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2007-10-30
Shofixti nightmare
2007-10-30 20:51Oldest animal, a clam, found and killed. It beat the previous record-holder, also a clam. (Via james_nicoll)
Other things today: I wandered by Caveat Emptor, and left with a replacement copy of Sunshine and a big book of Michael Whelan's art. I think I now know where akashiver's default icon comes from. Also one of swan_tower's, but I knew that already. I also looked at The Risen Empire, and looked very briefly at Yamato, a 1990 book about space-Shogunate vs. space-Amerika [sic] via plucky independent ship.
I hadn't been to swing dance for a while on account of a cold, but returned last night. Yay! And I'll hint vaguely at interesting things afterwards.
A few days ago I hacked around with my LJ style settings. The results may or may not please. I couldn't find an optimal intersection of provided style and provided features.
I finally got a copy of de Camp's Ancient Engineers, and it prompted a return to my morning math musings during today's insomnia. He'd been talking about the pyramids, and how the Great Pyramid is very square and aligned to true north, and we don't know how but a good guess is of marking star rise and set and bisecting the resulting angle. Which got me thinking about those elementary geometric constructions, and given that I took geometry in 6th grade (regular, not honors) and haven't used much since, I mostly remember simple truths like side-angle-side congruence, not compass and straightedge stuff. But I figured a fair bit out: perpendicual bisector, angle bisector, constructing equilateral triangles, squares, and derived polygons, parallel line through a point.
So now if I ever run across someone talking about forgotten secret arts the Egyptians must have used in building the pyramids, I can say "yes, the forgotten art of geometry. Bet you don't remember it either."
Other things today: I wandered by Caveat Emptor, and left with a replacement copy of Sunshine and a big book of Michael Whelan's art. I think I now know where akashiver's default icon comes from. Also one of swan_tower's, but I knew that already. I also looked at The Risen Empire, and looked very briefly at Yamato, a 1990 book about space-Shogunate vs. space-Amerika [sic] via plucky independent ship.
I hadn't been to swing dance for a while on account of a cold, but returned last night. Yay! And I'll hint vaguely at interesting things afterwards.
A few days ago I hacked around with my LJ style settings. The results may or may not please. I couldn't find an optimal intersection of provided style and provided features.
I finally got a copy of de Camp's Ancient Engineers, and it prompted a return to my morning math musings during today's insomnia. He'd been talking about the pyramids, and how the Great Pyramid is very square and aligned to true north, and we don't know how but a good guess is of marking star rise and set and bisecting the resulting angle. Which got me thinking about those elementary geometric constructions, and given that I took geometry in 6th grade (regular, not honors) and haven't used much since, I mostly remember simple truths like side-angle-side congruence, not compass and straightedge stuff. But I figured a fair bit out: perpendicual bisector, angle bisector, constructing equilateral triangles, squares, and derived polygons, parallel line through a point.
So now if I ever run across someone talking about forgotten secret arts the Egyptians must have used in building the pyramids, I can say "yes, the forgotten art of geometry. Bet you don't remember it either."