archive for January::2012
Wednesday, 31 January, 1962
→ commentTom Erickson in with a report on the annual meeting last night at Park Street. The annual mtg. itself was over at 8:30 PM, and then an hour was devoted to the problem of expansion. Expressions from the congregation seemed to affirm. A panel put in selected arguments for expansion, Mr. Kenney, Mr. White, Ken Olsen, etc. To my surprise, Dr. O. came in at 5:45 PM for 20 minutes. He had two proposals, one to buy the bank, the other to buy H-M & put up a 6-story building, leaving part of it to them, with 4 stories for the use of the church. I had concluded after talking to Tom A. that it would do well to try to buy the bank first & the H-M property second.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
Tuesday, 30 January, 1962
→ commentHad 5 or 6 x-rays this morning after a discussion with Dr. T.; he wants to see if my frontal sinus cavities are infected; as I have some nasal discharges. I suspect they are infected. Had some discussion with the supervising chef who blenderized a sirloin steak with potato; my it was real good! The Herald had an article today on cutting enrollment at Boston Latin (founded in 1635 to prepare boys for Harvard); it has 2600 now with 7th, 8th, & 9th grades. A committee of 3 recommended to cut it to 2000! LCH called this AM. MM called in the afternoon. Dinner was quite good also; I’m sure glad I saw the chef.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
Monday, 29 January, 1962
→ commentHad lengthy discussion with Dr. T. who described the operation rather completely. The muscle on the outside is cut off the bone, so it is possible to have access to the bone & joint without disturbing the facial nerve. After the manipulation the muscle is stitched back on. Sat in sun for about an hour, shaved and combed my hair; as a result I felt more civilized. The food consists of soups, juice, eggnog, etc. The dietitian is ill, so I can’t seem to get across the idea of consomme & baby food. Rec’d a card from the Sussman’s; it must have been delivered personally, as it has no stamp on it.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
I just saw you
Vision is a remarkable process by which we are able to interpret an image from light the eyes receive from the objects around us. Although this process depends on the interplay of many different factors (including the optics of the eye, the isomerization of retinal, nerve impulses, and the brain’s ability to reconstruct the image), vision is fundamentally based on the change in the molecular orbitals of retinal that occurs when the molecule absorbs energy in the form of light reflected off of the objects that we see. When visible light hits the chromophore (retinal), a p electron is promoted to a higher-energy orbital, allowing free rotation about the bond between carbon atom 11 and carbon atom 12 of the retinal molecule. About half the time, this rotation leads to the isomerization of retinal when the p electron returns to the lower-energy orbital. When retinal isomerizes, a conformational change in the protein opsin occurs. This conformational change initiates a cascade of biochemical reactions that result in the closing of Na+ channels in the cell membrane. When the Na+ channels are closed, a large potential difference builds up across the plasma membrane, and the potential difference is passed along to an adjoining nerve cell as an electrical impulse. The nerve cell carries this impulse to the brain, where the visual information is interpreted.
or
The retina is lined with many millions of photoreceptor cells that consist of two types: 7 million cones provide color information and sharpness of images, and 120 million rods are extremely sensitive detectors of white light to provide night vision. (The names of these cells come from their respective shapes.) The outer segments (tops) of the rods and cones contain a region filled with membrane-bound discs, which contain proteins bound to the chromophore 11-cis-retinal. (A chromophore is a molecule that can absorb light at a specific wavelength, and thus typically displays a characteristic color.) When visible light hits the chromophore, the chromophore undergoes an isomerization, or change in molecular arrangement, to all-trans-retinal. The new form of retinal does not fit as well into the protein, and so a series of conformational changes in the protein begins. As the protein changes its conformation, it initiates a cascade of biochemical reactions that result in the closing of Na+ channels in the cell membrane. Prior to this event, Na+ ions flow freely into the cell to compensate for the lower potential (more negative charge) which exists inside the cell. When the Na+ channels are closed, however, a large potential difference builds up across the plasma membrane (inside the cell becomes more negative and outside the cell becomes more positive). This potential difference is passed along to an adjoining nerve cell as an electrical impulse at the synaptic terminal, the place where these two cells meet. The nerve cell carries this impulse to the brain, where the visual information is interpreted.
