2 stars on GoodReads (42K+ ratings). De Beauvoir [1908-1986], a radical French philosopher, writer, and political activist, offers an analysis of why women have always had less power than men. In 1972, de Beauvoir declared herself a feminist, after she reached the conclusion that a socialist revolution by itself would not be enough to emancipate women, as she had previously thought.
The Second Sex tackles the social status of women from the beginning of civilization to the modern day. De Beauvoir's central argument is that women have been forced to take a secondary role to men since the earliest times and that the whole human condition is viewed in male terms and is described in language that excludes women. She is frustrated by the way women are treated as legal minors, much like children, leading to women's absence from great stories of history. She presents her arguments using three frames of reference.
- Historical materialism, which addresses the influence of socioeconomics and class on shaping history.
- Existentialism, a philosophy that emphasizes personal freedom and choice in a world lacking a higher power.
- Psychoanalysis, which examines the subconscious causes of human behavior.
Aspects of de Beauvoir's analysis appear out of date in our modern society, but they caused a lot of criticism and debate in the conservative French society.
De Beauvoir's meticulously-researched book paved the way for the feminist movement. She argued that if human identity is socially constructed, as Sartre believed, then femininity is created in the same way. One is not born a woman but becomes a woman through social conditioning. Written just after World War II, The Second Sex is divided into two books.
Book 1: Facts and Myths
Book 2: Women's Life Today
De Beauvoir asserts that throughout history, women have been cast as the other, because they are viewed only in relation to men. This is dehumanizing. Cultural understandings of femininity are rooted in male fear and male desire. Women's sole purpose in society is to satisfy such male longings. Without men pursuing them, seducing them, and marrying them women have no reason to exist. De Beauvoir viewed women as being complicit in their secondary status. Women feel more solidarity with their fathers and husbands than they do with other women. She believed that without solidarity the fight for women's freedom will fail.
Up until the women's movement of the 1970s, humanities scholars who studied the condition of women in society were not taken seriously. According to De Beauvoir, women were enslaved before men were. Subsequently, the enslavement was institutionalized in the form of marriage. In one of her most interesting chapters, "The Married Woman," she offers numerous quotations from the novels and diaries of Virginia Woolf, Colette, Edith Wharton, Sophia Tolstoy and others. She also scrutinizes the manner in which various male authors, from Montaigne to Stendhal to D. H. Lawrence, have represented women in their written works, and, in many cases, how they treated their wives.
Upon its publication, The Second Sex was totally banned in Spain and was placed on the Catholic Church's list of forbidden books. Controversies also surrounded the book's English translations. The first English translation by H. M. Pershley in 1953 was criticized for various errors, misinterpretation of several of De Beauvoir's ideas, and arbitrary deletion of one-third of its contents, including the all-important chapter on marriage. The authoritative English translation by Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, reviewed here, did not become available until 2009.

2024/09/20 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Given that the exterior shape is a square, find the measure of the angle with a question mark Cover image of Chris Funk's 'Drought, Flood, Fire' Math puzzle: Given two squares as shown, find the length x
Humorous signs: Batch 1 Humorous signs: Batch 2 Humorous signs: Batch 3 (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Math puzzle: Given that the exterior shape is a square, find the measure of the middle angle with a question mark. [Top center] Chris Funk's Drought, Flood, Fire (see the last item below). [Top right] Math puzzle: Given two squares as shown, find the length x. [Bottom row] Humorous signs.
(2) Book review: Funk, Chris, Drought, Flood, Fire: How Climate Change Contributes to Catastrophes, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by Trevor White, Cambridge University Press Audio, 2021.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, by Professor Chris Funk of UCSB's Geography Department, begins with an extensive discussion of recent droughts in east Africa, events about which extensive data exist.
Since the 2015-2016 El Nino, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of extreme events. The frequency of extreme events has more than tripled since the early 1980s. The number of extremes has risen from ~200/year in 1980 to ~800/year in 2018. This book examines the extremes in the 2015-2019 time period, cataloguing their severity and explaining, in an accessible way, how climate change may have contributed to their magnitudes.
The book's 14 chapters are followed by an appendix offering resources for further reading and research. Following the introductory Chapter 1, Chapters 2-4 offer an overview of climate change and climate science, focusing on the fragility of our Earth, the Goldilocks planet. Chapters 5-12 discuss the 2015-2019 extreme heat waves and their consequences in droughts, floods, and fires, citing only some important examples. Chapters 13-14 conclude the book by painting a somewhat optimistic picture of the future.
Chapter 1. Climate Extremes, Climate Attribution, Extreme Event Attribution
Chapter 2. Welcome to an Awesome Planet: A Series of Delicate Balances Support Earth's Fragile Flame
Chapter 3. The Earth Is a Negentropic System, or "the Bright Side of Empty"
Chapter 4. Do-It-Yourself Climate Change Science
Chapter 5. Temperature Extremes – Impacts and Attribution: Shocks, Exposure, and Vulnerability
Chapter 6. Precipitation Extremes: Observations and Impacts
Chapter 7. Cyclones, and Typhoons
Chapter 8. Conceptual Models of Climate Change and Prediction, and How They Relate to Floods and Fires
Chapter 9. Climate Change Made the 2015-2016 El Nino More Extreme
Chapter 10. Bigger La Ninas and the East African Climate Paradox
Chapter 11. Fire and Drought in the Western United States
Chapter 12. Fire and Australia's Black Summer
Chapter 13. Driving toward +4 C on a Dixie Cup Planet
Chapter 14. We Can Afford to Wear a White Hat

2024/09/19 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Old Santa Barbara Mission and its visitors, circa 1910 Pan American Highway is the longest drivable road in the world: It passes through 14 countries and is ~30,000 miles long IEEE CCS talk on Las Cumbres Observatory (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: Old Santa Barbara Mission and its visitors, circa 1910. [Center] Pan American Highway is the longest drivable road in the world: It passes through 14 countries and is ~30,000 miles (~48,000 km) long. [Right] Talk on Las Cumbres Observatory (see the last item below).
(2) The IRS awarded three individuals $79 million under its whistleblower program, for information that helped recover $263.7 million from a tax cheat.
(3) City of Goleta to get a full-service train station: The new station on S. La Patera will be adjacent to the existing platform, which will continue to be used until the $32 million project's completion in 2026.
(4) Today, my daughter and I visited one of our favorite spots: The annual Planned Parenthood book sale, now in its 50th year. The scale and selection is overwhelming!
(5) Academic publishing: A UCLA professor files an antitrust lawsuit against the largest academic publishers, asserting that they achieve enormous monetary gain from collectively enforcing unpaid services by authors, editors, and reviewers.
(6) The Earth will get a new mini-moon for 57 days this fall: A passing asteroid will be attracted into Earth orbit but will eventually return to its own orbit around the Sun.
(7) Kamala Harris is super-qualified: She is the only presidential candidate with experience in all three branches of government, having served as AG, Senator, and VP.
(8) Last night's IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Annie Kirby, Head of Engineering and Operations for the Las Cumbres Observatory. (LCO), spoke under the title "Engineering the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network."
LCO is a nonprofit corporation based in Goleta, California, dedicated to advancing worldwide understanding of the universe through science and education with its global network of fully-robotic optical telescopes. LCO began its mission in 2005 and has been operating a global network continuously since May 2014.
The network currently consists of 25 telescopes (a mix of 2.0 m, 1.0 m, and 0.4 m), located at 7 sites around the world, together serving as a single integrated observatory. The observatory is leading the future of time domain astronomy with observations that capitalize on the network's unique capabilities.
Ms. Kirby presented the history and development of LCO, with an emphasis on her team's unique and dynamic engineering accomplishments. LCO used to have its own computing equipment, but now uses AWS.

2024/09/18 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
T-shirt message encouraging people to vote My entry in the New Yorker cartoon caption contest (#914) Math puzzle: If the two black squares are identical, find the total area of the two red squares (1) Images of the day: [Left] VOTE, and persuade others to vote. [Center] My entry in the New Yorker cartoon caption contest (#914): These phishing hooks can be deadlier than barbed hooks. [Right] Math puzzle: If the two black squares are identical, find the total area of the two red squares.
(2) One small step for a violinist, one giant step for humankind: In a history-making performance, astronaut Sarah Gillis plays "Rey's Theme," a piece John Williams composed for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Her solo violin part, recorded during the Polaris Dawn Mission and sent down to Earth via SpaceX's Starlink constellation, was synchronized with musicians on Earth. What a beautiful idea!
(3) On the invisibility of older women: "I have a big personality, and I have a certain level of professional competence, and I'm used to being taken seriously professionally. And suddenly, it's like I just vanished from the room. And I have to yell so much louder to be seen. ... I just want to walk down the street and have someone notice that I exist." [From The Atlantic]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants explode simultaneously, killing 12+. injuring 100s.
- The Fed cuts interest rates by 0.5 point to stimulate the economy, now that inflation has cooled down.
- Energy efficiency: Brain-like neuromorphic device achieves massive 4.1 tera-operations / second / watt.
- Facebook bans Russian state media accounts for deceptive operations and attempts to evade detection.
- Cartoon caption of the day: "My dog ate my homework and then an immigrant ate my dog."
- Eagerly anticipating the second week of November 2024, when the US election is over!
(5) Miye Ota passed away peacefully shortly after her 106th birthday: Miye's son, Steve, who passed away in 2020, was my son's aikido sensei. This SB Independent article celebrated her 100th birthday.
(6) VP candidate J. D. Vance talks at a higher grade level than Donald Trump, but they are both made of the same stinking, racist, xenophobic cloth.
(7) Predictable exodus of academics from Florida: In a recent survey, nearly 2 out of 5 faculty members reported that since 2022, they have applied for an academic job outside Florida. Popular destinations include California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. Governor DeSantis may want to compare notes with Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei to learn about the impact of driving away academics.

2024/09/17 (Tuesday): Today, I offer reviews of three sociopolitical books about the US, Iran, and Israel.
Cover image of William Cooper's 'How America Works ... And Why It Doesn't' Cover image of Marjan Kamali's 'The Lion Women of Tehran' Cover image of 'The Genius of Israel' (1) Book review: Cooper, William, How America Works ... And Why It Doesn't: A Brief Guide to the US Political System, Gemini Books, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The material in this book is presented in two parts and 10 chapters. Part One, "How America Works," consists of the following 5 chapters: History; The Constitution; Constitutional Abominations; Constitutional Principles; Essential Traditions. The 5 chapters of Part Two, "And Why It Doesn't," are as follows: Tribalism, Social Media, and Political Structure; Political Dysfunction; Policy Failures; Threats; The Future.
America is defined not just by the US Constitution but by essential traditions which are not found in the Constitution but that are just as central to the American experiment. The two-party system is the worst of these traditions, because it contributes to tribalism, and the rule of law, which entails respect for courts and court orders, is the best. According to Mahatma Gandhi, who is quoted at the beginning of Chapter 5, "Independence means voluntary restraints and discipline, voluntary acceptance of the rule of law." Capitalism, and its attendant privacy rights, though mostly positive, must be viewed as a mixed bag.
So, why have the lofty words of the US Constitution and American traditions ceased working in the 21st century? Right at the outset of Part Two, Cooper points to three culprits: Tribalism, social media, and a malformed political structure. Humans survived on Earth because of tribalism, so cognitive bias is baked into us by evolution. The effect of tribalism is amplified by availability bias, the fact that our assessment of risk/danger is driven by available personal and collective memories, not representative data, and confirmation bias. And here is where social media comes in to fill our memories with whatever serves the tribe. Political dysfunction has created a breed of politicians that put tribal allegiance above intellectual coherence.
In the concluding Chapter 10, Cooper begins by quoting Carl Sagan, warning about the danger of America sliding back into superstition and darkness. He then asks the following fundamental question: "Is America's twenty-first-century decline merely another dip in a long arc of non-linear, yet essentially upward, progress? Or is it, rather, the first phase of a steep and irreversible decline?" Avoiding irreversible decline, Cooper suggests, requires better civic education for the American people and a heightened awareness of cognitive biases. Technology acts as a double-edged sword in that it can enable tribal tendencies and power grabs or democratize information and education.
Cooper includes two appendices: A complete reproduction of the Bill of Rights (10 amendments to the US Constitution) and statements on climate change from 18 scientific associations. Seven pages of endnotes (primarily URLs) and a sizable bibliography conclude this valuable book.
(2) Book review: Kamali, Marjan, The Lion Women of Tehran: A Novel, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Mozhan Navabi and Nikki Massoud, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I can't think of any better setting for drama and heartbreak than the situation in Iran immediately before and just after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. And multiple authors have exploited this setting, many of them taking liberties with historical facts to enhance the drama. As someone who witnessed the Revolution firsthand, I find some of the inaccuracies bothersome, as I wrote in my review of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis. To be fair, Satrapi's book was autobiographical (nonfiction), whereas Kamali's is a novel (historical fiction). Kamali has previously written The Stationary Shop (2019) and Together Tea (2013).
The cover blurb describes this book as "a heartfelt, epic new novel of friendship, betrayal, and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran." The three decades are the 1950s, when the protagonist Ellie lives a privileged life until the untimely death of her father forces the family to move into a tiny home downtown; the 1960s, when the super-lonely Ellie enjoys the friendship of Homa, as they grow up and attend school together; and the 1970s, when the girls' adult friendship as they pursue diverging sociopolitical goals collides with the revolutionary turmoil in their homeland.
The "lion women" of the title is English for "shir-zanaan," which is a Persian term for fearless women. One of the joint ambitions of Ellie and Homa is to become lion women as adults. Unfortunately, the girls' intense friendship is disrupted when Ellie's mother remarries and returns, with Ellie, to a lifestyle of grand comfort. As Ellie abides by her mother's plans which put her on a path to marriage, Homa follows in her father's footsteps and pursues political activism, with aspirations to become a lawyer who crusades for women's freedom. These conflicting paths are played out to dramatic effect against a background of regime change, political persecution, women's subjugation, and devastating loss.
As is common in books about Iran at the intersection of age-old traditions and political upheaval, there are ample references to Persian food, Iranian customs, families being torn apart by emigration, and adjusting to life in a new land. The story ends in 2022, some five decades after it began. Woven into the novel's conclusion is the story of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian women who died in police custody after she was apprehended for not wearing her headscarf properly.
(3) Book review: Senor, Dan and Saul Singer, The Genius of Israel: The Surprising Resilience of a Divided Nation in a Turbulent World, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by the first author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2023. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Though this book isn't a sequel to Start Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle (2009 book by the same authors), it tells the same type of success story, this time focusing on Israel's social structure. The fact that Israelis are by and large a happy bunch that rank near the top of world happiness index, despite internal challenges and external threats, is just as surprising as a relatively young country of about 7 million people with no natural resources producing more start-up companies on a per capita basis than large, peaceful, and stable nations and regions like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and all of Europe. Whether the social miracle holds up in the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing Gaza war, is something to be seen.
Israel ranks high on life expectancy and low on deaths from suicide and substance abuse. It is unique among the world's wealthy democracies in not facing aging and shrinking population. The optimism about the future that pervades the Israeli socitey is seemingly incompatible with being surrounded by hostile nations bent on destroying it. This optimism in turn prevents the levels of loneliness, teen depression, and social decline we witness in many Western democracies.
On the surface, the Israeli society is highly divided into four groups of citizens: Observant Jews, secular Jews, Orthodox Jews, and Arabs. These groups do not see eye to eye on many issues, but they are united in their love for Israel and when there is a need to defend their homeland. Trust in leadership is quite high: The same Israelis that protest against certain government policies follow official calls during a national emergency. One uniting influence is military service that tends to bridge the age and generation gaps. The sense that if they don't work together, they will perish together is a strong motivating factor.
The authors offer plenty of social success stories. I will focus on a few of them in the rest of this review. Healthcare and medical technology is a good example. During the COVID years, Israel led the world in procuring and stockpiling vaccine doses, based on an economic analysis that the cost of economic shut-down would be several times higher than the hefty premium paid for vaccines in the early days. Israeli doctors and hospitals are state of the art and their services are provided to everyone.
Another example is Israel's film/television industry. Despite the very small market for Hebrew films and shows, Israel has been producing hit films and series, often selling the rights to other countries that produce English versions. The hit TV series "Homeland," based on the Israeli series "Prisoners of War," is a good example. Another TV series that caught my eyes because of my involvement in helping families dealing with a loved one's mental illness portrays a psychologist who treats patients at his clinic five days a week and then seeks psychological treatment for himself. A similar US series would go a long way toward scaling up efforts to spread public knowledge about mental illness and confronting the stigma that comes with it.
Seven of the book's 13 chapters are about Israeli success stories of the kind discussed above, but Senor & Singer also include several chapters focusing on internal divisions in the country, including Jewish/Arab and religious/secular dichotomies. The political stalemate that led to the election of Bibi Netanyahu as the head of the coalition of conservative/nationalistic/religious parties is discussed only briefly. The authors seem to have a favorable view of Netanyahu's Judicial-reform policy.
Perhaps the authors paint an overly-rosy picture, but there are many lessons in Israel's economic and social successes. The success in social domains is built around the values of service, solidarity, and belonging. The ethos of service, instilled in Israelis by Israeli Defense Forces, deserves a good chunk of the credit. The social success story of Israel provides other countries with models of how to overcome the crises of disconnectedness and lack of purpose in modern life.

2024/09/16 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Second anniversary of Mahsa's Revolution: Street protests Second anniversary of Mahsa's Revolution: Images of some of the dead Cover image of Justice Stephen Breyer's 'Reading the Constitution' (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Second anniversary of Mahsa's Revolution (see the next item below). [Right] Justice Stephen Breyer's Reading the Constitution (see the last item below).
(2) A somber day for Iran: September 16 is the second anniversary of Mahsa Zhina Amini's death while in police custody in Tehran. She had been arrested for not wearing her headscarf "properly" and had been roughed up in the van taking her to the police station. She collapsed from her injuries at the police station and later died at a hospital. Her death sparked a women-led movement under the slogan #WomanLifeFreedom that shook Iran's Islamist regime to the core, prompting it to quell the street protests with deadly force. Security guards killed hundreds and maimed, abducted, or arrested thousands of others. Iranians throughout the world will honor Mahsa and other casualties of the 2022 anti-Iranian-regime protests.
(3) On the margins of the Emmy Awards: Candice Bergen recounted at the Emmys the time her character Murphy Brown was attacked by the then-VP Dan Quayle for having a kid as a single mom. "Oh, how far we've come. Today a Republican candidate for VP would never attack a woman for having kids."
(4) It's quite simple: Someone who cheats his customers, vendors, & partners will cheat you. Someone who betrayed his wives will betray you. Someone who lies all the time, will lie to you.
(5) Book review: Breyer, Stephen, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, unabridged 12-hour audiobook, read by the author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book GoodReads]
Recently-retired after serving 28 years on the US Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer writes about his judicial philosophy and life on the highest court of the land. Breyer disagrees with the relatively new judicial philosophy known as textualism. Textualists believe that the proper way to interpret the Constitution and statues is through careful analysis of the text and paying attention to the language as it was understood at the time the documents were written. They dismiss the need to consider history, precedent, tradition, purposes, values, and consequences.
Breyer sides with Chief Justice John Marshall, who viewed the Constitution as a workable set of principles to be interpreted by subsequent generations. According to Breyer, the most-important element in interpreting laws is to understand the purposes of the statues as well as the consequences of deciding a case one way or another. “I will sometimes ask how a (hypothetical) ‘reasonable legislator’ would have interpreted the statute in light of its purposes.”
The writing and reading are somewhat dry, but the sample cases that Breyer uses to illustrate his points, including the Dobbs case which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, form important milestones in the SCOTUS history. He argues that departing from settled law can lead to chaos. He is cautiously optimistic that in time, the new justices will realize the limitations of textualism and come to understand that “the ultimate object of law is to allow human beings to live peacefully and prosperously together in communities.”

2024/09/14 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The latest Dr. Seuss book (humor): 'They're Eating the Dogs, They're Eating the Cats' Elon Musk's estranged trans daughter knocks her dad for his misogynistic response to Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris/Walz Cover image of Kapka Kassabova's 'Border' (1) Images of the day: [Left] The latest Dr. Seuss book (humor): They're Eating the Dogs, They're Eating the Cats. And here's a musical tribute to the new book. [Center] Elon Musk's estranged trans daughter knocks her dad for his misogynistic response to Taylor Swift's endorsement of Harris/Walz. [Right] Kapka Kassabova's Border (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Boar's Head indefinitely shuts down its deli meat plant in Virginia tied to a deadly listeria outbreak.
- Americans used 100 exabytes of wireless data (that's 100 trillion megabytes) in 2023.
- NASA faces an unsustainable future, according to a new joint report by multiple US national academies.
- Unemployment in the information technology sector hits 6%, similar to the end of the dot-com bubble.
- Sarah Allen's Physics Fairy Tales has three volumes thus far: Newton's Laws, Fluid Mechanics, and Light.
- Welcome to millions of Taylor Swift fans whose leader has endorsed Kamala Harris!
(3) J. D. Vance: "I don't think most Americans are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and problems of most Americans." He was talking about Taylor Swift, but ironically, the statement also applies to Donald Trump.
(4) You gotta be kidding me: The ruling mullahs control Iran's borders in both directions, for those who want to enter the country and those wanting to leave. Quite a few Iranians are banned from leaving the country and many are not welcome in other countries. Now, President Pezeshkian has the nerves to suggest that Islamic nations should remove their borders, similar to what the EU has done.
(5) Development of mass digital storage technology: An article by Tom Coughlin and Roger Hoyt in IEEE Computer magazine's Sep. 2024 issue examines the path of several mass storage technologies until 2037. NAND Flash chips are expected to offer 2-4 TB capacity by 2027, using hundreds of circuit layers. Beyond that, the picture is unclear. Hard disk drives may reach 100 TB capacity, with recording density of more than 10 TB per square inch by 2037. The corresponding numbers for magnetic tape are 1500 TB and 0.6 TB/in^2.
(6) Book review: Kassabova, Kapka, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, Graywolf Press, 2017.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In this travel narrative, Kassabova mixes her exploration of the border region between Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece with narratives on the Cold War, Europe’s migration crisis, and regional geography. The border areas, which have been shaped over centuries by myths & legends, as well as by the ambitions of the Soviet and Ottoman Empires, were popular crossings into the West, because they were thought to be easier options that the Berlin Wall. In this historically-rich, conflict-strewn region, migrants from Syria and Iraq, after walking across Turkey, mingle with smugglers, treasure-hunters, and a host of other characters, all of them interacting with border guards.
Kassabova includes a number personal stories about people she encounters, such as a Pomak couple running a bustling guesthouse in a mountain village where "labyrinthine passages carved out cathedrals and entire cities inside the cliffs." The ethnic minorities in this region suffered during the communist era, as they were under constant suspicion. They learned to cope and prosper, eventually outliving their communist tormentors.
The "edge of Europe" is no longer exclusively in this area, as migration has spread throughout the continent. For the Brits, the edge is now the English Channel and for Italians it is the Mediterranean Sea, the path taken by boatloads of migrants who enter Europe, while taking immense risks by crowding into unseaworthy crafts.

2024/09/12 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Abstract drawing of someone kissing Donald Trump's hand Tonight's Talngor Group talk by Behrooz Parhami on democratic elections The world's largest turtle that roamed South America 10 million years ago (1) Images of the day: [Left] "Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump": Article in The Atlantic: About time somebody raised these facts. [Center] Tonight's Talngor Group talk on democratic elections (see the last item below). [Right] The world's largest turtle that roamed South America 10 million years ago.
(2) Germany has had it with spies and terrorists living there under diplomatic or religious pretenses: It deports Khamanei’s representative at Hamburg Islamic Center.
(3) Tonight's Talangor Group talk: Yours truly spoke under the title "The Science and Engineering of Democratic Elections." Before the main talk, Ms. Parinoush Saniee made a short presentation entitled "Iranian Women Are the Heroes of the Age of Defeat." In transition to my main topic, I shared the good news that UCSB has chosen Ms. Marzieh Gahvarband as the inaugural awardee of the Mahsa Amini Graduate Fellowship, which will support her doctoral studies. There were ~75 attendees
We tend to think of voting as conceptually simple: Isn't it just casting ballots and counting them? This is true when there are only two candidates, in which case the only possible complication is tie votes. Normally, one candidate gets more votes than the other (although not necessarily a majority of votes due to blank and invalid ballots) and is declared the winner. As soon as we have three candidates, complications arise, which have been subjects of intense studies by mathematicians, computer scientists/engineers, and economists.
Mathematician/economist Kenneth Arrow won a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics by proving an impossibility theorem for voting: That if we require the satisfaction of four axioms, all of which are quite logical and reasonable, then there does not exist a voting system that satisfies all four of them. No matter how hard we try, and how much complexity we introduce into our voting system, there are instances where it fails to reflect the will of the people in a reasonable and fair way.
I showed several examples where our commonly-used plurality voting system yielded inappropriate outcomes and pointed to two important causes: Vote splitting and spoiler candidates. I also showed several alternative voting schemes (approval voting, Borda voting, and rank-order voting) that avoid some of the difficulty, although we know from Arrow's impossibility theorem that these alternate schemes must also fail in some cases. So, there is no perfect "error-free" voting system, but we can devise systems with fewer problematic cases.
I concluded my discussion by pointing to the difficult problem of districting and an abomination known as Gerrymandering. A spirited discussion ensued about elections in general and the way they are conducted in the US, including the notion of Electoral College versus popular vote. At the end of this report, I am including three references for further study of the mathematical details of voting systems and a couple of books on US politics that I have found enlightening.
Recording of Ms. Saniee's short presentation.
Recording of my talk on democratic elections. [My PDF slides]
UCSB ECE 594BB Web page.
- Borgers, Christof, Mathematics of Social Choice: Voting, Compensation, and Division. [Review]
- Brams, Steven J. and Peter C. Fishburn, Approval Voting. [Review]
- Poundstone, William, Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It). [Review]
- Cooper, William, How America Works, and Why It Doesn't: A Brief Guide to the US Political System. [Review]
- Lewis, Verlan, The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America. [Review]

2024/09/11 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Presidential debate body languages: Harris vs. Trump Math puzzle: Find the radius r of the quarter-circle in terms of a and b One assessment of last night's Harris-Trump presidential debate: Harris won by a knock-out (1) Images of the day: [Left] Presidential debate body languages: Harris looked directly at Trump when she spoke or when he spewed his lies. Trump rarely looked at Harris, usually facing the moderators. he also screamed and looked angry throughout. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the radius r of the quarter-circle in terms of a and b. [Right] One assessment of last night's Harris-Trump presidential debate.
(2) A tribute to the 343 FDNY firefighters who perished at the World Trade Center, shared with love on this 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. [41-minute video]
(3) Bitterness vs. hope: In last night's presidential debate, Kamala Harris projected confidence and gave some specifics of her program, whereas Donald Trump repeated his old grievances and debunked conspiracy theories. Real-time fact-checking is tough. I hope that in the coming days, all of DJT's lies are exposed.
(4) The EU plans to launch the European digital identity (eID) by 2026, allowing citizens to use a single digital wallet app to manage finances, access services, sign contracts, and travel.
(5) Does anyone remember fax machines? I had to fax a document to an office in Canada, essentially to prove that I have left Canada so that my Canadian pension funds can be unlocked and released to a US bank. I had not faxed anything for years and when I went to use our departmental fax machine, I was told that it had been removed. A UPS store finally helped me send the fax. The office in Canada does have a Web site, but sending a PDF would have required me to set up an account. The registration process for the account asked for a lot of Canada-specific information, which I did not have. Hope I don’t need to fax anything again!
(6) Carbon footprint of food delivery services: Every time you drive to eat at a restaurant or order take-out, you emit some carbon into the atmosphere (unless you drive an EV). Using DoorDash or another delivery service has the same impact, because a DoorDash driver usually picks up one order and delivers it to one address. On-line grocery orders are somewhat better, because the store’s delivery truck may batch several orders along a route. Services like Hello Fresh have pluses and minuses. The pre-measured ingredients help reduce waste, which is good, but they do use a lot of packaging, which increase the carbon footprint. Be mindful of the environmental impact of your food delivery choices!

2024/09/09 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Old, glamorous movie-theater marquee New, bland, information-less movie-theater marquee The French satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo' publishes a special issue for the anniversary of Iran's Mahsa Revolution (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] The evolution of movie-theater marquees (see the last item below). [Right] The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo publishes a special issue for the anniversary of Iran's Mahsa Revolution, declaring that Iranian women won't give up.
(2) A felon wants to be the US President & apparently half the country has no problem with it: Shouldn't we remove questions about felony convictions from job, rental, and other applications?
(3) Kate the Chemist: After garnering 287,000 TikTok followers, Kate Bibendorf is hired by Notre Dame as its inaugural Professor of the Public Understanding of Science. Instead of teaching classes, she will engage with social media. The idea had been previously tried by Oxford University. [Video]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Putin sides with Turkey & Azerbaijan in their plan to build a transportation route that bypasses Iran.
- Tajikistan wants none of the signs of extremist Islam: It has banned headscarves and beards.
- The Russian government's spending on research will be cut by 25% over the next two years.
- Tonight's veggie pizzas, made on two flatbreads and two packaged pizza crusts. [Tweet, with photo]
(5) Stealing money from the Iranian people: Much has been written about the rotten-to-the-core Islamic regime in Iran, including its corruption and brutal oppression of people. The latest scheme for making money at the expense of the people is for bank officials or those with connections to the banks to get low-interest multi-million-dollar loans. For each $1 million borrowed at 4%, the borrower can make 10% per year without any effort. The 6% margin amounts to $60,000. Lending money at 4% in a country with inflation consistently in the double-digits and often in excess of 25% is a crime.
(6) Musings of a curious engineer: As I walk the streets of Santa Barbara and Goleta, I observe unusual or unexpected things, which I share with you from time to time under the "Musings" heading. Today's topic is movie-theater marquees. Not long ago, marquees were glamorous and told you not just about the film being shown, but also the director, the stars, the music composer, and, at times, displayed images of the film and its stars. Of course, this was easier before the age of multiplex theaters, with up to a dozen screens in many cases. As space became limited, only brief movie titles were included. Then, they got rid of show times, which the patrons were supposed to get from newspapers or look up on-line. A movie theater on Goleta's Fairview Ave., near where I live, has now even gotten rid of film titles! In this age of inexpensive digital screens, it baffles me that theater marquees have not been replaced with digital screens. When tastefully done (as opposed to loud, Las Vegas style), digital marquees can add to the urban experience. At any rate, the bland, ugly marquees have got to go.

2024/09/08 (Sunday): Today, I offer reviews of 5 books; The short list for UCSB Reads 2025 program.
Cover image of 'The Anthropocene Reviewed' Cover image of 'The Book of Delights' Cover image of 'The Rediscovery pf America' Cover image of 'Why We Die' Cover image of 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' (1) Book review: Green, John, The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet, unabridged 11-hour audiobook, read by the author, Penguin Audio, 2021.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, by the author of The Fault in Our Stars, a 2012 young-adult novel and a 2014 movie about a teenage girl who was diagnosed with cancer and her relationship with a boy she met in a support group, consists of a collection of essays that are revised/expanded from Green's successful podcast. The book includes six all-new pieces.
The Anthropocene is a fairly recent term which refers to the planet Earth at its current geological age, a period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Whether or not we accept the view of some geologists that the Anthropocene actually began with the Industrial Revolution, we are now in it and it is incumbent upon us to do our best to understand it and try to deal with problems it brings about.
Green begins by asserting that we are in the age of reviews. We used to have book reviews and movie reviews, with their attendant star systems, but now we review and rate everything: Restaurants, hotels, travel destinations, streets, breakfast cereals, and even park benches. The book's essays, taking the form of reviews, are Green's way of sharing his thoughts about humanity's ingenuity and imperfections as Earth's caretakers. He also shares, directly for the first time, his own mental health challenges, including depression and panic attacks.
As we face our day-to-day challenges, technological marvels and certain quirky stuff that we own or like allow us to circumvent our angst and enjoy our time on Earth. Green hopes that we can discover meaning, joy, and love during our brief stay on this planet and that we can thread our way toward a world where defenseless creatures no longer face arbitrary extinction at our hands.
(2) Book review: Gay, Ross, The Book of Delights: Essays, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by the author, Recorded Books, 2019.
[My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I liked the idea of this book but didn't care much for its contents. The idea is that the author decided to write each day about something delightful that happened to him, carrying on the activity from one birthday to the next. We tend to remember the awful things that happen to us from day to day, so focusing on life's delights can be life-changing.
The book consists of 102 chapters, averaging ~3 minutes each in the audio version. The author does state that he didn't write on Sundays but not why he has only 102 essays instead of the expected 312 (52 weeks times 6 days). I have listed below a dozen of the chapter titles to give my readers a sense of the contents.
Chapter 5. Hole in the head
Chapter 11. Transplanting
Chapter 21. Coffee without a saucer
Chapter 26. Airplane rituals
Chapter 30. Infinity
Chapter 37. To spread the sweetness of love
Chapter 44. Not only
Chapter 51. Annoyed no more
Chapter 63. The volunteer
Chapter 72. An abundance of public toilets
Chapter 92. Filling the frame
Chapter 99. Black bumblebees
(3) Book review: Blackhawk, Ned, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History, Yale University Press, 2023.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
American history has been written with a focus on Europeans and their descendants, maintaining that the United States evolved from its British settlements. From this vantage point, the US has failed to honor its founding proclamation that all are created equal. Even the name "America" honors a European, Americus Vesputius (Vespucci), its supposed discoverer, who claimed to have found "a new world."
In most accounts, America is synonymous with exploration and discovery, conquest and settlement. "Native Americans remain absent or appear as hostile or passive objects awaiting discovery and domination." Recently, scholars have begun to create a different view of our past that accounts for the dynamics of the struggle framing America's indigenous past, with Native American history being an essential part.
This book is a fine example of the more inclusive narrative. It confronts the sad fact that Indigenous peoples, African-Americans, and other non-white citizens have not been beneficiaries of the self-evident truths of equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness we proclaim as inalienable rights. For example, Native peoples were not granted US citizenship until 1924. Some 40% or Indian children were forcibly separated from their families and taken to boarding schools by 1928. Scholars now recognize African-American slaves as central to the making of America, but the same courtesy has not been extended to Native Americans. The encounters of Native Americans, who collectively spoke hundreds of languages and lived in societies ranging from family bands to vast empires, with newcomers irrevocably disrupted their lives. For example, the population of North America halved, from ~8 million to ~4 million, between 1492 and 1776. This devastating impact calls into question celebratory portraits of America's founding. We need a more honest account of the role of Native Americans in shaping the American nation and its history. Integration of Native American history into American history is thus overdue. The notion of discovery must be replaced with encounter.
The book's 12 numbered chapters are divided into two parts entitled "Indians and Empire" and "Struggles for Sovereignty," each with 6 chapters, as follows. Introduction: Toward a New American History
Chapter 1. American Genesis: Indians and the Spanish Borderlands
Chapter 2. The Native Northeast and the Rise of British North America
Chapter 3. The Unpredictability of Violence: Iroquoia and New France to 1701
Chapter 4. The Native Inland Sea: The Struggle for the Heart of the Continent, 1701-1755
Chapter 5. Settler Uprising: The Indigenous Origins of the American Revolution
Chapter 6. Colonialism's Constitution: The Origins of Federal Indian Policy
Chapter 7. The Deluge of Settler Colonialism: Democracy and Dispossession in the Early Republic
Chapter 8. Foreign Policy Formations: California, the Pacific, and the Borderlands Origins of the Monroe Doctrine
Chapter 9. Collapse and Total War: The Indigenous West and the US Civil War
Chapter 10: Taking Children and Treaty Lands: Laws and Federal Power During the Reservation Era
Chapter 11. Indigenous Twilight and the Dawn of the Century: Native Activists and the Myth of Indian Disappearance
Chapter 12. From Termination and Self-Determination: Native American Sovereignty in the Cold War Era
(4) Book review: Ramakrishnan, Venki, Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by John Moraitis, Harper Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Aging, death, and their opposites, immortality, have been discussed in many books, by physicians, physicists, sociologists, novelists, and even techies, who aspire to find the secrets of living for 200+ years or, perhaps, forever. In this book, Nobel Laureate molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan (Chemistry Laureate, 2009), author of The Gene Machine, offers his take on new scientific discoveries about aging, why we die, and the human race's quest for immortality.
Driven in part by the afterlife of Judeo-Christian thought and the idea of reincarnation central to many Eastern religions, we tend to dismiss the finality of death. As children, we are scared by the thought of our loved ones dying someday, but think less about it as we age, until our final years. A fundamental question is whether we have to be mortal. Can we extend our lives, perhaps indefinitely, by altering or augmenting our natural biology? Alongside these physical questions, we also have to deal with philosophical and moral questions regarding life extension.
We have been immensely successful in extending the average life expectancy, doubling it in the US from ~40 years to ~80 years over the past two centuries. But the maximum human life has stayed pretty much constant, hovering around 120 years. We know that all living things can die, but many, including tiny hydras and some jellyfish, can regenerate completely when certain parts are chopped off. Their likelihood of dying does not increase with age, so they are essentially immortal, from a biological standpoint. Among more-familiar animals, we can learn a great deal from giant tortoises and some sharks, which age extremely slowly.
Ramakrishnan offers a modestly-optimistic conclusion that super-long lifespans will happen, but not in the near future. He dismisses the heavily-promoted (to elderly billionaires) prospects of storing human bodies by cryonics methods until we have found a cure for whatever killed them. He has a more positive view of moderate life extension, demonstrated in animals, through calorie restriction and certain medicines such as rapamycin, resveratrol, metformin, and curcumin.
This is the kind of life extension assessment one would expect from a distinguished scientist with his feet firmly on the ground, as opposed to from techies and start-up founders who have to hype their methods in order to get the next round of funding.
(5) Book review: Zevin, Gabrielle, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, unabridged 14-hour audiobook, read by Jennifer Kim and Julian Cihi, Random House Audio, 2022.
[My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Let me open my review by confessing that I did not listen to the entire audiobook, because I was not drawn by the story or the writing. A video-game designer or an avid gamer may view the novel more charitably.
Game-design enthusiasts Sam Masur and Sadie Green, who grew up together as children, meet again in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while attending Harvard and MIT, respectively, and are drawn to designing a video-game together. The game brings them fame and fortune. Sam and Sadie love each other, but they never become lovers. The tale goes on for three decades, during which the protagonists pursue their passions & ambitions and deal with life challenges, culminating in Venice Beach, California. Along the way, video games mirror life for them, except that there is no end to life in games: "It's tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. It's the possibility of infinite rebirth, infinite redemption. The idea that if you keep playing, you could win." The novel also gives the reader a crash course on the history of video games during their heydays.

2024/09/07 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Sixth National Informatics Conference, Tehran, Iran: February 26-27, 2025 Math puzzle: Find the area of the square Anniversary of Mahsa Amini's Revolution observed in Los Angeles (1) Images of the day: [Left] Sixth National Informatics Conference, Tehran, Iran: February 26-27, 2025. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the area of the square. [Right] Anniversary of Mahsa Amini's Revolution observed in Los Angeles: Sun., Sep. 15, 2024, 1:00-4:00 PM, Westwood Blvd. & Rochester Ave. #WomanLifeFreedom
(2) School shootings are a "fact of life," according to J. D. Vance. No, they're not! They become a fact of life when you choose the gun lobby over our children.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UN personnel investigating ISIS's mass graves for the Yazidis have been ordered to leave Iraq.
- EU, US, UK, Israel, and several other countries sign an international AI treaty.
- Iran's future: This young boy lectures in Persian on benefits of technology in general & AI in particular.
- Iranian young boy speaks in English, addressomg the 13th International Congress of Civil Engineering.
(4) Seeing is believing: This old saying must be updated for the age of AI and virtual reality. With AI & VR, you can see realistic-looking things that are made up. Pay attention, look for inconsistencies, search for the same info from a trusted source. Even before AI & VR, eyewitness testimony had come to be distrusted, because it is impacted by environmental factors, biases, and false memories. Many individuals who were initially convicted based on eyewitness testimony were sub sequently cleared by DNA evidence.
(5) Amazon at 30: All three of my children are 30+ years old, which means that Amazon did not exist when they were born or was struggling to come into existence, with the vision of becoming "The Everything Company." Each of Amazon's 175 "fulfilment centers" today is larger than the largest mega-store that you can imagine. Innovative technologies allow customer orders to be prepared and shipped in a matter of hours. The question is: What else is there for "The Everything Company" to conquer? Plenty, it seems! Just the data held by Amazon can be an invaluable source of income.
(6) Musings of a curious engineer: When are we going to phase out the US penny? It is well-known that making a 1-cent coin costs more than one penny. Merchants and their cash-paying customers are no fans of the coin. Nearly all pennies ever made sit in jars at homes and workplaces. Canada stopped minting pennies in 2012, but the existing coins continue to be accepted. Other countries have successfully ditched coins (and in some cases, bills) with tiny denominations. It's time that we ditch the penny. And while we are at it, let's be forward-looking and also get rid of the nickel.

