December 3rd, 2017
In Philosophy
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If you enjoy this article, see the other most popular articles
If you enjoy this article, see the other most popular articles
If you enjoy this article, see the other most popular articles
I know more than 12,000 people. So do you.
(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.
Human societies are at least 5 orders of magnitude larger than ape societies, but humans don’t have brains that are 5 orders of magnitude larger than ape brains, so humans must have some abilities that are not just the linear extension of abilities that apes have. And one of our abilities, that helps explain the difference between human societies and ape societies, is that humans can be aware of people who are not aware of them. I know who Angela Merkel is, but Angela Merkel does not know who I am. Apes, by contrast, only have mutual relationships: if one ape knows another ape, it is nearly certain that the second ape knows the first ape.
Most people can manage at most 150 active day-to-day relationships. This is called the Dunbar Number, after British anthropologist Robin Dunbar. The number does not refer to your dearest friends, of whom most people have at most 12. If your dearest friends constitute your “strong ties” then the folks allowed to you by Dunbar are your “weak ties.” The Strength Of Weak Ties reveals the importance of these contacts: you are more likely to find a job via these “weak ties” than you are via your “strong ties”.
So far so good. Dunbar’s Number is an interesting bit of anthropology. I enjoy reading the research regarding strong and weak ties. However, some people feel the need to weaponize Dunbar’s Number, and use it to promote whatever their pet political agenda is. Search Google for “weak ties” and “injustice” or “fairness” and you find a lot of examples. For instance:
We don’t have empathy for people we haven’t met. We also only have room in our brain for around 150 people to care about. Yes we can feel a sort of very weak empathy for people like the Haitians. But does anyone really care? No. You don’t even care if someone in your suburb who you haven’t met gets killed, let alone someone in another country.
I don’t want to bore you with this debate, I’ll just point out that the counter argument is easy to make, and lots of people on that particular forum offered reasonable responses. I’ll just post one response so you get the flavor of it:
Wrong. Early civilizations only have room for about 150 people to run a close-nit community. In a world where you commute to work and commute home and have business relations and acquaintances and networking, that idea has no relevance. Empathy occurs whenever we recognize something as ourselves, this is what drama is based on. This is possible for complete strangers.
Read Brad McCarty if you are interested in a good essay about how we all find ways to work around the limits of the Dunbar Number. I like this part:
The average Facebook user has 338 “Friends”. The issue on LinkedIn is even more pronounced, where the number is over 500. Depending on factors such as the age of the address book, the line of business of the owner and others, the network-focused professional will add around 250 new contacts every year. When you start adding all of these together, the total number of people in your network can get staggering in very short order. These networks shouldn’t be sustainable. They shouldn’t add value. But if they’re handled correctly, they most certainly do.
At the risk of boring you with too much information about the Dunbar Number, I’ll also point you to this post by Christopher Allen which quotes Dunbar himself, who suggests language is an easy way of keeping up with more people than what apes were able to do via physical grooming:
The group size predicted for modern humans by equation (1) would require as much as 42% of the total time… to be devoted to social grooming.
…
My suggestion, then, is that language evolved as a “cheap” form of social grooming, so enabling the ancestral humans to maintain the cohesion of the unusually large groups demanded by the particular conditions they faced at the time.
For sure, any given group tends to be smaller than 150, and the character of the group changes when it grows beyond that point. I’ve noticed it at different churches: at smaller churches, it is assumed you will eventually learn the name of everyone in the congregation, at larger churches there is no such assumption. At very large churches, there isn’t even an assumption that the priest/minister will learn everyone’s name.
But that’s a rule about particular groups, not about the whole entire penumbra of humans and human-like entities that a person carries in their head, and which defines their human world.
I’ve read that apes rarely see even a thousand other apes, during their whole lives. I see that many humans every time I walk home from work (I work in southern Manhattan, but I live up on 98th street, I sometimes walk home).
Why do some people use the Dunbar Number as a political weapon to explain the limits of human justice? Perhaps some people have hateful politics, and they grab any scientific theory they’ve heard of and twist it to suit their arguments. But I think others simply misunderstand what the research teaches us. Biologists tend to look at the simple roots of things, including empathy. They build up from there. And I think some people get stuck when they read about apes — they don’t want to credit humans with too much more than what apes seem able to do. It strikes them as too much of a jump. But “too much of a jump” is clearly how you go from a tribe of 40 in a jungle to a city like Lagos, Nigeria, which has 21 million people. Our modern cities are at least 4 orders of magnitude larger than the largest ape tribes, but our brains are not 4 orders of magnitude larger than ape brains, so clearly we gained some abilities that facilitate our social lives, and which are more than simply being a linear progression of the abilities that apes have.
Frans De Waal explains the tendency of biologists to see something like empathy as a property that emerges in simple forms in monkeys and apes, and then evolved into something more complex in humans:
It seems that developmentally and evolutionarily, advanced forms of empathy are preceded by and grow out of more elementary ones. Biologists prefer such bottom-up accounts. They always assume continuity between past and present, child and adult, human and animal, even between humans and the most primitive mammals.
…Within a bottom-up framework, the focus is not so much on the highest levels of empathy, but rather on its simplest forms, and how these combine with increased cognition to produce more complex forms of empathy. How did this transformation take place? The evolution of empathy runs from shared emotions and intentions between individuals to a greater self/other distinction—that is, an “unblurring” of the lines between individuals. … This process culminates in a cognitive appraisal of the other’s behavior and situation: We adopt the other’s perspective.
…Caring emotions may lead to subversive acts, such as the case of a prison guard who during wartime was directed to feed his charges only water and bread, but who occasionally sneaked in a hard-boiled egg. However small his gesture, it etched itself into the prisoners’ memories as a sign that not all of their enemies were monsters. And then there are the many acts of omission, such as when soldiers could have killed captives without negative repercussions but decided not to. In war, restraint can be a form of compassion.
It is important that we go beyond the simple roots of things, that we realize how rich and nuanced human societies are, how advanced our social abilities are. So in this essay I want to argue for the high end of human social abilities. The Rule Of Twelve is interesting, and the Dunbar Number is interesting, but I think it might be helpful to spell out some of the additional mental abilities that humans have which help explain why our social experience is so vast, so rich, and so full of unending complexity.
Back in the early 1990s, I used to work at an apple orchard in Londonderry, New Hampshire. I would go up there in August, pick apples for 2 months, and leave by end of October. There was a restaurant in Londonderry that I would go to sometimes, and there was a very nice older waitress who was friendly to me. She was friendly to everyone. She asked about people, where they came from, what kind of families they had. My first year there I probably went to that restaurant 4 or 5 times. I went back the next year, and the waitress remembered me, and even remembered details about my life (for instance, that I had 3 brothers). How many customers had she had that year? Assuming 20 customers a day, and 250 work days, a rough estimate would be somewhere around 5,000 customers. But she remembered me, 10 months later. Please note that I am definitely not in the 150 that Dunbar was thinking of (for her). But if you want to understand why human society is so rich and complicated, especially when compared to ape societies, you do need to take into account people like this waitress, who can remember details about thousands of people, even if she only sees them a few times a year.
But the waitress knew me personally, and personally knowing someone is just one type of knowing, and it is the type of knowing that we have in common with apes. It’s really all the other kinds of knowing that explains the differences between ape societies and human societies.
Let’s list the different kinds of social knowing that humans demonstrate:
1.) mutual — I know you and you know me. This is almost the only type of relationship that exists among apes.
2.) asymmetric — I know who Angela Merkel is but Angela Merkel doesn’t know who I am. A fundamentally important type of relationship for hierarchical societies that exist over wide territories.
3.) fictional — I have to admit to being mostly atheist, so I’m including all religious figures. If you are strongly religious then I suggest you break this category into two categories, “religious” and “fictional”. God and Rama provide a point bonding for large societies. And thanks to secular fiction, I can meet total strangers and strike up conversations about Gandalf, Louis Wu, and Anna Wulf.
4.) inferred (or hypothetical) — different from fictional because these people often turn out to be real, but you are not 100% certain. A simple case is when you are introduced to a woman and she is wearing a wedding ring, so you infer the existence of a spouse. You could be wrong, it is possible her spouse recently died and she still wears the ring because she is grieving, but the inference is reasonable and true more often than false. A more complex case might be, you are a criminal about to break into a house and rob it, but you have a suspicion that police are near. The hypothetical presence of others is a major deterrent to crime. I’d apply “inferred” to anyone you are pretty sure must have existed, although you don’t actually know a thing about them. For instance, India must have had a British governor when Ghandi was pushing for independence. And I know I’ve seen a photo of the governor and his wife in 1947. But is that the same governor who fought against Ghandi in the 1920s and 1930s? I believe Ghandi fought against several different governors, as the years went by, but I forget the details. When I read that the USA military has bought more Abrams tanks, I infer there must have been a military guy named Abrams. When I read about the Nimitz aircraft carrier, I infer there must have been an admiral named Nimitz. And this teaches me something important about human societies, and about modern war and modern militaries and the incentives that we offer to top military leaders.
5.) group — one of the fundamental building blocks of human society, we remember groups of people: the New York Knicks, the Chicago Bulls, The Doors, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, the British Parliament, the USA Supreme Court, IBM, Deutsche Bank, the nation of Japan, the nation of India.
These five categories can be split into “named” and “unnamed”. There are a lot of people I know of but I can’t recall their names. I’m especially bad with the names of my friend’s children. I can generally remember how many children my friends have, but unless I’ve visited them and actually met the children, I’m terrible at remembering names. This is also true for rock groups. At the moment I’m trying to remember the names of everyone in Led Zepplin. The only name I can recall is Jimmy Paige. There is another name on the tip of my tongue, but I can’t quite get it. I know the band had 4 members, but I only recall one name.
I am tempted to make “incorrect” it’s own category:
incorrect (or fuzzy) — an immense category of beings of whom you have partial information, and whose number is uncertain till rare moments of certainty are achieved. In the simplest case, every person you think is single but they’ve recently become married, and every person you think is alive but who recently died. This would typically include everyone who used to be in your Dunbar 150, but with whom you’ve lost touch with. You remember them as they were 10 years ago, your information about them is out of date. But I’d include a much larger group in this category. It’s every historical figure you’ve read about but you get some details wrong. For instance, about German leaders during World War II, I constantly confuse Goerring and Goring — I think one was Minister Of Propaganda and the other was the head of the air force, but I can never remember which is which. Or your 6 year old son is having trouble in school and you want to remain on good terms with their teacher, with whom you’ve spoken once. You recall the teacher said she has children, but now you can not remember whether she has 2 children or 3, nor can you remember their sexes — the details are fuzzy.
However, this overlaps with all of the other categories. You can have incorrect information about everyone in the other categories. You can even be incorrect about your close friends. Maybe you think they are a Republican and they surprise you by saying that they’ve always secretly voted Democrat. Maybe you think you don’t know anyone who has ever been sexually assaulted, and then a close friend surprises you by letting you know about the time they were sexually assaulted. People keep a lot of secrets.
Among rationalists and computer programmers there is a tendency to think of social networks as a simple graph, in which we are a point, and our network radiates outward a limited number of jumps (think of “Six Degrees Of Separation”). I’d argue that our full social space is better modeled as a kind of Hausdorff Space, with disjoint neighborhoods — at least that would correctly represent how many of the entities in our social space are not actually comparable to each other. There is no meaningful way to compare my relationship with Angela Merkel to my relationship with Anna Wulf, as one person is real and the other is fictional. Nor would a simple directed graph allow me to model my relationship with the New York Knicks or the nation of Sudan.
At this point some of you will be wondering what my point is. Some of you might be thinking “This point is so abstract as to be useless — he doesn’t actually know Jimmy Paige of Led Zepplin, he isn’t friends with Angela Merkel, these aren’t real relationships.” But they are real relationships, they just aren’t mutual relationships, and, to repeat what I said above, it is the non-mutual relationship that helps explain the immense difference between ape societies and human societies. If I meet a stranger and want to talk about music, we will talk about those musicians that we both know, even though those musicians don’t know who we are. If I catch up with a friend and we talk about what a disaster Brexit is, it is meaningful that we both know who Prime Minister Theresea May is.
You might be thinking “People tend to only be political about issues that effect them personally, or which effect someone close to them.” The people who create a non-profit to fight against cancer tend to be people who have been effected by cancer. People who advocate for LGBTQ rights tend to be, or know, LGBTQ people. All of that is true, we are the most motivated to fight for our own interests. However, you can’t explain the history of any human society unless you allow in larger abstractions. People have been willing to fight and die for their race, their religion, and their country — all of which are abstractions that are difficult to precisely define.
Some of you may feel that I’m making a point so obvious that you are not sure why I am bothering to make it. But I am writing because I have been in many conversations where people seem unable to see the rich complexity and nuance that makes up human societies. They act as if humans are simple creatures who only respond to simple incentives. But every good history book teaches us the opposite: that human society is extremely complex, and that our history can only be understood by understanding the abstractions that people were willing to fight for.
