📖 On page 26 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

📖 On page 26 of 206 of The Science of the Oven by Hervé This

His poetry just keeps flowing. This is not only great food writing, this is really great science writing. The introduction has some interesting philosophy both of and on science.

Book cover for The Science of the Oven

 

I Voted 🇺🇸

I voted in the November 8th, 2016 Election! 🇺🇸

 


After having spent the weekend at IndieWebCamp Los Angeles, it somehow seems appropriate to have a “Voted post type” for the election today†. To do it I’m proposing the following microformats, an example of which can be found in the mark up of the post above. This post type is somewhat similar to both a note/status update and an RSVP post type with a soupçon of checkin.

  1. Basic markup

<div class="h-entry">
<span class="p-voted">I voted</span>
in the <a href="http://example.com/election" class="u-voted-in">November 8th, 2016 Election</a>
</div>

Possible Voted values: I voted, I didn’t vote, I was disenfranchised, I was intimidated, I was apathetic, I pathetically didn’t bother to register

  1. Send a Webmention to the election post of your municipality’s Registrar/Clerk/Records office as you would for a reply to any post.
  2. You should include author information in your Voted post so the registrar knows who voted (and then send another Webmention so the voting page gets the update).

Here’s another example with explicit author name and icon, in case your site or blog does not already provide that on the page.

<div class="h-entry">
<a class="p-author h-card" href="http://mysite.example.org">
<img alt="" src="http://mysite.example.org/icon.jpg"/>
Supercool Indiewebvoter</a>:
<span class="p-voted">I voted</span>
to <a href="http://example.com/election" class="u-voted-in">IndieWeb Election </a>
</div>

You can also use the data element to express the meaning behind the literal p-voted value while providing your own visible human readable language:

<data class="p-voted" value="I voted">I voted for the first female president today!

Finally, feel free to POSSE to multiple social media networks to encourage your friends and family to vote today.


† I’m being a bit facetious and doing this in fun. But it does invite some interesting speculation…

📕 Finished with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

📕 Finished with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

Chapter Seven: Adventure at the Seaside

The set up for this was short and sweet and the ending was what we’ve come to love in a Paddington story.

Chapter Eight: A Disappearing Trick

This is just hilariously charming. I do wish the uncivil neighbor had been better set up in a prior story, but the short treatment done here is sufficient for the hilarity that ensues with Paddington attempting a magic show.

📖 70.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

📖 70.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

Chapter 5: Paddington and the “Old Master”

The pledge and the turn are reasonably well executed, but the prestige is lacking a bit.

Chapter 6: A Visit to the Theater

It’s episodes like this that make me wonder why they turned Paddington into a movie instead of a TV sitcom.

📖 47.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

📖 47.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

Chapter Four: A Shopping Expedition
“I’ll have one for worst if you like,” he said. “that’s my best one!”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 468
Paddington had a very persistent stare when he cared to use it. It was a very powerful stare. One which his Aunt Lucy had taught him and which he kept for special occasions.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 478
Bears were rather unpredictable. You never quite knew what they were thinking, and this one in particular seemed to have a mind of his own.
Highlight (yellow) – Location 492
“I think,” said Paddington, “if you don’t mind, I’d rather use the stairs.”
Highlight (yellow) – Location 616

📖 On page 86 of 448 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📖 On page 86 of 448 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Finished the section on the IPO of China Telecom (Hong Kong) and read through the more difficult IPO of PetroChina. There are some conflicting statements between the two accounts which I find interesting as they relate to doing business in general. I’m sure they stem, in part, from retelling the stories nearly 20 years later along with editorial oversight. In the first account he complains of not having enough time while in the second he complains of a client dragging things out and going too slowly.

The retelling of history from his perspective is perhaps a bit too measured but expected given that he’s still actively working and maintaining an image. There are a few interesting bon mots from time to time, but I’m beginning to think that reading a bit more hard-hitting history would be more enlightening given what I know of China. I’m beginning to read this more for enjoyment and entertainment that the original historical and economic visions I had anticipated.

While a generally interesting read so far, I find it to be a bit too antiseptic as if it’s either been over-edited or the ghost writer watered down all the personality.

📖 33.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

📖 33.0% done with A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

The plot moves somewhat slowly and the action is mostly what one would expect from a 5 or 6 year old–except that it’s a bear–but the charming language and the way in which is told makes all the difference.

Bacon in a suitcase–indeed!

 

📖 2.0% done with Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

📖 2.0% done with Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Love that he starts out with the goal of demystifying a person who has been more heavily shaped by myth and retold history than by direct fact.

🔖 Want to read: Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage by Donald T. Hawkins

🔖 Want to read: Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage by Donald T. Hawkins

H/T to Sawyer Hollenshead.

This may also be of interest to those who’ve attended Dodging the Digital Memory Hole related events as well as those in the IndieWeb who may be concerned about their data living beyond them.

Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage by Donald T. Hawkins
Personal Archiving: Preserving Our Digital Heritage
by Donald T. Hawkins

📖 On Page 49 of 448 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📖 On Page 49 of 448 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China
Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China

📖 On page 24 of 274 of Complex Analysis with Applications by Richard A. Silverman

📖 On page 24 of 274 of Complex Analysis with Applications by Richard A. Silverman

I enjoyed his treatment of inversion, but it seems like there’s a better way of laying the idea out, particularly for applications. Straightforward coverage of nested intervals and rectangles, limit points, convergent sequences, Cauchy convergence criterion. Given the level, I would have preferred some additional review of basic analysis and topology; he seems to do the bare minimum here.

📖 On page 16 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📖 On page 16 of 448 of Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

A simple preface followed by an anecdote about the beginning of a deal relating to telecom. The style is quick moving and history, details, and philosophy are liberally injected into the story as it moves along. This seems both interesting as well as instructive.

Highlights, Quotes, & Marginalia

“There are some who believe that an immutable law of history holds that conflict is inevitable when a rising power begins to bump up against an established one. But no law is immutable. Choices matter. Lessons can be learned.”

—page XIV

“Prescriptions, after all, are easier to make than predictions.”

—page XIV

“Note taking allows Party and government officials to get quick reads on what went on at meetings they didn’t attend. […] Private meetings with senior government officials without recoring devices or note takers are rare and highly sought after.”

—page 10

“…the so-called iron rice bowl, the cradle-to-grave care and support guaranteed by the government through the big companies people worked for.”

—page 11

“The Party had made a simple bargain with the people: economic growth in return for political stability. That in turn meant Party control. Prosperity was the source of Party legitimacy.”

—page 11

“Messages in China are sent in ways that aren’t always direct; you have to read the signs.”

—page 14

“It was the nature of dealing with China: nothing was done until it was done.”

—page 14

📗 Started reading Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

📗 Started reading Dealing with China by Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China
Former head of Goldman Sachs and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson , Jr. and the cover of his 2015 book Dealing with China