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“The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.”

                      --Werner Heisenberg, uncertainty paper, 1927

           … Read full post »

I just read on NPR the news at the following link: http://www.npr.org/2012/04/01/149776548/vermont-town-struggles-to-keep-bookmobiles-alive

The town of Lyndonville, Vermont lost its bookmobile when it broke down about a month ago. That story brought back my own memories of the bookmobile from the ear… Read full post »

 By now the shooting of Trayvon Martin has shocked the country. The barest facts are this:

• On February 26 of this year, in Sanford, Florida, George Zimmerman, a 28 year old man of white/Hispanic background, shot Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old black man.

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            March 19, 2003—George W. Bush announced the start of the war in Iraq with these words:

My fellow citizens. At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend… Read full post »

The towns of Wellfleet and Provincetown, near the tip of Cape Cod, are two of my favorite places, especially in the cold of winter. During our first big snowfall this year (weeks ago as of this writing), I looked out the window at gray clouds and slush, and dreamed of… Read full post »

            I'm not sure where all this concern originated about the End of the World^TM on December 21, 2012, except that supposedly the Mayan calendar predicted it on that date. In fact, this is just one more example of popular myth arising from a misunderstanding/… Read full post »

I was walking home shortly after five o'clock the day after Christmas and saw Venus shining brilliantly to the left of a crescent moon. The sky had the deep blue of winter sunset and earthshine faintly illuminated the moon's dark side.  The moon moves through the sky in its monthly… Read full post »

December 15, 2011, Baghdad—The United States furled its flag and formally ended the war in Iraq. It was a war for our generation. It was a war of our generation, much more so than the Gulf War of 1990, which was too short to make the impression that World War I,/… Read full post »

Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA

In 1961, when Marshall Smith opened Brookline Booksmith with the slogan "Dedicated to the fine art of browsing," he did something that was rare at the time—arranged books by category so people could find what they were looking fo… Read full post »

Our first daughter was born in Boston in October, 2004 and her name begins with a big capital O.  O as in October, O like the roundness of the lunar eclipse that month—an auspicious one, for on that night of October 27 while a ruddy full moon hung over the/… Read full post »

I wasn't surprised when I lost my job in November 2009. I was an electronic engineer working at a large design consulting firm, if “working” could describe my activity those final months. Aside from searching online for articles useful to my employer, I had little to do. As with so many… Read full post »

October          

            Tucked between dreams is a place somewhere in the New Hampshire woods, by name a pond, by size perhaps a small lake, shaped like an elongated key with an island whe… Read full post »