Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Flowers with Sap Bucket


13 comments:

  1. Howard Dean primus inter pares est!

    listener, the story you told about the promise that you made to step in as JP should be shared beyond our circle. Nuff said.

    Bill--Those two links I posted re land ownership were simply for the sake of interest; the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster...

    And no, that Chicago waste water system story is not too Chicago-centric at all. BTW, I remember reading several years ago about Chicago replacing standard asphalt in alleyways with water-permeable asphalt, to decrease runoff and help to replenish the water table. Excellent idea. And I have seen from time to time mention of the city promoting rooftop gardens. All worthy of emulation.

    Preparations for vacation are proceeding. Bag to be checked is four pounds under limit (I was surprised).

    Today I received a(nother) slide rule for my collection, an excellent aluminum rule made in the DDR (AKA East Germany). This one is notable for not having a model name or number marked on it, and for having a leather case, which is very unusual--indeed unique, in my experience. Europeans didn't go for leather cases, for one thing, and this particular brand of rule seems to have used various types of cases, probably depending upon what was available in a command economy. They also experimented with different cursors and methods of construction over the years. I would rate the best of their aluminum slide rules as second in quality only to the Sun Hemmi (sold in the USA by Fredrick Post) bamboo and celluloid slide rules. They are also notable for some innovative choices and arrangements of scales. I was looking at one the other day and wondering how to use certain scales together despite their very unusual locations, but when I thought about the basis theory of how slide rules work it became clear as branch water.

    BTW, I am going to be taking a slide rule and book of exercises along with me on vacation to try and ingrain the use of the folded and inverted scales. Most chained calculations can be done with the C and D scales; everyone who ever used a slide rule will remember how to use them, as well as the A, B, K and L scales. But the inverted C scale, and the folded C and D scales, if used intelligently, increase efficiency in performing chained multiplications and divisions. I never assimilated that, but I mean to. The log-log scales, trig scales, and Pythagorean scales I have no reason to learn; they are basically lookup tables.

    TTFN

    Alan (Pulling for Morticia)

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    1. Sun Hemmi slide rules (as one might expect from the materials) were manufactured in Japan. Their quality is such that one reasonably expects a seventy- or eighty-year old example to work perfectly if it is not obviously broken.
      --Alan

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    2. "basis theory" should read "basic theory"

      --Alan

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    3. I never understood how to use a slide rule. Thought I did well to learn how to use a Cramner abacus.

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  2. On this day, Howard Dean shares firstness with the memory of Morticia kitty-kat. She died peacefully in her sleep this morning. We never knew for sure what was wrong with her.

    Morticia had been quite spry and, let's face it, bratty despite her very advanced age. She understood quite well that her staff was there to serve her and would not gladly tolerate any nonsense about it. And she remained the terror of mice, birds, and even young rabbits. We'll miss her.

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    1. Oh, Bill, I'm so sorry♥

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    2. Sympathies are appreciated.

      Morticia was cremated this afternoon. Some time in the next few days we will scatter her ashes on the lawn so she will always be with us.

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    3. ./\___/\
      (=~_~=)
      .*•.¸¸.•*
      .¸.•**•.¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
      .(“)__(“) (¸.•* (¸.•*¨*•.,.•*Awww, so sad to hear that Morticia kitty has died. ♡ May she prowl from strength to strength in the blessed company of the cats in Light! (She is certainly in very good blogger cat company.) =^. .^=

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    4. The anthropocentric authors don't talk about it, but I think the hereafter wouldn't be all that great if only people-kind were there. Do you have a photo of Morticia you could share with us, Bill?

      --Alan

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    5. The anthropocentric authors don't talk about it, but I think the hereafter wouldn't be all that great if only people-kind were there. Do you have a photo of Morticia you could share with us, Bill?

      --Alan

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  3. Thanks, Alan. I'm definitely going to include the story in my Letter of Intent.

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  4. Re Giordano Bruno [Click]

    Goes to show there's precious little new under the Sun...

    Preparations for vacation continue apace; got some bills paid by phone that would fall due when we are away. Hmmmm.... there ought to be weather forecasts by now for our date of arrival and a few days thereafter...will check Weather Underground. (Why they named that weather forecast web site after the radical offshoot of the Students for a Democratic Society
    I have never been able to figure out. Probably they figured no one would remember.

    TTFN

    Alan

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