2024/09/06 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A talk by Dr. Nile Green about the diffusion of print technology in the Muslim world (1) Images of the day: [Left] A talk about the diffusion of print technology in the Muslim world (see the next item below). [Center] A fine specimen of Persian calligraphic art. [Right] Talangor Group talk on the Mahsa revolution (see the last item below).
(2) Yesterday's talk on the history of print technology in the Muslim world: Dr. Nile Green (UCLA) spoke under the title "Persian Printing in Comparative Context: The Place of Iran in Three Technological Diffusion Zones." Dr. Green is a historian who specializes in Islamic history of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, including that of the wider Persianate world.
Print technology was not taken up by the Muslim world until the early 19th century. Then, it moved swiftly through three regional diffusion zones.
- The Mediterranean Zone: The Ottoman's printed some books for Muslim readers in the 1700s, but it was in the 1820 Egypt that the first sustained Muslim-controlled press took hold, with its first book being an Italian-Arabic dictionary.
- The Eurasian Zone: Typography and lithography were exported to borderlands and from there to neighboring Muslim regions. St. Petersburg was a major center of print technology and, later, Tiblisi hosted many Persian publishers.
- The Indian Ocean Zone: Print technology was introduced by East India Company and missionaries. Muslim-issued typed books began appearing in Calcutta in the late 1810s. Later, maps were printed using lithographic technology.
In all three zones, typography-based printing spread first, which was followed by lithography. By 1820, lithography had spread throughout Europe, to London, Naples, Oslo, and St. Petersburg. Initially, lithography was developed to make printing of music scores and maps possible, but later, its use expanded to all printing projects with low to moderate volume.
Because of the high cost of typographic equipment and the need for imported replacement parts and technical know-how, lithography quickly dominated in the Islamic world, except in the Mediterranean Zone, were ready access to nearby technology and talent made it feasible to continue with the more demanding typographic system.
Printing arrived in Iran through the Eurasian Zone, first taking hold in Tabriz in 1817 and later spreading to Tehran and Shiraz during the 1820s. Crown Prince Abbas Mirza sent court artist Allahverdi to study lithography in Tiblisi. The first lithographic Quran was published in Tehran in 1832.
My comment: One of the success stories in adopting print technologies is how Persian and Arabic calligraphers fine-tuned the script for typographic technology, leading to highly legible and, at times, beautiful typeset text. Yet, this wasn't enough to overcome the advantages of lithography. The same process repeated when we moved to computerized printing. First, we worked hard to adapt various printer technologies to the needs of the Persian/Arabic script, an exercise that became redundant when printing essentially became the transfer of bit-maps from the screen to paper.
(3) Last night's Talangor Group talk: Dr. Ata Hoodashtian spoke under the title "Major Challenges and Results of the Mahsa Revolution." There were ~90 attendees.
In a country like the Islamic Iran, political and economic powers are under tight control of conservative clerics, so it is hard to imagine the regime's overthrow through civil disobedience and peaceful street protests. Despite the fact that the Mahsa Revolution has fizzled out after a year of intense activity and people are more cautious about marching on the streets after numerous deaths and injuries inflicted by the regime, the have been three important developments in Iran's civil society.
- Changes in the family sphere
- Advances in education
- Openings in religious dialog
Many opposition groups have come to the conclusion that street protests did not work, so pursuing a set of new approaches is called for. One example is forming coalitions between opposition groups inside and outside the country, and even with dissatisfied members of the regime's inner circles. In such a pursuit, three important questions must be answered.
Q1: What are we to do with protesters who perished, lost limbs, were blinded, or suffered PTSD from brutal attacks by security forces? Should we offer a form of group therapy to heal their wounds or those of their loved ones? They are understandably disappointed. How can we give them encouragement and inner peace? However, when we extract fighters from the streets, will we not surrender the front?
Q2: How can we return the people to the streets? The answer is that we can't. They must return on their own initiative. but we have to be ready to help out if we can when the return to the streets does happen. National leadership is needed to move ahead. Field or local leadership will help but isn't enough to bring about major changes. Economic crises are likely to lead to a new round of self-activated street protests.
Q3: Exactly what we are fighting for? For democracy? Is democracy even possible in Iran? Democratic systems are messy and in constant state of change. Leaders come and go. Laws are annulled or revised. Isn't a stable regime preferable? The latter was tried by Stalin with devastating results. The Mahsa Revolution made us ask important question. We learned that saying no to the current regime isn't enough. We have to define what we want. Human rights are now integral parts of the discussion, whereas even in the 1979 revolution, human rights did not have a central role. Similarly, demands for democracy is now part of the societal dialog.
We have to base a future democracy on three fundamental rights:
- Right to life
- Right to freedom
- Right to ownership
During the Q&A session, I asked whether Iranians can truly unite around democracy, given that the term is ill-defined. There are many forms of democratic systems in the world, including republics, monarchies, and a vast variety of parliamentary systems. If we try to specify one of these in advance, unity may be lost. If we don't specify the democratic form of government, then exactly what are we uniting over? I think unity should be formed around a small number of human rights (as listed above), which are agreeable to everyone, leaving the specification of the form of a democratic government to an elected body, which may also write a new constitution.

2024/09/04 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) held its 2024 reunion in Niagara Falls, Canada, a few days ago Cartoon: Republican priorities for our kids (bullet-riddled school house) Killings, imprisonments, and abduction of Iranian citizens continue by the Islamic regime (1) Images of the day: [Left] Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) held its 2024 reunion in Niagara Falls, Canada, a few days ago. The photo shows some of the participants at the last day's picnic. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Republican priorities for our kids. [Right] Killings, imprisonments, and abduction of Iranian citizens continue by the Islamic regime (see the last item below).
(2) Mass shooting at at a Georgia high school near Atlanta leaves 4 dead and at least 9 injured. Watch Republicans and NRA officials hide over the next few days, until the incident is forgotten!
(3) The inaugural awardee of UCSB's graduate fellowship established in honor of Mahsa Amini is Marzieh Gahvardband, who studied law at Zanjan University and earned an MA in Women's Studies from the University of Alabama. The fellowship will support her pursuit of a doctorate in Religious Studies at UCSB.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Amazon's self-driving taxis lack steering wheels: They get help from humans sitting 100s of miles away.
- Violence against women: Ugandan Olympics runner dies when her ex-boyfriend sets her on fire.
- The world burns 12% of its plastic waste: So, we have air pollution on top of ocean & land pollution.
- Goleta's version of the week-long heat wave: uncomfortable, but not surpassing 100, like some LA areas.
- X University, formerly known as Stanford (satire): Elon Musk acquires Stanford fpr $139 billion.
(5) Indian street food: I am obsessed with mass-produced street food, much of it under unsanitary conditions. This guy, who sells deep-fried cauliflower, covered in a secret mix of spices, is cleaner than most.
(6) Stable genius continues on the path of mental decline.
Question: What specific legislation will you commit to make child care affordable?
Trump: Well, I would do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka ... But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because the child care is, child care couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it ... I want to stay with child care ... So we'll take care of it. Thank you.
(7) Final thought for the day: I am officially overwhelmed. I keep reading about imprisonments, deaths under torture, extrajudicial killings, abductions, and many other ways Iran's citizens are being harassed, oppressed, and slaughtered by the brutal Islamic regime. There is no way I can share all such news stories, as they would overwhelm my readers. Besides, I don't have the resources to verify each posting to ensure authenticity. Here are a few examples. As the Persian saying goes: "You may know by a handful the whole sack."

2024/09/03 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
In this review article, Andrew Lea explains the different approaches to programming chess computers Labor Day outing with all three kids at a Chinese restaurant (1) Images of the day: [Left] In this review article, Andrew Lea explains the different approaches to programming chess computers. Along the way, he explores the many historical attempts at creating a chess-playing machine and asks philosophical questions about the nature of artificial intelligence. [Center] Labor Day outing with all three kids at a Chinese restaurant. [Right] Major academic donation (see the next item below).
(2) Academic philanthropy: Dr. Nayereh Tohidi, Professor of Gender & Women's Studies, and Dr. Kazem Alamdari, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, both from California State University, Northridge, have pledged $1.5 million to support the recently established endowment of Iran Academia University. Founded in 2012, the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (ISSH), aka Iran Academia, is an alternative university that aims to provide knowledge in social sciences and humanities to Iran's youth in order to overcome restrictions on access and censorship of content.
(3) PM Netanyahu, dismissing calls for Israel to make concessions to free the hostages: "These murderers executed six hostages, and we're asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, murder more hostages and you will get more concessions."
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- San Bernardino, California, leads in launching a hybrid hydrogen-electric zero-emission commuter train.
- Disintegration of US bridges accelerated by extreme heat & increased flooding due to climate change.
- School cop who admitted to sexually abusing at least two children gets 3 years of probation in a plea deal!
- US swing voters (18%) tend to lean more conservative than liberal. [NYT charts]
- Unlawful arrests and harassment of Iran's Baha'i minority continues.
- Kaveh Akbar's conversation about his hugely successful novel Martyr. [My review]
- Math puzzle: Divide 987654321 by 123456789. Explain the rather surprising result.
- Gina Raimondo, a pro-business Democrat, leads the US Commerce Department quietly and ably.
- Did you know that there were two Nazi concentration camps on British soil? [13-minute video]
- Dan Bricklin, creator of the VisiCalc spreadsheet app, shares his experiences in this 12-minute TEDx talk.
(5) California's Rancho Palos Verdes is slipping: For a long time, the underground landslides were so glacial—about an inch a year—it was accepted simply as a quirk of the region. Now, for some residents, it has become catastrophic. Across a span of one square mile, the pace has quickened to nearly four feet a month.
(6) Final thought for the day: Former GOP strategist Stuart Stevens predicts that Trump is facing a serious math problem, leading to his crash just before Election Day. "[In 2020,] Trump lost by 7 million votes. He needs new customers." And he's doing nothing to attract them.

2024/09/02 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy US Labor Day! You can't be pro-labor if you don't value hard work or are against labor unions, no matter how many times you hug the flag Kamala Harris poster: I'm with her A quarter of all International Olympiad of Informatics medalists enroll in five world universities (1) Images of the day: [Left] Happy US Labor Day! You can't be pro-labor if you don't value hard work or are against labor unions, no matter how many times you hug the flag. "Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand." ~ Khalil Gibran [Center] I am aware of Kamala Harris's shortcomings and do not exaggerate her qualifications, but right now I view her as the savior of what's left of our democratic system. No policy differences matter when the essence of America is threatened. [Right] A quarter of all International Olympiad of Informatics medalists enroll in five world universities.
(2) In a sense, the 2024 US presidential election is about what kind of masculinity we prefer: The kind on display in Kamala Harris's husband and her running mate or the kind exhibited by Trump and his running mate?
(3) Behrouz Vossoughi honored by Reza Pahlavi on the 55th anniversary of his hugely successful film "Qeysar": The trouble is that "Qeysar" normalized misogyny and glorified honor killings. According to this FB post, Islamists had a hand in the film's storyline and dialog.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Masked Palestinians try to free Palestine by destroying the lawn at McGill University!
- A high-level Islamic official & his son have made billions from illicit trading of Iranian & Russian oil.
- This isn't a S. American drug cartel: It's the Iranian police forcing a detainee in the trunk of their car.
- Venture capitalist to childless women: Your pursuit of equity & social justice has made you "miserable."
- PBS "Firing Line" special on the challenges of accurate vote-counting, particularly in the face of distrust.
- The design and workings of London's Elizabeth Tower, aka The Big Ben. [10-minute video]
(5) The big quake may be imminent: The world's greatest earthquakes, shaking both seabed & land and generating tsunamis 100+ feet high, tend to occur where one tectonic plate slips under another one. Such a fault off Japan caused the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. The US-Canada West Coast is home to such a fault, known as Cascadia. Similar zones exist off Alaska, Chile, and New Zealand, among other places. At Cascadia, big quakes are believed to come roughly every 500 years, give or take a couple hundred. The last occurred in 1700.
(6) Extreme hypocrisy: The Iranian government, which has banned and blocked Telegram for 6 years, criticizes the French government for not honoring free speech and detaining Telegram's founder!
(7) In addition to a record number of executions in Islamic Iran, deaths of detainees under torture are on the rise: Authorities admit that a young man from Lahijan was killed because his interrogators "could not control their rage"!

2024/09/01 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Iran's Islamic government and its people have different priorities and world views! Cartoon: Trump at Arlington National Cemetery Cover image of Ray Kurzweil's 'The Singularity Is Nearer' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Iran's Islamic government and its people have different priorities & world views! [Center] Cartoon of the day: Trump at Arlington National Cemetery. [Right] Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI (see the last item below).
(2) Gen-Z-ers can't type: US Department of Education reports that from 2000 to 2019, the fraction of high-schoolers who had taken a keyboarding course dropped from 44% to 2.5%. This is in part due to fewer devices having physical keyboards.
(3) "And it's like, friends of mine that are like English professors, they say it's the most brilliant thing ... But the fake news, they say, he rambled." ~ Donald Trump defending his rambling speeches
(4) Biocomputers are now available for rent: One such computer from the Swiss tech firm FinalSpark can be accessed for a monthly fee of $500. A low-energy alternative to AI models, these biocomputers, or organoids, are comprised of human brain cells and last only about 100 days. Among the nine universities granted access to FinalSpark's biocomputers are the University of Michigan, Free University of Berlin, and Lancaster University.
(5) Book review: Kurzweil, Ray, The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Adam Barr, Penguin Audio, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is a sequel coming nearly two decades after Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (2005; my 4-star review). This sequel is much shorter and less compelling than the original, but it comes at a time when alarm bells are ringing louder in the wake of ChatGPT and neural implants. In the 2005 book, Kurzweil predicted that AI will surpass human-level intelligence and that human life will decouple from biology in ~25 years. His new time frame is mid-2040s. If Kurzweil's prediction is accurate, the next sequel will be titled The Singularity Is Here!
In this sequel, Kurzweil reexamines the exponential growth of technology and discusses its impact on almost every facet of human life, from reduction in poverty, crime, and war casualties to improvements in health, nutrition, education, intelligence, and political empowerment. We will soon be able to rebuild the world, atom by atom, with devices like nanobots, extend life radically beyond the current age limit of ~120, and vastly expand our intelligence by connecting our brains to the cloud, thus freeing our mental power from the space limitation of the human skull.
Kurzweil also devotes much commentary to the potential perils of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, including their adverse effects on employment and safety (e.g., of autonomous cars), and on the societal discomfort with the notion of virtually reviving deceased individuals through a combination of their data and DNA.
The employment downside is illusory, but there is an interesting psychological effect at work here. In the past, technology has benefited the society as a whole, even when a few specific members were hurt. However, those who were saved, for example, by not dying of a specific eradicated disease, are faceless (we cannot name them), those who lost their jobs because they worked on treating patients having that disease are known and their suffering is on full display.
I end my review by listing the titles of the books 8 chapters that follow an unnumbered introductory chapter.
Chapter 1: Where Are We in the Six Stages?
Chapter 2: Reinventing Intelligence
Chapter 3: Who Am I?
Chapter 4: Life Is Getting Exponentially Better
Chapter 5: The Future of Jobs—Good or Bad?
Chapter 6: The Next Thirty Years in Health and Well-Being
Chapter 7: Peril
Chapter 8: Dialogue with Cassandra
At the time of this retelling of the story of Singularity, we are facing even more-challenging doubts and questions. For example, when we say that we will outlaw warrior robots making life-and-death decisions, unless a human-being is involved in the loop, will we be satisfied with a human being whose mental faculties have been augmented with AI? Then, if the augmented part of the decision-maker's brain is orders of magnitude more intelligent than his/her original brain, isn't this an AI making the decision?

2024/08/31 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
This nice-looking identity involving the square-root of 2 is fairly easy to prove Cover image of Jeremy Rifkin's 'The Third Industrial Revolution'
Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1682), who traveled to Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas I, created this drawing of Persepolis I finally organized my wall clock alphabetically! The two unwritten rules of life (on a billboard) (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Two different kinds of beauty in one frame! [Top center] This nice-looking identity is easy to prove. [Top right] Jeremy Rifkin's The Third Industrial Revolution (see the last item below). [Bottom left] Sir Thomas Herbert (1606-1682), who traveled to Iran during the reign of Shah Abbas I, created this drawing of Persepolis ~300 years before any archaeological work began in Iran. [Bottom center] I finally organized my wall clock alphabetically! [Bottom right] The two unwritten rules of life.
(2) Nahid Taghavi, an Iranian-German hostage, turns 70 in prison: Like other hostages taken by Iran's Islamic regime, she may one day be exchanged with IRI terrorists held in other countries.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- California State Assembly passes AI safety bill, despite opposition from tech companies.
- How the Persian polymath Abu Reyhan al-Biruni computed the Earth's radius to 1% accuracy.
- Djibouti: The tiny African country with military bases from all of the world's major powers.
- For Persian-speakers: In the second half of life, we should learn from our kids, not the other way around.
(4) Book review: Rifkin, Jeremy, The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World, St. Martin's Press, 2011. [Image: .jpg; sqr] [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/61557581] Read 2024/07/16-18 This book inspired me to look into energy storage technologies and to prepare a presentation for general audiences on the idea of a worldwide Intergrid of energy (an analog of the Internet, with energy taking the place of information). I have already given the talk to two groups and have been scheduled for two more presentations. The Agricultural Revolution was followed by the (First) Industrial Revolution of ~1760, which led the human economy towards more widespread, efficient, and stable manufacturing processes, by replacing manual production methods with machines and mechanized factory systems. As a result, the textile industry, the first to use modern production methods, became the dominant industry in terms of employment, value of output, and capital invested. Beginning in the late 19th century, powered by oil and other fossil fuels, the Second Industrial Revolution, aka the Technological Revolution, created a phase of rapid scientific discovery, standardization, mass production and industrialization. The Second Industrial Revolution is coming to its end, as oil prices, and, as a result, other prices, skyrocket. Like all other numbered or ranked ideas or events, there is disagreement about the next item on the list. Some consider the emergence of the Internet and the explosive growth of worldwide communication as constituting the next phase. Rifkin views widespread use of renewable energy and its global sharing, much like the sharing of data enabled by the Internet, as constituting the Third Industrial Revolution. Imagine an "energy Internet" that allows green energy to be produced in a distributed fashion and shared over a network by hundreds of millions of people in their homes, offices, and factories, just as information is being produced and shared today. This new economic paradigm, that is, a fundamental reordering of human relationships from hierarchical to lateral power, has already been embraced by the European Union and other nations worldwide. It will create countless businesses and new jobs, and it will impact the way we conduct commerce, govern society, educate our children, and engage in civic life. According to Rifkin, the five pillars of the Third Industrial Revolution are: - Shifting to renewable energy - Turning world's buildings into micro power-plants that collect renewable energies - Deploying hydrogen and other storage technologies to store intermittent energies - Using Internet technology to combine power grids into an energy-sharing intergrid - Using electric plug-in cars and fuel-cell-powered transport, linked to the intergrid At the beginning of Chapter 5, Rifkin brings to our attention a major shift among young people, that is, the disappearance of ideological beliefs. "Young people aren't much interested in debating the fine points of capitalist or socialist ideology or the nuances of geopolitical theory. … Their politics are less about right versus left and more about centralized and authoritarian versus distributed and collaborative. This makes sense. The two generations whose sociability has been formed, in large part, by Internet communications are far more likely to divide the world into people and institutions that use top-down, enclosed, and proprietary thinking, and those that use lateral, transparent, and open thinking." In other words, it's time that we retire Adam Smith, who enthusiastically borrowed metaphors from Newton to fashion classical economic theory. Economic activity is less similar to Newton's laws of motion than to laws of thermodynamics. Paying attention to the law of conservation of energy and entropy, which says fossil fuels once consumed cannot be reused, we have no choice but to turn to the nearly-infinite energy from the Sun and other renewable sources. It is thus alarming that very few economists have studies thermodynamics, so central to understanding energy and thus the modern world. Here's how Rifkin ends this fascinating book: "A transformation of this scale will require a concomitant leap to biosphere consciousness. Only when we begin to think as an extended global family, that not only includes our own species but all of our fellow travelers in evolutionary sojourn on Earth, will we be able to save our common biosphere community and renew the planet for future generations."

2024/08/30 (Friday): Today, I report on three presentations from Wednesday and Thursday.
Talk on midlife crisis and the mother complex in Iranian cinema Socrates think tank talk by Dr. Farideh Kioumehr-Dadsetan (1) An interesting talk on Iranian cinema: Psychiatrist & author Dr. Mohammad-Reza Sargolzaee spoke under the title "Midlife Crisis and the Mother Complex in Iranian Cinema." There were ~45 attendees
Dr. Sargolzaee presented examples of how individuals grappling with a mother complex, particularly during midlife, are depicted in Iranian films, focusing on three specific examples:
- "Sex and Philosophy" ("Sex va Falsafeh," 2005 drama by Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
- "Hamoon" (1989 psychological drama by Dariush Mehrjui)
- "The Crow" ("Kalagh," 1977 mystery by Bahram Beyzai).
Unfortunately, audio quality was quite poor throughout the presentation and there were video & audio problems as the speaker attempted to share clips from the three films.
(2) wednesday's Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Farideh Kioumehr-Dadsetan spoke on the "79th Anniversary of Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki: History and Current Situation of Nuclear Weapons." There were ~115 attendees.
After a brief review of the history of atomic weapons, Dr. Kioumehr recounted the horrors of atomic bomb detonations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are currently 9 nuclear nations and even though we haven't had any use of atomic bombs since World War II, there is always a chance that a crazy leader or an inadvertent mistake will lead to a disaster. A full-blown atomic conflict between the US and Russia may wipe out half of the world's population, according to some estimates.
Dr. Kioumehr enumerated some of the worldwide efforts to curtail nuclear proliferation. we have no choice but to keep up hope that logic will prevail and none of the world's nuclear powers uses its atomic bombs. modern bombs are a lot more powerful than the ones detonated in Japan and the damage they can do is significantly more devastating.
I pointed out in the Q&A period that we should not put atomic bombs and atomic energy in the same basket. Bombs are created to kill, whereas atomic energy was created to help with our expanding appetite for energy. While nuclear waste is a problem, there is a chance that engineering advances will mitigate the dangers. I also pointed to the fact that whereas there are only 9 nuclear nations, this count relates to conventional nuclear weapons created from highly-enriched material. Dirty bombs can be built by almost anyone using modern nuclear reactor fuel. These bombs do not do as much damage as conventional nukes, but in the hands of terrorists, who can deploy hundreds or even thousands of them, the danger is alarming.
(3) Thursday's Talangor Group talk: Dr. Abdi Modarressi talked under the title "Social Justice: A Look at the Views of John Rawls." There were ~95 attendees.
According to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, John Rawls [1921-2002] was an American political philosopher in the liberal tradition. His theory of justice as fairness describes a society of free citizens holding equal basic rights and cooperating within an egalitarian economic system. His theory of political liberalism explores the legitimate use of political power in a democracy, and envisions how civic unity might endure despite the diversity of worldviews that free institutions allow. His writings on the law of peoples set out a liberal foreign policy that aims to create a permanently peaceful and tolerant international order. He is best known for his influential book A Theory of Justice (1971; revised 1999).
In his philosophy, Rawls was influenced by the destruction brought about by World War II and the Vietnam War. His views on justice were shaped by the fact that wars were fought by the lower class, whereas the upper class dodged the draft.
Justice and freedom are age-old pursuits, beginning with ancient philosophers. The Enlightenment brought these notions to the forefront, creating the expectation that humans are on a continuous course to goodness. The two political philosophies of liberalism and socialism were born as a result, although both led to disastrous results, one sacrificing freedom for justice and the other prioritizing justice over freedom.
Rawls' views have faced serious criticisms. One criticism is that he did not take the effect of culture into account. The social view of justice and fairness might be quite different in India versus Japan. The strongest argument against Rawls's theory of justice is that it's entirely abstract; it doesn't say anything to people in their ordinary, everyday situations. The kind of individual who would choose the kind of social arrangement that Rawls recommends from behind a self-imposed veil of justice simply doesn't exist.

2024/08/29 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
This mural celebrating Iranian math prodigies, Abu-Rayhan al-Biruni and Maryam Mirzakhani, is in Istanbul International Airport Iranian female athletes defect to the West in record numbers: Some are getting lucrative deals Tuesday night's Persian-style vegetable soup, with barbari bread (1) Images of the day: [Left] This mural celebrating Iranian math prodigies, Abu-Rayhan al-Biruni and Maryam Mirzakhani, is in Istanbul International Airport. [Center] Iranian female athletes defect to the West in record numbers: Some are getting lucrative deals. [Right] Tuesday night's Persian-style vegetable soup, made from Sadaf veggie soup mix and TJ's chicken broth, served with barbari bread. Your place was empty.
(2) Barcodes are on their way out: Brands and retailers could replace barcodes with QR codes as early as 2027. Successful transition requires software changes across industries worldwide. Additionally, customers used to scanning barcodes at self-checkout kiosks would have to be educated on how to interact with QR codes. The goal is to use a single QR code for point-of-sale and inventory scans, as well as customer engagement.
(3) My YouTube channel: I have had my YouTube channel since 2011, but only used it in a limited way to post lecture videos for my courses, providing links to enrolled students. I have begun to organize and expand the channel for public access. In addition to course lectures already posted, I will include various other presentations, tech news items, "Musings of a Curious Engineer," and "Math + Fun!"
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UCLA receives $120M from Alya & Gary Michelson for new Institute for Immunology & Immunotherapy.
- Chinese government hackers have gained access to US Internet providers to spy on millions of users.
- Imams in NYC mosques praise Hamas, bash "Zionist Hollywood," and call for the destruction of Israel.
- FabBrick: A French company that recycles textiles into colorful bricks for construction and decorative uses.
- Persian cuisine: Traditional chelow-kabob restaurant in Khoy, Iran.
- Mass production of Indian food: Looks yummy, but prepared under questionable sanitary conditions.
(5) Malware developer's identity leaked through another malware: According to Check Point security researchers, the suspected developer of the new Styx Stealer malware exposed his identity along with valuable intelligence about other cybercriminals. The information leak occurred when the Styx Stealer developer used a Telegram bot token provided by a customer involved in the Agent Tesla malware campaign to debug the stealer on his own computer. The leaked information included his Telegram accounts, emails, and contacts.

2024/08/28 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
An open knight's tour of an 81 x 81 chessboard My prized set of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Vols. 1-3 Cover image of Marjane Satrapi's 'Persepolis, Parts 1-4' (1) Images of the day: [Left] An open knight's tour of an 81 x 81 chessboard: The single-line drawing looks like a 9 x 9 Latin square of 9 different motifs. Each motif is an open knight's tour of a 9 x 9 chessboard. [Center] My prized set of Donald Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming, Vols. 1-3: I've had Vols. 1 & 3 since my graduate-student days and acquired a newer edition of Vol. 2 a few years later. This latter volume has been a great source of ideas & inspiration. [Right] Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (see the last item below).
(2) Iranian hackers targeted administration officials using WhatsApp: Meta has revealed that Iranian government hackers accused of breaching the Trump campaign with deceptive emails also used WhatsApp accounts to try to trick former Biden and Trump administration officials. The effort was discovered after users reported suspicious messages in which the hackers posed as customer support representatives from Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and AOL. Meta has suspended fewer than a dozen accounts that had targeted fewer than two dozen people in the United States, Israel, Iran, and elsewhere.
(3) Book review: Satrapi, Marjane, The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis #1-4), Pantheon, 2007.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I read the pieces of this compilation at various times and wrote about them on social media as I read them. This review, being put together in mid-August 2024 contains a summary of my views on the book series.
Satrapi's Persepolis was my first experience with a graphic novel. Despite its limitations, the graphic-novel format does allow a simple-to-follow narrative through a combination of words and images, but it also creates a tendency to exaggerate or distort in order to make the graphic part compelling. Deep reflections do not produce compelling graphics.
These autobiographical books, which have been made into a feature film, trace Satrapi's life from her childhood and coming-of-age within a large and loving family in Tehran during Iran's Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s, all the way to her self-imposed exile in Europe. Along the way, she is sent to Vienna while living at a boarding house and experiences a bittersweet homecoming. Satrapi's leftist family is quite disappointed when it turns out that the revolutionary government replacing the overthrown Shah isn't into honoring personal freedoms and human rights.
Satrapi is among the growing collection of Iranian authors who have used the dramatic sociopolitical developments in the 1970s and 1980s Iran as backdrops for telling personal stories. Authors who do this in the nonfiction framework must take care to accurately portray actual events and not distort history for dramatic effect. Satrapi's book is full of distortion, in part because she wants to exonerate Iranian leftists from their responsibility in raising the mullahs to power.
As awful as the action of the religious fanatics were, certain reactions of intellectuals were hardly any better. I recall a scene in the book (p. 285 of my copy) where Satrapi has appeared for a rendezvous fully made up. A van filled with Revolutionary Guards suddenly appears, making Satrapi worried about how they might treat her because of wearing make-up. She suddenly thinks of accusing an innocent bystander of saying something indecent to her, in order to deflect attention from herself. The poor young man is taken away, as he pleads with the guards and Satrapi that he is innocent. A few panels later, Satrapi and her boyfriend have a laugh over the incident as they characterize Satrapi's survival instinct as "too cool!" What might have happened to the falsely-accused guy in the custody of Revolutionary Guards did not concern them at all.
Persepolis is an important book, given its sociopolitical themes and strong feminism content. I would have given it 3 stars were it not for these positive elements.

2024/08/27 (Tuesday): Today, I offer reviews of two books by political commentator Fareed zakaria.
Cover image of Fareed Zakaria's 'Age of Revolutions' Fareed Zakaria: CNN screenshot Cover image of Fareed Zakaria's 'In Defense of a Liberal Education' (1) Book review: Zakaria, Fareed, Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, unabridged 13-hour audiobook, read by the author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Political commentator Fareed Zakaria sees the present era to be revolutionary, involving fundamental changes marked not necessarily by advances but by retreats into ideologies once discarded. In this regard, Donald Trump fits right in with the global trend, embracing the politics of resentment against the other, be they nonwhite newcomers or members of the urban elite. Zakaria tells us that he has worked on this project, originally entitled "Beyond Left and Right," for years, taking detours to complete other, shorter projects.
As a fine example of early liberal revolutions, the establishment of the Dutch Republic brought with it a celebration of individual rights and toleration of religious minorities, along with an entrepreneurial spirit that made Holland the wealthiest nation on the planet. Similarly, the post-Glorious-Revolution British government supported inventors, rewarded technological innovation, and introduced parliamentary rule, along with market capitalism, pushing the nation well ahead of its neighbors.
Zakaria's points are well-argued and thought-provoking. He asks, for example, why the US is the only industrial nation that never developed a socialist movement. Perhaps it was because the US never experienced feudalism as such, and its ruling class "obscured the strict lines of class conflict that fed socialism." Absent socialism, the country instead developed a liberal democracy along the lines of the old Dutch Republic, and prospered as a result.
Despite the prosperity that liberalism has brought to the US, Americans have, by and large, a negative view of the term, often equating it with leftist ideas or socialism. The US benefited over many decades from the greatest strength of liberalism, that is, freeing people from arbitrary constraints, but it is now facing liberalism's greatest weakness, "the inability to fill the void when old structures crumble."
We are now at a juncture where old structures are collapsing on every side, with no fresh solutions being advanced from the right or the left. The most-prominent messenger of change happens to be an incompetent, morally-bankrupt character who focuses on what's wrong, emphasizing grievances over rights and fixes. He advocates turning to pre-World-War-II isolationism and protectionism as a way to restore simpler times, when workers worked and masters enjoyed their leisure. Do we really have to go back to those days to realize that they weren't as perfect as they are depicted to be by the far right?
In his concluding chapter, Zakaria quotes the influential American journalist Walter Lipman, who wrote these words in 1929 about the negative impacts of the revolutions that produced modern life: "By the dissolution of their ancestral ways, men have been deprived of the sense of certainty as to why they were born, why they must work, whom they must love, what they must honor, where they may turn in sorrow and defeat." These words resonate in America's current sociopolitical landscape.
(2) Book review: Zakaria, Fareed, In Defense of a Liberal Education, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by the author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2015. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The debate between skills-based education and broad liberal arts education is never-ending. Zakaria presents ample reasons for the latter approach working better, as evidenced by the success of the United States in leading the world in innovation and tech advances. Countries like China, South Korea, Japan, and even India focus on teaching skills and on selection on the basis of test scores. All of these countries do well on quantitative measures of performance on math and science topics, but they do not produce self-confident individuals who can thrive in a rapidly-changing world.
Previously, I read and reviewed David Epstein's Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, Giving it 4 stars. According to Epstein, avoiding super-specialization, or combining breadth and depth, allows you to benefit from the outsider advantage. The very top scientists participate in activities outside their areas of expertise. The higher up they are in scientific prestige, the more likely they are to have outside interests. In today's complex world, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences & perspectives will increasingly thrive.
Citing his own experience of growing up in India, where tests and specialization rule, Zakaria tells us that he followed his brother's example of getting a college education in the US, where education is broad-based and places great emphasis on reading and writing skills. This approach obviously worked for him, because it gave him the communications and analytic skills to become a sociopolitical commentator and successful TV host. For a while, the success formula in the US seemed to be "enroll in college, drop out, establish a tech company in your garage, rake millions."
As I write this review, the US is moving further away from broad-based liberal-arts education in favor of job skills. Proceeding in this direction would turn our highly successful universities into glorified trade schools. Many countries copied, with good results, the liberal-arts education approach of great American universities, who are now bent on copying other countries' less-successful narrow education and skills-based training.

2024/08/26 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Barcelona's residents are feeling the frustrations of overtourism, including congestion, pollution, and disregard for local culture Persian calligraphic art Bearer of the Liberty Torch
I've had this drawing board with set-square for at least 35 years: Its last use was probably three decades ago Design revealed for Grand Stade Hassan II, to become the world's largest stadium for the 2030 World Cup in Morocco Cover image of a course on practicing mindfulness (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Barcelona loves/hates tourism: The Spanish city's residents are feeling the frustrations of overtourism, including congestion, pollution, and disregard for local culture. But economically, the city remains reliant on visitors. [Top center] Persian calligraphic art. [Top right] Bearer of the Liberty Torch. [Bottom left] I've had this drawing board for at least 35 years: Its last use was probably three decades ago. Still, I can't bring myself to part with it! [Bottom center] Design revealed for Grand Stade Hassan II, to become the world's largest stadium for the 2030 World Cup in Morocco. [Bottom right] Course on practicing mindfulness (see the last item below).
(2) Honored by Dr. Amin Lifetime Achievement Award: The formal award will be presented on Saturday 8/31 at the 2024 Sharif University of Technology Association (SUTA) reunion in Niagara Falls, Canada. Since I won't be able to attend, I recorded this message (in Persian) for the attendees.
(3) The citation black market: There are growing concerns about a black market that allows scientists to purchase bogus citations to pad their Google Scholar profiles. NYU computer scientists conducted a sting operation by purchasing 50 citations for $300 and adding them to a fake Google Scholar profile they created. The researchers also proposed a citation-concentration index to identify scientists with a large number of citations from only a few sources.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Russia targets Ukraine's energy infrastructure with hundreds of missiles, causing widespread blackouts.
- Hezbollah and Israel have intensified their rocket fight near the Israel-Lebanon border.
- Israel is intensely searching for the new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
- Donald Trump chickens out of the September 10 ABC-sponsored debate with Kamala Harris.
(5) Course review: Muesse, Prof. Mark W. (Rhodes College), Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation, 24 lectures in the "Great Courses" series, The Teaching Company, 2011.
[My 2-star review of this course on GoodReads]
I lost interest in this course early on, but didn't want to give up on it. So, I continued listening by sampling each of the remaining 23 lectures. So, my review isn't complete and may in fact be unfair.
My main beef is that the material is intertwined with religious notions, often in indirect or subtle ways. The main message is that mindfulness requires much resolve and effort, whereas, counterintuitively, mindlessness, our default setting, entails a great deal of thinking, judging, and worrying. Our inner voices continuously comment on and judge everything we encounter, preventing us from focusing on our experiences and other important matters.
Left alone, the human mind tends to go to one of two places: The past or the future. We seldom focus on or engage with the present. We are often not in control of our minds and can't turn off the annoying inner voices. Aspects of mindfulness include awareness, relinquishing preconceptions, morality, focusing on breathing, wisdom, compassion, embracing our flaws & physical discomforts, giving, minding our language, cooling our anger, learning to accept loss, and living in the face of death.
Titles of the 24 lectures and a brief description of each lecture can be found on this page.
I enjoyed and recommend a previous read on meditation: Sam Harris's second book on the subject, Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics: A 10% Happier How-To Book (my review).

2024/08/25 (Sunday): Today, I present reviews of four books on voting and elections. These books are among the refernce sources for my UCSB graduate seminar ECE 594BB, which I will teach during fall 2024.
Cover image of 'Approval Voting' Cover image of 'Mathmatics of Social Choice' Cover image of 'Gaming the Vote' Cover image of 'Voting Technology'
(1) Book review: Brams, Steven J. and Peter C. Fishburn, Approval Voting, Birkhauser, 1983 (2nd ed. Springer 2007). [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
For 5+ decades now, I have been studying voting schemes in connection with reliable computer systems using multiple independent computation channels. More recently, I have expanded my studies to voting in sociopolitical contexts, hoping that the expanded view might offer applications and benefits to reliable computing.
Voting is quite simple when we have only two candidates, but having 3+ candidates can give rise to anomalies and improper results. Consequently, mathematicians and social scientists have been studying many different voting schemes in order to minimize such anomalies and improper results. Plurality voting, the one we use most widely, is particularly prone to undesirable effects such as vote-splitting and spoiler candidates. When combined with a second-round run-off election, problem cases subside, but they don't completely go away.
In approval voting, a voter isn't forced to just pick one candidate, his/her most-preferred, but can "approve" any number of candidates. Each approved candidate receives one vote, and the candidate with the most vote wins. Vote-splitting does not occur, because a voter may approve more than one candidate, so s/he won't be forced to choose between his/her first and second choices, say. Similarly, spoiler candidates, who have virtually no chance of being elected, won't take away votes from mainstream choices.
There is a theoretical "impossibility" result, known as Arrow's Theorem, that shows no voting scheme is perfect, in that, given any voting scheme, we can construct examples to violate one or more of the axioms of "good" voting schemes. Approval voting, the subject of this book, comes close to being an ideal voting scheme.
Chapter 1 of the book offers a wrap-up summary of the main ideas in simple, non-mathematical terms. The casual reader will be convinced by the arguments and discussions in Chapter 1 that approval voting is better than plurality voting, even when a run-off round is added to the latter. The remaining 9 chapters get quite mathematical, which may not be to some readers' liking.
To apply voting schemes in the sociopolitical context, we need practicality in addition to scientific merit. Approval voting isn't much more difficult to implement than plurality voting. Existing voting technology, perhaps with small modifications, would suffice. Plurality voting is also easily understood by voters, and is thus unlikely to cause confusion.
We have no choice but to update our laws and procedures, as we uncover their flaws and learn about doing things more logically. Approval voting appears to strike a reasonable balance between mathematical guarantees of appropriate behavior and practicality of implementation.
I will end this review with a quote from an 1816 letter of Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kerchaval: "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times."
[P.S.: The authors state that they have changed very little in the book's second edition, aiming only to correct minor errors in the original text, in part because Brams discusses recent research on approval voting in Mathematics and Democracy: Designing Better Voting and Fair-Division Procedures, with key elements also appearing in the authors' joint journal articles.]
(2) Book review: Borgers, Christoph, Mathematics of Social Choice: Voting, Compensation, and Division, SIAM, 2020. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I was drawn to this book because of its discussion of voting methods in Part I (Chapters 1-12, pp. 1-91). The book's Part II (Chapters 13-15, pp. 93-118) covers compensation schemes and its Part III (Chapters 16-26, pp. 119-192) deals with equitable division. There are four appendices on sets, logic, mathematical induction, and solutions to selected exercises (pp. 195-242).
Let me provide a brief overview of Parts II and III, before turning to Part I. Fair division of resources is a branch of mathematical economics. When the resource isn't continuously divisible, such as a house or a car in a divorce case, the problem is to determine a fair compensation by one party to the other who gets to keep the resource. A continuously-divisible resource can be likened to a cake. If one person cuts the cake into two pieces and a second person picks his/her piece, then neither side can complain. Fair compensation or division when 3+ parties are involved is more challenging.
My interest in Part I arises from 5+ decades of studying voting schemes in connection with reliable computer systems using multiple independent computation channels. More recently, I have expanded my studies to voting in sociopolitical contexts, hoping that the expanded view might offer applications and benefits to reliable computing. Voting is quite simple when we have only two candidates, but having 3+ candidates can give rise to anomalies and improper results. Borgers succeeds in conveying the mathematical depth of voting systems and their potential anomalies.
Even though Borgers' discussion of voting systems takes up only 91 pages, the presentation is rather dense and covers a lot of ground. The key notions of Condorcet winner, election spoilers, monotonicity, irrelevant comparisons, strategic voting, ranking of candidates, and Arrow's impossibility theorems are all there, but Borgers covers many other ideas and theorems that are new to me. The large number of exercises, and solutions to a selected subset, is a plus when using the book as part of course material.
(3) Book review: Poundstone, William, Gaming the Vote: Why Elections Aren't Fair (and What We Can Do About It), Hill and Wang, 2008. [My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is presented in 3 parts and 17 chapters. The prologue sets the stage by considering the problem of fringe and spoiler candidates who taint elections without having a real chance of winning. "Since 2004, the gaming of the spoiler effect has burgeoned and become thoroughly bipartisan. In the 2006 elections, no fewer than five key races had Democratic money funding spoilers to hurt Republicans or vice versa. The funds not only aided ballot drives but also paid for TV, radio, and print ads the spoilers could not otherwise have afforded" [p. 22].
Part I, Chapters 1-6 (pp. 23-130), defines the problem. Chapter titles are "Game Theory," "The Big Bang," "A Short History of Vote Splitting," "The Most Evil Man in America," "Run, Ralph, Run," and "Year of the Spoiler." We learn, among other things, that in a couple of figure-skating contests, the order of the top three contenders changed once a fourth skater performed and was scored below the top three. The figure-skating world was shocked and vowed to fix the scoring system. Similar anomalies can arise in the world of elections under certain voting systems.
Part II, Chapters 7-15 (pp. 131-258), discusses the solution. Chapter titles are "Trouble in Kiribati," "The New Belfry," "Instant Runoff," "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Cycle," "Buckley and the Clones," "Bad Santa," "Last Man Standing," "Hot or Not," and "Present but Not Voting." Among other ideas, advantages of the instant-runoff system (which is quite close to another system known as single transferable vote) are described. We also learn about Donald Saari, voting research's Bad Santa, because he spoils other researchers' fun by finding flaws in their proposed voting systems. Saari was once an advocate of approval voting, but later turned against it.
Part III, Chapters 16-17 (pp. 259-283), addresses the reality. Chapter titles are "The Way Democracy Will Be" and "Blue Man Coup." Near the end of this part, the author advocates for a real-world trial of instant-runoff, range, or approval voting. We can always go back to approval voting if the experiment doesn't work, but we must give some of these methods a try. Reform requires experimentation and courage to try new things.
(4) Book review: Herrnson, Paul S., Richard G. Niemi, Michael J. Hanmer, Benjamin B. Bederson, Frederick C. Conrad, and Michael W. Traugott, Voting Technology: The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot, Brookings Institution, 2008. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
For decades, voting technology consisted of paper ballots that were hand-counted. Then, we started using special ballot formats to enable machine-counting. In principle, with the widespread availability of the Internet and advances in digital authentication, we should be able to vote on-line, bypassing the need for voting precincts, paper ballots (or voting machines), and vote-counting gadgets, but lack of trust in the reliability and security of digital systems and concerns about access and fairness have prevented this ideal from materializing.
This book covers variations in and issues surrounding voting technology in 7 chapters and 3 appendices, as follows:
Chapter 1. The Study of Electronic Voting
Chapter 2. A New Generation of Voting Systems
Chapter 3. Voter Reaction to Electronic Voting Systems
Chapter 4. The Accuracy of Electronic Voting Systems
Chapter 5. Inequality in the Voting Booth
Chapter 6. Vote Verification Systems
Chapter 7. Toward More User-Friendly Voting and Election Systems
Appendix A. Voter Information Guides and Questionnaires
Appendix B. Characteristics of Respondents in the Field Studies
Appendix C. Regression Results for Chapters 5 and 6
As paper or on-screen ballots have grown in size and complexity, automating the process of casting ballots, tallying votes, and validating the results have become more urgent. None of these aspects is trivial in an election with millions of voters and dozens of candidates. Equally urgent is introduction of standards to engender familiarity and voter education to avoid errors and intimidation (which can hamper participation).
The voting system (plurality, run-off, rank-ordering, Borda, and so on) is a different story, but whichever system is chosen through societal consensus, adhering to the rules and executing it in a transparent and trustworthy manner is essential. Perhaps we will see reforms in voting technology within our lifetime, but widespread adoption of new technologies is always challenging.

