Monday Links from the Gap Between Teams Meetings vol. DCCXCII

[northernladuk]

T[*]The Pentium contains a complicated circuit to multiply by three - Ken Shirriff is at it again: ”I came across a circuit to multiply by three, a complex circuit with thousands of transistors. Why does the Pentium have a circuit to multiply specifically by three? Why is it so complicated? In this article, I examine this multiplier—which I'll call the ×3 circuit—and explain its purpose and how it is implemented.”

Not sure who impresses me most. The boffins that came up with this or Ken for being able to reverse engineer it. Fascinating but largely meaningless to me. Still fascinating.

[Uncle Albert]

Our house is built on chalk. I've often wondered if I could just dig aout an underground lair. If you hear of a man killed when his garden collapsed on him, it will probably be me.

[NickFitz]

There's lots of "pairing" and "mobbing" with this project team I'm on, so I'm taking advantage of a brief hiatus to get this lot posted before I'm dragged into another "huddle"

• From Antarctica with Love - ”Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s doomed journey to the South Pole captivated the world. But hidden within the legend was a story that has never been told—a love affair between two of the crew who survived.”
• New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes - The search for a theory of quantum gravity continues: ”Physicists hope that understanding the churning region near singularities might help them reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics.”
• How a Fragile Insect Living 100 Million Years Ago Becomes a Fossil - ”A bug, a dinosaur and a tree intersect, creating the perfect conditions for resin to capture a moment in time.” Do you want Jurassic Park? Because that's how you get Jurassic Park.
• The history of cataract surgery: from couching to phacoemulsification - HT to Paddy for this interesting surgical history: ”We reviewed works on ophthalmology relating to the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Alexandrian, Greco-Roman, and Ayurvedic periods, the medieval Arabic and European periods, as well as reviews or translations relating to ophthalmology history from China, Japan, India, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, New Guinea, Africa, and pre-Columbian America… Our goal was to determine where and how different cataract surgery techniques began.”
• Report - - Eastry Chalk Mine - Kent - April 2012 - ”Right ive been after this beauty of a chalk mine for quite a while but with it being permission only it was a case of A catching the owners in and B catching them in the right mood. On previous visits ive not been successful but after visiting my old dear who lives nearby i thought id chance it again and have a knock. Jackpot, come right in they said…” The reason this chalk mine belonging to a private house came to my attention is that the house and mine are for sale! So if you want a house with tunnels in the garden, now's your chance: 5 bedroom detached house for sale in Gore Road, Eastry, Sandwich, Kent, CT13
  
  
• What Happens When There’s a Crime in Antarctica? - It's complicated, seems to be the answer: ”Although a number of countries claim sovereignty over parts of Antarctica, it isn’t governed in the same way as the rest of the world. There is no police force, no judiciary, no prisons… What happens if, as in Savitsky’s case, someone’s committed a violent act, but the base is inaccessible and/or locked down for the winter, meaning removing them immediately is not possible?”
• It came from outer space: the meteorite that landed in a Cotswolds cul-de-sac - The sky is falling: ”Meteorite falls are extremely rare and offer a glimpse of the processes that formed our world billions of years ago. When a space rock came to an English market town in 2021, scientists raced to find as much out as they could.”
• Styscraper 🐷🏗️ porcine physics game - ”Build a tower of junk and rise high above the muck!” A new game in which you pile stuff up to elevate your pigs above the common swine
• The Pentium contains a complicated circuit to multiply by three - Ken Shirriff is at it again: ”I came across a circuit to multiply by three, a complex circuit with thousands of transistors. Why does the Pentium have a circuit to multiply specifically by three? Why is it so complicated? In this article, I examine this multiplier—which I'll call the ×3 circuit—and explain its purpose and how it is implemented.”
• Postmen’s Whistles - Not a euphemism, at least at the Postal Museum: ”Postmen’s whistles form a small but intriguing presence within the museum collection. The number of people alive today that recall their use in service may be dwindling, but they are a lasting and tangible artefact of a rural postal practice that has now ceased.”
  
  

Happy invoicing!