→ cats:: thesis
→ tags:: Light, quotes, seeing, vision
Sunday, 28 January, 1962
→ commentLCH, JAH, NJH, JCH, & MCM in for an hour or so. It was good to see them. DCH at Brookwoods.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
recalling Varela
→ comment…[T]he last 15 years have witnessed the ascent of an alternative view, that of embodied or enactive cognition. This new wave arose because the computationalist doctrine failed to account even for the most elementary coping with the world: walking, perceiving object in a natural setting, imagination. Slowly the cards turned into considering that the basis of mind is the body in coupled action, that is, the sensory-motor circuits establish the organism as viable in situated contexts. From this perspective the brain appears as a dynamical process (and not a syntactic one) of real time variables with a rich self-organizing capacity (and not a representational machinery). So in this sense the mind is not in the head since it['s] roots [are] in the body as a whole and also in the extended environment where the organism finds itself.
- Francisco Varela, Cosmos Web Forum letter 12e (1998?)
→ cats:: thesis
→ tags:: mind, quotes
54 The Marrying Maiden
䷵ ☞ ䷡
→ comment→ cats:: i Ching
→ tags:: i Ching
192880
King Soopers #645, 12350 West 64th Avenue
10.683 gallons
$2.969/gallon
$31.72
→ cats:: travelog
→ tags:: hydrocarbon
Saturday, 27 January, 1962
→ commentFeel pretty low, but have good care. Am getting antibiotic shots, my hips are quite sore. Dr. T. put a new dressing on.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH
Friday, 26 January, 1962
Rode in with HS. Left the Lab on the 10 AM shuttle for Dr. Thoma’s office & Brooks Hospital for the operation on my jaw. See other diary for details.
Was awakened at 0545 for a shot & about 0715 & told to wash, which I did. No breakfast, & no fluid is allowed. Given a sedative at about 0845 and was in the operating room at 1045. Operation took about 3 hours. Dr. Thoma was unable to put the condyle into place as the joint surface was gone. I was given a pint of blood. They also gave me glucose. LCH was in at 5:45 PM and I recognized her.
→ commentOperated on at 1045 — starting time — at Brooks Hospital, Brookline. Operation 3 hours long — came to about 6 PM.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
Earwicker College
The society:* does all, all that it can do:* within the closed
circle of reflective generation.
***/Z
→ cats:: texts, third party texts
→ tags:: a.zega, third-party
Thursday, 25 January, 1962
Finished the document with the AMR test data. It has the #PA-631; gave it to Joanne for a cover & title sheet. JLV has taken my advice & gone into hiding to finish his report. I’d like to see it. Left on the 10 AM shuttle for Dr. Thoma’s office, where he put on the traction bars on my upper and lower jaws. It took 75 minutes. Left his office at 1 PM and walked up to Brooks Hospital at 227 Summit Avenue in Brookline, where I checked in at 1:40 PM and went to bed. As I didn’t have any lunch, I was given a glass of milk and a dish of custard. Blood and urine samples were taken, and a capsule of medication. Visited by a Dr. Kaufman who asked routine questions of medical history.
→ commentRode in with HS. Left the Lab on the 10 AM shuttle for Dr. Thoma’s office & Brooks Hospital for the operation on my jaw. See other diary for details.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, military-industrial complex
Ronald Milton Bernier 1943 – 2012
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Was sad to see that another CU colleague had passed away recently. Ron had a finely tuned and very droll sense of humor which was a deLightful foil to the often dour departmental atmosphere. I advised him with technology issues relating to his teaching and research, and we had numerous fine conversations around that though the topics often drifted far afield.
CU-Boulder art professor emeritus Ronald M. Bernier died Jan. 25, 2012, as a result of complications arising from multiple sclerosis. He leaves behind hundreds of former students who spent their CU education trying to get into any and all of Ron’s art history classes.