2024/08/24 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The Venice Film Festival has become a major predictor of success during the awards season Jennifer Lopez keeps expanding her collection of exes: Ben Affleck is the newest addition Cover image of Richard Francis's 'Epigenetics' (1) Images of the day: [Left] The Venice Film Festival has become a major predictor of success during the awards season. [Center] Jennifer Lopez keeps expanding her collection of exes: Ben Affleck is the newest addition. [Right] Richard Francis's Epigentics (see the last item below).
(2) Delayed return flight: Two NASA astronauts who flew to the ISS on a Boeing Starliner and were slated to return in a couple of weeks will stay there until they can return on a SpaceX module in 2025. Starliner has developed problems that make it unsafe for crewed flight, so it will be returned without passengers.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The Kennedy name lost much of its prestige with RFK Jr.'s campaign musings and endorsement of Trump.
- The Gateway Arch in St. Louis: Its unique design and how it was built. [10-minute video]
- Humorist Hadi Khorsandi recites his poem on how the Islamic Revolution affected Iran.
- Neil deGrasse Tyson explains bolides, asteroids, meteors, and meteorites. [8-minute video]
(4) Blaming the people: The Iranian regime wants to raise gas prices, but given the deadly street protests after the last gas-price increase, it is claiming, through a social-media campaign, that people demand a price adjustment. No, they don't. People are already crushed by the high cost of living and rampant inflation.
(5) Book review: Francis, Richard C., Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance, W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The term "epigenetics" means "on the gene," the relatively recent discovery that stress and environmental factors can impact an individual's psychology so deeply that the resulting biological "scars" are potentially inherited by multiple generations that follow. For example, men who start to smoke before puberty increase the chance of obesity for their sons. Epigenetics is now believed to hold the key to understanding not just obesity, but also diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and autism.
Epigenetics has established beyond any doubt that while genes are quite important, they are subject to regulation by forces that can turn them on or off, sometimes for a lifetime or even across generations. Epigenetic changes are above and beyond longer-term changes due to random mutations and natural selection.
This first general introduction to epigenetics is driven by many stories such as the Dutch famine of World War II, Jose Canseco & steroids, breeding of mules & hinnies, Tasmanian devils, and contagious cancer. Each chapter in the book starts with an entertaining or intriguing example of how epigenetics affects human and animal biology and inheritance, followed by detailed discussion of the mechanisms at work.
After a brief general review of genetics in Chapters 2-3, Francis devotes Chapters 4-6 to epigenetic gene regulation and how it is influenced by the environment, beginning in the womb. Chapter 7 covers the inheritance of epigenetic states, elaborating further on the long-term effects of the Dutch famine. The final four Chapters provide additional details on epigenetics, including its applications in stem-cell and cancer research. The book's extensive notes and bibliography span pp. 162-181 and 182-215, respectively.
The Dutch Famine of the mid-1940s constitutes an important example. When, near the end of World War II, Germans were retreating from Eastern Europe, they decided to punish the Dutch resistance by destroying much of their infrastructure and flooding their agricultural fields. The ensuing famine led to ~20,000 deaths and had other devastating effects on the population, particularly, on pregnant women, whose malnutrition led to deficiencies in their babies and multiple subsequent generations. The Dutch kept meticulous health records, which allowed detailed studies of the effect of the famine and jump-started the field of epigenetics. Such large-scale human experiments are nearly impossible to plan, given limitations on the use of human subjects.

2024/08/23 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
An old cartoon that aroused my attention because I'll be teaching an undergraduate circuits course (ECE 10A) during winter 2025 Iranian cleric: We have received a message from Imam Zaman (the 12th Shi'i Imam who is in hiding) to hold off on attacking Israel! (1) Images of the day: [Left] An old cartoon that aroused my attention because I'll be teaching an undergraduate circuits course (ECE 10A) during winter 2025. Ohm's law is at the very beginning of the course! [Center] Iranian cleric: We have received a message from Imam Zaman (the 12th Shi'i Imam who is in hiding) to hold off on attacking Israel! [Right] New Yorker cartoon: Spending the day in the sun.
(2) Kamala Harris hits it out of the ballpark: She promises to be President for all Americans, operate with common sense, rebuild the middle class, establish an opportunity economy, and respect the rule of law.
(3) World's second-largest diamond: A 2492-carat gem-quality diamond was found in Botswana this week. What's the largest? The 3105-carat Cullinan diamond, found in South Africa in 1905 and divided into smaller gems. Some are among the British Crown Jewels.
(4) Is a revolution possible in Russia? On the surface, it appears that Putin is firmly in control. But there is growing opposition to the war in Ukraine and hints of unrest among people stuck with low wages. Regime change in Russia will of course affect Russians and Ukrainians the most, but the Islamic regime in Iran will also be a big loser. [Related Business Insider story]
(5) Question: How long can you keep those little ketchup, dressing, & mayo packets from fast food joints?
Answer: Use them in a couple of weeks at most. You never know how old they are when you get them.
(6) Did you know that Toyota engines are used in certain models of other car brands? Here's a partial list: BMW; Chevy; Geo; Lotus; Pontiac; Subaru; Suzuki.
(7) Cash for finding scientific errors: Europe's Estimating the Reliability and Robustness of Research (ERROR) project offers payments to reviewers who spot errors in code, statistical analyses, and reference citations in psychology and psychology-related papers. Modeled after software bug-bounty programs, reviewers receive up to 1000 Swiss francs (around US $1172) for each paper they analyze, with bonuses for identified errors, including up to $2930 for errors requiring a major correction notice or a retraction. Meanwhile, authors are paid $293 for making data available & answering questions, and another $293 if only minor errors are detected.

2024/08/21 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
America should move forward to greatness, not backward: Kamala Harris campaign posters Follow this sage advice. I did yesterday, right after getting this fortune-cookie message. It definitely worked! IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk by B. Parhami on energy-storage technologies (1) Images of the day: [Left] America should move forward to greatness, not backward. [Center] Follow this sage advice: I did, right after getting this fortune-cookie message yesterday. It definitely worked! [Right] IEEE CCS tech talk on energy storage technologies (see the last item below).
(2) Michelle Obama's brilliant speech at the Democratic National Convention.
(3) Stephanie Grisham, former Trump official who resigned in the January 6 aftermath, speaks at the Democratic National Convention, revealing what Trump says about his supporters when cameras are off.
(4) A new type of nuclear proliferation: Conventional nuclear bombs are difficult to make, because they need highly-enriched uranium. However, a dirty-bomb capable of doing much damage can be built by terrorists from advanced-reactor fuel. The threat is rising due to a new emphasis on nuclear power to achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2050.
(5) Tonight's IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk (in-person and WebEx event): Yours truly spoke under the title "Energy Storage Technologies to Facilitate the Use of Renewable Energy." [51-minute recording]
Renewable energy is gradually becoming cost-competitive, as we invest more in developing new production and storage technologies. The storage part is critical and needs significantly more effort. Production levels of renewable energy, solar and wind in particular, tend to be variable. Such supply variations, combined with natural variations in demand, give rise to the need for storing energy, in much the same way that we store grains in silos to smooth out the variations in when & where they are produced and when & where they are needed. In the case of grains, even year-to-year variations due to weather, pests, and natural disasters can be tolerated with sufficient storage capacity.
There is no reason why similar smoothing methods cannot be used for energy. The fact that we have not been investing more in developing energy-storage technologies is a direct result of the "low cost" of energy derived from oil, gas, & coal and the exorbitantly-funded campaign by the fossil-fuel industry to brand renewable energy as "expensive." However, most cost comparisons are unfair, because they ignore environmental and other indirect costs. Mitigating the effects of harmful emissions from burning fossil fuels is rather expensive, a figure we should include in their life-cycle cost. If we do so, the so-called “green premium” will vanish or even become negative.
I briefly surveyed a number of existing and emerging energy storage technologies, from mechanical (flywheel, pumped hydro, gravity, compressed air, liquid piston), through chemical & electrochemical (hydrogen, biofuel, biodiesel, supercapacitors, batteries), to superconducting & cryogenic (magnetic, liquid air). Strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches were enumerated. Emphasis was placed on the solar-battery combo, which is finding its way into homes and businesses throughout the world. These small-scale solar-battery nodes can be likened to PC-disk nodes, which together with larger-scale server-storage nodes constitute the Internet. In a similar manner, an Intergrid of energy can be conceived which will fuel the Third Industrial Revolution.

2024/08/20 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Respecting the fact that the tree was there first: Wall is bent to accommodate tree Breakers of the glass ceiling: Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris Cover feature of IEEE Spectrum magazine: The hunt for rogue planets (1) Images of the day: [Left] Respecting the fact that the tree was there first: If only the same respect was shown to US Native Americans. [Center] It sure took a long time and many attempts for a woman to rise to the pinnacle of political power in the US. It's still not a done deal, but if it does happen, many women deserve the credit; Shirley Chisholm, Geraldine Ferraro, and Hillary Clinton, to name just three. And, now, Kamala Harris is the bearer of the torch. [Right] Cover feature of IEEE Spectrum magazine (see the last item below).
(2) Making platonic connections: City dwellers and remote workers who feel lonely can now use apps to arrange group meals with strangers.
(3) Justice not served: Chrystul Kizer was 17 when she killed a man who filmed his sexual abuse of her for more than a year. She has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Major Hezbollah ammunition depot in south Lebanon targeted by Israel.
- Iranian officials admit that mass exodus of nurses and other healthcare workers is a serious problem.
- The proposed cabinet of the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reflects Iran's institutional stagnation.
- Facebook memory from Aug. 20, 2019: Friendship may develop into love, but not the other way around.
(4) A trailblazing woman tech journalist retires: Tekla S. Perry joined the staff of IEEE Spectrum magazine in 1979. Her stories, which she began writing with notepads and pencils, have stood the test of time and constitute a history of the Silicon Valley and electronics technology. I will miss Perry's stories in IEEE Spectrum, a magazine which I read regularly.
(5) Quote of the day: "In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own but I am indifferent in this election as to her policy views on any issues other than America's Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be." ~ Conservative judge Michael Luttig
(6) The hunt for rogue planets: Our galaxy may hold a trillion wandering sunless planets, but finding them isn't easy. Rogue planets are created in various ways:
- Ejection from orbit due to encounter with a larger planet.
- Independent formation from gas & dust in stellar nurseries.
- Destabilization due to encounter with another star.
- Being put loose due to explosive death of a giant star.
These planets are shaking up astronomers' ideas about planetary formation. Only giant planets formed in-place (#2 above) can be directly observed, because they emit enough heat to be detected with an infrared telescope.

2024/08/18 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The West is complicit in the way women are treated in certain societies Math puzzle involving two squares Math puzzle involving three squares (1) Images of the day: [Left] The West is complicit in the way women are treated in certain societies, such as Afghnaistan and Iran. [Center & Right] Two math puzzles involving two & three squares.
(2) Alain Delon [1935-2024], heartthrob and prolific French actor, dead at 88: During my youth, he was seemingly on every movie poster and a subject in every gossip column. I have seen many of his movies (he was a most-popular star in Iran), yet I can't name any of the films off-hand. It has been said that there is no French cinema without Alain Delon. RIP. [Alain Delon's profile, through his interviews]
(3) The US presidential race has devolved into a beauty pageant: At a campaign rally, Trump compared his looks to his opponent’s, claiming that he was better-looking. [Tweet, with photos]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Our 2024 choice in a nutshell: Prosecutor & coach/veteran vs. real-estate developer & venture capitalist.
- The Soviet-era Minsk Aircraft Carrier, previously converted to a theme park in China, destroyed by fire.
- Webinar: Fighting agents and influencers acting in the West on behalf of Iran's Islamic regime. [Details]
- Child prodigy plays Vivaldi, with skill and infectious joy!
- African proverb: The sheep will spend its entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd.
- Facebook memory from Aug. 19, 2019: Mediocre passions vs. great ones.
(4) Iran-linked social media accounts used ChatGPT to generate posts and comments with disinformation about the US election: OpenAI has disrupted the operation and closed the accounts, which were mostly unsuccessful, because they did not produce much likes, comments, or sharers.
(5) University of California prepares for campus protests: In a letter to the UC community, President Michael Drake reiterated the importance of free speech on campus and urged the formulation of clear/transparent policies regarding camping and other campus obstructions.
(6) Final thought for the day: A batch of books that I took home from my UCSB office today, shown covering my car trunk and the entire back seat. I will have to repeat this transfer two more times to complete the process before my retirement. [Tweet, with photos]

2024/08/17 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Female athlete embracing significant other after victory A view of the Caspian Sea, with Alborz Mountains of Iran at the bottom and the Caucuses on the left MS World Discoverer (a German expedition cruise ship) hit an uncharted reef in Solomon Islands on April 29, 2000 (1) Images of the day: [Left] When I see a woman athlete embrace her significant other upon winning a race or earning a medal, I feel sorry for Iranian women athletes who have to muffle their joy as they stand all alone, because Islam does not allow a public display of affection. [Center] A view of the Caspian Sea, with Alborz Mountains of Iran at the bottom and the Caucuses on the left. [Right] MS World Discoverer (a German expedition cruise ship) hit an uncharted reef in Solomon Islands on April 29, 2000.
(2) On price stability: For many years, I remember buying Roma tomatoes for $0.99/lb. I am sure the market price fluctuated for various reasons, but grocery stores took the loss, when needed, to offer consumers a stable price. Not anymore! After a shortage of a few weeks to prepare the consumers, Roma tomatoes came back at a price of $1.49-$1.99. Many fruits, such as apples, peaches, and grapes, that used to sell for around $1.50/lb are now offered at $3.00-$4.00/lb. Merchants pass on market price increases to consumers right away, which is a sure cause of inflation beyond what we would have if prices were kept stable for a while.
(3) Free book containing almost all the math you need for machine learning: Algebra, Topology, Differential Calculus, and Optimization Theory for Computer Science and Machine Learning, Jean Gallier and Jocelyn Quaintance, Dept. Computer & Information Science, U. Pennsylvania. [PDF]
(4) The terrorist ambassador, turned professor: The German government had evidence of Seyed Hossein Mousavian's involvement in the terror of Iranian dissidents abroad, but chose to let him go for fear of the mullah's retaliatory actions. [Tweet]
(5) Copper mining cannot keep up with ramp-up of EVs (from E&T magazine, July-August 2024): Copper is needed in all aspects of electricity generation, storage, and distribution. A new study reveals that by 2050, the world needs to mine 115% more copper than has been mined in all of history just to meet current needs, without even considering the green-energy transition.
(6) Israeli army officers sing a Persian song made famous by Hayedeh to show the bonds of friendship between Israeli and Iranian people. [Tweet, with video]
(7) The technology of electric cars is ~200 years old: From Ben Franklin's electric motors, through cheap oil derailing the progress, to market maturity, we have come a long way. [E&T magazine, July-August 2024]
(8) Final thought for the day: Apparently, someone mentioned to Trump that Harris has an edge in looks. In his latest rally, Trump claimed that he is better-looking than Harris!

2024/08/15 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Henry Yang's 31-year tenure as UCSB Chancellor is coming to an end Throwback Thursday: Royal Tehran Hilton, 1962 Throwback Thursday: My mom, her two sisters, her oldest brother, and a younger family member I don't recognize
Trump wins the gold medal in lying while breaking the world record Don't buy the lies that everything was hunky-dory under Trump: We paid a lot for his presidency Royal Society consider the implications of AI to the scientific enterprise (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Henry Yang's 31-year tenure as UCSB Chancellor is coming to an end (see the next item below). [Top center] Throwback Thursday: Royal Tehran Hilton, 1962 (zoom in on room balconies). [Top right] Throwback Thursday: My mom, her two sisters, her oldest brother, and a younger family member. [Bottom left] Trump wins the gold medal in lying while breaking the world record. [Bottom center] Don't buy the lies that everything was hunky-dory under Trump: We paid a lot for his presidency. [Bottom right] Royal Society consider the implications of AI to the scientific enterprise (see the last item below).
(2) UCSB's Chancellor Henry Yang to step down: In a letter to the campus community, Chancellor Yang indicated that he will step down at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year, returning to research and teaching. Yang came to UCSB in 1994 from his former position as Dean of Engineering at Purdue University, making him the longest-serving chancellor in the history of the UC system. Under his leadership, UCSB grew to become a top-ranking public university in the US, making significant progress in research production & funding, campus facilities, academic prestige, and worldwide recognition. He will be missed!
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- WHO declares the rapid spread of mpox in African countries a global emergency.
- Eric Schmidt blames Google's woes on remote work policies: Other employers are also on board.
- This is Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. [Tweet, with video]
- Preparing for ten hot days in Goleta, a lot better in Ventura. [Tweet, with images]
- Iranian music: Pallett performs "From Eastern Lands." [7-minute video]
- Persian poetry: A poem by Yaghma Neyshaburi, the brick-maker who offered sage advice.
(4) "Science in the Age of AI": This is the title of a May 2024 Royal Society report, bearing the subtitle "How artificial intelligence is changing the nature and method of scientific research."
The 108-page PDF document begins with an executive summary, which outlines key findings & future research questions, a set of four recommendations, and the following five chapters, sandwiched between an introduction and a conclusion.
- How AI is transforming scientific research
- Research integrity and trustworthiness
- Research skills and interdisciplinarity
- Research, innovation and the private sector
- Research ethics and AI safety
A key theme is that AI tools for science must follow the traditions of openness and reproducibility.

2024/08/13 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
VP Kamala Harris on the cover of Time magazine The Colosseum is incredible, but it isn't unique: There are over 200 Ancient Roman arenas, on three different continents Math puzzle: How many triangles do you see in this figure? (1) Images of the day: [Left] VP Kamala Harris on the cover of Time magazine. [Center] The Colosseum is incredible, but it isn't unique: There are over 200 Ancient Roman arenas, on three different continents, many of which held over 50,000 people. And the Romans even built one stadium with a capacity of 150,000. [Right] Math puzzle: How many triangles do you see in this figure?
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Trump campaign hacked by Iran: Internal e-mails & a vetting file on J. D. Vance are supplied to the media.
- California partners with Nvidia to bring AI resources & skills to students, faculty, and developers.
- J. D. Vance is probably better-educated than D. J. Trump but he makes the same kinds of false claims.
- An Iranian top official: "Our society isn't mentally prepared to accept the guidance and leadership of women."
- My favorite fortune-cookie message: You're never too old to learn something new.
(4) Heat-trapping "glitter" proposed for warming up Mars: The median Martian surface temperature is –65 degrees Celsius. The proposed method is viewed as an initial step for making Mars more habitable to humans. Since iron and aluminum are abundant on the surface of Mars, the material can be made locally, rather than shipped from Earth.
(5) Stanford U. athletes won 39 medals at the Paris Olympics, surpassing the medal counts of countries like the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, and Canada. Texas, Cal, and Harvard also earned quite a few medals.
(6) One consequence of extreme heat: Those who receive their meds through mail should be aware that summer temperatures inside delivery trucks can reach 150 F, potentially damaging medications.
(7) The Trump-Musk show: I watched the X (Twitter) chat between the criminally-indicted fellow and the Tesla guy, who reportedly wants to be an advisor in the next Trump administration. It was a lie-fest, with Trump doing much of the talking and Musk adoringly offering his approval. UAW has filed federal labor charges against the duo for threatening workers in the course of the program.
(8) IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk on Wednesday, August 21, 2024, 6:00 PM: Yours truly will speak on "Energy Storage Technologies to Facilitate the Use of Renewable Energy." [Free registration]

2024/08/11 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A mind-boggling optical illusion: Upside-down plates turn right side up The American people are ready for a president who smiles as she talks about friendship and hope The 2024 Paris Olympics closes (1) Images of the day: [Left] A mind-boggling optical illusion. [Center] The American people are ready for a president who smiles as she talks about friendship and hope. We are tired of dour faces talking of gloom and doom. [Right] he 2024 Paris Olympics closes (see the last item below).
(2) Today's farmers market at Goleta's Camino Real Marketplace, with musical entertainment by the trio Strings & Arrows. [Video 1] Video 2]
(3) How China solved the problem of putting tens of thousands of characters (words) onto a keyboard with only dozens of keys. [13-minute video]
(4) We use D, C, AA, AAA, and AAAA batteries: What happened to B and A battery sizes? These missing battery sizes were defined and existed at one point, but given the fairly small size & capacity spacings between C and AA, the B and A sizes do not provide sufficient advantages in compactness or storage capacity, so over time they fell out of favor.
(5) On our fascination with sports: The 2024 Paris Olympics coming to an end is a bittersweet experience for me. I watched the games very selectively, owing to some events not being of much interest to me and because I had a limited amount of time to watch. Football (soccer), basketball, volleyball, and some gymnastics took up the bulk of my TV time. I will miss watching so much quality sports.
As I look back on the 17-day experience, I keep wondering about the reasons we enjoy watching sports. If we compare sports to music, say, we know that music is good for us, whether we participate as a player or just listen and move to it. The recent book Music and Mind, edited by Renee Fleming, leaves little doubt about how music improves our mental acuity and makes life more enjoyable overall.
In the case of sports, there are definite benefits to participation but, as far as I know, no evidence of significant health benefits in watching. Certain sports do have artistic elements and watching them can presumably bring us the same benefits as art. But there are also the less charitable reasons for watching athletes compete, much in the same way that Romans watched gladiators.
Regardless of the tribalism implied in enjoying the sports that are most-popular in our country and cheering on our country's participants, the Olympics does bring us the joys of seeing athletes from the entire world come together despite their obvious differences. There is something noble in accepting defeat by a more-skilled opponent or team and going back to the drawing board to improve our deficiencies, whether it is for doing better in the next Olympics or for the satisfaction of excellence.

2024/08/10 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Three Iranian-born women earn Olympics medals in taekwondo Visual challenge: Do you see the number? Let's take science out of the colonial era (1) Images of the day: [Left] Iranian women earning Olympics medals: What a display of women's power to backward rulers who don't recognize women as full human beings (see the next item below). [Center] Visual challenge: Do you see the number? [Right] Let's take science out of the colonial era (see the last item below).
(2) Three Iranian-born women earn Olympics medals in taekwondo: Two of them, competing in a match for Iran and Bulgaria, used to be good friends. These women have delivered a kick in the face to a mullah, who once said women's worth isn't measured by whether they can kick but by how well they raise children.
(3) Roya Hakakian writes about her motivation to investigate the story of Mohammad Jafar Mahallati at Oberlin: An Islamist who rose to the professorial rank among serious scholars.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Russia has issued a strong warning to Iran against targeting Israel.
- No one utters the word "truth" more than the most-contemptible liar.
- Facebook memory from Aug. 9, 2018: Iranian music, with mixed Persian-Azeri lyrics.
- Facebook memory from Aug. 10, 2017: On anti-Semitism in Iran.
(5) Olympics gold-medal match in women's soccer/football: USA played Brazil, the teams having previously beaten Germany and Spain, respectively, in the semifinals. Somewhat surprisingly for such an important match, the play was wide-open in the first half, which ended up 0-0, despite several scoring opportunities for both teams. Brazil became quite dominant in the final 10 minutes before halftime.
Twelve minutes into the second half, Swanson's speed paid off, as she put a through pass past the Brazil goalie. The 1-0 score persisted through the end of the second half (which included 10 minutes of stoppage time). Brazil again dominated in the last 10 minutes, coming close to equalizing on multiple occasions.
This is the US women national soccer team's fifth Olympics gold medal.
P.S.: I saw more shots of Tom Cruise in the stands than of the US coach on the sideline!
(6) The colonial legacy of science: Science, in its modern form, emerged from the Enlightenment-era Europe. At the time, a handful of European countries exerted political and economic control over more than half the world. The colonialists enslaved people and extracted precious metals, spices, and other wealth from their lands. The term "parachute science" was coined for the situation when foreign scientists were dropped in and wrote about problems in distant lands, with minimal involvement from local scientists. That legacy is still with us. For example, a 2019 study found that fewer than half of papers on infectious diseases in Africa had an African first author. We have to recognize this colonial legacy and work to allow researchers in once-colonized nations to become full partners in science.

2024/08/08 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Political executions continue in the Islamic Republic of Iran, regardless of who is the president Pyramid of palindromic prime numbers Talangor Group talk on genetics (by Dr. Davood Kolbehdari) (1) Images of the day: [Left] Political executions continue in the Islamic Republic of Iran, regardless of who is the president. [Center] Pyramid of palindromic prime numbers: In this example, each number appears in the middle part of the next number. There are other pyramids formed by palindromic primes. [Right] Talangor Group talk on genetics (see the last item below).
(2) Trouble in space: Two NASA astronauts, who traveled on Boeing’s Starliner to the Int'l Space Station in June for a planned 8-day mission, will stay there until February, because their return vehicle has developed problems that make it potentially unsafe.
(3) Three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna are cancelled after discovery of plans by two teenagers to carry out an Islamic-State-inspired attack with explosives and weapons.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- President Pezeshkian writes to Khamenei, asking him to refrain from a full-scale war with Israel. [Meme]
- Hamas' new political leader demonstrates his education program for kindergartners. [Photo]
- The airship that became a flying aircraft carrier.
- Iran's George Floyd: Afghan teenager suffers a broken neck, when security forces pin him to the ground.
(5) Tonight's Talangor Group meeting: Dr. Davood Kolbehdari spoke under the title "Genetics and Breeding." Before the main talk, Dr. Farid Akhbari gave a short presentation on "The Psychology of Tattoos," covering a history spanning thousands of years and mental/social reasons for their prevalence. There were ~85 attendees.
Dr. Kolbehdari began by citing the prediction that by 2050, we need to produce 70% more food, given the estimated ~2 billion growth in world population and the expected rise in the standard of living for billions of people in the developing world. The question facing humanity is how we can grow so much more food, without further destroying the planet.
An obvious answer is the use of higher-yielding crops and more-efficient agricultural and pest-control methods. For example, in the case of corn, a staple of the American diet, the nearly-constant yield during 1860-1940 began to take off in the 1940s due to advances in genetics. Unfortunately, greedy agricultural companies do not allow the people to gain maximum benefits from the rising crop yields, because they restrict access or charge exorbitant fees for patent-protected seeds that they develop.
Dr. Kolbehdari cited many examples of advances in high-yielding crops and the legal battles over their use and abuse. Fortunately, the patents associated with the seeds for such crops have a 20-year protection, but so far, advances have been so quick that it isn't cost-effective to use 20-year-old seeds in lieu of the most recent offerings.
A natural question, which I asked at the end of the talk, is why limit ourselves to pursuing improved crops and agricultural innovations. Like any other matter, various food products can be synthesized from their molecular components. In my humble opinion, synthetic food production method, which are now in their infancy, will be scaled up to make agriculture, as it is known today, obsolete. Here is an informative article on the benefits and challenges of synthetic food.

2024/08/07 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Kamala Harris taps Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate Math puzzle: In this diagram of 3 concentric circles, find the exact value of x Black Diamond apples are currently grown only in the mountains of Tibet (1) Images of the day: [Left] Kamala Harris taps Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate: Walz's fatherly looks and Midwest small-town credentials appear to complement Harris's big-city background. [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram of 3 concentric circles, find the exact value of x. [Right] Black Diamond apples are currently grown only in the mountains of Tibet. [Right]
(2) Extreme hypocrisy: MAGA politicians, who consider masking and vaccination impositions on their freedom & privacy, have no problem telling women that they must have more babies and obey their husbands.
(3) Language is more than just a communication tool: Yes, language allows us to express our thoughts, but it also helps shape them. In this 23-minute Persian video, the effect of language on how we think is discussed. [Equivalent 14-minute TED talk, in English]
(4) If you think the Higgs boson particle is an unpromising subject for a Broadway musical, you're not alone: David Henry Hwang of "M. Butterfly" fame, unmoved when the idea was first pitched to him years ago, has since come around and is now developing a musical based on the discovery in 2012 of the infamous particle.
(5) Olympics women's soccer: USA, which beat Germany 4-1 in the group stage, faced the Germans again in a semifinal game today. The first half went scoreless, with the US looking somewhat disorganized and Germany looking quite beatable.
Neither team played like an Olympics champion in the scoreless second half. Smith put the US ahead on a through pass in minute 5 of the first overtime period. Both teams dodged bullets a couple of minutes from the end of the match, putting the US in the gold-medal game with the 1-0 score. [4-minute highlights]
(6) Archaeologists Find a 2,400-Year-Old "Pot of Gold" in Turkey: An ancient hoard of Persian coins offers insights into the political landscape around the time of the Peloponnesian War.
(7) US antitrust-law violation: Judge rules that Google has an illegal monopoly on Internet search.
(8) The US presidential race: Harris is closing the gap with Trump and in some cases enjoys a small lead, as traditional Democratic voters are coming back and some Republicans are inclined to vote for Harris in order to give their party a chance to recover from the disgrace of Trump. According to a group of Republicans: "... our party's nominee is not qualified for office ... It is time to put partisan loyalties aside and vote for the leadership that will truly represent the people we want to be in the eyes of the world. Character matters."

2024/08/05 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Kamala Harris didn't suddenly become black, as Donald Trump claims New Yorker cartoon: Trump vs. Harris presidential debate Former Iranian FM Javad Zarif and President Masoud Pezeshkian
Transparencies were used for classroom and conference presentations decades ago: Sample 1 Recycling old technical journals and conference proceedings Transparencies were used for classroom and conference presentations decades ago: Sample 2 (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Kamala Harris didn't suddenly become black, as Donald Trump claims (see the next item below). [Top center] New Yorker cartoon of the day: Donald Trump vs. Kamala Harris presidential debate. [Top right] Former Iranian FM Javad Zarif and President Masoud Pezeshkian (see the last item below). [Bottom row] Belated spring cleaning: One of my summer projects is to get rid of decades worth of technical journals and conference proceedings. Here you see one load out of a dozen or so loads already recycled. In the course of cleaning, I discovered many transparencies, which were used with overhead projectors before PowerPoint slides and digital projectors took over.
(2) In her 2019 autobiography, Kamala Harris wrote: "My mother understood very well that she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women."
(3) Parhelion: A natural phenomenon, when three suns are seen in the sky, the Sun itself and two reflections in ice crystals falling down from clouds. [Tweet, with video feom China]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- First anti-trust ruling of the modern Internet era: Google acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly.
- Campus protests and possibly academic strikes in the US will reportedly return with the start of the fall term.
- Dozens of military men, some of them high-ranking, arrested in Iran on suspicion of spying for Israel.
- Sergei Shoigu, Secretary of Russia's Security Council, is in Tehran for high-level talks. [IranWire.com]
- War on arts & artists: Iran's Islamic authorities continue to threaten and imprison artists.
- If you wouldn't buy a used car from someone, you shouldn't vote him into office. [Tweet, with meme]
- Facebook memory from August 5, 2015: "Yar Injidi," a beautiful Azeri song.
(5) Bangladeshis celebrate after forcing their PM to flee the country: Some have characterized the protesters as Islamists, but this joyful singing doesn't sound Islamist to me.
(6) Final thought for the day: Iran's former FM Javad "we have no political prisoners in Iran" Zarif is back on airwaves and on social media, spreading lies and denying the brutal acts of the Islamic regime. He was once unceremoniously dumped by the hardliners. I really hope that he is dumped again. People like him, who can speak good English and present seemingly coherent arguments internationally are more dangerous than the inarticulate religious fanatics. As the Persian saying goes, a thief who carries a bright light can take more-valuable items. The government of President Masoud Pezeshkian is already sidelined by the IRCG, which makes official statements and issues threats in the aftermath of Ismail Haniyeh's assassination in Tehran.

2024/08/04 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Double-birthday celebration and gift-opening time Menu for our family's celebration of a double-birthday Cat-lady-themed merchandise and the ',la' (comma la) moniker are trending
Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco Cover image of Renee Fleming's 'Music and Mind' (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] A double-birthday celebration in our family and the dinner menu. [Top right] Cat-lady-themed merchandise and the ",la" (comma la) moniker are trending. [Bottom left] Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA. [Bottom center] Balloons at the Paris Olympics (see the next item below). [Bottom right] Renee Fleming's Music and Mind (see the last item below).
(2) Air balloons at the Paris Olympics: The opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics featured a Montgolfier balloon reference and air balloons have been featured in various promos and graphics for the event. The papermaker French brothers Joseph-Michel Montgolfier & Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier launched the era of spectacular hot air balloon flights in the late 18th century. The first humans to take to the air in free flight did so aboard one of their balloons.
(3) Women's Olympics soccer quarterfinals (USA 1-0 Japan): Japan played tight, marking defense for the entire first half, disrupting the normal game flow for the US. Patient ball control followed by a few over-the-top long passes didn’t work for the US, leading to a scoreless game at halftime.
The second half and the entire first 15-minute overtime period also went scoreless, with both teams having some scoring chances. Then, in minute 2 of stoppage time, Rodman scored the game's only goal on a through pass and some wonderful footwork. [7-minute highlights]
(4) Smart speed bumps: Badennova, a Spanish company, makes smart speed bumps from non-Newtonian fluids that exhibit variable viscosity under stress. When used in speed bumps, they stay soft at low speeds but harden when you drive over them too fast.
(5) Book review: Fleming, Renee (editor), Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, unabridged 22-hour audiobook, read by Gina Daniels and six others, Penguin Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book, composed of a large number of essays, begins with a foreword by former Director of NIH, Nobel Laureate Francis S. Collins, who tells us about his surreal experience of singing with three Supreme Court Justices and soprano Renee Fleming at a gathering, an event that made him bent on having NIH support more research on the connection between arts (music in particular) and neuroscience.
Then, following an "Overture" by Fleming herself, chapters written by a wide variety of scientists and artists unfold, beginning with a chapter entitled "How and Why: Experts Explain the Basic Science Connecting Arts and Health, Including Origins in Evolution: Musicality, Evolution, and Animal Response to Music," which sets the stage for the rest of the material.
Contributors to this volume make a convincing case that the arts empower and heal, collectively presenting a manifesto for neuroarts, the transdisciplinary study of how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the body, brain, and behavior and how this knowledge is translated into specific practices that advance health and wellbeing.
We learn, among other things, that all forms of music, not just classical music, have relaxing effects. Moving to musical rhythms is part of our nature, something that develops quite early. Even though music therapy has been practiced for a couple of centuries, only recently has it been taken seriously for the treatment of physical and mental ailments. Even now, insurance companies tend not to pay for the cost of music therapy.
It is unfortunate that as evidence on the empowering and healing power of music and other art forms piles up, schools in the United States continue to trim arts programs to save money. Lack of a place for arts in public education limits artistic activities to the well-to-do, further exacerbating the opportunity divide. It is my hope that Fleming's book brings our school officials and politicians to their senses, making them support (including by providing ample funding) arts education across the K-12 curriculum.

2024/08/03 (Saturday): Today, I present reviews of three books on history, finance, and politics.
Cover image of the course 'The Persian Empire,' taught by John W. I. Lee Cover image of Scott Galloway's 'The Algebra of Wealth' Cover image of 'The Political Thought of Xi Jinping' (1) Course review: Lee, John W. I., The Persian Empire, 24 lectures in the "Great Courses" series, undated.
[My 5-star review of this course on GoodReads]
I discovered this course by accident and was delighted by its content and by the fact that it is taught by a distinguished UCSB colleague, John W. I. Lee. Professor Lee has many academic honors to his name, including an Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and the Harold J. Plous Memorial Award.
Professor Lee aims to corrects the negative view of the Persian Empire, which emerged from accounts by the Greek, leading to Persians being depicted in histories and films as the bad guys, the villains who were ruled by despotic leaders and lost the Battle of Marathon. Examining the Persian Empire from the Persian perspective yields a vastly different picture. We see the Persian Empire as a major force with a lasting influence on the world in terms of administration, economics, religion, and architecture.
Professor Lee tells us that as part of his research for this course, he studied American textbooks from the 1800s and 1900s. In 19th-century textbooks, writers go from describing the Persians fairly positively to calling them despotic, decadent, barbaric Orientals. By 1900, a popular textbook summed up the new view: One Greek was better than 10 Asiatics! And Hollywood (e.g., in the film "300") helped perpetuate the negative view.
The sources used by Professor Lee include:
- Greek historical writings, which are obviously biased, but because Persians did not write their own history, Greek writings remain important sources, when checked against other corroborating evidence.
- Stories in the Hebrew Bible, which are likely overly idealized.
- Travelers and their writings.
- Archaeological discoveries, including accounts of the same events in three different languages, which facilitated decoding and allowed cross-checking.
- Thousands of Persepolis tablets, found during a fortification project, which contained official royal or governmental records.
- Documents in Aramaic, flowing from Egypt, where the dry weather provided the requisite conditions for preservation.
The Persian Empire [559-323 BCE] was arguably the world's first global power. A diverse, multicultural empire with flourishing businesses and people on the move; an empire of information, made possible by a highly advanced infrastructure that included roads, canals, bridges, and a courier system. And the kings of Persia's Achaemenid dynasty (notably Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes) presided over an empire that created a tremendous legacy for subsequent history.
Professor Lee discusses many of the aspects named above in nearly chronological order: From the founding of the Empire; through capitals, palaces, & roads, challenges & battles, expansion, cultures & religion, city & country life, and the role of women; to the Empire's dissolution and its legacies.
According to Professor Lee, history of the Persian Empire isn't a static subject. Just as new discoveries in recent decades have created significant changes in our views, future archaeological discoveries will likely bring about additional changes.
For a list of the 24 lectures and a brief description of each, see this Web page.
(2) Book review: Galloway, Scott, The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by the author, Penguin Audio, 2024.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book can be put in the category of financial self-improvement. It collects in one place everything a non-expert must know in order to achieve financial security in the shortest possible time. Financial security is defined as having enough assets to cover expenses from the proceeds. The model of a person working for 30+ years before retiring and drawing income from pensions or investments is obsolete. In the modern world, one can attain financial security at age 40, say, and then decide whether s/he wants to continue to work for professional improvement and/or satisfaction.
Galloway presents in four fairly long chapters his personal formula for achieving financial freedom based on the four principles of Stoicism, focus, time, and diversification. He maintains that we can eliminate economic anxiety through a combination of well-paid work, diversified investments, and good financial habits. What he calls the algebra of wealth is represented by the following formula:
Wealth = Focus + (Stoicism * Time * Diversification)
Chapter 1. Stoicism: A fundamental tenet of stoicism is discerning what is under our control and what is not. Living below your means, practicing financial discipline, and controlling your spending are essential aspects of financial stoicism. Central to the tenets of stoicism is a strong character. Do toot your own horn in order to advance as quickly as possible, but also develop kindness, generosity, and willingness to help others.
Chapter 2. Focus: To get started, you must earn an income, the more, the better. You should follow your talent rather than your passion in order to maximize your earning potential. You should invest in improving your skills and building relationships, both personal and professional. It is unfortunate that people have to change jobs in order to earn a fair salary for their skills. If necessary, do play that game: Get a job offer and ask your employer to match it.
Chapter 3. Time: Your most-important asset is time. In fact, all wealth comes directly or indirectly from time. If necessary, delegate tasks to paid workers in order to free your own time for more important stuff. When you are young, you have plenty of time and you must use that time to earn income and start the ball rolling on compounding. A small monthly saving when you are 20 can create more wealth than a much larger amount that you set aside beginning at 50, owing to the effects of compounding.
Chapter 4. Diversification: This is the most-complicated chapter and covers more material than the previous chapters. In a nutshell, diversification is about risk mitigation and avoidance of over-commitment. It requires a good understanding of financial concepts and of the markets. Everyone should learn about investment, various financial instruments, risk & return, taxation, and post- & pre-tax retirement savings. Galloway goes out of his way to advise against day-trading. He prefers to focus instead on index funds that perform better than almost any other investment.
In short, you need discipline and humility. Don't credit your gains to your own brilliance and your losses to external factors. Chance plays a big part in both. Following a disciplined approach will allow you to build up on your gains and learn from your losses.
(3) Book review: Tsang, Steve and Olivia Cheung, The Political Thought of Xi Jinping, unabridged 11-hour audiobook, read by Rebecca Lam, HighBridge Audio, 2024.
[My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Xi Jinping, China's President (in practice, its Supreme Leader), is the least-known of the leaders of the world's major powers. So, given that China has the world's second economy and, by some accounts, may overtake the US within a few years, this book is a timely addition to the genre of political biographies.
Xi Jinping has made significant changes to China's political system, its economy, and its relationships with the rest of the world. Xi's ruling philosophy and worldview is called "Xi Thought" in this book. Xi has cemented his Thought (what we in the West call doctrine) as the new state ideology. After having the party rescind the limit of two 5-year terms for the top leader, he began his third term in 2022, essentially making him leader for life.
Xi dreams of replacing the American-dominated world order with a Sino-centric order in which China has resumed its rightful place as the top country in terms of power, wealth, advancement, civilization, and benevolence. Any alternative vision or history is banned. Collective leadership at the top has been transformed into an echo chamber. Party members are required to study Xi Thought on a daily basis, using an app. Xi Thought is also fully integrated into China's education system.
Xi views his Thought, strongly influenced by Mao Zedong Thought, as "China Dream of National Rejuvenation," a "Make China Great Again" vision, to be realized by 2050. He sees no reason for China not being the world's leading power, given its glorious history and record of successes. In Xi's telling, a point of pride for China is that it has never invaded another country, a demonstrably-false claim.
Fighting corruption is one of the main tenets of Xi Thought. When he took over in 2012, corruption was rampant. Party leaders had lost ideological conviction, had their individual fiefdoms, and were pursuing their private interests. For China's problems, Xi blames both the West and the prior leaders' opening up policies.
The authors have used Xi's speeches, writings, and issued policies to conceptualize Xi's vision independently of narratives provided by the Chinese Communist Party or other official sources in China. For example, Xi deems loyalty to China, to the Communist Party, and to him as being one and the same. He has upended the communism principle of rule by a committee of equals to place himself on top of a hierarchy that is not allowed by communism.
Both the writing of the book and narration of the audio version are dry and uninspiring. Perhaps this dryness is inevitable for a book derived from speeches, writings, and policies, rather than from insider accounts and personal interviews. But the latter style would be quite impractical in the case of the Chinese leader.

