Happy birthday to @CDarwin and @AbeLincolnWP !

With a throwback to my 2013 avatar!

I am completely operational, and all my circuits are functioning perfectly - HAL 9000 #QoTD

Lunar Base Clavius: 2001: A Space Odyssey artwork
(Robert T. McCall), Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

... and another birthday for H.A.L 9000!

H.A.L 9000 turns 24 ... or maybe 19. HAL 9000, unit 3 was activated at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in either 1992 (in the film) or 1997 (the book).

Here are some past 2001 posts:

• "I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do." HAL 9000 #QotD
• QotD: "I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992" - HAL 9000
• From Lunar Base Clavius to Tranquility Base
• HAL 9000 another year older!
• Happy Birthday HAL 9000!

March 14, 2015 ... Happy Birthday Albert Einstein, and Pi Day (π)! #PiDay

Today is a special Pi Day, March 14, 2015 (or, aka, 3.1415). And, at 0926:53 today we get even more gooey-pi goodness that won't be seen for a long long long time ...

Here are two of my Pi Days from the past:

• 2013
• 2012

And , in case you need it, Pi to 1 million digits is here. And if you have a lot of time ... to 10 million digits!

Also, you might know, this is also Albert Einstein's birthday!

And, here's something to keep you busy in the meantime you can peruse the following number of Pi digits (anyone want to count how many this is?). 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081284811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412737245870066063155881748815209209628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094330572703657595919530921861173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248912279381830119491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798609437027705392171762931767523846748184676694051320005681271452635608277857713427577896091736371787214684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290219608640344181598136297747713099605187072113499999983729780499510597317328160963185950244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904287554687311595628638823537875937519577818577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303019520353018529689957736225994138912497217752834791315155748572424541506959508295331168617278558890750983817546374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035637076601047101819429555961989467678374494482553797747268471040475346462080466842590694912933136770289891521047521620569660240580381501935112533824300355876402474964732639141992726042699227967823547816360093417216412199245863150302861829745557067498385054945885869269956909272107975093029553211653449872027559602364806654991198818347977535663698074265425278625518184175746728909777727938000816470600161452491921732172147723501414419735685481613611573525521334757418494684385233239073941433345477624168625189835694855620992192221842725502542568876717904946016534668049886272327917860857843838279679766814541009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841284886269456042419652850222106611863067442786220391949450471237137869609563643719172874677646575739624138908658326459958133904780275900994657640789512694683983525957098258226205224894077267194782684826014769909026401363944374553050682034962524517493996514314298091906592509372216964615157098583874105978859597729754989301617539284681382686838689427741559918559252459539594310499725246808459872736446958486538367362226260991246080512438843904512441365497627807977156914359977001296160894416948685558484063534220722258284886481584560285060168427394522674676788952521385225499546667278239864565961163548862305774564980355936345681743241125150760694794510965960940252288797108931456691368672287489405601015033086179286809208747609178249385890097149096759852613655497818931297848216829989487226588048575640142704775551323796414515237462343645428584447952658678210511413547357395231134271661021359695362314429524849371871101457654035902799344037420073105785390621983874478084784896833214457138687519435064302184531910484810053706146806749192781911979399520614196634287544406437451237181921799983910159195618146751426912397489409071864942319615679452080951465502252316038819301420937621378559566389377870830390697920773467221825625996615014215030680384477345492026054146659252014974428507325186660021324340881907104863317346496514539057962685610055081066587969981635747363840525714591028970641401109712062804390397595156771577004203378699360072305587631763594218731251471205329281918261861258673215791984148488291644706095752706957220917567116722910981690915280173506712748583222871835209353965725121083579151369882091444210067510334671103141267111369908658516398315019701651511685171437657618351556508849099898599823873455283316355076479185358932261854896321329330898570642046752590709154814165498594616371802709819943099244889575 ...

If you don't know where you're going / Any road will take you there - George Harrison #QotD

A repeat from a post of a few years ago ("All Those Years Ago" perhaps?).

Today would have been George Harrison's 68th birthday. I'm sure that Somewhere in England there are people who remember him at 33 1/3. But then, All Things Must Pass when we're Living in a Material World that's so full of Extra Texture that it causes some of us to live on Cloud Nine while others have just Gone Troppo. George was a bit of a Dark Horse in the post-Beatle hit making, but his Electronic Sound really was a Wonderwall of music that left us all just a little Brainwashed via his Eastern leanings.
Happy birthday, George, we miss you!

"I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do." HAL 9000 #QotD

H.A.L 9000 turns 23 ... or maybe 18. HAL 9000, unit 3 was activated at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in either 1992 (in the film) or 1997 (the book).

Earlier this month, I stopped by the famed Chelsea Hotel in New York where Arthur C. Clarke worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Photo at right is the plaque on the hotel noting Clarke's stay.
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Here are some past 2001 posts:

• QotD: "I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992" - HAL 9000
• From Lunar Base Clavius to Tranquility Base
• HAL 9000 another year older!
• Happy Birthday HAL 9000!

