omenti

making use of time

Mary Roach is one of the more entertaining non-fiction authors and I've been enjoying Gulp over the past few days.  Highly recommended, but I'm afraid this isn't what I like to be doing.  Don't get me wrong - I love to read for pleasure, but there are other things that are better.  Things like tithing my time.

 

I've written about it before - the short version is I was looking at a few practices in religion that didn't make much sense on the surface to see if there was anything I could adapt.  I started tithing my time as money seems like a silly thing for the purpose if it is to be meaningful.  First it was about four hours a week to a variety of causes, but I wasn't learning.  Somehow I started working on the projects of friends and the epiphany came.  I was getting back much more than I offered.

 

I'm lucky enough to have friends with a range of very different interests and this has become a rich source of new learning and even serendipity.¹  These days my practice is to tithe my waking hours - about 11 hours a week.  I read for pleasure is there isn't a project to work on...

 

My goal, of course, is to be as poorly read as possible.

 

This is centrally important of my practice and to me as a person - perhaps something that differentiates my work from others.  It has given me a rich set of connections far removed from my normal boundaries.  One of the brilliant features of the old Bell Labs was its rich diversity in research interests.  While perhaps not optimal for some tasks, it was fantastic for discovering new areas.

 

Mentoring fits in with this, but there are times when you are working with people of different interests that the act of mentoring has a strong two-way flow and you find yourself being mentored.  It can be a waste of time if you lose your curiosity and just try to teach. 

 

Jean has been talking about time lately and Charlie has suggested I put together a post on the subject.  I'm not exactly a model user of it so caveat lector...

 

I don't multitask well when I'm supposed to be thinking deeply about something.  Multitasking is something that is generally inefficient - while there are a large number of processes running in our brains, the conscious mind seems to like single tasking and context switches from task to task when presented with multiple tasks. There is a cost in context switching ..  somehow the state of what you're doing needs to be saved and  the new process started.  When you re-enter the original process you have to somehow re-create the state of where you were.  For simple tasks this may not be difficult, but deep thought can be a disaster.  There are cases where it is impossible to recreate where you have been.

 

To single task I give myself blocks of time where I cut distractions.  The phone goes off, no net, no distractions from other people or even the critters.  The go is to find a state of Csíkszentmihályian flow - largely because it feels so wonderful and it has traditionally been very useful to me.   The first lab I was in at Bell Labs had this as policy.  Researchers could pick a three hour block in the morning or the afternoon.  When I moved to different organizations I had to create blocks of time.  If they were adverse to it I would come in before others started work leading to my practice of arriving at about 5:30am.  Others feel into the same practice - more than a few people in the Labs referred to going into cave mode.² I find it interesting, talking to some friends who teach graduate courses in physics at some of the best schools in the world.  They note that few of their successful students have any major involvement in social media and they tend to focus - no laptops during lectures, no smartphone use, etc ...  very much in contrast to what one sees in undergrad classes.

 

When I'm working on very deep tasks I tend to not work on them all day.  I do them as long as I can manage and then shift to other, usually easier, tasks.  If I haven't made progress in a month, and that is common for many tough problems, I set things aside and do something challenging that is completely different.  It doesn't have to be formal work - sometimes physically building something or getting heavily involved in a drawing is sufficient.  The remarkable thing is, during the different task, the mind seems to be continuing on with the original, but at a lower layer so I'm not conscious of it.  Sometimes there is a realization of what should be done, but more often the problem is much easier when I finally get back to it.  

 

I mentioned drawing...  I'm no artist, but I draw recreationally.  It is a very convenient way for me to empty my mind and prepare to move to focused work.  I'm picky about my drawing tools and usually throw the results out, but it is probably the closest I come to meditation.  A lot of people do variations on this - an athlete friend does photography and writes poetry to get into a state where she can focus on training and playing.

 

Playing ...

 

Play is centrally important.  Playing with others and their ideas when I can and approach work playfully where possible.  This means not being afraid to fail assuming you can learn from your failures.  It means that you have to budget time to allow for this.  Sadly many forms of work don't allow a playful approach.  I suspect it is not only useful for creative work, but at some level necessary.  Probably something for a future post.

 

There is more to say (the importance of exercise and the use of iPod time-shifting to give myself the luxury of at least 90 minutes a day), but I'm approaching my one hour limit.  I find it useful to put a limit on some tasks as it gives focus and forces single tasking.  It also prevents me from reading and editing what I've written, which for the purpose of this blog is a feature.

 

 Drop a line or leave a comment if you want to talk about this at a deeper level... and if you're looking for an entertaining read try Gulp.

 

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¹ I gave a TED^x talk on the subject of serendipity and collaboration.  Time tithing is central to that practice.  I should note that I use the old definition of serendipity - namely it is the act of paying attention and having the sagacity to notice there is something new and interesting.

The talk isn't well done - I'm not a good public speaker.  Also the format of these talks is very restricted and not something I feel works well.  

² One of the companies I've worked with decided to try this internally.  My understanding is several hundred of their people use a two hour slot every day.  They can focus on their own work or use it for collaboration with others who agree and don't want external distractions.  It should be noted the employees have separate offices and a flag that indicates they can't be disturbed.  They've told me they consider it an important tool and something they hope their competitors don't adopt.

Many types of work don't adapt to this as interruption is a necessary feature.  There is a lot of very interesting research on the subject and some HCI workers are trying to offer the right interruptions at the right time - not an easy task, but potentially valuable.  

 

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Recipe Corner 

 

I'm a big fan of soups - particularly easy soups.  This one is mostly for a food processor, is simple and easy to modify.  It is particularly good with a warm crusty baguette

 

Avocado and Corn Soup

Ingredients

 

° 1 avocado

° 3 cups almond milk

° 4 cups corn kernels

* tbl finely chopped yellow onion

° 1 tsp cumin

° 1/8 tsp turmeric

° sea salt (I use Maldon)

° freshly ground pepper

° coriander chopped (you could use parsley) 

Technique

 

° blend everything but the corn and coriander in a food processor.