2024/08/02 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet. Getting rid of prickles in plants (cover image of 'Science' magazine) Stealing the customer's time, a few seconds at a time
Cover image of Ananka Harris' 'Conscious' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Getting rid of prickles in plants (see the next item below). [Center] Stealing the customer's time, bit by bit (see item 3 below). [Right] Ananka Harris' Conscious (see the last item below).
(2) Do you want to forget Anne Bronte's musing, "he that dare not grasp the thorn / should never crave the rose"? Are you tired of waiting for love to turn the thorns into flowers, as Mowlavi/Rumi suggested?
Welcome to the age of gene editing! You can get rid of the prickles (the correct word for thorns) altogether and have flowers only: Pure, beautiful flowers! From an evolutionary standpoint, prickles serve to defend a plant against herbivores.
According to an article by Elizabeth A. Kellogg in the August 2, 2024, issue of Science, "Plant prickles are controlled by genes involved in the final step of cytokinin biosynthesis."
From another article by Satterlee et al., we learn that "homologous genes control prickle formation in all of these species [that have prickles]," providing an answer to the question of how similar features are developed on unrelated organisms.
(3) Time-wasting steps in stores and on-line: Lately, one has to answer a few questions on the grocery-store keypad, before being allowed to proceed with payment. Charity round-ups and other donations are the usual culprits. If I want to help a charity, I will do it at the time and in the amount of my choosing. A random few cents isn't my idea of helping.
The situation is worse on-line. You want to do on-line banking? First, you have to read ads about special offers, then scroll to the bottom of the ad, before you are allowed to do your business. On-line message in-boxes, which are intended for urgent messages/alerts to customers, are routinely filled with ads and offers.
I often complain to merchants who waste my time in this way, but the complaint seldom results in changes. Taking your business elsewhere is the only way to get back at such merchants.
(4) Book review: Harris, Annaka, Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind, HarperCollins, 2019. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Science writer Annaka Harris, who happens to be the spouse of Sam Harris, focuses on neuroscience and physics. In this 130-page gem of a book, Harris does a phenomenal job of exposing the mysteries of the mind, consciousness, and free will. She doesn't waste any time before attempting to define consciousness, quoting Thomas Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?":
"An organism is conscious if there is something that it is like to be that organism."
Now considering the spectrum of organisms "bacterium, oak tree, worm, ant, mouse, dog, human" at some point along the sequence, the answer to the question "Is there something that it is like to be that organism" turns from "no" to "yes." The question that has occupied us for centuries is why the light turns on for some collections of matter in the universe but not for others.
Harris takes her working definition of consciousness and runs with it to discuss intuitions and illusions (Chapter 2), our brain being free when it decides to act in a certain way based on inputs received but the case for conscious free will being more shaky (Chapter 3), how the way certain parasites that affect the behavior of their hosts turn our intuition of free will upside-down (Chapter 4), who we are, or the notion of "self" (Chapter 5), whether consciousness is everywhere, referred to as panpsychism, and not a property of only certain collections of matter (Chapter 6), whether consciousness exists without thinking or even any inputs to our brain (Chapter 7), and the relationship between the mystery of consciousness and the mystery of time (Chapter 8).
Time sits squarely at the center of most physical mysteries, including consciousness. The two views of time are known as presentism (only the present is real and the perceived one-way movement of time is an illusion) and eternalism (just because we are at a certain instant of time doesn't mean that other instants do not exist). "As we continue to look out from our planet and contemplate the nature of reality, we should remember that there is a mystery right here where we stand." [the book's final sentence, p. 110]

2024/08/01 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Soccer star Nadia Nadim Swiss Army Knife is a well-built, versatile tool that is appreciated worldwide Misogyny or stupidity? You decide! (1) Images of the day: [Left] Soccer star Nadia Nadim (see the next item below). [Center] Swiss Army Knife is a well-built, versatile tool that is appreciated worldwide (NYT ad). [Right] Misogyny or stupidity? You decide!
(2) Nadia Nadim, a role model, and not just for girls: Her father was killed by the Taliban when she was 11 and her family fled Afghanistan in the back of a truck. Nadia has scored nearly 200 goals in professional soccer and represented the Danish national team on 98 occasions. She has finished medical school and is studying to become a reconstructive surgeon when her playing days are over. She speaks 11 languages fluently and is on the Forbes list of the most powerful women in international sports.
(3) The latest in an ever-changing explanation: Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader assassinated in Tehran, was killed by a remotely-controlled bomb smuggled into his guesthouse months ago. [NYT]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Four US nationals were released by Russia in a massive deal involving 7 countries and 24 prisoners.
- Someone sign up Trump for a course on race: A person can be both Indian-American & African-American.
- Midtown Manhattan 23-story office building, sold for $332M in 2006, changed hands again for $8.5M.
- Agnotology: Study of deliberate, culturally-induced ignorance, typically to sell a product or influence opinion.
(5) Agnoiology: Theoretical study of the quality and conditions of ignorance, and in particular of what can truly be considered "unknowable" (as distinct from "unknown"). The term was coined by James Frederick Ferrier, in his Institutes of Metaphysic (1854), as a foil to the theory of knowledge, or epistemology.
(6) What's wrong with our justice system? In a deal with the US government, the 9/11 mastermind and two associates plead guilty in exchange for removing the death penalty from consideration. Why this deal now, 23 years after the crime? Why haven't these despicable criminals been tried already? I am against the death penalty, but if it is still an option in the US, why remove it from consideration in the most atrocious crime ever?

2024/07/31 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
US women gymnasts earn gold, while Simone Biles establishes herself as the best-ever by earning her 10th individual title Math puzzle: In this diagram, featuring a rectangle of side lengths a & b and a semicircle, find the height h in terms of a and b Cover image of Steven Pinker's 'The Stuff of Thought' (1) Images of the day: [Left] US women gymnasts earn gold, while Simone Biles establishes herself as the best-ever by earning her 10th individual title. [Center] Math puzzle: In this diagram, featuring a rectangle of side lengths a & b and a semicircle, find the height h in terms of a and b. [Right] Steven Pinker's The Stuff of Thought (see the last item below).
(2) Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Tehran: His death has been confirmed by multiple sources inside & outside Iran. Earlier on Tuesday, Haniyeh had attended the inauguration of Iran's new president and met Iran's Supreme Leader.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Meta pays $1.4 billion to settle a Texas lawsuit alleging abuse of users' biometric data.
- Elon Musk's retweet of an altered Kamala Harris video is viewed 120 million times.
(4) Book review: Pinker, Steven, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by Dean Olsher, Penguin Audio, 2007.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, conducts research on language, cognition, and social relations. He has been the subject of controversies over his sociopolitical views, including musings about progressives who don't believe in progress and the claim that racist attitudes in the US declined during the Trump regime. However, none of these detracts from my respect for him as a scientist.
Having recently read linguist Amanda Montell's Wordslut (my review), a condemnation of language's role in oppressing women and treating them as social miscreants (e.g., via the usage of the words "slut" and "bitch"), I jumped at the chance of reading Pinker's broader study of language as a window into human nature. Pinker's eloquence is on full display in this wonderful book.
Pinker theorizes that language functions at two levels at all times. Using the example "If you could pass the salt, that would be great," he points to a dilemma faced by the requester, who does not want to be seen as ordering people around while also wanting to have them pass the salt; hence, the polite non-request in lieu of a direct request. I would add to Pinker's two levels a third level known as "doublespeak": The use of language to deceive, control, and oppress.
Pinker's The Stuff of Thought overlaps with Montell's Wordslut when he discusses the syntax of swearing and swear words in the chapter "The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" (Pinker later published a book by this title). Why we swear, how taboos change over time, and how we use obscenities in different ways, are among the fascinating questions addressed in this chapter. Why do so many swear words involve sex, bodily functions, and religion? Why would a democracy deter the use of words for two activities, sex and excretion, that harm no one?
There is a lot more in Pinker's tour de force. Our use of prepositions & tenses taps into the human concepts of space and time, and our nouns & verbs speak to our notions of matter. Even how we name our babies has important things to say about our relations to our children and to society.
I highly recommend this brilliantly-crafted and highly readable book to anyone who is curious about the development of language and how it is driven by and mirrors human nature.

2024/07/30 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover feature of Sciecne magazine on air pollution Gender equality is finally achieved at the 2024 Olympics Cover image of Emily Nussbaum's 'Cue the Sun' (1) Images of the day: [left] Cover feature of Sciecne magazine on air pollution (see the next item below). [Center] Gender equality is finally achieved at the 2024 Olympics. [Right] Emily Nussbaum's Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV (see the last item below).
(2) From Science magazine's special section on air pollution: "Air is an essential but invisible resource. When we notice it, it is usually because of suspended dust, smoke, ash, or haze. Such particulates—along with harmful gases, chemical vapors, and suspended biological agents—constitute air pollution. The health and environmental effects of exposure to air pollutants have long been apparent and are now increasingly well documented in terms of overall life expectancy as well as incidence of asthma, cancer, and cardiopulmonary disease." [Issue of July 26, 2024]
(3) Book review: Nussbaum, Emily, Cue the Sun: The Invention of Reality TV, unabridged 15-hour audiobook, read by Gabra Zackman, Random House Audio, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Described derisively as "dirty documentaries" and flatteringly as "unscripted series," reality TV shows are much older than most people think. Besides game shows, which go way back, an early program in the genre was "Candid Camera," which recorded behaviors and reactions of unsuspecting observers of peculiar, artificially-created events for comic effect. The program had radio roots in "The Candid Microphone," also created and hosted by Allen Funt.
The modern embodiments of the genre range from low-budget program fillers to megahits such as "Survivor," "Big Brother," and "The Bachelor." The shows elicit reactions from contempt to fascination, sometimes both at the same time. Many audience members watch them while holding their noses. Some of the most-successful embodiments of the genre use conflict and embarrassment as tools to create situations that draw in audiences, who are sometimes conflicted and/or embarrassed to watch.
With the exception of "Candid Camera" and a few competition programs, such as "American Idol," I had little interest in reality TV, so I was drawn to this book to learn what all the fuss was about. I was surprised to find out that early interest in reality TV was in part motivated by making the networks' programming strike-proof.
Nussbaum covers much ground in the first 12 chapters:
- The Reveal: Queen for a Day and Candid Camera
- The Gong: The Filthy, Farkakte Chuck Barris 1970s
- The Betrayal: An American Family
- The Clip: America's Funniest Home Videos and Cops
- The House: The Real World
- The Con: The Nihilistic Fox '90s
- The Game: The Invention of Survivor (and Mark Burnett)
- The Island: Survivor: Borneo
- The Feed: Big Brother
- The Explosion: Reality Blows Up and Becomes an Industry
- The Rose: The Bachelor and Joe Millionaire
- The Wink: Bravo and the Gentrification of Reality TV
Given Donald Trump's rise to the US presidency owing, in large part, to his reality NBC show "The Apprentice," Nussbaum had really no choice but to include him in the narrative, which she does in the final Chapter 13. "Taking a failed tycoon who was heavily in hock and too risky for almost any bank to lend to, a crude, impulsive, bigoted, multiply-bankrupt ignoramus, a sexual predator so reckless he openly harassed women on his show, then finding a way to make him look attractive enough to elect as president of the United States? That was a coup, even if no one could brag about it."

2024/07/29 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Let's keep the plight of Iranian women in our hearts and minds: Meme 2 Let's keep the plight of Iranian women in our hearts and minds: Meme 1 Celebrating its 100th year, Santa Barbara's Old Spanish Days (Fiesta) is a tradition that honors the city's history, spirit, culture, heritage, & traditions (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Let's keep the plight of Iranian women in our hearts and minds, as we are distracted by a steady stream of news about the ongoing Gaza war, US elections, and Paris Olympics. [Right] Fiesta Centennial: Celebrating its 100th year, Old Spanish Days (Fiesta) in Santa Barbara is a tradition that honors the city's history, spirit, culture, heritage, and traditions. The annual five-day festival takes place this year from July 31 to August 4, 2024.
(2) A rocket fired from Lebanon kills a dozen children playing in Golan Heights soccer field: Overall, 30 children were transported to hospitals. Evidence points to Iranian-made rockets of Hezbollah.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- President Biden commemorated the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act at the LBJ Presidential Library.
- J. D. Vance's musings on family & raising children are hypocritical in view of his own family background.
- Canada's women's Olympics soccer coach/team penalized for spying on rivals with a drone.
- Comic legend Bob Newhart accepts the 2002 Mark Twain Prize for comedy.
- Vance-ing Queen: ABBA song politicized!
- Facebook memory from July 29, 2012: "Keep your words sweet. Someday you may have to eat them."
- Facebook memory from July 29, 2010: A Persian couplet from Abou-Saeid Abolkheir.
(4) Women's Olympics soccer: After starting somewhat shaky and escaping a near-fatal defensive mistake, the US women scored first, with Germany evening up the match at 1-1 midway through the first half. USA responded minutes later to take the lead, adding another goal for a 3-1 advantage at halftime.
Play in the first 30 minutes of the second half was sloppy, with Germany having more scoring chances. After some back-and-forth, Williams scored a goal near the end of the match (89') to cement the impressive 4-1 US victory. The other three US goals were by Swanson (26') and Smith (10', 44').
(6) Milestone for Ottawa's Persian-language radio program: Congratulations to Mr. Mehdi Fallahi and his collaborators, who are celebrating 23 years on the air and 1200th episode for their Namaashoum program. Monday, August 5, 2024, 7:00-9:00 PM on CKCU 93.1 FM, website, or Telegram channel.

2024/07/28 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Earth image, captured by Japan's iSpace HAKUTO-R lunar lander during a recent solar eclipse A work by Shamsia Hassani, lecturer in fine arts and Afghanistan's first known graffiti artist Cover image of Stephen Hawking's 'The Universe in a Nutshell' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Earth image, captured by Japan's iSpace HAKUTO-R lunar lander during a recent solar eclipse. [Center] A work by Shamsia Hassani, lecturer in fine arts and first known Afghan graffiti artist. [Right] Stephen Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell (see the last item below).
(2) Applying the "duck test": If he doesn't live like a Christian, doesn't act like a Christian, and doesn't talk like a Christian, then he probably isn't a Christian!
(3) When US-led economic sanctions crushed Syria's elite, they maintained their grip on power through a multibillion-dollar illicit drug industry.
(4) Trump thinks that voting is a nuisance: He urges his "beautiful Christians" to get out and vote just this one time, because if he is elected, he will fix the system so that they don't have to vote ever again.
(5) I am so proud of my daugther who spent Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles to participate in an event to help people with various disabilities enjoy paddle-boarding & other water activities.
(6) Billy Joel bids farewell to Madison Square Garden: Over the last 10 years, Joel, 75, has performed his classic '70s & '80s hits at MSG; a run of 104 shows, with 2 million attendees and $260+ million ticket sales.
(7) Book review: Hawking, Stephen, The Universe in a Nutshell, unabridged 3-hour audiobook, read by Simon Prebble, Random House Audio, 2001. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Hawking considers this book a sequel to A Brief History of Time, a hugely successful science book that sold a copy for every 750 Earth inhabitants and was translated into dozens of languages. The Universe in a Nutshell aims to update the public about developments since the 1988 book was published. Summaries of the book's 7 chapters follow.
Chapter 1 offers simplified explanations of Einstein's Special/General Theory of Relativity, which form the bases of almost all modern concepts of our universe.
Chapter 2 uses Einstein's theories and some of Hawking's own groundbreaking work to show how time can come to a stop when mass collapses to super-density.
Chapter 3 uses Einstein's theories and quantum mechanics to view the universe as a set of different "histories," and discusses the ongoing work on a unified theory.
Chapter 4 considers time and the possibility of looking forward into the future, suggesting that black holes might destroy the info we try to glean about the future.
Chapter 5 notes that even though a sufficiently advanced civilization should be able to visit the past, tiny success probabilities make this feat practically impossible.
Chapter 6 theorizes that ever-increasing speed of technological and biological advancements will make future humans orders-of-magnitude more complex than us.
Chapter 7 updates the so-called "string theory" with "p-brane" theory, which includes the disturbing possibility that our entire universe is just a hologram.

2024/07/27 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The 2024 Paris Olympics begins with a fanfare. And, of course, the Eiffel Tower must feature prominently in any Paris-Olympics story! New Yorker cartoon: New Olympics sports for a much hotter world that awaits us Some science humor!
English lecture and Persian poetry-reading by Iranian author/poet Moniro Ravanipour (1) Images of the day: [Top left] The 2024 Paris Olympics begins with a fanfare. And, of course, the Eiffel Tower must feature prominently in any Paris-Olympics story! [Top center] New Yorker cartoon of the day: New Olympics sports for a much hotter world that awaits us owing to climate change. [Top right] Science humor! [Bottom left] English lecture and Persian poetry-reading by Iranian author/poet Moniro Ravanipour (see the next item below). [Bottom center & right] Talk on history of feminism (see the last item below).
(2) "The Story of Memories: Against Silence and Oblivion": This was the title of yesterday's talk by Iranian author & poet Moniro Ravanipour, delivered as the 2024 Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Distinguished Lecture. Following the English lecture, the program consisted of an interlude with musical performance, Persian poetry-reading from the new book Give Me a Piece of Autumn, another musical performance, and closing remarks.
A recording of the program will likely appear on the Elahe Omidyar Mir-Djalali Institute Web site.
Here is a 2020 talk by Ravanipour on roughly the same subject.
Interestingly, Ravanipour, who is one of the most-important contemporary Persian authors/poets, did not start writing until after Iran's Islamic Revolution.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Something beautiful to start the weekend with: Vivaldi "Storm," by two accordionists.
- In Santa Barbara, Cox Cable covers some Olympics events on Channels 618 (PARS1) and 619 (PARS2).
- Olympics men's soccer: France got a big scare from Guinea, before finally scoring in the 75th minute.
- In Olympics men's soccer, Iraq withstood Argentina's attacks for 2/3 of the game, but eventually fell 1-3.
(4) "History of Feminism: Developments Along the Path of Acquiring Human Rights for Women": This was the tile of a comprehensive talk by Ms. Mitra Zaimi (computer specialist & social activist) as part of the UCLA Salamat group (ucsalamat.net/) Zoom meeting series, offered in conjunction with the Human Foundation (bonyad-ensan.com). There were ~50 attendees.
Ms. Zaimi began by reviewing the four waves of feminism, emerging shortly after the French Revolution, in which women played a big part.
First Wave: 1800s-1920s
Second Wave: 1960s-1970s
Third Wave: 1990s-now
Fourth Wave: 2010s-now
For each of the four waves of feminism, Ms. Zaimi presented key sources/events (e.g., books/thinkers) that drove the movement.
The word "feminism," which had been used pejoratively to refer to men who were not viewed as being sufficiently masculine, assumed its modern meaning in 1948.
In the second part of her talk, Ms. Zaimi focused on women's movements in Iran, discussing among other thigs, the role of women in ancient Persia, struggles over voting rights, religious fundamentalism that led to numerous misogynistic laws and many campaigns that oppose them.

2024/07/26 (Friday): Today, I write about a 2-day educational/training retreat I attened in Malibu.
NAMI Certificate of Achievement With my two teachers after a two-day training in Malibu
Proud to announce my election as a Fellow of Industry Academy of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (1) Reflections on a teacher-training retreat in Malibu, California: I have been involved with NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) for several months now. NAMI strives to create a better tomorrow where all people affected by mental illness can experience hope, recovery, and wellness in a world free of stigma.
Following my attendance at a NAMI Family-to-Family class, I volunteered and was chosen to attend a 2-day training program for individuals who want to help by leading Family-to-Family classes. The training program was held Wed.-Thu., July 24-25, 2024, at Serra Retreat, in the beautiful hills of Malibu, California. The Retreat is at the site of an old mansion which was purchased by a religious organization and dedicated to use as a retreat center for various groups.
The 2-day program was packed with advice on how to conduct a course, how to avoid giving misleading information by strictly following the content guidelines, how to monitor class participants for signs of distress, and how to deal with disruptions and emergencies.
(2) On scaling up efforts to spread public awareness of mental illness: Much has been written about the sorry state of mental healthcare in the US. Despite some improvement due to efforts of National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), of which I am a member and a volunteer, and similar organizations, lack of public awareness of various diagnoses and the associated social stigma persists. NAMI has educational programs that raise public awareness and provide tools for family members impacted by the illness of a loved one to help them in navigating mental-health services and understanding the range of diagnoses and treatment options.
I recently read the book The Genius of Israel, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, which is about the remarkable social resilience of the small nation, which remains happy and optimistic in the face of internal challenges and external threats. Though not a sequel to Start-Up Nation by the same authors, the book discusses the same kinds of innovative approaches to solving tough problems.
One aspect that caught my eye is Israel's outsize film and TV industries, despite the miniscule market for films in Hebrew. For example, the highly successful American series "Homeland" was adapted from the Israeli series "Prisoners of War." An Israeli TV series that is relevant to my topic here portrays a psychologist who treats patients at his clinic five days a week and then seeks psychological treatment for himself. A similar US series would go a long way toward scaling up efforts to spread public knowledge about mental illness and confronting the stigma that comes with lack of awareness.

2024/07/25 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Street photographers in Mashhad, Iran (1949), looking for customers among pilgrims New Yorker cartoon: 'Yeah, tell the boss we found them' Fereydoon Farrokhzad's grave site in Bonn, bearing a verse of the poem he had composed for his tombstone
The beauty of symmetric patterns: Sample 1 The beauty of symmetric patterns: Sample 2 Cover image of Dominic Erdozain's 'One Nation Under Guns' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: Street photographers in Mashhad, Iran (ca. 1949), looking for customers among pilgrims. [top center] New Yorker cartoon of the day: "Yeah, tell the boss we found them." [Top right] Singer/showman/poet Fereydoon Farrokhzad, who was assassinated by Khamenei's agents in 1992, is buried in Bonn, with his grave site bearing a verse of a longer poem he had composed for his tombstone. [Bottom left & center] Just a couple of beautiful symmetric patterns. [Bottom right] Dominic Erdozain's One Nation Under Guns (see the last item below).
(2) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Let the race begin: Will America choose a sex offender or a former prosecutor who convicted sex offenders?
- Following Biden's withdrawal, Trump's age and health are under renewed scrutiny. [Washington Post]
- Trump uses the nickname "Lyin' Kamala" for his new election rival: That's rich, coming from Liar-in-Chief!
- The tables have turned: Trump is now the oldest presidential nominee in US history!
- They're attacking Harris for being childless: Imagine the attacks if she had 5 kids by 3 different husbands!
- UCSB Library has acquired the papers of Nobel Laureate and ECE professor Herbert Kroemer (1928–2024).
(3) Book review: Erdozain, Dominic, One Nation Under Guns: How Gun Culture Destroys Our History and Threatens Our Democracy, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by Dan Bittner, Random House Audio, 2024.
[My 5-star review of this book on Goodreads]
This is a book about how the Second Amendment to the US Constitution was distorted into a guarantee for an individual right to bear arms. "There is no mystery to the Second Amendment. The mystery is how one part of America convinced itself that privately-held guns were the foundations of democracy and how everyone else was bullied into acquiescence."
The cost of unchecked gun ownership isn't limited to the 100+ lives lost daily to gun violence, which is already too high. It also includes social anxiety and the fear of public spaces, which are anathema to the notion of freedom. Instead of asking fundamental questions about the place of guns in our society, we are entangled in secondary notions of background checks and banning certain types of ammunition and some classes of high-power weapons.
Historian Erdozain traces the roots of the gun culture to racism and nationalism, which created a rogue and reckless freedom based on birth and blood; a far cry from the liberty promised by our Constitution. The simplistic view of our society being composed of good guys and bad guys, with good guys needing arms to defend themselves against bad guys, is one of the contributing factors. The good guys are thought to be pure and angelic, and they will use their guns to defend the society against the bad guys. This myth has been busted time and again by stats that show the vast majority of gun deaths are not caused by crazy mass-shooters but by the "good guys" who commit errors, are enraged by romantic conflicts, or lose it after too many drinks. Under our gun culture, the most-dangerous room in a house is the bedroom!
In our gun culture, self-righteous "good guys" often act as police officers, judges, juries, and executioners. Stats also show that a tiny fraction of gun deaths are due to a good guy taking on a bad guy in self-defense or in defense of others. By 2008, when the US Supreme Court reinvented the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller, most American had already acceded to the notion of an armed society. Saving our democracy requires that we go back to the founders' ideas of what it means to be free.

2024/07/23 (Tuesday): Today, I present reviews of two books on US politics, plus an interesting image.
Cover image of Clay Cane's 'The Grift' Thirteen pictures of the sun, each month, same place, same time Cover image of 'The Situation Room,' by George Stephanopoulos and Lisa Dickey (1) Images of the day: [Left] Clay Cane's The Grift (see the next item below). [Center] Thirteen pictures of the sun, each month, same place, same time. [Right] The Situation Room, by George Stephanopoulos and Lisa Dickey (see the last item below).
(2) Book review: Cane, Clay, The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by the author, Recorded Books, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book is an assault on Black politicians who have accepted the Republican Party's priorities and policies, many of them going as far as becoming full-blown Trump supporters. They are tolerated within the GOP, as long as they know their place and do not rock the boat. Often, they are discarded like used tissues, once they have outlived their usefulness to the Party. Such Black politicians are described as grifters, enriching themselves and/or gaining political power at the expense of average Black Americans and other disadvantaged groups.
A notable example of such grifters is South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who earned a mere 8% of the Black vote in his home state in 2016. Other prominent examples are Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, HUD Secretary Ben Carlson, and White House Aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, the latter now having turned on Trump. A notable common trait of these grifters is that they do very little to lift Blacks out of the vicious cycle of poverty, because they assert that racism no longer exists in the US. Even worse, having benefited from Affirmative Action programs and other assistance, they try to deny the same benefits to Blacks and other marginalized groups.
Cane does mention a few Blacks who did not sell out and were thus sidelined by the GOP. Notable examples include Will Hurd, a former Texas Representative & CIA agent, and Michael Steele, 2009-2011 Chair of the Republican Nat'l Committee, who withdrew from his 2011 re-election bid after it became clear that he'd lose.
(3) Book review: Stephanopoulos, George and Lisa Dickey, The Situation Room: The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis, unabridged 10-hour audiobook, read by the author, Peter Ganim, and Elisabeth Rodgers, Grand Central Publishing, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This book offers a look at the recent history of the United States, as viewed from the Situation Room (Sit Room) in the White House. The writing is fast-paced and engaging. Stephanopoulos had a ring-side seat at the White House or good access to sources of information for the latter part of this history. He also does a good job in reconstructing the early part of the history, particularly the Iran hostage crisis, which occupied Jimmy Carter for a good part of his presidency.
Other crises covered in the book include the Bay of Pigs fiasco (JFK), catastrophic exit from Vietnam (LBJ), the Iran-Contra affair & attempted assassination (Ronald Reagan), collapse of the Soviet Union (George H. W. Bush), the Watergate affair (Richard Nixon), September 11, 2001, terror attacks (George W. Bush), operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden (Barack Obama), January 6, 2021, insurrection (Donald Trump), and withdrawal from Afghanistan (Joe Biden).
The Sit Room was established in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs fiasco in order to improve communications and advice-seeking in the White House. Originally, it was a drab, rather boring place, with very limited space and technical capabilities. Over the years, it underwent many modifications, renovations, and expansions, until it featured multiple conference rooms and real-time video feed by the time the operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden took place. As significant renovations took place, relics from the old Sit Room were installed in various presidential libraries.
The Sit Room boasts many non-partisan staffers working under multiple administrations, without whose dedication and expertise the US President would not be able to function effectively.

2024/07/22 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A supposedly primitive culture carved hundreds of large stones in the shape of perfect spheres some 1400 years ago in a remote region of Costa Rica Beautiful geometric symmetries The new likely Democratic presidential candidate has my full support: Let's brace for racist and misogynistic attacks! (1) Images of the day: [Left] A primitive culture carved hundreds of large stones in the shape of perfect spheres some 1400 years ago in a remote region of Costa Rica. [Center] Beautiful geometric symmetries. [Right] I support the new likely Democratic presidential candidate: Bracing for racist & misogynistic attacks!
(2) Words of wisdom: Once you hit a certain age, life becomes a delicate balance between staying awake and falling asleep, while slowly getting worse at both.
(3) Bangladesh follows in the footsteps of Iran: Street protests against new discriminatory hiring practices in the public sector have led to hundreds of deaths and Internet service disconnection.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Joe Biden announces an end to his presidential campaign and endorses VP Kamala Harris.
- The Republicans are really scared of Kamala Harris. They plan to ask the courts to invalidate her candidacy.
- China least-impacted by Microsoft/CrowdStrike outage: Little reliance on Microsoft or security software.
- Scientists race to explain the Curiosity Rover's discovery of pure sulfur on the Martian surface.
- Colorful street canopy in Malaga, created by Spanish crochet teacher Eva Pacheco and her students.
(5) After sabotaging several Democratic bills in the Senate and leaving the party, Joe Manchin says he's considering re-registering as a Democrat and running for president.
(6) The statutory retirement age in the US is 66 or 67: That's higher than the age in all but 9 countries. The global median is 61. [Washington Post]
(7) Do Iranians really want to support those shouting "long live the king/prince" or prefer the chants "long live Iran" & "long live the Iranian nation"? Do we want to overthrow one idol & replace him with another one?
(8) Which kind of president do we want: One who quits his re-election bid for the good of the country or one who threatens a civil war if he isn't elected?

2024/07/20 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The first Moon landing by humans  occurred 55 years ago, on July 20, 1969 The red you see in this image is an illusion: The image is made entirely of blue-green, black, and white 70th Anniversary of Boeing 367-80, which later entered production as the iconic Boeing 707 (1) Images of the day: [Left] The first Moon landing by humans occurred 55 years ago, on July 20, 1969. [Center] The red you see in this image is an illusion: The image is made entirely of blue-green, black, and white. [Right] 70th Anniversary of Boeing 367-80: It came to revolutionize commercial air transport, when its production version entered service as the iconic Boeing 707, America's first jet airliner.
(2) The importance of data longevity and compatibility: NSA has lost access to a 1982 recorded lecture by Grace Hopper, because it is in a format that NSA no longer has the ability to view or digitize. I wrote about such problems in an article published in the 2019 Encyclopedia of Big Data Technologies.
(3) RNC speeches reassured the working class that the GOP cares about them: Yet not one Republican in Congress supports raising the minimum wage and 90% support cuts in social security benefits. [Tweet]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Banks, airlines, and other businesses experience global outages due to a Microsoft Windows update.
- Efforts to make digital accessibility rules part of the Americans with Disabilities Act pick up steam.
- Female law professor dismissed from her university position in Iran via a text message.
- Pat Craig (aka modern-day Noah) is the go-to guy when animals are threatened by neglect or disaster.
- Bob Marley, Saudi style! [Video]
- Poorly-maintained private road within UCSB property, featuring a totally-faded stop sign. [Photos]
(5) Classy: Last night, Donald Trump's acceptance of his nomination at RNC will be preceded by Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan and the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
(6) Contemporary Iranian history: Abbas Milani's exploration (in Persian) of the relationship between the two Pahlavi monarchs, based on 156 letters that the prince wrote to his father. A ChatGPT-produced English translation is also available. [Right] The first Moon landing by humans occurred 55 years ago, on July 20, 1969.
(7) Final thought for the day: I am really disappointed with Joe Biden, whom I have strongly supported. He is behaving as if he is entitled to the nomination rather than think about our country's future.

2024/07/18 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Taxi-meter that was used in Iran some six decades ago Math puzzle: What fraction of the square's area is shaded Orange? Cartoon: When engineers graduate! (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: Taxi-meter that was used in Iran some six decades ago. [Center] Math puzzle: What fraction of the square's area is shaded Orange? [Right] Cartoon of the day: When engineers graduate!
(2) Comedian Bob Newhart dead at 94: He had a couple of TV sitcoms and a number of funny routines in which he talked over the phone to another side whom you did not hear or see. Here is an example of Newhart, playing the role of an IBM employee, talking to Herman Hollerith about his punched cards.
(3) Circumventing sanctions: As airlines try to offload their Airbus A340 planes due to their excessive fuel consumption, Iran's IRGC is purchasing them for use by its Mahan Airlines, the largest in Iran, through shell companies it set up throughout the world. Over the past decade, IRGC has purchased 20 wide-body jets, diverting some of them to Syria and Venezuela. The US Treasury Department has apparently turned a blind eye to these violations.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Here is what Republicans really think of Donald Trump (Ted Cruz): Pay no attention to RNC speeches.
- Here is what Republicans really think of Donald Trump (Marco Rubio): Pay no attention to RNC speeches.
- J. D. Vance, Trump's VP pick, several years ago: "Trump could be America's Hitler."
- Let's stop talking about miracles & God's will: Talk about sensible gun laws & a ban on assault rifles instead.
- Facebook memory form July 18, 2016: My Persian quatrains inspired by a Mowlavi (Rumi) poem.
(5) Fact check: Multiple RNC speakers claimed that crime in the US is rising because of illegal immigrants. In reality, US crime rate is declining & immigrants commit fewer crimes than US citizens.
(6) Nikki Haley endorsed the guy who she swore to her donors was unfit & couldn't be trusted. No character! No morals! No courage! She probably expects a cabinet position in return. I really hope she doesn't get it.
(7) On the Republican VP nominee, J. D. Vance: He built his reputation on being from Appalachia, the forgotten area of the US. I read and reviewed his book, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Now, there is an essay by someone from Appalachia who claims J. D. Vance does not represent him. Black folks don't exist in his narrative. Queer folks don't exist in his narrative. "He is white, Christian, and has longstanding generational ties to the region. I, on the other hand, am south Asian, the child of Indian immigrants who settled in Appalachia in the 1970s, because work in the chemical industry brought them there, and left in the early 2000s, because work disappeared. … My friends with generational ties to Appalachia experienced the book much as I did. They felt misrepresented. Misunderstood. Scapegoated for the result of the 2016 election. Many wrote pieces in direct response. Elizabeth Catte's What You're Getting Wrong About Appalachia is an absolute must-read in this regard."

2024/07/17 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Proud to announce my election as a Fellow of Industry Academy of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance IEEE Central Coast Section talk by Dr. Maryam Majedi (1) Images of the day: [Left] Proud to announce my election as a Fellow of Industry Academy of the Int'l Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance. [Right] IEEE Central Coast Section talk (see the last item below).
(2) Women's soccer match (USA 0-0 Costa Rica): US dominated both halves of play, including taking 16+ corner kicks, with no goal to show for it. There were plenty of scoring opportunities for the US, but the team just didn't have the scoring instinct to convert the chances to goals. Hope they play better at the Olympics.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Judge Eileen Cannon dismisses the mishandling of classified documents case against Donald Trump.
- Trump's would-be assassin rushed his shots, because a security officer was already on the roof where he was.
- Trump turning his head to point to a sign saved his life: It caused the bullet to hit his ear, not his head.
- Argentina pulls out tough 1-0 overtime victory over Colombia to become Copa America champion.
- Spain beats England 2-1 to claim the 2024 European championship for an unprecedented fourth time.
(4) Friendly women's soccer match: USA played against Costa Rica. Dominating both halves of play, including taking 16+ corner kicks, with no goal to show for their efforts. There were plenty of scoring opportunities for the US, but the team just didn't have the scoring instinct to convert the chances to goals. Hope they play better at the Olympics.
(5) Tonight's IEEE Central Coast Section talk: Dr. Maryam Majedi (UCSB CS) spoke under the title "A Taxonomy for LGBTQIA+ Inclusion in Social Media Platforms."
Within a couple of decades of the Internet becoming public, its use turned from a nicety to a necessity. Being able to participate in Internet exchanges must now be viewed as a right, not a privilege. And with rights come protections. Rising anti-LGBTQIA+ violence in the online environment makes the aforementioned protections vital. Unfortunately, systematic implementation of inclusion across these platforms is a highly understudied subject. Dr. Majedi and co-workers have analyzed a corpus of psychology and computer science literature to identify different dimensions of LGBTQIA+ inclusion, introducing a taxonomy that includes three orthogonal dimensions within a social media ecosystem. Based on the taxonomy, an inclusion map has been constructed which defines the borders of disjoint regions in the continuous inclusion space. The taxonomy has been applied to 14 popular platforms to visualize where each platform lands on this map. The study reveals that only a small fraction of the studied popular platforms is completely inclusive. Most of these platforms lack implementation measures for at least one of the three identified inclusion dimensions. The study highlights areas within each platform that need improvement and allows LGBTQIA+ community members to make informed decisions when choosing platforms.

2024/07/15 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
NYT presidential poll: If Kamala Harris becomes a candidate, she will do better than Biden against Trump among women and under-65 voters and a tad worse among senior citizens The 2024 US election will be important for women and seniors, given changes proposed in Project 2025 'Game of Life' animatio (1) Images of the day: [Left] Latest NYT presidential poll: If Kamala Harris becomes a candidate, she will do better than Biden against Trump among women and under-65 voters and a tad worse among senior citizens. A caveat is that Harris has not been in the spotlight in the sense of being tested in debates or subjected to negative attacks. [Center] The 2024 US election will be important for women and seniors, given changes proposed in Project 2025. [Right] "Game of Life" animation (see the next item below).
(2) Conway's "Game of Life" (a cellular automaton): In this 0-player game, the universe is modeled as an infinite 2D grid of square cells, with each cell being alive or dead. A dead cell will come alive in the next time step if it has exactly 3 live neighbors. Otherwise, it will remain dead. A live cell will die of loneliness if it has 0-1 live neighbors. It will die of overcrowding it it has 4-8 live neighbors. Otherwise (with 2 or 3 live neighbors), it will survive through the next time step. The game starts from an initial "seed" distribution of live and dead cells at time 0 and will proceed through "generations" autonomously. Very interesting patterns of life will emerge depending on the grid's initial condition.
A simple introduction to "Game of Life" [6-minute video].
On this page you will find some simple animations. [Wikipedia page]
A few mind-boggling animations [7-minute video].
John Conway reflects on his "Game of Life" [11-minute video].
A related cellular automaton, with prizes for its Rule 30 (don't spend any time on this tough problem).
(3) "Political violence has no place in America": This has been the reaction of many politicians to the assassination attempt against former President Trump. Really? Where have these people been over the past decade, when political violence has been all over our social media and, occasionally, a physical reality?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- I wish we saw the same outrage and calls for action when shootings occur in classrooms!
- Grieving Ukrainian families learn to cope by climbing in the Alps: Touching story of strength & charity.
- Math oddity: 11 + 2 = 12 + 1. Also "eleven plus two" and "twelve plus one" use exactly the same letters.
- A type of cactus goes extinct in the US owing to sea level rise.
- Persian poetry: A beautiful love couplet from Bidel Shirazi. [Tweet, with the Persian poem]
- Swedish symphony orchestra brings Siavash Kasrai's poem "Arash-e Kamanguir" to life. [6-minute video]
(5) Abbas Kiarostami's legacy: French actress Juliette Binoche wrote a touching letter to Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami upon his death, lamenting that she was left with unanswered questions about the simple/complex man (who directed her in "Certified Copy") and about his enigmatic country. [A Taste of Kiarostami]

2024/07/13 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Schrodinger's Smiley! Math puzzle: Find the circle's radius R By chance, a NYT photographer captured the image of one of the bullets, as it approached Trump's head (1) Images of the day: [Left] Schrodinger's Smiley! [Center] Math puzzle: Find the circle's radius R. [Right] By chance, a NYT photographer captured the image of one of the bullets, as it approached Trump's head.
(2) Special 100th Edition of Caltech's Stargazing Lectures: Caltech Professor and Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne spoke last night under the title "An Odyssey Through the Warped Side of Our Universe." Thorne is the first author, with Lia Halloran, of the book The Warped Side of the Universe.
Rather than trying to summarize the lecture, I recommend that you watch it through the following link to also benefit from a number of interesting diagrams and a couple of video animations.
Interestingly, both of the terms "wormhole" and "black hole" were coined by John Wheeler for concepts discovered by others. Wheeler resisted the idea of a black hole for nearly a decade, before embracing it.
Thorne's lecture begins at the 16-minute mark of this 117-minute video.
(3) In 2016, Donald Trump convinced Americans that he can transfer his skills in running a business in New York to running the US: Now, he is banned from running a business in New York, yet it seems he is making the same claim for 2024!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The shooting suspect & a spectator are killed and Donald Trump is injured at a campaign rally.
- A brief but useful introduction to brain plasticity. [5-minute video]
- World's driest desert blooms in winter (southern hemisphere) due to El Nino.
- Persian music in the pre-Revolution Iran (1962-1979): Shahbal Shabpareh performs a 9-minute medley.
(5) US women national soccer team's friendly match against Mexico: Despite relentless attacks by the US early in the first half, the two teams went into halftime scoreless. Additional US dominance in the second half produced only one goal. The US team should work on converting more of their scoring chances into goals.
(6) Hal Berghel, writing in IEEE Computer magazine (issue of July 2024) on some of the challenges facing our system of higher education: "The reward structure is suboptimal, focusing increasingly on measurements rather than what is being measured, and emphasizing indirect flow from external funding over the intrinsic value of the research being funded. Fifty years ago there was widespread agreement that research funding was an input to a research program. These days, it is often perceived as an end-in-itself. Regrettably, some university administrators take a transactional approach to research funding: if it carries a full indirect rate and isn't illegal, it's good research."
(7) Metamorphic fault tolerance: MFT is a new paradigm for building reliable software systems based on the notions of design diversity and data diversity. More precisely, it addresses one of the trouble spots of the latter two methods which require a way of telling whether a computed result is trustworthy (the oracle problem).
See: Zheng Zheng, Daixu Ren, Huai Liu, and Tsong Yueh Chen, "Metamorphic Fault Tolerance: Addressing the Oracle Problem of Reliability Assurance for Contemporary Software Systems," IEEE Computer, July 2024.

