We often have convenience now because someone did the maths before. Ben Sparks With apologies to subscribers who received this out of order due to… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (14): Magical Paper Sizes; or, The Golden Non-Ratio
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A… Read More »Why isn’t the mule regarded as a species?
Most of the artificial sweeteners already on the market are the result of pure dumb luck. The oldest was discovered by accident when Constantin Fahlberg,… Read More »Always lick your hands
While there is a shared understanding [about what constitutes a particular dish], that isn’t absolute compliance. If we had to argue that there is only… Read More »Whose Dhansak? Food and Authenticity
This image we know and love – the classic ukiyo-e woodblock print, as Japanese as Tsunamis and Mount Fuji, one of the launchpads of Japonisme,… Read More »New Wave: the Hybrid Hokusai
Here’s Eisenstein again. There’s a lot at work: The combinatorial innovation that was the printing press created further opportunities for cross-pollination by breaking down old… Read More »Technology (23): Elizabeth Eisenstein on how the printing press created new networks and sparked further innovation
I’m working my way through Elizabeth Eisenstein’s excellent The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, an abridged version of her two-volume The Printing Press as… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (12): Elizabeth Eisenstein on How the Printing Press Changed Books
CX. There are, moreover, some inventions which render it probable that men may pass and hurry over the most noble discoveries which lie immediately before… Read More »Technology (22): Francis Bacon on Combinatorial Innovation, the Big Three Technologies of the Renaissance, and Pure Science
The Uncertain Paternity of Invention The father of invention must be laziness … or play.* 10 magic points if you already knew that the world’s… Read More »Innovation at Play: Webcam 1.0
The technology of writing isn’t simply the infrastructure of thought: it’s the enabling infrastructure of most of the complex activities we think of as government.… Read More »Writing and Reading as Technology (11): Writing Rules