° add the corn, season and heat until warm - I think it is better warm that hot

° serve into bowls and garnish with the coriander

 

 

staying warm and celebration a common tradition

It is really chilly for about the first time this Winter and I found myself out in the cold without gloves and a cap for a bit too long.  In theory I shouldn't mind much - after all, I did grow up in Montana and remember taking walks in -40° weather and fierce blizzards. 

 

About a year ago I was fortunate enough to have made contact again with Jeri - a fellow classmate from Great Falls High.   In an email exchange a poem came up.  It turned out both of us had memorized it in different junior high schools and both of us have taken delight in reciting it over the years.  The poet was a Scottsman who spent most of his life in Canada, becoming famous for poems associated with the Yukon and the gold rush. 

 

A bit earlier I met Reggie Watts at a TEDx talk.  Both of us had "performed" and somehow found ourselves chatting afterwards.¹  In my talk I mentioned that I was from Montana and he told me he grew up there too.  Another minute of talking revealed we had lived within 500 feet of each other and went to the same high school albeit separated by a couple of decades.

 
It turned out Reggie knew the same poem and it was the introduction to the word moil for both of us.  

 

The world seemed very small as we talked that night.

 

 

By now you're probably curious ...  I'm afraid I couldn't get all of it from memory and had to cheat a bit.  I guess I'm out of practice.  My guess is Reggie and Jeri wouldn't have any difficulty.

 

Turn the lights down, light some candles and crack a window to the cold.Read it outloud armed with a cup of peppermint hot chocolate (recipe follows).

 

The Cremation of Sam McGee

by Robert W. Service

 

 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

 

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.

Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.

He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;

Though he'd often say in his homely way that "he'd sooner live in hell."

 

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.

Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;

It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

 

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,

And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,

He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;

And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

 

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:

"It's the cursèd cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.

Yet 'tain't being dead—it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;

So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

 

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;

And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.

He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;

And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

 

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,

With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;

It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,

But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

 

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.

In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.

In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.

 

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;

And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;

The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;

And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

 

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;

It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May."

And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;

Then "Here," said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

 

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;

Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;

The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;

And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

 

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;

And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.

It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;

And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

 

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;

But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;

I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.

I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked"; ... then the door I opened wide.

 

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;

And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.

It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—

Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

 

There are strange things done in the midnight sun

      By the men who moil for gold;

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

      That would make your blood run cold;

The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

      But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

      I cremated Sam McGee.

 

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¹ TEDx Gotham.  I'm afraid my talk wasn't great and was very much in the shadow of Regge's amazing performance.  Mine was followed by a wonderful talk architect Craig Dykers and then the electric Juliette Powell.  As a speaker it probably makes sense to stay away from events with such serious talent.

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Recipe Corner 

 

Somehow a nice warm soup seems appropriate.  This one makes good use of carrots - use a rich vegetable broth, water just won't work.  As always all amounts are approximate

 

Carrot Soup

 

Ingredients

 

° 2 tablespoons butter

° 1 large yellow onion chopped

° 450 g carrots, peeled and diced to about 1/2 inch

° 600g  vegetable stock stock

° 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds

° 1 tbl honey

° 1 tbl lemon juice

° 1/8 tsp allspice

° Salt and pepper

° sour cream or plain yogurt for garnish

 

Technique

 

° Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute for 2 minutes.

° Stir in carrots and broth and bring to boil. Now cover and cut the heat to a simmer until carrots are tender.  (20 - 25 minutes)

° In a small skillet stir and toast the cumin seeds over medium-high heat until you can smell them (about 5 minutes?) Now grind them in a spice mill.

°  Puree the soup with a stick blender until smooth.  

° Whisk in the honey, lemon juice and allspice and season with salt and pepper.

° Pour the  soup into bowls and sprinkle with toasted cumin.  Add a bit of sour cream or yogurt and serve.

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Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

° one cup heavy cream chilled in the 'fridge (half is for topping and is optional)

° 2 tbl + 1 tsp white cane sugar

° 2 cups whole milk 

° 120g 60% chocolate chopped into chunks

° a small pinch of salt

° 1/4 tsp peppermint extract

° chocolate (85% is good) for shaving to use as garnish if you like

Technique

° Whip half of the cream and the tsp of sugar into whipped cream and put back in the 'fridge

° Whisk the other half cup of cream, the sugar and milk in a pan over medium high heat and bring to nearly a boil

° Remove from heat, whisk in the chocolate, salt and peppermint until it is smooth

° Pour into mugs, add a dollop of whipped cream and shave some chocolate onto the cream

 

from lance to chimps via godzilla...

As I was taking a walk a peloton of perhaps 30 bikes whizzed by in relative silence.  Everyone was dressed in the lycra uniforms that cyclists seem to prefer and each bike probably cost well north of $5,000.  There are several groups of serious amateur cyclists around here.  You rarely see people commute on bikes, but there is a small racing culture.

 

The train wreak that is Lance Armstrong made me think of how cycling has changed over the years.  When I was young that's how kids got around - cheap transportation that offered freedom.  In college I took up riding to unwind on weekends along with commuting as I didn't have a car.  I joined a club that regularly took 100 mile rides - centuries - and found them to be an ideal way to unwind from the pressures of school.

 

There wasn't any lycra, helmets were rare and most of the bikes were inexpensive Schwinns.  The lack of proper kit didn't make any difference.  None of us followed racing.  Bicycles were simple transportation.

 

Somehow biking faded.  There was a resurgence for awhile as "mountain" bikes appeared, but it was a fad for most people.  But then this guy named Greg LeMond won the Tour de France.  Greg was an American - an American who managed to break down a barrier by winning a quintessentially European race.  People took notice and amateur athletes took up cycling.  Then a more remarkable series of events - Lance Armstrong came along winning several consecutive Tours.  His performance was nearly super-human with a power output in the mountain stages that was freakish - fewer than one in a billion people would have that sort of capability.  Not to mention he was a cancer surviver.

