top row, from left, are: Steve Wood, Bob Wallace and Jim Lane;
second row, Bob O’Rear, Bob Greenberg, March McDonald and Gordon Letwin;
and front row, Bill Gates, Andrea Lewis, Marla Wood and Paul Allen.
Taken in 1978… the 11 founding members of Microsoft
Place: Zaanse Schans beside river Zaan, North Netherlands Famous: Windmills… there are still 6 working mills there Best Time to go: anytime How to go: some suggestions…
Amsterdam Central station to Koog-Zaankijk station
15 min walk from the station by following the signs
or
Take bus 91 from Amsterdam Central station in 50 min
Cost: Round-trip in train costs about 7.5 Euro. Viewing the windmills is free. Some links:
Place: Keukenhof, near Lisse, Netherlands Famous: Flowers – tulips – flower garden of Europe… how can we forget Tulips when we are in Netherlands Best Time to go: Mid March to Mid-May open only How to go:
Rotterdam or Amsterdam Central Station to Leiden Station in 40 min
Connexxion Bus 54 (Keukenhof Express) in 30 min
Cost: Entry into Keukenhof and the bus journey if around 16 pounds
Name: Grand Place Object: Central Market place and Town Centre Artist: Jacob van Thienen (probably) Date of creation: 1402 to 1455 and more buildings are added on later Style: combination of Gothic, Baroque and Louis XIV styles Description: Centre of the city’s commercial activies Where to find it: Brussels, Belgium
Each day I live
I want to be
A day to give
The best of me
I’m only one
But not alone
My finest day
Is yet unknown
I broke my heart
Fought every gain
To taste the sweet
I face the pain
I rise and fall
Yet through it all
This much remains
I want one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity
I’ve lived to be
The very best
I want it all
No time for less
I’ve laid the plans
Now lay the chance
Here in my hands
Give me one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity
You’re a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time
Make it shine
Give me one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will be
I will be
I will be free
I will be
I will be free
Name: La Chambre Object: Painting Artist: Vincent van Gogh Dimension: 72 × 90 cm Date of creation: 1888 Method: oil on Canvas Description: Van Gogh’s Room at Arles Where to find it: Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
Book Title: Einstein, Picasso – Space, Time and the Beauty that causes Havoc Author: Arthur I. Miller Year written/published: 2001 Book Source: Google Books, Library Summary: Biography of Einstein and Picasso – the 2 geniuses who lived around the same time and created revolution in science and arts Some extracts:
solitude…
Nor were the 2 men’s personal working styles dissimilar. Both came to terms early on with loneliness of the creative effort. As Einstein wrote some years late, “I live in the solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” Picasso recalled the “Unbelievable solitude” he felt when working on Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
many influences…
In this provincial hotbed of modernist debate, he found himself discussing Friedrich Nietzsche, Henrik Obsen, Oscar Wilde and Arthur Schopenhauer, all read in Spanish translation. … … God is a creation of one’s mind, and so the mind is the highest level of existence. Such ideas, on the threshold of the new century, were inspiration to produce new and strikingly different art and literary forms.
Wonder… and curiosity….
Einstein’s first inkling of such worlds has occurred at age 4 or 5. Ill in bed, his father bought home a compass for his entertainment. Einstein was amazed: No matter which way he turned the compass, its needle always pointed in the same direction. … … The boy concluded that “something deeply hidden has to be behind things.” Later Einstein referred to a phenomenon that dramatically conflicts with our everyday expectations as a “wonder”.
in search of…
Thus, while Uncle Jakob supplied mathematical grist for Einstein’s mill, Max Talmud broadened his horizons to include issues of science and philosophy. This potent mix exploded the boy’s “religious paradise of youth.” Einstein realised that “Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independantly of is human beings and which stands before us like a grea, eternal riddle, at least partically accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation.” Einstein had found his calling: solve the riddle.
Name:The Scream Object: Painting Artist:Edvard Munch Dimension: 91 × 73.5 cm Date of creation: 1893 Method: Oil, tempera, and pastel on cardboard Where to find it: National Gallery, Oslo
Book Title: Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! Author: Richard P. Feynman Year written/published: 1985 Book Source: Google Books, Library Summary: Colletion of very short stories about Feynman’s adventures of being an inquisitive person. My Comments: This book is so humorous that instead of being in the physics section of the library, it must be in the fun section. Through these little stories you get the lessons out for life – learning and investing is all about having fun and being inquisitive!! Contents page:
Far from rockaway to MIT
The Princeton Years
Feynman, the Bomb and the Millitary
From Cornell to Caltech, with a touch of Brazil
The world of Physics
Some extracts:
about symbols… seriously this is what i call true learning… often kids just gobble up what’s given to them and take these representations as unchageable and the ultimate truth
While I was doing all this trigonometry, I didn’t like the symbols for sine, cosine, tangent and so on. TO me, “sin f” looked like s time I times n times f! So I invented another symbol, like a square root sign, that was a sigma with a long arm sticking out of it, and I put the f underneath…. … I didn’t like f(x) – that looked to me like f time x. I also didn’t like dy/dx – you have a tendency to cancel the d’s – so _ made a different sign, something like an & sign. … … I thought my symbols were just as good, if not better, that the regular symbols – it doesn’t make any difference to what symbols you use.
fixing radios as a kid…
SO the guy says, “ What are you doing? You come to fix the radio, but you’re only walking back and forth!” I say, “I’m thinking!” … … So I changed the tubes around, stepped to the front of the radio, turned the thing on, and it’s quiet as a lamb… When a person has been negative to you, and then you so something like that, they’re usually a 100% the other way, kind of to compensate…. … kept telling everybody what a tremendous genius I was, saying, “He fixes radios by think!”
in front of eminent scientists…
A day or 2 before the walk I saw Wigner in the hall. “Feynman,” he said, I think that work you’re doing with Wheeler is very interesting, so I’ve invited Russell to the seminar…” Henry Norris Russell, the famous, great astronomer of the day was coming to the lecture! Wigner went on. Wigner went on. “I think Professor von Neumann would also be interested.” Johnny Von Neumann was the greatest mathematician around. “And Professor Pauli visiting from Switzerland, it also happens so I’ve invited Professor Pauli to come” – Pauli was a very famous scientist – and by the time, I’m turning yellow. Finally Wigner said, “Professor Einstein only rarely comes to our weekly seminars, but your work is so interesting that I’ve invited him specially, so he’s coming too.”
Bt this time I must have turned green, because Wigner said, “ No no! Don’t worry! I’ll just warn you!…. ….”
Name:Eiffel Tower Object: Observation tower for broadcasting Artist:Gustave Eiffel Dimension: 324m tall with antennae Date of creation: 1889 Method: Iron tower Where to find it: Champs be Mars beside Seine River, Paris, France
Book Title: S.U.M.O. Your Relationships – How to handle not strangle the people you live and work with Author: Paul McGee Year written/published: 2007 Book Source: Google Books, Library Summary: Dealing with People Contents page:
Name: Priest King Object: Statue Artist: from the Indus valley Civilisation period Dimension: 18cm tall Date of creation:Mature Harrapan Period (2600BC – 1700BC) Method:statue made of fired steatite Where to find it: National Museum, Karachi, Pakistan
Name: Water-Lily Pond Object: Painting Artist: Claude Monet Dimension: 90 x 90 cm Date of creation: 1897 Style: Impressionism Method: oil on Canvas Where to find it: The Art Museum Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey USA