2024/07/12 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Beautiful 5-way symmetry Hedges turned into works of art by Tim Bushe in his London neighborhood Cover image of Nahid Pirnazar's 'Ketab-e Anusi' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Beautiful 5-way symmetry. [Center] Hedges turned into works of art by Tim Bushe in his London neighborhood. [Right] Nahid Pirnazar's Ketab-e Anusi (see the last item below).
(2) A Mowlavi (Rumi) verse that provides comfort through your deepest sorrows: And when you think all roads and passages are closed; A hidden path, unknown to anyone else, will be revealed [Tweet, with Persian verse]
(3) Two serious flubs by President Barack Obama (I mean Joe Biden): He referred to Kamala Harris as "Vice-President Trump" and to President Volodymyr Zelensky, standing next to him, as "President Putin"!
(4) Book review: Pirnazar, Nahid (translator & editor), Ketab-e Anusi: The Life of Persian Jews in the Safavid Era, in Persian, Iran Namag Books, 2021. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
There is another book in print, also titled "Ketab-e Anusi," with the subtitle "The Forced Religious Conversion of Jews During the Safavid Dynasty," which is translated/corrected by Amir-Ali Fallahian and published by Ketab Corporation in 2021. Here is the publisher's blurb on the latter book: "The Book of the Anusi is a collection of narrative poems describing the life of Jewish Persians in the mid ‎Safavid dynasty era in the 17th century CE. Reporting on the calamities befalling the Jews in various ‎Persian cities between the years 1607 and 1662 CE, Babai Ben Lotf tells of the difficult years under Shah ‎Abbas I, the more tolerant interlude during Shah Safi and the event of the forced religious conversion ‎of Jews at the time of Shah Abbas II. The narratives, the information and the content offered in this ‎book, are not only important concerning the culture, history and the social life of the Jews of Persia, ‎but also significant when it comes to Persian history at large under the Safavids, the history of religion ‎in Persia, social history, languages and dialects in Persia, local histories as well as the history of Persian ‎literature in general."
Much of the description above is also applicable to Pirnazar's book, which contains poems by Babaee ben-Lotf (Part 1, pp. 43-314) and Babaee ben-Farhad (Part 2, pp. 315-374), with minor additions by Mashiah ben-Rafael (Part 3, pp. 375-381). The three parts cover, respectively, the years 1613-1660 CE, a time interval in the Safavid era, certain events in the period 1666-1736 CE, and events from the Safavid's collapse to the early years of the Afsharids. The book ends with a 13-page Persian glossary, a 10-page Hebrew glossary, and a 9-page index of names.
The three parts of Ketab-e Anusi have always appeared together in a single volume. The book was never published and what we have are about half-dozen handwritten copies held by various museums, cultural organizations, and individual collectors. Dr. Pirnazar has used three of these copies (described on pp. 20-21) in assembling her book.
Historical events that one can glean from Ketab-e Anusi form an important part of Iran's past and the way in which Jews, and by extension, other religious minorities, were treated during the reign of the Safavid kings who wanted to promote Shi'i Islam and were thus rather intolerant of other faiths. We learn from Ketab-e Anusi that Jews lived in many areas of Iran's territory: Abarqu, Ashraf, Damavand, Esfahan, Golpayegan, Hamedan, Kashan, Kermanshah, Khansar, Lar, Lorestan, Nahavand, Natanz, Qom, Qazvin, Shiraz, and Tuyserkan. With regard to jobs and professions, Jews earned a living as Taylors, millers, silk-weavers, goldsmiths, antiques dealers, perfume-makers, pharmacists, medical workers, and musicians.
The book outlines the social standing of Jews, their daily lives, as well as persecutions and molestations they suffered. No one knows exactly how many Jews were forcefully converted to Islam and what the Jewish population would be today, if forced conversions had not occurred. Resisting conversion came with a heavy cost; a number of Jewish leaders were killed for refusing to convert to Islam. A significant portion of the forced converts were Georgian Jews and Christians, who were forcefully relocated to Mazandaran and points further south.
"Anusi" is a Hebrew word meaning "a Jew forced to apostatize but who remains secretly Jewish." The fact that Hebrew has a single word for such a complicated notion tells us that, perhaps, Jews were subjects of forced conversions outside the places and time periods covered by this book. Many of the verses in the book's poems are faulty in rhyme, wording, or meaning. For this reason, Pirnazar urges us to read the book as a historical account, not a literary work. Still, dealing with the imperfect poetry is torturous for someone who is familiar with and adores the works of classical Persian poets.
The book contains many typos. A vast majority of these typos are minor annoyances and do no harm to the reader's understanding. A few are rather serious and hard to decipher. An example of the first category from pp. 19-20 is the two spellings of a name: "Tahmasb-Gholi" and "Tahmas-Gholi." As an example of the second category, a section on page 28 is headed "Events of the Years 5161-1161 CE." The beginning of the section's first sentence, "Georgia in the 16th and 17th centuries" suggests that perhaps 1611-1615 CE was intended, but it takes much more digging to make sure.

2024/07/11 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Ma'soomeh Khakyar went to Iran from Baku and became notorious for the first cinematic kiss in the 1953 Iranian movie 'Golnesa': Movie poster Ma'soomeh Khakyar went to Iran from Baku and became notorious for the first cinematic kiss in the 1953 Iranian movie 'Golnesa': Portrait Throwback Thursday (2): Television sets of the mid-20th-century
Indian math prodigy Ramanujan dreamed up mind-boggling roots-of-roots identities such as these Math challenge: Do we have enough information to derive the perimeter of this shape? Tonight's Talangor Group talk on historical awareness (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] Throwback Thursday (1): Ma'soomeh Khakyar went to Iran from Baku and became notorious for the first cinematic kiss in the 1953 Iranian movie "Golnesa." IMDB describes the film thus: "Golnesa is the popular girl of their village and all want to marry her, but she is deceived by a man from the city." After the "illicit" kiss, she was under unbearable pressure from her husband and his family, until she poured gasoline on her beautiful body and set it on fire. She is buried at Tehran's Mesgarabad Cemetery. [Top right] Throwback Thursday (2): Television sets of the mid-20th-century. [Bottom left] Indian math prodigy Ramanujan dreamed up mind-boggling roots-of-roots identities such as these. His identities involving the number pi are equally amazing. [Bottom center] Math challenge: Do we have enough information to derive the perimeter of this shape? [Bottom right] Tonight's Talangor Group meeting (see the last item below).
(2) Cypress Hill made a "Simpsons" joke from 1996 come true last night: The hip-hop group performed with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.
(3) Power-hungry data centers: Driven by the use of AI, data centers constitute the fastest-growing segment of the energy market. Data-center operators are working on multiple fronts to reduce their energy needs and to gain access to reliable energy supplies, up to and including building nuclear power plants nearby.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Sharifeh Mohamadi has been sentenced to death in Iran under the bogus charge of "rebellion/revolt."
- Post-hurricane power outage and historic heat a deadly combination in Texas.
- In 75th-anniversary meeting, NATO accuses China of supplying Russia with technology to attack Ukraine.
- A diverse group of older women gymnasts, led by Simone Biles, will represent the US at the Paris Olympics.
- Calendar math puzzle: What is the sum of the roots of (1/2 - x)^45 + x^45 = 0?
(5) Tonight's Talangor Group meeting: Dr. Heidar (Hamid) Azodanloo (lecturer of comparative literature at U. Minnesota) spoke on "History and Historical Awareness." Before the main talk, yours truly gave a brief presentation under the title "The Third Industrial Revolution: The Internet of Energy," which entails the worldwide harnessing, storage, and distribution of energy obtained from renewable sources.
History isn't a static set of facts or data points. Who tells the story affects the content (hence, for example, the large number of books on Iran's Constitutional Revolution) and the reader's interpretation also plays a part. The story-teller imposes his/her own views or interpretations on the story s/he tells and the reader sees the story in the context of today's traditions and knowledge. All of these change over time. The same historical event, as told 100 years ago, is different from its telling today. And language plays a big part in all these processes. Nothing we think or say emerges without going through the filter of language.

2024/07/10 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Selfie with Dr. Hamed Ghoddusi of Cal Poly SLO My first two cars: An Oldsmobile Delta-88 and a Ford Mustang convertible The house where I might have lived 54 years ago (1) Images of the day: [Left] Selfie with Dr. Hamed Ghoddusi (see the next item below). [Center] My first cars (see the last item below). [Right] The house where I lived 54 years ago (see the next to the last item below).
(2) Meeting a colleague and fellow-Iranian: Professor Hamed Ghoddusi of Cal Poly SLO College of Business paid a visit to UCSB on Tuesday 7/09, during which we had a productive chat. Our conversation introduced me to the Shapley–Shubik power index in weighted voting systems of the kind used, for example, in corporate decision-making (where stock holdings determine the weights) and in the UN Security Council (where weights are based on a country's status as permanent or non-permanent member). Fascinating stuff that help my research and teaching on voting algorithms.
(3) Emergence of self-replicating digital life: "A self-replicating form of artificial life has arisen from a digital 'primordial soup' of random data, despite a lack of explicit rules or goals to encourage such behaviour. Researchers believe it is possible that more sophisticated versions of the experiment could yield more advanced digital organisms, and if they did, the findings could shed light on the mechanisms behind the emergence of biological life on Earth."
(4) Iran's shadow government: Operating under the Supreme Leader, the shadow government has a shadow president and shadow ministers that must approve every decision.
(5) Free Iranian cultural program in Beverly Hills: Sunday, July 21, 2024, Beverly Gardens Park, 9439 Santa Monica Blvd. Includes Persian food truck. Sponsored by Farhang Foundation.
(6) My first two cars (early 1970s): A couple of months after arriving at UCLA in 1970, I decided to buy a car, because it was impossible to get around without one. I bought a brown Oldsmobile Delta-88 V8 gas guzzler for $200 (quite a sum for my budget)! It ran well and had a lot of power, but luxury Detroit cars had very low resale value. When I had a bit more money due to my income as a research assistant a couple of years later, I upgraded to a metallic blue Ford Mustang convertible, which I bought for about $700. It looked good on the outside, but nothing in it worked: The top could not be retracted, except manually with a lot of effort; power windows wouldn't roll up or down. I suspected the person who sold it to me to be a gang member or drug dealer. The photos aren't of the actual cars but Internet photos that I have picked to be similar to my cars.
(7) Memories of my arrival at UCLA in 1970: For a few months 54 years ago, I lived at a boarding house near the UCLA campus. In exchange for a discounted rate, which was all I could afford at the time, we helped with cleaning, meal service, and dishwashing. when I visited UCLA in mid-June to attend a graduation ceremony, I took this photo in front of the house which I believe was the location of the boarding house.

2024/07/08 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Pezeshkian declares his commitment to Hezbollah and other factions of 'the Resistance Front' The fate of Iran's past presidents: They are all dead or sidelined, unable to speak their minds Project 2025 is a blueprint for the second Trump administration, prepared by the Heritage Foundation (1) Images of the day: [Left] Reality check for those who thought Iran's various presidential candidates were different: Pezeshkian declares his commitment to Hezbollah and other factions of "the Resistance Front." [Center] The fate of Iran's past presidents: They are all dead or sidelined, unable to speak their minds, the only exception being Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader. Presidents in Iran are discarded like soiled bathroom tissue. [Right] Project 2025 is a blueprint for the second Trump administration: Prepared by the Heritage Foundation, it guts multiple government programs and rolls back many social advances of the past few decades.
(2) What we all suspected is officially confirmed: Anti-Israeli protests in the US were informationally, logistically, and financially supported by Iran's Islamist government.
(3) "Only the Lord Almighty could convince [me] to step aside." ~ Joe Biden
Wrong answer! It's not about you, Joe! You should have said something to the effect that you are bent on the Democrats winning the White House in 2024 and that if you perceive that your candidacy jeopardizes this goal, you'd happily step aside.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- New York Times calls for Biden to drop out. But so far, no call for the felon to drop out!
- Columbia U. removes tree deans because their text-message exchanges contained anti-Semitic tropes.
- Lehigh U. student who won a full scholarship with fake documents and a ChatGPT-written essay is expelled.
- Iran's so-called "Reformist" President reassures Russia and Hezbollah of Iran's continued support.
- Erdos-Straus conjecture: For any integer n > 1 there are positive integers x,y,z such that: 4/n=1/x+1/y+1/z
- Facebook memory from July 8, 2019: Kissing the ruler's hand is in conflict with democracy.
(5) Oops, they did it again: StorageReview engineers set a new world record by calculating pi to more than 202 trillion digits using dual Intel Xeon 8592+ CPUs and 28 Solidigm P5336 61.44TB NVMe SSDs. Their previous record of 105 trillion digits was set earlier this year using a dual processor 128-core AMD EPYC 9754 Bergamo system with 1.5TB of DRAM and almost a petabyte of Solidigm QLC SSDs.
(6) Emergence of self-replicating digital life: "A self-replicating form of artificial life has arisen from a digital 'primordial soup' of random data, despite a lack of explicit rules or goals to encourage such behaviour. Researchers believe it is possible that more sophisticated versions of the experiment could yield more advanced digital organisms, and if they did, the findings could shed light on the mechanisms behind the emergence of biological life on Earth."
(7) Princeton University should fire Hossein Mousavian: He was linked by the German government to an assassination squad that killed four Iranian dissidents in Berlin's Mykonos Restaurant, Mafia-style, when he was Iran's Ambassador in Bonn.

2024/07/07 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: Determine the areas A, B, and C of the three triangles NYC has turned into the world headquarters of observation decks and summer dresses (NYT photos) (1) Images of the day: [Left] Our Fourth of July Weekend BBQ at my sister's, combined with belated birthday celebration for her daughter. [Center] Math puzzle: Determine the areas A, B, and C of the three triangles. [Right] NYC has turned into the world headquarters of observation decks and summer dresses (NYT photos).
(2) Iran's election result: Masoud Pezeshkian becomes Iran's new president with 16.3 million votes to Saeed Jalili's 13.5 million votes. Voter participation was announced as 49.6%. These numbers are highly suspicious, as they come from the government, with no internationally recognized election monitors.
(3) Not one photo or video has been published by Iran's Islamic regime to show crowds of voters at the precincts consistent with the 30 million (49.6%) turnout. The turnout for the first round of voting is widely believed to have been 13.3%. The second round's turnout is estimated to be ~10%. Iran allows no international observers for its elections. Government officials run the polls and report the results.
(4) Talk about apartheid! In Islamic Iran, multiple classes of people are defined, each class with a different set of rights. In addition to gender apartheid, there is religious apartheid (Muslim vs. non-Muslim; Shi'i vs. Sunni; people of the book vs. those with no book), and clergy vs. laymen. The clergy even have their separate courts and system of justice.
(5) Another analysis of Iran's election data: Dividing the total number of votes cast by the claimed participation ratio should give you the number of eligible voters. This latter number rose substantially in the week between the election and the run-off. Another clear indication of fraud. [Tweet, withy video]
(6) Iran's new president faces reality: His announced news conference with domestic & foreign reporters was cancelled on orders from the Supreme Leader. One of his strongest advocates, a professor & lawyer, was arrested. And he claims he never promised to remove the filtering of the Internet. Who's the boss?
(7) Iran's Islamic regime survives because even though most Iranians live in poverty and face economic hardships, those who prop up the brutal dictatorship live in 10,000-square-foot luxury penthouses. [Video]
(8) Final thought for the day: If one person says it's raining, and the other says the sun is shining, it's not the media's job to quote them both. It's their job to look out the window and report the truth.

2024/07/05 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Ditch the Ten Commandments: Post these Ten Commitments instead Cartoon: The conservative majority of the new US Supreme Court Not-so-subtle message to the White House occupant (1) Images of the day: [Left] Ditch the Ten Commandments: Post these Ten Commitments in schools instead. [Center] Cartoon of the day: The conservative majority of the new US Supreme Court. [Right] Not-so-subtle message to the White House occupant.
(2) America celebrated its independence from the British Empire yesterday: Algeria does it today. Dozens of other countries that have seceded from the British Empire celebrate the event on various dates.
(3) Islamic Iran's extreme apartheid recognizes seven classes of people, each with a different set of rights: From lowly voters at the bottom to male Shi'i Muslim clerics owning the highest positions of power. Vote if you want but know that your vote is a tool of power for the top class.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- At Germany's request, EU begins the process of designating Iran's IRGC as a terrorist group.
- German scientists have seen ants bite off others' legs to prevent the spread of infections from open wounds.
- Science humor: Is Iron-man the same as Fe-male?
- I had forgotten how wonderful Jose Feliciano sounded on the acoustic guitar. Enjoy! [5-minute video]
(5) Iran's former FM Javad Zarif sounds different these days: Gone are his unapologetic desire for meddling in the affairs of Iraq, Syria, & Lebanon and his pride in being under pressure for supporting Palestine.
(6) Greece has chosen to go against the trend: Many countries are considering shortening the work week to 4 days, which research shows benefits productivity and improves employee well-being. Greece is lengthening the work week to 6 days to boost national productivity and give workers additional overtime pay.
(7) Academic freedom can quickly disappear just like any other freedom: "Academics researching online misinformation in the US are learning a hard lesson: Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. They face a concerted effort—including by members of Congress—to undermine or silence their work documenting false and misleading internet content. The claim is that online misinformation researchers are trying to silence conservative voices. The evidence suggests just the opposite."
(8) Final thought for the day: I hope Joe Biden does not commit the same mistake as Ruth Ginsberg. She refused to retire until it was too late and we lost one Supreme Court seat. A 5-4 conservative majority would have been a lot better than the current 6-3 supermajority.

2024/07/04 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy birthday to America! Dark clouds cover our country this July 4th Throwback Thursday: Georgia 'Tiny' Broadwick was the first woman to parachute from an airplane: Attached to a plane Throwback Thursday: Georgia 'Tiny' Broadwick was the first woman to parachute from an airplane: Shown in a field
Book introduction: This book presents a diverse group of mathematicians Range of accurate weather forecasts in the US: Map A curious engineer's musings on the tail-lights of modern cars (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Happy birthday to America! Dark clouds cover our country this July 4th. But we will replace these dark clouds with bright, sunny skies soon. We have done it before and we will do it again! [Top center & right] Throwback Thursday: Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick was the first woman to parachute from an airplane. To perform this feat, she hung from a trapeze-like swing suspended beneath the airplane just behind the wing. [Bottom left] Book introduction: This book presents a diverse group of mathematicians, including Donald G. Saari, whom I got to know through his research on social choice, but he has very broad interests. [Bottom center] Range of accurate weather forecasts in the US: Seven days out in southern Florida, 4-5 days out in the Southwest region, 3-4 days out in coastal areas, and no more than 2 days out in the central plains. [Bottom right] A curious engineer's musings on the tail-lights of modern cars (see the next item below).
(2) Musings of a curious engineer: Lately, I have been paying attention to tail-lights on cars and noticed that you can divide them into two categories. One category is when the tail-light extends onto the trunk lid; another when the tail-light ends before the trunk lid begins. Based on my small sample, the former category is more common. Why is this important? When the tail-light extends onto the trunk lid, a separate set of wires must be included to direct power to that section of the tail-light. So, car design engineers should be motivated to avoid this situation in order to minimize the production cost. There is also the issue of reliability due to cables connecting to a moving trunk lid. Of course, aesthetics and ease of access to the trunk are quite important as well. Pay attention to different car models and decide which kind of tail-light looks better.
(3) Facebook memory from July 4, 2023: Happy 4th to everyone not pleading the 5th about the 6th!
(4) Facebook memory from July 4, 2022: Observing America's birthday is an excellent occasion for reflecting on our relationship with the original owners of this land.
(5) Facebook memory from July 4, 2010: My Persian poem advocating unity & equality (inspired by Jack Johnson's story and what the phrase "the great white hope" signified).
(6) Greece has chosen to go against the trend: Many countries are considering shortening the work week to 4 days, which research shows benefits productivity and improves employee well-being. Greece is lengthening the work week to 6 days to boost national productivity and give workers additional overtime pay.
(7)Trump's lies and racist/xenophobic comments during the first presidential debate were overshadowed by Biden's miserable performance: During the debate, Trump referred to Biden as a Palestinian (evidently, he considers "Palestinian" a pejorative term). He then said on the very next day, "Look at a guy like Senator Schumer. I've always known him, known him a long time. I come from New York; I knew Schumer. He's become a Palestinian. He's a Palestinian now. Congratulations. He was very loyal to Israel and to Jewish people. He's Jewish. But he's become a Palestinian because they have a couple of more votes or something; nobody's quite figured it out." Again we see the use of "Palestinian" as a pejorative, along with the anti-Semitic trope: If Schumer criticizes the Israeli government, he is a scheming Jew or he must have been bought off.

2024/07/03 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
New robe design for the US Supreme Court Math puzzle: Find the radius r of the semicircle inside the square Socrates Think Tank talk: From Alchemy to Modern Chemistry (1) Images of the day: [Left] New robe design for the US Supreme Court. [Center] Math puzzle: Find the radius r of the semicircle inside the square. [Right] Socrates Think Tank talk (see the last item below).
(2) Wonders of number theory: For m no less than 25, there exists at least one prime number between m and 6m/5 (Theorem due to Nagura). Then, because the 26th prime is 101 and (1.2)^26 ~ 114.48, we can show by induction on n that the nth prime is less than (1.2)^n.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Peaceful transfer of power in the Netherlands: Outgoing PM delivers the reigns of power and bikes home.
- California's $300 billion 2024-2025 budget includes significant cuts for UC and Cal State.
- Californians are warned about a dangerous heat wave in the week ahead.
- A heat wave is coming our way this weekend: Stay in the shade and hydrated. [Tweet, with chart]
(4) Tonight's Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Mahmoud Sabahi spoke under the title "From Jaber ibn Hayyan's Alchemy to Today's Chemistry and Super-Challenges Ahead." There were ~105 attendees.
Alchemy, from the Greek root "khemia" ("kimia" in Persian), was a cult "science" with the goal of converting base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir. Works attributed to the Father of Chemistry Jabir ibn Hayyan, which are tentatively dated to 850-950 CE, contain the oldest known systematic classification of chemical substances, and the oldest known instructions for deriving an inorganic compound, ammonium chloride, from organic substances, such as plants, blood, and hair, by chemical means.
Chemistry entered a new phase when chemists succeeded in producing hydrogen (which appears in nature only as compounds). This was followed by the production of ammonia, which has many applications (e.g., in agriculture). By the mid-20th-century, the US chemical industry created R&D labs in large numbers to exploit the practical benefits of new scientific discoveries. By 2013, the total value of the chemical industry reached $3.5 trillion, and continued to grow exponentially in the decade since.
Waste generation and pollution are the main challenges facing the chemical industry. In her 1962 book 'Silent Spring,' Rachel Carson brought attention to these problems. By 1990, a paradigm shift to "green chemistry" occurred, which advocated prevention rather than treatment of harmful waste. More recently, certain long-lasting chemicals, which do not deteriorate and thus find their way into our food supply and bodies, creating many health problems, have found widespread applications, from non-stick cookware to water-repellent & stain-resistant clothing.
In conclusion, Dr. Sabahi recommended a number of references to follow up on the topics discussed. The article "The Lawyer who became DuPont's Worst Nightmare," profiles Rob Bilott, who exposed a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution. The 2019 movie "Dark Waters" covers the same story. California is leading the way in regulating harmful chemicals (see, e.g., California PFAS Drinking Water Advisories). Finally, the 2006 NRC Report "Sustainability in the Chemical Industry: Grand Challenges and Research Needs" charts the industry's path ahead.

2024/07/02 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The 54 steps of the Norman staircase are carved into the rock of one of the mountain towers that overlook the ancient village of Castelmezzano, in the Lucanian Dolomites Witch's stairs: So-named, because they were thought to confuse witches and thus protect occupants from them Hyperion, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in California's Redwood National Park, is the world's tallest known living tree at 380.3 ft (115.92 m) tall (1) Images of the day: [Left] Would you dare climb these stairs? The 54 steps of the Norman staircase are carved into the rock of one of the mountain towers that overlook the ancient village of Castelmezzano, in the Lucanian Dolomites. The dizzying lookout point tells the story of conquests and battles that occurred more than 1000 years ago. [Center] Witch's stairs: So-named, because they were thought to confuse witches and thus protect occupants from them. Their design allows steeper inclines in houses with too little space for ordinary staircases. You can see them in very old New England homes. [Right] World's tallest tree: Hyperion, a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) in California's Redwood National Park, is the world's tallest known living tree at 380.3 ft (115.92 m) tall. It's even taller than the Statue of Liberty.
(2) An amazing math trick: Ask an opponent to choose a polynomial p(x) of any degree with nonnegative integer coefficients. Tell them you can determine what it is with just two values: You choose a and ask for p(a), then choose b and ask for p(b). What is a winning strategy?
(3) Serious cybersecurity warning: The United States, Canada, and Australia warn that 52% of 172 open-source projects studies contained code written in a memory-unsafe language.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- At least 27 people were killed in a stampede during a religious event in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
- The US Men's National Soccer Team eliminated from COPA America after 0-1 group-stage loss to Uruguay.
- The sick world of teenage influencers: Who is she influencing when 92% of her followers are adult men?
- The Rubik's Cube turns 50: It is still as tough as ever to solve.
- Bringing Back Our Wetland: 68-minute documentary film produced by UCSB Cheadle Center.
(5) Million-dollar prize for AI to solve puzzles that humans find easy: Deducing the correct pattern that links pairs of colored grids relies on skills that AI models lack at present. Google's new $1 million prize will encourage the development of an AI that can solve such puzzles.
(6) Short list of five books for "UCSB Reads 2025" Program announcedby by UCSB Library:
- The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet (2021) by John Green
- The Book of Delights: Essays (2019) by Ross Gay
- The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of US History (2023) by Ned Blackhawk
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022) by Gabrielle Zevin
- Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality (2024) by Venki Ramakrishnan
(7) Letters from the former Shah of Iran to his father: Dr. Abbas Milani has gained access to 104 letters that the late Shah wrote to his father, who had instructed him to report on his condition and his academic progress weekly, while studying in Switzerland. Milani discusses these letters in this 13-minute video.

2024/07/01 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Expressive fonts Possible fraud in Iran's presidential election: Number of votes, as reported by the government Cover image of Hugh Prather's 'Notes to Myself' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Expressive fonts. [Center] Possible fraud in Iran's presidential election (see the next item below). [Right] Hugh Prather's Notes to Myself (see the last item below).
(2) Data detectives:There are methods for detecting fakery in data sets, the best-known of which is based on Benford's Law about distribution of digit values in large data sets. Today, the X (Twitter) platform is abuzz with an anomaly in Iran's reported election data. The numbers of votes for all four candidates, as well as the total number of votes and the number of invalid ballots are all multiples of 3. Given that the total number of votes isn't independent of the other five figures, the chance of this happening at random is (1/3)^5 or 0.4%, so there is speculation that election officials, under orders from higher-ups, have inflated the numbers by a factor of 3, to portray a 13.3% turnout as a 39.9% turnout. Even the inflated figure is an all-time low (it was 49% in the 2021 election, itself lowest up to that point). Users are also posting video clips of Supreme Leader Khamenei stating in 2001 that the 40% voter turnout in certain Western countries is a disgrace. [This post, in Persian]
(3) Remember that your vote isn't just for Biden vs. Trump: It is for Biden administration of competent progressives, vs. Trump administration of backward religious zealots who will roll back decades of gains in women's and minority rights.
(4) My disgust with some Iranian opposition groups: The X (Twitter) platform is filled with videos of Iranians verbally assaulting those who went to cast their ballots at IRI embassies, using the vilest language (sample). We are free to express our views or to boycott the show election, but should not verbally abuse or force others to act against their will, regardless of their beliefs or motivation. (I apologize for the language in this posted video, but wanted to give a representative example). [This post, in Persian]
(5) Book review: Prather, Hugh, Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person, unabridged 2-hour audiobook, read by Sean Patrick Hopkins, Random House Audio, 2021.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
In exploring his own life in this book, first published in 1970, writer/editor Hugh Prather [1938-2010] helps the reader examine his/her own. Prather's aphorisms include "perfectionism is slow death" and "this anxiety running through my life is the tension between what I should be and what I am." Being grateful for who we are and what we have is a common theme in Prather's musings: "Another day to listen and love and walk and glory. I am here for another day. I think of those who aren't."
New York Times once opined: "Some of Mr. Prather's experiences come from having had seven 'parents,' including a drug addict, two alcoholics, an institutionalized mentally ill patient, a convicted murderer [one of his father's wives] and a convicted embezzler [one of his mother's husbands]." Prather confesses that adhering to the advice he dispenses is difficult, even for him. There are always exceptions!
Notes to Myself was not intended as a commercial book. It began as Prather's private musings on the nature of life, death, love, sex, and much else. After the immense success of his first book, Prather wrote several other self-help books, including two books for couples (co-authored by his wife, Gayle Halligan Prather): Notes to Each Other and Spiritual Parenting.
Comedy writer Jack Handy spoofed Notes to Myself in his public musings known as "Deep Thoughts," which became a recurring feature on the comedy show "Saturday Night Live" in the 1990s and was also released as a series of books.

2024/06/30 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Hearty Iranian breakfast for three A mechanical analog computer for predicting ocean tides Cover image of Sohrab Ahmari's 'Tyranny, Inc.' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Hearty Iranian breakfast for three. [Center] A mechanical analog computer (see the next item below). [Right] Sohrab Ahmari's Tyranny, Inc. (see the last item below).
(2) Mechanical analog computer from 1872 that predicted ocean tides: William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) became rich from a patent for laying undersea telegraph cables, so he decided to buy a yacht as a summer home, where he hosted scientific parties. Based on his extensive observations and by applying harmonic analysis to tidal phenomena, he designed a device which traced the tidal curve for a given location. Mechanical tide-predicting machines remained in use until the 1950s, when they were replaced by digital computers.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The choice is yours: The man who speaks the truth with some difficulty or the man who lies with ease.
- Good summation of the first US presidential debate and the Biden-vs.-Trump choice: It isn't even close!
- An introductory course on programming should be called "Programming 1100101," not "Programming 101"!
- My KIRN Radio Iran program on "Women in Science and Engineering" will be rebroadcast today at 6:00 PM.
(4) Iranian presidential election: Eligible voters ~61.5 million; Votes ~24 million (if you believe the regime); Turnout ~39% (This is a marked drop from the 49% turnout in 2021, which itself was a low up to that point). There will be a run-off between Masoud Pezeshkian (42.5% of the vote) and Saeed Jalili (38.6%).
(5) Book review: Ahmari, Sohrab, Tyranny, Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty—and What to Do About It, unabridged 8-hour audiobook, read by the author, Random House Audio, 2023.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Unchecked corporate power is being criticized both from the left and from the right, with members on one side of the spectrum occasionally even endorsing or praising ideas from the other side. Ahmari, a conservative, dedicates his book to "Adrian, Chad, Gladden, and Patrick"; first names of a group that were co-founders of the Substack newsletter Postliberal Order. Shoshana Zuboff, a decidedly liberal author and professor, had previously written The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (my review) on the horrors of illicit corporate power gained through amassing users' private information.
According to Ahmari, unchecked corporate power hurts both employees (e.g., through so-called flexible contracts and mandatory arbitration agreements) and consumers (privatization of vital emergency services, local newspapers going under, the rich-friendly bankruptcy law that allowed Purdue Pharma to escape liability for the opioid crisis). These are important concerns for our society, whether you consider them populist or conservative musings.
Ahmari's ideas are more FDR than Ronald Reagan, more Ruth Bader Ginsburg than SCOTUS's conservative opinion approving of arbitration clauses, more Elizabeth Warren than Paul Ryan, more an Amazon whistle-blower than corporate lawyers defending Amazon's miserable COVID response. For the ills he enumerates, Ahmari places the blame on the economic liberalism of the right and the social liberalism of the left. One remedy is to restore workers' rights, that are gradually disappearing, through the establish

2024/06/29 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
To make sense of this image, hold it nearly horizontally and look at it from the bottom edge Biden must show his decency by stepping aside & letting someone else confront Trump's lies & vitriol with words that Americans understand Cover image of 'Reclaiming Our Democracy' (1) Images of the day: [Left] To make sense of this image, hold it nearly horizontally and look at it from the bottom edge. [Center] Yes, Biden's 3.5-year record as President is more important than his performance in a 90-minute debate. But we live in the age of soundbites. Biden must show his decency by stepping aside & letting someone else confront Trump's lies & vitriol with words that Americans understand. P.S.: Trump's many debate lies were fact-checked live on CNN. [Right] Reclaiming Our Democracy (see the last item below).
(2) What kind of debate prep team does Biden have? Why don't they prep him to answer with short, clear statements, rather than long-winded sentences, in the middle of which he gets lost?
(3) First, Louisiana makes posting of the Ten Commandments mandatory in classrooms. Now, Oklahoma requires public schools to teach the Bible. And these are 40th- and 43rd-ranked states in terms of K-12 education, according to US News & World Report!
(4) California Public Utilities Commission rejects a petition by AT&T to cut off millions of Californians from their landline phone service: AARP on behalf of its senior-citizen members, who depend on landlines, successfully lobbied for the rejection. AT&T will go to the CA State Legislature next, in an effort to overturn the rejection.
(5) Book review: Daley-Harris, Sam, Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen's Guide to Transformational Advocacy, unabridged 11-hour audiobook, read by author, Rivertowns Books, revised & updated edition, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This is a detailed account of citizen activism by Sam Daley-Harris, who founded RESULTS (originally an acronym for Responsibility for Ending Starvation Using Legislation, Trimtabbing, and Support) in 1980 to facilitate citizen advocacy by training the participants in methods of influencing politicians and journalists, editorial writers, in particular. Trimtabbing is a reference to trim tabs, the small surfaces that allow boat or aircraft pilots to control larger control surfaces like rudders or elevators and which were popularized as a metaphor for individual empowerment by Buckminster Fuller in a 1972 interview.
This 20th-anniversary edition has a new chapter on Citizens Climate Lobby, a powerful new advocacy group following the RESULTS model, and another new chapter on Center for Citizen Empowerment and Transformation, which is focused on spreading the original concepts developed by RESULTS to help reduce malnutrition and preventable disease with what Daley-Harris calls "transformational advocacy" based on three pillars: An organizational structure supporting volunteers with a clarity of purpose and high expectations; A disciplined outreach plan that produces letters to elected officials & editorials to newspapers, while also cultivating close personal relationships with politicians & journalists; The empowering value of idealism.
The account is a bit too drawn out and, at times, repetitive, but the message is something that every American should hear. The ideas described are universal and useful to world citizens, but much of the specific suggestions and action strategies may not apply outside the US.
A conversation with Sam Daley-Harris in this 26-minute video provides a good overview of the key ideas.

2024/06/28 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Ellwood Marine Terminal demolition and restoration: Batch 5 of photos Talangor Group program on elections and history of Islamic seminaries Ellwood Marine Terminal demolition and restoration: Batch 10 of photos (1) Images of the day: [Left & Right] Ellwood Marine Terminal Restoration Project (see the next item below). [Center] Talangor Group program on elections and history of Islamic seminaries (see the last item below).
(2) Ellwood Marine Terminal Restoration Project: Yesterday, I went on an informative 2.5-hour tour, organized by UCSB's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity & Ecological Restoration. The two oil storage reservoirs, seen at a distance from UCSB North Campus Open Space Visitor Center in one of the photos, will be demolished beginning in October 2024, and the large parcel of land connecting the Open Space to the Pacific Ocean will be reconfigured, restored, and landscaped to its original state before oil exploration in the area began. The reservoirs were used for many years to store oil coming from Platform Holly, with tanker trucks transporting it to various destinations. Representatives from Chumash People have been given front-row seats in the planning and restoration processes. [Project Web site]
The two oil storage reservoirs and a smaller water reservoir, used for firefighting, will be demolished, all electric wires & poles will be removed, and trails & visitor amenities will be built for the local community to enjoy the area's breathtaking views. Trails will become open to the public shortly after the demolition work this fall, as the multi-year restoration work proceeds in parallel. The vicinity of the Marine Terminal is one of my favorite areas for walking, so, I'm excited about the restoration work. [2-minute video]
(3) Today is 2*pi Day (2 * 3.14 = 6.28), aka tau day: According to some, tau is a more-important constant than pi. Mathematician Michael Hartl liked tau so much better than pi that he wrote the Tau Manifesto.
(4) Last night's Talangor Group program: Dr. Mostafa Daneshgar Rahbar (Assistant Professor of Intelligent Systems, Lawrence Technological U.) spoke under the title "History of Islamic Seminaries." Dr. Daneshgar Rahbar has a PhD in engineering, but he was also concurrently educated at a seminary, although the latter background is not reflected on his LinkedIn profile. There were ~65 attendees.
Prior to the main talk, there was open discussion on the concurrently-unfolding first US presidential debate and on Iran's presidential election, scheduled for the following day.
Dr. Daneshgar Rahbar began by clarifying that his talk's focus will be on Shiite Islamic seminaries, geographically distributed, for the most part, in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. The history of Islamic seminaries spans a timeline that began with Shi'i Imams and continued with a few key personalities, once the 12th Imam purportedly went into hiding. The appearance of Islamic seminaries was part of the institutionalization of Shiite Islam, which took hold at the time of the 6th Shi'i Imam, Ja'far Sadeq. Subjects taught at these seminaries include faith & reason, God & the universe, interpretation of Quran, teachings/traditions of the Prophet & Imams, prophecy, ethics, and religious/theological language. The seminaries are intimately tied to the notion of marja'-e taqlid (religious authority who should be imitated or followed) and operate within an extremely opaque financial system.
Some seminaries are local, whereas others are large institutions that train and "export" clerics to locations worldwide. Najaf seminary is a good example of such large, prestigious institutions. Iran's Qom Seminary is influential politically, but not necessarily from a religious standpoint.
Islamic seminaries that thrive are typically located next to important religious shrines. For example, Najaf is where Imam Ali is buried, Mashhad houses the tomb of Imam Reza, and Qom is the burial place of Hazrat-e Ma'soumeh.
The Najaf Seminary was for a long time the center of gravity for Shi'i Islam and housed & produced the most-respected Shiite leaders. There are many other centers of learning for Shi'i clerics, but Najaf can be likened to the MIT of Islamic seminaries. Iran's rulers tried to reduce Najaf's influence, but they did not succeed.
Searching the Internet for possible additional sources of information, I came across a 22-page article from 2021, entitled "Islamic Seminaries: A Brief Historical Survey."

2024/06/27 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: This family-run bookshop in Tehran has been operating for 150 years, since the Qajar era Throwback Thursday: Ghahveh-khaneh (literally, 'coffee house') was a fixture of Iran's society, before it was replaced in many instances by modern cafes and restaurants Socrates Think Tank talk on the tree of life (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday (1): This family-run bookshop in Tehran has been operating for 150 years, since the Qajar era. [Center] Throwback Thursday(2): Ghahveh-khaneh (literally, "coffee house") was a fixture of Iran's society, before it was replaced in many instances by modern cafes and restaurants. They actually didn't serve coffee, but tea, plus a limited number of snacks and meals, the most-prominent among them being abgoosht ("meat stew"). [Right] Socrates Think Tank talk (see the last item below).
(2) SpaceX earns $843 million NASA contract to build a vehicle to remove the International Space Station from its orbit when its useful life ends in a few years.
(3) The sad state of open-access publishing: Publishers being paid for every article they publish is a recipe for disaster, as they have no incentive to reject fraudulent or marginal papers. Yet, we can't really go back to the undemocratic, closed-access model. Reforming the system is our only option.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- The presidential debate was pure torture. Biden had trouble enunciating words. Trump spoke too many lies.
- Israel's Supreme Court rules that Orthodox Jews, now exempt from military service, can be drafted to serve.
- Marching backwards: Infant mortality rate has ticked up in Texas following the state's abortion ban.
- With 500,000 unresolved fraud cases, identity theft overwhelms the US Internal Revenue Service.
- Two French teenagers, a forward and a center, are NBA's top draft picks.
- This woman in Shiraz, Iran, operates a mobile bookstore which she moves around on a bike.
- Patience is a superpower: 17-minute TEDx talk by Oliver Burkeman.
- Copa America: Panama defeats USA 2-1, making it tough for the US to advance from the group stage.
(5) Sickening: "If you want to be free to go out without your hijab, then aroused young men should be free to rape you." ~ Representative of Iran's presidential candidate who's closest to the Supreme Leader
(6) Last night's Socrates Think Tank talk: Saleheh Ebadirad (Sally Rad), a PhD candidate in biochemistry and astrobiology at UC Riverside, spoke under the title "Tree of Life."
Dr. Ebadirad began by presenting quite a few tree diagrams drawn by scientists at various junctures, each one showing the branching of the species on Earth, with the trees getting more sophisticated over time. She then discussed the various theories about the origins of life on Earth, including proteins hitching rides on asteroids. She showed a diagram that represented the proliferation and extinction of life forms, including the Cambrian explosion which happened around 530 million years ago and six extinction events, the last one of which is now in progress. She concluded her talk by speculating on the future development of the tree of life.

