Tag: Metrology
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X et XII, pars II de II
After covering the Addiator I was curious to see if there were similar devices in earlier times. Rome used primitive abacuses, just stones sliding in grooves on wood. Not really a device. Googling medieval abacus led solely to this gadget: There’s only one source for the picture and description, a 1682 encyclopedia of ancient things…
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Waggles and rods
= = = = = = VECTOR MEASUREMENT PART 1 OF 2 = = = = = Following from the Medieval Metrology series last month. Medieval land measures were vector, not rectangular. The base unit was time and work, not distance and weight. With land as with money, the base was one day of work…
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Waggles and stars
= = = = = VECTOR MEASUREMENT PART 2 OF 2 = = = = = Continued from Part 1 on medieval land area. Surveying is a mechanized way of doing the waggle dance. It includes all three dimensions when measuring the height of a distant building or tree or mountain. I tried a real…
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Error bar and tense
My reading at Substack has pretty much reduced to one writer, Del Mastro. I was reading him before he moved to Substack, and he’s still worth reading. Today’s article observes that we tend to view short increments of time or distance as “within tolerance” or “within NOW”. An activity that takes a few more minutes…
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Two forms of measure
Well, I’ll try to work around the WordPress weirdness to say what I wanted to say. = = = = = I overuse Dillinger’s Rule because it’s an elegant explanation for many human activities that have more complex conventional motives. When asked “Why do you rob banks?” Dillinger said “Because that’s where the money is.”…
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They knew it all along.
This 1940 Chevy infomercial focused on facts of human nature as described by Professor Laird (who certainly looked like a prof!) Anxiety and tension come from three main causes: Noise or anticipating noise; fear of losing control; and a sense of being confined or trapped. All are natural and necessary. Prof Laird also gave the…
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Not quite up to standards!
Looks like career arsonist “Misty” Horne will spend at least one night in jail. No new arson fires while he’s off the streets, but Spokane is returning to its normal condition: Car Jacking Reported. Reported naked male was unloading trash in a field and was confronted. Deputies located the naked male who then ran towards…
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Interesting baseline
Not from History Today, just something I noticed while reading about medieval measurements. Time immemorial casually means forever, longer than anyone can record or remember. Originally it was quite specific, marking the start of common law in 1189. Anything that happened before the baseline of 1189 was legally immemorial, thus didn’t exist in the Common…
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Only looks like magic
Seen in a meme: People who speak two languages have a special magic. Bilingualism looks magic to those of us who have been raised in a prescriptive system with only one way of doing things. Most people in most countries in most time periods naturally speak two or three languages, function in two or three…
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Facta
One discussion of Prevost’s background mentioned a school whose motto is Facta non verba. Google doesn’t find the reference now, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t AI-hallucinate it. The Endarkenment inverted the meaning of factum. In Latin a factum was simply a completed task, a got-r-done**. Now we think facts are authorized descriptions of the…
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QA done.
Finished doing the testing and QA on the latest version of courseware, two months before the deadline. The previous edition in 2018 was hasty with too many shortcuts. This year I’ve made a vow to balance out the universal Engagement and Enshitification with careful work. For the newer chapters I’ve added more value with texts…
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Reprint plus encouraging news
Linked in previous, worth a reprint as a more general look at currencies and standards. = = = = = START 2024 REPRINT: An 1880s British book on banking gave a simple statistic that altered my view of how money works. The statistic: Earlier I summarized an American book from the same era, which I…
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Cursed weight, sacred weight, part 2 of 2
= = = = = MEDIEVAL METROLOGY PART 4 = = = = = Why has gold been a standard** for so many centuries? Partly because it’s a suitable standard in a metrology sense. It doesn’t mix easily with other elements, it doesn’t degrade with time, and it can be purified and verified. But metrology…
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One more inevitability
Previous item is a perfect example of why the RIGHT kind of price controls are needed. Enid hasn’t been affected by the real estate bubble. When I compare rental and sale prices there with what I remember from the 70s, the current numbers are in line with overall inflation. A $100 apartment then is $700…
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Pull or push
Following on previous item about writing vs thinking. A closely related theme seen in the same places: You need to consume lots of books before you can write. First: This axiom makes it too easy to defend AI. Sam’s machine consumes billions of books and other writings and mushes them all together to form its…
Polistra's Mill 