So how many people do we know? Well, I know there are about 7 billion people on the planet so one answer, completely reasonable and important, is that I know 7 billion people. And this number does have some political importance. When I think about environmental policies that I should support, I do think about the current world population and how much it might grow in the future. So this number has real significance and shouldn’t be dismissed.
However, in another sense, saying 7 billion is a kind of cheating. If the goal is to figure out how many specific people I know something about, then the number is a lot smaller. But it is still a big number.
Lately I’ve been asking my friends questions like this:
How many novelists do you like?
How many music bands do you like? How many members do they have?
Who are the best players in the NFL?
What are your favorite movies?
How many actors could you name if your life depended on it?
How many people work at the place where you work? How many of their names do you know? How many children do they have? How many names of the children do you know?
Who do you blame for Brexit? How many names do you know?
Who is currently on the USA Supreme Court?
Who is the leader of Russia? Of Japan? Of France?
How many Tolkien characters can you name?
How many Star Wars characters can you name?
How many Star Trek characters can you name?
How many Marvel superheroes can you name?
How many DC superheroes can you name?
How many athletes do you know?
How many sports teams can you name?
How many combatants can you name from the USA Civil War? The English Civil War? The French Revolution?
Most of my friends can come up with 20 names for each of these larger categories, without even really trying. If they tried, I would guess they could come up with over 50 for some of the larger categories. I’ve known people who were fanatics about sports and who could name and talk about at least 200 athletes, probably a lot more, maybe 500.
Of the 5 categories, I think the importance of the first two are almost self evident, so I won’t waste your time arguing about them. Some people might have doubts about the importance of fictional people. Matthew Graves offers this summary of Yuval Noah Harari:
[ Yuval Noah ]Harari attributes the cognitive revolution to the ability of Sapiens language (and brains) to communicate about fictions. From an individual perspective, this seems problematic: an individual who only believes true things seems strictly more fit than an individual who believes both true and false things.
But from a collective perspective, fictions can allow cooperation on a much broader scale. This is the first obvious benefit of starting from the lower levels and building up–if you were a Martian biologist, the striking thing about Sapiens is their tremendous ability to cooperate with each other. Other animals do not build cities, and would not find them livable, because there would be too many of their own kind there. But to a city-dwelling human, that humans can meet strangers with only a touch of anxiety seems normal, not necessarily odd enough to demand a powerful explanation.
So fiction, and also religion (which I consider fiction), is important in explaining the richness of human societies.
The other categories are important too, in different ways.
Consider the rock band Led Zepplin. I’m fairly sure there were 4 members, but I could be wrong, maybe there were 5. And right now, the only one I can remember the name of is Jimmy Paige. So Led Zepplin gives one named person plus three or four fuzzy people. Please note how much I know about these fuzzy people. They are not empty ghosts to me: I know their nationality, I know their profession, I know their skills, I know the output of their work, and I know which decades they were at the height of their fame. That is a lot of information. I’m counting Led Zepplin as four, towards the total number of people that I know about. How important is this kind of knowing? In this case, it would depend entirely on how important you think music is to human society. I personally think music is very important to humans.
What is the ratio of people I can name versus people who are hypothetical or fuzzy for me? That waitress in New Hampshire clearly remembered details about many hundreds, maybe thousands, of people, but she didn’t necessarily remember people’s names. But let’s be conservative, and go with the ratio that I’ve got for Led Zepplin: one named versus three unnamed. Regarding my personal experiment (see below), I think if I kept going, every night for a whole week, I could get to 3,000 names. That would give me 12,000 total people, both real and fictional, known or inferred. And that is not counting all of the larger groups of people that I know of, such as corporations and nations.
I don’t think I’m special, so I’d guess that you also know at least 12,000 people. I’m tempted to think of these as Ultra Weak Ties, but the word “ties” suggests that the other people know about you, and most of what I’m talking about is humans or human-like entities that don’t know you. So I think it might be more accurate to think of this as your social penumbra — that wobbling mass of human or human-like entities that make up our human experience of the human, and whose interactions with other people’s social penumbras gives rise to that thing we call human societies.
As a self-imposed experiment, and because I was curious, I decided to write down a list people whose name I knew and about whom I could remember at least one fact. I was curious how fast I could get to 1,000 names. I worked on this 3 nights in a row. I don’t think my personal results are all that interesting or unique, but I’ve posted the results down at the bottom, sort of as a reminder to myself. But I would urge you to do this experiment for yourself. Take some time and see how fast you can get to 1,000. I think when you do this, you realize you know a lot more than 1,000 people. I know that, even after I stopped writing down people, the names of actors and writers and musicians and athletes and computer programmers and politicians were constantly occurring to me.
Most of these names I can only remember in context. If you ask me “Who is Madsen?” I won’t have any idea. But if we are talking about the movies of Quentin Tarrantino, and you ask me who Madsen is, then of course I will think of the actor.
How many people do I know something specific about, but I can’t name them? When I think about the episodes of my life, I remember many faces, many anecdotes, but not many names. For instance, around 1990 me and some friends spent a lot of time hitchhiking all over the USA. During that time I got rides from at least 50 people, maybe 100. I remember a lot of them, though I don’t recall any names. For instance:
Truck driver from Czechovia, he gave me a lift when I was hitchhiking in 1989
Guy in pickup, 1990, gave Joanna Salidis and I a lift when we were hitchhiking, he complained we didn’t talk much, both of us were exhausted
Lawyer from Charlottesville, he gave me a lift when I was hitchiking in 1988, invited me to dinner with his wife but I declined, I was in a hurry to keep going, though in retrospect I wish I had accepted the over
Black man and his wife, very Christian, gave me a lift when I was hitchhiking, 1988, invited me back to their place, cooked lunch for me, lots of praying, drove me back to the Interstate, dropped me off so I could hitch some more
Young woman from Peru who picked me up in her red convertible, when I was hitchhiking from Los Angeles to San Francisco, summer of 1990
I could write at least 25 of those hitchhiking adventures, and that’s from a long time ago, and just one small part of my life.
Aside from the size of the number of people we know, I’d also like to make clear that human relations play out over very long time spans. It’s not just the people you’ve spoken to this month who matter. Perhaps you knew someone in college but you have not spoken to them in 10 years. You know they became a doctor who specializes in spina bifida, but you don’t care about that. You were never close to them, nor do you know anyone who has spina bifida. Then you give birth to a child with spina bifida. Your old acquaintance is one of the first people you call as you try to figure out how to deal with your new, high needs child. This is the structure of a human life: our relationships play out over the entirety of the lifespan.
And of course, each of us has our specialty, where we tend to know a great many names. I am a computer programmer, so my mind is full of the important figures who shaped the architecture of modern computers. But if you were to talk to, say for instance, a Christian minister, you would find that many of them have memorized most of the stories from the Bible (which is suppose to have more than 3,000 named characters).
So, as I said, a conservative estimate would be the Led Zepplin model: 1 to 3. Since I am fairly sure I can write down 3,000 names, that implies I remember something about at least 12,000 humans (both real and fictional). That is almost certainly the low end estimate. If some researcher later finds out that the average person knows facts about 30,000 people, I won’t be surprised in the slightest.
And if you try this experiment, I think you will also discover the same thing, that you hold facts in your head about many thousands of people. And I do urge you to try this experiment yourself, writing down any name you can recall, and any one fact that you can associate with that name.
This is the end of the essay.
You don’t need to read further.
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However, as a note to myself, I’m going to paste here the results of my own experiment.
You can see some interests of my interests from specific years. I was badly sick 1995-1999, and I spent some of that time watching basketball, so I know a lot of basketball players from those years, but not since. Back then, I could have easily listed the names of a hundred basketball players, but I’ve forgotten most of it since. In 1996, I knew the name of everyone on the Chicago Bulls, but now I can only remember Michael Jordan, Scottie Pipen, and Denis Rodman.
I also did another experiment, which is how many nations I could remember. I think this is important because war is important and the right to go to war is currently considered a right that belongs mostly to sovereign nations (leaving aside the whole conversation we could have about the rise of non-state actors in world affairs). I’m fairly good at geography, so I tested myself by listing all the countries I can name without looking at a map:
Canada
USA
Mexico
Costa Rica
Guatemala
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Panama
Columbia
Venezuela
Peru
Chile
Bolivia
Paraguay
Brazil
Uruguay
Argentina
South Africa
Angola
Congo
Zimbabwe — Rhodesia
Mozambique
Kenya
Rwanda
Central African Republic
Nigeria
Seria Leone
Senegal
Ghana
Benin
Liberia
Madagascar
Swaziland
Burundi
Ethiopia
Etritea
Sudan
Mali
Somalia
Egypt
Lybia
Tunisia
Algeria
Morocco
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Dubai
United Arab Emirates
Jordan
Israel
Palestine
Kuwait
Iraq
Syria
Lebanon
Turkey
Greece
Bulgaria
Albania
Macedonia
Serbia
Romania
Hungary
Bosnia (the capitol is Sarajevo)
Croatia
Slovakia
Chezchia
Poland
Germany
Austria
Italy
France
Spain
Portugal
Switzerland
Belgium
Netherlands
Monaco
Andova (sp?)
England
Iceland
Greenland
Denmark
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuiania
Belarussia
Moldavia
Ukraine
Russia
Kazakstan
Georgia
Armenia
South Ossetia (can’t recall if this is independent or part of Georgia)
Azerberjani
Iran
Pakistan
India
Bangladesh
Burma (Republic of Myrnamar)
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
China
Turkministan (Turkistan?)
Mongolia
North Korea
South Korea
Japan
Taiwan
Indonesia
Phillipipenes
Borneo
Australia
New Zealand
Cuba
Jamaica
Hati
Dominican Republic
Bermuda
____ (Island where Nassau is)
The effect might be extremely subtle, but when we remember the name of a country, we are recognizing the humanity we share with the people who live there. We don’t bother to memorize which apes hold what territory in the Congo, or which hawks police what territory in the Rocky Mountains, or which wolves scour which regions of the Siberian cold, but we do memorize the names of countries, because we know that other humans, just like us, live in those countries, and we respect them for being human.
There are several countries that I can see in my mind’s map, but I can not recall their name. For instance, I know there are several small countries in between Ghana and Liberia, but I can not recall their names right now.
I know there are many islands bordering the Gulf Of Mexico. I don’t recall which of them are independent nations and which belong to European powers.
I know there are some small island nations in the Pacific, but I don’t recall their names. I think Easter Island is claimed by Chile? Maybe I have that confused with the Galapagos Islands?
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Below is my personal list of 1,000 names.
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me (with a name: Lawrence Krubner)
my dad, Ralph
my mom, Blanche
Leonard (brother)
Lance (brother)
Lee (brother)
Josh (nephew)
Hailey (niece)
Sandy (cousin)
Irving (uncle)
Mitchel (cousin)
Miriam (aunt, dead)
Ester (grandma, mom’s mom, dead)
Valerie (sister, dead)
Valerie (niece)
Lee, jr (nephew)
Sarah (ex-sister-in-law)
Adele (sister-in-law)
Nanny (dad’s grandmom, born during the 1800s)
dad’s dad Frank? George? (died of a heart attack in 1962?)
dad’s mom Alice (died of cancer in 1967)
Walter? (Alice re-married, 2nd husband?)
Chaya, mom’s mom’s mom (had 16 children, half of whom died in the Holocaust)
Froyim, mom’s mom’s dad
Max (uncle)
Kevin (first cousin, Max’s son)
Craig (first cousin, Max’s son)
Kevin’s daughter, Makela
Kevin’s son, Alec
Valerie (Kevin’s ex-wife)
Natalie Sidner, my co-author of “How To Destroy A Tech Startup In Three Easy Steps”
Annie, Natalie’s sister
Carol Klix (my best friend in 4th and 5h grade)
Mike Furlong (friend in elementary school)
Jimmy Johnson (friend in elementary school)
Chris Nuuja (friend in high school)
Burns Schaefer (friend in high school)
Roy Walton (friend in high school)
Sharon Lample (friend in high school)
Debbie Zeelai (Zeigler? Zeylay?), best friend of Sharon Lample
Ian, a high school friend, a computer hacker, later did 10 years in jail for stealing credit cards
Mr Maybe (High school English teacher), despite my bad grades, allowed me into AP English the year it was introduced (It was a lucky break to be allowed to take AP classes, as this was the only time I made it to the Honor Roll)
Mr Darton (high school history teacher), despite my bad grades, allowed me into AP History the year it was introduced.
