Isaac Newton was born at Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire, England, on December 25, 1642.
Happy Newton’s Birthday!
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Author Archives: gmcdavid
Nollaig shona dhaoibh!
(Merry Christmas to you!)
The year in crime
A very white Christmas
On classical public radio they played Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Snowflakes earlier this morning. The announcer gave the name of the piece, and then said that beginning tonight we get “‘The Invasion of the Snowflakes’, or ‘Revenge of the Snowflakes'”.
Quantum holiday
From xkcd
(Make sure you see the mouseover)
Subtleties of the Solstice
From The winter of our solsticular discontent
The winter solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year. However, it’s not when the Sun rises latest and sets earliest! The Earth has the unfortunate habit of orbiting the Sun in an ellipse, which screws things up a bit when it comes to timing.
Plugging Minneapolis into the Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year: U.S. Cities and Towns shows that sunrise is going to continue getting later for another couple weeks, while we are well past the earliest sunset. Hence I have been seeing a little more daylight when I get off my bus home in the evening.
Knowledge and ignorance
We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
Found at This Week’s Finds in Mathematical Physics (Week 287)
Close encounter in 2029
The Asteroid That Will Almost Hit Earth. An animation of what this will look like from the asteroid’s point of view.
From this post by jeff_duntemann.
From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 