Lionel Mandrake

Lionel Mandrake's Journal

June 20, 2014

R. I. P. Horace Silver

Horace Silver died yesterday. His Wikipedia article has already been updated to show this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Silver

Here is a recording of his that I like a lot.

June 7, 2014

Donald Knuth and a deplorable trend in the history of science

The creator of TeX and Metafont is passionate about the history of science in general, and the history computer science in particular. He praises historians of math, who continue to publish articles with technical content. He despises the "externalist" trends in histories of other sciences.

I agree with him. The problem as I see it is that most so-called historians of science don't know squat about science, and what's more, they don't want to learn squat about science. They are underachievers and proud of it, man. They are interested only in the view of science from the outside, and their pseudo-scholarly articles lack technical content. George Sarton (the founder of the discipline of history of science) must be turning over in his grave.

Here is Donald Knuth's lecture on this preposterous state of affairs:

June 6, 2014

Today is the 70th anniversary of D-day,

June 6, 1944, when Allied soldiers and sailors stormed the beaches of Normandy. American losses at Omaha Beach were terrible, but the invasion succeeded. Eleven months later the Germans surrendered, and that was the end of the Second World War in Europe.

Profile Information

Gender: Male
Hometown: The Left Coast
Home country: USA
Current location: electrical wires
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2007, 06:47 PM
Number of posts: 4,076

About Lionel Mandrake

I study, play the piano, play chess and go, and enjoy the company of my wife, children, grandchildren, other relatives, and friends. I am a perennial student at a school where they let me attend classes and use the library for free (because I'm old). My serious reading includes math, science, history, and biography. I enjoy science fiction and mysteries, which my wife and I refer to as "mind rot". And now on to politics. I hated Nixon and Reagan. I think W is a war criminal and was easily the worst president in US history until Trump came along. Trump and Sessions should be tried for having separated small children from their parents, which was a crime against humanity. I will support any candidate who is a "dove". I support "plan B" without prescription for girls of all ages. I support free abortion on demand, without delay, and without the requirement to notify anyone, for all women and girls who want it. I think it's time to repeal the Bush/Trump tax cuts for corporations and the very rich.