03 JAN 2017 by ideonexus

 Floor Toys

How utterly we despise the silly little bricks of the toyshops! They are too small to make a decent home for even the poorest lead soldiers, even if there were hundreds of them, and there are never enough, never nearly enough; even if you take one at a time and lay it down and say, "This is a house," even then there are not enough. We see rich people, rich people out of motor cars, rich people beyond the dreams of avarice, going into toyshops and buying these skimpy, sickly, ridiculous pseudo...
Folksonomies: play
Folksonomies: play
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03 OCT 2013 by ideonexus

 There are Many Leonardo's Today

Many persons wonder why we do not have such men today. It is a mistake to think we cannot. What happened at the time of Leonardo and Galileo was that mathematics was so improved by the advent of the zero that not only was much more scientific shipbuilding made possible but also much more reliable navigation. Immediately thereafter truly large-scale venturing on the world's oceans commenced, and the strong sword-leader patrons as admirals put their Leonardos to work, first in designing their n...
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A great observation, that Leonardo was an anomaly for his time, but he did solve problems that allow other to become Leonardos. A great example of this today would be the field of computer programming, where geniuses are commonplace, but so common and their work so unknown that they go unrecognized by our culture.

12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Two Factions of the Model Railroad Club

There were two factions of TMRC. Some members loved the idea of spending their time building and painting replicas of certain trains with historical and emotional value, or creating realistic scenery for the layout. This was the knife-and-paintbrush contingent, and it subscribed to railroad magazines and booked the club for trips on aging train lines. The other faction centered on the Signals and Power Subcommittee of the club, and it cared far more about what went on under the layout. This w...
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The club is were many hackers came from in the early days of computing. Half its members were into history and total control over a miniature world, the half that would become hackers were interested in the technology beneath the plywood.