(First entry after a hiatus of a few weeks, while taking a holiday over the Xmas-NY period.)
Sheryle Bolton tagged me in a kind of blog-network pyramid scheme: relate five things about yourself that others may not know, then tag five others. So here goes:
- Born in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
- First words were in Mandarin. At the time we lived in Malaya and had a Chinese housekeeper.
- First publication was in arms control/deterrence theory.
- Country boy at heart. My idea of recreation is to go to one of our country blocks (Flinders Island, or South Gippsland) and work all day. Plus, my musical taste runs to “anything bordering country.”
- Main hobby or side-interest is sustainable living and farming.
Now tagged:
- Paul Monk (Paul, time to revive your blog…)
- Dan Prager
- Jef Clark
- Richard de Rozario
- Peter Tillers
Tim van Gelder 
1. In 1905 the Czar of Russia exiled my maternal grandfather from Latvia to St. Petersburg (Russia!). This exile apparently was not a fate worse than death. My grandfather met my grandmother (a Polish woman) there and gave birth to my mother, in St. Petersburg, in 1910.
2. In my sophomore or junior year in college I proclaimed that fuzziness was my first principle — but I said that I should not say this (about fuzzines) too clearly. (Documentary proof of this fuzzy proclamation is on file with the author.) A couple of years later Lotfi Zadeh published his seminal paper on fuzzy sets. See http://www.csiss.org/classics/content/68 Zadeh’s proclamations, I admit, were more profound (and more influential) than mine. Still, …
3. In my childhood homes my family (mother, daughter, son [i.e., Peter T.]) did not have a telephone or a television. We first got a radio when I was in the 10th or 11th grade in high school. I did not have the regular use of a telephone until I went to college. I did not own a television set until after I graduated from law school. I spent a lot of time in the Columbus, Ohio, public library, whose construction was financed by Andrew Carnegie.
4. My second car was a 1936 Packard. I acquired it in the summer after my graduation from high school. I was forced to sell the car. I sold it for about $100 to Jim Elliot, who became a world-famous astronomer. (He discovered the rings of Uranus.) Moral: astronmers are smarter — or luckier — than lawyers.
5. My mother tried to teach Jim Elliot spoken Russian. Moral: astronomers should stick to astronomy.
I will tag five people. Look for the announcement on my blog.
Dear Tim,
Do you recall your Fletcher Jones days before heading off to America. We caught up once during your PhD in Pittsburgh while I was also studying in the UK.
I met with David Linke today and learnt that he is working with you on Austhink software. I have known David for many years through our business Lotons – small world.
Anyway it would be fun to catch up for a coffee some time.
Kind regards
Greg
Hi Greg,
tried your email – can’t get through.
– Tim
pre teen pageant gown