FYI March 07, 2020

  • Filed under FYI

On This Day

1277 – The University of Paris issues the last in a series of condemnations of various philosophical and theological theses.
The Condemnations at the medieval University of Paris were enacted to restrict certain teachings as being heretical. These included a number of medieval theological teachings, but most importantly the physical treatises of Aristotle. The investigations of these teachings were conducted by the Bishops of Paris. The Condemnations of 1277 are traditionally linked to an investigation requested by Pope John XXI, although whether he actually supported drawing up a list of condemnations is unclear.

Approximately sixteen lists of censured theses were issued by the University of Paris during the 13th and 14th centuries.[1] Most of these lists of propositions were put together into systematic collections of prohibited articles.[1] Of these, the Condemnations of 1277 are considered particularly important by those historians who consider that they encouraged scholars to question the tenets of Aristotelian science.[2] From this perspective, some historians maintain that the condemnations had positive effects on the development of science, perhaps even representing the beginnings of modern science.[2]

Read more ->

 
 

1900 – The German liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse becomes the first ship to send wireless signals to shore.
Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is transmission of telegraph signals by radio waves;[1][2] Before about 1910 when radio became dominant, the term wireless telegraphy was also used for various other experimental technologies for transmitting telegraph signals without wires, such as electromagnetic induction, and ground conduction telegraph systems.[3][4]

Radiotelegraphy was the first means of radio communication; the first practical radio transmitters and receivers invented in 1894–5 by Guglielmo Marconi used radiotelegraphy. It continued to be the only type of radio transmission during the first three decades of radio, called the “wireless telegraphy era” up until World War I, when the development of amplitude modulation (AM) radiotelephony allowed sound (audio) to be transmitted by radio. In radiotelegraphy, information is transmitted by pulses of radio waves of two different lengths called “dots” and “dashes”, which spell out text messages, usually in Morse code. In a manual system, the sending operator manipulates a switch called a telegraph key which turns the transmitter on and off, producing the pulses of radio waves. At the receiver, the pulses are audible in the receiver’s speaker as beeps, which are translated back to text by an operator who knows Morse code.

Radiotelegraphy was used for long-distance person-to-person commercial, diplomatic, and military text communication throughout the first half of the 20th century. It became a strategically important capability during the two world wars since a nation without long-distance radiotelegraph stations could be isolated from the rest of the world by an enemy cutting its submarine telegraph cables. Beginning about 1908, powerful transoceanic radiotelegraphy stations transmitted commercial telegram traffic between countries at rates up to 200 words per minute. Radiotelegraphy was transmitted by several different modulation methods during its history. The primitive spark gap transmitters used until 1920 transmitted damped waves, which had very large bandwidth and tended to interfere with other transmissions. This type of emission was banned by 1930. The vacuum tube (valve) transmitters which came into use after 1920 transmitted code by pulses of unmodulated sinusoidal carrier wave called continuous waves (CW), which is still used today. To make CW transmissions audible, the receiver requires a circuit called a beat frequency oscillator (BFO). The third type of modulation, frequency shift keying (FSK) was used mainly by radioteletypes. Morse code radiotelegraphy was gradually replaced by radioteletype networks (RTTY) in most high volume applications by World War II. Today it is nearly obsolete, the only remaining users are the radio amateur community and some limited training by the military for emergency use.

Read more ->

Born On This Day

1765 – Nicéphore Niépce, French inventor, invented photography (d. 1833)
Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (French: [nisefɔʁ njɛps]; 7 March 1765 – 5 July 1833),[1] commonly known or referred to simply as Nicéphore Niépce, was a French inventor, usually credited as the inventor of photography and a pioneer in that field.[2] Niépce developed heliography, a technique he used to create the world’s oldest surviving product of a photographic process: a print made from a photoengraved printing plate in 1825.[3] In 1826 or 1827, he used a primitive camera to produce the oldest surviving photograph of a real-world scene. Among Niépce’s other inventions was the Pyréolophore, the world’s first internal combustion engine, which he conceived, created, and developed with his older brother Claude Niépce.[4]

Read more ->

 
 

FYI

The Passive Voice: No publisher; Exploring the Factors Leading to the Decline of the Writing Profession and more ->
 
 
 
 

The Rural Blog: Education Department reverses rural school funding cuts; FEMA flood maps need updating, but increased payouts could price low-income rural residents out of some areas; Former rural health policy chief explains why hospitals inflate charges, and how rural hospitals fit into the picture; New study links poor internet connections with lower grades and SAT scores for students in rural Michigan and more ->
 
 
 
 
Fast Company Compass: How Wikipedia’s volunteers became the web’s best weapon against misinformation; The coronavirus is wiping out tech conferences, and that’s not all bad; Can this rail yard in Queens be transformed into an affordable, carbon-neutral neighborhood? More ->
 
 
 
 

Recipes

A Taste of Alaska: Garlic “Bread” Chaffles
 
 
By Laura Arnold, The Kitchn: These 5 Easy Instant Pot Sandwich Recipes Will Become Instant Classics
 
 
By Amy, My Recipe Treasures: Chicken Parmesan Freezer Mea
 
 
Food Network Kitchen: 65+ Healthy Dessert Ideas From lightened-up cheesecake and brownies to tempting fruit desserts, we’ve got a healthy sweet finish for any meal.
 
 
By Amy, My Recipe Treasures: Copycat Crumbl Lemon Cookies