Fun Page
Space Reconnaissance?
This photo was taken from
this rocket, circa 1971.
Who's on First?
The page that opens is virtually unchanged since it first appeared about the year 2000.
WebCal
WebCal is a web-enabled knock-off of "cal", a UNIX standard calendar program which was ported to DOS. It was then converted to Java for use on the web. Since Java applets have now become a royal pain, WebCal has been converted once again. Implementation is now PHP 5.
The usage is the same as its UNIX and DOS counterparts. If no arguments are provided, the current month of the current year is returned. If only the first argument is given, that year is returned. Entering "99" will return the year 99, not 1999. If two arguments are provided, the first argument is the month, the second is the year. If only the second argument is input, it will be ignored. Month is an integer in the range 1-12. Year is an integer in the range 1-9999.
Usage examples:
WebCal
WebCal year
WebCal month year
Current version is 2.1.1.
Version history:
1.0 - Initial release (Java)
2.0 - Corrections for display anomalies (Java)
2.1 - Removed calls to deprecated functions (Java)
2.1a - Ported to PHP
Algebraic Proof That Two Is Equal To One
We begin with two statements which are both given to be true:
x, y > 0
x = y
We multiply both sides of the equation by x, giving:
x² = x⋅y
We subtract y² from both sides of the equation, giving:
x² - y² = x⋅y - y²
Now we factor both sides:
(x - y)⋅(x + y) = y⋅(x - y)
We divide both sides by (x - y), giving:
x + y = y
Since it was given that x = y, we can substitute y for x on the left:
y + y = y
Or:
2⋅y = y
We divide by y, leaving us with:
2 = 1
Did you know...?
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
A short dictionary of the English language:
bolt - to secure in one place; to dart away
buckle - fasten together, fall apart
certain - definite; difficult to specify
clip - fasten; separate
cleave - separate; adhere firmly
dust - remove material from; spread material
fast - firmly in one place; rapidly from one place to another
give out - produce; stop producing
handicap - advantage; disadvantage
hold up - support; hinder
left - departed from; remaining
oversight - careful supervision; neglect
moot - debatable; not worthy of debate
sanction - give approval of; censure
scan - examine carefully, glance at hastily
seeded - with seeds, without seeds
screen - view; hide from view
strike - secure in place; remove
take - obtain, offer
temper - soften; strengthen
trim - add things to; cut away
trip ; to stumble, to move gracefully
wear - endure through use; decay from use
weather - withstand; wear away
wind up - start, end
with - alongside; against
The Midnight Ride of William Dawes
Helen F. Moore,
published in Century Magazine, 1896
I am a wandering, bitter shade,
Never of me was a hero made;
Poets have never sung my praise,
Nobody crowned my brow with bays;
And if you ask me the fatal cause,
I answer only, "My name was Dawes"
'TIS all very well for
the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear --
My name was Dawes and his Revere.
WHEN the lights from the
old North Church flashed out,
Paul Revere was waiting about,
But I was already on my way.
The shadows of night fell cold and gray
As I rode, with never a break or a pause;
But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!
HISTORY rings with his silvery name;
Closed to me are the portals of fame.
Had he been Dawes and I Revere,
No one had heard of him, I fear.
No one has heard of me because
He was Revere and I was Dawes.
by Dolton Edwards from Astounding Science Fiction, Street and Smith Publications, Inc. (1946)
He: I M A B.
She: U R!
He: S, R U A B 2?
She: O S, I M A B 2. R U N TV?
He: S, I M A TV B.
She: G!
Children's Primer, New Style
Because we are still bearing some of the scars of our brief skirmish with II-B
English, it is natural that we should be enchanted by Mr. George Bernard Shaw's
current campaign for a simplified alphabet.
Obviously, as Mr. Shaw points out, English is in much need of a general overhauling and streamlining. However, our own resistance to any changes requiring a large expenditure of mental effort in the near future would cause us to view with some apprehension the possibility of some day receiving a morning paper in-to us-Greek.
Our own plan would acheive the same end as the legislation proposed by Mr. Shaw, but in a less shocking manner, as it consists merely of an acceleration of the normal processes by which the language is continually modernized.
