Hi

Tonight's TeX hour is from 6:30 to 7:30pm UK (and UTC) time. The UK time now: https://time.is/UK.
The zoom URL is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/78551255396?pwd=cHdJN0pTTXRlRCtSd1lCTHpuWmNIUT09

Bridges, both actual and metaphorical, are of great human importance. Roads, canals and railways all lead to the building of bridges. Famous bridges include the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Golden Gate in California, the Tower Bridge in London, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Stari Most in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Ponte Vecchio and Stari Most mean "Old Bridge".

Here are some metaphorical bridges. Ordinary mail, the postal service, telegraph, telegraph, wireless, the internet and email can all be thought of as bridges. Language, oral transmission, writing, printing and books can also be thought of as bridges. Successful bridges serve a social purpose. The lack of such bridges can be a major obstacle.

Today's TeX Hour will be focussed on Bridges and TeX. I'd like to focus on the social side of bridges and the building of bridges. It is out of this that the technology of bridges emerged. For example, it was out of the TeX community and FTP that our central store CTAN emerged. And FTP is a metaphorical bridge that emerged from community needs, together with ground provided by computer networks.

About 200 years ago Thomas Telford brilliantly combined the social and technical forces of his time to found Civil Engineering as a profession. That was in the United Kingdom. About 50 years later James Eads had a similar role in the United States. Other countries have their own civil engineers.

To ground our conversation, I'd like us to start by sharing physical bridges we personally know and love. All sorts of bridges are welcome. Here's my contribution:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:River_Wye_and_pack_horse_bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_29091.jpg

Tonight's TeX hour is from 6:30 to 7:30pm UK (and UTC) time. The UK time now: https://time.is/UK.
The zoom URL is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/78551255396?pwd=cHdJN0pTTXRlRCtSd1lCTHpuWmNIUT09

Finally, the you can catch the 2022 TeX Hours at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw1FZfIX1w7hMtao93q9imCCYc4aoXahy

wishing you happy walking

Jonathan