NPR: Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech

 But every time you write on a computer, play a music file or add up a number with your phone’s calculator, you are using tools that might not exist without the work of these women.

— Laura Sydell, The Forgotten Female Programmers Who Created Modern Tech, NPR, October 6, 2014

18.263k days or .5c yrs

MyBabyPhoto64
Me (late 1964)

Good morning!

And Happy Birthday to myself.  I’ve crossed over.  I’ve reached another dreaded milestone.  Today is the first day of my fifth decade.

To make myself feel better about this dubious event, I’ve reverted to two of my favorite past times:  math and astronomy.

I decided to calculate how many days I’ve been breathing air on Earth.  For that I had to find a date calculator.  Plugging in the relevant date (today in 1964 and 2014), the following results popped up:

From and including: Friday, October 2, 1964
To and including: Thursday, October 2, 2014
Result: 18,263 days

It is 18,263 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 50 years, 1 day including the end date

Alternative time units 18,263 days can be converted to one of these units:

1,577,923,200 seconds
26,298,720 minutes
438,312 hours
18,263 days
2609 weeks

In addition, the Earth is travelling through space, via the Milky Way, at the incredible speed of 3,728.23 mps.  Roughly, the Earth has moved 5.88286061194e+12 miles since I was born, give or take a few.  That equates to approximately 63,256.57 astronomical units.  A rolling stone gathers no moss . . .

And the .5c I included in the title of this post?  No, I’m not travelling at half the speed of  light (except in my dreams).  I’m merely reflecting upon reaching my half century mark.

I decided to make a four day weekend out of this auspicious occasion so I’m relaxing at home, reading and doing other none stressful activities.  No parties (that I know of) and no surprises.  Just Terry, me and the dogs hanging out.

Just another day in the neighborhood.  Eighteen thousand two hundred sixty-three and counting.

The 12 Weirdest Reasons For Banning Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

http://io9.com/the-12-weirdest-reasons-for-banning-science-fiction-and-1639136022

The Wizard of Oz? Really?  I’m shocked … not.  Some of the other ones listed are equally silly.  I’ve read most of these  and I turned out just fine.  😉

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Trench Warfare in World War I Was a Smarter Strategy Than You Realize

http://io9.com/trench-warfare-in-world-war-i-was-a-smarter-strategy-th-1637657733

And this article ties in nicely with my Great War Great Read reading project.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Picturing The Hobbit | Tor.com

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/12/picturing-the-hobbit

Happy birthday to Bilbo and Frodo!

I’ll link in a few of my favorite art pieces from the above article later this evening.

Justin Gerard (http://www.justingerard.com/), who said about painting The Hobbit, “I like drawing monsters that are just a little bit human, and who have personalities that you might recognize in people you’ve encountered in your own adventures, and The Hobbit has the very best of these.”

Continue reading “Picturing The Hobbit | Tor.com”