Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Lessons to be learned from the Hapsburgs
There are many. One of the oft-overlooked ones is: don't marry your cousins. Thanks to Dr. Lavine for the link.
Charles II of Spain
Monday, April 13, 2009
Galileo's Telescope, On Tour
If you happen to be in Philadelphia anytime soon, be sure to check out one of Galileo's handmade telescopes, which is on tour outside Italy for the first time.
ps- that's not just a picture of my nostrils. It's me illegally taking a picture with Galileo's finger, which is in the reliquary on the shelf. Look closely.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Whaaa???!!!
The Roman Catholic Church is offering indulgences again. Yes, those indulgences. "The good news is," says the editor of the Catholic magazine America, "we're not selling them." Sorry, Tetzel.
Friday, January 23, 2009
French Revolutionary Time
A lot of you were having fun with Robespierre's (aka the Time Goblin*) support of "Decimal Time." Thought you'd like to see the conversions:
There are exactly 86,400 standard seconds in a standard day, but in the French decimal time system there are 100,000 decimal seconds in the day, so the decimal second is shorter than its counterpart.
Decimal to Standard:
-One decimal second is 86,400/100,000 = 0.864 standard seconds.
-One decimal minute is 1,440/1,000 = 1.44 standard minutes, or 1 standard minute and 26.4 standard seconds.
-One decimal hour is 24/10 = 2.4 standard hours, or 2 standard hours and 24 standard minutes.
Standard to Decimal:
-One standard second = 1.15740 decimal seconds
-One standard minute = 69.44 decimal seconds (or .69 decimal minutes)
-One standard hour = 4,166.67 decimal seconds (or 41 decimal minutes and 67 decimal seconds)
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)