An Interesting Little Collection of Heinlein Short Stories

Last Friday over at viewfromtheporch, Tam posted a sexy pic of Sally Rand's 1938 Packard along with a link to a collection of Heinlein's short stories which has some peripheral connection to said car.  I clicked through and discovered – for the deep bargain price of $0.99 – eleven stories I'd already read and four that I hadn't!  Specifically, these are:

• Let There Be Light, about the invention of the Douglas-Martin sunscreens that figure so prominently in RAH's Future History series.  Glad to finally read it, but I can see why he omitted it from various short story collections throughout his later life.  Being his second story published, it's just not all that good.
• The Year of the Jackpot, another stinkeroo, as Heinlein termed his early fumbling works.  Still, it has some interesting ideas about what would happen if a mathematician devised a way to predict the future.  SHGT anyone?
• Project Nightmare, an early Cold War thriller about a hastily concocted team of psychics staving off nuclear blackmail – if they can just keep from falling asleep.
• Sky Lift, in which a pair of pilots give their all to deliver vital medical supplies – to Pluto.

I can vouch for the remainder of the stories.  Because they're better than the four listed, they've shown up in various other collections, most of which are on my living room shelf.  Click through to the above link and click through to Amazon for the complete list, or to buy, in which case Tam gets her affiliate cut.

Now about the publisher and illustrations, I'm not so sure.  Most of the stories seem to be from the late 30's to about 1950, so maybe the copyright has timed out?  Don't ask me, I'm not a lawyer.  The publisher and copyright are both from Ukraine, which is slightly suspect.  The illustrations are few, probably machine-generated, and don't really add much.  Maybe those are a copyright fig leaf?  Again, not a lawyer.  Will Heinlein or his spouse miss out on any royalty payments because of these (possible) shenanigans?  Pfft, they've been dead 37 and 23 years respectively, so that's not a concern.  I like to think that they'd just be glad to see some early works getting a little more airplay.  Let the dead sleep and the living read.  Onward.

Overall and despite those concerns, I'm glad to have finally read these, especially Let There Be Light.  The Douglas-Martin sunscreens are in so many of Heinlein's Future History stories that not having read this always felt like a big hole in my literary knowledge.  Turns out it wasn't, but for $0.99 the itch has been scratched.

Weirdness Gap Filled

Last spring I lamented about how the late night paranormal radio show Coast to Coast was difficult to receive here on the Forgotten Coast.  The three closest AM stations broadcasting it are 450, 590, and 800 miles away, making skywave reception doable but unreliable, and we fall into an unfortunate gap in the line-of-sight FM coverage.  Well good news, WSB Atlanta has now picked up C2C.  At a mere 290 miles distance, the reception is much better.  You can tell it's skywave propagation, but it never quite drops out.

Life – and judging by some of the guests, possibly the afterlife – just took a turn for the better.

From Nashville to Apalach

I see that Mark Wills will be on the Grand Ol Opry both tonight (Friday) and tomorrow.  You can listen on WSM 650 AM or figure it out for online.  I'm sure it'll be for just a couple of songs.  Then, he'll be the headliner at the Seafood Festival on Saturday Nov. 1st.  See y'all there.

Telegram?

No, not the app.  Actual, you know, telegrams.  Hard to believe, but they still exist and you can still send them.  Weirdly, there is a legal reason in certain cases why you might, namely to leave an official record for later legal reference.  Anyway, here's an old article at Atlas Obscura, and the actual

send-a-telegram web site.  Prices start at $30, so if you get a message at all from me it'll probably be a text or email.

No real tag for this one, but because Morse code is peripherally connected, so I'll file it under 'radio'.

Eggbeater Pedal Rebuild Saturday

Yesterday it was time to tackle a pair of Eggbeater 2's gone wrong after just two years' use and a nice four year old pair of Mallet 3's that were crying out for some TLC.  It wasn't particularly difficult, but the first one took a little while with flipping back and forth through videos.  Set aside some serious time for each pair of pedals.  Figure on about an hour for a pair, but have an open schedule for up to two hours in case something goes awry.  Also, you'll need a rebuild parts kit for each pair of pedals.

How?  Oh hell no, I'm not going to tell you how here.  I'm just going to link through to a couple of videos for each variety.  Required tools are also detailed in each video.  You'll want to have those rounded up before beginning along with lots and lots of paper towels.

• Eggbeaters: factory vid | some bike shop guy
• Mallets: factory vid | Park Tool vid

They all move kind of fast and take slightly different routes, so whichever model you're overhauling it's worthwhile to watch both videos.

The bottom line is that this exercise resurrected about $250 worth of pedals for $60 in parts plus a couple hours' semi-interesting work.  I can think of worse and less profitable ways to spend a chunk of a Saturday afternoon.

ps & Follow Up, 9/10: After several test rides of both pedal sets, all is functioning very smoothy.  However, thinking on the economics of this, if you're running the bottom-end Eggbeater 1's, it may make more sense to just replace a worn set.  Odds are that if a set of pedals need replacing,  you'll need new cleats too.  Digging around on ModernBike.com I see that a pair of Egg 1's goes for $54.  Compare with a refresh kit and new set of cleats – $30 and $25 respectively – and the price is a wash.  Of course, it pains to throw out when a rebuild will do; doing so reeks of wretched excess.  Hey, your Saturday afternoon, your call.