 

Amateur cycling in the US became a big thing.   Cycling for commuting and for the fun of it was still fading, but a visit to a bicycle store revealed serious exotica.

 

My cycling club in college had an interesting connection.  Paul MacCready had developed an interest.  Not in cycling, but in cyclists.  He was mounting a challenge to the Kremer Prize - £50,000 to the first person who could take off, stay at least ten feet above the ground and complete a figure eight around two pylons separated by a mile and a half.  Many had tried, but materials had changed and Paul happened to be a serious boffin when it came to aerodynamics and aircraft design.

 

Finding the right engine was important.  I can't quote the exact numbers, but something around 400 watts were needed for takeoff and perhaps 250 watts for cruising - assuming the pilot was *very* light.  Bryan Allen was an amateur cyclist who could develop enough power while not weighing much - probably under 130 pounds.  To cut a long story short they not only won the prize in August of 1977, but went on to cross the English Channel with an improved airplane.

 

If you've ever been around a group of world class cyclists you are struck by their size.  They are rarely over 5' 9 and tend to have amazing leg development while having very little muscle in their arms - not terribly surprising.  The rules of many sports conspire with physics and physiology to give world class athletes in a given event very similar body types and sizes.  A great luxury of just doing a sport for fun is hard work and passion can produce results that are good enough to keep you going, but as the level of competition increases there is a selection driven by genetics - you won't see 6' gymnasts or 5' 5 basketball players in Olympic competition.  Even with freakish athletic abilities physics gets in the way.

 

For some sports "bigger is better" doesn't hold.  Some sports favor the ability to change the direction your body - or part of it - is traveling.  Others require pure strength.  For those you either need the largest possible muscle or create special classes to allow athletes of a range of size to compete.

 

Here is where scaling comes in ..  if you scale up a body by some amount, how much does his or her strength change?

 

The strength of a muscle depends on how many muscle fibers are pulling together - strength increases as the cross sectional area of the muscle.  A person's cross sectional muscle area changes as the square of their height.  Their weight, on the other hand, increases as the cube of their height.¹  What is important to note is their strength to weight ratio changes as the square of their height divided by the cube of their height.  The chart shows a reasonably good correlation between the olympic records for the "clean and jerk" and the weight of the athlete to the two thirds power.   The smallest class of weight lifter can have lift three times his own weight while the largest class world record holder can only lift about 1.7 times his own weight.

 

There are some interesting consequences.  This limits the size of animals.  Scale up an animal and you reach a point where it is simply too heavy for its muscles to move around.  Scale down an animal and its strength to weight ratio increases dramatically. Godzilla wouldn't be able to move.²

 

Some sports like discus and hammer throwing don't have weight classes, so only pure strength is valued and the largest athletes have an enormous advantage.  Other sports, like cycling, have more complex interactions dictating ideal size and weight.³

 

This brings up back to the elite of the elites.  There are some sports where you need genetics that are one in a million or even one in ten million to compete at the highest level.  Someone like Lance Armstrong recorded such freakish performance racing in the mountains that it was more like one in a billion - or even rarer.  The problem with cycling is there are perhaps fifty cyclists at least one in hundreds of millions ... an indication of foul play.

 

Doping of one form or another exists in some sports.  Much of this is dangerous, but where do you draw the line?  Caffeine has been shown to enhance some types of performance as an example.  What is the acceptable normal for a human and what are we comfortable with kids emulating?⁴   Already we have seen debate over "handicapped" athletes like Oscar Pistorius in the London Olympics  We are nearing the point where an elite athlete might have an advantage by amputating limbs replacing them with artificial limbs that use exotic materials. There are advantages for runners as well as cyclists.  And we are on the verge of manipulating genes - some of the modifications may be unhealthy, others may prove to be neutral or even healthy.  It comes down to the fundamental question of what competition means and where we draw lines.  Many sports at the most elite levels have become entertainment with the potential for great financial reward.  We've seen many athletes trade the increased chance of a shortened life for short term rewards.  Watching the Lance train wreck play out and seeing if it changes cycling may be an indicator of what we tolerate - at least for the present.

 

The good news is most of those who play amateur and school sports are not playing at the elite level and don't need to be in order to be happy.  Doping and body modification, along with a need to be an Olympian, are just not important.  Short people can participate in sports that favor height and make up the difference with training and passion.  Tall or short people can cycle.... the list goes on and on.  

 

A few years ago I spoke with the athletic director of an academically elite school.  They require three semesters of physical education for all undergrads. They participate in N.C.A.A. Division III, and their record happens to be at the bottom of the barrel.  What impressed me was the school's attitude towards sport.  Their goal was to allow students to find physical activities that they liked well enough to continue on their own for life. The goal was to provide counterpoint to what was likely to be a sedentary work style and promote health over the long term.  They saw themselves as having a mission to act as a personal trainer.  Team sports and competition are a driver for some of their students, so they participate.⁵

 

And that leaves chimps.  An adult chimp is seriously stronger than any human - their strength to weight ratio is off-scale relative to ours.  This seems odd as they are close relatives sharing about 99% of their DNA with us.  The trick is they lack fine motor control - their muscle fibers are wired to contract in large groups where ours contract in much smaller groups and we can't contract the same percentage of muscle fibers as they can.   A chimp baseball player might have a wicked left hand, but their ball control would be seriously lacking and their handwriting would be awful.

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¹ Assuming their body shape and density remains the same.  A good first order assumption for very elite athletes in a given sport.  Area will increase as the square, volume as the cube.

Specifically if the length of an object with an area of a₁ changes from l₁ to l₂ the new area a₂ will be 

a₂ = a₁(l₂/l₁)²

double the length and the new area increases by a factor of four, triple it and it increases by a factor of nine. 

The volume will increase by the cube of the length.  

v₂ = v₁((l₂/l₁)³

Now doubling the length increases the volume by a factor of eight, tripling increases the volume by a factor of twenty seven. 

