Tag: Patient things
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Astrolabes in the news!
Astrolabes don’t hit the headlines often, to put it mildly. Here’s a news item about a newly discovered connection of an old astrolabe. = = = = = START QUOTE: As Gigante began to study the astrolabe – a scientific tool which dates from 11th century Spain and is used to chart stars and other…
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Back to Maragha again 1/2
I’m trying to reconnect with inspiration after a long dull winter. I’m mostly old and weary after four years of world holocaust, and partly distracted by “hurry up and wait” dealings with my courseware publisher. The project is all done now, so I no longer have to keep my mental desk clear for sudden final…
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Back to Maragha again 2/2
Continued from part 1. Christoph Scheiner’s magnum opus is Rosa Ursina, published in 1620. The title, roughly the Bear’s Rose, is an extremely poetic and sycophantic dedication to his patron, Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano. The bear, of course, is the patron’s name, and Scheiner waxes lyrical about the vast mind and infinite morality and…
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Obsolete?
Recently I focused on the role of gelatin in printing. Got curious. With all the current fads and “laws” about vegan and GMO and gluten-free, you’d think gelatin had long since been replaced by synthetics. Has it? Nope. Gelatin isn’t a very large part of industry in monetary terms, but it’s steadily GROWING, gaining new…
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Already scriptable
I enjoy reading Protos accounts of the bitcoin swindlers. Protos started as a pro-bitcoin advocate, then gradually wised up and turned into a more objective reporter. Nice to see a company DIverging instead of CONverging into a crime. Stories about Craig Wright are especially entertaining because nobody takes him seriously by now. There’s no risk…
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Protons
Bloomberg’s reporters had fun with the elderly Supreme Demons, who evidently don’t spend much time on social media. The court was dealing with a case where an asshole wanted to block Trump from blocking the asshole’s tweets, because Trump is Trump and everyone knows that everything Trump does is evil because it’s Trump, even though…
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Reminds me of
Another of those Natl Assn of Mfrs films. This one is mainly about uses of ultrasonics. Many of them are familiar now, detecting flaws in aluminum or embryos, and cleaning surfaces. Here’s a use that didn’t seem to go anywhere, but the experiment is dramatically effective: Ultrasonic sound breaks up fog and smog. Reminds me…
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TVA part 1 of 4
I did a tribute to WPA last year. The Tennessee Valley Authority was another of the New Deal’s giant perpetual improvements to America. TVA and the smaller Bonneville Power Administration continue even now as the sole illustrations of government working like a business. Both still make a profit from selling electricity. They create real value…
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TVA, part 2 of 4
I’ve been putting together some digital replicas of TVA’s model city at Norris, obviously not trying to include the whole thing! Here’s the top view of the street plan with a scattering of houses. The original was somewhat denser, but nowhere near ‘walkable’. Norris was named for Senator George Norris, who had been pushing the…
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TVA, part 3 of 4
Some of the TVA house designs were intended for mass production, not local culture. This was called the Demountable house. In modern terms it would be Modular. The basic section was made in a factory and shipped out by railcar for quick non-permanent use. The flat roof wouldn’t have lasted long in rainy and snowy…
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TVA, part 4 of 4
The book on TVA architecture featured a picture and plan of a model gas station. The building itself was photographed but I think the rest of the plan was skipped. I went ahead and tributed the whole thing. The station was in the median of a boulevard, with entrances from both lanes. Floor plan of…
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Salute to cafes
(Redated and reposted after some additions) Last week I noticed a picture of an old workingman’s cafe in Enid. The picture was self-explanatory. Why did little cafes do a good business? Because they were right next to downtown apartments and rooms where most people lacked kitchens. Decided to do a proper salute to cafes and…
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Reprint on computing history
Linked in previous. Also, this 2012 item continues to draw occasional readers or bots, so maybe it’s worthwhile at least to bots. = = = = = START REPRINT: Via uCatholic.com: The computer was originally invented to do just that: compute. Numerical calculations were its sole intended purpose, and words were never in the realm…
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Better choices
Today is Ada Lovelace Day. Look, if you really want to honor ancient women in technology, Ada is getting tired. She didn’t invent anything, she was just a writer who explained Babbage’s invention and saw some of its potential. Babbage wasn’t the main source of modern computing anyway. Calculators with decimal dials were widespread a…
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The Hughes Typograph
Found in Tangible Typography, or how the blind read, published in England in 1853. The Typograph was invented in 1851 by William Hughes, head of the Blind Institution at Manchester. It was demonstrated at one of the Crystal Palace exhibitions of new inventions, and was produced and used in small quantities. Several of the earliest…
Polistra's Mill 