2024/06/26 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzler: Find the area of the triangle ABC Math puzzler: Find the ratio of the two radii Math puzzler: Find the area of the yellow triangle (1) Math puzzlers: Find areas of the yellow triangles on the left & right and ratio of the radii in the middle.
(2) The presidential election circus in Iran: Only 3 days left to polling on June 28. All candidates have distanced themselves from harsh treatment of women on the streets for ignoring hijab laws. But this is par for the course. For decades, enforcement of hijab laws would wane as polling neared, only to pick up with greater intensity after the election. Iranian women are smarter than to fall for promises from someone, who, like all other Iranian presidents, will be a powerless figurehead who must defer to edicts of the Supreme Leader and his Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
(3) Students way ahead of their professors in embracing AI: Half of the students surveyed indicated that AI has helped them attain better grades. Two out of five faculty members are familiar with AI, but only 14 percent said they are confident in their ability to use AI in their teaching.
(4) To people of Iranian heritage who support Trump: He says clearly that he will make a deal with Iran's Islamic regime (no change of leadership), because of the country's huge economic potential.
(5) World initiative on curbing hate speech and mis/disinformation: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres releases global principles that call on tech companies, advertisers, media, and other organizations to avoid using, supporting, or amplifying hate speech and mis/disinformation.
We can dismiss this effort as just another grandiose UN report that will sit on shelves, gathering dust. But, even though the UN lacks enforcement power to implement these recommendations, defining the problem and its dimensions is a useful start.
(6) Digital price-labels and dynamic pricing: Leading retailers are switching from printed price-labels on store shelves to digital displays. With digital labels, they will save money and also be able to adjust prices dynamically, perhaps several times per hour.
Dynamic pricing is totally consistent with the principle of supply-and-demand in a free-market economy. Yet, I find its use for basic commodities quite jarring. When you see a price on the store shelf, will you end up paying a different amount at check-out? Whereas with on-line shopping you can wait for an unreasonably high price to drop before you buy, you don't have the same option when shopping at a store.
We humans crave stability. Micro-level dynamic pricing feels like someone pulling the rug from under our feet. Already, prices fluctuate wildly at supermarkets: A 12-pack of soda can cost $7.99 one day, $5.99 the next day with a digital coupon, and $9.99 another day, with a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Dynamic pricing will only add to the existing chaos.

2024/06/24 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Sensible advice from your librarian Home decor idea: Tree of knowledge Cover image of Michio Kaku's 'Hyperspace' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Sensible advice from your librarian. [Center] Home decor idea: Tree of knowledge. [Right] Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see the last item below).
(2) Coordinated terrorist attacks in Russia: Gunmen attacked a synagogue, a church, and a police station, killing at least two dozen people (15 of them policemen). [Washington Post]
(3) Human rights are universal, not relative: Flogging, cutting of hands, and stoning, even if they were part of the Iranian culture, which they are not, are inhumane. Charlatan Javad Zarif tries to justify Iran's compulsory hijab laws by claiming that every country has a dress code. When was the last time you saw US or European security forces drag a woman into a police van for violating the dress code? [Tweet, in Persian, with video]
(4) A part of Iran's influence campaign in the West: Javad Zarif led a campaign, aided by lobbyists of Iran's Islamist regime and paid "journalists," to portray General Qassem Soleimani a national hero and a terrorism fighter, instead of the criminal mass-murderer that he was. [Tweet, in Persian, with video]
(5) Book review: Kaku, Michio, Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension, unabridged 14-hour audiobook, read by Tim Lounibos, Highbridge Audio, 2023.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku is a prolific writer. I have read several of his books, but Hyperspace impressed me the most in terms of content and presentation. Ever since Einstein, physicists have been obsessed with building a bridge between relativity and quantum theory, in order to synthesize a unifying theory, the so-called "theory of everything," that is applicable both at the scale of planets & galaxies and at the microcosmic world of subatomic particles.
Speculations about more dimensions, beyond the familiar three for space and one for time, have existed for decades, both in the scientific community and among sci-fi writers. Kaku reviews these dimensions up to 10 (that an 11th dimension would make the model most-stable, became known after this book had been written) and asserts that superstring theory dealing with these extra dimensions is the best approximation yet to the sought-after unified theory.
According to superstring theory, dimensions beyond the fourth are curled up at a microscopic level, thus making them imperceptible to us humans. We only perceive the four "big" dimensions. The imperceptibility of other dimensions can be likened to a 2-dimentional being, as postulated in Edwin A. Abbott's classic novella Flatland (my review), being totally unaware of the third space dimension.
Superstring theory posits that there are no elementary particles (like electrons or quarks). We have nothing but pieces of vibrating strings. Each vibration mode corresponds to a different particle and determines its charge and its mass. In the current understanding of the theory, those strings are not "made of" anything: they are the fundamental constituent of matter.
Superstring theory is so difficult that many of its key equations remain unsolved. But to gain insight about how the universe works does not require solving the equations in full. Kaku offers many examples from everyday life that help the reader understand what all the fuss is about and what scientists are actually working on or quarrelling about. In the process, he offers intelligent speculations on the possibility of time travel and faster-than-light movement via wormholes.

2024/06/23 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Santa Barbara Summper Solstice Parade: Waiting for the parade to arrive Santa Barbara Summper Solstice Parade: Scenes from the Parade Santa Barbara Summper Solstice Parade: Barbecuing afterwards (1) (1) Yesterday's Summer Solstice Parade in Santa Barbara: Waiting along Santa Barbara Street, at Canon Perdido, for the Parade to arrive, scenes from the parade (2-minute video), and barbequing afterwards.
(2) Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi's death sentence overturned on appeal: This is good news, but for every well-known person spared because of intense social-media campaigns and international pressure, dozens of lesser-known dissidents are executed quietly.
(3) The media is hyping the upcoming presidential debate: They use superlatives to reel us in. Oh, it's the earliest debate ever! It can shape the campaigns for months! And so on, and so forth. Take it from me, the debate will do nothing, just as criminal convictions accomplished nothing. The criminal charlatan will die if he isn't in the spotlight. He is gasping for air. Don't give him air!
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Undisputed leader: Iran accounts for 74% of global executions during 2023. [Amnesty International]
- EU Soccer: Switzerland was getting ready to celebrate when Germany tied the match 1-1 in stoppage time.
- Copa America soccer: USA defeated Bolivia in the group stage, 2-0. [9-minute highlights]
- A little puzzler: How many times do the two hands of a standard 12-hour clock meet each other during a day?
(5) KIRN Radio Iran (Los Angeles) program, on "The Status of Women in Science and Engineering," Sunday, June 23, 2024, at 6:00 PM PT. [Podcast]
(6) UCSB warns student protesters that their sprawling encampment was illegal and must be removed: After no action was taken by the protesters, UCSB has begun to remove the tents and other artifacts set up across a lawn in central campus. The protesters had also defaced parts of adjacent buildings. [From a letter sent to the campus community by Chancellor Yang]

2024/06/20 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Group photos of physicists: 1927 and 2017 The heightened risk of nuclear war Hey Louisiana: How about posting the Ten Commandments on the front door of Mar-a-Lago? (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: The top photo, taken at a 1927 conference, is a virtual who's-who of the giants of physics. Marie Curie was the only woman among them. Ninety years later, a group of women physicists playfully recreated the photo with only one man among them. [Center] The heightened risk of nuclear war (see the last item below). [Right] A final thought for the day!
(2) Happy summer! We are having beautiful weather in Santa Barbara, but nearly half of the US is experiencing a scorching heat wave already!
(3) Virginia Hislop just graduated from Stanford University's Graduate School of Education at the age of 105: She got her bachelor's of education in 1940, four years after enrolling at Stanford, but earning her master's of education got delayed by 84 years.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Hundreds of Hajj pilgrims are reported dead from extreme heat in Saudi Arabia reaching 125 F. [WaPo]
- AI-assisted drones can decide which fruit to pick based on size, color, ripeness, & estimated sweetness.
- Time-lapse view of world airline traffic during 24 hours. [1-minute video]
- Dire Straits all-time greatest hits: Topped by their fantastic "Sultans of Swing." [113-minute audio file]
(5) Biden's lead among women voters has shrunk from 13% to 8%: How can a campaign be so out of touch to lose the support of women to a misogynist and rapist? Trump's lead among men remains in double-digits.
(6) Arvind Mithal (known simply as Arvind) dead at 77: The Charles W. & Jennifer C. Johnson Prof. of Computer Sci. & Eng. at MIT was known for his work on dataflow architectures and parallel computing. As a graduate student and later as a computer architecture researcher, I read many of Arvind's papers. RIP!
(7) Risk of nuclear war has become quite high: "Dark clouds loom on the nuclear horizon, with threats from all directions: Russia's nuclear bombast in its war on Ukraine, China's construction of hundreds of nuclear missile silos, North Korea's missile testing, India and Pakistan's ongoing nuclear competition, and Iran's push toward nuclear weapons capability. In response, US policy-makers are discussing whether a further American nuclear arms buildup is needed. At the same time, evolving technologies, from hypersonic missiles to artificial intelligence, are straining military balances and may be making them more unstable. The risk of nuclear war has not been so high since the Cuban Missile Crisis." ~ From Science magazine editorial, June 21, 2024

2024/06/19 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Celebrating Freedom Day: Juneteenth, the 19th day of June, commemorates the end of slavery in America's confederate states Tonight's IEEE CCS tech talk on the Large Hadron Collider Tonight's Socrates Think Tank talk on digital twins in medicine
Math puzzle: Find the area of the yellow triangle Math puzzle: Find the measure of the angle marked X Find the radius R of the blue quarter-circle (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Celebrating Freedom Day: Juneteenth, the 19th day of June, commemorates the end of slavery in America's confederate states. On this day in 1865, that is, 159 years ago, the Union Army established authority over Texas, setting free the slaves who still didn't know about the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. [Top center] Tonight's IEEE CCS tech talk (see the next item below). [Top right] Tonight's Socrates Think Tank talk (see the last item below). [Bottom row] Math puzzles: Find the area of the yellow triangle, the measure of the angle marked X, and the radius R of the blue quarter-circle.
(2) Tonight's IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dr. Benjamin Carlson (Westmont College) spoke under the title "Large Hadron Collider." The talk's more-detailed title was "Beyond the Higgs Boson: Using the Higgs Boson to Look for New Particles and the Future of LHC." Of particular interest is the pursuit of particles that may constitute dark matter.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN revolutionized modern physics when it helped discover the Higgs boson over a decade ago. The LHC will continue taking data for another 20 years, so long-term plans are being made for tackling a number of big questions, with understanding of dark matter being at the forefront.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Canada designates Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group. [Tweet, in Persian]
- Nvidia overtakes Microsoft and Apple Computer to become the world's most-valuable company. [WaPo chart]
(4) Louisiana passes a bill that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom. At this rate, the Christian Republic of America isn't far away!
(5) Tonight's Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Mohsen Attaran and Dr. Kamran Malek made a joint presentation entitled "Physical Patient ~ Digital Twins."
First, Dr. Attaran discussed the notion of digital twins in general and in the special case of medical applications. A patient's digital twin is an electronic model that holds all pertinent medical information for him/her, including health history, surgeries, allergies, medications, implants, and so on.
Next, Dr. Malek discussed how a patient's digital twin facilitates and speeds up the diagnosis and helps identify appropriate treatments. The entire medical history of the patient, prior diagnoses, imaging results, are consulted and cross-checked within a fraction of a second; what used to take days with manual information requests and evaluations.

2024/06/18 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Composition of the universe: Version 2 Composition of the universe: Version 1 A beautiful calligraphic rendering of a Mowlavi (Rumi) verse
You can read this sign going across or down: The choice is yours! Washington: SCOTUS Square (cartoon) Help-wanted sign at a Goleta bakery ('Help kneaded') (1) Images of the day: [Top left & center] Composition of the universe: Two slightly different accounts, both indicating that about 95% of the cosmos is dark energy & dark matter. [Top right] A beautiful calligraphic rendering of a Mowlavi (Rumi) verse. [Bottom left] You can read this sign going across or down: The choice is yours! [Bottom center] Washington: SCOTUS Square. [Bottom right] Help-wanted sign at a Goleta bakery.
(2) The rise of non-traditional schooling: As more US states introduce financial support for home-schooling and private micro-schools, parents are pulling their kids out from low-performing public schools.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- I can assure you this isn't my class: Try to guess the subject being taught! [Tweet, with photo]
- Facebook memory from June 17, 2021: Extended-family photo, recreated from a 2018 photo.
(4) "Women in Science and Engineering": This is the title of my presentation for the Persian-language "Marzhayeh Danesh" ("Frontiers of Science") radio program, which will be broadcast on Sunday 6/23, beginning at 6:00 PM, on KIRN Los Angeles, AM 670 or FM 95.5 (livestream). My talk consists of four 8-minute segments that will run between news & ads in the 1-hour program. Many of the previous programs are available as podcasts. They also livestream their programs.
(5) Final thought for the day: #EndGenderApartheid

2024/06/17 (Monday): Today, I present reviews of three books on the Persian poetry of Nezami Ganjavi.
Cover image of Dick Davis's 'Khosrow & Shirin' Cover image of Nizami's 'Layla and Majnun' Cover image of Mehdi Abedinejad's 'Summaries and Interpretations of Three Love Poems by Nezami Ganjavi' (1) Book review: Ganjavi, Nezami (Dick Davis, translator), Khosrow & Shirin, Mage Publishers, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Before "Romeo & Juliet" (1597), there was Nezami Ganjavi's "Khosrow & Shirin" (ca. 1180 CE). There are in fact quite a few other Persian love-stories/tragedies that precede Shakespeare by centuries. Nezami also wrote "Layla & Majnun," one of the greatest epic love poems in Persian. Nezami has a third love story, "Haft Paykar." All three of these love stories are summarized and interpreted in Summaries and Interpretations of Three Love Stories by Nezami Ganjavi (in Persian, Mirasban, 2022; my review).
Here is the gist of the story: After the death of his wife and a new failed marriage, Sassanid King Khosrow II finally marries Shirin while in exile in Armenia. They live happily together for several years until Khosrow's son, Shiroyeh, also in love with Shirin, orders his father's death. Shirin decides to take her own life, fearing humiliation through forced marriage to Shiroyeh. Khosrow and Shirin were buried in the same grave. The story also features Farhad, a sculptor who fell in love with Shirin and was willing to do anything to win her, but their love remained platonic.
Nezami does not portray Shirin as a damsel in distress to be saved by a knight in shining armor, but as a proto-feminist. Once, when Khosrow comes to her in a drunken state, she does not let him into the castle and reproaches him for his fling with another woman, Shekar. Khosrow was madly in love with Shirin, but Shirin kept rebuffing his advances, because she feared she would become a plaything for him to use as he pleased while he was intoxicated, not the queen she aspired to be. Eventually, Shirin received the marriage proposal she wanted.
By depicting Shirin's influence on Khosrow, which made him undergo transformation from a pointless life of pleasure to a spiritually meaningful one, Nezami dispenses advice on how one should live his/her life and on the importance of selflessness.
(2) Book review: Nizami (Translated from Persian and edited by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke, in collaboration with E. Mattin & G. Hill), The Story of Layla and Majnun, Bruno Cassirer, 1966.
[My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Presented in 53 short, untitled chapters, plus a postscript, this translation of Nizami's epic love poem begins thus: "Once there lived among the Bedouin in Arabia a great lord, a Sayyid, who ruled over the Banu Amir. No other country flourished like his and Zephyr carried the sweet scent of his glory to the farthest horizons. Success and merit made him Sultan of the Arabs and his wealth equaled that of Korah." What ate at this otherwise fortunate man was the fact that he had no son to inherit his wealth. When his wish was granted and he was given a son, celebrations ensued.
"The child was committed to the care of a nurse, so that under her watchful eye he should grow big and strong. So he did, and every drop of milk he drank was turned in his body into a token of faithfulness. Each line of indigo, drawn on his face to protect him against the Evil Eye, worked magic in his soul. ... Two weeks after his birth the child already looked like the moon after fourteen days and his parents gave him the name of Qays. ... [When he grew up,] people told the story of his beauty like a fairy tale. Whoever saw him—if only from afar—called upon heaven to bless him."
The sample quoted passages above and below should convince you that the translation of the work is engaging and of high quality.
Qays was educated under the care of a distinguished learned man. One day he meets Layla, a beautiful girl, a "miracle of creation" whose "face was a lamp, or rather a torch, with ravens weaving their wings around it."
"While all their friends were toiling at their books"
"These two were trying other ways of learning."
"Reading love's grammar in each other's looks,"
"Glances to them were marks which they were earning."
"Their minds were freed from spelling by love's spell,"
"They practiced, writing notes full of caress;"
"The others learned to count—while they could tell,"
"That nothing ever counts but tenderness."
When Qays realized that he can't get Layla's hand in marriage, his aimless and erratic behavior earned him the nickname Majnun (Madman). Scores of pages later, we read about Layla's death. "A cold fever shook her limbs and spread dark blotches and stains over her sweet face. … Sensing that death stood close, she allowed no one near but her mother, revealing in this hour for the first and last time, the secret of her love. … When I am dead, dress me like a bride. Make me beautiful. As a salve for my eyes, take dust from Majnun's path. Prepare indigo from his sorrow, sprinkle the rose-water of his tears on my head and veil me in the scent of his grief. … He will come, my restless wanderer—I know. He will sit at my grave searching for the moon, yet seeing nothing but the veil—the earth—and he will weep and lament."
It happened just as Layla had predicted. When Majnun learned about the death of his beloved, he rushed to her and fell on her grave as if struck by lightning. He exclaimed: "Oh my flower, you withered before you blossomed, your spring was your fall, your eyes hardly saw this world. … Your musk-mole, your gazelle eye—where are they [now]? The splendor of your agate lips, the amber-scented coils of your tresses—what has happened to them?" Majnun goes on and on with his lament, before returning to the wilderness. When he could not find solace anywhere, his longing drove him back to the grave of his beloved. In short order, Majnun started to feel weak, moving quickly toward death; though not quickly enough from his viewpoint. He transitioned, while reciting a prayer on
Layla's grave: "Maker of all things created! I implore thee in the name of everything which thou hast chosen: relieve me of this burden. Let me go where my love dwells. Free me from this cruel existence and, in the other world, cure me of my torment here."
The exquisite story of the love between Layla and Majnun is Nizami's way of portraying the ideal lover, while dispensing life advice and explaining soul's search for God.
(3) Book review: Abedinejad, Mehdi, Summaries and Interpretations of Three Love Poems by Nezami Ganjavi (in Persian), Mirasban, 2022. [My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Abedinejad intermixes verses from epic poems by Nezami Ganjavi [ca. 1141-1209 CE] with brief textual narratives to summarize and interpret three of the five stories forming parts of Nezami's "Khamsa" ("Five Treasures"). Besides the three love stories covered in this book ("Khosrow & Shirin," "Leyla & Majnun," and "Haft Peykar" aka "Bahram Nameh"), "Khmasa" also includes "Makhzan ol-Asrar" and "Eskandar Nameh."
The book under review begins with a 15-page preface, written by Mehdi Farahani Monfared, who offers a brief biography of Nezami and also introduces the author. About a quarter of the book is devoted to "Khosrow & Shirin" (pp. 29-76), one-sixth is taken up by "Leyla & Majnun" (pp. 77-109), and more than half (pp. 111-227) covers "Haft Peykar."
There are quite a few books and articles on Nezami's "Khosrow & Shirin," including a wonderful new English translation by Dick Davis (my review). "Leyla & Majnun" has similarly received much attention; see, for example, the translation by Dr. Rudolf Gelpke (my review). Both of these love-stories/tragedies predate Shakespear's "Romeo & Juliette" by several centuries. "Haft Peykar" has a somewhat different nature, for even though it does contain elements of a love story, it is mostly the life story of King Bahram Gur, known for his hunting skills and seven wives: The seven "peykars" or "beauties" of the story's title.
The book could have benefited from an index to help link the similar notions discussed in the three stories.

2024/06/16 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A very happy Fathers' Day to all dads and father-like nurturers & mentors, past, present, and future! Women's status on the corporate ladder deteriorates The Earth will face a severe food challenge when its population reaches 10 billion by 2050
My niece Kimia's graduation from UCLS: Batch 5 of photos My niece Kimia's graduation from UCLS: Batch 14 of photos My niece Kimia's graduation from UCLS: Batch 10 of photos (1) Images of the day: [Top left] A happy Fathers' Day to all dads and father-like nurturers & mentors, past, present, and future! Today, we particularly remember our fathers who are no longer with us. They are missed! [Top center] Two steps forward, one step back (see the next item below). [Top right] Food equation: World population reaching 10 billion by 2050 + 40% of the Earth's agricultural land already degraded = Disaster. [Bottom row] Combined graduation and Fathers' Day celebration at a park near UCLA, with yummy take-out food from Shamshiri Restaurant. The proud graduate had the company of our entire extended family, some of them coming from far-away places.
(2) For women, there is good news and bad news: The good news a few days ago was the rising level of contribution by women to scientific/technical papers over the past two decades: In the US, contributions of women rose from 30% to 42% (26% to 39% worldwide). Here is the bad news: The status of women on the corporate ladder is declining. While half of entry-level positions are held by women, the fraction declines to one-third at the VP level and to about one-fourth at the C-suite level.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- An option for pensioners: Retirement on a college campus with a pass to attend any class they wish.
- The oldest unsolved problem in mathematics: Does there exist an odd perfect number? [12-minute video]
- Human athletic abilities are improving so fast that we may soon turn into a different species.
- Starting with 5, every second Fibonacci number is the hypotenuse of a right triangle with integer sides.
(4) Another watchdog loses its battle with MAGA: Stanford has shut down its Internet Observatory, which aimed to identify viral disinformation about election procedures and outcomes in real time. Ongoing lawsuits and congressional inquiries into the Observatory have cost Stanford millions of dollars in legal fees.
(5) Wells Fargo fires 12+ employees who pretended to work: With the prevalence of remote work, some companies have deployed tools that monitor keystrokes and eye movements, take screenshots, and record Website visits. Technologies like "mouse jigglers," which make it appear as though workers are using their computers when they are not, allow workers to evade surveillance.
(6) Final thought for the day: This hand-made card and gift of audiobooks for Fathers' Day put a smile on my face. Thank you, my precious daughter!

2024/06/15 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
China has been steadily rising in contributions to published scientific/technical papers: It overtook EU in 2019 and USA in 2023 That's a real cat on the bookshelf, not a figurine! In a 'policy' meeting with top congressional Republicans, Trump made a bizarre claim about Nancy Pelosi's daughter, and one of her four daughters responded (1) Images of the day: [Left] China has been steadily rising in contributions to published scientific/technical papers: It overtook EU in 2019 and USA in 2023. India is also on the rise. It's worth noting, however, that a significant share of retracted papers are also from India & China. [Center] That's a real cat on the bookshelf, not a figurine! [Right] This madman has no place in government: In a "policy" meeting with top congressional Republicans, Trump made a bizarre claim about Pelosi's daughter, and one of her four daughters responded.
(2) United Auto Workers union is reportedly coping with tensions between its student members focused on the war in Gaza and its blue-collar workers focused on pocketbook issues. [NYT]
(3) UCLA has a new chancellor: University of Miami President, the Mexico-born global public health researcher Julio Frenk, will become the next chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles. He will inherit from the retiring Chancellor Gene Block a campus roiled by protests over the Israel-Hamas war.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Abortion bans are good for the travel business. [NYT infographic]
- Arizona man planned a mass shooting of Blacks & other minorities at a rap concert to incite a race war.
- Facebook memory from June 14, 2021: On repunit primes (prime numbers of the form 111...11).
- Facebook memory from June 14, 2021: Worry about crony capitalism, not socialism.
- Facebook memory from June 14, 2020: Religion has become a tool of politics (Persian poem).
- Facebook memory from June 15, 2014: Fathers' Day celebration, 10 years ago.
(5) The habit of comparing ourselves to others can lead to poor mental health: "The comparison starts at an early age. Perhaps we wish we had the same toys as one of our friends or the backpack they have. As we grow older, ... you may find yourself comparing how much money you make to others or where you are in terms of relationships, education, or careers. ... If it is not addressed, comparison can lead to poor mental health and issues like anxiety and depression."
(6) Start-ups go to war: The war with Russia has supercharged the Ukrainian tech sector to form a drone development superhub. [E&T magazine]
(7) Fire Seyed Hossein Mousavian: Princeton U. professor and former Iranian diplomat with blood on his hands, threatens that Iran can quickly cause $1 trillion damage to UAE in the event of a war with the US.
(8) The hostage-taking Iranian mullahs are rewarded: In a prisoner swap deal, #HamidNouri who was serving a life sentence in Sweden for his role in the mass-execution of political prisoners was returned to Iran.

2024/06/14 (Friday): Today, I offer reviews of 3 books on understanding and dealing with mental illness.
Cover image of Donna Jackson Nakazawa's 'Girls on the Brink' Cover image of Xavier Amador's 'I'm Not Sick, I Don't Need Help' Cover image of Ken Duckworth's 'You Are Not Alone' (1) Book review: Nakazawa, Donna Jackson, Girls on the Brink: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Era of Increased Anxiety, Depression, and Social Media, Harmony, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Science journalist Donna Nakazawa maintains that "our daughters, students, and the girl next door are more anxious and more prone to depression and self-harming than ever before." In 2019, 1 in 3 girls reported symptoms of major depression, vs. 1 in 10 boys. A typical young girl feels that her life is one endless performance, during which she is examined and judged. When combined with unchecked immersion in social media, the mental state above can derail a young girl's emotional development.
Fortunately, there is also good news. Puberty, which is considered a particularly vulnerable period for girls, is also a time when the female brain is responsive to various kinds of support and scaffolding. This responsiveness can potentially turn a young girl's innate sensitivity into a superpower.
In her book, Nakazawa offers 15 simple strategies for raising emotionally healthy girls, based on cutting-edge science that explains the modern pressures that make it so difficult for adolescent girls to thrive. I was fortunate to attend Nakazawa's book talk, sponsored by UCLA's Semel Institute, on March 5, 2024, when she reiterated the need for urgent action to save our girls.
(2) Book review: Amador, Xavier, I'm Not Sick, I Don't Need Help: How to Help Someone Accept Treatment, Publisher, 20th Anniversary Edition, 2022. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Anosognosia (lack of insight) is a neurological condition in which the patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition. One of the most-challenging tasks in caring for a loved one with mental illness is to get them to accept that they are sick and then to open them up to advice and help from professionals. Based on decades of experience with mentally-ill patients and their families, Amador advanced a four-part strategy dubbed LEAP (listen, empathize, agree, partner) for developing partnership and trust with those experiencing anosognosia.
Amador's I'm Not Sick has become a classic, providing information and insights, not only to mental-health and criminal-justice professionals, but also to family members who care for a mentally-ill loved one. In this 20th Anniversary Edition, all chapters have been updated with new research on anosognosia and much more detail on LEAP.
You can read an excerpt of I'm Not Sick on this Web page. And here is a 75-minute talk by Amador on his book. For those with less patience, this 18-minute TEDx talk contains all the essentials.
(3) Duckworth, Ken, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health, unabridged 14-hour audiobook, read by the author & Tim Fannon, Zando, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Many families who care for loved ones suffering from mental illness are in the dark about diagnoses, treatments, and recovery processes, which leads to frustration and inability to help. When it comes to mental health, the US healthcare industry remains chaotic, underfunded, and inaccessible. To make matters worse, there are no tests, such as bloodwork and X-ray used for physical ailments, to help with definite diagnoses of mental illness, leading to conflicting and confusing advice.
This NAMI-supported book, which oozes with expertise and compassion, contains:
- First-person accounts illustrating the diversity of mental health journeys
- Guidance on dealing with mental health conditions and seeking care
- Research-based evidence on what treatments and approaches work best
- Insight and advice from renowned clinical experts and practitioners
NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness, is a valuable resource that the sufferers of mental illness and their families/caretakers can turn to for advice and help. Among other activities, NAMI supports peer-to-peer and family-to-family classes and discussion groups. [Web site]

2024/06/13 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: Shams Beer was a popular and fairly inexpensive brand in Iran before the Islamic Revolution Cartoon: 'The captain has informed us that our arrival will be somewhat delayed because of Europe's ongoing shift to the right' Meet Iran's 6 presidential candidates
Socrates Think Tank talk on Spinoza'a God Math puzzle: In the isosceles triangle ACD, find the length X of AB Talangor Group talk on climate change and water crisis in Iran (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday: Shams Beer was a popular and fairly inexpensive brand in Iran before the Islamic Revolution. The Armenian-owned Shams Beer Factory in Eastern Tehran was set on fire by Islamists on January 30, 1979, with its contents looted. [Top center] New Yorker cartoon: "The captain has informed us that our arrival will be somewhat delayed because of Europe's continuing shift to the right." [Top right] Meet Iran's 6 presidential candidates: Three are fairly well-known (Pourmohammadi is a hanging judge, who, like Raisi, has blood on his hands; Ghalibaf is corrupt to the core; Jalili was Raisi's ideologue). The other three are highly unlikely to win (Pezeshkian is a reformist who may have been allowed to run as a show candidate; Zakani and Ghazizadeh are nobodies). As usual, several big names, including a former president and a former speaker of the Parliament, were disqualified, which should make for an interesting campaign season. [Bottom left] Socrates Think Tank talk (see the next item below). [Bottom center] Math puzzle: In the isosceles triangle ACD, find the length X of AB. [Bottom right] Talangor Group talk (see the last item below).
(2) Last night's Socrates Think Tank Talk: Dr. Mohammad B. Bagheri talked about "The God of Spinoza." There were 165 attendees.
Baruch Spinoza [1632-1677], a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, opined that though everything ultimately derives from God, s/he cannot be the cause of sadness since s/he is perfect. As understood by Spinoza, the real cause of sadness is ignorance or people's lack of understanding the causes that have led them to feel sorrow.
In Spinoza's view, it is absurd to think of God as a being who listens to our prayers and gets angry at us when we misbehave. To follow God is to work hard to understand the nature around us and to be resigned to living according to nature's laws. When we see something as a miracle, it is simply because we have not yet discovered the laws of nature that govern or cause it.
The Enlightenment thinker was branded a heretic, but his philosophy is loaded with subtle religious insights. He recognized the existence of God but was an enemy of religion. Albert Einstein once said that he believed in "Spinoza's God," which was seen as proof that great scientific minds have no time for superstitious fairy tales.
Spinoza is a key figure in rationalism. He was excommunicated by religious authorities, who instructed everyone to avoid him and to cease all communication with him. Spinoza's most-significant work was on ethics, which, by his own request, was published after his death.
(3) I have fond memories of Jerry West, the basketball and Lakers legend who just died at 86: In my graduate-student days at UCLA, I watched a lot of basketball, and watching Jerry West play was a treat. His silhouette has been immortalized on the NBA logo. RIP.
(5) Women have made gains in STEM research: A large-scale study by academic publisher Elsevier has found a ~50% increase in contributions of women researchers to STEM fields (26% of total production in 2000 to 39% in 2022; 30% to 42% in the US). At the current rate of progress, parity is still ~30 years away.
(6) Tonight's Talangor Group talk: Dr. Khalil Rashidian spoke under the title "Climate Change and the Heightened Water Crisis in Iran." There were ~70 attendees.
There has been much talk about the dwindling water resources in Iran for the dual reasons of climate change and inept water-management officials. Businesses run by top clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps abuse water resources to maximize their short-term profits, showing no concern for long-term consequences of their action. A few officials who criticized this state of affairs were sidelined or forced into exile. Environmental activists are routinely arrested and imprisoned for opposing the government's shortsighted policies.
Against this background, Dr. Rashidian's talk consisted of two parts. First, he presented a general overview of climate change (global warming and the attendant sea-level rise), along with current and future consequences of expected changes. In the second part, he focused on the case of Iran, with an extensive review of the depletion of water resources and the resulting damage to the environment and the livelihood of local farmers. A particularly challenging problem is the sinking of ground which damages farmlands and gobbles up buildings and other infrastructure in sinkholes.
While pursuing appropriate policies might mitigate some of the problem, much of the damage inflicted by past inaction and abuse appears to be irreversible. Border disputes over water resources complicates future planning and raises the severity of the problems.

2024/06/12 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Is there an example in human history when the book-burners were the good guys? Cover image of Amanda Montell's 'The Age of Magical Overthinking' Imaginative artwork with a message: Seen on Sunday at the arts & craft show along Santa Barbara's Cabrillo Blvd (1) Images of the day: [Left] Is there an example in human history when book-burners were the good guys? [Center] Amanda Montell's The Age of Magical Overthinking (see the last item below). [Right] Imaginative artwork with a message: Seen on Sunday at the arts & craft show along Santa Barbara's Cabrillo Blvd.
(2) Trump supporters say that Hunter Biden was convicted to project a fake image of a fair legal system: Imagine what they would say if Hunter had been exonerated!
(3) Saudi Arabia invests in chip design: The kingdom's National Semiconductor Hub, which will develop fabless chip companies, as part of a strategy to position itself as a leader in semiconductor design, hopes to attract 50 firms by 2030 to develop simple chips, with manufacturing done internationally for now. [Bloomberg]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- As people around the world gain in English fluency, the translated book market has shrunk. [NYT]
- What an excellent 5-minute workout! Nice music too!
- Engineering design: I had no idea that bowling pinsetter machines are so complex! [12-minute video]
- Math puzzle: Consider y = 2^x. Is there a non-integer value for x that yields an integer value for y?
- Super-funny stand-up comedy routine by Jim McDonald. [23-minute video]
- Facebook memory from June 11, 2016: My daughter's graduation from UCLA.
(5) Book review: Montell, Amanda, The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by the author, Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I became familiar with linguist Amanda Montell's work through Wordslut (my review on GoodReads), a wonderful mix of pop culture and academic linguistics that addresses the ways in which patriarchy has invaded and overtaken the English language.
In The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell maintains that in the 21st century, our focus has shifted from external threats to internal ones. Glued to our phones and alienated from our loved ones, we are increasingly lonely. She points to cognitive biases that rule our brains, from the "Halo effect," cultivating worship/hatred of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the "Sunk Cost Fallacy" can keep us in harmful relationships long after we have realized their toxicity.
Our society faces a crisis of the mind, which is intensified by misinformation and disinformation from social media and other sources. Our reliance on specialists has been replaced with taking advice from untrained influencers. Montell exposes our cultural obsession with irrational beliefs and debunked ideas, and gives us tools to escape it.

2024/06/11 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Virtual talk on Persian-language computer output Cover image of 'Rethinking Intelligence' Cover image of Patrick House's 'Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Virtual talk on Persian-language computer output (see the next item below). [Center] Rethinking Intelligence, a book by Rina Bliss (see item 3 below). [Center] Patrick House's Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness (see the last item below).
(2) How We Taught the Computer to Write in Persian: This was a title of a talk I gave on Monday morning to a group of graduates from Arya-Mehr/Sharif University of Technology. The attendees included 4 of my former students, a couple of whom shared stories from our interactions some 5 decades ago. The talk was very similar to the ones I have been giving to various audiences since 2017, updating the slides by adding figures and other material each time. Here is a link to the PDF slides of my talk.
(3) Book review: Bliss, Rina, Rethinking Intelligence: A Radical New Understanding of Our Human Potential, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by Samantha Tan, Harper Audio, 2023.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
The nature of intelligence has been debated for centuries, with the debate intensity picking up in recent decades, as we began struggling to define artificial intelligence. For a long time, the test-based intelligence quotient (IQ) was accepted and used to "measure" intelligence, with the results used to predict a child's future and to plan his/her course of studies and career options. Bliss, a genetics expert and member of the faculty at Rutgers University, adds fuel to the fire that debunked the primacy of IQ tests and the innate nature of intelligence.
She presents her ideas in 9 numbered chapters, sandwiched between introductory and concluding chapters. Chapters 1-4 constitute Part I, Understanding Intelligence (Thinking intelligence; Understanding IQ; The nature of Intelligence; Nurturing intelligence). Chapters 5-7 comprise Part II, Nurturing Intelligence (The growth mindset; From mind to mindful; Learning to connect). Chapters 8-9 of Part III are about Valuing Intelligence (Getting smarter as a society; Seeing value in us all).
Relating her challenging family life, with a chronically overworked mom and a perpetually overdosed dad, Bliss tells us that, as a part-Asian student, being perceived as a superior intellect was her ticket out of trouble. "Even for a 'smart kid' like me, the pressure to perform was overwhelming. I was tormented by the fear that I wouldn't measure up."
Sharing insights from the burgeoning science of epigenetics, Bliss helps us harness our environments to empower our minds. One key is eliminating toxic stress. Other factors include embracing a growth mindset, prioritizing connection, becoming more mindful, and reforming systemic issues such as poverty, racism, the lack of quality early childhood education. Bliss reframes human behavior and intellect, offering a new perspective for understanding ourselves and our children.
(4) Book review: House, Patrick, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, unabridged 5-hour audiobook, read by Taylor Clarke-Hill, Macmillan Audio, 2022. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
A poem can be translated in many different ways. There is no such thing as the "correct" translation. In fact, none of the many translations may trigger the same emotions in the reader as the original poem. House's book title mimics commentaries by Eliot Weinberger and Octavio Paz, who looked at 19 translations of a 1200-year-old Chinese quatrain.
Consciousness is a very difficult topic to discuss and understand. Most descriptions of it entail either hand-waving or circular arguments. I am afraid that all 19 ways discussed by House suffer from the same shortcomings. However, one does learn a great deal about related topics in psychology and neuroscience in the course of pursuing an understanding of consciousness.

2024/06/10 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
How the extreme right creates non-existent issues to anger the MAGA base into voting and contributing money G7 taps women's-rights activist Masih Alinejad for its Gender Equality Advisory Council These two women are separated by less than one meter in space and more than 1400 years in time! (1) Images of the day: [Left] How the extreme right creates non-existent issues to anger the MAGA base into voting and contributing money: This poll is based on the totally false assumption that undocumented immigrants can vote if they want to. In reality, they can't register to vote. [Center] G7 taps women's-rights activist @AlinejadMasih for its Gender Equality Advisory Council. [Right] These two women are separated by less than one meter in space and more than 1400 years in time!
(2) Your driving score: We all know about credit scores, but did you know that there is also a driving score? The score is based on how often you speed, slam on the brakes, look at your phone, or drive late at night. The data can be collected by your car or smartphone apps and sold to brokers, who work with auto insurers. [NYT]
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UC given a temporary restraining order against UAW strikers, while its claim of strike illegality is assessed.
- Apple announces built-in intelligence for iPhone, iPad, & Mac, while setting a new standard for privacy in AI.
- Iran's assassins & kidnappers target dissidents and former US government officials. [13-minute video]
- PBS "Firing Line" program examines the Electoral College: Reasons for abolishing or keeping it.
(4) An Ohio high-school graduate hands a copy of Handmaid's Tale to a school official to protest the book's banning by her school district.
(5) The Brain and Hate: The multi-part online series "The State of Hate" is co-sponsored by the Friends of Semel Institute, the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital Board of Advisors, and the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate. The UCLA Initiative to Study Hate is a three-year pilot project intended to foster cutting-edge research and high-level teaching to understand better and mitigate group-based hate.
In today's first installment, after opening remarks by Dr. David Myers, Distinguished Professor, Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy and Director of the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, UCLA Professors Adriana Galvan and Mario F. Mendez discussed the opportunities and challenges of studying the neuroscience of hate. They also covered some of the cognitive processes that advance hateful behavior & how we can counter them.
Evolutionarily, hate has served the role of ensuring our survival. In this role, it is closely related to fear. However, hate has outlived its usefulness in today's law-abiding societies. It is now threatening, rather than ensuring, our survival.
Part 2, Hate and the election, and Part 3, Hate and the social media, will come in fall 2024. Recordings of these discussions will be made available on the Semel Institute Web site.

2024/06/09 (Sunday): Today, I offer reviews of books on words, languages, and communication skills.
Cover image and sample pages from Nahid Pirnazar's 'Judeo-Persian Writings' Cover image for Amanda Montell's 'Wordslut' Cover image for Charles Duhigg's 'Supercommunicators' (1) Book review: Pirnazar, Nahid (editor & compiler), Judeo-Persian Writings: A Manifestation of Intellectual and Literary Life, Routledge, 2022. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Judeo-Persian documents, that is, Persian-language texts written in the Hebrew alphabet, date back to the 8th century CE. They include Biblical epics, Biblical commentaries, historical texts, liturgical poems, and court & trade documents.
Judeo-Persian religious poetry is closely modeled on classical Persian poetry, with the best-known poet being Mowlana Shahin Shirazi, who composed epic versifications of parts of the Bible. The poet, a contemporary of Hafez, is known to have worked during the 1316-1335 CE reign of Ilkhan Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan.
Once adequately researched and properly catalogued, the rich literary tradition of works written in Judeo-Persian can contribute to a better understanding of linguistics, history, and sociocultural issues of nearly three millennia of Jewish presence in Southwest Asia.
Dr. Pirnazar takes a valuable step in this direction by reviewing the history of Judeo-Persian (Part 1; pp. 1-41) and providing representative samples of Judeo-Persian writings (Part II; pp. 43-121). Each sample includes the original text, its Perso-Arabic version, and an English translation. Three pages of references and a 3-page index conclude the book.
(2) Book review: Montell, Amanda, Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by the author, Harper Audio, 2019.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
A misguided English proverb goes, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words [or names] can never hurt me." In fact, words, and language more generally, are tools of oppression and deception and are thus potentially hurtful.
For many centuries, coining words and devising linguistic rules have been under the control of powerful white men. The English language is full of words that are used to put down women and other marginalized groups. In the case of women, the use of "bitch," "slut," and "pig" are quite familiar. Some of the above started as normal (occasionally even positive) words that were appropriated for use as put-downs. Others were created as insults.
Montell makes us aware of the uneven way in which male and female gender are treated and offers suggestions on how to handle this imbalance. She puts her linguistics degree to good use in tracing sociolinguistics' historical roots and its impact on the contemporary feminist stance broadly practiced today. Given that we view the world, and even think, through the lens of language, Montell's observations on how to take back the language and make it more precise in dealing with gender are quite important for anyone who wants to use language effectively and fairly.
According to Library Journal, "[Wordslut] blends academic study with pop-culture attitude ... At its heart, this work reflects a tenet of sociolinguistic study: language is not divorced from culture; it both reflects and creates beliefs about identity and power."
(3) Book review: Duhigg, Charles, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by the author, Random House Audio, 2024.
[My 3-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Duhigg confides that he wrote this book when he realized that his own communication skills needed improvement, which is somewhat of a surprise, given that he is a journalist.
All you need to know about the subject matter of the book is included in the first 15% or so. The elaborations in the rest of the book aren't particularly helpful. Good communicators, the kind of people who are routinely used in hostage-negotiation situations or find themselves leading and influencing jury deliberations, are characterized by empathetic listening skills and the ability to help a conversation move along by injecting interesting questions, the kinds that trigger emotions and require deep thinking.
For example, rather than ask a shallow question about your line of work, they may inquire about the aspect of your job that you like best. Although a good communicator should avoid making a conversation about him/herself, injecting emotional, personal comments that project vulnerability is usually helpful.
Good communication skills, which are acquired through practice, don't only impact our professional stature. We can lead healthier, happier, and more fulfilling lives when we connect with others. Conversations positively affect our brains, bodies, and how we experience the world.