He was born on June 19, 1943, in St. Paul, Minn., to Olivette and Milton Bernier. Ron held an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, obtained his master’s from the University of Hawaii/East-West Center, and received his Ph.D. from Cornell University. His love of art was established at a young age. He told a Coloradan writer in 2005 that he remained grateful to his second-grade teacher who brought to class a brochure of the Maori people of New Zealand.
“I remember asking, ‘Are there really people like that?’ She said, ‘Oh, yes, but very far away.’ I have been looking for those faraway people all my life.”
He went on to share his enthusiasm and passion with generations of students while touring the most remote regions of the world, including Nepal. He wrote the first book ever published on Nepalese temples. His love for places, people and their art was propelled by the fact that much of it was quickly disappearing amid modernization.
In the early ’70s Ron was awarded the Teaching Recognition Award from CU-Boulder. After 35 years with CU, he was awarded the title of Exploratory Emeritus of Art History, a one-of-a-kind title for a unique and truly talented visionary. He leaves behind his friend and partner of 45 years, Dianne Bernier, as well as many friends in the Boulder area who will miss his wit and humor.
→ cats:: teaching
→ tags:: death, teaching
Wednesday, 24 January, 1962
→ commentAt JLV’s request, I went through the 7000 L+L-note cards to update the Site 12 TTR bibliography.
Abstracted and put in one volume, seven sets of Site 12-16 Performance Data, obtained a Pen Aids file number for it so it can be used as a reference document.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, military-industrial complex
Tuesday, 23 January, 1962
Decided at 0600 today to write to the FAA Admin & Brad Morse, our Congressman from the district we live in.
When I stopped for HS this morning he said he had decided to attend the Shockley lecture at MIT tonight, so would drive in himself.
Rewrote Bob Davis’ paper on Simulation, making it shorted and more precise. He has a good outline.
→ commentClear, cold
Drove in; HS is going to the Shockley lecture tonight.
Went over to Lexington to Dr. & Mrs. [??] home to the Park Street area mtg. Dr. Ockenga answered questions, the discussion turning to Catholicism and related topics — including a few comments on Determinism by John Ossepchuck.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, driving, family, military-industrial complex, simulation, weather
Monday, 22 January, 1962
Harry’s and my offices were moved over the weekend to L275-77. They are quite pleasant — but have no windows!
JLV & JU worked thru the weekend to generate a draft of the Committee Report to Walt. I wrote a draft of the objectives and then proofread part of the writeup on system description. After some discussion with JLV & JU late in the afternoon, JLV started to rewrite the objectives.
→ comment40°F clear
Rode in with HS.
Put the side panels and 2 seats back in the jeep with LCH’s help. It is beginning to look quite good.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex, vehicle, weather
Sunday, 21 January, 1962
→ commentWarm, clear
Took family to SS & church. A few people were glad to see me, as an erroneous report that I was or had been in the hospital was put in the church calendar.
Went to bed quite early.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, weather
waiting for Genevieve
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, human landscape
drunk students on campus
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, human landscape
Garrison’s memorial reception
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
Garrison’s memorial service closing
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
Garrison’s memorial service mariachi band
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior, music
Garrison’s memorial service
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
Garrison’s memorial service
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
Garrison’s memorial service
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
before Garrison’s memorial
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
before Garrison’s memorial
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, death, interior
Saturday, 20 January, 1962
→ commentWarmer, clear
Sprayed Jeep floor in the afternoon. I got too much on some of the vertical surfaces. Also sprayed the window frames with aluminum paint from two spray cans.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, vehicle, weather
Friday, 19 January, 1962
Wrote up my contribution to JLV’s paper; it turned into 5 pp. of longhand, describing the data collection and reduced data output for Site 12. I took most of it from 3 BTL references, citing them.
This Koh-i-noor pen works quite well.
→ commentClear, -5°F
Went home in PM, I still don’t feel good.
