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pibbur

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Turing day.

From Wikipedia:

28. may "1936 – English mathematician Alan Turing submitted his paper "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" for publication, introducing the Turing machine, a basic abstract symbol-manipulating device that can simulate the logic of any computer algorithm. "

Those of you familiar with computing theory will know the importance of this. To those of you unfamiliar with the "Turing Machine", it is THE (theoretical) COMPUTING model since anything a programmable computer can do can be done/modelled by it. Thus the Turing Machine is a very useful tool for studying/classifying problems.

I once programmed an Excel spreadsheet to work as a Turing machine.
 
Turing day.
I once programmed an Excel spreadsheet to work as a Turing machine.

Microsoft Lawyers are now working to retcon World War 2 History to prove that Turing based his work on an Excel spreadsheet and thus Microsoft saved the world ;)
 
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.. World No Tobacco day.

I'm not sure about how useful dedicating one day to this. But smoking among men is declining in the Western world, but not in developing countries. And seemingly not among women, where at least in some countries consumption is still increasing. (Which is really bad, as women are more at risk when smoking than men).

Anyhow, happy no tobacco day.
 
From Wikipedia

4th of june 1996 – The maiden flight of the Ariane 5 expendable launch system failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software, one of the most expensive computer bugs in history.

So, next time you complain about bugs in games - hopefully you understand that it's really nothing (A JOKE!!!!).

BTW - nothing to do with bugs in software, more like a hardware "bug": The Sleipner A platform is a combined accommodation and production platform at the Sleipner gas field outside Norway. An accident happened in 1991 during towing of the hull. It sank 210m to the bottom of the fjord. This was caused by a construction error.

Since the hull cost around 2 billion NOK, it was a rather expensive mistake. But (since no humans were harmed), I really would have liked to be there. Imagine standing on one of the towing ships, watching 2 billion NOK disappearing rapidly into the seas.....
 
It sank 210m to the bottom of the fjord. This was caused by a construction error.

Maybe later generations will use this as an example of what's called mow "industry archaeology" ?

Because a similar thing happened to the Vasa/Wasa: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship) - an construction error … Did cost the lives of about 20 people, according to Wikipedia …
 
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5th of June.

First som geeky stuiff
In 1977 the Apple II went on sale.

In 1995 for the first time a Bose-Einstein condensate was produced (from rubidium gas, cooled down veeeery close to absolute zero). A Bose-Einstein is a special state of matter predicted in 1924/25 by - surprise, surprise - Satyendra Nath Bose and some german named Einstein. It's a rather important thingy - read about it in Wikipedia

Then som friendly neighbour history (from my viewpoint):

In 1849 Denmark got a new constitution. They're still celebrating it, I think. Congratutations (even if, cough, cough, we got ours 35 years before, while leaving Denmark). Happy national day, D'Artagnan (and other danes here)

But among the imo really important things that happened on 5th of June was the appearance of Tank Man, in 1989, the day after the Tiananmen square massacre. The picture below is one of the pictures I think define the 20th century.
 

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7th of june. Some grrreat news on this day:

- 1494 – Spain and Portugal signe a treaty dividing the New World between them.
- 1892 - Benjamin Harrison became the first us. president to attend a baseball game
- 1975 - Sony released the Betamax Videorecorder.
- 1982 – Priscilla Presley opens Graceland to the public (except the bathroom)

- 1905 - Norway left the Swedish-Norwegian union. Yay!!
 
8th of june.

1783: Laki@Iceland, began an eight-month eruption killing 9000 people and causing seven years of famine in Europe, and (indirectly) the French Revolution. Nothing compared to the aviation affecting ash-clouds from Eyjafjallajökull, of course, but still.. Rumour has it released 120 million tons of sulphur dioxide, equal to a Mount Pinatubo eruption every three days all through 1991.

Geeky news:
1995: the first version of PHP (version 2) was released.
1887: Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punched card calculator.

And:
793: Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England. THEY STILL FEAR US!!!!!!
 
9th of June

Things have happened today as well.

What's really impressing is the following sequence, takes some planning:
53 : Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia
62 : Wife of Roman Emperor Nero, Claudia Octavia is executed.
68 : Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide, after quoting Homer's Iliad.
1997 : Maybe not on the 9th of June. Roman Empreror Nero is reborn/resurrected as CD burning Software.

What we learn from this:
1. Don't marry royalty.
2. Don't read the Iliad. Actually, I don't mean that, because my daughter would kill me if she heard me saying that. Which leads to
3. Don't critisize The Iliad in front of relatives specializing in ancient languages and litterature.

