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Gnomon Chronicles is a work of fiction and nonfiction by Karl Jones (nonfiction).

Diaries

• My online diary (May 23)
• War Diaries (May 23) - entries from wartime diaries and letters

Are You Sure ...

The first known photograph of a television system (John Logie Baird's "televisor"), as reported in The Times, 28 January 1926. (The subject is Baird's business partner Oliver Hutchinson.)

• ... that engineer and inventor John Logie Baird (14 August 1888 – 14 June 1946) pioneered mechanical television, demonstrating the first working television system on 26 January 1926; and that Baird invented both the first publicly demonstrated color television system, and the first purely electronic color television picture tube; and that in 1928 the Baird Television Development Company achieved the first transatlantic television transmission?

• ... that mathematical physicist John Crank (6 February 1916 – 3 October 2006) worked on the numerical solution of partial differential equations, and, in particular, the solution of heat-conduction problems; and that he is best known for his work with Phyllis Nicolson on the heat equation, which resulted in the Crank–Nicolson method?

• ... that philosopher and scientist Bernardino Telesio (7 November 1509 – 2 October 1588) expressed anti-Aristotelian views which angered Church authorities; and that while Telesio's theories were later disproven, his emphasis on observation made him the "first of the moderns" who eventually developed the scientific method?

• ... that mathematician Édouard Lucas (4 April 1842 – 3 October 1891) studied the Fibonacci sequence, and that the related Lucas sequences and Lucas numbers are named after him?

• ... that the notorious criminal mathematical function Killer Poke is allergic to the Fibonacci sequence, and that alleged time-traveller Niles Cartouchian defeated Poke in single combat after luring Poke into a field of blooming sunflowers?

On This Day in History and Fiction: October 2

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  1588: Philosopher and scientist Bernardino Telesio dies. While his natural theories were later disproven, his emphasis on observation influenced the emergence of the scientific method.

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  1667: Mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton becomes a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He had earned his bachelor's degree in 1665 and then spent two years at home in Lincolnshire inventing much of differential and integral calculus while Cambridge was closed due to plague.

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  1853: Mathematician and politician François Arago born. He observed that a rotating plate of copper tends to communicate its motion to a magnetic needle suspended over it, an effect now known as eddy current.

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  1925: John Logie Baird performs the first test of a working television system.

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  1955: ENIAC retired. After disassembly, parts of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, the first general purpose electronic computer, were shipped to the Smithsonian for display.

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  2006: Mathematician and academic Paul Halmos dies. He made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, statistics, operator theory, ergodic theory, and functional analysis (in particular, Hilbert spaces).

Permalink: October 2

COVID-19: Prophylactic mashup

Concept art for "Superprophylacticmeasuresuntilvaccinedoses".

Superprophylacticmeasuresuntilvaccinedoses!

Even though the Social Distance and what it Imposes

If we do this well enough we'll flatten the Prognosis

Superprophylacticmeasuresuntilvaccinedoses!

What next?

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