Cleaned my electric razor; after soldering a wire on and lubricating the bearings, it ran like new. I can now get a shave in about 8 minutes.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex, weather
YMCA lobby
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, interior
YMCA shower
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, interior, water
YMCA jacuzzi
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, interior, water
swimming 500 meters
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, interior, swimming, water
pleroma
→ commentThe pleroma is both beginning and end of the created beings. It pervadeth them, as the light of the sun everywhere pervadeth the air. Although the pleroma prevadeth altogether, yet hath created being no share thereof, just as wholly transparent body becometh neither light nor dark through the light nor dark through the light which pervadeth it. We are, however, the pleroma itself, for we are a part of the eternal and the infinite. — C.G. Jung
Jung, C.G. & Jaffé, A., 1965. The Seven Sermons to the Dead. In Memories, Dreams, Reflections. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
→ cats:: thesis
→ tags:: esoteric, quotes
YMAC locker room
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, interior
Thursday, 18 January, 1962
Had a conversation with JLV — in which he gave me this Koh-i-noor Rapidograph pen — in which he asked me to provide him the list of data to be recorded at Site 12, and the list of processed information with supporting comments. He is writing a report for WW on what to do at Site 12. He was asked for his opinions of the PA Project, and he said he didn’t think well of it. The “oldtimers’ here, those who stayed rather than going with MITRE, are getting the supervisory positions. The organization chart shows no staff at all; Wells & Nolan became line supervisors; Nedzel & Ward the “middle management.” It is odd that they don’t have any staff.
Had two tables typed up in draft form to show the data & processed information.
→ commentClear, Cold
Went to work in PM.
Went to Abbott Spray to pick up the Toro Short block, going on into Elbery Mtrs for Ford parts & to Mantague-Brown at 124 Harvard avenue, Allston, for enamel for the Jeep. They were able to match it.
Put the Toro together and found that it runs.
LCH went in to Park Street to a SS dinner; Jim Peterson brought her home.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex, vehicle, weather
no title…
→ commentThe deepest problems of modern life derive from the claim of the individual to preserve the autonomy and individuality of his existence in the face of overwhelming social forces, of historical heritage, of external culture, and of the technique of life. The fight with nature which primitive man has to wage for his bodily existence attains in this modern form its latest transformation. The eighteenth century called upon man to free himself of all the historical bonds in the state and in religion, in morals and in economics. Man’s nature, originally good and common to all, should develop unhampered. In addition to more liberty, the nineteenth century demanded the functional specialization of man and his work; this specialization makes one individual incomparable to another, and each of them indispensable to the highest possible extent. However, this specialization makes each man the more directly dependent upon the supplementary activities of all others. Nietzsche sees the full development of the individual conditioned by the most ruthless struggle of individuals; socialism believes in the suppression of all competition for the same reason. Be that as it may, in all these positions the same basic motive is at work: the person resists to being leveled down and worn out by a social-technological mechanism. An inquiry into the inner meaning of specifically modern life and its products, into the soul of the cultural body, so to speak, must seek to solve the equation which structures like the metropolis set up between the individual and the super-individual contents of life. Such an inquiry must answer the question of how the personality accommodates itself in the adjustments to external forces. — Georg Simmel
Simmel, G., 1950. The Metropolis & Mental Life. In The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York, NY: Free Press.
→ cats:: thesis
→ tags:: quotes
Wednesday, 17 January, 1962
reported the $15 to Mr. Huntington so he can authorize a payroll deduction.
→ commentClear +5°F
Went in to the Lab in the AM.
Went home after lunch.
Worked on 1961 accounts; I’ll try to start on income taxes tomorrow.
Started NJH on trying to learn to write decently.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex, weather
another coal train
→ comment
→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, human landscape, machine
tellus (earth)
Intelligence: knowledge: consciousness:
come founded on the blinds: of egg,
sleep, lapse, hibernation.
[Blind: transformation.]
***/Z
→ cats:: texts, third party texts
→ tags:: a.zega, third-party
Tuesday, 16 January, 1962
Rec’d a check for $15 from Liberty Mutual for the ambulance fee that I paid recently.
→ commentClear – Cold
Stayed in bed all day — read part of the IRE proc. on plasmas. It’s quite instructive.
