Tag Archives: clann
Clann Tartan Membership Meeting
colgaffneyis had its annual business meeting today. We elected a new President, c_nocturnum, since her sister, mairi2, was stepping down. As Secretary, I feel like the civil servant of a dynasty, but it is a good dynasty :-)> colgaffneyis has a quite a few active and energetic members, but relatively few who will step forward into leadership roles. Three families hold four of the seven board positions, and two of the three senior staff positions. Well, none of us have been trying to make a power grab. It is more a case of filling a vacuum.
Good Weekend
Late last week at work was difficult, and when I got home Friday night I was in something of a funk about all I had to do. However, I settled down to what had to be done, did it (insert Powdermilk Biscuits commercial) and had a good time.
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17th Century Computation
As I wrote earlier, I have been reading Gamma: Exploring Euler’s Constant, by Julian Havil, which begins with a chapter about Napier and the invention of logarithms.
The historical motivation for logarithms is quite interesting. We think of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as elementary, while exponents and trigonometry are more advanced. In fact, the multiplication and division involved in the practical mathematics of c.1600, e.g. navigation and compound interest, was very time consuming. People were desperate to find a faster way. Warning: Math content….
Cold Weekend
A cold weekend–high temperatures not much above 0oF/-18oC. Continue reading
Woodworking article
St. Patrick’s Breastplate
The opening hymn today in church was St. Patrick’s Breastplace. The English translation and the current tune are quite modern, but the Gaelic words were ancient in colgaffneyis time, originally in Old Irish. Continue reading
Period Music
33 issues down, 13 to go….
of colgaffneyis newsletter before it becomes somebody elses problem.