Author Archives: Anton

a rifled revolver

In the first episode of Have Gun Will Travel (1957), Paladin points out that his custom-made revolver has a rifled barrel, “a rarity in a hand weapon.” Say what?!

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mark your calendar

Asteroid 2004MN4 is an exceptionally high impact threat: the boffins give it one chance in 45 of intersecting with Earth on 2029 April 13. Monday: Or not; newer measurements have taken that date off the list, though they still give … Continue reading

Posted in astronomy | 1 Comment

a hacker’s tale

I hope this yarn is true: one of my favorite MacOS toys was developed clandestinely. We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security. (Cited by Travis.)

Posted in neep-neep | Leave a comment

temporal foreshortening

On a private mailing list someone wrote: having just seen the 1951 Britisher version of the Dickens Christmas Carol, it struck me that free marketeers should really live in Dickensian England and try work their way out from the bottom. … Continue reading

Posted in economics, prose | Leave a comment

arm’s length

Tyler Cowen (cited by Travis) quotes a NYT article: . . . participants [at a retreat for autistics] . . . can wear color-coded badges that indicate whether they are willing to be approached for conversation. and remarks: I will be very happy if … Continue reading

Posted in psychology | 1 Comment

Doctor Matrix’s little helpers

Ed Pegg writes: I’d like to do a “behind the scenes” look at Mathematical Games for an article. Martin [Gardner] did lots, but he avidly used a lot of help from hundreds of people. I’d like to write an article … Continue reading

Posted in eye-candy, mathematics | Leave a comment

linky

contrarian road design the GI Bill: a bad thing

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