Other things:
1873 : Alexandra Palace burns down after being open for only 16 days. Roman Emperor Nero probably had nothing to do with that.
1979 : Ghost Train amusement ride@Luna Park, Sydney catches fire. Roman Emperor Nero probably had nothing to do with that.


Births:
1934 : Donald Duck
 
Were there any fiddling contests held on this day? :)
 
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...the day after yesterday (22/7) which was Pi day. Why? Because 22/7=3.142857….
 
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I assume that was YOUR day then!! :)

Oh yes. Too bad it's over.

Even better (or worse since I missed that too). 20/7 should be considered e-day, since 20/7=2,714285714, which like pi day got 2 decimals right.

Now, what other mathematical days is there? I'm sure you're all dying to find out. What I can say immediately is that we've got no sqrt(2) day, since we get no more than 1 decimal for that number. And there is obviously no i-day, since no date division approaches sqrt(-1). *sighs*

And at 0.0000000000000000000000000000000006, Plancks constant is much too small. Even if we switch to that silly american notion of dates. Which I refuse to do. On behalf of the physics-people out there: *Sighs*

Help me out here, plz!

However. On the 19th of june day we're very close to John 3.16. Unfortunately 3.166666667 rounds upward to 3,17. But pretty close, anyway. So you see, it's not all about mathematics.

BTW, my birthday (29/12) is 2.42-day (rounded upwards from 2.416666667). I don't know any named constant for that date. *SIGHS* But we could - if we include sports call it Patrick Sjöberg day, since 2.42m is his personal high-jump record (european record too). Or Kleinpritzer-See-day, since the surface area of that lake in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern@Germany is 2.42 square kms. Or Haddad-day after the (at 2.42%), most common surname in Lebanon. I ASSUME that Wikipedia is reliable in these matters. I think I prefer the lake, btw (Happy Alrik and Jaz?)

Hmm. This is getting too silly, so in my next post I'll switch to something completely different.
 
... is a day that not much happened, at least very little I care to write about now. But

- 1487: Citizens of Leeuwarden, Netherlands strike against ban on foreign beer. Considering how close they are to Belgium which makes the best beer in the world , this is easy to understand.

- 1862: Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States dies. For some reason I found that interesting.

Now it's back to FO3.
 
... the day we congratulate the city Caracas with its 443th birthday.

It's 10 years since the first and last crash of a Concorde passenger jet. Thus switching Concorde from the safest airplane to one of the most accident prone aircraft.

Other news:
"1948 – In Test cricket, Australia set a world record for the highest successful run-chase in history during the Fourth Test of The Ashes series against England". I haven't got the faintest idea what this is about, but I do recognize the word "cricket", and that it concerns Australia, so I post this as a homage to Corwin and other aussies here.

BTW: is the word "crikey" the austrailan word for "cricket". (I (think) know it's not, I'm just trying to make fun of the aussies and their language)

In 1788 Wolfie M. finished his 40th symphony, just a month after the 39th. Almost as productive as Frank Zappa was, that one.

In 1861 the United States Congress passes the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution, stating that the American civil war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery. Good that for once(?) it's clear what the war is about. Unlike for instance a certain war down there, SE of where I am at the moment.

Well tomorrow is a new day, and as we all know, tomorrow never knows
 
Pibbur, if you have a few hours sometime, I'll explain the intricacies of Cricket to you!! :) And NO, Crikey has nothing to do with Cricket, unlike Howzat!!

I will emntion that there are now 4 versions of the game, all different. The Long Test Match (5-6 days), the Shorter domestic game (usually 3-4 days), the One Day Game (50 Overs per side)(which is usually played as a day/nighter) and the 20/20 Game :D
 
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... Starcraft day?
... Intel Day (27/7=3.86. You know, the CPU)

Other notable things
- 1921: The dicovery of insuline is announced. A very important step for treatment of diabetes (type 1, mainly)
- 1928: We continue our treatmen of the wonderful world of cricket. Tich Freeman became the only bowler to take 200 first-class wickets before the end of July. An englishman. Obviously they play cricket there as well (I know they do, just trying to be funny).
- In Latvia they celebrate "Day of the Seven Sleepers"
- In Finland they celebrate "National Sleepy Head Day", accompanied by the tune "Hold Back the River" by Wet Wet Wet.
 
Sleepy head day sounds like something for me...............................................................
 
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