Mz Zlotagura (therapist at school in 4th and 5th grade)
Mrs Down (4th grade teacher)
Mr Reed (5th grade teacher, described me, on my report card, as an “enigma”)
Alex King (my dad’s ex-business-partner, the police believe he faked his own death, they both had small plane pilot licenses and in the 1950s made good money from ariel photography)
Amachi (Mata) the “hugging guru” has an ashram in Kerala, India. My brother spent most of 15 years there
Elle Latif, my housemate in 2000-2003
Mike, whose writing name is Alonzo Subverbo. Friend of Elle. Very quiet but a good writer. Every Bloomsbury Day he sends our an email about the novel Ulysses and it’s always hilarious.
Hanson — I think his name was Hanson. The single most incredible coincidence that ever occurred to me. I was working at a coffee shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but in the summer of 1993 I said I was going to quit. They hired a guy to replace me. He had just moved to Chapel Hill from up north. We worked together for 2 weeks, and I taught him all I knew about running the shop. Then I left and went to work on an apple orchard in New Hampshire (Mack’s Apples http://macksapples.com/). There I met a girl and fell madly in love with her. She said she was taking a semester break from Bryn Marw, but she had to go back and finish. I told her I would come with her. The apple season ended and we moved to Bryn Mawr and got an apartment. I went looking for a job. I got hired at a photography shop. On my first day, I arrived for work. I came around into the back and they told me to fill out a time sheet. There was a cork-board near the time clock, and on the cork-board was a photo of Hanson. I asked, “Why is this here?” and the manager said, “That’s a guy who used to work here. He quit and moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina.” The chances that I would fall in love with a girl, move to a town I’d never been to before, and end up working at the same place as the guy who just got hired at the coffee shop I was quitting in Chapel Hill — astronomical. Completely surreal. (In terms of how many humans I know, please note, this is just one anecdote out of several decades of my life, but there are 3 people attached to this one anecdote. I don’t remember the name of the manager.)
Robin Hanson — a writer at lesswrong.org
Yadzukoski — spelling? a writer at lesswrong.org
Ulysses, guy from the Iliad and the Odysseus. Married to Penelope.
Penelope, married to Ulysses.
Agamemnon, also in Iliad and the Odysseus. Played by Brad Pitt in the movie.
Brad Pitt, USA actor, 1990s to current
Angelina Jolie, actor, USA, 1990s to current, was in Salt, was married to Brad Pitt.
Meghan Eckman, my housemate in 2000-2001
Max Katz, I met her when I moved to Charlottesville in 2000. She was amazing in her ability to play the flute. Amazing musical talent all around
Stratton Salidis, my friend since 1985, housemate in 2000-2001
John Salidis, my housemate in 2000-2001
Maria Salids, exactly my age, I met her at summer camp in the 1980s
Joanna Salidis, one of the clan, I met her at summer camp in the 1980s
Christina Salidis, one of the clan, I met her at summer camp in the 1980s
Angela Salidis, one of the clan, I met her in the 1990s
Leon Salidis, one of the clan, I met him at summer camp in the 1980s
Marie Salidis, mother of my Salidis friends
John Salidis, father of my Salidis friends
Troy, was Christina’s boyfriend for a long time in the 1990s, from Paducah, Kentucky
Michael Bertoni, one of the folks from Paducah, Kentucky who came to summer camp in 1980s
Marty Bertoni, one of the folks from Paducah, Kentucky who came to summer camp in 1980s
Katherine Costley, now Bertoni, met at summer camp in the 1990s, later married Michael Bertoni
Hal Costley, Katherine’s father
Rainbow Angelica Pery, met at the summer camp in the 1990s
Misty Boyd, cook at summer camp in 1980s
dana boyd, writer, researcher, early blogger of 2000s, focused on how online social networks “collapsed different social contexts” which we often prefer to keep separate. Focused on how children were effected by online life, a great advocate for children. A fan of Ani Difranco. boyd used to spell her name in lowercase, I’ve no idea if that has changed. I read her blog a great deal back in 2005-2007. I have not read her much since.
Ani Difranco, radical angry feminist folk singer who probably hit her peak in the early 1990s.
Michelle Shocked, angry folk singer of the late 1980s or early 1990s. Perhaps I’m unfair to put her in the same category as Ani Difranco, but I discovered their music about the same time, so I tend to run them together
Chris (CEO at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Traci Chapman, folk singer of the 1980s and 1990s
Walter (CTO at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Sean (salesman at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Kevin (salesman at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Reyda (salesman at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Dan (salesman at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Nicole (office director at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Amy (editorial at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Gregg (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Yvonne (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Huan (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Juan (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Shashima (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Josh (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Joshua (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Alex (computer programmer at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Evan (research at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Rabod (research at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Lynnete (research at PrivCo.com, where I worked)
Rich, guy who set up my checking account at WellsFargo yesterday
__________, my personal doctor (I know her name, but I’m not writing it here for privacy reasons)
_________, my personal doctor’s daughter, who works as receptionist at doctor’s office
Mrs Colleen, 3rd grade substitute teacher, who we had for months when our teacher was pregnant, became upset when I tried to explain the theory of plate tectonics, asked me if I knew what I was talking about
Jane (overweight girl in elementary school, bullied by several classmates)
Brian Bonzer (friend in elementary school)
Joanne (mom’s friend in the 70s and 80s, became a bit paranoid survivalist, moved to ranch out west, stockpiled salt and gold, now dead)
Joanna (ex-minister at my mom’s church)
Angela (minister at my mom’s church)
Steele (doctor, discovered Lyme disease) 1970s
Steele (famous English writer early 1700s), I want to say he wrote for the original Spectator, circa 1715
Addison (famous English writer, attached to the birth The Spectator)
Pope (famous English poet late 1600s and early 1700s, “The saddest words of tongue or pen are these, it might have been”)
John Donne (famous English writer, late 1600s, “No man is an island, complete unto himself”)
Daniel Defore, English writer around 1700, Moll Flanders (1712?), Robinson Crusoe. His exact observational style was a precursor to modern journalism. Moll Flanders is very boring if you read it as a novel, but as bit of sociological journalism it is interesting.
Shakespeare, famous English playright of late 1500s and early 1600s
Henry IV of England, King Of England, the king in two of Shakespeares best plays
Henry V of England, King Of England, Shakespeare also did a good play about him. Henry V was most recently portrayed by Tom Hiddleston
Richard II, King Of England, also a play by Shakespeare. Henry IV has to kill Richard to gain power
Falstaff, one of my favorite fictional characters ever, plays the comedic role against Prince Harry (the future Henry V)
Tom Hiddleston, British actor. When not pretending to be Taylor Swift’s boyfriend he has pretended to be the King Of England.
Taylor Swift, American singer, started as a country singer and then became a pop star. Frequently pretends to date different people. Seems to deliberately raise the possibility that she is pretending, maybe because the ambiguity attracts that much more attention? It’s a clever strategy.
Karlie Kloss, (spelling?), fashion model, friend of Taylor Swift. They were sharing a house for awhile.
Britney Spears, American singer, started career at age 16, in the 1990s.
Pink, American, pop star singer
Tori Amos, American, pop star singer
Beyonce, American, pop star singer
Katie Perry, American, pop star singer
Admiral Perry, lead expedition to Japan in the 1850s
Admiral Dewey, fought in Spanish-American war, late 1800s
Mahan, American, late 1800s, wrote a book about the importance of sea power
______ Dewey, American philosopher, developer of Pragmatism, reformer of education, late 1800s or early 1900s
Kevin __________, can’t remember his last name, but he was married to Britney Spears for awhile. I think he started as a dancer on one of her tours?
Susan Lucy, actor on All My Children for like 40 years? She was nominated 18 times for Best Actress and lost every time, till finally she won. Her name is sometimes used as a synonym for someone who is always in second place but never first place.
Quentin Tarrantino, Hollywood director, Pulp Fiction, 1995
Samuel Jackson, actor, in Pulp Fiction
John Travolta, actor, in Pulp Fiction
Harvey Keitel, actor, Reservoir Dogs, 1992 or 1994
____ Roth, actor, Reservoir Dogs, 1992 or 1994
Steve Bueshemi, actor, Reservoir Dogs, 1992 or 1994
_____ Madsen, actor, Reservoir Dogs, 1992 or 1994
Jonas Salk (vaccine for polio)
Edward Jennings — “vacca” is Latin for “cow” and “cine” close to the latin root for “to aid”, thus “vaccine” is medicine that comes from a cow. Jennings discovered a method of giving people cow pow to protect them from the much more deadly disease known as small pox
Catherine the Great (Russian Tsar late 1700s, tried to shame her male nobles into getting vaccinated for small pox by rolling up her arm and accepting the first abrasion)
Robspiere (I’m thinking of the guy who oversaw The Terror during the French Revolution, but good luck to me getting the spelling right without checking)
Marat (radical of the French Revolution)
Charlotte Corday (reactionary of the French Revolution, stabs Marat to death)
Marie Antoinette — Queen of France when the French Revolution begins. From Austria, marries king of France 1760s?, played by the actress Kirsten Dunst in the movie directed by Sofia Coppala.
Kirsten Dunst — American actress, current era
Sofia Coppala — American movie director, current era
Mme De Stael (saloneire, where Voltaire and Deiderot met?)
Napoleon, ended the Directorate with a coup, I’m thinking 1799? Give or take a year. Conquered much of Europe, went to Russia in 1812, very bad idea, defeated in 1814, came back from defeat and then really, really defeated in 1815.
Clausewitz, sp?, I’m thinking he was Prussian? Certainly Germanic. Saw Napoleon in operation. He later wrote On War, of which I’ve read parts, and its interesting, but damn, who writes a book that long? His book makes the Bible look short.
__________ (Jadolyn?) Piast (yes, good luck to me on the spelling of the first name. The Piast dynasty was the first dynasty of Poland, founded around 980 AD)
Kopernicus (astronomer, Poland, 1400s)
Kepler, the astronomer in between Kopernicus and Galileo, I actually don’t know what his contribution was. He overlaps with Galileo more than he does with Kopernicus. I do know he correctly predicted that Venus would cross the sun in the year… I want to say either 1628 or 1631. It’s an important event because it was when people first realized how small the planets were, and how big the sun was. I think Kepler was dead? But I think he died around 1630? So 1631 is probably the right year?
Tusk, was recently Prime Minister of Poland, is now President of the EU Parliment?
Kacinych? Kaszynic? — I don’t know how to spell Polish names, but I’ve been reading up on Poland lately) — officially only a member of the Polish Parliament, but unofficially the guy who currently runs Poland. Never married, has no children, lives with his mother, never drinks alcohol. Paranoid right wing extremist, he has accused many people of killing his brother. He’s accused Tusk. ( Here is a pro tip: don’t order an airplane pilot to land a plane, when the airplane pilot has declared weather conditions too dangerous to land. If you use your authority to override the judgement of an airplane pilot, you should expect death. And that is exactly what Kacinych’s brother did at Katyn. Kacinych’s brother is 100% responsible for his own death, as well as the death of everyone else on the plane.
Orban, the current dictator of Hungary, a right wing opportunist, easy to confuse with Kacinych, but Orban is rational, whereas Kacinych is not
Vladimir Putin — effectively the dictator of Russia, never mind the Parliament. Believed to be the richest man in the world, because he has stolen so much from Russia. I’ve read that he doesn’t drink alcohol, just like Kacinychi, apparently that is a thing with right-wing dictators in Easter Europe?
Gallileo (astronomer, Pisa, Italy, late 1500s, early 1600s. Invents the telescope in the summer of 1609, points it toward Jupiter on January 7th, 1610, realizes the stars near Jupiter are actually moons no later than January 15th)
Issac Newton, English scientist, active 1665 to 1705
Boyle, English scientist, mid to late 1600s, often called the last alchemist and the first modern chemist
Robert Hooke, English scientist, mostly remembered for convincing Newton that the sun did not have a repulsive force, but rather an attractive force. He later fought to be described as the co-discoverer of Gravity
Hailey, English astronomer, friend of Newton, discovered Hailey’s comet
Leibniz, French philosopher, co-discovered calculus, along with Newton, but Leibniz came up with the phrases we still use today (“variables” not “fluxions”)
Descartes, French philosopher , transformed math with the introduction of coordinates, and thus summoned the Cartesian plane from the endless openness of the Euclidean plane
Euclid, Greek mathematician, active circa 300 BC, wrote “Elements” a book of geometry, which some think is the 3rd most published book in history, after the Bible and the Koran (I read that in John Derbyshire’s book)
John Derbyshire, writer, 20th and 21st century, writes about math, Prime Obsession, Solve For X
Ptolemy, Greek scientist, came up with the most accurate estimate of the diameter of the Earth, not bested till the 1500s. Dies in Syracuse 2nd Punic War? or is that someone else?
