2D Goggles
May. 8th, 2009 12:14 pmAda Lovelace and Charles Babbage in an Alternate 19th century, wherein, "what actually happened was, Babbage and Lovelace successfully developed the computer in the mid 1830s (giving humanity the necessary technological advantage to repel the alien invasion of 1898) and used their combined powers to fight crime and have adventures. Although they did have a somewhat idiosyncratic view of what constitutes 'crime'."
The author was just messing around, but readers begged for more episodes (I can see why).
Episode 1 - Ada Lovelace - The Origin
Episode 2 - Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy, Part 1
Episode 3 - Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy, Part 2
The author was just messing around, but readers begged for more episodes (I can see why).
Episode 1 - Ada Lovelace - The Origin
Episode 2 - Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy, Part 1
Episode 3 - Lovelace and Babbage vs. The Economy, Part 2
Kids books I have known and loved
Apr. 29th, 2009 08:35 pmMeme by way of ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rainbow
To put this in social context, the timeframe is the mid-1950s:
The World We Live In - (a large, beautifully illustrated book put out by Life Magazine based on a series they'd published in the magazine).
The Golden Book of Astronomy
The Golden Book of Science
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments -- So ok. I didn't really *have* this one, but I found it while searching for the others and found out it was banned from libraries. So I downloaded a PDF of it immediately (available at the above link). I'm not intending to try any of it - I just want to own a banned kid's book.
The first five Noddy books by Enid Blyton - a series of stories about a wooden doll who comes to life and lives in Toyland.
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett - the story of how a secret garden transformed the lives of three people.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - the story of Jo the original tomboy and her three sisters.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - The story of a boy raised by wolves, a bear, a panther, and a snake.
Mary Mouse by Enid Blyton (all of them) - The story of a mouse who is nanny to three spoiled rotten children. She always got the whole family (including the parents) to behave themselves, somehow.
Everything by Beatrix Potter that I could get my hands on - Stories whose main characters were mice and rabbits, cats and dogs, frogs and toads, squirrels and foxes...
The Little Pond in the Woods
Tales of King Arthur -- I have not been able to find this book. I wish I could. It was a large book with an ornate cover, and color plates of knights and ladies, kings and queens, wizards and goblins and the ladies of the lake. It was gorgeous...
Everybody's Favorite Songs -- No clue who published it. All I remember is that it was a falling-apart, large green softback sheet music book circa 1959.
Water Birds - a children's book on various types of water birds. Beautiful illustrations. Have no idea who wrote it or who published it.
The little engine that could.
A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle (the edition at this link was the one I first read) - the story of a girl and her brother and their travels through spacetime to rescue their father.
Including comics here too:
All the Casper the Friendly Ghost comics - Casper was the best. He could walk through walls (still practicing - haven't quite gotten it yet).
All the Wendy the Good little Witch comics. She knew all about spells and what plants did what...
All the Nancy comics that had Oona Goosepimple in them -- Oona Goosepimple lived in the haunted house down the street. There was an armchair who smoked cigars, and a fireplace that went into another realm...
Spooky the Tuff little Ghost - the tough counterpart of Casper from the wrong side of the tracks.
(Can you see a pattern here?)
rainbowTo put this in social context, the timeframe is the mid-1950s:
The World We Live In - (a large, beautifully illustrated book put out by Life Magazine based on a series they'd published in the magazine).
The Golden Book of Astronomy
The Golden Book of Science
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments -- So ok. I didn't really *have* this one, but I found it while searching for the others and found out it was banned from libraries. So I downloaded a PDF of it immediately (available at the above link). I'm not intending to try any of it - I just want to own a banned kid's book.
The first five Noddy books by Enid Blyton - a series of stories about a wooden doll who comes to life and lives in Toyland.
The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett - the story of how a secret garden transformed the lives of three people.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - the story of Jo the original tomboy and her three sisters.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - The story of a boy raised by wolves, a bear, a panther, and a snake.
Mary Mouse by Enid Blyton (all of them) - The story of a mouse who is nanny to three spoiled rotten children. She always got the whole family (including the parents) to behave themselves, somehow.