Since strength is proportional to the cross sectional area of a muscle and weight is proportional to their volume if everything is scaling uniformly, a person's strength to weight ratio changes as the square of their height divided by the cube of their height.  Or as their weight^2/3

It is important to stress that this ratio only holds if everything is scaled.  My friend Colleen, at 6'7, is about 23% taller than the average adult female.  Appling simple scaling, you would expect her to weight 86% more, but she is both thinner and more muscular and her ratio of leg length to height is much greater than the average female, so the rule doesn't hold.  Simple scaling breaks down when body proportions change and variation is common with extremely tall and short adults. What is true is she is quite a bit stronger and heavier and the length of her limbs means she can't accelerate them as quickly as a smaller person.  The rules of volleyball give her a great advantage in many positions, but less where quick movements are necessary.  This means she needs a teammate who is significantly smaller and capable of greater accelerations.  Woman's beach volleyball seems to favor those with a height of about 6'0 to 6'2 and a slim build.

² Not only would Godzilla not be able to move, but his bones wouldn't be able to support his weight.  Note that elephants have to have much thicker bones proportional to their size than smaller animals just to deal with the extra weight.  

³ It would be fascinating to make a composite representation of the measurements of the top ten athletes in every sport (accounting for specialists in team sports) and make a chart of the silhouettes ranging from the smallest gymnasts to basketball centers.  There is a lot of physics going on!  

⁴ I couldn't find the reference, but someone published the weights of line backers on top ranked high school football teams in Texas over the past fifty years.  The increase was greater than you might expect for recruiting very large boys and giving them enormous amounts of weight training.  There is a chance that doping is taking place.

⁵ The school is Caltech.  Oddly enough they managed to violate the N.C.A.A academic eligibility requirement. Very strange as Caltech may be the most selective school in the nation.

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Recipe Corner

 

I'm a big fan of garlic and of pressure cookers.  Why not use to pressure cooker to cook garlic?  You'll need a trivet for your pressure cooker and a small steamer basket.  Most pressure cookers come with trivets.

I'm still exploring my pressure cooker and am finding it extremely useful - you can save a lot of time and energy plus modern cookers are very safe.  I use a Kuhn Rikon - a bit spendy, but well-made and recommended by every experienced user I talked to.

 

Roasted Garlic

 

Ingredients

 

° 3 large garlic bulbs (see if that will fit in your steamer)

° a bit of high quality extra virgin olive oil

 

Technique

 

° chop the top quarter or so off the top of the garlic bulbs - keep the top section for your future garlic needs

° pour about a cup of water into your pressure cooker and place the bulbs cut side up in a steamer that sits on a trivet  

° cook for about 5 minutes on high pressure and then let the cooker come back to atmospheric pressure naturally - e.g. - just move it to a cold burner and let the pressure come down by itself

° remove the bulbs with tongs, place them in a heat-proof dish and drizzle the olive oil over them.  Broil on the top rack of your oven until they are nicely caramelized - about five minutes in my case.

° yum!

 

books and challenges

With this time of year there is a bit of reflection.  A few readers asked for my current book list and I sent out a note to several regular readers who tend to be interested in such things.  Now that many of the holidays have come some of you may be in a position where you are looking for a gift for yourself...

 

A few readers asked what I've been reading.  I read a lot, but my preference is to work on projects with friends.  Sadly this has been mostly a readying year.  But some of the books have been good.  And as the year winds down a jewel emerged that - at least for me - was above the rest.

A few weeks ago I was sent a preprint of The Lost Carving by David Esterly  - a really fine piece of work on making and doing it well.  He is a gifted writer - a real pleasure to read prose like this.  Up until then I would have recommended Sean Carroll's The Particle at the End of the Universe to non-physicists as a nice current view of the standard model. There are richer books on the subject, but this one is up to date and, with the discoveries at CERN this past year, being up to date makes all the difference.  

It isn't new, but for those who are trying to get a better handle on energy and how humanity relates to it I think the best non-technical book on the subject is David MacKay's Sustainable Energy.  An area that is extremely difficult to summarize at a good enough popular level, he comes closest.  It also may be our most pressing fundamental problem, so a deeper background for the general public is useful.

My favorite book that aids creativity isn't a book, but rather an iPad program - the application Paper.  Completely delightful, but i recommend getting all of the brushes.  The caveat is you have to like - or at least be open to sketching.  This may have one of the best computational user experiences I've seen - but these still are lacking compared to a good set of pencils and a high quality pad of paper. There has been some excellent progress on an iPad program that helps inspire musical thinking.  I'm poorly grounded here, but am spending some time with those who are deeply immersed thinking about, and experimenting with, what it takes to help people think in this space by routing around the conventional education path.

And on education I keep getting asked what computer language should my kid be learning.  Usually - "what book or online course should they use" ...  I have to note that although I've spent a good deal of my life programming, it is a tool rather than a passion and I prefer not to do it.  I have worked with some people who are amazing at the art. Like the fine art and writing there are individuals who are simply so much better at it than anyone else that their work can bring change.  I was lucky enough to have worked with four people at this level and count one as a very close friend.  With that in mind, the "wisdom" I offer is the language isn't important.  Logic and clear thinking is.  I would recommend kids at the high school level study some formal logic first and ideally pick up a bit of a human language that has a similar, but different structure than English - Latin would be ideal. Alternatively play a musical instrument - musicians seem to take to programming naturally.    I see people entering college with backgrounds in Java, Ruby, Basic (yikes!) and so on … but they also picked up a large number of bad habits that need to be unlearned.  When the time comes to learn a language I recommend something that gets you into what programming is rather than the language.  One of the best books on the subject is by a friend (I have to note this as it is a source of bias) - Bjarne Stroustrup's Programming Principles and Practice Using C++.  I've seen 10th graders who *really* want to learn use this successfully and note that people coming at the subject freshly, end up as better programmers than those who come at it with a lot of middle and high school programming experience.  This book does demand serious study - anything less will lead to failure.