2024/06/08 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Some of the 24+ victims of Islamic Republic of Iran's terrorist attacks under Seyed Hossein Mousavian's watch Calligraphic writing produced with ball-point pens, instead of special calligraphic pens Cover image for Kaveh Akbar's 'Martyr! A Novel' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Some of the 24+ victims of Islamic Republic of Iran's terrorist attacks under Seyed Hossein Mousavian's watch: Princeton University should fire him from his faculty position. [Center] Calligraphic writings are usually produced with special calligraphic pens: A number of Persian masters also produce calligraphic art with ordinary ball-point pens. This wonderful sample is from Akbar Mojaradi. [Right] Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! A Novel (see the last item below).
(2) Virtual Town Hall Meeting facilitated by the Santa Cruz Faculty Association: UCSB faculty and union organizers were present in a Zoom gathering on Friday afternoon to update us on the latest developments on the academic workers' strike and its impact. My own classes are not affected by the ongoing strike (one is a graduate course with no TA and the other is a freshman seminar graded based on attendance), but my colleagues are experiencing much anxiety over how to handle the end-of-academic-year tasks without violating various laws. Students, particularly those about to graduate, are even more anxious.
(3) Book review: Akbar, Kaveh, Martyr! A Novel, unabridged 11-hour audiobook, read by Arian Moayed, Random House Audio, 2024. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Kaveh Akbar's poetry has been published in The New Yorker and The New York Times, among other venues, and his work has received a lot of critical acclaim as well as multiple prestigious awards.
Martyr! is Akbar's debut novel. It features the profoundly-sad protagonist Cyrus Shams, an Iranian-American who was brought to the US as a baby by his father Ali. A major theme in the story is the gruesome death of Cyrus's mother, Roya, whose Tehran-to-Dubai Iran Air flight was mistakenly shot down over the Persian Gulf by the US Navy. There were 66 children aboard the flight. Cyrus was supposed to be the 67th, but Roya decided to leave her months-old baby at home. However, bear in mind that nothing in the story is what is seems; there are quite a few plot twists!
Other major themes in the story are the struggles of Cyrus's father, Ali, a hard-working & proud laborer, relatives and acquaintances who were physically or psychologically injured during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, and the plight of Orkideh, a very special artist who is dying from cancer. We also learn about Cyrus' imaginary brother, Beethoven, who once had a conversation with basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
As a poet, Cyrus is in a constant struggle with life as well as death. He wants to die in a way that serves a bigger purpose, hence the novel's title, which, in Cyrus' view, does not mean strapping explosives to himself and carrying out a suicide-bombing mission. Much of the fascinating story is about Cyrus (his struggles, depression, addiction, and sense of powerlessness), but there are a few chapters that are told from the perspective of his parents, one of his friends, and his uncle.
This is a difficult, but rewarding, novel to read. It draws you in, but wears you out at the same time. There are a couple of fillers, which in my view should have been left out. For example, the life story of the great Persian poet Ferdowsi does not belong in this otherwise absorbing story. Ditto for discussion of another great poet, Mowlavi (Rumi).

2024/06/07 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest: What do you think of my entry? Qasr al-Farid, an unfinished tomb in Saudi Arabia: The Saudis have spent nearly $1 trillion in recent years on expanding tourism
Election circus in Iran: Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signs up to become a presidential candidate Home, sweet home: Multilingual sign seen over the Ocean Road bike underpass on the UCSB campus Cover image of Kip Thorne's 'The Science of Interstellar' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Bora Bora is an island in French Polynesia: The extinct volcano, Mount Otemanu, sits at the center of this atoll. The Teavanui Passage, the only opening to the ocean, allows large ships to enter the serene lagoon. [Top center] New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest: What do you think of my entry? "Time travelers from the future bring us the cutest things!" [Top right] Qasr al-Farid, an unfinished tomb in Saudi Arabia: The Saudis have spent nearly $1 trillion in recent years on expanding tourism. But what does tourism mean in a country that enforces strict Islamic laws? [Bottom left] Election circus in Iran: Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signs up to become a presidential candidate. His chances of passing the filter of the Guardian Council are slim to none. More importantly, he is mistaken in believing that his criticism of high-level mullahs will erase the effect of his calling Iranian street protesters "dust & dirt," while security forces under his command shot them! [Bottom center] Home: Multilingual sign seen over the Ocean Road underpass on the UCSB campus. [Bottom right] Kip Thorne's The Science of Interstellar (see the last item below).
(2) Imagine our country's history, its pursuit of a more-perfect union, and its ideals of equality being delegated to a bigoted felon for safeguarding!
(3) Did the COVID-19 pandemic leave us a legacy of other diseases? Whooping cough cases have doubled and unusual forms of cancer have begun to appear. [NYT]
(4) Book review: Thorne, Kip, The Science of Interstellar, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by Eric Michael Summerer, Tantor Audio, 2014. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I recently watched Christopher Nolan's 2014 sci-fi film "Interstellar." I particularly enjoyed the powerful film score, composed by Hans Zimmer. In order to augment my understanding of the film's story, I searched for and found the following explanation of the film's script and its plot summary. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/interstellar-explained-meaning-plot-summary/
Further investigation led to the book under review here. Cal Tech theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate Kip S. Thorne [1940-], who was intimately involved in the making of "Interstellar," explains that the notions behind the film's story, mainly black holes and wormholes, are grounded in real science. When scientific facts had to be stretched, care was taken to keep events and scenes within the realm of possibility.
"Interstellar" was directed by Christopher Nolan, after Steven Spielberg dropped out due to disagreements with Paramount. Nolan went on to achieve even greater fame with his recent film, "Oppenheimer," which was honored with 7 Academy Awards.
Thorne starts his book with the film's history and his interactions with the actors, special-effects artists, and other collaborators, before proceeding to describe the actual physics in the remaining 30 chapters, organized into 7 parts, as follows:
- Foundations (the universe & its laws, warped time/space, black holes)
- Gargantua (anatomy & imaging, gravitational slingshots, disks & jets)
- Disaster on Earth (blight, gasping for oxygen, interstellar travel)
- The wormhole (visualization & discovery, gravitational waves)
- Exploring Gargantua's environs (Miller's & Mann's planets, vibrations)
- Extreme physics (5th dimension, gravitational anomalies, singularities)
- Climax (the tesseract, messaging the past, lifting colonies off Earth)

2024/06/06 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
D-Day celebrated after 80 years: On June 6, 1944, troops from the US, Canada, and Britain landed in northern France under heavy fire Throwback Thursday: Photos with my three sisters, over the years CE Capstone Projects were presented today in ESB 1001
Yesterday, I taught my last class for the spring quarter: Celebrating with colorful flowers Maestro Shardad Rohani, with Roudaki Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Cyrus Forough, Sunday, July 14, 2024, at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall UCSB encampment sign reading 'Queers for Free Palestine' (1) Images of the day: [Top left] D-Day celebrated after 80 years: On June 6, 1944, troops from the US, Canada, and Britain landed in northern France under heavy fire. The invasion helped lay the groundwork for victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. World leaders (minus Putin, who was not invited) and WW II veterans, some of them 100+ years old, have gathered in France to mark the occasion. [Top center] Throwback Thursday: Photos with my three sisters, over the years. [Top right] CE Capstone Project Presentations (see the last item below). [Bottom left] Yesterday, I taught my last class for the spring quarter and will go into summer mode upon grading a last homework assignment and a few research reports. [Bottom center] Of possible interest to my SoCal readers: Maestro Shardad Rohani, in concert with Roudaki Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Cyrus Forough, Sunday, July 14, 2024, at UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. [Bottom right] I hate to criticize queers during this Pride Month: But someone please tell those who placed the bottom sign at the UCSB encampment about what they do to LGBTQ people in Gaza and other Middle Eastern Arab/Islamic countries.
(2) President Biden speaks on the 80th anniversary of D-Day: To surrender to bullies or to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable. To do that means forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches in Normandy. Make no mistake, we will not bow down. And we will not forget.
(3) Stanford U. will suspend 13 students who were arrested after occupying the president's office: The pro-Palestinian protesters illegally entered a building, injured a law enforcement officer, and caused extensive damage to buildings in Stanford's historic quad.
(4) Computer engineering senior capstone project presentations at UCSB today: It's rewarding to watch seniors turn into competent engineers! [CE capstone Web site with detailed descriptions and team members]
Project name – Description (Sponsor)
Locus – A low-cost, stand-alone sensor used to measure turbulent dissipation in the ocean ... (Coast Lab)
EyeMatic – Camera system that utilizes machine learning for eye anatomy recognition (Alcon)
United Sensors – Support for integrating multiple redundant sensors on quadcopter drones ... (AeroVironment)
P.E.T.E. – Proof of concept to monitor astronauts' progress as they complete procedures ... (NASA)
PenGUI – Touch screen GUI written in Python to control a VCSEL laser (Praevium)
Lumirail – Dynamic LEGO art installation map in downtown Boston, featuring LEDs that show ... (Jeong Group)
Chirality – Smart glove that acts as a hand-motion to computer interface (IFT)
Homeflow – Intuitive health wearable that collects meaningful data (IFT)
Concordia – All-in-one assistant to help control any bluetooth or wifi connected devices in ... (Laritech)
FSAE – Sensor suite for Gaucho Racing’s GR24 Formula car ... (SingleStore and UCSB Urca)
Empro – Electric modification that transforms traditional mechanical bikes into e-bikes (CNSI)
Unmanned Surface Vehicle – Small unmanned watercraft drone surveying coastlines ... (AeroVironment)

2024/06/05 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
The intensity of destruction in Ukrainian cities as a result of the Russian invasion (NYT infographic) Meme: 'Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive' Taylor Swift is really a big deal: Her concerts have notable impact on local economies (1) Images of the day: [Left] The intensity of destruction in Ukrainian cities as a result of the Russian invasion (NYT infographic). [Center] Meme of the day: "Whoever lives for the sake of combating an enemy has an interest in the enemy's staying alive." ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche [Right] Taylor Swift is really a big deal: Her concerts have notable impact on local economies.
(2) For those interested in the history of floating-point arithmetic and the impact of IEEE 754 Standard: UC Berkeley Professor William Kahan presented 27 lectures during May-July 1988 on challenges of floating-point arithmetic and how IEEE Standard 754, first issued in 1985, made the situation much better, though by no means perfect. Professor Kahan, a Turing Award winner, turns 91 today.
(3) Serial degree seeker: Benjamin B. Bolger, 48, has 14 advanced degrees, plus an associate's and a bachelor's from Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, to name a few, in subjects such as international development, creative nonfiction, and education.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Pro-Palestinian protesters occupying the office of Stanford University President have been arrested.
- Boeing's Starliner capsule takes astronauts to orbit: The project had suffered years of costly delays.
- US clears the way for antitrust inquiries of Nvidia, Microsoft, and OpenAI. [NYT]
- Computer Science 2023 Curricula released by IEEE Computer Society, superseding Curricula 2013. [PDF]
- There is overwhelming evidence that Israel runs a US influence campaign on the Gaza War. [NYT]
(5) National Air & Space Museum's lectures on samples-return missions: Following three previous lectures on samples-return missions from the Moon, an asteroid, and a comet, the fourth and last lecture in the series, delivered by Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa (Arizona State U.), was about returning samples from Mars, both in already completed missions as well as missions planned for the near future.
The planet Mars has fascinated humans for centuries. But it is only in the last few decades that robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers have allowed us to explore the Red Planet in ever increasing detail. Some of our biggest questions relating to the formation and planetary-scale evolution of Mars, including its geologic and climate evolution, the history of water and volatiles, as well as the potential for the development of life in its ancient past can only be addressed by detailed analyses of carefully selected Martian samples in state-of-the-art Earth-based laboratories. The campaign to return Mars samples to Earth is underway with the on-going collection of well-documented samples by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. Dr. Meenakshi discussed the samples that have been collected so far, those expected to be collected in the near future, and the scientific motivations for bringing these samples back to Earth.

2024/06/03 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Blue Arch, Sicily, Italy (natural rock formation) Cartoon: Is the world we humans experience a simulation? Russia's human trafficking: Forty-six children taken from Ukraine are up for adoption in Russia (1) Images of the day: [Left] Blue Arch, Sicily, Italy: Symbol for entire generations of lovers, better known as the arc of kisses, this natural wonder, was purchased by the municipality after it was confiscated from the mafia, and was later restored using methods with very low environmental impact. [Center] Cartoon of the day: Is the world we humans experience a simulation? [Right] Russia's human trafficking: Forty-six children taken from Ukraine are up for adoption in Russia (source: NYT).
(2) American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO expresses worries about flat or reduced research budgets and a trend at the US Supreme Court to overturn or limit federal agency policies that are informed by science.
(3) Trump's conviction hurt him in the pocketbook: The value of his shares in Trump Media & Technology Group fell by $400 million in one day.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Mexico's bloodiest election (37 assassinated candidates) will likely produce its first female president.
- Rupert Murdoch, 93, marries Elena Zhukov, a retired molecular biologist, in Los Angeles.
- UCSB, UCSD, and UC Irvine added to the list of University of California's striking campuses.
- Brace yourself for a heat wave that will bring triple-digit temperatures to much of the western US.
- Persian fusion music: A beautiful Arabic song, performed with Persian lyrics. [Audio file]
- Mexico elects its first woman and first Jewish president, Claudia Sheinbaum, a respected climate scientist.
(5) Written in the 1950s and published in 1961: "It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character." ~ Joseph Heller, Catch 22
(6) A Chinese spacecraft lands on the far side of the moon: The uncrewed Chang'e-6 probe, named for the goddess of the moon in Chinese mythology, will collect rare samples from a region that no other country has landed on.
(7) Princeton must fire Mousavian: The Wikipedia page for Seyed Hossein Mousavian, now at Princeton University, has been updated to include sheltering assassination squads during his ambassadorship term in Germany, which led to his forced return to Iran.
(8) The summer Olympics will cause business owners in Paris to forego their August vacations, when, traditionally, you find the sign "ferme" ("closed") on many shops and boutiques. Amid tightened security, 15 million visitors are expected to visit the City of Light.

2024/06/02 (Sunday): Reviews of three books covering our universe, diet, and fantastic numbers.
Cover image for Neil DeGrasse Tyson's 'The Inexplicable Universe' Cover image for Nicole M. Avena's 'Sugarless' Cover image of Antonio Padilla's 'Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them' (1) Course review: DeGrasse Tyson, Neil, The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries, six half-hour lectures in the "Great Courses" series, undated. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a wonderful explainer of difficult scientific topics. The six lectures in this course are entitled:
- History's Mysteries
- The Spooky Universe
- Inexplicable Life
- Inexplicable Physics
- Inexplicable Space
- Inexplicable Cosmology
Summaries of the six lectures are available on the Great Courses Web site.
This course was the basis of a 2012 documentary miniseries.
(2) Book review: Avena, Nicole M., Sugarless: A 7-Step Plan to Uncover Hidden Sugars, Curb Your Cravings, and Conquer Your Addiction, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by Kim Ramirez, Tantor Audio, 2023. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
That too much sugar is bad for you is something we all know. But the fact that sugar is addictive isn't as well-known. Sugar addiction begins in childhood. Kids' foods are loaded with sugar, and some parents make the problem worse by rewarding good behavior with sugary snacks. You may have heard the statement "Eat your broccoli and I'll give you a lollipop" from a parent. It is unfortunate that eating good food is portrayed as undesirable, an act that should be rewarded with harmful food.
Avena's 7-step plan, which I have already started to follow in my own life, is as follows:
- Admit you're addicted
- Take stock of your sugar intake
- Identify your triggers
- Begin with your beverages
- Break down your breakfast
- De-sugar your dinner
- Keep lunch & snacks super-simple
In this 68-minute video, Dr. Nicole Avena is interviewed about her book.
(3) Book review: Padilla, Antonio, Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity, unabridged 14-hour audiobook, read by the author, Macmillan Audio, 2022.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Antonio Padilla, a leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star, asserts that numbers are awesome, but they are even more awesome if they represent physical realities. Physics gives numbers personalities. He then takes us on a cosmic tour of nine of the most-extraordinary numbers in physics, including:
- 1.000,000,000,000,000,858, the factor by which Usain Bolt slowed time during a record-breaking dash
- Graham's number, which is so large that it might cause your head to collapse into a singularity
- TREE(3), whose finite value could never be reached before the universe reset itself
- 10^(-120), which measures the highly-unlikely balance of energy the universe needs to exist
- 0.000,000,000,000,000,1 or 2^(-16), the unexpected mass of the Higgs boson particle
And, of course, there are zero & infinity (actually, infinities), not to mention the infamous googol & googolplex.
This YouTube presentation by Padilla, entitled "Mysterious Numbers: Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe" touches upon many of the Fantastic Numbers concepts.

2024/06/01 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Late lunch at Shalhoob's Funk Zone Patio, followed by coffee & desserts at Goat Tree on State Street IranWire cartoon: The Butcher of Tehran is being depicted as a saint. Some of the memorial plaques displayed on Santa Barbara's Stearns Wharf, including one that explains how the historic wharf was named (1) Images of the day: [Left] Late lunch at Shalhoob's Funk Zone Patio, followed by desserts at Goat Tree. [Center] IranWire cartoon: The Butcher of Tehran is being depicted as a saint. [Right] Some of the memorial plaques displayed on Santa Barbara's Stearns Wharf, including one that explains how the wharf was named.
(2) Is Salman Rushdie really wrong on Palestine? A self-described "Muslim" accuses Rushdie of Islamophobia. "Salman Rushdie is the embodiment of modern-day Islamophobia, a literary figure who masquerades as a 'progressive free thinker' and a by-product of a liberal atheist elite obsessed with Islam."
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Come on, US voters! Having a hard time deciding between a convicted felon & an old guy who walks funny?
- Bill Mahr advises pro-Palestinian protesters to take up the cause of gender apartheid.
- The US women's soccer team looked sharp today in prevailing over South Korea 4-0. [4-minute highlights]
- Math challenge: Find the greatest common divisor of 2^25 + 1 and 2^26 + 1.
- Facebook memory from June 1, 2020: We need politicians who read books!
- Facebook memory from June 1, 2011: Human beings are wired for optimism.
(4) Prepare the popcorn for Iran's presidential election soap opera: Already, infighting has started among factions close to the Supreme Leader, the only ones that will be allowed to run in the upcoming election to replace President Raisi.
Iranian elections are tightly controlled by the Guardian Council, which simply and without any explanation disqualifies anyone not to Khamenei's liking during the "vetting" process. But, at this early stage, candidates are allowed to sign up and to run their mouths against their potential rivals.
Former President Ahmadinejad seems to have much info about who went into which hotel room with whom, and is threatening to expose supposedly pious men with very loose zippers. Exposing financial fraud is another feature of Iranian elections, but somehow the embezzlers tend to prevail and everyone forgets about their misdeeds shortly after the election.
The mullahs' opposition groups will collect a lot of ammunition against them in the coming weeks, as exposures and threats of exposure cause one candidate after another to withdraw. Two high-level prospects have already announced that they won't run. Next will come a wave of disqualifications of candidates previously thought to be regime insiders.
You may need more than one tub of popcorn! [Persian version on Facebook]

2024/05/31 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Carpet bazaar in Tabriz, Iran Nikola Tesla's statue in Niagara Falls, New York Traditional Iranian breakfast (1) Images of the day: [Left] Carpet bazaar in Tabriz, Iran. [Center] Nikola Tesla's statue in Niagara Falls, New York. [Right] Traditional Iranian breakfast.
(2) According to Donald Trump, the trial leading to his conviction on 34 felony charges was rigged: "The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people," he maintains. But then, he has said repeatedly that he won't accept the election outcome if he loses!
(3) Voyager 1 resumes its scientific mission after an interstellar crisis that required its antiquated 1970s computer to be fixed remotely over a distance of 24 billion km. [Source: Science magazine]
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Hossein Amanat, architect of Tehran's Azadi Tower, awarded honorary doctorate by U. British Columbia.
- Australia cautions its citizens against traveling to Iran. [Source: Kayhan London]
- Evaluation of the impact of Facebook misinformation on the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in the US.
- The ancient art of calligraphy is experiencing a revival. [NYT story]
- Persian music: "Jaan-e Maryam," a composition by Kambiz Mojdehi, played by international artists.
- After 45 years of being banned from public performance, Iranian women singers still sound wonderful!
(5) The following is a list of Republican officials calling for Trump to drop out of the presidential race, now that he has been convicted of 34 felonies.
The list is currently empty. It will be updated as Republican officials dare to stand up for their party.
(6) Verdict on the great Persian poet Sa'adi: I chanced upon a May 27, 2017, Facebook post by Yalda Sadeghi (reposted by a friend) in which she faults Sa'adi for his misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic verses. Yes, he did write the wonderful verse,
"Human beings are members of a whole; In creation of one essence and soul,"
which is admired worldwide, but he also wrote,
"If the Christian well's water is unclean; It shouldn't bother you when washing a Jew's corpse,"
insulting Christians and Jews in one verse.
The original post and its repost garnered numerous comments, both in approval and in disapproval. Some commenters cited additional Sa'adi verses that are in poor taste. Many commenters pointed out that Sa'adi, like anyone living in those days, was the product of a society and a historical period. Judging him by today's standards is inappropriate.
The bottom line: Be proud of your talented and brilliant ancestors, but also be aware that they had many failings as humans, so don't raise them to the status of gods.
[My Facebook post, with Sa'adi's original Persian verses.]

2024/05/30 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
A first in US history: Trump found guilty on all 34 felony counts in the Manhattan hush-money case Trump is viewed by his Republican supporters as a political prisoner (even before he is imprisoned) Today's special session of the UN General Assembly to honor Iran's President Raisi was very sparsely attended (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] A first in US history: Trump found guilty on all 34 felony counts in the Manhattan hush-money case (see also the next item below). [Right] Today's special session of the United Nations General Assembly to honor Iran's President Raisi was very sparsely attended.
(2) Many high-ranking Republicans continue to stand with Trump after his conviction: Calling the trial a political circus and Trump a political prisoner (even before he is imprisoned) is an insult to hard-working Americans who assisted with Trump’s indictment and conviction. Members of the jury which convicted him are in danger, as are the prosecution team. Even if the DA had political motives, he still had to convince the jury that crimes had been committed and the defense had the opportunity to contradict the arguments and evidence. No person with such disregard for the law and the legal process should be entrusted with a public office.
(3) FBI dismantles world's largest botnet: Comprised of 19 million infected computers in 190+ countries, the botnet facilitated financial fraud, identity theft, child exploitation, bomb threats, and cyberattacks.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Omarosa was telling the truth: There is indeed evidence of Trump referring to her using the n-word.
- Now in Stanford U.'s archives: Correspondence between Ebrahim Golestan and writer Sadeq Chubak.
- Mitsubishi robot solves Rubik's Cube in record 0.305 s: The best human solution time is 3.13 s.
- Bullet-proof bike tires, invented by NASA for use on rovers exploring other planets. [4-minute video]
- Facebook memory from May 30, 2018: Free speech vs. inclusivity on campus (even more relevant today).
- Facebook memory from May 30, 2018: The eighth Parhami Family reunion (the very last one).
(5) MIT Press leads in open-access book publishing: Libraries will pay an advance fee for each book. If enough funding is generated, digital copies will be made available to readers free of charge.
(6) Scorching temperatures predicted for summer months: Workers need additional protections, but some states are taking away existing protections.
(7) Extreme weather events and inflation caused US home insurance rates to increase by 11+ percent last year: These higher insurance costs are not reflected in the official inflation data, which explains part of the disconnect between how people feel about the economy and how it looks on paper.
(8) Super-sharers of fake news on Twitter: Only 2107 registered US voters were found to account for 80% of the fake news appearing on Twitter. Super-sharers consist mostly of women, older adults, and registered Republicans. Their posts are generated through manual and persistent retweeting, not automatically.

2024/05/28 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Book lovers' wall clock Cover image of Emily Smith's 'The Science of the Good Samaritan' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Book lovers' wall clock. [Center] The colors of irrational numbers: Write the number pi in hexadecimal (3.243F6A8...), drop the integer part and keep the first six fractional digits (243F6A). The resulting 6-digit hex code represents a color. Any other irrational number can be similarly linked to a color (credit: Vadim Ponomarenko). [Right] The Science of the Good Samaritan (see the last item below).
(2) Some US baseball records and record holders will change: Major League Baseball officially incorporates into its record book stats from the Negro Leagues, in operation from 1920 to 1948 when baseball was segregated.
(3) Non-permanence of on-line content: According to Pew Research Center, 38% of Web pages in existence in 2013 are no longer available, along with 8% of Web pages that existed last year. The analysis also found that 23% of news Web pages and 21% of government Web pages contain at least one broken link, and 54% of Wikipedia pages include at least one "References" link that is broken.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- University of California academic workers strike expands to UCLA and UC Davis.
- Being built at Liberty Canyon over the US 101 Freeway, SoCal's wildlife bridge will open in 2026.
- Food-mood connection: The food you eat affects all aspects of your health. Mental health is no exception.
- Our inner sense of time and why time appears to go by faster as we age. [3-minute video]
- The story of how blue LEDs were made, unlocking a revolution in efficient lighting. [12-minute video]
- If gays shouldn't get married b/c you are a Christian, then you can't order a steak b/c I am a vegetarian!
(5) Book review: Smith, Emily, The Science of the Good Samaritan: Thinking Bigger About Loving Our Neighbors, unabridged 7-hour audiobook, read by the author, Zondervan, 2023.
[My 2-star review of this book on GoodReads]
I am really ticked off by this book and its author. The word "Science" in the title along with the author's "Dr." honorific (she is a Duke U. faculty member with a PhD in epidemiology) strongly suggest a popular science book about what makes us humans an altruistic species, a la Matthieu Ricard's Altruism: The Science and Psychology of Kindness. So, I was shocked by the fact that the book contains no science, other than occasional references to the author's scientific background.
There are, however, many references to Jesus and Bible verses. I'm not saying that the book is worthless but that it is offered in a misleading package. A perfectly-fine box of cookies may similarly be dismissed if the package bears the label "Chocolates."
I liked some of the author's musings, such as her criticizing Texas Governor Greg Abbott over blaming the very high COVID rates in his state on a relatively small number of undocumented immigrants who tested positive, while Texas already had one of the highest COVID infection rates in the nation. Such logical statements do not overcome my primary objection to the book.

2024/05/27 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
On this US Memorial Day, we honor the memory of those who fell to protect our freedom Photos forthcoming Cover image of Salman Rushdie's latest book 'Knife' (1) Images of the day: [Left] On this US Memorial Day, we honor the memory of those who fell to protect our freedom: Kissing and hugging the flag and wrapping our misguided policies in it are cheap. Doing something for our veterans, including protecting them from predatory private colleges that mislead them and milk their educational benefits would be priceless. I love quoting Mark Twain on this occasion: "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." [Center] The 2024 Italian Street-Painting Festival (I-Madonnari) in Santa Barbara: Held over the Memorial Day weekend at the Old Mission, the Festival brings together experienced and aspiring artists to create wonderful chalk paintings. There is also a music stage (sample music) and food & merchandise booths. [Right] Salman Rushdie's Knife (see the last item below).
(2) Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv for the first time in months: Israel retaliates by bombing a camp where it claims Hamas has significant presence.
(3) Math challenge: If a, b, c, d are nonzero positive integers such that a/b + b/c + c/d + d/a is an integer, then (4abcd)^(1/4) is also an integer.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Landslide in a Papua New Guinea village buries 2000 people alive.
- Taiwan is capable of disabling advanced chip-making machines in the event of a Chinese invasion.
- Check-in computers at several US hotels run a remote-access app that leaks guest info to the Internet.
- IRI thugs attack protesters in London: One of them kicks a woman who was pushed to the ground.
(5) Book review: Rushdie, Salman, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, unabridged 6-hour audiobook, read by the author, Random House Audio, 2024. [My 5-star review of this book on GoodReads]
Satanic Verses, which elicited a fatwa death-sentence for the author from Ayatollah Khomeini, was Rushdie's 5th book. He has written more than a dozen books since. He states, somewhat jokingly: You don't have to start with that particular book; there are plenty of other books to go around.
In Knife, Rushdie does not name his assailant, referring to the 24-year-old knife-wielding man as "A." On a fateful day in August 2022, more than 33 years after Khomeini's fatwa, Rushdie suffered 15 stab wounds, one of them blinding him in the right eye and another one nearly paralyzing him. His recovery was long and arduous, and he dedicates this book to those who saved his life.
Rushdie tells his story in 8 chapters, bearing short titles: "Knife" (description of the attack); "Eliza" (the love of his life); "Hamot" (site of a hospital in Erie County, Pennsylvania); "Rehab" (nearly a month, somewhere in NYC); "Homecoming" (transferring to a second home in NYC); "The A." (a masterfully-written imaginary conversation with his assailant); "Second Chance" (reflections on what he might do with his newfound life); "Closure?" (is he now a different person or writer?).
Through Rushdie's powerful words, the reader experiences the pain of 15 knife stabs that almost killed him and the challenges of numerous procedures that brought him back from the dead. Of course, no one expects Rushdie to write about his medical ordeal and the subsequent rehab (both physical and psychological), without throwing in philosophical observations such as the irony of an atheist seeing his survival and return to a near-normal life as a miracle. Rushdie's writings are full of miracles and other supernatural events, but he himself is a follower of science and logic.
Rushdie describes his assailant as a simpleton who had no clear understanding of Rushdie's work or even of his own motives for planning to kill him. Rushdie cites a doctor as saying that he was lucky that the assailant had no idea of how to kill a man with a knife! Interspersed with factual reporting about his near-death experience and meditations, Rushdie also offers plenty of commentary on the poisonous political climate around the world.
Rushdie is grateful for all the messages of love and support coming from around the world. To him, the fact that Iran showed no reaction was fully expected, given that the country's leader had issued the death fatwa. However, he was stung by the total lack of support from India or Pakistan. Incredibly, someone once told him that if you make yourself a subject of hate then some hateful person will come for you.

2024/05/26 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: In this diagram featuring a regular pentagon, find the measure of the angle marked in orange Our family's gathering for a memorable Memorial Weekend BBQ Math puzzle: Find the radius of the circle in this diagram featuring a rectangle and four equal angles theta (1) Images of the day: [Left] Math puzzle: In this diagram featuring a regular pentagon, find the measure of the angle marked in orange. [Center] Our family's gathering for a memorable Memorial Weekend BBQ, hosted by my sister. The flowers and plant are samples of my photography during an afternoon walk in East Ventura. [Right] Math puzzle: Find the radius of the circle in this diagram featuring a rectangle and four equal angles.
(2) "The Seed of the Sacred Fig": Mohammad Rasoulof made the film in Iran, cleverly skirting the censors. He recently fled the country on foot, after the mullahs issued an arrest warrant for him. He and his film are now at the Cannes Film Festival. Inspired by the #WomanLifeFreedom Revolution, the film's storyline represents gender and generational conflicts within a family.
(3) Tropical algebra: Consider the set of real numbers and operations of "tropical addition" x ta y = min(x, y) and "tropical multiplication" x tm y = x + y. An alternative form of tropical algebra uses max(x, y) for addition.
Computations of tropical algebra are easier/faster to implement in hardware, because multiplication is simplified to addition and exponentiation to multiplication. When real-valued input data is encoded as the transition instant of a signal from 0 to 1, a single OR gate can perform tropical addition.
The descriptor "tropical" was attached to this algebra by French mathematicians in honor of the Hungarian-born Brazilian computer scientist Imre Simon, who published several papers on these ideas in the late 1970s. Apparently, to Frenchmen, Brazil is quite tropical! Some on-line sources credit Bernard Carre's 1971 paper, "An Algebra for Network Routing Problems," as the birthplace of these ideas.
Many of the properties of ordinary algebra are valid in tropical algebra. For example, distributivity holds:
x tm (y ta z) = (x tm y) ta (x tm z)
Translation: x + min(y, z) = min(x + y, x + z)
A polynomial in tropical algebra takes the form:
f(x) = (a(0)) ta (a(1) tm x) ta (a(2) tm 2x) ta . . . ta (a(n) tm nx)
   = min(a(0), a(1) + x, a(2) + 2x, . . . , a(n) + nx)
Explanation for tropical exponentiation: x te j = jx
Tropical algebra began garnering serious attention when it was realized that the Floyd-Warshall shortest-path algorithm using min-plus operations can be formulated in tropical algebra.
There is more to tropical math than the short introduction above. For example, there is tropical geometry, tropical analysis, and tropical cryptography, to name a few related areas.
The following book describes Tropical geometry as "a combinatorial shadow of algebraic geometry, offering new polyhedral tools to compute invariants of algebraic varieties. It is based on tropical algebra, where the sum of two numbers is their minimum and the product is their sum. This turns polynomials into piecewise-linear functions, and their zero sets into polyhedral complexes. These tropical varieties retain a surprising amount of information about their classical counterparts."
Maclagan, Diane and Bernd Sturmfels, Introduction to Tropical Geometry, American Math. Soc., 2015.
Here is a nice introduction to tropical mathematics.

2024/05/25 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
An old private residence in Yazd, Iran, renovated and converted to a hotel A top-level mullah wishes martyrdom for all Islamic Republic of Iran officials Just a beautiful, soothing image to prepare us for the long weekend ahead!
Death & destruction in Gaza is subject of daily condemnation Death & destruction in Ukraine barely gets a mention Musings of a curious engineer: Today, during my long walk along Santa Barbara's waterfront, I noticed that hubcaps or wheel interiors for most cars use 5-spoke designs (1) Images of the day: [Top left] An old private residence in Yazd, Iran, renovated and converted to a hotel. [Top center] A top-level mullah wishes martyrdom for all Islamic Republic of Iran officials: Finally, we are on the same page! [Top right] Just a beautiful, soothing image to prepare us for the long Memorial weekend ahead! [Bottom left & center] Double standards: Why is it that the UN and other sources condemn the death and destruction in Gaza Strip on a daily basis, whereas the same calamities in Ukraine barely get a mention? [Bottom right] Musings of a curious engineer: Today, during my long walk along Santa Barbara's waterfront, I noticed that hubcaps or wheel interiors for most cars (around 90%, perhaps) use 5-spoke designs. There are rare 6- and 7-spoke designs, but nothing else. Pursuing the reasons on-line, I found the following explanations. The Wheels have had 5 lugs for decades, so having 5 spokes allows the lugs to sit inside or between spokes. A prime number of spokes prevents vibrational harmonics from building up and creating undue stress. Of course, 3 and 7 are also prime numbers. Five spokes look nicer than 3 and are easier to manufacture than 7.
(2) Yesterday's ECE Distinguished Lecture at UCSB: Dr. Matthew W. Daniels (NIST) spoke under the title "Computing Beyond Boolean Logic Using Time, Stochasticity, and Geometry."
We are so used to standard logic elements such as AND and OR gates that we find it difficult to imagine another platform for computation. Yet alternate computing technologies are being pursued with vigor. Among these, optical computing, biological computing, and quantum computing are best known. What Dr. Daniels focused on today is the use of the same CMOS logic elements to compute differently, because the data is viewed differently. He presented several examples.
a. Temporal computing: Inputs are logic signals that transition from 0 to 1, with the instant of transition being the data value of interest. With this interpretation, an AND gate outputs the larger of the two real input values and an OR gate the smaller of the two. One way of storing values is to convert time to resistance by building a variable resistor whose resistance increases with the time elapsed since a control signal was asserted and it stops changing when a data single arrives.
b. Stochastic computing: The probability of a signal value being 1 is the value of interest. An AND gate then becomes a multiplier of real numbers. This computation scheme imposes serious time penalties in most cases, as the inputs must vary over long-enough time periods for probabilities to make sense, but there are application areas that can benefit significantly from this scheme.
c. Ising models: These are mathematical models that use discrete variables to represent magnetic dipole moments of atomic "spins" that can be in one of two states (+1 or –1). The spins are arranged in a graph, usually an infinite lattice, allowing each spin to interact with its neighbors. Neighboring spins that agree have a lower energy than those that disagree.
d. Binarized neural networks: Data is encoded in the following way. Device conductance (inverse of resistance) represents synaptic weights and voltage/current stand for neuron I/O. This scheme, which multiplies weights by values and sums the resulting products, can be implemented in a purely analog form.

2024/05/24 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Rock-n-roll band from the Stone Age UCSB West Campus Point faculty housing Palm Plaza: More than three decades ago, and today Notice of memorial service for Iran's President Raisi and others who perished in a chopper crash
Cartoon from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo: Woman Life Freedom Helicopter Yet one more talk about consciousness (UCSB SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind) Talangor Group talk on self-love vs. narcissism (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Rock-n-roll band from the Stone Age. [Top center] UCSB West Campus Point faculty housing Palm Plaza: More than three decades ago, and today. [Top right] Islamic hierarchy: Nine people died in a chopper crash atop the mountains of northwestern Iran. Yet we seldom read about the victims besides Ebrahim Raisi or Hossein Amirabdollahian. This memorial service announcement names five of the victims. The other four simply don't count. [Bottom left] Cartoon from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo: Woman Life Freedom Helicopter. [Bottom center] Yet one more talk about consciousness (see the next item below). [Bottom right] Talk on self-love vs. narcissism (see the last item below).
(2) Today's SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind talk at UCSB: Dr. Hakwan Lau, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Japan, and author of In Consciousness We Trust: The Cognitive Neuroscience of Subjective Experience, talked under the title "The End of Consciousness." Consciousness is a very difficult topic to discuss and understand. Most descriptions of it entail either hand-waving or circular arguments. My latest read on the topic, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Consciousness, failed to clarify the problem for me. My review on GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6518323954 According to Lau, 'consciousness' is an archaic term that served a useful purpose at one time. Biologists who are interested in the nature of life no longer try to look for 'vital forces.' Instead, they identify specific functions that are essential for living — e.g. reproduction, metabolism, genetics, digestion — and they develop mechanistic explanations for these functions, through careful experimentation and empirically-informed theorizing. Lau suggests that subjective perception, attention, metacognition, wakefulness, rational control of behavior, and even metaphysical speculations about the mind are all intertwined. Just like 'vital forces,' the utility of consciousness for rigorous theorizing has expired, and the term has accordingly become a liability. As the end begins, a more mature science will emerge.
(3) Tonight's Talangor Group program: Dr. Arash Taghavi spoke under the title "Self-Worth: From Self-Love/Respect/Confidence to Narcissism." Before the main talk, Dr. Fereydoun Majlessi briefly discussed "Iran's Ownership of Three Islands in the Persian Gulf." There were ~100 attendees. Self-love, like all love, arises from caring. The object of love isn't assumed to be perfect; in fact, s/he may have many shortcomings, that give rise to the need for help or protection. Self-absorption, or narcissism, is based on the idea of self-perfection, which, counterintuitively, arises from a high level of insecurity. A narcissist is incapable of listening or taking advice. You cannot argue with a narcissist, because s/he is insecure and views any criticism as a personal attack. A narcissist demands compliance from those around him/her and resorts to gaslighting, threatening, or guilt-tripping, for example, to control others. The difference between self-love/respect/confidence and narcissism is the difference between a personality trait and a personality disorder. There is no known treatment for narcissism, so we should learn to recognize its symptoms in order to protect ourselves. Self-love can lead to the establishment of personal boundaries, which are sometimes mistaken for narcissism. A self-loving person lives as s/he pleases and does not constantly seek other people's approval. S/he also does not try to impose a way of life on others. It is difficult to sum up discussions on psychology and human behavior. Boundaries between various conditions are often blurred and open to interpretation. In the preceding paragraphs, I have tried to touch upon key terms and concept. I found the following article helpful: https://www.psychologs.com/narcissism-v-s-self-love-who-wins/

2024/05/23 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday (1): When I was a child, we'd buy sugar in cone form and break it down into small pieces to serve with tea Throwback Thursday (2): Undated newspaper ad for sea trip from Khorramshahr, Iran, to New York, taking 30-32 days Throwback Thursday (3): Iranians used to smile in the pre-Islamic-Revolution days
Talk on the evolution of Persian script: Slides Talk on the evolution of Persian script: Flyer Cartoon from the French satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo': Woman Life Freedom Helicopter (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Throwback Thursday (1): When I was a child, we'd buy sugar in cone form and would use tools ("ghand-shekan" or sugar-cube breaker) to break it down into small, irregular chunks to serve with tea. Packaged sugar-cubes had just entered the market, but they were still luxury items and, besides, would melt too quickly in your mouth. [Top center] Throwback Thursday (2): Undated newspaper ad for sea trip from Khorramshahr, Iran, to New York, taking 30-32 days. [Top right] Throwback Thursday (3): Iranians on the street in the pre-Islamic era. Notice the smiles, which have been wiped off their faces by the joyless mullahs. [Bottom left & center] Talk on the evolution of the Persian script (see the last item below). [Bottom right] Cartoon from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo: Woman Life Freedom Helicopter.
(2) C. Gordon Bell, a visionary who helped design some of the first minicomputers in the 1960s, dead at 89: Bell [1934-2024] went to work in 1960 for Digital Equipment Corporation, where he started designing computers like the PDP-8, the first commercially successful minicomputer. Bell spent 23 years at DEC as vice president of research and development before leaving and co-founding his own companies, Encore Computer and Ardent Computer. In 1986, Bell joined the National Science Foundation and advised Microsoft in the early 1990s before joining the company as a senior researcher in 1995. The computer pioneer was always looking ten steps ahead and building that version of the world.
(3) Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Isla Vista mass-murder tragedy that claimed the lives of six UCSB students and injured 14 others on May 23, 2014: Remembrance and memorial events are planned by a number of campus and student organizations.
(4) UN sends condolences for President Raisi's death, seemingly forgetting its own condemnations of Islamic Iran's vast human rights abuses under "the butcher of Tehran" and other regime criminals.
(5) Will we finally afford to go to a live concert? The Ticketmaster parent company is being accused of having an illegal monopoly. Consumers have been screaming for years about obnoxiously high fees charged on top of already expensive concert ticket prices. The US Justice Department finally listened.
(6) Tonight's Socrates Think Tank talk: Dr. Hossein Samei spoke under the title "Script in Iran." He presented a comprehensive review of how the Persian script has evolved over the centuries and outlined the many efforts that have come about to change or reform the script. The challenges that have motivated the aforementioned change/reform proposals include mismatch between the written and spoken forms, elimination of short vowels, inconsistencies brought about by mixing Persian & Arabic scripts, chaos in connecting or not connecting parts of the same word, locations & multiplicities of dots, different shapes for the same letter, and disorder in spelling.

