A Short History of Nearly Everything

I have just read an incredibily informative and entertaining book by Bill Bryson titled "A Short History of Nearly Everything". It's a book that covers what we know (or think we know) about the science and history of outer space, our planet, and life. It's sufficiently superficial to allow the casually informed to be able to enjoy it while at the same time being sufficiently in depth to allow the more seriously informed to also enjoy it. And through it all is layered a good natured sense of humor that truly made this book a joy to read.

Here are just a few examples:

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The second half of the eighteenth century was a time when people of a scintific bent grew intensely interested in the physical properties of fundamental things -- gases and electricity in particular -- and began seeing what they could do with them, often with more enthusiasm than sense. In America, Benjamin Franklin famously risked his life by flying a kite in an electrical storm. In France, a chemist named Pilatre de Rozier tested the flammability of hydrogen by gulping a mouthful and blowing across an open flame, proving at a stroke that hydrogen is indeed explosively combustible and that eyebrows are not necessarily a permanent feature of one's face. Cavendish, for his part conducted experiments in which he subjected himself to graduated jolts of electrical current, diligently noting the increasing levels of agony until he could keep hold of his quill, and sometimes his consciousness, no longer.

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Although there was no reliable way of dating periods, there was no shortage of people willing to try. The most well known early attempt was in 1650 when Archbishop James Ussher of the Church of Ireland made a careful study of the Bible and other historical sources and concluded that the Earth had been created at midday on October 23, 4004 B.C., an assertion that has amused historians and textbook writers ever since.

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A hundred years after his death, a statue of Lavoisier was erected in the Paris and much admired until someone pointed out that it looked nothing like him. Under questioning the sculptor admitted that he had used the head of the mathematician and philosopher the Marquis de Condorcet -- apparently he had a spare -- in the hope that no one would notice or, having noticed, would care. In the second regard he was correct. The statue of Lavoisier-cum-Condorcet was allowed to remain in place for another half century until the Second World War when, one morning, it was taken away and melted down for scrap

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Chemistry students have long amused themselves by computing just how large a number the number of molecules found in 2.016 grams of hydrogen gas is (6.0221367 x 10^23). It is equivalent to the number of popcorn kernels needed to cover the United States to a depth of nine miles.

The Great Outdoors

No, I am not referring to the movie "The Great Outdoors" -- which by the way is a great movie -- but rather to me watching movies in the great outdoors. Yesterday morning, on the last day of the year, I braved 21 degree weather to sit outside and watch "The Other Guys". Today, on the morning of the first day of the year, I inconceivably did the same thing in order to watch "Shrek - Forever After". It's going to take more than a little cold weather to teach me a lesson. I guess I'm not a fast learner. The temperature was again a brisk 21 degrees, but today came with an added bonus of an 11 degree wind chill. Now I know you may have colder temperatures where you live, but you cannot claim to have sat outside in them watching a movie as I can. Therefore I hereby lay claim to having been instrumental in achieving the earliest dumbest thing done this year. So far.

Well here's to a new year. I hope yours will be better than mine, because if not, that would be sad indeed. Remember, you only have slightly less than two years left before the end of the world arrives -- rumored to be scheduled for December 21, 2012 -- so get your shopping done early.

Happy New Year!