A piece about mathematicians' chalkboards, as media for how they work out their ideas. A nice set of pictures, too.
I was never a serious watcher of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but after reading this I will watch with a bit more attention. "Sisko began as a skeptic, but he was also a listener. He paid attention to others' views and took them seriously. While he reluctantly adopted the mantle of Emissary, he eventually embraced it, viewing the wormhole aliens as Prophets as well. Sisko’s unique role created divided loyalties at times, but he mainly sought to bring help and justice to those in need of it and to avoid violence and war whenever possible. He worked with others toward those goals, regardless of their worldviews or what worlds they came from."
The Warburg Institute in London is a profound and very idiosyncratic blessing on scholarship. Created by Aby Warburg in Hamburg in Weimar Germany, it escaped with its resources to London before the Nazis took it over, and has flourished there ever since. A few years ago it was in danger of being shut down by the University of London, but it seems to have survived the danger. Here is one of its wonders of Warburg's enormously innovative mind: his Mnemosyne Atlas. (But why is it run out of Cornell University, over here, rather than the U of London?) From the "Scout Report" summary of the link: "The Mnemosyne Atlas is an unfinished attempt to trace the importance of powerful themes in Western antiquity that emerge and re-emerge over time. This digital version of the Atlas, created by Cornell University and the Warburg Institute of the University of London, lets users explore guided pathways for ten panels of the Mnemosyne Atlas. For example, Panel 70, "The Pathos of the Baroque in the rape [of Proserpina]. Theater)," deals with reason and the lack of reason in the West, with guidance from experts Jane O. Newman, professor of comparative literature and European languages and studies at the University of California-Irvine and Laura Hatch, a Ph.D. student at UC-Irvine. Users can Browse Panels, clicking a panel to view an image of it and open options for its guided pathway. There is also a list of nine overlapping Mnemosyne Themes, accessible via the About tab. These themes link to the panels in which they appear and include topics like ancient cosmology, theatricality and anatomy, and the legacy of Greek astronomical thought. A section of suggested Readings by and about Warburg, as well as readings related to each panel, completes the site."
And from the Warburg Library, where should we go but to that great post-Renaissance artist, Bob Ross? And this mash-up of the new data nerds and the old Bob Ross is fun too.
Have a weekend filled with happy accidents, and try to paint a tree.