Help with memory

[Nick Thompson]

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 

============================================================
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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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[Carl Tollander]

Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many links.

On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
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[Nick Thompson]

Carl and everybody,

 

The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the reference, but alas, it did not!

 

You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of old age, that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not know about – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never happened. 

 

So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains open.  I have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could you put your thinking caps on? 

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and entropy? 

 

 

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Carl Tollander
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many links.

On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Brent Auble]

This may be the article you're thinking of -- it's by Barry Commoner from 1976 (so your memory may not be quite as bad as you think).  Unfortunately, you'll probably have to buy a subscription to the New Yorker archives to read it... or maybe see if one of those things called a "library" has it.  ;)

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1976/02/02/1976_02_02_038_TNY_CARDS_000316621

Of course, I'm not sure why you think it isn't by Barry Commoner.  I found this by searching for "entropy" on the New Yorker site. 

Brent

---

From: Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[hidden email]>
Sent: Fri, December 17, 2010 11:23:45 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory

Carl and everybody,

 

The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the reference, but alas, it did not!

 

You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of old age, that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not know about – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never happened. 

 

So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains open.  I have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could you put your thinking caps on? 

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and entropy? 

 

 

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Carl Tollander
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many links.

On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org/

 

 

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Thompson]

Thanks, Everybody,

 

It Was Barry Commoner, in a three article series in the NY-er beginning Feb 2, 1976, called “Energy”.

 

And it does have a long and loving account of entropy.  I still haven’t been able to read it because the archive system is hostile to ordinary mortals, but I will let you all know if it is as good as I remember it being.  My especial gratitude to Carl Tollander, Jonathan Barker, and John Kennison, who helped me look, and to Renata Golden, who found it. 

 

What threw me off the scent was that Commoner wrote a book, a few years earlier on a closely related topic, that does not mention entropy once! 

 

Nick

 

 

 

From: Nicholas Thompson [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:24 PM
To: '[hidden email]'; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Carl and everybody,

 

The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the reference, but alas, it did not!

 

You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of old age, that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not know about – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never happened. 

 

So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains open.  I have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could you put your thinking caps on? 

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and entropy? 

 

 

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Carl Tollander
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many links.

On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Nick Thompson]

Thanks, Everybody,

 

It Was Barry Commoner, in a three article series in the NY-er beginning Feb 2, 1976, called “Energy”.

 

And it does have a long and loving account of entropy.  I still haven’t been able to read it because the archive system is hostile to ordinary mortals, but I will let you all know if it is as good as I remember it being.  My especial gratitude to Carl Tollander and John Kennison, who helped me look, and to Renata Golden, who found it. 

 

What threw me off the scent was that Commoner wrote a book, a few years earlier on a closely related topic, that does not mention entropy once! 

 

Nick

 

 

 

From: Nicholas Thompson [mailto:[hidden email]]
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:24 PM
To: '[hidden email]'; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Carl and everybody,

 

The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the reference, but alas, it did not!

 

You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of old age, that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not know about – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never happened. 

 

So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains open.  I have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could you put your thinking caps on? 

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and entropy? 

 

 

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Carl Tollander
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory

 

Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many links.

On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:

Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles, later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy, told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:  Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it? 

 

I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail. 

 

Nick  

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[George Duncan-2]

See

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1976/02/09/1976_02_09_038_TNY_CARDS_000316706

for the second article in the series,

found via Bing.

On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Nicholas  Thompson
<[hidden email]> wrote:

> Thanks, Everybody,
>
>
>
> It Was Barry Commoner, in a three article series in the NY-er beginning Feb
> 2, 1976, called “Energy”.
>
>
>
> And it does have a long and loving account of entropy.  I still haven’t been
> able to read it because the archive system is hostile to ordinary mortals,
> but I will let you all know if it is as good as I remember it being.  My
> especial gratitude to Carl Tollander and John Kennison, who helped me look,
> and to Renata Golden, who found it.
>
>
>
> What threw me off the scent was that Commoner wrote a book, a few years
> earlier on a closely related topic, that does not mention entropy once!
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: Nicholas Thompson [mailto:[hidden email]]
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:24 PM
> To: '[hidden email]'; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Help with memory
>
>
>
> Carl and everybody,
>
>
>
> The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the reference, but
> alas, it did not!
>
>
>
> You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of old age,
> that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not know about
> – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never
> happened.
>
>
>
> So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains open.  I
> have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could you put
> your thinking caps on?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and
> entropy?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf
> Of Carl Tollander
> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory
>
>
>
> Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     Many
> links.
>
> On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of articles,
> later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of entropy,
> told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley lines in LA
> to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that we would
> in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of other fossil
> fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I have had
> two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to be wrong:
> Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  Is
> anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it?
>
>
>
> I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>
> Clark University
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
> http://www.cusf.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
>
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