Gravel On The Block

With the new Surly Straggler well in hand, it's time to put the 2010 Specialized Tricross up for sale.  $338 bike + $315 in parts = $500 cash, firm.  You can see full details here at craigslist.

55cm / Medium, in Very Good shape

I had intended to keep this bike for a good while more – hence all the parts.  But what I'm doing on a gravel bike these days is closer to mountain biking and these old hip and knee joints aren't getting any younger.  Anyway, I hate to see it go, but an unridden bike is a sad horse.  Time to move it on down the line.

If you're reading this, you know how to reach me.

Punctuated Equilibrium Seems to be the Way of Things

Here's a short article about punctuated equilibrium in biological systems, proteins, and (surprise!) languages at Quanta.

I was very surprised to see PE arising in some genetic algorithm work I was doing several decades ago on systems that were entirely non-biological.  I simply remarked on it in the resulting paper and moved on with the main thrust of that research.  Still, the waves of evolution in this system did show significant regularity and could be useful in determining when some point of diminishing return has been reached, and hence when to stop burning computer cycles.

Looking around on the web using an AI search quickly showed that this has been observed many times before:

Give me a list of research showing punctuated equilibrium in genetic algorithm simulations of non-biological systems.

Here is a list of relevant research papers that demonstrate or analyze punctuated equilibrium (periods of stasis followed by rapid changes) in genetic algorithm (GA) simulations applied to non-biological systems, such as abstract optimization problems, engineering tasks, or artificial life models. I've focused on studies where the systems are clearly non-biological (e.g., not direct simulations of real biological processes like speciation or genetic drift in organisms). Each entry includes the title, authors, year, a brief description of the GA and system, and how punctuated equilibrium is shown. The list is chronological.

• Punctuated Equilibria in Genetic Search by Michael D. Vose and Gunar E. Liepins (1991). This paper formalizes a simple GA with selection, mutation, and one-point crossover, applied to non-biological search spaces modeled as high-dimensional dynamical systems. Simulations and mathematical analysis show punctuated equilibrium through alternating periods of relative stability (attractors) and sudden rapid evolution when populations shift between basins, supported by eigenvalue computations and trajectory diagrams.
• Genetic Algorithms and Punctuated Equilibria in VLSI by J. P. Cohoon, W. N. Martin, and D. S. Richards (1991). A distributed GA with subpopulation structures is used for the K-partition problem in VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) chip design, a non-biological engineering optimization task. The approach is inspired by punctuated equilibrium theory, with empirical simulations demonstrating performance advantages from "ecological opportunities" that enable rapid evolutionary bursts after periods of stasis.
• Population-Based Incremental Learning: A Study on Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing by Shumeet Baluja (1994). This work uses Population-Based Incremental Learning (an extension of equilibrium GAs) compared to standard GAs on non-biological optimization problems like numerical functions (e.g., De Jong’s, Griewangk’s), NP-complete tasks (e.g., jobshop scheduling, traveling salesman), and deceptive problems. It demonstrates punctuated equilibrium in parallel GA variants with subpopulations, where stasis in isolated groups is interrupted by migrations leading to rapid improvements, shown via a contrived example where single-population GAs fail but multi-population ones succeed.
• Punctuated Equilibria in Simple Genetic Algorithms for Functions of Unitation by Sangyeop Oh and Hyunsoo Yoon (2000). A simple GA with roulette wheel selection, mutation, and crossover is simulated on non-biological unitation functions (bit-string optimization in bistable potential landscapes). Theoretical analysis via diffusion equations and simulations reveal punctuated equilibrium, with long metastable periods at local optima followed by exponential-duration sudden jumps to global optima, visualized in population mean trajectories and parameter-dependent duration plots.
• Punctuation Equilibrium and Optimization: An A-Life Model by Ravi Jonnal and Anthony Chemero (2000). An evolutionary algorithm evolves artificial neural network weights for controlling a virtual creature in a 2D grid-based simulated environment with resources and obstacles (non-biological artificial life setup). Simulations compare standard and punctuated mutation rates, showing that introducing rare bursts of higher mutation leads to punctuated equilibrium patterns—long stasis interrupted by rapid fitness gains—resulting in significantly higher overall fitness scores.
• Punctuated Equilibrium and Neutral Networks in Genetic Algorithms by David Shorten and Geoff Nitschke (2022). A simple GA is applied to non-biological benchmark optimization functions (11 numerical ones plus Royal Road and Trap functions). Empirical simulations demonstrate punctuated equilibrium as populations explore neutral networks (genotype spaces with stable phenotypes), leading to periods of phenotypic stasis followed by rapid changes when escaping to fitter regions, analyzed via consensus sequences and genotype-phenotype

Huh.  Effect noted, explained, harnessed.  I wish search engines had been this effective in 2007.  Back to and onward with my real work.