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Monday, August 29, 2016

Garden Cities of To-Morrow

Lullaby Baxter's Back


The quirky star of Capable Egg returns.




Rattled Little Clam

Montreal, 1997. Lullaby Baxter is waiting tables at Jello Bar. Coaxed on stage for an impromptu number, she sings Billie Holiday's signature song "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)". This, her first public performance since grade school, brings down the house.

She buys a green guitar and learns "Leaving On A Jet Plane". Someone at the Laundromat says, "Anyway, try writing songs."

Little Song
Also see:
Capable Egg


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Sunday, August 28, 2016

Copyright Fair Use

When can you use it?


The copyright law is a little vague when it comes to fair use.


" Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist's work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work.
Unfortunately, if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, the dispute will have to be resolved by courts or arbitration. If it's not a fair use, then you are infringing upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages."




U S Copyright Office
Ohio State University
CopyrightLaw.com


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Sunday, August 21, 2016

Burn Wrapping Paper

Holiday info


If you want to find out the real background story on any number of water cooler questions, try:
StraightDope.com

For instance:

Why is it dangerous to burn wrapping paper?


The fire is the wrong place for other holiday detritus as well - der Tannenbaum, for example.

My assistant Una had an Uncle Bob, a manly man who felt throwing the Christmas tree away was a waste of good firewood. So he tossed it in the fireplace - gave him a nice warm glow.
Unfortunately
what was glowing was the roof, presumably ignited by embers.
Fortunately
the fire was small and anybody with a hose could have put it out.
Unfortunately
the hose was frozen solid and the fire department had trouble getting the nearest hydrant to work.
Fortunately
the firefighters were able to throw a ladder up against the house and put out the fire with a chemical extinguisher. They then hacked off a small hunk of charred roof with axes, peered into the crawl space, and declared the fire out.
Unfortunately,
having by now found an operational hydrant, the firemen declared they needed to hose down the roof "as policy," sending a torrent of water through the hole and collapsing the living room ceiling.
Really unfortunately,
the house that all this happened in belonged not to Uncle Bob but his in-laws. Bob bought them an RV and matters were pronounced square, but it was a lesson he won't soon forget, and neither should you.



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Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Curves

and More


Gabriels Horn from the Curve Bank
Famous curves from Cal State at LA. All your favorites from Astroid to Witch of Agnesi.

Here is a collection of Functions relating to astronomy from Stargazing.net.

Can't tell who might be interested in the obliquity of the equator given date in days after J2000.0.
See: Astro VBA

Other Curve stuff:

DelphiForFun.org: converting polar coordinates to Cartesian coordinates.
"Students of analytic geometry, (the kind that combines algebra and geometry), often work in one of two coordinate systems: Cartesian or Polar - and frequently must convert from one to the other.

The Cartesian system locates points on a plane by measuring the horizontal and vertical distances from an arbitrary origin to a point. These are usually denoted as a pair of values (X, Y).

The Polar system locates the point by measuring the straight line distance, usually denoted by R, from the origin to the point and the angle of an imaginary line from the origin to the point, θ, (Greek letter Theta), measured counterclockwise from the positive X axis."



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