Book 10 Books Before '20 At the start of September, a friend on Facebook issued a challenge to read 10 books before the end of the year. I decided to share the brief reviews I wrote here. The rules allowed for books you were in the middle of when the challenge was issued, so the
Graphical Methods Nomography Nomography is the art/science (both are involved) of graphical calculators. Using a nomogram, you can quickly solve an equation (but only the one it was designed for) with the aid of nothing more than a straightedge. It's something I've been interested in for quite a
Water Wilderness Water Treatment Workshop At a camping symposium [https://www.canoekayaknb.com/2019canoe] this fall, I had the privilege of leading a workshop on wilderness water treatment. I figured it would also be of interest to share my notes here. Note: This information is only provided for educational purposes. Drink water in the backcountry
DIY Concrete-Top Side Table For this post, I wanted to share a recent piece of furniture I built. It is a small side table with a concrete top and an oak stand. Overall, the table is 22" high and the top is 10" x 10". The main oak post is 1.
General Assorted Links (Fall 2019) A couple of times per year [https://danbscott.ghost.io/assorted-links-spring-2019/], I like to share some links I've collected—especially if they relate to topics I've blogged about. It seemed like a decent way to (try) getting back [https://danbscott.ghost.io/hiatus-announcement/] into posting. There
Blog Info Hiatus Announcement There was a fair bit of a gap prior to my previous post [https://danbscott.ghost.io/polynesian-pacific/]; you should expect a longer one before the next one. I've decided to take a break from blogging for at least a few months. I have several other things keeping
Book Polynesian Pacific Sorry about having such a long gap between posting. I've been on a couple of business trips, and when I've been home my social calendar and the hot weather haven't left many good opportunities to sit down at my computer and write. Sea People:
New Brunswick Sam Orr's Pond This past weekend, I went on my first camping trip of 2019. I started off the weekend in the town of St. Andrew's [https://danbscott.ghost.io/looking-for-whales-in-charlotte-county/], walking around and looking in a few shops. Just outside the town is the Caughey-Taylor nature preserve [https://www.naturetrust.
Economics Legibility and the Firm I recently took a sales course for my job. Some of the discussion there prompted some thoughts about ideas I've read/heard and how they relate to the modern business world. Legibility I initially came across the concept of "legibility" in a book review [https://slatestarcodex.
Economics Considerations on a Universal Basic Income Scenario A universal basic income [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income] is an idea that's getting some buzz. I decided to do some rough calculations to see what an implementation would look like. The Scenario A universal basic income (UBI) is a concept where everyone in a country/
History Irrigation, untitled Recently I read a few journal articles analyzing some historical instances of irrigation. My notes and some thoughts are shared below. The first article [https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.2013.8411] was "Rome and Agriculture in Africa Proconsularis: Land and Hydraulic Development" by Arbia Hilali in Revue
Water Pitot This is a short post about a simple device I tried making for measuring the velocity of water. A pitot tube [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot_tube] is a device for converting a fluid velocity to a pressure (which is easier to measure). Recall from this post [https://danbscott.
3D Printing 3D-Printed Hydraulic AND Gate This post is a brief follow-up to the one I wrote earlier this year about trying to make a hydraulic computer [https://danbscott.ghost.io/elementary-cellular-automata-in-a-hydraulic-computer/]. One of the key elements of the hydraulic computer I tried to build was a set of AND gates [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Book Centuries of Rice and Salt I usually only write reviews of non-fiction books that I read but a novel I read recently was different enough from typical fiction that I thought I'd make an exception. The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson, is an alternate history novel. It starts with
Bible Onan vs. Boaz For the Easter weekend I have some thoughts to share about a passage in the Bible that doesn't get a ton of attention. > But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Onan,
General Assorted Links (Spring 2019) It's a new season (even if it did snow here this week), which seems like a good time for another [https://danbscott.ghost.io/assorted-links-fall-2018/] links post. (I'm quite busy with my job right now, so this will probably be the last post until around Easter—
Movies & TV Recently Watched: 3 Foreign-Language Films This post is just a few quick reviews of some movies I've watched recently. Incendies is a French-Canadian movie from 2010 [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1255953/?ref_=nm_knf_t3]. It was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It is directed by Denis Villeneuve [https:
New Brunswick NB Budget 2019 - We've got the power? I've written an analysis of the New Brunswick provincial budget for the [https://danbscott.ghost.io/nb-budget-2015-by-the-numbers/] past [https://danbscott.ghost.io/nb-budget-2016-in-context/] four [https://danbscott.ghost.io/nb-budget-2017-looking-local/] years [https://danbscott.ghost.io/nb-budget-2018-getting-educated/] now. As always, my goal is to focus on the facts more than
Book Sand and Soil This post contains reviews of a couple of books I've read recently. They relate to a similar theme as the previous post [https://danbscott.ghost.io/images-of-the-anthropocene/]—how people are reshaping the earth. About the Books Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520272903/dirt]
Art Images of the Anthropocene When I went to the AGO back in the fall [https://danbscott.ghost.io/aga-and-ago/] I mentioned that there was an upcoming exhibit I wanted to see called "Anthropocene". I didn't make it back to the gallery while it was on, so I watched the accompanying
New Brunswick Frostival Frostival is an annual winter festival in Fredericton [https://danbscott.ghost.io/top-ten-things-to-do-in-fredericton/]. I've gone to some events [http://frostival.ca/en/event-listing] in it the past several years, but I don't think I've written about it before. One of the events that I
DIY Elementary Cellular Automata in a Hydraulic Computer Despite the same word appearing in both titles, this post is quite different from the previous one [https://danbscott.ghost.io/open-channel-hydraulics-for-paddlers/]. The inspiration for making the project described in this post came partly from re-reading Anathem [https://danbscott.ghost.io/neal-stephensons-writing/] last year [https://danbscott.ghost.io/2018-year-in-review/]. A
Water Open Channel Hydraulics for Paddlers This post combines two of my interests: engineering and paddling. During my undergrad studies (at the University of New Brunswick) I took a course called "Open Channel Hydraulics". Recently I decided to re-read some of my notes and textbooks and think about how they could provide insight for
Links Minds.com Just a short link suggestion for this week's post. It's no news that privacy concerns [https://news.google.com/search?q=facebook%20privacy] on social media (and the internet in general) are becoming more prominent. One crucial mechanism for keeping businesses honest is competition. So in
Canada The John A. MacDonald Effect I don't usually blog about politics (and don't plan to make a habit of it), but I have some genuine concerns I wanted to share about systematic weaknesses around building infrastructure in Canada. All of this is just my opinion, of course. In the past year