Carpe Quarantine

Yes, to stay home with the boys, I would. But I'm not giving into the madness.

On TV tonight we've got The Curse of Oak Island, "To Boulderly Go":

Time to investigate the uplands of Smith's Cove is quickly running out, so Rick goes to extreme and dangerous measures to get answers..

There's also This Is Us and New Amsterdam. I'll probably catch those at a later time. I'm kinda more interested in a PBS three-part documentary on tonight (of course) called "Niall Ferguson's Networld".

From the Reformation and 17th century witch-hunting, through the American Revolution and to the nightmare visions of Orwell’s 1984, Ferguson explores the intersection of social media, technology and the spread of cultural movements.

Which I think is somewhat based on his book THE SQUARE AND THE TOWER.

Which I bought a couple years ago when it came out but I haven't read it yet. (shock).

Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. It's about states, armies and corporations. It's about orders from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are missing the informal, less well documented social networks that are the true sources of power and drivers of change? The 21st century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us, from the structure of the brain to the food chain, from the family tree to freemasonry. Throughout history, hierarchies housed in high towers have claimed to rule, but often real power has resided in the networks in the town square below. For it is networks that tend to innovate. And it is through networks that revolutionary ideas can contagiously spread. Just because conspiracy theorists like to fantasize about such networks doesn't mean they are not real. From the cults of ancient Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, The Square and the Tower tells the story of the rise, fall and rise of networks, and shows how network theory--concepts such as clustering, degrees of separation, weak ties, contagions and phase transitions--can transform our understanding of both the past and the present.

Published January 2018; 592 pages. I suppose I should get to it at last, right?


I started working on the pinch bead bracelet we did in a previous class but with clear-ish beads and the watermelon tourmaline. I think I like it. Maybe?

Have a good day

Much love,
PK the Bookeemonster