Everything by Beatrix Potter that I could get my hands on - Stories whose main characters were mice and rabbits, cats and dogs, frogs and toads, squirrels and foxes...
The Little Pond in the Woods
Tales of King Arthur -- I have not been able to find this book. I wish I could. It was a large book with an ornate cover, and color plates of knights and ladies, kings and queens, wizards and goblins and the ladies of the lake. It was gorgeous...
Everybody's Favorite Songs -- No clue who published it. All I remember is that it was a falling-apart, large green softback sheet music book circa 1959.
Water Birds - a children's book on various types of water birds. Beautiful illustrations. Have no idea who wrote it or who published it.
The little engine that could.
A wrinkle in time by Madeleine L'Engle (the edition at this link was the one I first read) - the story of a girl and her brother and their travels through spacetime to rescue their father.
Including comics here too:
All the Casper the Friendly Ghost comics - Casper was the best. He could walk through walls (still practicing - haven't quite gotten it yet).
All the Wendy the Good little Witch comics. She knew all about spells and what plants did what...
All the Nancy comics that had Oona Goosepimple in them -- Oona Goosepimple lived in the haunted house down the street. There was an armchair who smoked cigars, and a fireplace that went into another realm...
Spooky the Tuff little Ghost - the tough counterpart of Casper from the wrong side of the tracks.
(Can you see a pattern here?)
The Math of XKCD
Mar. 19th, 2009 12:00 amA while ago, This Story appeared in Blogspot, posted by someone who was having a problem with Verizon billing. Apparently they thought he owed them a lot of money, when in fact he had not been a customer for five years, and furthermore, they owed him money according to his calculations. After this had gone on for a long time, it came to the attention of the author of XKCD, who became ... inspired.
Here is his inspiration: http://xkcd.com/verizon/
The check is written for an amount which contains the number "i", a.k.a., the square root of negative 1. Therefore the amount of the check would be called an 'imaginary' number in mathematical terms (because there is nothing you can multiply by itself to get -1). This should not be a problem, however, because the amount Verizon was charging was also imaginary...
Edit: From the comments, we see that the equation actually resolves to a real number that Verizon can spend whichever way it wants:
"Ah, but e^(i*pi) = cos(pi) + i*sin(pi) = -1 + 0i = -1.
And the infinite sum resolves to +1
So in fact he wrote them a check for two tenths of a cent.
That, of course, would require Verizon to do math to figure out."
XKCD - brilliant as usual.
Brought to my attention by way of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lindsaybits
Here is his inspiration: http://xkcd.com/verizon/
The check is written for an amount which contains the number "i", a.k.a., the square root of negative 1. Therefore the amount of the check would be called an 'imaginary' number in mathematical terms (because there is nothing you can multiply by itself to get -1). This should not be a problem, however, because the amount Verizon was charging was also imaginary...
Edit: From the comments, we see that the equation actually resolves to a real number that Verizon can spend whichever way it wants:
"Ah, but e^(i*pi) = cos(pi) + i*sin(pi) = -1 + 0i = -1.
And the infinite sum resolves to +1
So in fact he wrote them a check for two tenths of a cent.
That, of course, would require Verizon to do math to figure out."
XKCD - brilliant as usual.
Brought to my attention by way of
lindsaybitsOh noes...
Jan. 9th, 2009 11:35 amGirl Genius meets Cinderella...
This is the first strip in the "Cinderella" series. Scroll to the bottom of each strip and click "next" to see subsequent strips. The artist was having root canals that week and decided using the Cinderella story would save him from having to invent a plot while taking vicodin. Instead he couldbe inventive have way too much fun with a pre-existing plot.
This version is much more "2009" than "once upon a time"... (er, well, sort of). I totally love her ball gown...
This is the first strip in the "Cinderella" series. Scroll to the bottom of each strip and click "next" to see subsequent strips. The artist was having root canals that week and decided using the Cinderella story would save him from having to invent a plot while taking vicodin. Instead he could
This version is much more "2009" than "once upon a time"... (er, well, sort of). I totally love her ball gown...
