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

Permalink: September 27

Are You Sure ...

... that mathematician and academic Hans Hahn was interested in philosophy, and was part of a discussion group concerning Ernst Mach's positivism with Otto Neurath and Phillip Frank prior to the First World War; and that in 1922, Hahd helped arrange Moritz Schlick's entry into the group, which led to the founding of the Vienna Circle, the group that was at the center of logical positivist thought in the 1920s; and that Hahn's most famous student was Kurt Gödel?

Daily Favorites

William Gibson

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  Johnny SPQR is a 1995 cyberpunk history film about a Roman Consul (Keanu Reeves) with a cybernetic brain implant designed to win the Punic Wars. Co-starring Henry Rollins as Cato the Censor.

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  Nuraghemancer is a historical novel by architect William Gibson about the design and construction of the cyber-Nuraghe structures of Sardinia, and their origin in the Zaibatsu Wars.

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  Johnny Mnemonic 4: The Voyage Home is an American science fiction nature adventure film about an intelligent dolphin (William Gibson) who must rely upon a criminal hacker (Keanu Reeves) and a lost time-traveler (Leonard Nimoy).

On This Day in History and Fiction: September 27

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  1677: Mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr born. He will publish works on mathematics and astronomy, including sundials, spherical trigonometry, and celestial maps and globes, along with biographical information on several hundred mathematicians and instrument makers.

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  1737: Physician, mathematician, and engineer Hubert Gautier dies. He authored the first book on bridge building, Traité des Ponts, in 1716, as well as books on roads, fortifications, antiquities, geology, and a first manual for watercolor practitioners.

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  1783: Mathematician Étienne Bézout dies. His Théorie générale des équations algébriques contained much new and valuable matter on the theory of elimination and symmetrical functions of the roots of an equation.

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  1879: Mathematician and philosopher Hans Hahn born. He will make contributions to functional analysis, topology, set theory, the calculus of variations, real analysis, and order theory.

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  1905: The physics journal Annalen der Physik received Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

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  1928: Mathematician and academic Hans F. Weinberger born. He will contribute to variational methods for eigenvalue problems, partial differential equations, and fluid dynamics.

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  1962: Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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  2007: NASA launches the Dawn space probe. It is NASA's first purely exploratory mission to use ion propulsion. Dawn will study Vesta and Ceres, two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt.