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Energy and Civilization: A History, Vaclav Smil (MIT Press, 2017). There are two kinds of mathematicians: problem-solvers and theory-builders. They’re what they sound like. A problem-solver gets obsessed with particular, concrete, fiendishly tricky problems, and wants to solve them. Along the way, he may
Will it take our jobs? How can I use it to my advantage? Is it just a bullshit generator? Is it already changing the world? At what cost?
His angle was The End. A rollicking disquisition on Minimalism’s debt to science fiction, B-movies, and the second law of thermodynamics, Robert Smithson’s Artforum debut, “Entropy and the New Monuments,” linked the so-called primary structures of artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Sol Dewitt to entropy, that universal force of decay, which erodes everything into an all-engulfing sameness. “Instead of causing us to remember the past like the old monuments, the new monuments seem to cause us to forget the future,” Smithson wrote. Cynical, sure, but his essay glimmers wit...
This column begins a new feature for this blog. Every week or two, for the near future, I plan to have an interview with a well respected scientist or thinker on the subject of energy. Regular readers of this blog know that I believe that facing and solving the multiple issues concerning energy is the single most pressing problem that we face a
ROSS TWP. — Nearly 216 Ross Elementary School students ditched class for baseball May 4. The kids did not head out to the school’s field and choose teams.