As a catalytic agent, we would suggest that a National Easy Language Week be proclaimed, which the President would inaugurate, outlining some shortcut to concentrate on during the week, and to be adopted during the ensuing year. All school children would be given a holiday, the lost time being the equivalent of that gained by the spelling shortcut.
In 1946, for example, we would urge the elimination of the soft 'c', for which we would substitute 's'. Sertainly, such an improvement would be selebrated in all sivic-minded sircles as being suffisiently worth the trouble, and students in all sities in the land would be reseptive toward any change eliminating the nesessity of learning the differense between the two letters.
In 1947, sinse only the hard 'c' would be left, it would possible to susbstitute 'k' for it, both letters being pronounsed identikally. Imagine how greatly only two years of this prosess would klarify the konfusion in the minds of students. Already we would have eliminated an entire letter from the alphabet. Typewriters and linotypes kould all be built with one less letter and all the manpower and materials previously devoted to making 'c's' kould be turned toward raising the national standard of living.
In the fase of so many notable improvements, it is easy to foresee that by 1948 'National Easy Language Week' would be a pronounsed sukses. All skhool tshildren would be looking forward with konsiderable exsitement to the holiday, and in a blaze of national publisity it would be announsed that the double konsonant 'ph' no longer existed, and that the sound would henseforth be written 'f' in all words. This would make sutsh words as 'fonograf' twenty persent shorter in print.
By 1949, publik interest in a fonetik alfabet kan be expekted to have inkreased to the point where a more radikal step forward kan be taken without fear of undue kritisism. We would therefore urge the elimination at that time of all unesesary double leters, whitsh, although quite harmless, have always ben a nuisanse in the language and a desided deterent to akurate speling. Try it yourself in the next letter you write, and se if both writing and reading are not fasilitated.
With so mutsh progres already made, it might be posible in 1950 to delve further into the posibilities of fonetik speling. After due konsideration of the reseption aforded the previous steps, it should be expedient by this time to spel al difthongs fonetikaly. Most students do not realize that the long 'i' and 'y', as in 'time' and 'by', are aktauly the difthong 'ai', as it is writen in 'aisle', and that the long 'a' in 'fate', is in reality the difthong 'ei' as in 'rein'. Although perhaps not imediately aparent, the saving in time and effort wil be tremendous when we leiter elimineite the sailent 'e', as meide posible bai this last tsheinge.
For as is wel known, the horible mes of 'e's' apearing in our writen language is kaused prinsipaly bai the present nesesity of indikeiting whether a vowel is long or short. Therefore, in 1951 we kould simply elimineit al sailent 'e's', and kontinu to read and wrait merily along as though we wer in an atomik ag of edukation.
In 1951 we would urg a greit step forward. Sins bai this taim it would have ben four years sins anywun had used the leter 'c', we would sugest that the 'National Easy Languag Wek' for 1951 be devoted to substitution of 'c' for 'th'. To be sur it would be som taim befor peopl would have bekom akustomd to reading ceir newspapers and buks wic sutsh sentenses in cem as 'Ceodor caught he had cre cousand cistls crust crough ce cik of his cumb'.
In ce saim maner, bai meiking eatsh leter hav its own sound and cat sound only, we kould shorten ce languag stil mor. In 1952 we would elimineit ce 'y'; cen in 1953 we kould us ce leter to indikeit ce 'sh' sound, cerbai klarifaiing words laik yugar and yur, as well as redusing bai wun mor leter al words laik 'yut', 'yore', and so forc. Cink, cen, of al ce benefits to be geind bai ce distinktion whitsh wil cen be meid between words laik:
ocean - now writen - oyean
machine - now writen - mayin
racial - now writen - reiyial
Al sutsh divers weis of wraiting wun sound would no longer exist, and whenever wun kaim akros a 'y' sound he would know exaktli what to wrait.
Kontinuing cis proses, year after year, we would eventuali have a reali sensibl writen languag. By 1975, wi ventyur tu sei, cer wud bi no mor uv ces teribli trublsum difikultis, wic no tu leters usd to indikeit ce seim nois, and laikwis no tu noises riten wic ce seim leter. Even Mr. Yaw, wi beliv, wud bi hapi in ce noleg cat his drims fainali keim tru.
BTW, we do know that 2 is not equal to 1. We know about the error. The question is, do YOU know? You don't need to email us about it.
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