The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.
— Paul Morphy (?)
Genealogy — March 2024 Update
It’s been 6 years, but my genealogy website has
finally been updated!
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Socks possess the mysterious power, like cats, of vanishing; unlike cats, they don’t get hungry and come back.
— Gwern Branwen, on Socks
Robot Cars, Meet Snowfall
I would love to know what the actual blocker to immediate global rollout [of robot cars] is.
In a word, snow.
I can’t help but feel it telling that all of the self-driving car trials take place in sunny places like LA and Phoenix. Snow, as I see it, creates two large obstacles for self-driving cars: the snow can physically obscure the road, and the snow (and ice) will differentially change the road surface friction.
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Walking to church, listening to church bells 🔔, add a special delight to this Sunday morning!
Merry Christmas, from California! https://blog.minchin.ca/images/2023/PXL_20231226_194840979.jpg
The Mortal Engines Series, a Book Review
I recently completed the four books of the Mortal Engines series (Mortal
Engines, Predator’s Gold, Infernal Devices, and A Darkling Plain). I was
drawn in by the premise — that whole cities have gone mobile, something like
giant tanks, and have taken to eating each other — but it was the depth of the
love stories that drew me to finish it.
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Joseph Conrad on Sailors
I recently re-read The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (the last time was
in high school, for English class). I was pleasantly surprised by how short it
was (~90 pages) and delighted by the prose: so much of the “modern” texts I
read are either soulless corporate speak, that say very little, particularly
about the things that actually matter, or flowery advertising speak, that
serves more to misdirect and hide, or bland and flat, by writers who are
exposed to very little soulful writing (or is this a description of my fears of
own writing??). It’s hard to tease apart how much is a result of being written
in over a century ago in 1899, how much is the writer displaying his craft, and
how much of the structure is borrowed from Conrad’s native Polish.
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They Shall Not Grow Old, As We Grow Old
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
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minchin.jrnl v7.1 “Phoenix” released
Today, the lastest update of minchin.jrnl was released! This release add
custom exporters and importers!
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