Over the holidays I plan to make a tiny dent in some papers I've been meaning to read that are outside my field(s).  Then, on the 29^th, I make the decision on what I'll spend a couple of weeks of study on to get a better sense of the problem space.  That fortnight of study is my gift to myself every year - one that my first director at Bell Labs suggested as a way to become a bit more open to creative thought.  It doesn't generate the serendipity that crazy projects with friends does, but helps with a better grounding on what is happening.

happy holidays to you!

 

There is this issue of why should we be doing something - what is important to us at some deeper level?  What should we be doing as individuals?  Here is a nice piece by Neil deGrasse Tyson 

 

I have an enormous respect for Neil and the work he does as the best cheerleader for science.  I do have some issues with bits of his message, but understand were he is coming from.  It is great to have an environment, unlike the current state of American politics, where you can have great admiration for someone and simultaneously agree and disagree with them.

 

We agree on the need for grand challenges and much better science education.  Exploration has been a huge driver, but so are other challenges.  We need to better understand our relationship with Nature as well as our use of resources.  It is easy to draft a list of a dozen worthy grand challenges, but there is little will.  

 

Neil believes the best challenge is manned spaceflight and, although I think that is an interesting area, I have to disagree.  There are any number of deep challenges facing society that not only need to be attacked, but are large enough that serendipity is likely.  Neil believes that manned spaceflight - something like a mission to Mars - would ignite the imaginations of kids in America and inspire them into STEM career tracks.  I'd be delighted if he is right, but I just don't see it and there would be real problems mustering the political will.

 

I'm frustrated to see so much human energy and creativity go into making it easier for people to consume and to be entertained.  There is much larger game that isn't receiving enough attention.  And it is also frustrating to look at the state of education in America - a country with an enormous gap between those who are numerate and have a basic literacy in science and those who don't.¹  Not to mention there are some extremely serious problems facing us including some that may lead to change that is almost certainly terrible for our children and grandchildren (and us if we are under 40 or so)...

 

I certainly don't have any answers ...  a lot of untested speculation, but nothing concrete

 

Consider this a challenge for you to ponder during your spare time this holiday season.  What are the challenges that can inspire society enough to change everything and are possible and achievable?  What are the challenges that would fundamentally change education?  What would make people welcome such a challenge?

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¹ American STEM focused education is far too narrow.  To get at creativity we need to add the arts and change the approach.  Way to much to talk about.  Currently I think Finland has the best model, but I don't see an easy path to make real improvements here.  Some of you are experts in the area and are doing great work.  Such an important area for focus...

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Recipe Corner

 

Since many of us are in a sugar induced stupor from the holidays, here is a delicious and simple soup that takes advantage of produce that is seasonal.  As with most soups the amounts shown are just a starting point.

 

Apple Soup

 

Ingredients

 

° 25g butter

° 1 tablespoon olive oil

° 2 medium onions, peeled and diced

° 600g parsnips, cut into inchish pieces

° 2 garlic cloves, crushed

° 600g tart cooking apples peeled, cored, and cut into chunks (I like Bramleys if I can find them)

° 450g vegetable stock

° 150g milk  (it works ok with fat free, but is *really* good with whole milk)

° sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

 

Technique

 

° Melt the butter and oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the onions and parsnips on low heat for about 15 minutes, until the onions are softened.

° Add the garlic and apples and cook for 3 minutes more, stirring constantly

° Add the stock and bring to the boil. Now reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the parsnips are very soft.

° Remove from the heat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

° Blend the mixture until smooth.  I like to use an immersion blending stick, but regular blenders work too

 

 

Stir in the milk, adding a little extra if required. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

 

_____

I'm a vegetarian and generally don't miss meat - I'm not attracted to the "fake" meats as too many vegetarian and vegan dishes are wonderful by themselves.  But there are a few flavors I do miss.  Here is one with fake bacon strips.  The amounts aren't critical, so I just used measuring cups rather than weighing

 

Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes

 

Ingredients

 

° 4 average sized sweet potatoes peeled and diced

° 1/4 c olive oil

° 1/4 tsp non-iodized sea salt 

° a box of Morningstar Farms "bacon" strips

° 1 medium onion, chopped

° 2 large Gayla apples, diced

° 1/4 c Grade B Maple Syrup (you'll want something robust)

 

Technique

 

° Preheat oven to 425 ºF

° Toss sweet potatoes with olive oil and salt, put in a roasting pan and bake for 20 minutes.

° Sauté bacon over medium heat and add onions once the bacon has begun to render its fat.  Continue cooking until bacon begins to become crisp and onions are translucent.

° Throw in the apples and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.

° Add roasted sweet potatoes cook away until potatoes begin to become soft - about five minutes for me.

° Almost there! - toss with maple syrup and serve.

 

trying to make a leap - a really big leap

There are a several loaded words where people often can't agree on precise definitions.  I was in a group where we flagged such words and carefully looked over our publications to make sure we weren't abusing them.  Words like community, data and innovation.  

 

One of the radioactive red flag words was breakthrough...

 

On any given day press releases from Universities and companies speak of "breakthrough" research and products, but if you re-visit them a few years (sometimes months) later, they seem to have vanished.  DARPA has an effective definition - they generally avoid the term (at least internally), but speak of improvements to current technologies that are at least a factor of ten better in at least one important parameter. A technology that cut the cost of an electric car battery from $20,000 to $2,000 would be a breakthrough.  Something that cut it in half, while desirable, would not.

 

Real breakthroughs tend to come out of surprising areas - there is a lot of connecting the dots going on that is often under the radar of large scale focused work.  This can be, but rarely is, cultivated in business and the process leads to a lot of failures.

 

Rather than dwelling on examples and postmortems it is more fun to think about ideas that didn't make it.  They often fail because someone wasn't connecting enough dots - they had missed some crucial bit of information.

 

Negligible Tales, by Ambrose Bierce

The Failure of Hope & Wandel

From Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, December 2, 1877.

I will not bore you, my dear fellow, with a narrative of my journey from New Orleans to this polar region. It is cold in Chicago, believe me, and the Southron who comes here, as I did, without a relay of noses and ears will have reason to regret his mistaken economy in arranging his outfit.