--
George Duncan
georgeduncanart.com
[phone]
Represented by ViVO Contemporary
725 Canyon Road
Santa Fe, NM 87501

Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.
Soren Kierkegaard

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Richard Lowenberg]

I recall reading the NYer article by Commoner at the time,
as the subject matter was of keen interest to me then, and continues  
to be.
FYI, a couple of other related seminal publications from those days:
        The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen,
                Harvard U. Press, 1971.
        "Energy and Information", by Myron Tribus and Edward C. McIrvine,
                Scientific American, Sept. 1971 (issue on Energy and Power).
I haven't checked to see if these are available online.
Richard


On Dec 23, 2010, at 12:21 PM, George Duncan wrote:

> See
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1976/02/09/1976_02_09_038_TNY_CARDS_000316706
>
> for the second article in the series,
>
> found via Bing.
>
> On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:41 AM, Nicholas  Thompson
> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> Thanks, Everybody,
>>
>>
>>
>> It Was Barry Commoner, in a three article series in the NY-er  
>> beginning Feb
>> 2, 1976, called “Energy”.
>>
>>
>>
>> And it does have a long and loving account of entropy.  I still  
>> haven’t been
>> able to read it because the archive system is hostile to ordinary  
>> mortals,
>> but I will let you all know if it is as good as I remember it  
>> being.  My
>> especial gratitude to Carl Tollander and John Kennison, who helped  
>> me look,
>> and to Renata Golden, who found it.
>>
>>
>>
>> What threw me off the scent was that Commoner wrote a book, a few  
>> years
>> earlier on a closely related topic, that does not mention entropy  
>> once!
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Nicholas Thompson [mailto:[hidden email]]
>> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 9:24 PM
>> To: '[hidden email]'; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity  
>> Coffee Group'
>> Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Help with memory
>>
>>
>>
>> Carl and everybody,
>>
>>
>>
>> The Wikipedia entry sure looked like it was going to have the  
>> reference, but
>> alas, it did not!
>>
>>
>>
>> You are probably all prepared for one of the well-known terrors of  
>> old age,
>> that you forget stuff.  But another terror of old age you may not  
>> know about
>> – that you remember with great force and clarity things that never
>> happened.
>>
>>
>>
>> So, everybody, despite Carl’s best efforts, the question remains  
>> open.  I
>> have put in calls to local nursing homes, but in the meantime could  
>> you put
>> your thinking caps on?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>
>> PS  What the dickens did Roger Rabbit have to do with street cars and
>> entropy?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]]  
>> On Behalf
>> Of Carl Tollander
>> Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 8:28 PM
>> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
>> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Help with memory
>>
>>
>>
>> Google "Roger Rabbit", which sends you to
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal     
>> Many
>> links.
>>
>> On 12/17/10 8:03 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>>
>> Many years ago, perhaps more than 40, I swear I read a series of  
>> articles,
>> later published as a book, that laid out the basic principles of  
>> entropy,
>> told the history (perhaps mythic) of how GM tore up the trolley  
>> lines in LA
>> to get its dirty busses to replace clean trolley cars, argued that  
>> we would
>> in the next 40 years transition to natural gas as the price of  
>> other fossil
>> fuels rose, etc., etc.  I think I read it in the New Yorker, and I  
>> have had
>> two candidates for who wrote it, both of which have turned out to  
>> be wrong:
>> Bradford Snell and Barry Commoner.  Does anybody else remember it?  
>> Is
>> anybody else on this list OLD enough to have read it?
>>
>>
>>
>> I promise I have googled the hell out it to no avail.
>>
>>
>>
>> Nick
>>
>>
>>
>> Nicholas S. Thompson
>>
>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
>>
>> Clark University
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>>
>> http://www.cusf.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>>
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> George Duncan
> georgeduncanart.com
> [phone]
> Represented by ViVO Contemporary
> 725 Canyon Road
> Santa Fe, NM 87501
>
> Life must be understood backwards; but... it must be lived forward.
> Soren Kierkegaard
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org