2024/05/22 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Bertolt Brecht said it all: 'Who does not know the truth, is simply a fool ... yet who knows the truth and calls it a lie, is a criminal' My daughter's kashk-e bademjoon (Persian eggplant dish, with curd) IEEE Central Coast Section talk on vibration effects in electronic circuits (1) Images of the day: [Left] Bertolt Brecht said it all: "Who does not know the truth, is simply a fool ... yet who knows the truth and calls it a lie, is a criminal." [Center] My daughter's kashk-e bademjoon (Persian eggplant dish, with curd). [Right] Talk on vibration effects in electronic circuits (see the next item below).
(2) Tonight's IEEE Central Coast Section tech talk: Dan Bezzant (Raytheon) spoke under the title "Vibration Effects on Electronic Circuitry."
The phrase 'solid state' has brought many in the profession to think that digital electronic circuits are immune to mechanical events around them. Bezzant's discussion showed from a practical viewpoint how shock and vibration can affect the function of electronic circuits, how this effect gets propagated from mechanical shock or vibration to the operation of a solid-state circuit, and what design techniques can be used to mitigate or eliminate disruptions to functionality.
(3) This Certificate of Appreciation was awarded by conference organizers for the opening keynote lecture I delivered to DCHPC 2024 on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, under the title "Fixed-Degree and Constant-Diameter Interconnection Networks for Parallel Supercomputing."
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- A UNC-CH business school professor learns that some of his classes were recorded without his knowledge.
- Facebook memory from May 22, 2015: Manhood, manliness, and patriarchy.
- Facebook memory from May 22, 2011: The day I entered historical records.
- Facebook memory from May 22. 2010: On reason overcoming flaming passion.
(5) Did US sanctions kill Iran's President Raisi? According to former FM Javad Zarif, the difficulty in obtaining spare parts for Iran's aging choppers and planes directly contributed to the crash that killed Raisi. Yet, for years, Iran's Supreme Leader and other top officials have claimed that not only sanctions do not affect Iran's economy, but they are blessings in disguise, because they help the country become self-sufficient. As the Persian saying goes: Should we believe the fox's denial or the rooster's tail that's sticking out?
(6) "OSIRIS-Rex: Revealing Secrets from the Dawn of our Solar System": In continuation of the National Air and Space Museum's lecture series on samples-return NASA missions, Dr. Dante Lauretta (Head of OSIRIS-REx research team at the University of Arizona) discussed the findings from the first set of data from analysis of the samples returned from near-Earth asteroid Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft launched in September 2016 and began its journey to Bennu, a carbon-rich, near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft rendezvoused with Bennu in 2018 and successfully obtained a sample in October 2020. The spacecraft embarked on its return voyage to Earth on May 10, 2021. On Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft jettisoned the sample capsule and sent it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert. Analysis of the sample promises to provide insights into the formation of the Earth as a habitable world and the origin of life.

2024/05/20 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Today, on the UCSB campus: Students protesting in support of Palestine are preparing to strike Displays of nature's colorful beauty (flowers) Lecture on Iran-America relations by Dr. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Here are how two artists have interpreted the demise or Iran's President Raisi: Image 1 Here are how two artists have interpreted the demise or Iran's President Raisi: Image 2 Fifteen Baha'i women sentenced to jail terms, fines, and civic probations in Isfahan, Iran (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Today, on the UCSB campus: Students protesting in support of Palestine are preparing to strike. [Top center] Displays of nature's colorful beauty. [Top right] Lecture on Iran-America relations (see the last item below). [Bottom left & center] The deceased Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had vowed to escalate the fight against hijablessness: Here are how two artists have interpreted his demise. [Bottom right] Fifteen Baha'i women sentenced to jail terms, fines, and civic probations in Isfahan, Iran.
(2) Get Ready for More 'Hard Landings' in the Middle East (Michael Rubin, in the Washington Examiner): "Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi perished in what Iranian media initially labeled a 'hard landing.' That Iranians celebrated with fireworks in Raisi's hometown Mashhad reflects the hatred with which Iranians view the regime that oppresses them. This should be a warning to the regime: Raisi is one thing, but when 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has his hard landing, it will kick-start Iranians' active quest for regime change."
"For the European Union to send condolences upon the Butcher of Tehran's death shows the moral blindness at the heart of European policy; it is equivalent to sending condolences upon the 1942 death of Reinhard Heydrich, the German Reich's acting governor of Bohemia and Moravia."
(3) The Cuban spies who infiltrated the US government and operated with impunity for many years: Cuba apparently can't use the gathered intelligence, so it's likely in the business of selling it to other US adversaries.
(4) UCLA Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran: Dr. Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet (U. Penn) spoke today in English under the title "Heroes to Hostages: US-Iran Diplomacy through Race Relations and Human Rights." The Persian version of the lecture was delivered yesterday.
Iranian intellectuals of the post-Mosaddeq era advanced an anti-colonial rhetoric that burst wide open during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Many writers, some with socialist leanings, watched with interest political happenings in formerly colonized states. These conflicts were often rooted in experiences of racial discrimination and social inequality. At the same time, the Iranian state also engaged with some of these themes and expanded its diplomatic relations with a range of countries in the Global South.
Although formal ties between Iran and the US were strengthened during the two decades preceding the 1979 revolution, social dissent also grew markedly. The debate on human rights gave voice to these concerns, as Iran's politicians and writers reflected on the legacy of human rights and reassessed the country's ties to the West. Race relations provided an unanticipated and often missed opportunity for collaboration.
Note: In the context of this talk and the book on which it is based, "race" also embraces ethnicity (viz., the Arab or the Iranian race).

2024/05/19 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Discussion on AI: SoCal Chapter of Sharif U. ov Technology Association Copter crash in northwestern Iran: Occupants included President Raisi and Iran's Foreign Minister Cover image of 'A Briefer History of Time' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Discussion on AI (see the next item below). [Center] Copter crash in northwestern Iran (see item 3 below). [Right] A Briefer History of Time (see the last item below).
(2) Lecture and panel discussion on AI's past, present, and future: In a Zoom session, hosted by the SoCal Chapter of SUTA (Sharif U. Technology Association), Dr. Babak Hojjat, CTO at Cognizant, reviewed AI's accomplishments and potentials. Panelists Mohammad Ramazanali (Salesforce), Dr. Yahya Tabesh (Professor Emeritus, SUT), and Mitra Zaimi (Unisys) then discussed the topic.
(3) Helicopter carrying Iran's President and Foreign Minister crashes upon landing: Rescue teams have not yet reached the crash site.
Mid-morning update: Early reports from Iran indicated that President Raisi's copter had a hard landing. It now seems that it crashed in a mountainous area with very low visibility, likely by hitting a mountain. While hard landings may be survivable, crashes rarely leave survivors.
Late-night update: Iran's President, Foreign Minister, and seven others are confirmed dead at the crash site.
(4) IEEE honors the 50th anniversary of the Internet: In the second of a three-part program, IEEE virtually celebrated 50 Years of the Internet, honoring the 1974 IEEE Computer Society paper on TCP by Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn. Tomorrow's third part, held in a hybrid format at the Computer History Museum, will officially dedicate the historic paper above, as well as the work of the IEEE 802 Standards Committee and the birth of Google & its PageRank Algorithm. [Streaming on IEEE TV]
(5) Book review: Hawking, Stephen (with Leonard Mlodinow), A Briefer History of Time, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by Erik Davies, Random House Audio, 2005. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
A Brief History of Time (1988) was a hugely successful science book that sold a copy for every 750 Earth inhabitants and was translated into dozens of languages, turning Hawking into a global cultural icon. This new version of the book focuses on the most-important topics of the original, adding depth as well as new material and explanations.
When we talk about the greatest scientist of all time, Einstein invariably comes to mind. Hawking isn't at the same level, given the theories for which he is responsible defy experimental verification and are thus viewed with skepticism by some other scientists. But when it comes to explaining science to the public, Hawking beats Einstein and maybe even the "explainer-in-chief" Richard Feynman. Given how many difficult topics were addressed in A Brief History of Time, it is a testament to Hawking's communication skills that so many people read it (or attempted to read it).
In this update & rewrite of A Brief History of Time, Hawking and Mlodinow focus on quantum mechanics, string theory, the Big-Bang theory, & other topics in a more accessible fashion to the general public. Newly discovered concepts are included and previously-known topics are explained in greater detail throughout the book.

2024/05/17 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Geometric beauty of plants and vegetables: Photo 1 You can tell the chemical composition of a meteor from its color Geometric beauty of plants and vegetables: Photo 2 (1) Images of the day: [Left & Right] Geometric beauty of plants and vegetables. [Center] You can tell the chemical composition of a meteor from its color. [Right]
(2) Climate change threatens Big Sur's scenic access road: Between 2016 and 2023, Caltrans spent $315 million dollars in unplanned emergency work in the area after fires, mudslides, and bridge collapses.
(3) Math challenge: You run a lap around the track at an average speed of V. How fast should you run a second lap so that your overall average speed for both laps is 2V?
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Humanitarian aid is flowing into Gaza by way of a floating pier built by the US military.
- Leading cause of death for pregnant & postpartum women in the US: Murder by an intimate partner.
- Actress Reese Witherspoon leads a book club that reliably sends its monthly picks onto the best-seller list.
- Demonstration that a bull set free, without being made angry, runs happily and does not touch anyone.
- Math challenge: Which is larger, the number 10! (10 factorial) or the number of seconds in 6 weeks?
- California Strawberry Festival returns to Ventura County Fairgrounds this weekend, 5/18-19.
- Madrid-based Grupo Talia (orchestra & choir) performs many memorable international pop songs.
- "I Feel Good," performed by Grupo Talia in a way that really makes you feel good!
(5) Our justice system at work: Indiana judge rules that tacos are sandwiches, allowing a taco vendor to operate in a mall that accommodates sandwich shops but bans fast-food joints.
(6) Risky pathogen research: The Biden administration is tightening federal oversight of the so-called "gain-of-function" studies that could enhance risky viruses to increase their ability to cause a pandemic.
(7) Another pay-to-publish program unmasked: "Last year, physician Rupak Desai coauthored more than three dozen conference abstracts in Circulation, the American Heart Association's (AHA's) flagship journal. The works marked a modest fraction of his publications in 2023, which totaled 162. But Desai, scholarly productivity notwithstanding, is not employed by a hospital, university, or any other type of scientific institution."
"Based in Atlanta, Desai runs a business that offers junior doctors from around the world a chance to beef up their CVs before applying for coveted residency or fellowship positions at hospitals or physician offices in the United States. For about $1000 and a commitment to work 10 to 15 hours remotely over a few weeks, last year's participants in Desai's Express Research Workshop could get a byline on three abstracts submitted to AHA's biggest annual conference, the Scientific Sessions meeting, according to an online ad that was removed after Science contacted Desai for this story." [From Science magazine, May 10, 2024]

2024/05/16 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
This UCSB service vehicle nonchalantly drove on walkway near the Engineering II Building around 2:00 PM on Wednesday 2024/05/15 Iran's cyber-army runs a smear campaign against women's-rights activist Masih Alinejad Campaign to have ex-IRI official Seyed Hossein Mousavian fired by Princeton U. kicks into high gear (1) Images of the day: [Left] This UCSB service vehicle nonchalantly drove on walkway near the Engineering II Building around 2:00 PM on Wednesday 2024/05/15 and parked in front of Courtyard Cafe. I hope the driver had legitimate business there, rather than going in to get a cup of coffee. [Center] Opposition figure and anti-compulsory-hijab campaigner Masih Alinejad is being portrayed by Iran's cyber-army as a stooge of the mullahs: They know they are hated and want to transfer some of that hatred to someone whose effective women's-rights campaign has put fear in their hearts. Most Iranians know better than to fall for these childish accusations. Alinejad is human and has committed a number of strategic errors over the years, but she is no stooge of the misogynistic Islamic regime. [Right] Campaign to have ex-IRI official Seyed Hossein Mousavian fired by Princeton U. kicks into high gear.
(2) The Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab again ranked first in the Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers: The US has 171 systems on the list, including the Aurora supercomputer at Argonne National Lab. As for networking technologies, Infiniband is used by nearly half the systems on the Top 500 list (48%), while Ethernet is used by 39%.
(3) According to US FDA, 200+ diabetes patients were injured when their insulin pumps shut down unexpectedly: Version 2.7 of the t:connect Apple iOS app, used with the t:slim X2 insulin pump with Control-IQ, had a software issue that caused it to repeatedly crash and relaunch, draining the pump's battery and causing it to shut down and suspend insulin delivery. The app has been recalled.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- I am always impressed by how artists draw a portrait: Here is a wonderful sample.
- The design of the Titanic ocean liner and why it was doomed to sink. [19-minute video]
- Paul McCartney praises Beyonce's magnificent cover of his civil-rights-inspired song "Blackbird."
- Persian music: "Dokhtar-e Hamsayeh" ("The Girl Next Door"). [2-minute video]
(5) A so-called think tank in Tehran, with direct ties to IRGC terrorists and the Islamic regime's intelligence apparatus runs Iran's influence campaign in America and Europe, while not being targeted by sanctions.
(6) University of California union of academic employees, which includes graduate-student researchers, TAs, and post-docs, authorizes a strike which may begin as early as today. UAW alleges unfair employment practices over the handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
(7) Florida, the state in greatest danger from sea-level rise and other consequences of global warming, decides to stick its head in the sand and remove references to climate change from its energy policies.
(8) Bidirectional charging: Student transportation provider Zum is initiating a project with the Oakland Unified School District to send power from EV bus batteries back to the California utility grid. Oakland, the first school district to fully electrify its bus fleet, can potentially return 2.1 GWh of energy to the grid annually through this program. Larger districts like San Francisco Unified and Los Angeles Unified are expected to follow suit. [CNBC]

2024/05/14 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Cover image of IEEE Computer magazine, issue of May 2024 Meme about Iran: Terrorist president greets terrorist 'diplomat' Cover image of Yutaka Nishiyama's 'The Mysterious Number 6174' (1) Images of the day: [Left] Venture scientists and technology entrepreneurship: This is the cover theme of IEEE Computer magazine's May 2024 issue which begins with the column "Dissertation, Inc." and continues with several articles on how elite science & engineering programs around the world encourage their graduates to shift their focus from being job consumers to becoming innovators and job creators. [Center] Terrorist president greets terrorist "diplomat": The so-called diplomat, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was later returned to Iran, complains that in prison, he was fed stale bread and high-fat cheese, with no soda! [Right] Yutaka Nishiyama's The Mysterious Number 6174 (see the last item below).
(2) Violence against women: According to Etemad newspaper, at least 23 Iranian women and girls have been killed by men in their families in the first 1.5 months of the Persian new year 1403.
(3) Book review: Nishiyama, Yutaka, The Mysterious Number 6174: One of 30 Amazing Mathematical Topics in Daily Life, Gendai Sugakusha Co., 2013. [My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads]
This is a fascinating book from start to finish. I recommend it highly to anyone interested in mathematical puzzles, oddities, and mysteries.
Let me describe the number in the book's title, which is the subject of Chapter 15. Take an arbitrary 4-digit number whose digits are not all the same. Perform the Kaprekar operation on the number as follows: Obtain the largest 4-digit number that uses the same 4 digits and subtract from it the smallest 4-digit number with the same digits. Repeat the process by applying the Kaprekar operation on the new number and on every number subsequently obtained. Regardless of the starting number, you always end up with 6174, and the process takes 0 to 7 steps. This amazing property is believed to be incidental, but there may be some deep mathematics behind it. By the way, the same process applied to a 3-digit starting number yields 495. This article by Nishiyama provides more details and quite few other amazing facts.
Here are titles of a few of the book's other 29 chapters, all of them containing interesting and surprising facts. Each chapter is written as a separate article, with an abstract, AMS subject classification, key words, and list of references.
04. Stairway light switches
06. The mathematics of egg shape
12. Miura folding: Applying origami to space exploration
16. Numerical Palindromes and the 196 problem
21. Opening the black box of random numbers
24. Machin's formula and pi
28. Odd and even number cultures

2024/05/12 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Happy Mothers' Day: Mothers make the world go around In 2018, May 12, birthdate of the late Maryam Mirzakhani, was designated as Women in Mathematics Day This afternoon at Ventura Harbor
These are shadows cast by nine zebras photographed from overhead: Zoom in and you'll understand Math puzzle: Find the length x. The diagram isn't to scale UCSB pro-Palestine encampment in its second week (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Happy Mothers' Day: Mothers make the world go around. Their contributions to our well-being are so broad and deep that, in fact, every day should be Mothers' Day. [Top center] In 2018, May 12, birthdate of the late Maryam Mirzakhani, was designated as Women in Mathematics Day. Mirzakhani was awarded the Fields Medal, mathematic's highest honor, in 2014. [Top right] This afternoon at Ventura Harbor, before celebrating my daughter's birthday with the family at Andria's Seafood. [Bottom left] These are shadows cast by nine zebras photographed from overhead. [Bottom center] Math puzzle: Find the length x. The diagram isn't to scale. [Bottom right] Pro-Palestine protests at UCSB (see the last item below).
(2) The truth behind pro-Palestinian protests at America's elite colleges: These protests aren't about Palestine, Israel, or the war in Gaza, although many participants are sincere in their beliefs that they are. The protests are about Russia, China, and Iran taking advantage of weaknesses in our society to create chaos. American universities, once the Crown Jewels of our socioeconomic system, have been hurting from the effects of COVID and a steady stream of academic and other scandals. The current disruptions may deal a fatal blow to their well-being and the public trust in them.
(3) Sun, Surf and Cinema in Santa Barbara: Free summer films, Friday nights under the stars, Courthouse Sunken Garden, 8:30 PM.
7/05: "Jaws"
7/12: "Point Break"
7/19: "50 First Dates"
7/26: "Blue Crush"
8/02: *** No screening during Fiesta
8/09: "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"
8/16: "Mamma Mia!"
8/23: "Crazy Rich Asians"
(4) UCSB pro-Palestine encampment in its second week: While the university administration has called for a dialogue and non-disruptive protest, the demands of the protesters, which include the establishment of a Palestinian Studies Department and scholarships for Palestinians students, in addition to divestment from and academic boycott of Israel as well as abolishment of UC Police Department, are unlikely to be met. The campus has responded to the protests with a collective "meh"; there is no police presence and no counter-protests.

2024/05/10 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Commencement 2024 (New Yorker cover) See how many of these Persian sayings/expressions you can identify: Batch 1 See how many of these Persian sayings/expressions you can identify: Batch 2
Our volcanic Moon (Science magazine cover feature) The Sun is playing nasty-and-nice with its communications-disrupting geomagnetic storms and the awe-inspiring Northern Lights: Storms The Sun is playing nasty-and-nice with its communications-disrupting geomagnetic storms and the awe-inspiring Northern Lights: Northern Lights (1) Images of the day: [Top left] Commencement 2024 (New Yorker cover). [Top center & right] See how many of these eight Persian sayings/expressions you can identify. [Bottom left] Our volcanic Moon (Science magazine cover feature). [Bottom center & right] A month after treating us to a spectacular total eclipse, the Sun is playing nasty-and-nice with its communications-disrupting geomagnetic storms and the awe-inspiring Northern Lights.
(2) Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to 8 years in prison, plus flogging & fines, for making films and documentaries that are "harmful to national security."
(3) Looming strike of UAW academic workers at UCSB: The potential strike is allegedly based on "unfair labor practices" connected to ongoing campus protests on the Gaza war.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Canada's Parliament voted to list Iran's IRGC as a terrorist organization and to shut down their operations.
- Coldplay & Sting join 100+ musicians and other icons urging release of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi.
- All sorts of weird standard samples are maintained by US National Institute for Standards and Technology.
- Persian music: Reza Malekzadeh performs "Aram Aram." [4-minute video]
(5) "The West is a woman to be mounted": This is a rather polite translation of what the predominant Arab culture thinks of the West and Westerners. Positive traits of Westerners (compassion, kindness, empathy) are all viewed as weaknesses by the Arabs. Until the West understands this mindset, no amount of negotiation will help bridge the culture gap. It's not just anti-Semitism we are facing but also extreme misogyny.

2024/05/09 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Throwback Thursday: This toy gun working with gunpowder was a thing when I was growing up in Iran Webinar by Dr. Marc Milstein under the title 'The Age-Proof Brain' My daughter at an arts-and-crafts market, a 3-day event in Goleta, continuing to Saturday (1) Images of the day: [Left] Throwback Thursday: This toy gun was a thing when I was growing up in Iran. You'd load into it a paper strip bearing tiny amounts of gunpowder at regular intervals. Each time you pulled the trigger, the paper strip would move forward, allowing a hammer to hit the next explosive charge. [Center] "The Age-Proof Brain" webinar (see the last item below). [Right] My daughter at an arts-and-crafts market, a 3-day event in Goleta, continuing to Saturday.
(2) When an English town removed apostrophes from street names, such as "St. Mary's Walk," many unhappy residents started a petition drive and used marker-pens to reinsert the apostrophes.
(3) According to Association of American Medical Colleges, for the second year in a row, students graduating from US med schools were less likely to apply for residency positions in states that enforce bans or significant restrictions on abortion.
(4) "The Age-Proof Brain": This was the title of today's webinar by Dr. Marc Milstein, based on his book with the same title. When it comes to keeping your brain in tip-top shape, you aren't limited to crossword puzzles, brain games, and Sudoku. Debunking common misinformation, Milstein shared new, breakthrough science-supported strategies to:
- Improve memory and productivity
- Increase energy and boost your mood
- Reduce the risk of anxiety and depression
- Form healthy habits to supercharge your brain
Whereas our brain shrinks by 5% per decade beginning at age 40, there are things we can do to slow this shrinkage and to minimize its effects. Also, our brain is like a factory, producing useful stuff but also leaving behind junk which should be properly discarded to keep our brain clean. Only 30 minutes of brisk walking per day does wonders for the health of our brain and the rest of our body.

2024/05/08 (Wednesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
War in Gaza has now expanded to its southernmost region, where many Gazans have taken refuge
Birthday wish for my beloved daughter (1) Images of the day: [Top left] War in Gaza has now expanded to its southernmost region, where many Gazans have taken refuge. [Top center & right] UCSB Reads 2024 authors' talk (see the last item below). [Bottom left] Birthday wish for my daughter (see the next item below). [Bottom right] My freshman seminar class, ECE 1B ("Ten Puzzling Problems in Computer Engineering"), meeting this quarter in Psych 1924.
(2) To my beloved daughter: As you celebrate another milestone birthday, I want you to know how proud I am of what you have accomplished and of the young woman you have become. You were born on Mothers' Day and we will celebrate with the family this coming Mothers' Day. Until then, enjoy your special day today and your arts & crafts endeavors over the next three days. I love you! [P.S.: Photos are from FB memories on May 8.]
(3) My heart goes out to the Class of 2024: These kids began their studies under COVID, struggled with on-line education, and are now trying to graduate, with commencement ceremonies disrupted by war protesters and, even worse, the prospects of classes and final exams being shut down by strikes.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Microsoft to invest $3.3 billion in an AI data center in Wisconsin.
- Rutgers researchers unveil 3D human-body modeling approach with realistic body poses & movements.
- I have a hunch that RFK Jr. isn't the only politician with parasitic brain worm and memory loss!
- The Beatles' "Let It Be," after 50 years: John Legend and Alicia Keys perform. [4-minute video]
(5) UCSB Reads 2024 Program wraps up: Tonight, I attened an informative and entertaining lecture by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, authors of Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. This was my fourth and final year on the UCSB Reads Advisory Committee that was charged with selecting the book. I learned a great deal from my participation and found the experience to be immensely rewarding.
My 4-star review of Your Brain on Art on GoodReads.
A previous conversation with the authors about their book (Video).

2024/05/06 (Monday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Impact of AI on the fast-food industry: Cover image of 'IT Now' magazine SAGE Center talk at UCSB: Drunk (1) Images of the day: [Left] Impact of AI on the fast-food industry: Much has been written about AI in manufacturing, healthcare, education and many other domains. The cover feature of the spring 2024 issue of IT Now focuses on AI's impact on fast food, and food tech more generally. For food preparation, AI improves uniformity and efficiency, as well as hygiene. [Right] SAGE Center talk at UCSB (see the last item below).
(2) Israel marks Holocaust Remembrance Day: Six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime and its allies in the Holocaust from 1933-1945.
(3) It seems that most groups opposing Iran's Islamic regime are under double-sided attacks.
From one side, the mullahs' cyber army, using fake names and profiles, spread false stories about their backgrounds and personal lives.
From the other side, foul-mouthed, misogynistic followers of Reza Pahlavi do the same, while the "Prince" (nowadays promoted to "King") tacitly endorses their words & deeds by not commenting.
Needless to say, both camps "discuss" everything but democracy.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Graduation ceremonies at many US universities cancelled or disrupted by pro-Palestine protesters.
- Teens devise a geometric proof for Pythagorean Theorem, a problem that had stumped us for centuries.
- The secret of creativity: "If you want a new idea, read an old book." ~ Ivan Pavlov
- Rousseau on money: "The money you have gives you freedom; the money you pursue enslaves you."
(5) The mathematics of knot theory and some of its applications in material science: Interestingly, the many knots that are known can be arranged into something like the Periodic Table of elements. [11-minute video]
(6) Yesterday's SAGE Center talk at UCSB: Under the title "Drunk: Intoxication, Ecstasy, and the Origins of Civilization," Edward Slingerland (UBC; author of the 2021 book Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization) talked about his book and the research that led to it.
Drawing on evidence from archaeology, history, cognitive neuroscience, psychopharmacology, social psychology, literature, and genetics, Slingerland argued that our taste for chemical intoxicants is not an evolutionary mistake, as we are so often told. In fact, intoxication helps solve a number of distinctively human challenges and played a crucial role in sparking the rise of the first large-scale societies.

2024/05/05 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Printing money is the cause of Iran's rampant inflation Cover image of 'The Myth of Left and Right' Of the 36 members of IOC's 2024 Refugee Olympic Team, 14 (~40%) hail from Iran (1) Images of the day: [Left] Cause of Iran's ~50% inflation rate: The mullahs have printed more money in the past 2.5 years than the country had done in the previous 2.5 millennia. [Center] The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America (see the last item below). [Right] Paris Olympics: Of the 36 members of IOC's 2024 Refugee Olympic Team, 14 (~40%) hail from Iran.
(2) Jerry Seinfeld, a Jewish comedian who built his brand of comedy on an apolitical show "about nothing," is being forced to choose sides, given the Israel-Hamas conflict and protests on US college campuses.
(3) Iran offers scholarships to expelled pro-Palestine students: That's the recipe! One semester at an Iranian university will bring them back to their senses.
(4) Book review: Lewis, Hyrum and Verlan Lewis, The Myth of Left and Right: How the Political Spectrum Misleads and Harms America, unabridged 4-hour audiobook, read by the first author, Kalorama, 2023.
[My 4-star review of this book on GoodReads] We humans are tribal and there is no way around this evolutionary trait. Tribes do not necessarily embrace a consistent, logically-constructed set of beliefs. However, when you belong to a tribe, you tend to assume the validity of the entire belief set. Here's a useful analogy. When you go grocery-shopping, you pick items that you like; there is no rhyme or reason. Suppose the store did not allow you to pick what you want but offered you two filled carts to choose from. You would pick the cart that contains more of your favorite items. But then to turn around and claim that everything in your chosen cart is better than everything in the other cart would not be appropriate. This is unfortunately what we do when we belong to a party: We think that all policies of our tribe are better than everything of the competing tribe.
tend to think that philosophy comes first, followed by policy, and finally party. Evidence shows that it is exactly the opposite: We attach ourselves to a tribe, then discuss policies, and finally we make up a philosophical story to tie all of those incoherent policies together.
At one point in American politics, The New Deal was the single political issue, so designating its opponents as conservative/right and its proponents as liberal/left made some sense. Now, politics is multi-dimensional: There are a multitude of issues such as free trade, immigration, abortion, and so on. We should start using more precise terminology to characterize people's views on individual issues, rather than lumping all of them together. Right/Conservative and left/liberal are highly imprecise. If you want to talk about someone's views on abortion, then characterize his/her views on that one issue, rather than labeling him/her a conservative or a liberal. Unfortunately, we have come to use liberal/conservative and left/right labels as tools of slander.

2024/05/04 (Saturday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Math puzzle: In this diagram, show that the angle alpha is twice the angle theta Math puzzle: In this diagram featuring a right triangle, find the length x Math puzzle: In this diagram, show that x and theta add to 45 degrees (1) Math: Prove that alpha is twice theta, find the length x, and prove that x & theta add to 45 degrees.
(2) Happy Star Wars Day: May the fourth (be with you)! To mark the nearly 50 years that have passed since the making of the original Star Wars film, US National Air and Space Museum has set up a special exhibit that includes an actual operable X-wing flyer.
(3) Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman [1934-2024] dead at 90: Kahneman, an Israeli-born psychologist, earned a 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his integration of psychological research into economic science.
(4) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Counter-protesters initiate violence at UCLA: Police intervenes after a few hours of unchecked clashes. [NYT]
- Disruptive protest encampment at UCSB: University administration calls for constructive dialogue.
- On kindness: "The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention." ~ Khalil Gibran
- On love: "What we've enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love becomes a part of us." ~ Helen Keller
(5) BASIC turned 60 on May 1: Intended to make computing accessible to a broader audience, Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code was popular among novice programmers. BASIC continued to evolve over the years and is still popular among retrocomputing enthusiasts. Its descendants include Microsoft's Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, and Small Basic.
(6) UNC-CH students take down the American flag and raise the flag of Palestine in its place: Elsewhere, in NYC, protesters burn an American flag. Please use your reasoning ability and ask who benefits from desecrating the American flag? Donald Trump, that's who! Ditto for the perception that extremist Muslims are taking over America under the Biden administration. Fingerprints of Putin are all over these coordinated protests. His plans for Ukraine will be crushed under another Democratic administration.
(7) Three geeky events on May 17, 19 & 20, 2024: IEEE honors the 50th Anniversary of Internet TCP/IP.
- Friday, May 17, 3:00-5:00 PM PDT: Online event broadcast from SRI's PARC Campus, featuring talks by Internet pioneers Vint Cerf & Bob Metcalfe and unveiling of IEEE Milestone plaques for the Alto Personal Computer, Ethernet, and Laser Printer. The in-person event is sold out, but you can watch via livestream.
- Sunday, May 19, 12:00-2:30 PM PDT: IEEE i50—Virtual Celebration of 50 Years of the Internet, honoring the 1974 IEEE Computer Society paper on TCP by Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn. [Livestream registeration]
- Monday, May 20, 1:00-4:00 PM PDT: Dedicating three IEEE Milestones: IEEE Computer Society 1974 paper on TCP; IEEE 802 Standards Committee; Birth of Google & PageRank. [Livestream registeration]

2024/05/02 (Thursday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Florida's 2020 butterfly ballot Effect of 2020 butterfly ballots on election outcome in Florids Talangor Group's talk by Dr. Elaheh Ahmadi on Gallium-Nitride (1) Images of the day: [Left & Center] Florida's infamous 2000 butterfly ballots (see the next item below). [Right] Talk on Gallium-Nitride (see the last item below).
(2) Revisiting Florida's 2000 butterfly ballots: Key requirements of democratic elections include facilitating participation and making it easy to vote for one's preferred candidate on a clear, transparent ballot.
Butterfly ballots used in Palm Beach County, Florida, may have cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000. Many voters (enough to swing the election in a very close race) voted for Pat Buchanan, listed on the right-hand side of the ballot across from the second punch-hole in the middle, thinking that they were voting for Al Gore, the second name on the left-hand side.
Data shows that where butterfly ballots were used, Buchanan got a much higher share of the votes than in other Florida counties. While this isn't a proof that the confusing ballots handed Florida, and thus the national election, to George W. Bush, evidence that they did is overwhelming.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- Four Iranian men are identified as having sexually assaulted and killed #NikaShakarami.
- Latinos move to the right: 39% say they'll vote Republican in 2024, compared with 29% in 2012. [NYT]
- Queer Techne: Book explores gay, queer, & feminine communities in early advances in computer science.
- Facebook memory from May 2, 2022: When my daughter relocated to San Diego with a U-Haul truck.
(4) "Interstellar" explained: I recently watched Christopher Nolan's 2014 sci-fi film "Interstellar." I particularly enjoyed the powerful film score, composed by Hans Zimmer. To augment my understanding of the film's story, I searched for and found this explanation of the film's script and its plot summary. Further investigation led me to theoretical physicist Kip Thorne's 2014 book, The Science of Interstellar, which I have started reading.
(5) Tonight's Talangor Group talk: Dr. Elaheh Ahmadi (UCLA ECE Dept.) spoke under the title "Thank God for GaN (Gallium Nitride)." Before the main talk, Mitra Zaimi made a brief presentation on the occasion of Persian Gulf Day, which included screening of a video.
Dr. Ahmadi began with a review of the importance of semiconductors in our daily lives and how abundance and ease of manufacturing have led to silicon becoming the dominant choice. She then outlined certain desirable properties of GaN, which gained notoriety through enabling the production of blue LEDs and the ensuing revolution in energy-efficient lighting, support higher performance as well as reduced size & weight for electronic circuits. While GaN has the drawbacks of much higher cost and more-difficult manufacturing compared with silicon, Dr. Ahmadi cited a growing number of applications, notably in power conversion and RF domains, that use it to advantage.
This EPC Web page presents a summary of GaN benefits and has several videos linked at the end, including applications to motor drive, industrial drones, and DC-DC conversion in data centers.

2024/04/30 (Tuesday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
Four members of Iran's security forces are identified as having sexually assaulted and killed #NikaShakarami How adding a 1 to the denominator significantly complicates the integration process Voting is way more likely to solve our problems than thoughts and prayers! (1) Images of the day: [Left] Four members of Iran's security forces are identified as having sexually assaulted and killed the young protester #NikaShakarami. [Center] How adding a 1 to the denominator significantly complicates the integration process and changes the answer. [Right] Voting is way more effective for solving our problems than thoughts and prayers!
(2) We have the first AI commencement speaker: D'Youville University in upstate New York thought its selection would be fun and relevant in an age of AI. Not everyone agreed.
(3) One-liners: Brief news headlines, happenings, memes, and other items of general interest.
- UCLA student is blocked from entering a campus area by pro-HAMAS demonstrators. [Tweet, with video]
- Mohammad Fazeli's 17-minute TEDx talk (in Persian): Policymaking requires inter-agency cooperation.
- Kurdish music: Sung in the dialect spoken in Kermanshah and Ilam. [Tweet, with video]
- Quotable: "What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other." ~ George Eliot
(4) Facebook memory from Apr. 30, 2014: "We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." ~ John F. Kennedy [Of equal significance to Islamic Iran and Evangelical America]
(5) Facebook memory from Apr. 30, 2018: Republicans study and pass bills like the rest of us read and accept updated terms and conditions on iTunes. ~ Comedian Seth Myers, speaking at an Obama-era White House Correspondents Dinner
(6) Facebook memory from Apr. 30, 2018: Let me share my reply to a comment on a Facebook post of mine, which many of you will not see otherwise. The commenter essentially claims that all accusers of Bill Cosby were asking for what happened to them, because, like Playboy Bunnies, they use powerful men to get ahead.
"You have really revealed your misogyny in your last comment. Equating half the population of the world with (at most) a few hundred women you encountered while working at the Playboy Mansion shows that you are the one-dimensional person in this discussion. #MeToo isn't just about Playboy Bunnies or even those in the entertainment business. Looking one layer deeper, which is impossible in your one-dimensional universe in which laws are devised based only on personal experiences, one notes that many women are placed in a position to beg for privileges by powerful men who have decided they own and can dole out those privileges. It's ironic that you expect discretion, good judgment, and morality from young women, but not from powerful older men who take advantage of them."

2024/04/28 (Sunday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
My forthcoming keynote talk at the Third International Conference on Distributed Computing and High-Performance Computing All of the world's humans mushed together into a 1-km-diameter ball and placed on NYC's Central Park Street art in Tehran's Ekbatan neighborhood, depicting the brutality of security forces against women
Iranian Garden in Vanak Villge, Tehran: Map Iranian Garden in Vanak Villge, Tehran: Photos Over the years, many of the hardliners of Iran's Islamic regime have fled to the West, overtly or covertly (1) Images of the day: [Top left] My keynote talk (see the next item below). [Top center] Gross, but interesting, fact: All of the world's humans mushed together into a 1-km-diameter ball and placed on NYC's Central Park. [Top right] Street art in Tehran's Ekbatan neighborhood, depicting the brutality of security forces against women. [Bottom left & center] Iranian Garden in Vanak Villge, Tehran (see the last item below). [Bottom right] Over the years, many of the hardliners of Iran's Islamic regime have fled to the West, overtly or covertly: Campaigns are underway to identify and expel these undesirable elements, some of whom have attained positions of influence in academia and elsewhere. The flight of hardliners from Iran will accelerate as the mullahs' regime continues to crumble.
(2) My forthcoming keynote talk: Entitled "Fixed-Degree and Constant-Diameter Interconnection Networks for Parallel Supercomputing," the English-language keynote will be delivered virtually at the Third International Conference on Distributed Computing and High-Performance Computing, to be held in Tehran on May 14-15, 2024. My talk will be on Tuesday, May 14, 9:45 AM Tehran time (Monday, May 13, 11:15 PM PDT). Attendance is free for those who pre-register.
(3) The 3x + 1 problem, aka Collatz's Conjecture, revisited: An easily-understood and innocent-looking problem that has defied solution after many decades. [13-minute video]
(4) The Chinese government is outraged over Netflix adapting Cixin Liu's novel, Three-Body Problem.
(5) "A Brief History of the Future": Six-part PBS docuseries, hosted by futurist Ari Wallach. I watched the first two episodes last night. It is full of interesting facts, but rather underwhelming in presentation and editing.
(6) Acclaimed soprano Renee Fleming talks about her new edited collection, Music and Mind, containing essays from leading scientists, artists, and health care providers on the powerful impact that music and the arts can have on our health.
(7) Tao Te Ching: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
This quote is often used to imply that the teacher is sent by God or other supernatural forces. I believe in it from a different perspective: Unless you are ready to learn, you won't be teachable.
(8) Vanak Village Iranian Gardens: My family used to live in Vanak, Tehran, adjacent to what later became Al-Zahra U., for many years. So, I was excited to learn about a relatively new large public park in the area that is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Carved out from properties formerly owned by the Mostowfi ol-Mamalek family, the park is famous for its flowers (tulips in particular), fountains, and super-tall trees.

2024/04/27 (Saturday): Here is my report on the 2024 Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival.
Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 1 of photos Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 2 of photos Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 3 of photos
Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 4 of photos Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 5 of photos Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival at Alameda Park: Batch 6 of photos (1) Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival: Held today & tomorrow at Alameda Park, the festival focuses on various ways of taking care of the environment, including green energy, clean transportation, and more. Many of the attendees came on bikes.
(2) Alameda Park, home of the SB Earth Day Festival, has an elaborate children's playground. And the festival includes many activities for children.
(3) Bikes and e-bikes were big at today’s SB Earth Day Festival: I was particularly impressed with an e-bike that had a big basket to seat two small children and also hold some cargo.
(4) Many models of electric, hybrid, and pluggable-hybrid cars were on display at today's SB Earth Day Festival: I was particularly impressed with the American-made Lucid, which boasts a range of 500+ miles.
(5) As usual, the food court was a popular feature of SB Earth Day Festival: The food was as always over-priced, so I decided to skip eating there.
(6) Other sights at today's SB Earth Day Festival included an inviting coffee cart, a music stage with continuous programming, a demo of induction cooking, and a gadget that protects cars from rodent infestation.
(7) Not included in the six photo collections above, described from top-left to bottom-right, are a large number of displays & booths representing city departments, our elected representatives, businesses catering to Earth Day themes (including organic growers), and artists displaying their work.

2024/04/26 (Friday): Presenting selected news, useful info, and oddities from around the Internet.
On dependable computing: Cover image of IEEE Computer magazine Talangor Group talk on converting sewage to potable water On software bloat: Cover of IEEE Specturm magazine (1) Images of the day: [Left] On dependable computing (see the next item below). [Center] Talk on converting sewage to potable water (see the last item below). [Right] On software bloat (see item 3 below).
(2) IEEE Computer