Apostrophe — Bert Collins’s Blog

Blog Maverick

Mark Cuban knows that he talks too much. He’s frequently fined by the NBA for conduct unbecoming a team owner and the SEC has sued him for insider trading. Nevertheless the dot-com billionaire tells it all unblushingly in his blog. Today he explains why his bid to buy the Chicago Cubs will probably fail.  As usual he is going to antagonize some influential people, but it makes for fascinating reading. Not many blogs cover professional sports, Wall Street, politics, computer technology and Hollywood–all from the first-person perspective of someone who can afford not to give a damn what you think of him.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

I know of no better way to start the day than by visiting this site. One spectacular image each day that gives me a perspective on the entire universe.  From the famous and awe-inspiring to the newest mind-boggling views of our planet, solar system, galaxy and universe, there is beauty to behold.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys

There’s some good news (if a little belated).  Samuel Pepys reports:

Then comes my wife, and I set her to get supper ready against I go to the Duke of Albemarle and back again; and at the Duke’s with great joy I received the good news of the decrease of the plague this week to 70…

Pepys diary for January 3rd 1665/6  (We’d call it 1666, but they didn’t start their new year until March for legal purposes) rejoices in the lowest death rate in twenty years, but notes it may be because of  “the want of people in London.” His daily concerns are eerily contemporary–greed, corruption, war, cronyism and lust. Sometimes his remarks are a little obscure, but they are elucidated by notes and reader annotations.

Schneier on Security

Bruce Schneir’s blog today links to a fascinating but frustrating history of NSA and CIA signals and communications cryptography American Cryptology during the Cold War. Fascinating, because it is a frank internal history by NSA historian Thomas R. Johnson who obviously knows a great deal about what was happening, but frustrating because large sections of the pdf files are whited out.

Schneir on security is the best source of information about security and privacy available anywhere today. His greatest contribution may be his utterly devastating analysis of  “security theater” which subordinates effective action to the appearance of action.

Language Log

Even punctuation is controversial on the Internet.  Should my title be Bert Collins’ Blog or Bert Collins Blog? I go to  Language Log for my daily dose of grammar wars.  Mark Liberman’s site is very reassuring–the repeated message is that the proper study of linguistics is how people use language, not how they OUGHT to use it. If you want to know how many words the Inuit really have for snow, you’ll find the full, hilarious debate here.

(When my computer recently crashed,  I used the opportunity to do a clean install. I am gradually restoring my Firefox bookmarks and will share some of my favorites here.)