Pythagoras, Greek Mathematician
Hypatia, last great intellectual alive in Alexandria as the Empire collapsed, murdered by an angry Christian mob 415 AD
Ian Stewart, writes about math
Herodatus, Heradatus (spelling?) Greek writer, invented historical writing, 3rd or 4th century BC
Thulcydidies, awesome Greek historian, invented the first real historical writing where he tried hard to get the facts right. The Western Liberal tradition begins with Thulcydidies, especially with his Oration Of Pericles
Pericles, leader of Athens when the war with Sparta starts, after a year he gives the Oration of Pericles, written up by Thulcydidies. Pericles ideas about why Athens was worth fighting for are the starting point for 2,300 years of Western arguments about the ideal liberal society.
Xenophon, he and 10,000 other Greek soldiers were hired as mercenaries to attack the Persian empire. They went in, were defeated, and then had to get out of there. He wrote a book about their adventure, which I assume must have happened in the 5th or 4th century BC. I read the book when I was 13 and felt it was sort of like a fantasy novel, but it was also a true story. I wanted to read more books like this, so I went to the library to look for something similar. I never found anything similar, although the search lead me to Hadrian’s Memoirs, by Marguerite Yourcenor, who became one of my favorite writers.
Plutarch, Greek writer, historian, Parallel Lives
Sapir, early 20th century, contributed to Sapir-Whor hypothesis which says that one’s worldview is shaped by one’s language.
Whor, early 20th century, contributed to Saphir-Whor hypothesis which says that one’s worldview is shaped by one’s language.
Lister, British guy who contributed to the Germ Theory Of Illness, 2nd half of 19th Century. Used antiseptics for surgery. The mouthwash “Listerine” is named after him
Louis Pastuer (spelling?) French guy who contributed to the Germ Theory Of Illness, 2nd half of 19th Century. When we say milk is “pastuerized”, the process is named after Louis
Jon Snow, doctor who first suggested cholera comes from contaminated water, proved it in London in 1854, is often mentioned by Edward Tufte for coming up with a graphic to prove the point about cholera
Jon Snow, fictional character in Game Of Thrones
Herxheimer — doctor, mid 20th century, documented the Herxheimer-Jarrish reaction after giving penicillin to people suffering from syphilis.
Jarrish — doctor, mid 20th century, documented the Herxheimer-Jarrish reaction after giving penicillin to people suffering from syphilis.
Maria-Theresa, Emperor of Austria-Hungarian empire late 1700s
Fredrick The Great, one of the great liberal princes of history, establishes Imperial German policy of tolerance for the Jews, a policy that remains in place till 1933. Starts 7 Years War in 1740. Friend of Voltaire.
Voltaire, born around 1700, died in the 1770s, French philosopher, wrote Candide, many histories, lived with Emile till she died in childbirth, child by some guy she had a brief fling with. “Voltaire” is a pen name. I used to know his real name, but I have forgotten it.
Emilie du Marquise (spelling?) scientist, also Voltaire’s girlfriend, translated Newton into French
Deiderot, French philosopher, mid 1700s
Laurence Stern, English writer, wrote Tristam Shandy from 1759 to 1770 when he died of consumption, which he called “an asthma”
Trajan, Roman Emperor right before Hadrian. Achieves the maximum outward expansion of the empire, Margueritte Yourcenor has a great sad scene about the moment Trajan is forced to turn around and go backwards to put down a rebellion, in her book “Hadrian’s Memoirs”
Hadrian, Roman Emperor, late first century, early 2nd century AD
Caligula, Roman Emperor,
Claudius, Roman Emperor, a bit after Caligula
Nero, Roman Emperor, late 1st century AD
Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, comes to power around 30 or 40 BC
Marcus Aurelias, one of the great liberal princes of history, wrote the book Meditations regarding his thoughts on Stoicism, dies around 180 AD, the decline of the Empire starts around the time of his death
Commodus, Roman Emperor, son of Marcus Aurelias, a disaster of an Emperor, the movie “Gladiator” is loosely based on the transition from Aurelias to Commodus. Like the movie, he is murdered at the Coliseum, but by his own troops, not Russel Crowe.
Russel Crowe, American actor, current era, did movies like Gladiator.
Irenus? Ireneus? Catholic Bishop, active late 2nd century AD, begins the organization of Christian Churches in what later becomes known as The Roman Catholic Church. One of Elaine Pagel’s books covers his life in some detail.
Tacitus, a Roman historian during the Roman empire
Edward Gibbons, historian of the 1700s, wrote The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire
Robert Heilbronner, economist and popularizer, wrote Wordly Philosphoers, which we studied in high school
J R R Tolkein, novelist, Lord Of The Rings
Gandalf, wizard, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Aragon, ranger, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Baggins, hobbit, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Grimli, dwarf, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Sam, Hobbit, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Galadriel, Elf Princess, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Sauron, dark lord, fictional character in Lord Of The Rings
Smaug, dragon, fictional character in Hobbit
Baggins, fictional character in Hobbit
Peter Jackson, director of the Movie The Desolation Of Smaug
Kurt Vonegut, novelist, Slaughterhouse-Five
Margeret Atwood, novelist, Handmaids Tale
Upton Sinclair, novelist, The Jungle
Anne McCaffery, wrote fantasy novels, the Dragons of Pern
Naomi Novik, writes fantasy novels, Her Majesty’s Dragons, set during Napoleonic Wars.
Ursala Leguin, award winning sci-fi writer
Isaac Asimov, award winning sci-fi writer
Larry Niven, award winning sci-fi writer
John Bryne, writer for X-men in 70s/80s
Chris Claremont, artist for the X-men comics in 70s/80s
Stan Lee, created Marvel comics 1960s?
Jack Kirby, early artist at Marvel comics
Lisa Genova, novelist, Still Alice
Franzen, wrote the novel Purity
Martin Amos, wrote the novel Time’s Arrow
Thomas Pynchon, wrote the novel Rainbow Gravity
Edith Warton, novelist, late 1800s, I think she did Age Of Innocence? I just got the book from a free library. Hope to read it this summer.
Klohe Kardasian, modern celebrity,
Kim Kardasian, modern celebrity
Kayne West, modern musician
Tupac, rapper in the early 1990s, killed in 1994
Biggie Smalls, rapper in the 1990s, killed in the mid 1990s
Chance the Rapper, rapper in 00s
Lil Wayne, rapper in 00s
Dar Williams, folk singer
Sheehan, pop singer
Miley Cyrus, pop singer
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, fired in the late 1980s, rehired in 1997, introduced the ipod, which helped turn the company around, then introduced the iPhone in 2007, making Apple very successful
Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computers
Bill Atkinson, inventor of Hypercard, which he eventually gave to Apple as a gift, on the promise they would include it for free forever on Apple computers
Chet Atkins, country singer of the mid 20th century
Danny Goodman, wrote the best book about Hypercard
Nancy ________, writer, The Macintosh Bible circa 1992
Arthur _______, (Naiman?) writer, The Macintosh Bible circa 1992
Robin Williams, writer, The Mac is Not A Typewriter
Ellen Lupton, writer, theory of graphic design
Scher Paula, graphic designer, marketing genius, did campaign for Citi, umbrellas
David Pogue, writer, books about the Macintosh computer
Dan Gookin, writer, DOS for Dummies
Edward Tufte, writer, theorist of information and its visual presentation
Bill Gates, founded Microsoft 1976
Paul Allen, co-founded Microsoft 1976
Melinda Gates, wife of Bill Gates
Steve Ballmer, terrible CEO of Microsoft for 13 years, starting around 2002, early employee at Microsoft. Met Bill Gates in the 1970s when they were both students at Harvard.
Nadella, CEO Microsoft 2016
Jack Welch, CEO of GE 1980s/1990s
(susan?) ___________, 2nd or 3rd wife of Jack Welch, married when he died, much younger than him, younger than one of Welch’s daughters
Immelt, CEO of GE, 2000s
Eisner, CEO of Disney, 1990s, early 2000s
Walt Disney, founded Disney animations in 1920s
Babbit, top illustrator at Disney, played crucial role in strike of 1941
Allan Greenspan, Fed Chairman, late 1980s to early 2000s
____ Yellin, the current Fed Chairman
____ Volcker, Fed Chairman, late 1970s, 1980s
Andy Grove, CEO of Intel during the 1980s and 90s, wrote Only The Paranoid Survive
Peter Drucker, great business guru of 20th Century, wrote Innovation And Entrepreneurship in 1985
Edward Demming, the inventor of the notion of using statistics to measure and improve industrial processes, the goverment forced USA business to listen to him during WW II, but after the war he was ignored in the USA and only Japan would listen to him. Japan took his ideas furthest. In the 1970s, looking for a way to turn around the declining fortunes of Ford Motor company, Donald Peterson, the CEO of Ford, asked Demming to come back to the USA and teach his techniques to Ford managers.
Donald Peterson, the CEO of Ford Motor company during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, I think around 1907, took mass production to a new level, said, “The customer can have any color they want so long as it is black.”
Benz, invented the combustion engine automobile in the 1870s. Named his first car after his daughter Mercedes.
Mercedes, the daughter of Benz, circa 1870s
Mrs. Benz, since Benz was terrified people would steal his idea, but Mrs. Benz was certain it needed to be advertised to the public, she got her 16 old son and her other children together, stole the car when Benz wasn’t looking, and drove across some of the countryside. I’ve read the cooling system was a bucket of water with a ladle, and the son would periodically grab a ladle of water and dump it on the engine.
Matz, inventor of the Ruby programming language
Larry Wall, inventor of Perl
Guido Von Russom, inventor of Python
Rich Hickey, inventor of Clojure programming language
Martin Oderesky, inventor of the Scala programming language
Alan Kay, inventor of SmallTalk, coined the term “object oriented programming”
Brendan Eich, invented Javascript in 1994, when he was 23, at Netscape, released Javascript in 1995
Marc Andresson, at University of Illinois, invents early browser 1993, co-founds Netscape in 1994
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, invents World Wide Web protocol in 1989
Jim Postel, leads effort to develop the Internet in the 1970s, releases IP 1.0 in 1973, panics in summer of 1977, splits work into 2 technologies, TCP and IP, releases these both with the version number 4.0 in April 1978, much of the world is still running on 4.0 in 2017.
Bruce Eckel, author, wrote Thinking in Java
Sam Newman, computer programmer, wrote book about microservices
Neal Ford, computer programmer, wrote book about functional programming, works at Thoughtworks
David Welton, invented hecl programming language
Fabien Potencier, created the Symfony framework for PHP
Jose Vadim, Ruby programmer, then Elixir and Phoenix
Linus Tvoldas, invented Linux
Johnathan Wage, created the Doctrine ORM for PHP
Ramus Ledorf, early PHP programmer
Andi Gutman, early PHP programmer, started Zend
Stuart Holloway, early Clojure programmer
Stuart Sierra, early Clojure programmer
Colin Yates, Clojure programmer, writer
Sean Corfield, Clojure programmer, World Singles
Alex Miller, early Clojure programmer
Kyle Kingsbury, computer programmer, wrote the Jespen series on NoSql databases, is perhaps the world expert on inconsistent databases.
Zach Tellman, computer programmer, well known Clojure libraries
Michael Drogalis, early Clojure programmer
Chas Emerick, early Clojure programmer, wrote a book
Brian Carpenter, early Clojure programmer
Daniel Higinbottom, Clojure for Brave and True
Michael Fogus, early Clojure programmer
James Reeves, early Clojure programmer
David Nolen, early Clojure programmer
Colin Steele, CTO of RoomKey. A friend of mine from Charlottesville and also an early user of Clojure at scale.
Lyndsey, wife of Colin Steele.
Ada, friend of Charles Babbage, she invents the first computer programming language, mid 1800s
Charles Babbage, creates a computing machine, early 1800s. I believe this was finite state?
Charles Gauss, German, early 1800s, arguably the greatest mathematician ever
Claude Shannon, the inventor of Information Theory, 1948, he was working at AT&T (did Bell Labs exist back then?)
Albert Einstein, born 1879, became a patent clerk, invented new theory of reality, became physicist, published some interesting ideas in 1905
Lie? Lye? guy from Norway, played central role in promoting group theory in mathematics, starting in the 1870s
Klein, of Klein bottle? mathematician, late 1800s, friend of Lie
Ezra Klein, blogger from the summer of 2002, a fertile year for bloggers, now does jounralism
Kevin Klein, actor, Fish Called Wanda, Pirates of Penzance
Matthew Yglesias (spelling?) blogger from summer of 2002, a fertile year for bloggers, now does journalism (Vox? Or is that Ezra? I’ve been confusing the two of them since 2002).
Max Plank, head of important group of German scientists, fought against the use of statistics in science till December 15th of 1900, then promoted probabilistic universe
Boltzman? scientist in the late 1800s who lead the fight to make statistics acceptable to science
Boole, mathematician, late 1800s, Boolean algebra
Heisenberg, physicist active early to mid 20th century, came up with Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle when he was 27
Hendrick Casimir, physicist who studied under Niels Bohr, wrote a great auto-biography about the Golden Age of Physics, roughly 1915 to 1945?
Niels Bohr, Dutch, early 20th century, important physicist, was Casimir’s teacher.