Call from a Mr. Don Hastings at Park Street — Shirley B. took call — Call Elbery Motors re: w.washer parts.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex
words and meaning: sensus commūnis
Now attempting the abstract which should have been in last week for the formal Notification of Intention (to submit). Words are reified by applied meanings (to their largely abstract sounds); yet words can be made to have other meanings. Where on this Occam’s razor is the sitting more comfortable? Or is it time to just jump off and risk coming into contact with the blade in the process, but otherwise escaping the challenge of making meaning so ‘simple’ that is ‘acceptable.’ I like to think that I say what I mean, and it just happens sometimes that the meaning is not so common, so I bear mis-understanding as a price for this act of saying. This is a prime example of the lossyness of mediatory carriers. The OED (Oxford English Dictionary) has been a constant companion since I realized I had free (university) access to it. I like the Old English and Norsk usage examples which are given for some words going back to the 8th Century or earlier. Thanks to knowing Icelandic! Best of all are the full etymologies which trace the lineage of shifting meaning as attached to these bits of symbolic chicken-scratch. ‘Commonsensical’ meanings are nothing more than the dominant understanding (or lack thereof) of the shifting sands of language. For example, the OED definition of ‘common sense,’ see below, m’gosh!
(more …)
→ cats:: thesis
→ tags:: language, meaning, war
Monday, 15 January, 1962
Went to office in AM.
→ commentDense fog – 25°F
There was ice on the streets this morning, making driving quite hazardous. Went home after lunch and to bed for the rest of the day. I feel quite shaky.
The Toro engine block will be available in about 2 weeks.
Made arrangements to go into the hospital on 25 January; I’ll stop first at Dr. Thomas office to get traction bars put on my teeth.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, driving, family, weather
Sunday, 14 January, 1962
→ commentClear – overcast – cold
LCH took the children to SS & church.
I listened to HJO on the radio; he had a good sermon on the 91st Psalm.
Wrote to Winchester, New Haven, John Legg re: insurance.
DCH stayed in so he could go to the youth group tonight; he wasted all of yesterday, and has done no studying since Thursday night. LCH picked him up at Concord at 0850 PM.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, weather
Saturday, 13 January, 1962
→ commentClear – cold
Stayed in bed all day; the nasal discharges are decreasing; perhaps I’ll be able to go to the hospital on Tuesday.
My W-2 form came; $15,850.71 in come last year; this after the deductions for compensations from the auto accident; total income taxes were $2271.73.
LCH took the children skating in the afternoon before taking her Brownies to hear “Peter and the Wolf” at the Community Center.
Continued to read on Wisdom.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, weather
I-25 pedestrian bridge
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→ cats:: aporee::maps, audio, project
→ tags:: aporee::maps, meals, the road, vehicle
Friday, 12 January, 1962
Home in bed.
It occurred to me that a MOE would be useful wherein, for example, the range given by the in-flight msg. would be the basis of comparison with that given by the TTR as follows:
[ed. small hand-drawn graph perhaps included at a later date!]
This would immediately show violent excursions from the in-flight by the primary tracking & acquisitions gate. It might be useful to compute “R” and the differences in the rates of change of the angles also; perhaps consideration should be given to display of these quantities for use by the operator.
→ commentClear, cold
Stayed home in bed most of the day.
LCH took JAH in to the Cadets at Park Street, leaving on the 5:08 PM train.
I cleaned and put up the 2-lamp fluorescent fixture, and for the first time have adequate illumination over my work bench.
Read the IBM General Systems Simulator program; I don’t know whether the Army’s CCIS could be simulated or not; I suppose it could.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family, military-industrial complex, weather
whilst on the road
→ commentHeal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute it. And if the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. — Matthew 10:8-14
→ cats:: travelog
→ tags:: en route, quotes
Thursday, 11 January, 1962
Home in bed.
→ commentClear 0°F
Stayed home in bed. The cold seems to be breaking.Harry brought a belt buckle left by Mike Bavaro or Gene Small. It was for a 2″ belt & doesn’t fit.
→ cats:: 50 years on, CH
→ tags:: 50 years on, CH, family
192656
1st Stop #6015, 11185 Ralston Road
10.635 gallons
$3.119/gallon
$33.17
→ cats:: travelog
→ tags:: hydrocarbon