To business. Lake Michigan is frozen stiff. Fancy, O child of a torrid clime, a sheet of anybody’s ice, three hundred miles long, forty broad, and six feet thick! It sounds like a lie, Pikey dear, but your partner in the firm of Hope & Wandel, Wholesale Boots and Shoes, New Orleans, is never known to fib. My plan is to collar that ice. Wind up the present business and send on the money at once. I’ll put up a warehouse as big as the Capitol at Washington, store it full and ship to your orders as the Southern market may require. I can send it in planks for skating floors, in statuettes for the mantel, in shavings for juleps, or in solution for ice cream and general purposes. It is a big thing!

I inclose a thin slip as a sample. Did you ever see such charming ice?

From Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, to Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, December 24, 1877.

Your letter was so abominably defaced by blotting and blurring that it was entirely illegible. It must have come all the way by water. By the aid of chemicals and photography, however, I have made it out. But you forgot to inclose the sample of ice.

I have sold off everything (at an alarming sacrifice, I am sorry to say) and inclose draft for net amount. Shall begin to spar for orders at once. I trust everything to you — but, I say, has anybody tried to grow ice in this vicinity? There is Lake Ponchartrain, you know.

From Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, February 27, 1878.

Wannie dear, it would do you good to see our new warehouse for the ice. Though made of boards, and run up rather hastily, it is as pretty as a picture, and cost a deal of money, though I pay no ground rent. It is about as big as the Capitol at Washington. Do you think it ought to have a steeple? I have it nearly filled — fifty men cutting and storing, day and night — awful cold work! By the way, the ice, which when I wrote you last was ten feet thick, is now thinner. But don’t you worry; there is plenty.

Our warehouse is eight or ten miles out of town, so I am not much bothered by visitors, which is a relief. Such a giggling, sniggering lot you never saw!

It seems almost too absurdly incredible, Wannie, but do you know I believe this ice of ours gains in coldness as the warm weather comes on! I do, indeed, and you may mention the fact in the advertisements.

From Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, to Mr. Jabez Hope, in Chicago, March 7, 1878.

All goes well. I get hundreds of orders. We shall do a roaring trade as “The New Orleans and Chicago Semperfrigid Ice Company.” But you have not told me whether the ice is fresh or salt. If it is fresh it won’t do for cooking, and if it is salt it will spoil the mint juleps.

Is it as cold in the middle as the outside cuts are?

From Mr. Jebez Hope, from Chicago, to Mr. Pike Wandel, of New Orleans, April 3, 1878.

Navigation on the Lakes is now open, and ships are thick as ducks. I’m afloat, en route for Buffalo, with the assets of the New Orleans and Chicago Semperfrigid Ice Company in my vest pocket. We are busted out, my poor Pikey — we are to fortune and to fame unknown. Arrange a meeting of the creditors and don’t attend.

Last night a schooner from Milwaukee was smashed into match-wood on an enormous mass of floating ice — the first berg ever seen in these waters. It is described by the survivors as being about as big as the Capital at Washington. One-half of that iceberg belongs to you, Pikey.

The melancholy fact is, I built our warehouse on an unfavorable site, about a mile out from the shore (on the ice, you understand), and when the thaw came — O my God, Wannie, it was the saddest thing you ever saw in all your life! You will be so glad to know I was not in it at the time.

What a ridiculous question you ask me. My poor partner, you don’t seem to know very much about the ice business.

 

 

In 1942 Lord Mountbatten convinced Winston Churchill of the merits of pykrete - a mixture of ice and wood pulp created by the eccentric English boffin Geoffrey Pyke.  The notion was to build an enormous aircraft carrier at least 2,000 feet long and 300 feet wide that could provide an airbase in the North Atlantic  The problem was that it required an enormous amount of wood and, of course, it would eventually melt.

 

...  but the Habakkuk project was given a nod ...

 

£5000 was provided for a small test which took place on Patricia Lake in Jasper in the Canadian Rockies.  I first encountered it listening to an old timer in a tea house near the lake when I was hiking there years ago...

 

When your back is against the wall you are willing to try almost anything..

 

The name is from a book in the old testament and something that puzzles me.  I was told that it is from a verse in the book - something this source agrees with.

 

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told to you.” Hab. 1:5

 

But I like something a biblical scholar told me when I asked him for a bit of background ...  Habakkuk was the only prophet who questions god's wisdom when he saw a great injustice and asked why god wasn't doing anything about it.  Somehow I can imagine that squaring with the English sense of humor a bit better.

 

There are real breakthroughs out there - but those who find them are frequently not those who complete the innovation - finally taking them to a point where they are realized and successfully used.  So many pitfalls, but it is often how progress is made.

 

Before moving on to the recipe section I'll just note that I find much of the focus of current technology and computation a bit boring.  There is some very clever work going on, but mostly it isn't focused on the major challenges we have as a people.  It would be refreshing to see more serious attacks on the (many) real challenges that face us.  

 

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Recipe Corner

 

Rather than starting with a recipe I'll give a few recommendations for cooking essentials as a few people have asked for comments.  I like to cook and bake and tend towards gadgets, but I've learned that most of the items go unused.   It is possible to do quite a bit with very little.  So with that here are a few...

 

° Proper oven and refrigerator thermometers. 

Our current oven is much colder than its temperature setting.  It is good practice to get an oven thermometer and calibrate your oven.  For me that means a calibration chart I have next to the oven.   A good oven thermometer costs less than $10 - get one with a big dial so you can easily read it.  I also test mine in boiling water and by noting the melting point of sugar.

Ideally you might have an oven that, in addition to temperature, regulates humidity. These are common in professional kitchens, but are way too spendy for me.  I wish I had one though - they can make a big difference. 

The refrigerator has very different temperatures throughout and I baffle the air flow to create zones I trust.  I also know the regions that get a bit too cold for many items.  I have three - two in the 'fridge and one in the freezer.  They were under $10 each and make a difference.