Lorenzo, Italian physicist, promoted theory of positrons, early to mid-20th century
Oppenheimer, physicist, lead USA efforts to develop atomic bomb in 1940s
Goddard? German, inventor of modern rockets
Tom Hicks? Micks? Hix? USA actor 1910s? Did Western movies. Casimir tells a funny story where he takes Niels Bohr to see a Tom Hicks flix, and afterwards Bohrs says “That the horses should all go wild is unlikely but I am willing to accept it. That they should then race towards a cliff is unlikely but I am willing to accept it. That the hero should save the woman at the last moment, before the wagon goes over the cliff, is unlikely but I am willing to accept it. But that there should just happen to be a movie camera there, at that very moment, ready to capture the whole thing? No, that is not believable.”
woman, friend of Einstein and others, played a central role in re-founding algebra and other aspects of math during the early part of the 20th century. Her name is on the tip of my tongue. I’ve read her name though never heard it pronounced.
William Randolf Hearst, USA publisher early to mid 20th century
Gunter Grass, German novelist, mid to late 20th Century
Adenour??? German conservative prime minister in 1950s
Willy Brandt, German socialist, fled Nazi Germany, was later mayor of Berlin when JFK gave his Berlin speech
Habermas, German philosopher, 2nd half of 20th century
Adorno, German philosopher, Frankfurt School
Mandelbrot, mathematician, How Long Is The Coast Of Britain, 1967, Fractals in 1975
Foucault (spelling?) French philosopher 20th century,
Camus, French writer and philosopher, 20th century, fought in French Resistance
Sartre, French philosopher, 20th century, Hell Is Other People
Beauvaure (spelling?) Simone? French feminist writer mid 20th century
Franz Fanon, writer, mid 20th century, The Wretched Of The Earth
Cobbs, computer programmer, inventor of SQL
My, daughter of guy who created the MySQL database. I don’t remember his name but I remember hers
Tim Perdue, wrote an influential essay in 2000 in which he compared MySQL and PostGres and and found that PostGres performed much better. I think its weird that I remember his name, even though I’ve forgotten half the people I knew in 2000
________ Perdue, founder of Perdue farms, which sells chickens. I remember their advertisements were on television all the time when I was a child
Larry Elison, founder of Oracle, early implementor of SQL
Phillip Greenspun, built Ars Digita in the late 1990s, wrote an opionated, often self-indulgent book about his technology. I’ve criticisms of his book, but I get nostalgic for the era when such a book was possible. Back in the 1990s there were hundreds of books by technologists trying to guess what the Web would become.
Edgar Dystra, early super star of computer programming, starting in 1960s, Dutch but moved to USA, taught at Austin in Texas
Dennis Ritchie, early star of Unix, C language
David Moon, computer programmer of the 1970s
Gosling, co-inventor of Java, circa 1990/1995
Patrick Naughton, co-inventor of Java, later arrested for child pornography
Joe Armstrong, inventor of Erlang
Gray? Tandem computers, 1970s? “fail fast” philosophy, much admired by Joe Armstrong
Nagel, graphic artist of the 1980s
Virginia Postrel, libertarian political writer, was Editor in Chief at Reason magazine early 21st century
William F Buckley, American, motivated by profound religious feelings and perhaps also motivated by class biases that he mistook for profound religious feelings, he founded National Review in the 1950s, to instigate a moral and political renewal of the USA
Tina Brown, editor of several magazines, a proponent of relying on celebrities from the 1970s onwards, runs Talk magazine in late 1990s, never runs profitable magazines. I think she also lead The New Yorker? I loved Talk magazine and I was sad to see it fold.
Harvey Wienstein, a film producer, a close ally of Quinton Tarantino, also worked with Tina Brown on Talk magazine. A well known sexual predator who was notorious for many years, though somehow he surprised all discussion of his crimes till 2017, which his crimes came out into the open.
Hamilicar Barca, father of Hannibal, leader of Carthage circa 250 BC
Hannibal, Carthaginian general, leads Carthage forces during the 2nd Punic War, 228 BC to 212 BC. Remembered for leading elephants over the Alps, moving from Spain into Italy and taking the Romans by surprised. Also remembered for 4 stunning victories, including Cannae, where he destroyed the entire Roman army
Fabian, Roman general, decides to slowly starve Hannibal, is remembered for extreme caution, avoiding a fight, stalling.
Tina Turner, singer, late 20th century
Mariah Carey, singer, many hits during the 1990s, still active today
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, music band named after the 3 individuals, so remembering their names is fairly easy. My dad loved them. Emerson did a synth solo in 1972, thought to be the first solo done on a synthesizer
Fabio, weight lifter and model, active 1980s and 1990s
Arnold Schwarzaeager, weight lifter and actor, later governor of California
Charlie Chaplin, actor of the 1920s, 30s, 40s
Errol Flynn, actor of the 1930s, 40s
Laura, woman I dated in early 1990s
Melissa, woman I dated in early 1990s
Mary, Melissa’s sister
Angela, woman I dated in early 1990s
Mara, woman I dated briefly in 1993
Rachel, woman I dated in early 1990s
Susan, woman I dated in late 1980s
Jess, woman I dated early 00s
Tamara, woman I dated early 00s
Kristin, friend from the 1980s, woman I dated early 00s
Suzanne, woman I dated mid 00s
Christine, woman I dated mid 00s
Laura Denyes, woman I dated mid to late 00s, built web design company together
Eileen, housemate of Laura Denyes circa 2008
Ewelina, woman I dated early 10s
Tim Rafferty, ran Columbia Street Bakery, where I worked, in Chapel Hill, early 90s
Nicole Nurenberg, friend of mine in Chapel Hill, early 90s, now an actor with local theater in Key West, Florida
Claudia? from El Salvador? Cooked at Columbia Street Bakery early 90s
Eziekiel? Some Jewish name that starts with an E? Doctor at ER in hospital in Chapel Hill, treated me in May of 1993
Meg? Tough lesbian biker chick who worked at Columbia Street Bakery in 1991. Actually “tough” was a bit of a pose, she was very funny, I remember the staff laughing a lot whenever she worked a shift. I was apparently hired at the end of a good era, I was told that before I was hired the whole staff had been gay and every shift had been like a party. I always arrive too late for the parties.
Ellen? Young woman working at Columbia Street Bakery in 1991, had an eye condition, was told that in 10 years she would be blind
Mary Krupp, my friend during high school and college days
Joe Hayes, sometime boyfriend of Mary Krupp
Michael Kleebocher, sometime boyfriend of Mary Krupp
Brian Hayes, Joe’s younger brother, very funny guy, kept us laughing
Jim, I met Jim via the Hayes brothers, though I stayed friends with Jim for several years after I lost touch with Mary and Joe and Brian
Chris Chinchar, friend from summer camp, she signed up for a service where you drive a car if some stranger needs a car moved from one city to another city, perhaps they had to fly home? we drove the car from Chapel Hill to Los Angeles, summer of 1990
George Washington, President USA, 1788 – 1796
John Adams, President USA, 1796 – 1800
Abigail Adams, wife of President Adams, wrote lots of letters to her husband
Thomas Jefferson, President USA, 1800 – 1808, died 1826
Andrew Jackson, President USA 1830s?, responsible for the single worst incident of genocidal mass murder in USA history, the Trail Of Tears, when thousands of Indians were pushed out of their homes and then marched to their deaths. A forerunner of all the populist genocidal mass murderers of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
James Madison, President USA early 1800s, Federalist writer
Buchananan, President USA, 1856 – 1860
Van Buren, President USA, 1830s? 1840s? I think he is President depicted in the movie Amistad?
Melanchton Smith, Anti-Federalist writer, pseudonym, active 1777-1778. My favorite Anti-Federalist. I’ve quoted him often.
John Hancock, signer of Declaration Of Independence
Benjamin Franklin, signer of Declaration Of Independence, life-long anti-slavery warrior, Quaker
Abraham Lincoln, President USA, 1860-1865
Andrew Johnson, President USA, 1865-1868
Ulysses S Grant, Union General and later President of USA. When I was 15 and 16 I was fascinated by the USA Civil War. At that time I knew the name of every major general on the Union and Confederate side. I’ve forgotten most of their names now, though many of the anecdotes stick with me.
General Sherman, Union General in USA Civil War, later said “War is hell. It’s glory is all moonshine.” At the start of the war, he was the only general to correctly guess how many troops would be needed to win, and his unwelcome accuracy nearly cost him his career.
Robert E Lee, Confederate General
Beauregard (spelling?) (pronounced “bew regard”) Confederate General
Polk, from Tennessee, Confederate General, fought at Shiloh
President Polk, I know there was a President Polk before the Civil
War, but I don’t recall the years
Pope, Union General
Hooker, Union General
McClellan, Union General
Pickett, Confederate General
Johnston, Union General
Stonewall Jackson, Confederate General
Alexander Hamilton, soldier and political activist, USA, late 1700s
Burr, Vice-President of the USA when he killed Hamilton in a duel
Charles V, Emerperor and King of much of Europe in 1521, calls Martin Luther to account
Martin Luther, initiates, or re-ignites, the Protestant Reformation in 1517
John Wicliffe, England, late 1300s, does a translation of the Bible, in some ways starts the Protestant movement, a huge influence on Jan Hus.
Jan Hus, in the region of Bohemia? early 1400s ignites the Protestant movement. The Catholic Church has him burned as a heretic, but after his death the Hussite movement gains strength, defeats every army sent against it, and establishes its own rites. Later the moderate Hussites kill or exile all the radical Hussites and the movement becomes increasingly tepid, eventually trying to reconcile with the Catholic Church. However in the mid to late 1500s, when the Protestant Reformation is burning hot all over Europe, the Hussites get angry at themselves for having become too moderate, so they put out a new statement of principles declaring their sympathy for the Protestant movement. The Hussite rebellion lasts almost 250 years, is eventually crushed by Catholic armies in the 1600s. The tradition of free thinking in Bohemia survives to the current day.
Titian, famous Italian painter 1500s?
Tinterreto, famous Italian painter, 1500s?
Ruben, famous Dutch painter, 1600s
Rembrandt, famous Dutch painter, 1600s
50 Cent, black rapper, active early 21st Century
Lil Kim, black rapper, mostly 1990s, arrested early 00s, slow to restart career
Kate Dries, writer at Jezebel.com, recent
Kelly Stout, write at Jezebel.com, recent
Joanna Rothkopf, writer at Jezebel.com, recent
Ellie Shechet, writer at Jezebel.com, recent
Madeliene Davies, writer at Jezebel.com, recent
Erin Gloria _______, writer at Jezebel.com, recent
Rich Zurichi____, writer at Gawker.com, recent
Sam Biddle, writer at Gawker.com, recent
Nick Denton, founder of Gawker Media, early 21st Century
Church, mathematician, invented the lambda calculus? early 20th century
Alan Turning, British mathematician, created the theory of modern computers during the 1930s: infinite state machines, Turing machines, the “halting problem” etc, also helped with decyption of German messages during WW II
Winston Churchill, officer in the Boer War, later in Treasury in 1920s, British Prime Minister during WW II, lead a coaliton of all parties. Was initially in the Liberal party and was then in the Conservative party.
Clement Atlee, leader of the Labour Party, defeated Churchill in election of 1945
Balflour, British “liberal” politician in early 20th century, often accused of creating the current mess that is Mideast politics.
Ramsey, British Labour politician, early 20th century
Hitler, leader of the Nazi party in Germany, 1920s to 1940s, leader of Germany 1933-1945
Rommel, the Desert Fox, possibly Germany’s best general during WW II
Mussolini, leader of Italy from mid 1920s to 1944.
Molotov, Russian strategist during WW II, the Molotov Cocktail is named after him. Churchill called him the least human person he’d ever met
Goebel, a leader of the Nazi party, leader of propaganda. Or was he head of the air force?
Goering (Gorring? Goring?) , a leader of the Nazi party, leader of propaganda. Or was he head of the air force?
Himmler, a leader of the Nazi party
Elie Weise, writer, Holocaust Survivor
Yevshenko (spelling?), Polish? Russian? Poet. Wrote Baba Yar in 1961.
