The display of leap years calls for as much ingenuity as their calculation. On the large calendar ring, an open space between December 31 and January 1 bears the legend Commencemcnt de l'annee commune ("start of common year") ... Shortly before midnight on the December 31 before a leap year, a sliding flange that carries the first sixty days of the year ratchets backward by the space of one day, covering up the word commune at one end of the flange and at the same time exposing February 29 at the other end. The flange remains in that position throughout the year, then shifts forward again to cover up the twenty-ninth and reveal commune just as the following year begins.
I knew I wasn't crazy
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Galileo & the Science Deniers / Mediocre
Galileo & the Science Deniers is a solid biography of Galileo by Mario Livio, an actual working astronomer. I can't say that his scientific…
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Crazy stuff from the California Antiquarian Virtual Book Fair
Odd to put Antiquarian cheek-by-jowl with Virtual. 52 letters from HPL to Frank Belknap Long. This is the collection that the HPLHS recently had…
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The Puzzle Universe, City of Stairs, games
The Puzzle Universe purports to be a History of Mathematics in 315 puzzles. While that's not wholly inaccurate, it's more of an exercise in…
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