Curta Type I |
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Miscellaneous links
- Curta.org
http://curta.org/
Wikipedia
- About the amazing Curta compact mechanical calculators, sold 1948-1973. They now sell on eBay for $300-$1000. See also the January 2004 Scientific American article by
Cliff Stoll. People invented lots of mechanical calculators, before the appearance of cheap pocket electronic calculators in the mid-70's, but this was the only one so capable that could be held in the palm of the hand. A Curta Type I can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, to 11 digits precision.
If you get one, don't take it apart: it'll cost you something like $300 to have it reassembled, because special jigs and tools are required.
- The Curta Calculator Page
http://www.vcalc.net/cu.htm
- Another Curta page, a very long single page.
- Timewise Rally Computers
(Hawthorn Woods IL) http://home.comcast.net/~timewise1/
- Expert Curta calculator repair and cleaning. Curtas were popular for years among two-person sports-car rally teams.
- The Oughtred Society
http://www.oughtred.org/
- "Dedicated to the history and collection of
slide rules." Named for William Oughtred (1574-1660) the original inventor. The fundamentally logarithmic slide rule was relied upon by engineers for fast three-digit estimates for generations, up to and including the famous Apollo moon-rocket program, until they were eclipsed by pocket-size electronic calculators in the 1970's. Typical mid-20th-century aluminum, plastic, and sometimes ostentatious hardwood slide rules were made with exquisite precision, including multiple reverse logarithmic and trigonometric scales ... but were still only capable of three digits precision in all calculations. See also the May 2006 Cliff Stoll article in Scientific American, When Slide Rules Ruled.
- The 85 Ways to Tie a Tie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_85_Ways_to_Tie_a_Tie
Thomas Fink's Encyclopedia of Tie Knots
http://www.tcm.phy.cam.ac.uk/~tmf20/tieknots.shtml
- A charming slim 1999 book by physicists Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, first considering ties from a sartorial history perspective ("Antiquitie") and then tie knots in terms of topology mathematics. The Wikipedia article provides coded move sequences for fourteen tie knots identified as useful, with links to specific Wikipedia pages with diagrams for five of the fourteen, including the four-in-hand and half-Windsor, which I suspect are the most commonly used. Lots of people only know the four-in-hand.
- Aerobie (Palo Alto CA)
http://aerobie.com/
- If a Frisbee is like a prop plane, Aerobie is like a jet. Astonishing high-tech rings that fly much faster, farther, and more stable than Frisbees. The Aerobie Pro is the flagship. The hard part with an Aerobie is not distance, it's accuracy and control. Bring a softball too, because trees eat Aerobies, and you'll need it.
- ThrowBackGuy.com
http://www.throwbackguy.com/
- Sports jerseys.
- Bonobos
http://www.bonobos.com/
Wikipedia
- Pants for men that fit even if you're not a skinny model; what a concept. The kicker: the cheapest ones I saw on the site (January 2010) were $88. Named after the smaller and less-familiar chimpanzee species.
- US Flag Rules and Regulations
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagetiq.html
- Guide to proper respectful display and handling of Old Glory. The Flag Code is part of US federal law, but includes no penalties; it was done that way just to document for everyone what the rules are.
- Understanding Evolution
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
- When well-meaning religious people, who think evolution conflicts with faith, try to force their local schools to teach so-called "Intelligent Design," I tend to think they have been let down by both their past science teachers and their current ministers. ID is just creationism in sheep's clothing, a gossamer pretext for religion in the public schools. If ID is discussed in school at all, it should be in contexts of metaphysics, theology, and maybe current events, and never in the same room with evolution.
- Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) http://www.csicop.org/
- More great resources for debunking pseudo-science.
- How far is it?
http://www.indo.com/distance/
- Gives road mileage between cities.
- How to Toilet-Train Your Cat
http://www.karawynn.net/mishacat/toilet.html
- Many young clever well-adjusted cats really can be taught to use flush toilets. Some cats won't, of course.
- Internet Movie Database
http://us.imdb.com/
- US site: comprehensive search forms.
- Iwillknot.com
http://iwillknot.com/
Animatedknots.com
http://animatedknots.com/
- How-to sites about knot-tying.
- Nielsen TV ratings
http://www.zap2it.com/tv/ratings/
- Estes Rockets (Penrose CO)
http://www.estesrockets.com/
- I was exposed to model rocketry during what's now called middle school, courtesy of the local
Eagles lodge, and then on impulse built and flew a three-stager while in college. It's a cool thing to get your kids into, if they're not all thumbs. Model rocketry isn't dangerous, if launching is properly supervised by competent adults, but kids may have trouble assembling the rockets successfully, especially the tricky ones, if they're not deft with their hands. These rockets are made of cardboard tubes and bushings, balsa wood fins and nose cones, held together with white glue and spray paint, and some can accelerate straight up almost too fast to see.
- Shambala Preserve
http://www.shambala.org/
- Tippi Hedren's big cat sanctuary.
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- Operation Migration
http://www.operationmigration.org/
- Teaching migration routes to captivity-raised endangered whooping cranes and other waterfowl, by imprinting them on and leading them with ultralight aircraft, in the eastern US and Canada.
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