Theresa May, politician, current Prime Minister of Britain
________ Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party in UK
Nicolo Sturgeon, politician currently running Scotland, demands independence vote
Jane Friedman, founder of Openroadmedia.com
Rachel Chou, helped start Openroadmedia.com
Paul Savin, new CEO of Openroadmedia.com in 2016
Ralph, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Brian, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Rene, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Stephan, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Eddie, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Malcom, computer programmer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Lara, project manager at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Amanda, technical assistant at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Alice, revenue reports at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Emi, ebook production at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Lauren, production at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Laura, production at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Megan, production at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Chelsea, assistant to Jane, Openroadmedia.com 2016
Gretta, editorial, Openroadmedia.com 2016
Angela, office manager Openroadmedia.com 2016
Emma, editorial, Openroadmedia.com 2016
Christine, HR, Openroadmedia.com 2016
Julie, data / marketing Openroadmedia.com 2016
Jon Williams, Fractional CTO, consultant at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Matt Thomson, writer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Jessica Ferreri, writer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Brett Collins, designer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Susan, assistant designer at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Sean Hull, devops consultant at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Jack, business intelligence, at Openroadmedia.com 2016
Chris Clarke, friend from Charlottesville/monkeyclaus 2006, head of devops at Parsely
Rachel, wife of Chris Clarke
Kate, daughter of Chris Clarke
Peter Agelasto, runs monkeyclaus music studio, and he and I ran a series of startups, off and on, for most of the stretch from 2002 to 2008.
Sara Pope, yoga instructor, also Peter Agelasto’s girlfriend
Michael Donovan, founder of Donovan Data Systems, and a friend of the Agelasto family; as a favor to the family, was sent to advise us in 2006
Gregg Herrington , computer programmer, worked with on AudioLunchbox.com 2008
Chip Ransler, Gregg Herrington’s roommate circa 2008, was getting his MBA from Darden, then went to promote a machine in India that turned rice husks into energy
Michael, Artist Farm, Charlottesville, 00s forward, at Pink Warehouse
Roulhac Toledano, author of dozens of books, also owns the Pink Warehouse in Charlottesville.
Cle, daughter of Roulhac, is a vet, works with Olympic horses
Darby, daughter of Roulhac, is a doctor in Brooklyn
Gabe, was partner of Darby for several years and they had children together, architect
Davi, husband of Cle, computer programmer
Alex Davis, friend from Charlottsvile
Paige, friend from Charlottesville
Johnny, son of Paige
Jacob, son of Paige
Andrew, Charlottesville, father of Johnny and Jacob
Carrie, Charlottesville, 2000 onward
Austin, son of Carrie
Mica, son of Carrie
Misty, friend since 1995
Emma, daughter of Misty
Clark, boyfriend of Emma
Linda Guzynski
Liz Guzynski
Pookie, via Liz
Husband of Pookie
Jenny Yeo, old friend of Linda, Liz and I, from our teenage years
Rob Kurtz, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Dave Kurtz, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
James Kurtz, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Steve Koherr, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Jack Junkins, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Ed Jones, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
TJ Jones, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Ed Morgan, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Phillip Morgan, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Lydia Jett, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Sara via Ed, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Laura Dwyer, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Carol Baraff, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Ko Koherr, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Patrick via Liz
Gabe via Linda
Kayln via Linda
Duke Miller, friend from summer camp from 1980s and some later years
Janet, one of the women I knew when I lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia. There were 4 women, all of them going to JMU. I only recall her name.
Click and Clack brother 1, radio show about cars
Click and Clack brother 2, radio show about cars
Meryl Streep, USA actor, active from 1970s
Jack Nicholson, USA actor, active from 1960s
Clint Eastwood, USA actor, mid to late 20th century
Carrie Fisher, actor, Star Wars
Princess Leia, fictional character, Star Wars
Harrison Ford, actor, Star Wars
Hans Solo, fictional character, Star Wars
Mark Hamilton, actor, Star Wars
Luke Skywalker, fictional character, Star Wars
Alec Guiness, actor, Man In The White Suit (my mom’s favorite), Bridge On The River Kwai, Star Wars
Obi won Kenobi, fictional character, Star Wars
Jon Stewart, USA comedian
Maria Duenas, wrote the novel The Time in Between
Fatty Arbunkle, USA actor 1910s, 1920s, raped and murdered a woman but was never charged with the crime
Vince Gilligan (Gillian?) , executive producer of the show TV show Breaking Bad
Bryan Cranston, lead actor in the TV show Breaking Bad
Aarron Paul, lead actor in the TV show Breaking Bad
Anna Gunn, lead actor in the TV show Breaking Bad
Anna Wulf, fictional character, the main character of Doris Lessing’s novel The Golden Notebook
Jon Hammon, lead actor in the TV show Mad Men
Bruce Tate, evangalist for Ruby language circa 2005, got snarky remarks from Bruce Eckel in important essay at Artima.com
David Heinemeir Hanson, created Ruby On Rails in 2004
Sam Newman, computer programmer, works at ThoughtWorks, microservices?
Martin Fowler, computer programmer, works at ThoughtWorks, wrote several influential essays, coined the phrase “dependency injection” circa 2004
James Garnet, computer programmer, coined the term “Ajax” in 2004
Bill Venners, editor at Artima.com, did fantastic interviews with programmers in 00s.
Edward Murrow, journalist, 1950s, USA, confrontation with McCarthy
George Clooney, USA actor, played Murrow in Good Night And Good Luck
Amal, lawyer, wife of George Clooney
Joselph Welch, confronted McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy hearings, “At long last, have you no decency left, sir?”
Roy Cohn, self-hating gay who was very loyal to McCarthy
Dean Achenson, in the USA government in 1950, McCarthy accused him of giving cover to Communists
Laura Dern, actor, USA, Jurasic Park
Lawrence O’Donnel, USA journalist, MSNBC
Rachel Maddow, USA journalist, MSNBC, my mom’s favorite show. When I go visit my mom, we have dinner and then we watch Maddow
Chris Hayes, USA journalist, MSNBC
Greta Van Susteren, TV journalist, either CNN or MSNBC?
Walter Cronkite, most famous TV journalist ever, voted “Most trusted man in America” in 1971, had tens of millions of nightly viewers in the 60s and 70s
Dan Rather, TV journalist in the 70s, 80s, 90s, early 00s, resigned in scandal around 2004; always dreamed of being like Cronkite but never quite lived up to the ideal
Brian Williams, USA Journalist, MSNBC
Allison Williams, daughter of Brian, actor in Girls (first name Allison?), the movie Get Out
Lena Dunham, writer creator of HBO show Girls
Zosia _____, actor on Girls
____ Driver, actor on Girls (Adam?)
Alex _____, actor on Girls
Sean Hannity, opinion commentator on Fox News
Ted Koppel, TV journalist active 1980s till recently
Bill O’Reilly, opinion commentator on Fox News
Gretchen Carlson, opinion commentator at Fox News, accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment
Roger Ailes, the guy who ran Fox News for 30 years, fired because of allegations of sexual harassment
Rupert Murdoch, the guy who financed Fox News, and many other conservative media properties, Australian but he got USA citizenship so he could buy USA properties
Banksy, modern artist, active in the 00s, identity unknown
Denzel Washington, African American actor, USA, late 20th Century, early 21st Century, Training Day
Morgan Freeman, African American actor, USA, late 20th Century, early 21st Century, March Of Penguins, Driving Miss Daisy
Jessica ________, USA actor, Driving Miss Daisy
Dan Akroyd, USA actor, early career at Saturday Night Live, also in Driving Miss Daisy
John Malkovich (spelling?), USA actor, 1980s till present? Dangerous Liasons, Being John Malkovich
Michelle Pfieffer (spelling?) USA actor, Dangerous Liasons
Uma Thurman, USA actor, Dangerous Liasons, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill
Idris Elba (spelling?), actor, played bad guy on The Wire
Pope John Paul II, from Poland, reforming Pope of late 20th Century
Lech Walenza, Polish shipyard worker, Gdansk, lead Solidarity in the 1980s, became Prime Minister after the fall of Communism
Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany in 1980s, when Communism fell
Czeouscescou, good luck to me trying to get the spelling on that one right, leader of Romania in the 1980s, executed in 1989
Paris Hilton, of the family that owns Hilton hotels, became famous when her sex tap with her boyfriend “accidentally” was leaked to the press. Since then she’s been famous for basically no reason at all
Ed Sheeran, maybe he does music? I see his face everywhere but don’t know why he’s famous. For all I know he “accidentally” leaked a sex tape.
Jimmy Fallon, late night talk show host. I never watch him, but the last time I saw a clip from his show Ed Sheeran was on the show. I don’t know why.
Andrew Rowat, CEO of Haystack.im
Vache, CTO of Haystack.im
Leah McCloskey, former head of design at Haystack.im, she has done the illustrations for many of the essays I’ve written
Pelle, CEO of LSQ.io
Nathan, computer programmer at LSQ.io
Jake, nominal CEO of Rollioforce.com
Sushanth, data scientist at Rollioforce.com
Peter Park, formerly iPhone developer at Rollioforce.com, now at Postmate
David Wood, actual CEO of Rollioforce.com and member of the Board
Andre, founder of LaunchOpen, startup active 2014
Scott, computer programmer at LaunchOpen, 2014
Jill, computer programmer at LaunchOpen, 2014
John Colburn, devops, New York, Timeout.com, 2013
Erick, devops, New York, Timeout.com, 2013
George Jeng, project manager, Timeout.com, 2013
Eric Odel, graphic designer, magazine, Threshold, Chapel Hill, 1993
Adam Berry, magazine, Threshold, Chapel Hill, 1993
Chris Kromm, magazine, Threshold, Chapel Hill, 1993
Duane Gran, computer programmer, Charlottesville, 2009
Starrie Williamson, Flash programmer, Charlottesville, 2006
Scott Meves, computer programmer, Symfony, New York, 2009/2010
Genevieve _____, I knew her at summer camp in the 1980s?
God, mentioned in the Bible
Jesus, mentioned in the Bible
Mary, mother of Jesus
Joseph, with Mary when Jesus is born
“Drummer boy” is this kid actually mentioned in Bible or is just a song? Does the kid have a name or is “Drummer boy” the actual name?
Pilat? Pilate?, Roman governor, orders Jesus killed
Herod, leader of the Jews, even though the Romans have conquered the Jews? Is totally okay with Jesus getting murdered
John the Baptist, mentioned in Bible
Holy Spirit, mentioned I don’t know where, but Christians talk about it
Allah, mentioned in the Koran
Rama, a god mentioned by Hindus
Shiva, a god mentioned by Hindus
Ganesh, a god mentioned by Hindus
Hanuman, a god mentioned by Hindus
Moses, mentioned in the Bible
Pharoh of Egypt, mentioned in the Bible
Samson, mentioned in the Bible
Delia, mentioned in the Bible
David, mentioned in the Bible
Goliath, mentioned in the Bible
Satan/Devil, mentioned in the Bible
Adam, mentioned in the Bible
Eve, mentioned in the Bible
Thomas, an Apostle
Judas, an Apostle
Mark, an Apostle
Luke, an Apostle
Peter, an Apostle
John, an Apostle
Simon, an Apostle
Saul/Paul, who spread the Word of Jesus
Lot, mentioned in Bible
Wife of Lot, mentioned in Bible. Becomes pillar of salt. Not clear if she’s given a name.
Issac, someone’s son, whose dad nearly murders him because God says so, mentioned in Bible, or is Issac the dad?
Miriam, leads women dancing after crossing Red Sea, mentioned in Bible
Elaine Pagel, historian who writes about the Bible
Noah, builds Noah’s Arc, saves all the animals, mentioned in the Bible
Noah’s wife, mentioned in the Bible
Muhamed (spelling?) started the Islamic faith, in the 600s AD
Anson Parker, programmer, Charlottesville
Bruno Mars , musician
Paul Krugman, economist
Brad Delong, economist
Milton Friedman, economist
Lawrence Summers, economist, advised President Clinton and President Obama
Friedrich Hayek, libertarian philosopher and economist, Road To Serfdom
Kenneth Arrow, economist, died recently, lots of articles called him one of the greatest economists ever
Tyler Cowen, economist
Alex Tabarock? , economist, shares blog with Tyler Cowen
Nouriel Roubini, an economist, the Doctor Doom of the 2008 financial crash, has written about Black Swans and tail risk.
David Brooks, conservative commentator at the New York Times
David Frum, neo-con, I believe he was in favor of the Iraq War in 2003?
Ross Douthat, conservative commentator at the New York Times
Maureen Dowd, commentator at the New York Times
Thomas Friedman, extremely annoying commentator at the New York Times, wrote The World Is Flat. Is only able to talk using cliches.
Seth Godin, writes about marketing, I think? Wrote “Purple Cow”
Malcom Gladwell, writer who likes to write surprising, somewhat contrarian things. Wrote Tipping Point.
Mary Tyler Moore, actor, TV show in the USA in the 1970s
________ Nigel, conservative economist , bit of a foil for Paul Krugman and Brad Delong in the debates that followed 2008
Mark Thoma, economist keeps economist blog that other economists depend on
Simon Wren-Lewis, economist
Amanda Marcotte, feminist blogger who wrote MouseWords circa 2004
____ Francis, USA pilot, U2 airplane, 1960, shot down in Russia
Midans? Mydans? photographer, Life magazine, pulled pieces of wreckage of 1960 U2 plane and photographed them. Soviets thought he was a spy. All the other photographers stepped back and tried to take a picture of all the wreckage, and all they got was a dark heap of something, a photo that showed nothing. Midans stepped in close, pulled out individual pieces and photographed them. My dad, also a photographer, admired Midans approach.
