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Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #4 If not Latin, then what? Please see the links at...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #3 Plants and the moon. For thousands of years, people...

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #2 An i for an i ? Not nymphs: women! There are...

Understanding The Voynich Manuscript #1

Understanding the Voynich Manuscript #1 Tom, Dick and Harry explain a statistical method. ...

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Patrick LockerbyRSS Feed of this column.

Retired engineer, 73 years young. Computer builder and programmer. Linguist specialising in language acquisition and computational linguistics. Interested in every human endeavour except the scrooge... Read More »

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Electric Batteries - By A. Volta

Electric Batteries - By A. Volta

Jun 18 2013 | comment(s)

Electric Batteries - by A. Volta

In this article I present my translation of Alessandro (Alexander) Volta's original French paper, which I published as -
Batteries électriques - By A. Volta
Batteries électriques - By A. Volta

Batteries électriques - By A. Volta

Jun 18 2013 | comment(s)

Batteries électriques - by Alexander Volta

In 1800 the Royal Society published Alexander Volta's description of how he built his batteries.

It is not widely known that Volta invented both the 'wet' and the 'dry' battery.  Most writers mention Volta's pile - a 'dry' battery, but omit to mention his 'crown of cups', or 'wet' battery.
Around The Arctic June 2013

Around The Arctic June 2013

Jun 14 2013 | comment(s)

Around The Arctic June 2013


The Arctic is currently primed for rapid and extensive ice loss, unless we see some very unusual weather conditions this Summer.

The state of the ice can be seen in the following series of satellite images from NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System - EOSDIS.  EOSDIS produces near real-time data and makes images such as the Arctic mosaic and the Near Real Time (Orbit Swath) Images available on the web.
Glacier Changes In NE Greenland

Glacier Changes In NE Greenland

Jun 12 2013 | comment(s)

Glacier Changes in NE Greenland


Substantial cracks in the Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier ice tongue appear to be growing in extent and number.  While not as spectacular as the 2010 calving of the Peterman Ice Island, it is more closely linked to global warming than

Otherwise known as 79 North, Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden glacier is a floating outlet glacier, about 60 km long and 20 km wide located at 79°30'N, 22° W, draining a large area of the northeast Greenland ice sheet.


Law, Lies And Logic

Law, Lies And Logic

Jun 09 2013 | comment(s)

Law, Lies and Logic


The foundations of logical science, and of that part of law which concerns itself with logic rather than rhetoric, were laid by Aristotle, in 350 B.C.E.

His analysis of reasoning with demonstrable facts, as against appeals to "reason", came in a golden age of rhetoric.  He noted that the tools of rhetoric had not been built from an analysis of how language is used, but had been built piecemeal.  He, on the other hand, built his tools of logic from an observational foundation.

A Tool For Etymologists

A Tool For Etymologists

Jun 06 2013 | comment(s)

A Tool For Etymologists

Advances in science frequently generate new words and phrases.  Accordingly, a good source of etymological information can often help pin down the era in which a new discovery was made.  Similarly, a knowledge of the history of discovery can help to pin down the era in which a word or phrase was coined.