Elvis at 80 ...

Happy birthday, Elvis! 80 years old and still, in the minds of fans, still young.

I saw Elvis in 1971 (he was at the Sahara Tahoe between July 20-August 2, not sure which night I saw, but here's a typical set list). See link below for memories of that concert.

Here are some past posts on the King of Rock and Roll:

• Elvis Aaron Presley, 1935 - 1977. Died today, 36 years ago today
• Welcome to my nightmare, I hope I didn't scare you ...
• 32 years ago ...
• Elvis ... (memories of an Elvis concert, 1971)
• Graceland, Memphis, TN

100° to 0°! Happy birthday Anders Celsius #FamousScientists

Anders Celsius, creator of Celsius/Centigrade scale of temperature, was born on this date in 1701 in Uppsala, Sweden.

In his original scale, Celsius had the scale go the opposite way (water boils at 0° and freezes at 100°), but another famous colleague of his at the University of Uppsala (a fellow we're familiar with, one Carl Linnaeus), swapped it around after Celsius' death.

When I was in Gamla Uppsala in October of 2014, I visited the church there (the original Swedish cathedral). His grave, unfortunately, is currently covered by flooring.

QotD: "You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you" - Bob Dylan's 73rd birthday

The poster of the psychedelic Dylan by the famed designer Milton Glaser is the inspiration for the tribute dodo on Bob Dylan's 73rd birthday.

"You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain’t no good
You shouldn’t let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain’t it hard when you discover that
He really wasn’t where it’s at
After he took from you everything he could steal"
   - Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"

And a happy Vesak, or birthday to Siddhārtha Gautama | Gautama Buddha | Shakyamuni | or, the Englightened One

And a happy Vesak (aka Fódàn or  वैशाख | Vaiśākha | 佛誕 | 佛诞 | 석가탄신일| 灌仏会 | Phật Đản or Buddha's Birthday). As with so many things, if you try to find the date of the day, you will have a hard time ... various Buddhist regions celebrate on different days, but it's roughly the first week of the first full moon in May ... this year, Indian and Nepalese are celebrating today, 14 May.

The Buddha here is from the Sakya Muni Buddha Gaya Temple, Little India, Singapore with the Buddha in the bhumisparsha-mudra position (Buddha at the moment of victory). Here is Buddha at the moment of enlightenment, touching the earth (not the sky) to show that enlightenment encompasses all things (rocks, dirt, concrete) and is of the earth, not apart from it.

More posts about Buddha. And some Flickr photos.

QotD: "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness" Sirin ... Happy birthday Vladimir Nabokov (late again)

The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour.)

- Speak, Memory: A Memoir (1951)

QotD: "I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992" - HAL 9000

As I've noted in an earlier post, this date marks the birthday of the HAL 9000 computer. One of the great anti-heroes of 20th century film, HAL was by far the most vivid character in the Kubrick/Clarke film.

And so, here's to HAL and what would have been "his" 22nd birthday.




Here is a different type of aircraft, my flight leaving from Urbana-Champaign (birthplace of HAL)

QotD: "Within days three out of the Big Four Networks had ceased broadcasting operations, and ABC had to fall back on old ‘Happy Days’ marathons"

"Within days three out of the Big Four Networks had ceased broadcasting operations, and ABC had to fall back on old ‘Happy Days’ marathons of such relentless duration that bomb threats began to be received both by the Network and by poor old Henry Winkler, now hairless and sugar-addicted in La Honda CA and seriously considering giving that lurid-looking but hope-provoking LipoVac procedure a try…." - David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (1996).

I'll be saving some further commentary on Infinite Jest for later, but for now, I felt the need, on Henry Winkler's birthday (born 1945), to pull this quote. The photo above is of Winkler at the 2012 American Library Association meeting where he was plugging his latest book (because, in case you didn't know, Fonzie is an author!).

The Fonz was beyond friendly and more than happy to pose for pictures and make idle chatter with all comers. Looking fit, he didn't need Wallace's fictional LipoVac. Ay!

Happy birthday, Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden, aka "Shaw's Garden" (@mobotnews)

Shaw's Mausoleum

Today is the birthday of Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden. I paid my first visit to "Shaw's Garden" in 2006 (photo set) when I was attending at TDWG meeting before heading on to San Francisco. Since that first visit, I've made many more trips to STL and the Garden (most recently, just a few days ago (photo set).

As a member of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Garden has hosted many of our BHL meetings over the year (as well as

Though the Garden is, of course, famed for the beautiful floral and botanical displays, it is also an important scientific facility with an amazing herbarium and research library (The Peter H. Raven Library).

The Garden will be having some special events in honor of it's founders 213th birthday, see more information here.

Some random shots from visits to "MOBOT" (as I continue to think of the Garden) are below. The first item is an herbarium specimen collected by Charles Darwin.