° A nice chef's knife and a good paring knife

I wish I would have started with a good knife and had known you don't need speciality knives. You don't have to spend a huge amount of money (but you can).  I buy mine at Korin in NYC - they have an incredible selection of Japanese knives and related kit and give excellent advice.  Get a good sharpening stone or two and learn how to use them unless you can have a professional regularly sharpen yours.  I like Minsono knives with a Western edge, but there are many excellent brands.  Minsonos are a nice compromise in quality and price and have a nice feel in my hand - I'm sure I'll be using the same knives ten years from now.   Western edges are much easier to sharpen than Japanese edges - so go that way if you sharpen your own.  

Two two chef's knifes - one with a 240mm blade, the other 170mm - and a little 120mm pairing knife are all I need. 

° Cooking thermometers.  

I have a fast reacting probe thermometer as well as an infrared thermometer.  

I can't tell you how useful the IR thermometer is in and out of the kitchen.  I've been using a RayTech for nearly a decade and have given several of them as gifts. 

° A good kitchen scale

These are fundamentally important and every kitchen needs one as volume measurements don't make sense for many ingredients (flour for example).  The $25 Eat Smart is great for general use.  Mine reads to one gram and is reasonably accurate and repeatable.  A gram accuracy is all you need unless you are doing speciality work with spices or food additives.  For spice work I bought a scale that reads to 0.01 grams, but I rarely use it.  

The $25 Eat Smart is great for general use.  

Also if you are counting calories you need a kitchen scale.

° proper height working surfaces

If you do a lot of work with food you might find yourself with a sore back.  It turns out the 36" counter height in most kitchens is a by-product of post WWII standardization that came with the mass production of cabinets.  It reflects the 5'4 height of the average woman at the time (which, it turns out, hasn't changed in the US since).  If you are a bit taller, try going for a 1" or 2" thick cutting board.  If you are more than about 5'10 you might consider an even more raised surface.

I'm 6'1 - not terribly tall, but enough to cause serious back pain when I'm working at my cutting board for more than about 30 minutes at a time.  My friend Colleen is about 6'7 and has a larger problem.

The solution for both of us was a custom raised cutting board.  Mine adds about six inches and her's nearly a foot. You don't lose a lot of counter space as you can store things under them.  I had AWP make both of them in hard maple and strongly recommend the company.

If you are much shorter than about 5'1 it makes sense to stand on something or AWP will make a custom height roll around work surface.  I know a serious cook who is about 5'1 who wears Dansko professional shoes which add a couple of inches - they are comfortable and work perfectly.  In either case the tight grained hardwoods are quite hygienic and studies show probably cleaned hardwood is as safe as other cutting surfaces.  Plus the are very beautiful.

Of course if you are building or remodeling a kitchen, the countertop can be anything you like.  And with remodeling you can also consider kitchen work-flow ... something I've never been able to do.

° a high quality blender

I don't have one as I can't justify the high price, but I've used them in other kitchens - Vitamix blenders are wonderful if you need to blend anything.  If you make soups you probably want an immersion blender (also called stick blenders).  Unless you do it every day something like this model will be just fine. 

° a good pressure cooker

They are completely underrated and I recommend one to save time and cut energy use.  You have to learn how to use them, but once you get the hang of one, you won't turn back.  There seems to be wide agreement that the Kuhn Rikon models are superior.  Stay away from the electrics.

° specialized kit

As you specialize you'll probably find a few really great tools that are great helps and that also make no sense to the normal cook or baker.  I like to make ice cream and have instrumented my ice cream maker - if you are handy with electronics, instrumentation is a nice way to combine hobbies and perhaps get a bit more insight into cooking. One of these days I would like to get into low temperature cooking - often, but improperly, called sous vide.  Something I can't justify due to space and money, but "one of these days"...

But this is getting out there.  Pay attention to the first four items on the list (possibly five) and you can be very happy.

 

 

 

happy holidays!

OK - here is the 18th year of the card I first put up around now in 1994 ...  the last host went out of business and my free hosting doesn't support auto streaming, so you'll have to click on the player to listen..

The drawing came together in about a minute. The music was done in midi editing with a keyboard looking at a score and happened to take considerably longer.  I put it on a server I was running on a computer under my desk and sent the link to readers of The Crandall Surf Report - an early pre-blog I wrote in the Mosaic era.

I didn't think much of it until the second year when people started bothering me to re-post it.  Dozens of people.  One thing led after another and now it is celebrating its  18^th year.  The current server no longer supports midi and I was forced to convert it to mp3 - so much for authenticity.

anyway ... whatever your holiday, have a good one!

 

 

 

 

on thanksgiving

I have so much to be thankful for that it is good we celebrate this day several times a year.  Some great family members and a few astoundingly wonderful friends who I consider family.  Too many of them are at a distance, so for a few we put on a Thanksgiving celebration when they visit.

 

I'm also thankful for the wide span of interests I'm regularly exposed to.  Connecting the dots and uncovering brand new ignorance is aided by this approach and I'm lucky enough to know some very different and very brilliant minds.  It certainly adds to the quality of my own work (except writing - I doubt I'll ever sort that out properly).

 

Music and art are very important to me.  I'm not very good at music and maybe a bit better at art, but they impact me deeply and are part of how I think and solve problems.¹ Last night I heard a NPR All Things Considered report on Max Richter's recomposition of the first four concerti of Vivaldi's Il Cimento dell' Armenia e dell'invenzione - otherwise known as The Four Seasons.

 

First some background is in order...

 

I'm something of a musical omnivore these days.  The range of music that interests me has grown with time - as an undergrad it was mostly western classical music, folk songs and some emerging electronic music.  When I went to grad school on Long Island I bought a VW Rabbit and wanted a vanity license plate.  

 

At the time I was deeply into the late baroque and early classical period and decided on VIVALDI on my Montana plates (I was still a resident).²   Having them generated more than a few stories, but my favorite took place at a Mobil gas station in Rocky Point, LI.

