Insights into the nature of memory: “In 1956, George Miller, one of the founders of the then-nascent field of cognitive psychology, wrote a rather peculiar paper. … Miller's paper became a classic because it established a fundamental point about memory that has been validated time and again: the human brain can only keep a limited amount of information in mind at any given time. “Miller used the humorous metaphor of persecution at the hands of an integer to draw attention to his conclusion that we can keep in mind only about seven items. More recent estimates suggest that Miller was too opti ..read more

Today's selection -- from A Short History of the World by H.G. Wells. The life of Guatama Buddha.  “But now we must go back three centuries in our story to tell of a great teacher who came near to revolutionizing the religious thought and feeling of all Asia. This was Gautama Buddha, who taught disciples at Benares in India about the same time that Isaiah was prophesying among the Jews in Babylon and Heraclitus was carrying on his speculative enquiries into the nature of things at Ephesus. All these men were in the world at the same time, in the sixth century B.C — unaware of one another ..read more

Today's selection -- from History of the American Frontier by Frederic L. Paxson. Jefferson's possible motivations behind the Lewis and Clark expedition.   “With the ratification of the Louisiana Purchase the frontier had little special concern. It wanted the territory and felt none of the constitutional qualms that had distressed Jefferson. The Federalists of New England were tin-own into the opposition and the minority, and now experienced fears of executive usurpation and constitutional violation that they would have scoffed at when in office. They fought in vain the ratification ..read more

Today's selection -- from 3 Shades of Blue by James Kaplan. The earliest performances of the soon-to-be-immortal Bill Evans: “I met an unknown piano player who looked and played like a country hick. He bore no resemblance whatsoever to any talented jazz pianist I had ever known. He looked like a college student majoring, perhaps, in archeology or advanced botany. Although it pains me to admit this, he was a classic nerd. His name was Bill Evans. He later became the Bill Evans. When we first met, however, he was far from being the path-breaking, transformational piano shaman whom everyone came ..read more

Today's selection -- from Mountains of Fire by Clive Oppenheimer. The smoldering volcanoes of Iceland made some in the past regard it as the authentic location of purgatory: “Iceland is nothing short of a volcanologist's paradise. You cannot find a stone in the country that wasn't expressed through a volcanic orifice. The country is a gigantic volcano. One or another of the island's innumerable craters erupts every few years: over 200 events are catalogued for the period since the Vikings (and a few Celts) settled there around the year 870 CE, and the true figure may be closer to 300. With so ..read more

Today's selection -- from Pirates by Peter Lehr. The modern-day pirates of Nigeria and Somalia: “The Nigerian pirates' penchant for lethal violence (including firefights with security guards and Nigerian navy vessels) in contrast with the Somali pirates' typical avoidance of such encounters points to the variety of tactics used by modern-day pirates. As in the previous periods, whether lethal and gratuitous violence is inflicted or not depends to a large, degree on what the pirates are after: mainly the ship's cargo and the crew and passengers' valuables, as for example were the Victual Broth ..read more

Today's selection -- from Kubrick: An Odyssey by Robert P. Kolker and Nathan Abrams. At the opening of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, much of the audience walked out:  “President Lyndon B. Johnson shocked the nation when he announced that he would not seek re-election. The country’s political system was in turmoil, and, increasingly, young Americans expected their artists to address the chaos that roared all around them. Kubrick had done this brilliantly with his last film. But as American involvement in Vietnam escalated and domestic unrest and violence at home intensified, Ku ..read more

Today's selection -- from Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle. Our astronauts left mirrors on the Moon: “While the most notable relics of Apollo — the Moon rocks — are now back down on Earth, the astronauts left a few important things behind. Along with an American flag, a plaque, their footprints, and some trash, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left behind a couple of science experiments. One of these was a two-foot-wide panel bedecked with one hundred mirrors, designed to return any light in exactly the direction from which it came. “Every other Apollo experiment eventually faded into history, from t ..read more

Today's selection -- from Executioner: Pierrepoint by Albert Pierrepoint. A story from Albert Pierrepoint, Britain’s official executioner, whose work was carried out most often by hangings: “In a very short time the Governor of H.M. Prison, Winson Green, Birmingham, wrote to ask if I was free to take an engagement as assistant executioner for a prisoner whom he was holding, and I accepted. I soon checked that it was my Uncle Tom who was to act as Number One, and arranged to travel with him to Birmingham. When we met his appointed assistant at the prison, my uncle came to an arrangement with h ..read more

Today's selection -- from Portal by John King. The Ferry Building has become one of the iconic images of Sane Francisco: “Visitors to the St. Louis World’s Fair in the summer of 1904 had no shortage of attractions to choose from. They could stand behind a glass wall and watch butter being churned at the model creamery within the Palace of Agriculture. They could visit the Pennsylvania State building to gaze at the original Liberty Bell, that storied survivor of the American Revolution, here being guarded by policemen who had accompanied it from Philadelphia. Less rarefied pleasures lined The ..read more