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QotD: "But hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns"

Today is John James Audubon's birthday (#228 for those counting).

The Biodiversity Heritage Library blog has a much better post on JJA and his work, so I'll just leave you with this quote from the birthday boy:

"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children. As I grew up I was fervently desirous of becoming acquainted with Nature. But hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns." -- John James Audubon (his Journal, 1820)

The picture on the left (top) is a copy of Birds of America held by the fabulous library of the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco).

Below (left) is a life mask of JJA from the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia)

"I confess I do not believe in time ..." Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory

I confess I do not believe in time. I like to fold my magic carpet after use, in such a way as to superimpose one part of the pattern upon another. Let visitors trip. And the highest enjoyment of timelessness -- in a landscape selected at random -- is when I stand among rare butterflies and their food plants.
- Vladimir Nabokov, Speak Memory (1966 rev. ed.), p. 139

Just a little quote from V. Sirin (that was) on the occasion of his 114 birthday.

I don't know about you / But I'm feeling 52

Uh oh!
I don't know about you
But I'm feeling 52
- Taytay Swifty ('s grandfather)

Happy Birthday, Yoko Ono (オノ・ヨーコ)

The Dakota, NYC

And a very happy 80th birthday to one of the more important artist of our time, Yoko Ono. Ono, of course, had her career as an artist and musician overshadowed by her marriage to Beatle John.

A member of the Fluxus art movement and the "book" (or is it a compilation of performance art), Grapefruit. Some samples from Grapefruit include the the famous "Cloud Piece":

Imagine the clouds dripping.
Dig a hole in your garden to
put them in
(1963 Spring)

and then even more minimalist pieces such as ""Water Piece":

Water
(1964 Spring)

Grapefruit

Though I found the early Yoko/John collaborations challenging (I do still have my copy of Two Virgins on vinyl though!), her later solo work was well ahead of her time.

I had tickets to see Ono during her 1986 "Starpeace" tour, but the show was cancelled (I think I still have the tickets somewhere).

Yoko is celebrating this year with another dance single, "Hold Me" (from Soundcloud):

ONO kicks off the 2013 New Year with a fiery new dance single HOLD ME - a searing collaboration co-written and produced by EDM A-lister DAVE AUDÉ (whose discography includes remixes and productions for U2, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Depeche Mode, Coldplay and Pussycat Dolls, and an unprecedented 83 #1 Billboard Club Play Chart hits). The single finds ONO as vibrant and compelling as ever, continuing her streak of dance floor and club chart domination.

Lincoln and Darwin, at 204 years old, items from Smithsonian collections

Never as fun or interesting when an anniversary isn't a "significant" year, but still good to celebrate Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Darwin at 204 years old.

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Here are a couple of pictures related to Lincoln and Darwin. At top is a 3D print of Lincoln's life mask (in miniature). Below is a Hudsonian Godwit, specimen collected by Charles Darwin in the East Falkland Islands in 1833. Smithsonian, Natural History Museum. Godwits are shore birds (family Scolopacidae), large sandpipers with long legs and bills. newsdesk.si.edu/photos/tag-hudsonian-gotwit

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... Happy Birthday Philip Glass

Lately I've been listening a lot to Philip Glass lately and so thought this would be a good time to do a minimalist post on his birthday (January 31, 1937). I've been a Glass fan (and Minimalist or repetitive structured contemporary music) for years, but just in the past year or so, I've focused on some of Glass's major works. Specifically, the great "Portrait Trilogy" of Einstein on the Beach, Akhenaten, and Satyagraha. The "Knee Play" portions. Knee Play 5, in particular, is great.

Knee Play 5

Two lovers sat on a park bench with their bodies touching each other holding hands in the moonlight there was silence between them so profound was their love for each other they needed no words to express it and so they sat in silence on a park bench with their bodies touching holding hands in the moonlight finally she spoke
"Do you love me, John?" she asked
"You know i love you, darling" he replied
"I love you more than tongue can tell you are the light of my life my sun, moon, and stars you are my  everything without you, i have no reason for being"
Again, there was silence as the two lovers sat on a park bench their bodies touching holding hands in the moonlight once more, she spoke
"How much do you love me, John?" she asked
He answered, "How much do i love you? count the stars in the sky measure the waters of the oceans with a teaspoon number the grains of sand on the seashore impossible, you say?"

Gandhi

Egypt

Einstein

Happy Birthday, Mary Todd Lincoln!

Mary Todd Lincoln was born on this date in 1818.

And yes, I always think of her as "Mary Todd Lincoln" (henceforward "MTL"). And why is that you ask? Well, in 8th grade (that would be 1974ish) we had an assignment to write on a first lady. And I chose MTL. I think the length was to be around 1,000 words and I was having a time stretching that ... but, not if every time you mentioned MTL, you called her Mary Todd Lincoln each time (that's three words!).

And so that's why whenever I think of MTL, it's always three words!