T I, a rapper
Neidermeirer? (spelling?) the Bling Ring, I think directed by Sofia Coppalla?
Nanncy Brown Jo, the Bling Ring
_____ Loubitons, the name of an actual person, who started the design firm
Niki Minaj, rapper songstress
William Shatner, actor, Star Trek
Captain Kirk, fictional character, Star Trek
Leonard Nimoy, actor, Star Trek
Spock, fictional character, Star Trek
Patrick Stewart , actor, Star Trek
Barry Goldwater, Republican nominee for President in 1964
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice
Sotomyer, Supreme Court Justice
Thurgood Marshall, ex Supreme Court Justice
Goldfinger, fictional character, James Bond, early 1960s
Lyndon Johnson, President of the USA, 1963 to 1968
Natasha Lyonne, actor, But I’m A Cheerleader, 2000, Orange Is The New Black, circa 2010 onwards
Nicholas Cage, actor, 1980s to present
Humphrey Bogart, actor, 1930s to 1950s, 3rd wife was Lauren Bacall, who was 19 when they met on the set of To Have And To Have Not, 1938
Lauren Bacall, actor, active 1930s to 1990s
Hubert Humphrey, Democratic politician, candidate for President in 1968
John Kennedy, USA President from 1960 to 1963
Roberty Kennedy, Attorney General under President Kennedy, ran for President in 1968
Schlesinger (Szelesinger?) — historian who wrote about Kennedy
Phil Ochs, folk singer, active 1960s early 1970s, committed suicide.
William Saffire, right-wing essayist active 1950s to 1990s, also wrote about language and grammar
Angela Merkel, Prime Minister of Germany
Martin Shultz, leader of the Social Democrats, hopes to replace Merkel as Prime Minister of Germany
Helmut Kohl, German Minister back in the 1980s
Charles Degaulle, leader of French Resistance during WW II and leader of France in the 1960s.
Jay Kreps, invented Kafka log system
Nathan Marz, invented Apache Storm
Ayn Rand, novelist, mid 20th century
Ernest Hemmingway, novelist
Martha Gelhorn, journalist, 1930s, 1940s, 3rd wife of Hemmingway
Hadley, first wife of Hemmingway
Pauline, second wife of Hemmingway
Doris Lessing, novelist, got the Nobel Prize for books like Golden Notebook
Marguerite Yourcenor, French novelist of the 20th century, possibly my favorite writer, though I’ve only read her in translation. Back in the 1980s I discovered her book Hadrian’s Memoirs, which I’ve reread twice over the years
Leo Tolstoy, novelist
E B White, who wrote Charlotte’s Webb and the grammar book
Scott Fitzgerald, novelist
Mark Twain, novelist
Walt Whitman, poet
Coleridge, English poet
Ribsi, actor in Boiler Room, others
Vin Disel, actor in Boiler Room, fast and furious, others
Nick Katt, actor in Boiler Room, others
Nick Cage, actor in Leaving Las Vegas, others
Elisabeth Shue, actor in Leaving Las Vegas, others
Amy Schumer, actor
Whoopi Goldberg, actor
Harry, Prince in Britain, current
Ryan Phillip (spelling?), actor, Cruel Intentions
Meg Ryan, actor, Sleepless in Seattle, married to
John Mellencamp, singer whose songs I often confuse with Bruce Springstein, dated Meg Ryan for awhile. Are they still together? I think he sang “Jack and Diane” but that might be Springstein
Bruce Springstein, singer song writer, 1980s till current. Hits include “C’mon baby light my fire”
Susan Sarandan, (spelling?) actor, Thelma and Louise, married to Tim Robbins
Tim Robbins, director, married to Susan Sarandan, directs lots of weird movies. Corpse Bride?
Noah Smith, writer at Bloomberg
Kylie Jenner, basically a Kardashian, on reality tv, I guess biologically connected to her dad?
Kris Jenner, mom of the Kardashians
Caitlyn/Bruce Jenner, trac star of the 1970s, then married Kardashians. When I was a very young child, in kindergarten, my parents bought me a Bruce Jenner lunch box, which is how I took lunch to school every day for a year or two. At the time, he was famous as an athlete who had done well in the Olympics. The lunch box had an image of him running, I think crossing the finish line? I think the Kardashians were on television for 3 or 4 years before I realized the Bruce Jenners on TV was the same guy as on my old lunchbox.
Mr. Duggar, Christian who had 19 children and a reality TV show
Mrs. Duggar, Christian who had 19 children and a reality TV show
Morrison, musician with The Doors
Jimmy Page, musician with Led Zepplin
Mick Jagger, British musician, The Rolling Stones, 1960-
Keith Richards, British musician, The Rolling Stones, 1960-
Paul McCartney, British musician, The Beatles, 1960-
John Lennon, British musician, The Beatles, 1960s and 1970s, assassinated early 1980s
George Harrison, British musician, The Beatles, 1960-2000, I’m thinking he’s dead but I don’t actually know.
Ringo Starr, British musician, The Beatles, 1960-
Michael Jordan, basketball player, 1980s, 1990s, Chicago Bulls
Scottie Pipen, basketball player, 1990s, Chicago Bulls
Denis Rodman, basketball player, 1980s, 1990s, ended career at Chicago Bulls
Larry Bird, basketball player, 1990s
Charles Barkley, basketball player, 1980s 1990s
Kareem Abdul Jabar, basketball player, 1970s
Mike Johnson, basketball player, 1980s
Patrick Ewing, basketball player, 1980s, 1990s
Karl Malone, basketball player, 1990s
John Stockton, basketball player, 1990s
Gary Payton, basketball player, 1990s
Kobe Bryant, basketball player, 2000s
Shaquille O’Neal, basketball player, 2000s
Hardy, mathematician, early 20th century, something about twin prime conjecture
Littlewood, mathematician, early 20th century, something about twin prime conjecture
Barak Obama, President of USA, 2009-2017
Michelle Obama, wife of Barak Obama
Donald Trump, President of USA, starting in 2017
Ivanka Trump, daughter of President, has a fashion line
______ Kushner, husband of Ivanka
Eric Trump, son of President, not very intelligent
Bannon, American fascist, adviser to Trump, editor at Briebart
Stephen Miller, some kind of toad who works for Trump and says whatever Trump wants him to say
Chris Christie, politician. I don’t think it is controversial to say he was the worst governor in the history of New Jersey.
Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrats in the House, 2010s
Harry Reid, Democrat, in Senate, 2000s
John McCain, Republican Senator, 20th/21st century
Charles Schumer, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, 2016
Barbara Boxer, Senator, 2016
Dianne Feinstein, Senator, 2016
Cory Booker, Democrat from New Jersey, Senator, 2016
Nancy Pelosi, Democrate in House, 2016,
Paul Ryan, Republican in House, 2016
Gilbrand, Democrat, Senator, Arizona, was shot in the head but partially recovered and still serves in Senate
Jeff Sessions, Republican, USA, Senate, 2016
Lamar Alexander, Republican, Senate, 2016
Orin Hatch, Republican, Senate, 2016
Mitch McConnel, head of the Senate Republicans? 2016
Bernie Sanders, Democrat, Senate, 2016
Marco Rubio, Republican, Senate, 2016
Ted Cruz, Republican, Senate, 2016
David Vitter, Republican, Senate, early 2000s, would visit prostitutes and wear diapers
Santorum, Republican, Senate, early 2000s, anti-gay and therefore a target for some wonderful revenge thanks to Dan Savage
Dan Savage, a radio personality who talks about sex, tried to get everyone to use the word “Santorum” to refer to the product of gay anal sex.
Todd ________, Republican, Senate, early 2000s, suggested that if a rape was legitimate than a woman’s body could shut down the pregnancy (sort of like what happens in ducks?).
Olympia Snowe, Republican, Senator, early 2000s
Lindsey Grahm, Republican, Senator, South Carolina, 2016
Colin Powell, non-civilian leader of the USA military during first Iraq war
Bill Clinton, President of USA, 1993, 2001
Janet Reno, Attorney General, USA, under Bill Clinton
Hillary Clinton, ran for President of USA in 2016
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill/Hillary Clinton
Vince Foster, worked at White House under Bill Clinton, committed suicide
Monica Lewinsky, had sex with Bill Clinton, 1990s, ignited scandal
Bob Dole, Republican, ran for President in 1996
Ronald Reagan, President of USA 1981-1989
Jack Kemp, served at White House under Reagan
Oliver North, military officer, Iran-Contra Scandal, sold weapons to Iran to raise money for anti-Communists fighting against government in Nicaragua
Jimmy Carter, President of USA 1977 to 1981
Gerald Ford, President of USA 1974 to 1977
Richard Nixon, President of USA 1969 to 1974
Earl Butz, oversaw Agricultural Department when Nixon was President, promoted the idea of industry using high-fructose corn syrup instead of sugar
Gordan Liddy, right-wing fanatic in the Nixon administration, initiated the break-in at Watergate that lead to the scandal that brought down Nixon
Haldeman, key operative for Nixon, Watergate scandal
Bob Woodward, journalist at Washington Post, reported on Watergate
Carl Bernstein, journalist at Washington Post, reported on Watergate
Ben Bradlee, editor in chief at Washington Post during the Watergate scandal
Katherine Grahm, owner of Washington Post during the Watergate scandal
Timothy Leary, promoted the use of LSD during the 1960s
Daniel Ellsberg, published the Pentagon Papers in the early 1970s
Oliver Stone, movie director, did movies on JFK and Nixon and others
Tom Hayden, radical of the 1960s, signed Port Huron statement, founded Students for a Democratic Society
Abbie Hoffman, radical of the 1960s
Bobbie Seale, black radical of the 1960s
Jerry Rubin, radical of the 1960s, became successful businessman in the 1980s, died when hit by car? in the 2000s?
Todd Gitlin, radical of the 1960s, later wrote the book Days Of Rage
Jeb Magruder, Nixon operative, Watergate scandal
E F Shumacker (spelling?) radical environmentalist of the 1960s and 1970s, wrote Small Is Beautiful
Susan Brown Miller, USA feminist writer, wrote a book in the 1970s that argued that rape was about power, not lust
Andre Dworkin, USA feminist writer of the 2nd half of the 20th century
Susie Bright, sex radical in San Francisco starting in the 1970s, worked for radical magazine and wrote several books
Margeret Sanger, feminist, late 1800s, fought for birth control
_______ Felton, first elected woman in the USA? Not sure if she was in the House or Senate.
Tristan Tr_____________, USA writer focused mostly on sex, a few years younger than Susie Bright but sort of runs in the same intellectual circles
Adrienne Rich, USA poet and feminist, 2nd half of 20th century
Catherine McKinnon (spelling?), USA feminst, 2nd half of 20th century
Nikki Giovanni, African American poet of late 20th century and early 21st century
Martin Luther King, civil rights leader USA 1956 – 1968
Ralph Abernathy, right hand man to Martin Luther King
Julian Bond, civil rights activist worked with Martin Luther King
Taylor Branch, wrote fantastic history of the civil rights era, Parting The Waters
Faraday, worked with electricity early to mid 1800s, named Faraday Fields
Maxwell, worked with electricity mid to late 1800s, wrote the 4 equations that launched the era of electricity
Ian Tattersall, biologist, 2000s, has argued there were many species of humans over the last 2 million years
Stephen Gould, biologist, late 20th century
Charles Darwin, biologist, mid 19th century, went to Galapagos Islands, saw the different variations of birds on different islands, combined this with Malthus’s thoughts on the competition for scarce resources, and came up with the theory of Natural Selection, the center of modern theories of evolution. In later years he wrote a book that also explored Sexual Selection, and another book that explored random change, which he gave a complicated Greek name which I can’t recall right now.
Richard Dawkins, biologist late 20th century, wrote The Selfish Gene in 1976, more recently has written political books that promote atheism.
Ronald Fisher, a mathematician and biologist, in the 1930s he worked out “The Sexy Son Hypothesis”, a game theory model that showed how Sexual Selection could undermine Natural Selection. Simply, if most females like a male, then a female who does not like that male still has an incentive to mate with him, since then her male children will have traits that are liked by most females. This implies that each female must keep track of what other females find attractive. This can also lead to feedback loops which go too far, with maladaptive consequences. Examples include the male elk, whose horns are so big it makes it difficult for them to move through the forest. While raising children, females might sometimes want help from someone with resources, but most of the time they just want to get with someone who is sexy.
Stephen Hawking, physicist, 20th/21st century
Bill Nye, science guy, 2000s
Neil Degrasse _____, astronomer, 2000s, I can never remember his last name. Morgan? Moore? Something with an M? Or an S? I’m going to look it up as soon as I’m done writing this, and then I’m sure I’ll feel stupid.
