19 FEB 2015 by ideonexus
'Yo' as a Gender-Neutral Pronoun
Margaret Troyer, a former Baltimore-area teacher, published the first paper showing that "yo" is being used to replace "he" and "she." Troyer first noticed it while she was teaching middle-school kids in the area.
"Some examples would be 'yo wearing a jacket,' " Troyer says, referring to her research. "Another example from the paper is, 'Yo threw a thumbtack at me,' which is a typical middle school example."
So Troyer began to study her students. She gave them blank cartoons and asked them ... 1 
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notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
12X Spiral
The theory is that numbers are self-organized around the smallest, most highly composite number, 12. The number 12 and many of its multiples (24, 36, 48, 60, etc.) are HCNs: highly composite numbers (with lots of divisors), which are extremely useful for measuring and proportions. Why are there 12 eggs in a carton, 12 inches in a foot, 12 months in a year, 24 hours in a day, 360 degrees in a circle, 60 seconds in minute? Because highly composite numbers can be divided evenly in many ways. For... 1 notes
notesBuilding a spiral around a clock, with 12-segments in the rotation, puts multiples of 3 at {3,6,9,12}, multiples of at {4,8,12}, multiples of 2 at {2,4,6,8,10,12}, and primes at {1,5,7,11}.
18 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
A Watch Implies a Watchmaker Argument
In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer, that, for any thing I knew to the contrary, it had lain there for ever: nor would it perhaps be very easy to shew the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I had found a watch upon the ground, and it should be enquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given, that, for any thing I knew, the watc...Folksonomies: creationism
Folksonomies: creationism
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notesEarly example of it from 1802.
07 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The USA Should Adopt the Metric System
You, in this country [the USA], are subjected to the British insularity in weights and measures; you use the foot, inch and yard. I am obliged to use that system, but must apologize to you for doing so, because it is so inconvenient, and I hope Americans will do everything in their power to introduce the French metrical system. ... I look upon our English system as a wickedly, brain-destroying system of bondage under which we suffer. The reason why we continue to use it, is the imaginary diff... 1 notes
notesKelvin predicts Britain is stuck with it, but America will adopt.
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Earth Self-Heals Better Than Humans Try to Heal It
Ecologically speaking, a spilt tanker load is like sticking a safety pin into an elephant’s foot. The planet barely notices. After the Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska the oil company spent billions tidying up the coastline, but it was a waste of money because the waves were cleaning up faster than Exxon could. Environmentalists can never accept the planet’s ability to self-heal.Folksonomies: environmentalism
Folksonomies: environmentalism
1 notes
notesThe Exxon Valdes was equivalent of "sticking a safety pin into an elephant’s foot" for the Earth.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy's Wife Doesn't Like Michael Faraday
She in turn may also have found Faraday physically awkward, and even irritating. He was small and stocky — not more than five foot four — with a large head that always seemed slightly too big for his body. His broad, open face was surrounded by an unruly mass of curling hair parted rather punctiliously in the middle (a style he never abandoned). His large, dark, wide-apart eyes gave him a curious air of animal innocence. He spoke all his life with a flat London accent (no match for Janeâ€... 1 notes
notesAn amusing description of the physicist, who was widely respected as a lecturer, but disliked by the social woman.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Deep Space Implied Deep Time
Already in a paper of 1802 Herschel considered the idea that ‘deep space’ must also imply ‘deep time’. He wrote in his Preface: A telescope with a power of penetrating into space, like my 40 foot one, has also, as it may be called, a power of penetrating into time past … [from a remote nebula] the rays of light which convey its image to the eye, must have been more than 19 hundred and 10 thousand — that is — almost two million years on their way.’ The universe was therefore al... 1 notes
notesHerschel realized the very large universe required a very old universe.
