I found a new Feynman documentary. A very interesting guy, his books are very funny and really give you an insiders look at “big science”.
Good find, but this is quite an old documentary.
The books are awesome. Definitely worth the read.
I had the privilege of spending some time with a colleague and friend of Feynman’s at Caltech a few years ago. The impact Feynman had on everyone around him while molding a generation of scientists and engineers was unmistakably clear. He was a genius and a renaissance man to all, and left 'tech a place forever changed - from something wonderful to something akin to hallowed ground.
When I first moved here, I had hoped to see his office, but it was cleared out after he died. A real shame, in my opinion. Truly one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, and certainly deserving of such a shrine.
From all the PMs I get, it seems like most people here think I’m so much like Richard, that his spirit entered me when he died. We’re just the same. We think alike about everything. It’s truly amazing, as if he traveled froward in time and copied all my thoughts.
What do YOU care what other people think?
or rather,
Surely you’re joking, Mr. Mountain. . .
BTM diagrams? Quantum unicyclist? Show us in Six Easy Pieces!
As an aside, I’ve never read/seen/heard that Dick was a unicyclist, but there are pictures of him juggling. Wouldn’t surprise me to hear he could ride a one-wheeler.
Billy, I did some calculations, and I’ve no idea how Gilby’s server handles all the PMs you get.
Is this where all our donations go to: upgrading the PM engine for BTM? If so, I’d say it’s only fair we see your PMs so we know how our money is being used.
If you’ve such a big brain, BTM, why haven’t you solved the age-old conundrum: where IS my other wheel?
I love that bongo song about the banana. he read my mind!
Billy
I love the Feynman anecdote where he was sent to look at some engineering diagram of a reactor or power plant or something (which he actually had no clue about how it worked) and they showed him the diagrams of all the safety’s releases etc, and he pointed at some valve and asked what would happen if that one failed… they looked at it and were shocked to find that there if the valve failed, the whole system failed, and he stood there trying to make it look like he had known what he was doing, when he had actually just picked one at random 
I forget which book that was in, I heard it on a Security Now podcast a few years ago…
Feynman explains plans security for the Manhatten project
Locked up with a bunch of other top secret researchers tasked with developing the first A bomb, he was given the same type of safe in his lab (to store his secrets in) as the other scientists. The “master plan” for the A bomb was kept in a bigger safe in the generals office.
One of Feynman’s long time hobbies was safe cracking and lock picking. One of the first things he noticed was that by placing his hand on the bottom of the lock mechanism while the door was open, he could read the last 2 digits of that safe’s combination. With a bit of practiced dial spinning he could try all the possible digits in about 15 minutes, and thus “crack” that safe, once closed, in an average of about 7 minutes.
A natural prankster, he chose to tell no one, but went around causally to talk to his colleagues around closing time, when they had their doors open to put away the day’s secrets. No one, not even the pentagon general in charge of security oversight, seemed to notice or cared while Feynman did this. He soon had the last 2 digits of every safe in the building except the general’s.
Many times, when someone needed access to a safe while a safe holder was away, they would get Feynman to come "crack " the safe.
No one caught on to him, and the general asked him to try his skills on the master safe. Feynman failed at this, largely because when he was able to examine the general’s safe once with the door open, it used a different mechanism immune to hand reading.
Finally the project was over and it was discovered the general had left his office with the safe locked . Feynman was stumped, but wanted to watch and see what the pro guy they called in could do. Feynman was amazed as this guy came over, spun the dial a few seconds and opened the door.
The great “secret”, was that all safes come from the factory 100-50-100 , or 25-50-25. The general had never bothered to learn how to change the default combo ! Apparently trying that is the first move a safe cracker should try.
That story was from one of his several books. They are full of short stories like that.
IIRC, it was from Surely You’re Joking. . ., and it’s one of my favorites as well.
Proof that even for a genius it is “better to be lucky than good.” 
It’s called “Safecracker Suite” and it’s one of the few of Feynman’s anecdotes that is available as an audio recording being read by the author. Pure gold.
The short version “Safecracker Meets Safecracker” (from Surely You’re Joking…) is basically just the middle part of the story. While it’s a great short story and captures the essence of the original, the full version is worth the extra $$, IMO.