Jennifer Clack, biologist, wrote Gaining Ground, 2000s, an interesting book about the struggles of the Devonian
Lisa Randall, physicist, 2000s, wrote book about String Theory
Pochontas, fell in love with Captain James Smith, circa 1610, Virginia
Captain James Smith, Virginia, leader of colony, 1607 onwards
Powohatan, father of Pochontas, nearly killed Captain James Smith
Lewis, explorer of North America, sent by Jefferson
Clark, explorer of North America, sent by Jefferson
Sacajaweia (sp?), explorer of North America, sent by Jefferson
Emily Weiss, founder of Glossier, where I once did a job interview
James Wood, unhinged actor, Trump supporter, definitely not a cocaine addict
Kellyanne Conway, spokeperson for President Trump
Sean Spicer, ex-spokesperson for President Trump
Melissa McCarthy, actor who parodies Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live
_______ McKinnon, female actor who parodies everyone other than Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live
Catherine McKinnon, feminist writer, active since the 1980s, focused on legal aspects of feminism
Kirsten Stewart, actor, vampire movies, hosted SNL recently
Alec Baldwin, actor, Glengarry Glenross, also imitates Trump on SNL
Melissa Benoit (spelling?) actor plays Supergirl on current TV
Calista Flockart (spelling?) actor on Supergirl, also well known for Aly McBeal
Katie _____ (McGrath?) actor on Supergirl
Linda Carter, actor, 1970s, was on television playing Wonder Woman
Gal Gadot, actor, is in the 2017 version of Wonder Woman
Eugene Volokh, a lawyer who blogs at Volokh Conspiracy
Orin Kerr, a lawyer who blogs at Volokh Conspiracy (for some reason, of all the names that I’ve remembered, I am most surprised that I remembered these two. I have not read Volokh Conspiracy since 2008.)
George Plimpton, USA, mid to late 20th century journalist, invented “participatory journalism”
Studs Terkel, one of the greatest USA journalists ever. Recent books on Work and All Kinds Of Love. Possibly the only straight male of the Old Left who came around on gay issues?
Beaumarchais (spelling?) Frenchman who wrote The Marriage Of Figaro in 1785. A few years back they revived his play with a new English translation and put it on at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey.
Mozart, great music composer late 18th century, did musical version of The Marriage Of Figaro
Saloneri (spelling?) real-life rival of Mozart, but also used to narrate the movie “Amadeus”
Beethoven (spelling?) great music composer, late 18th century and early 19th century
Anna Wintour — head of Vogue for many years
Heidi Klum — super model who then became one of the main judges of Project Runway
Tim Gunn — used to be professor at Parsons Fashion school, then became impressario for the show Project Runway
Naomi Watts — super model
Claudia Schiffer — super model, used to be married to David Copperfield
David Copperfield — magician, used to be married to Claudia Schiffer
Calvin Klein, fashion design, USA, late 20th and early 21st century
Levi/Strauss — (I am not sure if this is one person or two) — started a jeans company in San Francisco in the aftermath of the 1849 California Gold Rush.
Gigi Hadid, fashion model, current era, I think she was in recent Victoria’s Secret?
Sonia, who I bet at ShermansTravel.com in 2011, the best project manager I have ever worked with
Mark Bloom, who was on sales, and is now head of ShermansTravel.com
Jim Sherman, who started ShermansTravel.com back around 2001
David, who took over from Jim after the Board pushed Jim out, at ShermansTravel.com
Brian, the SEO marketing guy at ShermansTravel.com
Darren Frei, who ran editorial at ShermansTravel.com
Laura, who ran the sales deals team at ShermansTravel.com
Michelle Lira, who was part of the marketing team, ShermansTravel.com
Mark Phelan, computer programmer at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011
Joel, computer programmer at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011
Michel, computer programmer at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011
Stephen, Python fanatic, computer programmer at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011
Albert, real sad story, I guess the guy needed a job, pretended he was a Ruby On Rails guru, got hired, turned out he knew almost nothing. Real nice guy, but we had to fire him after a month. Computer programmer at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011
Zach Custer, on the deals team at ShermansTravel.com, circa 2011 till… he might still be there?
Sascha _______ , a frontend designer/developer, who we hired for a few months, when we were rebuilding the ShermansTravel.com site, in late 2011.
Alan Alda, USA actor late 20th century, was main character on TV show Mash
Milgram, psychologist, 1960s, Six Degrees Of Separation
Abelard, part of the doomed and tragic couple from France, during the Middle Ages, was in love with Helloise
Helloise, part of the doomed and tragic couple from France, during the Middle Ages, was in love with Abelard
Alfred North Whitehead, late 19th Century, early 20th century, wrote about the conflict between science and religion. I think he also made the assertion that civilization advances in part thanks to new notation that allows us to do complex calculations without having to think very much
George Benard Shaw, late 19th Century, early 20th century, playwright, philosopher and socialist
Karl Marx, co-wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Friedrich Engels, co-wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Hegel, a German philosopher, early 19th Century, an influence on Marx
Wittgenstein, a German philosopher, early 19th Century, sometimes described as the founder or inventor of Existentialism
Neitzche, a German philosopher, late 19th Century, his theory of the Ubermensch may have contributed to the rise of fascist ideology
Travis Kalanich, founder of Uber, the ride sharing startup
Paul Graham, founder of Ycombinator, I think around 2005, wrote a bunch of very good essays in the era from 1999 to 2006, and then afterwards wrote increasingly bad essays.
patio11, I think his name is Patrick? prolific commenter on Hacker News
Jeff Atwood, blogger of Coding Horror, also helped launch StackOverflow.com.
Marc Cuban, invests in startups, in 2015 he argued that startup funding had reached the level of a bubble
Marc Beinhof, sp?, founder of Salesforce, also felt startup valuations in 2015 were crazy
Henry Blodget, something about the Dot Com bubble, and Wall Street, and making recommendations, and failing to disclose conflicts of interest? Was censored by the SEC maybe? Still gets gigs writing for magazines like Fortune or Forbes or something? Am I warm?
Brian Wilson, who used to do tech recruiting, but now has a much more interesting job at Primary Venture Capital, helping introduce (to each other) the best people in the New York City startup tech scene.
Wagner, a German music composer, late 19th Century, he wrote the music now used almost everywhere for weddings, he also wrote the Ring cycle, one of the world’s most famous operas, later spoofed by Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. His music was later adopted as the semi-official music of the Nazi regime. In the USA his music was not played on the radio from 1941 till the mid-1960s. But I think people in the USA still used his music to get married? Which is odd?
Bugs Bunny, a fictional character from Warner Brothers animation studios
Elmer Fudd, a fictional character from Warner Brothers animation studios
Jennifer Jason Leigh, actor, was in movie Bastard Out Of Carolina. Also the Hateful Eight?
Coen brother 1, I don’t know their first names, famous director, True Grit, Fargo, The Big Leibowski, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing
Coen brother 2, I don’t know their first names, famous director, True Grit, Fargo, The Big Leibowski, Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing
David Spade, actor, I remember him mostly from Saturday Night Live. He did some movie but I can’t recall it. Was he in Waynes World?
Eric Spader, actor, was in the movies: Sex, Lies and Videotape. Also in Secretary.
Eminem, rap musician, also actor, was in the movie Eight Mile.
Betty Rich, who is I think the aunt or grandmother of one of Natalie Sidner’s cousin. Rich was a 16 year old Jewish girl growing up in Poland when the German’s invaded in 1939. Her book, Little Girl Lost, is interesting, especially for the bit about Lodz, Poland during the stretch from 1945 to 1948, when everything was in flux. She did very well during this period, which defies my stereotypes for what Poland was like during those years.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, actor, current, wrestling, did Fast and Furious 6 or 7 or 8,
Jason Stratham (spelling?) actor, current, was in the Transporter, Fast And Furious
Felicity Jones, actor, lead in Rogue One
Diego _____, actor, lead in Rogue One
Marine Le Pen, ran to be President of France
Martha Nusbaum, feminist author and philosopher, current era
Chris Pratt, actor, in Passengers in 2016
Jennifer Lawrence, actor, Silver Linings Playbook, Passengers
Lawrence Fishburne, actor, Matrix, Passengers
Bradley Cooper, actor, Silver Linings Playbook, American Sniper, Limitless
Keanu Reeves, actor, The Matrix
Marissa Mayer (sp?), incredibly incompetent CEO of Yahoo, had absolutely no idea how to take advantage of the intense devotion of the millions of fans of such sites as Tumblr and Flickr
(maybe Carol?) ______ Bartz, incredibly incompetent CEO of Yahoo, had absolutely no idea how to take advantage of the intense devotion of the millions of fans of such sites as Tumblr and Flickr
Mark Hurd, CEO of Hewlett Packard for a while? Roughly 5 or 6 years till roughly 2013? Was accused of some kind of impropriety? Some situation that looked bad? Maybe a woman was involved?
Elisabeth Moss, actor, 2017 in Handmaid’s Tale, also in Scientology
P D Q Bach, a fictional character created by ______________ . My mom and dad loved this guy. I recall they would play him on NPR and my folks would laugh and laugh.
Long John Silver, pirate in the Caribbean, 1700s
Blackbeard, pirate in the Caribbean, 1700s
Ho Chi Mihn, leader of northern Vietnam during the USA Vietnam war of the 1960s and 1970s.
Mao Tse Tung, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, imprisoned by the Communists circa 1935 or 1936 for his insistence on the central importance of the peasants in China. During or just after the Long March he became the leader of the Communists in China and lead them to victory in 1949. Died in 1976? 1975?
Mao’s wife, a member of the Gang Of Four, accused of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, she was executed after Mao’s death.
Deng Jou Ping, the leader of China after Mao’s death, he began the process of opening China to the outside world. Died in the 1990s?
Chou Enlai, a member of the early Communist party, an alumni of the Long March, somehow was not associated with the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, has a relatively unblemished reputation.
Trotsky, early Russian Communist, had a falling out with Stalin, then had to flee Russia, ended up in Mexico, dead, with an axe in his back.
Lenin, early Russian Communist, replaced Keresky, took over Russia in 1917 October Revolution
Keresky, Russian moderate, lead the spring Revolution in 1917
Stalin, paranoid Communist leader, took over Russia after Lenin’s death in 1921
Debbie Reynolds, actor? mid 20th century? mother of carrie fischer? did Singing in the Rain with Gene Kelly and _______________ (starts with a “D”? )
Gene Kelly, actor, dancer, comedian mid 20th century. Was he in Some Like Hot? Or was that Bob Hope?
Jessica Alba, actor, dancer was in Honey
Carol Burnnet (sp?), actor, TV show in the USA, 1970s
John Cleese, British Actor, Monty Python in the 1960s, much else since.
Bob Hope, comedian, USA, mid 20th Century, did a lot of USO tours, cheered up the troops, had certain gags that he used for years, like his inability to play the violin. There is a scene in the movie Apocalypse Now where someone like Bob Hope shows up and entertains the troops. I wonder if that was the real Bob Hope? Or was Bob Hope dead by then?
Tom Brady, quarterback of Patriots, till recently. Is he still playing?
Bob Odenkirk, actor, plays the lawyer in Better Call Saul was also in Breaking Bad
Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill, fictional character from Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul
Rhea Seahorn, actor, plays lawyer and girlfriend in Better Call Saul
Kimberly Wexler, fictional character, played by actor Rhea Seahorn
Mifune, actor, Japan, mid-20th century, was in Seven Samurai and other films by Akiri Kurosawa
Akiri Kurosawa (sp?), movie director, Japan, mid-20th century, did a great many classics.
___________ Jagellion, King of both Lithuania and Poland, began the Jagellion dynasty which ruled both countries starting in 1300s and last 3 centuries.
Gustavas Adolfus, King of Sweden, early to mid 1600s. Won many battles. Brought Sweden to the peak of its power.
Mark Zuckerburg (Zuckerberg?) — founded Facebook in 2004
James Comey, was head of the FBI for several years, till early 2017, when President Trump fired him
Bob Mueller, is now Special Prosecutor looking into ties between the Trump team and Russia
Lt General Flynn, worked on Trump campaign, was appointed to National Security something-something, last 3 weeks, and was then fired by Trump. Recently pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
Post external references
- 1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number - 2
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2016/08/17/to-get-a-job-use-your-weak-ties/#5c847be26b87 - 3
http://www.dreamviews.com/philosophy/111092-rsa-animate-empathic-civilization.html - 4
https://www.fullcontact.com/blog/maintaining-relationships/ - 5
http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html - 6
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_evolution_of_empathy - 7
http://macksapples.com/ - 8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausdorff_space - 9
http://lesswrong.com/lw/m0a/sapiens/
February 8, 2022 9:33 am
From Michael S on How I recovered from Lyme Disease: I fasted for two weeks, no food, just water
"Did you have Bartonella, too? Seems it uses autogenesis..."