Wednesday 12 December 2012
peer, neighbour, hierarch or honeycomb hideout
catagories: ๐ฌ๐ง, ๐, labour, revolution
Tuesday 11 December 2012
taurus-littrow
catagories: ๐, ๐ก, ๐ญ, networking and blogging, Wikipedia
Monday 10 December 2012
thaw or back forty
The frigid weather and the cavalcade of snow made me wonder about the point of correspondence between the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales, having always thought that that unnaturally low but not unattainable temperature marked the threshold of one or the other measurements—that the system broke down after this point and relied on the other to carry it.
Mathematically, I suppose that it is not unusual that the two systems ought to match up at some point, as opposed to any other point, such as one that’s closer to everyday weather. The two scales are based on like fractions and intervals but have slightly different rationales: both are measured in degrees but the earlier Fahrenheit system takes the measurements of an angle more literally.
Knowing that there was distinct possibilities for something much colder than wintry ice, set its null point to the freezing point of salt water, and the 32° F of melting ice is separated from the boiling point of water (212° F) by 180 degrees with hopes of placing other natural phenomena at other perfect, round angles, like human body temperature at 60° from freezing, etc. but these hoped-for correspondences did not quite pan out. The more straightforward degrees, gradients of Celsius are one-one-hundredths of the way from freezing to boiling of water under standard conditions, by definition—it being worthy of noting that pressure, altitude differences have negligible effects on how water freezes (except in extreme cases like at the bottom of the ocean) but has quite a large impact in terms of boiling. Originally, the Celsius scale was inverted, based on this dismaying observation, with 100 set at the freezing point and counting down to zero where water started to boil. I image had it remained so, as the Swedish astronomer had proposed, there might be some very different match ups in the weather, but of course, cold to one person is absolutely balmy in other climes.
catagories: ๐, ๐, ๐ญ, environment, philosophy
as plain as or party on the patio
Friday 7 December 2012
evergreen
We managed to free the old hand-me-down artificial, office Christmas tree from that storage closet that we lost the keys to just in time for the party. It did make the gathering a bit more festive and bright, but it looks positively bleak and overly contemplative there alone in the stairwell. We moved it out there from the conference room so others might enjoy it.
catagories: holidays and observances, lifestyle