 

I had just filled it and gave the attendant my credit card - full service was still standard in New York in those days.  She went to the back of the car to write down the license plate.  Watching in my rearview mirror (she was about 18 or 20 and a pretty blonde), I noticed a look of confusion spread over her face.  She slowly walked back to the station, completed the transaction and started walking back...   Halfway from me her gait suddenly changed and her countenance switched into that smile of delight that comes with an "aha!" moment.  She handed the card and receipt to me and said with a knowing confidence

 

"Vivaldi - that's the vampire, right?!"

 

How could you possibly ruin such a perfect moment...   I gave her a knowing and impressed look and said - "you nailed it.  You wouldn't imagine how few people come up with that..."

 

Such a delightful moment - one is thankful for them whenever and wherever they appear.

 

I add the music is wonderful and something of a revelation if you know the Vivaldi work well.  It is very different, but added to my appreciation and understanding of the original - I've already listened to it three times.  Available on iTunes and probably elsewhere. Essential  stuff!

 

I'm also thankful for delightful little hacks that private citizens come up with.  Jheri points out this delightful bit of social hackery to help non-Danes pronounce street names in Copenhagen.

 

 

WTPh? - What the Phonics from Andrew Spitz on Vimeo.

 

___________

Recipe Corner 

 

Two items this time.  A quick improvement (at least for me) on Thanksgiving cranberry sauce followed by a good side dish for this time of the year.  The ratios probably aren't that important - particularly the sugar .. more if you like it sweeter, less for a tarter sauce.

 

 

Cranberry and Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients

° 350g  cranberries (thawed if frozen)

° 175g water

° 200g white cane sugar

° 225g blueberries (thawed if frozen)

° 2 tsp vanilla extract (I use a good homemade extract)

Technique

° cook cranberries in the water over medium-high heat until the cranberries begin to pop (about 3 minutes)

° add sugar and blueberries and cook until mixture comes to a full boil.  Continue on boil until the mixture thickens a bit - maybe 3 minutes

° remove from heat and add vanilla -> refrigerate

__________

I love celeriac.  Cutting them is much easier than you might think, but be sure and wash out all of the dirt.  You need a good vegetable stock for this one.  Store-bought sock will not cut it.

Celeriac Gratin

Ingredients

° 1 large onion finely sliced

° 2 tbl extra virgin olive oil

° 750 g vegetable stock (I made a really rich one based on mushrooms)

° 1 tsp cider vinegar

° 1 largish garlic clove, smashed

° 3 sprigs thyme

° a large celeriac (mine was 600g after peeling)

° 180g eating class apple

° 50g hazelnuts, lightly toasted, skinned and roughly chopped

° a sea salt (I like Maldon) and fresh ground black pepper

Technique

° preheat oven to 400°F

° heat the oil over medium heat in a pan and gently fry the onion until soft and translucent.  Add the stock vinegar, garlic and thyme; crank the heat to medium high and bring to a boil.

° quarter the celeriac and thinly slice.  Add the celeriac to the pan; reduce heat to simmer, cover and let cook for about 15 minutes.  Season to taste..

° move half the celeriac and onions to a shallow ovenproof dish with a slotted spoon.  Peel and thinly slice the apple and arrange slices on top of the celeriac.  Pour about 200g of the liquid over the pile, scatter  the hazelnuts over the top and back 45 minutes.

 

___________ 

¹ Two of my senses, hearing and vision,  are non-orthogonal. Having crisply orthogonal senses makes a lot of sense if you are a hunter and potential prey, but the specialization that comes with civilization has allowed some of us with this condition to survive.  I find it a great aid in doing physics and math, although I would love to experience crisply orthogonal sight and sound for awhile.

² The plates were stolen four times.  In New Jersey I used to have the plates WEASL 1 (we have ferrets) everyone who asked assumed I was a lawyer ... go figure...

 

 

favorite numbers

Some years ago I found myself waiting for someone near Times Square with my thesis advisor.  We had a bit of time to kill when the question came up - "of the people walking by, how many are physicists?"  

There are a few ways to approach the problem, but both of us were experimentalists.  He took a piece of notebook paper out and with a marker wrote a number on it and held it over his head.

 

137

 

Sure enough - a few people stopped to talk and all of them turned out to be physicists or astrophysicists.  137 turns out to an approximation of the inverse of the fine structure constant - a coupling constant characterizing the strength of the electromagnetic interaction and something central to any quantum electrodynamic calculation.  If you encounter the number - even on a roadside - the first thing that leaps to mind if you are a physicist is this important constant of nature.  

I don't know why anyone would want to attract physicists, but we showed this worked experimentally.  Are there numbers that people might identify people in your profession, sport, or hobby?

People do have favorite numbers and societies have "lucky" and "unlucky" numbers.  Douglas Adams clearly liked 42, but many seem to have a fondness for small integers and in Western societies primes seem to be favored. There is certainly the stigma of numerology, but there are also aesthetic choices and understanding this more deeply would be fascinating.

This morning I heard a piece by Robert Krulwich on NPR (summarized in his blog post) that pointed to a study currently underway to look for patterns in favorite numbers - the sort of thing that those of you who are anthropologists will love.  You can ask to be notified when the results are published next year.

The history of numbers is rich and fascinating - a fascinating work on the subject is The Universal History of Numbers by Georges Ifrah.  I recommend it with a few reservations as it is only a starting place and far from a universal history - some of its entries are disputed.  But it is an excellent entry point to learning about the development of some of the most explosive change civilization has witnessed.

Oh - my favorite number?  If I'm restricted to integers I've always liked 17 and 23, but my all time favorite is the irrational real constant e - namely  2.71828182845904523 ...  

It is deeply embedded in useful expressions of how science describes nature and is also important in mathematics.  e is part of Euler's Identity - one of the most beautiful relationships in all of math:   .  

some of its early digits are curious making it very easy to remember.

2.7  then 1828 is repeated twice, then 45 90 45 - just like the angles in an isolates right triangle, and then 23 which is a favorite small prime of mine ..